Bookworm Room

The choice before the Cambridge Debating Society was whether one should choose war to stop Iran from going nuclear, or simply accept a nuclear Iran.  Douglas Murray offers a devastating rebuttal to those who say, “Who cares if Iran goes nuclear?”  The 11 minute video starts out good and, halfway through, gets great: Hat tip:  [...]

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Here’s a Robert Samuelson article, “bye bye Keynes” that should give us all pause: the arguments he uses to write Keynes’ obituary are arguments that we all posited in our own excoriation of Keynes in years past, in response to a string of commentators, ranging from A to Z. I’ve been reviewing our last few [...]

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I’ve never doubted Obama’s fundamental anti-Israel beliefs, nor have I ever thought he’s on a right, or even a sane, track in the Middle East. As much as anything, though, my feelings regarding Obama’s Israel/Middle East attitudes were predicated on a gut attitude resulting from his pre-presidency friendships and his execrable Cairo speech. Now, though, [...]

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Bruce Kesler spoke with Jonathan Spyer, who wrote Transforming Fire: The Rise of the Israel-Islamist Conflict.  Despite the current upheaval in the Middle East, and its attendant rise in antisemitism (which is impressive, considering its previous high level), Spyer is sanguine, and even optimistic.  Check out Bruce’s post and see what you think.

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The media is abuzz with speculation that Israel is about to bomb Iran.  Yid with Lid says hold your horses.  Since when have people ever actually known what Israel is about to do?  If there’s one country that’s good at keeping its cards close to its chest, it’s Israel. Somehow this seemed apropos: Or view [...]

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One can debate forever the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange at a policy level, but there is no doubt that a nation wanted its son home.  This video gives some idea of the depth of the Israeli longing for Gilad (but be warned, it’s a multi-handkerchief video): If WordPress is being hinky, you can see the [...]

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Thin and pale, but Gilad Shalit is home at last.  To bring this beloved child (beloved of parents and of country) home, Israel released over a thousand Palestinian murderers and would-be murderers.  Many mourn that these killers are back on the streets, and rightly so.  I hope that Israel has drones hovering over them permanently, [...]

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Wouldn’t you like to have lunch with this guy?

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If the video I linked to hasn’t embedded, you can see it here. Hat tip:  Lulu

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Over the years, I helped win at least two major cases because I re-framed the debate.  In one case, a will contest case, the opposing party claimed that our client, a housekeeper, had committed fraud and elder abuse in order to inveigle a little old lady into leaving the housekeeper a substantial chunk of the [...]

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What Israelis would like to say: And what Netanyahu, with courage and honesty, actually said at the UN:

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Bill Whittle narrates this clear summation of 20th and 21st century relations between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East.  It does not reflect well on the Arabs:

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Me, at Pajamas Media: I challenge you to find a news report with more layers, all of them misleading, than an ostensibly unbiased San Francisco Chronicle “news” article about a canceled art exhibition at the Museum of Children’s Art in Oakland, California. The story’s core is uncomplicated: The museum agreed with an organization called the Middle [...]

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Very funny, poignant, and pointed video, although I disagree with the final premise that “talking” with the neighbors will matter, since the neighbors don’t want to talk with you, they want to kill you: Thank you, Sadie!

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As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve been a bad mother, and introduced my kids to 70s music.  (Sirius satellite radio is the vehicle for this mental and spiritual corruption.)  My 12 year old son, who is a pretty cool kid, heard Tony Orlando and Dawn singing “Tie A Yellow Ribbon ‘Round The Old Oak Tree,” and [...]

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Brilliant video:

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It’s not an official endorsement, but what Kinky Friedman has to say about Perry is just as good as an official endorsement.  And unlike most celebrity political writing (“my candidate will save the world and give everyone a unicorn, plus a really cool swag bag”), Friedman’s got some specifics: More to the point, could Rick [...]

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I’d heard about this video while I was abroad, but didn’t have the chance to see it.  Having seen it now, I must share it:

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Please watch this and send it to your friends:

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Yid With Lid reminds us that July 4th marks more than just America’s independence day.  (H/t:  Sadie)  It’s also the anniversary of Israel’s spectacular rescue at Entebbe in 1976.  That was another place and time, when most in the world actually cared about Jewish lives.  I wrote about the rescue back in 2007 and reprint [...]

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I wish Israel would do more of these short, informative, user-friendly videos:

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North Korea assumes presidency of U.N. arms control conference http://dailycaller.com/2011/06/29/north-korea-assumes-presidency-of-u-n-arms-control-conference/#ixzz1Ql1gXN44 “Bare months after the U.N. finally suspended Libya’s Col. Muammar Qaddafi from its Human Rights Council, North Korea wins the propaganda coup of heading the world’s disarmament agency,” the executive director of UN Watch Hillel Neuer said in a statement protesting the move. “It’s asking [...]

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Hat tip:  Power Line, who got it from Pamela Geller

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I forget in which thread it arose, but someone tried to argue that Israelis were disappointed by Netanyahu’s performance, because the liberal media concluded they were.  Barry Rubin challenges that line of thinking.

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If you haven’t listened to Netanyahu’s speech to Congress, you must.  And I mean listen.  I’m usually a speech reader, because I read quickly, and seldom have the time or the patience to sit down and listen to someone give a 45 minute speech. In addition, some speakers have so many rhetorical tics and twitches [...]

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