One Person's Paranoia

The following [companion piece to Invasion ... ] is one person's reflection [not mine]on how things have changed in America. When you really think carefully, it should remind one of the Sci-Fi films and books that were

Genetic Patdown: Department of Homeland security begins testing DNA scanners this summer.

I remember in 2008 when President Bush signed into law, a bill that would allow the Federal Government to begin screening the DNA of all newborn babies in the U.S. Now nearly three years later we are seeing the testing of DNA scanners. Is this connected or just a coincidence? What will America look like in 5 years? How can we reverse this police state? Where are the Shepard’s for the sheep?

One of my many observations and stories…

When I was a kid growing up in sunny Florida, I remember watching Space Launches from my front lawn. We were so close to the cape that we would hear the occasional sonic boom at dinner. I remember friendly police and deep blue skies. I remember going to the grocery store and filling up two carts of food for less then 150 bucks. I lived the dream and felt the freedom of America.

As time progressed I noticed camera looking things being placed at all the intersections and I remember asking my father, “What are those dad?” He said, “Son, those are just there to make the light change faster.” I soon began noticing the cops on every street corner and again asked my father, “Why are there so many cops everywhere dad?” he replied, “Son, they are just there to make you safe.” As I began driving, I noticed I would get pulled over by police and get bullied around, what are you doing? Where are you going? Step out of the car, Sit on the curb, lets have a look through your car. It got so bad that if I left my house after 9pm I was almost surely going to get stopped and harassed. I soon learned to drive in the rain because I wouldn’t get stopped as much and thankfully it rained a lot in Florida. Since then I moved to the country and haven’t had the same experiences with being stopped and harassed but I have noticed the same signs it’s leading that way, the same signs I saw before.

There are cameras either installed or being installed on every major intersection, clusters of cameras every 1 to 5 miles on the highway, side streets are loaded with police, they have predator drones flying over Miami. The police don’t even say hi when I say hello, they look beefed up and ready for war, almost as if they have dissociated themselves from the citizens. The once deep blue skies don’t seem too blue anymore; they seem to be loaded with contrails that last all day. I have witnessed the closing of NASA and the recycling of the Launchpad. A little green basket at the grocery store cost almost 100 bucks now. The tap water taste like pool water and is loaded with fluoride and other chemicals. The constitution protections are slowly being removed and our privacy and freedoms are being lost. The dollar is being devalued and everything is made in china. The country is debt and the people we elect, republican or democrat move forward with the same agenda. How can we restore what America was? How can we fix our problems? Is it too little to late?

Genetic patdown, come on, this is crazy, what’s next…

Invasion ... of the body snatchers

Well, not quite, but close enough in the USofA.

TSA mandates a government x-ray of your body
TSA then institutes touching in search for weapons
TSA now needs to view your DNA


They'll yet think of a way to get into your head with a machine-brain connection.

Genetic Patdown is the new approach of Big Brother Govenment for further intrusion into your life, all in the name of providing security.

If one puts all the pieces of this security puzzle together, the whole looks very different than it's disparate parts. Computer chips in passports, under the skin, X-ray scanners, body searches, DNA files on citizens, mandatory computerized medical records of all patients, IRS scrutiny into your personal lifestyle, mandatory intrusionary census data.

Who can one complain to?

What government official can return America's former dignity to it's citizens. If anyone dares to address this and other intrusion issues, something happens to them. I'm afraid that it is too late. There is no hope for "the land of the free and the home of the brave..."

Egypt Overturned ...

Egypt Overturned, But Israel’s Existence Still Questioned

A story of an Island and a Whale

Shabbat Parsha Shiur by Rabbi Y.Y. Jacobson

The Whale

The latest developments in Egypt have become a source of concern in Israel. The Jewish State is in doubt whether the new emerging powers in Egypt will honor the cold peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, signed three decades ago. This only underscores yet one again the vulnerable position of Israel, and how its very existence is still questioned. A revolution so inspiring and uplifting in the land of the Pharaohs, but Israel’s right of existence is still not a simple matter.

Let us reflect a bit on this.

One of the great Talmudic sages related the following episode:

Once, while on a ship, we came to what we assumed was a large island, since we saw on it sand and growing grass. We disembarked the ship, went on to the island, built a fire, and cooked our meal. Yet what we assumed to be an island was really a fish. When the fish felt the heat, he rolled over and we were plunged into the water. Had the ship not been nearby, we would have drowned.
-- Talmud Bava Basra 73b.

What is the meaning behind this absurd Talmudic tale, related by one of its great sages, Rabba the son of Bar Chana?

According to some of the great Talmudic commentators, this tale captures, in intriguing metaphor, one of the most essential truths about Jewish history, particularly one relating to the holiday of Purim, which will be celebrated in a few weeks.
The Journey
From the moment they stood at Mt. Sinai more than three millennia ago, the Jewish people have been traveling on a lone and long journey. Their destination is a world healed, redeemed and reunified with its Creator; a society cleansed from ego-centricity, hatred and bloodshed; a universe permeated with moral and spiritual awareness, filled with “the knowledge of the Divine as the waters cover the sea” (in the words of the prophet Isaiah chapter 11). The Torah and its Mitzvos serve as their blueprint for this courageous voyage in a vast and seemingly endless sea.

Yet the waters have often become increasingly tumultuous and the voyage discouraging, if not apparently futile. So when in the midst of their journey they observed what seemed to be an island of serenity, an oasis of tranquility, a respite from a miserable fate, many of them abandoned the “ship” of Jewish consciousness and commitment for the perceived blessings of freedom and happiness.

The era in which the Purim story occurred was a classical example of this pattern. The king was married to a Jewish woman; large segments of Jewish society assimilated into Persian culture; the Jewish establishment played a pivotal role in the economical and political structures of the Persian Empire. The community had been invited to the royal feast and given status as equal citizens. In reciprocity, the Jews learned how to “behave;” how to become integrated and law abiding citizens. They did not demand kosher food or kosher wine at the feast, nor did they create any other waves that would disturb the equilibrium and make them stand out as Jews.

Seventy years after being expelled from their ancient homeland, their Temple being burnt to the ground, many of them had abandoned the old ship, secure in their belief that they have reached an island of serenity; they finally “made it.”

Identity Crisis

Throughout history, the struggle of Jewish identity and our relationships with the world around us has become so challenging, that it often caused us to redefine ourselves from within. Jean-Paul Sartre claimed in his Sur le Question Juif that the only thing Jews had in common was that they were the victims of hate. It is not Jews who create anti-Semitism, he said, but anti-Semitism that creates Jews. Arthur Koestler wrote: "Self-hatred is the Jews patriotism." Franz Kafka said: "What do I have in common with the Jews? I don't even have anything in common with myself."

Time and time again we have been lured into the faith that if we abandon the “ship” of Judaism—of Torah and Mitzvos—we would gain acceptance among the brotherhood of mankind. "Be a man in the street and a Jew at home," was the 19th century slogan by the Enlightened Jews in Western Europe. If only Jews weren’t so Jewish we would have less anti-Semitism, so went the theory.

The past three centuries have produced a dazzling variety of movements, ideals and solutions to the age-old “Jewish problem,” offering islands of hope for a people tormented by persecution and targeted for abuse. The Enlightenment (Haskalah) came to “civilize” us and allow us free entry into European society; the Marxists and Socialists promised to create a utopia for us and all of mankind; Zionism’s goal was to grant us a State, a national identity, and thus cure anti-Semitism once and for all; Reform came to make us acceptable to the non-Jewish society and to inculcate us with humanistic values; secularism came to free us from the burdens of tradition which have supposedly hindered our progress and happiness.

All of these attempts have been brilliantly captured in that ancient Talmudic tale: Once, while on a ship, we came to what we assumed was a large island, since we saw on it sand and growing grass. We disembarked the ship, went on to the island, built a fire, and cooked our meal.

Disillusionment

Yet, ironically, the end of the Talmudic tale also came to be:

What we assumed to be an island was really a fish. When the fish felt the heat, he rolled over and we were plunged into the water. Had the ship not been nearby, we would have drowned.

Each time we came to feel comfortable on the island, and we began at last to live out our latent dreams, the “fish” turned over and threw us back into the raging waters. In the days of Purim, when the Jews felt that they had successfully integrated into mainstream culture, under the very nose of a Jewish queen—the king was persuaded to issue forth a plan of genocide for the Jewish people.

Assimilation never cured prejudice. Not in the days of Purim, nor at any time in the future. It didn’t even in 15th century Spain, where Jews converted to Christianity and yet still suffered from persecution under the vicious doctrine of limpieza de sangre ("purity of blood"), the forerunner of modern racial anti-Semitism. It didn’t in 20th century Germany where Jews were often “more German” than the Germans. It didn’t in the Modern State of Israel constructed as a secular democracy.

The historical truth remains that none of the above movements achieved their stated goals. The Holocaust made mockery of Jewish integration in the general humanistic world; Zionism created the State of Israel, which we cherish deeply, but only exacerbated the problems of anti-Semitism and still struggles to provide security for its citizens. Israel still needs to fight for its “right” to exist. Stalin “cured” us of the “paradise” of Marxism and Socialism; the Enlightenment apparently did not sufficiently civilize us; secularism has deprived generations of direction and meaning, leaving our youth thirsty for identity and purpose (1).

Our Hope

"Had the ship not been nearby, we would have drowned," is how the Talmudic sage concludes the episode. What saved us during the time of Purim – and what has guaranteed our existence throughout our long and difficult history – was not forfeiting our identity and surrendering our truth; it was our animated relationship with the living G-d, the creator of heaven and earth, and our dedication to His Torah and Mitzvos that has allowed us to survive and thrive, till we reach the culmination of the voyage, speedily in our days (2).

1) Interestingly, the metaphor employed in the Talmudic tale is the fish. What the travelers felt was an island was really a fish waiting to plunge them into the waters. The zodiac sign for the month of Adar is Pisces, fish (mazal dogim.) As the book of Esther relates, the Persian Minister Haman chose a day in the month of Adar (the 13th) to exterminate the Jewish people (Maharsah to Bava Basra 73b). Conversely, what is unique about fish? They must remain submerged in their natural element of water to survive. So too, the Jewish people must remain in their habitat of Torah and Mitzvos for their continued existence (see Talmud Berechos 61a).
2) This essay is based on the commentary of the Maharsah (Rabbi Shmuel Eliezer Eidels) to Talmud Bava Basra 73b and on other sources.

A Little Fun

for a change

And a little Purim warmup (oldie but goodie)

Solar Katrina?

This is straight from the Financial Times

"“Predict and prepare should be the watchwords,” agreed Jane Lubchenco, head of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “So much more of our technology is vulnerable than it was 10 years ago.”

A solar storm starts with an eruption of super-hot gas travelling out from the sun at speeds of up to 5m miles an hour. Electrically charged particles hit earth’s atmosphere 20 to 30 hours later, causing electromagnetic havoc.

Last week’s solar storm may have been the biggest since 2007, but it was relatively small in historical terms.

It caused some radio communications problems and minor disruption of civil aviation as airlines routed flights away from the polar regions, said Dr Lubchenco.

A more extreme storm can shut down communications satellites for many hours – or even cause permanent damage to their components. On the ground, the intense magnetic fluctuations can induce surges in power lines, leading to grid failures such as the one that blacked out the whole of Quebec in 1989...."



To read entire article, go to link above

Israel's Battle of the Little Bighorn

Imagine having an Iran on your southern border? Angry Gaza would become too close for comfort. Hissbulla on the other end of your country, with Yehuda and the Shomron carved out from the center by a hostile people.

This scenario is not appealing to me.

Maybe that is why Syria is inching closer to America ... In desperation. At this rate, Syria with Lebanon is in trouble.

Libya's Gadhfi is gunning down everyone, "with bodies piling up in a hospital and doctors collapsing in grief at the sight of dead relatives."

AP now reports a crackdown on another "Jasmine" revolution, in China. This might end up the biggest and bloodiest of all attempts.

What about Iraq?

And we haven't seen the Saudi Prince for a while, only his family members (Prince Talal) making statements to the press about the neighborhood changing!

We're having a small Monsoon here in Yerushalayim. Winds, rain, lightening, more wild winds and lots of rain. Such Bracha, we must be doing something right.

Egypt (and Iran conspire) allows Iranian warships into the Suez.Israel, instead of giving Egypt's military (4,000 soldiers?) more and more access to the Sinai, maybe Israel should take back the Sinai, as a self-defense mechanism. Then we'd have a buffer between the radicalization of the New Egypt, with Gaza as the tip of the Missile. We'd have some much needed space to breathe, and the Air Force could have a strategic base, not to mention the oil and uranium.

Debka says the Iranian ship was a ploy to stall and get Egyptian military into the Sinai. We also learn that the real "real" purpose of this ploy is that An Iranian Naval Base is Planned in Beirut!

What are we looking at here?

What in the world are the Israelis thinking?

How did this get past them?

Is Barak and Netanyahu using Amir Peretz's binoculars?

Barry Rubin* added this addendum to the American Thinker article Egypt Gets its Khomeini:

• Yusuf al-Qaradawi Returns in Triumph. He is The Best Known Muslim Brotherhood Cleric in the World and one of the most famous Islamist thinkers: "One of Qaradawi's initiatives has been urging Muslims to settle in the West, of which he said, “that powerful West, which has come to rule the world, should not be left to the influence of the Jews alone.” He contends that the three major threats Muslims face are Zionism, internal integration, and globalization. To survive, he argues, Muslims must fight the Zionists, Crusaders, idolators, and Communists."

It's starting to look like the natives circling the wagons [borders] for Custer's Last Stand at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

And our ONE friend in the West seems to be encouraging the Muslim world toward their goal. And all these sparing words between Ahmad... and ...Hussein Obama are they for show and of no real meaning?

Have they been talking in code riddles all this time, starting with that speech in, of all places, Cairo. Too coincidental for me.

In Judaism there are no coincidences.





*Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal.

Harvard's Professor Niall Ferguson

On Egypt and Muslim Brotherhood

USA May Collapse like Soviet Union:

Niall on the (no such thing as the) Future

short but cute

Niall Campbell Douglas Ferguson and his website.
He attended the Herzilya Conference just recently.

What's Happening in Paris?

Bahrain is where the US Fifth Fleet is stationed!

It's amazing how leader after leader is being taken out via stroke or coma!
Now the Tunisian guy is gone. Who's next? They're all quivering now.
"hyper-dermic needle will travel!?"

Straight from the John Batchelor Show: (link in title)

"Farnaz Fassihi, WSJ, reporting from Beirut on the turmoil in Manama, Bahrain. The House of Saud endorses a crack-down of limitless violence against the Shia underclass, and the Sunni monarchy in the tiny island state obliges. Again, POTUS and the NSC are acting cauty unawares, which is peculiar, given that Bahrain is the headquarters of the Fifth Fleet in the Gulf. The protesters in Bahrain are run by the IRGC out of Tehran, and this is a black operation, and the monarchy is marked for death.

Does POTUS know that Bahrain is a Tehran target? Am told that there is nothing negative to say of POTUS Obama than has not already been said in all the Arab capitals. The Arabs disdain POTUS and no longer look to him for credible choices. There will be more blood. Trouble in Yemen; trouble in Jordan; trouble in Lebanon; trouble in Sinai.

Now there is trouble for the Fifth Fleet: is there an evacuation plan? Am told that the opinion in Egypt is that if Mubarak had used violence in the first days, then he would still be in Cairo. Am told that Egypt has a long way down, and, like all revolutions, anarchy is the next phase, and then after that the most violent political party will be Rewarded"

The Come Back Nations or a Prelude to Gog UMagog

Do you see what is really happening:

National Revivalism

It's being cloaked as striving for work, food and 'respect' sweeping across the global map?

After the return of the tiny Jewish remnant nation to it's biblical lands:

We are witnessing the revival of Islamic dominance and its "picking up from where it left off" (which has been the palestinian starting point of all the negotiations with Israel) in the 6th or 7th Century. That was their unfinished attempt at world domination.

Now the world Islamists aspirations of regaining world dominance have been reawakened. We are actually watching country after country under the guise of western style Muslim democracy rising from the "peoples".

Turkey declared it wants to revive the Ottoman empire (albeit as Hummus King of the world).

Dare we even imagine that "our new friend" Germany wants to revive a leadership of Europe and then the World? (Shhh!! This is only conjecture.)

Two very interesting pieces seem to hint that there is more to the "helpful hand" of Germany in the US and Egypt (and all over the world): "Israel and America need to WAKE UP and FAST!" here and the "Federal Republic of Germany"
here.

This brings to mind the prophetic warning about "Germania" from the Talmud that says:

Beware of Amalek, who comes to destroy you (the Jews) There is a discussion of where this germania is located. This land either refers to parts of Iran or Germany, or maybe the discussion is to alert us that it is BOTH. Read here about Girmanya and Gog Umagog.

Does anyone dare to believe this?

Again?

Well, we need to read this.

Yesterday I saw a video about the familial connection between Germany and Iran, on the Tamar Yonah blog, "Mubarak in Coma and Saudi King Dead? A commenter to YerenanYaakov blog wrote in about the Zohar Vayera 119a, it says in part, "...wars will be awakened in the world on the North side, and TWO KINGS WILL FALL in these wars, and the entire world will come together against Bas Yaakov...". Something to think about:


Who wants to lead Europe?

When the Kaiser Wilhem cane to visit the old Yishuv everyone came out to visit him except for the Chief Rabbi, who said: "I have a kabala from my Rebbe, the Brisker Rov, that the Germans come from Amalek."

How so? Amalek was a grandson of Eisav, born from his son Elifaz and a concubine. This concubine who before this, had wanted to convert to Judaism, but was denied, and to make a long story short, she became a concubine in retaliation, and it was her hatred that entered the child named Amalek (from a Midrash I read and don't have a source and hope I got it right)

"Eisav hates Yaakov" is a Halacha (a Jewish law for all time).

Who wants control of the Suez?

As the video above indicates, Iran also dominated much of the world at one time. And so the taste of reviving dead ideologies is in the air.

Iran wants free access to the Suez, Sinai oil and Sinai Uranian!

Guess who's sailing up/down the Suez tonite.

Who will come to open the Suez if Europe, Israel, America are denied entry?

The pieces as I see it point to various countries getting into a third war over their various aspirations. And little Israel will be blamed simply because they started it! ... by their own re-emergence into history!

I had alot of time to do some reading, as you can see from this collection of ideas, while a bit under the weather. No, not snow, just the flu. And, No, I wasn't taking any mind altering drugs while ill, just my 'natural home remedies."

The Masterful plan of the Concealor and Controller of the world.

Plan to Ignite the United States with Sharia Law

World Net Daily on a MEMRI video: Shortly before massive riots backed by the Muslim Brotherhood broke out in Egypt, journalist 'Ata Abd Al-Aal told his interviewer in a video translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute that he had even heard a sheik in America declare that "the most important place for the future of Islam, after Mecca and Medina, was the U.S."

The presence of Islam in the America, Abd Al-Aal insisted, has grown so rapidly that it has become "of great alarm to the Zionist circles in the U.S."



To listen to more of what the Islamists are saying, visit MEMRI: Middle East Media Research Institute

Yeshiva Yid Visits Family's Roots ... and Happens to Witness the Egyptian Uprising

There have been many amazing stories about the Egyptian Uprising and Revolution, but mostly from a journalist or reporter's personal experience. Here is a Jewish descendant from the original Exodus from Egypt, tracing his 'roots' and witnessing the demise of a present day Pharaoh

"... Born and raised in Brooklyn, Setton may be a native New Yorker but his roots are Egyptian. “While Egypt’s history with Judaism has been long and often turbulent,” said Setton, “a lot of people might not realize the presence and the value Egypt had for the Jewish nations throughout history. Egypt has housed many sages, from Maimonides to Rabbi Yosef Azoulay, known as the Hida, and even Rabbi Ovadia Yosef for several years. There are many synagogues to see and a rich history to learn from.” And so for winter break, he decided to travel from Israel to Egypt to take what he likes to call a “family heritage trip.” ..."

Full interview at YU University News

The "Grandfathers" Revolutions

The storms in the rest of the world are pushing blessings into Eretz HaKodesh

The proliferation of the concept of truth and transparency flooding the media is sending blessings into Eretz HaKodesh

This Blessing is the Rain that has been raining for several days ...

no shuttles, no meetings

The Grandfather Rulers:

Like dominos, one by one, middle east cities are lighting up the skies. Their entrenched rulers, grandfather regimes (Mubarek, Quadaffi, Asad, Abdullah, Saud). Social eruptions political turmoil, people in need of expression or a calculated takeover?

Reuters reports: " ... As in many other countries across the Middle East, Egyptians are frustrated over surging prices, unemployment and an authoritarian government that tolerates little dissent." Is this a cry for democracy, or the emergence of the Muslim Brotherhood?

But who are the "Brotherhood" we hear are behind this uprising of the youth, demanding a democratic society? In Tuesday's Jerusalem Post print edition, a headline read "Muslim Brotherhood leader: 'Prepare Egyptians for war with Israel.' " Now, that doesn't sound democratic to me. Read Smooth Stone's analysis.

Edwin Black, reporter par excellence: Egypt Protests - Mideast House of Cards Brought Down in Days by Twitter and the Arab Street.

Jordan in Upheaval. 70% are Palestinians, not allowed to vote because their identity cards have been retrieved by King Abdullah II. So, now we have the Jordan Brotherhood!

And in Tunisia, they are burning Torah Scrolls in the El Ghriba Synagogue. We were told that the Jews of Tunisia were not a target, that this was a "Jasmine" revolution to rid them of a repressive regime. Is this more of the Middle East brand of democracy?

Ever so quietly, Iranian warships are heading for the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Canal.

The Upheaval Continues

Fire, Ash and Lightning Exploding ... Snowbound in Artic Blizzards

"Nature" is angry. Volcanic Eruptions tumultuous floods, blinding blizzards wildlife suicides are not global warming. The latest in a long explosion of disruptions in the natural world is an Icelandic eruption in Japan. A small beautiful island in the far east. What might be their nemesis? Tremendous lightning and fire at Shinmoedake. Japan on alert after volcano's biggest eruption in 50 years. (These pictures are awe inspiring.)

But " Nature" is more than day and night,

the abundant air, wind, sunshine,

tides and routine changing seasons.

It's the rustling impatience of the Creator of the Universe.

Yes, there are some that understand.

Then others who, in their 'anti' frame of mind cannot conceive that there is a Creator and that He is still in control of everything.

We are definitely not alone.

There is accountability after all.

Chicago: 3 Inches an Hour Gliding over to Detroit

To our dear bloggers in Chicago, prepare yourselves, stock up on chips and dips, make a giant pot of soup, get out the emergency generators, and watch it all from inside your warm comfy homes.

A Time to Remember ... 1-2 February 2011

The Ice Storm Cometh

Freezing Ice

Extreme Cold

Gusty Winds

up to 50 mph

Whipping Snow into Huge Drifts

3 to 5 feet

ICE

Freezing Power Lines

The Worst Storm

Paralyzing Blizzard

Chicago to Detroit

In New York and the Northeast

Accuweather: "The bottom line is a historic storm impacting not only people in the Midwest and in the Plains, but the Northeast where the worst of the storm will strike on Groundhog Day. A severe weather outbreak could also spawn tornadoes in the South."

I know the New York Chassidim in Boro Park and Williamsburg are not daunted by a little snow and ice. We will see them heading to Shomer Shabbos to daven 3 times a day, then gather in 'Super Miller's 13' and 'Mega 53' to discuss the latest earth shattering events, plus a sharp bit of Torah, and then bring home the bread and spread to the kinderlach.

check here and here and here for the latest on the snow

just your average day of global warming