Intelligence Theory

I had written a note on Israeli military courts ("Zahal's Big Mistake" - i.e. letting in the fierce evangelist of my daughter, with her non-negotiable dogmas on punishment of erring conscripts) but I'm not going to write anything - since things may be harmless in my mind but the malevolent enemy is watching. Better I analize the CIA's debate on intelligence theory, which is much more difficult than it appears.

Some say that the task of intelligence is to analyze the errors and failures. I say the task of intelligence is to learn the reality around by active proving. I mean that the CIA world almanach is very good and I love to read it, but collecting data in not the way to learn how reality is. You learn only by changing it. How do you know where the limits are? Not by passive observation. Only by violating the rules you see if the rules are real rules or not. What we may see as a limit, an impassable obstacle, may probe to be a cloud if we have the courage of attacking it. Intelligence must be continuously attacking the impossible, trying in real action if one's suppositions are true or imagination alone.

I am a systematic violator of laws, rules and conventions. I walk on the grass. Sometimes I receive a knock on my head and make reverse, but most of the time reality is innoccous and softer than thought of. I follow the rule of the Austro-Hungarian army's bayonet fight: you meet solid, pull back, you meet soft, push ahead with all your might. That is my theory of intelligence work. Good as any.

America has been engaged in continuous fighting all over the world during my lifetime. They are following the Tao, the right way. I always liked America.

Who is a Jew?

“Someone whose grandchildren are Jewish.”

Absolutely

Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei called Israelis "bloodthirsty wolves."

For your spiritual wellness, Ali, shut up. 

Tired

I am aware that less than half percent of the people of my age is still working in Germany and almost zero in France. Yet I am here working twelve or more hours a day. It is 1000 AM and and I am ordering old papers from 0600 AM and I'm already tired.

Misjudging Syria

Bruce Riedel is already planning the post-Assad international peacekeeping force in Syria. Assad is fighting for his life and has the whole Alawi and Christian community with him. The  Iranian Revolutionary Guards are in Syria. Those ayatollahs must be crazy. Assad has weaponized sarin.  I worked with parathion and using care, it is not big deal. 

Yiddish Poetry

Why Intelligence Fails?

I continue enjoying CIA's open library. In the review of the title, they analyze the Persian Shah's fall. Apparently the CIA considers it an intelligence failure, but I am sure it was not. I was present at Tachito Somoza's fall and can imagine the late Shah's fall. No CIA failure there: it was their moralistic master, President Jimmy Carter, who gave the direct order to leave the country. I assume the CIA cannot say that because the corollary would be that some American Presidents are unable or uninterested in CIA's product, and that line of thinking may lead to the unthinkable conclusion that the CIA should influence the political process to ensure that it falls in the hands of a good boss.

One thing I am noticing is the emotional detachment of their writing. It's amazing. Even the technical literature I read - fluid mechanics, statistics - is very emotionally charged and full of hate and criticism of their opponents. Biology and evolution is a battleground, the less they say about the opponent is that he is a lying and falsifying data. CIA's detachment is wrong. The analyst must be a fanatic, a believer in good and evil, and sure that he is in a mission from God, the Revolution or whatever. In our case, the best analyst of the ayatollahs is the senile Rav Eliahu and minister Yishay. Russia,  Liberman. America, Bibi.

China in Transition

China has slowed down because the outgoing government is leaving most decisions to the new team that will take power around December. While waiting for the new team, infrastructure projects have been frozen and the price of iron ore has tumbled to $99.40 per metric ton. Billiton thinks it is a trend, I think we are in a period of politically motivated lull.  I had a bronze statue of the God of Prosperity (pic), weathered to look antique, but my little daughter has expropiated it (preventive division of my estate?).

A Prayer from "CIA's Bookshelf"

CIA's open library has a section commenting books of interest. Since I was never involved in intelligence work, I had no idea of the universe of problems and ideas circulating in the intelsphere. I quote part of a book comment:

Each of the books mention and summarily reject two principal arguments for not having taken stronger steps to prevent Pakistan from acquiring the bomb and cooperating with China, North Korea, and Iran in the process. The first is that since the likelihood of Pakistan’s success was high in any event, it is better to monitor the program to learn what and who is involved so that action can be taken if things get out of hand. That is of course, what happened. The second reason the authors find unacceptable is that other foreign policy objectives—the Cold War and then the War on Terror—were of higher priority than the possible spread of nuclear weapons to terrorists and unscrupulous nations. They scoff at Zbigniew Brzezinski’s answer to a journalist’s question about “whether he regretted giving arms and advice to future terrorists.” Brzezinski responded, “What is more important to the history of the world: the Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet Empire.” These authors condemn all US presidential administrations since Carter’s for failing to meet the proliferation challenge. But the final outcome is still unknown; it may yet be achieved and nuclear holocaust avoided.

Since Pakistan is falling apart and the terrorists are on the way of acquiring some of its nuclear weapons, CIA's position that letting Pakistan to have its atomic arsenal seems today increasingly untenable. The two books accuse America of not preventing the Pakistani bomb (1) because it was considered inevitable so co-operating and monitoring its development seemed a better idea, and (2) because President Carter was a missionary believing in the inherent good will of humanity. What is happening now in Iran? Has once more America decided that the Iranian atomic bomb is inevitable and nothing could be done to stop it and any open action would only accelerate its development? Or is the American president once more a person lacking the Nixonian mentality of how the real world is? Maybe Obama achieved his power without the vicious fights necessary to develope the thoughness that his job requires? Steven Sailer today thinks that we have been overthinking Obama, he is no Ford Foundation secret agent, he is goodlooking sports fan with no burning interest in ideology nor world domination.

As my days are getting over, I'm increasingly a pessimist. Let's end here with CIA's prayer: "But the final outcome is still unknown; it may yet be achieved and nuclear holocaust avoided."

Billiton losing 1 billion dollars per month

BHP Billiton decided to cancel the 13 billion US$ Jansen potash mining project in Sask. Coupled with last week's news that Brazil's Vale SA is indefinitely postponing its $3-billion potash project at Kronau, it seems that potash gluts are over and prices will keep rising. Good news for Israel Chemicals and me.

Lesson Learning from the CIA

I feel reading the public library of the CIA like I felt fifty years ago in the Biblioteca Lincoln of Buenos Aires. Let me comment on a fascinating analysis of the operation to liquidate Dr Mossadeq in Iran, a long time ago. I knew it was a covert CIA operation, a very successful one, but always thought that the background was the global fight against Communism. Yet the analysis deals with a completely different set of causes: British debts denominated in American dollars. I'll read the article again when I have time (when?) but it makes one wonder what will happen in our days, when the debt problem is much more severe. Spain, for example, must be working to recover YPF in Argentina, because it is so important for its economy. What did Khaddafi that he had to be killed? Why is Iran still ruled by the Ayatollahs? The CIA's own answer seems to be that its "clients" are uneducated in intelligence and dont understand what they are being told. Now I have to work designing a supermarket. Bye.

No Raise

Ariel U was to be included in the research universities budget so I hoped for a raise. But other - competing - universities petitioned the High Court to overturn the decision. Ariel is in the West Bank so the signature of Defense Minister Ehud Barak is required. He is silent in the matter of my raise. 

IDB Bonds Climbing

The Schmendrik or several "schmendriks" must be buying IDB Bonds because their prices are climbing 10% this morning.

Good dog!

"Bananas" as CIA learning aid

"In a scene in Woody Allen’s film Bananas, US paramilitaries are flying to the troubled, Latin American backwater San Marcos, where insurgents are attempting to overthrow the military junta. One paramilitary asks out-loud, “[are we] for or against the government?” “The CIA is not taking any chances,” responds another officer, “some of us are for it and some of us are gonna to be against it.”

The above quote is from the CIA's public magazine (link: Bananas) and basically that is what the CIA was thinking. Two things are remarkable to this student: (a) the intellectual honesty of the writer, able to quote Bananas (the French police would never recognize the accuracy of an Inspector Closeau film), (b) a shortsighted New York Jew, totally uninvoved with intelligence work and hating fresh air in general, ability to describe what was happening in the Carribbean.

BTW, it appears that the CIA has copied the concept of this blog, and has a Lesson Learning Center. Maybe there is also a "Learning Diary of an American Intelligence Officer". If so, I propose it to adopt my subtitle: You learn seventy years and die a fool (in yiddish, of course). No charge for it, because I consider the CIA a force for the good. 

Jordan Employing the Army to Protect Water Sources

Water scarcity is becoming severe in the TransJordan. Although more than 90% of the population is connected to the net, about 70% of faucets are dry for weeks on, and buy water from commercial tankers. Increasingly, there is nowhere to fill the tankers - legally. So water vandalism and theft is increasing. Representatives of the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, the Ministry of Interior and the Public Security Department (PSD) met last week to address the rising number of violations on water wells and pipelines. The water protection campaign was announced soon afterwards: start date unspecified due to security reasons.

Omar Salameh, speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, said the operation is directed at areas most vulnerable to theft of water and equipment: the Jordan Valley, south Amman, Mafraq and Zarqa.

“We are providing the PSD with a list of locations that require protection, either because of their importance or because they witness recurring theft and vandalism,” Salameh told The Jordan Times. “Scores of water resources from which around 1,870 cubic meters of water were pumped per hour remain shut down because of violations and theft,” he added.

Denmark For "Venereal" Fulfillment

A Danish study has concluded that male circumcision impairs sexual bliss. In Scandinavia, the satisfaction of venereal lust (I am being Victorian) is the object of life, as well as the protection of sacred animal's rights. Pic: Sex is allowed in the park at certain hours and please clean up after you are done. I have the impression that they are late Antiquity pagans and hold a special dislike for primitive tribals like us.

Ominous Sign

Bank Leumi classified Nochi Dankner's loans as "unrecoverable".

My play on bonds is drying up in this August heat.

The Price of Looking Good

Eleven staff members at the Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, including one doctor who regularly treats African illegal infiltrators, have contracted tuberculosis. The incident occurred just one month after hospital director  ordered to isolate pregnant women, infants and children from foreign infiltrators and not allow visitors from these communities into the hospital. These drastic measures were taken after it was discovered that an Eritrean baby, who was hospitalized in Ichilov’s intensive care unit, and her mother had been ill with tuberculosis. 100 children and parents had to be tested for fear of contracting the disease. 

The hospital’s moves were met with criticism by Israel’s media, which claimed Ichilov was being racist by isolating foreign workers and infiltrators and ignored the concern for the well-being of others.  “This is the price that Israel pays for prettifying itself. The establishment is afraid of being accused of racism and would rather see doctors and citizens dying from diseases, but will not under any circumstances send infiltrators to separate hospitals.”

Halachic Times

Jlm	Tel       Aviv
A.shachar	04:59	04:59
Talit	05:26	05:26
Sunrise	06:11	06:11
Sof Shema	09:27	09:27
Sof Tfila	10:33	10:32
Chatzot	12:44	12:43
Mincha G.	13:17	13:15
Mincha K.	16:33	16:31
Sunset	19:17	19:14
Nightfall	19:55	19:51

Jerusalem follows a different halachic time than Tel Aviv. Sunrise is 4:59 but nightfall is later in Jerusalem. The daily prayer times are somewhat different. The proper halachic prayer times have been also worked out for Jewish astronauts.

International Conflict

This morning I had a meeting in Shaar Benjamin industrial area but arrived late so the only benefit from the trip was hearing a radio interview to Dori Gold on Syria. He says that the Revolutionary Guards are already in Syria butchering Sunnis, Al Qaida is there, Kurds are in the North, terrorist bomb in  Gaziantep, straining the  already tense relations between Turkey and  Syria.Pic fighting in Tripoli, Lebanon. We are past the point of civil war, this is an international conflict.

Looking at the Situation

Investment advisers say that a young man should invest in risky stock and old men in riskless bonds. I always thought this advise was wrong - one always should invest at least half of his savings in super-risky thingies, regardless of age. The thing old men do not have is time, and bonds are based on compound interest. so why should they buy them?

Now I have a dilemma with IDB Holdings bonds. The regulators warn the public that they are very risky, because the company has money to pay for the next two years and has no concrete plan to what it will do later. Pension funds are therefore warned not to invest in them, and anyway, all the advisers are (antipatriotically) advising people to take their money out of Israel till the Iran situation stabilizes one way or the other. So IDB bonds are selling at 20 when their calculated worth is 120. And falling like a Turkish airplane.

Nochi Dankner (IDB) made a big mistake in holding Credit Suisse after started to have problems with the Germans and the American tax authorities. The  bank, to its eternal shame, delivered the names and private corrrespondence of 11000 of its employees to the American police. I imagine how this bastardly action affects the moral of the workforce. That bank, I presume, is finished. Kaputt. May be they will sell it Nochi or another Jewish businessman with integrity.

Fortunes are made from this kind of situations.

If I were more intelligent, things would be clearer for me. When younger, I was able to focus on one thing for days and come up with a clear idea.

Where can I go? Wo Ahin soll Ich Geh'n?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b3aWebZTk4&feature=c-shelf-119

Near the end you see the bearded Menachem Begin (the underground leader of the Irgun) and a Hagana fighter fixing a proclamation on a wall (it seems a mobilization order).

Who took my picture?

I cant have a little privacy even in a hidden corner of Yaffo port.

Which is the optimal body mass relationship between a human male and a human female? In the Nordic races, the relationship is 1:1 that is, women are almost as big as men. Thats why Swedes are so quiet and passive. Among Africans the same kind of relationship holds. I have seen big mammas to throw out (I mean, physically) their man through the door because the poor Negro smelled whisky. I think that ideally the male must be at least four times massive or heavier than the female (pic) to have a mutually respectful and harmonious conyugal life.

Fragmenting Middle East

Things change. Two years ago Turkey was condemning Israel and bent on rebuilding the Turkish Empire. Today it is sliding towards the nightmare of a protracted sectarian civil war on its long southern border with the emergence of a de facto Kurdish region identified with its main foe - the Kurdish half of Turkey. This could easily lead to the breakup of Turkey and its neutralization as a Middle East factor. The G-d of Israel is not slumbering nor sleeping.

Secretly Hating America

Der Spiegel, the main German magazine, consistently opposes America. Now it takes issue with the potato and goes on to show that American Government is not working. Or that it is working against the interest of the population.

 In a 1992 study on women's health, Dr. Willett found that excessive consumption of potatoes could lead to diabetes. It was only a suspicion at the time, but the more Dr. Willett studied the issue, the more convinced he became. "The venerable baked potato increases levels of blood sugar and insulin more quickly and to higher levels than an equal amount of calories from pure table sugar," he says. That makes people hungry, says Dr. Willett. This wasn't a problem in the past, when people were not as sedentary, he says. But, today, it leads to obesity and illnesses , such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease. 

The average American consumes 53 kilograms (117 lbs) of potatoes a year. There is hardly an American meal that makes do without Tater Tots, mashed potatoes or French fries. Children are especially prone to overdoing it; they consume 30 percent more starchy vegetables, such a corn and potatoes, than adults. Eating too many potatoes, as Willett demonstrated, is one cause of obesity.

The American potato lobby has succeeded in including the potato in subsidized school menus. Der Spiegel is horrorized. Not that Germans dont eat potato. They eat  75 kg a year, more than Americans. But that is different.

The Fight Continues

“You don’t have to be office bearers for you to lead. We lead with ideas. Zuma does not have thinking capacity, that’s why his political report to the national general council was that of the ANC Youth League,” said Malema.

“We are going to fight until we achieve what we stand for, we are not going to dissolve. The struggle for economic freedom is not going to please individuals.” He seems to mean it. 

Historical Accuracy

*SIR – In the last paragraph of your article (“Old and nasty”, July 28th) you said: “Miklos Horthy, a fierce anti-communist who entered an uneasy alliance with Hitler that ended in the deportation of 430,000 Jews to Auschwitz.” For historical accuracy, Miklos Horthy was deposed and arrested on October 15th 1944 by the Germans and the Hungarian Nazi Arrow Cross Party. Under Horthy not even one Jew was taken beyond Hungary’s borders. That started when the Nazis overran the country, even though Hungarians were “uneasy allies”. 
 Helen Szablya 
 Honorary consul general of Hungary 
 Seattle 

 From the letters to last The Economist.

The deportation of Hungarian Jews is so well documented (not the least by Eichman's office itself) that historical accuracy is easy to establish in this case. An operation that involved millions was not a secret.  The main deportations started on 15 May 1944 when Minister Baky reported that 320,000 Jews had been concentrated in the camps and ghettos east of the River Theiss (Tisza). Some 380,000 Jews were deported by 30 June 1944 – the rounding-up was undertaken by the Hungarian Gendarmerie or by the Jewish Community Councils acting under orders and threats. The Gendarmerie guarded the trains as far as the Slovak border. I am not writing a letter to The Economist since it would be useless.

Son de Negro

On the wall hangs a souvenir (pic left) I brought back from Africa, an old black wood carving of two men fighting or dancing with curved branches. Now I have discovered a similarity with a folkloric dance video from Puerto Colombia (above) from the Caribbean. Africans brought their culture to America and contributed to the Colombian  national folklore. Yet I had never seen this dance nor fight style in Africa.

Gary on Israel

 Gary records that The explosion higher in the Israel sovereign cds(+34 bps in less than 2 weeks) is another big red flag. The Mid-east appears to be unraveling again at an alarming rate.  Ambassador Oren said that bombing Iran's nuclear facilities would delay Iran for a few years which was worth it. It would disorganize world oil flow  but that is not our problem.  The graph shows Kever Benjamin would be unjurt if Tel Aviv is bombed.  So TASE's week ended on a nice note.

Look, that's one is still moving!

South African police making order in a platinum mine.  The protestors (still alive) can be see in the link. Follow up (end of august 2012): Glencore  took a $514-million writedown on the value of its near 25 percent stake in troubled South African platinum miner Lonmin. 

The stake is very high. (According to Thesaurus, stake is a vertical post to which an offender is bound for execution by burning. I already smell the fire.)

Koor

Today's action ended 10% higher. Banque Suisse just delivered the names, passports and correspondence of 1100 of its employees to the American IRS. A coolest betrayal of its own personnel to the American police. Is there a word in Swissdeutsch for loyalty? Koor owns 3% of CS so selling the galley-slaves out was good for the shareholders.

Genetic Contamination Panic in Europe

There is a drought in Europe and the corn crop is in danger. The cause and effect link seems quite clear. Not to Europeans. Somebody must be sabotaging them.

Europe has forbidden genetically engineered corn seed but of course a few "contaminated" plants have been found in Hungary. In the imagination of the caricaturist, black planes are bombarding Hungarian corn fields. This is how Hungarians (and Europeans in general) imagine how reality works.

Forty Years Ago We Were on the Moon

Several intelligent bloggers (such as the mysterious Al Fin) noticed that putting the rover on Mars seems less impressive when compared with say the Apollo program more than forty years ago, that put on the moon not only a jeep sized vehicle but people and they returned to Earth. Some even wrote that humanity could not repeat the feat since we are degenerating. I dismissed the idea but looking at the pic (circa 1970) it cannot be denied that we lost something. I may be confusing the loss of personal capabilities (as J gets older) with a general human decadence.May be human progress is cyclical and we are in a recess. Personal decadence is linear and ends when y=0

Lesson of Hungarian Jewish History

The Jews who survived WWII in Hungary like my parents tried to form families and renew normal life under the Stalinist regime. When children came, an existencial decision had to be made - to protect him/her from the violent antisemitic environment of Hungary by assimilating to the point of hiding from him everything related to Judaism and the Holocaust, so he will grow up and be a regular person with no knowledge of his terrible past. Or to aknowledge the family Jewishness and try to inculcate him some yiddishkeit that made antisemitism sufferable. My own parents leaned to the second decision but the Holocaust made them doubt aqnd they did not cut themselves totally from society and became Haredi.

Those that decided for hiding, and I think they were the majority, changed their family names and erased all link with the past. These families were faced with the problem that the children in school absorbed the virulent antisemitism of the environment and repeated at home what they absorbed in school and the street: "Pity Hitler did not kill all the Jews", or "We are going to beat that Rosenfeld jewboy tomorrow" and so. The parents, a few years back from Auschwitz, were absolutely horrorized by the little antisemite they had produced. Some adopted the fake antisemitism so to be like everybody, others became communists and said we are all equals including Jews, and a few waited till the boy became more mature and discovered alone his Jewish roots.

We have the case of Szegedi, the former leader of Jobbik, who never knew that his grandparents were sole survivors from Auschwitz and had no family left alive, and they had hidden their ethnic origin. They themselves became fake antisemites and let their children to grow up hating the Jews. They thought they were protecting them against an unconceivable horror, that cannot be told. Probably they suffered terribly from this double life. And then their talented grandchild joined the Antisemitic party Jobbik and became one of its national leaders. It must have been a torture for them but at this stage they had to intensify their effort to hide their past.

The lesson is that Szegedi was discovered as an ethnic Jew and he lost his position. Everybody despises him and he must be very alone and uneasy. The best for him would be to leave Hungary - not to Israel, because he knows nothing of Judaism and will not be well received. Judaism is an incurable disease, as used to say my late father. Better get used to it.

New Recruits

127 new young Jewish recruits arrived in a chartered plane this week from America. Apparently they dont worry about the pending wars.

Daughter learns new language in two weeks

My little daughter completed her basic training and came home. I dont understand a word of what she is saying, she speaks only the new lingo of Tzahal. "Zabashcha" was the keyword of my times ("ze ha baaya shelcha" - it is your problem, leave me alone, deal with it) but now they have invented a new foreign language. I feel such a "dafar namuch" (retarded) and outsider.

Moreover, she is trying to speak in judicial-accent (see her green beret and unit symbol). It is always good to have a lawyer in the family with connections in the Supreme Court.

War Cabinet

Another little noticed movement  towards war is the formation of a solid, unitary, experienced war team in the Israeli Government.  Echud Barak has the legendary leader of Sayeret Matkal, the top commando unit of  Zahal. Bibi Netaniyahu was his second in command. Now another member of the commando joins the war team: Avi Dichter. He will be in charge of homeland defense. Revealingly, Avi will be subordinated to Echud and not Bibi, the nominal chief. It is like among brothers, the big brother will be the big brother even at age 90.  This is a team of men in top physical and mental condition, with lifelong military experience, and proven in real life operations like landing in Beyrut (Barak in Arab drag) and killing some of the PLO commanders of that time. We have the best team to lead the war.

The pic is the commando freeing the passengers of a Sabena airplane kidnapped by terrorists. Echud is in the mechanic uniform. The bad mouths say that this is the only time the luxury loving minister was seen on a plane in the tourist class. Bibi and Avi must be around.

Man Made Famine?

The US Government Is Buying $170 Million Of Pork, Lamb, Chicken And Catfish. The government will buy up to $170 million of pork, lamb, chicken and catfish to help drought-stricken farmers, the White House said Monday as President Barack Obama brought his re-election campaign to rural voters in Iowa. (Source: Gary)

Drought creates a natural scarcity of food and higher prices. Food commodty prices are, in fact, rising. Why would then the US  Government buy up  scarce production and drive up prices even more?  And what will it do with the mountains of food it will buy - give it as  charitable food aid to Africa? 

Am I a Coal Mine Canary?

My distinct feeling of discouragement and pessimism these last days shows I am a canary in the Israel stock exchange coal mine. Today, the TASE fell hard across the board, despite a mixed session in European markets and on Wall Street. I am 4% poorer today than yesterday. All indicates we are weighting the suitable moment to strike Iran.

When Scotland was Jewish

I cant find the reference on the Rachelle gene cluster supposed to be shared by Scotts and Ashkenazis. What I found was this book, which I didnt read. In the Amazon site one commenter wrote: This book is a complete fabrication. Anyone with genuine Scottish ancestry would be appalled at the stupidity of the supposed genealogical and historical research. The DNA evidence is not evidence. It is a group of people with no clear understanding of who they are grasping at ideas and trying to make actual DNA proof fit their desired history and not the actual known history of Scotland or the borderlands. I question if these people even have any connection at all to either Scotland or Judaism.

My people are the Yidn, not the IQn.

I reproduce here an interchange of ideas on a question that is being asked by half of the six million Jews living here, included myself , and many in the USA: Should I live in Israel or in America?

***

K,

Israel has criminal Africans, too, so I've read. Even if they won't shoot you, there is no shortage of Palestinians who might blow up the bus you are riding or the pizza parlor in which your children are dining. Also, Israel is a small economy, much dependent on the economic health of its trading partners and the protection provided by the U.S. umbrella in the UN and other fora. If the U.S. declines, Israel's situation will be even more precarious than it is. It really is short-sighted of J to gloat over the possibility of the diaspora, particularly the U.S. diaspora, coming to an end.

The line of your family is not erased if your children marry non-Jews in that any products of such unions are genetically just as much your descendants regardless.

****

 Anonymous said...

And, K, in Israel, your children might marry Ethiopian or Yemeni Jews. Is that really better than marrying a gentile of European or East Asian ancestry? Certainly from the perspective of IQ it is not.

****

 Anonymous said...

My people are the Yidn, not the IQn.

Weekly Chapter

This week we study a question relevant to our times. Moses took out the Hebrews from the rich land of Goshen - the fertile delta of the Nile - and force-marched them forty years in the desert to the promised land. Just before crossing the river jordan and entering the land, the tribe of Gad and half tribe of Reuben had taken possession of Transjordan known in our days as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. They felt well there, their sheep felt well there and had no desire to  move into the mountainous Shomron. But they had a large experience with Moses who had pitylessly exterminated all the clans that had dared to vaguely mention a possibility of may be abandoning that crazy expedition.

So the heads of the tribes of Gad and half Reuben hired the best lawyers and presented their case to Moses with extreme care: First of all, Sir, we are NOT deserting and we will fight with rest of the tribes till the last of them has received its portion. Having settled that point, they went on: We know dear Mr Moses that you did not took us from the fantastically rich land of Goshen to bring us to this miserable steppe with the idea of improving our economic position, which lets remind you, was superb among the goyim. You took us with the purpose of reformatting our minds, to delete our slave mentality and to turn us into a free fighting nation. Moyshe, gib-a-kick, and see that already we the Gaddites are a free fighting people, we keep the Shabbath and pay the God-ordered 10% income tax to your brother Aaron and his priestly family, may be we could even increase our yearly contributions ... and will do it forever ...    if only that not exactly from the geographical area you call eretz yisruel but somewhere on the other side of the water - river or ocean or whatever.

It seems Moses (and God) agreed, because the Bible records no subsequent wholesale slaughter, except of course of the aboriginals.

Questions to Prof. Y.Dinstein

The former president of tel aviv university, prof yoram dinstein, is Israel's foremost expert in international law. Planting the American flag on the moon (pic) means that America took legal possession of the satellite and so, according to international law, it is legally owned by the USA? Now, when the armed Curiosity is rambling around on planet mars, did the USA take informal possession of the place? I havent seen any American flag on the Curiosity, but actual occupation is 99% of legal ownership, is it?

Dr Koster's Antigas Pills

Taking a respite from my exam-writing torture and my worries (my little girl "is closing the Shabbath" in the South, her unit is in charge of security during the weekend, and she is preparing for patrolling and guarding all night) I found a paragraph in a book on the Battle of the Bulge (see scan), Hitler was taking Dr Koster's Antigas Pills - wait a minute! I remember well Dr Koster's books in my infancy! His books on sexual deviations and malfunctions were the sensation of my school colleges! That was the era when porn was to look up "uterus" in the encyclopedia.And I know who the famous and popular Dr Koster was: He was Arthur Koestler, who made his own and his cousin's fortune writing these books and medical products while (a) being a famous science journalist in the Uhlmann Journal Corporation and (b) being an active  secret Comintern agent. (Not much before he had been a right wing Zionist leader in Palestine and a friend of Jabotinsky).  Koestler in his autobiography reveals in a few words the identity of the famous pornographer and goes on writing that his confession is incomplete (he never talks about his own sexual activity) because he visualizes her mother reading the book. As for Dr Morell, Hitler's personal doctor, he was another quack doctor, and if I live long enough, I may discover that his real identity was a Hungarian Jewish tailor... Who else would prescribe Dr Koster Antigas Pills? That was the intellectual environment in which Hitler developed and lived.

Culinary Masterpiece

A refined restaurant critic's review: "The surprises continued, with mixed onions in a chilled pine infusion... The balance and depth of the flavors were breathtaking."

Yes,  with all that onion I can imagine that your date asked you dont to breath on him. 

Galgenhumor

Not that we have much to laugh these days - Syria is falling apart into ethnic cantons while Turkey has "liberated" a border area growing into a protectorate. But we have Sara Netaniyahu, a forceful psychologist currently being sued by the cleaning lady for physical punishment.

Fundamentalism

I am writing exam questions for professional plumbers and water industry technicians. I receive a matrix of subjects which I must develope. The subjects were only remotely related to the actual work done by plumbers and water people, like PV systems and electromagnetic inductance. I am used to satisfy stupid requests by the bureaucrats I deal with, so I did my best. But one of the subjects in the matrix was "mayim gluyim" - uncovered water. I'm forty years in the water business in Israel and never heard of the concept. So I googled it in Hebrew. Hundreds of kabbalistic and talmudic sites came up and not even one technical site. Obviously, a fundamentalist Jew wrote the exam matrix and not a person remotely connected with technical work of the future licenced plumbers. (For those interested in what is "mayim gluyim" it refers to a kabbalistic prohibition of drinking water left uncovered during the night, because an evil spirit or a bad animal (like a poisonous serpent) may have drunk of it. In case of the serpent, he may have left his poison in the water, causing some illness to the person. For that reason, water must be left during the night in a closed or covered container.) Many sites debated different aspect of the problem: if one may have a glass of water on the bedside table? If the "uncovered water" prohibition also applies to food left on the table? and so on.  Although I am a (more or less) religious Jew, I protested about including the issue in the plumber certification exam, so I am now expecting my dismissal.  "Cosas veredes Sancho..." as the Spanish saying goes.

Koko's Theory Illustrated

Bruder Caterpillar Excavator Toy Model.

10$.

The Shade of the Future

This is the Shade of the Laser-Ray Armed Robotic arm of the atomic vehicle that the USA just landed on planet Mars.

Meditate on its meaning.

Editorial

The recent complaints by Meretz and Peace Now regarding incitement against the illegal aliens flooding into Israel highlight how the international left has abandoned its own founding principles and become the foe of those it was supposed to protect; namely, the weaker segments of society and the laboring masses.Leftist parties worldwide have become the champions of large-scale Third-World immigration of both the legal and illegal variety. Whether the country in question be Israel, Sweden or Ireland, the rhetoric is always geared towards emphasizing bigotry in the host society as opposed to the suffering of the native poor and the working classes who must bear the brunt of the foreign influx. (From Arnold)

HBD-Chick is Starting to Get It

There is going on a debate on Ron Unz's recent note on Mexican Americans. As an Israeli Jew I avoid having opinions on the goyim because I'm afraid of gratiously offending good people. And I am aware of my biases; actually, I like Mexican people and their culture. 

I only want to comment on an insight of HBD-chick that most readers will not even notice. In her furious reply to Ron Unz, serendipiously she put her foot on something that I had never seen mentioned: 

"...there hasn’t been a "negligible" genetic change in ireland since 1972. there’s been an additon of something like 1.4 million individuals in two-and-a-half generations (ca. a 35% increase in the population)."

I'd like to add that IQ studies are done mostly within captive frameworks (specially schools) -  the populations measured are YOUNG. And children are not produced uniformly by all the population, but always by a self-selected quasi-minority. The chickperson says that France has about 20% non-ethnic-French population, which may affect the French average IQ. But in the school age groups - where most measurements are done - the proportion may be vastly larger. And the contribution of the above average French to the schoolchildren population may be (no, it is) disproportionally low, even minimal. 

What I am trying to emphatise is that genetic change not only in Ireland but everywhere is not negligible at all. It is proceeding at an accelerated rate. This invisible genetic change viciates (makes irreliable) all IQ comparisons that are not contemporary - that is, it is extremely difficult to compare Irish schoolchildren's IQ in 1972 with Irish schoolchildren forty years later (more than two generations). Peoples with (or apparently no) demographic changes are undergoing dramatic population genetics changes. Jewish IQ in pre-war schtetl populations was surely very different from anything measured today in the US or in Israel Ashkenazi populations. Heterogeneous peoples (and we all are in this or that sense) with differential reproduction rates for different sectors cannot be compared even at one generation distance. I am old enough to have noticed personally this phenomenon (pic). The best of my generation is almost unrepresented in the current school population. Venerable Americans are also vaguely noticing that the school grounds are different from what they used to be in their times. 

This is serious shit and I am happy that the chickperson was so provoked that instead of ignoring the shit fact under her foot, as polite WASPs do, she picked it up and threw it against Ron Unz, whom I declare an  unperson for supporting a gusano I dont like. 

What is Happiness?

My daughter, from the army: "Happiness is to sleep at the end of the day on home bed sheets."

Understanding Nochi Dankner

The Breviary of Dennis Mangan links to a Prof. Spellman's article. Spellman illustrates the extreme the current bond mania has reached and concludes that an "unexpected inflation" event is being set up. Spellman speaks in macroeconomics, while my mind operates at the level of my own small pond. Getting unlinked debt and investing in real assets is what Nochi is doing, and may make it big if he lasts.

Greetings to Dennis Mangan

Dennis Mangan (the avatar is how he wants us to see him), has stopped his public blogging. I presume that he, like others before him (ex. Daniel Dreizer), is finding that voicing (any) opinion in public hurts one's career or job. Blogs are useful only as public relations. My own initial intention was to promote my water consulting, but business is booming without or in spite the blog, and then, which Jew that can keep his opinions to himself?  Stopping talking about myself (not easy :-) and back to Dennis, his civilized, generous, extremely intelligent and cultured notes will be missed. People like him makes one feel less solitary within oneself.

People I dont like

In the most unexpected way, in the intelligent Western Hunter blog,  in the "Data?..." entry, I got to  read the Unz Fundation tax submission  and its 3000 dollar grant to Norman Finkelstein, a Jew I dislike. He spent thirty years in the academy throwing dirt on Israel and some suspect, collaborating with its enemies. Lately he has announced that he is giving up Israel-bashing, because it is spent cause, Israel has been thoroughly discredited (by whom? by Jews like him).  "Nobody really defends Israel anymore," he said. "If you go on college campuses, there are some Hillel faithfuls who are bringing an IDF soldier to try to explain that not all IDF soldiers are war criminals. And among the 60 to 100 people in the audience, there are Palestinian supporters who come with tape over their mouth, and when the soldier starts to speak, many people stand up and walk out. They've lost the battle for public opinion."


People like Finkelstein and Israel Shahak are "mosrim",  the traditional disgrace of the Jewish people. Any healthy human community has a self-policing agency, except modern Jews. 


Reading the tax declaration one can see donations to Greg Cochran, Steve Sailer, Rajib Khan and other HBD internet crowd. I read them and that is the reason I find it so amazing that they are in the same page with Finkelstein. Interest in IQ diferences between races and "Human Biodiversity" is not their common denominator. If not that, then what? Could it be the hate of Jews?  Paranoia is my forte, so I may say something stupid and unfair.

Nightmare

Usually Shabbat mornings are quiet but this morning I had the usual nightmare: I was living in a rented room in a student "pension" in a riverside town in Ecuador, when one morning the owner woman cleaned out my room because I was not studying. My belongings had been stored and all the dollar rolls hidden in them - disappeared. I said I was calling the police, but they showed me rolls of strange illegal currency they had planted instead. I felt impotent. The other students in the "pension" were partying with girls and laughing at me.

The road not taken, yet.

A serious proposal of inflating away debts, by Menzie Chinn, honestly proposes expropiation as preferible to negotiating the rolling over of the debt because of the length and cost of that negotiation. In a modest way I am betting that the only solution to the current crisis is a biblical debt jubilee, forgiving all debts and freeing all the slaves, that is - expropiating the owner and creditor class. But the owner class is powerful, so they may accept the jubilee only if mandated by God himself from the top of Mount Horeb.

Kurds Raising

Iraqi Kurdistan President Barzani is training Syrian Kurds to defend their de facto enclave in Syria. Assad forces have retreated from Syrian Kurdistan. The "liberated cities" ara now being "jointly ruled" by a Supreme Kurdish Body. Turkey has a rebellion coalescing in its Eastern mountains. I imagine Assad has moved its chemicals to the Alawi homeland. Syria is slowly dividing itself in ethnic cantons, like Iraq. Fragmentation is good for us.

Ketzele Speaks

“Seven years after the disengagement, when 10,000 Jews were expelled from 28 communities in Gaza, today we have over 700,000 Jews living beyond the Green Line – in east Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria and in the Golan Heights,” said Katz. “This means that over 14% of the Jewish population in Israel today lives beyond the Green Line,” he noted, adding that the population grows by six percent every year. “In four to five years we will have over one million people, in ten years we’ll have 1.3 million and in 20 years we’ll have two million Jews living beyond the Green Line,” said Katz, adding, “We want to thank all the Jewish people who made aliyah and who live in Israel today for standing behind us for so many years.”

Reassessment

This week the Rav Elyashiv, the most salient of Litwak rabbis, died at age 102. The ages achieved by those sages and my relatives are astonishing. I should reassess my plan for the rest of my life, since it may last longer than I expected. Not only the Chassidic miracle rabbis have myths. Here is one of Elyashiv: "On the day after his wedding, Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv asked his wife if she would allow him to postpone some of the errands he had to perform so that he can study Torah undisturbed. Having understood that her husband wanted to begin his married life with the proper spiritual growth, she readily and happily complied. "For how long?" she asked. "One thousand days," was his response."