I Dream Awake

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“Summation of every Jewish holiday: they tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat.”

Karol @ Alarming News

Insta linked the Fox News video Alex KP did about the drinking age. Very favorably, in fact:

…the Federal government should get out of the business of trying to regulate state drinking ages, a subject of no legitimate federal concern whatsoever. it’s also telling that MADD wouldn’t even appear on camera to argue the other side.

Glenn Reynolds, Seven States Thinking of Lowering Drinking Age

Just finished The Man Who Loved Only Numbers by Paul Hoffman. It was fantastic. Emotional and stimulating, difficult and easy to read… both in the right ways. Part biography of Paul Erdös, part introduction to the mathematics he did so much of. Very much worth the all too short read.

…return to first principles:

And it came to pass that the great Rebbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, Master of the Good Name, known for his powers in heaven as well as on earth, decided to try once more to force his Creator’s hand.

He had tried many times before—and failed. Burning with impatience, he wanted to end the ordeals of exile forcibly; and this time he was but one step away from success. The gates were ajar; the Messiah was about to appear and console the children and old men awaiting him, awaiting no one else but him. The Diaspora had lasted long enough; now men everywhere would gather and rejoice.

The heavens were in an uproar. The angels were dancing. Red with anger, outraged, Satan demanded an audience with God. Brought before Him, he protested, invoking laws and precedents, history and reason. Look at man’s impudence, he said, how dare he take things in his own hands? Does the world deserve redemption? And the conditions to warrant the Messiah’s coming, have they been met?

God listened. And had to recognize the validity of Satan’s arguments: Lo ikhshar dara, the Rebbe’s gesture was judged premature; his generation was not yet ready for a miracle of such magnitude. Moreover, since the order of creation may not be disturbed with impunity, he and his faithful scribe Reb Tzvi-Hersh Soifer were deported to a distant uncharted island. Where they were promptly taken prisoners by a band of pirates.

Never has the Master been so submissive, so resigned.

“Master,” the scribe pleaded, “do something, say something!”

“I can’t,” said the Baal Shem Tov, “my powers are gone.”

“What about your secret knowledge, your divine gifts: your yikhuddim? What happened to them?”

“Forgotten,” said the Master. “Disappeared, vanished. All my knowledge has been taken away; I remember nothing.”

But when he saw Hersh Soifer’s despair, he was moved to pity. “Don’t give up,” he said, “we still have one chance. You are here, and that is good. For you can save us. There must be one thing I taught you that you remember. Anything—a parable, a prayer. Anything will do.”

Unfortunately, the scribe too had forgotten everything. Like his Master, he was a man without memory.

“You really remember nothing,” the Master asked again, “nothing at all?”

“Nothing, Master. Except…”

“…except what?”

“…the aleph, beith.”

“Then what are you waiting for?” Shouted the Master, suddenly excited. “Start reciting! Right now!”

Obedient as always, the scribe proceeded to recite slowly, painfully, the first of the sacred letters which together contain all of the mysteries of the entire universe: “Aleph, beith, gimmel, daleth…”

And the Master, impatiently, repeated after him: “Aleph, beith, gimmel, daleth…”

Then they started all over again, from the beginning. And their voices became stronger and clearer: aleph, beith, gimmel, daleth… until the Baal Shem became so entranced that he forgot who and where he was. When the Baal Shem was in such ecstacy, nothing could resist him, that is well known. Oblivious to the world, he transcended the laws of time and geography. He broke the chains and revoked the curse: Master and scribe found themselves back home, unharmed, richer, wiser and more nostalgic than ever before.

The Messiah had not come.

Souls on Fire, by Elie Wiesel.

In fact, there’s more than one… First off, at least this year, we have the start of Passover. While that alone would be plenty good for most days’ claim to holiday fame, 4.19 isn’t content to leave it at that. No, this day is ambitious. A young upward mover. A from the bootstraps striver… Ok, I’m getting too into this. I blame Coming Anarchy. See, it turns out today is also Primrose Day:

Today is Primrose Day in the United Kingdom, an uncelebrated memorial day marking the death of former Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, Britain’s only Jewish head of government…

But that’s not all… 4.19 is also Patriots Day:

Patriots Day may be the least known American holiday, and the day most deserving of our recognition. Observed in Massachusetts and Maine only. Don’t know it? It marks the day, April 19, 1775, on which Americans took up arms against their king, and bled, at the crack of terrible dawn.

And of course, for a certain group of people, the most important holiday of all those marked today is the widely celebrated (if accompanied by a slight whiff of illegality) 420-eve.

As Jimmy Carter plans to meet with Hamas, this Hamas MP explains that it is an Islamic imperative to subjugate the world “thorough da’wa and military conquests.”

As the EU President insists that there is no link between Islam and terrorism, this Islamic cleric explains that the conquests he dreams of are “Islamic,” and that Muslims need to be prepared to carry out these conquests “by means of the mosques and the Koran books, and the history of our Prophets.”

Has the world ever before witnessed cognitive dissonance on this grand a scale?

Islamic cleric: We will conquer Rome, and then Eastern Europe and the Americas

It’s all just a big misunderstanding, right Jimmy?

This one by way of FFFFound and Shorpy.com:

Related: Japanese and Russian war tubas from Coming Anarchy.

Well, that’s what Candace Lightner (founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving) said about every member of our Armed Forces under 21 on The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet this past Monday. It was the most insulting, cowardly, and despicable thing she spit out during the show… And believe me, there were quite a few candidates for that honor.

At least she’s being honest about how she feels, and what kind of government enforced infantilist America she wants us all to live in. What a surprise someone with such an advanced, well-developed brain could have no functional understanding at all of what tact means… or YouTube for that matter.

Update: Radar isfirst to the presses with this punchy but spot on write up:

Koroknay-Palicz said U.S. soldiers between the ages of 18 and 21 should have the legal right to drink a beer, which seems more than reasonable considering that they might, you know, die at any moment. (You need to unwind after your day at work?) But Lightner was disgusted that our fighting men and women would have the audacity to imbibe. She ranted that 18-year-olds haven’t “developed, and that’s exactly why the draft age is 18, because these kids are malleable.” She added: “They will follow the leader, they don’t think for themselves, and they are the last ones I want to say, ‘Here’s a gun, and here’s a beer.’ They are not adult—that’s why they’re in the military. They are not adults.”

There ya have it: Thanks for protecting us at home and abroad, ya mindless juvenile killing machines. No drinky for you!

And for blog reaction, Age of Reason has a good post:

MADD, and Lightner herself, have been making us think for years that teenagers are deliberately irresponsible with alcohol and that, if given the freedom to drink, would disregard the sensibilities imparted upon them and use the freedom recklessly. Now we are to believe that people under 21 will, in fact, do whatever they are told? In typical fashion, NYRA’s opponents are having us believe that teenagers are at once rebellious and malleable, at once recklessly independent and firmly under the thumbs of their parents and elders.

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Stumble Upon showed off a new feature recently that I’m liking quite a bit. Now all of the “favorites” I post there can be displayed in a grid view. Here are my most recent ones: