I often think about this: how awesome would it be if the state of Israel had been established in Europe instead of the shitty middle east? Practicality aside - very fucking awesome. For one, all the best Jews are Ashkenazi, right? haha
With the creation of the modern state of Israel, I feel like Jews tried to create a whole new culture and a new identity, namely the pioneering, manly kibbutznik. Jews (Israelis) then had to forge an identity with MORE bloodshed, i.e. the war for independence. Israel's short history has been defined by constant warfare. Basically what I don't comprehend is the leap from intellectual, assimilated yid to a pugnacious, modern Maccabe.
I am just wary of trying to recreate something that existed a long time ago and bring it into modernity.
Maybe this is why I like America so much. In the US, I feel like you aren't really anything. "American" isn't an ethnicity (unless you're a Cree or something), so you mostly identify with your actual ethnicity: Jewish, Italian, Cherokee, Filipino, etc. I just want to be a Jew and have it left at that.
6/28/09
6/26/09
An Anti-semite That I Like
I think individual people have more mixed feelings about Richard Nixon than about any other person ever. Relationships with him top the love/hate charts. I, personally, think he did both brilliant things and stupid things as president. And maybe even things that were both brilliant AND stupid. His administration supported Israel during dire events (the Yom Kippur war) but Nixon was kind of a dick to Jews. When Kissinger was late to meetings, Tricky Dick would say stuff like, "you Jews are always late". Well, the New Times recently ran this article about how some new tapes were released which recorded Nixon talking about various things, like abortion (also racist), Watergate and the Jews.
From the article:
He also says that America is the Jews' only friend.
6/20/09
The Inglorious Quentin Tarantino
I'm not sure what to think about QT's new film, Inglourious Basterds (preview here). Tarantino's known for shifting rapidly between humor and seriousness, and incorporating hardcore violence, obviously. All of that appeals to me, as I have seen most his films and enjoyed them immensely. But, I don't know if I'll be able to take the joke in this film, which will probably take lots of liberties with an obscure historical event.
I'm critical of the hillybilly CO (what's his motivation?), played by Brad Pitt, who leads the titular group of Jews who have basically been rendereed into Nazis themselves because they're clouded with hate (and hate leads to the darkside, yada yada yada). So ties can be drawn to Spielberg's Munich and the whole "they killed Jews, we must avenge" mantra. The difference with Basterds is that the Nazi killing unit serves valid military purposes, i.e. spreading fear, disrupting shit. I can't remember if Munich had the interviews of the murdered Olympians' families saying how they didn't want the Mossad killing all those Arabs. But I'm sure contemporaneous Jews would have been all about killing some Nazis.
The film will probably be awesome. I know I can't wait, whatever my reactions will be.
6/15/09
Sexy Jewess
I've been watching True Blood (which fucking rules) and you get to see nearly all of the sexy Lizzy Caplan. You may know her as Janis Ian from Mean Girls (which also rules) and that one girl that gets bitten and explodes in Cloverfield.
6/12/09
Meshuggah
The news has been flooded with this lately. Some crazy, old neo-Nazi shot a guard at the Holocaust museum in DC.
The dude was EIGHTY NINE. Wow. What a dedicated anti-semite! It's kind of hilarious, in my opinion. I am glad, though, that this wasn't any kind of organized effort by young and spry aryans.
The most interesting debate that this event fosters is this: Obama takes office, and suddenly all these crazy right-wingers come out of the woodwork. George Tiller was murdered and now we have another nutcase who makes me feel bad for supporting Ron Paul. People have posited, on sites like Jezebel (which the gf frequents), that in order to make up for the annulment of Bush's crusade in the middle east, right-wingers have to compensate by quelling threats on the homefront. OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration on my part, but it's pretty much an accurate observation. Why weren't liberals going crazy and murdering folks during Bush's regime?
One poster on Jezebel makes this great observation:
"Given the current political and economic situation - a Black president, Democrats in office across the board, financial conditions in which people (even white men, gasp) are losing their jobs - this rash of violence, from Roeder to Adkisson and now this, seems like an intensified version of what happens when people have their privilege challenged. These fuckers are white, male, extremist Christian conservatives, who are seeing the status quo they feel entitled to get destabilized."
Word.
And this op-ed in the NY Times elucidates more on the crazy right-wingers who are coming out of the closet.
The dude was EIGHTY NINE. Wow. What a dedicated anti-semite! It's kind of hilarious, in my opinion. I am glad, though, that this wasn't any kind of organized effort by young and spry aryans.
The most interesting debate that this event fosters is this: Obama takes office, and suddenly all these crazy right-wingers come out of the woodwork. George Tiller was murdered and now we have another nutcase who makes me feel bad for supporting Ron Paul. People have posited, on sites like Jezebel (which the gf frequents), that in order to make up for the annulment of Bush's crusade in the middle east, right-wingers have to compensate by quelling threats on the homefront. OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration on my part, but it's pretty much an accurate observation. Why weren't liberals going crazy and murdering folks during Bush's regime?
One poster on Jezebel makes this great observation:
"Given the current political and economic situation - a Black president, Democrats in office across the board, financial conditions in which people (even white men, gasp) are losing their jobs - this rash of violence, from Roeder to Adkisson and now this, seems like an intensified version of what happens when people have their privilege challenged. These fuckers are white, male, extremist Christian conservatives, who are seeing the status quo they feel entitled to get destabilized."
Word.
And this op-ed in the NY Times elucidates more on the crazy right-wingers who are coming out of the closet.
6/4/09
Der Untergang
Watching Downfall again. I love this movie so much.
This is why it's so great: Yeah, Hitler murdered millions of people, a large percentage of which were Jews. But the crimes he committed against the German People themselves (the brainwashing, the jingoism) are despicable as well.
The film sort of follows Hitler's secretary, Traudl Junge, from her hiring in 1942 to her escape from besieged Berlin in 1945. At one point, during a Russian artillery bombardment, she laments how surreal her life is and how she wishes she could wake up from this nightmare. Obviously, the camps were more nightmarish, and I cannot compare Traudl's worries to those of emaciated Jews. But still.
The candid exploration of post WWII German guilt in this film is terrifying. Children soldiers committing "honorable" suicide, Goebbels and his wife murder their six children with cyanide pills, Hitler, the vegetarian, euthanizes his beautiful dog. I'm reminded of one of my favorite German writers, Heinrich Böll, who was dubbed an author "of the rubble," who himself fought in the war and whose characters deal with the shame of rabid Nazi parents and a sister killed at the hands of the Wehrmacht.
The only thing this film is missing and would make it complete is a scene where Hitler shoots up amphetamines. It would help viewers more fully comprehend his psychoticness. The actor does a fantastic job, though, with violent outbursts and shaking hands. We witness the conqueror of Europe, the largest threat to the Jewish people in all of history, as a powerless, sad man, wrought by delusions. We witness him as a human being.
Also exploring this theme, and highly recommended, is Sophie Scholl, which is about domestic opposition to the Nazis. At the end of Der Untergang, the real Traudl is interviewed and she mentions how Sophie Scholl was born the same year as she and was murdered around the time Traudl started working for Hitler.
This is why it's so great: Yeah, Hitler murdered millions of people, a large percentage of which were Jews. But the crimes he committed against the German People themselves (the brainwashing, the jingoism) are despicable as well.
The film sort of follows Hitler's secretary, Traudl Junge, from her hiring in 1942 to her escape from besieged Berlin in 1945. At one point, during a Russian artillery bombardment, she laments how surreal her life is and how she wishes she could wake up from this nightmare. Obviously, the camps were more nightmarish, and I cannot compare Traudl's worries to those of emaciated Jews. But still.
The candid exploration of post WWII German guilt in this film is terrifying. Children soldiers committing "honorable" suicide, Goebbels and his wife murder their six children with cyanide pills, Hitler, the vegetarian, euthanizes his beautiful dog. I'm reminded of one of my favorite German writers, Heinrich Böll, who was dubbed an author "of the rubble," who himself fought in the war and whose characters deal with the shame of rabid Nazi parents and a sister killed at the hands of the Wehrmacht.
The only thing this film is missing and would make it complete is a scene where Hitler shoots up amphetamines. It would help viewers more fully comprehend his psychoticness. The actor does a fantastic job, though, with violent outbursts and shaking hands. We witness the conqueror of Europe, the largest threat to the Jewish people in all of history, as a powerless, sad man, wrought by delusions. We witness him as a human being.
Also exploring this theme, and highly recommended, is Sophie Scholl, which is about domestic opposition to the Nazis. At the end of Der Untergang, the real Traudl is interviewed and she mentions how Sophie Scholl was born the same year as she and was murdered around the time Traudl started working for Hitler.
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