Is He An Anti-Semite Yet?

I've refrained from posting anything about this story until now because I was skeptical of its veracity at first. The story has since whirled all day around the blogosphere, at least the part that won't ignore anti-Semitism from the left, and it looks like it's sadly true.

This morning, It Shines For All, the New York Sun newspaper's blog, reported that, in 1987, Jimmy Carter interceded on behalf of a Nazi SS guard whom the United States was about to deport. The deportee, Martin Bartesch, had admitted to the Justice Department that he had not only served in the SS Death Squad but had volunteered for duty. There was also documented corroboration that Bartesch murdered innocent Jews in the Mauthausen death camp.

After the deportation, Carter received a letter from Bartesch's family complaining about the inhumanity of the former Nazi having to leave his family and adopted country. Carter forwarded the letter to the Justice Department with his own handwritten note asking for "'special consideration for the family for humanitarian reasons." The letter, with the Sun's logo imprinted well after the fact, is here:

The family had approached various members of Congress and other dignitaries asking for assistance. All refrained from helping once they learned from the Justice Department the reasons for Bartesch's deportation. Calls to the Carter Center for an explanation or denial have gone unanswered.

The mainstream media isn't giving this story much coverage yet, and I'm not holding my breath that they will, but this is a story that should not go unnoticed. Carter has shown once and again his disdain for the Jewish people. This most recent revelation is nearly twenty years old yet it speaks volumes about the person that Jimmy Carter is. He advocated for the freedom of an admitted Nazi killer, someone who willingly and actively participated in the Holocaust, merely because it would affect the murderer's family. Some might excuse Carter's intercession for Bartesch as stemming from naivete and sympathy. It doesn't wash. The letter to Carter very clearly indicated that Bartesch was on the "Nazi Watch List." Only a total and conscious disregard for the atrocity that was the Holocaust can explain Carter's failure to preform some due diligence before giving Bartesch's family priority over justice.

That's Master Fifth Grader To You

School children need to experience a day or two as slaves so they'll know that involuntary servitude is a bad thing. At least that was the idea four years ago, when a teacher in Clarksville, Tennessee, inserted a role playing exercise into her curriculum about the Civil War. According to this article, the teacher had half the students act as slaves for a day while the other half acted as masters. The teacher then switched every child's role the next day, thus assuring that every child enjoyed the full experience.

Alas, the project has come to an end, and not for reasons that you would suspect. The sensible assumption is that some parents complained about the trauma their children endured. What caused the project's demise though was one student who let the project go to her head and refused to do a math assignment, telling her black teacher that she was a "master." If only I knew when I was ten that could bring a halt to my schoolwork by invoking God's name and then burying another person in the desert.

Speaking For The Dead

Yesterday the nation observed Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. Most people who "honored" King did so by using the day off work to run errands, shop, see a movie or whatnot. Others took the opportunity to pontificate on current political issues by not just guessing but instead confidently stating that, if he were still alive today, King would hold certain opinions, usually those that the speakers themselves have. It is downright arrogant as well as disrespectful.

For example, Congressman John Lewis of Georgia wrote at the Huffington Post that King would demand that we "bring our troops home. He would say that war is an obsolete, ineffective tool of our foreign policy." Hatemonger's Quarterly, a humorous, conservative blog offers the following retort:

Oh, how lame is this? It’s another example of that most common of MLK rhetorical tropes: If Dr. King Were Alive Today, He’d Think Exactly As I Do. Yes, yes, yes: Dr. King would oppose the Iraq War. He’d be upset about NSA wiretapping. He’d be angry at the National Rifle Association. Blah, blah, blah.

Can’t we all just say that we don’t know what Dr. King would think about the vicissitudes of modern politics? To be sure, he was admirably opposed to violent means to carry forward the noble cause of Civil Rights. But does this imply that Dr. King would oppose all state military actions under all circumstances? Tell us, Rep. Lewis: Would Dr. King oppose the use of force to stop the genocide in Darfur?

Why don’t you just admit you have no idea what Martin Luther King Jr. would say about ambiguous political questions. And stop using a great Civil Rights leader as a bludgeon for your ideology.

I'll take HQ's questions one step further. Does Rep. Lewis himself advocate the use of force to stop the genocide of Darfur? According to his own website, yes he does. One of the demands that Rep. Lewis made just last year regarding the ongoing Darfur atrocity is: "UN Peacekeepers – A Chapter 7 UN peacekeeping mission to assist the African Union Mission."

Someone should explain to Rep. Lewis that United Nations peacekeeping operations serve as enforcement of post-conflict agreements. Besides needing someone to use force to end the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Rep. Lewis might be surprised to learn that the "peacekeepers" use force in order to do their jobs.

Mohammed The Knife

Tomorrow, Mohammed Ghanem will be sentenced in the Wayne County Circuit Court, or Recorder's Court as we old-timers call it. Ghanem's crime, of which a jury of twelve infidels found him guilty, was carrying a concealed weapon. To be more specific, Metro Airport security arrested Ghanem for carrying a knife past security, in the carved-out section of an address book in his luggage. Also in the address book were handwritten notes about jihad actions that would be newsworthy. Oh, yeah, one more thing. Ghanem was about to board a flight for Yemen with a one-way ticket.

As any fair minded American, you must be assuming that Ghanem had an adequate explanation. Well, you assumed correctly. You see, Ghanem has absolutely no idea that the knife was there or who planted it. It makes perfect sense to me.

UPDATE (1/16/07): Ghanem received a sentence of one year in the Wayne County Jail with credit for 131 days in jail. A Michigan law allows an inmate with a sentence of one year or less to petition for a 25% reduction of his sentence. If the judge grants the request, Ghanem has another four months or so to serve. It's not certain whether Ghanem will face deportation.

My New Favorite Commercial

Noah Daddy and O's Fan know why.

Not Tropic Of Cancer?

Man pays library $171, 47-year late fee

Twisting By The Pool

Okay, we didn't do much twisting by the pool. It was more like sitting by the pool. The former is just the title of a Dire Straits song I like. A few items of note:

-A kid asked if he could pet my shark. Get your minds out of the gutter. I was holding a large, inflatable shark for Mrs. Zwicker's sister's boyfriend's son.

-At Shabbat lunch, the shark petter's father, Ron, and another guy approached each other right near our table and said how each looked familiar to the other. Ron asked the other guy where he lived. The other guy answered, "In the city." After an awkward pause, the other guy explained that he lived in Manhattan. Boy, what a doofus Ron is. He clearly doesn't realize that New York is The City, to the exclusion of all others.

-I used to think that nothing could be more lame than "Cherish" by Kool and the Gang. I was wrong. "Cherish" by some Mexican poolside bar band is even lamer.

-Even in Spanish, Austin Powers is still hilarious.

-Not being Christian, I find that Christmas songs and lights just seem wrong when it's 85 degrees.

-There was plenty of fish ceviche. As the AP's know well, the two words rhyme with each other.

-This past Monday night, I lamented missing MNFBBQ. I made a point to eat a hamburger while my compatriots were doing the same in Michigan. I decided to make a bold improvisation and use guacamole dip instead of ketchup. I highly recommend it. Little did I know that I was missing possibly the worst MNFBBQ meeting ever.

Hasta La Vista Baby

Attention, all faithful Zlog readers. Do not despair over the lack of postings by yours truly over the next two weeks or so. After celebrating Hanukkah and Festivus at the parents' house tonight and tomorrow, Mrs. Zwicker and I will be flying to Michael Vick Country for some R&R. We'll spend the first few days with the in-laws until they leave, after which Mrs. Zwicker will spend our last vacation for just the two of us for the next number of years. Try to survive without me.

In Your Face

As I wrote in my previous post, former President Jimmy Carter has refused Brandeis University's invitation to its campus to debate Alan Dershowitz. In an op-ed in today's Boston Globe, Dershowitz goes on the offensive. Dershowitz rebuts Carter's claims that Dershowitz is ignorant on the subject. Dershowitz also corrects Carter's feeble complaints that criticisms are coming only from Jews. More importantly, Dershowitz dismantles Carter's claims of objectivity:

Nor is Carter the unbiased observer of the Middle East that he claims to be. He has accepted money and an award from Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan , saying in 2001: "This award has special significance for me because it is named for my personal friend, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan." This is the same Zayed, the long-time ruler of the United Arab Emirates, whose $2.5 million gift to the Harvard Divinity School was returned in 2004 due to Zayed's rampant Jew-hatred. Zayed's personal foundation, the Zayed Center, claims that it was Zionists, rather than Nazis, who "were the people who killed the Jews in Europe" during the Holocaust. It has held lectures on the blood libel and conspiracy theories about Jews and America perpetrating Sept. 11. Carter's acceptance of money from this biased group casts real doubt on his objectivity and creates an obvious conflict of interest.

Dershowitz ends the excellent piece, the whole of which I recommend reading, with this gem:

What most rankles is Carter's insistence that he is somehow brave for attacking Israel and highlighting the plight of the Palestinian people. No other conflict in the world -- not even the genocides in Rwanda and Sudan -- evokes more hand-wringing in the media, universities, and human rights organizations than the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Jimmy Carter isn't brave for beating up on Israel. He's a bully. And like all school-yard bullies, underneath the tough talk and bravado, there's a nagging insecurity and a fear that one day he'll have to answer for himself in a fair fight.

When Jimmy Carter's ready to speak at Brandeis, or anywhere else, I'll be there. If he refuses to debate, I will still be there -- ready and willing to answer falsity with truth in the court of public opinion.

Keep Digging That Hole, Jimmy

For someone who has been opining on the Israel-Palestinian conflict so much over the past few years, former President Jimmy Carter seems to have avoided his homework and not read much on the subject. In response to allegations that he plagiarized materials from a book by Dennis Ross, Carter responded recently that was impossible since he had never read Ross' book. Such a defense is flabbergasting. Ross was the United States' lead negotiator in the conflict during the Clinton administration. In other words, there is probably no non-Israeli or non-Palestinian who is more intimately familiar with the "peace process" than Ross. According to Carter though, it wasn't worth it to read Ross' accounts of the process.

Carter apparently has also not read Alan Dershowitz's The Case For Israel. That book is as comprehensive a take-down as there is of the Palestinians' claims against Israel. Yet, in refusing Brandeis University's recent invitation to Carter to debate Dershowitz, the former said, "There is no need ... to debate somebody who, in my opinion, knows nothing about the situation in Palestine." (Quote and ellipses courtesy of the Boston Globe here.)

Future Classic

I'm a big believer, at least with certain things, in planning ahead. One of those things is MNFBBQ. You don't just decide a few hours before hosting to go grocery shopping and see what the store happens to have in stock. Between January and August, when the NFL is in its offseason, you also don't wait until the last minute to get a movie. That's why I was glad, just 10 1/2 weeks before I host next, to find that American Pie 5: The Naked Mile will soon be hitting the shelves at our local Blockbuster.

After Air set the bar pretty high by showing American Pie Presents Band Camp in his MNFBBQ swan song hosting MNFBBQ, I think that I have found another film that will endure in our august organization's distinguished annals. After all, I cannot go wrong with a piece of art for which IMDB provides the following plot summary: The movie will shift its focus on Erik Stifler, the cousin of Matt and Steve (Seann William Scott in the first three films), a youngster who is nothing like his wild relations. Peer pressure starts to turn him to live up to the legacy of the other Stifflers when he attends the 'Naked Mile', a naked run across the college campus. Things get worse when he finds that his cousin Adam is the life of the party down at the campus. If that's not promising enough, the cast of stars guarantees success. Candace Kroslak, fresh off her star-making roles as Hot Chick in the White Christmas episode of Las Vegas and Girl #1 in the Slap Bet episode of How I Met Your Mother, leads the list of actors on IMDB's summary.

I just hope that the two MNFBBQ members who show movies before me don't beat me to the punch.

Mazal Tov

Mazal tov goes to O's Fan and Dr. O's Fan on the birth yesterday of a baby girl. May her birth be the first of many years of happiness that she brings to her family. Let us also pray that O's Fan sets good precedent and doesn't disappoint his revered father-in-law this coming Saturday afternoon.

Cry Me A River

Eric Rudolph, an inmate in the federal corrections system, is complaining about the conditions of his confinement. According to a wire story that likely appeared in most of the country's newspapers, Rudolph says that the Supermax prison in which he will likely live the rest of his life has the purpose of isolating its inmates to the point of causing negative emotional and mental effects.

In case you forgot who Eric Rudolph is, he is the psycho who bombed the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, killing one person and injuring over a hundred more. After that, Rudolph bombed at least two abortion clinics and a nightclub, killing at least one other person and injuring dozens more. Pardon me if I shed not a tear.

Defending The Indefensible

As most of you, especially faithful Zlog readers, are aware, former President Jimmy Carter has recently released a new book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid." The title alone should give an indication of what disgusting thesis Carter is propounding. The book's name, in and of itself, is absurd. South Africa's apartheid was meant to restrict the rights of a country's citizens. Israel's separation from "Palestine" is meant solely to preserve Israeli citizens' most basic right, that of life.

In the past few weeks, Carter and his book have come under attack from people defending Israel's right to exist. The attacks have not been coming just from Republicans and conservatives. Some of those who have taken Carter to task are Alan Dershowitz and Kenneth Stein, the latter of whom is an Emory University professor who recently resigned as director of the Carter Center because, in Stein's own words, "[b]eing president doesn't give one the prerogative to bend the facts to reach a prescribed reality."

Well, Carter has decided to defend himself in today's Los Angeles Times. Carter argues that he is coming under attack because of the "the extraordinary lobbying efforts of the American-Israel Political Action Committee and the absence of any significant contrary voices." I guess he has never heard of operations like CAIR. Carter uses words like "oppression" and "persecution" to describe the "Palestinian" lifestyle. He does manage to condemn terrorism but it of course comes in the mealy mouth moral equivalence that we hear from anti-Israel dignitaries right after condemning self-defense measures by the only democracy in the Middle East.

If you think you can stomach it, you can read Carter's pathetic defense here.

Ooh That Smell

I know it's juvenile, but I had to laugh when I saw this headline: Flatulence, not turbulence forces plane landing in Nashville. If you really want to know the whole story, and you know that you do, click here.

Falling City

Louisville holds a pretty special place in my heart. It's where Mrs. Zwicker was born and grew up. It's where we got married, albeit with a dairy meal. We've gone back to visit often and have enjoyed good times with Mrs. Zwicker's family. We even won some money at Churchill Downs this past Thanksgiving. Our winnings may have been less than two dollars, but it's better than losing.

Louisville, a city that has a good blend of Midwestern and Southern attitudes, seems to be changing and not in a good way. The city recently banned smoking in all bars and restaurants. I've previously written about my disdain for such rules here. Now there is a proposal before the city council to ban all trans fatty acids from restaurants. Once again, there are those who believe that it is the government's responsibility to tell people what is best for them, even when it hurts nobody else. To top it all off, over a thousand people lined up last night at a local store for a book signing and promotion by former President Jimmy Carter. What was the book? "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid." At least the signing was at a Sam's Club.

Miracle Of Life

Every birth is a miracle but some more than others. The birth of Charley Paz Klein to Erez and Dayna Klein in Seattle on Tuesday is one of those more special cases. Dayna, whose picture is to the left, was working at the Seattle Jewish Federation on July 28th when a Muslim gunman entered the building and started shooting. He aimed directly at Dayna's obviously pregnant belly but her quick and instictive covering of the area with her arm saved the baby. She sustained an injury to her arm and thigh but managed to crawl to her desk and call 911. The gunman pointed his weapon at her head but she handed him the phone and persuaded him to talk to the dispatcher. He eventually surrendered and is now facing charges for the murder of Dayna's co-worker, Pamela Waechter, from whom little Charley got his middle name. The terrorist is also facing attempted murder charges for shooting at Dayna and four others.

The whole story, courtesy of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, is here. Actually, the whole story isn't there. While the article tells us where the victims worked, it makes no mention of the terrorist's religious affiliation. Sure, it mentions his name, Naveed Haq, but it wouldn't hurt to know that he belonged to the "religion of peace".

Seinfeld's Lost Episode

Click here.

Catching Up On The Boob Tube

The only reality show that I watch is The Amazing Race. Unlike some of the other big ones from recent years, like Survivor and The Apprentice, TAR is all about who runs the best race, subject to the luck or karma or whatever that can intrude on any contest of skill. There is no subjectivity or popularity contest. Other than the last leg and with certain exceptions for non-elimination rounds, the last team to get to the finish line goes home. When it's down to three teams, the first team to the finish line wins.

This is now the third season of TAR that I have watched. While the race itself has been up to snuff in terms of challenges and locales, this is the first time where Mrs. Zwicker and I don't really care who wins. Of the four teams, the beauty queens are phony wenches, the 'Bama girls complain too much about how nobody likes them and Rob and Kimberly annoy us with their bitching, usually at each other. That leaves the reformed druggies/models as our favorite team, albeit by process of elimination. We will, of course, keep watching because the contest is still compelling. Also, I was laughing loud and hard last night at the preview of next week's episode, where the locals in an unnamed country pelted Kimberly with tomatoes.
Last night Mrs. Zwicker and I finally caught up on Heroes, the new excellent show on NBC. I have refrained from commenting on it here earlier since we have been behind since the first episode and I didn't want anyone to spoil it for us. We agree with Noah Daddy (ND-it looks like you made a good call on Claire's father) that Heroes is the best new show this year. The concept is a new one for television and the writing and acting are great. The show manages to weave together multiple compelling stories without being contrived. If you cannot get this season's earlier episodes online somewhere, I highly recommend closing your eyes and ears to Heroes and catch it on DVD.

Serenity Now!

There has been something lost amid all the noise surrounding Kramergate, like the hateful words themselves, the targets of the rant already hiring a lawyer and issuing a thinly veiled threat of a lawsuit on this morning's Today Show and the ruin of the career of the man who played one of television's most beloved characters. The worst part of the whole thing is that any chance we will ever have to again see the infamous "Puerto Rican Day Parade" episode of Seinfeld is likely gone for a very long time.

Immediately after the first showing of the episode, which depicted Kramer accidentally burning a Puerto Rican flag and other things offensive, it faced condemnation. The show's producers immediately pledged to delete the episode from the syndication catalog. According to Wikipedia, the episode started appearing in syndication in 2002 but I don't recall ever seeing it since seeing its original airing. I'm guessing we will not see it again for a long while. To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld himself, that offends me not as a Jew but as a fan of comedy.