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Tuesday, April 08, 2014

You Want Crazy - Here's Crazy! - Hitchens Got This One Right!


Slate Magazine
By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Monday, Aug. 29, 2005

I can never read the name "Michael Bloomberg" without an automatic free-association that flashes up in my mind. "Little putz," is what my internal prompter always cues to me. Obviously this and other intuitions must be prompted by whatever grand intelligence originally designed me, because here's what I read on page B5 of the New York Times on Friday, Aug. 26:

"Circumcision ritual practiced by some Orthodox Jews has alarmed city health officials, who say it may have led to three cases of herpes—one of them fatal—in infants. … The practice is known as oral suction, or in Hebrew, metzitzah b'peh: after removing the foreskin of the penis, the practitioner, or mohel, sucks the blood from the wound to clean it".

Last week, Emily Bazelon launched Slate's circumcision research project, a "study of men who have experienced sex as both circumcised and uncircumcised." The continuing scandal of this practice, which most Jews abandoned many years ago, is newly illustrated by the death of one little boy from type-1 herpes, and the infection of two others, in Staten Island and Brooklyn, after they had been subjected to this ritual by the same mohel. Let's be clear what's involved here. The Times refers to an article published last year in the journal Pediatrics that argued that metzitzah b'peh carries a serious health risk and is, for that reason alone, a violation of Jewish law. ("We suspect … that this entity is underreported for cultural reasons and that the studies described here are only the "tip of the iceberg" of the true incidence of the disease," the authors note). None of this should be hard to comprehend: If it risks the life or health of an infant, then no religious allegiance is or should be required for its condemnation. Q.E.D., as you might say.

What's Bloomberg got to do with this, you may be impatient to know by now. Well, the mayor of the great city where these children were deliberately exposed to infection and death has had a meeting with the Orthodox authorities who like to see this happening to small putzes, and he has expressed himself thus, on his own radio show, again as per the Times:

We're going to do a study, and make sure that everyone is safe and at the same time, it is not the government's business to tell people how to practice their religion.

Study? What study? Can't the fool get through an article by a Jewish authority in Pediatrics? For the Times reporter to add that Mayor Bloomberg's comment appeared to be designed not to "upset a group that can be a formidable voting bloc" was, in the circumstances, worse than superfluous.

Where to start with this? I could wish that Bloomberg were always so careful about keeping out of other peoples' business: He has made it legally impossible to have a cigarette and a cocktail at the same time, anywhere in the city. But I'll trade him his stupid prohibitionist ban if he states clearly that it is the government's business to protect children from religious fanatics. Female genital mutilation, for example, is quite rightly banned under federal law, and no religious exemption is, or ever should be, permitted. The Mormons were obliged to give up polygamy and forcible marriage before they, or the state of Utah, could be part of the United States. A Christian Scientist who denies urgent medical treatment to his or her children may well be hauled up for reckless endangerment, as may those whose churches teach redemption through violent corporal punishment. The First Amendment does indeed forbid any infringement of religious freedom, but it is not, as was once said, part of a suicide pact, let alone a child-abuse one.

Let's by all means hear from Rabbi David Niederman of the United Jewish Organization in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, who emerged from his meeting with Bloomberg to inform us that: "The Orthodox Jewish community will continue the practice that has been practiced for over 5,000 years. We do not change. And we will not change." You can preach it, rabbi, but you have no more right to practice it than a Muslim imam who preaches the duty of holy war has the right to put his teachings into effect. And Rabbi Yitzchok Fischer, the 57-year-old man who ministered to the three boys in question, is currently under a court order that forbids him from doing it again—pending an investigation by the health department. What "investigation?" If another man of that age were found to be slicing the foreskins of little boys and then sucking their penises and their blood, he would be in jail—one hopes—so fast that his feet wouldn't touch the ground. If he then told the court that God ordered him to do it, he would be offering precisely the defense that thousands of psychos have already made so familiar. Preach it rabbi. Preach it to the judge.

A few years ago I traveled to Calcutta with the brilliant photographer Sebastião Salgado, who has made the eradication of polio his signature cause. In 2001, there was a real chance that this childhood-wrecking and frequently lethal malady could go the way of smallpox. Only a few outposts, usually in very bad war zones like Afghanistan, had not been reported as "clear." (The two sides in the civil war in El Salvador observed a truce so that the vaccine could be safely distributed.) But some mullahs in Bengal spread the rumor that the vaccine led to impotence and diarrhea (a bad combo) and urged mothers to keep their children away from the nurses and physicians. Most Bengalis are too smart to listen to ravings like these, which exactly resemble the view of Dr. Timothy Dwight, one of America's founding divines, that vaccination against smallpox was an interference with the divine design. However, in northern Nigeria, where imams now hold state power in many provinces, the polio vaccine has been denounced as a plot "by the US and the UN [!]" to "sterilize Muslims." In consequence of this fatwa, the disease has returned to Nigeria this year and also spread back to several African countries that thought they had bidden farewell to it. Decades of patient and skillful work have been ruined, along with the lives of uncounted children.

Jewish babies exposed to herpes in New York, thousands of American children injured for life after the rape and torture they suffered at the hands of a compliant Catholic priesthood, prelates and mullahs outbidding each other in denial of AIDS … it's not just your mental health that is challenged by faith. Anyone who says that this evil deserves legal protection is exactly as guilty as the filthy old men who delight in inflicting it. What a pity that there is no hell.

39 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who is the Potz in the Video please?

Anonymous said...

I don't know, but he seems to be making a strong case for oral sex.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

http://online.wsj.com/video/mortgage-woes-china-rate-move-hit-markets/380F167E-C2DC-41F3-B260-E0F633506BC9.html

Toronto Agudah Fresser said...

http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2010/10/ikul-bais-din-dlakewood-on-pharmacy.html

Has anyone been burned in business by the Diena brothers?

Moetzes Resign! said...

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/10/5/hillel-harvard-steinberg-new/

The Harvard Hillel Board of Directors announced earlier today the retirement of Hillel President and Executive Director Bernard Steinberg, who has led the religious non-profit organization for 18 years.

Steinberg’s administration faced controversy in 2008, when Hillel discovered financial reporting irregularities, according to a letter sent to the organization’s student community by Steinberg and Beal that year.

Harvard Hillel accountant William O’Brien, who was hired by Hillel in 2003 through the financial management contracting agency Insource Services, was charged with larceny, forgery, and false entries in corporate books in connection to the fraud. He pled guilty last month to stealing nearly $780,000 from the religious nonprofit.

Ombudsman said...

This is my take on Chris Hitchens.

He is not much better than the neo-Nazis who rail against bris mila.

While we may be able to identify with some of his argument, he is not only an atheist - he has a much bigger ax to grind. He is ashamed that his mother is Jewish. I have seen this lowlife interviewed. The way he snarls his face at anything Jewish looks the same as any vicious anti-Semite.

Part of Hitchen's argument as has been presented elsewhere is that any mohel doing bapeh must be a sexual deviant. I am not a mohel but I really don't think most people get a sexual high from an infant all of 8 days old.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

You don't have to like Hitchens to know that this particular point of view is backed up entirely by just about every reputable medical journal. (metzizah b'peh)

Actually, if you read his memoirs, Hitch-22 --- you'll see that he's actually ecstatic to be a member of the Tribe.

So, get rid of the "kill the messenger" and focus on the message!

Metziza b'peh kills, maims, causes unknown pain to yet discovered victims, and I believe is a very major cause of ADD and its related illnesses, including mental retardation, and other mental and physical diseases in the Orthodox Jewish community, mostly yet to be discovered that is certainly related to this ancient blood ritual that must be abolished!!!

Think about it; any person of intellect and love of your fellow jew and respect for the integrity of our Mesorah, especially innocent infants, must agree!

The Sun does NOT revolve around the Earth!

Ombudsman said...

I wasn't aware of Hitch's memoir. I was judging from his vile facial expressions during interviews. Maybe he doesn't mind the secular culture of Jews and just has a passionate hate for all organized religion. I liked Hitch better in the 1990s when he focused on digging up damaging secrets on the Clintons. It was almost UOJesque.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

It was almost UOJesque.

*

I'm happy you said "almost" :-)

A lot of his appearances are especially cranky, intentionally, he loves the persona he's developed for himself.

I have great respect for his intellect (I read all of his works), although he has reached many conclusions that I do not agree with. And he could care less...

Moetzes Resign! said...

Filed at 3:01 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) — After years of costly delays, a computerized FBI case management system still isn't finished.

A Justice Department report released Wednesday says the Sentinel system is $100 million over budget and nowhere near complete. And it warned that longer delays could mean the program is outdated before it's even finished.

The program is intended to create a user-friendly, paperless case-management system.

The Sentinel plan replaced an earlier $170 million computer program that was scrapped after consultants deemed it obsolete and riddled with problems.

Anonymous said...

Which yeshiva is this? The bank which was confiscated by the Feds from Rubashkin's cousin Boymelgreen & I think also his shutef Eichler from the seforim store asked the judge on Oct. 1 to declare a default judgement.

Kings Civil Supreme
Index Number: 005157/2010
Case Name: LIBERTYPOINTE BANK vs. MESIVTA & YESHIVA GEDOLAH OF
Case Type: Foreclosures - Commercial
Track: Standard
RJI Filed: 09/27/2010

Anonymous said...

From Frankel's shul mizrach shvantz to Frankel's shul deadbeat shvantz

Kings County Civil Court
Index Number: CV-082544-10/KI
Case Name: PITNEY BOWES GLOBAL FINANCIAL SERVICES LLC
vs.
YESHIVAS VYELIPOL SCHOOL
Case Type: Civil
Classification: Consumer Credit
Filing Date: 09/03/2010

Anonymous said...

This will help catch a lot more pedophiles and Bungalow Putz Neuhoff types.

http://www.intelligenceonline.com/corporate-intelligence/terabytes/2010/10/21/pindr0p-traces-telephone-calls,85858046-ART-HOM

Telephone calls via internet can now be localised, thanks to their digital finger-print. A company called Pindr0p (...)

Anonymous said...

http://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/herpes/newborns/fact_sheet.htm

Herpes simplex virus (HSV)

Newborns can sometimes get HSV-1 from close contact with someone who is shedding HSV-1 virus in their saliva

About 70 percent of all adults in the U.S. are infected with HSV-1 and may shed virus in their saliva at any time during their lifetime, even if they don't have symptoms like sores in the mouth or cold sores.

Archie Bunker said...

Just when Obama Democrats have fallen out of favor with Jews, the usual suspects like David Greenfield and some rabbonim are pushing to elect Democrat Mike McMahon to Congress. What's pshat? Probably because he was maskim to write a letter to Attorney General Holder to discipline the US Attorney's office for "misconduct" while prosecuting Sholom Rubashkin. Go ahead you political zoynas and throw Klal Yisroel under the bus to help a well connected criminal.

Putz! said...

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/rabbi-accused-of-sexual-abuse-man-s-strength-is-in-his-silence-1.320312

Rabbi Mordechai (Moti) Elon responded Wednesday to testimonies of sexual abuse claims against him that had been made public by Takana, a forum that fights sexual abuse in the Orthdox community, saying "man's greatest strength is to remain silent."

PIDYON SHEVU'IM ALERT said...

Lakewood couple charged with kidnapping and assault.

David and Judy WAX

Shalom Tendler said...

PLANO, Texas (AP) Penthouse magazine founder Bob Guccione has died in a suburban Dallas hospital at age 79.

Aron Berger (Monsey) said...

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/33/43/wb_vacateorder_2010_10_22_bk.html

Williamsburg artists evicted in crackdown on illegal building

The city has smacked the landlord with 64 structural violations — 63 of which were never resolved — since 1993, and the Environmental Control Board still has 94 open cases against the building, ranging from the building’s allegedly unsafe elevator and apparently blocked emergency exit, to reported structural dilapidation and illegally erected walls and rooms.

Kew Gardens Hills said...

http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2010/10/14/more_spongetech/

First Steve Moskowitz from Rav Arieli's shul was arrested as the mastermind behind the Spongetech fraud. This putz was getting honored at yeshiva dinners with the stolen money he gave.

Now two of his pals from the neighborhood have been arrested in connection. Avi Tepfer & Seymour Eisenberg are facing 20 years in prison.

Both versions of the story are correct said...

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/10/20/2010-10-20_killer_in_connecticut_home_invasion_slay_says_william_petit_was_coward_who_could.html

It's been three years since Dr. William Petit Jr. survived a brutal home invasion that left his wife and daughters dead, but the pain of the gruesome crimes his family endured is far from over.

The latest twist? One of the attackers claims Petit could have saved his loved ones, but didn't because he was a "coward."

----

It's been years since Kolko's arrest for molestation that left little boys like dead, but the meshugassen following the gruesome crimes are far from over.

The latest twist? Margo claims UOJ could have sat down at the table like a man but started a blog instead because he was a "coward."

Vito Lopez said...

http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2010/10/12/brooklyn_heights_courier/news/courier-yn_brooklyn_heights-wb_moreelectionfraud_2010_10_15_bk.txt

Voting improprieties in Bushwick last month appear to be part of a larger pattern of election fraud by poll workers allied with — and in some cases, hired by — Assemblyman Vito Lopez.

As we reported last week, homecare aides from a Lopez-affiliated nonprofit pressured voters to cast ballots for Lopez in his state committee race and a building manager from the same nonprofit filled out affidavit ballots for Lopez.

But it wasn’t the first time that poll watchers observed fraudulent behavior at the polls in an election that Lopez — the Brooklyn Democratic Party chairman — had a rooting interest.

Last year, in a race between Councilwoman Diana Reyna (D–Bushwick) and her Lopez-backed challenger Maritza Davila, a tussle occurred when a Chinese translator was removed from a Williamsburg polling site after allegedly telling Chinese-speaking voters to cast their ballots for Davila.

Ocean Parkway said...

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/but_fake_vet_limb_flam_man_SRdm9m4V2RRTY0jA7ziJxO

Beware of this con artist. He probably splits the loot with Margulies.

Gershon Hepner said...

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/hepner-266839-board-license.html

A Los Angeles internist has been sentenced to 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to his involvement in a $15 million healthcare fraud scheme. He also faces the possibility of losing his medical license, according to an Orange County Register report.

Gershon Hepner, MD, pleaded guilty to conspiring with 16 others in providing unnecessary respiratory treatments to the elderly and mentally ill. He admitted the services were later billed to Medicare and Medi-Cal. Dr. Hepner and his co-conspirators also paid kickbacks to the patients in the form of soda, candy, donuts and cigarettes. In some instances, treatment was never provided to the recruited patients. More than $400,000 was reimbursed to Dr. Hepner in Medicare funds, with one-third of the funds going toward paying kickbacks to continuously recruit more patients, according to the report.

The California Medical Board is looking to have Dr. Hepner's license revoked. This would be the second time the physician lost his license. Records provided by the medical board show Dr. Hepner lost his license for the first time in 1995 after pleading guilty to hiring patient recruiters and submitting false claims to insurance companies, sometimes for medical services that were never rendered.

Florida said...

http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2010/08/30/daily16.html

Fred Dweck, MD, a surgeon from Hollywood, Fla., five nurses and a clinic owner working in the Miami-area have pleaded guilty to their involvement in a $37 million Medicare fraud scheme, according to a South Florida Business Journal report.

Dr. Dweck, who worked at Miami-based Courtesy Medical Group, has pleaded guilty to referring 858 Medicare beneficiaries to home healthcare agencies, including Miami-based Courtesy Medical Group, for medically unnecessary home healthcare services. More than $37 million in false and fraudulent claims were billed to Medicare as a result of the scheme. Medicare paid more than $22 million of those claims, according to the report.

Yudel Cayro, owner and operator of Courtesy Medical Group, also admitted to receiving illegal kickbacks and bribes from patient recruiters and owners and operators of other Miami-area home healthcare agencies. Mr. Cayro pleaded guilty to referring approximately 344 Medicare beneficiaries to those agencies for unnecessary services, which led to more than $16 million in fraudulent billing to Medicare by home healthcare agencies, according to the report.

UOJ gets results said...

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/gov_paterson_puts_brakes_on_contracts_yJH9JwGS4HPhIflcA9TATL

Gov. Paterson dealt a devastating blow today to the sprawling social services empire of Brooklyn Democratic leader Vito Lopez by ordering a an immediate hold on $25 million worth of existing and new contracts pending the outcome of ongoing investigations.

You heard it first on UOJ said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/business/global/20rare.html?ref=business&src=me&pagewanted=print

Chinese Commies start putting the squeeze on the West.

Fresser real estate agent said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/business/20fannie.html?pagewanted=print

Someone posted about David Stern being the rasha merushe of lawyers in the foreclosure mess. He is actually the fall guy for Fannie & Freddie, 2 govt agencies that have been behaving atrociously since Obama became president.

R' Elya Spitzer said...

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/10/20/2010-10-20_eliot_spitzers_application_to_join_posh_harvard_club_is_rejected_over_his_hooker.html

Eliot Spitzer's application to join posh Harvard Club is rejected over his hooker scandal

Rochester NY said...

http://www.whec.com/news/stories/s1793934.shtml

These thieves belong to an orthodox shul.

Shmarya gets results said...

Shmarya really tried to be dan lekaf zchus because Juan is Black but he just couldn't overlook this anti-Arab racism.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/business/media/21npr.html

NPR has terminated its contract with Juan Williams, one of its senior news analysts, after he made comments about Muslims on the Fox News Channel.

The move came after Mr. Williams, who is also a Fox News political analyst, appeared on the “The O’Reilly Factor” on Monday. On the show, the host, Bill O’Reilly, asked him to respond to the notion that the United States was facing a “Muslim dilemma.” Mr. O’Reilly said, “The cold truth is that in the world today jihad, aided and abetted by some Muslim nations, is the biggest threat on the planet.”

Mr. Williams said he concurred with Mr. O’Reilly.

He continued: “I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

Mr. Williams also made reference to the Pakistani immigrant who pleaded guilty this month to trying to plant a car bomb in Times Square. “He said the war with Muslims, America’s war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don’t think there’s any way to get away from these facts,” Mr. Williams said.

NPR said in its statement that the remarks “were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”

Mr. Williams’s contributions on Fox raised eyebrows at NPR in the past. In February 2009, NPR said it had asked that he stop being identified on “The O’Reilly Factor” as a “senior correspondent for NPR,” even though that title was accurate.

Anonymous said...

http://www.wwd.com/business-news?module=tn#/article/business-news/fendi-wins-burlington-lawsuit-3344916

Burlington Coat Factory is a heimishe company. They have to pay over $10 million now for counterfeiting the designer Fendi.

Denver said...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/28/sean-mueller-accused-of-p_n_556037.html

A hedge fund manager who claimed his investments never lost money, even during the economic downturn, faces allegations that he ran a Ponzi scheme and admitted to falsifying documents in an apparent suicide note.

Sean Michael Mueller, 41, who controlled Greenwood Village-based Mueller Capital Management LLC, threatened to jump off a building in Greenwood Village on April 22, Colorado Securities Commissioner Fred Joseph said Wednesday.

Colorado securities regulators opened their investigation after receiving an anonymous letter March 25 that compared Mueller's funds to the Ponzi scheme run by Bernard Madoff.

Tony Soprano said...

http://www.app.com/article/20101020/NEWS/101020088/Lakewood-couple-charged-with-kidnapping-assaulting-Brooklyn-man

My capo in Lakewood got pinched by the cops.

Anonymous said...

please post medical evidence of higher caliber that proves anyone ever got herpes from metzitza.

Free lunch for Shmarya and his favorite people said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/business/22fannie.html?hpw

Fannie and Freddie May Need Infusion

The troubled mortgage companies are likely to require about $19 billion in additional federal aid over the next three years, according to a projection by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

If the economy recovers more quickly than expected, the projections show that the companies could need as little as $6 billion in new aid. By contrast, if the economy falls into recession, the companies could need another $124 billion. (on top of the $135 billion already provided)

DAG said...

Free Lakewood, post evidence that anyone got cancer from smoking....

Anonymous said...

http://www.takana.org.il/megera.asp

http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/169/326.html?hp=0&loc=101&tmp=4498

This Rabbi Lau issue is difficult to know who to believe or even to understand the underlying issues.Rabbi Sherlow vs. Rabbi Aaron Lichtenstein, how can one even form an opinion. I've never seen anything like it.

Anonymous said...

Who is that Rabbi in the video? He sounds like he has a genital fixation himself?