General

Did Schumer Shill for Madoff?

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In all the jaw-dropping and outrageous moments of the Madoff fraud saga, nothing surpassed it. But almost no one knew.

Starting about 1 hour 38 minutes 44 seconds into the Senate Banking Committee Hearing on “The SEC’s Failure to Identify the Bernard L. Madoff Ponzi Scheme and How to Improve SEC Performance” (September 10, 2009) Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) looks over his glasses at an SEC bureaucrat and intones:

When you read Mr. Kotz’s report (PDF)…it’s just astounding…How the heck did this happen…all you had to have was an IQ of about 100 and even a semi desire to find out what happened…you didn’t have to turn over every stone…most people if they’d just read what happened they’d say there’s got to be fraud…to let Madoff escape….

That is absolutely true.

If the SEC man had been a public servant of suicidal courage he would have squared his shoulders, looked Schumer in the eye, and said

Because, Senator Schumer, you called the SEC during our last and best-informed investigation, questioning our activities. Obviously Mr.Madoff was one of your constituents, and it was easy to find out he was an important contributor of yours. We were afraid. Read more

Is Jared Lee Loughner Jewish?–Part 2

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As Matt Parrott noted in a comment on my previous blog,

We’re not the ones who brought up Judaism. It’s the media that, with absolutely no evidence whatsoever, dreamed up the notion that Giffords was assassinated by an anti-Semitic White Nationalist. When we speculated that Loughner might be Jewish, we did so based on a solid lead from an interview in Mother Jones of his closest friend. It was very relevant, as his being Jewish would have disabled the media’s unprovoked attack on us.

Exactly right. I am certainly not wedded to the idea that Loughner was Jewish on his mother’s side. That’s why I had a question mark in the title of my blog. Read more

Is Jared Lee Loughner Jewish?

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The Jewish Telegraph Agency picked up the Fox memo and ran with it, emphasizing the idea that Loughner targeted Giffords because she was Jewish: “Memo Notes Giffords’ Judaism in Motives of Alleged Attacker.” American Renaissance is (absurdly) described as “anti-ZOG (Zionist Occupational Government) [and] anti-Semitic.”

However, Mother Jones reports that Jared Lee Loughner’s best friend claims that Loughner’s mother is Jewish. This would seem to be a problem for the anti-Semitism motive.  According to the friend, Loughner disliked Giffords because she didn’t properly answer his question at a public meeting. The question: “‘What is government if words have no meaning?”

In other words, he is a nut case who has trouble with distinguishing real from unreal. From the description provided by the friend, it looks to me like some kind of schizophrenia–for example, believing in an alternate reality where he could fly and where he could dream anything he wanted and make it seem real. Read more

‘Death to America’: A new poem by Osama bin Laden?

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A puzzling new poem, reportedly written by Osama bin Laden in the wake of 9-11, is here presented to the world for the first time in an edited translation. The reader is asked to decide whether the poem, prophesying Armageddon and the coming destruction of America, is an authentic bin Laden poem or an imitation.

 

On May 16, 2007, on my twenty-ninth birthday, a beautifully written manuscript in calligraphic script fell into my hands in India. This was simply a series of sentences separated by diagonal strokes (/) which purported to be a literal, word-for-word paraphrase in English of an extended poem written in Arabic by Osama bin Laden in the immediate aftermath of 9-11.

Bits had been added to the manuscript (in the broad margins) over the intervening years. These served as commentaries and clarifications. The poem was divided into several parts, each headed by a symbol which I took to be a letter of the Arabic alphabet.

The scary title of the manuscript: DEATH TO AMERICA. Read more

2010 Year-end fundraising appeal–again

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The response to the year-end fundraising appeal has been a bit underwhelming. I realize that lots of worthy causes are making appeals at this time. But please consider TOO if you haven’t already.

Again, the new wrinkle is that contributions are now U.S. tax deductible.  Please help make us stronger. The links for tax deductible donations are here. This page also provides instructions for donors who wish to remain anonymous or prefer to send checks. And foreign donors and others unconcerned about US taxes may use the link on the main donations pageor go here directly.

Thanks for thinking of TOO.

The Haredim will inherit the (Jewish) world (Updated, 12/29/2010)

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In my article on the Geert Wilders phenomenon, I referenced Eric Kaufmann’s book Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth? to support the idea that the Haredim are the future of Israeli politics. My exposure to the book was this video:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7vCDeKPRSo

A reader who has read the book provided some interesting data:

The Haredi fertility rate was 6.49 from 1980–82.  In 1990–96 it actually rose to 7.61 and has remained there. By 2020 Haredi will double their share of the Israeli population to 17%.  Shortly after 2050 they’re projected to be the majority of Israeli Jews, even in the unlikely event that their fertility converges with that of secularists by 2030. Read more

TOO's new look—Thanks to Matt Parrott

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TOO is getting a new look. The main thing is that now the featured article and the blog will be on the same page, making it more convenient to browse our content. Please have a look and let us know what you think by commenting on this blog. Changes should go into effect on the evening of November 2.

The architect of the changeover is Matt Parrott. Matt combines technical proficiency with political activism. He heads the Indiana chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens and has written for TOO (“George Washington Plunkitt on the Sausage Factory of American Politics“). He also has a radio show on the Reason Radio Network (“Radio Free Indiana”) where he recently interviewed me on a wide range of topics  — a very enjoyable experience that will doubtless be repeated in the future.

We at TOO are greatly indebted for all the work he did—much more than we could adequately pay him for. It would be a nice gesture to acknowledge his efforts. His PayPal account is the same as his email address: parrott.matt@gmail.com

Kevin MacDonald, Editor