Psalm 118:26

Psalm 118:26

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.

Whoever comes in the name of the Lord

     comes kinky

Whoever comes in the name of the Lord

     is hard-up

and debates within his heart

     about porn

Whoever comes in the name of the Lord

     has one hot Lord

Whoever comes in the name of the Lord

     comes hard

Whoever comes in the name of the Lord

     really comes

Whoever comes in the name of the Lord

     gets no STD

     only gotterdammerung

Plane Crash

Anybody else hung up about the plane crash in the French Alps?

OK, terrorism is ruled out. Not applicable in this case.

Andreas Lubitz, above, the co-pilot who did the deed — turning the knobs for descent multiple times which assures it was no accident, then preventing the pilot, returning, presumably, from a toilet break (this part could be better filled out, what exactly was he doing when absent from the cockpit?) from entering the cockpit to stop him, had no history of mental weirdness.

None we know of.

The pilot bangs on the cockpit door. Passengers scream.

If this was what Yeats called in his wonderful poem "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" naught but "a lonely impulse of delight" for co-pilot Andreas Lubitz why take all those people with him? It would not have occurred to the Irish World War I pilot imagined by Yeats to involve anyone else.

Was the co-pilot suddenly and irresistibly in love with death?

Huh?

What?

Like I said, I don't understand.

Obama Speaks to the Knesset . . .

It occurs to me that Obama should speak to the Israeli Knesset — invited by Isaac Herzog, perhaps, the just-defeated head of the newly revived Labor party, and/or by Tzipi Livni — much as Bibi Netanyahu spoke to the American Congress.

Danny Schechter: 6/27/1942 - 3/19/2015

Danny  Schechter — aka The News Dissector — agitated for many righteous things in his long career as journalist/activist, notably opposing the War in Vietnam and apartheid in South Africa. Besides that, damn it and not by choice, he demonstrated that 71 is just not the new 50, and that pancreatic cancer is just not the new sprained ankle.

Bibi wins, anti-Semitism thrives

The election results in Israel are crappy and demoralizing, with long-term negative consequences just about inevitable.

And then there are posts like this, from France, re anti-Semitism there: 

Netanyahu he can't play chess . . .

So Bibi Netanyahu is not for, and has never been for, not really not no how, a Palestinian state. And he's been green-lighting precisely the kinds of settlements and/or settlement expansions that would forestall such a dreadful thing.

Who would have known? Didn't it seem like he was really an Oslo kind of guy, an Oslo guy under the skin, perhaps? A closet kind of Oslo mensch?

Or nah, it didn't seem that way, as in this is always what he was.

It's good — also pretty awful — to have it out in the open. The Prime Minister of Israel for so long now and maybe again abjures the Oslo Accords, spits on Rabin, Peres, Barak and the at least momentarily somewhat seemingly conciliationist Arafat.

Terrific.

Netanyahu's predecessor as Likud Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, played good chess. In Lawrence Wright's wonderful account — "Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David" (2014) — of the arduous negotiations that led to Israel surrendering the Sinai to Egypt in exchange for which there was recognition of Israel by Egypt and a peace treaty with it — you can find photos of Begin playing chess with Carter advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Begin wins most of those games, while averring he hasn't played since being arrested by the KGB in 1940 for Zionist activity in the midst of, so he says, being immersed in a chess game. Begin's wife waltzes into one of his games against Brzezinski to exclaim, au contraire, that this is great, Menachem plays all the time, he loves chess, it keeps him young! 

LOSE BIBI LOSE

On March 17, Israelis go to the polls. I may have said this before, but it will be very good not only for Israelis if Netanyahu is voted out but also for Americans. The mind meld between Likudniks and the Republican right bodes ill for both nations. 

Hillary, just say no!

My proposal for a more invigorating, oxygenated, breathable 2016 presidential election: Hillary announces that under no circumstances will she be running, on condition that Jeb Bush says the same, though maybe Hillary could demand the Republicans throw in — or rather, out — Ted Cruz, Chris Christie and a draft pick to be decided on — [sic] undrafted — later. I'd say Hillary is a fair trade for at least three of them since she clogs up democratic futures, prospects, and possibilities at least three times as much.

Jeb v. Hillary reading books . . .

I think Hillary Clinton should announce she will not run, and that Jeb Bush should do the same.

Wouldn't that be interesting? Wouldn't it clear the air? Kinda like lighting a match in a gassy toilet, a simple technique for instant air-freshening. Of course, opening doors and windows works, too. 

when the shark bites . . .

call me president obama

commander in chief of the most powerful nation

on earth

like

um

not to put too fine a point on it

ever

but bibi comes around

and what do i do

i duck

trust me

i am nowhere to be found

call me hershl hershlplotz

duly elected to the u.s. house of representatives

from somewhere in queens

i happen to be jewish which if you don't mind

i have happened to have been

for a long time

i do love israel

well to be honest & between us

i like it

enough anyway

but when bibi comes to town trumpeting

triumphal bibi-ness

i won't be there to say shalom you speak for me because maybe you don't

(actually, i can't tell for sure

if bib's is my friend

or my enemy.)

hey

then there's me

call me a palestinian

where to go

where to hide

when bibi

"oh the shark bites"

comes to town