Anti-Israel DOES = Anti-Semitic

This just in: Veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas announced Monday that she is retiring, effective immediately, in the wake of a controversy over her comments on Israel, according to a report from her employer, Hearst Newspapers.

Thomas told a rabbi at a White House event last week that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and go back to Germany and Poland.

It sickens me that even polite anti-Semites feel ok today to rant and rage against Jews. Perhaps it’s time for all the closeted anti-Semites to come out of the closet and just admit that they hate Jews. Let’s just get it on. And speaking about coming out of the closet: all you progressive types who rail against Israel should ask yourselves in which of the beloved Middle Eastern countries, including that darling of the left, Gaza, is it safe to be an out gay or lesbian person? The answer should be obvious: Israel, the only, I repeat only, Democracy in the Middle East and on of the few that exist in the world. So all you gay and lesbian anti-Israel/pro-Gaza lefties, take a good look in the mirror and smile at the hypocrite looking back at you.

Gaza June 2010

Overheard a group of liberal/progressive/artsy types railing against Israelis as being nothing more than terrorists. Not offering a critique of some of of the policies of the Netanyahu government as being inept or worse. Oh no, condemming all Israelis as being terrorists. If you know me, then you know it got my ire. When I asked questions about why the world is quick to condemn Israel but not Hamas (who, amongst other things, holds an Israeli hostage even as I type this). Or how she thought we in the US would respond if say AL Quida overturned by force the legitimate government of Canada or Mexico and began bombing us daily. My guess is that we would have already invaded either of those countries killing all who got in our way. Or where was the outcry when Syria helped assassinate the head of the Lebanese government. Or where was the outcry when Iran killed pro-democracy demonstrators. Or. Or. Or. She gave me the usual look of one who has to humor a crazy Jew who doesn’t understand how misguided us Jews are. My god, we actually want to be treated with the same respect as the rest of the world’s people. She almost asked me “what do you people want.” Let there be no mistake, the anti-semites of the world rejoice in unison at the opoortunity that Bush-like idiot Netanyahu gave them to come back out of the political closet. There is no doubt to me that all Jews should beware the people who claim that they’re not anti-semitic, merely anti-Israel. Oh, and by the way, do any of these liberal do-gooders realize that the blockade of Gaza was a joint Israel/Egypt effort. Where’s the mention of Egypt? Israel, as has all countries, made poor decisions. At the same time, I ask all these Palestinian pity people what they think of the anger voiced by the Arab party in the Israels Knesset. The Arab party! Are there any Jewish or Christian or any other non-Islamic parties in the progressive Arab regimes they support? Why no. There aren’t any parties in those countries. In Gaza? Hell no! Freedom for women? I don’t think so. Tolerance of other faiths at any level. Why no there is not. Israel, as flawed as some of it’s leaders are from time to time, is a bastion of democracy and a paragon of freedom in the Middle East. So, to all the anti-semites, excuse me, anti-Israeli progressives, I say, condemn all acts of intolerance and repression equally or admit you basically hate uppity Jews and be done with it.

February Blahs Means Fringe Season is almost here, sort of

It’s February 13th.  Cars still drive back and forth across Lily Lake (aka my lake).  Snow mounds are about 5 feet high, crusted with rock hard ice and dirty as hell.  The temperature was in the low 20s when I left the coffee shop.  Balmy.  Coat open, bald head hatless.  Sort of a stupid grin on my face.   It’s a normal February 13th in Stillwater, Minnesota.  February is a short month and then comes March, which is perhaps the cruelest month.  We Minnesotans hold out too much hope that March is a harbinger of warmth.  It is our second snowiest month.  And not pretty white fluffy holiday season snow.  Oh no, March snow is glompy and wet and heart attack hard to shovel.  But something else happens in March.  Those of us who will be fringing somewhere (or many wheres) start to realize that it’s time to really start thinking about what the hell we’ll be doing this year.  Maybe I’m casting the net too broadly-some already know the what and with whom.  Maybe everyone else but me.  I’m not what you would call a plan well ahead type of guy.  I travel tons.  I always pack no earlier than the night before.  I don’t feel smug about it.  It’s just who I am.   I sort of know what I’ll be doing in Fringe(s) this year.  Loren Niemi and I will again join forces to push the boundary of  “storytelling” to the point where the traditionalists will once again condemn me as a heretic (and, I fear, taint Loren in the process), and the edgy under 40 folks will wonder what the hell we do.  Well so what .  I (we) do what I (we) do.  It seems to be working:  our show in Indiana last year was one of the top attended shows in that Fringe; each of our separate Minny Fringe shows did exceptionally well.  But I digress.  Or maybe not.  Right about now, the days are getting longer, the sun feels real and the Minny Fringe lottery will be this Wednesday evening at Bedlam, and that feels damn good.

Beacon On The Hill

As the election drew closer I became more and more prone to excessive outbursts.  The thought of the right wing nincompoop from Alaska being one heartbeat from becoming my leader drove me to distraction.  I don’t think that I truly believed Obama and the Democrats would pull off a victory.  I also realized that from 1968 until today I have felt almost completely disenfranchised politically.  I had come to the unfortunate conclusion that I lived in a country in which the majority of citizens held views totally incompatible to my own.  On election night I sat glued to CNN (I hated that red/blue line nonsense) with my body clenched from furrowed forehead to curled toes.  Then the results began to roll in.  When PA went for Obama, I sobbed and emailed my gratitude to my many PA friends.  Slowly the realization that Obama was going to be the next President of the US of A began to overwhelm me.  When CNN showed the rainbow of people massed in Grant Park to hear Obama’s victory speech I was overwhelmed with joy and wept uncontrollably.  I was born and raised in Chicago, the most segregated, racially divided major city in the US.  The Chicago of my youth was a place where black was south side , white north side.  The two met occasionally on the El somewhere around Washington.  My Grant Park was the Grant Park of Mayor Daley’s police riot where I was gassed, chased and beaten for daring to be against the Viet Nam war and other LBJ/HHH policies.  I stood at those barricades and saw former high school friends in uniform preparing to aim weapons at me for daring to be an American.  I lost so much heart at that time.   I came clean for Gene.  I watched as Bobby and Dr. King lost their lives.  I saw a country cleaved in ways that put a pall on my spirit.   Then came November 2008, 40 years later, and my spirit was made whole again.   This can be a great country.  A country full of promise for all.  A place where effort can be rewarded regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual preference.  It has not been this place for many years.  It has become a country of unbridled greed and insider double dealing with a continually diminishing regard for civil liberties and freedom for all.  The pinnacle of this change was the last 8 years.  A time during which: religion became king, torture became no big deal, spying on civilians became business as usual, invasion and occupaton of a sovereign nation that posed no credible threat to the US became acceptable foreign policy, and so on.  THAT NIGHTMARE IS NOW OVER!  A wildly intelligent and highly educated person of mixed racial origin is our new leader.  I have never been prouder of being an American.

Real Americans

I honestly intended to write lots and lots and lots during this outstandingly annoying exercise in national banality known as the election campaign season.  I really did.  But to be blunt, this season has annoyed and depressed me more than any I can remember (and being 59, I can remember quite a few).  Obama takes positions with which I disagree, and that idiot from Alaska and the old man she lugs around make me want to puke.  So, why am I writing?   The answer is simple:  lately, the award winning team of Palin and Bachman have been running their mouths off about what constitutes a real American, and where real America really is.  This offends and even scares the hell out of me.  I seem to recall that back in the good old days of Nazi Germany, the philosophical underpinning of Nazism was that there were certain Germans who were real Germans and others (Jews, gays, gypsies) who were not.  For the Nazis, the best way to have a happy homeland was to do away with all those who were not real Germans.  This was the Nazi final solution.   From what I can tell, the vile garbage that flows so freely from Palin/Bachman et al sounds horrifically like the crap that spewed from Hitler and the boys.  Those places that aren’t real America are urban areas where jews, gays, college educated people and other terrorist sympathisers live and do their vile deeds.  Am I the only one who finds this eerily Nazi-like?  Joe McCarthy was a witch hunter who ruined countless lives, but these cretins make old Joe look like a kindly old man by comparison.  Am I exaggerating?  I don’t think so.  You see, I live in a nice, white little town that these assholes would see as real America full of real Americans.  In fact, I live in Michelle Bachmans electoral district-Stillwater, Minnesota.  I know Michelle.  I have looked in her crazy eyes.  Heard her spew invective towards and about the “other”.  I also saw how, when my daughter was growing up in real America, some parents would not let their children play with her because her dad is a Jew.  I’ve heard diatribes from friend and foe alike about “you people”.    I hate to the marrow in my bones what these people stand for.  There is nothing funny about Sara Palin-she is an evil woman who belongs as far away from the White House as possible.  As for Michelle Bachman, the only thing I can say is the more she opens her ignorant mouth and spews venom the more money winds up in Tinklenberg’s war chest.  I really really really hope Michelle gets rejected, finally, by the good white Chirstians of Stillwater and the rest of her district.  Unfortunately, I fear that ignorance and intolerance will prevail.  Anyone who reads this (or anything else that appears on this blog) and wants to disagree (or even agree) with me in person, I can be found at the Daily Grind coffee shop in Stillwater every Saturday and most Sundays of the year.  Beware:  I am not Minnesota nice.  In fact, some would say I’m really not any kind of nice at all.  I am very opinionated.  I say what I think.  I guess I’m a real American.

Here’s a good look at what she said:  http://thepoliticalcarnival.blogspot.com/2008/10/video-chris-matthews-v-michelle-bachman.html

More

A few more thoughts on the Indy Fringe:  Pauline Moffatt, Executive Director of the Indy Fringe, seems to do a splendid job.  I have numerous clients/friends in Indianapolis, none of whom came to my, or any other shows.  Shame on you all.  The arts community in Indianapolis seems vital, inspired and inspiring.  Indianapolis has some surprisingly good restaurants, with my favorite being R Bistro. I grew up in Chicago, and we Chicagoans mostly looked down our collective noses on Indy.  My 20 years spend in NYC didn’t make me any more favorably inclined to places like Indy.  I must admit that I am pleasantly surprised by how cosmopolitan the art scene, the restaurants and many of the people whom I met really are.  I’ll be damned.  Who knew?

Not Just Another Fringe But A Really Good One.

The Indianapolis Fringe Festival is a mere 5 years old with, I believe, 5 venues, all of which are on or just off of one street-Massachusetts Avenue.  Doesn’t sound like much compared to Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco etc.  Sometimes size matters, but not here.  Loren Niemi and I just completed a successful run of Alone and Testifying in the Indy Fringe.  This was my second year coming to Indy; the first as a performer.  I am usually overly loquacious, but let me just get to the point:  the Indy Fringe is/was GREAT.  I have never seen a more friendly group of fringe goers interacting with a more lively bunch of fringe artists spending money at local businesses.  I managed to see 11 shows, Loren 20 and my wife Pat 13.  There was some really really cool work here.  Lively, funny, risky, political and sometimes delightfully lewd and crude (hooray for the Monkey Poet!).   I either really enjoyed or loved everything I saw except for one show that will remain unnamed this Indy Fringe is over.  That show I positively hated.  More than any fringe show ever.  Actually, more than any show I have ever seen of any kind anywhere.  Oh well.  One stinker out of 11 was not too shabby.  What seems to really set the tone for Indy Fringe is the fact that is it small, intimate and totally self contained.  Some shows I loved:  Adventures in Mating (Joe Scrimshaw’s work moved to a new venue with non-Scrimshaw performers), Money Poet (incredibly funny Brit  doing scandalously perverse poetry about topics such as fisting), In Rehearsal (dance/yoga/storytelling), Assholes and Aureoles (BRILLIANT sketch comedy), And I Am Not Making This Up (improv dance/spoken word), Phil the Void (stand up monologue/?), Improscaping (brave, sensual poignant dance/movement).  How was our show, Alone and Testifying?  As you may have read below, I am not afraid to be self critical, so when I say I thought we did a bang up job, I really mean it.  We didn’t have huge crowds.  In fact, we drew larger audiences in Minny.  But we were better in Indy.  We just clicked.  Most of the reviewers seemed to agree.  Oh well, mea culpa Minny.

I hate to say this out loud, but I enjoyed the Indy Fringe this year more than I did the Minny Fringe.  For some reason, it felt like most of the Minneapolis Fringe shows I saw were all solid B’s, but no real A’s.  My wife Pat concurs.  As we drove back from Indy last night and today we realized that we could not recall one Minny show that really stood out.  In fact, there was almost none that we could even remember.  Most of our favorite memories were from the 2007, 2006 and 2005 Fringes.  Nothing scandalized, or titillated, or angered, or amazed, or or or.  It just was … nice?  I’m not sure why I feel this way, but I do, and did even before I became entranced by Indy.  I love the Minneapolis Fringe.  It just was too tidy for my taste.  Our intrepid Executive Director Robin Gilette ( a Kokomo Indiana native) was there with her parents.  Lovely people.  Oh well, next year it’s all new all over again, and I hope to see some of my favorites like Amy Solloway and Kevin Kling get a good number.  And I hope some of the regulars like the Scrimshaws push the taste envelope harder next year if they get in.  And I hope I get in again and really make up for what I saw as a sometimes lackluster performance on my part.  Hope springs eternal.

Obama in Virginia

I caught some of Obama’s public forum from somewhere in Virgina this AM.  I was not pleased.  He spouted slogan-like platitudes with few specifics and little more.  Worse, he sounded discombobulated.  He stumbled and stuttered along in a way that reminded me of my own miserable performance discussed in an earlier post.  Sure he’s tired, but come on, the guy’s running for President.  What’s worse, McCain’s been looking like a people’s “maverick” again lately.  Obama’s numbers are reputed to be falling.  I can see why.

And Now For Some Politics

Over the last couple of days a number of people have asked me my views on the upcoming presidential election in these good old United States.  So, over 5 scoops of ice cream at Pump House Creamery in Minneapolis (the BEST ice cream in the entire world), I actually took a few minutes to ponder and here’s what I’ve decided (at least for today):  John McCain is a tired old right wing conservative who has done little to distinguish himself except spending time in the Hanoi Hilton.  He is not a “maverick” or any type of “independent thinker”.  He is a by the book right wing Republican who married a rich woman (with whom, by the way, he started playing hide the salami while married to another woman-where’s the media outrage?) and doesn’t really give a damn about much except being President.  He is not pro-veteran, he is not pro-environment, he is most definitely anti-abortion rights, he favors free thought and free enterprise but only when it suits his needs, he is anti-equality for non-heterosexual people, he is mean spirited, he is stupid (finishing somewhere near the absolute bottom of the military college he attended), etc.  In short, he would, most likely make an absolutely horrible President.  Obama:  is pro gun to all Americans, pro-FISA, pro faith based blah blah blah, unwilling to speak out forcibly on issues like abortion, equality for all Americans, Israel, intelligent design, or, as far as I can tell, almost anything.  The man seems like a nice enough fellow, but what else is there to him.  Those positions he has taken are positions with which I disagree, so as I told a nice attorney the other day in  the kitchen of the  NYC office of a prosperous national labor and employment law firm, I intend to vote for Obama, but he makes me NERVOUS.  The nice attorney agreed.  Just once in my life I would like to see a candidate for high office, especially a Democratic candidate, be bold, say what they really think and tell the world that if they agree with these positions then vote for him/her, if not, vote for the other person.  More later.

Less Sorry Today

After reading my Sorry Sorry blogs, my dear friend Loren Niemi emailed me privately to see if I was ok. Loren, and anyone else who reads this blog: I’m ok. I have been singing the blues for the last couple of months and I would be telling a great big fib if I said that lo and behold, the blues have washed away this sunny Monday AM. They haven’t. More or less. Life has its ups and downs. I surely know that at least as much as the next person. Sometimes the downs overwhelm the ups, as has been the case with me recently. The good news is that there are concrete reasons for this most recent chaotic journey. I am an empathic person. I have always been such. I was warned in my teens by my guardian at the time that I felt the pain of others too acutely. He was right about that. Perhaps other things as well. These down times will pass. I am not yet suicidal. I’m actually too narcissistic to be truly suicidal. For that I have Mr. Bojangles to thank. So, it is a new day and the sun is shining and the humidity is low and life is not too bad. I will be going to a Moth slam in NYC tomorrow night and hopefully my muse will have returned before I get up on stage. I suspect it has already found its way home.

Further thoughts on the topic of storytelling: there is a place where stand up comedy, sketch comedy, personal narrative, and mythology intersect. I’m not sure where that place is, but wherever it is, that’s where all forms of storytelling meet. It’s a place where the teller, comic or whatever takes off his/her ego and stands before and apart of a group of listeners and shares what is inside and needs to come out. Somewhere in the delicious chaos known as a Fringe Festival, this place is found over and over again usually to the delight of the audience and teller alike. It’s not always profound, but it is almost always worth grabbing onto riding off into the sunset with (and yes, this is a dangling preposition. Get over it!).