MMR and a lack of trust
I am sick to fucking death of hearing about the MMR jab. Rhetorically Speaking points out that Peter Hitchens, after admitting that he knows fuck all about it, should shut the fuck up.
Dr Crippen has also gone on about how the MMR scare was a total fraud and that Dr Andrew Wakefield is the most evil man alive.
The reality is very simple: concerns were raised over the safety of the MMR jab—those concerns were not beyond the realms of possibility.
The government said that there was no problem but—and here is the fucking crux of the matter—no one trusts the fucking government on health issues (remember Gummer feeding a beef burger to his daughter?).*
And few people trust doctors either, since their representative bodies have been peddling lie after lie after lie, and still the so-called "decent ones" pay their dues to their disgusting, authortarian trade unions.
What should have happened is that the government should have authorised the single jabs: this would have been more expensive but would have avoided the sharp increase in measles rates (costing the NHS more in the long-term). The government expressly refused to pay for this course of action.
Given that the government did not allow single jabs, what should have happened is that the doctors who were so concerned about immunisation rates should have lobbied the government to allow the single jabs.
They did not do so, because the only thing that doctors' representative bodies are interested in is curtailing our freedoms as regards drink, drugs and cigarettes and they were too busy doing this to give two shits about important things such as herd immunity. Because they are all absolute stinking cunts.
So, might I highly recommend that everyone just shut the fuck up and get on trying to immunise as many kids as possible? Thank you.
* It's worth pointing out that BSE (and TSEs in general) is another area where consensus is fucking everything up. Huge amounts of money are still being poured into the investigation into prions as transmissive agents when, in fact, the transmissive agent is clearly a fucking virus. Laura Manuelidis' research, however, is being starved of cash in favour of a theory that not only makes cock-all sense but which has not been proven in over twenty years of experimentation.
Because, unfortunately, most scientists, researchers and politicians are colossal wankers with about as much concern for society (rather than, for instance, their own research budgets) as AIDS**, i.e. they need people to fuck each other to survive. I don't blame them for that but, like Fake Charities, everyone seems to think that these people are somehow immune from self-interest.
** I have ranted about this before, but it really pisses me off when I see AIDS written as Aids—especially when, in the same article, HIV is entirely capitalised. AIDS is an acronym, you wankers: it stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
Labels: fucking stupid little wankstains, low-grade bureaucratic meddling, medical care, mischief-making, really astonishing stupidity, state funding
In my humble opinion, the tosser known as Tony Blair refused to tell the public whether his son Leo had separate jabs or the mmr. This gave credibility that there was something more to it and hence the public (quite rightly) thought fuck that why should I believe these wankers.
Harvey said...
Dear Mr Devil
I regret to inform you that you are wrong on the single vaccine jab issue. Bulk vaccination of the herd is the most effective way of preventing disease spreading. Infective agents do not - sadly - care about the libertarian views of individuals. They fall however on the sword of mass immunisation.
Apart from this one issue I remain a libertarian and supporter of your blog.
Dr Harvey Smith
Dear Dr Harvey,
I regret to inform you that the efficacy of the MMR jab is completely by-the-by.
A single measles jab would be more efficacious than none at all.
As it is, we are now faced with a sharp rise in the rate of measles because the government did not authorise single jabs.
If the government had cared about herd immunity, they would therefore have authorised the single jab, since this would have avoided the issue of parents not having any jab at all.
Which was precisely the point of my post. There is no libertarian argument in here at all.
P.S. I did not have the MMR, and wentsuffered both measles and mumps although, not so far, rubella.
Ivor Bigot said...
those concerns were not beyond the realms of possibility
Oh yes they fucking were. One highly flawed report by a severely compromised individual, which should never have seen the light of day. However the real problem here was the MSM, Ben Goldacre quite rightly refers to their efforts as a hoax, given the sheer level of disregard for blatant facts shown by them.
I'm not trying to defend the government (heaven forbid), but the Hello generation seem to put far more faith in the redtops than any ministerial pronouncement.
For any who want a more thorough disection of the whole sorry episode, I can highly recommend his book "Bad Science". which has a whole chapter on this. Excellent for silencing dithering parents ;-)
Gareth said...
Leaving aside the actual hoo-har over MMR itself - for a Government committed to giving people choices why didn't it make the separate jabs regime available?
Separate jabs are better than none but no jabs is what they have encouraged.
Could it be they had agreed with the supplier or suppliers of the combined jab that the separate jabs would not be provided? I wouldn't be surprised if this were the case.
cabalamat said...
concerns were raised over the safety of the MMR jab—those concerns were not beyond the realms of possibility
At the time they were raised that might have been true. It isn't true now.
The claim that MMR causes autism has no basis in reality; it is about as intellectually respectable as holocasust denial or creationism.
"The claim that MMR causes autism has no basis in reality.."
As the Devil took great pains to point out, that no longer matters.
The cat is out of the bag, isn't going back in anytime soon, and all the efforts of the government to cram the MMR down parent's throats is now totally counterproductive, simply further cementing the idea that it's a big conspiracy.
Regardless of the 'best' approach, they should now throw open the only approach that people will accept.
Instead, they stick to their guns because they would rather not lose face. So, now whose intellectually respectable?
JuliaM: As the Devil took great pains to point out, that no longer matters. The cat is out of the bag, isn't going back in anytime soon, and all the efforts of the government to cram the MMR down parent's throats is now totally counterproductive, simply further cementing the idea that it's a big conspiracy.
Some people think MMR is a big conspiracy. They are wrong, and shouldn't be pandered to.
I don't care how many people are misinformed this way, because, y'know, science isn't democratic. Reality isn't democratic, either.
Public policy should be based on science and reality, regardless of whether that pisses off a few misinformed idiots. Or would you rather that the government made important decisions by consulting their horoscope? After all, lots of people believe in horoscopes.
cabalamat,
Goodness gracious, there was me thinking that that was just what the government were doing, using horoscopes. Their doings might make slightly more sense.
As to trade unions, I see that the doctors are complaining again, worried they might catch "swine fever" so the want protection, ie more money.
ENGLISHMAN said...
When i were a lad,if mumps or measles were diagnosed in any children in the street ,all of the mothers would send thier children round to catch it,thus aquiring an immunity and removing a devastating illness in later life and strengthening the stock,and it did not cost a penny,still we know better now dont we?
Umbongo said...
cabalamat
"Public policy should be based on science and reality, regardless of whether that pisses off a few misinformed idiots"
You'll be telling us next that climate change - the extent of man's influence on which remains (outside the BBC and the political class) debateable - requires a return to the stone age.
FlipC said...
Purely out of curiosity where would you expect the government to locate the large amounts of single vaccines required? Even those private individuals willing to pay had difficulty due to the high demand.
Chalcedon said...
When I was a lad the causative agents of CJDand Kuru were called "slow viruses" and had never been isolated. I always thought Pruisner's work was bollocks and that a virus must be around with a genome. This protein folding business never cut it for me. With modern molecular techniques it was only a matter of time. but prions have become a new orthodoxy. I just wish scientists would remain sceptical and not blithely assume the veracity of a good story just because it was a good story.
On this matter, you are talking through your arse mate!
"Public policy should be based on science and reality, regardless of whether that pisses off a few misinformed idiots. "
And when it's more than 'a few', and is threatening your herd immunity as a result?
"Purely out of curiosity where would you expect the government to locate the large amounts of single vaccines required? Even those private individuals willing to pay had difficulty due to the high demand."
You mean, if there's a big fat government contract available, they won't make more...?
"DK,
On this matter, you are talking through your arse mate!"
Well, there's nothing like refuting an argument with well-thought-out reason.
And that's nothing like, etc, etc....
"Well, there's nothing like refuting an argument with well-thought-out reason."
I have been refuting it for years but its like talking to the wall.
The triple MMR is proven to be more effective that single vaccinations. There is no evidence that single vaccines are safer. Which part of that can't you fucking understand!
Public health policy is formulated according to the evidence.
Are you suggesting that we should provide an inferior vaccination service just because of ignorent fuckwits and their erroneous beliefs?
I hope that is well-thought-out enough for you!
"I have been refuting it for years but its like talking to the wall."
Do you ever ask yourself why that should be?
"Are you suggesting that we should provide an inferior vaccination service just because of ignorent fuckwits and their erroneous beliefs?"
What's the alternative, given that it's now affecting your much-vaunted 'herd immunity'?
HolfordWatch said...
Single jabs - Part 1.
Major charities have reviewed the issue of single jabs and they recommended that the government should not offer them.
I would urge interested readers to download and study the Sense Position Statement on the issue of MMR because it also responds to the calls for single jabs.------------
"An immunisation strategy can only ever be effective if there is mass uptake, meaning that choice between single vaccines and MMR cannot be part of an effective vaccination programme. One of the difficulties with MMR uptake is that, while the prevalence of measles, mumps and rubella in the UK is low, the incentive to vaccinate can appear less. From the perspective of an individual parent, the risk of their child contracting an infectious disease can seem small compared with the risk of possible (or perceived) adverse reactions to immunisation. However, this is only true if vaccination levels remain high. It is actually the counter-argument to this view that is the rationale for vaccination programmes - that the risk of vaccine damage is extremely low compared with the risk of the ill-effects of contracting the disease.
At the same time, low uptake of rubella vaccination could actually have worse consequences than no uptake. If there were no vaccination against rubella, then most people would catch rubella in childhood and would subsequently be immune. A low uptake of vaccination would mean that the virus would still be able to circulate, but that fewer children would become immune in childhood. Outbreaks of rubella would be less common than the epidemics that would occur with no vaccination, and so a cohort of unvaccinated and un-immunised children would increase each year and get older, with the burden of the disease shifting to those who are most at risk. Thus the impact of an outbreak in terms of congenital rubella syndrome births could be greater."-----
Single jabs, Part 2, cont.
------"For MMR vaccination to be effective, uptake needs to be above 95%: this is why boys as well as girls need to be vaccinated. From 1970 to 1988, schoolgirls were vaccinated against rubella, and this did have some success in reducing the number of rubella births. However, the real breakthrough came in 1988 when MMR was introduced for all children. This reduced rubella births by a further 90% - there were 447 congenital rubella births between 1971 and 1980 and 38 between 1991 and 2000…
Thanks to vaccination, rubella damage is now rare. However, this means that many people do not realise how dangerous rubella can be. In the United States, people from the Amish community have exercised their right for their children not to be immunised against rubella. As a result, in 1995, one baby in 50 born to Amish parents was born severely rubella damaged…
It has been be argued that even if the Government believes MMR to be safe, they should provide single vaccines as an alternative because then more children would be vaccinated. However, there is absolutely no evidence to support the suggestion that allowing single vaccines would lead to a greater uptake of MMR, and a significant amount of evidence to show that it would have the opposite effect. Single vaccines would be less effective than MMR and there is no evidence that they would be safer. Sense believes that it is unethical to promote six invasive procedures instead of two without sound scientific support, and when there is evidence that such a strategy would have negative effects. [They then give their reasons and some very good, supportive figures.]…
parents may opt not to vaccinate their children, particularly their sons, against rubella. This would lead to increased risk to pregnant women. Unvaccinated boys can catch rubella and go on to infect pregnant women, including their own mothers. This is exactly what happened before MMR was introduced….
[Reprise of what happened the last time single vaccines were offered because of a (groundless) vaccine scare.] In the 1970s, following a decrease in uptake of the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP) vaccine, single vaccines for pertussis (whooping cough) were offered, with diphtheria and tetanus vaccines given separately. What happened was that over half of parents chose to vaccinate their children without the pertussis component. Coverage fell from 80% to 30%, there were three epidemics of pertussis, thousands of hospital admissions and around a hundred deaths. It took nearly fifteen years for vaccine uptake levels to recover…
[Sense list of recommendations] The Government should continue to offer MMR and should not make single vaccines available as an alternative."----------
There are very strong reasons to promote the use of MMR or multivalent vaccines rather than single jabs: Sense makes a good fist of outlining one particularly good case.
DK wrote: "The reality is very simple: concerns were raised over the safety of the MMR jab—those concerns were not beyond the realms of possibility."
They were pretty infeasible. Had people known about: the sexed-up results; the less than random assortment of children; the state of the facilities at Unigenetics; the problems at the Kawashima Labs; Nicholas Chadwick's findings; the opinions of Prof.'s Bustin, Rima, Rust, Simmons and Griffin; the fact that as early as 1992, it was clear to immunologists and microbiologists that Wakefield thought that he had identified the measles virus in various biopsy tissues but they told him that it wasn't - he seems not to have listened to them; the involvement of legal funding; the application for a patent for Wakefield's own vaccine alternative etc. - then Wakefield's results and later publicity-seeking activities would probably not had such an impact.
"Do you ever ask yourself why that should be?"
Ignorent fuckwits!
"it's now affecting your much-vaunted 'herd immunity'?"
How do you mean "my" much vaunted. Those not vaccinated benefit from the immunity of those who are vaccinated.
Englishman: "When i were a lad,if mumps or measles were diagnosed in any children in the street ,all of the mothers would send thier children round to catch it,thus aquiring an immunity." If that were entirely true, why do you think that parents would have consented to giving their children to the measles vaccine when it was introduced? Even to the point of queuing for it?
If we are just trading anecdotes, I have a relative who is deaf because of measles (not that unusual a sequelae). You wouldn't necessarily have met adventitiously deaf or blinded children of her generation because there was no statutory obligation to educate children with disabilities until 1970. Some didn't get an education - others went to special schools where they achieved nothing like their potential.
Some details changed but let's say that I recently took a history from a woman in her late 50s. She graduated from Cambridge with a 1st class degree in maths a few years ago. I asked her why she had chosen to study late in life. She hadn't been able to attend school much when she was a child because of chronic chest problems following measles and mups - she left without qualifications. Her life might have been very different.
A man in his 40s - life opportunities restricted by heart murmurs - secondary infection subsequent to mumps.
Up until comparatively recently, a substantial number of children who died with leukaemia died because they contracted preventable childhood illnesses rather than from the leukaemia as such. Children with some congenital heart defects were more likely to die from preventable childhood illnesses than from the defect itself.
These children, even if they couldn't be vaccinated, are the sort who would have benefited from the herd immunity of others being vaccinated.
I'll post something about the remarkable immunosuppressive impact of measles in another comment.
"How do you mean "my" much vaunted. Those not vaccinated benefit from the immunity of those who are vaccinated."
Until there's more of the former and less of the latter....
"There are very strong reasons to promote the use of MMR or multivalent vaccines rather than single jabs: Sense makes a good fist of outlining one particularly good case."
And when, despite all your 'promoting', people just refuse to trust the medical authorities, what then?
Is it possible for there to be a better-thought out response to the Sense document that your apparently offhand dismissal of it?
I doubt that that document is that well-known - I certainly use it in every discussion of single jabs that I come across. Oddly, it does tend to be ignored - or responded to so quickly that I sometimes doubt that it has been read, far less given any consideration (I posted extracts, the original document is lengthy).
I would direct interested readers to The Expert on Measles, Dr Diane Griffin. Dr Griffin is the editor of the definitive Field's Virology and her status is such that she has contributed the chapter on measles for the last 3 editions. She gave testimony at the Autism Omnibus Hearings in the US. She details the remarkable immunosuppressant effects of the measles virus (see pg. 2738 onwards, Day 11 Autism Omnibus Hearings pdf). It seems that measles not only challenges the immune system itself, it suppresses response to other challenges so most deaths from measles are related to secondary infections.
"So there is a period of time which is initiated during this acute phase that children are more susceptible to other infectious diseases. So this is a very clinically important complication or outcome or by-product of measles and all of the data suggests that it's clinically related, as I say paradoxically, to the fact that the immune system is so activated and so engaged in making a response to measles that it is not appropriately positioned to respond to some new challenge that comes along at this same time… [pg. 2768]…
So a number of viruses that are particularly pathogenic, actually, have figured out how to block the interferon response in order to have a better chance of really causing a more severe disease. And wild-type measles seems to be among those viruses that can do that…[pg 2772]
We forget in the US what a serious disease [measles] was and why it was such an early target for the development of a vaccine, because the [mortality] is substantial. And the mortality is substantial, even in developed countries. It's less in developed countries but it's substantial. And if everyone gets it, that's a lot." [pg. 2797]
And it is generally acknowledged that measles is so contagious that every child with measles infects 15 others (pdf) which rather highlights Dr Griffins' warnings that the no. of children who contract it is so high that even a comparatively low mortality rate can produce a high number of deaths.
As No Sleep 'Til Brooklands says:
----"I can imagine that in an alternate universe somewhere the NHS has withdrawn the MMR vaccine, citing a 12-subject preliminary study claiming a link to autism, in which the doctor involved reportedly tweaked his results. In that universe, The Mail is running screaming headlines about every subsequent child death from measles, and columnists are suspicious that the decision to withdraw was merely financial, that the NHS and Government have simply decided that letting a few kids die of measles is 'cost-effective'."-------
I think the science here is simple, sufficient and settled.
If you do not immunise to m,m or r, then you get an increased rate of infections. If you get infections, you get severe side-effects of infection at a fairly low frequency. In the UK population, "fairly low frequency" translates into an awful lot of suffering, disabled kids and deaths. Even though it is stochastic, and even though it happens at low incidence, it is inevitable.
As regards single jabs, the practical experience is that people don't complete all three.
So DK's view is that a single jab will raise immunisation rates. You know, if a doctor or scientist were to make such a speculative case, on the basis of the complete lack of evidence that DK relies upon, DK might well give them a damn good fisking.
err, and that is apart from the problem that you couldn't get enough vaccine for the whole population at short notice.
"Is it possible for there to be a better-thought out response to the Sense document that your apparently offhand dismissal of it?"
You are misunderstanding me (I suspect deliberately).
I have no doubts about the Sense report. But I'm not the target audience you need to convince.
And for every condescending 'Oh, you stupid people!' post you make here and on other threads, you lose more of the audience you are trying to reach.
The young parents with kids needing vaccination who see merely hectoring, or threats, rather than anything they can trust.
"I think the science here is simple, sufficient and settled."
It appears that enough people don't believe (or trust) you to make it a growing problem.
So, now what?
Have you ever heard of the Darwin Awards? I have no problem with these people removing their offspring from the gene pool
Some people here seem to be missing the point, so could I please ask someone in the know — HolfordWatch? — a quick question: is the measles single jab (assuming completion, etc.) any less effective in and of itself than the triple vaccine?
I would assume not — though I am no expert — since it would surely be the same strains of virus used?
the a&e charge nurse said...
Devil - as you admit yourself the issue, as you present it, has got NOTHING to do with scientific evidence and everything to do with choice (we'll leave aside traumatising children with needless injections for the moment, or the fact that multiple jabs increase complications associated with sticking needles into muscle: cellulitis, dry abscess, etc).
The principle you seem to be advocating is that if pressure groups whinge often enough, and long enough then inferior treatment (more costly, more painful, greater risk of complications, etc) is the order of the day.
Next you'll be telling us that people with HIV should refuse to use condoms unless they are strawberry flavoured, or people with TB should decline long term antibiotics unless a two week holiday is thrown in to off-set the inconvenience of taking tablets for 6 months.
By the way you don't tell us which services should be cut to pay for the neurotic MMR refuseniks not to mention the additional health costs incurred from babies damaged in-utero by rubella virus.
SaltedSlug said...
Well based on the historical record of vaccine abstention, when enough of these people's children are deaf, blind, infertile or dead they will re-assess their priorities.
JuliaM, responding to "Public policy should be based on science and reality, regardless of whether that pisses off a few misinformed idiots.":
Clearly loss of herd immunity is a bad hing that ought to be avoided. Parents who don't immunize their children are causing negative externalities on others. The best way, in general, to deal with behaviour that causes negative extetrnalities is to tax it according to the amount of nxternality it produces.
In this instance, a simple solution would be to withhold some or all of child benefit payments from parents who don't immunize their children. This would rapidly bring immunization rates up to 99.99%
"In this instance, a simple solution would be to withhold some or all of child benefit payments from parents who don't immunize their children."
We can't seem to do this for criminals, and you are suggesting we do it for people who simply don't believe the government orthodoxy of the day? But who might accept a different (inferior) option?
Congratulations, you've created a martyr movement. And made the situation worse...
JuliaM said ......... "people who simply don't believe the government orthodoxy of the day ".
Substitute the phrase 'government orthodoxy of the day' for 'consensus amongst international scientific community' then we might be getting somewhere.
This is the problem in a nutshell: a small army of supposedly intelligent people talking absolute crap when they really should know better.
@JuliaM "You mean, if there's a big fat government contract available, they won't make more...?"
Yep as if by magic they'll instantly expand production or change some of the existing MMR producing equipment to produce single jabs in the hopes that the government will maintain a contract for it and the fuss won't just blow over in a few years time.
The point about supply and demand is that when it requires substantial change or investment you need to guarantee that the demand will be sustained.
Besides if that had happened this blog entry would be about how the government is wasting our money on over-priced single jabs when the far cheaper and perfectly safe triple shot is still being made and sold.
And we're back. Sort of.
Madoff gets silly prison sentence
Norwich North by-election
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Velvet Glove, Iron Fist—earn your favourite sweary...
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LVT is not a good tax
Big fucking numbers
Statement of the fucking obvious
Miscellaneous meanderings
Change you can believe in...
It's getting chilli
Will we ever trust doctors again?
Slow Blogging
Nuclear Fusion update
Change? We spunk on change. And fuck improvement.
An eruption
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It's the way she tells 'em
Two problems, one solution
MMR (yet again)
Drugs as a tool
Bluster and bollocks: the Tories on Lisbon
What percentage of our laws are made by the EU?
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Financial Gain Planning
Poons
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BNP: Left-wing party
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Throw them all out!
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LPUK at the polls
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Liveblogging the Cabinet Reshuffle
100 years ago...
I am busy doing a server upgrade and, alas, have t...
The laughing stock of the world
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No, I should do it...


Stage Review
In Israeli Stage's 'The Return,' an encounter resounding with echoes from the past
By Don Aucoin Globe Staff,May 8, 2019, 5:49 p.m.
Nael Nacer and Philana Mia star in "The Return."(Anna Olivella)
After an impressive nine-year run powered by indefatigable founder and artistic director Guy Ben-Aharon, Israeli Stage is ringing down the curtain with "The Return.''
It's a fitting finale. Cowritten by Hanna Eady and Edward Mast, "The Return'' is a taut, politically charged two-hander about a fraught encounter between a Palestinian man (Nael Nacer) and an Israeli woman (Philana Mia) in the front office of an auto repair garage located in Herzliya, Israel.
As their painful shared history emerges bit by bit, "The Return'' underscores the ways that simple one-on-one human relationships are often the principal casualties of unending conflict, while raising wider questions about what such conflicts can do to a nation's soul. Broadly speaking, those have been among the themes that have defined Israeli Stage productions since Ben-Aharon, then just 20, launched the company in November 2010.
Over the ensuing years, Israeli Stage presented five full productions of works that focused on Israeli culture and politics, all directed by Ben-Aharon ("Ulysses on Bottles,'' "Oh God,'' "Days of Atonement,'' "The Last Act,'' and "The Return''), as well as more than two dozen staged readings.
As with David J. Miller's steadfast leadership of Zeitgeist Stage Company, which recently closed its doors after nearly 20 years, Ben-Aharon's stewardship of Israeli Stage demonstrated the outsize impact a leader of a small theater company can have if he is driven by a passionate sense of mission. Some of Boston's most high-profile actors were drawn to that mission; among those who performed with Israeli Stage were the late Thomas Derrah, Melinda Lopez, Karen MacDonald, Will Lyman, Obehi Janice, Will LeBow, Maureen Keiller, Remo Airaldi, Nancy E. Carroll, and Ken Cheeseman.
In "The Return,'' Nacer and Mia deliver performances worthy of that illustrious roster. Nacer again demonstrates his mastery at playing men stretched tight by circumstance, at imparting weight and meaning to moments of stillness, and, when the need arises, at going from zero to 60, dramatically speaking. For her part, Mia skillfully works through the layers of a character who starts out aggressively in charge but ends up nearly broken, forced to live with the knowledge that she was betrayed not just by her country but by herself.
When the woman played by Mia first shows up in his garage, Nacer's mechanic stiffens into a guarded, even rigid, formality. It becomes quickly apparent that she's not there just to have work done on her car. Their subsequent conversation is part interrogation, part game of cat-and-mouse.
She quizzes him, expressing surprise that "they let you work on those military vehicles,'' informing him that she has been out of the country for "quite a while,'' demanding to know whether his name is really Yakov, as he claims, or Avi, as she insists it is. "It's been 13 years and you have some new name,'' she tells him. "I don't know if that's real or a joke. Did they make you a new name?'' He professes bafflement and keeps offering to show her his identification card; his struggle to contain himself is palpable.
Ben-Aharon sustains an atmosphere of tension and suspense as subsequent events unfold, maintaining a tight focus on "The Return's'' two tormented people while also evoking the context of checkpoints and scanners and security cameras within which they are trying to (re)connect. The blank surfaces and sharp geometric planes of Cristina Todesco's bone-white set emphasize the spatial relationship between them and suggest that they are trapped, as if the world is closing in on them (which it indeed proves to be). The stage is suffused in red light (the lighting design is by Jeff Adelberg) during scenic transitions, and a tonal hum created by sound designer David Wilson adds resonant aural punctuation to a crucial scene.
Even after the truth about the past relationship between the Palestinian and the Israeli comes out, their story isn't over. They both have to cope with further consequences. History isn't done with them yet.
Play by Hanna Eady and Edward Mast. Directed by Guy Ben-Aharon. Presented by Israeli Stage. At Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, through May 19. Tickets $25, 617-266-0800, www.israelistage.com
Don Aucoin can be reached at aucoin@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter@GlobeAucoin


Archive for the 'Adl' Category
19th Oesterreicher Lecture at Seton Hall
This is an excellent opportunity for doubters to come to understand whether the threat of Holocaustolatry within the Church is exaggerated or rather understated here.
19th Oesterreicher Lecture
by: Laurie Pine
The Rev. Dennis McManus will discuss The Holocaust Matrix: Its Destructive Past and Its Dangerous Future at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, November 4, at The 19th Monsignor John M. Oesterreicher Memorial Lecture. The program is hosted by The Institute of Judaeo-Christian Studies. Sponsored by the Msgr. J. M. Oesterreicher Endowment, the event is free and open to the community. The event will take place at Seton Hall University's Walsh University Library Beck Rooms, 400 South Orange, NJ.
"The many-faceted work of the Reverend Dr. Dennis McManus provides a background for his insights into the Shoah (Holocaust) and implications for continuing reflection on this important topic." (Father Lawrence Frizzell, Director, The Institute of Judaeo-Christian Studies).
The Rev. Dennis McManus, Ph.D., teaches at St. John's Seminary in Boston and at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He is Consultant for Jewish Affairs at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and belongs to the Church Relations Committee of the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum. Since 1997 he has been very active in the Anti-Defamation League/USCCB joint program in Holocaust Education "Bearing Witness," offered nationally in Catholic dioceses. He is director of the Jan Karski Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Georgetown University. He has contributed to the Cambridge Dictionary of Christian-Jewish Relations (2005) and to Ancient Christian Commentary (InterVarsity Press). His forthcoming book will address the achievements of Pope Benedict XVI with the Jewish community.
Monsignor Oesterreicher, a European-born Jew who converted to Catholicism at the age of 20, devoted his early years in the priesthood to parish work, ecumenism and peace. During the years of Nazi persecution he combatted Adolph Hitler's glorification of race and hatred for Jews, eventually escaping from the Gestapo in 1938 via Switzerland and Paris and travelling circuitously through Spain and Portugal, finally arriving in the United States in 1940. After serving in several parishes in New York City, he was invited to Seton Hall University in March 1953 and became founding director of the Institute of Judaeo-Christian Studies.
The late Monsignor Oesterreicher wrote in The Rediscovery of Judaism (1971), "True sensitivity sees not only the volcano of evil that erupted in Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Bergen-Belsen, but also the ultimate failure of the greatest poisoner of history; for all his success, he did not triumph. Horrible though it was, the 'Final Solution' was anything but final. Six million Jews died, but the Jewish people lives. What this sentence really means is exemplified by the State of Israel. Here, an ancient people that for almost two thousand years was severed from the soil, that as a whole had not been involved in statecraft, that in the days of Hitler had been defaced in every possible way, was rejuvenated."
The Advisory Board of the Institute of Judaeo-Christian Studies includes Director Reverend Lawrence E. Frizzell, D.Phil.; Michelle Dahl, Ed. D.;Sister Phyllis Kapuscinski, N.D.S., Ph.D.; M. Therese Liddy, M.A.; Reverend Msgr. Gerard H. McCarren, S.T.D.; Reverend John F. Morley, Ph.D.; Sister Alice Swartz, R.S.M., Ph.D.; and Sister Anita Talar, R.S.M., M.L.S.
For more information, contact Reverend Lawrence Frizzell at (973) 761-9751 or Lawrence.Frizzell@shu.edu.
Posted in Adl, Bearing Witness, Dennis McManus, Georgetown University, John Oesterreicher, Seton Hall, St. John's Seminary, USCCB | 1 Comment »
More Catholic School Teachers to the ADL Guilt Chambers
U.S. Catholic School Educators Will Visit Holy Land on ADL Mission to Israel
New York, NY, July 6, 2012 … A group of Catholic school educators from 10 states across the country will be traveling to the Holy Land on an Anti-Defamation League (ADL) mission that aims to provide an advance course of study on anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and Catholic-Jewish relations.
The 19 participants in the nationally acclaimed ADL Bearing Witness Advanced™ program will be traveling in Israel July 11-18, where they will visit Christian and Jewish holy sites and meet with Holocaust survivors, members of the Israeli government, Arab Israelis, Israeli journalists, Catholic dignitaries, Jewish community leaders, interfaith experts and scholars [but no Palestinian Christians].
The educators represent middle and high schools in Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Illinois and California.
"This mission is essential to helping Catholic educators gain a deeper understanding of the historic relationship between the Catholic and Jewish communities and develop the tools needed to teach about the Holocaust, anti-Semitism and modern-day Israel," said David Waren, ADL Director of Education. "Now in its 8th year, the ADL Bearing Witness Advanced program continues to give Catholic educators the opportunity to gain firsthand knowledge of the Jewish state and enhance their appreciation of the country and its history. The educators are then able to bring these experiences and lessons home to their students, fellow educators and communities" …
Full artice:
http://www.adl.org/PresRele/ChJew_31/6344_31.htm
Rabbis Preach Guilt in Catholic Schools
Catholic School Teachers Programmed to "Bear Witness" to Holocaustolatry
Pope Appoints 'Holocaust' Guilt Booster to Council Overseeing Catholic Education
Posted in Adl, B'nai B'rith, Bearing Witness, Catholic, Holocaust Education | 2 Comments »
Sacha Baron Cohen's Father: B'nai B'rith UK President, Hillel Director
UPDATED with further documentation
Sacha Baron Cohen's claim to fame is abusing deceiving and mocking individuals and ethnicities for laughs; videotaping interviews where the subject is made to look foolish. He refuses to say how these oftentimes high-profile interviews are arranged. In 2009, Sky News documented that Baron Cohen deceived a Palestinian Christian into an interview and deceived his viewers to believe that the subject was a hostile Muslim terrorist. The man filed a defamation lawsuit. The 'Anti-Defamation' League of B'nai B'rith was nowhere to be found, however. There's a reason for that.*
Sacha Baron Cohen's father, Gerald Baron Cohen was President of the B'nai B'rith first lodge of England. He also served as a director of the university subversion branch of B'nai B'rith, Hillel (note that one of his companies is listed as "Ali G Limited." "Ali G" is one of Sacha Baron Cohen's characters). This rather important piece of information is left out of Sacha Baron Cohen's biographies. Knowing it helps us to better understand his 'humor.'
From: Shemot, The Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain, December 2010 Vol 18, 3
From: the Jewish Quarterly, Volumes 28-30, Jewish Literary Trust, 1980
In light of this information I think it's safe to say that the public 'dialogue' that B'nai B'rith's Abe Foxman recently had with Sacha Baron Cohen regarding his "Borat" character was a contrived 'teachable moment.' Others have sensed the protection racket angle to his shtick.
Sacha Baron Cohen has a new movie, "The Dictator" in which he has a few laughs at the expense of the victims of the Zionist 'Arab Spring' hostilities.
B'nai B'rith is a 'Jews'-only masonic organization which, among other things, was founded to impede assimilation of Judaic individuals by disrupting the culture and religion of their host nations while simultaneously building up Judaic culture and religion.
* I don't imply that the ADL would have otherwise assisted a defamed Palestinian.
Skull and Bones member, George W. Bush jokes about the lie that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands in Iraq
ADL Board Member's Grandson Transformed as 'al Qaeda' Agent Threatens 'Islamofascist' Attack on U.S.
ADL of B'nai B'rith Conference on Replacing Calvary with Auschwitz
B'nai B'rith Canada Director of Government Relations: 'Holocaust Central to New World Order.'
JPII's Respect for Talmudic Khazars of ADL of B'nai B'rith Based In Mysterious Spiritual Link
Sigmund Freud Was A Member of B'nai B'rith
Former B'nai B'rith head admits downloading 9 hours of child pornography for "education"
B'nai B'rith's War Agitator, John Loftus
World Jewish Congress Oligarch Chartered Child-Rape Boat
The Judeo-Masonic Tradition of Mocking the Victim
Posted in Adl, Admiral General Aladeen, Ali G, B'nai B'rith, borat, Bruno, cajolery, Chaim Weizmann, chameleon, Gerald Baron Cohen, Hillel, Masonic Jest, Mocking the Victim, Sacha Baron Cohen, The Dictator | 4 Comments »
Neocatechumenal Way Presents Holocaustian Symphony of Homage to Talmudic "Fathers in the Faith"
Literally every religious claim below is rubbish intended to create false commonality between Jesus, the Bible, the Israelites and today's talmudic 'Jews' where there is in fact complete opposition. Jesus never prayed to "Hashem," a ridiculous, tribal, exclusivist contrivance which translates as "The Name." But this is the kind of madness that one would expect from 'Catholics' who call the rabbis of Talmud and Kabbalah "fathers in the faith."
'Traditional Catholics' are wont to criticize the Neocatechumenal Way for its liturgical absurdities. Let us see what they have to say (nothing?) about this theologically and symbolically loaded symphony of race exultation in which Jesus' mother is made to cry with 'Jews' of the Talmud (which teaches that her Son deserved to be executed) and "affirm" the "Shema Yisrael" which for centuries has connotated rejection of Christianity in general and specifically the Christian doctrines of the Trinity and Divinity of Christ.
Dear traditionalist reader, what we have here, consistent with the modern Catholic mockery of Auschwitz replacing Calvary, is Mary crying with 'The Jews' at the foot of the 'gas chambers' instead of crying for Jesus at the foot of the cross. Are you in 'full communion' with this outrageous mockery?
A Concert of Reconciliation
Catholic Group Honors Jews in Free Lincoln Center Event
Jonathan Mark – The Jewish Week
… The Neocatechumenal Way was founded in Spain, in large part, to further Catholic spiritual renewal and solidify the relationship with Jews. The group, now with more than 80 seminaries around the world and a major center in Israel's Galilee, is presenting a free symphonic concert in Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall (May 8 at 8 p.m.), billed as a "musical gift to the Jewish people." (Advance registration required, by calling [201] 998-9469).
The symphony, entitled "The Suffering of the Innocents," is being presented as an homage and prayer to Holocaust victims in particular, viewed through a Catholic prism of Mary crying and united with Jewish mothers in the concentration camps, affirming "Shema Yisrael." The elaborate piece — for 100 musicians and 80 choral singers — was composed by the movement's founder, Kiko Arguello, a painter and theologian, who has stated that his symphony is being offered "as a bridge of love and reconciliation.
"We act according to the last wishes for Pope John Paul II. We remember that the roots of Christianity are in Judaism and that since the beginning, God made Israel the chosen people."
The concert has been endorsed by representatives of numerous Jewish organizations, including the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League [of B'nai B'rith], the New York Board of Rabbis and the Jewish Community Relations Council, as well as Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, and Haim Gutin of the Israeli Ministry of Tourism. After the performance of the symphony, [Papal Knight] Rabbi David Rosen, the AJC's director of interreligious relations, is scheduled to lead a memorial prayer for the victims of the Shoah, prior to a collective recitation of "Shema."
['Holocaust' Dispensationalist Theologian] Rabbi Irving "Yitz" Greenberg told The Jewish Week that The Neocatechumenal Way is "primarily a lay inspiration group that has done no missionary work and has no missionary interest. They speak about Israel like the Evangelicals do, that the Jews are 'God's people.' And Israel is 'God's Promised Land.' They specialize in a respectful attempt to help Catholics better appreciate the Jewish people and the Jewish religion, as well as raising an awareness of how much the Jews have suffered, including from Christians.
"In fact, one of the highlights of their programs, including the one they're about to have in New York, is to get people to chant 'Shema Yisroel, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad,' in Hebrew. Partially it is, for them, the chanting of the prayer that Jesus said, and in part it is a powerful emotional statement about the Jews."
Rabbi Greenberg added, "'The Suffering of the Innocents' addresses the theological problem of suffering, often using Christian imagery, but also refers to the fact that the Jews are the classic example of innocent suffering. And just as God has a special love for the suffering innocent, so should Christians have a love for the Jewish people.
"It would be both impressive and a positive Jewish experience for Jews to be" at the Lincoln Center event, said Rabbi Greenberg. "And it is important for [the Neocatechumanals] to see that at least the Jewish establishment respects their work."
Giuseppe Gennarini, of the Neocatechumenal leaders in the United States, told The Jewish Week that his movement aims at "rediscovery, and the first thing we discover in the faith is the Jewish roots, we discover the word of God, we discover Abraham, we discover the Exodus and the Passover. With rediscovery comes love. We are grateful to the Jews for what they have given to us, to help us know God."
He prefers to think of Jews, not as an "elder brother," as some Christians say, but as a "parent," because in the Bible "there were so often difficulties between brothers, such as with Esau and Jacob, and Joseph and his brothers. So we say, not brothers, but you are our parent, our father in the faith."
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/concert_reconciliation
Posted in Adl, AJC, David Rosen, father in the faith, Giuseppe Gennarini, Kiko Arguello, Lincoln Center, NCW, Neocatechumenal Way, Rabbi Irving Greenberg, Shema, The Suffering of the Innocents, WJC | 8 Comments »
Pope Foxman is Deeply Disturbed
The Kvetching Pope, Abe Foxman has issued another of his kvetching edicts, this one titled, "ADL Deeply Disturbed by Archbishop's Remarks Likening Politicians in Trinidad and Tobago to Jews":
… Port of Spain Archbishop Edward Gilbert was reported to have [likened Trinidad and Tobago politicians to Jews] during a Jubilee Mass held October 24 at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Church in San Fernando to celebrate the 225th anniversary of the Roman Catholic mission there.
"The Jews were compassionate and caring for their own, they were compassionate and caring to the people of their nation, to the people of their race, to the people of their ethnic communities. However, that wasn't enough for Jesus. Jesus took that teaching and universalized it," Archbishop Gilbert told his congregation, according to a news report. "In many cases in this country, there are people who love one another, who are compassionate, but they have the mindset of the original Jewish people. They are good to their own … but they have not universalized the concept of love."
Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, said the archbishop's statements as reported were "a disturbing repackaging of ancient anti-Jewish canards and supersessionist beliefs."
"Archbishop Gilbert devalues Judaism over and against Christianity," said Mr. Foxman. "The false notion that Jews only care about themselves and don't care enough about others is one of the major pillars of classical anti-Semitism."
"While the Catholic Church has made tremendous strides in countering anti-Jewish notions such as the belief that the advent of Christianity superseded Judaism, Archbishop Gilbert's statements show that he has not internalized the important reforms of Vatican II."
http://www.adl.org/PresRele/ASInt_13/6145_13.htm
I agree that Pope Foxman is deeply disturbed and I would be happy to illustrate one of the many reasons why.
Above we see Pope Foxman in his edict to the Goyim proclaim that it's a damnable "major pillar of classical anti-Semitism" to recognize the fact that Judaism is not a universal religion but a tribal religion which teaches its adherents to favor the tribe over outsiders.
But over here, in Foxman's inter-office memo to the tribe not meant for Goy eyes to see, Foxman admonishes the tribe to not love universally because to do so is "Judaism lite" which "brushes past the theological significance of acting on behalf of Jews."
"What I've been critical of is those who have sold Judaism as, 'All you have to do is love universally and that's Judaism,' " Foxman said. "It's not—it's ersatz Judaism. It's Judaism lite." It also, Foxman added pointedly, has the potential to elevate political action on behalf of others while brushing past the theological significance of acting on behalf of Jews.
Tikkun Olam is a Tribal, not Universal, Concept
Evidently, Pope Foxman is deeply disturbed because he wants to enforce his tribal racket while defining it a damnable heresy for any outsider to recognize that fact. To paraphrase St. Augustine, by doing so, his madness, not innocence, is manifest.
I have often marveled at the word-magic I've read in pseudo-scholarly post-graduate volumes as they circle around the white elephant of Judaic tribalism (euphemized as "particularism") for hundreds of pages dedicated to mesmerizing the reader into the false belief that Judaism is a universal, progressive, enlightened religion.
The deeply disturbing part of it is the deception and browbeating of observers into not acknowledging what is plain before their eyes–that Judaism is the most un-universal religion in existence, if not in history. Every sane person knows it. Everyone who has lived among followers of the rabbis has experienced it. There are individual exceptions among "Jews," but as Foxman says in his inter-office memo, they are not really living according to true Judaism.
That this even has to be decoded is a testament to the state of degradation we've descended to. Of course Judaism is tribal; the word plainly means tribe-of-Judah-ism. It's about sustaining the tribe of counterfeit Judah at all costs. It's not about loving and serving God; loving ones non-Judaic neighbor as oneself or any such universal value.
Pray for Pope Foxman that God will relieve him of his deeply disturbed state and that he will cease his attempts to inculcate the same in us. Until he is miraculously healed, tell your friends, family and clergy to ignore the disturbed ravings of the self-chosen Pope Foxman.
Posted in Abe Foxman, Adl, Archbishop Gilbert, Deception, Jews, Judaism, Port of Spain, Tribalism, Trinidad and Tobago, universal | 4 Comments »
Bishop Williamson Contra Mundum
Posted in Adl, Auschwitz, Bishop Fellay, Bishop Williamson, deicide, Eleison Comments, Holocaust, SSPX | 11 Comments »
Pope Foxman Says SSPX Has No Place in the Church
"After Bishop's Latest Anti-Semitic Writings, ADL Says Pius X Society 'Has No Place' In Mainstream Church"
Posted in Adl, Chutzpah, megalomania, sticking your nose into other people's business | 12 Comments »
A Historical Overview of the 'Holocaust' Racket
Posted in Adl, Anthony Lawson, B'nai B'rith, delusion, Extortion, Guilt, Judea Declares War on Germany, Lies, Nuremberg Trials, Religion, Rudolf Höss, The Holocaust, Tribal Warfare | Leave a Comment »
SSPX members, are you ready for the rabbis and their helpers' intensive 'Holocaust' guilt programming? Are you amenable to your children learning that Catholicism "paved the road to Auschwitz"? This is what "communion with Rome" in Rome's present degraded state entails.
Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., has been named a voting member of two Vatican offices that oversee efforts to teach the Catholic faith and that promote relationships with other Christians and with Jews.
On Wednesday Pope Benedict XVI named Pittsburgh's former bishop to the Congregation for Clergy and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The latter includes the Vatican's commission for relations with Jews. He will travel to Rome for meetings.
His appointment to the Congregation for Clergy surprised no one … It oversees instruction, ranging from catechisms for children to seminary training. Cardinal Wuerl is the author of several popular catechisms.
"I would hope they would ask me to concentrate in the area of catechetics, of teaching the faith. When I was a consultant, it was always the area they asked me to work on," he said.
He was a bit surprised at his appointment to the Council for Promoting Christian Unity. But non-Catholic friends of his who often work with that office thought it was a brilliant choice …
Rabbi Alvin Berkun of Pittsburgh, a longtime participant in Catholic-Jewish dialogue at the Vatican level, believes his old friend may help prevent future problems [in Catholic-Judaic 'relations'].
"It's a great move," Rabbi Berkun said. "He brings a wonderful measure of sensitivity and caring and involvement in these matters. This uses his skills in a wonderful way." ("Cardinal Wuerl appointed to 2 Vatican offices," Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 30, 2010)
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10364/1114317-455.stm#ixzz19c7VGP5P
Catholic school educators participating in [the ADL program, Bearing Witness] to learn how to teach about the Holocaust and anti-Semitism are helping to build positive relations between Catholics and Jews and all people, Archbishop Donald Wuerl said July 22.
Addressing participants in the Bearing Witness program, Archbishop Wuerl told the educators they are helping to "raise the level of awareness (of their students) of our positive relations with our Jewish brothers and sisters."
More than two dozen Catholic school educators from the Archdiocese of Washington and five other states gathered in Washington last week to participate in the Bearing Witness program. During nearly a week of professional development, the educators not only learned how to teach about the Holocaust and anti-Semitism, but they also explored the history of anti-Semitism, Catholic teachings on Jews and Judaism, and contemporary issues of prejudice.
Archbishop Donald Wuerl said the importance of the program "is found in both its goal and its accomplishments." He said the program helps educators "build on growing mutual Jewish-Catholic understanding" …
[The Bearing Witness program is] jointly sponsored by the [Washington D.C.] archdiocese, the ADL, the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA), the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Participation in the program has … grown. Archdiocesan educators are now joined by their counterparts from throughout Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Delaware, Minnesota and Missouri. For five days, the educators meet in Washington to receive training and resources so that they can share the lessons of anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, and modern-day prejudice with their students.
Similar programs have begun in other parts of the country, and two years ago, the Bearing Witness program was presented with the NCEA's President's Award. In the past the past 14 years, Bearing Witness has trained more than 1,300 Catholic school educators nationwide, impacting 195,000 students across the country. The program is open to Catholic high school and middle teachers of history, religion, social studies, and English, as well as administrators and librarians …
During the [week-long program], Catholic educators ate a traditional sabbath dinner at a synagogue, learned about Jewish beliefs and practices from a rabbi, toured the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, met with Archbishop Wuerl at the USCCB headquarters and met Holocaust survivor Halina Peabody …
Archbishop Wuerl, reminding the participants that "we come out of the Jewish tradition," noted that he has long had an interest in "our religious commonality." While he was bishop of Pittsburgh, he started a program where priests and rabbis gathered for "wonderful and fruitful dialogue." Also in that diocese, he invited rabbis to give lectures to Catholic high school students. ("Archbishop Wuerl says Bearing Witness Holocaust education program builds understanding," Richard Szczepanowski, Catholic Standard, July 22, 2010)
http://www.cathstan.org/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=4021&SectionID=2&SubSectionID=2&S=1
Chief Rabbis Ask Pope for Holocaust Studies Requirement in Catholic Schools
Rabbi Abraham Heschel: "I Want to Attack Their Souls"
Posted in Adl, Bearing Witness, c/jeep, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, commission for relations with Jews, Congregation for Clergy, Pope Benedict XVI, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, USCCB | Leave a Comment »
Pope Continues to Degrade Papacy via Association with Counterfeit Israel
The Pope's moral authority is plummeting to the level of counterfeit Israel's:
Pope Benedict XVI Assures ADL He Will Continue to Raise His Voice Against Anti-Semitism
New York, NY, November 3, 2010 … In an audience at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI today assured top leaders of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) that he would continue to raise his voice against anti-Semitism and attempts to isolate the state of Israel …
Mr. Foxman … asked the pontiff to use the Church's moral authority to help prevent Israel from being made a pariah by its enemies. "Please do not permit the world to isolate Israel," Mr. Foxman said, to which Pope Benedict replied, "I will be there" …
http://www.adl.org/PresRele/VaticanJewish_96/5896_96.htm
"Israel" is a pariah due to its actions. Papal P.R. can't cover that up.
Survey: Israel worst brand name in the world
"Israel" Hopes Papal Visit Will Help Polish International Image In Wake of Gaza Massacre
Palestinian Christians urge Pope to call off May visit to Israel
Will Benedict's "Pilgrimage" Boost "Israel's" Image or Destroy His Own?
Posted in Abe Foxman, Adl, B'nai B'rith, Benedict XVI, brand management, cross marketing, degradation, Israel, Pope | 1 Comment »
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Inside the Exxon sting: Aliases, fake oil funds, a payday
By Corbin Hiar | 07/02/2021 06:45 AM EDT
Greenpeace activists chained themselves to Exxon Mobil Corp. gas pumps in 2002 as part of the group's long-running campaign against the oil giant. Dang Ngo/Zuma Press/Newscom
It was a tantalizing opportunity, even for a highly paid energy lobbyist.
A man claiming to be a Dubai, United Arab Emirates-based executive recruiter was looking to hire someone to set up a Washington influence operation for a Middle East fund planning to make "a big, long-term bet on U.S. oil and gas."
The job would be to represent the fund and "make sure their investments are protected from any sort of risk that's coming down the line," said the man, who went by Tom James and claimed to be a principal at the firm Harrington Rowe. Potential climate and environmental regulations were the fund's top concerns, he said.
Is that "something that sounds vaguely interesting for you?" asked James, whose online biography listed experience working for the notorious British public relations firm Bell Pottinger and the United Kingdom's Labour Party.
"Yes," Keith McCoy, one of Exxon Mobil Corp.'s top congressional lobbyists, said during a surreptitiously recorded Zoom call in May. "No, absolutely."
There was just one problem: It was all a setup.
James and Harrington Rowe appear to be the creation of Unearthed, an investigative project of Greenpeace UK. Over the past two days, the group has posted politically explosive portions of interviews it staged earlier this year with McCoy and Dan Easley, a former Exxon White House lobbyist who now runs federal affairs for the renewable power company Apex Clean Energy.
The revelations cast doubt on Exxon's support for the carbon tax climate policy it claims to back and showed how the oil major had worked with the American Petroleum Institute to block regulation of a class of toxic firefighting chemicals it uses at some of its refineries (E&E Daily, July 2).
Meanwhile, Harrington Rowe's website has gone dark, and the executive search firm's profile has disappeared from LinkedIn. No one by the name of Tom James appears to work at Unearthed either.
A spokesman for Greenpeace UK provided E&E News with transcripts of the group's interviews with McCoy and Easley but didn't respond to a request for additional details on how it pulled off the elaborate sting. McCoy and Easley didn't reply to interview requests.
But the lengthy transcripts provide some clues as to how they were duped.
The promise of Middle East oil money seems to have been a key concern for the energy lobbyists.
"What's the salary?" Easley asked at the end of his 30-minute call. When he spoke to the unidentified activist, he had only been working at Apex for two months.
"Look, if it's multiples of my current salary, I'm always happy to have a conversation," said Easley, who spent over a decade as a Democratic congressional staffer before going to work for Exxon.
The undercover activists also promised the lobbyists they could help shape the Middle East investment fund's U.S. footprint. McCoy, for example, asked for more information about the fund's oil and gas holdings and U.S. branding plans.
"Look, the strategy is up for grabs," the fake recruiter responded. "I don't know exactly what they'll decide in the end in terms of how to set that up legally. That's way above my head, as you can appreciate, and I'm sure a lot of lawyers are working on all the questions there."
He added, "That's something for the team to work on, really. I think that's going to be the most important question for the team to answer immediately."
At that point, the activist shifted from answering questions to asking them. He and McCoy then talked for another hour and a half.
Key to McCoy's pitch to the purported headhunter was the lobbyist's experience using trade associations to deflect public outrage and congressional scrutiny away from Exxon.
"I spent 12 years at the National Association of Manufacturers, so I know associations," he said. On hot-button environmental issues, associations can "step in and have those conversations and answer those tough questions and be the, for lack of a better term, the whipping boy for some of these members of Congress."
In the end, the activist thanked McCoy for his time and promised to report back to the Middle East investors he claimed to be recruiting for.
"Some of the things that you've told me today will be really, really useful, about helping them understand the sort of things that are very important in terms of how current affairs teams in the U.S. all think, and how they work, and especially how they work in today's climate — excuse the pun," he said.
"I enjoyed the conversation," McCoy responded. "This was fun."


Views & Letters
Why is There Always a "However"
Posted by Stephen Place | Nov 13, 2018 | Culture, Editorial | 3 |
Aasiya Noreen, aka Asia Bibi, is a Pakistani woman who follows the Christian faith. In 2010, she was convicted of blasphemy after an argument with another woman whilst picking berries and sentenced to death by hanging. She spent the next eight years in solitary confinement on death row. Many campaigns had been started to secure her release including a petition of signatures from 400,000 people. Pope Benedict XVI also called for her release. The case was overturned due to insufficient evidence. She cannot be released though until the case goes through the review process which notoriously can take years to conclude.
The overturned conviction raised many problems as Imams claimed she should be hung for the blasphemy was allegedly against the prophet Mohammed. This caused mass protests and some civil unrest, highlighting the case across the world. Minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti and the Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer were assassinated for advocating on her behalf. Muslim cleric Maulana Yousaf offered a reward of 500,000 Pakistan Rupees to anyone who would kill her.
Calls for this Christian woman to be granted asylum in another country gathered momentum until the Government of Pakistan made an agreement with the Tehreek-Labbaik political party to bar Asia from leaving Pakistan.
Currently, the Canadian and Italian Governments are working to get Asia and her family asylum. She remains in Pakistan. HOWEVER. It is widely reported that the British Government has refused Asia asylum on the basis that this act of Christian kindness could cause unrest amongst the Pakistani community already domiciled here in the UK. One can only shake one's head in incredulity at this if it is true.
We have received many thousands of often dubious asylum seekers. Many thousands of refugees, too. We could not it seems, find it in our hearts for fear of upsetting a community who follow the religion of peace, to offer a crystal clear case of asylum to a Christian woman and her family so brutally persecuted by the religion of peace in her home country, for the fear that she would not be safe in Great Britain in 2018.
On this, the 11th of November it is armistices day, I, among many hundreds of thousands proudly wear my red poppy as a symbol of remembrance to those who made the ultimate sacrifice. The poppy is not a symbol of war. It is red, not to commemorate blood, it is red because that is the colour of the poppies that grow on Flanders field where so many unidentified soldiers lay dead. HOWEVER, this simple symbol, this simple remembrance of what took place has been politicised.
A group calling themselves the "peace pledge union" from New Zealand came up with an idea of a white poppy. This white poppy has on this 100th year since the cessation of the first world war caused much grumbling and hand-wringing. The white poppy is a symbol of pacifism. This is not new; it began in 1926 by the "no more war movement". They were first sold in 1933 in this country by the Co-operative Women's Guild.
This is the first year that the St George Ambulance service have allowed their volunteers to wear the pacifist poppy. As of November 7th, this year, 119,555 white poppies have been sold, the previous record was 110,000. Many chose to wear the white poppy alongside the red one to reflect war and no more war.
Keith Vaz MP was supposed to be under investigation by the Parliamentary regulatory bodies for a variety of things since 2016. As a result, he stood down as chair of the Home Affairs committee. These matters include rent boys, bullying members of staff, a clerk called Jenny McCullough who questioned his expenses claim for a trip abroad, drugs and the like. He has been declared "too ill" to take part in this investigation yet was seen yesterday 10th November at the Leicestershire football game. He is MP for a Leicestershire constituency.
HOWEVER, speaker Bercow has blocked a freedom of information request by the BBC into the trips abroad by Vaz. He has used his veto to refuse the journalists the papers they have requested. Bercow argues that the papers should come under the parliamentary privilege, therefore stopping the request going to tribunal.
Amber Rudd the former Home Secretary appearing on ITV`s Good Morning Britain denied when questioned that the 21,000 cuts to Policing manpower since 2010 have had an impact on the 119 murders in the Capital London this year. HOWEVER, she did lay the blame on drug use and intimated the very weak reasoning that middle-class people are to blame for using drugs in greater quantities.
There is also a reasoning for this atrocious level of murder and over 250,000 stabbings being promulgated, and that is that these young people have no support in the community. No teen workers and youth clubs. Well in Windemere, Preston, Tewksbury, Sunderland and many many more towns and cities throughout Great Britain, kids living there have no youth clubs and £30,000 a year salaried ex-gang member acting as youth workers. They are not though on a daily basis disemboweling each other.
The suffragettes campaigned throughout the early 1900`s for the enfranchisement of women. After a break from campaigning during WWI, they achieved the vote for women in 1918. A hundred years later on the centenary of that great win the then Home Secretary Amber Rudd was asked to grant pardons for the suffragette women. You would have thought that this would be a right and proper thing to do. The Labour Government during the negotiations for peace in Northern Ireland granted pardons for IRA bombers. HOWEVER, she said "that could be tricky," and they remain unpardoned.
There is always a HOWEVER. Many things are wrong with this world. One thing for sure is that they will never be resolved nor put right when we use the word
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Stephen Place
YOUR DAILY BREXIT BETRAYAL – Friday 17th May 2019
WATCH: We Will Remember Them
Mike Hookem MEP – "Why I fear for the future of UKIP."
Peter Ashcroft	on November 15, 2018 at 4:14 pm
Mohammed is a human prophet, but not a God. Consequently Asia Bibi cannot be accused of blaspheming against another human being.
Those hard-line Pakistani Islamist perpetrators of this false accusation against her, should concentrate on punishing the Pakistani 'grooming' gangs here in the U.K.
Roger Gough	on November 13, 2018 at 8:44 pm
We have been recently told by various experts in the Climate Change industry that we must stop eating meat in order to save the planet. HOWEVER, dogs and cats are fed on meat. How would they survive – would it only be biscuits for them throughout their lives? Or maybe GM.
Jake Bennett	on November 13, 2018 at 2:49 pm
If one is to gain a rewarding and prosperous career in public bodies then the mastery of the adverb 'however' is an absolute necessity.
Doors open for those who master its correct use and rarely is anyone found culpable of incompetence and bad judgement thus almost guaranteeing a job for life.
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"We can come together as a force:" Nashville resident who saw neighbors stop ICE speaks out
By our reporters
Reporters for the World Socialist Web Site recently spoke with Rosheda Martin, a resident from the working class Hermitage neighborhood in Nashville, Tennessee, where residents physically prevented immigration police from snatching one of their neighbors.
On July 22, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents entered the neighborhood to detain an immigrant father and his son for deportation. The father and son took refuge in their van, parked in their own driveway, while their neighbors provided them with gas to keep the engine running and air conditioning on, as well as water and sandwiches. After four hours and repeated attempts to lure their targets to come outside, the ICE agents were forced to leave the premises.
Rosheda Martin
The incident demonstrated the deep opposition within the working class, motivated by class solidarity and democratic sentiments, to Trump's fascistic assault on immigrants. The mobilization by working class residents also stood in sharp contrast to response from the Democratic Party, which had recently voted to fund Trump's immigration policy to the tune of $4.6 billion.
Rosheda described her reaction to what she saw: "What I saw was an injustice from the government in a country that basically was built on the backs and sweat of immigrants. Even our forefathers were immigrants. We all started as immigrants is what I'm saying. Basically, anyone that is not a Native American is an immigrant."
"This is a man that has a family," Rosheda pointed out. "This is a man that is just trying to live and be a productive citizen. This man is living just like I am, from paycheck to paycheck. He's trying to be a good influence to his community, provide a nice home for his son. Isn't that what you all try to do for your families, too? Is that the reason why he has to leave the United States of America?"
In Rosheda's neighborhood, she describes workers "of different ethnic backgrounds, different colors, different traditions in their families" all living side by side with one another.
"To be exact, the working class is what makes the rich," she continued. "They can't have what they have if we don't go out and work. With us out there working, look how they treat us. I'm an American, but yet I can't get health care. I make too much money to get food stamp assistance, but I need help with groceries. I can't go to the bank and get a loan because I don't have enough credit. Yet still, I'm going out and working every day."
"It's not about race," Rosheda added. "It's about people that are real people trying to live and survive. We ain't asking for the whole pie, but we want the same piece of pie that you're eating. Quit taking that whole pie and give us a piece, that's all we're asking."
In the face of increasingly fascistic and flagrant assaults on immigrants, such as last week's unprecedented mass roundup of nearly 700 immigrant workers in Mississippi, it is absolutely crucial that workers take up the struggle to defend their persecuted class brothers and sisters. Such a struggle requires workers to organize independently of the two capitalist political parties, to form their own rank-and-file factory and neighborhood committees, on the basis of a revolutionary socialist program that seeks to unite workers throughout the world.
On this, Rosheda states: "There's a lot of us out here thinking this is just what it is, it's just gonna be this way, it's not gonna change. But we can change it. We can come together as a force. It says 'We the People' of the United States, not we the government. We have got to come together and help one another and educate one another. You gotta educate, wake up."
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