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Lousy online service, Britain and World War Two, Tradition, Assimilation
Posted on: Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Posted on: Tuesday, June 22, 2004
ב''ה
Don't you just HATE companies that fob you off and which you practically have to BEG to give you a half-decent answer concerning a problem you have? I do; I abhor them. Alas, oftentimes there is no alternative as it's too cumbersome to take one's custom elsewhere or--more frequently--one is too complacent (read: lazy) to do anything about it. But I'm talking here about the common courtesy of ACKNOWLEDGING that you actually sent them something. Over the past three weeks I must've dispatched at least twenty e-mails to my lawyer (I'm selling my house in Britain), synagogues as well as local and international companies selling networking equipment. I am, you see, looking to buy a wireless router, and since Croatia is not exactly at the forefront of technological or economic world, getting reasonably priced equipment from an even slightly more obscure manufacturer like Buffalo, US Robotics or Netgear is nigh-on impossible. All the same, I wrote three or four companies after some research over two weeks ago and have received no replies to date!!! Granted, I wrote my e-mails in English but that shouldn't be a problem since many people here can speak it reasonably well. It really pisses me off. And the situation isn't any better elsewhere: I was driven to the end of my tethers trying to get something done by e-mail when I was living in Britain. My best experience is with Germans: professional and efficient as always.
Was very sad yesterday about the soccer match result (Croatia vs. England). I couldn't have been happier when the Croats scored the first goal but then the Englishers kept pounding the Croatian net--one after another after another. Thank G-d Israel is not playing so I don't get REALLY excited... Portugal is next against England and again I'm hoping there's gonna be some teabag-ass-kicking.
Speaking of which, I received an e-mail yesterday from an Englander who took exception to my view of his "great nation" . He used that typical anti-Semitic diatribe: "we saved you in the Second World War". As if without Englishers Jews would now be a bar of soap in some German's bathroom. What crap. England did not fight to save Jews. It did not even fight to save Europe. I can think of no event in world history when a military intervention took place for purely altruistic reasons. Mediation yes (most famously Norway in Sri Lanka) but a full-scale war no. The only reason England fought in WWII was that its own position as the still dominant world power was imperiled by the ascendancy of Nazism. That, and the fact that Germany invaded Poland with which Britain had signed an alliance thus triggering English intervention. But Germany had invaded Czechoslovakia beforehand AND had been persecuting Jews for over half a decade without any action on Britain's part. Well, if you discount Chamberlain and the "royal" family's cozying up to the Nazis, that is. It is also an incontrovertible fact that Britain knew perfectly well about the concentration camps: they had aerial photos and witness accounts of the horrors of Treblinka, Auschwitz, Theresienstadt and so on. And they did nothing. They could have bombed the railroad tracks leading to those place of death but no. Conjoin all this and what I wrote in one of my previous posts about the limeys deliberately preventing Jews from reaching the safe-haven of Israel, and I think it leaves no question why I despise them so much. And that's just the past!
Look at the European Union: an incredibly successful project which has ensured that a continent that had been embroiled in constant war for millennia has seen peace and unprecedented prosperity for over half a century. And guess who was the most uncooperative and obstructionist element in the EU? Indeed, merry old "blighty". EVERY step of the way they grumble, complain, filibuster, gerrymander and act as if the EU is an incommodity to and servant of Britain. Educated people and those who know their elbow from their ass when it comes to the EU observe the English media and their coverage of the Union with utter disbelief. When you see the kind of bull propagated by the xenophobic Sun, racist Express or mad Mail you don't know whether to laugh or cry, especially when you remember that that bollocks is read by the vast majority of Englishers (those who can read, that is; mind you, the tabloids tend to be very accommodating vis-a-vis their audience and make sure they do not use any "big words").
Heh, only last year Mr. Blair's government decided to abolish the post of the "lord chancellor". The LC, for those not in the know, is an age-old institution where a member of the house of "lords" (ie. someone unelected!) is selected by the prime minister (even more democratic, but wait--it gets better) to do the following: preside over the house of "lords" (neutral role, supposedly), preside over the judiciary in England and Wales (ie. perform a judiciary function), make speeches in the house and at cabinet meetings as a member of the cabinet (an executive function) and occasionally vote in house of "lords" debates on legislation (ie. participate in the creation of the legislature). So, this man (and it always has been a man) is a COMPLETE anathema to every value of a liberal and social democratic regime which extols the separation of powers, transparency, representation, intra vires and accountability. In my view, therefore, anyone with any common sense would exult at the news of abolition of this anachronism, especially if the government proposed in its place a department for constitutional affairs, a supreme court, a more transparent system of judicial appointments and someone elected and accountable to preside over the joint. But, but, but... What was the reaction of the Daily Mail? They screamed senseless about this "vicious" Blair abrogating thousands of years of British history at the stroke of a pen, no respect for tradition, subversion, sell-out to Europe and the "continental" ways, blah, blah, blah, blah... THAT was their best argument!?! That the post of the "lord chancellor" should stay in the name of tradition and history!!? Oy gevalt! Hanging gays and persecuting Catholics used to be part of a long-standing tradition, too, you morons! Are these right-wingers (or should that be: Reich-wingers) for real?
Now, I don't mind tradition. After all, keeping to our ways and customs, religious and otherwise, has acted as a mortar for the Jewish nation and has ensured our survival over the ages. But when something is evidently flawed and when a better, more decent and humanistic system or practice is proposed, how can anyone howl like a maniac demanding that the traditional ways be kept for the sake of their being traditional?!! It pains me most when I see fellow Jews acting like idiots and fighting for goyishe "establishments". The most notorious example I can think of is Melanie Phillips--a Daily Mail and assorted columnist whom The Guardian invariably describes as "uber right-wing". In her zealotry to laud Britain, Tories, Europhobia, anti-environmentalism, anti-feminism anti-liberty and all the other right-wing pet-subjects, she regularly comes across as more obnoxiously English than the English themselves. Pathetic. She is one of those idiots who wrote (and STILL write) pseudo-scientific call-them essays on imaginary links between Saddam Hussain and al-Qa'eda. Of course, she was at the (armchair) forefront advocating the invasion of Iraq. And she vehemently defended the disgustingly racist Robert Kilroy-Silk when he went to town on supposed Arab backwardness and barbarism. (Kilroy-Silk in the meantime became a candidate for another racist, introspective clique which lives in the past century: the UK independence party. He became an MEP a few days ago and wowed to "wreck the EU parliament" from within because it's "eroding [English] independence". Where do you even BEGIN to combat such bullshit but anyway, those of us who believe in Europe and a one world of equal human beings can only say: we're shaking in our boots, Silky.)
And this doesn't go just for Jews but ALL minorities. I cannot for the life of me understand people of the eg. African-European heritage who join that bastion of racism the Metropolitan "police", the "army", the "immigration service", etc. Goodness, YOUR OWN PARENTS were enslaved, raped, robbed and greeted to Britain with signs of "No Irish, no dogs, no blacks" and now YOU are doing pretty much the same thing to other people. Shame on you.
Ah, nearly forgot: eight English "sailors" were arrested in Iran yesterday for entering Iranian territorial waters and the Foreign Office is "concerned". Too bad. Armies should exist to defend their own countries so long as countries exist (hopefully, we will all be part of one, unified world one day). What the fuck are English toysoldiers looking for thousands of kilometers away from Britain??! Are they on a humanitarian mission? Sorry but murdering over 10000 Iraqi civilians doesn't sound very humanitarian to me. Nor was dropping depleted Uranium bombs all over Serbia four years ago. Why don't the teabags piss of back to their shitty little island and feast on what loot they've still left from their colonial era?
L'hitraot...
Was very sad yesterday about the soccer match result (Croatia vs. England). I couldn't have been happier when the Croats scored the first goal but then the Englishers kept pounding the Croatian net--one after another after another. Thank G-d Israel is not playing so I don't get REALLY excited... Portugal is next against England and again I'm hoping there's gonna be some teabag-ass-kicking.
Speaking of which, I received an e-mail yesterday from an Englander who took exception to my view of his "great nation" . He used that typical anti-Semitic diatribe: "we saved you in the Second World War". As if without Englishers Jews would now be a bar of soap in some German's bathroom. What crap. England did not fight to save Jews. It did not even fight to save Europe. I can think of no event in world history when a military intervention took place for purely altruistic reasons. Mediation yes (most famously Norway in Sri Lanka) but a full-scale war no. The only reason England fought in WWII was that its own position as the still dominant world power was imperiled by the ascendancy of Nazism. That, and the fact that Germany invaded Poland with which Britain had signed an alliance thus triggering English intervention. But Germany had invaded Czechoslovakia beforehand AND had been persecuting Jews for over half a decade without any action on Britain's part. Well, if you discount Chamberlain and the "royal" family's cozying up to the Nazis, that is. It is also an incontrovertible fact that Britain knew perfectly well about the concentration camps: they had aerial photos and witness accounts of the horrors of Treblinka, Auschwitz, Theresienstadt and so on. And they did nothing. They could have bombed the railroad tracks leading to those place of death but no. Conjoin all this and what I wrote in one of my previous posts about the limeys deliberately preventing Jews from reaching the safe-haven of Israel, and I think it leaves no question why I despise them so much. And that's just the past!
Look at the European Union: an incredibly successful project which has ensured that a continent that had been embroiled in constant war for millennia has seen peace and unprecedented prosperity for over half a century. And guess who was the most uncooperative and obstructionist element in the EU? Indeed, merry old "blighty". EVERY step of the way they grumble, complain, filibuster, gerrymander and act as if the EU is an incommodity to and servant of Britain. Educated people and those who know their elbow from their ass when it comes to the EU observe the English media and their coverage of the Union with utter disbelief. When you see the kind of bull propagated by the xenophobic Sun, racist Express or mad Mail you don't know whether to laugh or cry, especially when you remember that that bollocks is read by the vast majority of Englishers (those who can read, that is; mind you, the tabloids tend to be very accommodating vis-a-vis their audience and make sure they do not use any "big words").
Heh, only last year Mr. Blair's government decided to abolish the post of the "lord chancellor". The LC, for those not in the know, is an age-old institution where a member of the house of "lords" (ie. someone unelected!) is selected by the prime minister (even more democratic, but wait--it gets better) to do the following: preside over the house of "lords" (neutral role, supposedly), preside over the judiciary in England and Wales (ie. perform a judiciary function), make speeches in the house and at cabinet meetings as a member of the cabinet (an executive function) and occasionally vote in house of "lords" debates on legislation (ie. participate in the creation of the legislature). So, this man (and it always has been a man) is a COMPLETE anathema to every value of a liberal and social democratic regime which extols the separation of powers, transparency, representation, intra vires and accountability. In my view, therefore, anyone with any common sense would exult at the news of abolition of this anachronism, especially if the government proposed in its place a department for constitutional affairs, a supreme court, a more transparent system of judicial appointments and someone elected and accountable to preside over the joint. But, but, but... What was the reaction of the Daily Mail? They screamed senseless about this "vicious" Blair abrogating thousands of years of British history at the stroke of a pen, no respect for tradition, subversion, sell-out to Europe and the "continental" ways, blah, blah, blah, blah... THAT was their best argument!?! That the post of the "lord chancellor" should stay in the name of tradition and history!!? Oy gevalt! Hanging gays and persecuting Catholics used to be part of a long-standing tradition, too, you morons! Are these right-wingers (or should that be: Reich-wingers) for real?
Now, I don't mind tradition. After all, keeping to our ways and customs, religious and otherwise, has acted as a mortar for the Jewish nation and has ensured our survival over the ages. But when something is evidently flawed and when a better, more decent and humanistic system or practice is proposed, how can anyone howl like a maniac demanding that the traditional ways be kept for the sake of their being traditional?!! It pains me most when I see fellow Jews acting like idiots and fighting for goyishe "establishments". The most notorious example I can think of is Melanie Phillips--a Daily Mail and assorted columnist whom The Guardian invariably describes as "uber right-wing". In her zealotry to laud Britain, Tories, Europhobia, anti-environmentalism, anti-feminism anti-liberty and all the other right-wing pet-subjects, she regularly comes across as more obnoxiously English than the English themselves. Pathetic. She is one of those idiots who wrote (and STILL write) pseudo-scientific call-them essays on imaginary links between Saddam Hussain and al-Qa'eda. Of course, she was at the (armchair) forefront advocating the invasion of Iraq. And she vehemently defended the disgustingly racist Robert Kilroy-Silk when he went to town on supposed Arab backwardness and barbarism. (Kilroy-Silk in the meantime became a candidate for another racist, introspective clique which lives in the past century: the UK independence party. He became an MEP a few days ago and wowed to "wreck the EU parliament" from within because it's "eroding [English] independence". Where do you even BEGIN to combat such bullshit but anyway, those of us who believe in Europe and a one world of equal human beings can only say: we're shaking in our boots, Silky.)
And this doesn't go just for Jews but ALL minorities. I cannot for the life of me understand people of the eg. African-European heritage who join that bastion of racism the Metropolitan "police", the "army", the "immigration service", etc. Goodness, YOUR OWN PARENTS were enslaved, raped, robbed and greeted to Britain with signs of "No Irish, no dogs, no blacks" and now YOU are doing pretty much the same thing to other people. Shame on you.
Ah, nearly forgot: eight English "sailors" were arrested in Iran yesterday for entering Iranian territorial waters and the Foreign Office is "concerned". Too bad. Armies should exist to defend their own countries so long as countries exist (hopefully, we will all be part of one, unified world one day). What the fuck are English toysoldiers looking for thousands of kilometers away from Britain??! Are they on a humanitarian mission? Sorry but murdering over 10000 Iraqi civilians doesn't sound very humanitarian to me. Nor was dropping depleted Uranium bombs all over Serbia four years ago. Why don't the teabags piss of back to their shitty little island and feast on what loot they've still left from their colonial era?
L'hitraot...
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