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It seems like a lot of the attitudes persisting/reviving in Europe today are leftovers from the Middle Ages. But why is it only the *bad* parts of the distant past that seem to still be around? We have the spirit of the Inquisition, but not the spirit that built the cathedrals.

Many, many thanks, Roger.

that an extraordinary number of people in that country have at least some Jewish blood.

Very much so, to the point that many people find out that their families have been following Jewish traditions for generations, without realizing it.

One of the most common last names, PÈrez, is of Jewish origin.

Spanish-speaking or acculturated Indians in Central America are referred to as ladinos, the name of the Romance language, descended from medieval Spanish, spoken by Sephardic Jews especially in the Balkans, Turkey, and the Near East.

The examples go on and on.

That’s very sad, Roger. Although, in Europe these days, hardly surprising. I also enjoyed the Club Dumas very much [although less so The Fencing Master] and was looking forward to seeing the movies of Altatriste with Viggo Mortenson as lead, acting in Spanish which are due out in the next few years.

I also saw APR give a talk once in NY at the local B&N and I found him quite charming.

Sad to know how he returns the favor.

This staple from Intro Psych should be taught to every first-grader:

http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/psychology/social/asch_conformity.html

Roger,

As far as I can tell, to the anti-Semite, the religious beliefs or lack thereof are of no interest. Notice that Hitler used ancestry – no exception for Jewish atheists or Wiccans or anything else. In general, I think that ancestry is the only discriminantor of interest to the anti-Semite.

It does not sound like this guy likes much of anybody really. Not even the Marines.

I heard that the rallying cry for the Spanish anti war movement is Remember the Maine. sheesh. And they disaprove of how we treat our natives. Isn’t that precious?

I think the Spanish should look at the fact that their legacy in this hemisphere is a corrupt feudal system and just shut up.

It’s funny that Jews could be considered a “race” in the first place. I recall an Egyptian friend of mine who was sitting at a table in the student cafeteria with some other Egyptians, one of whom claimed that he could recognize Jews just by looking. To demonstrate, he looked across the room and said, “there’s one over there.” My friend looked over and was taken aback; the fellow was pointing at his brother.

I think the article is an attempt to mock multiculturalism, globalization.

We have fits about the name of sports teams – Washington redskins, Cleveland Indians, you name it.

I don’t think a successful argument could be made that when people paint their face red, for the game, they are making some kind of racist statement.

The charge of anti-Semitism against him, based on that flimsy evidence alone, could be interpreted as confirmation to the perception that people have to pass a global test (to use Kerry’s words) if they want to get presents from Los Reyes Magos.

Roger:

There should be no suprise,sadly, at the constant examples of anti-semitism oozing out of Europe. The motif of evil imperialist yanqui and murderous shylock jews are the building blocks of european intellectual thought. For all the claims of sophistication and wisdom of our supposed superior continental forfathers they are just as shallow as we are at times and rely on simplistic cliche stereotypes and unexamined conventional wisdom.

This worldview which is the residue of 100 years of communist propaganda that was pounded into the universities and onto the ’smart’ set will take decades to erase. It also allows the europeans to ignore their own complicity in the twin evils of fascism and communism and dump them onto America and Israel. It is reflexive and automatic. Of course almost no one in Europe would say that they are stalinist’s or Nazi’s but if they would go back and reread the propaganda screeds of Pravda and mein kampf they would be shocked at how identical to these universally reviled press organs their current fowl words parrot. Just change the names and the dates and they are often a perfect fit.

Roger:

A example of idiot historical analogies from the LA Times correction file- “A nov. 21 commentary about the Israeli- Palestinian conflict…..the seperation barrier being built by Israel would trap Palestinianin enclaves ’surrounded by concret slabs 3 times the height of the Berlin Wall’…..However, in places where the barrier now consists of concrete walls, the slabs are approximately 19 to 26 feet high; the Berlin Wall,by contrast, was about 13 to 15 feet high”

Ther you have it , the LA Times has proven that the Isreali wall is the moral equivelent of the Berlin Wall, in fact in places it is higher and thicker. They ignore the purposes of the wall. The Berlin Wall was built to keep east Germans from fleeing the trynany of communism and was a death trap to anyone trying to escape their prison. The Israeli Wall is being built because of the constant suicide bombers who travel across the borders to kill innocent civillians. You can argue about whether the secutiy wall is a good idea or not, but to compare it to the Berlin wall is intellectually moronic. The centrall purpose of the 2 walls are completley different. They are nothing alike. But because they are built from concrete and or of similar sizes the LA Times can say they are the same. Does this mean that someone who builds a wall around their property are the same as the builders of the Berlin Wall if their wall is of similar height or built from concrete instead of wood? This flacid logic is an example of the cheap, vapid,and witless thinking of much of the modern left.