Jewish Honor Killings

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Luke Ford

Marc B. Shapiro writes:

…we indeed have some examples in Jewish history of “honor killings”. For example, in 1311 a Jewish woman who married a Christian and became pregnant was killed by her brothers.[27]

In 1557 an Italian Jew killed his sister because her alleged sexual activity embarrassed the family. Elliot Horowitz, who mentions this case, adds: “Azariah Finzi, the girl’s father, saw fit to defend this action by his only son, asserting that it was ‘inappropriate for one calling himself a Jew, especially a member of one of the best families, to suffer a veil of shame upon his face, being mocked by all who see him for the blemish attached to his family’s reputation.’”[28]

In Teshuvot Hagahot Maimoniyot to Sefer Nashim, no. 25 (found in the standard printings of the Mishneh Torah), there is a responsum which describes how a woman cheated on her husband, apparently with a local non-Jew, and became pregnant. According to her father, she also killed her baby (“the mamzer”[29]) after it was born. Her father, worried that she would apostatize, asked, indeed pleaded with, the local rabbis to permit him to kill his daughter by drowning her in the river. The rabbis turned the request down.

בא אביה של שרה לפני שנים ממנו החתומים למטה ובא לימלך בנו להורות לו אם מותר להרוג בתו לטובעה בנהר ולאבדה מן העולם . . . [אמר אביה] אני מבקשכם בכל מיני תחינה שתתירו לי להורגה.

The case is actually quite sad since she was probably a teenager in over her head. The responsum describes how she would run away from home but her mother would convince her to come back. When her father rebuked her for her behavior, her reply was, “I am not the first woman who did something bad.”

R. Asher Ben Jehiel, She’elot u-Teshuvot ha-Rosh 18:13, deals with a case of a woman who was intimate with a non-Jew and became pregnant from him. R. Asher affirms the local rabbi’s decision to cut off her nose. (See also R. Matityahu Strashun, Mivhar Ketavim [Jerusalem, 1969], p. 158 n. 3.)

Also relevant is a very strange story recorded in Ta’anit 24b. It begins by telling us that R. Yose ben Abin left his teacher, R. Yose of Yokeret. His reason was, “How could the man who showed no mercy to his son and daughter show mercy to me?” Let’s leave aside the story of R. Yose of Yokeret and his son. Here is what the Talmud records about him and his daughter.

He had a beautiful daughter. One day he saw a man boring a hole in the fence so that he might catch a glimpse of her. He said to the man, “What is [the meaning of] this?” The man answered: “Master, if I am not worthy enough to marry her, may I not at least be worthy to catch a glimpse of her?” Thereupon he exclaimed: “My daughter, you are a source of trouble to mankind, return to the dust so that men may not sin because of you.”

Although he did not physically kill his daughter, he did express the wish that she die (according to some it was an actual curse), and in the opinion of many commentators this is exactly what happened (see Hagahot ha-Bah, ad loc.). What makes this text so shocking is that the daughter was entirely innocent of any improper behavior. In other words, it was her very existence as a beautiful woman that created the problem, and as such it was better that she simply exit this world before any more men were led into sinful thoughts. I see no way that this story can be brought into line with mainstream rabbinic thought, despite many attempts to do so.[30] (At a future time I can present some lessons that contemporary moralists have derived from this story, which also are quite shocking.)

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Companies Like Uber Offer Less Opportunity For Graft

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Luke Ford

In my experience, taxis are hideously expensive. To take a taxi from 90035 to LAX with no traffic will cost you about $30. To take Uber will cost you about $20 and you will be more likely to get an English-speaking driver. I’ve only had good times with Uber. I just wish its app worked for my Blackberry.

Taking the Los Angeles public bus system was much better than I expected, just so long as you are not picking up people from icky parts of town.

Glenn Reynolds writes:

The regulatory knives are out for Uber and Lyft, two ride-sharing services that make life easier for consumers and provide employment opportunities in a stagnant economy. Why are regulators unhappy? Basically, because these new services offer insufficient opportunity for graft.

Services like Uber and Lyft disrupt the current regulatory environment. I have the Uber app on my phone. If I need a car in areas where Uber operates, it looks up where I am using GPS, matches me with participating drivers nearby, and in my experience gets me a Town Car in just a few minutes. It’s the comfort of a limo service, with the convenience of a taxicab. I get a better service, the driver gets a job, but now there’s competition for those entrenched companies.

In most cities, traditional taxi services are regulated by some sort of taxi commission. Similarly, limo services — the ones that provide the black Town Cars favored by big shots (and used by many Uber drivers) — are regulated by some sort of livery office. The rules strictly forbid the two sectors of the market from competing with one another. And, generally, entry is limited so that neither faces too much competition in general. In holding down competition, these regulators act on behalf of the entities they supposedly regulate for the benefit of consumers.

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California, Texas Have Similar Demographics

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Luke Ford

Allan Wall writes: VDARE.com has repeatedly pointed out that the demographics of Texas are already quite similar to those of California. But Texas is Republican because whites vote heavily for the GOP (not quite as overwhelmingly as the Deep South states, but maybe that’s coming). In contrast, California has what Texas Republican strategist Ralph Griffin called a “crazy white people problem”—and of course idiot GOP leadership obsessed with outreach to unwinnable minorities, apparently not realizing that the party does not even carry California’s white vote.

Texans are not crazy. The have voted to survive.

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Why Does Israel Protect Its Borders But America Doesn’t?

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Luke Ford

John Bennett writes for American Thinker:

Many Western nations are restricting immigration because of popular anger at the unwelcome changes brought about by mass immigration.  America seems to be the rare country with the misfortune of having politicians who won’t stand up for citizens.   

How many nations around the world have to be thrown into crisis and division for us to learn that mass immigration is not always a positive?  Israel, Great Britain, France, Switzerland, Italy, and Norway are just a few of the Western nations that energetically guard their territorial integrity, and some party leaders in those countries openly explain why they do so.

Israel’s “smart fence” protects “the character of the country”  

When faced with a massive influx of African immigrants, PM Benjamin Netanyahu said in 2011, “This growing wave threatens Israelis’ jobs, is changing the character of the country and we must stop it.”  That is what any true leader would say, if he or she desired to protect and preserve the concept of national identity.

Over the last several years, an inflow of illegal aliens from Africa led to major tensions within Israel over what to do about illegal immigration.  In Tel Aviv in 2012, a crisis of rising crime, disorder, and rape infuriated locals, and many saw the crisis as being brought on by the illegal aliens, called “illegal infiltrators” in Israel.  Over 1,000 local citizens demonstrated against what they saw as uninvited infiltrators, carrying signs that read: “Return them now,” and “If we keep silent we will become strangers in our own neighborhoods.”

The Tel Aviv protests intensified after several horrendous rapes.  In one, two African migrants were arrested for raping a 15-year-old, while a third held the victim’s boyfriend.  Several months later, demonstrations followed the rape of an 83-year-old Israeli woman.  The elderly woman, said police, “was raped and beaten for hours in the courtyard of her apartment building near the central bus station in south Tel Aviv by a young Eritrean migrant,” according to the Jerusalem Post.  Police were able to trace the assailant’s DNA because he had a prior arrest for trying to steal a woman’s bag.

Seventy-year-old Sophie Menashe of Tel Aviv reportedly says, “South Tel Aviv is South Sudan now. It’s no longer Tel Aviv[.] … And I’m scared all the time.”

Israel’s immigration and border protection policy is not simply based in security concerns.  Issues of crime and cultural cohesion also play a large role in shaping Israel’s approach to immigration.  That approach has included the construction of a sophisticated barrier fence, aggressive deportation, and the use of the military to protect the border.  The Israeli military has, over the last several years, turned away huge numbers of African asylum seekers, mostly from Eritrea and Sudan, at the border.  The Israeli army position is that it will act to “prevent illegal infiltration” as per “directives from the political echelon.”  Also, the Israeli cabinet devotes resources to enforce the law against illegal aliens and their employers.

Israel protects its border, motivated in part by an awareness of the great civilizational importance of national boundaries.  “Just like the Chinese protected themselves and defended themselves with the Great Wall,” PM Netanyahu says, “so we will continue to defend ourselves on the southern border, the Golan Heights and on all fronts.”

How, and why, has Israel enacted an effective border strategy, while we have not?  Israel is uniquely threatened by its immediate neighbors, but surely national defense is not the only reason to have an effective fence and a genuine border.  While it's true that our border would require a longer fence, the length of our borders is a reason to take illegal immigration seriously, not a reason to surrender our sovereignty.  Building an effective fence is just a matter of available technology and political will.  Put another way, the national will to survive – with a distinct national culture – is all it takes to justify a real border.

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Australia Is Getting Less Australian

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Luke Ford

Every time I come back to Australia, it is less Australian. Though the country’s immigration program is the most sane in the world in that it only lets in people who can benefit the country economically, white Australians are steadily counting for less and less of the population percentage. Asians are smart, law-abiding and high achieving, and they are steadily taking over more and more of the universities and the country’s elite positions in medicine, law, finance and management. White Australia can’t keep up. Orientals are rapidly becoming Australia’s master class.

So when I walk around Australia, I see Asians out competing the native white Australians. I see Muslims walking around in full Islamic regalia. They’re often highly educated, an elite, and they’re reproducing much more rapidly than the average white Australian, who seems in decline even though his country has enjoyed 24 years of economic growth (the country has the world’s 12th largest economy).

Australia lets in about 6,000 refugees a year, including some from black Africa who are unlikely to assimilate into the country.

Many of the refugees and immigrants don’t give a toss about Australia, it is simply a better economic opportunity for them. They have no interest in assimilating into Australian norms. They don’t care about Australian history. They’re not part of the country’s tradition of mateship.

During WWII, Australia’s population was 99% white. Now it is down to about 90% (and most of the rest are Asian). The country’s census does not ask for race.

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Australia Is All Worked Up About Rape In The Military

Posted on June 9, 2014 by Luke Ford

Whenever you put young men and women together, you get sexual harassment and sexual tension. If you add privacy and alcohol to the equation, you get rape. When men can, they rape (unless they’re frightened or particularly moral). If you don’t want women to get raped in the military, don’t have women in the military. If you want women in the military, you are going to have to put up with a certain amount of rape.

Australia is all worked up about rape in the military but there’s no mention in the media that if you force the military to admit women, you are going to have needless sexual tension and rape. The military does not want to admit women. It destroys efficiency and group cohesion. They have been forced to admit women by the politicians.

Steve Sailer examines the hysteria about rape in the U.S. military. Sailer discusses the Army coach fired for not recruiting enough accused rapists.

Sailer wrote: You would assume that the Jameis Winston case would have been a huge story in the New York Times all fall with lots of long think pieces about the Meaning of It All. After all, the prestige press has been getting worked up recently over Rape Culture on Campus and in the Military and the like. But it has been slow to delve much into this particular story about the star of the #1 team beyond laconic news accounts like this one because it runs into other social concerns: promoting black quarterbacks, and the worry that the woman is white.

In contrast, the NYT was all over a story a year or two ago about an obscure white college quarterback accused of rape in some place like Montana or Wyoming. He wound up acquitted. (Reinstated as starting quarterback the day after his acquital, he’s thrown for 28 touchdowns and only 4 interceptions this year for Montana, which will be in a small college playoff game on Saturday against Coastal Carolina.)

And of course the NYT ran a couple of dozen stories promoting the hoax that a black stripper (who, by the way, was just convicted of murder) had been gang raped by the white Duke lacrosse team.

There’s a similar case at the Naval Academy where three black football players are accused of raping a female student, presumably white, but that has gotten some Serious Attention because that can be filed under the Sexual Assault Epidemic in the Military category (talk about bogus trend stories …). And the alleged rapists are not shattering stereotypes by being passing quarterbacks.

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The Nurture Assumption

Posted on June 9, 2014 by Luke Ford

Parents should relax. There’s nothing much they can do, beyond the basics, beyond being the best selves they can be, to effect their kids’ lives in a statistically meaningful way. The primary thing they give their children is an attachment style and this primarily depends on the parents coming to terms with their life narrative, not on anything the parents do to or for their kids (with the possible exception of abuse and deprivation, etc, even then that is usually less influential on the children than their genes).

I don’t have kids, but I’ve been a kid and I’ve lived in different homes and I’ve known dozens of families and I’m impressed with this New York Times book review by Carol Tavris about The Nurture Assumption:

First, researchers have been unable to find any child-rearing practice that predicts children’s personalities, achievements or problems outside the home. Parents don’t have a single child-rearing style anyway, because how they treat their children depends largely on what the children are like. They are more permissive with easy children and more punitive with defiant ones.

Second, even when parents do treat their children the same way, the children turn out differently. The majority of children of troubled and even abusive parents are resilient and do not suffer lasting psychological damage. Conversely, many children of the kindest and most nurturing parents succumb to drugs, mental illness or gangs.

Third, there is no correlation — zero — between the personality traits of adopted children and their adoptive parents or other children in the home, as there should be if ”home environment” had a strong influence.

Fourth, how children are raised — in day care or at home, with one parent or two, with gay parents or straight ones, with an employed mom or one who stays home — has little or no influence on children’s personalities.

Finally, what parents do with and for their children affects children mainly when they are with their parents. For instance, mothers influence their children’s play only while the children are playing with them; when the child is playing alone or with a playmate, it makes no difference what games were played with mom…

The first problem with the nurture assumption is nature. The findings of behavior genetics show, incontrovertibly, that many personality traits and abilities have a genetic component. No news here; many others have reported this research, notably the psychologist Jerome Kagan in ”The Nature of the Child.” But genes explain only about half of the variation in people’s personalities and abilities. What’s the other half?

Harris’s brilliant stroke was to change the discussion from nature (genes) and nurture (parents) to its older version: heredity and environment. ”Environment” is broader than nurture. Children, like adults, have two environments: their homes and their world outside the home; their behavior, like ours, changes depending on the situation they are in. Many parents know the eerie experience of having their child’s teacher describe their child in terms they barely recognize (”my kid did what?”). Children who fight with their siblings may be placid with friends. They can be honest at home and deceitful at school, or vice versa. At home children learn how their parents want them to behave and what they can get away with; but, Harris shows, ”These patterns of behavior are not like albatrosses that we have to drag along with us wherever we go, all through our lives. We don’t even drag them to nursery school.”

Harris has taken a factor, peers, that everyone acknowledges is important, but instead of treating it as a nuisance in children’s socialization, she makes it a major player. Children are merciless in persecuting a kid who is different — one who says ”Warshington” instead of ”Washington,” one who has a foreign accent or wears the wrong clothes. (Remember?) Parents have long lamented the apparent cruelty of children and the obsessive conformity of teen-agers, but, Harris argues, they have missed the point: children’s attachment to their peer groups is not irrational, it’s essential. It is evolution’s way of seeing to it that kids bond with each other, fit in and survive. Identification with the peer group, not identification with the parent, is the key to human survival. That is why children have their own traditions, words, rules, games; their culture operates in opposition to adult rules. Their goal is not to become successful adults but successful children. Teen-agers want to excel as teen-agers, which means being unlike adults…

Others, however, may reject this book because of concerns about its potential misuses. If children ”naturally” exclude ”outsiders,” why should schools make any effort to integrate children of different ethnicities, sexes or abilities? Why should we pay for prenatal care or better schools if smart, resilient kids will turn out all right whatever we do, and troubled ones will be lost to deviant peer groups?

There is one powerful way that parents can influence their children and that is through their attachment style. So far there has been no genetic component found for attachment style. So whether a kid is secure or anxious or avoidant or disorganized in his attachment style, that is largely up to the parenting style and parents can’t help but act out their own style of attachment and level of differentiation. Differentiation — the ability to securely hold on to yourself and to calm your own anxieties while in relationship to the people you love — does not tend to change over generations.

* A bad habit I developed in childhood was to always clean my plate. It has led to a lifelong pattern of over-eating.

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So Why Doesn’t Australia Have Protests About Its High Cost Of Living?

Posted on June 8, 2014 by Luke Ford

In 2011, the main story in Israel were the social justice protests, aka the cost of living was too high.

Australia’s cost of living is far higher than Israel’s. So why aren’t Australians taking to the streets?

Because Australians and Israelis are very different peoples.

If you’ve read the Old Testament, you know that the people Israel are not afraid to complain. By contrast, Australia’s religious heritage is Protestant and Protestants don’t tend to complain much.

Another factor is that Australia’s wages are near the highest in the world. They are third in this chart while Israel ranks at 24 (and America is at seven).

According to the statistics, Australia has the seventh-most expensive cost living in the world. Israel is 20th. Australia’s cost ranks at 108.51 while Israel ranks at 91.45, well below Japan.

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Australia Is A High-Trust Country

Posted on June 8, 2014 by Luke Ford

In Australia, you pump your gas and then you pay. In America, you pay and then you can pump your gas.

In regional Australia, people usually don’t lock up their homes and cars. In American cities, that is mandatory.

So why is there so much crime in America and so relatively little in Australia? The answer has almost nothing to do with Australia and America. These two countries simply exemplify world-wide trends in crime — black people commit the most, Orientals the least and whites are in between.

I’ve been in Australia two weeks now and hardly seen any blacks and no Mexicans. By contrast, Los Angeles is the most racially mixed city in the United States with large numbers of blacks and Mexicans and consequently huge rates of crime in areas where blacks and Mexicans live.

Some parts of Australia are dangerous but they are areas with lots of blacks or low-IQ Muslims or other low-IQ types. Why Australia imports this dysfunction is beyond me. Overall, however, Australia has about the most sane immigration policy around.

J. Philippe Rushton found:

In the U.S., Blacks are less than 13% of the population but have 50% of all arrests for assault and murder and 67% of all arrests for robbery. Fifty percent of all crime victims also report their assailants are Black, so the arrest statistics cannot be due to police bias.

Blacks make up a large share of those arrested for white-collar crimes. About 33% of persons arrested for fraud, forgery, counterfeiting, and receiving stolen property, and about 25% of those arrested for embezzlement are Black. Blacks are under-represented only in offenses, such as tax fraud and securities violations, that are committed by individuals in high status occupations.

On the other hand, Orientals are under-represented in U.S. crime statistics. This has led some to argue that the Asian “ghetto” has protected members from harmful outside influences. For Blacks, however, the ghetto is said to foster crime, so purely cultural explanations are not enough.

Female homicides tell the same story. In one study of female arrests, 75% were Black women. Only 13% were White women. No Asian women were arrested. The cultural explanation for the crime rate of Black men does not apply to Black women, who are not expected to engage in criminal behavior to the same extent. There is no “gangster” image among Black females.

The same pattern is found in other countries. In London, England, Blacks make up 13% of the population, but account for 50% of the crime rate. A 1996 government commission in Ontario, Canada, reported that Blacks were five times more likely go to jail than Whites, and 10 times more likely than Orientals. In Brazil, there are 1.5 million Orientals, mostly Japanese whose ancestors went there as
laborers in the 19th century, and who are the least represented in crime.

Studies find that Blacks are more aggressive and outgoing than Whites, while Whites are more aggressive and outgoing than Orientals. Blacks also have more mental instability than Whites. Black rates of drug and alcohol abuse are higher. Again, Orientals are under-represented in mental health statistics.

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Why Is Brazil So Incompetent?

Posted on June 8, 2014 by Luke Ford

As we get closer to the World Cup, you might be wondering why is Brazil so incompetent? It is rushing to finish three soccer stadiums that will be used in the competition and then rarely used again.

The average IQ in Brazil is 87. The country is a mess. The correlation between IQ and average GDP is high. High IQ countries include Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan. They’re organized efficient peoples. The average IQ in the United States is 98 and falling as we are overwhelmed by low-IQ mestizo illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America who reproduce more rapidly than smart people.

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