Opuscula Word’s “bad name” Sends scrivener On Internet searches

RUTHIE BLUM, managing editor of The Algemeiner, writing in Israel HaYom (Israel Today) notes that former U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian ‎Territories (‎Richard Falk) has given bias a bad name.

Giving bias a "bad name" made me rush to find definitions for the word "bias."

Can a word really be given a "bad name?"

Because I am lazy and would rather "cut-n-paste" than rekey information from my Webster's Unabridged, I offer the following to support my thought that "bias" has a bad name even without the UN's Falk.

Dictionary.com defines the noun "bias" as
1. a particular tendency, trend, inclination, feeling, or opinion, especially one that is preconceived or unreasoned
2. unreasonably hostile feelings or opinions about a social group; prejudice:

As a verb, to cause to hold or exhibit a particular bias; to influence, especially unfairly

Merriam-Webster defines "bias" as
an inclination of temperament or outlook; especially: a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment : prejudice

Vocabulary.com lists "bias" as
(a) a partiality that prevents objective consideration of an issue or situation
(b) influence in an unfair way

Business Dictionary insists that "bias" means An inclination or preference that influences judgment from being balanced or even-handed. Prejudice is bias in pejorative sense.

THERE ARE, of course, other definitions of "bias"; most have to do with angles (cut on a bias). The definitions above are appropriate for Ms. Blum's statement.

According to my Edward Bear mentality, "bias" does not need Richard Falk or any other UN anti-Israel (is UN and anti-Israel redundant?) flunky to give the word a bad name. By definition -- as least the foregoing -- "bias" has a “bad name.”

True, a person could be biased in favor of something, albeit that almost by default means the person is against something else. It's most common application is as a position against something. (Of all flowers, I have a bias FOR carnations; translation, I am biased at various levels against all other flowers.)

Falk's bias FOR "Palestine" and AGAINST Israel gives him -- not the word "bias"--a "bad name."

People who follow the continuing UN attacks on Israel -- all the while ignoring all other real or imagined human rights violations in other countries -- know where the UN's bias lies; it's blatantly anti-Israel. Knowing that, why would anyone with more brains than a rock give a UN anti-Israel declaration any credence?

The pity of Ms. Blum's "gives bias a bad name" early comment is that it sidetracked me from reading her otherwise interesting article.

Digging a little, it turns out that the (now former) head of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Under-Secretary General and ESCWA Executive Secretary Jordanian Rima Khalaf, resigned -- or was "resigned" -- by new UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres because of the report. She was named to the ESCWA post by former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley slammed the report — authored by Richard Falk and Virginia Tilley — after it was published on Wednesday.

Haley commented “That such anti-Israel propaganda would come from a body whose membership nearly universally does not recognize Israel is unsurprising. That it was drafted by Richard Falk, a man who has repeatedly made biased and deeply offensive comments about Israel and espoused ridiculous conspiracy theories, including about the 9/11 terrorist attacks, is equally unsurprising.”

ESCWA member states
Bahrain, Egypt*, Iraq, Jordan*, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen (*=States with diplomatic ties to Israel.)

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Opuscula Hand me the blowtorch It’s time to kasher Skillets and ovens

The local hardware store clerks may wonder why there is a sudden rush on blowtorch fuel.

The ladies browning artery hardening crème brulee?

Maybe, but more likely the blowtorch will be used by the man of the house to kasher skillets, bar-be-ques, and — unless it’s self-cleaning — ovens.

IT’S PESACH TIME and that means in-depth whole-house cleaning with special attention to the kitchen.

Many of the ladies start their Pesach cleaning before the last of the Oznay Haman (hametashan) are devoured, but the week immediately prior to Passover is PRESSURE WEEK. Until then, serious Pesach cleaning has been in every room BUT the kitchen.

When my children were young, I would “kasher” a room — dust from top to bottom, wash windows and blinds (“Venetian" blinds can cut!), vacuum or mop floors — and then I would put a homemade (easily removable) sticker on the door to the just cleaned room reading “כשר לפסח” which meant that no food could be brought into the kashered room at least until erev Pesach. (By then all hametz was history so the “No Food” rule was slightly lightened.)

When I lived in Harrisburg PA the local Conservative rabbi delighted in torching ovens. His first attempt ended in disaster — he ruined an oven because he failed to keep the torch’s flame moving. (Were Jewish men the reason self-cleaning ovens were invented?)

Since most families don’t have space to store Kosher for Passover (K4P) pots and pans and complete sets of flatware, most families are obliged to kasher what they use on a daily and Shabat basis. Dishes are another matter; ceramic (china) cannot be kashered (made kosher) by any means. The options are two additional sets of dishes (meat and dairy — and maybe a Shabat set, too) or glass dishes that could be used, after kasheering, for meat and dairy (but not at the same time). Single use “paper” plates and plastic flatware also are options, especially for bachelors and bachelorettes.

HOWEVER, almost everything else can be kashered. Many of the K4P guides include “How To Kasher” instructions. Two of my favorites are Seattle (WA) Vaad and the Jersey Shore Orthodox Rabbinate, both of which include Sefardi and Mizrachi traditions as well as Ashkenazi traditions.

The two links above are to 2016 documents; the references are to the “How to Kasher” information, NOT K4P for 2017/5777. The new guides have yet to be published.

According to the Jersey Shore K4P document, there are two primary kashering methods: libun and haga’ala,

Libun is used for utensils used over an open fire or directly on an electric burner. These include skewers, broiling pans, baking pans. Libun is accomplished by placing the item over a direct heat source to a temperature of 900 to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit, or using a blowtorch to get the item red hot, or putting the item in a self-cleaning oven for the cleaning cycle. This is NOT recommended for utensils with plastic, rubber, or wooden parts; survive the oven’s cleaning cycle.

Everything else is by tradition and for that I recommend reading the JSOR Passover Directory of 2016 (cited above). If the 2017 directory is out when this blog entry is read, the more recent is preferable (assuming it has the same kashering information). There is more to the differences between Ashkenazi and Sefardi/Mizrachi traditions than just kitniyot. Both Seattle and Jersey Shore note many of the differences.

REMEMBER: If you are kashering something with a blowtorch, KEEP IT MOVING or plan to buy a replacement.

* * * *

The image above, sans photographer information, appears on two web sites:

A Rabbi Armed with a Blowtorch Keeps Things Kosher by Casey Chan

This Is How a Real Man Cleans An Oven by Sean Fallon

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Opuscula Banning articles Showing religion ID Is quandry for Jews

JEWS IN EUROPE ARE IN A QUANDRY. Should they support bans on Muslim women wearing a hijab, niqab, or burka or should they support Muslim women who believe these modesty apparels are religiously necessary?

THE PROBLEM for Jews is that if, being politically correct, a government bans the Muslim apparel, that government also will ban kippot and exposed tzit-tzit for Jewish men. Necklaces with Jewish symbols, e.g., Stars of David, menorahs, tablets, mezuzahs, would have to be covered by clothing. By the way, some Muslim men also wear a kippa-like head covering called a taqiyah (tagiya).

THE PROBLEM for Christians is that a ban on displaying religious identifiers also would ban such items as crosses and crucifixes — and ashes before Lent. As with the Jewish jewelry, such items must be concealed.

Kippot — yarmulkas — are, by Jewish chronology, relatively new. While wearing a head covering during prayers is mandated by hoary tradition, wearing a kippa at other times has been optional. As Jews, at least in the U.S., felt more confident and safe, more and more Jewish men started wearing kippot outside home and synagogue.

With the exception of some Ashkenazi super-Orthodox sects, most American Jewish men go to work with uncovered heads. (A kippa-wearing Jew in an Israeli company operating in the U.S. barely is tolerated.)

No governments, as far as this scrivener knows, are citing beards as “religious identifiers.” Men of all religions have worn beards for hundreds of years – Amish, Jews, Muslims, sundry Orthodox Christians, and others too numerous to mention. Even some atheists have been known to favor hirsute faces.

In the U.S. what a person wears might be covered by “freedom of religion,” the First Amendment to the nation’s Constitution.

But Europe is NOT America.

A European Union court recently ruled that wearing apparel indentifying a person’s religion may be cause for dismissal, however to avoid any claims of discrimination, a prohibition of one type apparel, e.g., a hijab, also is a prohibition against the wearing — or display — of any type of religious identification: kippot, crosses and crucifixes, Mogan Davids, taqiyahs, dastaars, chunnis and keskis (Sikh turban) . . . the list goes on and on. Some Sikh sects obligate both men and women to wear a hair covering.

If Europeans, and perhaps some North Americans, too, are afraid of Muslims, then perhaps it would be better to make laws that force a person to display some sign of their religious affiliation.

The hijab is an excellent identifier of Muslim women; the niqab and burka not so much only because the person beneath the face covering cannot easily be identified. Sultaana Freeman challenged the Florida law demanding to be allowed to wear a burka for her driver’s license photo. A license was issued and then suspended. Ms. Freeman went to court and lost. She then appealed and lost again. In July 2003, then Gov. Jeb Bush signed legislation requiring that driver's licenses must include a picture of the driver's full face.

In Illinois, the Sikh organization went to court to force the state to allow its members to wear head coverings. A number of Web sites incorrectly published that at the same time, Muslim women won the right to wear a niqab or burka. Snopes clarifies the issue at some length. According to Snopes, the Illinois Religious Accommodation Guide covering driver’s licenses and other forms of state-issued ID specify that Muslims (and Sikhs) may wear head coverings (such as hijabs) in photographs, not face-covering garb (such as burqas).

On 25 August 2015, Henry Haupt (Deputy Press Secretary for Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White) clarified in an email to Snopes that a person’s face cannot be obscured in a driver’s license photo:

As an aside, the Reddit site has a brief look at what a police officer may do if a niqab or burka-clad woman is stopped.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc., No. 14-86 that to prevail in a disparate-treatment claim based on religion under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a job applicant need show only that the applicant’s need for a religious accommodation was a motivating factor in the employer’s decision, not that the employer had actual knowledge of the need. (The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled in favor of Abercrombie & Fitch because the woman for whom the EEOC brought the complaint failed to notify her employer of her requirement.

The issue was over a hijab, not a niqab or burka.

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Opuscula Pragmatism Mid-East Style

WHILE THE POLITICIANS in Ramallah and Gaza City threaten — and work to that end — the destruction of Israel, the predominately Jewish state helps keep both “Palestines” functioning.
How? Middle East pragmatism.

WHEN I WORKED FOR TADIRAN’s Electronics Division in Holon (Israel) I noticed metal labels written in what I thought was Arabic. (I came to learn the language was Farsi.)

Iran — then ruled by the shah — was licensed by Tadiran to make two-way military class radios. Putting a Tadiran, badge on an Iran-made product would make it difficult to market in the Arab world.

At the same time, Israeli (Tadiran and Amcor) products were purchased by Saudis who wanted refrigeration products (air conditioners, refrigerators) that would survive the Saudi heat.

Pragmatism. I don’t care WHERE a product is made, as long as it works.

SodaStream once had a factory in Mishor Adumim in the so-called “West Bank” (of the Jordan River). Pressure from BDSers forced SodaStream to close this plant, putting an equal number of Israeli Jews and “Palestinian” Arabs out of work. According to a SodaStream video, Arabs and Jews were paid equally; the “Palestinians” were bused to and from work — on SodaStream-provided buses.

SodaStream relocated its Mishor Adumim factory to the Lehavim in the Negev where it employs a significant number of Bedouin as well as Jews.

Wonder where the “Palestinians” in the “West Bank” get their water and electricity? Not from Jordan, but from Israel. In point of fact, the Palestinian Authority was so far behind in its payments to Israel Electric than millions of shekels were written off. Israel also provides some electricity to Gaza and allows generator fuel through to power Gaza generators.

On the flip side, a number of recent web articles (see URLs below the bar) report on Gaza businesses exporting “Jewish” things to Israel, even going to far as to label the items “Made in Israel,” the latter for export to “the world.”

According to the articles, Gaza once had a thriving clothing industry, but with the arrival (election to power) of Hamas, the industry was decimated.

While exports to Israel are helping to revive Gaza’s clothing industry and to provide jobs for hundreds of Gazans previously surviving on handouts from global donors (while Hamas siphons off money to dig tunnels into Israel and Egypt), the industry still has a way to go to return to its “pre-Hamas” level.

Next time you are shopping for a kippa (yarmulke) or bekishe (beketshe) — the long coat worn by some hasidic Jews — check to see, if you can, its origin.

Does it matter? A kippa is a kippa is a kippa. The bekishe, on the other hand, should be checked for shatnez.

(I wonder if Gaza tailors export galabias (a/k/a thobes, caftans, dishdashas, kameezs). I could use a new one.)

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From the WWW

The most information is found in the article Gaza’s clothing sector makes a comeback

Similar, albeit condensed versions, may be read at

http://tinyurl.com/zgclf8l

http://tinyurl.com/zsz3nps

http://tinyurl.com/gm5ft8g

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.