Bieganski and Georgette Mosbacher, Nominated to be Ambassador to Poland

Georgette Mosbacher, nominated to be the next American ambassador to Poland, blames Poland's recent Holocaust speech bill for rising anti-Semitism in Europe. 

Read here and here

The Jack Phillips Masterpiece Cake Shop Decision and Bieganski

Priests in Bydgoszcz, Poland, about to be shot by Nazis. 

Some years back, Charlie Craig and Dave Mullins entered the Masterpiece Cake Shop in Colorado and asked Jack Phillips, the proprietor, to design a cake for their wedding. 

Phillips declined, saying that he does not design cakes for same-sex weddings. He also refuses to design cakes for bachelor parties and Halloween. 

Charlie Craig and Dave Mullins received many offers of free cakes. That did not satisfy them. They, and their allies, wanted Jack Phillips to suffer. 

Suffer Phillips did. His case went all the way to the Supreme Court. 

Today, the Supreme Court decided in favor of Phillips, but not, alas, on the grounds of his freedom as an artist to accept or decline artistic commissions at will. Rather, they decided on the grounds that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission was hostile to Phillips' Christianity. 

You can read their decision here. 

The Supreme Court cites the Colorado Civil Rights Commission's conflation of Jack Phillips' Christian beliefs with the Holocaust. 

That's right. Christophobes in power in the US conflated Jack Phillips' Christianity with Nazism. 

The Supreme Court said that that is wrong. 

Below please find  a quote from the Supreme Court decision: 

***

On July 25, 2014, the Commission met again. This meeting, too, was conducted in public and on the record. On this occasion another commissioner made specific reference to the previous meeting’s discussion but said far more to disparage Phillips’ beliefs. The commissioner stated:

“I would also like to reiterate what we said in the hearing or the last meeting. Freedom of religion and religion has been used to justify all kinds of discrimination throughout history, whether it be slavery, whether it be the holocaust, whether it be—I mean, we—we can list hundreds of situations where freedom of religion has been used to justify discrimination. And to me it is one of the most despicable pieces of rhetoric that people can use to—to use their religion to hurt others.”

To describe a man’s faith as “one of the most despicable pieces of rhetoric that people can use” is to disparage his religion in at least two distinct ways: by describing it as despicable, and also by characterizing it as merely rhetorical—something insubstantial and even insincere.

The commissioner even went so far as to compare Phillips’ invocation of his sincerely held religious beliefs to defenses of slavery and the Holocaust. This sentiment is inappropriate for a Commission charged with the solemn responsibility of fair and neutral enforcement of Colorado’s antidiscrimination law—a law that protects discrimination on the basis of religion as well as sexual orientation. 

***

That's right. An American CIVIL RIGHTS COMMISSION is staffed by Christophobes who insist that Christianity = Nazism. 

In "Bieganski the Brute Polak Stereotype" I argue that that stereotype exists at least partly to rewrite history, to shift blame for the Holocaust from Nazism, which was influenced by Social Darwinism, Romantic Nationalism, Neo-Paganism, and Scientific Racism, to Catholicism. 

You can read "Against Identifying Nazism with Christianity" here. 

Jersey City Katyn Memorial Relocation Controversy

Folks, as you know, if you read my Save Send Delete blog, I have a lot going on right now, and no energy to devote to the Katyn Memorial controversy in Jersey City. 

If you have free time, you should be paying attention to this controversy. Just these few words from Wikipedia should clue you in: 

"In April of 2018, it was announced that there were plans to remove the memorial as Exchange Place was to be made into a park.[7]

Mike DeMarco, chair of the Exchange Place Special Improvement District was quoted by The Jersey Journal as being in favor of the removal calling the statue was "politically incorrect" and "I don't think the statue's appropriate for a major metropolitan area ... [The monument is] a little gruesome ... I can't imagine how many mothers go by and have to explain it to their children."[8]

Following an outcry by Poles, U.S. Veterans, Jewish organizations, numerous diplomats and politicians, this plan has now been rescinded and it has been agreed that the monument will be relocated 200 feet away but will remain on the waterfront in a location that is both dignified and practical.[9] The proposed site is a matter of controversy." 

The above-quoted Mike DeMarco describes himself as a "stone cold killer." See here. 

Write about Jerking Off; Win Valuable Prizes: Philip Roth and Bieganski

Philip Montgomery photo of Philip Roth source

If a writer's work works for you, nothing but your own life experience will separate you from that writer. If a writer's work doesn't work for you, it takes earth-moving-equipment-level effort to bring you to care about that writer.

Philip Roth died yesterday, and lots of old white male snobs, his demographic, are insisting that he was a great writer.

Me? Meh. I read one of his books, and it left me cold. I saw a movie based on one of his books, and it left me colder. And he hated me and others like me, Polaks, who are, as Roth put it, Jews' "worst enemy." At least Rabbi Warshaw, one of Roth's characters, put it that way. Note that Roth places his bigotry against Poles in the mouth of a man whose last name is a misspelling of the Polish capital, Warszawa or Warsaw.

Roth write a misogynist novel about jerking off, and he included Dumb-Polak-joke level comments about Polish people, and he won every literary award there is to win, except the Nobel.

If that isn't proof of the American elite's embrace of Bieganski, the Brute Polak Stereotype, I don't know what is. Ask yourself. If Roth had written about "Negroes" – a fusty term I associate with the old, white male snobs who love Roth – if Roth had written about African Americans the way he wrote about Polish people, would he have won any of those awards? Oh, come on!

Below are some snippets about Roth.

***

From my book, Bieganski, the Brute Polak Stereotype.

The process of firming and defining fragile group identity and solidarity through victimization and over and against a posited ethnic other of choice has been described in American- as well as Eastern European-Jewish literature. Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint provides an example. Portnoy, the novel protagonist, "recalls something that his father often said to him: 'A Polack's day ... isn't complete until he has dragged his big, dumb feet across the bones of a Jew' ... My father is right, these people are direct descendants of the ox." Alice Dembosky embodies the sensuality and stupidity of a stereotypical "dumb, blond, goyische beauty." This "Polack's plan" is to steal away a Jewish boy and "ruin his life." Uncle Hymie, using deceit and bribes, drives the threatening Polack away. Hymie's lies and bribery are justifiable; he is dealing with a Pole, an animal out to ruin Jews. Portnoy and his father agree on little else. On Bieganski, though, they can bond, and Portnoy, Roth, and his readers can experience the comforts of identity, whether they follow the six hundred thirteen commandments or not.

***

My Amazon review of The Plot Against America, Roth's book that depicts the Holocaust occurring in the US,

Question for fans who champion Philip Roth's "Plot against America" as a brilliant, moral analysis of anti-Semitism: How would you review a Palestinian "alterative history" that depicts Israelis feeding Palestinians into gas chambers? How would you review an "alternative history" by a real aid to former President Bill Clinton who depicts Clinton raping her, though he did not? A point blank question: what is the difference between an "alternative history," and a "lie"?

"Don't invent; just remember:" Roth announced as his dictum when he was writing "Plot." Thus Roth implicates himself as a case of self-induced False Memory Syndrome. This notorious condition, created by overzealous therapists, resulted in the jailing of innocent adults who had never harmed any child. *Real* child abuse -- like real anti-Semitism -- must be fought. It is exactly because anti-Semitism is so heinous that false charges of anti-Semitism are themselves so heinous.

Some individuals are so self-important, so divorced from common standards of decency, and so ravenous for unearned pity that they announce that they have been victimized when they have not. Philip Roth insists on imagining himself, Philip Roth, as the main character, the primary innocent victim, in the history of anti-Semitism in America. Like the woman who cries rape when she's never been touched, Roth does not care whom he slanders with his phony charge. He also does not care how much of the spotlight he hogs from real victims.

Slander Roth does. Yes, there was anti-Semitism in America in the interwar period. There was murderous hostility to largely Catholic Eastern and Southern Europeans, Asians, and blacks as well. But statistics speak volumes. So do the rows of white crosses above places like Normandy. Over sixteen million Americans fought fascism in WW II. Almost three hundred thousand Americans died. In "Plot," these lives were never lived, nor were they ever sacrificed.

Roth further lies about history by stating in so many words that Jews, and Jews alone, are the only imaginable victims. In fact, one would not have to imagine anything to write a genuine history of organized terror and mass murder in the case of twentieth century African American history. Too, not only Jews, as Roth insists here, were victimized by the Nazis; Gypsies, Homosexuals, Poles, Soviets, Jehovah's Witnesses, trade unionists, etc, were also targeted.

Roth's further twisting of facts abounds on every page. Pacifists and others who did not want to enter WW II had reasons other than anti-Semitism for their hesitation. Millions, including Americans, had just fought in WW I, and, by many assessments, had thereby accomplished nothing. Lindbergh and others who resisted America's entry into the war often criticized the British "race" as much as they criticized Jews, because Brits wanted America in the war. Walter Winchell, Roth's hero, was a vicious homophobe who destroyed careers of those who would not play along with him.

Hog the spotlight from real victims Roth also does. As the book makes its splashy debut, a real genocide is taking place in Darfur. If Roth were the least bit moral, he could use his fame to draw attention to the tens of thousands already dead in Darfur, and the millions slated to die.

As literature, the book is empty. Roth's opening descriptions of Newark are pedestrian. That's to be expected. Readers will rush these early passages to reach the "money shots," the titillating, "true" depictions of rabid Kentucky goyim burning Jews alive.

Roth's distortions are not random. They are part of a struggle to redefine Nazism. Authors like James Carroll, in his "Constantine's Sword," have been working to define Nazism as an expression of Christianity. For this definition to make sense, many historical facts must disappear, for example, that Nazis persecuted Christian populations, and that Nazis defined their own movement as an expression of ancient paganism and modern science.

In this profoundly immoral view, all Christians are essentially anti-Semites, and all Jews are essentially victims. This view can never explain genocides like that by Muslims against fellow Muslims in Darfur, and so, that genocide is best ignored. Much else must be ignored, including the millions of Americans who fought against fascism. One can see how "Plot" services this worldview.

Roth has lived, and now lives, a comfortable life, rich with rewards that any human might envy. He has written two books, "Portnoy's Complaint" and "Goodbye Columbus," that earned him hatred from Jews who denounced him as a self-hating Jew. With "Plot," Roth is trying to have his cake and eat it too. Don't swallow it.

Read Romeo Dallaire's "Shake Hands with the Devil" to understand genocide in our own day. Read Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning," to discover how one real survivor dealt with his real Holocaust experience. Read more recent books by survivors like Bernat Rosner and Betty Schimmel. And then read Roth. There will be no comparison.

***

From my Amazon review of Claire Bloom's book, Leaving a Doll's House.

Bloom's husband, the author Philip Roth, insists that a skunk has anti-Semitic feelings toward him. This anecdote goes a long way towards explaining Roth's new book, "The Plot Against America."

Pages 195-220 contain, without comment, Bloom's diary entries from a particularly rocky time in her marriage to Roth. This is the best, rawest, most detailed writing in the book.

As others report, Philip Roth is depicted here -- believably -- as a demented and sadistic man. He is also clearly depicted as an object of genuine pathos. It must be hard to be Roth's wife; it must also be hard to be Roth. Without ever using the term, Bloom creates a vivid portrayal of Roth as a kind of idiot savant with Borderline Personality Disorder.

Reading of Roth's self-induced wounds of greed -- he demanded that Bloom pay him huge sums of money as compensation for the time he spent with her -- paranoia, and sheer unhappiness is like reading of a patient tormented by self-induced skin rashes. It's simply hard to watch, and you can't help but say a prayer for his speedy recovery.

*** Below is my review of The Human Stain, a 2003 film based on the 2000 Roth novel.

"The Human Stain" is the product of Philip Roth's ego and attention deficit disorder. Roth's ego: characters are obsessed with Jews, because Roth is obsessed with his own Jewish identity. Naked, beautiful, young women throw themselves at wizened, physically unattractive college professors, because Roth is an older man. A novelist saves the day, because Roth is a novelist. There is not a single believable female character in the movie. There are four melodramatic deaths. A character who had been a coward and a traitor in one of the first scenes accuses himself – unbelievably – during a eulogy in one of the last scenes. There are two scenes where very beautiful women perform private stripteases for ogling men – porn for pseudo-intellectuals. Yawn.

Attention deficit disorder: the script attempts to address Clinton's impeachment, stereotypical "White Trash," crazed, homicidal, Vietnam veterans, the issue of passing, artistic burnout, college town hypocrisy, and political correctness. Even a gifted novelist would find it impossible to work all those themes into a coherent and effective narrative. Roth drops the ball big time here; every theme he attempts is aborted. But, Roth is a genius, so if we aren't swept off our feet by the fruits of Roth's labor, it's because we are too small to appreciate his great genius. That, in a nutshell, is the naked emperor syndrome. Feh. Step aside. Make room for better writers.

Though "The Human Stain" is a failure, in spite of itself, it contains some worthy work. Wentworth Miller, as the young Coleman Silk, the character Antony Hopkins plays in advanced age, is stunning. Miller is supercharged with star power and it is to be hoped that he goes far. Ed Harris can do no wrong. He elevates and ignites every moment of his screen time that we are lucky enough to enjoy – even when the character Harris is playing, as here, is a two-dimensional stereotype of a homicidal, wife beating, anti-Semitic, lower class white, Vietnam veteran. This is a stereotype so shallow a tyro writer could produce it based on watching grade B movies. Nicole Kidman never escapes the two dimensional, derivative, and divorced from real life quality of her character, a foul-mouthed, chain smoking, poor white nymphomaniac with a craving for plump old men. If Roth gets his homicidal Vietnam Vet characters from B movies, he gets his female characters from pulp fiction. And just from the paperback *covers* of pulp fiction. Not even from reading the text. It's actually kinda scary to contemplate how divorced Roth and his readers are from real poor white people, real women, real Vietnam veterans.

There is a very fine early scene where Professor Coleman Silk (Anthony Hopkins) is berated and threatened by a committee of self-righteous, politically correct, hypocritical, gasbag, (redundant, I know) college professors who falsely accuse Silk of making a racist remark. The scene is very well played. But it is never anything more than an anecdote. Journalism has outstripped fiction's ability to comment on events like this. Want to read about politically correct shenanigans on campus? Read "Until Proven Innocent" about the legal and media lynching of the Duke lacrosse players. Roth's novel can't begin to match that account. As for Roth's stripteases? Free on the internet.

***

Finally, I'm a Jersey girl. My parents lived in Newark but had to leave. They, categorized as "white," were targets of violent rage our people played no historical role in generating. At least one of my older brothers was born in Newark. I've worked in Newark and I go to Newark several times a year for medical care. That Roth was born in Newark means nothing to me as a Jersey girl or as a New Jersey reader. Roth does not write for me.

New Jersey's most important living wordsmith is almost certainly Bruce Springsteen. Listen to his lyrics; read his 2016 memoir, Born to Run. Springsteen captures, and evokes, much of New Jersey life. Few of us are rock stars, but any of us could have walked along the boardwalk, or negotiated race relations in a shifting landscape, or interacted with immigrant ancestors or close relatives with mental illness. Springsteen's description of his father's body is one of the most powerful passages I've ever read.

Thank you Lukasz

I haven't posted much lately. Lukasz visited my other blog and discovered why. Lukasz I was very touched by your kind words. There has been a death in my family and other things are demanding my attention as well. If you'd like to visit the other blog, it's here. 

Smierc Ellenai by Jacek Malczewski 

An Armenian Joke and What It Says about Polish-Jewish Relations

Source

It takes one Jew to outwit ten Poles

It takes one Greek to outwit ten Jews

It takes one Armenian to outwit ten Greeks. 

I heard this joke in Poland, in Polish, from a Pole.

There are many variants to this joke. In place of "outwit," you could insert "cheat," "swindle," or "con." 

In some, the comparison is with Turks, or just undifferentiated Muslims. 

One can find variants here, here, here, here, here, here ...

There are two many versions of this joke on the internet to catalog fully here. 

Why does this joke matter to Polish-Jewish relations?

People, even otherwise friendly people, sometimes quite viciously attack my work, from my book, Bieganski: the Brute Polak Stereotype to my recent videos on the same topic. Their attacks reveal their agenda. 

YOU DON'T BLAME CHRISTIANITY ENOUGH!!! CHRISTIANITY MADE POLES HATE AND MURDER JEWS!

I've heard this attack again, and again, and again. 

An otherwise friendly viewer of the above-linked Bieganski video insisted that I don't mention blood libel, a religion-linked false belief, in the video. I *do* mention blood libel. But this viewer was so primed for an attack on Christianity, an attack that did not arrive, that he couldn't even see what was right in front of his eyes. 

I do talk about Christianity in my work, but not as much as Christophobes would like. 

I do focus on middleman minority status, a status that is more about society and economics than about theology. 

Armenians were a middleman minority group, like Jews. Like Jews, they were victims of a genocide. In the above joke, Armenians are elevated as champion middleman minority group members, superseding Jews. Armenians were Christian. Their Christianity did not matter. It was their status as members of a middleman minority, and thus crafty cheats, that mattered to those who have disseminated versions of this international joke for centuries. 

No, my book Bieganski does not essentialize. It does not agree that middleman minority group members are crafty cheats and deserving of genocide. Rather, I am pointing to this stereotype as generative of hatred, as did Edna Bonacich. 

My work is correct. We must not focus exclusively on theology as the explanatory factor for antisemitism. We must focus on middleman minority status as well. 

I realize in posting this that I'm a voice crying into the wilderness. The dominant paradigm is to demonize Christianity. The answer to that is for Poles to tell their own story, and for Christians to do a better job of addressing antisemitism's historical realities. 

Someday. 

Maria Kwasniewska, Olympic Medalist and Underground Fighter, Refuses to make Nazi Salute in 1936 Berlin

Maria Kwasniewska was a Polish Olympian who refused to give the Nazi Salute during the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Hitler called her a "little Pole." She said "I am not less than you." She later used the photo to aid her underground work.