Score One for the Scary People

Happened to stumble across this cheerful little missive on the net today, while looking for something else, and am greatly amused by it. Oh, Im not terribly amused that the libertarian fringe are gaining a foothold locally and maybe even, Gods forbid, gaining momentum, though that doesnt really bother me all that much, either - this is, please remember, the state that elected an insane former professional wrestler to be governor, as well as the state that elected Michele Bachmann. (And we almost had a self-professed vampire on the presidential ballot this last time around, except, um, yeah.) So politicians who froth at the mouth, and those who, when theyre not gnawing on their own limbs, support these folks, arent really all that unusual around here. (Its either the long, dark winters, or the fluoride in the water. Or a plot by malevolent extraterrestrials who live in an old barn near Rosemount, but you didnt hear that from me, okay?) What amuses me is the whole secretive, subversive nature of the announcement. Excellent news, comrades! We the working patriots of this administrative region have seized bureaucratic control of a congressional district somewhere in Minnesota, but I cant tell you where, because we want it to be a surprise for the current congressperson in two years time when we rise up and advance our populist agenda in accordance with the latest and most up-to-date instructions provided by our Fearless And Most Majestic Leader, may he live and reign forever. I mean, WTF? I spent a few moments trying to figure out which of Minnesotas congresspeople a Ron Paul cheerleader would consider one of the most unintelligent idiots in the house. Now, if I were handing out the award, itd be a no-brainer - Michele Bachmann for sure. Given the way the Paulists seem to think, though, I have a feeling the Representative theyre talking about is instead scary Muslim terrorist Keith Ellison, who, like all Democrats, quite naturally hates America, dont you know. The message, by the way, is posted by a Shoreview, MN realtor and pottery artist named Anisha Dunne, and who also goes or has gone by Anisha Yurcich-Dunne. A quick check of her names in Google should tell you everything you ever wanted to know (scroll down towards the bottom) about the kinds of crazy people who seem to be most heavily involved in Paulist politics these days& Watch out, Representative Ellison; the weirdos are after you, and theyre unstoppable, because theyve got some kind of revolutionary new perpetual-motion alternative energy source powering their diabolical machinations& but you didnt hear that from me, okay? Copyright

This Day, April 25, In Jewish History

1367: Poland's Casimir III "The Great" expanded the "privileges" of 1334 to include the Jews in Lesser Poland and Ukraine.1599: Birthdate of Oliver Cromwell. Most people remember Cromwell as one of the leaders in the revolt against Charles I that left the latter a beheaded monarch and the former Lord Protector. To the Jews, he is the English leader who enabled the Jews to return to England after three and half centuries of exile. Despite a great deal of opposition, Cromwell held fast to his commitment to the return of the Jews. Although they came in secret at first, by 1657, one year before the death of Cromwell, the Jews of London felt confident enough in their position to purchase a building to be used as a Synagogue. Cromwell passed away in September, 1658.1607: During the Eighty Years' War, the Dutch fleet destroys the anchored Spanish fleet at Gibraltar. The Eighty Years' War, or Dutch Revolt, was the war of secession between the Netherlands and the Spanish king that lasted from 1568 to 1648. The war resulted in the Seven United Provinces being recognized as an independent state. The United Provinces of the Netherlands, or the Dutch Republic, became a world power for a time through its merchant shipping and experienced a period of economic, scientific and cultural growth. The region now known as Belgium and Luxembourg also became established as the Southern Netherlands, part of the Seventeen Provinces that remained under royal Habsburg rule. The Spanish were Catholics. The Dutch were Protestants. More importantly, the Protestant Dutch were willing to provide a safe haven for the Jews. In fact, the early Jewish community in the Netherlands was dominated by Sephardic Jews whose families had been driven out of Catholic Spain. It was this Dutch victory over the Spanish that would mean that New Amsterdam would be Protestant and would be a haven for the first Jewish community in what would become the United States. 1846: The United Order of True Sisters, the first independent national women's organization in America, held its first meeting. Organized at Temple Emanu-El in New York City, the United Order of True Sisters (UOTS) held its first meeting on April 25, 1846. Conceived as a female counterpart to the male Jewish B'nai B'rith organization (founded in 1843), but functioning separately, UOTS claims to be the first independent national women's organization in the United States. Some of the Order's goals resembled those of earlier Jewish women's mutual aid and charitable societies. The Sisters sought "refinement of the heart and mind and moral improvement," and paid regular dues to be used for burial fees and material aid to members struck by illness or sudden poverty. Unlike earlier charitable women's organizations, however, the UOTS also had explicitly political goals. In the words of the group's 1864 constitution, the Order sought "particularly the development of free, independent and well-considered action of its members. The women are to expand their activities, without neglecting their obligations as housekeepers, in such a manner, that if necessary they can participate in public meetings and discussions." The structure of the lodge, with secret passwords, degrees of membership, and closely-guarded rituals, mirrored the organization of men's fraternal organizations like B'nai B'rith, the Masons, and the Odd Fellows. The members of UOTS were mostly middle-class German-Jewish women, as evidenced by the fact that meetings at most lodges were conducted in German until the end of the First World War. Many members were wives of B'nai B'rith members. The UOTS provided these women a place to exercise their leadership abilities and develop a role in the public sphere, without being subject to the authority of men. Although most probably did not fear material want, the system of mutual aid provided an unusual degree of security and independence. Initiated under the leadership of Henriette Bruckman, and founded with just ten other members, the original lodge counted over 100 members by 1851. In the same year, the UOTS established a Grand Lodge as an umbrella organization to connect lodges in different cities and to centralize authority. By the mid-1860s, lodges existed in Philadelphia, New Haven, and Albany as well as New York. Active in public life from the beginning, the UOTS established its own newspaper, Der Vereinsote, in 1884. Today, the UOTS continues to maintain chapters across the country, although its focus has changed and is no longer identified as an exclusively Jewish organization. Since 1947, the main activities of the Order have been raising money for cancer research and providing support to cancer patients. The most recent chapter was formed in Suffolk County, New York, in 1978.1848: The new Austrian constitution guaranteed freedom of the Jewish religion.1850: Paul Julius Reuter used 40 pigeons to carry stock market prices. Born Israel Beer Josaphat, Reuter had left his uncle's bank just two years before to establish what would become one of the world's greatest news gathering organizations.1852: Twenty-one Reform Jews formed Washington Hebrew Congregation in Washington D.C.1859: Construction of the Suez Canal begins. The construction and operation of the canal became entangled in the European power politics and imperial conflicts between the French, who built the canal and the British who wanted to control it. While serving as Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli bought a controlling interest in the company that owned the canal. This “extra-legal” purchase was made possible by money from the House of Rothschild.1881: A petition signed by 250,000 Germans was presented to the government requesting the barring of foreign Jews from admission into Germany. The petition bore no less than two hundred and fifty-five thousand signatures. This petition marked the opening of modern German anti-Semitism.1886: Sigmund Freud opened his practice at Rathausstrasse 7, Vienna.1898: Michael Wromser, the son of a poor butcher from Lorraine, passed away in Phoenix, Arizona, where he was the sole possessor of an agricultural empire worth a quarter of a million dollars. 1900: Birthdate of Wolfgang Ernst Pauli. The Austrian born physicist won the Nobel Prize in 1945. Pauli shows up on lists of Jewish scientists. In reality, his father was born Jewish and his maternal grandfather was Jewish. But like so many German and Jewish intellectuals of the time, conversion had taken him out of the House of Israel and only the blood laws of Hitler could have “brought him back.”1900: A two day crisis began in the Jewish Colonial Bank. Herzl called a meeting of the directors, and had the bank affairs reviewed by an accountant and a bank expert.1903: Herzl Journey back to Paris as he continues to search for support for a Jewish home with the leaders of European government and business. His approach would stand in stark contrast with the methods of the leaders of the Second Aliyah.1908: Joseph Dulberg, a leader of the Manchester Jewish Community, writes to Winston Churchill expressing sympathy for Churchill’s failure to win re-election and reiterating the strong support that Jews showed for him during the election.1911: Birthdate of Jack Ruby, the man who killed presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. Ruby was Jewish. Oswald was not.1911: As part of “The Case of Mendel Bellis,” two medical professors from Kiev University issued a second autopsy of the thirteen year old boy who had been killed in March of 1911. The report “stated the victim had been almost been completely drained of blood…” and intimated that a ritual murder had been committed. The autopsy was a fraud. The two medical men had received a 4,000 ruble bribe from the Russian Ministry of Justice.1915: The Anglo-French invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula began. Almost 30,000 men landed on the beach to fight the Turks for this strategic position. Fighting with the British was a Jewish force known as the Zionist Mule Corp. The Zion Mule Corps was a supply unit that carried material from the beach up to the front lines. The work was not glorious. The founders of the corps had hoped to have a Jewish fighting force. That would come later. In the mean time, this was the first military unit composed of Jews who fought as Jews since the second century of the common ear. Unbeknownst to the Jews serving with the Allies, the Turkish army had Jews fighting in Gallipoli at the same time.1920: At the San Remo Conference, the Supreme Allied Council assigns mandates for Mesopotamia and Palestine to Britain, and Syria and Lebanon to France. The Zionists scored a triumph since, when awarding the mandate to the British it was stated that “the mandatory would be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on the 8th November 1917 by the British government.” In other words, “the Blafour Declaration was affirmed in an international treaty. 1920: As the San Remo Conference comes to an end, “Jewish and Arab delegations dined together in the Hotel Royal, toasting each other as the British looked on benevolently at the next table.” Enmity between Zionists and Arabs was neither inevitable nor “present at the creation.”1920: “The Paris Peace conference formally confirmed the allocation of the Middle East’s Arab rectangle to Britain and France. The Allies’ final boundaries for their respective mandates in Palestine and Syria did not produce the viable frontiers the Zionists had anticipated for their National Home.” 1926: The first regular meeting of the recently created Department of Industrial Economics of the National Civic Federation was held at the Park Avenue Hotel. Speakers for the evening included Louis D. Brandeis of the National Civic Federation and Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor. As the last speaker of the evening, Gompers “reviewed the blessings which had come to the individual through organized labor and expressed the opinion that the beneficiaries would hardly agree to the proposition that association curtailed their liberty. He said that labor could not depend upon the courts for protection citing the recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in holding the ten-hour day for bakers unconstitutional. ‘I suppose bakers will have to go back to the eleven and twelve hour and even longer day. If they do I will urge them to strike.’”1930: Birthdate of Paul Mazursky, director of “Down and Out in Beverly Hills.”1932: Rose Franken's "Another Language", premiered in New York City.1933: The Law against the Overcrowding of German Schools and Institutions of Higher Learning set a Jewish quota of 1.5 percent of high-school and university enrollment, and stipulated a limit of 5-percent Jewish enrollment in any single school. Because a compulsory education law was in effect, Jewish enrollment in primary schools was not limited for the time being. However, growing numbers of Jews voluntarily moved to purely Jewish settings by 1938, when they were totally barred from general institutions. In autumn 1941, the Jewish schools were closed by administrative order. Ironically, extra-legal discrimination against Jews seeking admission to colleges and universities existed in the United States at this time. These quotas would hang on until the later 1960’s.1933: Birthdate of songwriter Jerry Leiber. Leiber teamed with another Mike Stoeller, “another Jewish white boy” who also loved Jazz and Boogie Woogie to create some of the greatest songs of the early days of Rock and Roll including Hound Dog, Love Potion #9, On Broadway and most of the hits recorded by the Coasters. If you recognize these classics, you are almost as old as the author and if you are scratching your because you never heard them, then you are young, very young and should be home practicing the Four Questions.1938: The Palestine Post reported that Arab terrorist gangs murdered two Arabs who refused to hand over money and valuables in a village near Tulkarm. There were isolated shooting incidents in Jerusalem and Haifa. Arturo Toscanini, the famous conductor, and Bronislav Huberman, the great violinist and the founder of the Palestine Symphonic Orchestra, who just gave a series of concerts all over the country, were granted the freedom of Tel Aviv.1943: As the Warsaw Uprising raged on, Germans continued their invasion of the ghetto by lighting fires to buildings. Escaping women and children were shot to death and burned. Thus, the ancient Polish Jewish Community began its final descent from greatness into oblivion.As fires set by Germans consume the Warsaw Ghetto, a German Jew named Hoch desperately leaps from a fourth-floor window, breaking both arms and his spine.1943: Composer Ezra Laderman was inducted into the U.S. Army and served as a radio operator with the 69th Infantry Division during World War II. Laderman writes "we were in Caversham, England poised to enter the war. It was here that I learned that my brother Jack had been shot down and killed in Germany. The Battle of the Bulge, crossing the Rhine at Remagen, liberating Leipzig, meeting the Russians at Torgau on the bank of the Elbe were the points in this constellation that was filled with tension and waiting, victory and grief. We became aware of the horror, and what we now call the 'holocaust,' while freeing Leipzig." During the weeks after the war was over, Laderman composed his Leipzig Symphony. This work brought him recognition within the army, and subsequently he was assigned as orchestrator of the GI Symphony Orchestra.1944: Joel Brand, a member of the Relief and Rescue Committee of Budapest, was summoned to a meeting with Adolf Eichmann, who presented him with an offer that would be known as "Blood for Trucks." Eichmann told Brand that the highest SS authorities had approved the terms, in which Eichmann would barter "a million Jews" for goods obtained outside of Hungary, including 10,000 trucks for civilian use, or, as an alternative, for use on the eastern front. The 1 million Jews would have to leave the country-since Eichmann had promised that Hungary would be Judenrein-and might head for any destination other than Palestine, since he had promised the Mufti of Jerusalem that no Jews would be allowed to emigrate there. To negotiate the effectuation of the deal, Eichmann let Brand leave Hungary. Although Brand was unaware of it at the time, the offer was evidently connected with an attempt by Himmler to drive a wedge between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, and to conclude a separate peace with the former. Brand did go to Ankara, Jerusalem, and Cairo, and he negotiated with American officials and leaders of the Jewish Agency for Palestine. However, he was arrested and imprisoned in Cairo, and the rescue scheme was never implemented.1945: In Italy, partisan uprising that begin that ended with the execution of Fascist Party dictator Benito Mussolini. Members of the Jewish Infantry Brigade Group, an all Jewish fighting force in the British Army, was part of the Allied forced that helped liberate Italy.1946: “The French ship Champollion brought 880 Jewish refuges with Palestine immigration certificates to Haifa today from Marseille. Of the group, 500 were children, mostly orphans.” Many of the immigrants were concentration camp survivors.1946: A force Jewish fighters attacked a police station in northern Tel Aviv killing seven British soldiers and policemen while wounding two other Britons and nine Jewish civilians. The Jewish fighters got away without suffering any casualties and have apparently escaped the security cordon created by the British.1946: Several thousand Jewish youth marched through the streets of Tel Aviv mourning the death of Braha Fuld who was killed during the attack on the Sarona police mobile force headquarters. She was referred to as ‘a fighter for immigration’1948: A reporter for The Times of London (the voice of the British establishment) described the efforts of the Jewish leaders in Haifa to convince the Arab residents to remain. “The Jews wish the Arabs to settle down again to normal routine, but evacuation continues.” While the Haganah was distributing leaflets urging the Arabs to stay, the Arab High Command based in Damascus was urging them to leave supposedly to avoid Arab casualties when Arab planes would bomb Haifa. The planes never came, but the Arabs took flight and the “refugee problem” was born.1950: Following the collapse of a building in Jaffa that killed nineteen and injured thirty mostly recent Jewish immigrants, Mayor Israel Rokah “called for the immediate evacuation of 1,700 people from unsafe houses in Jaffa”1950: Mohammed Pasha Shureiki “formally notified the United Nations today that Jordan had annexed eastern Palestine and the old walled city of Jerusalem.” This action is in complete violation of the United Nations partition resolution which called for Jerusalem and Bethlehem to be administered by the UN Trusteeship Council. There was no motion of condemnation of the Jordanian action which was really the “ratification of facts on the ground” created by the invasion of Jerusalem in the winter of 1947/1948. 1950: Prime Minister David Ben Gurion addressed the Zionist General Council on the sixth day of its meeting in Jerusalem. Ben Gurion told the leaders from around the world that “their financial and other aid to Israel did not entitle them to a voice in the affairs of Israel.” While acknowledging the importance of aid and support from the Jewish communities in the Diaspora, Ben Gurion took the classical Zionist line that “only Zionists who came to Israel and assumed the responsibilities of citizenship were entitled to a voice in determining policy.1964: Birthdate of actor Hank Azaria, voice of Moe and Comic Book Guy on “The Simpsons.”1967: Jules Feiffer's "Little Murders", premiered in New York City.1969: Birthdate of Israeli yachtsman Nir Shental. Shenatal and his brother Ran won a bronze medal in the 1995 the World 470 Sailing Class Championships. Nir and Ran also represented Israel in the 1996 Olympics.1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that Myron Marcus, an Israeli prisoner in Mozambique, was released in a three-way prisoners exchange swap. In Washington the White House officials declared that the U.S. President Jimmy Carter, will not consider any compromise with Congress on the all-or-nothing aircraft package sale to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel that would change the number of planes involved. A group of outspoken critics of the Carter Administration published a full-page advertisement in the "New York Times" warning that any weakening of Israel was in effect, a weakening of U.S. in the Middle East.1979: Peace treaty between Israel and Egypt went into effect.1979: In an article entitled “Camp David: Farseeing Diplomacy or Neocolonialism?” Daniel Pipes expresses his concerns about the newly signed peace agreement.1982: The Sinai Peninsula was returned by Israel to Egypt, as part of the 1979 Camp David Accord.1988: The popular ABC news program "Nightline" went on location to Jerusalem Israel.1999: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or special interest to Jewish readers including “The Lexus and The Oliver Tree” by Thomas L. Friedman2000: Producer David Merrick passed away. Born in 1912 in St. Louis, Merrick's name was originally Margoulis. He lived in what he described as a mid-western Jewish ghetto. He had an extremely unhappy childhood. He found solace and success working in stage production at The Young Means Hebrew Association where his uncle was the director. Merrick married well, moved to New York where he disassociated himself from his Jewish origins and carved a successful career on Broadway. Some of his more notable hits were Beckett and Hello Dolly.2004: The New York Times reviewed books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Alexander Hamilton” by Ron Chernow and “A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers and Artists, 1854-1967” by Rachel Cohen2006: Observance of Yom Hashoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day. “Yom Hazikaron LaShoa VeLagvura (יום הזיכרון לשואה ולגבורה), or "Holocaust and bravery Remembrance Day", takes place on the 27th day of Nisan, in the Hebrew calendar. It is held every year in remembrance of the approximately six million Jews who were killed in the Holocaust. It is a national holiday in Israel. It was originally proposed to be on the 15th of Nisan, the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising (April 19, 1943), but this was objected to as being the first day of Passover. Instead, the 27th was chosen, being eight days before Yom Ha’Azma’ut, or Israeli Independence Day. Yom Hashoah was established by Israeli law in 1959, and was signed by David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, then Prime Minister of Israel and President of Israel, respectively. Chareidi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews do not attribute any significance to this day and continue their daily lives. They remember the victims of the Holocaust on other days, which were already days of mourning before the Holocaust such as Tisha b'Av. At 10:00am on Yom Hashoah, air-raid sirens sound for two minutes throughout Israel. Public transport (including virtually all highway vehicles) comes to a standstill for this period, and people stop and stand silent. During Yom Hashoah, much public entertainment and many public establishments in Israel are closed by law. Israeli television and radio channels transmit mourning songs and documentaries about the Holocaust, and no commercials. All flags on public buildings are flown at half mast. Also during this day, tens of thousands of Israeli high-school students, and thousands of Jews from around the world, hold a memorial service in Auschwitz, in what became known as "The March of the Living", in defiance of the Holocaust Death Marches. This event is endorsed and subsidized by the Israeli Ministry of Education, and is considered an important part of the academic studies--a culmination of several months of studies on World War II and the Holocaust.”2007: At the Leo Baeck Institute Barbara Hahn, Distinguished Professor of German at Vanderbilt University, previously Professor of German at Princeton University, delivers a lecture entitled, “Kafka´s Wife - the Children of Bruno Schulz - On broken Traditions.”2008: The Jerusalem Cinematheque features a screening of “The Decalogue” \ עשרת הדיברות. In the Decalogue series, Krzysztof Kieslowski set out to examine the ways in which each of the Ten Commandments functions in the contemporary world. The common denominator between the otherwise disconnected films, besides the director and scriptwriter (Krzysztof Piesiewicz), is the setting: an average housing complex in Warsaw. In each chapter the character of the stranger appears, always in the climax of the film. Who is the stranger? Just a passerby? Fate? God? This riddle remains unanswered. The message of the films is universal and the stories could take place in anywhere. Far from providing mere illustrations of the commandments, Kieslowski challenges his viewers to search within themselves for possible solutions (including the connection between the film and the commandment). Each chapter has a different cinematographer and thus different visual and stylistic approach. All of the chapters, each about one hour long, are screened on 35mm prints and with English translation.2009: Rosh Chodesh Iyar, First Day of Iyar 5769

August 2008 County Council Meeting Report

By Kay H.Greetings 4-H Members!What a busy summer 4-H has had! Several exciting state-level events took place, the first of which was 4-H Legislature. Youth were able to learn all about how our government works by going to Tallahassee and spending the week performing mock legislature. The next event was the Camp Ocala. This was a week-long camp where senior 4-H youth could be counselors and junior and intermediate youth could be camp participants. It was a fun week full of interesting activities! Finally, there was 4-H Congress. This was a state competition, where senior level 4-H youth who had succeeded at county and district levels could compete with each other and spend a week on UF campus taking workshops. The Shooting Sports camp, as well as our summer day camps, had a good turnout and offered lots of fun activities.Our first County Council meeting of the new 4-H year was held on August 26th. Several upcoming events were discussed. The next District V council meeting will be held on September 23rd. Our district delegates this year are Mary B., Kay H., Jeffrey K., and Amanda M.. Our alternates are Becky B. and Tori B.Coming up is the Alachua County Public Safety/4-H ATV Safety Education Workshop. This will be held at Mebane Middle School on September 13th from 9:00am to 3:30pm. The workshop is for ages 8-16, and will teach youth how to be safe while handling ATVs.Also discussed was the Alachua County Fair. Several 4-H adults have volunteered to spearhead a committee for the 4--H division at the fair. Help is always appreciated so if interested in being involved with this committee, please contact Mrs. Hinson or Mrs. Banner for more information.Our County Council officers also gave descriptions or their committees. They are as follows:The Awards committee is in charge of 4-H Awards Program and the annual Volunteer Dinner. Chairperson: Amber Y., Vice President.The Funding committee is in charge of fundraising and financial management. Chairperson: Tiffany B., Treasurer.The Publicity and Recruitment committee is in charge of monthly reports on County Council meetings and 4-H promotion. Chairpersons: Kay H. and Jeffrey K., Reporters.The Program and Service committee is in charge of community service leadership. Chairperson: Tori B., Secretary.If you are interested in being involved with any of the committees listed above, please get in touch with the chairpersons mentioned.This year, 4-H once again plans to have a float in the Homecoming Parade. The float committee meeting will be September 11th. Contact Mary B. for more information if you are interested in participating.National 4-H Week Proclamation Day for the city of Gainesville is scheduled for September 18th, 2008, and the Alachua County 4-H Proclamation is scheduled for September 23rd, 2008. We encourage you to attend the reading of these proclamations at the City and County Commission meetings.4-H would also like to recognize the hard work that Mr. Ernie Terry has put forth as our County Extension 4-H Agent, as he is leaving the program. Thank you for all that you have done, and we wish you well in your future endeavors!Our next County Council meeting will be on September 16th at 6:30pm at the Alachua County Extension Office. We have a lot to look forward to during this new 4-H year. I hope to see you all at some of these exciting upcoming events!

3 counrtyies people

Heading For Jonestown

I've marveled, the last couple of days, how the crackpot right can muster outrage over such a small thing as the President's choice of mustard. I have, in the past, assumed that similar outbursts were symptoms of insanity. Doug over at Balloon Juice goes meta and clarifies things for me:if you look at it from the right perspective. Dijongate—along with a
great deal of what happens on Glenn Beck—doesn’t make any sense. It
isn’t clear to me that it’s even supposed to make sense...I can’t
help but feel that the whole texture of wingnuttia is starting to feel
different these days. And that more generally, any kind of mythology
eventually moves towards forms that cannot be understood on a literal
level.If you look at the overblown reaction of the far right to utterly insignificant "outrages" it becomes clear: these are neither sincere reactions nor empty political posturing. They're much more complicated than that. They're rituals designed to simultaneously bond and reassure a diminishing community of True Believers. I've assumed that the right would catch on to how nutty it sounds when it accuses President Obama of being, for example, simultaneously fascist and socialist. I've assumed they'd moderate their rhetoric so they didn't sound loony. Now I understand: rationality is not an issue because the point of what they're doing is not to persuade people on the outside to come in, but to reassure those on the inside that they're members in good standing of a viable "movement." In a threatening environment, the best way to do that is to move toward forms that, as Doug says, can not be understood on a literal level. So, like members of a cult which perceives itself under attack, the far right is talking more and more only to itself, using code words and constructs that are indecipherable to those on the outside. They are, in effect, preparing for the ultimate act of purification, after which they'll be out of our hair for a while.

Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology: Special Issue on Criminal Profiling

The latest issue of Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology [23(2)] is a Special Issue on Criminal Profiling edited by Craig Bennell. The issue contains several articles on the research basis for criminal profiling, its limitations and applications. In his introduction to the issue, Bennell explains that the papers touch on some of the
&debates [that] are ongoing about what roles profilers should play in criminal investigations, how profiles should be constructed, delivered, and evaluated, whether the contributions made by profilers are valid and, if so, how, and whether there are new, potentially more productive approaches to profiling that could improve upon or even replace the methods that are currently being used.
Though he rightly notes that its impossible to do the topic justice in one issue Bennell argues that he has pulled together some examples of research that will help in some small way to move the profiling field forward. One problem with this issue, however, is that it only shines a spotlight on research being conducted by members of Bennells research lab at Carlton University and Bennells current or former associates. As such, it offers a somewhat partial view of the range of research that is and could be done in this area. So I cant help but agree that this issue represents only a small step forward, but science is generally built on small steps rather than great leaps.
What Bennell has done here is offer a taster of the kind of research that could and should be done to advance this field, including papers on the reliabilility of data that profiles are based on, the theoretical assumptions underlying some forms of profiling, the ways in which readers might interpret profiles and new, potentially fruitful approaches to profiling. There is plenty here that will be of interest to a range of readers including students, more established researchers and practitioners. Contents and further comments after the break.
The contents include:
Investigating the Reliability of the Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System (ViCLAS) Crime Report - Melissa M. Martineau, Shevaun Corey
A Failure to Find Empirical Support for the Homology Assumption in Criminal Profiling - Brandy Doan, Brent Snook
The False Recognition Effect in Criminal Profiling - Craig Bennell, Rebecca Mugford, Alyssa Taylor, Sarah Bloomfield, Catherine M. Wilson
Body Disposal Patterns of Sexual Murderers: Implications for Offender Profiling - Eric Beauregard, Jessica Field
Taming the Beast: The UK Approach to the Management of Behavioral Investigative Advice - Lee Rainbow
Ive only had time to skim some of the articles in this issue, but I was particularly taken with experienced Behavioural Investigative Advisor Lee Rainbows future challenges section in his article on the provision of behavioural investigative advice in the UK. Rainbow explains in detail how behavioural advice is used in police investigations in the UK and summarises the various steps taken in the last decade to put such advice on a scientific and professional footing, including strict accreditation standards for individuals offering behavioural investigative advice and systematic evaluation of their reports. But Rainbow argues that the first challenge for the future is addressing a growing misconception that profiling skills are widespread and easy to obtain, a misconception that has been created by the expansion and availability of post-graduate forensic psychology courses, and courses more specifically focussing on some form of profiling ”. Rainbow goes on to suggest that this
has created a situation where individuals within the police service itself are exploiting the opportunity to apply the principles of behavioral science to the investigative process, but for which the appropriate quality assurance mechanisms could be lacking. Such ambiguous provision of support must be addressed to arrest the potential dilution and undermining of the current high standards of the service.
A second, and Rainbow suggests, more significant challenge
results from the intense media interest in such activity. Media coverage of any major crime story in the UK is almost exclusively accompanied by a psychologist or “profiler” waxing lyrically about the offender’s likely characteristics, personality, psychopathology and the resulting recommended investigative actions. Whilst such observations are a somewhat inevitable product of both the popular fascination of “getting inside the mind of the killer” and 24 hour news scheduling, the apparent readiness with which some individuals feel compelled to feed such appetites may be viewed as contrary to expected levels of professionalism.
As longtime readers will know, psychologists and psychiatrists offering speculative comments on high-profile cases is something I (and many others) have criticised before. As Rainbow points out:
These individuals should be acutely aware from experience that the information available within the public domain during investigations is a deliberately restricted subset of the known facts in the case. To base speculation on such limited information demonstrates a disregard for expected standards of scientific integrity.

Life in Hell : Made in Italy

Quand on arrive de France, et que l’on vient de traverser les Alpes de la Savoie, Turin semble une ville italienne ; quand on revient de Naples ou de Rome, on se croirait dans une ville française. Turin, la plus petite des capitales, est peut-être la plus propre et la plus régulière des villes. La plupart de ses rues sont tracées au cordeau et décorées de chaque côté d’édifices semblables. Quelques-unes sont même bordées d’une double rangée de portiques à arcades. » Frédéric Bourgeois de Mercey, « La Galerie royale de Turin », in La Revue des deux mondes, t. 28, 1841. Le chef d’orchestre s’ennuyait. Il ne dirigeait que d’une main distraite et sans grandes nuances l’orchestre qui n’avait d’ensemble que le nom : les musiciens – peu nombreux, l’œuvre requérant une formation de chambre – devaient s’ennuyer aussi et, ne prêtant pas une attention particulière à leurs collègues, ne brillaient pas par la synchronie de leur jeu. Quant au public, il était tout aussi peu nombreux, la salle aux trois-quarts vide, programme sans doute trop contemporain pour les habitués : c’était pourtant des Danses concertantes que l’orchestre de la RAI était en train d’exécuter (littéralement), mais le nom du compositeur – Stravinsky – fait fuir encore bien des auditeurs près de quarante ans après sa mort. L’œuvre suivante, le Concerto pour violon de Korngold avait pourtant tout pour les charmer : le néo-romantisme débordant, qui faisait se pâmer la jeune soliste qui possédait une bonne technique et une belle sonorité, mais qu’on s’attendait à se voir liquéfier d’émoi sur la scène quand elle ne se lançait pas dans des trémolos vigoureux (un regain de l’école russe de violon, que Chloë Hanslip avait suivie ?), les leitmotifs insistants limite harcèlement, le réveil de Jeffrey Tate qui se mit à diriger avec entrain, et le bref rappel hypervirtuose et néo-paganinien de John Corigliano… À l’entracte, Anna, Luca et Akbar décidèrent comme un seul homme de ne pas se soumettre aux 45 minutes de la première symphonie de Walton qui s’ensuivait et sortirent de l’auditorium de la RAI. Dommage, l’acoustique y était vraiment excellente, se dit Akbar. • Avant le concert, Anna les avait emmené manger léger – une nécessité après les délicieux repas qui avaient ponctué la conférence – dans un petit restaurant de quartier, Alla Mole, situé via Giuseppe Verdi, comme il se doit pour une soirée musicale. Sa pizza à la roquette méritait non seulement une mention particulière – dont acte – mais de revenir le lendemain soir, ce qu’Akbar n’hésita pas à faire, nonobstant son régime : la pâte fine, élastique, savoureuse et légèrement dorée et croustillante sur les bords, le sel discret à souhait ; une fine couche de mozzarella, des tomates fraîches, des feuilles de roquette et un soupçon d’origan ; chaude et généreuse tout en étant parfaitement digeste, quel plaisir ! Ce restaurant tient son nom du bâtiment qui héberge actuellement le musée national du cinéma à l’architecture aussi singulière que son histoire, et devenu le symbole de Turin : destinée à être une synagogue, la Mole Antonelliana est le fruit du délire de son architecte auquel elle doit son nom (Alessandro Antonelli) dépassant, en budget et en hauteur (113 m, et ultérieurement, 167 m), la commande initiale de la communauté juive (67 m) qui se retira du projet. L’intérieur, vide, est aménagé de façon spectaculaire en cinq niveaux sur le pourtour de l’édifice et propose une très riche histoire du cinéma, les merveilleuses inventions qui l’ont émaillée – les ombres chinoises, les lanternes magiques, la photographie, les chambres obscures, la stroboscopie… – ses metteurs en scène, ses acteurs et ses stars mythiques… Le rez-de-chaussée du musée est une immense salle de cinéma avec deux écrans géants et où trône un immense Moloch, et dont le pourtour consiste en des décors reconstituant des lieux magiques. • Turin n’a pas que la Mole de spectaculaire. On est, après tout, en Italie, et tout y est spectacle : les galeries couvertes, même celles d’immeubles plus récents, sont monumentales (sept à huit mètres de haut), les façades sont monumentales, les places sont monumentales. Les palais sont légions. Les étalages et les devantures – de pâtisseries, de glaces (Akbar préféra celle au parfum de cassate à la ricotta) –, les magasins d’habits, sont des combinaisons chatoyantes et d’une grande élégance. On est dans la mise en scène permanente. La visite de la La Venaria Reale, à l’origine pavillon de chasse de la famille de Savoie, transformé en un complexe et labyrinthique palais royal, puis abandonné, voire partiellement détruit ou brûlé à diverses époques, et enfin récemment restauré de façon remarquable et agrémenté d’une mise en scène intéressante de Peter Greenaway, a constitué un splendide point d’orgue à ce bref séjour. Guidés par l’historien et le conservateur Andrea Merlotti, un homme passionné et particulièrement bien informé, Akbar et Anna ont traversé avec étonnement et plaisir, en parcourant ce très riche complexe, les quelque mille ans de l’histoire de la Maison de Savoie, celle de ses principaux personnages et de ses États aux frontières fluctuantes au fil des siècles. • Revenu à Paris, Akbar regretta le caffè, la polenta et les autres petits plaisirs quotidiens qu’il avait appréciés durant son séjour. • Jeff et Akbar sont les personnages d’une série de bandes dessinées de Matt Groening, qui est aussi le père de la fameuse – et infâme – famille Simpson.