Antisemitism is sheer idiocy

One of the hallmarks of humans is our ability to think. Our brains are us. To witness the anti-Jewish hatred lately saddens me not only because it is so mean spirited but also because it is so very “un-thinking.” By that I mean discriminating against Jews is like cutting off part of your own anatomy. It’s just plain stupid.

If we really are an intelligent species, then Jews often represent some of the best of us. Although they comprise just 0.2% of the world’s population, they won 14% of the Nobel Prizes awarded in the first half of the 20th century and a whopping 29% in the second half. And as of 2007, they were awarded 32% of the Nobel Prizes in the 21st century.

So if you laugh at the Marx brothers, Woody Allen, Jon Stewart, Seinfeld, Jack Benny, etc., you laugh with comedic genius. And you can thank Einstein, Oppenheimer and Teller that we got the nuclear weapons before the Nazis or the Japanese. And polio is almost a thing of the past thanks to Salk. If you write with a ball point pen, thank a Jew. Wearing blue jeans? Thank Levi Strauss. And least we forget, the Jews gave us Jesus and the 12 apostles.

So here we have a group of humans who have contributed so much to humanity and yet ignorant fools single them out for discrimination. Dumber than dumb are those who hate the thinkers.

Dumb get dumber

In a published report, the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, reported that the world’s eight richest billionaires control the same wealth between them as the poorest half of the globe’s population. Their combined wealth of $426 billion is the equivalent to the wealth of 3.6 billion people. The inevitable consequence is a gross inequality and social polarization that reduces the globe’s masses to abject poverty and the inevitable consequences to global society.

Trump’s genuflection to the draconian pursuits of his closest advisor, Steve Bannon, whom many believe to be the president in chief, can no longer be ignored. Bannon addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference and pledged to “destroy the state, bring everything crashing down and destroy all of today’s establishment.” His first step is to “destroy the corporatist, globalist media because they are dead wrong about what is going on today,” and his goal is “deconstruction of the administrative state.” This maniac openly advocates a tyrannical force to overthrow every advance and protection of governance within the proscriptions of our Republic founded on its constitutional roots.

Trump’s budget proposal to boost military spending by $54 billion at the expense of numerous social benefit programs that are essential to survival by all of the non-billionaires indicts his administration and renders him unfit to hold elective office. The GOP toads in Congress were elected by the uninformed voters in their respective states of origin and feel endowed to wreak more havoc because Trump’s tweets and Bannon’s malicious depravity scare them more than the voters.

We must collectively stop it now. I’m all in, are you?

Historic mystery

Mary, the mother of Jesus, was born and raised in a very conservative and religious community. She was from a well known family, a daughter of a priest, and had spent most of her early life in the Temple. Virgin and unmarried, she arrived to her village carrying an infant boy in front of people who knew her and her family very well. It must have been an awful experience for her.

How can Mary prove her fidelity? She needs a miracle. The miracle is mentioned only in the Quran (Surah Mary 19:27-33). The canonical gospels do not mention it. Even the non-canonical Gospel of Infancy of Jesus doesn't mention it.

According to the Quran, the people of her village shouted at her: “O Mary! Truly an amazing thing you have brought.” Mary pointed to the child Jesus to answer them. The villagers said: “How can we talk to one who is a child in the cradle?” Jesus answered them and said: “I am indeed a servant of Allah. He has given me revelation and made me a prophet. And He has made me blessed wherever I be, and has enjoined to me prayer and charity as long as I live. He has made me kind to my mother, and not overbearing or miserable. So peace is on me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day that I shall be raised up to life again.”

How could such an important event be missed by early Christians? It would be a strong evidence for the divinity of Jesus and being the Son of God. Christians would claim it in all the Gospels. But did it happen? According to the Quran it did happen.

This story was originally published March 9, 2017 at 3:30 PM with the headline "Antisemitism is sheer idiocy."