Chesler Facebook Chronicles
Mar 05, 2014
Dear Readers,
I regularly chronicle events of interest on Facebook. For those of you who aren't Facebook users, I'm sending some of the posts from the last few weeks.
2/28/14
Is Obama Indifferent to African-American Women?
He was concerned with Trayvon Martin, said Martin looked like he could have been the President's son—but not a word about another Florida case in which Marissa Alexander, an African-American mother, was sentenced to twenty years because she fired a warning shot at her husband because he was threatening her. She hurt no one. Her lawyer's argument was that she, like George Zimmerman, stood her ground and acted in self-defense. To the best of my knowledge, President Obama has never spoken out for her publicly. Today, our President has launched an initiative for "young black men." All good—but does this man realize that African-American girls and women are similarly endangered? The prisons are filled disproportionately with African-American and Hispanic women, many of whom are drug addicts, and some of whom have killed violent men in justified self-defense. Young African-American girls are beaten, raped by male family members, lured by pimps into lives of Hell and then imprisoned there; African-American teenage unwed mothers swell the welfare rolls. Why not simultaneously launch a program on their behalf as well?
White folk? Not worth bothering about.
2/25/14
DEADLY, DANGEROUS BURQAS
On Valentine's Day, 2014, Pakistani-Canadian, Abdul Malik Rustam, admitted in court that he had donned a woman's burqa and women's wedge shoes in order to strangle his wife, Shaher Bano Shahdady in Toronto in 2011. What was her crime? She had asked for a divorce. Rustam fled, leaving their two-year old son alone with his mother's corpse for more than 12 hours. Really, what was her crime? When she was 18, she was sent to Pakistan to be married. Medical complications with her pregnancy and with the health of her newborn, (he needed a heart transplant), sent her back to Canada. She became used to a more independent life. She wanted to go to college. Her husband opposed it. She ran a Facebook site under a pen name about Baloch culture. Her husband opposed it. She moved into her own apartment. Really, what was her crime? She sponsored her husband to immigrate to Canada.
Canada's federal guidelines, given to all new immigrants, states clearly that it condemns "culturally sanctioned domestic violence," that Canada's "generosity does not extend to barbaric cultural practices." Perhaps Abdul Malik Rustam did not understand or care about these guidelines. I hope that Justice John McMahon jails him for life.
2/24/14
Breakthroughs in the War of Ideas
On Thursday-Friday, the Connecticut Jewish Ledger published a wonderful interview with me. (I will be speaking in Greenwich, Connecticut, tomorrow evening). On Saturday night, Book World/CSPAN aired the lecture and QNA that took place in Coral Gables, Florida ten days ago. I watched it on my big TV screen and was pleased with my "performance," actually, with the give-and-take between myself and the audience. On Sunday night, The Jewish News Service released a magnificent interview with me and Yossi Klein Halevi, both winners of the National Jewish Book Awards which will take place next week, on March 5th, at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan. It is open to the public at 8pm.
Against considerable odds, I sowed and so I reaped and God is with me.
2/20/14
ON THE RADIO TONIGHT
On the wonderful Barry Farber show from 8pm EST to 9pm.
2/19/14
I ENJOYED MY LATE NIGHT WITH JIM BOHANNON
...he asked great questions! To hear the interview, select the date (2/19/14) from the calendar and move the pointer to the 40:00 mark.
2/18/14
J Street Challenge: Truth Trumps Lies
Every so often, one gets to see a film which tells the truth about the enormous danger Israel faces and which dares to confront American Jews on their fundamentalist belief in a form of liberalism which is emphatically anti-Zionist. This short, powerful, film, released by Americans for Peace and Tolerance is must-see. It confronts J Street's Jeremy Ben-Ami and his Big Lie policies and will be a very crucial tool on campuses where the leading on-camera experts are rarely invited. See the film, it is short, powerful, and has an amazing array of Talking Heads.
2/15/14
Demonic Anti-Israel Campaign
The NY Times defies belief in their daily anti-Israel coverage. Today, their "Religion" columnist scraped the bottom of the barrel in order to find "Orthodox" and "religious" Jewish professors who oppose Israeli policies and support the BDS movement--Orthodox professors in Maryland, on Long Island, at Berkeley (Boyarin, of course), and Brooklyn. The last quote: "I love being Jewish. I just don't love the state of Israel."
Would that they found religious Muslims who cannot abide the states of Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and found them consistently, daily, intensely--but that they do not and cannot do.
A Bookstore an Author Can Love
Spoke at booksandbooks in Coral Gables and it is a fabulous space. An outdoor cafe, and indoor cafe, yards of bookshelves, international newspapers for sale, book lovers, and authors--oh my! Salman Rushdie, Hillary Clinton, Frank McCourt, Marjane Satrapi, James McBride, Charles Krauthammer, Edwidge Danticat, Robert Stone, Camille Paglia--and more, so much more. I was live-streamed and archived at booksandbooks.com and Cspan taped it as well. I wish I had had the time to browse and buy and linger...
http://www.booktv.org/Program/15420/An+American+Bride+in+Kabul+A+Memoir.aspx
An Incident Sensationalized
A little incident I had at JFK has now been reported in the Jewish Press, appeared at Daniel Pipes's blog, in the NY Post online and hardcopy, and twice now at the Drudge Report, this latest linked to an interview I did with Aaron Klein on WABC. I am exhausted and on vacation but if you want to Read All About It--check any of these venues. I cannot provide links from my Ipad--and I am on the ocean. I plan to return via rowboat to avoid TSA at JFK.