Are the Democrats Anti-Semitic?

Until October 7th of last year, no one cared a fiddler's fart about the Palestinians. The world has long known that Palestinians residing in Gaza lead miserable lives. And the world knows that Israel mistreats Palestinians living in the West Bank. Until recently, no one cared.

Then, on October 7th, Hamas terrorists stormed into Israeli towns and raped, tortured, murdered, and kidnapped Israeli civilians. Israel went to war against these barbarians, and now everyone feels sorry for the Palestinians.

College students in the nation’s most prestigious universities regularly demonstrate against Israel’s military campaign against Hamas, even though Hamas holds American citizens in captivity. Some demonstrators openly display their anti-Semitic prejudices.

American politicians have also undermined Israel. Senator Chuck Schumer, the nation’s senior Jewish politician, publicly called for a regime change in Israel’s wartime government—an act of betrayal against the only democracy in the Middle East. President Biden gave his seal of approval to Schumer’s treachery, calling Schumer’s comments “a good speech.”

Elizabeth Warren, the native Oklahoman who represents Harvard in the U.S. Senate, gave her legal opinion that Israel’s war against Hamas qualifies as genocide. Genocide! What an outrageous accusation to make against a nation made up of the descendants of the world’s most famous victims of genocide.

I have heard all the mendacious justifications for abandoning Israel—once America’s closest ally, and I don’t accept any of them. In my view, Americans who undermine Israel in its existential battle against Muslim terrorism are anti-Semites.

I have nothing but contempt for the anti-Israel college demonstrators who have no complaints against the Biden administration’s pro-war policy in Ukraine. That senseless conflict has cost more than half a million casualties. And I despise all the oily Democratic politicians who have stabbed Israel in the back for no more noble purpose than to win Muslim votes in Michigan. 

Political expediency is a poor disguise for bigotry.

I am a Harvard law professor, and I know genocide when I see it.

Israel flies the flag of no quarter. Americans are morally obliged to back Israel's play

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler," Albert Einstein observed. Indeed, it is a mark of intelligence to analyze a jumble of complicated information, come to a straightforward conclusion, and decide what to do.

Unfortunately, our intellectual elites rarely try to make things as simple as possible. Instead, they obsess about complexity and often conclude that a particular problem is so complicated that it is insolvable. Homelessness, for example, is a complex problem, so tangled and tricky that San Francisco can't figure out how to keep people from defecating in the streets.

Sometimes, however, our failure to grasp the essentials of a problem leaves us with moral paralysis. Overwhelmed by complexity and contradictions, we do nothing even when the proper course of action is so apparent that even a child can understand what we should do.

Israel is in an existential battle with Hamas. What Hamas terrorists did on October 7, 2023, is so horrendous that Israel is justified in doing almost anything to eradicate Hamas. Israel's existence is at stake. That's a simple fact.

Thus, Israel flies the flag of No Quarter.  In my view, the United States, Israel's only major ally, is morally obligated to back Israel's play. That moral obligation stems from the Holocaust.

Unfortunately, the Biden administration fails to grasp the simple morality of Israel's war aims. The U.S. sends weapons and munitions to Israel, but it joined the feckless call for a ceasefire that would weaken Israel and benefit Hamas.

Enabled by our misguided President, pro-Palestinian protest groups have sprung up on the nation's college campuses, revealing latent anti-semitism in academia.

Astonishingly, Senator Chuck Schumer, America's senior Jewish politician, is undermining Israel by meddling in the Jewish state's domestic politics. 

None of this underhanded and cowardly behavior will deter Israel from doing what it must do for its own survival, which is to annihilate Hamas.

In short, the unwillingness of America's political and intellectual elites to recognize the simple fact that Israel is fighting for its survival is morally indefensible and will only prolong the suffering of innocent Palestinians and Israelis.

Photo Credit: Jack Guez/Getty Images

Dear Bishop Douglas Deshotel: Excommunicate me too!

A few days ago, Bishop Douglas Deshotel, prelate of the Lafayette Diocese, excommunicated Scott Peyton, a former Catholic deacon whose son was sexually molested by a Catholic priest. The priest, Father Michael Guidry, pleaded guilty to molesting the boy and is now in prison.

Excommunication is an extraordinarily harsh punishment to impose on an errant Catholic, especially an anguished Catholic whose son was sexually abused by a Catholic priest. What did Mr. Peyton do to deserve Bishop Deshotel’s wrath?

It seems Peyton angered the bishop by writing a letter that expressed his disillusionment over his son’s molestation and the way the Catholic Church handled it.

After “deep reflection,” Peyton wrote, he had decided to “leave the Catholic Church and the diaconate.” He also wrote that he was distressed by years of reports about sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

“The magnitude of these revelations,” Peyton wrote, “has deeply shaken my faith and trust in the institution to which I have dedicated a significant portion of my life.”

Peyton stressed that his decision to resign from the diaconate and leave the Church was not a rejection of his Christian faith. “Instead, it reflects a conscientious objection to the way the Church has handled cases of sexual abuse and a desire to distance myself from an institution that, currently, falls short of the values it professes.”

I think Bishop Deshotel miscalculated. If every Catholic whose faith was shaken by the Church’s sexual abuse scandals deserves excommunication, then millions of people are going to be kicked out of the Catholic Church.

I confess that my Catholic faith has been deeply shaken by hundreds of reports of child rape—rape that was covered up by dozens of bishops on the advice of their lawyers. So, Bishop Deshotel, I invite you to excommunicate me too.

Scott and Letitia Peyton 

Photo credit: The Advocate

A long history of child molestation by priests in Lafayette Diocese. Maybe some bishops should go to jail

In 2016, I wrote a letter to Bishop Deshotel,  reporting that I had been treated rudely by Monsignor Richard Mouton in the confession booth. After asking several shocking sexual questions, Monsignor Mouton refused to confess me because I was divorced.

I delivered the letter to Bishop Douglas Deshotel on September 14, 2016. It is now 2024, and I have yet to receive Bishop Deshotel's response. 

I learned later that Monsignor Mouton was one of the priests in the Lafayette Diocese who figured in the sexual abuse scandal involving Father Gilbert Gauthe, who was eventually convicted of sexually abusing children. In 1984, the Lafayette Diocese settled claims by nine child victims for more than $4 million.

Father Gauthe's hellish behavior, which included anal intercourse and oral sex with children, first became public in 1983. However, it came to light in the course of litigation that Monsignor Mouton had received reports from parents in 1976 that Father Gauthe had kissed two boys.

Monsignor Mouton was the pastor of the Catholic church in Abbeville then, and the preditory Father Gauthe was the assistant pastor. According to reporter Jason Berry, who wrote a book about the Gauthe tragedy, Monsignor Mouton responded to news of Gauthe's misbehavior by "ordering [Gauthe] to move to an upstairs bedroom in the rectory."

Seven years later, Gauthe's sexual predation became public knowledge, and the parents of some of the victims contacted a lawyer.

 Monsignor Mouton, apparently hoping to quiet things down, invited Roy Robichaux, father of three of Gauthe's victims, to come to the rectory for a little chat. Robichaux told Monsignor Mouton that he was notifying other parents whose children might also have been victimized by Gauthe.

According to reporter Berry's account, Monsignor did not approve. "Should anyone get hurt, Mouton admonished, the guilt would rest on Roy [Robichaux] for making it public."

Monsignor Mouton also said something that profoundly shocked Mr. Robichaux: "Think how Gauthe's mother would feel."

Robichaux responded as any good Cajun father would under the circumstances. "How in the fuck do you think the mothers of these kids feel?"

But Mouton continued to downplay what happened to Robichaux's three children. "The boys were young, Mouton said gently. They would bounce back and get over these things."

Later, Mouton telephoned Robichaux and offered to hear the three children's confessions. Robichaux reportedly said no. "My sons do not need confession! They did nothing wrong."

Priests have sexually abused children in the Lafayette Diocese for almost half a century. In 2019, Father Michael Guidry pleaded guilty to molesting the teenage son of Scott Peyton, a Catholic deacon. Guidry went to prison, and the Diocese issued a three-sentence apology.

Earlier this month, Bishop Douglas Deshotel excommunicated Mr. Peyton, the victim's father! Why? Apparently, because Mr. Peyton admitted that the sexual abuse of his son by a priest had shaken his faith.

Sexual abuse of children by priests in Lafayette Diocese has gone on too long. Maybe it's time to start putting some bishops in jail.

Father Gilbert Gauthe, convicted of sexual abuse in 1985

References

Jason Berry. Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children. New York; Doubleday, 1992.

Jason Berry. The Tragedy of Gilbert Gauthe (Part 1). Times of Acadiana, May 23, 1985.

Mary Gail Frawley O'Dea. Perversion of Power: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2007.

Steven Marcantel. Former deacon excommunicated from church. The (Baton Rouge) Advocate, March 24, 2024.

Wages are up, grocery prices are going down, and inflation is under control! Paul Krugman slings Joe Biden's bullshit

 President Biden issued a statement a few days ago assuring us that the economy is robust and we're all getting richer. Here is what he said:

Inflation is down two-thirds from its peak, and annual core inflation is the lowest since May 2021. Wages are rising faster than prices over the last year and since the pandemic. Prices for key household purchases like gas, milk, eggs, and appliances are lower than a year ago. Inflation is down, while unemployment has remained below 4% for the longest stretch in more than 50 years.

In short, Americans have become wealthier since Joe Biden took office. Unfortunately, many Americans are so fuckin’ dumb that they don't realize how prosperous they are.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, chief spear carrier for the progressive left, asked why Americans are so down on the economy. Why are they ignoring "fancy statistics" showing that "America is doing pretty well"?

Krugman thinks many Americans have been duped by "the false narrative that the economy is doing badly."

I hate to break it to you, Paul, but that's bullshit. You may not know this, but millions of Americans living on fixed incomes in flyover country do their own grocery shopping. I'm one of those people. Every time I go to the grocery store, I am shocked by the price of food and paper goods.

Property and auto insurance costs have also spiraled upward, rising 26% over last year. Homeowner's insurance costs have risen, too—by 11%.

Krugman urges Democrats to argue that Biden inherited a damaged economy "and led us through the aftermath to a much better place."

I think that's bad advice. If the Democrats want to win this year's presidential election, they need to fall back on the political tactics that have worked so well in the past: race-baiting, ballot harvesting, and frivolous litigation.

 

Paul Krugman: Slinging Joe Biden's bullshit
Photo credit: Leigh Advisory

You Too, Brutus? Senator Chuck Schumer Stabs Israel in the Back

You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, and you will have war.

Winston Churchill to Neville Chamberlain

If Western civilization has any eternal moral commitment, it is support for the Jewish state. The United Nations recognized Israel as an independent nation in 1948, and nothing has occurred since then to cancel the world's obligation to protect the nation of Israel and to fight anti-Semitism wherever it appears. The Holocaust is a debt that will never be repaid.

Now, Senator Chuck Schumer, a Jewish American politician, has tossed that moral obligation aside even as Israel fights for its life against Hamas and its genocidal sponsor, Iran. Senator Schumer has called on Israelis to replace Prime Minister Netanyahu, calling him an obstacle to peace. This gratuitous intervention in Israel’s domestic affairs undermines the Jewish state in its existential struggle against terrorism in Gaza.

Senator Chuck Schumer is a geriatric political hack, hellbent on killing young Russians in Eastern Europe while backing away from Israel, our nation's closest ally. Who benefits from Chuck Schumer’s betrayal? Hamas benefits: a genocidal organization with a nihilistic ethos worthy of Nazi Germany.

Why did Schumer betray Israel? I believe he did it to placate Arab American voters in Michigan, a state the Democrats must carry if they hope to reelect Joe Biden, a demented crook, to a second term as president.

In 1938, Neville Chamberlain, Great Britain’s prime minister, betrayed Czechoslovakia when he tossed that beleaguered nation to the Nazis in a futile attempt to avoid war with Germany. It was a cowardly and despicable act. As Winston Churchill said at the time, “You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, and you will have war.”

Senator Schumer’s call for a change of government in Israel is at least as despicable as Chamberlain’s behavior on the eve of the Second World War. And Schumer didn’t even betray Israel to avoid war. I believe he did it to cozy up to Arab voters in Michigan. After all, it's an election year.

 

Buchenwald survivors arrive in Haifa

 

Reality bites: Governor Kathy Hochul sends National Guard to NYC subways

As President Harry Truman observed, "It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours."

Similarly, subway crime was not a problem for New York Governor Kathy Hochul until recently. After all, New York’s media and political elites don’t ride the subways, and they have private security when they travel.

However, crime became a problem for Governor Hochul after a train conductor was the victim of a knife-slashing attack in Brooklyn. NYC transit workers stopped work soon after the slashing to file safety complaints, “causing severe disruptions in subway service.”

Suddenly, it’s time to deploy the National Guard in the New York City subways.

You might think New Yorkers would applaud Governor Hochul’s decision to provide more security for subway riders, but not everyone approved. As the New York Times reported, “transit experts” expressed concern that “extra vigilance in the subways” might “make riders more fearful rather than reassured.”

For example, Danny Pearlstein, a spokesman for a transit advocacy group, deplored Governor Hochul’s action. “Deploying troops to the subway will unfortunately increase the perception of crime,” Pearlman said.

Donna Lieberman, an executive with the New York Civil Liberties Union, was also critical. “Calling out the National Guard in response to a small number of admittedly serious incidents is . . . off the charts.”

A few days ago, Ginia Bellafante, a New York Times columnist, wrote a column suggesting that violence on the subways is a mental health problem, not a crime problem. She found a North Carolina psychiatrist who opined that putting troops in the subway might make a mentally ill person more dangerous to the public rather than less. Bellafante also cited an anthropologist who said that New York City should provide “more homelessness services and more mental health services” rather than send the National Guard to patrol the transit system.

I applaud Governor Hochul’s resolute decision to place National Guard troops in the NYC subways. Critics do not offer any helpful solutions to urban crime by framing the problem as a mental health issue. As the Governor acknowledged, people want to feel safe when they ride the subway. And most people feel safer when they see a cop or a soldier at the subway station, not a psychiatrist, anthropologist, or social worker.

Photo credit: New York Daily News