Morocco Expels Irani Ambassador

Morocco, a leading Arab country, has broken its diplomatic relations with the Persian regime. Interestingly, I have not read that it was the love of Israel that made the Moroccans to throw out the ayatollahs. Even the Persians did not suggest that Morocco is obeying Zionist dictates (The say the relations are normal). The French daily Le Monde writes:

« Il peut s’agir d’une volonté de rendre la politesse à Washington après le geste américain en faveur du Maroc dans le cadre de la dernière résolution sur le Sahara occidental, tout cela dans un contexte où les tensions régionales et locales sont exacerbées et poussent partout à des reconfigurations. »

that is, Iran is arming the Polisario rebels (pic), an act considered unfriendly by the Moroccans.  I recognize my beloved 23 mm WWII Russian antiair gun in the pic.

Bubble Territory

Think:

"Years of low interest rates have manipulated the stock market higher and created an imbalance that is disproportionate relative to the general economy. When the market does get hit with another crisis or bear market, it's going to be more painful than normal given its relative size to the economy. We are in bubble territory."

Since TASE (Tel Aviv Stock Exchange) has fallen 20% behind NASDAQ, since we are considered a geopolitical risk, should we have a quiet year, we are bound to recoup the gap and more. I was always optimist, but in the last two weeks I was attacked by doubt and vacillation. Old age is no picnic.  

The Chosen People

Lynn wrote a comprehensive analysis on Jewish intelligence  and just to save you time, I'll go to the conclusion, which is that persecution was the main factor in developing the IQ differential between the Jew and other peoples. Where it was cruel and persistent, like Germany, there Jews are most intelligent, and where there was none, like Ethiopia, Jews are exactly like the surrounding population.

Lynn analyses European Jewry as it was before the Holocaust, that is, he is studying a people that no longer exists. In the same way, he could study the IQ of the late Beothuks of Newfoundland. He makes some mistakes in identifying prominent persons as Jews or non-Jews, but those errors do not change the conclusions. He also deals with Mizrahi Jews as a coherent group, which is not. Baghdadi Jews (pic) were (they have all moved to Israel) and are different from Moroccan Jews and so on. Lynn   is superficial and probably wrong when writes that Mizrahi Jews never excelled. How much do we know about Baghdad before the Mongol invasion and destruction?

In spite of the deficiencies, the work is worthy and contains interesting observations. For example, the marriage permits like in Frankfort and Prague, did limit the number while enhance the quality of the city's Jews. So they had fewer Jews but they were even smarter.

Since the explosive advance of genetics in the last decade, we have a much more precise instrument for population analysis. Lynn's methodology is obsolete, based on hypothetical "Who is a Jew?" lists, totally unscientific. In my opinion we should leave Lynn and even the Intelligence Quotient concept behind and move on to genetics, and analysis based on genes. 

Who moved my city?

Yesterday afternoon the temperature in the shade was 44 Celsius. At arrival in Ariel University, it was 38.5 (Ariel is in Samaria, at about 400 m over sea level). We are only in May while the highest temperatures in Israel are in August-September. My hometown, Kever Benjamin, used to have a temperate Mediterranean climate, but I feel that suddenly it has been transported to the hottest spot on Earth. Where may we be now?

According to NASA (see satellite pic), the highest land skin temperature ever recorded is in the Lut Desert i.e. Dasht-e Lut (دشت لوت‎, "Emptiness Plain") measuring 159.3 F (70.7 C). How did our enemies move a 80,000 strong Jewish city so far without we noticing it? At night?

Already we are feeling the beginning of a drought. According my estimate, this summer there will be insufficient water for urban supply and irrigation. Already the Water Authority is asking to shorten showering times. Two minutes, they say, is enough.

Poem by Margaret Randall

Some girls said Albuquerque High boys
kissed better
and when the captain of the downtown football team
asked me out I trembled yes
beneath anxious folds
of Dotted Swiss.

When one running-back hand tore at my blouse
and the other charged between my legs
I cried for him to stop
and to the couple in front for help.
Their moans sounded light years away.
He laughed, pried deeper, at ease
with male right.

Through the triangle of window
a splash of stars
seemed distant and pale.
I took remembered advice
and brought my knee up
fast and sharp to his groin.

He let go and I pushed the door,
leapt free and ran
down a rocky road
‘til I hit pavement
and kept on running
afraid he might follow.

But I was alone that night
flying toward city lights
panting and crying
slowing to walk
then running again
until my house appeared.

Years later I could say
the word rape
—what the high school football star
did to me that night—
know he didn’t follow
because it wasn’t me he wanted,

only conquest there on that car seat
in the presence of buddies,
only the ancient ritual
of male entitlement:
another notch
on the stock of his teenage gun.

My daughter, the one learning English Literature, has to write an essay on a 20th Century poet.

She selected Margaret Randall. She lived in Latin America (Mexico, Cuba, Nicaragua) from 1961 to 1984. 
When she came home, the US Immigration and Naturalization Service ordered her deported:

 the only case of an American poet forbidden to return home. In Mexico she edited a leftist literary magazine, el Corno Emplumado, which I read.. 

Thus I got to read the above poem and re-publish it here.  

The New European Aristocracy

Victorian literature describes how upper middle class and noble families carefully educated their daughters to acquire social skills - how to organize a five o'clock tea party, play the piano, dance, riding, etc. - all to eventually land a good match. Prospective marriageable parties were carefully evaluated and discussed, and contacts were cultivated to be invited to parties and have the opportunity to meet advantageous alliances. In the initial years of the blogosphere (I was there!) it was debated how the European aristocratic genotype had been refined over the centuries and came to embody the highest in human intelligence, character, courage, etc. There was much lamentation about how their bloodlines were being debased, etc.

This talk has been totally muted. I wonder what they would write today about the English royal marrying a second hand 36 years old American mulatto actress.  I confess that I was taken by surprise by that Chicago Black preacher recycling saint MLK. His rambling sermon on L O V E being the universal panacea did not lift my spirit. Obviously, I belong to former times.

The View from This Side of the Fence

It is a very hot day today on the Gaza border. Over 42 Celsius. No shade anywhere. What surprise expects us this morning?