The story of Honi HaMe'agel the Rainmaker

From time to time, the weather disagrees with human desires and there is no rain for a few years, or it rains too much and floods the streets, or it is too hot or too cold. It is told that there was a long drought in Jerusalem, and climate activist Honi sat in protest in the sand and menaced God that he will not move  from the circle in the sand he drew till rain comes. God relented and sent him rain, Honi was saved and became famous. His protest was the right thing to do and was supremely effective. It worked so well that in our days thousands, worldwide, are protesting against the climate (pic.: Australian schoolgirls) demanding that it change. They all want to show how much they want to save the planet. Pathetic, I say. Wish them success. 

Bitterness

My Hod Hasharon project was rejected by the Water Company. Two of my proposals were rejected this morning, I am too expensive. In the bank, the cashier retard credited me for 406 sheqels when the cheque was for 460. I had to wait half an hour for the correction. On the street, I saw a nice female bottom, tried to maintain the distance but in two minutes she was 50 meters ahead of me. Younger women walk very fast relative to old fat sedentary engineers. No chance that I catch a girl anymore in my life. "Uno", de Goyeneche:

Déjame que llore como aquél
    que sufre en vida la tortura
    de llorar su propia muerte.
        Uno está tan solo en su dolor...
    Uno está tan ciego en su penar...
    Pero un frío cruel, que es peor que el odio,
    punto muerto de las almas,
    tumba horrenda ...

Observation: I wanted to illustrate this note with the famous picture of Groucho Marx chasing a secretary around the table. Nowhere to find that pic. The images offered by Google are girls chasing boys, or muscular girls competing in a track. It seems it is forbidden to show images of females being chased or in a weaker situation than boys. Also lots of frightening posters of criminals and police emblems - as if to discourage would-be sexual harassment perpetrators. It is a new world out there. As Steven Sailer writes: You can go to jail for noticing. 

Israel voting pattern

Lee Kuan Yew, the father of Singapur, said that in a multi-ethnic country, there is no right nor left, each ethnic group votes its own party. Lee was a genius: when the English colonialist surrendered to the Japanese army, he learnt Japanese so well that found employment in the intelligence service of the Japanese occupation government. Israel is a super-classic multi-ethnic society and people vote as they were following Lee's insight, each one according its identity. 

The United Arab List succeeded in mobilizing the Arab sector and is now the third party in Israel. It is a very important political force. The Moroccan Jews voted massively for the Shas party. The secular Jewish sector of the kibutzim and the politically correct academicians voted for Labor and Meretz. The large religious sector voted for their representatives. There is no similar identity group in the West, nowhere Catholics marry only Catholics and vote for a Catholic party. Jewish religious people marry mostly in-group and is becoming a well-defined ethnia. Russian immigrants vote for Our Home party. The secular majority has divided itself according to the intensity of its hate of the Jews, and I mean the religious Jews, the only group that seriously follows the Jewish religion. I could say that "antisemitism" is the main issue between Netaniyahu (allied to the religious) and Ganz/Lapid, who hate the Jews. The argument against the Jews is that they are parasites, do not work and do not serve in the army. More or less the Nazi accusations against the Jews in Europe. The Jews do not work but exploit the majority, and they avoid fighting in the nation's wars. And have too many children. The terminology used by the press - here and in the West - speaks about right and left, the seating arrangement in the Assembly during the French Revolution. Lee Kuan Yew would have known better. 

Graphic story of the extinction of Hungarian Jewry

A genealogical tree of a typical Hungarian Jewish family. I know dozens like this. Large families in early 20th. Century, the abrupt cut with the appearance of Eichman in Hungary, and the postwar childlessness and dying off. 

No end to regulation

• Kanye West constructed four "Star Wars"-inspired structures on his property in Calabasas, California, which were intended to house the homeless. The dwellings were supposed to be temporary prototypes, but a Los Angeles county inspector said they had concrete bases so they looked permanent. Instead of securing the necessary permits, West opted to tear the homes down.
• The huts are crazy and the regulator is crazy. Find the difference with a central European country ruled by a would-be architect dictator who levels the houses he does not like? 

I thought vital Saudi installations were protected by the US

I was wrong. No one was watching no one saw anything. No one even knows from where the attackers came from and why.

P.S.: Two days after the attack, I can't find a declaration by Saudi authorities. Missing are the typical Arab war harangues swearing vengeance. Their silence is mystery.

Apparently no human was hurt, it was a surgical drone attack. Iran says they were not them. The Yemenis assumed responsibility but the attack came from the north and they are too far to target four (see pic) tanks with such precision. My take: Someone is trying to provoke a war against Iran, probably the Ayatollahs themselves.  From Kever Benjamin city, it looks like Iran understood that its efforts to attack Israel are met with strong resistance, while Saudi has no military resources. Its protector, the USA, wants to avoid war at all costs. Trump said: Iran is guilty but I don't want war. As if war was something one wants or does not want. Like in poker, pass (*).

The winter is coming and Europe needs heating oil.  Europe has even less desire to protect militarily the oil flow. Iran and other "rogues" have been saying for ages that the West has lost its mojo and is a "paper tiger". Now they seem to believe in it. Not good.

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(*)  What is a pass in poker? Pass - To refrain from calling or betting when it is your turn to act. To “pass" is to indicate that one is folding when facing a bet which don't intend to call.

Reading Japan, understanding China

中原よ。

地球は冬で寒くて暗い。

ぢゃ。

さやうなら。

  

Nakahara, friend!

The earth is wintry, cold and dark.

Well then, good-bye.

I am reading Reischauer's history of Japan. Surprising that the Japanese use a supremely difficult writing system, worse than the Chinese. Europeans also used difficult systems in the past, like writing in Latin. But it was abandoned, the Japanese stuck with it. I also understood that the Chinese Communist Party is following the Japanese model of modernization, only that the Japanese were lucky to have the Americans to impose on them what they longed to do. For example, democracy and agrarian reform. The Chinese know that the dictatorship of the proletariat does not fit them, but they cannot find the way to wiggle out of the format and dissolve the Communist Party and reform in two or three competing parties. The West should not fear China. It is fated to become wealthy as Japan and South Korea, and then, stagnate. BTW, Nakahara was a poet, died at age thirty.