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    June 30

    Never Again

    Subject: Jews will not go quietly again!

    From Joe McCain-brother of John McCain

    I came across this Op-Ed piece and thought it had to be shared with
    all good people. The warning goes to all those anti-semites and
    anti-Zionists in the world. It is aimed at those who believe the
    Israelis will go quietly as did our six million brethren in the Shoa.

    Senator John McCain's brother on The Jews & Israel:

    There is a lot of worry popping up in the media just now -- "Can
    Israel Survive?" Don't worry about it. It relates to something that
    Palestinians, the Arabs, and perhaps most Americans don't realize --
    the Jews are never going quietly again. Never. And if the world
    doesn't come to understand that, then millions of Arabs are going to
    die. It's as simple as that.

    Throughout the history of the world, the most abused, kicked-around
    race of people have been the Jews. Not just during the holocaust of
    World War II, but for thousands of years. They have tru ly been "The
    Chosen People" in a terrible and tragic sense.

    The Bible story of Egypt's enslavement of the Jews is not just a
    story, it is history, if festooned with theological legend and heroic
    epics. In 70 A.D. the Romans, which had for a long time tolerated the
    Jews -- even admired them as 'superior' to other vassals -- tired of
    their truculent demands for independence and decided on an early
    "Solution" to the Jewish problem. Jerusalem was sacked and reduced to
    near rubble, Jewish resistance was pursued and crushed by the
    implacable Roman War Machine -- see 'Masada'. And thus began The
    Diaspora, the dispersal of Jews throughout the rest of the world.

    Their homeland destroyed, their culture crushed, they looked
    desperately for the few niches in a hostile world where they could be
    safe. That safety was fragile, and often subject to the whims of
    moody hosts. The words 'pogrom', 'ghetto', and 'anti-Semitism' come
    from this treatment of the first mono-theistic people. Throughout
    Europe, changing times meant sometimes tolerance, sometimes even
    warmth for the Jews, but eventually it meant hostility, then
    malevolence. There is not a country in Europe or Western Asia that at
    one time or another has not decided to lash out against the children
    of Moses, sometimes by whim, sometimes by manipulation.

    Winston Churchill calls Edward I one of England's very greatest
    kings. It was under his rule in the late 1200's that Wales and
    Cornwall were hammered into the British crown, and Scotland and
    Ireland were invaded and occupied. He was also the first European
    monarch to set up a really effective administrative bureaucracy,
    surveyed and censused his kingdom, established laws and political
    divisions. But he also embraced the Jews.

    Actually Edward didn't embrace Jews so much as he embraced their
    money. For the English Jews had acqu ired wealth -- understandable,
    because this people that could not own land or office, could not join
    most of the trades and professions, soon found out that money was a
    very good thing to accumulate. Much harder to take away than land or
    a store, was a hidden sock of gold and silver coins. Ever
    resourceful, Edward found a way -- he borrowed money from the Jews to
    finance imperial ambitions in Europe, especially France. The loans
    were almost certainly not made gladly, but how do you refuse your
    King? Especially when he is 'Edward the Hammer'. Then, rather than
    pay back the debt, Edward simply expelled the Jews. Edward was
    especially inventive -- he did this twice. After a time, he invited
    the Jews back to their English homeland, borrowed more money, then
    expelled them again.

    Most people do not know that Spain was one of the early entrants into
    The Renaissance. People from all over the world came to Spain in the
    l ate medieval period. All were welcome -- Arabs, Jews, other
    Europeans. The University of Salamanca was one of the great centers
    of learning in the world -- scholars of all nations, all fields came
    to Salamanca to share their knowledge and their ideas. But in 1492,
    Ferdinand and Isabella, having driven the last of Moors from the
    Spanish Shield, were persuaded by the righteous fundamentalists of
    the time to announce "The Act of Purification". A series of steps
    were taken in which all Jews and Arabs and other non-Christians were
    expelled from the country, or would face the tools and the torches of
    The Inquisition. From this 'cleansing' come the Sephardic Jews -- as
    opposed to the Ashkenazis of Eastern Europe. In Eastern Europe, the
    sporadic violence and brutality against Jews are common knowledge.
    'Fiddler' without the music and the folksy h umor. At times of fury,
    no accommodation by the Jew was good enough,
    no profile low enough, no village poor enough or distant enough.


    From these come the near-steady flow of Jews to the United States.
    And despite the disdain of the Jews by most 'American' Americans,
    they came to grab the American Dream with both hands, and contributed
    everything from new ideas of enterprise in retail and entertainment
    to becoming some of our finest physicians and lawyers. The modern
    United States, in spite of itself, IS The United States in part
    because of its Jewish blood.

    Then the Nazi Holocaust -- the corralling, sorting, orderly
    eradication of millions of the people of Moses. Not something that
    other realms in other times didn't try to do, by the way, the Germans
    were just more organized and had better murder technology.

    I stood in the center of Dachau for an entire day, about 15 years
    ago, trying to comprehend how this could have happened. I had gone
    there on a side trip from Munich, vaguely curious about this Dachau.
    I soon became engulfed in the enormity of what had occurred there
    nestled in this middle and working class neighborhood.

    How could human beings do this to other human beings, hear their
    cries, their pleas, their terror, their pain, and continue without
    apparently even wincing? I no longer wonder. At some times, some
    places, ANY sect of the human race is capable of horrors against
    their fellow man, whether a member of the Waffen SS, a Serbian
    sniper, a Turkish policeman in 1920's Armenia, a Mississippi
    Klansman. Because even in the United States not all was a Rose
    Garden. For a long time Jews had quotas in our universities and
    graduate schools. Only so many Jews could be in a medical or law
    school at one time. Jews were disparaged widely. I remember as a kid
    Jewish jokestold without a wince - "Why do Jews have such big noses?"

    Well, now the Jews have a homeland again. A place that is theirs. And
    that's the point. It doesn't matter how many times the United States
    and European powers try to rein in Israel, if it comes down to
    survival of its nation, its people, they will fight like no lioness
    has ever fought to save her cubs. They will fight with a ferocity, a
    determination, and a skill, that will astound us.

    And many will die, mostly their attackers, I believe. If there were a
    macabre historical betting parlor, my money would be on the Israelis
    to be standing at the end. As we killed the kamikazes and the
    Wehrmacht soldaten of World War II, so will the Israelis kill their
    suicidal attackers, until there are not enough to torment them.

    The irony goes unnoticed -- while we are hammering away to punish
    those who brought the horrors of last September here, we restrain the
    Israelis from the same retaliation. Not the same thing, of course --
    We are We, They are They . While we mourn and seethe at September
    11th, we don't notice that Israel has a September 11th sometimes every day.

    We may not notice, but it doesn't make any difference. And it doesn't
    make any difference whether you are pro-Israeli or you think Israel
    is the bully of the Middle East. If it comes to where a new holocaust
    looms -- with or without the concurrence of the United States and
    Europe -- Israel will lash out without pause or restraint at those
    who would try to annihilate their country.

    The Jews will not go quietly again.

    Joe McCain



    June 24

    Health Inflation

    Question:

    I received my initial billing from the hospital for the lab tests we did. How in the heck did those tests cost $1320? No wonder these insurance companies are going nuts.


    Answer:

    I ordered a lot of overpriced tests. On the other hand, the house I grew up in cost $5,000 and my first used car was $75.00. Cigarettes were 20 cents a pack. My office calls in 1952 were $2.00. So the inflation correction for your tests brings the true cost of your tests down to about $1.20 or less. What a bargain. Might be time to think about a health savings account teamed with a high deductible health insurance policy before you get hit by a truck or have a pre-existing disease that would make you uninsurable.

    Best Regards, RRG




    June 02

    West Nile is Back

    June 1, 2006 6:25 pm US/Central

    Cook County Samples Test Positive For West Nile

    Mosquitoes Collected In Skokie, Norridge

    CHICAGO Samples from two collections of mosquitoes in northern Cook County tested positive Thursday for West Nile virus, according to a release from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

    One sample was collected May 18 in Skokie and the second was taken May 24 in an unincorporated area near Norridge, according to the release.

    They mark the second and third positive samples taken this year, the other being in DuPage County on May 22, according to the release.

    In 2005, the first positive bird and mosquito samples were reported May 24, also in DuPage County, according to the release. For the year, 57 of the state’s 102 counties were found to have positive bird, mosquito, horse or human cases -- a total of 252 human cases were reported, 12 of which were fatal.

    Surveillance for West Nile began May 1 with lab tests on mosquitoes; dead crows, robins and blue jays; and sick horses and humans with virus-like symptoms, the release said. West Nile is transmitted when a mosquito picks up the virus by biting an infected bird. Most people (8 of 10) with the virus show no clinical symptoms of illness, but others become ill three to 14 days after the bite, the release said.

    Illness is usually mild, with fever, headache and body aches as the chief symptoms, though serious illness such as encephalitis or meningitis, or even death, are possible. People age 50 and older are at highest risk, the release said. The state’s first human case is not usually reported until July or later, according to the release.

    (Source: Sun-Times News Group Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2006. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)