California's Proposition 8: Same-Sex Marriage Is Here, "Whether You Like It Or Not?" Really?

Here is the first television advertisement by ProtectMarriage.com. I wonder if Gavin Newsom had any idea he would be the star of the first "Yes on 8" ad?



If you want to donate to the effort to make more ads like this one, go here.

Hedgehog Readers, Beware the Newest Version of the "Nigerian 419" E-Mail Scam!

Law enforcement warns about a new version of the old Nigerian 419 e-mail scam, which is now threatening American taxpayers. Here is the e-mail that is spreading across the internet:

Dear American:
I am need to ask you to supporting an urgent secret legal business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude. I am Ministery of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 700 billion dollars US. If you would assisting me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you. I am working with Mr. Phil Gramm, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacements as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator,you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transaction is 100% safe. This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillances. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred. Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren towallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I have receive that information, I will responded with detailed informations about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.
Yours Faithfully Ministery of Treasury Paulson

Don't be fooled! Eternal vigilance is the price of preserving your pocketbook, and even that probably wouldn't help.

[Hat tip, Jim Webster, who forwarded it from Betty Christopher, the apparent author.]

Happy Birthday, World! May You Be Written and Sealed for a Good Year!

Rosh HaShonah, the Festival of the Shofar, which begins Monday evening, is the birthday of the world. It is also the day on which all of humanity passes before God like the sheep of a flock that pass under the staff of the shepherd who counts them, one by one. "On Rosh HaShonah it is written and on Yom Kippur it is sealed." Truly days of awe, yomei noraim, as they are called in Hebrew. The Kosher Hedgehog wishes for the Hedgehog, and his family and friends, and my family and friends, and all of our readers, and their family and friends, that they all be written and sealed for a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year!
[Art credit: Joëlle Dautricourt http://www.cjl-aris.org/nitsa/joelle/graphies.htm. The Hebrew letters around the border translate, "May you be written for a good year." The large Hebrew letters in the middle translate, "Today is the birthday of the world," from the Rosh HaShonah liturgy.]

Obama's Bracelet Moment: The Difference Between A Prop And Evidence of A Deeply-Felt Conviction

Notice how Senator Obama must look at his wrist to get the name of the soldier:



Kinda makes you wonder just how much it means to him, doesn't it?

Jim Geraghty has more.

The Credit Meltdown: What You Need to Know

Watch this video and send it around to all your friends and acquaintances:



Here's the URL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5tZc8oH--o

McCain: Get Mitt Romney Publicly Involved in Addressing the Financial Crisis

Senator John McCain has a tremendous asset in the current financial markets crisis, if he would only avail himself of it, and that asset is Mitt Romney. Romney is not on the GOP ticket, largely due to the continuing animus of Christian Evangelicals in the Republican Party to Mormons. However, he has offered his enthusiastic support for the GOP ticket, and now is the time to use it. McCain should not only be consulting with Mitt Romney on the financial crisis; he should be advancing Mitt as the public face of the Republican Party in addressing the financial emergency.

It is true, of course, that the former Massachusetts Govenor has no seat in Congress, and therefore no vote or direct input on the proposed Wall Street bailout legislation. However, the current crisis transcends the bailout bill. The Republican Party has to convince the American public that it offers the solution to the crisis, rather than being the cause of the problem. The only way to do that is to be out front and in public with a cogent policy, and Mitt Romney is the right person to both formulate that policy and present it.

Should John McCain be so fortunate as to win the Presidency, his administration would be in charge of American economic policy on January 20, 2009. He needs to show that a McCain Administration would know what to do in what some believe is the most serious economic crisis since the end of World War II. Mitt Romney has been mentioned as a possible nominee for Treasury Secretary or Secretary of Commerce. Now is a great time for the McCain ticket to turn Mitt loose, to demonstrate to the American electorate that he can do the job, and do it well.

Democrats Spike Jewish Unity at Anti-Ahmadinejad Rally in New York

Thousands of people attended a rally in New York this past Monday, organized by a coalition of Jewish community groups, to protest the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to address the United Nations General Assembly. The rally was a strong demonstration of the unity of the American Jewish community against the threat posed to Israel by Iran's nuclear weapons program.

But it could have been stronger. Originally, the organizers planned a showing of bipartisan political support for Israel, and against the Iranian President. New York Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton was invited. So was the Republican Vice Presidential nominee, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. That apparently presented a problem for the Democratic Party, which appears to feel that it has a monopoly franchise on the American Jewish community and support for Israel. When Senator Clinton found out about the invitation to Governor Palin, she pulled out of participation in the rally in a huff.

As reported here by Marcia Kramer for CBS, Democratic activists then put tremendous pressure on the rally's organizers to disinvite Governor Palin, reportedly telling the organizations that the appearance by Govenor Palin, without an appearance by either Senator Clinton or Senator Joe Biden, the Democratic Vice Presidential nominee. In the end, faced with a no-win situation, the rally organizers withdrew invitations to speak to all politicians, including, most pointedly, Governor Palin.

The unhappiness with this result was not limited to Republican supporters of Governor Palin.

"This is insulting. This is embarrassing, especially to Gov. Palin, to me and I think it should be to every single New Yorker," Assemblyman Dov Hikind, D-Brooklyn, told CBS 2 HD.

"It's an absolute shame that this has happened," Hikind said. "To threaten organizations … to threaten the Conference of Presidents that if you don't withdraw the invitation to Gov. Palin we're going to look into your tax exempt status … that's McCarthyism."

Gee, McCarthyism. I thought that was something that only Republicans could commit.

According the Israeli newspaper HaAretz, Clinton aides added insult to injury by claiming that they had been "blindsided" by the invitation to Governor Palin, which they described as a partisan move. Apparently in the Democratic Party world view, inviting both Republican and Democratic speakers is partisan. So much for the new bipartisan atmosphere we are told to expect in a Barack Obama Presidential Administration.

Ironically, the supposedly partisan Governor Palin had quoted Senator Clinton's past remarks in her planned speech. As Caroline Glick points out in the Jerusalem Post, Governor Palin's speech was a statement of national--rather than just Republican--resolve to stop Iran's nuclear weapons program. Those who are interested in reading what Governor Palin would have said at Monday's rally may read the speech here, as published by the New York Sun.

Catholics, Values, and Voting in 2008

Those who follow the intersection of religious faith and politics will find this video interesting and probably inspiring:



Whatever one may believe about the separation of church and state, this little film makes it clear that the separation of faith and politics is something else entirely.

Not Gone and Unhappily Not Forgotten: Ehud Olmert Resigns As Prime Minister, But He'll Be Around For Awhile

It's a little like the old country music song, "How Can I Miss You When You Wouldn't Go Away." Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who turned in his letter of resignation to President Shimon Peres this evening. It is expected that President Peres will designate Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, elected last week in the Kadima Party primary to be the head of that party, to try to form a new government. She will have 42 days to do so. During that six week period, Ehud Olmert will continue to serve as Prime Minister, of a caretaker government. If Ms. Livni fails to form a coalition government, new elections will follow. Seven months may elapse before a new government takes office as the result of those elections, and during that time, Ehud Olmert will continue to serve as Prime Minister. Seven months gives a person like Olmert ample time to do great mischief.

Charlie Gibson: "Are we fighting a holy war?"

This is a devastating video:

Avast, Maties: Today Be Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Me comely wench Elizabeth welcomes ye on board! I be Red Jack Kidd. Get ye own pirate name, me hearties, by following the treasure map below! Aarrr!

TREASURE MAP

http://www.piratequiz.com/result.php

Now here's a concept: Imagine the next really "hot" hybrid automobile coming from . . . General Motors.

Wouldn't it be nice if good old GM came up with the next great hybrid automobile? Behold at left the Chevy Volt.

This writer says that "while the Prius is the world's most-popular hybrid and the poster child for green(er) motoring, the Volt is more technologically advanced:"

The Volt, which General Motors finally
unveiled Tuesday, is a series hybrid, also called a range-extended electric vehicle. Like the Prius, it's got an electric motor and a gasoline engine, but the engine merely charges the battery as it approaches depletion. Electricity alone turns the 17-inch wheels. The Volt is designed to travel 40 miles on a single charge of its lithium-ion battery, meaning most drivers will never burn a drop of gasoline.

As someone who commutes just over 40 miles each day, I am interested.

(HT: InstaPundit.)

Should the U.S. Government Be One Of The World's Largest Insurance Companies?

As frequently is the case, Mark Steyn articulates what I was feeling:

"Aside from the peripheral details (I don't quite see why American taxpayers should now be the principal sponsors of Manchester United soccer team) there's something very unsettling about the symbolism. Old-school socialist nationalization generally involved governments owning industries that actually produced something - a coal mine or an automobile. But there's something almost too creepily apt about the United States government now being, literally, one of the planet's biggest insurance companies.

"The old line on imprudent debt went something like: If you owe the bank a thousand dollars, you have a problem; if you owe the bank a million dollars, the bank has a problem. We seem to have casually accepted the extension of the paradigm: If the bank loans you a million dollars, the bank has a problem. If the bank loans you a billion dollars, the US government has a problem. But why? Short-term "turmoil" (ie, change and opportunity) in the markets would seem preferable to Washington buying a junk portfolio for every federal taxpayer."

What does it say about the legitimacy of a free-market system if investors in hedge funds and other sophisticated financial ventures, who potentially stand to make mind-boggling fortunes if their investments prosper, are bailed out by Uncle Sam if their investments fail? Isn't that State Capitalism? Isn't that exactly the system fixed for the benefit of the fat cats that the Left has always charged was the essence of the U.S. economic system?

Most of the "problem assets" in the A.I.G. portfolio are derivative contracts used to mitigate interest-rate risks and hedge risk exposures in securities and commodities markets, including credit derivatives that insure collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). In recent years, lenders raked in cash by making sub-prime loans to unqualified, or unvetted borrowers, and then immediately reselling those loans to feed a voracious secondary market. Thousands of loans were bundled and then sold to investors as collateralized debt obligations. To make the CDOs more attractive to the investors, companies such as A.I.G. would insure the CDOs against default.

Often the loan pools underlying the CDOs were sliced and diced, with the loan servicing fees going one way and the right to the interest income going another. When defaults began to occur on the underlying mortgages, it was often unclear who had the authority to negotiate a workout or restructuring of the loans. The loan pools underlying various CDOs might include parts of thousands of loans, most in good standing but many in default. It became impossible for the CDO investors or their credit insurers, such as A.I.G., to even compute their risk exposure, losses and liabilities.

So A.I.G. provided the hedge on the investment risk that helped fuel the runaway CDO and derivative market. The CDO investors chose A.I.G. to hedge the credit risk inherent in their investments. It turns out that they chose wrongly when they bought the CDOs and wrongly when they hedged through A.I.G. They took an investment risk, and lost. But instead of having the investors suffer the consequences of their risky investment choices, now the U.S. is stepping in to guarantee the performance by A.I.G. of its contractual obligations. That is just wrong.

Breaking News from Israel: Exit Polls Show Livni Winning Kadima Party Primary Election

According to exit polls, the members of Israel's Kadima Party have elected Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to succeed Ehud Olmert as the head of the Kadima Party. If the polls are accurate, Livni has defeated Transportation Minister, and former Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff, Shaul Mofaz. If elected the head of her party, Ms. Livni would be given the opportunity to form a new government led by her Kadima Party. She would be the second female Prime Minister in Israeli history, after the legendary Gold Meir. If she fails to form a new government, new elections would be scheduled, and the interim government would be led by none other than the present Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, unless he resigns as a result of expected criminal indictments. What a country!

What God Wants, Not What We Want: A Jewish Gay Man Opts for Torah

We are approaching the Jewish Yomei Noraim, the days of awe, of Rosh Hashonah and Yom Kippur. The theme of the Yomei Noraim is tshuvah, repentance. The Hebrew word tshuvah literally means return, and the image is that we are returning to God. One of the main themes of Rosh Hashonah is the akeidah, the binding of Isaac, when Abraham obeys the command of God to travel to Mount Moriah and there offer to God the son whom he had fathered at 100 years of age, the son who God had promised would be Abraham's spiritual and temporal heir. As Abraham raises his knife over his son, who is bound on an altar, to fulfill God's command, an angel commands him to stop. Instead of Isaac, Abraham offers a sacrifice of a ram that is entangled in a nearby thicket. Among other motifs, the blowing of the shofar, the ram's horn, on Rosh Hashonah calls to mind the akeidah, the willingness of Abraham to fulfill God's commandments without regard to personal cost or desire.

David Benkof is a Jewish gay man. Eight years ago he decided to stop having same-sex relations and to eventually pursue traditional Jewish family life married to a woman. In a moving article in the Jerusalem Post, Benkof describes how the akeidah reinforces his decision to arrange his own life according to what the Torah requires, rather than his personal desires.

If Obama is elected president I hope he can take this thing with him everywhere he goes . . . .

I wonder if he'll take it to meetings with Vladimir Putin?

Obama's teleprompter hits the trail

The photo of the candidate speaking from the teleprompter in the rodeo ring is, well, priceless.

Sarah Palin. Hillary Clinton. Saturday Night Live. Enough Said.

This is very funny, but it's also interesting to see the attempt to make Sarah Palin look dumb.



I have always found it fascinating that liberals seem to feel a need to make conservative standard-bearers look stupid, silly, or both. Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush (especially GWB) have all been cast as idiots. (Of course, all of these dummies except Ford defeated a "smarter" Democrat opponent.) My theory is that the more elitist-oriented liberals are arrogant, or insecure, or both. After all, they are right because they are smart and sophisticated and well-educated. The only possible reason anyone could disagree with them is cluelessness, naivete, or outright stupidity.

But who keeps winning elections? Is there something going on here the liberals don't quite understand?

The More Traditionally Jewish, The More Republican

In a column amusingly entitled, "Thinking Outside the Lox," in today's Wall Street journal online, Joseph Epstein, with tongue firmly in cheek, describes the phrase "Jewish Republican" as an oxymoron, a figure of speech in which two contradictory terms appear in conjunction. Even Epstein, who confesses to voting for Republican presidential candidates since 1980 (except for 1996 when he did not vote at all), won't unequivcally commit to voting for McCain-Palin in 2008.

What Epstein does not note, but should, is that the Orthodox Jewish community stands in stark consequence to their co-religionists. Two weeks ago, I was a guest at a Friday night Sabbath dinner. With perhaps 10 people at the table, 8 were committed McCain supporters, almost a mirror image of the preference for Obama-Biden in the overall Jewish community. What seems clear to many observers, including Michael Medved and Dennis Prager, is that the more traditionally observant a Jewish voter is, the more likely that he or she will vote GOP.

This trend is even apparent within the Orthodox community. On Sunday, I had the pleasure of patronizing Ron Sieger, a local stam sofer, a traditional Jewish scribe, in order to purchase some mezuzot (the parchment with biblical verses that is posted on the doorposts of observant Jewish homes). In addition to Torah scrolls and mezuzot, Ron had available for purchase both hats and kippot (skullcaps) with a McCain-Palin logo in Hebrew. Ron explained that he had the hats and kippot prepared following a visit to Bnei David Judea, a more liberal Orthodox synagogue, where he saw a number of Obama kippot on congregants, and found himself wondering, "What can these people be thinking." Among Orthodox Jews, as well as among Jews at large, the degree of Republican support would appear to be directly proportional to the degree of traditional observance.

This shouldn't be surprising. By definition, Orthodox Jews have opted for the traditional over the trendy. Halacha--Torah law--is by its very nature conservative. Moreover, Orthodox Jews, in stark contrast to their liberal brethren and sistren, are strongly committed to traditional sexual and family mores, including opposition to homosexual marriage and to abortion except where continuing a pregnancy would pose a serious risk to the mother's life or health.

For those who are interested, this online merchant offers an assortment of merchandise with a Hebrew McCain-Palin logo.

Liberal Pols Don't Give Charity-They Want to Tax You and Give Your Money Away

Byron York at National Review reports that for the 10-year period from 1998 through 2007, Joe Biden donated a total of $3690 to charity, out of an aggregate income for those years of $2,450,042. That is a giving rate of 0.15%. York points out that this revelation concerning Biden's "generosity" is reminiscent of 1992, when the Washington Post reported that Al Gore had donated a total of $1,727 out of a reported income of $183,558. Actually, this is worse, because Biden's highest amount of annual chartible donations, in 2007, was only $995 out of a total reported income of $319,853. On the other hand, by most reports, Senator Biden is the least wealthy member of the Senate, while despite his low reported income in 1992, Al Gore had and still has very substantial personal wealth.

I may bite my tongue when Sarah Palin's tax returns are released, but I doubt it. The difference between liberals and conservatives would appear to be that conservative politicians want each of us to decide where to give our money, while liberals would rather tax you and give your money away to where they think best. (HT-Hugh Hewitt)

McCain-Palin waste no time in addressing the weekend Wall Street shocks

The Hedgehog Tie: It's About Time!

Actually, I always figured it was only a matter of time, and now a maker of fine ties has come forward with . . . a Hedgehog tie.

I'll confess up front: I am a tie fanatic. I have many more ties than I really need, as my wife often reminds me. Even in this day of "business casual" wear among law firms, I enjoy wearing a tie to work every day but Friday.

So you can imagine my delight when Stuart Hotchkiss of the Nick Hotchkiss Collection let us know about his fun and fashionable silk twill ties with a hedgehog design - photo at left.

Ralph (the Kosher Hedgehog) and I would like to think that our little blog was the inspiration for these cravats, but we do not kid ourselves about that. Even so, Stuart, whose Hotchkiss Collection is offered in honor of his uncle Elmore D. "Nick" Hotchkiss, Jr., tells us that the version with hedgehogs and Greek letters has become one of Warren Buffet's favorite ties. Do great minds think alike, or what?

You can get your very own Hedgehog tie here.

Now Ralph and I each own one of these ties, and it is simply one fine piece of neckwear. Please do not mistake this product for a "gimmick" tie; it is truly beautiful. I plan to purchase more of these and make gifts of them to my friends who truly appreciate what it means to have a hedgehog's worldview.

But the hedgehog ties only scratch the surface of the Hotchkiss Collection's tie offerings. Stuart has all kinds of ties, featuring everything from the Eiffel Tower to Wimbledon.

For example, if you've read this blog much, you know that Ralph and I are lawyers. Well, because Stuart has a sense of humor (and because Ralph and I do too) he was kind enough to present each of us with a Sharks tie as well. Fair enough, we say.

Lovers of fine ties and seekers of thoughtful gifts will consider the Hotchkiss Collection a real find. I know I will be a regular customer.

Thanks, Stuart, for putting us together with "our" ties.

9-11-2001: LET US NOT FORGET

Adherents to a Not-To-Be-Named Religion Mark Ramadan by Desecrating Jewish Worship Site in Tomb of Patriarchs in Hebron

Adherents of a Not-To-Be-Named Religion, who converged Friday on the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron for Ramadan prayers, urinated next to the Holy Ark in the Jewish worship area and left behind Hamas flags. No Jewish worshipers were present at the time of the desecration, because the desecration occurred on one of the 10 days of the year on which the government of Israel (the Jewish State) permits access to the Tomb of the Patriarchs only to the followers of the religion in question, and excludes all Jews.

In accordance with the policy enunciated by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and in order to avoid intolerance or bias against the religion in question, we will not name the religion in this post. We urge all of our readers who follow this hyperlink to Israel National News for details on the incident to ignore every mention of the name of the religion in question that appears in the news article, as the adherents of this religion are very sensitive about desecration of religious sites, except in the many cases when they have desecrated or destroyed the holy sites of another religion, or have converted them into mosques.

Followers of Not-to-be-Named Religion Attack Jews In Paris

The Jerusalem Post reports that 10-12 attackers, using brass knuckles, beat up three Jewish teenagers in Paris this past Saturday afternoon. Following the lead of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and in the interest of avoiding intolerance and bias against the religious group to which the attackers belonged, we will not mention that religious group in this post. We request that our readers who follow the hyperlink to the Jerusalem Post article similarly ignore all mention of the religion of the attackers, which is a religion known for preaching peace, love and tolerance, except not toward members of other religions.

Palin-Thatcher Comparision Update--WSJ Joins the Club

Commentator Fred (see comments on the previous post) will no doubt be pleased to discover that a Maggie Thatcher-Sarah Palin comparison appears today in another "overly partial newspaper," this time a truly conservative one. In a commentary in today's Wall Street Journal online, Barbara Amiel, a columnist for Macleans', the Canadian weekly newsmagazine, and a former senior political columnist for the Sunday Times of London, writes about the Thatcher-Palin analogy, with the cautionary note that it was the old boys' club of the Tory establishment that finally brought Prime Minister Thatcher down. She imagines that "Mrs. T" would have given the following advice to Governor Palin:

"Mrs. Thatcher would have recognized the guns aimed at Sarah Palin as the weapons of the left with feminist trigger-pullers. She also would have known that Mrs. Palin has less to fear from East-Coast intellectual snobs in egalitarian America than she had to fear from her own Tory base in class-prejudiced Britain. She would have told her to stand her ground and do her homework. Read your briefs, choose advisers with care, and, as she once said to me, my arm in her grip and her eyes fixed firmly on mine, 'Just be yourself, don't ever give in and they can't harm you.'"

Good advice for any politician, male or female, I should think. John McCain has certainly followed it, sometimes even to the chagrin of his Republican colleagues.

Sarah Palin--The GOP's "Maggie Thatcher"?

I was thinking it, but Brit Hume said it first publicly on Fox News--Sarah Palin could be the Republican Party's Maggie Thatcher. Last night Governor Palin stood up to the media elites and lefty commentators, and proved that she is an "Iron Lady." It is noteworthy that the British media and political elites, including some in her own Conservative Party, repeatedly underestimated Margaret Thatcher, the daughter of a shop owner, when she took the helm first of the Tories and then of Britain, and returned both to greatness. Moreover, Sarah Palin is only 44--in 8 years, when President John McCain is completing his second term, she will be only 52. She could be a Republican Party leader, along with other GOP young guns, such as Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, for decades to come.

If more proof is needed, check out the article in today's Los Angeles Times, relating how Governor Palin has stood up to Big Oil in defense of the State of Alaska's interest in its natural resources. According to the Times:

Since becoming governor in December 2006, Palin has tripled production taxes on oil and seized control of a proposed $30-billion natural gas pipeline from the traditional oil giants.

The Palin administration now stands in a nerve-racking faceoff with the multibillion-dollar oil industry interests that have for 40 years been the bedrock of the state's politics and economy. Who blinks first -- Palin, or companies like BP Alaska, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil -- will determine who controls transport of Alaska's massive untapped gas resources and future tax revenues for a state dependent on petroleum revenues for 85% of its budget.

Most analysts are predicting that it won't be Palin who yields.

Now, I am not normally an advocate of tax increases on energy companies, but this story underscores what Newt Gingrich said today on CNN--the McCain-Palin ticket may be the toughest reform ticket fielded by the GOP since Teddy "the Trust Buster" Roosevelt. When the voters begin to compare the records of Senator McCain and Sarah Palin in defying entrenched special interests in their own political party to the non-record of Barack Obama in that regard, they may realize who represents real change.

Newt Gingrich on the SMM and Sarah Palin

Despite posting a Gingrich video two days in a row, I have never been a huge Gingrich fan. I must admit, however, that knows how to state the GOP case. Here's the latest example:

Newt Gingrich on California's Proposition 8

Pass this one around: