Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah.  It was a fun night.  We attended the Menorah lighting at the nice outdoor mall in Huntsville.  The Rabbi of the Local Chabad gave a speech, the Colonel of garrison at Redstone Arsenal lit the Shamash.

We came home, the boy had another sufganiyot (Jewish jelly donut) and opened presents.

Then I go online and what do I see?  A Rabbi embarrassing me as a Jew.

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg is clearly a radical Lefty who wandered into the Social Justice wing of the Rabbinate.

This is her bio from The Daily Beast’s list of Rabbis to watch.

Ruttenberg, 38, the campus rabbi at Northwestern University, is liberal Judaism’s resident sexpert. She has edited two provocative anthologies on Judaism and sex, another on Jewish feminism’s new wave, and she wrote a memoir chronicling her own untraditional path to the rabbinate.

Yeah, we all know where this is going.

This is the Tweet that she sent that made me hung my head in shame.

Here's a lil' thread about Hanukah and the Trump Administration. 1/x

In 175 B. C., an insecure, despotic ruler came to power. He was narcissistic and known for a level of extravagance and display that bordered on the bizarre.

— Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg (@TheRaDR) December 2, 2018

For the sake of readability, this is that thread, unrolled.

Here’s a lil’ thread about Hanukah and the Trump Administration. 1/x

In 175 B. C., an insecure, despotic ruler came to power. He was narcissistic and known for a level of extravagance and display that bordered on the bizarre.

Despite his occasional ability to captivate his subjects by appearing gracious, he was said to have, in his heart, a cruel tyrant’s contempt for his subjects.

Political positions under him were easily bought; he installed unqualified cronies in high positions and quickly turned on one if another offered him more money for the same job.

He was quick to anger, and it wasn’t long into his reign that he began curtailing civil liberties, restricting the freedom of religion, and pillaging his subjects’ resources for his own profit.

Antiochus IV Epiphanes seized rule illegitimately over the Seleucid Empire, incl Judea; the kingship was to have gone to his nephew, but he took it by force. Bribes drove his appointments of the high priest; he plundered the treasury of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem for its gold.

In a fury about a humiliating loss in Egypt, he cracked down in Judea, outlawing observance of the Sabbath and ritual circumcision and defiling the temple by erecting an altar to Zeus there, complete with pig sacrifice.

He sent his officers to slay and destroy, with an agenda that was less about Hellenism — that is, the demand that the Judeans assimilate into the kingdom’s dominant Greek-influenced culture — than it was about denationalization, a full eradication of their way of life.

The parallels to U.S. politics are hard to ignore. The questions about Trump’s illegal rise to power, stacking the administration with people who benefit his purse; the kleptocracy, collusion with brutal regimes; assaults on civil liberties and human rights.

He has sacked the Temple of our democracy and social safety nets. He’s been trying to destroy us entirely.

Antiochus’s regime was, needless to say, terrifying and devastating for the Judeans, who had to decide whether to be martyred — as many were — or to submit to his demands.

A small handful of zealots chose a third option, however, protesting his decrees and the complicity of some of their fellow Judeans. After an initial skirmish, the Maccabees ran for the hills and, soon, were engaged in all-out warfare with the massive Seleucid army.

They were outmanned and underarmed; many of the Maccabean soldiers didn’t even have swords and armor. But they made use of their superior knowledge of their terrain: They were light, quick and mobile, relying on ambush techniques and superior tactical skill.

Slowly, painstakingly, they beat back the Seleucids and eventually gained their freedom.

They held fast to their ideals and pushed back against the narrative that their faith was a just target for oppression. Their smart thinking and intimate knowledge of their own country was enough to outmaneuver a government bent on maintaining power through force.

This administration has forced us to become smarter and savvier than we had been, to be resourceful and make use of all the assets we have — perhaps not by hiding in caves but by building coalitions, developing protest strategies, creating novel uses for technology.

We have had to become quick, light and strategically flawless, and we have had to settle in for the long haul. We killed the midterms, but we still have Trump in office, a GOP senate and two stolen SCOTUS seats to contend with. We’re not done.

But we have done extraordinary work, and Hanukah is a time to pause and both celebrate the resistance and bravery of the last two years, and to fill up with light as we recommit to the work that lies ahead for us.

We know now, better than ever, that we have to make the miracles ourselves.

What incredible and anti-Jewish horseshit.

The whole beginning was as much fantasy as history.  Antiochus IV was a real Greek leader, but sort of a minor one historically.  As far as I can find, there is one book written about him and it is at least 100 years old.  All that crap about his personality, well… I’m not aware of any texts explaining that.

Then her diatribe really starts to break down.

The parallels to U.S. politics are hard to ignore.

Really?  Has Trump marched troops across America and burned Synagogues?  Has his army stopped anybody from practicing their religion?  Has he tried to force any group to give up their identity?

Take a look at this headline: Antisemitism rises in Canada, Jews remain most targeted minority group.  When did Trump become President of Canada?  Shouldn’t the Lefty hero and “woke Bae” Justin Trudeau have reduced anti-Semitism?

Or maybe this headline: 2015 FBI data: Jews were nearly 3X more likely than blacks, 1.5X more likely than Muslims to be a hate crime victim.  I didn’t know Trump was President in 2015.  Who was President in 2015, and the 7 years before that?

Maybe it’s that most of the Jew hatred we see today come from the work left and their Islamic political pets.

The questions about Trump’s illegal rise to power,

What?  He was the elected President as per the rules set down in our Constitution.  Show me one vote actually altered or illegally cast by the Russian government and I’ll change my mind.

stacking the administration with people who benefit his purse;

So like the Clinton Foundation?  Or maybe Obama’s money grabbing schemes that are so over the top even Liberals are getting pissed about it.

the kleptocracy, collusion with brutal regimes;

Iran Deal anyone?  Also, didn’t North Korea return some prisoners?  If Trump scratches Kim’s back on Twitter and we get our citizens back, I’ll call that a win for the USA.

assaults on civil liberties and human rights.

Which ones?  I know we’ve all seen the cattle cars full of gays heading to Pence’s shock-them-straight camps… oh wait, that never happened.

Or are we talking about tear gassing people throwing chunks of concrete blocks at US law enforcement.

He has sacked the Temple of our democracy and social safety nets. He’s been trying to destroy us entirely.

His party just lost the House of Representatives.  The Democrats took wins in governorship.  How could such as tyrannical dictator let that happen.

Also, did Trump eliminate welfare, because that would be AWESOME!!!  Somebody tell the illegals that that’s no longer available.

They held fast to their ideals and pushed back against the narrative that their faith was a just target for oppression. Their smart thinking and intimate knowledge of their own country was enough to outmaneuver a government bent on maintaining power through force.

This administration has forced us to become smarter and savvier than we had been, to be resourceful and make use of all the assets we have — perhaps not by hiding in caves but by building coalitions, developing protest strategies, creating novel uses for technology.

Please for the love of everything holy, do not try an parallel the Maccabees with ANTIFA.

The Maccabees fought to continue to practice their religion without government oppression.  ANTIFA is all about oppressing people who are to the right of Lenin.  Those are very different things.

We have had to become quick, light and strategically flawless, and we have had to settle in for the long haul. We killed the midterms, but we still have Trump in office, a GOP senate and two stolen SCOTUS seats to contend with. We’re not done.

What stolen SCOTUS seats?  You mean the ones that the Senate confirmed according to the Constitution?  This is more Slate level bullshit.

But we have done extraordinary work, and Hanukah is a time to pause and both celebrate the resistance and bravery of the last two years, and to fill up with light as we recommit to the work that lies ahead for us.

No, the resistance has been a load of shit.  It hasn’t accomplished anything but make Trump supporters more motivated.  The Resistance is why the Senate is still Republican.

We know now, better than ever, that we have to make the miracles ourselves.

No, the miracle was that the little band of Maccabees defeated one of the most disciplined armies of the era.  They did so with God’s help.

The Resistance hasn’t defeated shit.  Crazy women in pussy hats and vagina costumes or Communists in black masks haven’t done anything but ruin business fronts in Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco.  That isn’t a brave army, that’s a bunch of tantruming Leftists.

The second miracle was the re-dedication of the Temple and the oil burning for eight days.

This Rabbi managed to leave God entirely out of her little rant.

That, more than anything else, shows you the caliber of Rabbi she really is.  A secular one.

Of course I have one other thought on this.

I’m going to go out on a limb and assume the Rabbi here is totally anti-gun.  Call it a hunch.

If she really believed in Hanukkah, shouldn’t she support the idea of Jews – or any other minority – being armed?

Somehow I doubt it.

I know I’m not supposed to police other Jews’ Jewishness, but this was some un-Jewish horseshit and it’s a sad state of affairs that someone this unhinged and un-tethered from her religion could be a Rabbi.

My mother brought this over tonight.  I have no idea what it is.

I believe it is some sort of ancient religious artifact because when she manipulated it, it gave off an unworldly noise, like a shaman incantation or someone speaking in tongues.

There was an inscription on the reverse of it, identifying its origin.

Unfortunately, the civilization that made it has long since died off and little remains of their texts.

I have included pictures (below):

I don’t mind that SWMBO likes the silly Romantic Christmas movies, but I object (silently) to the forced participation.

I am too old to sleep in the couch.

Just jump to 00:29

This is the third week of protests in Paris against the increase in the price of fuel and overall crappy economy.  Police simply overwhelmed and the amount of protesters and the overall destruction. Earlier today, there wa a report that a police car had been breached in and unspecified duty rifle had been stolen by the protesters.

This is huge and somehow we are not hearing much in this side of the Atlantic puddle.

Yesterday our operations were disrupted when five buses stopped on Mexico Highway 2 just on the other side of our border fence and 217 Guatemalans got off, walked over our fence and onto our country, and sat down to await Border Patrol. They do this regularly now and this bunch admitted coming from Tijuana where they arrived with the caravans. They didn’t seem to know–or wouldn’t say–who chartered the buses.

Enough

But no, this is a grassroots caravan without support by anybody but a few poor volunteers, right?

I saw this headline at FOX.

Harvard grad student told to move out after roommates find her legally owned firearms ‘uncomfortable’

The story then jumps into a longer report from the Washington Free Beacon.

Landlord Tells Harvard Student to Move Out Over Legally Owned Guns
Roommates searched room for guns after finding MAGA hat

Okay, let’s get into this.

A Massachusetts landlord told a Harvard University graduate student that he wanted her to move out of her apartment because her legally owned firearms made some of her roommates uncomfortable.

“Since it’s clear that Leyla wants to keep her firearms, it would be best for all parties if she finds another place to live,” Dave Lewis, president of Avid Management, said in an email to the household obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

I am not a lawyer, but I’m not sure how this is legal.  I know being a gun owner can be a legitimate reason not to rent to someone in some states but I assume that would have to be put into the lease agreement signed beforehand.

Here is the e-mail referenced above.

As for the “makes all of us uncomfortable part” I’m not sure how that is defensible in a tenants rights suit.

This from Tenant rights at mass.gov:

Although the landlord of a tenant at will or under lease can terminate the tenancy or raise the rent without reason, s/he cannot do so in response to your exercising your legal rights.

Arguably that includes your Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms.

Furthermore, there are other complications to this situation.

The request that the student, Leyla Pirnie, move out came after her roommates searched her room while she was not home and found her firearms. That prompted one of the roommates to email Lewis requesting he verify that Pirnie was in compliance with applicable firearms laws.

In response to the email from Pirnie’s roommate, Lewis contacted Captain James Donovan of the Somerville Police Department to inspect Pirnie’s firearms and ensure they were in compliance with Massachusetts law.

From mass.gov.

Your landlord, or an agent for your landlord, may only enter your apartment for the following reasons:

• To inspect the premises;
• To make repairs;
  To show the apartment to a prospective tenant, purchaser, mortgagee or its agents;
• In accordance with a court order;
• If the premises appear to be abandoned; or
• To inspect the premises within the last 30 days of tenancy in order to determine the amount of damage to be deducted from the security deposit.

Technically, it was her roommates that entered her room, but they ratted her out to the landlord and the landlord call the police.

This seems very dicey, but it gets worse.

“A few weeks ago, I came back to my apartment from a weekend trip and was confronted by one of my roommates who asked if I had guns in the house,” she told the Free Beacon. “After being told far too many lies to count, my roommates finally admitted that they searched my closet, under my bed, and all of my drawers in pursuit of finding my guns.”

While she was given several different explanations for why the roommates entered and searched her room, the 24-year-old said she felt her political beliefs and where she is from played a significant role in the roommates’ actions.

“When I asked them why they were in my room to begin with, they each came up with completely contradicting stories (none of which made any sense), but one comment struck me in particular: ‘We saw that you had a MAGA hat and come on, you’re from Alabama… so we just kind of assumed that you had something,'” she said.

So a bunch of Harvard students and the landlord are just naked anti-Trump, anti-Republican, and anti-Southern bigots.

You’re from Alabama, you must have a gun.  Actually, it’s about a 50% chance, but to use that as an excuse to break into a roommates private room and search through her stuff is pure prejudice.

“What I find uncomfortable is coming home to find out that six people I barely know went into my bedroom without permission and went through every single one of my drawers, without any regard to my privacy whatsoever,” Pirnie said. “My landlord’s e-mail, though carefully crafted, showed tremendous prejudice against my right to legally have firearms.”

Also, depending on the roommate agreement and lease agreement, it may have been a crime.

Again, IANAL, but from what I’ve found online, if the lease agreement or roommate agreement specifies that rooms are private, even though they share the house, other tenants cannot enter a private room.  That is trespassing.

Pirnie said she had been living in the apartment since September without incident, and she kept her political beliefs to herself before the incident. But she did have a Make America Great Again hat in her room.

In response to the email from Pirnie’s roommate, Lewis contacted Captain James Donovan of the Somerville Police Department to inspect Pirnie’s firearms and ensure they were in compliance with Massachusetts law. Pirnie agreed to allowing the police to inspect her firearms and said she was told she is in compliance with all applicable laws. Lewis acknowledged the department’s conclusion that Pirnie was not breaking any gun laws in his email telling Pirnie to move out.

Keep that part in mind because of this next part.

“We discussed with Leyla that all of us are uncomfortable with having firearms in the house, and that their presence causes anxiety and deprives us of the quiet enjoyment of the premise to which we are entitled,” the roommate wrote to Lewis. 

Pirnie said the roommates confronted her about her firearms and she explained to them she was a legal gun owner who is trained in the safe handling of firearms. She said the roommates weren’t concerned with Pirnie’s handling of the guns but rather that somebody might break in and turn the guns on them or the guns “might go off on their own.”

We will let the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence explain why that is such political horseshit.

Massachusetts is the only state in the nation that requires that firearms be stored with a locking device in place in all cases when they are not in use. Massachusetts’ law requires individuals to securely store firearms in a locked container or equipped with a tamper-resistant mechanical lock or other gun safety device.

That is right ladies and gentlemen, Leyla here was in compliance with Massachusetts safe storage laws, a police captain confirmed it, and still her roommates and landlord say that makes them uncomfortable because someone else could use the guns or they “might go off on their own.”

Horse-fucking-shit.

Pirnie feels she’s being punished for being a gun owner.

“I’m still very much so being threatened out of my apartment,” she said. “Either I leave and incur moving expenses or my roommates move and I incur their rent expenses… Doesn’t seem right.

“Not only is this a blatant violation of my privacy, but it’s also a violation of my rights.”

It’s not just that she’s a gun owner, she is also a Trump supporter and from Alabama.

I would bet a mortgage payment that that because she’s from Alabama and is attending Harvard really offends the sensibilities of her Northeast Corridor compatriots.

How dare they let one of those people* come to school up here!?

*By those people they mean a Southerner, and probably a Christian and Conservative one at that.

When Pirnie and her father rejected Lewis’s request that she move out in the middle of studying for finals, Lewis responded by saying his request “was based strictly on practical and not idealogical (sic) terms.” He then warned that if the other roommates moved out Pirnie would have to pay their rent.

“If the other roommates were to move out, Leyla would need to find roommates to share the place or foot the entire $6000+ monthly rent herself,” Lewis wrote in an email to Pirnie and her father. “Obviously it would be much easier for the others to stay and just fill one room (and I’m confident—were this to happen—that the remaining housemates will release Leyla from any further responsibility under the lease) and that’s why I proposed what I did.”

So I found this at the Official Blog of the Massachusetts Trial Court Law Libraries:

We get asked this question at our library sometimes.

If your roommate is terribly annoying, can you evict your roommate?

No, unless you are subletting part of your apartment to your roommate, you cannot evict your roommate. If the roommate is violating some aspect of the lease, you may be able to persuade the landlord to evict your roommate, but that action would also affect you. In effect, you would both be evicted, and if you were lucky, you could convince your landlord to let you stay with a new lease.

“…joint liability doesn’t mean that you can evict a cotenant. Only landlords can do this. …

This means that cotenants cannot force each other out. If your roommate becomes insufferable, you’ll have to work it out between the two of you unless the roommate’s behavior is alsoa violation of a lease or rental agreement clause (for example, illegal drug use). Although a violation of this nature would justify the termination of both your tenancies (joint and several liability!), you might get lucky if your landlord pities you and lets you stay.”

So it seems that the other six roommates getting the landlord to evict Layla because they are “uncomfortable” with her owning guns, even though she never threatened anybody or even showed them off to people is potentially a violation.  Consider that as far as we are aware she didn’t violate the lease agreement and she can’t be evicted for exercising her legal rights.

This sort of naked bigotry that leads to a violation of a persons rights and access to housing is wrong.

If a bunch of Southern students kicked out a black roommate for having #BLM signs, the Left would be screaming about this.

If a bunch of Christian students asked a roommate to leave because they found her collection of fetish toys in her room, the Left would be screaming about this.

Kick out the MAGA gun owner and crickets.

When the semester is over, Layla needs to take her roommates and landlord to court.