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One of my college professors mentioned once that he (a black Muslim man) spoke to a group of white Christian supremacists, with a picture of Hitler staring at his back the whole time, and I respected him for having the bravery to do it. I respected him because the subject of his speech was racial, religious, and national tolerance. He played a recording of his speech for us, and the gist of it was this: "In the interests of a better world, we -- the non-whites and non-Christians, and I realize that in this room I'm speaking only for myself -- need to make a stronger effort to move towards forgiveness for the past without losing our awareness of what is still going on in the present. And then you, the white Christian males who have for so long been in positions of power, need to elevate yourselves by taking the first, and the biggest, steps towards making things right again. You weren't alive to start the problems, but your generations of privilege have given you the tools to end the problems. You can begin by learning exactly what Hitler and his Nazi party taught, did, and said, and then learning why it was wrong."

If this man Zirkle had come before this group and said something along those lines, I could've respected that. I've spoken before hostile crowds, myself. But no -- he specifically said that white women were victims of pornography and prostitution. Ergo, he is not interested in addressing the problems of all of society, but only the problems that affect the people he actually cares about, and those people are white.

Not only political suicide, but truth-in-action. I think I'm glad that Zirkle spoke to this group and was noticed while doing it. He's saved a lot of voters the effort of trying to decide whether to vote for him.

Apparently this guy is not very PC either.

"The event was not the first time Zirkle has raised controversy on race issues. In March, Zirkle raised the idea of segregating races in separate states. Zirkle said Tuesday he's not advocating segregation, but said desegregation has been a failure."

Yeah, I lived in Fort Wayne Indiana for 2 years, Yes there were clan rallies and neo-nazis but honestly, the were a severe minority.

In a related note.

Divash? a Baker? ON PASSOVER WEEK?!

By Times Staff and wire reports | Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Nope, it's real.

I don't accept that concept of unleavened, when people use matzo meal and baking powder instead of wheat and yeast.

Then you're ungebrachts (For the uninitiated, this is German and Yiddish for "uncooked," referring to someone who is strict not only about actual chametz, but also about kitniyot, and even about taking kosher-for-Passover matzah and getting it wet or eating it in any form other than as a plain dry cracker.).

I'm Sephardi, however, and for us, there is absolutely no problem with using matzah and baking soda in this fashion. We also use rice, beans, peas, and grains other than the Five Grains (wheat, barley, oats, rye, spelt) as long as they have been properly checked (visually check each individual grain/piece three times, before the start of Passover).

Both are halachically valid practices. The funny part is that you probably wouldn't eat at my home during Passover because I practice this way during Passover; I probably couldn't eat at your home year-round because you're not as strict as I am about certain aspects of daily kashrut. blaugh It's amazing there are any friends among the Jewish people at all, since no one can ever really go out to eat at anyone else's home! And yet we manage, because there's more than shared food that holds us together as a people. Pretty cool, huh?

Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled "WTF Nazis???" moment.

Thank g-d. I'd be even more horrified at the state of the world if he won, but I'm still annoyed he got that many votes. People can be so stupid.