>>"But that underestimates the deep unsatisfied hunger in the media for allegations of anti-Semitism, no matter how wacky."
Ok, how exactly is this story any different in scope with the Oberlin college story of which some claimed to see a KKK sheet and that it reminded them of slavery? Or something or other.
"The best defense is a strong offense."
Unless you're Payton Manning and STILL cannot figure a way to overcome and finally conclusively defeat Tom Brady.
12/2/13, 6:04 PM
Bert said...
"But that underestimates the deep unsatisfied hunger in the media for allegations of anti-Semitism, no matter how wacky."
Indeed.
The fact is that race relations in America today are actually pretty good. Everyone mostly treats each other with benign indifference, and major incidents are rare. Which is why race hustlers and cultural Marxists increasingly have to rely on vague notions of "disparate impact" or "white privilege" or "invisible knapsack". This is merely an extension of that. They are desperate for hate.
12/2/13, 6:09 PM
Anonymous said...
Anti-semitism, not only is it bad, its pretty darn profitable.
Seems like a good thing to have around, in case you need it.
I'm Jewish, but this entire story smelled of hoax to me from the very beginning.
12/2/13, 6:36 PM
Anonymous said...
"They are desperate for hate."
They are not, only of a specific sort, featuring the sort of bad guys you see universally in movies and TV. In fact, the distinction between reality and fiction for them is no more. Maybe it never was.
12/2/13, 6:45 PM
Bugg said...
Crime is nonexistent in KJ only if you discount rampant welfare, Section 8 housing, food stampd and Meidcaire fraud. No pol will stand up tp them ebcause they vote as a block. KJ's Satmars tried through a straw purchaser to buy a large parcel in the adjoning town of Chester but were stopped by community involvement. The idea is they move in , take over a town by sheer population and then gut it for their own purposes. An otherwise prosperous town gets destroyed as it's tax base is gollowed out becaues each house is taken off the tax rolls as a synagogue.Also you go form simple 1 families to mutiple apartment dumps. The did this in New Square in Rneargy Rockland County.
12/2/13, 6:56 PM
Anonymous said...
After reading Steve for a while, I'm beginning to think the New York Times isn't as objective as Chris Matthews and Martin Bashir led me to believe.
12/2/13, 6:59 PM
Silver said...
Your heart really goes out to those poor Hebrews in Kiryas Joel, herded into an impoverished Jewish ghetto by virulently anti-semitic Amerikkka.
Hehe, kidding aside, you've got to admire the awesome power of "anti-semite!" to bulldoze all opposition.
12/2/13, 7:04 PM
DYork said...
Jews want what they want and anything that gets in their way is anti semitism.
Blacks want what they want and anything that gets in their way is racism.
Feminists want what they want and anything that gets in their way is sexism or the patriarchy.
Right wing White males want what they want and anything that gets in their way is cultural marxism/hypergamy/feminism/political correctness.
Muslims want what they want and anything that gets in their way is islamophobia.
Christians want what they want and anything that gets in their way is the work of the devil/sin.
It's always been a game and going on the offense is part of any good strategy.
Well, one thing you have to consider is that there is no greater anti semitism in the us than secular Jews feelings towards the ultra orthodox. So it sounds like this neighborhood does have a good deal of Jew on Jew anti semitism.
What do you want me to say? It's awesome how Paul Walker died just like a character in Fast and Furious would have? It's like how Tony "Top Gun" Scott killed himself in a spectacular stunt jumping of a giant bridge? What would be appropriate deaths for other Hollywood figures: James Cameron could die when a giant truck smashes into an ocean liner in an open hearth steel mill in outer space? A ferocious parasite could pop out of Ridley Scott's abdomen? Daniel Day-Lewis could be beaten to death with a bowling pin for no particular reason?
Fine post, Steve. Thanks for reminding me once again that nothing in modern America is what it seems through the lens of the media.
But that underestimates the media's insatiable longing for allegations of anti-Semitism, no matter how wacky. The hunger for hate is strong these days.
Excellent insight. I wonder if all this whipping up of fake anti-semitism will ever lead to real anti-semitism. And if it did, would the hate whippers be happy or sad?
So this appears to be largely a power, money, real estate, tax, and welfare struggle between ultra-orthodox Jews and a local community led in large part by normal American Jews with jobs like school superintendent, dentist, and part-time preservation activist.
Now would be a good time to hear from iSteve's JDL contingent that loves to tout the orthodox as The Real Jews (unlike those liberal WASP-emulating Jews that keep tarnishing the tribe's good name).
Anonymous Paul Walker troll: This is getting funny. Do keep it going.
12/2/13, 7:48 PM
Anonymous said...
Further evidence of the backwardness and awfulness of middle-America white gentiles. Thanks for the heads up, NYT.
12/2/13, 7:51 PM
Anonymous said...
My best friend is a strictly Orthodox Jew (as in, religious enough that she wears a wig over her own hair) and she would fight tooth and nail to keep Satmar out of her community. She views them about the way you'd view that cousin who shows up drunk at family gatherings and shouts at everyone.
She doesn't want to live in a neighborhood of Yiddish speakers, where there are thugs on modesty patrol and schools teach almost no secular curriculum for boys and high school is glorified home ec for girls. And I know it's a continual source of resentment that far right Orthodox Jews show up begging for charity in her more modern Orthodox community, where they believe in secular education and therefore earn a living. She's an attorney and her husband is in finance and they are not keen to fund people who don't believe in even trying to earn a living. The ultra-Orthodox are a drain on the internal Jewish welfare programs as well as on government welfare programs.
12/2/13, 7:55 PM
JeremiahJohnbalaya said...
Great post. Almost as good as the Miami Gardens one of a week or two ago.
However, I think you should have strung that one commenter on a bit longer. I would have liked to see how long he would have continued to beg you for your thoughts on Paul Walker.
I figured for it to be true that some race (which shall go unnamed) besides white people were doing it; but then when they said it was white people something didn't smell right….somewhat unfortunately in some regards.
12/2/13, 8:06 PM
Silver said...
DYork, get real. In terms of power, anti-semite! is the sun and cultural marxist! is a dwarf planet.
12/2/13, 8:12 PM
Dahlia said...
He didn't want Steve's thoughts, just wanted to insult him. Trying to pretend that because Steve is often flip towards progressives' sensitivities and icons, that it would be *expected* of him to be so with this man's death, even though everyone is thinking the same thing and it needs no illumination. But Steve, of course, would be so tacky and unfeeling, our troll believes. After all he brought up National Lampoon on the hallowed anniversary of JFK's death! What won't he stoop to?
12/2/13, 8:25 PM
Anonymous said...
What do you want me to say?
Well usually you have a short post when someone dies titled "RIP person's name" with just a word or two. Not for Paul Walker though. Why?
Well, I was stumped trying to think of a third movie personality besides Paul Walker and Tony Scott to die in character. Maybe Bing Crosby signing his golf scorecard (a fine 78) and dropping dead right off the 18th green, no fuss or muss, but that wasn't as spectacular.
12/2/13, 8:48 PM
ATBOTL said...
Those of us who live in the NYC area are treated to New York Times stories every few years about "anti-semitism" in some mostly white suburb with a large Jewish population. Like in this article, the issue amounts to some graffiti and the local Jews say they haven't experienced any anti-semitism.
I remember in the ~25% Jewish school district I grew up in, there was a Jewish boy who was a trouble maker and bully who was ostracized by other students(including Jewish ones) and left the district. His parents made up ridiculous allegations that there was an anti-semitic conspiracy by the school district against their son, when in reality, he was just an asshole who no one liked. This in a heavily Jewish town with numerous Jewish teachers and a Jewish schools' superintendent.
12/2/13, 8:53 PM
Anonymous said...
>>"Maybe Bing Crosby signing his golf scorecard (a fine 78) and dropping dead right off the 18th green, no fuss or muss, but that wasn't as spectacular."
Ah, but does anyone know for sure if after signing the card he then sang a chorus of White Christmas?
12/2/13, 8:59 PM
Anonymous said...
The only Steve angle on this I can think of is that it shows cars can explode into flames absent government conspiracies.
There are some Steve angles. Walker seems to have been most popular among Hispanics. He wasn't especially popular or famous among other demographics. The only real movies he was in were the 6 Fast and Furious movies, which were popular among Hispanics, so perhaps that was why. Walker also hired an ex- race car driver from El Salvador to be his financial adviser. The ex- race car driver from El Salvador turned financial adviser was driving with Walker in the passenger seat in the crash that got them killed. Hiring an ex- race car driver from El Salvador to be his financial adviser suggests that Walker wasn't too bright or had poor judgment. Letting him drive was obviously not a wise move as well.
Did Sharon Tate make any movies that inspired Charles Manson?
12/2/13, 9:12 PM
Dahlia said...
Anon, I don't think so. The majority of Steve's readers probably never heard of him and even fewer have watched those movies... It would not be reasonably expected for Steve to comment unless he could illuminate or be novel (to which he just alluded). You even stated the fact of his death and provided info in (reasonable) anticipation that few here would be aware, except it was ostensibly directed toward Steve, the man who you originally expected to have already commented, which makes no sense... Not buying.
Hey, I've been trying for two days to come up with something, but it all seemed kind of morbid.
12/2/13, 9:16 PM
Anonymous said...
Black and Hispanic teenagers weeping uncontrollably over a white dude who represented an earlier model of California cool even while starring in Hollywood's most multicultural franchise seems pretty iStevey.
Even California's multiracial present ultimately wanted to root for a blandly handsome blond surfer dude from La Crescenta more than one of their own.
Leslie Howard died when the Nazis shot down his airplane because they thought Churchill was on board. That's cool, but it doesn't have anything to do with Ashley Wilkes. But it's kind of Scarlet Pimpernellish, so there's that
12/2/13, 9:19 PM
Anonymous said...
Well, one thing you have to consider is that there is no greater anti semitism in the us than secular Jews feelings towards the ultra orthodox. So it sounds like this neighborhood does have a good deal of Jew on Jew anti semitism. I hear this a lot but I'm not sure how true it is in general. Its the non ultra-orthodox Jews that have the bulk of the political and economic power in america and without help from the non-ultras I doubt that the ultras would have got legal minority status (for affirmative action purposes). Likewise in Israel, you hear about what a pain the ultras are and you hear leftwing Jews denouncing the rightwing ones, but they never do anything definitive. Compare the situation with Greece where the government is actively trying to imprison members of the far-right golden dawn party (amongst other measures).
12/2/13, 9:21 PM
Anonymous said...
"Paul Walker: I Once Hit 185 MPH... On The Freeway!"
"Paul Walker liked his cars fast fast fast -- in fact, he once boasted about hitting a top speed of 185 MPH -- and it wasn't on a racetrack ... it was on a freeway."
"There are some Steve angles. Walker seems to have been most popular among Hispanics. He wasn't especially popular or famous among other demographics. The only real movies he was in were the 6 Fast and Furious movies, which were popular among Hispanics, so perhaps that was why. Walker also hired an ex- race car driver from El Salvador to be his financial adviser. The ex- race car driver from El Salvador turned financial adviser was driving with Walker in the passenger seat in the crash that got them killed. Hiring an ex- race car driver from El Salvador to be his financial adviser suggests that Walker wasn't too bright or had poor judgment. Letting him drive was obviously not a wise move as well."
The Fast & Furious movies were globally popular, not just among Hispanics, and Walker was broadly popular as well. Why not? He was a handsome, charismatic actor playing a likable character in a hugely popular franchise (the last movie grossed over $700 million), and who raised money for charity and for whom no one seemed to have a bad word.
Walker's friend Rodas was named one of the top financial advisors by Barron's 3 years in a row, so Walker's hiring him isn't evidence of poor judgment or lack of intelligence.
12/2/13, 9:22 PM
Anonymous said...
With all these morbid observations, speaking of which, November 29 was allegedly the death of Paul MacCartney in 1966. In a car accident.
"He blew his mind out in a card. He didnt notice that the lights had changed"--- from song A Day in the Life
Like Brandon Lee, Jon-Erik Hexum also died on set, from a blank round.
Hexum was also from Tenafly, NJ -- a town of 15k that was home to a couple of other actors, Mira Sorvino and Tate Donovan.
12/2/13, 9:29 PM
Anonymous said...
When I heard Paul Walker died, I thought he was the guy in the move Drive. Turns out that was another car movie with a guy named Ryan Gosling. All these actors - Paul Walker, Ryan Philippe, Ryan Reynolds, Ryan Gosling, Matthew McConaughey, etc. kind of run together for me.
Ed Harris and Hope Davis were also born in Tenafly.
12/2/13, 9:36 PM
Piper said...
Satmars are schnorrers.
12/2/13, 9:38 PM
Dahlia said...
I remember thinking Gandolfini's death fit his character: In Italy at 51 of a heart attack. Seemed kind of slothful... Okay, I've got nothing cool either.
Leslie Howard's death always struck me as romantic and sad. I don't respect Clark Gable much; he got to be a leading man though Howard seemed much more honorable and died as such.
12/2/13, 9:52 PM
Dahlia said...
Okay, Howard sounds as caddish, may be more so, than Gable. Fooled by the wan look and underdog status... Well at least he died for his country, lol. ;)
12/2/13, 9:59 PM
Auntie Analogue said...
James Garner & Yves Montand made the motor racing movie 'Grand Prix." Montand did not did in a car wreck, and Garner is, I am delighted to say, still among the living. Tom Cruise survived his motor racing movie to jump up and down on Oprah's sofa. Mickey Rooney made one or two motor racing flicks and, at age ninety-three, he's still with us.
Bing Crosby eluded the fate of actor Stephen Boyd, who raced in 'Ben-Hur' as the Roman centurion Messala, and later, at age forty-five, on a golf course dropped dead of heart attack.
Sharon Tate's penultimate cinema role was in one of those cheesy and (nowadays) uproariously funny - but not as they were intended to be amusing, Dean Martin/Matt Helm secret agent movies.
Me, I never heard of Paul Walker. So instead of being fast & furious I must be ponderous and tranquil.
The point of the NYT story in this i-Steve post and of the NYT story on crime in the North Dakota oil boom towns in the previous post is not to address anti-semitism or to indict capitalist resource exploitation. The point is to reinforce NYT's readers' belief that White people who live outside of New York City are hateful, crime-prone, and dangerous, and that outside of NYC and other urban bastions of left-liberalism, it is still and shall always be 1963 Birmingham.
Also, in case anybody's wondering about my opinion on the Alabama-Auburn game, I didn't see it, but it sounds like the best 4th quarter ever: not just the final three possessions in the last minute, but the preceding 99-yard-pass that looked for 15 minutes like it would win A.J. McCarron the Heisman, the two 4th and 1 stops, and the blocked field goal. That's a lot of plot twists for one quarter.
From reading this or any newspaper you'd get the impression that world events are just a neverending series of Reichstag fires and 1968 Chicago conventions... Yet on every one of these forensic crime dramas that took over TV some time after "Seinfeld" & "Frasier" ended, the perp typically fakes something at the murder scene to make it look like a mugging, or a suicide, or plants drugs on the least popular investigator who's recently on the outs with the mayor, etc. etc. as part of a routine display of brainy legerdemain by crooks...
There is a sort of Hierarchy of Realism with comedians at the top, followed by screenwriters, then reporters, and pundits at the bottom.
12/2/13, 10:28 PM
Anonymous said...
Walker's friend Rodas was named one of the top financial advisors by Barron's 3 years in a row, so Walker's hiring him isn't evidence of poor judgment or lack of intelligence.
He was also an ex- race car driver from El Salvador who got him killed in a car crash. Hiring him screams poor judgment or low intelligence.
12/2/13, 10:35 PM
Anonymous said...
Lies from the 'left'.
City of Hate killed Kennedy.
Lies from the 'right'.
Iran is on the verge of having nukes and intends to trigger WWIII.
Thanks to paranoid neocons, the 'right' is as kooky as the 'left'.
"He was also an ex- race car driver from El Salvador who got him killed in a car crash. Hiring him screams poor judgment or low intelligence."
Now you're just trolling. Rodas wasn't an "ex-race car driver"; he and Walker raced cars as an avocation. So does David H. Hansson, one of the world's top software architects. As for being from El Salvador, so what? Considering that he was a successful serial entrepreneur, and a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch who would have had to pass the Series 7 exam, he was likely of above-average intelligence.
"According to a story in Wealth Management, the two met when Walker, at a track event, noticed that Rodas was driving a Porsche GT3 that Walker used to own. They ended up racing together at events like the 25 Hours of Thunderhill, but his schedule limited Walker's racing mostly to time attack-type events at Buttonwillow or other California tracks.
Rodas, though, moved up through the ranks from Porsche-only series like the Pirelli Driver's Cup, where he won twice in 2012, into the Pirelli World Challenge, leading a two-car Ford Mustang Boss 302S team, sponsored by Always Evolving and charities that he and Walker supported. Rodas raced car number 52; his co-driver, in car 75, was Erik Davis, owner of Autotopia, a massive, near-legendary car collection in Los Angeles that supplies cars for movie and TV productions.
Both rookies in the series, Rodas finished 13 in GTS points, Davis 16th, despite missing the races in St. Petersburg and Lime Rock. Had Rodas competed in those races, he almost certainly would have been the series rookie of the year. Rodas' highest finish was fifth at Toronto, impressive since the GTS class has such veteran drivers as season champ Lawson Ashenbach, Jack Baldwin and Peter Cunningham. By sad coincidence, Rodas and Davis raced against another Mustang driver in the class, Roger Miller, who died unexpectedly at age 44 last August – Miller's family owned the Utah Jazz and Miller Motorsports Park near Salt Lake City.
Rodas, who turned 38 a month ago, and his Rodas Group company were well known in financial circles in California, largely through an enduring relationship with the investment firm Merrill Lynch. According to his biography, he was “instrumental in developing waste to energy power plants and wind farms in Central America,” and he was also owner of Cielo Recycling, a Central American recycling plant. He was ranked by Barron's three years in a row as one of America's top financial advisers."
12/2/13, 11:10 PM
Anonymous said...
Now you're just trolling. Rodas wasn't an "ex-race car driver"; he and Walker raced cars as an avocation. So does David H. Hansson, one of the world's top software architects. As for being from El Salvador, so what? Considering that he was a successful serial entrepreneur, and a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch who would have had to pass the Series 7 exam, he was likely of above-average intelligence.
You're defending the prudence and probity of an adviser who drove his client into a telephone pole and killed him. Financial advisers are supposed to be sober people who give you sound advice. They're not supposed to drive you into telephone poles and end your life. That's just about the worst help you could get from an adviser.
El Salvadorans aren't known for providing sound advice, financial or otherwise.
Being associated with Merrill Lynch doesn't mean anything, BTW. There are lots of retail bucket shops around the country outside NY that are affiliated with Merrill Lynch.
"You're defending the prudence and probity of an adviser who drove his client into a telephone pole and killed him. Financial advisers are supposed to be sober people who give you sound advice. They're not supposed to drive you into telephone poles and end your life. That's just about the worst help you could get from an adviser."
According to the article I linked to, Rodas did give Walker sound advice. According to this post, the crash could have been due to mechanical issues with the car. In any case, they were both hobbyist race car drivers, and had Paul Walker had a different financial advisor, he would have still been at risk of dying in a fast car because of that.
"El Salvadorans aren't known for providing sound advice, financial or otherwise."
They're called Salvadorans, not El Salvadorans. And Walker didn't ask the average Salvadoran for advice.
"Being associated with Merrill Lynch doesn't mean anything, BTW. There are lots of retail bucket shops around the country outside NY that are affiliated with Merrill Lynch."
Such as?
12/3/13, 12:25 AM
Anonymous said...
>> The idea is they move in , take over a town by sheer population and then gut it for their own purposes
worked for the Europeans who wanted some lebensraum in North America.
Satmars - smart enough to copy from the ==successful== goyim!!
12/3/13, 1:56 AM
eah said...
I think there are some kinds of 'hate' the NYT isn't particularly interested in.
12/3/13, 2:01 AM
DPG said...
I'm in no position to judge whether Roger Rodas was a sensible financial adviser, but Merrill Lynch has thousands of FAs, and passing the Series 7 is not that difficult. There's plenty of hotheads with slightly above average IQs who make it in the brokerage business through force of personality.
12/3/13, 6:40 AM
Anonymous said...
A picture of President Obama, with a swastika drawn on his forehead, remained on the wall of an eighth-grade social studies classroom for about a month after a student informed her teacher, the student said.
Wait, why is there a picture of President Obama in the classroom? It's not a federal building. I'm pretty sure my schools didn't have portraits of Bill Clinton or George W. Bush on the walls.
12/3/13, 8:23 AM
Fabrizio del Wrongo said...
Great post.
I live near Pine Bush and Kiryas Joel. Those KJ folks are big with the real-estate stuff. A few years back they bought a big chunk of land near my parents' place. I think they intended to build an old folks' home on it. About 70% of it got built. Since then it's sat there unifinished. Been about about five or six years. Maybe they ran out of money? Maybe the economics of old folks' homes aren't looking as rosey as they once were? Whatever the reason, the thing looks awful. People are often skittish about complaining because they don't want to come off as anti-semites. But there's plenty of below-the-table opposition to their land plans.
During the holidays, the KJ folks put up a little Christmas tree in one of the windows of the never-finished structure. You can see it from the street. Marketing.
12/3/13, 8:35 AM
Anonymous said...
Speaking of false anti-semitism claims for profit -
You really need to read the NY Magazine April 21, 2013 article Them and Them. Hasids gained control of local school board in Ramapo, NY. Gutted school programs. So many teacher layoffs kids could not graduate high school in four years. They leased school properties to other Hasidic groups to be used for Hasidic private schools. They used public school funds to send their handicapped kids to special, expensive schools. All while contributing very little to the tax base.
12/3/13, 8:59 AM
Reg Cæsar said...
Pine Bush borders Sullivan County, which the Glenmary Research Center-- which asks questions the Census Bureau can't-- has dterermined [IIRC] to be the only county in the US to be more Jewish, proportionately, than Kings. That''s right: Brooklyn isn't even the most Jewish shire in New York!
To pile on the ironies in this intra-Hebraïc squabble, the Sullivan town that abuts Pine Bush is Mamakating. And the first white settler in the Town of Mamakating was-- hold onto your chair-- Emanuel Gonsalus, a Sephardic Jew by blood, born in Spain!
Many of the oldest-of-the-old-stock in this neck of the woods descend from him.
12/3/13, 9:25 AM
Anonymous said...
Count me among the readers who never heard of Paul Walker until he was killed...
12/3/13, 12:19 PM
[Image]
A = Pine Bush, NY
Back on November 7, 2013, the New York Times trumpeted:
Swastikas, Slurs and Torment in Town’s Schools
Pine Bush, N.Y., School District Faces Accusations of Anti-Semitism
TAKING ACTION Above, parents who have sued the Pine Bush Central School District over what they say is pervasive anti-Semitism and indifference by school officials.
By BENJAMIN WEISER
Published: November 7, 2013 737 Comments
The swastikas, the students recalled, seemed to be everywhere: on walls, desks, lockers, textbooks, computer screens, a playground slide — even on a student’s face.
Related Cuomo Orders Inquiries on Claims of Anti-Semitic Acts at Pine Bush Schools (November 9, 2013)
A picture of President Obama, with a swastika drawn on his forehead, remained on the wall of an eighth-grade social studies classroom for about a month after a student informed her teacher, the student said.
For some Jewish students in the Pine Bush Central School District in New York State, attending public school has been nothing short of a nightmare. They tell of hearing anti-Semitic epithets and nicknames, and horrific jokes about the Holocaust.
They have reported being pelted with coins, told to retrieve money thrown into garbage receptacles, shoved and even beaten. They say that on school buses in this rural part of the state, located about 90 minutes north of New York City and once home to a local Ku Klux Klan chapter president, students have chanted “white power” and made Nazi salutes with their arms.
The proliferation and cumulative effect of the slurs, drawings and bullying led three Jewish families last year to sue the district and its administrators in federal court; they seek damages and an end to what they call pervasive anti-Semitism and indifference by school officials.
The district — centered in Pine Bush, west of Newburgh, and serving 5,600 children from Orange, Sullivan and Ulster Counties — is vigorously contesting the suit. But a review of sworn depositions of current and former school officials shows that some have acknowledged there had been a problem, although they denied it was widespread and said they had responded appropriately with discipline and other measures.
“There are anti-Semitic incidents that have occurred that we need to address,” John Boyle, Crispell Middle School’s principal, said in a deposition in April.
In 2011, when one parent complained about continued harassment of her daughter and another Jewish girl, Pine Bush’s superintendent from 2008 to 2013, Philip G. Steinberg, wrote in an email, “I have said I will meet with your daughters and I will, but your expectations for changing inbred prejudice may be a bit unrealistic.”
Mr. Steinberg, who, along with two other administrators named as defendants, is Jewish, described the lawsuit in recent interviews as a “money grab.” He contended that the plaintiffs had “embellished” some allegations.
Nonetheless, reports of anti-Semitism have persisted, with at least two recent complaints made to the Jewish Federation of Greater Orange County.
The New York Times has reviewed about 3,500 pages of deposition testimony by parents, children and school administrators, which were provided by the families’ lawyers on the condition that the identities of the children, some of whom are still enrolled, be protected. Limited redactions were also made to protect student privacy.
This became a national story. A few days later, limelight-loving federal prosecutor Preet Bahrara announced a federal investigation of anti-Semitism in Pine Bush.
The most prominent skeptics, however, have been the Jewish press and Jewish residents of Pine Bush, such as local dentist Stuart Feuer, who wrote the New York Times:
My family has never experienced any anti-Semitism in our 25 years in the community, nor do we know of any other Jewish families who have experienced this. We are at home in this town.
In the Jewish Daily Forward, Opinion editor Gal Beckerman wrote:
It’s a tired complaint to say a news article lacks context, but that’s what I want to say here. And without a bigger back story or some deeper investigation as to the source of this bubbling hate, all we have is an article that does one of two things: It either feeds an unwarranted hysteria about creeping anti-Semitism or just provides a titillating read about the strange doings upstate for the Upper West Siders who make up the Times core audience. What it does not do, and doesn’t seem concerned with doing, is get us any closer to understanding why those kids have found themselves in such a terrifying environment.
In the JDFcomments, Meghan Aileen responded:
You are quite right that there is more to this situation than meets the eye. I was shocked to read the article in the NYT. I have never heard of any allegations of anti-Semitism within this school district. As a community we will try to get to the bottom of these allegations, as they are truly disturbing. However, there is another story that will require investigating as well. A small village (300 residents) within our school district, Bloomingburg, is the site of a new Satmar Hasidic development currently under construction. The town annexed 200 acres of town land to a developer whose plan was proposed as 125 luxury homes with a golf course. It is now 396 town homes and a girls school that is only being advertised in Jewish newspapers in Brooklyn and nearby Kiryas Joel. Our local papers are now beginning to get to the bottom of the corruption that was behind this bait and switch, and the small town officials that made backroom deals. The school has reached out to both the developer and the Bloomingburg officials to inquire as to the details of the private school, as they are by law required to provide services and busing to these students. That letter was written in September and is why I question the timing of Mr. Weiser's article. Mr. Wieser is well aware of the Bloomingburg debacle. It just didn't fit into his story.
Now, Jewish Week has looked into the story more: Bias Charge Dumbfounds Residents Of Pine Bush
Anti-Semitism described in suit is unfair portrayal of their town, they say.
11/27/13
Stewart Ain
Staff Writer
Pine Bush, N.Y. — Suddenly, they don’t even recognize their own town anymore.
The six women eating in a diner near the Crispell Middle School in this hamlet about 75 miles north of New York City said they were incredulous when they read that a civil rights lawsuit had been filed against the Pine Bush School District claiming that it is rife with anti-Semitism that has gone largely unchecked.
The women, who like most of the 15 residents interviewed at a diner and supermarket this week declined to give their names, said the community described in the lawsuit bore little resemblance to the one they’ve lived in for years. In fact, one said she retired as a Pine Bush Elementary School teacher five years ago and was dumbfounded by the complaint — especially the allegation that all five of the children whose parents brought the suit said they experienced anti-Semitism in the Crispell Middle School.
“Crispell was the place where we all wanted our kids to go,” she said. “It has a safe, nurturing, comfortable environment. The teachers there I know are caring, loving people — the kids always came first.”
Many of those interviewed questioned the timing of the front-page article about the suit in The New York Times earlier this month. Some suggested that community opposition to a 396-unit townhouse being built in the school district and reportedly marketed exclusively to Satmar Jews somehow triggered the Times’ story.
From Wikipedia: Satmar (Hasidic dynasty)
Satmar (Hebrew: סאטמאר or סאטמר) is a Hasidic sect originating from the city of Satu Mare ('Satmar' in Yiddish), Transylvania, where it was founded in 1905 by Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum. Following World War II it was reestablished in New York, becoming one of the largest Hasidic movements in the world. After Joel's death, he was succeeded by his nephew, Moshe Teitelbaum. Since the latter's death in 2006, the dynasty is split between his two sons, Aaron Teitelbaum and Zalman Teitelbaum. ... As of 2006, the dynasty controlled assets worth $1 billion in the United States. ... The two largest Satmar communities are in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Kiryas Joel, New York.
From Wikipedia on Kiryas Joel, NY:
According to 2008 census figures, the village has the highest poverty rate in the nation, and the largest percentage of residents who receive food stamps. More than five-eighths of Kiryas Joel residents live below the federal poverty line and more than 40 percent receive food stamps, according to the American Community Survey, a U.S. Census Bureau study of every place in the country with 20,000 residents or more.[3] A 2011 New York Times report noted that, despite the town's very high statistical poverty rates, "It has no slums or homeless people. No one who lives there is shabbily dressed or has to go hungry. Crime is virtually nonexistent."[21]
More from Jewish Week:
As they explained it, the developers decided to fight growing opposition to the development by claiming residents don’t want Jews moving in. To prove their point, they leaked the suit to the Times as evidence of anti-Semitism in the community.
But Holly Roche, leader of the Rural Community Coalition, which is spearheading community opposition to the project because of its size in a village of 375 residents, said that theory no longer worked after she disclosed she is Jewish.
“Now they are calling me anti-Satmar,” she said. ...
“The best defense is a strong offense,” explained a Jewish resident about the developers’ approach, who asked that his name not be used for fear it might complicate his business dealings in the area.
"The best defense is a strong offense" -- Those are wise words in 21st Century America.
There have been several articles, including a 16-page supplement, published in Jewish and Yiddish newspapers promoting the development to the Satmar chasidic community. A girls’ yeshiva is also under discussion, and residents said they have heard talk of a boys’ yeshiva being built as well.
So this appears to be largely a power, money, real estate, tax, and welfare struggle between ultra-orthodox Jews and a local community led in large part by normal American Jews with jobs like school superintendent, dentist, and part-time preservation activist. (Similar struggles can be seen in, say, Sherman Oaks, CA between the fast-growing ultra-orthodox and the long-time resident regular Jews.)
You might think that the New York Times would instinctively identify with the educated liberal Jews against the smears of the reactionary Jews.
But that underestimates the media's insatiable longing for allegations of anti-Semitism, no matter how wacky. The hunger for hate is strong these days.
"The hunger for hate: "Best defense is a strong offense""
67 Comments -
>>"But that underestimates the deep unsatisfied hunger in the media for allegations of anti-Semitism, no matter how wacky."
Ok, how exactly is this story any different in scope with the Oberlin college story of which some claimed to see a KKK sheet and that it reminded them of slavery? Or something or other.
"The best defense is a strong offense."
Unless you're Payton Manning and STILL cannot figure a way to overcome and finally conclusively defeat Tom Brady.
12/2/13, 6:04 PM
"But that underestimates the deep unsatisfied hunger in the media for allegations of anti-Semitism, no matter how wacky."
Indeed.
The fact is that race relations in America today are actually pretty good. Everyone mostly treats each other with benign indifference, and major incidents are rare. Which is why race hustlers and cultural Marxists increasingly have to rely on vague notions of "disparate impact" or "white privilege" or "invisible knapsack". This is merely an extension of that. They are desperate for hate.
12/2/13, 6:09 PM
Anti-semitism, not only is it bad, its pretty darn profitable.
Seems like a good thing to have around, in case you need it.
12/2/13, 6:36 PM
I'm Jewish, but this entire story smelled of hoax to me from the very beginning.
12/2/13, 6:36 PM
"They are desperate for hate."
They are not, only of a specific sort, featuring the sort of bad guys you see universally in movies and TV. In fact, the distinction between reality and fiction for them is no more. Maybe it never was.
12/2/13, 6:45 PM
Crime is nonexistent in KJ only if you discount rampant welfare, Section 8 housing, food stampd and Meidcaire fraud. No pol will stand up tp them ebcause they vote as a block. KJ's Satmars tried through a straw purchaser to buy a large parcel in the adjoning town of Chester but were stopped by community involvement. The idea is they move in , take over a town by sheer population and then gut it for their own purposes. An otherwise prosperous town gets destroyed as it's tax base is gollowed out becaues each house is taken off the tax rolls as a synagogue.Also you go form simple 1 families to mutiple apartment dumps. The did this in New Square in Rneargy Rockland County.
12/2/13, 6:56 PM
After reading Steve for a while, I'm beginning to think the New York Times isn't as objective as Chris Matthews and Martin Bashir led me to believe.
12/2/13, 6:59 PM
Your heart really goes out to those poor Hebrews in Kiryas Joel, herded into an impoverished Jewish ghetto by virulently anti-semitic Amerikkka.
Hehe, kidding aside, you've got to admire the awesome power of "anti-semite!" to bulldoze all opposition.
12/2/13, 7:04 PM
Jews want what they want and anything that gets in their way is anti semitism.
Blacks want what they want and anything that gets in their way is racism.
Feminists want what they want and anything that gets in their way is sexism or the patriarchy.
Right wing White males want what they want and anything that gets in their way is cultural marxism/hypergamy/feminism/political correctness.
Muslims want what they want and anything that gets in their way is islamophobia.
Christians want what they want and anything that gets in their way is the work of the devil/sin.
It's always been a game and going on the offense is part of any good strategy.
12/2/13, 7:04 PM
Paul Walker died in car crash:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/30/showbiz/actor-paul-walker-dies/index.html
No post or comment on it, Steve?
12/2/13, 7:16 PM
Well, one thing you have to consider is that there is no greater anti semitism in the us than secular Jews feelings towards the ultra orthodox. So it sounds like this neighborhood does have a good deal of Jew on Jew anti semitism.
12/2/13, 7:21 PM
The Ultra-Orthodox sound almost like Gypsies, only not violent or artistic.
12/2/13, 7:21 PM
What do you want me to say? It's awesome how Paul Walker died just like a character in Fast and Furious would have? It's like how Tony "Top Gun" Scott killed himself in a spectacular stunt jumping of a giant bridge? What would be appropriate deaths for other Hollywood figures: James Cameron could die when a giant truck smashes into an ocean liner in an open hearth steel mill in outer space? A ferocious parasite could pop out of Ridley Scott's abdomen? Daniel Day-Lewis could be beaten to death with a bowling pin for no particular reason?
12/2/13, 7:23 PM
Steve I've never heard of this but your description sounds pretty accurate. Anti Semitism such as it is really is a Black and Muslim phenomena.
And that brings up a larger point. Rip and gut of towns by the ultra orthodox hinge on far greater fertility vs ordinary secular Jews.
12/2/13, 7:31 PM
Fine post, Steve. Thanks for reminding me once again that nothing in modern America is what it seems through the lens of the media.
But that underestimates the media's insatiable longing for allegations of anti-Semitism, no matter how wacky. The hunger for hate is strong these days.
Excellent insight. I wonder if all this whipping up of fake anti-semitism will ever lead to real anti-semitism. And if it did, would the hate whippers be happy or sad?
So this appears to be largely a power, money, real estate, tax, and welfare struggle between ultra-orthodox Jews and a local community led in large part by normal American Jews with jobs like school superintendent, dentist, and part-time preservation activist.
Now would be a good time to hear from iSteve's JDL contingent that loves to tout the orthodox as The Real Jews (unlike those liberal WASP-emulating Jews that keep tarnishing the tribe's good name).
12/2/13, 7:43 PM
DYork: False equivalence. Stop discombobulating.
Anonymous Paul Walker troll: This is getting funny. Do keep it going.
12/2/13, 7:48 PM
Further evidence of the backwardness and awfulness of middle-America white gentiles. Thanks for the heads up, NYT.
12/2/13, 7:51 PM
My best friend is a strictly Orthodox Jew (as in, religious enough that she wears a wig over her own hair) and she would fight tooth and nail to keep Satmar out of her community. She views them about the way you'd view that cousin who shows up drunk at family gatherings and shouts at everyone.
She doesn't want to live in a neighborhood of Yiddish speakers, where there are thugs on modesty patrol and schools teach almost no secular curriculum for boys and high school is glorified home ec for girls. And I know it's a continual source of resentment that far right Orthodox Jews show up begging for charity in her more modern Orthodox community, where they believe in secular education and therefore earn a living. She's an attorney and her husband is in finance and they are not keen to fund people who don't believe in even trying to earn a living. The ultra-Orthodox are a drain on the internal Jewish welfare programs as well as on government welfare programs.
12/2/13, 7:55 PM
Great post. Almost as good as the Miami Gardens one of a week or two ago.
However, I think you should have strung that one commenter on a bit longer. I would have liked to see how long he would have continued to beg you for your thoughts on Paul Walker.
12/2/13, 7:57 PM
I figured for it to be true that some race (which shall go unnamed) besides white people were doing it; but then when they said it was white people something didn't smell right….somewhat unfortunately in some regards.
12/2/13, 8:06 PM
DYork, get real. In terms of power, anti-semite! is the sun and cultural marxist! is a dwarf planet.
12/2/13, 8:12 PM
He didn't want Steve's thoughts, just wanted to insult him. Trying to pretend that because Steve is often flip towards progressives' sensitivities and icons, that it would be *expected* of him to be so with this man's death, even though everyone is thinking the same thing and it needs no illumination. But Steve, of course, would be so tacky and unfeeling, our troll believes. After all he brought up National Lampoon on the hallowed anniversary of JFK's death! What won't he stoop to?
12/2/13, 8:25 PM
What do you want me to say?
Well usually you have a short post when someone dies titled "RIP person's name" with just a word or two. Not for Paul Walker though. Why?
12/2/13, 8:43 PM
The only Steve angle on this I can think of is that it shows cars can explode into flames absent government conspiracies.
12/2/13, 8:46 PM
Well, I was stumped trying to think of a third movie personality besides Paul Walker and Tony Scott to die in character. Maybe Bing Crosby signing his golf scorecard (a fine 78) and dropping dead right off the 18th green, no fuss or muss, but that wasn't as spectacular.
12/2/13, 8:48 PM
Those of us who live in the NYC area are treated to New York Times stories every few years about "anti-semitism" in some mostly white suburb with a large Jewish population. Like in this article, the issue amounts to some graffiti and the local Jews say they haven't experienced any anti-semitism.
I remember in the ~25% Jewish school district I grew up in, there was a Jewish boy who was a trouble maker and bully who was ostracized by other students(including Jewish ones) and left the district. His parents made up ridiculous allegations that there was an anti-semitic conspiracy by the school district against their son, when in reality, he was just an asshole who no one liked. This in a heavily Jewish town with numerous Jewish teachers and a Jewish schools' superintendent.
12/2/13, 8:53 PM
>>"Maybe Bing Crosby signing his golf scorecard (a fine 78) and dropping dead right off the 18th green, no fuss or muss, but that wasn't as spectacular."
Ah, but does anyone know for sure if after signing the card he then sang a chorus of White Christmas?
12/2/13, 8:59 PM
The only Steve angle on this I can think of is that it shows cars can explode into flames absent government conspiracies.
There are some Steve angles. Walker seems to have been most popular among Hispanics. He wasn't especially popular or famous among other demographics. The only real movies he was in were the 6 Fast and Furious movies, which were popular among Hispanics, so perhaps that was why. Walker also hired an ex- race car driver from El Salvador to be his financial adviser. The ex- race car driver from El Salvador turned financial adviser was driving with Walker in the passenger seat in the crash that got them killed. Hiring an ex- race car driver from El Salvador to be his financial adviser suggests that Walker wasn't too bright or had poor judgment. Letting him drive was obviously not a wise move as well.
12/2/13, 9:00 PM
James Dean died in his Porsche while driving to race it at Laguna Seca.
But he hadn't made a racing picture yet. Steve McQueen and Paul Newman made racing pictures, but didn't die in car crashes in real life.
12/2/13, 9:04 PM
Brandon Lee died much like his father Bruce.
12/2/13, 9:08 PM
Tupac Shakur
12/2/13, 9:08 PM
Kurt Cobain's three hits on "Nevermind" all mention guns.
12/2/13, 9:11 PM
Did Sharon Tate make any movies that inspired Charles Manson?
12/2/13, 9:12 PM
Anon,
I don't think so. The majority of Steve's readers probably never heard of him and even fewer have watched those movies... It would not be reasonably expected for Steve to comment unless he could illuminate or be novel (to which he just alluded). You even stated the fact of his death and provided info in (reasonable) anticipation that few here would be aware, except it was ostensibly directed toward Steve, the man who you originally expected to have already commented, which makes no sense...
Not buying.
12/2/13, 9:15 PM
Hey, I've been trying for two days to come up with something, but it all seemed kind of morbid.
12/2/13, 9:16 PM
Black and Hispanic teenagers weeping uncontrollably over a white dude who represented an earlier model of California cool even while starring in Hollywood's most multicultural franchise seems pretty iStevey.
Even California's multiracial present ultimately wanted to root for a blandly handsome blond surfer dude from La Crescenta more than one of their own.
12/2/13, 9:18 PM
Leslie Howard died when the Nazis shot down his airplane because they thought Churchill was on board. That's cool, but it doesn't have anything to do with Ashley Wilkes. But it's kind of Scarlet Pimpernellish, so there's that
12/2/13, 9:19 PM
Well, one thing you have to consider is that there is no greater anti semitism in the us than secular Jews feelings towards the ultra orthodox. So it sounds like this neighborhood does have a good deal of Jew on Jew anti semitism.
I hear this a lot but I'm not sure how true it is in general. Its the non ultra-orthodox Jews that have the bulk of the political and economic power in america and without help from the non-ultras I doubt that the ultras would have got legal minority status (for affirmative action purposes). Likewise in Israel, you hear about what a pain the ultras are and you hear leftwing Jews denouncing the rightwing ones, but they never do anything definitive. Compare the situation with Greece where the government is actively trying to imprison members of the far-right golden dawn party (amongst other measures).
12/2/13, 9:21 PM
"Paul Walker: I Once Hit 185 MPH...
On The Freeway!"
http://www.tmz.com/2013/12/02/paul-walker-fast-cars-freeway-racetrack-crash-top-speed-185/
"Paul Walker liked his cars fast fast fast -- in fact, he once boasted about hitting a top speed of 185 MPH -- and it wasn't on a racetrack ... it was on a freeway."
12/2/13, 9:22 PM
"There are some Steve angles. Walker seems to have been most popular among Hispanics. He wasn't especially popular or famous among other demographics. The only real movies he was in were the 6 Fast and Furious movies, which were popular among Hispanics, so perhaps that was why. Walker also hired an ex- race car driver from El Salvador to be his financial adviser. The ex- race car driver from El Salvador turned financial adviser was driving with Walker in the passenger seat in the crash that got them killed. Hiring an ex- race car driver from El Salvador to be his financial adviser suggests that Walker wasn't too bright or had poor judgment. Letting him drive was obviously not a wise move as well."
The Fast & Furious movies were globally popular, not just among Hispanics, and Walker was broadly popular as well. Why not? He was a handsome, charismatic actor playing a likable character in a hugely popular franchise (the last movie grossed over $700 million), and who raised money for charity and for whom no one seemed to have a bad word.
Walker's friend Rodas was named one of the top financial advisors by Barron's 3 years in a row, so Walker's hiring him isn't evidence of poor judgment or lack of intelligence.
12/2/13, 9:22 PM
With all these morbid observations, speaking of which, November 29 was allegedly the death of Paul MacCartney in 1966. In a car accident.
"He blew his mind out in a card. He didnt notice that the lights had changed"---
from song A Day in the Life
12/2/13, 9:26 PM
Like Brandon Lee, Jon-Erik Hexum also died on set, from a blank round.
Hexum was also from Tenafly, NJ -- a town of 15k that was home to a couple of other actors, Mira Sorvino and Tate Donovan.
12/2/13, 9:29 PM
When I heard Paul Walker died, I thought he was the guy in the move Drive. Turns out that was another car movie with a guy named Ryan Gosling. All these actors - Paul Walker, Ryan Philippe, Ryan Reynolds, Ryan Gosling, Matthew McConaughey, etc. kind of run together for me.
12/2/13, 9:35 PM
Ed Harris and Hope Davis were also born in Tenafly.
12/2/13, 9:36 PM
Satmars are schnorrers.
12/2/13, 9:38 PM
I remember thinking Gandolfini's death fit his character: In Italy at 51 of a heart attack. Seemed kind of slothful... Okay, I've got nothing cool either.
Leslie Howard's death always struck me as romantic and sad. I don't respect Clark Gable much; he got to be a leading man though Howard seemed much more honorable and died as such.
12/2/13, 9:52 PM
Okay, Howard sounds as caddish, may be more so, than Gable. Fooled by the wan look and underdog status... Well at least he died for his country, lol. ;)
12/2/13, 9:59 PM
James Garner & Yves Montand made the motor racing movie 'Grand Prix." Montand did not did in a car wreck, and Garner is, I am delighted to say, still among the living. Tom Cruise survived his motor racing movie to jump up and down on Oprah's sofa. Mickey Rooney made one or two motor racing flicks and, at age ninety-three, he's still with us.
Bing Crosby eluded the fate of actor Stephen Boyd, who raced in 'Ben-Hur' as the Roman centurion Messala, and later, at age forty-five, on a golf course dropped dead of heart attack.
Sharon Tate's penultimate cinema role was in one of those cheesy and (nowadays) uproariously funny - but not as they were intended to be amusing, Dean Martin/Matt Helm secret agent movies.
Me, I never heard of Paul Walker. So instead of being fast & furious I must be ponderous and tranquil.
The point of the NYT story in this i-Steve post and of the NYT story on crime in the North Dakota oil boom towns in the previous post is not to address anti-semitism or to indict capitalist resource exploitation. The point is to reinforce NYT's readers' belief that White people who live outside of New York City are hateful, crime-prone, and dangerous, and that outside of NYC and other urban bastions of left-liberalism, it is still and shall always be 1963 Birmingham.
12/2/13, 10:07 PM
More like 'best offense is pretense at defense.'
12/2/13, 10:08 PM
Steve McQueen probably wouldn't have minded going out at 40 in a fast car.
12/2/13, 10:12 PM
Also, in case anybody's wondering about my opinion on the Alabama-Auburn game, I didn't see it, but it sounds like the best 4th quarter ever: not just the final three possessions in the last minute, but the preceding 99-yard-pass that looked for 15 minutes like it would win A.J. McCarron the Heisman, the two 4th and 1 stops, and the blocked field goal. That's a lot of plot twists for one quarter.
12/2/13, 10:15 PM
From reading this or any newspaper you'd get the impression that world events are just a neverending series of Reichstag fires and 1968 Chicago conventions... Yet on every one of these forensic crime dramas that took over TV some time after "Seinfeld" & "Frasier" ended, the perp typically fakes something at the murder scene to make it look like a mugging, or a suicide, or plants drugs on the least popular investigator who's recently on the outs with the mayor, etc. etc. as part of a routine display of brainy legerdemain by crooks...
12/2/13, 10:26 PM
There is a sort of Hierarchy of Realism with comedians at the top, followed by screenwriters, then reporters, and pundits at the bottom.
12/2/13, 10:28 PM
Walker's friend Rodas was named one of the top financial advisors by Barron's 3 years in a row, so Walker's hiring him isn't evidence of poor judgment or lack of intelligence.
He was also an ex- race car driver from El Salvador who got him killed in a car crash. Hiring him screams poor judgment or low intelligence.
12/2/13, 10:35 PM
Lies from the 'left'.
City of Hate killed Kennedy.
Lies from the 'right'.
Iran is on the verge of having nukes and intends to trigger WWIII.
Thanks to paranoid neocons, the 'right' is as kooky as the 'left'.
12/2/13, 10:36 PM
http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.2167/article_detail.asp
12/2/13, 10:47 PM
"He was also an ex- race car driver from El Salvador who got him killed in a car crash. Hiring him screams poor judgment or low intelligence."
Now you're just trolling. Rodas wasn't an "ex-race car driver"; he and Walker raced cars as an avocation. So does David H. Hansson, one of the world's top software architects. As for being from El Salvador, so what? Considering that he was a successful serial entrepreneur, and a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch who would have had to pass the Series 7 exam, he was likely of above-average intelligence.
From Auto Week:
"According to a story in Wealth Management, the two met when Walker, at a track event, noticed that Rodas was driving a Porsche GT3 that Walker used to own. They ended up racing together at events like the 25 Hours of Thunderhill, but his schedule limited Walker's racing mostly to time attack-type events at Buttonwillow or other California tracks.
Rodas, though, moved up through the ranks from Porsche-only series like the Pirelli Driver's Cup, where he won twice in 2012, into the Pirelli World Challenge, leading a two-car Ford Mustang Boss 302S team, sponsored by Always Evolving and charities that he and Walker supported. Rodas raced car number 52; his co-driver, in car 75, was Erik Davis, owner of Autotopia, a massive, near-legendary car collection in Los Angeles that supplies cars for movie and TV productions.
Both rookies in the series, Rodas finished 13 in GTS points, Davis 16th, despite missing the races in St. Petersburg and Lime Rock. Had Rodas competed in those races, he almost certainly would have been the series rookie of the year. Rodas' highest finish was fifth at Toronto, impressive since the GTS class has such veteran drivers as season champ Lawson Ashenbach, Jack Baldwin and Peter Cunningham. By sad coincidence, Rodas and Davis raced against another Mustang driver in the class, Roger Miller, who died unexpectedly at age 44 last August – Miller's family owned the Utah Jazz and Miller Motorsports Park near Salt Lake City.
Rodas, who turned 38 a month ago, and his Rodas Group company were well known in financial circles in California, largely through an enduring relationship with the investment firm Merrill Lynch. According to his biography, he was “instrumental in developing waste to energy power plants and wind farms in Central America,” and he was also owner of Cielo Recycling, a Central American recycling plant. He was ranked by Barron's three years in a row as one of America's top financial advisers."
12/2/13, 11:10 PM
Now you're just trolling. Rodas wasn't an "ex-race car driver"; he and Walker raced cars as an avocation. So does David H. Hansson, one of the world's top software architects. As for being from El Salvador, so what? Considering that he was a successful serial entrepreneur, and a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch who would have had to pass the Series 7 exam, he was likely of above-average intelligence.
You're defending the prudence and probity of an adviser who drove his client into a telephone pole and killed him. Financial advisers are supposed to be sober people who give you sound advice. They're not supposed to drive you into telephone poles and end your life. That's just about the worst help you could get from an adviser.
El Salvadorans aren't known for providing sound advice, financial or otherwise.
Being associated with Merrill Lynch doesn't mean anything, BTW. There are lots of retail bucket shops around the country outside NY that are affiliated with Merrill Lynch.
12/3/13, 12:11 AM
"You're defending the prudence and probity of an adviser who drove his client into a telephone pole and killed him. Financial advisers are supposed to be sober people who give you sound advice. They're not supposed to drive you into telephone poles and end your life. That's just about the worst help you could get from an adviser."
According to the article I linked to, Rodas did give Walker sound advice. According to this post, the crash could have been due to mechanical issues with the car. In any case, they were both hobbyist race car drivers, and had Paul Walker had a different financial advisor, he would have still been at risk of dying in a fast car because of that.
"El Salvadorans aren't known for providing sound advice, financial or otherwise."
They're called Salvadorans, not El Salvadorans. And Walker didn't ask the average Salvadoran for advice.
"Being associated with Merrill Lynch doesn't mean anything, BTW. There are lots of retail bucket shops around the country outside NY that are affiliated with Merrill Lynch."
Such as?
12/3/13, 12:25 AM
>> The idea is they move in , take over a town by sheer population and then gut it for their own purposes
worked for the Europeans who wanted some lebensraum in North America.
Satmars - smart enough to copy from the ==successful== goyim!!
12/3/13, 1:56 AM
I think there are some kinds of 'hate' the NYT isn't particularly interested in.
12/3/13, 2:01 AM
I'm in no position to judge whether Roger Rodas was a sensible financial adviser, but Merrill Lynch has thousands of FAs, and passing the Series 7 is not that difficult. There's plenty of hotheads with slightly above average IQs who make it in the brokerage business through force of personality.
12/3/13, 6:40 AM
A picture of President Obama, with a swastika drawn on his forehead, remained on the wall of an eighth-grade social studies classroom for about a month after a student informed her teacher, the student said.
Wait, why is there a picture of President Obama in the classroom? It's not a federal building. I'm pretty sure my schools didn't have portraits of Bill Clinton or George W. Bush on the walls.
12/3/13, 8:23 AM
Great post.
I live near Pine Bush and Kiryas Joel. Those KJ folks are big with the real-estate stuff. A few years back they bought a big chunk of land near my parents' place. I think they intended to build an old folks' home on it. About 70% of it got built. Since then it's sat there unifinished. Been about about five or six years. Maybe they ran out of money? Maybe the economics of old folks' homes aren't looking as rosey as they once were? Whatever the reason, the thing looks awful. People are often skittish about complaining because they don't want to come off as anti-semites. But there's plenty of below-the-table opposition to their land plans.
During the holidays, the KJ folks put up a little Christmas tree in one of the windows of the never-finished structure. You can see it from the street. Marketing.
12/3/13, 8:35 AM
Speaking of false anti-semitism claims for profit -
You really need to read the NY Magazine April 21, 2013 article Them and Them.
Hasids gained control of local school board in Ramapo, NY. Gutted school programs. So many teacher layoffs kids could not graduate high school in four years.
They leased school properties to other Hasidic groups to be used for Hasidic private schools.
They used public school funds to send their handicapped kids to special, expensive schools.
All while contributing very little to the tax base.
12/3/13, 8:59 AM
Pine Bush borders Sullivan County, which the Glenmary Research Center-- which asks questions the Census Bureau can't-- has dterermined [IIRC] to be the only county in the US to be more Jewish, proportionately, than Kings. That''s right: Brooklyn isn't even the most Jewish shire in New York!
To pile on the ironies in this intra-Hebraïc squabble, the Sullivan town that abuts Pine Bush is Mamakating. And the first white settler in the Town of Mamakating was-- hold onto your chair-- Emanuel Gonsalus, a Sephardic Jew by blood, born in Spain!
Many of the oldest-of-the-old-stock in this neck of the woods descend from him.
12/3/13, 9:25 AM
Count me among the readers who never heard of Paul Walker until he was killed...
12/3/13, 12:19 PM