In the long-standing Russian/Soviet/socialist tradition, don’t forget to wish your woman a Happy March 8th today-International Women’s Day. The best way to celebrate this holiday is by cleaning the house in order to surprise her.
My favorite Jewish women? Rachel Ben-Zvi. And Dr. Ruth, who was a Haganah sniper. And Samuelson. And, obviously, Rebecca Rubin.
Your favorite Jewesses?
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MUL, so how’s Obama’s ass taste now? I haven’t had an update since your orgasmic, post election comments. Is he not the playa you thought you were getting?
Oh darn! I actually decide to spend the day, you know, working, and look at the vituperation I have to return to. Oh well. This is Alex we’re talking about so it’s not like his level of discourse can be expected to rise above the sexual and scatological.
But I do have a response. Maybe something like the following:
I dunno, AlexK. How do Bernie Madoff’s, Dick Cheney’s and Rush Limbaugh’s asses taste?
Yeah, I caught that at wikipedia. I read up on the American Socialist Party too. Swell bunch of people they were! But the reason I came back was because I forgot to use a great term earlier: Russified Jews. They’re people too! 🙂
Tom- the holiday doesn’t have origins in the Soviet Union, but in New York City and gained traction in Western Europe intially: http://www.internationalwomensday.com/about.asp
So IWD had its origins in that feminist utopia, the Soviet Union?…. Vicki’s fun to read, but an uneasy tone creeps in apropos the late, unlamented worker’s paradise. That regime was responsible, after all, for tens of millions of deaths, not to mention its having nearly blown up the planet on at least one occasion. I doubt we’d be as quick to embrace a holiday that originated in Nazi Germany, say.
Oh, with regards to the Russian language: 1. It was spoken long before the scourge of Czarism, Communism, or modern day Black Market Capitalism that exists where people speak it. And 2. It’s much harder to drop a language on principle than it is to choose not to celebrate what was once a government sanctioned holiday. I noticed not one person in my family celebrated it yesterday. Fine, we’re self righteous assholes, and I like it. Most people couldn’t touch my parents and grandmother’s moral, educational, and professional successes, standards, or values, so yes, I hold them in higher regard than other Jews and even other Russian Jews (who I obviously hold up in higher esteem). On top of that, the genes and looks we have are high post. So, yes, do I think we’re better than others. Hell yes. As should anyone about themselves and their family. Humility may run in our family, but humbleness? That’s for the meek and homely.
I guess I don’t believe in the same PC philosophy that each opinion is valid just because it exists. I don’t mean to single you out specifically, but I don’t have to respect your views just because you have them. Likewise, you don’t have to respect mine. I’m totally cool with that. I am intelligent and wise enough to know right from wrong by this age, especially having once seen the world from a perspective 180 degrees opposite of how I see it now. My family used to joke while I was in college being a dumb hippie liberal with idealogical deficiencies: “Great. We escaped Communism so our son could become a Communist in America.” Fortunately, my parents knew, like every maturing person, I’d grow out of that dumb worldview, so they didn’t indoctrinate me, and I did eventually grow out of it. It took 9-11, living on my own far from family and friends, and living in the hippie commune-like community of Ocean Beach, San Diego to see what happens to people when they share everything and believe everything in their life is a “right” and not a “privilege” and their pathetic dependency on the state or other losers for help.
I’ll keep judging others because I believe in a world in which everything has a value and I prefer to assign a value to each idea. You’re obviously an intelligent person (naturally, you are a Jew of course), so I should hope my opinion of your opinions wouldn’t have an effect on you at all. Frankly, there’s only a few people in the world who’s opinions I value enough to retrospectively check myself. Sad to say it, but the authors of Jewlicious haven’t yet made that list, even with the intelligent things you guys write. Basically, I’m just here to add my two cents because I believe a site called “Jewlicious” should have a diversity of Jewish thought. If you factor in comments, yes, but by posts alone, a general observer could infer that this site is mainly left of center, but moderate, and very PC. I just want to make sure that when there are strangers perusing the site and they see what they already assume to be mainstream American Jewish perspective (75% voted for Obama – still a huge Shanda IMO), that they see there are other Jews out there that don’t subscribe to the disgusting Marxist idealism that has always permeated our community, and that we’re not all trapped in an echo chamber that always talks about “peace at all costs” and all the other Utopian fantasies Jews in America have picked up from living the bloated lives that our grandparents and parents worked so hard to earn us.
Alex,
Except that you never agree to disagree and you never let each celebrate his own if it doesn’t agree with your world view. If you don’t agree with someone’s viewpoint you label them as wrong and judge them.
I harbor no love for the Soviet state and I don’t agree that socialism is efficient as either an economic or political philosophy. But I harbor a deep love for Russian culture, because that’s how I grew up. All of my mother’s family experienced persecution as Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union, but they don’t renounce Russian for Hebrew and block out their entire life in Russia. On the contrary, throughout my childhood and youth they tried to instill as much Russian and Jewish culture in me as possible.
Does your family still speak Russian? If they do, maybe they shouldn’t because it’s the language of the communists. Telling people that they can’t celebrate aspects of Russian culture, such as cheering for Russian teams, just because Russia once had an association with communism is like telling Mizrahi Jews they can’t speak Arabic because Hezbollah members also speak Arabic and Persian Jews that they can’t celebrate Naow Ruz because Ahmedinejad also celebrates it. You can’t throw out the baby with the bath water.
Growing up with March 8th to me meant that my dad got my mom flowers and called all of his female relatives and friends, and that felt nice to me, a tradition of recognition of everything that the women in my family do. If you don’t want to celebrate, fine, but don’t put other people into boxes you’ve developed for conveniently labeling everyone so that you can easily avoid the gray areas.
Always happy to make you smile…and read my lengthy posts.
Vicky, we’ll just have to agree to disagree. You seem to have a very morally relativistic perception of Socialism from some of your other posts and tweets, especially for someone who’s parents had to live as Jews in the Soviet Union, a country whose ethnic majority’s hatred for the Jew and nationalism was rivaled only by the Germans, at least in the last century. You are most certainly free to have that perspective, but it intrigues me. And it’s not just you. My brother-in-law always cheers for Russia in sports, but he grew up there as a youth and moved at 12, years before he learned the history and became politically active. We are baffled by it and simply glare at him when he speaks highly of how the Russian Army defeated the Germans, while raping and pillaging ruthlessly as they did it. We call him our closeted Stalinist but luckily his devotion to Israel and the US is such that it’s forgivable. People like to forgive and forget. I don’t. Statism will always try to crush the individual. Just before my Jewishness, I’m still and individual. That trumps all. And to celebrate a day for half of the population reeks of the type of desperate need for something to celebrate that collectivists have to find after they’ve clensed the population of their own self worth, pride, and free will. To each their own I guess. Let me know when it’s World Human Day, since I already have Earth Day on my Google Calendar (and shared too!)
Middle, funny, I smile when I think you actually believe what you write. If I can be accused as being insensitive, then I must say, you must be the polar opposite. Sometimes some off color joke or mild, ingrained anti-semitism doesn’t necessitate a 9 paragraph indignant post. Just saying.
MUL, so how’s Obama’s ass taste now? I haven’t had an update since your orgasmic, post election comments. Is he not the playa you thought you were getting?
You see, every woman, ultimately, comes from a sperm. So it’s only natural that she try to grab onto another one at some point – in order to bring more women into existence.
I just hope she holds on tight. It looks like the giant sperm cell is going to fly away.
Hold tight, empowered woman! Hold tight! Follow that sperm to your empowerment!
Anyway, I’m done being goofy – at least for now. And ready for some learning. Exactly what does a Russian spin have to do with this holiday?
I think in America there is a lot of craziness because people are hard-core obsessed with an ethic of privatizing everything and making everything seem as individualized as possible – even to the detriment of their own self-interest. Even the women in this country seem to aspire to (more often than not) become like the proudest of hyper-masculine males, and the whole society’s fucked up as a result. So naturally, I am interested in understanding the history of a feminism that didn’t spring forth from a society that has contempt for the very idea of shared interest.
In America we will collectively sacrifice our financial future on an altar of the individual’s (or corporate individual’s) right to pay off the public servant. We gladly jeopardize the entire capitalist system by collectivizing the protection of each individual’s greed. The political right in America actually encourages this, and seems to welcome economic collapse on a national scale as a way to humiliate the government – which is their larger aim. The “Tea Party” phenomenon, which opposes BOTH tax increases AND deficits (while warning us of the logical and ultimately catastrophic result of this opposition), is the most visible representation we have to offer of such lunacy.
Given the short-sightedness of exclusively pursuing immediate self-interest at any cost, I’m interested in hearing what those who find irony in sperm-chasing might have to say – no matter what political chips may fall from their words. And no matter what Alex or Ayn Rand (or for that matter, her acolyte, Alan Greenspan) might think about it.
middle, I know, which is what makes the discussion all the more frustrating.
montana, it’s supposed to be a balloon…i guess if you wanted to be ironic about it you could interpret it as sperm 🙂
I like that she’s holding on to a giant sperm cell.
Alex using hyperbole? Never! He actually believes what he writes!
You bring up an interesting point in whether a holiday originally developed for socialist purposes can ever be stripped of its political origins and be celebrated as simply an awareness of something else.
I believe that, in the case of Women’s Day, it can. Given that it no longer has communist undertones and when you celebrate it, you are not, as you imply, celebrating communism, it is simply a day to appreciate women and all that they do. I’d like to see a similar day for men (which is somewhat popular in Russia) take form, as well. I feel nice and appreciated when my dad or husband buy me flowers and wish me a happy Women’s Day.
The holiday has also evolved into one that makes awareness of important women’s issues such as human trafficking (and the increasing presence of editorials about the topic of women’s rights, such as this one: http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/three-proven-steps-to-advance-the-worlds-women-on-international-womens-day/) Whether awareness is enough, I can’t say, but it is definitely a start and the day provides a focal point for these types of issues.
As for the Tianamen Square Massacre-it’s not a logical comparison to International Women’s Day at all for a number of reasons and you use the hyperbole to detract from the argument.
I have no problem recognizing women. Women are great, just not the Socialist ones. My family is full of amazing women, so much so, they should have their own holidays, but for their individuality, not just because they share the same physiological makeup with half of the planet.
I guess I have a problem with celebrating any holiday created by and celebrated by Socialists/Communists or that celebrates those dying and evil ideologies. But that’s just me, people are free to celebrate whatever they want, like Mao’s birthday or the day Che had his dissidents murdered, or the Tienanmen Square Massacre. Or even the day Che banned Rock & Roll.
Personally, I celebrate things like the day Trotsky had an ice pick shoved into his skull, the day Che got shot by the CIA, the day the Berlin Wall fell and the day the Soviet Union fell. Priorities I guess.
No sarcasm. I love March 8th. What’s wrong with recognizing women?
Cute. I’ll hope it’s all sarcasm, but I’m not sure.
My mother and/or grandmother would slap my face if I wished them anything on today. If you think I hate socialists and Soviets, you haven’t seen anything.
I guess my favorite Jewess on a day like today would be Ayn Rand, who also would slap my face for commemorating today.