Via Oleg Volk

Germany Jails Homeschool Parents - AGAIN

On Wednesday, June 18, a district court in the German state of Hesse sentenced Jurgen and Rosemary Dudek each to three months in prison simply because they homeschool their seven children.

More here.

I see a sense of certain irony that the press release is dated June 19th - Freedom Day.

I would gloat about this as well - but this is Israel, and ISrael, just like Germany, does NOT know better about this.

If you have children, I suggest you GTFO of a country that bans homeschooling - even if you do not intend to homeschool yourself. A country that bans homeschooling is not likely to respect any kind of parental rights.

Knesset Approves Castle Doctrine

Knesset approves law allowing property owners to kill intruders

By Haaretz Service


The Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee on Wednesday approved in second and third readings a broad version of the "Shai Dromi Bill," which absolves from criminal responsibility anyone who kills or injures an intruder in his home, business or farm.

According to the approved version, "a person shall not be held criminally responsible for an action that was necessary immediately to repel someone breaking into or entering a residence, place of business or fenced farm, with the intention of perpetrating a crime, or someone trying to break in."


This, ladies and gentlemen, is what the Israeli Libertarian calls "retarded". Sure, it's a very nice bill. I agree with it almost completely.

But let's be honest:

Practically nobody in Israel can own guns.

What good does it do to an 82-year-old grandmother (the usual target of break-ins in this country) when a 17-year-old fool gets into her house with a knife or simply a stick? Or even his bare hands?

As he slams her, head-first, into a wall, will the fact that she has a right to self-defense be of any use to her?

Those in support of citizen self-defense must recognize this for what it is: an empty, idiotic gesture.

The right to self-defense is useless without the tools of self-defense.

Plain, Senseless Thuggery

"The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) released its semi-annual report Sunday, detailing evidence of abuse inflicted on Palestinian detainees while being taken into custody by Israeli soldiers.

The report, dubbed "Unlawful in reality – soldiers' abuse of Palestinian detainees," unveils a series of cases in which Palestinians who were arrested and handcuffed were abused by IDF soldiers while being detained or transported to a holding facility, to the extent that some of them needed medical attention.

The PCATI report noted 90 testimonies of abuse between 2006 and 2007, but said the actual number of cases is higher. The IDF, said the report, is doing little to nothing to stop this abuse."

The newsflash is from here.

What really freaks me out is not really the article, but the public's reaction to it. Let us head over to Ynet and see what the readers think.

Right now, none of the commenters are even bothered that the soldiers are illegally abusing people. The only commenter who thinks this is disgusting is an American poster.

The locals post niceties such as this:

"send the human right group members for a training in China

these persons have nothing to do in their lives except to denounce bad jews."

Another fellow is 'not bothered by this' becase 'it means the IDF is fighting terror (despite having an incompetent government)'.

How does this mean that the IDF is fighting terorr?

Are these people, perchance, torturing terrorists to obtain useful information (which is illegal)? Are they perhaps interrogating them?

No, this is not the case. What we're talking about here is the soldiers grabbing some guys who may or may not even be terrorists, beating them - read the article! - and then handing them over to Shabak, who may or may not torture them for informatio. That is often illegal too, but that is not the point.

If one is a great fan of overreaching, sadistical government, they may argue here that torturing people for information should be legal.

But what purpose on earth does it serve to just grab people and beat them up?

One of the founding values of the IDF was supposed to be "the dignity of Man". How does it preserve the Dignity of Man to act like this? Do you suppose the dignity of Palestinian suspects is furthered by them being beaten up like that? Do you think the dignity of the soldiers is?

Why can anybody support this? What use is this to anyone, outside of plain, senseless thuggery?

P.S. I do not, naturally, believe that the IDF deliberately issues orders for soldiers to abuse Palestinians, or anything like that. However, the fact that a lot of people are okay with this behavior, and that the army does not properly investigate it, is symptomatic of many things wrong with our society.

It's BAAACK

My dear friends!

I realize, of course, that I have most likely lost all readers in the past three months that this blog has been silent, but I am back, to bring you more of my snarky, hate-filled comments regarding the future of the Israeli welfare state (short summary: it has none).