Silver closed yesterday at $17.32 per troy ounce. What’s the conversion factor between the troy ounce and the Sanctuary shequel?
Ah. I was unsure how far the earlier Catholic analogy could be safely extended. For example, I wouldn’t have expected a practitioner of Judaism to go to confession just because they happen to be visiting a Catholic church. I also wasn’t aware that the Wailing Wall had any special religious significance to Christians or Muslims (although an internet search appears to indicate that Muslims consider it sacred because Mohammed tied his magic ass to it at one point-- I therefore presume that any Muslim messages are addressed to Mohammed’s ass).
Not comparable. Christians trace their roots to Judaism, so honoring the old Temple isn’t inconsistent with their own religion. Partaking in a Christian sacrament would be tantamount to rejecting Judaism. A better analogy would be for an Israeli politician to have an audience with the Pope while visiting Rome. But there really aren’t any good analogies because of the fact that Judaism preceded Christianity and Christianity derives from Judaism.
This is exactly what I came on here to say.
Or, “Please give Sean Hannity eyeball herpes.”
Speaking as one whose eye hosts a sizable colony of h. simplex, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, even Sean Hannity.
Well, maybe him. Just a little.
Patriot and frustrated editor that I am, I wish Obama had included a prayer for his country. But that’s just me.
True. The guy is nothing if not circumspect.
There’s going to be zero political fallout from this, I think. It would have hurt him if he’d prayed to win the election, but he had the sense not to write that, so this will probably be over after the comedy shows make some jokes about it Monday.
I’m uncomfortable with the thought of anyone publicly placing a prayer in the Wall. As though they were doing it so that they could be seen doing it.
ETA: My notion of an appropriate praying spot is in a closet.
Yes, but then we’d get the headline: Obama prays, then comes out of closet.
It looks like Obama leaked the prayer to reporters beforehand.
At least, that’s what the paper in the center of all this is claiming.
The Obama campaign is denying it. I find the claim rather dubious. Why would the paper wait all this time to say that, and why would they need the prayer to be given to them by a scavenger?
This sounds like bullshit to me.
Well, maybe. Obama’s not dumb enough not to know something like this could easily happen, his “prayer” was harmless enough, nothing to provoke scandal, might make sense to get it on the record before somebody distorts it.
Now, if it had said “Dear God, please give Robert Novak a brain tumor…”
With subsequent posts on the same TNR page providing evidence that this was not the case, including a statement by the paper in question that the prayer was removed from the wall by a student after the fact. It’s good that you provided a link; I hope other posters read the entire page before assuming it was intentionally handed over by the Obama campaign.
If you read the actual statement by the paper, it isn’t even claiming that Obama leaked the note or 'approved" its publication. It only says this:
It doesn’t say approved by the Obama campaign and it doesn’t say Obama gave them a copy. Reading the actual statement from Ma’riv, it looks like they were talking about some kind of religious approval, not approval from Obama, and that TNR basically just extropolated facts thatweren’t in the statement.
The whole thing is full of holes anyway. the paper itself says it got the note from the kid who lifted it. Why would they need that if Obama had leaked it to them? Why would Obama leak it and then expect the paper not to say it had been leaked. Why did another paper get a copy of the note (it doesn’t say from Obama) and then decide not to publish it out of “respect for obama’s privacy” if Obama was the one who had given it to them?
The TNR insinuations are complete bullshit. Of course, the allegation is all that matters now. The meme that Obama leaked his prayer to the press will now become right wing Gospel.
Apparently, the pilfering kid who pried the note out of the Wall has admitted guilt, apologized:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/07/yeshiva-student.html
Meanwhile, in Israel there are calls to boycott the offending paper until it apologizes as well:
I think I agree. This is vague and potentially deceptive. It’s possible that the Obama campaign would approve publication and then deny it, but it doesn’t make sense with the report that the prayer was plucked from the Wall. If they already had the prayer, they didn’t need to report that part; they could’ve just said they ‘obtained a copy’ and ignored the seediest part of this story.
And the privacy comment apparently refers to Israeli law, which they are being accused of violating. Denials of legal responsibility have to be read very closely.
Obama would have to be a whole lot crasser/stupider than I think he is to leak a prayer to an Israeli newspaper before slipping it into the Wailing Wall. That would reek. I just don’t see it.
It would also be odd if Ma’ariv was the only outlet they leaked it to. If it was leaked or approved by the campaign for publication in the international media, why Ma’ariv? Why not a non-Israeli paper which wouldn’t be potentially subject to these religious laws?
This reads like an admission that the paper was planning on obtaining the prayer all along.
Anybody else see it that way?