Attorney General Gonzales shows dangerous liberal tendencies!!

He ordered Ashcroft's drapes taken off the official statuary. Now the WHOLE COUNTRY will see a marble wardrobe malfunction every time he speaks!

 

Gosh! I wonder what former Attorney General Edwin Meese would think.

 

Apparently Meese ordered the drapes only when he was on camera. The rest of the time he was content to permit public pornography...

Actually, I can kind of see it from the standpoint of an old TV broadcasting tech. The breast IS distracting, there in the background...

Hey, maybe that's the idea! We'll all be so distrcted that we'll forget about all the awful stuff the A.G. will be spouting!

BTW: Attorney General Gonzales spells his name in an unusual way. Gonzalez, with the final "z" is more common in México and the rest of the U.S. His spelling was traced, I think, to a scribal error a couple of hundred years ago in the El Paso area when we were still Neuvo México. Lots of New Mexicans use it today.

 

Nuevo, I meant.

 

Maybe he's Ladino.

 

Those drapes that Ashcroft ordered cost $8000.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/199013_cabinet10.html

Considering that price, I'm actually irritated that they were taken off. Since my taxes paid for part of them, the Justic Department should at least get some more use out of the damn things.

 

Interesting question. Could the Attorney General come from converso stock? Maybe. Certainly many families came here to avoid the Inquisition and following the Explusion from Spain at the bloody hands of Their Most Catholic Majesties Ferdinand and Isabella. (Ptui.) There are a few 16th and 17th century Hebrew cemetaries scattered here and there around New Mexico and West Texas.

Ultimately, who knows? The local papers periodically "discover" the story of the so-called secret Jews. There are a few families who do things like light candles Friday nights and whose speech contains Ladino elements. Sometimes even THEY don't know why. Or at least, they SAY that they don't know. Secrecy may have become engrained in some of these families. Perhaps the habit dies hard.

 

Several years ago there was a spate, a spate I tell ya, of news stories about that. In New York, anyway. It's interesting history but maybe too interesting as some people jump on these things to spice their heritage a bit. For instance, I think there are more whites claiming some Cherokee heritage than there ever were Cherokees.

 

Actually, Cherokee is a particular problem due to the way the tribe determines who is a member and who is not. Essentially, the only question they ask is whether you have a lineal ascendant who was a Dawes Commission signer. They don't impose a blood quantum requirement.

I dealt with this a lot when I was doing child abuse cases because potential membership in any Indian tribe triggered the Indian Child Welfare Act.

At least I THINK is was Cherokee. It was one of the main Oklahoma tribes for sure.

As for "spicing up", oh, yes, these folks show up at our synagogue now and again and demand to be admitted as members. Well, okay, but there is considerable Jewish law on the subject. Essentially, we require conversion or something near to it where a family has practiced another religion throughout the applicant's life, let alone for generations.

WITHOUT FAIL, once they realize we're serious, they go away and never come back. Conversion in ANY stream of Judaism is a nontrivial undertaking.

 

"Welcome, pilgrim! I am Nosborne and this is Rabbi Kahane. Rabbi Kahane performs the briss ceremony on all new...wait...you haven't heard the benefits."

 

Hey, decimon!

What do you call an uncircumsized Jew?

Remember Rabbi Tuchmann's "Half Off Special?"

 

Female.

Easier than Dr. Bear's puzzlers.

No, but I knew a Tuchman who was definitely off.

 

Right!

The Half Off Special comes from "Robin Hood: Men in Tights". Mel Brooks is a genius. "OUCH!!"

I saw "The Producers" on Broadway and laughed continuously from beginning to end. It is HOWLINGLY funny if completely, totally irreverent.

 

UPDATE!

And NOW it looks like A.G. Gonzales might well be the President's nominee for the Supreme Court!

I LOVE this! The Extreme Religious Right is upset because Gonzales isn't sufficiently CONSERVATIVE. That ALONE might garner considerable Democratic support in the Senate!

There IS a God!