17 minutes ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

The Bible, particuarly the Old Testament is hardly a source for anything - certainly not title deeds for land. But let's say for argument sake it is and God intervenes on behalf of the Jews from time and smote his enemies of the Jews from time to time - what are we then to make of the Holocaust - has God's contract ended ?

Punishing Jews for not following his commands to live in Israel .

11 minutes ago, Nick Carter icp said:

Punishing Jews for not following his commands to live in Israel .

Then following your logic God is a psychopathic genocidal maniac and not worth of follwing by anyone.

9 hours ago, ezzra said:

''by people who arrived comparatively recently'' really? here are the terms it was used to describe the land of israel which the common denomination is only one fact, throughout all periods listed below is that Jewish people

ahs occupied that land, and NOT ''PALESTINIANS''

EDUCATE YOURSELF:

THE LAND OF Canaan (circa 3000 BCE – 1200 BCE)

Kingdom of Israel & Kingdom of Judah (1000 BCE – 586 BCE)

Judea (586 BCE – 135 CE)

Syria Palaestina / Palestine (135 CE – 1948 CE): Following the failed Jewish Bar Kokhba revolt, the Roman Emperor Hadrian sought to sever Jewish ties to the land. He renamed the province "Syria Palaestina", derived from the Philistines. This name persisted through various ruling empires, including the Byzantine, Islamic, Crusader, and Ottoman empires. It was also used during the British administration era, known

1. Yehud Medinata: (translation, the land of the jewish people) The official Aramaic name of the self-governing Jewish province under the Persian Empire.

2. Judea: The Greco-Roman adaptation of Judah, used during the Hasmonean dynasty

3. Roman Emperor Roman Emperor Hadrian changed the name of the land of Israel. Following the suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE, he renamed the Roman province of Judaea to Syria Palaestina as a punitive measure to sever the Jewish people's historical and ethnic connection to the region

NOW, DO YOU SEE ANY MENTION OF ''PALESTINIAN PEOPLE HERE?

Those figures mean nothing, Jing. Everybody needs a place to live...in peace.

While we kvetch here, Eddie must be rolling in his--enormous--grave in Paramus NJ, near where i met him in Palisades Park.

18 hours ago, Peabody said:

Part 1 of what will probably be a 2-3 part Ed Carmel story.

One of the more bizarre experiences in my life occurred just before Xmas, 1971. My buddy worked the graveyard shift at a local bowling alley out on Long Island, mostly post-closing cleanup. I frequently hung out with him, playing pinball, drinking beer, and farting around.

One night, around 0300, we dropped some acid. At 0730, his father calls: "I've got a photography gig and need you boys to help. I'll pick you up at 0800". He arrived in his giant station wagon right on time.

We were flying!!

"We're headed to Brooklyn," he says. He went on to describe the gig: pick this guy up in Brooklyn, get him changed into a Santa suit, and drive around to malls and shops and get parents to pay for Polaroids of their kid sitting on Santa's lap. The draw: First, nobody in the area was doing the Santa photo thing and second - and this was the kicker - Yup! Our Santa would be played by Ed Carmel! "Have Your Kid's Photo Taken with GIANT SANTA".

About an hour later, we rolled up to his apartment, got out, and locked the doors (Foreshadowing...dodgy neighborhood). We got to his apartment, knocked, and his parents let us in.

To say he was HUGE would be a vast understatement. When I shook his hand, his fingers came up to the crook of my elbow. His fingers looked like Nathan's Franks. He could fit a US half-dollar coin through his rings. More on his size later. I'm sure the total bizarro-world feelings of mine had nothing to do with the LSD consumed about 6 hours earlier.

To be continued. There is soooo much more to this story. Hints: children beating giant man; naked 9-foot man in mall parking lot; screaming, crying, terror-stricken children; police; Giant Santa in wheelchair... :)

Part 2 of what will probably be a 2-3 part Ed Carmel story.

So, there we were, I, my buddy, his father, and the Carmel Clan. We get ready to depart, but there's a slight problem. Future Giant Santa is in a (huge) wheelchair!

Turns out, a bunch of kids had beaten on him the week before. They particularly damaged his knees, so much so that he could barely stand, let alone walk. I guess his height, coupled with them being children, made his knees the best target.

I can't remember how we got him outside, but eventually, he was sitting in his wheelchair next to the open rear door of the Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser station wagon. The three of us managed to manhandle him onto the passenger-side back seat... which instantly collapsed under his weight. To give you another measure of his size, picture this: He's sitting in the back, head bent down, and he hunched over so he could fit. His right arm extends past the front-seat passenger, and his right forearm is resting on the dashboard. His left arm is extended across the rear seat, elbow reaching the left side door, his left forearm resting on that door, his left hand extending to the front seat, next to the driver.

We drive to an empty parking lot so we can help him into his Santa suit. This is when things took a wrong turn!

Remember, my buddy and I are still well into our acid trip.

Stay tuned for the next installment.