Thursday, April 28, 2011

Overheard in the Office:

Me: "But what really never made any sense to me when I was little was antisemitism. At least a garden variety racist could point out that somebody was a different color than they were, but Jews? I mean, except for the taste in hats, they're the exact same as you. For all bubba knows he might be Jewish himself..."

RX: "Oh they swore they could tell. It was 'the nose'. You know, that's what 'a nose for business' originally meant..."

Me: "...heck, I could be Jewish..."

RX: "...and that's why the Ferengi in Star Trek were supposed to be space Jews. And not the good kind of space Jews like the Vulcans, either."

Me: "Well, the Starfleet officer corps was riddled with closeted Jews..."

RX: "And xenosexuals!"
...and don't even get me started on how farcical intramural scrums like Catholic v. Protestant or Orthodox v. Catholic look from here, especially when they take place in countries where half of nobody even goes to church in the first place.

12 comments:

Joanna said...

Eh, it all comes down to "We is Us, and They is Them, ergo Them is not Us, ergo Them should die in a fire. RARRRRRRGH."

The above sums up 99% of human history (the remaining 1% being "Hay guyz, check this out!").

Tam said...

Yes, but to a greater or lesser extent, "Them" is "Us", at least until the aliens get here.

Joanna said...

Yeah, but try telling Them that.

ba-dum-tish

GuardDuck said...

Hey, we'll fight (literally sometimes) over the Bears vs. the Giants, but when someone with a funny (funnier?) accent says that real football is played with a round ball then those Bears and Giants will gladly join to go all hooligan on some United Manchesters.

We're social critters - and social critters are tribal.

Cond0011 said...

Rarrrrgh. heh.

Yea... I never understood the animosity towards people who were Jewish.

Everytime I dealt someone who had proclaimed their Jewish heritage I had a very pleasant time.

Will Brown said...

Me: "...heck, I could be Jewish..."

Better check with Mom on that, Tam.

:)

Kristophr said...

I blame all ills on people that did not have a sasquatch in their ancestry.

Pinks have no yetinski heritage, and will be harvested when Bob arrives on X-day.

Joseph said...

Elvis was a Jew. He was descended from Jews in the female line.

Anonymous said...

Joseph: So was a certain famous austrian megalomaniac, whose name invokes godwins law.

PS: Only posting as anonymous because being logged into goggle turns comment sections into a gigant error message, blogger is so bugged right now.

John B said...

Besides I've been in a contest, Jew vs. Yankee Trader.

No matter who won, we both wanted a cigarette afterwards.

Beaumont said...

Dr. Elizabeth Hirschman has opined that many Americans have Jewish roots due to the large number of closeted Jews who fled the Olde Sodd. Her work may not convince all, but it's worth reading. And at least half of the folks in my neck of the woods could walk down a street in Tel Aviv without the natives muttering, "Tourists!"

Jeff the Baptist said...

I don't agree with anti-semitism (in fact my wife is Jewish) but I understand some parts of it. The Jewish community is not without it's good ole boys club. It's also generally quite close knit and in the case of some orthodox communities, can border on insular. I can see why the ignorant would jump to the wrong conclusions.