“Where were you on Christmas Day?” Graham asked.
“Like all Jews,” Kagan responded, “I was probably at a Chinese restaurant.”
“I could almost see this one coming,” Leahy quipped.
Then Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) jumped in: “Those are the only restaurants that are open!”
I, too, was at a Chinese restaurant last Christmas, the one on 23rd street in Crystal City.
And for your entertainment, here’s a relevant video.
Tim says:
Crystal City Restaurant wasn’t open, I guess.
June 29, 2010, 6:01 pmtroll_dc2 says:
Why did Graham ask that question?
June 29, 2010, 6:09 pmruuffles says:
Segue to bombing.
June 29, 2010, 6:11 pmGMUSL '07 Alum says:
Schumer’s wrong once again. The vast majority of Indian and Japanese restaurants are open as well.
June 29, 2010, 6:15 pmDan Weber says:
I’m disappointed that we weren’t linked to A Christmas Story.
June 29, 2010, 6:20 pmMark Horning says:
This must be a New York thing. In Arizona the Chinese places are usually closed as well.
June 29, 2010, 6:27 pmManju says:
There’s still a couple open, just to keep the boycott going.
June 29, 2010, 6:45 pmManju says:
Well then he really should’ve read her Miranda rights first.
June 29, 2010, 6:50 pmBama 1L says:
A Christmas Story explains why Christians might find themselves at a Chinese restaurant on Christmas.
June 29, 2010, 6:51 pmHeheheh says:
Ann Coulter
What a Sack of Sacrosanct
In The New York Times’ profile on the family of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, her aunt was quoted as saying: “There was thinking, always thinking” at the family’s dinner table. “Nothing was sacrosanct.”
Really? Nothing was sacrosanct? Because in my experience, on a scale of 1-to-infinity, the range of acceptable opinion among New York liberals goes from 1-to-1.001.
How would the following remarks fare at a dinner table on the Upper West Side where “nothing was sacrosanct”: Hey, maybe that Joe McCarthy was onto something. What would prayer in the schools really hurt? How do we know gays are born that way? Is it possible that union demands have gone too far? Does it make sense to have three recycling bins in these microscopic Manhattan apartments? Say, has anyone read Charles Murray’s latest book?
Those comments, considered “conversation starters” in most of the country, would get you banned from polite society in New York. Also, unless you want the whole room slowly backing away from you, also avoid: May I smoke? I heard it on Fox News and Merry Christmas!
Even members of survivalist Christian cults in Idaho at least know people who hold opposing views. New York liberals don’t.
As Kagan herself described it, on the Upper West Side of New York where she grew up, “Nobody ever admitted to voting Republican.” So, I guess you could say being a Democrat was “sacrosanct.”
Even within the teeny-tiny range of approved liberal opinion in New York, disagreement will get you banned from the premises.
Glenn Beck
When, as dean of the Harvard Law School, Kagan disagreed with the Bill Clinton policy of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” for gays in the military, she open-mindedly banned military recruiters from the law school, denouncing Clinton’s policy as “discriminatory,” “deeply wrong,” “unwise and unjust.”
From this, I conclude that having gays serving openly in the military is “sacrosanct” for liberals.
Having gays NOT serve in the military is a position held by lots of people in other parts of the country, but I do not recall any Christian colleges banning military recruiters because the schools believed “Don’t ask, don’t tell” went too far the other way.
Not only is every weird, shared delusion of the New York liberal deemed sacrosanct, but what ought to be sacrosanct — off the top of my head, human life — isn’t.
As Stan Evans says, whatever liberals disapprove of, they want banned (smoking, guns, practicing Christianity, ROTC, the Pledge of Allegiance) and whatever they approve of, they make mandatory (abortion-on-demand, gay marriage, pornography, condom distribution in public schools, screenings of “An Inconvenient Truth”).
When liberals say, “nothing is sacrosanct,” they mean “nothing other Americans consider sacrosanct is sacrosanct.” They demonstrate their open-mindedness by ridiculing other people’s dogma, but will not brook the most trifling criticism of their own dogmas.
Thus, for example, liberals sneer at the bluenoses and philistines of the “religious right” for objecting to taxpayer-funding of a crucifix submerged in a jar of urine, but would have you banned from public life for putting Matthew Shepard in a jar of urine, with or without taxpayer funding.
These famously broad-minded New Yorkers — “thinking, always thinking” — actually booed Mayor Rudy Giuliani when he showed up at the opera after pulling city funding from a museum exhibit that included a painting of the Virgin Mary plastered with close-up pornographic photos of women’s vulvas.
(The New York Times fair-mindedly refused to ever mention the vulvas, instead suggesting that the mayor’s objection was to the cow dung used in the composition.)
Has a decision to fund or not fund “art” ever gotten a politician in any other part of the country booed in public? And how might the Times refer to citizens booing a mayor who had withdrawn taxpayer funding for a painting of Rosa Parks covered in pornography?
If New York liberals insist on bragging about their intellectual bravado in believing “nothing is sacrosanct,” it would really help if they could stop being the most easily offended, P.C., group-think, thin-skinned weanies in the entire universe and maybe ease up on the college “hate speech” codes, politically correct firings, and bans on military recruiters.
With that in mind, here are some questions it would be fun to ask a New York liberal like Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan at her hearings next week:
– Roughly one-third of Americans are Evangelical Christians. Do you personally know any Evangelical Christians? Name two.
– In 1972, Richard Nixon was elected president with more than 60 percent of the vote, winning every state except Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. How many people do you know who voted for Nixon?
– Appropriate or inappropriate: Schools passing out condoms to seventh-graders? Schools passing out cigarettes to seventh-graders?
– Who is a greater threat to America, Sarah Palin or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?
June 29, 2010, 6:53 pmALB says:
Seriously. That place–the Chinese one–looks sketchy and doesn’t rate for inclusion in TCEDG.
As for CCR…
June 29, 2010, 6:57 pmDavid Bernstein says:
It wasn’t our first choice, but to our surprise, the first two or three places we tried were closed.
June 29, 2010, 7:02 pmGuest14 says:
Ann Coulter is a troll.
June 29, 2010, 7:03 pmSeattle Law Student says:
Did I just see someone cite to Ann Coulter as an authority, in a non-tongue in cheek fashion?
Best line from that –
priceless.
June 29, 2010, 7:12 pmPlugInMonster says:
Coulter/Palin 2012!
June 29, 2010, 8:03 pmSecond history says:
When, as dean of the Harvard Law School, Kagan disagreed with the Bill Clinton policy of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” for gays in the military, she open-mindedly banned military recruiters from the law school….
Untrue.
June 29, 2010, 8:35 pmLaura(southernxyl) says:
Wondering if the Chinese restaurant is Kosher.
And I am reminded of a conversation I had once with a coworker, Mustapha, a devout Muslim from the ME. He’d taken his family to a Chinese restaurant, he’d told me, and they’d had a good time.
I asked Mustapha how cautious he was about avoiding pork, and he said they’d had a chicken dish, but then he stopped and said – “They cook pork there, though. I wonder if they use separate woks. They probably don’t, do they? I need to ask some questions.”
He looked so troubled that I felt bad, and I apologized for spoiling his pleasure in the Chinese food.
No, no, that’s okay, he said, but he needed to ask some questions, definitely.
But I still felt bad, so I asked:
“When God said, ‘don’t eat pork,’ did he mean, ‘don’t eat pork,’ or did he mean ‘never allow a molecule of pork protein to pass your lips!‘?”
Mustapha said:
“Well, there’s a scholarly teaching” – and then we both laughed b/c he so frequently started answering a question I had about Islam that way – “that you make a reasonable effort to obey the laws, but after that you don’t keep asking questions. And that the reason the Jews have such strict dietary laws is that they kept asking.”
June 29, 2010, 9:33 pmCJColucci says:
Was there a point to the question (yes, I read the link, and I still don’t see it), and did anyone ever get back to whatever it was?
June 29, 2010, 9:41 pmDG says:
I don’t see why she should have automatically said “Chinese restaurant”. She could also have been at the movies. We go to those on Xmas, too!
June 29, 2010, 10:21 pmEric Muller says:
There are a thousand ways in which Lindsey Graham could have segued to the Detroit would-be bomber.
He chose to do it by asking a Jew where she was on Christmas.
He was either revealing his ignorance or trying to remind some of his home crowd that she’s not a Christian.
(His follow-up question, in which he revealed that he thinks Chanukah falls on Christmas Day, would suggest the former.)
June 29, 2010, 10:47 pmOrenWithAnE says:
Laura, mainstream Judaism approves of Eating Dairy Meals in Unsupervised Restaurants.
June 29, 2010, 10:51 pmHippos Go Beserk says:
Pathetic. We never ate Chinese on Christmas. We were always on vacation Florida on Christmas. Swimming, playing beach volleyball and watching the Bowl games. We also usually forgot it was Christmas till some time in the afternoon when the non-Jews surfaces and someone would eventually ask “what everyone got for Christmas?” They were frequently surprised to get a “It’s Christmas?” “Of course, the (??)* Bowl is on in an hour – that means it’s Christmas.”
HGB
Yes, I’m embarrassed to admit I cannot remember which Bowls were always on Christmas. I put down Peach, but then realized that was always a New Year’s Eve Bowl. I’m too disinterested to look it up. More embarrassment.
June 29, 2010, 11:03 pmtom says:
I’m not Jewish but still found the senator’s attempt at humor very awkward to say the least. To the point of ‘why the hell did you go there.’ The replies from Kagan and others were classy
June 30, 2010, 12:13 amDG says:
{He was either revealing his ignorance or trying to remind some of his home crowd that she’s not a Christian. }
Please. Graham is very pro-Jewish and comes from a state where that means little (i.e. there is no political advantage, so he probably means it).
There are some congressmen who would jew-bait, but not Graham. I’m afraid you’re showing a bit of ignorance here.
June 30, 2010, 1:23 amDG says:
Graham is also likely to vote for Kagan – at least that’s the speculation. Kagan is evidently very charming in person, and Graham is one of her (many) conservative admirers.
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. HLS Deans must have some kind of mythical cat-herding ability or else are failures.
June 30, 2010, 1:26 ambrad says:
OrenwithanE:
Don’t place a stumbling block before the blind. That is not halakhah it is making excuses.
June 30, 2010, 2:45 amThe River Temoc, In Winter says:
Charlie Chang’s?
June 30, 2010, 3:59 amJust Dropping By says:
Please. Graham is very pro-Jewish
The presumption in most of David Bernstein’s VC posts notwithstanding, “pro-Israel” is not actually synonymous with “pro-Jewish.” What non-Israel-related “pro-Jewish” things has Graham said/done in, say, the past 10 years?
June 30, 2010, 10:50 amL Nettles says:
On Lindsey Graham I’d vote for ignorance rather than malice.
June 30, 2010, 11:57 amCJColucci says:
On Lindsey Graham I’d vote for ignorance rather than malice.
Maybe he goes both ways?
June 30, 2010, 11:59 amFormer Army MP says:
How right you are. She explained all that away. Sure she banned them, but they weren’t really banned. A student could still sneak off to another building far away and speak to the evil baby killing military idiots.
It does not matter, the orders have gone out to all the media: “Kagan allowed the military, and anyone who says different is a nazi and an anti semite!”
June 30, 2010, 1:37 pmManju says:
Oh, you liberals are just dying to see Lindsey go down.
June 30, 2010, 1:49 pm1040 says:
they also have something else in common. what that is, you don’t ask, and i won’t tell.
June 30, 2010, 2:11 pmNathan says:
I remember one Christmas in Michigan when my wife and I had some time between morning gift exchanging with the family and the afternoon/evening activities with even more family. Borrowing from the movie ‘A Christmas Story’ I figured we could hit a chinese place for lunch. After all, that movie took place in the midwest right?
Not a single Chinese restaurant was open.
Even the one south of town where they go to all sorts of extravagance on Chinese new year and are always celebrating some other chinese holiday. They were even closed.
June 30, 2010, 2:22 pmCJColucci says:
Manju says:
CJColucci: Maybe he goes both ways?
Oh, you liberals are just dying to see Lindsey go down.
Manju, maybe you might want to — ahem — rephrase that? I can assure you that that’s one thing I have absolutely no interest in seeing.
June 30, 2010, 2:54 pmAs for his political future, he chose what bed to lie in, so to speak. If that crowd has problems with his rumored lifestyle choices, that was hardly unpredictable, and he might have considered that before throwing in with them.
OrenWithAnE says:
(1) Laura isn’t Jewish — she doesn’t have to keep kosher (and hence cannot stumble by failing to do so). She was, however, apparently curious as to the relation of kashrut to unsupervised restaurants and so I thought it kind to link to one possible resolution of the matter.
(2) Of course it’s not halakah, it’s tshuvah.
June 30, 2010, 3:14 pmdearieme says:
I had a Chinese meal on Xmas day once. As I get older I look quite Jewish. Can anyone recommend a genetic testing service?
June 30, 2010, 4:43 pmLaura(southernxyl) says:
Oren, thanks for the interesting article. Lots of food for thought there. I liked this:
This is not confined to religion, of course. One of the things I like to do at work is to challenge inconvenient and time-wasting activities that people tell me they are absolutely convinced they are supposed to do.
Mustapha told me on another occasion that there is a difference between kosher and halal – IIRC, he said that kosher means “definitely OK” and halal means “not forbidden”. Or maybe I have that backwards. Anyway, he thought there was a difference of approach there. I can eat anything, heathen that I am, of course.
June 30, 2010, 7:27 pmKazinski says:
Not as much as Conservatives are. Lindsey is near the top of the list of Republican senators that conservatives would like to “Bennett”.
June 30, 2010, 7:32 pmTom952 says:
When God said, ‘don’t eat pork’, that was in the days before there was USDA inspected pork.
July 2, 2010, 5:44 pmBarb says:
God’s laws: for our own good. And then Peter had a vision that God had proclaimed that Gentiles and pigs are no longer “unclean” –so now gentile Christians have ham on Easter.
Christ’s resurrection changed EVERYTHING: life after death for all God’s people who receive His son. The tearing of the veil in the temple –no longer a barrier between people and God –no mediator needed except Christ Jesus.
I enjoyed the song –and the Coulter/Beck postings.
July 7, 2010, 4:43 pm