Don't get ADLed

Good morning, reader(s) of Stroock's Books. The temp is positively balmy at 44 degrees. Looking at the carpet of leaves in the front yard, we're thinking it's almost time to bust out our Ryobi battery powered leaf blower. [Battery powered? What are you? One of them dirt lickers? And do you have some kind of endorsement deal with Ryobi?-Ed]. Yes, paid in bitcoin. Beats the old Ruski midnight dead drop at the train station, don't it?

So a college student in Mississippi threw change at Dave Portnoy, shouted 'Fuck the Jews' at him...and was subsequently arrested.  The Jerusalem Post reports that the kid has a legal defense fund which has raised nearly $30,000, with many of the donors leaving critical and antisemitic remarks. Throwing change and shouting racial slurs at someone is certainly disturbing the peace. But arresting the kid feels like an overreaction, no?  We'd be more inclined to sit down with the kid and have a talk with him. Or how about, 'Alright, kid. Let's go watch Schindler's List. You'll do a thousand word review of same.' Hmmm maybe not. How about Raid on Entebbe? 

ADLism, in which an organization uses maximum force against someone who may simply have made a mistake, doesn't work. The ADL's heavy hand feeds resentment. It feeds the Groypers. Just look at some of the comments donors left on the kid's fundraiser. Once more, we know ADLism doesn't work because Jews are being harassed everywhere in the United States now. 

Speaking of Jonathan Tobin at JNS asks, 'Can the ADL go back to defending the Jews?' Tobin argues, as we have for decades really, that the ADL has strayed from its mission of protecting Jews and morphed into just another woke, leftwing organization. Tobin bites, go read the article.*

Pointless nostalgia. FB tells us we posted this in 2008, 'Neck deep into an article about Phillip II.' That's Phillip II of Spain. At the time we were fascinated by the Spanish War machine of the late 16th century. This includes the Armada, the army of Flanders, the Spanish Road. We must have acquired seven or eight books in research. That article eventually metastasized to 8,000 words. Phillip II had a big war machine.  We wrote much of the article while subbing at Bernards High School, our last year there. Alas the article never saw publication. If any magazine editors are reading this, well, drop us a line. 

DOGE Report: The Thatcher's War read through continues. We are now up to the Battle of Derry.

*Here's a classic hit we did on the ADL. Do click over. And here's the follow up. Again, do click over.