Israeli wine

I don't know much about this subject but I imagine that some of my Jewish readers do so I anticipate updates.

Israel has of course produced wine from ancient times. It is a Mediterranean thing. But what amuses me is that Israel somehow seems to have got a lock on the market for communion wine -- horrible sweet stuff that most Christian churches from Anglicans to Catholics seem to use. To my knowledge all Methodist and Presbyterian churches use grape juice at communion so the Israelis have not penetrated that market but elsewhere in Christendom they reign supreme.

The Israeli influence there must stem in part from their traditional provision of passover wine -- which is also sweet stuff. I was delighted therefore that at the recent seder which I attended, they had abandoned that stuff and provided a bottle of good full-bodied Australian dry red instead. Four small cups (and the rest) of that went down well.

I imagine that Israel also these days produces some good dry reds but how did they get such dominance in providing communion wine for Christian churches? Is it a religious thing or what?

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Brookes News Update

Obama's capital gains tax is a tax on economic growth: Obama's proposal to raise capital gains taxes would directly strike at economic growth. It would strip the economy of a vital pool of savings and could even result in capital consumption. It is now perfectly clear that Obama is a dangerous ideologue whose economics could kill investment in the US economy
Surpluses won't save the Australian economy: From March 1996 to May 2005 currency expanded by 76 per cent, bank deposits by 109.6 per cent and M1 by 102 per cent. These are terrible figures and things have not got any better. From May 2005 to January 2008 bank deposits rose by 36.5 per cent and M1 by 33 per cent. Unfortunately, our economic commentariat can see no significance in these figures, For them, monetary theory and capital theory just don't matter
Mining industry caves in to fanatical greens: It is high time the mining industry rethought its 'tactics'. Only when its executives finally accept the moral imperative of their case and confront will they have any hope of successfully defeating the green barbarism and recapturing the moral high ground which rightfully belongs to the industry
Why economic modellng fails: Because of the unique nature of human beings economics can only be a qualitative discipline. There are no fixed values or constant physical elements in economics as there are in physics. Therefore, econometric modelling is nothing more than playing with numbers
Has the market failed?: With a breathtaking degree of effrontery, we are being asked to take seriously the idea that the Federal Reserve the organisation - the institution responsible for the current crisis - should henceforth be accorded unparalleled powers of oversight
Does the Democrat Party belong in jail?: Congress, by failing to act in the case of a clear and present danger to parts of the American financial system, could reasonably be considered engaging in willful misconduct. The Democrats, rather than learn from the Republicans' mistakes, are now engaged in even more willful misconduct
Soros plays politics: Soros is at it again, using his vast fortune to fund leftwing anti-American groups. In the meantime, America's corrupt media run interference for him
Israel and the chronology of friendship: For 60 years Israel has been living under the threat of Arab terror with its hands tightly held by the international hypocrites who did not want to see the existence of the Jewish state in the first place

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ELSEWHERE

Strange new respect for Hillary?: "Clinton further displayed tough talk in an interview airing on "Good Morning America" Tuesday. ABC News' Chris Cuomo asked Clinton what she would do if Iran attacked Israel with nuclear weapons. "I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran," Clinton said. "In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them."

Giving these guys a State sure worked wonders: "The number of Palestinians who support attacks against Israelis continues to rise and more than half of them favor suicide bombings, according to a poll published this weekend. The survey also showed that Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh is still more popular than Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The percentage of Palestinians who support "resistance operations" against Israeli targets rose from 43.1 percent in September 2006 to 49.5% at present. Support for this option was highest in the Gaza Strip, at 58.1%, with 24.5% in the West Bank agreeing. Palestinians who support bombing attacks against Israeli civilians rose from 44.8% in June 2006 to 48% in September 2006 and to 50.7% now. Again, more Gazans support these operations (65.1%), compared with 42.3% of Palestinians in the West Bank."

Anger Management: "Bob Kerrey defends John McCain against the absurd WaPo attack on his temper yesterday. "In a comment under my blog post last night noting McCain aide Mark Salter's aggressive rebuttal to a lengthy front-page Washington Post story examining the candidate's temper, Kerrey clarified his role in and explained the circumstances around the anecdote the paper used to lead its piece". We learn from Kerrey's comment that "The precise point of disagreement between the Senators was over a man name Robert Garwood", who is in fact quite controversial."

Be glad you are a conservative: "Chelsea Clinton stopped traffic Friday night as she wandered the streets of Philadelphia on a gay bar crawl, winning rave reviews for both her politics and her appearance. Led around the neighborhood by Gov. Ed Rendell, Chelsea was mobbed by local gays and lesbians, as she walked from one club to the next. They ran up to hug her, posed for pictures and certainly invaded her personal space. "I grabbed her ass," one young woman exclaimed to her friends after snapping a picture with her arm around the former first daughter."

Britain is becoming a 'why bother country': "Britain is suffering from a "why bother" economy because its benefits culture, high taxes and poor education system leave many people lacking the motivation or capability to succeed, according to a report. The cost to the economy of low social mobility is 32 billion pounds a year, or 1,300 to the average family, claims Reform, the independent think tank. This comes despite higher spending on benefits and public services that have served only to reinforce privilege, it says. Child poverty has risen, with the number of children classified as low income rising from 2.4 million to three million. State schools stand accused of a "dismal" record when it comes to educating the poorest in society, with school-leavers from poor backgrounds doing only half as well as average 16-year-olds.

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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A lesson in Australian: When an Australian calls someone a "big-noter", he is saying that the person is a chronic and rather pathetic seeker of admiration -- as in someone who often pulls out "big notes" (e.g. $100.00 bills) to pay for things, thus endeavouring to create the impression that he is rich. The term describes the mentality rather than the actual behavior with money and it aptly describes many Leftists. When they purport to show "compassion" by advocating things that cost themselves nothing (e.g. advocating more taxes on "the rich" to help "the poor"), an Australian might say that the Leftist is "big-noting himself". There is a recent example of the usage here. The term conveys contempt. There is a wise description of Australians generally here

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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