From the NYT:
JERUSALEM — Two very, very rich Americans who recently left very, very high-profile jobs flew to Israel this week, each on a private plane. The less-rich one hosted a ceremony Thursday night where the more-rich one got a $1 million prize from a quartet of Russian oligarchs. Then he gave it back.
If that sounds like something Jay Leno might have poked fun at on “The Tonight Show,” well, Mr. Leno — whose net worth is estimated at $250 million to $350 million — was the host. Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire businessman who served three terms as mayor of New York, was the one receiving — and then returning — the first-ever Genesis Prize, which honors achievement steeped in what it calls “Jewish values.” ...
Mr. Leno, 64, is not Jewish and had not been to Israel before Tuesday, when he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“This is just like a Hollywood awards show but with fewer Jews,” Mr. Leno cracked Thursday night. ...
The Genesis Prize aspires to be a kind of “Jewish Nobel.” “Shows what I know,” Mr. Leno said. “I thought the Nobel Prize was the Jewish Nobel Prize. Does anybody else ever win this thing?”
Candidates for the $100,000 prize need not be Jewish, though the video promoting it showcased an all-Jewish cast of achievers, including Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Marc Chagall, Levi Strauss, Mark Zuckerberg and Sarah Silverman.
From Albert Einstein to Sarah Silverman? That doesn't sound like a promising trend.
Such a good last line Steve- even the Jews loved it I bet.
ReplyDeleteDan in DC
Does there really need to be a Jewish Nobel Prize? It's like an American-American NBA MVP award.
ReplyDelete"From Albert Einstein to Sarah Silverman? That doesn't sound like a promising trend."
ReplyDeleteRegression to the mean is a bitch.
Isn't this kind of "let's celebrate ourselves" business better left to low performing groups? I mean, I can see why why Black Americans would want to do something like this, seeing as how their record at the actual Nobel Prizes is pretty abysmal. But do Jews really feel that their achievements have gone unrecognized?
ReplyDelete"Plaques for blacks"
DeleteHell, from Albert Einstein to Sigmund Freud doesn't sound like a promising trend.
ReplyDeleteYou never saw Albert do standup did you?
ReplyDeleteSarah Silverman? If you take just the best known and most accomplished Jewish comics, why not have: Jerry Seinfeld, Phil Silvers, Mel Brooks, Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, Jack Benny, and Lenny Bruce before Sarah Silverman.
ReplyDeleteSarah Silverman has however one thing all those *GUYS* lack.
Jews are among the most SWPL there are, and like SWPL they are afflicted with feminism and the self-destruction that feminism brings. Low birthrates leading to extinction? Check. [Because delayed fertility is reduced fertility.] Eat-Pray-Love obsessions with laughable "exotic" foreigners? Check! Celebrating questionable "achievements" by women who used to be hot as their only real success metric? Double Check Batman! Eleventy!!11!!!
Silverman is not even funny, she's got the same schtick as Chelsea Handler (formerly) hot chick who says obscene naughty things in a little girl voice. Mostly of a sexual nature. Seinfeld, the Three Stooges, Larry David, those guys were funny. Screamingly at times.
Funny. I'm surprised they didn't frog-march Leno back to airport and fly him home. Surely Mossad new what jokes he'd tell.
ReplyDelete“This is just like a Hollywood awards show but with fewer Jews,” Mr. Leno cracked Thursday night. ...
ReplyDeleteThat is pretty good. Comedy is better when people can actually crack jokes.
Albert Einstein (Albert Brooks) was pretty good in Taxi Driver.
ReplyDeleteThe rationalwiki page calling Steve an anti-Semite is truly shameful.
ReplyDelete"Isn't this kind of "let's celebrate ourselves" business better left to low performing groups? I mean, I can see why why Black Americans would want to do something like this, seeing as how their record at the actual Nobel Prizes is pretty abysmal. But do Jews really feel that their achievements have gone unrecognized?"
ReplyDeleteIndeed, this is quite declasse, but then again, Russian oligarchs (Jewish or otherwise) aren't exactly known for their sense of Anglo-Saxon propriety.
Anonymous"You don't quite understand how regression to the mean works, do you?"
ReplyDeletePerhaps a quote from one of Steve's articles can help me:
"If one starts with two parents whose IQs are 160 and looks at the average IQs across generations the speed of the regression to the mean is quite fast.
Parents 160, 160
Children average 136 (assume these mate with a 136)
Grandchildren average 122 (assume these mate with a 122)
Greatgrandchildren average 113 (assume these mate with a 113)"
And, yes, I was making a joke. I do know that Einstein was not actually Sarah Silverman's grandfather.
"For distinguished shvitzing while kibbutzing"
ReplyDeleteLOL read the Rational Wiki article on Steve. Aspies really have no sense of irony, do they?
ReplyDeleteHow does Sigmund Freud promote Jewish values? By sleeping with his patients?
ReplyDeleteFor that matter, Einstein's personal life wasn't above reproach either.
The rationalwiki page calling Steve an anti-Semite is truly shameful.
ReplyDeleteI checked it out. Shameful doesn't begin. It's just strung-together invective, and it reads like it was written by the "Steve Sailer Sucks" kid.
"rational" wiki! How ironic!
Do those Russian oligarchs seriously consider all that money to be theirs? If that isn't stolen loot I don't know what is.
ReplyDeleteWell, I know who I nominated..
ReplyDelete"If one starts with two parents whose IQs are 160 and looks at the average IQs across generations the speed of the regression to the mean is quite fast.
ReplyDeleteParents 160, 160
Children average 136 (assume these mate with a 136)
Grandchildren average 122 (assume these mate with a 122)
Greatgrandchildren average 113 (assume these mate with a 113)"
Would it actually work that way, though? Is regression to the mean that directly proportional (40% closer each generation)? More to the point, even if it is, I would think that the percentage is based on a random sample.
In other words, just because two random people with IQs of 136 would on average produce kids with IQs of 122, it does not follow that this would happen if one of the IQ 136 people has two parents with IQs of 160. I would suspect that the regression would be somewhat smaller in the grandchildren, and much smaller if both of the IQ 136 parents had parents with IQs of 160.
Steve is a hardcore anti_Semite, not just a mere anti_Semite. I guess that puts Steve in the same category as Hitler, which is a pretty fuzzy category then. They should apply that thinking to race.
ReplyDeleteThe way Israel is constantly in the news, you wouldn't know its impact on the global economy is about the same as Denmark or Belgium.
ReplyDeleteJustifiable because it's such a remarkable place.
This week is pretty typical: the leader of an billion-member church and the billionaire mayor of the most important city in the world flying in for some shameless mutual PR boosting. One of the US' biggest (pun intended) political figures Chris Christie having to explain himself to pro-Israel donors like Sheldon Adelson after accurately describing the West Bank as "occupied territories.
By the way, Sailer is not anti-Semitic. He admires Israeli Jews for their use of drone strikes and Depo-Provera injections on minority groups.
theres something despicable about sarah silverman. smug, arrogant, but lacking the chops to really make it on her own without feminist cheerleading.
ReplyDelete>> Do those Russian oligarchs seriously consider all that money to be theirs? If that isn't stolen loot I don't know what is
ReplyDeleteAfter all, the Royal Houses of Europe ==earned== their family fortune with ==hard work==, right?
Sarah Silverman was kind of an odd one to include in that list, considering her career's high water mark was an uneven Comedy Central show that was cancelled years ago. Amy Schumer's show is funnier, and she snagged an Apatow movie deal.
ReplyDelete"After all, the Royal Houses of Europe ==earned== their family fortune with ==hard work==, right?"
ReplyDeleteYes, they did. It was very often the King and the middle class, against the nobles and rich people.
A King also sets the standard for when luxury becomes vulgar, something the Jews might also have benefited from, by looking at how rich Jews behave.
beyond surreal
ReplyDeletehardly:"theres something despicable about sarah silverman. smug, arrogant, but lacking the chops to really make it on her own without feminist cheerleading."
ReplyDeleteI've always found her kind of quasi-cute. I think that it's her alabaster skin.
RE: Sarah Silverman,
ReplyDeleteAs a topic for analysis, she's actually popped up at a few seminars that I've attended (UNDERSTANDING JEWISH IDENTITY IN THE MODERN WORLD, etc).Academics (well, Jewish academics) seem to find her fascinating.
Sarah Silverman and female appearance anxiety:
ReplyDeleteLike many brunette girls, SS seems to feel that society views her as second rate in comparison to blondes. Hence, beautiful brunette spotting as a method of self-validation pops up rather frequently in her work.For example, in her memoirs (all comedians have them these days)she talks about watching Jane Badler (best-remembered as the evil Diana on V)on the Carson show. Naturally, mention is made of Badler's dark locks.
Of course, for SS brunette anxiety and Jewish anxiety seem to go hand in hand. Hence, her love-hate fixation on Winona Ryder, an actress who is beautiful, brunette (though not naturally so; she darkens her naturally light-brown hair), and Jewish.
Jews are among the most SWPL there are
ReplyDeleteLies. If they were, they would have dismantled Israel long ago.
If they were, you wouldn't defend them so much.
If they were, they wouldn't put up so much of a fight when they're criticized.
German Universities used to be real powerhouses for Nobel Prizes in Chemistry, Physics and Medicine.
ReplyDeleteBut not so much since the second half of the XX Century...
The dumb brutes cut off their countries head.
>> "another norwegian"
ReplyDeletecareful. Saami elders have already visited here, asking around about how vernacular-revitalization works and might be replicated.
norsk people are NOT indigenous to the land; they are colonialist invaders. Your social institutions comprise a house of cards; & your security organs are manned by folks who want to enforce World War T.
pushing you guys into the sea,and handing the land back to the Saami.... is not beyond plausibility.
From Albert Einstein to Sarah Silverman? That doesn't sound like a promising trend.
ReplyDeleteSort of like when they do a "Women In Tech" cover story and 5 of the 6 profiled are wives of VCs (and the 6th is the official Internet liaison for the state of Colorado or something like that)
Jay Leno think Yasser Arafat and Barack Obama were/are Jewish?
ReplyDeleteLeno is a man let out of comedy jail. He can say what he wants now.
ReplyDelete