By Laurie Baron
SAN DIEGO―Former President George W. Bush will speak tonight at a fundraiser for the Messianic Jewish Bible Institute, an evangelical Christian group whose aim is to convert all Jews to accelerate the Second Coming of Christ. Fending off appeals by Jewish leaders to cancel his talk, Bush’s public relations team has come up with two rationales to placate them. The first is that the missionary activities of the Institute are mild in comparison with Bush’s last attempt to trigger the Apocalypse by starting the war in Iraq. The other is that Bush erroneously believes he was invited to hasten the return of Christ by converting Jewish Democrats into Republicans.
Democrats in the Senate plan to introduce a bill raising the minimum wage to $9 an hour. It has already encountered opposition from House Republicans who seek to keep the minimum wage lower than Congress’s approval rating.
Sea World is trying to reverse an OSHA ruling that trainers cannot be in pools during killer whale performances since the risks of injury or death to them are too high. While its appeal is being considered, Sea World has recruited players from the National Football League because they apparently aren’t afraid of endangering themselves to entertain the public.
Only 106,155 people purchased medical insurance through state exchanges and HealthCare.gov during the first month of enrollment. Trying to put a positive spin on this negative news, the Obama administration issued a press release commenting, “Think of this figure as the equivalent of enrolling all the inhabitants of the US Virgin Islands.”
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is selling bobblehead dolls that look like him and donating the proceeds to the United Way. After a thousand of the dolls were sold, buyers complained that they were cracked.
*
Laurie Baron is professor emeritus of history at San Diego State University. He may be contacted at Lawrence.baron@sdjewishworld.com
Your columns really, really make me laugh.
I’m surprised!
No further comment.