James Crocker wrote:

>I don't mean to offend anyone, but I felt obligated to pass along some
>accurate information.



"don't mean to offend"?  "Accurate information?"

First of all, it is beyond me that you could think that message would
not be offensive.  It is horribly offensive.  And since you apparently
don't know WHY it is offensive:

What you call "accurate information" is hearsay.  Wouldn't be accepted
in a court of law, and wouldn't be accepted as evidence in most
kindergarten disputes.  "I know a guy who knew a guy" doesn't count as
truth; it's only anecdote.  In this case, vicious anecdote.

Had you merely intended to make a point, sir, you could have said, "I
understand that not all kosher markings are reliable."  You didn't need
to tell a horrible story (which may or may not be true) about a rabbi
and a monkey, that had nothing to do with the topic at hand.  Even if
the story is true, it is the evil action of an individual, but by the
way you told it, you left the impression that any rabbi might be
suspected of such.  It's a typical anti-Semitic tale.

It is possible to find an awful story about some individual member of
any group of people, to shock and smear and to appear righteous or
clever.  I could tell a story about "a butcher I knew" that could make
any nasty point I wanted, and the story might even be true.  But while
it would be true about the individual man in the meat business, it
wouldn't be true about ALL butchers, and it would be wrong for me to
tell the story in such a way that I seemed to imply that all butchers
inject their product with formaldehyde to keep it nice and red on the
display.  (There was a guy in Tennessee who did that, was actually
convicted of it after someone got sick on the meat, years ago.)  But it
would be wrong for me to tell that story in order to stir up suspicion
against all butchers.  And yet, in your story, that's your stated
intent:  to stir up suspicion against all people who produce food
labeled kosher.  Shame on you.

I just signed onto this list, because I read Ray's book and I think he
has some remarkable things to say, and because I thought I might learn
something here.  So far I am not impressed, not with you and not with
the list manager who let such a thing pass.

Val Scott