Here's the type of headline you don't see everyday.

Old Farts meet in West Nyack for horseback riding

Go Kinkster Go!

Kinky, stars bring in bucks

SPICEWOOD, Texas – Kinky Friedman has a few more months to let Texans fall in love with his personality before he has to get serious on issues to win the Texas governor's seat, former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura said Sunday.

"Truthfully, he should start getting very, very serious around July," said the politically independent Mr. Ventura. He sat next to Mr. Friedman, the Texas musician and humorist turned political candidate, at Willie Nelson's World Headquarters during a fundraiser Sunday.

"Until then," Mr. Ventura said, "let him be his personality, let people get to know who he is and him."

But if Sunday's golf game and barbecue at Willie's ranch outside Austin is any indication, the campaign might get serious sooner. The Hill Country event netted an estimated $170,000 for Mr. Friedman's independent campaign to unseat Republican Gov. Rick Perry, the most he's raised in a single event.

To me, this statistic is incredibly damning regarding the media's coverage of what we as a nation are trying to accomplish in Iraq.

Few stories focused on the heroism or generous actions of American soldiers. Just eight stories were devoted to recounting episodes of heroism or valor by U.S. troops, and another nine stories featured instances when soldiers reached out to help the Iraqi people. In contrast, 79 stories focused on allegations of combat mistakes or outright misconduct on the part of U.S. military personnel.

It's worth reading the whole thing - TV’s Bad News Brigade

Lanny Davis, special counsel to President Bill Clinton from 1996 to 1998, has this to say about Scooter Libby's discussions about Valerie Plame:

Similarly, the Democrats are playing up the idea that White House officials may have endangered national security in playing hardball politics. Well, I can remember all the times I picked up the phone and talked "on background" to reporters, "pushing back" against rumors damaging to President Clinton and citing information that I thought was "out there." I don't remember ever worrying about whether the facts that I felt were public knowledge might have been classified. But even if I had, I would probably have rationalized that anything I had heard on the grapevine couldn't possibly be a state secret. If every political aide was prosecuted for those kinds of conversations with the press corps, I'm afraid there wouldn't be enough jails to hold us.

Personally, I'm disgusted.

Exxon Mobil posts largest quarterly profit ever

IRVING, Texas - High prices for oil and natural gas propelled Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC to their best quarterly results ever on Thursday, with Exxon becoming the first U.S. company ever to ring up quarterly sales of $100 billion.

To put Exxon’s performance into perspective, its third quarter revenue was greater than the annual gross domestic product of some of the largest oil producing nations, including the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. The world’s largest publicly traded oil company also set a U.S. profit record with net income of almost $10 billion, according to Standard & Poor’s equity market analyst Howard Silverblatt.

If Bush is stupid, what does the make John Kerry? Hilarious catch by Opinion Journal which goes to show what happens all you can do is parrot the party line.

John Kerry gave a speech at Georgetown University today, in which he offered the following brilliant insights on Iraq: "When they [the Bush administration] could have listened to General Shinseki and put in enough troops to maintain order, they chose not to. They were wrong..."

"General George Casey, our top military commander in Iraq, recently told Congress that our large military presence 'feeds the notion of occupation' and 'extends the amount of time that it will take for Iraqi security forces to become self-reliant.' . . . It is essential to acknowledge that the insurgency will not be defeated unless our troop levels are drawn down."

Apparently Kerry was for more troops before he was against it.

Suicide bomber in Israel kills 5, wounds 30

HADERA, Israel - A 20-year-old Palestinian blacksmith blew himself up at a falafel stand in an open-air market Wednesday, killing five Israelis and wounding more than 30 in the deadliest attack in the country in more than three months.

The bombing stifled faint peace hopes following Israel’s pullout from the Gaza Strip. The blast also embarrassed Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who only hours earlier had scolded militant groups for repeatedly violating a truce.

The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility, saying the attack was to avenge the killing of its West Bank leader by Israeli forces this week.

Needless to say, Abbas will avenge this embarrasing incident by cracking down on Islamic Jihad.

Right.

The coming out of Cheryl Swoopes, the WNBA's most valuable player, is NOT going to make a lot of gay activists happy.

"Do I think I was born this way? No," Swoopes said. "And that's probably confusing to some, because I know a lot of people believe that you are."

On the 11th Anniversary of the peace agreement between Jordan and Israel, we find that not all Middle Eastern countries are over their Jewish problem.

Iran president wants Israel ‘wiped off the map’

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran’s hard-line president called for Israel to be “wiped off the map” and said a new wave of Palestinian attacks will destroy the Jewish state, state-run media reported Wednesday.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also denounced attempts to recognize Israel or normalize relations with it.

“There is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world,” Ahmadinejad told students Wednesday during a Tehran conference called “The World without Zionism.”

“Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation’s fury, any (Islamic leader) who recognizes the Zionist regime means he is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world,” Ahmadinejad said.

Ahmadinejad also repeated the words of the founder of Iran’s Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who called for the destruction of Israel.

“As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map,” said Ahmadinejad, who came to power in August.

Ahmadinejad referred to Israel’s recent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as a “trick,” saying Gaza is part of the Palestinian territories and the withdrawal was meant to make Islamic states acknowledge Israel.

Perhaps dropping a large bomb on the Presidential Palace in Tehran would allow the Iranian leadership to "recognize" Israel.

This is the face of our 21st century Haman.



May I remind the President of another Persian attempt to destroy the Jews that turned out badly...

And letters shall be sent by the hand of the couriers to all the king's provinces, to destroy, kill, and cause to perish all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, on one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and their spoils to be taken as plunder......And they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai".

You may remember the January 2005 report by the Center for Religious Freedom on the distribution of Saudi government approved hate material in American mosques.

This led to the introduction of the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act of 2005 in the Senate on June 6, with the main purpose being, "To halt Saudi support for institutions that fund, train, incite, encourage, or in any other way aid and abet terrorism, and to secure full Saudi cooperation in the investigation of terrorist incidents, and for other purposes." The bill was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. A similar bill was presented in November 2003.

In addition, the Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to meet today to discuss the topic, “Saudi Arabia: Friend or Foe in the War on Terror?”. However, the meeting was canceled and has not been rescheduled. Israpundit has an Action Alert with a list of Senators on the Committee who you can contact to make your feelings known about the importance of this topic. More here from the Washington Times.

I couldn't find any other mention of this news in the mainstream press.

Yalla Bart! I mean Badr! D'oh!



'The Simpsons' vs. the 'Al Shamsoons'

The Simpsons made their debut on an Arab satellite TV network, MBC, earlier this month, but the show has been re-branded Al Shamsoon. Along with the new name, America's most beloved cartoon family has also picked up a few interesting new habits.

Arab TV bosses made some changes to help ensure that the show is a hit across the Middle East. Unfortunately, the response has been rather underwhelming, with many bloggers reporting that the adapted version is a travesty.

Homer Simpson, now Omar Shamsoon, looks like the same beer-bellied bum, but on Arab TV he's given up alcohol and bacon (which are both against Islam), and no longer hangs out at "seedy bars with bums and lowlifes." In Arabia, Omar swigs fizzy soda, and his hot dogs are barbecued Egyptian beef. The doughnuts he famously salivates over have become traditional Arab cookies called kahk.

Mischievous Bart is now called Badr, and Moe's Bar has been written out entirely. Others exorcised from the show include Jewish character Krusty [Krustofsky] the Clown and Reverend Lovejoy - apparently to keep them from "corrupting" audiences.

Why don't they just dub the Krusty episodes to make them look like they're about ritual Jewish killings of Arab children? If the audience is made up of those that can't stomach the thought of animated Jews (or Chirstians) onscreen, I'm sure this is something they might find enjoyable.

I hope the creators of the Simpsons are approving the scripts. Seriously.

Mr. Bloomberg has not been nearly as exciting, or entertaining, as Edward I. Koch or Rudolph W. Giuliani. But he has been better at running the city. If he continues his record of accomplishment over the next four years, he may be remembered as one of the greatest mayors in New York history.

Now THAT's an endorsement.

On February 26, I linked to a story from the Washington Post about Iraqi soldiers who were being praised for helping out their American colleagues. One of the American soldeirs quoted was Spc Russell Nahvi.

A few days ago, Spc Nahvi was killed when his HMMWV was struck by enemy indirect fire during patrol operations. He was assigned to the 5th Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.

My condolences go out to his uncle (who posted a comment to my earlier entry) and his entire family. If any of them read this I want them to know that at least this blogger appreciates Russell's service and thinks the world that my children will inherit will be a better place for the actions of brave Americans like him.

God Bless You All.

There's a new reason to go to the suburbs of Cleveland - Beachwood, Ohio to be exact.

Museum Blends History of Jews With U.S.

Constructed of Jerusalem limestone quarried in Israel, the exterior of the Maltz Museum was crafted to resemble the texture of ancient city walls. The architects set the $15 million museum low into the ground to give the feeling that it's an excavated artifact.

But its sleek lines have a contemporary feel. Inside its glass doors, visitors are taken on a journey with Jews who immigrated to the United States and settled in Cleveland, beginning in 1839.

The first artifact sets the tone for the rest of the journey. Next to a mural of immigrants arriving in America is an ethical will called the Alsbacher Document. Written by Lazarus Kohn, a teacher in Unsleben, Bavaria, it tells the travelers not to forget their Jewish heritage as they enjoy America's freedoms.

Headphones and a touch-display allow the visitor to experience the journey from Bavaria to the United States and make important decisions along the way. Do you continue even though you have little money? Who do you trust when you arrive in America? Should you marry soon after arriving?

The cultural contributions of Jewish immigrants are on display as well. A larger-than-life Superman bursts through the museum's brick wall over an exhibit about Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, who dreamed up Superman while at Glenville High School.

Very cool.

Here's the link to the museum itself - Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage

Rory Carroll, an Irish journalist working in Iraq knows where the danger lies for people like him. With the Americans.

Reporters at risk

The International Federation of Journalists accused the US military of "incompetence, reckless soldiering, and cynical disregard" for journalists' lives....In addition to shooting them, US forces have a habit of detaining journalists without charge.

Apparently, while Mr. Carroll was looking over his shoulder for evil Americans on the hunt, he was kidnapped by "armed men".

No description provided, but my guess is they were not Americans.

Ace investigative reporter Darlene Superville of the Associated Press has filed a report on the contents of Karl Rove's garage as seen from the street.

I won't dignify this disgusting invasion of privacy with a link. And don't give me any crap about the garage being visible to anyone walking by in the street that day. That doesn't mean the contents should be distributed for global publication (with photos).

Israel's Maccabi Tel-Aviv basketball team became the first international team to beat an NBA team in 17 years. Seriously.

'This is history'
Israeli club team Maccabi Tel Aviv stuns Raptors

TORONTO (AP) -- Maccabi Tel Aviv beat an NBA team for the first time in 27 years, topping the Toronto Raptors 105-103 on Sunday on Anthony Parker's jumper with 0.8 seconds left....

Toronto's loss was just the second by an NBA team in the 28 games held since the NBA sanctioned international competitions in 1987. The Atlanta Hawks lost to the Soviet national team 132-123 in 1988.

Sukkot is fast approaching. I put together my little 8x6 snap sukkah today - without any help at all it only took about 45 minutes.

Here's a list of links for all you need to know about the hoilday:

Sukkot from Aish.com
Sukkot in a Nutshell by Chabad
Sukkot Central from the OUSukkot from Judaism 101
Wiki-Sukkot
The Festival of Booths from Everything Jewish
Succot recipes
Sukkot for Children from Torah Tots
Sukkot from the Union of Reform Judaism
All About Sukkot (Paperback)
Succos: Its Significance, Laws, And Prayers
Sukkot: Be Happy and Rejoice! from United Jewish Communities
As defined by the BBC (I'm afraid to read it)
From AskMoses.com - Sukkah is to Sukkot what beer is to Oktoberfest.
Free Sukkot Ecards. And here.

By the way, did you hear about the evil lulav cartel that was trying to drive up prices?

If they can find the time, you can too...

Monumental strides have been made towards a lasting peace in the Middle East and no one can deny that it was no accident arising from the Bush administration's policies - especially if you are one who believes that the neocons had a strong influence on those policies. This was by design.

In an interview yesterday, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan said, "Inshallah (God willing) I will also meet Prime Minister Sharon soon."

By also, he was referring to the actions of another leader of the region, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who shook hands with Sharon at the UN General Assembly last month.

In addition, Pakistan has now accepted earthquake relief aid from Israel.

They just put in some new stained glass in the main sanctuary of my shul that many of us saw for the first time at Neilah service this evening. Here's what it looks like.

The only criticism I have is that there is too much white space. One fellow congregant also mentioned that he found it odd that the foot being grabbed is an adult foot, even though it is a representation of Jacob and Esau's struggles in the womb.

Other than that it is a fabulous addition to the shul and looked great when they turned down the lights for havdalah since the artwork is essentially placed over large lightboxes that let the light shine through on an interior wall.

I found this Denis Leary rant over at Normblog. I needed a good post-Yom Kippur belly laugh. Language is R-rated.

Leary Therapy

In honor of the end of Yom Kippur, here's a story about Sandy Koufax' famous refusal to pitch on this day (on the Hebrew Calendar) in the 1965 World Series.

When faith trumped baseball

Rabbi Moshe Feller, director of Chabad Lubavitch of the Upper Midwest at age 28, felt divinely inspired to try to see Koufax that Thursday in October 1965 so he could personally thank him for what he had done the day before....

Feller - who has told this story with relish numerous times to friends, audiences and Jewish media but never beyond that circle - introduced himself over the phone. "I told him that more Jews knew when Yom Kippur is because you announced you weren't going to pitch on October 6th than knew from the Jewish calendar."

Captain's Quarters reports on another Katrina myth created by the media.

Toxic Soup - NOT.

Is there anythng that happened during Katrina that was reported accurately by the media?

I'm no big fan of Rosie O'Donnell, but even I have to feel sorry for her after ths scathing (for the New York Times) review of her performance in Fiddler on the Roof.

Tevye Takes a New Wife, and This One Is TV Famous

Here are instructions for transforming yourself into a Jewish matriarch in provincial Russia in 1905, inspired by Rosie O'Donnell's performance in "Fiddler on the Roof" at the Minskoff Theater. Feel free to try this at home.

1. Plant yourself on the floor as if you were an oak.

2. Puff out your chest.

3. Place the palm of your left hand on the back of your left hip.

And, voilà!, you have instant Golde, the wife of Tevye, the philosopher-milkman in the musical adaptation of Sholom Aleichem's stories of shtetl life in the twilight of imperial Russia. Just strike that commanding maternal pose and all other essential elements of character will soon arrive naturally. It might help if you prayed a little, too.

That would seem to be Ms. O'Donnell's approach to a role previously played by Randy Graff and Andrea Martin in David Leveaux's elegant but empty revival of this much-loved show by Joseph Stein, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick. Alas, a pose and a prayer prove to be not quite enough to allow Ms. O'Donnell - the comedian, television personality, theatrical producer, sometime actress and confessional blogger - to make us believe that she is someone other than who she so famously is.

Her accent trots the globe, through countries real and imagined. It is variously Irish, Yiddish, Long Island-ish and, for big dramatic moments, crisp and round in the style of introduction-to-theater students. Her relationship with the notes and keys of a song is similarly fluid.

Ouch.

I really should do more blogging about personal things to liven things up here a bit - after all that`s what the best bloggers tend to do.

This evening I`m leaving Buenos Aires from the lovely Ezeiza airport. I`ve been here for a week with the wife and kids visiting my in-laws. Rosh Hashana was especially beautiful at Comunidad Bet-El. I`m usually Mister conservadox, but down here the Conservative (or Masorti) synagogues use choirs and organs. I have had very few experiences in my religious life as moving as when "Ufros aleinu succat shlomecha" is sung on Friday night with several hundred people singing in harmony along with the choir and organ. The way the song is sung it`s as if everyone is literally crying - begging for world peace.

In part we were also here for the inauguration of a library that we donated money to build out in a double classroom at the adjacent Jewish day school, Instituto Bet-El. I had to miss most of the ceremony since our two-year old wasn`t up to sitting through a 45 minute ceremony. The people behind us kept trying to shut her up so they could hear - I don`t think they knew or cared that we were the honorees!

Gotta run - I`ve got an 11 hour flight to NY to catch.

There are many explanations for why the Jewish community has survived for so long despite the disappearence and defeat of their greatest tormentors over the course of several millennia. In the classic book ¨Sabbath¨ by Abraham Joshua Heschel, I´ve discovered an answer.

Rabbi Shimeon belonged to a generation which, under the leadership of Bar Kochba, rose in arms against the might of Rome in a last effort to regain independence and to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. Israel without the sanctuary seemed alone in the world. The revolt was crushed - it became clear that there was no possibility of another uprising. The sanctuary in space was going to remain in ruins for many a long day. But Rabbi Shimeon´s idea proclaimed Israel was not alone. Israel is engaged to holiness, to eternity. The match was made long before history began - the Sabbath was a union that no one could disjoin. What G-d put together coud not be set apart.

Good shabbos!

Something you don´t see every day...

Congregant shoots fellow worshipper outside synagogue

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - (KRT) - Solemn Rosh Hashana services being held in a storefront synagogue in west Boca Raton, Fla., to mark the Jewish New Year came to a shocking halt Tuesday afternoon when two feuding congregants walked outside and one shot the other twice in the chest at point blank range.

Some 200 worshippers in the Chabad Weltman Synagogue heard gunfire just after the reading of a traditional prayer that discusses God's judgment of who will live and who will die.

OK it´s a little late, but here´s a Rosh Hashana ¨postcard¨ you´re not likely to forget.

Shabot 6000 does the Pee Wee dance. Tekiah!

On September 4, I posted the following thoughts...

I have a gut feeling about the death toll from Katrina which I hope is right. I believe that state officials are greatly exaggerating the numbers (up to 10,000 plus).....

I also imagine that the media was pretty much restricted to certain areas of New Orleans - a highway overpass, the Superdome, the Convention Center. They have no way of knowing what will be found in the rest of the city and theories like "dead people drowning in attics" has replaced actually fact-finding.

I bet (hope) the number turns up being less than a thousand (in New Orleans).
I have been vindicated! La. Search for Katrina Dead Ends at 964

There have been many reports in the last week or two about how the media hyped a lot of what happened in New Orleans. However, I would like to know if anyone made a prediction like mine as early as I did.

All this being said, it is an embarrassment that so many had to die and I hope that one of the first things the city does is establish a memorial as a reminder that it should never happen again.

"There are those who falsely characterize the support of democracy as "exporting" democracy, as if democracy were somehow a product that only America manufactures. These critics say that we are arrogantly imposing our principles on an unwilling people. But it is the very height of arrogance to believe that political liberty and democratic aspirations and freedom of speech and rights for women somehow belong only to us. All people deserve these rights and they choose them freely. It is not liberty and democracy that must be imposed. It is tyranny and silence that are forced upon people at gunpoint."

.....In 1989, I was lucky enough to be the White House Soviet specialist at the end of the Cold War. It doesn't get any better than that. I was there for the liberation of Eastern Europe; the unification of Germany; and for the beginnings of the peaceful collapse of the Soviet Union itself. I saw things that I never thought possible. And one day, they seemed impossible; and several days later, they seemed inevitable. That is the nature of extraordinary times.

But as I look back now on those times, I realized that I was only harvesting the good decisions that had been taken in 1947, in 1948, and in 1949. And sometimes, I wonder how in the course of events, the course of the moment, people like Acheson and Truman and Marshall and Vandenberg saw a path ahead. After all, in 1946, the Germany Reconstruction was still failing and Germans were still starving. Japan lay prostrate. In 1947, there was a civil war in Greece. In 1948, Germany was permanently divided by the Berlin Crisis; Czechoslovakia was lost to a communist coup. And in 1949, the Soviet Union exploded a nuclear weapon five years ahead of schedule; and the Chinese communists won their war. In 1950, a brutal war broke on the Korean Peninsula.

These were not just tactical setbacks for the forward march of democracy. Indeed, it must have seemed quite impossible, that we would one day, stand at a juncture where Eastern Europe would be liberated, Russia would emerge, and Europe would be whole and free and at peace. If we think back on those days, we recognize that extraordinary times are turbulent and they are hard. And it is very often hard to see a clear path. But if you are -- as those great architects of the post-Cold War victory were -- if you are true to your values, if you are certain of your values, and if you act upon them with confidence and with strength, it is possible to have an outcome where democracy spreads and peace and liberty reign.

Because of the work that they did, it is hard to imagine war in Europe again. So it shall be also for the Middle East."

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, speech at Princeton University - September 30, 2005