A CNN reporter remembers the marines serving around Haditha as being unusually restrained and cool under fire.

A New Yorker essay on Oriana Fallaci.  Muslim hater or prophet? (Have to read this later)

Subway opens a kosher store in the JCC of Cleveland.

Look out for the spawn of Satan, coming to a maternity ward near you on 6/6/06.  Some moms are inducing early.  My second daughter was born by a scheduled C-section on September 19, 2003.  I almost wanted to have my wife do it on September 11 as a sign of re-birth and hope, but figured that it would really make a terrible birthday.  Turns out that she was born about 8:50AM right about the time of the attacks, so that was a good enough connection for me.

This "fake town" is a short bicycle ride from my house.  We go there (without the kids) for a movie or the occasional nice lunch/dinner.  It is indeed a Disnified version of urban America - great place to spend a few hours - very pricey stores - not necessarily where I'd want to live.  Maybe if I were single.

I think I'll have a little dessert after lunch today. 

Making Texas Cows Proud

"Blue Bell ice cream, to be specific, which is made in out-of-the-way Brenham and which many people consider the best in the country. So many people think so that Blue Bell, though sold in only 16 states, mostly in the South, and sold for a premium price, ranks No. 3 in sales nationally....."



*drool* 

Damn, it's only 7:30 in the morning.

*drool*

Quit it!

*drool*

Hey, people can write whatever they want, but I'm having a little trouble understanding the motivations of this particular novelist....

When the author switched the protagonist's politics to Nazism, he explained, it was because he "thought he had something to say from the standpoint of a Gestapo officer."

He went on: "I think I felt I could understand the animosity and hatred which a German would have for the Jews. Nobody's trying to see it from that point of view. I guess I have stuck my neck out here in a number of ways, but that's what writers are for, maybe."

He laughed and added: "I sometimes think, 'Why did I do this?' I'm delving into what can be a very sore subject for some people. But when those shadows would cross my mind, I'd say, 'They can't ask for a more sympathetic and, in a way, more loving portrait of a Nazi.' "

Hans is lovable, or at least appealing; he's in many ways the most moral and thoughtful character in the entire book......

-------------------------------------------------------------

Now read the real story about John Updike's newest novel, "Terrorist" as reported in the NY Times.

When Mr. Updike switched the protagonist's religion to Islam, he explained, it was because he "thought he had something to say from the standpoint of a terrorist."

He went on: "I think I felt I could understand the animosity and hatred which an Islamic believer would have for our system. Nobody's trying to see it from that point of view. I guess I have stuck my neck out here in a number of ways, but that's what writers are for, maybe."

He laughed and added: "I sometimes think, 'Why did I do this?' I'm delving into what can be a very sore subject for some people. But when those shadows would cross my mind, I'd say, 'They can't ask for a more sympathetic and, in a way, more loving portrait of a terrorist.' "

Ahmad is lovable, or at least appealing; he's in many ways the most moral and thoughtful character in the entire book......

The Jewish holiday of Shavuos begins Thursday evening, June 1.   There are a number of places in the Torah where we are commanded to celebrate this holiday. Including:

Deuteronomy 16:9 You shall count seven weeks for yourself; from[the time] the sickle is first put to the standing crop, you shall begin to count seven weeks.
10 And you shall perform the Festival of Weeks to the Lord, your God, the donation you can afford to give, according to how the Lord, your God, shall bless you.
11 And you shall rejoice before the Lord, your God, -you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite who is within your cities, and the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow, who are among you, in the place which the Lord, your God, will choose to establish His Name therein.

12 And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall keep and perform these statutes.


Shavuot is the culmination of the counting of the 49 days of the Omer. These are the number of days between Passover and Shavuos.  It marks the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai. The Ten Commandments are read in synagogues on Shavuot just as they were in the desert on Mt. Sinai over 3,300 years ago.


More at the usual sites:

Chabad
Aish.com
Judaism 101
Jewish Virtual Library
OU.org


Note of interest - since Shavuot occurs 50 days after Passover, Christians gave it the name Pentecost. However, the actual Christian commemoration of Pentecost occurs on the seventh Sunday after Easter.

The Ontario wing of Canada's largest union has voted to join an international boycott campaign against Israel "until that state recognizes the Palestinian right to self-determination."

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And in Toronto today...A walk along the lakefront to raise funds and celebrate Israel’s accomplishments turned nasty and police carted away marchers and protesters after the two groups clashed. About 30 protesters wearing black stood defiantly against the annual Walk With Israel fundraiser. The group’s spokesman, Abbie Bakan of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA), questioned what is being celebrated by the United Jewish Appeal Federation’s event.

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The National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education, Britain's biggest union of college teachers, is to vote Monday on a resolution enjoining its 67,000 members to boycott Israeli colleagues who do not distance themselves from what it calls Israel's "apartheid policies."

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French police opened an investigation Monday after suspected members of an extremist group marched through a Jewish quarter in central Paris shouting anti-Semitic slogans over the weekend. Shoppers in the historic Marais neighbourhood, one of the busiest districts in the Jewish area of Paris, were left in shock early Sunday evening after a group of extremists terrorized community members with anti-Semitic verbal abuse.

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In Jerusalem, a 14-year-old Jewish boy was lightly injured in the back in a stabbing attack, police said Saturday.

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President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran said that Germans should no longer allow themselves to be held prisoner by a sense of guilt over the Holocaust and reiterated doubts that the Holocaust ever happened. In an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, Ahmadinejad said he doubted that Germans were allowed to write "the truth" about the Holocaust and that he was still considering traveling to Germany for the World Cup soccer tournament.....Iran's first World Cup match is against Mexico in Nuremberg (ed. - of all places!) on June 11, and German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has said Iran's president would be welcome to come because Germany wants to be a good host.

Genesis - Chapter 9

15. And I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and between you and between every living creature among all flesh, and the water will no longer become a flood to destroy all flesh.

16. And the rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will see it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and between every living creature among all flesh, which is on the earth."

17. And God said to Noah: "This is the sign of the covenant that I have set up, between Myself and between all flesh that is on the earth."

First, a thank you to Pope Benedict XVI for visiting Auschwitz.  It means a lot more to me than when Oprah visits. (OK, I would like to find a torrent of the show somewhere.)



Here's the report of the German-born Pope's arrival at a mass given for 900,000 people.

Benedict made a triumphant entrance in his popemobile, riding through a sea of flags — red and white for Poland, yellow and white for the Vatican — with the choir singing the refrain, “Poland welcomes you, Poland thanks you.”

Well, one thing's for sure, it's better being the Pope than the Chief Rabbi.

Poland's chief rabbi, (American-born) Michael Schudrich, was attacked in a central Warsaw street on Saturday in what the Interior Ministry said was probably a provocation meant to portray Poland as an anti-Semitic country.

"While I was walking in Warsaw, someone yelled 'Poland is for Poles'...I went back and asked him why he said that and then he hit me and sprayed me with something like pepper gas."

Is there a word in Polish for "ironic"?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a related note, I recently finished "The Wall" by John Hersey, the author of Hiroshima who wrote most of his best work in the 1940s and 1950s.  It's a fictional story based on the true account of a solitary Jewish man who lived in the Warsaw ghetto and kept an archive of everything that happened to him and his acquaintences throughout the deportations, uprising and ultimate liquidation of the ghetto.  There are love stories, births, deaths (of course) and the day-to-day moral issues of what happens to people who know that their every action, even facial expressions, can result in life or death.  Even though this is "just" a work of fiction, I am amazed that I'm only discovering it now as I think it can add so much to everyone's understanding of what it must have been like to be Jewish in Poland during WWII.  I highly recommend it to anyone.

Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert spoke this morning to a Joint Session of Congress.

Strength, without courage, will only lead to brutality. Courage, without strength, will only lead to futility. Only genuine courage and commitment to our values, backed by the will and the power to defend them, will lead us forward in the service of humanity.

To the Congress of the United States and to the great people of America, I wish to say 'Chazak Ve'ematz' be strong and of good courage, and we, and all peoples who cherish freedom, will be with you.

The Bible tells us that as Joshua stood on the verge of the Promised Land, he was given one exhortation: 'Chazak Ve'ematz' 'Be strong and of good courage".

Strength, without courage, will only lead to brutality. That is represented by Abu Ghraib.

Courage, without strength, will only lead to futility. That is represented in the article "Only Cowards Think We're At War" which appeared recently at the Huffington Post.

I've been listening to NPR a liitle more, just to listen to something other than the Bush-bashing and whining you hear all the time on conservative talk shows.  Seriously.  (If you don't think Bush is ever criticized on talk radio, you really haven't been paying attention lately, especially since all of the immigration fuss started).

I've actually thought most of the news coverage I've heard was relatively fair, or at least not way off the mark.   Then I heard an opinion piece by Deborah Mathis, a syndicated columnist and professor at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University regarding her thoughts on black Republicans. 

"If (Republicans) Steele, Swann, and Blackwell only look black and don't remember black...well, you might as well Al Jolson."

I'm white and I don't remember the last time I was more offended by something I heard on the radio.  I'm trying to think of a paralell to what a fellow Jew might call me becuase of my conservative beliefs, but I can't think of a similar insult.  Audio here.

Now I know I'm mixing a little bit of apples and oranges here, but remember when there was a big uprorar not too long ago (by Bush critics mostly) when NASA scientist James Hansen was being harassed into not giving speeches that contravened Bush policy? After all , who would be for stifling dissenting opinions in the search for truth?

The ACLU might be an example.

ACLU May Block Criticism by Its Board.

"Where an individual director disagrees with a board position on matters of civil liberties policy, the director should refrain from publicly highlighting the fact of such disagreement," the committee that compiled the standards wrote in its proposals.

"Directors should remember that there is always a material prospect that public airing of the disagreement will affect the A.C.L.U. adversely in terms of public support and fund-raising," the proposals state.

Via Israellycool, the video of Israel's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest, sung by Eddie Butler.

More here:  Black Hebrew Eddie Butler to represent Israel at Eurovision Song Contest.

In other Israel-related news - looks like the IDF caught a big fish.  The BBC is unclear on why the Israelis would still go after someone whose group hasn't sent any suicide bombers into Israel for the last 15 months.  Does that mean we should have stopped looking for bin Laden years ago?

U.S. President George W. Bush has alienated Muslims around the world by using absolutist Christian rhetoric to discuss foreign policy issues, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright says.

I'm not sure what "absolutist" Christian rhetoric means, but I'm not sure that President Bush is using it. Would absolutist rhetoric include statements like these...

When we think of Islam we think of a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world. Billions of people find comfort and solace and peace. And that's made brothers and sisters out of every race -- out of every race. - September 17, 2001

Islam is a peace-loving faith that is practiced by more than one billion people, including millions of American Muslims. These proud citizens contribute to the diversity that makes our country strong, and the United States is grateful for the friendship and support of many Muslim Nations that are vital partners in the global coalition to fight against terrorism. - November 5, 2002.

"Americans hold a deep respect for the Islamic faith, which is professed by a growing number of my own citizens," Bush said. "We know that Islam is fully compatible with liberty and tolerance and progress... - October 22, 2003

I could go on of course. And it's not hard to find those voices who think Bush and others have all bent over a little too far to be nice. I find it hard to see how the consistent, positive promotion of Islam translates into "absolutist Christian rhetoric". But maybe it's becuase he keeps saying that God is on our side? Let's put aside the fact that leaders of every religion say that in times of crisis, making it HUMAN rhetoric as opposed to Christian rhetoric. Now let's see some of that "God is with us and only us" talk.

We go forward with complete confidence in the eventual triumph of freedom. Not because history runs on the wheels of inevitability; it is human choices that move events. Not because we consider ourselves a chosen nation; God moves and chooses as He wills. - State of the Union 2005

So becuase Bush mentions God often, he is accused of being a Crusader even when he specifically says that we cannot know what God ultimately wants and that our victory is not by any means inevitable!

The real issue here is that Jews and Christians in the U.S. (read - liberals) don't like Bush's mention of God because they either don't believe in God or more often believe that God would not want us to follow the path that the Bush administration has taken. For those that do believe in God, do they NOT believe that God moves and chooses as He wills? Of course they do.

Finally as for Albright's ridiculous claim that, "I worked for two presidents who were men of faith, and they did not make their religious views part of American policy," she said, referring to Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, both Democrats and Christians.", I would like to quote President Carter himself.

"You can't divorce religious belief and public service ...
I've never detected any conflict between God's will
and my political duty. If you violate one,
you violate the other."

Just wanted to pass on a comment I heard on talk radio this morning.  Laura Ingraham (who I do find kind of screechy and Ann Coulter-ish) was playing a clip of Judge Judy who was ripping into some guy for not wanting to pay child support to his ex-wife or something like that.  Anyway, Judge Judy said something like, "it is the children's right to have the financial support of both parents".

I never thought about it that way - I always thought of child support as being the right of the guardian parent (even if the law proscribes that the money is spent on the children's needs).

If the law doesn't read that way, it probably should.

Nice article in the Charleston Post & Courier (of all place) about Radio Jai in Argentina (pronounced Chai with the guttural "ch" which means "life" in Hebrew) .

Buenos Aires' Radio Jai lone voice for Jews

I actually listen to the Coffee Break program (yes it has an English name!) every once in a while over the internet at work. Not too long ago I sent them an e-mail during their show and they responded and talked about it (all in Spanish, of course). They then thanked their "new listener" from Texas!

It's amazing that there is no 24 hour radio station with a Jewish focus in the U.S. Are guess we're all just too divided amongst ourselves to come up with a format.

The Dixie Chicks: America Catches Up With Them

In a three page web-article on the Dixie Chicks, the NY Times tries to make the claim that most Americans are now embarrassed that George Bush is President of the U.S. Or that it's a good idea to criticize the choice of the fellow citizens to an overseas audience as we're about to go to war.

The album arrives at a time when approval for President Bush has dropped to as low as 29 percent, in a recent Harris Interactive poll.

There's no doubt that the President is extremely unpopular now as the article points out by using the lowest poll number it can find. But unpopular is different than embarrassed. And it's not like most other Presidents haven't had their moments in the doghouse.

On Amazon.com, preorders recently placed "Taking the Long Way" at No. 5 in a Top 10 that also includes albums with antiwar songs by Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Paul Simon and Pearl Jam.

Since when does the Amazon.com better reflect overall record sales than Billboard? Only one of the albums mentioned by the Times is actually in the top 10 (Pearl Jam) and that probably has more to do with the fact that a great band has come out with a new album after a long absence than becuase of it's anti-war stand. Besides, why would anyone think that the top selling albums represent "Americans" in any way shape or form? 50 Cent anyone? Nick Lachey?

Natlaie Maines sings as "I'm Mad As Hell" in the single that plays as you open the Chicks' website. Because a liberal's righteous anger is the only anger that is valid. She still doesn't get the fact that when she said she was embarrassed that Bush was Presdient she wasn't just insulting the man, she was insulting the intelligence of everyone that voted for him. I guess we all see the light now. After all, who doesn't like Bruce Springsteen and Neil Simon?

I really enjoyed Larry Derfner's piece in the Jerusalem Post, which was a response to Israeli author A.B. Yehoshua who said...

[Being] Israeli is my skin, not my jacket. You are changing jackets... you are changing countries like changing jackets. I have my skin, the territory," the author told the audience, adding that Israeli Jews live a Jewish life in a totality that the American Jews do not know.

...or in other words, you can't be as good a Jew in America as you can in Israel.

Derfner: Who's living an incomplete Jewish life?

For serious, honest-to-God religious Jews in the Diaspora - people whose days revolve around Jewish law, prayer, mitzvot and usually religious study as well - Judaism isn't in the outer shell of their lives, it's in the core. It suffuses their personal life, and usually their communal life as well. Imagine the Jewish Diaspora without the State of Israel. Then imagine a 100% secular State of Israel in a whole world without any practicing, believing Jews. Obviously I wouldn't want to choose either one, but if I had to, as an atheist Israeli but also a Jew, I'd choose the former.

Yes, their lives would be more Jewish, completely Jewish, if they lived in Israel. But the lives of us secular Israeli Jews would be so much more Jewish, completely Jewish, if we were religious.....

I, being neither Orthodox nor Israeli have a long way to go. The majority of Jews in the U.S. obviously don't think you need to be either to be a good, or "complete Jew". I disagree, but that's a topic to write a book about or to fill future hours on a psychiatrist's couch when I have some time to kill.

This is just really, really bad.

Murtha: Iraqis were killed 'in cold blood'

WASHINGTON, May 17 (UPI) -- A Pentagon investigation will show that U.S. Marines killed 15 civilians in Iraq "in cold blood" a U.S. congressman said in Washington.

Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Pa., confirmed Wednesday that Iraqis in Haditha said Marines killed the unarmed Iraqi civilians, including seven women and three children, NBC News reported. Military officials told NBC the Marine Corps' own evidence appears to confirm Murtha's statement.

A Marine spokesman issued a statement in November saying a roadside bomb had killed 15 civilians and a Marine, but U.S. military officials later retracted that account.

Murtha said military sources have told him the Pentagon investigation will show the troops "overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood."

Three officers in a California-based Marine battalion involved in the incident were relieved of command. A spokesman for the 1st Marine Division said the officers were removed "due to lack of confidence in their leadership abilities stemming from their performance during a recent deployment to Iraq," the Marine Corps Times reported last month.

I so want to believe that this is all a big misunderstanding.

If it's true, it's awful and the full measure of the law should be brought to bear against those directly responsible. That does not include Rumsfeld or Bush although the Left will protray it that way.

Also, I hope that those on the Right who try to put this event into perspective and our soldiers (99.99% of who have followed the letter of the law) are not all called baby-killers.

Of course if Murtha has leaked the story incorrectly, he should resign immediately. In fact even if the report turns out to be inconclusive, Murtha should resign.

Should this affect our decision whether to stay in Iraq if it is true? Of course not. To me logic says that one illegal action, no matter how heinous, should undo an entire operation involving hundreds of thousands of people which will effect tens of millions. If such was the case, major urban police departments would have been taken off the streets long ago.

I pray that this didn't happen as the news is reporting - for all of our sakes.

Man does Glenn Reynolds hit the nail on the head with this one.  He looks at the "industrial societies are having fewer children" story and takes it one step further.

The Parent Trap (excerpts below)

We've taken a lot of the fun out of parenting. Or to echo Longman, the "social costs" of parenting continue to rise, and, more significantly, perhaps, the "social returns" continue to decline...

You're responsible for your kids in ways previous generations weren't, but your ability to discipline them is much reduced, and as my wife (a forensic psychologist) notes, the bad kids know that they can cow most adults by threatening to call 911 and make a bogus abuse charge. And forget disciplining your child, even with a harsh word, in a public place: At the very least, if you do you'll be looked on not as a virtuous parent helping to preserve the social fabric, but as that worst of all sinners in contemporary American culture: a meanie....

My mother reports that when she was a newlywed (she was married in 1959) you weren't seen as fully a member of the adult world until you had kids. Nowadays to have kids means something closer to an expulsion from the adult world. People in the suburbs buy SUVs instead of minivans not because they need the four-wheel-drive capabilities, but because the SUVs lack the minivan's close association with low-prestige activities like parenting, and instead provide the aura of high-prestige activities like whitewater kayaking. Why should kayaking be more prestigious than parenting? Because parenting isn't prestigious in our society. If it were, childless people would drive minivans just to partake of the aura.

Of course I don't agree with everything - I don't think the elderly of past generations all had comfy retirements because of the number of children they had - but all in all an excellent piece.

Jimmy "I never have anything bad to say about the Palestinians" Carter has an op-ed piece on Israel in USA Today. Need I say more?

Israel's new plan: A land grab

The barrier is not located on the internationally recognized boundary between Israel and Palestine....

I didn't realize there was a country called Palestine - who exactly has recognized this imaginary country's borders?

Only about twice the size of Washington, D.C., Gaza is now a politically and economically non-viable region, almost completely isolated from the West Bank, Israel and the outside world.

Only half the size of Gaza, Washington D.C. is now a politically and economically non-viable region, almost completely isolated from Maryland, Virginia and the outside world. - OK, I just threw that in for laughs :-)

It would be a mistake to underestimate the difficulty of finding a mutually acceptable agreement, but many Israelis, Palestinians and international representatives are familiar with what must be its ultimate basic terms. They include reasonable border compromises based on the swapping of land, which could leave a substantial number of Israeli settlers undisturbed on Palestinian land.

I know that Israel was willing to swap land when Arafat rejected their proposals in the past. I wasn't aware that any Palestinians were open to that. Besides, as Carter mentions himself...

"..The recently elected Hamas legislators will neither recognize nor negotiate with Israel while Palestinian land is being occupied."

So if I follow the logic "many Palestinians" know what must be done for peace yet the majority elected Hamas. Sorry Jimmy, peace isn't made with "many people", it is made with governments. "Many Palestinians" are straw men if I ever saw some.

A mutual Israeli-Palestinian agreement would undoubtedly result in full recognition of Israel by all Arab nations, with normal diplomatic and economic relations, and permanent peace and justice for the Palestinians.

Right - and the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 freed the United States from a legacy of hate and discrimination and ensured the eternal equality of African-Americans. Oh puh-leeze.

Now, if the Washington Post can get a Pulitzer Prize for reporting secret government programs that no one can confirm, why not give one to USA Today for their error-prone reporting about the NSA's secret tracking of all our phone calls.

BellSouth Says It Gave NSA No Call Records

ATLANTA (AP) - BellSouth Corp. said Monday its "thorough review" found no indication it gave telephone records to the National Security Agency as part of a federal anti-terrorism surveillance program.....

"Based on our review to date, we have confirmed no such contract exists and we have not provided bulk customer calling records to the NSA," the Atlanta-based regional Bell said in a statement.

BellSouth spokesman Jeff Battcher said the company's investigation found "no contract with the NSA and we are confident that we have turned over no phone records."Last week, Battcher said the company had "not provided any information we would need a subpoena for." On Monday night, Battcher said "we cannot find anyone within BellSouth who has ever been approached by the NSA."

I am about to write an article about the secret government plan to collect information on everyone's earnings and then force them to pay a large percentage under threat of jailtime or seizure of assets! I'm going to call it - The Federal Tax Code: a Bill of No Rights. Where's my Pulitzer?

Comedian Judson Laipply spends seven minutes showing us famous dance moves of the last 50 years. It's helpful if you have a working knowledge of some of the more popular music videos since MTV's been on the air. An explanation of the act can't do it justice. Via GVOD. Enjoy.

Imagine you're only married two weeks. Four days ago you moved into a new apartment with your husband. Around lunchtime, your husband invites you to lunch but you say no thanks, you're busy and not really hungry. Not too long afterwards your husband goes into a small restaurant, maybe somewhere he wouldn't have gone if he wasn't eating alone...and is mortally woudned by a suicide bomber.

Please say a prayer for Maya Anidzar and her husband Lior.



P.S. Lior's sister is six months pregnant and is planning to name the child after his uncle, may he rest in peace. A rare thank you goes out to the New York Times.

I thought I had my TV habits under control, just watching 2 hours a week religiously - 24 and The Sopranos.

Just out of curiosity, I started recording a show on TLC called Shalom in the Home. It's hosted by modern orthodox Rabbi Shmuley Boteach who I formerly thought of as kind of a quack, rabbi to the stars (including Michael Jackson.)

Shalom in the Home is a reality show where families who are having significant problems (kids, remarriage, finances, etc.) call in Shmuley who works with the family in question for a week after having recorded their homelife to figure out what's going wrong. The Rabbi uses counseling sessions in his Airstream mobile home and group activities to try to bring the families back together. The thing that gets us is that the families are very real - these are not freaks or white trash. And the families are not all Jewish - in fact a recent episode had an adopted Jew who converted to Islam to marry his Turkish wife.

Shmuley has some beautiful words of wisdom that he doles out in the counseling sessions and in the breaks that really hit home. There's a list of "Shmuleyisms" on the show's website.

The greatest gift that a man can give his children is to love their mother. Conversely, the greatest gift that a mother can give her children is to love their father.

The man who has a woman who believes in him is impregnable and invincible. Nothing in life can hurt him because he has peace at this center.

A parent’s bedroom is not a family sitting room or family dormitory. Children should never sleep in their parents’ bedroom. If you need to hire a security guard to make your bedroom into Fort Knox, that is still better than allowing your role as parent to conflict with your role as lover to your spouse.

Boy, do we have to work on that last one. I now admire this man tremendously. He's a child of divorce who has eight children of his own who seems to have it all together.

Yeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Texas to consider 80 mph limit

Via Instapundit, I bring you the following charge that the at least some in the MSM are willing to portray people with similar problems differently depending on whether they are well-liked or not

Kennedy's "Stigma" Is Limbaugh's "Crime"

Now, I'm not one to normally jump on "if they were black" or "if they were conservative" debates. However, I figured I have some time to kill, so let's see which is the easiest liberal source of any kind that is willing to make fun of Limbaugh yet be sorry for Kennedy. Keeping in mind of course that Limbaugh was never accused of doing anything to harm anyone yet Kennedy could have been killed or killed someone else in the process.

General criticism of Limbaugh's political views and even jokes about his weight didn't count. I wanted to find someone who specifically makes fun of his drug addiction.

The Democratic Daily Blog had this to say about Patrick Kennedy on May 5, 2006:

Patrick Kennedy said he hoped that his “openness today and in the past, and my acknowledgment that I need help, will give others the courage to get help if they need it.”

For anyone who has struggled with addiction, or has had a friend or loved one who has (or worse, lost a friend or loved one to addiction) , they understand the courage it takes to speak publicly, as Patrick Kennedy has. For the media and right-wing blogosphere who have twisted this a thousand different ways — you should all be ashamed.

On December 22, 2005 however, the following comments were made regarding Rush Limbaugh:

Conservative parnaoia hits childrens books. In efforts to brainwash children, they use their usual tactic of creating strawmen to attack rather than actually responding to liberal ideas....The Oregonean reports that, thanks to promotion from Rush Limbaugh (who perhaps will also teach kids how to take OxyContin)...

Ashamed indeed. That was easy.

OK, just finished watching the Frontline special on Hamas. While I can't claim anti-Israel bias because there was no intention to get the Israeli point of view, I do think the reporting was incredibly shoddy and failed to provide any historical perspective at all. If one didn't know anything about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict you would have learned the following:

Hamas were the original Palestinian terrorists but a year or so ago they declared a cease fire and no longer attack Israel. They are the party of peace - all they ask is for the Israelis to pull back to the 1967 borders.

Hamas can't be held responsible for any of it's actions. Fighting would end tomorrow if it didn't have to fend off agressors like Fatah, Islamic Jihad and the Israelis. Palestinian economic problems would end tomorrow if it weren't for the Israelis and Americans.

Qassam rockets are inaccurate and therefore cause no real threat to anyone in Israel.

I think the most uncomfortable thing to watch was when a friendly looking Hamas supporter led the reporter (Kate Seelye) through the streets of Gaza where Fatah political slogans were written on all the walls. The Hamas supporter laughed at the "Elect Fatah" slogans commenting that there is no reason given to actually vote for them. All Seelye could do was laugh along with him like a little girl with some kind of commentary along the line of "Youre right, how silly of them!"

I don't want to give the impression that Hamas was portrayed as liberal democrats that just want everyone to get along, but I'm sure the piece is not what many expected, myself included.

UPDATE: I just delved into the more detailed Frontline website on their Hamas report. There seems to be some better reporting from others and it's worth taking a look at the site in it's entirety. However, someone's going to have to explain to me how this obviously contradictory reporting came to be placed in pieces that are adjacent to each other on the "Dispatches from Gaza" page.

Idiotarian Kate Seelye: "Realizing I wasn’t entirely prepared, I did a quick Google search on Qassam rockets. Named after the Hamas militia, the homemade projectiles are among the Palestinian militants’ favorite weapon. With a range of about 12 miles, Qassams frequently were launched at Israeli settlements and into Israel proper during the second intifada...Hundreds of Qassam rockets have rained down on Israel over the last few years, and although they succeeded in sowing terror, they have done relatively little damage. Qassams lack a missile guidance system and are famously inaccurate."

Reporter Marcela Gaviria: "Every so often, a Qassam makes its way across the security perimeter, killing or wounding Israeli civilians. According to B’Tselm, an Israeli human rights organization, since the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in September 2005, 34 Israelis have been killed by Palestinian rockets."

Just so that I understand....and please correct me if I'm wrong....

Jewish leftist groups support a boycott of Caterpillar because it's equipment is often used by the Israeli government to illegally destroy Palestinian homes and farmland. Yet...

Those same groups support providing Hamas with millions of dollars which they often use to provide arms to it's members that actually kill, injure,  kidnap, etc. other Palestinians. (Not to mention their use of weapons to kill Israeli Jews or the force the slow reversal of women's rights).

I urge everyone who can to watch or record Frontline tonight - Looking Inside Hamas: Search for Martyrdom, Hatred of Israel.  It should be noted that Frontline is no right wing mouthpiece as can be seen by their show on the danger of the radical Israeli settlers.

On a separate note, and I'd like to find a more independent source for this, one may not be safe speaking Hebrew on the streets of Berlin.  And it ain't neo-Nazis that are the problem.

Bush approval rating hits new low

31% ?!?

My gut reaction to this article was a combination of disgust at the babyish threat, and then pride that (perhaps) it could actually be carried out should they actually be attacked.

Iran can also be wiped off the map (says Israel)

Not only that, but the liberal leader Shimon Peres was the one making the threat!

"In every generation they rise up again to destroy us.,.".   Too bad we probably have to wait for the messiah before it stops happening.

How awesome is this! They are now coming out with standard looking radios that actually capture radio stations that broadcast over the internet.

Pick up online stations without the computer

The AE Wi-Fi Internet radio is a standalone receiver, preprogrammed with more than 2,500 online stations. Designed to operate more like a radio than a computer, it's made by Acoustic Energy in Britain and is scheduled to hit the U.S. marketplace later this month.



At $300-400, I won't be buying one anytime soon, but when they get down to the inevitable $100-150 range I might.

Ripped from the pages of Google Video of the Day (GVOD), here's the video of Bush alongside his impersonator at the recent White House Correspondent's Dinner. Hilarious. I really have to remember to TIVO this next year off of C-Span.

Did anyone notice that the deficit may actually shrink for a second year in a row?  I found this one buried on the U.S. page of the NY Times website.  Isn't this truly a "man bites dog" story that goes against conventional wisdom that should appear near the top? 

Decline In Deficit is Seen

Tax revenues in April, when most people file their annual tax returns, were 14 percent higher than the year before. Despite continued spending on the war in Iraq and hurricane recovery efforts, the budget deficit for the first seven months of the 2006 fiscal year was $53 billion lower than the same period last year.

Why use that, when you can put U.S Job Growth Slows on the home page.  And incase you think that news is more significant in some way, the sub-header reads,  "Analysts said the change in the employment picture does not appear to be the beginning of a broader retrenchment."

I may be biased, but I think think this stands up to scrutiny as a poor choice of placement.

I really need to read Andy Borowitz' website every day. I think he's one of the funniest satirists out there. Unfortunately, you can only link to the home page which changes daily, so catch it while you can.

SATAN’S TESTIMONY ROCKS ENRON TRIAL
Lord of Darkness Becomes Surprise Witness For Prosecution

The trial of former Enron CEO Ken Lay took a stunning turn today as the prosecution introduced Satan as a surprise witness, attempting to establish a long-running business relationship between Mr. Lay and the Lord of Darkness.

I think this article pretty much sounds about the same as if I would have written it myself.

A rabbi's struggle: To allow gay clergy or not?

As I have become acquainted with more pious and knowledgeable gay and lesbian Jews, I have asked myself why God would design some people with a trait — for which there is paltry evidence that it can be reversed — and then designate individuals with that characteristic as "sinners?" Even if triggered by a gene mutation, as some argue, what is sinful about that?...

The biblical demand of "an eye for an eye" was interpreted in the Talmud as the monetary value of a wounded eye, and not an actual gouging. The Bible also orders the stoning of an unruly son, but the Talmud already qualified that as theoretical, saying, "It was never done nor will it be done.".....

I need to get comfortable, for example, witnessing a rabbi and his male partner dancing at my synagogue's spring social, or seeing two lesbians hand-in-hand at the Torah while celebrating their daughter's bat mitzvah. I am confident that, eventually, religious commitment will trump sexual orientation.

Has Bob Herbert managed to write a regular column for three years without ever saying anything new? Just go to Automatic Bob Herbert and see for yourself.  The site uses a database of quotes from Herbert's columns since 2003 and mixes them around and creates a randomly ordered anti-Bush column whenever you hit the refresh button.   As the site suggests, why pay the author when you can just mix around his old work and present it as new?