On October 29, I wrote a post about my disappointment in PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and the tactics they use for what is otherwise an arguably worthy cause.

Earlier today I was going to write about how I was going to boycott McDonald's since the widow of it's founder, Mrs. Ray Kroc bequeathed $200mm to National Palestine (er...Public) Radio.

How are these two linked? PETA to NPR: Reject McDonald's 'Blood Money' Bequest

I am changing course and making sure my wife the vet increases her PETA donation for 2004.

On Sunday, November 16th, my shul is having a Mitzvah Day and yours truly is in charge of a project under the auspices of Keep Plano Beautiful. Our task is to clean-up sections of White Rock Creek which for the most part starts in Plano, runs past the shul and south through Dallas. My hope is that we don't have to clean up messes like this one, found in the same creek about 15 miles south.

"DALLAS- A stolen car in a creek bed has yielded the body of an unidentified man and another person, say police who are trying to determine how the two died.

One body found Tuesday inside the car lying in White Rock Creek off Interstate 30 was identified as that of a man. The gender of the other could not be determined because of decomposition. Autopsies were pending."

Yuck.

I have to agree here that this smacks of racism (is it racism if someone is anti-Muslim? Anti-Muslimitic?)

Plan to Make Old Building Into New Mosque Rouses Opposition

How often will you find the Anti-Defamamtion League on the same side of an issue as the Council on American-Islamic Relations?

The NY Times just posted a story on their website that is either the biggest story since Watergate or the final deathblow for their claims to objectivity - Iraq Said to Have Tried to Reach Last-Minute Deal to Avert War

"As American soldiers massed on the Iraqi border in March and diplomats argued about war, an influential adviser to the Pentagon received a secret message from a Lebanese-American businessman: Saddam Hussein wanted to make a deal.

Iraqi officials, including the chief of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, had told the businessman that they wanted Washington to know that Iraq no longer had weapons of mass destruction, and they offered to allow American troops and experts to conduct a search. The businessman said in an interview that the Iraqis also offered to hand over a man accused of being involved in the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 who was being held in Baghdad. At one point, he said, the Iraqis pledged to hold elections."

Is this for real? If it is then it's an incredible cover-up. If it's not, then it's the biggest piece of political propaganda ever to appear in the "news" section of a major newspaper.

I guess we'll see tomorrow.

I have an idea for a trade - the Saudis send us much needed oil and we send them much needed sand. Seriously.

This comes from a new site called Yahweh is in the House, a semi-parody of Allah is in the House.

If you want me to believe in astrology and fortune telling, then tell me who could have predicted these three improbable stories:

The Wall Street Journal has an editorial "In Defense of P. Diddy".

Al Sharpton will be hosting Saturday Night Live.

Knicks win.

Tell me that this would not be the most highly watched pay-per-view event in world history:

The Grand Prior of the Knights Templar of the US challenges Osama bin Laden to a duel by sword.

From the challenge - "I will come to you alone, a single knight amidst thousands of your followers. You can have me killed in front of your followers . . . but then, of course, your reputation as a coward and an infidel will be sealed for all eternity."

Cool.

There will be a total lunar eclipse this coming Saturday night, November 8. Wouldn't it have been really cool if there was an eclipse on Halloween?

This is what makes me proud to be a Jew - 60 Minutes has a segment tonight about Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem and how they deliver the exact same level of care to Israelis and Palestinians alike - even suicide bombers. The sacred value of human life is respected over all other concerns.

I plan on sending them a donation, which I should have done long ago. Please join me. I've started a section of links on the right to my favorite charities. Don't see that on too many blogs...

Many have posted this before me, but there is a great synopsis of the history of Anti-Semitism here written by Natan Sharansky. Mr Sharansky, as many of you know was the best known Russian Jew (refusenik) who eventually emigrated to Israel and became a member of the Knesset.

You have to read the whole thing, but it's interesting that he notes is that virulent anti-Semitism existed with or without Israel, in lands with or without Jewish inhabitants, and in societies both free and repressed.

I find it amusing that the New York Time's hatred for Rush Limbaugh is so complete that in their article about radio personality Delilah the author writes the following:

"Delilah, with her audience of millions, has said that she's the anti-Howard Stern; she's also the anti-Rush Limbaugh, extremely female in a male-dominated medium and genre."

That in itself is not so bad inasmuch as it's accurate - but the caption on the picture they show on the website labels Delilah as "the anti-Limbaugh", using the author's description of her instead of her own description as the anti-Stern. I guess the editors feel that the author knows more about how Delilah should be defined than Delilah herself.

By the way, my wife's been listening to Delilah for months and loves her show. I'm hoping her empathy for the calling audience rests in her past relationships with men and not with me!

This is the kind of thing that you always think would never happen in a Jewish school:

Students at Private Jewish High School in LA Expelled for Making Sex Video

According to the article -"The video was made last spring by a sophomore girl and two junior boys, who were not identified by officials with Milken Community High School. Two of the three students involved thought the video was recorded only for a small group of friends, said school head Rennie Wrubel." This means that one of the students was planning to distribute this to the whole school. That makes him (I'll assume it wasn't the girl) an incredible jerk as well as a distributor of child porn.

The synagogue that sponsors the school, the Stephen S. Wise Temple is also one of the most liberal Reform synagogues in the country. I think it's funny that they have to advertise their services as "Shabbat A.M." as if it were "Good Morning America".

Whoever did this is disgusting. From the Jerusalem Post: Rabin monument vandalized.

If there's anyone out there who's participated in one of those "US Out of Iraq - No Blood for Oil" protests, I hope you meet the poor souls in this video in the afterlife so that you can explain how you helped them by delaying the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Oh yeah, and don't foget these people, and these.

And if you are so inclined to believe that this is some Fox News style right-wing propaganda, here's a link on CNN to the same story. (Although they seem to have pulled it from their U.S. homepage at cnn.com where it was earlier - it's on their international site). Must be that we Americans are too sensitive.

Will someone explain to me how you get $1.8mm in severance pay for doing nothing?

From the New York Times: "Boston University's trustees and Daniel S. Goldin, the former NASA chief they had chosen to be the university's next president, parted ways today, with Mr. Goldin receiving what amounted to a reported $1.8 million severance payment for a job he was one day away from beginning."

Remind me not to send my kids to the Boston U. Business School.

Howard

If you've got a couple of hours to spare, here's a link to Little Green Footballs that itself links to a videotaped session of a Senate Subcommittee hearing on the education of Palestinian children that was shown on C-Span earlier today. I don't think the concern deals with the debate on teaching creationism versus evolution in biology class... (it's more having to do with the debate whether the Jews are more like pigs or monkeys?)

Here's a wonderful site with suggestions for Muslim mullahs to use for their Friday sermons. I like the part about "The Jews, who are the nation of pigs and monkeys, are nothing but a source of evil, corruption, tribulation and war.". All from the Religion of Peace. Does this site look like it was put together by poor people who are living a desperate life? Hardly.

I swear that I want to believe that this is not the majority Muslim opinion, I really do. But if you think this is the only site like this, you just haven't been paying attention.

Just saw an article about another poll that shows that our friends in Europe do indeed hate Israel (I'm being careful not to say Jews). According to a poll taken of European residents, 59% of respondents said that Israel is the biggest threat to world peace. I don't know whether to be upset or proud that a little country of 6 million, 20% or so which is not even Jewish can create such a fearsome image in the world.

That doesn't mean they're anti-Semitic or biased you say? OK. What exactly makes a country the "biggest" threat to world peace. Support of terrorism against innocent victims? I think the that supporters of radical Islam win that contest hands down (see 9/11, Bali, African embassy bombings, etc.). How about massive military might and visible placement of nuclear missiles? I don't think Israel is quite on par with the US, Russia, China or NATO in general to name a few.

What singles Israel out then as the worst of the worst? Could it be bias?

The fact is that Israel has had to spend most of it's 50+ years taking in millions of immigrants from the rest of the world because everyone treats the Jews like crap. And then that same world community turns around and says that Israelis are horrible because they don't lay down their arms and die, or better yet just go away. As my grandpa used to say----feh!

Just a note to all you Dennis Miller fans - he's going to have his own show again - this time on CNBC at a reasonable hour.

Norm Geras has a great entry in his blog dealing with anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism and the poisoned atmosphere of left-wing political discourse in the U.K. Believe me, our Democrats are fascists compared to the left-wing of the Labour Party. I wish I had the time to write entries at length, as he and others do.

I actually have to go to London on business shortly - I hope that nobody berates me in the street if they find out I'm a Jewish American.

This picture of George Bush is hilarious. The Drudge Report has it up now on the top of it's site and it's even funnier there.

He is risen, indeed.