A simple gauge for determining friendship involves reciting Hello, My name is Inigo Montoya and then waiting for the other person to finish the line.
Every once in a while I run into someone who hasn’t seen the movie, but not too often.
Before some of you run off and try to kick me out of the clubhouse take a look at this:
SPIEGEL ONLINE: What is life like for a man in a matriarchy?
Coler: Men live better where women are in charge: you are responsible for almost nothing, you work much less and you spend the whole day with your friends. You’re with a different woman every night. And on top of that, you can always live at your mother’s house. The woman serves the man and it happens in a society where she leads the way and has control of the money. In a patriarchy, we men work more — and every now and then we do the dishes. In the Mosuo’s pure form of matriarchy, you aren’t allowed to do that. Where a woman’s dominant position is secure, those kinds of archaic gender roles don’t have any meaning.”
Here is a simple question for you. Would you prefer to have more readers or more comments on your blog? Or does it matter to you.
After five years of blogging I think that I have established that I am going to blog regardless of whether people read or comment. Still, I won’t lie and say that I wouldn’t prefer more of both. It is nice to know that people are paying attention to what is going on.
At the same time I always remind myself to be careful what you ask for because you just might get it. Sometimes the dream is a bit different from the reality.
Many people are engaged in all sorts of speculation about the president’s real feelings regarding Israel. The prognosticators are out in force and I have read numerous articles and opinion pieces that lay out exactly what he is trying to do and why.
Since I haven’t been granted clairvoyance or any other sort of supernatural powers I won’t try to tell you what the president’s feelings are. Truth is that I hope that he doesn’t try to negotiate terms based upon feelings, but upon facts.
And the fact is that the peace process is a thorny and complex issue that cannot be solved by making proclamations that are supposed to make both sides feel good. As just another pundit I am just as qualified as the next guy to say that part of the problem is the attempt to try and view this situation in Western terms.
This isn’t the playground. It is not a school yard brawl or a situation where you can slap a kid on the wrist and tell them to be nice. It is not a place where treating others as you wish to be treated means that it will happen. It is a rough and tumble environment where weakness is seen an invitation to be exploited.
And now the president has provided an opening for such behavior. As I said before, I am not going to suggest that he hates Israel, Jews etc. In some ways it doesn’t matter. He can be doing this out of sheer altruism and a belief that he is helping the world. The end result is still problematic.
One of the biggest obstacles to conducting peace talks is the lack of a unified Palestinian government. Abbas does not speak for Hamas. Hamas does not recognize Israel. That is a pretty big stumbling block.
But there is more. The Washington Post reports that Abbas passed on a very serious and quite generous offer from former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Here is what was offered
Why did he turn it down? Because he felt that the gaps were too wide. In an interview on Al Jazeera Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat lays out why. It comes down to a refusal to provide acknowledgement of a Jewish connection to the Temple Mount.
And that refusal to recognize the Jewish connection, to accept that it is legitimate is a central reason why the peace process will ultimately fail. If Obama really wants to affect change then he needs to try and find a way to bridge that gap.
I don’t know about you, but I am not real optimistic.
(Hat tip: Jewlicious)
If you spend enough time blogging it is guaranteed that you will witness disagreements between bloggers and or commenters. And as you already know or soon will see arguments within the online world can become far nastier than they do in person and in much less time.
Some of that is due to misunderstandings that are innocent in nature. In cyberspace there are no verbal clues or facial expressions that you can use to help interpret what is being said. Humor and sarcasm can easily be seen as being something else.
And of course there is the ever present issue of people taking advantage of anonymity to say things that they might not otherwise say to you, especially in person.
If you are a blogger you will want to decide what sort of comment section you are going to have. It is up to you to set the tone and create an environment. So it is your choice as to whether you let the comment section turn into a giant free for all or if you try to maintain a sense of decorum.
This leads to one of the ongoing debates within the blogosphere which is whether there is merit to engaging in arguments with others. Many people think that it serves no purpose. They’ll tell you that you never change anyones mind and that the end result is that you end up irritated and angry.
I have to admit that I rather enjoy these little sparring sessions, but in general I try to avoid them with a few exceptions. The primary exception occurs when gross misinformation is being passed off as truth in which case I have no problem wading into the fray.
As a rule of thumb I don’t expect to convince those screaming loudest within the comment sections. Rather I am interested in influencing the lurkers. It is the readers who say nothing but follow along that I am trying to reach. Primarily because I suspect that they will be more likely to have adopted a position of neutrality.
It might be wrong, who knows. But to me it seems logical and it offers the biggest bang for the buck.
I think that we have seen this story before. Here is a brief excerpt for your review.
“NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A new low-cost airline will begin serving mid-sized U.S. cities that it thinks larger carriers have left behind.
Clearwater, Fla.-based JetAmerica said 34 nonstop passenger flights a week will start July 13 at Toledo, Ohio; South Bend, Ind.; Melbourne, Fla.; Newark, N.J.; Minneapolis and Lansing, Mich. Twenty-eight flights start or end at Newark Liberty International Airport. The carrier will add six more flights — from Toledo to Minneapolis — starting Aug. 14.
JetAmerica is targeting small and midsize cities like Lansing, which has seen the number of daily flights at its Capital Region International Airport fall from 35 to 12 the past five years. The decline is part of a national trend that has seen airfares increase at those airports as daily flights have decreased.
Robert Selig, head of the Capital Region Airport Authority, said JetAmerica will give Lansing business travelers direct access to New York City and carry leisure travelers to central Florida.
“We don’t have access to either one right now,” Selig said. “So, this is going to fill a major void in our schedule.”
Filling that void won’t be cheap.
The Lansing, South Bend, Melbourne and Toledo airports are subsidizing JetAmerica with $1.4 million in grants in its first year, along with about $867,000 in waived airport fees and $1.1 million in marketing and advertising assistance.
South Bend, Toledo and Melbourne received their grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Small Community Air Service Development Program, which has awarded $104 million to 223 recipients since 2002 in an effort to restore lost service and bring air fares down.
Newark and Minneapolis, each of which serve more than 20 million passengers a year, are not offering assistance to JetAmerica.
John Weikle, chief executive of JetAmerica, said the subsidies will help insulate the new carrier from spikes in jet fuel prices. Higher fuel prices have contributed to the failures of at least four major airlines since 9/11. Smaller carriers have also been hurt.
Surging fuel prices helped bankrupt ultra-discounter Skybus Inc. last year. Weikle founded that Columbus, Ohio-based airline known for its $10 fares. The bankruptcy cost 450 employees their jobs. “
Try, try and try again. Sounds like the CEO did ok, wonder how if his former employees at Skybus fared as well.
About a month ago I ran Tweeting About Twitter- One Blogger Speaks and shared some thoughts about Tweeting and asked for feedback about its impact upon blogging.
In the time since then I have conducted an imperfect, impartial and completely unscientific study in which it has been determined that Twitter has had a severe impact upon blogging and here is how.
Prior to Twitter many bloggers would have spent time writing posts about topics and issues that are important or of interest to them. However, the ease of being able to communicate with 140 characters has led many of them to abandon those posts. Instead of 500 words about why they like eating chocolate we are left with just a line or two.
In some cases this is a boon to the reader because it falls into the category of less is more. But in other cases it really isn’t such a good thing as they are taking the fast and easy way out of producing a larger and more comprehensive post.
The owners of the Shack are going to continue to use Twitter and will continue to blog. But we are going to make an effort to try to continue to bring you the same 1,000 word posts you have come to rely upon. With any luck LeBron and Kobe will meet in the finals and you’ll see a resumption of the cleveland bashing you have come to know and love.
Forgive me, but I just don’t feel badly about this. I am not saying that stalking isn’t serious, but are you trying to tell me that you haven’t already taken preventative measures.
Are you telling me, “Mr. Celebrity” that you are suddenly worried about this. Are you telling me that after you put yourself out there and sought fame that you are upset. Sorry, I just don’t feel badly. Don’t want you to get hurt, but try living in the real world with the rest of us.
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — Ashton Kutcher — Twitter’s top tweeter — warned he may pull the plug on his tweeting if the micro-blogging service partners on a reality TV show.
“It’s all fun and games until somebody gets stalked,” Kutcher wrote in a Twitter posting late Monday.
Variety magazine reported Monday that San Francisco-based Twitter.com had partnered with TV producers Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment on an unscripted show that would be “putting ordinary people on the trail of celebrities in a revolutionary competitive format.”
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said there was “no official Twitter TV show” in the works, but “we have a lightweight, non-exclusive, agreement with the producers which helps them move forward more freely.”
Kutcher used Twitter to post a link to a news report about the partnership along with this message: “Wow I hope this isn’t true. I really don’t like being sold out. May have to take a twitter hiatus.”
The actor, who boasts a record 2 million Twitter followers, frequently posts updates that take fans behind the scenes of his life and his current movie production — “Five Killers.”
Got a few posts that I may or may not get to this evening. In the interim here is my usual report on the music of the evening.
“Life Is Beautiful“- Sixx:A.M. Been playing this a lot lately.
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door- Bob Dylan
Subterranean Homesick Blues-Bob Dylan
Always on My Mind- Willie Nelson
How Do You Like Me Now- Toby Keith
I Love This Bar- Toby Keith
I Want To Break Free- Queen
Love Without End, Amen- George Strait
Visions of paradise- Mick Jagger
Wave on Wave- Pat Green
Every so often I read about the legendary physical exploits of the Tarahumara Indians. They are an indigenous people in Mexico who are known for being able to run long distances. One of the stories that is told about them involves the Olympics.
Two of the tribesmen were entered into the Olympic marathon and were thought to be among the favorites to win the race. As it worked out they were among the last to finish the event. However it wasn’t because they were tired or out of shape, but because no one had told them how long the race was. They had assumed it was going to be much longer and complained that the race was too short.
To me that is impressive. When you look at 26 miles and consider it to be a warm up you know that you are in excellent shape.
I have been thinking about running. When I turned 37 I went for a physical and was told by the doctor that my knees are arthritic and that I shouldn’t do exercises that provide undue stress on them. According to him ignoring that advice would lead to a knee replacement somewhere around the time I turn 50.
He also told me that overall my health was good, but that I needed to lose some weight. According to him that would provide some immediate benefits as well as long term. Good preventative maintenance.
I ignored his advice about playing basketball and running. I love to play ball. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is one of the simple pleasures in life. I never get tired of playing and when I don’t I get cranky.
Add to the mix that when I play regularly it increases my ability to lose weight and you can see why I didn’t like what he had to say. Oh, and did I mention that my knees don’t hurt. I don’t feel any sort of regular pain in them. Occasionally it happens, but that is usually tied into walking six or seven flights of stairs.
Anyway, I can accept that aging forces some changes upon us. I know that physically there are some things that are harder to do, but that doesn’t mean that I am incapacitated nor does it mean that the doc’s opinion is completely accurate.
Part of what made me think about all of this stems from a race I had with my son and some friends of his.
I won.
Sad, isn’t it that a 40 year-old man is gloating about beating a bunch of kids in a sprint. But I needed that. I needed to push myself. I needed to hear the wind rushing in my ears. It has been a while since I made the body move like that. It felt good.
We raced a few more times and I won again and again. Tried to convince some of the other fathers to join in but they didn’t.
I need to find someone who will. I need to find someone faster than I am. Not so fast that it is impossible to beat them, but fast enough that I know that I have to try.
Those Indians run and run and run their entire lives. They prove that some of our thoughts/beliefs about when our bodies begin to fail are not entirely accurate. They prove that there are things that can be done to stave off time.
And that is what I am doing. I don’t care about the wrinkles or lines that are gradually appearing. Don’t care too much about the hair and its migration. Just give me the ability to keep playing, to keep moving and I’ll do the rest.
It is not too much to ask for.
Spend any time around the Shack and you’ll see that we love these animal stories. This is the kind of lizard whose tale is worth telling.
The attacks on humans appear to be increasing in frequency. If you read the whole story you’ll see that an eight-year-old boy was mauled to death while trying to relieve himself. Talk about inopportune times to be attacked, sheesh.
Believe me, I am not being facetious about this, one of my fears is being eaten alive.
KOMODO ISLAND, Indonesia – Komodo dragons have shark-like teeth and poisonous venom that can kill a person within hours of a bite. Yet villagers who have lived for generations alongside the world’s largest lizard were not afraid — until the dragons started to attack.
The stories spread quickly across this smattering of tropical islands in southeastern Indonesia, the only place the endangered reptiles can still be found in the wild: Two people were killed since 2007 — a young boy and a fisherman — and others were badly wounded after being charged unprovoked.
Komodo dragon attacks are still rare, experts note. But fear is swirling through the fishing villages, along with questions on how best to live with the dragons in the future.
Main, a 46-year-old park ranger, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name, was doing paperwork when a dragon slithered up the stairs of his wooden hut in Komodo National Park and went for his ankles dangling beneath the desk. When the ranger tried to pry open the beast’s powerful jaws, it locked its teeth into his hand.
“I thought I wouldn’t survive… I’ve spent half my life working with Komodos and have never seen anything like it,” said Main, pointing to his jagged gashes, sewn up with 55 stitches and still swollen three months later. “Luckily, my friends heard my screams and got me to hospital in time.”
Komodos, which are popular at zoos in the United States to Europe, grow to be 10 feet (3 meters) long and 150 pounds (70 kilograms). All of the estimated 2,500 left in the wild can be found within the 700-square-mile (1,810-square-kilometer) Komodo National Park, mostly on its two largest islands, Komodo and Rinca. The lizards on neighboring Padar were wiped out in the 1980s when hunters killed their main prey, deer.
Though poaching is illegal, the sheer size of the park — and a shortage of rangers — makes it almost impossible to patrol, said Heru Rudiharto, a biologist and reptile expert. Villagers say the dragons are hungry and more aggressive toward humans because their food is being poached, though park officials are quick to disagree.
The giant lizards have always been dangerous, said Rudiharto. However tame they may appear, lounging beneath trees and gazing at the sea from white-sand beaches, they are fast, strong and deadly.
The animals are believed to have descended from a larger lizard on Indonesia’s main island Java or Australia around 30,000 years ago. They can reach speeds of up to 18 miles (nearly 30 kilometers) per hour, their legs winding around their low, square shoulders like egg beaters.
When they catch their prey, they carry out a frenzied biting spree that releases venom, according to a new study this month in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The authors, who used surgically excised glands from a terminally ill dragon at the Singapore Zoo, dismissed the theory that prey die from blood poisoning caused by toxic bacteria in the lizard’s mouth.
The long, jagged teeth are the lizard’s primary weapons, said Bryan Fry of the University of Melbourne.
“They deliver these deep, deep wounds,” he said. “But the venom keeps it bleeding and further lowers the blood pressure, thus bringing the animal closer to unconsciousness.”
Four people have been killed in the last 35 years (2009, 2007, 2000 and 1974) and at least eight injured in just over a decade. But park officials say these numbers aren’t overly alarming given the steady stream of tourists and the 4,000 people who live in their midst.
During college a late night telephone call had a very different affect upon me than it does now. If it was a female caller it was usually an invitation to come study anatomy and if it was male it meant that I was invited to a party. The caveat being that I was being asked to be their taxi service.
Either way it wasn’t a big deal. But these days it is a bit different. Now when the phone rings past a certain hour I begin to wonder if something happened to someone. Was there an accident, did someone die etc.
Needless to say that when the phone rang late Saturday night I was more than a little concerned. Fortunately it wasn’t anything too serious, a friend was struggling to rewrite their resume and wanted to know if I could provide some assistance.
Naturally I said no and explained that I don’t deal with crazy people anymore, be they transplanted Midwesterners or otherwise. In spite of my best efforts they convinced me to lend them some help which is why I found myself engaged in a marathon called creating the perfect resume.
I am a skeptic about resumes. I think that far too often they are massaged and manipulated into something that doesn’t resemble the real experience and background of their owner. I have a simple formula that I use for constructing a resume. It is called tell the truth but be creative and descriptive while doing so.
See, nothing too profound there, but to my way of thinking it is a bit more honest. In truth the job search process for the candidate and the hiring company can be quite grueling.
From the candidate’s perspective it can be quite challenging to find a way to stand out from the other applicants. You don’t want to miss out on the opportunity to get an interview because without that you stand almost no chance of being hired.
Yet if you spend too much time dressing your resume up it can bite you in the butt later on. And that brings me back to trying to describe the perfect resume. If you ask me it doesn’t exist, at least not in a singular, uniform document. You can’t be all things to all people.
That’s not to say that you can’t work on customizing a resume for a particular position and company, because you can. But you still get stuck fighting a few battles, not the least of which is that you cannot rely upon people to be logical/rational in all of their decisions.
If there is one thing that I have learned from being part of the working world it is that not everyone succeeds because they are good or the best at what they do. Far too often it is better to be lucky than good, but that it is a different story altogether.
You might think that this story is full of crap, but I think that it has some merit.
More than half of the 15 trillion gallons of sewage Americans flush annually is processed into sludge that gets spread on farmland, lawns, and home vegetable gardens. In theory, recycling poop is the perfect solution to the one truly unavoidable byproduct of human civilization. But sludge-based as fertilizer can contain anything that goes down the drain—from Prozac flushed down toilets to motor oil hosed from factory floors. That’s why an increasing number of cities have begun to explore an alternative way to dispose of sludge: advanced poop-to-power plants.
By one estimate, a single American’s daily sludge output can generate enough electricity to light a 60-watt bulb for more than nine hours. Here are the six most innovative ways that human waste is being converted to watts:
Read the whole story and learn about:
Poop-Eating Bacteria
Turd Cell Smashers
Geological Toilets
Feces Ponds
Gassifiers
Poop Pyrotechnics
Who knows, maybe one day you’ll fill up your car at the outhouse. 
In the early days of the blog when it was new and fresh I had complete anonymity. It provided a cloak that I could hide behind so that I could give voice to the things that troubled me. I spent a lot of time looking in the dark corners of my mind so that I could ferret out the demons and give names to the things that troubled me.
Anonymity provided the freedom to lay out those fears and to bare my soul in a way that I had been unwilling to do. But it was a crutch that helped to mask another fear, the fear of exposure. The fear that presenting myself as a thinking and feeling human with a real name would somehow harm me.
There is merit in that fear because there are those out there who prey upon our weaknesses and try to use them to wound us. Time has taught me the bitter lesson of the truth of those words. I bear the scars of the attempts that have been made to hurt me.
At times I look in the mirror and I see the impact of the past staring back at me. Moments that once haunted me occasionally are dislodged by the present and dredged to the surface. Cloaked in bravado I have roared in anger and shame and fought to stuff them back down. Bitter tears of anger and frustration spent on people and things that didn’t deserve the attention, didn’t merit that power.
The advantage of age and life experience has helped to make it easier to face them. And in many cases they have lost all power, any hold that they once had is gone. That has made it all easier and has served as a positive reminder that the practices I espouse and the values that I hold dear are worthwhile and effective.
But still there are those demons that never go away. Their voices are never completely silenced. Sometimes the whispers increase in volume and the silence of my life is pierced by murmurs that grow into loud shrieks and I am forced to confront it all.
And so I find myself immersed in a struggle, really many struggles. The battles never quite end because the war is never won. If you choose to stand you have to face the reality that some will always try to pull you back down into the mud.
The blog helps. It is of tremendous value. It provides a framework and a structure that I can use to build the foundation of support. It is the tool that I use to dig myself out from under the muck, to clear the wreckage. And from within that I find the things that I need.
Still, the title of this post is called Facing My Fear and I am just now getting to the place in which I am prepared to do that. It has taken time for me to be ready to confront a few things. And so the grand dance is beginning.
If you think in graphic images as I do then perhaps you understand a bit about why I choose to describe things as I do. Perhaps you understand why I write about riding off into battle, talk about the blood lust and the primal scream. I seek that which I fear because I fear anticipation of what could happen more.
Better to hear the clink and clanking of battle than to sit and wait for it. Dance so that you avoid the fire or take the risk of the house burning down around you.
Game on.
Some days this makes more sense than it should.
Maybe in another life
I could find you there
Pulled away before your time
I can’t deal it’s so unfairAnd it feels
And it feels like
Heaven’s so far away
And it feels
Yeah it feels like
The world has grown cold
Now that you’ve gone awayLeaving flowers on your grave
Show that I still care
But black roses and Hail Mary’s
Can’t bring back what’s taken from meI reach to the sky
And call out your name
And if I could trade
I wouldAnd it feels
And it feels like
Heaven’s so far away
And it stings
Yeah it stings now
The world is so cold
Now that you’ve gone away
Gone away, gone away, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeahOooooo, yeah oooooo, oooooo, Ohh yeah.
I’ll Save Your Soul
Whoa. Yeaaaaaeeeaaeah. Mm.I reach to the sky
And call out your name
Oh please let me trade
I wouldAnd it feels
And it feels like
Heaven’s so far away
And it feels
Yeah it feels like
The world has grown cold
Now that you’ve gone away
Gone away, gone away, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeahOooooo, yeah oooooo, oooooo, Ohh yeah.
Oooooo, yeah oooooo, oooooo, Ohh yeah.Gone away- The Offspring
“Growing up in a black, Pentecostal family in Cleveland, Alysa Stanton never imagined the day when she would be preparing to be ordained as a rabbi. But that day will come June 6 for the single mother who will be ordained by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, becoming the first African-American female rabbi in the world.
“Ten years ago, if someone said I was going to be a rabbi, I would have laughed,” Stanton, 45, told ABCnews.com. “Me, a spiritual leader?”
Soon-to-be rabbi Stanton and her daughter Shana, 14, whom she adopted when she was 14 months old, will move to Greenville, N.C., in August, where Stanton will take her spot behind the pulpit at Congregation Bayt Shalom, which is both conservative and reform.
Stanton, a reform Jew, said that her mother encouraged her to explore different religions as a young child and that, at the age of 9, she was already asking her priest to teach her about Kaballah, which focuses on the mystical aspect of Judaism.
Then, at age 10, she received her first Hebrew grammar book from her devout Christian uncle who made it a habit to attend Jewish ceremonies, as well as his own. By her early 20s, Stanton said she’d decided to convert.
“Most people convert because they’re marrying or dating someone who is Jewish or for another reason other than just picking that spiritual path,” Stanton said.
“I did so because it was the path for me,” she said. “Not only from a religious standpoint but from an ethical and social and communal standpoint, it was important to me.”
Let’s see what the J-blogosphere’s Gil Student had to say about this, also from the same article.
“But the Orthodox Jewish community, which has historically not permitted women to hold leadership roles in its congregations, is less accepting of Stanton’s upcoming ordination because of her sex.
“My general feeling, as a rabbi, is that there is a great deal of room for everyone to have spiritual fulfillment in Judaism but the public role of a rabbi is only for certain people and that excludes women,” Orthodox Rabbi Gil Student of New York City told ABCNews.com. “That’s based on tradition and enshrined in law.”
As for race, Student said that neither he nor the Orthodox Jewish community finds any problem with African-American Jews. “There is no such thing as skin color in Judaism, it doesn’t exist,” Student said. “
Nothing like homegrown terrorists to warm the cockles of your heart. Apparently these men had intended to murder Jews and Americans.
How very sad to write a sentence that divides the two groups like that, Jews and Americans. As an American Jew, or Jewish American I take these things very seriously. But I would strongly urge that we all pay close attention to these events.
They should lock these men up and throw away the key. Here is the CNN report:
NEW YORK (CNN) — Three of the four men arrested for allegedly planning bomb attacks on Jewish targets in New York are expected to appear in federal court Thursday, the U.S. attorney’s office said.The group allegedly plotted to bomb two New York synagogues and wanted to use surface-to-air missiles to fire at U.S. military planes, said a criminal complaint filed this week in White Plains, New York.
“Four individuals were arrested for planting bombs in front of two [Jewish facilities] in the area,” said Raymond Kelly, New York City police commissioner.
The charges are based on information from an FBI informant, with whom the men met as they plotted to carry out their attacks, authorities said.
“While the weapons provided to the defendants by the cooperating witness were fake, the defendants thought they were absolutely real,” acting U.S. Attorney Lev L. Dassin said in a statement.
Added Kelly: “The bombs had been made by FBI technicians. They were totally inert; no one was ever at risk or in danger of being injured.”
Suspects James Cromitie, David Williams and Onta Williams — all U.S. citizens — were at the federal courthouse Thursday morning being processed, FBI spokeswoman Monica McLean told CNN.
This comes from ABC:
The investigation of the men began in June 2008, according to court documents, when met with a person who had been an FBI informant for more than six years and allegedly talked about his anger about U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and said he was interested in doing “something to America.”According to the criminal complaint, Cromitie told an FBI informant in June 2008 that his parents lived in Afghanistan before he was born, and because of his ties to that country, he was upset about the war there.
Then in November of last year, Cromitie allegedly discussed targets with the informant, saying, “the best target [the World Trade Center] was hit already.” Later in that conversation, the complaint says, Cromitie stated, “I hate those motherf—–s, those f—–g Jewish bastards… I would like to get [destroy] a synagogue.”
Illogical ranting like this seems to be a hallmark of many of these people. I won’t call them crazy because I don’t want this to be dismissed or viewed as being any less serious than it is.
Let’s take a look at MSNBC:
The men, described as Black Muslims, had planned to detonate a car with plastic explosives outside a temple in the Bronx neighborhood of Riverdale and to shoot military planes at the New York Air National Guard base at Stewart Airport in Newburgh with Stinger surface-to-air guided missiles, authorities said.The defendants planned to “destroy a synagogue and a Jewish community center with C-4 plastic explosives,” Acting U.S. Attorney Lev L. Dassin said.
The religious targets were the Riverdale Temple, founded in 1947, and the Riverdale Jewish Center, authorities said.
Defendants dealt with informantIn their efforts to acquire weapons, the defendants dealt with an informant acting under law enforcement supervision, authorities said. The FBI and other agencies monitored the men and provided an inactive missile and inert C-4 to the informant for the defendants, a federal complaint said.
The investigation had been under way for about a year.
“They never got anywhere close to being able to do anything,” one official told NBC News. “Still, it’s good to have guys like this off the street.”
In June 2008, the informant met Cromitie in Newburgh and Cromitie complained that his parents had lived in Afghanistan and he was upset about the war there and that many Muslim people were being killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan by U.S. military forces, officials said.
Cromitie also expressed an interest in doing “something to America,” they said in the complaint.
In October 2008, the informant began meeting with the defendants at a Newburgh house equipped with concealed video and audio equipment, the complaint said.Beginning in April 2009, the four men selected the synagogue and the community center they intended to hit, it said. They also conducted surveillance of military planes at the Air National Guard Base, it said.”
After you read these stories you cannot help but wonder if profiling is an appropriate measure to take. Preventative action is imperative.
My son, the soon to be third grader has been learning about famous artists in school. Throughout the entire school year the big guy has enjoyed teaching us about Pollock, Matisse, Warhol, Lichtenstein and a number of other famous artists.
It has been a surprise and a pleasure to see how much he enjoys talking, reading, watching and learning about art. Part of the fun has been watching the expression on his face when he recognizes that some of the things hanging on the walls here are famous. Not to mention the fun in explaining that these are not the originals hanging on these walls, but wouldn’t it be cool if it was.
Anyhoo, last night he came home and told me that there is a YouTube video about a song some guy named McLean wrote about Van Gogh. He was even more pleased when I showed him that we have Vincent on iTunes.
So together we sat down and watched the video below and he told me all that he knew about Van Gogh and asked if I though that it was sad that he only sold one painting while he was alive. A short time later I overheard him singing to himself in the shower,
Starry, Starry Night……..
Ever wonder what the song means? Frankly I haven’t spent a ton of time thinking about it, but every now and then it is fun to do.
A long, long time ago…
I can still remember
How that music used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And, maybe, they’d be happy for a while.But february made me shiver
With every paper I’d deliver.
Bad news on the doorstep;
I couldn’t take one more step.I can’t remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride,
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died.So bye-bye, miss american pie.
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
And them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, “this’ll be the day that I die.
“this’ll be the day that I die.”Did you write the book of love,
And do you have faith in God above,
If the Bible tells you so?
Do you believe in rock ‘n roll,
Can music save your mortal soul,
And can you teach me how to dance real slow?Well, I know that you’re in love with him
`cause I saw you dancin’ in the gym.
You both kicked off your shoes.
Man, I dig those rhythm and blues.I was a lonely teenage broncin’ buck
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck,
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the music died.I started singin’,
“bye-bye, miss american pie.”
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
And singin’, “this’ll be the day that I die.
“this’ll be the day that I die.”Now for ten years we’ve been on our own
And moss grows fat on a rollin’ stone,
But that’s not how it used to be.
When the jester sang for the king and queen,
In a coat he borrowed from james dean
And a voice that came from you and me,Oh, and while the king was looking down,
The jester stole his thorny crown.
The courtroom was adjourned;
No verdict was returned.
And while lennon read a book of marx,
The quartet practiced in the park,
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died.We were singing,
“bye-bye, miss american pie.”
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
And singin’, “this’ll be the day that I die.
“this’ll be the day that I die.”Helter skelter in a summer swelter.
The birds flew off with a fallout shelter,
Eight miles high and falling fast.
It landed foul on the grass.
The players tried for a forward pass,
With the jester on the sidelines in a cast.Now the half-time air was sweet perfume
While the sergeants played a marching tune.
We all got up to dance,
Oh, but we never got the chance!
`cause the players tried to take the field;
The marching band refused to yield.
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died?We started singing,
“bye-bye, miss american pie.”
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
And singin’, “this’ll be the day that I die.
“this’ll be the day that I die.”Oh, and there we were all in one place,
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again.
So come on: jack be nimble, jack be quick!
Jack flash sat on a candlestick
Cause fire is the devil’s only friend.Oh, and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage.
No angel born in hell
Could break that satan’s spell.
And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite,
I saw satan laughing with delight
The day the music diedHe was singing,
“bye-bye, miss american pie.”
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
And singin’, “this’ll be the day that I die.
“this’ll be the day that I die.”I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news,
But she just smiled and turned away.
I went down to the sacred store
Where I’d heard the music years before,
But the man there said the music wouldn’t play.And in the streets: the children screamed,
The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed.
But not a word was spoken;
The church bells all were broken.
And the three men I admire most:
The father, son, and the holy ghost,
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died.And they were singing,
“bye-bye, miss american pie.”
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
And them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, “this’ll be the day that I die.
“this’ll be the day that I die.”They were singing,
“bye-bye, miss american pie.”
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, “this’ll be the day that I die.”
If you haven’t been around here is a list of some recent posts.
Misplaced Priorities
Ancient handle with Hebrew text found in Jerusalem…
Midweek Music- Some tunes for the Afternoon
Living Within Your Means
Awesome Photo
Space Shuttle Atlantis
Don’t Take The Car You’ll Kill Yourself
Doing Things Differently
Reasons To Be Careful In The Bathroom
Soldiers Don’t Wear Pink Underwear
Goodbye Sarah Connor
Coffee Bean or Starbucks
Haveil Havalim #217
And your blast from the past:
Middle Age Depression- I Am Not Satisified
Penis Talk Revisited
Top 10 Romantic Movie Moments
Quotes about Love and Life
Boy am I ever glad that they got these evil prostitutes, they were ever so dangerous.
NEW YORK (CNN) — New York authorities indicted seven people accused of running a prostitution ring on the Web site Craigslist, the state’s attorney general announced Wednesday.
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office said the group ran a 24-hour prostitution ring called Room Service Entertainment from Craigslist’s erotic services section from June 2007 to December 2008.
The 47-count indictment unsealed Wednesday named the company’s co-owners as Scott Rosenberg, 45, and Josef Davenport, 31.
Five women also were named in the indictment, identified as bookers for the alleged prostitution ring.
The five women named in the indictment were identified as Patricia Krupa, Joanna Mercado, Sylvia Soto, Lina Vazquez and Barbara Morris.
It was not immediately known if those charged had hired legal counsel.
Five of the defendants appeared in court Wednesday afternoon, Cuomo’s office said. Authorities are still searching for two, who have not yet been arrested.
It was not immediately clear which two had not been arrested.
Craigslist, an online classified-ad site, was the “sole vehicle through which the company operated,” Cuomo’s office said.
Someone is going to try to work hard to prove that this fake. Old man Abbas hates having to admit that Jews have lived in Jerusalem for thousands of years.
JERUSALEM – Archaeologists digging on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives have discovered a nearly 3,000-year-old jar handle bearing ancient Hebrew script, a find significantly older than most inscribed artifacts unearthed in the ancient city, an archaeologist said. The Iron Age handle is inscribed with the Hebrew name Menachem, which was the name of an Israelite king and is still common among Jews.
The inscription also includes a partly intact letter, the Hebrew character “lamed,” meaning “to.” That suggests the jar was a gift to someone named Menachem, said Ron Beeri, who directed the excavation for the Israel Antiquities Authority. There is no indication the inscription refers to the king himself.
The name and similar variants have been found on Egyptian pottery dating back 3,500 years, and the Bible lists Menachem Ben Gadi as an ancient king of Israel. But this is the first time an artifact bearing the name has been unearthed in Jerusalem, Beeri said.
“It’s important because it shows that they actually used the name Menachem during that period,” Beeri said. “It’s not just from the Bible, but it’s also in the archaeological record.”
Based on the style of the inscription, he dated the handle to around 900 B.C., the time of the first Jewish Temple in Jerusalem as recounted in the Bible.
Led Zeppelin’s “Dawn at the Great Pyramid” – London Philharmonic Orchestra
Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” – London Philharmonic Orchestra
Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” – London Philharmonic Orchestra
Kashmir- Ofra Haza (This is a trip for any number of reasons)
Yerushalayim Shel Zahav- Ofra Haza
Kol Aneshama, Elo Hi- Ofra Haza
Gimme Shelter – The Rolling Stones
I’m Shipping Up To Boston – Dropkick Murphys
oh danny boy The Young Irish Tenors.
The Wrestler- Bruce Springsteen
I just finished reading an article about what the credit card bill is supposed to do and was disappointed a number of the comments. A number of posters made the obvious comments about the need for people to live within their means.
That is a no brainer that I haven’t any disagreement with. However it is not as black and white as many people would like to think of it as being. Quite a few people live in situations in which they are just a few steps away from falling into serious financial distresss.
This is not a polemic or an apology but the reality of life. A family may have two working parents who are able to pay all of the bills without having to finance anything. Said parents might have spent years building a savings up to help tide them over for that mythical rainy day.
But the thing is that it doesn’t take much for that apple cart to be toppled. What happens if one of them becomes disabled and is no longer able to work. What happens if sudden and unexpected healthcare costs become necessary.
These scenarios aren’t without precedent and they aren’t impossibilities. Things happen. And when they happen you can’t give the bank an IOU for the mortgage or tell your insurance company that you are good for the money. You can’t feed your children with promises.
So I find it sad and distasteful to read to these comments where the self righteous suggest that financial difficulties are due to irresponsible behavior. I recognize that no one wants to be forced to pay more because of the irresponsible or dishonest behavior of others, but at the same time that is life.
We pay more for many products and services because the businesses are trying to protect themselves. I don’t like it, but that is just how it is. And as I have said many times I believe in a society that looks out for each other. We have a social obligation to help each other.
The distinction here is that I don’t think we should be talking about hand outs, but a hand up. If we do what we can to provide support and resources for our community it is better for everyone.
What do you think?
Atlantis’ Window on the World
Solar panels on the Hubble Space Telescope make for unique window shades in this scene photographed from the flight deck of the Earth-orbiting space shuttle Atlantis. This image was taken on flight day 5 of the 11-day mission to repair and upgrade Hubble.Image Credit: NASA
http://wwwjackbenimble.blogspot.com/2009/05/space-shuttle-atlantis.html#ixzz0IrBHfuKV&D
Don’t Take The Car You’ll Kill Yourself
A mixed assortment of memories and thoughts:
If you grew up in Southern California and are of a certain age you might remember a commercial in which a wife screams Don’t Take The Car You’ll Kill Yourself! Not sure if it ever aired anywhere else, but I remember it well.
Or should I say that I remember how much of a joke it turned into. The sentiment was sincere and the idea behind it was/is not a joke, but not unlike so many other things it evolved. Kind of reminds me a bit of the commercial for Life Alert.
“I have fallen and I can’t get up” became a huge joke. It was one of those things that we made fun of for a thousand years. If you tripped and fell it was a virtual guarantee that someone was going to say or think it.
My sophomore year of high school had a number of highlights. I remember one class in which we had this bitter old man teaching us, at least that is how I remember him.
Twenty-five years later I see a man in a worn cordoruy jacket sitting behind a desk. Sitting behind his desk, dark oily hair on his head, he’d lecture us about life. Tell us that it was his job to puncture our illusions of grandeur and make us face reality. We weren’t as smart as we thought, or so he’d tell us.
“I am going to get you ready to take the the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) test so that you can see what you are really good at it. Some of you will end up as janitors and plumbers. Only a few will do really well. Most of you will be lucky to get by. The ASVAB will help you understand what you are good at it so that you don’t waste time.
One of my classmates would sit in the back of the class and sing Institutionalized to himself. He was a year older than me, had a beard and wore boots. At first I was a bit intimidated by him, but as time passed we developed something. Occasionally he’d grunt at me. I heard a while back that he was shot and killed during a gas station robbery, but I don’t know if that is true.
At fifteen the lyrics to Institutionalized were pretty radical, or so I thought. I see them a bit differently now, but not really what I want my kids listening to.
Sometimes I try to do things and it just doesn’t work out the way I wanted to.
I get real frustrated and I try hard to do it and I take my time and it doesn’t work out the way I wanted to.
It’s like I concentrate real hard and it doesn’t work out.
Everything I do and everything I try never turns out.
It’s like I need time to figure these things out.
But there’s always someone there going.
Hey Mike:
You know we’ve been noticing you’ve been having a lot of problems lately.
You know, maybe you should get away and maybe you should talk about it, maybe you’ll feel a lot better
And I go:
No it’s okay, you know I’ll figure it out, just leave me alone I’ll figure it out.
You know I’ll just work by myself.
And they go:
Well you know if you want to talk about it I’ll be here you know and you’ll probably feel a lot better if you talk about it.
And I go:
No I don’t want to I’m okay, I’ll figure it out myself and they just keep bugging me and they just keep bugging me and it builds up inside and it builds up inside.
So you’re gonna be institutionalized
You’ll come out brainwashed with bloodshot eyes
You won’t have any say
They’ll brainwash you until you see their way.
[Chorus:]
I’m not crazy – in an institution
You’re the one who’s crazy – in an institution
You’re driving me crazy – in an institution
They stuck me in an institution
Said it was the only solution
To give me the needed professional help
To protect me from the enemy — myself.
I was in my room and I was just like staring at the wall thinking about everything
But then again I was thinking about nothing
And then my mom came in and I didn’t even know she was there she called my name
And I didn’t even hear it, and then she started screaming: MIKE! MIKE!
And I go:
What, what’s the matter?
And she goes:
What’s the matter with you?
I go:
There’s nothing wrong mom.
And she goes:
Don’t tell me that, you’re on drugs!
And I go:
No mom I’m not on drugs I’m okay, I was just thinking you know, why don’t you get me a Pepsi.
And she goes:
NO you’re on drugs!
I go:
Mom I’m okay, I’m just thinking.
She goes:
No you’re not thinking, you’re on drugs! Normal people don’t act that way!
I go:
Mom just give me a Pepsi, please
All I want is a Pepsi, and she wouldn’t give it to me
All I wanted was a Pepsi, just one Pepsi, and she wouldn’t give it to me.
Just a Pepsi.
They give you a white shirt with long sleeves
Tied around you’re back, you’re treated like thieves
Drug you up because they’re lazy
It’s too much work to help a crazy
[Chorus]
I was sitting in my room and my mom and my dad came in and they pulled up a chair and they sat down, they go:
Mike, we need to talk to you
And I go:
Okay what’s the matter
They go:
Me and your mom have been noticing lately that you’ve been having a lot of problems,
You’ve been going off for no reason and we’re afraid you’re gonna hurt somebody,
We’re afraid you’re gonna hurt yourself.
So we decided that it would be in your interest if we put you somewhere
Where you could get the help that you need.
And I go:
Wait, what are you talking about, we decided!?
My best interest?! How can you know what’s my best interest is?
How can you say what my best interest is? What are you trying to say, I’m crazy?
When I went to your schools, I went to your churches,
I went to your institutional learning facilities?! So how can you say I’m crazy?
They say they’re gonna fix my brain
Alleviate my suffering and my pain
But by the time they fix my head
Mentally I’ll be dead
[Chorus]
It doesn’t matter, I’ll probably get hit by a car anyway
Sometimes it is hard to believe that so much time has passed. I sit here thinking about that time and certain memories are easy to pull up, but some are hard. I don’t have any journals of my thoughts, or at least none that I am aware of, so I am stuck with memory.
I suppose that I should clarify and say that sometimes I wonder what that 15 year old thought the future was going to be like. I think that I remember. I think that I know, but the passage of time makes me wonder.
In theory that won’t be a problem that I am going to have, at least when it comes to the five years of my life that I have spent blogging. All I have to do is sift through the archives and it all comes flooding back to me.
Wonder what I’ll think about all this in twenty years.
“If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always got.”
Filed under Trite but true.
These two stories should serve as a reminder to look before you begin your business in the bathroom.
“A 2cm long fish apparently found it’s way into the penis of a 14-year-old boy from India in a bizarre medical case.
The patient was admitted to hospital with complaints of pain, dribbling urine and acute urinary retention spanning a 24-hour period. According to the boy, the fish slipped into his penis while he was cleaning his aquarium at home. Professor Vezhaventhan and Professor Jeyaraman, who treated the boy and later wrote a paper on the case, explained: “While he was cleaning the fish tank in his house, he was holding a fish in his hand and went to the toilet for passing urine. When he was passing urine, the fish slipped from his hand and entered his urethra and then he developed all these symptoms.”
and
“A MAN became a sitting target for a snake, which bit his penis as sat on the toilet.
“As soon as he sat down, he suddenly felt a knife-like pain and reacted instinctively by standing up,” the China Times said. “When he looked down, he saw the big snake.” (Editor’s note: We all say this.
“As soon as he has passed the risk of infection, he can go,” the director, who declined to be named, said.
“A snake’s mouth isn’t always clean.”
The AP gets credit for this photo of US Army Specialist Zachary Boyd. I appreciate his service to our country and can only imagine what kind of grief he is going to get for this.
Stay safe soldier and keep your head down.
Read more: http://wwwjackbenimble.blogspot.com/2009/05/soldiers-dont-wear-pink-underwear.html#ixzz0Ir4HXaK2&C
If you ask me I far prefer the coffee at Coffee Bean to Starbucks.
Dear Smoker,
Your right to harm yourself infringes upon my right not to.
I really wish that I could exercise my choice not to breathe the crap you exhale.
Somewhere on my bookshelf is a book that contains a collection of Peanuts comic strips. I have had it for a good thirty years or so.
Every so often I’ll pull it out and flip through it. I never get tired of watching Snoopy fight the Red Baron or following his exploits as an author. How many dogs sit on top of their doghouse and use a Smith-Corona typewriter to compose the Great American Novel.
One of my favorite strips is one in which Snoopy struggles to come up with a good opening for his book. The major problem is that all of his opening paragraphs are either cliches or duplicates of famous works. It makes me smile, because I often feel his pain.
So you’ll forgive me when I say that when I began this blog in the Spring of 2004, it was the best of times and it was the worst of times. There was so much going on in my life that I thought that blogging might serve as a great release.
Very early on I intended to let a number of friends and family know about this place. I think that I even sent out an email or two about it, but there wasn’t much of a response. And then at a party I listened to a group of people rant about how arrogant bloggers were. The comment was something along the lines of “you have to have a major ego to believe that people want to read your words.”
And while I wasn’t fazed by their criticism, I decided that for a while I’d enjoy the anonymity and see what happened. By that point in time I had already begun writing more personal posts in which I shared some pretty raw feelings. So it was actually easier to be anonymous than to have to engage in discussions about some of those thoughts.
If I had to do it over again I probably would do some of it differently. I probably wouldn’t be anonymous, but you can’t go back in time so this is how it is.
As blogging has become more prevalent and more mainstream I have been involved in more conversations about it and answered more questions about what it is and why people do it. From time to time I still hear the “bloggers are arrogant” comment and I still have the same response. No one is forcing you to read their blogs, so why do you care.
I have yet to hear a good response to that, maybe it is because I am arrogant. Or maybe it is because it is another one of those throwaway remarks that people make without thinking. I don’t know.
What do you think?
If I was a smarter man I’d be fast asleep in bed, but I am not that smart. I don’t know about you, but I have often wondered why they say “fast asleep” as I have never really thought of being “slow asleep” as an alternative.
In fact “slow asleep” sounds absolutely ridiculous, not that it matters because no one is asking me for my opinion anyhow.
Went to a focus group earlier today and realized that in my dotage I am growing more reticent to speak in a group setting. Or maybe it is just a matter of being more selective about when and where I am willing to publicly share my thoughts. I am not afraid to speak in public, I do it all the time. But something has changed.
Not saying that this is a good or a bad thing, just an observation about myself. Since turning 40 was a bit more traumatic than a normal birthday I have been far more conscious of these little things. Now that the the date has come and gone I am more relaxed about it.
But that doesn’t mean that I am any more accepting of some of the less “pleasant” side effects. The mysterious aches and pains, the nicks, scrapes and bruises that take forever to heal are not welcome. In fact I have tried to scare them away, but they do not fear and so they stick around.
I have some stories to tell, some things to share. Little fragments of fiction and bits of truth intermixed in a strange melange of this and that. It is my blogging recipe.
It is a recipe that I find works pretty well and one that I have adopted for most of the work that I do, but as expected there are those moments when it doesn’t meet the expectations. The good news is that this is just another personal blog so the hard questions are almost immaterial.
In July of last year I picked it up again and started weaving it together. I managed to squeak out a second post and then it just fizzled. My intention is to start it up again and see if I can’t get something going. Just for kicks I am going to grab the last set of lyrics I used and start it up again.
The hard part is that I am not exactly sure what this story is about or where it is going. It makes it more challenging to try and write. On the other hand it does provide endless opportunities now doesn’t it.
“She’s forty-one and her daddy still calls ‘er “baby”
All the folks ’round Brownsville say she’s crazy
‘Cause she walks downtown with her suitcase in her hand
Lookin’ for a mysterious dark-haired man”
Delta Dawn- Helen Reddy
“Dont stop, thinking about tomorrow,
Dont stop, itll soon be here,
Itll be, better than before,
Yesterdays gone, yesterdays gone.
Why not think about times to come,
And not about the things that youve done,
If your life was bad to you,
Just think what tomorrow will do.
Dont stop, thinking about tomorrow,
Dont stop, itll soon be here,
Itll be, better than before,
Yesterdays gone, yesterdays gone.
All I want is to see you smile,
If it takes just a little while,”
Don’t Stop- Fleetwood Mac
“Don’t let her slip away
Sentimental fool
Don’t let your heart get in her way
yeah, yeah, yeah,
Hold On Loosely- .38 Special
“Circus life
Under the big top world
We all need the clowns
To make us smile
Through space and time
Always another show
Wondering where I am
Lost
without you
And being apart aint easy
On this love affair
Two strangers learn to fall in love again
I get the joy
Of rediscovering you
Oh girl, you stand by me
Im forever yours…faithfully”
Faithfully- Journey
Ok, this is far too sappy. I think that I am going to put this to bed. We’ll give it another go later on.
Comfortably Numb- Pink Floyd with Van Morrison
Country Comfort – Elton John
Burn Down The Mission – Elton John
Hold On I’m Comin’-Sam & Dave
Try A Little Tenderness -Otis Redding
“Life Is Beautiful” Sixx:A.M.
Bulls On Parade – Rage Against The Machine
People of The Sun - Rage Against The Machine
You Know My Name – Chris Cornell
Sweet Caroline- Neil Diamond
Let it be- The Beatles
I liked this list. Here are a few of my favorites from it.
Glengarry Glen Ross<br><p>
Casablanca<br>
In a couple of weeks I’ll celebrate my fifth blogiversary and is my custom I start celebrating well in advance of the day. Typically I try to use these sorts of posts as a moment during which I reminisce about the past, speak of the present and consider the future.
This has been one hell of an experience and I find it inconceivable to imagine my life without the blog. I was never one for journaling. If you search through the boxes in my garage you won’t find notebooks filled with my hopes and dreams. I didn’t like it, journaling that is and I didn’t do it. The few exceptions being those school assignments in which I was forced to keep one.
But this has been a tremendous experience that has brought me much joy and pleasure as well as some real aggravation. Inside these cyberwalls lie the hopes, dreams and aspirations of a relatively ordinary man.
If you really know me then you know that some of those posts are raw emotion. I have my moments of doubt and times in which I wonder if I am destined to be a tortured soul who is unable to rest. But there are also a lot of good moments that have been chronicled here.
Believe it or not, I am someone who easily shares my thoughts and feelings. Oh, the superficial stuff is easy. Not afraid to discuss politics or religion and tell you what I think. I can do all that easily.
It is the deeper stuff that is hard for me. Anonymity made that easy. I could say anything and not worry about it. Slowly over time that anonymity has been compromised. Some of it is/was my own doing and some was not.
But I think that if I had to start over that there are two things that I can say I would do differently. I would have come up with a better name. I am a creative guy and could easily have come up with something better than random thoughts.
The other thing that I would have done is said the hell with the anonymity. I would have used my real name and solved or avoided a number of problems. At least that is what I think I would have done.
It is not so easy to say. Who I am at 40 is a bit different than who I was at 35. The past five years has been filled with an awful lot of challenging situations. It is fair to say that in some ways it has been the most challenging period of my life.
Death came to visit. I lost two grandparents and said goodbye to the parents of some friends. My father had a major heart attack and almost died. For a while he and my mother were forced to live across the country and I became responsible for taking care of three grandparents, another household and more.
The dark haired beauty came into my life and turned things upside down. My career underwent a few changes. Friends got married. Friends got divorced. I was in a car accident in which my car was totaled. I was lucky to walk away with a few bruises.
All of that is a partial list of some of the things that happened. Compared to some it was nothing and compared to others it was the most incredible upheaval they’d ever see.
In short we call it life.
I do my best to try and live a life without regrets, but I have a few. There is a very significant one that weighs upon me. I won’t say more than that. But I’ll admit to wondering if I made a mistake by not taking that fork in the road.
On the other hand I can’t help but wonder if there is a major benefit in having not taken that path. Did I gain some valuable life experience that I can apply to my life. Not to mention that it is very possible and quite likely that the path I didn’t take will intersect again in the not so distant future.
Since I can’t actually see the future all I can do is try to influence it so that the outcome favors me. I suspect that in five years I’ll be able to come back to the blog and take a look at this and get a sense of whether I hit the mark.
Oh, one more thing about starting over, at least as it pertains to blogging. If I started blogging today I’d probably make this a niche blog that focused on a couple of topics and I wouldn’t post more than once or twice a day.
Oh who am I kidding, it is May and I already have written more than 400 posts this year.
Read more: http://wwwjackbenimble.blogspot.com/2009/05/if-i-started-blogging-today.html#ixzz0IquaEXJC&C
During the past two weeks quite a number of the people following me on Twitter have turned out to be experts in Social Media or SEO. For a moment I was puzzled by this and then I realized that they have done so because I am the leading expert on all matters. Jack sees all and knows all, just ask DovBear.
Anyhoo, the beauty of these various tools is that there really isn’t one proper way to use them. However, it should be noted that while there may not be one right way, there are also several wrong ways to use them.
The most obvious pitfall from using these tools is being careful about what sort of information you enter into them. If you consider the viral nature of the net it is easy to imagine that anything you post in cyberspace can be viewed by millions of people and for an unknown duration of time.
It is not far fetched to suggest that the YouTube video you made at 12 could still be around when you are 50, 76 or 176.
The point being is that you need anytime you put something out there you need to consider the present and future implications of that post. Not only that but you also need to remember that you don’t have complete control of what is posted.
For example friends of yours could post pictures of you in compromising positions. But for the purpose of this post let’s limit the discussion to what you post. You need to assume that anything you post can be seen by current and future employers, friends, colleagues and others.
So don’t post anything that you aren’t prepared to discuss and or if needed defend. More to come on this in a later post.
The Healing Power of Music- CNN reports on the work of a cardiologist and his study of the effects of music on the cardiovascular system. “Turns out music may be one of the best de-stressors. Makes sense to me.
Why Your Baby’s Name Will Sound Like Everyone Else’s -Wired gives you the rundown on why your baby’s name isn’t all that unique.
The Best & Worst Owners in Sports- SI comes up with another list.
Blue Whales Are On The Move- Live Science has some great stuff.
Reductio ad absurdum is a mode of argumentation that seeks to establish a
contention by deriving an absurdity from its denial, thus arguing that a thesis
must be accepted because its rejection would be untenable. It is a style of
reasoning that has been employed throughout the history of mathematics and
philosophy from classical antiquity onwards.
Or the standard dictionary definition
Main Entry:re·duc·tio ad ab·sur·dum
Pronunciation:\ri-ˈdək-tē-ˌō-ˌad-əb-ˈsər-dəm, -ˈdək-sē-ō-, -shē-, -ˈzər-\
Function:noun
Etymology:Late Latin, literally, reduction to the absurd
Date:1741
1 : disproof of a proposition by showing an absurdity to which it leads when carried to its logical conclusion
2 : the carrying of something to an absurd extreme
I’ll give this company the benefit of the doubt and say that I am sure that they were trying to do the right thing, but as a parent I am greatly troubled by it. But sex toy and children should never be said in the same sentence.
Look at that picture and tell me that there isn’t something wrong with this campaign.
Here is a quick excerpt from the press release:
SinlessTouch.com shakes up the adult novelty industry with its Buy a Sex toy, save a child Charity Program.
“The Buy a Sex toy, save a child Charity Program is our commitment to society. We’ve always known that a sustainable business needs the support of healthy communities and a high quality environment. We aim to be the most trusted retailer wherever we trade by demonstrating a clear sense of social responsibility. ” said Jessica Blake, Sinless Touch Vice President of Corporate Communications.
Social responsibilty is great, but this is poorly executed. It needs to be revamped and fixed ASAP.
REASON, SEASON, LIFETIME!!!People always come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.
When you figure out which it is, you know exactly what to do.
When someone is in your life for a REASON,
it is usually to meet a need you have expressed outwardly or inwardly.
They have come to assist you through a difficulty,
or to provide you with guidance and support,
to aid you physically, emotionally, or even spiritually.
They may seem like a godsend to you, and they are.
They are there for the reason you need them to be.
Then, without any wrong doing on your part or at an inconvenient time,
this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end.
Sometimes they die. Sometimes they just walk away.
Sometimes they act up or out and force you to take a stand.
What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled; their work is done.
The prayer you sent up has been answered and it is now time to move on.
When people come into your life for a SEASON,
it is because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn.
They may bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh.
They may teach you something you have never done.
They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy.
Believe it! It is real! But, only for a season.
And like Spring turns to Summer and Summer to Fall,
the season eventually ends.
LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons;
those things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation.
Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person anyway;
and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas in your life.
It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.
Thank you for being part of my life.
Everyone hears what you say.
Friends listen to what you say.
Best friends listen to what you don’t say.
I go back and forth about these sorts of statements. People want to believe that there is a purpose in everything, some sort of hidden meaning that they can sniff out.
I am no different. During hard times it is comforting to say that everything happens for a reason. When you are heartbroken you want to say that person xyz came into your life so that you would learn some profound lesson.
It is not easy for me to buy into all of that. I want to. I love the sentiment and I want to believe, but sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I latch on and have complete faith and other times I shrug my shoulders and just roll my eyes.
On the other hand there are people that I share too many coincidences with. They have come into my life and turned it upside down. So in the end I find myself waffling on whether I believe or disbelieve. I am not a fan of sitting on the fence, but in this case…
What do you think?
Hmm….I think that I might have painted myself into a corner and now I am a bit unsure how to extract myself. It is rather disturbing, this feeling of being trapped.
Not like I didn’t see the potential for this happening, but still….So here I sit mulling over options, carefully considering the best direction to turn and thus we’ll see if old Jack manages to overcome the obstacles or gets stuck in the corner for a while longer.
But I can guarantee one thing, I’ll never sing like Greg Pritchard.
A few minutes before midnight I sat down in a dark room and thought about the events of the past day. The last vestiges of my birthday were slipping away. It wasn’t just any birthday, it was my fortieth.
Forty years of wandering the earth trying to figure out what the hell am I doing here had led to this very moment. As a responsible blogger I thought that it was incumbent upon me to share the distilled wisdom of the ages with my readers, present and future.
So I ambled over to the computer and began to write a rambling and garbled post that never quite got its legs beneath it. It took all of thirty seconds to decide that I didn’t want to run it and I deleted it.
I had intended to take another shot at it last night, but after the Mother’s Day marathon I just didn’t have it in me. Wife, mother, mother-in-law, sisters who are mothers and a mother of day sucked the life out of me.
But you my lucky reader had nothing to worry about because here I am writing this post now. It is better, tastier and contains all sorts of healthy nutrients that will make you grow up to be big and strong.
Forty doesn’t feel all that much different to me, age is a number. I won’t lie and say that I am in better shape now than I was at twenty.
At twenty I was a beast. That is not hyperbole. My body fat was somewhere around 9%. I could curl 150, bench press over 300 and I could run for as long as I needed to without fear of how my back or knees would feel later.
Back then I had the benefit of not being responsible for anyone or anything besides myself. I rarely missed a day at the gym and when I was there it was for several hours at a time. On a side note I would have loved being able to use my iPod. It is so much more convenient than that huge walkman I had strapped to my arm.
Ok, so we have established that physically I am not in the shape that I was then. That is not great, but it is not the end of the world either. Mentally/emotionally I am a million times tougher than I was then and that is worth a lot. Life doesn’t always work out the way that you think it will and you need to have some steel in your guts to help you through the rough moments.
A dear friend called to wish me a happy birthday as well as to tease me about my advanced age, in a month I’ll return the favor. During our conversation he told me that he thinks that I know more people who have died young than anyone else he knows.
He is probably right, but I wish that he wasn’t. I can run off a list of around 16 names of friends and people that I knew in passing that died from cancer, drunk driving, bike accident and two suicides.
It is only logical to assume that the older we get the more likely it is that we’ll have these stories to share. But I am not part of the clergy and not in a profession where I have more exposure to this part of life so I suspect that I probably do know more than most.
It has had an impact upon me and lately I am feeling the effects more than in the past. I am far more focused on trying to spend time with the people who are important to me and to do those things that I have always wanted to do.
Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t any reason to believe that I am dying now or that I will do so for many years to come. My paternal grandfather lived to be 92 and I am grateful to still have my maternal grandparents, 95 and counting. In fact to quote my paternal grandfather, I intend to defenestrate death.
In more colorful terms, when death comes I am going to kick him in the balls, poke him in the eyes and then throw his bony ass out the window headfirst. I have got far too much to do.
Anyway, as I sat there in the dark I smiled and thought about all the good things in my life because there is a lot. But it was a bit of a bittersweet smile, because even though I have much to be thankful for there are challenges.
Challenges that make me shake my head and question whether I have accomplished enough for someone my age because sometimes I wonder.
That twenty year old I referred to would have laughed at the old man. It would have started as a deep rumble in his chest and erupted into gales of laughter. And then the old man would have used him to mop the floor. I may not be in the same shape, but I am a hell of a lot meaner and far more cunning.
On a serious note, at twenty I had no clue about so many things. Life was simpler then and that has its benefits. On a Saturday night my girlfriend and I would have kept busy until just before dawn, or I would have been out with the boys, until just before dawn.
I am still a nightowl, but given the presence of little people in the house I pay more attention to my hours. I am sure that my fellow parents appreciate that. The kids love to be up early, regardless of how much or how little sleep I have had.
So here I am, the forty year-old man at the computer, now what. Stay tuned and maybe I’ll answer that question.
At the moment this feels very familiar. More on this to come in later post.
Welcome to Haveil Havalim #216 The Happy 40th Birthday Jack Edition. Yes, it is true. As of the 9th I have been forced to wave goodbye to my thirties and say hello to my forties. A new decade beckons and I am ready to answer the call.
Of course it doesn’t matter whether I am ready or not as I have not yet figured out how to stop the clock or better yet, how to turn it back. I have mixed feelings about this birthday. Part of me is completely ambivalent while another part is trying to figure out how this could be. I was twenty five last week and just a hair short of 31 yesterday.
Anyway, while I undergo my own private analysis you can take some time to read through our carnival. My apologies if this isn’t up to snuff, birthday events and life activities have made it hard to focus.
I shared a joke called Baptizing The Bear that many people have found to be quite funny. I like jokes about bears, do you remember A Jewish Bear & Other Jokes.
Israel and Politics
We’ll start off with Daled Amos post, Is There Such A Thing As Putting Too Much Pressure On Israel? and then we’ll move along to Rubin Reports Please! Some Sanity in Evaluating U.S.-Israel Relations.
Esser Agaroth has Some Frightening Thoughts to share.
Speaking of frightening this post at Shiloh Musings will make you think. Check out Wife of Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister is a “Born Again Believer.”
Visit the Augean Stables and learn about Combatant/Civilian Casualties and the Moral Hysteria/Hypocrisy of the West.
Religion and State in Israel part one and two are ready for your review. Israel Innovation 2.0 shared 12 Israel-related headlines from the week of April 26, 2009.
I don’t know whether it is right to call it holy pollution. Go read Pollution in a Promised Land: Alon Tal on Israel and the Environment.
At the Muqata read Israel’s Settlers Going Green for the Environment.
The Israeli Soldier writes about medicine in the army in Things you know that you don’t know.
Sometimes all you can say about political satire is that This Is Too Cruel.
The world is full of contradictions, Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty: Nuclear Arms Are Bad…Except When They Are Good!
At Mere Rhetoric Omri points out inconsistencies. Take a look at Stephen Walt: Iran Will Never Attack Israel. Iran: We’re Totally Going To Attack Israel.
A Mother in Israel wrote about The Week of the Police Robots.
How to Be Israeli’s post, You are never too old to wear Spandex could also be applied to Texas and Cleveland. Talk about places in need of help, oy.
Seraphic Secret blogged Honestly, Obama’s Lying. Over at Don’t Gel Too Soon there is a post that says religious voters like the president. Read it at Support for Obama Among Jewish (and Other) Religious Voters is High.
The Velveteen Rabbi reviews “Slingshot Hiphop” and offers reflections on hip-hop, Israel and the Palestinian territories, and peace.
Reading about the New Mashbir brought back fond memories of summers past. We used to go to the Carvel next door for ice cream. Not to mention the time when a guy offered to sell me a pair of used Levis for forty bucks. That Israel doesn’t exist any more.
Did someone say pirates? Cruise ships have learned to talk to Israeli security, read more at Aye aye sir – Israeli guards fight piracy on the high seas.
Harry at Israelity says Israeli bathers – beware of matkot sightings. To Serve Again tells the story of Orthodox soldiers who have never been able to serve in the reserves and now will begin to do so.
Ben Yehuda is not pleased with an ad campaign. Want to know more, go read More Codependent YeSh”A Coucil PR Crap.
Bar Kochba discusses Israel’s future as a Jewish state in The Loyalty Fallacy. Over at Elms in The Yard the discussion covers Forced Segregation on Jerusalem Buses.
Flags Over Nazareth discusses the reaction of Muslims in Nazareth to the pope’s visit. Esser Agaroth is not happy about the coming visit of the pope and neither is Shiloh Musings.
Yourish has the story about the Statue of Liberty. Go read Lady Liberty’s crown will re-open: AFT.
Soccer Dad asks the important question, Serious about syria? One can certainly hope that that the news is going to be about effective diplomacy yielding positive results.
Treppenwitz tells the story of a decades old kidnapping. Want to know more, go read Seeking Closure.
Lisa is involved in some Blog Promotion.
Judaism
The Rebbetzin’s Husband has thoughts about Twittering in Synagogue? Frum Satire says that Orthodox Jews don’t drink Manischewitz.
Mrs. S is speaking Heblish. Want to know more go read Heblish: Pesach Sheni edition. DovBear wrote about Shul seating.
I liked My Right Words response to a comment he received on this post. He also has the story of the Jewish, er Catholic priest too.
At Shearim you can read a post that had me both nodding my head yes and shaking my head no, I have to stick to my task in an outside World
A Simple Jew shared Guest Posting By Anonymous – My Questionable “Jewishness.” Too young To Teach says that Everyone Loves a Conspiracy.
Jacob provides key information with his post Educational websites about Lag Ba’Omer, “Flame On.”
The Ima wrote about Creating Jewish Identity. Like her, I wonder what sorts of thoughts/stories my children will tell when they are older.
A Mother in Israel blogged about Abortion in the Religious Zionist Community. It is an interesting topic to say the least, no easy answers.
Home Shuling took A shabbat stroll with a purpose.
At Daled Amos you should read EU Legalizes Kosher Slaughtering–But The Battle Is Not Over and Norwegian Media Retaliates Against Author Of Book On Nordic Anti-Semitism (Updated).
LOZ presents She’er: Wife or Relative? (Trop).
Ask Mottel about JTA’s Fail Whale of a Twitter List. At The Real Shliach he recounts a farbrenger with R’ Shimonke Lazaroff, head Shliach of Texas.
Miscellaneous
I don’t know about you, but B’IMA SHELI is becoming one of my favorite expressions.
Seraphic Secret isn’t Catholic, but he is giving confession. You can read more in Screenwriter Confesses: ‘I Could Never Love a Woman Who Didn’t Love The Seven Samurai.’
Shtetl Fabulous may be on Hiatus. In regard to Mother’s Day go read TherapyDoc who writes You Only Have One Mother.
My Right Word asks the question, Which is better, blogging or getting a letter published in a newspaper?
Beneath the Wings has an important post called Blogging Against Disablism – (updated and expanded version).
Leora has a useful post called Pros and Cons of Self-Hosted WordPress. Batya’s post The Pictures Look Nicer Than The Real Thing may make you want to take a shower.
Alternatively you could always get a car wosh.
At To Light a Spark there is a post that suggests that we resemble a certain sea creature. Go read, You Are a Fish.
This next poster thinks that Having Nothing In Common with your spouse is a spiritual challenge.
I laughed at LOZ’s description of what he thinks he might have put his head in. Someone better check in with Benji and make sure that aliens haven’t eaten him.
On second thought read this post and you’ll know that something had to have happened.
While we are speaking about things that happened, let me be clear there are
Rules For Dating My Daughter.
That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of haveil havalim using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
Technorati tags: haveil havalim, blog carnival.
Another year has come and gone and I have another notch to add to my belt. My thirties have ended and I have entered that decade known as the forties. I stare at my reflection and mutter inconceivable.
The face looking back at me is familiar, yet different. There are lines and creases that are starting to display themselves on a full time basis. The twinkle in my eyes is still there, but there is something else there too.
Life experience has bestowed upon me a certain sort of wisdom that has left a combination of concern and ambivalence that I am trying to sort out. I unsettled. There are things going on that just don’t do it for me. I am unfulfilled and in search of things that make me happier.
I feel the pressure of time to make some changes sooner than later. I have seen too much. I have watched relationships crumble and been to the funeral of more than one friend. Those experiences serve as life lessons that I look at as signposts and roadmaps that I intend to use.
There are many good things in my life that I am thankful for but I don’t have the same feelings/tolerance for those that aren’t adding value. You can’t ever remove all of the negative influences and elements from your life, but you can minimize them. You don’t have to give them free reign.
So I stand here taking inventory and doing all that I can to be the master of my domain. If you ask me what life is going to look like in five years I’ll tell you that I haven’t got a clue. Ok, I have a few ideas, but there are so many variables, so many unknowns that it is tough to give a good answer.
I have to admit that I kind of appreciate not knowing what is going to happen. There is something kind of exciting about it all. And I should add that it is not like I am not going to try and influence things. I have my thoughts and ideas about what I want to see happen. I suppose that the blog will be a good tool for chronicling it all.
Stick around and see what happens.
Originally posted here.
Now I don’t know about you, but there are few things in life that are as exciting to me as creating a spontaneous Hokey Pokey or Bunny Hop. The idea is to find a crowd and then convince members of the crowd to join you in the dance. It is a fine way to make new friends and acquaintances.
You might be surprised at how quickly people will join you in the dance, especially if they see a camera or someone asking for their headshots. All it really takes is two or three people to get things going and before you know it there are hundreds and then thousands of people dancing.
This one time at bandcamp we went to the mall and convinced the security guards and the girls working at Hot Dog On a Stick to join us. What a hoot. You should have seen how quickly the bystanders became participants. I understand that this event served an introductory role to 17 different couples and now 15 years later there are 38 children who owe their being to the Great Hokey Pokey danceoff of 1989.
Just thinking about this makes my heart swell with pride.
I just know that if I could convince the UN to hold an impromptu Hokey Pokey we could bring peace to more places in the world. But, there is one caveat to this.
You have to be very careful not to let the World Bunny Hop Assoication (WBHA) show up at the same time at the Hokey Pokey Swinger (HBS) do their thing. There is a lot of bad blood between those groups. I may just have to share that with you a little later.
Gun Control- This Guy Needs a Lesson
He is as bad as these guys.
Gizmodo has the story about this song:
This cover of Stand By Me was recorded by completely unknown artists in a street virtual studio all around the world. It all started with a base track—vocals and guitar—recorded on the streets of Santa Monica, California, by a street musician called Roger Ridley. The base track was then taken to New Orleans, Louisiana, where Grandpa Elliott—a blind singer from the French Quarter—added vocals and harmonica while listening to Ridley’s base track on headphones. In the same city, Washboard Chaz’s added some metal percussion to it.
And from there, it just gets rock ‘n’ rolling bananas: The producers took the resulting mix all through Europe, Africa, and South America, adding new tracks with multiple instruments and vocals that were assembled in the final version you are seeing in this video. All done with a simple laptop and some microphones.
This really is useful information.
Facebook can’t stop people from posting your picture. But there’s a Facebook setting that prevents other users from tagging photos with your name. Choose that setting, and other users won’t be able to tag you or search for photos of you. Plus you get plausible deniability: Nope, that’s not me doing a keg stand at the company picnic.
As with many Facebook features, the no-tag setting is easy to use, hard to find.
If one of your so-called friends on Facebook has already tagged you in a photo, look beneath it for the label “In this photo.” Your own name will have an extra link next to it, “remove tag.”Click it. The tag with your name goes away. Even better, no one else will be able to tag you in that shot again.
How to disable everyone on Facebook from being able to tag you in the first place? I had to email Facebook to tell me where the button is. Here’s the step-by-step:
Read the whole thing, you’ll thank me.
It has been a very active week thus far so here is a quick round up of recent posts for your review.
Pandora’s Box/Tree of Knowledge
Political Gibberish
The Hokey Pokey Versus The Bunny Hop
Gun Control- This Guy Needs a Lesson
Stand By Me- The World Sings
100 Best Movie Lines in 200 Seconds
How to Block Facebook Photos of Yourself
Friends and Relationships
Rules For Dating My Daughter
Turning 40-The Pressure of Time
Goodbye Dom DeLuise
Baptizing The Bear
You Can’t Fire Bad Teachers- Thank You LA Unified …
Ma Bell
The Ga-Ga Master Speaks
Often times when I hear people discuss opening Pandora’s Box or eating from the Tree of Knowledge it is placed in a negative context. The subtext being that had these actions created all sorts of problems and troubles for those involved.
Every now and then I have heard it placed in a different setting in which the discussion centers around why would this happen. More specifically the question is why would an omnipotent being intentionally place temptation in front of people. The typical answer there is that it is because G-d didn’t want humans to remain childlike and was interested in creating an environment in which they could grow and mature into adults.
I prefer the second explanation. While I appreciate the idea of their being a time and place in which we could live in our own Garden of Eden I am more interested in dealing with the here and now.
To those who know me that might sound contradictory as I am a dreamer and someone who sees visions of a future that could be. I don’t mean that to sound hokey. Part of why I love blogging is that it provides a place to exercise my imagination. I need that sort of stimulation. Shut that down and I am diminished, not the person that I could be.
And that takes me to my next thought. A while back I opened my own Pandora’s Box. I pulled off the lid and exposed myself to something amazing. I received a glimpse of a world that I could live in. I shared some moments in time that made me remember and realize who I am now and who I could be.
Those moments were all too short, so very brief. For a while I chose to believe that it wasn’t real. I denied that I had ever felt what I did and I stuffed it all down. But over time I was forced to confront that and I realized that it was and could again be real.
Now I realize that this is cryptic and that is intentional. But to those who need to understand it is clear.
And now I find myself chasing that moment, trying so very hard to get it back. It is a bit like pouring water into your hand. If you squeeze your hand together the water rushes out, but if you don’t it is going to evaporate or spill away.
So what do you do.
Well if you are me you close your eyes and try to remember the smell because you know that if you relax for a moment you can catch a whiff of that magical scent.
If you are me you do the best that you can to relax because your are a Taurus and like your sign you are willing to charge into the middle of the field. Armed and ready for battle I spin around in circles looking for adversaries to fight. I’ll lower my head and gore them with my horns. I’ll stomp and trample them and win.
But in this situation those aren’t options. It is not a prize fight. You can’t stand in the middle of the ring and trade blows. You can’t go over the wall, through the wall or under it. And you can’t do it because there are some situations that require a different set of tactics.
For now the choice is very simple. Walk along that yellowbrick road and see what happens down the way or tell the wizard to suck on rocks. Part of me is ready to do that. Part of me says that there is nothing lost by doing so.
But the dreamer disagrees. The dreamer sees opportunity for more adventure and more experiences. What harm is there to continue down that yellowbrick road. Why not keep options open by doing so and that is what I intend to do.
That dreamer has proven to be right on more than one occasion so I think that I am going to listen to what he says.
I haven’t any regrets about opening Pandora’s Box. I won’t lie and say that it hasn’t been painful at times, but the upside far outweighs the downside. Life is about going for it and that is what I intend to keep doing.
A relatively short time ago I was confronted by a man who told me that it was imperative that I listen to him because our country was on the verge of disaster. I tried not to be distracted by his appearance and to listen to his words. Looks don’t matter, I teach my children that.
It doesn’t matter that you look like Elmer Fudd or that your voice resembles Yosemite Sam. What matters is what you say and what you do. I know that and I tried hard, so very hard not to be distracted. I didn’t say “what’s up doc,” or call him “colonel” or use any of the many other goofy expressions that floated through my mind.
It took a moment to gain my composure, but I did it. And I am fairly certain that he never noticed that for a moment I wasn’t all there because he never took a breath. Once he started speaking he plowed ahead like a freight train. And he did so with all of the grace of a bull in a china shop.
So now in paragraph four you have to be asking yourself what it was that he said and why I haven’t repeated it. That is because it was gibberish. It was unadulterated nonsensical ranting about how the leadership of the country is bankrupt and the people are stupid and how our doom is at hand.
In spite of my proclivity for self deprecation I do have common sense, the ability to focus and an education. Those three things provide the foundation for determining if what I am being fed is factual, relevant and important.
So when you start crying about the problems and challenges the country faces I will ask questions. I’ll ask you to tell me why you don’t like socialism. I’ll ask you because I am curious to hear your opinion and because I am curious to find out if you actually understand what it is and if so, can explain why it is problematic.
I’ll listen to what you are saying and try to figure out if it is based upon fact or emotion and whether it is important to really pay attention.
And I should add that my opinion is not going to be swayed solely because I am a member of the same group, whatever group that may be as you. I need a little more substance than that.
With any luck the next time I get involved in one of these conversations I won’t find myself wondering where you stashed your rifle and waiting to be asked to help kill that “wascally wabbit.”
“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”
–Macbeth, Act V, scene v
Have you ever noticed that bad news has a habit of arriving at inconvenient moments. Not that there is a good time for it to come, but certainly the dead of night or those moments before dawn are particularly bad.
One of these days someone is going to preface the bad news by handing me a cup of coffee and an iPod with Yo Yo Ma playing. At least one can hope for these things.
Part of the joy of growing older are the many life experiences you get to be a part of them. Some of them are truly amazing, like the birth of a child and some of them are harder, such as the deaths of loved ones. And in between these are the tears that are shed over the ending of relationships.
And so I find myself on this Cinco de Mayo thinking about some of the recent conversations in which dear friends have discussed what it means to say goodbye to their marriages. I am not a therapist. I don’t dispense professional advice.
I listen and if you ask I’ll offer my opinion. That is a bit different from my youth. In these situations I am quite reticent to share my real thoughts because the situations are so explosive. I don’t want to place myself between the hammer and the anvil, it is a losing hand.
That is not to say that I won’t tell you what I think, but I am careful. If the relationship ends or continues I don’t want them to blame me one day for their having made a bad decision.
Most people know that I am a creature of the night, albeit without fangs. If you need me you can ring the BlackBerry and I’ll be there. And so it was that I received the calls that told me that a few more marriages had run their course.
Later on we’d meet for coffee and I’d sit and listen to their stories. I suppose that it is not surprising that there were similarities in their stories. At some point in time they stopped talking. They didn’t share their thoughts with their spouses. As the distance grew the wives stopped sleeping with them and the husbands grumbled about it.
They wanted to use sex to try and restore the intimacy and the wives were irritated that they would be so insensitive. In turn the boys grew upset and the resentment on both sides built and then one day they realized that the flames had been extinguished. And just like that they transitioned into roommates who shared the mission of raising the children.
As I listened to them speak the traffic on the boulevard kept on coming. No matter what is going on in our personal lives life never stops. Or maybe it was proof that a sunny day in LA meant that Ventura Boulevard was going to be filled with convertibles.
Who knows, I am no philosopher. Think that I’ll end this post here.
This past weekend the mother of one of the boys in my daughter’s class told me that she loves the dark haired beauty and would be happy to have her as a daughter-in-law. Lest anyone understand, she wasn’t serious. It was a compliment for my girl.
Anyway, I looked her in the eye and explained that there are rules for dating my daughter. She laughed and asked me to tell her what they are.
I told her that any boy that wishes to date my daughter must face me in single combat. If they can defeat me than they are allowed to ask her out. I figure that for a while there won’t be any man alive who will be able to serve as a better protector than I will.
Of course she is one of the primary reasons why I work out each day. When the day arrives that the boys come looking for her hand I want to be viewed as a dangerous and imposing force. Let them wonder what lies behind the steely glare.
At least I hope that they will. If they are as dumb as I was hormones will push them into taking a chance to dance in the flames. Oy, I am so not ready for this.
Moments like this remind me that I am not as special as I’d sometimes like to think I am. You see, this Saturday I am turning 40 and I am feeling a little strange about it.
I remember when my parents turned forty, or should I say I remember thinking that they were really old. As a kid it seemed that there were a million different shows in which the person turning 40 flipped out because they were suddenly middle aged.
And now here I am feeling out of sorts because of a silly birthday. I don’t feel particularly old. There are days when I look at my family and wonder how they got here. I can’t really be old enough for this to be married, have kids and a mortgage. Is this really me.
Fifteen years ago I was 25. I was single and had my own apartment. I remember lying on a raft in the pool and feeling like I had eternity ahead of me. I wasn’t crazy about my job. It barely paid enough to cover my expenses, but I had time. I knew that if I wanted to I could give notice and walk off into the sunset.
I didn’t have any responsibilities, at least nothing like today. There were no sleepless nights trying to figure out how to pay the bills. Back in those days sleepless nights were because I was out with the boys or the girlfriend was staying over.
If you are curious, I did appreciate it. I knew that wouldn’t last forever, but I never quite understood how radically it would all change. It wasn’t just because I was naive about some things. Some of it was because there are some things you can’t really understand/appreciate until you experience them.
And now I look around me and stare out at the future and my vision is a bit clouded. Instead of looking back 15 years I am looking forward 15 and I see a 55 year-old man. That is pretty wild to me. Fifteen years from now the kids will be my kids, but they’ll big.
Fifteen years from now the dark haired beauty is going to be 20 and her brother will be 24. Oy.
Well I am not going to waste a lot of time worrying about that. I learned a long time ago that it is hard to predict what things will be like in five years, so it is virtually pointless to stress out about that.
But I’d be lying if I said that I don’t feel the pressure of time. I don’t have the same ability to just reinvent myself as I did in the past. That is not necessarily a bad thing, it just feels a bit strange.
I suppose that you could compare this to the first few moments of stepping into the ocean on a really hot day. It takes time to become accustomed to the water. Although, I usually try to just dunk myself and get it over with.
So here I sit in front of the computer, the boy that I used to be still looks out from my eyes. He may not always be there, but I see glimpses of him. Maybe it is the boy that is nervous about this or maybe it is the man.
But overall I can say that I am not completely flipped out. I have two grandparent, pooey, pooey. They are both 95. That has to mean that I won’t be middle aged for a while now.
Woohoo!
I have fond memories of his movies. Cannonball Run was a lot of fun.
A little humor for you.
A Priest, a Pentecostal preacher and a Rabbi all served as chaplains to the students of The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
They would get together two or three times a week for coffee and to talk shop. One day, someone made the comment that preachingto people isn’t really all that hard. A real challenge would be to preach to a bear.
One thing led to another and they decided to conduct an experiment. They would take a trip to the Smokey Mountains to go find a bear, preach to it and convert it.
One week later they reassembled to discuss the results of their trip.
Father Flannery, who has his arm in a sling, is on crutches, and has various bandages on his body and limbs, spoke first.
‘I went into the woods to find me a bear. And when I found him I began to read to him from the Catechism.
Well, that bear wanted nothing to do with me and began to slap me around. So, I quickly grabbed my Holy Water, sprinkled him and, Holy Mary Mother of God, he became as gentle as a lamb.
The bishop is coming out next week to give him first communion and confirmation.’
Reverend Billy Bob spoke next. He was in a wheelchair, with an arm and both legs in casts, and an IV drip. In his best fire and brimstone oratory he exclaimed, ‘WELL brothers, you KNOW that WE don’t sprinkle!
I went out and I FOUND me a bear.
And then I began to read to my bear from God’s HOLY WORD!
But that bear wanted nothing to do with me. So I took HOLD of him and we began to wrassle. We wrassled down one hill, UP another and DOWN another until we came to a creek.
So right quick-like, I DUNKED him and BAPTIZED his furry soul. And just like you said, he became as gentle as a lamb. We spent the rest of the day praising Jesus.’
They both looked down at the rabbi, who was lying in a hospital bed.
He was in really bad shape. He was in a body cast and had multiple lines running in and out of him
His colleagues looked at him and waited for him to relate his experience, looking up at the two men he said, ‘Looking back on it, circumcision may not have been the best way to start.
This is the kind of article that should have parents up in arms, assuming that it is factual and accurate. Just reading the lead irks me more than I can tell you. Read the story and you’ll see.
A Times investigation finds the process so arduous that many principals don’t even try, except in the very worst cases. Jettisoning a teacher solely because he or she can’t teach is rare.
Let’s take a few minutes to review some more of this:
It’s remarkably difficult to fire a tenured public school teacher in California, a Times investigation has found.
The path can be laborious and labyrinthine, in some cases involving years of investigation, union grievances, administrative appeals, court challenges and re-hearings.Not only is the process arduous, but some districts are particularly unsuccessful in navigating its complexities. The Los Angeles Unified School District sees the majority of its appealed dismissals overturned, and its administrators are far less likely even to try firing a tenured teacher than those in other districts.
The Times reviewed every case on record in the last 15 years in which a tenured employee was fired by a California school district and formally contested the decision before a review commission: 159 in all (not including about two dozen in which the records were destroyed). The newspaper also examined court and school district records and interviewed scores of people, including principals, teachers, union officials, district administrators, parents and students.
Among the findings:
* Building a case for dismissal is so time-consuming, costly and draining for principals and administrators that many say they don’t make the effort except in the most egregious cases. The vast majority of firings stem from blatant misconduct, including sexual abuse, other immoral or illegal behavior, insubordination or repeated violation of rules such as showing up on time.
* Although districts generally press ahead with only the strongest cases, even these get knocked down more than a third of the time by the specially convened review panels, which have the discretion to restore teachers’ jobs even when grounds for dismissal are proved.
* Jettisoning a teacher solely because he or she can’t teach is rare. In 80% of the dismissals that were upheld, classroom performance was not even a factor.
When teaching is at issue, years of effort — and thousands of dollars — sometimes go into rehabilitating the teacher as students suffer. Over the three years before he was fired, one struggling math teacher in Stockton was observed 13 times by school officials, failed three year-end evaluations, was offered a more desirable assignment and joined a mentoring program as most of his ninth-grade students flunked his courses.
As a case winds its way through the system, legal costs can soar into the six figures.
Meanwhile, said Kendra Wallace, principal of Daniel Webster Middle School on Los Angeles’ Westside, an ineffective teacher can instruct 125 to 260 students a year — up to 1,300 in the five years she says it often takes to remove a tenured employee.
It is incredible and not in a good way.
L.A. Unified officials have struggled with the system more than most.
Of the 15 tenured employees on record as fighting their terminations before review commissions in the last decade and a half, nine won their jobs back.
The main reasons: Commissions did not find the district’s evidence damning or persuasive enough.
The district wanted to fire a high school teacher who kept a stash of pornography, marijuana and vials with cocaine residue at school, but a commission balked, suggesting that firing was too harsh. L.A. Unified officials were also unsuccessful in firing a male middle school teacher spotted lying on top of a female colleague in the metal shop, saying the district did not prove that the two were having sex.
The district fared no better in its case against elementary school special education teacher Gloria Hsi, despite allegations that included poor judgment, failing to report child abuse, yelling at and insulting children, planning lessons inadequately and failing to supervise her class.
Not a single charge was upheld. The commission found the school’s evaluators were unqualified because they did not have special education training. Moreover, it said they went to the class at especially difficult periods and didn’t stay long enough.
Four years after the district began trying to fire Hsi, the case is still tied up in court, although she has been removed from the classroom. Her lawyer declined to comment on her behalf. The district’s legal costs so far: $110,000.
Sometimes the strength of a union can be detrimental. Membership in a union should not provide blanket protection without care or concern for the actions of union members.
Over the years I have heard many stories from friends who are teachers or otherwise employed in the district. There have been plenty of stories that are positive and make you feel good, but there are far too many that make you cringe.
Teachers are exceptionally influential. I have long argued that they should be paid more because their work is invaluable. But at the same time a bad teacher is incredibly dangerous too. It is very serious problem and we need to take action to improve things.
Dear Ma Bell,
It is me Jack, your long time customer. I am stuck on hold right now while your reps try to figure out what is going on with my bill. You see Ma, I want to pay it, but the darn thing is unclear.
So even though I love you like a mother I don’t have so much spare cash that I can just throw it around. So far the past 27 minutes I have listened as your people tried to explain what is going on.
The not so funny part is that even they are confused by this so they have placed me on hold so that they can try and decipher your billing hieroglyphics. Needless to say I am growing less and less pleased with being stuck here for so long. Even though these CSRs are trying hard I am frustrated because no one is going to compensate me for my time.
This should help explain why you will not receive a Mother’s Day card or gift from me this year. Thanks for helping to waste my time, you suck.
With much love,
Jack
This is what you call a partially recycled
post. Hard to believe that it has been three years since I first wrote I Am Still A Ga-Ga Master.
The game is tied into a family trip that is a hell of a lot of fun. This was Little Jack’s fourth time around and you could see that the years have been good to him.
The little boy isn’t quite so little anymor and has learned numerous tricks. He spent quite a bit of time trying to beat me, but only managed to do so once.
Unlike some of the fathers I don’t just let him win. I want him earn it, but that is a topic for a different post altogether.
*************
I recently had the opportunity to play Ga-ga for the first time in many years and was pleased to see that I am still a Ga-ga master.For those of you who are unfamilar with it here is a short description.
“Ga-ga or GaGa is a form of dodgeball that is thought to have originated in Israel. “Ga” (גע) means “hit” in Hebrew. The game is popular at Jewish, American summer camps, many of which have special ga-ga arenas or so called “pits” in which to play.
Game Play/Rules
Ga-ga is played within an octagonal enclosure when available, or in any other space that is completely enclosed by surrounding walls. The objective of the game is to eliminate your opponents by hitting a ball with either an open hand or closed fist into the region at or below his or her knees. That player is then out and must leave the playing area. A player can also be eliminated by having his or her ball caught in the air.”
Some of my favorite memories are of massive Ga-ga games in which there were just tons of people in the court. Those were fast paced and somewhat physical games but ever so much fun.I always enjoyed playing a very physical game.
I loved going after the people who would tap the ball off of the wall and try and stalk the other gameplayers across the court. I’d slide over to them and try to slap the ball away. Sometimes it would work and sometimes it led to an early demise, but no guts, no glory.
During this most recent edition of Jack’s Ga-ga experience I was able to teach my son how play and tried to teach him some of the finer points of the game. He loved it and I loved watching him play. He still needs to work on learning how to lose gracefully, but at 5.5 that is not always an easy thing to do.
He was also fortunate not to suffer a bad case of Ga-ga knuckles but if he is anything like me they are coming.
In any case, it was nice to have a chance to play with him and watch him learn to enjoy something that I have had so much fun playing.
Another fine example of someone whose ability to influence people lies primarily in how loud and how shrill he can screech, the facts be damned. A good tar and feathering makes him happy.
I really did intend to throw my name into the hat, but one thing led to another and it never happened. So now I’ll just have to follow this story from afar.
“(CNN) — Sixteen applicants arrived in Hamilton Island on Sunday for the final interviews to pick a caretaker for the tropical paradise in Queensland, Australia.
A television presenter from New Zealand and a charity fundraiser from England were among the finalists for the position, dubbed the “best job in the world.” They were picked from a pool of more than 34,000 applicants from across the world.
The six-month caretaker will be paid $100,000 and is required to feed the fish, clean the pool and send weekly blog and video reports on what is happening on the island.”
From my childhood, The theme to The Banana Splits. Got stuck in my head and half the weekend was spent singing tra la la, tra la la….
Haveil Havalim #215 is live at http://myshrapnel.blogspot.com/2009/05/haveil-havelim-215-one-topic-edition.html
No PC access here. More info to come soon.
Damn, they left me off of the list again.
FDR has been viewed by some as having exerted no effort to save European Jewry from the Nazis. However it appears that this may not be the case.
A historian named Richard Breitman writes about James G. McDonald, who was chairman of Roosevelt’s advisory committee on refugees. Apparently McDonald met Hitler and became convinced that he intended to wipe the Jews out.
This USA Today article has some interesting information:
Breitman says McDonald’s papers soften that view, showing that in 1938, Roosevelt:
• Cut red tape that kept immigration quotas from being filled, allowing entry for 27,370 Germans — most of them Jews.
• Hoped to resettle millions of Jews from Central and Eastern Europe to other countries, mostly in Latin America. He called an international conference to line up money and support.
• Promised to ask Congress for $150 million to help resettle refugees if Britain allowed more Jews into Palestine and private funds could be raised.
Roosevelt’s efforts, including the conference in Évian, France, failed. Most countries refused to admit Jews amid a depression and anti-Semitism, Breitman says. Opposition also was strong at the State Department and in Congress, which voted in 1939 not to let in 20,000 German Jewish children.
Breitman says Roosevelt is unfairly criticized for not supporting the bill and refusing to admit 900 Jewish refugees on the St. Louis, which sailed from Germany 70 years ago this month. Cuba, the U.S. and Canada turned away those on the “voyage of the damned,” and the ship returned to Europe. Hundreds of passengers died in the Holocaust.
Roosevelt “made a decision to go for big results,” Breitman says, adding that the president viewed letting in small numbers of Jews as “a gesture, not a solution” to the larger refugee problem.
In 1940, after the start of World War II in Europe, Roosevelt’s priorities turned to national security, Breitman writes.
Rafael Medoff, director of the Wyman Institute, which studies America’s response to the Holocaust, says the book won’t absolve Roosevelt. He says FDR failed to take “concrete steps” such as giving Jewish refugees temporary haven in U.S. territories such as the Virgin Islands.
I have to think about this one a little bit, 900 refugees is not insignificant. Still, if this is all true it is worth reconsidering our thoughts about FDR.
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