Anodder One of Those Thar Survey Thinga-ma-bobs!
11.30.03 (11:45 pm) [edit]THREE THINGS THAT SCARE ME:
[x] Death.
[x] Terrorism.
[x] Bees.
THREE PEOPLE WHO MAKE ME LAUGH:
[x] Me.
[x] Mike.
[x] Sean.
THREE THINGS I LOVE:
[x] myself
[x] Mike.
[x] my cat.
THREE THINGS I HATE:
[x] Terrorists.
[x] Antisemites.
[x] Hitting my funny-bone on something.
THREE THINGS I DON'T UNDERSTAND:
[x] Weird, self-deprecating mentalities.
[x] Why they can't just give me my dang degree.
[x] Toejam.
THREE THINGS ON MY DESK:
[x] A fuzzy stuffed bunny.
[x] My computer.
[x] My Chumash (Bible).
THREE THINGS I'M DOING RIGHT NOW:
[x] Lookin' at the friggin' monitor.
[x] Filling out a survey.
[x] Scratching myself.
THREE THINGS I WANT TO DO BEFORE I DIE:
[x] Get married.
[x] Go to Isreal.
[x] Paint something truly beautiful.
THREE THINGS I CAN DO:
[x] Draw.
[x] Write.
[x] Make people laugh.
THREE THINGS I CAN'T DO:
[x] The splits.
[x] Not procrastinate.
[x] Drink legally in the US (YET!).
THREE BEVERAGES YOU DRINK REGULARLY:
[x] Nekkid juice.
[x] Cranberry juice.
[x] Chocolate soy milk.
------------RIGHT NOW------------
* Wearing: Sweat shirt and jeans skirt.
* I'm feeling: Hungry.
* Eating: Nothing.
* Drinking: Nothing.
* Thinking about: Stuff that pisses me off.
* Listening to: The music in my head.
* Talking to: My dad.
------------IN THE LAST 24 HRS------------
* Cried: Nope. I never cry.
* Worn a skirt: I always wear a skirt.
* Met someone new: Nope.
* Cleaned your room: No, but I probably should.
* Done laundry: No.
* Driven a car: Yes, I went to the store and then I got gas.
------------DO YOU BELIEVE IN------------
* Yourself: Yes.
* Your friends: Most of them.
* Santa Claus: No, I'm Jewish.
* Tooth Fairy: No.
* Angels: Yes.
* Ghosts: No.
* UFO's: Nope.
------------FRIENDS AND LIFE------------
* Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend: Yesh.
* Like anyone?: Yes, my boyfriend.
* Who have you known the longest of your friends: Adina.
* When you cried the most: When I was born, I'm guessing.
* What is the best feeling in the world: Driving 70-80mph on an empty freeway and not getting a ticket.
* Worst Feeling: Stepping on a goddamn bee.
* Who sent this to you: I got this off of someone else's blog.
[boxers or briefs?] Breifs.
[plaid or striped?] Plaid.
[scream or scream2 or scream3?] No!
[ska or punk?] Punk
[salt or pepper?] Pepper.
[okay, ok, or o.k.?] k.
[bright colors or dark colors?] Dark.
[tic-tacs or certs?] How about brushing your dang teeth once in a while!
[sunshine or rain?] Rain.
[rain or snow?] Snow.
[sun or moon?] Moon.
[silver or gold?] Gold.
[silk, cotton, or flannel sheets?] Flannel is cotton.
[preps or freaks?] Um, real people.
[popcorn-with or w/out butter?] With; and some sugar too!
[ketchup, mayo, mustard, or relish?] All of the above!
[shampoo+conditioner in one or separate?] Seperate.
*if you were _______, what would you be?*
[an animal] Tigress.
[a fruit] Strawberry.
[a color] Dark red. Like a ruby translucent colour.
[a bug] Roach-- I'll be here long after you!
*short answer*
[are you smart?] Yes.
[do you like onions?] Love 'em!
[what instruments can you play?] I used to play the violin.
[what words do you overuse?] *&%@!
[do you like to fingerpaint?] YESH!
[do you sleep with socks on?] When it's really cold.
[are you ticklish?] Yes, but I'm not telling where.
[are you shy?] Not the slightest.
[do you talk to yourself?] Always.
[is your house 1, 2, or 3 stories] 1: It's an appt.
[do you have a basement or an attic?] Noo.
[did you go to preschool?] Yep.
[are you a morning person?] Hell no. I'm the origional child of the night.
The Wall.
11.30.03 (3:32 pm) [edit]Recently, I've heard a couple people, not just on tblog, comparing the Berlin wall to the wall that is going up in Israel to keep the terrorists out.
Among my first thoughts was, "Isn't that silly."
For one thing, it's also insulting because that takes the wild assumption that Israel is just being paranoid. I think the dead civilian men, women and children who have suffered at the hands of suicide/homocide bombers can speak for themselves on that one. . .Oh wait. They can't. They were killed...
O_o
If anything, lets compair it to the Great Wall of China, designed to keep invading Mongols out. That sounds more credible for obvious reasons. But even that comparison is still unjust.
I never hear the statement makers coming fourth with evidence to back up their 'Berlin wall claim'--nothing to the point. Just repeated nonsense that beats around the bush or dodges it entirely.
While we're at it, why don't we compair the wall in Israel to the pink floyd album. C'mon! They all have the word "wall" in them! That's about as close as any of them get to eachother.
I've wrote my feelings on the wall in the past, but I'd like to share some more new insight.
First off, I highly doubt that this wall will be perminent. On the contrary, Sharon has hinted to it's use no longer being necissary after the negotiations are finnished and everyone's got what they want out of the deals. Furthermore, he's said that these are not perminent borders. So everyone can just cool their jets on that account.
Also, this wall actually helps the peace plan.
"WHAT? What's this you say Tigress?! You're insane."
Just hear me out:
In the past, our history has shown us that during every peace talk the Palestinians had this extra card that they'd pull if things didn't go exactly their way (ie. their wish for Israel proper to be dismantled legally doesn't come true). They always claimed to the American prestident that was involved and the rest of the world that they didn't have this card, but Israel knew that they did. What was this thing that they used as an instrument?
Eight letters: Violence.
After which Israel would be forced to retaliate and the problems would erupt all over again. With this peace talk and the 'Road map' it will be different. Why? Because this time, they can't just run in and kill people during negotiations and start another vicious cycle. This [u]temporary[/u] wall keeps it safe for both Israeli and Palestinian.
If Hamas can't get through and spoil everything for the good Palestinian civilians who deserve their own space, then most likely talks will be productive.
Once talks are finished and a resolution is met, a real border can be decided on and created.
So next time we hear someone repeating such nonsense as "The wall in Israel is just another Berlin wall," lets think logically here rather than just repeating usless nonsenseical rhetoric as if we are parrots begging for crackers.
Much love.
New Pulse Poll!
11.29.03 (10:43 pm) [edit]I've updated my pulse poll on the right side of my blog. Unfortunatly, in the process I lost the data. So, if you already voted before I updated it, please vote again! If you havn't voted yet, leave your opinion! :)
Thanks to all participants!
:)
A NewsWeek interview with Ariel Sharon.
11.29.03 (7:28 pm) [edit]What does the REAL Sharon say?
------------------------- -------
[i]by Lally Weymouth[/i]
[b]Weymouth: What is your assessment of Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, also known as Abu Ala?[/b]
Sharon: Abu Ala is a politician, and he's clever. I believe he will be able to maneuver better than former prime minister Abu Mazen. The latter hed to leave his post for two reasons: Arafat undermined him. And instead of acting against the terrorist organizations, he tried to make deals with them.
[b]Will Abu Ala act differently?[/b]
According to what he says, the answer is no, but here, declarations should not be taken seriously. Only performance counts. I would like very much to move the process foreward. It should be implemented in three stages. The first should be a full cessation of terror. Then Israel will recognize a Palestinian state...without final borders. If relations develop, the third stage will be where final borders are decided upon. One thing that is very important is that all the security forces, many of which are involved in terror, come under the full control of the prime minister and that Yasir Arafat be removed from any position of influence.
[b]Have you talked to Abu Ala since he became prime minister?[/b]
No, but we have been in contact at a lower level.
[b]Do you plan to meet him soon?[/b]
I don't have any problem meeting him. I've known him for many years.
[b] Israelis appear to want a way out of the conflict. Can you give them hope?[/b]
I want to solve the problem. IN order to take hard decisions, you must have a wide consensus. The left cannot have that. I can do that.
[b] Why don't you leave the settlement of Nesarim in Gaza as a gesture of your intentions?[/b]
You ask about hope. I also want to see hope. But my hope is that the bloodshed will stop--that Jews will be able to lice a normal life in their homeland. There are others who think that making concessions create hope.
[b]Is leaving Nezarim one of the painful concessions you've spoken about?[/b]
I've said I'm going to make painful compromises. I don't know if this will be one of them.
[b]Suppose Abu Ala reaches a ceasefire with the extremist groups and then asks Israel to stop assassinating extremist leaders?[/b]
If terror stops, there is no reason for Israel to make targeted interceptions.
[b]Why don't you dismantle the illegal outposts?[/b]
We have done so but [can't complete this] in a short time.
[b]The US government says that for every one that goes down, another one goes up.[/b]
We still have quite a number of them; some were built many years ago under illegal procedures. We gave instructions to try to do [something about them] as soon as possible.
[b]Are you willing to stop building the fence which the US says goes into Palestinian territory and not along the '67 border?[/b]
It is a means to stop terrorist infiltration into the center of Israel--to make it harder to send suicide[/homocide] bombers into Israel. But this fence is not a political fence. [Its location] doesn't represent the border between us and the Palestinians.
[b]Why do you have to build it so far in Palestinain areas?[/b]
I am ready for the United States to reduce the loan guarantees it makes to Israel by the amount it estimates [Israel] has spent beyond the Green Line. *
American Jewish Committee Denounces British Award to Cartoonist
11.27.03 (1:35 am) [edit]I know I'm on vacation for Thanksgiving, but I had to share this article I read today. As well as my disgust.
This is outragious as the climb of Antisemitism rises and worsens in our time.
------------------------- -
[b]American Jewish Committee Denounces British Award to Cartoonist
Wed Nov 26, 5:16 PM ET
[i]To: National Desk
Contact: Kenneth Bandler of the American Jewish Committee, 212-891-6771[/i][/b]
NEW YORK, Nov. 26 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The American Jewish Committee today denounced the British Political Cartoon Society's decision to give a first-place award to a cartoonist who published an anti-Semitic cartoon in The Independent earlier this year.
Dave Brown's cartoon shows Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon eating the head of a Palestinian baby. "This image conjures up some of the most vile stereotypes imaginable," said AJC Executive Director David A. Harris.
"Not only should this grotesque cartoon never have been honored, but it should never have been published in the first place by The Independent. It is not about legitimate political criticism. It is all about incitement against a people," Harris said.
Coincidentally, as the cartoonist was honored, an Israeli hospital received a week-old Iraqi infant who will undergo an operation to correct a congenital heart defect.
"Ironically, if Saddam was still in power, this infant would never have had the opportunity to fly to Israel, under the leadership of Prime Minister Sharon, where Jewish doctors will do everything possible to save the Iraqi child's life," Harris said.
http://www.usnewswire.com/" title="http://www.usnewswire.com/" target="_blank"http://www.usnewswire.com/
-0-
/© 2003 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/
The Ever Weekly D'var Torah--> I'm early this week because I will be away for Thanksgiving!
11.25.03 (3:39 am) [edit]I have two D'vrei Torah for you this week. Just think of it as an extra holiday treat with desert. :wink:
[b]This week's Torah portion is Toldot (Genesis 25:19-28:9).
D'var Torah #1 for Toldot:[/b]
Parshat Toldot tells the story of Yaakov (Jacob) and Esav, two brothers that couldn't be any more different. When their father Yitzchok (Isaac) decides that it's time to bless his two sons, Yaakov ends up getting the better of the two blessings.
In comparing the two blessings, though, the Chafetz Chaim (who's picture is on the left side of my blog under the Israeli flag) points out a very interesting observation: When Yaakov gets the blessing, the Torah says "And may God give you of the dew of the heavens and of the fatness of the earth" (27:28). However, when Esav gets his blessing, Yitzchok says "Behold, of the fatness of the earth shall be your dwelling and of the dew of the heavens from above" (27:39).
Why was the order of the fatness and the dew reversed?
The Chafetz Chaim explains that since Yaakov preferred the spiritual to the physical, his blessing came from heaven (dew) to earth (fatness of the earth). On the other hand, since Esav valued the physical more, his blessing was customized to his desires by focusing on the physical first.
Although that's a nice explanation, there's a much deeper lesson to be learned from it!
Because Yaakov focused on heaven and the chain of where things come from, he realized that he's being GIVEN of the dew of the heavens, which produces the fatness of the earth, and consequently thanked the source: God! Contrarily, as the verse adds, Esav's fatness was simply his "dwelling", as if it were there all along, with no connection to where it came from. Yaakov was blessed with the ability to see beyond what was in front of him, and, therefore, appreciated it (and God) more.
We too are given that same opportunity every day. And all we have to do is stop and think about what we have (as opposed to what we don't have), and where it REALLY came from! Only then will we ever truly be content, fulfilled, and most importantly, blessed!
[b]D'var Torah #2 for Toldot:[/b]
In this week’s Parsha, Toldot, the theme revolves around families.
There are many things one can learn about raising children, and dealing with one’s family, just by reading this Parsha. But there’s one very interesting Passuk (sentance), which tells us that although Esav was a murderer, Yitzchok loved Esav because Esav hunted for him, while Rivka loved Yaakov. The obvious question is...how can Yitzchok love Esav if he was really evil? Didn’t he realize?
Well, the Torah knew we’d ask, so it tells us that it was because Esav gave Yitzchok food, and respected him. The Lekach Tov (one of many commentaries) explains that Yitzchak knew that Esav was evil, but the fact that Esav showed him respect proved that there was still hope for him, which is why Yitzchok loved him. That insight into a person is something few people have mastered, but if you look closer into the exact wording of the Passuk, you’ll even an even deeper insight into our nature as humans!
When the Passuk says that Yitzchok loved Esav, it uses past tense, yet when describing Rivka’s love it does so in present tense. It’s no coincidence that Yitzchok’s love was based on something tangible and was short-lived - this is proven when Yitzchok gives Yaakov the Brachot (blessings) although according to most commentaries he knew that it was Yaakov - while Rivka’s love is pure and everlasting!
The Torah is teaching us a very important lesson about love:
When we love someone, it MUST be unconditional, or it won’t last. We love our families for that reason. We need look at people for who they are, and not for what they have to offer us, or what they’ve done or haven’t done for us lately, because basing our love on any one aspect will only spoil it. The same applies for loving God. We can’t love Hashem (God) just when things are good, but must constantly work on loving God for what He is, and what He stands for, for He will stand when all else fails or falls!
On that note, have a happy Thanksgiving and, for those of us observing, have an enlightening, restful, and meaingful Shabbos! :wink:
Some Quizzes
11.24.03 (6:11 pm) [edit]Um, I guess so. . .
You are naturally born with a gift, whether it be
poetry, writing or song. You love beauty and
creativity, and usually are highly intelligent.
Others view you as mysterious and dreamy, yet
also bold since you hold firm in your beliefs.
What Type of Soul Do You Have ?
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Damn right I respect myself!
Romantic movie! You probably won't star in a porno
anytime soon. You seem to be really into the
whole "love" thing...romantic sex
with perfumed sheets and candles all over the
place. You're probably a hopeless romantic. You
value sex and respect your partner too much to
do anything like porn. AWWWWWW! <3>
What kind of porno would you star in?
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Athena
?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??
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your asshole.
What swear word are you?
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You represent... desire.
You sure are motivated. You have a definite knack
for getting what you want. You always put your
own interests before those of others, and you
almost always find youself being satisfied.
Though you have determination, try some
compassion. Putting others first occassionally
can get you even more satisfying relationships.
What feeling do you represent?
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You are smart and sexy!
Which Ultimate Beautiful Woman are You?
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You should be dating an Aries.
21 March - 19 April
This person is a leader, very energetic, always
helping others to achieve their dreams. Though
at times, Aries can be be bossy, jealous, and
selfish, this ram enjoys sexy new challenges in
bed!
What Zodiac Sign Are You Attracted To?
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You know so much about the nightmare before
christmas. You must research and study it as
much as I do. I have loved this movie since I
was a kid and studied it very hard.
Congratulations.Please Please Please vote for
my quiz if you do i will vote for one of your
quizzes.
XxThe Best and Most Challenging Quiz of The Nightmare Before ChristmasxX
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LEIBERMAN EXCLUDED? UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11.24.03 (5:17 pm) [edit]*Thanks to SamAdams for bringing this to my attention!
This just in! From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/usl...,1282,-3426165,00.html
The Guardian UK reports: Sen. Joe Lieberman wants to debate after all. And he's crying foul at the Democratic National Committee for excluding him from a presidential faceoff Monday.
The Connecticut senator, who is not competing in Iowa's caucuses, had rejected an invitation to attend the Des Moines debate sponsored by the DNC. Eight other candidates had agreed to attend.
Later, Sens. John Edwards of North Carolina and John Kerry of Massachusetts said they could not be here because the Senate is debating a GOP-backed Medicare bill they both oppose. The DNC agreed to allow them to participate by satellite from a Washington studio. Two television screens will show Edwards and Kerry on stage, alongside six rivals who will be there in person.
Lieberman, who also opposes the Medicare bill, asked to participate by satellite as well. The DNC consulted with the other campaigns, at least two of which said he should not be allowed to take part.
------------------------- ----------------
Someone's head should roll for this great injustice!
I'd say the same if they did this to Sharpton or Clark.
[b]UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!!![/b ]
Joe Leiberman
11.24.03 (4:44 pm) [edit]Well, now. . .
As I sit here in front of my TV, watching the "aftershow" from the Democratic debates on "Hardball" with Chris Matthews, I am infuriated.
Why?
Well, Matthews is sitting there with Joe Leiberman, presidential hopefull.
I watched the debates. Joe Leiberman wasn't on those debates. The hopefuls who couldn't be there were on Max Headrum like TV sets via satellite. [b]WHERE WAS JOE LEIBERMAN?[/b]
Well, as I see now on Chris Matthews' show (as America is told by Leiberman), Joe Leiberman was told, on the phone, by some big witg of the Democratic party, that he could not come to this debate. Why? No real answer was given.
[b]UNACCEPTABLE![/b]
Again, the other candidates who were undable to make it in person were given satellite. [b]WHERE WAS JOE LEIBERMAN?[/b]
Leiberman was unable to make it because he was voting for some other issues elsware. He had to be in that place. But he was completely able and willing to be there via satellite like the others in similar situations.
[b]WHY WAS LEIBERMAN EXCLUDED?![/b]
I want answers. We, as citizens, deserve answers!
*Granted, just to make things clear, I am a Republican. I can not vote in the Democratic primaries just like any other Republican.
And, yes, I am Jewish.
Does that mean in any way that, if Joe Leiberman is voted to go up against Bush in the Presidential Election, I will vote for him? No. If I vote for him, it will not be because he is Jewish. On the contrary, it is wrong to vote for someone or NOT vote for someone based on race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, or creed. We should vote on ability to do the job. Those other things are mute.
BUT...
I still want to know, [b]WHY WAS JOE LEIBERMAN EXCLUDED?![/b]
Anyone have any ideas?
One of those dang questionaire thingies. . . I suppose it was only a matter of time. :p
11.24.03 (2:01 am) [edit]- Name: RedTigress, just for privacy issues
-- Birthdate: April 19, 1983
-- Current Location: San Diego, CA
-- Eye Color: Green
-- Hair Color: very Red
-- Height: 5'3''
-- Weight: 117-120
-- Righty or Lefty: Leftalicious!
Describe...
-- Your heritage: I am but an Irish Jew.
-- The shoes you wore today: Fuzzy slippers
-- Your hair: Down. Then wet and down.
-- Your eyes: Um, yes. I wore those too.
-- Your weakness: Dark chocolate--cake, brownies, candies, fudge! OMG! I went to baskin robbins and I had their Mississippi Mud ice cream (chocolate with fudge swirls and chunks of browny) with extra hot fudge on top and nuts!!! That's love, baby!
-- Your fears: Bees, death, terrorism, failure.
-- Your perfect pizza: Lots of parmisan cheese! And maybe a little bit of the anchovies too--They're good, okay!!!
-- Goal you'd like to achieve: Get the heck out of school.
Tell...
-- Your most overused phrase on AIM: "hehe"
-- Your thoughts first waking up: "I have to pee"
-- Your best physical feature: My hair.
-- Your bedtime: I am not held down by your silly "bedtime." HA! I laugh!
-- Your greatest accomplishment: Erm, let me get back to you. It's in the works.
-- Your most missed memory: Hmmmm. . . that ice cream thing I talked about a little bit ago up there?
You prefer...
-- Pepsi or Coke: BerryBlast naked juice. Mmmmmm.
-- McDonald's or Burger King: I eat kosher.
-- Single or group dates: Just me and the bf on the couch.
-- Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: Definatly Nestea.
-- Chocolate or vanilla: Chocolate! Hello?
-- Cappuccino or coffee: coffee is gross. Gimme some Irish hot chocolate and I'm good to go! ;p
Do you...?
-- Smoke: No.
-- Weed: Yuk.
-- Cuss: When necissary.
-- Sing well: So I've been told.
-- Have a crush(es): One
-- Who are they: My boyfriend.
-- Do you think you've been in love: Yes.
-- Want to go to college: Want to? No. But I do it any way.
-- Like high school: It was good... good that it's long over!
-- Want to get married: Oh my, yes.
-- Type w/ your fingers on the right keys: I type 90wpm, u tell me.
-- Believe in yourself: Yesh.
-- Get motion sickness: Oh yes! Ungh!
-- Think you're attractive: Why do you think I'm called the fiery hot timale?
-- Think you're a health freak: Nope. I like stuff good an' fried.
-- Get along with your parents: For the most part.
-- Like thunderstorms: YES!!!!
-- Play an instrument: No. I used to be into the violin.
Have you ever...
-- Played a game that required removal of clothing?: Once.
-- If so, was it mixed company: What does that mean?
-- Been trashed or extremely intoxicated: I'm pretty good at holding my liquor. I get really smashed rarely.
-- Been caught "doing something": What the?!?
-- Been called a tease: So I've been told.
-- Gotten beaten up: Once. But usually I do the beating.
-- Shoplifted: No, that's terrible.
-- If so, did you get caught: N/A
-- Changed who you were to fit in: Who does that? Loser.
The future...
-- Age you hope to be married: Soon.
-- Numbers and Names of Children: I'd like to have four. That's my limit really. I'm thinking of Ariel. Not sure about girls names though. I kinda want girls more, but it ain't up to me.
-- Describe your Dream Wedding: Gordious. Very classy.
-- How do you want to die: Sleeping.
-- Where you want to go to college: I'm in college.
-- What do you want to be when you grow up: A teacher or a historian.
-- What country would you most like to visit: ISRAEL!
-- Opposite sex (or the same?): I like men.
-- Best eye color? Brown.
-- Best hair color? Black.
-- Short or long I have long hair. I like my boyfriends to be short, but not too short.
-- Best height: I like my hight. I don't date guys under 6ft.
-- Best weight: Um, I don't care as long as you be lookin' good.
-- Best articles of clothing: Suits.
-- Best first date location: We had coffee and a move. Worked for us. ::shrugs::
-- Best first kiss location: I prefer not to kiss and tell.
-- Number of girls I have kissed in my life: Yuck.
-- Number of girls you have made out with: see above.
-- Number of girlfriends you've had: I have best friends. O_o
-- Number of boys I have kissed: A few.
-- Number of boys you have made out with: I don't really like to kiss and tell!!!
-- Number of boyfriends you've had: 8.
-- Number of drugs taken illegally: Drugs are for fools. I'm high on life.
-- Number of people I could trust with my life: numero uno: My bf.
-- Number of CDs that I own: Oh gosh. Um. . .(goes to count). . .60ish?
-- Number of piercing: 2, one on each ear.
-- Number of tattoos: tatoos are disgusting.
-- Number of scars on my body: too many.
-- Number of things in my past that I regret: Live today, regret nothing!
Yaaaaay!!!!
Women?
11.23.03 (6:14 pm) [edit][i]by Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D.[/i]
"It once happened that a pious man married a pious woman, and they did not produce children. They said, "We are of no use to the Holy One, Blessed be He," and they arose and divorced each other. The man went and married a wicked woman, and she made him wicked, while the woman went and married a wicked man, and she made him righeous. This proves that all depends on the woman." -- Genesis Rabbah 17:7
So with this in mind, how is it possible that Gordon B. Dhal and Enrico Moretti, experts in "econometrics" from the University of California at Berkely, came up with the finding that says parents seem to favor boys?
They found that in every decade since the 1940s, couples with girls divorced more than those with boys. Specifically, they found that couples with an only child that was a girl were 6% more likely to divorce than parents of a single boy. For those parents of two girls versus two boys, the percentage gap rose to 8%, 10% for families of three girls and 13% for families of four girls.
Other research data suggests taht families of bous put more money into their homes (about $600 per year), fathers incread their work load by two hours when boys are born compared to less than one hour when girls are born, thereby increasing income, and for the last 60 years, 33.7% of families whose first four children were girls had a fifth child, while 31.5% of families who start with four boys kept trying to have another child.
While there are probably many explanations for this finding, one thing is clear: parents seem to have a preference for boys. The findings are not huge, according to the researchers, "but they are not trivial."
Now this study must be understood against the backdrop of another current study, this one done by the FBI. They learned that in 2002, the most recent year data has been collected, while there has been a slight increase in serious crime, less than one-tenth of 1%, there has been a 14% increase since 1993 in the number of women being arrested.
Specifically, men account for the vast majority, 77%, of adults arrested for murder, rape, theft, robbery, burglary, aggrevated assault and vehicle theft. Women are gaining ground, with 1.9 million arrested in 2002 representing 23%. Over the last decade, arrests of women have risen nearly 25%.
Kenneth Land, a professor of sociology at the esteemed Duke University, noted this rise in women being arrested to "social changes over the past 30 years in which more women have netered the work force and generally have achieved a status on par with men."
Have we lost our minds? Parents favor boys, and we see women's association with serious crime growing significantly and it's because they entered the work force? Professor Land has not kept up with his Judaic studies, it seems.
Judaism teaches us a great deal about how to treat women, and it sure does not include favoring boys over women, or associating them with serious crime. Why do we insist on listening and uncritically believing nonesense such as this, as if we are deaf? Why do we not turn to Judaic studies to see what our heritage teaches us before we believe secular professors? Why do we send our children into this world with half an education, completely unequipped to fall back on analytic, incisive way of thinking? Why do we slap each other on the back when our children are accepted into secular universities with little ability to delve into what our heritage teaches us about life? Why do we so readily believe a sociologist but not a rabbi? Why do we believe a professor of Jewish studies but not a sage?
We have lost our minds.
In Judaism, women are presented as "figures of great moral strength during periods of crisis" according to Moshe Meiselman, author of tge required reading, "Jewish Woman in Jewish Law."
Only Isaac, born to an educated by Sarah, was fit to carry on Abraham's work. Abraham raised seven other sons, none of whom became his spiritual heirs. They did not grow up in Sarah's home.
Rebecca helped Isaac evaluate Esau's true character and acted in a morally courageous manner, preserving the future of the Jewish people.
Leah and Rachel stood up to the test of creating a proper environment for Jacob within the negative atmosphere of Laban's home -- so much so that the 12 children of Jacob all became the foundation pillars on which the Jewish nation was born.
The moral courage of the midwives in the desert; the wives who kept redemption alive when the men were going to give up; Miriam prevailing on Amram not to destroy the Jewish people when he was so frustrated bearing children in Egypt; the women at Mt. Sinai who refused to participate in the making of the calf; and the faith of the women in the face of reports of the Spies, all point to one uniform picture. The picture of women in Judaism is one of "moral strength and determination that survives periods of crisis and provides the foundation upon which the Jewish home can be built," according to Meiselman.
In Judaism, parents do not favor boys over girls. In Judaism we do not see women succombing to the moral decay of society. Instead, we believe what our sages and rabbis have taught for thousands of years. "EAch generation is redeemed because of the righteous women of the generation."
When families are imbued with an understanding of what Judaism teaches about women, boys are not preferred over girls. The girl you are raising is the soul of the Jewish future, the one who will determine her future family's spiritual direction. It is up to you to send her into this world ready to assume a legacy -- Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel's, or Britney, Madonna, or Beyonce's.
Sharon Floats Plan for Israel Settlements
11.23.03 (5:10 pm) [edit]Story at: http://story.news.yahoo.com/n...
[b]Sharon Floats Plan for Israel Settlements
Sun Nov 23, 5:36 AM ET [/b]
[i]By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI, Associated Press Writer [/i]
JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is floating a plan to draw a border with the Palestinians and dismantle small Israeli settlements if there is no progress on a U.S.-led peace plan, newspapers reported Sunday.
The plan was leaked at a time when Sharon faces growing criticism at home. Several former security chiefs have said he is stalling on renewing peace talks because he wants to avoid making concessions and his support is slipping.
Sharon told the Yediot Ahronot daily that he would present his new plan soon. "I just wanted the Israeli public to know that its prime minister has not stopped thinking about how to get out of the impasse with the Palestinians," he told the newspaper.
The plan, as published in the major Israeli dailies, would kick in if efforts to resume implementation of the "road map" peace plan fails.
In that case, Israel would draw its own border — along the West Bank security barrier currently under construction to keep out Palestinian militants — and uproot a few small settlements, the newspapers said. Some of the settlers would be moved to the Negev Desert and others to larger settlement blocs in the West Bank. Israel would also withdraw from Palestinian towns and release some Palestinian prisoners.
Palestinian officials were skeptical. "I hope that these declarations are not intended for public relations as Sharon suffers an internal crisis," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.
Sharon's ideas were floated at a time of renewed attempts to break the deadlock over the road map, which envisions Palestinian statehood by 2005.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and Sharon are to meet soon, though no date has been set, and Palestinian militant groups are to hold talks in Cairo next week on halting attacks on Israelis. Expectations are high that the militants, who have killed hundreds of Israelis in the past three years, will agree to stop violence.
Qureia wants to take an internal truce agreement to a summit with Sharon, and win Israel's promise to reciprocate by halting military operations. Palestinian negotiators have prepared a document that lists Israeli and Palestinian obligations under the road map and would be approved by the two leaders in a summit. Qureia has said there is no point to hold a summit if there are no results.
As part of the road map, Israel must dismantle dozens of illegal settlement outposts and freeze settlement expansion. It must also declare that it is ending "violence against Palestinians everywhere."
Israel has removed a few settlement outposts, most of which have been rebuilt, and construction in veteran settlements continues.
Israel has so far refused to promise to halt military operations, saying the road map requires that Palestinian security forces begin dismantling armed groups.
However, Israeli officials have hinted they might not insist on a full crackdown in the first phase of a truce. Qureia and other Palestinian leaders have said they will not use force against the militants for fear of igniting internal fighting.
Sharon, meanwhile, met with four senior Cabinet ministers before Sunday's full Cabinet session to brief them on contacts with the Palestinians.
Hardline Cabinet ministers threatened to quit the government if settlements are uprooted. The Haaretz daily speculated that 19 settlements could be evacuated unilaterally, and other reports mentioned the isolated enclave of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip as one of those to be removed first.
"The removal of existing settlements will force us to immediately leave the government," said Avigdor Lieberman, head of the hawkish National Union party.
Sharon told Yediot he did not expect a coalition crisis. "In the end, I have to preserve the government's unity. I see no threat at the moment to the government's existence," he said.
The settlements have been one of the biggest obstacle to a peace deal.
Palestinians demand all 220,000 Jewish residents be removed from the land. However, successive Israeli governments have found it difficult to make such a commitment, especially since settlers have significant political power and many of them view the West Bank as their biblical birthright.
In his interview with Yediot, Sharon said unilateral steps would be taken with Israel's security in mind. "I have been thinking for some time about unilateral steps that will make things easier on Israel and will secure its interests — without answering the question of whether it is also good for the Palestinians," he said.
------------------------- ----
So much for Sharon being the murderous evil leader. He's truly trying. There's more evidence to suggest that it is not his intent to perform genocide against the Palestinians than this. I just felt this was a very good example.
Read up more on Sharon.
Militants Condemn Symbolic Peace Accord
11.22.03 (8:27 pm) [edit]Story at: http://story.news.yahoo.com/n...
Sat Nov 22, 6:02 AM ET
By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - An Islamic militant leader has condemned a symbolic Mideast peace deal, branding the Palestinians who helped negotiate it as traitors for making compromises with their Israeli counterparts.
The test treaty, known as the "Geneva Accord," envisions a Palestinian state in most of the West Bank and Gaza with a capital in Jerusalem. The agreement's backers have been circulating the 50-page document by mail and publicizing it in the media to build grass-roots support among Israelis and Palestinians exhausted by three years of violence.
They hope the plan, negotiated by prominent former officials from both sides, could become the basis for official negotiations, though it does not have the backing of Israeli or Palestinian governments.
In Gaza's Jebaliya refugee camp, about 4,000 Hamas and Islamic Jihad supporters, some wearing black hoods and holding up hand grenades, protested against the agreement Friday. Others burned banners with the names of various peace accords with Israel.
"Those behind this document should be brought to trial because no one authorized them to talk on behalf of the Palestinian people and to betray us with this document," Nizar Riayan, a Hamas leader, told the crowd. "God willing, we are not going to give up our rights over our holy land."
Riayan called the Palestinian negotiators traitors. The demonstrators were particularly angry because the plan makes no mention of the "right of return" of 4 million war refugees and their descendants to homes in what is now Israel.
Hamas, which along with other militant groups has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks, rejects the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East and is opposed to any Palestinian efforts to make peace with Israel.
However, Hamas and 12 other Palestinian factions have agreed to attend truce talks in Cairo starting Dec. 2, and said they would consider halting attacks on Israelis if Israel stops military strikes.
Israeli government officials have been strongly critical of the Geneva Accord, calling its negotiators irresponsible and naive. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) has given support to the effort, but has said he won't officially endorse it unless the Israeli government does.
The plan is to be officially launched Dec. 1 in Geneva.
Israel's Channel Two TV reported Friday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon might begin next summer to dismantle several Jewish settlements built on land Palestinians want for a future state. The report did not cite any source for the information.
In a speech Thursday, Sharon said he was considering going ahead with some unilateral steps toward the Palestinians, but did not elaborate.
Also Friday, about 200,000 Palestinians gathered at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, a disputed hilltop shrine in Jerusalem's Old City, to mark the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan.
Prayers went peacefully, but soldiers manning checkpoints in the West Bank refused to allow many Palestinians to make the trek to Jerusalem, setting off angry shouting matches.
At the edge of Bethlehem, soldiers blocked a road with jeeps and stopped a crowd of about 400 Palestinians from passing a checkpoint to make the six-mile journey north to Jerusalem.
The worshippers taunted soldiers and tried to hop coils of barbed wire laid across the road. Others unrolled prayer rugs in neat rows and bowed in the direction of the holy city of Mecca. A commander at the checkpoint cited alerts of possible terror attacks as the reason for barring the Palestinians from passing the roadblock.
The Jerusalem site is also holy to Jews as the place where the two biblical Temples stood before they were destroyed by invading armies. For Muslims, tradition says the site marks the place where Muhammad ascended to heaven.
------------------------- -
Jihadists don't want peace. They want distruction of the Jewish people and devistation of the Palestinians. They are the ones to blame for this madness!
The Face of Tragedy
11.22.03 (7:55 pm) [edit]I thought it would be appropriate to post this photo that I clipped from my local paper.
On a side note; this all wasn't big news until the international consolates were targeted soon after. The consolate bombings still remain to be "big news" as this all has just sort of faded away. . .
These are the faces of those touched by the explosions of two synagogues in Turkey that killed 24 and wounded at least 300:
[image]RedTigress_1153057 979.gif[/image]
Caption reads: "[b]A picture of Anette Rubenstein Talu was placed at her desk in Istanbul's Bilgi school yesterday. The 8-year-old was killed in Saturdays' bombing of the Beth Israel synagogue[/b]"--[i]Associ ated press[/i]
For those of you who are of the opinion to just push this of as a reason for the US to drop the Jewish state: look at that picture and tell me she (and the others) deserved it and/or terrorism is not our problem.
This is the plague of our time. Welcome to the real world.
60% Double Creme.
11.21.03 (2:54 am) [edit]I would just like to take this moment to make known the glory and wonderment that is cheese.
Garlic & herb rondele' wisconsin 60% double creme glorious cheese!
Life is good!
God bless cheese!
:P
More on Nazi Antisemitism.
11.20.03 (7:03 pm) [edit]Prior to racial antisemitism, antisemites had assumed that Jews who abandoned Judaism and adopted the antisemites' values and identity could fully assimilate and become non-Jews. Antisemitic Christians believed that Jews could really become Christians; the secular nationalists expected the Jews to abandon their national identity and identify only with the nation in which they lived; and the Left demanded that Jews give up their particularism and become universalists.
To Hitler, however, all attempts to solve the Jewish Problem through conversion or assimilation were futile. No matter what new identity a Jew might assume, he carries subversive Jewish values with him and merely uses his new guise as a Christian, or Marxist, or German to spread his values. As Hitler put it, "the Jews speak German, but they think Jewish."
Apparently no Nazi ever stopped to question how a race could be defined by something as unbiological as ideas and traits of character. Hitler himself is reported as having told his intimate associate, Hermann Raushning: "I know perfectly well that in the scientific sense there is no such thing as a race. As a politician I need a conception which enables the order which has hitherto existed on a historic basis to be abolished and an entirely new order enforced and given an intellectual basis. And for this purpose the conception of a race serves me well" (Hermann Raushning, [i]Hitler Speaks[/i] [London: T Butterworth, 1939], p.229).
Yet, this notion typified Nazi thinking about Jews. On August 23, 1936, SS-Obersharfuher Schroder, Eichmann's superior at the time, issued a statement typical of Nazi thinking: "Wherever [the Jew] tries to transmit his work, his influence and his world outlook to the non Jewish world, he discharges it in hostile ideologies, as we find in Liberalism . . . in Marxism, and not least in Christianity. These ideologies then accord with a broader concept of the Jewish mentality."
To cite one other example: [i]Schwarze Korps[/i], the official publication of the SS, reported in its May 15, 1935, issue: "The assimilationist minded Jews deny their race, and insist on their loyalty to Germany or claim to be Christians, because they have been baptized, in order to subvert National-Socialist principles."
Hitler and the Nazis had to account for the extraordinary fact that Jews have fixed "traits of character." Only race could explain this phenomenon. Once this was understood, the age-old solution to the Jewish challenge, converting the Jews to the majority identity, became utterly untenable. If you want to rid the world of the Jews' "hostile ideologies," then you must physically rid the world of the Jews. The Nazi conclusion was as rationally thought out as the means they ultimately adopted for implementing it. Every other solution had been tried and had failed; the Nazis would implement the "Final Solution."
Nazi Antisemitism
11.20.03 (5:15 pm) [edit]Perhaps no understanding of an antisemitic ideology is so widely held and unchallenged as that which ascribes Nazi antisemitism to racism. The Nazis, so the belief goes, were racists and therefore hated Jews and all other "non-Aryans."
History and reason, however, point to a very different understanding of Nazi antisemitism. The Nazis were indeed racists when they claimed the inferiority of "non-Aryan races" (though who was "non-Aryan" had little to do with race, and much to do with politics--they did not, for example, racially denigrate Japanese or Arabs, both Nazi allies). But Nazi antisemitism under the heading of racism is another mistaken endeavor to dejudaize Jew-hatred.
The commonly accepted view of Nazi antisemitism as an expression of racism must be questioned on two scores. First, and most basic, why did the Nazis label the Jews a race? There are Jews of every race, and since anyone of any race can become a Jew, Jews can hardly constitute a race. The entire racial claim, therefore, needs explanation. Why did the Nazis need it? After all, thousands of years of pre-Nazi antisemitism needed no racial basis to hate the Jews.
Second, if racism was the basis of Nazis' worldview, why did their hatred focus on the Jews to the virtual exclusion of all other "races" --including the Gypsies, who though murdered en masse were, quite unlike the Jews, incidental to the Nazi worldview and not the objects of genocide? And if race was the issue, why did the Nazis show such fondness for that other Semitic "race," the Arabs?
In holding the simplistic view that the Nazis hated Jews because of racism, we once again commit the fundamental error (wishful thinking?) of other modern explanations of antisemitism: we dejudaize it. In this instance it seems perfectly logical to do so: the Nazis hated "non-Aryans"; the Jews were "non-Aryans"; therefore, the Nazis hated the Jews. Yet, the Jews were the only "non-Aryans" whom the Nazis attempted to annihilate, and antisemitism, not anti-non-Aryanism, was the essence of Nazism.
It was not because of racism that Nazis hated Jews but rather because of their hatred of Jews that the Nazis utilized racist arguments. The Jew-hatred came first. A racial basis for Jew-hatred was needed to explain the once new belief of Nazi antisemitism. Whereas former antisemites believed that a Jew could change and become like them, Hitler and other Nazis denied this possibility. Once a Jew, always a Jew. As Hitler wrote in [i]Mein Kampf[/i], "In his new language [the Jew] will express the old ideas; his inner nature has not changed . . . the Jew . . . can speak a thousand languages and nevertheless remains a Jew. His traits of character have remained the same. . . . It is always the same Jew." According to Hitler, the Jews seek to dominate the non-Jewish world through various instruments: Christianity, Marxism, socialism, capitalism, democracy. All are products of Jews and their values, no matter what their non-Jewish guises are.
Hitler viewed himself as insightful and courageous enough to conclude what previous antisemites had either not realized or shirked from concluding. A Jew cannot become a non-Jew any more than a black man can become white; the Jews' permanent "traits of character" render them a "race." Therefore any campaign directed against Jews must be directed against all of them no matter what the non-Jewish religious or national identity they hold. Their non-Jewish identity is irrelevant; they remain Jews because they have fixed characteristics that only members of a race possess. These fixed characteristics are alien to Jewish ideas.
Nazi antisemitism was before all else hatred of the Jewish character, not hatred of the Jews' "non-Aryan" blood. It was, like all other forms of antisemitism, hatred of the challenges posed by Jews and Jewish values. This Jewish challenge formed the basis of Nazi beliefs that humankind's ultimate conflict is between the Jews and the Aryans, and that only one of them could survive.
By Hitler's own account in [i]Mein Kumpf[/i], he was first an antisemite, not a racist. His innovation was to amalgamate the two and develop a new program to solve the "Jewish Problem" once and for all. Only racial antisemitism could correctly understand and deal with the Jewish Problem. All other forms of antisemitism were in error.
Two stores from my local paper.
11.20.03 (2:02 am) [edit]And the terror continues. . .
[b][u]24th Victim of Bombing Found in Synagogue Rubble in Turkey[/u][/b]
[i]by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
Knight Ridder News Service[/i]
ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Investigators uncovered the remains of a 24th victim and a tattered Pakistani passport amid the rubble of two synagoges attacked by suicide bombers over the weekend, Turkish authorities said yesterday.
The body, discovered at the site of the first blast by an Israeli dissaster team working with Turkish rescue workers, was identified by Israel Army Radio as that of Anna Rubinstein, 85. Her 8-year-old granddaughter, Anette Rubinstein Talu, also was killed in the Saturday attack during Sabbath services at Beth Israel synagogue.
The discovery raised the death toll to 24 for the twin bombings, which occurred roughly two minutes and three miles apart. Turkish officials were investigating claims of responsibility that link Osama BinLaden's operatives to the attack.
Investigators could not determine the identity of the bearer of the Pakistani passport because the identification number was largely illegible, and Istanbul police officer said.
It was not clear whether the passport's owner was linkedto the bombing.
Investingators also were scrutinizing a tattered Turkish passport they recovered, the official said.
Despite the discovery of the Pakistani passport, investigatores' top suspects are two missing Turks. Police identified them as Azad Ekinci of Bingol province in southeastern Turkey and Mesut Cabuk, whose hometown was not available.
The semi-official Anatolia news agency said Ekinci's brother was being brought to Istanbul for questioning.
He has told police that his identity papers, which were used to register one of the pickups used in the attacks, were stolen, the agency reported.
DNA tests were being conducted to confirm the bombers' identities, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
Investigators were trying to determine whether one of the men was the driver of a covered pickup videotaped by a security camera outside the Neve Shalom synagogue seconds before the blast there. Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu told the daily newspaper, Vatan.
[b][u]Turkish Jews' Feelings of Being Outsiders Linger[/u][/b]
[i]by Burt Herman
Associated Press[/i]
ISTANBUL, Turkey -- To Turkish friends, he's Halim Yesil, a salesman in the computer business. To Jewish friends, he's Chaim Levy, whose family ties in Turkey run back five centuries, when his ancestors fled the Spanish Inquisition.
Jews have been welcomed here by sultans and presidents, but the anxiety of being in a Muslim country has always lingered. Saturdays’ twin truck bombings of Istanbul synagogues, which killed 24 people and wounded more than 300, only reinforced the feelings of some Turkish Jews of being outsiders.
Jews here already were on edge after murders in August and October of two members of their faith -- a dentist and a businessman.
Neither case was believed linked to Saturday’s attacks.
There are about 24,000 Jews in Turkey, with 22,000 living in Istanbul, said community spokesman Selvyo Ovadya. However, many believe the population might be smaller.
Yesil’s guarded attitude about his Jewish name relfects the guarded nature of the community’s institutions.
Near the Neve Shalom synagogue, one of those targeted Saturday, lies the office of the cheif rabbi -- who goes by the title Hahambashi, a fusion of the Hebrew word for “wise man” and Turkish for “cheif.”
There are no signs on the red building, and only the Turkish red-and-white flag with its Islamic crecent flies outside.
A nearby Jewish museum has no signs to guide tourists, with only a menorah in a darkened gift shop window hinting at what is inside.
The (now) Weekly D'var Torah = Words of Torah
11.20.03 (12:28 am) [edit]This week's Parsha (chapter) is Chaye Sarah (Genesis 23:1-25:18).
Parshat Chaye Sara tells of the death Sara, and how Avraham
(Abraham) had to buy the plot of land to bury her in. Following that chapter, the Torah tells us of Avraham ordering his servant, Eliezer, to find a wife for Yitzchok (Isaac), Avraham’s son.
The introduction to the new chapter describing Eliezer’s quest begins with a seemingly strange statement. It says that “Avraham was old, getting along in years, and God blessed Avraham with everything. And Avraham told his servant...to find a wife for Yitzchok” (24:1)
Why do we have to know that Avraham was getting old right between these two apparently unrelated stories or Sarah dying and Eliezer search for Yitzchak’s wife? And if Avraham was blessed with everything, why does the very next Passuk(sentance) tell us that he had to find his son a wife? He obviously DIDN’T have everything!
The Ramban (Nachmonodes) helps us by explaining that when he lost his wife, Avraham realized that he was getting old, and wanted to make sure he found a wife for his son before he died. Although this doesn’t seem to answer our questions, it just might: Avraham
realized that he was getting older, and it was BECAUSE he was
blessed with everything that he now had to move onto the next
step of investing in the future by finding his son a wife.
The same applies in our lives: We’re often so busy with our own
lives that we fail to think of the future. We’re busy earning
livings, planning vacations, going to school, and taking care
of our families, which are all true necessities. Our Parsha is
showing us the natural progression of our lives, and how one
decision we make leads to another, and eventually turns from
“what to do” to “what we’ve done”.
Every single decision we make can have a long-term effect on our lives, and it’s up to us to realize that every challenge is potentially life-altering. As we get on in years, if we stay focused on our goals in life when faced with little decisions, those little decisions will turn
out to be one big happy, productive, blessed and meaningful life!
For those of you observing, have a good and restful Sabbath!
Soros
11.19.03 (8:52 pm) [edit]It has recently come to my attention that George Soros has been the subject of much discussion, around tblog and around the world.
Recently, as SamAdams and WinstonSmtith brought to my attention, the GOP site put up an article about him of antisemitic proportions (check site SamAdams' blog here: http://samadams.tblog.com for article and other information pertaining to this article).
THIS IN INEXCUSABLE and will not be tolerated. How vile to present such a low blow?
JamesYerian also brought to my attention some facts about Soros himself whom is a non-Jewish Jew. This individual buys into a nasty stereotype of the "greedy Jew who owns [or wishes to own] the world." He also is anti-Israel and, essentially, anti-Jewish. (check JamesYerian's blog here: http://jamesyerian.tblog.com for that information.) This, too, is UNACCEPTABLE.
I have reasearched on my own to confirm all of these claims.
However, it is my opinion that, just because he is anti-Israel, anti-Jewish, and INCREDIBLY selfish, does not give the right for the GOP to post an antisemitic article. On the contrary, this individual's actions and that ridiculous article both strive for the same result, fundamentally: The destruction of the Jewish people.
Let us not confust the issues.
It is not my intent to defend Mr. Soros. No. He is quite guilty in my eyes. BUT the GOP is very guilty for such slander. For, fundamentally, such actions are perverse, disgusting, and anti-American. As a republican, myself, I am incredibly disgusted by such conduct unbecoming.
And as I've stated before, character assassination is cowardly. But if you are going to try to do so, do not feed hatred by making such comments or indorse them--and publish it for the world to see, no less! If you feel you must attack something, rather than his character, attack the actions of the person, not his heritage and, essentially, those who share this heritage.
That is more cowardly and wrong than anything. Especially right now, considering the antisemitic tinge our world is turning the colour of.
Scientists discover new type of living whale.
11.19.03 (4:59 pm) [edit]Very cool!
LONDON (Reuters) - Japanese scientists have identified a new species of living baleen whale after examining the skeletons of several specimens caught in the 1970s.
Shiro Wada and researchers at the National Research Institute of Fisheries Science in Yokohama said the specimens resembled fin whales although they were smaller.
But after examining their DNA, the shape of their skull and the baleen plates they use to filter plankton from the water they were convinced the specimens were a new species.
The comparison "separated them from all known baleen whale species," Wada said in a report published in the science journal Nature on Wednesday.
The researchers also separated other similar types of baleen whales -- Bryde's whale and Eden's whale -- into two distinct species.
Baleen whales have no teeth and use the baleen plates that hang down from the roof of their mouths to gather food.
New Scientist magazine described the research as a stunning find and said it reinforces how little is known about the world's fauna, including its greatest mammals.
"We are in the midst of a major rethink about what constitutes a species, and where the boundaries lie between them," the magazine said in its latest issue.
Reuters
Nov 19 2003 2:17PM
D'var Torah = Words of Torah
11.19.03 (4:48 pm) [edit]For a little bit of a change, I'd like to offer up a D'var Torah (which means words of Torah, basically a piece with commentary) to my readers. Enjoy and much Hatzluchah!
Parshat(chapter) Vayeira(Genesis 18:1-22:24) contains a theme that isn't apparent to the casual observer. The Parsha starts with Avraham sitting on the third day after being circumcised (which is the most painful day), on the hottest day, and he's looking out for
visitors to serve. Three angels appear, and he runs to feed
and clean them.
Needless to say, Avraham was never expected
to have been so kind, especially to angels, who didn't even
need the food he gave them. Then, later in the Parsha in a
seemingly unrelated story, Avraham tries to save Sedom from
being destroyed, claiming that there might be a few righteous
people still left in the city. Avraham asks that justice then
be used, and that the city be spared. Justice?? A whole city
of evil people should be saved because of as few as 10
righteous people is justice?
The answer is that because Avraham did more than he had to
in hosting guests and being kind to strangers, it WOULD have
been justice for G-d to save Sedom for him! Although his argument wasn't strong enough for Sedom in the end, Avraham's argument was still valid, and was good enough to save Lot and his daughters.
The same applies to us! The Torah is full of rules of equality...
do unto others what you would have done to you...love your neighbor as you love yourself.... the rules of giving charity to those less fortunate.... even the rules of paying back things you stole are based on restoring equality.
The same rules apply to our relationship with God. We can do what we have to do, and get the reward we deserve. OR, we can look for ways to do MORE, and get reward far beyond that which we merely deserve. In every relationship, finding a way to do more is what shows our love and builds the relationship, and our relationship with G-d deserves no less!
Two Israelis Killed by Palestinian Ambush
11.19.03 (2:25 am) [edit]Story at http://story.news.yahoo.com/n...
[b][u]Two Israelis Killed by Palestinian Ambush[/u][/b]
[b]Tue Nov 18, 3:52 AM ET[/b]
[i]By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer[/i]
JERUSALEM - A Palestinian gunman, his rifle wrapped in a prayer mat, walked to a West Bank checkpoint and killed two Israelis at close range Tuesday, just a day after both sides hinted a progress toward a truce and a quick Israel-Palestinian summit.
In the Gaza Strip, troops raided a refugee camp, setting off a gun battle that wounded nine Palestinians, one critically.
It was not clear whether the renewed fighting would jeopardize Egyptian-led truce efforts. Egypt proposes that Israel halt military operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and that Palestinian militant groups stop attacks on Israelis.
In the past, Israel has rejected such proposals, saying it would only stop military strikes if Palestinian security forces crack down on armed groups. However, the Egyptian mediator, intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, said Monday he has received positive signals from Israeli officials.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he would meet his Palestinian counterpart, Ahmed Qureia, "in the coming days." It would be their first summit meeting since Qureia, widely known as Abu Ala, took office more than a month ago.
In Tuesday's shooting, a Palestinian attacker, his rifle wrapped in a prayer mat, walked toward a West Bank checkpoint and opened fire, killed one Israeli and critically wounding a second who died en route to the hospital. Soldiers fired at the assailant who sped away in a get-away car, security officials said.
Israeli Justice Minister Tommy Lapid said a truce would only work if the Palestinian security forces are serious about stopping such attacks.
"We want to give Abu Ala credit if he is honest about stopping attacks," Lapid told Israel Army Radio. "What happened this morning places doubt on this honesty ... Right now it looks like talks about a cease-fire are premature."
Sufian Abu Zaideh, a Palestinian Authority official, said the Palestinians are working hard for a truce. "We are striving for a situation in which there won't be attacks and there won't be occupation, there won't be Israeli pain and there won't be Palestinian pain," he told the radio.
Tuesday's shooting was the first deadly attack on Israelis since Oct. 24 when Palestinians killed three soldiers guarding a Gaza settlement. During the same period, 25 Palestinians were killed by troops, including armed men, but also eight minors.
Israel had pulled troops out of the town of Bethlehem and nearby Palestinian villages south of Jerusalem in July as part of a previous ceasefire agreement. It was not immediately clear if troops would now re-enter those area.
In Gaza, 25 Israeli tanks drove into the Rafah refugee camp before dawn, firing as they advanced and drawing return fire from local gunmen, said a resident, Ahmed Abu Gezer.
Soldiers also took over several houses, set up rooftop sniper positions and searched the area with dogs, residents said. Loud explosions were heard, and the army said five explosives were thrown at soldiers who returned fire.
The army did not say what the aim of the raid was. However, Rafah has been targeted repeatedly, with troops searching for weapons smuggling tunnels.
Hospital officials said nine people wounded, including one who was in critical condition with a bullet to the head. The injured ranged in age from 12 to 35.
Truce efforts intensified Monday, with a visit by Suleiman, the Egyptian mediator. Suleiman invited leaders of Palestinian militant groups to Cairo next week for truce talks. Suleiman told Palestinian leaders he found Israeli officials to be receptive to his proposals, said Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath.
"He (Suleiman) did say that there is an opportunity that must be taken advantage of. There is a positive atmosphere and a new language," Shaath said. "He told us that he is optimistic."
The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot said Tuesday the Israeli military has already suspended targeted killings of Palestinian militants, a practice that has sparked revenge attacks in the past.
Qureia has said he wants to work out the terms of a truce before meeting with Sharon. The Israeli leader met with Qureia's predecessor, Mahmoud Abbas, four times, but Palestinians complained that there were few concrete results. Abbas resigned Sept. 6 in frustration with Israel and because of turf battles with Arafat, creating a vacuum that was filled only when Qureia's Cabinet was installed Nov. 12.
The Palestinians also demand that Israel remove roadblocks and other restrictions that have crippled Palestinian life during the conflict. Israel says the barriers are necessary to keep attackers away.
Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat, the chief negotiator with Israel, said no date has been set for a summit. "This meeting needs to be well prepared," he said, "but we are not against meeting with Sharon."
In Rome, Sharon adviser Raanan Gissin said the meeting could possibly come next week, although nothing had yet been arranged. "There's no problem on our part," he said. "The other side asked for some time."
An earlier truce halted most violence for six weeks in the summer but collapsed amid Palestinian bombing attacks and Israeli military operations, stalling peace efforts.
Israel Proposes Council to Fight Anti-Semitism
11.19.03 (2:09 am) [edit]This came from: http://story.news.yahoo.com/n...
[b][u]Israel Proposes Council to Fight Anti-Semitism[/u][/b]
[b]Mon Nov 17, 3:40 PM ET[/b]
[i]By John Chalmers[/i]
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Monday anti-Semitism was creeping back into Europe and he would propose setting up a joint ministerial council with the European Union to fight it off.
"Unfortunately, recently we...noticed that some signals of anti-Semitism are back in Europe," Shalom told Reuters in an interview before meeting European Union foreign ministers.
"I would like to ask all of them tonight to form a ministerial council of Europe and Israel that will fight together against this phenomenon of anti-Semitism. I believe that we should do it immediately."
Charges of anti-Semitism were fueled this month when a controversial opinion poll carried out by the EU's executive, the European Commission, found that more Europeans see Israel as a threat to world peace than any other country.
While Shalom met his EU counterparts in Brussels, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon flew to Rome to enlist the bloc's current president, Italy, in stemming what he calls a rise in European anti-Semitism.
Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin described Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as "a staunch fighter against anti-Semitism, and therefore I think he will be open to our complaints and also to action that can be taken in Europe to stop this."
Berlusconi met the head of the European Jewish Congress, Cobi Benatoff, in Milan Monday ahead of the prime minister's talks with Sharon.
BERLUSCONI TO RAISE EU AWARENESS
Berlusconi's office said Benatoff had expressed concern about what he said were new forms of anti-Semitism in Europe. The prime minister replied that the Italian EU presidency would work to further raise awareness among its European partners over this (anti-Semitic) phenomenon.
Shalom told Jewish leaders last week that foreign criticism of Israel's "right to use force to defend itself" in its conflict with the Palestinians stemmed from a new type of anti-Semitism that effectively denied Israel's "birthright to exist."
He said Monday that for many years it appeared to Israel that Europe "had a very pro-Palestinian attitude."
"Finally it looks that we have now better relations between the government of the state of Israel and the governments of the members of the EU. And I believe that if we...see that they are more balanced, they will play a key role in the peace process."
Some EU officials are concerned however at what they see as a tendency to stigmatise legitimate criticism of Israel's policies toward the Palestinians as anti-Semitic.
In Paris, President Jacques Chirac chaired urgent top-level ministerial talks on fighting anti-Semitism in France after the firebombing of a Jewish school in a Paris suburb.
Synagogues and Jewish schools have been attacked repeatedly in recent years, violence authorities link to poor Muslim youths enraged by Israel's tough policies against Palestinian unrest.
ATTACK ON A JEW IS AN ATTACK ON FRANCE
"Whoever attacks a Jew in France must understand they are attacking the whole of France," Chirac told reporters after calling the emergency meeting.
His conservative government also announced a $7 billion urban regeneration project targeting the poor ghettos of French cities where racial tensions often spill over into violence.
In Brussels, Shalom said the EU and Israel should work together to educate young people about the history of the persecution of the Jews in Europe during World War II, only a few decades ago.
"All the free world, those countries who share the same values of democracy, of freedom, of rule of law, should fight against this phenomena of racism, anti-Semitism and terrorism," he said. "If we will be united, we will prevail."
------------------------- -----
It's about friggin' time. We shall see what happens when words turn into actions.
Comments?
Turkey Says Foreign Terrorists May Be Behind Suicide Blasts
11.18.03 (1:29 am) [edit]To view this story and more, check out this http://story.news.yahoo.com/n...
[b][u]Turkey Says Foreign Terrorists May Be Behind Suicide Blasts[/u][/b]
[b]Mon Nov 17, 8:53 AM ET[/b]
[b][i]By CRAIG S. SMITH (The New York Times)[/i][/b]
ISTANBUL, Nov. 16 An obscure terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda took responsibility on Sunday for the twin truck bombings at two synagogues that killed 23 people and wounded more than 300 here on Saturday. Turkish officials said they had evidence that suicide drivers had carried out the blasts.
The claim of responsibility was conveyed by Abdel Bari Atwan, the editor of Al-Quds al-Arabi, a London-based Arabic newspaper, in an interview with the Arabic satellite station Al Jazeera. Mr. Atwan said the terrorist group, known as the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, had made the claim by e-mail. The group has been linked with Al Qaeda in the past.
The group has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in Iraq in recent months, notably the Aug. 19 truck bombing of the United Nations' Baghdad headquarters and the Oct. 12 car bombing outside a Baghdad hotel used by the Iraqi Governing Council, according to Arabic-language news accounts monitored by the BBC. The group also has claimed responsibility for acts outside Iraq in which no clear evidence of a Qaeda link has been established, including the Aug. 5 bombing in Indonesia, and even the blackouts this summer in the United States and Britain.
While it was impossible Sunday night to confirm any role by the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades in the synagogue attacks, the speedy claim of responsibility by a non-Turkish group supported the contention by Turkish officials that the bombings were the work of foreign terrorists, possibly from Al Qaeda, rather than any homegrown organization.
"Our determination to fight terrorism in the international arena continues because this event has international links," the country's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said Sunday. Government officials could not be reached for comment after the Jazeera report.
Earlier Sunday, government officials said the blasts appeared to be suicide attacks using identical Isuzu pickup trucks. According to Turkish television, security cameras at the Beth Israel synagogue in the city's Silsi district captured a truck slowing down in front of the synagogue and a policeman approaching to speed it along before it exploded. The policeman died in the blast.
The two trucks exploded about two minutes and three miles apart, shattering the fronts of the Neve Shalom synagogue, Istanbul's largest and the site of two previous attacks, and the Beth Israel synagogue.
Many people believe the attacks were meant as a warning to Turkey not to continue developing ties with Israel or to integrate further with the West. They worry that Turkey's role as a geopolitical bridge between East and West could draw more violence its way, threatening a economic recovery after decades of ruinous inflation and high unemployment.
"During the cold war threat of Soviet expansion, Germany was on the front line, but now Turkey is the contact point for a number of threats faced by the West," said Ilter Turan, professor of political science at Bilgi University in Istanbul.
Since its creation from the remains of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, Turkey has looked to the West for support in building a modern, secular society on a Western model. But it has also tried to maintain good relations with fellow Muslim countries. It is a member of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It wants to join the European Union, and it was the first Muslim country to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, in 1949.
That position has put it at odds with both sides over the years, most recently with radical Islamic groups who blame it for abolishing the caliphate, or Islamic theocracy, that had existed in some form since the death of the Prophet Muhammad until 1924. Many of the world's most notorious Islamist groups, from the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, to tiny Ansar al-Islam in Iraq, from Hizb ut-Tahrir in Europe to the global Qaeda network have made restoration of the caliphate their goal.
Turkey's relations with Israel have exacerbated those tensions. The two countries' relations include military cooperation and the sharing of intelligence about radical Islamic groups operating in the region. The Israeli foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, arrived in Istanbul on Sunday to tour the blast sites and to show his country's solidarity with Turkey.
"It was a terrorist attack carried out by extremists who don't want to see countries share values of freedom, law, and values of friendship and cooperation," Mr. Shalom said. Israeli intelligence agencies are helping with the investigation.
Some people saw the attacks as a consequence of instability in Iraq. Most Turks opposed the American-led invasion largely because they feared that a war would spread violence throughout the region. As a result, the government resisted Washington's requests earlier this year to allow American troops to enter Iraq from Turkey, despite a huge financial incentive. Last month, Turkey offered to send troops to Iraq, then reversed the decision weeks later. "Whenever there is trouble in Iraq, it has some repercussions on Turkey," said Ismail Cem, a former foreign minister and the leader of the social-democratic New Turkey Party. "This is exactly what happened in previous gulf war."
Violence in Turkey flared after the Persian Gulf war in 1991, and terrorist incidents in the country have increased threefold since the American-led invasion of Iraq in March, Mr. Cem said.
Late Sunday, the scenes of both blasts were illuminated with eerie white light as cleanup crews removed twisted metal and investigators combed the wreckage. Members of Israel's disaster response group, known as ZAKA Rescue and Recovery, had arrived earlier to collect human remains. Sixty-six of the 303 people wounded remained hospitalized, though only a few were reported to be in critical condition.
Sabbath morning services were under way in both houses of worship as well as a bar mitzvah in one. Turkish news reports said, however, that most of the dead were Muslims killed in the narrow street outside the Beth Israel synagogue.
The Anatolian Agency, Turkey's state press service, reported that tissue retrieved from the truck used in one of the explosions belonged to someone of Arab ethnicity and that the bombs were made from a mixture of ammonium nitrate and oil. A director of the national police's criminal evidence office in Istanbul, however, said there had been no conclusive determinations made so far.
Political commentators said the bombings were unlikely to push the government back from cooperation with the West or to coerce the governing Justice and Development Party to return to its Islamist roots. The party was formed by former members of the conservative Islamic Virtue Party three years ago.
Mr. Turan said the governing party would probably distance itself further from conservative Islamic groups to assure a nervous population of its commitment to secular government.
Sharon to Urge Berlusconi to Defend Israel in EU
11.17.03 (3:53 pm) [edit]You can find this story and more at http://story.news.yahoo.com/n...
[u][b]Sharon to Urge Berlusconi to Defend Israel in EU[/b][/u]
[b]Mon Nov 17, 3:51 AM ET[/b]
[b][i]By Megan Goldin[/i][/b]
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon flew to Rome on Monday to enlist Italy's help in fending off European Union criticism of Israeli policy toward Palestinians and help stem what he calls a rise in anti-Semitism in Europe.
Sharon will urge Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, to water down a pending EU condemnation of Israel's West Bank security barrier and its snubbing of EU Middle East envoy Marc Otte.
Sharon, traveling to Italy two days after at least 23 people were killed in twin bomb attacks on synagogues in Istanbul, will also be lobbying for Italian support against a perceived upsurge of anti-Semitism.
"(Berlusconi) is a staunch fighter against anti-Semitism and therefore I think he will be open to our complaints and also to action that can be taken in Europe to stop this," Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin said.
Israel, stinging from a EU poll that found a majority of its citizens saw the Jewish state as the greatest threat to world peace, accuses many EU members of favoring the Palestinians.
But Sharon has a warm relationship with fellow right-winger Berlusconi, under whom Italy has become a solid ally of Israel despite strong EU criticism of Israeli military action to quell a three-year-old Palestinian uprising.
"Italy headed by Berlusconi has proven to be a very loyal and staunch friend of Israel in a Europe that is not so friendly to Israel to say the least," a senior Israeli official said.
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom also planned to put forth Israel's case at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday. "I think the Europeans are ready to go the distance to bring about a change in the tone of their politics," Shalom said on Sunday during a visit to the Istanbul bombing site.
[b]ITALY DEFENDS ISRAEL[/b]
Italy has defended Israel against a resolution set to be issued by the EU later this week in which it will be slammed for erecting a West Bank barrier that Israeli leaders say is meant to keep Palestinian suicide bombers out of Israeli cities.
Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini put Italy at odds with the resolution and was censured by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana when he called construction of the barrier an act of self-defense.
The barrier is controversial since part of it is going up on occupied land and isolating tens of thousands of Palestinian inhabitants. The United States has criticized the project for appearing to seize land and pre-empt a final peace accord.
With an eye to Europe, Sharon told Jewish leaders last week that foreign criticism of Israel's "right to use force to defend itself" stemmed from a new type of anti-Semitism that effectively denied Israel's "birthright to exist."
In Italy, Sharon will reiterate his argument that the EU's role in Middle East diplomacy will be limited as long as its members press for economic sanctions against Israel and issue statements against its policies, officials said.
"There needs to be a more balanced European policy to Israel if they want to play a more constructive role," Gissin said.
The EU has been riled by Israel's cold shoulder toward Otte after he met Palestinian President Yasser Arafat two months ago. Israel and the United States accuse Arafat of fomenting "terrorism." He denies such charges.
Britney REVEALED!
11.17.03 (12:25 am) [edit]I thought I'd take a break from political commentary for a slight moment to share this site with you:
http://www.kingpixel.com/britney/" title="http://www.kingpixel.com/britney/" target="_blank"http://www.kingpixel.com/brit...
It's Britney 'revealed.' ::giggles::
Enjoy!
Commentary by Ya'acov Liberman
11.16.03 (6:56 pm) [edit]This was in my local newspaper.
[b]Palestinian state: perpetuation of a fraud[/b]
[i]by Ya'acov Liberman[/i]
One of the greatest international frauds of historic significance is the concept that the Arab population of former Palestine must have a state of their own--one more Arab state in the Middle East arena.
This seed of this fraudulent concept was planted within the walls of Whitehall in London. The British Empire was always seeking terms and pledges with which to lure and dominate foreign lands and millions of subjects under its imperial yoke. One of those lands was Israel, also known as Palestine, the territory Britain conquered from the Turks, during WWI.
This land, biblically recognized as the Land of Abraham and Jacob, was sparsely populated by Jews who stubbornly remained through the centuries. The Arab populations consisted mainly of Bedouin nomads looking for pasturage and available food.
Not until the advent of the Balfour Declaration, wherein the Jews of the world were promised a "National Home in Palestine," did the Arabs as much as dream of creating another Arabic state on that territory.
With the growth of political Zionism, the reality of a Jewish sate developed to an extent where it began to seriously threaten the mandate and thus the British domination of Palestine.
Typical of their underhanded political ploys, the British helped to create a competing movement among the Arabs, with the aim of counteracting Zionist appeals on an international scale.
In those days, whereas the Jews bought land in Palestine from Arab farmers and landowners, in order to cultivate and build, the Arabs of Palestine, led by the Mufti of Jerusalem, were engaged in sporadic terror and sabotage against the Jewish pioneers and their property. It was at no time a movement dedicated to building an Arab state. Rather, it was -- much as it remains today--a movement to promote destruction of Jewish life in the Land of Israel.
The British did not stop at instilling enmity between the Arab and Jewish populations. In fact, they actively assisted in the educating the Arabs to resist Jewish efforts to erect kibitzes, settlements, villages and cities.
During the Second World War, the British effort to provoke and assist Arab negation of the Jewish homeland became painfully obvious. In contravention to the Balfour Declaration and in the midst of Hitler's annihilation campaign against European Jewry, the Colonial Office instituted edicts (White Papers) that closed the doors of Palestine to all Jews escaping the horrors of the Holocaust.
And this continued after the war was won and Hitler was defeated. Tens of thousands of Jewish refugees from death camps attempted to sail to Palestine on small crafts at obvious risks to their lives. When they reached the shores of Israel, the powerful British navy would intercept them and blow the boats to smithereens, then incarcerate the survivors in camps on Crete and Cyprus.
In the meantime, the cause of Zionism began to attract attention of American politicians and the public. The awe-inspiring battles of the Hebrew underground became consistent reminders to the free world that time had finally come for the creation of a Jewish state.
By then the British had been badly humiliated by the courageous efforts of Israeli forces of resistance, as well as by the pointed finger of world opinion. As a result, they had no alternative but to accept a UN resolution to end the mandate and accept the creation of a Jewish state.
However, the British Foreign Office had another weapon with which to undermine such a state and make it vulnerable to Arab insurgence: Division of the mandated territory into two states, Jewish and Arab (Trans-Jordan, in the meantime, was arbitrarily chopped off from the mandated territory and a "Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan" created under the rule of King Abdullah).
The idea of dividing Palestine into two states was subsequently embraced by UN and incorporated into its "Partition of Palestine" resolution. In practical terms, this resolution did not get further than the files of UN archives. It was totally rejected by Arabs themselves, claiming their right to the entire land of Israel. Thus, following the announcement of creation of Jewish state, Arabs of Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Iraq went to war, attacking the newborn Jewish state on the day it was born.
In spite of the fact that this war waged against Israel was an unprovoked aggression, the UN stood idly by, demanding ceasefires, disallowing armaments to reach the embattled Jewish state and continuing to insist on a myth called "the State of Palestine."
What we are not discussing here is the initial geographical designs of the proposed partitions of mandated Palestine. This is a subject for a separate piece. Suffice it to say that Jaffa (now part of Tel Aviv), Beer Shava, Eilat, Ramale and many other cities of today's State of Israel were assigned to become part of the Arab Palestinian state.
After failing to annihilate the State of Israel and "throw the Jews into the sea," the aggressive Arab coalition signed an armistice agreement with the Jewish state on the Island of Rhodes. In spite of this, the Arab aggressors continued to consider themselves in a sate of war with the infidel and vowed to remove it from the face of the Earth.
The interesting lesson to be learned from this blatant aggression is the fact that the victors placed no demands on the losers, the frustrated aggressors did not sue for peace, and the UN and all its members did not raise a finger to condemn this classical contravention of its charter.
In the meantime, Gaza remained occupied by the Egyptians, while the so-called West Bank remained in the hands of the Kingdom of Jordan. Jerusalem was divided with the Old City also remaining in Jordanian hands.
During the ensuing negotiations, no word was spoken on behalf of an independent Palestinian State. It was now clear to all concerned, that no such entity could exist independently. Even the Palestinians themselves were content to be ruled by the Egyptians in Gaza and by the Jordanians on the West Bank. There existed no dominance by their Arab brothers.
It was not until 1967, almost 20 years after the War of Independence, when Egyptian President Abdul Gamel Nasser provoked and led an Arab coalition to once again attempt to destroy the Jewish state, that we began to hear about an independent Palestinian state.
Indeed, it was only after the Arabs' total defeat that their tactics changed course. Having lost their hold on Gaza and the West Bank, including Jerusalem, the Egyptians and the Jordanians gave up their rights to those lands in favor of the Future Palestinian entity. In the meantime, they continued to emphatically reject Israel's existence and declared their determination to annihilate the Jewish nation.
This, then, was the time hen the official birth of the international fraud called "the Palestinian state" took place. It is to the discredit of the world at large and, to no lesser extent, to the Labor government of Israel, that they all "recognized" the "need" for a Palestinian state and were ready to supplement it with territories liberated by Israel during the Six Day War!
In spite of Arab enmity, aggression and constant terrorist activity, Israelis as a whole were ready to accept the view that the Arab Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank deserve self-government and a measure of independence.
As a result, Menachem Begin, the first prime minister of the Likud party, during his successful peace negotiations with Anwar Sadat, the new President of Egypt, offered Palestinian Arabs a status of autonomy.
This was 1978. Much has transpired between then and now. The virus of anti-Israeli hate has spread wildly through the entire Arab-Palestinian community. Murder and suicide became the cherished weapons of a large part of the Muslim Middle East. In such conditions, even autonomy cannot be immediately considered as a viable solution to the present crisis. And this will certainly remain the case until Arab terror is eliminated entirely.
In the meantime, Israel finds itself once again in a state of war.
Those who suggest Palestinian independence at this time are simply perpetuating the fraud brought about by a coalition of forces bent on Israel's destruction.
The sooner we Jews and our friends in America realize this, the nearer the time will come for a peaceful resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East.
Paris Hilton.
11.14.03 (2:29 am) [edit]The name on everyone's lips and the body on everyone's illegally downloaded quicktime screen. That's right, I'm talking about good ol' Paris, the worthless richie brat that frolics naked in French hotels and has it filmed. Am I too harsh? Well, maybe. Would I be upset if it was anyone else's sex tape? Slightly, but not as much as now. Why is that?
Thing is, she's a waste of space. Now you're thinking, "Oh, Tigress is just jealous. She wishes she were as stinkin' loaded and hedonistic as Paris." I gotta tell you, not really. Granted, if I were of her monetary status, a rich heiress to a multibillion dollar company, I'd not waste my power on $2,000 nail jobs or toga parties in the Hamptons. No, I'd try and benefit society better. "Gimme a break, you're so full of shit, Tigress!" you say? Really, no. I see tons of celebs contributing to the world in one way or another.
Take Dave Matthews, for example (we'll use him because I know a lot about him). He's a very talented musician, in case you haven't heard of him. He makes crazy sums of money. Sure, he keeps some for himself, improves the living standards of his wife and twin daughters, but what does he do with the rest of it? He gives it to charity. That's right folks, charity. How does he justify it? He once said, "With all that I make, I'd be the most selfish, horrible, awful son-of-a-bitch who ever walked the earth. I enjoy my life and comfort while babies starve to death outside."
Now lets get back to our abortion poster child, Paris Hilton. Let's see, she has NO talent. She doesn't even make any kind of art to reach out to people (Like DMB's music). She was BORN into her wealth and has never worked a day in her miserable little pointless life. She spends all her family money on herself, usually on things to make her "prettier." And, lastly and most recently known to the public, she spends disgusting amounts of money to go have sex with someone in a French hotel and then has it filmed. Not only HAS it filmed, but is willing and eager to do so.
What a waste of humanity.
"But now wait a second, Tigress. What the hell do you do that helps the world so greatly?" Well, I volunteered to help the shelters when the fire struck SoCal a few weeks ago. I helped feed many displaced families. What else do I do? I volunteer at the local pet shelter with the sick animals. What else? When there's a real need, I try and get out and be there and do what I can. Would I still do it if I were a rich heiress to a large hotel chain? In a heartbeat.
As you can see, I have a lot of contempt for her and her selfish foolishness.
Oh and how convenient that this sex tape comes out right before the premier of her new reality TV show (yet another attestment to her uselessness--a REALITY TV SHOW--but that's another blog subject, entirely). She and her family claim that it was not her who leaked the tape, but her ex-boyfriend, of whom is also featured in this prize-winning piece of footage.
There's two possibilities for the reason why this tape has surfaced. Either the above mentioned, or her boyfriend is trying to make a buck.
I kinda am hoping its the latter. Why? Because I think she deserves the embarrassment, if she's capable of feeling as much. Think about it. She's this frightful load of richie garbage that is careless with everything and especially her body. Dumbass princess' tape leaks out and then how does she feel. I hope she's embarrassed. I hope this showed her what a loser she is and perhaps that she should change some of her behavior and start acting like a person.
I hope so.
That is why I advocate that everyone run to your closest computer and start web searching. Enjoy Paris' only contribution to the world. It may be worth something someday, being so rare and all.
Let's hear what you think. What do you think of this Paris Hilton nonsense?
Some interesting demographics. . .
11.13.03 (2:01 pm) [edit]I was goofin' around on the interent and I found this great site nationmaster.com . It shows demographics of everything from around the world. Pretty neat. So I searched and found this demographic below. It's the top 100 countries that have the most Jews per capita. There was a map included on the results too. Check it out in full here: http://nationmaster.com/graph... . I was astounded to know that Gibraltar even had any Jews, let alone the 3rd most per capita. I was not surprised one bit that Iraq has zero per capita.
Facinating.
Enjoy!
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Graph: Religion: Top 100 Jews (per capita)
(In order of)
[b]Country Description Amount[/b]
1. Israel 803.88 per 1000 people
2. Monaco 31.26 per 1000 people
3. Gibraltar 21.65 per 1000 people
4. United States 20.67 per 1000 people
5. Canada 11.28 per 1000 people
6. France 10.04 per 1000 people
7. Uruguay 9.6 per 1000 people
8. Ukraine 8.27 per 1000 people
9. Hungary 7.94 per 1000 people
10. Moldova 6.77 per 1000 people
11. Argentina 6.61 per 1000 people
12. Latvia 6.34 per 1000 people
13. Belarus 5.81 per 1000 people
14. Australia 5.12 per 1000 people
15. United Kingdom 5.02 per 1000 people
16. Belgium 3.89 per 1000 people
17. Azerbaijan 3.85 per 1000 people
18. Russia 3.79 per 1000 people
19. Georgia 3.43 per 1000 people
20. Virgin Islands 3.24 per 1000 people
21. Switzerland 2.47 per 1000 people
22. Panama 2.43 per 1000 people
23. South Africa 2.43 per 1000 people
24. Estonia 2.12 per 1000 people
25. Sweden 2.03 per 1000 people
26. Netherlands 1.87 per 1000 people
27. Netherlands Antilles 1.87 per 1000 people
28. Lithuania 1.67 per 1000 people
29. Denmark 1.49 per 1000 people
30. Venezuela 1.44 per 1000 people
31. Uzbekistan 1.37 per 1000 people
32. Luxembourg 1.34 per 1000 people
33. New Zealand 1.28 per 1000 people
34. Austria 1.22 per 1000 people
35. Slovakia 1.11 per 1000 people
36. Chile 0.97 per 1000 people
37. Kyrgyzstan 0.93 per 1000 people
38. Kazakhstan 0.9 per 1000 people
39. Puerto Rico 0.76 per 1000 people
40. Brazil 0.74 per 1000 people
41. Germany 0.72 per 1000 people
42. Bahamas, The 0.67 per 1000 people
43. Costa Rica 0.65 per 1000 people
44. Romania 0.63 per 1000 people
45. Italy 0.61 per 1000 people
46. Czech Republic 0.58 per 1000 people
47. Greece 0.47 per 1000 people
48. Suriname 0.46 per 1000 people
49. Croatia 0.46 per 1000 people
50. Bulgaria 0.39 per 1000 people
51. Mexico 0.39 per 1000 people
52. Iran 0.38 per 1000 people
53. Turkey 0.37 per 1000 people
54. Spain 0.35 per 1000 people
55. Hong Kong 0.34 per 1000 people
56. Norway 0.33 per 1000 people
57. Tajikistan 0.27 per 1000 people
58. Ireland 0.26 per 1000 people
59. Turkmenistan 0.26 per 1000 people
60. Morocco 0.24 per 1000 people
61. Finland 0.23 per 1000 people
62. Poland 0.21 per 1000 people
63. Paraguay 0.2 per 1000 people
64. Tunisia 0.2 per 1000 people
65. Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.15 per 1000 people
66. Colombia 0.14 per 1000 people
67. Jamaica 0.11 per 1000 people
68. Peru 0.11 per 1000 people
69. Guatemala 0.09 per 1000 people
70. Portugal 0.09 per 1000 people
71. Cuba 0.09 per 1000 people
72. Zimbabwe 0.08 per 1000 people
73. Ecuador 0.07 per 1000 people
74. Singapore 0.07 per 1000 people
75. Armenia 0.06 per 1000 people
76. Bolivia 0.04 per 1000 people
77. Yemen 0.04 per 1000 people
78. Dominican Republic 0.03 per 1000 people
79. El Salvador 0.02 per 1000 people
80. Japan 0.02 per 1000 people
81. Syria 0.01 per 1000 people
82. Kenya 0.01 per 1000 people
83. Ethiopia 0.01 per 1000 people
84. India 0.01 per 1000 people
85. Iraq 0 per 1000 people
86. Thailand 0 per 1000 people
87. Korea, South 0 per 1000 people
88. Philippines 0 per 1000 people
Total 14.26 million
Weighted Avg 4.19 per 1000 people
Source: World Jewish Congress (WJC), 1998 at Nation Master dot com
Reality check: Another misconception cleared up.
11.13.03 (2:33 am) [edit]Misconception: Jerusalem is as holy to Muslims as it is to Jews.
Truth/B'Emes: At the Camp David conference in the summer of 2000, Chairman Arafat told President Clinton that Palestinian archaeologists could prove that there had never been a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This statement alone, a flagrant lie, should have been the immediate indication that Arafat had no intention of reaching an agreement with Israel at Camp David. (People who wish to make peace don't start a meeting by denying the most basic truths about their opponent's history.)
The Temple Mount has been the leading Jewish holy site since shortly after it came under Jewish sovereignty during the reign of Kind David more than three thousand years ago, and sixteen hundred years before Islam came into existence.
Arafat's statement about Jerusalem is part of a widespread Arab campaign to deny the Jews' historical connection to the land of Israel and to Jerusalem in particular. For example, [i]Al-Hayat Al Jadida[/i], the PA newspaper, quoted on Oct. 15, 2000, the statement of Sheik Ikrama Sabri, the mufti of Jerusalem (the highest Islamic religious official in that city): "There is not a single stone in Palestine that proves the [historical] Jewish existence [in the land]."
In fact, ever since King David captured Jerusalem around 1000 B.C.E., the city has been the Jewish people's spiritual capital at all times, and political capital during the three periods when the Jews had a state (for four hundred years after King David, during the time of the Second Temple, and since 1948). No other country or religion over the last three thousand years has ever claimed Jerusalem as a capital or as its most important city. Perhaps that is why Winston Churchill argued as early as 1955: "You ought to let the Jews have Jerusalem; it was they who made it famous."
In contrast to Judaism, Islam claims Jerusalem as its THIRD holiest city. But even that claim exaggerates Jerusalem's significance to Muslims. After all, the city was never regarded as particularly important to Muslims when it was under Muslim rule; it became so only when it came under Jewish rule. For example, between 1948 and 1967, Jordan occupied East Jerusalem and treated the city, as did the rest of the Arab world, as a backwater. During the nineteen years Jordan controlled Jerusalem, only one Arab leader, King Hassan of Morocco, ever visited there.
Jerusalem is mentioned 667 times in the Torah; it is never mentioned in to Koran. Later Islamic teachings, formulated after the death of Muhammad, claimed that he had ascended to heaven from Jerusalem. After the Arab world conquered the territory that comprises Israel during the seventh century, Arab rulers erected two mosques on the site of what had once been the Jewish temple. Aside from these mosques, one of which is the Dome of the Rock (from where Muhammad's ascent to heaven is said to have occurred), there are no other sites of major significance to Islam in Jerusalem (unlike the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, which, in the words of the late British historian Christopher Sykes, "are holy places containing holy sites").
It is widely known that Jerusalem is holy to the Jews, but many people believe that the Jews abandoned Jerusalem until the rise of Zionism. Like many other anti-Israel claims, this, too, is false. Jews have been the largest religious group in Jerusalem since at least 1844 (when the first generally accurate census was conducted). At the time, Jews outnumbered Muslims by 40% (7,120 to an estimated 5,000) and were almost twice as large as the Christian community (which numbered 3,390). In all the years since, and in nine succeeding censuses, the Jews have always been the largest group residing there, and the majority since 1864. As of 2000, Jerusalem contained 439,600 Jews, almost 197,000 Muslims, and 14,200 Christians.
Jerusalem's holiness in Jewish life is apparent in many ways. When ever Jews pray, they face Jerusalem (In contrast, when Muslims pray, they face Mecca). The city is mentioned in all three of the Jewish daily prayer services. The Western Wall is the holiest site in Jewish life, where both secular and religious Jews go to pray and insert written petitions to God in the Wall's crevices. For thousands of years, Jews have commemorated, with the fast day of Tisha B'Av (the ninth day of the month of Av in the Jewish calendar), the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E., and the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 C.E. Throughout history, Jews have arranged to have earth from Israel, particularly from Jerusalem, poured into their graves when they die. In addition, the smashing of glass at the conclusion of every Jewish wedding is meant to remind all those present of the verse from Psalms: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand fail" (Psalms 137:5).
For these reasons, the attempt by Palestinian Authority Chairman Arafat, by the PA's highest religious official in Jerusalem, and by the Arab press to deny the Jewish connection to Jerusalem is as preposterous as it is mendacious. Unfortunately, the blood libel, [i]The Protocols of the Elders of Zion[/i], and the Islamist claim that Jews knew in advance about the 9-11 terrorist attacks on America and therefore four thousand Jewish workers stayed home that day make it clear that, to those who hate Jews, truth is also their enemy.
I guess Red really does run right through me.
11.13.03 (1:18 am) [edit]Hehe.
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An Important Public Safety Notice!
11.12.03 (4:16 pm) [edit]I saw this on blondie's blog and had to post it here too. It's [b][i]very scarey.[/i][/b]
A Woman stopped at a pay-at-the-pump gas station to get gas. Once she filled her gas tank after paying at the pump and started to leave, the attendant inside came over the speaker. He told her that something happened with her card and that she needed to come inside to pay.
The lady was confused because the transaction showed complete andapproved. She told him that and was getting ready to leave but the attendant once again urged her to come in to pay or else. She proceeded to go inside and started arguing with the attendant about his threat.
He told her to calm down and listen carefully: He told her that while she was pumping gas, a guy slipped into the back seat of her car onthe other side and he had called the police. She immediately became scared and looked out there in time to see her car door open and the guy slip out.
The report is that the new gang initiation thing is to bring back a woman's body part. One way they are doing this is crawling under girls/women's cars while they're pumping gas or at grocery stores in the night time. Then they are cutting the lady's ankles to disable them in order to kidnap them, kill and dismember them.
The other way is slipping into unattended cars and kidnapping the women to kill and dismember them.
Please pass this on to other women, young and old alike. Be extra careful going to and from your car at night. If at all possible, don't go alone!
This is real!!The message:
1. ALWAYS lock your car doors, even if you're gone for just a second.
2. Check underneath your car when approaching it for reentry, and check in the back before getting in.
3. Always be aware of your surroundings and other individuals in your general vicinity, particularly at night!
Send this to many girls so your friend will not be the next one.
Thanks,
Barbara BakerSecretary Directorate of Training
U.S. Army Military Police School(573) 563-8043
TELL EVERY WOMAN YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS!
Yet Another BIG Middle East Misconception.
11.11.03 (8:05 pm) [edit]Here it is: Palestinians turned to violence against Israel out of desperation
Truth/B'Emes: If the issue were desperation, then why would the Palestinians have turned against Israel after it offered to create a Palestinian state on more than 95% of the West Bank and Gaza? And why would they have launched a campaign of suicide/homocide bombings--in which over six hundred Israelis (with thousands more targeted), the large majority of them civilians, including children, have been murdered--during the time of the most dovish, most accommodating government (that of Prime Minister Ehud Barak) in Israel's history?
The answer is self-evident. As Palestinian polls repeatedly revealed, the great majority of Palestinians, like their leadership, seek to destroy Israel, not settle for a West Bank-Gaza Palestinian state. As Sheik Ibrahim Madhi declared on the Palestinian Authority's national television (August 7, 2001): "In several years, Allah willing, we will enter Jerusalem as conquerors. To Haifa as conquerors, to Ashkelon as conquerors."
Despite the aim of most Palestinians and many other Arabs of destroying Israel, it is assumed among many in the West that the suicide/homocide bombings in Israel are driven by desperation and hopelessness, not antisemitism and religious extremism. As Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, expressed it: "As long as young people feel they have got no hope but to blow themselves up, you are never going to make progress."
To some of Israel's harshest critics, Arab "desperation" is seen not only as understandable, but acceptable and, for some, even praiseworthy. Juergen Moelleman, an official of Germany's Free Democrats, speaking about Palestinian terrorism, declared: "I would resist too and use force to do so. . .no just in my country, but in the aggressor's country as well." Claire Rayner, president of the British Humanist Association, stated in April 2002 that the idea of Israel as a Jewish homeland was "a load of crap," and therefore there was nothing wrong with targeting Israeli restaurants and buses: "If you treat a group of people the way Palestinians have been treated, they will use the only weapon they have, which is their individual lives."
The ultimate statement of defense for the "suicide" killers was provided by Jose Saramago, the Portuguese Nobel laureate in literature: "We can compare what is happening in the Palestinian territories with Auschwitz."
Aside from the fact that resistance fighters in far more desperate circumstances than the Palestinians (who actually enjoy more rights than did Arabs in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Syria, Lybia, and other countries) have not targeted civilians (e.g., anti-Nazi resistance fighters), it is clear from the families of the terrorists themselves that what drives the terrorists is religious passion. In the dozens of interviews with mothers of "suicide" bombers, one never hears mention of poverty. Rather, as one proud mother characteristically put it:
"I am a compassionate mother to my children. Because I love my son, I encouraged him to die a martyr's death for the sake of Allah. . .Jihad is a religious obligation incumbent upon us, and we must carry it out. I sacrificed Muhammad as part of my obligation. This is an easy thing. There is no disagreement [among religious scholars] on such matters. The happiness in this world is an incomplete happiness, eternal happiness is life in the world to come, through martyrdom. Allah be praised, my son has attained this happiness. . .I prayed from the depths of my hear that Allah would cause the success of his operation. I asked Allah to give me 10 [Israelis] for Muhammad, and Allah granted my request and Muhammad made his dream come true, killing 10 Israeli settlers and soldiers. Our God honored him even more in that there were many Israelis wounded. [When his brothers informed me of his martyrdom], I began to cry 'Allah is the greatest,' and prayed and thanked Allah for the success of the operation. I began to utter cries of joy and we declared that we were happy. The young people began to fire into the air out of joy over the success of his operation, as this is what we had hoped for him."
Likewise, the nineteen terrorists who murdered some three thousand Americans on Sept. 11, 2001, came from affluent, in most cases particularly affluent, backgrounds. Fifteen, after all, were Saudis.
What [i]has[/i] motivated Pales