The Food of Freedom
04.28.05 (12:55 pm) [edit]
Instead of doing math in math class today, I got to thinking about other things. I decided to use this time wisely (or probably unwisely -- you decide) and plan out my Yom Tov Passover meal menus. We're having 9 guests over for lunch on the 7th day of Passover and 8 on the 8th day. Lots of meal plans to map out -- especially since one of my lunch guests is, in fact, a vegetarian. Thankfully, she does eat fish! I'm the beef guru, you see so it's always a bit of a challenge (especially on Passover) to find vegetarian alternatives when soy is strictly prohibited. No matter, I continued counting and deciding what to make with my little list.
Thank G-d this holiday is almost over!
For those of you who don't know, Passover is my least favourite holiday -- even more so than Yom Kippor or Tisha B'Av where you are not allowed to eat at all. Don't get me wrong, the celebration of our liberation from brutal slavery has great meaning and it is very important to always remember what HaShem did for us in the land of Mitzrayim (Egypt). I'm also fully aware that the best way to never forget is to experience it. A way of experience and reenactment is through food.
However, I still don't have to love it to pieces. One problem is that this holiday usually comes out on my birthday (though this year I was spared only to get something worse -- my birthday being right before, so really no one even cared because they were too preoccupied). Usually it's matzah cake! MMM! YAY! ~ I hope you can sense my dripping sarcasm.
Also, it's a time for family to get together and be reminded of why they live so far away from each other in the first place. I guarantee you every Passover there is at least one fight per day that there is a Sader. True to form, this year we had more than 3 (fights, not Saders).
Then, of course, there's the food. I always say that Passover is 8 days of hunger, constipation, and gas! Why do you think the relatives get so irritable?
Matzah, the flat bread we eat in place of all leavened products during this time, is like eating airy cardboard. Airy cardboard that blows up in your stomach, causing you to retain water and yet you still yearn for something more substantial and satisfying. When it's done inflating your stomach, it lodges itself in your digestive track, causing your bowels to swell and flatulate. What you are left with is days of unsatisfactory restroom experiences until towards the end of the holiday where it all comes out in one painful boulder!
Can you imagine eating like this all year? I'd die!
That's when I woke up in my math class with an interesting thought. What [i]if[/i] people ate this way all year? Personally, I tend to lose weight during this holiday because there is simply not enough sustainable bulk to the food. Yes, it tends to be kind of high carb, but it doesn't seem to stick. If anything, weight you [i]do[/i] gain is all from water. That can be easily cured with a sensible exercise regiment.
I think I've got it!
The new diet fad could be the Passover diet! It's got all of the prereq's! Depriving, unsatisfying, hard to keep on . . . ! One could totally follow the Chometz-free guidelines for weight-loss! Just make sure you follow the laws of Passover!
But what would they call this fad that will sweep the nation and be out by next week with Atkins? Matzah is the bread of freedom. How about the Freedom Diet? Sounds too American against France. We don't want to bring the French into it because they'll claim they made it up. How about the Anti-Chometz Zone? Too cliche'.
...On second thought, perhaps we shouldn't inflict this on the rest of the world. Perhaps what makes this special is that it only comes once a year. We'd only really risk cheapening something so important to us as a people. We've already done this with things like the Kaballah Center and so on.
This Passover we really need to be thankful that we are no longer slaves in a foreign land. We just are in a different strange land. We need Passover more than ever! We must never allow ourselves to be slaves here too. In America, we are so fortunate, so removed from poverty and hardship that we need to be reminded of what it was like and could be like again. We need Passover to help us be thankful and experience an exodus. Could you imagine if we had a Moses today to take us home again? That is Passover's true intention!
With all the complaining and all of the trouble, this probably is the most important holiday of the year. Please enjoy the rest of Passover 5765 that's left.
Now if only we really could have next year in Jerusalem!
Some Helpful Links!
04.28.05 (12:03 pm) [edit]
I just wanted to thank [url=http://therealspartacus0 07.tb...]therealspartacus007[/url ] (also author of the [url=http://MetropolisTimes.com]MetropolisTimes.com[/url]) for sending me a great links resource for Judaic defense against Christian missionaries.
Some of the links located on the site you can find in my links section to the left, but there is more on this website, of which you can view here:
Thanks again! :)
ACPU: American [un]Civil Perverts Union
04.27.05 (5:35 pm) [edit]
I was sitting in my car this morning. Not unusual, for I do this every morning, you see. I get to school early in order to get a parking spot. Once I do, I sit in that spot and eat breakfast and listen to the radio. I also tend to use this time to study. Most every morning, I tune into the local talk radio station of which features Bill O'Reilly in the morning. This morning's topic in the first hour was dedicated to Freedom of speech claims.
The story I heard that Bill related was abhorant.
Jeffrey Curley was a little ten-year-old boy who was murdered by two men whom belong to the NAMBLA (the National Man-Boy Love Association) organization. They sexually asaulted him and murdered him when they were finished five years ago. When they went to court, they were convicted.
It came out in court that they were NAMBLA members and that they were shown and instructed how to prey on little children by the NAMBLA association. Turns out, you can even find these tips on the NAMBLA website!
After the trial, the parents decided to legally go after the NAMBLA organization and their hope was to put them out of business. Guess who stepped in to help! Why, the ACLU of course! But instead of protecting young children who are regularly victimized and horrifically brutalized by these monsters on a daily basis, the ACLU is siding with the monsters! Not only this, they're working probono!!!
Let's take a moment to digest this. The ACLU (American Civil Liberaties Union), the ones who are supposed to be looking out for the weak, the victimized, the children; they're helping those who seek to destroy the innocence and the lives of the children!!! WHAT?
They site that NAMBLA has a right to free speech. If they want to instruct perverts how to rape a baby, then they can do that. What does the law say about this? It's criminal conpiracy! In EVERY single state of this great country it is against the law to sexually abuse or objectify a minor. Period.
This is like those who show kids how to make dirty bombs on the internet. They condone this, they instruct how to do it, they even do it themselves!!! They're terrorists! The dirty bomb makers are terrorists, the Al Quade websites that condone death to America and Israel are terrorists . . .
NAMBLA is a form of terrorist organization, if you ask me! They prey upon young children to exploit and victimize them for their own personal gain. It terrorizes every parent who is doing their job to look out for their own children by it even existing. Do you feel your child is safe while NAMBLA members are walking the streets, watching and waiting for your child in order to feed their twisted sexual appetite?
Here's a kick; the rapists that killed that boy are in jail and they're recruiting NAMBLA members in jail! One of them is in charge of the law library and uses its bathroom to frequently have sex with other inmates. The most disgusting part is he boasts about killing that child and often speaks in glorified detail about how proud he was of the rape and how satisfying he felt it to be.
The ACLU is defending this.
The real kicker is that all this has been tied up in court for a little over five years now because the ACLU keeps filing obstructions. They don't want this to go to court, but they won't settle. They want it to be a-ok to rape a child, to talk about raping a child, and to encourage others to rape children.
This is wrong. The ACLU is wrong. NAMBLA is wrong.
My question is why havn't the feds already cracked down on these degenerates? What makes the ACLU think they'll win?
This is a sick world we live in. None of us are protected, and don't you ever believe that the "ACPU" is lookin' out for you.
It makes me wonder how many NAMBLA members are on the ACLU staff. . .
Pesach
04.27.05 (5:17 pm) [edit]
Chag Semieach!
Pesach (pronounced PAY-sakh) is the Hebrew word for Passover. Pesach is a holiday that commemorates the Hebrews’ rapid departure from ancient Egypt. The Jews had just endured over 200 years of exile, including several decades of torturous slave labor, and now G-d was going to fulfill His promise to Abraham—the promise to redeem the Jews and do justice to their slave-masters. Right before the Exodus, G-d commands the Jews to sacrifice one lamb per family and mark the Jewish doorposts with its blood. This would be a sign for G-d to "pass over" the Jewish homes as He slew the Egyptian firstborn—the last of ten supernatural attacks on the Egyptians. This is the origin of the name "Passover."
Passover is a Spring holiday; it starts on the 15th of Nissan (usually sometime in April) and lasts for eight days (in Israel, seven days). The first two and last two days (in Israel, only the first and last day) are major holidays, i.e. on these days it is forbidden to work, drive, turn on or off a light, etc. The middle days are Chol Hamoed.
We observe Passover much the same way the Jews did on the first 15th of Nissan in Egypt. Pesach is observed by sacrificing a lamb, eating “bitter herbs”, and Matzah, and purging one’s house of any grain-based leavened item. The lamb is not done today due to the Temple’s absence, but everything else is: the mad, meticulous scrubbing and cleaning of every nook and cranny, the Seders on the first two nights, and the Shabbat-like services on the first and last days.
The lesson of Pesach is that you have unlimited potential. In Hebrew, Egypt is Mitzrayim—etymologicall y related to meitzarim, or borders. The moral of the Exodus story is that we all can escape our personal Egypts. And the seek-and-destroy-any-leav ened-particle part of Passover teaches us to eradicate our puffed-up, inflated, doughy egos and be simple, flat, unleavened matzot.
The holiday of Pesach contains innumerable lessons, laws and customs. To learn more, check out [url=http://www.ou.org]OU.org[/url]
Teach Kids Peace
04.27.05 (5:10 pm) [edit]
And earlier this week, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy was arrested near Nablus after being discovered wearing five pipe bombs strapped to his body. The boy aroused suspicions by wearing a heavy jacket on a hot day. HonestReporting has repeatedly critiqued the media's negligence in failing to report the indoctrination of Palestinian youngsters toward violence, and the growing culture of hate against Israel and the United States. Now, in a pro-active effort to challenge this human rights abuse, HonestReporting partnered in launching a new project that we're proud to introduce at this time ― Teach Kids Peace. Please take a moment to view the powerful 90-second introductory video by clicking on the graphic below, and visit TeachKidsPeace.org for news updates and alerts for activists. As the momentum shifts toward a possible peace agreement in the Mideast, it is now more crucial than ever to ensure that children are educated toward building peace. |
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A Few More Quizes
04.11.05 (8:04 pm) [edit]
Because I'm bored. . .
The Goddess of Roses and Love. You are a hopeless
romantic. Always optimistic and loving, you
have many friends and you are exceptionally
trustworthy. You are a innocent beauty.
Which gorgeous goddess are you? For girls! (breath taking pics!)
brought to you by Quizilla
Your soul is caring.
Other people are your concern, even if you
don't know them. If you see a person trip you
worry is he is okay. You put your loved ones
first and you're very mature. When someones
sick you're nurturing and always try to help
family and friends when failure strikes them.
You can be called the motherly one, if you are
in a group of people, which doesn't have to be
bad. Love is something that's already in you
and you have a lot to give whether you believe
it or not. Your friends probably love you very
much and come to when they need help since
you're reliable. People can feel secure with
you and generally like you.
How is your soul?(pics)
brought to you by Quizilla
You are 'Gregg shorthand'. Originally designed to
enable people to write faster, it is also very
useful for writing things which one does not
want other people to read, inasmuch as almost
no one knows shorthand any more.
You know how important it is to do things
efficiently and on time. You also value your
privacy, and (unlike some people) you do not
pretend to be friends with just everyone; that
would be ridiculous. When you do make friends,
you take them seriously, and faithfully keep
what they confide in you to yourself.
Unfortunately, the work which you do (which is
very important, of course) sometimes keeps you
away from social activities, and you are often
lonely. Your problem is that Gregg shorthand
has been obsolete for a long time.
What obsolete skill are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
What it Means to Be Human
04.11.05 (11:02 am) [edit]
I thought this article would help people gain more perspective on where I'm coming from on this issue. I wrote my own peice about Terri the day she passed. Many people were somewhat upset with me for it. I hope this will help gain some understanding. If not, well then too bad I guess. This is reality here. We can choose to pretend it's not, or we can just accept it and be righteous.
I would just like to add that hanging a convict is no longer allowed. Many states have outlawed the electric chair. Starvation was never a form of capital punishment. Why, then, was it fine to kill Terri, an inocent disabled woman, this way?
[line]
[b]From an Orthodox perspective, Jewish religious law teaches that we have a responsibility to protect the severely impaired.
[i]By Rabbi Avi Shafran[/b][/i]
Like the mental state of the incapacitated woman at its center, the Schiavo Saga doesn't lend itself to a simple label. On one level it exists as a family feud; on another, as a political football; and on yet another as a cultural touchstone.
But regardless of the motivations of the husband or parents of Terri Schiavo, who has now died of court-ordered dehydration, regardless of the propriety of congressional involvement in the matter and regardless of what reactions to the case might or might not say about America as a society, the tumult has also been a teaching moment, an opportunity for us all to ponder nothing less than the meaning of life. And Judaism, here as always, has much to teach.
Jewish religious law, or halacha, does not always insist that life be maintained. When, for instance, a person is in the state called "goseis"--"moribund [and] in imminent danger of death," in Rabbi J.David Bleich's words, Judaism forbids intercessions that will prolong suffering, although the active removal of connected life-support systems is another matter entirely. And there are times when even a healthy Jewish person is required by halacha to forfeit his or her life--most famously, when preserving life would entail the performance of an act of idol-worship, murder, or sexual immorality.
However, when an individual is incapacitated, even severely, but clearly alive, Judaism considers that life to possess no less value than that it possessed before it was compromised. Even a previously expressed desire to be killed if in such a state, while of considerable import in American law, carries no halachic weight at all. Although there are those who like to assert otherwise, the Jewish high ideal is not autonomy but responsibility.
It is not hard to make a slippery slope case here. In the Netherlands, where patients in compromised states have been "mercy-killed" for years by doctors, today 16-year-olds with "emotional pain" can legally enlist medical help in committing suicide (a 15-year-old requires parental consent).
And there is already at least scholarly slip-sliding in our own country, like the pronouncements of renowned ethicist Professor Peter Singer of Princeton, who not only advocates the killing of the severely disabled and unconscious elderly but has made the case as well for the dispatching of babies who are severely disabled. Such children, he has written, are "neither rational nor self-conscious" and so "the principles that govern the wrongness of killing nonhuman animals... must apply here, too." Or, as he more bluntly puts it, "The life of a newborn is of less value than the life of a pig, a dog or a chimpanzee."
The Jewish view, though, of lives like Terry Schiavo's is, in the end, not dependent on slopes or slippage. According to halacha, withholding food and water from a person in a "persistent vegetative state" is, in and of itself, a grave wrong. Judaism invests human life--no matter how limited it may seem--with inherent, infinite meaning.
It is not surprising that the incapacitated (or, as in Dutch law, even the very despondent) are seen in our times as somehow less worthy of the protections we offer more active people. Ours is a culture, after all, where human worth is often measured by intellectual prowess or mercantile skills--even by things like youth or physical beauty, or, for that matter, the capacity to convincingly impersonate a real or fictional character, or to strongly and accurately hit, kick or throw a ball.
But the true value of men and women lies elsewhere entirely, in their potential to do good things--to prepare, in fact, for an existence beyond the one we know--and in their meaning to the rest of us. When that idea--self-evident to some, objectionable to others--is internalized, a very different sensibility emerges.
Basketball or dancing may no longer be options in the confines of a hospital bed, and even tending to one's most basic physical needs may be impossible without help. But are acts of sheer will--like forgiveness, repentance, acceptance, commitment, love, or prayer--any harder to accomplish, or any less meaningful? Are they compromised in any way by tangles of tubes and monitors?
Not even consciousness, at least as medically defined, need hinder what humanly matters most. We choose to take only what registers on an EEG or acts of communication as evidence of being meaningfully conscious, of the ability to think and choose, and then proceed to conclude that, in the absence of such evidence, those abilities must no longer exist--without a thought (at least a conscious one) of the immense tautology we have embraced.
We do not know, cannot know, when a human being is truly incapacitated--when his or her soul is no longer functioning. Only when a heart has stopped beating can we be certain that life in its truest sense has ended. And so hastening or abetting the death of even a physically or psychologically compromised human being is, at least in the eyes of Judaism, no less an abortion of meaningful life than gunning down a healthy one.
The attitude regarding human life that characterizes decisions like the one Terry Schaivo's husband made is, unfortunately, one toward which much of contemporary Western culture is slouching. It is spoken of by sophisticates as "progressive," and indeed represents a progression of sorts, away from the Jewish religious tradition that is the bedrock of what we call morality and ethics. The degree to which we manage to check that progression will be the degree to which we demonstrate that we truly understand what it means to be human.
[i][b]©AM ECHAD RESOURCES. Rabbi Avi Shafran is director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America.[/i][/b]
Ouch
04.11.05 (10:51 am) [edit]
Went paintballing yesterday in honor of my boyfriend's 30th. It was great. My legs and thighs are killing me from hiding from the "enemy" and I think I sprained my wrist, but it was fun. Totally surprised him. He never saw any of it coming. I got all of his friends to come knock on his door in the morning and we stole him and went to Coffee Bean and then paintball all day. After that, dinner back at the apartment. It was awesome. Everyone was there. His sister won one of the games single handedly. She was trained in Israel, of course so she really knew how to use a gun.
Now I'm soar and I couldn't make it to my bio exam this morning. Oh well. I can make it up later. Decided to do some work instead, but it's really hard to move.
I think I'm a new paintball addict. lol!
He said it was the best birthday he ever had. I did my job then. :) He had better do something nice for my 30th! ;) I know he will though. That's all for now. Perhaps I'll write something more political later . . .
04.04.05 (7:40 pm) [edit]
"Good Palestinian Muslims."
[line]
By Aaron Klein
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM -- In spite of recent reports Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has reformed his government-controlled media, a new song broadcast last week on Palestinian television accuses Jews of torturing, mutilating and killing Palestinians in the name of God.
In the program, "A Mirror of the Palestinian Heritage," women are seen dancing in a music video that claims Israel commits war crimes against Palestinians in the name of the Jewish religion. One woman pens the words "a mirror of the Palestinian heritage" over a map of Israel, portraying all of Israel as occupied "Palestine."
The words to the song, translated by Palestinian Media Watch, include:
Here I am O Lord, alive
In your name, my God, they tortured me
In your name, my God, they banished me
In your name they exterminated
In your name they ruled.
With bombs they burned us
In blood they drowned us
In dungeons they cuffed us
On the anvil they put us.
The Palestinian media have for years used songs and music videos as a method of inciting viewers against Israel, many times mandating the killing of Jews as a religious necessity for Muslims, reports PMW.
Sharon and other Israeli leaders in February credited Abbas for helping to lower official incitement in the Palestinian media against Israel. But several weeks later, following a suicide bombing outside a Tel Aviv nightclub that killed five, Voice of Palestine, the official radio station of the Palestinian Authority, claimed in Arabic hours after the attack the area bombed "may have looked like a nightclub, but it was not innocent. Rather, it was a high-level Israeli military target."
The Palestinian station told its listeners information received from a "very senior Israeli officer" indicated "an elite unit of the occupation army" was meeting in the nightclub and was the target of the "martyr" operation.
Two days later, Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, an official newspaper directed by Abbas's Fatah Party, ran a front-page picture of the suicide bomber, identified as Abdullah Badran, 21, a university student from near the West Bank town of Tulkarem, with a caption calling him a "martyr."
Earlier in January, Palestinian Authority television blamed the Jews for causing the tsunami in southeast Asia, and preached the destruction of Israel and the U.S.
"The Muslim remembers how the Jews corrupted the land. ... They invest in the East Asian countries, which were destroyed [by the tsunami] because of the Jewish and American corruption and destruction," said Palestinian preacher Sheik Ibrahim Madiras Friday during his weekly sermon broadcast on PA television.
A week before that, Palestinian television featured a senior PA academic, Dr. Hassan Khater, founder of the Al Quds Encyclopedia, saying the killing of Jews is mandated by the prophet Muhammad.
Khater, quoting what he said was Islamic tradition, told viewers, "Muhammad said in his Hadith: 'The Hour [Day of Resurrection] will not arrive until you fight the Jews, [until a Jew will hide behind a rock or tree] and the rock and the tree will say: Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!'"
Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Natan Sharansky recently compiled a report, "Kill a Jew – Go to Heaven," in which he blasted the PA for disseminating what he said was Nazi-like propaganda.
"As in Nazi Germany, there is an entire 'culture of hatred' in Palestinian society today, from textbooks to crossword puzzles, from day camps to TV music videos," Sharansky said. "Calling for the murder of Jews, as Jews, is the end result."
[line]
Aaron Klein is WorldNetDaily's Jerusalem bureau chief, whose past interview subjects have included Yasser Arafat, Ehud Barak, Shlomo Ben Ami and leaders of the Taliban.
"Good Palestinian Muslims."
[line]
By Aaron Klein
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM -- In spite of recent reports Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has reformed his government-controlled media, a new song broadcast last week on Palestinian television accuses Jews of torturing, mutilating and killing Palestinians in the name of God.
In the program, "A Mirror of the Palestinian Heritage," women are seen dancing in a music video that claims Israel commits war crimes against Palestinians in the name of the Jewish religion. One woman pens the words "a mirror of the Palestinian heritage" over a map of Israel, portraying all of Israel as occupied "Palestine."
The words to the song, translated by Palestinian Media Watch, include:
Here I am O Lord, alive
In your name, my God, they tortured me
In your name, my God, they banished me
In your name they exterminated
In your name they ruled.
With bombs they burned us
In blood they drowned us
In dungeons they cuffed us
On the anvil they put us.
The Palestinian media have for years used songs and music videos as a method of inciting viewers against Israel, many times mandating the killing of Jews as a religious necessity for Muslims, reports PMW.
Sharon and other Israeli leaders in February credited Abbas for helping to lower official incitement in the Palestinian media against Israel. But several weeks later, following a suicide bombing outside a Tel Aviv nightclub that killed five, Voice of Palestine, the official radio station of the Palestinian Authority, claimed in Arabic hours after the attack the area bombed "may have looked like a nightclub, but it was not innocent. Rather, it was a high-level Israeli military target."
The Palestinian station told its listeners information received from a "very senior Israeli officer" indicated "an elite unit of the occupation army" was meeting in the nightclub and was the target of the "martyr" operation.
Two days later, Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, an official newspaper directed by Abbas's Fatah Party, ran a front-page picture of the suicide bomber, identified as Abdullah Badran, 21, a university student from near the West Bank town of Tulkarem, with a caption calling him a "martyr."
Earlier in January, Palestinian Authority television blamed the Jews for causing the tsunami in southeast Asia, and preached the destruction of Israel and the U.S.
"The Muslim remembers how the Jews corrupted the land. ... They invest in the East Asian countries, which were destroyed [by the tsunami] because of the Jewish and American corruption and destruction," said Palestinian preacher Sheik Ibrahim Madiras Friday during his weekly sermon broadcast on PA television.
A week before that, Palestinian television featured a senior PA academic, Dr. Hassan Khater, founder of the Al Quds Encyclopedia, saying the killing of Jews is mandated by the prophet Muhammad.
Khater, quoting what he said was Islamic tradition, told viewers, "Muhammad said in his Hadith: 'The Hour [Day of Resurrection] will not arrive until you fight the Jews, [until a Jew will hide behind a rock or tree] and the rock and the tree will say: Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!'"
Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Natan Sharansky recently compiled a report, "Kill a Jew – Go to Heaven," in which he blasted the PA for disseminating what he said was Nazi-like propaganda.
"As in Nazi Germany, there is an entire 'culture of hatred' in Palestinian society today, from textbooks to crossword puzzles, from day camps to TV music videos," Sharansky said. "Calling for the murder of Jews, as Jews, is the end result."
[line]
Aaron Klein is WorldNetDaily's Jerusalem bureau chief, whose past interview subjects have included Yasser Arafat, Ehud Barak, Shlomo Ben Ami and leaders of the Taliban.
