Well I do not always agree with Peggy Noonan, but I think she got it right. Check out her piece today in the WSJ. She talks about how Obama is merely making news, not history. How instead of allowing Pelosi run wild, he should have insisted on a bill that was palatable to all Americans. There should have been some compromises, but there were NONE.
And how is it that everyone is getting "payback". The unions with a VERY bad bill that will take away secret ballots and make it impossible to avoid or decertify them. That will really "help" the little industry that has flourished in the right to work states. Back to back room politics and opacity.
The movie industry will get a hand out in terms of something like a 50% tax benefit on their equipment purchases. Why only the movie industry? Pay back for votes.
This president is allowing the worst crooks in Congress and the Senate to continue to amplify their dirty tricks. He is also upping the class warfare bit. All the evil is from "Wall Street".
This 837 Billion dollar budget is made up of pork. Only 12 cents on every dollar MIGHT be deemed a stimulus at all. There is nothing in it for small business which provides close to 80% of new jobs.
This is crazy. Make it stop. Too many people are losing their jobs, their homes, everything. And for a panic that has been promoted by Washington. When is the wonderboy Geitner going to DO SOMETHING!
Friday, January 30, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
NY Times
Here is part, and a small part of why I am no longer subscribing to the NY Times.
To the Editor:
In "Standing Accused: A Pillar of Finance and Charity," your Dec. 13 Business Day article about Bernard L. Madoff, arrested in a major fraud scheme, there was a striking emphasis on his being Jewish. It was not just once, or twice, but at least three times before the article continued inside. Why?
Yes, he is Jewish. We get it. But was this relevant to his being arrested for cheating investors, or so key to his evolution as a businessman that it needed to be hammered home again and again?
I have read several accounts in The Time s of the shenanigans of Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois, yet have no clue what his religion is, nor, frankly, do I care. Why should I? Unless he was acting in the name of his faith, which I assume he was not, what difference does it make? And if a profile is warranted and the governor's faith matters to him, mention it and move on.
But to refer to the "Jewish T-bill," "the clubby Jewish world" and the "world of Jewish New York" within four paragraphs near the top of the article on Mr. Madoff was over the top.
David A. Harris
Executive Director, American Jewish Committee
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Morality War
Can you win a war if you don't aggressively pursue the targets right away? Can you compromise "winning" because of politics? What if war costs even more lives because it is prolonged unduly?
Please read this op ed from today's JPost.com.
It made me think about how the US dropped the bomb on Japan and finally ended the war. My father always says he would not likely have been alive had he been sent overseas due to the war continuing over time. He says the Bomb saved his life. There are a lot of moral questions, and maybe there are no real answers in war. One side wins and one side loses. It seems to me that in some cases, today's diplomacy and politics don't really work. Instead the conflict continues to escalate over the years.
Clearly, killing "civilians" is a really horrible thing. When a country or a region elects to continue to support attacks against another country, are they civilians? Maybe Gaza is not the best example of this, but did the US worry about the Germans? The Japanese "civilians"?
Please read this op ed from today's JPost.com.
It made me think about how the US dropped the bomb on Japan and finally ended the war. My father always says he would not likely have been alive had he been sent overseas due to the war continuing over time. He says the Bomb saved his life. There are a lot of moral questions, and maybe there are no real answers in war. One side wins and one side loses. It seems to me that in some cases, today's diplomacy and politics don't really work. Instead the conflict continues to escalate over the years.
Clearly, killing "civilians" is a really horrible thing. When a country or a region elects to continue to support attacks against another country, are they civilians? Maybe Gaza is not the best example of this, but did the US worry about the Germans? The Japanese "civilians"?
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
WATCH THIS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3Xl68kP4wo
Please watch this video on youtube by Tom Trento on Ft Lauderdale on December 30th from when we were in Israel. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe it can happen here. Tom is right. This is not London, Paris or Detroit. This is Ft. Lauderdale.
Please watch this video on youtube by Tom Trento on Ft Lauderdale on December 30th from when we were in Israel. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe it can happen here. Tom is right. This is not London, Paris or Detroit. This is Ft. Lauderdale.
A New Year's Resolution
Well, we are now a week into 2009. I haven't written much lately. Not because I didn't have anything to write about, but more because there is so much to write and think about.
We just got back from Israel and it was the trip of a lifetime. My husband didn't really want to go. One of my son's also didn't want to go. They were both nervous because they were certain things would go wrong and a war would start. I told them not to worry, that they would feel safe and if we were going to get bombed or in a war, we would all be together.
Of course what happened next was the biggest military action in Israel since 1967.
Before I get into the facts of why I am so distressed, let me tell you that we learned so much about history, about religion, agriculture, economics, mysticism, stoicism etc that I would go back in a minute. It is a magical place. All of my family loved it. We even felt pretty safe, despite the risks.
I will try and write a bit each day about what we learned but what is even more important now is to focus on the famous quote on the wall at Yad Vashem--the memorial to the over 6 million who died. I am paraphrasing this but what I remember is...."a society is only as good as what it tolerates". This is the time to step up and not slip silently by and let others do the talking and the fighting. This is the time to understand that it is an imperative to fight back when you are under constant attack for over 8 years. This is a time to understand that while Israel, at great cost to the country and to individuals who left homes, schools and lives behind, withdrew unilaterally from Gaza and areas in the West Bank and what did they get in return? Bombs. Fear. Lives under constant attack. Children who sleep in bomb shelters. Who can not attend school Would we do the same?
This is also a time to be aware of what is going on in our own country. We are not at a point in history where we should "blend in" or assume that we are so integrated into our American society that we are "safe". We can not assume that our future leaders believe in the same things that we do. This is what the Jews of Germany thought. They may not have identified with the Jews of Poland, or of Lithuania. They thought they were German. While I don't believe that a holocaust could ever happen in the US, in a free society, a lot of bizarre things are happening. I do believe that the constant news of Madoff, Drier, the way the media portrays Wall Street are all reflecting on the Jews---rightly or wrongly. You may have read about the violence and hate spewed at Jews in Europe and Yemen but what about here in our free country?
Did you know that:
A Molotov cocktail was thrown at one of the oldest Chicago synagogues last week?
That one of the pro Hamas protesters in Fort Lauderdale yelled that Jews should go back in the ovens?
A preschool in Camarillo CA has been vandalized by swastikas for the fourth time in recent weeks? Twice in the last week.
In Bethesda Maryland residents have been receiving anti Jewish hate mail in their mailboxes?
Jewish day schools in Chicago received bomb threats?
San Francisco's holocaust memorial was defaced with anti semitic graffiti?
Synagogues in Dalton TN and in Irvine CA have had signs or graffiti placed on them with anti semitic slurs or anti Israel remarks. See this site.
These things are not huge, but taken together they are an indicator of how things can unravel if we do not stand up to be counted. Read the Jerusalem Post on-line. Our sources of news are generally not very accurate in what is actually going on. Write to your representatives. Speak up in conversations. Don't be lulled into a false sense that you can remain silent. Act.
We just got back from Israel and it was the trip of a lifetime. My husband didn't really want to go. One of my son's also didn't want to go. They were both nervous because they were certain things would go wrong and a war would start. I told them not to worry, that they would feel safe and if we were going to get bombed or in a war, we would all be together.
Of course what happened next was the biggest military action in Israel since 1967.
Before I get into the facts of why I am so distressed, let me tell you that we learned so much about history, about religion, agriculture, economics, mysticism, stoicism etc that I would go back in a minute. It is a magical place. All of my family loved it. We even felt pretty safe, despite the risks.
I will try and write a bit each day about what we learned but what is even more important now is to focus on the famous quote on the wall at Yad Vashem--the memorial to the over 6 million who died. I am paraphrasing this but what I remember is...."a society is only as good as what it tolerates". This is the time to step up and not slip silently by and let others do the talking and the fighting. This is the time to understand that it is an imperative to fight back when you are under constant attack for over 8 years. This is a time to understand that while Israel, at great cost to the country and to individuals who left homes, schools and lives behind, withdrew unilaterally from Gaza and areas in the West Bank and what did they get in return? Bombs. Fear. Lives under constant attack. Children who sleep in bomb shelters. Who can not attend school Would we do the same?
This is also a time to be aware of what is going on in our own country. We are not at a point in history where we should "blend in" or assume that we are so integrated into our American society that we are "safe". We can not assume that our future leaders believe in the same things that we do. This is what the Jews of Germany thought. They may not have identified with the Jews of Poland, or of Lithuania. They thought they were German. While I don't believe that a holocaust could ever happen in the US, in a free society, a lot of bizarre things are happening. I do believe that the constant news of Madoff, Drier, the way the media portrays Wall Street are all reflecting on the Jews---rightly or wrongly. You may have read about the violence and hate spewed at Jews in Europe and Yemen but what about here in our free country?
Did you know that:
A Molotov cocktail was thrown at one of the oldest Chicago synagogues last week?
That one of the pro Hamas protesters in Fort Lauderdale yelled that Jews should go back in the ovens?
A preschool in Camarillo CA has been vandalized by swastikas for the fourth time in recent weeks? Twice in the last week.
In Bethesda Maryland residents have been receiving anti Jewish hate mail in their mailboxes?
Jewish day schools in Chicago received bomb threats?
San Francisco's holocaust memorial was defaced with anti semitic graffiti?
Synagogues in Dalton TN and in Irvine CA have had signs or graffiti placed on them with anti semitic slurs or anti Israel remarks. See this site.
These things are not huge, but taken together they are an indicator of how things can unravel if we do not stand up to be counted. Read the Jerusalem Post on-line. Our sources of news are generally not very accurate in what is actually going on. Write to your representatives. Speak up in conversations. Don't be lulled into a false sense that you can remain silent. Act.
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