| Substantive Discussion/Debate (or lack thereof) |
[Oct. 8th, 2009|12:48 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Noqdim - Home | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | Frustrated | ] |
| [ | music |
| | The Baal Shem Tov's Melody - Tim Sparks | ] |
This is probably a bit exaggerated. I'm writing out of frustration.
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I've noticed a trend about most public 'discussions' which go on these days about pretty much any issue. The trend is to debate meta-issues instead of the real issues. For instance, both sides will claim to be 'democratic' (or some other 3rd thing which everyone agrees, in principle, is good), and then the two sides will argue whether the proposal is democratic or not, but never actually discuss the merits and de-merits of the proposal itself. In other words, the question 'will it work,' or 'is it right,' is rarely asked by either side of the debate, and if it is asked, only time for a facile, sound-byte response is allowed before the other side starts with ad-hominym attacks because they are probably not prepared to engage in a real discussion.
One good way to sideline the real issue, that being why you think the substantive position the other person holds is incorrect, is to claim it to be a 'rights issue.' In my opinion, the abortion debate in the US (whichever side you take), has been hijacked by the question of whether the issue conforms to the constitution's idea of rights or not. The thing is, the answer will depend on the substance of what one believes about the issue. But instead of engaging in discussion about that, both sides dig down in hyperbole and epithets and wave the constitution as a flag to rally around.
In issues surrounding Israel, at least within the Jewish community, 'Zionism' is often used the same way. Forget which position is actually correct. Which one of us can lay claim to being 'Zionist?' I find that this tactic is particularly misused by J-street (and the like) who spend a lot of energy convincing us that they are, in fact, Zionists, but not a lot of time convincing us why their positions are correct. It becomes a rights issue: that they are free to voice their opinion, that they are excluded from the majority club, etc. Then both sides argue about whether they can and/or should be excluded. Nobody even mentions the real, substantive arguments, because the whole thing has devolved into a 'rights' debate, a debate about freedom of speech within a community (which if anything suffers from too much of it!), instead of the messages both sides really want to communicate.
I long for the day when someone will argue with me, not by saying that I'm saying/doing something 'offensive,' or something 'left-wing' or 'right-wing,' or 'un-democratic,' but just tell me I'm doing the 'wrong' thing, and then trying to convince me why with real arguments. |
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| Hallel, Elul, Vision, Teshuvah |
[Sep. 3rd, 2009|08:16 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Noqdim, Israel | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | :) | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Birds chirping outside... | ] |
NOTE: THIS WAS WRITTEN YESTERDAY MORNING
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BS”D, Elul 5769
It's Elul, the month of Teshuvah; the month of returning to the light, to the source. And I can't help but think how appropriate it is that in this month my son gets his sight, or gets back literally what he lost metaphorically at birth. We say a baby learns the entire Torah in the womb/heaven with an angel before he is born, and forgets it upon entering the world. Life is then a process of remembering that which we already, on some level, know to be true. Hallel was born with severe cataracts, which blocked out all but the brightest flashes of light from his eyes. Two days ago he had surgery to remove one cataract, and yesterday we 'unveiled' the eye from it's bandages, letting undifferentiated light and color flood in for the first time in his life. Today we will go pick up his glasses, with a +20 prescription, and his world will become differentiated into distinct shapes and patterns. He will truly see his Abba (father) and Ima (mother) for the first time, the hairs of my beard, the texture of his mother's skin. It will be shocking and wonderful, but two dimensional. Next week he will, BE”H, have surgery on the other eye, and the next day be granted the gift of depth perception, a three dimensional world.
I can only hope that the process Hallel is going through reflects what I, and all Am Yisrael is going through on some level. May we all be blessed to have our eyes opened and enlightened, to have Truth made clear, real, seen. May we all be blessed to come back to the knowledge we had before we were created, when we sat with Truth and beauty with nothing hidden, and may we do so with the humility and joy of a child.
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Post Script: Last night we got his glasses. :)
This video is when he first opened his eyes after the surgery.
Baby with glasses!
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| Fatherhood, health-care, traveling to the US |
[Jul. 20th, 2009|11:39 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Noqdim, Israel | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | Fun | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Sound of Silence - G!D | ] |
In response to reader demands (read: Mom), I bring you more musings on fatherhood.
It's fun watching Hallel grow and develop. He's figured out more advanced ways to identify a breast than sucking and waiting to see if milk comes out. He can now identify his mother's voice, smell, and the look of the desired body part. He now knows that Abba (Daddy) does not provide milk, and rejects my finger out of hand when he is truly hungry.
Other than that, we have been having adventures with the medical establishment. Getting vaccines, going to doctors, getting things checked out. Apparently not going to a hospital during or immediately after the birth means you have to make a gazillion separate appointments to get the kid screened for all the things they normally do at the hospital. Well worth it. As far as I'm concerned, hospitals are for sick people and are to be avoided unless you have no choice.
The medical system for babies is strange here. There are essentially two, overlapping but not entirely redundant systems. Before everybody in the state was covered by the national health-care plan, the state had a program called 'Tipat-Chalav' which provided medical care for babies. It was a great system, and made sure that all babies got vaccinated and screened for serious problems, even if they had no insurance and couldn't normally afford health-care. Since the introduction of the sal-ha'briut (national health basket), doctor visits are free for all citizens. But, the individual health-care providers don't want to take the responsibilities of Tipat-Chalav onto their books, so they only provide doctor visits, and make you go to Tipat-Chalav for weighing/measuring, vaccinations, etc. So, we have monthly appointments with Tipat-Chalav to get shots (for the first year), and we have check-up appointments with the doctor through our national insurance at the normal times (1 month, 2 months, 6 months). In theory I don't have a problem with all this medical care, but I don't think they could make it less convenient if they tried...
B"H, so far he's healthy as a little, tiny horse.
Also, we're planning a trip to the states for the first few weeks of August. I am intently looking forward to travelling for a day and a half with an infant... We'll be stopping in NYC, Denver, and Tampa/St. Petersberg (Florida). If you're in any of those places and want to meet up, please let me know!
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B'ahavah,
-Eitan |
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| Israeli National Consensus |
[Jul. 20th, 2009|11:12 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Noqdim, Israel | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | Strong | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Sound of Silence - G!D | ] |
One of the most common questions I'm asked by people abroad (outside Israel) is what the mood is like in Israel. I would say that this article, by Barry Rubin, pretty much captures what most Israelis are thinking and feeling. I think the essence of the mood can be captured in this quotation:
"This new posture is not one of desperately asserting Israel's yearning for peace but rather saying: We're serious, we're ready, we're not suckers but we're not unreasonable either. We want peace on real terms, not just more unilateral concessions and higher risk without reward. Not experimenting with our survival to please others. Not some illusory celebration of a two-state solution for a week and then watching it produce another century of violence."
And in this one:
"A second notion this new paradigm rejects is the argument that either Israel is so strong that it can give without receiving or so weak that it must do so. Equally wrong is the notion that time is against Israel, a strong and vibrant society surrounded by weak and disorganized neighbors. The strategic situation has dramatically improved over the decades. It is a strong, confident society visibly meeting the challenge of the modern economic and technical environment."
To re-phrase into my own language: We're ready to make REAL peace when our neighbors are willing to make reasonable compromises and recognize our right to exist, ending all hostilities. We're not suckers, but we're not unreasonable. If our enemies are not willing to do what it takes, screw 'em. Time is on our side, and we're doing just fine. |
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| Tariffs for Judea+Samaria Products, Peace Now, etc. |
[Jul. 1st, 2009|09:36 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Noqdim | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | light | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Baby Sounds. :) | ] |
Settlers to be reimbursed for EU tariffs
MY RUNNING COMMENTARY IS IN BRACKETS, [like this]
The government plans to pay settler farmers and business owners NIS 32 million to compensate them for the tariffs they pay to export their goods to the European Union, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
According to Peace Now, which released a detailed report this week on state spending over the pre-1967 Armistice Line, this is just a small fraction of the approximately NIS 2 billion the state intends to spend on settlements over the next two years.
[500 million dollars=2 billion NIS, is not a lot of money to support the infrastructure of a quarter of a million people. Roads have to be maintained, water pipes, garbage collection, payment for bureaucrats who run all those things, etc. The number is reasonable even without any "expansion"]
( Continues under cut... ) |
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| Abba-hood |
[Jun. 17th, 2009|11:52 am] |
OTHER: So, what's it like to be a parent?
ME: Well, before there was no baby, and now there is one.
That pretty much sums it up. But for those of you who appreciate my long-winded prose despite my best Dickensian attempts to make them boring, I'll go on. My parents are here for a few weeks, my mother for a whole month, which is just the most wonderful thing imaginable. It's truly a win/win. My parents get to shep endless nachas from their grandson, and at the same time help ease the transition to parenthood for me and Daniella. I am so grateful for my wonderful family, more and more as time goes on.
Watching Hallel (the baby) change day by day is astonishing. In his two-plus weeks of life he's substantially filled out into his newborn sized clothes, which used to hang around him with his tiny body floating somewhere in the midst of all that cloth. Every day brings a new ability, a new set of neurons firing, organizing, making sense of the world. A few days ago he started focusing on and following objects with his eyes, a day or two later he had his first interaction with a toy, grabbing it and bringing it to his mouth. His eyes have clarified into a deep blue, and the dark, substantial hair he was born with shows no sign of falling out and giving way to fine, peach-fuzz--as the baby books say it should.
What should happen with a baby is another interesting topic. Everyone who has ever reproduced seems to be an expert on baby-care. But I suggest that more information sharing is needed in the field, as everyone has different advice! My parents and Daniella took Hallel with them to the Shuk (market) in Jerusalem yesterday, and were assailed by conflicting 'advice:' He's too hot. He's too cold. Cover him up. Uncover him. He's too young to be in the sun. etc. I don't know if this happens to the same extent in the US, but it seems that here, the whole country feels like the kids annoying relative who needs to tell the new parents how to do things right. I'm sure they all have the purist of intentions. So I'll try to take everyone's 'advice' as what it is, that is, a somewhat misguided sign of caring for the extended Jewish family.
If there's one thing I've learned through watching this pregnancy, birth, and the growth of Hallel, it's that the received wisdom on all these topics is highly suspect. Here are a few pearls of what I've learned so far. I make no pretense of originality or infallibility:
1. All sorts of random stuff goes on in a pregnant woman's body which doctors have no explanation for, and can't do anything about. (That's not to say you shouldn't make use of the knowledge and expertise they DO have.)
2. Hospitals are for sick people. Avoid them if you can, even--perhaps especially--during pregnancy/birth. We haven't been to one yet and are only better off for it.
3. Due dates are a guestimation (guess+estimation) based on an imaginary number. Best to ignore them.
4. Birth is not necessarily a traumatic experience, for anyone involved.
5. Real world experience always trumps textbook wisdom. Internet forums on actual experiences are often better sources of information than medical or child-rearing books and sites.
6. No matter how much knowledge you gather, you will learn to raise a child by doing, as with any art. The best way to learn is from a master artist, not a text.
7. When it comes to taking care of a baby, there are a gazillion options which are just fine, and a couple which are not. Which is which is mostly common sense. |
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| Baby! |
[May. 28th, 2009|03:04 pm] |
BS"D
Baruch Hasem!!! I'm an abba (father)! Daniella gave birth this morning in a lightning fast labor to a beautiful baby boy! He's a bit small, as he came a couple of weeks early, but he's nice and healthy, and we're home at my in laws' for Shavuot and Shabbat.
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Chag Sameach!
-Eitan |
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| Growing Plants and Planting Babies |
[May. 21st, 2009|04:43 pm] |
My life has been largely concerned with growing things lately. Daniella (my wife) is quickly approaching the due date. In the last week the baby turned it's head down and dropped down into the pelvis, Daniella started experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions ('false' labor), and she suddenly awakened with a burst of energy saying, "Hello world. You need to be cleaned thoroughly!" Though, since she can hardly walk, let alone scrub the floor, it's fallen to me to apply the elbow grease. Not that I'm complaining, of course. In short, fatherhood is suddenly feeling much more imminent.
For the last couple of months I've been doing some gardening for the first time in my life, unless you count helping my mother pick weeds when I was a little boy. I've been planting seeds, watering them meticulously, watching and tracking their growth. Every time I plant a seed, I despair that it will never come up and that I must have done something wrong. Each day that I fail to see a sprout is proof of my failure. So far, as of this morning, every seed I've planted here has sprouted (as opposed to an abortive attempt to plant Kale at our old caravan in Bat Ayin a few months prior, where I plucked most of the sprouting Kale thinking it to be a weed). It's an amazing process to watch a plant, nourished by your hand, develop. This morning a hot pepper plant was just peeking a tiny bit of green above the dirt. I watered it and went back inside. About two hours later I found it had risen about an inch and spread two little leaves!
They say farmers need the most emunah (faith). You plant a seed, you wait, you water, you pray. How anyone could ever plant a seed and watch it grow, then not believe in G-d is beyond me. I guess the same can be said for parenthood. You are entering into the unknown, committing your life to a person who does not even exist yet. You water, you wait, you pray, and you hope everything comes out for the best.
It occurs to me that Western society is largely removed from the process of creating life. Most people don't have a lot of children around. Many in my generation have one or two children, and those relatively late in life, or none at all. At the same time, most live in large urban centers, where their gardening experience never surpasses the occasional potted plant on the window sill. It makes me wonder about some of the societal maladies we see around us, the ideological grandness coupled with ego-centrism and narcissism which I consider characteristic of many in my generation.
The other major content of my life these days is the tour-guiding course I'm taking. The course encompasses an impressive amount and breadth of material. I feel like yediat haaretz (knowledge of the land) is being poured down my open gullet. Every week I get to see another part of the country, learn it's secrets from the ground up (literally), walk it's paths, smell it's flowers, and envision my biblical ancestors roaming the same places. Anyone who would like an unofficial tour please let me know. Of course I can't 'charge' you yet, since I'm not a licensed tour-guide, but I wouldn't refuse payment either.
On another note, tonight starts Jerusalem Day, celebrating the reunification of Jerusalem under Israeli control in 1967. As a Religious-Zionist this is not only a national holiday, but also an important religious holiday. It also happens to be one of my favorites. To think that after 2000 years of Jerusalem being in the hands of gentiles, the Jewish nation rose from the ashes of the Holocaust, won a war against all odds (several, actually), and reunified Jerusalem as the capital of a Jewish state! |
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| Outreach... ? |
[Mar. 11th, 2009|09:54 am] |
In case anyone was wondering, yes, we did get a Mishloach Manot (food basket) from our neighbor Avigdor Lieberman for Purim. Unfortunately it was not personally delivered. Lame.
On to something completely different: I read two articles this morning about different groups trying to get young Jews involved in... er... each other? One was a Purim party at Berkeley run by the local Hillel, which was basically a big, secular costume/dance party. The invitation had a picture of a young married religious couple and implied that this outcome was frightening, so come have fun instead. Yeah... The other was an article about a European company which runs snazzy getaway weekends and parties and whatnot for European Jews (Absolut-Events). Essentially they're all doing the same thing. They are trying to get young, secular Jews involved, not so much in Judaism as in other Jews, providing a context for them to meet, grind up against, and otherwise interact with other young, secular Jews.
( Cut for Length ) |
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| G-d: Don't get too comfortable... |
[Feb. 11th, 2009|09:54 am] |
I think Hashem doesn't want me to get too comfortable, too secure in my abilities to take care of myself. No sooner had we successfully moved into our new, beautiful home than the problems started. At first we still didn't have a stove-top, but that was supposed to come in a day or two, but then there was a problem, and another problem, and now we have the stove-top but still no gas with which to use it. Then the phone line+internet was supposed to be an easy, instantaneous switch from the old place to here, but that didn't work. Now we're still without a land-line and anything resembling regular internet service (I am typing this offline, hoping to post it during one of the random times we are able to pick up and piggy-back on a neighbor's wifi signal). A few nights ago our car was stolen (see my previous entry). And last night we arrived home after voting during a big rainstorm to find many leaks of water into the house, ending with water getting into the electric box and us having to turn off power to the entire house. This morning we managed to get the power back on, after some difficulty, and the contractor and electrician are both scheduled to come at some point during the day. It seems that everything in the fridge/freezer survived the night. B"H, we have nice, responsible landlords, who are taking care of the problems with the building. This was the first big rain around here since the place was finished, so we can cut THEM some slack, but not the contractor. I think water-proofing a house is sort-of an important thing for a contractor to take care of. So, this morning, being without electricity and without gas, I walked downstairs to our landlords' house with a cup with turkish coffee and sugar in it, asked for hot-water, then told them what was going on since last night.
Lesson: So, what am I supposed to be learning from this? Nothing happens to us randomly, and every challenge is meant to teach us something. It seems to me that perhaps the lesson of these challenges is not to be too comfortable in our man-made comfort, not to think that we can insulate ourselves from the power of chance which only G-d can control. Perhaps the lightning and thunder storm last night was meant to highlight this, the blessing for hearing thunder being "Blessed are you, Lord our G-d, King of the universe, whose power and strength fill the world." Perhaps the lesson is one of humility, so that we not say, 'By my hand was all this done.' I try to think of how, in the grand scheme, these challenges are so small, so trivial. We still have a nice home, money for the things we need, our health, a baby on the way, etc. These are really all, in different measure, things we can live without (in the case of electricity, at least for a few hours at a time), and all temporary--in different measure--inconveniences which will pass. I hope that when we solve these problems, I can continue to carry with me the lesson of our precarious dependence on Divine Will, and remain conscious of all these things as gifts which I have no entitlement to, except by the kindness of the Creator. |
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| Election Day! |
[Feb. 10th, 2009|09:52 am] |
I haven't been writing much about the election, but here are my last minute thoughts. I started out with essentially four parties to choose from.
Ichud Haleumi (National Union): REJECTED on ideological grounds. I agree with them about keeping the Land of Israel, but it's their only issue. They are one-issue demagogues, with no practical plan for the future. They don't even have positions, let alone coherent ones, on many other issues I care about.
Habayit Hayehudi (The Jewish Home): ACCEPTABLE. I pretty much agree with their entire platform, except that they don't support electoral reform, which would harm them as a small party. The problem is that they have failed in the past to stand up for their ideals at crucial moments. Can I trust them, even thought they're the only real, ideological, dati-leumi (religious-zionist) party?
Likud: ???. I hate the Likud. I hate Bibi (Netanyahu, the party leader). I don't trust them as far as I can throw them. The main person in the party whom I liked, Feiglin, they managed to engineer moving unrealistically far down the list. On the other hand, they are, nominally, right wing. Is it better to have a right wing party in power whom you dislike than a middle-left party (Kadima) which you despise more? Or is it better to vote your conscience and hope that the party you vote for will be in a coalition with the winner and be able to influence them towards the good?
Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel, Our Home): REJECTED on ideological/tactical grounds. I like Lieberman, and believe in a basic standard for citizenship of any country (not being committed to it's destruction seems like a good start!). I'm OK with his plan for dividing the country (even though I don't want to give away one inch of Yehudah/Shomron) because it's not practicable, but it moves in the right direction. However, it's a secular party, which supports things I cannot support, such as civil marriage. Since they are not going to win in any case, I am not going to vote for a 'small' party that I don't entirely agree with.
In the end it comes down to Likud or Habayit Hayehudi, and I'm pretty much decided to vote my conscience (Habayit Hayehudi). Likud sucks. Kadima sucks. Labor doesn't stand a chance (thank G-d!). I'm not a political scientist. I don't know what needs to be done to fix the OBVIOUSLY broken electoral system here. I don't know which, if any vote I make may make a difference in that area, as none of the parties are really addressing that issue. So in the end I'm voting for the party that supports what I want: Jews able to live freely in the entire Land of Israel, educational reform & additional funds for religious education, social conscience (expanded health basket, unemployment, aliyah-benefits, affordable housing, etc.), no civil marriage, religious people serving in the army.
The state of Israel is deeply flawed. No question. We are not yet in the Messianic age, and have to deal with all sorts of garbage. But, I still believe in R' Kook's vision that the state is an indispensable step toward the final redemption. Whatever state it may be in, such is the state of Am Yisrael (the Jewish people), and we can only fix it by participating in it. Opting out is not an option. If R' Kook could be optimistic at a time when some Jewish leaders were essentially supporting the British occupation of the Land of Israel, turning away Jewish refugees, sinking ships of rival Jewish factions, etc., when the situation for Jews all over the world was increasingly dangerous, then I can certainly be hopeful today. In fact, with just a pinch of historical perspective, it becomes clear that Am Yisrael, and in fact the state of Israel, is in a much better position than it has been for since the destruction of the Temple. If we allow ourselves to be myopic and selfish, to focus only on our own, personal suffering, to divide the Am (people) into so many sections of "us" and "them" then WE are dooming the mission of divine redemption for the entire world to failure. WE are the ones giving up on the ultimate redemption. We cannot control anything except our 4 amot (the four feet around us). We control our hands, our feet, etc. I refuse to slip into the galut (exilic) mentality of victimization. We control our own destiny, and we must take responsibility for it.
So, for those of you with the right to do so, GO VOTE!!! If you don't, you will have no-one to blame but yourself when the next government turns out to be or do something you don't like. |
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| Gam zeh l'tovah. / This too is for the good. |
[Feb. 9th, 2009|12:11 pm] |
BS"D
So, our car was stolen last night from a trendy Jerusalem neighborhood while we were out for dinner. This is relatively common in Israel, where large numbers of cars are stolen by West Bank Arabs, driven to Bethlehem or Ramallah, and dismembered in massive chop-shops and sold for parts. Given the poor state of our old car we only had '3rd party' insurance, meaning that the theft is not covered. In other words, it's gone. I mean, who would steal an old beater like our 1995 Mazda, with dents all down the side and the grate missing from the front? I hope the jerks started kicking themselves when they found parts of the engine held together by duct-tape.
To be honest, I don't really find the whole thing that upsetting. What's done is done, and now we'll figure out how to make it here--our new home in Noqdim--without a car. I was more upset by Daniella being upset than by the missing car. It was annoying having to go to the police station and then tremp (that is, hitch-hike) home, but it's not bad. We got home within an hour, and that late at night with relatively few cars going by. G-d sent us a kind man who drove 5 minutes out of his way to drop us inside the protected (from arabs) gate of our town. Many of our friends who live in the area do just fine without cars, and so will we unless/until we manage to get another one. It's just a thing, and one we can live without. In fact, for now it knocks our second biggest expense (after rent) off our list, which is not at all a bad thing.
The question is just figuring out how to get the things done that we need to. The only thing I can't figure out is how I'm going to get to the far-side of Jerusalem, for a day of touring with my tour-guiding course, by 6:30 on Sunday morning. There aren't many rides going by at that time (I would have to start around 5:15AM at the latest), and the first bus is several hours too late. I guess we'll need to spend the night somewhere in Jerusalem. The question is where?
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Gam zeh l'tovah,
G-d bless. |
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| Meme |
[Jan. 25th, 2009|07:47 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | Memelicious | ] |
| [ | music |
| | The Omnivore's Dilemma (Unabridged), Part 1 - Michael Pollan | ] |
1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? In Hebrew I am named after three of my four great grandfathers (the three that were dead when I was born. In English, I am loosely named after my great grandfather Egon.
2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? Recently.
3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Sure. It works, and it's like a secret code because only I can read it!
4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Peppered pastrami.
5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? G-d willin in June!!!
6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Well, that would depend very much on who I was.
7. DO YOU USE SARCASM? I try not to, and usually succeed.
8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes
9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? No
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Does oatmeal count?
11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Always.
13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Either Rocky Road or Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.
14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Uhh, hair? Face?
15. RED OR PINK? Red.
16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? My thick skull.
17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My family.
18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO COMPLETE THIS LIST?? No
19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Brown.
21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Nothing.
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Sky blue.
23. FAVORITE SMELLS? Clean.
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Ohad.
25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO POSTED THIS NOTE? I remember him fondly.
26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? Used to be football. Now, none.
27. HAIR COLOR? Brown.
28. EYE COLOR? Hazel (brown in the middle, green as they go out from the center).
29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? No. Reading glasses.
30. FAVORITE FOOD? Steak.
31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? I do not watch scary movies.
32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Wall-E.
33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Brown-beige plaid.
34. SUMMER OR WINTER? Winter.
35. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs.
36. FAVORITE DESSERT? Chocolate souffle... mmm....
37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? My wife. :)
38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Dunno.
39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? 'The Omnivore's Dilemma'
40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Laser mouse needs no mouse-pad!
41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT? I don't have a TV, and that's the way I like it.
42. FAVORITE SOUND(S)? My wife's voice, or music. (My wife's voice making music!)
43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Beatles.
44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? Hahah. India? Russia? Israel? Take your pick.
45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? Several. :D
46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? A birthing-home in Topeka, KS, USA.
47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK? Not expecting any.
48. HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR SPOUSE/SIGNIFIGANT OTHER? Livejournal, B"H. |
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| Upcoming Elections! My vote. |
[Jan. 23rd, 2009|12:14 pm] |
Here is a wonderful summary of the positions of the party I'm probably going to vote for.
There were only two things listed here which I had trouble with, and reading the 'text' under them assuaged my discomfort. One issue had to do with 'raising taxes on the wealthy,' which the site says the party agrees with. However, the text they quoted only spoke of tax relief for the poor, not particularly of any sort of 'wealth redistribution' type tax system. Poor people here need all their money. The low-paying jobs here are barely enough to survive on, and every percentage point taken in taxes is taking food from the mouths of babes.
The other issue had to do with freedom of speech. The site says that Habayit Hayehudi (the party, name=The Jewish Home) says that freedom of speech should not be protected when it goes against the state. Reading the details, that is not an accurate reflection of the party's position. They want to exclude parliamentarians who actively collude with the enemy in a time of war. They do not propose making it illegal to criticize the state, even in the most vociferous and unreasonable ways.
It may be hard for some Americans who read the party platform to understand it, as according to American politics it would be a bit bipolar. But here, there is no contradiction between supporting green-policies and social welfar, and simultaneously being hawkish on defense issues. From a religious-Zionist perspective, both are expressions of caring for the citizens of your country, and jealously guarding their rights and safety, as well as expressions of Jewish values. We have many commandments, from, 'Love your neighbor as yourself,' to 'If someone comes to kill you, kill him first.' We do not believe that the two are contradictory, but that they apply in different situations. |
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| Ultrasound #2 |
[Jan. 20th, 2009|04:21 pm] |
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| | The Omnivore's Dilemma (Unabridged), Part 1 - Michael Pollan | ] |
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| Hamas |
[Jan. 19th, 2009|09:53 am] |
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