View source for Blog/November 2014/Nov 21st

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{{bheadernew|November 21st|http://ronware.org/devar/toldot5775.pdf}}


Hi, again!

I don’t think I can say it was a good week, overall, even though we personally had a pretty good week.  The gruesome butchering in cold-blood of Jews praying the morning prayers has put the country in a dark mood, as you might imagine.

Our intrepid leader Binyamin Netanyahu said that [http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Netanyahu-Israel-will-respond-decisively-to-murder-of-Jews-in-synagogue-terror-attack-382110 Israel will respond decisively] to the murder.  So far, we haven’t seen any action at all, let alone “decisive” action.  Israelis have started demanding [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/187705#.VG7hrleUewE no Arabs be hired]; not too surprising, considering one of the murderers worked in a store right next to the scene of the crimes.

Of course the [http://www.timesofisrael.com/negotiate-before-its-too-late/ Israel defeatists] have rushed to opine, even as the peaceful Arabs [http://www.timesofisrael.com/police-bust-massive-shipment-of-firecrackers-knives-bound-for-jerusalem/ attempt to bring in new weapons] (sorry, “Christmas presents”), and a [http://www.timesofisrael.com/new-video-of-har-nof-attack-sheds-light-on-policemans-death/ Druze hero] is laid to rest.   I won’t even try to detail the malicious distorted reporting the international media gave of the events.

Well.  Not content with the thirty years he’s languished in jail for a crime which generally only brings a few years (if any) inside, the Obama administration [http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Pollards-parole-plastering-382301 refused to parole Jonathan Pollard]. To be fair: as much as I despise Obama, he is only one of a long series of US Presidents who refused to consider pardoning the former Israeli spy.  The spy who was never convicted in court, whose plea-agreement the US government unilaterally reneged on, and whose lawyers have not been given access to the “evidence” condemning him.  Were I to be a cynical person, I would say Pollard has been “disappeared” in the best style of the former USSR. It makes one wonder just how many skeletons are in various closets.  Feh.

In our own little bubble, things have been going well, B”H.  The [http://8th-dev.com 8th beta] has continued to attract participants, with a curiously disproportionate number of Europeans.  A number have also brought up the possibility of doing some sort of cooperative venture, which makes us excited for the future prospects.

And to end on an even more positive note: I mentioned before that we had internet problems and got a new router.  The new router was great, except for two problems.  First, it had a memory usage problem where it would keep using more and more memory until it crashed.  Second, we could not access our own website from within our own network.  I sent a query to the manufacturer (in China) and never did get a response.

So I contacted the local importer, a company called “Pikok Computers”.  The day after I mailed them, their support person contacted me and worked assiduously to get my problem solved.  Now, just a week later, both problems with my router have been solved, and I have only the highest praise for the level of service and professionalism the Pikok personnel gave me.

We’ve had nice weather this week, and now the rain clouds and colder weather are rolling in, so we expect a cold and rainy ''shabbat'', and into the coming week.

This week it’s the four of us. We’ll have:<br>
red lentil soup,
honey-mustard turkey breast,
eggplant “parmesan”,
roasted yams,
rice,
''salatim'',
''cholent'',
and brownies.


Until next time,<br>
''shabbat shalom''!

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