Blog/April 2010/Apr 9th

Apr 9th (See this week's devar torah)
Send Ron feedback on this blog

Hi again!

This week we had the poor-cousin of the Biblical holidays, the seventh-day of Passover. I say "poor-cousin", because it has no special celebrations or anything to distinguish it from the first day of Passover -- and by the end of the week, many of us are not really interested in eating more matsah. However, it is still a yom-tov, and ours was pleasant and quiet. After fressing all week long, we toned down the quantity of food, which made all of us a bit happier. And just in time for the end of Passover, the Israeli satirical site Latma posted an updated version of Chad Gadya (the original Hebrew version is better for those of you who understand Hebrew).

All in all it was a quiet week for us. The weather was fantastic. Sarah made progress with her final art project. Daniela spent quality time with her mother and sister and friends. She also did homework. Esther did tax work for her boss. And I started training one of the other people at work to do much of the 'grunt work' I have been doing.

Last week there was a daughter-imposed blackout on politics, but this week I didn't ask their input, so my pent-up frustration can be expressed. You have been warned!

I wish I didn't have to say this, but the biggest threat to world peace is not "Mad-dog Ahmedinijad" but the parochial president of the United States of America. For someone with absolutely no practical experience of any kind, he has brought more change more quickly than any prior president. He has ruled-out the use of nukes even in self defense (though how that policy holds after al-Qaeda manages to level NYC remains to be seen). He has revamped the US health-care system, causing AT&T and others to make billions of dollars in charges on their financial statements to offset losses related to the sweeping health-care law. He has intimidated friends and allies and given comfort to enemies like no president before him has ever done. He's got poor Bibi so cowed, he won't even accept a gift of roses from Christian supporters of Israel!

And make no mistake: the enemies (whom Obama has prohibited naming in the US security strategy document) are indeed taking comfort. Fatah (aka the PLO, aka the "Palestinian Authority", aka "our partners for peace") calls to escalate the 'popular intifada'. Our neighbors refuse to consider normalization of relations with Israel ... I'm talking about those who have actually signed peace treaties with us! Taking his signals from the pusillanimous Putz-in-Chief, the US Head of Central Command, General Petraeus has gone 'native' in assigning Israel as the official reason the Arab/Muslim world hates the United States. And here I thought it all began with the First Barbary War! Naïve of me, I know.

Let's see, what else is rant-worthy? Well, ironically, it's a good day for civil liberties in Israel. The eco-fascists declare that in order to prevent the (widely discredited, but still current in their world-view) disasters associated with 'global climate change', "It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while" (yes, that's a quote). And the behemoth called Google has become a privacy nightmare. Once again I must mention that if you want something to be actually private, you need to use strong encryption.

Odds and ends:

• Too funny! Obama ok's drilling for oil -- do you remember how Bush was excoriated by the Left for much the same?
• Muslim credit cards. No, they don't explode or anything like that...
• Poor King Abdallah II is disappointed with Israel. That and seven ₪ will get him a small espresso at Cafe Aroma.
• Whoa! A modern day resurrection miracle! And just like the first one, the Jews get blamed! Shockingly, it took the MSM (main-stream media) a while to report this. I'm surprised it was reported at all, to tell the truth.
• Make sure you don't fall asleep on a plane.
• Israeli Arabs like matsah. Maybe there's a piece (of matsah) plan in the offing?

This shabbat we're going for fish in tomato sauce, lentil salad, potato salad, spicy kohlrabi, sheseq chicken (the sheseq being loquats from our own tree), homemade Hummous, beef goulash, and BREAD (yay!).

Until next week,
Shabbat shalom !

---

Top: Blog

Prev: Apr 2nd

Next: Apr 16th

---