Blog/February 2009/Feb 6th

February 6th (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

In case you missed it last week, I'm coordinating a tsedaka opportunity for everyone.

We are just a few days away from the national elections here. Political propaganda is blasted our way from the radio, newspapers, buses (and TV, for those who have one). Even email is not exempt from the onslaught. The funniest ad was something we just got today, in the newspaper "Makor Rishon" -- which is geared towards the "national religious" public. The ad was "There is a place for the National Religious with Kadima". I nearly fell off my chair with laughter -- the anti-Jewish, secular Livni "has a place" for religious Jews (but not hareidim of course, they're too primitive). What a toad! Not that the other main parties are any better, having gotten us into the mess in Gaza, allowing the situation to fester for years and and now wanting to take credit for the pitifully inadequate action they finally took.

In the aftermath of the Gaza war, we are shocked (shocked!) to find out that the UN's claim that the IDF shelled a UNRWA school is false (according to the UN itself). Arab sources give proof of Hamas intimidation and worse. And useful idiots continue their imbecilic pontificating. Venal "rights groups" say the government is "implicated" for having the temerity to build in its own country. I'm telling you, I'm mad as hell!. Time for real change, not "musical chairs". Unfortunately, we will undoubtedly get the same cynical anti-Jewish government as before, just the titles on the chairs will be different.

For those of you who feel that we would have peace with the Arabs were we simply to give them their own country (because that's all they want, just to live in peace), I suggest you research how to make a Hamas hero. If you think no-one could possibly believe there are 72 virgins waiting as a reward for becoming a "martyr", think again.

Today we went to pick up some supplies for shabbat, and in the market I hear a woman saying with exasperation, "where is Muhammad?". Don't worry, soon you'll probably hear it where you live too. Speaking of Muhammad, there was an interesting article in our local paper, which mentioned that 200 very expensive goats were stolen from a moshav "Ein Kamonim". It happens that they make a goat-cheese which is really excellent and that I like very much, so Esther gave me the article to read. As it happens, some Arabs from the village next-door to us (Azariyah aka Bethany) went out in the middle of the night sometime last week, breached the security system at the moshav, and stole 200 goats. The special investigator from Maale Adummim got involved and they recovered only 120 of the 200 goats. Just thought you'd find it interesting.

Daniela complained that I haven't mentioned her recently. So, I'm mentioning that she is fine, B"H, and doing well. We hope to see her very soon (May). She's performing with a chamber music group at her school; I'm waiting for recordings...

The work situation is still very much up in the air. I thought it might be a good idea to form a company and work as an independent. I mentioned the idea to a couple other guys in Maale Adummim, and they indicated their interest in the idea. So it may be that I'll be independent again, pretty soon. Of course "freedom" in that regard also entails "freedom to starve", so we will need to have someone whose job it is to get us work. Probably I should not dress for success like this, though.

I've long been a strong proponent of encryption for privacy, but I'll admit that there are ways around it. Especially when the police feel no restraint...

This week I read a long, considered article entitled Why I hate Microsoft. You know of course that I am not impartial. But I'll leave you with what a quote from the article, which is a succint a summary of my feelings as I could come up with: Mr. Gates, Mr. Ballmer, I've upped my standards... so up yours.

Until next week,
Shabbat shalom!

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