Another breath

Trivia:

What do MoChassid and Rasputin have in common? (and it's not the middle name of Efimovich)

A Rising Story...

What they're not telling us is the hairy palms side-effects.

Remember, Momma is always right.

More on the Koran -Updated

*Update*

A suicide bomber set off explosives Friday in the midst of Shiite Muslims reciting the Quran, killing at least 20 and wounding dozens gathered for a religious festival at a shrine near the capital.

How many korans do you think were desecrated during this event? Or is it only toilet water that is considered desecration and not the blood of hundereds of maimed and killed worshippers.

As far am I'm concerned, if murduring innocent women & children in cold blood is all in the name of a particular book, that book can be flushed down the toilet literally and figuratively. While you're at it, make sure there was a nice load of shit in the toilet with it.

****************

While I know that Orthomom & DovBear have touched on this topic, I came across this great article from the Boston Globe that sums it up reall well.

Why Islam is disrespected

By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | May 19, 2005

IT WAS front-page news this week when Newsweek retracted a report claiming that a US interrogator in Guantanamo had flushed a copy of the Koran down a toilet. Everywhere it was noted that Newsweek's story had sparked widespread Muslim rioting, in which at least 17 people were killed. But there was no mention of deadly protests triggered in recent years by comparable acts of desecration against other religions.

No one recalled, for example, that American Catholics lashed out in violent rampages in 1989, after photographer Andres Serrano's ''Piss Christ" -- a photograph of a crucifix submerged in urine -- was included in an exhibition subsidized by the National Endowment for the Arts. Or that they rioted in 1992 when singer Sinead O'Connor, appearing on ''Saturday Night Live," ripped up a photograph of Pope John Paul II.

There was no reminder that Jewish communities erupted in lethal violence in 2000, after Arabs demolished Joseph's Tomb, torching the ancient shrine and murdering a young rabbi who tried to save a Torah. And nobody noted that Buddhists went on a killing spree in 2001 in response to the destruction of two priceless, 1,500-year-old statues of Buddha by the Taliban government in Afghanistan.

Of course, there was a good reason all these bloody protests went unremembered in the coverage of the Newsweek affair: They never occurred.

Christians, Jews, and Buddhists don't lash out in homicidal rage when their religion is insulted. They don't call for holy war and riot in the streets. It would be unthinkable for a mainstream priest, rabbi, or lama to demand that a blasphemer be slain. But when Reuters reported what Mohammad Hanif, the imam of a Muslim seminary in Pakistan, said about the alleged Koran-flushers -- ''They should be hung. They should be killed in public so that no one can dare to insult Islam and its sacred symbols" -- was any reader surprised?

The Muslim riots should have been met by outrage and condemnation. From every part of the civilized world should have come denunciations of those who would react to the supposed destruction of a book with brutal threats and the slaughter of 17 innocent people. But the chorus of condemnation was directed not at the killers and the fanatics who incited them, but at Newsweek.

From the White House down, the magazine was slammed -- for running an item it should have known might prove incendiary, for relying on a shaky source, for its animus toward the military and the war. Over and over, Newsweek was blamed for the riots' death toll. Conservative pundits in particular piled on. ''Newsweek lied, people died" was the headline on Michelle Malkin's popular website. At NationalReview.com, Paul Marshall of Freedom House fumed: ''What planet do these [Newsweek] people live on? . . . Anybody with a little knowledge could have told them it was likely that people would die as a result of the article." All of Marshall's choler was reserved for Newsweek; he had no criticism at all for the marauders in the Muslim street.

Then there was Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who announced at a Senate hearing that she had a message for ''Muslims in America and throughout the world." And what was that message? That decent people do not resort to murder just because someone has offended their religious sensibilities? That the primitive bloodlust raging in Afghanistan and Pakistan was evidence of the Muslim world's dysfunctional political culture?

No: Her message was that ''disrespect for the Holy Koran is not now, nor has it ever been, nor will it ever be, tolerated by the United States."

Granted, Rice spoke while the rioting was still taking place and her goal was to reduce the anti-American fever. But what ''Muslims in America and throughout the world" most need to hear is not pandering sweet-talk. What they need is a blunt reminder that the real desecration of Islam is not what some interrogator in Guantanamo might have done to the Koran. It is what totalitarian Muslim zealots have been doing to innocent human beings in the name of Islam. It is 9/11 and Beslan and Bali and Daniel Pearl and the USS Cole. It is trains in Madrid and schoolbuses in Israel and an ''insurgency" in Iraq that slaughters Muslims as they pray and vote and line up for work. It is Hamas and Al Qaeda and sermons filled with infidel-hatred and exhortations to ''martyrdom."

But what disgraces Islam above all is the vast majority of the planet's Muslims saying nothing and doing nothing about the jihadist cancer eating away at their religion. It is Free Muslims Against Terrorism, a pro-democracy organization, calling on Muslims and Middle Easterners to ''converge on our nation's capital for a rally against terrorism" -- and having only 50 people show up.

Yes, Islam is disrespected. That will only change when throngs of passionate Muslims show up for rallies against terrorism, and when rabble-rousers trying to gin up a riot over a defiled Koran can't get the time of day.

'Nuff said.

I'm in a 'Blump'

I seem to be in a Blump. What I call a Blogging Slump.

Between having to focus at work, running around trying to find a contractor after the one I was going to use backed out on me, finding one and dealing with getting the job started, having issues with a kid in my son's class (I think that will be the next post when I get around to it-unless I hurt that kid first. Then I'll probably lay low), being just blah together with the weather, pissed about my son losing his first little-league game (kids are fine with it but the parents are having a rough time) and probably some other stuff I just can't remember, I haven't been posting. But I see all the fun I'm missing so I'll get to it soon.

My 9-11 Story, Part One

They say that for those who went through it, it was a life-altering experience. For me, it was definitely an experience but I wouldn't say it was life-altering. Unless you count knowing what it's like to be certain you're about to die, life-altering. Then I guess it was. I am still obsessed though. I have a ton of newspapers (just about every NY paper for 9-12 included) and magazines, hundreds of pictures I've taken off the web, videos, and my briefcase they recovered from the rubble- still wrapped in a garbage bag with the dirt still inside.

It's 4 years later, but this will be the beginning of me telling over my 9-11 experience. I've been meaning to put this story to paper for years now but have never gotten around to it. Compared to some, my experience was really nothing and yet compared to others, it was unbelievable. So I guess it depends on who's reading this.

I don't think that I have to get into any details about that Tuesday, September 11th, 2001. Unfortunately we all know. That day will be forever seared in my memory and I find myself constantly telling my story over to this day. This will be my attempt to write it.

This will be broken into a series of posts, so stick around.

Part Two

Mirty's Post

Mirty just put up an unbelievable post on her blog. I recommend the trip over to her to check it out.

Another one bites the bullet

It seems that Born Abroad took up my challenge from yesterday and joined the masses in Blogshpere by putting up his first post. Welcome. So who wants to take up the odds on how long it will be until he gets sucked in like the rest of us (with short breaks inspired by Still Wonderin')?

Give into the force Born Abroad. It's useless fighting it. :-)

Oneg at the Rebbe

Seems that my co-bloggers, Air Time and Still Wonderin' are re-living their high school years and I'm loving it. For one, I've managed to purge most of my earlier years' recollections and occasionally the good stories went with the bad. So it's good to get them back! It's also great hearing stories from someone else's perspective.

So here's my contribution to the theme.

Even though most of the students were local, my high school had mandatory dorming from 10th grade and on. It actually wasn't too bad and for the most part, a good time was had by all. We all went home for Shabbos and every 3rd Shabbos (or was it every 4th? I can't remember. It's the purging again) was an 'In-Shabbos'. Everyone came back to Yeshiva for Shabbos and all davening and meals were together. On Friday night after the meal, everyone would go to their rebbe's house for an oneg. Kind of a drag, but that was one of the mandatory experiences, so you went with the flow.

This particular story is dedicated to Born Abroad, a recent visitor to Air Time. This happened to him. Don't bother visiting his Blog yet though, he's got nothing there yet. He must have a real job.

So there we were, all of us sitting and fressing in the rebbi's house (I can't remember which one) when Born Abroad silently slips away to take care of an urgent, bathroom need. I'm sure he felt quite proud with himself that no one noticed his disappearance. A few minutes later, the rebbe was giving some sort of d'var torah, the room is quiet when suddenly there's this faint voice calling out from somewhere in the house. The rebbe stops talking to better hear this voice. No one can quite make it out, but it seems to be coming from somewhere in the front of the house..

"Hello...?" the voice calls.

Silence.

"Helloooo..?" the voice call again, this time louder.

"Can anyone hear me...??"....

Everyone is now looking at each other, trying to figure out who this can possibly be and what could he possibly want when the voice calls out again..

"I NEED TOILET PAPER!!!"

Just in time for Chulent!

So it's done. I had my hole filled. The one in my tooth.

I went to the dentist who did a great job in re-filling that cave in my tooth. Just when I started getting used to it. He he was surprised at the size, "I thought it was much smaller". Thanks, that makes me feel great. Now I just need to wait for that new habit of mine, where I'm probing with my tongue, to pass. I hope it's sooner than later because I'm sure I look silly on the train doing it. Probing that is.

As I lay there being worked on, I was thinking about my new reader, Orthomom, who's figured me out. To make a short story shorter, she now knows who I am. So much for anonymity, right? I think that now just about every commenter here now knows me. Will this affect my post? I doubt it. I have responsibilities to all my readers- all 5 of them :-)

Can I do it?

I have a goal for the next week.

I recent comment by someone other than my regular visitors got me thinking. During the next week, I need to see if I can attract anyone besides Air Time, Still Wonderin' (who incidentally is trying to pull a MoChassid variation) & OrthoMom (where have you been? I thought we were a clique??) to my blog. Wack-jobs like Vos Iz Neias don't count.

Ready, set, go!

Holey Sheet!

You ever wonder where the "Jews & The Sheet With A Hole" myth originated? Believe it or not, Me'ah Sheariim.

No more popcorn for now

I woke up this morning to find one of my tooth fillings had fallen out (it was still in my mouth) during my sleep. I guess it's a good thing I didn't swallow it so I can still melt the silver down and make something nice for my wife.

So now I'm walking around with this gigantic cave in the side of my back tooth untill Friday morning and I can't stop myself from continously probing it with my tongue and freaking myself out.

Blogger Spell Check

Am I the only one who's noticed that Blogger's spell-check doesn't recognize the word "Blog"? No suggestions either.

Yom Hazikaron

I just know that this post will get me killed, but what the hell.

I've come across numerous blogs discussing Yom Hazikaron. This is a very important and emotional day where we honor and remember those who fell fighting for Israel, and it's understood that passionate feelings will be abound. Some of the blogs that made their mark with me were this one and this one. The authors lament how there are some segments in Israeli society that choose not to participate, for whatever the reasons-valid or not, in these moments. I can totally understand someone feeling insulted, disgusted and angry when someone overtly displays his choice not to participate. At least be like the Arab worker and make yourself scarce.

Then the comment, "I equate celebrating on this day to eating on Yom Kippur" on one of the posts struck a nerve. I don't see any left-wingers being upset about those flaunting their eating on Yom Kippur. In all honesty, would these people show the same level of consideration and not go to the beach on Tisha B'Av, or drive through Kikar Shabbos? I doubt it. Yom HaShoa is EXTREMELY important, but so is Tisha B'Av. Why do we not see them having the same passion for those days?

Last night, as I thought about this, a Rav in my community gave a drasha about Yiddishkeit and the importance of one achieving their closeness with God, and he touched on this point. He was speaking about how people can focus great energy on certain areas when they're actually missing the point and not achieving any gain in this goal of closeness with God.

I'm sure I'm not getting the point across as well as I should and considered not posting anything. Again, I am not looking to detract from seriousness of these days. I'm only observing. Besides, only the same 3 people read this blog anyway.

Godol messes with the best of 'em

Uh oh. Godol Hador is going to get burned for this one.

My suggestion: Stay away from lightning storms.

The Real 'Slippery Slope'

I just came across this great post by On The Main Line. I think we all know what will come down the river. Call it the real 'slippery slope'.

Rabbi Yeyin tells it like it sort of was

Dateline: April 19, 2155. Rabbi Shmerel Yeyin sits down and is about to put finger to keyboard and begin writing his history of the Jews, Herald and Triumph: The Story of the Jews in the Postmodern Era from 2000 to 2150. Rabbi Yeyin, a popular writer and speaker on Jewish history, will of course discuss the Schottenstein edition of the Talmud (but not the Steinsaltz), the fact that more students studied Torah in this period during any earlier era in Jewish history, rebuilding from the ashes of the Holocaust, the teshuva movement, the economic development of Israel, the chessed infrastructure of the Jewish communities in America and Israel and elsewhere. The absorption of the Russian immigrants. Shiurim. Hatzolah. Daf Yomi. Joe Lieberman. Dark moments will be discussed too. The watershed events of 9/11, the Second Intifadeh. Maybe a nod to the 'shidduch crisis' and Rebbetzin Jungreis' heroic role in its solution.

But will Herald and Triumph give mention to tefillin dates and unmarried women going to the mikva? Will it discuss crises of faith, the Nosson Slifkin ban and near-schismatic issues such as metitzah be-peh and eruptions of bans on Indian hair wigs (come to think of it, will it discuss expensive wigs?) and bugs in the water and backlash and the gross materialism of Flatbush and Boro Park and the staggering burden of tuitions and the high cost of frum living and frum kids dropping out of yeshivas and dying of drug overdoses and the too many cases of rabbinic sexual abuse and the myriad other social ills that we face -- as all earlier generations did? Chances are he will not. Or at least the treatment will provide a generally very positive picture of the holy generation of early 21st century American and Israeli Jewry. Yes, if one knows how to read between lines one will catch glimpses of much of the dark side. But in general, this book of historia will enable its readers to pat themselves on the back and sigh when they think of the memory of us, their heilige bubbes and zeides.

Certainly books that give the warts and all will be written too. But there is no reason to believe that the good old Jewish hagiography we've come to know and love (or hate) will predictably come too.

There are basically two views of these historical distortion-by-way-of-omission literature. On the one hand, viewed from within, they are lamentable. As a frum Jew I do not feel that it is enough that I will read whatever literature I like and form, hopefully, a more realistic view of history regardless of what the hagiograpghies say. Even though there is a small minority that knows what happened and how it happened that is not enough. The nearly-Soviet version of How It Was is widespread. It is how we were taught, it is how our children are being taught. If history gives us a perspective with which to shape the present then those of us who are outraged when realistic depictions of personalities and events are distorted for polemical purposes are not just outraged at the depictions themselves, they are outraged for these falsehoods have real world implications.

On the other hand, such hagiographic literature is a realistic record of the values, hopes and longings of the communities which they serve. Whether or not we wish to change it, much can be learned about how these communities are rather than how we wish them to be.

It has been my observation that there is a growing awareness that the official literature is not the entire picture. It will be interesting to see what comes down the river.

While you're there, read this. Where do you think you're Rabbi falls? Do you know of any well-known Rabbi/Rav/Gadol/Rebbe today that R. Dr. Tzevi Hirsch Chajes would approve of?

Selective JRants

Sometimes my posts will make their way onto JRants, sometimes not. I wonder why my recent posts have not. Maybe it's because it was titled "I need to Pee"? hmmm.

Update
I'm now in. Is it a timing thing? Or could the squeaky wheel be getting the oil?

Wonderin' no more

So Still Wonderin' is not going to wonder untill Friday. Wimp.

Do me a favor SW. When you DO come back from your real life on Friday, don't start posting all over the Blogsphere like 2 hours before mincha this time. At least give me a chance.

I need to Pee

This one's gonna be weird.

You ever dream at night, and in your dream you really gotta go? So in your dream, you make your way to the nearest dream bathroom (or dream alley) and relieve yourself. Then, as your dream progresses, and even though you just went, you have to go again. and again. and again. You're trying to figure out what the hell is going on?? I keep pissing and I still have to go?! Of course you then finally wake up and realize that you have to go for REAL. That explains it all. You just thank your lucky stars that you didn't piss in your bed. No? Never happens to you? Oh well.

Anyhooo, I had an interesting dream the other night. You may ask yourself why in the world am I sharing this with you? Well, the truth of the matter is, I've been slow with the posting and I'll take anything.

So there I was, in dreamland. I can't really remember the gist of the whole dream (you never can) but I do remember it had something to do with my commute home. I just made the train with a couple of minutes to spare and I really had to go. Of course I had already relieved myself like 3 times in this dream, but I still needed to go. If I ran to the station bathroom I'd never make it back in time before the train left. But I really had to go. So I ran off the train hoping that by some miracle I'd make it. As I'm running off the train, I bump into the conductor and ask him to just hold the train for two minutes while I take care of my emergency. He rudely told me to take a hike and that under no circumstances was he going to wait for me -bursting bladder or not. It's not like he was even being nice about it. He was plain rude. So now I'm pissed (no pun intended there. really) and I'm practically BEGGING for some consideration. In my dream, this went on for a little while when suddenly it hits me! I look at the conductor, stick my tongue out at him and say "oh yeah?", and then woke myself up. Of course I really had to go. I did and then went back to sleep, feeling quite pleased with myself for showing that conductor who was really in charge.

Are we there yet?

I think that time as we know it takes a whole new dimension when it comes to Pesach. The week and a half I was away from home feels like over a month. Wierd.

I drove to my parents for the second half; not a short drive. True to stereotype, my 4-year old son would ask “are we there yet?” or “how much longer?” every six minutes. It’s funny though, when we’d respond “3 ½ or fours hours more”, he’d think it was a choice. As the driver, I wish.