Nishmat in the News

Fantastic, concise article about Yoatzot Halacha. All those frummie objections are just dumb.

On Blogging

Well, It's been a while since my last blog post. It's not that I don't have what to say. It's that I'm not sure WHAT to say. There's tons to blog about, but much of it other bloggers have already said ad nauseum. There's Eternal Jew dude Tropper. There's Solomon Dwek. There's the ridiculous kol koreh prohibiting even Chareidi sites (talk about cutting off your nose to spite you face!). There's Rabbi Yosef Blau's absolutely amazing (in a very GOOD way) forum on homosexuality which so many not only in the chareidi world have misinterpreted, but that many in the YU world have misinterpreted as well.

As I've mentioned before, I've divorced myself from the ridiculous Chareidi/Yeshivish/Frummie world. It really and truly just has nothing to do with legitimate Judaism.

I've mentioned the possibility of Aliyah, but that's just not happening anytime in the near or foreseeable future. There are just too many factors keeping us here for now. Top of that list, is not screwing up my kids the my father screwed up his. If I go, it'll be AFTER my kids get the best education I can get them and let THEM make the choice, should my wife at that time agree to go, whether to join us.

Then there's politics. Oy.

So, I'm taking a short break while I try to decide where to go with this blog. I'm not gonna stop, that's for sure. But I do have to figure out my direction. Perhaps I'll do a weekly post on Choshen Mishpat, which I'm currently learning with a wonderful Chavrusa once a week. Maybe something original on the Parsha. Perhaps even something on Navi. I just completed Sefer Shoftim on Chanukah and have started Sefer Shmuel (OK, to be honest, I'm only in the introduction in the Mosad HaRav Kook publication, an introduction that's rather long, but very informative). We'll see.

In other news, work is still going great! I'm learning new things, and have started multi-tasking (not just preparing the doughs, pastries, and breads, but also baking them!). I'm also, and I'm still not quite clear how or why this happened, the Gabbai Sheini at my minyan on Shabbos. I'm loving that too! :)

More soon.

Great Nefesh B'Nefesh Presentation

Celebrate Chanukah in Israel!!! Ah. If only I could...



Sorry I haven't posted lately. I've just been so busy at the bakery, (which I LOVE!!!) and I'm exhausted when I'm home or dealing with the kids. And I've really been trying to keep my blogging to things I think worth my time at this point. This certainly qualifies!

More later!

Why the UN Truly, and Simply, Sucks.

The UN has always been known as a very anti-Semitic organization. Here's why:



Even when faced with the truth, they simply don't even care. All they "cared" about here was a supposed lack of decorum. What a lovely group of assholes. Really.

Ick.

Happy...

It's a pretty new feeling, being happy. I'm working, I love my work, my boss is great, and I have a regular (not large, but regular and dependable nonetheless...) paycheck coming in every two weeks in addition to my wife's salary. It's no longer a struggle to pay all our bills, and when I'm done paying the bankruptcy trustee his $333.33 per month for a year (only ten payments left!), it'll be even easier.

I absolutely LOVE working at the bakery. It's a little over a block from my house, it's kosher, and it's pretty good! And the best part is, I'm happy. It's nice to be happy. It's nice to get paid for work (unlike my other work, brokering medical imaging equipment, which paid nothing unless I closed a deal, which was rare because of this screwed up economy) and to actually be appreciated.

Best of all, it's nice not to have to receive handouts from people. I appreciated it with all my heart. All the people who came through during the tough times truly deserve a huge share of Olam Haba. But it's nice to have need it any longer. It's also nice being able to actually GIVE tzedakah rather than receive it.

All-in-all (yes, that IS a cliche), our situation is thankfully so much better than it was two months ago, and it will, God willing, only get better.

Healthcare

I don't know. Maybe I'm naive. Or incredibly smart (I like to think the latter...). But wouldn't the best, and easiest way to reform the healthcare system in the United States to simply regulate the health insurance companies/providers?

Basically, just as Wall Street needs regulation, a fact that became painfully obvious last year, after the crash due to nearly complete NON-regulation of the financial industry, so does the healthcare industry. It's time for insurance companies to have deep, strict regulation. That regulation would include complete and utter abolishment of discriminating against people who have "pre-existing" conditions. It includes regulation to prevent insurance companies from revoking insurance people who are already insured and who lose their insurance when they get sick and the insurance companies claim the person lied to get insurance. It includes regulation against charging people who DO have "pre-existing condition" far more than what they charge people "without" "pre-existing conditions." It would include regulating how much insurance companies can charge PERIOD.

Regulation would force insurance companies to expand coverage, without raising the price, to cover medical conditions they currently refuse to cover, or only cover for a much higher price. In my case, the prime example is insurance companies not covering medically supervised weight loss and, in many cases, bariatric surgery (while at the same time they refuse coverage for people who are obese because obesity is a "pre-existing condition").

Healthcare reform would provide for the nearly fifty MILLION Americans who cannot afford health insurance with quality healthcare.

And finally, as a parent whose children are currently on medicaid and whose children have a WAY better plan than my wife and I do, healthcare reform would definitely provide for a buy-in option to government provided healthcare.

Pretty simple, to me, if you simply stop listening to the asshole lobbyists and Republicans.

Exhausted!

Whew! This job is wonderful, but very exhausting. I've spent next to no time at the computer for the last week or so.

BUT, I wanted to comment on Congressman Wilson, ass that he is. The comment is this: If this had been while Governor Bush was in his stolen position as president, and, say, (name your Democrat) had yelled out to Bush that he was a liar (which, by the way, he WAS!) in the middle of Bush's address to Congress, the Republicans would simply have declared war on the Democrats and marginalized them even more than they had while the Republicans held House (and Senate) majority.

But you know what? A democrat wouldn't have done that. Know why? Because no matter how wrong the president is, you simply DON'T do that.

And this is the problem with the Democrats, or some of them, at least. Stop being so damned liberal that you want to make peace with someone who will happily stab you in the back at the first opportunity. God forgive me for saying this, but it's time for Obama and the Democrats to do what what Bush and his Republican cronies did during the Dark Years (2001-2009): JUST GET IT DONE. Don't worry about marginalizing the Republicans. Don't worry about hurting their feelings. They didn't worry about hurting yours!

Now, pass this healthcare bill already!

My New Job!

So, I started work yesterday (Thursday, August 27) at 4 AM! I had a break to go daven, but otherwise I there until a bit after 12 PM, on my feet the ENTIRE time. The work was hard, exhausting, and sometimes grueling. But you know what? I LOVED it!!! It was fantastic starting to learn a new skill, one in which I have my own private and rather considerable experience. The owner of the bakery liked my work and told me so. I go back Monday - Thursday next week, mostly for just a few hours a day except next Thursday. After next week, the work, the owner told me, becomes really hard in preparation for the chagim.

I look forward to continue learning this profession and becoming proficient at it. Thank God this is happening!

Thanks to all for your moral support. It's been invaluable.

Darth Vader at the Improv?

Hilarious! :)

A JOB!!!

Holy moly! I actually found a job, and it's something I actually WANT to do! I'll be working at a local kosher bakery, training to take over as baker and manager. I'm starting off on a trial period that will last through the chagim. If all goes well, and I sincerely hope it does, I'll be hired full on for a salaried position. The more I take on, the more money I'll make, the better I'll get at it. Later down the line, when we're a bit more financially secure and maybe even have some money set aside, again, if all goes well, God willing, I'll even have the option to buy the bakery because the owner actually wants to sell it.

Oh, boy! It really is a new start. I hope and pray it goes really well.

Electoral-vote.com: Election news

Electoral-vote.com had a fascinating dissemination on health insurance and whether the insurance model is even the right model for the United States. Take a read. It's very eye-opening.