House Search

...Goes on and on! There are lots of homes for sale in the area, so it's just a question of finding the right one. We thought we'd found and "OK" home, but then I had an inspection done! Wow!! The house needs about $35,000 worth of work, and there's no way the sellers, the sons of the deceased person who owned the house free and clear, would go down $35,000 and make an allowance for us (meaning, we'd have the same mortgage originally thought, but they would give us back $35,000 to do the repair work) even though ANYTHING they got out of the house would be PURE profit. Oh, well.

We saw a house last night we think might be right for us. The current owner bought it in March 2007 and has since spent his time completely renovating the inside, also known as flipping: buying a house with the purpose of renovating and reselling it. I'm not quite sure why anyone would do this in general in this market, but in this case, it might work out for us. It's really beautiful and big (2400 sq. feet!!) on the inside, with an amazing kitchen, family room, and master SUITE (bedroom, sitting room, huge walk-in closet, and bathroom with TWO sinks and a bathtub!). It's one exactly in the area we wanted, but it's just on the cusp and still a really good neighborhood.

In the meantime, EQUIFAX (those Mother-F*****G MORONS!!) have completely screwed up my credit score. Experian and TransUnion came back with pretty decent scores despite my debt, but Equifax (those Mother-F*****G MORONS!!) has me with a score somewhere in the 500s because they are reporting, quite erroneously, that I'm an authorized user (which means I'm allowed to use the credit card but am NOT in ANY WAY financially responsible for it) on a credit card belonging to my dad even though he says he NEVER put me on there. In the meantime, the credit card has been charged off and reported 30, 60, and 90 days late various times this year. For some reason, Equifax (those Mother-F*****G MORONS!!) decided it should reflect on MY credit report even though I have nothing to do with my dad's account (I'd never even HEARD of it until yesterday!). So, I started a dispute both with the credit card company, which was very kind to me and started a dispute with Equifax (those Mother-F*****G MORONS!!), and with Equifax (those Mother-F*****G MORONS!!) itself. It's going to take a minimum of FIVE business days!! This REALLY PISSES ME OFF!!!

These credit reporting agencies hold WAY too much arbitrary power over people. Here is a credit reporting agency that has simply decided my credit unworthiness just because they felt like it, never mind that no matter how bad things got financially, we ALWAYS made our payments on time NO MATTER WHAT! What Equifax (those Mother-F*****G MORONS!!) should be asking themselves is "Hmm. Let see. He's always on time with EVERYTHING else. We should investigate this anomaly and figure this out." But, NOOOOOOOOOO. Instead, I had to call there about six times in the last 24 hours. So first they tell me I need a contact name at the credit card company whom they can directly contact. So I got one. Then they asked me what his position was. He was a customer service rep. So they tell me, "No. You need a supervisor's name!" So I blew up at the guy and told him to give me a break with all this BULL-S**T. I said to if I got a supervisor, that would probably not be good enough either and I'd have to get the supervisor's manager. And if I did that, I'd have to go higher up! The Equifax (those Mother-F*****G MORONS!!) dude's silence pretty much admitted to me this would be the case, so he gave in and initiated the dispute on his end.

Oh, and by the way, if you are an authorized user on a credit card but are not the primary on the card, you are NOT, repeat, NOT financially responsible for ANY balance on the account and the credit company CANNOT come after you should the primary default on the card. The credit companies very strictly adhere to this rule and are quite adamant about it NOT reporting on one's credit. Call and credit card company and they will verify this. This is something I learned at MBNA. It should NOT report on a credit report and when the agencies do this, it is WRONG!!! I lost count of how many phone calls I took from people angry that their being an authorized user on an account was recorded as THEIR debt on a credit report. We were always happy to take them off the account, but THEY had to call the credit reporting agency because it was the agency's error, not the credit card company's.

Well, I hopefully, IY"H, have this straightened out by the end of next week or by the beginning of the week after, but it is slowing things down. I sure hope no one snatches up this house should we decided to take it.

Sometimes it's worth the extra few bucks to spell your full name on your Tefilin / Tallis bag….

Ain't THAT the truth!

Some More on Bush and Annapolis

So, The Idiot, aka George W. Bush, has decided the "time is right for Mideast Peace."(Click.) He didn't just decide; he "declared." Because we all know how incredibly smart The Idiot is. This is just another president with the overpowering egotistical desire to "bring peace" to the Middle East. Carter did it. Clinton did it. Now The Idiot's doing it, along with his girlfriend, Condi. The only reason Reagan didn't  is he was too busy ending the Cold War, which was actually a good thing (not that I'm a big fan of Reagan either - remember "Reaganomics," a concept for which everyone but the upper class is still paying?), and Bush senior was too busy trying to salvage what he could of his presidency after the fiasco of the First Gulf War. His son, The Idiot, is too stupid to realize there's simply nothing for him to salvage at this point. Not his dignity, not his legacy, and certainly not his reputation. What a shame... And he's made it quite clear Israel does NOT have the right to decide for itself what is good for Israel. Apparently Olmert, Bush's lapdog, will simply obey anything and everything his Master, The Idiot, orders him to do. Just goes to show how even when Jews are "running" the Holy Land, they really aren't, further indication the Golus hasn't ended. I truly believe the State of Israel is Raishis Tzmichas Geulaseinu - the roots of the upcoming Geula, but I think we've forgotten we are STILL in Golus, nevertheless.

Yaakov Kirschen over at Dry Bones, posted this wonderful "Golden Oldie" today with the following comment:

1978. Camp David.

Egypt, Israel, and America.

Sadat represented Egypt. 

Begin represented Israel. 

And President Carter was squeezing us. Our goose was being cooked.


2007. Annapolis.

The Palestinians, Israel, and America. 

Abbas (Abu Mazen) represents part (at best) of the West Bank Palestinians.

Olmert represents Olmert. 

And President Bush is having a really big photo op. Our goose is being cooked.

Wanna Move to Iceland?

According to the UN, Iceland is best place to live on the planet! African, Sub-Saharan desert countries came in last.

Lots of Noise Today!

First, apparently Olmert has taken that final step to separate being Israeli from being Jewish. He's decided that the status of Jerusalem is and "Israeli" issue, not a Jewish one and has stated that American Jews have no right to "intervene in any decision regarding the status of Jerusalem." Read the article from Arutz 7 here.

Next, there was a HUGE protest in Jerusalem. However, unlike Chareidi protests that always seem to turn violent, this one didn't. Now, to be honest, four youngsters were arrested for blocking a road in Jerusalem and one of them was carrying a sharp weapon. There is, however, no mention of the person actually brandishing the weapon. To me, this is such a kiddush Hashem that there is no violence! These are real Jews. And by the way, where are the Chareidim in all this?! What, no protest that we may lose part of Jerusalem, The Holy City?! Of course not. Surprised? I can't say I am. They don't really believe we belong there and they simply live there so they can get government funding and then proclaim how much they hate the government that gives them so much in return for, well, pretty much nothing. Nope. No big surprise there. Funny how certain RWNJs (Right Wing Nut Jobs), and I blogged about one of them recently, and I blogged about one of them recently, are always wrongly complaining that Liberals like myself have no appreciation or Hakaras Hatov for United States, a country that has done tremendous chesed for Jews. Yet it's interesting to note that the Chareidiim who live in Israel have absolutely NO Hakaras Hatov for the country in which THEY live, and they have demonstrated this fact consistently for decades. Just goes to show the non-frumkeit of the Chareidim and the consistent hypocrisy they practice day after day.

OK, back on track. Let's not gloss over the 25,000 people who gathered at the (endangered) Kotel to pray against any Annapolis concessions. Look at the pictures. Notice anything interesting? Well, first, they're davening, not starting fires or throwing garbage or blocking roads with dumpsters hurling curses at people. They are peacefully davening. Next, notice how the VAST MAJORITY of these people are NOT Chareidiim. Nope. They are just regular Jews who wear those horrible Kippot Serugot (please read the last three words with EXTREME sarcasm) who have gathered to daven for their home. Note the Chareidim didn't. Interesting, though, once again, not surprising...

I'm sure as the day proceeds I'll have LOTS more to say about the Annapolis travesty.

What the Hell. I'm Going to Post the Entire Article I Mentioned in the Post Below...

This needs to be read widely. I know I don't have that many readers, and that's fine since this blog is really a tool for me to write down my own thoughts about whatever. But I want this article preserved. So, here it is...

‘Israel's best friend’ firmly backing Arabs at Annapolis conference

By Caroline B. Glick

Leaked document

Will Bush and Rice do whatever necessary to secure a legacy?

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | The mood is dark in the IDF's General Staff ahead of next week's "peace" conference in Annapolis. As one senior officer directly involved in the negotiations with the Palestinians and the Americans said, "As bad as it might look from the outside, the truth is ten times worse. This is a nightmare. The Americans have never been so hostile."

Thursday a draft of the joint statement that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are discussing ahead of the conference was leaked to the media. A reading of the document bears out the IDF's concerns.

The draft document shows that the Palestinians and the Israelis differ not only on every issue, but differ on the purpose of the document. It also shows that the US firmly backs the Palestinians against Israel.

As the draft document makes clear, Israel is trying to avoid committing itself to anything at Annapolis. For their part, the Palestinians are trying to force Israel's hand by tying it to diplomatic formulas that presuppose an Israeli withdrawal to the 1949 armistice lines and an Israeli acceptance of the so-called "right of return" or free immigration of foreign Arabs to Israel.

The Palestinians are also trying to take away Israel's right to determine for itself whether to trust the Palestinians and continue making diplomatic and security concessions or not by making it the responsibility of outside actors to decide the pace of the concessions and whether or not the Palestinians should be trusted.

As the leaked draft document shows, the Americans have sided with the Palestinians against Israel. Specifically, the Americans have taken for themselves the sole right to judge whether or not the Palestinians and the Israelis are abiding by their commitments and whether and at what pace the negotiations will proceed.

But the Americans are have shown themselves to be unworthy of Israel's trust. By refusing to acknowledge Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party's direct involvement in terrorism and indeed the direct involvement of his official Fatah "security forces" in terrorism, the Americans have shown that their benchmarks for Palestinian compliance with their commitments to Israel are not necessarily based on the reality on the ground. Then too, the US demands for wide-ranging Israeli security concessions to the Palestinians even before the "peace" conference at Annapolis have shown that Israel's security is of little concern to the State Department.

IDF sources blame the shooting murder of Ido Zoldan on Monday night by Fatah terrorists on Israel's decision to bow to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's demand to take down 24 security roadblocks in Judea and Samaria. If it hadn't been for US pressure they say, it is quite possible that the 29-year-old father of two small children would be alive today.

But this is of no concern for Washington. As Rice has made clear repeatedly, the US wants to see "signs of progress." Since the Palestinians are taking no action against terror and doing nothing to lessen their society's jihadist fervor, the only way to achieve "signs of progress" is by forcing Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians. And so that is exactly what Rice and her associates are doing.

Rice is able to force Israel to accept her demands because she faces the weakest Israeli leaders the country has ever produced. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are all incapable of standing up to the Americans or even arguing with them. Olmert and Livni's weakness has been apparent since their mishandling of the war with Hizbullah last summer and their negotiations over the ceasefire agreement with Rice. For his part, throughout his brief and disastrous tenure as prime minister, Barak behaved as though he were then president Bill Clinton's employee. 

But if Olmert, Livni and Barak's willingness to compromise their nation's security is a function of their weakness, what explains Rice and Bush's behavior? Why are they weakening Israel and pushing for the establishment of yet another Middle Eastern terror state? What US interest do they think they are advancing by acting as they are?

Over the past several weeks, a number of theories have been raised to explain their behavior. The most frequent explanation is that Rice and Bush are championing Palestinian statehood at Israel's expense in a bid to mobilize a coalition of Sunni Arab states to cooperate with the US against Iran.

According to this theory, if Annapolis is seen as a success, then the Arab states will be convinced that the US is worth supporting on Iran. This theory has several flaws. First, as the US's treatment of Israel makes clear, success in Annapolis involves weakening Israel whose destruction Iran seeks and empowering the Palestinians who Iran supports. This means that far from weakening Iran, success at Annapolis advances Iran's interests.

But beyond that, whether wittingly or unwittingly, by convening the conference next week, the Bush administration has directly empowered Iran. Today the determination of whether the administration emerges unscathed or humiliated from Annapolis is entirely in Iran's hands. Iran will decide whether the conference opens and closes peacefully or whether it is convened as Lebanon submerged in civil war by Iran's proxies Syria and Hizbullah.

According to the Lebanese constitution, Saturday is the last day on which a new Lebanese president can be elected. Lebanon's president must be elected by two-thirds of the members of Lebanon's parliament. Through their campaign of assassination, Syria and Hizbullah have taken away the 2/3 majority that anti-Syrian forces won in the 2005 elections. As a result, Hizbullah has veto power over the election. And so far, Iran and Syria have refused to allow Hizbullah to back any candidate. This is the case despite the anti-Syrian majority's willingness to support a pro-Syrian presidential candidate.

Due to the Iranian-Syrian induced impasse, today there are two possible scenarios for what may happen in the next few days in Lebanon. Either Iran and Syria will allow elections to take place and an agent of their regimes and Hizbullah will take over the presidency, or elections will not take place and two governments - one anti-Syrian under Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and one pro-Syrian will be formed. The pro-Syrian government will be supported by Hizbullah and the Lebanese army. The anti-Syrian government will be supported by Christian, Sunni and Druse militias. A civil war will ensue. Syria, Hizbullah and Iran will win.

In a bid to induce the first scenario, Bush has been lobbying every leader he can think of to appeal to Teheran and Damascus to relent and allow elections to go through. To this end, he even asked their primary arms supplier Russian President Vladimir Putin to intervene. Olmert's decision to allow Fatah security forces to receive 25 advanced Russian armored personnel carriers in spite of IDF objections was no doubt a consequence of Bush's appeal to Putin for help.

If the Americans believe the key to countering Iran is to build an anti-Iranian Arab coalition, the crisis in Lebanon shows just how futile their efforts are. Just as the Sunni Arab states oppose Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, so they oppose Iranian control over Lebanon. Yet in spite of this, they have done nothing to prevent Iran and its proxies from taking control of the country. To the contrary, the Saudis have encouraged the Siniora government to support pro-Syrian candidates for the presidency.

So if the administration has decided to embrace the Palestinians as a means of weakening Iran, its decision is wrong on three counts. First, given Iran's support for the Palestinians, empowering them against Israel simply advances Iran's interest. Second, the Annapolis conference has become a hostage of Iranian goodwill which is non-existent. And finally, even if it were formed, an anti-Iranian Arab coalition would be powerless to check Iran's power.

Even though the summit at Annapolis weakens the US's position vis-à-vis Iran, it might still make sense for the Bush and Rice to support Palestinian statehood if doing so enhanced public support for the administration. But the opposite is occurring. Bush and Rice's seeming obsession with Palestinian statehood is being criticized from all sides of the aisle.

Critics on the Left like New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and former Clinton negotiator and Palestinian apologist Robert Malley have expressed mystification at the administration's insistent advance of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians when there is no chance that those negotiations will bring peace. So too, over the past few weeks, four Republican presidential candidates - Rudy Guiliani, Mitt Romney, John McCain and Fred Thompson - have criticized Bush and Rice's Palestinian policies generally and the convening of the conference at Annapolis in particular.

There is also the theory that Bush and Rice's primary concern in pushing for Palestinian statehood is their legacies. Rice's stated intention of seeing a Palestinian state declared before Bush leaves office lends weight to this view. But of course, given that the maximum that Israel is willing to concede to the Palestinians is less than the minimum that the Palestinians are willing to accept, and given that the Olmert government will be brought down if Olmert agrees to any major concessions, it is clear that there is no chance that Rice will succeed.

Finally there is the thought that Rice and Bush understand that there is no chance of achieving peace, but that they think that their legacies will be strengthened just for having tried. After all, Bill Clinton is remembered well for his attempts to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians in spite of the fact that his attempts brought war rather than peace. But Clinton's example is no longer applicable because the conditions under which Clinton pursued peace were far different than those that exist today.

Clinton's peace policies caused a war that began only at the end of his presidency. Until then, they seemed like relatively safe and cost-free moves. On the other hand, Bush's presidency has occurred in its entirety against the backdrop of the Palestinian jihad. Every attempt he has made at peacemaking from the Tenet Plan through the Roadmap and Sharm el Sheikh and onto Annapolis has been blown apart through violence before it could get off the ground.

So then there is no good excuse for the Bush administration's decision to embrace the Palestinians at Israel's expense. It all comes down to Bush and Rice not thinking through the consequences of their moves.

It is a singular tragedy that Israel's elected leaders are too weak to make them understand that by harming Israel, they are harming the United States and making fools of themselves.

The Annapolis Conference: A Tragedy in the Making

DovBear had an excellent post today about the travesty currently taking place in Annapolis, Maryland. I 100% agree with everything he says there. Eight years ago, Bill Clinton tried to give himself the legacy of bringing peace to the Middle East, leading to a war with the Palestinians that STILL has not ended and to the deaths of over one thousand innocent Jews due to suicide murder bombings in public places like restaurants, marketplaces, and schools. And for years now, people not only on the Right, but also Religious Zionists who should have known better than to put their trust and hopes in someone like Bush, who pretended to be Israel's friend and backer, have been saying how wonderful this mistake of a president has been for Israel.

Now, Bush, Israel's "Good Friend," the "BEST FRIEND" Israel's ever had in an American president, shows his true colors. Do you Right Wing lovers out there still think Bush is the greatest thing for Israel? Are you, as DovBear thinks you will, going to deny ever saying how great Bush was for Israel and the Jews? Or are you, as DovBear thinks you will, going to deflect this by reminding us how Hillary Clinton kissed Suha Arafat and by reminding us that Clinton committed adultery (and by the way, according to Halacha, which Clinton need not follow, he ABSOLUTELY DID NOT commit adultery!)? Or are you going to scream, as DovBear thinks you will, "9/11!! 9/11!! 9/11!!" and make it all better and justified that way?

Anyway, the above-mentioned article says it all. As I've been saying all along, the Right Wing and its Nut Jobs cannot be trusted. This is why. Now, we have to pay the price.

Hattip: DovBear

Modern Art Explained...

In other words, it's unexplainable... :)

Now Here's A Surprise! Headline in Today's News...

Palestinians not bound by US peace meet decisions: Hamas. In case they erase the link, here's the short article in full:

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Hamas said on Monday that the Palestinians will not be bound by any decisions taken at this week's US-hosted Middle East peace conference.

"The decisions taken at Annapolis are not binding on the Palestinian people, who have not authorised anyone -- either Arab or Palestinian -- to erase their rights," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP.

The Islamists, blacklisted as a terror group by both the European Union and the United States, have not been invited to the peace conference which opens on Tuesday in Annapolis, near Washington.

Later on Monday Hamas, along with members of the smaller Islamic Jihad group, were to convene a "counter-conference" to the US peace meeting to warn the Palestinian leadership not to make any concessions to the Israelis.

"Our conference will carry the message of the dangers of a normalisation of ties with Israel," he said. "The Palestinian cause should not serve as a vehicle for Arabs and the international community to normalise their relations with the Israeli enemy."

Hamas has been increasingly isolated by Israel and the West after it seized control of the Gaza Strip in mid-June, over-running forces loyal to moderate president Mahmud Abbas.

It suffered a further blow last week when Arab foreign ministers voted to attend the US meeting despite its calls for a boycott.

Ok, so let's see here. We all know Hamas is quite popular, despite the West isolating the terrorist group. We all know there's something in the works (been all over the news in the last weeks) between them and Abbas, the "President" of the "Palestinian Authority." Either they'll come to an accord or overthrow him. Both are possible. In fact, both are likely, as had happened in Gaza (remember, they first came to an accord at Mecca before Hamas overthrew Fatah in Gaza!). We all know Hamas will NEVER accept any kind of peace or "normalized" relations with Israel, no matter what Israel concedes to them because as far as Hamas (and Fatah, for that matter) is concerned, ALL of Israel is "rightfully" Palestine.

Conclusion: This conference can lead either no where or to complete disaster...

Of course, part of the problem is that the terrorist, be they Fatah OR Hamas OR Islamic Jihad, or any of their nutso groups, have completely hijacked the "Palestinian Cause" for their own purposes without regard for what the people whose cause they supposedly represent actually want...

Syria 'Likely' to Attend Summit

Click for article at Arutz 7. Here's the kicker: They decided to attend because the US assured the Syrians the status of the Golan Heights would be on agenda. Since when does the US have the right to decide Israel's fate and the fate of its RIGHTFULLY conquered territories?! Who the hell does Bush think he is? Two answers come to mind. 1. Bush thinks he's the Emperor of the World whom no one can or should oppose and everything he says goes. What a Schmuck! 2. It just goes to prove that while the state of Israel IS Reishis Tzmichas Geulaseinu - the beginning of our Geula from a nealy two thousand year Golus - we are still in Golus and NOT self-governing as some would like to think. This summit is just a bitter reminder of this fact.

Then there's Olmert. WHAT THE F**K IS HE THINKING?!?!

Well, let's just hope this joke of a summit spirals into complete chaos and just doesn't go anywhere...

And this just in: Syria to attend U.S. Middle East conference.

Ain't This the Truth!

And we have the oil industry and Big Business to blame for this, as well as our own carelessness when it comes to this beautiful planet God gave us... Let's hope cars with little to no emissions become the norm quickly!

How Does Big Business Work?

Hmm. Kind of like this. This was pretty much my experience in Big Business...

Israel's Next Step Toward Calamity

US sets date for Mideast peace conference. Notably, this article's first paragraph reads:

Seven years after the Middle East peace process ground to a halt, the United States has invited leaders to an international conference next week aimed at paving the way towards a Palestinian state.

It doesn't say toward peace between the fictitious Palestinians and Israel (fictitious because there is no such thing as a Palestinian; my mother, Jewish and born pre-1948 is more "Palestinian" than the vast majority of "Palestinians" out there). It says, rather, "...paving the way towards (note the bad grammar - it should say toward, sans the "r") a Palestinian State," with no mention of peace for Israel at all. Funny, that.

It's really amazing that Israel's Prime Minister, a bumbling idiot almost as stupid as George W. Bush (NOBODY is as stupid as "W"), hated almost unanimously by Israelis, has not yet been ousted. Better Prime Ministers have been tossed out of office for a lot less than Olmert's bumbling mistakes!

Well, we'll just have to sit tight and pray to God the Jews still have a homeland to which they can freely go after this is all over. :(

Here's Something I Haven't Done in a While: WAL-MART BASHING!!!

First, watch this (It's short):



So, I heard a commercial on the radio this morning bashing Wal-Mart, which, frankly, one of my favorite types of commercials because I think Wal-Mart is one of the dirtiest, most dishonest, exploitationist companies on the planet. In fact it probably is THE most dirtiest, dishonest, exploitationist company on the planet. So, they direct you to visit WakeUpWalMart.com, a site that exhorts Wal-Mart to do the right thing. Think Wal-Mart will EVER do the right thing? I don't. They have forced companies that supply them (and Wal-Mart is their biggest buyer) to outsource to other countries, especially China, to keep production costs low so Wal-Mart will buy from them.

Republicans like to say us Liberals aren't "American" enough. That's bull. We care about our country and our people. We care about our safety, both physically and economically. Republicans don't, which is why they allow companies like Wal-Mart to run about helter-skelter with other big businesses that control Congress with their lobbies. Pretty sad.

Anyway, check out WakeUpWalMart.com. It's a pretty neat site.

An Article By Jonathan Rosenblum on Cross Currents

I just read this article by Jonathan Rosenblum over at Cross (Usually Loving) Currents. It was interesting, though I disagree with some of what he said. I could say it here, but if you read the comments, especially comments 2 and 4. They pretty much say it all.

Some Preoccupation...

Well, we at the Am Kshe Oref household have been preoccupied in the last week or so with working on purchasing a new home!! We are currently working at getting pre-approved for a mortgage (I should find something out by the end of the day...). We've found a house we REALLY like in a great neighborhood and, since it is currently a buyer's market, are hoping to get it at a really good price. We'll know more about that later in the day or tomorrow as well. Business has been ok (though this week and next it'll pretty much be dead because of the RSNA [Radiology Show of North America] show in Chicago that EVERYONE in the medical imaging business goes to...), and there are a few deals I hope to close by the end of the year, as well as one pending for the beginning of the year.

I do have some more choice words for everyone's favorite RWNJ (Right Wing Nut Job), Toby Katz. I intend to publish her comments as a post real soon.

And Toby, is your ego so giant and so easily bruised that you have to sit down at your computer and Google you name after 1 in the morning just to find out if someone said something negative about you and so you can demand an apology?! :)

Stay tuned for more (about the house-buying and Toby)!

Oldie but Goodie!

Funny Joke!!

The Husband Store

A store that sells new husbands has just opened in New York City , where a woman may go to choose a husband. Among the instructions at the entrance is a description of how the store operates: You may visit this store ONLY ONCE! There are six floors and the value of the products increase as the shopper ascends the flights. The shopper may choose any item from a particular floor, or may choose to go up to the next floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the building!

So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband.

On the first floor the sign on the door reads:

Floor 1 - These men Have Jobs. She is intrigued, but continues to the second floor, where the sign reads:

Floor 2 - These men Have Jobs and Love Kids. "That's nice", she thinks, "but I want more." So she continues upward. The third floor sign reads:

Floor 3 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, and are Extremely Good Looking. "Wow," she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going.
She goes to the fourth floor and the sign reads:

Floor 4 - These men have jobs, love kids, are drop-dead good looking and help with housework. "Oh, mercy me!" she exclaims, "I can hardly stand it!" Still, she goes to the fifth floor and the sign reads:

Floor 5 - These men Have Jobs, L ove Kids, are Drop-dead Gorgeous, Help with Housework, and Have a Strong Romantic Streak.

She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the sixth floor, where the sign reads :

Floor 6 - You are visitor 31,456,012 to this floor. There are no men on this floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to please. Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store.

PLEASE NOTE: To avoid gender bias charges, the store's owner opened a New Wives store just across the street.

The first floor has wives that love sex.

The second floor has wives that love sex and have money. The third, fourth, fifth and sixth floors have never been visited.

Oil Prices Skyrocket!!!

BC style, that is!

No Jesus, No Peace. Know Jesus, Know Peace

Clever, huh? Not so much. This was on a bumper sticker on a car in front of me in a left-turn lane this morning. Essentially, as the title suggests, it proclaims that to know and accept Christ as one's "Savior" is to know and have peace. Ostensibly, Christianity is the religion of Absolute Love toward one's fellow human being. Ironically, this, along with most Christian doctrine, is about as untrue as something can be. Just as a small example, click here for a history of Christian violence over the past (nearly) two millennia. Somehow, when put into perspective, Christianity, especially for Jews (see this Google Search as well), is a scary, frightening religion whose Anti-Semitism has NEVER wavered (though it seems to have quieted) in nearly two thousand years.

So why do the Jewish RWNJs (Right Wing Nut Jobs) like Yaakov Menken and Toby Katz rush to defend Christians every time they say something very blatantly Anti-Semitic? I really don't have an answer. But it seems to stem from the fact that apparently Christian RWNJs and Jewish RWNJs share common values, like "family values," and never mind all the recent, widespread instances of Christian RWNJ indiscretions in this area... I don't really know.

How Right Wing Nut Jobs (RWNJs) Think...

And it makes no difference whether we're talking about political RWNJs or religious RWNJ, and it doesn't matter whether we're talking about religion, texts, or political treatises. This is JUST how THEY ARE!! :)

Some More Jeff Dunham!

OMG!! This guy is GREAT!! :) This is a compilation of shorts! Really funny, especially the last bit! :)

Outsourcing Meets Sci Fi

Don't you often feel this way when you call your phone company?

Great Quote, Great Lesson...

My wife and I have been watching a show called Numb3rs (no typo there...). It's an FBI show about a team that, with the help of the brilliant mathematician brother of the lead team member, is able to solve all sorts of crimes. We're in the middle of the second season (YAY DVD!!!). Last night we watched an episode about an archeological find that would have challenged the rights of a local Native American Tribe to gaming, a tribe that truly believed they were the first ever in the area, and that the land was given to them from the beginning of time by the Great Spirit. This find, a skull ten thousand years old, would have brought that right into question.

At the end of the episode, after the crime committed had been solved, the mathematician is sitting with his colleague (and best friend). The two were discussing the case and what the discovery of the skull means. Here's what they said, and I think it resonates beautifully with one of the themes of this blog about faith and science:

Real faith cannot transcend knowledge. It needs to adapt to it and embrace it. And boned, they don't make the man, and they sure don't make the soul...

Let's take a look at this. Real faith, if indeed it is true, can not only explain science and bring it up to a level of Kedusha and give one appreciation for God's works, it can, and will, accept the science and use the science to better explain God's world. On the other hand, the bones, the scientific side of things, do not make the man or soul. They are merely components, parts of a whole and cannot exist as life without faith and soul.

I thought this was a beautiful concept.

Bone-Headed Statement of the Year!

Labor Minister: Disengagement a Very Big Mistake No S**T, SHERLOCK!!

Passed the 300 Post Mark!

Don't know (or care, really) if anyone is interested, but this Dry Bones post about the High School Teachers' Strike in Israel was post number 300!! This is the longest journal I've EVER kept! YAY, BLOGGING!!! :)

American Accent Quiz

What's your accent? Click anywhere below to take the quiz! Funny thing, while I'm from LA (which is pretty known for its complete lack of accent), I live in Ohio, one of the states shown below. 

What American accent do you have? (Best version so far) Neutral You're not Northern, Southern, or Western, you're just plain -American-. Your national identity is more important than your local identity, because you don't really have a local identity. You might be from the region in that map, which is defined by this kind of accent, but you could easily not be. Or maybe you just moved around a lot growing up.

Achmed the Dead Terrorist!

Now, this is just AWESOME!! :)



Wanna know more about Jeff Dunham, the ventriloquist? Click!

When You Can't Find Any Better Use For Your Money...

NYC eatery offers $25,000 dessert Holy Crap!! This dessert would be a down payment for a house in the fancy part of my neighborhood with $3,000 left over! People must be really bored and way too friggin' rich if they spend money like this on a god-damned DESSERT!! Disgusting!

And yes, believe it or not, I'm not really that good-natured about this. It REALLY pisses me off!! >:(

Scary Man Is At It Again...

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is claiming Iran now has 3,000 centrifuges used to enrich uranium. It can be used for power plants, or, if further refined, for nukes. Not a good thing. This new Hitler has GOT to be stopped! Why hasn't Israel bombed the crap out of their nuclear plant?! After all, they did it to Iraq! Why not Iran?

I Guess There's Just Lots of Material Out There Today!

This is a cute strip, kind of silly most of the time, but every so often, there is much truth to it. In this case, this was my experience at MBNA/Bank of America. And the friend I bumped into recently who left after I did mentioned to me that BofA wanted calls to be shorter and shorter (which means not all the customer's needs would be met, which meant the customer calling back, which meant less incentive bonus for reps because they have to keep their calls short). Of course, if all these big businesses provided GOOD customer services and QUALITY products, they wouldn't have so many customers calling them, now, would they?

BHMs and MOMs!

DovBear put up a wonderfully funny post about BHMs (Black Hat Morons) and MOMs (Modern Orthodox Morons), acronyms he created recently. And he's continuously updating, so enjoy!

Lord Cheney

Doonesbury, by Garry Trudeau, is featuring a great, though frightening and probably quite prophetic series of strips starring a battered "Emperor" Bush and Lord Cheney dressed in cloak and hood and holding a scepter with the bald eagle as its headpiece. The latter is insistent on starting a war with Iran and finding a pretext to do so as soon as possible. Click on the link above. If you want to read all the strips of this storyline, just click on previous when you get to the Doonesbury page.

Emmanuel Follow-Up

Remember the about the Bais Yaakov in Emmanuel and the segregating, completely, of Sfardi girls from Ashkenazi ones? I originally heard of this story from DovBear. Here's an account from an old friend of the family who lives there. I've changed or deleted names to protect the innocent (myself, and you, the readers) from Lashon Hara...

Yes, they separated out the Ashkenazi and Sfardi girls--and the old minehelet (principal) is now head of the Sfardi girls.

Seems the Ashkenazi wanted their own school but couldn't afford it, so they decided to hire their own principal (I have no idea whom) and stay on in the original Beis Yaacov building. That's how the original principal ended up being in control of Sfardi girls, by default, since she was not going to quit her job.

This is probably going to end up in court because it is so crazy and wrong. I am so blessed not to have girls and to have no children in the schools here. Although, the obvious solution is to pull your girls out of Beis Yaacov and send them to the Chabad school where everyone is equal and where there is no prejudice based on origin.

If enough mothers did that, the whole Beis Yaacov school would collapse because there would not be enough students to get money from the State to run the school. Money talks. They should vote with their feet. Sorry to tell you the story is true!!

Now, I'm NOT going to comment about Chabad schools treating everyone, even those who are not Lubavitch, equally... :) But, yeah, this confirms the story is true. Officially, apparently, in the non-Torah-observant "Chareidi," Sefaradim are not good enough any longer... Maybe they should consider homeschooling, an idea that's seems like it'll start taking off in the Jewish community in the US as tuition costs soar (and salaries don't!).

Israel High School Strike

According to Yaakov Kirschen at the the Dry Bones Blog, there was one in 1977 as well, and irony is that a high-schooler then is probably the parent of a high-schooler today.




I love this particular strip. My five-year-old is off school today because it's an election day in my area. The stupidity of this quite clear. What if I wasn't a work-at-home parent and both my wife and I were at work? What the hell would we have had to do? It's really ridiculous that the school has off for an election day. The teachers are there, having an "in-service" day, which means continuing teachers' education. What the hell is wrong with doing that in the SUMMER, when the teacher are off for TEN WEEKS?!?!?! They have to take off a random day in November?! Apparently, the public schools are off as well, but some private schools are actually in session, just not the one my son attends! And yes, I really do appreciate when school IS in session. It's so much quieter in the house when it's just me and my two-year-old. So, yes. Elementary School does provide very essential baby-sitting... The thing with high-school is, if I needed to, I could just kick a teenager out of the house! I can't do that with a five-year-old, though! No, really, I love my kids and my son and daughter are my pride and joy, but the dynamic between them is just insane. They're nuts about each other, but they also feed off each other to create complete and utter chaos when they are together for too long... Oh, well... :)

Anti-Semitism In America Remains Constant; 15 Percent Of Americans Hold 'Strong' Anti-Semitic Beliefs

The ADL recently surveyed the state of Anti-Semitism in the United States. Some highlights:

15% of Americans - or nearly 35 million adults - hold views about Jews that are "unquestionably anti-Semitic," compared to 14% in 2005

Seven years ago, in 1998, the number of Americans with hardcore anti-Semitic beliefs had dropped to 12% from 20% in 1992. The survey was released at the annual meeting of the League's National Commission. (Which means it's now UP three percent...)

The survey found that 31% of Americans believe Jews are more loyal to Israel than America, down from 33% in 2005; in 2002 it was 33%; in 1998, it was 31%; in 1992; 35%.

More than one quarter – 27% of the American people – believe Jews were responsible for the death of Christ, down from 30% in 2005, up from 25% in 2002.

Fifteen percent (15%) of the general population believes that Jews have "Too much power in the U.S." -- unchanged from 2005; 67% for those who are the most anti-Semitic. Heh. Gotta love this one... :)

Twenty percent (20%) believe Jews have "Too much power in the business world" and 18% believe Jews have "Too much control/influence on Wall Street, both up one percent from 2005. And this one, too... :)

The number of African-Americans with strong anti-Semitic beliefs continued to remain high and stable since 1992. The 2007 survey found that 32% of African-Americans hold strong anti-Semitic beliefs, more than three times more than the 10% for whites. In 1992 it was 37%; 1998 – 34%; 2002- 35%, 2005 – 36%.

"We continue to remain troubled and somewhat at a loss to understand why African-Americans consistently have such strong anti-Semitic propensities," said Mr. Foxman.

It's really quite interesting that basically one third of African Americans are anti-Semites. I'm sure part of this can be blamed on people like Malcolm X, Lou Farakhan, Al Sharpton, and THE REVERAND JESS JACKSON... You'd think that a people with whom we've much in common would be more tolerant, but this population segment has the most anti-Semites. Fascinating.

Education - The more educated a person is, the less likely he or she is to hold anti-Semitic views: 21% of those with a high school degree or less hold strong anti-Semitic views, compared to 10% of college graduates and 8% of those who hold post-graduate degrees.

So, the more educated you are, the less likely you are to be an anti-Semite.

It makes sense. Think about it. During the time of greatest ignorance, the Middle Ages, the Jews suffered the worst. So too during 1940s Europe (you know, that little thing called the Holocaust). Germany, Poland, and the Ukraine (the worst of the perpetrators) were the most uneducated or poorest, and Hitler brilliantly used the Jews as the scapegoats for all of Germany's ills. This is grossly oversimplified, but probably essentially correct.

For the complete survey and methodology used, click here.

Dry Bones

As always, Yaakov Kirschen of the Dry Bones Blog tells it like it is. Too bad no one listens (excepts us nut cases who don't believe those POOR Palestinians will EVER be our friends...). Click on the link for Kirschen's commentary to this cartoon...

Obviousman!!

By one of my FAVORITE cartoonists, Wiley Miller, whose comic strip, Non-Sequitur, has never pulled punches and has ALWAYS been right on the mark.

This Happened to Me at MBNA/Bank of America Too!

I once emailed the person in charge of "education" of procedure about something. The next thing I knew, my manager was yelling at me that it goes against "procedure" to even speak with the guy, much less bother him with emailed questions. I was told to follow procedure and ask my manager, who would then ask the procedure guy. So much for taking initiative! Have I ever mentioned how glad I was to quit that awful place?

Bush is Gonna Veto Again!!

Gee, what a surprise. Congress passed a Child Healthcare bill that is apparently very popular and would provide healthcare to children in low income families that make too much to get Medicaid. But Bush wants to veto the bill, again, because to pay for it congress would raise taxes. Not taxes on you or me, mind you. Taxes on tobacco, raising the tax on a pack of cigs by sixty-one cents, to one dollar tax per pack. But, Bush, ever the anti-tax raiser (God forbid you should raise taxes a bit to help the less fortunate), says he'll veto the bill because no tax raising will go on on his watch! Nuh, uh. No way, no how. Well, except for raising taxes to pay for his illegal war, as I reported in early October in this post.. To see the article, click!

Oh, If ONLY...

The Answer to One of the Mysteries of the Universe...

EVERY single time I go to the supermarket or Target. EVERY single bloody time!! :)

Very Funny Music Video Satiring Ann Coulter

We all know, by now, about the prostitute Ann Coulter's anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish remarks in an interview with Donny Deutsch:



Funny thing. One comment she made was Christians believe themselves to be "perfected Jews," stating they believe in the Old Testament. Oh, yeah? Then why don't you guys keep kosher, Shabbos on Saturday, the Yomim Tovim, to name but a few things? And don't forget this priceless statement: "Our Testament is the continuation of your Testament, you KNOW that!...But you have to follow laws..." The New "Testament," and oft-proved very anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish collection of crap is a continuation of Tanach?! WOW!! Yeah, anyway. Then, Gave a Get linked to the following, very well-done music video satiring the Republican National Prostitute:



Cute, huh? Of course, as we all know, "Rabbi" Yaakov Menken of Cross-Loving-Currents flew to Coulter's defense. What a shame it is that every time a Christian RWNJ (Right Wing Nut Job) makes an anti-Semitic statement, some Jewish RWNJ rushes to the defense of the Christian RWNJ to "prove" that what the Christian RWNJ said is not in any way an anti-Semitic remark and is, in fact, a very pro-Jewish remark! What a shame that Jewish RWNJs really feel Christians have suddenly become our best friends. Perhaps Jewish RWNJs should simply convert to Christianity and become completely "Perfected Jews." After all, since, according to Yaakov Menken, Toby Katz, and all the rest of the Jewish RWNJs, everything a RWNJ Christian says is Torah Mi'Sinai, they must be what Ann Coulter calls "Perfected Jews" and it is therefore permissible for RWNJ Jews to marry them. I say let them.