June 30, 2009

About to go to sleep.

But, wanted to post I will be leaving for CA tomorrow!   I should be online but posting will probably be sparse.   I will be back on Sunday.

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June 29, 2009

Free speech "documentary"

So, I am watching this show on HBO.

18 minutes into this - they spent so far 10 min on Ward Churchill.  This is a man guilty of academic misconduct.  He plagiarized and used false information.  His jest is if there are consequences there is no freedom.  What bullshit.

Freedom is not free.  Freedom is a constant battle.  And freedom has consequences.  The difference between Free speech is that the government does not shut you down.  However, public scrutiny is allowed.  If the public doesn't like you.  You have the right to speak but consequences are there.  Just like if you start a business that no one wants - you go out of business.  Same with speech.

What I find fascinating in this documentary is that they call Daniel Pipes and David Horowitz fringe right-wing individuals.  When reading their works they are nothing of the sort.  Interesting.

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Haveil Havalim #223

YAY the new HH is up!

Click here.

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Going to California!!

YAY!!! July 1-5th I will be in California!

Staying in Anaheim for most of the week.  Getting my aliyah stuff done..getting to see my grandmother...and spending the 4th of July in Disneyland!!!   Going to be a funfilled time.

Should be able to catch up to some old friends....too. 

I can't wait til Wednesday!!

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June 28, 2009

Transformers 2

Friday Night, I went with my sister's family to see the flick.

It was a good movie..better than the first one, IMHO.  Lots more explosions and action.  And it had Megan Fox.   The actor..Shia he wasnt as annoying in this one as he was in the first one and in the Indiana Jones flick.  And, another thing this movie had going for it was some good one-liners - the humor was a welcome addition.

The movie was much longer than I expected - it ran over 2 hours - close to 2:15.  Which would have been fine but the theater was packed...just overflowing with people.  There were people sitting in the stairs at the theater.

Definitely one to see again.  8 out of 10.

Next one to see is Harry Potter that comes out in about 2 weeks.

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June 26, 2009

Tasha Clip

A soothing clip for a Friday


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June 25, 2009

RIP!!!

WOW what a week And day.

First Ed McMahon died...and I did not realize he was a total bad ass!!!  He was a freaking brigadier General!!

Today we found out that Farrah Fawcett passed away this morning.  Damn!!! I knew she was very close to death with cancer...damn...it.

But the most shocking was MJ!  Michael Jackson passed away!  What a shocker!!!  He was 50 years old!  Granted I didnt care about him since the Bad Album...and the child molestation charges...Yes I believe he was guilty.  But all that aside he was extremely talented and had a crazy life!

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June 23, 2009

Happy 100 B-day Tel Aviv!

Yep just found out..LOL Though the article title is just tragic.  JERUSALEM is Israel's capital!!!! Not Tel Aviv!

Here is the linky!

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Too funny

Not to share it:

9 most badass Bible Verses from Cracked.com.

Click here.

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June 21, 2009

Haveil Havalim #222

The newest Jewish Carnival is up!

It is the The The The The edition.

Click here
to enjoy the goodness!

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June 16, 2009

ALL I NEED

Is to get the letter from the cemetary - and to sell my house LOL.  And more boxes.......and to get the cats taken care of for the vet....LOL....but really....just the letter off then Nefesh B Nefesh and the Jewish Agency can start working on the bureaucratic end....OH MY...I am excited....nervous and excited!!!

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Birth Certificate

GOT IT!!!! Today!

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Why be Jewish - personal thoughts.

I have been trying to contemplate this question and it's not easy to answer.  The obvious one is I was born Jewish therefore I am.  However, as most of you know, I do not have the connection that one who was born and raised Jewish would have.  In essence I am a fully assimilated American.

Most of you, again know my journey.  My experience at Cal Baptist and afterwards my experience in Partners in Torah. 

I guess why be Jewish for me is a matter of birth AND choice.  I want to know more about my heritage, I want to know more about the religion of my ancestors, I want to be worthy of their descendant.  Yes, I do have problems with the metaphysical aspects of religion.  But I do have a yearning for the community.  A yearning that is not currently fulfilled.  Something that I felt when I was in Israel. 

Maybe I might be wrong maybe moving to Israel will be a mistake and that I wont have that feeling of fulfilled like I think I will.  But, one only has one chance in life.  And, it is a huge risk but one I am willing to take.


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Why be Jewish?

Over at Random Thoughts, Jack has a very interesting post up.  He asked a few bloggers - basically this question.  Why be Jewish?  The response covers the spectrum. 

Check it out.  And I will do my best to try to answer my own thoughts as well.

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June 15, 2009

Pics of Jerusalem

HUGE collection on flickr.

Check them out.

Click here.

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June 14, 2009

I love BiBi

YEP...I have a total man crush on this guy....he is a genius!!!!  And totally checkmated Obama.  After Obama's Cairo's speech where according to Israel Matzav is the date where the US ended its role as the only superpower of the world....we were all anticipating Bibi's speech....his - verbal response to Obama!
____

Netanyahu's Response To Obama

Much anticipated and quite frankly much better to my mind in laying out the state of play than Obama's Cairo speech.

The big take away has been Netanyahu's acceptance of the so-called 'two-state solution'. It's mostly a big deal because his coalition partners are on record opposing that and he's never personally endorsed the idea. My guess is he got them to go along by pointing out everyone has been talking about this for 15 years or so and it's not an inch closer to happening, so what the hell.

More interesting to me was Netanyahu's conditions for bringing about this much hoped for around the world state of affairs.

This policy must take into account the international situation that has recently developed. We must recognise this reality and at the same time stand firmly on those principles essential for Israel. I have already stressed the first principle – recognition. Palestinians must clearly and unambiguously recognise Israel as the state of the Jewish people. The second principle is: demilitarisation. The territory under Palestinian control must be demilitarised with ironclad security provisions for Israel. Without these two conditions, there is a real danger that an armed Palestinian state would emerge that would become another terrorist base against the Jewish state, such as the one in Gaza. We don't want Kassam rockets on Petach Tikva, Grad rockets on Tel Aviv, or missiles on Ben-Gurion airport. We want peace.

In order to achieve peace, we must ensure that Palestinians will not be able to import missiles into their territory, to field an army, to close their airspace to us, or to make pacts with the likes of Hizbollah and Iran. On this point as well, there is wide consensus within Israel.

It is impossible to expect us to agree in advance to the principle of a Palestinian state without assurances that this state will be demilitarised.

On a matter so critical to the existence of Israel, we must first have our security needs addressed.

Therefore, today we ask our friends in the international community, led by the United States, for what is critical to the security of Israel: Clear commitments that in a future peace agreement, the territory controlled by the Palestinians will be demilitarised: namely, without an army, without control of its airspace, and with effective security measures to prevent weapons smuggling into the territory – real monitoring, and not what occurs in Gaza today. And obviously, the Palestinians will not be able to forge military pacts.

Yeah, um, who is going to enforce those commitments? US troops maybe? In the past Samantha "Hillary Is A Monster" Power suggested using US troops to impose an agreement, why not if the parties ask for them? Power by the way, was appointed to NSC staff.

If that's what Bibi is hinting at, it's a clever way to say to Obama, "Ok, put your money and US lives where your big mouth is". As Netanyahu knows, it also has the benefit of being a non-starter in the US. Can you imagine US troops patrolling the West Bank and Gaza? It would make Iraq and Afghanistan look like a kid's birthday party.

This is why so much of US involvement in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is simply window dressing. It's great to talk about peace and co-existence but when the rubber meets the road, no one knows what step 2 is. Contrary to popular belief

Step 1: Talk about peace

Step 2: ?

Step 3: Unicorns for everyone!

is not actually a workable policy. This is especially true when a large segment of the Palestinian population actually voted for Hamas, which you may recall, is still dedicated to driving the Jews into the sea.

This brings me to the next interesting contrast between the dueling Obama/Netanyahu speeches.

Obama traced the roots of the Israeli's existence and legitimacy to the Holocaust. That's historically incorrect and naturally puts Israel on the defensive.

Netanyahu laid out the 'rest of the story' as it were.

So far I have spoken about the need for Palestinians to recognise our rights. In a moment, I will speak openly about our need to recognise their rights. But let me first say that the connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel has lasted for more than 3500 years. Judea and Samaria, the places where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, David and Solomon, and Isaiah and Jeremiah lived, are not alien to us. This is the land of our forefathers.

The right of the Jewish people to a state in the land of Israel does not derive from the catastrophes that have plagued our people. True, for 2000 years the Jewish people suffered expulsions, pogroms, blood libels, and massacres which culminated in a Holocaust – a suffering which has no parallel in human history. There are those who say that if the Holocaust had not occurred, the state of Israel would never have been established. But I say that if the state of Israel would have been established earlier, the Holocaust would not have occurred. This tragic history of powerlessness explains why the Jewish people need a sovereign power of self-defence. But our right to build our sovereign state here, in the land of Israel, arises from one simple fact: this is the homeland of the Jewish people, this is where our identity was forged. As Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion proclaimed in Israel's Declaration of Independence: "The Jewish people arose in the land of Israel and it was here that its spiritual, religious and political character was shaped. Here they attained their sovereignty, and here they bequeathed to the world their national and cultural treasures, and the most eternal of books."

For some reason Obama omitted that stuff from his speech.

It's especially puzzling since Obama said in Cairo,

I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.

Apparently he doesn't feel it's part of his responsibility to fight against the stereotype of Jews as land grabbing, Johnny Come Latelys to the region.

Netanyahu also laid out the history of negotiations that have produced nothing but broken promises from the Palestinians and a useful primer on how the these two peoples have gotten to this point. Obama would do well to read the whole speech, he might learn something about a complex and old issues he seems hell bent on injecting himself and the US into.

While people will focus on Netanyahu's 'two-state' language (The White House calls the speech "important step forward".), the real story is he's tossing the ball back to Obama with a note saying 'just words' isn't going to change anything.

Call me a cynic but I'd bet we are going to pretty much where we are today on the day Obama leaves office. Some issues are even bigger than He is.

MORE:Palestinian reaction is about what you'd expect, whining combined with threats.

"The speech has destroyed all initiatives and expectations," the statement said. "It has also placed restrictions on all efforts to achieve peace and constitutes a clear challenge to the Palestinian, Arab and American positions."

Nabil Abu Rudaineh, a spokesman for Abbas, also lambasted Netanyahu for refusing to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the future Palestinian state and his call for solving the issue of Palestinian refugees outside Israel.

"Netanyahu's remarks won't lead to a just and comprehensive peace based on United Nations resolutions," Abu Rudaineh added.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior PLO official closely associated with Abbas, launched a scathing attack on Netanyahu, calling him a "swindler and liar."

Netanyahu wanted the Palestinians to join the Zionist movement by offering them a state under the protectorate of Israel, Abed Rabbo said. He also rejected Netanyahu's demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

But it's the Jews fault for not just handing these people a state. As if they'd know what to do with a state if they ever get it.

Posted by: DrewM. at 05:17 PM

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Haveil Havalim #221

Haveil Havalim #221 The News and Politics Edition

If you want to get a sense of what the Jblogosphere thinks about President Obama's speech, the shooting at the Holocaust museum and more go read Haveil Havalim #221 The News and Politics Edition.

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June 13, 2009

Arab Labor - TV show

I found a new interesting show.  It is called Arab Labor and it is on the "peace channel" LOL called Link TV.

The Show is subtitled in English. 

Here is the linky.

Here is what it is about:

About Arab Labor

This fall, Link TV presents the U.S. broadcast premiere of the controversial hit Israeli comedy series Arab Labor (Avoda Aravit).

Created by Sayed Kashua, a 32-year-old Israeli-born Palestinian journalist, Arab Labor (translated from the Hebrew “Avoda Aravit” which colloquially implies “shoddy or second-rate work”) focuses on Amjad, a Palestinian journalist and Israeli citizen in search of his identity as he seeks high status in the society into which he was born but where his car is searched everyday when he drives from his neighborhood to his job at a newspaper in Jerusalem.

 

Poking fun at the cultural divide, Kashua and his characters play on religious, cultural and political differences to daringly depict the mixed society that is Israel.  This show marked a milestone on Israeli television as the first program to present Palestinian characters speaking Arabic on primetime. Arab Labor has generated great controversy between Arab and Israeli media and Link TV is premiering the program to the U.S. television audience in order to offer a fresh perspective on Israeli-Palestinian cultural friction while presenting an unbelievably entertaining show that has made an international splash.


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Movies Movies!!!

I got to see Land of the Lost.

Now usually I am not a huge Will Ferrell fan.  He either hits or strikes out miserably.   But this was kinda funny.  I did not expect much as I really loved the TV Show...when I was a kid....but there were scenes that I laughed out loud.

NOW, last night I saw Up in 3d with my sister and family.  THAT movie was good.  VERY GOOD.  I think it is one of the best Pixar flicks made so far.  Very good time. 

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June 11, 2009

Going back to Cali!!

On 4th of July weekend!!! YAY!!!

And maybe going to disneyland LOL I dont know yet LOL

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