Musings on Random Musings

[John T]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

The Environmentalnuts natural desire to have us all be cavepeople...

And now you've reminded me of all the fantastically stupid Geico caveman ads. I have to hate you now, for a bit.

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

The turbine blades create low frequency noise, which is the worst health hazard ever! (After emf from cell phones, vaccinations, perfume, peanuts....)

Or, just a crazy thought, maybe having wind farms nearby will cause a change in local property values (higher? Rising property taxes, OMG; lower? Falling sale values, OMGx2). Anyway, the one thing that everyone can agree on is that nothing around here must ever change. And you can help that (not) happen by making up whatever story you like and making a stink until the changey thing goes away, or at least to where the poor people live. Or on to that land the connected developer is trying to flog for the big bucks.

 

Point is, it's a win-win!

[James Gillen]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

And now you've reminded me of all the fantastically stupid Geico caveman ads. I have to hate you now' date=' for a bit. [/quote']

 

"Brian, your words are hurtful! And I am NOT seeing you at the Pancake Social tomorrow!!"

[Narf the Mouse]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

And now you've reminded me of all the fantastically stupid Geico caveman ads. I have to hate you now' date=' for a bit. [/quote']

I can point and laugh to make it more realistic, if you like.

[SteveZilla]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

.. in the form of H2.

 

Ohhhh. ;D

[SteveZilla]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

It gets better; the electric company is starting to actively resist the installation of photovoltaic panels on residences. (There's sort of a valid reason for that--fluctuations in demand on the grid over large areas or neighborhoods' date=' as clouds go by or whatever, would certainly put a strain on the grid. But it would help if the grid didn't, like, suck.)[/quote']

 

A while back I heard of a plumber's union in some US city blocking the installation of newly-designed toilets (or some other bathroom fixture) because they required less pipe to install. I have not confimed in any way.

[SteveZilla]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

Heaven forbid a whale should choose to leap into a windmill for no discernible reason. Think of the mess...

 

Well, they have lept onto boats...

 

 

[Tim]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

Well, they have lept onto boats...

 

 

 

Crap pants in 3..2..1!

[SteveZilla]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

The phrase "Gag expression and cleavage' date='" when encountered in a virology talk, means something quite different than what I expect springs to mind with most people.[/quote']

 

In general use (not virology), it depends upon which cleavage as to what expression it evokes.

[Hermit]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

RANT WARNING

 

I am so angry my vision is grainy and my chest hurts.

 

I'm a Torah Jew. I believe in God. I believe in the Torah. And I follow in the path of the sages laid down in the Talmudim and other works.

 

I take these things, along with epistemology, with a dead serious attitude and careful attention to detail.

 

But I am ready to burn the frum world to the ground and walk out smoking a cigar.

 

Frum, for those who don't know, is yiddish for "pious." It is used, arrogantly and incorrectly, in lieu of terms like 'religious' and 'observant.'

 

In fact, it only represents an insular, off-kilter, increasingly ultra-orthodox Ashkenazi perspective.

 

But if the rest of us don't share it we aren't good Jews.

 

This alone wouldn't set me off. Its human nature denuded of pretense in all its gory splendor. Its a given.

 

No, what led me to stand up, roard in fury, and slam my palms into the wall was that it has crippled my work.

 

I wrote an article last night about an Egyptian-American reporter who was brutally sexually assaulted by police during her detention in Cairo.

 

I described it as sexual assault and quoted her description of what happened.

 

It was edited to say she was "assaulted" and suffered "abuse," her quotes were ellipsed to death, and I was put on notice that my article was "immodest."

 

Immodest? Really?

 

What about the Truth? You know, folks, that great word the sages say "is the seal of the Holy One, blessed be He."

 

This woman was sexually assaulted. Her pants were pulled down and her breasts and genitals were gropes until they bruised. Her arm was broken.

 

Even without the details, which could be left out, we have an obligation to call it what it is! Sexual assault. Offended yet?

 

The assault was SEXUAL.

 

What kind of anemic loser is so afraid of the big bad world that the truth must suffer because he can't hack it.

 

And don't get me started on the russian achorwoman who flipped the bird during a story about Obama.

 

I said "she used an obscene gestrure." And guess what.... it was edited to say unacceptable. Appaerently the word obscene is offensive, too.

 

And its not just that.

 

My dauther Bati saw a picture of a dinosaur and tells me that dinousaurs were nonsense and it was a "sippur shtut." (idiocy).

 

Oh, really? I showed her photos of dinousaur bones. She scratched her head and shrugged. "Wait, Abba.. that means they were real."

 

You see, she knows evidence is evidence. She's 9 and one hell of a lot smarter than the ignoramous grown-up who told her this.

 

I mean, come on. Are people this weak minded, weak hearted, and weak spirited that they have to stick their heads in the sand and talk garbage.

 

The God of Israel is not a trickster God running around hiding bones in the dirt to trick you and test your faith!

 

The torah doesn't say how old the universe is and doesn't care. Its utterly irrelevant! Both the fundies and scientists arguing with them are nincompoops.

 

Its not a history book or science manual. Really. My 9 year old got that as soon as I said it. Her brain is fixed. Its not a shocking revelation so get the perdition over it already.

 

Even a semi-literate buffoon can read the first two chapters of Genesis and recognize the deeply allegorical nature of the language.

 

Indeed, two-thousand years ago the sages taught "do not worry about what is above you, do not worry about what is below you, and do not worry about what came before you... only go forward into the Torah and learn."

 

Heaven? Irrelevant. Hell? Irrelevant. The age of the universe? Evolution? Irrelevant. How you live your life and treat people? Extremely relevant.

 

Its a book about the here and now. Its a book about ordering society. Its a book about how we live our lives. Its truth is qualitative - and has to do with making quality people. The age of the universe? Leave that to God and His scientists.

 

Indeed, at one point the sages of the Talmud conceded - in dealing with quantities (ergo, science) - that there were times where the philosophers "seem to understand this better than we do." This is rank heresy to say today, but they - who are greater than those who refuse to hear it - said it outright.

 

I don't see evolution or a billions of years old universe as being a problem for the Torah. They seem like plausible theories. Great. So what?

 

The fact that some anonymous Jew living in the highlands of Samaria around 200 BCE authored a dubious apochrypha trying to create a poorly developed historical timeline back to "creation" because it was in hellenic vogue doesn't suddenly make this weird midrash Seder Olam inviolate TRUTH.

 

Who told him to? What basis did he do so on? How do people handwave the significant epistemological problems with his method? And why does anyone take him seriously? I don't see a commandment to insert shoddy thinking that will create faux crises of faith into the religious world.

 

Fundies (and their scientific foils) HEAR ME. The truth does not involve bad thinking, childlike readings of deep works, or fighting wars with armies of straw men on the plains of contextomy.

 

Figure out the point and stick to it. If not for His sake, for my sake - because you people are making me gray and turning me apoplectic.

 

EXPLETIVE DELETED IDIOTS!

 

And, with that said, what next? Shall we edit Hillary Clinton out of the photo of the cabinet watching the Bin Laden hit because its "immodest?"

 

Perhaps that would shore up our frum credentials at the expense of our journalistic integrity.

 

There was a time - not so long ago - that A7 was news from a nationalist, mainstream religious perspective and wasn't pandering to streimel, langerhosen, buckle-shoe, zaydene bekishe wearing Mullahs who want to impose their extremist views on the rest of us.

 

And when the national religious (since saying Modern Orthodox is appaerently a perjorative now - WTH?) was willing to stand up for what it believed and tell the hareidim no.

 

Guess what folks. My daughters will not be wearing burqas anytime soon. Nor will they be slandering their God by calling him a joker leaving bones in the dirt.

 

Nor will I be working at A7 for more than a year or two more.

 

Its time to put my feelers out and find somewhere else I can write for a living.

 

Somewhere that isn't afraid to call a spade a spade.

 

Wow. You've got my sympathies. I'm not professionally involved so it doesn't compare accurately, but I do feel for you. I see so many self styled "Christians" speak disparagingly of the poor instead of helping them (I'm not exactly serving at soup kitchens, but I don't trash them either), wanting revenge instead of justice (Let alone mercy) and generally acting in ways that seem to go against the teachings of Jesus, all the while claiming to follow him.

 

If I had to judge my faith by its practioners over its truths I'd probably go screaming into a different belief system (Or none at all) just to get away from them.

But I'm not ready to surrender my faith/religion over to the ignorant, arrogant, or hateful just yet.

 

Don't let them get you down.

 

As for a new job and writing, good luck to you and keep us posted.

[Enforcer84]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

...Because he's Christian and should represent his beliefs' date=' because people in the US elected him and his beliefs?[/quote']

 

 

a) Don't recall seeing the office of the presidency having any religion based requirements or responsibilities. Not that they aren't appreciated or even expected, they are not required.

Thanksgiving isn't a christian holiday. It's an American holiday. Not that God isn't allowed to be invoked on the day of thanks but it is not required.

 

c) (nitpick) answer in the appropriate threads please

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

a) Don't recall seeing the office of the presidency having any religion based requirements or responsibilities. Not that they aren't appreciated or even expected, they are not required.

Thanksgiving isn't a christian holiday. It's an American holiday. Not that God isn't allowed to be invoked on the day of thanks but it is not required.

 

c) (nitpick) answer in the appropriate threads please

 

Must spread rep, etc.

 

Actually, the US Constitution specifically states that there will be NO religious requirements to hold federal office, period. And let's not forget the First Amendment prohibition against government establishment of religion. We have a secular government. Kudos to President Obama for keeping it that way, for once, instead of pointlessly pandering to the religious right. (Does he seriously think anything he does is going to get their votes?)

[Narf the Mouse]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

a) Don't recall seeing the office of the presidency having any religion based requirements or responsibilities. Not that they aren't appreciated or even expected, they are not required.

Thanksgiving isn't a christian holiday. It's an American holiday. Not that God isn't allowed to be invoked on the day of thanks but it is not required.

 

c) (nitpick) answer in the appropriate threads please

A) I have no idea what you're talking about. It was brought up during the whole "Obama is a Muslim!" thing - AFAIK, he goes to a Christian church. Unless the news page for that was making things up, too.

Not relevant to what I said.

[Old Man]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

A) I have no idea what you're talking about. It was brought up during the whole "Obama is a Muslim!" thing - AFAIK' date=' he goes to a Christian church. [/quote']

 

What?! A Muslim president dares to take communion in a Christian Church?!

 

[Enforcer84]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

A) I have no idea what you're talking about. It was brought up during the whole "Obama is a Muslim!" thing - AFAIK, he goes to a Christian church. Unless the news page for that was making things up, too.

Not relevant to what I said.

 

Your post was in response to a post discussing the lack of God in the President's Thanksgiving speech. So my comments were relevant to what you said. Unless you didn't read what you were responding to.

[Bazza]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

Black Friday needs to be illegal.

 

http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyimages/1620.gif

[Vondy]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

Wow. You've got my sympathies. I'm not professionally involved so it doesn't compare accurately, but I do feel for you. I see so many self styled "Christians" speak disparagingly of the poor instead of helping them (I'm not exactly serving at soup kitchens, but I don't trash them either), wanting revenge instead of justice (Let alone mercy) and generally acting in ways that seem to go against the teachings of Jesus, all the while claiming to follow him.

 

If I had to judge my faith by its practioners over its truths I'd probably go screaming into a different belief system (Or none at all) just to get away from them.

But I'm not ready to surrender my faith/religion over to the ignorant, arrogant, or hateful just yet.

 

Don't let them get you down.

 

As for a new job and writing, good luck to you and keep us posted.

 

My wife was so concerned about my health when she saw my pallor she told me "this will stop."

 

Let me explain just how weird that is. She refers to me as "the master of the house."

 

She expects me to be a large and in-charge old school male.

 

We decided over Shabbat that, since I finished the last level of rabbinic ordination, I'm leaving yeshiva-velt.

 

This week she's looking for a retraining program for sysadmin jobs.

 

Why?

 

Because she told me - once she's trained - we're moving to the coast so I can go to Bar Ilan in Ramat Gan.

 

And that, despite the fact that we're religious, she wants to live close to synagogue, but in a mixed or secular neighborhood.

 

I've wanted to do advanced academic degrees in Talmud and epistemology, but I'm the wage earner. Problem.

 

Not for too much longer, I guess.

 

Its weird to me that thirteen years of study and a major achievement ends in starting my studies again.

 

"Blessed above women shall [she] be... blessed shall she be above women in the tent." (Judges 5:24)

[Hermit]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

My wife was so concerned about my health when she saw my pallor she told me "this will stop."

 

Let me explain just how weird that is. She refers to me as "the master of the house."

 

She expects me to be a large and in-charge old school male.

 

We decided over Shabbat that, since I finished the last level of rabbinic ordination, I'm leaving yeshiva-velt.

 

This week she's looking for a retraining program for sysadmin jobs.

 

Why?

 

Because she told me - once she's trained - we're moving to the coast so I can go to Bar Ilan in Ramat Gan.

 

And that, despite the fact that we're religious, she wants to live close to synagogue, but in a mixed or secular neighborhood.

 

I've wanted to do advanced academic degrees in Talmud and epistemology, but I'm the wage earner. Problem.

 

Not for too much longer, I guess.

 

Its weird to me that thirteen years of study and a major achievement ends in starting my studies again.

 

"Blessed above women shall [she] be... blessed shall she be above women in the tent." (Judges 5:24)

 

If you don't mind me saying, your wife sounds like an amazing woman. I tip my proverbial hat to her.

 

G_d bless

[lemming]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

Its weird to me that thirteen years of study and a major achievement ends in starting my studies again.

 

"Blessed above women shall [she] be... blessed shall she be above women in the tent." (Judges 5:24)

 

Learning is always a worthwhile prospect. And I agree with Hermit, your wife sounds amazing. Sounds like the two of you make a great team.

[Enforcer84]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

I'll third that. And you're pretty amazing too - we're not used to people in the media being upset about the truth being avoided.

[Bazza]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

My wife was so concerned about my health when she saw my pallor she told me "this will stop."

 

Let me explain just how weird that is. She refers to me as "the master of the house."

 

She expects me to be a large and in-charge old school male.

 

We decided over Shabbat that, since I finished the last level of rabbinic ordination, I'm leaving yeshiva-velt.

 

This week she's looking for a retraining program for sysadmin jobs.

 

Why?

 

Because she told me - once she's trained - we're moving to the coast so I can go to Bar Ilan in Ramat Gan.

 

And that, despite the fact that we're religious, she wants to live close to synagogue, but in a mixed or secular neighborhood.

 

I've wanted to do advanced academic degrees in Talmud and epistemology, but I'm the wage earner. Problem.

 

Not for too much longer, I guess.

 

Its weird to me that thirteen years of study and a major achievement ends in starting my studies again.

 

"Blessed above women shall [she] be... blessed shall she be above women in the tent." (Judges 5:24)

 

Your post above reminds me of the 1 Esdras:

 

The first wrote, "Wine is strongest."

The second wrote, "The king is strongest."

The third wrote, "Women are strongest, but truth is victor over all things."

 

With your wife's strength and with the sword of truth, you will victor over those people, bring light to their darkness/ignorance of truth. And all the best with your studies.

 

And G-d bless to your daughter who has more wisdom and intelligence concerning dinosaurs than the adults talking idiocy.

[Bazza]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

Warning: extreme counter-example follows. But it's a helluva way to make a point.

 

In this video:

 

 

FOX contributor Megan Kelly describes pepper spray as "...a derivative of actual pepper; it's a food product, essentially." (Her exact words.)

 

A food product! People eat food, so how could that be dangerous, or harmful?

 

Hey, Ms. Kelly... would you like to try some concentrated almond extract? It's 100% natural. People eat almonds all the time, they're completely harmless, this won't hurt a bit.

 

 

 

Oh, I'm sorry. That "almond derivative" that was only a "food product" turned out to be fatal. Whoops.

 

You see what I did there? You know what they call that? It's called LYING. Stupid b!+ch.

 

Fox News viewers less informed about current events than those who don’t watch news at all, study finds

[Klytus]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

If you don't mind me saying, your wife sounds like an amazing woman. I tip my proverbial hat to her.

 

G_d bless

 

Agreed.

[James Gillen]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

Vondy makes Orthodox Judaism sound very common sense, apart from that whole "Circumcision" thing.

 

JG

[lemming]

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

Vondy makes Orthodox Judaism sound very common sense, apart from that whole "Circumcision" thing.

 

JG

 

Maybe you don't want to say that after discussing tipping hats.