Hamodia Pulls a Reuters

As seen here, it looks like the Hamodia was trying to pull a Reuters:

The image appeared in the June 5th  Hebrew edition.

Gun Control

After the Virginia Tech massacre, there has been a lot of grumbling from the media about the need for gun control. I think that this is a bad idea.

Cho Seung-hui obviously thought out his plans thoroughly. Had he not been able to get a gun because of gun control laws, he could have easily looked up how to make bombs (McVeigh), used box cutters (9/11), or find some other way of killing.

Virginia Tech has had a policy of having no guns allowed on campus. Had guns been allowed, it is very possible, especially in a state like Virginia where carrier permit’s are easy to get, that a student could have had a gun on them and been able to kill Seung-hui before so many people died.

It is well documented that areas that have banned guns have increased crime. Look at Washington D.C, New York City, the United Kingdom. In each of those places, guns are illegal. And because of that, robbers and murder’s can feel comfortable committing their crimes knowing that their victims are defenseless.

Say no to gun control.

I’m not saying that everyone out there should go out and buy a gun. That is obviously an informed decision that everyone has to make on their own. But a gun control rule in Virginia Tech may have been what led to so many murders.

Update at 8:56pm on 4/19/07:

My own university just sent out a security email to the entire school with links to various safety plans, procedures, and rules.  One of the links was the weapons policy (MS Word document).   In the policy, guns and other weapons such as nunchucks are prohibited.  However, pepper spray is allowed.

Photo from Amona struggle wins Pulitzer

The following AP picture won the Pulitzer prize in breaking news photography (by an Israeli photographer):

Promoting Youth Violence

First, on a happy note, this is my 100th blog post!

But to my main point, Alanlaz had a crazy video a while back about how children become violent because of the way they are raised by their parents.

Today’s Wall Street Journal had a front page article about Iraqi preschool-age who play Cops and Robbers, oops, I mean, Shiites and Sunni’s, with pellet guns, and often come home with bruises.  But the parents don’t seem to care.  They’re proud!  The kids also seem to like to make fake rocket launchers and bombs.  Do we really wonder why so many Muslim’s are violent?

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A year ago, a young gunman walked into Ali Hussein’s living room and drew a weapon. The intruder’s head was wrapped in a scarf, leaving a narrow slit for his eyes. His clothes were all black, the favorite attire of a powerful Shiite Muslim militia. He introduced himself as a commander, shouted the incantation “God is greater” and warned Sunni Muslims not to fight back. With that, he raised his plastic pistol.

The gunman’s name is Hassoni, and he was only 4 years old at the time. The scene unfolded in his father’s house in Baghdad’s Sadr City slum, a sprawling Shiite Muslim district stretching toward the eastern edge of the Iraqi capital. “I was happy to see him this way because it means he has courage,” Mr. Hussein, 26, said of his son. Since then, Hassoni’s favorite game has grown more elaborate, migrating from the living room onto the neighboring streets, drawing in other children and increasingly emulating the violent world of the adults.

Dallas Food Chain to Accept Mexican Pesos

This story just exemplifies how crazy our country is becoming. By accepting Pesos, the US is now working even more towards the Hispanicizing of America.

Link:

Starting Monday, patrons of the Dallas-based Pizza Patrón chain, which caters heavily to Latinos, will be able to purchase American pizzas with Mexican pesos.

Is that even legal? In terms of taxes and everything, how do they keep track of what gets paid in what currency?

Mary Christmas

Link:

Don’t bother making jokes. This family has heard them all. No, they don’t communicate directly with Santa Claus. They don’t celebrate the holidays year-round, and they certainly have some not-so-cheerful days. The smirks and the wisecracks are just part of life when your last name is Christmas, and especially so when two of your family members are named _ no joke _ Mary.

“People ask me all the time, `What were your parents thinking?'” said the younger Mary Christmas, 30. “I never minded. It’s a conversation piece.”

Wow.  I would definitely mind!

Time Person of the Year: Aishel

I’ve been trying to fill up space in my awards section on my resume, so luckily, Time just awarded me Time Person of the Year:

 Who are these people? Seriously, who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I’m not going to watch Lost tonight. I’m going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana? I’m going to mash up 50 Cent’s vocals with Queen’s instrumentals? I’m going to blog about my state of mind or the state of the nation or the steak-frites at the new bistro down the street? Who has that time and that energy and that passion?

The answer is, you do. And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME’s Person of the Year for 2006 is you.

Thank you

Someone sent me the following video which is very apropos for Thanksgiving.  Here is an emotional thank you to some troops returning from Iraq:

Scholarship for being white

Finally, a step in the right direction, in my opinion. With so many scholarships focusing on the minorities, the majorities often get left behind. In fact, I’ll bet that when you combine all the minorities together, they’ll come out in the majority. A group at Boston University was tired of this and decided to make a statement and offer a scholarship to people just for being white:

Looking to draw attention to what they call the “worst form of bigotry confronting America today,” Boston University’s College Republicans are circulating an application for a “Caucasian Achievement and Recognition Scholarship” that requires applicants be at least 25 percent Caucasian.

“Did we do this to give a scholarship to white kids? Of course not,” the scholarship reads. “Did we do it to trigger a discussion on what we believe to be the morally wrong practice of basing decisions in our schools and our jobs on racial preferences rather than merit? Absolutely.”

Black Friday overachievers

I was reading this story in the news today:

Two armed thugs tried to rob of line of people waiting to buy the new Playstation 3 gaming console early Friday and shot one who refused to give up the money, authorities said.

The two confronted a “bunch of people who were in line” outside a Wal-Mart store shortly after 3 a.m. and demanded money, said Lt. J. Paul Vance, a spokesman for the state police. The new Sony consoles are selling for around $500 to $600.

“One of the patron’s resisted. That patron was shot,” Vance said.

I just posted yesterday about the Thanksgiving day sales and all the deals, and I know that this is the type of stuff that happens on Black Friday. I think its insane. If there’s a great sale, I’ll admit, I’ll be there at 6am. But if it comes to pushing, shoving, and now shooting, forget about it, I’m not interested. I’ve heard only great things about the Playstation 3 (except for the price tag), but to get in line at 3am just to be able to say that “I had it first” seems extreme to me.

As a rabbi in Detroit once told me a few Thanksgivings ago, upon completion of a masechta (tractate), we say in the Hadran, “She’anu mashkimim v’heim mashkimim. Anu mashkimim l’divrei torah, v’heim mashkimim l’devarim biteilim…Anu ratzim v’hem ratzim. Anu ratzim l’chayei haolam habah, v’heim ratzim l’b’air shachas.” – We wake up early and they wake up early. We wake up early to learn for words of torah, and they wake up early for idle words….We run and they run. We run to the life of the Next World, and they run to the well of destruction. (I’ve got to figure out how to type in Hebrew)

Like I said above, I’d get up early if there was a great deal (which I might be doing this year…I need blank CD-R’s). I’m just complaining about the Black Friday overachievers.

Hookah in the Sukkah

Apparently, Hookah in the Sukkah isn’t only reserved for the Towson Hillel. Today’s Wall Street Journal had a front-page article on Jews and what they’re willing to pay for Sukkah’s this year.

You can read it here. (link is available for 7 days)

Henry, pass me the bong

I saw this, and of course I just had to pass it along:

Marijuana may stave off Alzheimer’s

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) — Good news for aging hippies: Smoking pot may stave off Alzheimer’s disease.

New research shows that the active ingredient in marijuana may prevent the progression of the disease by preserving levels of an important neurotransmitter that allows the brain to function.

Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in California found that marijuana’s active ingredient, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, can prevent the neurotransmitter acetylcholine from breaking down more effectively than commercially marketed drugs.

THC is also more effective at blocking clumps of protein that can inhibit memory and cognition in Alzheimer’s patients, the researchers reported in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics.

The researchers said their discovery could lead to more effective drug treatment for Alzheimer’s, the leading cause of dementia among the elderly.

Those afflicted with Alzheimer’s suffer from memory loss, impaired decision-making, and diminished language and movement skills. The ultimate cause of the disease is unknown, though it is believed to be hereditary.

Marijuana is used to relieve glaucoma and can help reduce side effects from cancer and AIDS treatment.

Possessing marijuana for recreational use is illegal in many parts of the world, including the United States, though some states allow possession for medical purposes.

So if you see any elderly people who are high, you can be dan l’kaf zechus and assume that they have Alzheimer’s and are just high because they are getting treated for it.

Kudo’s to 7-Eleven

Remember the times when you’d get those email forwards telling you not to by gas from Exxon, Mobil, or a few others because their gas came from the Middle East? Instead, we were told to buy from Citgo or Crown because they got their gas from Venezuela.

Well after the recent remarks by Venezuela’s PM, Hugo Chavez, calling President Bush “the devil,” 7-Eleven announced that they’re no longer going to be doing business with Citgo:

Convenience store operator 7-Eleven Inc. is dropping Venezuela-backed Citgo as its gasoline supplier at more than 2,100 locations and switching to its own brand of fuel.

The retailer said Wednesday it will purchase fuel from several distributors, including Tower Energy Group of Torrance, Calif., Sinclair Oil of Salt Lake City, and Houston-based Frontier Oil Corp.

A spokeswoman for Dallas-based 7-Eleven said its 20-year contract with Citgo Petroleum Corp. ends next week. About 2,100 of 7-Eleven’s 5,300 U.S. stores sell gasoline.

Citgo is a Houston-based subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, and the foreign parent became a public-relations issue for 7- Eleven because of comments by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Chavez has called President George W. Bush the devil and an alcoholic. The U.S. government has warned that Chavez is a destabilizing force in Latin America.

7-Eleven spokesman Margaret Chabris said that, “Regardless of politics, we sympathize with many Americans’ concern over derogatory comments about our country and its leadership recently made by Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez.”

Remembering September 11, 2001

About a week after 9/11/2001, Rabbi Frand gave his usual annual Teshuva Drasha shiur. In it, he described how when major events happen, everyone seems to remember the exact location they were when they first heard the news. How true.

I was driving towards Baltimore’s Penn Station, giving a 9th grader from Ner Yisrael a ride to the train station so that he could go to his grandmother’s funeral, to take place in New York. As I was driving down the on-ramp to get onto 83-Southbound, the cellphone rang. My father, who was in Virginia at the time, called to tell me to turn on the radio ASAP, as a plane had just hit the World Trade Center. Like many people, I thought that it was one of those small Cessna-type of airplanes, and that it wasn’t the end of the world. After all, a military bomber airplane had hit the Empire State Building in 1945, resulting in the death of only 14 people. How bad could it be? But after getting off the 83 at the exit for Penn Station, news of the second plane arrived, and right away, everyone in the car knew that these were acts of terror. Thankfully, the 9th grader didn’t take the train to New York, as they later shut down the entire line. Unfortunately, in the ensuing chaos in New York, the original funeral procession became separated from everyone else, and it took about two days for the family to track down the body and give it a proper burial.

Today, I spent a good part of the day watching the streaming video from CNN as things unfolded five years ago. It was and still is a very emotional filled day, and its hard not to tear up as you hear the reporters themselves become emotional in their reporting of that day.

May we know only good things in the future, and may the upcoming new year bring only good news.

Jewish man arrested for davening on plane

I find it interesting that when a Muslim man appears suspicious on an airplane, the passengers all want out, and even declare mutiny, for fear of dying. The flight attendants on the other hand want the flight to go ahead.

But when a Jew starts davening on an airplane, the only people who want him to stop are the flight attendants, and all the passengers know that no harm is being done by a Jewish guy praying. They know that the only people to ever try hijacking planes have been Muslims.

Some fellow passengers are questioning why an Orthodox Jewish man was removed from an Air Canada Jazz flight in Montreal last week for praying.The man was a passenger on a Sept. 1 flight from Montreal to New York City when the incident happened.

The airplane was heading towards the runway at the Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport when eyewitnesses said the Orthodox man began to pray.

“He was clearly a Hasidic Jew,” said Yves Faguy, a passenger seated nearby. “He had some sort of cover over his head. He was reading from a book.

“He wasn’t exactly praying out loud but he was lurching back and forth,” Faguy added.

The action didn’t seem to bother anyone, Faguy said, but a flight attendant approached the man and told him his praying was making other passengers nervous.

Read the rest, here.