Sunday, August 30, 2009

Holocaust contradictions

Two headlines from Haaretz Israeli Newspaper:

Hamas accuses UN of plan to teach Gaza kids Holocaust 'lies'

Tutu to Haaretz: Arabs paying the price of the Holocaust


So which is it? the jew haters deny the holecaust and then use it to their advantage when it cannot be denied.

UFC 102 Recap

Well I was batting 100% on my picks untill last night. I went 0-2 on the blog and 1-4 in my non-blog bets.
Coture was amazing but Big Nog is only 33 and looked faster and stronger than Captain America.
And Nate the great destroyed Damian. He never even had a chance to come close to taking the fight to the ground.

Those two fights aside. My one right pick (in real life$$) was Vera the truth over krystoff the polish experiment, but that was a no-brainer. The complete upset in my mind was Chris The crippler loosing. I've never been a huge fan of Chris Leben and banging in the center of the octagon is not a long term plan for survival in UFC, ask forrest about that game plan. But I did expect him to win and win strongly. I was way off base. Luckily I did not bet much (because I am pretty broke).

All in all, a great night of fights. A real solid card. And a humbling experiance for this fight picker. But that is the joy of MMA, anything can happen in the ring. Two people enter and it is all on them. Nothing else matters when they shut the door and ring that bell.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

If the Palestinians

Imagine if a group of Palestinians were protesting in Jerusalem to honor their holy site. And let's imagine that their protests involved throwing things, diapers and rocks and trash. What would happen?
Imagine if a group of Palestinians were protesting for the release of an adult who tortured a little child to near death. And let's imagine that their protests involved throwing rocks and lighting bonfires and ripping down street signs. What would happen?

I will tell you what would happen. The police would be called off and the IDF would be called in. The IDF would shoot tear gas and rubber bullets and disperse the protesters.

And yet, week after week after week the Orthodox Jews hold these disgusting vile protests for disgusting vile causes and what happens? The torturers get released. The police stand their powerless. The men under thirty are not rounded up nor are they barred from entering an area.

Something to think about.


UFC 102

Randy Coture vs. Big Nog. Like they say, never bet against Coture. I don't care how old he is (46) I'm betting on Coture.

And damian vs Nate. I gotta go with the ground wizard Damian.

Lets see what happens tonight.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Creative Problem Solving

Here is what I propose: We buy a big warehouse. We fill it with tredmills and ellipticals and other cardio type machines. We hook the units up to an electric transformer and hook it into the electric grid. We then hire a bunch of homeless and unemployed people to use the equipment. They now have jobs and that takes care of unemployment. They are getting healthier so it will ease the healthcare crisis. And, as they create energy they become a renewable source of electricity.

Problem solved.

Now I need a grant to get this off the ground. Anyone interested? I take paypal.

Monday, August 10, 2009

UFC 101 Recap

As expected, Anderson "the spider" Silva took out Forrest Griffen. And BJ Penn Took out Kenny Flo Flo. The rest of the card was ok.

Who can stop Silva? I don't see anyone in the middleweight division except maybe maybe Dan Henderson, and that is really just props for being an Olympian. In the light heavyweight there is Machida and Maybe Rampage.

Imagine if he went up to heavyweight. SIlva vs. Mir, Silva vs. Lesner, Vs. Coture, Vs Feodor?
WOW. But that will never happen.

After demolishing Forrest there is no way GSP would stand a chance. That fight would only hurt GSP's legacy. Just like BJ took a big hit after he lost to GSP so decisively.

Let there be light

On day 1 God said, Let There Be Light, and there was. And God divided between the light and the dark and called the light: Day and the dark: Night.

On Day 4 God creates the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars.

So what was the daytime light until the Sun was created?

Rights

They don't exist. Rights are a figment of our imagination.

There was a shooting at a gay center in Tel-Aviv recently. There are debates across the nation, across the world. In some countries the issue is gay rights. In other countries the issue is women's rights In other countries the lower caste members want rights.

There are no rights.

A right is something which cannot be taken away from you.

Name one right which cannot be taken from you.

We cannot pretend that rights are an entity which exist outside of the human mind. No one has a vault of rights and are hoarding them, and withholding them from others.

Which is why it behooves us to create equality in society. Because if you can keep another segment of society from living equally, than you may lose your equality.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

The End Is Near

Eventually the world will end, will cease to exist, will vaporize when our sun dies in 5 billion years from now.

All life on Earth will be wiped out well before that cataclysim.

So here is what I want to know, who thinks humans will become space travellers and resettle elsewhere and who thinks we will become petroleum?

Unless you believe in God of course, in which case Earth is not actually subject to the natural laws of the universe.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

UFC 101

Tonight:

BJ vs. Kenny flo flo
&
The Spider vs. Forest

I pick BJ and the Spider. But I would love to be wrong.


Thursday, August 6, 2009

Give Us a King

And Samuel cried when the people asked for a king. Samuel understood a deep truth and the knowledge saddened him. The people wanted a man who would be perfect to rule them because they feared their own imperfections. And Samuel was sad because he understood that all people are people and that a king is no more perfect than a shepard.


The last few evenings I have been rereading the book of Genesis. And when I read some of the commentary on Genesis by Rashi I remebered what many of my Rabbis taught about Rashi when I was a kid. They said things like "what he wrote was divinely inspired," and "just like the bible, Rashi used not one more nor one less word the was required, what he wrote was perfectly complete," and other similar refrains regarding the man's holiness and perfectness.

Then I thought of Rabbis and leaders through the ages: From Moses to King David to R'Akiva to the Chofetz Chaim and to the Lubavitcher Rebbe for examples.

And I found myself wondering why we need to turn these very human beings into idols. Why were they turned into angels of almost perfection? Why do we reject their humanity and foibles and mistakes? Their humaness does not detract from their brilliance and leadership and luck and charisma.

The blog www.lifeinisrael.blogspot.com posted an article regarding American youths studying in Israel after high school and I will quote a passage here,

"Rabbi David Sapirman, a mechanech in Toronto with forty years experience, writes in a Torah U'mesorah publication, "Why and How to Teach Emunah," of many top notch yeshiva products who "when it comes to emunah . . . neither believe nor disbelieve. He is simply moving along the conveyor belt, which takes him from cradle to kollel. He goes through the motions, and may even be very happy doing so. But his lack of conviction permeates all that he does. These youngsters are as much at risk as the disenchanted, although they may not be aware of it yet. . . . Woe to him, if ever faced with a serious nisayon, like the temptation for something immoral or dishonest. Only real conviction can enable one to withstand temptation, not a robotic life style."

And it occurs to me that the author touches on a presciant point. However, the author limits his point to the teenage and young adult community, that they have no deep connection and conviction to what they live. But perhaps the points are connected. Perhaps people need to have great and perfect leaders because they have no conviction and connection to their lifestyle.

Imagine this: A person goes to temple and prays. And as we know from published scientific studies, prayer is akin to meditation in the creation of delta waves in the brain. So this person, while he prays and shortly afterwards, feels all warm and fuzzy and deeply connected to a spirit outside of themself. But then the feeling goes away. They go to work or home. Maybe they do something rotton or unhealthy. Or maybe they just go about their day. Either way, as the song says, "the feelings gone and I just can't get it back." So the person feels bad. The person feels like a failure that they live this lifestyle and it hasn't delivered them from pain and suffering. Nor are they rewarded for living the lifestyle. Sure there are times, when a person prays or studies, but most of the time there is no payoff, or not enough of a payoff and they feel like they are less, they feel like they just are not good enough, righteous enough, holy enough.

And if they aren't holy enough that is their failure so long as there is a perfect man they can point to and say, "but its worth it because look at him, that man is holy, that man is perfect, everything that man says comes from god and is true."

But those people are not perfect, at least not in the way a funadmentalist believes. These people all had their humanity firmly intact. Whenever someone talks about a holy man it always helps me to remind myself that that person was once a teenager furiously masterbating in secret. That always puts life back into perspective.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

'Child-starving' mom indicted in J'lem

MY favorite part of the article below is when the spokesman says that they will riot if the mom is arrested or if her conditions of house arrest are worsened. They won't even wait to see if there is a chance that this woman brutalized her kid. The child's safety is less important than making the point that the state has no power over these people.

How can the State of Israel, or any country survive with the rule of law so twisted to suit each seperate group? How can only secular jews be prosecuted? How is that at all ok?

I firmly believe that these types of issues will be the destruction of Israel long term. If the arabs were smart they would sit back and wait for Israel to tear herself apart. Then they could just walk in and scoop up the remains.

Here is the article, from the Jerusalem Post, no left wing rag:

An indictment was served Tuesday in the Jerusalem District Court against a haredi woman suspected of starving her three-year-old child over a period of two years. The woman's internment sparked riots in Jerusalem which lasted nearly a week.


The ultra-Orthodox Toldot Aharon sect to which the woman belongs threatened to renew riots if she is remanded again or if the conditions of her house arrest are worsened.
The woman underwent a psychiatric evaluation last week and was found to be fit for trial.
Since her arrest, the mother has consistently refused to cooperate with investigators, and has been erratic in appearing for both court hearings and psychiatric evaluations.
Her son, who weighed just seven kilograms when he was admitted to Hadassha Ein Kerem Hospital at the end of June, was discharged last Friday to the care of relatives. He gained at least three kilograms while he was hospitalized.
At the end of June, Toldot Aharon members rioted throughout religious neighborhoods in the capital in protest against the arrest of the mother. Only after police released the woman to house arrest did the violence subside.
Throughout the saga, the mother has maintained her innocence, and has insisted that her child suffers from multiple illnesses which interfere with his eating.