Apr 22nd, 2010
by rabbifink.
I am really appreciative to MSNBC.com for the great publicity they gave our Shul with the Escape Into America photo-film as I mentioned here: Pacific Jewish Center Featured on MSNBC.com. In addition, I now need to thank MSNBC for informing me of one of the craziest ideas I have ever heard.
Today is Earth Day and I have gone on record supporting conservation and many green initiatives. I believe conservation is an important part of a Torah lifestyle. (See Earth Day and Torah, Green Post and The Story of Bottled Water Review: Important Video, Way Over the Top.)
While I love the idea of being environmentally conscious, to me it is just a factor in making choices. We all weigh our priorities when we make choices and Going Green is something to consider among other factors. (more…)
Apr 7th, 2010
by rabbifink.
Last year I blogged about a wildly popular video called “The Story of Stuff” in my Green Post. At the time I lauded the video’s very important message but was disappointed in the means used to deliver that message.
The video used hyperbole and tactics reminiscent of propoganda materials to sway its viewer. I feel that when the facts are so compelling and the message so simple, the theatrics only serve to obscure the importance of the message.
Apparantly, Annie Leonard does not read my blog. (more…)
Oct 26th, 2009
by rabbifink.
Has the White House traveled back in time and space to the Mad Men era? To a place in time where women are 2nd class citizens and were refused equal opportunities?
Most people would say, “of course not”. But there are those who disagree.
Just ask Terry O’Neill the president for the National Organizatin of Women (NOW) about it. O’Neill says that this is a real issue.
The brouhaha started with the President’s pickup basketball games. Apparently, only men have been invited to play so far. According to O’Neill, this is an affront to women everywhere.
Yes, she is serious. (more…)
Oct 19th, 2009
by rabbifink.
We took the family to Santa Monica Pier on Sunday and our six year old son proved to be smarter than a Supreme Court Justice!
It is so beautiful to walk along the beach and observe all the excitement along the boardwalk and pier. As always, we had a great time in Santa Monica.
For the last few years there has been a protest / exhibit just north of the pier. The protestors are against war in general, the Iraq war in specific and pretty much the entire defense budget of the United States.
They call it Arlington West and they have set up a faux graveyard in the sand representing the fallen soldiers in what they call a criminal war. (more…)
Oct 8th, 2009
by rabbifink.
Am I missing something?
Normally I stay out of politics. But I think this issue transcends politics.
Friday October 9, 2009 at approximately 7:31 AM EST NASA is going to bomb the moon. This is an exercise designed to confirm or deny the existence of water on the moon. Video of the anticipated explosion is below.
The cost for such an exercise? (more…)
Sep 15th, 2009
by rabbifink.
Yesterday morning I received a blogging gift.
Sometimes there is just not much to write and that’s every bloggers worst nightmare. I had a few things that were on my mind that I wished to share but none of those ideas fermented into anything worth posting.
I love blogging and I think it is important to supply fresh content as often as possible. It is no fun to see the same posts every day. I needed something new.
Then I went outside and I found what is perhaps the most disturbing flyer I have ever seen attached to my car. (more…)
Aug 20th, 2009
by rabbifink.
This week’s big sports news involved my favorite athlete to hate, Brett Favre.
I mentioned Favre a while back in a post about immaturity and athletes. Back then, I was contrasting the complimentary way in which Favre is recognized for his youthful exuberance and the way athletes who act immaturely and hold out for money or take PEDs are lambasted. (Read all about it here.)
I dislike Favre, but it is not really his fault. ESPN makes me hate Favre with over-reporting and unprofessional, blatant favoritism and flattery of Favre. It is just impossible to like a guy who is in the news that much.
For others, the hatred toward Favre is due to his “treachery”. To illustrate I have some photos for you. (more…)
Jul 28th, 2009
by rabbifink.
This post has been cross-posted to DovBear – more discussion there.
The newswires have been full reporting the massive scandal in NY / NJ the last few days. There is a strong correlation between the scandal and something prevalent in contemporary Orthodox Jewish society.
You may think you are far from a money-laundering, tax evading, kidney-dealing, FBI snitching, tax-evading, “knucklehead”. You may even be have the cleanest books on Wall Street and third party audits to prove it. Yet, our entire generation is infected with the same virus that the”knucklehead”are carrying.
(more…)
Jul 21st, 2009
by rabbifink.
The writer, a woman, calls upon all Orthodox Jews to reject “the evil feminists” of Kolech and “have as many children as possible, as soon as possible”. For there is no greater joy in life than having many children.
Her arguments are weak (read it for yourself) and the ending says it all: “Trust me”. Why should I trust her?
As a proud father of 2 beautiful boys (a 6 year old and 8 month old) I can attest to the joys of parenthood. Giving the gift of life to one’s offspring is both very powerful and oftentimes emotional. I cannot imagine my life without my family.
I must take issue with this woman’s assertion that “the greatest gift we can give our families is a big family. Very big”.
Jul 19th, 2009
by rabbifink.
One of my favorite gadget blogs ran a despicable headline for a post yesterday. Gizmodo is a great blog when it comes to getting information, reviews and opinions on the latest technology and gadgets. Unfortunately, yesterday they disgraced their reputation with a pretty offensive headline.
The headline garnered enough attention that they ultimately changed it to something less offensive.
(more…)
Jul 13th, 2009
by rabbifink.
A Religious charity in Israel has embarked on what I and many others feel to be a misleadeing charity campaign.
Promises 0f safety from danger, special perks and privileges and out of context quotes from great Rabbis permeate the campaign.
I wrote all ab0ut in on DovBear. You can check it out by clicking below.
(more…)
Jun 25th, 2009
by rabbifink.
UPDATE: Friday morning 6/25/09 I updated the post to more accurately reflect the protagonist’s personality.
I am so disturbed right now.
My wife and I have a summer camp for pre-school children in Monsey NY. That is why we left Los Angeles / Venice for the summer. We don’t own our own camp grounds so during the year we store everything in a shed at my in-laws’ home in Monsey.
Sometime before camp begins we need to get everything from the in-laws to our summer location. Today was moving day. What I heard during the move was disturbing enough to share with you.
(more…)
May 19th, 2009
by rabbifink.
“Flamewar” is a prolonged exchange of deliberately hostile messages over the Internet. – Wikipedia
Last week I blogged about the battle of the wings. The political Left Wing and the Right Wing are battling it out to the death.
The vitriol and hyperbole on both sides is so disproportionate with reality. Left wingers are not communists and right wingers are not corporate overlords. We are all really much closer to the middle.
One area that there is no real middle is on the issue of God.
(more…)
May 15th, 2009
by rabbifink.
Green.
It used to be an innocent color. Now, it means so much more.
Previously, I talked about the Torah approach to Earth Day. Today, I am going to take a brief dip into Green Politics. Normally, I steer clear of politics. One exception was when I wrote about Political Discrimination. Now that technology gives us the ability to figure out who believes in what politics, it is possible to discriminate against people whom you never knew, because of their politics.
My general opinion in politics is (more…)
Apr 24th, 2009
by rabbifink.
Look, I enjoy sports. (Go Lakers). But this is getting ridiculous!
Nearly 48 thousand people have voted (as of this posting) on the current poll in ESPN.com that asks the following query:
Who do you know more about?
- Potential First Round Picks in the NFL Draft
- People in your office/class
I am surprised by the results.
(more…)
Feb 22nd, 2009
by rabbifink.
I just found this on the NY Times website. Citibank is my bank. I love their service and they have a great online banking website. Unfortunately there are people who run the bank who may have brains the size of peanuts (not very big).
We all get emails that try to elicit our personal information. The scammers want us send them our personal information. Then they use that information to build trust and then BAM! you get scammed for millions of dollars.
Most people do not fall for these scams.
Sometimes people do.
Sometimes even banks do.
(more…)
Feb 18th, 2009
by rabbifink.
Today I read about the declining standard of living in our country. Salaries are coming down, more and more people are getting laid off and credit is harder to find.
“Rampant consumerism” will be a necessary casualty of the current economy. That is a good thing. (more…)
Feb 11th, 2009
by rabbifink.
Yesterday I wrote about tolerance. Democracy is built on tolerance. We are each entitled to our opinions and are not subject to discrimination based on our political beliefs.
We all love democracy. It sure beats the alternatives.
One major benefit to democracy is the right to voice your opinion anonymously in a vote. That is how we choose our law and policy makers in the USA. This is great because one cannot be persecuted or discriminated against based upon your political choices if you choose to keep your choices a secret.
Right now that is being put to the test. More and more people are being discriminated against for their political views.
(more…)
Jan 22nd, 2009
by rabbifink.
Yes. It is true. The Moment of Silence in Public Schools in Illinois is unconstitutional. Let’s take a moment of silence to remember the moment of silence.
A total of 18 states have similar statutes in their legislation giving students a moment of silence or prayer during school time.
In 1969 the Illinois legislature passed the following act:
(more…)
Jan 15th, 2009
by rabbifink.
Thanks to The Seinfeld Episode: The Cartoon whenever I see The New Yorker magazine I check to see if the cartoons are actually funny. One of my professors mentioned a New Yorker article last night about inaugural addresses so I went to check it out online. This cartoon was inset in a completely different article I was reading (which I did not “get”) and I just had to blog about the cartoon (which i do “get”)!
(more…)
Jan 14th, 2009
by rabbifink.
A few weeks ago I commented on the idiots who named their children Adolf Hitler Campbell and Aryan Nation Campbell. They had a problem getting a birthday cake. Awwww, too bad.
Now they have a new problem on their hands. They will need to be invited by the authorities for the next birthday party. It seems that they are in a bit of hot water with the child protections agency. The children have been removed from the custody of the parents. The newspaper has conflicting reports on what their reasons were for removing the children from their home.
Apparently, the children were removed but NOT because of their names. So that just means that the parents were idiots when they named their kids and they continue to be idiots enough to warrant taking their children away!
I can’t say I am happy when a child is taken away from its parents but this might actually be a good thing…
Jan 14th, 2009
by rabbifink.
This NY Times article written by a pediatrician follows the usual course of “today’s generation has bad manners, but it is not a new problem, it has always been this way… etc.”. The doctor recommends a book called Miss Manners’ Guide to Rearing Perfect Children. Great title by the way. Perfect? Really? Where do I sign up? Maybe a bit of hyperbole there…?
The aforementioned book makes one very important point that we have been underlining over and over again in our Messilas Yesharim classes. The idea that we are all born as selfish children. The book has its own approach to dealing with this issue. I raise the issue here to remind myself that that childishness that we are born with, the child inside us, he never grows up, he is with us until we leave this earth. Our challenge is to channel that child and not allow the selfishness inside us dictate our decisions. When we recognize that the child inside us that used to say “gimme, gimme” and if it had the chance would eat jellybeans for every meal is actually still inside us we can begin to deal with it. The child’s message changes from jellybeans to newer more sophisticated version of jellybeans. But he is still there and always will be there. Our job is to the boss of that child and allow our adult, mature loving selves to persevere. You may find some real good advice in the Messilas Yesharim classes in this regard.
Well, actually the doctor’s favorite part of the book is to me a big mistake as well the root of these problems in the first place! Here is the excerpt from the article where the doctor praises Miss Manners approach…
“I like Miss Manners’ approach because it lets a parent respect a child’s intellectual and emotional privacy: I’m not telling you to like your teacher; I’m telling you to treat her with courtesy. I’m not telling you that you can’t hate Tommy; I’m telling you that you can’t hit Tommy. Your feelings are your own private business; your behavior is public.”
The message here is that you can think whatever you want just you need to keep it to yourself. This is actually good advice as a last resort but it cannot be the right way to develop good people. The only way to develop good people is to develop the skills necessary to be good people. Hiding your feelings is a useful tool but it is not the most important skill in becoming a good person.
The missing ingredient here is trying to see the good in others as opposed to finding their flaws and then “hating” them for it – privately of course. If a child says that they dislike someone then the way to help correct that behavior is by helping the child see all the good that the other person does and all the nice things about that other person. This is a very rare and very basic skill. If we only see bad in the other person to the point that we feel negatively towards them then we need to adjust how we view them. We can do this and this is actually developing the adult in us and taking charge of our child inside us.
Imagine if the entire world was teaching their children to see the good in other people instead of the negative. The world would definitely be a better place! Not to mention all the therapy and other side-effects that would be avoided by people not having to suppress their negative feelings!
I am going to start imagining that world now, so I will end this post…
This post is really two Public Service Announcements.
