Rarely do I get into issues of American politics here, including (and especially) talking about our wonderful Mr. President. This is one of those rare times:
From a post at YNet News:
“Bush: Disengagement will increase Israel’s security
U.S. President George W. Bush said Israel’s planned pullout from the Gaza Strip will increase its security, in excerpts of an interview broadcast Thursday on Israel TV.
Interviewed at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Bush said, ‘The disengagement is, I think, a part of making Israel more secure and peaceful.’ (AP)
(08.11.05, 22:48)”
Wow. I never thought my opinion of this guy could sink lower, but there he is, outdoing himself. This is clearly ridiculous. That would be like rewarding Al-Qaeda with New York City after 9/11 so we could have a more secure and peaceful America.
It’s so easy to say this kind of crap when you’re half a world away in your multi-million dollar ranch.
I’m having the most wonderful morning, and it’s not even 9 am yet. Last night we got home around midnight from a Tori Amos concert, and as usual for Miami Beach, there was no parking anywhere near our building. So I did what I usually do, park in the Day Car just around the corner. Normally it’s not a problem to park there overnight as long as I get up very early and move the car before their day starts.
Guess what happened this morning…
I completely forgot about moving the car (even though I’ve been awake since 6 am), and by the time I was leaving for the synangogue at 7:30 am, the car had been towed. To top it all off, my wife lent her car yesterday to her mother, so our usually-available second car was 15 miles away. And to put a cherry on top, to get the car back, I need to pay $170 PLUS have the car’s actual owner (that would be my father-in-law, who lives 25 miles south of me) come to the towing company’s office. So in less than 2 hours since being awake, I have already lost $170, my composure, and inconvenienced both my in-laws. Peachy!!!
All that and I have yet to do my morning prayers; can’t concentrate at the moment.
I see this as a divine slap on the wrist, though. We are in the time leading to Tisha B’Av (lit. 9th of Av), and in this period, especially in the nine days preceding it, we are not supposed to listen to live music, as it is supposed to be a time of mourning and reflection. We bought the tickets to the concert months ago without realizing the concert would be smack in the middle of the nine days. We went, and we enjoyed it, but my gut feeling is that this event is a small disciplinary action, a warning, if you will.
Now, off to get all this taken care of.
Female circumcision surfaces in Iraq – Yahoo! News
I am so incredibly astonished and angry that such a barbaric and horrible practice as Female Genital Mutilation (Google) is still in practice in this backwater town in Iraq! I mean, this is a practice that has even been condemned by Muslim imams as not being part of the Islamic belief. I don’t want to hear it about us having to respect other culture’s religious practices because it is not (FGM is a social practice, and I don’t care about respecting it identified as such either), despite the misguided interpretation of some passage of other of the Koran. And I don’t even want to hear about this being compared to male circumcision, because they are not the same thing, not even close. I am all for tolerance across the board, but then I see things like this and I seriously think about reconsidering my stance.
My favorite part of the article:
When WADI presented the results of its survey in Vienna this spring, Mr. Osten-Sacken recalls, various Iraqi groups accused the group of being an agent of the Israelis.
Man, it didn’t take long for Israel to get dragged into the fray and down into the mud. Mind you, the accusation did not stem from claims the study is making up information, rather, “They accused us of publicizing the country’s secrets.”
I’m just speechless.
Create your own visited states map
As you can see, I’ve traveled very little within the United States (6 states, 11%). I visited, and now live in, Florida, went to Texas in 1990 for 2 weeks, went to North Carolina and Tennessee in 1988 for a week (summer camp kind of thing in NC, with only a day-long visit to Dollywood in TN–don’t ask), visited Winsconsin in 2001 for Gen Con, and gone to New York City 4 times in the last 2 years and counting (my sister-in-law lives there). Now a good friend has moved to North Carolina, so we’ll be visiting more. That still leaves a whole lot of states that I have not graced with my prescence.
I fare a lot better when tallying countries visited:
Create your own visited countries map
Though, of course, in relation to the whole world, it’s a very small percentage (9 countries, 4%). I come from Puerto Rico (invisible red spot in the caribbean, right of Dominican Republic), and now live in the US. In 2001 I visited England, Scotland (they count as the UK), Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France (the Transfiguration Tour), while in 2002 I went to Ireland for my honeymoon. Next year we’re planning to go back to the Netherlands and to Belgium, and one day, G-d willing, we want to go to Australia, New Zealand, and Israel.
Yes, it’s a boring afternoon at work. 
I’ve been listening to the Dragon’s Landing Inn podcast since it started four weeks ago, and I like it a lot. The hosts, Chuck and Lonnie, have a good idea of what they want to do, and a format that, while still evolving, gives it structure and pacing. You just know the guys are doing it for the fun of it, but they are serious in their endeavor, and it shows in the quality of the program.
All that gushing aside, imagine my surprise when I was listening to the latest episode (#4) on my way to work, and they start reviewing my products! I had sent the guys three samples from my catalog, and it was great hearing them talk about my work. The reviews were very favorable, and hey, it’s free advertising!
Check out episode #4 of the Dragon’s Landing Inn podcast, and download the rest while you’re at it. These guys are on the right track.
With those words my wife and I (and the rest of the country) breathed a sigh of relief that the space shuttle Discovery had safely made it back home to Earth. We didn’t even realize we were holding our breath as we watched the landing live on TV while having breakfast, and there was little we could do to hold back a couple tears of joy.
When the Columbia exploded two years ago, we were incredibly distraught, not just because of the tragedy of it all, but also because we had an emotional investment on that mission, namely Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli in space, the first Jew to leave the confines of this planet and keep the commandments he rarely kept on terra firma. Discovery’s mission had no similar attachment, though it became surprisingly important in our lives, to the point where we were actually joyful that everything had turned out right and that these explorers were now back home.
We say it with such mundane flippancy, “They were in space,” but this morning I stopped to relfect on those words, on the fact that these men and women had gone somewhere most people will never go. These modern-day explorers had left the confines of ultimate security, Earth, to venture into a place that is entirely inhospitable, a realm of silence and darkness, where we are not rulers or leaders, a realm of unparalleled beauty, where G-d’s magnificent creation is undeniable. I only think to my travels, and that moment when I come back home, and I try to multiply that by a number too large to fathom, and it gives me chills.
Thank G-d for bringing our astronauts safely back home to Earth.
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