I truly have never been more discouraged about this country than I have been in the last few years… this Supreme Court definitely plays into that discouragement.
I would hate to see John Oliver give this awful Supreme Court Justice $1,000,000 a year for life, but he certainly does not need to be on the Supreme Court bench. Of course Clarence Thomas is 75 years old, statistically he will likely be out of here within 8 or 10 years. However, at the end of the day, John Oliver has made a bet with himself that Clarence Thomas will not accept his offer.
Which reminded me of a story I had read about Rabbi Hillel…
The Talmud is the second most important book of the Jewish faith. As described at the website Sefaria.org:
“The Talmud is the textual record of generations of rabbinic debate about law, philosophy, and biblical interpretation, compiled between the 3rd and 8th centuries and structured as commentary on the Mishnah with stories interwoven. The Talmud exists in two versions: the more commonly studied Babylonian Talmud was compiled in present-day Iraq, while the Jerusalem Talmud was compiled in Israel.”
There is a story attributed to two second century rabbinic scholars of this book , Hillel and Shammai. As recounted at the website Forward:
“[They were]…contemporaries paired together by Jewish tradition as archetypical opposites: Hillel the tolerant and liberal ‘loose constructionist’ of the Law, Shammai the exacting and inflexible ‘strict constructionist.’
In one story about them, a gentile comes to both and asks, with the obvious intention of provoking them, to be taught the whole Torah while standing on one leg. Shammai is indeed provoked and gives the man an angry whack with a measuring rod. Hillel replies, ‘That which is hateful to you, do not unto another: This is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary — [and now] go study.’“
How hard can this be people? Apparently too damn hard.
My mother had a unique and characteristic method of passing on values, morals, correct behavior – I am not quite sure how to categorize what she was attempting to do. She had a library of canned routines that were triggered by the conduct of, first of us boys, and then later by grandchildren. I theorize that she was utilizing the marketing method of repeated hearings to drive home a point. She was not above turning these chastisements into little ditties. I do not have fond memories of her educative method, quite the contrary. I did not see then Continue reading “CFOP – Consideration for Other People”
I have written about my Uncle Paul, my mother’s brother, several times on this blog. He is considered a war hero from WW II, and for 30 years or so there was a Navy missile frigate floating around the oceans with his name on the bow.
Below you will find two links to letters written to the family from the Navy. The first is to my grandmother, who everyone knew as Mama Carr, from the Commander of the USS Samuel B. Roberts. The second letter is from the Executive Officer to Paul’s wife Goldia.
I had always heard that the Captain of the ship had nominated Paul H. Carr for the Navy Cross, but this the first time I have seen it in print. I believe the Navy’s reason for not awarding it was that there needed to have been more witnesses…
Columbus Day is still a Federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the Monday closest to the 12th of October. However, many states are renaming it, terming it Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and rightly so. If you have read the history of Christopher Columbus he was not a moral person. His treatment of indigenous people and people of color in general was abhorrent. Normally, I try to understand historical figures in Continue reading “Día de la Diversidad Cultural “
One of the guiding principles of my life is live and let live. If I were being honest, I would have to admit to falling short of this goal far too often, but it is a light I steer towards. In that same vein I have a mantra I recite whenever I am speaking or thinking about religious beliefs or sexual orientation, “Life is tough, whatever gets you through the day, whatever gets you through the night.”
Luisito Comunica is a Mexican YouTuber who is SUPER popular in in Latin America with almost 40,000,000 followers. He travels around the world making YouTube videos of the various countries he visits. Occasionally you will also see his girlfriend (may be ex now) in the videos. She is a very hot Venezuelan model. Talk about a couple of opposites. Go figure!
I watch his videos to have another channel of Spanish input into my old brain, plus he is VERY entertaining. Most of the time his videos are on the lighter side or pointing out cultural oddities. Occasionally he gets serious as he has done in this video.
In early 2017, Qatar’s total population was 2.6 million, with 313,000 of them Qatari citizens. Basically you have millions of imported workers supporting the Qatari few. I wonder what Mohamed would think about that situation in light of the squalid living conditions?
Since his audience is Latin America, English subtitles are not available, but I think a few minutes watching this video and you will get the idea… even if you do not understand him.
This is his third video in Qatar. The first two were of the side of Qatar the powers to be there would like you to see. I sincerely hope that he has left Qatar before posting this one.
I only infrequently post “memes”, but I really like this one! I don’t quite understand why THE MEDIA spends so much time on the utterances of billionaires such of Elon Musk. They generally do not add anything positive to our political or economic discussions. So many of them seem to think they are geniuses in all areas since they managed to make a boat load of money…one way or the other.
I generally agree with Bill Maher, but I find him so self-righteous that at times I find him hard to take.
I find myself between a rock and hard place shopping these days for all things except groceries. In full disclosure (smiley face) Señora takes care of that. I really do not like buying from Amazon because 1) I find Jeff Bezos obnoxious beyond words 2) I do not see Amazon’s business model good for anyone except Jeff Bezos and maybe Amazon shareholders 3) they like many of these big tech companies went over to the dark side long ago.
Where is Luke Skywalker when you need him?
Yet I keep buying from Amazon. When I try to buy locally I generally cannot find what I want. I say locally, most the stores anymore are really part of huge corporations. And these huge corporations continue to eat into many businesses that have traditionally been local mom and pop operations. Have you tried to find an independent barber shop lately?
So then I try to buy online, but not from Amazon. But somehow Amazon always beats everyone else to death price wise. I thought I found a good source for used books that was not Amazon, Abebooks. Guess what. Amazon owns them.
Where is Teddy Roosevelt when you need him?
If you are sensitive to “colorful” language… you might want to avoid Mr. Maher and this video.
After Bezos rode into space on Blue Origin’s maiden voyage, he famously said this in a news conference.
“I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all this.”
To me ears that was one rankest statements of hubris I have ever heard, given Amazon’s reputation for overworking and underpaying employees, given how their business model has changed the American landscape – and not for the better.
