US Sends Tons Of Food Aid To North Korea - The Huffington Post

US Sends Tons Of Food Aid To North Korea - The Huffington Post: "US Sends Tons Of Food Aid To North Korea"

GREETINGS, AMERICANS

Marijuana Cornucopia

Wired Science - Wired Blogs: "Some Proof that Marijuana is a Powerful Medicine
By Aaron Rowe EmailJune 29, 2008 | 4:31:40 PMCategories: Chem Lab, Chemicals, Chemistry, Drugs & Alcohol, Food and Drink, Medicinal Chemistry, Natural Product Chemistry, Neuroscience

Bud

Marijuana contains an amazing chemical, beta-caryophyllene, and scientists have thoroughly proven that it could be used to treat pain, inflammation, atherosclerosis, and osteoporosis.

Jürg Gertsch, of ETH Zürich, and his collaborators from three other universities learned that the natural molecule can activate a protein called cannabinoid receptor type 2. When that biological button is pushed, it soothes the immune system, increases bone mass, and blocks pain signals -- without causing euphoria or interfering with the central nervous system.

Gertsch and his team published their findings on June 23 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.They focused on the anti-inflammatory properties of the impressive substance -- testing it on immune cells called monocytes and also in mice.

Since beta-caryophyllene seems to be powerful, occurs naturally in many foods, and does not get people high, it could turn out to be a nearly ideal medication. The organic compound is also phenomenally cheap. Sigma Aldrich sells it, in kosher form, for forty-two dollars per kilogram.

Unfortunately, big pharmaceutical compan"

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Bill Clinton says Barack Obama must 'kiss my ass' for his support - Telegraph

Bill Clinton says Barack Obama must 'kiss my ass' for his support - Telegraph: "Bill Clinton says Barack Obama must 'kiss my ass' for his support
By Tim Shipman in Washington and Philip Sherwell in New York"

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

HorsesAss.Org » Blog Archive » I-1000 Turns in Signatures

HorsesAss.Org » Blog Archive » I-1000 Turns in Signatures
While I support the I-1000 , I am also worried that it could be misused to interfere in the existing process of allowing patients to die.

Death of the terminally ill is not a simple matter of waiting for the spirit to depart. Decisions need to be made that balance a person's pain, psychological state, wishes (what Buddhism calls attachement), viability, and the feelings of their family.

If someone is near death but very agitated, do you give them tranquilizers that make it easier to accept death?

If someone in in great pain but pain drugs make other body functions less able, to you allieve pain?

If a person has said they do not want to be resuscitated but you know that they have a good chance of living later do you resuscitate anyway?

If a family is tightly tied to the person, maybe to the point of believing the existence of a soul in what is clinically a dead person, who decides then?

All of these are very real questions. Currently such issues are answered ina very informal way that depends on the trust of the patient, the family and the physicians.

Is this trust ever abused? Would Swedish' CCU work harder to keep Daddy Gates alive then keeping some down and out drig user alive?

I suspect abuse occurs, but I also believe that intrusion of our legal system into these immensely personal decision would make matters much worse.

So, SJ's concern is that in an effort to legalize suicide, we might grease the slippery slope leading to an expensive and personally harmful change in how folks dies now.

HorsesAss.Org » Blog Archive » Will Italian Club condemn Rossi for his offensive Sopranos reference?

HorsesAss.Org » Blog Archive » Will Italian Club condemn Rossi for his offensive Sopranos reference?: "What the F is wrong wi being Mafia? For that matter why only give the EYEtalinas credit for the mafia?

Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was an original organized crime pillar.
-and a pillar of the so-called Jewish mob--Meyer Lansk

My grand uncle was a card-carrying soldier in the service of the mafia. He earned his creds protecting kosher meat but graduated to pimping, slavery and an occasional murder.

You don’t like the mafia? Damnitall I would take the black Chevey’s patrolling the North End of Boston over any dumbass irish guys in a blue and white!

Tony Soprano, bull … howsabout Dutch Shultz?

BTW … all you goyem out there, ya did notice that Abramoff was the central guy in the Repircan shit! Da dems got mixed up with the wrong mafiosi! Jack might still be alive if he had our protection. Guess why Bushoe won’t ever be indicted? When we protect a guy, we mean it!

Next time you Seattlites are upset about street crime here in Sweden, just think how cool it ould be to call the Mafia and ask my uncle Louie to fix it. He would tell you, “Done is done.”"

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

http://www.jewishtribalreview.org/09crime.htm

Life on the fringes of U.S. suburbia becomes untenable with rising gas costs - International Herald Tribune

SJ has wondered when the impact of fuel prices on the suburbs would begin to become clear.

This is a real opening for the Dems. We obviously need an Eisenhower style effort (he built the interstate) to create the sort of regional rail that would allow people to live spread out w/o requiring autos. In some places, a lot of the SouthW, it is already too late . BUT politically, the Dems could say that such areas need to come up with plans for how to transition .. perhaps to multicentered urban developments? For other places where this has not already gotten out of hand, e.g Seattle, and some of the midwestern cities this could be a blessing.

An interesting variation is the OPPORTUNITY to tie together urban renewal, new industry (building trains) and the energy crisis! Imagine Detroit/GM and Seattle/Boeing competing for new generation of fuel efficient, computer controlled transit systems! Current transit is based on technology that is easily 100 years old. I find it incomprehensible that there are no opportunities to improve on this. Moreover, with clever legislation, the profit gained by NOT using fuel ought to be realizable by the industries building this technology.

At the federal level, there are MANY opportunities. I would bet that the savings from a 50 billion dollar redo of the worst messes ... say LA and NY-Boston, would be far bigger than any profit from drilling in Anwar AND have a far greater long term impact.

There is also a huge opportunity for the Feds to offer funds to areas that come up with plans that reduce the future need for fuel. Arguably, the net cost of such funds might be zero or there could even be a profit. The same effort might be directed at housing costs. Unless something happens, the price of a house in Seattle is gonna go sky high because living in Seattle is so much cheaper than living in the burbs when car costs go into the red. So, how do we restrain real estate costs? The answer is alread clear ... look at the vast amount of moderate cost housing going onto the Ranier Valley as a reult of transit to/from Seatac.

I know there are a lot of naysayers on the Dem side .. folks who are still afraid of the Reprican party. If NOW is not the time to show leadership, then when? For example, we ARE gonna build a new 520. It is clear that Redmond/Bellevue/Seattle will comprise a multicentered ubanaopolis for some time to come. Why not invest in that now? This would also be a great time to challenge Microsoft. Clearly they have every reason to want good interactions between the Gates Foundation (under the Space Needle) and his company on the shores of Lake Sammamish. Why not challenge them to be directly involved in the fund raising? Would not free transit between Seattle, Redmond, and Bellevue be a good employment Perk?

One final point is that there is wonderful tie in here to the infrastructure issues that affect Boeing. Boeing 's choosing Everett was dependent on the relatively short distance needed for land transport of parts coming to the 787 plant from the effin whole world. A regional effort to improve that structure, to encourage Boeing workers to live nearer to the plant by helping the port of Everett grow would be a great campaign issue for Gregoire. This could also play off of the opportunity to create a Washington State Polytechnic College in Everett. Hasn't the Time come for the Gates Institute of Polytechnology?

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Life on the fringes of U.S. suburbia becomes untenable with rising gas costs - International Herald Tribune: "ELIZABETH, Colorado: Suddenly, the economics of American suburban life are under assault as skyrocketing energy prices inflate the costs of reaching, heating and cooling homes on the outer edges of metropolitan areas.

Just off Singing Hills Road, in one of hundreds of two-story homes dotting a former cattle ranch beyond the southern fringes of Denver, Phil Boyle and his family openly wonder if they will have to move close to town to get some relief.

They still revel in the space and quiet that has drawn a steady exodus from U.S. cities toward places like this for more than half a century. Their living room ceiling soars two stories high. A swing-set sways in the breeze in their backyard. Their wrap-around porch looks out over the flat scrub of the high plains to the snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains."

Jewish Atheist has tagged my with a meme which may or may not be called the "Atheist 13". Let's dive in.

Q1. How would you define “atheism”?

Any omnipotent deity would have to be less moral than I am. That is too frightening a concept to accept.

Q2. Was your upbringing religious? If so, what tradition?

I grew up an ambiguous Jew. Family non observant but I did have a Bar mitvah. In college became fascinated by the origins of religion.

Q3. How would you describe “Intelligent Design”, using only one word?

a meaningless term.

Q4. What scientific endeavor really excites you?

Cosmology and evolution.

Q5. If you could change one thing about the “atheist community”, what would it be and why?

Most American atheism is defined more by its rejection of Christianity than by affirmation of any beleifs in man. That makes American atheism distateful for a Jew and inappropriately weak when dealing with ehtical and moral challenges.

Q6. If your child came up to you and said “I’m joining the clergy”, what would be your first response?

Fine by me .. as long as "clergy" here meant becomong a Rabbi. I beleive Judaism offers something far more valuable than Christianity and would be upset by a conversion.

Q7. What’s your favorite theistic argument, and how do you usually refute it?

Theists confuse two "gods." One might be called the first cause .. the idea that there mustr be a force or peronality underlying our relaity. I have no problem with that idea as long as it is stated as a hypotheisis rathger than a fact. In soe ways I subscribe to this idea.

The other is the idea that God is good. What should there be any connection between a creator and an ongoing force for good? This makes no sense. Moreover, it is obvious that the world is less than perfectly good.

Q8. What’s your most “controversial” (as far as general attitudes amongst other atheists goes) viewpoint?

Unfortunately for Jews, most American or European atheists base their beliefs on a dispute with Christianity. There not being a Christian God has little to do with there not being a jewish God as Jesus and Hashem are very different concepts.

At the same time, the term "atheism" itself is implicitly negative. Why should thjis be? Most atheeists I have met are profoundly committed to a moral life. THAT is, to me, the major argument for balancing the word atheirst with the word Jew. Judaism has a wonderful, long tradtion of ethics existing in and off its own right. One casn belong to the tradtion of Hillel, Akiba, Maimonides, Spinoza, Alinsky without ascribing to the relaity of a Deity.

Q9. Of the “Four Horsemen” (Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens and Harris) who is your favorite, and why?

None of these. They all seem to me to be Christians in rebellion against their religion rather than true atheists. I am closer to Siddartha Gautam than to Dawkins.

Since, for me, the central tenets of ewish atheism is that Law exists in and off its own essence, I see athesim as a positive force. In re Christinaity, it is entirely possible for soenone to be a devout beliver in a Christian Deity whose devotion to deistic sacrifice is a surce of morality. I have no problem with respecting that POV esp,. because it mo5tivated many good people ..Chavez, John the XXIII, MLK, etc.

Q10. If you could convince just one theistic person to abandon their beliefs, who would it be?

The current Pope, His belief in ONE TRUTH is very dangerous.

Now name three other atheist blogs that you’d like to see take up the Atheist Thirteen gauntlet:

Not sure I know enough about other blogs to make a comment.

Obama Making Christian Push - washingtonpost.com

Obama Making Christian Push - washingtonpost.com: "By Daniel Burke
Religion News Service
Saturday, June 21, 2008; Page B09

WASHINGTON -- With the Democratic presidential nomination in his grasp, Sen. Barack Obama is making a full-throttle push for centrist evangelicals and Catholics.

It's a move that's caught some conservative evangelicals off guard. They say they are surprised and dismayed to see a liberal-minded politician attempting to conscript their troops. At the same time, they say that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has done little to court their affections."

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Fun!

"terrorist fist jab":

Just to correct the record!

So, for fun ..


How Barack Obama Arranged a Seat on the Supreme Court for Lawrence Tribe

Imagine this:

Barack Obama "Hello? Pope Benedict! Thank you for calling back about Justice Thomas!"
"Yes, I would like to ask a small favor."
"Would you consider appointing an very talented American Judge to a Cardinal's job?"
"No, as far as I know he is not a priest but my understanding is that your tradition does permit such appointments for accomplished people of faith."
"yes, he is very devout."
"Married? I see. Well, he IS beyond the age of reprod ---"
"Oh."
"Well, they were married in an Episcopal Church, could you annul it?"
"Great!"
"Yes, I will remember this when you need a favor."
"Me???"
"Hmmm, now that I am no longer a trinitarian, I could ....."
"Would Michelle also have to convert?"
"Tell you what, we will convert IF you do the invocation at my inaugural!"
"Itsa deal!"

SeattleJew

Early polls Bode Well, McCain's choices narrow.

Darryl,

Obama	McCain
98.5% probability of winning	1.4% probability of winning
Mean of 295 electoral votes	Mean of 243 electoral votes

Remember our bet .. BHO will take texas!

As one indicator .. look at NC, 47.4 52.6. That is very close and uggests that NC will b4e determined by turnout.

Texas numbers grossly do not look as good, but 41.6/58.4 may well not reflect what I expect will be a successful effort by BHO to turn the Chicano (as opposed to Hispanic vote). My guess is that this is easy to do by supporting a rational immigration policy, something McCain simply can nto afford to do w/o losing base.

IMO McC does have one throw at turning this and that is running a Whitman (he has two), Hutchinson, or Fierriena(sp?) as VEEP.

As fems, any of these would immediately counterbalance BHO's standing as an icon of change and, two of them have business cred that might very well appeal to middle class whites who are rightfully concerned about erosion of their jobs. Imagine a natiobal campaign built arounf McCain,and Whitman with strong support from Schwarznegger, Balmer (can he be outed?), and such folks, themed as "New Republicans."

One reason I think this theme may be MCcS's only choice is that I find it hard to imjagine any other dems functioning as suurogates for the Arizonian. Bush's rep are pretty beaten up. The few ho still look respectable, Jindal, Huckabee, and Ro9mney all have baggage that narrows their appeal. The only way McC can sell hinmself is by going outside of tradional Rep barriers. I will leave the CoonecticutYid out of this as I think he has the same issues as the other three just metnioned .. a very narrow appeal.

The only argument I have heard against this fem strategy is from libruls who think the believers will not vote for a pro-choice candidate. My bet is that there is enough wiggle in HOW one defines choice and that the general availability of birth control pills has erased this as a mjor middle class female concern.

MC's other alternatives are to hope for a deus ex machina goof by BHO ... something so far does not seem likely .... or an Iranian effort to elect him rather than BHO as in the Reagan:Carter race. Frankly, I am not sure the Iranians would want McC. He is not an idiot like Raygun or Bush.

The Vatican Rules

Gieb that much of the vatcan property was expropriated by means that wpuld today be illegal, perhaps the time has come for .....

The Vatican has banned the makers of a prequel to The Da Vinci Code from filming in its grounds or any church in Rome, describing the work as “an offence against God”.

Angels and Demons, the latest Dan Brown thriller to be turned into a film, includes key episodes that take place in the Vatican and Rome’s churches. Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, the head of the Vatican’s Prefecture for Economic Affairs, said that Brown had “turned the gospels upside down to poison the faith”.

“It would be unacceptable to transform churches into film sets so that his blasphemous novels can be made into films in the name of business,” he said, adding that Brown’s work “wounds common religious feelings”.

Father Marco Fibbi, a spokesman for the Diocese of Rome, said: “Normally we read the script but this time it was not necessary. The name Dan Brown was enough.”

Obituary for My Dad.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

For those of you who have not heard, my Dad, Robert Schwartz, died a week ago at Boston Medical Center.

Sadly his was not an easy death. Tough to the end, he did did not want to go. Even on his death bed, gasping through an assisted breathing mask, he expressed worries about things he had not yet done for family. Nonetheless, death was inevitable. At the end, his pulmonary capacity was very, very small and there was far too much pain.

The good side is that his children, grand children, and wife all got to be there and he passed on with family holding his hands. While I do not feel he was ready to go, Dad must have know not only about all of our love but about the wonderful support he was getting from the staff at BU.

As his son, I am very proud of what he achieved and the heritage he leaves especially to Havi and Hillel, our two kids along with hundreds of students. For those who may not have known hm, let me tell you a bit about his remarkable life.

On my Dad's side, our family traces itself to Valencia and the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492. Our surname there is not known, but my grandmother told me we were called by the epithet "negri," a derogatory "N" word used then for dark skinned "moorish" looking folks. After a time in Italy where we became the Negris (and lighter skinned family members became Belascioes) , parts of the family ended up in Brazil, Syria, Turkey and, for my grandfather Galicia, then a part of Austria under Franz Joseph.

Born to two immigrants from Galicia 91 years ago, my Dad lived through the era of immigration of Jews to the US, the Depression, prohibition, American antisemitism, Hitler, WWII, the nuclear era and cold war, the founding of Israel, McCarthy, the Civil Rights Revolution, the revolution in molecular biology, and more. He was involved in much of this in very personal ways. He even played a small role in undermining prohbition while serving as a courier for a family member invovled in distribution of the evil ethanol.

Unfortunately, perhaps because of remembered horrors of his time In post WW Germany, Robert Schwartz would never write a biography.

Living through the Depression, with too little money to attend college, my Dad matriculated at Middlesex University. This six year program leading to an MD, was later to close because of a low evaluation by the AMA's Flexner committee. All his life Dr. Schwartz felt a need to compensate for the source of his degree.

He married Mildred Lerner, one of the first female lawyers in Boston and daughter of a successful schoichet (kosher butcher). Her lifelong commitment was to their joint medical practice, our family and the idea of public service.

Millie drove Bob beyond any self imposed limitations comng from Middlesex. Volunteering to serve in Europe, my Dad was given his own medical company and served as Ike's poison gas adviser. At my Dad's request, Ike reassigned the' company to land on D-Day. Free to go where they were most needed, Dad and his men served in the major battles of WWII..

Finally his company liberated Buchenwald.

That event and events during his role as a Governor of a town in occupied Germany after the war resulted in nightmares for his whole life. Whenever I would suggest that he write a biography, Dad told me these memories were too painful to recall.

Back in the states, my Dad and my Mom "pioneered" civil rights, opening an office/home complex as the only Jews in a poor, Irish/Italian Catholic neighborhood of Boston called Hyde Park. The Catholics were not to happy about the arrival of Jews. The practice changed that. Overcoming some pretty vicious anti-Semitism, the office became a center for the community, along with the local Churches and schools. One local priest became a good friend, even giving me last rights when it appeared I was going to die at age 12 My Dad's practice, aided only by Mother .. a self-trained nurse, was a true "country doc" practice ... with everything from baby deliveries and coronaries to broken bones cared for in what was once the living room of our home.

Later they built a tiny office alongside the House. The "office" opened off of the rthe living room and had a total of about 900 square feet with its own rest room and an X-ray machine! The patients were poor, often paying in cannoli or "dego red" wine. I can remember many nights when the phone would ring and my Dad was off to give acute care for a coronary or home deliver a baby. My Dad's black bag rivalled today's emergency room carts!.

When he did not spend his nights giving acute care, Dad went through a pile of journals. My dad never felt he knew enough medicine to care for his patients. He was among the first physicians in Boston to own an EKG and Paul Dudley White sent his fellows down to our house were Dad ran an EKG tutorial. later, With Gus Kostecki, Dad developed an acoustic-EKG that cupled heart sounds to the electrocardiogram.

This devotion of a "local doc" to science attracted attention of faculty of the medical schools in Boston, beginning with Dr. Alice Lowell from Tufts. Along with Millie and Dr. Lowel's support, the practice morphed into one of the major sources of patients for Boston University School of Medicine. As a clinical professor at Tufts and BU, , Dad taught physical diagnosis and differential diagnosis to two generations of students. He played a major role in the origins of the American Academy of Family Practice. An amazing number of my colleagues have told me of their time as my Dad's students. As a teacher myself, I wonder if I can ever meet his standards?

There is a lot more to say about life in this office/home complex.. Politics and ethics were a dominant part of our family life. One particular story I love reflected my parents' commitment to equality.: During my applications to college, my Dad took me oin a trip to see Hopkins. We also visited Washing5ton DC. I was very impressed with the Black People we met on the streets of Baltimore and DC because they were SO polite. I commented on this telling him, "Black people here mst be a lot more educated than in Boston!" Dad corrected me, "No, they are not being polite, they are afraid of you because you are white." I wonder how many folks in 1959 had this sort of understanding?

Twenty seven years ago, my Mom Millie died, leaving a gaping wound that never healed despite the amazing devotion and love of his second wife, Betty. The practice continued for sixty tears in the same house, ending only two years ago when his health had deteriorated to the point where he was no long able to continue.

Dad's long role as a teacher of physicians had a fitting ending in his own care. The staff made a hard time memorable by their kindness.

My two sibs, our spouses, and the three grand kids have established the Robert Schwartz Black Bag Fund as a means of continuing the role Dad payed as a Clinical Professor and legendary teacher at BUSM. The memory and tradition, will be kept alive by an award for the third year BUSM student showing exceptional commitment to clinical medicine. Our family will provide the needed funds to assure the award can be made but anything additional funds will be used to help the selected students pursue their carers. Contributions can be sent in the namke of the fund to BUSM http://www.bumc.bu.edu/Dept/Home.aspx?DepartmentID=36. #

Boston University School of Medicine
# Office of Development
# 715 Albany Street, L219
# Boston, MA 02118


Thanks again.

Steve

Note to a Rabbi, After my Dad's Funeral

Paul,

My apologies for not responding to your kind message sooner.Though I know he wanted to live on, I am happy that things have come to what appears to be a reasonable end.

One way I may be able to express my thanks is by telling a story:

Some years ago I had a colleague who was a former Trappist monk. Tom had left his priesthood when he married and had kids. Of course, much of the priesthood stuck. making
for good discussions about the morality of medical eduction.

Barb and I wanted to get to know Tom better but before that could happen, disaster struck. His teen age daughter committed suicide.

We were honored to be invited to the funeral. The service was wonderful, honoring the girl for her good life and accepting the death as an illness rather than as a sin,

As we filed out I had a few moments with Tom's wife. She knew I was a Jew, but little more than that we did not believe in Jesus. The Mother pushed me to say, as a Jew, that the girl was now with God in heaven.
I could not do that, Instead I tried to tell her that her daughter lived on in each of us and how, I had been moved by the stories told at the funeral. I tried very hard to tell her how those stories would live on in my heart too.
She broke down and cried.

Later Tom came to see me and we agreed never to mix again because of the harm I had done to his wife.

I will bear the guilt for what I could not say for all my life.


Why could I not agree with the bereaved mother? Many years ago I developed my own rigorous set of ethics.

One of those rules is that I never knowingly lie. If I had had the skills to evade her question, I would have done so. But, I lacked those skills too.
So, in the pursuit of one of my own ethical rules I had broken an even more important rule, I knowingly hurt another human.

So,I suspect that Dad's funeral presented something of the same dilemma for you. The words that might serve to comfort me and my family would not serve the same function for .. say Steph or others who have different ties to the Deity.
Moreover, just as I mourned the young girl, you morned dad and had your own need to serve as well. Not an easy task, not a problem with any perfect answer.

For what it is worth, I would like to finish by telling you a bit about what I know my Dad did believe. First, his atheism, was not a result of repugnance over the Shoah. Nor was it a heated rejection relating with some struggle with the idea of Deity, in the fashion of Israel. Rather, Dad's beliefs arose from a conflict with his father, a conflict that occurred not long before my grandfather's death. As my Dad tells it, however, his father was pious and insisted that his sons obey Jewish law. My Dad, however, saw this rigor as cruelty. Forced to attend Cheder, my Dad questioned orthodoxy and refused to accept given truths. A request t quit cheder led to my zadi throwing Dad through a closed window. That broken window was follo0wed by Zadi's death, the Depression, and crushing poverty. My Father had more than enough reason to hate the Deity but, being rational, he instead made the decision that no such evil being could exist.

To my knowledge, he never again questioned this point of view. The decision to have a non kosher home was his, while my Mom won the decision to have us attend Hebrew School and make the decisions about Hashem on our own. He never taught atheism to us nor did she teach beleif.

What they did teach was Jewish pride and commitment to the Jewish tradition of struggle for justice. They both despised Rabbis who misused their learning and authority, blaming these rabbis especially for out not fighting back against antisemitism.

As for Buchenwald, while I am sure he would have seen this as more reason not to believe in a Deity, Dad's conclusion from this was to blame the ability of man to be inhumane. He believed that ethnic hatred was a property of men and was proud of Judaism for its resistance to that, may I say "God-given" human attribute?

The lesson? The common lesson of both my parents was that Jews should be moral because THAT is Jewish tradition and Law. We should be a model to others, not because God says so but because we have learned form our unique history.

This lesson has been passed on and has grown in my family. Some of our traditions may interest you:

1. we annually celebrate the Jewish Nobels.
2. we donate to Medecin sans Frontiers as a Jewish organization.
3. on Shabbat, every week we try tot wish Shabbat shalom to thiose in the world who have done the most good.
4. we participate as Jews in civil rights and other political efforts. My blog www.SeattleJew.blogspot.com is an example.
5. most of this is summed uo at Pesach. . In the Haggadah we add the Jewish history and history of other struggles for freedom that have taken place over the ~3000 years since Egypt. We try to celebrate our contributions ot human freedom.

Our Haggadah can be seen at http://www.vasculata.com/Haggadah.htm.

Quoting from the Schwartz haggadah, let me try to giver you a feel for how we deal with God as an intrinsic aspet of Judaisn.

From Buber: "Man, while created by God, was established by Him in an independence which has remained undiminished. In this independence he stands out over against God. So man takes part with full freedom and spontaneity in the dialogue between the two which forms the essence of existence."
another: "Blessed are thou, O God! who not only redeemeth Israel but through Israel addresses mankind and invites mankind to address thee unafraid. Blessed art thou, O Lord our God! whom we have been creating through mankind's history as thou created us through thy eternity. Blessed art thou, O Lord our God! who breathed into us the Law that we have written for thee. Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe — the only King that we acknowledge. Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe — the King to whom we do not kneel."

So, let me finish with a hope that all goes well with you. Perhaps some time we will see you in Seattle.


















--
Stephen M. Schwartz
Pathology

ABC News: Candidate Results

" Almost eight years after she ran for Senate, Clinton can add a third decision to her list: running for president. As first lady she traveled to 83 countries, chaired the Task Force on National Health Care Reform, and raised awareness of health issues for Americans around the country, though her time is remembered mostly for the ambitious universal healthcare initiative that failed in Congress. Clinton, then Hillary Diane Rodham, spent her childhood in Illinois, attended Wellesley College and met Bill Clinton at Yale Law School. She ran and won the seat of the longest serving senator in New York's history, and won reelection in 2006 in a landslide. She announced her presidential ambitions in January of 2007 becoming the first former first lady to run for the White House."

The New Wave.

Join me in the "new wave!"

Raise your right hand, palm out.
...
Rotate COUNTER CLOCKWISE, while softly saying, ina rising voice ....

OOOOOOOOO


When you reach 12 o'clock, finish with a flourish, like a plane taking off and quickly loudly say ...

BAMA!

finishing off by waving right hand back and forth while smiling.

ooooooooooooooo...BAMA!

=======================================

unfortunately Denator MCCain, as a result of his war injuries, is not abled to "do" the new wave.

ooooooooooooooo...BAMA!

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A Message from Tom Jefferson About Illegals

A message channeled from Monitcello.

Let an older man from an older time with more experience in the matter speak up.

In some ways this issue is akin to my problems with slaves. While I wanted to do the right thing, I was inhibited by the laws and by the difficulty in determining what a fair solution might be.

If I freed my slaves I wold be breaking the law and putting these simple people out into an environment they were not prepared for.

Your problem is similar.

First your law, the 14th Amendment to the damned Constitution:

It is not at all true that the intent was to protect children born in our lands. In act, early decisions of the Court suggest that was not eh case. The clear purpose of Section 1 was to provide that former slaves born in the United States would be citizens.

At the time, the US did not yet have a concept of legal vs illegal immigrant so "intent" of the original ruling must be newly invented. In fact, in in 1898 the Court decided that Wong Kim Ark, a child of a Chinese diplomat, born in the USA did have citizenship rights. The only exceptions to this rule identified in Wong Kim Ark concern diplomats, enemy forces in hostile occupation of the United States, and members of Native American tribes.

The Court has, again, never ruled on the eligibility of children born in the United States to illegal immigrant parents are entitled to birthright However, on primniple of law in unsettled areas is to refer to international standards. This type of guarantee—legally termed jus soli or "birthright citizenship"— does not exist in most of Europe or Asia where citizenship has been defined by new laws derived (more or less) independent of a King, but does exist in Europe where citizenship laws arise from older concepts of being subjects to the crown.

In summary, citizen Goldstein, I find it unlikely that the members of the court anticipated this problem. However, in my time the court did understand slavery. Even those of us who wanted to end it had the same problem you have now. How, once slaves are here, do you send them home without doing an injustice? Where is their real home?

One thing about your Torie friend's ides is that halting the awarding of NEW citizenship to illegals might be a bit like our deciding not to bring in more slaves. The result would be, I would guess, a permanent collection of resident non citizens with a status all to similar to the status of my slaves.

Perhaps you folks in 2008 need a dose of what Mr. Lincoln brought to my homeland in the 1860's. If you stop allowing illegals to work .. tat is stop importing slaves .. the problekm will eventually stop. If you then fee all the existing slaves, i.e. fire the illegals, then your only prolebm will be the same as ours was .. waht happens with millions of freed slaves?

Looking at your marvelous Mr. Obama, one thing is very clear to me. I was wrong about the limited abilities of Africans. So, taking slavery as a precedent rather than some weak interpretation by a Court I never like anyway, I suspect the immigrants can learn very well to eb Americans. I suggest that of course all illegals, just like all of my slaves, should be citizens just as if they were born here as slaves.

NUFF said!