Words of wisdom to live by as we progress into our future…“Keep trying. Stay humble, Trust your instincts. Most importantly, act. When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra, RIP
Sunday Evening
Hag Sukkot Sameach (Happy Holiday of Sukkot): the harvest celebration when we build, eat and (some people) sleep in our 3-sided temporary, leafy roofed huts for 8 days (or 7 days in Israel) to remind us of the temporary shelters we lived in during our exodus. Wishing wonderful weather upon all Sukkah dwellers this year.
The Pope’s True Soul
Pope Francis arrived in the US on Tuesday (erev Yom Kippur) but not sure if anyone greeted him with a “Good Yontiff, Pontiff” (heard that one from Cantor David Propis). His first stop was DC and he didn’t disappoint his fans by choosing a Fiat for his motorcade. Throughout his US visit we are expected to hear messages of Empathy for the Poor, Patience for the Immigrants and Persistence on Protecting our Planet. One pitiful politician boycotted the Pontiff’s joint session. Arizona republican congressman, Paul Gosar (whose name does not deserve fame but hopefully will be voted out in his next election) protested his objections to the Pope promoting “questionable science as Catholic dogma”. Sorry, Arizonian, if this congressman represents you. PF’s US tour includes DC, NYC (to address the General Assembly at the United Nations) and Philly but he plans to keep his visits geared toward “the people” as proof, he chose not to eat in the congressional dining room with legislators but to eat with hundreds of homeless people in a soup kitchen while helping to serve the meals. Late night comics are having a fun field day with his visit. Jimmy Fallon has rules for visitors, like: “Don’t fake sneeze in front of the Pope, just to get an easy blessing”. And this is no joke, there is a website http://jokewiththepope.org/ that is collecting “donated” jokes to benefit three charities with the winning Jokster being named “honorary comic advisor to the Pope” and his charity of choice will receive $10,000. Bless you Pope even when you don’t sneeze.
The Pope and his Fiat
Egypt’s Efforts
Egypt is trying some diplomacy of its own by releasing 100 journalist who were jailed for the “crime of protest”. There is no free speech in Egypt and in fact, Egypt is considered one of the 10 worst offenders of imprisoning journalist. Some frontpage headlines came from the freedom of these high profile journalist, but where are the front page headlines of the over 3,200 homes Egypt destroyed on the Sinai Peninsula. If they were Gazan homes, it would make top coverage but since they were Egyptian homes it is only backpage billing. By the way, these homes were on the Gazan border, and their destruction is good for Israel, as the effort will help prevent military supplies creeping through Gaza tunnels. The goal of this two year project is to demolish the whole town of Rafah with a population of 78,000 people. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34317654
Lies
Short term selfish goals will always end up biting you in the butt and possibly doing harm to your fellow citizens. Corporate Leaders and Politicians should take a look at their predecessors. Crime doesn’t pay. Lies always are revealed. This week’s big offender is the “People’s Car” Company aka.Volkswagen. To save a few Deutsche Marks (Euros today), some corporate bigwig decided to jerry-rig the pollution gage of the exhaust to indicate a lower level of toxic emissions when being tested but when the rigged gages were off while driving on the road, the cars spewed out 40% more emissions into our environment and lungs. 11 Million cars were involved and it could take $18 Billion to clean up this mess not to mention the broken trust which might be irreparable.
More Lies
Political deception is helping Carly Fiorina climb in the polls after her bold (but untrue) statements at the debate. This anti-women’s candidate, flat out, lied about a Planned Parenthood video with a live fetus and sticks to her lie even as all fact-checkers dispute its existence. Next lie…the ad she refers to that defines her success at HP was paid for by her SuperPac. But back to defending Planned Parenthood, which sadly continues to be attacked by legislators both in our US Congress and local State Houses as they try to defund and delegitimizing women’s health services. Attempts to “save” federal dollars in favor of saving low-income women’s health services is lopsided and inhumane, but this is just what legislators insist is the “right” thing for our nation. By the way, not sure why politicians don’t understand that providing birth control information and material (through PP) will help reduce unintended pregnancies and abortions. Let’s continue to move forward in the 21st Century and not back to the 50s when all women were suppose to be “barefoot and pregnant” http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-cost-of-defunding-planned-parenthood-20150922-column.htmlFor the 2nd time in two weeks, (after the crane accident) tragedy has struck the religious city of Mecca as Muslims celebrate the holiday of Eid al-Adha translated into Feast of Sacrifice that commemorates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son till the angel intervened. Mecca is the religious and geographical epicenter of Islam. As a side note and though I have not read it, I have heard that Jerusalem is not prominent or even mentioned in the Quran, yet they feel their Jerusalem al-Aqsa Mosque built centuries later on the sacred site of the Jewish Temple Mount should not allow Jews to pray there while using violence to prevent them. http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-slams-jordanian-king-over-temple-mount-violence/But back to Mecca, millions of people each year celebrate the Eid with a journey to Mecca and sadly on occasion (like this year) a stampede causes chaos, injury and death. More than 700 people will killed and nearly 1,000 were injured during this week’s Hajj Pilgrimage. This is nearing their worst Mecca catastrophe since 1990 when over 1,400 pilgrims were killed during a stampede.
Stewart’s Efforts
Did you know the 9/11 Bill to assist First Responders had a limit of 5 years and is coming to an end at the end of this month? Jon Stewart knows all about this absurdity as he helped get the bill passed 5 years ago and is pissed it even has a limit. 72,000 First Responders are part of the World Trade Center Health Program and nearly half are being treated for various diseases while 3,000 of them have Cancer. Mr. Stewart is lobbying congress to make the World Trade Center Health Program permanent so the victims need not worry about ending assistance for their chemo treatments.
Dislike
Apparently, Facebook is working on a “dislike” button so when a post initiates a response from you but not necessarily “like”, you can express your thoughts. It seems that the response might be on a scale (from approval to disapproval) and not just like or dislike. The Facebook geeks are working on the formula and I will try to keep you posted on the progress.
Bagels and Ping Pong
Up until the mid 1960s, Americans could only get their bagels at authentic bagel shops situated in Jewish enclaves, but all that changed by Daniel Thompson (who died this week) when he invented the Bagel Machine and brought the doughy delight to the masses. Mr. Thompson was the son of a Jewish Bagel Maker and his invention was meant to help his father. True enthusiasts continue to only eat H & H (or the likes) as Lenders would never touch the lips of most bagel lovers. Totally unrelated, Mr. Thompson also invented the folding Ping Pong Table, like the one that sits in our Rec Room.
Wishing you and your family a Peaceful Shabbat Shalom and a Sweet holiday of Succot.
Lisa
Bonus Music Video
A few weeks ago, late night host James Corden (from the Late Late Show), hosted Stevie Wonder to a Karaoke Drive Along and this was the wonderful results that ended in a few tears by James when Stevie serenaded Jame’s wife on the cell phone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqrvm2XDvpQ |
Shabbat Shalom - שבת שלום 