Gingrich-Tyrant

Over 235 years ago, a group of liberated thinkers got together and created something unique: the United States of America. Today, a lot of politicians running as Republicans and as members of the TEA Party seem bent on changing the very things that make the United States so unique. Gingrich, for now, the leader in the Republican race for president has openly stated that we should ignore those decisions of Federal courts we do not agree with. He rationale is the very stuff of tyrants and strikes me as being openly un-American.

Pictures are worth thousands of words:

Vote No On Amendment 26

If you value taking personal responsibility in your life, then vote no on Amendment 26. Government should not interfere in health issues.

Carlebach Kol Nidrei

May your fast be easy.

L'Shanah Tovah Tikatevu

9-11 Memorial

To me, very touching:

GOP & TEA Party: Party Before Country

I watched President Obama's speech last evening. I like it a lot because it gives more tax cuts to those who need it most: The middle class. The proposal would also pay for itself by closing tax loopholes that large corporations and billionaires currently enjoy on the backs of the middle and lower and middle classes. Some of those mega-corporations enjoy tax breaks for creating jobs. Too bad those jobs were created in China!!

Even though President Obama didn't name Grover Norquist by name, I'm glad that Obama brought up the stupid pledge some members of Congress made of not raising taxes. Too bad those same members(read GOP and TEA party) seem willing to increase the tax burden of the middle class. They bulk at raising taxes on the wealthy by 3% but seem to have no problem with raising taxes on the middle class and working poor.

Analysis has shown that President Obama's job plan would add over a million jobs in 2012.

But I doubt if the Republican and TEA Party members of Congress will pass the job bill. They put their party before country. They don't to care that the middle class and the working poor are suffering. In short, they care more about their buddies like the Koch brothers, Grover Norquist, and others, than they do about our country.


GOP and TEA Party prove that you care more about our country than the party you belong to and help pass President Obama's sensible job plan.

Impressions of The Help

I saw The Help yesterday. The overwhelming I've had is anger followed by disbelieve and horror. The reviews of this movie seem to imply that it is a feel good movie. To me, it just showed the hateful and willful ignorance of bigots. It also showed how a group mentality can very easily take hold. When some dared to to speak out against the horrible laws, they were murdered. Mississippi has a long, bloody history against those who try to uphold justice. No, this wasn't a feel good movie at all. It brought home to me in a way that reading of the murder of Edgar Mevers and the murders of Civil Rights workers Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwermer, and James Chaney never could.

It is the insidious and relentless message hammered home that you don't speak out against the injustice of the Jim Crow laws and the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission.

One scene that made me so damn angry was Minnie, one of the help, had to use the bathroom . It was very stormy. The old white woman was okay with her using the toilet inside but her daughter, Hilly, totally freaked out and wanted the maid to go outside and use the toilet built especially for the help. But her mother told Minnie it was okay to use the inside toilet. When Hilly realized Minnie has used the inside toilet, she fired her.

I don't know why this one shred of lack of human decency made me so angry. Perhaps it was the buildup to the scene. Hilly, the one who said no to Minnie, was trying to get new legislation passed that special toilets would have to be built for the help. It is the piecemeal by piecemeal taking away of a person's dignity that is so troublesome.

It is also the hive mind that such actions possible that gets to me. It is the inability to see someone as person and keep heaping on degradation after degradation.


Governor Barbour may think that the White Citizens Council was benign but it wasn't. The whole purpose of these laws were to further degrade blacks and to punish whites who seemed to be too friendly.

This cartoon was published by the Mississippi Citizens' Council. Click on the link and see if the cartoon doesn't remind you of some of the arguments we are hearing today. Let me know what you think.

Tropical Storm Lee

Tropical Storm Lee is sitting off the coast of Louisiana dumping huge amounts of rainfall along the Louisiana and Mississippi coast. The rain is much needed as both states have been suffering through a drought. The rain has been light with periods of intense rain which is expected to last for three days or more. The winds have begun to pick up a little.

Winn Dixie alert in D'Iberville!!!! The store is out Lay's sour cream and onion chips.

Update: Declares state of emergency. State officials must do this in order to receive help from FEMA.

The expected rainfall totals will close heavy flooding.

Td Thirteen : Radar : Weather Underground

Time to get the umbrellas, boats, etc out. Three days of expected 10-12 inches of rain.


Td Thirteen : Radar : Weather Underground

Jews By Choice-We Do and We Will

Originally posted two years ago:

This evening begins the festival of Shavuot. It marks two things: The giving of the Torah and the harvest of first fruits. We accepted and committed ourselves to living the 613 mitzvot. By doing so, we harvested fruits for all generations to come. All of Israel stood at Har Sinai and made the commitment and obligation of "We accept and we will do". All became Jews by choice. A tribal people became the nation of Am Israel. This new nation consisted of those who were direct descendants of Abraham as well as those who left Egypt with them. All through the Torah there are many instances of those who join Am Israel out of love and awe of HaShem. The first was Abram. He rejected the idols of his father and was circumcised and then became Abraham. While in b'Midbar, Yithro is the most prominent of those who joined Am Israel. For Shavuot, the Megillah of Ruth is read. Her simple words of conversion: "Your people shall be my people, your HaShem, my HaShem".

I think the Megillah of Ruth is read not only to celebrate those who join Am Israel but to remind us that deep down, whether a Jew by birth or a Jew by choice, each of us has made the commitment and the obligation to live by Torah.

Last evening, after Havdalah, our rabbi gave us handouts on Rabbi Kook's The Fourfold Song. Each of us was asked to tell which resonated with us at this time. Mine was:

There is another who sings the song of his people. He leaves the circle of his own individual self, because he finds it without sufficient breadth, without an idealistic basis. He aspires towards the heights, and he attaches himself with a gentle love to the whole community of Israel. Together with her he sings her songs. He feels grieved in her afflictions and delights in her hopes. He contemplates noble and pure thoughts about her future and probes with love and wisdom her inner spiritual essence.

Each person's song adds to the whole of Am Israel and to creation and the end result will be:

May we all be blessed to hear the song of every facet of creation and integrate it into every fiber of our beings, until we become the music itself. Through this we come to realize our potential and accomplish our purpose in life, expressed through our own unique song. May we always strive to rectify and heal, fulfill and reveal the oneness of G-d, with the great joy that comes from serving Him. May our efforts be directed to redemption and the sounds of the tenth song, a new song to G-d, waiting to be revealed, quickly and in our days.

There are many voices that sing and the web-site Jews by Choice embraces Reform. Conservative, Orthodox, Ba'al Tehsuva and those who are going toward Har Sinai to become part of Am Israel. A great song allows for different harmonies, melodies, beats, and tones. It becomes pleasing to the ear when each harmony, melody, beat, and tone is allowed to be heard and respected.

Mystical Paths and The Muqata have posts about Shavuot.