"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx
Things move fast and furiously around here. If you haven’t been around here is a quick round up of recent posts:
Thoughts For a Saturday Night
Anti-Israel ads in Washington
My Future Home
The Name of My Blog
Is Your Life What You Expected It To Be?
Poop Patrol
I am listening to the theme for The Magnificent Seven. I love it. I have probably played it a million times. Every time it plays I can’t help but visualize myself riding my horse Buck. Sometimes I am galloping and other times I am just wading through some stream on my way to the far side.
I need to write the follow up post to the Poop Patrol. If I remember I’ll call it “The Phantom Pooper.” One day I need to write about the time I had to go dumpster diving to save a whole heap of Tallitot and Tefillin.
I am getting killed in the JIBs. I have tried hard not to mention this. I don’t blog to win awards and I won’t change my style just to win, but I am competitive by nature. It is not easy to lose, so I console myself by saying that if I worked at driving traffic to the site I would probably be more competitive.
All that being said there are far more important things in the world. One of the guys I play basketball is going back to Iraq. He says that he can’t wait and I believe him. His head is playing games with him so he wants to go back where nothing makes sense. His words not mine. I don’t care what your position on the war is, it cannot be easy to see these things.
I have another friend who is in desperate need of help but not willing to accept it. I’d like to introduce him to a friend of Bill’s but he is not ready. It is not easy to watch, but some people have got to hit rock bottom before they can get help.
My cousin’s brain tumor treatment is continuing but the long term prognosis is not good. Tie in another friend who has a rare form of cancer and you have an awful trinity. It is not the father, the son and the holy ghost but something far darker and discouraging.
So when I sit here and think of my own challenges I have to admit that on the whole things look pretty good.
I have read a number of posts recently in which Reform and Orthodox Jews have engaged in some really nasty mud slinging. It irks me. I won’t spend much time bitching about it as I am not in the mood. But let’s get something straight, the people that hate Jews don’t care if you are a Chassid or Mitnagid. They don’t care if you eat shellfish or keep Glatt Kosher. They don’t care if you say Kaparot or Kaparos. They don’t care if your minhagim change with the wind or if you haven’t a clue as to what minhagim are.
It is not hysteria nor hyperbole to say that they want to kill you all. Don’t get me wrong, there has never been a better time to be Jewish. But look at Daniel Pearl, Nick Berg, Ilan Halimi and so many others. There are people who hate and act upon that hate.
Anyway, I don’t want to end on a sour note. So here is a dirty joke. A boy fell in the mud.
Commuters travelling on Washington DC’s subway will be inundated with posters placed by an anti-Israel organization, the Canadian Jewish News (CJN) reported .
The ‘US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation’ placed 20 poster ads showing “an imposing tank pointing its main firing turret at a child with a schoolbag walking along a dirt road,” the CJN said.
“‘Imagine if this were your child’s path to school. Palestinians don’t have to imagine,’ the poster states, before continuing to call for an end to US aid for ‘Israel’s brutal military occupation… paid for by US taxpayers like you,'” the report added.
It said that “CBS Outdoor, the New York-based firm that places in-station advertising for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), at first refused to consider the poster, but eventually relented to pressure from WMATA and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).”
Hasbara is never one of Israel’s strong suits, but certainly this would be a good time to come up with a plan to counter this.
I have noticed that there seems to be a little confusion regarding the name of my blog. Some people think of it as being Jack’s Shack while others understand it to be Random Thoughts- Do They Have Meaning?
One of these days I’ll have to do some work on more effectively branding this corner of cyberspace.
Psycho Toddler gets credit for making me think of this post. The clip below is one of my favorite scenes from any movie.
I see it as a case of “Don’t mistake the tree for the forest.” Sometimes you can let your problems intimidate and overwhelm you. If you keep your head you can often find a simple and effective solution to the challenges you face.