The JackB

"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

Archives for September 2007

Iran Draws Up Plans to Bomb Israel

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Those wacky Iranians. Do they really think that anyone believes that they didn’t have a set of plans already drawn up. Want to bet that Israel’s Syrian air show got their attention.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The deputy commander of Iran’s air force said Wednesday that plans have been drawn up to bomb Israel if the Jewish state attacks Iran, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency.

“We have drawn up a plan to strike back at Israel with our bombers if this regime (Israel) makes a silly mistake,” Gen. Mohammad Alavi was quoted as telling Fars in an interview.

Yom Kippur & My Daughter

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My daughter’s class discussed Yom Kippur. As she is in pre-school it was likely a very basic discussion. All I know is that she approached me and said that she has nothing to say sorry for.

I on the other hand am supposed to apologize to her for not letting her watch more Dora.

Kids…

Talk Like a Pirate Day

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Ahoy there matey! It is Talk Like a Pirate Day ARGHHHHHHHH! I dost have a pirate name. Call me Captain Jack- One-eared Dog the Damned. Grab some grog and check out the many posts about pirates that have graced the Shack.

Haveil Havalim- The Once & Future Edition– Contains a Pirate Post.
Do You Have An Accent
Pirate Attacks Down Sharply
Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day
The Jewish Pirates of The Caribbean

P.S. If you dost be a slacker you can use the English-to-Pirate translator or face the pointy end of my cutlass.

The Blogger I Used To Be

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Sometimes I miss the blogger that I used to be and the blogosphere I used to be a part of. I miss the innocence and freedom. I miss just rambling on about my thoughts without a care. Now I second guess myself. I wonder when the words will be thrown in my face and used to try and hurt me.

I miss feeling like a part of a small community in which everyone looked out for each other.

Maybe this is all nonsense. Maybe these are silly complaints. I seem to make them every six months or so. Maybe I just don’t like change. Maybe I am going about nothing and then again maybe not.

Isn’t there a place to lament the loss of innocence. Don’t we try hard to maintain our children’s innocence. Don’t we work hard to protect them. We want them to see the snow right after it has fallen in all of its pristine glory. No slush for their eyes.

We encourage them to run and be free. We tell them to make their mistakes and not to worry about it because that is how we learn.

Am I crazy to say that I miss that. Am I a baby for wanting to go back in time. Maybe. Perhaps. Could be. In the end it doesn’t matter.

Forward. Always forward. Progress must be made. I know this. I understand this and in truth I want this too.

Dying Languages

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This is kind of sad. Lose a language and you lose so much.

“WASHINGTON – When every known speaker of the language Amurdag gets together, there’s still no one to talk to. Native Australian Charlie Mungulda is the only person alive known to speak that language, one of thousands around the world on the brink of extinction. From rural Australia to Siberia to Oklahoma, languages that embody the history and traditions of people are dying, researchers said Tuesday.

While there are an estimated 7,000 languages spoken around the world today, one of them dies out about every two weeks, according to linguistic experts struggling to save at least some of them.

Five hotspots where languages are most endangered were listed Tuesday in a briefing by the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages and the National Geographic Society.

In addition to northern Australia, eastern Siberia and Oklahoma and the U.S. Southwest, many native languages are endangered in South America — Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Brazil and Bolivia — as well as the area including British Columbia, and the states of Washington and Oregon.

Losing languages means losing knowledge, says K. David Harrison, an assistant professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College.

“When we lose a language, we lose centuries of human thinking about time, seasons, sea creatures, reindeer, edible flowers, mathematics, landscapes, myths, music, the unknown and the everyday.”

As many as half of the current languages have never been written down, he estimated.”

For the full story please click here.