Happy Birthday to my magnificent country! I love you with all of my slightly battered soul, your warts and all!
Today, you are in peril more than ever, and I pray with all my heart for continued Divine Protection against all of your enemies, foreign and domestic.
Here is to your wonderful people; to Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness; to unalienable rights from our Creator; and, most importantly, to the train that will go over the bridge even if there is only 50% chance of the bridge not collapsing! Here is to hope!
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
ONCE AGAIN, ON THE WRONG UPBRINGING
Today, a minor rudeness of a fellow human being got yours truly on a slightly philosophical bend (after the initial cool off period), and I remembered something I told one of my close friends a little while ago.
I told her that with each passing year (and hopefully, the maturing maturity), I appreciate my parents more and more, with all their human frailties. Here are the people with true Jewish hearts and souls and the real Ba’aley Chesed. They helped everyone they could (with time and money); have been constantly taken advantage of by more people I care to remember (in countless ways); continued to help everyone they could; always had an open house and a table full of guests (regardless of the financial situation at any given moment); and always remained polite to everyone – with the exceptions of: attacks on their children, Jews, the Holy Land, and USA (or the defense of Mother Russia and its unique culture).
And now, when I am quickly approaching a certain age, I understand, both consciously and subconsciously, that the greater world and humanity at large do not operate the way my parents do. But, the saddest part of all, it is still very hard to accept.
I told her that with each passing year (and hopefully, the maturing maturity), I appreciate my parents more and more, with all their human frailties. Here are the people with true Jewish hearts and souls and the real Ba’aley Chesed. They helped everyone they could (with time and money); have been constantly taken advantage of by more people I care to remember (in countless ways); continued to help everyone they could; always had an open house and a table full of guests (regardless of the financial situation at any given moment); and always remained polite to everyone – with the exceptions of: attacks on their children, Jews, the Holy Land, and USA (or the defense of Mother Russia and its unique culture).
And now, when I am quickly approaching a certain age, I understand, both consciously and subconsciously, that the greater world and humanity at large do not operate the way my parents do. But, the saddest part of all, it is still very hard to accept.
Thursday, July 01, 2010
TRACES OF IRONY
Since I work for a private company, my employers were hit pretty hard recently (just like the rest of the private sector). So, as a result of some implemented economizing techniques (some sensible, some not), we are now subleasing part of our office to some kind of small outfit that looks like it is involved in real estate investment (more I do not know and do not really care). One interesting feature about these people is impressive noise level they seem to generate (mainly, of course, due to the owner and his peculiar way of communicating).
Anyway, that, as Sir Percy would say, was just the title. At a certain point a new guy joined their ranks and increased the noise level by about 300%. Aside from the volume, the contents of this gentleman’s s speeches (and the multiply repetitions) were, forgive the cliché, the good equivalent of nails on blackboard. One day I was chatting with a co-worker about this interesting development. He told me that it was the amount of sheer bull s--- in the dude’s soliloquies that annoyed him the most. “Who buys this BS?” – He wondered. At this point I had to keep myself very hard from displaying my own incredulity. You bought the idea of Barak Hussein Obama as American President, sir! That was probably the biggest load of BS unloaded on American populace in the entire history of this country; and yet you are wondering as to who would buy the bovine fecal matter produced by that poor schmuck?
I belong to I pretty large circle of friends and close acquaintances who are all presently observant Jews and all had their childhoods enriched by the tender love or Russian communists. By my calculations, I am the oldest member who also spent the longest time in the loving embrace of those benevolent individuals. But this too is just the title.
Recently, some members of our circle seem to have felt the echo of the old regime right here, in the United States. Interestingly enough, they did not feel it coming from the left of the political aisle, which is famous for crashing any and all dissent, be it political or scientific. Who is furthermore famous for depraving everyone else of the freedom of speech while screeching about protecting it; who lately displayed disgusting misogyny in viciously attacking prominent conservative women, and, the irony of ironies, that movement is comprised of basically atheists and agnostics who preach that religion is “opium for the masses” and a root of all evil. Nope, the feeling of step-mama regime did not come from there; it came from “rigid political right” with Governor Brewer putting a nice (please forgive another cliché) acing on the cake of bitter memories. To quote one of my favorite movies: “Funny? Very not funny!”
Anyway, that, as Sir Percy would say, was just the title. At a certain point a new guy joined their ranks and increased the noise level by about 300%. Aside from the volume, the contents of this gentleman’s s speeches (and the multiply repetitions) were, forgive the cliché, the good equivalent of nails on blackboard. One day I was chatting with a co-worker about this interesting development. He told me that it was the amount of sheer bull s--- in the dude’s soliloquies that annoyed him the most. “Who buys this BS?” – He wondered. At this point I had to keep myself very hard from displaying my own incredulity. You bought the idea of Barak Hussein Obama as American President, sir! That was probably the biggest load of BS unloaded on American populace in the entire history of this country; and yet you are wondering as to who would buy the bovine fecal matter produced by that poor schmuck?
I belong to I pretty large circle of friends and close acquaintances who are all presently observant Jews and all had their childhoods enriched by the tender love or Russian communists. By my calculations, I am the oldest member who also spent the longest time in the loving embrace of those benevolent individuals. But this too is just the title.
Recently, some members of our circle seem to have felt the echo of the old regime right here, in the United States. Interestingly enough, they did not feel it coming from the left of the political aisle, which is famous for crashing any and all dissent, be it political or scientific. Who is furthermore famous for depraving everyone else of the freedom of speech while screeching about protecting it; who lately displayed disgusting misogyny in viciously attacking prominent conservative women, and, the irony of ironies, that movement is comprised of basically atheists and agnostics who preach that religion is “opium for the masses” and a root of all evil. Nope, the feeling of step-mama regime did not come from there; it came from “rigid political right” with Governor Brewer putting a nice (please forgive another cliché) acing on the cake of bitter memories. To quote one of my favorite movies: “Funny? Very not funny!”
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