Windmills of Your Mind

WINDMILLS OF YOUR MIND,
OR APPRECIATING THE ABSURD

Shortly after I have discovered Youtube, I have stumbled upon this masterpiece. Here is to appreciating the absurd! I mean, take the lyrics from one of the saddest love songs, and use them to describe the agitated Muppet! Simply priceless!

MERRY DAY OFF!

First of all, allow me to clarify one thing: this entry is by no means an attempt to make light of the plight of our Ashkenazi brethren, for whom every Christian holiday was a day for special prayers for safety, or to mitigate their suffering. This is just my personal attempt to list yet another thing I am grateful for.

Let me start with re-telling of a joke I have seen a few years ago. A teacher is asking the kids in her class to describe, one by one, how their families celebrate Christmas. So, we have different descriptions of trees, presents, family visits, food, etc. Then is comes to a boy named Jack Cohen. "My Dad owns a toy store", says Jack, "so, every December, people buy everything in it. 'Thank Heavens for Jesus Christ', says my Dad, and we all go on vacation to Hawaii."

This year, we all wished each other Merry Day Off. That's what it was for us: great coupons for Gymboree and Barnes and Noble's, parties at work (I got mine in a few free soda cans), possible something extra from the bosses ( B and N gift certificate in my case), and, most of all, no waking up at 6:20 am! So, I personally got to sleep in, finally buy toilet brush ( do not laugh, that particular task needed to be performed since before my Birthday), cook for my family, and, the most important one, I got visited by my niece and nephew (yes, my sis chaperoned).

So, looking forward to another extra day off, which is supposed to be New Year's Day (or the anniversary of somebody's circumcision)! Yey!

ANOTHER PIECE OF BREAKING NEWS

On Monday almost every single website I have visited (and, I think, almost every newspaper) exploded with another piece of "breaking" news. Apparently, now, for the first time in seven years, ever since the hostilities between Israel and Palestinians broke out, a whole bunch of Christian pilgrims was able to finally visit their holy sites for their holiest day, encouraged by the "piece talks".

I am not going to waist my time here debating the accuracy of this piece of news, or the historical facts and moral ramifications attached to it. All the information is available on the above mentioned internet, and everyone who wants to know will know all the pertinent facts. All I want to say is this: to all the Jews who participated in disseminating of this wonderful piece of news - I can not say let your conscience judge you, since you obviously lost or never had either conscience or the sense of judgement, so, let G-d be your judge. As to all the gentiles responsible for this: let all those poor, abused, tolerant of other religions, gentle, peace loving Palestinians show you the same love, friendship and tenderness they have shown to Tali Hatuel, her four daughters, and her unborn son.

FAST DAY

Today is the second fast day of the year connected to the destruction of the Temple. We always wish each other "have a meaningful fast", but how do you really make it meaningful in between hunger pangs, serious bouts of caffeine withdrawal, homicidal tendencies during the morning commute, your bosses idiosyncrasies, etc, etc, etc?

As my train was crossing the Manhattan Bridge (thank G-d I had a seat), I was indulging in my usual Manhattan Bridge routine (usual, that is, if I manage to have a view from the window). I was enjoying the view of the Manhattan skyline (which sometimes still brings sad memories), and different thoughts were flying though my mind. I was thinking again how lucky we are to live in America; I was also thinking that, despite all the wonderful things attached to living in America, we are still in exile, and the fact that we reclaimed the Holy Land as ours does not lessen this exile much, and sometimes even makes it harder.

Few weeks ago a thought that was brewing in my subconscious for more than a decade finally moved into my conscious. That thought is very sobering and very sad: we can not live as a community and not start behaving like proverbial spiders in a can. We can not just live together peacefully, acknowledge our differences, use our brains, and just simply respect, if not love, one another. No, we can never do that. We are surrounded by enemies; every single extremist organization all over the world directly or indirectly points to us as the source of all evil and considers our total annihilation as part of their mission statement. In the midst of all this we are very busy proclaiming the superiority of our brand of Judaism (or the lack of it) and denouncing every one else's. The insanity goes across the board from the so called Ultra-Orthodox to people who proudly proclaim themselves Jews but refuse to acknowledge any kind of religious affiliation, and every one in between. Your humble servant herself was witness to more than she wanted to hear or see, and if I start to describe every single incident of sheer idiocy that made my blood boil, I will be typing this entry till next Rosh Hashana.

Can we just take five minutes to stop, breathe, and remember that we are in the bloodiest exile in our history, for approximately one third of our history, and it already cost us millions of lives of our brothers and sisters? Can we then remember that the reason for this exile was our hatred of each other to begin with? When will the insanity stop? What use is is our praying, fasting and crying for our destroyed Temples if immediately after we revert to our "normal" ways? Heavenly Father, please grant us clarity of vision to finally see this!

MISTAKEN IMPRESSION

A few days ago I was checking my friend Moish's blog in hopes that he posted something else that would amuse me. As my computer monitor reflects off the dumb pictures behind me showing some project or other that my company completed, I have to be very careful, never mind dexterous, during my mental breaks (OK, OK, slaking off work).

Alas, the latest entry was that wonderful cartoon that so eloquently shows Russian anti-Semitism and total stupidity imbedded in it. While I was trying to close the page, one of our junior architects, a very sweet Chinese dude, came to my desk to ask for something. Judging by his face, LiveJournal took its sweet time closing, and poor guy went off with a strange impression that yours truly not only has occasional fun during work, but that fun occasionally looks suspiciously like somebody's naked butt. Ow, well! Since he is working here for over a year, I am hoping for the strength of his first impression of me.

THE KINDRED SPIRIT, OR ANOTHER MEMBER OF THE CLUB

When my nephew was born, I have officially congratulated my niece and welcomed her to my unique club: that of oldest sisters and oldest girls. Unique because there is nothing in the world like it, not even being an oldest son: the sense of responsibility is different.

Last night our sweet girl demonstrated to us that she really accepted the membership. It was about that time of the evening when we try to persuade her to put on her pajama with feet, drink her hot milk, and actually go upstairs to bed. Right before that ritual we usually enjoy the last few minutes of horseplay (and I actually do not know who loves horseplay the most, her or adults involved). Moreover, last night we were involved in another serious ritual called "fesim" (I got her ice cream, which I am guilty of hooking her on to begin with). So, here we were: she and I on the couch with ice cream, which she always enjoys tremendously, and her Mom and little brother on the floor right by us. Then is happened: split second, and the baby brother pitched forward and hit his face on the floor (thank G-d all that happened was he got scared). While we were trying to pacify the little brother, the big sister got extremely upset: for him. She started crying bitterly, needed hugs and reassurances from Mama, and refused her "fesim"! The baby stopped crying much faster than she did; little sweedom really got upset for her little brother, could not stop crying, and declined to have more of her absolutely favorite dessert!

Later on, when I re-told the story to her very wise twenty two year old uncle, he was duly impressed and sagely pronounced that it shows that she "has heart". So, welcome to the club, my delicious curly headed gnome! These feelings will not go away ever: as much as your younger siblings drive you crazy, you never stop feeling responsible for them and being upset at all their hurts.

PS For those of you unfamiliar with our family, the responsible older sister just turned two years old on Hanukah!

I AM NOT ALONE!!!!

As mentioned before, my blogging is done almost entirely during work hours (hence the big lapses in the entries, which usually indicate the times I actually have to work). I even told this to one of my friendlier co-workers, explaining to her that this is how I combat my boredom and frustration. She, for whatever reason, interpreted my blogging as retelling (in my satirical way) the events in the office, and expressed a burning desire to read my blog. I had to disappoint her and explain that that is not the case, and half of my blog is actually my political views, which she is more than welcome to read and comment on. As I had already warned her earlier that politics and religion are two topics in which people usually engage me at great personal risk, she very sweetly declined the pleasure, telling me that, since we are friendly with one another, and I have such strong political views, she would feel very bad commenting on my politics (which, of course, contradict what she believes in).

Anyway, few weeks after that discussion, yours truly was navigating the corridors of the office, returning to her own domain. As I was passing the desk of another co-worker (who, incidentally, usually annoys me), my eyes caught the sight of her screen, and I almost fell over! There is was, the unmistakable configuration and color palette of the "create/edit post" on the Blogger! I AM NOT ALONE!! YIPPIE!!

BELATED BIRTHDAY MESSAGE

I really wanted to write this message on my Birthday (since I have treated myself this year and took that day off), but, due to unforeseen (or foreseen circumstances), mainly, my roommate monopolizing the computer for the entire weekend, I am writing it now.

To tell the truth, I really did not feel like celebrating this year at all (last few years, as a matter of fact). I mean, what to celebrate? I am fast approaching middle age without any kind of significant accomplishments of any nature. Then it dawned on me: the simple fact that I am alive and well should be celebrated!

Like any normal human being, I keep forgetting all the blessings bestowed on me. So, in honor of my crossing yet another year towards the Big Four Oh, I have decided to try and list all the things for which I am eternally grateful to the Creator.

So, here they are (in random order):

My parents: even though I probably would never forget the wonderful "present" I got from them around my thirtieth Birthday (their separation), I am very grateful for my Mom and Dad. They are very sweet, loving, and caring. They remember our ages only when they remember our marital status (the rest of the time we usually did not reach the age of fifteen). They still make sure we eat (and eat properly), supply us with groceries, cooked meals, and treats, check the condition of our winter attire and our respective dwellings, and make sure we take proper care of all our health needs (of course, constantly neglecting theirs). May you both live till hundred and twenty, happy and healthy!

My siblings: for constantly explaining to me exactly what kind of Psychological disorders do I suffer from, how they manifests themselves, and how they could be treated. For making constant fun of me, my wardrobe, my hair, and my cooking experiments. For never forgetting my Birthdays and always getting me great gifts. For allowing me to be the clucking hen of an older sister and trying to take care of them in my annoying and bumbling fashion (and, in return, always trying to make sure my life is on the right track). For always taking care of me when I am sick, bringing me soup and tea, and always making sure I do get well (and Sis, as I type this, I keep remembering that only due to your therapy are my hands well and whole). I am blessed to have you, guys!

My cutie pies of nieces and nephew: enough said:)

My friends: close or far, each in your own unique way, you enrich my life and prevent me from becoming a total misanthrope and recluse.

My health: the more I live, the more I can appreciate what a wonderful and unique blessing it is.

My job: yes, it is boring, sometimes annoying, and I definitely hate the hours; but it gives me the ability to support myself, and sometimes buy toys for my niece and nephew, and even an occasional book.

My apartment: roof over my head and depository for my meager wardrobe and way not meager library of romances.

My five senses, which allow me to appreciate art and good food.

All the trips which I took, and, hopefully, all the future ones.

All the sunsets and sunrises that I was able to see and enjoy (and, G-d willing, many more to witness).

Being born a Jew and discovering precisely what it means: all the headaches, responsibilities, and clarity of purpose that comes with it.

Being a woman: hopefully, I do not have to explain that one:)

Being a naturalized American: I am free, but I was born in jail, which gives me extra opportunity to appreciate and enjoy that freedom (and this year my Birthday was actually a day before Thanksgiving, so, extra thanks).

The sheer beauty and pleasure of being alive.

For all these, and many more things I was blessed with, I am really and truly grateful. Thank You, G-d! I will try not to disappoint You.

HAPPY HANUKAH!

Happy Hanukah to all Jews! Here is to remembering the miracles and the blessings, to quite (or noisy) family times, and to enjoying all the yummy foods drenched in olive oil!

THE RANT OF THE OLD MAID

The first time I was in Vegas, I decided to check out their pirate show in front of the Treasure Island. Apparently, I did it just in time, because since then, according to tourist guides, it went X-rated. That, however, is not my beef with them. The show was absolutely spectacular, like everything in Vegas is; but, after it finished, the first comment that I uttered was "Great, wonderful, pirates won!" There was a boy of about eight standing next to me. Clearly coming from somewhere in the Midwest and not being used to crazy New Yorkers, he timidly looked at his mother and asked her what did the lady say. His mother smiled sheepishly and told him that the lady was not happy that the bad guys won.

Well, the lady can not comprehend the glorification of the bad guys that the entertainment industry and all connected to it constantly perpetrate, and the parents obviously compound, judging by the amount of the different products offered for sale. I do not have a child, but I personally do not see any reason, moral of logical, in buying toys portraying bullies, robbers, and murderers.

The main reason for this lament arrived in my e-mail around Halloween time. Like any Harry Potter aficionado worth her salt, I constantly get news updates from all different sources, plus periodic merchandise coupons from WB. Well, lo and behold, here is was: the offer for costumes for adults and kids, prominent amongst them the costumes of the Death Eaters, especially Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange. What kind of twisted loony would want to dress up as mass torturer and mass murderer who enjoys both activities? And what kind of parent would like to dress up his or her son or daughter as such illustrious personages?

OK, rant over.

NOT THE BEST COUNTRY TO LIVE IN?

Yesterday, when I went on Yahoo to check my e-mail, one of the headlines caught my eye. It was something along the lines of UN publishing their annual report about the best and worst countries to live in, Norway slipping off the first place, and US not even being in top ten. Today, I decided to check up on this, and, basically, what it boils down to is the quotient based on different factors, the life expectancy and gross national product being amongst them. So, US is pretty high on gross national product (any surprises?), but is logging behind in life expectancy.

So, here is my humble suggestion to this "problem". Number one, send all the illegals back to their respective countries. That will significantly increase life expectancy by decreasing gang violence (just check out the illustrious resume of MS13), the possibility of TB infection, and the general overburdened condition of hospitals in the metro areas. Plus, it will increase the gross national product by removing the burden of this "population segment" from school systems and Medicaid, never mind the economic picture in general.

Second, and the most important one: get UN itself out of this country and stop any and all US funding for them! That will definitely increase life expectancy and the gross national product in our fair city!

UN DAY

I just realized that today is UN day. My feelings about UN can be summarized in a dark joke that somebody (do not remember who exactly) uttered shortly after September 11. The gist of the joke was that the guy was wishing for both planes to hit UN building instead of WTC (my addition was that the planes should have contained only terrorists); this way we would have avoided a tremendous tragedy and loss of lives, plus we would have gotten rid of at least 75% of world terrorists. Alas, G-d had over plans.

Here is the link to a great article titled nicely "Death to UN".

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58289

ANOTHER SLIGHTLY LATE RESPONSE

Due to the fact that I actually had to work at work in the past few weeks, my blogging was logging behind (shoot, I am beginning to write in bad rimes). Anyway, the story is as follows: a couple of weeks ago I was involved in my usual morning routine at work: having breakfast and simultaneously perusing the "conservative" news. Do not ask me why I do these two things together; the logic of this eludes me, since delving into a true picture of what so-called liberals are doing to this country, the Holy Land, and the rest of the world is usually guaranteed to ruin my digestion. So, low and behold, there was a blurb entitled something along the lines of "Jewish Democrats condemn Ann Coulter's anti-Semitic remarks".

Since I can safely say that I am more familiar with her work than the vast majority of Jewish Democrats, with some of whom I had the "good" fortune of working for whole nine years, I was actually not surprised as a whole, just curious as to the particulars: what the heck did she do that would qualify as anti-Semitic? And why not surprised? First of all, being familiar with Ann's work, I know that she is a big fan of the "gymnast" (my family's joke) and a huge believer in the superiority of Christian religion, and second of all, again, being familiar with the general mentality of Jewish Democrats, I know of their eagerness to jump down the throat of anybody on the right, no matter the triviality, or, for that matter, the actual existence of the offense, and, at the same time, their ability to forgive any true and serious offence against the Jews and the Jewish State as long as it comes from the left.

Still, I was curious as to the exact nature of this particular episode. So, I perused that blurb and found out that she claimed that in her ideal universe everyone would be Republican and Christian; when the interviewer proclaimed that he is Jewish and what about other religions, she replied something to the extent that everyone should become Christian, and (here comes the main thing) Jews should be "perfected" by doing that thing too (becoming the believers in the divine nature of the late gymnast). Well, in my opinion, all she did was summarize their mission statement, albeit in a very non-pc manner (which is also her usual style). So, I finished reading that blurb and went on to different news.

Lo and behold, that same evening I get an e-mail from my friend Moish entitled "Aren't you a fan of this woman" and containing a link to Yeshiva World with the summary of the above mentioned news and a whole bunch of commentaries. Being duly impressed by the fact that he actually remembers my rants, I replied that yes, I am a fan, but I am also a somewhat familiar with the Christian dogma realist. By the way, Moish, thanks a ton for introducing me to the Yeshiva World! Tons of fun and fresh entertainment! Then, my friend SWife posted a comment to my entry "dedicated" to the Clintons, siting somebody else who basically blamed Coulter for making inflammatory remarks right before the release of her new book and insulting another huge segment of the population, to which SWife added that, in her opinion, that is the meaning of unmitigated chutzpah, and asking me if I still liked her (Ann Coulter, that is). To cap it off, Abe Foxman's chevrah (thank G-d not my friends) issued their condemnation, and lots of other websites I frequent exploded with the whole discussion over this "controversy".

Since my friends took my liking of "this woman" close to heart, I feel that I have to add my cliched two cents to this fracas. I am still her fan? Yes. Why was I ever her fan? First and foremost, because the vast majority of the people she attacks, curses, and makes fun of are the people to whom I would dearly love to do the same; she just does is with more panache and to the bigger audience; plus, I simply enjoy reading her books and articles, enjoy her sarcasm and great one-liners. Second, believe it or not, but when she published her first book, it actually required courage to do it: she was one of the few people to publish anti-Clinton book during their first, and, G-d willing, last presidency; the other person that comes to mind in this regard is late Barbara Olsen. Considering Clintons' vicious propensity to publicly smear anyone who was on their "enemy list", send IRS after those enemies, and generally try to destroy their lives, plus their (Clintons') general non-adherence to the basic rules of good sportsmanship, it took a certain amount of bravery to write and publish books enumerating the good deeds of this illustrious couple while they were still in the White House; and both Coulter and Olsen were definitely in the position to know the pertinent facts and to realize the danger they were facing.

On to the main topic of the whole discussion, namely: anti-Semitism. One of the dudes defending Ann, in the true Jewish fashion, actually went to the dictionary, dug up the definition of an anti-Semite, and wrote his whole article based on this definition. I am feeling pretty lazy at the moment, so I will skip the dictionary and the quoting of that article. Again, being very familiar with her work, I can in good conscience say that anti-Semite she definitely is not: among opther things, she supports Israel, attacks Al Sharpton for inciting Crown Heights riots, and, correct me if I am wrong, but, to the best of my knowledge, she was the only gentile writer to point out that American Communist Party during World War II (read Russian spies) had at least as many WASPs as it had Jews (the general opinion being that that was almost exclusively Jewish territory).

As for "perfection": again, that is one of the main mission statements of that religion. They want everyone to be "perfected", not just us. According to them, there is no seeing paradise for anybody, unless they accept the "true god", or, whatever his name is, hanging on the cross. That, my friends, is difference in the religious believes, and not the statement that we are sub-human. Are Christians our true friends? Heck, no. Missionaries are a real threat to us; but a Jew brainwashed by missionaries can be saved; nothing will save a Jew killed by a suicide bomber. We have much bigger fish to fry and way more lethal enemies to deal with. If the biggest threat to us today is Ann Coulter and her ilk, forgive me, but my prayer book will fray way, way slower. And nothing, nothing poses bigger threat to us than our own: just check out combined!! statement of Abe Foxman and Al Sharpton on the ADL website (it had something to do with hate crimes). The only thing to top that one would be to publish that statement on the anniversary of Yankel Rosenbaum's death: that would have been a great comfort to his poor parents.

As for unmitigated chutzpah, Ann is undeniably a witch in a possession of great amount of chutzpa, but nobody on the political scene in America today (with the possible exception of Jimmy Carter) has so much slime attached to them or poses a greater threat to all Americans, Jews included, then Clintons.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL GORE

On behalf of my family and friends, I would like to offer my heartfelt congratulations both to All Gore on the occasion of his receiving the Nobel Piece Prize and to the Nobel Committee for bestowing in upon him.

In case of Al, he has yet some ground to cover on his slimy way down; as for the Nobel Committee - well, after bestowing the Piece Prize on Arafat, there is very little on the way down, and almost every other candidate, even a mammoth hypocrite and dirty politician like Gore, sounds almost anti-climatic.

So, all I can say is: "Well done!"

BRAYING ASSES

By now I think even strict order Amish have heard the latest "breaking news". The "Right Honorable" Iranian President is coming to New York (already came, probably). All the resulting media coverage once again convinced me of one very sad, but undeniable fact: there is absolutely no end to human stupidity and cowardice.

Forget for a moment that the dude is a blatant anti-Semite, Holocaust denier, and all together wants to erase Israel from the map and drown the Jews in the ocean. As James Baker so eloquently put it, "F--- the Jews!" In the final analysis, very few people care about the Jews aside from other Jews; but let us put it aside for a moment.

Let us look at the picture from a totally Jew-free prospective. We are talking about a guy who very actively participated in the 1979 American hostage crisis, and now heads a country that has no concept of "unalienable rights" granted to every human, constant and unending violations of what we perceive as "human rights", and is virulently anti-American to boot. Israel is just a "Little Satan" in their eyes; the "Big Satan" is the good old US of A; and after drowning Jews in the ocean, they would not be averse to drowning Americans as well (not necessarily in the same ocean), or just nuking them.

Along cometh Lee Bollinger, lawyer (the famous Shakespearean quote comes to mind right away), and the president of the Ivy League college, who invites this embarrassment for an earth worm to speak in front of his bunch of ungrateful spoiled brats...uh, sorry, students, siting the poor, abused First Amendment as an excuse. Since then did the First Amendment stretch to hoodlums who are not only not American citizens, but long ago belong in American jail for kidnapping and probable conspiracy to murder American citizens? Not only is the invitation extended, that bloody murdering son of a whoremonger speaks to a welcoming audience!!!

And media, oh media, our wonderful, "unbiased", liberal, terrorist-supporting media! A huge debate: should we or shouldn't we, no, really, should we or whould'n we? Never mind your pride as Americans and gratitude to the country which allows you to constantly exercise your stinking yaps, but where is your simple sense of self-preservation? What a disgusting bunch of cowardly, stupid braying asses!!!

TO ALL MY JEWISH BROTHERS AND SISTERS

To all my Jewish brothers and sisters, regardless of whatever you consider yourself Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, Deconstructionist, atheist, agnostic, secularist, anarchist, liberal, Buddhist, or Satanist, or whenever you consider yourself a Jew or not, or even if you do not know or realize that you are a Jew; to all of you I wish Shana Tova!

Let the Master of the Universe inscribe and seal us all in the Book of Life! Be it His will to protect us from our own confusion, ignorance, arrogance, sheer stupidity, and baseless hatred. Let Him protect the Holy Land and all our brethren who live there from the terrorists and their own corrupt and cowardly government; and let Him instill in all of us the understanding of what being a Jew really means and the pride of being Jews.

Let all of us who live outside of the Holy Land remember that respecting the laws of the country in which you live is a commandment and not an option, and may all our actions always be a credit to His Name. May all of us have the strength of character to prevent us from gossiping, lying, cheating, and trying to destroy somebody else's good name.

Let us all finally unite, not just in times of sorrow, but in times of joy. Let us stop our constant narrow minded judging of each other, put aside all our squabbling over nonsensical matters that always seem so important, and just realize that "we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided". May the meaning of Arba Minim that we use on Succot be our guiding light!

Shana Tova!

All my love,

Barb

UNMITIGATED CHUTZPAH

Once a week I get the usual e-mail from Border's with coupons and suggestions. I usually skim it through, spent about two minutes salivating at 20% or 30% off coupons (because my book budget is pretty limited these days), and then I delete the message. Sometimes I add to the routine by quickly perusing their suggestions and interesting books of the week, usually scoffing at them, and then I delete the message.

The last week's e-mail produced a slightly different reaction. At first, I glanced at the coupon. OK, only 20% off missed; and then I looked at the suggestions. Here it was, at number one: "Our greatest gift". Guessed what it was? Our beloved formed President came out with a new book, "Giving". Obviously, he is not going to write about the kind of "giving" Juanita Broaddrick had gotten from him when he was, if I am not mistaken, attorney general of Arkansas. He is going to lecture everybody on the ways to "change the world", meaning helping others!!!!

Then, next day, his lady fair's ugly mug was staring at me from the Net. There was a front page article about how much she is worth. Of particular interest was the mentioning of her "Midas Touch", citing her infamous cattle futures stunt. Midas Touch? I think there was the other, much less fancier definition for it. What was that word again? Oh, yes, fraud!

The chutzpah of this couple is breaking the Richter scale. After all their ugly, a lot of times criminal deeds that have come to light during and after their White house tenure, even the most hardened and pushy politician would have crawled into quiet corner covered in shame by now, his political career in shambles. Never before have I seen a couple where the revolting exteriors reflect their ugly souls. Unquenchable lust for power, sexual harassment, rape, the use of state troopers as personal pimps, shady and downright illegal business deals, total paranoia resulting in replacement of most of the White House staff, rents of the Lincoln Bedroom for the night in exchange for campaign donations, the constant brutal smear campaigns against anyone who opposed them, lying under oath, using IRS as a personal attack machine, granting pardons to terrorists in exchange for political favors, shamelessly soliciting gifts at the end of their tenure ( according to the list I saw, Hil did much better than Bill: way more china as apposed to golf stuff), stealing furniture from the above mentioned White house, and last, but not least, endangering our national security by totally ignoring the threat from al qaeda and putting Chinese in a position of acquiring our state secrets (among other things).

After such impressive resumes, the logical conclusion would be to see their revolting faces through the bars of federal penitentiaries. Instead, they continue to enjoy their ill-gotten gains, publish bestselling books, have the nerve to lecture everyone else on morals, ethics, and charitable works, and boldly push for the second round in DC. You have to give them snaps for sheer gal and unmitigated chutzpah!

STRANGE...

My sister was very touched by the fact that I have dedicated an entry to the day I have spent with her daughter; and then she asked me if I have seen her latest e-mail signature. Since we basically see each other at least every other day, e-mailing became superfluous, so, obviously, I did not. So, she sent me a very short hello, and I had the stupidity of opening it at work. Thank G-d nobody saw me at that moment! I started grinning like an idiot and couldn't stop laughing for a few minutes. Guess what the signature said? "I am a proud sister of a blogger! Visit (this blog's address)"!

What makes it strange and very funny is the fact that I started the whole blog after her consistent nagging, because she was getting a bit tired of listening to my tirades, ravings, and reminiscences, as I have explained earlier. Of course, she still has to listen to most of my stories, not just read them:) One evening, when I did not make my scheduled appearance at her house, my brother-in-law got upset, claiming that I always tell "kol minei sipurim" and make her happy. Go figure...

I also remembered again how much I miss my oldest roommate. Nobody complains about my cleaning habits, missing papers, or the way I look in the morning right before I leave the house. Nobody programs the coffee maker in the evening, or cuts my hair at 11 pm, or buys me clothes at strange places like Annie Sez; no one to nag about my unflattering hairdo, or my nose stuck in a book and my "uhu" responses while I am reading. No one to surreptitiously shut down the AC during the night or to drag me to every single street fair every single Sunday for the whole summer because we were looking for a silver ring in a specific pattern for five bucks when everyone had it for six...I really miss you, sis!

FIRST TIME AT THE MET

Yesterday I took my niece to the Met for the first time (for her, obviously). Even thought by the time I got her, I was warned that she was a bit cranky and whatever undertaking I was going to embark on was going to be on my head, all in all the trip turned out to be a truly memorable experience.

First of all, she loves riding the subway. By the end of the ride, at least half the car becomes her friends, waiving and playing peekaboo, or she decides to give loud and screeching orations by picking herself up in her stroller. Unlike adults, she loves gazing at the tunnel through the windows and looking at colored ads in the cars.

At the museum, she charmed everyone from security guards and cloak room attendants to a middle-aged Italian tourist who ignored the humongous organ and decided to strike a conversation with my little American Gnome. She herself loved the huge entrance hall with it's domed ceiling so much that she did a little twirl there. We rode the escalator (wheeee), saw a whole bunch of different musical instruments (toy), saw a few pictures of what my family refers to "widow with child" (baby), and then there was a chorus of happy screeches from the balcony of musical instruments all the way down to the arms and armor collection (if you were ever at the Met and know the general layout, you can really appreciate this one). Plus there was one more picture dubbed "baby" ( little Spanish prince), to which I felt compelled to add "no, a little boy with horsey".

Then we went to the roof and enjoyed the magnificent view of Central Park, along with the shrubs surrounding the balcony (flower). After being informed that she can not touch the strange metal cylinders with the sand on top, she felt it her duty to inform everyone upon observing those things "Yabitch, fuh!" There was an ever increasing demand for milk in the Greek gallery (all the Russian speaking people can really appreciate this one); then we had to pass through the "Arts of Oceania" (or a bunch of ugly idols), at the sight of which poor child got scared and had to be picked up. In my opinion, by the way, this was the best critique on these so called "arts". At the very end the whole experience was a bit spoiled by the fact that scatterbrained aunt forgot her "sosa" (pacifier) in her stroller, so, by the time the aforementioned stroller was retrieved from the coat check and after the repeated demands for sosa, there was a full blown rebellion on my hands (use your imagination).

Every outing with our little Golden Delicious brings me such joy! Two minutes looking at her twirling are worth every single diaper I have ever changed ( and I did plenty of those)!

A GOOD TEST FOR POLITICIANS

A few weeks ago the unending wait for the last Harry Potter had reached its peak. As a result, I couldn't really concentrate on any kind of half serious reading material and ended up justifying my Netflix fees by watching my DVDs in record time. The show I was going through at the time was Babylon 5.

Now, leaving aside personal love or deep dislike of the Sci Fi genre, the usual mediocre acting abilities you can expect from TV show actors, and the standard agitprop that always seeps our way from Hollywood, Babylon 5 is interesting in a sense that it has one cohesive story and two parallel mystery lines running through it that are engaging enough; but that is not why I mention this particular experience. What really caught my attention was a little development at the end of the second season.

One of the main characters in the show is an alien woman called Delenn. She comes from a race called Minbari, which, of course, is much superior to Earth on many different levels. Even though officially she is just an ambassador to B5, in reality she is a member of the ruling Grey Council, and her real mission is quite different. There is a prophesy of the terrible ancient enemy coming to destroy the galaxy, and humans and Minbari are destined to unite in fight against that enemy. More than that, the prophesy alludes to the fact that Delenn most probably will play a crucial role in that fight. So, believing herself destined for that important mission, Delenn plays a diplomat in order to start preparations for the war.

Later on, in order to breach the gap between humans and her race, she undergoes a painful transformation in order to become half-human. As a result, she is shunned by her own people who are unaware of the greater mission, and later on loses her seat on the Council, which is aware, but stops trusting the prophecy and Delenn.

To top all this off, she must somehow prove herself to the other ancient race, which is running the whole show. So, while trying to explain why she thinks the prophecy meant specifically her, what her true motives are in all this, and why she thinks she is not really full of arrogance, Delenn is faced with an unbearable situation: she might die, or her friend might die trying to protect her. She keeps insisting on protecting her friend and sacrificing herself. "This is my mission: life! It does not matter if it is one life or one billion; I have to protect it!" is her anguished reply. She is willing to die alone, ignobly, unacknowledged, without any kind or hero recognition just to protect another being; and by making that choice she proves that her intentions are pure and noble, and there is no arrogance and self-delusion.

Now, just imagine doing that to any aspiring politician!!! Let them forget laurels and do meaningless and boring job; let them experience disdain and physical discomfort; and in the end, let them prove that they are willing to sacrifice their life without any kind of acknowledgement in order to save just one human life! It boggles the mind, does it not?