Sunday, April 29, 2007

Stuff I've thought about

1) I had a nice Shabat in Rogers Park. Saw some of my friends who I haven't seen since Pesach or before then. Also, I think I drank a little more than I normally do, but not enough to be drunk or in any danger.

2) Last night, on Fox Chicago, Channel 32, they did a story on these Chicago guys in Evanston who burned their draft cards 36 years ago during the Vietnam War. Fox 32 is NOT Conservative or Republican friendly, and all Chicago and Illinois conservatives/patriots should write them a letter telling them that airing a story which is sympathetic to America's enemies is NOT ACCEPTABLE, especially from a Fox station, who allegedly is conservative or "Fair and Balanced".

3) About the Jerry Sloan snub for coach of the year. The point was not to turn it into a Limbaugh-McNabb or Imus situation. Sloan doesn't have backing from the national media, unlike Jackson and Larry Brown and Pat Riley. He's a midwestern/Rocky Mountain version of Bill Belichick, without a NBA title to his credit.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Utah Jazz underappreciated

Read this article

http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/sliceman/2007/04/24/Another_Coach_of_Year_Snub_for_Sloan?page_no=1&reload=8

I feel that the NBA writers who voted for Mitchell did so because they don't like Sloan so they will look for someone else who's more interesting to vote for. It wasn't so much that Mitchell was great as that they don't like an older white coach who coach in the NBA Siberia (Anywhere west of the Mississippi with a metro population under 3 million).

Any Raptor fans or goody-two shoes Liberal NBA apologists care to argue?

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

More on Yom Ha'atzmaut

Well, today is the day that the Rabbanut Harashit (Israeli Rabbinate) declared that we celebrate Israeli Independence Day as Yom Hazikaron or Remembrance Day was pushed to Monday so that people wouldn't be mechallel shabat (violate the Sabbath) to travel to Yom Hazikaron ceremonies.

Anyway, I hope that the Israeli people and their elected officials have the backbone to stand up to the Palestinians and their enemies around them.

In my opinion, Israelis and Jews should turn the question around on the Palestinians and force them to prove that they are committed to peace and not saying one thing in English and another in Arabic, which is their usual ploy.

Should the U.S. give back California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to Mexico because they won? Maybe the Anglophones in Quebec should leave Quebec because they were "mean" or insensitive to the Francophones.

Nowhere in an Israeli textbook or Sefer (Jewish holy book) does it compare Arabs to pigs and monkeys.


May this Yom Ha'atzmaut be used for bettering the people of Israel and Jews worldwide.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Yom Ha'Atzmaut

On Tuesday, Israel will celebrate Yom Ha'Atzmaut, or Israeli Independence Day. The previous day is Yom Hazikaron, or Remembrance Day. I hope that both days will be meaingful to me as a Jew, even if I am not in Israel.


I think it's a day that should be noted by all Jews. How one makes it important, is up to them. There are people who say Hallel (Psalms) of praise to G-d. Others learn or study about the day. As Jews, we should note this day and be thankful that there's a Jewish state, even if it itsn't run 100% according to Halacha.

If Britain or the UN was in charge of "Palestine" would there be as many Yeshivot and Women's Seminaries as there are today? I highly doubt it.

Friday, April 20, 2007

hockey and basketball

Well it seems that the Left is winning again with the Imus thing getting him fired for his infamous comments.
Also Pelosi visiting Syria and submitting to wearing a burqa or niqab or whatever the Muslims want women to wear in their �holy� counties. This country is in bad shape and has become more sissified in the last 3 or 4 years and this is with a Republican president.


NBA: Eastern Conference:

Detroit-Orlando

Detroit in 5

Cleveland-Washington

Cleveland in 5

Toronto-New Jersey

Toronto in 6

Chicago-Miami

Chicago in 7




Western Conference

Dallas-Golden State

Dallas in 5

Phoenix-Los Angeles

Phoenix in 6

San Antonio-Denver

San Antonio in 6

Houston-Utah

Houston in 7

Well, I am looking forward to the weekend because it's supposed to be nice. I will talk a walk and get together with friends, etc.

Also, I want to catch up on the NHL playoffs. Why the NHL playoffs over the NBA playoffs? Because there's more drama in a hockey game than in a NBA playoff game. I can shell out 50 bucks for an EA Sports NBA 2K7 game and have a good idea of who will win. What are the odds of the Warriors upsetting the Mavericks or the Magic (aka Tragic) upsetting the Pistons? One in 100.

Last night the Dallas Stars beat the Vancouver Canucks 1-0 in Overtime on a goal by Brendan Morrow. I remember pulling for the Canucks when I was in Seattle, particularly 1994, when they lost to the New York Rangers in 7 games. However, if Vancouver wins, then Dallas is gone. I can catch the Stars games on the radio late at night. Their games are aired on the Newstalk leader of Texas, WBAP, AM 820. Also home of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin.

NHL: Eastern winners: New York Rangers, Ottawa Senators
Buffalo Sabres one win away from beating the Islanders and the Devils and Lightning are tied 2-2. My friend in Brooklyn is a big Devils fan but the team doesn't score enough goals. They don't have a Mark Messier to take the team on his shoulders when the going gets tough.

Western Winner; Anaheim Ducks
Vancouver Canucks and San Jose Sharks are one win away from advancing to the Secound round. Detroit and Calgary are tied 2-2.

For more information visit www.cbc.ca or www.nhl.com or www.firebettman.com

Thursday, April 19, 2007

no-hitter

Chicago White Sox pitcher Mark Buerhle threw a no-hitter last night against the Texas Rangers. It's good for him and it couldn't have happened to a nicer (or worse) team than Texas.

As a Mariner fan, I dislike two teams in the AL West a lot, Texas and Anaheim (AKA LA Angels). Texas is a softball team and the South has a lifestyle that is strange to me. Too much rodeo and cowboy type stuff.

What I mean by the Rangers being a softball team is they hit homers but play poor defense and don't pitch well.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Imus, Virginia Tech and self-confident mentality

Recently the big news in America has revolved around Don Imus and the shooting of 30+ students at Virginia Tech University.
Some say that we need speech police to determine what's appropriate and what isn't.

I would like to focus on a different aspect of these stories. America is lacking a self-confident mentality that we can handle these problems. As soon as the Two Reverends entered the fray, I knew that the Imus story was going to bigger than it should have been and that he would lose his job.

We need to be more self-confident, this isn't the 1940's and 1950's.

Has Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson helped the women's basketball team make a shot, play defense, force a charging violation, write a successful lab report or an essay? The answer is NO, NO and NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How would Carolyn McCarthy (Congresswoman from New York who's anti-guns and pro-gun control) handled the situation in Virginia Tech two days ago?

Did Hillary Clinton or Barbara Boxer help someone pass a doctoral thesis or get them into a good law school such as Harvard, University of Chicago? Not too many, and those women students or other "disadvantaged groups" got off their duff and did it on their own.

Let's return to self-reliance, it has worked for us in the past. Yes we need other people and to help them in times of need. However, a victim mentality or crying all the time doesn't help the problem.

In Jewish Law, there is a specific time for mourning a loved one, seven days for a parent, sibling or spouse and thirty days where one doesn't do too much outside of his or her community. I am not a posek (decider of halacha) but the point is that the Jewish Sages knew human psychology before Sigmund Freud was around and knew that one needs a set amount of time to mourn or cope with a tragic loss. After that, hopefully with the right amount of love, one can move on.

Getting called names from an ignoramus hardly qualifies as tragic, as the young people of Virginia Tech can tell you, or even cancer, AIDS or other diseases.

Friday, April 13, 2007

stuff

Passover was nice in Chicago. The weather is still closer to February than April, but I hope that in the next week or so it changes.

On the "Imus" flap. I hold the following people responsible: Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Paul Waldman of Media Matters, a left-wing crybaby media "watchdog" group.

Yes you immature children from Media Matters, you are AS responsible if not more so for the hype and tempest over something that should have been handled privately. You blast a fax to all of the pressure groups which made this thing blow up.


I feel that all responsible news organizations should ban Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton from their shows. They are divisive and irresponsible.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

quick post

1) The first two days of Passover (Pesach) were very nice up around Jerome St. or so. I really enjoyed it. Hopefully, it will warm up a bit so that I can walk outside for more than five minutes or so.

2) Met nice and interesting people over Pesach. Didn't know that there were Sephardim of Cuban origins. My grandfather's family was from Turkey and my Grandmother's family was from Salonika, Greece.


On a lighter (sports note) congrats to Florida for repeating as Basketball champs. Also kudos to their coach for staying put in Gainesville, Florida and not running after a headache in Kentucky. Let the slick used car salesman John Calipari do that.