Last year, several kossacks asked me questions about Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, which begins this year on Wednesday night at sundown. The questions were largely in response to recipes I posted for the Recipe of the Day feature in the nightly Top Comments diary. As I noted in this diary, there are ample resources on the internet for anyone who just wants a general overview, and even Wikipedia has a respectable entry.
In last year's diary, I recounted the story of the Martyr of Mayence and its significance for the holiday. This year, I will talk about the shofar, the ram's horn blown on Rosh Hashana to mark the new year -- and a few other things, too.
[Promoted from the Diaries (and very slightly edited for time reference) by Meteor Blades.]
[Today], the sixth anniversary of the worst terrorist attack ever to occur on US soil, we will hear many platitudes about the fallen. Instead of buying into the hype, we choose to remember and mourn the actual people who are no longer with us. We remember and we mourn our friends and family and complete strangers who lost their lives on that terrible day.
Elie Wiesel once famously said that he regretted his role in popularizing the term "Holocaust" to describe the Nazis' genocide against the Jews because the term has come to be used to describe other evils that pale in comparison. In so doing, the enormity of the Nazis' crimes is trivialized.
He was absolutely right.
If you enjoy eating a hamburger from time to time, you're not a Nazi and you're not engaging in genocide, regardless of what PETA says.
If you run your business in a particularly strict way, you may be a jerk, but you're not a Nazi and you're not engaging in genocide, regardless of what Seinfeld says.
We should be used to it by now. The Republicans do it all the time. When we supported Ned Lamont in the primaries last year, Joe Lieberman did it, too. Your friend Bill O'Reilly -- Falafel Boy himself -- and his minions took their shot, even going so far as to call us Nazis and Klansmen. And now it's your turn, Mr. Ford.
In your capacity as the chair of the Democratic Leadership Council, you said this morning on Meet the Press that we're a bunch of Jew haters here.
Yes, it happened again. Fifty-seven sniveling cowards in Democrats' clothing decided it would be better to expand the powers of the most corrupt administration in US history and enable them to continue to violate the civil liberties of US citizens in a way that was until now illegal rather than upholding the Constitution as their oaths of office demand. These 57 traitors to the principles outlined in the Constitution knew that FISA was passed in response to the Nixon administration's use of our national security apparatus to spy on innocent Americans, they knew that what BushCo was doing was illegal and directly violating the Constitution, and they decided to legalize it anyway. And why? Because they're afraid of being perceived as weak and would prefer to safeguard their own jobs by actually being weak.
Ben Franklin used to say, "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." In thinking about recent events and Franklin's famous quote, I began thinking about what other Founding Fathers might have to say about our current situation. After quickly perusing my books at home, here's what I found:
Let me be clear: I do not yet have a preference for any of the candidates for our nomination for president next year. Even among this field of candidates that, while very good, has yet to really impress me, Hillary Clinton is absolutely not my preference for a variety of reasons I won't elaborate for the moment, but which I probably share with most of you. But whoever I eventually decide to support in the primaries, if she wins the nomination, I will vote for her in the general election. And if you know what's good for you and for this country, you will too.
Are you guys even paying attention? Do you realize what you've done by siding with Bill O'Reilly against Daily Kos? I'm assuming you don't because nothing in your corporate history suggests that you're that stupid or malevolent. Let me educate you a little.
For the record, this is what Bill O'Reilly said about us:
I'm not going to belabor the point, because a) I'm taking advantage of today's odd diary-naming trend as a gimmick, b) I don't have the time to belabor the point, c) I'm not interested in debating it, and most importantly, d) Troy Davis is going to be put to death tomorrow for a crime he almost certainly did not commit.
I've already diaried about Davis a couple days ago, so you can read that for more details, but here's a quick summary of his case: he was convicted for murdering an off-duty police officer in 1989. There was no physical evidence against him, but nine witnesses testified against him anyway. Seven have since changed their stories, indicating that they felt pressured into lying under oath:
To read this diary correctly, I have to ask you to work a little harder than you normally do in a diary. I'm not going to explain that much; just note the discrepancy between the words and the links and images over the jump.
Original tags include: patriotism, environmentalism, agriculture, mountain top removal, global warming, food safety, theocracy, bigotry, racism, Hurricane Katrina, tort reform, September 11, working poor, non-proliferation, George W. Bush, John Conyers, MT-Sen, Scooter Libby, domestic spying, Iraq War, Constitution, torture, abortion, Supreme Court, economy, debt, Russ Feingold, healthcare, Murder by Spreadsheet, Federal Marriage Amendment, Kelo v. New London, hate speech, estate tax.
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
Tomorrow is Independence Day, and if you read my diary yesterday, you know I'm in a lousy mood. If there is anything our country has come to represent over the past 231 years, in theory if not always in practice, it's the idea that all people are subject to the rule of law as defined by and derived from our Constitution.
But over the past 6 1/2 years, the Constitution has been tortured. Our executive branch has been acting like the dictator from whom we revolted in 1776; our judiciary has been complicit in BushCo's attempts to gut the Constitution; our legislature has alternated between complicity and fecklessness in their opposition. And while I never had any doubts about Bush or Cheney, more and more I'm getting the sense that many elected Democrats have never bothered to read the Constitution; and even for those who have, I'm decidedly unimpressed with their efforts to protect it.
I'm supposed to be studying for comps now. I'm supposed to be studying, but I'm so fucking pissed off I can hardly see straight, let alone retain the details of the very boring academic articles I'm supposed to be studying.
Scooter Libby obstructed justice. He was convicted. He is known to be a participant in either the outing of a covert agent of the CIA in a time of war (which is capital treason by definition, a death penalty offense), covering up for the people responsible for the outing, or both. And if Congress had the guts to enforce their powers as delegated to them by the Constitution, for sobbing out loud, we'd have more than enough evidence to convict Libby and several others for that offense.
I am a somewhat religiously observant Jew. I believe in God. I don't work on the Sabbath (though a stringently religious Jew would point out that I do m'lakha). I keep strictly kosher. I don't merely read my sacred texts; I study them in great detail. I celebrate religious holidays. I pray regularly. My Jewish identity and heritage are very important to me.
Like most American Jews, I am a Democrat. I am a liberal. I am a progressive. And I believe it is not only bad government to impose religion or religious ideology on the general public, it's also lousy theology. Below the fold, I explain why in the context of a few key historical documents and the historical context in which the original users of the Bible interpreted it.
Upon hearing that Holy Joe Lieberman (R/Traitor-CT) was hosting a fundraiser for BushCo loyalist Republic Senator Susan Collins of Maine -- and at 3000 dollars a plate -- our very own kath25 organized a counterfundraiser for Collins' opponent in next year's election, fellow kossack and progressive congressman, Rep. Tom Allen. Every two-to-three hours yesterday and into the early hours of today, a new diary was posted to shine light on the evils of Joementum and Republican senators and to solicit donations to Rep. Allen's campaign. The diary schedule is here:
kath25 has organized a series of diaries in support of a fundraiser for Rep. Tom Allen, a fellow kossack and our best hope to defeat Sen. Susan Collins in the 2008 elections.
As if we didn't already have enough reasons to detest Sen. Joe Lieberman, here's one more: despite Collins' loyal service enabling myriad BushCo crimes over the past six-plus years and despite the progressive nature of the people of the great state of Maine, who deserve better from Sen. Collins, Joementum is hosting a $3,000-a-plate fundraiser for her. This event is being called "bipartisan" -- and it's intended to dupe voters into believing that Collins isn't the BushCo enabler we know her to be.
The way I see it, I have six months to decide who to support in the presidential primaries. By then, I'll be volunteering for one of them. And if the candidate I pick doesn't do too well in the early primaries, I'll be volunteering for someone else by mid-February -- the way all the states are moving their primaries up, either the nomination will be all but sewn up by then or the contest will be down to only two or three candidates.
I see all the diaries here -- most for Obama or Edwards, a few for Richardson or Clinton, the occasional one for Kucinich or Dodd. And I see the virtual avalanche for Gore and some from diehard Clark supporters, but at the moment, neither of them is running for dogcatcher, let alone president. And after reading hundreds if not thousands of diaries here about the candidates, getting e-mails from their campaigns, watching the debates, reading the news, and tracking their positions on various issues to the best of my ability, I'm not convinced that any of the candidates stand head and shoulders above the rest. So I put it to you, those who have already chosen a candidate -- why should I support your candidate?
