Book Review:Can The Situation in the Middle East be Fixed?

I am a secular Jew. I was raised as a Reform Jew. That means we don’t do the daily or weekly rituals. How do Reform Jews raise their children? We’re taught the gist of the Old Testament (“The Bible”) stories, and many of us celebrate the ‘High’ holidays (Rosh Hashana/Yom Kippur…& later, Pesach), but the gist is that there is one God. Jesus may have existed, but he’s not ‘special’. We don’t believe in virgin birth… we’re all God’s children.

We’re told the one God we believe in is the same God the Christians and Muslims believe in, but we believe God is inside us–our conscience. We are the chosen people, but Sikh people also believe God is inside us. More, Sikh believe women and men are equal (Jews believe women are separate but equal). We also believe in altruism like the Sikh do. Altruism is important for our communities—not for future reward in the afterlife.

It wasn’t until I was an adult, and read the Bible (several different translations into English) that I learned that Jews kept slaves—but we were to release them in the jubilee year. I also read so many contradictions.

We were Zionists by default. My parents married in the early 1950s, and it was important to them to live near other Jews. Skokie, a suburb of Chicago, was open to Jews. They could get mortgages and home owners insurance. So, I lived in a tolerant, secular appearing community.

My parents joined a synagogue, and we bought trees for Israel.

It wasn’t until I was a teenager, and got a goyem boyfriend (and also went to visit an acquaintance in rural Illinois) that I understood that we Jews were different….from Christians. I just didn’t know how, or why. Was it only because we didn’t believe only Jesus was the child of God? You may notice, in the New Testament—-it’s disciples expounding—not God.

The goyem— Christians, tell us they believe that Jesus was Jewish, and we Jews killed Jesus by betraying him. I still don’t understand the logic, but in the era of Trump, it’s a little more clear.

What we believe, in terms of philosophy, doesn’t really matter as much as how we manifest out beliefs. Jews support Israel because we have no other place to go (we believe) if goyem come after us. Actually, we could go to Buddhist countries, but a small group of Zionists—many of whom were atheist (which also angers goyem) convinced the anti-semites in Europe that they should help us take over Palestine politically, with violence, if necessary.

We have Israel due to anti-semitism. It seems we believed the myth that Palestine was sparsely populated, and the land belonged only to Jews.That’s what our parents taught us: The whole of Palestine was a desert, barren, and the Jews made it bloom.

The reality was different, of course. I recently started reading Jonathan Schneer’s “The Balfour Declaration” https://www.amazon.com/Balfour-Declaration-Origins-Arab-Israeli-Conflict/dp/0812976037 (2010 Random House), which adds detail to both T.E. Lawrence’s and Scott Anderson’s (Lawrence in Arabia) accounts of how this mess came to be.

The British have a lot to answer for, but the gist is that they did not respect the Arabs who controlled the land, and made promises they had no intention of keeping. Yet, they are off the hook, choosing to put their money into the monarchy. In the 21st century. totally silent about the hatred they fomented.

As many have pointed out, Gaza could have been developed like Singapore or Hong Kong, but the hatred the Palestinians had for the usurpers (Jews) combined with their cultural reality has made it so I don’t think the dynamics can be fixed. Their anger should be aimed at the British, but how would they know why this happened? They didn’t have radios, they couldn’t read English newspapers even if they were available. Suddenly, they were invaded—first, just by settlers, then by the British military. The movie, “Exodus” (based on the book by Leon Uris (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exodus_(Uris_novel) makes the founding of Israel seen so romantic. In fact, it was brutal and messy.

Would the British fund reparations to the families that lost their land? Shouldn’t they?

As far as giving Israel back—not gonna happen. i believe the disputed territories should be returned, but I don’t live in Israel. More, I live on Native American land. We have a lot to answer for, but let me state right now that prayer to God—or Jesus, is a waste of time

Bankman-Fried, FTX, Cryptocurrency: the gist

Fed Study Says Bush and the Banks Didn’t Cause the Great Recession. The Fed Did

We can all point fingers at who was at fault, but the gist of capitalism is investment to make more money. The article dances around why deregulation is bad. Simply, if all the ‘investors’ in the bank pull all their money out all at once, does the bank have the means to stay afloat and continue as a business?

Shit happens. I’m not a gambler, but I take calculated risks, and there is a very fine line between gambling (I’d say hope is involved) and taking a risk (past performance, blah blah blah).

By all accounts, Sam Bankman Fried is a brilliant mathematician. Ironically, both his parents teach business ethics at Stanford. According to a brilliant article by Sheelah Kolhatkar :https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/02/inside-sam-bankman-frieds-family-bubble, B-F wasn’t really managing day-to-day operations. In spite of the best lawyers and accountants money could buy, when a single investor, Changpeng Zhao, tweeted he was dumping FTT (digital tokens—a little complicated), he sent a run on FTX, and B-F could not borrow enough actual money quickly enough & the whole scheme imploded. Riiight: he needed to borrow actual currency—dollars—to keep fantasy money afloat.

Just like the Trump boys stated they pay accountants to take car of their business, the boys only ‘supervise’ and apparently don’t read what they’re signing, B-F relied on staff to make sure everything was kosher. But more, he had plenty of actual cash. He just apparently spent it all on gifts for his parents, a fancy penthouse in the Bahamas, and a lifestyle he didn’t seem to really enjoy. His ultimate goal, he and his parents say, was to invest in people, countries. and ideas to make the world more equitable.

Good intentions are not enough. I don’t feel bad at all for the people who lost money with B-F. If they didn’t have it to lose, they shouldn’t have speculated. Even if you trade options, investment firms ask for proof you have a pool of money.

But people invest in crypto because it’s unregulated. This has me scratching my head.Even though it is unregulated, firms invested actual cash in the company….and now they want to be made whole.

This is above my pay grade, but there’s money to be made….by lawyers.

Book Review: Presto, by Penn Jillette

If you’re a fan of Penn & Teller, you know that Penn recently lost about 1/3 of his body weight. He did it for health reasons. In the book, he admits he was on a lot of drugs for his heart, diabetes, arthritis, you name it. He was considering a sleeve or lap band surgery, and a friend who he trusted told he trusted suggested he try a very unusual diet of eating only potatoes…& it worked!

This book is about his ‘weight loss journey,’ which apparently worked extremely well. He was able to go off all his meds and get healthy for his kids.

So, if you come across this book free or used, and are interested in losing weight, you’d probably be interested in the story.

I waffled about doing a review because the book is badly edited. Worse, it’s published by Simon & Schuster. They’re a well-known publisher. This is the best they could do? So much redundancy. Maybe Penn didn’t have enough words for an actual book,,,but here we are.

I also got a copy of 1 of his other books, Every Day is An Atheist Holiday. Similar ramblings, also in need of editing, this was published in 2012 by Plumb/Penguin,

The Fate of Dog Shows & ‘The Fancy’

I assume most people don’t know how a dog show comes together & how we pull it off. It’s sort of like planning a wedding, except we try to make money on the event.

These days, clubs make money by charging a parking fee, charging for a place to set-up grooming (about half the size of a parking space), booth space for vendors (usually selling grooming supplies, dog beds, and suits for women)and FASTCAT (dogs have to run 100 yards—-I don’t think it proves anything, but the dogs enjoy it and we make money).

We lose money on paying for judges: their meals & hotels, paying the superintendent (who provides the show catalogue, the rings, tables, 1st aid kits, ribbons (imprinting is not cheap), paying for the venue, insurance, and just holding the show.

Judges aren’t allowed to judge more than 175 dogs per day, but these days, unless people of a particular breed find the judge very knowledgeable, there is no danger of the judge drawing the limit. So, we don’t make money on conformation (the ‘beauty contest part) unless we also have a sweepstakes—& then we make money if people don’t show up: the money goes back to the club treasury.

When you come right down to it, Dog shows are not a money maker, However, we who do performance are the ugly stepchildren. People come to dog shows want to see dogs do something other than run around a ring. We all started with obedience or performance (rally, agility, nosework, etc) but for some reason, the Professional Handlers hold sway. We make room for them because they represent multiple owners. However, most s dogs are shown by their owners (or breeders). Does it really make sense to pander to the pros when regular folks are keeping the sport afloat? I don’t think so.

In any case, for those who smirk and think this is a ‘first world problem’ and we should all be rescuing dogs….many of us are involved in rescue—but you’re asking those of us who haven’t cause the problem of surplus pets to solve a problem others are causing—& off the hook for.

You’re al;so asking us to take any random dog, whether we can’t handle the size or grooming , or temperament should be of no consequence. they aren’t all 4 legs & a tail. We choose our breeds because we find them easy to live with. I just want those involved in our sport to think twice when they eliminate performance. You are killing the fancy.