Stray Thoughts

Newsweek shutting down print edition. Good riddance.

I remember reading a few issues of Newsweek over a decade ago.  

I remember thinking then that it was trash.  Trash and prurient.  To call it “liberal” is silly, misses the point.  Snarky, unfair, with the same attractions as a Tabloid, but with more baseless opinions and eye candy.

The magazine should have closed long ago.  Now that’s it’s an online edition only, it will be the same as any other populist left-wing cheesy low-class cheeseke blog, but with less experience in actual journalism.

Someone took a picture of me at my cousin’s wedding this past May.  I didn’t pose or anything.

Someone took a picture of me at my cousin’s wedding this past May.  I didn’t pose or anything.

Opinions

Something I wrote recently:

There is a natural evolution to having opinions on anything. 

Step One: a person becomes convinced that something is right for himself personally. 

Step Two: Then a person begins to consider whether the thing which is right for himself is also a universal ethic that applies to others as well.

If he concludes that the ethic applies to more than himself alone, he will begin trying to have an impact on others by trying to convince them to volunteer to accept that ethic or moral choice. Those with tact will do this tactfully. Those without tact will do it their way.

Step Three: At a certain point in every civilization, people might become so convinced about the universality of certain rights and wrongs that they feel it is worth exerting force, physical or political or even military, to get people to live that way. 

In America, when it comes to religion, the First Amendment keeps us at Step Two. Hence, Kiruv. And Tact. 

In Israel, whose pre-State Ottoman culture was at Step Three, things work differently, which is a big turnoff for anyone from the West who prefers a Step Two Culture. Fortunately, there has been some growth in the Israeli Step Two culture in the past generation, which has led to Lev L’Achim and some other tactful Kiruv thinking.

HRC: Godfather Part Two

Did someone ask the Secretary of State to fall on her sword for Obama over the Libyan tragedy?

Penn State

The decision of the Powers that Be to pretend that Penn State did not actually win those championships is stupid.  They DID win those games and those championships. The fact that the Coach was an evil man in other areas cannot change the facts.  Had those wins been the result of his evil decisions, like Steroid Use or the like, then the decision would have some merit.  But as it stands now, the erasure of the past, like some 1984 MiniTru ruling, only serves to whitewash history and make everyone forget what happened.

jabberwocky-jessica: rdavidovich: Translation: I am not going to choose my words to be kinder to you when I express my message; because I am an a——le.   I don’t take it to mean that. There are ways to say things nicely even if it’s a truth people don’t want to hear. Just because someone says something that other’s disagree with, doesn’t make them an a-hole.  Of course saying something others disagree with does not say anything negative about character.  But that’s not what this quote (from Jon Stewart I guess?)  is saying.  I don’t want to prolong any argument with you Jessica.  So I won’t belabor this past this post.  The way I see it, I’m arguing with Mr Stewart.  I reread the quote again and again, and it’s obviously an insult, directed towards an anonymous audience/someone who doesn’t like the harshness and bluntness of an opinion.   Frankly, when dealing with interpersonal relationships and people, not governments, I think that self-censorship, at least of tone and occasionally of message, to maintain a degree of pleasantness is frequently called for.   Good Shabbos

jabberwocky-jessica:

rdavidovich:

Translation: I am not going to choose my words to be kinder to you when I express my message; because I am an a——le.  

I don’t take it to mean that. There are ways to say things nicely even if it’s a truth people don’t want to hear. Just because someone says something that other’s disagree with, doesn’t make them an a-hole. 

Of course saying something others disagree with does not say anything negative about character.  But that’s not what this quote (from Jon Stewart I guess?)  is saying.  I don’t want to prolong any argument with you Jessica.  So I won’t belabor this past this post.  The way I see it, I’m arguing with Mr Stewart.  I reread the quote again and again, and it’s obviously an insult, directed towards an anonymous audience/someone who doesn’t like the harshness and bluntness of an opinion.  

Frankly, when dealing with interpersonal relationships and people, not governments, I think that self-censorship, at least of tone and occasionally of message, to maintain a degree of pleasantness is frequently called for.  

Good Shabbos

(Source: empatheticvegan, via her-nature-persuaded)

Translation: I am not going to choose my words to be kinder to you when I express my message; because I am an a——le.  

Translation: I am not going to choose my words to be kinder to you when I express my message; because I am an a——le.  

(Source: empatheticvegan, via her-nature-persuaded)

You’ll find a similar pattern if you do a map of the world shifting over the centuries and millenia and watch how different tribes and nations and empires took over other tribes and nations and empires.   naturallybent: eroding land rights til nothing’s left.

You’ll find a similar pattern if you do a map of the world shifting over the centuries and millenia and watch how different tribes and nations and empires took over other tribes and nations and empires.  

naturallybent:

eroding land rights til nothing’s left.

(via her-nature-persuaded)