February 25, 2024
Imagine Peace
Families grow rather than attend early funerals.
Communities bustle and prosper rather than lie as dying evacuated ghost towns.
We all become part of a community of nations working to solve life's biggest problems, instead of planning how to maim and kill each other with greater pinpoint accuracy and effect.
(AI generated image from MS Designer)
July 23, 2023
They Died So We May Speak
Israelis are a people who are not afraid to speak their minds, and they are not afraid to stand up for what they believe in. Regardless of the outcome of the current controversies, I am proud to be a part of the Jewish people, and I am confident that the citizens of the Holy Land will continue to be a beacon of hope for the world.
(Photo adapted from Israel Defense Forces via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1997_Israeli_helicopter_disaster_funeral.jpg)
They Died So We May Speak
June 25, 2023
Putin: Will He Stay or Go?
Putin: Will He Stay or Go?
April 30, 2023
Lets Save Israel Now
(Credit Photo: Cottonbro Studio via https://www.pexels.com/photo/bearded-man-folding-the-flag-of-israel-4033953/)
Lets Save Israel Now
March 26, 2023
The Doctrine of Deterrence Has Failed
Moreover, it’s not enough to just put up a show of some limited and hollow resistance; rather, when we do fight, it must be with our full determination to win. Unfortunately, too often we have gone in militarily with “shock and awe,” but turned abruptly tail in a politically wishy-washy “shame and retreat.” It’s high time to make U.S. deterrence mean something inescapably formidable once again.
(Source Photo via https://www.pexels.com/photo/soldiers-in-line-to-get-in-a-plane-54098/)
The Doctrine of Deterrence Has Failed
March 19, 2023
How a Sticky Situation Taught Me Some Empathy
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "How a Sticky Situation Taught Me Some Empathy."
Thank G-d, he finished the blood draw, and it was over. But as I reflected afterwards, I thought to myself that this guy is just one of probably millions out there who are unhappy with their jobs, their relationships, their lives, and maybe more broadly, the direction things are going in for them.To “move the needle” of the world in the right direction, perhaps we must fundamentally change the order of things so that people are paramount while profit and power are not. What that means is that we don’t tolerate the conditions that lead to tyrants, corruption, and endless greed.
(Credit Photo: Anna Shvets via https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-holding-syringe-3786215/)
How a Sticky Situation Taught Me Some Empathy
March 17, 2023
Not Our World
- Russia
- China
- Iran
- North Korea
Ever wonder what things will look like tomorrow? ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Not Our World
February 25, 2022
World Is Worse Today
With China up next to invade Taiwan.
With Iran and North Korea just waiting for their chances at evil.
With provocations, escalations, and threats of nuclear weapons.
The world is much worse today.
Peace is shattered.
There is no telling when or how this will all end.
(Credit Photo; Andy Blumenthal)
World Is Worse Today
February 14, 2022
Russia Wins This Hands Down
They have so intimidated Ukraine that Russia will be able to install a new government in Kyiv or just pull the strings on the puppets in place without ever firing a shot.
Moreover, Ukraine won't be considered by NATO for membership ever again knowing that Russia will go to the mat over it.
Scare tactics can work if you carry a big enough gun and have the gumption to hold it to your opponent's head! ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Russia Wins This Hands Down
January 2, 2022
U.S. Misses The Boat on Hypersonic Missiles
But the U.S. spends more than the next top 11 countries combined on defense.
Yet, we have failed miserably at the next BIG thing in defense: hypersonic weapons!
Both China and Russia have hypersonic weapons ready to use on us.
China even claims they can use they can use their hypersonic missiles with heat seeking technology to destroy our most advanced fighter aircraft the F-35 and F-22.
Yet as recently as November, the 3rd of the U.S. Air Force's hypersonic missile tests failed!
Now at best, the U.S. Navy is hoping to be able to perhaps deploy hypersonic weapons by 2025-2028.
In the meantime, the U.S. is vulnerable to its adversaries at a time when Russia and China are rearing their militaries for confrontations in Ukraine and Taiwan, respectively.
And that could be only the beginning, if we don't get our military R&D together and fast.
How could this happen with all the money we spend on defense?
Eyes wide shut like Pearl Harbor and 9/11 all over again! ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
U.S. Misses The Boat on Hypersonic Missiles
September 25, 2021
Turning Nakba to Babka
The term Nakba, in relation to Israel, was actually was first used in August 1948 by Syrian Professor Constantin Zureiq not to condemn anything Israel did to the Palestinians, but rather is a call for the Arabs themselves whereby:
We must admit our mistakes…and recognize the extent of our responsibility for the disaster that is our lot.The displacement of the Palestinians and their refugee problem is attributed not primarily to Israel, but rather to the mistakes that the Palestinians and Arabs made themselves! So, while, the Arabs and Palestinians have tried to make Israel into the aggressor and blame them for their troubles, the truth of the matter is that the Palestinians Nakba is to a great extent caused by their own religious intolerance, gross hatred of the Jews, including the desire for their genocide, and that this has led them down a true disastrous path of Middle East recklessness and extremely bad decision making, over and over again.
The goods news is that in more recent times, the Arab nations are thank G-d changing their hostile approach to Israel and instead moving to make peace. Not only Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1993), but in the last year with the Abraham Accords with both the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, as well as with Sudan and Morocco normalizing relations with Israel. Even this morning, I was amazed once again to read an editorial in the Wall Street Journal calling for Iraq to join the Abraham Accords too! Of course, the hope is that more and more Arab countries as well as the Palestinians will choose the path of peace and collaboration with Israel, as Ben-Gurion had originally held out to them in 1948 (it’s never too late). The prophetic vision of swords turning to ploughshares is perhaps today’s turning of the shedding of tears and assigning blame over a perceived Nakba into sitting down together on Sukkot for a nice piece (peace) of chocolate babka!
Turning Nakba to Babka
September 19, 2021
Unstoppable Fear Meets Immovable Humiliation
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is really about fear vs. humiliation. The Jews are fearful of the Palestinians and the Palestinians feel humiliated by the Jews. The Jewish people collectively suffer post-traumatic stress and anxiety disorders after millennia of persecution culminating in the Holocaust and multiple Wars in Israel against far greater Arab forces. Further, this has been perpetuated by decades of terrorism and Intifadas that have left the Jews feeling vulnerable in their own land of Israel. The net effect of this Jewish history and of being surrounded by hundreds of millions of Arabs, many resentful and angry, is that Jews are naturally afraid. At the same time, the Palestinians, as part of the greater Arabs, feel humiliated after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the carving up of their lands by the West and the colonialism and occupation that followed by Britain and France. More recently, the Palestinians feel humiliated by the founding of the State of Israel amidst the multitude of Arab lands of the Middle of East, as well as by the barrier wall and regular checkpoints that protects Israel from terrorist intruders, by the West Bank settlements (and actually by Jews anywhere in Israel), and by general Israeli military control over the territories.There is hope that in time and with G-d's help, the opposing forces of fear and humiliation will weaken and thereby become less oppositional. At that miraculous time, please G-d in the near future, the factors that prior resulted in a cosmic explosion of war, terror, Jihad, and Intifada will dissipate. Then instead of suicide bombers and terror tunnels and walls and checkpoints, we can have hope for the arrival of a beautiful white dove with an olive branch of peace that knows no bitter boundaries of Jew or Palestinian anymore.
Unstoppable Fear Meets Immovable Humiliation
June 20, 2021
@Torpedo Factory
Some old but awesome torpedos
You wouldn't want one of these big salamis hitting you in the head!
Man oh man, these will do some serious damage.
Imagine what we got now-a-days for fun with our enemies. ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
@Torpedo Factory
February 1, 2021
Ship in a Bottle
How do they get that ship in a bottle?
Build the ship inside the bottle or blow the glass and shape it around the ship.
Sort of like the chicken and the egg dilemma.
What came first? I dunno!
Someone get me out of these circular, mind-numbing Catch-22s! ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Ship in a Bottle
August 10, 2018
Space Force: Up Up And Away
The things that get focused on, get accomplished.
Space is the "final frontier."
And as Gene Roddenberry realized with the creation of Star Trek in 1964, it is the future of Mankind's very survival.
It's time to stop thinking small as in planet Earth, and start thinking big as there is a whole universe out there!
Russia and China get it--hence their development and testing of anti-satellite rockets and other "kill vehicles" in space as well as lasers and jamming equipment against our satellites, and of course, their plans to colonize the Moon and land men on Mars and beyond.
Why have we in America only gotten it in Hollywood?
Yes, there have been a few notable exceptions such as President Reagan with his vision for the Star Wars' Strategic Defense Initiative and President Trump with the bonafide stand up of a Space Force.
Some of the Pentagon brass, particularly the Air Force, may hem and haw about the politics of this thing...losing money and prestige for their branch of the military, but their power is not the concern, our power as a nation is!
I envision a day in the not too distant future when the Air Force doesn't run Space Command, but rather Space Force runs the Air Force.
We need to put politics aside and stop laughing at our own ignorance about the potential of space for our future survival and for conflict. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Space Force: Up Up And Away
November 18, 2017
Invasion of Dinosaurs
So what's with the invasion of dinosaurs.
First one is standing next to the checkout line in Whole Foods in Maryland.
Second one is actually on someone's terrace overlooking the beach in Fort Lauderdale.
Third one is the real McCoy from the Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
Certainly, dinosaurs aren't cute and cuddly--even the plush ones from Whole Foods--they'd eat you and I for dinner if they could!
So why do we gravitate to relics from the Ice Age past?
Perhaps, just like looking forward to Aliens from outer space, the dinosaurs represent an important historical link for us, and thus anchor us in a much larger perspective of time and space.
In a way, it all points to the dichotomy between us as humans with great--almost endless--potential, and yet at the same time, how small we are relative to the enormous dinosaurs that roamed the earth of yesteryear as well as the distinct possibility of mighty extraterrestrials that we may someday (soon) encounter from outer space.
From this context, I guess what's really amazing is that we, as a people, are still here!
Despite our bad habits and unsustainable living, we continue to innovate our way out of own messes of greed, conflict, contagion, pollution, and resource depletion, and create a future far beyond what destroyed our predecessors or even what may come from current or potential future foes.
Like the economy, we think we can grow ourselves out of all our troubles--and who knows, maybe we can if we can continue to stay at least one or two steps ahead of all the challenges and threats--but, at the back (or front) of our minds is what if we can't or don't? ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Invasion of Dinosaurs
January 15, 2016
It's Not About The Regrets
An important and talented surgeon who has saved many lives in the past and will surely save many more in the future runs across an old man who has slipped and fallen under the cracking ice into a lake after trying unsuccessfully to save his puppy from drowning.
The old man is trapped and will freeze to death in short order.
Should the surgeon walk across the breaking ice and risk his own life to try and save the old man?
The vast majority of students' responded...that the surgeon should try and save the old man.
When asked why they thought that, most said because otherwise he would feel guilty afterwards.
Thinking about that it seems like a funny reason to do something dangerous, heroic, and maybe utterly stupid...so as not to feel guilty.
I guess that I would've thought people who would advocate for trying to save the old man would say something like
- Every life is valuable!
- Saving one person is like saving the world.
- Helping people even at our own risk or peril is what we do for our fellow human beings.
- We would want others to help us if we were in trouble, so we should do that for them.
While we can't judge someone else for how they react in situations of genuine moral conflict, we can teach the younger generation that doing something good for others is about more than just not feeling bad or guilty afterwards (for being lazy, selfish, or making the wrong call in the situation).
Making moral judgements is about choosing in every situation to try your best to do what's right, help people, be a good influence, take responsibility, and generally act selflessly, but not recklessly.
Regret stinks (and can be truly painful), but missing opportunities to live a good, meaningful life is much worse. ;-)
(Source Photo: The Blumenthals)
It's Not About The Regrets
January 5, 2016
Warning 613
This morning, on the Washington, D.C. Metro, see the time showing (above upper right).
The whole family is seeing this, as I got a note from my daughter just a few minutes ago looking at online classes at Lynda.com and one of the classes had 613 views.
Even to me (normally a critical thinker and healthy skeptic), it seems beyond regular explanations for the frequency and locations that we are seeing these signs.
Also, last night I had a scary dream about what seemed like the end of times--it was almost like The Walking Dead, with people running to the countryside amidst chaos and destruction all around them.
As tensions heat up between major Sunni and Shiite rivals, Saudi Arabia and Iran, and "Axis of Evil" Iran unveils a 2nd underground depot with missiles capable of carrying nukes, and ISIS continues their jihadi rampage leaving 80% of Ramadi in Iraq destroyed at a cost of $10 billion, a new Jihadi John replacement is executing British hostages in Syria, and there are escalating superpower tussles with Russia and China--it is not hard to see just some of the potential dangers in our times in terms of escalating conflict, terrorism, and war.
What is the future for us all, I do not know for certain, but all I can tell you is there appears to be warnings all about, and the question is will we heed them or not and then what is the outcome--it should be with mercy and for blessings. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Warning 613
February 21, 2015
The Monster Under The Bed
A shiksa is a non-Jewish girl and is sometimes used to refer to Jewish women that don't follow the commandments.
A shegetz is a similar term used for a male.
Is it a bad word?
Well, let's just say it's not a term of endearment. :-)
I guess it's funny that everyone has terms for those who are not just like them.
Of course we all don't have to be and aren't the same, cut from the same mold.
But we all have to have respect for each other and get along.
I think the worst part of people being different is not even the overt jokes or off-handed remarks which can certainly be hurtful, but much more the backdoor insinuations and aggressive behaviors.
Lately, to be frank, it seems that ethnic and religious war is brewing big time in the world--anyone else notice?
Not regional, focused on oil and resources, long held dictatorships, human rights, or even "the Palestinian issue."
But rather what no one wants to talk about or confront, a battle of civilizations.
It is so scary, because this is there are big and powerful actors at play whether Russia or China playing for the world's leadership role (one overtly and the other covertly), Iran and North Korea freely wielding nukes and threateningly strutting "their stuff," and ISIS and Al Qaeda looking for the next budding caliphate and imposition of Sharia law as far and as wide as they can take it.
East meets West, democracy vs. dictatorship, religion against religion, this thing is building up steam, pressure is rising, and the question is whether and how big this is about to blow.
Shhh, if we don't say the words or we pretend to "make nice" and give out jobs, dole out handouts, and use our drones, oh so discretely, maybe no one will notice.
Are we being phobic about communism, radical Islam, budding economic and military might, and other differences, or are we pointing out what we are all perceiving, but greatly fear to face.
When I saw recently that some wonderful Muslim people were surrounding synagogues in Europe, not to attack it, but rather to encircle it to defend it, I was not only in complete awe, but also realized how many good and righteous people there are out there.
These people are actually doing something about the injustices and power grabs they are witnessing, and not trying to obfuscate or opiate the masses.
It's not just about being tolerant of others and stripping hatred from our hearts and lives, but about being truthful when others may choose not to be. ;-)
(Source Photo: Facebook)
The Monster Under The Bed
July 12, 2014
From Hatred To Peace
Someone sent me this video by Dennis Prager on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and I wanted to share it.
An easy conflict to explain, a difficult one to solve: "One side wants the other dead!"
How do you get a people not to hate another?
"There are 22 Arab states stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean, but only 1 Jewish state the size of New Jersey..."
"Why can't the one Jewish state be allowed to exist?"
After generations of hatred and hostility--taught and practiced--truly a miracle is needed where we can live and let live.
May G-d bring peace and security in our time, and may "nation not lift up sword against nation, and neither shall they learn war anymore." (Isaiah 2:4)
From Hatred To Peace