Golden Retriever Swims Like A Fish

Out on the kayak today with Rebecca in Maryland. 

This beautiful golden retriever named Rudder was playing on the bank and in the water. 

He was swimming and chasing a toy that the friendly owners were throwing way out into the pond. 

On this hot sunny day, this dog was having a blast, and the people seemed to enjoy talking with us about him. 

Overall this was a welcome break from the Dog Days of Summer. ;-)

(Source Video: Rebecca Blumenthal)

Golden Retriever Swims Like A Fish

Good Can (And Will) Overcome Evil

Beautiful video showing that good can overcome evil. 

Next video is where the woman (empowered) takes down the would be attackers herself--with a big time, well-deserved smackdown!

Where on the right track. ;-)

Good Can (And Will) Overcome Evil

Nothing Is Something AND Something Is Nothing

So the world financial markets continue to go haywire. 

The Uber glorified taxi service and app (with an almost half billion dollar operating loss) is now valued at--get this--over $50,000,000,000!

And commodities--you know the precious materials that REAL things are made off (gold, silver, copper, aluminum, oil, gas, coal, wheat, cotton, corn, soybeans, cotton, cocoa, coffee, sugar, beef, and more) hit a 13 year low. 

When the nothings of this world like a basic cab service become invaluable and the real things that power our homes, technology, transportation, and manufacturing become valueless--then we know a day of painful financial reckoning is coming. 

The markets can stand on their head for only so long before the blood rushes in and people become dizzy and see spots.

A reversion to the mean is the one something here that is inevitable, along with a pretty decent recession to boot. ;-)

(Source Photos: Andy Blumenthal)

Nothing Is Something AND Something Is Nothing

A Being of Light

So last night, I dreamed about my beloved dad. 

He was in synagogue praying--something he did every day.

I was telling my dad that it was time to go.

But he didn't want to leave--synagogue was his favorite place to be close to G-d and his friends. 

My dad was in the front of the synagogue elevated on the steps before the Holy Ark (where the Torahs are kept).

I looked at my dad and somehow knew/felt that he was near death. 

I ran to him and threw my arms around him in an incredible completely loving hug--clutching on to him to stay with us, longer.

In this embrace, I could feel his total and undying love for me.

Now he no longer looked like my dad but like a being of light--such as I had never seen.

He had died, but was still somehow alive in another way. 

I miss my dad--he was a truly holy man (a Tzadik) and a loving husband, father, and grandfather, who would do anything for us. 

I wish I could sit and speak with him again, hold his hand, hear him sing when we came over, and see him smile. 

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Taltopia.com)

A Being of Light

Hey, Lady On The Shirt

This was just a really cool shirt that I saw.

It's has an image of a lady standing out front with what looks like a volcano in the background. 

The volcano is shooting up its hothead steam, and looks like it's blowing the cloud on the left sideways, off-kilter. 

What's nice about the lady on the shirt is that it's not just drawn on, but has materials sewn in to make it 3-D.

The black and pink fabric for the dress, the green and red beads for the shirt, the pink and silver over the black patches for the sunglasses, and the yellow for the hat. 

Also, like the way she's standing all confident wth her hands on her hips and her elbows out--like "Hey, that volcano is nothing (compared to me)!"

The shirt is so simple, yet very smart. 

That's the way most things should be. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Hey, Lady On The Shirt

Funnier In Yiddish

Yiddish is a language with words derived primarily from German, Hebrew, and Aramaic.

When someone wants to know if you speak Yiddish, sometimes, they just say, "Do you speak Jewish?" 

Many of the Yiddish words are popular and have become commonplace in our communications now-a-day. 

One of my friends used to say, "Jokes are always funnier in Yiddish."

And sure enough, there is something about Yiddish words, pronunciations, and nuances that make getting a point across very potent and at the same time, quite humorous. 

Take the words on this eduational Yiddish poster--it's like the Yiddish words just sound like and makes perfect sense for what it is (see how many you recognize):

- Bagel - Bagel 

- Chazar - Pig

- Chootspah (chutzpah) - Gall 

- Gonif - Thief

- Imglick - Luck

- Klutz - Clumsy

- Kvitch (kvetch)- Complainer

- Macher - Big shot

- Mishugina (mashugana) - Crazy

- Noodnik - Annoying

- Pipik - Belly Button

- Shlep - Lug 

- Shmootz - Dirt

- Shnops (schnapps) - Liquor

- Shvigger - Mother-in-law

- Trafe - Unkosher

- Tsooris - Problems

- Yenta - Talker

- Zoftig - Fat

There is one more word not on the list here that is probably recongizable and that is a "shmuck," which refers to a contemptable person, but literally refers to a man's private parts--ah, maybe that's why it's not on the picture poster. ;-)

(Source photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Funnier In Yiddish

When Your Pants Are Down

Yesterday in the news was how a drone was used to fly over and take pictures at a nude beach. 

So at a nude beach, even those that advertise privacy protections, let's face it your walking around in the buff. But still, the use of the drone with a camera was a violation of people's expectations not to be photographed and by those outside the facility.

And about a week earlier, a five year old finds a camera phone in the lady's bathroom in a Starbucks. 

Yesteday, I had a similar lesson about people's warped sensibilities or perversions (but without the drone or smartphone--this was the low tech version). 

I'm at the pool for a swim after work. 

There are 2 locker rooms for men and women, of course.

But at one point, I see this LADY get out of the pool and head straight for the MEN'S locker room--she actually proceeds to go in one side--through and past the bathrooms, showers, sauna, and lockers--and out the other side to exit the facility. 

So trying to give her the benefit of the doubt, when I get out of the pool, thinking maybe the locker room wasn't clearly marked, I check it--and there is a big sign with a picture (the symbol for men) and you couldn't miss it!

Also, this lady was clearly not new as she gestured a friendly hello to the lifeguard, and she wasn't the slightest bit confused (she had actually made some small talk with me in the pool)   

When she left, as she headed into the men's room, she didn't hesitate, knock on the door or anything, and obviously didn't care whether anyone was in there--dressed or naked.

Perhaps, because the men's locker room is closer to the exit, she was just taking a shortcut--for her, how convenient!

Then again maybe she was a true perv and this was her way of getting some cheap thrills regardless of other people's right to privacy and safety, including those of children. 

In a sense, this is more than just about generalized privacy (such as with information), but even extends to your very privates!

We live in an age when it is a balancing act between sharing and privacy, between openness and modesty, and between doing what's right and pure self-gratification. 

Unfortunately, to put in bluntly, some people just don't seem to give a sh*t about respect for other people's decency or rights, and they will do what they want regardless of the social balancing act or the necessity to use common sense good judgement in public and private.  

The lesson is that when your pants are down, as creepy as it sounds, it's best to assume that someone is always looking or at least may be on the prowl, so be careful out there. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

When Your Pants Are Down

Fish Mish

I took this video in the aquarium store. 

Just found it so relaxing to watch these fish--swimming this way and that with their fish pals in the nice cool water. 

In the background is the sound of a little waterfall running into the makeshift pond.

Ah, the life of a fish--if you can avoid the nets and the bigger fish--it's probably not too shabby. 

I remember when my mom used to make gefilte fish for Shabbos, especially the sweet kind in a sliced up roll, and it was delicious. 

For some reason, I remember calling it fish mish--I think because the fish is ground up--and then boiled or baked. 

A nice appetizer--pass the tartar sauce please. ;-)

(Source Video: Andy Blumenthal)

Fish Mish

What's So Funny About Non-Proliferation?

Here's what they are saying online in some satire on the Iranian Nuke WMD Deal.

The Spanish comedian is talking about something else (I don't know what), but the subtitles were dubbed to make the points about the issues with this deal. 

No disrespect intended to anyone, but the points illustrated are well made. 

Is this how we want the world to view us? 

We are hoping and praying for a real and verifiable peace.

What's So Funny About Non-Proliferation?

Five Types Of Managers

Grumpy

Big Mouth

Showman

Inattentive

The Snake

(Source Photos: Andy Blumenthal)

Five Types Of Managers

The Mullahs With The Bomb...Tick, Tick, Tock!

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

The Mullahs With The Bomb...Tick, Tick, Tock!

Actions Speak Louder Than Deals

Similar to the Movie, "The Stoning of Soraya M."--only this is real life footage. 

Highly graphic...beware.

A 17-year old girl ambushed by crowd of men, savagely kicked and beaten, and stoned to death with a large cinderblock finally slammed onto her head. 

All the while, the men are taking photos and videos with their smartphones. 

And playing with her skirt up and down in some perverted way while the blood is gushing out of her skull. 

Supposedly for loving the "wrong" boy.

Who does something like this?

Can some people be so religiously brainwashed as to think this can be "right"?

Where are people's inner conscience and moral compass? 

As ISIS beheads and burns alive their opponents, Boko Haram hacks off people's limbs and takes young girls as sex slaves, Al Qaeda conducts countless suicide bombings, Syria gases their own people, and Iran outmaneuvers the West toward a nuclear bomb to annihilate their enemies...we had better take very seriously what we are dealing with. 

Shouldn't any deal we make seek to genuinely change these behaviors rather than make a deal for deal's sake? 

We need to wake up before the warnings that we are witnessing from afar become lessons here at home.  

We need a genuine and verifiable peace--oh G-d let it be!

Actions Speak Louder Than Deals

Taking The Spin Off Things

Ok, so here is what I learned over the years about communication...

Question everything, believe nothing (except in G-d).

It's not just that a lot of people out there are full of sh*t--yes, that is true too. 

But also that many powerful people are experts at manipulation and spin. 

Take just some recent some examples:

- We didn't just give America and Israel-hating "suicidal, apocalypse-seeking" Iran a clear path to the bomb and in just half a generations' time (along with hundreds of billions to continue funding global terror and a lifting of the weapons and ballistic missile embargo), instead we have a "comprehensive long term deal with Iran that will prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon."

- With the hackers who not only showed how to take wireless control of a moving Jeep Cherokee, but also released information on how to do it, they didn't put another tool in the toolkit of the cyber attackers and terrorists out there, instead "they are bringing atttention to an issue auto makers have for too long ignored."

Could go on and on to issue after issue...

The point is that from a young age we are primed to respect, listen, and automatically believe figures of authority and experts--when our parents, teachers, spiritual leaders or a policeman or fireman says something, we naturally believe them, who they are, and in them. 

This is what politicians and executives and other people in power prey on--that we will believe them over everyone else or any other facts to the contrary. They have the title, the uniform, the badge, or whatever, and so they must be good, honest, and trustworthy.

However, good parents and teachers make sure to tell children not just to take people or what they say at face value. For example, if someone comes to the door and says they are delivering a package, don't just open the door.  Look through the peephole, ask for identification, or have them come with a neighbor, etc. 

I remember in the very first movie of "Death Wish" with Charles Bronson, where his wife and daughter answer the door expecting a simple delivery from the supermarket that they were just at and instead they get a brutal gang that murders the wife and rapes the daughter. 

Similarly, in cases where women get pulled over, attacked, and raped by someone with flashing lights, siren, and even a fake uniform/badge--even as you believe you are obeying the law, others are taking advantage and fooling you.

As comforting as our beliefs are and perhaps even that we just want to believe--things often are not as they appear or what we want or expect them to be--what goes on behind the scenes and the spin that comes out in front are designed to intoxicate the masses. ;-)

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Kristian Niemi)

Taking The Spin Off Things

Broken Arm, Broken Metro

So I spoke to a lady on the D.C. Metro yesterday.

Not old, not young--she was sitting in a handicapped seat. 

What happened to her?

She told me how this last year as she was riding the train, it had suddenly and ferociously jerked forward, and then backwards.

The fierceness of jerking motion breaking the top of her arm--the humerus--vertically right down the middle in a horrible break. 

As she was talking her eyes glazed over remembering what happened.

She found herself on the floor of the train lying in excruciating pain.

One kind lady stayed with her as the paramedics were on their way.

She overheard others on the train actually complaining in earshot that they were being delayed "because of her!"

She was taken to the ER, and ended up spending 2 1/2 months in the hospital and rehabilitation center. 

As explained, they couldn't cast this type of break, and she wasn't allowed to sleep laying down--she had to sleep in a chair--again she said how the pain was so bad and unlike anything she ever experienced, incuding childbirth and bypass heart surgery. 

Professionally, she was a lawyer for the government, but ended up not suing Metro, shaking her head that it just wasn't worth it. 

In her wallet, she showed me her Metro disability card that they gave her so she could sit in the special seats now and get a reduced rate riding the train.

Shaking her head, she exclaimed that even though she is mostly healed now, she never stands on a moving train anymore, always making sure she is sitting and nestled next to something.

I could see the emotional pain on her face as she told me her story, and she seemed generally afraid of ever going through anything like that again. 

At the same time that she was talking to me, in eyesight was a younger man hanging out by the center doors on the metro, overfident and not holding on--actually leaning way back on his backback against the doors, almost daydreaming. 

Not everyone heard this lady's story...maybe they should. 

Overall, Metro seems chronically underfunded or mismanaged and in desperate need of major repairs and replacements--train, tracks, escalators, elevators, everything. 

The system is a mess and it needs urgent attention. 

Why does it always take a tragedy to finally get action? 

Coincidentally, I saw today that Metro (WMATA) is advertising in the Wall Street Journal for a new General Manager and Chief Executive Officer--yep, good luck to that person, they will definitely need it and a lot more!  ;-)

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Christian).

Broken Arm, Broken Metro

The Merkava IV With Anti-Missile System

I came across this video and photo online of the Israeli Mekava IV Tank with the Trophy Anti-Missile System. 

This tank looks so cool--a little fortress on treads. 

And with the Trophy system it can track and take out incoming missiles with a shotgun like blast. 

For a small country like Israel in the middle of a pretty bad and dangerous neighborhood--this is a necessity. 

Great for defending the Holy Land! ;-)

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Michael Shvadron)

The Merkava IV With Anti-Missile System

A Dumb Dumb World

So I took this photo on the Metro in Washington, D.C.

One person is on their "smart" phone, and the other is reading a book called "Our Dumb World."

This is a contrast supreme. and I was intrigued. 

I couldn't exactly ask what the man was doing on his smartphone... but presumably email, texting, news, a video, maybe even some gaming.

The other person reading about the dumb world--what's that all about?

So I looked this book up, and apparently the satarists at The Onion make some laughing-stock fun in their "fake" atlas of the world. 

So stupidity is out there every day...

But stupid isn't the worst part of it..."stupid is as stupid does"-- not sure you can blame someone for doing dumb things when they're done innocently and by accident.  

But what is really bad is when dumb things are done with intent and malice--for power or to get what you want when you want it.

Leadership often treats the masses as the dumb people who can be fooled some, if not all, of the time. 

But people are smarter than you think, eventually seeing through the amalgam of lies, deceit, and spin--thrown at them through the old world media as well as in social media. 

That type of dumb becomes a foolish legacy--not a laughing matter. 

Real, ongoing passion and care for the people and the progress of our nation within the larger world context...we can see it in the eyes, hear it in the words, feel it in our bones--it's tangible and it lifts us to achieve greatness.

Those things are smart--and what we need more of in the "real" world atlas. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

A Dumb Dumb World

The Fisherman

I took this photo yesterday of this man standing on the bank and fishing. 

I was out in the water in a kayak enjoying the beautiful surroundings. 

I paddled over near to the fisherman, but not so close as to scare away his catch. 

It was hot and very sunny out on the water--there was only a little shade near the bank of the pond--and I frequently had to wipe my forehead beading with sweat under the open sun.

But it was nice to just be out there--on the water, surrounded by the greenery, the sun overhead, some birds and frogs about, and a even a little breeze shimmering over the the water. 

Even better than paddling itself, is just stopping, sort of sitting back, and just listening to the silence, breathing in the nature, and letting everything else just go for a little while. 

One with nature, one with G-d, and feeling integrated myself. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

The Fisherman

Come Back In A Month!

This is the crux of the problem with the verification clause in the Iran Nuclear WMD Deal.

In a nutshell:

"Can I check your suspected site for dangerous nuclear WMD?"

"No!"

"Ok, I'll come back in 24 days."

"Great, thank you--have a nice day."

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Chaim Haberfeld, Facebook)

Come Back In A Month!

Hippie Bus Menorah

I took this photo today of a Menorah made on the top of a VW Bus. 

Inside, the bus still had the seats, and outside it had these cute Hippie flower pedals. 

It was unique, fun, colorful, nostalgic and it rolls. 

Plus you can fulfill the commandment (mitzvah) of lighting candles at Chanukah time. 

What a novel piece of Judaica--love it! ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Hippie Bus Menorah

That's Good Cookin'

This was a funny picture when we were out west. 

This guy is standing on the corner dancing around in his apron and chef's hat. 

He's also got a big fat fake mustache on top of his real one and big round glasses/googles on his face. 

He is working hard to attract people to come into his restaurant. 

This "chef" calls over to us jumping around--doing anything to get our attention. 

So we had already eaten lunch, but he did get us to stop and say hello--this picture captures the moment. ;-)

(Source Photo: Dannielle Blumenthal)

That's Good Cookin'