You Can Take The Man From Washington

Wow, it just seems like there is no getting away from Washington, D.C. politics!

Even here in beautiful Florida, I ran into this caricature of former President Obama in some street art downtown.  

Man, isn't it enough that he empowered the Axis of Evil Iran and North Korea; left Syria and Ukraine to rot in bloody civil war and to kneel beneath the will of the Russians; ignored the Sino military buildout in the South China Sea, was lax on radical Islamists, ISIS, and global terrorism; abandoned America's allies Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the gulf nations; and let's not forget that he literally doubled our national debt to $20 trillion!

What was once an admirable Democratic party is still reeling today from the embrace of leadership from behind, disengagement, weakness, and blatant anti-Semitism. 

Like Forrest Gump says, life is not a bowl of cherries or box of chocolates, especially when failed leaders do the wrong things and hurt the country and their party. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

You Can Take The Man From Washington

Jewish In Florida

These were three beautiful Jewish things that I saw in Florida in 24 hours.

The first was a billboard touting the wonderful America-Israel friendship and partnership.

"Frontline in the global war on terror.
Best friend and ally of the US.
Providing religious freedom and liberty.
Thank you Israel for sharing American values."

The second were about 20 cans ("pushkas") for collecting charity for the poor in a local kosher Pita Plus restaurant.  

Have a great shawarma plater (with mounds of meat) and give back to others in need and hungry. 

The third was a sign in a discount beachy clothing store with the holy Jewish blessing of Shema Israel.

"Hear O Israel:
The L-rd is our G-d.
The L-rd is One."

There is definitely more than sun and surf and vacation here...

There is a feeling of G-d and faith, of charity and giving, and of special partnership between friends and allies, USA-Israel. 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Jewish In Florida

Go U.S.A.!

Go U.S.A.!

Things Still Happen

So I know that I'm stating the obvious, but still I can’t help but reflect…

No matter how successful people are, things—bad things—still unfortunately happen.

This weekend, I read about how tragedy struck Uber's founder and CEO—of a $70 billion company--and he lost his mother in a freak boating accident. 

A few years back, Facebook’s, powerful Chief Operating Officer and billionaire lost her husband on a treadmill in a hotel.

Other famous people, like superstar icon, Michael Jackson, died at a young age from an overdose. 

Life events can G-d forbid overtake us suddenly and with devastating impact. 

It’s scary, and it just never seems to end (B’AH).

No matter who you are or how rich and powerful, G-d is the most powerful.

While we can control only what we can control, there is no escape from ultimate fate that awaits when it is so decreed by the One Above—it should all be in His ever-bounding mercy. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Things Still Happen

Arguing The Negative

I thought this was an interesting sign this gentlemen had.

It says:

"Those who reject Jesus do so because of sin, not science or evidence."

Overall, religion is a matter of personal faith not to be argued, but rather when based to good, to be wholly respected. 

This argument though was basically saying, not to reject this particular tenet of faith of a major religion because there is "not science or evidence" from which to reject.

But usually, don't we look for science or evidence to accept or do something. 

In other words, the default usually is that if you want me to believe in something or somebody, prove to me why I should. 

It's a bad argument when you ask me to prove to you why you shouldn't believe in something. 

Very often this is the same argument people use in relationships and in organizations.

We do the same thing everyday or over and over again, and we often don't ask ourselves why we do it this way or believe this is a good way of doing something...we just do it. 

And in fact, when someone new comes in with "fresh eyes" and questions why we do it a certain way or have we considered another approach, we ask them to prove to us with "science or evidence" why their way is better, rather than reexamine our own ways and means.

I'm not in any way questioning here G-d or religion, but rather simply our approach to self-examination, introspection, and betterment.

Don't ask me to prove to you why you should reject something, but rather be prepared to defend your hypothesis. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Arguing The Negative

Look Who's Talking About Obstruction Of Justice

One of those are you kidding me moments...

Hillary is talking about other people's obstruction of justice...

Wasn't it her husband, Bill, who had a little talk with then U.S. Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, on the tarmac--with cameras and mics turned off--when the FBI was investigating her!

During the election, the crowds chanted "Lock her up!"

This isn't about Democrat or Republican. 

Wherever you look, the politics seems so dirty and the corruption so deep. 

What happened to the soul of America and what we really stood for as a people and a nation? 

(Source Photo: Fox News)

Look Who's Talking About Obstruction Of Justice

Memorial Day Stars and Stripes

Loved this lady's sweater of the American Flag.

So cool with the stars on the sleeve like that. 

I thought this was especially nice for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend.

As we remember those that have sacrificed so much, and the many that have fallen making the ultimate sacrifice, so that all we could be free. 

"In the olden days," they used to say America was the "goldene medina"--the golden country--the land of opportunity!

But really, the gold itself is just fools gold, the real greatness of being here is the freedom to be who you are and to have the human rights and protections to pursue whatever your dreams are. 

Maybe that's what the stars on the flag are really all about--we can all reach for the stars--whatever stars we want--and many will actually be able to achieve the impossible. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Memorial Day Stars and Stripes

Poverty Stinks

A lady dropped these placards around on the Metro yesterday with a little pack of tissues. 

It says:

"Hi, I have 2 kids and I'm a single mother and I have no job. If you can please help me for food and for rent. G-d bless you. Thank you."

It is heart-wrenching, the poverty!

People without food or shelter. 

Many without medicine and proper clothing. 

Basic things that most of us take for granted.

It takes so little for everything to go to sh*t. 

Both individually and also societally. 

The world can be a cruel, cruel place. 

But people can open their hearts and wallets to help others. 

Also, advocate for people that are less fortunate. 

Imagine G-d looking down and what does he see from us. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Poverty Stinks

Make The Oy Vey Go Away

What a wonderful way to make the oy veys go away...

This amazing beautiful flower.

Made by G-d Almighty.

See the perfection of the geometry and the shape that springs forth from mother earth.

Open your eyes to the magnificence and brightness of the colors. 

Feel in your mind's eye the soft texture of the petals and droplets. 

Breath in the smell of freshness and new air into your expanding lungs. 

Yes, whatever ails you...

Make this for yourself a renewal of spirit and of flesh. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Make The Oy Vey Go Away

The Nails Exploded!

So it continues to be amazingly sad how there can be a large terror attack in the UK yesterday, but still many of our weak politicians and fake news media can’t readily admit the simple truth about the war with radical Islamic terrorism.

A nail bomb goes off at a concert in one of the largest arenas in Europe killing at least 22 and wounding 59 mainly teenagers attending a rock concert, and the headline is:

“Suspected Terror Attack”

Uh, who would’ve suspected that?

Perhaps it could have just been a large pile of nails lying around exploding at the box office and killing people?

Stupid, stupid, stupid…

Shameful, shameful, shameful

We live amidst brazen lies to the people, grotesque political correctness, and unbelievable media spin.

And yes, that’s how we might end up losing a big one someday. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

The Nails Exploded!

Duck The Bullet

So I learned that there are at least 2 things to be mindful of when it comes to a firing squad:

1. Never get between a man and his firing squad -- sometimes, the judgment has already been passed, the victim blindfolded and tied, the trigger(s) already pulled back and the victim is too far gone to save.  Don't step in front of the bullet!

2. When it is a circular firing squad, rise above it! -- when people are engaged in self-destructive, internal disputes, recriminations, and taking pot shots at each other,  you need to either duck or rise above the fray and be the bigger man/woman.

Shooting the messenger, the interventionist, or each other just leaves a lot of spilt blood.
  
Save yourself and stay focused and determined to fight for the issue, when others are simply determined to take someone out back and put the bullet through their head. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Duck The Bullet

Time Travel Is Real

Sure, we can travel space...from continent to continent, into the depths of the oceans, and to the far reaches of outer space.

But can we also travel time?

Yes, and we regularly do!

Whether individually, in our minds eye, we go back and forth in time--remembering poignantly the memories of the past with regret or with joy and thinking forward in time whether worrying what could happen or eagerly look forward and hope for a brighter future. 

Similarly, as a human collective, we can travel back and forth in time well past our individual recollections and remember, celebrate, memorialize, or eulogize what came before us through generations and millennia and even plan great innovations, feats, and civilizations well into the future. 

Time is but a shadow that is cast off us from the our great Heavenly Father who shines his grace upon us by his creation and is himself timeless. 

In the shadow of time, we can glimpse the externalism of what supersedes our mortality and the significance of us as a speck in time amidst the greatness that lies across the reaches of space and time--that is the soul of the matter. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Time Travel Is Real

Mine and Yours

In synagogue today, we read from Pirkei Avot ("Ethics of Our Fathers").

And I talked with my friends at lunch about one passage from this timeless wisdom.

There are 4 types of people:

1) "Average Joe"

What's mine is mine, and what's yours in yours. 

Someone described this as "his and her--separate--accounts."

2) Stupid

What's mine is yours, and what's yours in mine. 

Ah, this is just someone whose plain old confused.

3) Wicked

What's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine.  

One guy described his ex-wife this way.

4) Righteous 

What's mine is yours, and what's yours is yours.  

We all agreed this is the meaning of life--to be kind and giving to others.

What type of person are you? And what type of person do you want to be?  ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Mine and Yours

Going Bonkers For Pink

So is this the power of sexuality or branding?

1. Head first for the lingerie sale

2. Picking out pink for that special someone.

3. Forgetting to pay the meter.

All three of these made us laugh. 

People are a combination of spiritual and physical beings. 

Sometimes the physical takes over and that's when the problems start happening!  ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Going Bonkers For Pink

Classified Nuts

Something about this advertisement seemed perfect for this week:

"I didn't realize these nuts were classified."

So said the chipmunk.

This was posted the same week that intelligence about ISIS was shared with the Russians from the oval office.

The Prez is entitled to share whatever he wants and maybe he didn't realize "these nuts were classified." 

My bet is this was all sort of innocent, but either way we don't want to jeopardize critical intel sources and methods in our fight against our enemies and terror. 

It's their nuts that should be on the line and not ours. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Classified Nuts

Escalator Pile-Up

So this was really funny at the Metro escalator. 

There was a huge double line of people coming down the escalator heading to the trains.

Everything is moving swiftly like clockwork.

Decend, decend, decend...step off and move to the right or left track for the next train. 

But then...

One person, steps off and instead of moving left or right, they stop to try and figure out which side their train is coming from. 

So all the people behind them coming down and off the escalator are blocked by the one "bumbling idiot" and they start stumbling into him with no place to go, and more and more people coming down end up in the human pile. 

You could almost hear the people getting to the end of the escalator yelling: "Get out of the way!"

It was crazy and sort of hilarious--as no one was hurt, but the system isn't built to give a person pause at the bottom.

The people just keep coming and coming--where's the emergency break? :-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Escalator Pile-Up

Going Down B4 You Go Up

So a really special person that I know is going through some major life changes...

And they told me this interesting, wonderful, and faithful perspective.

"Sometimes you go down before you go up!"

Like the Wheel of Life (Gilgal Hachozer), what goes down, thank G-d can and does tend to go back up--it's a return to the mean and then some. 

When you realize that challenges and even hardships are part of the cycle, and that these test and grow you and your ability to overcome, then you can face them knowing that you can rise up and hopefully to another level of maturation and happiness. 

Yes, know that nothing is easy in life!

Often we take a step back to take two forward or a step down to boost ourselves further up. 

It's the nature of progress.

Don't be afraid to go down a little right before you're about to go way on up. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Going Down B4 You Go Up

Better A Mensch Than Money

Here is a lesson that I learned when it comes to love...

Better a mensch than all the money in the world.

Some people think that money is their Golden Calf.

They literally and practically worship it.

They are so greedy for it, hoard it, protect it, and believe in the power of it.

But what I say is you can choke on all the money!

Those who put the emphasis on money are sick and empty with materialism that means nothing in the end.

Better the love of a good, decent human being and best friend than all the money in China.

For money you can buy lots of meaningless things, but with a mensch you can have a potential for a life of real togetherness and even a chance at some soulful bliss.

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Better A Mensch Than Money

Love For Every Reason

So in synagogue, there was a bat-mitzvah today.

And the 12-year old girl spoke to the congregation. 

She quoted from Rabbi Nachman of Breslov and said:

"If you can hate for no reason, 

then why not love for no reason."

This seemed like a very smart idea to me--we have a choice between hate and love, so why not choose love!

Later at the luncheon after services, I sat and made a new friend with this very nice person who happened to be an Evangelical Christian preacher. 

I asked about his faith and learned more about the Evangelical belief in the strict words of the Old Testament/Torah. 

This wonderful man had taught in a Jewish school in South America, been to the Holy Land, was friends with our Rabbi, and spoke so highly of the Jewish People, Israel, and his faith in G-d. 

I asked about the differences from his perspective between the different sects of Christianity, and he told me a bit of the history of the movements.

But what was also really interesting was that in contrast to the Evangelical's strong support for Israel, he explained that there still to this day was some anti-Semitic remnants in the Catholic Church, even though the Pope, himself, has called it "wrong and unjust". 

I asked why some still then blame the Jews for the murder of Jesus (who was Jewish himself), when it was the Romans that actually tortured and killed him and also, why the historical animus to the Jews if Jesus died for the sins of all mankind and this was his divine mission?

He explained that it was wrong and unfair, and that it was misguided scapegoat thinking that "someone had to take the blame."

He then went on to tell me about this great shirt that he liked that had a chart of all the various nation empires of the world that had risen against the Jewish people (from the Egyptians to the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and Nazi's) and next to each one it said, GONE!  And then it said, Iran with a TBD--Yep! 

And even Venezuela's, hateful Hugo Chavez, who in 2009 said, "I want to condemn from the bottom of my soul, from the bottom of my guts, damn you State of Israel," and then by 2013 he was dead from stomach (gut) cancer!

So from their day until ours, the One G-d of Hosts continues to looks after Israel and manages the destiny of man--and this is evident throughout the Bible and the prophecies. 

I was so impressed how he was emphatic about the strong Judeo-Christian shared values, beliefs, and faith and that this was the true future for Christianity.

It was understood from the conversation that in all religions, we share more in love of G-d and of each other, and in doing good then in hate, bias, bigotry, and discrimination...and together, we can make it a better world. 

Together, love can conquer. ;-)

(Source Photo: Twitter)

Love For Every Reason

Left-Handed Screwdriver

So I'm not so sure what is so funny about a left-handed screwdriver...

Except of course that there is no such thing!

The same screwdrivers work in both the left and rights hands. 

Duh!

But that's what it is with some people that like to call what they are doing innovation or out-of-the-box thinking.

When really, what's new to them is just regurgitation of "what's old is what's new!"

We can't just work harder, rather we need breakthrough thinking to work smarter. 

But how many times do you really see smarter happening versus just a different flavor of the month introduced to score points or mark some victory laps. 

Real innovation or transformation means making a new way to screw things together and not just screwing it with a different hand.

Yes, most innovation is really individual small steps that end up in aggregate, making a great leap for mankind. 

Occasionally, someone really does invent the smartphone--now that was smart!

Be careful buying that left-handed screwdriver or into that new methodology for accomplishing great things until you know that it really isn't more snake oil sold from someone's bullsh*t soapbox--and that it is from someone with a very big mouth and a very little brain. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Left-Handed Screwdriver