My Thoughts of Jury Duty

So it has now been a week since Jury Duty. I have to say I really enjoyed it. Yes it was essentially a week of my life. But here I was doing my civic duty. And I have to say I really didn't see any signs of frustration from any of my Jury mates. It was truly a cool lesson in Civics.

The George Allen apology

Well once again the Republican party has proved where its heart really lies. So here was George Allen running for relection to the senate in Virginia. His opponent like any good campaigner had a volunteer follow mr. Allen around to tape what he was saying. Now the young man, S.R. Sidarth, who was following Mr. Allen around happens to be of Indian ancestory but is and I quote an NATIVE BORN AMERICAN CITIZEN. Mr. Allen however decided to make fun of this young man by saying.

"This fellow here over here with the yellow shirt, Macaca,(Which is a slur meaning Monkey) or whatever his name is. He's with my opponent. He's following us around everywhere. And it's just great. We're going to places all over Virginia, and he's having it on film and it's great to have you here and you show it to your opponent because he's never been there and probably will never come. [...] Let's give a welcome to Macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia.<sup>"

Now Mr. Allen just yesterday finally apologized to Sidarth but come on He knew what he was saying.</sup>

Damn it's a slow news day.

So how do you know it is a slow news day. Read this article.
Now I could really care less about that story. The story was bogus news when it happened 3 years ago and it is still.

Another Mixed day in History

So August 9th. This is both a happy day, a sad day, an unforgetable day and a politically expidient day.
So lets list some of the following events.
1945 Atomic Bomb dropped on Nagasaki
1974 My parents are on their honeymoon
1974 Tricky Dick Resigns and Ford becomes president.

So what can I say. This was a happy day for my parents and democrats. But overall this is in many ways a sad day for the nation. The fact that Tricky Dick had to resign was a tragedy. Nixon's abuse of power was a horrible moment in our history and his resignation and subsequent pardon only ended the madness. The dropping of the atomic bomb ended a World War II but again I must ask at what cost to human life and moral ideals.

SOME NEW PHOTOS

So here is a photo I took at night. The exposure time is about 10 minutes. I am not sure why the color is off. Send your comments. I am thinking about enlarging this photo.

Fantasy Football

Just took part in my Fantasy Football draft last night. I am happy with my draft but am waiting to see how training camp ends.

Today in History

History today is one of the moments that we as Americans are often all too happy to remember. On this day 61 years ago the United States became the only country to ever use an atomic weapon on another country.

Making Gravlax

So I have decided to test my culinary skills and cure some Gravlax. Essentially Gravlax is salt and sugar cured Salmon. The salt cure was really simple the only problem is the whole process takes a week. It has not even been 10 hours as I write this post and already I want to open up the saran wrap and take a look at the salmon. I have no idea how I am going to wait until 2 pm friday(to put on the sugar) let alone next wednesday to sample the food.

The Israel Crisis

So there I was sitting in Tischa B' Av services last night. This is a day in which Jews collectively mourn the destruction of the temple. I got to thinking why do we as "liberal" Americans believe that it is our job to love our country but also recognize that there are times that we must protest and question our country. Afterall this is our patriotic duty. Why then are we as Jews expected to blindly support Israel. I do not disagree per se with what Israel is doing right now.

But I am always troubled by how many Jews simply take the attitude my country right or wrong. We as American Jews should not feel ashamed to take a stance the is critical of Israel. I always take the stance that we as Jews should take a higher moral ground. We are critical of Arabs who attack civilians we should then not attack civilians our selves. When the history is written Israel must be seen as the moralist. Why compare our selves to the terrorists.

Its nice to know this is History, I guess

August 1

1972 Bush is suspended from flying with the Air National Guard



Okay as a liberal who believes that history should bring out the liberal in all of us, I have a hard time really accepting that this is "history". Yes if you are the vindictive type you can show this and gloat and say hey this president really was not the war hawk he claims to be. I will let others decide.