Holcaust Fraud, Israel Settlements

Sometimes it's hard to be Jewish -- and I'm not talking about keeping kosher, learning Hebrew or not celebrating Christmas.

No, I'm talking about when the Jews are their own worst enemy, and I'm trapped between my love for Judaism and the Jewish tradition and my deeply embedded sense of justice. The news reported on the front page of today's New York Times was a prime example.

First, the settlements. Netanyahu's insistence on building 1,000 additional settlements is going to scuttle any hopes of peace. I usually hold my tongue when Israel does something I don't like (how they treat Palestinians, Gaza's occupation come quickly to mind) but the arrogance in this is beyond comprehension.

And even more galling: the news that Jews defrauded the programs established to provide assistance and compensation to victims of the Holocaust.

The Jews have plenty of enemies and we shouldn't be providing ammunition to them.

It's pretty discouraging.

Cookin' Easy

This being the start of Passover, the kitchens of many people I know have been a real beehive over the past few days. Into the tumult comes some welcome relief. So if you’ve not yet had a chance to read today’s “Editorial Observer” in the NY Times, put the spoon down and take a gander. And, if you have the chance, look at the video on YouTube.

In this age, when Julia Child’s cookbook is all the rage again and The Food Channel seems to be the most popular choice every time I fly Jet Blue, Laban Johnson and Larry Bly remind us that cooking can be fun and doesn’t need to be a full-day affair. Or, as Lawrence Downes writes in the piece,

“Perfection belongs to God, not us, the Southern writer
Flannery O’Connor would have told you, her eyes boring holes in yours
as she poured Coca-Cola in her coffee.”

Gotta love it.

Happy Passover, Easter, or whatever it is you’re cooking for this week.

Dying with dignity

When I tell people I’m seriously considering becoming a hospice volunteer the reaction ranges from bewilderment to outright disbelief. Most people try to change the topic but a few good friends have asked me why trying to fathom what is behind what they think is a strange if not morbid idea.

Filling out the application for


I also spent a great deal of my career working in and with hospitals and have been dismayed frequently by the aggressive treatment the critically ill elderly patients receive.

What's wrong with this picture?

Football and Godliness can play on the same team, according to a story in this morning’s New York Times about home schooling, but academics seems to have been lost in the scrimmage.

“It’s fun to be in a Christian environment,” said one player of the league, in which coaches sign a code of conduct forbidding tobacco products and cursing. As Coach Scott Dorsey told The Times, “This is a ministry opportunity around football” in which he can teach the boys to lead a Christ-centered life.

Coach Roger McDaniel gives the players minisermons at each game. His priorities, according to a sign posted on the football field fence, God and Family are No. 1 & 2 priorities for his players, followed by “Acedemics” and “Atheletics.”

I hope someone other than the coach is worrying about the 3 R’s.