Our very own Jimmy Justice is sticking it up to NY's finest. Check out this Fox News clip. (hat-tip: Vos Iz Naies):
http://www.vosizneias.com/22642/2008/11/17/new-york-man-video-taping-illegally-parked-city-government-vehicles-raise-controversy-video/
Now if only he would cover this week's Shluchim convention in Crown Heights, when they block traffic on Eastern Parkway this Sunday to take their class photo…
Even after I repeatedly tell the same people I'm not interested, they come at you, like Jehovah Witnesses or Meshichists; they swarm you.
Is Facebook a cult?
Yeah, timemanagementforanarchists.com has some great tips for keeping your life useful and productive without need of a boss or externally imposed structure– and through them I found Nomediakings.com, which talked me into self publishing my book next time i'm in town. But all that is trivial in the face of this little meditation: My trip to liberty city where a gentle Canadian narrates a video of his trip to the base of Grand Theft Auto 3, and just walks round, visits a park, mimes a little, just to show how much more there is to appreciate in even the most problematic metropolis. Watch and be touched at the familiar traveler innocence that is possible when you're not just trying to win something.
In the name of R. Gedaliah of Linitz who said in the name of his master the Mokhi’ah [of Polonoya] that the messiah will instruct good merit (melamed zekhut tov) upon all of Israel even upon the wicked, [saying] that they are all righteous, that they are correct (yid. “az zey zenen gerecht”). And because of the merit that he will instruct merit upon them they will return in repentance, and through this they will be redeemed, for in repentance one is redeemed.
And he would say - a little tzadik loves little resha’im, a great tzadik loves great resha’im, but the messiah will love and instruct merit even upon complete resha’im. And anyone who instructs merit upon all creatures is of the aspect of the messiah…
(Sefer Baal Shem Tov, 61, note 100 in the name of Midrash Pinhas Ha-Hadash)
Maybe this applies to oneself as well. You are the messiah to the extent that you have redeemed yourself through the sweetening of Judgments…
In the final analysis we are all a priori vindicated – the messiah is just the one who takes it all the way…
-atgate231
Rosh HA-Shanah – the head of THE year. That is all there ever is – a year. “Year.” The ritual celebration of the new year was originally predicated on a conception of time as cyclical – it is not one year and then another year but always the same “year” renewed. This is reflected in the rituals connected to the day and was preserved even after the conception of time became linear – i.e. historical (which arguably is presented for the first time as such in the bible).
Ha-yom haras olam – today is the conception of the universe – or, “time conceives world.” Conception is a moment of determined being – both biologically and cognitively. Time is renewed through fertility rituals – “lo hayu yomim tovim le-yisrael…” - birth is “renewal” NOT perpetuation. You conceive of something by entertaining it in the conscious moment. Conception creates time – from the conscious moment is derived both memory and imagination, past and future. Time. Memory and imagination, male and female, seed and womb – and the child is time.
She-niyeh le-rosh – the function of the head is intentionality, regulation. The year is a complete entity – komah shlemah – and the head of the year is its intentionality. The Baal Shem Tov says that one must pay close attention to the thoughts that go through one’s head on Rosh Ha-Shanah because that is the inscribing, the kesivah. What you intend is inscribed in the psyche. But the inscription can be non-intentional as well – the emotional intensity of the day creates the potential for a strong inscription but that inscription may be consciously determined or may be just the thoughts that run through your head which, in turn, are determined by the habits of the previous year – and then it is not renewal but perpetuation.
She-niyeh le-rosh ve-lo le-zanav – may we determine our own inscription and not be towed along by the beasts of our past…
-atgate231
now, do you think that you might be saving the planet by doing so?
because these guys think otherwise.
Haven’t you heard? It’s the end of the world…
The long awaited Large Hadron Collider goes operational next week.
This 8 billion dollar particle accelerator, at 17 miles long, will be the largest and most powerful one ever built. It will have the capacity to accelerate particles up to 99.999 percent the speed of light and is expected to replicate the conditions at the time of the Big Bang. In the process it will most likely create a number of black holes here on earth and provide insight into the nature of antimatter, alternate dimensions and the Higgs boson.
Sounds exciting, but the problem is that nobody really knows what may happen in such extreme conditions. People are worried and some of the participating scientists have even gotten death threats. The scientific community claims that there is no risk and that the worries are out of ignorance. According to them, the black holes will be very small – too small to have much impact or to grow – and the extreme level of the power of the collisions is regularly obtained by cosmic rays hitting the earth.
Ok. I trust science more or less as much as the next guy and I don’t think we will be swallowed up by our own homemade black holes – but you can’t rule it out completely either. We are playing with the unknown and science is not perfect enough just yet to categorically eliminate all concerns.
My point here is that this is a serious issue potentially (if only theoretically) effecting all of humanity and being implemented by a few scientists with some governmental backing (CERN, the laboratory institution that is building the accelerator, is an international facility and under no particular governmental jurisdiction). Why is this not up for a major international consensus or something? Why am I being told and not asked about something that might kill me and everyone I know? And the question is larger than this particular instance – how is it that decisions can be made by a few people regarding serious issues that can potentially affect every person on this planet directly and irrevocably without anybody even knowing about it?
-atgate231
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