Archive for June 2007

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I Listen to Some Bizarre Stuff…

7th June 2007, 02:00 pm

The older I get, the more full-blown eccentric I become. For example, I still listen to some of the downright weird stuff I liked back in the 1980’s. Worse, I subject the Kid to it. Hey, if he wants to listen to Green Day, he’ll have to drive his own car.

Until then, he’ll have to put up with this:

Kraftwerk:



This is true techno music.

Legendary Pink Dots:



Modern psychedelia. Beautiful, hypnotic and freakin’ weird.

Sisters of Mercy:



Rocking goth. I think part of me will always want to be Andrew Eldritch.

The Cult:



More rocking goth. I remember when this song cleared the dancefloor at Chicago’s Club Medusa in October 1985 for being too “rock”. Ian Astbury continues channeling Jim Morrisson after all these years…

Skinny Puppy:



I still have a Skinny Puppy sticker on my car.

I’m a card-carrying member of the Republican Party. A strong supporter of the NRA. I continue to support President George Bush, the war in Iraq and the Global War on Terror. I am pro-Life, pro-Choice and believe that a strong family is the bedrock of a civilized society.

But I still have a Skinny Puppy sticker on my car. And I love this music.

Category: Music  |  Comment

I am a Jew

5th June 2007, 08:14 pm

Those were some of Daniel Pearl’s last words on earth. Although I am not a Jew, and I am proud to be an American, if I had to choose another nationality it would be Israeli.

I was never the strongest kid, and I got picked on and bullied a lot. Maybe that’s why I grew up feeling a strong affinity to Israel, as I watched it triumph in battles against more numerous opponents. Israel was an entire nation created as a response to thousands of years of persecution. It has spent most of its short history fighting for its very survival.

Meanwhile it stays true to its beliefs. It has a vibrant, open economy. It treats its women with respect and equality. Gays have parades in Israel yet are executed in nearby countries. It could have turned its back on its values in the name of security – as other nations have done.

I have never been to Israel, but I expect to someday. As a an atheist, non-Jew in a predominantly Jewish state I expect that I wouldn’t fit in. However I’ve never fit in anywhere – including America – and the older I get the less fitting in matters. What is more important is to live in a nation that values liberty and the power of the individual to transform the world.

I am an American, and I will always be one. However Israel’s continued success – as well as its very existence – will continue to be important to me.

Anti-Semites usually blend their hatred of Israel with America, so while I may not be a Jew, I’m still hated by the “right” people.

Category: America, War  |  Comment

Rutka’s Diary

5th June 2007, 06:22 am

The diary of a 14 year old Jewish girl in Poland has been released by Israel’s Holocaust Museum.

“I simply can’t believe that one day I will be allowed to leave this house without the yellow star. Or even that this war will end one day. If this happens I will probably lose my mind from joy,” she wrote on Feb. 5, 1943. “The little faith I used to have has been completely shattered. If God existed, He would have certainly not permitted that human beings be thrown alive into furnaces, and the heads of little toddlers be smashed with gun butts or shoved into sacks and gassed to death.”

Category: War  |  1 Comment
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