Monday, May 31, 2004

My phone bill is going down
Over the past year, I've received an email from my phone company on two different occasions telling me that my monthly bill was going down. I use www.vonage.com which, if you have high-speed Internet at home, is a very appealing way to get UNLIMITED LOCAL AND LONG DISTANCE plus all of the features for about $30/month.

PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, AS A REFERRAL FROM ME WILL GET EACH OF US 1 FREE MONTH.
My daughter is very cute and cuddly right now. She fits into my arms so well, but the fact that she can't communicate sometimes is really rough. At night, she'll occasionally have what appears to be a nightmare or during the day, start crying for no reason (though I have to say this kid is really low maintenance in general) and it just kills me that I don't know what is bothering her and I don't know how to help her.

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Companies spend a lot of time (particularly in the post 9/11 world) thinking about issues like 'Business Continuity (BC)' and "Disaster Recovery (DR)." They want to know that all things will keep on working smoothly even if the totally unexpected occurs.

On a career level, however, most people don't really do a good job of having that plan in place. The Dalai Lama, in his book, "The Art of Happiness" suggests that people should think about painful situations that may occur to them and how they would react at that time. Then, if that event hits you, you don't panic, and you have a sense of inner calm and you know what to do.

Given the age we live in and knowing, at least rationally, that any day you could walk into your office and get a pink slip, why don't each of us spend time building a BC/DR plan for our careers. Think about what you would do and what plan you would put in place. The time to think about Plan B is not when Plan A fails. Then, if that moment hits you, instead of sitting in a funk for 3 months and trying to figure out how to overcome your sense of worthlessness, you know what you need to do. You take a quick breath and you're off.

We all know that we're all expendable. We all also know that each of us has value to offer. Now is the time to think about how you would create value for another person/organization, etc. if your current revenue stream were to suddenly dry up.

Thursday, May 13, 2004

You know when people say that their kids grow up so quickly? Well, it seems cliche, but I'm finally in that boat and Calanit is only 5 months old. On Sunday, I had to adjust the straps on her car seat as she had grown out of the first size and I found myself getting very emotional.

It's such a tough balance. On the one hand, I want to be home with her, play with her, and watch her develop. On the other hand, I've got to be out there and earn the money to support the family and give her all that I want her to have.

It's really amazing and difficult to contemplate how much love you have for this little being, so innocent, so beautiful, and who represents so much.

I love those profound moments when I look at her and just think how she will (G-d willing) outlive me, have children and grandchildren of her own, and one day, like all of us, come to the end. But, there's hopefully so much between now and then, an unwritten book, or a book with nothing but blank pages on which she will write the story of her life. I'm so excited to see it and nervous that I won't be there.

All of these tragedies that people face, untimely death, disease, etc., they weigh so much more heavily now that I have a daughter.

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Another truly eye-opening piece by Samuel Z. Anvil.

You’ll be happy to know that Sam Z. Anvil has his own blog now (called “Dhimmi No More” at http://samzanvil.blogspot.com/), where you can check out his columns and find out more about him.


What’s Behind the Double Standard

By Samuel Z. Anvil


Oh, the humiliation! The horror! No wonder the press cries out! Worldwide revulsion, disgust and Moslem rage! Shame on you!

Of course they’re not speaking about what Saddam did to his own people: the gassings, the rapes, the strangulations, the mass graves, etc. Or any of the atrocities countless Moslem leaders inflicted on their fellow Moslems over the years. But why not? Weren’t those things disgusting too? Is there something going on here that ordinary people like you and me don’t understand?

Well, actually there is. But it’s all very simple really, and it makes perfect sense to Moslems. It’s only we infidels who have difficulty understanding it.

You see, in the Islamic view of things, the lives of infidel kafirs like us (Christians, Jews and everybody else), are “worth” something between a Moslem woman and a camel. I’ll bet you didn’t think there was room between those two lowly categories to fit a fingernail, let alone the vast majority of human beings on this planet, but there is. There’s room for each and every one of us. It’s another of Allah’s miracles.

At the top of the heap are Moslem men, Masters of the Universe, the purpose of all creation, the exclusive custodians of the eternal Truth, and the people whose feet we kafirs should all be kissing. Below them are Moslem women, whose job it is to wash those feet. Below them, us, then camels and other useful creatures like sheep that don’t make too much of a fuss when a Moslem man whips out his knife.

So when a Moslem man tears out another Moslem’s fingernails and rapes his daughters and slits all their throats, well that’s just the way things are in Allah’s happy little family. And when a Moslem man shoots dead a pregnant dhimmi woman and her four daughters as they drive through a part of the world he thinks belongs to him (and of course every square inch of this planet rightfully belongs to Moslems and to nobody else), well, that’s his natural-born right as Master of the Universe. Even the kafirs of Europe don’t dare deny him that right.

But if a kafir, a dhimmi, one of those so-called people whose role in this life is to be properly submissive to and respectful of his Moslem betters, should turn around and strike back, well that’s completely unthinkable. It’s against Allah’s holy law. It’s as though a wife should, perish the thought, hit back when her husband beats her. It’s a shameful humiliation, a travesty of Allah’s creation, it can’t be allowed to stand, and it “fuels Islamic rage.”

It’s shameful and humiliating because what the dhimmi is saying when he strikes back is that maybe, just maybe, Moslem men are not the pinnacle of all creation, the reason why the whole universe exists. And when the dhimmi creates a free society in which people have real hope of better lives, while Moslem men use their oil billions to create one hellhole after another, the dhimmi is saying: “Don’t give me this crap about how wonderful you are, and how Allah himself has chosen you to rule the world.”

And that is a message no Master of the Universe wants to hear. Not from his wives, not from his slaves (and yes, they do have slaves in this twenty-first Christian century), and certainly not from the dhimmis, the sons of pigs and monkeys. So he runs for refuge to his holy books, which tell him to – guess what? – kill the infidel! And if it’s not possible to kill the infidel right now, to do what Prophet did: lie to the infidel, make a false peace while you prepare for war, and plan for the long term. Send him your masses to overwhelm his country with the fruits of your wombs, take advantage of the kafir’s unsuspecting nature, use his democratic laws and rights to undermine his society, enlist the help of the dull-witted, remind him of his wars against you and when he mentions your wars against him, call him a racist, and in the end – maybe a hundred years from now, maybe a thousand – you will finally rule the world as Allah intended. Patience. The infidel is too stupid to understand what you are doing.

And that is how the dhimmi world came to recoil in revulsion at photos of Moslem prisoners being abused, while the Islamic world danced for joy at the photos of the charred bodies of murdered dhimmi hanging from a bridge.

Do you understand now?