Good Advocacy Site

http://www.ajcadvocacy.net/

I am a passionate believer in the transformative power of technology on multiple levels. It makes economic sense often times and the geek in me just loves it. However, I have got to say that I cannot believe how it seems like every day there is just something that doesn't work properly. My cell phone connection, my printer, my mouse, a driver on my hard drive...you name it.

All I want...during my waking hours that is...is 6 hours where everything just works perfectly. Is that too much to ask?

Hyundai's Customer Service

Over the past few weeks, I've called a number of companies of which I'm a customer, including Comcast, T-mobile, Hyundai, United Airlines, USAir, and a few others. I am blown away by how difficult most companies make it for customers to give feedback and offer ideas about how they can improve their product or services.

I should mention, however, that Hyundai's response has been incredible. No less than 4 people have responded to my email, they've asked for my input on some new ideas and even asked me to consider being on an "Owners Panel."

This is a company that knows how to listen. It makes me more excited to own my Elantra and optimistic about the type of products/service they will deliver in the future.

Tamar and I have an ongoing discussion about the value of sports. I tell her that sports offer more drama than any episode of Law and Order ever could. My point has always been...the unscripted drama is better than scripted drama since it's better than imagination and NO ONE knows what is going to happen.

She's never been a true believer. Last night, however, when Kobe Bryant made the shot w/2 seconds left to tie the game and send it into overtime, Tamar said, "you know, I've got to say, this is pretty dramatic."

Islam's marked woman

Islam's marked woman

Friends of Jer: On Responsibility

When Calanit was born, my mother said to Tamar and me, "the days are long, but the years are short."

 

[Note: You can read this entire email (and many other thoughts) online at my Blog

http://jer979.blogspot.com/ Plus, you can add your comments there as well.]

 

Now, on with it…

 

You know how when you are at weddings or other lifecycle events and the parents inevitably say something along the lines of "I don’t know where all of the years went." Well, the other day, I had to adjust the straps on the car seat because Calanit has become too big for the smallest size and I started to get pretty emotional. OK, I admit it, I had tears in my eyes and crazy as it may sound, I said to Tamar, "our little girl is growing up."

 

She doesn’t fit into her first set of clothes anymore; She’s double her birth weight; and she’s more alert now, recognizes people (at least us), and is doing a pretty good job standing up. (Pictures available, of course.) Every day, it seems to us, she gets more and more cute and we work to savor and cherish each moment since we see that, though there are times when it is challenging being a parent (I had to change her on the floor of a Starbucks in Manhattan after she peed and pooped all over herself and there was-gasp-no changing station, now that I care about such things), it is oh so worth it and it’s going to fly by in ways that we can’t even imagine.

 

It’s weird, since I want her to grow up and I want to see what kind of person she is going to be, but at the same time, I don’t want to wish away any of the time, since it is becoming more and more clear how precious that time is. What’s more, in a cosmic sense, as she ages and moves towards adulthood, that is also a symbolic passing of the torch to her generation and Tamar and I move on towards the end of our lives. Yes, it’s easy to say that that is far away and hopefully, it is, but in the great span of history, it’s really not.

 

Not to be morbid, but mortality is something that is on my mind. It comes at me as a result of one key word: RESPONSBILITY.

 

You hear the word a lot as a kid and it’s part of your maturation process, but man, until you have someone whose entire existence relies upon you (and your teammate, of course, lest you think I do most of the work, when it is really Tamar), you don’t know nothin’.

 

Not only that tremendous daunting feeling of having to provide for a child financially, but beyond that to instill the values you hold dear, to educate, to teach her how to think, to challenge assumptions, to ask questions, to be kind and considerate. That’s intense.

 

But it is even beyond that. It’s how every aspect of your life now carries that weight with you. For example, I was walking home the other night from a social event and I got caught in a MASSIVE thunderstorm. We’re talking major thunder and lightning. I had no cover. I had no choice but to make a mad dash for home and I realized, that for the first time in a long time, I was really afraid of dying. I know the chances of getting struck by lightning aren’t too high, but they sure are higher when you are outside, soaking wet, with no cover, running in an open parking lot.  I kept thinking about Team Epstein at home and how they depended on me.

 

Then, I thought about the reverse. What would I do if something terrible happened to them? These thoughts also plague me on a day-to-day basis. I used to see news stories about random, freak accidents that took the lives of parts of families and kind of say, "yes, that’s a tragedy," but it is only within the past 6 months that I have started to feel the pain of other people in this respect.

 

Tamar and I have made a large investment of time and energy to put together an infrastructure that will support each other or Calanit in the event of the unthinkable (well, not really, since we have thought about it) in terms of Wills, Life Insurance, Guardians, etc., since to not do so would be the height of irresponsibility in my book, but after all that is said and done, there’s no amount of planning or money that could possibly prepare you for that type of loss.

 

I remember when I first started dating Tamar and we were moving up the scale of seriousness, we talked about how when you open yourself up to feel love, you simultaneously open yourself up to tremendous pain.

 

My brother-in-law, Akiva, said to me during Tamar’s pregnancy. "You can’t imagine the love you are going to feel for your child. Yes, you love your spouse, but your own child, that’s something entirely different."

 

I used that as a basis for my comment to Tamar before my first multi-day business trip after Calanit’s birth, when I said to Tamar, "I’m going to miss you, but I’m REALLY going to miss the Pook."

 

(Note: my current nickname for her is "the Pooka." Common usage is: 'can you check on the Pook?" or "Hey, Pooka, how are you doing today?")

 

So, yes, I do drive a bit slower now, don’t rush through every yellow light, and start seeing household hazards well before they materialized (maybe a bit neurotic, but not too much) and in some ways, I’m turning into my dad, which is a topic for another time and another email.

 

But in spite of all of that pressure and concern that responsibility brings with it and no matter how rough my day has been, when I come home and she sees me and gives me a billion dollar smile, it’s impossible not to feel good. When I make a silly face and she breaks out laughing, that is the "priceless" feeling of parenting. I love seeing how she tries to fight off sleep and keep her eyes open (what a contrast to later in Life, right?) and those quiet moments when she's preoccupied with a book or something and I'm just holding her, feeling her little body expand and contract with each breath. And watching this little human experiment of mine (my dad says that for Tamar, Calanit is a baby, for me, Calanit is a prop) unfold with each passing day and the slow changes to her body and personality, that's a miracle in progress.

 

We're also blessed because the Pook is incredibly low maintenance. She's been sleeping through the night since she was 6 weeks old, only cries for the absolute basics, and in general, doesn't ask for too much.  I've said that she's going to "con us into another one" (no announcement) and the downside is that other parents hate us for it J

 

But, when she does cry for something (for example she's been a bit sick this week) and we don't know what's bothering her, it's just the worst. I hate it. There's a beautiful, but helpless girl here and all I want to do is make things better for her, but I don't know what to do. That's the toughest. Well, that and trying to balance between wanting to spend all of the time I can possibly with her and recognizing that the business of life needs to continue, such as earning a living.

 

And now for a few other interesting pieces of information.

 

1. 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.

 

2. How well does your favorite charity do?

If you are in the habit of giving charitable donations, I'd recommend a visit to www.charitynavigator.com It's a great site with rankings for how effectively each charity makes use of the money it solicits (versus how much goes to overhead). If a charity solicits me and it is in the bottom 50% of its peer group, I will email them and tell them that I won't donate until their rating goes up. I want more of my money going to the cause.

 

3. My mother's business got a nice mention in the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A45776-2004Mar10?language=printer

 

 

4. Try this Left brain, right brain trick. It's pretty neat.

While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and  make clockwise circles.  Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand.  Your foot will change direction and there's  nothing you can do about it.

 

5. I've been taking an online course at Capella University, www.capella.edu

It's amazing to think how the delivery of education has changed so rapidly and will continue to do so. I've never spoken to or met my classmates, but we're reading the same texts, having discussions about them, and learning, all on our own time and from anywhere there's a computer and Internet connection.

 

 

Until next time,

 

Jer (on behalf of Tamar and Calanit)

 

Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS)
Energy Security

In support of higher Gas Taxes
www.AndrewSullivan.com - Latest Posts

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.

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.

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.

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?

Militant Islam in Western Europe

Can Lawyers survive the Internet revolution?

I'm definitely coming around to the idea that the Internet revolution (we're only at the beginning) is as big or bigger than the Industrial revolution. The world will be as different as a result.

I've started taking an online graduate course at www.capella.edu It's a fascinating process. We all have a textbook, receive homework, must post comments and respond to our classmates, and submit a term paper. The flexibility is tremendous and with profiles and pictures of my classmates, I have begun to identify with some of them. It costs $1630 per 4 credit course, so it isn't cheap, but there's value and the fact that the class conforms to my schedule-not the other way around-is of tremendous value.

I've heard a lot recently about law firms becoming more and more open, shall we say, about the fact that they are a business and the need for associates who wish to become partner to really show their value-add to the firm. It seems that if you are managing a business, you want to minimize the costs associated with the internal processes. One of these, for a law firm, is the document related work that junior associates perform.

So, it seems like there is a market opportunity for an ABA accredited law school to start offering online courses and degrees to foreign, English speaking students (India, Ireland, or Ghana, for example) as a way to generate additional revenue. Since, I'm told, you don't need to be an American citizen in order to be a member of the Bar, those students could take a course (either online or in person-perhaps a law firm would fund the trip) and get certified for the Bar. Then, instead of the $110k or whatever a 1st year associate gets paid, the firm could pay a foreign-born, foreign-living, American law school-educated, Bar member associate 1/3rd or 1/2 of that. Some of the savings would be passed on to clients, the rest goes into the partners' pockets.

It may not happen overnight, but why not?

Building the Value of YOUR Network...

At this point in our careers, we are well aware of the importance and value of our respective business networks. It’s no secret that a large part of our future success depends on our effectiveness in nurturing and growing our networks.

The question I’m struggling with now is: “what is the best way for any of us to add value to each person in our networks of contacts in a way that can scale up to address a (hopefully) ever-growing number of people?”

The evolving business network oriented sites like http://www.linkedin.com/, www.spoke.com and www.ryze.com seem to be one component of this strategy, but they don’t address the fundamental question. What part is “science” and what part is “art?” It’s great if you know who is in your network, but you need some way to gauge the value that you are delivering to each person based on their unique sets of requirements and expectations.

Companies that implement a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) strategy obviously face this, but on an individual level, we face this as well. And perhaps, we would expect more personal touches from individuals than large, faceless corporations. On the flip side, however, with time constraints facing all of us, the more you can automate, the lower your costs, but what are the trade-offs?

For a simple example, I use Outlook’s feature to record the birthdays and anniversaries of most people I know. Then, I either email or call them on that day. That’s some art, some science. In some cases, I use a template for a “Happy Birthday” email, some science there. But if the entire process were automated and I didn’t even know that it was your birthday and some script on the computer just generated the email, would that be sufficient? Do you care? People generally appreciate hearing from me (or so I am told) on their birthdays and it gives me an annual excuse/impetus to just check-in which I enjoy as well, but is this sufficient to fall under the category of adding value? Would you rather hear some idea that will help you professionally or get a call from me wishing you Happy Birthday?

In Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends Tim Sanders suggests that it is the process of sharing knowledge and idea to help your network learn and grow that adds value.

That may be true, but is a mass, but personalized email (using Outlook2003 and Word2003) the best forum for doing that? How do I really know what you’d like to learn or hear about? Should I have a comprehensive database that I search and contact when I finish a book like Jim Collins’ Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't, so I can write a mini book report and send it to those who are interested in management ideas and what turns competent companies into superior companies?

Perhaps I can set up a survey at www.surveymonkey.com to ask people, but then there is no easy way for me to track, sort, and communicate based on those responses, without investing a hell of a lot of time. Essentially, perhaps what I am suggesting is that the day is coming (has come) when each of us who are part of the knowledge economy will need to develop a personal Network Relationship Management strategy that will enable each of us to automate those elements that can be put into a process and keep enough room for the ‘Art,’ remembering that we’re dealing with real human beings on the other end of the line.

Looking forward to hearing from you on how we can answer this question.

Received from my grandfather, Stanley Robinson:

Keep this philosophy in mind the next time you are about to repeat rumour or hearsay

In ancient Greece (469 - 399 BC), Socrates was widely lauded for his wisdom. One day the great philosopher came upon an acquaintance who ran up to him excitedly and said, "Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students?"

"Wait a moment," Socrates replied. "Before you tell me I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."

"Triple filter?"

"That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my student let's take a moment to filter what you're going to say. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"

"No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it"

"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my student something good?"

"No, on the contrary..."

"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, even though you're not certain it's true?" The man shrugged, a little embarrassed. Socrates continued. "You may still pass the test though, because there is a third filter, the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my student going to be useful to me?"

"No, not really"

Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither True nor Good nor even Useful, why tell it to me at all?"

The man was defeated and ashamed. This is the reason Socrates was a great philosopher and held in such high esteem. It also explains why he never found out that Plato was shagging his wife.

We just took our first family airline trip with Calanit. I think it's easier to invade Iraq than to travel with an infant. I jest, but it does take a heck of a lot more strategic planning and a bit more muscle to do it. We were gone for five days and I planned about a week in advance, gave ourselves plenty of time, spent a bit more in tips than I usually do, and had to lug a few more bags, but I am very proud of the degree of execution that we accomplished. Team Epstein did a great job.

I've rediscovered the value of the business suit. For years, I swore I'd never wear a tie again, but recently, I've come to see the value of it. I guess I'm getting older (maturing?). It conveys a degree of seriousness and confidence and professionalism. I feel like I act a bit more professional while in it as well. Who knows? If I wore it every day, I may not feel that way.

One of the most majestic things I've experienced since Calanit's is watching the nightly "fight to stay awake." She's exhausted and we know she's going out for the count, but she keeps trying to stay awake. It's like she knows the world is a wonderful place and she doesn't want to miss anything. She wants to keep on seeing things, but she just can't keep her eyes open even though she tries. What a far cry from later in life when we yearn and beg for sleep as a needed break from the world.