Shabbat Shalom -- Keeping Israel Safe: From Obama

Anyone feeling safer yet?



Odd sizing on this one. Not going to attempt to figure this out. Just clicketh here for full size. ... Okay, took a few days but I figured out the sizing thing.

Marco Rubio and The Border

Our legal immigration system must continue to welcome those who seek to embrace America’s blessings and abide by the legal and orderly system that is in place. The American people have every right to expect the federal government to secure our borders and prevent illegal immigration. It has become all too easy for some in Washington to ignore the desperation and urgency of those like the citizens of Arizona who are disproportionately wrestling with this problem as well as the violence, drug trafficking and lawlessness that spills over from across the border.
States certainly have the right to enact policies to protect their citizens, but Arizona’s policy shows the difficulty and limitations of states trying to act piecemeal to solve what is a serious federal problem.  From what I have read in news reports, I do have concerns about this legislation.  While I don’t believe Arizona’s policy was based on anything other than trying to get a handle on our broken borders, I think aspects of the law, especially that dealing with ‘reasonable suspicion,’ are going to put our law enforcement officers in an incredibly difficult position.  It could also unreasonably single out people who are here legally, including many American citizens.  Throughout American history and throughout this administration we have seen that when government is given an inch it takes a mile.
I hope Congress and the Obama Administration will use the Arizona legislation not as an excuse to try and jam through amnesty legislation, but to finally act on border states’ requests for help with security and fix the things about our immigration system that can be fixed right now – securing the border, reforming the visa and entry process, and cracking down on employers who exploit illegal immigrants.   --Marco Rubio

Does anyone speak more sanely than Marco Rubio?
Hey. I travel the border every summer. I don't cross. Don't want to. Don't need to. I'm not shopping and I'm not looking to eat in Mexicali or San Luis, or Sonoyta or Nogales or Naco or Agua Prieta or Juarez or Guadalupe Bravos or Ojinaga or Santa Elena or Castolon. But I see the border towns -- from this side. Don't know why, but the frontera calls me.
The separation seems so essential in thought and so arbitrary in reality. I don't pretend to make any sense of it. Though I thought going to look at it would clarify things for me. Didn't. Doesn't. Maybe this year it'll all make sense.
I see the fence -- where it exists. It seems obscene 
I see the fence -- where it exists. It seems appropriate.

There're tons'o'crossings, both ways, every day. Every day people going on about their every day lives. Workers and shoppers and families visiting. Alotta the pre-9/11 free'n'easiness that I'm told used to be is now gone. No more row-boating across the Rio in Big Bend National Park -- ending decades (face it, centuries) of normal, cordial, daily human back'n'forthings -- new restrictions adding hardship to the meager commercial lives of the Mexicans who used to sell their wares to wandering and curious travellers.
No one likes it. Not the Park Rangers. Not the Park visitors. Not the vendors. Not the row-boat rowers. Not me.
I see the Border Patrol -- both stationary and rolling -- from Calexico to El Paso del Norte and beyond. I get stopped by Border Patrol multiple times every summer. I get asked questions. Clearly gringoish, I've never had to produce documents, but guess what? When I head out from the compound, I pack my passport every summer. I tote my documentation, fully expecting to need to show it -- just in case I need to prove I get to stay this side.
I've not been treated uncordially. Ever. Showing my docs would not be a burdensome requirement.
I'm hard-assed about the border. Enforce the law, goddamnit.
I'm soft-hearted about the border. Were I not born here, I'd be bringing my family across by hook or by crook. Catch me when you can.
That's all that repeated visits have taught me.
Of course on this page I'm pretty successful at ignoring violence, drug trafficking and lawlessness perpetrated by thugs.
Were I not born here, I'd be bringing my family across by hook or by crook. Catch me when you can. I'm soft-hearted about the border.
But other than that, I'm hard-assed about the border.
Enforce the law, goddamnit.

_____________________________________________
Read the bill here.

Walk The Dog

An old friend sent me this this evening, 
saying something I said today, some story 
I told him, reminded him of this vid and 
this vid reminded him of me. 


Who am I to argue? 
He's known me a long time.


And it made me laugh.


I'm not waiting for the festive weekend to share the TJ.


Question: I've already got the dogs and the easy chair, where can I get one of those hats?

No Te Vaya

Perdido sin ti. Solo decir.

Sitting With Good Posture

Book cover of the week:

Victoria Jackson -- Now On Blogspot

Here's one of my pics from Searchlight and a sample from Miss Jackson's opening post:

I spent one week on the Tea Party Express' three week bus tour across the country. In each city from Searchlight to Sioux St. Marie to Washington D.C., this great group of patriots and I were received by throngs of loving, passionate Americans who share our concern about the TYRANNY that has hijacked our government. It's amazing how many different creative, original ways FREEDOM can be expressed. The signs were hilarious and righteous. Lots of smiling, singing and photographs.

Liken that neck tat...

Saturday Night Oldies -- Hot House Flowers

Give It Up

Saturday Prose Interlude -- 100 Words

Communion

She sucked on her martini, oblivious to taste, to companion, to
the room in which she sat, her features tightening with the
first sip, lips pinching, teeth gnashing, eyes glazing,
anticipating with familiar affection the icy olives steeping
in gin, saving those olives for last, surely pleased she's not
the type, so common, to choose a twist -- or worse, onion -- to
accessorize her spirits, able to abandon the glass, to burst
reverie, only long enough to light a smoke, suck on that, and
blow another dusky gust of her sour heat toward the face across
the table, waiting, thirsting, still.

-- TH

Shabbat Shalom -- Francky Perez Hatikva Division

Look, I've heard two hundred and two versions of Hatikva -- not counting those high school town meetings that begin with the Star Spangled Banner and end with Hatikva, but this Francky Perez arrangement is my favorite, so you've seen it here before, more than once.
But, it was just this week that I found this version with Perez' little hiphoppyrappythingy in English rather than French (which French version is most perfect, most).
Me? I Prefer the sound of the French, but it is nice to know -- know --- what he's saying, at last.
You? Enjoy.
And, Shabbat Shalom.

Schumer Named By G*d -- Sarah Palin Mum On Her Own Divine Mission

Chuck-You Schumer: Not only elected by idiots, but also named by G*d.

The essential -- and fetching -- Jennifer Rubin notes grifter Senator Chucky Schumer's claim that the Unnamed Name named him.

One aside: Schumer also had this to say about the origin of his name: “It comes from the word shomer, which mean guardian. My ancestors were guardians of the ghetto wall in Chortkov, and I believe Hashem, actually, gave me the name as one of my roles that is very important in the United States Senate to be a shomer, to be a shomer for Israel.”

Suffice it to say that if Sarah Palin ever said that God had given a name to her with a mission in mind, the chattering class would go bonkers. But of course, it is perfectly acceptable for liberals to get messages from God without cries of indignation echoing throughout the media. That said, if Schumer takes his name to heart, albeit belatedly, and shows some leadership in gathering other Democrats to his [pro-Israel, knock it off, Obama] position (that’s what Senate leaders do, after all), there will be reason to celebrate

Arctic Fox, Alaskan Wolves and Facebook Fools

Around here we're thinking the FaceBook place is a blessing, allowing reconnection with old school chums and/or lost friends and occasionally even allowing us to remedy idiotic mistakes of the past, flourish in e-forgiveness and renew and update familial love.
Other times we see nothing has changed and we might better have let time and distance remain.
Sometimes it's a combo plate.
This week's FaceBook groan came when adhering to a real-time friend's on-line suggestion to friend (yes, that's a verb) an old mutual friend and once the request was accepted up popped her wall with -- you'll never guess -- an anti-Sarah Palin screed.
There's no escape from the derangement, even as begat by beloveds.
Here's what's setting off old friend's FaceBook idiotic issues meter:

What's on your mind?

•  
• Keep Sarah Palin off Discovery
• act.credoaction.com
• Tell Discovery: Someone who vocally advocates for habitat-destroying oil drilling, denies global warming is a human-caused threat, and spearheaded a brutal wolf-slaughter program as governor of Alaska has no place in your eco-conscious lineup of shows.

Them: Not my fault their anti-Palin FB pic won't load.
You: click where the pic should show and it'll take you to their deranged petition.
Me? I don't watch much Discovery Channel, but I'll watch this show.
And, like Mrs. Todd Palin, I too advocate drilling, baby, drilling while scorning the eco-lib-religious fundamentalism of Al Gore and the globaloney warming cult, and though I ran with a wolf-hybrid for many years, once jumping into a sheep pen back in the wilds of Iowa to rescue a lamb from my own wolf's happy jaws, baaaaaaaad wolf, and can therefore see why wolves need careful culling by humans, yes they do, still, I do love wolves -- in the abstract and in the hybrid particular.
(Rest in Peace, Nanook, still missing you, girl.)
I'm not much of a joiner or signer but here's a petition supporting the Sarah Palin Discovery Channel documentary series. Think about signing it.

Derangement courtesy of Sarah Palin Information Blog.

Fashion Interlude -- Bosch Fawstin

Additional fashion here.

Governor Palin's Hillbilly Hacker

Texas for Sarah Palin reports that

David Kernell's trial on charges related to the hacking of Sarah Palin's e-mail account two months before the November, 2008 election begins today. The 22-year-old defendant is the son of long time Tennessee State Representative Mike Kernell, a Democrat from Memphis. The younger [Kernall] has pleaded not guilty to four counts, identity theft, wire fraud, unauthorized access to a protected computer in furtherance of aiding and abetting the same offense, and obstruction of justice.

Around here, a year and a half
since Popcorn Kernell snooped
on Mrs. Palin's private email,
we still suspect
the poor boy was merely
trying to contact Ricky Hollywood Levi Johnston.
Something about the gaydar thing, dunno.
And look, before you get in a huff,
we're kin and relation to a long line of
upstanding, God fearing hillbillies -- and
some of our better friends have
state of the art gaydar.
No hatin' here, just opinionatin'.
___________________________
Question: How huge will be the crowd when Sarah Palin comes to testify?

Yom Ha'atzmaut

יום העצמאות‎
عيد الإستقلال‎

White shirt day around here. White shirts somehow* being our tradition for the observance of Yom Ha'atzmaut -- National Independence Day of Israel, commemorating its Declaration of Independence in 1948.
And oh, yeah, thanks, President Truman, a real President -- remember when we had one of those?

NYTimes today, reporting from Israel:

But there is something about the mood this year that feels darker than usual. It has a bipartisan quality to it. Both left and right are troubled, and both largely about the same things, especially the Iranian nuclear program combined with growing tensions with the Obama administration.

“There is a confluence of two very worrying events,” said Michael Freund, a rightist columnist for The Jerusalem Post in a telephone interview. “One is the Iranian threat, an existential threat. Add to that the fact that for the first time in recent memory there is a president in the White House who is not overly sensitive to the Jewish state and its interests. You put the two together and it will affect anyone’s mood, even an optimist like me.”
_________________

How about our favorite Hatikva?
Hey: Hatikva JUST FOUND IN ENGLISH.
Okay to plan ahead.
Gregorian dates for Yom Ha'atzmaut:
• April 20, 2010 (Tuesday, postponed one day to Iyar 6)
• May 10, 2011 (Tuesday, postponed one day to Iyar 6)
• April 26, 2012 (Thursday, advanced one day to Iyar 4)
• April 16, 2013 (Tuesday, postponed one day to Iyar 6)

*Updatery:  Locally it's white shirts. In Isreal it's white shirts and blue pants, like in the Israeli flag. Simple, yes?

Keith Olbereunuch Bitch Slapped By Real Women and Real Men

VIA Another Black Conservative -- Thanks, CB

VIA Reason/Hit & Run

Don't forget these American Patriots

Yom Hazikaron

יום הזכרון לחללי מערכות ישראל ולנפגעי פעולות האיבה‎
Today, around here, we're observing Yom Hazikaron.
Israeli Memorial Day.
Or: Israeli Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism Remembrance Day

Israel honors the memory of 22,684 soldiers killed in the line of duty and 1,750 civilian terror victims.

The Other Arctic Fox

Time for a 180, America.
Janine Turner was on Bill Bennett's show this morning.
Bill and Seth giggled -- not at her, just moved (adolescentized) by her radiance.
Janine spoke of the Federalist Papers. Yes she did.
I listened.
Maggie O'Connell, Bush Pilot:

Trig Palin, Esq. -- Birthday Boy!

!

Thank you Sweet Jesus, for this boy's life.

And thanks Josh Painter at Texas For Sarah Palin for your constant attention to the good.

Sarah Palin: Tea Party Dawgs Of Searchlight

Yep, as I roll through my old Searchlight photographs it's hard not to notice that even the animal kingdom was there waiting for their master mistress Governor Mrs. Todd Palin.

Drilling For Water in Afghanistan -- Michael Yon

More from Yon with the real men in Afghanistan.
Yet more of Yon's great great photography.
Some American soldiers don't have a shower for more than six months.
Think about that with your Sunday brunch, and think about adding one more prayer to your daily ritual, a prayer for these guys on the drilling rigs.
One more chance to support Yon with your own cash dollars.
More from the article:

This crew’s deepest well in Afghanistan was 1,260 feet at FOB Wolverine.  TSgt. Laidlaw said they worked 45 days straight and finally got the water...

This team is stationed at Hurlburt Field, Florida.  Laidlaw said that in Florida they can drill a 120’ well in maybe a couple hours, but in Afghanistan that could take many days...

Laidlaw said there are many aquifers but RED HORSE doesn’t take from the shallow water because the Afghans tap shallow.   Nevertheless, Afghan wells can be hundreds of feet deep and are hand-dug wells that can look like shafts to Hell.

I asked Nathan if he ever struck black gold like in the Beverly Hillbillies, and Laidlaw said no, but they did find copper in RC-East.  Chinese are already here for the copper.

Read the must read water story here: Red Horse: In the Desert of Death

Michael Yon's Online Magazine here.

Your Sunday Grace Kelly

At the intersection of imagination and desire.




Virginia Postrel's "Whither The Wakefields?"post on DeepGlamour this week speaks of this and that, and as we all know how one thing leads to another around here, Miss Postrel leads us from Isabella Swan to Grace Kelly.

Howard Conant photo swiped from ArtNet Auctions via DeepGlamour.

Let's all spend some time outside under the Day Star today.

Shabbat Shalom -- Sarah Palin & Shimon Peres

[Palin] added that the only flag in her office, aside from the American flag, is the Israeli flag, stressing that she wants Israelis to know that she’s been a longtime friend of the Jewish state, and will remain such.

H/T Hashmonean




Update Question:
(Who's that crazy-looking bald geezer in the back there? Anyone know his Speedo cousin?)

Beck, Palins, Obamas

Glenn Beck is on the cover of the new Forbes Magazine. My boss set the magazine down on my desk, waiting for my response.
What could I say?
"Hey. Glenn Beck is Glenn Beck," I said, laughing, thinking I knew what she was up to, thinking she was stirring things up, baiting me for fun. But turns out I didn't know.
"Dr. K, I admire Steve Forbes but I neither like nor dislike Glenn Beck. I'm neither a fan, nor not a fan. He is what he is and who he is."
Her turn to laugh, adding "I don't hate him any more. I don't hate anyone any more," she said.
"That's a big step forward for you, Boss."
We both laughed and then she said: "Big step?"
I said "Yeah. No need to be a hater.
Then she sat and spoke to me, of me, and how I'm so, so very conservative and she's so liberal but she likeloves me anyway. I'm not like all those other conservatives.
I didn't pull a Kemp '96, RIP, nope. I didn't thank her for noticing that I'm not raaaaacist-bigot-homophoby while all the rest of the conservatives are. Nope.
I said "Hey, I'm typical. Everyone I know who's conservative is like me. And many you know who are like me are conservative.
We're open hearted. Open minded. Open homed. Open armed. Open-pursed and generous of time and spirit and thought. One oughtn't believe the pinched-brains like Jon Stewart, even if he makes you laugh late at night."
That's not happy laughter anyway, those chuckles summoned by the spiritual miser.
Stop believing the clown-eunuchs.
Believe your own eyes.

Then we spoke of her son, who I know to be conservative/libertarian/Ron-Pauly.
She's still sorely disappointed at raising a non-liberal son.
Her daughter? Kind of liberal, but like me, open to everyone. "Some of her better friends are conservatives. And like you, she doesn't judge or close people out because of political stances."
Yep, and she's happy and beautiful, inside and out, boss. That's your daughter. Watch her and learn what we're like and how to be. What's the point in hating anyway? It's just a philosophical difference between us, for the most part, anyway.
You liberals are merely wrong, not evil -- for the most part anyway.
Would that you would think that of us.
I had to reiterate:
I am typical.
And guys like me are not as rare as you think, we just keep quiet because we're surrounded and we like to work. Plus we're not nearly as bitter-mean as liberals. We know better, think better, feel better and live better. Pay attention to that.
We're also happier; and laugh more. And give more to charity. You could look it up.
***

Recently when I posted another appealing picture -- is there any other kind? -- of Sarah and Todd Palin, Sarah in an ARMY shirt under her jacket, Todd at her side, like always, when I posted that pic, of the two of them, husband and wife, parents of five, Army Mom and Army Dad, grandparents, clean and beautiful, together, guileless, standing in a bakery, choosing some sweets, an online friend commented on the post, saying:

I love Sarah and Todd. I love how they keep on being themselves despite the odd obsession the left has with attacking them.

My response was circumscribed, self-censored, lest I sound what? possessed of the devil myself:

Yes. I'd say it's a loony obsession, to match your odd, but it appears beyond that, beyond oddness or looniness. Sarah and Todd Palin keep on being themselves. It's that simple. They are still normal, in a good way. Or maybe it's that they are still good, in a normal way. It's compelling to witness.

And that's what took me to Searchlight. I wanted to see for myself.
But what I wanted to say to her in response is that it's not odd or loony, or not merely that; rather it is demonic. That's not too strong of a word. And I choose it carefully. The obsessive, daily, endless attack against Mr. and Mrs. Palin is rooted in an unclean spirit. That's the sulfur stink we're gettin' around here -- even from our friends who think feel "she belongs on another planet." What a dark fetish. Even our beloveds are just not paying attention. Not to reality. Not to their own inner workings. Not to the workings of the creepy, lesser, vulgar, power-ravenous creepy elite wannabe culture.
***
The Obama family? Pleasing to look at, to be sure. And I'm not entirely opposed to their role -- the symbolic one anyway. And I've said good things about them here and there. But I'm not seeing any lasting or true goodness emmanating from the outward workings of that odd coupling.
***
And Beck? I've heard him a few times on the radio. Mostly when on vacation, I think. Liked him enough to recall hearing him. I'm a radio guy. Since about second grade. Thanks, Dad. But my radio is full already. In no particular order:

William Bennett. Peter Tilden. Laura Ingraham. Tammy Bruce. Rush Limbaugh. Dennis Prager. Michael Medved. Sean Hannity. Mark Levin. Dennis Miller. Jerry Doyle. Roy Masters. Rusty Humphries. The Elite Mike Church. Michael Savage. Don Imus. Tim Conway, Jr. Hugh Hewitt. Howard Stern. Cigar Dave. Reggaeton.

Who's got time for it all?
Beck used to be on CNN. Is that forgivable?
Dr. Bennett gets a pass for being on CNN.
Not that it matters to Beck what I think, but I haven't granted him the same CNN indulgence as Bennett -- though around here being currently sober and formerly a rodeo clown both count in Beck's plus column.
***
I'm including here a bonus Beck pic, a pic of a Beck fan, snapped by yours truly, in Searchlight, March 27th, while awaiting our Governor Mrs. Todd Palin. What a great day in the desert.
***
Don't be hatin', peeps.

Kool-Aid Withdrawal -- Jews For Palin Group Forms

Obama’s Pressure on Israel Spurs a Jewish Group for Sarah Palin

By Special to the Sun | April 15, 2010

NEW YORK — President Obama’s recent demarche designed to increase pressure on Israel is having one immediate impact in the Jewish community — it is hastening the formation of an organization called Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin.
...
What Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin is saying, Mr. Korn said, “is that the most articulate person in the public arena today in opposition to the Obama administration’s shift in policies against Israel is Sarah Palin.” He called her “very direct,” particularly on the controversy of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, on terrorism policies, and on the emerging Obama doctrine.

H/T To the essential Texas For Sarah Palin

Army Mom and Army Dad -- Sarah and Todd Palin

Mrs. Palin and her husband Todd look over the selection at Mike’s Pastry in the North End last night.

Pic from the Boston Herald.

Barbie Goes to the Tea Party

This just in from NRO:
Barbie Goes to the Tea Party

Thanks, KJL.

Holy Tax Day, Pay Up Sheeple -- It's Patriotic

First posted here, a few weeks ago. Still like it.
Other previously posted pics taken at Searchlight here, here and here. Still like them too.
Hey, it's memory penny lane day today.
And don't forget, it was that intellctual giant Plugs Biden who told us paying taxes is the super-highest form of patriotism.
What the heck, some Beatles:

Beldar, Alexrod, Wimpy & Doug

Beldar does not post on his BeldarBlog very often, he's busy elsewhere -- I suspect he has a real life -- but when he posts it's always worth your time. Beldar posted nicely twice recently. Once about Doug, the AT&T guy who solved Beldar's internet connectivity problem:

Large bureaucracies, as we all know, often shelter incompetents from their just deserts. But for the bureaucracies to keep functioning even at the minimal level of overall competence they must maintain to avoid finally toppling over, they must each include at least a few people who actually know their business. One such is Doug the Repairman; that he is so clearly part of an endangered species makes me all the more grateful to have finally encountered him this morning. Cheers, Doug!

And just before that Beldar addressed Obama's shady treatment of Israel while including some fine separated-at-birth photos of Alexrod and Wimpy. Scroll down and take a look:

I'll gladly pay you on Tuesday, for a two-state solution today.
Again, BeldarBlogs.
Nuff said.

Obama Irritable Bow Syndrome

Obama Bow Movement
Irritable bow syndrome:
Obama bows to the Chinese Commie.
He'll bow again in an hour, no doubt.

Bowtowing courtesy of Drudge.
Bow Movement quip courtesy of Mark Levin.
Previous submissive subservience here, here, here and yet again here. Lordy.

Yom HaShoah

Yom HaShoah

Around here we're just back at it from a two week Pesach-Easter-Spring break, a break that began with Governor Mrs. Todd Palin in Searchlight and ends this morning with observance of Yom HaShoah -- Holocaust Remembrance Day. Somehow those seem like fitting bookends to the break.

Thinking today of the 80 high school kids I know who are in Israel studying this semester. And thinking too of the one American kid I know who's in the IDF. That's him on the left.

Obama Supplies Weapons To Hezbullah

The Jew-hating Reverend Wright's number one pew warmer supplies arms to Hezbullah. 

Israel Matzav reports: 

Monday, April 12, 2010
US embargoes weapons to Israel, delivers them to Hezbullah


The U.S. embassy in Lebanon announced last week that on April 2 it had delivered the first in a series of shipments of weapons and ammunition. The shipment included 1,000 M16A4 rifles, 10 missile launchers, 1,583 grenade launchers, and 538 sets of day/night binoculars and night-vision devices. It was stressed that the equipment would be supported with training provided by the U.S. government.

This Obamian policy of arming Hezullah with American weapons is 

expected to continue until a few days after Sarah Palin points out 

what lethal idiocy it is. 

Meanwhile, self-hating American Jews still in denial about his intentions regarding Israel are still in love with Obama.
Update.

Shabbat Shalom -- Golda Meir & RMN

Hey, I'm still on the road. Be home shortly. Until then, Shabbat Shalom.

BTW, Golda Meir: Born in Kiev, reared in Milwaukee.

White House / Wife Beater

I dunno. All the snarksters gleeful observers seem focussed on the bored little girl down front; I couldn't help but wonder: is that a wife beater el Presidente is sporting under his dress-me-up shirt?

The Great Vigil of Easter

I received the invite for Easter weekend again. I had to decline again. I didn't even explain this year. In previous years I've explained every which way but loose. Orally. Writtenly. Narratively. Bullet pointedly. My rituals and traditions are always ignored or brushed off or forgotten. Anyone paying attention any more? What the heck. Here's from 2009:

Dear MA+ --
I laugh out loud every year, mostly to dissipate the annoyance at receiving the same annual email the same annual email the same annual email from the beloved:
Uncle,
What are you doing on Easter weekend? Is that the week you are going to Arizona? If not we would love to see you over the holidays, there or here.
Dear Nephew --
I'd love to see you too.
But nah, that's not the week I'm going to AZ.
That's the week I return from AZ.
Easter weekend is the weekend I don't travel, that's the weekend that is always booked, booked in advance, far in advance. Kinda like my Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning. Booked.
Baby Jesus. Risen Jesus.
Easter Week is Holy Week, the week when if I'm in town -- and I'm almost always in town -- I go to church every day.
This year I'll be back in town on Wednesday, probably, Thursday for sure. Meaning: I'll be in church Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday -- for the Great Vigil of Easter. And the renewal of my baptism vows. You're always welcome to join me for that 3 hour (give or take) service. It'd be like old times...
Easter Sunday is always a toss-up for me. Perhaps like last year, and the year before that, we can visit on Easter Sunday. The eating's good. Especially if B brings her famous potatoes.
It was last year when I left for Hawaii the day after Easter, this year on Easter Monday I'm off for Mexico.
Knowing I'm picky about where I worship, even JMax stopped booking my Easter weekend, stopped trying to get me to exotic locales until First Things were completed, knowing it's not "holidays" for me, it's Holy Days.
When I pointed out that Holy Week days are comparable to her High Holy Days in September and October, she finally got it, stopped tampering with it, respected it the way I observe and respect Kol Nidrei -- the other fine loop in my double liturgical year.
Nephew, once my Holy Days are observed, and my new year commences, my time opens up again. And there's no one I'd rather see than you and yours.
Short version: it's not about the Easter Bunny for me, it's about the Jesus Bunny.
Go ahead and put this in your calendar for 2010.
Love,
-- Uncle

Didn't make it into his calendar for this year.
And, not going anywhere exotic this year. It's Vegas on Easter Monday. That's as un-exotic as it gets. Holy Week followed by an un-holy week. We roll that way around here.
All things considered, I'm feeling pretty darned lucky, and blessed to have nephews who want to see me, blessed to be hitting the road again for Nevada with JMax, blessed to have made it through another year.
He is risen. The Lord is risen indeed.
Just saying.
Next Year In Jerusalem.

Marine Gunnery Sgt. Robert L. Gilbert, Requiescat in Pace

I'm sorry if you're reading this . . .

A father's promise, a son's sacrifice for his country
Regina Brett, in the Cleveland Plain Dealer
Read it.

Via: Hhewitt

Palin: 2,073,000, Olbereunuch: 989,000

CABLE NEWS RAAAACE
THURS., APRIL 1, 2010

FOXNEWS O'REILLY 2,981,000
FOXNEWS HANNITY 2,256,000
FOXNEWS PALIN 2,073,000
FOXNEWS BECK 2,014,000
FOXNEWS BAIER 1,877,000
FOXNEWS SHEP 1,658,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 989,000
MSNBC MADDOW 950,000
CNN KING 839,000
CNN COOPER 820,000
CNNHN BEHAR 641,000

Via Drudge
Gloating update from Doug Powers:
It must be frustrating for them. The only gauge the left can use to measure the “success” or “failure” of a Fox News program is to compare it to… other Fox News programs — because compared to talkers the liberals serve up on cable, a test pattern on channel 943 at 3 a.m. is a ratings bonanza.

Shabbat Shalom -- Palin Passover Notes

Sarah Palin's Notes -- From Monday:

Best Wishes for a Blessed Passover
 Monday, March 29, 2010 at 6:52pm
Tonight Jewish families all over the world will gather to celebrate Passover, the story of Exodus and the freedom of the Jewish people from bondage. This holiday reminds us of the sacrifices that are still being made for freedom – the U.S. troops who are away from their families so that we can be with ours, and the Israeli people, who struggle for peace with their neighbors even as they face the threat of war.

“Next year in Jerusalem” will be the refrain echoed by Jewish families as they finish their Seders tonight. It is a stark reminder that whatever the threats the Jewish people have faced, whatever the struggles, their connection to Jerusalem is ancient and unshakable. On this Passover holiday, our family sends our best wishes to all who are celebrating. Chag kasher V'Sameach. Happy Passover. And next year in Jerusalem.

- Sarah Palin

Bonus Shabbat Shalom:

Acoupla Palin Paragraphs

Arnold Ahlert in Jewish World Review defends Palin while dismissing her as one of his choices for '12:

And before anyone gets started, I have devoted a ton of time and energy defending Ms. Palin in both print and in conversations with dullards who can't fathom how much of the animosity they feel for her is based on one of the most vicious smear campaigns ever perpetrated against any politician in recent memory. In short, a lot of folks have been manipulated by the media and they don't even realize it. In this case, the "lie(s) repeated often enough" has been very effective, and while such overt lying makes me angry, revenge isn't a primary motivating factor for me or a lot of other voters when it comes to selecting a presidential candidate.

Have to like that "manipulated dullard" observation. Of course even a sharpie or two or three have been sheepily manipulated -- baaaaa -- along the way. None that read this page, however. Just saying.
And American Spectator's Quin Hillyer channels -- and refutes -- some John Coyne in his article on McCain:

McCain deserves no credit for running a terrible campaign that saddled us with Barack Obama as president; he deserves no credit for choosing a not-yet-prepared Sarah Palin for Veep, tossing her to the wolves without enough support, and then letting his aides try to blame her for the campaign's failure even before the race was over -- in the process unfairly harming a rising conservative star who had and has great potential that now has been sidetracked from productive governance to show business.

Sidetracked to showbiz. Time will tell.
As I observed Mr. and Mrs. Palin in Searchlight last Saturday it was impossible to discern what they are up to. I don't distrust them. Heck no. Or, au contraire. But I sensed some design in action. Their game plan? Dunno. 
They're up to something.
Hope is for chumps but if I were a hoping man I'd hope it's world domination that they're up to.

Art Musical Art Interlude

70 Million
by Hold Your Horses!


70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L'Ogre on Vimeo.


Why post this today?
Well, it opens with the Last Supper, which is the occasion of Maundy Thursday.
Remember your catechism.

First spotted as posted on Guillaume Quatravaux' Facebook page.

Thanks Guillaume.

The Paschal Lamb -- Prepped For Slaughter

Pesach. The Passion.
Korban Pesach. Lamb of God.
It's all here and about us now, this doubly holy week. 
Thank G*d. Thank God.
Meanwhile...


























Exodus 12:22 "You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning.

The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, on the first new moon of the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, saying: Let the Israelite people offer the passover sacrifice at its set time: you shall offer it on the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, at its set time; you shall offer it in accordance with all its rites and rules

– Num. 9:1–3, JPS translation

The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.   John 1:29

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And I don't know from whom I swiped some of these pics.
I probably found them long ago in a Google image
search and neglected to note origins. I thank the
creators of such fine work.