Anysara Gets Political - U.S. Senate Races 2006

So here I am in the wilds of Canada and I'm thinking about the 2006 Congressional Elections. While I was initially happy with President Bush's support of Israel during the recent escalation of conflict with Hezbollah, it's about the only thing he's done that has made me proud of my government in the past six years. I'm following the 2006 Congressional Elections and I'll be voting by absentee ballot in my home state because I'd like to see our government change a little. I will, in all likelyhood, vote Democrat and posts here will reflect that perspective.

With that disclaimer, here's the break down of U.S. Senate races:

Current seat holdings in the U.S. Senate:
44 Democratic seats
56 Republican seats

In order to take control of the Senate, Democrats need to hold all seats and pick up 7 seats from Republicans. While this is unlikely, few Demcratic seats are in danger (only Connecticut comes to mind due to the Lieberman debacle) and Dems stand a decent chance of picking up at least two seats.

Where Dems could pick up a seat:

Most Likely

• Montana - Rep incumbent
• Pennsylvania - Rep incumbent

Tossup - both seats currently held by Republicans

• Missouri - Rasmussen Poll shows Republican ahead 46%-44% as of Aug 22
• RI - Dead even Aug 21

Less Likely, But Possible

• OH - Republican incumbent trailing in Aug 1 Rasmussen Poll 44%-42%. Oh sweet revenge...

Other Races to Watch

• Minnesota - seat being vacated by a Dem - polls show race is leaning toward staying Dem
• Maryland - seat being vacated by a Dem - No primary yet - Sept 12

Sources:
Washington Post Key Races 2006
New York Times 2006 Election Guide
*I did make an effort to find Election 2006 information from well-known conservative-leaning sites (i.e. the Wall Street Journal, Fox News), but I was unable to find anything comprehensive. I'll keep at it.

Anniversary #1

Today is the start of a number of anniversaries that Soulmate and I will celebrate this year. One year ago tonight, Soulmate called. You may remember this Chosson Hunt post:

My soulmate called tonight.

It was cool and cloudy where he lives today so he spent the day tending his vegetable patch.

We talked about Jewish life in out-of-the-way places. He listened to me obsess about Maine and seemed genuinely pleased to do so.

I was cute and funny and asked good questions to get him to talk about himself.

If you haven't found your own Soulmate yet, may you merit it soon.

I have to go back to bed, now, though sleeping is a little more difficult when someone insists on kicking you in the kidneys incessantly...

WTF? The Israeli Government - A Partner in Terrorism?

On the usual post-Shabbos surf of news websites I came across this gem at the JPost:

*****
Report: Prisoner swap deal underway
By JPOST.COM STAFF

The Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram said Sunday morning that according to high-ranking Egyptian sources, an exchange deal is set to take place between Israel and Hizbullah within the next two or three weeks, Israel Radio reported.

The first stage of the agreement would be the release of the two soldiers kidnapped by Hizbullah last month, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, the report said.

The next stage, the sources said, would be Israel's release of Palestinian prisoners a day or two after the soldiers are returned.

According to the newspaper, the same high-ranking Egyptian sources also said that a similar exchange would soon be agreed upon for Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped in Gaza during a cross-border raid.

There is as yet no final draft of the agreement, the newspaper reported.

*****

What THE hell is going on? Great. How many people died in the latest conflict with Hezbollah? Thank you, Israeli government, for all those needless deaths. Sh*t, if they were going to exchange prisoners, they should've saved everyone the f***ing trouble and just swapped prisoners six weeks ago. After all, terrorism is about throwing a tantrum and getting your f***ing way, right? While you're at it, why don't you sign over Jerusalem, too, and save us any future suicide bombing attacks. WTF?

Nice to know that the Israeli government is out there protecting its citizens by providing human payola to the f***ing Palestinian mafia. Bastards.

Who the hell do they think they are?

This post is outside the general scope of this blog, but I couldn't think of anyone to send a letter-to-the-editor to who would actually read what I have to say...

This past Sunday, an article appeared in the Globe and Mail called "Motherhood is Boring". I haven't read the actual article itself since GM wants your credit card info if you want to read their articles online. Bastards. So, I Googled the term and found loads of letters and blog entries on the topic directing me to the article in the Daily Mail which inspired the GM article. Since the Daily Mail is obvioudly less pretentious, they actually printed the article in question for consumption on their website.

Helen Kirwan-Taylor asserts that her children bore her to death. She refuses to take part in any school activities (they just don't interest her) and she's more likely to be found having her highlights done than at a child's birthday party. She claims that her children have gotten used to her not showing up to their cricket matches or school plays and that they don't mind. She admits that when her childred were younger, she threw herself into her work because any journalism assignment was much more titillating than her offspring.

This, my friends, is why people should have to be licensed to be parents.

She goes on to cite the extreme - as if there's no inbetween - of parents whose children throw tantrums at a dinner party and thus the parents of send their guests home rather than send the children to their rooms. She then goes on to claim that her children will be more 'balanced' because their indulged counterparts will grow up narcissistic and unable to function.

Now (take a breath), I do agree that the parents who sent the guests home rather than sending the children to their room are going way overboard (Assuming the situation was as simplistic as Ms. Kirwan-Taylor describes). Ms. Kirwan-Taylor is absolutely correct in her assertion that children whose parents spend their lives toting them to and from soccer practice, ballet, and swimming and generally catering to their every whim (crusts cut off) WILL grow up narcissistic and bratty.

Granted, I am not yet a parent. I have, however, been a teacher for seven years and have had the opportunity to observe first-hand the fruits of different parenting styles. Indulgent parents produce petulant children. Neglectful parents produce angry children who will do anything to get their parents attention. There is, however, a happy medium. Parenting is a delicate balance between meeting your needs and your children's needs. I'm sure that it's quite impossible at times. In those instances, your children's needs should nearly always trump your own.

At the recent opening of our new shul, several children were allowed to run amok screaming between the audience and the podium (where the mayor, rabbi, superintendent of schools, etc. were speaking). The parents sat calmly in the audience, quite obviously pretending that they had no children. Not only was it appallingly rude to everyone there, it was neglectful of their children.

Children need limits. They need to be told when something they do is out-of-bounds and sometimes they even need a consequence. When you decided to have a baby, you committed yourself to bringing them up properly - even if that means that you have to leave a play/dinner/speech/etc. to correct them. When children act out, they are telling their parents that they need something. Maybe they need the limits to be more clearly defined. Maybe they need a hug and a soft word of reminder. Maybe they need a larger consequence (time out, cancellation of an activity, etc.). It's not a parent's job to dote on a child, but it is a parent's job to make their children the center of their universe.

The appalling article by Ms. Kirwan-Taylor has no doubt given countless parents permission to give into their own narcissistic tendencies. This attitude, as much as the attitude of the doting parents who give their child whatever he/she asks for, will produce unhappy children who will struggle to function in a society that is, whether you believe it or not, full of boundaries and limits.

Shame on you, Ms. Kirwan-Taylor.

What do you do with yellow squash that's the size of your arm?

What DOES one do with yellow squash this big?

Only two are pictured, but we have three like this so far. We just finished one tonight. It took us two days to eat it. Last night, I sliced big rounds, dipped them in egg wash, then shake-n-bake (we can get a kosher brand here in Canada), then I fried them in olive oil. Delish. Tonight, Soulmate ('cause he's just clever like that), suggested we cut the other half into spears and steam them in the asparagus pot. When they were done, we salted and peppered them. Even more delish (and just a little healthier).

One down, two to go. Actually, there will be more than two - the plant is showing no signs of slowing down production. What can I say? I guess we're just fertile around here.

Will keep you posted with Yellow Squash Recipe #3.

What's New in Jewish Victoria?

Last week we opened the new shul (synagogue). It's housed in a building that Chabad of Vancouver Island is leasing from the local school district. Not only do we have a lovely, tall-ceilinged place to daven, the room next door will be the full-time preschool five days a week this school year. We had close to 100 people at the opening, including the mayor of Victoria, regular shul attendees, and preschool parents. This past Shabbos, we had a record breaking crowd of approximately 40 people. We first ran out of siddurim (prayerbooks), then chairs, then chumashim (printed copies of the Torah). It's a wonderful problem to have.

We also have started importing our meat from Seattle. The Canadian government lets you bring in a certain amount of meat (44 lbs/person) for your own consumption. Albertson's of Mercer Island (THE place to shop for kosher groceries in Seattle) packs it for us, freezes it to ensure freshness, and delivers it to the Victoria Clipper dock. The meat then enjoys a pleasant ferry ride through Puget Sound, skirting the San Juan Islands before arriving a few hours later at the Inner Harbour in Victoria - a five minute drive from our house. We retrieve our still-frozen meat, clear it through customs, and we're on our way. After living off the $12.00/lb frozen kosher chicken that's available here on the island, it's a big treat to dine on $1.52/lb chicken thighs from Seattle. We also got steak. Lots of steak. Yum.

So, now we've worked out most of the problems of Orthodox life on the island. We have meat. We're well on our way to having a school. We have a minyan twice a month which shows every sign of growing. The rabbi and Soulmate are working on creating an eruv (symbolic enclosure that enables Orthodox Jews to carry items outside the home on Shabbos) now that the shul is no longer in the rabbi's home. There's money set aside for a mikveh (ritual bath) once we get a permanent location and, in the mean time, there are various fresh water lakes for toiveling (taking a ritual bath) if one doesn't wish to brave the ocean. On top of all that, we've had a beautiful summer full of oceanside picnics, reading and camping in the back yard, and summer evening drives through the country to buy fresh sweet corn.

Does life get any better than this?

Happy Birthday to Me

I can't believe that one year ago I was in Vermont on my birthday. I can't remember if I had heard of Soulmate at this point and I was waiting to see if he would accept the shidduch or if that came after... In any case, ten days from now is the anniversary of our first phone call. H-shem has blessed me this year. May He continue to do so. I found the love of my life. We got engaged. We got married.

We moved to this beautiful island where we recently helped in the opening of the new Jewish Education Centre - complete with our own shul and a full time preschool. For the past few weeks I've been lucky to have the tremendous mitzah of baking kosher challah for our community.

And, G-d willing, Soulmate and I will have something else to celebrate in late December or early January.

Happy birthday to me, indeed.

What about the soldiers?

Soulmate and I have been closely monitoring the news this morning expecting the "cease fire" to collapse at any minute. We're frustrated and dismayed that several key issues seem to have been forgotten by the international community, the UN, and, surprisingly, the State of Israel:

1) Hezbollah is a TERRORIST group. Since when does ANYONE make agreements with TERRORISTS? By definition, they can't be trusted. Sure, they'll wait it out just long enough for the world to forget about this little "war". Then, as soon as no one is looking and many UNIFIL troops are deployed in south Lebanon (making it a potential disaster-scenario if Israel needs to go back), the TERRORISTS will be up to their old tricks. When the long arm of Israeli justice reaches out to crush them, they will once again cry foul and somehow Israel will come out looking like the bad guys (I can already see Hezbollah using UNIFIL posts as human shields in place of Lebanese women and children).

2) What about the soldiers that the terrorists kidnapped? Is the Israeli government really going to leave them to rot in the hads of the terrorists? Or will they work out a back-door deal with the terrorists and exchange "prisoners" - showing that terror really does pay?

All this said, I don't know how Israel could've come out of this whole debacle unscathed. So they push to the Litani and secure it. So what? What's to keep Hezbollah from launching rockets into Israel from Syria? They'll run and recruit more terrorists. There will always be more. We can't talk with them and we can't realistically wipe them from the face of the Earth. The only option left is to pray that H-shem takes care of it and sends moshiach speedily and soon.

Islamic terrorists remind me a little of a nasty weed we have been combatting in our yard for the past three months: the trumpet vine. This plant, a relative of the mostly-harmless flower morning glory, creeps around underground, sprouting virtually anywhere. It then grows to 20-30 feet in length, up and over whatever is in its path: the antenna of my Subaru, the rose bush, our lavender plants - anything. It will stop at nothing short of world domination. It took three applications of Round Up to even begin to kill some of the vines. Rumor has it that it can grow beneath streets and appear in the neighbor's yard across the street. Pulling it has little effect - a new plant sprouts from every break. There is no getting rid of it. We can only hope to contain it and get it to a level where we only have to lay the smack down on it once in awhile.