The JackB

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

JBlogosphere

Jews- The Interdenominational Melee

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Sometimes I wish that I could spend my day blogging because there is just too much to blog about. Unfortunately I haven’t won the lottery yet so I have to limit the amount of time in which I sit here.

Not to mention that I intend to watch my Lakers take on the hated Celtics so this post is going to be shorter and a bit rougher than I would like it to be. On a side note this is one of the things that I like about blogging. I like to do kind of a free flowing, thought association, compose at the keyboard kind of a thing. It may not be as elegant, eloquent or as pretty as I’d like, but it has its own advantages. More on that later. You can find some insight on my thoughts about this at Why I Blog.

Three recent posts caught my eye:

All JBloggers are not the same
Interdenominational smackdown
Exploding Myths

All three of these posts touch upon differences in opinion, some of them quite severe. As I read through them and the comments I wondered how many people just reacted. Did they mean what they said. Did their choice of words convey an accurate portrayal of their opinion.

Sometimes it is hard to tell. Maybe they did mean it exactly as I understood it. And in some cases that was tinged with disappointment. But my purpose is not to point fingers or chastise, rather it is to say that it is this interaction with others that I appreciate. Especially from shall we say, a religious perspective. It is not uncommon or unusual to have persons of differing political opinions gather and speak upon a topic.

Religion, er, Jewish denominations is a different bag altogether. RWAC’s comment serves as a good example as to why you rarely see interdenominational gatherings.

But the cost is high: Either the integrity of Orthodoxy or the unity of the Jewish community will pay the price. I will either sell out Orthodoxy or bash everyone else.

To be clear, I am not bashing RWAC. As the 17 readers of this blog know the good Rav not only provides good blog fodder, he has good taste in film and I like him. I think that we could be friends. Pause for the cyberhug of friendship. Oy, does that sound cheesy or what.

Anyway, the Jblogosphere provides an excellent forum for us to gather and exchange ideas, especially for those people who are hesitant to engage in these types of discussions. It is the Marketplace of Ideas at work and that I think is a very good thing for all of us.

This is Not Haveil Havalim #135

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Updated multiple times: I have received more than one email asking how I could just grab Haveil Havalim without permission. Obviously you missed Talk Like a Pirate Day or you’d know you know that Captain Jack- One-eared Dog the Damned doesn’t ask permission to do anything. ARRGGGH!!!!!!!!

Hoist the mainsail, swab the decks and read matey!

Welcome to the unauthorized, unofficial and up to now unrecognized edition of Haveil Havalim. Haveil Havalim is the weekly round up of posts of the JBlogosphere.

It is taking a brief hiatus for the chagim. Rumor has that at the break fast it ate too many hard boiled eggs and is suffering from indigestion, or maybe that was me, so you’ll forgive me for the brevity of this edition.

Here we go off into the wild blue yonder.

The Waffle King offers Interviewing the Enemy and RALLY IN NEW YORK AGAINST AHMEDINEJAD. Over at Israel Matzav you can learn How to sabotage Ahmadinejad’s speech at Columbia. Jewlicious offers their own take on this as well.

Dr. Sanity blogged about CHOICES (or, Do Two Half-Wits Make A**Hole?).

Seraphic Secret is among the many who ask what is wrong with Columbia University. LGF has a video that ties into all of this. Check out: Ahmadinejad: ‘If the World Is Calm, Europe Will Eradicate the Zionists’. You might also want to read Lee Bollinger, Tough Guy.

Take a look at Irrational in Iran: Plans drawn up to bomb Israel.
Shiloh Musings provided The Olmert Troika. Joe Settler says the War Has Begun.

In other news Treppenwitz reports The Pina Chama was robbed! It is an important post that you should read carefully. Daled Amos served What Would Mearsheimer and Walt Say About The Czechoslovakia Lobby?

Maybe we should have elected Billy Carter. Check out Mere Rhetoric’s post entitled Jimmy Carter: Iran Is Nothing To Worry About.

Ezzie has his own roundup of Yom Kippur posts. Take a look. Ren Reb shares a few of her thoughts from Yom Kippur. RWAC has his own post Yom Kippur thoughts as does Ra’anana Ramblings and lets not forget Shira either. Jacob reminds us that there are No Guarantees in Life. Gil has his own Musings. Therapy Doc provided her own thoughts too. And by all means remember to read If You Must.

Some more to read Juggling Frogs and Rabbi Sedley.

Elie has a touching post called May It Be Your Will as does Shifra’s tribute to her brother.

It might be nice to go back in time so that I could countdown my own 30th birthday again. Birthday celebrations tied up A Bisele Babka. LOR has some videos that just might make you smile. Rafi is building a Sukkah.

You might enjoy Rosh Hashanah: The Book of Life & Death and Next Year In Jerusalem.

How about listening to A Hard’s Day Night in Yiddish. Aussie Dave is slowly building his own army. Cro-Magnon man is back at the keyboard. Biur Chametz is still on an extended break. Apparently so are Amishav, AbbGav and so is the Shmata Queen.

Elisson shares an interview. KRG shared Polish Hip Hop Bhangra. Now there is something you don’t see every day.

And now a moment of silence for famous Jewish Mime, Marcel Marceau.

Ok folks, I have to get back to real world doings. Hope you are all recovered from the chag. See you later.

Miss Haveil Havalim & You’ll Look Like This

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See the guy above. His kallah forced him to miss the most recent edition of H.H. Clearly the two of them need a little work on Shalom Bayit issues, but that is a different story altogether.

I am hosting Haveil Havalim again this week. If you want to participate send in your posts via the Blog Carnival entry form. And even if you don’t, make sure that you take a few minutes to review the best round up of the Jblogosphere.

See you on Sunday, if not before.

Haveil Havalim #121- Thank Your Father Edition

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And he said, “Let me tell you a secret about a father’s love,
A secret that my daddy said was just between us.”
He said, “Daddies don’t just love their children every now and then.
It’s a love without end, amen, it’s a love without end, amen.”
George Strait

Welcome to the June 17, 2007 edition of Haveil Havalim. It is Father’s Day so you’ll have to indulge me as I jump in with links to two of my own posts called A Father’s Day Post and Father’s Love Their Daddies Too.

For many reasons it has been a particularly difficult week so I apologize that this edition is not up to snuff. But per my own father’s guidance I have given it my best effort. Sometimes that is all you can do.

And now on to the show:

As our opening act I offer for your consumption Question & Answer With MoChassid – Are You A Good Father? To which I add my own question. At what point do we make our analysis of our performance as fathers. Do we have an annual review. Should there be some sort of report card. Ok, it is a bit tongue in cheek, but still I wonder about this kind of stuff. It is good blog fodder.

Judaism

Frum With Questions presents How many Rabbits does it take to make a black hat?
Sometimes Rafi wonders how honest are we really? Orieyenta reminds us that Jews Come in All Colors.

Fortunately I have never suffered from Simcha Blisters. Cosmic X presents The Joy Of Doing A Mitzvah. Nuch Epes Ah Chosid presents Hut Bitachon. Vet Alles Zein Gut – (Have belief everything will be ok)

Ari’s blog presents Are Out-Of-Town Communities Viable? Yitzchak Goodman presents The Clearance Sale on Silver Linings. Avrohom offered PILEGESH – Yevamos 37 – Daf Yomi and Dixie Yid presents Chochma vs. Bina – Practical Manifestations.

Dag presents Standards for Jewish schools and organizations. A Simple Jew presents Theft Or Tax Evasion? – Getting To Bottom Of A Chassidic Story. Malachi Rothschild presents When Relevance Trumps Tradition.

Every now and then we all wish we had superpowers. Maybe that is why Mom blogged about The truth about the Jewish superwoman. I think that this would make a great name for a band: Ten Minutes A Day For Tikkun Olam With “The Five Tibetans.”

I don’t know, maybe we should ask the guy who wrote Jewish Music Insider: Shwekey: Sibling Rivalry?

A lack of sleep might make you Babel Brained and Bobble Headed by: Schvach Yid. Someone once told me that California would be the setting for a modern version of Korach. Muse has her own thoughts Korach, a Kadima kind of Guy.

Jewish Atheist provides an explanation called Why We Leave Orthodoxy. Maybe he just wanted to Upgrade to Cohen. If nothing else we know that he escaped the Yeshiva life. The title of this next post just begs you to read it. I’m an Orthodox Jew, my brother-in-law is a Fundamentalist Christian – Shawarma brought us together

Mark Freedman, MD presents A CUT BELOW posted at Bunk.

Israel

Soccer Dad presents The Endless Car Chase. muse presents Yoni’s Photos of the pilgrimage to the graves of Yehoshua Bin Nun & Calev Ben Yfune and HOMELESS in Jerusalem!

Yid With Lid offered Barak, Peres and Olmert, the Trifecta of Israeli Disasters and Palestinians Finally Support a Two State Solution.

I thought that the X-Ray machine is supposed to help prevent terror attacks. Elder of Ziyon blogged about The Calm in Gaza. The good people went to visit Arafat’s old homestead. Meryl covered that little ditty here.

Solomonia covered the chaos in Gaza too. Gail has a good cartoon about the situation.

Gilad Shalit is not forgotten as Olah Chadasha presents One Year Since You Been Gone. Israel Matzav blogged about this too Gilad Shalit’s kidnappers, murderers of Americans on ‘Palestinian Authority’ payroll.

Ben-Yehudah presents Peres wins Presidency and The S’deroth Conspiracy. Speaking of Peres here is Israel’s new President – in his own words.

The title of this next post reminds me of the old movie Poltergeist. They’re Still Here. Muse presents Nothing exciting can be good news! posted at Shiloh Musings.

Friar Yid presents Hamastan Good for the Jews? Not likely. Daled Amos offered his thoughts here.

SnoopyTheGoon presents Now for some carefully expressed glee and What a punch line!

Bookworm provided a link to a Must See Internet Slideshow and Has Israel got the Palestinians where it wants them?

Daniel Pipes wrote about The Soviets Six-Day War.

Assorted Topics and Miscellanea:

Here is an example of a real mensch. Me-Ander came face to face with…. a famous jblogger. This next post is heart wrenching. I still love you more than life itself…

Ocean Guy discussed War With Iran. Jameel offered a post about this too. Robert Avrech offered Home and Tolerance In Indonesia.

Some would say that What Was Lost Might Yet Be Found. Or perhaps Lost and Found is the way to go.

And now it is time for an Announcement & Blog FAQS. What were you doing Ten Years Ago.
Have you ever met Flat Shloimie?

Ezzie blogged about cleveland winning the championship. It was a tremendous victory.

Jewlicious found a boy who doesn’t have a career in singing, perhaps performance art. Perhaps you’d be interested in seeing Homer versus the Golem. Irina presents In Which I See a Painfully Familiar Face.

Where Would You Honeymoon? After 30 years do they still remember their honeymoon. Go say Mazal Tov to Shira. Do the same for Psychotoddler. Is it just me or does he look like a baby in those pictures. Whoa. At least we know that in Mrs. B he didn’t make a poor choice.

The Second To Last Day Of School used to make me crazy. I couldn’t wait for vacation and the opportunity to go to a Summerfest. Or maybe I’d attend a blogger meet and greet. It is a Roomba not a Rhumba.

Call me crazy but I think that there just might be a problem with stealing home in the holyland. I also wonder Have You Made Friends Through Blogging?

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of haveil havalim using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

P.S. This may be updated throughout the day so be sure to check back in and don’t forget to help promote this on your own blogs.

A Few Musings About The JIBs

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Just when you thought that the posts about the JIBs were finished there arises yet another post. I hadn’t planned on writing anything else about them but I just stumbled onto two or three posts about them on other blogs so…

For a while I had considered constructing a post about the purpose of the JIBs. I still believe in them. I consider their purpose to be sound but like so many things in life the intent is sometimes different than the actual execution.

In the most recent incarnation of the JIBs there was a tremendous effort to make them into something that transcended the past. The goal was to avoid the pitfalls and problems of the past. It wasn’t a complete success, but it wasn’t a total failure either.

A small number of people worked hard to sow dissent and create chaos. They went so far as to create a blog which was used to smear various participants and members of the Jblogosphere. They called it satire and I called it a pathetic attempt by second rate hacks to be funny. Satire is a great thing, but it requires humor. It failed miserably, as did the attempt to besmirch the awards.

But the attempt to do so speaks volumes about the character of those involved. It is similar to the toddler who demands that the world attend to their needs. “Play my way or I am taking my ball and going home.” Quite impressive.

Not unlike the past I still found the pandering and begging for votes to be silly. The blogs that used email lists to solicit votes didn’t do much to prove their worth either.

However the JIBs did provide exposure to blogs that I had never encountered and that is a primary goal. I am appreciative of that and for that reason alone I want to see them continue. There is never going to be a time when everyone is satisfied with how they are run. You can’t make everyone happy.

The management of the Shack is still going to push Haveil Havalim as being one of the keys to promoting your blog. It is still a great way to be a part of a community. Every time I host it I see my traffic go up. These posts continue to generate traffic long afterwards too.

That is enough on this for now.