tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16310133637443480132024-03-19T14:14:47.401-07:00Amusings & MusingsStephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.comBlogger89125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-59321031435832670312022-02-05T19:45:00.003-08:002022-02-05T19:45:28.584-08:00Camp Loyaltown; a short journey in the way-back machine<h1 style="text-align: left;">A few weeks spent at Camp Loyaltown last a lifetime.</h1><div><p class="MsoNormal">My summer vacation 65 years ago in Hunter, New York.</p><p class="MsoNormal">
</p>This past summer one or my granddaughters went to “try-out camp.” Not the baseball kind of tryouts, but the summer camp kind. It’s a smart gimmick run by many summer camps where potential campers for the following year get to spend a couple of days at camp to see how they would do being far from folks.<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgXSqqwHZv62j1u8aKaVJ0vu1pk9V_1MjjD6iONksGBkUtmqeyz-PGdtKScVhjeKcD_Z-qFI69GNlMQ-dYqHoYxqHD-uYgI7JQyYjNOPEwrZpVXglfKGhzjpQxjQ4eMzGj-KP7Jextby4vWcmt8Ixj7JCv6hU8QfxmSYZm4O3HlAfausRAgBOlsdJ3x0w=s600" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="444" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgXSqqwHZv62j1u8aKaVJ0vu1pk9V_1MjjD6iONksGBkUtmqeyz-PGdtKScVhjeKcD_Z-qFI69GNlMQ-dYqHoYxqHD-uYgI7JQyYjNOPEwrZpVXglfKGhzjpQxjQ4eMzGj-KP7Jextby4vWcmt8Ixj7JCv6hU8QfxmSYZm4O3HlAfausRAgBOlsdJ3x0w=s320" width="237" /></a></div>Within a couple of hours of her arrival the camp had her busy zip-lining and just as quickly sent a photo of a very happy camper to her parents. Of course, they passed it on to me.<br /><br />My granddaughter is eight, and her experience reminded me of my three weeks of sleepaway camp that I spent right before my 8th birthday in the summer of 1956. It was at Camp Loyaltown in Hunter, New York.</div><div><br /></div><div>Much to my surprise, 65 years later, Camp Loyaltown still exists but unlike the Jewish-themed camp I attended, today it is, in the words of one blogger, “a camp that specially caters for people with both intellectual and developmental disabilities.”</div><div><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="text-align: center;">Camp Loyaltown was created in 1948
and a July 18</span><sup style="text-align: center;">th</sup><span style="text-align: center;"> article of that year in the New York Times wrote about
it. The article headline reads, “Camp
Loyaltown is dedicated in Catskills; Needy Boys Represent Many Races and
Creeds.” While the camp was to be
non-sectarian, it “operated under Jewish dietary laws.” It was to provide “a three weeks, all-expenses-paid,
vacation.” I was in 1956, I guess,
“underprivileged” by someone’s standards.</span><br />Summers in Middle Village, Queens where I spent the first 12 years of my life were not exactly fun. It was always hot, and the biggest thrill of the day was when the Bungalow Bar ice cream truck made its evening trip up 75th Street where I lived. Weekends were especially brutal because my father sometimes worked on Saturday and Sunday. At least the polio vaccine had arrived, I don’t recall anyone being opposed to getting it, and we were no longer living under the cloud of that dreaded disease that spread rapidly during the summer months.<br /><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
I was not involved in the decision making process about going to sleepaway camp. I do vividly remember my Aunt Ceil taking me by train from Middle Village into Manhattan to the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies building. I remember sitting in a large auditorium and then having a doctor give me a physical examination. I must have been ranked 1A because a few months later I was on my way!<br /><br />Early one morning in August, my mother woke me, told me to get dressed and have breakfast because I was going to camp. My father carried a white laundry bag with my clothing down the stairs from our apartment. It was still gray outside, I hopped into my father’s Pontiac, also gray, and we headed off.<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Unlike my experience getting my own
kids off to summer camp, there was no conveniently located central drop off
point. We drove from Middle Village to a
passenger ferry slip in Manhattan; I want to say I remember the name of the sign
over the terminal saying, “B & O Railroad”, but it could have been the Erie
Railroad. In the terminal we were
grouped by bunk number. My father said goodbye
and I was ready for camp.</p> We took the ferry to New Jersey and boarded a train. I had been on the subway in New York City before, but this was my first real train ride. In those days, seats were rattan, and there were two boys in each seat and the seats were flipped so we would face another two boys. I remember sitting by the window.<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It was going to be a long ride and the camp was
prepared. At one point some counselors
pulled and pushed a humongous Baby Ruth candy bar through the aisle. They handed us a slip of paper and a pencil
and asked us to write down our guess as to the number of peanuts in the candy
bar.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p></div><div>The train ride went on and on, especially to a soon to be 8-year old kid. Suddenly there was a commotion in the aisle and counselors came through telling us there was no winner in the peanut guessing contest and then handed us a big piece of the delicious Baby Ruth. (To this day, it’s one of my favorite candy bars.)</div><br />At last, the train came to a stop. I don’t remember if we stopped in Hunter, New York or some other town that had a train station. In any event, we boarded yellow school buses (my first time on one) and headed off to Camp Loyaltown. <br /><br />We passed under the camp gate and the bus dropped us off in a parking area. We were marched by our counselors up a small hill to our bunk. Can’t tell you the bunk number but it was a clapboard building with a big open room. <br /><br />Marty, the counselor, told us he had to go to the office and instructed us “not to go near the lake.” Of course, as soon as he left, we went down to the lake. <br /><br />The lake was not very large, but it was our lake and after taking a good look we ran back to the bunk to get yelled at by Marty for going to the lake. (The lake is still there at Camp Loyaltown but there’s a large swimming pool located nearby for campers to use. You can see it on the Web at this link to <a href="https://bit.ly/3GbuWXk">Camp Loyaltown photos</a>.) <br /><br />We were told to pick a cot and place our pillows alternately from head to toe; that way we wouldn’t spread any dreaded disease by breathing into the face of the boys on either side of us! And we were given our first instructions on how to make a bed using flat sheets and how to fold them with hospital corners. Easy-peasy. <br /><br />There was a bathroom with a couple of stalls, shelves for our clothing and a shower. <br /><br />For dinner, we walked up the hill to the dining room. I know it was a large room, but I don’t think it could hold the “1,000 persons” as stated in the NY Times article. Dinner was preceded by the saying of hamotzi, the customary Jewish prayer said before meals where bread was being served. After a while, I began saying the hamotzi over the microphone for the entire dining room. My Hebrew school education at the Hebrew Institute of Middle Village was paying off. <br /><br />I’m not certain that we had prayer services. But one Friday night in 1992, we began to sing the lilting prayer “Yedid Nefesh,” which is customarily sung right before evening services. It was new to me that night, but as the singing started, I remembered the tune and the words. Was this a flashback to Camp Loyaltown? I just do not know. <br /><br />One of the things that sticks in my mind was a poster that either sat on top of a large fireplace or was mounted on a bulletin board. It was an advertisement for a new motion picture, “Moby Dick,” starring Gregory Peck, playing at the Hunter Theatre. No, we weren’t taken to see this movie, but we did go on at least one hike. It was the day Marty told us we were going to see an inclined plane. I was excited. <br /><br />After walking for a distance, Marty said “there’s the inclined plane.” I looked and didn’t see any airplane pitched into the ground at an angle. Well, I learned that Marty was not referring to a crashed airplane, but to a slope, the incline, in a hill that allows for movement up and down the hill using the principals of physics. <br /><br />Inclined planes were most popularly used in New Jersey along the Morris Canal. Newark, New Jersey had a long inclined plane carrying the canal barges up and down from a point above the city to the Passaic River down below. The incline can still be seen today, but it’s now known as Raymond Boulevard! <br /><br />Our days began with the sound of reveille being played over a loudspeaker. We dressed and then went to a centrally located flagpole where the flag was raised. We said the Pledge of Allegiance and sang the Star-Spangled Banner. Our evenings concluded with Taps. <br /><br />After the flag raising we were off to breakfast. <br /><br />Our days were filled with activities. There was baseball, soccer, and swimming, which was mandatory. This was the summer when I learned how to swim. <br /><br />The lake that I mentioned was divided into three parts separated by ropes. There was what I have to call the shallow lake. It allowed us to walk into the water to mid-waist. It had a cement floor that would become slippery from algae. It was a counselor’s job to brush the cement each day to get rid of the algae. In this part of the lake, we splashed and learned how to do the “dead man’s float,” in order to alleviate our fear of going under the water. It was a fear I never had because I had been overwhelmed and submerged by large waves at Rockaway Beach many times. <br /><br />To the left of the shallow area was the “deep water.” Unlike the shallow part, this area of the lake had a dock with a ladder. It was in this portion of the lake where we would be “certified” as being able to swim by taking a test—treading water for 30 seconds and not going under while swimming! I passed. <br /><br />The remainder of the lake was off-limits. Visions of water moccasins danced in our heads; we didn’t realize that if there were snakes in the water, ropes wouldn’t stop them from reaching us! <br /><br />There was also quiet time each day so we could write postcards home. My mother had given me pre-addressed and pre-paid post cards to write to her and my aunts. I remember lying on the bunk floor to write my postcards. Postage in those days was 3 cents for a postcard! <br /><br />Then, one day catastrophe struck; I lost my Brooklyn Dodgers baseball cap.! <br /><br />I think it is a given that sons (and daughters) become fans of the same baseball team as their dad. I don’t think this is a conscious decision, but one born from being taken to baseball games. Of course, your father is not going to take you to a game at the dreaded enemy team’s stadium, so, fandom follows. In my case it was the Brooklyn Dodgers which my dad rooted for. The Dodgers had won the World Series in 1955 and its fans were still flying the following year when they were in first place and what would certainly be another World Series with the hated New York Yankees. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi4w7vWVYuRAz3GJXIN4xx5Q4YpWMHrOMSXRAOg1fBUZGImMAICa9w6VQYekeYyR6OUXQ-TShjw1wQ1T4BWYa571ppVMw3YzQxZNYV2h49k3APFZjvRXnckowLrF65hcFnfDUJjd0trICHEh7gZQWRKbuiRu2t-a8WgjEJUAbY-iqj_etO8eH-45pEcCA=s233" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="216" data-original-width="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi4w7vWVYuRAz3GJXIN4xx5Q4YpWMHrOMSXRAOg1fBUZGImMAICa9w6VQYekeYyR6OUXQ-TShjw1wQ1T4BWYa571ppVMw3YzQxZNYV2h49k3APFZjvRXnckowLrF65hcFnfDUJjd0trICHEh7gZQWRKbuiRu2t-a8WgjEJUAbY-iqj_etO8eH-45pEcCA=s16000" /></a></div>I had left for Camp Loyaltown with my cherished Brooklyn Dodger cap and, sometime in the second week, it was gone. I have no recollection how I lost the cap. I sent a postcard home and told my mother that I had lost my cap. <br /><br />The following week I received a package the size of a shoebox and when I tore off the brown wrapping paper, there, inside a shoebox, was a new Brooklyn Dodgers cap. Happy I was. <br /><br />The remainder of my days at Camp Loyaltown are now a blur. But there came the day when we boarded out buses and headed for the train ride back to New York City. There was a newsletter that they gave us to bring with us. In it I was named “most talkative camper.” <br /><br />The train brought us to the ferry terminal where we had departed from 3 weeks earlier, and there waiting for me was my mother and father. Marty handed my duffel bag to my father and got a $2 or $3 tip for taking such good care of me. (In 2021 dollars that would be about $20-$30.) <br /><br />I had had a good summer. And six decades later, I remember it fondly.<br /><br />Well, that's what I have to say. Stephen M. Flatow<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Stephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-41329946675360012882021-05-23T00:10:00.002-07:002021-05-23T00:10:37.959-07:00The Fifth Column by Andrew Gross<h1 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Fifth Column by Andrew Gross</span></h1><div>I have been reading far too many non-fiction books lately. Books about World War II battles in Europe and the Pacific, books about baseball (which I gladly add to my collection, Yogi: A Life Behind the Mask by Jon Pessah, being my latest addition) and history.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, as I read of a famous someone's reading habits - he read fiction every night - I decided to give it a try.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWSI5faOJulEcNi2V3T6R4w4Fyizc7rpvxpRhlikqMBx0-PZoMGRXGTJS3ekD94K623kxjE3R2q76otWJvdjFa3et4Q2VxgXFyPfkM6SdYnj8y6p_bsV4DAn961_oGYZcbvm-weXO1nN9U/s400/fifth+column.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="264" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWSI5faOJulEcNi2V3T6R4w4Fyizc7rpvxpRhlikqMBx0-PZoMGRXGTJS3ekD94K623kxjE3R2q76otWJvdjFa3et4Q2VxgXFyPfkM6SdYnj8y6p_bsV4DAn961_oGYZcbvm-weXO1nN9U/s320/fifth+column.jpg" /></a></div>As luck would have it, my local bookstore had The Fifth Column by Andrew Gross. It's a tale of German saboteurs in New York City in the days leading up to America's entry into World War II centered on NYC's upper east side area of Yorkville. </div><div><br /></div><div>There were several NYC neighborhoods that were hotbeds of pro-Germany sympathy in the 1930s including Yorkville and one in Glendale, Queens. In fact, my father who grew up in next-door Middle Village admitted to me that they were afraid of the strength of the German Bundists who lived down the street.</div><div><br /></div><div>Newark, New Jersey also had a pro-Nazi community but the citizens there had them differently. The Jews and Italians of Newark formed a group called the Minutemen who went after pro-Nazi marchers with baseball bats. Kind of put the kibosh on future marches in Newark.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, as to book's title, The Fifth Column, per the Britannica website definition:</div><div></div><blockquote><div>Fifth column, clandestine group or faction of subversive agents who attempt to undermine a nation’s solidarity by any means at their disposal. The term is conventionally credited to Emilio Mola Vidal, a Nationalist general during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). As four of his army columns moved on Madrid, the general referred to his militant supporters within the capital as his “fifth column,” intent on undermining the loyalist government from within.</div><div><br />A cardinal technique of the fifth column is the infiltration of sympathizers into the entire fabric of the nation under attack and, particularly, into positions of policy decision and national defense. From such key posts, fifth-column activists exploit the fears of a people by spreading rumours and misinformation, as well as by employing the more standard techniques of espionage and sabotage.</div></blockquote><div><div>So, Trudi and Willie Bauer, the arch-villains of the story, are fifth columnists.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, I am not going to tell you more about the story, but I did notice some interesting goofs by the author and his editor(s).</div><div><br /></div><div>I've written a small book, A Father's Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terrorism, and I have to say that the editorial process was hell. Every fact was checked and double checked. So, I was a bit surprised when I found a, to me, glaring factual error in The Fifth Column.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our hero is going to make a call to someone at the US State Department in Washington, DC. He dials the number beginning with area code "202." Uh, there was no such thing as an area code before the 1960s. No, we had telephone exchanges, such as Davenport, Elmwood, Redwood, Twining, Butterfield (as in Butterfield 8.) Area code 202 had not yet been invented at the time of the story!</div><div><br /></div><div>On top of that, the editors missed another glaring boo-boo. At one point our hero is told there will be a white Pontiac waiting for him outside the bad guy's hangout. But when we get to the hang out, it's a Buick!</div><div><br /></div><div>Happy reading.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Well, that's what I have to say. </div><div><br /></div><div>Stephen M. Flatow</div>Stephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-21881680305128754132021-03-30T01:17:00.005-07:002021-03-30T01:17:59.343-07:00Pie in the Sky - British television scores a hit<div><h1 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;">"Pie in the Sky" - a great television show!</span></h1><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">What a great TV show I
stumbled upon while browsing through the lineup on Acorn TV. Originally shown on the BBC1 network between March
1994 and August 1997, Pie in the Sky features Richard Griffith, a much
acclaimed actor better known to Americans and Harry Potter fans around the
world as Uncle Vernon Dursley.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA0Tncnfiait3oZdEXn9aBHb4_QXyFigK0VND3msVafesi3sL2nKLSr2j4W_xX_1h5miy-72YTWc5X32nr0rLHNC2J3I1PjoUcjc72WTOgLTaLBReoOn-t__S6dJnT0KyvoC4Z_3UYs2BJ/s354/Pie-In-the-Sky-_2_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="354" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA0Tncnfiait3oZdEXn9aBHb4_QXyFigK0VND3msVafesi3sL2nKLSr2j4W_xX_1h5miy-72YTWc5X32nr0rLHNC2J3I1PjoUcjc72WTOgLTaLBReoOn-t__S6dJnT0KyvoC4Z_3UYs2BJ/s320/Pie-In-the-Sky-_2_.jpg" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />Detective Inspector
Henry Crabbe, thinking he was going to take an early retirement from the police
force, and his wife Margaret sell their home
and buy a restaurant where Henry can live out his passion for cooking. Early retirement is put on the back burner
due to the machinations of his superior officer, Associate Assistant Constable
Freddy Fisher, and Crabbe alternate time as chef and detective.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Pie in the Sky takes
place in the fictional English county of Westershire, said to be located in
South West England. This includes the also fictitious town of Middleton.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">A large man, we are
introduced to Henry as the consummate policeman and amateur cum-professional chef. His wife, Margaret, is an accountant, who, as
supportive as she is of Henry in his efforts, sometimes has to bring him back
down to earth.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">If you were puzzled by
Uncle Vernon, you are going to love Henry Crabbe as he solves crimes and makes
magic with his steak and kidney pies.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> I recommend Pie in the
Sky.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Well, that's what I have to say. </span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Stephen M. Flatow</span></div>Stephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-20114404536751565252021-01-29T04:26:00.000-08:002021-01-29T04:26:02.929-08:00What the heck is going on in California? Ethnic studies run amok?<div>The great "melting pot" that is, or should I say, was, American culture is taking a hit in California.</div><div><br /></div><div>In Tablet, Emily Benedek writes that California is "cleansing Jews from history."</div><div><br /></div><div>She comments on California's new <span style="font-family: inherit;">Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum that was created with good intentions but seems to have gone off the rails.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">She writes:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><p style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Helvetica Neue", "Segoe UI", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"></p><blockquote><p style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Helvetica Neue", "Segoe UI", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">In the fall of 2016, California’s then Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a mandate to develop an ethnic studies program for high schools in California. California’s public schools have the most ethnically diverse student body in the nation, with three-quarters of students belonging to minorities and speaking over 90 languages. Luis Alejo, the Assembly member who shepherded the bill through the 15 years required for its adoption, hailed the law, the first in the nation, as an opportunity to “give all students the opportunity to prepare for a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/california-governor-signs-bill-develop-high-school-ethnic-studies-curriculum-n648396" rel="noopener" style="color: #3c61aa; word-break: break-word;" target="_blank">diverse global economy</a>, diverse university campuses and diverse workplaces,” adding, “Ethnic studies are not just for students of color.”</p><p style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Helvetica Neue", "Segoe UI", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">Elina Kaplan, a former high-tech manager who had just stepped down as senior VP of one of California’s largest affordable housing nonprofits, remembers agreeing wholeheartedly with the idea at the time. “The objective was to build bridges of understanding between people,” said Kaplan, an immigrant herself, who moved to California from the former Soviet Union with her family when she was 11. “This was as welcome as mom and apple pie. It offered students the chance to learn about the accomplishments of ethnic minorities, as well as to address issues of inequality and bigotry.”</p><p style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Helvetica Neue", "Segoe UI", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">But three years later, when the first draft of the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) was released, Kaplan couldn’t believe what she was reading. In one sample lesson, she saw that a list of historic U.S. social movements—ones like Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, Criminal Justice Reform—also included the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement for Palestine (BDS), described as a “global social movement that currently aims to establish freedom for Palestinians living under apartheid conditions.” Kaplan wondered why a foreign movement, whose target was another country, would be mischaracterized as a domestic social movement, and she was shocked that in a curriculum that would be taught to millions of students, BDS’s primary goal—the elimination of Israel—was not mentioned. Kaplan also saw that the 1948 Israel War of Independence was only referred to as the “Nakba”—“catastrophe” in Arabic—and Arabic verses included in the sample lessons were insulting and provocative to Jews.</p></blockquote><p style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Helvetica Neue", "Segoe UI", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"></p></div><div><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Helvetica Neue", "Segoe UI", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span></div><blockquote><div><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Helvetica Neue", "Segoe UI", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Kaplan began calling friends. “Have you read this?” she asked, urging them to plow through the </span><a href="https://www.cde.ca.gov/be/cc/cd/iqcmay2019agenda.asp" rel="noopener" style="color: #3c61aa; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Helvetica Neue", "Segoe UI", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; word-break: break-word;" target="_blank">600-page document</a><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Helvetica Neue", "Segoe UI", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">. The language was bewildering. “Ethnic Studies is about people whose cultures, hxrstories, and social positionalities are forever changing and evolving. Thus, Ethnic Studies also examines borders, borderlands, mixtures, hybridities, nepantlas, double consciousness, and reconfigured articulations. …” This was the telltale jargon of critical race theory, a radical doctrine that has swept through academic disciplines during the last few decades.</span></div><div></div></blockquote><div>An this is just a taste.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you're like me living in some sort of cocoon or cave, you had to look up <span style="font-family: inherit;">"hybridities, nepantlas, double consciousness, and reconfigured articulations." It does not bode well for the students who will be subjected to this crap labeled as education, nor will it bode well for America.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div>The full article can be found <a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/california-ethnic-studies-curriculum " target="_blank">Tablet</a>.</div><div><br /></div>Well, that's what I have to say. <div><br /></div><div>Stephen M. Flatow</div>Stephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-248292064774332782021-01-03T06:00:00.000-08:002021-01-03T06:00:19.182-08:00When you can't say something nice, sometimes you still have to say it<h1 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">When you can't say something nice, sometimes you still have to say it. Case in point - newspaper delivery by PCF Corp. It's a nightmare!</span></h1><div>I live in an apartment building down the Jersey Shore. As a result, we depend on our newspaper subscriptions being timely delivered to our apartment building. This cannot be done by a kid on a bike, so our newspapers have given PCF Corp. the contract to make those deliveries.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyKk3oN32Wc4XBEshKNEkO27aB9d0VW4hmERpu5n5V053YuD5x8dfY_6ZItxTsEvH-Y2F7olNr4G7Y0xBbH5WjWYXUYUAJeW1vVckpOcICqzVhugAn2JPDyuPjDLcZuAFpF8s1KtNMiPEh/s507/4ceaa5afdfea2699535c61ab35e345.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="444" data-original-width="507" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyKk3oN32Wc4XBEshKNEkO27aB9d0VW4hmERpu5n5V053YuD5x8dfY_6ZItxTsEvH-Y2F7olNr4G7Y0xBbH5WjWYXUYUAJeW1vVckpOcICqzVhugAn2JPDyuPjDLcZuAFpF8s1KtNMiPEh/w200-h175/4ceaa5afdfea2699535c61ab35e345.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />Unfortunately, PCF does not live up to its claim that "<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times;">we’ve built a reputation for getting it right or making it right every day – accurately, safely and on time." Now, if that was true, I would have received delivery of my newspapers on Thursday and Saturday this week.</span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times;">Like businesses everywhere, PCF has a contact page. Here's what I said today:</span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"></p><blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"><i>I live in Monmouth County, NJ; XXXX to be precise. Your company is
the delivery service for our subscriptions to the Asbury Park Press,
Star-Ledger, Wall Street Journal and Jewish Press.<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>I wish I could say something nice about your services, but I
cannot.<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>This week alone, we missed delivery of one paper on
Thursday, and nothing was delivered yesterday.<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Please don't tell me about staffing problems; if your route
drivers don't show up, then your management people should be on the road making
their deliveries.<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>I am in a service business, and if I treated my customers
the way you treat your customer's customers, I'd be out of business.<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Shame on you.<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Stephen M. Flatow</i></p></blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times;">OK, I feel better now.</span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times;">Happy new year!</span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div>Well, that's what I have to say. <div><br /></div><div>Stephen M. Flatow</div>Stephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-18542400511345305232020-08-10T04:23:00.000-07:002020-08-10T04:23:22.160-07:00A shootout in Ramallah. Jews settle their differences another way. They talk.<div><h1 itemprop="name" style="color: #054f86; font-family: kalisher, arial; letter-spacing: -0.9px; line-height: 34.3067px; margin: 26px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">How Jews settle their differences</span></span></h1><div class="Desc" itemprop="description" style="color: #777777; font-family: kalisher, arial; letter-spacing: -0.5px; line-height: 19.2667px; margin-top: 6px; padding: 0px 0px 6px; position: relative;"><h3 style="margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Our disagreements have not boiled over into Ramallah-style gun battles. But do not assume the Jewish world is immune to lunacy.</span></h3></div></div><div><br /></div><div>A recent news item from Ramallah, the capital of the Palestinian Authority, caught my eye.
At first glance, you might not think it can teach us much about Israeli or Jewish affairs. But
it can.
It seems that a nephew of Khalil Al-Sheikh, the brother of a Palestinian Authority cabinet
minister, got into a personal quarrel with a member of the Palestinian security forces (the
PA’s de-facto army). Determined to defend his nephew’s honor, Khalil Al-Sheikh “arrived
at the scene with a group of gunmen,” according to a news report. Al-Sheikh and his gang
got into a gun battle with the security forces, and Al-Sheikh ended up dead. </div><div><br /></div><div>Feuds? Family honor? Shoot-outs? At this point in the story, you may be wondering if
you’re reading about an incident from America’s Wild West. But it didn’t end there. </div><div><br /></div><div>Al-Sheikh’s relatives then rampaged through downtown Ramallah, “firing into the air and
at government buildings.” The news reports note that this all comes amidst “a surge in
violence in recent months, including clashes between rival clans and villages.” </div><div><br /></div><div>Let’s see if we can translate this episode into American terms. Imagine that, say, the
brother of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos showed up in downtown Washington, D.C.,
with a group of heavily armed friends, because his nephew was having an argument with
the Capitol Hill police. In this absurd scenario, the police shot Devos’s brother dead, and
other DeVos family members responded by running through the city streets, firing into the
Smithsonian Institution, the Supreme Court building, and assorted trendy restaurants.
And this all happened amidst a series of recent armed clashes between Republicans and
Democrats, capitalists and socialists, and meat-eaters and vegetarians. </div><div><br /></div><div>Ridiculous? Impossible? Of course. Because reasonable, civilized people don’t settle their
arguments with gunfire. Americans, like Israelis, may raise their voices and argue
vigorously with each other (my granddaughter Michal once remarked that Israelis are not really mad at each other when they argue, they just talk very loudly,) but they don’t then
reach for their rifles. They shake hands and move on. </div><div><br /></div><div>It seems that now and then, some of the Jewish community’s more vociferous pundits need
to be reminded of the rules of civility.
It seems that now and then, some of the Jewish community’s more vociferous pundits need
to be reminded of the rules of civility. </div><div><br /></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfwe7u3l5YmX7mHUgF_a3yUj6YV2i6OCBybUnyd4y9Yp1WmwyDfJtFi_HjaZFTnmBNVkIiIE_SOzVdyXFzjrE6HMwV6P6XD2OS-eaEcDw9wSBh9t1PHBQs7RbDUuwjy7w2IA7_HULrfjpa/s981/IMG_1412.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Stephen M. Flatow and Dani Dayan, 2016" border="0" data-original-height="735" data-original-width="981" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfwe7u3l5YmX7mHUgF_a3yUj6YV2i6OCBybUnyd4y9Yp1WmwyDfJtFi_HjaZFTnmBNVkIiIE_SOzVdyXFzjrE6HMwV6P6XD2OS-eaEcDw9wSBh9t1PHBQs7RbDUuwjy7w2IA7_HULrfjpa/w320-h240/IMG_1412.PNG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Stephen M. Flatow and Dani Dayan, 2016</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>When Dani Dayan was named Israel’s consul general
in New York City four years ago, some on the Jewish left responded with unbridled
hysteria. Dayan had previously chaired the Yesha Council, which represents Jewish towns
that lie beyond the pre-1967 armistice lines. Passionate Jews on the left who demonize
“settlers” expected Dayan to have horns, and branded him The Enemy before he even
stepped foot on American shores. </div><div><br /></div><div>Four years have passed, and this week, as Dayan prepared to depart the U.S. after
completing his service, a few voices on the left—but not enough—admitted how wrong they
were to assume Dayan must be some sort of monster. </div><div><br /></div><div>Michael Koplow, a leader of the Labor Party-created Israel Policy Forum, tweeted: “No
matter what the policy differences he has with anyone, he is unfailingly a first class
mentsch and treats people with respect. Something we should all try to emulate.” </div><div><br /></div><div>Abe Silberstein, writing in The Forward, confessed his bewilderment that Dayan did not
live up to his demonic stereotype of the Israeli diplomat. Four years ago, Silberstein urged
New York Jews to “shun” Dayan. Then Silberstein discovered that Dayan is human. What a
shock!
“I found Ambassador Dayan to be a genial and unassuming presence who was as eager to
learn my perspective as he was sharing his,” Silberstein now concedes. Thanks to Dayan’s
“friendly disposition” and willingness to interact with those with whom he disagreed, he
became “well-liked and respected throughout the community.” Dayan was, in short, “a
mensch,” and therefore Silberstein now considers himself “among Dayan’s progressive
well-wishers.” </div><div><br /></div><div>Kudos to Koplow and Silberstein for remembering that Jews, even those with whom they
disagree, are all human and, in fact, we are all part of an extended family. I wish more
people would remember that. </div><div><br /></div><div>There are those among us who seem to spend a lot of their time hurling mud, demanding
that their critics be fired, or threatening lawsuits in order to intimidate their foes. Namecalling too often replaces civil discourse. Angry press releases and accusations of disloyalty
too often substitute for calm discussion. </div><div><br /></div><div>Thank goodness that our disagreements have not yet boiled over into Ramallah-style gun
battles. But nobody should assume that the Jewish world is immune to lunacy. We’ve all
seen, in recent months, the ratcheting up of the shouting and finger-pointing on both sides
of the aisle. We’ve read the long lists of grievances and strident accusations. It’s time for all
of us to take a deep breath, dial back the overheated rhetoric, and remember that, at the
end of the day, the alternative to Jews recognizing each other’s humanity is the madness of
Ramallah. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Well, that's what I have to say. <div><br /></div><div>Stephen M. Flatow</div>Stephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-90805148305929319852020-08-03T04:35:00.000-07:002020-08-03T04:35:39.548-07:00A Proposal for American Colleges and Universities During Covid-19 - CLOSE!<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;">Prof. <span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Benton Sans Bold"; letter-spacing: 0.234px;">Benjamin Goldfrank had his say, "</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Farnham Medium", Georgia, serif; letter-spacing: 0.8px;">Re-opening universities will contribute to the spread of COVID-19," on the op-ed pages of t</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Benton Sans Bold"; letter-spacing: 0.234px;">he Star-Ledger about the need for New Jersey's colleges and universities to continue remote learning.</span></span></h2>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">I, too, think colleges and universities should close, but I mean lock the doors, shutdown, cease to operate, for the coming school year.</span></h3>
He writes,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
After years of proclaiming its exceptionalism, the U.S. today distinguishes itself mainly for leading the world in cases and deaths from COVID-19. Yet our leaders – including many university presidents – continue pretending everything is fine. As a result, college faculty, staff, and students face a triple threat: a malevolently* incompetent federal government, state governments pressured to restart their economies, and anxious university administrations bringing students back to campus prematurely. Even in states like New Jersey, which managed to lower rates of transmission, reopening universities next month could have terrible consequences.</blockquote>
(Ed's note - he just had to get that comment in there, didn't he.)<br /><br />
To many in academia, American exceptionalism is a sin, something to recant at every opportunity including in what could have been a more thoughtful column on the alleged dangers of reopening schools.<br />
<br />
In any event, I wrote a letter to the editor that did not see the light of day in either printed or on-line pages of the Star-Ledger in response to Prof. Goldfrank. Here it:<br />
<br />
July 29, 2020<br />
<br />
Via E-mail to eletters@starledger.com<br />
The Editor<br />
The Star-Ledger<br />
1 Star-Ledger Plaza<br />
Newark, NJ 07102<br />
<br />
Re<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Re-opening universities<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Prof. Goldfrank<br />
<br />
Dear Sir:<br />
<br />
If re-opening colleges is the problem that Prof. Goldfrank says it is, I recommend this solution: All universities and colleges close for the next school year. No classes via Zoom, no webinars, no tuition, no anything.<br />
<br />
Giving America’s college students the year off will allow them to volunteer for many worthwhile causes, the Peace Corps comes to mind, and I’m sure Star-Ledger readers could name dozens, if not hundreds, of charities here in New Jersey that could use some help. A year of helping others is just the type of education our New Jersey boys and girls need.<br />
<br />
With campuses closed, money will be saved on the reduction of hard costs associated with running a campus and by furloughing staff (including teaching staff.) It will also save on the costs of defending lawsuits brought by students and parents who claim a remote education is not what they bargained for when they enrolled.<br />
<br />
Stephen M. Flatow<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
You can read Prof. Goldfrank's column on-line at <a href="https://www.nj.com/opinion/2020/07/re-opening-universities-will-contribute-to-the-spread-of-covid-19-opinion.html" target="_blank">NJ.COM</a><br />
If you have a problem viewing, let me know and I'll send a PDF file.<br />
<br />
Well, that's what I have to say. What do you think?Stephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-48905705455343253182020-07-30T04:52:00.001-07:002020-07-30T04:52:57.074-07:00Seth Rogen is a funny guy when it comes to Israel<h2>
Seth Rogen is a funny guy when it comes to Israel</h2>
<h3>
But he's got it all wrong</h3>
And for that, he qualifies as being an a**hole<br />
<br />
This piece by David Harsanyi in National Review on-line deals with the sometimes funny Seth Rogen's recent visit to <span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Marc Maron’s</span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Georgia, serif;"> podcast studio. As he pontificated about Israel, Rogen clearly displays his ignorance.</span><br />
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Here's the lede, the link to the full column is below.</span><br />
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><br /></span>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="drop" style="border: 0px; color: #2d2d2d; float: left; font-family: "Gentium Basic", serif; font-size: 100px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 84px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Y</span><span class="small_caps" style="border: 0px; color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">ou</span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;"> probably won’t be surprised to learn that Seth Rogen has, at best, a facile understanding of basic history, faith, or politics. We shouldn’t expect anything else. His job is to act. The problem, though, is that Rogen increasingly feels the need to share his illiterate opinions about serious issues with millions of people.</span></blockquote>
<br />
<a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/07/why-seth-rogens-anti-israel-rant-matters/" target="_blank">Why Seth Rogen’s Anti-Israel Rant Matters</a><br />
<br />
Thanks National Review and David Harsanyi for getting this out there.<br />
<br />
Well, that's what I have to say.<br />
<br />
Stephen M. FlatowStephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-77810773446478954762020-07-23T03:29:00.000-07:002020-07-23T03:29:04.206-07:00Frum Jews Must Do Their Share To Save America<h2>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">I spent a fortune on giving my kids a yeshiva education. </span></h2>
<h2>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Were they shortchanged on things American?</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My recent <a href="https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/frum-jews-must-do-their-share-to-save-america/2020/07/23/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">column in Jewishpress.com</span></a>:</span><br />
<br />
<h1 class="entry-title" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #303030; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 48px; margin: 0px 0px 7px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 10px 85.4375px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Frum Jews Must Do Their Share To Save America</span></h1>
<div class="td-module-meta-info" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Open Sans", arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 16px; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<div class="td-post-author-name" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; display: inline-block; float: none; position: relative; top: 2px;">
<div class="td-author-by" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; margin-right: 2px;">
By</div>
<a href="https://www.jewishpress.com/author/stephen-m-flatow/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #303030; font-weight: 700; line-height: 17px; margin-right: 3px; text-decoration-line: none;">Stephen M. Flatow</a><div class="td-author-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; margin-right: 2px;">
-</div>
</div>
<span class="td-post-date" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; display: inline-block; float: none; margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 22px; position: relative; top: 2px;"><time class="entry-date updated td-module-date" datetime="2020-07-23T07:55:25+00:00" style="box-sizing: border-box;">2 Av 5780 – July 23, 2020</time></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 31px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
In a recent edition of The Jewish Press, comments by Rav Avigdor Miller, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">zt”l</em>, caught my attention. In response to the question, “Should we celebrate July 4?” he answered, “Yes” – to show that we “appreciate the great gift of America.”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 31px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
I agree fully with that statement, but, in light of recent events, I wonder if our children do and if our grandchildren will.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 31px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
I think back to my New York City public school education in the 1950s before I moved to Rockland County. One of the hallmarks of that education was the requirement that boys carry a handkerchief. It was so engrained in us that to this day – 65-plus years after entering kindergarten at PS 87, Middle Village, Queens – I still carry and use a handkerchief, despite the turned-up noses of my grandchildren.</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOw8DkvAuK0z63fapHb1EOTdc1d5xxJzBrFa24NFVFoPYMr32rakzuaprerUMeR5hRVxvp9XmyDwwx2haPl4GWd3-P55hPER_wBoAaGH3CcUnEEgm-mFxJBROeE7AmVZPXBtA0YiwXVHQE/s1600/Flatow-072420.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="900" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOw8DkvAuK0z63fapHb1EOTdc1d5xxJzBrFa24NFVFoPYMr32rakzuaprerUMeR5hRVxvp9XmyDwwx2haPl4GWd3-P55hPER_wBoAaGH3CcUnEEgm-mFxJBROeE7AmVZPXBtA0YiwXVHQE/s200/Flatow-072420.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: start;">Photo Credit: Pixabay</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 31px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
Another hallmark was the weekly assembly in the school auditorium. It was a Wednesday morning ritual, and I was a proud sixth-grader when I put on the flag carrier strap and marched the flag onto the auditorium stage. At the top of the rear wall of the stage was an inscription attributed to Francis Bacon, “Knowledge is power.” When we were done with the Pledge of Allegiance and singing of the Star-Spangled Banner (verses one and four), I put the flag into its holder on the stage and returned to my seat.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 31px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
Assembly continued with a series of announcements from the school principal and then a program. Perhaps it would be a play put on by one of the classes, but there was always singing.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 31px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
We would sing American folk songs. Songs like “My Darling Clementine,” “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain,” and “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.” And then there was a patriotic song or two. Maybe “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” or “America the Beautiful.” We stood when we sang those songs.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 31px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
I didn’t know it at the time, but “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” uses the tune of England’s national anthem, “G-d Save the Queen.” That’s not really important. What was important was how the lyrics resonated within me, a grandchild of immigrants from the Pale of Settlement.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 31px; margin-bottom: 26px; text-align: center;">
My country, ’tis of thee,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Sweet land of liberty,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Of thee I sing;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Land where my fathers died,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Land of the pilgrims’ pride,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />From ev’ry mountainside<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Let freedom ring!</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 31px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
Even as a child, I understood that none of “my fathers died” establishing the United States nor were they part of the original pilgrims escaping religious persecution in England. Yet, my grandparents were pilgrims in the modern sense, escaping the twin hells of czarist Russia and Polish anti-Semitism. Maybe it was for that reason that the lyrics resonated within me then – and still do today.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 31px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
What an opportunity they found here! My grandfather sold fruits and vegetables from a pushcart in Brooklyn and then opened a store in bucolic Middle Village. They weren’t rich by any means, but my father told me they always had food to eat during the Great Depression.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 31px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
Three sons served in the U.S. Army during World War II; one of them got a bullet in the backside during the Battle of the Bulge.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 31px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
Having now made <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">aliyah</em>, I look at what’s happening in America from afar and feel sad for it. Monuments being torn down, municipal names being changed, educators, writers, and newspaper people being “canceled” for writing things 20 years ago when they were teens or saying things out loud that are on the minds of so many.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 31px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
I fret for the future of my children and their families who still live in the United States. I also feel a sense of regret that, while I was happily spending a fortune on giving my children a yeshiva education, the education they received – while long on Torah – was very short on things American.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 31px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
While I succeeded in raising educated Jews and my children are raising their children as educated Jews, they are woefully ignorant of the political world around them. Sure, the adults have a sense of political right and wrong, but I am not certain they vote. Neither they nor my grandchildren know that you’re supposed to put your hand on your heart when saying the Pledge of Allegiance or singing the Star-Spangled Banner.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 31px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
I’m sure they don’t know there are four stanzas to the national anthem. They certainly don’t know the words to “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” and have never heard Kate Smith’s version of “G-d Bless America” (written by another Jewish immigrant, Irving Berlin).</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 31px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
Maybe at another time I would have been flip about it and said, “Bask in your ignorance.” But I – we – cannot be flip. Some think that everything that America has represented for almost 250 years has been wrong; they are the loudest voices we hear today.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 31px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
But I believe America needed a Christopher Columbus, a Theodore Roosevelt, and even a Woodrow Wilson, warts and all. America became great because of them, and others like them, but it will not remain great when the monuments to them and others are ignominiously removed down from America’s streets, parks, and academic buildings.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 31px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
A battle for America has begun. If America still means something to us and if we take to heart Rav Miller’s wise advice “to do the opposite” of those trying to tear down America, I, my children and grandchildren, and their <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">yeshivot</em> must take a part in that battle and oppose them.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 31px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
As <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Pirkei Avot </em>(2:21) teaches us, “It is not your responsibility to finish the work [of perfecting the world], but you are not free to desist from it either.”</div>
Well, that's what I have to say.<br />
<br />
Stephen M. FlatowStephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-75359470198606239732020-06-21T22:21:00.001-07:002020-06-21T22:21:06.873-07:00Slavery, racism, racists in light of America's struggles.<br />
<h2 style="background-color: white; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Uses of a Cocktail of Grievances</h2>
<div class="byline" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
<h3 style="margin-top: 10px;">
<b><span style="font-size: small;">by <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Amir+Taheri" style="color: #da5724; text-decoration-line: none;"><span itemprop="author">Amir Taheri</span></a></span></b></h3>
</div>
<br />
The below is a column from Gatestone Institute addressing the fact that slavery is not an American invention, that it was part of history for many centuries, and that the death of George Floyd was "<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "palatino" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">hijacked by merchants of grievances always on the lookout for an excuse to attack Western democracies, especially the United States."</span><br />
<br />
Here's the full column<br />
<br />
<div itemprop="description" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">
<ul class="content_preface_bullets" style="border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(218, 0, 38); list-style-type: square;">
<li style="color: #da0026; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 4px; margin-top: 5px;"><div style="color: black; font-size: 1.1em;">
[The United States] is something of an exception in being the only major nation-state to have struggled with and, as time went by, against, racism.... The War of Secession, successive civil rights movements, the fight against segregation and methods such as positive discrimination tell the story of a nation seeking to move away from racism.</div>
</li>
<li style="color: #da0026; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 4px; margin-top: 5px;"><div style="color: black; font-size: 1.1em;">
Slavery was a routine part of human existence from the start, and in some lands still is. Nor were black Africans the only human beings to become slaves.... In Persian and Ottoman Empires, slaves came from the Caucasus, Scandinavia, and what is now Russia. Again, no black Africans were involved.... Slavery was a common disease that affected every community on earth; a shameful secret of the whole human family.</div>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="article_body itemprop_articlebody" itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 1.4;">
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="max-width: 100%;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="border: 1px solid black; max-width: 600px; vertical-align: top;"><img border="0" src="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/pics/608.jpg" style="max-width: 100%;" /><br />
<div style="font-size: 13.53px; margin: 4px 6px;">
Slavery was a routine part of human existence from the start, and in some lands still is. Nor were black Africans the only human beings to become slaves.... Slavery was a common disease that affected every community on earth; a shameful secret of the whole human family. Pictured: "The way in which Christian prisoners are sold as slaves at the Algiers market," an engraving from 1684 by Jan Luyken. (Image source: Amsterdam Historic Museum/Wikimedia Commons)</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
As the outrage inspired by the death of George Floyd in a botched arrest operation calms down, it may be time to consider what has been achieved by the anger it unleashed in dozens of cities across the world.<br />
<br />
Sadly, I fear, not only that much of that anger was wasted but that it may have contributed to deeper communitarian ressentiments.<br />
<br />
There are at least two reasons for this.<br />
<br />
To start with Floyd's death was hijacked by merchants of grievances always on the lookout for an excuse to attack Western democracies, especially the United States. They translated Floyd into a "martyr" of American "imperialism" and pretended that the United States, along with other Western democracies, was a bastion of "racism."<br />
<br />
Using rhetorical tricks, they dubbed Floyd's death as "murder", ignoring that the word has a precise meaning that can't be applied to the unfortunate incident in Minneapolis.<br />
<br />
Floyd did die because a police technique used in more than 20 countries went badly wrong. But the policeman who became the agent of Floyd's death had not wished or planned to murder him. This is why English language has alternative terms such as manslaughter and premeditated murder.<br />
<br />
The next trick used was to pretend that Floyd was killed because he was black. They ignored that the same choking technique of arrest in 2019 claimed several other lives, white and black, in the United States and France. Thus the real issue, the need for reviewing and/or dropping a technique of arrest that could lead to the death, was forgotten?<br />
<br />
With extrapolation, the self-styled defenders of humanity saw the Minneapolis incident as an example of state-racism. However, racism is one thing and racial prejudice, even hatred, is another.<br />
<br />
Racism denotes a world-view developed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, dividing mankind into five races distinguished by real or imagined color of their skins. Like other monistic world-views that reduce human beings into a single element of their complex existence, racism, though deceptive in its simplicity, served as a barrier to scientific ethnography until the 20th century, preventing serious study of humanity in its rich diversity.<br />
<br />
Other monochrome doctrines, for example Marxism with its division of mankind into classes -- proletariat good, bourgeois evil -- have a similar effect.<br />
<br />
The racist world-view was an element in the composition of enduring state structures in all pre-modern Westphalian nations. In that regard the United States is no exception. However, it is something of an exception in being the only major nation-state to have struggled with and, as time went by, against, racism.<br />
<br />
The War of Secession, successive civil rights movements, the fight against segregation and methods such as positive discrimination tell the story of a nation seeking to move away from racism. This does not mean that there is no racism in the US; there is, but it would be unfair to present it as a structural ingredient. By claiming that the US is a racist state, one would only encourage the white supremacists who wish that were the case.<br />
<br />
Extrapolating further, the merchants of rage linked their claim of racism to the trans-Atlantic slave trade in a bid to cast all Western democracies as the devils incarnate.<br />
<br />
However, slavery was a routine part of human existence from the start, and in some lands still is. Nor were black Africans the only human beings to become slaves.<br />
According to Xenophon, some 30 percent of the population of Athens, the birthplace of Hellenic civilization, was slaves, all white men and women from the Balkans and Asia Minor.<br />
<br />
Even earlier than that, the first states in human history -- Sumer, Akkad and Babylon -- held slaves, none of them from Africa.<br />
<br />
The Roman Empire was a great slave-holding power. Crassus, the notorious general, was a leading slave merchant as was Julius Caesar, dealing in slaves from Western and northern Europe, today's France and Britain.<br />
<br />
The famous revolt of slaves led by Spartacus almost exclusively involved captives from the European continent. Crassus had 10,000 of them crucified on the Appian Way.<br />
<br />
In Russia, slavery took the form of serfdom and again, concerned almost exclusively white and Asian victims.<br />
<br />
Slavery was also a major trade in the American continent long before Christopher Columbus ended up there by mistake. Again, none of the slaves there were from Africa, which was unknown to Incas and Aztecs.<br />
<br />
In Asia, Khan Balugh, the seat of power in medieval China, was a major center for slave trade, as was Khiva in what is now Uzbekistan. Again, Africans were not involved in that dastardly trade in Asia that claimed countless victims for more than 1,000 years.<br />
<br />
In Persian and Ottoman Empires, slaves came from the Caucasus, Scandinavia, and what is now Russia. Again, no black Africans were involved.<br />
<br />
Seizing black Africans as slaves may have started under Ramses II, the Egyptian Pharaoh who needed Nubian laborers to build the Ouaji-Seboua temple.<br />
<br />
Next, there was some exporting of black slaves by the Carthaginians to Rome after the dismantling of Hannibal's empire. Once the Romans had annexed northern Africa they used Garmant and Afri tribes of black warriors to procure slaves for the empire. Within a decade, slave-taking raids were extended beyond Tibesti and close to Lake Chad.<br />
<br />
Thus started the history of black African involvement in capturing fellow Africans for sale as slaves.<br />
<br />
Without the service of African tribal chiefs and rulers, no outside power would have been able to raid deep into Africa to tap endless sources of slaves.<br />
<br />
In 652 AD, Arab General Abdallah bin Sa'id signed a trade treaty, known as "bakht", with the ruler of Darfur for the supply of 20,000 slaves a year in exchange for gold. The "bakht" remained in operation for 13 centuries.<br />
<br />
Black African rulers and tribal chiefs were also deeply involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The Sardona of Sokoto, in West Africa, made his fortune by selling slaves to Portuguese, British and French slave-traders. In his book <i>Timbuktu School for Nomads</i>, British author Nicholas Jubber introduces a slave trader from the Sahel who had become the richest man in the world of his time.<br />
<br />
It is unfair to demand the removal of Colbert's status in Paris because he enacted the first slave code designed to impose legal control on the obnoxious trade and ensure some rights for the victims, and forget about African rulers who kidnapped and sold their own people.<br />
<br />
Slavery was a common disease that affected every community on earth; a shameful secret of the whole human family.<br />
<br />
In fact, although it lasted four centuries, black Africans of the transatlantic trade accounted for a smaller number than Europeans and Asians victims, not to mention Africans "exported" from the Horn of Africa and Zanzibar.<br />
<br />
When it comes to slavery, we were all involved both as perpetrators and victims. Expiating that shame from our human existence is a task for us all, regardless of color and creed. Only thus the current cocktail of grievances may produce useful results.<br />
<blockquote>
<i>Amir Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief of the daily</i> Kayhan <i>in Iran from 1972 to 1979. He has worked at or written for innumerable publications, published eleven books, and has been a columnist for</i> Asharq Al-Awsat <i>since 1987. He is the Chairman of Gatestone Europe.</i><br />
<i>This article was originally published by</i> Asharq al-Awsat<i> and is reprinted by kind permission of the author.</i></blockquote>
</div>
<br />
Well, that's what I have to say.
Stephen M. FlatowStephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0Israel31.046051 34.85161227.5779785 29.688038000000002 34.5141235 40.015186tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-32226662062147719942019-10-10T06:00:00.000-07:002019-10-10T06:00:00.269-07:00Ocean Place Resort & Spa, nice surprise at checkout<h2>
Surprise at checkout from Ocean Place Resort & Spa</h2>
<h3>
Amenity and parking charge comes out of nowhere</h3>
Imagine, if you will, you check into a first class hotel located in Long Branch, New Jersey for a 24 hour program. You're not there to imbibe in the bar, or use the pool, or the workout room. The hotel is accommodating your late check out time because of religious observance. And then you go to check out.<br />
<br />
Lo and behold, there is a $30 amenity charge, basically for parking your vehicle on the premises. A plea to the duty manager goes no where. Logic fails. You ask, "did you charge the folks who came last night and today, but didn't stay at the hotel?" Of course not. Just the folks who booked a room got waylaid by this charge.<br />
<br />
So, basically, the room rate is not the quoted rate. There is a hidden $30 fee that is not disclosed to you until checkout. Is the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs listening?<br />
<br />
Well, that's what I have to say.
Stephen M. FlatowStephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-10180275514222623022016-03-17T02:56:00.001-07:002016-03-17T02:56:46.825-07:00From Jonathan Rosenblum at Jewish Media Resources: Trumpism and What it Says About Us Whoa, excellent analysis of "Trumpism." Here's the full column (missing words and all) that appears <a href="http://www.jewishmediaresources.com/1801/trumpish-and-what-it-says-about-us" target="_blank">here.</a> Both Republicans and Democrats will find something to complain about here.<br />
Well, that's what I have to say.
Stephen M. Flatow<br />
<br />
<h2 style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
Trumpism and What it Says About Us</h2>
<h3>
<b>
by Jonathan Rosenblum</b></h3>
<div class="sans-serif" style="margin: 10px 0 0 0;">
<b>
<i>Yated Ne'eman </i>March 11, 2016</b></div>
<div class="no_screen" style="margin: 0 0 10px 0;">
<br /></div>
<br />
Oren Cass has a point when he writes in <i>City Journal</i> that too
much effort is being expended explaining the Trump phenomenon. After
all, had the reality TV star not thrown his hat into the ring, the
Republican Party would likely be well on its way to nominating "a
conventional candidate like Marco Rubio or John Kasich, who would be
favored to win against a Democratic Party that could not muster an
option beyond a socialist punchline and a Clinton under federal
investigation."<br />
<br />
Alas, Trump is still the Republican front-runner, and we must learn
what we can. In particular, the Republican Party would be well-advised
to focus on the visceral anger of Trump's core supporters – middle-aged
white males without college degrees – and where it comes from.<br />
<br />
To say the least, this is not a group that is doing well or facing
the future with confidence. Though causality is hard to establish,
mortality rates are at least one reflection of general well-being. And
white males between 45 and 54 are experiencing rising mortality rates,
even as general mortality rates continue to fall. As Anne Case and Angus
Deaton of Princeton have documented, since 1998 mortality rates for
this group have risen by .5% per annum, after a twenty year period of
annual decline of 2% per year. That contrasts, remarkably, to 1.8%
decline in mortality per year over the same period for Hispanics and
2.6% for black Americans.<br />
<br />
With manufacturing jobs declining and automation cutting into service
jobs, this group is having a harder time finding and holding jobs. With
traditional factory and big business employers shedding jobs, Walter
Russell Mead points out, small businesses will be the primary sources of
new jobs going forward. Yet government policy has made it harder, not
easier, for small businesses to obtain capital.<br />
Big banks are making ever fewer loans to small businesses, even as
expensive hyper-regulation has favored the big national banks over
smaller community banks, ill-equipped to deal with the expense of
regulatory compliance. Small business lending by the ten largest banks
declined 38% from 2006 to 2014. Only 43% of loans up to one million
dollars in 2015 originated in banks, down from 58% in 2009, with the
rest coming from alternative lenders who charge substantially higher
rates.<br />
<br />
Non-college educated whites (and minorities too for that matter, in
all but rhetoric) have very legitimate grievances against both parties.
The major parties have too frequently demonstrated their contempt and
lack of concern. In 2008, candidate Obama dissed at an upscale Bay Area
fundraiser poor whites taking solace for factory closings in "guns and
religion." At Mitt Romney's 2012 comment about the "47% who will never
vote for us" was interpreted in a similar vein.<br />
<br />
While much of Democratic Party nomination battle has focused on
income inequality, in fact the Democratic Party has long since ceased to
care much about working class whites – one reason that so many Trump
supporters are traditionally Democratic voters. The big Democratic
donors are far more concerned with climate alarmism, and support
environmental measures that are mass job cutters – e.g. blocking the
Keystone Pipeline, raising energy prices by promoting non-economically
viable alternatives to coal, and opposing new nuclear energy facilities.
Most of the Democratic Party's signature issues, particularly social
issues, have nothing to do with the economy or jobs.<br />
<br />
TRUMPISM, IT MUST BE REMEMBERED, is something of an international
movement that has affected almost every advanced democracy of late. And
the reason is the same: the governments of those advanced economies have
broken the most fundamental social contract with their citizens -- the
commitment to treat their own citizens' well-being as taking priority
over that of citizens of other nations. That is most obvious in Western
Europe, which has been moving away from national sovereignty for over
half a century, with power increasingly transferred from national
parliaments to European Union bureaucrats in Brussels.<br />
<br />
Mass Muslim immigration may finally be the issue that causes large
number of Western Europeans – many of them drawn from the elements of
European society most likely to live adjacent to Muslim "no-go zones" to
which fire and police protection does not extend – to rebel. Leaders
such as Germany's Angela Merkel and the bureaucrats in Brussels fairly
leaped at the chance to admit millions of Muslims fleeing war-torn Syria
and various other Middle Eastern hellholes as a grand humanitarian
gesture, with little apparent consideration to what millions of new
unassimilable immigrants would mean for either the security of the
Europeans states from terrorism, or the safety of citizens, primarily
woman, from ravaging bands of immigrants, or for the national culture.<br />
As a consequence right-wing parties, some with fascist histories, are
growing across the continent. Hostility to the pan-European project has
risen sharply, and not only in Britain, which may soon vote to withdraw
from the Common Market.<br />
<br />
Immigration is also Trump's signature issue. Immigration, both legal
and illegal, is a complicated and multi-faceted issue, and I claim no
expertise. But it is one that is experienced very differently by working
and middle-class voters and the political and economic elites. Reihan
Salam writes, "For high-income Republicans, skilled immigrants are their
colleagues, neighbors, and friends, and less-skilled immigrants provide
them with low-cost child-care, restaurant meals, and other services
that allow them to lead comfortable lives."<br />
<br />
They are not worried, as is Senator Jeff Sessions (R.-Ala.), the
Senate's leading immigration hawk, about immigrants driving down wages
of working and middle class voters, who already cannot afford anything
like the lifestyle or economic security their parents enjoyed. As Victor
Davis Hanson, who spends part of each week as a farmer in California's
once fertile central valley, points out, the children of the elites will
not sit in classes where a quarter of the children do not speak
English. And in the neighborhoods in which they live and jog, they are
not likely to be attacked by pit-bulls, whose owners have little desire
to speak English, much less cage, vaccinate, or license their dogs.<br />
<br />
Mark Zuckerberg need not worry, like residents of rural Fresno
County, about being sideswiped or rear-ended by those who flee the
scene, leaving their wrecked cars without insurance and registration. "I
don't think," observes Hanson, "Mitt Romney has had a dead pit bull, in
ripe rigor mortis with a rope around its neck, dumped on his lawn, or a
beautiful Queensland Heeler, torn to shreds from dog fighting, thrown
into his vineyard."<br />
<br />
BUT IF DONALD TRUMP SPEAKS to voters tired of being ignored and
condescended to, he is nevertheless a disastrous representative of them.
Nothing in his life until now has shown an iota of concern with those
who now salute him, and he has not offered one serious policy
prescription that would address their economic insecurities. All he
offers is his boastful self-promotion and a call for the power to make
American great again. However different in style he is to the polished
and fluent Barack Obama, he offers the same promise of being some sort
of miracle worker. (Remember when Obama pronounced his nomination as the
day the oceans cease to rise.)<br />
<br />
Trump is not the antidote to thought-stifling political correctness,
as his supporters seem to think. Vulgarity and the lack of basic human
decency are not the opposite of political correctness.<br />
Trump's rise is but one sign this political season of something
rotten in America. The Democratic Party battle between a woman with a
thirty-year history of boundless greed and deceit, who could never hope
to again gain a minimal security clearance unless elected president, and
a septuagenarian socialist, who appears to have become no wiser since
college, is, in its own way, fully as horrifying.<br />
Both Trump and the Democrats attest to a decades' long failure of
civic education in America. Unschooled Illinois farmers once stood in
the sun for hours listening to Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas
debate: Today more Americans can identify the name Kardashian than
Vice-President Biden. The Constitution and the Federalist Papers are
almost unknown. President Obama, supposedly a former teacher of
constitutional law, has not hesitated to resort to executive action to
achieve what he cannot through Congress.<br />
<br />
And Trump threatens to go one better. He has betrayed no
understanding of the American system of checks and balances or three
co-equal branches of government. Recently, he boasted that he would gut
First Amendment protections of the press to make it easier for him to
sue, in the manner of Turkey's Erdogan, reporters and papers that get
under his tissue-thin skin.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile college students tolerate, and even demand, limits on free
speech on campus (except concerning Jews and Israel) and the absence of
any semblance of due process in hearings that can have lifelong
consequences. The millennials flock to the banner of Bernie Sanders,
whose proposals would add trillions in new annual debt, apparently
oblivious to how their own futures are blighted by already incurred
government debt, which ensures they will not benefit from the social
security and Medicaid for which they will soon be paying, if they are
fortunate enough to find a first job. The trillions of dollars in
unfunded pension obligations at the local and state level would also be
news to them.<br />
<br />
Major institutions have also failed. Trump is in part a phenomenon of
wildly disproportionate free media coverage – 76% of that given to all
the Republican candidates combined. That has not been just ratings
driven. The mainstream media has been only too happy to advance the only
Republican candidate Hillary could surely defeat.<br />
<br />
ONE OF THE WISEST OF THE FOUNDERS, Benjamin Franklin predicted, "Only
a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and
vicious, they have more need of masters." And, as David French argues,
"Trump is running not for president of a constitutional republic but to
be the strongman of a failing state."<br />
<br />
Trump, however, is, in Andrew McCarthy's words, "the effect, not the cause, of culture rot" – the <i>siman</i> not the <i>siba</i>
in Gemara terms. In the America of my youth, the fastest way to ensure
ostracism on the playground was bragging, and bragging about one's
wealth would have been the worst of all. The iconic "strong" man of
those days – the Marlboro Man or Gary Cooper at OK Corral – was one of
few words, not a voluble ignoramus. He was never boastful and did not
threaten others; he did not initiate violence or confrontation, but did
not back down in its face.<br />
<br />
One by one, many at first inclined to hold their noses and vote for
Trump (and there is an argument for doing so) have determined that they
cannot, for he will further lower the standards of an already debased
culture. For some it was his casual dismissal of the courage of John
McCain during six years of torture in North Vietnamese captivity, which
left McCain permanently disabled.<br />
<br />
For Andrew McCarthy, the lead government prosecutor in the first
World Trade Center bombing, it is Trump's boast that he will order
American troops to become war criminals and target the wives and
children of ISIS fighters. For Stephen Hayes of the <i>Weekly Standard,</i>
it is the impossibility of explaining to his young children why someone
would mock the physical disability of a crippled reporter. For the
religious conservative David French, it is his pledge to keep funding
Planned Parenthood to the tune of millions of dollars, so that it can
continue killing hundreds of thousands of babies a year.<br />
<br />
These thoughtful conservatives are shocked that Trump's supporters
rather than being appalled by his cruelty and malice are attracted by
it. They see him as the artifact of a society from which the civic
vitality catalogued by de Tocqueville has been lost and replaced by
vitriol and demagoguery.<br />
"Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people," wrote
John Adams. "It is wholy inadequate for the governance of any other."
(Hat tip again to David French.) If so, America is grave danger on the
evidence of this election season.<br />
Stephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-64587624759591340582015-02-17T13:29:00.002-08:002015-02-17T13:30:39.147-08:00Rabbi Marc Spivak speaks to his sonsRabbi Marc Spivak's beautiful words for his twins on their bar mitzvah.
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q33p4IAaQ-E" width="480"></iframe><br />
<br />
<br />Stephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-40492647816738338612014-07-04T06:27:00.001-07:002014-07-04T06:27:02.803-07:00From Rabbi Ron Eisenman- An Open Letter to Rabbi Avi Shafran Director of Public Affairs for Agudath Israel of AmericaMuch has been said and written around the world over the past few weeks about the kidnapped, now murdered, Israeli boys.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">To the chagrin of many, the Satmar Rebbe <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 12px;">Aaron Teitelbaum (one of two brothers claiming the title), lambasted the parents of the three boys for, bottom line, living in Israel.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 12px;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 12px;">Rabbi Ron Eisenman of Passaic, New Jersey's Ahavas Israel has called for a leading Orthodox umbrella group, Agudath Israel, to condemn his statements as it has done to other rabbis in other circumstances.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 12px;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 12px;">Rabbi Eisenman's letter may be read in full <a href="http://ahavasisrael.org/torah/the_short_vort/the_short_vort_an_open_letter_to_rabbi_avi_shafran_director_of_public_affai/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">here.</span></a></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;">
</span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 12px;"><br />I agree with the sentiments of Rabbi Eisenman and have written my own letter to Rabbi Shafran. A reply is awaited.</span></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="border: 0px currentColor; line-height: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 0pt; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
</blockquote>
Well, that's what I have to say.
Stephen M. FlatowStephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-80115280295192470782014-06-20T09:30:00.000-07:002014-06-20T09:30:20.285-07:00Nishmat and the 2014 annual dinner<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6SiqzKoU_almfLiEsgoIu_FN709R9Pu13sCWx4KICm9MSA-w_i_TCPOXUUTFs5UGg3e-aAydx84HpJaOMYYYQcIHfj4mTZkXd_ZhH1_EX6b5QJRj2Bg6dw8ghWhIGg7i4KlAVBLj0Go3m/s1600/Steve-Flatow-Rabbanit-Henkin-Dr_-Miriam-Glaubach-300x200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6SiqzKoU_almfLiEsgoIu_FN709R9Pu13sCWx4KICm9MSA-w_i_TCPOXUUTFs5UGg3e-aAydx84HpJaOMYYYQcIHfj4mTZkXd_ZhH1_EX6b5QJRj2Bg6dw8ghWhIGg7i4KlAVBLj0Go3m/s1600/Steve-Flatow-Rabbanit-Henkin-Dr_-Miriam-Glaubach-300x200.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stephen Flatow, Rab. Chana Henkin, Dr. Miriam Glaubach</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Every photograph has a back story. Here's one.<br />
<br />
I've been a long-time supporter and board member of American Friends of Nishmat, Inc. AFN provides funding for Nishmat, the Jeanie Schottenstein Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women in Jerusalem. (My daughter Alisa was a student there from December 1994 until her murder by Palestinian terrorists in April 1995.)<br />
<br />
Each year AFN hosts a dinner for the benefit of Nishmat and its programs. This year's dinner was at the The Harmonie Club in New York City and was the "best dinner ever" according to the number in attendance and dollars raised.<br />
<br />
In the photo above I'm standing with Rabbanit Chana Henkin, the dean of Nishmat, and to her left is Dr. Miriam Glaubach. Dr. Glaubach and her husband Dr. Felix Glaubach are the indefatigable sponsors of several programs, domestic and international, headquartered at Nishmat. Nishmat would not be what it is today without the support of the Glaubachs.<br />
<br />
Back to the picture. I was not able to stand up straight without the photographer either cutting off the top of my head or cutting off of Dr. Glaubach at mid-torso. OK, she's short, very short. So, to get the photo I actually had to lean on a table and then stick my legs out in front of me in quasi-crouching position.<br />
<br />
OK, I think it was funny and since this blog is about such things, that's the end of this post.<br />
<br />
If you would like to find out more about Nishmat and its programs, go <a href="https://www.nishmat.net/" target="_blank">here.</a><br />
<br />
Well, that's what I have to say.
Stephen M. FlatowStephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-81374293758100950212013-11-22T03:20:00.001-08:002013-11-22T03:33:01.627-08:00God Delivered the Pilgrims—and My PeopleThe congregants of Congregation Shearith Israel, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in NY City, are installing their 10th rabbi in 360 years. As this op-ed from the Wall Street Journal demonstrates, they chose wisely in selecting R. Soloveichik.<br />
<br />
Being second generation born here, I was brought up a in public school environment in Middle Village, Queens, New York. Although my grandmother spoke with a slight European accent and I knew the family came from Polish Russia, when I sang "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," I felt it in my bones then, and feel it now, that I, too, shared in the "pilgrims' pride."<br />
<br />
R. Soloveichik reminds us that we all have something to be thankful to God for, and it's not just a big fat turkey.<br />
<br />
Well, that's what I think.<br />
<br />
Stephen M. Flatow<br />
<br />
<a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304644104579190040605212378" target="_blank"><span style="color: #660000;">Rabbi Meir Soloveichik: God Delivered the Pilgrims and My People</span></a>Stephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-37705526528430604042013-10-31T02:37:00.001-07:002013-10-31T02:39:28.308-07:00Nishmat - Landmark US program graduates first female halachic advisers | The Times of IsraelWay to go Nishmat! Halachic advisors have a place in Judaism, and the newest group of women to be certified as such was trained right here in New Jersey!<br />
<br />
In Israel, Nishmat houses many different programs including the Alisa Flatow Overseas Program which educates women from around the world.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/landmark-us-program-graduates-first-female-halachic-advisers/">Landmark US program graduates first female halachic advisers | The Times of Israel</a>Stephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-8060462473862947532013-10-14T12:39:00.002-07:002013-10-14T12:39:51.823-07:00So this is how Conservative Judaism expresses its values? Barking up the right tree - The Jewish StandardAt first one wants to laugh when he reads this article from New Jersey's The Jewish Standard about the bestowing of Hebrew names on pet dogs. Then one wants to cry when he realizes that the role of the Conservative rabbi has become more of a performer than a dispenser of Jewish law, lore and kindness.<br />
<br />
I have known, and prayed with, several Conservative rabbis in my lifetime. And I was proud to be a member of their congregations. Each showed himself to be concerned about the foundations of Judaism - Torah and halacha. They could teach a course in either based upon traditional viewpoints and explain why Conservative Judaism has moved away from the Shulchan Aruch, the Code of Jewish Law adhered to by the Orthodox.<br />
<br />
Says the sponsoring rabbi, Arthur Wiener-<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“This was not a bark mitzvah.” That is, it was not a joke, and it was not an opportunity to be cutesy. Instead, “I had a specific purpose in mind,” he continued.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“This was an opportunity to talk about names — about the importance of names in Jewish tradition — and also to try to build from the connection many people have with their pets to a larger conversation about Jewish values. The truth — or at least my truth — is that it’s often very difficult to start a conversation about Jewish values. So we are duty bound to try to find new ways of engaging them with Jewish values, with mitzvot, with those things that previous generations can take for granted but we cannot.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“This event had no straight lines, no sitting in rows,” Weiner went on. “It was in the shul backyard, and there was a lot of laughter.”</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It also allowed people the “opportunity to talk about some of the great Jewish values, which we believe we originally shared with the world, about the responsibility of human beings toward animals. That ethos is now very much part of American values and culture, but it is a relatively new advance in human history. It comes from our Torah and teachers.</blockquote>
No people, it is a joke when you cannot have a conversation as outlined by the rabbi without stretching the bounds of common sense in order to attract listeners. Is that what Conservative Judaism had in mind when it was founded?<br />
<br />
Read the full article from the Jewish Standard: <a href="http://www.jstandard.com/content/item/barking_up_the_right_tree" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">Barking up the right tree.</span></a><br />
<br />
All I can say is <em>gevalt!!</em>Stephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-90286325634724645612013-10-02T06:55:00.002-07:002013-10-02T06:55:50.427-07:00Rabbi Eliezer Zwickler - What happens when you've lost your ethicsWhy did God flood the earth? Robbery was out of control. Rabbi Eliezer Zwickler of Congregation Ahawas Achim B'nai Jacob and David in West Orange, New Jersey reminds us that ethics in business is just as important as being certain the chicken is kosher. And I agree.<br />
Stephen M. Flatow<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ZggA4aIMY_I" width="459"></iframe><br />Stephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-87873578987258124692013-06-27T07:02:00.000-07:002013-06-27T07:02:15.789-07:00The Red Apple RestI was pleasantly surprised to read an article about the Red Apple Rest in the Rockland Jewish Reporter. I have many memories of the Red Apple both as a customer in the 1950s on the way to and from the mountains and in the 1960s as an employee at the outside stand. I can close my eyes and see your father slowly walking in the cafeteria and outside the stand to see if things were up to his standards. My father was Gil Flatow, we lived in Monsey in those days. He was a salesman for Maryland Cup; Herb Freid, an owner, was at my wedding.<br />
<br />
<br />
I’m not sure what my favorite memory is. I worked a half-day—usually from 4 PM to 2 AM. And in my second summer, 1969, I believe, as night manager I had 12 hour shifts. But the money was great, the food was great, and some of the people I met there, characters out of a Damon Runyon novel, I remember to this day.<br />
<br />
By and large, as a college kid, I was impressed by the way some of the long time hands would watch out for us. I remember Sal yelling at me when I asked him for macaroni and cheese with a side order of fries. He told me “no fries” if I had the macaroni and cheese.<br />
<br />
You mention important people stopping by. I remember serving a vodka and milk to George Jessel one very early morning when he was on his way down from the mountains. He was dressed in the quasi-military looking outfit he wore in later years and had everyone on the bar side of the cafeteria in stitches with his craziness.<br />
<br />
I remember the swarms of kids who came down after the Woodstock festival. They were famished because they hadn’t eaten in two days. <br />
<br />
I remember the buses creating temporary havoc, as they would pull in 2 or 3 at a time on their way to Peg Leg Bates’s Hotel. The inside restaurant and outside stand looked like bee hives, there would be lines coming out of the bathrooms and, then, 30 minutes later they were gone. Then, early Sunday morning there would be the buses coming down from Monticello Raceway with the winners and losers creating a tumult in the cafeteria.<br />
<br />
I remember Herb mumbling when the high school graduates would leave earlier than they promised him they would, usually a good 2 weeks before Labor Day. I remember going down into the walk-in box and carrying up those racks of frankfurters for the grills. <br />
<br />
When I first started, on a Sunday afternoon we would have as many as three grills going but it soon dwindled to two and then one. I can hear the counter people yelling “two off, three off, four back” and I can hear the sound of the hamburgers sizzling on the grill. We used to sell beer from reach in coolers, too, and I remember Bob—the day manager who worked with his wife—yelling, “When you take one out, put one in” so there would always be a full cooler.<br />
<br />
I remember the rowdy customers and sometimes the kitchen help, who had to be put on the Short Line bus back to the City by the Tuxedo Police Chief. And I remember the men who had family in the City that they would see only for one day a week during the entire summer. They’d leave on a Monday or Tuesday night and be back in a day and a half.<br />
<br />
It was the first time I had heard of Louie’s agency in the Bowery where a lot of the kitchen help signed on for jobs at the Red Apple. I was surprised at the amount of after hours drinking that went on among the help—I was naive, I guess.<br />
<br />
It was hard work but the pay was good for a college kid. I don’t long for those days, but I won’t forget them.<br />
<br />
Well, that's what I have to say. Stephen M. FlatowStephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-47260329274338652352013-06-17T13:44:00.001-07:002013-06-17T13:44:49.943-07:00Anthony WeinerWe as a society have lost the ability to blush. What else demonstrates that fact other than the announcement by Anthony Weiner that he's running for mayor of New York City. Have you no shame Mr. Weiner? You will recall that Weiner resigned in disgrace from the House of Representatives because he was caught sending sexy texts to women via his Twitter account.<br />
<br />
Michelle Malkin has <a href="http://michellemalkin.com/2013/06/07/lying-liar-anthony-weiners-underage-girl-problem/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">blasted</span></a> Anthony Weiner in a recent posting.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Touchy, touchy. Despite Team Anthony Weiner’s best efforts at political rehabilitation, there’s just no way to shore up his sorest scandal spot. As the New York Post reported this week, Weiner had a bit of a snit fit when a local Democratic official boldly slammed his sexting habits with underage girls.</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Chris Owens, the Dems’ state committee member in northwest Brooklyn, called out the skeezy ex-congressman at a mayoral candidate forum. “I am outraged and disgusted by you,” Owens told Weiner. “Both by what you did and by the fact that you have the arrogance to run for mayor. I want to understand how you explain to us how you used a public facility to tweet offensive material to … minors you did not know, you then lied about it … and now you come back.”</blockquote>
And this is the nice part of the post. Basically, Anthony Weiner is an ego-centric politician (OK, a redundancy) who does not blush over his past deeds.<br />
<br />
Shame on him and shame and shame on those who are trying to get this reprobate elected mayor of New York City.<br />
Well, that's what I have to say. Stephen M. FlatowStephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-13860007258593071702013-04-10T11:54:00.000-07:002013-04-10T11:54:27.174-07:00I doubt Anat Hoffman will be happy as Sharansky Urges Equal Prayer At Western WallMuch has been made over the past months about the alleged discrimination against so-called women's prayer at the Western Wall. So, now Israel's Natan Sharansky has come up with a solution.<br />
<br />
But, will it be acceptable to protesters such as Anat Hoffman? I doubt it as I don't see her goal as equality for women at the Kotel but as a tearing down of traditional Judaism's boundaries. At least that's what I think.<br />
<br />
You can read the full story at <a href="http://www.blogger.com/null" ref="http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial-opinion/gary-rosenblatt/sharansky-urges-equal-prayer-western-wall">Sharansky Urges Equal Prayer At Western Wall</a><br />
<br />
What do you think?Stephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-63305556978928327942012-12-25T04:17:00.003-08:002013-01-13T04:02:58.180-08:00Buying a car with dad<title>stephen flatow buying car automobile growing up 1950s 1960s Middle Village automobiles cars</title>Two aspects about growing up in the 1950s and 1960s are not repeated today-- how we buy cars and mothers who do not drive (OK, city born and raised folks still excluded.) I accompanied my father on several car buying journeys. He was a salesman who needed a new car every two years and, since his credit was good, never had a problem buying one. He was a Pontiac man, although for a few years in the early 1960s he flirted with Ramblers. But he was never a top of the line buyer. No Super Star Chief or Bonneville for him. The Star Chief, Chieftan and Catalina were good enough.<br />
<br />
Flush with money due to the successful 1950s economy many Americans bought new cars in record numbers. Detroit, was the icon of post-WII industriousness. (Alas, unions have done in the Big 3.) The Greatest Generation, while all not flush with cash, was looking forward to better jobs and more disposable income. And they found it.<br />
<br />
Eager to move out of the high rise housing projects built for the men of a returning army and their new families, everyone wanted to be mobile, especially if they had their eyes on living outside the narrow confines of New York City. Not everyone could afford a new car but even purchases of used cars provided the buyer with a newer car than he ever had before.<br />
<br />
Buying a new car in the 1950s and into the 1960s was an adventure. Unlike today's dealerships, dealers then did not keep storage lots full of cars in stock for two-day or even next-day or same day availability. They couldn't because their credit was still tight, financing floor plans as we know them today were not in existence, and cars were sold stripped of items we today would describe as "of course it has it." In those days, your car had to be built with the "options" your dad desired, not with packages as they are today. While a buyer today might have only 3 complete packages to choose from, a new car then might have more than a dozen options to choose from.<br />
<br />
And what were they?<br />
<br />
1. A heater (forget about air conditioning being standard until the 1980s.<br />
2. Whitewall tire.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.5037907257984616&pid=1.7&w=111&h=152&c=7&rs=1" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.5037907257984616&pid=1.7&w=111&h=152&c=7&rs=1" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Whitewall tire</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
3. An AM radio with push-button settings. FM was added later on.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://ts2.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4797870126465229&pid=1.7&w=189&h=145&c=7&rs=1" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://ts2.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4797870126465229&pid=1.7&w=189&h=145&c=7&rs=1" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Push-button Radio</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
4. Back-up lights.<br />
5. Chrome trim. <br />
6. Clock (my father never bought it because they broke after a month.)<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://ts3.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4955834728120662&pid=1.7&w=208&h=152&c=7&rs=1" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://ts3.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4955834728120662&pid=1.7&w=208&h=152&c=7&rs=1" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dashboard mounted clock</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
7. Side view mirror, on the driver's side. <br />
8. Automatic transmission. <br />
9. Windshield washers (another dubious purchase because the hoses corroded and collapsed.)<br />
10. Manually operated Day-night review mirror. (It had a button to switch between the two settings.)<br />
11. Steel belted radial tires.<br />
12. Air-conditioning.<br />
13. Lap only seat belts. (A 60s innovation.)<br />
14. Power steering. <br />
15. Power brakes.<br />
<br />
The list can still go on but I wanted to give you a small idea of then and now. What hasn't changed, in my humble opinion, is this fact -- no matter how much research you do, no matter what sources you review and download, no matter how much you get the sales rep to bring down the price -- the dealer is still making hefty dollars on your car purchase. No one gives cars away at a loss.<br />
<br />
So the next time you go shopping for a car, ask the sales rep if the car comes with back-up lights. But, be careful, he might try to charge you for them.Stephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-57593267029231813692012-11-23T07:46:00.000-08:002012-11-23T07:46:03.398-08:00Time of the long distance call<title> stephen flatow paul simon boy in the bubble long distance call</title>"These are the days of miracle and wonder<br />
"This is the long distance call." Paul Simon, "The Boy in the Bubble."<br />
<br />
Driving down the Garden State Parkway listening to this song, part of Paul Simon's Graceland album, got me thinking about the true days of miracles, wonders and long distance calls. It was the 1960s and long distance calls were expensive and something to be avoided by any and all means. Long distance was any call outside of the towns in your immediate exchange calling area. Calls to different area codes, when those beauties were introduced, were a dead giveaway that the call was going to cost you more than 14 cents.<br />
<br />
My Uncle Lou would call the out-of-town relatives, that is those who lived in Rockland County area code 914, from his company's office on Long Island in area code 516. He was an on the road salesman but was in the showroom at least once a week, so that was the day we got the call.<br />
<br />
My father had this early version Dymo Label Maker. It was a hand-held little thing through which you would pass the label tape, move the dial to the sought after letter and squeeze the handle. It looked something like this:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWIChfy3W_vJkVJzYRblU7IbRp_TcYVbUuO25Sz6c8LHctUrRikRD_lTZf6mdEC5FumXV0wlTqQuM4Vojvo2bGzkORJNTKHUxSH9DJtAA68C2G3zRLa6sUSaRGJlkm9ldHVFPkVJUHVYWf/s1600/imagesCASWYR3I.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWIChfy3W_vJkVJzYRblU7IbRp_TcYVbUuO25Sz6c8LHctUrRikRD_lTZf6mdEC5FumXV0wlTqQuM4Vojvo2bGzkORJNTKHUxSH9DJtAA68C2G3zRLa6sUSaRGJlkm9ldHVFPkVJUHVYWf/s200/imagesCASWYR3I.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
He wrote a label for each telephone in the house, "is this call really necessary?" Long distance was expensive!<br />
<br />
<br />
Back to the theme. As a baby boomer in the 1950s, as many others I was attuned to all that was happening in space and science. Nothing seemed impossible, the nuclear powered submarine Nautilus under the North Pole, and the exploits of the <a href="http://www.expeditions.udel.edu/extreme08/tools/trieste.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #660000;">Trieste</span></a> were awe inspiring. Where we lagged was in space exploration.<br />
<br />
When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the talk on the block among the World War II vets was about the commies leaping ahead of the U.S. No one knew how many failed rocket launches the Soviet's attempted before Sputnik, but every American failure was caught on film. Depressing, to say the least.<br />
<br />
I remember the excitement engendered by the selection in April 1959 of the country's first astronauts, a new word in the lexicon, to form the so-called the Mercury 7 astronauts. The front page magazine photos of names soon to be known to all, Shepard, Grissom, Glenn, et al, gave us all a new sense of adventure. All their positives were paraded on the front pages of Life and Look magazine (I remember the photo of Life.)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6aMe04ifFt1VLIvp8XMusGGYiYuoaJ_cEiKaY51AUKLLDXu6U0TiyAs4q5-nhFAQimGUcvAd7TC0YJw1LQ0p0n8WGX6ceFmD9dJY1yP0FXyvb78HEJ28Dq18uxh0zGEMvOspQwGyCgwxu/s1600/559481_wp1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6aMe04ifFt1VLIvp8XMusGGYiYuoaJ_cEiKaY51AUKLLDXu6U0TiyAs4q5-nhFAQimGUcvAd7TC0YJw1LQ0p0n8WGX6ceFmD9dJY1yP0FXyvb78HEJ28Dq18uxh0zGEMvOspQwGyCgwxu/s200/559481_wp1.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
Yet there was a debate surrounding the launch of the first Mercury capsule piloted by Alan Shepard in 1961-- should the launch be watched by school children? After all, what would the reaction be if the rocket blew up on launch? Not to worry though, the launch and the re-entry minutes later was flawless. An American hero in Alan Shepard was created over night.<br />
<br />
With Mercury, American scientists proved they could get it right, but it also opened up a whole new field of using outer space to advantage. And that brings us to Telstar.<br />
<br />
It's hard to accept the fact that all of what we have today is based on one invention. I'm speaking of the transistor. Others might dispute my choice but they're free to be wrong. <br />
<br />
Anyone who has looked into the guts of a pre-1970s radio or amplifier knows what a simple thing it looked like-electron tubes of different sizes neatly aligned in rows of sockets of different configurations. underneath were resistors and capacitors of different sizes that acted as switches. Turn on the power and the the tubes would start to glow and get warm, actually hot, to the touch. Minutes later, the radio would begin to play or the amp would power up the stereo system. <br />
<br />
If you can imagine the first computers, they were room sized monstrosities requiring hundreds, if not thousands, of electron tubes, etc in various arrays. The transistor allowed for the miniaturization of electronic equipment and it continues today in circuit board technology.<br />
<br />
So Telstar, developable because of the invention of the transistor, allowed for the expansion of long distance calls and the eventual lowering of costs until today we think nothing of calling cross country or around the world. <br />
<br />
Progress is good, don't you think?<br />
<br />
<br />
Well, that's what I have to say. Stephen M. FlatowStephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1631013363744348013.post-6600764425458509772012-07-25T03:20:00.001-07:002012-07-25T03:20:41.440-07:00Bloomberg, the Second Amendment and the police<span style="color: white;">stephen flatow</span><br />
NYC's Mayor (or would-be-if-I-could-Emperor) Michael Bloomberg has slipped again when he called for police to go on strike over the lack of stringent gun controls. This was his reaction to the horrific movie theater shooting rampage in Colorado.<br />
<br />
Mr. Bloomberg's self-appointed role as the leader of the anti-gun movement among politicians is mostly self-financed and I have no beef with that. What I do object to is his non-stop use of his elected pulpit to spout nonsense about gun violence and gun control in the U.S.<br />
<br />
This editorial from the New York Sun brings home the point that the mayor is operating in his own universe.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.nysun.com/editorials/mayor-bloomberg-and-ice-t/87911/"><span style="color: #990000;">Mayor Bloomberg and Ice-T</span></a><br />
<br />
Anyone out there sorry that Mike did away with term limits?<br />
<br />
Well, that's what I have to say.
<br />
<br />
Stephen M. FlatowStephen M. Flatowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07529775616562530575noreply@blogger.com0