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    You rarely see me wearing black but that doesn't mean I don't like it. I really do! In fact I created a specific board on my Pinterest dedicated to this timeless/ comfort zone outfits option. See it here.
So, here I'm wearing a 80% b&w outfit with 20% color ( I had to :) It was a casual weekend look for running errands and other little things...




                                                                      Coat: Kate Spade/ options Here and Here 
                                                                      Sweater: c/o Joe Fresh/
                                                                      Shirt: Ralph Lauren/ Here and Here 
                                                        Sunglasses: Ralph Lauren
                                                        Shoes: Jeffrey Campbell/ similar style Here and Here 
                                                                      Bag: Reed Krakoff/Here, Here and Here 
                                                        Jeans: Truck Jeans/ similar Here and Here 

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Is It Too Late For the Republican Party To Save Itself?...

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny

Food for thought. At least for those republicans that have retained the ability to think outside the box their party has sculpted for them or they created for themselves.

In recent decades, the Republicans have usually been the more nationalist of the two major parties. Whereas Democratic foreign policy experts have been more at home among global elites, and more enthusiastic about pursuing altruistic humanitarian goals, Republican experts have been less comfortable at conferences abroad, and more concerned about the safety of the American homeland and its traditional allies than about trying to improve the lot of the rest of the world. As one might expect, defense budgets have usually fared better under Republican than Democratic presidents.

The problem for Republicans is that there are various kinds of nationalism. There is, for instance, the aggressive Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld brand of nationalism, in which you proactively seek out enemies and destroy them, with relatively little concern for what the outside world thinks. Especially in a post-9/11 world, you can't take chances! This is a nationalism in which high defense budgets are encouraged, even as humanitarianism is de-emphasized. It is not that such nationalists are necessarily hardhearted. Rather, it is that they genuinely feel the world overall will be a more humane place with preponderant American power.

To one side of these Republican nationalists are Republican isolationists. Now isolationists are nationalists, too. They also believe that the most important thing in the world is a safe and secure American homeland. It is just that they feel this can be better achieved by staying out of foreign wars and other such entanglements, particularly in the Eastern Hemisphere. In their minds, American human and material treasure is simply too precious to be wasted abroad. Tried-and-true isolationists are actually rare in the Republican Party: just because you are against this or that military intervention certainly does not make you an isolationist. Rather, there are isolationist-trending Republicans of varying degrees who seek to do the minimum abroad, while concentrating on protecting and improving the homeland. They seek a perfectionism within the American continent only, with some concern for contiguous parts of the Western Hemisphere as well. The world overseas will just have to fend for itself.

Continue reading and enjoy the complete article...

Via: Memeorandum

When Can We Expect a Return to Normal Interest Rates?

Click to enlarge.

Last month? We have returned to the long-term trend line in blue. What more do you want?

I guess it was sort of a trick question. This chart shows how tiny small time deposits (under $100,000) are compared to how much debt the consumer has racked up (bottom scale). The ratio hit a new low in September and I don't really expect November to buck the trend. It also shows what that tiny ratio might mean to 10-year treasury yields (left scale).

Perhaps you are interested in large time deposits instead? Good luck finding a trend there. I'm not sure the one percent buy enough canned goods to matter (probably close to 1% at best). I'm also guessing that they don't generally rent tires. Just a hunch.

Deep sigh.

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

VOTE WITH YOUR FEET Support "Free market" Vacation and Travel Destinations.

My U-Haul rate comparisons continue to indicate a migration away from liberal bastions of SF and NYC and Chicago to the Red States such as Idaho, Utah and Texas.  Go to youtube.compubworkstv for latest results

HERE IS AN IDEA---  Freedom loving peoples should be selective where they chose to vacation. For instance, don't support the peoples republic of California with your vacation dollars, support free enterprise destinations over repressive communities.

In fact, make a big deal of it, let the liberal centers know that you won't be visiting them any longer.

Short Trailer (Concept)




California is full of places to avoid. Here is an example, I love mountains and mountain life, I bought a place in South Lake Tahoe 22 years ago. Vacationed there mainly, then moved there in 2007 when I left Morgan Stanley (on my 50th birthday, read between those lines).

From my personal experience and observations with the community of South Lake Tahoe I've come to see it as the poster child for all that is wrong with America. An oppressive government that has devastated the small business community and racked up massive debts from failed government controlled development projects.

It is not surprising after all the "Jewel of the Sierras" has long been a battleground between liberal extremists and conservatives. The Sierra lake community has been hijacked by the leftwing extremists and turned South Lake Tahoe into the decimated community it is.   (Details on the Trailer above)

If you support freedom than you should avoid South Lake Tahoe and communities like it, and let them know why. You can reach the people directly in communities like South Lake Tahoe through their online media. Make a comment in their "locals" newspaper. Let the liberals know that you would not do business with them because you love freedom and they repress it. Perhaps the conservatives among them will then be able to rise to the cause. There are not many conservatives left in the area but there are some, they have been bullied into submission but may rise with encouragement.

Just a few comments in the locals press would cause a tizzy.

Doing something, does something.  Let the community know that their acceptance of government oppression has cost them your business.

http://www.LakeTahoeNews.net 


That will get noticed.  People will scream and rant.

THE IMPACT OF TOT ON CENTRALIZATION AND THE CRONY CREEP

One of the culprits in the centralization of control and subsequent decline in many destination communities is the success of the Transient occupancy Tax (TOT) a.k.a.  Hotel Room Tax.  This system can lead to a destructive Crony community such as what happened in South Lake Tahoe.  Government insiders working with select outside developers and "Consultants" corrupt the separation between public and private sectors and degradate  the community. Insiders "controlling" the tax flow from TOT and using it to control the community through marketing and promotions that favor the crony goals. The potential impacts are multiple, dramatic and long lasting.

If you want more info, would like to share a experience, suggest a destination, or get info on communities in the Pacific Northwest sign up for my  Travel Blogs by emailing me at PubworksTV@gmail.com

More info on travel: here is a link to a channel promoting the emerging touring talented in the music BUSINESS. Check out Divas of D.V. featuring 3 really fine female singers. 

https://www.youtube.com/user/PacificNorthWestLive

Channeling the Teenagers of Christmas Past

In my last post, I presented the following chart that showed the fraction of the civilian noninstitutional population aged 16 to 19 who are employed.


Click to enlarge.

It is disturbing to me that we can't and quite possibly won't ever get back to the trend channel. I therefore propose a desperate solution. If the teenagers can't come to the mountain, then let's bring the mountain to the teenagers! All we need to do is come up with an alternate trend channel. Right?


Click to enlarge.

Still not back to the trend channel? What a bummer! Have no fear though. We are guaranteed to get back to this one at some point. Just need to be patient. At the very least, the percentage of those aged 16 to 19 with a job will hit the hard floor of 0% and fall no further (which is in sharp contrast to the long-term trend itself). Call me a mathematical optimist!

As a side note, do all teenagers now live in Detroit? Seriously. Other than potentially obvious long-term structural employment issues, what's up with that long-term parabolic trend failure? Sigh.

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

The Teenagers Can No Longer "Stuff the Channel"

The following chart shows the fraction of the civilian noninstitutional population aged 16 to 19 who are employed. It's basically a brutal combination of an extremely high unemployment rate and a very poor labor force participation rate among those aged 16 to 19.


Click to enlarge.

Teenagers can't stuff the channel if they are no longer in the channel! As seen in the chart, they are a long, long ways from being in the channel again (if ever).

Channel Stuffing

Channel stuffing is the business practice where a company, or a sales force within a company, inflates its sales figures by forcing more products through a distribution channel than the channel is capable of selling to the world at large.

For what it is worth and in the spirit of shady business practices, I think many teenagers are being stuffed. I'm not just talking Thanksgiving Day leftovers either.

November 25, 2013
USA Today: Government books $41.3 billion in student loan profits

The $41.3 billion profit for the 2013 fiscal year is down $3.6 billion from the previous year but it's a higher profit level than all but two companies in the world: Exxon Mobil cleared $44.9 billion in 2012, and Apple cleared $41.7 billion.

"It's actually neither accurate nor fair to characterize the student loan program as making a profit," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said during a July conference call with reporters after the Free Press and other news media reported on profits from student loans.

I wouldn't characterize it as making a profit. I'd suggest that the main purpose is to stuff the typical teenager with excessive "lifeblood". Perhaps that's just me though.

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

Jenni Rivera's Senior Pilot Didn't Die In Crash, He's Alive!

Jere Cobb was mistakenly identified as Miguel Pérez Soto

Jenni Rivera's senior pilot who was also reported deceased in last December's deadly plane crash along with Jenni Rivera and members of her staff is alive, according to Telemundo's Al Rojo Vivo.

By H. Nelson Goodson

November 30, 2013

Florida - On Thursday, Telemundo's Al Rojo Vivo began running a promotional ad announcing that Jere Cobb, 79, who was identified as Miguel Pérez Soto, Jenni Rivera's senior pilot who was reported deceased last December 9, along with Rivera and four of her staff members is alive. Soto actually died in the crash, but media and Mexican authorities believed it was Cobbs.
Cobb never boarded the plane. Al Rojo Vivo will air an exclusive interview on Monday with Cobb. Cobb was believed to have flown Rivera's plane before it lost control and crashed into a mountain region in Mexico.

Soto's DNA was matched to family members and his belongings were identified by his family. Mexican authorities claimed he had also died in the crash. With Cobb's coming out in public after nearly a year of the crash is drawing questions about Rivera's reported death.

Some fans have even raised speculation that Jenni Rivera is alive and hiding in Monterey. Did Rivera faked her death to escape death threats from a drug cartel, as previously alleged? Other fans posted on the Al Rojo Vivo Facebook account that Rivera will finally come out of hiding and make her public appearance as news continues to focus on Cobb's deceit that led for everyone to believe he was actually dead.

How has Cobb managed to stay under the radar and continued to live without his family's knowledge for nearly a year?

Wood Criticized MPAA For Cutting Oral Sex Scene From The Charlie Countryman Film

Evan Rachel Wood

Oral sex scene cut from "Charlie Countryman" film by MPAA.

By H. Nelson Goodson

November 29, 2013

Hollywood, CA - On Wednesday, Evan Rachel Wood, who stars in the upcoming new film "Charlie Countryman" posted on Twitter, her disappointment that a scene from the movie to be release later this month was censored. The scene shows Wood getting oral sex from co-star Shia LaBeouf, which the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) decided that the intimacy sex scene of a woman enjoy sex was to explicit for moviegoers, according to Wood. MPAA is a movie rating organization made of parents who decide, if certain scenes of a newly to be release film are censored. The organization looks at violence, sex scenes, language and drug use and then gives a rating they believe a majority of parents would give it.

The MPAA has been known to allow compatible scenes depicting sexual scenes, violence and beheadings on other films when rating movies.

Wood on November posted on her Twitter account, that "After seeing the new cut of#CharlieCountryman I would like 2 share my disappointment with the MPAA, who thought it was necessary to...censor a womans sexuality once again. The scene where the two main characters make "love" was altered because someone felt that seeing...a man give a woman oral sex made people "uncomfortable" but the scenes in which people are murdered by having their heads blown off...remained intact and unaltered. This is a symptom of a society that wants to shame women and put them down for enjoying sex, especially...when (gasp) the man isn't getting off as well! Its hard for me to believe that had the roles been reversed it still would have been cut...OR had the female character been raped it would have been cut. Its time for people to GROW UP. Accept that women are sexual beings...Accept that some men like pleasuring women. Accept that women don't have to just be fucked and say thank you...We are allowed and entitled to enjoy ourselves. Its time we put our foot down," Wood twitted.

Miami Gardens Police Ordered To Target Black Males In Stop And Frisk Internal Policy

Earl Tyree Sampson

A Florida police department investigated by media outlets for blatant civil rights violations of black males.

By H. Nelson Goodson

November 29, 2013

Miami Gardens, Florida - MiamiCBS 4 News reported, an unidentified police officer in Miami Gardens has alleged that "city and police department leaders instructed officers to profile base on race...focus to black males between the ages 15-30." The officer said, it amounts to civil rights violations.

The latest information released by the officer comes days after Earl Tyree Sampson, 28, a convenience store clerk accused officers from the Miami Gardens Police Department of racial profiling and illegally stopping him and citing him 62 times. Most of the citations were for repeated trespassing at his place of employment, the 207 Quickstop. Sampson has been stopped and questioned 258 times within four years, has been searched 100 times and arrested and jailed 56 times on false criminal allegations.

In one video, Sampson goes out to discard garbage and returns inside. An officers follows Sampson inside the convenience store and arrested Sampson on a false charged. In an other store video, an officer goes inside to use the bathroom, but begins to snoop around in the back of the store without permission or a search warrant. 

All, but one of the cases have been dismissed. He was arrested once for drug possession and was convicted for a minor marijuana charged. 

Police officers have been caught on video surveillance camera at the convenience store stopping Sampson and searching him and even arresting him for bogus allegations. Its store owner, Alex Saleh, 36, installed 15 cameras after he got tired of officers coming into the store to harass Sampson and other customers who are black.

The video surveillance footage of officers harassing Sampson had been shown on national news outlets.

Saleh and Sampson in a joint federal lawsuit filing are suing Miami Gardens Police Chief Matthew Boyd, other officers including former officers, Mayor Oliver Gilbert and the city of Miami Gardens for engaging in racial profiling, harassment, illegal stops and searches.

Earl Tyree Sampson's multiple arrest record at following link (PDF): http://bit.ly/1fQko0o

Rob Ford Faces Border Troubles...

Ford’s admission that he smoked crack cocaine in the last two years leaves him with a border problem. While he might still be granted entry into the United States — applications are handled on a case-by-case basis — he could also be rejected, according to the U.S. government and a Toronto immigration lawyer.


WASHINGTON—Toronto Mayor Rob Ford says he wants to attend the Winter Classic hockey game near Detroit. He may not get past Windsor.

Ford’s admission that he smoked crack cocaine in the last two years leaves him with a border problem. While he might still be granted entry into the United States — applications are handled on a case-by-case basis — he could also be rejected, according to the U.S. government and a Toronto immigration lawyer.

Under U.S. law, the mere admission of illegal drug use — in Ford’s case, an admission broadcast far and wide on American television — is grounds for a Canadian to be turned away at a crossing. The absence of criminal charges, let alone a conviction, doesn’t matter.

U.S. officials declined to discuss the specifics of Ford’s case, citing privacy laws. But they readily addressed the question of whether a hypothetical Canadian citizen would be welcome in the U.S. after speaking publicly about consuming crack cocaine.

Source

Gambling on Dividend Growth

The following chart shows real corporate dividends per capita quarterly growth.


Click to enlarge.

The next chart shows the data as standard deviations from the relatively stable 1952:Q2 to 1999:Q4 period.


Click to enlarge.

And lastly, let's zoom in and add some commentary.


Click to enlarge.

The two largest deviations over the past 60 years were in the past two quarters. Both of them! That's a positive 15-sigma event followed by a negative 8-sigma event. Nice. Nothing builds long-term confidence like predictable dividends, lol. Sigh.

Corporate America sure likes swinging for the fences these days! What could possibly go wrong?

Also sometimes used in completely unrelated attempts at doing difficult or near-impossible things.

So we got that goin' for us, which is nice.

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 21, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving!

Three More Years of Goldilocks? - Larry Kudlow, November 21, 2007

Six years and counting!

Oh, sure. There were a few bumps along the way but nothing that ZIRP couldn't pretend to paper over.

Call me an optimist. I see the turkey as half full!

In all seriousness, hope you all have/had a wonderful Thanksgiving. :)

Where to get the cheapest $0.56 cents ThanksGiving Dinner...Arizona and it comes

Joe Arpaio 

Thanksgiving menu is all set! Hope the inmates give thanks for this special meal being served in the jails tomorrow.

Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio has planned a particularly economical meal for the roughly 7,500 to 10,000 inmates in his jail system this Thanksgiving.

The meal comes in at a cost of just 56 cents per inmate, and its main entrée will be 24-cent vegetarian turkey soy casserole. Arpaio tweeted the Thanksgiving menu Wednesday morning.

“Hope the inmates give thanks for this special meal being served in the jails tomorrow," Arpaio's tweet said.

The official Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office website features a bio of Arpaio that touts his accomplishments in providing inmates with “the cheapest meals in the U.S.” by feeding inmates “only twice daily, to cut the labor costs of meal delivery." Arpaio has “even stopped serving them salt and pepper” to save taxpayer money, according to the bio.

The average meal for an inmate in a Maricopa County jail costs between 15 and 40 cents, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office website.

In September, Arpaio implemented a vegetarian diet for inmates in an effort to save $100,000 on food costs for prisoners. He also announced in March a plan to charge inmates $1 for their meals, according to ABC15.

"Everybody else has to pay for their food, why should [inmates] get freebies?" Arpaio said in an ABC15 news video.

Last Thanksgiving, the controversial sheriff complained about the cost of providing a Thanksgiving meal to each inmate in a press release, calling the “whopping 68 cents” paid for every meal an “astronomical increase" from the cost of previous Thanksgiving dinners.

A 2012 East Oregonian article about a Thanksgiving dinner for inmates that cost 98 cents per prisoner quoted an assistant prison superintendent, who noted that treating inmates with a sense of humanity at the holidays helps prepare them for life after prison and may reduce recidivism rates. "We don't want to release angry inmates," the assistant noted. The Oregon meal included 634 pounds of sliced turkey breast, cranberry sauce and gravy.

In a Veteran’s Day press release earlier this month, Arpaio announced another questionable jailhouse initiative called “Patriotic Jails,” which introduced an exclusively “bread and water" diet for 30-day periods of time as punishment for allegedly unpatriotic acts.

“Any defacement or vandalism of the flags by inmates comes with the penalty of bread and water. Ten inmates are currently on bread and water for this infraction,” Arpaio said in the press release.

$15 Minimum Wage Passes In Washington state

Squeaking by with a mere 77-vote margin, the ballot measure known as Proposition 1 will set a $15 wage floor for an estimated 6,000 airport and hotel workers in SeaTac, Wash., a suburb of 27,000 residents south of Seattle.

It appears the ayes have it.

After weeks of careful ballot counting, officials in Washington state on Tuesday certified the results in a potentially historic vote that will create far and away the highest minimum wage in America.

Squeaking by with a mere 77-vote margin, the ballot measure known as Proposition 1 will set a $15 wage floor for an estimated 6,000 airport and hotel workers in SeaTac, Wash., a suburb of 27,000 residents south of Seattle.

While the vote count had been too close to call in the days following the Nov. 5 election, the King County Elections commission posted the official results on its website late Tuesday: 3,040 in favor of the measure, 2,963 against. There were 12,108 registered voters eligible to cast ballots.

Although the results have been certified, they can still be challenged by anyone willing to foot the bill for a recount, according to Kim van Ekstrom, spokeswoman for the elections commission. Van Ekstrom said ballot signatures had continued to trickle in during the days leading up to certification, but no more ballots would be counted.

The ballot campaign was closely watched -- and funded, to the tune of about $2 million -- by business and labor groups, who viewed it as a potential bellwether voteon similar wage measures throughout the country. The $15 wage floor in SeaTac will be more than double the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, and it will likely serve as a rallying cry for labor unions and low-wage worker advocates as they try to raise minimum wages on the federal, state and local levels.

Given the money originally dumped into the campaign by the business community, backers of the measure shouldn't be surprised if opponents file for a recount. An umbrella group that lobbied against Proposition 1, called Common Sense SeaTac, told NBC News Tuesday it would challenge the results. Van Ekstrom said challengers would need to put down a deposit of 25 cents per ballot for a hand recount, or 15 cents for a machine recount. That's a small sum for a business advocacy group, though van Ekstrom said the final price tag of the recount would be much higher.

Along with setting the $15 minimum wage, the new SeaTac law will also tie the minimum wage to an inflation index; guarantee that tipped workers don't have to share their gratuities; and allow workers to accrue up to 6.5 days of guaranteed paid sick leave per year. Smaller businesses were carved out of the legislation, and the law would only apply to certain employers in and around Seattle–Tacoma International Airport.

The ballot measure's provisional success is an unmitigated victory for labor groups, particularly the Service Employees International Union, which played a lead role in pushing Proposition 1. Not only does the legislation include the kind of employer mandates championed by organized labor, it also allows for those mandates to bewaived in a collective bargaining contract, possibly giving companies an incentive to enter into one.

As in almost any minimum wage fight, backers of the proposal said it would improve the lives of thousands of low-wage workers, while the business community said it would raise costs on employers and force them to cut back on hiring.

Abdirahman Abdullahi, an employee of the airport's Hertz rental car location, told HuffPost earlier this month that he took a leave of absence from his job to campaign in support of the measure. "The workers at the airport work hard but don't get what they deserve," Abdullahi said. "They're juggling two or three jobs just to pay the bills, let alone to save money. This initiative ... it's going to improve their lives."

Backers of the proposition had declared victory on election night, but their edge gradually eroded as more ballots were counted in the days that followed. At one point, their lead had dwindled to just 19 votes.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/26/seatac-15-minimum-wage-passes_n_4339492.html?ir=Politics

SAPD Officer Neal Charged For Sexual Assault Of A 19-year-old Woman During A Stop

Jackie Len Neal

Officer Neal placed on administrative leave with pay after being charged with sexual assault.

By H. Nelson Goodson

November 28, 2013

San Antonio,  Texas - On Saturday, 11-year veteran San Antonio Police Officer Jackie Len Neal, 40, was charged with one felony count for sexual assault of a 19-year-old woman on early Friday. The criminal complaint affidavit states, that Officer Neal stopped the woman for allegedly driving a stolen vehicle. He made her exit the vehicle and handcuffed her. He then proceeded to search the woman, but she requested for a female officer to search her. Neal denied her request and grabbed her breasts over her shirt. He then place her in his squad car and forced the woman to have unconsensual sex with him.

Neal remained at the scene with the victim for 18-minutes, according to a GPS police review of the vehicle.

Afterwards, the woman called 911 and claimed she was assaulted by a woman. When an officer responded to the call, she told the officer that she had lied and that an officer wearing a badge with the name Neal had raped her during a traffic stop.

The San Antonio Police Department confirmed that the video surveillance camera in the squad car was not functioning at the time of the alleged sexual assault. 

When Neal was taken into custody on Saturday, he was looking for the victim, according to the complaint. A $20,000 bail bond was set for Neal and released. 

Neal has been placed on paid administrative leave until the outcome of the case.

Nonfinancial Corporate Debt Securities vs. Wages (Musical Tribute)

Click to enlarge.



Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

A DIY Pink (Coat) Project

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         I'm happy to show you another DIY project that Bogdan and I made this past month. - A NEW COAT!-

I know that my outwear collection is a bit outrageous but I needed a pink piece. I have a blazer but not a coat so my new theory is "if you don't find the one- make the one" so this is what I just did. 

I found this printed fabric a while ago a while ago in NY and, from the minute I saw it, I knew that I'll be using it to make a great coat. This was our first coat project and I must say that it wasn't easy but in the came out just the way I want it.

I showed you a few photos on the making on my Instagram, now the result and soon an outfit post.

Once again: Thank you Bogdan for all your help! You are the best!

P.S. I have a lucky winer of a $500 gift card from Americana Manhasset Giveaway: Congrats Mozzarella! I will contact you very soon.

P.P.S You have a few more days to enter to Tres Jewellery Giveaway (HERE) 

DIY coat made by Bogdan and I

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Jews Know How To Fight?

By Findalis

Chanukah Day 1

Jews fight?  That was asked when I was a child.  Right!  They can't fight their way out of a paper bag.  Jews don't know how to fight.  That is why the Nazis were able to kill them.

But the reality is that Jews were known for their fighting prowess for thousands of years.

The miracle of Hanukkah wasn’t performed by G-d alone. The Maccabees played a crucial role in defeating the Syrian Greeks on the battlefields. It was a partnership of human courage and Divine guidance. Matisyahu and his sons prevailed because they were wise enough to recognize that although Jews revere peace, we acknowledge that there may be a time that demands we go to war.

And that was not an easy thing for our people to admit – neither then, nor today.

Psychologists tell us there are basically two ways in which we can cope with the world: fight or flight. Encountering any difficulty, one can either attempt to cope, grapple and wrestle with an issue and overcome it, or one can flee and give up at the outset.

Some may rationalize flight as the correct religious response. Let me not do anything, and if G-d really desires a certain outcome, let Him handle it to His satisfaction.

As I heard Rabbi Soleveichik once explain it, this was the way of Jacob, even from the time he was in the womb. Jacob had actually been conceived first. He should’ve been the one to be born before his brother. Technically, he was the eldest, with all the attendant privileges of primogeniture. His brother Esau, however, pushed himself forward and forced himself over Jacob. “And after that came forth his brother and his hand had hold on Esau’s heel and his name was called Jacob” [Genesis 25:26] . The very name Jacob comes from the Hebrew word related to heel. Jacob was holding on to his brother’s heel; he begins his life being trampled upon, unfairly deprived by force of his rights.

Jacob’s life continued to unfold, guided by the unspoken philosophy that “nice Jewish boys don’t fight.” His twin brother Esau fooled father Isaac into thinking that he was the more pious and deserving son - and were it not for the intervention of his mother, Jacob would not have said a word in the face of this injustice.

When Jacob fell in love with Rachel only to have his father-in-law switch brides and trick him into a marriage with Leah, his response was to quietly accept the obligation to work for yet another seven years in order to earn the hand of the woman that was already rightly his.

Passivity in the face of evil and the silent acceptance of ill treatment defined Jacob’s theology. Jacob eventually realized his error in the dramatic story that so altered his perception that it was responsible for a change of name, a change that acknowledged that his newfound insight literally turned him into a new person.

Left totally alone and attacked by a mysterious assailant the commentators identify as the evil representative of Esau, Jacob realizes he has no alternative but to fight. At the end of a long night of battle, Jacob is left limping but nonetheless receives a blessing. He is now no longer the stepped-upon Jacob, but from this time forward is Israel – “because you have striven with G-d and with men and have prevailed” [Genesis 32:29].

Jacob may have suffered a blow, but he won the greater battle – the battle over his unwillingness previously to engage in combat. Jacob won the greatest victory of all – he finally managed to conquer himself.

And, explain the commentators, if he was left limping, what of it? That would simply mean he would never again be able to run away from anyone or any place, not even from himself.

The name change of Jacob to Israel differs from that of Abram to Abraham. Once Abram became Abraham he would never again be called by his original name. Abraham identified his new mission as “the father of many nations,” the first one to bring monotheism to the consciousness of the world. That name change was exclusive.

However even after Jacob became Israel, when the pacifist became the fighter, we still find him at times referred to by his earlier name. The reason is obvious. It is what was stated so beautifully by Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes: “There is a time for peace and there is a time for war.” Both names are to be used, both modalities are to be employed.

Peace is the ultimate goal. But until the messianic era, war remains an unfortunate necessity.

We wish we would only have to imitate the way of Jacob who sat peacefully in his tent dedicating his life to study. But as long as there remain those like Esau who threaten our existence we know we must assume the identity of Israel and do battle with our enemies.

The Maccabees understood this. While they surely would have preferred to lead the peaceful life of priests, they recognized the responsibility placed upon them by the threat of a Greek-Syrian army bent on their destruction.

Of course nice Jewish boys don’t want to fight. That is not our way. But the world needs to know that we are the nation of Israel, defending the land of Israel. And like our forefather Israel, we will fight for survival. Like the Maccabees, Israel will go to war when it’s necessary. That’s because we love peace so much that we are ready to fight for it.

And that is one of the contemporary messages of Chanukah.

Source

The people of Israel don't ask for war.  They prepare for war, they train for war, they pray for peace.  Yet their neighbors demand that they leave their ancient, ancestral land.  A land that they fought for.  Not just in the past, but for the last 65 years.  And we will NOT just leave the land over a piece of paper.  Will will NOT tear a city in 2 to appease Obama.  And we will NOT give up our weapons to appease a world more concerned with finishing the job Hitler did, then allow the children of the Holocaust survive.  Nor will we trust an enemy who for decades has threaten to wipe us off the planet.

For this first night I did not choose a Chanukah video, but I do believe that this song says the meaning of Chanukah and the Jewish people more than any other could.

Andy Williams Sings "The Exodus Song (This Land Is Mine)"


Click here if the video doesn't load.

Happy Chanukah!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

As we gather with family and friends to celebrate our National Holiday Rational Nation USA wishes all it's readership, whether they be liberal, conservative, libertarian, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Atheist or whatever the very best of Thanksgivings and humbly asks that all remember how truly fortunate we are to live in a land where freedom of political and religious speech is allowed.

It is I think appropriate on this day to post George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation. Whether one is religious and believes in one supreme being or not Thanksgiving personifies the importance of being thankful for all we have achieved as a nation and if the USA returns to, and holds true to the principles of The Age of Reason and the Enlightenment we will be fine for another 224 years.

To all you extreme partisans and zealots I say, THINK ABOUT IT.

Happy Thanksgiving All!!!

Thanksgiving Proclamation

Issued by President George Washington, at the request of Congress, on October 3, 1789

By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and—Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:”

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favor, able interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other trangressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

Go. Washington