Paved with good intentions

There is a Russian saying: “A fool without initiative is better than a fool with initiative.” At least the first fool doesn’t do anything — he is just being an idiot quietly. The second one wracks havoc with his well-intentioned idiocy.

But of course, the lovers of the current President seem to think that as long as he has good intentions (something I also find quite hard to believe), all will be good. Everyone will try really-really hard and believe in our success, and we will succeed. Against the cynicism and the laws of nature.

It’s a bit like saying, “Dude, you’re trying to go from Boston to New York, but you got on I-95 North, not South”, and hearing in response: “Well, yeah, we may disagree about the direction in which we are supposed to go, but at least I am driving fast. You can’t disagree that I am driving fast, right?” Yeah, you’re driving fast — in the wrong direction. At this pace, you will get closer to New York by breaking down. Which is my answer to all those hurting souls who ask Conservatives: “Whyyyy would you want our President to faaaaail?! Doesn’t our country have enough problems?” Yes — people like you and the president you elected.

In any event, as Mises Economic Blog comments, “There are still elected people [...] who make sense.”

PARIS — The European Union’s crisis of leadership during the economic downturn was thrown into sharp relief on Wednesday, as the current president of the 27-nation bloc labeled President Obama’s emergency stimulus package “a way to hell” that will “undermine the stability of the global financial market.”

The blunt comments by the Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolanek, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the union, came just a week before a crucial meeting of the Group of 20 that was called to show global solidarity in fighting the recession. The comments were greeted with embarrassment by many Europeans who believe that the Czech leader does not represent a European consensus. [source]

Of course not. The European consensus is to cure an allergic response through a blood transfusion: by drawing blood from the leg and injecting it into the arm. What? It’s the problem with blood, stupid. We will inject some fresh blood into the system, and “jump-start” the body…

* * *

The classical model of a liberal from everyday life is that driver who lets someone waiting to make a turn go in front of him, while there are fifty cars standing in the traffic behind him. It’s the typical description of liberal thinking that Henry Hazlitt warns about in his book, Economics in One Lesson: any time you make a decision about success or appropriateness of some policy, you can’t just think about one specific group of people. You have to look at everyone affected, including those not immediately in front of your nose.

You may bail out a company, saving a thousand jobs. So, you helped out a thousand people in front of you. But you hurt tens and hundreds of thousands by the same move! But no, the liberal never looks in a rear-view mirror. Emotion—reflex—response. Thinking too hard is cruel and immoral.

The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.

So simple. And at the same time, so ungraspable for a liberal mind.

* * *

Now that we are on the topic of Czechs, a cute commercial about Czech beer and Bedř ich Smetana, the famous composer who wrote a piece called “Má Vlast” (“My Fatherland”) while already deaf:

— I can’t compose for you a national song, gentlemen, because I can’t hear anything.
— But sir...
— I can’t hear, gentlemen!..
A servant brings in beer; Smetana looks at it.
— Pen!..

Mazal tov

When a grandmother becomes a great-grandmother (not to mention a nobody becoming an uncle), especially on Purim, it’s always a cause for celebration.

No pudding for you

And no iPhone nano or Apple Netbook either. Aaaah!

Am I bovvered?

By the way, someone tells me that he cannot imagine how I can type long replies — his fingers start hurting after only a few lines. First of all, it’s possible that I am a crazy graphomaniac (my biggest problem is usually not writing but trimming — in the writing for work, that is; here I don’t bother). Second, I can definitely see how typing on that small keyboard would make one’s fingers hurt — I tried (honestly) typing a little on one of our lab’s Apples (the one looking like a lunchbox), and I had to take a break soon. (Also, it’s very annoying. Little things I am used to in PC — like the End button — don’t work. And how do you see a new window? And where is the Start button?)

I personally have been using this. For a while I was considering switching to a proper one, but then decided against it.

Microsoft’s mice suck, though. Don’t even think about it. Go with Logitech.

Shoe-throwing journalist fears for his life

From here:

“He is in danger over there”, Poggia told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Monday. “He’s also in danger in other Muslim countries because people who support his action could try to make him a martyr.”

But… that’s… good for him, isn’t it? Or maybe all those virgins are not looking so good anymore? (I mean, after all is said and done, one is stuck with seventy-two wives. Not good…)

What we are fighting for

Both spiritually and physically, we are fighting for and are protecting this (full album).

Don’t forget — we are at war

As Jews, we cannot be angry. “Someone who is angry is like an idolater”, Talmud tells us. We know that everything is controlled by Hashem, and even though we cannot explain everything, we trust Him to control all events. Something evil is but a concealment of His Light.

But we live in a physical reality, and it is our job to shape it and do our best to make things better. Usually this is done with rationality and positive emotions. But sometimes negative emotions — like anger — are necessary to help us in our fight.

On Shabbos, I was talking to my rabbi. He said: “What can you do when eight men with AK-47’s run into your house? We can’t ask, ‘What can we do?’ on the physical level when things are already happening. We need to prevent these things from happening.”

On the spiritual level, we need to recognize that the source of all evil in the world is Concealment of Hashem’s Face. We are in control of how much Divine Light is visible in this world — we increase its flow with our mitzvos, with our unconditional love to fellow Jews, with our oneness. This is our priority in this world, this is what we must focus on in our lives. But we should not be like a Jew (in a joke) who was waiting for G-d to save him from a flood and ignored a boat, a helicopter, etc. (which he should have recognized as physical manifestations of G-d’s help). When we have opportunity to protect ourselves, we need to take it.

On the physical level, we need to recognize that we are in a war. A war, with Western Civilization built on innovation in morality that Judaism brought into the world on one side and a civilization that worships death on the other. The way you can help in everyday life is to support our side in this war. Don’t ignore protests against war on terror — argue with them. Don’t silently agree with liberals who support negotiations with terrorist states. Don’t agree that prisoners in Guantanamo Bay have rights granted by Geneva Convention. No convention ever protected dedicated murderers of innocent people. Terrorists don’t have rights. Animals don’t have rights.

Don’t forget the kedoishim of Mumbai who gave their lives for spreading yiddishkeit and bringing closer Mashiach. Don’t forget a boy, who turned two years old today, after turning an orphan the day before. Don’t forget the rebbetzin, who helped many women physically and spiritually, who was murdered on the night of the raid, whose body was covered by talles of her husband. Don’t forget the rabbi, who was a teacher, a mohel, a shoichet and a friend to many Jews who came through India. Don’t forget all the other Jews who were murdered on that day: Rabbi Bentzion, a mashgiach who went to Chabad House to daven, Rabbi Teitelbaum, son of Volover Rebbe and son-in-law of Toldos Avroham Yitzchok Rebbe, and Israeli tourists (both in Chabad House and hotels).

Keep them in your memory. Keep these pictures in your memory.

It appears that Rebbitzin Rivka HY”D was killed the first night of the attack based on the state of her body when it was recovered on erev Shabbos, referring to rigor mortis. The body was covered with a tallis when rescuers arrived, which we presume was done by the rav, whose body was found on a different floor. Rav Gavriel Noach HY”D appears to have been murdered shortly before the event ended. ZAKA volunteers reported his body was still warm when they received it from local officials on erev Shabbos.

• The body of Rabbi Leibish Teitlebaum HY”D was found in the library slumped over a open Gemara Brochos.

• The bodies of two females HY”D were found with telephone cord wrapped around them.

• The body of R’ Bentzion Chroman HY”D was brought by local authorities to ZAKA at the entrance to the Chabad House. All they know is that he was murdered on the 5th floor.

• Terrorists placed booby traps and hand grenades in the hands of the victims, making their identification and evacuation significantly more dangerous and complicated.

• A local physician who knew the Holtzbergs assisted in identifying their bodies. He appears to be working with ZAKA as they try to prevent autopsies.

• ZAKA head Yehuda Meshi-Zahav remains in constant touch with Maran HaRav Elyashiv Shlita as he did erev Shabbos pertaining to the many questions, which included how and when to notify the Toldos Avraham Yitzchak Rebbe Shlita.

• Shabbos was the second birthday of Moishele Holtzberg, who no longer has parents to celebrate the day with him. May HaKadosh Baruch Hu give him the strength he will require during this difficult period, along with his grandparents, the entire family and the extended family of Chabad shlichim worldwide.

• According to a Kol Chai Radio report on Motzei Shabbos, the entire five-story building that housed the Chabad House was trashed. “There was not a room that was not destroyed. Every book in the library was ransacked and items thrown around. The entire building was destroyed. The only thing that remained untouched was a picture in a glass frame of the Lubavitcher Rebbe ZT”L on a wall in the library.”

• Shimon Grossman, a member of the ZAKA team in Mumbai and a relative of Rivka Holtzman reports dealing with the removal of the bodies is extremely difficult due to the fact the building and bodies are booby trapped. He also reports authorities are insisting on performing autopsies but they continue efforts to prevent them. [Indian authorities agreed not to do autopsies, according to an updated news report.]

[source]

Don’t forget.

As Jews, we should respect all life, in all of its expressions. But we cannot respect death. A terrorist is already dead, whatever his biological state. A person who believes in a religion of death is already dead. Someone who supports them supports death and does not deserve life. When a supporter of death also dies, it is a collateral damage we cannot be sorry for (and don’t say that the victims of terror are collateral damage too — they are the targets of those acts, not just “bystanders”).

We have no respect, no mercy, no pity for death. On the spiritual level, we need to bring light into it and turn it into life. On the physical level, we have to destroy it, support those who are destroying it at the moment and fights against those who oppose this destruction.

Coverage of Mumbai terrorist attacks — Western media in all its glory

Oh, I am sorry, not “terrorist”. Militant. Freedom-fighter.

From PowerLine blog:

The New York Daily News profiles the American/Israeli rabbi and wife whose fate at the Chabad House in Mumbai was left hanging overnight. CNN reports that the bodies of five hostages have been found at the Chabad House. CNN describes the perpetrators as "militants." This morning FOX News was holding out the possibility that the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks are Hindu extremists. The willful blindness involved in the reportage is as striking as the news is tragic.

JOHN adds: Hindu "mujahadeen"? That would be a first.

UPDATE: Barry Shaw writes from Israel:

As the Indian terror event reaches it tragic end with reports of the killing of all the Jewish hostages in the Chabad House (Nariman House) there are important points that must be made. The marathon terror campaign was horrible and deadly. Despite in-depth coverage, its presentation in the Western world raises serious questions.

From the start British and American coverage concentrated on the hotels with stress of the targeting of British and Americans. The Jewish target was ignored until day two and day three. The two luxury hotels were selected by the terrorists because they are occupied by tourists. People who escaped from the hotels claimed that the terrorists asked for British and Americans. However, they were selected because they were foreigners.

Nariman House was selected by the terrorists because the Chabad building was a specific Jewish target that also included Israelis. Let me make this clear. Chabad House was the only target chosen by the terrorists in Mumbai because of its specific character - Jewish and Israeli. Hostages in Chabad House were killed because they were Jewish and Israeli.

Yet this terror venue was largely ignored by most of the Western media until the final day. We, in Israel, were able to follow events there because of the involvement of the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Israeli media. Information from these and other sources was essential for me to relay reports to many people in Britain and the States who were unaware that Jews or Israelis were deliberate terror targets in Mumbai. When revealed, the final story of Chabad House will be tragic yet not properly covered by the world's media.

Shaw's message explicitly makes the points I left implicit in this post.

Sorry for the double-quote. Couldn’t help but include the whole post.

Am I surprised? Not at all.

See also this about a suspected gunman, holding a gun in his hands.

Chabad House in Mumbai

In pictures, from CrownHeights.info

Boruch Dayan HaEmes

(source)

When you feel sorrow, or when you feel anger, remember, there is nothing but Him. All the events in the Universe happen through His Will. The shluchim in India — and everywhere in the world — made it their goal to spread this message throughout the world, as Avram Avinu once was doing, as the Lubavitcher Rebbe made it his goal to do. Today is Rosh Choidesh Kislev, a Yom Tov for Chabad Chassidim celebrating in farbrengens last night throughout the world their connection — physical and spiritual — to their Rebbe, to our Rebbe, to the one responsible for establishing our connection with Hashem and geula in this generation.

No body can survive without a head. If a muscle cell is not connected to the brain through nervous system, it dies.

As one commenter on VozIzNeias said, “Everyone talks about the mesirus nefesh of Lubavitchers, to go out so far, etc. ‘How do they do it?’ Think about the answer. How really do they do it? There’s obviously something driving them… You might come to new conclusions. Particularly about the Lubavitcher Rebbe and the learning of Chassidus.”



If you want to help, do so. Do so in practice by doing a mitzva, by learning Torah lishmah, by learning the Essence of Torah, Chabad Chassidus, and practicing its message in your life, allowing the Rebbe’s teachings transform you and lead you to the deepest aspect of who you are, who the world, Torah and Hashem are — b’gilui (in revelation). This will cure the essence of the problem that the world today is experiencing. Do it in honor of the Jews throughout centuries that performed acts of mesirus nefesh. Do it to help the Jews alive today. They need your help.

Also, say tehillim for a two-year-old boy who has experienced what nobody of any age, a Jew or not, should ever experience in his life.

From VosIzNeias:

Mumbai — Outrage. Anger. Pain. Tears.

No words.

What can we even say?

How can we fathom a two-year-old who won’t see Ima again ad ki yavo Shilo?

How can we comprehend two ehrliche mashgichim catching a simple maariv on business who will never come home?

And how can we even begin to understand the loss of the kedoshim, Rabbi and Rebbetzin Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg, who lost their own lives after a holy career of giving of their own lives? And before 30?

Ribbono shel Olam…

Today, we are all Toldos Avrahom Yitzchok Chasidim. Today, we are all Israeli. Today, we are all Chabad. No distinctions. Just Jews.

Perhaps an even bigger tragedy is that it took this tragedy to bring us together.

We might not know what to say. But now we know what to do. Stick together.

Because there was a little house, in a corner of the world most of us never heard of, where Ahavas Yisroel lived.

Now, that Ahavas Yisroel lives on. In our houses. In our hearts. It must. The victims would have it no other way.

It’s the only solution to end golus and to bring geula. We’ve known it for centuries. It was baseless hatred that drove us apart and away from Eretz Yisroel, from the Beis HaMikdosh, and it will be baseless love that will bring us back. Unity — of all Jews with each other, of Jews and Torah, of G-d and this world — will bring redemption, is redemption.

Please commit to saying tehillim for the shluchim

The situation is still unclear. Both the shliach and his wife are reported alive but unconscious. If you want to participate in saying the book of Tehillim, e-mail K_Laydee@hotmail.com to commit to a kapitel or more.

Tehillim with English translation can be found here (modern translation here).

Many people report amazing unity amongst Klal Yisroel in response to the troubling events. May it be that we are united even when things are good — although things are never good until we are in exile. So, we must unite for the exile to end and that geula — which will cure all the physical symptoms of golus that we see around ourselves — arrives soon.

Whatever US did, we will do too

... according to Indian Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Following terrorist attack, that is.

One of the things he mentioned (besides usual stuff like training, military response, planning, etc.) was “media education”. Halevai (one could wish) that happened in the US.

The media were just interviewing a Chinese guy, who kept saying “all is OK” but then admitted that he was scared. It’s not clear if he was just confused, if he was worried for his family or other people inside who would be harmed had he reported things not to be OK, or if he was just having a Chinese reflex: say everything is OK when in front of a camera.

Indian spokesperson talking to the British High Commissioner was concerned about the cricket team. The British guy was being British, spoke with British accent, talked about English citizens and gave some vague comments about cooperation between India and Britain. “We have some peop-pelle coming from Lon-ndon on Mon-nday. [...] We think these are appalling, completely unjustifiable attacks.” As opposed to other, justifiable terrorist attacks. He also mentioned that in his opinion travelling to Mumbai today is not the best idea.

The Israeli “girl” who escaped with a woman (a maid) was actually one of the shliach’s boys, who is well, B"H. The parents’ and another boy’s situation is still unknown.

Say tehillim for Jews of Mumbai

“Chabad House seized by terrorist with Jews inside”. More information here, including reports of people killed inside Chabad House, r”l. (Update: possibly, a terrorist.)

Five Israeli families are held hostage. Chabad shliach and his family have been impossible to contact so far.

Please say tehillim for Gavriel Noach ben Freida Bluma, his wife Rivka bas Yehudis and their son Moshe Tzvi ben Rivka — and anyone else who may be in danger or suffering.



Watch news from CNN live.

(Somebody just asked TV channels to exercise caution and respect the fact that it is sensitive situation and it is difficult to conduct an operation with all the details being constantly revealed. What a surprise.)

Update (12:04 am): three hostages managed to escape, two of them Israelis, one — an Indian cook who worked in the building. One of the Israelis (seemingly) was a woman with a girl who was crying and was taken away by an ambulance. Five or six terrorists are in control of the building.

Yeshiva World News reports: “According to Chabad spokesman Rav Menachem Brod, Rivka Holtzberg and her daughter were seen running from the Mumbai Chabad House. He warns this is not confirmed but we remain hopeful at this time. Rav Brod states that despite the reports circulating on the Internet, the Chabad network has not received any such notification from any official sources.”