charliehall

Whose fault? The terrorist-murderers, of course! May they be brought to justice, and soon.

CharlieSmall, yes there aren’t enough radio broadcast stations. WQXR almost went out of business because its former owner decided it wasn’t making enough money; had it not been for the existence of “public radio” New York would today have no classical music radio station. The terrible thing about WQXR is that it was actually making money, just not enough, and it isn’t as good a station today.

Regarding the alleged unconstitutionality of arts funding: The government has funded the Smithsonian museums for over 160 years. Nobody seems to have questioned it until today. And the total amount of arts funding barely amounts to roundoff error in the total federal budget.

The food is better!

I can’t understand why not.

We’ve been learning too much gemara.

“The minimum wage laws and unions won’t let us find out.”

You really think that the solution to our economic problems is to pay American workers $6/hour????

“If there were things like merit pay it would solve many problems. “

I lived in a place that 25 years ago adopted merit pay for teachers. The union even accepted the plan. But then the tax-cutters came into power and slashed everything. The merit pay was one of the first things to go. I’m not opposed to merit pay on principle, but the fact is that merit pay incentives have to be quite large to be meaningful and most government agencies don’t want to pay the bills.

BTW my private sector educational institution has no merit pay. Everyone gets the same annual pay increase.

“If teachers could be fired for not producing maybe we would higher literacy rates and better education “

Incompetent teachers can — and should — be fired for cause. Every union contract I’ve ever seen permits this. But it does require a hearing. And this is correct and necessary to prevent abuses.

“Does anyone else see something wrong with this? “

No, there is something VERY right with this. YOU want the cop who responds to your 9-1-1 call to be able to subdue an intruder. You aren’t going to be thinking about your taxes when the person between you and a violent attacker is two or three times the attacker’s age. We need young and healthy police officers, firefighters, and corrections officers.

“if competition were allowed, and parents could use the tax money assigned to their student to send their school wherever they want, then bad schools would be shut down, bad teachers would be fired, and real learning could take place”

That is the theory. But it hasn’t worked out that way in practice. Many charter schools turned out to be worse than the public schools. Even Diane Ravitch no longer thinks competition is the answer.

Not that I’m against school choice — far from it. In parts of CT, ME, and VT there has been school choice for over a century; the programs are well liked and successful. But it is not a panacea.

“If you look at the regents now, they have really been downgraded.”

That is because a generation ago, not everyone had to take them. As more and more less qualified students take a standardized exam, scores go down. The same has happened with college entrance exams (which have also been renormed). But in standardized tests that are given to everyone, scores have dramatically increased.

“they get way more then teachers in private schools who have much higher demands”

Nonsense. In private schools, disruptive students can be kicked out. Not so in public schools. Public school class sizes are also usually much higher.

Private school *principals*, however, often make substantially more than public school principals even the schools are much, much smaller. I know of one principal at a Jewish Day School who was making over 400K/year, and numerous others in the 200K-300K range. The top of the salary scale for NYC public school principals is just over $150K.

“He has to break the unions because they are breaking the taxpayer. Do you even know what that means?”

Yes. It means you blame robbery victims for being robbed. Shame on you!

“We are in a recession”

No, the recession ended in June 2009. Do you even know what the definition of a recession is?

“Koufax did not refuse to pitch on Yom Kippur. He was spared that since Don Drysdale would have normally pitched in the rotation that day. “

Never did Koufax pitch on Yom Kippur. He sat out important games in both 1961 and 1966, and the Dodgers lost both games.

Koufax had pitched on October 2, 1965, allowing 4 hits and 1 run as the Dodgers defeated the Milwaukee Braves, 3-1, clinching the National League Pennant. The World Series started October 6, 1965. Back then, pitchers pitched every four days and managers tried to get their best pitcher to pitch the first, fourth, and seventh (if necessary) games of the World Series. But October 6 was 10 Tishrei.

You may be thinking of 1966. Koufax had been scheduled to pitch September 24, 1966, but that was Yom Kippur; the Dodgers lost 4-0 to the Chicago Cubs and yet another future Hall of Famer, Ferguson Jenkins, still the only Canadian in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Koufax had pitched the last game of the season, the second game of a doubleheader, on Sunday, October 2, 1966, which the Dodgers needed to win to clinch the Pennant. They defeated Philadelphia, 3-1. (The losing pitcher was future Baseball Hall of Famer and US Senator Jim Bunning.) Koufax had also pitched three days earlier, on Thursday September 29, as the Dodgers defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-1. Ordinarily Koufax would not have pitched on two days rest, but when it was win or nothing, you do desperate things. (The Dodgers had lost the two games in between, and Koufax had pitched and won Game 7 of the 1965 World Series on two days rest.) Drysdale had lost the first game of the doubleheader, pitching only 2 innings, so he started Game 1 of the World Series on two days rest, losing 5-2 to Baltimore. Koufax pitched Game 2 of the 1966 World Series on the usual three days rest and the Dodgers lost 6-0 thanks in part to some awful defensive play; the winning pitcher was a not-quite-21-year-old named Jim Palmer who would also end up in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Nobody knew it at the time but it would be the last game Koufax would ever pitch.

truth,

Actually, average scores on standardized tests have risen dramatically over the past 80 years or so. You don’t know it because the testmakers re-norm the tests every few years. Basically, people are getting smarter! The phenomenon is called the “Flynn effect” and is well documented in the psychology literature. Better education is one of the explanations that has been proposed, as has better nutrition, smaller families, and better test-taking skills. (Kids today are tested and tested and tested and tested and tested….)

“I was wondering about this. Particularly the halachic reasoning it is permitted to copy music that is no longer being sold”

It still violates secular law — it is considered theft. The copyright owner may have a reason for withdrawing the item from the market and we should respect that.

“How can someone become a baal teshuva and a Chosid (shtreimel type)? “

Find a Chasidic rabbi and learn with him. Most are very approachable. Where do you live?

“are you saying that since it’s so hard to study classic sefarim, therefore should do 12 step instead?!? and it’s truly the same principles???????”

Yes, they are the same principles. But 12 step programs are for people with specific issues. If you drink too much, go to Alcoholics Anonymous. If you are addicted to other drugs, go to Narcotics Anonymous or Cocaine Anonymous or Marijuana Anonymous as appropriate. If you eat too much, go to Overeaters Anonymous. If you can’t stop gambling, go to Gamblers Anonymous. If you can’t control your use of credit cards, go to Debtors Anonymous. If an alcoholic or drug addict is making your life miserable, go to Al-Anon or Nar-Anon. Don’t think for a second that those are “easy” programs any more than immersing yourself in the classic mussar works is “easy”. But the rewards are almost unlimited.

I’m a bit taken aback with the emphasis on looks here. The non-Jewish world aggressively promotes superficiality, non-tzniut fashion and beauty pageants. By contrast, our tradition says, “Sheker hachen v’hevel hayofi”. Undue emphasis on physical attractiveness is chukat hagoyim and a symptom of assimilation.

I’m all for engaging with gentile culture — where it has something worthwhile to offer. Judging women primarily by physical attractiveness is not one of them!

And if our young men are only attracted to women who look like supermodels, there is something wrong with the way we are raising them. How many wives of gedolim looked like supermodels?

Sounds like a fabulous idea! Good luck!!!

Don’t EVER get into a cab if its license plate doesn’t say “T&LC”. If it has ordinary plates, it means it is not licensed and is operating illegally. You will have no recourse if something bad happens. There are plenty of legitimate livery cab services serving Jewish neighborhoods, there is no reason to use an illegal one.

Ditto DY and shlishi.

“You’re allowed to steal less than a shoveh pruta? “

Good think we are Jews; a Noachide can get a death sentence for stealing less than a shevah pruta.

“the g’zera was not made on powdered milk”

Powdered milk as we know it today did not exist until the 1800s; it is impossible for Chazal to have specifically included or excluded it.

Daas Yochid,

Thanks! I was unaware of that. I was able to confirm the NY times story from several other sources; the camel cheese comes from Mauretania.

And it is legal to import camel dairy products. Here are the regulations:

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/regulations/vs/iregs/products/downloads/as_dp_info.pdf

It is NOT currently legal to produce camel dairy products and sell them across state lines. I can’t see how that will continue much longer since we now are importing small amounts of camel cheese, and some farms are producing camel milk for local consumption.

BTW I also found a link to some bison cheese that is produced in small quantities in the US. The American bison is a kosher animal as it can interbreed with domestic cattle and produce fertile offspring.

Thanks again!!!

“Is goyishe music really ok”

We’ve had a lot of discussion regarding this issue in other chat forums.

First, one has to define “Jewish” and “goyish” music. Much music of non-Jewish origin has been appropriated by Jews even for liturgical use; for example, the most common tune for “Maoz Tzur” is a German tune that Martin Luther harasha used for a Christian hymn.

And it is difficult to find ANY Jewish music that is not influenced by non-Jewish styles. I’ve mentioned the atonal music of Arnold Schoenberg; it is truly like no music every previously composed. Yet even Schoenberg himself insisted that he was following in the tradition of Johannes Brahms. (And you will never hear Schoenberg played at a simchah.)

Itchesrulik,

Almost all NON-kosher cheeses in the US use vegetable or biotech rennet.

That does bring the shilah of whether vegetable or biotech rennet is actually rennet, or equivalently, whether cheeses produced with such “rennet” have the halachic status of rennetless cheeses. I have been told by several different people that Rov Soloveitchik indeed held that way, but he may have been a daat yachid.

To those worrying about milk products from non-kosher animals, you can’t buy it in the US. You can produce it on your own farm and give it away but you can’t sell it. There is however a serious effort to legalize the sale of camel milk in the US.