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To myshadow: Is there a mitzvah that requires drivers of big, powerful cars to drive more carefully, so as not to kill people who choose to, or cannot afford to, drive cars like yours? And which is bigger and more powerful – your car or you?
oomis1105: I assume you meant that a husband must be prepared to drive 24/6, not 24/7.
If the government is watching this web site, the losers are the taxpayers.
To Joseph: Some corrections of your information:
Ronald Reagan did not bring down the Soviet Union – it collapsed of its own weight and failures. (Richard Nixon’s sales of wheat to the Soviet Union in the ’70’s helped sustain the Soviet Union and prolong its life.)
The inflation/stagflation of the late ’70s was defeated by the policies of Paul Volker, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board who was appointed by President Carter. (Alan Greenspan recently acknowledged that part of the reason for the current failure of the US financial system was inadequate regulation of complex financial instruments. The lack of regulation of these instruments was a result of the misguided idealogy championed by Ronald Reagan.)
I do not recall any media blaming Reagan for AIDS. Reagan expressed concern for its victims. Have you?
Richard Nixon became president in 1969; he could not have supplied arms to Israel in the ’67 War.
Richard Nixon took more than 4 years to end the Vietnam war and lied about his plans in 1968 to get elected. Many of the deaths of Americans and all others in that war occurred after he became president.
Richard Nixon built his early career as a red-baiter, demonizing China. His “genius” was reversing his own mistakes. If a Democrat had wanted to open relations with China, Nixon would have led the charge against the Democrat who tried.
Richard Nixon committed crimes for which you or I would be jailed.
“Japs” is a disrespectful term. Find another way to refer to the people of Japan, who were created by Hashem.
Eisenhower was not president when he led Allied forces in WWII.
I do not recall whether GHW Bush supported NAFTA while he was president, but he did not succeed in enacting it during his administration. It was enacted during the Clinton administration, as a result of Clinton’s efforts to enact it.
JFK – Hats? Bay of Pigs fiasco: bad. Iraq war: good?
LBJ – Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act – no big deal?
Clinton – economic boom – no big deal? Yes, he was a disgrace to himself.
Carter – brokered the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, which has lasted 30 years. Lately, Carter has lost his mind, but what do you expect – he’s older than McCain.
Mr. Isler’s self-described “manifesto” reflects a lot of thought, and I thank him for that. One of his proposals is to seek more money from the public treasury. If we Jews seek taxpayer funds to subsidize our schools, and if we succeed in do so, we will surely have opened the floodgates to other religious groups’ seeking support for their children’s education. Are we sure that we as Jews want that? Will that result in a net gain or a net loss – in dollars – to us as a community, if public funds are available for religious education (or the “secular” portion of education conducted in religious schools)?
I think another model has to be considered, which so-called Reform Jews (alcoholics should be reformed, not Jews) and Conservative Jews have used for more than 50 years – public school for secular subjects, and “Hebrew” school for religious education, after public school hours and on Sundays. Admittedly, the high rates of intermarriage among Reform and Conservative Jews suggests that their schools have not been successful, but the problem is not the school model, it is insufficiency of Torah from their curricula. Admittedly, also, Torah and Yiddishkeit are not separable from “secular” studies, and a yeshiva infuses Torah into secular subjects in a way that public schools cannot, but if the “tuition crisis” is to be solved, we have to try alternatives.
We also have to accept the possibility that the US Constitution will not allow public funding of private or religious schools. I personally believe that is a good thing – we Jews are currently enjoying a favored position in US society and government, but Jewish security in the United States should be protected by the Constitution and law, not by our current favorable political position. We are a tiny portion of the US population – less than 3% – and we would not be wise to count on political power to protect ourselves and assure our continued survival in the US.