I've been very efficient today, since I've nearly completed my research assignment. In between I've been amusing myself with this music I got from Israel. I thought I had ordered an "Israel in the Eurovision songcontest" cd, but it turned out to actually be a DVD. (Yes that's right, I'm one of those nerds). I was watching the DVD, and as I watched the songs from 1978 and 1979 (the year I was born) I had such a shock. The songs are great. I love a-ba-ni-bi! So where's the shock? Well, take a look!
Izhar Cohen & co performing the winning song
"A ba ni bi" in 1978
This looks like it was a million years ago. (And it looks far worse on video, trust me).
All right well I removed the "ma fish falastin". I mean after all, I'm a nice girl! Well, sort of. And besides, I see today my website has had visitors from Egypt. I also appear to have a regular reader from Oman. Well all the islamic countries. What if one of them is a crazy hacker? The spork says arabs are no good with computers though, but I think she was just making excuses for her own lack of computer skill (not that she isn't smart enough already).
But oh, I'm so excited. I just received a package with this music from Israel I ordered. And about bloody time too, I ordered it 1,5 months ago. I had already written the website 3 or 4 e-mails asking about my order, and I was getting angry. I am the kind of person who is very happy when I get good service. I will then shop at the same place again, recommend it to everyone, and be a very nice & thankful customer. But if I see even the slightest risk of not getting what I paid for, I get very, very angry and will go quite far to get what I paid for.
Wow it's amazing how I never get tired of Mashina. I've been listening to this stuff since I was a kid, and I still love listening to the same songs over and over and over again. I also got some great new stuff, as well as some great old things I always regretted not buying in Israel, such as David Broza. I also know I'll come back from Israel in January with another pile of cd's. But Mashina remains the favorite. And how could it not be :-)
Oh this website is so much fun! I'm sooo addicted: Judaism 101
While browsing it I found some material about PETA's complaints against kosher slaughterhouses. Just like Israellycool's Dave was talking about the other day. Oh by the way Dave, when I open your page a little Israeli flag appears in front of your website's url in my browser. How cool is that? (I just replaced IE with Advanced Browser). Oh check out his latest post. I'm still laughing!
Okay so anyway. Besides my aversion to animal rights activists, I have also done a fair share of reading when it comes to Jewish laws and animal slaughter. I have no idea how often I have found myself in a situation where somebody has started telling me that "well I don't dislike jews, I just don't like their painful methods of slaughtering animals".
So, I took some info from the delightful website I earlier mentioned, and decided to post it here:
PETA Complaint Against
Kosher Slaughterhouse
The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has filed a complaint with the USDA against the AgriProcessors (one of the largest kosher slaughterhouses in the world), and the Orthodox Union (one of the world's oldest and most respected kosher certification organizations). To gain support for its complaint, PETA has posted graphic, grisly videos of the slaughter of cattle in the AgriProcessors slaughterhouse on its pro-vegetarian sister website, GoVeg. The video was filmed by members of PETA working undercover in the AgriProcessors slaughterhouses.
Animal Rights in Jewish Law
I have devoted an entire page on this site to Judaism's view of animal rights, so I will only touch on the most important points here.
Judaism has a considerable amount of respect for animal rights. Unlike PETA, however, Judaism teaches that humans may use animals to satisfy human needs, such as food and clothing. Jewish law requires us to do so in a way that minimizes the animal's suffering.
The kosher method of slaughter, known as shechitah, is designed primarily to remove blood from the animal, because blood is not kosher. However, it has always been understood to be the most humane form of killing: a swift stroke through the neck with a very sharp knife, simultaneously severing the carotid arteries and causing an immediate loss of blood pressure to the brain that rapidly causes insensitivity, insensibility, unconsciousness and then death. It is not a pretty death: an enormous amount of blood spurts out of the animal like water from a firehose when the stroke is made. And yet, that very blood loss that makes the process so messy is precisely what makes it relatively painless, cutting off blood to the brain.
At least 11 Israel Defense Forces soldiers were wounded Sunday evening when a blast ripped through an explosives-laden tunnel beneath an IDF military post close to the Rafah checkpoint on the Gaza-Egypt border, IDF officials said.
Less than hour later, a second blast rocked the area.
Immediately after the initial explosion, Palestinian militants fired mortar shells and shots at the IDF troops in the area. At least one militant was killed in the ensuing gunbattle.
Six of the wounded soldiers were taken to Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva, Israel Radio reported. The condition of the wounded was unclear.
Sunday's attack was the largest Palestinian attack in the month since Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat died.
Following the attack, the IDF amassed a large number of troops in the vicinity of Rafah. Military sources said a "measured response" is expected from the IDF, and that the decision on the scope of the response would take into consideration the planned withdrawal from Gaza and the upcoming elections for Palestinian Authority chairman.
Does anybody notice that I have a new header image? ..And a provocative one it is!
"Ma fish falastin".
So who knows Arabic?
Been working hard and too tired to blog right now, but I'll do it soon!
But I think you guys should e-mail me more often. I love e-mails! At least when they're pleasant.
This I got from Swedish super blogger Ice Viking. Now that's one butt kicking blog I say! This only proves that Scandinavians do indeed kick butt. They just have to be more careful (a lot more careful) about focusing their energy on kicking the right butt.
Six decades after the mass extermination of six million Jews in the Holocaust by Nazi Germany, more than 50 percent of Germans believe that Israel's present-day treatment of the Palestinians is similar to what the Nazis did to the Jews during World War II, a German survey released this weekend shows.
51 percent of respondents said that there is not much of a difference between what Israel is doing to the Palestinians today and what the Nazis did to the Jews during the Holocaust, compared to 49% who disagreed with such a comparison, according to the poll carried out by Germany's University of Bielefeld.
The survey also found that 68 percent of Germans believe that Israel is waging a "war of extermination" against the Palestinians, while some 32% disagreed with such a statement.
The two arrived in Stockholm at the beginning of the week for the "Nobel Week" of lectures and receptions.
This is the first time Israelis have won the most prestigious prize in the scientific world. The ceremony will be broadcast live on Channel 1.
Research by the three is probing how the human body gives the "kiss of death" to faulty proteins to defend itself from diseases like cancer.
Ciechanover, 57, Hershko, 67 - the first Israelis to win a chemistry prize - and Irwin Rose, 78, were honored by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for their work in the 1980s that discovered one of the cell's most important cyclical processes, regulated protein degradation.
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Since I was born I can not remember a time when the nation of Israel has been more hated than right now. This is why I find it interesting, and wonderful, and this year is still in a certain way a year of victory for Israel. To think that in the year 2004 Israel has both won it's first Olympic gold, as well as it's first Nobel prize (making the Olympic gold seem "small" in comparison, at least in my opinion). Well this is a fact that causes me to think that despite all the difficulties, perhaps there is Someone (note the capital "S"), still keeping an eye on Israel?
It has come down to pure insanity. Tomorrow is my big day. Tomorrow's exam will be the hardest one of my life so far. It's the reason why I've barely left the house since early November, except to go to class or work. It is the reason why I feel so completely and utterly caught up in the liminal phase of the isolated university student, just waiting for reintegration into society.
So no blogging for a day or two, but I'll see you again when it's all over!
Here are some good news for all of us who miss Reb Lazer. He will be writing guest posts at Hasidic Gentile's site.
So be sure to visit HG's page to keep up. (Which is something you should do anyway).
Everybody who knows me even the slightest bit, should be aware of the fact that since I can remember my mind first beginning to develop rashional thoughts, I have hated animal rights associations with a passion. So for those of you who for some reason do not know, let it be known that I, Maria Susanna Hiller:
* Enjoy using products that are tested on animals (I don't want animals to be mistreated for no reason. But better a guinea pig goes blind than somebody's child!).
* Frequently write hateful mail to Greenpeace to remind them that they have no clue what they're talking about.
* Have also written letters of complaint to PETA (what a bunch of losers) on several occasions
* Have no problem with McDonalds at all. Go McDonalds!
* Have an extensive collection of leather shoes, that I am extremely fond of.
* Don't like animals much generally, except, for dinner!
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So Israellycool's Dave was writing about how Bruce from PETA was harassing him again. I wish there were more people in the world like Dave, and fewer like Bruce! Dave's post just completely describes how I feel, so I'm gonna post the whole thing. As usual, it's hilarious.
Bruce from PETA has sent me yet another email regarding kosher slaughterhouses, despite having not yet replied to my own email to him. Talk about chutzpah.
Does he not know who he is dealing with here? Does he honestly think I am one day going to wake up and say "You know what? I was wrong about PETA. They are so nice and care so deeply for all living things. G-d bless them!" (LOL)
Not bloody likely.
If all of my readers write to Bruce (brucef@peta.org), and ask why PETA care more about animals than humans (see my email to him if you need inspiration), chances are he will stop sending me (and I assume others) junk mail.
You just don't mess with bloggers.
Update: Yesterday, 20-year-old IDF Staff Sergeant Nadav Kudinsky was killed, along with his bomb-sniffing dog, when a bomb planted by PLO Arab terrorists exploded. I am still waiting for PETA's condemnation of the act, and regret over the dog's death.
Israeli scientist Avraham Hershko, left, receivs the joint 2004 Nobel Prize for Chemistry from Swedish King Carl Gustaf.(Reuters)