Happy Rosh Hashanah, everyone

[whometense]

who is so inclined.

Now, back to the kitchen for me!

[karynnj]

1. Happy Rosh Hashanah to you (and anyone else celebrating)

[TayTay]

2. A sweet, sweet New Year's to you!

Good Yontif. A happy, healthy and joyous New Year to all.

[whometense]

3. Thank you!

And the same to both of you!

And here's a little Kerry-present for the New Year (hey, we know Cam is celebrating!): I just saw Kerry interviewed on NECN about Harriet Miers. So maybe there'll be video.

It was short, but, for the Kerry-deprived, sweet. If they put up video I assume it will be here: http://www.boston.com/news/politics/necn/

[TayTay]

5. I couldn't get the Leahy clip to load so I was looking around

the site and found a clip on 2008 Democrats and had a shock. Did you know that Joan Vennocchi (yes, that Joan Vennocchi from the Boston Globe) thinks Kerry is a stronger candidate in '08 than Hillary Clinton. She said that if Kerry 'learns the lessons from '04' he would actually be a better and stronger Dem candidate in '08 that anyone else.

Okay, close your mouth and breath. I am not hallucinating. It's on the NECN tape. Huh! Who'd a thunk it.

[whometense]

6. OMG.

Is she speaking on it? Do you have a link? I always have trouble playing NECN clips.

[TayTay]

7. I entered 'Kerry' as a search term on their video page

scrolled down lazily to see if they had stuff I hadn't seen before and alighted on a Campaign '08 thingee from I don't know when. (NECN needs to date stamp their videos.) Anyway, the first 30 seconds quote Vennocchi saying Kerry was a better candidate in '08 than Hillary.

You coulda knocked me ova wit a feathah!

[whometense]

8. No shit.

Who is she, anyway?? Did you read her column in the Sunday paper about how Bernie Law is running (ruining?) the Boston Archdiocese from Rome? It wasn't bad.

I have to go check that one out, but even if I hear it with my own ears I'm not sure I'll be able to believe it.

I'm officially pathetic. I can't even find their search page. :-(

[TayTay]

10. Don't be so hard on yourself.

If you are cooking, then you are expecting people for the Holiday. You got a lot on your mind. And the NECN site is not well-organized.

To the NECN.

Pick any video

That will take you to the video page

There is a search field at the top left.

Enter 'Kerry' and then a new list of videos appear.

Select the one labeled 'Campaign 2008.' Voila!

You might have to click the video twice. The first time I got an ad to join NYPD. Sigh!

[Mass]

4. Happy Rosh Hashanah

[rockymountaindem]

9. I didn't know all yous guys are Jews!

Good to know! Happy new year :hi:

[TayTay]

11. My husband was raised Orthodox and

went and married a shiksa. I was raised Catholic and am now in recovery. We tend, in my household, to honor any holiday that involves either presents or food.

(The thought that I am a shiksa is amazingly amusing.)

[rockymountaindem]

14. I always have a hard time explaning to my friends that I'm a

"conservative Jew". They're like "no you're not, you're a liberal Jew! Don't go scaring us like that!"

Then I have to explain that the two things have nothing in common :)

I figure I'm not really reform, because I know the morning service in Hebrew by heart (among other things) I don't eat pork (since I turned 14) and I've recently given up shellfish. I also fast on minor fast days when I remember to. But considering, I'm definately not Orthodox. However, there are a lot of rules that we can't really follow these days, like leaving the corners of our fields for the poor. I'm not a farmer. Plus, I can't really open my home to strangers and travellers because nobody arrives unannounced. I donate money to charity, but then we all do that so it doesn't exactly differentiate me from anyone else.

[jillan]

12. Well thank you!

How many of us Jews are on this board?

I am one. Very reformed.

And when we figure out who else is here, maybe we can have a long chat about how Jewish people could have voted for Bsh? My sister-in-law and I are baffled. We have heard that born again Christians want the Jews to burn so we can have the chance to accept Jesus into our lives. She had told me that, and it was also discussed when I used to hang out on the Randi Rhodes message board. And didn't Bsh get more of the Jewish vote than Kerry?

Anyway - happy and healthy New Year!

[whometense]

13. According to

this site: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/jewvote.html

it was
2004*
Bush (R) 24
Kerry (D) 76
Nader (G) <1

So, no. Most of us have our heads on straight.

On edit: my husband is escaped orthodox; I was raised reform-ish.

[jillan]

15. That makes me feel so much better.

Must've been that "liberal media" that made me think otherwise.

[Mass]

16. Kerry got less votes than Gore did, I think

That may be while you got this impression, but Kerry got definitively more Jewish votes than Bush.

The rapture story is crazy by itself. My husband had to explain it to his mother so that she could understand why Bush cared so much about Israel. Unfortunately, I am afraid many people did not understand how born again fundies needed a state of Israel to exist so that it could be destroyed in fire in the End Days.

[jillan]

17. You heard about that story too?!

I remember one day I tried to google it, research it, with no luck.

My brother and his family live in a very orthodox area of Chicago, and they would tell me how these people had Bsh stickers in their windows -
Oy!

[Island Blue]

18. The rapture story is crazy.

My best friend is a born again Baptist (not quite a batshit crazy fundie but hanging out in that neighborhood). Anyway, I was at her house one morning when she and her husband were getting dressed for church and they were both wearing a lapel pin that was the Israeli and American flags together. I thought it was strange, but since we don't talk about religion together I didn't ask her about it. Sometime later I saw a piece on 60 Minutes about the fundies and their "love" of Israel and the Jewish people and her pin made sense to me. (Well it didn't actually make sense, but you know what I mean.)

I was raised totally non-religious - I now think of myself as a Deist. If you think it's difficult to be a Democrat in the South, try being a non-religious Democrat in the South. (I know, I know. Break out your tiny violins.)

[beachmom]

19. A couple of questions, comments

First, * just held a conference today, and the commenter said it was unusual because today is Rosh Hashana and it was likely that many of the Jewish reporters would not show up. "Unusual" is possibly a euphenism for "rude, showing how much he's in trouble with this SCOTUS nominee"

Second, hey Tay Tay -- I didn't realize we were the same religion, as in "recovering Catholic". I go to Unity now, that's filled with Democratic bumper stickers in the parking lot deep in * Country. Although sometimes I'm with Island Blue, not knowing if there's anything to religion at all.

Third, there's a guy I know here, who was a big pain last year, always coming up to me telling me how Kerry was a big "phony" and an "idiot", and how * was a "great leader". Anyway, he's Jewish and from Boston (and, in fact, flew to Boston for one day to catch a Red Sox game). He voted for Gore in '00. Can someone explain this guy to me? He deals with the military a lot, so maybe they've brainwashed him. But the Kerry hatred is ridiculous.

Forth, I am fairly ignorant of the Jewish religion and wouldn't mind hearing little explanations for the different holidays and traditions if someone feels inclined to do so.

[rox63]

20. You, me and TayTay are all the same religion

Firstly, Happy Rosh Hashana to all our Jewish members.

I'm another 'recovering Catholic'. I went through 12 years of Catholic school, where almost all the teachers were nuns. I ran screaming from all organized religion after I graduated from high school. I was active in a UU church for a few years in my late 20's and early 30's. But I kinda wandered away from that, because the services felt more like a social club/discussion group instead of a spiritual experience. I've considered Quakerism in recent years, because they tend towards liberalism with a more spiritual nature. But I've never gotten past attending a few meetings. I think my preference for lazy Sunday mornings at home is probably getting in the way. So maybe religion just isn't important enough to me to rearrange my schedule for it. And I'll probably remain un-churched for the forseeable future.

[beachmom]

21. You might like Unity, rox63, if you miss some of the Christian things

about the Catholic Church. I swear, there are a TON of recovering Catholics at my Unity Church. It's nice because they don't even expect you to leave the church you grow up with. You simply come as you please. Guilt and hell are not allowed at Unity. Gays and lesbians are, of course, welcome, but unlike UU (which, interestingly, the one I went to near here struck me as too political, even if it was the left leaning politics that were up my alley) it is Christian metaphysical.

Whoops. I seem to be proselytizing, so I'll stop with that. I guess my point is, is that, say, once a month you want to do something spiritual, Unity might be something worth a try. That or maybe a yoga or meditation class. It doesn't have to be a church.

Oh yeah, and keeping with the Rosh Hashana theme, I watched a talk on C-SPAN (Book TV) by that guy who wrote "The End of Faith" (he's for atheism), it was in a temple (I'm not sure what Jewish sect it was), and the Rabbi, I swear, could have been a Unity minister. It was a very similar, positive, metaphysical worldview, and I thought -- gee, I could hang out there any time. So, when religions remove all the political stuff, and concentrate on the spiritual, they really do seem to come together (like try reading the Muslim poet Rumi -- great stuff).