Saw this on a bus in Florida.
It’s an important message.
Take Action. Stop Child Abuse.
Children are innocent!
The adults who commit the abuse and trafficking are animals.
If you see something, say something to the authorities.
You may just be saving a child’s life.
Protect our children…they are our future. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, “Towards Peace and Freedom Among Nations.”
Natan Sharansky showed tremendous personal strength and integrity to respond with humor and wit while suffering under the Soviets in prison, separated from his wife, deprived of all outside contacts, placed in “punishment cells” cold, hungry, and sleep-deprived, and regularly interrogated to try to get him to incriminate himself and his fellow refuseniks and human rights activists. Sharansky is truly a hero who stood up as a Jew persecuted in the Soviet Union and as a human rights activist leading the way to help other refuseniks to get released, with eventually millions escaping through the “Iron Door” to emigrate to freedom in Israel and the United States.
Yesterday, we celebrated Israel’s 72nd Independence Day, so I will add that for too many years since the founding of the State of Israel that the Soviets armed and supported the Arab League nations in warring against Israel and in seeking its destruction. However now, Israel and Russia not only have an anchoring of social idealism in common, but also Israel has 15% of it citizens from there. Further, as Israel has made peace with Egypt and Jordan decades ago, and has a warming of relations with the Gulf States, perhaps Russia will also continue to come around to growing a mutually beneficial friendship with Israel.
(Free Photo via Pixabay)
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, “Without Slavery and Genocide.”
Coming out of the museum, my daughter asked how anyone could actually do something like this to another human being. I had no answer to this…just like I have none to the Holocaust or any of the other incredibly cruel, sick, and wicked things that people do to each other.
Hopefully we can all have a brighter future without slavery and without genocide. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Thought these are some beautiful sentiments about breaking the cycle of trauma in our lives:
“Hurt people hurt people.
That’s how pain patterns get passed on, generation after generation after generation.
Break the chain today.
Meet anger with sympathy, contempt with compassion, cruelty with kindness.
Greet grimaces with smiles.
Forgive and forget about finding fault.
Love is the weapon of the future.”
– Yehuda Berg, The Kabbalah Center
This is powerful–it should only be that we can have a complete healing, betterment, and a renewal of peace for all.
One other thing that I heard that was so plain and simple, yet so smart was that:
Our job in this world is to do the most good that we can do!
Thank you to Minna Blumenthal for sharing all this.
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
That Smug Face, Evil Haman.
Reclining back with legs crossed.
Know-it-all, interrupting others rudely.
Abusive, hurtful words.
Violent, loud, aggressive actions.
Narcissist, my way or the highway.
For their power and desires only.
They believe that might makes right.
In every generation, they rise to perpetuate suffering on others.
But G-d stands supreme.
He will evoke his judgment and rain His fiery wrath on the oppressive, evil, and haughty.
And He will restore good over evil in the world.
His faithful will praise His holy name forever.
So this is the kind of dessert turkey that will sweeten your Thanksgiving dinner.
Gobs and gobs of white, milk, and dark chocolate.
And they actually shaped it all like a turkey.
Sort of cute, but also sort of sugary disgusting, no?
Generally, I’m not a huge fan of eating turkey either.
Maybe when they boil it in oil, and it’s cooked through and through, it actually comes out juicy and not so bad.
But give me a nice piece of beef, and I’ll be your pal forever!
A colleague who was a veterinarian and worked inspecting meat plants overseas told me some things about the cleanliness though that made my skin crawl.
“The cleanliness outside of the U.S. is WAY DIFFERENT than here!”–and not in a good way.
Even in places that do maintain clean facilities and healthy animals, the way that “they make the sausage” sounded so unappetizing.
It made me think of all those PETA and other commercials that show the chickens and other caged birds in those crowded and filthy (and diseased) conditions…even aside from the cruelty, it’s enough to make you cringe.
He said they mash the meat until it’s like just a pink paste that gets shot into the tubes for hot dogs and things like that.
“It looks disgusting!”
Also, they put parts of the animal in that are basically leftover meats from the head and other parts of the animal that did NOT sound desirable at all.
I’m thinking to myself…FROM THE HEAD.
Uh, no more hot dogs for me, thank you.
I think that I’ll stick with a nice steak or burger or something KOSHER and palatable.
You can have your turkey and your sausage and eat it, but not me! 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
A lady dropped these placards around on the Metro yesterday with a little pack of tissues.
It says:
“Hi, I have 2 kids and I’m a single mother and I have no job. If you can please help me for food and for rent. G-d bless you. Thank you.”
It is heart-wrenching, the poverty!
People without food or shelter.
Many without medicine and proper clothing.
Basic things that most of us take for granted.
It takes so little for everything to go to sh*t.
Both individually and also societally.
The world can be a cruel, cruel place.
But people can open their hearts and wallets to help others.
Also, advocate for people that are less fortunate.
Imagine G-d looking down and what does he see from us. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
It is amazing that still in the 21st century there is not widespread acceptance and legality of physician-assisted suicide.
Even the term voluntary euthanasia (from the Greek meaning good death) is still considered taboo–similar to using the term radical Islamist.
People are afraid to call a spade a spade and deal with life’s complexities and harsh realities.
All through history, mankind had the code of conduct and honor that when someone (person or animal) was mortality wounded by nature or in battle, they would be “put out of their misery.”
This is called COMPASSION!
Yet, in modern-day civilization, extremist PC-ness (politically correctness) dooms even such a basic fundamental act of decency toward one another.
Like with radical Islam, the fear of saying it and admitting to a war against extremist and murderous religion ideology cannot be fathomed and so “leadership from behind” mandates that we close our eyes and pretend the boogeyman isn’t really in the room–even if it means continuous losing in the global war on terror.
Similarly, with euthanasia, poor excuses for leaders fear that once the genie is out of the bootle, people will just be committing arbitrary acts of suicide left and right.
Unfortunately, these weak people in leadership positions are not leaders, but rather cowards who force others to suffer whether by the hands of terrorism and war or by the unnecessary and cruel suffering for people with the most horrible illness and disabilities in society.
In 1988, “Dr. Death,” Jack Kevorkian, provided assisted suicide to someone with the horrible, Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and in turn, he had to spend 8 years in jail for second-degree murder.
Fortunately, there are now already 5 U.S. states where “physicians cannot prosecuted for prescribing medication to hasten death”, where individuals that “have a terminal illness as well as a prognosis of six months or less to live.” These include: Oregon, Vermont, Washington, California, and Montana (when mandated by a court ruling).
Similarly, overseas in Switzerland, associations like DIGNITAS, provide services “accompanying dying patients at the end of their lives and assistance with suicide.”
The person must have a:
– “terminal illness” and/or an
– “an “unendurable incapacitating disability” and/or
– “unbearable and uncontrollable pain.”
The end is made reasonable and humane by having a in-depth evaluation, followed by at least 2 face-to-face meetings with doctors, getting a prescription for the medicine, setting a mutually agreed date, having loved ones at their side, and self-administering the fatal dose of Sodium Pentobarbital (NaP), usually 15 mg by swallowing or administering by gastric tube or intravenously.
The medicine is “lethal, fast-acting, and completely painless”–after taking it, the patient falls asleep within a few minutes and passes peacefully.
Having seen my own mother suffer horribly with Parkinson’s Disease, I know that voluntary euthanasia would not only have been the merciful thing to do, but the right thing to do to help people.
Political correctness and fear of doing what needs to be done is no excuse for prolonging the suffering of those that want to exercise their right to die and who deserve their final peace. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Just want to share a quote that a colleague said they saw recently displayed at the Kennedy Center:
“I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.”
– John Cage
Perhaps, it’s not what’s old or what’s new that is scary, but simply what is unconstrained evil in men’s hearts at any time or place.
It’s the age old fight of good over evil, and when evil gets the upper hand, even if just for a short time, it can be the most unbelievable and frightening to face off with.
Let’s give new ideas plenty of opportunity as long as they are based in kindness, compassion, and humanity.
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
The photo is self-explanatory to all decent human beings out there.
We can never let evil rule the day.
Good people must stand up and speak out for good.
Never again!
(Source Photo: Sent to me by Minna Blumenthal)
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