I love the Merkava IV, Israel’s main battle tank.
The shape, the versatility, the power!
Complete fighting awesomeness.
The new “Merkava IV Barak” (scheduled for deployment in 2021) will even have artificial intelligence (AI) for advanced battle management systems.
I wish we had the Merkava during the Holocaust and could’ve given the Nazi bastards what they rightfully deserved.
Never again! 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, “To Bear Eternal Witness.”
I just finished reading a most gut-wrenching book, Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account by Dr. Miklos Nyiszli. I came across this book after learning that my wife’s grandmother had been selected by Dr. Josef Mengele (may his name be forever cursed) for torturous experiments at the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust. This New York Times Bestseller is a vivid eyewitness account by a Jewish forensic pathologist, who worked directly for Dr. Mengele, and tells of the unspeakable cruelty and horrors at Auschwitz, the largest Nazi death camp vastly accounting toward the twelve million people exterminated by the Nazis, six million of them Jews.
From my experience, once you pick up this book, you cannot put it down until you finish it completely, and I urge everyone to make this a must-read, especially as there will soon be no more Holocaust survivors to tell us, in-person, the hell that they lived through.
(Free Photo of Kyklon B Poison Gas via Pixabay)
What an amazing painting featured in the movie, Woman In Gold.
The painting is called the Portrait of Adele Block-Bauer I and was commissioned by her adoring husband.
That face! And surrounded by everything in gold yet you can still clearly make out her stunning dress.
I’ve never seen anything like this: the vividness and the majesty of it.
Honestly, I think there is a resemblance to my beautiful mother, Gerda Blumenthal who was also from Germany.
The interesting history on this is that it was stolen by the Nazis from the Jewish owners in the Holocaust, but was finally returned to their family in America that succeeded in suing Austria for it back.
This is truly one of the greats! 😉
(Credit Photo: Gustav Klimt [Public domain])
In Remembrance of Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Observance) today:
This is a beautiful Hebrew song about Anne Frank who at age 13 went into hiding in Amsterdam from the Nazis.
For two years, they stayed in the attic…not being able to make a sound or open a window.
But she kept an amazing diary that preserves for us the life and suffering they went through.
After 761 days, they were discovered and Anne Frank was was sent to Auschwitz Concentration Camp.
Anne and her sister Margot died in Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp.
This child was beautiful and her story lives to remind us of the evil that we face and the survival that we all must. 😉
___
Song:
Anne Frank’s Diary
Lyrics:
A book hides me.
And what, what a fear.
My father, my mother and my sister,
With the neighbors together.
We are all in silence and quiet,
With only the heart whispering whispers.
Here they hide from the soldiers,
Which our soul seeks.
My diary, my precious,
Oh Kitty, my friend.
Will I ever see a sunrise?
Will I find my death?
In the tiny rooms, From a suffocating feeling.
Cold days and clouds.
Nights of terror and silence.
It’s not true, it’s not right,
I want to laugh out loud.
Dance, sing and play,
I’m a child, all in all.
My diary, my precious …
There are terrible moments,
In our relations.
So crowded here in the apartment, Everything is closing in on us.
Food is also very lacking, The war within the city.
Will I live? Will I survive?
Do you still love and sing?
My diary, my precious …
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, “Getting Rid of the Farting Cows:
When politicians are extremists (Alt-left or -right) and want to get rid of “farting cows” and airplanes, then who knows what or who is next on their genocidal list (and with the elimination of cows being all too reminiscent of the notion of Jews going “like sheep to the slaughter.”)
Bigotry, hate and extremism is unbecoming of a Congressional Representative like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and they should be resolutely rejected– it hurts an important environmental cause and needs to be rejected for the cows and for us. 😉
(Source Photo: Pixabay)
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, “It wasn’t a Final Solution.”
My Uncle Freddie reached high up to the tippy-top of a tall bookcase in his small, but cozy room, and pulled down an old book. It had accumulated years of dust, and we had to wipe it off. The book, published by the Germans themselves, was one that I was familiar with having seen my own mother with a similar one documenting what happened to her family in the Holocaust. It had lists and lists of Jews that had been deported by the Nazis from my uncle’s city as well as where they sent them for liquidation.
Hope you appreciate this true story of survival amidst the horrors and death of the Holocaust.
(Source Photo: Dannielle Blumenthal)
The politics have gotten worse than ever again.
Since 2008 and Obama’s left-wing tilt followed by Hillary’s election debacle and Donald Trump’s upset win, what have we seen:
– Resistance
– Violent Marches
– Extremism From Nazis And ANTIFA
– Photos Of Decapitation
– Threats To Blow Up The White House
– Chasing Politicians From Restaurants
– Stealing Questions From Debates
– Secret Dossiers
– Smear Campaigns
– Special Counsels
– Sanctuary Cities
– Lies and Obfuscation
– Endless Challenges and Lawsuits
– Pay Freezes
– Government Shutdowns
– Stalled Legislation For Healthcare, Immigration, And more
– Screams for Impeachment
– Possible Planning of a Coup
– Talk of states seceding or even of another Civil War
Folks, what are we doing?
You’re gonna justify the means with the ends?
However, what are the ends so far and in the foreseeable future.
Nothing productive can get done politically or otherwise this way.
One side wins and the other throws a temper tantrum and stonewalls and then in reverse.
There is world instability from Russia to China, North Korea, and Iran, as well as violence and refugees from Syria to Sudan, Somalia, Myanmar, Iraq, and Afghanistan
The economic boom may very well end up an economic bust when it comes time to pay the humongous national deficit bill.
We are eating each other alive instead of creating a better world order.
Extremism begets extremism.
Hate begets hate.
You can tell yourself that you are fighting for what is right — both sides do — but perhaps you are destroying much more than you are building.
Things have gone too far and this country is self-destructing with or without Russian intervention.
We have become our own worst enemies. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
I liked this categorization of three types of tools of persuasion developed by Aristotle:
– Ethos: Appeals to a sense of ethics, morals, and character.
– Logos: Appeals to a sense of logic, reason, and rationality.
– Pathos: Appeals to a sense of emotion, empathy, and passion.
I don’t know about most people, but I don’t get convinced easily.
You need to show me, prove it to me, or convince me it’s right.
Some others, and I don’t know why–it’s like you can sell them the Brooklyn Bridge, as they say.
I think that’s dangerous!
Without critical thinking and evaluation, people can get led astray to do the wrong things…a perfect example is Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler (may his memory be forever cursed).
Hitler appealed to the Germans people at the time:
– Emotionally to bring them back from the loss, destruction, and destitution that World War I inflicted and of course, to scapegoat the Jews, Gypsies, and political opponents and send them to the death camps.
– Logically, that they were a strong and powerful people, the “Aryan nation,” and they therefore, deserved to conquer and rule Europe and the World.
– Ethically–let’s just say, this one didn’t really apply to Hitler, probably the most evil and destructive man this world has ever known, except that even Hitler tried to fool his people falsely proclaiming, “G-d is with us!”
It’s a war of good over evil out there, and we need to make our arguments to influence and persuade for the good, but we also have to be careful not to let others, who are not so good, manipulate us for their own selfish and depraved ends.
Ethos, Logos, and Pathos–potent tools or weapons in the direction of mankind and civilization. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Please see my new article in Times of Israel.
As much as we have to remember the horrors of the Holocaust and how so-called, human beings can descend into the depth of evilness inflicting hell against their fellow man, it is most critical to ensure it never happens again.
But remembering can be extremely painful, especially for the next generation that perhaps wants to forget all the terrible tragedy and for everything to be seemingly “normal” again.
But in the ageless war of good over evil, we must continuously fight to defend a peaceful and secure future for us and our children.
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
I saw this “Antifa” (Anti-Fascist) symbol on this painting of a cow in Washington, D.C.
As a child of Holocaust survivors, I certainly understand and can even sympathize with the view of the anti-fascist movement–certainly, we should all unequivocally appreciate, love, and want to protect freedom and human rights!
However, I think throwing around labels like fascist, perhaps where it is more about political disagreements doesn’t help to identify the really bad actors out there in the world and what they can and even would like to do to harm all of us.
Anyway, I am pretty sure that this cow is no fascist.
I would also like to say that the red and black with this symbol here is way too close to looking like how the genocidal Nazi’s themselves portrayed the dreaded and infamous swastika in red and black.
It would be great if we use symbols and labels carefully, and let the cows go back to being cows. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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