Author: Shlomo Bar-Ayal

  • Travelling in Lithuania

    We are travellin in Lithuania.  It seems very fitting that we should be visiting this country during the Three Weeks.

    The Three Weeks is ythe period  between the 17th of Tamuz and the 9th of Av.  That is the traditional mourning period for the destruction of the Holy Temple.  (The 17th of Tamuz is considered to be the date on which the Romans broke through the walls of Jerusalem, that ws the beginning of the end of the Second Temple.)

    I bring this up because Lithuania used to have a vibrant Jewish community.  It was the intellectual center of the Jewish world for about 200 plus years.

    In 1940 this all came to an end.  First the Soviets invaded.  Then on June 22, 1941 the Germans invaded.  Within the three years of the German occupation 96% of the Jewish population of this country.  The the Russians came back.  They refused to allow any Jewish life to return to Lithuania.

    What is left is a community that is totally ignorant of their own past.

    So as we travel around this country, it is just sad to think about what was and what is.

  • Some Random Thoughts

    I know that I haven’t blogged in a while.

  • Getting back on line soon

    I

  • Do they think about what they say?

    “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.” Benjamin Franklin.

    I have always like this quote. It shows that a pure democracy is not always the best way to protect the rights of all the people.

    Last week we were treated to another example of this when the senate voted to do away with the filibuster.

    The filibuster was the creation of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Hardly men who would oppose democratic rule. They devised it so that congress cannot run roughshod over a sizable minority.

    They realized that without this protection minority views will be trampled on. Just to remember that the Oslo accords were approved by a bare majority in the Knesset, (the Israeli parliment), and when asked about this Shimon Peres famously said that a majority is a majority. We have seen how that has played out.

    I understand the president’s frustration in that he cannot pack the courts with political flunkies. Yes, that is problematic for him from a partisan point of view. Just as it would be for all presidents, regardless of party.

    When there was talk of Republicans doing the same, the Republican leadership denounced the idea on the grounds that they will not always be in the majority. I wonder if Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer have thought about that? I don’t think they have.

    In fact, I don’t think they thought at all except about the political expedience of the moment.

    And that could be dangerous for liberals and conservatives alike.

  • A-Historical History

    Like many people I like podcasts.

  • They Think We are Stupid

    A number of years ago I was watching the news with a Liberal family member.

  • Just some thoughts About my Birthday

    I’ve been away for a short while and life got in the way of writing.

  • The Yankees

    I ama New York Yankees fan.

  • Thinking about Embryonic Stem Cells

    The hardest questions that we have today concern the junction of science and morality.

  • It’s Not About the Land

    One of the