akuperma

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  • in reply to: Why do some men wear double-breasted suits? #911434
    akuperma
    Participant

    just my hapence: Frum Jews take fashion very seriously. We have to follow multiple dress codes (our own community, and the goyish world), while trying to dress comfortably and affordably, and have to be careful what message to send to the very diverse communities we deal with (both Jewish and goyish, and often multiple flavors of both).

    in reply to: Why do some men wear double-breasted suits? #911427
    akuperma
    Participant

    Currently “double breasted” is moderately out of style in western countries, meaning only a handful of “well dressed” men wear double breasted suits (e.g. the Prince of Wales, the Emperor of Japan – but not the Presidents of the United States or the Russian Federation). This changes frequently. As late as the 1980s they were definitely “in” on Wall Street and the “brown shoe law firms.”

    Double-breasted blazers are still worn, and they are often part of full dress military uniforms (particularly of the navy). Heavy winter coats are more likely than not to be double-breasted. Note that this paragraph refers exclusivly to goyim. While we don’t copy them, we are influenced by them, albeit very slowly. By the time “double breasted” goes out of style among Yidden, it will probably be coming back into style among goyim.

    In general, double-breasted is fancier and more formal, and Yidden tend to be very conservative. Among those of us wearing various versions of “frock” coats (Kapotes, Beckeshes, Rekels, etc.), the norm is double-breasted (intersting, in the situation where goyim still wear long coats, single breasted with a vest is the norm).

    in reply to: Giyoress or Not? #913554
    akuperma
    Participant

    1. Modern Orthodox often don’t cover their hair . Do you hold the Modern Orthodox to be frum?

    2. How did you determine that she was a giores (as opposed to being the descendant of someone from East Asia who converted).

    in reply to: Feeling the Chanukah Spirit #912698
    akuperma
    Participant

    The “spirit” of Hanukah is the goyim and frei Jews wanted us to stop being a bunch meshuganah fanatics, and we whipped them good.

    However given who we live among, it has always been a matter of “discretion is the better part of valor” and we try not to talk about it too much. We say hallel, al ha-nissim, light candles, have some milkigs and wink at what Yehudis did (not something we’ld be encouraging our daughters to emulate) – but it isn’t wise to loudly celebrate a victory over our neighbors when we live next door to the same.

    in reply to: Poorer People Bigger Tzadikm; Richer People Not Such Tzadikim #910846
    akuperma
    Participant

    If someone is rich in money, and a tsaddik, they will spend the money is appropriate ways and perhaps use the money to find more leisure time to do mitzvos – and will no longer be rich.

    akuperma
    Participant

    Since they don’t wear ties, the button-down look is more formal. And since they don’t wear ties, they can buy bigger shirts.

    And that is only at “full dress” mode- equivalent to wearing a tie for more “modern” styles. In less than “dressed up” mode (equivalent to American men not wearing a tie), the button gets undone.

    Note that the closed neck (buttoned collar) as an alternative to wearing a tie is no limited to Jews, but is also found among goyim in dress situations where men don’t wear a tie (e.g. the dress uniform of the Marine Corps).

    in reply to: Ibuprofen for Children – Kosher? #911303
    akuperma
    Participant

    Though especially for children’s liquid versions, a kosher version is nice, if one is available. Most people hold medicine doesn’t need a hecksher. Vitamins are more of a shailoh since they are a food (and also, since vitamins are usually available with hecksher).

    One has the issue with many non-prescription medicinces that they aren’t really effective or necessary, so is it okay to take what amounts to little more than a treff placebo.

    in reply to: Why do Litvish and Modern men always have their top shirt button open? #911135
    akuperma
    Participant

    Being fully dressed, they are wearing ties, and many men discover no real problem in opening the top button under a tie (the alternative would be to get a bigger size shirt).

    in reply to: Northfield Bank stock offering- what are your thoughts? #910837
    akuperma
    Participant

    There is always the possibility of making a profit with stocks, especially if the overall economy is good, and the company is well run, and you have lots of skill at analyzing the company (it helps to have “inside knowledge – especially if manage to avoid indictment).

    If you want certaintly, but Federal bonds or CDs from insured banks. In both cases you have a more direct issue with ribbis, though if you hold that loaning dollars violates halacha (treating dollars as money rather than as speculative securities since they have no fixed value) you have no business buying bank shares.

    If you want a safe investment with a guaranteed return on your investment, give the money to tsadakah and spend the time learning. Next world is above my grade level, but if you are subsequently in need in this world, a good name is better than gold. Asking for help is greatly facilitated if you are known as a Talmud HaHacham who was a Baal Tsadakah, rather than as someone who put all his money into a goyish bank that went belly-up.

    in reply to: Feeling the Chanukah Spirit #912682
    akuperma
    Participant

    HANUKKAH SPIRIT: We should go out and slaughter Reform Jews and/or Hiloni Israelis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Well, maybe that’s a bit extreme. However the holiday is not about pastry or presents. Just read the text of “Al ha-Nissim”.

    in reply to: Soferim Business #910813
    akuperma
    Participant

    For most purposes, soferim are MALE.

    For those things women can do, they have to be Orthodox Jewish women with good educations in Torah subjects. At this point, there are few in China.

    in reply to: Neturei Karta. #1106123
    akuperma
    Participant

    Countries prefer spies who don’t call attention to themselves. People who are too obvious are to easy to catch. Neturei Karta tries to call attention to themselves. At this point, they are a publicity stunt to call attention to the fact that some Orthodox Jews don’t support the zionists. They are the last people any intelligence service would recruit as spies.

    in reply to: The marriage trade #910044
    akuperma
    Participant

    popa_bar_abba: Are you married?

    in reply to: Ksuba question #910100
    akuperma
    Participant

    One can argue that the language of a kesuba is “boilerplate” (that’s legalese for formal language that is used in documents routinely, and has to be interpreted based on judicial precedents external to the documents, and often contradicting the plain meaning). To understand the halacha governing a married couple you should look at how rabbanim have been interpreting the law over the centuries, rather than attempting to interpret the language of the kesubah as if you were the first person to look at it.

    in reply to: Cheapest way from JFK to Newark #909865
    akuperma
    Participant

    The cheapest is probably to have a friend with a small (fuel efficient) car pick you up and drop you off (without parking at either airport). I suspect that taking the subway to Penn Station, and then the train to the airport might be cheaper, especially if you don’t have any friends with small cars who love urban driving. Convenience is also a function of time of day and of how much luggage one has.

    in reply to: Yeshiva Tuition #909699
    akuperma
    Participant

    The public schools would rejoice. They get enough in state and federal aid to cover the marginal costs. The people who run the city would relish the opportunity to break down a community they see as infamous for gender segregation, homophobia, ethnocentrism, and religious fanaticism.

    By your logic, the response of Jews to the holocaust should have been to organize a march to the nearest concentration camp.

    If want lower tuition, all we have to do is to stop teaching Torah.

    That’s like dealing with the high price of food by starving. Same logic.

    in reply to: Is there a Shidduch Crisis? #1137060
    akuperma
    Participant

    Every unmarried young adult, in all cultures (gays excepted) feels their is a shidduch (or at least, a marriage) crisis. They have always felt this way. Strangely, the crisis seems to be resolved when they get engaged. Even Adam ha-Rishon has a shidduch crisis for a while.

    Absent a disaster that kills most of one gender (such as war with only male casulties), the problem usually resolves itself.

    If there was a “crisis” – within a few years we’ld hear about wedding halls going broke, and heddarim closing for want of students.

    in reply to: Why do New Yorkers have to pay online sales tax? #909564
    akuperma
    Participant

    The tax is a “sales and use” tax, so if you use the goods in New York you have to pay the tax. Many states are cracking down on people who have been evading the tax by buying out of state and having the goods shipped to New York. The state hopes to get lots of revenue by forcing out of state merchants to collect the tax when they make the sale, rather than expecting people to voluntarily pay the tax when the merchandise arrives. The state needs the money to pay off everyone who needs to be pacified.

    in reply to: Can trees see? #908770
    akuperma
    Participant

    Trees do bump into buildings, and will even grow through a building if able to do so (depends on how strong the building is).

    Trees have some senses that let them know when to shed leaves, etc., but nothing resembling vision.

    in reply to: Mrs. Husband Name #909646
    akuperma
    Participant

    It’s the way the English and Americans do things, and in their countries it is useful to follow their minhagim. Traditionally, Ashkenazi Jews didn’t have surnames, and both men and women always went by their patronymic (Piloni/Pilonis Ben/Bat Piloni). At this point almost all rabbanim have adopted the custom, so it is mutar (similar to males wearing pants, which once were a goyish minhag, but eventually were adopted and now almost all rabbanim wear them).

    in reply to: "The Ethicist" in The New York Times #908670
    akuperma
    Participant

    The New York Times is owned and operated by secular Jews. They are our mortal enemies. Our existence is an affront to them. From their perspective, our disappearance from society would be boon to them. Their ethical rules reflect it. While it might be good to read the newspaper to keep an eye on what our enemies are doing, no frum person will see it as a newsource anymore than (NOT le-havdil) the infamous Der Sturmer (whose editor Julius Streicher was hanged at Nuremberg for excessivly bad journalism).

    in reply to: Black Friday 2012 #908816
    akuperma
    Participant

    It’s not a humrah. Normal Americans (that pretty much leaves out New Yorkers – I”m referring to the vast majority of Christians) consider shopping for Christmas to be part of the observance of how they honor what they believe to be the birth of their diety. Ask you posek:

    “Such and such is considered by the majority of goyim to be part of their religious holiday – Am I allowed to participate?” . Unless your posek is uber-Reform, I’ld be embarassed to ask such a dumb question.

    Many rabbanim may not be aware that the purchases of presents is part of the Avodah of the holiday of Dec. 25, or that this holiday is truely avodah zarah. That is why we need better secular education in yeshivos – and not from frei Jews. If you hold that Dec. 25 is an avodah zarah holiday, and you realize that most Americans observe this holiday by shopping for and giving presents – it isn’t a shailoh that “Black Friday” is something frum yidden shouldn’t participate in. Do we want goyim to look and say: “Oh, those Orthodox Jews are out shopping for christmas Presents just like us – isn’t it good how they’ve come around to our way of thinking and are honoring “yeshke” (as we call him) by giving presents”.

    in reply to: Black Friday 2012 #908811
    akuperma
    Participant

    Wasn’t that a similar question to the dispute of India (South Asian) hair for wigs. If the avodah of the Christians is to go shopping in a certain way, we shouldn’t join it. Of course, the mere act of shopping is mutar. The mere act of going door to door asking for treats on the eve of “All Saints Day” (Oct. 31) is mutar. Giving gifts in December is mutar. If a sale is part of the way they honor their avodah zarah, it probably is better not to participate.

    in reply to: Black Friday 2012 #908809
    akuperma
    Participant

    Considering that Jews don’t have a gift-giving holiday in December, there’t no need to imitate the goyim on this one. If there were big sales (a lot of studies suggest there isn’t any real cutting prices), we would want them preceeding our holidays. One might argue that since “Black Friday” is part of the preparation for the holiday the Christians celebrate on Dec. 25, that particpiating in it verges on Avodah Zarah.

    in reply to: we need government paid tuition- let our voice be heard #908373
    akuperma
    Participant

    Reasons why we don’t want to be like the Catholic schools:

    1. Many of the Catholic schools have endowments.

    2. Most of the Catholic schools are going broke anyways.

    3. The Catholic schools are usually co-ed, and try to get non-Catholic students. If we wanted goyim in our schools, it would be easier to get funding. That’s also the problem with

    a Jewish charter school since a public school can’t discriminate in admissions. In truth if we set up a multi-cultural, multi-religious school with a joint secular curriculum and separate religious curricula for each group, we probably could get funding for the secular part.

    4. The religious part of the curriculum is small (perhaps an extra subject or two), whereas

    the religious part of our curriculum is typically 60% of the day, and sometimes much more. If we wanted to run what is basically a public school with one or two periods of Jewish subjects, it would be much cheaper.

    in reply to: we need government paid tuition- let our voice be heard #908364
    akuperma
    Participant

    He who pays the fiddler calls the tune. What if the government says that those who accept our money have to teach the subjects our way? What if they insist that 17 year olds be vacinated against sexual diseases (note: pregnancy is a sexual disease from the government’s perspective, and they have long term vacines)? What if they insist that the school teach that “gay” is normal.

    Our ancestors always had the option to accept government money in return for raising our children the way the government wants. We always said no (at least, our immediate ancestor said no – our cousins who said yes eventually assimilated into the general population).

    in reply to: Will the state of morality in the USA ever recover? Who can be trusted? #908511
    akuperma
    Participant

    You think it was different in the past? While there have been exceptions, the only difference in the past it was hard to get caught “with your pants down”. Indeed, now with DNA testing we can uncover all sorts of things in history (none of which we would be allowed, for good reason, to discuss here).

    And yes, frum Yidden are different. We were, and will always will be. It even shows up in scientfic research (e.g., a major factor in determining that one form of cancer was sexually transmitted was the discovery that the disease was very rare in our community). But again, that’s not a hidush either.

    in reply to: Shame on Israel for bowing to pressure #908596
    akuperma
    Participant

    The Israeli goal is to stop the random rocket attacks. Occupying Gaza would work, but would claim many Jewish lives. Continuing to trade rockets doesn’t work for several reasons (cost – Israeli rockets are more expensive as well as more accurate; public opinion issues- since Israel has superior rockets they call far more Palestinians than the number of Israelis the Palestinians can kill with their inferior rockets). Getting to Egyptians to in effect reoccupy Gaza makes the Egyptians liable for any future rocket attacks, and only the Gazans, Egypt has a lot to lose in the event of war.

    in reply to: Energy drinks #908203
    akuperma
    Participant

    It is interesting that the big ingredient involved is cafeine. At least one religious group (Mormons) ban it. Of course, cafeine in large amounts can be dangerous (which is probably true of virtually anything, even bread and water). But is adopting a quasi-religious objection to cafeine (a major ingredient in coffee, chocolate, tea and many soft drinks) raising a shailoh of avodah zara?

    Environmental and health nuts are fine when they stick to science. But their enthusiasm tends to blend in into a mystical faith in their positions, and that raises shailohs.

    in reply to: Free Government Programs #910225
    akuperma
    Participant

    “Jews pay more taxes…”

    Frum Jews certainly don’t. We have large numbers of children (few of whom have trust funds are anything else to pay taxes), a large number of people with low incomes (kollels and yeshivos pay lousy salaries), we have many people who give up much income in order to have jobs that won’t cause hassles with religious observances, we have many women who choose to be unemployed or underemployed in order to take care of children. Any Jews who tries to maximize parnassah quickly learns that most paths to maximize parnassah create a conflict with being frum.

    Frei Jews are probably among the richest group in America, and they don’t seem to mind paying high taxes (note that they overwhelmingly vote for the party of “tax and spend”). Frum Jews are more likely to be in the 47%, than the 1%.

    in reply to: What is Nationality if born in Haifa, 1937? #907367
    akuperma
    Participant

    At the time a Palestinian with some British rights. If you left prior to May 14, 1948, I suspect that you wouldn’t have qualified for Israeli citizenship. Unless you immigrated to the United Kingdom by a certain date, you would have lost a claim for British nationality but quite qualify for a British passport saying you are a British national without right of residence in the UK.If you moved to the US pre-1948, but neglected to pick up American citizenship, and it turned out weren’t eligible (say, if you are a felon), it would be an interesting question whether the Israelis would let you in when the US deported you as an illegal undesirable alien.

    in reply to: Free Government Programs #910217
    akuperma
    Participant

    Free government program used by many frum Yidden with good results, no shailoh of taking tasadakah from the goyim:

    http://www.USAjobs.gov

    in reply to: Secession petitions now filed for all 50 states #908020
    akuperma
    Participant

    uneeq:

    1. Secession requires at most a 2/3 vote in the Senate to ratify a treaty, and probably only a majority vote in both houses of Congress. At worse, it requires a constitutional amendment.

    2. Certainly states such as New York (and most of the states with large Jewish populations) would be bankrupt almost immediately, and would enter a full fledged depression, similar to Greece, often combined with hyperinflation.

    3. The withdrawal of the United States from world affairs, as no state would have the capacity of raising sufficient military force to project power abroad, would probably be no worse than it was before the US started interfering in other country’s affairs (we remember the 1930’s, they were a good time, weren’t they?).

    in reply to: Free Government Programs #910200
    akuperma
    Participant

    Nothing is free. It’s paid for from taxes.

    I assume you are talking about programs such as welfare, food stamps, WIC, SCHIPS, etc. These are very popular even though one could argue they are accepting charity from the non-Jews.

    One program that costs nothing to participate it is called JOBS. The government is a leading employer. Generally particpants in this program do quite well.

    in reply to: Why do we call them Toysfiss #1046025
    akuperma
    Participant

    rebdoniel:

    1. Many frum Jews are speaking Yiddish, not Hebrew. Various vowel and consonant shifts occured, as they have in German.

    2. What defines proper Hebrew? Certainly it requires careful differentiation between ? and ?, and respect for the dagesh in all letters where it occurs (including daled and gimmel). The accent of Jews from Yemen might be the closest. The multiple “S” and “T” letters are all mistakes (natural ones, as many language evolve along similar lines) — note how all American mispronounce the gutteral “gh” as in how we would have written Ghanukah had there been any English-speaking Jews in the middle age.

    3. Had the Jewish people been wiped out, Hebrew would have been frozen and there would be a “right” pronounciation. But we surived and have been writing, and speaking, Hebrew for millenia, and like all languages, it evolves.

    4. Obviously the correct pronounciation is the way Ha-Shem spoke to us at Sinai. If the correct pronounciation was of any halachic significance, I’m sure that Torah would have been given on CDs so the matter would be clear.

    in reply to: Secession petitions now filed for all 50 states #908012
    akuperma
    Participant

    1. It’s a joke. A stunt. A protest.

    2. A very small 3% change, and Romney would be doing a transition and looking forward to both houses being Republican. It’s only when your region is getting whooped that you consider leaving. THen the “blue” would be screaming the country is going downhill.

    3. Given that any state to leave would take its share of the national debt, but not the ability to print dollars, they would be an instant “Greece”

    in reply to: Noachide law #907006
    akuperma
    Participant

    Since they are goyim, we apply their law. This is an area where everyone would hold the Dina Malchusa Dina applies to goyim.

    When the creditor sues the debtor, the debtor has a way of saying that the evil third party is really at fault and should pay the claim. It turns out that most legal system find a way to deal with the situation, since it is quite common. What is usual is that the evil third party may be insolvent (happens to evil tortfeasors a lot), though the debtor probably has a way to declare bankruptcy (which would leave the creditor going after the debtor’s debtors such as the evil third party).

    If the case involves goyim, let us hope they have Jewish lawyers, who on taking over all sides’ property (that is what lawyers do) will support our tasadakos.

    in reply to: Why do we call them Toysfiss #1046016
    akuperma
    Participant

    Because in a living language, people pronounce things fast and naturally. It’s a sign you are alive. In a dead language, such as Latin or Sumerian, everything is pronounced correctly all the time since the forces that affect living languages no longer are at work.

    If the Germans won the war, their scholars studying Judaica (who were building up a massive library by pilgering sefarim all over Europe) would have pronounced everything exactly and correctly, unaffected by any living people who really cared about the materials.

    in reply to: OTD Phenomenom #907231
    akuperma
    Participant

    Are there any statistics on percent of “off the derech”, and how do you define “off the derech”?

    If I wear a fedora or a homburg, and my son wears a knit yarmulke, is he off the derech? If someone isn’t going to work on Shabbos, eating pork, and marrying a non-Jew, are they really off the derech? A frum juvenile delinquent is still frum. In the past, most orthodox synagogues in America had trouble finding a minyan of Shomer Shabbos, and parents routinely were asking how to act when eating in their children’s home (as in “is it okay to drink water in a glass cup?”) – and you don’t see that any more.

    in reply to: correct pronunciation for the word r-a-t-i-o-n #906338
    akuperma
    Participant

    The issue is how to pronounce the “A”, and it varies based on dialect.

    in reply to: Water and Electricity #903788
    akuperma
    Participant

    Unless you: 1) are an electrician or a plumber; 2) anxious to find out how much your share in ???? ??? is — AVOID downed electrical wires

    in reply to: Two Things to Remember Before You Order Your Palestinian Passport #906819
    akuperma
    Participant

    One should also remember in discussing the British (and to a lesser extent, the Americans), that contrary to a myth put forth immediately after World War II, the British had full and complete knowledge of the holocaust from the onset (since we now know they broke the German codes by 1940, and had detailed reports of what was going on), so that British (and to a lesser extent, American, since the Brits shared intelligence) activities that made it hard for Jews to flee Europe were made with full knowledge that any Jew trapped in or sent back to German controlled areas would be murdered.

    in reply to: Becoming Chareidi #903706
    akuperma
    Participant

    Chareidi is broader. Yeshivish is a type of Chareidi. So is Hasidisch or Sefardi.

    The terms are ill defined. Most human beings tend to fit into their surroundings. If you hang out in a hareidi environoment, you wake up one morning and discover and go to work and notice the people in the “normal” world all seem to be a bit strange, and when you get home you feel relieved to be back when everyone is normal.

    in reply to: BDE because of obama #906255
    akuperma
    Participant

    Obama may be annoying from a lot of perspectives, but we’ve seen a lot worse. Indeed, most Jews voted for him, and his party (the party of Greenfield, Hikind, etc.) is still the dominant party in the frum community. His economic policies are very good for large families and persons with limited incomes (such as kollel families). His impact on Eretz Yisrael is probably minimal (Ha-Shem and the Jews living there will decide their destiny – not the Americans). His views on moral issues are reflective of those of the non-frum Jews and of most New Yorkers (and note that most frum Jews choose to live in New York in spite of it being the leading city when it comes to immorality).

    Obama’s win may be bad, but it is hardly the end of the world.

    in reply to: Good Things about Obama #903750
    akuperma
    Participant

    1. He is very good for investors. To make money investing one needs to buy low and sell high, and Obama will be creating new and improved opportunities to buy low.

    2. It will encourage the Israelis to rely on themselves and Ha-Shem, instead of praying to the Americans to bail them out of their messes.

    3. His support of abortion, contraception and homosexuality will encourage the “left” to engage in behavior that keeps them from having children, so perhaps they’ll go extinct eventually.

    4. His personal life is exemplary and sets a good model, unlike the previous Democratic president.

    in reply to: "Theories" about why NY has no gas #903478
    akuperma
    Participant

    You ban new refineries for years.

    You ban pipelines to bring gas from other parts of the country.

    You ban ships from carrying gas from other parts of the country.

    You restrict drilling for oil anywheres near New York.

    And you have a storm that disrupts your local infrastructure – and of course all the “green” decision come back to bite you.

    in reply to: Two Things to Remember Before You Order Your Palestinian Passport #906808
    akuperma
    Participant

    1. We agree on the British non-claim to Palestine. Actually, so did the British government. Only the original poster thought otherwise.

    2. The Ottomans usually claimed and had some control of eastern Arabia (where Mecca is). They nominally claimed the west (from which the Saudi came) but until the oil discoveries, that part was basically “hefker” from the point of view of national governments.

    3. Balfour never promised an independent state. At most, contemporaries thought it might involve a self-governing entity similar to what Canada or Australia were at the time (no control over military or foreign affairs, financial matters controlled from London, judiciary controlled from London, all decisions subject to review by London’s governor). Given that at the time, Palestine wasn’t British territory, the concept of a “homeland” wasn’t tied to sovereign status in any form – only a place where Jews could move with no guarantee of political control. They also promised the Arabs a state in the region, which led to the famous Faisal-Weizman agreement, and also to De Haan negotiation with Faisal (the idea being the autonomous Jewish homeland with a large Arab state – sort of a Dhimmi/ghetto on steroids – but enough so Jews fleeing Europe could have fled, and the Brits and Americans would have been less resistant to helping Jews flee Hitler).

    There were no “Palestinians” before 1948, only a group of “Levantine” Arabs including all of modern Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Israel. It would have been a lot easier for a country that was 90% Arab to tolerate a Jewish minority that wanted authonomy and economic freedom, than for a small Palestinian entity to accept being part of a country with a probable Jewish majority – Muslims don’t take kindly to being a minority – something that the rabbanim realized which is one reason they opposed zionism (if we try to boss the Arabs around, it guarantees war).

    in reply to: Two Things to Remember Before You Order Your Palestinian Passport #906799
    akuperma
    Participant

    #1- The British claim on Palestine was very weak. It was never even officially annexed to the British Empire (it was a League of Nations mandate, on whose behalf the British administered it). The British had promised Palestine (along with what is now Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabic and Jordan) to the Arabs as a large Arab state under the family of the current ruler of Jordan (whose ancestor was quite willing to have Jewish immigration into this large country), but the Brits double-crossed the Arabs. Had the Brits not broken their deal with the Arabs, The Arabic world east of Suez would be one large country, led by the moderate dynasty now ruling Jordan, with a very large autonomous Jewish population (perhaps extremely large since Hitler would be remembered for the “expulsion” of European Jews).

    in reply to: Obama won the election because… #903210
    akuperma
    Participant

    Obama was elected because: he got more votes than Romney

    Among Romney’s problems is that he (and the country) were distracted by fringe Republicans who are obsessed with sex and openly anti-Hispanic prejudices. Romney should have stuck to economics and his “making America great” themes, which would have one. He needed to repudiate those Republicans who focused on non-economic sexual issues (which most Americans feel should be private matters not subject to government regulation) and the nativists (who seriously insult all Hispanics, and much of the non-WASP population). There is a strong pro-immigrant wing of the Republicans (Wall Street/Country Club Republicans are pro-immigrant, as are the religious right since they see the Hispanic immigrants as people like themselves), and there is a strong libertarian wing who favor small government staying out of people’s personal lives. These issues suggests that Rand Paul may be the way of the future, as well as the several second-generation ethnics (Marco Rubio, Bobby Jindahl, Nikki Haley).

    in reply to: Stoning of an adulterers #903535
    akuperma
    Participant

    Have you seen anyone doing adultery with witnesses (being respectable people, whose presences are known). The only ways any halachic capital punishment came into play was if the person was making an effor to publicly flaunt their behavior – which in the real world doesn’t happen.

Viewing 50 posts - 2,951 through 3,000 (of 3,306 total)