PSA: Male Bathroom Etiquette

Live. Learn. Obey.

Mike

He Doth Protest Too Much

I've been away for a few days on a business trip to Brasil and then was attending an ag conference in Québec City. Upon my brief arrival back in Montana, before heading to North Dakota, it would seem some on the left are absolutely priapic that presidential candidate John Edwards will be visiting Missoula.

One of the nanny-staters describes Edwards event in Missoula as "a low dollar fundraiser," but fails to mention that the real fun begins an hour and a half later with a $500 per person fundraiser featuring Governor Schweitzer. I've been to these kinds of functions before. Lots of whipping the college-age set into a frenzied state with promises of free tuition and other government handouts when they graduate in exchange for a contribution that makes them feel like they belong to something bigger than themselves. What these useful idiots don't realize is that they simply provide the collectivist cover for what really goes on when the big dogs with the big checks arrive.

Edwards visit to Montana will come on the heels of his speech to union members gathered in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, otherwise known by some as the Reedy Creek Improvement District or Walt Disney World. Sadly for Edwards, but luckily for the rest of us, Disney is not the place where Edwards dreams will come true.

Edwards had an interesting appearance in Florida. He was talking to a gathering of union employees and was talking about how Americans needed to sacrifice for the greater good, but the ultimate sacrifice Americans should make is to give up... sport utility vehicles. It's not as if John Edwards has any plan to give up his SUV, and no doubt the anti-SUV, anti-truck message will not be repeated in Montana for obvious reasons.

During the event, one of the union members asked Edwards why they should have to sacrifice their SUV's when he lives in a 28,000 square foot mansion. His reply was that he "came from nothing, worked hard all his life, and has always supported workers and fought big corporations as a lawyer. I have no apologies whatsoever for what I've done with my life," he said to loud cheers. "My entire life has been about the same cause which is making sure that wherever you come from, whatever your family is, whatever the color of your skin, you get a real chance to do something great in this country."

Tell me again how the rest of us should sacrifice while you're building a 28,000 SF mansion that sucks energy like one of Larry Craig's potential bathroom hookups does a phallus. I know Edwards has claimed the house to be carbon-neutral by buying offsets, but why be carbon neutral when he should instead be focusing his energy on being carbon optimal? Will Edwards be coming to Missoula in a carbon-neutral, benzene-neutral, lead-neutral, particulate-neutral, ozone-neutral, sulfur-neutral, congestion-neutral, noise and accident-neutral Citation? Do the 4 SUV's parked in his driveway indicate that he holds himself to something less of what he expects of others?


What inspires us to work harder, what inspires us to create a new business or technology that employs anyone from just ourselves to any number of workers? Is it in order to be able to consume a 28,000 SF house, or a new SUV or take a private jet somewhere? There are a lot reasons we do what we do, but the people who invent things, or start a business from scratch, thereby creating new wealth in the economy, shouldn't be begrudged an SUV if they want one (or two in my case), but Edwards seems to think that everyone who has an SUV has not behaved in the proper way. I could stand the moralizing if he practiced what he preaches, but this is the same man, the same candidate who, despite his enormous wealth, used campaign contributions to pay for a $400 dollar haircut.

The continuous appeal done by people like Edwards belies his real socialistic tendencies. He believes that he should be able to tell you and me what we can consume and what we should produce. That's command and control, and there is plenty of evidence to indicate that people who live in command and control and other closed access economic systems, where only people like John Edwards can tell us what to do, end up poor. Class warfare seems to be his only shtick.

I don't begrudge John Edwards his 28,000 SF house, not in the least. He earned his money by hard work and an acute acumen. I just wish he'd leave me and my toys the hell alone. What Edwards should be doing is taking his own advice. He should say that he makes no apologies for what he's done with his life. John Edwards did not come from nothing. His father had a pretty decent working-class job. When he was a baby his parents were struggling, as many are, but by the time he reached the age of 1 or 2 his father had a good paying job and a decent house, so the idea that he came out of abject poverty, so therefore he can purchase enough sacrifice offsets, is simply ludicrous.

The thing that most people forget is that people like John Edwards, and those who support him, do not have a core belief in people being able to earn their own keep by their own creativity, and being allowed to keep what they earn. Their view of wealth is a very static view. They do not believe in an economy that is dynamic and which is able to create opportunity for millions of people who just want to work and try some of their ideas out in the marketplace. In their view, the government should be the prime source of opportunity. In a dynamic economy, some people will fail miserably, others will flourish spectacularly, and most will end up with a good life. It's as if they got theirs not by their own creativity. They act as if they got their wealth luckily, and then when someone calls them out on it, they get terribly defensive.

I think the man doth protest too much. So let Edwards come to Missoula, and let the associated asshat bloggers who may be his only supporters in the entire state, pimp themselves for what they think will be a place at the table of opportunity. In the end perhaps they'll realize an important life lesson...do something for yourselves, don't expect others to either provide or do it for you.

Mike

This Weeks Torah Portion: Ki Teitzei

Wishing you and yours a Shabbat Shalom!

Your friends at Chabad – Lubavitch,

Rabbi Chaim & Chavie

******
Join us Shabbat morning at 10:30; for our weekly Shabbat Torah class!
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This week - Kabbalah in Bozeman !

RSVP & Mark your calendars for an evening with Rabbi Dr. Laibl Wolf of Melbourne, Australia.

August 27th at 7:30 PM. The SUB building at MSU.
******
This week's Torah portion: Ki Teitzei (Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19)

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For candle lighting time in your area:
http://fridaylight.org/page/sunset-almanac.php

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Observations from Catapalooza!
By Rabbi Chaim

Around the country, students are returning to collage campuses for the new semester. I had the opportunity to host a table at the Montana State University Catapalooza fair, welcoming all Jewish Bobcats to Bozeman. I had the opportunity to meet and chat with, not only Jewish students, but Muslim, Christian, Atheist, New Age, and almost every style human being out there. I had some very interesting conversations and shared the wealth and beauty of Judaism with many soul searchers. I must tell you that no matter what the naysayer's are preaching, the spiritual spark is alive and well in today's youth.

Yes, it very well may be that so many Flip Flopping, Half Off Pants, everything tattooed and pierced youth are lost and searching, but that is the fault of the parents, the educators, and the nutty culture of 2007. So many of them are interested in connecting to their deep roots, and they do. Yes, they ask questions, because that is normal. I explained to them that Judaism embraces questions, and that the greatest testimony to our belief in G-d, is the fact that we can question him. We would never question that which didn't exist.

This week's Torah portion talks about the laws of the firstborn son. Although it is a great merit and blessing to be a firstborn child (you get a double dose of inheritance), but it comes along with a great responsibility. All of humanity is G-d's children, but G-d clearly said that the Jewish people are his firstborn. So many Jews I meet only know about the responsibilities and sometime challenging moments of being a Jew, yet, for one reason or another they were never infused with the joy, fulfillment, and blessing of being Jewish.

In Jewish day schools around the country they focus so much on the Holocaust, which is very important, but Jewish children must receive a solid Jewish education and be taught the honest truth that Judaism is not a death sentence, it's a life sentence! It's not a burden but a boon, Es Is Gut Tzu Zein A Yid! No, it hasn't always been easy to be a Jew, but it is good to be a Jew. We have every reason to be proud - staunch and steadfast in our faith. Yiddishkeit is not only something worth dying for but something worth living for!

One last observation: In another verse in this Torah portion it say's: " Since G-d, your G-d, is accompanying your camp, to save you and place your enemies before you, your camp should be holy. Then He will not see any immorality in you and turn away from you". Holiness, purity and modesty are the foundations of the indwelling of the Divine Presence among Jews. I was raised in Brooklyn, in a very insular community, but I have been around the block once or twice, and nevertheless, I am still astonished at the way teenagers dress today!

I am not sure if there is a solution to the bare skin problem, but maybe some students will listen closely to Rabbi Wolf on Monday night, as he inspires MSU with the facts of life, and the Kabbalah of Intimacy.

Don't be fooled, Judaism is alive and well, and together we will continue to recharge the collective Jewish battery!

May G-d guard our brethren in Israel and the world over from harm and send us Moshiach speedily. May He protect the armed forces of the United States wherever they may be. Chazak! L'Chaim!
*****

The ETorah is an educational project of
Chabad Lubavitch of Montana

MS Answer to iPhone

This Weeks Torah Portion: Shoftim

Wishing you and yours a Shabbat Shalom!

Your friends at Chabad – Lubavitch,

Rabbi Chaim & Chavie

******
Join us Shabbat morning at 10:30; for our weekly Shabbat Torah class!
******



Kabbalah in Bozeman !
RSVP & Mark your calendars for an evening with Rabbi Dr. Laibl Wolf of Melbourne, Australia.
August 27th at 7:30 PM. The SUB building at MSU.
******
This week's Torah portions: Shoftim (Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9)

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For candle lighting time in your area:
http://fridaylight.org/page/sunset-almanac.php

******
Jewish Buddhists?
By Rabbi Chaim

If you were visiting Paris, and I would ask you if you visited with " Aron Dovid HaLevi Lustiger", you would probably think I am referring to some fellow Chabad Rabbi or Orthodox Jew of some sort. You definitely wouldn't think that I mean Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, the archbishop of Paris and a good friend of Pope John Paul II. Sadly, Cardinal Lustiger was born to polish Jewish parents and was sent to live with a catholic family, where he was baptized at the age of 13. As he told a Jewish friend "I came from a Jewish, yet very secular home. A home without religion…my religion I found in Christianity". The story of Aron Dovid Lustiger, who passed away last week, is sadly the story of so many of our fellow Jews, who find spiritual fulfillment in Buddhism, Hinduism, Kabbalahism....

I am often asked why is it that so many beautiful Jewish souls fall through the cracks and search for G-d elsewhere? Why doesn't Judaism offer spirituality and meditation? How come I felt so much more spiritual at the Yoga class then at the Shabbos table or Rosh Hashana services?

The Torah portion of this week begins " You should appoint judges and police officers for yourself – for each of your tribes – in all your city gates that G-d, your G-d, is giving you". The Rebbe in his Torah commentary explains that a city gate is its opening, so the Torah is requesting here that even the incomprehensible and seemingly unacceptable ruling of the judges should penetrate "your gates" that they should enter into your way of thinking. In other words, when a person learns a new Torah directive, it should penetrate all his faculties until he feels that it is good advice".

If you want your kid to grow up to be environmentally friendly, you must educate him from day one about recycling, global warming, pollution, and a whole bunch of stuff. If you want your kid to be mannered and neat, they can't live in a home that is filthy and unorganized to say the least. Yet, many parents think that in order for your child to grow up being Jewish, it's enough to come to Shul twice a year and tell them that their great grandparents were religious and kept Kosher in the Shtetel….

I am not trying to be critical or judgmental, just practical. Many parents mention to me in sadness about the current Jewish status of their kids. I therefore plead with you to permeate your kid's life with real Judaism. If your kid is a soccer player, Girl Scout, skier, tennis expert, facebook director, and "also" an occasional visitor at Hebrew School, it will not do the job! A child that is educated about the importance of Torah and has parents that practice what they preach, they are live role models, setting an example of devoted and involved Jews, they too will grow up to be proud and practicing Jews later in life. Don't get me wrong, supporting Israel and eating a potato Knish is important and culturally vital, but it won't do it.

On the Upper West Side of NYC lived an assimilated Jewish man who was now a very militant atheist. But he sent his son Morris to Trinity School because, despite its denominational roots, it was a great school and completely secular. After a month, the boy came home and said casually, "By the way, Dad, I learned what Trinity means! It means 'The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.'" The father could barely control his rage. He seized his son by the shoulders and declared, "Morris, I'm going to tell you something now and I want you never to forget it. Forget this Trinity business. There is only one God... and we don't believe in him!"

If we give our kids a proper and exciting Jewish education, they will not need to search for G-d or spirituality outside of the realms of Torah and Yiddishkeit. If Cardinal Lustiger was taught and raised with the joy and knowledge of Judaism, he wouldn't have to be laid to rest in a full Catholic funeral procession.

The book, The Jew in the Lotus, tells the story of all the Jews who came to the Dalai Lama asking for spiritual guidance; his response was, " Look to your own faith!

Indeed, look to your own faith.

May G-d guard our brethren in Israel and the world over from harm and send us Moshiach speedily. May He protect the armed forces of the United States wherever they may be. Chazak! L'Chaim!
*****

The ETorah is an educational project of
Chabad Lubavitch of Montana

Storm Chasin'

For a long time I've had a goal to retire by the time I'm 50. Having enjoyed some measure of success in business I should be able to...if I don't change my mind by then. If I don't change my mind I think I'd like to join the challenging and rewarding field of storm chasing, not for the profit of selling DVD and video to other geeks like me, but for the adrenaline rush. Spring time in the Great Plains, tornado alley, and mid to late summer in the tropics. Yeah mon.

For as long as I can remember I've spent every hurricane season plotting storms and watching various reporters, who must have drawn the short stick, getting blown about during live shots. Great fun...and certainly more exciting than puking and passing out after a ride on just about any roller coaster Disney can throw my way. With the advent of the internet, and other online sources, a weather geek like me can just about get his fill of storm tracking, plotting, and "wishcasting," as it's referred to on a number of weather boards that I frequent. Having a somewhat passing knowledge of meteorology, gained during 3 or 4 courses on the subject of agricultural meteorology during my undergrad and graduate school years, I'd like to think I know at least something about the subject.

If I had my druthers at the moment I'd be on the way to Martinique or Dominica to ride Dean out, and then jump to the Yucatan, or other wishcasted areas, for the next chance, and so on. Beats the hell out of a midlife crisis spent at the Harley shop, like this Jew would ever own a motorcycle nicknamed a "hog."

In any case, I thought I would throw out a few of my favorite links for storm tracking, since I'm firmly attached to terra firma for at least a few more years:

Storm2K (simply the greatest, with some of the best amateur and professionals out there). Click on "Forums" for some of the most interesting discussion out there.

Atlantic & Carribean Tropical Satellite Imagery

National Data Buoy Center

Naval Research Laboratory-Monterey (Atlantic)

Ralph's Tropical Weather National Hurricane Center

Mike

Prattling On

Blogging has been light lately due to the fact I've been infected with the 'I don't give a rat's ass" virus. It's not that Dovid, Craig, Geeguy, or a handful of the blogs on my "daily reads" list aren't putting out some quality stuff, because they most definitely are, but I'm not in the mood to be impressed with much lately, including myself.

Perhaps it's just the doldrums of the season wearing on but there's an awful lot of superfluous prattle out there. Perhaps the only thing more banal than everything from the Momzer of Missoula™ is politics in general.

Take today, for example. The usually competent people who run the political shops on both sides of the aisle littered my inbox with e-mail complaining either that Rep. Rehberg was cavorting around South America on the "taxpayers dime" while Montana burns or touting their $400 tax rebate to Montana homeowners, that apparently takes a gaggle of legislators to explain to the general public if the picture is to be believed. What a perfect day it would have been to teach skeet shooting to the blind! My rebate was quickly deposited before the check bounced and then forwarded along to Tom Tancredo's campaign, not because I think it will make a difference, but because the guy is saying things about immigration that need to be said by someone, anyone, during this campaign.

On the other side of the aisle we have the latest missive from the Montana GOP claiming that instead of not taking enough time out of their respective schedules for photo op's with firefighters that Senators Baucus and Tester aren't taking enough time to visit the soldiers in Iraq. Perhaps that's because they're both too busy trying to appeal to the "Montana's fires are the result of global warming" crowd? Also of some import is the meme that the Schweitzer administration is "all talk, no action" on energy development in Montana. It's not so much that the Schweitzer administration is solely responsible for a regulatory climate that makes large scale energy production impossible. A large share of the blame also lays at the feet of organizations that tie any proposal up in the courts for so long that they move on and find an alternative place in which to conduct their business.

Perhaps the political shops on both sides of the aisle should start explaining why the SCHIP measure that Senator Baucus is so proud to have almost singlehandedly passed, (if you believe the pap) because it will "help the children,™" is directly responsible for increased medicare payments to a hospital 200 miles north of Chicago, which is, via an earmark inserted into the bill, considered to be within Chicago city limits for the purpose of Medicare reimbursement, while Roundup Memorial Hospital (that's in Roundup...for you folks west of Billings) has laid off 8 employees and is facing closure because the same SCHIP measure, which also addresses Medicare payments, is lowering its reimbursement to rural facilities.

Mike

This Week's Torah Portion: Re'eh

Wishing you and yours a Shabbat Shalom!

Your friends at Chabad – Lubavitch,

Rabbi Chaim & Chavie

******
Join us Shabbat morning at 10:30; for our weekly Shabbat Torah class!
******
Kabbalah in Bozeman !
Mark your calendars for an evening with Rabbi Dr. Laibl Wolf of Melbourne, Australia.
August 27th at 7:30 PM. More details to come!
******
This week's Torah portions: Re'eh (Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17)

******
For candle lighting time in your area:
http://fridaylight.org/page/sunset-almanac.php

******
Do you buy lottery tickets?
By Rabbi Chaim

If you live in New York, Los Angeles or any other mega metropolitan, there is good reason for you to sit in traffic. Each inch of land is covered with some sort of housing unit, you have taxi's galore, and delivery trucks by the thousands, so it makes sense that there is an overload of vehicles. Yet, who would ever imagine that in Montana, a State that is 147,046 Square miles in size, I would have to spend time in traffic? Well, as the saying sadly goes "We have nine months of winter and three of months of road construction"…I wouldn't mind if some Montanan's learned to drive like New Yorker's, but then I wouldn't mind if the Northeasterners learned manners and friendliness from the Montanan's…You can't win them all. Now, to the Torah portion….

There are some very important topics discussed in this week's portion, including Kosher, the laws of the land of Israel, the false prophet, charity and more, yet, I would like to focus on a seemingly simple verse in the end of chapter 15 " Let it not seem difficult in your eyes when you send him (your slave) away free from you, he has served you (day and night) for six years, twice as many (hours) as a salaried worker (who only works by day). G-d, your G-d, will bless you in all that you do ". Our caring and compassionate G-d, who allows slaves to go free at the end of six years, reminds the Jewish owners that it is our heavenly Father who bestows blessings upon us, and therefore they should stop worrying about their future; and let their slave leave happily.

So you are wondering, what the heck is so interesting in that verse? It seems rather simple and somewhat boring to me? Please bear with me and you will see that I am not crazy! There is the famous anecdote about the Jewish fellow from Boro Park who would pray each day to win the New York lottery. "G-d," he'd say, "please let me win the lottery. Please, please, please let me win the lottery." After about 10 years of praying, to no avail, he was getting exasperated. Finally he said, "G-d, why haven't I won the lottery? I've prayed every day for 10 years and I haven't won the lottery." "Yankel," a voice boomed, "at least meet me halfway and purchase a lottery ticket!."

Yes of course, G-d is infinite and can give us everything we need and want for nothing, but he doesn't want it to be "bread of shame", sustenance given gratuitously, without having being earned by the recipient. The Jerusalem Talmud tells us that "one should not rely on a miracle", yes, we must have complete faith that G-d acts through nature, and by working hard we are making a vessel for G-d's blessing, but we must constantly remember that is not us who really earned the wealth and success, but Almighty G-d who gives it to us via nature.

In the words of Tzvi Freeman "In your worldly business, just do what needs to be done and trust in G-d to fill in the rest. In your spiritual business, however, you'll have to take the whole thing on your own shoulders. Don't rely on G-d to heal the sick, help the poor, educate the ignorant and teach you Torah. He's relying on you".

Remember, it's not the Warren Buffet's, Rupert Murdoch's, or Ben Bernanke's of the world that run the market, its G-d!

May G-d guard our brethren in Israel and the world over from harm and send us Moshiach speedily. May He protect the armed forces of the United States wherever they may be. Chazak! L'Chaim!
*****

The ETorah is an educational project of
Chabad Lubavitch of Montana

Check Please?

I’ve made no general secret that I grew up down in the Big Hole, on what was at the time a 10,000+ acre spread full of grass, beaver slides, and cattle. Though I didn’t realize it at the time we were wealthy people, like many of our neighbors, but in the generally accepted way of how things are done here, we didn’t show it often.

My dad left home, much like I did, when he was 18, went to college at MSU, graduated and then joined the Navy and was an aviator during the Korean Conflict. When he was a sophomore at MSU his father died and in keeping with the practice of farm life at the time, the farm/ranch was left to both the sons. My father always had his sights set somewhere in the clouds, not on the land, and went on to become a successful long haul 747 pilot, chief pilot for his airline, and eventually a vice president for flight operations. He was home 2 full weeks every month and when he wasn’t, mom and I made frequent use of our flight privileges to travel and meet him. Later on in life, not too long before he died, he and mom lived on Long Island so he could commute to a job in Manhattan and get cancer treatment at Sloan-Kettering. Dad always pushed himself to succeed because back home, his legacy, my legacy, the land his great-grandparents had homesteaded following the Battle of the Big Hole, was being managed by his brother. My great x3 grandfather was one of the Bitterroot Volunteers, serving under Col. John Gibbon, and his diary not only describes part of the battle against the Nez Perce in the area at the time, but also his use as a guide for members of the 7th Infantry who led the chase down the western rim of the Big Horn ending near Dead Indian Pass on what is now the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway in Wyoming.

My uncle William was capable but had a weakness for liquor and gambling, which made him lose lots of money and make terrible business decisions. Following the death of his wife in a car accident south of Hamilton, and his son during the Vietnam Conflict, uncle William was pretty much incapable of anything other than more drink and debt. His biggest score was winning a saddle that once belonged to Pancho Villa in a poker game in Salmon, other than that I almost never remember the man not inebriated. At least he was a happy drunk. When I was young my father sold almost all of our cattle to his sister’s husband in Jackson, on the other side of the valley, and used part of the money he made to keep our land in our hands, since uncle William was obviously incapable.

As any young man does at some point in his life I rebelled against my parents. By the time I was ready to go to college I had a good idea of what we were worth, and couldn’t understand why my father was buying land in far off places like Florida, California, and New Jersey. Didn’t we have enough already? It all seemed ridiculous at the time. We were, after all, going to die in a nuclear holocaust. It didn’t exactly take a vivid imagination to see what that would be like following the eruption of Mt. St. Helens during my senior year of high school, when our part of the valley was covered with a layer of ash, sans the radiation of course.

I didn’t have a political ideology at the time and went off to MSU as a blank slate. During a political philosophy course I was introduced to Marx and Engels and thought, “what the hell,” and ran with it. Nothing could, after all, be further from my upbringing and family history. Shortly thereafter, long before the internet or even BBS’s became popular, I ran through the MSU library and found a big red book with all kinds of organizations and their address and phone numbers. I quickly located the address of the Communist Party-USA, asked to become a member, receive all publications, and to be added to their mailing lists. Between classes, and the beer and bong hits, I thought I could get into a collectivist mentality, especially since I was considering taking a year or two off from college following my sophomore year to live on an Israeli kibbutz. My reply from the CP-USA came in the form of a quickly handwritten note from Gus Hall himself and a subscription to what is now known as the People’s Weekly World. I devoured every issue, in private of course, anything less could have resulted in a good old-fashioned Montana beating, the kind of which was reserved for guys from “the east” (meaning east of Wibaux) or west of Butte. The ultimate bludgeoning at the time was reserved for any guy wearing an earring…any ear would do.

Following my freshman year at MSU, and still being really “into” communism generally, (ignorance is bliss!) I talked my parents into sending my on a trip to a collective farm in the Ukraine for 6 weeks during the summer. At the time I didn’t note the irony that the trip would cost several thousand dollars, while the average amount the folks made on a collective farm in an entire year in the Ukraine at the time amounted to, at most, a hundred or so rubles.

So, off I went. Flying from New York to Berlin and from there into the German Democratic Republic and then by train to the Ukraine. In hindsight it seems that for every mile traveled I went back in time at least a decade. When I arrived at the collective farm it was if I had time traveled back to the late 1800’s in Montana. Animal pulled plows. Manual weeding. No storage. What the fuck had I got myself into? This certainly could not have been the same country that could spend billions of dollars to aim missiles at my country, yet had farmers and an entire agriculture sector living in what passed for as homes with dirt floors, intermittent electricity, and no fuel or farm machinery to speak of. This was a workers paradise?

Was this really “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need?” I wouldn’t see poverty like this again for 5 years, when I was serving in the Peace Corps in Africa following my Master’s at Cornell, but at least the African’s couldn’t help it. They lacked the soil, infrastructure, and capital to make a successful run at feeding themselves. On the other hand, the Ukraine and other parts of western Russia were home to some of the richest soil, and potentially the most productive land on the planet outside of the United States.

What went wrong? Time and again while on the farm in the Ukraine I kept hearing muted complaints from those willing to open-up to an outsider than the problem had nothing to do with them, and to a certain degree they were right. From what I could glean of their skill and acumen in farming these people were top-notch. The problem is that control of their respective operations didn’t exist locally, where important decisions such as planting and harvesting time, variety decisions, chemical and pesticide use, and others matters should exist. All decisions concerning agriculture in the Soviet Union at the time were not made on the farm but in an office somewhere in the Kremlin. This was absurd!

The very stuff that makes or breaks a people, throughout history, has been their ability to grow or obtain their food. Without it, well, there can simply be no prosperity when the stomach is empty. These proud agrarians in the Ukraine were at the mercy of people thousands of miles away who probably had never stepped foot on a farm, collective or otherwise, and had no idea on how to produce mass quantities of foodstuffs. At that very instant I knew that eventually these people, this system, were doomed to the dustbin of history. Nothing that I had read or studied back in Bozeman had prepared me, firsthand, for what I was witnessing. Never again would I believe that these people would preemptively unleash a nuclear holocaust against the United States, their main supplier of wheat, corn, and other foodstuffs. If they destroyed our land, they too would perish. They needed us far more than we needed them.

Before I departed the Ukraine a changed person I had the temerity to write a letter to Premier Andropov explaining to him what a disaster I saw on the ground, and offering my advice. Give the farmers local control! You can’t tell a farmer in the Ukraine what variety of seed to plant, or only provide him with a single variety that will not produce in his soil no more than the USDA could hand over a variety to a farmer outside Havre that’s meant to grow in Georgia, that’s corn pone Georgia, not Soviet Georgia. If you provide seed you must provide machinery and equipment to get it in the ground at an optimal time. Time and time again the Ukrainians would complain that seed would arrive by truck 3 months, and eventually a tractor and seeder would arrive a month or two later, with enough fuel for a day or two’s use, and then must be handed over to be sent to the next farm. The potato crop would rot in the ground because machinery was not available at harvest. The list goes on and on. I never received a reply back from Andropov, and it’s fairly obvious that to a certain extent to same problems that plagued Soviet agriculture in the 80’s still exist to a certain degree in the breadbasket and potato bucket areas of Ukraine and Belarus today. The collectives have been disbanded but the paradigm remains in place.

Centralized control is what I have a problem with, whether it’s agricultural policy or the debate on national healthcare. Have we not learned enough from the failures of centralized ag policy in the former Soviet Union, or the bankrupting and socially disintegrating welfare/health care programs of Europe that we are now ready to repeat the same mistakes that have even the Norwegians, who provide me with nominal citizenship and a passport, attempting to scale back both their welfare state and oppressive taxing scheme? Depending on whom you listen to, do fifty to sixty percent of Americans truly wish us to revisit the same failed policies that are bankrupting Europe?

We should rather be focused on efficiency where we can find it, and in providing a safety net to those who need it, which is to say most definitely not to people making three to four hundred percent more than the poverty level. I don’t mind lending those less fortunate than myself a hand when needed, and do so on a frequent basis, but should it be more than the 92+K I paid in income taxes last year? When is enough, enough? When I’m taxed out of business, and take what will next season be about 20 employees with me? I implore someone to let me know what the endpoint of all this foolishness regarding national healthcare and expanding the sissy/nanny welfare state is, so that I can finally raise my arm in defeat and exclaim to all who will listen, check please!, and retire early and quietly to anyplace that is better than what I believe the sum of America is slowly becoming.

Mike

Last Weeks Torah Portion: Eikev

Wishing you and yours a Shabbat Shalom!

Your friends at Chabad – Lubavitch,

Rabbi Chaim & Chavie

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Join us Shabbat morning at 10:30; for our weekly Shabbat Torah class!
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Kabbalah in Bozeman! Mark your calendars for an evening with Rabbi Dr. Laibl Wolf of Melbourne, Australia. August 27th at 7:30 PM.
More details to come!
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This week's Torah portions: Eikev (Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25)

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For candle lighting time in your area:
http://fridaylight.org/page/sunset-almanac.php

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A forest fire in your soul?
By Rabbi Chaim

What a show! Chavie and I had the honor and good fortune to watch the amazing U.S. Navy Blue Angels perform this past Sunday. We learned the hard way the importance of sunscreen; and in my case the blessing of Aloe Vera. Yet, in the midst of the exciting summer events in our neck of the woods, in the back of our minds, it is the fires in the woods that alarm us. On Tuesday evening, as I was driving South on Highway 15 past Wolf Creek and Gates of the Mountains, my car was covered in smoke and soot from the mass fires burning around Holter Lake , worrisome indeed.

Chavie and I aren't familiar with these fires. In New York and San Antonio it's not a usual occurrence and you definitely don't smell the flames in your kitchen and bedroom. I was pondering the concept of fire and it turned to be a learning experience for me and hopefully it will be for you. I find it ironic how different fire can express itself. As the love poets say "Love is the Fire of Life; it either consumes or purifies"….

Torah teaches that in every Jewish heart there are two forces that are constantly fighting for the leadership role. Each one of these opposing inclinations is seeking to rule the body and make the decisions that will form the lifestyle and behavior patterns of each individual Jew. The good and evil inclinations are both enthusiastic and excited to infuse us with a fiery spirit of life. So what can the difference between the two possibly be? What is the fine line that separates them? Indeed, we must be very careful as they both come to us as a flame of fire, yet, one will consume us and the other will guide us.

Both inclinations offer to help you. They are both nice and welcoming and even encouraging. The advice of the good inclination will guide you to the best path in life. Like a candle it will guide you until you will not needs its help anymore and you will celebrate Judaism in a proper Torah manner on your own. The evil inclination, on the other hand, will consume you. He will start off subtly, "Do you think G-d really cares if you fast until sundown of Yom Kippur? It's enough until noon!", then he will tell you "Do you think G-d meant you should keep Kosher even in Montana? I mean be realistic, it's impossible", and eventually he will totally coerce you away from your beautiful Jewish heritage. Both forces within you will encourage you with baby steps, to make a slow transition, yet, one is taking you up and the other is taking you down, very low.

If you are stuck on a island or deep in a forest, there is the fire of a candle that will slowly guide you back home and there is the other fire that can G-d forbid consume you, if you are surrounded by it. It is vital for our existence to make sure to recognize that not all fiery, enthusiastic voices are caring and helpful. Seemingly, the evil inclination has some awesome ideas for change in our life, but it will eventually destroy us, spiritually, emotionally, and consequently physically. The good inclination does not always have the dandiest advice for us – as candles sometimes drip wax all over us and it hurts – yet by following its recommendations, you will be guided towards a meaningful life. Fire can be bright and shine, or can turn to ashes. Don't allow the latter to happen.

One more point: Most of these fires started from one little act done by a single individual. This teaches us that we should never to underestimate the power of a single good deed.

To paraphrase the Rebbe in Hayom Yom "When a single person plows and sows, there is no doubt that things will grow ".

May G-d guard our brethren in Israel and the world over from harm and send us Moshiach speedily. May He protect the armed forces of the United States wherever they may be. Chazak! L'Chaim!
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The ETorah is an educational project of
Chabad Lubavitch of Montana

Hate Crime, Schmate Crime

I was happy to be away during the brouhaha concerning the alleged "hate-crime" incident at Pace University. I don't have much to say about the incident that hasn't already been said by folks with far more equanimity than I, except to add a salient observation courtesy of Bernie at Plancks Constant:

So here is my advice to Stanislav: Go back and take a photo of the Koran swimming in the toilet and call it "Holy Shit Mohammed" and frame it. Then at least you have the Supreme Court ruling of Miller v. California (1973) to keep the cops off your back. By calling it art, at least your attempt to express your feelings will be protected by the First Amendment.

Oh, and if anyone knows of a legal defense fund for Stanislav Shmulevich I'd be happy to throw some green your way...or treat you to lunch at The Pickle Barrel.

Mike

Yeah, I'm around

There's nothing like a successful business trip somewhere, anywhere, to help let you realize where your priorities lie. Time caught up to me immediately following my return. So much for a quiet birthday. My wheat crop, which I thought could sit for another few weeks, was ready to put in the bins. Normally it's a process that takes a week, sometimes more, for a guy with a combine or two. I have two on property and 9 others at various locations that all get to come home to daddy during harvest time. Membership does indeed have it's privileges. We spent a little over 3 days, and if my yield counter is to be believed, pulled out anywhere from 5 to 15 bushels more per acre yield than we did last year. I'm lucky I didn't experience the damaging hail storm that affected some friends close to Glasgow, which virtually wiped their crop and, for some of them, their entire operation. Men plan. G-d laughs.










I also had to make a quick visit down to an orthopod at Billings Clinic. Some of you know I have a couple of titanium rods in my cervical and lumbar spine following a winter wreck a few years ago on the Idaho side of Lookout Pass. The doc's who put me back together at the University of Washington Medical Center told me the rods wouldn't last forever and would need replaced sooner or later.

Through the years I followed up in Missoula and then in Billings, and in between would ask a golfing buddy of mine, who is an ER doc at St. Pat's for other guidance. Other than him telling me what the two favorite years in a surgeons life are, for those interested, the second grade, he was more a friend than obviously a trusted advisor. For surgeons, it seems, the chance to cut is almost universally the chance to cure, and the doc's in Billings seemed all too willing to "fix" (their words, not mine) my back problem by replacing the rods. I was a little hesitant in going back to the same town where the orthopods screwed me up so much the last time I let them fix a problem with the pins in my hip, also from the same accident, that I settled out of court for 6 figures.

In any case, a quick MRI revealed a non-acute problem that I plan to follow-up with at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester at some point in the next few months in hopes of postponing another surgery until I can allow myself the joy of spending 3 or 4 months surfing the rollercoaster of polypharmacy in an attempt to kill the pain.

Sometimes it's a dog eat dog would out there...and I'm only too happy to be the one not wearing MilkBone underwear.

Mike