Wise Words

John Fisher, my microbiology professor, is a good man, speaking wise words:
"HIV. Here is an infection that often is the result of bad choices, and I made plenty in my day, and I'm sure Ive got good company in this room. And some bad choices have made patients pick up HIV infection. And maybe perhaps the kind of lifestyle that some people choose is not your choosing, or something anathema to you. And then a patient comes in with this infection. You know, I hope there's not many physicians that say, 'well, they got what they deserve.' Because we don't care how patients got sick, they're just sick, and it doesn't matter how they got there.
And HIV shouldn't be a stigma to anybody, it's just about what kind of a doctor are you? can you take care of sick people?

Back in the Saddle

Been a while since the last post; but with over 150 miles hiked, many mountains covered, and 20 lbs lost, I am ready to speak to myself again on this blog. and with it, I bust out with this number on the descent of the chareidi community (and with it potentially Jerusalem as a whole) into utter chaos. I preface with this quote from a classic film (at 0:45):

"Magua's heart is twisted. He would make himself into what twisted him."

The chareidim in J'lem have been rioting every shabbat at the entrance to a parking lot that has been opened on shabbat near the old city. THey are throwing diapers and food (rotten food?) at the soldiers who were DISPATCHED ON SHABBAT to stop the rioters from rioting and causing all-around mayhem. Now, I've seen the utter shit-hole that the chareidi community has crafted for itself in meah shearim, bnei brak, Ramat Beit Shemesh, and the other teeming ghettos that these people voluntarily imprison themselves in. How does this parking lot's status of open or closed on shabbat effect how these people conduct their lives? they want freedom? they have it. they are kicking soldiers and causing a ruckus and hurling their inexhaustable supply of shit-filled diapers, that's right HUMAN FECES, at other human beings, and the SOLDIERS are the nazis? and even more so, the religious leaders of these riots, I am told by Glursten MIchael Skandal, have instructed the rioters that this situation is completely intolerable...that the riots must not be mixed-sex. women on one side,,,men on the other. "we wouldn't want a shit-throwing party to devolve into public orgy" says tanto.
...Indeed, magua's heart is twisted.

In other news, some ultra-orthodox have taken to wearing burqas, or something resembling a burqa. now, for all the bashing you get of other religions, particularly the proximally-located muslims, by many members of the ultra-orthodox (i've experienced it first-hand), and all that nonsensical talk about how "judaism is a way of life, all other religions are just religions," " we are a chosen nation, our religion is so different than the others," now their cultures meld even closer than they were before. In fact, I have a theory, that these extremist fringes of all religions will eventually devolve into a doppleganger of hate. it's only a matter of time until a terrorist, payos a-flyin', davens tehillim while crashing a plane into a building in tel aviv, thinking he's doing the right thing.
I can't stand intolerance...and the way these people are conducting their lives is sick. Their entire culture is supported in large part by charitable donations, in addition to the tax fraud and disrespect they show to the state of israel. what a spurn it is that they feel they can freely throw food around. they should be feeding their malnourished children with it.

Jerusalem is a fire-and-brimstone type of place, I get that. so many people there are on the verge of freaking out. however, I can't stand by and not comment on it. It's too ridiculous. the more I hear abotu this kind of shit, the more I lose faith in the leaders of orthodox judaism, the very leaders i hear our more mild-mannered rabbis in america exalting as leaders, gaonim, god-in-human-forms, etc. God, if he exists, help us all.

Fascism 101

baby autotune!

this tasty autotuning fiasco was sent to me by none other than glursten mickle lanyard. This is basically an auto-tune flexoff, and your ears are the mirror.

More Autotune!

This great autotune was sent to me by none other than Nadav Recca, May His Light Continually Shine. I love autotune, and I love nadav recca. best line, "surely you jest, i'm under cardiac arrest. shawday!"

Shameless Self-Promotion

*click picture for larger view

From the Dawn of Civilization (sic religion) to Nostredamus to Igor Panarin, end-time prophesy has held a consistent, nay cherished place in our collective hearts. But no greater sign of the downfall exists than my current standing as a trusted source for a wikipedia article. That's right, an article I wrote on Fumagillin was used as a source for someone else's article. The fools! there's nothing better than shameless self-promotion...but hey, what are blogs for?

Swine Flu Fear-Mongering

There is all this hubbub lately about swine flu: death tolls rising, global pandemic, danger, death, destruction, panic. You know what else is rising? Network and Cable News viewership. Unfortunately, fear sells, and does it sell well. So, as 1/4 of a doctor, I would like to debunk the fear surrounding swine flu.
Swine flu, or in influenza parlance H1N1, is a novel influenza in humans. It bears marked homology to influenza viruses which infect millions humans every year. Symtpoms of H1N1 are very similar to that of the common, every year flu. It has a similar method of transmission, and a similar course. Let's put it in perspective. Every year, approximately 36,000 people die in the US of influenza. 36,000. Yet when you meet someone with the flu, you don't panic, you don't put on a respirator, you don't pull Joe Biden's kids out of schools and airplanes. You go to CVS and buy some flu meds and tough it out. Or if you're old, you probably go to the hospital. If you are really sickly, you become 1 in 36000. That is the unfortunate course of Human Influenza. Swine Flu is no different. In most healthy individuals, it will cause flu symptoms: fever, body ache, sinusitis, upper respiratory tract infections. If you are younger than 5 or older than 50, it could be worse than that. But there is no reason for this influenza to behave any differently than seasonal influenza. So stop panicking! It sucks that there is now this second type of flu floating around, thereby extending or altering our flu seasons, but otherwise, humanity will go on relatively unaffected through all of this.
The WHO level only deals with communicability of a disease. Level 5 means highly communicable between persons. So is the the common cold. This whole level 5 thing is something for the news to latch on to. Of course, public health officials are rightly taking steps to prevent the spread of H1N1, but civilians have no reason to greatly fear this flu. It will pass just like any other seasonal flu.

Anti-Semitic Propaganda

I recently read an article sent to me by my father about Pat Oliphant and his recent political cartoon depicting a goosestepping headless sword-wielding golem pushing a wheeled Jewish-Star with fangs as towards a cowering gaza woman. I thought I would juxtapose this with some other political cartoons using similar imagery: jews as monsters with fangs, dominating a weak and helpless people.

Real Mario Kart

Turns out the french ARE good for something other than pitying, complaining, and the menage'-a-trois

Chuck Norris Roundhouse Kicks Separation of Church and State

Last night, I had a conversation with a classmate at a party. We were all watching the Obama speech, or it was in the background rather, and it spurred some political discourse. Of course, I am more than happy to hock my opinion to any who will stand in my immediate vicinity, and luckily my classmate is also a big talker, so it went well. He is a very southern young man, with very conservative values. He is protestant (likely evangelical, but not sure) Christian, and was raised here in the south. To illustrate the insularity of the South, he didn't know what Manischewitz was. Seriously. Someone brought it to the party, and he eyes with incredulity, saying, "what is that? I've never heard of that." So little exposure to people outside of this area. But he's a nice guy. Anyways, he was taking the side of the clapless Republicans during Obama's speech, and for the sake of argument, I shifted from my center-left opinions to real Left. I wanted to get a rise out of him, but also try to poke a hole in some of his stances and see what he's all about. I made the point that the Republican party is suffering losses now because they have become too Right and too Christian; flying a banner of anti-abortion, anti-evolution, and pro-guns. Now, all of these are important issues, but my point is that they have become too much the only point that Republicans are making. The Republican Party experienced a resurgence in the 70's and 80's as a rejection of the anti-intellectual argument proferred by the democrats during the 60's and early 70's. The abject populist activism without regard for intelligent, thought-out leadership was what was lacking in the democrats, and the republicans were more than happy to fill that void. And how they did, which is beautifully exemplified in the uber-republican satire Jack McDonaughey, the Right of Right rich GE CEO on 30 Rock. More lately, the Republican Party has pandered to the Evangelical Christians, who have formed an increasingly cohesive voting bloc. And so my point was that the Republicans have actually estranged potentially Republican-Voting people like myself, who do not have as much in common with evangelicals as an ideology, and in fact despise the notion of ideologues gaining executive power. What my dear friend responded, emphatically, was "Actually, I think the Republican Party isn't right-wing enough." And to me that's where the problem lies. The Treaty of Tripoli was signed by John Adams, states, "The Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion." Even more directly is James Madison:

"The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretence, infringed.''

We are not a Christian Nation, we are a nation of christian, jews, muslims, hindus, seikhs, and whoever else seeks freedom to practice their religion, and to be guaranteed the inalienable human rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. We are not a nation to be bible-thumped into accepting christ and christian values into our life. The republican party, in my opinion, is too conservative, and is allied too sharply with evangelical christian values. I think they are important to be discussed and determined, but they should not be that parties', nee any parties', sole focus. I demand more depth from my elected officials. And if neither option has the requisite depth of thought and intent, I'll pick the one that is less likely to launch a pogrom. The Republicans have traditionally been the voice of intellect and reason against heinous Big Gov't policies from the Left. Now, with the help of mass-media pundits, the Republican message has been increasingly monoptic: less taxes, more morality. That morality stuff is irrelevent to the public. The government should not even be thinking of legislating morality! I thought we learned that one during Prohibition. This country has plenty of religion, and if they don't, that's the church's problem, not congress'. I like the idea of smaller government and lower taxes, but if we want to have a multi-theater war, we have to pay back our debt. Say what you will about our frigit Northern Neighbors (Canada), they have strictly adhered to conservative fiscal policy, and as a result have had a balanced budget for the better part of a decade. America should take a lesson from them. Shame on the republicans for allowing the country to run a huge deficit under their leadership. They had the Legislative and Executive for the better part of the pat 8 years, and they have run up a big tab. The American people, who elected these people who ran up this large tab, need to pay back the debt. I know we've all lost all our money, but if America is to be viable, we have to pay back what's ours. If the US govt starts becoming a shaky lending institution, Lord help us. So my point is, the Republicans need to push stronger their intellectualism, populism, adaptability, focus on responsibility and temperance, and they shall find success once again.

Classic Moments in Lefkove History

one time we were trapped as children in costa rica after being robbed of our tickets, money, and passports in the rural countryside of a very unstable nicaragua, and my father was nearly hacked up by a farmer with a machete. needless to say everything worked out, but it was a bad situation for a little while. I must have been 9... 8 maybe. my dad used to be a big windsurfer, and so he would go find these exotic locales for windsurfing and he found this beach out in the middle of nowhere in nicaragua, miles down some shiest-assed single track, with great wind and waves. completely secluded. so he went out windsurfing, and aaron and I played on the very deserted beach. Then some farm-boy nicaraguan prick rummages through the car and took everything. everything important that is.including the passports. including the money. including the plane tickets. including the car keys.
so we were stuck in nicaragua for a while. first we had to find someone who could hotwire a car. then we had to get back to the village, call america, get money wired, i don't know how we got back into costa rica without passports. once we were in costa rica we had to bum a place to stay with friends, then get a passport, which takes a while in a 3rd world country. fucking awesome in retrospect. san jose is one of the worst places on earth however. so anyways, when the keys/important shit was stolen, and we got the car hotwired, we drove around to some of the farms there to try and recoup our shit. And by farms i mean 3 walled shacks in the middle of animal-plowed fields. my dad (he speaks spanish) goes up to this farmer working in the field, and tells him that he thinks his son stole our shit (based on mine and aaron's ineffible testimony). the guy freaks out and raises up his machete like he's gonna slice my dad's face up, right in front of his own damn kids too! then my dad puts his hands up and was like wait wait wait and he gives him this whole sob story about how we are trapped and his wife back in america is going to kill him etc etc. it ended up with the guy offering my dad money! what a place. he really felt bad for us. and apparently his son didn't take our shit. but what the fuck do I know, they all look alike.
We ended up back in costa rica, but without passports I don't know how. I suspect someone was bribed. short on cash, we ended up staying with this friend named dan daniels, who claimed he was in the first superbowl. I think he was hiding out in costa rica because he was wanted by the FBI for drugs or some other federally prosecutable offense. He was a strange liar, and there was a creepiness about him that even a sheltered ADHD 8-year-old could detect. After several trips to the US embassy, as well as a multi-day foot-tour of every photography store in San Jose (read: the 7th circle of hell), we made it back to the good ol' US of A.
If I'm not mistaken, this was also the same trip my father was chased by an irate goose near lake arenal. classic lefkove moments

I like this better

This is auto-tuning at it's best: "take a good hard look at the m-f-ing boat!"

It's hip to be a hassidic "rapper"

Matisyahu has opened the possibility that hassidim can rap and not be considered entirely lame. I still consider it pretty silly. This song is highly produced, with excessive auto-tune, a-la T-pain, but underneath it has the potential for some good lyric-slinging. based on the amount of production put into their singing, I feel like they are going for pop-appeal, which is a shame, because these dudes should get in touch with their inner nas. Verdict: catchy, but still kind of silly. Because it's hassidim singing (one chabad, the other bostoner[I can't believe that's a real sect!]), I figure it's blogworthy.

Defense of US Economy

OK, I recognize that the US economy is in the shitter, and that people's insatiable greed combined with lack of proper oversight essentially have single-handedly led to millions of jobless, elimination of pension and retirement funds, closure of charities, and all-around ragtime for everyone. But, I do want to comment on a my father in law's statements about the US economy, basically saying that the US doesn't produce anything, and that Canada is very viable because it "makes things." Now, I am no economist, but I will try and interpret the already dumbed-down data supplied by the CIA worldbook.
First off, the US population is almost 10 times that of Canada, and our GDP is over 10 times of Canada's. Of course, all of this is dropping now, and the US is probably dropping at a higher rate than Canada's, but I assume we are still around these relative values.
The US and Canada have very similar distribution of labor force: around 4/5 of the labor force in both countries is in the Service Industry: lawyers, IT support, customer service...you know, services. The remaining labor force is in manufacturing, industry, and agriculture.
So, what does America make? Well, we are significant manufacturers and producers of petroleum, steel, motor vehicles, aerospace, telecommunications, chemicals, electronics, food processing, consumer goods, lumber, mining.
what does Canada produce? transportation equipment, chemicals, processed and unprocessed minerals, food products, wood and paper products, fish products, petroleum and natural gas.

So pretty similar stuff. Interestingly, the US produces around 8 times the oil that Canada produces, even though canada has about 8 times the proven oil reserves as the US (this is including oil sands). Its a similar story with natural gas. The US is also a major coal producer. Sadly, the US consumes WAY more oil and natural gas than our friendly northern neighbor. But again, 10 times the population, 8 times the GDP, and a 10% higher household income.

Almost 80% of Canada's export are to the US, and 65% of her imports are from the US. So we ARE producing something. We are producing airplanes, motor vehicles, machinery of all sorts, telecommunications, agricultural producst, but limited consumer goods. I think what my esteemed Dr. Father-in-law was hitting on was the limited production of consumer goods in America...indeed, this is all bought from Asia. But so is nearly all of Canada's consumer goods.

Canada has not suffered as much from the economic disaster as the US has because Canada observes prudent fiscal policy, and have managed a balanced government budget since 1997. However, they are heavily dependent and in fact intertwined with the US economy in their reliance on US exports as well as imports. Additionally, Canada is reliant to a significant degree on American banks for commercial lending (which is in sharp decline in this credit crunch), so now they are suffering from the current crisis as well.

In summary, we have two very similar countries, but one would be remiss in saying that the US is not the world's major industrial nation, with a highly diversified economy producing a wide variety of quality goods and services for the world. And I will go as far as to say that the economic boom Canada has experienced since the end of WWII (until that point the canadian economy was essentially agrarian) was only made possible by the great growth seen in the American economy.

Hybrid!

I love hybrids, and this one is no exception to my love. It is a combination bollo tie and bow tie, sent to me by none other than Ben "baby-boi-tha-prince" Wilson. I like it also because it creates the illusion that in chassidic realms, even the bowties have payos.

Aaron of VBS TV

viking thrust!

Philosoraptor!

sent by JMD

I know where my stimulus package is going!

Aretha!

I like this version!

Thoughts on Radical Islam

I have seen many videos in the past few days of "pro-palestinian" rallies in america and canada, and they frighten me so much because of the strong showing of Radical Islamists there (I should be studying, I know). The virulent hatred, screamed, chanting, burning effigies. And the ones doing this are almost entirely young, teenagers and early twenties. students all of them. that is where radical islam's base in the west is, not in mogadishu, not in riyadh, in universities. They take advantage of our right to free speech and freedom of religion, and use that to gain a foothold at the university, a base of operations, and then to recruit moderate, rational, normal young muslims into a politicized and violent form of islam. They manipulate the koran and shari'ah, take it out of context. They appropriate "Taqfir" to include whoever is against their mission. They create a sham justification for murdering anyone, including muslims (i.e. the Al-Qaeda/Muslim Brotherhood bombing of the embassy in Nairobi, which killed 0 westerns and only muslims; the justification: the bombing was friday morning, all muslims should have been at the mosque, therefore they are taqfir. ridiculous). their leaders are unscholarly and misinformed in their approach to the religion, which often breaks with hundreds of years of Islamic Scholarship (i.e. al-Nabhani). they discount the Sufi teachings, and have created this strange and deadly meld of literalist (and I feel foolish) Wahabism with a strongly Caliphate-centered Sunnism. They rewrite history, claiming that they want to reinstate a world-wide islamic state, a continuation of the caliphate which ruled all muslims and eastern world (in fact, the caliphate did NOT unanimously rule all muslims, i.e. the persian empire's long-standing war with the ummayads, or the abashid rebellion itself...of course radicals seem to forget about that little tidbit). This false nostalgia for a ruling state gone-by is so reminiscent of what Hitler propagated that it makes me sick. And if you listen to the speeches given by Nasrallah, by Mashaal, the anger in which they stir up, the emotional catharses they elicit, and the blindness with which radical and once-moderate muslims follow them, it reaks of pure fascism. More and more western muslim students, brought up with all the benefits of a free and open society, are forgetting what a miserable disaster was the closest thing to a caliphate/sharia-based rule in modern day: the taliban in afghanistan. Granted, they are Pashtu, not arab. But they are literalist Sunnis, and their theology parallels the western radical islamist ideology in many ways. From a religious standpoint, these men were hypocrits: they would violate 10 laws to uphold one. Ironically, talib means student, yet these people dealt in corruption, hatred, oppression, and abuse. And their scholarship (in islam and in other aspects) was laughable. They destroyed the beautiful, ancient, gigantic Buddhas of Bamiyan, and essentially erased what was thousands of years of scholarly and artistic tradition in Afghanistan. On a political level, the taliban was no caliphate. They ruled the country not with an exuberant and ready following, but under an iron fist.
What solace do I get through all of this terrible news? Well, I don't know how they intend to accomplish their goals. They have all the fervor and ideology, yet no way of actually conquering western countries, at this point. Let's say, God Forbid, that radical islamists start committing domestic terror on the scale of what Israel experienced at the hands of Hamas, the PFLP, and their ilk: the public would be scared, security would be ramped up, no doubt some vigilantism, but then what? They will certainly not march into the white house. It would likely lead to Muslims being persecuted en masse in this country. Yasser Arafat was very succesful politically: he was able to turn palestinians into victims (perhaps to some extent they were), and then when members of his Fatah party started domestic terror in Israel, with Hamas following suit with a much more dangerous ideology, the world was primed to forgive the palestinians, for in their eyes they were all victims. Some are victims, some are terrorists. But can one believe that they treat their populace with a significantly greater deal of respect than did the taliban? Hamas can burn effigies, stomp on american flags, purport the very ideology that led to 7/7 and 9/11, and whatever is yet to come, and the world seems to still sympathize with them. Don't forget, that radicals in Gaza burnt american flags and danced in the streets on 9/11.

The world has lost its mind. They have forgotten that Hamas are terrorists, not "freedom fighters." They, and MANY MANY like them in the UK, Canada, Brooklyn, want to do away with our free and open society, and establish a theocratic Islamic State, with the rest of the world at their subjugation. These are the ideals propagated OPENLY by Hizb-ut-Tahrir, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda. They may differ on fine points, but they are in congruence about the end they wish to achieve. To be clear, I feel that Islam is a beautiful religion, and so similar to my own that I feel a kinship to Muslims. Radical Islam is not Islam: it is politics! They are hijacking this religion and using it to grab power. Muslims must not tolerate this. The world must not tolerate this. Israel is not always right in its actions, but they are a western-style government, and have a relatively open democracy (especially compared to its neighbors). Israel does not want to push the Palestinians into the sea; as a nation, its political leaders do not scream for the death to all Palestinians. Israel is a legitimate entity, chartered by the United Nations, and handed over to them directly by the British Mandate. The Hamas leadership, on the other hand, openly, in its charter as well as in its very well-iterated ideology, calls for the destruction of Israel and the death of Jews in Israel, as well as the establishment of an Islamic State with aims of world domination. This is not islam! This is insanity! (here's some choice quotes from the Hamas Charter: "Under the wing of Islam, it is possible for the followers of the three religions - Islam, Christianity and Judaism - to coexist in peace and quiet with each other. Peace and quiet would not be possible except under the wing of Islam. Past and present history are the best witness to that." and "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."). The media is right, this war is, indeed, one-sided.