shaving their beard to spite their face

There is an orthodox Jewish community in Israel known as the Hereti. They are among the most steadfast and earnest of the orthodoxy, and take the Torah quite literally.

The Hereti men cannot be troubled with such mundane things as finding a job; they believe it is God’s will that they spend most of their time studying the Torah.

This community has been the focus of intense scrutiny for the last several months, as the Hereti leadership has decided that women should sit at the back of the public bus, and it is time to start enforcing dress codes even among the non-believers they encounter.

One lawyer in Israel has referred to the Hereti as “the Jewish Al Queda.”

So how are these men able to devote their waking hours to holiness-by-memorization-and-meditation? Simple – their wives are the  breadwinners.

Now here’s where the fun begins.

The Hereti leadership decided recently that the women-folk should not attend college. They don’t need to be exposed to the elements that exist out there in the world of education – they might be corrupted.

So the men are forbidden to take a full-time job – might interfere with their studies; and the women are forbidden to get anything more than a basic education – might get uppity.

Wonder how long it will be before they are forbidden to eat. Seems like the next step.

failed marketing slogans, part II

For the Libertarian party:

It’s not the heat in Washington that gets you; it’s the stupidity.

no taxation without representation…at least, not after the 2008 elections.

People who love in the District of Columbia are stateless. They are not Marylandarians, nor are they Virginians; they are Districtonians (somehow I thought Columbians wasn’t the right word). These citizens without a state have never been represented in Congress, an issue that has been brought up multiple times over the years. The Democrats have cried ‘foul’ over this ‘disenfranchisement’ of the masses, so the Districtonians thought they saw daylight with the new sheriff and deputies in town.

Historical note: For the last hundred years or so, Congress has increased its number of seats by pairs, one for each of the major parties. Hawaii and Alaska were given their seats as a duet, so the seats of the lefty islanders would be counterbalanced by the conservatives of the frozen tundra, for example.

So when the activists from DC went looking for Congressional support, they went shopping in…Utah?

Yep, the great red state of Utah has been obnoxiously clearing its collective throat since the last U.S. senseless census survey, wanting another seat because of population growth. It seemed a marriage made in heaven, these two. But politics not only makes strange bedfellows, it also makes strange adversaries.

Henry Waxman (D., CA.), newly-crowned chairman of the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee, is putting up roadblocks. He, who is, of course, a champion of the disenfranchised (see the D in italics right after his name in the previous sentence? That proves he is a champion of the disenfranchised!), is giving a loud, “Woah, Nellie!” to the deal.

You see, if Utah gets another representative (which they are supposed to because of their population) , they also get another vote in the electoral college. Waxman says that the party has done the math, and he will stifle this bill or make sure it does not take effect until after the 2008 elections.

Power to the people, huh?

Thank you, NPR for shedding some light on this. Hope others follow suit.