My blogging will be at a minimum for at least two weeks. My family is going off to visit my family in California! My son has been counting the days til we leave since August 1st. We are half packed and ready to leave tomorrow. Tomorrow will be airline hell, but by Tuesday I will be happily settling into my California relaxation mode.

I used to love flying. Now, if it wasn't for my family living across the country, I'd avoid flying like the plague. Between Homeland Security's ineffectual but degradingly insulting measures and the airline's incresasingly petty fees and service cuts, the fun has been totally sucked out of air travel, leaving nothing but a husk of misery, anger and bitterness. I used to travel with a smile and just enjoy the ride. Now I fly with a tight lipped sense of dread. Thank you very much airlines. You suck and your suckiness gets worse year after year.

Coney Island, 1 September 2007

I think unitedstatians have a weird sense of humor. How can you explain celebrating Labor Day on the last day of Summer?

In this household we are not typical americanos by any stretch of the imagination. Especially my kids. As good slash-puertoricans, they would rather be boogie boarding in Isla Verde than fighting the crowds at Sandy Beach.

So we are going to high-tail it to the park and the museum for our last day together, to have some fun.

How are you spending your 'labor' day?

I used to love flying. I used to love airports. Well, the cost and increasing inconvenience have taken the fun out of flying in America. Only when flying overseas does my former love of flying come out because overseas the security is more sensible, the flights more comfortable, and the personnel more friendly.

What are we getting for our inconvenience and increasing costs? Supposedly increased security, but does it really make sense to force parents to pour out their child's milk or juice or to prevent parents from taking aquafor onto planes? Does this really make us safer?

A friend of mine in California flew back from a trip to Europe recently. She flew from her European destination through Paris, to a stopover in America and then home to Los Angeles. In her carryon was an unopened jar of Nutella. For those who don't know about this, it is a hazelnut spread that some Europeans love on toast. Obviously a threat to our national security.

Brief moment of computer time. Thankfully I have been paying little attention to news and mostly relaxing. Spent several days staying with friends in the Hollywood Hills (in a house that originally belonged to D. W. Griffith) now with relatives in Santa Barbara.

I hear Fred Thompson, supposedly the savior of the Republican's chances for the White House, has hit some rough waters. No real surprise, of course. It's going to be a rough ride for ALL the candidates, particularly the Republicans who have to somehow appeal to an America sick to death of Bush but also appeal to the base that is so fanatically right wing they practically are from another culture altogether.

Well ... the sky is falling.

Pigs are flying.

Hell froze over.

James Tedisco has proposed legislation to regulate campaign fundraising "bundling".

I actually think this proposal is a good idea.

May 1, 2007 -- ALBANY - In a very public poke at Gov. Spitzer, Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco yesterday said he is introducing legislation that would limit how much fund-raising "bundlers" can pull together for a political campaign.

[...]

"If anything defines pay to play, this is it," said Tedisco (R-Schenectady), whose bill would limit the amount an individual can raise for a candidate, a practice known as bundling, to $100,000.

Comparing those who bundle to "bagmen," Tedisco would also require a campaign to identify those who bundle for them and how much they raised, list the names, occupation, employer, and spouse's employer of all individual contributors, and list specific access gained by contribution level.

As to what do I think about Spitzer's sauntering to California for a re-election fundraiser? I only have one thing to say :

WHAT THE HELL WAS HE THINKING?!?!?!

This is still my state of mind.

Anybody want to give me an incentive to get back into the blogging grind?

This is adapted from a talk I gave to the Latvia Special Interest Group luncheon at the Jewish Genealigical Conference in NYC this week. I don't know how much it will resonate with a general readership, but it means something to me and to those who heard it. It's adapted from a Powerpoint presentation, so the format is different than what I normally do.

1. SEARCHING FOR JEWISH IDENTITY: Preserving our Heritage; Preserving our Identity

Today I don’t just want to talk about my efforts to save a small, sad synagogue in a corner of Eastern Latvia. I also want to talk about why I am trying to save that synagogue. It is a story that, for me, looks at the thorny question of Jewish identity and Jewish heritage and the value of preserving that identity and heritage.

2. “Your origin and your birth are of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite, you’re your mother a Hittite.” (Ezekiel 16:3)

Genetic evidence confirms the belief that most Jews are closely related and that ultimately we all have roots in the land of Israel or at least its general region. Even an isolated black South African tribe that claims Jewish descent, the Lemba, have genetic traits that point to a common Jewish ancestry. Archaeology shows that the original Jews, if I can use that term for people living so long ago, lived in a small group of poor and isolated villages from around 1200 BCE in what is now the West Bank whose only unique characteristic we can detect archaeologically is that they didn’t eat pork. In all other ways these original Jews were typical Canaanites archaeologically. But they gave up pork. In those tiny, pork-shunning villages we all probably have distant ancestors.

Riddle me this: Why is it that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey needs to have a guy screaming at the top of his lungs, that there's a red alert?

Why would the security personnel at JFK Airport expect this guy to compete with the exhasperated grumblings of close to 1000 travelers queued and waiting for security clearances; but somehow manages to blast on a jumbotron an obnoxiously green advert for Microsoft, that happens to rest under a kitschly unfurled US flag?

Why wouldn't the communications and emergency experts at JFK Airport use the friggin' panels to broadcast last minute security changes issued by Homeland Security?

1. Amtrak stinks. Literally. The trains reek of funk-ay skunk-ay.
2. The Metropark stop on the way to Washington DC reminds me of how much the demographics of our area have changed. I get my Howard and Kumar* moment whenever we stop there.
3. Do you know there's a company that claims We buy ugly houses? It sounds to me they're in the business od selling bullshit.
4. I can never buy decent food on my way to DC. Forget about finding health food stores or decent non-wheat, non-dairy, non-egg based foods. If I don't shlep with my own stash of kibbles, I'm doomed to eating icky foods.