A Goldish Touch in Brooklyn (Headbands, Tichels)

Serach will be selling her tichels (Serach's Scarves) and headbands (A Goldish Touch) at the Kings Bay Y Israel celebration on Sunday, June 13 from 11-3. There will be rides (for the kids), face painting, a petting zoo and food. The address is 3495 Nostrand Avenue (between Avenue U and V). We went last year, too, and had a lot of fun - bring your kids and have a blast!

EZ Reads 6/10/10

Happy 37th Anniversary to Mom & Dad!!

In their honor, here's some great pieces my Mom forwarded to me the last couple of days:

This video may be the best 10 minutes you spend today (via Freakonomics):

It's psychologist Philip Zimbardo lecturing on the six different ways people perceive time, takes about 10 minutes to watch. Depending on your time orientation, it might seem to take far longer, or seem to rush by. Understanding which “time zone” we inhabit, Zimbardo says, has profound effects on every aspect of life.

If you haven't yet read this fantastic Wired piece by Nicholas Carr on "Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains", you must. It will profoundly change the way you think, even if you already knew much of what it says. A number of friends - all of whom are bright, technology-focused people, were nodding all the way through the piece.

The NYTimes has a related piece on being hooked to technology, plus another one on how it affects parenting. What's especially interesting about the parenting piece is that the examples are not typically "extreme", which are easy to dismiss, and that children are perfectly aware of the issue:

Laura Scott Wade, the director of ethics for a national medical organization in Chicago, said that six months ago her son, Lincoln, then 3 1/2, got so tired of her promises to get off the computer in “just one more minute” that he resorted to the kind of tactic parents typically use.
“He makes me set the timer on the microwave,” Ms. Wade said. “And when it dings he’ll say, ‘Come on,’ and he’ll say, ‘Don’t bring your phone.’ ”

(What's scary is that even as I wrote this section, I had to force myself to stop to play catch with Kayla and avoid being hypocritical. Oy. She has a great arm, though!) All in all, this is obviously the Times' new obsessive topic, as they've followed up with Technology's Toll: Impatience & Forgetfulness and an interesting study where the younger generation actually views technology as a larger problem than the older generation in terms of how it affects people. [I assume this is because the younger generation is caught up deeply in technology, while the older generation is only knowledgeable to a smaller extent and use it in more limited fashions.]

A really interesting pair of tests is up on the NYTimes' website, here. The timing on the second one is very interesting. (For what it's worth, Mom, I placed better than even low multi-taskers, so :-P to you!)

Elsewhere:

• NYTimes: Studies show Jews' genetic similarities (Ashkenaz and Sephardim). 

• Interesting piece on  Obama in the White House in the Wall Street Journal.

Orthodox Childhood Study

A good friend and former roommate of mine is conducting an interesting research study for his Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program. If you have a few minutes please take the time to participate here: http://tinyurl.com/ODQStudy

About the study:

You are being asked to participate in a research study conducted by Sruly Bomzer, M.S., doctoral candidate, C.W. Post Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program, under the supervision of Jill Rathus, Ph.D. The purpose of this study is to examine common childhood experiences of Jews raised in the Orthodox tradition. If you were raised in an Orthodox Jewish family, regardless of your current affiliation, you are eligible and encouraged to participate in this study.

Please note that for the purposes of this study, "childhood" is defined as any time prior to the completion of high school (around age 17).

If you have any questions about the research, you may contact the investigator, Sruly Bomzer, at SrulyStudy@gmail.com, or the faculty supervisor, Dr. Jill Rathus, at Jill.Rathus@liu.edu. If you have questions concerning your rights as a subject, you may contact the Executive Secretary of the Institutional Review Board, Ms. Kathryn Rockett at (516) 299-2523.

JES makes BusinessWeek!

In a Business Week article that discussed a number of online financial websites, one of the sites discussed is my personal favorite, Mint.com. I was called up a few weeks ago by David Bogoslaw, who wrote the Business Week piece, and we spoke for about 10 minutes about Mint and what's great about it (and what its drawbacks can be). I think he took the most important point well, in addition to a small shout-out for the Jewish Economics Survey!: 

Ezzie Goldish, a young New York accountant, began using Mint just before the birth of his first child in June 2008. A month later, he lost his job while his wife was still working part-time so she could care for their baby. With Mint's help over the next year, the couple organized their finances and managed to pay off 40 percent of credit-card debt despite a 40 percent cut in income.

"As much as we thought we knew what we were doing, until you see [how you're spending] in front of you, it's a lot harder," he says. Goldish, who had already been getting calls for financial advice because of his profession, posted an economics survey on his blog for people in his Orthodox Jewish community. He has received hundreds of comments expressing interest in Mint from around the world.

 Awareness is absolutely the key to managing finances, and this is possibly more true for those who think they have a good handle on their finances. There's simply a huge difference between keeping track normally and actually seeing it all in front of you in a big chart that shows where all your money has been going.

What's great about Mint is how it just shows it all in front of you so clearly. A few friends have said since starting on Mint that it just makes tracking everything so much easier (and as someone noted, it also stops fights over spending like "you spend $XX on A" vs. "no I don't, it's not even close!", for those interested in the shalom bayis aspect - hard to argue with the numbers right in front of you), and that makes it a lot easier to cut back.

I commented to him that the biggest 'drawback' was that Mint only helped you for the past and present, but wasn't great for the future - though to be fair, neither were most any other sites. It's hard to adjust your spending to save for the future well. What was especially cool at the Intuit meeting I went to was that they're actually unveiling a tool to do exactly this soon: It will not only let you set goals and suggest goals, but will factor in as many details as it can to help you save, including acknowledging that you will need to save different amounts at different times to meet your goals, and that helps make goals feel reachable. Saying "you need to put away $85,000" is a lot harder to do than "put away $40 this month toward your son's college fund". It will even factor in things like presumed inflation and various changes in your spending habits, including changes that happen over time. It's a brilliant tool that will really round it out well.

Now, if only they had a Blackberry app...! :)

Mazel Tovs!

SerandEz would like to wish huge mazel tovs to our good friends (and SerandEz contributors) Moshe & his wife on the birth of a baby girl, and Eliezer StrongBad and his fiancee (iPay's cousin and roommate) on their engagement!

The best part may be that as loathe as ESB may be to admit it, my way > his [former] way. :) v'hamaven yavin

More Idiotic Rules in the Name of "Fairness"

From here

In yet another nod to the protection of fledgling self-esteem, an Ottawa children’s soccer league has introduced a rule that says any team that wins a game by more than five points will lose by default.

The Gloucester Dragons Recreational Soccer league’s newly implemented edict is intended to dissuade a runaway game in favour of sportsmanship. The rule replaces its five-point mercy regulation, whereby any points scored beyond a five-point differential would not be registered.

Kevin Cappon said he first heard about the rule on May 20 — right after he had scored his team’s last allowable goal. His team then tossed the ball around for fear of losing the game.

He said if anything, the league’s new rule will coddle sore losers.

“They should be saying anything is possible. If we can get five goals really fast, well, so can the other team,” said Kevin, 17, who has played in the league for five years. “People grow in adversity, they don’t really get worse…. I think you’ll see more leadership skills being used if a losing team tries to recuperate than if they never got into that situation at all.”

Kevin’s father, Bruce Cappon, called the rule ludicrous.

“I couldn’t find anywhere in the world, even in a communist country, where that rule is enforced,” he said.

Mr. Cappon said the organization is trying to “reinvent the wheel” by fostering a non-competitive environment. The league has 3,000 children enrolled ranging in age from four to 18 years old.

“Everybody wants a close game, nobody wants blowouts, but we don’t want to go by those farcical rules that they come up with,” he said. “Heaven forbid when these kids get into the real world. They won’t be prepared to deal with the competition out there.”

Paul Cholmsky, whose four- and six-year-old boys play in the league, said the intended goal of a default-lose rule might backfire in teaching life skills.

“If there’s one team that’s consistenly dominant and one team that’s not, well, that’s life,” he said.

Mr. Cholmsky said he would be in favour of temporarily handicapping a team, for example reducing the number of players on the field, over ensuring a team loss for a high score differential.

According to the league’s new rules, coaches of stronger teams are encouraged to deter runaway games by rotating players out of their usual positions, ensuring players pass the ball around, asking players to kick with the weaker foot, taking players off the field and encouraging players to score from farther away.

Club director Sean Cale said he is disappointed a few parents are making the new soccer rule overshadow the community involvement and organizing the Gloucester club does.

“The registration fee, rergardless of the sport, does not give a parent the right to insult or belittle the organization,” he said. “It gives you a uniform, it gives you a team.”

Mr. Cale said the league’s 12-person board of directors is not trying to take the fun out of the game, they are simply trying to make it fair. The new rule, suggested by “involved parents,” is a temporary measure that will be replaced by a pre-season skill assessment to make fair teams.

“The board is completely volunteer-run and we do the best that we can to provide a good, clean, fun soccer experience for everyone,” he said.

Although parents are fuming, he said the commotion is coming from “about 1% of the parents.”

Four! (minus two)

An early happy birthday to Kayla, aka "Kay-Kay" as she calls herself, on her second birthday! Ask her how old she is, and she says "Four!" - just like her sister.

Enjoy

I Learn Alone...

...anyone who has ever spent any length of time in a yeshiva knows or has seen someone like this.

A tribute - to the guy in the corner of the Beis Medrish:

I learn alone, yeah
With nobody else
I learn alone, yeah
With nobody else
You know when I learn alone
I prefer to be by myself

Every morning just before shacharis
I don't want no coffee or tea
Just me and good Mishna B’rurah
That's all I ever need
'Cause I learn alone, yeah
With nobody else
Yeah, you know when I learn alone
I prefer to be by myself

The other night I laid sleeping
And I woke from a terrible dream
So I caught up my pal Talmud Bavli
And his partner Yerushalmi
And we learned alone, yeah
With nobody else
Yeah, you know when I learn alone
I prefer to be by myself

The other day I got invited to a shiur
But I stayed home instead
Just me and my pal Shulchan Aruch
And his brothers Shach and Taz
And we learned alone, yeah
With nobody else
Yeah, you know when I learn alone
I prefer to be by myself

My whole yeshiva done give up on me
And it makes me feel oh so bad
The only one who will hang out with me
Is my dear old Rambam
And we learn alone, yeah
With nobody else
Yeah, you know when I learn alone
I prefer to be by myself

Who You Gonna Call?

(Read more and see pictures and commentary here!)

Thanks, Improv Everywhere and the New York Public Library!

Israel Trip Highlight Pictures

What a crazy, crazy trip, but definitely worth it. Here are the pictures I can put up on the blog...

From top left, L-R:

Row 1: Ezzie at kotel; some palm trees in Lod; the view from Nof Ayalon; Ezzie & Kayla all ready for Shragi's wedding; Kayla walking around Nof Ayalon; Kayla in town enjoying her Coke in her new shirt.
Row 2: Kayla enjoying Groovin's fish tank in Kochav Yaakov; the wedding reception at the Binyanei HaUma; Kayla checking out the plane home at Ben-Gurion; trash cans burning in a charedi neighborhood of Yerushalayim; guns ready for a salute at the kotel for an inauguration for hundreds of IDF soldiers; encased menorah on the steps down toward the kotel.
Row 3: Inauguration setup; lunch with Jameel; Kayla walking around the streets of Israel; Ezzie & Kayla near the kotel 
Row 4: chupah for Shragi's wedding; tana'im at the wedding (signed by Ezzie); setup for inauguration at kotel; tzeischem l'shalom sign on way out of Yerushalayim.

Last Night...

... To the Congress of the United Cavalier Fans

Yesterday, May 13, 2010 - a date which will live in infamy - the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association was suddenly and deliberately attacked by forces of the Empire of LeBron.

The Cavs organization was at peace with that person and, at the solicitation of Cavs Fans, was still in conversation with the Horesemen and their emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace, and a max deal contract, in the off-season.

Indeed, one hour after LeBron jumpers had commenced bricking in Boston, the League Commissioner delivered to the Cavalier front office a formal reply to a recent message. While this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing contract negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or armed attack.

It will be recorded that the distance of Boston from New York makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time, the Global Icon has deliberately sought to deceive the Cavaliers by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace and playoff victories.
---------

Yes, I'm bitter
Yes, I'm angry
Yes, I know that this is being ungrateful
No, right now I do not care

For LOST fans

El Al 815?

By JTA Staff

NEW YORK (JTA) -- In the final season of "Lost," the show has explored an
alternative reality, defined to some degree by what would have happened to
the main characters had Oceanic 815 from Sydney to Los Angeles not crashed
on the island.

In that spirit, what if the plane had gone down but it had been an El Al
flight?

Well, the plane never would have crashed because the El Al pilots would have
been able to perform evasive maneuvers. But if it had .

* Jack would not have been the only doctor.

* John Locke would have been named Yeshayahu Leibowitz.

* Sayid would have never made it on to the plane.

* Instead of Sayid's makeshift radio, some of the Israeli passengers would
have set up a high-speed Internet link.

* Some Lubavitcher would have shown up before long to open up a Chabad
house.

* There would be more than just one recklessly driven German-made vehicle on
the road.

* The existence of a nuclear weapon on the island never would have been
acknowledged.

* Gratuitous shots of Kate in her underwear would be replaced by quick peeks
of haredi women sans sheitels.

* The island suddenly would have attracted the attention of the entire
world, with the United Nations accusing the passengers of illegally
occupying territory and using disproportionate force to fend off attacks by
the Others.

Ani Yehudi

Hat tip: RafiM

I enjoyed this video by a number of Israeli musicians entitled Ani Yehudi:

Whirlwind Month (,Trip,) & Who Wants Lunch!?

It's been a bit of a crazy month, and it's about to get a lot crazier. Life has included rushing to get out my company's annual financial statements* - for not just one but two years, one and a half of which I wasn't there for; the Intuit Town Hall meeting on personal finance where I was asked to join as a panelist (full replay here); Chana and her chassid got engaged, DGEsq's wife had twin girls, FrumDoc & FFW had a baby boy; GS got engaged; Moshe helped our Lander Alumni pull off an amazing dinner, and as of last Thursday, we decided that I will in fact head to Israel for my best friend Shragi's wedding, scrambled to get tickets and passports that day... and I'm leaving tomorrow... and I'm bringing 23-month old Kayla with me for the week-long trip. Oh - and I have to put out the next quarter's financial statements by May 17th.

Anyway, who wants to meet up in Israel (Jerusalem area, most probably) for lunch or dinner this week? {Bonus! It might be with Jameel, too!} :) While I still don't know my full itinerary, I'll have a bit of flexibility in between visiting all my cousins and aunt and family friends and of course, the aufruf and wedding of my dear friend Shragi [the author of the "Well Waddaya Know..." trivia series on SerandEz based primarily on his forensic psychology studies].

So - who's in? E-mail me at serandez at gmail.com!

* - more on that later.

JES: Panelist at Intuit's Town Hall Meeting

Tomorrow, April 28th, I have been invited to be a panelist at the Mint.com/Intuit Town Hall meeting at the NASDAQ Marketplace in Times Square. As some of you may recall, I originally wrote a letter to Mint.com regarding the Jewish Economics Survey, asking for their assistance in taking it to a new level in order to help the greater community. I was thrilled when someone representing Mint.com contacted me in response shortly thereafter, expressing some interest in the concept. We're still in contact as we try and determine if there is a way for them to easily help me with the project in some way, even as their primary focus is on their recent acquisition by Intuit (which owns Quicken, Quickbooks, TurboTax, etc.).

Meanwhile, the representative contacted me recently and asked,

We are going to be hosting a Town Hall event on April 28th in Manhattan. The topic is Personal Finance, and it will be hosted by Aaron Patzer [Ez: the founder of Mint.com] and Beth Kobliner (www.bethkobliner.com). We’re hoping to gather a group of 15-18 participants together to talk about the current concerns  in the Recession. Given your details on the specific budget/finance issues of the Orthodox Jewish community, I’d love to invite you to participate.

I happily agreed to take part, and am really looking forward to both contributing to and learning from the panel. As it says above, I'm going to be a part of the Personal Finance panel, which is from 3:45-5:00pm, and moderated by Beth Kobliner. There is a streaming link that you can sign up for in advance here; in Aaron Patzer's post about the panel he notes you can ask questions via Twitter or straight to Intuit.

The panel is being billed as "Personal Finance: A discussion with NY folks on how they’ve changed their financial habits, what they’ve learned, and how they’re coping with the changes in the economy. Personal finance expert Beth Kobliner will moderate." I'm certain that the panel will be really interesting and perhaps a bit eye-opening for many, and that there will be much to learn from it. Please take part online and feel free to post your questions! In addition, there are two other sessions earlier in the day which are probably very interesting to many SerandEz readers: 9:30-10:45am on Small Business, and from 12:45-2:00pm on Kids & Money: A Discussion on Financial Literacy.

Enjoy, and thanks so much to Mint.com and Intuit for this opportunity.

RSA Shopping Links

Guest post by Josh Lintz

Ezzie's note: My brother learns at (and has for over 20 years learned at a branch of) Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim, also known as the Rabbinical Seminary of America (RSA). Josh Lintz, a tzaddik of a guy who also learns at RSA and works tirelessly to help the yeshiva in numerous innovative ways, asked me to post this up on SerandEz, and I readily agreed to it. For those who shop on these sites anyway, why not help give some tzedaka along the way?

Do you shop on websites such as Amazon.com, Diapers.com or Artscroll.com? Instead of going straight to your website destination, click on www.joshlintz.com/rsa and use the links provided for these and many other popular websites. With every purchase that you make through these links, Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim of Queens (Rabbinical Seminary of America) gets a percentage back. If you are going to be making these purchases anyways, why not help the Yeshiva at the same time?! Just click here and see for yourself how easy it can be to help the Yeshiva.

While the Yeshiva tries to maintain a limited-to-no Internet policy, the realities of modern life has dawned upon them.  The daily parade of huge packages delivered to the Yeshiva by UPS and Fedex are a clear indication as to how much money is spent on Internet purchasing.  As a result, an alumnus, Josh Lintz, has arranged a portal where alumni and supporters can go and click through to make their purchases, and a percentage of those purchases will be given back to the Yeshiva. 

Amazon.com has so far been the most popular; remember, Amazon is more than just books, many people have been using it to buy diapers and other items as well. They have setup Amazon Canada as well for our friends up North.

Jot this down and share it with your friends, family and co-workers as well – www.joshlintz.com/rsa.  Bookmark the page or set it as your home page. And thank you.  Just remember – the Yeshiva does not endorse the use of, or the bringing of the Internet into your home.

Remember: "If you're gonna spend the money anyway, at least help the Yeshiva along the way !!"

How YOU can participate in this easy way to give tzedaka while
doing your online shopping:

1) Shop!

a. go to www.joshlintz.com/rsa

b. Click on the link to the site you were planning on shopping at

c. Buy the products for the same price

d. The yeshiva gets a percentage of the sale

2) Make www.joshlintz.com/rsa page your homepage so that you always remember to shop through these links. Note: There is a Google search box on the page for your convenience so that you can use it as a home page and have easy access to Google search.

3) Send this sample letter to your friends and email lists:

Dear Friend,

I wanted to let you know about a great way for you to give tzedaka

while doing your online shopping. A alumnus of Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim of Queens set up a portal where alumni and supporters can go and click through to make their purchases, and a percentage of those purchases will be given back to the Yeshiva. At www.joshlintz.com/rsa, there are many popular websites
such as Amazon, Diapers.com, Artscroll and many other popular
stores. It's so simple. If you are making purchases on these sites
anyways, why not help the Yeshiva at the same time?! So before doing your online shopping, remember to first stop at www.joshlintz.com/rsa !

This is truly an opportunity that you can't pass up! Just as I have
sent this email to you, take a minute and forward this email to as
many friends, family, co-workers, and email lists as you can.

For more information, you can read this blog post where I first heard about this amazing program HERE.

Tizku L'Mitzvos and Thank You,

Your Name Here

Masterful Ceremonies

There is a famous (if overused) saying that goes, "If you need to get something done, find someone who's busy." This post is dedicated in honor of a couple of friends who turned this into an art form.

(For a quick bit of background... After my two years in Israel, I came back to the US and attended the Lander College for Men in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, NY, as a "Lander Scholar" (full academic scholarship). Lander was in its infancy at the time; it was billed as the Honors Division of Touro College, and thank God, it turned out to be rather decent and an overall great experience. Since finishing at Lander, I was asked to join the Lander Alumni Board and was then elected by the other members of the Board to be a Vice Chair. My good friend [and SerandEz contributor] Moshe was appropriately and easily elected to be the Chairman.)

Last night at the White Shul in Far Rockaway was the first-ever Lander Alumni Dinner. Lander has been around for 10 years, and as it's the first dinner, the logistics that went into making it work while bringing back alumni from the beginning was an impossible trick. Our original projections and hopes were to bring in 250 people to the dinner, with an outside shot at breaking 300 - and this despite about 50 people from over the years being honored for having received smicha (rabbinic ordination) over the decade Lander has been in existence.

As a Board member, I was supposed to be doing major work to help out with the dinner. Unfortunately, however, it coincided with the exact weeks I needed to use for preparing my company's financial statements, and I ended up doing just about nothing. Meanwhile, the rest of the Board (except the accountants finishing up busy season) and particularly the tireless Alumni Director of Lander and our Board Chairman Moshe had to work their little tushies off: Despite holding other jobs, despite having wives/families/dating/etc. to deal with, despite all the other headaches that come up in life, or (in Moshe's case) despite being a third-year medical student working on hospital rotations.

And yet... they did it. The AD would work all day, all evening, all night... and Moshe would come back from a rotation and get straight to work. Moshe told me that when he'd leave at 2am to get some rest before the morning, the AD was still working like crazy. They somehow tracked down just about every person who stepped foot in Lander over its ten-year history, and then got a rather large chunk of them to commit to coming. The final total of confirmed reservations was ridiculous in comparison to what we shot for: 507. Including walk-ins who came to wish mazel tov, the total was close to 600 people, despite many alumni who sadly couldn't make it for various reasons. Perhaps even more impressive was the quality of it all: Our innovative approach to the program kept it light and enjoyable, and Moshe kept it moving at a good clip as the MoC. All in all, it gave truth to the (rather impressively done) video tribute to Rabbi Dr. Bernard Lander, a'h, whose vision is what created the school and who passed away this year.

I'm trying to get a copy of the video, but what was especially fascinating about it was seeing him give a fiery speech about Jewish education when he was a bit younger. While his insane work ethic and vision were still evident while we were in Lander and he was about 90, he simply wasn't the same anymore. To see him with all of his energy and watch him be a dynamo like that was really something. His approach to everything was that anything is possible - and in fact, it's going to happen, because we're going to make it happen.

For me, watching this video along with listening to the various honorees was a bit of a coming together of a lot of different pieces. My own boss was actually a student at Touro College in its very first year of existence, and had R' Dr. Lander not just as a Chancellor, but as a teacher. In the 10 months I've been working with him, I only recall him showing that he was impressed with a person twice; both times were in reference to R' Dr. Lander and his amazing accomplishments. Interestingly, my boss has a very similar attitude, perhaps taken from "Bernie" - ideas that seem to be far beyond what one could reasonably expect, then going after it full-bore... and realizing that it's actually far more reachable than you originally imagined. One-in-a-million is suddenly more like one-in-three.

Lander itself was built the same way: A nice concept, but come on - could it really be pulled off? And yet... it was. When I went, there were a nice amount of good guys like myself who were given some type of scholarship as a means of drawing us to a school we might have liked conceptually, but been afraid to take a chance on. Just a couple of years later, people were being placed in a neighboring apartment complex because the dorms had already exceeded their capacity. The same occurred with this dinner: What seemed like a pipe dream suddenly turned into not just a success, but a resounding one that exceeded all expectations... and the credit goes to the people who put everything they had into making it happen: Specifically, our Alumni Director and our Chairman, Moshe.

Both of the major honorees touched on it in their speeches, but it's still worth noting about these great young men, good friends whom I will always hold in high regard (even as I nitpick them to death in all our meetings): Bernie Lander would have been proud. And, now that we know what we know, may next year be even better.


(Also, great job on the food. Yum.)

Proud to be Socialist

I really, REALLY want to know, how the Tea Party is going to dwarf Jim Crow, segregation and everything she mentions. But again, I am slowly realizing that I should not be at all surprised by this stuff. It's leftists BS. No different than any other emotion baiting rhetoric you hear all the time. No need to deal with the actual issues (chaz veshalom). Its all about playing with language and using emotion to further the rhetoric. And thats why they are able to win. Cause really, who WANTS there to be an era worse the jim crow era and segregation and interment???? Once you are able to convince people of that by playing with their fears....you snagged them.

Death and Taxes 2011

Take a look at this great chart detailing the 2011 Federal Budget. It's an easy way to see where your taxes are actually going.