Israel/USA

I am having a little trouble with what is going on lately in the middle east. Everytime I srael has something to say it invariably is that nothing is the fault of Israel:
- Invade a sovereign country, and the logic is 'they made us do it'
- Kill 4 UN observers and the mantra is, 'they should not have been there'
- Reject a UN 3 day cease fire in order to deliver humanitarian aid, and all I hear is that safe routes have been established but Hizballah is stopping the delivery of aid to the people.

After all this, I am forced to ask, is anything ever the fault or responsibility of Israel?

I included the USA in the title since the US admin and conservatives oft repeat that Israel can do no wrong. Matter of fact, they seem so intent on proving that missiles and other technology that allegedly is being used against Israel has been provided by Syria and Iran (nothing like trying to spread conflict- rapture anyone?) that they overlook that the planes, tanks, and bombs that are being used to kill Palestinians and Lebanese were made in America...does this mean that America is culpable for Israel's actions?

Alouettes

On the health, wealth and harmony front things are looking grand. I can still do more each day to ensure greater success in all three areas and believe I will.

Last week Thursday, Jean and I went to the Montreal Alouettes game using tickets I had won at a BNI meeting; it was my lucky week for winning things at BNI. The game itself was great but what a nightmare the seating and everything else was; not that it was a disaster, but so much trouble to see one little game.

First of all, I had to meet Jean there at the stadium because she works downtown and I don't. When I got there, I grabbed a spot in the first available lot. Before parking, I had asked the guy where the stadium was and he told me it was up the hill and around the corner- I figured I was pretty lucky to get that last spot in the parking lot. Just before pulling into the spot, I also asked him if parking where he asked me to park- a handicap zone- was allowed, and he replied yup, it was allowed after 5pm. Besides, I paid $15 for the privilege and figured if he were lying to me, I would get that money back and have his company pay the fine for misleading me.

Anyways, back to my story. I park and start the walk up the hill and around the corner. First off, if you know nothing about Peel street going up the mountain, know this, it's damn steep! A fact which had eluded me when I was safely ensconced in the metal cocoon of my car motoring up and about as if there are no hills. My two little feet on the other hand felt the full effect of gravity telling me that the incline was never meant to be conquered by the grossly out of shape- but I did it.

Once at the top, I figured ok, I made it, barely, but I made it so where is the stadium around the corner? I could not see one so I just started to follow people, .5km, 1km, WHERE THE F%#K is the stadium?! At 1.5km, I come to a light where scalpers have congregated and are actively selling tickets no more than 3-4 meters away from the police directing traffic. For one brief second I thought, hmmm, sell the tickets....naw, I want to watch some FOOTBALL! So I make the left turn since everyone else was too, figured the stadium must be in that direction.

A few hundred metres (sorry America, the rest of the world is metric- time to catch on to the whole centimeter, meter, kilometer- they are all like parsecs but a hell of a lot less :) ) up the road. As I made my way up yet another hill, I saw the Energie van, people handing out pamphlets, and I started to hear stadium noise- drums, talking, horns, etc. I had finally arrived, or so I thought.

Our tickets were for the Ouest end zone, row 3, seat 8. Of course, there is no easy way to figure out where the heck that is once you have entered and being a man, I was loathed to ask, but I did anyways. Turns out that the only way to arrive at Ouest end zone, row 3 seat 8 is to walk the entire circumfrence of the stadium...another km- my feet are hurting again just thinking about it. Got there though and that's when it got even more interesting.

Before describing my seats, I thought about Jean and how annoyed she was going to be finding parking, walking 3 km, and arriving to see the sight of where we had to sit. The reason...as I scanned the rows, 1,2, ahh there's row 3, what the f%#k is that in row 4?! There was a couple there with a combined weight of 272 kilos (600 pounds-ok, maybe 550 pounds) sitting there taking up not only the seats next to them, but spilling over to our row. Now imagine, I am one row down and I pretty much have to ask permission to take my seat. Once seated, I wait for Jean to arrive while watching the pre game festivities.

That's pretty much where the story ends other than Jean not being able to sit comfortably because the woman behind her had her stubby little knees against her back for most of the game. Despite it all, we still had a lot of fun. We got up hoping to catch the football whenever there was a point after. Jean did her fan dance. We cheered and jeered for 3 hours. Without my binocs, I was still able to tell her and everyone else around me what the penalties on the field were before the ref announced them and so on and so on and so on.

Anyways, it's Monday at 9:21...time to do something.

Ben Stein

Good reading - take a minute

Wonder why the world's going to heck?

If they know of him at all, many folks think Ben Stein is just a quirky
actor/comedian who talks in a monotone. He's also a very intelligent
attorney who knows how to put ideas and words together in such a way as to
sway juries and make people think clearly.

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday
Morning Commentary, Sunday, 12/18/05.

---

Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating
heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the
cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and
kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never
know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they?

Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up?

Why are they so important?

I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at all about Tom
Cruise's wife.

Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a
subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are.

If this is what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad.

Next confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does
not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up,
bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel
discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I
don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto.
In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters
celebrating this happy time of year It doesn't bother me at all that there
is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in
Malibu. If people want a crèche, it's just as fine with me as is the
Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think
Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people
who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I
have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly
atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution, and I don't like it
being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we
should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we
understand Him?

I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.

But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came
from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a
little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's
intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson
asked her (regarding "Katrina")
"How could God let something like this Happen?"
Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said,
"I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years
we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our
government and to get out of our lives.
And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can
we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He
leave us alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I
think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body
found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools.

And we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school . the Bible says
thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as
yourself.

And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they
misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might
damage their self-esteem. We said an expert should know what he's talking
about.

And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they
don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill
strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out.
I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the
world's going to hell.

Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible
says!

Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire
but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice
about sharing.

Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through
cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and
workplace.

Are you laughing?

This living thing

This healthy living thing is tough! Trying to achieve that perfect union between body, mind, and society is a pretty strenuous burden.

Anyways, Thursday was a decent day - Friday sucked, but Saturday was amazing. Helped run and play in a free diamond dog poker event on Saturday. Did not do as well as I believe should have...did not doi as well as many expected me to do, so I guess that part was a bit disappointing. Anyways, looking forward to dominating the poker scene here in Montreal.

The best thing about the last three days was the amount of time I was able to spend with Jean, so I guess some great things were accomplished after all. :)

Today was excellent- exercised, ate right, focussed on business, and will relax later tonight...a pretty damn good day.

BNI

Health- had a hearty breakfast, but did not go crazy on the quantities...eggs, pancakes, fruit, coffee

Wealth- had that hearty breakfast at BNI. It's a business group built on referrals. The theory is simple "givers gain"; if you give me business, I will give you business.

Harmony- A fat man is a happy man...and I'm a fat man....am I really happy about that? At least I'm thinking about it :)

Tuesday

Day 2, and all is ok. Not as motivated as I think I can be, but I have the rest of the day to change that.

Health- 50 crunches, 40 push ups, and a lot of stretching.

Wealth- made a few chips and some phone calls. Need to add list of radio stations that offer free tournaments for WSOP seats at absolute poker.

Harmony- Hung out with Jean. She came over and played some settlers of catan - www.jsettlers.com. I played a little poker at absolute poker.

Slow Start

Health- stretched and then did 35 crunches and 25 push ups. Will walk later and maybe even see if I can still run for more than a minute before keeling over in doubled up fat sack of huffing and puffing human waste.

Having a small bowl of LIFE cereal.

woke up at 8:15

Had two slices of cheese and am about to have some soup. Later I will have 2 beers at Jack Astors

Wealth- followed up with the charities. I need to finalize the process with them so that I can move forward and schedule events.
Spoke to Palm Imports about my Magic and Laughter order
Met with Steven Fagan to get product into the gift and souvenir stores
Still need to prepare the Ali order
Began working on the diamond Dog/Pokerpal events
Need to find sponsors.
Noaman is supposed to meet me at some point to decide his involvement. He also needs to ship the Armonia order asap.
The Jepse order is ready. When I meet with Catherine, I am going to ask her is she want to handle two things- flea market sales, and the french bar events.

Harmony- Other than actually acting on my plan, I have done nothing else to create a more harmonious existence...but then...what more than acting on my plan should I or could I be doing?

Health, Wealth, and Harmony

The time has come for me to cast off the shackles which have been keeping me mired in this exhaustive state of non-performance. I need to focus on a few things in order to straighten out what's left of the rest of my life...figured I would use this online journal to help me out.

There are three things which need attention- my health, my wealth, and my harmony; here is the plan for each moving forward:

Health: I am going to eat better; maybe not exactly perfectly, but there will be a definite improvement in my eating habits. I will also exercise more. I used to move a lot, used to be busy doing sports, activities, etc. It's time to get back to more of that.

Wealth: I need to foucs and work harder at my business.

Harmony: or happiness. I need to be sure that every decision I make leads to a more positive and harmonious existence.

Each day from here on in, I am going to document what I have done with regards to these three life unifying goals. I am going to try to keep track of what I eat and when I eat it, how much exercise I do, what strategic moves I am making with regards to money, and what personal decisions I am making.