Friday Fotos – Cowboy Up

November 10, 2006 by Leave a Comment

Though they are harder and harder to come by in America, there are still some real, live cowboys left. (Click here to see a larger version of this foto.)

Bonner Bolton (at left) had just helped his dad, Toya Bolton, move a small herd of cattle across the highway near Odessa, Texas.

Bonner and his brother Brody are following in their dad’s footsteps as professional bull riders. Bonner also rides bulls on scholarship at Odessa College, the winningest junior college in the nation.

More fotos from the life of a modern cowboy are available here.

Filed Under: Photography, Rodeo, Texas

Mine is Bigger Than Yours

November 10, 2006 by Leave a Comment

In an effort to be faithful to Deuteronomy 6:9 (“And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thy house, and upon thy gates.”*), Jews typically attach a “small” box, containing Bible texts from Deuteronomy**, to most door frames in their homes. (NOTE: Technically, the parchment paper with the Bible texts is the mezuzah, but it has become common practice to refer to the box containing the paper as the mezuzah as well.)

In Israel, it is unusual to find a home or building without a mezuzah, so it is quite easy to recognize that there is “freedom of expression” allowed in the design of a mezuzah; and that freedom extends to the color, size, symbols and type of material used. For example, some are fun like the 4.5 inch (11.43cm) ceramic Noah’s Ark mezuzah (at the right), which is available from The Mezuzah Store. Additionally, The Judaica Mall has a collection of over 250 to choose from. If you are interested in more details about the ins and outs of the mezuzah you can see their information page here.

I’ve heard it said, “There’s always room for a little healthy competition.” However, I never expected to find such competition in the world of the mezuzah. After all, isn’t it enough to “do the commandments” without rubbing your friends’ noses in it that you can do them bigger and better than they can? Well,…apparently not.

I recently came across the following advertisement (bold added for emphasis):

Adorn your mansion with a Mezzuzah Fit for a King.

We know that BIG is BEAUTIFUL.
A BIG lulav. A BIG succah. A BIG shul.

The standard size mezuzah is 12-15 cm. Twenty cm would be a big
mezuzah. Now you can get a HUGE Mezzuzah. Forty centimeters tall,hand-written on hand-crafted parchment.

Honor Hashem [G-d] in a scale that none of your friends or neighbors have yet achieved. Show your love for the Mitzvot by proudly displaying a mezuzah that can’t be missed.

Maybe, I’m missing something, but this advertiser seems to suggest that a major reason to purchase their particular mezuzah is to show off. Is that the purpose of the mezuzah?

“It hath been told thee, O man, what is good, and what HaShem doth require of thee: only to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy G-d.”***

Footnotes:
*The Holy Scriptures, Jewish Publication Society, © 1917, 1945, 1955.
**The passages contained in the mezzuzah are Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and Deuteronomy 11:13-21.
***Micah 6:8, JPS Electronic Edition ©1998 by Larry Nelson, emphasis added

Filed Under: Judaica, Social Commentary

And the Winner is…

November 2, 2006 by Leave a Comment

Now that the winners of Iran’s “Holocaust Cartoon Contest” have been announced, does anyone think the reaction from the Jewish world will be similar to the Muslim reaction (February 2006) to cartoon depictions of Muhammad that were initially published in Denmark and subsequently in many newspapers around the world?

Hamshahri, the Iranian daily newspaper who co-sponsored the contest, suggested the motivation behind the event was to test the West’s tolerance of the cartoon depictions of the Nazi efforts to eliminate the Jewish people, eventually killing some 6 million Jews and others.

While many (perhaps, most) in the West will find these cartoons despicable or worse, I’m certain that there will be VERY few, if any, violent responses. In fact, if there are any violent responses, they will be the exceptions and NOT the norm.

Filed Under: Islam, Social Commentary

Changing the World Through Marketing?

October 31, 2006 by Leave a Comment

Is it just me, or have others noted the irony of trying to “ELIMINATE AIDS IN AFRICA” by using sexually seductive models/images to sell merchandise?

I’ll not link to the advertising campaign, but I will tell you that the GAP is using sex to raise money for themselves and to eliminate aids in Africa. And that’s just stupid. That’s like throwing water on a person who is drowning, or gasoline on a person trapped in a burning building.

Filed Under: Social Commentary

Preaching Abstinence

October 28, 2006 by Leave a Comment

The Gap clothing company has begun a new marketing campaign that they suggest can “help eliminate aids in Africa.” This new effort is being marketed as (Product) Red and it offers their customers a unique opportunity to “make a difference in Africa.”

According to their web page, The Gap will be “contributing half the profits from Gap (Product) Red products to the Global Fund, to help women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa.”

The (Product) Red campaign was brought to my attention by Michael Medved who was offering his critique of this apparently noble effort on his radio program. One particular caller who objected to Medved’s critique (should we say cynicism?) really captured my attention. Part of Medved’s critique of this campaign was concerning the lack of effort to call upon people to assume personal responsibility and modify their behavior. Medved was specifically suggesting that abstinence is the best weapon against HIV/AIDS and a caller phoned in to object.

The caller suggested that the “abstinence crowd” was both naïve and foolish. “You can’t expect that teenagers aren’t going to have sex” he insisted. Understand his position: Even though the practice is killing people by the millions every year, it is foolish to think that suggesting abstinence, unquestionably the very best HIV/AIDS prevention tool, is a reasonable practice.

Contrast that position with the way abstinence from spinach is currently being practiced in the United States. According the CDC’s last intended web update for the latest E. coli outbreak, “As of 1 PM (ET) October 6, 2006, Friday, 199 persons infected with the outbreak strain of E. coli O157:H7 have been reported to CDC from 26 states.” Among those 199 cases, 3 have resulted in death.

Under the heading “CDC Advice for Consumers” notice the first point of advice: “Consumers should not eat, retailers should not sell, and restaurants should not serve spinach implicated in the E. coli O157:H7 outbreak. Products implicated in the outbreak include fresh spinach and spinach-containing products from brands processed by Natural Selection Foods.”

The CDC is preaching abstinence when it comes to spinach consumption. And, as we have been traveling (more than 8,000 miles in the car) over the last 6 weeks, I have discovered that restaurants are responding to the CDC’s abstinence message. In fact, it has become a bit of a game for me to ask the server if there is any spinach in the salad that will be served. In the course of our travels, we have eaten out a lot and not once has spinach been available.

To be sure, 3 people dying from bad spinach is terrible, but that doesn’t compare to the death toll of HIV/AIDS. Yet, abstinence is generally accepted as a reasonable method of prevention only in the former, the much less deadly situation. I wonder why.

Filed Under: Social Commentary
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