Melissa's Musings(My opinionated view of life)

David Harris: To the Chorus of Chronic, Compulsive Critics of Israel 21 15 views 196 Get World Alerts Email Comments 196 You just can't contain your rage against Israel, can you? A mere mention of Israel and you're out of the starting gate in record time with another tirade accusing it, and its defenders, of every conceivable evil in the world - from Nazism to Apartheid, from blood libel to mass murder. The facts be damned--they only get in the way of your outrageous assertions and gross distortions. You follow the approach recommended by Lenin: "A lie told often enough becomes the truth." Your narrative is pre-cooked, airtight, and impervious to reason. It's filled with a hat...

JPost.com | BlogCentral | In the Trenches | Israel and conversion: Oy vey, here we go again! The Knesset, Israel's parliament, is once again involved in conversion issues, thanks to a bill introduced by David Rotem of the Yisrael Beitenu Party. If history is any guide, the damage could be deep. Yes, there is a problem in Israel. Many arrivals from the Former Soviet Union are not recognized as Jews and wish to be. Finding a solution is important. But in this case, the proposed cure - to further empower the chief rabbinate - may be more harmful than the illness. I am a Jewish pluralist. I recognize that we are all on one journey, even though we proceed on many diverse paths. Having devoted my career to the defense of the Jewish people, I do not make distinctions among Jews. In my book, all Jews have the inalienable right to live in freedom, equality and safety. Sixteen years ago - July 18, 1994 - ...

In Judaism, Second Amendment states' rights would never be up for debate In Judaism, Second Amendment states' rights would never be up for debate By Rabbi Yonason Goldson Is there any way for words to retain their clarity despite the persistent evolution of cultural references and values? Is there any method for protecting ideas from the ravages of changing times and sensitivities? Indeed there is. It predates the United States Constitution by 31 centuries http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Last month's Supreme Court ruling affirming Second Amendment states' rights (and coinciding with the predictable Republican grilling of Supreme Court nominee Elana Kagan over the same issue) has brought back into the spotlight the constitutional ambiguity regarding gun ownership in the U.S. of A. A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and...

White House vs. Boy Scouts, Part 4 White House vs. Boy Scouts, Part 4 Posted: July 12, 2010 1:00 am Eastern © 2010 (Editor's note: In Parts 1 , 2 and 3 on the White House vs. the Boy Scouts, Norris gave proof concerning how the Obama administration is creating an arm's-length relationship with the BSA and how President Obama's advocacy of the BSA compares to the past 100 years of U.S. presidents. In Part 4, Norris caps the series by discussing how "The Boy Scout Handbook" must be one of the White House's greatest literary threats.) In Parts 1, 2 and 3 of this series on the "Boy Scouts vs. White House," I showed how the Obama administration is distancing itself from the Boy Scouts of America, or BSA, because of its conservative positions. Specifically in Part 2, I showed how, just a week after President Obama denied the invitation to attend the BSA's 100th anniversary gala in his own backyard (Washingto...

Open-Borders DOJ vs. America - HUMAN EVENTS Open-Borders DOJ vs. America by Michelle Malkin 07/07/2010 The Obama administration's lawsuit against Arizona, officially unveiled on Tuesday, is an affront to all law-abiding Americans. It is a threatening salvo aimed at all local, county or state governments that dare to take control of the immigration chaos in their own backyards. And it is b...

DREW GRIFFIN: The president of the United States, the prime minister of Israel, both denying that their relationship is chilly or that the Israeli/U.S. friendship is anything but robust. Is it true? These two men have been frosty reportedly in the past. We'll talk to an expert, next. GRIFFIN: We just heard remarks after the White House meeting between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. These two men have not seen eye to eye in the past. They're meeting today. Obviously, they were trying to shore this up and say basically there never was any rift between these two men. I want to bring in an expert on this, who has been watching this, and this is Daniel Pipes. Daniel, you are the director of the Middle East Forum, joining us from Philadelphia. It seemed that they had a wide-ranging issues, here, Gaza, Palestinian talks, Iran nuclear capabilities. But at the center of it all, seemed to be a public display that these two men indeed ar...

Remarks by President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel in Joint Press Availability | The White House Remarks by President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel in Joint Press Availability Oval Office 12:38 P.M. EDT PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, I just completed an excellent one-on-one discussion with Prime Minister Netanyahu, and I want to welcome him back to the White House. I want to, first of all, thank him for the wonderful statement that he made in honor of the Fourth of July, our Independence Day, when he was still in Israel. And it marked just one more chapter in the extraordinary friendship between our two countries. As Prime Minister Netanyahu indicated in his speech, the bond between the United States and Israel is unbreakable. It encompasses our national security interests, our strategic interests, but most importantly, the bond of two democracies who share a common set of values and whose people have grown closer and closer as time g...

Declaration of Independence Here is the complete text of the Declaration of Independence. The original spelling and capitalization have been retained. (Adopted by Congress on July 4, 1776) The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers ...

Declaration of Independence: Reading it aloud on July 4th - chicagotribune.com Last year on the Fourth of July a group of Americans of all ages crowded into a red barn in a Midwestern beach community. It was raining, so the hot dog grilling and the potluck dinner were moved from the scenic shore of Lake Michigan to the cramped, damp barn. People sat on benches and chairs, balancing paper plates stacked with potato salad, three-bean salad, chips, dogs and brownies. On a small stage a man in khakis and a well-worn sweater began to recite the Declaration of Independence. When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people ... We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ... ...

Thomas Jefferson, Champion of the Jews This post concerns Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, seminal contributor to the Constitution, and third President of the United States. He was so towering an intellect that when President Kennedy hosted the 1962 Nobel Laureates at the White House, he said, “This is the most extraordinary collection of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.” What is much less known about Jefferson is that he had a great connection to the Jewish people, and to appreciate this, we first have to understand the prevalent attitudes toward the Jews at the time. The founding fathers were people of tremendous vision who wanted to try a new experiment in government, a nation without monarchy. And because they had seen how religious warfare racked England, they also had a healthy antipathy toward organized religion. Of all the founding...