Where would we all be without our mothers? They are the life blood of our childhood.
Not only do they give us life but the are there every step of the way to nurture and protect us. Mothers are the best thing that god has created, even thought the fist mother got the first father in trouble with god,
All joking aside Mothers are the rock that keeps many families together at least they did when I was growing up.
The job of the mothers now a day I think has gotten even tougher, with having to go to work and taking care of the family when she gets home. They do have two full time jobs.
My mother was always there to wipe my tears and to cheer me up when I felt sad or troubled. When I was younger I was very sick, I almost died. She was at the hospital every day after work. One time she had an accident going to the hospital, the car was totaled but she still showed up.
My mothers loves all her three children the same.
I was the rebel in the family, but no matter what I did she stood behind me and never gave up. She gave me the strength to turn myself around and make her proud of me. I am still trying to do that even though she tells me all the time how proud she is of me. My mother is very strong person and will not take anything from her children.
She has given pleanty to us all these years now it time for us to give back. It is little compared to what you have gained from her love and caring.
If your mother is like my mine I try and celebrate her every day not just once a year but everyday.
This one for you mom, I love you
Herb
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Home Shopping Center Mall
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Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Sunday, April 29, 2007
The potential loss of a loved one
Years ago I face the loss of a person who had become my dad late in my life and was always there fore me when my real father never cared. Ben was in my life for only eighteen years. Eighteen great years, he was not only my dad; he was my friend, confident, a man that I looked up to and learned from. He was some one that I wish I could be just a little like. Now looking back on the eighteen years of him not being here when I need him most. I feel the pain, the emptiness all over again. He died a horrific death from lymph node cancer.
Not too long ago maybe 4 months my daughter went to the ER and the doctor told us she had non Hodgkin’s lymphoma. For the first time in my life I sat there thinking to myself, that’s bad but what is it? I couldn’t think straight.
But it was the way he said it. He came over to the head of the bed and looked at us and said I have good news and bad. Your daughter does not have meningitis but she has Non Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He said it so matter a fact.
When we question him he started to back away a little and told us about others who lived a long life with it. My daughter has three kids ranging from 8 months to 4years. Naturally we wanted a second opinion, so a friend from another hospital got the records of the test and had another doctor look it over as matter of fact they had two doctors look it over and both said that the first doctor should have never told her that. The tests were not conclusive.
After have more test and seeing more doctors the final analyses was she had a very bad strep thought that was swollen enough to create her neck to look like part of her face. We dodged that bullet.
Now my uncle; a man who was there throughout my years of growing up was just told he has cancer of the pancreas, that is far advanced. My uncle who has many problems with his health that will hold him back from surgery. They gave him 6 months maybe a little more with treatment, but it doesn’t look good. He is another man in my life that stepped in when my biological father wasn’t there. Another man I could look up to and hope to be just a little like. I remember when I was younger and very sick; he was there, not my father. He would come to the hospital everyday to see me. Now he is sick and I feel that I can do nothing for him except be there and wait till he dies. Another father figure in my life will no longer exist. I am afraid to face his death. I’m afraid of how I will react when that time comes. It’s funny we never think about this until it becomes very obvious. Now I think about my mother who is around my uncles age,( a little older), who is in good medical shape for her age. I think about her longevity. I don’t want to loss her, I don’t want to think of it, but I know that I will have to face it some day.
We are all only here for a borrowed amount of time, G-D decides when we have to go. As hard as it is we must go on.
Please vist my charity discount shopping site. Every time you buy something 40% of the profits will go to charity.
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Not too long ago maybe 4 months my daughter went to the ER and the doctor told us she had non Hodgkin’s lymphoma. For the first time in my life I sat there thinking to myself, that’s bad but what is it? I couldn’t think straight.
But it was the way he said it. He came over to the head of the bed and looked at us and said I have good news and bad. Your daughter does not have meningitis but she has Non Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He said it so matter a fact.
When we question him he started to back away a little and told us about others who lived a long life with it. My daughter has three kids ranging from 8 months to 4years. Naturally we wanted a second opinion, so a friend from another hospital got the records of the test and had another doctor look it over as matter of fact they had two doctors look it over and both said that the first doctor should have never told her that. The tests were not conclusive.
After have more test and seeing more doctors the final analyses was she had a very bad strep thought that was swollen enough to create her neck to look like part of her face. We dodged that bullet.
Now my uncle; a man who was there throughout my years of growing up was just told he has cancer of the pancreas, that is far advanced. My uncle who has many problems with his health that will hold him back from surgery. They gave him 6 months maybe a little more with treatment, but it doesn’t look good. He is another man in my life that stepped in when my biological father wasn’t there. Another man I could look up to and hope to be just a little like. I remember when I was younger and very sick; he was there, not my father. He would come to the hospital everyday to see me. Now he is sick and I feel that I can do nothing for him except be there and wait till he dies. Another father figure in my life will no longer exist. I am afraid to face his death. I’m afraid of how I will react when that time comes. It’s funny we never think about this until it becomes very obvious. Now I think about my mother who is around my uncles age,( a little older), who is in good medical shape for her age. I think about her longevity. I don’t want to loss her, I don’t want to think of it, but I know that I will have to face it some day.
We are all only here for a borrowed amount of time, G-D decides when we have to go. As hard as it is we must go on.
Please vist my charity discount shopping site. Every time you buy something 40% of the profits will go to charity.
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
Friday, April 27, 2007
Crule Enemy Cancer
Everything I need, I Had, Everything I have, I need.
by Rebecca Levine
I knew, of course, that I couldn't have breast cancer. Nobody in my family had ever had cancer. We were the hard-driving Type-A types felled by heart disease, not the reticent types prone to cancer. Moreover, I was scrupulous about using only underarm deodorants without aluminum, did not buy food containing chemicals, and ate copious quantities of orange vegetables, cabbage, and salmon, all of which, according to a Good Housekeeping article my friend's mother had clipped out and sent her, reduced the risk of breast cancer.
The only reason that I even bothered to go for a mammogram --my first in four and a half years -- was a series of classes Rabbi Kelemen gave on "doing your hishtadlus [effort]." The rabbi had taught that the only causal force in the universe is God. Everything happens only because God wills it from moment to moment. The Torah, however, obligates us humans to expend "normal effort." Thus, God sends us our livelihood, but we are obligated to get out of bed in the morning and go to work, because that is normal effort. And if we don't bother to expend the effort to work, God will likely teach us a lesson by not sending us a paycheck.
"Normal effort" for good health in 2003 mandates routine mammograms every two years for women over 50. I had gone for a mammogram shortly after my 50th birthday. I was appalled at how excruciatingly painful it was. Two years later, on schedule, I made an appointment for a second mammogram. It was the only time in my life that I totally forgot to keep a medical appointment. Was it my cocky certitude that I didn't have breast cancer or my primal fear of pain? Two and a half years after that, succumbing to Rabbi Kelemen's exhortations to "expend normal effort," I dutifully went for my second mammogram.
They found a lump.
I was unfazed. After all, everybody knows that most lumps are benign. And I knew that I couldn't possibly have breast cancer.
Dr. Cohen, looking grave, told me that they would have to take a biopsy. He never used the words "cancer," "tumor," or "malignancy."
After the biopsy, Dr. Cohen told me that, because they were working so close to the chest, I would have to go for an immediate chest X-ray. I started to wonder what all the urgency was about. Ruth, the somber-looking nurse (a melancholy personality, I surmised), told me to wait in the waiting room while they called the X-ray clinic. Instead, I walked just outside the entrance of the building to get better reception for my cellphone, so I could call my rabbi to ask him to pray for me. I was in the middle of getting his phone number when Ruth came running out of the building, waving the order for the chest X-ray.
"They close at three o'clock. It's 2:25 now!" Her voice was almost panicked. "Can you get across town in time? You'll have to drive fast!"
Speeding across Jerusalem, I felt like an unwitting passer-by who gets caught up in the chase scene of a movie. What was all the urgency about? I had just gone for a routine mammogram.
The chest X-ray came out clean. "Ruth needs to learn to relax," I muttered to myself.
THE DIAGNOSIS
Eight days later the Breast Clinic called and asked me to come in at five o'clock to receive the results of the biopsy. The previous week, despite my protestations, they had told me that they never give results on the telephone.
When my husband Moshe and I arrived, the waiting room, so busy and crowded the week before, was nearly empty. The only other people sitting there were an Israeli couple who looked to be in their early sixties. The woman, with henna-dyed reddish-brown hair, appeared distraught and worried. She kept leaning her forehead on her husband's upper arm.
I sat there reciting psalms and feeling sorry for the woman. Perhaps she really had breast cancer. Unlike me, of course. After about 15 minutes, I struck up a conversation with her, to divert her mind a bit. Her name, she told me, was Tzipporah. She wished she could recite psalms to stay calm. I offered her my book. She smiled and shook her head. Just then, a nurse called in Tzipporah and her husband.
Twenty minutes later they emerged, looking stricken. Tzipporah could barely walk. She leaned on her husband. Filled with sympathy, I jumped up and asked her, "Tzipporah, do you want me to pray for you? What's your mother's name?" Her eyes dazed, Tzipporah nodded, and barely croaked out the name, "Rachel."
At that moment, Dr. Cohen called in me and my husband. I had imagined the scene a dozen times during those eight days. He would usher us into his large, well-appointed office. We would sit down across the desk from him, and, with a relieved smile, he would announce, "The tumor is benign."
Instead, he ushered us into a tiny room dominated by a lit-up screen. Perched in front of it was my mammogram. The three of us squeezed into three chairs that were facing the screen.
"Now this is the lump," Dr. Cohen pointed to a bright spot of light that looked like the head of a comet, "and these are the irregular cells which extend from it, six centimeters along the milk duct." He pointed to specs of light that looked like the thin tail of a comet. He then launched into an explanation of the significance of calcification of cells.
Moshe and I were confused. What did it all mean? Finally Moshe piped up. "You mean the lump is not benign?"
Breast cancer. There are words that explode like bombs
Slowly Dr. Cohen shook his head. "I'm afraid not. It's breast cancer."
Breast cancer. There are words that explode like bombs. Moshe clutched my right hand. Breast cancer. I sat there silent, the truncated limbs of my life strewn around me like the aftermath of a terrorist attack.
Finally I blurted out, "I can't have breast cancer. I have two books to write!"
Dr. Cohen fixed me with his eyes. "You're not going to die from this. We've caught it early. This is Stage One Cancer. The tumor is only five millimeters. But you will have to have a mastectomy."
"Why not a lumpectomy?" I protested. I don't know how I remembered the word. Or any words. In an emergency room after a terror attack, I had seen victims in shock. They had no visible signs on their bodies, no burns, no shrapnel, but they stared straight ahead and did not speak.
Dr. Cohen pointed again to the tail of the comet on the mammogram. All those cells would have to be removed. It would leave the breast so disfigured that there was no point in keeping it.
I don't remember what else he said. Finally, he recommended two surgeons to us, and handed my husband a note with their names and phone numbers. We left, as dazed and stricken as Tzipporah.
A diagnosis of cancer is like a black hole. It sucks you in at a dizzying speed and dumps you out in a different universe. We emerged from that tiny room denizens of a new, strange world. It had its own language: stages, levels, in situ, invasive... It was populated by people who had survived cancer or were in the process of not surviving it, all walking incognito among unafflicted foreigners, their brand, their scarlet letter "C," invisible beneath their flesh.
A doctor would later tell me: "One in nine women will get breast cancer. Among Ashkenazi Jewish women, it's one in eight. You have no idea how many women you know who have had breast cancer."
As we left the breast clinic, I thought of my four friends who had died of cancer -- two of breast cancer, two of ovarian cancer -- during the last eight years. How could Dr. Cohen be so sure I wouldn't join them?
As soon as we reached our car, I picked up our cellphone and called Rebbetzin Milakovsky, in order to get an appointment with my rabbi. "Rebecca, how are you?" she asked in her sweet, Polish-accented English.
"It's... it's..." The words "breast cancer" simply would not come out of my mouth. All I could do was cry into the phone.
IN TOWN
On the way home, we had intended to stop at the butcher shop in town. My sense of efficiency (after all, we were already out in the car) would not let me renege on the errand. Since finding a parking space in downtown Jerusalem is nearly impossible, we decided that Moshe would circle around the block while I ran into the butcher shop.
As soon as I emerged from our car onto the crowded sidewalk, I felt like I had stumbled onto a firing range where the shooters were oblivious to my presence. Every look, every gesture -- a gruff word from the normally gruff butcher, a fellow customer jostling me to get to the frozen ground beef -- would be lethal in my condition. I was on the verge of tears. I felt like screaming: "Be gentle with me, or I'll shatter."
Of course, how could they know that I had just been diagnosed with cancer? Suddenly, with horror, it dawned on me: Just as my affliction is invisible to them, how many times had I spoken curtly or with exasperation to a stranger or to an acquaintance who also may have just been diagnosed with a dread disease? How would I know? How could they know?
Abashed, I remembered Rashi's commentary on the Torah's injunction not to verbally afflict with words a widow or an orphan. The 11th century sage Rashi wrote that the proscription extends to not verbally afflicting anyone, because, although the widow and orphan are the most obvious examples, everyone suffers.
I managed to make my purchases and leave the store without breaking down in tears. My two bags of frozen poultry, salmon, and vegetables were heavy. By the time I turned the corner to the street where I hoped my husband would find me, I could carry them no further. I plunked the bags down beside me and waited for our car to pass.
A young man in his mid-twenties, wearing a knitted kipa, was walking along the sidewalk, which, due to construction, narrowed at the point where I was standing. When he reached me, he jumped over my bags and continued walking. Two meters further, he turned around, smiled, and asked, "Can I help you?"
It was a simple act of noticing that a stranger might be in need. In my fragile state, however, I felt like I was the beneficiary of a world-shaking magnanimity. I was so moved by his kindness, that I could not speak. I shook my head mutely. And I wished that I would be the type of person whose random love could rescue strangers from the depths.
Two days after my surgery, a volunteer from the Israeli Cancer Society -- a woman who had undergone a mastectomy five years ago -- visited me in the hospital. In the course of our conversation, I said to her: "Well, the surgery is over. Now the worst is behind me."
She replied acerbically: "Once you've lived through the diagnosis, the worst is behind you."
I nodded my head knowingly.
OPENING THE LETTER
The next morning, I splurged on a taxi to the Kotel. (In the weeks leading up to my mastectomy, I would treat my body to many indulgences, trying to console it for the ordeal visited upon it -- hand-made jasmine soap, two suits, a massage, and two hats. Although our budget could ill afford these luxuries, and I felt like a clliché buying a hat to ward off depression, the truth is they made me feel feminine and attractive, a dire necessity, not a luxury at all, for a woman with breast cancer.)
Our sages say that when afflicted with suffering, a Jew should not ask, "Why?" (for who can fathom God's infinite mind?), but rather, "What?" "What do You want me to learn from this?" "What is the lesson hidden behind this suffering?" "What do I need to change in myself?"
The Kotel, or Western Wall, is the second holiest Jewish site after the Temple Mount. According to the Talmud, the Divine Presence never leaves the Western Wall.
I went to the Kotel the morning after my diagnosis to ask God what He wanted me to learn from this sudden and traumatic hairpin turn in my life. Fourteen years ago, my husband and I had become Torah-observant Jews. Moshe had left a lucrative psychology practice and I a budding writing career to raise our children in the holy atmosphere of Jerusalem. I idealized growth and was willing to pay a steep price for self-change. But breast cancer? Rather than the next segment of road on my spiritual journey, breast cancer seemed like a gigantic obstacle blocking the road.
God was sending me a message in a sealed envelope. I prayed to open the envelope and read His letter.
I sat in the shade of the ancient wall and meditated. Everything, everything, everything comes from the One Source. The same God who gave me my husband, my four wonderful children, my apartment in Jerusalem, and every single breath, that same God was now giving me a malignant tumor in my left breast. God was sending me a message in a sealed envelope. I prayed to open the envelope and read His letter.
I had learned to meditate by "putting my mind in neutral." Then, if I was fortunate, my mind would slip into "intuitive gear," where ideas would spring not from my intellect, but from a higher faculty, connected to the Divine. "Poor man's prophecy," my husband called it.
What do the breasts represent? I asked. The answer came clearly: They are the organs of nurture. What is this tumor growing in the milk duct? It is a blockage. What is blocked about my nurturing, and why in the left breast?
The answer almost knocked me off my chair. In Kabbalah, the right side stands for chesed, a free pouring-forth; the left side stands for gevurah, restrained giving, holding back, din, judgment. Known among my friends as a generous and loving person, always the first to volunteer to help a needy neighbor, I was okay on my right side. But there was a blockage in one of the 36 milk ducts on my left side. There was something wrong with my gevurah.
Both chesed and gevurah are modes of giving. Chesed pours forth without restraint. Sometimes that's not the best way to give. Sometimes the one receiving requires more measured giving. For example, Albert Einstein teaching math to an eight-year-old would not help her by pouring forth everything he knows. The pure exercise of gevurah, however, must be dictated by the needs of the receiver, not the limitations -- the stinginess or meanness -- of the giver.
A blockage in the left breast. In front of my mind's eye I suddenly saw all the people whom I refuse to nurture: my political opponents on the Israeli left; people I don't approve of; unmarried men over forty who suffer from commitment phobia and don't deign to marry my single friends; pro-Arab academics; vociferous feminists (of whom I used to be one); American Jews who spend their tourist dollars in Europe instead of Israel; and a host of other people guilty, in my mind, of moral failures.
With this revelation came another that overwhelmed me: God has sent me this message, this cancerous tumor, because He believes in my ability to grow, to change, to become more loving, tolerant, and empathetic than I presently am. I think I am, by anyone's standard, already a good person and a good Jew. But I have the potential to become even better, not to rest on my laurels, not to continue strolling down my spiritual path at a comfortable pace, but to race forward. The cancerous tumor is a ball that God is throwing me, confident in my ability to catch the ball and run with it. With my diagnosis of breast cancer, I have been upgraded to the fast lane.
I had the sensation of a hand on my back pushing me to run faster than I ever thought I could. I either had to double my speed or fall flat on my face. But with His other hand, He was holding me up. I wouldn't fall. Spiritually, I could really become someone great. I sat there by the Kotel, the tears streaming down my face, and thanked God for the gift of the tumor.
RE-ENTRY
Then I took the bus home. (I no longer felt the need for petty indulgences.) I walked into my apartment feeling exalted, privileged, closer to God than I had in years.
It was Lag B'Omer, a minor holiday in the Jewish calendar. All my children were home from school. The night before, my husband had explained to them that Ima is sick with something serious but not life-threatening, and she will need an operation. They shouldn't worry, but they should pray -- hard.
Now, as soon as I entered the living room, they all besieged me. They were fighting about a piece of a board game which Sheina, my 15-year-old, had lent Mordechai and Shimon (12 and 10 respectively), and they had somehow lost. Even little Shoshana (7) joined the fray.
I stared at my clamoring children and thought: "How did these aliens invade my new world, my world of cancer? Here I am about to lose a part of my body, and they are crying about losing a plastic game piece?"
I lifted my hands to heaven in a gesture which 17 hours before would have seemed to me melodramatic, and in a choked voice croaked: "Your mother has cancer! It's a serious illness. I can't take all your bickering and fighting. Do you want me to move out of the house until my operation?"
As the children stood there, their mouths agape, I ran to my room, flung myself on my bed, and cried.
And that's how it was for the next few weeks: I was a pendulum swinging between spiritual exhilaration and sudden depression.
MY MANTRA
Bernie Siegel's Love, Medicine, and Miracles convinced me that depression is a breeding ground for cancer. I went to Rabbi Kelemen and asked him for a method to make myself happy.
He pointed to a blessing that every observant Jew says every morning: "Blessed are You Hashem, our God, King of the Universe, who fulfills all my needs." He explained that this blessing signifies that everything I need, I have. Contemplate this truth, he advised me, and I'd be happy.
"Everything I need, I have." I started to repeat this over and over to myself. Of course, to believe in God means to know that He runs the world and dispenses to every single soul exactly what that soul needs to accomplish its purpose in this world.
Then, I realized, the converse must also be true: Whatever I don't have, I don't need. If, after my mastectomy, I don't have a left breast, then I don't need a left breast.
If I have a malignant tumor, I need that tumor for the lesson it has come to teach me
A second converse also occurred to me: "Everything I have, I need." This means that if I have a malignant tumor, I need that tumor. I need it for the lesson it has come to teach me. If I have a nasty downstairs neighbor, then I must need that nasty neighbor. I need him for the spiritual growth that ensues from dealing with a difficult neighbor according to all the lofty interpersonal commandments the Torah enjoins upon me. If I have an unpleasant encounter with a friend, then I need that encounter. It, too, has a lesson to teach me.
Wherever I went during the following weeks, as I ran around to doctors and tests, a liver ultrasound, a bone scan, blood tests, pre-operative screening, genetic testing to determine whether I had the gene for cancer, etc., I repeated my new mantra: "Everything I need, I have. Everything I have, I need."
Sometimes, after a particularly trying experience, I would have to repeat my mantra a dozen times until I calmed down and regained my perspective. The mantra did make me happy, or at least content that God is in control and that whatever He sends me is for my spiritual benefit.
MY SURGEON
Two days after the diagnosis, my husband and I went to see one of the surgeons recommended to us, Dr. Oded Olsha, a middle-aged man born in Australia, educated in Israel and England. After examining me and my mammogram, he asked me how long it had been since my previous mammogram.
"Four and a half years," I admitted guiltily, adding, "I know I should have gone every two years."
"With a tumor this small," Dr. Olsha remarked, "even if you had gone two years ago, it's doubtful they would have found anything."
"You mean I don't have to feel guilty about neglecting mammograms?"
Dr. Olsha raised his bushy eyebrows, appalled. "Is someone trying to make you feel guilty? How dare they!"
How does one choose a surgeon? My best friend was insisting that I search out the most expert surgeon in Jerusalem, that I not settle for a mere good bedside manner, and that I check, double check, and crosscheck Dr. Olsha's credentials. As far as I was concerned, however, the moment Dr. Olsha took my side against all my own inner voices of guilt and reprehension, I knew I had found my surgeon.
Dr. Olsha corroborated what Dr. Cohen had said. I would need a mastectomy, but, pending the results of all my tests, most likely I would not need radiation nor chemotherapy.
He explained that the surgery would include a "sentinel node biopsy." Until recently, he said, a mastectomy included removing all the lymph nodes under the adjacent arm, because the tumor may have drained into them, spreading the cancer. This kind of operation, called a "radical mastectomy," usually left life-long pain and swelling in that arm. Many women who have undergone a radical mastectomy had to wear an elastic sleeve over their arm to control the swelling.
The relatively new procedure of the sentinel node biopsy involved injecting the area of the tumor with both radioactive matter and blue dye before the surgery. Then the surgeon could identify which specific lymph node or nodes drained from that particular area. While the patient was still on the operating table, a fast frozen biopsy was made of just the blue lymph nodes. If they were clean of cancer, no additional lymph nodes would be removed.
"Everything I need, I have." I thanked God that I had breast cancer in 2003 and not five years earlier.
After explaining several other points, Dr. Olsha asked me, "Do you have any questions?"
I surely did. "Dr. Cohen said I wouldn't die from this. But I have friends who died of breast cancer."
I was thinking of Ella, whose death five years before had left a permanent sore in my heart. Ella was the mother of eight children, the youngest of whom was 18 months old when Ella died in the very hospital where Dr. Olsha would operate on me.
At Ella's funeral, when it was time to say kaddish, I noticed all the men on the men's side of the funeral parlor standing in a bowed position. This was strange, for kaddish is not one of the prayers we say bowing. Only a couple minutes later did I realize that the men were bending over in order to hear six-year-old Yankl, Ella's oldest son, recite the kaddish for his mother. On Ella's 41st birthday, several of us had surprised her with a small, impromptu party. We drank toast after toast of orange soda, raising our paper cups to "L'Chaim," to life! Six weeks later she was dead.
"How does Dr. Cohen know I won't die?" I demanded. "Breast cancer is a fatal disease."
Dr. Olsha answered in a gentle tone. "The breast cancer that younger women get is a much more aggressive kind. Post-menopausal women get a slow-growing cancer. We could wait a month, even three months, to remove your tumor, and no harm would be done. With the size of your tumor, the recovery rate is 95%."
I felt that the diagnosis was a death sentence, and Dr. Olsha's words were a reprieve. It never felt so good to be middle-aged!
We set the date for the surgery five weeks hence. That would give me time to do all the tests and to do "my research" on breast cancer and the pros and cons of reconstructive surgery, as well as to check out references on Dr. Olsha, just to please my friend.
HOW GOD FEELS
The evening before my surgery, I packed a small valise with a robe, slippers, toothbrush, toothpaste, two books, and bottled water, and set off to the hospital with my husband. All the way there, I was haunted by a sense of déjà vu. We had followed the same procedure each time I had gone to the hospital to give birth to one of our children. Those times, however, what had come out of my body was life: precious babies who filled me with delight. This time, what would come out of my body was death. And I would leave the hospital with less than I had arrived with.
Yet, I told myself, this surgery was also a birth. Out of this experience, I hoped to birth a new understanding, a gentler, more compassionate self. It was up to me if I left the hospital diminished or augmented.
Early the next morning, Dr. Olsha appeared at my bedside. He held two syringes, one of them grotesquely large. "I have to inject your breast with the radioactive matter now," he explained apologetically. "The blue dye you'll get in the operating room, but this stuff needs time to work. I'm really sorry. This first injection is going to hurt." He paused. "And the second one will hurt even more. I'm really sorry to have to do this to you."
He administered the first injection into my breast. It burned and stung. The second injection felt like the fires of hell liquefied into a syringe. I looked away and repeated my mantra, "Everything I have, I need."
"Now you know how God feels. People are always blaming God for all the pain there is in the world. But He's only doing it for our ultimate good."
When it was over, Dr. Olsha said, "I feel terrible to have to do this to my patients." I tried to console him. "You're doing this for my benefit, so I won't need to have all my lymph nodes taken out." Looking at my kind, secular surgeon, I added: "Now you know how God feels. People are always blaming God for all the pain there is in the world. But He's only doing it for our good, for our ultimate good. And He feels even worse about having to inflict pain than you do."
THE FIRST SHOWER
The day after my surgery, many guests came to visit. I was busy all day, with barely a chance to read the book I had brought. Late at night, when all my visitors were gone, Dr. Olsha came to check my incisions. "Have you taken a shower yet?" he asked.
"No, I've been too busy."
"Well, it's a good idea to take a shower," he suggested. "You'll feel better."
After he left, I thought hard about his gentle suggestion. Years before, my friend Etty had told me that her young sister-in-law had had a mastectomy. When I inquired how she was doing, Etty replied, "She was doing okay... until she took her first shower. It was traumatic for her to see herself."
I took a good look at my own mind. Was I really too busy -- and now too tired -- to take a shower, or was I avoiding my own image in the mirror?
It was 11:00 at night. My three roommates were asleep. I lay there thinking about my now disfigured body. It would look strange, even freakish. "You're deformed now," I told myself, then edited the sentence: "Your body is deformed now."
Suddenly I thought of my mother, may she rest in peace. A beautiful woman, she cared little about fashion, jewelry, or makeup. While my friend Babette's mother used to say to her, "The most important thing in the world is to be pretty and thin," my mother's values were: Be good and be smart. It occurred to me that if I had had Babette's mother, this mastectomy would have decimated my sense of self. Thank God, I had my mother, who from my earliest years had inculcated in me a sense of self not defined by my body or my appearance.
"Everything I need, I have" did not refer, I realized, only to the things and people in my life. It also referred to my inner resources, my strengths, talents, and capabilities. God had prepared me to cope with my mastectomy 55 years ago, when He assigned my soul to the womb of this particular mother, who would raise her daughter with a sense of self that would remain intact even when her body wasn't.
With that I got up from my hospital bed and went to take a shower.
Commentary
By Herb Krantz
This was an article that was sent to me through email. I feel that t is important to share.
I can really fell for this woman. My daughter went to the ER and the doctor told us she had non Hodgkin’s lymphoma. For the first time in my life I sat there in thinking to myself, that’s bad but what is it? I couldn’t think straight.
But it was the way he said it. He came over to the head of the bed and looked at us and said I have good news and bad. Your daughter does not have meningitis but she has Non Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He said it so matter a fact.
When we question him he started to back away a little and told us about others who lived a long life with it. My daughter has three kids ranging from 8 months to 4years. Naturally we wanted a second opinion, so a friend from another hospital got the records of the test and had another doctor look it over as matter of fact they had two doctors look it over and both said that the first doctor should of never told her that. The tests were not conclusive.
After have more test and seeing more doctors the final analyses was she had a very bad strep thought that was swollen enough to create her neck to look like part of her face.
Just like the woman in the story above we all had to find our inter strength for each other. You never know when or where it will be tested but they,(who ever they are),G-D will never give you more than you can bare. Sometime I feel like I would love to meet who ever they are and beat the hell out of them, but no matter what we all gather the strength we need to get through the bad times.
Cancer of any kind is a terrible thing to face and go through. My daughter and we have dodged the bullet this time but only to face the future death of an uncle who means a great deal to us. He was and is a like a father to me.
I have created a charity discount shopping website. 40% of all sales/profits will go to the charities listed in the site. One is breast cancer another is to care of children with cancer along with others. Please visit the site.
Home Shopping Center Mall
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
Please vist my charity discount shopping site. Every time you buy something a percentage will go to charity.
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
by Rebecca Levine
I knew, of course, that I couldn't have breast cancer. Nobody in my family had ever had cancer. We were the hard-driving Type-A types felled by heart disease, not the reticent types prone to cancer. Moreover, I was scrupulous about using only underarm deodorants without aluminum, did not buy food containing chemicals, and ate copious quantities of orange vegetables, cabbage, and salmon, all of which, according to a Good Housekeeping article my friend's mother had clipped out and sent her, reduced the risk of breast cancer.
The only reason that I even bothered to go for a mammogram --my first in four and a half years -- was a series of classes Rabbi Kelemen gave on "doing your hishtadlus [effort]." The rabbi had taught that the only causal force in the universe is God. Everything happens only because God wills it from moment to moment. The Torah, however, obligates us humans to expend "normal effort." Thus, God sends us our livelihood, but we are obligated to get out of bed in the morning and go to work, because that is normal effort. And if we don't bother to expend the effort to work, God will likely teach us a lesson by not sending us a paycheck.
"Normal effort" for good health in 2003 mandates routine mammograms every two years for women over 50. I had gone for a mammogram shortly after my 50th birthday. I was appalled at how excruciatingly painful it was. Two years later, on schedule, I made an appointment for a second mammogram. It was the only time in my life that I totally forgot to keep a medical appointment. Was it my cocky certitude that I didn't have breast cancer or my primal fear of pain? Two and a half years after that, succumbing to Rabbi Kelemen's exhortations to "expend normal effort," I dutifully went for my second mammogram.
They found a lump.
I was unfazed. After all, everybody knows that most lumps are benign. And I knew that I couldn't possibly have breast cancer.
Dr. Cohen, looking grave, told me that they would have to take a biopsy. He never used the words "cancer," "tumor," or "malignancy."
After the biopsy, Dr. Cohen told me that, because they were working so close to the chest, I would have to go for an immediate chest X-ray. I started to wonder what all the urgency was about. Ruth, the somber-looking nurse (a melancholy personality, I surmised), told me to wait in the waiting room while they called the X-ray clinic. Instead, I walked just outside the entrance of the building to get better reception for my cellphone, so I could call my rabbi to ask him to pray for me. I was in the middle of getting his phone number when Ruth came running out of the building, waving the order for the chest X-ray.
"They close at three o'clock. It's 2:25 now!" Her voice was almost panicked. "Can you get across town in time? You'll have to drive fast!"
Speeding across Jerusalem, I felt like an unwitting passer-by who gets caught up in the chase scene of a movie. What was all the urgency about? I had just gone for a routine mammogram.
The chest X-ray came out clean. "Ruth needs to learn to relax," I muttered to myself.
THE DIAGNOSIS
Eight days later the Breast Clinic called and asked me to come in at five o'clock to receive the results of the biopsy. The previous week, despite my protestations, they had told me that they never give results on the telephone.
When my husband Moshe and I arrived, the waiting room, so busy and crowded the week before, was nearly empty. The only other people sitting there were an Israeli couple who looked to be in their early sixties. The woman, with henna-dyed reddish-brown hair, appeared distraught and worried. She kept leaning her forehead on her husband's upper arm.
I sat there reciting psalms and feeling sorry for the woman. Perhaps she really had breast cancer. Unlike me, of course. After about 15 minutes, I struck up a conversation with her, to divert her mind a bit. Her name, she told me, was Tzipporah. She wished she could recite psalms to stay calm. I offered her my book. She smiled and shook her head. Just then, a nurse called in Tzipporah and her husband.
Twenty minutes later they emerged, looking stricken. Tzipporah could barely walk. She leaned on her husband. Filled with sympathy, I jumped up and asked her, "Tzipporah, do you want me to pray for you? What's your mother's name?" Her eyes dazed, Tzipporah nodded, and barely croaked out the name, "Rachel."
At that moment, Dr. Cohen called in me and my husband. I had imagined the scene a dozen times during those eight days. He would usher us into his large, well-appointed office. We would sit down across the desk from him, and, with a relieved smile, he would announce, "The tumor is benign."
Instead, he ushered us into a tiny room dominated by a lit-up screen. Perched in front of it was my mammogram. The three of us squeezed into three chairs that were facing the screen.
"Now this is the lump," Dr. Cohen pointed to a bright spot of light that looked like the head of a comet, "and these are the irregular cells which extend from it, six centimeters along the milk duct." He pointed to specs of light that looked like the thin tail of a comet. He then launched into an explanation of the significance of calcification of cells.
Moshe and I were confused. What did it all mean? Finally Moshe piped up. "You mean the lump is not benign?"
Breast cancer. There are words that explode like bombs
Slowly Dr. Cohen shook his head. "I'm afraid not. It's breast cancer."
Breast cancer. There are words that explode like bombs. Moshe clutched my right hand. Breast cancer. I sat there silent, the truncated limbs of my life strewn around me like the aftermath of a terrorist attack.
Finally I blurted out, "I can't have breast cancer. I have two books to write!"
Dr. Cohen fixed me with his eyes. "You're not going to die from this. We've caught it early. This is Stage One Cancer. The tumor is only five millimeters. But you will have to have a mastectomy."
"Why not a lumpectomy?" I protested. I don't know how I remembered the word. Or any words. In an emergency room after a terror attack, I had seen victims in shock. They had no visible signs on their bodies, no burns, no shrapnel, but they stared straight ahead and did not speak.
Dr. Cohen pointed again to the tail of the comet on the mammogram. All those cells would have to be removed. It would leave the breast so disfigured that there was no point in keeping it.
I don't remember what else he said. Finally, he recommended two surgeons to us, and handed my husband a note with their names and phone numbers. We left, as dazed and stricken as Tzipporah.
A diagnosis of cancer is like a black hole. It sucks you in at a dizzying speed and dumps you out in a different universe. We emerged from that tiny room denizens of a new, strange world. It had its own language: stages, levels, in situ, invasive... It was populated by people who had survived cancer or were in the process of not surviving it, all walking incognito among unafflicted foreigners, their brand, their scarlet letter "C," invisible beneath their flesh.
A doctor would later tell me: "One in nine women will get breast cancer. Among Ashkenazi Jewish women, it's one in eight. You have no idea how many women you know who have had breast cancer."
As we left the breast clinic, I thought of my four friends who had died of cancer -- two of breast cancer, two of ovarian cancer -- during the last eight years. How could Dr. Cohen be so sure I wouldn't join them?
As soon as we reached our car, I picked up our cellphone and called Rebbetzin Milakovsky, in order to get an appointment with my rabbi. "Rebecca, how are you?" she asked in her sweet, Polish-accented English.
"It's... it's..." The words "breast cancer" simply would not come out of my mouth. All I could do was cry into the phone.
IN TOWN
On the way home, we had intended to stop at the butcher shop in town. My sense of efficiency (after all, we were already out in the car) would not let me renege on the errand. Since finding a parking space in downtown Jerusalem is nearly impossible, we decided that Moshe would circle around the block while I ran into the butcher shop.
As soon as I emerged from our car onto the crowded sidewalk, I felt like I had stumbled onto a firing range where the shooters were oblivious to my presence. Every look, every gesture -- a gruff word from the normally gruff butcher, a fellow customer jostling me to get to the frozen ground beef -- would be lethal in my condition. I was on the verge of tears. I felt like screaming: "Be gentle with me, or I'll shatter."
Of course, how could they know that I had just been diagnosed with cancer? Suddenly, with horror, it dawned on me: Just as my affliction is invisible to them, how many times had I spoken curtly or with exasperation to a stranger or to an acquaintance who also may have just been diagnosed with a dread disease? How would I know? How could they know?
Abashed, I remembered Rashi's commentary on the Torah's injunction not to verbally afflict with words a widow or an orphan. The 11th century sage Rashi wrote that the proscription extends to not verbally afflicting anyone, because, although the widow and orphan are the most obvious examples, everyone suffers.
I managed to make my purchases and leave the store without breaking down in tears. My two bags of frozen poultry, salmon, and vegetables were heavy. By the time I turned the corner to the street where I hoped my husband would find me, I could carry them no further. I plunked the bags down beside me and waited for our car to pass.
A young man in his mid-twenties, wearing a knitted kipa, was walking along the sidewalk, which, due to construction, narrowed at the point where I was standing. When he reached me, he jumped over my bags and continued walking. Two meters further, he turned around, smiled, and asked, "Can I help you?"
It was a simple act of noticing that a stranger might be in need. In my fragile state, however, I felt like I was the beneficiary of a world-shaking magnanimity. I was so moved by his kindness, that I could not speak. I shook my head mutely. And I wished that I would be the type of person whose random love could rescue strangers from the depths.
Two days after my surgery, a volunteer from the Israeli Cancer Society -- a woman who had undergone a mastectomy five years ago -- visited me in the hospital. In the course of our conversation, I said to her: "Well, the surgery is over. Now the worst is behind me."
She replied acerbically: "Once you've lived through the diagnosis, the worst is behind you."
I nodded my head knowingly.
OPENING THE LETTER
The next morning, I splurged on a taxi to the Kotel. (In the weeks leading up to my mastectomy, I would treat my body to many indulgences, trying to console it for the ordeal visited upon it -- hand-made jasmine soap, two suits, a massage, and two hats. Although our budget could ill afford these luxuries, and I felt like a clliché buying a hat to ward off depression, the truth is they made me feel feminine and attractive, a dire necessity, not a luxury at all, for a woman with breast cancer.)
Our sages say that when afflicted with suffering, a Jew should not ask, "Why?" (for who can fathom God's infinite mind?), but rather, "What?" "What do You want me to learn from this?" "What is the lesson hidden behind this suffering?" "What do I need to change in myself?"
The Kotel, or Western Wall, is the second holiest Jewish site after the Temple Mount. According to the Talmud, the Divine Presence never leaves the Western Wall.
I went to the Kotel the morning after my diagnosis to ask God what He wanted me to learn from this sudden and traumatic hairpin turn in my life. Fourteen years ago, my husband and I had become Torah-observant Jews. Moshe had left a lucrative psychology practice and I a budding writing career to raise our children in the holy atmosphere of Jerusalem. I idealized growth and was willing to pay a steep price for self-change. But breast cancer? Rather than the next segment of road on my spiritual journey, breast cancer seemed like a gigantic obstacle blocking the road.
God was sending me a message in a sealed envelope. I prayed to open the envelope and read His letter.
I sat in the shade of the ancient wall and meditated. Everything, everything, everything comes from the One Source. The same God who gave me my husband, my four wonderful children, my apartment in Jerusalem, and every single breath, that same God was now giving me a malignant tumor in my left breast. God was sending me a message in a sealed envelope. I prayed to open the envelope and read His letter.
I had learned to meditate by "putting my mind in neutral." Then, if I was fortunate, my mind would slip into "intuitive gear," where ideas would spring not from my intellect, but from a higher faculty, connected to the Divine. "Poor man's prophecy," my husband called it.
What do the breasts represent? I asked. The answer came clearly: They are the organs of nurture. What is this tumor growing in the milk duct? It is a blockage. What is blocked about my nurturing, and why in the left breast?
The answer almost knocked me off my chair. In Kabbalah, the right side stands for chesed, a free pouring-forth; the left side stands for gevurah, restrained giving, holding back, din, judgment. Known among my friends as a generous and loving person, always the first to volunteer to help a needy neighbor, I was okay on my right side. But there was a blockage in one of the 36 milk ducts on my left side. There was something wrong with my gevurah.
Both chesed and gevurah are modes of giving. Chesed pours forth without restraint. Sometimes that's not the best way to give. Sometimes the one receiving requires more measured giving. For example, Albert Einstein teaching math to an eight-year-old would not help her by pouring forth everything he knows. The pure exercise of gevurah, however, must be dictated by the needs of the receiver, not the limitations -- the stinginess or meanness -- of the giver.
A blockage in the left breast. In front of my mind's eye I suddenly saw all the people whom I refuse to nurture: my political opponents on the Israeli left; people I don't approve of; unmarried men over forty who suffer from commitment phobia and don't deign to marry my single friends; pro-Arab academics; vociferous feminists (of whom I used to be one); American Jews who spend their tourist dollars in Europe instead of Israel; and a host of other people guilty, in my mind, of moral failures.
With this revelation came another that overwhelmed me: God has sent me this message, this cancerous tumor, because He believes in my ability to grow, to change, to become more loving, tolerant, and empathetic than I presently am. I think I am, by anyone's standard, already a good person and a good Jew. But I have the potential to become even better, not to rest on my laurels, not to continue strolling down my spiritual path at a comfortable pace, but to race forward. The cancerous tumor is a ball that God is throwing me, confident in my ability to catch the ball and run with it. With my diagnosis of breast cancer, I have been upgraded to the fast lane.
I had the sensation of a hand on my back pushing me to run faster than I ever thought I could. I either had to double my speed or fall flat on my face. But with His other hand, He was holding me up. I wouldn't fall. Spiritually, I could really become someone great. I sat there by the Kotel, the tears streaming down my face, and thanked God for the gift of the tumor.
RE-ENTRY
Then I took the bus home. (I no longer felt the need for petty indulgences.) I walked into my apartment feeling exalted, privileged, closer to God than I had in years.
It was Lag B'Omer, a minor holiday in the Jewish calendar. All my children were home from school. The night before, my husband had explained to them that Ima is sick with something serious but not life-threatening, and she will need an operation. They shouldn't worry, but they should pray -- hard.
Now, as soon as I entered the living room, they all besieged me. They were fighting about a piece of a board game which Sheina, my 15-year-old, had lent Mordechai and Shimon (12 and 10 respectively), and they had somehow lost. Even little Shoshana (7) joined the fray.
I stared at my clamoring children and thought: "How did these aliens invade my new world, my world of cancer? Here I am about to lose a part of my body, and they are crying about losing a plastic game piece?"
I lifted my hands to heaven in a gesture which 17 hours before would have seemed to me melodramatic, and in a choked voice croaked: "Your mother has cancer! It's a serious illness. I can't take all your bickering and fighting. Do you want me to move out of the house until my operation?"
As the children stood there, their mouths agape, I ran to my room, flung myself on my bed, and cried.
And that's how it was for the next few weeks: I was a pendulum swinging between spiritual exhilaration and sudden depression.
MY MANTRA
Bernie Siegel's Love, Medicine, and Miracles convinced me that depression is a breeding ground for cancer. I went to Rabbi Kelemen and asked him for a method to make myself happy.
He pointed to a blessing that every observant Jew says every morning: "Blessed are You Hashem, our God, King of the Universe, who fulfills all my needs." He explained that this blessing signifies that everything I need, I have. Contemplate this truth, he advised me, and I'd be happy.
"Everything I need, I have." I started to repeat this over and over to myself. Of course, to believe in God means to know that He runs the world and dispenses to every single soul exactly what that soul needs to accomplish its purpose in this world.
Then, I realized, the converse must also be true: Whatever I don't have, I don't need. If, after my mastectomy, I don't have a left breast, then I don't need a left breast.
If I have a malignant tumor, I need that tumor for the lesson it has come to teach me
A second converse also occurred to me: "Everything I have, I need." This means that if I have a malignant tumor, I need that tumor. I need it for the lesson it has come to teach me. If I have a nasty downstairs neighbor, then I must need that nasty neighbor. I need him for the spiritual growth that ensues from dealing with a difficult neighbor according to all the lofty interpersonal commandments the Torah enjoins upon me. If I have an unpleasant encounter with a friend, then I need that encounter. It, too, has a lesson to teach me.
Wherever I went during the following weeks, as I ran around to doctors and tests, a liver ultrasound, a bone scan, blood tests, pre-operative screening, genetic testing to determine whether I had the gene for cancer, etc., I repeated my new mantra: "Everything I need, I have. Everything I have, I need."
Sometimes, after a particularly trying experience, I would have to repeat my mantra a dozen times until I calmed down and regained my perspective. The mantra did make me happy, or at least content that God is in control and that whatever He sends me is for my spiritual benefit.
MY SURGEON
Two days after the diagnosis, my husband and I went to see one of the surgeons recommended to us, Dr. Oded Olsha, a middle-aged man born in Australia, educated in Israel and England. After examining me and my mammogram, he asked me how long it had been since my previous mammogram.
"Four and a half years," I admitted guiltily, adding, "I know I should have gone every two years."
"With a tumor this small," Dr. Olsha remarked, "even if you had gone two years ago, it's doubtful they would have found anything."
"You mean I don't have to feel guilty about neglecting mammograms?"
Dr. Olsha raised his bushy eyebrows, appalled. "Is someone trying to make you feel guilty? How dare they!"
How does one choose a surgeon? My best friend was insisting that I search out the most expert surgeon in Jerusalem, that I not settle for a mere good bedside manner, and that I check, double check, and crosscheck Dr. Olsha's credentials. As far as I was concerned, however, the moment Dr. Olsha took my side against all my own inner voices of guilt and reprehension, I knew I had found my surgeon.
Dr. Olsha corroborated what Dr. Cohen had said. I would need a mastectomy, but, pending the results of all my tests, most likely I would not need radiation nor chemotherapy.
He explained that the surgery would include a "sentinel node biopsy." Until recently, he said, a mastectomy included removing all the lymph nodes under the adjacent arm, because the tumor may have drained into them, spreading the cancer. This kind of operation, called a "radical mastectomy," usually left life-long pain and swelling in that arm. Many women who have undergone a radical mastectomy had to wear an elastic sleeve over their arm to control the swelling.
The relatively new procedure of the sentinel node biopsy involved injecting the area of the tumor with both radioactive matter and blue dye before the surgery. Then the surgeon could identify which specific lymph node or nodes drained from that particular area. While the patient was still on the operating table, a fast frozen biopsy was made of just the blue lymph nodes. If they were clean of cancer, no additional lymph nodes would be removed.
"Everything I need, I have." I thanked God that I had breast cancer in 2003 and not five years earlier.
After explaining several other points, Dr. Olsha asked me, "Do you have any questions?"
I surely did. "Dr. Cohen said I wouldn't die from this. But I have friends who died of breast cancer."
I was thinking of Ella, whose death five years before had left a permanent sore in my heart. Ella was the mother of eight children, the youngest of whom was 18 months old when Ella died in the very hospital where Dr. Olsha would operate on me.
At Ella's funeral, when it was time to say kaddish, I noticed all the men on the men's side of the funeral parlor standing in a bowed position. This was strange, for kaddish is not one of the prayers we say bowing. Only a couple minutes later did I realize that the men were bending over in order to hear six-year-old Yankl, Ella's oldest son, recite the kaddish for his mother. On Ella's 41st birthday, several of us had surprised her with a small, impromptu party. We drank toast after toast of orange soda, raising our paper cups to "L'Chaim," to life! Six weeks later she was dead.
"How does Dr. Cohen know I won't die?" I demanded. "Breast cancer is a fatal disease."
Dr. Olsha answered in a gentle tone. "The breast cancer that younger women get is a much more aggressive kind. Post-menopausal women get a slow-growing cancer. We could wait a month, even three months, to remove your tumor, and no harm would be done. With the size of your tumor, the recovery rate is 95%."
I felt that the diagnosis was a death sentence, and Dr. Olsha's words were a reprieve. It never felt so good to be middle-aged!
We set the date for the surgery five weeks hence. That would give me time to do all the tests and to do "my research" on breast cancer and the pros and cons of reconstructive surgery, as well as to check out references on Dr. Olsha, just to please my friend.
HOW GOD FEELS
The evening before my surgery, I packed a small valise with a robe, slippers, toothbrush, toothpaste, two books, and bottled water, and set off to the hospital with my husband. All the way there, I was haunted by a sense of déjà vu. We had followed the same procedure each time I had gone to the hospital to give birth to one of our children. Those times, however, what had come out of my body was life: precious babies who filled me with delight. This time, what would come out of my body was death. And I would leave the hospital with less than I had arrived with.
Yet, I told myself, this surgery was also a birth. Out of this experience, I hoped to birth a new understanding, a gentler, more compassionate self. It was up to me if I left the hospital diminished or augmented.
Early the next morning, Dr. Olsha appeared at my bedside. He held two syringes, one of them grotesquely large. "I have to inject your breast with the radioactive matter now," he explained apologetically. "The blue dye you'll get in the operating room, but this stuff needs time to work. I'm really sorry. This first injection is going to hurt." He paused. "And the second one will hurt even more. I'm really sorry to have to do this to you."
He administered the first injection into my breast. It burned and stung. The second injection felt like the fires of hell liquefied into a syringe. I looked away and repeated my mantra, "Everything I have, I need."
"Now you know how God feels. People are always blaming God for all the pain there is in the world. But He's only doing it for our ultimate good."
When it was over, Dr. Olsha said, "I feel terrible to have to do this to my patients." I tried to console him. "You're doing this for my benefit, so I won't need to have all my lymph nodes taken out." Looking at my kind, secular surgeon, I added: "Now you know how God feels. People are always blaming God for all the pain there is in the world. But He's only doing it for our good, for our ultimate good. And He feels even worse about having to inflict pain than you do."
THE FIRST SHOWER
The day after my surgery, many guests came to visit. I was busy all day, with barely a chance to read the book I had brought. Late at night, when all my visitors were gone, Dr. Olsha came to check my incisions. "Have you taken a shower yet?" he asked.
"No, I've been too busy."
"Well, it's a good idea to take a shower," he suggested. "You'll feel better."
After he left, I thought hard about his gentle suggestion. Years before, my friend Etty had told me that her young sister-in-law had had a mastectomy. When I inquired how she was doing, Etty replied, "She was doing okay... until she took her first shower. It was traumatic for her to see herself."
I took a good look at my own mind. Was I really too busy -- and now too tired -- to take a shower, or was I avoiding my own image in the mirror?
It was 11:00 at night. My three roommates were asleep. I lay there thinking about my now disfigured body. It would look strange, even freakish. "You're deformed now," I told myself, then edited the sentence: "Your body is deformed now."
Suddenly I thought of my mother, may she rest in peace. A beautiful woman, she cared little about fashion, jewelry, or makeup. While my friend Babette's mother used to say to her, "The most important thing in the world is to be pretty and thin," my mother's values were: Be good and be smart. It occurred to me that if I had had Babette's mother, this mastectomy would have decimated my sense of self. Thank God, I had my mother, who from my earliest years had inculcated in me a sense of self not defined by my body or my appearance.
"Everything I need, I have" did not refer, I realized, only to the things and people in my life. It also referred to my inner resources, my strengths, talents, and capabilities. God had prepared me to cope with my mastectomy 55 years ago, when He assigned my soul to the womb of this particular mother, who would raise her daughter with a sense of self that would remain intact even when her body wasn't.
With that I got up from my hospital bed and went to take a shower.
Commentary
By Herb Krantz
This was an article that was sent to me through email. I feel that t is important to share.
I can really fell for this woman. My daughter went to the ER and the doctor told us she had non Hodgkin’s lymphoma. For the first time in my life I sat there in thinking to myself, that’s bad but what is it? I couldn’t think straight.
But it was the way he said it. He came over to the head of the bed and looked at us and said I have good news and bad. Your daughter does not have meningitis but she has Non Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He said it so matter a fact.
When we question him he started to back away a little and told us about others who lived a long life with it. My daughter has three kids ranging from 8 months to 4years. Naturally we wanted a second opinion, so a friend from another hospital got the records of the test and had another doctor look it over as matter of fact they had two doctors look it over and both said that the first doctor should of never told her that. The tests were not conclusive.
After have more test and seeing more doctors the final analyses was she had a very bad strep thought that was swollen enough to create her neck to look like part of her face.
Just like the woman in the story above we all had to find our inter strength for each other. You never know when or where it will be tested but they,(who ever they are),G-D will never give you more than you can bare. Sometime I feel like I would love to meet who ever they are and beat the hell out of them, but no matter what we all gather the strength we need to get through the bad times.
Cancer of any kind is a terrible thing to face and go through. My daughter and we have dodged the bullet this time but only to face the future death of an uncle who means a great deal to us. He was and is a like a father to me.
I have created a charity discount shopping website. 40% of all sales/profits will go to the charities listed in the site. One is breast cancer another is to care of children with cancer along with others. Please visit the site.
Home Shopping Center Mall
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
Please vist my charity discount shopping site. Every time you buy something a percentage will go to charity.
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
Sunday, April 01, 2007
HANOI JANE GET KICKED OUT Of Resturant-YEA
Subject: FW: True Story
HANOI JANE GET KICKED OUT Of a mid West restaurant AND STAND UP AND CLAPPED.
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2007 00:07:24 +0000 TRUE STORY WE NEED MORE BUSINESS OWNERS LIKE THIS GUY!!!! This is one of the best things I've read in ages -- I wish I could go here for dinner! Montana Restaurant: This is a great story! The radio station America FM was doing one of its "Is Anyone Listening?" bits this morning. The first question was, "Ever have a celebrity pull up with the 'Do you know who I am routine'?" A woman called in and said that a few years ago, while visiting her cattle rancher uncle in Billings, MT, she had occasion to go to dinner at a restaurant that does not take reservations. The wait was about 45 minu tes; -- many ranchers and their wives were waiting. Ted Turner and his ex-wife Jane Fonda came into the restaurant and wanted a table. The hostess informed them that they'd have to wait 45 minutes. Jane Fonda asked the hostess, "Do you know who I am?" The hostess answered, "Yes, but you'll have to wait 45 minutes." Then Jane asked if the manager was in. When the manager came out, he asked, "May I help you?" "Do you know who we are?" both Ted and Jane asked. "Yes, but these folks have been waiting, and I can't put you ahead of them." Then Ted asked to speak to the owner. The owner came out, and Jane again asked, "Do you know who I am?" The owner answered, "Yes, I do. Do you know who I am? I am the owner of this restaurant and I am a Vietnam Veteran. Not only will you not get a table ahead of my friends and neighbors who have been waiting here, but you also will not be eating in my restaurant tonight or any other night. Good bye." To all who received this e-mail, this is a true story and the name of the steak house is: Sir Scott's Oasis Steakhouse 204 West Main Manhattan, MT 59741 (406) 284-6929 If you ever get there, give this fellow a sharp salute, buy a steak and tip the waitress. Keep passing this on. We should never forget our national traitor! HANOI JANE GET KICKED OUT
Finally.
Commentary by Herb Krantz
For all of you who are to young to remember the Vietnam War, Jane Fonda went over to the enemy side and stood among our troops condemning them. It would be like some going over to Iraq and standing with the terrorist while they cut off someone’s head.
She stood there and watching our men being towered in small cages that were buried in the dirt directly in the sun. Vietnam was just like Iraq is today, an unpopular war that everyone wanted us to get out of. We did and lost the country and the war. We can’t do that aging this time.
Jane Fonda should have been hung as a trader back then or not allowed back into the country, She supported North Vietnam, she should of stayed there. It many ways she help them. She should have not been allowed to prosper in the country that she condemned so radically, but only in America can you do that especially when your father is Henry Fonda.
Well I glade that after all theses years someone finally stood up to her and let her know what kind of piece of trash she really is. Let us not forget next time when she publishes a book or makes a movie to boycott it.
Lets she here you either American all the way or get the hell out.
P.S. I’m not saying that America is never wrong but you can’t not take a side that is killing our people and except to be welcome back . Weather we are right or wrong we have to face our mistakes together not undermined all of us.
Please vist my charity discount shopping site. Everytime you make a purchase 40% of profits will go to the charities listed.
Home Shopping Center mall
http://homeshoppingcentermell.com
HANOI JANE GET KICKED OUT Of a mid West restaurant AND STAND UP AND CLAPPED.
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2007 00:07:24 +0000 TRUE STORY WE NEED MORE BUSINESS OWNERS LIKE THIS GUY!!!! This is one of the best things I've read in ages -- I wish I could go here for dinner! Montana Restaurant: This is a great story! The radio station America FM was doing one of its "Is Anyone Listening?" bits this morning. The first question was, "Ever have a celebrity pull up with the 'Do you know who I am routine'?" A woman called in and said that a few years ago, while visiting her cattle rancher uncle in Billings, MT, she had occasion to go to dinner at a restaurant that does not take reservations. The wait was about 45 minu tes; -- many ranchers and their wives were waiting. Ted Turner and his ex-wife Jane Fonda came into the restaurant and wanted a table. The hostess informed them that they'd have to wait 45 minutes. Jane Fonda asked the hostess, "Do you know who I am?" The hostess answered, "Yes, but you'll have to wait 45 minutes." Then Jane asked if the manager was in. When the manager came out, he asked, "May I help you?" "Do you know who we are?" both Ted and Jane asked. "Yes, but these folks have been waiting, and I can't put you ahead of them." Then Ted asked to speak to the owner. The owner came out, and Jane again asked, "Do you know who I am?" The owner answered, "Yes, I do. Do you know who I am? I am the owner of this restaurant and I am a Vietnam Veteran. Not only will you not get a table ahead of my friends and neighbors who have been waiting here, but you also will not be eating in my restaurant tonight or any other night. Good bye." To all who received this e-mail, this is a true story and the name of the steak house is: Sir Scott's Oasis Steakhouse 204 West Main Manhattan, MT 59741 (406) 284-6929 If you ever get there, give this fellow a sharp salute, buy a steak and tip the waitress. Keep passing this on. We should never forget our national traitor! HANOI JANE GET KICKED OUT
Finally.
Commentary by Herb Krantz
For all of you who are to young to remember the Vietnam War, Jane Fonda went over to the enemy side and stood among our troops condemning them. It would be like some going over to Iraq and standing with the terrorist while they cut off someone’s head.
She stood there and watching our men being towered in small cages that were buried in the dirt directly in the sun. Vietnam was just like Iraq is today, an unpopular war that everyone wanted us to get out of. We did and lost the country and the war. We can’t do that aging this time.
Jane Fonda should have been hung as a trader back then or not allowed back into the country, She supported North Vietnam, she should of stayed there. It many ways she help them. She should have not been allowed to prosper in the country that she condemned so radically, but only in America can you do that especially when your father is Henry Fonda.
Well I glade that after all theses years someone finally stood up to her and let her know what kind of piece of trash she really is. Let us not forget next time when she publishes a book or makes a movie to boycott it.
Lets she here you either American all the way or get the hell out.
P.S. I’m not saying that America is never wrong but you can’t not take a side that is killing our people and except to be welcome back . Weather we are right or wrong we have to face our mistakes together not undermined all of us.
Please vist my charity discount shopping site. Everytime you make a purchase 40% of profits will go to the charities listed.
Home Shopping Center mall
http://homeshoppingcentermell.com
HANOI JANE GET KICKED OUT Of Resturant-YEA
Subject: FW: True Story
HANOI JANE GET KICKED OUT Of a mid West restaurant AND STAND UP AND CLAPPED.
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2007 00:07:24 +0000 TRUE STORY WE NEED MORE BUSINESS OWNERS LIKE THIS GUY!!!! This is one of the best things I've read in ages -- I wish I could go here for dinner! Montana Restaurant: This is a great story! The radio station America FM was doing one of its "Is Anyone Listening?" bits this morning. The first question was, "Ever have a celebrity pull up with the 'Do you know who I am routine'?" A woman called in and said that a few years ago, while visiting her cattle rancher uncle in Billings, MT, she had occasion to go to dinner at a restaurant that does not take reservations. The wait was about 45 minu tes; -- many ranchers and their wives were waiting. Ted Turner and his ex-wife Jane Fonda came into the restaurant and wanted a table. The hostess informed them that they'd have to wait 45 minutes. Jane Fonda asked the hostess, "Do you know who I am?" The hostess answered, "Yes, but you'll have to wait 45 minutes." Then Jane asked if the manager was in. When the manager came out, he asked, "May I help you?" "Do you know who we are?" both Ted and Jane asked. "Yes, but these folks have been waiting, and I can't put you ahead of them." Then Ted asked to speak to the owner. The owner came out, and Jane again asked, "Do you know who I am?" The owner answered, "Yes, I do. Do you know who I am? I am the owner of this restaurant and I am a Vietnam Veteran. Not only will you not get a table ahead of my friends and neighbors who have been waiting here, but you also will not be eating in my restaurant tonight or any other night. Good bye." To all who received this e-mail, this is a true story and the name of the steak house is: Sir Scott's Oasis Steakhouse 204 West Main Manhattan, MT 59741 (406) 284-6929 If you ever get there, give this fellow a sharp salute, buy a steak and tip the waitress. Keep passing this on. We should never forget our national traitor! HANOI JANE GET KICKED OUT
Finally.
Commentary by Herb Krantz
For all of you who are to young to remember the Vietnam War, Jane Fonda went over to the enemy side and stood among our troops condemning them. It would be like some going over to Iraq and standing with the terrorist while they cut off someone’s head.
She stood there and watching our men being towered in small cages that were buried in the dirt directly in the sun. Vietnam was just like Iraq is today, an unpopular war that everyone wanted us to get out of. We did and lost the country and the war. We can’t do that aging this time.
Jane Fonda should have been hung as a trader back then or not allowed back into the country, She supported North Vietnam, she should of stayed there. It many ways she help them. She should have not been allowed to prosper in the country that she condemned so radically, but only in America can you do that especially when your father is Henry Fonda.
Well I glade that after all theses years someone finally stood up to her and let her know what kind of piece of trash she really is. Let us not forget next time when she publishes a book or makes a movie to boycott it.
Lets she here you either American all the way or get the hell out.
P.S. I’m not saying that America is never wrong but you can’t not take a side that is killing our people and except to be welcome back . Weather we are right or wrong we have to face our mistakes together not undermined all of us.
Please vist my charity discount shopping site. Everytime you make a purchase 40% of profits will go to the charities listed.
Home Shopping Center mall
http://homeshoppingcentermell.com
HANOI JANE GET KICKED OUT Of a mid West restaurant AND STAND UP AND CLAPPED.
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2007 00:07:24 +0000 TRUE STORY WE NEED MORE BUSINESS OWNERS LIKE THIS GUY!!!! This is one of the best things I've read in ages -- I wish I could go here for dinner! Montana Restaurant: This is a great story! The radio station America FM was doing one of its "Is Anyone Listening?" bits this morning. The first question was, "Ever have a celebrity pull up with the 'Do you know who I am routine'?" A woman called in and said that a few years ago, while visiting her cattle rancher uncle in Billings, MT, she had occasion to go to dinner at a restaurant that does not take reservations. The wait was about 45 minu tes; -- many ranchers and their wives were waiting. Ted Turner and his ex-wife Jane Fonda came into the restaurant and wanted a table. The hostess informed them that they'd have to wait 45 minutes. Jane Fonda asked the hostess, "Do you know who I am?" The hostess answered, "Yes, but you'll have to wait 45 minutes." Then Jane asked if the manager was in. When the manager came out, he asked, "May I help you?" "Do you know who we are?" both Ted and Jane asked. "Yes, but these folks have been waiting, and I can't put you ahead of them." Then Ted asked to speak to the owner. The owner came out, and Jane again asked, "Do you know who I am?" The owner answered, "Yes, I do. Do you know who I am? I am the owner of this restaurant and I am a Vietnam Veteran. Not only will you not get a table ahead of my friends and neighbors who have been waiting here, but you also will not be eating in my restaurant tonight or any other night. Good bye." To all who received this e-mail, this is a true story and the name of the steak house is: Sir Scott's Oasis Steakhouse 204 West Main Manhattan, MT 59741 (406) 284-6929 If you ever get there, give this fellow a sharp salute, buy a steak and tip the waitress. Keep passing this on. We should never forget our national traitor! HANOI JANE GET KICKED OUT
Finally.
Commentary by Herb Krantz
For all of you who are to young to remember the Vietnam War, Jane Fonda went over to the enemy side and stood among our troops condemning them. It would be like some going over to Iraq and standing with the terrorist while they cut off someone’s head.
She stood there and watching our men being towered in small cages that were buried in the dirt directly in the sun. Vietnam was just like Iraq is today, an unpopular war that everyone wanted us to get out of. We did and lost the country and the war. We can’t do that aging this time.
Jane Fonda should have been hung as a trader back then or not allowed back into the country, She supported North Vietnam, she should of stayed there. It many ways she help them. She should have not been allowed to prosper in the country that she condemned so radically, but only in America can you do that especially when your father is Henry Fonda.
Well I glade that after all theses years someone finally stood up to her and let her know what kind of piece of trash she really is. Let us not forget next time when she publishes a book or makes a movie to boycott it.
Lets she here you either American all the way or get the hell out.
P.S. I’m not saying that America is never wrong but you can’t not take a side that is killing our people and except to be welcome back . Weather we are right or wrong we have to face our mistakes together not undermined all of us.
Please vist my charity discount shopping site. Everytime you make a purchase 40% of profits will go to the charities listed.
Home Shopping Center mall
http://homeshoppingcentermell.com
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
I want to be an illegal alien
This is the snail-mail letter that was sent to The Presidentand a US Senators.
The Honorable Senators Melendez and Lautenberg731 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC, 20510 Dear Senators Melendez and Lautenberg, As a native of New Jersey and an excellent customer ofthe Internal Revenue Service, I am writing to ask foryour assistance. I have contacted the Department ofHomeland Security in an effort to determine the process for becoming an illegal alien and theyreferred me to you. My primary reason for wishing to change my status fromU.S. Citizen to illegal alien stems from the billwhich was recently proposed by the Senate and forwhich you support. If my understanding of this bill's provisions isaccurate, as an illegal alien who has been in theUnited States for five years, all I need to do tobecome a citizen is to pay a $2,000 fine and incometaxes for three of the last five years. I know a good deal when I see one and I am anxious toget the process started before everyone figures itout. Simply put, those of us who have been here legallyhave had to pay taxes every year so I'm excited aboutthe prospect of avoiding two years of taxes in returnfor paying a $2,000 fine. Is there any way that I can apply to be illegal retroactively? This wouldyield an excellent result for me and my family becausewe paid heavy taxes in 2004 and 2005. Additionally, as an illegal alien I could begin usingthe local emergency room as my primary health careprovider. Once I have stopped paying premiums formedical insurance, my accountant figures I could save almost $10,000 a year. Another benefit in gaining illegal status would bethat my daughter would receive preferential treatmentrelative to her law school applications, as well as"in-state" tuition rates for many colleges throughoutthe United States for my son. Lastly, I understand that illegal status would relieveme of the burden of renewing my driver's license andmaking those burdensome car insurance premiums. Thisis very important to me given that I still have high school aged grandchildren driving mycar. If you would provide me with an outline of the processto become illegal (retroactively if possible) andcopies of the necessary forms, I would be mostappreciative. Thank you for your assistance. Your Loyal Constituent, Commentary Herb A Krantz
This email was sent to me. As I read it my anger stirred because it is the truth. The illegally aliens have more right than us who pay for them. My ancestors did not come here years ago to sweat and give of their lives to this country so illegally aliens can have it easy. If you do not want to be a citizen of the USA then get the hell out!!!!. Who the hell needs you! The illegally aliens farmers will find people to do the work, there are plenty of people out of work. More than the government is telling us.
It’s bad enough that people from other countries came here and work for a short while and collect Social Security back in their country for the rest of their lives.
We as the people who are born here are not only asked to support them but now we have to support the illegally aliens also.
If I become an illegal alien I will be entitled to more than a person that pays his fair share, so why should they become a citizens?. Those dumb Americans will pay for me and my family. I can come and go as I please.
I can just hear them laughing at us as this words go through their mind or out of there mouths.
Don't get mad at me these are there words not mine. I was born here and Love my Country
Our politicians don’t care they don’t pay Social Security, it’s not there money, and you know how easily the spend ours.
It’s time again to stand up and be counted. Call your Representative in the house and the senate and let them know how made you are. If you don’t then don’t complain when there is nothing left for us, or we have to pay higher taxes.
I have put a link blow to my charity website. It was started in the of my cousin Alan Staller. This discount shopping inter mall will give 40% of the profits to the charities list there. You get to shop at a discount while donating to good causes.
Home Shopping Center Mall
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
If I become an illegal alien I will be entitled to more than a person that pays his fair share, so why should I become a citizens?. Those dumb Americans will pay for me and my family. I can come and go as I please.
Please vist my charity discount shopping site. Every time you buy something a 40% percentage will go to charity.Book a cruise,vaction, all inculsive or travel anywhere part of that will go to the charities listed. Link is
Home Shopping Center Mall
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
AAA vacations Plus
http://aaavacationsplus.globaltravel.com
The Honorable Senators Melendez and Lautenberg731 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC, 20510 Dear Senators Melendez and Lautenberg, As a native of New Jersey and an excellent customer ofthe Internal Revenue Service, I am writing to ask foryour assistance. I have contacted the Department ofHomeland Security in an effort to determine the process for becoming an illegal alien and theyreferred me to you. My primary reason for wishing to change my status fromU.S. Citizen to illegal alien stems from the billwhich was recently proposed by the Senate and forwhich you support. If my understanding of this bill's provisions isaccurate, as an illegal alien who has been in theUnited States for five years, all I need to do tobecome a citizen is to pay a $2,000 fine and incometaxes for three of the last five years. I know a good deal when I see one and I am anxious toget the process started before everyone figures itout. Simply put, those of us who have been here legallyhave had to pay taxes every year so I'm excited aboutthe prospect of avoiding two years of taxes in returnfor paying a $2,000 fine. Is there any way that I can apply to be illegal retroactively? This wouldyield an excellent result for me and my family becausewe paid heavy taxes in 2004 and 2005. Additionally, as an illegal alien I could begin usingthe local emergency room as my primary health careprovider. Once I have stopped paying premiums formedical insurance, my accountant figures I could save almost $10,000 a year. Another benefit in gaining illegal status would bethat my daughter would receive preferential treatmentrelative to her law school applications, as well as"in-state" tuition rates for many colleges throughoutthe United States for my son. Lastly, I understand that illegal status would relieveme of the burden of renewing my driver's license andmaking those burdensome car insurance premiums. Thisis very important to me given that I still have high school aged grandchildren driving mycar. If you would provide me with an outline of the processto become illegal (retroactively if possible) andcopies of the necessary forms, I would be mostappreciative. Thank you for your assistance. Your Loyal Constituent, Commentary Herb A Krantz
This email was sent to me. As I read it my anger stirred because it is the truth. The illegally aliens have more right than us who pay for them. My ancestors did not come here years ago to sweat and give of their lives to this country so illegally aliens can have it easy. If you do not want to be a citizen of the USA then get the hell out!!!!. Who the hell needs you! The illegally aliens farmers will find people to do the work, there are plenty of people out of work. More than the government is telling us.
It’s bad enough that people from other countries came here and work for a short while and collect Social Security back in their country for the rest of their lives.
We as the people who are born here are not only asked to support them but now we have to support the illegally aliens also.
If I become an illegal alien I will be entitled to more than a person that pays his fair share, so why should they become a citizens?. Those dumb Americans will pay for me and my family. I can come and go as I please.
I can just hear them laughing at us as this words go through their mind or out of there mouths.
Don't get mad at me these are there words not mine. I was born here and Love my Country
Our politicians don’t care they don’t pay Social Security, it’s not there money, and you know how easily the spend ours.
It’s time again to stand up and be counted. Call your Representative in the house and the senate and let them know how made you are. If you don’t then don’t complain when there is nothing left for us, or we have to pay higher taxes.
I have put a link blow to my charity website. It was started in the of my cousin Alan Staller. This discount shopping inter mall will give 40% of the profits to the charities list there. You get to shop at a discount while donating to good causes.
Home Shopping Center Mall
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
If I become an illegal alien I will be entitled to more than a person that pays his fair share, so why should I become a citizens?. Those dumb Americans will pay for me and my family. I can come and go as I please.
Please vist my charity discount shopping site. Every time you buy something a 40% percentage will go to charity.Book a cruise,vaction, all inculsive or travel anywhere part of that will go to the charities listed. Link is
Home Shopping Center Mall
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
AAA vacations Plus
http://aaavacationsplus.globaltravel.com
Sunday, March 18, 2007
The Iraq War Protesters
What the f is it with these people that protest against this war and our troops. Do the really have any idea of what there is to loss if we just walk away.
I don’t agree with the Bush or how we got into this war, but now we have no choice but to win. That means staying there for a long time to come.
We should have concentrated on Afghanistan and won that along with capturing Ben Laden.
Even that would have ended the terrorist threats but it might not have been as bad as it is now. Maybe we would have had time to get a real coalition together to fight the terrorist, not a few countries that we have now. I stall think that we should use our political force, (What we have left), to convince our so called allies to join us in Iraq or else.
Weak up America and World this is a war that will only go away when we kill every Terrorist that is here now and the new ones that are being brought up for the future. That means every man, woman and child.
This is not a task that that will be measured in a specific period of time. I don’t think that this will happen in my life time and I am only in my middle fifties.
This is war that may last for hundreds of years.
It’s time we all realize that after 911 our lives and the world will never be the same. It is a more dangerous world today. Our children will never see the kind of world we had. They will be fighting this war for years to come.
Bush has to make sure that the hundred’s of thousands of troops that will be coming home get the medical, physical and monitorial needs taken car of. That’s what you should be protesting for, not against our troops who are doing a job that Bush ordered them to do.
Next time you take to the streets remember who started this war and protest against him! Asked for him to step down.
BY Herb Krantz
I have place a Charity discount shopping inter mall below. Every time you make a purchase 40% of the profits go to a charity listed. Please visit us often and donate.
Please vist my charity discount shopping site. Every time you buy something a percentage will go to charity.Book a cruise,vaction, all inculsive or travel anywhere part of that will go to the charities listed. Link is
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
http://aaavacationsplus.globaltravel.com
I don’t agree with the Bush or how we got into this war, but now we have no choice but to win. That means staying there for a long time to come.
We should have concentrated on Afghanistan and won that along with capturing Ben Laden.
Even that would have ended the terrorist threats but it might not have been as bad as it is now. Maybe we would have had time to get a real coalition together to fight the terrorist, not a few countries that we have now. I stall think that we should use our political force, (What we have left), to convince our so called allies to join us in Iraq or else.
Weak up America and World this is a war that will only go away when we kill every Terrorist that is here now and the new ones that are being brought up for the future. That means every man, woman and child.
This is not a task that that will be measured in a specific period of time. I don’t think that this will happen in my life time and I am only in my middle fifties.
This is war that may last for hundreds of years.
It’s time we all realize that after 911 our lives and the world will never be the same. It is a more dangerous world today. Our children will never see the kind of world we had. They will be fighting this war for years to come.
Bush has to make sure that the hundred’s of thousands of troops that will be coming home get the medical, physical and monitorial needs taken car of. That’s what you should be protesting for, not against our troops who are doing a job that Bush ordered them to do.
Next time you take to the streets remember who started this war and protest against him! Asked for him to step down.
BY Herb Krantz
I have place a Charity discount shopping inter mall below. Every time you make a purchase 40% of the profits go to a charity listed. Please visit us often and donate.
Please vist my charity discount shopping site. Every time you buy something a percentage will go to charity.Book a cruise,vaction, all inculsive or travel anywhere part of that will go to the charities listed. Link is
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
http://aaavacationsplus.globaltravel.com
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
What are we death dumb and blind? Let’s not be fool by Venezuela. It’s time we Wake up America!
This was very important to me when I received it via email. I felt that I had to share it. I was wondering about all those TV spots concerning Citgo providing oil to the poor... Don’t be fooled. Read this and pass it around.
Subject: Citgo's Name Change - Spread the wordFYI...Subject: Citgo's Name Change - Spread the word. This past week, thePresident of Iran visited President Chavez of Venezuela. Their main theme atthe meetings, "DESTRUCTION OF AMERICA" and "KILL ALL JEWS"! It is notPresident Bush they hate. It is you and me!President Chavez is spreading the "HATE AMERICA" to other South Americancountries. All Americans must stand up and listen to what the twoPresidents say. Chavez is using the "oil to the poor" in this country toundermine our government.Now Citgo is changing their name because of poor sales caused by ourstanding up and not buying Citgo gas. Don't let the name change fool you -it's still Chavez's gas!CITGO Changing Name To PETRO EXPRESSI had to forward this, because Chavez is starting to feel the loss ofrevenue from his holdings - HE OWNS CITGO. This is a very important movethat everyone should be aware of.ANNOUNCED JUST RECENTLY, CITGO, BEING AWARE THAT SALES ARE DOWN DUE TO U.S.CUSTOMERS NOT WANTING TO BUY FROM "CHAVEZ", HAS STARTED TO CHANGE THE NAMEOF SOME OF THEIR STORES, TO: "PETRO EXPRESS".DO NOT BUY FROM "PETRO EXPRESS". "PETRO EXPRESS" IS ALSO 100% OWNED BY"CHAVEZ". KEEP THIS MEMO GOING SO EVERYONE KNOWS WHAT IS HAPPENING.
Commentary By Herb A Krantz
I received this by e-mail and wanted to share it with you. I remember not to long ago receiving an email with all the gas companies that donate some of their funds back to terrorist groups all over the world especially alkida. Citgo was one of them high on the list.
Are we really that dumb to believe that CHAVEZ cares that much about America after meeting and agreeing with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to give oil at a discount to our poor?
Where’s the press? Why haven’t they looked into this?
We are hurting Chavez by not buying his oil. I am also surprised that the kenndies are affiliated with this advertisement. But then again it was said they got their money by supplying the Nazis with guns. I’m not saying it tore but why would the have a Kennedy telling us about the good work of Citgo for our Citizens. To me it’d all suspect. I think it’s time we should all wake up before we find it to late. If you think that we have lost our Human rights know, it is nothing compared to if we lose this war and Venezuela has placed themselves right along side the terrorist. If you are as concerned as I call your government leaders and news channels.
By Herb A Krantz
I have place a link to me Charity discount shopping link below. Please visit 40% of all profits will go to the charities listed on the site.
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
Please vist my charity discount shopping site. Every time you buy something a percentage will go to charity.Book a cruise,vaction, all inculsive or travel anywhere part of that will go to the charities listed. Link is
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
http://aaavacationsplus.globaltravel.com
This was very important to me when I received it via email. I felt that I had to share it. I was wondering about all those TV spots concerning Citgo providing oil to the poor... Don’t be fooled. Read this and pass it around.
Subject: Citgo's Name Change - Spread the wordFYI...Subject: Citgo's Name Change - Spread the word. This past week, thePresident of Iran visited President Chavez of Venezuela. Their main theme atthe meetings, "DESTRUCTION OF AMERICA" and "KILL ALL JEWS"! It is notPresident Bush they hate. It is you and me!President Chavez is spreading the "HATE AMERICA" to other South Americancountries. All Americans must stand up and listen to what the twoPresidents say. Chavez is using the "oil to the poor" in this country toundermine our government.Now Citgo is changing their name because of poor sales caused by ourstanding up and not buying Citgo gas. Don't let the name change fool you -it's still Chavez's gas!CITGO Changing Name To PETRO EXPRESSI had to forward this, because Chavez is starting to feel the loss ofrevenue from his holdings - HE OWNS CITGO. This is a very important movethat everyone should be aware of.ANNOUNCED JUST RECENTLY, CITGO, BEING AWARE THAT SALES ARE DOWN DUE TO U.S.CUSTOMERS NOT WANTING TO BUY FROM "CHAVEZ", HAS STARTED TO CHANGE THE NAMEOF SOME OF THEIR STORES, TO: "PETRO EXPRESS".DO NOT BUY FROM "PETRO EXPRESS". "PETRO EXPRESS" IS ALSO 100% OWNED BY"CHAVEZ". KEEP THIS MEMO GOING SO EVERYONE KNOWS WHAT IS HAPPENING.
Commentary By Herb A Krantz
I received this by e-mail and wanted to share it with you. I remember not to long ago receiving an email with all the gas companies that donate some of their funds back to terrorist groups all over the world especially alkida. Citgo was one of them high on the list.
Are we really that dumb to believe that CHAVEZ cares that much about America after meeting and agreeing with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to give oil at a discount to our poor?
Where’s the press? Why haven’t they looked into this?
We are hurting Chavez by not buying his oil. I am also surprised that the kenndies are affiliated with this advertisement. But then again it was said they got their money by supplying the Nazis with guns. I’m not saying it tore but why would the have a Kennedy telling us about the good work of Citgo for our Citizens. To me it’d all suspect. I think it’s time we should all wake up before we find it to late. If you think that we have lost our Human rights know, it is nothing compared to if we lose this war and Venezuela has placed themselves right along side the terrorist. If you are as concerned as I call your government leaders and news channels.
By Herb A Krantz
I have place a link to me Charity discount shopping link below. Please visit 40% of all profits will go to the charities listed on the site.
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
Please vist my charity discount shopping site. Every time you buy something a percentage will go to charity.Book a cruise,vaction, all inculsive or travel anywhere part of that will go to the charities listed. Link is
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
http://aaavacationsplus.globaltravel.com
Monday, March 05, 2007
Taxes What A joke
Taxes what a joke
Tax time is here again. This is the time of year that most of us hate, because we know that we will be paying not receiving. The government leaders make it so!
They scream no new taxes, however they don’t tell you about the deductions that they are taking away from us every year or so.
Does anyone remember once upon a time we could take off the interest you paid on the credit your cards? How about the interest you paid on your car loan. Any
interest you paid on any loan you had outstanding loan. That’s all gone. Getting credit for the decreasing value of your property or repairs made. I am not sure about this one but I think the either have a cap or took a way medical expenses. Believe it or not we even receive a credit for clothes we bought for work. Now only the rich get that.
The only thing we have left is our interest on our home loans and they are tying to take that away.
Every once in while you will hear a murmur about taxing your benefits from work. The congress has to come up with some way to pay for the money they spend without having it in the bank.
We didn’t always have taxes. I ‘m not old enough to remember that but I remember reading about it some where. Would it be nice if we didn’t need it anymore.
How about if we did away with taxes for everyone who made 100,000 or less combine household income or less. If we did that the federal government would have to tax everything the states already tax. So that means we would get taxed twice.
I prefer to do away with the income tax altogether and just have taxes on food, gas, everyday items that we use and buy. That way everyone would pay their fair share including the very rich. There would be no free ride but that’s too simple and the government would never even consider that. Maybe it’s time that we rise up and demand to Keep it simple stupid (KISS). To make a tax law that we will vote on and in if we agree for we are the one’s who are paying it.
By Herb A Krantz
I have posted a link below to my Charity Discount Shopping Internet Mall website. 40% of the profits will go to the charities listed. You get bargains and give to charity at the same time.
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
Tax time is here again. This is the time of year that most of us hate, because we know that we will be paying not receiving. The government leaders make it so!
They scream no new taxes, however they don’t tell you about the deductions that they are taking away from us every year or so.
Does anyone remember once upon a time we could take off the interest you paid on the credit your cards? How about the interest you paid on your car loan. Any
interest you paid on any loan you had outstanding loan. That’s all gone. Getting credit for the decreasing value of your property or repairs made. I am not sure about this one but I think the either have a cap or took a way medical expenses. Believe it or not we even receive a credit for clothes we bought for work. Now only the rich get that.
The only thing we have left is our interest on our home loans and they are tying to take that away.
Every once in while you will hear a murmur about taxing your benefits from work. The congress has to come up with some way to pay for the money they spend without having it in the bank.
We didn’t always have taxes. I ‘m not old enough to remember that but I remember reading about it some where. Would it be nice if we didn’t need it anymore.
How about if we did away with taxes for everyone who made 100,000 or less combine household income or less. If we did that the federal government would have to tax everything the states already tax. So that means we would get taxed twice.
I prefer to do away with the income tax altogether and just have taxes on food, gas, everyday items that we use and buy. That way everyone would pay their fair share including the very rich. There would be no free ride but that’s too simple and the government would never even consider that. Maybe it’s time that we rise up and demand to Keep it simple stupid (KISS). To make a tax law that we will vote on and in if we agree for we are the one’s who are paying it.
By Herb A Krantz
I have posted a link below to my Charity Discount Shopping Internet Mall website. 40% of the profits will go to the charities listed. You get bargains and give to charity at the same time.
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Vise President Chaney Close call/OH Shucks
Vise President Chaney Close call/OH Shucks
Not that I want any harm to come to Chaney but maybe he will see what is really going on over there and come out of his dream state, that everything is going well.
Maybe reality will sink in? I think not. He has convinced himself that everything is going right on plan. He was asked by a news man how he felt about the attack on his life. He responded that they are trying to question the real authority. Who was he speaking about Hamid Karzai or himself? Even if they would have killed him we still have to put up with the idiot in the white house. The true tragedy is that 23 people had to die and 20 more were injured. They weren’t rushed into a bomb shelter; they took the blast for him. I wonder if he thinks about those poor souls?
By Herb A Krantz
I have posted my discount shopping website. 40% of the profits will go to the charities listed on the site. You get great bargains while giving to charity.
Home Shopping Center Mall (Affordable Shopping Mall)
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com/
AAA Vacations Plus
http://aaavacationsplus.globaltravel.com/
Not that I want any harm to come to Chaney but maybe he will see what is really going on over there and come out of his dream state, that everything is going well.
Maybe reality will sink in? I think not. He has convinced himself that everything is going right on plan. He was asked by a news man how he felt about the attack on his life. He responded that they are trying to question the real authority. Who was he speaking about Hamid Karzai or himself? Even if they would have killed him we still have to put up with the idiot in the white house. The true tragedy is that 23 people had to die and 20 more were injured. They weren’t rushed into a bomb shelter; they took the blast for him. I wonder if he thinks about those poor souls?
By Herb A Krantz
I have posted my discount shopping website. 40% of the profits will go to the charities listed on the site. You get great bargains while giving to charity.
Home Shopping Center Mall (Affordable Shopping Mall)
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com/
AAA Vacations Plus
http://aaavacationsplus.globaltravel.com/
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
The truth and nothing but the truth By Tazman-Herb A Krantz: Virtual cinema of The Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive
VIDEO: Nissan ad turns Qashqai into skateboard
VIDEO: Nissan ad turns Qashqai into skateboard: "Filed under: Videos, Crossovers/CUVs, NissanNissan's really thinking outside the box with advertising for its new Qashqai crossover. Turning it into a giant skateboard for an unseen giant operator, they portray a Nissan as athletic equipment. With an oddly soothing soundtrack making the sights seem so natural, the Qashqai does things that no vehicle is capable of. But that's not the point really. The ad is showing us how the CUV will tackle anything the urban jungle can throw at it and provide some youthful thrills in the process. Just like a few years ago when potential buyers were doing ollies and following the X Games more closely than the stock market. Just because you're getting older doesn't mean you have to grow up. Very clever and very slick. Follow the jump to see the whole ad via YouTube.[Source: YouTube] Continue reading VIDEO: Nissan ad turns Qashqai into skateboard Read Permalink Email this Comments BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-tim"
Vise President Chaney Close Call / Oh Shucks
Vise President Chaney Close call/OH ShucksNot that I want any harm to come to Chaney but maybe he will see what is really going on over there and come out of his dream state, that everything is going well.
Maybe reality will sink in? I think not. He has convinced himself that everything is going right on plan. He was asked by a news man how he felt about the attack on his life. He responded that they are trying to question the real authority. Who was he speaking about Hamid Karzai or himself? Even if they would have killed him we still have to put up with the idiot in the white house. The true tragedy is that 23 people had to die and 20 more were injured. They weren’t rushed into a bomb shelter; they took the blast for him. I wonder if he thinks about those poor souls?
By Herb A Krantz
I have posted my discount shopping website. 40% of the profits will go to the charities listed on the site. You get great bargains while giving to charity.
Home Shopping Center Mall (Affordable Shopping Mall)
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com/
AAA Vacations Plus
http://aaavacationsplus.globaltravel.com/
Please vist my charity discount shopping site. Every time you buy something a percentage will go to charity.Book a cruise,vaction, all inculsive or travel anywhere part of that will go to the charities listed. Link is
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
http://aaavacationsplus.globaltravel.com
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
http://aaavacationsplus.globaltravel.com
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Dumb and Dumber
Bush & Chaney Dumb and Dumber
Bush and Chaney to peas in a pod one is dumb and the other is dumber. Which one is which I couldn’t tell you, or maybe they think that we are the dumb ones, especially when our biggest allied support over in Iraq will be pulling one third of there troops out soon.
I don’t know how Chaney or bush can say that this is a good thing.
The British didn’t have a hell of a lot of troops over there to begin with and pretty soon they will have none. The real slap in the face is they were in south Iraq were there was little or no danger or fighting. The rest of the so called countries that are there with there 300 and 400 troops, so what let them go home, it sure as hell will not make a difference in the balance of power.
As we are increasing our troops the British’s are cutting and running. It’s that what they say about the French? As I have said many times before if we can’t get the support of our so called alias let give them no option but to help or loose our support and money. Like Japan, Germany, let’s pull our troops. Stop supporting the World Bank and demand our loans to other countries be paid in full at once. Pull our troops out of all other counties and ship them to Afghanistan and Iraq. Let used our strength as a supper power, and if no one else will fight the terrorist we will have to alone however when they bomb others countries let us just stand there and scratch our heads and let them Handel it .
Again I have to express that this terrorist problem is a world wide problem and the world can not afford to turn there fact away as they have done in the past.
Bush and Chaney must face up to the fact that we are not bomb enough to believe the ridiculous statement that Chaney has uttered. It is not a good thing that our allies are abandoning us in our time of need and there’s. It is time the President and Vise President start telling us and the world the truth.
I do not agree that the Iraq war was necessary to start but we are there and know we have no choice but to make sure that we do not make another mistake that will change the world and not in a good way. This is a battle that will last for years to come, maybe not in Iraq but in Europe and Asia and here.
I do not agree with Bush and this war but Bush has perpetuated this war. I do agree the we must win at all cost.
Herb A Krantz
I have created a discount shopping internet mall that donates 40% of profit to the charities listed
Please click and enjoy shopping while giving to charity.
Home Shopping Center Mall (Affordable Shopping Mall)
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com/
AAA Vacations Plus
http://aaavacationsplus.globaltravel.com/
Blog
http://tazmansvoice.blogspot.com
Bush and Chaney to peas in a pod one is dumb and the other is dumber. Which one is which I couldn’t tell you, or maybe they think that we are the dumb ones, especially when our biggest allied support over in Iraq will be pulling one third of there troops out soon.
I don’t know how Chaney or bush can say that this is a good thing.
The British didn’t have a hell of a lot of troops over there to begin with and pretty soon they will have none. The real slap in the face is they were in south Iraq were there was little or no danger or fighting. The rest of the so called countries that are there with there 300 and 400 troops, so what let them go home, it sure as hell will not make a difference in the balance of power.
As we are increasing our troops the British’s are cutting and running. It’s that what they say about the French? As I have said many times before if we can’t get the support of our so called alias let give them no option but to help or loose our support and money. Like Japan, Germany, let’s pull our troops. Stop supporting the World Bank and demand our loans to other countries be paid in full at once. Pull our troops out of all other counties and ship them to Afghanistan and Iraq. Let used our strength as a supper power, and if no one else will fight the terrorist we will have to alone however when they bomb others countries let us just stand there and scratch our heads and let them Handel it .
Again I have to express that this terrorist problem is a world wide problem and the world can not afford to turn there fact away as they have done in the past.
Bush and Chaney must face up to the fact that we are not bomb enough to believe the ridiculous statement that Chaney has uttered. It is not a good thing that our allies are abandoning us in our time of need and there’s. It is time the President and Vise President start telling us and the world the truth.
I do not agree that the Iraq war was necessary to start but we are there and know we have no choice but to make sure that we do not make another mistake that will change the world and not in a good way. This is a battle that will last for years to come, maybe not in Iraq but in Europe and Asia and here.
I do not agree with Bush and this war but Bush has perpetuated this war. I do agree the we must win at all cost.
Herb A Krantz
I have created a discount shopping internet mall that donates 40% of profit to the charities listed
Please click and enjoy shopping while giving to charity.
Home Shopping Center Mall (Affordable Shopping Mall)
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com/
AAA Vacations Plus
http://aaavacationsplus.globaltravel.com/
Blog
http://tazmansvoice.blogspot.com
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Bushes Israeli and Palestinians policy
Bushes Israeli and Palestinians policy
Posted on the New York times Website
Rice Faces an Uphill Battle for a Mildest Breakthrough
WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 — On a chilly Saturday morning late last year, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, sat down alone in Ms. Rice’s apartment at the Watergate here and hashed out a plan.
It was an ambitious one. To jump-start Arab-Israeli peace, Ms. Rice would encourage Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel to start talks with the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, leap-frogging interim details and squabbles, and instead trying to define the big “final status” issues of a Palestinian state, which have bedeviled peace negotiators since the Camp David accords of 1979.
“It’s important to start sketching out broader political issues,” Ms. Rice said Thursday in a group interview with newspaper correspondents at the State Department.
To some extent, the approach turned the clock back to the closing days of the Clinton administration, when a push toward a final settlement expired. Since then, the Bush administration has engaged the peace effort in fits and starts, and none of the paths has led far.
On Monday, Ms. Rice, Mr. Olmert and Mr. Abbas are scheduled to sit down in Jerusalem, ostensibly to discuss what Ms. Rice calls horizon issues: the fate of Jerusalem, the borders of a Palestinian state and the question of the treatment of Palestinian refugees.
But the timing could not be worse, American, Israeli and some Palestinian officials said. “If you invited a man from Mars down and asked him, ‘Is this the moment to go for a breakthrough?’ the answer would be categorically ‘No,’ ” said Aaron David Miller, a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center who was a senior adviser for Arab-Israeli relations at the State Department under the last three presidents.
“What she’s got going for her is that expectations of her success have plunged lower than the Dead Sea,” said David Makovsky, a Middle East expert with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. And that, he said, “might actually help her.”
Prospects for any real breakthrough were already bleak two months ago, when Ms. Rice and Ms. Livni came up with their proposal. The Palestinian government was controlled by Hamas, which preaches Israel’s destruction. Mr. Olmert’s approval ratings were as bad as, if not worse, than those of President Bush. There was factional strife in Gaza, to the south, and turmoil in Lebanon, to the north.
Last week, one more giant obstacle emerged: a national unity government of Fatah and Hamas leaders that was worked out in talks brokered by Saudi Arabia in Mecca.
Bush administration officials, publicly lukewarm about the agreement, were angry with Mr. Abbas. They say the pact brings him closer to Hamas instead of bringing Hamas, which America views as a terrorist organization, closer to Mr. Abbas, who is seen as far more moderate.
In her session with reporters on Thursday, Ms. Rice said the task of negotiations had become “obviously more complicated because of the uncertainties surrounding the national unity government,” and that the Bush administration would “await the formation of that government before we make any decisions about it.”
The Bush administration, along with Israel and several European countries, wants the new Palestinian government to meet three benchmarks for normal relations: recognize the right of Israel to exist, forswear violence and accept previous Israeli-Palestinian accords. The Mecca accord does not address the first two benchmarks. The Palestinians argued that the three benchmarks were met implicitly, though the accord does not mention Israel.
While Ms. Rice was angry about the Mecca deal, she said that she would nonetheless go ahead with the planned summit, Arab and American officials said. But she has warned Mr. Abbas that the United States would deal only with Palestinian government ministers who explicitly agreed to the three conditions, the officials said.
So what was supposed to be a summit that shored up Mr. Abbas in the eyes of the Palestinian people by discussing a future Palestinian state may now downgrade to one in which Mr. Abbas spends his time trying to defend the Mecca deal and convince the United States and Israel that he has not sold out to Hamas.
Both Mr. Abbas, who is also known as Abu Mazen, and Mr. Olmert are politically weak, making compromise tricky. “If Olmert agrees to talk about Jerusalem, someone could threaten to leave his government,” said Martin S. Indyk, the United States ambassador to Israel in the Clinton administration. “If Abu Mazen talks about giving up the right of return, Hamas would condemn him for betraying the cause.” He was referring to giving Palestinian refugees the right to return to lands they left in 1948.
Still, Mr. Indyk, who is now the director of the Brookings Saban Center for Middle East Policy, said the Bush administration had let Arab-Israeli peace talks go untended for too long. Ms. Rice, he said, “deserves full support for trying, and she deserves to be given a chance and some rope and leeway to try to make this work.”
Thom Shanker contributed reporting.
Commentary Herb A Krantz
As usual Bush shows how little he knows about the Middle East. Not only is it a bad time to even thinks about starting talks with Israel and the Palestinians but he is sending Condoleezza Rice there again. Most Arabs will not take it seriously when dealing with a woman. Women hold very little importance in their society.
Also Hamas and Fatah leaders walked out of a meeting last week brokered by Saudi Arabia. Both leaders would like to destroy Israel not make peace. Bush has let the Israeli-Palestinian question go unanswered for to long besides the point we the USA do not hold the respect that we once did. We are not the peace brokers that we once were, after we invaded Iraq. At this point in time Bush has painted us in the eyes of the world as being stuck in a box that we can’t find our way out of.
It used to be when we Spoke the world would listen, know they all look the other way. Thanks to you Mr. Bush.
I have placed my Charity discount shopping mall link below.
It was started to donate 40% of profits to the charities listed on the site. I have also placed my blog on that sit. Read Alan’s story and you will find out why I have done this. Shop and save while you give to Charity.
Home Shopping Center Mall
Affordable Shopping Mall
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
Posted on the New York times Website
Rice Faces an Uphill Battle for a Mildest Breakthrough
WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 — On a chilly Saturday morning late last year, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, sat down alone in Ms. Rice’s apartment at the Watergate here and hashed out a plan.
It was an ambitious one. To jump-start Arab-Israeli peace, Ms. Rice would encourage Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel to start talks with the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, leap-frogging interim details and squabbles, and instead trying to define the big “final status” issues of a Palestinian state, which have bedeviled peace negotiators since the Camp David accords of 1979.
“It’s important to start sketching out broader political issues,” Ms. Rice said Thursday in a group interview with newspaper correspondents at the State Department.
To some extent, the approach turned the clock back to the closing days of the Clinton administration, when a push toward a final settlement expired. Since then, the Bush administration has engaged the peace effort in fits and starts, and none of the paths has led far.
On Monday, Ms. Rice, Mr. Olmert and Mr. Abbas are scheduled to sit down in Jerusalem, ostensibly to discuss what Ms. Rice calls horizon issues: the fate of Jerusalem, the borders of a Palestinian state and the question of the treatment of Palestinian refugees.
But the timing could not be worse, American, Israeli and some Palestinian officials said. “If you invited a man from Mars down and asked him, ‘Is this the moment to go for a breakthrough?’ the answer would be categorically ‘No,’ ” said Aaron David Miller, a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center who was a senior adviser for Arab-Israeli relations at the State Department under the last three presidents.
“What she’s got going for her is that expectations of her success have plunged lower than the Dead Sea,” said David Makovsky, a Middle East expert with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. And that, he said, “might actually help her.”
Prospects for any real breakthrough were already bleak two months ago, when Ms. Rice and Ms. Livni came up with their proposal. The Palestinian government was controlled by Hamas, which preaches Israel’s destruction. Mr. Olmert’s approval ratings were as bad as, if not worse, than those of President Bush. There was factional strife in Gaza, to the south, and turmoil in Lebanon, to the north.
Last week, one more giant obstacle emerged: a national unity government of Fatah and Hamas leaders that was worked out in talks brokered by Saudi Arabia in Mecca.
Bush administration officials, publicly lukewarm about the agreement, were angry with Mr. Abbas. They say the pact brings him closer to Hamas instead of bringing Hamas, which America views as a terrorist organization, closer to Mr. Abbas, who is seen as far more moderate.
In her session with reporters on Thursday, Ms. Rice said the task of negotiations had become “obviously more complicated because of the uncertainties surrounding the national unity government,” and that the Bush administration would “await the formation of that government before we make any decisions about it.”
The Bush administration, along with Israel and several European countries, wants the new Palestinian government to meet three benchmarks for normal relations: recognize the right of Israel to exist, forswear violence and accept previous Israeli-Palestinian accords. The Mecca accord does not address the first two benchmarks. The Palestinians argued that the three benchmarks were met implicitly, though the accord does not mention Israel.
While Ms. Rice was angry about the Mecca deal, she said that she would nonetheless go ahead with the planned summit, Arab and American officials said. But she has warned Mr. Abbas that the United States would deal only with Palestinian government ministers who explicitly agreed to the three conditions, the officials said.
So what was supposed to be a summit that shored up Mr. Abbas in the eyes of the Palestinian people by discussing a future Palestinian state may now downgrade to one in which Mr. Abbas spends his time trying to defend the Mecca deal and convince the United States and Israel that he has not sold out to Hamas.
Both Mr. Abbas, who is also known as Abu Mazen, and Mr. Olmert are politically weak, making compromise tricky. “If Olmert agrees to talk about Jerusalem, someone could threaten to leave his government,” said Martin S. Indyk, the United States ambassador to Israel in the Clinton administration. “If Abu Mazen talks about giving up the right of return, Hamas would condemn him for betraying the cause.” He was referring to giving Palestinian refugees the right to return to lands they left in 1948.
Still, Mr. Indyk, who is now the director of the Brookings Saban Center for Middle East Policy, said the Bush administration had let Arab-Israeli peace talks go untended for too long. Ms. Rice, he said, “deserves full support for trying, and she deserves to be given a chance and some rope and leeway to try to make this work.”
Thom Shanker contributed reporting.
Commentary Herb A Krantz
As usual Bush shows how little he knows about the Middle East. Not only is it a bad time to even thinks about starting talks with Israel and the Palestinians but he is sending Condoleezza Rice there again. Most Arabs will not take it seriously when dealing with a woman. Women hold very little importance in their society.
Also Hamas and Fatah leaders walked out of a meeting last week brokered by Saudi Arabia. Both leaders would like to destroy Israel not make peace. Bush has let the Israeli-Palestinian question go unanswered for to long besides the point we the USA do not hold the respect that we once did. We are not the peace brokers that we once were, after we invaded Iraq. At this point in time Bush has painted us in the eyes of the world as being stuck in a box that we can’t find our way out of.
It used to be when we Spoke the world would listen, know they all look the other way. Thanks to you Mr. Bush.
I have placed my Charity discount shopping mall link below.
It was started to donate 40% of profits to the charities listed on the site. I have also placed my blog on that sit. Read Alan’s story and you will find out why I have done this. Shop and save while you give to Charity.
Home Shopping Center Mall
Affordable Shopping Mall
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
Monday, February 12, 2007
Special Valentines Day to Jennifer
You had come to me in a time of need.
You had changed my life for the better that’s for sure, indeed.
You have filled the void that was in my heart
Through the years I have love you so, even though
some times I didn’t let it show.
I was also proud to be called your dad and you have never made me sad.
I know that I was not always there for you, but there was not a minute ,a day that went by that I didn’t think of you and miss you even though you were so close by.
And now you have grown and have children of your own, I will love them just as much as I loved you.
In my golden days I wish I could help you more.
I want for you better than you had before.
I love you with all my heart and my soul.
You had come to me in a time of need.
You had changed my life for the better that’s for sure, indeed.
You have filled the void that was in my heart
Through the years I have love you so, even though
some times I didn’t let it show.
I was also proud to be called your dad and you have never made me sad.
I know that I was not always there for you, but there was not a minute ,a day that went by that I didn’t think of you and miss you even though you were so close by.
And now you have grown and have children of your own, I will love them just as much as I loved you.
In my golden days I wish I could help you more.
I want for you better than you had before.
I love you with all my heart and my soul.
I just wanted to let you know.
Be my Valentine, this year and forever more.
Love
Dad
This is dedicate to my daughter who has taught me so much through the years.
By Herb Krantz
I have placed a discount shopping website link below. It was created to donate 40% of profits to the charities listed. Enjoy your savings while donating to charity. You can also donate to your favor charity.
Affordable Shopping Mall
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
http;//aaavacationsplus.globaletravelplus.com
Be my Valentine, this year and forever more.
Love
Dad
This is dedicate to my daughter who has taught me so much through the years.
By Herb Krantz
I have placed a discount shopping website link below. It was created to donate 40% of profits to the charities listed. Enjoy your savings while donating to charity. You can also donate to your favor charity.
Affordable Shopping Mall
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
http;//aaavacationsplus.globaletravelplus.com
Special Valentines day Brenda
Special Valentines Day to Brenda
Every since the day we met my life has changed in many ways.
You have brought me back from the abyss, the brink of obscurity.
You have created a person that enjoys life again.
A person who can laugh, smile and enjoy the small things in life that most of us take for granted.
With you I fee alive again.
You are my life, my right hand, my soul mate, my wife.
You have brought to my life so much more than I in yours.
You accept me for whom and what I am.
You stand behind me in everything I do.
You give me the strength to fight the battles that make me strong.
As long as I know that you are next to me nothing can go wrong.
Together we can over come anything.
In sickness and in health I will care for you, for your love can only come once in a life time and that life time I want to enjoy with you.
Be my valentine for now and forever more.
Love Herb
This is dedicated to my wife for without her I would be nothing
By Herb A Krantz
I have placed a discount shopping website link below. It was created to donate 40% of profits to the charities listed. Enjoy your savings while donating to charity. You can also donate to your favor charity.
Affordable Shopping Mall
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
AAA Vacations Plus
http://aaavacationsplus.globaltravel.com
Every since the day we met my life has changed in many ways.
You have brought me back from the abyss, the brink of obscurity.
You have created a person that enjoys life again.
A person who can laugh, smile and enjoy the small things in life that most of us take for granted.
With you I fee alive again.
You are my life, my right hand, my soul mate, my wife.
You have brought to my life so much more than I in yours.
You accept me for whom and what I am.
You stand behind me in everything I do.
You give me the strength to fight the battles that make me strong.
As long as I know that you are next to me nothing can go wrong.
Together we can over come anything.
In sickness and in health I will care for you, for your love can only come once in a life time and that life time I want to enjoy with you.
Be my valentine for now and forever more.
Love Herb
This is dedicated to my wife for without her I would be nothing
By Herb A Krantz
I have placed a discount shopping website link below. It was created to donate 40% of profits to the charities listed. Enjoy your savings while donating to charity. You can also donate to your favor charity.
Affordable Shopping Mall
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
AAA Vacations Plus
http://aaavacationsplus.globaltravel.com
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Today's immigrants and Social Security
Today's immigrants and Social Security
Is there really any debate on who deserves to receive social security at retirement?
I don’t know, could it be the people that are put money into the fund or the people who are here illegally working without paying taxes? The answer is clear to me. Then why is the congress still debating on giving that benefit to the same people who do not want to become citizen? As far as I am concerned if you don’t want to pay you should get anything including medical services. Go the hell back where you came from...
When my grandparents and yours came over her from where ever they were, they did everything in their power to make a better life for their family. They went to work every day doing the menial jobs that some of these illegal asshole complain about. I don’t want to know that theses are jobs that other don’t want. Our grandparents did them long before them and they progress from there to better jobs. The difference is that the became citizen, went to school and learned the langue and made something out of themselves instead of just stagnating and stealing.
If I had my way I would give all illegal aliens till April 15 to either register or get out of the country. If not they would be hunted down and thrown out.
This may sound harsh, but we have to think of it this way, for every illegal alien one of our parents or grandparents will not get their full benefits. A child and adult will not have the proper medical coverage. A family will not get enough to eat. The less fortunate will have the little they get taken away from them.
Look at what the president want to do to fight this war. We can not as a people support this war against terrorist and still support the illegal aliens some of who are waiting to strike against us and kill as many as they can.
If you want to take advantage of all this great country can offer you, you must be a citizen not a visitor. My nice has been over England for around three years they will not let her work there until she becomes a citizen. Why do we have to be different?
If we really want to safe guard our boarders from terrorist we will have to become more diligent about whom we let in.
Call your political leaders and let them know how you feel !!
By Herb A Krantz
I have created a discount shopping internet mall for the soul purpose of donating 40% of its profit back to the charities list on the site. Not only will you be saving money but you will be donation to charity at the same time. Please visit our link below
Affordable Shopping Mall
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
Please vist my charity discount shopping site. Every time you buy something a 40% will go to charity.Book a cruise,vaction, all inculsive or travel anywhere part of that will go to the charities listed. Link is
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
http://aaavacationsplus.globaltravel.com
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Bushes policy on Iraq -Stay the course
USA International Politics –Bushes policy on Iraq
Stay the course
I don’t often agree with bush on any of his policies but I have to agree with the policy of staying the course, for the only reason we have no other choice. Now that he has gotten us tangled up in this mess we all have to support our men and woman in the arm forces. I support them 100%.It’s not their fault that the mad man in the white house has blinders on. They are doing a great job against the odds that they face. They need better equipment and vest to cut down the deaths we face every day.
So write or call your representatives in Washington and tell them to find another way to stop the mad man but don’t cut aid to the people that it would hurt the most.
Again I have to state that I think it’s time that our allies get off their ass and help. But bush will never ask. England should send over at least 20,000 more troops. They are the ones that are getting hit the hardest outside of Iraq, it time that they take more of a roll in the front line of the war.
The only way we will win this war is to let the people who are there run it,(The Generals). I am afraid to say no matter who runs this war it is going to last longer than any war we’ve had in the past.
If you disagree with me let me know
By Herb A Krantz
Please vist my charity discount shopping site. Every time you buy something a percentage will go to charity.Book a cruise,vaction, all inculsive or travel anywhere part of that will go to the charities listed. Link is
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
http://aaavacationsplus.globaltravel.com
Stay the course
I don’t often agree with bush on any of his policies but I have to agree with the policy of staying the course, for the only reason we have no other choice. Now that he has gotten us tangled up in this mess we all have to support our men and woman in the arm forces. I support them 100%.It’s not their fault that the mad man in the white house has blinders on. They are doing a great job against the odds that they face. They need better equipment and vest to cut down the deaths we face every day.
So write or call your representatives in Washington and tell them to find another way to stop the mad man but don’t cut aid to the people that it would hurt the most.
Again I have to state that I think it’s time that our allies get off their ass and help. But bush will never ask. England should send over at least 20,000 more troops. They are the ones that are getting hit the hardest outside of Iraq, it time that they take more of a roll in the front line of the war.
The only way we will win this war is to let the people who are there run it,(The Generals). I am afraid to say no matter who runs this war it is going to last longer than any war we’ve had in the past.
If you disagree with me let me know
By Herb A Krantz
Please vist my charity discount shopping site. Every time you buy something a percentage will go to charity.Book a cruise,vaction, all inculsive or travel anywhere part of that will go to the charities listed. Link is
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
http://aaavacationsplus.globaltravel.com
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Politics : A new Course of Action -HA!
Bushes policies as usual are not the policy that his Generals and other had suggested to him. I love when he announces that he will be going to others to get advice and make a decision on what they tell him. Who the hell is he kidding! If you don’t tell him what he wants to hear bush will fire you or move you somewhere you wont be asked again. Bush has his own agenda right from the start and he will not stop until he is out of office. That’s only one year but he could do a lot of damage still.
He has started a war because Sadom had tried to kill his father. This moron dropped the ball and now everyone’s life that is not a terrorist or thinks like them, is in jeopardy. We should of concentrated on Afghanistan and Ben lading. We had a good chance to get him then. But once again Bush did not listen to his advisors and took his route, (the wrong route) and know we are on the defensive instead of the offensive. He was told about 911 and choose to ignore that. This is a constance way of behavior with this simple minded moron. We as a people have wanted to hang presidents and other leaders by their heads for less. This jackass has put the world in turmoil and no one is asking for him to step down. He has lied to the USA and the world. Once again he is leading us the wrong way.
I personally think that it is time we got to our allies and asked, no demand their help. If they don’t see that this is a threat to the whole world and that everyone needs to pull together now, not later, then we should pull all our money and help out of their countries,
countries like Russia, Japan, Spain, and all our other fair weather friends and allies like France, it’s time to shit or get off the pot. All the money that we waste with them we could use in our country. But bush would never asked for help, he’s to small minded, stubborn, to self absorbed with trying to show his daddy how smart he is. He is only showing his daddy how truly stupid really he is. For a wise man always listens with his ears open, but a fool pretends to hear what you say beacuse he is only thinking of what he plans to do.
Bush you are the fools fool.
By Herb A Krantz
I have developed a Discount shopping site to help charities by donating 40% of the profits along with links you can make your own donations.
Please visit us and save on your purchase while giving to charity or donate to a charity of your choice. Click or cut and past link below
He has started a war because Sadom had tried to kill his father. This moron dropped the ball and now everyone’s life that is not a terrorist or thinks like them, is in jeopardy. We should of concentrated on Afghanistan and Ben lading. We had a good chance to get him then. But once again Bush did not listen to his advisors and took his route, (the wrong route) and know we are on the defensive instead of the offensive. He was told about 911 and choose to ignore that. This is a constance way of behavior with this simple minded moron. We as a people have wanted to hang presidents and other leaders by their heads for less. This jackass has put the world in turmoil and no one is asking for him to step down. He has lied to the USA and the world. Once again he is leading us the wrong way.
I personally think that it is time we got to our allies and asked, no demand their help. If they don’t see that this is a threat to the whole world and that everyone needs to pull together now, not later, then we should pull all our money and help out of their countries,
countries like Russia, Japan, Spain, and all our other fair weather friends and allies like France, it’s time to shit or get off the pot. All the money that we waste with them we could use in our country. But bush would never asked for help, he’s to small minded, stubborn, to self absorbed with trying to show his daddy how smart he is. He is only showing his daddy how truly stupid really he is. For a wise man always listens with his ears open, but a fool pretends to hear what you say beacuse he is only thinking of what he plans to do.
Bush you are the fools fool.
By Herb A Krantz
I have developed a Discount shopping site to help charities by donating 40% of the profits along with links you can make your own donations.
Please visit us and save on your purchase while giving to charity or donate to a charity of your choice. Click or cut and past link below
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
First Of World Political Events 2007
The first of the worlds political news Items For 2007
Death of a gentlemen president, the end of a tyrant
Three deaths to start off the new years, what a start. Two men that will be legions and on that will be remembered for the killing that he ordered and committed.
President Ford, who has been laid to rest today January 3,2007
President Ford was a giant of men in politics and out . He was a person that would not vote party but would listen and vote what he thought was right. He was a person that no one thought would be president ever, he was too much of a gentleman, but he was asked to serve and did very well. His downfall was that he got stuck with a war that no one wanted. When he pardon President Nixon that sealed his faith of never be elected. I truly feel that that was the right thing to do the country would never have recovered from the battle it would have cause in the courts and the chambers of congress. Look at the camber of congress now, how mess up it is. When the news showed our people climbing up the walls and getting into the helicopters to get them out of Vietnam, which was a devastating blow to President Ford. Even though he did not get us into that war the end of it was blamed on him. He will also be known as the clumsiest president that we ever had, he was always bumping he head or something. With all that he was the last of the true gentleman of Presidents. I hope he will be remembered for the person he was and not what happened on his watch.
Saddom Hussein Hung Dec 30,2006
I just watch a video of saddam, they treated him with more human treatment then he deserved. Raped a black cloth around his neck, I would of put the noose around his neck without anything. Let him feel the full pain of hanging. He stood there in a daze like it wasn’t happening. But it was, now we have to get Ben Laden, although they will be just another to take his place. Saddom may have started out all right but turned into the sadistic dictator that he was quickly. The USA hands are not clean from this. We supported him and help put him where he was, along with Ben Laden. We seem to always pick the wrong side, anyway getting back to Saddam. I wish that his death would solve all the problems Iraq has but it won’t. Even thought Saddom was a tyrant and had to be dealt with, I think personally it would have been better dealt with on the Q.T . Have the CIA get some one to kill him. I know, I know it was tried before and failed but you know what they say, if you don’t succeed try and try again until you do. It was only a matter of time. I know that we are not allowed to do that, but come on is anyone that naive to think that it doesn’t go on. Wake up if you are. True Saddom was a made man and needed to be stopped but no at the risk of started a jihad, that’s what Bush did by tying to kill Saddom in the first place.
Saddom was birdied in Tikrtt –Awja with both of his sons that were no better then him, Odah and Qushi on or around December 31,2006, just in time to start the new year off right. Now we move on to the next objective what every that maybe, or what ever Bush chooses.
By Herb A Krantz
Please visit my charity shopping mall click orcut and past link below
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
Death of a gentlemen president, the end of a tyrant
Three deaths to start off the new years, what a start. Two men that will be legions and on that will be remembered for the killing that he ordered and committed.
President Ford, who has been laid to rest today January 3,2007
President Ford was a giant of men in politics and out . He was a person that would not vote party but would listen and vote what he thought was right. He was a person that no one thought would be president ever, he was too much of a gentleman, but he was asked to serve and did very well. His downfall was that he got stuck with a war that no one wanted. When he pardon President Nixon that sealed his faith of never be elected. I truly feel that that was the right thing to do the country would never have recovered from the battle it would have cause in the courts and the chambers of congress. Look at the camber of congress now, how mess up it is. When the news showed our people climbing up the walls and getting into the helicopters to get them out of Vietnam, which was a devastating blow to President Ford. Even though he did not get us into that war the end of it was blamed on him. He will also be known as the clumsiest president that we ever had, he was always bumping he head or something. With all that he was the last of the true gentleman of Presidents. I hope he will be remembered for the person he was and not what happened on his watch.
Saddom Hussein Hung Dec 30,2006
I just watch a video of saddam, they treated him with more human treatment then he deserved. Raped a black cloth around his neck, I would of put the noose around his neck without anything. Let him feel the full pain of hanging. He stood there in a daze like it wasn’t happening. But it was, now we have to get Ben Laden, although they will be just another to take his place. Saddom may have started out all right but turned into the sadistic dictator that he was quickly. The USA hands are not clean from this. We supported him and help put him where he was, along with Ben Laden. We seem to always pick the wrong side, anyway getting back to Saddam. I wish that his death would solve all the problems Iraq has but it won’t. Even thought Saddom was a tyrant and had to be dealt with, I think personally it would have been better dealt with on the Q.T . Have the CIA get some one to kill him. I know, I know it was tried before and failed but you know what they say, if you don’t succeed try and try again until you do. It was only a matter of time. I know that we are not allowed to do that, but come on is anyone that naive to think that it doesn’t go on. Wake up if you are. True Saddom was a made man and needed to be stopped but no at the risk of started a jihad, that’s what Bush did by tying to kill Saddom in the first place.
Saddom was birdied in Tikrtt –Awja with both of his sons that were no better then him, Odah and Qushi on or around December 31,2006, just in time to start the new year off right. Now we move on to the next objective what every that maybe, or what ever Bush chooses.
By Herb A Krantz
Please visit my charity shopping mall click orcut and past link below
http://homeshoppingcentermall.com
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