With Sharon now being out of politics there may be serious consequences for Israeli politics. Kadima(the party started by Sharon and Shimon Peres) will now have to find a new, and possibly less electable, leader. Also I read that the Likud had been planning on quiting the coalition this week, a decision which has now been reconsidered. This may work out the best for the Likud and right-wing(as much as I hate that term). As GopVixon said, Netanyahu may reclaim the PM post. We shall all just have to wait and see.

So we at the Nerdfamily house are trying to recover from Christmas and all the chaos that it brings. The children seemed to enjoy their numerous gifts(Nerdmom may have once again over done it) and the noise form the gifts are slowly driving me nutty(or further nutty). Every year I am puzzled as to what is an appropriate amount of gifts. In reality each kids would probably be happy with just one medium gift each. I always get a deal and don’t spend that much(relatively to when they are older and want iPod’s and mp3 players) so I am always suprised to how much volume it adds up to. The kids are still so young that they haven’t quite got the “me, me, me’s” yet and I really want to make sure that they never get them.

This was the first year that any of them fully understood Christmas and anticipated any gifts. Nerdbug(4 1/2) was adorable as he geared up for Christmas( and Chanukah). He began realizing that Christmas morning there would be stuff waiting for him. Nerdbug and Nerdpie(2 1/2) learned the dreidal song and would go through Target singing it loudly. Nerdpie would very patiently explain what Chanukah was for and then explain Christmas. I was very proud that he could keep them straight. Nerdpie got a dolly and she(we) named it Molly. It is now attached to her hip. When I feed Nerdling she feeds Molly. Luckily we have her convinced that she needs a bottle and not to nurse like Nerdling(we have many discussions about this). Nerdbug loves his race track and garage. I also get the opportunity to go over board because they share toys. They got Kitchen set stuff and Tools(pretend) that they share(this will be imprtant in a later post).

NerdDad is also a little amazed at the Grandparent deal. His grandparents had passed by the time he was born and mine were never involved but that isn’t the case for our kids. When we visited NerdDad’s Parents gave them each something. Then it was a couple of huge boxes from my dads. Yes, I said dads. My birth dad sent a huge box of books, dvds, and clothes for the baby. Then my middle father(my mom’s 2nd husband out of 3) sent a big box with toys for the older kids and clothes for the baby. Neither NerdDad or I had anything like this so it still amazes us.

So this brings me back to my original question. How much do kids really need for Christmas? Especially since we are teaching them that this isn’t what Christmas is about. Hopefully I will figure it out before I buy all of next year’s gifts….

The inaguaral Carnival of Homeschooling is out.

The Jerusalem Post had this headline! A little investigation in Germany by one of their dailies has revealed that NATO is laying the groundwork to attack in 2006. I think that this is what is keeping Israel at bay.

Should we all wsih everyone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Holidays? Does it matter? I have recently read a few blogs and their opinions. The first one is from Ethos and he basically says that culture has had an influence on what days are (Thursday after Thor, for example) and we can’t really deny that. I completely agree. Christmas is now a day in our culture, regardless to if you actually celebrate it. I think of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. We all recognize that day but we don’t all celebrate it. Work isn’t off for everyone and we don’t all have a big celebration(or for that matter really any celebration). No one is offended at it though.
The other 2 posts are refering to the old Christian movement to not recognize Christmas. Christmas was a day picked to celebrate Christ’s birth. This was to battle for the pagan winter solstice celebrations. Many of our current Christmas traditions were even taken from these pagan celebrations like the yule log and mistletoe. Pat over at 2 Blond Boys has a portion of a speech by Charles Spurgeon saying that we shouldn’t celebrate this day due to its pagan roots and Reckless Abandon has some great comments on it too. To take this a little further. The Round Heads under Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas for a few years in England.
I guess this all just really stuck a chord with me because of my own issues I worked through about 10 years ago. I starting researching Easter in High School and that led to a little trouble(at least in my stepdad’s eyes;). I belive in keeping Passover and as I studied I found that Easter was really a paganized Feast of First Fruits. The rabbit, the name they are all from the Roman goddess of fertility. It was formed to coincede with other pagan feasts at the time and to seperate Christians from Judaism. So I was faced with a dilema…Do I celebrate or call it Easter. Well, being me, I was very legalistic and for a long time I would correct anyone in my house who called it Easter. The God moved my heart and made me realize that it is more than the name. (And this is similar to Reckless Abandon’s comment) We are celebrating Christ and HIS death and HIS resurrection nothing more. This is what society calls it and is it really a big deal? What matters is the state of your heart and your relationship with Christ.

Ok, I am in a bit of shock. I was perusing the Corner and I found mention of the Jewish Autonomous Region that exists in Siberia. John Derbyshire was commenting on an article that brought this up as a response to the Iranian president’s statements earlier this week. I had never heard of this and am in shock. It was set up by the USSR and is still in full effect. I will comment more on this later…..

I was meandering the Corner and found one post that provided me with many good feelings;). Katherine Jean Lopez had a simple post that refered to an article at the Jerusalem Post. It was refering to when John Bolton spoke at the Zionist Organization of America’s annual dinner. He was saying that the Iranian nuclear issue is a proble not only for Israel but the whole region. It was also great that his addressed that the UN is an anti-Israel group.

he American ambassador discussed at length an anti-Israel event that took place at UN Headquarters on November 29 which did not receive coverage by the Hebrew media and was ignored by the Foreign Ministry. On that day, as on every anniversary of the 1947 UN vote recommending the partition of the British Mandate in the Land of Israel, the UN sponsored an official Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

This year, law professor Anne Bayefsky, who in recent years has heroically taken it upon herself to expose the UN’s institutional anti-Semitism, managed to photograph the event in which UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the presidents of the General Assembly and the Security Council participated. The three UN leaders sat on a stage against the backdrop of a map of the Middle East in which Israel was mysteriously replaced by a country called “Palestine.” Not one of the UN leaders, or any of the other participants in the event, saw fit to protest the fact that Israel had been literally “wiped off” this official UN map.

According to Bolton, “I think we need to use this example, this piece of evidence about a fundamental flaw within the UN itself. This is not simply a mistake that the three men made not speaking about the map. They didn’t speak about the map because they didn’t see anything unusual. And in fact there isn’t anything unusual about it in the context of the UN. We need to take this instance and go beyond what our normal reaction might be – to slam the people involved for not criticizing the map, for not walking out. We need to say this is a pivot point to change the culture at the UN.”

The author also went on to talk about how Bolton has spoke out when Israel’s own UN ambassador hadn’t. So you are probably wondering where all the good feelings are. Well..
1) I am not the only one both reading and siting the Jerusalem Post.
2) Just a reminder why George W Bush is such a good president.
3) Why I love Bolton.
4)That someone is pointing out the problems in the UN and that this will hopefully affect some sort of change!

Hopefully this will bring you all a little joy for the Christmas season!

I was reading Two Blonde Boys and he had a post on the Emerging Church. I had heard this term before but have always been at a loss as to its meaning. I clicked onto a blog link that illustrated (they do not to appear to favor definitions;) the emerging church. I believe that this is all toungue and cheek. I discovered that I am to old, boring and overall not hip enough to be in this group. What really convinced me was the list of words that the movement view as negative:

Foundationalism, Absolute Truth, Church Growth, D.A. Carson, Calvinism, Modernism, Fundamentalist, Bush, Seeker Sensitive, Preaching, Pulpit, Doctrine, Innerancy, Power, Enlightenment, Rationalism, Meta-narratives, Universal, Judgemental

The only ones that don’t represent me and my beliefs are D.A. Carson(because I can’t place the name) and Seeker Sensitive(but I believe churches should be to a point;). Now I do have a laptop and I like the Dave Crowder Band but I definately don’t have a Christian/Liberal bumper sticker. I would like to know what group I actually fit into. I am interested in learning more about this movement and keeping up on what things are on the rise in the church but this has definately helped enlighten me;).

I was reading GOP Vixen’s blogging on Munich and she referenced an article on the Guardian regarding the anti-Israeli tone in the movie. I found a portion of it very interesting on Jews in Hollywood.

“Jews pioneered Hollywood,” wrote Jack Engelhard, the author of the best-selling novel and film, Indecent Proposal, on the Tel-Aviv-based website, ynetnews.com. “If, as our enemies say, we own Hollywood, well, here’s the plot twist – we have lost Hollywood, and we have lost Spielberg. Spielberg is no friend of Israel. Spielberg is no friend of truth. His Munich may just as well have been scripted by George Galloway.”

When did everyone forget that Jewish Americans are not pro-Israel? Most American Jews feel more sympathetic toward the Palestinian cause than the Israeli plight. Through the years American Jews have always felt guilty so they send money to Jewish groups(on the whole not the specific). Now there is the Anti-Defimation League that also is anti-Israel(and anti-conservative, anti-moral, and anti-good;). That money that went to pro-Jewish groups now go to them. As far as the Jewish effect on Hollywood. Judaism at it’s truest form is very moral and we haven’t seen that represented out of Jewish Hollywood. Now a large part of this may be that the majority of the Hollywood(and over all American) Jewish community is not religious. So why is it so suprising that if Hollywod Jews are not representative of Jewish moral’s they would represent pro-Israel politics.