If Jesus...

If Jesus existed today, where would he stand on an economic chart.  Would he be a capitalist?  Maybe a socialist?  It might be that the man, who I do not believe existed, might have been an outright communist.  But lets back off that question for a moment, where you Jesus fall in the political spectrum.  Was the man liberal, conservative, libertarian or moderate?  To answer these questions, we need to have a basic understanding of what is what.  What is a liberalism, conservatism, libertarian, socialism, communism, moderate, and capitalist.

20 Things the Poor Really Do Every Day (plus my take)

This comes from Bill Irwin via the Huffington Post 20 Things Poor People Really Do

While Mr. Irwin speaks from a third party view, he speaks as someone that has witnessed homelessness, and living in poverty, I am speaking from a first person perspective.

The Obituary of Compassion

We are mourning the loss of a beloved old friend and philanthropist who recently passed away. Her name was Compassion. Compassion originally born in the cradle of civilization, lived a long life but died in the United States from a vicious contagious disease known only as Affluenza.

The Chruch What!?!

As some of you know I am assisting a charity that deals with an elderly couple who were fleeced over by the Church of God.  You will often here me tell people that this "religious organization" has threatened the family repeatedly, going as far as to play a role in getting their one safety net (their youngest son) fired from his job.  Long story short some member of that organization threatened one of his co-workers and it went sideways, and I am sure you can all figure out where it went.

Prayer. The Ultimate... Cop-out?

I know many Christians, to be honest most of the people I know personally, and through social media are either Christian or Atheist.  I wish I had more Buddhist friends in person and online.  But among the things I often see when someone says they have a problem is "I'll pray for you."  While I am a Rabbi, and I do pray, I do not pray for others.  I do not pray over the dead that they might find peace.  I pray that I find the strength to comfort those who remain.  If someone is in need of help, I pray that I find the strength to help them, to do what needs to be done.  I pray that I have the strength to stand against what I feel to be ill with the world.  I do not pray that the Almighty will help them, or that the Almighty will bless them with funds to solve their problems.  I do not pray for safety or the safety of others, I might hope if I feel that what I have done to assist them is not enough, but when your time is finished in this world, it is finished, all you can do is hope it works out, prayer does nothing. 

Stand your Ground... Affluenza... Really?

In the past decade several laws and defenses have come into existence.  The first is the now called Stand Your Ground laws.  While this is not the case in all states, where it is in use, there have been some problems.  So everyone is on the same page, Stand Your Ground laws remove the duty of an individual to flee a situation, they have the right to use whatever force is required to end the threat.  The problem is, Stand Your Ground does not include using deadly force after you have left or have a good chance to leave the situation.  If someone were to break into my home, and I were to shoot them, I could attempt to invoke stand your ground, but if I ran past the front door to grab a gun, I cannot attempt to invoke stand your ground.  While the concept has been around since the late 1870's, it has recently become something of a trend.  Basically when it was initially recreated in the Indiana Court system, it was more or less a belief that a duty to retreat from a threat to self or property was inherently wrong (thanks Manifest Destiny).  This decision was reaffirmed in 1921 after a few notable cases.  Its not really a new trend, but its not something that we have seen a great deal of until recently.  The problem is people seem to forget that this law is pretty specific, if you cannot retreat you can use deadly force, if you forgo an opportunity to retreat, you are sunk trying to use it. 

Morals, who has them, who does not.

Lets get to something else that burns me.  When someone comes along and claims someone else has no morals.  What are morals, well lets see what the dictionary says about the matter?