Lech Lecha Cartoons by Nick, drawn in Paint Shop Pro 6. Much to the surprise of Abram and his camel, the booming voice of the Almighty commanded him: Genesis chapter 12 1 “Now Hashem said unto Abram: ‘Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto the land … Continue reading “Nicholas Midrashim: How Abraham Came To (And Left) The Land of Israel”
Nicholas Midrashim: Noach Noah Fails To Save Most Humans Cartoons by Nick, drawn in Paint Shop Pro 6. All sources from Chabad.org: Parshat Noach Rashi teaches us: “Many ways to bring relief and rescue are available to Him; why, then, did He burden him with this construction [of the ark]? In order that the people … Continue reading “Nicholas Midrashim: Noach”
Nick Gets Lifetime Advocacy Award I Received Lifetime Advocacy Award At ADAP’s 30th Anniversary Event Friday, we made the 175-mile journey to Montgomery to attend the 30th anniversary of ADAP (Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program), the state P&A (protection and advocacy) agency (every state has one), and receive their first-ever “Lifetime Advocacy Award” at the Alabama … Continue reading “Nick Gets Lifetime Advocacy Award”
U.S. Vows To Punish Nicaragua For Elections This post is based on the NPR report, Observers Warn of U.S. Manipulation in Nicaragua It’s so sickening to see our government continuing to support the dark side in Latin America: these corporate feudalist, Jesuit assassinating Contra-types. I went to Spring Hill College, a Jesuit college, so I … Continue reading “U.S. Vows To Punish Nicaragua For Elections”
Glossary of Jewish Terms and Phrases (L – Z) For Future Reference After adding heavily to the glossary A – K, I bring you L – Z. Let me know if I mangled any or missed any big ones! Lashon HaRa lit. “the evil tongue”: gossip and slander prohibited by halacha, even if true. Lashon … Continue reading “Glossary of Jewish Terms and Phrases (L – Z)”
Glossary of Jewish Terms and Phrases (A – K) For Future Reference HaShem lit. “the Name”: used in lieu of The Ineffable Name to refer to G-d Baruch Hashem: Bless The Name! used like, “thank G-d!” abbrev. B”H! B’Ezrat Hashem: “G-d willing!” or “with the help of G-d.” BS”D: abbr. for “B‘Siyata D‘Shmaya,” an oft-used … Continue reading “Glossary of Jewish Terms and Phrases (A – K)”
Parshat Noach Video This week’s parsha (portion of Torah) is Parshat Noach, the story of Noah and the ark. I found this video on the ADD Rabbi blog. It is a commercial for a financial company, but it’s hilarious. Noach falls out of a tree, gets kicked by a donkey, etc., but still has to … Continue reading “Parshat Noach”
It’s Never Been “Stay The Course?” An Addendum to the hypocrisy post
What Is Medicaid? What Are Waivers? A Medicaid Policy Wonk Explains Medicaid stuff is my specialty. While I’m a political junkie who tries to glean deep knowledge of American political ideas on all sides on nearly every issue and the philosophies that underpin them, and, while in a year of intense study, I’ve gained a great … Continue reading “What Is Medicaid? What Are Waivers?”
Hypocrisy It is an issue I haven’t blogged about the Mark Foley scandal. It seems superfluous; the badness of it is so obvious, and the media and the public’s insatiable appetite for sexual titillation provided wall-to-wall coverage of all aspects of the case, so what more can I add? But I do want to comment … Continue reading “Hypocrisy”
For 2006 Republican Leadership, Support For Slavery Runs Deep More Revelations In Marianas Scandal Show GOP Chairman Involved Yesterday, I shed light on the disgusting Republican effort to protect deplorable labor conditions on the American-controlled Northern Marianas Islands, where Chinese immigrants are kept in sweatshops with little to no pay and not allowed to leave. … Continue reading “For 2006 Republican Leadership, Support For Slave Labor Runs Deep”
Bush Government Supporting Slavery And Forced Abortions Top Rove Aide Involved In Abramoff Scandal Resigns The Abramoff corruption and its reach deep into the government has been horribly unreported by the mainstream media; almost no one knows about it (liberal media? please.) and the most outrageous aspect of this scandal is how Abramoff and Tom … Continue reading “Bush Gov’t & House Cronies Supporting Slavery, Forced Abortions”
The Image of G-d Different Religions Have Different Views Of The Creator Hinduism Brahma Christianity Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Judaism and Islam LOL….. This is especially relevent as we just marked Simchat Torah and began our annual Torah reading again with Genesis. And G-d created man in His image; in … Continue reading “The Image of G-d”
Simchat Torah! Celebrating The Gift Of Torah We just passed the holiday of Simchat Torah (“Torah‘s rejoicing”), the celebration of receiving G-d’s Torah as we finish Deuteronomy and begin our annual cycle of Torah reading anew with Genesis. Here’s a tour of Simchat Torah celebrations I gleaned from Google images…. A Torah scroll is unfurled, … Continue reading “Simchat Torah!”
Is Constitutional Government Dead? A Look Back At That Quiant Document While I’ve recently been ranting against “mainstream American culture” as being evil, because it’s become dominated by Fox News and Britney Spears, I do love this country. I love America because it’s based not on shared origins or royal blood, but on wonderful ideas, … Continue reading “Is Constitutional Government Dead?”
What You Need To Know About The Middle East “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” — George Santayana Steven Pressfield recently wrote an in-depth piece on Iraq, Why We Will Never See Democracy in the Middle East. His main thesis that we are operating in Iraq while largely ignorant of … Continue reading “What You Need To Know About The Middle East”
The Best Of Nick’s Blog 2006 Some favorites from my blogging for 2006… Governor Riley Refuses Federal Funding For Home Care My editorial on Alabama Medicaid’s institutional bias, and their resistance to do the right thing, even refusing federal help. Nick Gets Religion I explain what I’ve come to believe, and break down the Jewish … Continue reading “The Best Of Nick’s Blog 2006”
Sukkot! Festival of Ingathering! It’s Sukkot everybody! HaShem lays it out in Leviticus: “On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the Festival of Sukkot, seven days for the L-RD.” (Lev. 23:34) and we know what that means! “You will dwell in booths for seven days; all natives of Israel shall dwell in booths.” … Continue reading “Sukkot!”
The Oral Torah What It Is And Why It Is Valid The Oral Torah is the oral tradition of the Jews spanning from the exodus to the present day. When the Jewish people were traumatically dispersed and the Temple destroyed by the Roman Empire in 70 C.E., interpretations of Jewish law, which had always been … Continue reading “The Oral Torah”
Money Following The Person Out Of Institutions “Not Feasible,” Says Alabama Medicaid They Still Won’t Give An Inch To Free Citizens From Nursing Homes I just watched the Alabama Medicaid commissioner Carol Herrmann spinning and tap-dancing around the Money Follows the Person grant issue on the For The Record show. Alabama Medicaid continues to stick … Continue reading “Money Following The Person Out Of Institutions "Not Feasible," Says Alabama Medicaid”
Amid Protests, Alabama Medicaid Still Refuses Federal Grant Officials Won’t Budge On Anything Affecting Nursing Home Industry As I reported in my recent editorial on the subject, our government is circling the wagons to protect their nursing home boondoggle while those who want to receive care at home are left out in the cold. This … Continue reading “Amid Protests, Alabama Medicaid Still Refuses Federal Grant”
This Song Really Speaks To Me Right Now “All These Things That I’ve Done” by The Killers Leave it to Nick to express High Holy Days reflections in the form of an alt/rock song. I put “All These Things That I’ve Done” by The Killers on my MySpace profile, check it out. It is a … Continue reading “This Song Really Speaks To Me Right Now”
Some People Of Faith Uniting To Stop American Torture I apologize if I came down too harshly on Christians supporting torture in my previous post. Many sincere Christians oppose torture. Check out this article from Christianity Today magazine: 5 Reasons Torture Is Always Wrong. It gives an accurate assessment and lays out some great Biblical … Continue reading “Religious People Against Torture”
Government Sanctioned Immorality Reaching Scary Proportions Okay, we have a President of The United States of America, leader of the free world, who is pulling out all the stops to get a bill allowing more leeway on torture through Congress. This should be incredibly shocking to all of you. This post is Nick ranting about … Continue reading “Compromise On Torture?”
In An Unexpected Trend, Hispanics Becoming More Islamic As I wrote about previously, this is the religion century. Those who don’t offer clear, strong answers to life’s big questions will continue lose out to hardcore groups in churches, synagouges, and, increasingly, mosques. Today I saw even more evidence my hypothesis is true, with this fascinating … Continue reading “Islam On The Rise In America: More Latinas Becoming Muslims”
L’SHANA TOVA!!!!! Happy New Year! May you all be inscribed in the Sefer Chaim (Book of Life) and have many wonderful things and opportunities in the new year!! Nick Filed Under: Torah Insights and Religion
Background On Money Follows The Person Rebalancing Project Today, I spoke at Independent Living Center of Mobile about my new editorial on the federal Medicaid rebalancing grant and how our Governor is opposing it. But how did advocates get the feds to finally launch such a project to begin with? A new NPR report by … Continue reading “How Disability Activists Won New Federal Medicaid Grant”
A Mobile Register Letter to the Editor I’m Nick Dupree. Some of you may remember me from my public battle to stop Alabama Medicaid from ending nursing care for people on life support when they turned 21, a battle I won and received a flurry of media attention for three years ago, in the Register … Continue reading “Governor Riley Refuses New Fed. Funding For Disabled, Advocates To Rally”
Reaction Way Worse Than Comment The Pope gave an academic lecture on “Faith and Reason” in which he says violence in the name of G-d is unreasonable, and he touched on a Byzantine Emperor’s quote blasting the idea of Jihad. Incredibly, this has spurred a massive round of protests and violent reprisals. If you read … Continue reading “The Pope Calls Religious Violence Unreasonable, Triggering Religious Violence”
More Torah Commentary Veahavta l’reyacha kamocha, or, in English, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18) is one of the core mitzvos (commandments) of the Torah, and is in nearly every religion. This is counted in Rambam’s Sefer HaMitzvos as its own commandment, but he also notes that this mitzvah falls under the … Continue reading “Love Your Neighbor: The Whole Torah?”