tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post1545212261249623681..comments2024-03-28T15:05:10.372-05:00Comments on Every goddamn day: 03/28/24: The home team, losing in the late inningsNeil Steinberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468057838260476480noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-74473855558803517042023-10-23T11:54:39.136-05:002023-10-23T11:54:39.136-05:00SandyK
Well said.
Whenever I start worrying about...SandyK <br />Well said.<br />Whenever I start worrying about the “nothingness” to come after death, I just think of how painless it was to not be “here” all those millions of years before I was born.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-23463548395799311462018-10-23T15:37:35.620-05:002018-10-23T15:37:35.620-05:00Jews are the home team....and it's hard not to...Jews are the home team....and it's hard not to root for the home team. White yarmulkes for the home games, black ones on the road. It doesn't matter if the owner is a jerk and the manager stinks, or if the current roster is pathetic. They're the colors and the team you grew up with. I like to say I was born a Democrat, a Jew, and a Cub fan. I'm still a Democrat by choice and and a Cub fan by choice. That third one? It's like choosing brown eyes or the color of your skin. You are what you are.<br /><br />My ethnic origins are as Jewish as lox or gefilte fish. My father's mother was a Bolshevik who fled Russia because she ran with the terrorists and there was a price on her teen-aged head...the Bernadine Dohrn of 1905. But my old man had no use for Judaism because his parents were too poor to send him to Hebrew school. (The youngest of his six brothers did get to go, but he later became a beatnik, so maybe it was a big waste.) My mom was religious, and only spoke Yiddish until she started school. Her mother left her family behind and emigrated at 17, from the town where "Fiddler on the Roof" was set. Twenty-five years later, they all went up the chimney. The letters stopped coming to East Garfield Park.<br /><br />But I guess somebody forgot to install some vital part before I left the factory. The engine sputters and misses. I grew up in a town that was majority Jewish, with a few Italians...so naturally I wanted to be an Italian greaser. Too many Jewish kids were only concerned with looks and money and status. After two years of Hebrew school, I quit, and wouldn't go back. Oh, I loved the language, and learning the history of my people, but hated the way it was such a circus, with fights and kids screwing around all the time. Finally had a tutor, and got bar mitzvahed anyway. <br /><br />That was the last of the megillah for me. I rarely dated among my own faith. My college girlfriend was Scandinavian, and I've had two non-Jewish wives. To read that 71 percent of non-Orthodox Jews marry non-Jews is to realize how much that figure has skyrocketed...it was a fraction of that figure when I was growing up. <br /><br />Nu? I guess all this means is that I'm a Jew, and always will be, but I'm not really Jewish. One of the tribe, but non-observant. I come for the food and stay for the music...those images of sandwiches make me drool, and I love klezmer bands. It's all about ethnicity with me, and not much else, although I still say the Hanukkah blessings over the same menorah I've been lighting for sixty years.<br /><br /> And most Jews don't really agonize over an afterlife. We're just light bulbs. There's no light bulb heaven or light bulb hell. The light within goes out when the brain ceases to function, and the bulb begins to decompose and has to be disposed of. Read that one at thirteen. Still believe it.<br /><br />Most faiths seem to be merely mental constructs that people use to stave off the fear of nothingness, which gets more real as one ages. And the realization that life will continue to proceed, just as it always has, only without you. No snow. No summer. No baseball. No beaches. In heaven, there is no beer. <br /><br />To walk through a cemetery on a beautiful summer's day, and to realize that all these people once had lives and thoughts like your own, or that a summer will come and that you will not be here to see it....that's the saddest and hardest and scariest part of all. If religion helps someone to deal with all that, fine. Good for you. Whatever gets you through the night. But it's definitely not everyone's glass of tea. <br /><br /><br /><br />Grizz 65https://www.blogger.com/profile/02892702223228764894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-19460888869823197222015-05-26T19:23:41.062-05:002015-05-26T19:23:41.062-05:00NS- stop giving that ANA fodder, don't reply t...NS- stop giving that ANA fodder, don't reply to him or give him power to show as if he hurt your feelings-I think he thrives on itAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-22314970332414040892015-05-26T12:23:38.162-05:002015-05-26T12:23:38.162-05:00don't be a snobdon't be a snobAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-78362570318720270512015-05-26T12:23:31.903-05:002015-05-26T12:23:31.903-05:00Remember Mr., you are not better than Christians a...Remember Mr., you are not better than Christians and they aren't better than you.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-6349841269900148482015-05-26T12:22:12.897-05:002015-05-26T12:22:12.897-05:00You said thanks for playing? Anon not anon once sa...You said thanks for playing? Anon not anon once said that. Hmmm<br /><br />or is ana really that Zorn guy?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-33314892042558631322013-10-24T09:41:26.877-05:002013-10-24T09:41:26.877-05:00Having dealt with people with mental illnesses, I ...Having dealt with people with mental illnesses, I think it's remarkably "trollish" on your part to conflate that with believing in the existence of God. Religious people have no monopoly on the use of violence to eliminate those who do not share their views. Right? I think that the real danger comes not from theists, polytheists, atheists or agnostics. Instead, it's the secular and religious "true believers".David P. Grafnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-39394995891868005502013-10-23T15:44:32.323-05:002013-10-23T15:44:32.323-05:00right on! from another Anonymousright on! from another AnonymousAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-89349257184944268162013-10-23T15:12:21.817-05:002013-10-23T15:12:21.817-05:00Called being human. Thanks. Called being human. Thanks. Neil Steinberghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11468057838260476480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-14923740617025769212013-10-23T13:11:10.835-05:002013-10-23T13:11:10.835-05:00Consider Humanistic Judaism as the future. http://...Consider Humanistic Judaism as the future. http://www.kolhadash.comRon Schwartzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08749168385491536342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-91773844861105965462013-10-23T12:18:05.998-05:002013-10-23T12:18:05.998-05:00Okay, that should be EGDD. How did I screw that up...Okay, that should be EGDD. How did I screw that up? :-)Tprc62noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-85639719869487874942013-10-23T12:09:22.628-05:002013-10-23T12:09:22.628-05:00Neil,
I used to read your column at the ST religi...Neil,<br /><br />I used to read your column at the ST religiously. :-)<br /><br />I just found your web site(via Dan Savage), and very much enjoy the additional writing. Thank you for taking the time to write EGGD.<br /><br />TeddTprc62noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-26289476733639333622013-10-23T11:57:35.517-05:002013-10-23T11:57:35.517-05:00As a guy who had a bar mitzvah 51 years ago, I'...As a guy who had a bar mitzvah 51 years ago, I'm now an absolute atheist.<br />Because if you do believe in god, then your god is pure evil!<br />Because no god that's supposed to be loving would have allowed the Holocaust, which is what made me an atheist.<br />Belief in god is a mental illness & the sooner we cure that mental illness, the better off this planet will be!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-36978901679257849962013-10-23T10:30:40.234-05:002013-10-23T10:30:40.234-05:00That's like quoting McDonald's saying, &qu...That's like quoting McDonald's saying, "Order a large fries!" The Bible, that's where all this stuff comes from -- quoting it, and poorly, to back it up, Mr. Anonymous, well, it just doesn't pack the rhetorical oomph that you might think it does. Still, thanks for playing. Neil Steinberghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11468057838260476480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-33379972930454626302013-10-23T10:28:02.644-05:002013-10-23T10:28:02.644-05:00The fool has said in his heart. " there is no...The fool has said in his heart. " there is no god". Psalms 14:1Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-88062576659727275082013-10-23T07:45:51.384-05:002013-10-23T07:45:51.384-05:00Neil,
Given the treatment of Jews over the centur...Neil,<br /><br />Given the treatment of Jews over the centuries, why wouldn't many choose to assimilate now that they have that choice? Regarding the influence of faith, my concern is what's going to replace it. Going from the version of the Golden Rule in which you do the right thing unto others to the version in which "he who has the gold makes the rules" doesn't necessarily seem like an improvement to me. If you remove faith from morality, can you come up with something that most people will go along with in a society? I'm not sure about that given how we increasingly live in a looking out for number one world. If we don't come up with a replacement that works, we may devolve into a world where might literally makes right. David P. Grafnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-5049327352875654402013-10-23T07:39:22.080-05:002013-10-23T07:39:22.080-05:00As much as I agree that much evil has been perpetr...As much as I agree that much evil has been perpetrated in the name of religion, I can't help feeling that even without of religion, humanity would be creative enough to find new reasons to oppress and cause suffering.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com