crash bam alakazam – The Stuff Universes Are Made of

The creation of a young earth requires a magnificent demonstration of Hashem’s power.
By power, I mean watts (W), as in the most work done in the shortest time, as in “Let there be Light,” and bam! For Gd to cause us to exist He spoke, yet Hashem did not even need 10 Divine Utterances to create his creation. However, it is partly how He imparted His magnificence to our world.
Be it evolution by punctuated equilibrium or phyletic gradualism, I believe Gd made creation, not only to show His Might, but also His magnificence. Personally, I believe in punctuated equilibrium, as time would be an even greater issue if we believe evolution by phyletic gradualism. However, with the big stuff, Gd seems to work with a crash bam, and an alakazam.

And so it will be that the coming of Moshiach will be with a “bam!” – such a great action so powerful that it can only be in accordance with the Almighty.

Why not Bernie?

I like Bernie, but I am not going to vote for him.

Senator Sanders has many great ideas, as well as a few that I strongly disagree with. However, ideas are one thing, and implementation is another.

I expect Bernie would be blocked so many times by Congress that it would cause dangerous demoralization. Thus, Bernie would come across as an impotent executive, resulting in an economy lacking confidence.

Jesus Says, "No Refugee Monkeys to My House!"

Mature Rock Club: a Pandora Station

Station Link: http://www.pandora.com/station/play/2384084906898078383

Main Page:  http://www.pandora.com/profile/craig.hamilton.newletters

Flatt & Scruggs                             John Hartford

Old Crow Medicine Show            Chubby Wise

Doc Watson                                  The Osbourne Brothers

Earl Scruggs                                 Alison Krauss

Town Mountain                            Tony Furtado

Bruce Cockburn                            The Wailin' Jennys

The Steeldrivers                            Tony Rice

Blue Highway                               Pert Near Sandstone

Bonnie Rideout                             Atlantic Wave

The Dubliners                               Gaelic Storm

Altan                                             The Bothy Band

The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem

Planxty                                          The Boys Of The Lough

Cherish the Ladies                        Kevin Burke

William Coulter & Friends           The Pogues

Tommy Makem & Liam Clancy

Mark Arrington                            The Devil Makes Three

Wolfe Tones                                 Celtic Fiddle Festival

The Pogues & The Dubliners       The High Kings

Liz Carroll And John Doyle         Mike Tramp

Sarah Jarosz                                  Cosy Sheridan

Madeleine Peyroux                       Lyle Lovett

Imelda May                                   Parov Stelar

Andrew Bird's Bowl Of Fire         Solace & Fury

Caro Emerald                                 Mirah

The Pierces                                    Dirt Daubers

Skittish                                          Eilen Jewell

Good Lovelies                               Clare Fader

Katzenjammer                               Squirrel Nut Zippers

The Klezmatics

Preventing Playground Bullying

My family took our son out of public school partly because of bullying.  Honestly, there was at least two parties in the wrong; the most important one was that of the adult teacher on playground duty that refused to teach kids proper educate in play.  Sorry, no thank you.  Our child doesn’t need an education in the school of hard knocks.

Kids aren’t born knowing how to play, but even ducklings look to their mother for guidance in everything.  Children are born as wild animals, and therefore we must teach children to play correctly through guided play.

This creates the idea of a new job, modern playground supervisors, almost like the recess monitors of the past, but this time, differently, college should provide education and certification for teachers that are supposed to teach kids how to play.

We need paid teachers to teach kids how to play on the playground.  Different from teaching physical education, we also need kids to run around in play, all the while teaching skills such as conflict resolution.

The teaching that our son needs to be educated in the ins and outs of bullying through receiving a mental beating on the playground, as a part of his time that he spends in grade school is false.  The knowledge of how to play in a civilized way isn’t innate.  In the best scenario, we must teach playtime education.

Doctor Prescribe Opiates – Addictive as Cigarettes

Quitting opiates is as hard as quitting cigarettes.  The opiates that doctors offer you are addictive as smoking cigarettes.  Heroin is the most addictive drug according to this:

https://www.thefix.com/content/10-hardest-addictive-drugs-to-kick7055

Nicotine comes in a number 3:

https://www.thefix.com/content/10-hardest-addictive-drugs-to-kick7055

Doctors aren’t perfect.  Many times doctors get people hooked, especially on nasty things. You may be surprised, but in years past doctors used to recommend smoking.  Today, I suggest that offering the opiates in question is as if a doctor offered you cigarettes in order to help you relax.  No doctor in his/her right mind would prescribe cigarettes!   

Luckily, there is hope for smokers because smoking is on the decline in the USA .  Doctors need to be on board to stop prescribing so many opiates, because many of us know that once addicted to narcotic painkillers, the next step – heroin – couldn’t be worse.  Opiates should only be used in the most extreme cases, such as chronic pain.

It is time for America to tackle the opiate gorilla too.  It starts with doctors being smart about prescription drugs.  Any former smoker will tell you that quitting cigarettes is one of the hardest doable things, and yet doctors recommended them at one time.  I have quit smoking myself, and for me it took both the patch and the gum.  This subject is in another blog article of mine.

Help for smokers:

http://anarchy-squared-the-enterprise.blogspot.com/2012/10/craigs-tips-for-quitting-smoking-tobacco.html

America’s mass smoking cessation is most certainly a result of taxes on cigarettes.  I have no problem with this, as it reduces smoking.  It helps to create a healthier America.  The following New York Times blog article shows that smoking is at all time lows.  It is not a 2015 article, but I gamble that it is lower now in 2015 than it was in 2013:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/25/why-smoking-rates-are-at-new-lows/?_r=0

Giving Up Music and Software Piracy

The other day I started throwing out unlicensed software and torrents with full discographies of various bands burned on to DVDs because in a discussion with a Rabbi, as this is what he advised me to do, and as opposed to just not downloading anymore, and enjoying what I have (no longer).

This was the advice of Rabbi Yisroel Cotlar for Chabad.org 

- You can be careful about it in the future. 

- You can spread awareness to others.

- You can erase files of music that you did obtain illegally 

- You can make a point of supporting the artists in the future

For some time, I had promised myself that I would not engage in software and music piracy, even before I found Pandora.com. Honestly, when I first heard of Pandora, I thought I was going to be majorly disappointed; however, now I think they are great!

With Pandora I feel like Gd has given me a multitude of blessings. And no, they, Pandora, don’t have all my favorite music, but they do have a lot, and especially they do have enough! (I am a huge consumer of music)

This actually made today’s next step easier; today I threw out hundreds of pirated cds. Some of them I cherished, but many of them would have disappointed me if I bought them. However, before today, yesterday to be precise, I wanted to listen to music while on my way to play MTG (Magic the Gathering). This became a problem for me as I told myself I would give one last listen to a Flower Kings cd on my way to the store, and then when I got home, I would throw it out.

Well that last pirated cd; well guess what, I wouldn’t work in the player, so I had to switch it out with a purchased cd! Imagine that, a miracle of Hashem! Being the religious geek that I am, I was glad that the player wouldn’t play the pirated cd, as it was a way to break the melancholy of giving up something loved. So instead, I popped in my personally purchased Niacin cd (with Dennis Chambers and Billy Sheehan), and listened to it, before bringing the cd notebook holder inside order to fill with music that was personally purchased, or gifted.

Don’t get me wrong, while I have thrown out hundreds of discs, I have yet to fully purge all my music; that I am here today is thanks to Gd’s mercy, and may Gd reward me with much blissful music in the years to come for following His Law!  I will probably get around to destroying all I have pirated someday, but now it is enough to get rid of many with the intent of completely erasing the history of my piracy altogether.

I can rest today knowing that I have done some good deeds. There is no need to be a zealot over this, but I feel Shalom in the home knowing that I have done a good thing, and by doing so, I will be serving my son and family by being a good example, and hopefully, I will be helping bands and the music industry get the money they deserve.  Maybe I will get more rewards from Gd for my works in return.