Lies and giving back

Mishlei Perek 19.
ה. עֵד שְׁקָרִים לֹא יִנָּקֶה וְיָפִיחַ כְּזָבִים לֹא יִמָּלֵט

5 A false witness shall not be unpunished; and he that breatheth forth lies shall not escape.
With Lance Armstrong in the news, the N.Y. Post is running a poll to determine the greatest liar in history.  The poll is already starting out as a lie because the paper isn't giving the readers a chance to write in their own choice, but rather, readers get to choose from 10 candidates in the paper's list. Go here to vote and let's knock a fellow brother out of first place. Incidentally, my candidate for greatest liar did not make the Post's list.

 

To a different topic, for those of you who have benefited from Aish articles, why not show hakarat hatov and give back?

Apes and pigs coverage

Forbes ran an article a few days ago in which it questioned the mainstream media's lack of coverage of disturbing remarks made by Egyptian President Morsi about Jews.

The article described how Wolf Blitzer of CNN didn'task President Morsi about his commments in an interview he conducted with him recently.

The New York Times rarely touches this stuff. In fact, a harshly critical mega-report about the newspaper’s Middle East coverage was recently released by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA). The Times can’t be too happy about it. “The failure of the New York Times to cover the hate indoctrination leads the pack, in a way,” CAMERA’s head Andrea Levin told me yesterday. “The fact that they deem it to be so unimportant helps to lay down that news decision for others as well. And, to us, it’s one of the greatest derelictions in current news coverage of the conflict.”
Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardbehar/2013/01/11/news-flash-jews-are-apes-and-pigs-so-why-is-egypts-morsi-the-elephant-in-americas-newsrooms/

Well, it seems that someone at the New York Times read the article because the following was published at the newspaper three days after the above article was posted.

Nearly three years ago, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood delivered a speech urging Egyptians to “nurse our children and our grandchildren on hatred” for Jews and Zionists. In a television interview around that time, the same leader described Zionists as “these bloodsuckers who attack the Palestinians, these warmongers, the descendants of apes and pigs.” That leader, Mohamed Morsi, is now president of Egypt — and his comments may be coming back to haunt him.
Continue reading: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/15/world/middleeast/egypts-leader-morsi-made-anti-jewish-slurs.html?_r=0

Absurd

The Justice Department dropped its charges against Internet activist Aaron Swartz on Monday, citing his death.
Swartz, who was facing computer hacking charges, hanged himself in his Brooklyn apartment on Friday. He was 26.
The filing is standard when the defendant in a case has died.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/276965-justice-department-drops-charges-against-internet-activist-swartz#ixzz2HzCLwsue

Anti-Semitism could destroy the history of French Jewry, the leader of France's Jewish communities said.
“Not long ago, the notion that resurgent anti-Semitism could endanger the presence of Jews in France would have been considered absurd,” Dr. Richard Prasquier, president of the Jewish CRIF umbrella group, said Sunday in Paris at the organization's annual national conference.
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2013/01/14/3116776/french-jewish-leader-anti-semitism-threatens-jewish-presence-in-france

There is hope

Kikar Hashabat reports on singer Benny Friedman who arrived in Israel for a number of concerts. On the second day of his stay he received a phone call from Menachem Toker who told him that he was on live radio "kol chai" and that a listener to his program was a patient with cancer who really loves the song "There is hope" and listens to it continuously and derives chizuk from the words.

Mr. Toker asked if, on such short notice, Mr. Friedman would be willing to go to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv and surprise her and sing her the song "There is hope".

The singer gladly accepted the request and set off with public relations representative, Tomer Cohen. He performed the hit song as well as others.

Soon some yeshiva students came join Mr. Friedman and not one eye among the audience remained dry.

The singer said after the visit, "We came to encourage and provide support, and we were the ones who ended up being encouraged.

Click here to read the article in Hebrew and to see Mr. Friedman performing at the hospital.

The Radio-Canada ombudsman

The Radio-Canada ombudsman has upheld two complaints of anti-Israel bias in its reporting from a Jewish advocacy group.
Pierre Tourangeau ruled that a Nov.16 Radio-Canada.ca report attributing the escalation of the recent Israel-Gaza conflict to the killing of Hamas’ military chief did not conform to the broadcaster’s standards.
HonestReporting Canada (HRC) felt the report was an unfair portrayal of Israel as the aggressor and ignored the fact the Netanyahu government was warning of a military action in response to the more than 120 rockets fired into Israel against its civilian population by Hamas from Gaza.
Continue reading: http://www.cjnews.com/canada/ombudsman-upholds-reporting-complaints

Bullying

Below is an excerpt from a statement that Aaron Swartz's family posted.

Aaron’s insatiable curiosity, creativity, and brilliance; his reflexive empathy and capacity for selfless, boundless love; his refusal to accept injustice as inevitable—these gifts made the world, and our lives, far brighter. We’re grateful for our time with him, to those who loved him and stood with him, and to all of those who continue his work for a better world.
... Aaron’s death is not simply a personal tragedy. It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach. Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office and at MIT contributed to his death. The US Attorney’s office pursued an exceptionally harsh array of charges, carrying potentially over 30 years in prison, to punish an alleged crime that had no victims.
Read full statement: http://rememberaaronsw.tumblr.com/post/40372208044/official-statement-from-the-family-and-partner-of-aaron

Kikar Hashabat reports on Palestinian youth who threw stones at people who came to pray at Kever Rachel for a refuah sheleimah for Rav Ovadia Yosef. One policeman was injured and taken to hospital.

INN reports, "Police are investigating the spray-painting of swastikas, Sunday evening, on a Jerusalem house."

For the second time in a week, Jews in Colorado were confronted with the ugly and frightening sight of swastikas drawn on a building in the state. Defaced this time was the synagogue in the town of Morrison, southwest of Denver. It was the latest in a spate of swastika defacements and threatening graffiti around the state.
Read more: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/164140

A kind, caring person

As I read the Globe and Mail's reporting about the deaths of a Jewish couple in their Florida winter home, I couldn't help but marvel at the acts of kindness the couple performed including the incident below, retold by Ms. Gladman, an acquaintance.

Alluding to Mr. Pichosky’s habit of getting his wife flowers every week, Ms. Gladman recalled one occasion when the female cashier said wistfully, “How lovely. Nobody’s ever bought me flowers.”
Mr. Pichosky got a second bouquet and offered it to the cashier.
“I mean, who does that? Who does that? Someone who has a heart and is a kind, caring person,” Ms. Gladman said.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/caring-couple-found-dead-in-florida-home/article7209176/?cmpid=rss1

Jews under duress

The leader of Vienna's Jewish community says the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Austria reported to his office have doubled over the past year and adds that Jews are under duress elsewhere in the EU as well.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01/07/austrian-jewish-leader-warns-increasing-anti-semitism-in-his-country-and/#ixzz2HHNPiLry

Arabs severely beat a 69-year-old taxi driver Monday, stole his cab and left him bleeding at the side of the road. The Tatzpit news agency reported that the attack took place near Neveh Tzuf, in the Binyamin region north of Jerusalem.
Continue reading: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/163930

Frogs into the ovens

Many sources bring down the following lesson (kal vechomer) that we can learn from the frogs : Just as the frogs went willingly into the ovens to fulfil HaShem’s command to spread all over Egypt, so should we willingly do the will of Hashem.
But, how can we learn out such a lesson when the frogs were specifically commanded to jump in the hot ovens and we are not specifically called upon to take such drastic measures?!
Continue reading: http://shortvort.com/component/content/article/114-rotator/11635-what-can-we-learn-from-frogs

On a different subject. To the lecturer that I listened to this evening on a recorded video, please remember to bring the sefer next time so that you can quote what you read properly.

In your face term

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday expressed dismay at reports President Obama would tap former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) for Secretary of Defense, calling it an “in your face” selection.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/policy-and-strategy/275795-sen-graham-hagel-pick-an-in-your-face-nomination-from-obama#ixzz2HDrWR97t