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Today’s Thanksgiving celebration is especially meaningful to Seinfeld fan-boys like me. For today also marks the 20th anniversary of the most brilliantly funny 22 minutes television has ever seen — the uber-classic episode entitled “The Contest.” “The Contest” is about…well Seinfeld never uses the word either. So if you are too young to remember, or too sheltered to have seen it, or you can’t wait to laugh again, enjoy the first few minutes of comedic history: Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, a Friend of RP, and the Founder (and for many years, the President) of the highly influential The Israel Project wrote an op-ed in today’s The Times of Israel in response to The RP’s widely read column this week in The Huffington Post: “Why My Fellow Liberals Should Support Israel in Her Conflict with Hamas.” We cross-post it below with the author’s permission:
Jonathan Miller’s op-ed supporting Israel in its conflict with Hamas in the liberal Huffington Post was right on the mark. In it he does an outstanding job in the vital role of defending Israel’s moral obligation to protect its citizens from Iran-backed Hamas. However, he also says that American liberals should stand with Israel because of Israel’s “feminist approach to the empowerment of women.” While it is true that Israel is a bastion of feminism compared with other nations in the Mideast, the Israel of today has a long ways to go on women’s rights.Israel’s female Prime Minister, Golda Meir, served a long time ago. Sadly, the Israel of today is experiencing a gender-fairness crisis that endangers both its progress and security.  Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi When Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu pulls together his inner-cabinet to make critical decisions, he calls together a group of nine men, no women. The full cabinet is 30 men, two women. I don’t know of any women on the prime minister’s senior staff, or in Israel’s senior ambassadorial posts at this moment in time. Indeed, when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Israel for meetings, did any women meet with her who did more than pour her coffee? The majority of Israelis are women. Yet where are they in Israeli public life? Elections will be held in Israel on Jan 22nd. Unless something dramatic changes, it is unlikely those gender numbers will change much in Israel’s leadership, if at all. I am grateful that Israel exists. I am praying that the ceasefire may last so that innocent lives can be saved on both sides. I have dozens of friends in Israel who I consider family. When their children are called up to the reserves, or they run to their “safe rooms,” or a bus blows up, I feel as if a member of my immediate family is on the front lines as well. Read the rest of…
Let’s back track for a second. What are we trying to do? Most people? Answer is losing weight. Statistics show the most common goal for any gym goers is losing weight. But that should really be the goal? The answer is yes and no. If you are 50 lbs overweight and you need to lose 50 pounds then I would say losing weight would be a great goal for you. However, if you are trying to lose 10-20 pounds, does it really matter what the scale says as long as your body fat changes? Of course not! I use to tell clients all the time; if I could have you weigh the same weight you are today and look 100% different, would it matter what the scale said? 9 times out of 10, the number didn’t matter. But the number does matter to some people and it matters a lot. The measurement of success is housed on an electronically scale that measure your body mass. Forget about how you feel or how your jeans fit, its all about that number! If this applies to you (its ok!) here’s what I’d like you to remember, the most important part of the fitness process is the feeling of pride, confidence and of well being. These we will refer to as the immeasurable, meaning you can’t stick a number to it. Stepping on a scale just gives you a number and tells you whether you are below, above or at where you want to be. Definitely a cliff hanger that sometimes can hit you between the eyes and make you want to quit. My suggestion? Don’t weigh yourself, especially if you feel you begin stressing over it. The emotional impact and feeling of defeat is not worth it. If you want to know how you are doing in your fitness program ask yourself these questions: Do I have more energy? Do I wake up and go to bed easier? Do my clothes feel looser? Am I stressed less? Answer yes to any or all of those and you are on the road to success. A road that is not dependent on the little number on a little scale. It is not the end all be all. Squeeze something of value out of everything you do today. When scrounging, gratitude for a seemingly small thing is a good fall back. Sometimes those “small things” are really pretty big things. For example, yesterday I was stuck somewhere and Sponge Bob Square Pants was on TV in the background. I watched several minutes to see what useful life “take away” was coming my way.
And then it happened. The next scene prominently features a character names Squidward. And I had my “take away.” And didn’t even have to squeeze hard. I am so grateful my parents did not name my Squidward. Even with a cool middle name, having the first name Squidward would have provided challenges and obstacles in my youth I may not have been able to successfully surmount. Even though I am a human being and not an animated cartoon character. And you can see the toll it’s taken on Squidward himself by looking at his drawn face and vapid eyes. Yes, mom and dad, thank you. And is so often the case, the “small gratitude” turned into a large gratitude. And then someone changed the channel to Fox News. And I became grateful my name wasn’t Shep. Are you beginning to see how this Thought for the Day works?  In the past few weeks we have heard a lot of discussion about the demographic shifts that played so prominently in this election. While it has prompted some discussion (The New Republic), Sunday’s article in the New York Times may have said it best:
We all know that change is possible here which is why we have joined together to create The Southern Project.
Many of you joined our official launch in Charlotte, or have had the opportunity to participate in subsequent conversations in Washington, DC or in Boca Raton before the final presidential debate. We are working on a state by state plan which will include significant post election analysis to help drive pre-legislative session agenda research in key southern states, starting in Virginia, and continuing our work in Florida and North Carolina. We will be in touch with you as this research and analysis becomes available, and as we look for ways to make sure this research is actionable across the south. I’m truly honored by the group of people who have joined us in building this project and look forward to our work together. Mrs. RP — the distinguished Lisa Miller — was featured in Monday’s Louisville Courier-Journal in an article about a yoga and meditation workshop she led at Louisville’s Festival of Faiths convention. Here’s an excerpt:
Click here to read the full article. Click here for more information on the work Lisa is doing and to sign up for her workshops and retreats.
I read a story this morning that was written in 2005, about a lost and traumatized baby hippo in Kenya, who “adopted” a tortoise to be his mother. An elderly male, the tortoise is said to be a century old.
For me, this story tugs at the strings. And when I step back, I find it interesting that both tragedy and miracle are (now in my heart) here in this story—two seemingly opposing forces. And a third force, inspiration, is here as well. So, is inspiration born of tragedy and miracle? Is inspiration the baby hippo of the married couple, Tragedy & Miracle Kenya? If you are like me, your favorite stories are about true-life people overcoming adversity. Why do those stories appeal? Because there’s something truly amazing and life affirming and heart-filling about knowing that others have faced what seemed like insurmountable obstacles, and not only survived but found deeper meaning in life. It’s hardly ever easy to recognize the worth of something tragic while in the middle of it. No tsunami, loss, or pain feels like it’s going to lead to something positive. Read the rest of… Check out The RP’s latest column for The Huffington Post:
Click here to read the full piece at The Huffington Post. General David Petraeus is just the latest in a seemingly endless stream of powerful men brought down (or at least dented a bit) by their sexual escapades. You can find articles about what motivates them, about how their power gives them an entitled sense of hubris, about the specifics of their sordid activities, and of course plenty of jokes about Appalachian Trails and sexting – but does anyone else wonder why we never read about a powerful woman brought down by scandal? (Mind you, there are plenty of married women involved in these soap operas – and don’t you love that the Petraeus saga even includes twins? – but the women are not the power players, and we wouldn’t even know their names if they hadn’t slept with someone famous and then spilled the beans.)
I’m not in any kind of power job, and yet I can swear that I have never cheated on either of my husbands (I’m not a reverse Mormon, it was one spouse at a time) – but this has nothing to do with my moral purity. Like most working mothers, I barely have time to brush my hair – so when that hunky boxboy at Safeway gives me a leering eye, I’m flattered, but not tempted (it just sounds like too much additional work). However, I did summon up enough energy to have fun with the rhyming potential of some of these scandalous characters’ names . . . . . The Seattle Times was watching The RP on The Daily Show last week. Indeed, they mention the appearance as an illustration of the problem of hyper-partisanship and polarization in our system:
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