First a commercial from the Blanche network: At long last, http://joannietansky.com/ has launched.
The site has been months in the making as we wanted it to be something a bit different from everything else out there. We hope you like it. Our deepest gratitude goes out to Matthew Eramian, our unbelievable and beyond patient webmaster.
Our goal is to create an intelligent, upbeat and humorous site where Jewish women (and men:) ) can dialogue about life’s daily challenges and successes. The emphasis will be the gift and beauty of being Jews in our generation. We invite you to peruse the site and share it with your friends, family, co-workers etc. And now back to our regularly scheduled programming. The Jian Ghomeshi story is getting more complicated by the day. It seems that the CBC’s own Fifth Estate program did exhaustive research into the entire Ghomeshi affair. What they came up with is pretty shocking. Despite claiming to have undertaken a serious internal investigation of the Jian Ghomeshi affair, CBC executives did not ask a single Q employee (Q was Ghomeshi’s highly successful radio show) a single question. That’s pretty damning, to say the least.
What it points to is something that ails society as a whole: That ratings, money and being on at the top of the heap are more important than anything else, including having their ‘star’ get away with some pretty gross stuff. Shame on the CBC.
Breaking News: The FBI warned U.S. businesses that hackers have used malicious software to launch destructive attacks in the United States, following a devastating cyber attack last week at Sony Pictures Entertainment.
The five-page, confidential “flash” warning issued to businesses late on Monday provided some technical details about the malicious software that was used in the attack. Seems this was not perpetrated from a basement in India. Rather from a basement in China where it appears the government pays people to do this. Nice, eh?
He just couldn’t resist getting further and further involved. We’re talking about Obama and the fallout of Ferguson Missouri. On Monday he proposed new funding meant to help improve relations between police departments and minority communities, saying there is a “simmering distrust” between the two groups that extends well beyond the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri.
The White House has asked for $263 million in funding for police body cameras and training in the wake of the shooting death of unarmed black teenager. The government would offer a total of $75 million over three years to match state funding for the cameras by 50 percent, helping to pay for more than 50,000 of the devices.
We’re wondering why he isn’t mixing in and telling arabs living in gaza to wear these little devices. Wouldn’t that be interesting? Then again, he doesn’t want to hear nor see anything good that Israel does. Blinders anyone?
Security forces in Europe are very, very jittery these days. They seem to have uncovered a nasty plot to blow up five European passenger jets in a Christmas “spectacular”. The threat has been taken so seriously those in charge came close to leading to an outright ban on all hand luggage.
Mobile phones and electronic devices could still be banned from plane cabins, with the threat of a 9/11-style coordinated attack on London and other major cities feared imminent. Why now?
British authorities fear that British jihadis returning from fighting alongside the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria are plotting something massive. An airport security source said, “We’ve been told that five planes are being targeted in a high profile hit before Christmas. They’ve been waiting for the big one.”
Not much more to say except that should you decide to travel in the next month, maybe stay on this side of the ocean. Miami has better weather anyway. What exactly is this young woman, Gili Rosenberg thinking? Or rather not thinking. She is the young Israeli/American woman that people feared was captured by isis. To say that she lives on the edge is to put it mildly. In 2009 she was extradited to the U.S. for participating in a lottery scam that targeted the elderly and spent three years in prison. Then she fought with the IDF (Israel Defence Force). Then she decided that the Kurds needed her help and joined the People’s Protection Units (YPG) – a Syrian Kurdish militia.
In the past two days it has been reported that she was captured by isis. Today she seems to have found some kind of internet connection and said the whole thing is not true. She ended her post with Yalla Acharai which is a phrase combining Arabic and Hebrew that means come on, follow me! She is obviously seeking attention. Just not the right kind. Sounds like she could use some, uh, therapy. Last week just before Thanksgiving, Obama did what all presidents do and ‘pardon a turkey’. It’s obviously tongue-in-cheek. Standing behind him while he spoke were his two daughters who looked like it was the last place on earth they wanted to be. Their body language was disgraceful as was the way they were dressed. After all Blanche, they are the ‘first children’, right after the ‘first lady’.
Well, it seems that someone on staff also thought their behavior was unbecoming and stupidly posted as such on facebook. Here’s what she wrote:”…At least respect the part you play. Then again your mother and father don’t respect their positions very much, or the nation for that matter, so I’m guessing you’re coming up a little short in the ‘good role model’ department. Nevertheless, stretch yourself. Rise to the occasion. Act like being in the White House matters to you.” Guess what? She lost her job. Doink. No comment on whether or not she was telling the truth. We leave that to you to decide.
Those of us living in Quebec had about ten minutes of peace since the last election. Here we go again. Honestly, this issue is like a bad smell that won’t go away. We are referring of course to the parti quebecois and its never-ending, endless and incessant desire to be the master of its own country. Pierre Karl Peladeau (PKP) announced that he’s running for the leadership of the party with his sole mandate of separating quebec from the rest of Canada.
Can we talk? We cannot figure this out. They lost the last election when that beauty, their previous leader Marois started talking about quebec currency, passport, borders etc. All because PKP opened his mouth about having a country for his children. And now he’s running for leadership of his party on this exact platform and thinks he’s winning an election? It’s a good thing his father was born before him. If he didn’t have money he would be a nobody. And, it seems he hasn’t done to well with the business his father handed over to him. And he’s going to run a province?
In the only in America department: The World Trade center will soon be inaugurating a transportation hub. Its centerpiece, called the Oculus, would be larger than Grand Central’s main concourse, with a roof of two movable wings that could open to the sky. It was likened it to a bird taking flight. Now that’s very important. If those ‘wings’ are anything like the roof of the big Owe here, New Yorkers are never going to see those wings do anything but lie there, motionless at best, leak into the hub, or worse, drop little feathers onto the people below taking the train. That would certainly be a sight.
So guess how much this costs? Take a wild guess. So far, $4 billion with administrative costs alone — construction management, supervision, inspection, monitoring and documentation, among other items — exceeding $655 million. Like we said, only in America.
We’ll talk…