Borat

A friend of mine, Ishai, defended today. That's great news, but what's even more exciting is that he told me that in "Borat" whenever the protagonist is supposed to be speaking Kazakh, he's actually speaking Hebrew. Now I know I must see that movie. I know there'll be dumb slapstick humor, but I hope I can learn something meaningful about the human race from the movie.

Election Day

The elections are today, but there are no interesting races in my district. I dislike the candidates in both of the meaningful races I could vote in -- governor and county treasurer. Hanqiu is telling me that I should vote because there are parts of the world where people can't vote. I'm a lousy citizen, what can I say?
The choice in the governor's race is between an incumbent corrupt Democrat or a Republican with crazy ideas, as many Republicans have of screwing the poor and helping the rich. The treasurer race is between the son of the previous guy and some Republican woman. Maybe it's not fair that the son got on the ballot, but I don't really want a Republican in charge of finances, either. So no voting for me. In 2008, though, I'm definitely voting. Hopefully, by then we will live in a swing state where our vote would actually count.

The Latest in Gaza

Many people believe in black and white right and wrong. Maybe they can tell me who was right in the latest horrible event in Gaza. A group of Palestinian gunmen fleeing Israeli soldiers hid in a mosque, which is something they have done before. This time, though, they started shooting at the Israelis. This, according to international law, desanctifies the mosque, and gives the soldiers the right to shoot back, which they did. Then a radio station in town called on women in town to march to the mosque to save the men. About a thousand women did, some bringing conservative women's clothes for the men to wear while they made their escape. Some of the men could then be seen among the group of women. The soldiers fired on the men, but ended up killing two women. I know that what the women did was stupid, but they were not violent. The result of their action, had it succeeded, would have been the saving of some Palestinian lives in the short run, the loss of some Israeli lives in the longer run, and the loss of many more Palestinian lives after that in retaliation. Who's right? Nobody, really.

Walmart

Ever since reading a story in the paper about Walmart managers locking the employees in the store and forcing them to work off the clock, I have stopped shopping in Walmart. Reading a leaked memo written by a lawyer who makes something like 30 million a year on how to save money on low-paid workers by not paying them more for experience and giving them the least amount of health benefits, I knew I was doing the right thing. When I told Ralph, my tennis coach, that I don't shop at Walmart, he couldn't believe that these practices take place. He suggested that merely reporting them to the Better Business Bureau would halt them for good. I disagree, because I think that the only way to stop these practices is to take away the threat of store managers being fired for giving their workers overtime. Of course, that would raise costs, and Walmart hates that. And I find Walmart's practice of paying pennies to a million of workers, and paying tens of millions to a couple of lawyers who screw them over, is deplorable. And in any case, Target has better-designed stuff.