He's Back

In the summer of 2006, I told you here and here about a con man who, while violating parole, ingratiated himself into our community and defrauded people, businesses and religious institutions of thousands of dollars. After police arrested him outside a local kosher pizzeria, Clifford Schwartz a/k/a Christopher Parker a/k/a Joseph Cohen pled guilty to six counts of what is commonly known as passing bad checks. Despite his parole status and criminal history, Clifford served only one year before his release. He is apparently back in our local community, now under the name of Eliyahu Cohen.

I am not sure what is more appalling, that Clifford got parole already or that he takes us for such fools as to not move his con game to another city or state. For that affront to our collective intelligence alone he should suffer incarceration.

Our Newest Ambassador

As many of you know, Madonna spent this past Rosh Hashanah in Israel with the people from the Kabbalah Center. The Catholic girl from here in Oakland County proclaimed herself as an "Ambassador for Judaism." When I mentioned the story to my rabbi the other morning, he made an excellent point. Notwithstanding the Kabbalah Center's slide from a legitimate home of Judaism (Disclosure: the Kabbalah Center played a large part in my father-in-law's becoming religious before it became the cult it is now), there are much greater concerns that we Jews have from within. For example, the rabbi asked me, which is worse, the Kabbalah Center or Humanistic Judaism,? The rabbi agreed with my immediate reaction, that Humanistic Judaism (which, for those who don't know, is atheistic Judaism) is far more threatening. After all, Humanistic Judaism aims to indoctrinate Jews into a quasi-religion.

Notwithstanding that Madonna is more a joke and/or nuisance than anything else, I must give props to Ben Shapiro, whose article entitled "Madonna's Fake Judaism" is worth reading. Here is one great part:

Hollywood's fascination with Kabbalah springs from a lust for spiritual reward without spiritual work. The glitterati love any religion that allows them to sleep at night without restricting whom they sleep with.

Read the whole thing here.

Gedaliah Owes Me Big Time

With the All Candy Expo starting in Chicago tomorrow morning, Mrs. Zwicker had to go to the Windy City today. Since her father will help man the booth, Mrs. Zwicker's mother came to watch the little Zwickerette during the day. Because Mrs. Zwicker was nervous about driving with no assistance if the little one were to go into meltdown mode, I, being the caring and sensitive husband that I am, offered to drive to Chicago and then take a Southwest flight home.

On any other day, I would have made a detour before going to Midway Airport before flying home. Alas, because of some guy named Gedaliah, Ken's was not to be. To quote Tom Petty, "God, it's so painful, something that's so close yet still so far out of reach. Oh yeah, alright, take it easy baby, make it last all night."

Along I-94 I saw a bumper sticker that made me wonder. It read: "I'm a historic preservationist and I vote." Are there politicians who, before casting an important vote or making some important policy pronouncement, asks his or her advisors, "Wait, what do the historic preservationists think about this?"

Before boarding my flight back to Detroit, I visited the restroom. Don't worry, I made sure to maintain a narrow stance and keep my toes firmly on the floor. Being Southwest, I also made sure that I was not showing too much leg or cleavage before boarding my flight.

Merry New Year

It's been quite a while since I last posted and even longer since I posted regularly. As you probably guessed, other priorities have gotten in the way. With a nanny who doesn't have to leave by 4:00, thereby necessitating my working on a very tight schedule, and with the Zwickerettes away next week, I should be back to regular posting real soon. Whether anyone is still checking this blog to know the difference is another story.

In any case, this has been, thank God, a great year. First and foremost, God blessed me and Mrs. Zwicker with the greatest gift we could imagine. Many of our friends have received the same blessing or will soon. My work has gotten even more interesting, challenging and enjoyable.

In short, I could not ask God for anything more. I try to my best to keep that thought in mind when I say the Modim ("thanks") blessing I say in the prayers three times a day. May this year be one of blessings, good health and happiness for us all, as well as the recoginition and appreciation of the God who grants it all to us.