Last year, when the NFL underwent a lockout that threatened to close down the season, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, even while dealing with his wife's terminal illness, stepped in and engineered an agreement. So, here we have the NFL in 2012, and the referees cannot come to an agreement with the league, which has gone out and hired the worst group of replacement referees imaginable, from Division 2 and 3 college programs.
They don't know the rules, they are heavily influenced by the coaches and the crowds, and they blow about 50% of the calls--that is no exaggeration. Either that or they make no calls, allowing the games to more resemble hockey than football, with repeated fights breaking out.
We're three weeks into the season, and I've watched too many of these games. It is painful...I'd rather they stopped playing altogether than continue with this farce. I'm begging you, Mr. Kraft, to work your magic again and get the NFL refs back to work. Otherwise, I will stop watching, as will millions of other viewers who feel ripped off by a sport which the league is allowing to fall apart.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Message for a Post-9/11 World
For the past 10 years, I've included a message in our Passover seders about 9/11, and I figured that today is a good day to post a version of it on my blog, so here it is:
September 11th. The image of large planes crashing into giant buildings leaps into our collective visual memory.
That a few lost lunatics could have such a dour impact on the world is almost unfathomable. It sickens us, it scares us, and it makes us wonder what kind of hold a belief can have on people’s minds to cause them to have so little regard for the lives of themselves and others.
We have no answers. We don’t even know what question to ask. Because by asking the question, we admit that it’s possible for humankind to be so wrong. Maybe we thought it ended with the Ice Age or the Dark Ages. Perhaps we assumed it had been killed with Hitler in the bunker. But the dominant feature is its resiliency. Evil waits for its moment.
That’s why it's important to remember where we came from and understand each other. The true message of any religion is the importance of spirituality in our lives. Without it, we are little more than soulless mammals on the cool wet surface of a massive ball of molten lava. With it, we can all be angels, basking in the glow of tolerance and peace.
September 11th. The image of large planes crashing into giant buildings leaps into our collective visual memory.
That a few lost lunatics could have such a dour impact on the world is almost unfathomable. It sickens us, it scares us, and it makes us wonder what kind of hold a belief can have on people’s minds to cause them to have so little regard for the lives of themselves and others.
We have no answers. We don’t even know what question to ask. Because by asking the question, we admit that it’s possible for humankind to be so wrong. Maybe we thought it ended with the Ice Age or the Dark Ages. Perhaps we assumed it had been killed with Hitler in the bunker. But the dominant feature is its resiliency. Evil waits for its moment.
That’s why it's important to remember where we came from and understand each other. The true message of any religion is the importance of spirituality in our lives. Without it, we are little more than soulless mammals on the cool wet surface of a massive ball of molten lava. With it, we can all be angels, basking in the glow of tolerance and peace.
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