Interesting Posts #307

1. Finding Sympathy for the Burqa Cult - Benjamin of Tuleda definitely has an interesting analysis of the burqa cult. he suggests they are ultra-feminists despite the burqas...

2. Google's Global growth and Bar Mitzva

3. The Insignificance of Baseball

4. The Great Orthodox Divide - this reminds me of a story I was involved in. Someone I knew could not get their daughter into a certain school. The reason given was not a big deal, but the mother's response was not to the liking of the acceptance committee. It was no different than what a large percentage of the parent body was already doing, but they said no to this person. At a meeting between parents and members of the "vaad horim", one had spoken about honesty and keeping the school standards, etc. After he finished people were mingling and asking questions. I asked that fellow specifically about his comment regarding following the rules, looking for further explanation. He explained that the school standards are of utmost importance. i don't remember hsi exact words, it was very long ago.
However, he related to me the story of a parent they had rejected, and the story was exactly the story of this person I knew. He then explained why they rejected this girl - because the mother should at least have been smart enough to lie on the application - they know many other mothers do the same, but they are smart enough to not declare it on the application.
So the standards are really hypocritical, and only for outward appearance.

5. Why i got naked and jumped into the ocean before my wedding - she says she is observant, but did not know about the mikva? And she was inter-marrying?

6. Overtime - the Orthodox writer considers the possibility of not keeping second day yomtov any longer, and claims it to be a growing number of people who do the same.