Category Archives: Uncategorized

Quoting: Picture Success

We were put into this world to accomplish. Each of us has a unique mission. There are many different forms of personal achievement, just as there are different people on our planet.

Make it a regular habit to imagine yourself accomplishing what you wish to accomplish. This will motivate yourself to accomplish more. As you create these visions in your mind’s eye, you will be conditioning yourself in a way that – in reality – will lead to many positive accomplishments.

Sources: For a series of probing questions on this topic, see Rabbi Zelig Pliskin’s “Gateway to Self Knowledge,” pp. 101-2

Quoting: Trust Can Lower Your Anxiety

“Bitochon” is the awareness that the Creator is running the world and all that happens is for your ultimate benefit. The more bitochon you have, the less anxiety you will experience.

When you have an internalized awareness that all that He does is for your good, you will find yourself experiencing greater degrees of inner peace and serenity.

Sources: For a series of probing questions on this topic, see Rabbi Zelig Pliskin’s “Gateway to Self Knowledge,” pp.116-8

Quoting: Recognize Your Potential

Negative character traits come from discouragement. A person with faulty traits does not think of himself in elevated terms. He thinks he does not have the inner strength and potential to reach greatness. Only when a person recognizes that he has the potential to reach the most elevated levels will he strive for that!

-Sources: “Hoshlomas Hamidos,” p. 3; Rabbi Zelig Pliskin’s “Gateway to Happiness,” p.116

Do Sesame Street’s Bert and Ernie Absolutely Have to be Gay? No, and Here’s Why

bert and ernie

Sesame Street’s characters Bert and Ernie

Recently, as reported at Newshub, screenwriter Mark Saltzman, himself a gay man, told LGBT news site Queerty that the beloved Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie were created based on his own loving relationship with a man. Of course, in the Newshub article, Saltzman back peddled a bit, but too late to quell the internet buzz, including on twitter.

Among other rumors was the idea that the two muppets were going to publicly come out as gay on the Sesame Street show and even get married.

Wait! What? On a television show made for pre-school age children?

Even the (in my opinion) left-leaning Snopes.com declared that rumor as false.

And yet, an opinion piece at Chron.com declares It matters that Bert and Ernie are a happy gay couple, and here’s why. Here’s the core of the article by Nora Reed:

Continue reading →

Quoting: Fear of Disapproval

Realize that no matter what you do, you won’t obtain unanimous approval. Therefore never let the fear of disapproval of others prevent you from doing the right thing.

Lack of approval will only distress you if you allow it to. Ultimately, any emotional power anyone has over you is the power you decide to give that person.

-Sources: For a series of probing questions on this topic, see Rabbi Zelig Pliskin’s “Gateway to Self Knowledge,”pp.121-5

Particularly relevant in today’s world of blogging and social media where anyone can disapprove of you for any reason. They can only control you if you let them.

Quoting: Guard Your Health

There is a Torah commandment to guard our health. High levels of stress cause many health problems. Your immune system works best when you are calm and serene. The efforts one makes to alleviate stress is the fulfillment of the Creator’s will. As our loving Father, He wants us to be well.

Viewing decreasing stress and increasing serenity as a spiritual obligation will raise this to a higher priority. Moreover, we should strive to experience joy in doing the Almighty’s will (in Hebrew this is called Simcha shel mitzvah). This adds a major dimension to the entire process.

-from Rabbi Zelig Pliskin’s book, “Serenity,” p.108

Batman Nude (No, I’m Not Kidding)

Warning: Some Adult Content

Okay, so DC has published its first issue of Batman Damned under its DC Black Label imprint, and boy is it adult. You actually get to see Bruce Wayne nude, not just from the back but the front. I’m posting an image below as proof, plus I archived two news sources just in case they get “poofed” for their content later on. Actually, that didn’t work, because the archived version doesn’t display the “adult” images.

Here’s a milder version at my archived version of the Popbuzz story, and the non-archived Screenrant missive.

Now here’s the image I captured.

Continue reading →

Quoting: Respond to Disrespect with Dignity

Anger frequently comes from feeling that someone did not treat you with the proper respect. People tend to feel angry with someone who fails to show them the honor they think they deserve.

The solution is to contemplate how valueless honor really is.

When you react to slights to your honor with a sense of personal dignity, you gain much more than when you lose your temper. The greater your own realization that you have intrinsic worth since you are created in the image of the Almighty, the less the slights of mortals will affect you.

Sources: Maaneh Rach, Ch.6; Rabbi Zelig Pliskin’s Gateway to Happiness, p. 196

Of Kavanaugh, Ford, and Matters of Credibility

kavanaugh meme

Internet meme found on Facebook – attribution on image

Disclaimer, Trigger Warning, or whatever you want to call it: Depending on your politics and probably several other factors, this essay might tend to raise your blood pressure, so if you have strong feelings about the Brett Kavanaugh SCOTUS confirmation hearings before Congress, you might want to pass it up for something else (Yes, I’m going to get in trouble for posting this).

I’m sure just about everyone in the U.S. and probably a lot of people in other countries are aware of the controversy surrounding the Brett Kavanaugh Congressional hearings to determine if he should be confirmed as the next Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, the highest court in our nation. Opinions about whether or not to confirm Kavanaugh in the News and Social Media were pretty much split down party lines before the sexual assault allegations made against him by Christine Blasey Ford, but then things just exploded.

I’m not going to go into the details of the allegations. You’re probably already well-versed in the details, and probably most of you reading this (like most everyone else) have already reached a conclusion about the validity of Ford’s claims.

What I am going to do is process the credibility of Kavanaugh and Ford.

Continue reading →

Quoting: Show Them Their Potential

If someone sees himself as inferior, you can help change his attitude by seeing him now as the potentially great person he could possibly become.

-For a series of probing questions on this topic, see Rabbi Zelig Pliskin’s book “Gateway to Self Knowledge,” p.218