“Alcohol makes other people less tedious, and food less bland, and can help provide what the Greeks called entheos, or the slight buzz of inspiration when reading or writing. The only worthwhile miracle in the New Testament—the transmutation of water into wine during the wedding at Cana—is a tribute to the persistence of Hellenism in … More Quote of the Day

“Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.”–Mark Twain

“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. ….get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.” ― Abraham Joshua Heschel

“Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whiskey is barely enough.” ― Mark Twain

Here is the letter I included in my weekly Friday e-mail to my congregants at Tzedek Chicago: Dear Haverim, One week ago, Tzedek Chicago cancelled its regularly scheduled Shabbat service in order to attend the Trump protest that was being held outside the UIC Pavilion. It just felt as if this was just too critical … More A Letter to Donald Trump by Rabbi Brant Rosen

“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum – even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system … More Quote of the Day

“As academia becomes more and more fragmented and balkanized into more narrow niches, an increasing proportion of what academics produce is unnecessarily obscure and obtuse, and, not surprisingly, poorly written. Graduate students read this drivel written by their academic elders, and then seek to emulate it, perpetuating the rule of pompous prose.”—Peter Dreier  “Academic Drivel … More Quote of the Day

“In the long run, the oppressor is also a victim. In the short run (and so far, human history has consisted only of short runs), the victims, themselves desperate and tainted with the culture that oppresses them, turn on other victims. ” ― Howard Zinn

This is a great piece on bullshit with nice examples from that great master of bullshit Deepak Chopra.. https://aeon.co/opinions/why-bullshit-is-no-laughing-matter?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=f7251ca0d2-Saturday_newsletter_9_April_20164_6_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-f7251ca0d2-68749541cid:DCBD16DE-085C-4142-9493-074ACD6689F4