The Quiet Obsession by Ilana Leeds

The Liberal Left, Political Correctness and Religion

B'H

There are some disturbing features of the internet world that I find is at odds with democracy lately. We read of teenagers being bullied to death through mobbing and cyber bullying. We read of lies being perpetuated by groups of malicious internet users who decide that someone or some organisation or group of people is 'the enemy' and thus the harassment starts. I will give you some examples.

Let's take the secular humanists who seem to want to portray themselves as at the pinnacle of all that is good and righteous. Yes, the atheists and non believers are even more fanatical and 'pious' than most religious people when it comes down to extremism. They will take any means fair or foul to bring down the 'religious groups' and to show them as hypocrites or hypocritical. But, let's just ignore their glaring hypocrisy, shall we?

On Facebook there is a post by someone calling her self frumgaygirl or such like. That is a bit of an oxymoron in and of itself. You cannot be a frum (religious) Jew and homosexual, because by the very nature of the lifestyle you adopt, then you are no longer frum or religious. I read a few of these posts then stopped myself further allowing this muck to muddy my thinking. It is all appealing to emotionalism and soap opera. This 'rebitzin' is supposedly the mother of 10 and confided to her eldest daughter she was gay and now the girl who is married no longer speaks to her. She confides to her audience that she has had 'attractions' for her fellow women for many years but controlled them to conform to community standards. I read this and thought, 'What a load of CRAP.' This is not real, it is made up stories by some secular humanist who hates religion and religious people and wants to portray them as nutty. The so called 'Rebitzin' sounds nutty. I could imagine someone like the author of Dancing in the Dark writing such garbage that has no credence on reality or the outlook of a frum or religious person. If someone said that she was frum and thought like this person is purported to speak and think, I would recommend a course of intense counselling.
Her poor poor family and her poor husband. How dare she disrespect him like this?
We have to be careful that we do not get led astray from correct behaviour and commitment to what is right and appropriate by this emotionalism of the so-called 'Love movement'. I think it is akin to a mental bowel motion. We are supposed to respect the fact that two people 'love' each other in a way that is expressly forbidden.
Love on a spiritual sense goes beyond the physical expression of lust and desire. Homosexuality is about misplaced lust and desire and a wallowing in the gutter of one's physical emotions and ignoring the reality and sensitivity what is right and correct. Real love is about the correctness and appropriateness of that love. Love is allowing and respecting the rights of an other person. Homosexuals and pedophiles in their search for expression of their physical desires with whomever they want destroy and take away the rights of others to be correct and appropriate  in their approach to lifestyle. There will come a time when we have to make a choice between what is right and appropriate and family and the path of Political Correctness and allowing others to ride roughshod over our rights to choose to bring our children up as religious or secular or atheist. I can respect their rights to want to be 'right' but if by their behaviour they destroy my child or families innocence, then I do not need that. No one does. The worst sorts of perversions simply have no place in my life or people who think as I do. We want honesty, clean living and normality. Is that too much to ask?
Think about it. It may be boring but it is far safer and it is right.

There is a new ALP leader - Do we really care?

B'H
Honestly no longer interested in who the ALP get to lead them into disaster. We have a new party in power and let's hope the do their best to make this great country move forward. It is a new chapter in Australian Politics and I am hoping for real changes, but by the same token we must push for them. What do I want of Tony Abbott and the coalition government? I will list my wish list.

1. More solar energy initiatives and solar panels and solar battery storage on every roof top in Australia by the year 2020. We need and deserve cheaper, more affordable power. That also goes for solar powered cars.

2. More funding for education resources and teachers and teacher education in Australia. It is a must.

3. Stricter requirements about chemicals and additives in food and food production.

4. Funding and research done on the explosion in the autism cases and more support for children and adults with autism or on the autism spectrum.

5. Commonsense in the green movement. They need to listen to the older farmers and the Koori environmentalists.

6. Tossing out the 'marriage equality' bill as irrelevant and beneath the dignity of parliament to debate when we have much more pressing concerns about survival in the 21 st century and the future of our children and grandchildren. Believe me, it will not(our survival as a race) depend on whether two women or two men are allowed to play at being married or having their union 'sanctified as legitimate' by an act of parliament. It is a red herring issue.

7.More employment in rural areas of Australia and resources and infrastructure developed to encourage people to decentralize and move from the overcrowded, bursting at the seams urban areas.
8. Values and clear thinking taught in schools again.

Thank you G-D if we can get at least half of this done in the next few years, I will be eternally grateful if I am not already.

Causing Ripples in the Gay Community

B"H

Occasionally I google my name to see what hate feasts are being held by the gay and lesbian community about me on the net. It is quite fascinating and grubby to see what goes on in the minds of those who talk about love and 'marriage equality'. I actually think it is like looking I to the sewer pits of real psychotic depravity.  I am accused of a lot of things, cowardly etc, bullying etc, and attempts have been made to see I never teach again by ringing the Vic and NSW departments of Education bearing in mind my lack of support for this 'marriage equality' thing. I personally do not discriminate against any child whatever their religion, gender issues or race but these people would have you believe that I do and have even devoted FaceBook pages to wishing I were dead, calling on decapitation for me and my son, having my son raped and dismembered in front of me and then me being done over with a giant dildo - some instrument lesbian manufacture and use because they hate men but still want penetration by something - anyway who cares, it is all so depraved, and me being disembowelled. Gee and these types want marriage equality. The mind boggles.
What I find ironic is that I have never once advocated violence against a gay person or indicated that I thought they should be discriminated against in the workplace, yet there are comments about people waiting for my death so they can hold a party to celebrate and worst advocating for my destruction both emotionally and mentally. What lovely 'sweet, gentle people' NOT!
I imagined that the many decent, law abiding gay people I have worked with or associated in the past to be above that sort of thought pattern, or at least I hope so.
While I will never support what they term Marriage Equality because I believe in all honesty it is against nature and has really destructive spiritual repercussions for the person who gives in to such lusts and physical desires, I will never advocate harm to come to a person who expresses such unnatural actions. I would rather see them change their behaviour and acknowledge with a full and honest heart that their previous deviant behaviour was very wrong.
My concerns are for such people filled with hatred of hetrosexuals  to be in control of manipulating the emotions of impressionable young children and teenagers into accepting abnormal or deviant behaviours as the 'norm' and for them to feel guilty that they are NOT gay or do not have gay tendencies.
Last year I refused a counsellor offered for my son because this counsellor was a young male homosexual and given the trauma suffered by my son no way was I going to have my son counselled by a person whose values and social perceptions are diametrically opposed to mine and my community. Yes, I could be criticised strongly for that and continue to receive death threats  and threats of being kicked into the gutter and unemployed forever, but that is better than having a son forced to believe he is gay by some twisted inhumane being who only wants to create more like him to prove that being gay is ok, right and the norm and that being heterosexual is somehow wrong or not right.
I probably should go and honk at my geese. It would be far more intelligent than holding a conversation with some of these people. Even my goats and sheep have more to offer.

Those without hope

B"H
Today some friends of mine are going to a funeral. He was a policeman who committed suicide. The fourteenth police officer to take his life this year. When I was told this fact, it bugged me no end. WHY in capitals runs through my mind over and over again.  Why does a person who is in a position to help others and whose job it is to preserve and uphold the law and order in society take his or her life?

Why indeed? When the corrupt elements in society have the upper hand and anything goes in moral terms, then society is chaotic and the glue that keeps us all on the straight and narrow is being washed away in a tsunami of violence, porn, loose moral values and infidelity and lies. It must be very distressing from a police officer's point of view. They come across the worst kinds of depravity and the lowest types of human behaviour. They try to keep society clean and people honest. However the laws and the justice system pander to the worst types. The police put them behind bars but only for a short time and then they are unleaded on the long suffering public to rape, bash, rob and even murder once again.

No wonder some of the best officers probably do take their lives in despair at having their powers eroded and the authority of the law flouted again and again. Imagine going into the police force with the highest moral values and integrity and then having to lay it aside. Police work like teaching, like ambulance officers, like nursing is a calling that goes beyond the financial re numeration.
If good police officers are committing suicide we need to look at what is happening in the workplace and in our society. Something is drastically wrong with our society and we need to take a good long hard look at where we are travelling.

Rosh Hashannah and Tzum Gedalia and on to Yom Kippur - A journey of self appreciation

B’H

It is hard to believe that Rosh Hashannah is over for this year and we have just finished Tzum Gedalia (the Fast of Gedalia) and are in the ten days leading up to Yom Kippur. It went too quickly by far and I am setting up lists of things to do for the week. The election result was pleasing – an understatement but to be expected.   Some rather crass women in Sydney were very abusive to Tony Abbott. It only reflects on them and not on Tony Abbott or the Liberal party.  They actually swore at him which shows how stupid and dumbed down under the ALP some of us have become.

Apart from  writing, I have housework, washing, tidying up to do, gardening, animals to care for – our goats will need to be sold (the two boys) in the next month as I have a vet bill to pay and they will have to go. I was never going to keep them because to be honest, their dad was obviously a Boer cross of interesting parentage, but not a dairy billy goat and their mother is a dairy goat and she will be joined / mated with a suitable young buck that is at the Topaz Park stud. When you start to take goat breeding seriously, you spend a lot of time choosing suitable mates for your does. You don’t just say, Oh that’s a billy goat (a male) and that’s doe (female) and join them. A lot more thought goes into it. For Dairy goats at least and I am sure fibre goats (goats bred for hair and Boer goats (goats bred for meat) are similar if you are breeding good stock. For the dairy goats you look not only at conformation, but there is milk production, udder attachment, teat size and you try not to breed with goats that have undershot or overshot lips, wonky ears and cow hocks (hind legs turned inwards)  and many other factors go into choosing the sire for a doe.

I do not know my doe Osnat’s parentage and so I have to breed up which means getting a good buck that has thrown (bred to other does) kids which are of good conformation, good milk production, healthy and with a nice solid udder attachment and it is desirable to have longer teats rather than smaller to facilitate easier milking. Ideally the teats should point slightly forward and that is often what is considered desirable in show stock but if you look at many does that are going to be in a commercial herd, the teats that point downward are easier to attach to the milking machines and therefore you have to decide what you want. If you are going to show, a lot of factors have to be considered and then there is temperament. You want nice quiet does and bucks. You want a temperament that is not too feisty or rough. It is no good having an excellent conformation and good milk production, if the doe is hard to handle or the buck is temperamental. You want him to go in and do what he is supposed to do and no dramatics and not have a problem with him because all this takes time and energy away from good management practice. Therefore you look for animals that do have personality but they are clever and personable. I was lucky in Osnat and will hopefully have a couple of does next year that I can breed up and produce a nice herd of animals that will produce good milk and in some quantity. Half of it is keeping your animals calm and happy as much as well fed. They also need supplement and block licks as well as their feet and general health being looked after.

How is this important to Rosh Hashannah and to the ten days? Well I was thinking along the lines of if we are so careful when breeding stud animals and looking at a whole range of attributes when choosing animals for their particular purpose, how much more so should we be careful when choosing the right behaviours and actions in ourselves to nurture and to develop our better qualities. We should also choose our associates with care and not be forced to follow the dictates of the crowd. We should be our own person in other words. We all follow our own truths to a certain extent and while we may be critical of the actions and behaviours of others, sometimes it is better to shut our mouths and not judge any person negatively unless we are 100 % sure that what they are doing is wrong.  We should look into ourselves and search for our own faults and correct them before we start to judge others or be overly critical of other people. I have had occasion to hear very good people criticised for very little reason. Often it is jealousy that drives a person to attempt to pull another person down. ‘Oh’, the person may say in an inner dialogue, ‘that person is up themselves and they are not so good.’ The person they are critical of may just have self confidence and self esteem. The insecure person is somehow insulted and angry that the other person has a secure sense of self and it irks them. They are jealous and in an inner dialogue they will try to reassure them by belittling the other person or person who displays qualities that secretly they wish they had. They denigrate the people who display those qualities instead of saying, ‘Oh that person has something I am aspiring to and I wonder if I can learn something from them’; they put them down in an effort to put themselves on a higher level.

Personally, I have, over the years, learnt to appreciate the qualities in people that I associate with. I tend to be my own person. If I find some aspects or behaviours of a person objectionable, I just tend to avoid having a lot to do with that person if it is something that will may my every day association uncomfortable. For example, a person who smokes anything at all, I am uncomfortable with. I do not like cigarette smoke and passive smoking is a major cause of health problems. A person who tells lots of stories that deal with negative aspects of other people, I am also uncomfortable with and I don’t want to hear it. It is interesting to me that if you go to a doctor’s surgery or a dentist surgery you can pick up any one of these women’s magazines and they are full of stories that are about other people’s lives but there is so much about negative behaviour of these sporting stars, movie celebrities and public figures that is grist for the gossip mill. What is it that makes people want to try and focus on negativity and the angst of others? I will give you a few examples.

Take Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. They have adopted some children and given them a home and yes they do move a lot in the course of following their careers to provide for themselves and their families. But so do many other families. They probably have at least one or two fights a week. Most healthy relationships that develop over the course of the years do. However not every family gets headlines about impeding divorces or is criticised for their child rearing and parenting quite so publicly. Is it our business anyway? Are we such perfect parents or people? I find it fascinating that media and magazines focus on the negative and sensational, rather than the good that these two people do. Also these magazines are in the business of selling issues and often do not mind half truths to sell. In other words, they tell lies and embellish the truth.

Look at the media frenzy over details of Gina Rinehart’s court battles with her children. It is enough to make one feel quite ill and is it any of our business anyway?  Yes, she has billions and there is obviously some tension there, but why is that so fascinating for others?  She is not our mother and we are not her children or her lawyers and quite frankly it is boring. If she is doing something good with her excess millions, yes, that is interesting and I do not mind knowing about it. Oprah built a school for girls in South Africa. I enjoy stories like that because here is a person with money who wants to help the less fortunate of the world and give them a chance to climb out of the hole of poverty. That for me is real.  Oil rich sheiks who build massive luxury hotels in Dubai with solid gold taps and diamond inlays on the edge of the Jacuzzi tub are just plain outlandish and into obscene luxury that offends me as a G-D fearing person and as someone who is trying to be a half way decent individual.

It is better to live well and simply. If we surround ourselves with the charming and the charismatic, if luxury items become every day necessities and our heads filled with stories that have no real purpose except entertainment – then, who are we and what have we become?

We need above all morality and a path to self improvement that is ongoing.  The ten days between Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur allow us to reflect and to mediate on what our true purpose in this existence is really for. Whether we are a cleaner, a taxi driver, a CEO, a doctor, a teacher, a student, a tradesman, a housewife – it does not matter who we are – we can grasp the basic concept of teshuva and work on bettering ourselves. We can work on the inner self, rather than allow ourselves to be lost in reflection of the external self. The outer or external is what this world is about and while it is important to a certain extent, there are other qualities which we need to work on. If we work on the inner hidden self it will translate to the outer in a positive way.

Those who do not value themselves enough will be more critical of others, than they need to be. First you must love yourself and only through the development of self love and self appreciation, can you develop the qualities that allow you to see the truth hidden in that person you are critical of.  I read somewhere once, that a person’s life can be written in their face but you have to study them for the fine details and watch them closely.  It is true if you learn to read the faces of people and their body language, you can understand them better and see the messages given out by the way they act, I never used to believe it until I really started to study people again for characterisation and sometimes you turn away from a person because you do not want to invade their privacy by reading too much into their facial expressions, their body language and their behaviour. It is almost like mind reading and you have to close off and focus on the good in that person and remind yourself of their better qualities and put that in the forefront of your mind. You have to weigh them up favourably at all times.

Every person has a purpose and has their good points and their weaknesses.  Often in families, there are people who allow us to develop our weaknesses into strengths and it is not an easy path or a painless one. We are all here to help each other be better and more competent and understanding people. Nothing is gained by the destruction of another human being. How much more admirable it is to bring them to life and allow them to realise their real potentials and to grow into better human beings, year by year.

The books are open and we are hoping for favourable judgements in all ways and hoping that the Abishter will allow us to continue our mission in this life with blessings rather than curses and give us the means to do so.

Gimar Hatima Tova and Tzum Kal

Fox Red

Fox lies red and dead
on the road,
His wintery coat rusted
with blood.
His furry blonde testes
neatly displayed

Beneath his thick brush

Between hind legs

Elegantly crossed

In a final sleepy pirouette

Horizontal

Toes pointed down.

His teeth gleam in the early sun
His days of fun have run their course
No more phishing presence
On the  verandah of the sheep breeder
Whose lambs he breakfasted

So vigorously on

In the early dawn hours.

Her door mat shall remain

Where it is put

After her sturdy broom

Has swept the verandah clean.

A satisfied smirk lingers

On those deft lips

And cold incisors,

As if he was unaware

Even at that last moment

When the bullet’s impact

Smashed his knowing from this world

To the next as the hunter became prey.

Would the lambs have been so unaware

Of his intent in their final moments?

© Ilana Leeds