And the winner is . . .
Max Shapiro
Thanks to everyone who entered. I was somewhat concerned no one would enter because the topic was so vague but I was very impressed with the essays written. It definitely was not an easy choice to make so I have also decided that anyone who entered an essay will get a consolation prize of $5 worth of Virginia scratch-off lottery tickets mailed to them. Email me at aks@amit-singh.com with any preferences of games. If you guys think this was an interesting exercise I will definitely do it again in the future.
Category: Catch-All











Please contribute the 5 bucks you would send me to a worthy cause of your choosing. I’d suggest you scratch off my cards and then donate the winnings, but if you won big, temptation might keep you from doing it.
The odds on scratch off tickets are only 50%.
I typically only give to the American Red Cross. both my money and blood. thanks LittleDavid
What are you, Amit? A Democrat?
Everyone’s a winner? Talk about anti-American.
you’re not a winner. am I pro-American now?
Only because you and I tied.
Amit,
The Red Cross is certainly a worthy charity. One of my favorites.
I do not do the blood thing, but my daughter sure does. Every time the Red Cross is facing a shortage of platelets she gets a call from them asking her to come in again.
Save your money and give it to the Red Cross, my dads PR and Communications Director for everything South of Richmond and he says they are hurting pretty bad.
Max,
Please forgive me while I have some fun.
You stated:
“…my dads PR and Communications Director for everything South of Richmond and he says they are hurting pretty bad.”
You also made mention that your last name must be Jewish. I do not know, could have been Italian as far as I know (ending in a vowel) but you claim it is Jewish.
Let me go with this sarcastic comment:
Now we have to put up with them damn Jews running the Red Cross. They were not happy running the banking industry, now they are going to undermine our charities.
Didn’t the Bible say something about the two edged sword?
It is a Jewish last name and your joke would have been wayyyy funnier if you had compared it to Jews running the media since my dad is in charge of all that.
I love criticism, especially when it is not based in any logic or facts because it means what I had said has remained unchallenged.
Jews run the media, Jews control the money supply.
I was proud of those facts until I realized how corrupt both our monetary system and media are.
Max,
OK, if I follow YOUR logic Christians should once again engage in a pogrom like Hitlers.
Since the Jews occupying high places did not get there through merit, only because they were Jewish, we should exterminate them.
Is this what you want?
Thats exactly my point. Jews got there through merit. Jews are extremely talented people. How did they fuck up so bad unless they did it on purpose?
Jews are no more evil then your average citizen.
I am guilty of prejudging Jews. I happen to prejudge Reform Jews very favorably while prejudging Orthodox Jews unfavorably.
However even with this prejudgment I will allow each individual’s spoken voice to break through my preconceived notions. I do the best I can to not be a bigot.
Max, will send money to Red Cross. my folks live south of Richmond as well so I’m more than happy to do it.
as far as the other comments on this thread I’m not sure if its chaotic order or ordered chaos. how do these threads go so far off topic?
Ordered Chaos, we are discussing a subject that is Taboo because Jew’s have been victimized throughout history. Sometimes they caused it themselves, sometimes they were innocent victims. But this is ordered because we are having a logical conversation instead of a heated emotional one.
Little David, I do not blame all Jews. I blame the small percentage of Jews who run our monetary and financial systems. It is beyond comprehension that they were incompetent enough to let this happen. Just like the Madoff fraud, no way that was a fraud, it would have been impossible to commit. Jews are not capable of this level of incompetence, they are too smart for it.
Max,
It’s not because they are Jewish. It is because they (and we) are victims of greed.
Christians have proven they can be just as greedy.
Actually, and this is where the “bigotry” goes to the other side…
The Jewish religion is without a doubt the most rigorous one in existence. We prize intelligence above all else and when you go to Sunday School and whatnot they school the crap out of you. It is no doubt that Jews get so far in life because of their religion. The Jews at the top caused this crisis to further solidify world power, they were smart enough to realize how this could happen because they were Jewish.
Greed is the root,true, but if these men were not Jewish and were not raised in a Jewish setting they would not have made it this far. Ask any Jewish person about this and they will tell you the same thing; jews are one smart religious/ethnic group and it certainly shows.
Max,
Which is why I love Reform Jews. They are inclusive instead of being exclusive.
Look upon Israel and what it was founded upon and what it has now become. Israel needs more Reform Jews. It is unfortunate that to really be a Jew in Israel one must be Orthodox.
Exactly, throughout this all I really should be saying Zionist, because Zionists are a separate entity within Judaism and they are the ones screwing everything up.
I was raised as a conservative Jew which is between Orthodox and Reform.
Gee I wish I had known the essay contest was to be based on theory versus reality. I loved Max’s comment about something I said as being the result of basically youthful ignorance.After forty two years of serving military/civilian around the world I find the reliance on unproven theory to be the greatest threat we face. To regurgitate what one studied versus what one has actually experienced in this life, is in no way brilliance but merely an ability to quote the work of others,valid or not. With the bombs over Japan theory was in fact proven valid.On second thought perhaps the genius of Max’s argument was his ability to challenge responses based on ‘real world’ experience with theories easily checked in the almost mythical texts emanating from academia’s ivory towers. These usually start with the statement;’Everybody knows.’ In this a false reality is created in the American mind. Nice work Max and I enjoyed it.
Obviously most anyone on the right would agree. But what would Stephen Colbert have to say about it??