Thoughts on a New Year

The new year is just a few years old and I have a few comments on the new year, and a few that have passed:

1) At our low key dinner last night I recalled the celebration six years ago at the end of the last millenium (which, yes, I know actually ended at the end of 2000). I remember feeling a sense of awe--remembering the wars and bloodshed that had characterised large swaths of the prior millenium, and wondering what the dawning millenium held for us all. This is just a progress report to note that, so far, this millenium has been one of war and bloodshed. This troubles me.

2) A friend of mine says we should "beware men in robes". Think about it. Judges, Ayatollahs, Clergy. I'd wager a substantial portion of the world's problems originated with men in robes.

3) I've decided the "The Liberal (read: "Jewish") War on Christmas" should more appropriately be called "The Fundamentalist Christian War on Everyone and Everything Else". I am and always have been glad to say "Merry Christmas" to my Christian friends. All I ask in return is that they remember I'm Jewish and celebrate a holiday called "Chanukah". This occasionally has proven very difficult, as I have noticed the people most insistent on the words "Merry Christmas" seem to have the hardest time uttering the words "Happy Chanukah". This may not be true universally, but it is certainly true in my experience.

4) "Brokeback Mountain" was an exceptional film and should win something at this years Academy Awards. However, I just saw "Capote" and feel that Phillip Seymour Hoffman should win Best Actor.

5) I wish people would work harder to just get along in 2006.

Happy New Year.