A clandestine undertaking on behalf of Israel, the Jets and the Jews.

 
Update

1. I'm getting crushed at work and am about to lose my weekends at home, as a result of which blogging has been light and will likely remain so for a while. I haven't even been able to prepare for tomorrow night's fantasy football draft against the likes of MoC, Elster and Jetsphan, all of whom pick before me. All I'll have are a list and my instincts. Guys, save some players for me, please.

2. Yesterday, Harry Maryles posted on the subject of charedi draft dodging in Israel.

As if on cue, American charedim promptly chimed in to offer the standard nonsensical defenses of charedi refusal to serve the defense of their country.

This issue is among several that prevents me from identifying as charedi, even though, in certain areas, my views are closer to the charedim than to those referred to as "modern Orthodox." There is simply no justification for the fact that 40 year old out of shape non-charedi Israeli men are called to fight in Lebanon and Gaza while young charedim in their 20's peddle cell phones and potato kugel in Bnei Brak.

3. Getting back to Jetsphan, I won't go back and quote his insistence on calling Chad Pennington irrelevant and his refusal to discuss Pennington's future with the Jets.

Whether Pennington can stay healthy is questionable, as is whether he or Kellen Clemens is the Jets quarterback of the future.

Pennington returns to quarterback while the Jets lack a top wide receiver or running back, and will start two rookies on offensive line. If he can lead the Jets to a wildcard playoff berth - a longshot even if he has a good season - he'll have proven his critics wrong.

4. Last week, MoC expressed his pride about his daughter having become "a rabid Yankees fan over the course of the summer."

MoC concluded: "What more could a father ask for."

My initial reaction was astonishment. MoC is a big Mets fan. Why would he be so excited about his daughter becoming a fan of the other team?

I get that MoC is excited that his daughter now shares his passion for baseball, even if she picked the wrong team. My father is a Yankees fan, and in recent years I've made an effort to buy tickets for us to go to a Yankees playoff game, so I understand the idea of family members on opposite sides of the New York baseball divide.

Still, I can't completely get past this. What about sharing the history of a team? How can MoC, whose best baseball memories are from 1969 and 1986, of times when the Yankees were as irrelevant as the Mets were dominant, be so filled with pride when his daughter wants to watch videos from 1996? After decades of sticking with a team that has endured long periods of famine, how can he even relate to the notion of suddenly jumping on the bandwagon of the despised Yankees?
posted on 8/29/2006