The Unlikely Buddha

On October 7, 2023, Hamas and its supporters launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing at least 250 Israelis and taking dozens of hostages. This was the deadliest day of violence in Israel since the Yom Kippur War 50 years ago. The Israeli military has not released an official estimate of the number of hostages taken, but reports suggest that the number could be as high as 50. The hostages are being held in Gaza, and their condition is unknown. The Israeli government has vowed to rescue the hostages and to bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice. However, it is unclear how the government plans to do this, as a ground invasion of Gaza would likely result in heavy casualties on both sides. The current situation is fluid and developing rapidly. I will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as they become available. Here is some background: Hamas is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamist militant organization that controls the Gaza Strip. The organization was founded in 19...

Organized crime has been associated with a variety of businesses throughout U.S. labor history, including waste management, construction, trucking, and gambling. In some cases, unions have been infiltrated by organized crime, while in other cases, unions have been used to facilitate illegal activities. Here are some examples of businesses that have been associated with criminal enterprises after unionizing: Waste management: The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) has been linked to organized crime in the waste management industry for decades. In the 1980s, the IBT's New York local was controlled by the Genovese crime family. The IBT's locals in Philadelphia and Chicago have also been associated with organized crime. Construction: The Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) has also been linked to organized crime in the construction industry. In the 1990s, the LIUNA's New York local was controlled by the Lucchese crime family. The LIUNA's loc...

It was only 5 years after we found a lump in her breast.  She was a laboratory technologist in the hospital lab at the time and our medical insurance was good.  To give her the best chance, they gave her both chemotherapy and radiation to the area where the tumor had been found after surgery.  Our son was 1 1/2 years old at the time of the diagnosis and spent a lot of time at his grandmother's house during her treatments.  I went with her each time she received chemo and went through her nausea and vomiting with her after each course. In time they tattooed a tiny dot on her breast in order to guide the radiation to the right area and completed the radiation treatments.  She began recovering and within months had returned to her job at the lab. We both raised our son and went about our lives, hopeful. They did tests for tumor markers monthly without apparent return of the cancer.  One day, 5 years from the beginning she felt bad and was hospitalized. The tum...

Archaeological evidence shows that people were living in Beringia, the land bridge that once connected Siberia and Alaska, as early as 25,000 years ago.  Genetic studies show that Native Americans are most closely related to people from Siberia and Northeast Asia. And linguistic analysis shows that many Native American languages are related to languages spoken in Siberia and Northeast Asia. The Bering Strait land bridge was formed during the last Ice Age, when sea levels were lower. At its widest point, the land bridge was about 1,000 miles across. It is thought that people migrated across the land bridge in small groups, following herds of animals. Once people reached North America, they spread out and developed different cultures. The first Native Americans were hunter-gatherers, but over time they developed agriculture and built cities. Native Americans are not indigenous to North America in the sense that their ancestors did not originate there, they have lived on the continent...