ummm....I will not mention his name so as not to embarrass him, but I have a suspicion that there is a guy here who is very jealous of my relationship with sexy kelly maureen. I probably made a mistake in being so open about our friendship, as it brings out the competitive male instinct in some testosterone-driven homosapiens.
to cjd and to others, thank you for your vote of confidence in me. It is nice to finally be able to come to place where I can feel welcome. This has not been easy for me, as I do not quite fit in to any other group that I can think of. I am a Republican but not a blue-blooded, country club, gun-toting, term limits, let's-put-up-a-fence-along-the-border type of Republican; I am a proud, traditional Jew who thinks all non-Orthodox forms of Judaism are bogus, and yet I myself cannot honestly call myself an Orthodox Jew; I have a couple of university degrees in psychology yet am very skeptical of the field; I enjoy great literature yet cannot help but think my time is better spent studying the Torah; I think that Johann Sebastian Bach is the greatest of all musical composers, with his music being the music G-d plays in Heaven, yet I dislike about 90% of his music; and well, I think my point has been made. I do not quite fit anywhere.
Except for maybe here. From the comments I have read here since I have joined, I am often amazed that there are indeed other people who think very much like I do. This is not meant to offend anybody, but I think all of us here are societal misfits in one way or another, not in any pathological sense, but rather in an ideological way.
And think about it: isn't that what our ultimate modern day hero, Rabbi Kahane, was all about? There was no bigger misfit than him; even on a purely religious level, I do not know if he comes closer to being a representative of Modern Orthodox Judaism or Chareidi Judaism. Even his politics, which seems as clear as a bright, cloudless day, does not quite fit any mold. He is known for hating the moslems, yet nobody understood the moslems better, and from what I understand, the moslems themselves respected and appreciated him for that.