Somewhere there’s a moyel joke in this thread...
The Daily Forward speaks to Jewish concerns, but mainly from a Communist perspective.
I’ll always be grateful to them for having given us Isaac Bashevis Singer. And I suppose there have been other valuable contributions as well that I’m not familiar with.
But Judaism isn’t really compatible with Communism, any more than Christianity is.
Being an employer in the oil field, I've done this in tune with the price of oil and gas, which means I've done this a lot. In fact, I did it today, as my 15 working rigs have dwindled to 5 (for now).
This morning, at 5:00, I met the guys for 10 rigs. About 75 tough guys, more or less. I passed out checks for the end of February, and an extra check for half a month.
I said, “Boys, Obama has declared war on entrepreneurs, and the oil and gas business in particular, so there are no wells being drilled. The guys who are willing to put it on the line drilling a well won't take the risk with Obama’s tax plan to take all the money. You have an extra check for a half-month's pay in your envelope, even you guys that are brand new. I thank you for your hard work, and let's hope we get someone who won't be so cruel to hard workers in the White House. In the meantime, be careful.”
Then I went and talked with everyone, and they shook my hand. Some of the tough guys cried. They know the way it works -— drilling wells is risky business, and no one is going to take that kind of risk (and do that kind of hard, dangerous work) without big rewards.
The old ones joked about Jimmy Carter and how he did the same thing.