The child of a Jewish father has to convert. He does not retain his father's tribal affiliation, but except for Levites and Cohens, most (virtually all?) Jews don't know what tribe they would belong to and it has no bearing on regular Jewish life. If his father was a Levite and his mother a non-Jew, after conversion he isn't a Levite.

Moshiach is Hebrew for Messiah

IME the west coast is pretty relaxed, but in general there was a long period of tightening up on conversions. Ten years ago Montreal used to hold on to your papers _after_ conversion until they were convinced you really meant it -- a year or so at least. I don't know if they still do. Reuven Bulka used to do approved-by-Israel conversions out of Ottawa, but he gave up because of difficulties with conversions being recognised in Israel. He's a very well-respected rabbi in Canada so it made an impact (http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2009/12/conversion-controversy-pits-jew-against-jew-123.html, I know Failed Messiah has his own axe to grind but his reproduction of the article is accurate).

I know this is the theory, but I think actual experience on this is mixed. In fact, I have experience with several conversion programs, and this is decidedly not the case in any of them. You're not in til you're in, and even after conversion, people can suffer from stigma in many communities. Especially a few years ago when conversions were being annulled/questioned all over the place.

Nastiness in public discourse waxes and wanes. We're probably waxing compared to, oh, 1955. But it's not the worst it's ever been, or ever will be. Could be worse. The US fought a civil war not all that long ago, and then a president was shot immediately after by someone who vehemently disagreed with his politics. Anarchists at the turn of the century were notorious for blowing things up to make a point (witness The Secret Agent). My mum grew up to rioting in Oakland, so rude signs and disgruntled protesters camping out are not the nadir of political discourse. Unpleasantness on the internet and cable news isn't all that bad.

I'm sorry that your father is sick and that you and he have such strained communication. This must be very frightening. I would be inclined to cut him the maximum possible slack in this particular situation though.

Maybe you could explain the difference to me. An examplar is a model to be copied or imitated, which by default would be suggested literature (literature suitable to the purpose of implementing Common Core).

There is suggested literature. http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_B.pdf

Social justice means left wing politics. It's one of those temrs like "pro life" or "affirmative action" that has a meaning in political discource that isnt inmediately obvious. Some of the CC materials have been seen as having a left-wing slant -- not the curriculum but the materials sold to implement them.

Obviously it's not critical, since most of the men I know and some of the women write chicken scratch. Universities here are moving towards computer-based exams and I'm not at all sure that when my kids get to uni, they'll be writing essays in long hand. I taught myself Spencerian in university, so perhaps I am the first person on earth ever to improve his own handwriting.

If you're having mushy, gummy rice, it's not a recipe problem. It's a technique problem. Make sure you are seasoning your wok correctly. You want a well-seasoned spun steel wok over a very high heat. You want this thing to get _hot_. You are going to go fast. Use day-old rice. Keep it in the fridge. Use jasmine rice. Let the wok get very hot, then add peanut oil (or something else with a very high smoke point), your other ingredients (ginger, cooked meat, cooked egg, snow peas, that sort of thing), then your soy sauce (use a little bit of dark soya sauce as well as light soya sauce), then your rice. Keep the rice moving. I'm not really into sesame oil for fried rice. If you use it, know that a little goes a very long way.

Raw milk does not contain indigenous lactase. It is, of course, much more likely to contain listeria and a variety of charming infections. http://www.fda.gov/food/foodborneillnesscontaminants/buystoreservesafefood/ucm247991.htm http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2014/march/milk.html People with wheat allergies or celiac cannot eat sourdough bread, nor unleavened wheat products. The issue is with the wheat, not the leavening.

No worries. its kind of interesting stuff, lactose intolerance. Iirc it's not that old a mutation either. But most people are going to become lactose intolerant whether they drink milk or not. There is some evidence though that early introduction of potential allergens reduces allergies http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/19000582/

Not correct. Some human beings (iirc somewhere in the 30-40% of the human population) have a genetic mutation that enables them to consume dairy for life. At least two versions of this mutation have been discovered, one amongst northern Europeans and one among certain Africans. Because these mutations are concentrated in certain populations, a significant percentage of people living in North America are adult lactose tolerant. Whether or not they have one stomach. And ruminants need the multiple stomachs to derive maximum benefit from digesting cellulose, not lactose.

"Roundup Ready wheat" is a type of GM wheat that has been field-tested but is not in commercial production, at least as of early this year. "Roundup Ready" refers to a class of GM Monsanto products, some of which (soybeans, canola, cotton) are in commercial production and have been for some time, and some of which (wheat) are in trials. I believe Roundup Ready corn is in commercial production but not sold as sweet corn; that is to say, you are not going to find it in your produce section. Does that clear it up at all?

Sheldon, when a person has to abandon long-held convictions -- even when they must be abandoned because of poor planning -- that is traumatic for them. The things that lead people to put their children in public school when they had previously abhorred the idea, these can be very scary things. People may have a child with needs much greater than they had anticipated, or they may realise that the education they have been providing for several years is not adequate, or they may have had a change in their faith convictions, or they may be suffering from depression, or they may have had a financial reversal. It usually doesn't come from a place of happiness and strength, even if, a year later, the parent ends up very happy with the decision. Making changes we never thought we'd make is a scary and even shaming thing to do. If people are turning around and questioning your choices, it has nothing to do with you, what you would or would not do. It has to do with them and the place of insecurity they are coming from right now, and perhaps even their desire to be validated by you as a person they respect. It would be a very worthwhile thing if you could respond to them from a place of charity.

That, and suicide hotlines. The good thing about depression is that it's really, really treatable. Even if you need to force him into care. He can get help with this, and in 2014, that help can be very effective. But he's so deep in the disease right now he can't see any way out.

Do you have a psychiatric crisis team for where you live?

Your area should have a suicide hotline or psych crisis am. If you don't have one, take him to the ER. If you can't get him to go, call 911.

I'm not Christian and I don't go to conferences. They're usually on Saturdays or half on Saturdays, way out in the 'burbs, and very Christian-focused.

I've taken them and they were excellent.

Kumon is very good as supplemental drill for earlier math. It's not going to help in this situation.

Yes on the math. No on all three sciences. Two sciences is plenty for most non-sciencey college programs. Make one biology.

. . . have you seen the tuition at Tufts?

The 8-year-old is doing CLE Math 2/3, right? Here kids that start the year at eight years old are doing third grade. Since you mentioned doing two and three I assumed that might be the situation.