Just Me, Or...?

Is it just me, or does the following say something about the theoretical status of the gid hanasheh of a dinosaur (ignoring, for the sake of humor, the fact that a dinosaur wouldn't be kosher anyways, and therefore since the gid hanasheh isn't considered part of the meat, eating it would be patur anyways):  I'm quoting in translation because I'm too lazy to type it in or go find it in Hebrew(and I'm supposed to be doing homework anyways).

The prohibition against gid hanasheh does not apply with regard to a fow, because it does not have a [round] hip-socket.  Instead, its thigh is long [and flat].  If there is a fow whose thigh is shaped like that of the thigh of an animal, i.e. it has a hip-socket, its gid hanasheh is forbidden, but one is not iable for lashes because of it.  SImilarly, when there is an anima whose thigh is long like that of a fowl, its gid hanasheh is forbidden, but one is not liable for lashes for it. 

I remember learning that dinosaurs have the same sorts of hip bones as birds...  

Thoughts On Yom HaZikkaron

I admire Yom HaZikaron, and the way that Israelis observe it- seriously, that is.  Of course, I think that it is tragic that there are so many losses that there is no choice but to observe it seriously and intentionally, because everyone is seriously, personally hurting.  That goes without saying (I hope).  Nevertheless, every year, I see the observances and think about how problematic it is that just because fewer people in the US of A have such personal losses (which isn't really as true as we want to believe), that we ignore our own holiday, or make it just a day off, for parades and sales.  I think that it's hugely disrespectful- and I'm as guilty of it as the next person, most years. 

And then I come back to Yom HaZikaron, and I think about how Jews in America observe this day and not Memorial Day, and it feels like disloyalty to our own country.  At the same time, כל ישראל ערבין זה בזה- the loss of each of those lives is in some way connected to me.  (Yes, I'm being gentle with my use of the principle, but there is a flow of logic behind it.  Anyone to whom you have a responsibility is connected to you...)  So it isn't the observance that troubles me- it's the lack of parallel observance, and the symbolic lack of loyalty to the country where I am actually a citizen.

My other trouble is more theological.  This morning, the shatz said an El Malei Rahamim for fallen Israeli soldiers.  The text proclaimed that they were מסרו נפש על קידוש ה , and that's something that I just can't buy into.  Might some of them have indeed died as martyrs?  Possible.  However, I think martyrdom is both too specific and too dangerous a concept to go applying to any death that happens to be fighting for the State of Israel.  But then, I've never been comfortable with viewing modern Israel as an inherent step towards the coming of Moshiach, or as some miraculous re-establishment of the biblical kingdom.  I suppose one discomfort goes with the other.  Still, it made for a mildly shocking morning.