The Kosher/Legal Thing Is A Good Point: but I don't think Chabadniks care much what Jesus would doLast we heard, Agriprocessor’s PR firm had been caught trying to smear the reputation of Rabbi Morris Allen and Uri L’Tzedek, but there have been several developments since then.

• Failed Messiah broke the news that the May 12th raid also uncovered more than 100 fake and fraudulent identity documents from the AgriProcessors Human Services department. It also seems that workers knew they could come to the Human Services department to get fake documents. So you can add forging official documents to the list of AgriProcessor’s evils.

• The New York Times has an in depth look at labor violations in the AgriProcessors plant, including child labor violations. There were kids as young as 13 working there, despite regulations that prohibit anyone under 18 from working on the floor of the meatpacking plant because of the danger involved. One of the kids who worked there tells the Times he felt like he was a slave.

• Harsh!: but not uncalled forCBS reports that many workers have been docked pay that they earned before the raid.

• The Jew and the Carrot has an interview with Uri L’Tzedek co-director Ari Hart about whether the AgriProcessors boycott was called off too quickly.

• Jewschool has an amazing post about the recent rally in Postville to support the workers. The pictures are especially fantastic.

• Want to get familiar with the crooks and creeps of Agriprocessors? Check out our Most Wanted.
  

Two weeks ago we told you about how Iowa’s Jewish community has been affected by flooding, and ways you can help, including giving to the Red Cross, and sending donations marked "Flood Relief" to the Jewish Federation, 910 Polk Boulevard, Des Moines, IA, 50312.

Mother Mosque: in better, dryer timesBut the Jewish community isn’t the only small group with big new problems. In Cedar Rapids, Mother Mosque of America, the oldest surviving mosque in North America, took on so much water that teams of volunteers are still searching for anything worth saving. Among the ruined contents of the mosque are handwritten journals, photographs from the late 1800s, religious books, and the writings and recordings of T.B. Irving, who lived in Cedar Rapids and penned an early English translation of the Koran.

If you live in or around Cedar Rapids, Mother Mosque is looking for volunteers to help looking through the wreckage, and soon it will be looking for people to help with teardown and reconstruction. Happily, the community is definitely planning to rebuild. To donate money to help rebuild the mosque, and to see pictures of the flood debris, visit mothermosque.org.

Jews are used to a flood story with a happy ending: The animals march onto the ark two by two, and after forty days and forty nights of rain, things begin to ease up. The dove brings back an olive branch. There is a rainbow, and a pledge never to destroy humanity by flood again. Sweet on the page, but gruesome if you think about it for too long. The world slowly drowned. God erased history.
Flooding in Iowa City: water water everywhere
The flooding in Iowa is not quite cataclysmic, but it is horrifying and dangerous and sad. Aside from the four Eagle Scouts who were killed in a storm last week, thousands have been evacuated from their homes. Businesses and agriculture have been submerged in water that is noxious and full of sewage, farm chemicals, and fuel. As an alumna of the University of Iowa, I was personally horrified to hear that sixteen university buildings have taken in water, including the main library, the brand new journalism building, and a small non-denominational church.

• The Red Cross announced yesterday that its disaster relief fund has been completely spent, so the agency is borrowing money to help victims. Donate to the Red Cross here.

• Right now, Iowa’s Jewish communities are holding up well, but they anticipate needing help in the near future. Synagogues in Mason City and Dubuque have taken on water, and will likely need money and supplies once the waters have receded and they can clean up. The Jewish Federation in Des Moines is accepting contributions to be distributed for general flood relief, wherever it may do the most good. You may send a check, earmarked "Flood Relief" to the Jewish Federation, 910 Polk Boulevard, Des Moines, IA, 50312.

• Hillel is talking about organizing a volunteer rebuilding trip in late summer when the waters have receded and damage has been assessed. If you’re interested in such a trip, contact the University of Iowa Hillel.

• And the Midwest isn’t the only area being hit by record-breaking floods this year. In China, dozens have been killed and more than a million people have been forced from their homes as waters rise in the Guangdong Province. The Red Cross Society of China is on the ground in Guangdong distributing supplies to people whose homes are submerged. Donate to the RCSC here.

Long ago, far away, I bought a typesetting company in Iowa with my mentor and business partner. Yes, yes, yes, I know I'm an idiot. I am reminded daily. The Wall Street Journal said I was a dope. Business Week decided I could have been more clued in. And a letter I got in the mail today told me that "If you'd talked to me, you'd never have bought that company and had to bear your guilty soul."

As the book the Secret says, if you want it bad enough, it will come to you. And if you don't, you'll deserve the crap you get.

It's nice to be smart in retrospect. It's comforting to know you'd never have pushed the launch button on the Challenger or invested with the Hunt Brothers or bought a Newton.

In the book the Black Swan, Nassim Taleb points out that, "Nobody would publish a book about business failure." Because the business press, and media in general, creates the myth of the formula for success. How do you find this equation? Just get a bunch of successful people in a room and try to find something they all share in common. Do they get up early to exercise? Did they have sloppy handwriting in grade school? Do they lace their shoes all on the left and then the right?

Nassim says it's all bunk. Success is what we all know already, a mix of skill, perseverance, and luck. And luck is a big big part of it. If Bill Gate's mother hadn't been on the board of United Way with the CEO of IBM, he likely wouldn't have gotten that meeting to sell them DOS. And how do you control who your mother knows? I guess you just have to wish hard enough.