My Dad asked me this week if I could help him fix his Ipod, which has now broken for a second time with the same problem: The Podcasts don't play. My brother has apparently had the same problem and told him to go on the website and slog through a many-step process. It could be worse, it turns out: He could have an Iphone. Dad, read this.
Actually, you probably can't read that because it's behind the firewall, but here's the essence. There's no way to change the battery without sending it back to Apple, going several days without your phone, then getting a new battery. For a fee. Apple says its 300 charges will last three years, but Joe Nocera is skeptical.
Maybe it will get two years. But let’s think about what that means. Those who are dismissive of the battery issue are saying, essentially, that when the two years are up, and the battery needs to be replaced, customers will purchase a new and improved iPhone instead. That’s why it is a nonissue for them — they are buying into the idea of assured obsolescence. If all you want is a new battery after two years — and don’t lust after whatever new phone gadget Mr. Jobs has come up with by then — then you’re just not with it.
Besides, don’t most cellphone users get a new phone within two years? The answer, of course, is yes. But most cellphone purchases are heavily discounted — costing $100 or less — and are tied to an extension of the service contract. Is Apple really going to play that game? I’m betting the answer is no. Buying a new iPhone is going to be an expensive proposition for the foreseeable future — which of course is great for Apple’s bottom line, but not so great for its customers.
And what about the people who have early battery problems? Or those who are such heavy users of their iPhone that they need a new battery after a year? The question remains, What are they supposed to do? Go without a cellphone while Apple is replacing the battery? From where I’m sitting, this is classic Apple behavior. It is perfectly happy to sell you the coolest $599 device you’ve ever seen. Just don’t expect them to be especially helpful when it runs into problems.
How can this be? The NYT runs its second article about ghost tours in Savannah in the last month! Actually, I know the answer: Somebody else wanted, and needed, a boondoggle! Good for them, and us, but enough already.
CERTAIN things about Savannah never change — it remains one of America's loveliest cities, organized around a grid of 21 squares, where children play, couples wed and, in the evenings, lone saxophonists deliver a jazz soundtrack. But that doesn't mean Savannah has nothing new to offer. Perhaps most notable is a budding art scene that includes the high — a major expansion of the Telfair Museum — and the low — a scene energized by students and instructors at the booming Savannah College of Art and Design. Civic boosters are even trying to reposition the region as the “Creative Coast.” And then there is change of another kind: restoration. Before iron-clad protection of the historic district was established, Savannah lost 3 of its 24 squares to developers. Now one of the oldest, Ellis Square, long dominated by a parking lot, is being restored to its antebellum glory.
The Israeli government has dropped rape charges against President Moshe Katsav in exchange for his agreement to step down and to plead guilty to lesser charges, the attorney general, Menachem Mazuz, announced Thursday.
Mr. Katsav, 61, will receive a suspended sentence and will pay a total of $11,695 in compensation to two of the women who accused him, Mr. Mazuz said. One of them had worked for Mr. Katsav when he was tourism minister in the late 1990s; the other worked in his office in 2003 and 2004. Mr. Katsav will plead guilty to committing indecent acts without consent, sexual harassment of the two women and harassing a witness.
He is expected to resign on Friday. His seven-year term as president, a largely ceremonial post, was to end in July. Shimon Peres is expected to take office as president on July 15.
First the CIA releases all its dirty laundry. Now the dirt is flying on either side of the Sinai.
An Egyptian billionaire financier who feared for his life after being accused of being a Mossad spy was found dead outside his Mayfair flat yesterday in suspicious circumstances.
Ashraf Marwan, the son-in-law of the late President Gamel Abdel Nasser, was found beneath his fourth-floor flat in Carlton House Terrace.
Police were treating his death as suspicious. Friends of Mr Marwan, a former shareholder in Chelsea Football Club, said that he had feared assassination after being named three years ago as an agent during the Yom Kippur war.
Rumours of his death circulated in London’s Arab community last night. Some believe that he may have taken his life after a serious illness was diagnosed.
Mr Marwan’s death will send shockwaves across the Middle East and among some of Britain’s wealthiest people. His associates included Adnan Khashoggi, the arms dealer, Ken Bates, the football club chairman, the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and the late Tiny Rowland.
If found to be murder, his death will carry echoes of last year’s assassination of Alexander Litvinenko, the former KGB agent.
I'm hardly an expert in Catholic liturgical practices, but I have to wonder if what the Catholic Church needs at this moment is to bring back more Latin to church. Is this way to grow the faith? I don't have to wonder at all, as a supporter of Interfaith relations, if dialing back on Vatican II is good for religious dialogue today. It would be a disaster.
Pope Benedict XVI has approved a document that relaxes restrictions on celebrating the Latin Mass used by the Roman Catholic Church for centuries until the modernizing reforms of the 1960s, the Vatican said Thursday.
Benedict discussed the decision with top officials in a meeting on Wednesday and the document will be published in the next few days, the statement said. The meeting was called to ''illustrate the content and the spirit'' of the document, which will be sent to all bishops accompanied by a personal letter from the pope.
The decision comes after months of debate. Some cardinals, bishops and Jewish leaders have opposed any change, voicing complaints about everything from the text of the old Mass to concerns that the move will lead to further changes to the reforms approved by 1962-65 Second Vatican Council.
The 16th century Tridentine Mass was sidelined by the New Mass that followed the council. The reforms called for Mass to be said in local languages, for the priest to face the congregation and not the altar with his back to worshippers and for the use of lay readers.
Me and the Brad Pitt of Muslim Commentators Wednesday, June 27, 2007
A few months ago I appeared on blogginheads.tv with its founder, Bob Wright, talking about God in the '08 election. Well, I'm back, this time with hunk-0-pundit Reza Aslan. We talk about Reza's fan website, whether his aunt the pop singer is like Madonna or Cher, Salman Rushdie, Gaza, and the fate of moderates in Iran. Fear not, he does most of the talking. You can listen to the entire conversation, download it as a podcast, or just hear the bits you want. And check out the comments, very interesting. His bit about sewage and Gaza gets people going.
A reader writes in response to my post on musicians finding God. [I have deleted a few things from this email to protect the identity of the writer.]
Dear Bruce,
I have greatly enjoyed your writing, and have shared your books with several friends over the years, giving them as gifts. Great work. You've provided a valuable perspective.
I don't know, however, why you ask "what's with musicians and conversion?" or something of that nature. Why is this interesting? Musicians are people, like everyone else, like writers, carpenters, poets, plumbers, etc. Rickie was inspired to work from [a book of] music and spoken word based on the words of Christ. It was an exploration, and she was caught up in that search for myriad and probably even unkown (to her, to us) reasons. It was a natural and somewhat (on Rickie's part) unpremeditated process, as are most of life's meaningful experiences. We wake up one morning and life has led us to a point where we confront and respond to some questions, and possible answers (in this case in the words of Jesus) that were not there yesterday.
Every now and then I end up in a conversation about what's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten. Sometimes I tell the story of losing a bet in a Japanese bar once in which I said I'd eat anything on the menu and being served three sparrows, roasted, on a stick, with beaks and claws attached. But usually I tell the story of going to my boss while living in a small rural town (the story is relayed in LEARNING TO BOW) and being served raw horse.
Well, raw horse is back! The NYT runs a story about the tuna shortage and how some sushi bars are resorting to deer and horse instead.
First, the backstory:
In this seafood-crazed country, tuna is king. From maguro to otoro, the Japanese seem to have almost as many words for tuna and its edible parts as the French have names for cheese. So when global fishing bodies recently began lowering the limits on catches in the world’s rapidly depleting tuna fisheries, Japan fell into a national panic.
Nightly news programs ran in-depth reports of how higher prices were driving top-grade tuna off supermarket shelves and the revolving conveyer belts at sushi chain stores. At nicer restaurants, sushi chefs began experimenting with substitutes, from cheaper varieties of fish to terrestrial alternatives and even, heaven forbid, American sushi variations like avocado rolls.
“It’s like America running out of steak,” said Tadashi Yamagata, vice chairman of Japan’s national union of sushi chefs. “Sushi without tuna just would not be sushi.”
Now the solution:
The restaurant’s owner, Shigekazu Ozoe, 56, said the current situation reminded him of the last time he had no tuna to sell — in 1973, during a scare over mercury poisoning in oceans when customers refused to buy it. At that time, he tried to find other red-colored substitutes like smoked deer meat and raw horse, a local delicacy in some parts of Japan.
“We tasted it, and horse sushi was pretty good,” he recalled. “It was soft, easy to bite off, had no smell.”
If worse comes to worst, he said, he could always try horse and deer again. The only drawback he remembered was customers objecting to red meat in the glass display case on the counter of his sushi bar.
“One customer pointed and said: ‘You have something four-legged in your fish case? That’s eerie!’ ”
Mrs. Feiler Faster reports that I've bastardized the spellings of the bastardized Jewish-Asian conglomerates of Jews. Any thoughts on Hinjew v. Hinju or Bujew v. Jubu? Is this kind of thing standardized?
In the two decades before 9/11, Islamic radicalism flourished, while most governments treated it as a minor annoyance rather than a major security threat. September 11 changed all that, and subsequent bombings in Bali, Casablanca, Riyadh, Madrid and London forced countries everywhere to rethink their basic attitude. Now most governments around the world have become far more active in pursuing, capturing, killing and disrupting terrorist groups of all kinds. The result is an enemy that is without question weaker than before, though also more decentralized and amorphous.
Consider the news from just the past few months. In Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation in the world, the government announced that on June 9 it had captured both the chief and the military leader of Jemaah Islamiah, the country's deadliest jihadist group and the one that carried out the Bali bombings of 2002. In January, Filipino troops killed Abu Sulaiman, leader of the Qaeda-style terrorist outfit Abu Sayyaf. The Philippine Army—with American help—has battered the group, whose membership has declined from as many as 2,000 guerrillas six years ago to a few hundred today. In Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which were Al Qaeda's original bases and targets of attack, terrorist cells have been rounded up, and those still at large have been unable to launch any major new attacks in a couple of years. There, as elsewhere, the efforts of finance ministries—most especially the U.S. Department of the Treasury—have made life far more difficult for terrorists. Global organizations cannot thrive without being able to move money around. The more that terrorists' funds are tracked and targeted, the more they have to make do with small-scale and hastily improvised operations.
The flood of Noah products has finally crested. Evan bombed. (So did Danny Pearl, sadly. Hard to see the Hollywood in this story I dare say.) David Plotz thinks he knows why.
Did anyone involved with Evan Almighty actually read the Noah story? You know, the part when God drowns the entire world, when "all in whose nostrils was the merest breath of life, all that was on dry land, died. All existence on earth was blotted out, man, cattle, creeping things, and birds of the sky; they were blotted from the earth." Now, I'm no great religious scholar, but it doesn't take Pope Benedict to see that the Noah story is not a charming little tale about familial love, but a terrifying lesson about our dependence on God: a warning that we are alonein the world and always at the mercy of a wrathful and demanding Lord.
Evan Almighty, a drab retelling of the Noah story as a comic ecofable,is Hollywood's latest and—with a $200 million budget—most expensive pander at the Christian market. Ever since the success of The Passion of the Christ in 2004, studios have been hurling money at Christian directors in hopes they can recapture that Jesus mojo. Evan director Tom Shadyac, a Catholic whose previous God film Bruce Almighty grossed $500 million, recently told Newsday, "There's no bigger Jesus freak in this room than me, 'cause when I was as young as I can remember, having cognition and thought, I was looking at this Jesus guy and going, 'Whoever this is, this is somebody that's blowing my mind.' "
Universal has hired a religious marketing firm to sell Evan Almighty to churches and religious leaders, hoping to capture the same hundreds of millions in Christ dollars raked in by The Passion, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Bruce Almighty. If they succeed, it will be tragic, not because Evan Almighty is unfunny (although it certainly is), but because it will validate Hollywood's embarrassingly stupid approach to religion and faith. If I were a believing man, movies like Evan would make me long for the days when Hollywood just ignored God.
Tony Blair to Become Catholic Friday, June 22, 2007
Paul Bremer. Sam Brownback. Tony Blair. Fascinating: late-in-life, high-powered politicians converting to Catholicism. The Guardian has a report on the secret, back-stage maneuverings.
According to informed sources, Mr Blair has been readied for this milestone in his spiritual life by a Royal Air Force chaplain, Father John Walsh, who for the past four years has been quietly slipping into Chequers, the prime minister's country residence, to say mass for the Blair family on Saturday evenings.
Mr Blair has been attending Catholic services for many years, and regularly worshipped at the 5.30pm Saturday evening service at Westminster cathedral until security considerations persuaded him to seek a private arrangement.
And more.
Mr Blair's attendances at Catholic services over the years has not been without controversy. In 1996 he was upbraided by the then Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Basil Hume, for taking communion at his wife's church in Islington.
The couple have also worshipped at a Roman Catholic church in Great Missenden, near Chequers.
Britain has never had a Catholic prime minister, and Mr Blair's lengthy road to conversion is almost certainly as a result of his desire to leave office before taking the final steps. Religion is a sensitive issue in British politics, particularly in connection with issues such as abortion, contraception, homosexuality and faith schools.
Cherie Blair and the couple's four children are Roman Catholic. Her husband is thought to have attended a mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II in the papal private apartments in the Vatican in 2003 following an official audience.
There have been persistent rumours that he received communion from the Polish pontiff on that occasion.
Mr Blair's visit to Rome was confirmed by Vatican sources more than a week ago. A spokesman for the Roman Catholic bishops in England and Wales yesterday said that the environment and Middle East would be among the topics discussed by Mr Blair and the Pope. But their meeting has not been announced by No 10 and last night Mr Blair's spokespeople were still insisting that reports of it were "pure speculation".
Imagine if these people had twins, and had to come up with two names, that go together, and compliment each other, and don't rhyme!
Some parents are checking Social Security data to make sure their choices aren't too trendy, while others are fussing over every consonant like corporate branding experts. They're also pulling ideas from books, Web sites and software programs, and in some cases, hiring professional baby-name consultants who use mathematical formulas.
Denise McCombie, 37, a California mother of two who's expecting a daughter this fall, spent $475 to have a numerologist test her favorite name, Leah Marie, to see if it had positive associations. (It did.) This March, one nervous mom-to-be from Illinois listed her 16 favorite names on a tournament bracket and asked friends, family and people she met at baby showers to fill it out. The winner: Anna Irene.
Sean and Dawn Mistretta from Charlotte, N.C., tossed around possibilities for five months before they hired a pair of consultants -- baby-name book authors who draw up lists of suggestions for $50. During a 30-minute conference call with Mrs. Mistretta, 34, a lawyer, and Mr. Mistretta, 35, a securities trader, the consultants discussed names based on their phonetic elements, popularity, and ethnic and linguistic origins -- then sent a 15-page list of possibilities. When their daughter was born in April, the Mistrettas settled on one of the consultants' suggestions -- Ava -- but only after taking one final straw poll of doctors and nurses at the hospital. While her family complimented the choice, Mrs. Mistretta says, "they think we're a little neurotic."
Karen Markovics, 36, who works for the planning department in Orange County, N.C., spent months reading baby books and scouring Web sites before settling on Nicole Josephine. But now, four years later, Mrs. Markovics says she wishes she'd chosen something less trendy -- and has even considered legally changing her daughter's name to Josephine Marie. "I'm having namer's remorse," she says.
More than 200 Jewish families of Afghan descent live in the New York City borough of Queens -- the largest group of Afghan Jews outside of Israel. In Afghanistan, meanwhile, there is officially only one Jew left, Zebolan Simanto, a 45-year old caretaker of a synagogue in Kabul.
The focal point for Afghan Jews in New York is the congregation Anshei Shalom, which is also a spiritual home to Jews from Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Russia, Syria, Uzbekistan, and Yemen.
Binyamin Pinchasi, a jeweler by trade, was born and raised in Israel. He has never been to Afghanistan, but both of his parents grew up in Kabul. They still have fond memories of growing up in the Afghan capital more than 50 years ago.
"We never had persecution in Afghanistan. And the government was very helpful to us."
Pinchasi, who appears to be in his early 30s and speaks a little Dari -- which along with Pashto is one of Afghanistan's two main languages -- says he feels a spiritual connection to the country, though only a faint one.
"Some connection yes, a little bit," he said. "I think if we go to visit there, we're going to feel some more."
Like most congregants at Anshei Shalom, Pinchasi helps support Simanto, the last Jew in Kabul. This year -- like every year -- they sent Simanto a package for Passover on April 1 that was nearly 27 kilograms of grape juice, matzo and oil -- all kosher -- that cost $650 to ship to Kabul.
So far, the questions about Romney's Mormonism have come from the press. Now, his rivals begin.
In a presidential race in which Romney's candidacy is testing the country's attitudes toward Mormonism, the comments by a McCain representative in Iowa are the latest of several instances of rival campaign operatives trying to bring Romney's faith onto the campaign playing field. Over the past year, staff or volunteers from at least three opposing campaigns have, at times subtly and at times not, spread negative information about Mormons in an apparent effort to damage Romney's bid for the presidency.
McCain , of Arizona, and his campaign disavow attempts by supporters to highlight Romney's faith, and other campaigns have also resolutely rejected using religion as a weapon. But while the impact of the anti-Mormon messages is difficult to measure, the number of incidents suggests that Romney's religion will remain a tempting target for political opponents seeking a competitive edge.
The most recent example came to light earlier this week when the Washington Post reported that Emma Nemecek, an Iowa field operative for Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, had recently forwarded an e-mail to Iowa Republicans containing a number of criticisms of Mormonism, including a charge that it is not a Christian faith. The e-mail closed with a quote from a Founding Father, John Jay: "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."
Someone (actually, I think I know who it is) has been posting portions of WALKING THE BIBLE with Bruce Feiler on PBS. This 10-minute clip is the promo from the top of each hour. You can purchase the three-hour series at Amazon.com or Barnesandnoble.com.
Here's a good example of the silliness of religious rhetoric these days. A farewell knighthood for Salman Rushdie, as Blair is walking out the door, triggers this response from an extremist in Pakistan:
A hardline Pakistani parliamentarian and head of a religious political party Wednesday demanded title 'sir' for Osama bin Laden, the leader of the Al Qaeda terrorist network, in retaliation to Britain knighting author Salman Rushdie.
'Muslims should confer the 'sir' title and all other awards on bin Laden and Mullah Omar in reply to Britain's shameful decision to knight Rushdie,' Sami ul Haq, leader of the pro-Taliban Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, said in a statement, referring also to the leader of the Taliban.
Such a move would not only go against the political grain of Britain, who joined in the international effort to drive the Taliban from power and Al Qaeda from their Afghan safe haven in 2001, but it would also break knighthood rules, under which foreigners may not be addressed as sir.
Rushdie, 60, was given the recognition at birthday honours for Britain's Queen Elizabeth II Saturday, about two decades after his book 'The Satanic Verses' sparked protests in Muslim countries, including Pakistan, in 1989.
The novel also became the subject in the same year of a fatwa, a religious edict, by late Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomenei, who demanded Rushdie's death.
'Europe and Western nations are intentionally pushing Muslims towards extremism by awarding a nefarious person,' Haq said.
Images of her handmade quilts adorn postage stamps, Visa gift cards and $5,000 rugs, but Annie Mae Young and some of the other quilters who made Gee's Bend famous say they missed out on what has turned into a giant payday.
Claiming she has been cheated by several major corporations and a trio of scheming Atlanta businessmen who relied on an oral contract that "violates the statute of frauds," Young filed suit Friday in federal court in Selma, seeking a larger slice of the lucrative pie her art has generated since being shown in the nation's most prestigious art museums.
That pie includes stationary, coffee-table books, lampshades and a line of bedsheets and duvet covers made by the Kathy Ireland Worldwide Corp., named after the former swimsuit model.
A lawyer representing Tinwood Ventures, one of the companies named in the lawsuit, said the quilters have been fairly compensated and have received national exposure thanks to his clients' efforts.
According to the suit, Tinwood claims to own the intellectual property rights to the quilts produced in Gee's Bend prior to 1984, and, in turn, the company has leased those rights to manufacturers.
While several of the companies involved in marketing products based on Gee's Bend quilts state in promotional literature that the quilters "receive a royalty" for every item sold, Young's lawsuit states she has never received "one penny from these enterprises."
The reviews are atrocious and some friends in Hollywood went to a preview and found it incomprehensible. "Should have stuck closer to the source material," they sent via Blackberry after asking for a primer on Noah. But the press can't avoid linking Evan Almighty to supposed finding God in Hollywood. Yawn.
In Hollywood, long considered an encampment of liberal-minded showbiz sinners, God has found an ally in director Tom Shadyac, whose big-budget comedy "Evan Almighty" debuts in movie theaters Friday.
And watch out, Washington, D.C., Shadyac and his movie are headed your way, too.
Throughout its history, Hollywood has made popular biblical movies, such as 1956's "The Ten Commandments" about Moses leading the Jews from Egypt. But the studios often are criticized by religious and conservative groups for pushing the boundaries of good taste and morality in mainstream movies.
In "Evan Almighty," those groups likely have nothing to fear. The politicians in Washington, however, catch plenty of flak about honesty, faith and protecting the environment.
"There is no more a Jesus freak in this room than me," the director of the biblical comedy told reporters recently.
"When I was as young as I can remember -- having cognition and thought -- I was looking at that Jesus guy, going,'Whoever this is, this is somebody that is blowing my mind."'
"Evan Almighty" modernizes the tale of Noah's Ark and the biblical flood that destroyed all of humanity except for God's chosen, Noah, his family members and the animals he loaded two-by-two onto his hand-built ark.
The film is a follow-up to Shadyac's 2003, $485 million global box office smash "Bruce Almighty," which starred Jim Carrey as a TV reporter to whom God grants his almighty power only for Bruce to learn it's not so easy being God.
Ignoring them didn't work. That leaves three choices: Keep ignoring them and trying to starve them from funds; invade again; talk to them. The first option will not work because the cry of humanitarian abuse will rise up, as it already has. The second will not work because, well, it didn't work for two decades. The third choice is the only viable option. Tricky, and maybe not with big, glitzy White House visits, but it's the only realistic way forward. Jimmy Carter is right on this one, if not for the reasons he states. Here's Dennis Ross.
Well, it is a fundamental challenge for Israel, because Israel is now going to face a situation where, on the one hand, it sees a potential Palestinian partner in the West Bank that it would like to deal with, and it sees a clear Palestinian adversary that it does not want to deal with, and it doesn't know what the future identity of the Palestinians is going to be because there's an ongoing struggle.
So it has to make a decision of how it's going to deal with each of them. And yet, at the same time, when it takes a look at Gaza, it certainly doesn't want rockets coming out of Gaza reaching more and more of Israel. It doesn't want to have to go into Gaza, because there's no easy or clear military answer if it does.
So even if it prefers to deal with AbuMazen, it also has to face the reality that there could be a value from Israel's standpoint to reach some kind of modusvivendi with Hamas within Gaza. Certainly it has leverage, because it controls the access of electricity and water into Gaza. It has the military option that it really doesn't want to exercise.
Hamas, for its own part, has to be in a position where it now has to govern. It can't blame it on anybody else. If, in fact, they want to behave irresponsibly, they're going to find it's very difficult to get help from the outside. If they want the Israelis to make life easier for them, they're going to have to find a way to respond to them.
And Dan Levy:
It, of course, is not realistic. And in the very, very early days, we already see the need to avoid a humanitarian crisis. And I think so the heads will prevail, and at the working levels there will be arrangements made in Gaza between Israel and the new Hamas reality there.
In a way, the fundamental paradigm hasn't shifted. And we heard this today from the Israeli prime minister. It's still about a two-state solution. And it was encouraging to hear that, one, we're still talking about a two-state solution, not three states, not no states with two governments.
The question that Prime Minister Olmert will face, as Dennis suggested, is, what do you do with the Hamas reality? Now, President Bush today seemed to be suggesting you just have to push back against that, it's an ideological struggle.
But I think Olmert may want to take a leaf out of President Bush's book in Iraq, at least in the following respect: America in Iraq is talking to anyone who might be an ally in pushing back against al-Qaida. And I think Hamas may play a similar role to some of the Sunni forces that America is now dealing with in Iraq, and I hope that Olmert and the people around Olmert begin to consider that option.
Don't look now, but the smart money seems to be agreeing with Jimmy Carter. Dennis Ross and a former Israeli diplomat said as much last night on The News Hour.
The United States, Israel and the European Union must end their policy of favoring Fatah over Hamas, or they will doom the Palestinian people to deepening conflict between the rival movements, former US President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday.
Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was addressing a conference of Irish human rights officials, said the Bush administration's refusal to accept the 2006 election victory of Hamas was "criminal."
Carter said Hamas, besides winning a fair and democratic mandate that should have entitled it to lead the Palestinian government, had proven itself to be far more organized in its political and military showdowns with the Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
Hamas fighters routed Fatah in their violent takeover of the Gaza Strip last week. The split prompted Abbas to dissolve the power-sharing government with his rivals in Hamas and set up a Fatah-led administration to govern the West Bank.
Carter said the American-Israeli-European consensus to reopen direct aid to the new government in the West Bank, but to deny the same to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, represented an "effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples."
Except when nobody cares. Prime Minister Dershowitz again dredges up his old non-debate with Jimmy Carter as if anybody cares or feels this matter hasn't been discussed in public enough.
When former President Jimmy Carter spoke at Brandeis University in January, he complained that “this is the first time I’ve ever been called a liar…”. Well, he’d better get used to it, because I can now prove that he is a liar.
Last week, in a speech at George Washington University, he categorically denied that he had received any invitation to debate me about his book. He said that he had—these are his quoted words—“never received any invitation to debate, contrary to what a Harvard professor has said.”[1] Well, one of us is lying, and it’s not me. My best witness is none other than Jimmy Carter himself.
The AP: It looks like the U.S. Mint has struck again _ or not struck again, depending on how you look at it. New dollar coins featuring John Adams are missing edge inscriptions including "In God We Trust," according to the Professional Coin Grading Service, a rare coin authentication company based in Newport Beach, Calif.
The company said people have found hundreds of Adams dollar coins without the edge lettering, repeating a previous mistake. In March, an unknown number of George Washington dollar coins were struck at the Philadelphia Mint without "In God We Trust," "E Pluribus Unum," and the year and mint mark inscribed on the edge.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Mint said the agency is looking into the reports.
After the Washington "godless dollars" were discovered, the Mint pledged to more closely monitor the striking process.
The Lede on how Israel is trying to attract young men: Forget the bombs, we've got bikinis!
During the conflict with Lebanon last year, Israeli tourism industry didn’t disappear; it just went south, away from the fighting. Now, with a new set of life-or-death concerns emerging, the nation’s tourism industry again soldiers on.
This time, with bikini babes. Hold on - It’s actually perfectly logical:
Problem: “Israel’s image among men aged 18-38 is lacking,” an Israeli official noticed, according to Israeli Insider.
Soon, a deal was sealed between the rulers of the Holy Land and the “girls, sex, sports” glossy. Maxim pledged to publish a piece about visiting Israel, and its photographers would shoot some of the local models for a spread in the July issue.
(Israeli Insider said two lobby groups — American-Israel Friendship League and Israel21c — played a crucial role by offering to pay for what must be their first bikini model photo shoot.)
Complaints flowed from Israel’s religious right as soon as the deal emerged, and the nation’s tourism minister wants no part of it.
But two female lawmakers in Israel’s parliament didn’t make a huge splash until today’s papers, the morning of a Maxim/Israeli consulate soiree in Manhattan. Neither was moved by the party’s patriotic theme, “Women of the Israeli Defence Forces.”
One of the models disagreed, saying her pose was "an act of Zionism."
From Ethan Bonner's thoughtful review of Tom Segev's book on the Six Day War. I loved his book One Palestine, Complete.
Tom Segev, an Israeli columnist and historian, sums up the meaning for Israel of the 1967 war with two jokes. The first, heard in the months before the war, when Israelis feared a second Holocaust at the hands of their Arab neighbors, is of a sign hanging near the boarding gate at the national airport, asking the last one out of the country to turn off the lights. The second, told after the six days in which Israel defeated the armies of Egypt, Syria and Jordan and quadrupled the territory under its control, involves two officers talking about how to spend their day. “ ‘Let’s conquer Cairo,’ one proposes. The other replies, ‘But what will we do after lunch?’ ”
The Israelis quickly named the June 1967 event the Six-Day War to echo biblical creation. Like many historical watersheds, its origins and consequences have been intensely analyzed and debated, especially in recent weeks as its 40th anniversary was marked. Mr. Segev illuminates his two jokes with more than 600 pages of social history. His argument, in the end, is this: Anxiety, much of it Holocaust related, was so overpowering that Israel went to war against saber-rattling Egypt and Syria when diplomacy might have sufficed, and the rout of its neighbors caused such irrational exultation in Israel that it foolishly became an occupier, a role that continues to drag it and the region down.
Private collectors have severely damaged the world or archaeology in recent years by hording finds for themselves, with little regard to where items came from. See: Iraq. Is the same thing now happening to paleontology:
Ranchers and farmers are turning to a lucrative new crop. Wielding pickaxes, backhoes and duct tape, they are unearthing the remains of Triceratops, Velociraptors and Tyrannosaurus rexes and selling the skeletons to museums and private collectors. One rancher sells T. rex teeth on eBay
Helping drive the big dig is the soaring price of prehistoric fossils. The going rate for a Triceratops skull is $250,000, up from $25,000 a decade ago, and a full T. rex skeleton with all its teeth can fetch anywhere from $1 million to $8 million. Serious fossil enthusiasts include actor Nicolas Cage and Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft's former chief technology officer. Interior designers are incorporating fossil fish and fossil palm fronds as décor. And in Europe, art collectors who formerly fell for Damien Hirst's pickled animals are circling natural-history auctions, looking to buy dusty bones as sculptures.
Larry Tuss, a lifelong farmer who manages 6,000 acres near Winifred, Mont., close to the center of the state, plans to quit planting wheat and barley and focus more on his backyard expeditions. In the past six years, Mr. Tuss has found five dinosaurs on his property -- including a Triceratops-like Certopian, a duck-billed Hadrasaur and two long-necked sea lizards called Plesiosaurs. All are being readied for sale by a fossil company. "Ranching isn't cutting it anymore," he says. "I'm into fossil farming now."
The AJC runs this review of the "Cradle of Christianity" exhibition at Emory. And a reminder, I'll be giving a talk next Tuesday at Atlanta in association with the show.
"Cradle of Christianity," which opens today at the Carlos Museum, traces the live of Jesus and the evolution and growth of Christianity in the Holy Land. Like bagels, however, this fascinating archaeological exhibition should appeal to everyone.
It is, in fact, an interfaith moment. The larger goal of the Israel Museum, which organized the exhibition, is to demonstrate the shared history of Judaism and Christianity. Jesus and his disciples were Jews, after all. At the outset, they were among many sects under one umbrella.
Israel Museum director James Snyder sees the two religions as fellow travelers on the road of monotheism whose routes begin together, run parallel and diverge. The Carlos will elaborate on that perspective with a complement of programs during "Cradle of Christianity's" run, through Oct. 14.
The exhibit's ecumenical aims notwithstanding, the objects on view are interesting, even thrilling, in their own right. The yellowed parchment from a Dead Sea Scroll dating to the first century B.C. and a fragment from the Second Temple (destroyed in A.D. 70) are among the rare artifacts on display.
So are the only three known objects that correlate with people and events during Jesus' life, and they are here. Two confirm the existence of Pontius Pilate and Joseph Caiaphas, the priest said to have helped engineer Jesus' crucifixion. The third, an anklebone with an embedded nail, is evidence of the use of crucifixion.
The NYT provides a helpful primer on the differences between Gaza and the West Bank and why the dispute is likely limited to Gaza. I rarely use the phrase "must read," but this article is superb.
A look at the history of these territories, how they developed differently over time, and what their populations still share, shows why they are at odds now but also why it might be too early to write off the possibility that this breach can be bridged.
They have always had distinct traits, culturally and geographically — the West Bank supporting a landlocked urban and agricultural society, Gaza facing the sea.
Those differences increased after the creation of Israel in 1948, when Gaza fell under the administration of Egypt and the West Bank was annexed by Jordan.
Egypt treated Gaza as a Palestinian enclave and encouraged a strong sense of Palestinian identity. Many Gazans who studied in Egypt during those years were influenced, in turn, by the Muslim Brotherhood, whose goal is to establish Islamic theocracies across the Arab world.
Back in Gaza, some of those men founded Hamas in 1987.
Jordan, on the other hand, suppressed Palestinian nationalism in favor of Jordanian identity and Palestinians in the West Bank were more influenced by the secular societies of Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, where many went to study. Others traveled even further abroad, bringing back a liberal view of the world.
By the time the two territories came under Israeli occupation together after the 1967 war, they were very different places. Their separate legal and educational systems weren’t consolidated until after the Palestinian Authority was established in the mid-1990s.
And then this:
Gaza, which has suffered the most economically in the past few years, has become increasingly conservative and increasingly religious, largely due to the growing influence of Hamas.
Women in Gaza are more likely to be wear full Islamic dress and much less likely to work outside the home than their counterparts in the West Bank. Even in Gaza’s large garment factories, the vast majority of the workers sitting behind the sewing machines are men.
Gaza’s cultural life tends to center on the local mosque, and its small anemic economy consists almost entirely of small-scale businesses and jobs provided by the Palestinian Authority.
The West Bank, meanwhile, has a far richer economic life that includes industry, farming and a service sector. Its cities even have a few cinemas, art exhibitions, decent restaurants and a few night clubs.
Angelina Jolie Demeans Danny Pearl Saturday, June 16, 2007
If true, this post by Roger Friedman is a revolting abuse of the legacy of Danny Pearl, a great American, a daring Jew, and brave journalist.
Reporters from most major media outlets balked Wednesday when they were presented with an agreement drawn up by Jolie's Hollywood lawyer Robert Offer. The contract closely dictated the terms of all interviews.
Reporters were asked to agree to "not ask Ms. Jolie any questions regarding her personal relationships. In the event Interviewer does ask Ms. Jolie any questions regarding her personal relationships, Ms. Jolie will have the right to immediately terminate the interview and leave."
The agreement also required that "the interview may only be used to promote the Picture. In no event may Interviewer or Media Outlet be entitled to run all or any portion of the interview in connection with any other story. ... The interview will not be used in a manner that is disparaging, demeaning, or derogatory to Ms. Jolie."
If that wasn't enough, Jolie also requires that if any of these things happen, "the tape of the interview will not be released to Interviewer." Such a violation, the signatory thus agrees, would "cause Jolie irreparable harm" and make it possible for her to sue the interviewer and seek a restraining order.
I am told that USA Today and the Associated Press were among those that canceled interviews, and eventually Jolie scotched all print interviews when she heard the reaction.
Update: Jolie apologizes on Jon Steward, blames her reps.
The Palestinians, of course. But hardly theirs alone. As Nahum Barnea, Israel's finest journalist, put it today in Yediot Achronoth, "The US and Israel had a decisive contribution to this failure. The Americans, in their lack of understanding for the processes of Islamization in the territories, pressured to hold democratic elections and brought Hamas to power with their own hands…. Since the elections, Israel, like the US, declared over and over that "Abu Mazen must be strengthened," but in practice, zero was done for this to happen. The meetings with him turned into an Israeli political tool, and Olmert's kisses and backslapping turned Abu Mazen into a collaborator and a source of jokes on the Palestinian street."
The failures to which Barnea refers didn't start with the Palestinian elections either, not by a long shot. Back when Hamas was just a gleam in Sheik Ahmad Yassin’s blind eye, Israeli right-ringers were implementing a strategy to eliminate the authority of Palestinian moderates by building up religious extremists. These Israelis (some very high in Likud governments) believed that only supplanting Arafat’s Fatah with Islamic fundamentalists would prevent a situation under which Israel would be forced to negotiate with moderates.
My Dad has been known to write letters to radio hosts who use "you know" too often. Hey, Dad, this Fathers' Day, you might want to jot a note to Buckhingham Palace. From Matt Lauer's interview with the princes.
LAUER: What's the coolest thing about being a prince? (LAUGHTER) PRINCE HARRY: It's-- PRINCE WILLIAM: Yeah, it's a difficult question there. LAUER: You're struggling, huh? PRINCE HARRY: Yeah. PRINCE WILLIAM: Yeah. No, I think it's-- we're very lucky. You know, we have lots of things that we are very fortunate to have. You know, we have a house, you know? We have, you know, all these sort of nice things around us. And so, you know, we're grateful for that because so many people don't have that. We have, you know, relative stability and stuff like that. And, you know, lots of things that, you know, everyone would, you know, love to have.
Based on a lesson in scalping I got years ago on my way to scalp tickets for the Super Bowl in Atlanta, my understanding has been that the networks were big scalpers, holding tickets to big events until the last minute in case any sponsors wanted in, then ditching them to select agents. Seems the team owners have now gotten smart and are devising ways to get a piece of the action themselves, swiping it back from Ebay etc.
Flash Seats allows sports teams to exert total control over who fills their seats, and to fight back against sites like Craigslist, eBay, TicketsNow and StubHub, which have transformed the shady world of ticket scalping into a $3-billion-a-year business.
Those sites have pushed ticket reselling far beyond the reach of professional sports teams, entertainment arenas and the local police as they try to enforce state antiscalping laws. Now teams like the Cavaliers have conceded the inevitability of ticket exchanges and are creating their own — and, in some cases, taking a lucrative piece of the pie.
They argue that by controlling the resale market for their tickets, they can cut down on counterfeiting and the outrageously high prices often demanded by scalpers. Cavaliers executives also say that with Flash Seats, they have the additional benefit of knowing exactly who is sitting in every seat — and can market to them in the future.
The conservative pendulum stopped in the Baptist convention this week.
Southern Baptists concerned about a rightward shift in the denomination claimed a significant victory Wednesday with the passage of a motion centered on Baptist identity. Some conservatives downplayed the vote's importance and called the measure confusing.
In results announced Wednesday morning, delegates at the denomination's annual meeting voted 58 percent to 42 percent to support a statement calling the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 the sufficient standard for establishing what makes a good Southern Baptist.
"I do think that what is happening is an attempt by many people, and I don't know if it's a majority, to say that the pendulum has swung far enough," Southern Baptist Convention President Frank Page told reporters Wednesday. The SBC, which has more than 16 million members across the country, has its headquarters in Nashville.
"There was a day and time when that was an extreme document to some, and now it's almost like it's being seen as more moderating, a moderating influence and that many want to go beyond it. … I do believe we've gone far enough and that the Baptist Faith and Message is enough, and I encourage entities not to go beyond that in their doctrinal parameters."
Jerusalem Post Not Endorsing Guiliani Thursday, June 14, 2007
The other day, as a reader forced to register at the Jerusalem Post to read content, I got one of the umpteen ads that we are obliged to receive. I've been thinking of giving up the Post as I tend to read Haaretz anyway. Then I got an advertisement for Rudy Guiliani that I assumed amounted to a defacto endorsement. Then this arrives today:
The bottom of this email advertisement stated that it was "Paid for by the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee, Inc." However, correct practice is to mark such emails as advertising in the "Subject" box as well. Because of an internal error, this practice was not followed. We have taken steps to insure that it will be in future.
We would like to stress again that the content of this advertisement has no connection to The Jerusalem Post newspaper or its online content, and does not reflect the editorial views of The Jerusalem Post in any way.
I don't exactly here them apologizing for selling our email addresses. Memo to self: Dump the Post!
Shimon Peres Elected President of Israel Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Interesting move into a largely ceremonial role. Question: Will Peres try to make the traditionally empty role more politically active? My guess is yes.
Despite the octogenarian Peres' record as a Nobel laureate, former prime minister, protege of David Ben-Gurion and founder of Israel's nuclear program, much of his political legacy was still riding on the vote, following a string of electoral defeats going back decades.
The Peres victory followed an especially painful defeat seven years ago at the hands of then-Likud MK Moshe Katsav. On the eve of the vote, Peres was said to have been assured by no less than 66 lawmakers that they would vote for him. But when the votes were counted in a secret ballot, 63 MKs had voted for Katsav and only 57 for Peres.
Katsav, who now faces the possibility of rape and sexual assault charges, has suspended himself from presidential duties.
Rivlin, a former speaker of the Knesset who enjoys broad popularity in the house, was until recently seen as the clear favorite in the race. But a late surge by Peres, courting the endorsement of ultra-Orthodox spiritual leaders and other key figures, closed the gap.
A perfect gift for Mrs. Feiler Faster, having married into a family of Nikon toters but not quite knowing an f-stop from an IHOP.
Taking photos while traveling used to be an afterthought, like airport souvenirs. But thanks to the boom in digital cameras, vacation photos have proliferated like spam. There’s no film to waste, no Fotomats to visit and oodles more pictures to clog e-mail inboxes. But are those pictures any good?
A growing number of shutterbugs seem to think not, and that has given rise to a popular new trend in travel: photography safaris. Combining guided tours to exotic locales with hands-on instruction, photo safaris seek to turn the everyday Ofoto user into a budding Ansel Adams.
“They are a huge and growing market,” said Reid Callanan, the director of Sante Fe Workshops (www.santafeworkshops.com), a photography school that offers dozens of tours every year, including a seven-day workshop in Tuscany with National Geographic photographers. “Everybody and their brother, most major photo magazines and many photographers are doing them.”
I realize that Top 100 lists are meant to outrage, but Machu Pichu, Bethlehem and New Orleans make the list of 1op 100 most endangered places along with Florida Southern College? Please.
New Orleans' hurricane-ravaged historic neighborhoods, the Church of the Holy Nativity under Palestinian control in Bethlehem, cultural heritage sites in Iraq and Machu Picchu Historic Sanctuary in Peru are among the locations listed on the fund's top 100 most endangered.
The U.S. locations also include historic Route 66, the fabled east-west highway flanked by eccentric, deteriorating attractions, and the New York State Pavilion, a rusting remnant of the 1964 World's Fair in New York City's Queens borough.
"On this list, man is indeed the real enemy," Bonnie Burnham, president of the New York-based fund, said in a statement. "But, just as we caused the damage in the first place, we have the power to repair it."
This year's list of the 100 most endangered sites includes 59 countries. The United States is home to more listed sites than any other country at seven, including types of development such as "Main Street Modern" public buildings that symbolized progress after World War II. There are six sites listed in Peru and five each in India and Turkey.
Years ago I wrote a chapter in DREAMING OUT LOUD about the messaging that country music stars send with their photos. Rule #1: If you're a woman, and you're selling sex, go barefoot.
Forget Paris Hilton or Willie Horton, the biggest celebrity on the Presidential hustings this year is Charles Darwin. If Gallup is right, the GOP will continue its Darwin bashing.
The majority of Republicans in the United States do not believe the theory of evolution is true and do not believe that humans evolved over millions of years from less advanced forms of life. This suggests that when three Republican presidential candidates at a May debate stated they did not believe in evolution, they were generally in sync with the bulk of the rank-and-file Republicans whose nomination they are seeking to obtain.
Independents and Democrats are more likely than Republicans to believe in the theory of evolution. But even among non-Republicans there appears to be a significant minority who doubt that evolution adequately explains where humans came from.
Here's the oddly phrased question.
Now thinking about how human beings came to exist on Earth, do you, personally, believe in evolution, or not?
Yes, believe in evolution
No, do not
No opinion
2007 May 21-24
49
48
2
So odd that even Gallup apologizes: It is important to note that this question included a specific reference to "thinking about how human beings came to exist on Earth . . ." that oriented the respondents toward an explicit consideration of the implication of evolution for man's origin. Results may have been different without this introductory phrase.
I went to a dinner tonight above the Fairway Market in Manhattan and ended up in a delightful conversation with a group of veterans and current employees of the Asia Society. The mix of cultures was fascinating, including an American Jewish woman formerly married to an Indian Hindu; a Hindu woman (rasied in Anglican schools) married to a Jewish man; and another couple of iterations of the same theme. The conversation turned to this question: Which is a better match, a Bujew relationship, meaning one member of a couple who's Jewish and one who's Buddhist, or a Hinjew relationship, meaning one couple is Jewish and the other is Hindu.
Answers fell on both sides, but the best came from one person at the table who suggested that Buddhism and Judaism are more compatible but a Hindu and a Jew are more compatible. The main reason seem to fall back on the idea that Jewish mothers and Hindu mothers are similar. Hmmm. Thoughts?
My friend Christine Rosen has a wonderful review in the WSJ about a new a book about early evangelical Aimee McPherson. A reader stopped me at BEA, the book convention, last week and raved about this book, too. Here's some of the review:
McPherson -- or "Sister Aimee," as she was known -- was the doyenne of the Angelus Temple, a spiritual palace that opened in 1923 in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. For years she witnessed to a crowded flock, staging "illustrated sermons" complete with props and costumes. Her trademark white dress and flowing white cape lent a Florence Nightingale air to her sermons, not to mention a bit of P.T. Barnum. She frequently spoke of her devotion to Christ as that of a bride to a bridegroom. Despite having a "high-pitched, nasal, singsong voice," Mr. Sutton writes, McPherson became "the first religious celebrity of the mass media era," embracing "print, radio, and film for use in her evangelical mission..."
McPherson has been the subject of other biographies; Mr. Sutton has wisely decided not to write another, strictly speaking. Instead, he gives an account of McPherson's life within the cultural currents of her time. He argues that she had an almost preternatural ability to tap her audience's social fears -- about immigration, for instance, or the changing role of women -- and offer reassurance in the form of simple spiritual storytelling. He also portrays her, less persuasively, as a brave transgressor of gender norms.
True, 50 years before Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, McPherson cast aside her apron (and rid herself of a pesky second husband) to pursue her calling. "God, she believed, wanted her to exchange domestic life for the pulpit," Mr. Sutton writes. But she also deployed traditional feminine wiles, exploiting personal details to win public approval. Broadcasting live from her nuptial boudoir just a day after marrying her third husband, for example, she treated radio listeners to the sound of their enthusiastic kisses. When the marriage failed, she churned out "sacred operas" whose lyrics read like lachrymose sympathy cards: "Do you live in a castle of broken dreams, / Where Giant despair and his dark horde teems?"
McPherson's life story tells us less about flouting gender norms than about navigating celebrity's treacherous terrain. As Mr. Sutton demonstrates, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines helped to make McPherson famous and to disseminate her message. But their appetite for sensationalism also worked against her -- not that she didn't give them help.
That's right. A set of identical twins, conceived through IVF were delivered in California via different Moms. The Daily Mail overhypes the story, I'd guess, to say that they're the first ever born on the same day, but the story is still interesting.
Born minutes apart and with almost identical looks, there seems little to set Lauren and Hannah Bernaba apart from any other pair of newborn twins.
But the girls are the world's first twins to be born on the same day to two different women.
First, biological mother Amy Bernaba gave birth to Lauren, weighing 7lb 10oz, then, half an hour later, surrogate mum Torry Keay delivered 7lb 3oz Hannah.
The double pregnancy happened after Mrs Bernaba and husband George had undergone IVF treatment for 12 years in an effort to conceive a baby brother or sister for their son Jeremy, now 15.
I watched two episodes of the Soprano's in their entirety: The first and the last, catching only intermittent ones in between. But I'm the viewer that Tom Shales describes here:
"It may have been the greatest double-take -- by the audience -- in the history of American television.
"Millions of viewers who might have thought something had gone wrong with their TV sets or cable systems last night were mistaken. When the picture vanished at the end, the very end, of "The Sopranos" and the screen went black, that was producer David Chase's unorthodox and arguably ingenious way of ending the series and dispatching the Soprano family to eternity."
But even for the many Mormons who support Mr. Romney, the moment is fraught with anxiety because his candidacy is bringing intense scrutiny to their church, and could exacerbate longstanding bigotry.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormon Church is called, has been fighting for legitimacy since its founding 177 years ago in upstate New York. The church’s first prophet, Joseph Smith Jr., was killed by a mob in Illinois and his followers fled from persecution and settled in Utah.
While Mormons are by now successfully integrated and prospering in the American mix, memories of that persecution are still fresh. Many current members can trace their great-great-grandparents to the church’s earliest pioneers, and children grow up reading their ancestors’ original diaries. Many Mormons fear that Mr. Romney’s campaign may reopen old wounds.
“I thought we might get mud thrown at us,” said Lula DeValve, 82, a retired teacher and a Democrat who volunteers with the League of Women Voters.
John Hatch, 30, a history student at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, said, “What most Mormons desire is acceptance.”
“We see ourselves as normal,” Mr. Hatch said. “We struggle with those outsiders who see us as weird — the magic underwear stuff,” a reference to the ritual garments that Mormons are supposed to wear under their clothing.
Lots of commentary has spewed forth about the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War. Here's a sample of the pro-Israel position from someone who was there.
Like anyone who believes in the justice of Israel's existence, I was deeply relieved by its victory on June 10. I had heard the bloodthirsty Arab threats of a new Holocaust. I had seen the "Kill the Jews" posters in Gaza schools. I had seen the bunkers and mass graves that Israel had been forced to dig in expectation of invasion, if not defeat.
Yet, as we mark its 40th anniversary, it's become fashionable in some circles to rewrite the history of the Six-Day War. Radicals, so-called "humanitarians" and others who love to hate Israel now claim that what was essentially a war for survival was in fact just an excuse for Zionist imperialism. Even serious journals like Britain's The Economist say that while the war may have been necessary, it has ultimately proven "a calamity for the Jewish state."
How ridiculous! Despite the seemingly insoluble problems that have arisen over the past four decades - not the least of them, Israel's continuing rule over occupied territories and a million-plus hostile Palestinians - the war was not only necessary, it was one of Israel's finest hours.
“Water sommelier” turned out not to be the pseudo-job that Time’s Joel Stein expected it would be, he says after lunching with bottled water specialist Michael Mascha (no link available). Mr. Mascha, a former wine sommelier who has written a book about specialty water, quickly allayed Mr. Stein’s skepticism by pre-emptively declaring that water has no smell, little taste and costs too much in most restaurants. But Mr. Mascha insists that high-quality bottled waters have unique mouthfeels that can affect a fine-dining experience. In Mr. Mascha’s view, water, whether still or sparkling, has three distinct qualities: the size and amount of bubbles; whether it is alkaline (generally sweet) or acid (generally sour); and density, measured by total dissolved solids, or TDS.
To his surprise, Mr. Stein found himself relishing each water pairing Mr. Mascha selected — a Vichy Catalan from Spain for beef tartar; a medium-carbonated, high-calcium water with tagliatelle; and an almost mineral-free New Zealand water named Antipodes with a salad of tomatoes and Burrata, an Italian cheese. As a guide, Mr. Mascha suggests treating high-TDS waters (above 800) like red wines and low-TDS waters like white ones. He also recommends pairing water that has small bubbles with subtler dishes to avoid overpowering the food.
My emails suggest lots of people are looking for WALKING THE BIBLE discussion groups. Here's your chance to join one online:
Walking the Bible is a great book to take along to your fantasy island. What could be better than accompanying journalist Feiler as explores the geographical source of his Jewish faith? You'll learn from his interviews with noted scholars and will be inspired when Feiler reads Bible stories in their natural surroundings. You'll have adventures and insights along the way and gain a better understanding of the Bible and the land out of which Judaism and Christianity emerged.
Bruce Feiler is a witty and engaging author with an inquisitive mind and sharp intellect. I promise that you'll enjoy a virtual trip to the Holy Lands from the safety of your fantasy island or even at home. Start reading now so you can join the book discussion June 25th! You don't have to be a RGBP blogger to join in. I'll cross post the discussion at QG that day as well.
And you can warm up by listening to an interview I did that's just been made available on Podcast.
A group of Italian senators want ice cream in their cafeteria to "improve the quality of life" in the Senate, astonishing observers as Italy's political class faces a growing backlash over its handsome pay and perks.
In a letter to the Senate building's administrators, Italian senators Rocco Buttiglione and Albertina Soliani said serving "gelato" could be considered serving the needs of people's daily life.
"The cafeteria is not supplied with ice cream," said the letter, published by Italian newspapers on Friday. "We think it would be useful if it were and we are certain that it can be interpreted as the desire of many."
The letter comes amid a public crisis of confidence in Italy's political establishment, with opinion polls showing a general lack of faith in elected officials while a new book that portrays it as a bloated, overpaid apparatus has quickly become a bestseller.
This is not the first gastronomic request by Italy's senators either, La Repubblica newspaper said.
They had previously asked for -- and succeeded in getting -- regional specialties on the menu such as meat of white buffalo, and also partook in a wine sommelier course in March.
WHEN it comes to finding child-friendly haunts in the South, Savannah might not be the first city that comes to mind. After all, endless tours of historic mansions and myriad distinctive, though largely grown-up, galleries and stores would be enough to bore any energetic youngster. But it turns out that this vibrant 18th-century port city — and nearby Tybee Island, with its lovely, expansive beach — can be equal fun for young and old.
Two highlights:
The newest downtown attraction is the 64,000-square-foot Jepson Center for the Arts (207 West York Street, 912-790-8800; www.telfair.org/buildings/jepson.asp; $10, $4 for ages 5 to 12, under 5 free), which has scores of workshops for all ages. Inside the center, the ArtZeum is a two-level space for children with a walk-through glass house and audio-visual displays. A low-tech area includes a huge doodling wall and architectural building blocks for the youngest visitors.
Ghost tours are a Savannah mainstay. Shannon Scott says he has documented hundreds of Savannians' personal encounters with local ghosts and voodoo. He and Chris Soucy operate Sixth Sense Tours (888-374-4678, www.savannahghosttour.com; 7 and 9:30 p.m.; $18, $10 for ages 10 to 15, $5 under 10). Their shorter more family-friendly walk is America's Most Haunted City the Tour ($12., $8 for ages 8 to 11, $5 under 8). This 75-to-90-minute tour includes the 1797 Hampton-Lillibridge House, which was moved to its current location by Jim Williams, the protagonist of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.” He believed that one of the house's ghosts was an 18th-century resident of Savannah, Rene Asche Rondolier, who was said to have been lynched after being accused of murdering two girls at what is now Colonial Park Cemetery.
The NICU Saved My Son's Life Thursday, June 7, 2007
A reader writes in response to my post on the New New NICU:
In 1962,(five years before I was born), my mother gave birth to a premie boy. That brother of mine died several days after birth. In 1982, my nephew was born 4 weeks early. He had a 2 to 3 week stay in the NICU at St. Jo's in Savannah and completed the ordeal with a nerve-wracking ambulance ride to the better equipped NICU unit at Memorial Hospital also in Savannah. It was a trying time, but an amazing one. He left happy and healthy and just a few years ago graduated from Georgia Tech (after doing very well at SCDS, I might add!). In 1993, I gave birth to a boy that was several weeks early. He stayed 5 days in the NICU and also left happy and healthy. He is now a very healthy and tall (six feet!) 13 year old. Our family has witnessed the progression of NICU care. Truly, the people that are called to that work are a gift from God. They do amazing things. What a wonderful addition to have more intimate time with a newborn. That was my only negative experience - rocking and feeding my newborn in a room full of people. However, I am grateful for the technology that has saved so many precious lives.
An interesting debate has broken out in Germany over whether Israel should encourage German Jews to migrate or leave them be to replant the Jewish community depleted because of the Holocaust. I'm with the Germans here. The Diaspora is good for Judaism and good for Israel.
The leaders of Germany's Jewish community have warned Prime Minister Ehud Olmert they would request the German government's help in preventing Israel from encouraging Jews settled in Germany to immigrate to Israel.
Stephan J. Kramer, who heads the Central Council of Jews in Germany, sent the warning following Israel's decision last week to extend the jurisdiction of Nativ , the government body in charge of promoting immigration from the Former Soviet Union to Israel. Nativ and the Jewish Agency will cooperate in running ulpans (Hebrew courses) and other educational programs in Germany, which is home to some 200,000 Russian-speaking Jews who moved there from the Former Soviet Union in recent years.
The tired, scurrilous claim that people who oppose the Administration (be them Democrats on Iraq or Republicans on immigration) are un-patriotic is not enough for some candidates for president. Now Mike Huckabee thinks any person who opposes Creationism is anti-God. A funny analysis of this by Roger Simon in scoring the Republican debate:
THIRD PLACE: Mike Huckabee
Analysis: Veep Alert! Veep Alert! Smooth. Not too strident. Not too tall. Won’t overshadow top of ticket. Totally playing for the vice presidential slot.
Knows how to set up a straw man and then knock him down: Asked about why he believes in Creationism, he said: “If they want a president who doesn't believe in God, there's probably plenty of choices.” There are? Name one.
I've always been a bit uncomfortable with the term "Religious Left." It seems such a derivative term of the "Religious Right." The power of the "Religious Right," it seems to me, has long come not from the fact that its members hold conservative political views -- are both religious and right, in the political sense -- but that it was, at least formerly, an organized political entity, with fundraising capacity, mailing lists, and organizational muscle. That is the part of the political spectrum that seems diminished these days. The so-called Religious Left is largely made up up people who are religious and left, in the political sense, with the limited exception of a few organizations, among them Sojourners. That's why the Sojourners conference this week has gotten so much attention: It's old-fashioned muscle flexing, which is great.
Here, the Christian Science Monitor, reviews the event:
This was no garden-variety political presentation by the top three Democratic presidential candidates Monday night on the campus of George Washington University, in the shadow of the White House. The forum, sponsored by the progressive Christian group Sojourners, represented the boldest indication yet that the "religious left" is building as a political force, no longer willing to cede "values voters" to the religious conservative movement that has long formed the activist base of the Republican Party.
The candidates' easy willingness to appear at the forum also represents a watershed for the modern Democratic Party: Intimate discussion of faith, and how it informs policy views and personal behavior, is no longer an arms-length proposition at the party's highest levels.
"It's an important strategic move for all these people – not to say their faith isn't genuine," says Jim Guth, an expert on religion and politics at Furman University in Greenville, S.C. "But I think they recognize that in a very closely divided electorate, any ability they have to peel off moderate religious conservatives or centrists, by making it clear they're comfortable with the language of faith – that's a political advantage and wise strategy and maybe good policy and good politics."
In an ironic twist – following a 2004 election in which white Evangelicals went 80 percent for the Republican, President Bush – today's top Democratic contenders may be more comfortable fielding questions on religion than today's top Republicans. On the GOP side, Rudolph Giuliani is a Roman Catholic who is on his third marriage and who takes liberal positions on social issues; John McCain is an Episcopalian, but, like Mr. Giuliani, rarely mentions his faith. Mitt Romney describes his Mormonism as central to his life, but it's a religion that leaves many voters uncomfortable – and could make him an awkward fit for conservative Evangelical voters. The three top Republicans have been invited by Sojourners to appear at a forum in September.
Still, experts on religion and politics agree that the religious left has a way to go to catch up to the religious right in organizational strength and that there are structural barriers that could prevent it from happening.
A segment of animated footage promoting the 2012 Olympic Games has been removed from the organisers' website after fears it could trigger epileptic fits.
Prof Graham Harding, who developed the test used to measure photo-sensitivity levels in TV material, said it should not be broadcast again.
Charity Epilepsy Action said it had received calls from people who had suffered fits after seeing it.
Organiser London 2012 said it will re-edit the film.
I went to the Democratic faith-off last night to see Edwards, Obama and Clinton expose their religious life to a religious-left audience. It felt to me like that scene in Coriolanus when the great leader is forced to go into the town square and let the hoi polloi examine, discuss and judge his war-scars. It was a spectacle at once spiritually crass, politicallly vulgar and democratically corrosive. It didn't help that the theologically-challenged moderator, CNN's Soledad O'Brien, asked questions like: "What's the biggest sin you've ever committed?" Just when you think cable news cannot get any dumber, someone like Ms O'Brien slinks onto a stage.
But the implications of the debate were more worrying. We have had terrible problems grappling with the religious right these past few years, but we may have just begun to adjust to the power and emergence of the religious left. The rhetoric would have done evangelical statist, Michael Gerson, proud. And when you see three leading Democratic candidates fall over each other to endorse faith-based initiatives, and insist, in Clinton's words, on "injecting faith into policy," or, in Obama's words, basing politics on a "Biblical injunction," you realize that George W. Bush really has had a legacy. He has decisively increased the religiosity of public debate - as well, of course, as its fatuousness. How can we "end poverty" in the next ten years, asked Jim Wallis? Umm: didn't LBJ already try that? And, given the certainty and self-righteousness all around me, why not just end poverty, illness, and illegitimacy in the next ten months? Why not end tyranny as well, while we're at it? (Oops: we just tried that. Never mind.) Jeez. Some people just keep putting boundaries on the power of God. When merged with government, what social ill can it not solve?
I watched part of the show, and while I disagree that it's corrosive (why is it more corrosive that being forced to raise your hand repeatedly and declare positions on complex issues, like English as the official languaged?), I can't disagree that it was not all that enlightening. I did find Hillary Clinton more relaxed than I have seen her in many months. Maybe she's gaining confidence with her continued success and at having been so stellar on Sunday night.
As for which questions I wish were asked, click here.
I'm something of a Design Geek. When I was young, my fantasy job was to design album covers. One of the reasons I write books today is to get to sit alongside the designer and watch her (a friend has done all my covers recently) work on the design. I realize this is the nightmare scenario for most designers, but there you have it. I'm probably a Design Bore as well.
So: My brother sent me the new logo yesterday unveiled for the London Olympics.
I HATED IT. No equivocation. No being stirred by the words of Sebastian Coe, "It will define the venues we build and the Games we hold, and act as a reminder of our promise to use the Olympic spirit to inspire everyone and reach out to young people around the world." I simply HATED it. Too blocky. It wasn't until I looked at it three times that I realized this concrete-looking shapes were supposed to be 2012. The color is like an ambulance. The font for "london" is all wrong. And why the lowercase. Perfect for Moscow circa 1928. Wrong for today.
No surprise then that that same AFP article that my brother linked to earlier in the day now had the headling, "New Logo Triggers Debate." The opening line said it better: The "iconic" logo for the 2012 London Olympics was unveiled here on Monday, but critics immediately condemned it as "hideous" and a waste of money.
First called “the miracle vine,” kudzu eventually came to be known as “the vine that ate the South.” It grows at an astonishing rate of a foot a day, smothering flora, swallowing houses and blanketing the landscape.
Now embedded in the South, as well as in parts of Oklahoma, Texas and some Northern states, kudzu can be found on at least a million acres of federal forest land, and probably millions more acres of private land, said James H. Miller, a research ecologist for the Forest Service.
While not the worst invasive plant species, “kudzu is probably the most recognized invasive plant in the world,” Mr. Miller said.
On Missionary Ridge, which bisects Chattanooga and where homes command stunning views of the valley below, the battle with kudzu is constant. Of particular worry for the city were vines that draped over the mouth of the McCallie Tunnel, which cuts through the ridge.
Mrs. Feiler Faster and I certainly noticed how good Hillary looked the other night during the debate. It seems others did, too. On sending this article to my wife, she reports: "She looked and sounded FAB at the debates but the next morning I did notice the puffiness. Boy it’s hard for a woman to run for office…"
0 for 5 in the Democratic Debate tonight. But hope! CNN plugged an hour about Faith and Politics on Monday night at 7 pm based on Jim Wallis' big event coming up in WDC this week.
Michael Novak reviews the new trend of anti-God books:
"The whole inner world of aware and self-questioning religious persons seems to be territory unexplored by our authors. All around them are millions who spend many moments each day (and hours each week) in communion with God. Yet of the silent and inward parts of these lives--and why these inner silences ring to those who share them so true, and seem more grounded in reality than anything else in life--our writers seem unaware. Surely, if our atheist friends were to reconsider their methods, and deepen their understanding of such terms as “experience” and “the empirical,” they might come closer to walking for a tentative while in the moccasins of so many of their more religious companions in life, who find theism more intellectually satisfying--less self-contradictory, less alienating from their own nature--than atheism."
A friend forwarded me this press release. It seems Paula Deen, the Food Network superstar from Savannah, is in hot water with the pig processors.
A peaceful vigil will be held outside Paula Deen's June 2nd 4pm cooking show in front of the Century Tel Arena, 2000 CenturyTel Center Drive in Bossier City, to ask the chef to end its relationship with Smithfield, the abusive pork processing company. A "Smithfield, Tar Heel -free" fish fry for the community will follow.
Concerned community members from will attempt to deliver a letter to Paula Deen written by Smithfield workers from the company's massive pork plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina seeking a meeting with Ms. Deen. Organizations across the country are vowing to follow the chef during her tour until she accepts the letter and agrees to hear the concerns of the families working at Smithfield. Shreveport is the first in that tour.
The letter explains the injustices that Tar Heel's predominantly African American and Latino workers have to face everyday by the sponsor of Deen's national tour, Smithfield Foods. They will also be giving out literature to the public to raise consumer awareness about the abuses the workers suffer. The company was found in various legal rulings to have assaulted, intimidated and used racial epithets against its workers. Many workers say that they suffer crippling injuries, are fired when they can't keep up with the work and then left without health insurance or the ability to earn a living.
During a recent April appearance by Deen in Washington, DC a mother of three who was injured while working at Smithfield, attempted to peacefully deliver the letter asking Deen to meet with her and other Smithfield workers and was escorted out by security.
"We want to be able to cook for our families just like you do, but if you have had your finger cut off from working at Smithfield, you can?t" said former Smithfield worker Lenora Bailey who had been injured on the job and was subsequently fired. "We are just asking Paula to not support a company that is causing so many of our families to suffer. We want her to do the right thing. She should use her influence to ask the company to stop abusing us. "
Picked up at a talk by the Dean of Yale College on Saturday at my 20th Reunion. The top four languages at Yale: Spanish, French, Chinese, and Arabic. Italian was formerly fourth on the list. Otherwise, the only thing I learned that Chinese and Arabic are both new on the list.
Dear Podcast Fans (including, it would seem, my Dad!) Dick Staub has made available a podcast of an interview I did with him a few years ago when WALKING THE BIBLE was first published. To download the interview, click here. The summary:
An encore presentation of The Dick Staub Show Interview with the irrepressible Bruce Feiler about his breakthrough bestseller. Last time I saw him was in a grocery store in Brooklyn with his wife and two kids! “Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses is the story of Bruce Feiler’s 10,000-mile trek from Mount Ararat to Mount Nebo, undertaken for reasons he did not understand at the outset and accompanied by a companion who was very nearly a stranger…during his journey, Feiler’s previously abstract faith grew more grounded…The lessons he learned about the relationship between place and the spirit will be useful for readers of every religious tradition that finds its origins in the Bible.”
To see a picture of the supermarket where we ran into each other, click here.
Poetry Reference of the Month Friday, June 1, 2007
On ESPN!! John Buccigrass on LeBron James' myth-making performance in the NBA Eastern Regional Finals last night. He ended his report with these words.
If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run - Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
Awesome! Give that man a raise! It seems worth quoting the entire poem.
If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or, being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two imposters just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breath a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch; If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run - Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
