The other day I was watching 'Californication', a truly terrible television show that a friend of mine recommended that I can't stop watching. In the show, Ducovny goes on a rant about blogs watering down the intellectual process and posing as pseudo-writing. In addition, the internet and internet-speak have pared down the English language to a series of acronymical babble: LOL, BRB, etc.
So take this as a disclaimer for those who haven't already noticed: I'm no writer. I'm not posing as a writer. Someday, I might write a book. I will write carefully. I will use a dictionary. I will hire an editor. I might collect my thoughts and cull through them with precision. Until then, I will ramble about things that annoy me, recent sporting events that have no bearing on real life, and sudden flashes of frustration about my selected religious expression. But don't think I'm doing it because I think I'm a 'writer'. I'll be the first to admit: I haven't the foggiest idea what I'm doing. One day, I just decided to write. Someday, I might stop. Till then, I'll do my best to make sense on occasion. Seacrest out.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
L'Shunah Tuvah Bubbele
... As my bubbie would pronounce it ('Straight outta Poland'). Everyone go out and have a heckuva year in 5768. Purge those sins, return ye backsliding children, and don't forget that if you come halfway, then the Big Hashem-ster will come the rest of the way for you. And don't forget to floss.
Oh yeah. And hey, keep on reading the Radical Cleric. I'm not feeling the love, people. In fact, since the clearly un-funny Transgendered Bracha Throwdown, I sense my readership has dropped to possibly the low single digits. C'mon, mom, tell Uncle Shecky to give me a bookmark; last year I comp-ed him for High Holidays...
Oh yeah. And hey, keep on reading the Radical Cleric. I'm not feeling the love, people. In fact, since the clearly un-funny Transgendered Bracha Throwdown, I sense my readership has dropped to possibly the low single digits. C'mon, mom, tell Uncle Shecky to give me a bookmark; last year I comp-ed him for High Holidays...
Monday, September 10, 2007
AIPAC, Foxman, and Bush- Just because they all suck does not mean they are in league together
This is something of a re-post from a comment I wrote on jewschool's post from my friend Kol Ra'ash Gadol regarding the NPR Terry Gross 'Fresh Air' point-counterpoint with Stephen Walt and Abe Foxman, which you can catch here.
I agree with Kol Ra'ash that Abe Foxman sounds like a douchebag. More importantly, by his tilting the ADL in the last 10 years away from focusing on defending the rights of all racial, ethnic and religious groups, and focusing instead on defending the Jews, he's really proven to be not only a douchebag, but also a really lousy leader for the Jewish people. Are we so helpless we need a 501c3 that exists solely to refute anti-semitic claims? I know the ADL still does defend the rights of other slandered minority groups, but all I hear about in the past few years is their impassioned defense of the Jews. I'd rather we continued to work in coalition with other minority groups and all work together to end racist hatred of all shapes and sizes.
BUT, more to Kol Ra'ash's point: Walt does make a good point that AIPAC exerts a lot of influence on Washington and that it may not be such a good thing. AIPAC doesn't represent a fair cross-section of US Jewish opinion on Israel and that leads me to feel that when they get criticized publicly for their influence, they deserve it. The US and Israel are both mostly righteous but flawed moral-political states. Their attitudes and relationship can serve sometimes as a system of checks and balances. When Bush I threatened to pull loan guarantees from Israel for building settlements, it was roundly attacked by the Jewish community and AIPAC. But it was an important act: an increase in settlements is detrimental to making peace with the Palestinians.
HOWEVER, Walt undoes any gains in his argument (or at least what I heard on Fresh Air) when he suggests the Israel lobby drove the US to invade Iraq. From day one of the administration the Bush government began to build a case for war in Iraq; the doctored up argument at the UN by Colin Powell, the flimsy CIA and NSA reports to Congress... AIPAC doesn't nearly have the money or power to get Bush II to pull all that stuff together. Bush saw Iraq as a threat, as his father's unfinished business, as a nice little profitable oil opportunity, and a chance to expand US influence in the Middle East by planting a pro-US regime. Pleasing the Israel lobby is an ancillary benefit, at best.
To miss the forest for the trees like that, Walt and Mearschlizzer's thesis comes off to me as pseudo-intellectual dreck at best and veiled anti-semitism at worst.
I agree with Kol Ra'ash that Abe Foxman sounds like a douchebag. More importantly, by his tilting the ADL in the last 10 years away from focusing on defending the rights of all racial, ethnic and religious groups, and focusing instead on defending the Jews, he's really proven to be not only a douchebag, but also a really lousy leader for the Jewish people. Are we so helpless we need a 501c3 that exists solely to refute anti-semitic claims? I know the ADL still does defend the rights of other slandered minority groups, but all I hear about in the past few years is their impassioned defense of the Jews. I'd rather we continued to work in coalition with other minority groups and all work together to end racist hatred of all shapes and sizes.
BUT, more to Kol Ra'ash's point: Walt does make a good point that AIPAC exerts a lot of influence on Washington and that it may not be such a good thing. AIPAC doesn't represent a fair cross-section of US Jewish opinion on Israel and that leads me to feel that when they get criticized publicly for their influence, they deserve it. The US and Israel are both mostly righteous but flawed moral-political states. Their attitudes and relationship can serve sometimes as a system of checks and balances. When Bush I threatened to pull loan guarantees from Israel for building settlements, it was roundly attacked by the Jewish community and AIPAC. But it was an important act: an increase in settlements is detrimental to making peace with the Palestinians.
HOWEVER, Walt undoes any gains in his argument (or at least what I heard on Fresh Air) when he suggests the Israel lobby drove the US to invade Iraq. From day one of the administration the Bush government began to build a case for war in Iraq; the doctored up argument at the UN by Colin Powell, the flimsy CIA and NSA reports to Congress... AIPAC doesn't nearly have the money or power to get Bush II to pull all that stuff together. Bush saw Iraq as a threat, as his father's unfinished business, as a nice little profitable oil opportunity, and a chance to expand US influence in the Middle East by planting a pro-US regime. Pleasing the Israel lobby is an ancillary benefit, at best.
To miss the forest for the trees like that, Walt and Mearschlizzer's thesis comes off to me as pseudo-intellectual dreck at best and veiled anti-semitism at worst.
Avinu Malkeinu, Score us some goals
Great post from my favorite sports blog deadspin about Israel's defeat at the hands of England in the Euro 2008 qualifier this past shabbos. I can't say I was surprised, although Israel did pull a scoreless tie when they played at Ramat Gan. The loss means Israel probably needs a win against powerhouse Russia or the current Group E leader Croatia in upcoming games just to make the field of 16. Israel has never qualified for the European Championship; Israel qualified for the World Cup only once, in 1970.
I've pulled for Israel in all things sport since I could first fake my way through the words of 'Hatikva', which is quite possibly the most depressing National Anthem ever written. My friends and I gathered around the tube every Saturday night motzash to watch Israel best basketball team, Maccabi Tel Aviv, make like a shochet on its way to winning the European Championship. But that was by buying lots of non-yids to help win. An all-Israeli team hasn't won at much in international sports. I mean, shouldn't we at least be dominant in shooting, what with the compulsory conscription and frequent wars and all.
Anyhow. Regardless of this whole loss, I would like to give a shout out to Israeli striker Toto Tammuz. He was abandoned by his Nigerian football-player father in Israel and was adopted by an Israeli. He now plays for my favorite club, Beitar Yerushalayim, and has 10 goals in 18 games. If the KBH can't fenagle the Chosen People into Euro 2008, maybe Toto can do the will of the Borei in God's staid.
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