Today’s holidays: Fast of Ṭeveth (Judaism), Fourth Sunday of Advent (Roman Catholicism), Saturnalia and Larentalia (Roman religion), Feast Day of St. John Belushi (Church of the SubGenius), HumanLight (Secular Humanism).
Greetings.
1) Today is the Fast of Ṭeveth, which commemorates the siege on Yerushalayim. More information can be found in “Asara B'Tevet” and “Fast of 10th of Tevet Marks Siege of Jerusalem”. Needless to say, because of the fast, I am not particularly active today and will not wax poetic on anything.
2) Friday was supposed to be the end of the World according to various New Agers and a Christian sect known as “Almighty God”. Also needless to say, these people were wrong. The articles on the “Mayan apocalypse” did not stop, so today you get a followup.
Jewish date: 13 ’Adhar 5772 (Parashath Ki Thissa’).
Today’s holidays: Fast of ’Ester (Judaism), Feast Day of Perpetua and Felicity (Roman Catholicism), Bahá’í Month of Fasting (Bahá’í Faith), Feast Day of St. Barbara Eden.
Greetings.
Current holiday alert: The Purim season is upon us. Today is the Fast of ’Ester, which commemorates the fasting by ’Ester and the rest of the Jewish people preceding her approaching the Persian king ’Aḥashwerosh to save them from the machinations of the evil Haman. Tomorrow is Purim and the day after that Purim Shushan, which celebrate the victory of the Jews over their enemies. The story is recounted in the Book of Esther.
I have decided to take advantage of the fast day to note a few items from the news recently.
1) “Doctors 'should have the right to kill unwanted or disabled babies at birth as they are not a real person' claims Oxford academic”: This is an example of why I did not go into bioethics, considering it a field of non-problems. As I noted in my review of Atlas Shrugged, morality is a matter of opinion. The bioethicist in question is of the opinion that newborn babies do not qualify as people and thus killing handicapped or unwanted babies is not murder. While she is entitled to her opinion, her arguments are doomed to fall on deaf ears unless she can either justify them to others in terms of their own moral systems or convince others that hers is right. The reported reactions strongly suggest she has failed horribly.
2) “The Middle East’s real apartheid”: A piece on the hypocrisy of how the term “apartheid” is used by anti-Semites, noting the severe discrimination in Arab/Muslim countries.
3) “Witnessing 'child witch' exorcism in the DR Congo”: This is an illustration of why beliefs need to have some basis in reality. The results of believing that children are possessed can be disastrously cruel.
4) “Atheist group targets Muslims, Jews with ‘myth’ billboards in Arabic and Hebrew”: Yes, the militant atheist PR machine is at it again. And now they’re putting up billboards in and around New York City proclaiming to Jews and Muslims in Hebrew and Arabic about their gods “You know it’s a myth… and you have a choice.” This itself is a mistake, as not everyone knows that YHWH and ’Allāh are myths, and those who believe in these gods are quite likely to wonder the people running these ads are thinking. (A billboard is not a good medium to make even a half-decent argument for practically anything.) The article gives some idea what the atheist PR machine is thinking:
Dave Silverman, the president of American Atheists, said the signs are intended to reach atheists in the Muslim and Jewish enclaves who may feel isolated because they are surrounded by believers.
“Those communities are designed to keep atheists in the ranks,” he says. “If there are atheists in those communities, we are reaching out to them. We are letting them know that we see them, we acknowledge them and they don't have to live that way if they don’t want to.”
I get the impression that Mr. Silverman is living in a fantasy world. In the United States, nonbelievers can—and do—leave their belief communities. No one is stopping atheists from leaving the Jewish and Muslim communities. No one is even stopping them from expressing atheistic beliefs or remaining in their communities if they do so. And if the American Atheists are trying to reach nonbelievers who have trouble getting out, they should be advertising in more isolated places, such as Kiryas Joel and New Square.
Today’s holidays: Feast Day of Peter Claver (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Dean Corll (Church of the SubGenius).
Greetings.
Recently Harold sent me a link to an article worth mentioning, “Reversing the Moral Decay Behind the London Riots” by Rav Jonathan Sacks, which deals with the decline of morality (as an extension of religion) starting in the 1960s in the United Kingdom and the West in general as a factor leading to the recent London riots. And I do think that he has a point. Human societies are governed by rules, and a what we do is influenced by what we see others do. When people jettison rules which exist for perfectly good reasons (like rules against selfishness), bad consequences are unsurprising.
Clearly things have changed since the 1960s. Very apparent is that there have been changes in what is considered acceptable in the media. For a humorous example, if you will recall the 1960s sit-com Gilligan’s Island, it was followed up in 1978 with Rescue from Gilligan’s Island, which brings the castaways back to civilization after 15 years of isolation; of all the characters, it is Ginger, the sex symbol of the series, who criticizes many of the movies of that time for gratuitous sex and foul language. I am well aware that things have not gotten better in this regard since 1978. In fact, a lot of stuff I watch these days (over the Internet) is decades old, not merely out of curiosity of things I have only heard about or nostalgia, but also because of content. If Gilligan’s Island were made today—and there have been repeated threats of a movie version from time to time—it would almost certainly be a very different show; there is a high probability there would be a good deal of that gratuitous sex that Ginger complained about (certainly something beyond the teasing and manipulation that Ginger actually did), quite likely some foul language, probably more infighting and a good deal less of a sense of community, and probably more violence than the Skipper hitting Gilligan with his hat.
On the other hand, I find myself wondering how much of a trend of moral decay there really is. Human society consists of billions of people, and thus lots of different trends can happen simultaneously in all sorts of directions. And I do not think things have been going down uniformly. For example, there has been a lot of emphasis placed on eliminating racism and creating a more just world starting in the 1960s. I have also heard that Judaism was largely dying out in the United States until 1948, after which there has been an increasing ba‘al teshuvah movement (to put it in Christian terms, Jews “getting religion”). To Rav Sacks’s credit, he avoids the clichéd falsehood that moral decline is inevitable and even notes that in the 1820s that the United States and Britain became more religious.
Paradoxically, you can even get things going both ways at the same time in the same group of people. The United States has a large population of religious Christians—many of which politically take positions which are difficult or impossible to reconcile with anything Jesus taught. (Republicans, take heed. This means you. I am no fan of Jesus, but I know full well that “kick the poor when they’re down” is the exact opposite of what he preached.) Go figure.
Note: Sukkah-Building Day is not an official Jewish holiday. 11 Tishri, however, is traditionally the day one should start building one’s sukkah (a sort of temporary building with vegetation for a roof) so as to be ready in time for Sukkoth, which starts 15 Tishri.
I have a huge backlog of religious news to comment on, and there is no way I can deal with all of it. This would be true even if I did not have to put up my sukkah today. What to choose… What to choose…
Topic 1: Since Sukkoth is the holiday just around the corner, let us start with “A Look at the Finalists in the Sukkah City Design Competition”, described as “Twelve architects compete to redesign the ritual holiday hut—and you get to pick the winner.” I would hesitate to call any of the top contenders a winner. The top 12 are depicted on the voting page, and it is not clear that any of them is ritually acceptable. Many one would never guess were intended to be sukkoth at all. When making something ritually acceptable is not a basic requirement, one has to wonder what the people behind this competition are thinking.
An ice cream company banned from using an advert displaying a pregnant nun has vowed to position similar posters in London in time for the Pope's visit.
Antonio Federici's advert showed a pregnant nun eating ice cream in a church, together with the strap line "immaculately conceived".
I am disturbed that the Advertising Standards Authority banned the ads; freedom of speech does include freedom to say things other people do not like. However, the ad itself strikes me as at best poorly thought out. The term “immaculate conception” refers to the Catholic doctrine that Mary, mother of Jesus, was born without the taint of original sin. The term is often misunderstood as referring to the conception of Jesus, purportedly accomplished by the Holy Spirit and not by the usual human method. The pregnant nun would seem fit better with the incorrect understanding of “immaculate conception” than the correct one. A nun conceiving in the usual manner would be getting pregnant through sin (as she is required to be abstinent), and the child would have the taint of original sin. But a nun conceiving through the Holy Spirit would not commit any sin, and the child might be free of the taint of original sin. But how does immaculate conception fit in with ice cream? Ice cream is not conceived at all, nor is the concept of original sin really applicable to it (or anything else inanimate, for that matter). And if one really wants to force “immaculately conceived” to apply to ice cream, what the meaning of that? Is this ice cream somehow like Mary or Jesus? Or is eating this ice cream somehow connected with miraculous pregnancies, perhaps even causing them? Yes, this is overthinking an ice cream advertisement, but it only qualifies as overthinking since the only thinking which seems to have gone into it is how to cause enough controversy to get a lot of publicity, not thinking about making the content make any sense.
Topic 3: For today’s religious humor: Since Sukkoth is coming up very soon, “The Laws of the Sukkah according to Dr. Suess”. For something so silly, it contains a lot of accurate information, not to mention footnotes and references.
Topic 2: I need to start writing about my pilot trip to Israel, my future home, and I still do not know where to start. So let us start with something basic which at first sounds ridiculously obvious: Israel is a real place. Rationality requires us to try to recognize things as they are, for what they are. The Israel I visited is not a religious fantasy of a Jewish or ecumenical utopia. Neither is it a successor to Nazi Germany, as anti-Semites would have us believe. In many respects, Israel is a lot like the United States, being a fully modern, Western country. This includes the general rule of law and familiar products and technologies.
So how does Israel differ from the United States? The most obvious (and relevant to this blog) is that while most of the West is predominantly Christian, Israel is predominantly Jewish. There is a sizeable Muslim minority, and there are Christians, Bahá’ís, and members of other religions as well; but I stayed within areas with Jewish majorities, and this was reflected even within the secular culture. (I do plan to go into this further as I discuss my trip.) And while in the United States people are often not so visibly demonstrative of their religion, people who look religious are everywhere in Israel. Even in Tel ’Aviv, the great bastion of Israeli secularism, there were some people who were visibly observant Jews, including one woman I talked with at a company at which I interviewed. To be sure, there are enclaves, and whole neighborhoods are set up with particular religious groups in mind. But in many places, people of different religious strains mix freely and without incident. This includes on buses; despite what you may have heard about Ḥaredhim (sometimes derisively called “ultra-Orthodox”) holding by segregated buses, I saw plenty riding ordinary, mixed buses.
Israel is also a visibly multilingual society. In the United States, government-issue signs (such as for traffic and street names) are usually only in English. In Israel, they are typically in Hebrew, the international language English, and Arabic. And while the most common language spoken on the street and found in non-governmental signs is indeed Hebrew, I also encountered a fair share of English, Arabic, Russian, Spanish, French, Yiddish, and what was probably Amharic. One may also easily end up talking to people in languages other than Hebrew. Someone at one synagogue did try speaking to me in Yiddish, which I do not know. (I got a C in Yiddish in college and have made no attempts to study it since.) Several people, upon hearing my American accent even when speaking Hebrew, switched to addressing me in English. (I myself must admit guilt at switching too frequently from Hebrew to English when I had trouble making myself understood in Hebrew. Hebrew is not my native language, and it requires more mental effort for me to speak or understand. And I am under the impression that my accent is not the easiest for Israelis to understand either.)
I need to move on to other things today. I hope to write about the Old City of Yerushalayim tomorrow.
Topic 3: For today’s religious humor: “The transition”:
And again, if anyone knows anything about where this notion of black cats being evil comes from, please let me know.
Topic 1: More anti-Semitism: Lebanon’s unprovoked attack on Israel yesterday is covered in “Special Alert: Media Collusion in Lebanon Ambush” and “Border Clash: Confirmations on the Day After”. One would think that the Lebanese could come up with a better excuse to attack Israeli soldiers and get five people killed than the Israelis doing border maintenance by cutting down a tree in Israeli territory. “Shimon Peres versus the Brits” deals with just how long and how deep British anti-Semitism towards Mandatory Palestine and Israel has been; apparently the British have been stabbing Israel in the back at least far back as 1921 by violating their commitments in Mandatory Palestine by giving all of it east of the Jordan River to the emir of Mecca. “Demonizing Israel is bad for the Palestinians” argues that media focus on alleged atrocities against stateless Arabs in Israel keeps the focus off real atrocities against “Palestinians“ in Arab countries.
Topic 2: Also about Muslim misbehavior: “How a Tolerant Country Can Avoid Being a Doormat for Intolerant Countries” suggests that freedom of religion should not be unconditional but should instead be conditioned on respect for the freedom of religion of others. “Treat others as they treat you” or “tit for tat” may sound downright selfish (and like something right out of LaVeyan Satanism), but Muslims abusing freedom of religion in the West is well-documented, and self-defense is a commonly recognized moral behavior. (Exception: Jesus in Matthew 5:38-42 and Luke 6:27-31, the whole business of “turning the other cheek”, which at least on the surface seems to value not resisting one’s enemies, which Jesus is reported as doing to the point of allowing himself to be crucified when he easily could have escaped.) Do note that if we are tolerant of intolerance, then the intolerant win and there is no longer any tolerance.
Note: I have finished reading The Hebrew Goddess by Raphael Patai and have written a draft review of it. I hope to present the finished review tomorrow.
Topic 1: More anti-Semitism: “Gaza, attack on modernity” deals with how the Gaza Strip is going Islamist, the very sort of thing that people pushing for freedom should be fighting against. “Palestinian Corruption and Foreign Aid” deals with where all the aid money going to the “Palestinians” is actually going, and it is not doing anything to better their lives:
“Olympia Food Co-Op Boycotts Israeli Goods, Gaza Mall Doesn't” notes an obvious irony. “Mad Dog Englishmen” rails against the ruling in a recent court case in England; five men caused $275,000 in damages to an arms factory but got off scot-free because the factory was providing arms for the Israel Defense Force; such a ruling is not only anti-Semitic, but also uses “the ends justify the means” reasoning, which can be used to rationalize practically any crime and thus is invalid. “Palestinians oppose ending the occupation” notes an inconsistency in the claims of the “Palestinians”: they hate Israel and want it completely off what they consider their land, to the point of committing acts of terrorism against Israel, but they want Israel to be completely responsible for them. Thus the “Palestinians” cannot ever let the “occupation” ever end, since that would mean that they would have no excuse to claim anything from Israel or to attack Israel. It other words, if they want to keep getting stuff for free, they have to continue being pathetic losers in the game of conquest. (Insult to the terrorists intended.) “Jordan, Dr. Peace and Mr. Apartheid” notes the rotten way “Palestinians” are treated in Jordan, noting the hypocrisy involved.
Topic 2: For today’s religious humor, in which Basement Cat finds something new evil to do: “Wheres”:
Today’s holidays: Feast Day of Mary Magdalene (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Karl Marx/St. James Whale/ 1/Pi approximation (Church of the SubGenius), Feast of the Scarlet Woman (Thelema).
WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW. YOU MAY WANT TO SKIP TO TOPIC 2.
This book focuses on parodying the plays of William Shakespeare, particularly Macbeth and Hamlet, not theology. There are a number of more or less theological ideas dealt with, though.
Ghosts. Early in the book King Verence I of Lancre is murdered. After meeting with Death (apparently a favorite character of Pratchett), Verence remains in his castle as a ghost. It turns out the castle is filled with the ghosts of royalty—and the kitchen is filled with the spirits of animals eaten by them! Ghosts interact weakly with material objects and are not visible to anyone except cats, witches, and Death. Ghosts are also linked to the actual material of the place they died and cannot go far from it. The only way Verence and a number of other ghosts can leave the castle is to have a brick of it physically carried elsewhere.
Witches. Featured in this book is not only Esmerelda “Granny” Weatherwax, but two of her colleagues, Gytha “Nanny” Ogg and Magrat Garlick, as well. While Nanny Ogg works pretty much along the same lines as Granny Weatherwax (except never having been celebate and dominating a large family), Magrat is a parody of the contemporary “witches” of our world. E.g., she coerces Granny and Nanny into forming a coven with periodic sabats, she wears tacky silver jewelry, she likes dancing, she believes in “Nature’s wisdom and elves and the healing power of colors and the cycle of the seasons” and pretty much any flaky New Age idea the reader can think of. There is also the idea that witches are supposed to stay out of political matters; this is not a genuine traditional or New Age concept about witches, but rather an inversion of the behavior of the witches in Macbeth. Duke Felmet, who murders King Verence I and claims the throne, accuses the witches of interfering in politics, as they make convenient scapegoats.
Cleanliness = moral purity. Duke Felmet, like Lady Macbeth, feels guilty over his crime. In a rather extreme version of the equation, he does extensive damage to his hands trying to rid them of the (real or imagined) blood of his victim. (I know: ew! While much of the book is funny, in this item Pratchett goes into the realm of the cringe-worthy.)
Granny Weatherwax discovers that the Kingdom of Lancre has what might be described as an “overmind” consisting of the minds of all its inhabitants, including animal inhabitants. This may be a reflection of ideas that all are part of a greater whole. This overmind hates Duke Felmet and his wife and want them deposed.
Destiny. The witches believe that Tomjon, the son of Verence I, is destined to inherit the throne. While they do play a part in ensuring his survival and hastening his ascent to the throne, the assumption is that his ascent is inevitable. Tomjon is indeed recognized as the legitimate heir to the throne, but he does not want the job of king. The throne is then turned over to the Fool, who is his half-brother. This is consistent with the handling of fate/destiny previously in the series.
Belief = reality. The influence of belief on reality on the Discworld has already repeatedly been discussed. Wyrd Sisters takes it in a new direction by having Duke Felmet have the Fool commission a play depicting the “official” version of the death of Verence I with the intention of establishing that the Duke is legitimately ascending to the throne. While the actual performance of the play is accidentally hijacked by the witches, Death, ad Verence I to reveal what really happened, the question of whether the play could have actually changed reality in the Discworld had it been executed successfully is left undecided.
Next up in this series: Pyramids (The Discworld Series, book 7) by Terry Pratchett.
Topic 2: A backlog of materials on Islamic misbehavior, including associated anti-Semitism: “Special Analysis: The Obama-Netanyahu Summit” looks at biased reporting. In “Tom Friedman’s Soft Spot for Terrorist Fadlallah”, Rav Shmuely Boteach blasts New York Times columnist Tom Friedman for mourning the death of Hezbollah terrorist Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah as if he were a hero. (Some people do have very strange ideas that murderers can be heroes. I have no clue why.) Daniel Pipes in “Turkey in Cyprus vs. Israel in Gaza” notes Turkish hypocrisy over criticism of Israel’s treatment of Gaza, considering how Turkey has treated northern Cyprus since it invaded and occupied it in 1974. “No. 1 Nation in Sexy Web Searches? Call it Pornistan” notes that Pakistan, an Islamic nation not famous for freedom, is the number-one country in many pornographic searches on Google; I suspected this story was a hoax until I went into Google Trends and checked the claims myself. “The Muslim Mosque: A State Within a State” argues that Islam itself qualifies as a state; his might be stretching the meaning of the term somewhat, but lots of citations in basic Islamic literature are brought forward to argue the claim, especially the point that it is a goal of Islam to take over the Earth. And there is plenty in the way of violence, but I have other things to do today that just blog.
Topic 1: Today begins the Nine Days, an intense part of the Three Weeks culminating in the Ninth of ’Av, which commemorates the destruction of both Temples and many other tragedies in Jewish history. The level of mourning is increased. No meat, no wine, no fresh clothes, no anointing for pleasure, and no bathing for pleasure. The last one, while probably not onerous in ancient times, when they did not have so much indoor plumbing and did not bathe as frequently, is a big pain in the neck for a modern human used to showering every single day. (It was clearly not an epidemiologist who came up with this idea, as an epidemiologist would have objected to any enactment that worked against good hygiene.) While bathing itself is not forbidden during the Nine Days except for 9 ’Av, one is expected to keep the temperature of the water as low as possible, which makes showering rather unpleasant, especially since it is difficult to step into cold water in the first place. (While a cold is not so bad if one is feeling overheated, the air conditioning has been working splendidly over here, so this is not the case.) I am tempted to ask the local rav if there is any way to trade decently warm showers for fasting two days straight, I will not bother because I know full well the answer will be “no”.
Now, some may be asking why I would ever consider putting myself through ritual mourning and eight days of cold showers. Is not religion supposed to be about fun activities? Or if not fun, at least about spiritual highs? And the answer to these questions is “no”. Because religion is ultimately about truth, not just theological truth, but the truth about what one is supposed to do. A lot of morality is anything but fun. Sure, one may enjoy even sharing and being selfless with friends. But admitting one has done something wrong and trying to correct one’s mistakes is anything but fun. Returning lost property is not fun. Not hitting some jerk who keeps annoying you is not fun. Self-control and moderation are not fun. Letting someone jab you in the arm with a needle as part of blood donation is not fun. And so on. And why should ritual be any different? The dark parts of life are to some degree inevitable? Why should they, too, not be addressed?
Topic 2: The latest in this series on Gospel-based films, The Miracle Maker (2000):
(Yes, they have it on Hulu.) Most of the originality in this movie goes into animation and presentation, with an emphasis on miracles and parables. Theologically, there is little new here. The usual suspects, depicted as mean-spirited, are after Jesus the Annoyingly Perfect, claiming to fear Pilate’s and Caesar’s wrath. Pilate is a little craftier and more evil than usual. Unless you want to see the animation, do not bother with this one.
Topic 3: More on Islamic stunts: The Dry Bones cartoon “the Name Game”, which notes correctly that it makes no sense to try to pretend that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam, even though this contradicts what terrorists themselves claim. “The humanitarian show” notes that the “poor” people of Gaza are better off that a lot of the rest of the people on this planet, including having a higher life expectancy that part of Britain, while no aid is sent to far worse off people in Turkey, Lebanon, and Iran. “Abbas to Arabs: We'd Support a War Against Israel” shows that Mahmoud Abbas is no partner for peace. And finally, we have the video “WHAT ISLAM IS NOT”, based on the article “What Islam Isn't”, which describes how Islamization works:
Note: There will be no religious humor during the Nine Days because it is not really appropriate during mourning.
Note: X-Day is supposed to be the day of alien invasion. Considering that the Church of the SubGenius, at least on the surface, is a joke, predictions of impending doom should be taken with a grain of salt.
Topic 1: The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). One can debate how great the story of Jesus is, but this telling is dreadfully dull and unimaginative with wooden acting. Most of what happens comes straight from the Gospel texts, without reflection on what the characters are thinking or background research. And I am serious about this movie being poorly researched. The writer did not even know that Christ = Greek khristos = “annointed” = Hebrew mashiaḥ = “Messiah”, a hurdle so low that an ant ought to be able to pass over it without climbing. Whoever put this film together knew little or nothing of Judaism, including the Temple. That altar, for instance, is a total disgrace with steps and no horns that no self-respecting person would ever burn a sacrifice on. Even Satan is boring, depicted as an old man eating dinner, hardly personified evil and no one really able to tempt Jesus. The lack of reflection results in a bizarre emphasis on Herod Antipas as being the main villain, yet (as standard in the Gospels) the Sanhedhrin and Priests put Jesus on trial, the Jewish crowd demands he be killed, Pontius Pilate orders the execution while denying responsibility, and Roman soldiers do the actual crucifixion. The most original thing that happens in this movie is that Judas Iscariot commits suicide by immolating himself on that awful altar, which is ironic since some say that Jesus is supposed to be a sacrifice. Do not bother watching this film unless you have severe insomnia.
Theological rating: / r̼̊/ (Bronx cheer; perfectly orthodox, but shallowly).
Next up: Godspell (1973).
Topic 2: More current anti-Semitism: “CNN's Cheerleader for Hezbollah” discusses CNN correspondent Octavia Nasr’s mourning over Hezbollah terrorist leader Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah’s death. “Abbas Eulogizes Munich Massacre Mastermind” discusses Mahmoud Abbas (chairman of the Palestinian Authority and the guy who is allegedly supposed to be a partner for peace with Israel) mourning Abu Dauod, who participated in the murder of 11 Israeli athletes in Munich in 1972. (And some people somehow have no clue why the “peace process” is hopelessly stalled. “Ongoing Palestinian Terrorism: 5 Dead, 232 Hurt in 6 Months” may also be a clue.) “The banality of Methodist evil” deals with a boycott against Israel by the Methodist Church of Britain, justified with a smorgasbord of bad logic, including double-standards, proof by assertion, and lying.
NOTE: There was no blogging yesterday due to the Fast of Tammuz, which begins the Three Weeks, a period of mourning for the destruction of the First and Second Temples and other tragedies in Jewish history.
Let’s face it: comedians can say true things with impunity that many other people would hesitate say at all. The Dry Bones cartoon “Immigrants (1990)” correctly notes the different attitudes of Israel on Jewish immigrants and Islamic countries on “Palestinian” immigrants; the former I, as a future immigrant to Israel, am grateful for, while the latter is beneath contempt and a complete betrayal of the notion that all Muslims are supposed to brothers and sisters. “Bret Stephens on Shalom TV: Will Israel Survive?” presents a “liberal case” for Israel:
Mr. Stephens correctly notes that the values of Israeli society and government are in close agreement with liberal values, while the values are Islamic countries are contradictory to liberal values; it therefore makes no sense for liberals to back Islamic states. “Telegraph Caught Recycling Gaza War Photo to Distort Today's Reality” documents using an old photograph as if it were applicable to the current situation, a form of quoting out of context. Rav Shmuely Boteach presents “Response to Congressman Rothman Calling Pres. Obama the Best Friend Israeli Security has Ever Had” and “The World’s Oldest Hatred”, noting correctly that Obama is no friend of Israel (actually, to be fair, every US president since at least Jimmy Carter, has tried to get Israel to do stupid things in the name of “peace”) and that Israel-bashers tend to be insensitive to things wrong with other countries, such as Israel’s enemies.
Also: Someone please prod me to get back to writing about Jesus for a change and not to concentrate too much on the Arab-Israeli War. We are most likely going to be dealing with the Arab-Israeli War so long as our planet uses petroleum as fuel, and there is no way one man can comment on everything on this one topic. Not to mention that there is material in Sanhedhrin 43a that presents a radically un-Christian picture of one “Yeshu hanNoṣri”, and there is some particularly un-Jewish and anti-Semitic material in the Gospel According to John which really needs to be discussed.
Note: The big gap in postings is largely due to me attending an ‘Aliyyah Absorption Information Expo last week. This is also the reason I have not yet written a review of Mort (The Discworld Series, book 4) while having finished reading Sourcery (The Discworld Series, book 5). Expect the next Discworld review to be for at least two books at the same time. On this past trip, I have also acquired a copy of the first season of Serughim, an Israeli show which deals with a group of Dathi Le’umi (religous Zionist/Modern Orthodox) singles in Jerusalem. The point of getting this set of DVDs is to work on my understanding of spoken Hebrew (Israeli radio is too fast for someone unused to rapid Hebrew speech), but there is enough going on religiously in the episodes I have already watched that I expect to eventually be writing episode-by-episode reviews.
Also: Since I have a huge backlog, expect this post to be very short on commentary.
Topic 3: For today’s religious humor, which deals with a commonly voiced paranoia: “Consequences Of Gay Marriage”. I do not support gay marriage, but this graph gets it right as to what would happen if homosexual marriage were allowed.
Topic 3: “How Islamists Came to Dominate European Islam” discusses how Europe and the USA got into the habit of trying to ally themselves to Islamists. Needless to say, this approach has never worked.
Topic 1: 
Topic 1: The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). One can debate how great the story of 
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=e646b73e-c5f7-4635-8b7d-295e9060fcbf)