Jewish Stuff
mikethemadbiologist | April 5, 2008In Judaism, one of the enduring symbols is Amalek, a tribe whose deceitful ambush has come to symbolize an enemy to whom one can't afford to demonstrate mercy. Gershom Gorenberg relates an interesting twist on the Amalek story that changes the call to hate the other to a call for moral responsibility for the other:
Amalek, according to the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy, is the name of the tribe that attacked the Israelites on their way out of Egypt, on the road from slavery to freedom. You can regard this as ancient history. But history is remembered as our story, and in Jewish mythic…
mikethemadbiologist | March 23, 2008One of the interesting things about Purim is that nowhere in the entire book is God mentioned. This is unusual for a religious text, to say the least. Over at South Jerusalem, Haim Watzman describes a sermon about Esther and free will. The whole post is worth a read, but I really liked this part:
"Divine intercession says: this is the way things are, and this is they way they ought to be," Rav Shagar writes. "The world is guided by the laws of divine justice."
That's what religious people believe, right? But that is not the endpoint for Rav Shagar.
But he goes one step further and…
mikethemadbiologist | February 11, 2008One of the problems I have with the U.S.'s self-appointed Jewish leadership is that too many of them appear to believe that Israel will be annihilated at any moment. In today's NY Times, Daniel Gavron puts that fear in context:
While it is true that the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, talks about wiping Israel off the map, and he might be developing the technical means to do so, he has also said that he will agree to whatever agreement the Palestinians accept. The Lebanese Islamic group Hezbollah is utterly hostile, but it is now focused on events in its own country.
The Palestinian…
mikethemadbiologist | February 10, 2008Because what's a little intolerance among 'friends':
The revision of a contentious Good Friday prayer approved this week by Pope Benedict XVI could set back Jewish-Catholic relations, Conservative Judaism's international assembly of rabbis says in a resolution to be voted on next week.
The prayer calls for God to enlighten the hearts of Jews "so that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ, the savior of all men."
The draft resolution states the prayer would "cast a harsh shadow over the spirit of mutual respect and collaboration that has marked these past four decades, making it more difficult for…
mikethemadbiologist | January 19, 2008I happy to see that others are coming around to the idea that the abortion debate is ultimately about the establishment of religion (italics mine):
She [Keenan] was saying more that the people in the mushy middle feel like they're in a moral quandary about abortion, because it's all mixed up with various other issues about sex, commitment, self-image, family, ickiness, and other touchy subjects and thus most people refuse to really think the issue through and come to the correct conclusion: Anything so complex and personal should be a matter of personal conscience. The term "moral complexity…
mikethemadbiologist | January 18, 2008I had read this NY Times review by Timothy Noah of They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons, but, until maha revisited it, I hadn't realized that I missed the importance of one part of the review (italics mine):
Just about the only place the neoconservative movement can't locate Hitler is Nazi Germany. As late as 1944, the founding-neocon-to-be, Irving Kristol, publicly dismissed the "near hysterical insistence upon the pressing military danger," Jacob Heilbrunn reports in his new book, "They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons." While the Nazis herded Jews into the gas…
mikethemadbiologist | December 4, 2007It's the first night of Chanukah. What are you getting? One bit of disconcerting news.
A while back I heard that Mel Gibson was going to make a movie about the Macabees. If this is true, I can't wait...
(and I wonder if, like in Passion of the Christ, all of the 'good Jews' won't look very 'Jewish'...)
mikethemadbiologist | December 4, 2007Balducci's grocery needs to upgrade their Jewish outreach program:
(from Eater by way of Bean)
Oy.
mikethemadbiologist | November 2, 2007I've been reading about the AEI seminar about IQ in Ashkenazic (of European ancestry) Jews with some interest (ScienceBlogling Razib raises a really good point that I hadn't thought of too). A few years ago, I was asked to review a paper that dealt with this issue.
Let me state that I think IQ as a measure of intelligence doesn't mean all that much, except when it is extremely low or extremely high. Nonetheless, it is a trait that we can measure--we should just be very careful about how much importance we place on IQ.
OK, back to the paper I was asked to review. It basically made the same…
mikethemadbiologist | October 12, 2007One of the common responses I get to posts about theopolitical conservatives is that I am advocating atheism or calling for the destruction of 'religion.'* This is absurd, as I am one of the defenders of some religions (though not all of them obviously). This is often accompanied by complaints of 'why don't you criticize Dawkins for saying mean things about religion?' First of all, there is a difference in kind in using harsh language when criticizing a particular theology or supernaturalism as a belief or idea system versus using eliminationist rhetoric against those who wish to use…
mikethemadbiologist | October 11, 2007We likes Ann Coulter!!!
Professional provocateur Ann Coulter in an interview on MSNBC advocated the conversion of the Jews (italics mine):
During the October 8 edition of CNBC's The Big Idea, host Donny Deutsch asked right-wing pundit Ann Coulter: "If you had your way ... and your dreams, which are genuine, came true ... what would this country look like?" Coulter responded, "It would look like New York City during the [2004] Republican National Convention. In fact, that's what I think heaven is going to look like." She described the convention as follows: "People were happy. They're…
mikethemadbiologist | September 30, 2007And some Republicans wonder why most Jews don't vote Republican. Well, conservative talk radio is one answer. Here's what conservative talk radio host Mike Rosen has to say:
Sure. [Caller], you have exceptions like Milton Friedman, for example, a brilliant free-market economist who was more libertarian than conservative and one of my all-time heroes. Milton Friedman certainly understood the big picture, but so many Jews who are regarded by people as instinctively good merchants are just that. They're merchants at the retail level and don't have, I don't think, a good grasp of the big…
mikethemadbiologist | August 22, 2007The Anti-Defamation League reversed its previous position that held the genocide of Armenians wasn't genocide yesterday. Sort of, anyway:
The national office of the Anti-Defamation League reversed its long-held position today and acknowledged the Armenian genocide of 1915, saying in a statement that the mass killings of that era at the hands of the Ottoman Turks "were indeed tantamount to genocide."
However, the statement reaffirms the national ADL's belief that the legislation pending in Congress to recognize the genocide is "a counterproductive diversion."
From the ADL statement, the non-…
mikethemadbiologist | August 18, 2007The regional director of the Anti-Defamation League was recently fired by the national organization because he called what the Turks did to the Armenians in 1918 genocide. Three points:
1) The existence of genocide should never be a politically conditional observation.
2) Stop worrying about the Israeli government*. Israel and Turkey are more than capable of managing their affairs. Do the right thing.
3) "Never again" should mean more than just not allowing German Nazis to kill Jews.
Shame on the ADL.
*Again, before the Likudniks get their panties in a twist, there are Israeli army…
mikethemadbiologist | May 16, 2007The 'godly' singing "The Old Rugged Cross." Or something
The last thing most people in the Coalition of the Sane want when they are being treated for a serious illness in the hospital to have the staff try to convert you to another religion. And when you force a sick patient to choose between following the dictates of his religion or not eating in an effort to convert him, that is not 'godly', that is inhumane. It's also par for the course for Christopathic Uruk-hai.
From the Des Moines Register (italics mine):
U.S. Navy veteran David Miller said that when he checked into the Veterans…
mikethemadbiologist | May 12, 2007Well, that got your attention, didn't it? Actually, I'm referring to a post by PZ where he discusses his objections to religion. In reading them, they really didn't seem to describe my religion, so I thought it would be interesting to go through them.
For background, I guess I'm a Reconstructionist when it comes to theology, Reform when it comes to politics (i.e., my politics and stands on social issues most resemble those of the Reform movement), and Conservative when it comes to observance (what Christians would call practice). I'm not going to pretend to speak for "Jews", but simply…
mikethemadbiologist | April 22, 2007Yesterday, PZ and Amanda both argued that a model for the acceptance of atheists should be the suffragist movement. I think that's the wrong model: the appropriate model is the mainstreaming of Jews into American society.
Overall, despite an incident in Delaware, Jews have entered mainstream society quite well: if polls are to be believed, we are less likely to be discriminated against electorally than evangelicals (although maybe that's just a respect for our innate business acumen). But around sixty to seventy years ago, that wasn't the case. Jews were routinely discriminated against,…
mikethemadbiologist | April 16, 2007Former Republican governor and presidential hopeful Tommy Thompson just entered the running for the Stupid Asshole of the Week. From his comments to the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington D.C.:
"I'm in the private sector and for the first time in my life I'm earning money. You know that's sort of part of the Jewish tradition and I do not find anything wrong with that."
Thompson later apologized for the comments that had caused a stir in the audience, saying that he had meant it as a compliment, and had only wanted to highlight the "accomplishments" of the Jewish religion…
mikethemadbiologist | April 2, 2007If you celebrate Passover, have a good seder. If not, I hope the Great Matzo Ball brings you lots of gifts anyway. And here's a helpful video about matzah: