The Spine
Oh, My God! Another East Jerusalem Building Project And Nobody Is Paying Attention
There are two Christian sites where Jesus is said to have been interred. The first is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where the Greek Orthodox Church is centered and where Roman Catholic, Syrian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox and Abyssinian Orthodox clergy also have authority, the poorer the church, the less its authority. The Abyssinians live on the roof. The cartography of their dominions is carefully delineated, with some of the demarcations shifting with the clock. Every so often there is a knock-down drag-out among the monks of the different denominations. READ MORE >>
The New York Times Laments "A Sadly Wary Misunderstanding of Muslim-Americans." But Really Is It "Sadly Wary" Or A "Misunderstanding" At All?
UPDATE: I have written an apology for one sentence written below. READ MORE >>
The Mosque Is In Trouble, Very Big Trouble
Nancy Pelosi who always has her ear to the ground for a simple-minded explanation of an intricate matter has demanded to know whose money is behind the campaign against the Ground Zero mosque. Maybe she can't imagine anything other than a grand conspiracy: maybe Glenn Beck or David Koch, maybe Sarah Palin or some other ditzy lady with access to right-wing money. READ MORE >>
The Living And The Dead In The Holy Land
As I pointed out several times in the last few days there are in Israel haredim—those who tremble before the Lord—who are murder-inciting Zionists. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is one of them, although his followers seem not to go the way of his sermons. Thank God. Another ripple in his life is that he was and is an extraordinary scholar. READ MORE >>
The S.E.C. Finds Moody's Guilty of Breaking Its Own Rules But Still Will Charge Them With Nothing
When the really true history of the financial collapse is written there will be a special place of infamy for the three major rating agencies: Moody's, S & P, and Fitch. I'd written about them before the system-wide disaster and during the weeks and months when American capitalism was truly on the ropes. READ MORE >>
Ovadia Curses; In the Meantime Hamas Shoots Four Israelis Dead, One Pregnant
Yes, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, one of those scholarly madmen in the Israeli orbit, did call forth a malediction against the Palestinians and their leaders. And, frankly, he deserves a similar anathema from all of us, he with his direct line to God from which he derives his marching orders to his followers. Fortunately, these followers may adore him. But they don’t seem to honor his most egregious commands. Which is nothing you can say about the Hamas faithful in both the West Bank and Gaza. READ MORE >>
I've Touched A Raw Spot Among My Jewish Readers, And That's Exactly What I Intended To Do
It happened when I wrote about Rabbi Ovadia Yosef as a paradigmatic instance of moral and intellectual backwardness in the ultra-ultra-orthodox communities of Israel. On the day that I wrote I'd noted a headline and article in the Jerusalem Post: "'Sinner' singer given 39 lashed by rabbis." READ MORE >>
The Worthless Babies of South Africa: A New Low in the Moral Rottenness of the Most Morally Portentous Country in the World
This story was brought to the world by Benjamin Pogrund who for years was a writer and ultimately deputy editor of the Rand Daily Mail, a fiercely anti-apartheid newspaper in South Africa. After I acquired The New Republic, Pogrund wrote for us during the seventies and eighties, bringing our readers a white liberal's view of the rotten apartheid government and a wise view of the predicaments that would face the black movements that were arrayed against it. READ MORE >>
Baroness Ashton Is Not Coming To The Party
Maybe it's an admission of her utter irrelevance as kind-of foreign minister of the European Union, maybe she just wants her own show. READ MORE >>
