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Saddam Hussein’s death sentence was arranged to be pronounced by an Iraqi court two days before the U.S. midterm elections. This did not fool Americans into thinking the nearly four-year-old war is an archetype of success.
We voted. Well, 40 percent of eligible voters showed up, anyway. Not bad for a midterm. [...]

This week Torah portion is an action-packed affair. G#d appears to Abraham in the form of three men. Abraham seems to serve them one of the most traif meals imaginable and we get history’s earliest recorded punch line. The ugly side of gay love rears… its head… in Sodom. Lot’s daughters make sure the family [...]

Dissent is what rescues democracy from a quiet death behind closed doors.
-Lewis H. Lapham (1935- )
Abraham and Sarah are the first Jews, the ones we’re meant to look to for guidance, our ancestors. They presented us with the first example of how we can interact with a higher power we never see and how we [...]

I’ve just seen Borat, the movie featuring the apochryphal Kazhak, having been dragged to it by my 15 year old. I was stunned by it, and sat squirming uncomfortably one moment after laughing uproariously. I was surprised, also, because the movie is completely different from what I expected.
From the media coverage, I expected [...]

In his book “Gifts of the Jews” Thomas Cahill writes that Judaism is ‘the only original idea in all of human history.’ Outside Judaism history is viewed as a circle with peoples ascending to nobility, falling into depravity then repeating the cycle. But, writes Cahill, when Abraham (in this week’s parsha) crosses into the promised [...]

Pieter Willem Botha died today at the age of 90. First elected to South Africa’s parliament in 1948 as a member of the ruling National Party, Botha went on to become prime minister in 1978 and president in 1984.
After gaining power in the all-white 1948 election, the National Party followed through on its campaign [...]

crossposted to jewschool
A few weeks ago, on a whim I met up with a friend to go see a movie. It had been one of those long days where the idea of sinking into the comfort of surround sound and chocolate was the perfect combination, and I was intrigued by the bit I had heard [...]

i had almost finished the essay below on radical history, martyrology, hagiography, and the ‘reconviction process’ last friday. that night, i heard that one of the people killed that afternoon in oaxaca by mexican government paramilitaries was someone i knew. as i thought about these most recent murders in the attack on the [...]

I just recently moved to New York and registered to vote here, and I’m fascinated by the upcoming elections. Aside from a few scattered people wearing massive “Hillary” buttons and some “Spitzer” posters announcing the inevitable, I haven’t seen or heard much about any of the candidates from the people I interact with on a [...]

Vice President Dick Cheney spoke on NPR last Wednesday regarding the increasing violence in Iraq. When asked if he would call it a “civil war,” Cheney replied: “No, I don’t think it’s a civil war. You’ve got a united government, a unity government in place. You’ve got united military forces, in terms of [...]