Mike at Cold Fury wishes Kinky Friedman a happy birthday, which gives me an opportunity to wax a bit nostalgic. The Kinkster is a native Texan Jew, like yours truly. His family owns a Jewish summer camp outside Kerrville, where he spends half the year. I went to Echo Hill Ranch for 3 years, and still have fond memories of horseback riding, archery, bugjuice, chiggers, caves full of daddy-longlegs, getting up before dawn to climb to the top of Echo Hill (which each bunk had to do at least once), and my first boyfriend, a geeky kid who lived in Houston. We had services every Friday night but it was a pretty secular place.
In the early 70s I was in college in Philadelphia, and my brother was still in high school in Dallas. He called to tell me Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys were going to be touring my way. "You know who that is, don't you? Remember Echo Hill Ranch? Tom and Mim Friedman? He's their son. I think he was one of our counselors." I couldn't remember any of the counselors' names, but the timing would be about right. So I dragged a friend down to the old Main Point to see them. They all had that 70s Texas Kozmic Kowboy look - skinny with inventive facial hair, tight jeans, cowboy hats and boots - and Echo Hill Ranch belt buckles! The belt buckles gave me an instant twang of nostalgia; my mom had thrown mine out when I wasn't looking, which was hard to forgive. (The best part was actually the belt, which had my name tooled in the leather.)
After the show I went backstage and told the first guy I saw I had gone to Echo Hill. He called back, "Hey, Kinky, it's another camper!" Apparently thse belt buckles were signalling to the cognocenti all over the USA. Kinky came out holding his ever-present cigar, put it in his mouth, shook my hand, said something unintelligible around his cigar, and drifted away again.
Being a Kinky fan made me an exotic on the East Coast, but in Austin he is just one of many local eccentrics the town is proud of. More Austin nostalgia here.
Cool web page title of the week: Great Rabbis of the Muslim Empire
Not quite gone. The Taliban, that is. Or at least a remnant of their movement that
doesn't want girls to go to school. (via
Matt Yglesias)
Real world repair. Jackie Robinson's son David, who runs a coffee plantation in Tanzania, is importing
Israeli farming technology. Farmers conserve scarce water for their crops after the rainy season, November to April, ends. “That is the circumstance of 70 percent of Africa,” Robinson says. So he proposed that Sweet Unity Farms experiment with drip irrigation, which was developed by the Netafim agrotechnology business at Kibbutz Hatzerim. The system maximizes available water by controlling the amount that flows through the holes in the pipes, and it is credited with increasing Israel’s agricultural production. “Israel’s involvement in advanced agriculture is something that is well known,” Robinson says during a recent business trip here.
This is not the first time Israel has helped development projects in Africa. For example, one reason the rescue of Entebbe was successful is because
an Israeli firm had built the airport. Robinson’s fellow farmers are enthusiastic working with Israel. There is no concern about political repercussions, or the growing movement to reinstitute the trade boycott of Israel. “We’re a rural farming community,” Robinson says. “Our involvement in politics is very, very little.” Robinson says his efforts to improve farmers’ lives follows in the barrier-breaking footsteps of his father. “My father’s name is synonymous with equality. My father’s medium was baseball. Our medium is coffee. But the objective is the same — equality. We are pleased that this is a continuum of my father’s life.”
What he said.
The Actor's Temple. This synagogue is about 5 blocks from my apartment, but I haven't gotten around to visiting them. They seem to be going to great lengths to attract new members.
Finally. Guess who just condemned suicide bombings against Israeli civilians? It only took them two years. And, as Tom Gross writes on
Naomi Ragen's email list,
. . . it makes no reference to the dozens of suicide bombs carried out in the period from 1994 to 2000, after Yasser Arafat set up the Palestinian Authority. Some of these were carried out on Arafat's direct orders. The figure it provides for the number of suicide bombs since January 2001 - 52 - is an underestimate by at least 50 per cent. It also fails to state (even though there is a wealth of evidence to show this) that Arafat has personally given orders to the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades to carry out suicide and other attacks on Israeli civilians. The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades is simply one of the military arms of Fatah which is under the sole financial and political control of Yasser Arafat.
You may remember that
another human rights organization published a condemnation of suicide bombings, as declared in this
press release. But good luck trying to find the actual report on their website. The press release ends:
Amnesty International has recently published a report on attacks against civilians. The report Without distinction -- attacks on civilians by Palestinian armed groups documents 128 attacks in which more than 350 civilians, most of them Israeli, were killed since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa intifada in September 2000.
For more information please see: http://web.amnesty.org/web/web.nsf/pages/iot_home.
When you click on that URL, you do
not find said report, just another tearjerker about Jenin. I searched on combinations of "israel," "civilians," "suicide," "bombers." No documents found. If you find it, will you let me know?
Meanwhile, let's see how long the HRW report stays up.
UPDATE: The Amnesty report is
here according to my intrepid informants. Now can someone give me a path to it from the Amnesty home page?
UPDATE: Many links
here to articles claiming Arafat's involvement with terrorist acts not mentioned in the HRW report, such as the assassination of U.S. Embassador Cleo Noel, the hijacking of the Achille Lauro, and the Munich Olympics massacre.
UPDATE: How long the HRW report stays up? Given how fast
Amnesty scurried back into the PC fold, maybe we should start a pool.
Gassing Jews doesn't bother Finland. A Finnish company makes a device which detects harmful chemicals in the air. Israel wants to buy some to detect chemical attacks by Saddam & Co.
Finland refuses to allow Israel to import the devices.Thiink about this for a minute. These devices are purely defensive. They can't be used to kill or hurt anyone. All they would do is give Israelis more time to get to their gas masks or air-tight shelters.
The Finnish Foreign Ministry issued a press release on Wednesday evening, which explained that according to EU guidelines, restraint must be practiced in exporting defence material to areas of conflict. According to an Israeli source, Israel feels the decision is incomprehensible as gas detectors are meant for defence, and weapon exports to Israel have not been banned by the EU.
Just when I think Europe has sunk as low as it can go . . . . In this case, you can't claim this has anything to do with the poor oppressed Palestinians. You can't claim that Israel could use these devices in some fanciful "war of aggression." You can't claim this is a question of international aid - Israel just wanted to buy the devices on the open market. You can't claim this is the work of Muslim immigrants, not a government policy. This
is a policy of the government of Finland that it will deliberately prevent Jews from protecting themselves against death by gas.
Oh I see - the Finns are piqued at some
minor diplomatic tiff 6 months ago. Well, then. That explains everything.
The plot thickens.(all links via
lgf comment thread)
Glenn
wonders if
this is an equal-opportunity offer. Glenn, they work for men too. Use your imagination.
Blogroll changes. Another fine blog is giving way to burn-out. Joe Katzman is going to
take a hiatus from his excellent
Winds of Change. WoC will be most remembered for its
well-organized contents,
Shabbat series on Sufi wisdom, baseball highlights, thought-provoking links on topics ranging from
transparent aluminum to
the Yom Kippur Self-Improvement Kit, and
incisive analyses of current events. Come back soon, Joe!
Meanwhile, I sneaked a peak at
another favorite - nope, still on vacation.
Visual aid for Victor Hansen columns Check this out:
A Military History Timeline of War and Conflict Across the Globe, 3000 BC to 1999 AD. Very detailed and cleanly presented.
The sniper's trail . . . Interview with Rabbi Mark Glickman, of Temple Beth El, in Tacoma, WA.,
former victim of the sniper.
I sort of on a lark and upon orders from my fiancee, to tell you the truth, just called the ATF to give them a friendly reminder of what had happened this past May at the temple. And they, after receiving that reminder, I'm told, checked out the bullets that they had retrieved from the temple building and lo and behold, there was a ballistics match with some guns accessible to the people who had been arrested for the sniper attacks. . . . I was sure there was not going to be any connection at all . . . .
I'm back...: I'm back from the honeymoon and back on line. I have lots of stories to tell - some good, some not so good. In particular, I will tell the story soon of my the most unique wedding present I have received, which I got on Monday. But for now, I am wickedly busy. Thanks to Judith and Rami for working so hard in my absence.
Make the God-name big! Since I will stop saying Kaddish for
my uncle on Wednesday (it is recited for 30 days after the death for relatives other than parents), I want to share
my favorite translation of the Kaddish (the version said by mourners, officially known as the Orphan's Kaddish, and if you want to know more about the origin of that name and its medieval development as a "prayer for the dead," you will find more than you ever thought you wanted to know
here):
Make the God-name big.
Big and holy.
Do it in this world,
This creation sprung from consciousness,
And bring some order to this.
Do it fast, soon, in our lives, in the days ahead, in the life of the people we call home.
Everybody join with me: May the name be blessed forever and ever!
Yes, blessed.
Blessed, whispered, sung out, shouted, honored, this holy name.
The name is beyond any song, poem, or comforting words we could ever speak.
Eveybody say: That's the truth!
May a big peace descend from the heavens, a life-giving peace for all of us, for our beloved people,
Let everybody say: May it be true!
Make that peace in the heavens, great peacemaker, great One who brings wholeness to our people.
Stop.
Everybody pray:
May it be true.
Saddam isn't happy. Foreign journalists, perhaps embarrassed by the
TNR expose, reported some
real news without The Great One's permission, so he's
kicking them out. But if they promise to behave, he'll re-consider. Right. Like he'll be in any position to order any journalists around when they accompany US troops into Bagdad. (
via Joanne Jacobs)
I've seen this movie before .In light of recent terrorist incidents, let us remember when
when former Nation of Islam members took hostages in 3 different locations in Washington DC in 1977, including B'nai Brith headquarters. Kind of like a concatenation of the
DC sniper and the
Moscow terrorists, except for one important detail: no one was killed (although then-mayor Marion Berry was seriously wounded). The hostages' release was negotiated by Egypt, Iran, and Pakistan. I'm going to stop before I keel over from an overdose of irony.
New York culture alert. Trembling Before G-d by Sandi Simcha DuBowski, has re-opened in New York for a One-Year Anniversary! After showing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music for one week, it will be at the
Screening Room in Tribeca for one week beginning 11/1. There will be a Q+A at the Screening Room on 11/2 - call for show times. The film is eligible this year for the Academy Award for Best Documentary.
I saw TBG at its single screening in Austin TX last year and was very moved for several reasons. I was pleased that it shows the lives of gay observant Jews, because there is a certain amount of understandable disdain for traditional religion in the gay world (as
Andrew Sullivan can attest to), and because I am a strong advocate for complete inclusion of all Jews in our rituals and communities. I respect Orthodox commitment to
halacha, (although I don't share their stringency or some interpretations) and I think there is a way to work this out within the strictures of Jewish law. (Lubovich Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, for example, has a
refreshingly accepting approach.)
However, I was most pleased that the film shows Jews who love not only being Jewish but "doing" Jewish. Jews on TV and in the movies are usually presented as an ethnic identity distanced from a specific practice and belief. Although many Jews are like this, the entertainment media have not kept up with the burgeoning interest in Jewish practice and spirituality of the last 20 years. (I chuckle when I see dire demographic predictions for the Jewish future - these predictions have been appearing like clockwork for most of the 20th century, meanwhile study groups, day schools, and converson classes are oversubscribed, Jewish
ritual, culture and
theology are
enjoying a burst of
creativity, and people with Jewish heritage are returning to their roots all over
Eastern Europe.This is also why I can't take those pedantic
"convert the Jews" types seriously.)
TBG is as much about "doing Jewish" as about bigotry. Not just the warmth of Shabbas meals, the singing and davening, but the way the Jewish community (in the person of the rabbis confronted)
collectively thinks through how to deal with new information and relate it to existing community norms. The secret of our survival is in that combination of reverence for ancient wisdom, flexible thinking about the future, and human compassion. Why do these Jews who have been so badly treated by their community insist on staying Jewish? Because this ancient wisdom, this spiritual complexity, and these beautiful rituals are their birthright and they will simply not allow it to be torn from their hands.
So I recommend this film, not only if gay rights matter to you, not only as as a tender glimpse into a Jewish world, but because it's an inspiring demonstration of laying claim to what you care about.
PS Some sites for
Gay Arabs.
Best of the Web backs lgf, and so do we. Not only is
lgf the first blog I read as soon as I fire up my browser, I have frequently gotten
great leads on
URLs via the always lively comment section. And I keep a blunt object handy to
bop the comments section on the nose whenever it
gets out of line. I'd still like to coin a term for us folks who regularly turn down the flames on the comments section when it threatens to boil over. (I know I mixed a metaphor, but you know what I mean and I have to go get my clothes out of the laundry now.)
UPDATE: Oh dear. Where's that blunt object? Bad commenters, bad, bad! Yes,
you. You
bitch and moan "Where are moderate Muslims condemning the latest Islamist atrocity?", but when an actual
moderate Muslim shows up you spray dirt on him from sources which smell bad from the gitgo (
"HOW A ONE-TIME “LIBERTARIAN SOCIALIST” CROSSED OVER TO THE ZIONIST DARK-SIDE" is a pretty suspect headline, and why would a rah-rah lgf warblogger suddenly take
Justin Raimondo seriously?), and then you piss all over yourselves telling him he doesn't know what he's talking about.
So what if he's a seasoned journalist who spent years in the Balkans and belongs to the
most humanistic Muslim sect there is? So what if he's the author of
the article Charles linked to, and here's a chance to participate in a free meet-the-author session which you could use to ask questions that would actually illuminate the subject? You don't need to do any of that, because you read lgf! And Mark Steyn and Victor David Hanson! So you already know. what you think about fanatic fundamentalism, dhimmies, Albanian Muslims, the Quran, Jews under Islam, and everything else, and lgf is just the place to let it all hang out. You know, some of us wade through your crap because lgf attracts enough interesting people with independent minds, big hearts, and useful knowledge that it's worth it. Sometimes.
I don't know enough to critique Schwartz'arguments, although I have a good bullshit detector and anybody who can piss off the same people who feel betrayed by Christopher Hitchens deserves the benefit of the doubt, as far as I'm concerned, so I'm going to take him at face value until proven otherwise. But that's not the point. As I said
here, "Thanks guys, you just provided a shining example of neanderthal behavior for Anil & Co. to crow over. Way to go."
Okay. I'm going to put the stick away now. Behave.
Everybody else - go read Stephen Schwartz' new book
The Two Faces of Islam.
