Sex sells. And in Jerusalem, with its large religious population, a session on if Jewish Orthodoxy can come to terms with sexual activity – both in and out of marriage – drew an overflow crowd at the recent Gateways Festival of Jewish Learning and Culture. The festival is a remarkable event: two days of pluralistic learning throughout the city, with sessions ranging from “The Mystery of the Mikveh” to...

How much danger terrorists pose in Britain? “The campaign I am talking about is not being planned by Jihadis or fringe Irish nationalists but by white ‘neo-Nazis’ who want to murder Asians, black people, Jews and gays in the bizarre belief it will trigger a ‘race war’, says Johann Hari in The Independent. “The police are warning ever-more urgently that similar attacks seem...

Yesterday I wrote a post questioning the need for so many countries in the 21st Century, particular vulgar, repressive military dictatorships, to have nuclear weapons. My premise was not the relative civility of non-nuclear nations vis-à-vis those that possessed nuclear weapons but the proper use of U.S. military power. However, many nice places can be found that have no nuclear arms, nor are they signatories...

Osama bin Laden has all but vanished from the radar of the American media/public. Even president Barack Obama seems no longer interested in bin Laden, while the world had thought that the “war against terror” was all about capturing bin Laden! The present chase to capture al Qaeda looks like fighting with the severed tail of a lizard. Meanwhile Osama, dead or alive, manages to come back into spotlight....

Granny’s tales, and their actions/thinking, have remarkable similarities be they Christians, Jews, Muslims or Hindus. Perhaps it’s because of them the world survives despite the harshness and cruelty that we see around us. Vlasta Molak, a friend, has kindly sent me a moving story of one such grandmother, who at times appears as if she was mine. Here is an excerpt in the NYT from a book to be published...

As freethinking Americans, we all have our own thoughts and opinions about homosexuals and homosexuality; about same-sex marriages and same-sex unions; about “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and about so many other related issues. As Americans, we are fortunate that we can express our opinions freely on these issues in healthy, sometimes argumentative and emotional debates, as we often see on TMV. Sometimes...

Van Gujjars are India’s legendary & colorful nomads, mostly Muslims, tending to their buffaloes in the green pasture land in the Himalayas or its foothills. Their entry into forests, their abode for centuries, is now being increasingly blocked in the name of environmental protection. The New York Times brings this poignant story alive in a beautiful photo-essay Showcase: Traveling With the Van Gujjar...

SIGHT Land can look deep purple, cobalt blue from far away… but up close, it is surprise green, with browns, and slashes of clay red and hansa yellow. Sometimes souls are like that too: long view, short view, so different in color and tone… yet exact same soul. How war-ready the mind can become, when demanding only one true view, insisting all ground be immoveable, and sky always poised overhead. This...

Gore Vidal, 83, described as America’s greatest essayist and one of its best-selling novelists, says he has in his life “crashed many barriers.” Vidal’s brutal manner of criticism hasn’t waned. The United States of America, he says, is a “madhouse” and its President is “overwhelmed” and “incompetent”. Last year he famously switched allegiance from Hillary...

So let’s edit it. (What do you expect in this age of ideological news networks when people will only read what they already agree with in advance? It makes…some kind of…sense….in that context..)

THIS JUST IN! A news flash: An expert says Iran’s anti-Semitic President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad doesn’t have Jewish roots after all. The news comes on the heels of this raging story that Iran’s President, who believes the holocaust is some silly story cooked up to justify what he seems to feel is Israel’s unjustifiable existence, could have had Jewish roots. Given Ahmadinejad’s statements,...

There seems to be an emerging trend in the Muslim world, in which all leaders regarded as despots are called ‘worse than Saddam’, ‘as bad as Saddam’, or the ‘new Saddam.’ Yesterday we posted ‘Muammar Qaddafi is No Better than Saddam,’ from the newspaper Sotal Iraq. Today, from Kuwait’s Arab Times, we have this article that warns about Iranian President...

A little over a year ago, William K. Wolfrum wrote a blog post titled “Jesus Christ Quits Christianity After Viewing Republican Platform.” As it turned out, Wolfrum’s readers loved it, and now it’s making an encore appearance at Talking Points Memo. (Hat tip, Alan Colmes.)

Libyan Despot Muammar Qaddafi succeeded in amusing and ticking off quite a few people last week with his rambling speech at the United Nations, which he made, according to him, not due to his role as dictator of Libya or president of the U.N. Security Council [yes - Qaddafi presently holds the rotating presidency of that body], but in his capacity as African Union chairman. According to Noor al-Harby, a...

On its broadcasts…

In a way, you knew this kind of story could be out there and was just waiting to be uncovered: according to a story in the Daily Telegraph, Iran’s Israel-detesting, anti-Semitic epitome President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may have Jewish roots: A photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots. A close-up of the document...

A couple of days ago, I wrote a post about Michele Bachmann’s latest crazy claim — this time that the health care reform legislation favored by Pres. Obama would allow 13-year-old girls to get abortions authorized by school health clinics and go home afterward with “mom and dad none the wiser.”

There have been numerous studies confirming the sad fact that we have a 2-tier justice system in the U.S. where the wealthy and powerful are often treated noticeably better than the poor and weak. The Roman Polanski affair bears some comment in light of this reality. For most Western Cultures over the past 100 years, the rape of a 13-year-old girl by a man in his 40’s by means of drugs and alcohol has been...

Since despite having angered President Obama, the Israelis have succeeded in rejecting his demand that they halt settlements on Palestinian land, is it time the Palestinians took a page from Israel’s book and anger President Obama as well? According to K. Selim of Algeria’s Le Quotidien d’Oran, by failing to reject Obama’s request to have his photo taken with Israeli Leader Benjamin Netanyahu...

A new Gallup poll reveals that Pres. Obama’s Jewish support is the strongest of any other non-Hispanic white religious grouping:

Democrats may be aghast, some independent voters may be stunned, and traditional Republican conservatives truly descended from Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater may talk about needing to reverse the demonization tide. But Neal Gabler writing in the L.A. Times contends that 21st century conservatism is now akin to religion — and that compromise will not only do no good but will never be possible. And, he...

Today – October 2 – is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s (or Mahatma Gandhi’s) birth anniversary . Gandhi once said that if we are not careful then seven “deadly sins” will destroy us. They are: a) “Wealth Without Work”; b) “Pleasure Without Conscience”; c) “Knowledge Without Character; d) Commerce (Business) Without Morality (Ethics); e) Science...

Rick Sanchez says it well: Embedded video from CNN Video I blogged about this at my personal blog, too.

I always admired Prof John K. Galbraith, the US ambassador to India, for his remarkable insight, professionalism and warmth. His son, Peter W. Galbraith, until recently the top American in the UN mission in Afghanistan, appears to have inherited the same wonderful qualities of his no-nonsense dad. Peter Galbraith was fired yesterday after refusing to take part in what he called “a cover-up” of...

Another winner from the How to Take Back America Conference: