| YudelLine was last updated Mon Mar 15 at 05:43:53 PM EDT |
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Running with the Wolfson: Rich Schumer Campaign Donor Has Ties to Project To Which Senator Steered $400,000 Taxpayer Funds (Forward)
"The Israel-based religious school that recently was the benefactor of a $400,000 federal grant shepherded into law by Senator Schumer has ties to a major donor to Mr. Schumer's campaign."The campaign donor, Zev Wolfson, provides the school with a rent-free suite of offices in a Manhattan office building he controls. In a separate, additional development, the school faces up to $1,000 in fines for being six months late in filing its state tax return, authorities told the Forward."
Bush Whacker: Satirical Web Site Poses Political Test (washingtonpost.com)
"www.gwbush.com is so outlandish that anyone would spot it as a parody site, says it creator. But the Republican front-runner does not share Exley's sense of humor. He is taking legal action.
"When asked at a news conference in May what he thought about the site, Bush let loose, saying it was produced by a "garbage man" and suggesting that "there ought to be limits to freedom"
Bushed Again: Texas Prison Uses 'Christ-Centered' Agenda (washingtonpost.com)
"Other prisons have church, but this radical experiment in rehabilitation at a small state prison in Texas is all church, all the time. Here, about 150 inmates spend their days like students at a Bible college. Seven days a week, from the predawn prayer until 10 p.m., they follow a strict "Christ-centered" agenda, attending an array of Bible classes and prayer study whose purpose is summed up in the program's name: Inner Change...."The innovation of the faith-based movement, especially as Bush explains it, is to support religious groups while preserving their central, evangelizing mission....
"Bush acknowledged there is little empirical evidence that religious programs work more effectively than government ones. "My answer to that is, 'Let's try,'" he said. "The old way in most cases, in a lot of cases, has not done a good job of meeting societal goals." " Dozens of interviews with inmates and guards at the Carol Vance Unit revealed a clear difference in those prisoners participating in Inner Change: They seemed calmer, happier and more hopeful about their future. But it was also clear the program teaches that the only path to this better future is a fundamentalist Christian conversion, to the exclusion of other faiths. And ultimately, it's too soon to judge the impact of the transformation: Guards say Inner Change inmates have as many discipline problems as other inmates, and many of those who graduate from the program find life on the outside no less hard."
Meanwhile, in Israel: Love is in the air (Ari Shavit, Ha'aretz)
"They're young. They're intelligent. They dance, they do drugs and they make love. It's all happening on the local - and already world-famous - club scene, where a whole generation is in revolt against everything. A report from Allenby 58 in Tel Aviv."What caused the change? Itzik Nini says it's first of all the peace. Because now Israelis are more relaxed. More assured....
"And the other thing is MTV. Because the clips there really got into people's heads and turned them on. Now, when you see kids of 15 from Yeruham coming to the city with piercing and tattoos and pony tails you know it's because even in Yeruham they watch MTV and they see what the world is and what's happening in the world and they want it, too....
"But the main thing that made the change is the drugs. That's hit here in a really big way in the last five-six years."
Why you need YudelLine: Ex Post facto (Boston Phoenix)
"The Washington Post Company-NBC News partnership joins a much-admired news organization with two of the richest companies on earth. But what's good for the media moguls is bad news for the rest of us."The Post -- which dominates the Washington area but which, unlike competitors such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, has scant national distribution -- is understandably eager to expand its base. In doing so, however, it has jumped into bed with the two companies whose stock-market valuations are the highest in the world: General Electric ($451.3 billion as of November 19) and Microsoft ($443.8 billion). When measured against those giants, the Post Company's market capitalization of $5.7 billion barely qualifies as a rounding error.
"More important, GE and Microsoft are controversial, predatory corporations. GE is a major military contractor and nuclear-power-plant manufacturer that is often embroiled in disputes, legal and otherwise, over the way it conducts its business. Microsoft, of course, is involved in a highly publicized anti-trust case. Both companies ought to be subject to tough, independent scrutiny."
Biblical Archaeology Reviewed (1) Mount Sinai revisited (Ha'aretz)
"In the 1980s, an altar was found on Mount Ebal near Shechem, indicating that the biblical story of the birth of the Jewish nation does in fact have a historical basis. The new findings, however, have met with silence from most archaeologists.... "The structure on Mount Ebal, a layered structure of stone with an ascending ramp, exactly matches the later Israelite sacrificial altars: the altar described in Ezekiel 43, the Second Temple altars of the Mishna (Masechet Midot 3), and the descriptions in Josephus and in the Temple Scroll from the Dead Sea. The architectural identity, the era (beginning of the settlement period) and the place (Mount Ebal) led us to identify the site with a high degree of probability as the altar cited in Deuteronomy and Joshua."Note: This article appeared Nov. 11 and will be archived very soon.
Biblical Archaeology Reviewed (2) Hebron's Earliest Defenses Found But No Sign of King David (Biblical Archaeology Review)
"Excavators in Hebron have uncovered the city's earliest remains to date: a 20-foot-wide stretch of wall from the third millennium B.C. (Early Bronze Age III). They have also unearthed an eighth-century B.C. four-room house--but nothing yet from the tenth century B.C., when the Bible says the city served as King David's capital before his capture of Jerusalem. "
PostModern Orthodoxy: When the woolly fringe meets the hard center (Ha'aretz)
"This week, in the settlers' paper, Nekuda, Hanoch Daum wrote of the outpost generation: "The individuality of thought that led them to wear woolen skullcaps, is leading them to dance alone. They do not fit into the usual categories. They dance as individuals, each in his own rhythm - each with the song of his own life. The ideological collective that characterizes the generation of the crocheted skullcaps... does not suit their unraveled soul."Note: This article appeared Nov. 11 and will be archived very soon.
PreModern Orthodoxy: Officer: Reform and Conservative harmed Jews more than Nazis
"The Israel Defense Forces yesterday denounced the comments of an officer who had accused the Reform and Conservative movements of harming the Jewish people more than the Nazis did.Tambourine Man: Older, wiser and wearing no mascara (Ha'aretz)The officer, Peretz Gamliel, told soldiers in a lecture Friday that the movements have caused the assimilation of eight million Jews."
At age 26, Aviv Gefen is taking off his make-up and changing his image. The black sheep of the Israeli nobility - a scion of the family of Moshe Dayan - who shook the establishment with songs lamenting the loneliness of Generation X is now aiming to project a quieter, more mature personaNote: This article appeared Nov. 11 and will be archived very soon.
"The origin of the concept of convergence is religious; Roman Catholic, to be specific. The term itself, convergence, as we are using it in these pages, was coined by a Jesuit priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Another ardent Roman Catholic, Marshall McLuhan, broadcast the message throughout the intellectual world and gave the Digital Universe its first and most memorable name: "the global village." Thousands of dot.com dreamers are now busy amplifying the message without the faintest idea where it came from."
Mind your language A review of Steven Pinker's WORDS AND RULES: The Ingredients of Language (The Sunday Times)
"Let me try a little test on you. What is the present tense of "wrought", as in "wrought iron" or the line from Judges, "what hath God wrought"? How about "wreak"? You wreak havoc, you once wrought havoc. And it sounds like "seek", the past tense of which is "sought". Well, you are wrong - although the verb is part of the family that includes "seek", "bring", "catch", "fight", "teach" and "think". (Think of their past tenses.)"
Price Line: To Some Jews, Faith Means Lox, Bagels and Seinfeld (Philip Weiss in New York Observer)
"In September, I had an argument with my wife about Judaism. During the high holidays, I feel the need to go to synagogue, but attendance is limited. You must have a ticket to get in, usually a color-coded one, and if you don’t you must either steal in, or wait on a line for the ticketless, maybe get in late, or attend an off-hours "community" service."And my non-Jewish wife said this year, as she has said before, I can’t believe that you sell your high holidays."
Dude of God: Doonesbury preacher's model has a flock, a message, and a book (Boston Globe)
"Students at Tufts University will sometimes approach their campus chaplain, the Rev. Scotty McLennan, and ask: ''Are you the guy who's in Doonesbury?''"Yeah, dudes. He is.
"He's 50 years old now, his red beard flecked with gray, but there is a distinct likeness between McLennan and the Rev. Scot Sloan of Doonesbury. There's the long face, the longish hair, the gentle demeanor and, of course, the liberal theology."
Missionary Plot: American Children Will Hear U. Grad's Words When They See Pokemon Movie (Salt Lake Tribune)
"Paul Taylor has used his Japanese-speaking skills for lofty assignments: first for the Lord. Now for Pokemon. The 24-year-old University of Utah graduate first learned to speak the language while serving a Mormon mission in Tohoku, a northern region of Japan."
