David Cooper: Writer, Translator, and Trophy Husband

NY Jewish books: The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus

2012-01-17T18:20:00.001-05:00

A language epidemic erupts among Jewish families; children's speech makes their parents deathly ill. Soon it spreads to the rest of the population. This dark fantasy is the premise of Jewish New Yorker Ben Marcus's new novel, The Flame Alphabet published today by Knopf (read more on examiner.com ; also read my New York Journal of Books review:http://goo.gl/GrQGA ).

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Arthur Green on Abraham Joshua Heschel and Hasidism

2012-01-15T13:40:00.002-05:00

Rabbi Jeff Marker's synopsis of Arthur Green's talk on Abraham Joshua Heschel and Hasidism.

"For Heschel the most significant mitzvot are
  Feeding the poor, ending war, marching with MLK.
  These are spiritual acts, not just political.
  These are the acts for which we were created.

"Heschel’s God was very personal, but we must do the work for God."

Originally posted by at Arthur Green on Abraham Joshua Heschel and Hasidism

On Thursday evening I went to the Abraham Joshua Heschel School and heard a lecture by Arthur Green titled “What Heschel Learned From Hasidism.” Green was a close student of Heschel when he was a rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary in the 1960s. It was a brilliant talk, though I thought I would share what I managed to take down and remember.

First of all, Green said, Heschel would have hated the title of the talk. He did not like divisions in Jewish life. He bridged worlds and was critical of all of them. He wrote about many of them.

Heschel was a living link to the lost world of Jewish Europe. In his first real appearance on the public stage in Americal, at YIVO in 1944, he spoke about that lost world. He later expanded this into his book “The Earth is the Lord’s.” Around the same time, in 1943-44, he reclaimed his middle name. Before that he was known, and wrote as, Abraham Heschel. After this he was Abraham Joshua Heschel. This was the name of his famous great great grandfather and reflected his Hassidic identity. His family was from the Ukrainian school of hasidism which was a kind of peasant hasidism. His father was an immigrant to Warsaw which was generally dominated by the Ger/Kutsk school, which was more rational and skeptical of miracle workers and similar stories. There were no yeshivas reflecting his heritage, and his early education was under the influence of Ger. Heschel later said he lived between these two worlds, Medzibush and Kutsk.

Heschel grew to see the Hasidic world as “small minded” and wanted a secular education. It would have been a scandal for him, scion of a Hasidic dynasty, to go to a secular gymnasium in Warsaw. His tutor arranged for him to attend a gymnasium in Vilna, a center of the anti-Hasidic misnagdim. After a year he enrolled in university in Berlin. He also wrote poetry. In time he learned to speak in Biblical language which was accessible to both Jews and Chrisitians.

So, what did Heschel learn from Hasidism? Green says five things, and he will especially expand on the fifth.

A sense of wonder - “The whole world is full of God’s glory!”

There is nothing you can prove
Religious truth is about testifying, not proving. His book “The Sabbath” is an expansion on ideas in
“Sfas Emes,” a book by an earlier Gerer rebbe.

He understood the need for charismatic religious figures, but saw corruption in the Hasidic world.
   So he went back to the prophets as his authentic “rebbes.”
   (Buber, the outsider, could romanticize Hasidic leaders, not Heschel)
   His lecture “Did Maimonedes think he had attained prophesy?” actually applies to him also.
   He did become a prophetic figure, and saw it in Martin Luther King Jr. which led him to accept it            also in himself.
   There is a Hasidic expression “Zogt Torah” - to speak Torah (different from to learn or teach).
       The word IS the Torah.

Chesed and Simcha - Loving Kindness and Joy
   Even his criticism is through chesed.
   His Judaism is of love and joy. He rarely spoke about sin or repentance (unlike Solevetchik)
   He focuses on action, to do good, not focus on sin and guilt. There not much reference to                Messianism. He is more interested in We redeeming God, not God redeeming us.

“God in Search of Man” - God needs us!
   The way we act is meaningful to God, it makes a difference, even in a cosmic sense.
   (This is contrary to Mainmonedes who says God is perfect, has no needs)
   This idea goes back to Ramban, Nachmanedes. Mitzvot bring the Shechinah out of exile.

Heschel traced this debate back to Rabbis Akiba and Ishmael in the second century of the common era.
Ishmael - the Mishkan (Tabernacle) is only post Golden Calf. The people need it.
Akiba - Mishkan is renewal of creation, full of secrets of creation.

Heschel derived this from Hasidism
For early hasidim, all mitzvot/acts have cosmic significance.
For later hasidim, the acts of the rebbes have this significance.

For Heschel the most significant mitzvot are
   Feeding the poor, ending war, marching with MLK.
   These are spiritual acts, not just political.
   These are the acts for which we were created.

Heschel’s God was very personal, but we must do the work for God
(still balancing Metzibush and Kutsk)

These are my rough notes on a very polished talk, but I hope they give a sense of it.

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The Economist: new research challenges Chomsky's linguistics

2012-01-09T21:14:00.001-05:00

The evolution of language

Babel or babble?

Languages all have their roots in the same part of the world. But they are not as similar to each other as was once thought

Apr 14th 2011 | from the print edition

via economist.com

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2011 Jewish fiction and poetry books

2012-01-02T15:41:00.001-05:00

2011 Jewish fiction and poetry books (a list of Jewish fiction and poetry books I reviewed in the past year).

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Farewell Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011)

2011-12-28T19:19:00.001-05:00

Video portrait by John Feldman of artist Helen Frankenthaler commissioned by Purchase College School of the Arts for the 2008 Nelson A. Rockerfeller awards.

LA Times obit

NY Times critic's notebook: Two Artists Who Embraced Freedom

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Robert Reich: My Political Prediction for 2012: It's Obama-Clinton

2011-12-28T19:00:00.001-05:00

robertreich:

My political prediction for 2012 (based on absolutely no inside information): Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden swap places. Biden becomes Secretary of State — a position he’s apparently coveted for years. And Hillary Clinton, Vice President.

So the Democratic ticket for 2012 is Obama-Clinton.

Why...

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2 book reviews: "The Break" and "Underground Time" -- New York Journal of Books

2011-11-22T16:46:00.001-05:00

Thanks to a change in the publication date of one of the books I have two reviews published on the same day. Both are novels in translation, one from Italian and the other from French.

“The Break is reminiscent of Italian neo-realist cinema of the late 1940s and is enthusiastically recommended to all readers. Kudos to Howard Curtis for a wonderful translation.” This paperback is printed on high quality paper with a handsome wrap-around cover.

“Because Underground Time’s prose largely lacks the delicious density of the best literary fiction in translation, it appears to target a middlebrow readership. But readers with highbrow tastes may want to make an exception to their usual literary fare on account of its social criticism.”

Read these and my other book reviews on New York Journal of Books.

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A Meaning for Wife | New York Journal of Books

2011-11-15T14:16:00.001-05:00

“Your wife is killed by a cashew (anaphylactic shock), but there isn't time to grieve because your toddler son is always at your heels—wanting to be fed, to be played with, or to sleep next to you all night long. A change of pace seems necessary, so you decide to visit your parents in order to attend your twenty-year high school reunion. What begins as a weekend getaway quickly becomes a theater for dealing with the past—a past that you will have to re-imagine in order to have any hope of a future for you and your son.”--Mark Yakish, A Meaning for Wife

“Toward the end of the novel there is a gutsy shift in narrative tone that lends the ending a sense of closure. In recent years, women writers such as Joan Didion and Meghan O’Rourke have published nonfiction memoir accounts of grief. In his debut novel Mr. Yakich provides the male perspective. Recommended to anyone who has experienced loss.”

Read the rest of my review in New York Journal of Books

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On otherness, ethnic and racial identity from a Jewish perspective

2011-11-10T13:19:00.002-05:00

An interesting and engaging blog post from last March on otherness, ethnic and racial identity:

Passing for White: Other-ness and Judaism

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Prospect Park Foliage

2011-11-08T20:16:00.001-05:00

via flickr.com

Fall foliage, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY.

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New York Journal of Books: "The Hall of the Singing Caryatids" by Victor Pelevin

2011-11-01T11:43:00.002-04:00

“At barely more than 100 small (four and a half by seven inch) pages in Andrew Bromfield’s excellent English translation The Hall of the Singing Caryatidssucceeds both as a novella of ideas and as a science fiction work of fantasy, and is recommended to all readers enamored of thought provoking fiction.”

Read the entire review on New Yorik Journal of Books.

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In "Scenes from Village Life" Amos Oz returns to short form fiction

2011-10-28T15:23:00.001-04:00

In an interview on last night's Charlie Rose show Israeli writer Amos Oz discussed his latest book, Scenes from Village Life. In my New York Journal of Books review of the book I write...

Continue reading on Examiner.com In "Scenes from Village Life" Amos Oz returns to short form fiction - New York NY | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/ny-in-new-york/in-scenes-from-village-life-amos-oz-returns-to-short-form-fiction#ixzz1c6X9ntsO

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Susan Daitch's novel Paper Conspiracies revisits Dreyfus Affair

2011-10-04T23:04:00.001-04:00

New York Jewish fiction writer Susan Daitch's third novel Paper Conspiracies, which was published last week by City Lights Books, takes an indirect approach to late Nineteenth Century France's Dreyfus Affair by way of peripheral minor actors in the scandal and via cinema pioneer Georges Mèliés' contemporaneous dramtized documentary film L'affaire Dreyfus . The novel's six sections alternate between 1990s New York and Paris in the 1890s, 1930s, and 1968.

In my New York Journal of Books review of the novel I enthusiastically recommend the book "to fans of highbrow, erudite historical fiction. Readers who enjoy the novels of Umberto Eco, for example, will probably also enjoy those of Ms. Daitch.” I also draw an analogy between late Nineteenth Century French anti-Semitism and Twentyfirst Century American Islamophobia.

via examiner.com

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Anna Solomon's debut novel "The Little Bride"

2011-09-07T12:51:00.001-04:00

In my New York Journal of Books review I describe the book as “. . . a plot-driven novel conveyed in crisp, descriptive, and thought-provoking prose via an engagingly intelligent third-person narrator. . . . an auspicious debut” and recommend it to both adult and precocious young adult readers. via examiner.com

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"What They Saved: Pieces of a Jewish Past" published today

2011-09-01T15:16:00.001-04:00

In my New York Journal of Books review I quote Ms. Miller, "Every new piece of information keeps me on the road to the ever-expanding possibility of the quest, a quest that in the end will still yield only partial knowledge--and will never give me, return to me, those past lives." Ms. Miller, a retired CUNY Graduate Center English and Comparative Literature professor, is an appealing prose stylist, but because of its focus on the genalogical search process this book will mostly appeal to genealogy buffs in general and Jewish genealogy buffs in particular.

Continue reading on Examiner.com

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Steve Jobs quote:

2011-08-29T15:05:00.001-04:00

"It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough. It’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields the results that make our hearts sing."

This quote from Steve Jobs as he introduced the iPad 2 in March captures the essence of Apple’s cross-disciplinary approach to innovation, the same sentiment that made Jobs’s 2005 Stanford graduation address a tour de force of inspiration for the cross-pollination of art and technology (via curiositycounts)

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Windsor Terrace and Kensington, Brooklyn, post-Irene.

2011-08-28T17:18:00.001-04:00

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Davar Torah Shabbat Ra'eh

2011-08-27T21:11:00.001-04:00

This morning I delivered a Davar Torah on Parashat Ra'eh, the weekly Torah portion, at Park Slope Jewish Center in Brooklyn. My talk's sources include Deuteronomy 11:26 -12:28, Max Vogelstein's book "Fertile Soil: A Political History of Israel Under the Divided Kingdom," and "A Homily on Political Messianism," a blog post by my American-Israeli cousin Sam Shube. Here is a link to the text of my Davar Torah:

David Cooper, Davar Torah, Shabbat Ra'eh, PSJC 27 Aug 2011

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Our Aug 2011 Vermont vacation

2011-08-17T19:41:00.001-04:00

via flickr.com

Highlights from our VT vacation:

Sat 8/6 we drove up to Shoshana's parents and celebrated her mom's birthday that evening (going by the Jewish custom that days begin at sunset).

Sun 8/7 we drove up to Vermont. We stopped in Brattleboro for lunch at the food co-op (where two days later a disgruntled co-op member murdered a manager) and then continued to Burlington. Because we booked our room through Priceline we paid considerably less than the other guests at the South Burlington Holiday Inn but had to accept a room with two double beds one of which served as an extra dresser/closet and left little floor space. We much prefer one king or queen sized bed with more room for floor exercises and will think twice before booking through Priceline again. Monday night we walked a mile and a half into town, dined at A Single Pebble, a high end Chinese restaurant whose menu includes many vegan items, and walked off dinner on the way back to our hotel.

Mon 8/8 we drove to Montpelier, VT's capitol, where just behind the capitol building there is a lovely hiking trail that leads to a stone tower observatory with splendid views of the Green Mountains. After our hiked we browsed and shopped at Montpelier's many quaint little shops and dined at The Skinny Pancake, a crepe restaurant.

Tues 8/9 we drove to Underhill State Park and hiked up the west slope of Mt. Mansfield as far as Cantilever Rock. The trail, parts of which are pure stone, is quite steep and challenging. Shoshana forgot that her hiking boots are a tad too big and require an extra pair of socks, so though I enjoyed the hike a lot, it was painful for her. That evening we dined at Stone Soup, an informal Burlington cafeteria style restaurant with crunchy/healthy/vegetarian offerings.

Weds 8/10 rain was forecast for the afternoon, so we walked the northern part of the Burlington Bike Path in the morning, ate lunch at Ali Baba's, a middle eastern fast food joint, and drove back to the hotel to hang out and sleep through the rain storm. For dinner we dined at Bueno Y Sano, a casual Mexican restaurant with vegetarian (but not vegan) choices--which describes vegetarian restaurant offerings in general in Vermont.

Thurs 8/11 we drove down scenic route seven to Middlebury where we ate lunch at the Storm Cafe beside Otter Creek. In Burlington we had seen posters and brochures for the Middlebury College Art Museum, but when we got there it was closed for floor sanding. We drove back to Burlington, walked the southern end of the Burlington Bike Path, and dined at an Asian restaurant in Williston, a suburb east of Burlington.

Fri 8/12 we checked out of our hotel and started our return drive. We stopped at the Ben and Jerry's factory, did not want to wait for the next tour, did not want to eat ice cream at 10:00 in the morning, but visited the flavor cemetery. We stopped for lunch at Kismet in Montpelier and then got back on the highway. At around 2:00 PM we were driving south on I91 about a mile north of Bellows Falls when a wild turkey flew into our windshield. I pulled the car over onto the shoulder and called Geico whose customer service rep insisted the car be taken on a flat-bed truck to a body shop in White River Junction 40 miles north (the wrong direction from our destination) where the claims adjuster was waiting for us, apologized for his co-worker's mistake, and arranged for Enterprise car-rental to bring us a loaner car. We drove to Greenfield, MA as planned, and visited my high school friend, Richard Witty, with whom we had an early dinner at a homestyle Thai restaurant, recited Shabbat blessings, went for a terrific hike in the woods near his house, and stayed the night.

Sat 8/13 we drove home, stopping in Westchester to walk in Ward Acres and then have lunch with my parents at a diner near their home. We got back to Brooklyn in the late afternoon and had dinner in the neighborhood with our cat sitter returning home just in time for her ride to the airport. Sasson was much calmer than other times we've been away having had a cat-loving human to keep him company.

Sun 8/14 we arranged for a neighbor to look in on Sasson and drove back to my in-laws so that we would be only three hours drive south of White River Junction. We walked around the Mall in Meriden (it was too rainy to walk outdoors) and had Thai food for the second time in as many nights, but it was delicious.

Mon 8/15 we confirmed that the windshield would be fixed by the time we arrived and drove up in a pouring rain. We got our repaired car, returned the rental, and drove as far as Hadley, MA where we stopped for the night at a hotel with a fitness room (again too rainy to walk outdoors) and dined at Whole Foods.

Tues 8/16 we stopped at a local farm stand so we would have what to cook for dinner when we got home.

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"You're Not Alone," a moving "It Gets Better" video

2011-08-05T15:32:00.001-04:00

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Sex in the park is allowed. But show some consideration. Many...

2011-08-03T14:47:00.001-04:00

Full text of the sign in a Copenhagen, Denmark park: "Sex in the park is allowed. But show some consideration. Many children institutions use the park. Therefore please avoid: sex in the playground and visible places between 9 am and 4 pm. Loud sex in hiding between 9 am and 4 pm. Remember to: remove semen from the benches after the act. Leave condoms and used napkins in the bin. The city hall of Copenhagen calls for safe sex. Enjoy!(Denmark)"

Audacia Ray points out: "As compared to NYC, where we have just increased prostitution penalties for transactional sex in a school zone. Enjoy!"

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Two videos on the Jewish origins of Palestinian Muslims

2011-07-17T15:41:00.001-04:00

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Meanwhile, The San Francisco Public Library

2011-07-14T16:18:00.001-04:00

This series of illustrations via Rumpus comics is cool and adorable and fascinating. If you're not a librarian and have never used a library nor loved an illustration you can skip this. If you are, or have, or do, go ahead and click: therumpus.net

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social media humor

2011-07-10T20:08:00.001-04:00

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Windsor Terrace dawn

2011-07-08T06:59:00.001-04:00

via flickr.com

Dawn in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, NY

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Chinua Achebe's poem "Vultures"

2011-07-06T20:32:00.002-04:00

via facebook.com

“Vultures” by Chinua Achebe
In the greyness
and drizzle of one despondent
dawn unstirred by harbingers
of sunbreak a vulture
perching high on broken
bones of a dead tree
nestled close to his
mate his smooth
bashed-in head, a pebble
on a stem rooted in
a dump of gross
feathers, inclined affectionately
to hers. Yesterday they picked
the eyes of a swollen
corpse in a water-logged
trench and ate the
things in its bowel. Full
gorged they chose their roost
keeping the hollowed remnant
in easy range of cold
telescopic eyes...
Strange
indeed how love in other
ways so particular
will pick a corner
in that charnel-house
tidy it and coil up there, perhaps
even fall asleep - her face
turned to the wall!
...Thus the Commandant at Belsen
Camp going home for
the day with fumes of
human roast clinging
rebelliously to his hairy
nostrils will stop
at the wayside sweet-shop
and pick up a chocolate
for his tender offspring
waiting at home for Daddy's
return...
Praise bounteous
providence if you will
that grants even an ogre
a tiny glow-worm
tenderness encapsulated
in icy caverns of a cruel
heart or else despair
for in the very germ
of that kindred love is
lodged the perpetuity
of evil.

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Israeli poet Dahlia Ravikovitch's complete poetry now in paperback - New York NY

2011-07-05T19:01:00.002-04:00

At the time of her death in 2005, Dahlia Ravikovitch was Israel's second best loved poet after Yehuda Amichai. She was also a commited peace activist, yet her readers included Israelis from all points on the political spectrum.
Two years ago a new translation of her complete poetry was published by New York publisher W.W. Norton, and last week a paperback edition ofHovering at a Low Altitude: The Complete Poetry of Dahlia Ravikovitch was released (perfect for poetry loving commuters). In my New York Journal of Books review of the book I describe Ms. Ravikovitch's work as "sophisticated, intelligent, conscientious, and empathic," and Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld's translations as "strong and moving English poems in their own right."
My review includes biographical background with references to her feminism, her political activism, her secularism, her mental health issues, and excerpts from her poems (had space allowed I would have included more).

via examiner.com

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The Dirty Talk Of The Town: Profanity At "The New Yorker" | The Awl

2011-06-27T15:27:00.001-04:00

via theawl.com

an impressive list of the first occurrences of classic profanities in the magazine’s pages.

Also see: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/backissues/2011/06/bonfire-of-the-profa...

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kaffe in katmandu // Fraction Factions

2011-06-26T19:49:00.001-04:00

Read the poem on kaffeinkatmandu.tumblr.com

A poem I wrote two years ago that was just published on kaffe in katmandu, an arts/literature blog. Were I writing this poem now I would substitute the word "climaxing" for "ejaculating" since men without prostate glands do not ejaculate. When I fully recover from my prostate surgery I hope to still be a 40%er.

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Seven Days in Rio | New York Journal of Books

2011-06-26T14:33:00.001-04:00

"This ironic and absurdist highbrow little sex novel is a hoot. . . . Mr. Levy's humor is dryer than Monty Python's but no less funny, and he combines high and low culture in a particularly appealing way."

via nyjournalofbooks.com

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Self-Confidence, Empathy May Make for Better Sex

2011-06-20T15:04:00.001-04:00

Study of young American adults suggests a healthy psychological outlook boosts sexual satisfaction. Empathic people of both genders reach orgasm more frequently, and people with high self-esteem are more likely to enjoy performing oral sex. See also: http://goo.gl/6493V

via consumer.healthday.com

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An Addiction Expert Faces a Formidable Foe - Prescription Drugs - NYTimes.com

2011-06-15T14:12:00.001-04:00

It's all in the dopamine. An interview with the neuroscientist in charge of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, who also happens to be the great-granddaughter of Leon Trotsky.

via nytimes.com

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NY Times Science: From Hitler to Mother Teresa: 6 Degrees of Empathy

2011-06-14T20:04:00.001-04:00

Dr. Baron-Cohen, a professor of developmental psychology at the University of Cambridge and director of the university's Autism Research Center, proposes that evil is more scientifically defined as an absence of empathy, exacerbated by negative environmental factors (usually parental, sometimes societal) and a genetic component. When these three exist in tandem they result in what he calls a Zero-Negative personality. Zero-Negative takes at least three forms (and possibly more), borrowing from terms used in psychiatry: Zero Type P (psychopathology), Zero Type B (borderline disorder) and Zero Type N (narcissism).

Whereas psychiatry groups these three loosely under the term personality disorders, Dr. Baron-Cohen proposes that they all share the characteristic of zero degrees of empathy. (His empathy quotient scale is available in the book or online, with an instant numerical score that is translated into degrees of empathy from zero to six, or super empathy.)

Check out this website I found at nytimes.com

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The new martyrs are the poets

2011-06-07T19:42:00.005-04:00

Rus Bowden via poetryandpoetsinrags.blogspot.com:

"This April, Ayat al-Ghermezi (or Ayat al-Gormezi) was reported to have been raped and killed (http://poetryandpoetsinrag

s.blogspot.com/2011/04/poetic-obituaries-ayat-al-ghermezi-20.html) while in the custody of Bahraini forces. Bahrain is blaming the misinformation on Iran, but still and all, we find out that she is to come before a Bahrain military tribunal for reading poetry. This is our first story, and the first of a pair of headliners for the week.

"Our second story is about blogger and poet Amina Abdallah, who has both Syrian and American citizenship. Her blog is called A Gay Girl in Damascus (http://damascusgaygirl.blogspot.com/). She has been abducted by armed men, and the reports or fears are that this is an official Syrian arrest.

"Those two articles are followed by one of a Turkish mayor getting six months in prison for being part of the council that named a park after a poet. That's followed by a story on Chile's communist party looking into fresh allegations that Pablo Neruda was executed by poison for his politics. And it just doesn't seem to stop.

"The new martyrs are the poets. Apparently in some parts of the world, all over the world, there are religious people who think they can earn their halos by killing, harassing, maiming, or otherwise silencing poets. Somehow whatever sin they concoct for poets is much worse than any sin they themselves have committed or are wont to commit. It must make them feel close to God or Allah to kill or harm such a poet, because no remorse whatsoever is shown after their despicable acts. But it is only he who is without sin, who can cast the first stone. That's common sense. Do it otherwise, and it makes no difference who you are or what position you hold, whatever sin you thought was in the poet, yours is much worse.

"This same principal follows when poets are abducted, detained, imprisoned, tortured, or killed for political reasons, whether it be by a political group which feels it ought to be in power, or one that is. If an ideology cannot withstand a poem, such ideology amounts to nothing. If a military power or a government structure is threatened by a poem, there is no power beyond arms, and there is no government beyond threats. A government or political movement that is so threatened by a poem, or even a whole poet, such that the poet is abducted or killed for the sake of a nation, or even threatened with military might, is a tyrannical government, or a movement based on the selfish egos giving it power.

"Therefore, one great measure of a good government and a healthy society is the amount of latitude poets are given, and, on the other hand, how few people are in prisons because of poems they wrote. This follows for religions. The better the religion, the less poets are being condemned, not disagreed with, but condemned."

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Quiz: How Green Is Your Life?

2011-06-06T15:33:00.001-04:00

Your Life is 96% Green

Your life is totally green, and as far as your environmental beliefs go... your actions do speak louder than your words.
Your lifestyle totally serves as an inspiration to others. Whether you know it or not. So keep it up!

How Green Is Your Life?

Blogthings: We Have a Quiz for Almost Everything

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NY Times: Ex-Mossad Chief Meir Dagan Sounds Alarms on Israel’s Leaders

2011-06-03T17:31:00.001-04:00

"It's not the Iranians or the Palestinians who are keeping Dagan awake at night but Israel's leadership," asserted Ari Shavit on the front page of Friday's Haaretz newspaper. "He does not trust the judgment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak... He is afraid that Israel's isolation will cause its leaders to take reckless action against Iran."

Nahum Barnea, a commentator for Yediot Aharonot newspaper, wrote on Friday that Mr. Dagan was not alone. Naming the other retired security chiefs and adding Amos Yadlin, who recently retired as chief of military intelligence, Mr. Barnea said that they shared Mr. Dagan's criticism.

via nytimes.com

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A Palestinian call to engage with the Jewish question

2011-06-02T15:16:00.001-04:00

via 972mag.com Photo: Future president of Israel Chaim Weizmann and Emir Faisal of Greater Syria, 1918.

"We could continue to stick with what are considered the foundations of our perceptions of the self or the Jewish other. We could go on and call Zionism and Israel a considerable variety of names. But what we must to do is move on, refresh the concepts of the Palestinian question so that they are capable of conversing with the inextricably intertwined Jewish question, and create new outlooks that will open horizons for reconciliation between the two nations."

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Constitutional Myth #2: The 'Purpose' of the Constitution Is to Limit Congress - Garrett Epps - National - The Atlantic

2011-06-01T19:33:00.001-04:00

via theatlantic.com

The error about the purpose of the Constitution explains the curiously two-faced nature of far-right "constitutionalism." On the one hand, they insist that they love the Constitution more than life itself; on the other, they keep trying to sneak amendments into it to strip Congress of power over the budget or allow state legislatures to repeal federal laws. The Constitution they claim to revere actually looks a lot like the Articles of Confederation.

The current war on federal power, like the other attacks on its power throughout history, is really motivated by an entirely realistic fear that those idiots, the people, will enact progressive legislation. Only by importing prohibitions on Congress into the Constitution can that terrible outcome be prevented.

But the more tightly we bind Congress with imaginary chains, the less we, the people, can create a "respectable nation."

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101 Best Sex Scenes Ever Written: An Erotic Romp Through Literature for Writers and Readers | New York Journal of Books

2011-06-01T10:20:00.001-04:00

“Looking for an anthology of erotic texts to accompany masturbation? Look elsewhere.”

"Aspiring fiction writers who would rather not write sex scenes but whose plots or character development require that they do, may find this book a useful guide, especially if they share its author’s taste in literature in general and erotic literature in particular."

via nyjournalofbooks.com

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My "Who Are You on True Blood?" quiz result

2011-05-31T15:33:00.001-04:00

You Are Eric

You are cool, calculating, and very hard to read. Power is your only concern.
People find you extremely intimidating but also very fascinating. Others are drawn to your strength.

You see most humans as pawns in your game. The only people you respect are those who have more power than you.
You are aggressive and a go-getter. You're not content to sit around and let things happen. You like to make things happen.

Who Are You on True Blood?

Blogthings: Our Quizzes Weren't Written By Bored 12 Year Olds

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The Chart That Should Accompany Every Discussion of Deficits - James Fallows - Politics - The Atlantic

2011-05-30T17:54:00.001-04:00

via theatlantic.com

Why does this chart matter? Because it makes clear, in that wonderful "worth 1,000 words" way, two realities that are fundamental to sane discussion of public finance, but that most of the public doesn't realize and that the Republican leadership is actively working to obscure. They are:

- The very large, but temporary and self-limiting, expenditures for TARP and other measures proposed by both the Bush and Obama administrations to avoid a second Great Depression, plus Obama stimulus spending. And;

- The very large, but permanent and worsening, budgetary impact of the "Bush tax cuts" -- which when first proposed back in the pre-9/11 era, were supposed to end in 2010 and were in response to what back then seemed to be the "problem" of a burgeoning surplus in federal accounts! Since "extending" those cuts just sounds like business as usual, I think it is hard for most people to envision the profound and growing effect they have. The chart above helps toward that end -- and doesn't even go into how heavily those cuts are skewed to the "haves" of society. Last year Austan Goolsbee had a marvelous chart of his own on that point.

And as a bonus half-point, the chart clarifies that budget problems would be on the path to self-correction, if the Bush cuts had lapsed as originally planned.

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Governors Island 05/29/11 - a set on Flickr

2011-05-29T19:33:00.003-04:00

via flickr.com

We spent this Sunday afternoon on Governors Island, an oasis from urban stress in the middle of the harbor. This island, whose circumference in a mere two miles, is just west of Brooklyn but politically part of Manhattan. In the 17th Century it was the first home to Dutch settlers who after their first year moved on to lower Manhattan and became the Governor's residence when New Amsterdam became New York under British rule during the colonial period. It was a Coast Guard base up until about a decade ago, and was an army base prior to 1966. This was my second visit to Governors Island; I first visited as a cub scout in 1963.

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U.S. Jews must support Obama's Mideast vision - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

2011-05-24T14:23:00.001-04:00

"The large Jewish peace camp in the United States must support the president and reject political activists who have turned Israel's fate into a ball on America's domestic political court."

via haaretz.com

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Vaclav and Lena, a novel about Russian-Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn - New York NY

2011-05-17T17:31:00.001-04:00

Today New York publisher The Dial Press, a division of Random House, releases Haley Tanner's debut novel Vaclav and Lena, a coming of age tale about Russian-Jewish immigrant children in Brooklyn. In my New York Journal of Books review I describe the book as "a tale of unconditional love; of attachment, separation, and reunion; and of trauma and healing." It's an engaging read that will appeal to teens, their parents, and anyone interested in the immigrant experience. via examiner.com

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New Scientist: Orgasms unlock altered consciousness

2011-05-16T14:35:00.001-04:00

MRI image: this is your (or somebody's) brain having an orgasm.

Further study of the orgasm - and the PreFrontalCortex's role - will offer much needed insight into how we might use thought alone to control other physical sensations, such as pain.via newscientist.com

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Graphing Religions and Income - NYTimes.com

2011-05-14T20:34:00.001-04:00

via nytimes.com

Some of the income differences probably stem from culture. Some faiths place great importance on formal education. But the differences are also self-reinforcing. People who make more money can send their children to better schools, exacerbating the many advantages they have over poorer children.

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NY Times: Peace Corps Volunteers Speak Out on Rape

2011-05-11T13:51:00.000-04:00

"My own experience,” she said, “was that the treatment by the Peace Corps was worse than the rape.”

The women ...want Congress to pass legislation requiring, among other things, that the Peace Corps develop “sexual assault response teams” to collect forensic evidence and provide emergency health care and advocacy for victims after attacks.

Read the article on nytimes.com

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Mel and Miriam Alexenberg: An oral history of a Jewish-American-Israeli marriage - New York NY

2011-05-10T14:04:00.002-04:00

Today is Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israel's Independence Day, and I'd like to mark the day by sharing an oral-history from The Jewish-American Marriage Oral History Project of a couple of Jewish New Yorkers and artists who throughout their half century marriage have alternated their residence between Israel and the United States. I interviewed Petach Tikvah, Israel residents Mel and Miriam Alexenberg a year and ten months ago at a restaurant overlooking Rockefeller Center during one of their visits to the city where they met and married.
Read the entire interview on examiner.com

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Honest To Betsy: Uterine Orgasms - Myth and Mayhem Online and Between the Sheets

2011-05-05T15:24:00.001-04:00

via honest2betsy.blogspot.com

This blogger's description of sex post-hysterectomy matches my experience of sex post-prostatectomy. The orgasms are qualitatively different--not better or worse, but certainly different.

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David Albahari's novel Leeches explores antisemitism, mathematics, and Kabbalah - New York NY

2011-04-28T17:14:00.003-04:00

In my New York Journal of Books review of Leeches I write: "David Albahari’s challenging yet engaging, cerebral, magical-realist, experimental, post-modernist novel Leeches provides a portrait of life in Belgrade, capital of an ideologically charged and xenophobic Serbia, in the months preceding the NATO bombing campaign. As elsewhere in history, Belgrade’s Jewish community is the proverbial canary in the Serbian coal mine; considering the Serbian government’s behavior toward other former Yugoslav republics and their ethnic groups, this should not be surprising." My review ends with two lengthy excerpts from the novel and challenges the reader to decide for him/herself whether their intellectual content enhances the narrative or is pretentious erudition for its own sake.

via examiner.com

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Wetlands and waterways, Milford and Derby, CT Apr 17, 2011 - a set on Flickr

2011-04-21T19:10:00.001-04:00

via flickr.com

Between visiting Shosh's family in CT before Pesach and 1st seder with my family in NY we spent a couple of nights at Hyatt Place (a 3 star hotel that we got for a 1 star price thanks to Priceline) in Milford, CT with day trips to Derby and West Haven. We took long walks on a rail to trail linear park in Derby and on the boardwalk in West Haven and dined at Bloodroot in Bridgeport, Whole Foods in Milford, and Archie Moore's in Derby. Both seders were lovely; the first was at my sister, sister-in-law, and our twin nieces' home in New Rochelle where we used the Haggadah that Shoshana edited last year, and the second was at our friend's home in Park Slope where we used the Maxwell House Haggadah with added inserts. Both nights I didn't get to bed until nearly 3 AM.

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The Unleashed Mind: Why Creative People Are Eccentric: Scientific American

2011-04-16T17:32:00.001-04:00

via scientificamerican.com

...a combination of lower cognitive inhibition and higher IQ is associated with higher scores on a variety of creativity measures.

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Human Rights Petition: Call for the Release of Ai WeiWei

2011-04-13T19:46:00.001-04:00

On April 3, internationally acclaimed Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was detained at the Beijing airport while en route to Hong Kong, and his papers and computers were seized from his studio compound.
We members of the international arts community express our concern for Ai’s freedom and disappointment in China’s reluctance to live up to its promise to nurture creativity and independent thought, the keys to “soft power” and cultural influence.
Our institutions have some of the largest online museum communities in the world. We have launched this online petition to our collective millions of Facebook fans and Twitter followers. By using Ai Weiwei’s favored medium of “social sculpture,” we hope to hasten the release of our visionary friend.

Richard Armstrong, Director, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation
and Alexandra Munroe, Samsung Senior Curator, Asian Art
Juan Ignacio Vidarte, Director General, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao,
and Deputy Director and Chief Officer for Global Strategies, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Glenn Lowry, Director, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Sir Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate and Chris Dercon, Director, Tate Modern
Kaywin Feldman, President, Association of Art Museum Directors and Director
and President, Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Yongwoo Lee, President, The Gwangju Biennale Foundation
Michael Govan, Director, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Vishakha Desai, President and Melissa Chiu, Vice President of Global Arts, Asia Society
Jim Cuno, President and Director, Art Institute of Chicago
Julián Zugazagoitia, Director, Nelson Atkins Museum, Kansas City
Ann Philbin, Director, Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles
Olga Viso, Director, Walker Art Center
Alfred Pacquement, Director, Musée national d'art moderne/Centre de création industrielle, Paris
Arnold Lehman, Director, Brooklyn Museum
Jill Medvedow, Director, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
Julia Peyton-Jones, Director and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-director of Exhibitions and Programmes
and Director of International Projects, Serpentine Gallery, London
Poul Erik Tøjner, Director, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark
Nathalie Bondil, Director and Chief Curator, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Neal Benezra, Director, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Tony Ellwood, Director, and Suhanya Raffel, Deputy Director, Queensland Art Gallery, Australia

前言

享誉国际的艺术家艾未未于四月三日于北京国际机场，在乘机前往香港时遭受扣押。他位于北京住所的文件及电脑也遭查封。
我们身为国际艺术组织的成员，在此表达对艾未未的人身自由之强烈忧虑。同时，我们对于中国政府未能实现其对于培植创造力及自由思考─这些作为”软实力”及文化影响力的根本要件之承诺，感到十分失望。
我们的机构拥有全世界最大的博物馆线上社群。我们已经在网上发起请愿活动，将串联起在Facebook(脸书)及Twitter(推特)上的百万追随者。我们期望藉由艾未未深信能够实现”社会雕塑”的媒体-网络，来达成对释放这位拥有美好远景的艺术家及朋友之请求。
Richard Armstrong 古根汉姆美术馆馆长, Alexandra Munroe 古根汉姆美术馆资深策展人
Juan Ignacio Vidarte 古根汉姆美术馆毕尔巴鄂分馆馆长古根汉姆基金会副会长暨首席国际策略执行官
Glenn Lowry 纽约当代美术馆馆长
Sir Nicholas Serota 泰德美术馆馆长, Chris Dercon 泰德当代美术馆馆长
Kaywin Feldman 美国博物馆协会暨明尼阿波利斯美术馆总裁
Yongwoo Lee 光州双年展基金会总裁
Michael Govan 洛杉矶美术馆馆长
Vishakha Desai 亚洲协会总裁, Melissa Chiu 亚洲协会全球艺术项目副总裁
Jim Cuno 芝加哥美术馆馆长暨总裁
Julián Zugazagoitia 纳尔逊·阿特金斯艺术博物馆馆长
Ann Philbin 加州大学洛杉矶分校汉默美术馆馆长
Olga Viso 沃克艺术中心执行 官
Alfred Pacquement 国立现代艺术美术馆 / 巴黎工业设计中心馆长
Arnold Lehman 布鲁克林美术馆馆长
Jill Medvedow波士顿当代艺术美术馆馆长
Julia Peyton-Jones伦敦蛇形画廊执行官
Hans Ulrich Obrist 伦敦蛇形画廊展览部联合总监暨国际展览项目总监
Poul Erik Tøjner丹麦路易斯安那现代美术馆馆长
Nathalie Bondil 蒙特利尔美术馆馆长暨首席策展人
Neal Benezra 旧金山当代美术馆馆长
Tony Ellwood 澳大利亚昆士兰美术馆馆长, Suhanya Raffel 澳大利亚昆士兰美术馆副馆长

via change.org

The regime in Beijing has proven largely resistant to pressure from foreign governments. But they've made a huge push to raise China's profile in the arts -- the government just finished building the world's largest art museum. Widespread condemnation, led by the arts community, may be our best chance to save his life.

Please sign the petition to free Ai Weiwei as soon as possible.

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Petition to End the Faroe Islands' Whale & Dolphin Slaughter | Sign the Petition | Animals Australia Unleashed

2011-04-09T19:56:00.001-04:00

via unleashed.org.au

End the Whale & Dolphin Kill!: Every summer in the Faroe Islands, hundreds of pilot whales and dolphins are killed mercilessly. Sign the petition to help put an end to this bloody slaughter!
http://www.unleashed.org.au/take_action/petitions/stop-the-faroe-islands-whal...

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video: cat and dolphins playing together

2011-04-08T20:26:00.001-04:00

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‘Good cholesterol’ nanoparticles seek and destroy cancer cells

2011-04-08T19:13:00.001-04:00

Read the article on hsc.unt.edu

HDL (Good Cholesterol) is not only good for one's heart, it can also help kill cancer cells.

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Boy donates bar mitzvah money to help 'Liberty' musical make it to Broadway

2011-04-07T16:20:00.001-04:00

Boy donates bar mitzvah money to help 'Liberty' musical make it to Broadway

Joanna Molloy

Wednesday, April 6th 2011, 4:00 AM

Adams for News
Jesse Naranjo (c.) stands with his mother Rachel, father Rodrigo, and sister Sophia. He donated all of his bar mitzvah money.

Read the entire article on nydailynews.com

"A lot of people aren't familiar with the story of how the Statue of Liberty came to the U.S., and I learned about it from this musical, not from school," Jesse said.

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Leonard Cohen is now an Everyman's Library Pocket Poet - New York NY

2011-04-05T14:53:00.001-04:00

Read the article on examiner.com

New York publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, is publishing a selection of Leonard Cohen's poems and songs in its Everyman's Library Pocket Poets series, a series that includes some of the best loved English language poets. In my New York Journal of Books review of Leonard Cohen Poems and Songs I describe the small handsomely made volume as a likely gift book.

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RIP poet Paul Violi 1944-2011

2011-04-03T20:14:00.001-04:00

April 03, 2011

Paul Violi 1944-2011

We are sad to report that our beloved friend Paul Violi died yesterday after months of contending with pancreatic cancer. Paul -- a prince of a friend, a generous teacher, an inspiring poet -- was perhaps the most consistently inventive poet of a singularly talented generation upon whom the legacy of Ashbery, Koch, and O'Hara rested not as a burden but an as impetus toward poetic originality and freshness of vision and language. For nearly ten years Paul taught a poetry writing workshop in the graduate writing program at the New School. It was a great experience for students and teacher alike. I will write more about my friend in the weeks to come. But first the news must sink in.
-- David Lehman

Appeal to the Grammarians
by Paul Violi

We, the naturally hopeful,
Need a simple sign
For the myriad ways we're capsized.
We who love precise language
Need a finer way to convey
Disappointment and perplexity.
For speechlessness and all its inflections,
For up-ended expectations,
For every time we're ambushed
By trivial or stupefying irony,
For pure incredulity, we need
The inverted exclamation point.
For the dropped smile, the limp handshake,
For whoever has just unwrapped a dumb gift
Or taken the first sip of a flat beer,
Or felt love or pond ice
Give way underfoot, we deserve it.
We need it for the air pocket, the scratch shot,
The child whose ball doesn't bounce back,
The flat tire at journey's outset,
The odyssey that ends up in Weehawken.
But mainly because I need it—here and now
As I sit outside the Caffe Reggio
Staring at my espresso and cannoli
After this middle-aged couple
Came strolling by and he suddenly
Veered and sneezed all over my table
And she said to him, "See, that's why
I don't like to eat outside."

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word cloud based on my delicious bookmark tags

2011-03-29T19:54:00.001-04:00

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ZEEK: Articles: "We Are Not Like Them": Itamar Massacre Activates A Dangerous Israeli-Jewish Ethnocentrism

2011-03-25T14:05:00.001-04:00

Read Roi Ben Yehuda's article on zeek.forward.com

Roi Ben Yehuda demonstrates the rising racism expressed by mainstream Israeli authorities in the wake of the terrible Fogel tragedy. The quotations from Gilad Sharon are chilling and reminiscent of European racial anti-semitism from the previous century.

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The Needle | New York Journal of Books

2011-03-24T15:38:00.002-04:00

My review concludes with an expression of gratitude to author Jennifer Grotz for sharing her inner life and its conflicts via her mind’s eye and poet’s ear in The Needle.

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Amira Hass: The sanctity of the soaring Qassam - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

2011-03-23T14:57:00.001-04:00

The Hamas authorities once again forgot that the neighbor/occupier to its east is crazy. Fact: Over Shabbat, Hamas' military wing fired more than 50 mortar shells at Israel. Or perhaps it didn't forget: Perhaps it merely thought the Palestinian people in Gaza were ready for another high-tech Israeli onslaught, for another Israel Defense Forces video game in which children playing on a roof are identified as lookouts and sentenced to death. ...

A Palestinian carries an injured boy into Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, after Israeli tank fire struck a home on March 22, 2011

Photo by: Reuters

Though they didn't denounce those 50 mortars, Palestinians who are not Hamas supporters did give them a political interpretation. This wasn't "the attacked party's right to respond" (or, more accurately, the fly's right to play Ping-Pong with the elephant ), but a clear message to young Palestinians, reinforced by the brutal suppression of their demonstrations: You aren't in Cairo or Tunis, so stop pestering us with theories about a smart popular struggle in our emirate.

But the neighbor/occupier to the east is crazy. It's wrong to provide it with pretexts that would enable it to once again put Gaza's children and old people through an ordeal like Cast Lead, or even one half as bad.

So for all those who demonstrated in support of the Gazans when they were trapped under Israeli fire, all those planners of past and future flotillas, this is your moment to raise your voices and say clearly: The Qassams merely feed Israel's madness. It is not the Qassams that will ensure the Palestinians, both in and out of Gaza, a life of dignity. It is not the Qassams that will topple the Israeli walls around the world's largest prison camp.

Read the entire article on haaretz.com

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Self-Constraint Leads Us to Prefer Aggression: Scientific American Podcast

2011-03-22T15:06:00.001-04:00

Home » Multimedia » Podcasts » 60-Second Mind »
60-Second Mind | Mind & Brain
Self-Constraint Leads Us to Prefer Aggression

Research shows that when we practice self-constraint, we also tend to prefer aggressive messaging and movies. Christie Nicholson reports

| March 20, 2011 | 8

Listen to the podcast and/or read the article at scientificamerican.com

When making lifestyle changes take it slow or you may wind up with rage as a side-effect.

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Encountering Peace: Abbas, man of peace

2011-03-21T20:22:00.002-04:00

Check out this article I found at jpost.com

Palestinians have agreed to concessions which make the two-state solution possible and desirable. With leaders like Abbas on the Palestinian side, it is criminally irresponsible not to end the conflict.

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NY Times film critic A.O. Scott to teach Holocaust in film class - New York NY

2011-03-16T19:29:00.003-04:00

NY Times film critic A.O. Scott will give four lectures with illustrative film clips on The Holocaust in Film on consecutive Sunday evenings from 7:00 to 9:00 PM starting this Sunday March 20, 2010 at Park Slope Jewish Center (where Mr. Scott is a member) located at Eighth Avenue and 14th Street in Brooklyn.

Continue reading on Examiner.com: NY Times film critic A.O. Scott to teach Holocaust in film class - New York NY | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/ny-in-new-york/ny-times-film-critic-a-o-scott-to-teach-holocaust-film-class#ixzz1Go4Grzcm

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The Great Wall of Vulva -- Brighton Bodycasting | Lifecasting | Plaster Casts | Sculptures

2011-03-15T10:42:00.001-04:00

via brightonbodycasting.com

The Great Wall of Vagina

THE GREAT WALL OF VAGINA is FINISHED!!. The world Premiere will be in the Brighton Festival Fringe in May 2011

For this, my latest major sculpture, I cast, over the course of 5 years, the vaginas (well the vulva area in fact) of hundreds of volunteers. The Great Wall of Vagina is an exploration of women's relationships with their genitals. When I assembled the first panel of 40 casts in summer 2008, I stepped back disappointed. I realised the sculpture would need to be much bigger to have the impact I wanted. From this original piece (called Design A Vagina) has grown an epic sculpture. The final piece now has 400 casts arranged in 10 panels of 40.

"Why did I do it and what's it all about?" I hear you ask. Well, it became clear to me whilst working on a not dissimilar piece for a sex museum that many women have anxiety about their genital appearance. It appalled me that our society has created yet one more way to make women feel bad about themselves. I decided that I was uniquely placed to do something about it.

The sculpture comments on the trend for surgery to create the 'perfect' vagina. This modern day equivalent of female genital mutilation is a bizarre practice which suggests that one is better than another. Taste in nothing is universal and any desire for 'homogyny' could be very misguided. 400 casts arranged in this manner is in no way pornographic, as it might have been if photographs had been used. One is able to stare without shame but in wonder and amazement at this expos� of human variety. For the first time for many women they will be able to see their own genitals in relation to other women's. In doing so they may dispel many misconceptions they may have been carrying about what women look like 'down there'. The sculpture is serene and intricate and it works on many levels.

Included are identical twins, mothers and daughters and examples of male to female and female to male transsexuals. Ages range from 18 year old students to a grandmother of 76. I really wanted to include as many possibilities as I could. I spent the entire 5 years seeking a victim of female genital mutilation who would like to be included but sadly without success. The more inclusive and complete I could be in this survey the more power this sculpture would have.

***I will be creating one more panel of 40 casts to be auctioned for a women's charity. If you'd like to be cast for that please get in touch. NB Casting for the Great Wall of Vagina in now completed. ***

As featured in The Argus, You Tube, Channel 4's G-Spot and The Sun

For more info get in touch via the Contact page...

Frequently Asked Questions about The Great Wall of Vagina

via brightonbodycasting.com

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President Abraham Lincoln and Leadership - C-SPAN Video Library

2011-03-15T09:14:00.001-04:00

President Abraham Lincoln and Leadership

Nov 18, 2002

Lincoln Forum

Mr. Perret talked about President Lincoln as a leader, and compared Lincoln to Ulysses S. Grant, Douglas MacArthur, and John F. Kennedy. Following prepared remarks, he responded to questions from the audience. This portion of the Lincoln Forum also featured a reading of the Gettysburg Address by .. Read More

Mr. Perret talked about President Lincoln as a leader, and compared Lincoln to Ulysses S. Grant, Douglas MacArthur, and John F. Kennedy. Following prepared remarks, he responded to questions from the audience. This portion of the Lincoln Forum also featured a reading of the Gettysburg Address by Lincoln impersonator James Getty.

59 minutes | 111 Views

View Event Timeline (3 Programs)

via c-spanvideo.org

Fascinating talk: Geoffrey Perret compared Lincoln to Ulysses S. Grant, Douglas MacArthur, and John F. Kennedy. All four were writers who loved poetry (MacArthur as commandant of West Point made cadets read and write poetry). Just under an hour.

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Must See Chart: This Is What Class War Looks Like - welcome to the matrix, charlie brown

2011-03-12T19:57:00.001-05:00

via jackdean.posterous.com

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How the human penis lost its spines

2011-03-10T19:40:00.001-05:00

read the article on cnn.com

Other primates and earlier human species did not need condoms with ridges or bumps.

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David Brooks on The New Humanism

2011-03-10T17:35:00.001-05:00

David Brooks on The New Humanism (read the article on nytimes.com)

I find it interesting that Brooks includes an expanded definition of limerence, which I've always understood to be an obsessive form of love sickness: Wiktionary (1 definition) –noun (neologism) An involuntary state of mind which seems to result from a romantic attraction for another person combined with an overwhelming, obsessive need to have one's feelings reciprocated.

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Marge Piercy's "The Hunger Moon: New and Selected Poems 1980-2010" arrives today

2011-03-08T14:14:00.001-05:00

It is a fortunate coincidence that today is both International Women's Day and the release date of Marge Piercy's The Hunger Moon: New and Selected Poems 1980-2010 by New York publisher Alfred Knopf.

Continue reading on Examiner.com: Marge Piercy's "The Hunger Moon: New and Selected Poems 1980-2010" arrives today - New York NY | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/ny-in-new-york/marge-piercy-s-the-hunger-moon-new-and-selected-poems-1980-2010-arrives-today#ixzz1G2Locgph

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Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire centennial anniversary - New York NY

2011-03-01T20:06:00.001-05:00

At a time when collective bargaining rights of workers are being challenged and agencies responsible for regulating worker safety are being underfunded it is worth remembering what the absence of such rights and regulations resulted in one hundred years ago.

Continue reading on Examiner.com: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire centennial anniversary - New York NY | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/ny-in-new-york/triangle-shirtwaist-factory-fire-centennial-anniversary#ixzz1FOnmFbOb

via examiner.com

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Meme: What American accent do you have?

2011-02-28T11:35:00.001-05:00

What American accent do you have?
Created by Xavier on Memegen.net

Northern. Whether you have the world famous Inland North accent of the Great Lakes area, or the radio-friendly sound of upstate NY and western New England, your accent is what used to set the standard for American English pronunciation (not much anymore now that the Inland North sounds like it does).

If you are not from the North, you are probably one of the following:
(a) A Southerner who hates Southern accents and tries really hard to "talk right"; or
(b) A New Yorker or New Jerseyan who doesn't have the full accent

Take this quiz now - it's easy!

Apparently I'm a New Yorker who doesn't have the full accent.

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The Threatening Scent of Fertile Women

2011-02-22T14:31:00.001-05:00

Men in a relationship, unlike the unattached, tell themselves that a fertile woman isn’t really that attractive, researchers say.

“We shouldn’t want our partner to be looking at lots of other people, because that’s bad for the relationship,” Dr. Maner said. “At the same time, preventing them from looking doesn’t help either, and can backfire.” Left to their own devices, conscious or unconscious, they might just manage to restrain themselves.

Read the entire article on nytimes.com

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Tablet Magazine

2011-02-22T14:07:00.001-05:00

Mark Alan Stamaty ^[1]

At some point in the near or not-distant future, the State of Israel will face the question of nuclear retaliation. Consider the following not unlikely scenario: A nuclear-armed nation, or nuclear-armed terrorists, detonate enough nuclear devices to destroy utterly the land of Israel and most of its people, rendering it uninhabitable.

Israel has been called “a one-bomb state” in that a single megaton-sized bomb detonated in Tel Aviv could accomplish such destruction. Many prefer to live in denial of this possibility. The people of Israel don’t have this luxury. If you don’t think they’ve war-gamed this possibility, think again. Many focus on Iran’s potential nuclear weaponry and the statements of Iranian leaders such as Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani that Iran would “welcome” a nuclear exchange with Israel because while it might lose 15 million people there would be a billion and half Muslims left on earth and no Jews in what was once Israel. But there is less focus on the current reality of the so called “Islamic bomb”—Pakistan’s 60 to 100 nukes, now ever more vulnerable to takeover by Taliban al-Qaida sympathizers. Seizable by or salable to terrorists.

What happens if it happens? A “second Holocaust”? One thing we can be fairly certain of: Israel will have the capacity for nuclear retaliation. Israel has purchased and put into operation at least three German-manufactured (!) long-range “Dolphin class” submarines, capable of being fitted out with nuclear weapons.

There has been all sorts of information and disinformation about the disposition of these subs, but most analysts seem to believe they are cruising the waters of the Persian Gulf or the Red Sea, within range of the most likely targets. And, many believe, they are armed with nuclear-tipped Harpoon cruise missiles. Ready to retaliate.

This is complicated by the potential of an attack from a terrorist “bomb with no return address,” smuggled across any one of three borders, or lobbed in from off shore. Whom to retaliate against? And is retaliation moral under Jewish law?

From How the End Begins: The Road to a Nuclear World War III by Ron Rosenbaum. Copyright © 2011 by Ron Rosenbaum. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Ron Rosenbaum, the author of How the End Begins ^[11], Explaining Hitler and The Shakespeare Wars, is a columnist for Slate. He lives in New York.

Read the entire article on tabletmag.com

This is the unshakable foundation of Halbertal’s thinking: “You cannot save your life at the expense of actual targeting of innocent people.” But his thinking can lead to some surprising conclusions such as his argument that in certain cases a preemptive nuclear strike can be moral while retaliation after being struck by nuclear weapons cannot be.

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YouTube - Sout Al Horeya صوت الحريه Amir Eid - Hany Adel - Hawary On Guitar & amp; Sherif On Keyboards

2011-02-14T16:38:00.001-05:00

via youtube.com

Egyptian pop singers celebrate the revolution. Click on the red "CC" button to read subtitles.

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Pining for the Friendly Pharaoh Or Why Mubarak's Departure may yet be good for the Jews

2011-02-14T13:43:00.001-05:00

Read the article on mycorrectviewsoneverything.blogspot.com

My cousin Sam Shube's analogy with Turkey may be Egypt's most realistic outcome and vision, one its people and neighbors should be able to live with. As in Turkey expect the Egyptian military to retain considerable influence behind the constitutional curtain.

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Photoblog - Christians protect Muslims during prayer in Cairo's dangerous Tahrir square

2011-02-04T17:24:00.001-05:00

via photoblog.msnbc.msn.com

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Always Already Derrida: Berfrois Interviews David Mikics | berfrois

2011-01-31T19:42:00.001-05:00

Photo of Jacques Derrida from the interview of David Mikics in berfrois.com

Derrida wrote brilliantly about so many central thinkers of the Western tradition: Plato, Freud, Nietzsche, Heidegger and many more. "Who Was Jacques Derrida?" offers vignettes of these philosophers, giving a sense of their work, along with an account of what Derrida did with them. Often, Derrida gave a partial or misleading account of his philosophical influences, but he always did so in an interesting way. The struggle between him and his great predecessors is dazzling to watch.

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Egyptian slogans from pro-democracy demonstrations

2011-01-28T12:42:00.001-05:00

About 40 chants from the Egyptian streets

plus photos of the demonstrations

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Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels | New York Journal of Books

2011-01-25T00:39:00.001-05:00

My latest NYJB review is of an epic work of poetry and great humanity that may appeal to history buffs as well as poetry readers.

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Early LSD research: ‎1950s housewife describes her acid trip.

2011-01-20T20:16:00.001-05:00

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Peace Corps Gang Rape: Volunteer Jess Smochek Says US Agency Ignored Warnings - ABC News

2011-01-14T22:41:00.001-05:00

More than 1,000 young American women have been raped or sexually assaulted in the last decade while serving as Peace Corps volunteers in foreign countries, an ABC News 20/20 investigation has found.

More Video

Victims say Peace Corps counselors are doing great damage. "Just because someone has a drink doesn't give anyone the right to violate them," said Casey Frazee. "And they need to stop telling survivors that."

"When bad things happen, you say to yourself, 'How did I bring this upon myself?' and I think, unfortunately, Peace Corps is hoping you'll think in that direction, too," said rape victim Adrianna Ault Nolan.

view a short video and read the entire article on abcnews.go.com

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PSA by Sex Workers in the fight against trafficking

2011-01-13T20:42:00.001-05:00

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Sitting At The Front Of The Bus | The Jewish Week

2011-01-13T20:26:00.001-05:00

Israel Religious Action Center launches ‘Freedom Rider’ campaign
to ensure gender segregation not imposed on ‘kosher’ lines.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Michele Chabin

Israel Correspondent

Jerusalem — Gratified though they are by last week’s High Court decision to ban “mehadrin” buses that separate passengers by gender, Israeli activists fear that the companies that run these lines will not always enforce it.

So they are taking it upon themselves to personally test compliance and are inviting adventurous tourists to join them.

The Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) is about to launch a year-long Rosa Parks-inspired Freedom Rider program whose foreign and local female volunteers will attempt to sit in the front section of so-called “kosher” buses, which until now have been reserved for men.

Read the entire artical on thejewishweek.com

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Please don't declaw your cat

2011-01-13T20:00:00.001-05:00

Anti-Declaw Public Service Announcement from The Paw Project. Declawing is not a nail trim. It is the amputation of the ends of a cat's toes. For more information about the crippling effects of declawing, go to www.pawproject.org.

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NYC 911 unresponsive? Call Hatzalah, the volunteer Jewish EMS service - New York NY

2011-01-10T20:50:00.001-05:00

Should you or your loved ones find yourselves in an emergency situation, rather than take your chances with New York's 911 system you may want to call Hatzalah, the volunteer Jewish EMS service.

Read the entire article on examiner.com

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JEZEBEL: FUCK YOU, 2010

2011-01-05T20:32:00.001-05:00

FUCK YOU, 2010

Fuck 2010. This year fucking sucked.

read/view the entire rant on jezebel.com

Whatever you think of the rant, you have to love the hairless cat pic!

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from qarrtsiluni's translation issue: Qavak Songs (folk verses from the Greenlandic)

2011-01-05T19:49:00.001-05:00

"My cunt is hung,/hung with sea urchins,//My cunt bursts,/bursts with bladderwrack,//My cunt drips,/wet as a walrus snout.//My cunt is hungry."

and

"There’s only one way to kill your enemy://You must bite my clit off, pull it inside out,/and use it as an arrowhead."

Translated by Nancy Campbell

Read the three poems in their entirety and other translations on qarrtsiluni

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Jewish Literature 101: Recommended Jewish fiction and poetry books of 2010

2011-01-01T20:01:00.003-05:00

Now that another secular calendar year is beginning I would like to share my recommendations of Jewish fiction and poetry books published last year. This is not a "best of" list, merely a list of Jewish themed books published in 2010 that I have actually read and reviewed at my other writing gig as a book reviewer at New York Journal of Books.

Read the entire article on examiner.com

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post-blizzard photos of Windsor Terrace and Prospect Park

2010-12-28T19:17:00.001-05:00

View this and other views of Windsor Terrace in the aftermath of the blizzard of 2010 on our Flickr album.

View more photos of Prospect Park after the blizzard of 2010 on our Flickr album.

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Art 101: Tabla Rasa Gallery's backroom art sale - New York NY

2010-12-22T14:31:00.001-05:00

Art works in Tabla Rasa's ongoing exhibits in the front of the gallery are more expensive, but after viewing those exhibits continue to the backroom (where art works are stored and packed for shipping and the gallery owners have their office) for an art sale in which all art works have prices no greater than $400.

View the slideshow and read the entire article on examiner.com

Tonight 12/21/10: Heeb Storytelling: The Live Comics Edition - New York NY

2010-12-21T14:24:00.002-05:00

Eight extraordinary comics creators will project their smart, funny and sexy comics on a big screen, accompanied by a soundtrack and shenanigans.

Read the entire article on examiner.com

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Medical update

2010-12-19T20:03:00.002-05:00

This is an update to two separate posts from last spring about my prostate cancer. Despite PSA scores that continued to be lower than the one that lead to the previous biopsies, my most recent biopsy revealed two additional tumors that like the first one are also 6 on the Gleason scale. The tumors are small, but since there are more of them it might be wise to consider treatment. My cancer is still stage one, and since I'm also slim I might be a candidate for nerve sparing robotic surgery (for which only stage one patients with BMIs of <25 whose tumors are not on the surface of the prostate qualify) from which odds are excellent that I would recover with full control of my bladder (after 3-6 months of post-operative incontinence) and no loss of sexual potency (though it will take between 6-12 months post-surgery to get that part of my anatomy working to its current capability). I'll have an MRI at the end of the month to determine whether any of the three tumors are on the surface of my prostate; if none of them are I'll have the surgery in early February.

If on the other hand the MRI reveals a surface location of any of the tumors I'll revert to active surveillance in the short run and consider other treatments in the intermediate run, including some that look promising but will not be available for a few years. Since I'm stage one there is no urgency to beginning treatment. I'm only considering surgery now because robotic surgery has excellent outcomes for stage one patients, especially younger sexually virile patients with no prior history of incontinence (the average age of patients is 65--nine years older than me). Meanwhile I'm keeping a positive attitude and increasing my exercise regimen to prepare for surgery should my MRI allow me to proceed.

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Beyond Understanding

2010-12-18T21:02:00.001-05:00

via opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com

Do the life and work of Ludwig Wittgenstein suggest that the autistic mind and the philosophical mind have something in common?

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Seth Walsh 1997-2010

2010-12-17T19:03:00.001-05:00

via youtube.com

Wendy Walsh tells the story of how her gay thirteen year-old son, Seth, took his life after his school failed to keep other students from bullying him because of his sexual orientation. The ACLU and Wendy Walsh are asking Seth's School, and all schools, to take steps to stop anti-LGBT harassment.

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hips.org , HIPS recognizes International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, December 17

2010-12-17T18:42:00.001-05:00

HIPS recognizes International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, December 17

15.12.2010

News

This Friday is the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. Conceived of by Annie Sprinkle and the Sex Workers Outreach Project USA, in response to the Green River Killer, who killed at least 48 sex workers in Washington state. He said “I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught”. The International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers is both a memorial vigil recognizing victims of violence and a protest to fight human rights offenses against sex workers.

For many engaged in sex work, violence is considered an occupational hazard. Each night in our city, hundreds of women, men and transgender individuals trade sex to pay bills, support a partner or children, for drugs, or survival. Regardless of the reason they do sex work, one thing is clear: sex workers experience astounding rates of violence.

Every year HIPS receives nearly 100 reports of abuse or assault from the sex workers we work with and answers over 75 hotline calls from sex workers seeking assistance after being the victim of a violent crime. Many of these crimes are not reported due to fear of law enforcement. In 2003, our community was devastated when Bella Evangelista was shot to death by a man who had paid her for a sex act and later found out she was transgender. Two separate women reported this year they had been kidnapped by a man and held in a basement overnight. One caller to the HIPS hotline said “Because of what I do, no one would believe that I have been raped.”

In preparation for the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, HIPS hosted the Red Umbrella Project’s Audacia Ray, who led a workshop on storytelling. HIPS will recognize December 17 by creating an art piece with the names of sex workers who were victims of violence. Anyone who would like to contribute a name or a story can email HIPS@HIPS.org, call our hotline 800-676-4477, or post a remembrance the HIPS Facebook page. That night, HIPS volunteers will offer red candy canes to sex workers we meet during our evening outreach activities as a reminder of those friends and loved ones we’ve lost, and asked to share their stories, and will be distributing copies of our “Bad Date Sheet” which provides a way for sex workers to share information about violence against them.

For all sex workers, especially those who are victims of violence, HIPS offers a 24-hour-hotline, access to resources, counseling, support groups, and friendly faces. At HIPS, we believe that what you do for a living should not mean you deserve violence. No one deserves violence.

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via hips.org

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In God's name: hate is the abomination: rally and march tonight 12/16/10 - New York NY

2010-12-16T17:45:00.001-05:00

The 10th of Tevet is the traditional day of remembrance for victims of violence whose death dates and/or burial places are unknown. Tonight, December 16, 2010 at 7:30 PM a memorial service and rally will be held at Brooklyn's Parade Grounds (adjacent to the Tennis Center across the street from Prospect Park) to remember all victims of violence as well as the recent suicides of gay young adults.

Read the entire article on examiner.com

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Hide/Seek' sponsor threatens to cut funding for Smithsonian

2010-12-15T14:51:00.001-05:00

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, one of the principal sponsors of "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture," demanded Monday that the Smithsonian restore the David Wojnarowicz video or the foundation would not fund future projects.

The Wojnarowicz work, "A Fire in My Belly," contains 11 seconds of an image of ants crawling on a crucifix and was removed after criticism from Capitol Hill and conservative groups. The Smithsonian said the uproar over the video from supporters of the artist's work and from opponents to his images was a distraction from the overall show of many masterpieces.

The Warhol Foundation is the first major funder to publicly voice outrage. "We strongly condemn the decision to remove David Wojnarowicz's video 'A Fire in My Belly' from the exhibition. Such blatant censorship is unconscionable. It is inimical to everything the Smithsonian Institution should stand for, and everything the Andy Warhol Foundation does stand for," Joel Wachs, the foundation's president, said in a letter Monday to Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough.

The fund's board voted unanimously Friday to condemn the Smithsonian action, Wachs said. The fund gave $100,000 to "Hide/Seek," one of the early donations that provided a catalyst for other fundraising. That donation is part of a total $375,000 given to the Smithsonian for recent shows.

"We cannot stand by and watch the Smithsonian bow to the demands of bigots who have attacked the exhibition out of ignorance, hatred and fear," said the letter.

Reached by telephone, Wachs said, "We felt serious about taking this action and decided to fight fire with fire."

Clough responded Monday in a statement: "While we regret the Foundation's action, the Smithsonian's decision to remove the video was a difficult one and we stand by it. The 104 works of the 'Hide/Seek' exhibition will remain on view at the National Portrait Gallery."

The exhibit is set to close Feb. 13.

Wachs, who attended the opening of the show in late October, said he found the exhibition, the largest in the gallery's history, to be "extraordinary. From a curatorial standpoint it was brilliant, revelatory and educational, I learned a lot from it. I went away wishing we had given them $200,000. To see it trivialized, it is really disheartening."

A forum on the controversy surrounding the show, including the removal of Wojnarowicz's video, will be the focus of a panel Wednesday night at the New York Public Library.

via washingtonpost.com

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	A Palestinian carries an injured boy into Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, after Israeli tank fire struck a home on March 22, 2011
	Photo by: Reuters