Dr. Lawrence Mykytiuk, Ph.D. of Purdue has a facinating article posted at the Society of Biblical Literature website concerning the difficulty of identifying indivuals mentioned in various Israelite artifact inscriptions with biblical personages.
Yesterday, while browsing for books at Borders, I encountered the poster child for Jewish education. There were actually two of them, but from what I gathered only one was Jewish. Both looked like they'd missed the memo that Punk was over. First they seemed completely unable to figure out where the Judaica section was, despite the fact that they walked past it--and me--at least five times. I would have helped them at this point, but I wasn't yet aware of what they were searching for. Apparently the goy wanted to buy a copy of the Torah. He and his Jewish girlfriend were seemingly baffled that all they could find were Tanakh's (which he pronounced Tanakah, which is odd since he professed later that he was learning Hebrew) and Jewish Bibles (Which confused her to no end because The Bible is obviously a Christian book. Why, she kept lementing, would they call the Jewish scripture a Bible?). Since they seemed to be looking for a Hebrew text I pointed them in the direction of the JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh, which is the one I use for daily study, and went about my buisness. They were immediately put off by the $40 price tag, saying that "you could by a Torah scroll for that much!" After perusing the Tanakh they turned their attention to "Judaism for Dummies," which in hindsight was probably a better choice for them. For the next 20 minutes or so they loudly complained about the "obvious" errors in the text and figured that it must have been written by Christians who didn’t know any better (A quick look at the cover would have proven this theory wrong, as it would have shown them that the book was co-written by Rabbi Ted Falcon, PhD, who probably knows more about Judaism then they do, but that’s just a guess). A few of their complains were:
Dan "Mobius" Sieradski of JewSchool has undertaken a year long pilgramage to Israel as a Dorot Fellow. He has set up a special blog, the Orthodox Anarchist to chronicle his experiences there. I don't always agree with Mobius' politics, but he is a hell of a Jew and I have a lot of respect for him.
From Mr Cranky's review of the I, Robot movie:
"At the end of 'I, Robot,' the credits note that the film was 'suggested by' the book by Isaac Asimov. That's about as warm of an embrace of your source material as one might expect to see between George Bush and Michael Moore. Here's a more appropriate credit: 'opportunistically named after' or better yet, 'an affront to... I, Robot is a major malfunction.'"
Pretty much what I expected, but its good to have confirmation. Looks like Mr Cranky just saved me $10!
group hug // anonymous online confessions is a site I ran across via Neil Gaiman's blog. Group Hug is an on-line anonymous secular confessional. Its an interesting concept and--as Neil points out in his blog--has a train wreck like effect that makes it hard to stop reading.
The Associated Press asked a federal judge Friday to order the Pentagon to quickly turn over a full copy of President Bush's military service record.
The Associated Press asked a federal judge Friday to order the Pentagon to quickly turn over a full copy of President Bush's military service record.
The White House has released partial documentation of Bush's military service in the Texas Air National Guard but has not complied with the news service's Freedom of Information Act request for any record archived at a state library records center in Texas, the AP said in a court filing.
Records released so far do not put to rest questions over whether Bush fulfilled his National Guard service for a period during the Vietnam War... "A significant, ongoing controversy exists over the president's military service during the Vietnam War, specifically whether he performed his required service between May and October 1972," lawyers for the AP wrote.
There also are allegations that potentially embarrassing material was removed from Bush's military file in 1997, when he was running for re-election as Texas governor, the AP said.
"The public has an intense and legitimate interest in knowing the facts concerning the president's military service.
I am very pleased to hear that the AP is not giving up on this issue. We have a right to know about "President" Bush's military record, especially since he and his campaign are quick to draw Kerry's into question. What I find most disturbing isn't the refusal to release the files, but the allegation that Bush has already tampered with the files to help his gubernatorial race in 97.
Gee, good thing Bush isn't a liar like Clinton was...
Its seems a small cottage industry has sprung up around Dick Cheney's potty mouth. Over at CafePress there is now a whole slew of shops specializing in merchandise inspired by Cheney's recent use of the F-Bomb. Below are a few of the shops I found with a simple search at the CafePress homepage with a few of thier wares:
"Go fuck yourself" - Vice President, Dick Cheney
Go Fuck Yourself Dick Cheney, Vice President
Dick Cheney Here For (F-ing) America All The Time
The Go F Yourself - Dick Cheney Collection
Fuck Yourself Dick Cheney
This just in from Blah3.com, the Government has implimented a new time saving form, which you may find on your door any day now:
And once again, words of wisdom via Chabad.org:
B"H
Waiting for Fruition
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If the world did not need you and you did not need this world, you would never have come here. G-d does not cast His precious child into the pain of this journey without purpose.
You say you cannot see a reason. Why should it surprise you that a creature cannot fathom the plan of its Creator? Nevertheless, eventually the fruits of your labor will blossom for all to see.
