Month: November 2008

During the past year, everyone saw what happened when garbage loans on overvalued real estate were misrepresented and sold as triple-A-rated securities. The bubble eventually burst. But not quite as many people are aware that the bubble has also burst in the art world — to the point where a series of the most important…

My earlier post about fear of religious conservatives does not discuss something which I think is related to this fear, and that is closeted conservatism. I’ve been thinking about this a lot since the drive from Ann Arbor to Berkeley. In either place, having a McCain sign in your front yard is an invitation to…

Jonah Goldberg is discussing his book Liberal Fascism at Salon. I don’t have any problem with liberals or conservatives criticizing stuff that goes on in the popular culture … [I]t’s when you want to dragoon the state into these things, everything from hate crimes to these early interventions in childhood. You read “It Takes a…

We have a contingent in America that wants to treat us all like children when it comes to economics and another contingent that wants to treat us like children when it comes to culture. Two different kinds of nanny state. I’m against the nanny state. Cross Posted at Power and Control

I came across an interesting discussion of abortion at Admiral Quixote’s Round Table. This is from the comments. I spoke with my dh who did receive smicha (Orthodox) though he is not a practicing Rabbi; he learned the law as I have earlier stated; that if any harm came it was referring to the woman…

Here is a bit of text that I think many of you will find very interesting. The Jewish distinction (rooted in the original Hebrew text) between the life of the mother and the life of the child is emphasized in a striking text of the Mishnah (Ohalot 7:6): “If a woman has difficulty in childbirth,…

I just found a most interesting document giving in layman’s terms the Jewish position on abortion [pdf]. The document is authored by Rabbi Raymond A Zwerin and Rabbi Richard A. Shapiro. It is a very interesting document and only four pages long so it is well worth a read. It also provides a basis for…

This lovely item got water-damaged, but its supreme commie kitsch shlockiness seems unaffected. It’s a combination thermometer and inexplicable calendar, plus a faux “TV screen” in the middle showing Chairman Mao being given a floral bouquet by Chou En Lai, while Comrades Chu De and Lin Piao beam radiantly. I picked it up at a…

Yeah. That is a funny spelling of potato. It is former Vice President Dan Quayle’s trademark. Well Mr. Quayle is at it again. He is global investing chief of Cerberus Capital Management which owns Chrysler. And of course Chrysler wants in on the proposed auto bail out. Let’s assume that the powers in Washington —…

Part Two of the video is here. Reform Jews speak out in favor of Medical Marijuana. The Union Of American Hebrew Congregations favors Medical Marijuana. Here is a short bio of one of the participants in the video. William Martin, Ph.D. taught criminology for 35 years. He has chaired the Department of Sociology and at…

The Dow closed below 8,000 today and Nymex Crude Oil Futures below $53. And the outlook for the semiconductor industry is not so hot either. “In discussions with semiconductor suppliers, equipment OEMs, and contract manufacturers, a story of fear and great uncertainty has emerged,” iSuppli’s Ford said. “As dramatic declines in consumer and industrial confidence…

A comment piece (I’m not going to get the hackles up before the discussion starts by giving the name of the author) in The Washington Post talks about long term Republican prospects. It is not pretty. To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party…

It seems like Mr. Obama can’t buy a friend. The No. 2 leader in Al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is dishing out criticism and offering a warning to United States President-Elect, Barack Obama. A new audio message has surfaced online where Al-Zawahiri calls Obama a dishonorable man. According to the SITE Institute, a U.S. organization that monitors…

Get ready for the new administration. Click on the link and see what I’m talking about. It is not only good advice. It is funny. Cross Posted at Power and Control

OK, this is going to sound crazy, and I know I should be writing about Barack Obama’s insane plan to lay further waste to the economy with a useless “Global Warming” scheme…. Not that I’d add anything useful to that debate anyway. However, this morning I saw that Al-Qaida is insulting the president elect with…

Why are so many blacks aborting in comparison to the rest of the population? It is due to a lack of fathers. And why is there a lack of fathers? Well black men have been disproportionately swept up in the criminal justice system due to the drug war. Demographics If socons were really serious about…

It seems our government has a problem running businesses. Even businesses that should be a guaranteed profit without significant expertise required. Like selling liquor and sex. Back in 1990, the Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it. They failed and it closed.…

Regular readers know that I don’t make too many pledges. Circumstances have a way of changing, and if you’ve taken a “pledge” or a vow or a resolution about something (like the “I will never vote for McCain” pledge that was going around a year ago), you’ve cemented yourself into something and you’ll look like…

Fear of “The Other” is always a driving force in politics, and as it is emotional, it operates independently of positions on issues. If you can get people to fear someone or some group, what they actually say or do won’t matter. Years ago, I remember reading a long article about a lesbian mother who…