Book Review: Lapdogs

Lapdogs by Eric Boehlert ****

Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush, is a devastating indictment of the so-called mainstream media (MSM) for their fawning, credulous treatment of the Bush administration throughout its tenure, particularly but not exclusively in the wake of 9/11 and the lead-up to the Iraq war. With meticulous documentation of his accusations, Boehlert makes mincemeat of the right-wing cry of “liberal bias” and shows that while the MSM may not necessarily be conservative, their fear of attack by the well-oiled right-wing echo chamber means that they effectively are, for the most part, a mouthpiece for the administration. Economic considerations such as media consolidation, cuts in newsroom staff, the drive for profit, and the healthy incomes of many media higher-ups also play a part.

Although he acknowledges honorable exceptions, Boehlert shows over and over again how the media spun administration and right-wing talking points, ignored and marginalized critics and dissenters, and often, when they did do real investigative reporting, as with the NSA wiretapping story and disturbing information about some of Bush’s judicial nominees, only came through when it was too late to make the difference it should have. Reporting of the NSA story or Bush’s probable cheating in the debates, for example, might have led to a different outcome in the 2004 election, but the electorate was denied vital information that might have affected their decision.

Particularly instructive is Boehlert’s in-depth analysis of two similar stories and their diametrically opposed treatment by the MSM: the ignoring of the credible allegation that Bush blew off his National Guard duty (which did not depend solely on Dan Rather’s questionable memos but were supported by careful study of thousands of government documents); and the respect, even deference, shown by the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, whose claims were easily debunked, contradictory and shown to be partisan by the most cursory examination of their backgrounds.

A depressing and sobering analysis of a true nadir in the history of American journalism.

Note: Considering the hysterical, vitriolic denunciation of the NY Times (and, for the most part, only the NY Times) in the past week over its story about the administration’s investigation of banking records, we can now see what they were afraid of. It remains to be seen whether the foaming-at-the-mouth accusations of treason, etc. will have a chilling effect or make the Times and others in the MSM realize just how stupid they have been over the past five and a half years.

Book Review: The Secet of Castle Cant

The Secret of Castle Cant by K.P. Bath *****

Orphaned Lucy Wickwright is the long-suffering maidservant and involuntary co-conspirator in the madcap exploits of her mistress Pauline, heiress to the Barony of Cant. However, their relatively carefree childhoods are rapidly nearing an end. Amid ominous rumblings of discontent and even revolution, Lucy finds herself caught up in plots against Pauline and the gum-chewing aristocracy of Cant, and must decide where her loyalties lie.

Intelligent and well-written with an original premise (the premodern barony of Cant, tucked away in the creases of modern maps, which allows for modern incursions such as chewing gum and t-shirts), _The Secret of Castle Cant_ is a very promising first novel. The author's strongest suit, in my opinion, is the fact that he, like the best authors for young readers including J.K. Rowling, obviously respects the intelligence of his readers and doesn't write down to them. His "footnotes" and other references to the "history" of Cant also suggest that this world has not just been casually thrown together but carefully developed in his mind.

Pauline and Lucy develop a wonderful friendship that outweighs their original class differences and, while spoiled, Pauline is portrayed sympathetically and is obviously in the process of changing to a better, less thoughless person by the end of the book. Lucy is fiercely loyal and, while her methods for avoiding trouble without strictly lying may be deplored by some parents, her use of them is certainly realistic (I know I did it), and is unfortunately in common use by many adult public figures these days. My only criticism is that boys close to the heroines' ages seem to be portrayed as either stupid or arrogant, but I hope that will be remedied in the next book.

Altogether this was an enjoyable book, and I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel.

Sorry, George – it's nothing to do with you

(Why we haven’t been attacked again, that is.) Except, of course, that you’re doing exactly what Osama bin Laden wants you to do, you twit! Click on title for full story (bold is my emphasis).

Al Qaeda Strategic Vision: Engage the U.S. Overseas, Not at Home

June 27, 2006 10:09 AM
Maddy Sauer Reports:

Al Qaeda's strategic vision involves challenging the United States and its allies overseas using small- to medium-scale attacks, according to an online book available on extremist websites that has become the seminal jihadi textbook. The first English translation of the text is being circulated this week among DOD and government policy circles.

The translation is being released by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. As ABC News reported last month, the Center has been translating thousands of declassified insurgent and extremist documents that were seized in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Abu Bakr Naji, an al Qaeda insider and author of the book, "The Management of Savagery," believes that the 9/11 attacks accomplished what they needed to by forcing the U.S. to commit their military overseas. He says 9/11 forced the U.S. to fall into the "trap" of overextending their military and that "it began to become clear to the American administration that it was being drained."

Note: Not that I've seen any sign that it has become clear to anyone in the "American Administration," except maybe for a few renegades, that it's being "drained."

On a more serious note...

Unfortunately, since I didn't post earlier this week, I didn't get a chance to express my outrage and horror at the deaths of Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, Texas and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Oregon, the two soldiers whose bodies were found earlier this week. Horrible as the circumstances were, though, the mere loss of a loved one in Iraq (16 in the last week alone) has to be bad enough for the parents, children, other relatives and friends left behind that it can't get much worse.

In response to those on the right who have been calling for "revenge," a desire for vengeance may be a satisfying personal feeling and is certainly understandable, especially in those who, unlike Rush Limbaugh et al., knew and loved the deceased, but it has no place in policy decisions. I remember hearing the late Simon Wiesenthal speak several years ago, and after all this time I can still hear him, a man who lost his entire family and several years of his youth at the hands of the Nazis, insisting that justice, not vengeance, was what was needed, while also acknowledging the impossibility of meting out a proportionate justice to those whose victims numbered in the hundreds, thousands, or millions.

As promised, the sexy cat photos...

OK, OK, I was just kidding about the sexy part. This is Jake, whose mere presence has had Shadow extremely annoyed for the past few days, even though he's very friendly and doesn't bother her at all. Unfortunately she's convinced that all other cats are like her nemesis Beanie (aka Beanzlebub), who chased and pounced on her constantly in our last apartment. He only wanted to play (I assume) but couldn't seem to get it through his head that she's a dignified older lady who only plays when she feels like it. (OK, when she's resting on her back with her feet in the air she doesn't look that dignified.) Above and on the right is Shadow's reaction to Jake.

Book Review: A Dark Dividing

A Dark Dividing by Sarah Rayne *****

What are the connections between two sets of conjoined ("Siamese") twins born eighty years apart and a ramshackle onetime workhouse named Mortmain (Dead [Man's} Hand)? These are the questions that down-and-out reporter Harry McGlen ends up answering after his editor assigns him to do a story on the enigmatic photographer Simone Marriot (née Alexander).

In this elegant and atmospheric thriller, Sarah Rayne shifts effortlessly among multiple viewpoints (the mothers of both sets of twins, Harry, and Simone, among others) without ever losing the thread of her complicated story, and keeps the reader turning the pages until the satisfying ending, which is the most difficult trick of all, since I find that books that start out with promising premises such as this one often fall flat at the end.

If you enjoy this book I would also recommend Thomas Cook and Robbert Goddard, who write a similar type of fiction – suspense tinged with a nostalgic sadness and often with an all too natural (as opposed to supernatural) horror.

My bad

Yes, I have been very bad this week, not posting anything, especially when such momentous events have been happening. Rick Santorum, obviously delusional as a result of the fact that he has something like the second lowest approval rating in the Senate and is way behind his Democratic opponent, announced that we found the long-sought weapons of mass destruction, but it’s a secret! Come on – wouldn’t the White House be yelling it from the rooftops if they had been vindicated?

Congress, continuing its slide into irrelevance, seems to have spent the last couple of weeks debating non-binding resolutions, although at least the Democrats have the excuse of not being able to bring real, meaningful laws to the floor since they’re not in charge. The Republicans also decided that they have no chance of ever capturing the black vote and have put off (forever?) renewing the Voting Rights Act. Greg Palast, author of Armed Madhouse and the journalist who broke the Florida “felon” purge story, also suggests that not renewing it allows them to violate its provisions with impunity.

In my personal life, it’s been a fun week since Shadow has been playing involuntary hostess to a very friendly little gray and white cat who got left behind (unintentionally) when his person moved. I keep telling her that his “pet parent” will be picking him up soon – I certainly hope so, nice as he is. At least she did let him up onto the bed last night, since I woke up with one on either side of me, so if we do have to keep him they won’t be at constant loggerheads. Maybe I can put up a picture later. I’ve seen in the comments that some people don’t think I have enough graphics.

The Washington Post or The Onion?

I swear, this career summary for Zarqawi’s replacement (from the Washington Post), sounds exactly like something you’d write about the new CEO of a major company. You can’t make stuff like this up!

A veteran of the Zawahiri-led Egyptian Islamic Jihad and of al-Qaeda's organization in Afghanistan, Masri – also a pseudonym, meaning "the Egyptian" – has been in Iraq at least since 2003, officials said. Since the 2004 battle of Fallujah, he had been a trusted lieutenant of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the insurgent leader killed in a U.S. attack north of Baghdad last week.

Speaking to reporters today, Masri said that he was “excited” about his new position and was “looking forward to the challenge” of being George W. Bush’s newest boogeyman and chief evildoer. (my addition – can you tell?)

Some thoughts on recent events (in no particular order)

Karl Rove’s non-indictment: Bummer, but as has been said, it’s always possible that it’s in return for his cooperation on going after other, bigger fish. A good question raised on one of the blogs – why won’t his lawyer release the entire text of the letter? Then there’s the interesting saga of “Sealed v. Sealed” on truthout.org. Even if it’s nothing to do with Rove, what is it about? Has anyone else confirmed that this indictment exists? (Shouldn’t be too hard for anyone with journalism experience.) And to me, what Rove’s lawyer (or Fitzgerald’s letter) said seems to be very carefully worded legalese. “In a statement, Mr. Luskin said, ‘On June 12, 2006, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald formally advised us that he does not anticipate seeking charges against Karl Rove.’” There can always be unanticipated events.

Dubya’s visit to “Iraq”: If, indeed, you can call the Green Zone “Iraq.” To paraphrase Randi Rhodes, take off your coat and stay awhile, sir. Get out, see the sights, meet the people. Unless, that is, you’re too scared. He’s essentially admitted that either he’s a coward or that, after three years, the place is so dangerous he can’t make a real visit, or both of the above. And all this stuff about closing the airport for an hour and then giving the “Prime Minister” only five minutes’ notice. First of all, in a real sovereign country, no one could shut down the main airport without the leader of the country even knowing. Secondly, the five minutes’ notice just shows that Maliki, however good his intentions may be, is nothing but a lackey to be summoned at a snap of the fingers from the Emperor. The complete and utter contempt shown by that little detail, and its reporting in the media, is going to do wonders for the perception (in Iraq and elsewhere) of Maliki’s independence and freedom from American control.

The suicides at Guantanamo and the government’s reaction thereto: Disgraceful. “An act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us.” I suppose that this means that those of our troops who have committed suicide will be court-martialed for desertion. And this from a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy: “A good PR move to draw attention.” Obviously a graduate of the John Bolton School of Diplomacy.

Worse than Ann Coulter: David Horowitz defending her on Larry King slandered half the country as well as, incidentally, his own party. “Conservatives...see half the country abandoning our troops in the field. You can’t support the troops and not support the war.” Evidently he isn’t aware of the Republicans claiming during the action in Kosovo that they could support the troops and not support the war, or the Commander-in-Chief.

Laura — worse than Dubya, in my opinion

As far as I’m concerned she’s worse because a) she’s smarter than he is, so, unless she’s medicated out of her mind, which may be, considering the “Stepford wife“ expression she usually wears, she knows that his policies are wrong, and b) she enables him in everything that he does.

Click on title for full story.

Area candidates embrace a visit by Laura Bush

By Cynthia Burton
Inquirer Staff Writer

As Republican candidates around the country avoid appearances with President Bush or Vice President Cheney, two in the Philadelphia area - U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania and Senate challenger Thomas H. Kean Jr. in New Jersey - welcome visiting Laura Bush today with open war chests.

"Laura Bush is safe," Republican political consultant Dave Murray said.

People don't blame her for the war in Iraq, rising gasoline prices, or unpopular administration policies.

You mean she didn't just crawl out of a cesspit somewhere?

Daily Kos has a link to an excellent editorial written as a letter to Ann Coulter's mother(!) in her hometown newspaper (excerpt below) about her lovely daughter's slandering of the "Jersey girls." In case you haven't seen what Coulter said in her latest book, here's the worst of it: "These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis. I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much."

Peter Urban of the Connecticut Post writes:

Through my work, I met the New Jersey widows — and other 9-11 family victims — often over the last five years because Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., and Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4, took up their cause.

Shays, in particular, has continued to fight for additional reforms that the 9-11 Commission recommended. He is driven largely by the memory of 87 constituents who died in the attacks. Those 87 individuals were your neighbors, too.

Anyway, the widows came to Washington and pushed for an independent commission and then lobbied for the commission's recommendations to be implemented. They never sought celebrity and I never saw them enjoying the deaths of those they held dearest.

Personally I find it hard to conceive of Coulter having a mother. Maybe her real mother was a hyena or whatever like in The Omen, and she was just given to this poor woman to raise. I always pictured her crawling out of a swamp or hatching like a reptile.

Anyway, maybe Mrs. Coulter could tell us what happened to Ann in her childhood to turn her into the pathetic hate-filled creature that she is today, and whether she is proud or ashamed of inflicting this wretched excuse for a human being upon an undeserving world. On the other hand, Ann’s utter narcissism and total disregard for others may be a result of her upbringing. I know that if she were a child of mine I would change my name and move to Australia rather than admit it.

(Regarding the use of a connection to 9/11 for fun and profit, Keith Olbermann reminds us that on 9/13/01, while the fires were still smouldering at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, “our Annie” was proclaiming her rage over the death of her friend Barbara Olsen — as if the attack had been aimed at her personally rather than the entire country, as she would say — and demanding that we “invade [the hijackers’] countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity.” I’m still waiting for the former governor of Texas to invade Saudia Arabia, which provided 15 of the 19, or for Coulter to criticize him for not invading them.)

It's so good to know that our leaders are on top of things

Evidently I'm living in an alternate reality, since Congress feels that it has nothing better to do than to debate gay marriage, flag burning and the Paris Hilton tax cut. (I can't take credit for that last one, but the opponents of eliminating the estate tax cut should use it - over and over again. Or maybe the Barbara and Jenna tax cut, except that they haven't been too obnoxious lately.) This is the laziest bunch since Truman's "do-nothing" Congress and they still can't find anything to talk about besides this drivel.

I'm glad to see that at least some of the Democrats are taking the time to list some of the many, many other issues that are more pressing than any of these things - gas prices, Iraq, spiraling health care costs, New Orleans and the rest of the places in the Gulf that are still waiting for help, genocide in Darfur, etc., etc., etc.

Chag Sameach

Shavuot begins tonight – have a good one if you celebrate it. Originally an agricultural festival celebrating the barley harvest and the bringing of the “first fruits” to the temple, it was historicized by the rabbis of the Talmud to commemorate the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai, fifty days after Passover. (The Christian analogue is Pentecost, which bears a similar relationship to Easter.) Traditionally, the book of Ruth is read on Shavuot. Not only is it set at the time of the barley harvest; it also chronicles the acceptance of the Jewish covenant with God by Ruth, a young Moabite woman who becomes the great-grandmother of King David and by extension an ancestress of the Messiah. It is believed to have been written as a rebuttal to the xenophobia that ran rampant after the return of the Jews from the Babylonian exile, when many of those who had remained behind and married non-Jewish women were forced to abandon them, along with their children. Shades of today’s immigration debate, a great deal of which is fueled by xenophobia, whatever legitimate concerns there may be.

And they don't have eyes because God created them underground (sarcasm)

Cool! Click on title for full story.

Prehistoric ecosystem found in Israeli cave

Wed May 31, 8:10 AM ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli scientists said on Wednesday they had discovered a prehistoric ecosystem dating back millions of years.

The discovery was made in a cave near the central Israeli city of Ramle during rock drilling at a quarry. Scientists were called in and soon found eight previously unknown species of crustaceans and invertebrates similar to scorpions

Memorial Day

We must remember all those who gave their lives in the service of our country, but the most recent are always the most poignant, especially when we consider that as immoral, illegal and unnecessary as this war is, if it had at least been conducted competently, so many of these people (and so many Iraqis) would still be alive today.

Note how evenly the casualties are distributed across the "coalition."

There have been 2,690 coalition deaths, 2,466 Americans, two Australians, 113 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, three Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Fijian, one Hungarian, 30 Italians, one Kazakh, one Latvian, 17 Poles, two Romanians, two Salvadoran, three Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians in the war in Iraq as of May 29, 2006, according to a CNN count. ... At least 18,184 U.S. troops have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon.

From CNN.com

The Da Vinci Code

I saw the movie today, and actually enjoyed it very much, despite not being a Tom Hanks fan – more the opposite, in fact. I didn't find it boring, although some people might not care for a lot of the dialogue being done in French, Italian(?) and Latin with subtitles – very cosmopolitan of them! I do have to agree with a lot of the reviewers, though, that Sir Ian McKellan makes the movie with his portrayal of Sir Leigh Teabing – a wonderful character even in print, but perfectly cast and brought to life by Sir Ian. It followed the novel pretty closely, although I think the ending was a little different.

Book Review: Why the Jews Rejected Jesus

Why the Jews Rejected Jesus by David Klinghoffer *****

In Why the Jews Rejected Jesus David Klinghoffer, who states at the beginning his background as both a traditional Jew (although not raised as such) and a political conservative, attempts in a serious and considered way to address the puzzlement and discomfort that he encounters from well-meaning Christians who just cannot understand why he fails to see what is obvious to them – that Jesus was the Jewish messiah. Along the way he traces Jewish views of Jesus and Christianity, as well as the relations between the two religions, from the time of the first century to the present day.

Obviously, as some reviews on Amazon which rather hysterically accuse Klinghoffer of not knowing his own scriptures show, this book is not going to decrease the discomfort and feeling of threat that a lot of Christians feel at the thought that their interpretations of the Hebrew Bible are not the only ones nor even the obvious ones. One of his most valuable insights, I feel, is that the traditional way for Christians to study the Bible is to see the “Old Testament” in the light of the New and to accord the New Testament a higher authority. Jews, on the other hand, learn the Hebrew Scriptures on their own terms, and most of the places where the New Testament claims that such and such a prophecy was “fulfilled” by Jesus look to them very much like after-the-fact rationalization. To be honest, I feel the same way about the same type of thing when it is done by the rabbis in the Talmud. His claim that all this rabbinic proof-texting (or finding rationalizations in the Bible for decisions that were originally just stated without any biblical authority) is a result of the same process being used in the New Testament is new to me, so I can’t comment on how accurate it is.

Klinghoffer’s account of the political situation that Judea found itself in at the time when Jesus began teaching is insightful, and his suspicion that Paul may have exaggerated his Pharisaic qualifications if not his own Jewish birth is a theory that I have seen before (see The Mythmaker by Hyam Maccoby), and a lack of deep knowledge as well as frustration at not being able to live up to what he saw as the demands of an adopted religion goes a long way (to me, at least) towards explaining his vitriolic denunciation of the “Law” as a “curse.”

The acknowledgment of a tradition within Judaism that the Jewish authorities at the time were responsible for Jesus’ arrest, if not his death, as well as the publication of several unflattering Talmudic references to him (suppressed for fear of Christian persecution) are painfully honest. As Klinghoffer feels compelled to point out, though, most Jews of the period never had the chance to “reject” him during his lifetime since they never even knew that he existed. I’m afraid that I raised my eyebrows at one reviewer’s assertion that “neither Mel Gibson, or any other intelligent, educated person, blames all Jews.” Since the Second Vatican Council felt it necessary to denounce it, it seems that many “intelligent, educated” people held that belief as recently as the 1960s.

The second half of the book deals with the history of Jewish-Christian debate over the centuries since Jesus’ death. Klinghoffer examines (and sometimes finds wanting) various rationales for the Jewish rejection of Jesus given by some of the sages who, whether voluntarily not, found themselves defending their religion against a Christianity which often held the upper hand where power was concerned; a hesitant groping, beginning surprisingly early, towards reconciliation that culminated with Franz Rosenzweig’s The Star of Redemption; and the traumatic effect that failed messiahs such as Sabbetai Zevi had on Jewish views of messianism.

My main criticism of Why the Jews Rejected Jesus is that while he does it rarely, Klinghoffer occasionally lets his political conservatism and his prejudices against liberal Judaism, which he seems to view as hardly less a break from “true” Judaism than Christianity, come through. On the whole, however, I found it to be a thoughtful, honest, and (mostly) non-polemical view of a thorny subject, and would recommend it highly to Christians but particularly to Jews, who unfortunately are often ignorant of their own scriptures and thus easy pickings for missionaries.

Book Review: Talk to the Hand

Talk to the Hand by Lynne Truss *****

The latest book from the author of Eats, Shoots and Leaves is another extremely civilized rant complete with a generous dollop of dry British wit, this time about the lack of civility in society at large. Rather than attempting to teach us “manners” a la Emily Post, Truss sensibly takes a broader approach, attempting to “save the world from philistinism and yobbery” with her “six good reasons to stay home and bolt the door.” She makes a lot of excellent points about how simple it is to show basic courtesy, the sheer annoyance of a lot of automated customer service (I personally don’t mind it most of the time but feel that there should always be a real person readily available for those who do), and the general self-centeredness of the iPod and cell phone society, not overtaxing our resources and making us smile when we’re not nodding in agreement - and sometimes when we are. Not a deep book - as the author rather pitiably reminds us, she has "gone quite pale and crosseyed" reading those so that we don't have to - but an enjoyable and accessible read on an always timely subject.

Luckily, I don’t seem to encounter a lot of this rudeness everyone always talks about, maybe because I hang out with such civilized people!

The truest sentence in the book, and the one that sums it all up for me: "In a truly egalitarian society, everyone would show respect for everyone else" – not dis respect, in other words.

Book Review: The Sins of Scripture

The Sins of Scripture by John Shelby Spong ****

Retired Episcopalian bishop John Shelby Spong once again takes up the fight against simplistic fundamentalist interpretations of the Bible, examining and deconstructing what he calls its “texts of terror,” which are used to marginalize, abuse and exploit women, gays and Jews, among others.

Starting with an account of his “love affair” with the Bible and how his understanding of it evolved, he concludes that as much as he loves it, he cannot believe that it is literally the “Word of God.” There is too much in it that is problematic or out-and-out repulsive and he does not accept the pious attempts to explain these parts away. His stated aim, however, is not to destroy but to create, and to go beyond these timebound texts to find the God of love. While he certainly ends up giving an uplifting vision, I am not sure that it is one that will appeal to many people over the traditional one.

Most of the book is devoted to an examination of the “terrible texts,” placing them in historical context (often exposing later accretions that have nothing to do with the original meaning), and attempting to show why they are inconsistent with a religion that proclaims a loving God. Spong spends entire sections on the Bible and the environment, women, homosexuality, children (in which he argues against portrayals of God as an “abusive” parent), and anti-Semitism. He also has a chapter on the need for certainty, which he finds damaging and feels needs to give way to a tolerance for ambiguity. The last section, “Reading Scripture as Epic History,” is a detailed examination of how the various books of the Bible came to be written. (Speaking of tolerance for ambiguity, I wish that he had been a little less definite in this part and more clear that much of the story he tells is necessarily speculation.

My main difficulty with this book may have something to do with the fact that I come to it as a Jew, and while I believe that Bishop Spong has consciously worked hard (and for the most part successfully) on eliminating any residual anti-Semitism from his fundamentalist upbringing, I still see vestiges of Christian triumphalism and a view of Judaism as somehow inferior and obsolete. Ironically, I noticed this the most in his section on “The Bible and Anti-Semitism.” Writing about the final split between Christianity and Judaism, he says, “Traditional Judaism could not and would not change. Anything that gets so rigid it will not adapt to a new reality will finally die.” The last I noticed, Judaism was still in existence. On the Jewish attitude to the Hebrew Scriptures: “They invested these scriptures with both absolute authority and literal truth...Nothing more is essential; nothing more is necessary.” Has he never heard of the Talmud? Also, Judaism has never read even the Torah, the most sacred of the scriptures, literally in the sense that Christian fundamentalists read both the Old and New Testaments today.

I sincerely doubt that this book will win over any doctrinaire biblical literalists (of whatever persuasion), but apart from what I must consider to be the glaring weakness detailed above, it may be very useful in showing those who are more open to persuasion that not only do they not have to denigrate others to be “good” Christians, but that such attitudes are directly antithetical to the “abundant life” that Jesus (and the Hebrew Scriptures) promised.

First they came for the Democrats...

If you think that you guys are safe because you're Republicans, Messrs. Hastert, Frist et al., think again. The message they're sending is, "It can happen to you, too. Toe the line." Newt gets it – however ethically challenged he may be, he's not stupid. Click on title for full story.

FBI Raid on Lawmaker's Office Is Questioned
Democrat Jefferson Denies Wrongdoing
By Dan Eggen and Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, May 23, 2006; Page A01
An unusual FBI raid of a Democratic congressman's office over the weekend prompted complaints yesterday from leaders in both parties, who said the tactic was unduly aggressive and may have breached the constitutional separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government.
...
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), in an e-mail to colleagues with the subject line "on the edge of a constitutional confrontation," called the Saturday night raid "the most blatant violation of the Constitutional Separation of Powers in my lifetime." He urged President Bush to discipline or fire "whoever exhibited this extraordinary violation."

Watch out, Stephen Colbert

I hope this doesn’t give Dubya any ideas. For full story click here:

Egypt: Support for Detained Award-Winning Blogger Alaa Abd El-Fatah

Reporters sans Frontières (Paris)

PRESS RELEASE

May 11, 2006

Posted to the web May 12, 2006

Reporters Without Borders voiced support today for blogger Alaa Abd El-Fatah and his family following El-Fatah's arrest along with 10 other people while demonstrating outside a Cairo court on 7 May. Three of the 10 have since been released.

El-Fatah has been charged with illegal assembly (in violation of the state of emergency law), blocking traffic, insulting President Mubarak, and verbal abuse of police officers at the time of his arrest. Reporters Without Borders called for his release in a letter to the Egyptian authorities on 9 May on the grounds that the charges do not warrant his being kept in custody.

Russ Feingold - a nice Jewish boy with cojones

Russ Feingold walked out of the committee yesterday working on the anti-gay marriage amendment, which of course was following none of the rules and - as someone put it, it was so appropriate that they were meeting in a "closet"? Good for him! He'd better watch out, though - they'll be accusing him of being gay soon, since he hasn't run out and found himself a third wife, or even held auditions in advance of the second divorce like Newt. (Where's the line? I'm sure there's one forming somewhere.) It's good to know that we have so few problems that Congress has time to occupy itself with momentous issues like an amendment that doesn't have a snowball's chance in Hell of passing and declaring English to be our “official” language. I feel so much safer now! On second thought, since I just used a non-English word in my heading, I’ll probably be carted away to Guantanamo.

Seriously, though - if Feingold is running for President, he’s going about it in the right way, even though I believe that he is taking these stands on principle. Sometimes doing the right thing is also smart politically. If nothing else he is standing out from the crowd by standing up for what he believes in, and as shown by the unfortunate example of George W, people respect that, even when they don’t agree. At least he’s not “cowering in the corner” as a lot of his fellow Democrats were when he introduced his censure resolution, and as a lot of them still are - witness Nancy Pelosi denying even the possibility of impeachment. Whether you think it should be done or not, it certainly should not be completely taken off the table. (Nancy, every so often you have an attack of intestinal fortitude, but unfortunately you always recover.)

Mother's Day

This was my first Mother’s Day since I lost my mother back in September, and I can’t believe how much publicity it gets ahead of time. I think that was the hardest thing - every time I turned on the radio looked at my e-mail, etc., there was something saying “Get this for Mom” or something to that effect.

However, as I said during the shiva service when the rabbi (Esther, the second night) asked me to talk about her, I really always have her with me because she had such an influence on me and taught me so much about being a decent person. If I’ve succeeded at that, it’s because of her. She taught me to love books and knowledge, to be curious and think for myself, that all of us are God’s children and, I hope, to be strong in the face of the challenges that life deals us. Nothing exemplifies her own willingness to change her thinking than her evolution from a staunch Reagan Republican to a very harsh critic of the “Bush crime family,” as Mike Malloy refers to it, although we never could convince her to switch her registration at least to independent, or “none” as it goes by in NYS. (I love telling people I’m a “none.”) My sister and I were debating yesterday whether, if she were still here, she’d be ecstatic at the fact that a lot of other people are finally waking up (her) or whether she would have already had another stroke by now with all the abuses of power that are constantly hitting the news (me). Well, if she hadn’t had another stroke (or if she’s looking down on us), she would be glad that he’s finally even losing the support of his base.

Anyway, I hope she is in a better place, whatever that means since if there is an afterlife I don’t believe that we are able to conceive what it would be like, and free from all the frustrations that she had to suffer from in the last couple of years, which were almost worse than physical pain in decreasing her quality of life.

How much value does this have? None.

Here is an answer to the doubts that I expressed at the end of the last post, although to be fair, there is some back and forth about it further down. This guy makes the most sense to me, though.

NSA Sweep "Waste of Time," Analyst Says

It'd be one thing if the NSA's massive sweep of our phone records was actually helping catch terrorists. But what if it's not working at all? A leading practitioner of the kind of analysis the NSA is supposedly performing in this surveillance program says that "it's a waste of time, a waste of resources. And it lets the real terrorists run free."

Re-reading the USA Today piece, one paragraph jumped out:

This kind of data collection from phone companies is not uncommon; it's been done before, though never on this large a scale, the official said. The data are used for 'social network analysis,' the official said, meaning to study how terrorist networks contact each other and how they are tied together.

So I called Valdis Krebs, who's considered by many to be the leading authority on social network analysis -- the art and science of finding the important connections in a seemingly-impenetrable mass of data. His analysis of the social network surrounding the 9/11 hijackers is a classic in the field.

Here's what Krebs had to say about the newly-revealed NSA program that aims to track "every call ever made": "If you're looking for a needle, making the haystack bigger is counterintuitive. It just doesn't make sense."

Specter vows (for about the thirtieth time) to hold hearings

Arlen dear, that phony outrage of yours is so cute! I’ll believe in it when you sign on to Feingold’s censure resolution, actually put a few of these people under oath, and put your money (or your chairmanship) where your mouth is! Click on title for full story.

NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls

By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY
The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.
"It's the largest database ever assembled in the world," said one person, who, like the others who agreed to talk about the NSA's activities, declined to be identified by name or affiliation. The agency's goal is "to create a database of every call ever made" within the nation's borders, this person added.

For the customers of these companies, it means that the government has detailed records of calls they made — across town or across the country — to family members, co-workers, business contacts and others.

The three telecommunications companies are working under contract with the NSA, which launched the program in 2001 shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the sources said. The program is aimed at identifying and tracking suspected terrorists, they said.

REACTION:
From the White House:
The White House defended its overall eavesdropping program and said no domestic surveillance is conducted without court approval.
''The intelligence activities undertaken by the United States government are lawful, necessary and required to protect Americans from terrorist attacks,'' said Dana Perino, the deputy White House press secretary, who added that appropriate members of Congress have been briefed on intelligence activities.

From Capitol Hill:

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would call the phone companies to appear before the panel ''to find out exactly what is going on.''

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the panel, sounded incredulous about the latest report and railed against what he called a lack of congressional oversight. He argued that the media was doing the job of Congress.

''Are you telling me that tens of millions of Americans are involved with al Qaeda?'' Leahy asked. ''These are tens of millions of Americans who are not suspected of anything ... Where does it stop?''

The Democrat, who at one point held up a copy of the newspaper, added: ''Shame on us for being so far behind and being so willing to rubber stamp anything this administration does. We ought to fold our tents.''

Another thing: how keeping track of calling patterns for all Americans has any value in the "war on terror" is beyond me! Also, I just heard on the Al Franken show that Qwest, the one company that stood up to the NSA, told them that if they went to the FISA court and got the OK, they would hand over the information; evidently, however, this was too much trouble for the people who work so hard to protect us from terrorism.

Book Review: The Last Cato ***1/2

The Last Cato by Matilde Asensi ***1/2

I have to say I’m very conflicted about this book. I enjoyed it, but there were a lot of places where I found it very hard to suspend my disbelief. The plot is that of the standard “religious thriller” (and no, Virginia, these have existed for as long as I’ve been reading - they didn’t begin with The Da Vinci Code). An expert (Dr. Ottavia Salina, a paleographer who also happens to be a nun) is asked to research aspects of a mysterious death, in this case the strange scarifications on a man who was killed in a plane crash, which seem to be linked to the theft of fragments of the “True Cross” from churches around the world. She is teamed up with Kaspar Glauser-Roist, a captain from the Pope’s Swiss Guard (who also happens to have a degree in Italian literature) and Farag Boswell, an Egyptian Coptic professor. They discover links to a 1500-year-old society whose mission is the guardianship of the cross, and following clues in Dante’s Divine Comedy, they travel the area around the Mediterranean undergoing the various initiation rituals that will enable them to locate the group.

The plot of the book was original and well-done, and the puzzles were intriguing. Often I found it hard to picture some of the scenes; this might have been the fault of the translation, which seemed a bit sloppy in places, but some diagrams also might have been helpful. There was also a lot of interesting information about the early days of Christianity, arcane subjects such as alchemy, and the Divine Comedy, needless to say. I do have to agree with at least one other reviewer, though, that the characters were not particularly well-developed, and did not grow much, although there were a couple of times that were obviously supposed to be life-changing moments for Ottavia, but in the end I didn’t feel that they lived up to their promise. The ending was a bit far-fetched, but on the whole I did enjoy the journey.

Here are some of the things that rather stretched my ability to suspend disbelief: 1) That these two incredibly well-educated people (Ottavia and Farag) are completely clueless about computers, and in her case at least, I mean completely; 2) That a paleographer who’s evidently in the top ranks of her profession apparently knows nothing about the techniques used to recover faded text - it’s not that she doesn’t know how these things are done, but that she doesn’t even appear to know that the techniques exist; 3) That another extremely smart, well-educated man (Glauser-Roist) doesn’t know the meaning of the word basileia; 4) Most unbelievable and essential to the plot, that a group existing in opposition to the Catholic Church is able to construct and maintain these huge, complicated structures in the midst of their enemy’s territory and keep their own people in charge of them without the Chuch ever finding out.

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just

"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever ... The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest."

Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XVIII, 1782. ME 2:227

Read it and weep. We may not be carrying out these killings, but especially when death squads are being run out of the government we put in place, we bear at least some of the responsibility. However opposed we may have been to this war from day one, all of these things have been done in our name.

"Reason for Their Death Is Known"
 By Dahr Jamail
Wednesday 03 May 2006

Death in Iraq. It is relentless and incessant.

Know what it is like when scores of your fellow citizens are being killed every single day while the world proceeds unheedingly on? As a journalist I've had but a taste of that poison during my eight months in Iraq. Try it out: be an Iraqi for a day, into your fourth year of being occupied, humiliated, tortured and killed, doing all you can just to survive.

All communication with my Iraqi friends is punctuated by and smattered with their use of the words "praying," "God," and "Insha'allah" (God willing). Perhaps there is need to invoke something else altogether?

And all the dead air is alive. With the smell of America's God.

- Harold Pinter, "War With Iraq"

Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents' Dinner

The media is totally ignoring the brilliantly satirical remarks delivered by Colbert at the Correspondents’ Dinner, probably because they were the target of some of his most blistering invective.

Over the last five years you people were so good over tax cuts, W.M.D. Intelligence, the affect of global warms. We Americans didn't want to know, and you had the courtesy not to try to find out. Those were good times, as far as we knew.

But, listen, let's review the rules. Here's how it works. The president makes decisions, he’s the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know, fiction.

He also brought up things that I would bet no one dares mention in front of Dubya, like his 32% approval rating, the fact that his administration’s biggest (and sometimes it seems only) talent is staging photo-ops, etc.

The blogosphere, on the other hand, is cheering. If you want to send your own personal thanks, you can go here. You can also see the video at this site. The reason, oh Great and So Out-of-Touch Defenders of the Republic, is because he did what you won’t do. He spoke truth to power, while “power” was sitting less than 10 feet away from him.

I saw something that said that even Keith Olbermann (usually one of the good guys, but wrong on this one, if it’s true) was worried that the routine might have made poor Dubya “uncomfortable.” You know what I say? Good! He deserves to be “uncomfortable” and worse. All he hears, day and night, in his little bubble, is how wonderful he is, so of course a little dose of reality (which, as Colbert says, has “a well-known liberal bias”) is going to hurt. I mean, between Harriet Miers’ mash notes and Josh Bolten’s collection of photos of his hands, for God’s sake, the man doesn’t have a staff – he has a fan club. What he deserves, apart from trial and conviction for war crimes, is to never have a moment’s peace for as long as he lives. Like Richard III (Shakespeare's fictional Richard, not the real one), he deserves to have his dreams haunted by the thousands whose lives he’s been responsible for ending or ruining. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have enough imagination or capacity for remorse for that to ever happen.

What I’m a little worried about, as I told my sister yesterday, is that in the near future Colbert’s show will be cancelled due to his inexplicable “disappearance.” He also might want to consider not flying in the future, assuming that the government would let him fly, since he’s obviously an al Qaeda sympathizer.

Book Review: The Grass Crown *****

The Grass Crown by Colleen McCullough *****

The second book in McCullough’s “Masters of Rome” series, The Grass Crown picks up where The First Man in Rome leaves off, chronicling the slow decline of Gaius Marius, the main character in the first book, and the rise of his aristocratic colleague and rival Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Several other Romans, famous, infamous and obscure, also make an appearance, including the young Pompey, Cicero, and of course Julius Caesar, already charming, intelligent to the point of genius, and utterly ruthless.

With the impeccable research that made The First Man in Rome such a joy for lovers of historical fiction, McCullough also provides a richly detailed background for the careers of these well-known men. Roman history is such a vast subject, usually concentrating on the expansion of the empire and dry politics, that it is a treat to get an intimate glimpse into the Romans’ personal lives, alliances and rivalries, as well as the larger but often overlooked conflict with the other Italian tribes known as the Social War. The strong women who helped make Rome great, although their political power was virtually non-existent, are not neglected here either. Marius’ wife, Julia, and Caesar’s mother, Aurelia, are two exceptional women who made their first appearance in the last book; introduced here, as a child, is the treacherous Servilia, who will eventually become the mother of Brutus. In addition, we get an extended look at Rome’s great nemesis Mithridates, king of Pontus, and a glimpse of Egyptian dynastic politics before Cleopatra.

Although sometimes the details of troop movements and political maneuvering can be a little hard to follow, McCullough’s real forté is characterization. As with the characters in I Claudius, they can take such a hold on the imagination that it can be a little disconcerting to read non-fictional accounts and find that for all the research and loving detail, her interpretations of personalities, motivations, etc. are just that, interpretations. To me, this is a mark of truly excellent fiction - to make the us forget that it is fiction and that we are not actually there, eavesdropping on history.

The hazards of being an Amazon reviewer

That reviewer rating ... those helpful votes ... those unhelpful votes. I admit it. I’m addicted to checking my profile to see how I’m doing – #27,792, 106 helpful votes/124 total, thank you very much. It’s much worse than the habit of clicking the SiteMeter on this site and checking how many people have seen the blog, how they found it, etc.

The problem with the reviewer rating, though, is that there is a temptation (although I don’t think I’ve given in to it yet), to pull your punches, especially if what you’re reviewing is something about which a lot of people have been very enthusiastic. Two cases in point: 1) I found Therese (the movie about St. Therese of Lisieux) to be very superficial, but a lot of people were just gushing about it. Maybe I was expecting more of it than it was aiming for, but I did feel that it could have been so much more that I felt justified in being hard on it. Still, I heard that little voice in my head saying, “A lot of people are not going to like this review and are going to give it a ‘not helpful’ vote.” I admit that occasionally I will do the same if I really feel that someone hasn’t gotten the point, but generally I won’t vote at all unless I find something to be decidedly unhelpful. 2) I also knew that I was probably going to get in trouble with some Narnia-philes with my generally negative review of The Last Battle, but I bent over backwards to be fair by starting out with a disclaimer that I might be irredeemably prejudiced against it, pointing out that I had rather enjoyed the middle books of the series, and suggesting ways in which parents could blunt what I found to be the problematic areas of the book by discussing it with their children. I would think that even lovers of the series would want to point out that Lewis lived in a different time and was raised with a sense of white (specifically British) male entitlement that he would have been more exceptional than he was to overcome.

Anyway, I will try my best not to be seduced by the siren song of the Amazon reviewer rating and to be guided instead by the words of my new “Amazon friend” Brian: “[The review of Therese] was probably a little too honest and will eventually get you a lot of negative votes but that goes with the territory of being honest with one’s opinion.... Best of luck and keep writing those reviews, Amazon needs more intelligent reviewers like yourself.“ That means a lot more.

An excellent op-ed from Arthur Schlesinger

Click on title to read entire article.

Bush's Thousand Days

By Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
Monday, April 24, 2006; Page A17

The Hundred Days is indelibly associated with Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the Thousand Days with John F. Kennedy. But as of this week, a thousand days remain of President Bush's last term – days filled with ominous preparations for and dark rumors of a preventive war against Iran.

The issue of preventive war as a presidential prerogative is hardly new. In February 1848 Rep. Abraham Lincoln explained his opposition to the Mexican War: "Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose – and you allow him to make war at pleasure [emphasis added]. . . . If, today, he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, 'I see no probability of the British invading us'; but he will say to you, 'Be silent; I see it, if you don't.' "

This is precisely how George W. Bush sees his presidential prerogative: Be silent; I see it, if you don't ...

Book Review: Gods and Legions ****

Gods and Legions by Michael Curtis Ford ****

Gods and Legions is a historical novel about the Roman Emperor Julian, also known as the Apostate, who attempted during the second generation after Constantine to reverse the Christianization of the Empire. Julian’s story is told by his Christian doctor Caesarius (a historical character) to the doctor’s brother Gregory, bishop of Nazianaus, so we should assume from the start that his will be a biased account. However, he is also Julian’s friend, which exerts an influence in Julian’s favor, as well as giving him an insight into the Emperor’s thought processes and motivations.

Starting at the battle during which Julian receives the wound that will kill him (or is it the original wound that does the trick?), the narrative is an extended flashback tracing the path that has brought Julian, Caesarius and the Empire to this fateful moment. The only survivor of a purge by Constantine’s son Constantius that has eliminated all of his male relatives, Julian is in Athens studying philosophy when he is abruptly called to the Emperor’s court. Rather than being killed, which he half expects, the scholarly young man is thrust into the position of Constantius’ deputy in Gaul, which is riddled with corruption and menaced by barbarians. From the admiring point of view of Caesarius, we see Julian remake himself into a general and administrator and succeed where he was meant to fail, until the treachery of his uncle becomes too much for him and he takes up arms against the Emperor. Before their armies meet, however, Constantius dies, and Julian finds himself undisputed ruler of the Empire.

It is now that the friendship between the two men is stretched to its limits, when Julian announces to the devoutly Christian Caesarius that he has abandoned the beliefs with which he was raised and aims to restore the worship of the old gods. After a brief retirement from court, Caesarius is recalled to Julian’s side to accompany him in his attempt to fulfill the vain dream of previous emperors and conquer Persia, the campaign on which he is to be killed.

It is obvious that Ford has done painstaking research for this book, and I appreciate his historical note at the end suggesting further reading. The detail is impressive, particularly the battles and other military maneuvers, although it may be a little too graphic for some people’s taste. I suppose there is an argument to be made that these things were brutal and shouldn’t be sugarcoated, but the line between realism and gratuitous violence is a fine one, and I’m not sure that Ford always stays on the right side of it. Some parts of the novel dragged a little bit for me, particularly after the beginning of the Persian campaign, and the descriptions of Julian’s excesses in his observance of pagan religion sound suspiciously like Christian propaganda, of which I’m sure there was plenty. On the whole, however, I found Gods and Legions to be a well written and enjoyable book, and would consider reading other novels by the author. Readers interested in another fictional view of this fascinating character might want to check out Gore Vidal’s Julian.

God bless Australia

We and the Canadians (for the most part) seem to have missed out on the gene, but there’s nothing like the Brits and the Australians for sheer biting invective.

Some examples:

In recent weeks, scanning the political coverage in the mainstream US media and sampling the blogs has been to watch a flood tide ebbing to reveal a rotting, skeletal hulk. It is the George W. Bush ship of fools, stuck in the mud for the world to see in all its mendacity, its incompetence, its faith-based stupidity.

It is possible, at this late stage, that even Bush himself has begun to realise something is wrong. That oddly simian face is ashen, the eyes leaden. The voice is shrill and its tone defensive.
...

This is a trash presidency, founded on lies and knavery, fraud and ignorant ideological crackpottery.

Karl Rove is another faux-Texan wheeler-dealer sometimes described as Bush's brain, a courtier most often seen superglued to the presidential right ear. Pink and pudgy, he looks like one of Disney's three little pigs, although infinitely more smug.
...

Compared to this lot, Bill Clinton was John the Baptist.

Movie Review: Therese ***

I was very excited to see this film in the video store, but on the whole was quite disappointed with it. Comparing it to the actual life and writings of St. Therese of Lisieux is like comparing one of the saccharine pictures of her (holding a bouquet of roses and much prettier than in real life) to an actual photograph. Nice - maybe inspiring, but superficial and insipid when placed next to the real thing.

One of the big mistakes I think the makers of the film made, unless their goal was an introductory hagiography, was to attempt to portray Therese's entire life, at least beginning shortly before her mother's death. Even a relatively uneventful 15-20 years cannot be covered in any depth in an hour and a half. Also, even though she has a few crying spells, she is still shown as an almost perfect human being right from the beginning, so I didn't really get a sense of her spiritual struggle and growth. In addition, the passivity with with she is portrayed almost completely dilutes the power of her "little way." I believe that the French film mentioned by one of the other reviewers concentrated on the period of her illness and death, and was able to show her life and personality in much more depth.

A couple of things that could have been brought out or portrayed even in this version: the fact that Therese was made Mistress of Novices, entrusted with the spiritual direction of women who were sometimes older than herself; her relationship with the saintly old Mother Superior who died during her time at Carmel; and more than a glancing reference to the writing of the manuscripts that were published as The Story of a Soul.

However, if this movie inspires people to go out and read Therese’s writing (I also recommend the biography The Story of a Life by Msgr. Guy Gaucher, which is where I first encountered her), I suppose it will have fulfilled its purpose.

Moat of Death - what a great name

No, it's not something Dubya’s putting in around the ranch in Crawford to keep out the mothers of dead soldiers. It’s from the National Geographic website - they are busy little beavers these days, or just reporting on some really interesting finds. The disturbing part of the article is the suggestion that the "Moat of Death" may be a glimpse at the future of our oceans.

Beneath the waves of the South Pacific lies a volcanic realm nearly as strange as that featured in TV's hit drama Lost.

But instead of a mysterious island, scientists have found a bubbling submarine volcano whose weird features include a swirling vortex, a host of strange animals, and a fearsome zone of toxic waters dubbed the Moat of Death.

Book Review: Ghosts of Vesuvius

Ghosts of Vesuvius by Charles Pellegrino *****

People who like their reading clear, concise and organized will probably hate this book. To someone like me, who is decidedly “right-brained,” it was a joy to read, even though there were times when I put it aside because I just couldn’t cope with the sheer amount of information.

Charles Pellegrino, who has also explored the wreck of the Titanic and the island of Thera (whose devastation in a volcanic eruption is a possible inspiration for the story of Atlantis), here brings his expertise to the results of the first-century eruption of Mt. Vesuvius as well as the collapse of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. “The behavior of dust-heavy air in Manhattan was governed by the very same physics that sent volcanic death clouds crashing...upon the cities of Vesuvius in A.D. 79,” he writes, and the book which would have resulted from this simple comparison would probably have been equally fascinating, although much shorter and more focused.

Instead, Pellegrino gives us an extended meditation on catastrophes, human reactions to them and the impermanence of civilizations that is truly breathtaking in its scope, yet also shines a spotlight on intimate human moments and the personal reactions of the author, all the more poignant in the case of 9/11, where he lost people he knew. The bulk of the book is devoted to recent discoveries at Vesuvius, however. Pellegrino’s reconstruction of the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, based on what science knows about the physics of it, eyewitness accounts from authors such as Pliny the Younger, and archaeological evidence, is riveting. He also builds up a context in which to place them, a context of slave revolts, religious ferment and amazingly advanced technology, which help to bring the people whose stories he tells to life.

This book probably could have been more tightly edited without losing its stream-of-consciousness feel, and Pellegrino’s assertions were sometimes hyperbolic and occasionally flat-out wrong (the Pharisees were not a “sect of Temple high priests,” but in general non-priests who were often in opposition to the Temple cult), but I still found it enjoyable and well-worth reading.

Book Review: The Gospel of Judas

The Gospel of Judas edited by Rodolphe Kasser, Marin Meyer & Gregor Wurst (also includes an essay by Bart Ehrman) ****

If you want to know all the details about the race to preserve this exciting discovery, the science, etc., this book is not the one you want. That is evidently the focus of the companion book to this one, The Lost Gospel by Bart D. Ehrman. If, however, you want the actual translation of the Gospel of Judas with copious explanatory footnotes and essays that put it into some context, I highly recommend this book. One reviewer referred those who are only interested in reading the gospel to the NY Times website; however, the National Geographic site has the whole thing available for download with no registration required. I personally found the footnotes (only available in this book) to be very helpful in disentangling some of the theology and terminology used.

The essays are also well-written and illuminating, especially if the reader is not familiar with gnosticism. (These readers may also find it helpful to read the essays first and then the contents of the manuscript.)

Hype notwithstanding, this discovery is not about to shake the foundations of Christianity, but I hope that it will stimulate interest by Christians in the origins of their faith and the exciting ferment of ideas that existed during the first couple of centuries until all debate was shut down by the new establishment, the official religion of the Roman Empire. For the most part the “secret revelations” given by Jesus to “Judas” are boilerplate gnosticism, although even a glimpse of that system of thought, alien as it now is to most of us, may stimulate readers to learn more. I highly recommend Elaine Pagels’ The Gnostic Gospels as a readable introduction; although several years old it is still in print. Ehrman’s Lost Christianities is a more recent exposition of the many “Christianities” that fought it out in the early centuries.

Books that I need to put on a fast track

These are books that I am really enjoying but for some reason just keep getting distracted from and have yet to finish. Of course they’re all quite long and just packed with information - maybe it’s some kind of overload. I suppose that what I should do is put them at the top of my list and not even touch anything else until they’re done, but somehow I doubt that will happen.

Constantine’s Sword by James Carroll. I love this book and its writer, especially some of the columns he’s published in the Boston Globe. Unfortunately, it had been so long since I had left off on the book that I had to start it all over again, and I was just as impressed the second time around. However, I have now reached just about the same point, and I haven’t picked it up for a couple of weeks.

Ghosts of Vesuvius by Charles Pellegrino. This is really the one I was thinking of when I said “packed with information.” There’s almost enough in here to blow the circuits in your brain, but his description of the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, based on what science knows about the physics of it, eyewitness accounts from authors such as Pliny the Younger, and archaeological evidence, is riveting.

The Ancestor’s Tale by Richard Dawkins. A fascinating journey backwards in time, based loosely on the framework of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. There is a lot of info in here to assimilate too, particularly scientific.

Leaker in chief

Just one more disaster in a week full of them. To be fair, I think that the people I listen to on Air America have made an amazing leap which, so far, at least, is not justified by the evidence – namely, that because Dubya authorized the leaking of the NIE, he is ipso facto guilty of outing Valerie Plame. (This, on an affiliate that calls itself “the voice of reason.”) Of course, the news makes it obvious that he’s at the very least a hypocrite and a liar, since even if he didn’t authorize that specific leak, he certainly could have guessed where it came from. Even he isn’t that stupid.

However, here is a meme that the White House’s media stenographers have been very effective in getting out, this time in Newsweek, although I have seen it in story after story since the news came out.

Legally, Bush did nothing wrong. The president can declassify a document any time he wants. Indeed, a sanitized version of the document in question—a National Intelligence Estimate compiled by the CIA and other agencies—was formally declassified and made public only 10 days after some of its contents were leaked by Libby to New York Times reporter Judith Miller in July 2003. But the administration was unquestionably playing games with reporters, whether or not the president was directly involved.

Only problem is, it’s not true. At least, not everyone agrees on the issue. John Dean (uh, former White House counsel, who might reasonably be expected to know something about it) writes the following on the Findlaw website:

In addition, conventional wisdom - if that label fits the consensus information that is surfacing on radio and television news shows - has it that this information does not reveal that the President or Vice President did anything illegal. But that claim, too, is not necessarily accurate.

At a minimum, the filing indicates that the President and Vice President departed radically, and disturbingly, from long-set procedures with respect to classified documents - and that the Vice President, in particular, exceeded his declassification authority. And it may indicate that they, too, ought to be targets of the grand jury.

This is what I would love to know – what did Dubya and Dick tell the FBI when they were interviewed? If they told the “truth,” or what they claim now is the truth, shouldn’t that have cleared up the investigation? And if they did nothing wrong, why cover it up?

More from Dean:

Assuming that Libby's testimony is accurate, did the President do anything wrong by so declassifying the NIE? Given the fact that the national security classification system is created by executive order of the president, it would appear logical that the president has authority to unilaterally and selective declassify anything he might wish. However, that is not the way any president has ever written the executive orders governing these activities. To the contrary, the orders set forth rather detailed declassification procedures.

In addition, there is law that says that when a president issues an executive order he must either amend that executive order, or follow it just as others within the executive branch are required to do. At present, we have so few facts it is difficult to know what precisely Bush did and how he did it, and thus whether or not this law is applicable. There is also the problem that no one has standing in court to challenge a president's refusal to follow his own rules. But voters may take note of the disposition of this administration to play by the rules, and put a Democratic Congress in place to keep an eye on the last two years of the Bush/Cheney presidency.

What is apparent, however, based on Fitzgerald's filing, is that no one other than Bush, Cheney, Libby and apparently Addington was aware of this unilateral and selective declassification - if, indeed, the NIE was declassified. The secrecy surely suggests cover-up. For example, Fitzgerald notes that Libby "consciously decided not to make [then Deputy National Security Adviser] Hadley aware of the fact that defendant [Libby] himself had already been disseminating the NIE by leaking it to reporters while Mr. Hadley sought to get it formally declassified." (Also, CIA Director George Tenet apparently was not aware of the partial declassification by Bush.)

Whatever authority Bush may or may not have had, however, it is crystal clear that Vice President Cheney did not have any authority to unilaterally and selectively declassify the NIE.

Recently, Cheney made the public claim (to Brit Hume of Fox News) that he had authority to declassify national security information. Learning of this, Congressman Henry Waxman asked the Congressional Reference Service of the Library of Congress, which issues non-partisan reports, whether Cheney was right. CRS found that the Vice President has limited declassification authority, generally speaking. And their report shows Cheney had no authority in this instance - only in situations where the Vice President had been the authority to classify the material in the first place, could the Vice President have the authority to unilaterally declassify it.

Is this America's future? The theocrats hope so.

Excerpts from a horrific article in Sunday’s New York Times about criminalized abortion in El Salvador:

Abortion is a serious felony here for everyone involved, including the woman who has the abortion. Some young women are now serving prison sentences, a few as long as 30 years.
...
In this new movement toward criminalization, El Salvador is in the vanguard. The array of exceptions that tend to exist even in countries where abortion is circumscribed — rape, incest, fetal malformation, life of the mother — don't apply in El Salvador. They were rejected in the late 1990's, in a period after the country's long civil war ended. The country's penal system was revamped and its constitution was amended. Abortion is now absolutely forbidden in every possible circumstance. No exceptions.

There are other countries in the world that, like El Salvador, completely ban abortion, including Malta, Chile and Colombia. El Salvador, however, has not only a total ban on abortion but also an active law-enforcement apparatus — the police, investigators, medical spies, forensic vagina inspectors and a special division of the prosecutor's office responsible for Crimes Against Minors and Women, a unit charged with capturing, trying and incarcerating an unusual kind of criminal. Like the woman I was waiting to meet.
...
As they do in any investigation, the police collect evidence by interviewing everyone who knows the accused and by seizing her medical records. But they must also visit the scene of the crime, which, following the logic of the law, often means the woman's vagina.

"Yes, we sometimes call doctors from the Forensic Institute to do a pelvic exam," Tópez said, referring to the nation's main forensic lab, "and we ask them to document lacerations or any evidence such as cuts or a perforated uterus." In other words, if the suspicions of the patient's doctor are not conclusive enough, then in that initial 72-hour period, a forensic doctor can legally conduct a separate search of the crime scene. Tópez said, however, that vaginal searches can take place only with "a judge's permission." Tópez frequently turned the pages of a thick law book she kept at hand. "The prosecutor can order a medical exam on a woman, because that's within the prosecutor's authority," she said.

In the event that the woman's illegal abortion went badly and the doctors have to perform a hysterectomy, then the uterus is sent to the Forensic Institute, where the government's doctors analyze it and retain custody of her uterus as evidence against her.
...

What will become of poor Tom Delay?

I've been worrying about Tom DeLay. I'm afraid he's going to find life after Congress unfulfilling. I suppose he could become a consultant, but that would probably be boring after being in the hurly-burly of things, twisting arms and cracking the whip on the floor, and I don't imagine that his former colleagues would welcome him back as a lobbyist, at least not for a year or two. However, I think I have a solution.

As you can see from the excerpt below (click here for link, though it's actually to a page that quotes the original article, or just google "tom delay vietnam"), poor Tom was never able to serve his country. Even though he wanted to go to Vietnam, those mean ole minorities got in first and cheated him out of his chance (although it looked from my search results like Big Bad Tom might also have claimed that his wife wouldn't let him go).

Read an excerpt from a 1999 article that recounts the novel excuse that DeLay offered as to why he and Dan Quayle didn't serve in Vietnam:

Which Bug Gets the Gas? Will the next house DeLay fumigates be that big White one or his own? By Tim Fleck....

He and Quayle, DeLay explained to the assembled media in New Orleans, were victims of an unusual phenomenon back in the days of the undeclared Southeast Asian war. So many minority youths had volunteered for the well-paying military positions to escape poverty and the ghetto that there was literally no room for patriotic folks like himself. Satisfied with the pronouncement, which dumbfounded more than a few of his listeners who had lived the sixties, DeLay marched off to the convention...

Hey, Tom, they're calling up guys today who must be at least your age, and you look pretty fit and healthy in your mug shot. The way they've been lowering standards lately, indictment or even conviction shouldn't be an obstacle, as long as you can weasel your way out a long sentence. This is your chance to see combat and serve the party - uh, country - that you love so much. Go to exciting places (like Iraq), meet interesting people, and kill them. And unlike most of the Democrats in Congress, the Iraqis actually fight back. Be all that you can be!

Gospel of Judas and "missing link" in the same week - fundamentalists frothing at the mouth!

Here are a couple of news stories - Gospel of Judas here, "missing link" between fish and land animals here. It's pure coincidence that both of these outlets are Canadian - I don't even know if they're the best ones, but I wanted to get something up here before going to work. I will have more to say about both of these. As I said to my sister in an e-mail today, though, my reaction to the "Gospel" (and this applies regardless of the authenticiy - or lack thereof - of its contents), was, "Duh! I could figure out by reading the canonical accounts that the 'betrayal' was a put-up job."

Shabbat shalom!

It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy

Tom DeLay is out, and I’m sure it has nothing to do with the subject of this article: Federal Probe Has Edged Closer to Texan. Why, Tom says so - would he lie? We all know he’s being persecuted because he’s a “Christian.” If you believe this I’ve got some nice oceanfront property in Arizona to sell you.

I found this part of the article to be particularly nauseating - just one more example of crooks protecting their own. “DeLay also is entitled under federal election rules to convert any or all of the remaining funds from his reelection campaign to his legal expenses, whether or not he resigns, is indicted (my emphasis) or loses the election. Election lawyers say one advantage of bowing out of the election now is that the campaign cash can be converted to pay legal bills immediately, instead of being drained in the course of a bid to stay in office.” I don’t know what should happen to that money, but this is one thing that it shouldn’t be allowed to be used for. (Sorry about ending a sentence with a preposition, Esther - I just think it reads better. As Winston Churchill used to say, “This is something up with with we will not put.”)

For more on poor oppressed Christians check this hilarious clip from Bill Maher - as he says, nothing says “I’m oppressed” like the opulent Regency Ballroom of a fancy hotel. (He starts out talking about Andy Card leaving the White House.)

In case anyone thinks I'm completely opposed to C.S. Lewis and/or his brand of Christianity...

Here is an excerpt from an article discussing Lewis' feelings about the conservative Christian obsession with homosexuality as opposed to more widespread (and more culturally erosive) sins such as excessive materialism and the drive to get ahead at all costs. Maybe this is because of the tendency, which Jesus noted, for people to point out the mote in their brother's eye while ignoring the beam in their own, as most of the people who so loudly proclaim their Christianity to the world (see Matthew 6:5 – "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men") seem to be beset by these very problems.

Lewis also describes, largely in passing, the English public school tradition by which socially powerful older boys enter into sexual liaisons with younger boys, who thereby acquire a status similar to that of courtesans. At one point, Lewis addresses why he has so little to say about this practice, and indeed why he doesn't even bother to condemn it: "What Christian, in a society so worldly and cruel as that of Wyvern, would pick out the carnal sins for special reprobation? Cruelty is surely more evil than lust and the World at least as dangerous as the Flesh. The real reason for all the pother (about homosexuality) is, in my opinion, neither Christian nor ethical. We attack this vice not because it is the worst but because it is, by adult standards, the most disreputable and unmentionable, and happens also to be a crime in English law. The World will lead you only to Hell; but sodomy may lead you to jail and create a scandal, and lose you your job. The World, to do it justice, seldom does that."

Much has changed since Lewis wrote; but one thing that has not is the veritable obsession many Christian conservatives seem to have with homosexuality. As Lewis points out, this obsession has no sound basis in Christian ethics or theology. It is true that Christian morality has traditionally condemned homosexual behavior. But it is, on this view, no different from fornication, or promiscuity, which are also considered perversions of sexual passion, and which draw relatively little attention from contemporary moralists.

Furthermore, as Lewis notes, Christian theology considers lust to be a less dangerous vice than worldly ambition or (especially) spiritual pride. So why are so many Christian conservatives focused on the putative threat that the widespread acceptance of homosexuality presents to the spiritual health of society, as opposed to, say, the threat posed by the widespread acceptance of materialism, or the fanning of nationalistic passions?

Actually, I would have a lot more problems with the specific practice that Lewis dismisses so casually than with a committed same-sex relationship - not because of the homosexuality, but because of the abuse of power inherent in it.

More thoughts on Narnia

Well, I have now finished the entire series, so I can kvetch about it. I wasn't crazy about The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe but I actually did enjoy the middle books. On the whole, the less Lewis preaches, the more I enjoy him. I also read the Twayne’s Masterwork Series companion and The Way Into Narnia: A Reader’s Guide by Peter J. Schakel, which I found very useful and perceptive, although both of them seemed determined to ignore (for the most part) things that I found problematic.

Although some of his criticisms of the series are a bit too sweeping, on The Last Battle I have to agree with Philip Pullman. It seems to send some really horrible messages, and I just hope that a lot of kids don't pick up on them. First, there seems to be a tinge of the Victorian sentimental "good children dying young" meme. Secondly, dark-skinned people (also known as "Darkies") are just bad by nature, and only one of them, evidently, is worthy of heaven (or the Narnian version of it). Thirdly, in the first book Edmund was ready to betray his siblings to certain death and is forgiven; in this one Susan is presumably cast into the outer darkness for being a normal teenage girl. (One essay I read suggests that she may still have a chance, but the implication is there.) None of the "good" people seems more than mildly disturbed by this - shades of the saints enjoying a ringside seat watching the suffering of the sinners in hell, or it is more "out of sight, out of mind"? There is also no indication that they will ever be reunited with their parents, who were also killed in the train crash, and that doesn’t seem to bother them at all. Ain’t family values grand?

In the meantime, do any readers spare a thought for poor Susan? Her entire family has just been wiped out and as she is “no longer a friend of Narnia” she doesn’t even have the comfort of thinking of them in heaven. What happens to her afterwards could make a wonderful book.

I have seen several defenses of Lewis against Pullman’s charge of misogyny, but they all seem to miss the point. For the most part his female children aren’t too bad, but he seems to have a real animus against adult women. OK - some people would say against adults in general, with the exception of Frank the cabby and his wife in The Magician’s Nephew, but only the female villains are truly menacing on a metaphysical level.

One thing that annoys me really has nothing to do with Lewis himself, but with some of his adoring legions of followers. There seem to be as many non-Christian, mythological elements in these books as there are in Harry Potter (Bacchus?), but hey, that’s OK - presumably because they subordinate themselves to Aslan, while the Harry Potter books are denounced as “Satanic.”

I found what to me is the best explanation so far for my position on the HP side of the Harry Potter/His Dark Materials-Narnia divide (to the extent that there is one - I am aware that a lot of people enjoy all three series) in a book called Boys and Girls Forever: Children’s Classics From Cinderella To Harry Potter by Alison Lurie:

In Narnia, final happiness is the result not of individual initiative and enterprise, but of submission to the wisdom and will of superior beings. Misbehavior can be forgiven if it is sincerely repented...

One complaint that both [critics] make against the Potter books is that in them evil and good are ambiguous and shifting. Apparently harmless or innocent characters turn out to be working for dark forces, and wicked-looking characters are revealed to be messengers of light. In Narnia, on the other hand, good and evil are clearly distinguishable...

The world of Narnia is simple and eternal: goodness, peace, and beauty will eventually triumph. The world of Harry Potter is complex and ambiguous and fluid. And in this, of course, it is far more like our own world, in which it is not always easy to tell the ogres from the giants. When we choose books for our children, do we want them to teach obedience to authority or skepticism, acceptance of the status quo or a determination to change what needs to be changed?

(I would modify Lurie’s “obedience to authority” to “unquestioning obedience to authority,“ since I don’t think she is arguing that obedience in itself is a bad thing.)

A couple more curmudgeonly views can be found here and here.

Book Review: Day of the False King

Day of the False King by Brad Geagley *****

The second installment in this series, which follows the adventures of Semerket, Egyptian Clerk of Investigations and Secrets, in 20th Dynasty Egypt, does not disappoint. Semerket’s ex-wife Naia and Rami, a young boy whom he befriended in Year of the Hyenas, have been sent as slaves to Babylon, and Semerket receives a fragment of a note indicating that they are in danger. Upon appealing to Rameses IV, the new Pharaoh, who owes Semerket his life and his throne, he is given permission to seek them and bring them back to Egypt, as well as a sensitive diplomatic mission to the ruler of Babylon. (Oops - I originally put "king" but when reading this over remembered that one very strong point made in the book was that Babylon, unlike Egypt, didn't have a king.)

In Babylon, which is seething under foreign occupation (shades of modern day Iraq?) Sermerket quickly learns that he can trust no one, not even his own country’s ambassador. The raid on the plantation where Naia was a maid is rumored to have been undertaken by resistance fighters, but evidence points to Egyptian involvement. A remarkably clever and sophisticated slave, a seductive transvestite, and a pair of spies who stick to Sermerket like glue even after they’re called off are only a few of the many colorful characters who help him solve the several mysteries he faces and find out what happened to Naia and Rami.

One of the risks of writing about a hard-bitten and embittered character such as Semerket is that he will either become totally unsympathetic or, if his life improves sufficiently, lose the “edge” that makes him so interesting in the first place. Moving him to a different culture was a brilliant move for Geagley, since Semerket is thrown slightly off balance by the strangeness and is forced to show some of his vulnerabilities. It remains to be seen whether he will continue to maintain the balancing act.

The book also provides some fascinating insights into the Babylonian politics of the time, some quotations from The Lament for Ur (which appears to have similarities to the biblical book of Lamentations, if only because the emotions felt by the survivors of a devastated city probably don’t differ much), and ancient medical practice. I only wish that, on his website if not in the book, Geagley would provide some information about his sources and recommended reading for those who would like to learn more.

A Democratic mole in the RNC?

If you can’t stand going to any Republican websites, check out their new “anti-Feingold” ad on CrooksandLiars.com. This is so weird - why would the party in power want to show anyone using the words “the President broke the law”? It actually (heaven forfend!) gives context to Feingold’s call for censure, when they’ve been trying to spread the meme that those bad ole Democrats are going after Dubya for going after the terrorists.

I found it kind of ironic that our hyper-nationalist, English-only right wing would end their extremely bizarre ad with the grammatically awful "Who do you stand with?" Of course, they might think saying "Whom," let alone "With whom," would make them sound like those evil eastern elitists, but even "Who do you support?" wouldn't be as bad.

I also notice that when they have Feingold saying, "This is a lot more serious - a lot more like an impeachable offense..." they cut him off. What did he say after that? Probably something like "...than lying about sex." What - aren't they proud of that fiasco?

Finally, where is the beginning of that ad supposed to be set, anyway? It looks like either Fallujah or one of our inner cities, where setting off a bomb wouldn't make much of a difference to the landscape. It would have been a lot more effective if they'd shown these guys doing their dirty work in an affluent suburb or mall, but I suppose they wouldn't want to give the masses any ideas!