November 7, 2007 | 12:31 pm

Jerry loses the funny

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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It saddens me that while Larry David has become so much funnier since “Seinfeld” ended it’s nine-year run the show’s namesake has become less so. Did anyone else see Jerry Seinfeld on “30 Rock?” He seems to have replaced comedy with crankiness. Case in point: This appearance on “Larry King Live.”

November 7, 2007 | 12:20 pm

Zell: ‘Being Jewish means that you’re vulnerable forever’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

“I think that being Jewish means that you’re vulnerable forever. Was there a stronger Jewish community anywhere in the world—more intellectual, more successful—than Germany in the late twenties and early thirties, before Hitler? And seven years later they’re building concentration camps! So, do I expect something like that to happen in the United States? Of course not. Do I think it could? Absolutely.”

Those are the words of billionaire investor Sam Zell. Last spring, when Zell bought the Tribune Company, which owns the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and Chicago Cubs baseball team, The Forward and The Jewish Journal ran articles about the “tough Jew” who was about to take over two former bastions of WASP society.

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November 6, 2007 | 5:30 pm

Atheism for baby eaters

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

The Friendly Atheist depicts a common complaint by atheists regarding how they are perceived.

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November 6, 2007 | 3:31 pm

We interrupt this message

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Guys, The God Blog has been experiencing serious technical difficulties during the past two days. Publishing posts has become nearly impossible, and sometimes when I try it pulls down other recent posts. My Web editor is trying to identify the problem. I’ll be shocked if this goes through. Sorry for the inconvenience.

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November 6, 2007 | 2:48 pm

Surgery for Indian girl with 8 limbs

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

From CNN:

Surgeons in India said a mammoth 40-hour operation on a 2-year-old girl born with four arms and four legs was going according to plan.

“So far, so good,” Dr. Sharan Patil, the head surgeon, told reporters after 10 hours of surgery to separate Lakshmi Tatma from her “parasitic twin.”

 

Here’s the video.

(Photo: Heeb)

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November 6, 2007 | 12:13 pm

The Heeb 100

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Joel Stein, who auditioned for “The Apprentice” last year alongside me, made the Heeb 100, as did Ben Goldhirsh, who I’m profiling right now, and Jonah Lehrer, who I am interviewing Monday. It’s not clear why anyone made this list from Heeb magazine, but, not surprisingly, I was left off.

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November 6, 2007 | 11:25 am

Quote of the day

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

“The Christian right is one of my favorite things to focus on. No matter what I draw, they have to forgive me.”

Joel Pett, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist told Indiana Journalism students.

(Hat tip: DMN religion blog)

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November 6, 2007 | 3:28 am

Muslim massacre in Hindu India

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

This massive report in Tehelka on a 2002 massacre of Muslims in India will really make your stomach turn. Rampaging Hindu zealots—yes, they come in all religious flavors—left more than 2,000 people dead, some in the most gruesome ways possible.

Dozens of eyewitnesses who deposed before the Nanavati-Shah Commission recounted scenes of children being burnt alive and women being raped. “We did’t spare any of them,” Bajrangi said. “They shouldn’t be allowed to breed. Whoever they are, even if they’re women or children, there’s nothing to be done with them; cut them down. Thrash them, slash them, burn the bastards.”

Kauser Bano, was nine months pregnant that day. Her belly was torn open and her foetus wrenched out, held aloft on the tip of a sword, then dashed to the ground and flung into a fire. Bajrangi recounts how he ripped apart “ek woh pregnant ... b*******d sala;” how he showed Muslims the meaning of wrath—“If you harm us, we can respond—we’re no khichdi-kadhi lot.”

The MotherJones blog says it’s long been known that the Indian government was complicit—these kinds of sectarian slayings have been ongoing since the Indian partition—“this time, it was all caught on tape.”

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November 5, 2007 | 6:52 pm

The Brad A. Greenberg Blog by GOD

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

That bit of self indulgence is courtesy of my former colleague at the LA Daily News, the always insightful and incisive Patrick O’Connor. My favorite cartoon he did while I was at the paper was this one, inspired by a forgettable story I wrote about California’s quality of life; seriously, what kind of phrase is “ends meat?”

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November 5, 2007 | 1:53 pm

JTA editor thinks NYT Magazine has a ‘Jewish problem’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Ami Eden, the managing editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency—the AP of Jewish journalism—wants to know if The New York Times Magazine has a Jewish problem.

I wouldn’t normally put it that way, but the first troublesome item to catch my attention was the January 14 profile by James Traub titled “Does Abe Foxman Have an Anti-Anti-Semite Problem?”

Next was Ian Buruma’s February 4 “Tariq Ramadan Has an Identity Issue.” And, finally, “Orthodox Paradox,” Noah Feldman’s much-discussed July 22 lament about being cut like a foreskin from his high school alumni newsletter on account of his marriage to a non-Jew.

All three articles contained a Jews-should-get-over-it-already bias: Traub’s piece was a critique of Abe Foxman’s crying “gevalt” over anti-Semitism, with the underlying message that the Jewish community in general needs to stop stifling debate on Israel. Buruma basically told American Jewish organizations to stop picking on Tariq Ramadan, a controversial Muslim scholar whose chance to teach at Notre Dame fell through because the State Department would not give him a visa. Feldman portrayed any effort by Orthodox institutions to uphold a communal taboo against intermarriage as a primitive obstacle to “reconciling the vastly disparate values of tradition and modernity.”

Of course, harping on bias in the NYT Magazine is like complaining about chocolate chips in a Toll House cookie. If you expect straight cookie, then stick to the newspaper — the magazine is a place for writers to open up, both in terms of space and voice.

Still, creative freedom doesn’t mean creative license. Each of these stories either danced up to or crossed the line on pertinent facts — in a way that served to bolster the writer’s agenda. In at least one case, the journalistic misdeed was serious enough for the public editor to urge one Jewish organization to write a letter to the editor — which the magazine then failed to print.

The magazine is, of course, owned by the New York Times Co, which is led by the most famous dynasty in American newspaper publishing, the Sulzbergers. They are, mind you, Jewish, something anti-Semites love to point out in their argument of a Jewish world conspiracy and a heritage many Jews think Punch and the gang were always uncomfortable displaying. (See “Buried by the Times: The Holocaust and America’s Most Important Newspaper.”)

I wouldn’t agree with Eden at first blush, but he makes some decent points, even regarding the Foxman profile, which was one of the more entertaining articles I had read in a long time.

(Hat tip: Seraphic Secret)

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November 5, 2007 | 10:26 am

IDF stripper assassins

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I missed this last week, but it’s another worthy story from the Palestinian propaganda files:

The Palestinian Authority newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida carried a story this week about IDF tactics that surpassed all previous accusations of supposed Israeli deviousness— poisoned candies, hormone-laced gum, poisoned wells, magnetized belts—in its bizarreness.

According to an Al-Hayat Al-Jadida front page report, the IDF has turned to using armed, female strippers in its war on upstanding Palestinian boys. The newspaper reports that when the Arab rock-throwing begins, IDF soldiers run for cover. Then, the story continues, after some time of hiding, an Israeli woman stands up on top of a barricade and begins to perform an alluring strip tease. Innocent Arab teenage boys, distracted from the business of rioting, are enticed to approach, when, according to the newspaper, the woman—an IDF soldier—shoots them with a pistol she had hidden in her underwear.

Alright, I don’t want to be crass, and granted there are some very attractive IDF soldiers, but I don’t know many men who would be drawn to a woman with a big lump her in undies.

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November 5, 2007 | 9:58 am

An outsider’s view on our unpopular president

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

George W. Bush was ranked 21st on the Daily Telegraph‘s list of influential conservatives, way behind leading men Rudy Giuliani, Gen. David Patraeus, Matt Drudge and most every Republican candidate for the 2008 presidency. Here’s why:

In just over three months, Republicans will choose a presidential nominee who will become the de facto leader of the party and, by extension, of US conservatism. In a bid to attract centrist voters, he — whether it be Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, John McCain or Fred Thompson — will rush to distance himself from Bush. 

By this time next year, many American conservatives may be asking: “George W. who?”

I can’t say I’d be sorry to have Bush lost in our nation’s history, even if we are dealing with his messes for the next few years. But Kevin Drum says we shouldn’t let former Bushies off the hook.

They all loved him when he was riding high, and they’d love him still if he weren’t polling in Richard Nixon territory.

Leading the liberals was Bill Clinton, Al Gore, strategist Mark Penn and Hillary Clinton.

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