May 31, 2009 | 3:13 pm

Abortion doctor shot and killed at church

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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Try keeping track of all the paradoxical moving parts in this story: George Tiller, one of a few doctors in the country to perform late-term abortions, was shot and killed this morning while attending church.

More from the Wichita Eagle:

Members of the congregation who were inside the sanctuary at the time of the shooting were being kept inside the church by police, and those arriving were being ushered into the parking lot immediately after the shooting. Witnesses later were being transported downtown for interviews and other members of the congregation were slowly being released from inside the sanctuary.

Tiller has long been a focal point of protest by abortion opponents because his clinic, Women’s Health Care Services at 5701 E. Kellogg, is one of the few in the country where late-term abortions are performed.

“We are shocked at this morning’s disturbing news that Mr. Tiller was gunned down,” anti-abortion group Operation Rescue said in a statement on its Web site. “Operation Rescue has worked for years through peaceful, legal means, and through the proper channels to see him brought to justice. We denounce vigilantism and the cowardly act that took place this morning. We pray for Mr. Tiller’s family that they will find comfort and healing that can only be found in Jesus Christ.”

Protesters blockaded Tiller’s clinic during Operation Rescue’s “Summer of Mercy” protests during the summer of 1991, and Tiller was shot by Rachelle Shannon at his clinic in 1993. Tiller was wounded in both arms, and Shannon remains in prison for the shooting.

The clinic was bombed in June 1986, and was severely vandalized earlier this month. According to the Associated Press, his lawyer said wires to security cameras and outdoor lights were cut and that the vandals also cut through the roof and plugged the buildings’ downspouts. Rain poured through the roof and caused thousands of dollars of damage in the clinic. Tiller reportedly asked the FBI to investigate the incident.

Police are looking for a powder blue Taurus that fled the scene after the shooter, reportedly a white man, shot Tiller in the church lobby and ran out the door.

It’s been a long time since the abortion wars involved physical violence. Let’s hope this isn’t a comeback.

May 31, 2009 | 2:57 pm

Young Cons Anthem

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Painful because it is apparently not a parody.

The above music video is by the Young Conservatives. They’re tone deaf, and their lyrics on Jesus, “Atlas Shrugged,” drilling in Alaska and Miss California scream The Lonely Island wannabe—only Boing Boing believes the rap duo is sincere. Here’s a snippet the Young Cons Website:

Young Conservatives is a group with a devout mission to spread the love and logic surrounding true conservatism. Our greatest enemy lies in the lack of understanding of the conservative movement. In a technological era driven fiercely by the main stream media, those who taut the true conservative message of individual responsibility, moral absolutes, and small government are slanted as intolerant, racist, “bible and gun clinging”, corporate fat cats who could not care less about the environment nor the well being of their fellow man. Being Christian or conservative or a combination of the two is not viewed as popular in American Society. This group clearly proves otherwise

Thanks for the link, Dennis.

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May 29, 2009 | 4:19 pm

Adam Lambert to make it official: He’s gay

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I didn’t know “American Idol” runner-up Adam Lambert, who may or may not have gotten jipped, was still in the closet. But Greg Hernandez passes on that the next Rolling Stone will feature a cover story in which Lambert talks straight about being gay:

The New York Post, quoting a “well-placed” source at Rolling Stone, said Lambert will put the speculation to rest in his cover-story interview.

“He didn’t want it to be an issue during the contest, but he’s fine with his sexuality,” the source tells the Post.

Why is this of interest to readers of The God Blog? Well, as you may remember, the “American Idol” finale between Lambert and Kris Allen became a showdown between the gay “Idol” and the straight “Idol.” Plenty of people were left wondering whether Christians punished Lambert for being gay.

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May 29, 2009 | 2:39 pm

Wikipedia bans Church of Scientology IP addresses

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

The success of Wikipedia—the wild success—has been based on the premise that every individual can add a little or a lot to the overall body of knowledge on any given subject. More popular topics typically have longer Wikipedia entries because they have more individuals editing the page. It also has resulted in some of those interminably controversial topics being listed as disputed. See: Israel-Palestine conflict.

Considering the online battle between Scientology and Anonymous et al, it’s surprising that the neutrality of pages for Scientology and Church of Scientology are not disputed. But editors using Scientology IP addresses have apparently been abusing the crowd-sourcing encyclopedia, and, according to The Register, Wikipedia has banned all church-owned and -operated IPs.

“Wikioperating thetan level zero”:

According to evidence turned up by admins in this long-running Wikiland court case, multiple editors have been “openly editing [Scientology-related articles] from Church of Scientology equipment and apparently coordinating their activities.” Leaning on the famed WikiScanner, countless news stories have discussed the editing of Scientology articles from Scientology IPs, and some site admins are concerned this is “damaging Wikipedia’s reputation for neutrality.”

One admin tells The Reg that policing edits from Scientology machines has been particularly difficult because myriad editors sit behind a small number of IPs and, for some reason, the address of each editor is constantly changing. This prevents admins from determining whether a single editor is using multiple Wikipedia accounts to game the system. In Wikiland, such sockpuppeting is not allowed.

The Wikicourt considered banning edits from Scientology IPs only on Scientology-related articles. But this would require admins to “checkuser” editors - i.e. determine their IP - every time an edit is made. And even then they may not know who’s who.

“Our alternatives are to block them entirely, or checkuser every ‘pro-Scientology’ editor on this topic. I find the latter unacceptable,” wrote one ArbComer. “It is quite broad, but it seems that they’re funneling a lot of editing traffic through a few IPs, which make socks impossible to track.”

And it may be a moot point. Most the editors in question edit nothing but Scientology-related articles. In Wikiparlance, they’re “single purpose accounts.”

Some have argued that those editing from Scientology IPs may be doing so without instruction from the Church hierarchy. But a former member of Scientology’s Office of Special Affairs - a department officially responsible “for directing and coordinating all legal matters affecting the Church” - says the Office has organized massive efforts to remove Scientology-related materials and criticism from the web.

“The guys I worked with posted every day all day,” Tory Christman tells The Reg. “It was like a machine. I worked with someone who used five separate computers, five separate anonymous identities…to refute any facts from the internet about the Church of Scientology.”

Christman left the Church in 2000, before Wikipedia was created.

As for what Scientologists really believe ...

(Hat tip: Sean Bonner)

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May 28, 2009 | 9:37 pm

Jewish student: UC Irvine needs to stop the Israel hatefest

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Jewish student at UC Irvine

Earlier this month, a frustrated Jewish student at UC Irvine sent an e-mail to the editorial staff of The Jewish Journal, expressing concerns about the annual Israel hatefest known as Palestinian Awareness Week. This year it was celebrated under the banner of “Israel: The Politics of Genocide.”

“There is an Israeli flag blowing in the wind…blood stained and ripped,” Neelie Milstein wrote. “We live in America, where democracy and freedom of speech is not only LEGAL but also encouraged. On this campus, freedom of speech has turned into freedom of HATE.”

Last year I made two visits to UCI during Palestinian Awareness Week, and returned the following week for iFest, a celebration of Israeli culture and contributions. I can vouch for the blood-stained and torn Israeli flag; I shot photos of it last year. And in a post about the weeklong event this year, I linked back to a trove of past articles and blog posts about the situation at UCI and on college campuses across the country.

I had been told that things were getting better. But that was before Israel’s war in Gaza, which ignited anti-Israel rhetoric on campuses from UCLA to York—and in many cases abject anti-Semitism.

The climate at UCI inspired Neelie to turn her call to action into an op-ed, “Protecting Hate at UC Irvine.” An excerpt:

After my three years at UCI, you would think I would be desensitized, and could just ignore the MSU’s “apartheid wall.” But I stand for more than that. I am standing up for all the Jews in past generations who did their best to uphold our religion and protect our people. I am standing up for all who understand and support the State of Israel as one of the most extraordinary achievements of the Jewish people.

I am not asking the UCI administration to censor the hate speech. I am asking them to denounce this style of rhetoric and displays just as they would denounce campaigns for white supremacy, sexism, or Islamophobia. I am asking them to be as fearful of countenancing hatred as I was taught to be, not just because of its present impact, but because of what it bodes for the future.

You can read the rest here.

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May 28, 2009 | 6:57 pm

The Jewish Jordan: A decade after the hype died

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I last mentioned Tamir Goodman, the much-hyped high schooler known as the Jewish Jordan who now plays for Maccabi Haifa, I was writing a profile about the NBA’s lone MOT, Jordan Farmar. I interviewed Goodman for that story, but ended up leaving him out.

Coincidentally, NBC Washington checked in on Goodman with the above report the following week—sort of a “Where is he now?” They capture him dribbling a ball between his legs, and having it sway his tzitzit back and forth. And discovered one surprising factoid: Goodman didn’t just become the first Orthodox Jew to play college basketball, he was the first Orthodox Jew to play professional ball in Israel.

“Goodman believes he’s a messenger from God, and he doesn’t spend much time looking back,” the NBC reporter says.

Often TV reporters are hyperbolic in such statements. But not here. When I spoke with Goodman, I was amazed by how passionate he was for the Jewish religion, and how strongly he felt that his skills at basketball were merely a vehicle for spreading Jewish pride. He seemed, as we Christians say, like a man on a mission, almost evangelistic.

“My biggest blessing that I have always had is being able to grow closer to the Torah and closer to God through the Commandments and it has just helped my basketball in every way. The same type of dedication and faith and hard work and everything that the Torah expects from you, is the same tools that you need to succeed at basketball—hard work, prepration, team work. You can’t just pray in the morning. You have to prepare. There are no days off in Judaism, just like basketball.”

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May 28, 2009 | 1:35 pm

The Pentagon and the ‘armor of God’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

ChristianShirts.net

I learned in Sunday School, as all Christian children do, that the way we are to survive the great spiritual war of daily life is to “put on the full armor of God.” Paul gives this instruction in his letter to Ephesus. The armor, he writes, includes the “belt of truth,” “breastplate of righteousness,” “the shield of faith” and “the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

This is about as militant a passage as the song we used to sing “Onward Christian Soldiers.” We’re not actually marching off to war, and if we were the battle would require different tools. The shield of faith only goes so far in hand-to-hand combat.

But this passage, along with a few other choice verses from the Bible’s New Testament, found there way onto Pentagon cover sheets around the time the United States led an invasion on Iraq. The cover sheets’ existence were recently revealed in a GQ profile of former Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld, titled “And He Shall Be Judged.”

See a slideshow here. The Think Progress blog offers this excerpt:

“Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” [The quote appears over an image of a tank at sunrise]

“Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” [The quote appears over an image of a soldier in Baghdad]

“It is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.” [The quote appears over an image of Saddam Hussein]

“Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, The nation that keeps faith.” [The quote appears over an image of tanks entering an Iraqi city]

Obviously, these passages were stripped of context and re-appropriated for political purposes. But just how bad was it? Well, Manya Brachear relates a sobering comparison:

some Jewish and Christian leaders say that the biblical passages were misused—just as moderate Muslims say Al Qaeda twisted the Koran to justify the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

She goes on in her article, a follow-up on the GQ story for the Chicago Tribune and LA Times, to quote a few of those religious leaders and to question “Whether Rumsfeld acted out of authentic religious motivation or, as some critics have suggested, to sell a war to an evangelical president.”

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May 28, 2009 | 6:17 am

Despite U.S. demand, Israel to continue building settlements

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

The U.S. government does not dictate what happens in Israel, regardless of all the foreign aid it sends to the Jewish state. And despite U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s statement Wednesday that expansion of West Bank settlements must cease, an Israeli official says construction will continue. More from Haaretz:

Israel contests that new construction must take place to accommodate for expanding families inside the existing settlements, which the U.S. and much of the world consider an obstacle to peace because they are built on land the Palestinians claim for a future state.

When asked to respond to Clinton’s call for a total settlement freeze, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said that normal life in those communities must be allowed to continue. Pressed on whether the phrase normal life meant some construction will take place in existing settlements, Regev said it did.

He noted that Israel has pledged to build no new settlements and to remove
unauthorized Jewish outposts in the West Bank. “The fate of existing settlements will be determined in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians,” he said.

Regev’s remarks echoed those of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has said Israel will continue to allow natural growth in the settlements - a
vague term that refers to construction in existing settlements to accommodate growing families.

The new U.S. administration has been noticeably more explicit in its criticism of Israeli settlement policy than its predecessor.

The two countries each have new leaders with strikingly different approaches to Israeli-Palestinian relations, with Netanyahu refusing to endorse Palestinian independence, a notion supported by Obama, his predecessor and the previous Israeli government.

Clinton said Wednesday the U.S. wants a halt to all settlement construction—including their natural growth.

Read the rest here.

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May 27, 2009 | 5:54 pm

New American Girl doll: poor and Jewish

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Rebecca Rubin

Her name is Rebecca Rubin. She’s 9 years old and poor, and she lives with her Russian-immigrant parents in Manhattan’s great Jewish ghetto of the early 20th century. There they struggle to save money to bring other family members over to to maintain their traditions (TRADITION!):

Rebecca confronts many of the same dilemmas faced by today’s American Jewish children as they navigate between tradition and modernity. In “Candlelight for Rebecca,” her teacher asks the class to make Christmas centerpieces, and Rebecca agonizes over what to tell her parents. In “Meet Rebecca,” she asks her grandfather, an observant Jew who keeps kosher, why he opens his shoe store on Shabbat (they need the money, he explains).

The six books about Rebecca’s life were penned by children’s author Jacqueline Dembar Greene, who based some of the stories on her own family’s history. She quizzed her mother-in-law about the correct usage of certain Yiddish words, and her 92-year-old father about his memories of riding the Ferris Wheel at Coney Island.

Greene’s mother worked as a stitcher in a garment factory in Hartford, Conn., much like the one where Rebecca’s uncle and cousin suffered two decades earlier. “Nothing had changed,” Greene says. “She told me about the bosses walking up and down, yelling at the workers, about being locked in, even though it was totally illegal. They weren’t allowed to talk or hum, they were timed when they went to the bathroom.”

Believe it or not, this was big news. The Jerusalem Post reports that the Jewish blogosphere was buzzing for more than a year over the identity of the newest American Girl doll. I guess my Jewdolldar is a bit rusty.

After the jump, a little girl asks you to stop the Rebecca hate:

Read more of this post

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May 27, 2009 | 3:51 pm

What makes Vin Scully great

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Vin Scully

This time of year is difficult for my productivity. With baseball in full-swing, I forfeit about 20 hours a week watching Dodgers games on TV. As much as I love rooting for the boys in blue, it’s the sound of Vin Scully’s voice that makes watching a game from my couch so enjoyable. Scully—Mister L.A. and the greatest sportscaster of all time—doesn’t just have a smooth, soothing voice, but he infuses the game with such rich detail about each batter and pitcher that I often feel like I’ve read a series of player bios after the last out is made.

Last week, for example, while Dodgers were sweeping the Mets, I learned that New York left fielder Fernando Tatis, who in 1999 hit two grand slams off Chan Ho Park in the same inning (!), had tired of professional baseball and, after the 2003 season, stepped away from the game. God brought him back in 2006—or better yet, the desire to serve God.

His entire community in the Dominican Republic wanted to build a church, in fact, and if Tatis signed a Major League contract, he would have the money to do so. The problem was, no team particularly wanted an aging infielder with seemingly little to give.

But Tatis wanted to build a church, and so he told his family that he was going to return to the Major Leagues. This happened roughly a week before the phone rang.

It was the Orioles. They were interested. And now?

“The church is built,” Tatis said. “It’s beautiful, and we got it.”

Tatis played one mediocre portion of the 2006 season with the Orioles before spending another year out of the Majors and hooking on with the Mets this spring. That was a part-time gig until Monday, when manager Jerry Manuel deemed Tatis his regular left fielder for the indefinite future.

You can read more about Tatis’ comeback here.

To hear Scully call the ninth inning of Sandy Koufax’s first no-hitter, click here. Or just turn your TV to FSN Prime Ticket. The Dodgers final game against the Rockies starts in a few minutes.

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May 27, 2009 | 3:11 pm

I am to Jews as tomatoes are to ...

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

VideoJew

Remember word associations from the SAT? Well, the VideoJew just told me that I am “as Jewish as a tomato is a vegetable.”

Yeah, it’s complicated.

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May 26, 2009 | 9:33 pm

Sotomayor or Cardozo: Supreme Court’s first Hispanic?

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

There have been two major bits of news in the legal world today. One is straightforward but far from over: the California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8. But the other, that Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s first pick for the U.S. Supreme Court will be the first Latino to join the nation’s highest court, is less clear. All that depends on just how we should classify Justice Benjamin Nathan Cardozo, a Sephardic Jew appointed to the Supreme Court by President Hoover.

Cardozo’s direct lineage was from the Iberian Peninsula, and though AP style is not to identify Spaniards and the Portuguese as Latinos, Cardozo was Hispanic.

Eugene Volokh, the UCLA law professor and prolific blogger who clerked for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, sifts the wheat from the chaff with an on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand argument. Volokh concludes:

So the bottom line: There’s no doubt that many Hispanics might see Judge Sotomayor as one of them in a way that they don’t see Justice Cardozo as one of them. There’s nothing “incorrect” about that; it’s a matter of felt shared identity, which is defined by actual practices and not by scientific or often even legal definitions. But if one does look at legal attempts to try to capture Hispanic identity as a legal category, Justice Cardozo might well have qualified (which may say more about the weakness of such legal attempts than about anything else).

Indeed, Jewish identity is a complicated animal. So too is Latino identity. Put them together and, well, you’re going to have a tough time reaching consensus.

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