August 7, 2009 | 8:33 pm

Lisker life sentence overturned

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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Lisker at San Quentin

This is not a religion story. But it’s a story about the importance of good journalism.

Bruce Lisker was convicted 25 years ago of killing his own mother in cold blood. But many questions lingered about whether Lisker really did it. (See FreeBruce.org.) For the past few years, two reporters for the Los Angeles Times have pursued and penned a number of stories questioning the way the Lisker case was handled.

Their first story, “New Light on a Distant Verdict,” was amazing. And today, Lisker’s conviction was overturned.

From the Times:

U.S. District Court Judge Virginia A. Phillips concluded that Bruce Lisker, 44, was convicted on “false evidence” and that his attorney — now a court commissioner — failed to adequately represent him at trial.

“Oh my God, I am absolutely elated,” Lisker said in a telephone interview from Mule Creek State Prison, near Sacramento. “It’s bittersweet: Jubilation tempered by how long I’ve been in here.”

A hearing is scheduled for Monday to decide whether Lisker should be released on bail while prosecutors determine whether to appeal Phillips’ ruling or to retry him.

A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office, which has been defending Lisker’s conviction, was not immediately available for comment.

Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the L.A. district attorney, declined comment. A deputy district attorney, however, had filed a court declaration last month stating that she was prepared to refile the charges if the conviction was overturned.

“I pray that I will be tasting my rightful freedom again,” said Lisker, adding that he would welcome a retrial. “Bring it.”

Read the rest here.

August 7, 2009 | 3:40 pm

In God a newspaper trusts

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

If anyone needs God, it’s the newspaper business. So why all the clamor over the new owner of the Waco Tribune-Herald’s decision to print “In God We Trust” at the top of each day’s paper?

From new Trib-Herald chairman Clifton Robinson:

The newspaper business is currently undergoing what can best be described as the perfect storm: The failing U.S. economic conditions coupled with the digital age have caused advertising revenues and subscriptions to decrease.

Change is the byword of our modern society, and such is the case of the Trib. It’s time for a change, and hopefully our values and opinions will be well received by our advertisers and readers. It will come about slowly but surely with the first change being printed on this paper’s front page, where it will remain during the tenure of our ownership: In God we trust.

Read the rest here.

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August 6, 2009 | 2:32 pm

How the Israelites really found the Promised Land

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

When I sent out a request last month for religious humor on YouTube, Omri Ceren, who writes the Mere Rhetoric blog, sent me this commercial explaining how the Israelites really found the Promised Land.

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August 6, 2009 | 7:44 am

Gearing up for ‘Inglourious Basterds’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

The reviews are improving for “Inglourious Basters,” I movie I’ve been looking forward to since it was described last summer as an “Epic bugged-out Jewsploitation film.”

I hear the violence is off the charts—and not in the Tarantino way of “Kill Bill.” But the story hook is one that appeals to me, and you can’t go wrong with turning Brad Pitt into a Jewish assassin. “Basterds” is, after all, bound to have plenty of the Tarantino indulgences that make (most of) his films so good.

Over at Hollywood Jew, Naomi highlights the five most outrageous moments of the film. Here’s my favorite:

When an SS officer nicknamed The Jew Hunter (Christoph Waltz) cuts a deal with the Allies, the basterds can’t stand that he’ll be able to remove his Nazi uniform and live a respectable life in the United States.  So they tell him they’re going to give him something he can’t take off – and gleefully carve a swastika into his forehead.

Reminds me of this tattoo I came across once while writing about tattoo removal for the Daily News. On the forehead of some guy’s bald pate were a few tombstones and on his upper lip the words “sh—happens.”

Read the rest of Naomi’s list here.

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August 4, 2009 | 11:52 pm

Besser on ‘the Mary Robinson Conundrum’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Mary Robinson

James Besser has a good blog post for The Jewish Week about the mixed messages President Obama has sent about his support for Israel, with his decision to award Mary Robinson the Medal of Freedom being the most disconcerting so far. Besser writes:

Being president is all about sending messages. When it comes to the Middle East, everybody knows that indirect messages can carry at least much weight as the direct ones.

So it’s not surprising a whole lot of people are trying to figure out just what President Obama meant by selecting Mary Robinson, the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, as one of 16 recipients of the Medal of Freedom. And others think they know and are trying to spin the rest of us.

For many pro-Israel activists, the selection was loaded down with unwelcome significance.

It’s not just that Robinson is seen as biased against Israel; what has made her name a lightning rod is her personal identification with a 2001 UN conference on racism in Durban, South Africa that was hijacked and turned into a grotesque festival of overt anti-Semitism, right down to the distribution of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Robinson didn’t support the anti-Semitic outbursts at Durban, but a credible case can be made that she didn’t do enough to prevent them – or speak up loudly enough after the debacle.

She has spoken out extensively against anti-Semitism, but was also part of a UN human rights hierarchy that demonized, and didn’t just criticize, Israel.

So was there a message implicit in her selection, or was it just a misstep by administration officials who thought nobody would care too much about honoring Robinson among 15 other recipients, including the actress Chita Rivera and tennis player Billie Jean King?

The dumb move theory isn’t exactly a slam dunk.

This administration has had plenty of time to learn the ins and outs of vetting, and top officials at the White House have accumulated lots of experience in dealing with the special sensitivities of the Jewish community. It’s hard to swallow the idea that they didn’t expect Jewish groups to react negatively (on Monday, the ADL did; here’s a link to their press release).

But if it was a message, what was its meaning?

Read the rest here.

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August 4, 2009 | 7:18 pm

Chabon on circumcision: ‘mutilation is the only honest name’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Michael Chabon’s latest book, “Manhood for Amateurs,” is a memoir. And in it, the greatest Jewish author since Philip Roth makes a case to cut the circumcision tradition.

“Mutilation [is] the only honest name for this raw act that my wife and I have twice invited men with knives to come into our house and perform, in the presence of all our friends and family, with a nice buffet and Weekend Cake from Just Desserts,” Chabon writes in his memoir, “Manhood for Amateurs,” out in October from Harper. “We have been through all of the standard arguments—hygiene, cancer prevention, psychological fitness, the Zero Mostel tradition . . . and found they are all debatable at best.”

In the above video, watch my conversation with Chabon about “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union” and accusations that he was—no joke—an anti-Semite.

In previous circumcision news: “Circumcision wars: Christians opt for Jewish bris” and “Holy adult circumcision, Abraham!”

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August 4, 2009 | 1:57 pm

Screech not invited to ‘Saved by the Bell’ reunion

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Well, you’re definitely not going to find Waldo in this photo.

So why wasn’t Screech invited to the “Saved by the Bell” reunion?

Could it be that People magazine is staffed full of anti-Semites? Not likely. What is more likely is that Dustin Diamond’s ungodly fall from geekdom into porno “acting”—yes, more so than Jessie Spano’s “Showgirls”—and smut publishing cost him some good will with the “Bell” crew.

Was it because of his upcoming tell-all book? His gross-out sex tape scandal? His “Celebrity Fit Club” meltdowns and financial troubles?

Yes, yes, yes and yes, according to RadarOnline, which reports that Diamond was purposely excluded by his former castmates.

“Cast members were not comfortable with including him,” a spokesperson for People told the Web site.

Diamond’s much-anticipated “Bell” memoir is the reason his old pals’ defenses are up, the rep says. As Radar notes, Mark-Paul Gosselaar openly slammed the tome in a recent issue of Newsweek.

“What is he going to say?” Gosselaar asked sarcastically. “We were (bleeping) groupies at 14? I can’t wait to read his book, because I don’t have a memory of a lot of the shows. Maybe it was because I was doing lines off of the audience members’ a——. I’m sure he’s going to write something crazy like that. So he’s writing a book, I’m not really afraid of what he has to say. There are not too many skeletons in my closet.”

More from the New York Daily News here.

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August 4, 2009 | 10:35 am

Heeb, Hitler and Roseanne Barr

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Roseanne Barr as Hitler

Heeb magazine has never been known for it’s kosher advertisements and photo spreads. From Jonah Hill holding a bagel and a tube of lube to the Heeb swimsuit issue to the photo issue to a subscription card with a picture of Ariel Sharon that explained they’re still not dead—Heeb has never been afraid of offending more than just the alter kakers.

But ... wow. Roseanne Barr with a Hitler mustache, pulling some charred gingerbread men out of the oven—that’s really pushing it.

Extra TV did a segment on the cover last week calling it “not funny” and shaming the controversial choice. But Heeb publisher Josh Neuman defended it, saying the cover was meant as “satire” and not done for “shock value.“

OK, you mean to tell me putting a Jewish woman on the cover of a Jewish magazine costumed as the man who burnt Jews in ovens (while she burns things in ovens) has no shock value? Since we’re being a wee bit insensitive to the remaining Holocaust survivors and their children, let’s at least call a spade a spade here, folks.

But if you’re mad, don’t blame Heeb. It was Roseanne who wanted to be photographed as Hitler. According to the magazine, she has a theory “that she may in fact be the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler,“ and thus requested to create a kind of Jewish Halloween nightmare in order to make a personal statement

Much more from Hollywood Jew, including what it’s like to meet Hitler—I mean, Roseanne—here.

Over at the Heeb blog, they’ve got a response from Roseanne, whose “tired of being misunderstood.” It goes a little something like this:

Hitler thought he was being really manly “cleaning Germany up” by burning people in ovens. I was making fun of him, not his victims. My caricature of him very aptly imitates the “man with a godly mission” pose that he struck in all the early photographs taken of him. I portray him being very proud of his burnt cookies, because in his last words, he was proudly congratulating himself for killing so many Jews, and encouraged the German people to carry on his mission against the “International Jew.” The guy actually thought that killing jews was a good thing!

Wow! I had no idea you were being ironic! Thanks for the history lesson, Roseanne.

Here’s my advice: Stick to what you’re not good at—comedy.

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August 3, 2009 | 10:07 pm

Anti-Christian hate turns deadly in Pakistan

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

India and Pakistan—constantly at war. Lately, it’s been a battle of who can persecute Christians more viciously. From The New York Times:

The blistered black walls of the Hameed family’s bedroom tell of an unspeakable crime. Seven family members died here on Saturday, six of them burned to death by a mob that had broken into their house and shot the grandfather dead, just because they were Christian.

The family had huddled in the bedroom, talking in whispers with their backs pressed against the door, as the mob taunted them.

“They said, ‘If you come out, we’ll kill you,’ ” said Ikhlaq Hameed, 22, who escaped. Among the dead were two children, Musa, 6, and Umaya, 13.

The attack in this shabby town in central Pakistan — the culmination of several days of rioting over a claim that a Koran had been defiled — shows how precarious life is for the tiny Christian minority in Pakistan.

More than 100 Christian houses were burned and looted on Saturday in a rampage that lasted about eight hours by a crowd the authorities estimate was as large as 20,000 strong. In addition to the seven members of the Hameed family who were killed, about 20 people were wounded.

The authorities, who said the Koran accusation was spurious, filed criminal charges in the case late Sunday and apprehended at least 12 people. Officials said a banned Sunni militant group, Sipah-e-Sohaba, was among those responsible for the attacks, the third convulsion of anti-Christian mob violence in the region in the past four weeks.

Except for the Koran strawman this all does sound familiar. Remember this story about anti-Christian violence in India? Or how about the November report that Hindu extremists were being paid to kill Christians?

Extremist Hindu groups offered money, food and alcohol to mobs to kill Christians and destroy their homes, according to Christian aid workers in the eastern state of Orissa.

The allegations follow the British Government’s refusal to prevent members of two radical groups linked to the worst antiChristian violence in India since Partition entering Britain.

The US-based head of a Christian organisation that runs several orphanages in Orissa - one of India’s poorest regions - claims that Christian leaders are being targeted by Hindu militants and carry a price on their heads. “The going price to kill a pastor is $250 (£170),“ Faiz Rahman, the chairman of Good News India, said.

Yes, religious hate comes in all shapes, colors and doctrines.

Today, Pakistan’s Christians voiced their anger over the government’s inability—unwillingness?—to intervene Saturday. More at the Christian Science Monitor and the missionary wire Compass Direct.

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August 3, 2009 | 10:58 am

Gunman: Your Black Muslim Bakery leader said kill reporter and ‘we’ll have a laugh’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Devaughndre Broussard has admitted to killing Chauncey Bailey, an Oakland journalist who was digging deep into Your Black Muslim Bakery. (More at ChaunceyBaileyProject.org) His testimony in the spring led to the indictment of others involved with the bakery, including onetime leader Yusuf Bey IV, 23.

Broussard’s testimony was released last week. Here’s an excerpt from the San Francisco Chronicle:

He told the grand jury that Bey IV was angry at Bailey for having somehow contributed to the death of his father, bakery founder Yusuf Bey Sr., in 2003. Bey IV also wanted to stop Bailey from writing about the bakery’s financial collapse. “You got to take Chauncey Bailey out before he write that article,” Broussard testified that Bey had told him.

The night before the killing, Bey IV said: “When you get this done, we are going to have a laugh,” and added later, “This is going to be big.”

Broussard said that the next day, he and Mackey were supposed to have handheld radios, but they didn’t charge properly, so they could not be used to help orchestrate the attack. Instead, they used cell phones and the attack went off well, with him firing enough shots to make sure Bailey was dead, Broussard told the grand jury.

Broussard said he later met with Bey IV and told him it was a “done deal.” The bakery leader was grateful, he said. “He gave me a hug. He gave Mackey a hug. He go, ‘I love y’all.’ That’s what he said.”

Bey IV then got in a car, Broussard recounted, saying: “What do y’all want to do? I’m hungry. We going to IHOP.”

Read the rest here.

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August 3, 2009 | 1:17 am

Israeli police recommend Lieberman indictment

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

So much for giving a good name to hardline politics. The Israeli police’s national fraud unit recommended Sunday that Avigdor Lieberman be indicted in a money laundering scheme:

In a brief turned over Sunday to the Attorney General’s office, the police recommended that the foreign minister be indicted on charges of bribery, fraud, money laundering, witness harassment and obstruction of justice, Ha’aretz reported.

The investigation has been ongoing for several years, but picked up steam after Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu became the third largest political party in the country in last February’s elections. Lieberman petitioned the Supreme Court to speed up the investigation after he became foreign minister.

“For 13 years the police have conducted a campaign of persecution against me,“ Lieberman said in a statement released Sunday. “As much as my political strength and the strength of Yisrael Beiteinu rise, the campaign of persecution also intensifies.“

He is under investigation for establishing shell companies that allegedly funneled millions of shekels to him, continuing after Lieberman took public office. He also is accused of trying to obstruct police investigations.

Read the rest here.

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August 2, 2009 | 12:29 pm

Tim Tebow: Jesus Christ’s football star

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I’m not sure any major athlete has ever been asked this question before—and, sadly, most professional athletes aren’t even expected to be faithful when they are married—but last month a reporter asked Tim Tebow quite possibly the hardest-hitting question of the Heisman winner’s college football career.

“Are you saving yourself for marriage?”

After a laugh and a smile, Tebow, the son of Christian missionaries who has hit the mission field himself and been a source of pride to evangelicals everywhere, responded, “Yes, yes I am.”

The video of that news conference is after the jump. Tebow’s answer is hard to believe, but if any famous athlete could do it, it’s Tim Tebow.

Which leads me to a Sports Illustrated cover story I’ve been meaning to mention for the past week: “Tim Tebow—Man of Many Missions.”

Here’s an excerpt from one of Tebow’s frequent prison visits:

A few minutes before arriving at Lawtey, Williams reminds his passengers to leave their phones behind. “They have two cellphone dogs,” he says. “The prisoners smuggle ‘em in and do business with ‘em, so the Florida legislature made it a third-degree felony to have a cellphone in prison.”

A guard across the parking lot greets the visitors with an enthusiastic Gator chomp. At the main gate officers collect driver’s licenses from the visitors and hand them electronic monitoring devices to be attached to their waistbands. “If you’re about to get shanked,” Tebow tells Bushell and Jenkins, “you push this button.” They think he’s kidding, but they’re not sure. As if to reinforce their doubts, a guard says, “This ain’t the Swamp. We ain’t playin’ here.”

When Tebow finally takes the mike, he is greeted by raucous cheers and more Gator chomps. He asks the convicts, “Who’s got the best hands in here?” A tight-end-sized ward of the state claims that he does and runs a pattern under the near baseline. He muffs a pass from Tebow that, to be fair, was thrown slightly behind him.

In a speech punctuated by exclamations of “Amen!” and bursts of static from guards’ radios, Tebow relates how, regardless of the venue—weight room, off-season workout, practice field or game—the Florida coaches are always on the Gators to “finish strong.” He notes how this ethos fueled a fourth-quarter comeback against Alabama in the SEC title game, then helped break a 7—7 halftime deadlock against Oklahoma.

Yes, the emphasis on finishing strong applied to football, Tebow says. “But more important,” he adds, telegraphing his transition, “it applies to life.

“A lot of you have started the first, second and third quarters really bad,” he says, and the room falls silent. “You might be losing. But you know what? It doesn’t matter. Because it’s about how you finish!”

When the cheering fades, Tebow shares with the inmates the fact that as a young boy he cared more about sports than about his Savior. “I told myself, I don’t need Jesus,” he says. “I was full of pride. It was all about me.” If he could see the light, they can too. But, he continues, “you might say, ‘I don’t want that gift. I’ll be fine—I don’t need any help!’” Then he asks the convicts a question:

“If you were to die right now, where would you be?” By which he means, in which direction would your soul be headed? “For me,” he says, “I have an answer to that question. I am one hundred percent certain I’m going to go to heaven because I have Jesus Christ in my life.”

Read the complete story here, and watch the virgin press conference after the jump:

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