July 3, 2012 | 10:58 am

Evidence—er, hints—of the ‘God particle’ found

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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Image by Wikipedia/TriTertButoxy

Scientists have been searching for the Higgs boson for some time now. The so-called “God particle” is a hypothetical particle that scientists say would help explain how something came from perceptibly nothing—how massless particles created matter. And yesterday scientists at the Fermi National Accelerator Lab near Chicago said they found the best evidence yet of the God particle.

Reuters reports:

The Fermilab scientists found hints of the Higgs in the debris from trillions of collisions between beams of protons and anti-protons over 10 years at the lab’s now-shuttered Tevatron accelerator.

But the evidence still fell short of the scientific threshold for proof of the discovery of the particle, they said, in that the same collision debris hinting at the existence of the Higgs could also come from other subatomic particles.

“This is the best answer that is out there at the moment,” said physicist Rob Roser of Fermilab, which is run by the U.S. Department of Energy. “The Tevatron data strongly point toward the existence of the Higgs boson, but it will take results from the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe to establish a firm discovery.”

The “best answer” as of yet is a long, long ways from proven. Tomorrow, though, may bring more definite evidence, as the physicists at the European particle accelerator, CERN, are set to announce their own findings in the Higgs quest.

June 30, 2012 | 6:37 pm

‘Anti-Semitic Elmo’ in NYC, anti-Semitic animals on Arab TV

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

In case you missed it, Elmo—actually a guy dressed as Elmo—went on a big anti-Semitic rant in New York this week. “Anti-Semitic Elmo,” as he has become known, kept referring to Henry Ford’s tract about a Jewish world conspiracy, “The International Jew,” and said things like: “If you start your own business in this town, Jews will harass you.”

According to Opposing Views, “Police had to restrain the lovable but racist Sesame Street character in the vicinity of the Central Park Zoo during one of his more vicious tirades.” They then removed him from his suit and transported him to New York-Presbyterian Hospital for psychiatric evaluation.

The incident got 6 Degrees No Bacon thinking about the history of anti-Semitic giant cuddly TV characters. At the top of his list is Farfur, Hamas’ rip-off of Mickey Mouse that was used in kids’ programming propaganda. Farfur ranted against Israel and then was made a martyr when he was killed by an Israeli agent. (As we know, Israeli agents prefer super rats to mice.)

The other four are Nahoul the Bee, Assoud the Rabbit, Nassur the Bear, and Mr. Sa’d the Bunny. Check out the video clips here.

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June 30, 2012 | 10:54 am

Did Katie Holmes file for divorce to shield the kids from Scientology?

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Normally, I think that only Us Weekly readers care about a celebrity divorce. But yesterday’s shocking news that marriage just wasn’t working for Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise has shaken another community: Scientologists.

It’s been a tough few years for Scientology, which has been recruiting seekers at the same time it’s been constantly under attack by outsiders and former insiders. It looks like it’s about to get worse.

Slate explains why:

This whole summer will be bad for the Scientologists. Ever since the news that Katie Holmes’ marriage to Tom Cruise came with a Scientology conversion, public perception has been that he forced his religion onto this one-time good little Catholic girl, and that she wasn’t happy about it. Never mind that Holmes should be able to make her own mind about religious matters; tabloids and celebrity sites have relentlessly pushed the notion of Cruise as a creepy control freak bent on spreading his creepy religion. Maybe he forced her to convert, much like Jason Lee’s ex-wife has said she was forced. Maybe it was part of some contract—why else would any sane woman even consider a silent birth? Or maybe she was hypnotized by his pinwheel eyes.

Indeed, the speculations that irreconcilable differences came down to Scientology are in full force already. The tabloids certainly seem to think that’s the reason: Holmes wants to shield their girls from daddy’s religion.

And with it will come more exposure of Scientology’s closely held, and often odd, practices.

Among about two dozen posts, I’ve talked about Scientology’s Celebrity Centre, Germany’s move to ban the religion, and whether it is religion at all. Janet Reitman dug deep into the ultra-secretive religious organization in “Inside Scientology”; check out Lawrence Wright’s article too.

The Village Voice has a compact primer on Scientology’s auditing and security checking:

There are many things that set Scientology apart from other organizations. Its “auditing,” for example, was developed by founder L. Ron Hubbard when he published Dianetics in 1950. That summer, it became a brief fad in the United States to use Hubbard’s technique of counseling to help another person go into a kind of semi-trance and “remember” the experience of their birth. Within a couple of years, Hubbard was encouraging people to go back even farther and remember past lives, and the process was enhanced with the introduction of a device called an “e-meter” that measures skin galvanic reaction.

At the same time, Hubbard was building Scientology as a highly regimented, formal organization, and some of the techniques he had developed to counsel people were turning out to be very effective as measures of control.

In 1960, for example, Hubbard introduced a policy of “security checking,” called “sec checking” by Scientologists. It involves using the e-meter as an interrogation device, and Hubbard wrote lengthy lists of questions that a member should be asked by an “ethics officer” to make sure they weren’t hiding any covert hostilities to the organization. (Although Hubbard died in 1986, his thousands of policies are still iron-clad law in Scientology, and only those policies written by Hubbard himself—he’s still known as “Source”—can be considered legitimate.)

To this day, Scientologists submit to sec checking when they are suspected of being out of compliance with some policy or other.

Even if they’re only six years old.

Much, much more from the Village Voice, including a “Children’s Security Check, Ages 6-12.”

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June 30, 2012 | 10:11 am

Presbyterians to vote on gay clergy, definition of marriage and divestment

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

It seems like every two years—so whenever the PCUSA has its General Assembly—that Presbyterians are voting on measures involving the church’s stance on homosexuality. This year, as the General Assembly begins meeting today, opposing camps within the largest Presbyterian denomination are seeking to reverse the PCUSA’s position allowing openly gay and lesbian clergy and to change the church’s definition of marriage.

Jaweed Kaleem has all the details at the Huffington Post:

The church has long grappled with homosexuality, and has rapidly made changes in recent years. The proposals on same-sex marriage come a year after the denomination approved the ordination of non-celibate gay clergy. Several churches have left the denomination since. A few presbyteries have made proposals to the Pittsburgh meeting that would overturn the gay clergy ruling.

Church observers said it’s unlikely that the meeting’s 688 voting commissioners will reverse the gay clergy ruling. They also said it’s unclear if the proposal to allow same-sex marriages will pass. Even if it does, the monumental vote would have to be approved by a majority of the church’s 173 presbyteries to be final.

“One thing that could pass is having the assembly issue an ‘authoritative interpretation’ of the constitution, which would say ... ‘It’s OK for presbyterian ministers to officiate same-sex marriage if it is legal in the state where they are officiating,’” said the Rev. Brian Ellison of Parkville Presbyterian Church near Kansas City, Mo. That option has been proposed by five presbyteries and is supported by the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, a pro-LGBT organization for which Ellison was recently tapped to become the executive director. The proposal is also more appealing to some gay rights activists because it would not change the constitution, thus bypassing any need for approval from individual presbyteries.

Presbyterians will also vote on another frequent GA resolution: divestment.

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June 28, 2012 | 9:31 am

Praying over the Supreme Court’s health care decision

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Supreme prayer. Photo by Tabitha Hale

As I suspect everyone knows, the big news this morning was the Supreme Court upheld Affordable Care Act as constitutional. Well, everyone except for CNN. You can read the full opinion here (PDF).

Based on pictures and comments, it was quite the scene outside 1 First Street as supports and opponents of President Obama’s health care reform act awaited the Court’s decision. Take, for instance, the belly dancers for a single-payer system. A little more traditional would be the two guys in the above picture, taken by Tabitha Hale. They were praying after the Court issued its most-closely watched opinion since Bush v. Gore. Not sure if they felt their prayer was answered.

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June 27, 2012 | 11:00 am

Supreme Court stays out of latest Mount Soledad cross dispute

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Top of Mount Soledad. Photo by Wikipedia/Will Fresch

The cross atop Mount Soledad in La Jolla, Calif., has been the source of repeated litigation for the past two decades. And after the Supreme Court refused Monday to grant cert, the cross, which the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year was an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion, edged closely to being removed.

Reuters reports:

The 43-foot high San Diego cross is surrounded by walls displaying granite plaques that commemorate veterans or veterans groups. Located between the Pacific Ocean and an interstate highway, it can be seen for miles.

Easter services were held annually at the cross from 1954 until at least 2000, according to court documents.

The cross has been the subject of litigation since 1989 when two veterans sued San Diego in an effort to get it off city land. In 2006, Congress intervened in the dispute, resulting in the federal government taking ownership of the property.

A group of plaintiffs, including the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America, then sued. A U.S. appeals court ruled for the plaintiffs that the dominance of the cross in the memorial conveyed a message of government endorsement of religion.

The Obama administration and a group called the Mount Soledad Memorial Association, which erected the cross, supported by 20 states and various veterans groups, appealed to the Supreme Court in arguing the cross should be allowed as part of the memorial.

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The Supreme Court stayed out of the dispute, issuing a brief order that denied the appeals by the administration and the association without comment.

Read the rest here.

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June 25, 2012 | 9:35 am

Swastika wrapped inside Star of David flown over Venice Beach, New York, New Jersey

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Venice Beach has never been my favorite part of L.A. It’s just so ... weird. Latest example: Yesterday afternoon a plane flew over Venice Beach with a banner in tow that had a swastika wrapped inside the Star of David.

The banner got a little more attention than the Miller Lite banners I tend to see in the South Bay. And one beach-goer sent a picture to The Jewish Journal, which explained it on Bloggish:

The airplane banner reads, “proswastika.org.”  It was sponsored by the Raelian group, which seeks to reclaim the swastika as a religious symbol.  From the web site:

The Swastika has been a symbol of peace for millions of Hindus, Buddhists and also Raelians since it is their symbol of infinity in time, their symbol of eternity.

Today, in order to redeem themselves for past horrible discriminations done under a flag showing this symbol, German authorities are discriminating again, telling Hindus, Buddhists, Raelians and all other groups who have been using this symbol for centuries for some of them, that the representation of their beliefs is not welcome in Europe!

Banning cannot solve anything, education is the only way!

Of course, what better way to bring world peace than to fly a swastika inside a Star of David over a crowded beach on the Westside of Los Angeles?

Turns out the “education” effort wasn’t limited to wacky old Venice Beach. Similar flyovers occurred in New York, New Jersey and Long Island—all part of the third annual Swastika Rehabilitation Day.

If the Raelian name doesn’t sound familiar, they’re these guys. They’re all about aliens.

Starting with the founding of Raelism in 1974, the religious group claimed the swastika within the Star of David as its symbol. It later dropped that symbol for “a Star of David-shape ... with a pinwheel filling the star.” But it looks like the Raelians are trying to reclaim the swastika.

I don’t see that working out for them. Regardless of what the swastika once stood for, it’s application has been forever tainted. Similarly, I don’t expect a lot of couples to start naming their boys Adolf. It’s just too creepy.

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June 25, 2012 | 8:42 am

A rabbi has strong words for Matisyahu

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Matisyahu and Wiz Khalifa (photo credit: Matisyahu/Twitter)

When Matisyahu shaved his beard in December, many of his fans worried that the symbolic act signaled a big shift in the Jewish reggae star’s life. No longer would he Hasidic—was he moving away from Judaism as a religion altogether?

We’ve followed the news around Matisyahu intermittently. The most recent being that he “seems to resemble a love-child between an L.A. hipster and a youth group advisor.”

From what he’s seen, Rabbi Yaakov Rosenblatt is disappointed. He writes in The Jewish Journal:

All my life I’ve been waiting for and praying for a Charedi Jew to offer a message which resonates with America, a blessed country built on Judeo-Christian values but now listing towards secularism, and helps right it.  How appropriate it would be for a member of one of the proudest, most observant Jewish groups to water the spiritual roots of American culture and give nourishment to its base.  When your song One Day was chosen to be the theme melody of the NBC 2010 Winter Olympics my heart fluttered with pride.

Charedi, to me, means a Jew to whom Judaism – Torah values, Torah practice and Torah study - is numero uno and everything else is numero dos.  It means someone to whom Judaism is not an identity but a life, not an ethnicity but a purpose.  It would have to someone who could capture the God-centeredness of the Charedi lifestyle and express it in lyrics that America could sing.  With your flowing beard, passionate vigor and   refreshing creativity, I thought you were the one.

When your beard came off and your large black yarmulke remained I took pause, but your reassuring Tweets kept my hopes high. The pictures you recently Tweeted of you and Wiz Khalifa - you with dyed blond hair sans yarmulke and Wiz smoking a joint – made me realized that you are no longer singing z’miros in Reggae. You are singing a different song.

Read the rest here. It’s a great window into what it’s like for religious folks to hope for and find their own in the annals of pop culture.

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June 24, 2012 | 12:30 pm

TV host apologizes for Holocaust joke

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Denis Dumas, host of an Argentinean TV talent show, said Friday that it was nice to see Jewish performers on the show wearing “numbers on their clothes, not on their skin.” Not surprisingly, that remark didn’t go over well. Dumas has since said the comment was taken out of context—not really sure how context would help—and has apologized.

JTA reports:

“It’s perverse to think I could refer to the concentration camps like that,” a tearful Dumas said on camera the same day. She said she had made the remark in reference to an earlier act: A young man with hundreds of body piercings. He wore his designated number directly on his skin, the 34-year-old model/actress said.

“I apologize for those who felt offended by this but it’s strange to apologize for something that I had no intention of saying,” she added.

Argentina was infamous for helping Nazis escape post-war Europe and harboring them. You’d expect them to be a little sensitive about Holocaust references.

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June 24, 2012 | 10:10 am

Muslim Brotherhood candidate declared winner of Egyptian presidential election

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Mohamed Morsy in Cairo Jun 24. Photo by EGYPT-ELECTION/STRUGGLE/ REUTERS/Stringer

The Muslim Brotherhood, which has been making political moves since the Arab Spring, is now atop Egyptian politics (at least symbolically). Its presidential candidate, Mohamed Morsi, was declared today the winner of the country’s first democratic presidential election.

CNN reports:

Morsi ended up with just under 52% of the vote, while Shafik got just over 48%, officials said.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, on Facebook, called the election result a “tribute to the martyrs of our revolution.” It vowed, “We will keep walking on the path.”

On Twitter, the Muslim Brotherhood said the “battle for democracy” and justice hasn’t ended, and “we will remain” in Tahrir.

The presidency is largely a figurehead position, as the country’s military rulers maintain much of the control over the country.

Still, the vote was “a moment in history,” said Abdul Mawgoud Dardery, a fellow member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party.

“We’ve been waiting for it for 7,000 years,” he said. “For the first time in history we have our own president, elected by us. The power of the people is now in the hands of the president—and the president has to go and move forward.”

I’m a bit confused by that historical reference. Islamic history predates Muhammad and the 7th century, but neither Jews nor Christians, with whom Muslims share their Abrahamic origins, consider Abraham to have lived more than 4,000 years ago. Regardless, this is a milestone in Muslim politics, at least in Egypt.

There were many concerned about the Muslim Brotherhood rising to power in a post-Mubarak Egypt—not least of all Coptic Christians and Israel. But the Muslim Brotherhood may have been the better of two Islamist options.

For what it’s worth, Morsi’s spokesman told Al Jazeera that Egypt’s government will be secular:

“In terms of the relationship with politics and religion, yes,” el Haddad said. “There will be no religious dominance over political decisions whatsoever.”

More on Morsi, and questions about his power in light of the military government, in this Reuters profile.

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June 22, 2012 | 7:36 pm

First senior Catholic official criminally convicted in sex scandal

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

In the first instance of a U.S. Roman Catholic senior official being criminally charged for clergy sex abuse, Monsignor William Lynn was convicted today on one count of endangering a child. Reuters reports:

The jury acquitted Monsignor William Lynn on two other counts - conspiracy and another charge of child endangerment -after 10 weeks of testimony in a trial that raised questions about personal responsibility and institutional constraints within the church hierarchy.

Removing his black clerical jacket but leaving on his collar, a stoic Lynn, 61, was led out of the courtroom and into custody by deputy sheriffs as his family members wept.

“Every juror there wanted to do justice. ... We wanted to do what was right,” jury foreman Isa Logan, 35, a bank customer service representative, told reporters outside the courtroom.

Sentencing for Lynn, who faces up to seven years in prison, was set for August 13 by Judge M. Teresa Sarmina.

“This is a monumental victory for the named and un-named victims,” said Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams. “This was about evil men who did evil things to children.”

Read the rest here and a little background here.

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June 22, 2012 | 7:25 pm

Student prevented from wearing anti-same-sex marriage shirt

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Sometimes promoting the First Amendment makes for strange bedfellows. Take for instance the ACLU of Connecticut defending a student whose high school banned him from wearing a t-shirt opposing same-sex marriage. The shirt displayed a rainbow surrounded by a red circle with a line through it.

Here’s an excerpt from the ACLU’s press release:

We are writing on behalf of Wolcott High School junior Seth Groody and his parents. He states that Wolcott High School recently sponsored a “Day of Silence,” designed, in his understanding, to promote tolerance for alternative lifestyles, including homosexuality. He wore to school that day a tee-shirt that depicted, on one side, a rainbow — the commonly-recognized symbol of gay rights — with a slash through it and, on the other, a male and female stick figure, holding hands, above the legend, “Excessive Speech Day.” His purpose in wearing the tee-shirt was to express his dislike for gay marriage and his opposition to the perceived message that was promulgated by the school. He was ordered to remove the shirt, and, under protest, he did so.

To the best of Seth’s knowledge and belief, Wolcott High School has no rule or policy that prohibits the wearing of expressive attire. His wearing of the shirt did not “materially or substantially interfere with … the operations of the school,” or cause “invasion of the rights of others,” as these terms have been defined in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969), and its numerous progeny.

The school’s actions in requiring Seth to remove his tee-shirt, absent evidence of material and substantial interference, or invasion of the rights of others, violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article First, Sections 4 and 5, of the Constitution of Connecticut.

Read the rest here (PDF), via the Volokh Conspiracy, and more on this story from the Courant.

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