Subtlety Not His Bag(el): Filmmaker KastnerJamie Kastner's documentary, "Kike Like Me", airs tonight on the Sundance channel at 10pm. Should be very in-ter-es-ting.

According to an interview in today's New York Times, Kastner says the film "stemmed from being continually asked if he was Jewish because of his looks or his name."

And the film refuses to answer that central question. "Kastner teases the audience with hints about his identity: his circumcision, his attendance at Catholic boarding school, a photograph of his blond mother and one of his dark-haired bride on their wedding day." (Wait: I'm confused. Can Jewish people attend Catholic boarding school and be blond? Can non-Jews be circumcised and swarthy?? Help!)

Is he or isn't he?

"'Do you want to blame me for Israel? Do you want to set me up with your daughter? So why do you want to know? What is it in yourself, audience, that you are prejudicing?'"

Well, if I wasn't black, I couldn't say "Nigger". (Luckily my stepfather's Sephardic!) And if Kastner isn't a Jew he sure as shit can't say "Kike".

So I'm eager to see the film and find out whether I think this man's a genius or a total a-hole.

Stay (at the Bintel Brief): Lisa LoebWelcome to Bad Advice, a weekly column looking at the misguided guidance of the Internet’s agony aunts.

This week, Dan Savage auctioned off the job of writing his column to a civilian named Eric Rescorla (the proceeds went to an organization that provides job training for the homeless). Ironically, Rescorla wound up giving advice to another novice sex columnist, a college student who complained that her column has ruined her love life. Since she signed her name “There are a lot of gorges at this school,” and since Cornell is gorge central, is it fair to assume that the letter came from Jenna B, author of the Cornell Daily Sun column Bedroom Eyes? If so, it seems like Jenna really does need to work on concealing her identifying details.

Speaking of overexposure, I guarantee that in three months, the 26-year-old calling herself “Waiting for a ‘Closer’” will have forgotten all about the subject of her letter to Slate's Dear Prudence this week. She complains that she met a cute guy who didn’t ask her out after a night of flirting. Prudie, to her credit, tells her to friend him on Facebook. Which provides a pretty excellent litmus test: If the answer to a question is “Just friend him on Facebook,” that question is maybe not worthy of being featured in an advice column.

By far the best thing happening in the world of advice columns this week, though, is the appearance of Lisa Loeb in the Forward’s Bintel Brief column. Lisa Loeb, as I’m sure you all know, is the bespectacled singer-songwriter best known for her song on the Reality Bites soundtrack. In the Bintel Brief, she stirs up controversy by telling an irate father to be more accepting of his daughter’s “parasitic” Chabadnik husband.

Previously: Bad Advice

Left-wing bloggers are ashudder at Christopher Hitchens's latest Slate column, in which he plainly lays out the rather obvious case that the People's Republic of China is an expansionist, thuggish bully. Both to to the countries in its own neighborhood (namely, Taiwan), as well as to the unfortunate souls who happen to live in the countries ruled by the the friends of the Chinese Central Communist Party (Burmese, Darfurians, Zimbabweans et. al). The following is the offensive passage:

China also maintains territorial claims against India and Vietnam (and, of course, Taiwan) and is building a vast army, as well as a huge oceangoing navy, to back up these ambitions. It seems an eon ago, because it was before Sept. 11, 2001, but we should not forget what happened when an American aircraft was involved in a midair collision over Hainan island in the early days of this administration. The Chinese acted as if the accident was deliberate, impounded the plane and the crew for several days, and mounted mass demonstrations of hysterical chauvinism. Events in the Middle East have since obscured this menacing picture, but actually it is in that region that China's cynical statecraft is most obviously on display. If Beijing had had its way, Saddam Hussein would still be in power. Iran is being supplied with Chinese Silkworm missiles. Most horribly of all, China buys most of the oil of Sudan and in return provides the weaponry—and the diplomatic cover at the United Nations—for the cleansing of Darfur."

To this, the leftist blog "Lawyers, Guns and Money" asks "Is there anything that Bill Kristol says that won't eventually find its way into Christopher Hitchens Mouth?" (which the always lovely Eric Alterman cites, Matthew Yglesias snarks, "Oh, good. Word on the street is that back in the CPA days they said 'real men go to Teheran.' Obviously, though, the really real hawks of the world are the China hawks."

None of Hitchens's assertions are false. He's merely stating the cold, hard facts about the despicable regime in Beijing. And what can the left muster? Smear Hitch as Bill Kristol's butt-buddy. Make light of the Chinese connection to the murder of thousands of Buddhist monks. Ignore Sino-American relations completely. The netleft doesn't have time for policy analysis when it comes to these difficult foreign policy issues; they're too busy being wiseasses. They don't have anything to offer about foreign policy today, so they just ignore the actual, geo-political issues at stake and just hurl insults at anyone who dares express concern for the plight of captive peoples abroad. Because to do that would be tantamount to neo-con warmongering.

We've really come to the point now where, for the most widely read of liberal bloggers, the mere mention of human rights abuses in foreign countries is met with cries of "Warmonger!" or, even worse, "Neo-con!" Well, if talking about Iran's murdering of American troops in Iraq or China's support for the Burmese junta qualifies me as either of these epithets, I'd rather be a "neo-con warmonger" than adhere to the nihilism expressed by the likes of Matthew Yglesias and Eric Alterman.

Yesterday, Slate posted a piece by William Saletan about the implication of Jewish genes and what the recognition of a Jewish race means to Jewish culture. Saletan begins thusly:

Are Jews a race? Is Jewish intelligence genetic?

If these notions make you cringe, you're not alone. Many non-Jews find them offensive. Actually, scratch that. I have no idea whether non-Jews find them offensive. But I imagine that they do, which is why Jews like me wince at any suggestion of Jewish genetic superiority. We don't even want to talk about it.

The mind boggles at the cowardice. What inquisitive thinker doesn’t “even want to talk about” a profound question of science and culture for fear that someone somewhere may take offense? It’s Saletan’s silliness that should “make you cringe.”

The article’s lead reminds me of something I witnessed as a graduate student. I attended a research presentation given by a Ph.D. candidate on the topic of African American standardized test scores. On average African Americans score lower on such tests than Asian or White Americans. The student opened his presentation by offering three possible reasons for this. The first: the idea that such tests were constructed with a built in cultural bias. One famous fill-in-the-blank example goes something like “Race is to car, as regatta is to _______.” The presenter noted that such biases had been exhaustively corrected in recent years, so that was an unlikely cause for lower test scores. The second possible explanation: stereotypes of Black students were somehow activated in the exam room setting and this propelled a chain reaction resulting in sort-of group-fulfilled prophecy. This was the candidate’s thesis. The third: Black people are genetically less intelligent than other groups. To which the budding scholar said, “We won’t even get into that.” If learning institutions don’t get into it, bigots and fascists of all stripes certainly will.

Back to Saletan. The piece was about a presentation given by John Entine, author of the book Abraham's Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People, Charles Murray who’s authored some controversial work on Jewish intelligence, and Laurie Zoloth, a bioethicist. Here’s the crux:

The average IQ of Ashkenazi Jews is 107 to 115, well above the human average of 100. This gap and the genetic theories surrounding it stirred discomfort in the room. Zoloth, speaking for many liberals, recalled a family member's revulsion at the idea of a Jewish race. Judaism is about faith and values, she argued. To reduce it to biology is to make it exclusive, denying its openness to all. Worse, to suggest that Jews are genetically smart is to imply that non-Jews are inherently inferior, in violation of Jewish commitments to equality and compassion.

I love this line: “To reduce it to biology is to make it exclusive, denying its openness to all.” Imagine the sorrow of the dejected hordes who’ll have to make do with the country club, the DAR, and the millennial legacy of world domination. That’s funny. What’s not funny is that Zoloth, a respected academician, is proposing a fictional dilemma. The discovery of markers for Jewish DNA hasn’t a thing to do with the accessibility of the Jewish faith. When rabbis start asking for blood tests, we can revisit the question.

Saletan goes on:

But what if Judaism as a genetic inheritance is compatible with Judaism as a cultural inheritance? And what if the genes that make Jews smart also make them sick? If one kind of superiority comes at the price of another kind of inferiority, and if the transmission of Jewish values drives the transmission of Jewish genes, does that make the genetics and the superiority easier to swallow?”

[…]

The theory still sounds arrogant, until you hear the IQ machine's possible costs. Some scholars now hypothesize that the genes that make Jews smart also give some of them nasty diseases such as Tay-Sachs. Entine finds this plausible. He pointed out that some genes associated with brain growth are also associated with breast cancer, including in his own family. During the question-and-answer session, someone brought up another tradeoff: Supposedly, Jews are deficient in vision-spatial skills, possibly because their brains allot extra space for verbal intelligence. That might explain the average Ashkenazi Jewish score of 122 on verbal IQ tests.

Pondering these nuances and tradeoffs, Zoloth reconsidered her aversion to the idea of Jewish genes and Jewish intelligence.

Here we’ve gone from cowardice to full-on masochism. Saletan and Zoloth can accept the scientific claim of Jewish genes as long as such genes condemn Jews to early death. Jewish history is a cascade of horror. Why do we have to hunt out the deadly in order to enjoy one cosmic nanosecond of good news? Trust me: we’re Jews – the other shoe will drop without our asking.

The historian Paul Johnson, his faults aside, opens his book Modern Times with a convincing argument that Einstein, Freud, and Marx were the most crucial architects of Twentieth Century thought. The three men were undeniably Jews and undeniably geniuses. But what's been forgotten is their bravery. My question is where has that little twist of protein disappeared to in the succeeding generations of Abraham’s children?

I don’t think it’s a strictly Jewish issue, though. It’s part of a larger paradigm of apology that’s bloomed in the West over the past fifty years. The difference is that the world needs the West. If Jews apologize themselves out of existence no one will blink.

I have to mention my own initiation into the exclusive genetic club that Laurie Zoloth finds so unsettling. Because as a child I was fair-haired, slightly freckled, and in possession of a smallish nose I understood myself to look “non-Jewish.” This assessment seemed some cause for amusement if not, shamefully, minor celebration all around. A few years ago I was paying for a small coffee in a Korean deli that I had frequented on a more-or-less daily basis. This one afternoon I was counting out, in the palm of my hand, the seventy-five cents I owed the ever-friendly cashier. What happened next was not only an epiphany but also a kind of fantastic New York moment. “Are you Jewish?” she said. At once it struck me that in hovering over my change the Shylock gene had burst into full expression. “Yes,” I said, “Why?” “I thought so,” she said, “Jews don’t look like American people.”

But let’s not talk about it, shall we.

Being a teenager is no fun: This week, everyone's writing about teen girls' biggest problems

Wait, you mean you didn't spend the weekend reading the latest issues of The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, the Sunday New York Times, Harpers, The Nation, The New Republic, and New York Magazine? No worries! Here's how to fake it through a conversation with your snobbiest coworker.

Here's your opening line: "I'm concerned about the emotional lives of America's young girls." From there, segue into a discussion of this week's New Yorker article about the tragic and infuriating story of a 13-year-old girl who committed suicide after a friend’s mother tormented her on MySpace using a fake identity.

After that, you can mention that this month’s Harper’s Reading section reprints a 1935 letter by a bemused German dad whose seven-year-old daughter is carrying a major torch for the Fuhrer. (It's not online, but here's your take: "Wow, makes me feel better about the ubiquity of Zac Efron!")

Stay on topic with the latest instance of the Juno effect: Caitlin Flanagan's Times op-ed dispatch from a world where nobody’s ever heard of paring a condom with the pill: “Biology is destiny, and the brutally unfair outcome that adolescent sexuality can produce will never change," she writes. Plenty to work with there.

"Oh, and isn't it cool that TNR is keeping track of '80's abortion movies?" is your next logical comment, of course. Wrap up by asserting that Juno's Kimya Dawson-filled soundtrack is totally the Garden State soundtrack of 2008.

Consuming too many empty tabloid calories and not enough high-culture fiber? Let us help you get back on a balanced diet. This week our high-brow stories are kind of heavy, so we’ve prescribed an espresso shot of celebrity gossip with which to wash down the big ideas.

Go high: In the New York Review of Books, British academic Tony Judt, who’s caused a boatload of controversy with his criticism of Israel, warns that focusing too much on the Holocaust will desensitize people to its very real horrors. Playing on Hannah Arendt’s idea of the “banality of evil,” he worries about the “banality of overuse.”

Go low: When guests at a Miami Orthodox wedding saw the rapper/producer Pharrel watching the revelry from a distance, they invited him to join in. TMZ has pictures.

Go high: The New Jerusalem, a play that just opened, dramatizes the life of Spinoza. The Village Voice calls it “Inherit the Wind with a chilling extra touch of proto-Nazism.”

Go low: If you visit the pool at the JCC in Manhattan, you just might spot Jerry Stiller wandering around sans pants.

Go high: Have you ever noticed that Woody Allen uses the same typeface in nearly all of his films? Here's why.

Go low: Demi and Ashton have been missing Shabbat services lately! Might they be giving up on Kabbalah?

Previously: Britney Spears vs. Joseph Epstein

There are a host of multi-dimensional links between Kurds and Jews (to say nothing of the many thousands of Kurdish Jews.) It is sometimes claimed that Abraham was Kurdish. Historically, a good number of Kurds felt positively toward Israel and were none too happy with Palestinian support for Saddam. The Kurdish people, being victims of persecution and genocide, looked to Israel as a sort of hopeful model for their own liberation. Furthermore, DNA research shows that Kurds are Jews’ closest genetic relatives. So, perhaps this Kurdish-Jewish romantic comedy was inevitable. From The Seattle Times review of "David & Layla."

Inspired by the real-life marriage between a Kurdish Muslim refugee and a Jewish New Yorker, the movie hits all the requisite plot points, some hopelessly contrived (like a first kiss disguised as the need for CPR) while others earn big, fat, non-Greek belly laughs.

David (David Moscow) is an agnostic Jew who hosts a Brooklyn public-access TV show called "Sex and Happiness," for which he conducts highly personal man-in-the-street interviews. He's got a Jewish fiancée (Callie Thorne) but is truly smitten with Layla (Shiva Rose), a smart, sexy Kurdish refugee for whom marriage is the best defense against imminent deportation

You can pretty much guess the rest. But while writer-director Jay Jonroy (an Iraqi Kurdish exile with a tragic family history under Saddam Hussein's tyranny) fumbles with occasionally forced humor — including a terribly written infidelity scene that's played for slapstick and left unexplained — he's remarkably adept at exploring complex divisions between well-meaning but prejudiced families united by love.

If there is a Hell, I’d have to guess this movie is running on a continuous loop in Saddam’s sulfurous suite.

Apparently the film doesn’t shy away from politics and gets big points for addressing the U.S.’ previous betrayal of the Kurdish people. The movie is being independently released and seems pretty hard to find, but I’ll make sure to see it one way or another. I should add here that I highly recommend the 2004 Kurdish Iranian film “Turtles Can Fly,” in spite of its horrific title. It’s an achingly beautiful movie about the children of a Kurdish refugee camp on the eve of the U.S. attack on Saddam.

One of the fringe benefits of liberation is enjoying the talents of the liberated. With their emerging proficiency in film the Kurds may find they have yet something else in common with Jews.

In the recent Shvitz post "The Best Way to Steal Articles from Other Sites?", Joey Kurtzman cried out for the input of legendary hacker Richard Stallman. Befuddled by endless theorizing about the future of the internet, Joey wanted Stallman's take on the so-called "Web 3.0," and whether "transclusion" is a fair way to poach articles from other websites for the enjoyment of Jewcy readers.

Stallman responds:

It's hard for me to think about [transclusion w/iFrames] because I have not seen it and I don't know what it is. "Web 3.0" is a vague term, perhaps a marketing buzzword; I don't know what it means (if it means anything at all).

I can only comment on other issues raised by the article. For instance, I can state the fact that copyright infringement is not stealing. I'm in favor of some amount of copyright, but I reject propaganda terms such as "stealing" and "piracy" that are used to demonize sharing. I cannot raise any righteous anger over a company's advertising revenue.

Some facts about me. For one, I am not an anarchist—I have a prostate gland. I am a Liberal, and I support social welfare programs.

Continue reading...

As campaign season heats up, the candidates'
"religious beliefs" will increasingly become part of the American conversation. The media isn't likely to be of much help. If Iraq is your issue, you can count on an endless parade of articles describing just about every aspect of the war; the same won't be true of the candidates religious beliefs and practices.

I understand why religion reporters so frequently give up the beat, and why their story ideas meet with skepticism from editors. Because while reporters are forced to think about the outside world, religion forces us to consider the interior world.

Consider how a reporter goes about his beat. If it's education, then he visits the school district and reports on what teachers and staff and students tell him. But if it's religion, going to a church, mosque or temple doesn't work quite as well. Private conversations with God aren't all that accessible to reporters. The First Amendment gives reporters the freedom to ask questions of whomever they please; it doesn't bestow magical mind-reading powers.

Take abortion, for example. How often does a reporter really attempt to get inside the head of a Christian evangelist pro-life advocate? Or Palestinian-Israeli relations. How often does a reporter ask a person in that dispute, "What do your prayers with God tell you about this situation?"

Very rarely. And that's because editors are bred to treat with skepticism any reporter's attempt to get inside a source's head. This works in 90 percent of journalism because reporters and editors have to guard against the possibility that the source is bullshitting them. And more often than not, that type of maneuver can be checked against empirical, verifiable, external facts and evidence. Not so with religion. If a source tells a reporter that she's voting for Huckabee or Edwards because her prayers guided her in that direction, how could a reporter possibly call bullshit?

As this process unfolds, I'd love to see reporters really dig into religious issues. Not so much what the candidates believe, but what Americans believe -- remembering, also, that no belief at all is still a belief in something. Because the campaign offers a high-profile opportunity for journalists to get it right, to set the agenda, to bridge the interior to the external. People vote not always for what they suspect will affect their surroundings, but also for what they hold closest to their souls. I've seen countless stories so far on how Iraq, the economy, and health care are helping voters sort out their presidential preferences. But I haven't seen a single story where reporters really interrogate a number of Americans about their religious beliefs.

Good reporting, no matter the subject, challenges our assumptions and adds nuance to our understanding of the world we live in. Informed, accessible coverage of "religious beliefs" must be part of of this process.

Both the American Jewish Committee and The National Jewish Democratic council issued statements criticizing John McCain's recent remarks about non-Christians and the presidency. As well they should have.

McCain said in a recent interview:

I just have to say in all candor that since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles ... personally, I prefer someone who I know who has a solid grounding in my faith," McCain said. "But that doesn't mean that I'm sure that someone who is Muslim would not make a good president.

I've never had a problem with John McCain's age. (But maybe that’s just because at 35, I’m apparently already too out of touch to know how to text my vote in to a news network after a debate. I ruined a good 45 minutes trying to thumb in my McCain vote a few weeks ago.) He does, however, have a minor knack for making gaffs that seem particularly, what. . .out of touch. Perhaps one could take some solace in the notion that this recent whoops is evidence of McCain's unease in pandering to Evangelicals?

I don't believe the man is particularly prejudiced against non-Christians, but a statement like that can't go unchallenged. As a spokesman for the American Jewish Committee said, "To argue that America is a Christian nation, or that persons of a particular faith should by reason of their faith not seek high office, puts the very character of our country at stake."

McCain has since tried to quell the noise. And I hate to say it, but his efforts at clarifying his intitial remarks seem, once again, off:

It's almost Talmudic. We are a nation that was based on Judeo-Christian values. That means respect for all of human rights and dignity. That's my principle values and ideas, and that's what I think motivated our founding fathers.

There's a sort of Clintonesqe disregard for the substantive at work here.

And by the way - "It's almost Talmudic"? He's gone from the frying pan into the fryer. Do the truthers and company need any more evidence of the insidious hand of the evil Jewish lobby? I can hear the shrill mob now: "John McCain said the U.S. is a Talmudic nation!" 

This week, we met two liberal intellectuals -- hipsters, even-- who believe in God, and we asked them why. We talked to Found magazine editor Davy Rothbart about life on tour, his new movie, and whether or not he has groupies (answer: kinda!). And Tahl Raz mused about how the world's yawning at Harvey Weinstein and Georgina Chapman's nuptials means that "our generation of Jewish women find power ... far less problematic than their predecessors." Or maybe we're just numb.

Ben Shapiro discussed his new book on presidential image-making, and Tamar Fox dipped a toe in the controversy around a Yeshiva that won't allow gay alums' partners at their reunion. We got to the bottom of the whole blood libel thing. And a guy actually volunteered to be featured as our JDater of the Week! His turnons include "NPR," "The Eagles," and "seeking to understand my God."

Last week was so Jewcy we're still hearing about it. Jon Kesselman's Jewy take on Tom Cruise's Scientology indoctrination video was chosen by Radar as one of the 8 best on YouTube! Yess! It was also picked up by Slate. And the story of the smear campagin against Barack Obama -- those emails calling him a "covert Muslim" and a "jew hating bigot" that we noticed circulating -- found its way to Andrew Sullivan, the Jewish Week, and the paper of record.

Debra Sugarman: Filmmaker, photographer, and production designer.Debra Sugarman's documentary, Dear Mr. President, is about an arts camp she founded in New Mexico designed to bring Israeli and Palestinian youth together.  I met Debra on the set of a documentary called The Voices Project; she was the production designer and I was the costume designer, and she helped me build new garment racks, alter dresses, and preserve my sanity.  Afterwards, I asked her some questions about Dear Mr. President and the arts camp that she had founded.

You started an arts camp for Israeli Arabs, Palestinians, and Israeli Jews. Why did you do this and what has that process been like?

My family all gave time and money to improving Jewish life or to Israel. So I learned from that role model: we should give back to the community. I started doing it when I was very young, as a teenager. I worked specifically with mentally and emotionally disturbed kids. I quit doing it because it was really wiping me out and started doing what I am good at, which is art. Then, I began thinking about what I wanted to do to give back, and I really wanted to connect with something that I knew, which was Israel. My family is from Israel, my grandfather was one of the first settlers of Israel, and he worked for the Haganah. So, since I don’t identify as being a Jew religiously at all, but I relate to it as being my ethnicity, I decided that the best use of my time would be to find a way to connect the youth of Israel and Palestine. I think that teenagers are tomorrow’s leaders— I know they are in fact. So the decision became, how do I work with boys and girls that are teenagers without them being attracted to each other, when they should be breaking down barriers between their enemy cultures, not thinking “oh they’re hot.” So that’s how the camp became all girls, and I also think that both cultures under-serve women, though that’s changing a lot. Then the idea of using art and dialogue at a camp came from my life experience being an artist, and having art ameliorate healing in my life as a child.

What was the inspiration for the film Dear Mr. President?

The girls and I watched a film that a guy that was volunteering at the camp had produced. It was about a guy on a road trip across the US looking for this doctor, who later told him that he wouldn’t live long. So we watched Daniel’s film and afterwards, we talked about going in an RV next summer and calling the film some funny, superfluous title like “Looking for Daddy” or something. That’s how the seed was planted. From there I just thought that we should create a mini version of the camp, and used the RV as a stage. Then my friend Devon came up with the idea that we should deliver a message to the president, and that’s how we came up with the title Dear Mr.President. So the goal became to go from one side of the US to the other with these girls, and to meet up with the president.

On the trip, one of the girls, an Israeli Jew, asks another, a Palestinian, “Why would I trade places with you? Why would I choose to suffer?” Do you think this mentality is at the core of the conflict?

Dear Mr. President: The girls have a moment. First, I want to say that Amit (Israeli and Jewish), who said that, to Hameen(who lives in the West Bank), didn’t mean it the way that it sounded. As you saw, she made amends with Hameen and let her know that. But Amit was a very brilliant girl, all of those girls were very bright, and her point is well-taken, so in answer to your question I think it’s a kernal, it’s not the core issue. But yes, who wants a perceived enemy to be stronger than they?

In your trip across the country with the five girls, you visited many historical sites, including Wounded Knee. What were your reasons for this, and how were the girls affected by these landmarks?

I knew that I was going to have to stop in South Dakota for a million reasons, not the least of which is the history of native culture. Stopping at Wounded Knee, I felt like we had the potential to discover something about a culture that had been obliterated, but that still exists. When Amit read what was on the plaque at Wounded Knee, it really resonated with the Palestinian girls. That feeling of entrapment and of capture. It was what they feared most: that their land, their lives, and their families’ lives could be gone completely.

You have said that young women will make very good leaders. How do you think the women in your film can change politics in the Middle East, and why do you think that they would make good leaders?

One thing that happened with the camp, and consequently happened with the girls, was that they learned what it takes to build a new paradigm. When I picked the girls in the film, I got very lucky because all of the girls, were incredibly, uniquely intelligent. I think that when given the opportunity, young women, and the female gender in general, become multi-taskers. If we go the route of say, my mother, she was finishing up school, answering the phone, making meals, putting the baby to bed, being a good wife— I mean we are just genetically pre-disposed to multi-tasking really well. We haven’t been given the largest leadership roles, say, in the United States, or in our generation, but it’s really changing. It’s also changing over in Israel. I think that things take time. We’re talking about huge cultural shifts. How do you get a male-dominated society to get in touch with their feminine energy enough so that a woman runs their country or their world? How does that happen?

More on Debra Sugarman

Kars 4 Kids: The ubiquitious posters don't say where the money's goingIn Brooklyn, 150 residents were evicted from an illegally converted loft building after the fire department discovered an "illegal matzo factory" in the basement. Apparently, the grain used in baking matzo is a threat because it's potentially combustible. The residents have no idea when they'll be allowed to return.

Meanwhile, Kars 4 Kids, a nonprofit that advertises heavily in the New York area, says it uses car donations to "provide food, clothing, education and guidance to children," but it doesn't mention that all the money is channeled into Oorah, Inc., which provides religious education to children of non-observant Jews. On Oorah's website, the Post reports, the charity brags that it has an "'80 percent success rate' teaching its clients 'to keep themselves apart from the gentiles.'"

The AP reports that Bourne Co. who owns the classic song "When You Wish Upon A Star" has filed a suit against Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., Fox Broadcasting Co., the Cartoon Network and others for copyright infringement, claiming the show "The Family Guy" turned the wistful ballad into a tasteless anti-Semitic insult.

The episode, titled "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein," relied on the premise that the main character could not manage his family's finances and needed to hire a Jewish person to take care of his money, the lawsuit said.

During the episode, the main character, Peter Griffin, sings "I Need a Jew," which the lawsuit called a thinly veiled copy of the music from "When You Wish Upon a Star," accompanied by new anti-Semitic lyrics.

You know what I say: when Jews are accused of being good with money there's only one thing to do. Sue for money.

Here are "The Family Guy" lyrics. You be the judge.

Peter Griffin:
Nothing else has worked so far
So I'll wish upon a star

Wonderous shining speck of light

I need a Jew

Lois makes me take the rap
Cause our checkbook looks like crap
Since I can't give her a slap
I need a Jew

Where to find
A Baum or Steen or Stein
To teach me how to whine and do
my taaaaaxesss...

Though by many they're abhored
Hebrew people I've adored
Even though they killed my Lord
I need a Jew

Max:
Hi, my name's Max Weinstein,
my car just broke down,
can I use you phone?

Peter:
Now my troubles are all through
I have a Jew!

Max:
Hey!

Cliche, lazy, and unfunny. But offensive. . .

According to an article over at the Forward, Ms Magazine has refused to run an advertisement (pictured below) that features images of Israel’s top female political leaders, and the American Jewish Congress is pissed off about this.This is Israel: And it makes Ms. Magazine uncomfortable.

The ad was submitted by the American Jewish Congress to Ms. Magazine, and spotlighted photographs of Dorit Beinisch, president of Israel’s Supreme Court; Tzipi Livni, Israel’s foreign minister, and Dalia Itzik, speaker of the Knesset, over the text, “This is Israel.”

According to the AJCongress, Ms. initially approved the ad but then reversed course, saying that the ad would “set off a firestorm.”

Says AJCongress President Richard Gordon:

“Since there is nothing about the ad itself that is offensive, it is obviously the nationality of the women pictured that the management of Ms. fears their readership would find objectionable. For a publication that holds itself out to be in the forefront of the women’s movement, this is nothing short of disgusting and despicable.”

But according to Ms. Magazine’s executive editor, Kathy Spillar, it's not "the women’s nationality but their party affiliation that was the problem. Two of the featured officials, Itzik and Livni, are both members of the Kadima political party," and thus, Spillar said, "the ad would leave Ms. Magazine open to the charge of political favoritism."

The AJCongress created the ad to highlight the fact that women now occupy leading positions in Israel’s executive, legislative and political branches. In response, a Ms. representative said that “we would love to have an ad from you on women’s empowerment, or reproductive freedom, but not on this,” according to the AJCongress.

But, for me, this is the kicker:

“Not only could the ad be seen as favoring certain political parties within Israel over other parties, but also with its slogan, ‘This is Israel,’ the ad implied that women in Israel hold equal positions of power with men,” she said. “Israel, like every other country, has far to go to reach equality for women.”

Oh, no, god forbid that a feminist magazine recognize the fact that women in Israel have more opportunities than women in surrounding countries. That wouldn't be fair to Saudi Arabia.

Now, I don't think anyone is going to argue that the equality gap between men and women has completely closed in any nation. But it's hard to deny that there are some countries that have done a much better job of narrowing this gap than others. In particular, I can think of many countries in the same region as Israel (i.e., again, Saudi Arabia, where women can't even drive cars) that have done virtually nothing to rectify this situation. In my opinion, the position of women in Israel is one of the best in the world (comparatively), and the fact that women can hold positions of political influence in Israel should be celebrated by a feminist magazine, especially when considered in contrast to other countries in the Middle and Near East.

I don't know that I agree with the political ideologies of all three of these Israeli women, but I do appreciate the fact that they have been given the opportunity, as women, to hold these positions of power, and I think that is something worth celebrating (or, at least, acknowledging). But the only thing worth acknowledging here is the ease with which Ms. Magazine is able to flaunt its own political and ideological biases at the expense of their own cause.

Background here. 

Dear Grandmother,

I heard from a mutual friend that you woke up the other morning and decided it would be a good idea to join in Rush Limbaugh's campaign of vilification against Media Matters by complaining that I haven’t wished you a happy birthday. To someone who is familiar with me and my work, this claim is patently absurd. In my six books and many thousands of articles, columns and blog posts over the past twenty-five years, I have repeatedly argued against privatization of the Social Security and Medicare systems and other policies that would harm senior citizens such as yourself.

Not long ago I was attending a dinner party in Manhattan where the topic of aging came up over the third glass of an excellent pinot noir that I brought from my most recent trip to wine country. Though I am always reluctant to mention famous people I know, I was pressured to discuss my long acquaintanceship with the pre-eminent philosopher Richard Rorty, who had recently passed away. Dick faced the end of his life with grace and class, finding time to leave a few final marks of his brilliance on the world, such as a recommendation letter he wrote for me. You, of course, are hardly Dick Rorty, Grandmother. But my respect for the aged and interest in discussing your demographic with powerful pundits at a dinner party benefits your life much more than a mere card with the words “Happy Birthday!” that I could have bought for $1.59 at the local drug store chain, where the workers most likely don’t earn a living wage or have access to health insurance.

Given that I am just finishing my seventh book and continue to update my hugely popular blog Altercation, located at mediamatters.org/altercation, while still serving as a Distinguished Professor of English, Brooklyn College, City University of New York, Professor of Journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC, where I write and edit the “Think Again” column, senior fellow (since 1985) at the World Policy Institute at The New School in New York, and a history consultant to HBO Films, I'd not be surprised if I may have forgotten your birthday, though this card is not an admission that I did.

However, in charging that I “forgot” your birthday, your cluelessness is aiding and abetting a campaign led by Limbaugh and others to delegitimize Media Matters and the careful work it does. One cannot depend on either the intelligence or the good will of those in the MSM and conservative media not to use your nonsense for the purposes of further manipulation and misrepresentation. Shame on you.

Best wishes to Grandpa.

Love,

Eric Alterman, PhD

Riddle me this: What do you think would happen if the Center for American Women in Politics attempted to take out an ad in Ms. magazine featuring three female senators? Say they chose photos of Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, and Kay Bailey Hutchison, along with the text: "This is America." Do you think that the magazine's executive editor, Kathy Spillar, would reject the ad on the basis of editorial "favoritism" because two of the three women belong to the same political party? I suppose it's possible, although it is hard to imagine.

Not so hard to imagine is the parallel reality that's unfolding as I type: Ms. magazine has rejected this ad, for that stated reason:

Image from LGF. 

FOUND Magazine has by now achieved cult status. Publishing shopping lists, mash notes, Polaroids, and other scraps of human interaction, it celebrates all things abandoned and secret. The notion that nothing need ever be lost or meaningless, and that we are all connected, no matter how tenuously or humbly, is the engine of the whole enterprise.

For the past three years, filmmaker David Meiklejohn has been working with FOUND's co-creator Davy Rothbart on a "documentary for the terminally romantic" called My Heart is an Idiot (trailer below.) The film takes place on the road -- the FOUND crew tours incessantly, doing events all over the country -- and chronicles Davy's attempts to sort out his complicated love life.

Says Meiklejohn: "For those of you who are familiar with Ross McElwee's film Sherman's March, imagine an updated version of that with more alcohol and swearing, and you'll have a sense of the movie."

I talked to Davy about the film, FOUND, PostSecret, touring, love, suicide, and secrets.

Love is: FOUND Magazine, Issue 2You’ve been on the road for about how long now?

We’re driving through Tennessee. It’s beautiful. Smoky mountains. Been on the road for two and half months, and collecting everywhere we go. Every night is unpredictable.

Last night in Charleston, West Virginia we met this sword swallower. So we took him on tour with us. He’s in the van right now.

So you’re collecting people as well as objects?

Right, traveling through the country telling stories and hearing stories, too.

What kind of vehicle are you driving?

We’d been driving this big red van, but in New Mexico it died and we had to hitchhike for three hours. Now we’re driving a wretched minivan, which feels small, given the sword swallower.

Do you think you’re frustrated in love because you’re forever on the road, or do you think you’re forever on the road because you’re frustrated in love?

A long distance relationship can be tough. It feels like you’re making a choice to go on the road, so you’re choosing the road over the relationship. Which is difficult for anyone you’re involved with.

The other thing is that you’re less able to meet people at home, but I’ve met people who live in other places...I’ve met amazing women on the road, but...you’re always starting at a deficit. It’s a tough course.

It'll never work out: A no-longer-lost love note Do you have groupies?

I wish. But I don’t know if groupies is the right word. My brother Peter -- all the girls fall in love with him. I’m like “Hey remember me, I’m the funny guy?” But no.

What is love, do you think?

I fall in love with girls all the time. A lot of times there’s love for someone you’ve never spoken to, someone you just see. It’s confusing to me. The sword swallower was telling me about this girl sword swallower, and I was thinking that would be cool, to get her and bring her on the road with us.

How did you connect with David Meiklejohn and start to make this film with him?

I immediately recognized what an awesome filmmaker he is, and I thought it’d be fun to document our travels. We didn’t realize at first that it would focus on love. In 2004 he came along for like a week. Then in ‘05 and ‘06 he was on the road with us for like three months at a time. We did realize early on that the issue at hand was love and relationships. We were talking to family, friends, people we met on the side of the road, and trying to weave our own struggles with the stories of people we met. Collecting stories. Found stuff is a backdrop that way.

So it’s about another kind of “finding," really. You’re scavenging all these experiences and advice and information about how other people navigate their love lives.

Yeah. Modes of communication can be different, but experiences are so universal.

Note to BFF: "I had a cyber sex!!"You’ve been doing tour dates lately with the PostSecret folks. This is such a natural, organic, awesome match: Where Found picks up what amounts to the detritus of life on earth -- the forgotten, discarded, heartbreaking, hilarious relics of lives lived all around us -- PostSecret is something of a safe haven for our most brutally honest immediate, intangible realities, realities that, it seems, “real” life can’t often support. How do you see the link between you guys, and how did you hook up?

Frank Warren’s a friend of mine. He came to some early FOUND shows. He’s overgenerous, but he claims I was his inspiration for starting PostSecret. Some elements might have come from FOUND, but I think he’s doing something really distinct.

My Heart is an Idiot actually got its name from PostSecret -- we were at Frank’s house and the postal lady came and brought the day’s postcards (two bricks!), and we start looking through them, and my friend Andy pulls this one from the pile and he goes: “This is name of your movie.”

I see Found and PostSecret as two sides of the same coin: collecting and preserving the things we’re not individually often brave (or visionary!) enough to own or hang on to. And there’s something incredibly powerful about the effect of both on people: It makes the world feel smaller, makes loss seem like no biggie, and makes connection seem not only possible but inevitable. That’s some heavy stuff. What are some of the most intense ways FOUND has affected you over the years?

No matter what you’re doing, you’re always stuck in your own head, sort of, and I feel like looking for FOUND stuff and being aware of what’s on the street around me makes me aware of the people around me, and the life around me. It's taken me out of my head and into the world a little more. I’m constantly immersed in people’s stories through their lost artifacts. So now I'm less shy about engaging with people, talking to strangers, being part of the world in real life.

Some of your recent dates benefit HopeLine, a suicide-prevention organization. What’s the connection to Hopeline and why do you think Found stuff has this unique kind of hope/catharsis to it?

We thought we had an opportunity to make some money for some good causes. Frank’s been involved in Hopeline for a number of years, and it’s such a great organization. And with grassroots organizations a little money goes a long way. Tonight in Nashville we’re doing a benefit for prison book program. Tomorrow in Durham it’ll be for The Sun, one of my favorite magazines. It’s about recovery and spirituality.

* * *

Here's the trailer for My Heart Is An Idiot (note the Ira Glass and Zooey Deschanel cameos). Find out more on the movie's MySpace page.

Ron Rosenbaum wants magazine journalists to stop fawning and start reporting again:

Powerful figures who now think they can avoid thoroughgoing scrutiny by journalists just by withholding their participation might become a little concerned that magazines might then decide to hire more energetic and investigative-minded reporters (the sociopaths of doom) to look more deeply into their record than those who lazily settle for unexamined explanations and equivocations in person. And a write-around would of course inform the reader that the subject is afraid of facing a nonsycophantic reporter, may indeed have something to hide, questions he or she doesn't want raised.

[...]

And you editors out there. Don't be so attached to having a big shiny famous head on your cover. Don't be afraid to use stock photos: A well-chosen black-and-white stock photo can give a cover subject a something-to-hide, caught-in-the-act look that can be far more dramatic and revealing (and often truthful) than the big shiny exclusive photo head.

Let's put it this way: The best intellectual journalism ever conducted on leftist politics in the 1930's was Murray Kempton's Part of Our Time, in which he relied -- so far as I know -- on no first-hand sources or personal interviews to profile figures as surreptitious as Whittaker Chambers, Alger Hiss, Lee Pressman, Paul Robeson and Elizabeth Bentley. (Writing about Communists in real time, without the benefit of declassified archives, was like translating the Dead Sea Scrolls into Esperanto.)

In fact, I'd underwrite Ron's good sense about the write-around with following thought experiment: Compare any work of investigative journalism about the Soviet Union that used one-on-one interviews with Joseph Stalin with those that did not. Which gave the more accurate assessments of life in the world's first workers' state?

The mission of the Other Israel Film Festival is to expose the lives of Muslims that live in Israel. I am behind the mission of the festival. I am interested in the Muslim perspective in Israel and I am interested in the art that Muslims are generating. Do they feel like second-class citizens, how do Muslim women view themselves, and what is the Other Israel?

This is the first year of the festival, and I believe that it was an inspiring one. I have been to my share of festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival and the New York Film Festival, and I've thrown my own. There were technical problems with the festival, like the films being re-sized as we watched them, but I understood these problems as a festival's growing pains. The Other Israel Film Festival got a group of films and filmmakers together that got the other side seen and heard, and I commend them for that.

Here are some highlights of the festival.

The Syrian Bride

Nervous on your wedding day?Every bride is nervous on her wedding day. She might trip on her dress or Aunt Ethel might get wasted at the reception. A million things might go wrong, but eventually, her nervousness recedes, she kisses the groom, and the two begin a married life.

Mona is nervous on her wedding day for different reasons. As a Palestinian, once she marries her Syrian fiancé, she can never return to Israel or see her family again—the Israeli government has also prohibited her father from attending her wedding. So Mona must turn her back on her family in order to get married. This is more than most brides have to deal with on their wedding day.

The Syrian Bride exposes the difficulties of not being a citizen of your homeland. My biggest critique of the film is that it could have gone further, and investigated what it means to live with resignation— to know that you are not in control, do not have basic privileges, and are denied happiness because of your lack of identity. The Syrian Bride alludes to these themes, but the lack of resolution leaves loose ends where solid conclusions are necessary.

Pickles

Women starting a feminist revolution through...Pickles?According to convention, Muslim widows are dead to the world. They cannot remarry or work outside of the home, or do anything other than raise their children and mourn their husband's death. They must live the rest of their days with their husband's family as well. The family watches over the widow and ensures that she does not disrespect her husband's memory.

These are the makings of a barren, miserable, and lonely life.

However, this is not the case for a group of eight Muslim widows. They start a pickling factory to earn money for their families, and in so doing, they give meaning to their lives. They have a place to go to, a job to do, and soon, a social network forms. However, none of the women is prepared for the difficulties that await them.

This is a moving documentary about the limitations of faith and culture, and the inherent disadvantages of living in a chauvinistic society. Pickles asks: must we accept these limitations? It is an articulate and intimate portrait of Muslim life.

Roads

The road from poverty.Amores Perros begins with two young men in a speeding car, escaping a car full of thugs, as a dog bleeds to death in the backseat. Roads begins with two young boys in a speeding car, escaping a car full of thugs, as a sheep bleeds to death in the backseat. Coincidence?

Roads is about a young Arab boy working for a heartless drug-dealer. One day, he decides to take the money and run. Then, he gets his best friend and a Jewish drug-addict involved. Will he escape his life of poverty or get stopped along the way?

Perhaps if Roads were not a rip-off of Amores Perros, I could appreciate it. Then again, the terrible plot-development, sloppy editing, and lazy camera work were no picnic to sit through. As a filmmaker, I've learned that a great idea does not make a great film; good storytelling, strong acting, and careful attention to detail make a great film. It takes vision and a high level of technical skill to pull one off—and you must make your stories your own. Roads lacks the originality that makes a film worth watching.

God: This is the second result when you image Google God.(Every day, we're checking in with the universe to see whether it seems likely that a supreme being of some nature is handling stuff).

Reason to Believe in God: "A window washer who fell 47 stories from the roof of a Manhattan skyscraper is now awake, talking to his family and expected to walk again."

Reason Not to Believe in God: "[American Idol] returns for its seventh season on Tuesday, and will doubtless dominate January through May as it did last year and the year before that. It could even attract a bigger audience in 2008, thanks to the Hollywood writers strike."

This past Friday night Bill Maher continued his slide from politically incorrect to merely incorrect. The habitual defender of Israel had this to say about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:

"[T]he main reason we hate Ahmadinejad is because of what he said about Israel. At least that’s what sticks in my craw. And I think most people – certainly the New York papers – because he said “Israel should be wiped off the map” – some people say it’s a mistranslation. Whatever. Horrible thing to say. And he denies the Holocaust. But, those are things he says to get elected. Okay? There are Jews in the Iranian Parliament. He can’t be that anti-Semitic. I think those are the equivalent of when the Republicans in this country say, “Gay marriage will lead to death."

Continue reading...

Market collapse: Hyman Minsky would not approveNo time to read The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, the Sunday New York Times, Harpers, The Nation, The New Republic, and New York Magazine during your morning commute? Don’t worry – "How To Sound Smart This Week" will help you convince those around you that you’re a big ball of erudition.

Start the conversation with an eye-opening statistic: “Did you know that thanks to the subprime meltdown, American households are losing over two trillion dollars a year?”

Follow up by referencing ‘60s-era economist Hyman Minsky (bonus chutzpah points if you refer to him as “my favorite 60s-era economist”), who believed that Wall Street placed too much emphasis on taking risks. “Minsky predicted all this years ago,” you could add, “and he thought the only solution was to change the culture of Wall Street. Once you wind up in a period of panic like the one you’re in, it’s too late for politicians to do anything.” That, at least, is the gist of this week’s New Yorker piece on Minsky.

Of course, you might go on, that won’t stop those politicans from trying. The Nation points out that while both Edwards and Clinton have called for an end to foreclosures and a freeze on interest rates, the Obama campaign has taken a much more centrist approach.

“Essentially,” you could say, “Obama is blaming people who took out irresponsible loans, rather than financial industry. Max Frazer in the Nation thinks this might be because he’s received almost $10 million in support from people involved in the real estate market. Then again, Clinton’s raised even more, and she’s not banging the personal responsibility drum.”

As for the Republicans, there’s not much they can do about the meltdown if they want to hew to good conservative principles – or so says Ross Douthat in a video conversation at the Atlantic website.

Bringing things full circle, you could end with another fun stat: “Did you know that there are currently more choreographers in the US then metalcasters?” What that means, according to Christopher Caldwell in this weekend’s Times Magazine, is that Republican candidates need to stop talking about liberating entrepreneurs from tight restrictions, and Democrats need to give up the rhetoric about backing the factory man over the fat cats. The new economy is firmly in place, and any solution to the mortgage meltdown is going to have to pay attention to the choreographers.

Last week: Cloverfield

Will, my mate from the Popinjays sends this along with his compliments. We give out Clios, the Brits give out Charlie Brooker.