October 05, 2010

Christiane Amanpour

I had made a נֶדֶר (neder, or promise) that I wouldn't watch ABC's "This Week with Christiane Amanpour." Not only did I like her predecessor George Stephanopolus, but I really dislike Amanpour. Her CNN series, "God's Warriors," argued, rather tritely, that every religion - Jewish, Muslim, and Christian - has its extremists. This is the message of someone who isn't interested in facing up to the real challenges the Muslim community faces with respect to radical Islam and terrorism.

I saw an advertisement, however, on TV Saturday night, October 2 for a feature titled, "Holy War: Should Americans Fear Islam?," which would appear on "This Week." When I turned it on Sunday morning, I saw a number of participants and audience members whom I never expected to see, such as Robert Spencer, creator of Jihad Watch, and Gary Bauer, a leading Evangelical who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000. These are hard personalities to relate to, though Bauer proved to be rather articulate. I wasn't sure whether they had been invited to create balance or to give the impression that only marginal, loud-mouthed individuals are concerned with radical Islam in America.

In addition, my heroine, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, appeared by satellite. Her presence was the highlight of the hour-long show and earned Amanpour and her producers credibility since I believe her to be the most important voice out there on Islamism and its relationship to Islam.

Among those who were there to cast anyone who considers Islamism a danger in America as an Islamaphobe were Reza Aslan, by satellite, and Daisy Kahn, the co-founder of Park51.

Despite its cerebral content, "Holy War" quickly took on a Jerry Springer-like quality. The large number of participants and the many degrees of separation between their various perspectives made a sensible conversation rather impossible. In a certain respect, I was glad to see "This Week's" producers produce a show on such a sensitive topic that was so ridiculously free-wheeling and borderline out-of-control. One would think that with such a title, producers would be inclined to tread trepidatiously, but they let the participants go to town.

A most disturbing exchange took place between Daisy Khan and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, which concretized my image of Daisy as an intellectually bereft, insensitive, and power-hungry figure.

Daisy: First of all, I think that if we have to create a counter against extremism, it's Muslims who have to lead that...This is what we Muslims want to do, but you have tied our hands. You don't allow us to do this because you brand somebody like me as an extremist, and throw me into the arms of al-Qaeda.

HIRSI: You have freedom to move anywhere, no one is throwing you anywhere. Your rights are protected. I think that it's your perception of being a victim, and I think that's --

DAISY: I am not a victim, Ayaan. Stop calling me that. You're the one running with all the bodyguards.

The sheer rudeness of this remark astounded me. It took what is a real concern - Ali's safety - and unabashedly diminished it. Ali was aiming for a good point - she basically made it but needed a drop more time for elaboration; however, Daisy's interjection derailed it. Her comment was saturated with immaturity and reminded me of the kind of quick jab - devoid of substance but full of mockery - high school students regularly deliver upon one another.

MNA | 09:39 AM | 10/05/10 | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Domestic Politics

September 15, 2010

"Live From New York, It's Fidel Castro!"

The news that Cuba will lay off 500,000 state workers and enable more private-market opportunities shows that the revolutionary fervor, even when cheered on by American elites, cannot forever withstand economic reality. The Catholic Church had said in a report quoted in the Wall Street Journal that Cuba faced social and economic disaster – although that disaster happened decades ago and is now just a matter of degrees.

Fidel Castro should move quickly and capitalize (to turn a phrase) on the moves and show Cubans how a good capitalist acts. The now-retired Castro could make a great living by writing a book, hitting the talk-show circuit and cashing in on his bloody, revolutionary fame. The slavish attention paid to his every move by the mainstream media shows he should cash in now on his image and phrase-making to supplement his no-doubt modest state pension in Cuba.

Continue reading " "Live From New York, It's Fidel Castro!""

Van | 10:13 PM | 09/15/10 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: - Useful idiots

September 06, 2010

From the 1979 Archive: Fear and Loathing on the Long Island Singles Scene

[In the summer of 1979, between my junior and senior years at Princeton University, I had a plum job as an intern feature writer for Newsday, a major daily based in Garden City, New York. After the summer I wrote this piece for the September 12, 1979 issue of the Princetonian, for incoming freshmen. The anxiety in the piece about driving and gasoline reflected the gas crisis of that summer, which led to long lines at gas stations. My harebrained efforts to conserve gas and limit driving in my 1971 AMC Hornet got me into ridiculous situations. I’ve added bracketed explanatory notes to flesh out the last 31 years of life experience.]

Once school had ended last spring, but before my summer as a reporter on Long Island began, I immediately immersed myself in the cathode hot tub of American culture. On any evening in early June I hunkered down in front of Colonial Club’s TV, deliciously slack-jawed while advertisements played the summer hard sell, showering this winter shut-in with scenes of beach frolic, the open road and heavy, heavy socializing. [Colonial Club was the eating club to which I belonged at Princeton.]

The message fit nicely with the brochures sent to the Newsday interns. TV said WHAT to do, while the booklets and maps told me WHERE to do it. (With WHOM was the problem.) Equipped with my first car, the Newsday social calendar and, of course, lots of gasoline, I was bound and determined to enjoy myself, even if I nearly killed myself in the process.

Continue reading " From the 1979 Archive: Fear and Loathing on the Long Island Singles Scene "

Van | 01:52 PM | 09/06/10 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Life and how to live it

August 17, 2010

The Right Kind of People, NJ Style

The Sunday, August 15 Real Estate section of the New York Times contained a story about the joys of living in Fair Haven, NJ, under the headline "Small-Town Feel in a Big-Spender Area." What caught my attention was this quote, which bears deep parsing:

Cynthia and Philip Auerbach have lived in Fair Haven for 44 years, rearing a family of three and now regularly hosting nine grandchildren at their 3,400-square-foot home, which they recently put on the market in an effort to downsize. When they first moved here, Ms. Auerbach said, they were looking for a community that "offered some diversity."

"It was important to my husband and me that we not be in an all-white, all-upper-class atmosphere," said Mrs. Auerbach, noting that although they are Jewish, they had also been uninterested in living in "a Jewish enclave."

Think about it: do members of any other ethnic or religious group take such pains to make sure a listener wouldn't think they wanted to be around too many of their co-religionists? How did Jewishness become part of the mix of factors of concern, Jewishness as the zingy horseradish on top of the gefulte fish of whiteness and high income? The liberal and Jewish guilt practically glows like radioactive plutonium on the page.

I'm glad Fair Haven provides the environment the couple likes for themselves and their family; somehow I doubt their definition of diversity embraces the Tea Party and Orthodox families pushing baby carriages and hanging an eruv.

Van | 06:25 AM | 08/17/10 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: - Jews in odd places

August 12, 2010

A Communist For Kerry Burrows Into the System From Within

I was delighted to read this story that an alum of the 2004 group "Communists For Kerry" is now cunningly running for Congress in Florida. If elected, "Comrade Che," a/k/a Jason Sager, can burrow into the rotting political system from within.

CFK caught my attention in that tumultuous political year, and I checked out one of their street-theater events at New York's Union Square in October (a fitting month) and, of course, took pictures. The whole troupe brilliantly befuddled observers who couldn't tell how serious they were -- spoofers or real revolutionaries? The photos and captions on the CFK site tell the story. I never fail to laugh at the antics. We need more of their ilk starting right now.

Below, that's Comrade Che to the left.

Van | 07:18 PM | 08/12/10 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Domestic Politics

August 10, 2010

Everything You Need to Know About JDate in 10 Quotes

Years ago I met a woman on Jdate and something about our communications had an archetypal sound, almost like a cosmic conversation. If aliens came to earth, they could learn so much from reading our back and forth about the mating styles of the digital era. Since aliens will have lots to explore when they land here, I've done them a favor and extracted the top 10 quotes from emails I had from this woman, whom I'll call YettaFromYonkers. This happened so long ago that I barely remember her name.

Go ahead -- feel the love.

Continue reading " Everything You Need to Know About JDate in 10 Quotes"

Van | 09:40 PM | 08/10/10 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Doing Jewish

August 09, 2010

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Reads the Magazines

The Audit Bureau of Circulations has released newsstand and retail single-copy sales results for U.S. consumer magazines for the first half of the year. Here are the top magazines reporting figures to ABC, along with sales and percentage change. My informed analysis of what it all means follows the listing.

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Van | 10:25 PM | 08/09/10 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Sensual pleasures

August 08, 2010

"The Kid Who Batted 1.000" Comes to Life

Growing up, I was one of those kids who ordered Scholastic paperbacks by the cartonful. One I remember is The Kid Who Batted 1.000, by Bob Allison. As a frustrated, near-sighted player in Farm and Bronco Leagues, I thrilled to the story of a player who never made an out.

I thought about the book this morning at the New York Sports Club, where I worked out and watched ESPN's SportsCenter report. I watched the amazing feat yesterday of the Toronto Blue Jays' J.P. Arencibia. In his first major league game, he hit the first pitch for a home run. In his first four at-bats, he collected two HRs, a single and a double. If I read the monitor right, he did all that on four pitches. He made an out on his fifth at-bat, but, still, that's starting your career in with a bang. The story on the Blue Jays website recaps:

Arencibia became the first player since 1900 to have a pair of home runs and a quartet of hits in his big league debut. He is only the fifth player in baseball history to launch two home runs in his first Major League game and the 107th player to homer in his first career at-bat in the bigs.

"J.P. had a heck of a day today," Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said. "One that he can go back and tell his grandkids about. I don't know if anyone would believe it, though, unless they really saw it."

I love that quote from Cito Gaston -- "J.P. had a heck of a day today." That's what managers say. That could be the basis of a revised version of "Damn Yankees," maybe called "Darned Blue Jays."

Based on Arencibia's statistics so far in his big-league career, the Blue Jays fan site SBnation.com is already saying "we can at least state with confidence that J.P. Arencibia is the best hitter of the last fifty years."

The performance no doubt has baseball statisticians, Baseball Guru and the slide-rule set at the Society for American Baseball Research pulling out their books to put the one-day rampage in perspective. I always get a kick out of baseball records and statistics discussions, which reach degrees of mathematical sophistication far beyond my ability to comprehend, as this book and website show. And this book, Teaching Statistics Using Baseball, would have helped me a lot more in college than the class I took in econometrics.

For the record, the kind of baseball stats I find the most interesting are the historical ones. This essay rounds up 10. I'll add two season performances that I'm confident will never be repeated on MLB: a pitcher winning 30 games in a seasons, last done by Denny McLain in 1968, and a hitter having a .400 batting average, last done by Ted Williams in 1941.

Let's see what the record books will say about J.P. Arencibia, the real-like kid who almost batted 1.000 in his first game.

Van | 03:58 PM | 08/08/10 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Life and how to live it

August 07, 2010

The Bomb and the Parents, 65 Years Later

Yesterday marked 65 years since the U.S. bombed Hiroshima. Ann Althouse's blog has a spirited discussion of the event and what would have happened had the bombs not been dropped.

My own personal connection to the event is intense. My father was in the Navy, a SeaBee on Okinawa, and my mother was a Navy cryptographer in Washington working down the hall from Admiral Halsey. Had the bombs not fallen and the war not ended, my father no doubt would have been in the force invading Japan; my mother might have remained in the Navy sending out secret messages -- at times she said she should have just stayed in the Navy as a career. My existence, like many others, would have been radically different.

And like others, I'm only sorry the bomb did not exist a year earlier for use against the richly deserving Germans.

Van | 02:02 PM | 08/07/10 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: - Pacific Rim

August 06, 2010

What One Descendent of Slaves Thinks about the Civil War

I started to write today about Belmonte, the hidden Jewish community that has survived for 500 years in Portugal. J.J. Goldberg, senior columnist for The Forward newspaper had a column in its August 6 issue about this amazing place. Looking for the column on the Forward's website, I stumbled upon a relevant column by Goldberg on a topic hot off the Kesher Talk press: The Civil War, the conflict that just goes on and on.

Taking aim at the content of the Brooklyn-based Goliath of Jewish newspapers, The Jewish Press, Goldberg writes:

Inquiring readers have a treat waiting for them in the current issue of The Jewish Press, the Brooklyn-based weekly that’s hands-down the most widely read Jewish periodical in the Orthodox community. I’m speaking of a front-page article defending the cause of the Confederacy and attacking Abraham Lincoln as a bigot. No, I’m not kidding.

I'll leave it to readers to explore Goldberg's skewering of the peculiar writings in the Jewish Press on the peculiar institution of slavery. Suffice it to say that celebrations of the Jewish role, such as it was, in the Confederacy are not a point of honor, given that Jews are themselves descendants of slaves who celebrate liberation each spring.

Whatever the arguments of the Press' contributor, those articles and Goldberg's comments show that the Civil War, and especially the Confederate side of the conflict, still courses like lava through American discussions, from Austin to Flatbush and all points in between.

When does the Grand Army of the Republic get some positive ink? Will Union symbols ever be considered a sign of rebellion or by definition do they represent the establishment? Has a college frat house ever got in trouble for sponsoring a "Union Pride Party"? I doubt it.

Van | 06:31 PM | 08/06/10 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Doing Jewish

August 05, 2010

Murder City, Murder World

I finished reading Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields by Charles Bowden. As an intense follower of the tragic violence in Mexico, I was curious about the book and what I could learn from it.

In a word: Not much.

I found myself finally skimming the book, as the same messages about Juarez and killings kept coming around. While Bowden is a tenacious and brave reporter and does excellent press interviews, the book is too long on stream of consciousness writing and low on analysis.It does provide a snapshot of the wave of violence that hit and continues to overwhelm Juarez as it was beginning.

While the book is called Murder City, I kept thinking that the term applies to most of Mexico now. And my mind kept going back to another place marked by total corruption of public agencies, where those in authority were the very forces to dread: The Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, especially the Purge years of 1936-1938. I've read a lot about that era, and Mexico parallels the sense of random death, the lack of protection. The only difference is that the threat in the USSR clearly came from the state security organs (NKVD) while in Mexico the threat comes from the Army, the police, the drug cartels and . . . who else? As the place descends into total social chaos, the threats mestasticize and safety exists nowhere. A great place to get a shuddering feel for the insane era is The Great Terror by Robert Conquest.

Van | 10:14 PM | 08/05/10 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Natural disasters

August 04, 2010

Whistling Dixie at the Texas State Capitol

A walk around the grounds of the Texas State Capitol in Austin last week hurled me back in history. Memorials to the Alamo, firefighters, schoolchildren and other worthy groups dot the grounds, but the defining historical thread shadowing the grounds is the Civil War. The monuments personally interest me as an American, and as the great-great-grandson of a Civil War veteran. That was Adolph Lissner, a German immigrant who served in Troop E, Third Regiment, New York Cavalry, according to a death notice in the New York Times of January 21, 1914. My political and family sympathies lie far away from the Austin Confederate memorials, but I want to get a feel for what they mean.

The first stop on a self-guided tour of the Capitol grounds is the Hood’s Brigade Monument. Dedicated 100 years ago, it honors a brigade that fought in the Army of Northern Virginia. Elsewhere is the Confederate Soldiers Monument, showing the 13 states that composed the Confederacy, arrayed around statues of soldiers and President Jefferson Davis. Yet another recalls Benjamin Terry’s Texas Rangers, who became the Confederacy’s Eighth Texas Cavalry. Inside the Senate chamber I found a portrait of Albert Sidney Johnston, Texas Army and Confederate general killed at the Battle of Shilo in 1862.

That’s the past. These memorials arose generations ago, built by the men who fought with these groups in a political climate that accepted their political views. Ideas evolve, new generations look at a post-Confederate world.

Not everybody.

Continue reading " Whistling Dixie at the Texas State Capitol"

Van | 09:32 PM | 08/04/10 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Life and how to live it

August 03, 2010

Music Prowler Stalks the Streets of Austin

Austin, Texas styles itself as "the Live Music Capital of the World." That may be so, and it also boasts some excellent record stores (yes, I still call them that). My recent trip to my home state gave me ample time to root around in them for music impossible to find in New York City. There, the serial deaths of Tower, HMV and Virgin left me bereft of well-stocked music retailers. Astounding as it sounds, I have to leave Gotham City to get my CD groove on. I've stocked up on CDs in some of the great music cities of the world: São Paulo in 2004, Havana in 2008 and Austin in 2010.

I went to Austin with a definite genre in mind: the music I so enjoy on Radio Free Texas, the home of “red dirt” music. The genre comes with an easily identified twang and topics that center on pinin’ for that pretty little gal in the tight jeans who got tired of her guy’s ramblin’ ways, and also barking to outsiders, “Screw You, We're From Texas,” an anthem by Ray Wylie Hubbard.

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Van | 08:32 PM | 08/03/10 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Life and how to live it

August 02, 2010

Big Brother in Reverse: Technology's Revenge

Apple Computer's ad in the 1984 Super Bowl to introduce the Mac had the unforgettable ending line, "And you'll see why 1984 won't be like '1984.'"

The concept of an individual's ability to use technology to break free of regimentation continues to have tremendous, even accelerating, meaning. Taking Apple's 1984 reference and ad a step further, the phrase "Big Brother in reverse" now gets used to describe how individuals use technology to observe and track malfeasance by any oppressive powers. That could be business and government, but it can also definitely be thuggish labor union goons and religious institutions and even, in the case of citizen observers recording shoot-outs in Mexico, drug cartels. As the Holocaust and Stalinist repressions of the 1930s show, the ability to dam the flow of information and keep people ignorant of crimes around them is a necessary support of those crimes.

Are repressive groups scared? You betcha. The Iranian government grappled with bloggers who covered the student uprising there a year ago. While that revolution failed for the time being, it showed the ability of technology to Unions don't like citizens with webcams recording their demonstrations. A "media guy" with a camera at a Philadelphia voting station recorded New Black Panthers and the Department of Justice is chasing its tail around trying to get free of the evidence of possible voter intimidation.

The latest example of a government running scared comes from the United Arab Emirates, which is planning to shut down access to BlackBerry devices. An Associated Press story outlined the issues in play, both stated and in play:

The government cited a potential security threat because encrypted data sent on the devices is moved abroad, where it cannot be monitored for illegal activity. But the decision — followed by a similar move in Saudi Arabia — raises questions about whether the conservative Gulf nations are trying to further control content they deem politically or morally objectionable.

BlackBerry phones have a strong following in the region, not only among foreign professionals in commercial centers such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but also among youth who see the relatively secure communication channels as a way to avoid unwanted government attention.

"The authorities have used a variety of arguments, like it can be used by terrorists" to justify the crackdown, said Christopher Davidson, a professor at the University of Durham in Britain, who has written about the region. "Yes that's true, but it can also be used by civil society campaigners and activists."

I'd be remiss to not mention the Wikileaks case involving US government materials about Afghanistan. Be it for good or ill, this is another example of how technology can illuminate actions, views or policies that those in power prefer to keep hidden. The "surveillance society" cuts in both directions.

Van | 07:52 PM | 08/02/10 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Life and how to live it

August 01, 2010

First Daughters and Jewish Husbands: Was, Is, and To Be?

When Chelsea Clinton got married to hedge fund executive Marc Mezvinsky yesterday, they had a rabbi and a Methodist minister. The groom wore a kippah and a tallit, or prayer shawl. I'm glad they brought both faiths to the mixed marriage.

She's not the first First Daughter to snap up a nice Jewish boy for a husband. In 1986, Caroline Kennedy married designer Edwin Schlossberg, all four of whose grandparents were Ukrainian Jews, per Wikipedia.

Once is a curiosity, twice is a trend in the journalism world, so I'm casting my mind decades into the future and wondering whether Malia and Natasha Obama will follow in the footsteps of Kennedy and Clinton. They've already got the right names to fit well with Jewish husbands -- Malia is close to Malya and Natasha is, well, Natasha. And if Sara Palin goes to the White House -- it sounds like America's Teen Mom Sweetheart, Bristol, is going to be back on the market soon if fiance Levi Johnston impregnated another woman. With somebody named Levi the father of her child, Bristol definitely has an affinity for guys with heavy-duty Hebraic names.

Chuppahs in the White House, anybody?

Van | 10:00 PM | 08/01/10 | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Doing Jewish

July 27, 2010

My Emerging Life as a Skinny Bitch

I recently skimmed the book "Skinny Bitch" by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. While I'm not quite the authors' demographic, I found the book worth a half-hour of flipping. The tone turned me off with all the profanities -- the authors came across as skinny, vulgar, vocabulary-impaired bitches, but that's just my personal preference. I can separate the message from the messengers.

While I'm not going to stop my carnivorous habits, I did decide to start my new life as a skinny bitch by cutting way back on artificial sweeteners. I always use them rather than sugar, but the authors made a good case for trying substitutes. As a result, I picked up some Agave natural liquid sweetener at Costco.

And you know what? I must have been on to something. Twice at the store, people stopped to talk to me about the sweetener in my cart. One man saw me while I was considering whether to buy and thought it was a good idea. Minutes later, a woman asked where I got it in the store because she wanted some. I pointed in the general direction.

Now Costco is a fun place for cart-snooping, to see what people need in vast quantities and then speculate on their lifestyles or interests. I can see that people were checking out my cart, also. Nobody ever stops to talk to me at Costco, so something about my new skinny bitch (skinny bastard?) lifestyle must send out powerful conversational signals.

I have not had a pack of artificial sweeteners in the weeks since I got the Agave.

Van | 11:31 AM | 07/27/10 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Life and how to live it

June 07, 2010

D-Day Editorial, 1944: Inside the Hot-Type Time Machine

(What if the editorial writers of the New York Times from 2010 could be sent back in time to June 1944, to comment on the Allied invasion of France? The Hot-Type Time Machine might yield an editorial that sounds something like this, bringing a fresh and sophisticated 2010 perspective to those momentous days.)

We wish good results to the gorgeous rainbow of soldiers from Canada and England, along with an American contingent, in their latest attempt to mediate Germany’s western territorial dispute with France. The hostilities, which began in 1939 with French and Polish attacks on the embattled German state, have lasted far too long and cost too many lives. The intransigence of French and Polish populations and their enablers in the USSR, Denmark, Belgium, Greece and other countries has worsened a difficult situation.

Mediation by western forces under the command of General Dwight Eisenhower [note to research department: is “Eisenhower” a Jewish name?] may finally succeed in lowering the level of conflict and finding the long-sought final solution to issues of French and Polish land issues involving the Third Reich. We are pleased by the presence of legal officers with each U.S. platoon “hitting the beach,” to show the respect of the Allies for human rights and to ensure that the legal rights of German soldiers and SS peace activists are rigorously enforced.

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Van | 11:25 PM | 06/07/10 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: - Useful idiots

June 05, 2010

He's Tanned, Rested and Ready: Eliot Spitzer Rocks Reunions at Princeton

Eliot Spitzer, Princeton Class of 1981, spoke on Saturday, May 29 on the topic “Lessons from the Economic Crisis” at Princeton’s annual Reunions weekend. As soon as I saw that Spitzer was speaking, I knew that nothing short of an asteroid hit on Nassau Hall could keep me from hearing him. The university also knew that Spitzer’s Class of 2000 Millennial Lecture would be a huge draw because the Reunions guidebook listed two locations for simulcasts for those who couldn’t jam into a lecture room at the new McDonnell Hall.

Spitzer and I attended Princeton at the same time (I was Class of 1980) and while I didn’t know him I remembered him as student government president. I followed his career and thought he was a great choice for Governor, even if, as a Connecticut resident, I couldn’t vote for him. His downfall shocked me, especially the abject humiliation of his wife up there on the platform for the world to see.

But I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for steely-eyed moralists like George Bush, Rudy Giuliani and Eliot Spitzer. All they have to do is whisper in my ear, “You’re either with us or against us” and I’m jumping up and down in glee like a teenybopper chasing after the New Kids on the Block. So unlike some classmates, I didn't quite feel utter moral revulsion at the thought of his appearance, more like a morbid curiosity about this very public step in Spitzer's re-emergence into the public sphere (it's not like he's been wandering the political wilderness that long, anyway).

Spitzer speaks at Princeton -- the mysterious faucets on the wall must have some symbolic meaning.

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Van | 02:25 PM | 06/05/10 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Domestic Politics

May 23, 2010

“Elena Kagan, Girl Reporter!” Or, Writing About Sex, Sports and Rock n’ Roll at Princeton

The search for a paper trail obsesses many analysts of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. Scholars parse her slim collection of legal writings with Talmudic zeal to tease out her opinions. Others pushed the trail back farther to comb through her provocative senior thesis at Princeton University, where she graduated in 1981: “To the Final Conflict: Socialism in New York City, 1900-1933.”

Yet few have examined her voluminous writings as a reporter and then Editorial Chairman of The Daily Princetonian, where she served on the 1981 Managing Board that ran the paper in 1980, during the spring of her junior year and fall of her senior year. Newsweek.com published a good roundup that looked at the ideological trends in her writing.

In the interests of contributing to civil discourse on Kagan, I recently dusted off my bound volume of the “Prince,” as it’s known, for 1979, when I was a member of the Managing Board from the Class of 1980. I have lugged this unwieldy tome with me from Princeton to Brooklyn to Queens to Brooklyn to Norwalk to Westport to Stamford to Westport over the last 30 years. I never looked at it, until now. Kagan cranked out reams of copy for the paper, on topics ranging from the South Africa divestment campaign and student government (sometimes quoting Eliot Spitzer '81) to the football team, Playboy’s “Girls of the Ivy League” feature and trends in the New York music scene, and much more.

Elena Kagan wrote several stories mentioning Eliot Spitzer.

Continue reading " “Elena Kagan, Girl Reporter!” Or, Writing About Sex, Sports and Rock n’ Roll at Princeton"

Van | 10:08 PM | 05/23/10 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Domestic Politics

May 04, 2010

NY Times Gets Down and Dirty

This is the shape of all the news that's fit to print, 2010 style.

Today's New York Times had the most peculiar mix of articles I've ever seen in my decades of flipping through the paper. I wouldn't have noticed online, but the pattern leaped out to my trained eye when I saw the print edition on the train.

Let's start with an ad in the business section. I realize these are hard times for newspaper advertising and ad reps will take what they can get. But did the Times really think through the image implications of running a page 5 ad for "Larry Flynt's Heated Roof Deck and Cigar Lounge," complete with photos of pouting, um, hostesses? I wouldn't look twice at this ad in the New York Post sports section or the Village Voice, but the TIMES? I've never seen anything like this in the Times, and the questions it raises must outweigh the meager income the ad brought in.

Now, on to the stunning story line-up in the soft news sections of the paper.

Continue reading " NY Times Gets Down and Dirty"

Van | 10:38 PM | 05/04/10 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: - Useful idiots

April 18, 2010

My Day as a Political Provocateur: GOP Convention, 2004

Last week's threats of infiltration by leftist poseurs attempting to disrupt Tea Party Tax Day meetings showed there's nothing new under the sun. That's been tried before -- by conservatives. I know, because I did that, once.

A group called Protest Warriors crashed the anti-war parade held in August 2004 during the Republican National Convention in New York. PW had been working its shtick at events that political season, and garnering attention. Ever eager to get close to New York street theater, I joined the group for several counter-protests at the convention (I would later check out Union Square events held by the brilliant Communists for Kerry). The following essay, which I wrote shortly after the convention, describes what went down and my thoughts at the time. I'll leave it to readers to decide whether the long-defunct Protest Warrior activities rivaled those of anti-Tea Party types.

Looking back, PW's tactics bordered on suicidal. A well-done, stationary and protected counter-protest, at least in the midst of hundreds of thousands of anti-war protesters, made more sense. And as I remember the day, we got people just as riled by standing around as we did by infiltrating their ranks, and we faced a lot fewer physical threats. But, we had to give it a try and we had a memorable time. Six years later, the Tea Party movement is harnessing PW's pro-liberty ideas and in-the-streets tactics to a mass movement that's having political impact. Will it become a political juggernaut? We'll see in November.

In the Belly of the Anti-War Beast: NYC 8-29-2004

On August 29, hundreds of thousands of people gathered to denounce the war in Iraq, shriek about Bushitler and exercise their cherished First Amendment right to free speech. On August 29, I also went to New York to express my right to free speech, as a member of the New York chapter of the group Protest Warrior. I learned, however, that among some members of the Left, free speech only applies to their speech.

Some background: since early 2003, Protest Warrior has confronted leftists with witty subversions of their own slogans and truisms. The group’s very first sign set the tone: “Except for ending slavery, fascism, nazism and communism, war has never solved anything.” Through counter-demonstrations and peaceful infiltrations of anti-war marches, PW drives leftists batty with its brand of daring tactics and intellectually challenging posters (another favorite shows a woman in a head-to-toe “burkha” with a male fist holding a chain tight around her neck. The poster says, “Protect Islamic property rights against western imperialism! Say no to war!” With 7,000 members in chapters nationwide, the group is getting traction as an alternative voice in the marketplace of protest on matters of war and peace. And some people don’t hate that kind of intellectual diversity.

Politically, I’ve always been a maverick. Childhood friends in Texas think I’m a commie hippie pinko tree-hugger. East Coast friends suspect I’m a crypto-fascist Texas gun nut. The reality lies somewhere in the middle. PW tracked my foreign-policy views, and so August 29’s “Operation Liberty Rising” marked a great chance to express a real maverick position in the belly of the anti-war beast. I had read reports on the unhinged reactions of leftists to PW, but now I could see for myself.

Getting ready to stir things up.

Continue reading " My Day as a Political Provocateur: GOP Convention, 2004"

Van | 10:52 AM | 04/18/10 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: - GOTV '04

April 04, 2010

Not-Quite-Guilty Pleasure: The Ivy League Christian Observer

This being Easter, I'll share some thoughts on a magazine that faithfully arrives, unbidden, in my mail box: The Ivy League Christian Observer. Being Jewish, I have no idea how I got on its mailing list, other than some cross-over (!) drift of names from Princeton University to the Observer, which is published in Princeton but unaffiliated with the University.

However I got on its list, I scan the Observer when it arrives. I get a completely different take on Princeton and the Ivy League than I do from the mainstream press and the Princeton Alumni Weekly (truth in blogging: I'm a long-time contributor to PAW). The Observer rounds up Christian-themed news from around the Ivies, and the Winter issue featured the Chastity Center Petition at Princeton on the cover. A group called the Anscombe Society has been lobbying to get a Center for Abstinence and Chastity on campus. That effort has been rejected, but the society keeps up the fight (when I was an undergrad in the 1970s, abstinence and chastity was wildly easy to sustain given the lopsided gender ratio).

The same issue had an intriguing article about Harvard's "MBA Oath," written by members of the Class of 2009 there. The oath starts, "As a manager, my purpose is to serve the greater good by bringing people and resources together to create value that no single individual can create alone" and closes with "This oath I make freely, and upon my honor." More details can be found here.

The Observer's tone and content is clear and unapologetic. I may not follow its spiritual path, but the publication shows a very different side of the Ivy League, and not a bad side, either.

Van | 04:49 PM | 04/04/10 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Life and how to live it

March 21, 2010

Rebel Soul: Notes of a Texan Abroad

[this essay first appeared in 2005, but never here]

A picture taken when I met my father after eight years apart reeks with irony. He left Texas after my parents divorced, heading to Michigan and then New York City. He never returned until he paid us a weekend visit in the fall of 1970. My brother and I, aged 11 and 13, stand with him in a yard in Mission, Texas. Looking warily at the camera, standing far enough from my father to signal unease, I have my arms crossed over an orange University of Texas sweatshirt.

This is ironic because I learned, often and in rough terms, that my father hated Texas. Whether this dislike stemmed from the failed marriage, his dismay at Mission’s lack of urban sophistication, or most likely a combination of the two, he never missed a chance to knock the state. He was from St. Louis and suited to cities, my mother was from Del Rio and listened to the morning farm report on the radio. Beyond speaking English, they had nothing in common.

Continue reading " Rebel Soul: Notes of a Texan Abroad"

Van | 05:44 PM | 03/21/10 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories:

March 07, 2010

My Personal Oscars, and a Razzie or Two

The Oscars are kicking off at this very moment, so this the right moment to share some thoughts on films, new and old. I don't have anything original to say about movies competing tonight. I liked "The Blind Side" for its depiction of Southern culture -- guns, God and gridiron -- and "District Nine" wowed me with its concept and execution, and I'm waiting for a sequel to that. I wanted to see Avatar 3-D but the projector broke down and I never tried again. I saw "The Last Station" last night and liked it -- Christopher Plummer deserves his best supporting actor nominee.

But other movies keep spinning in my mind, and I'll give them some awards as they tumble out of my head. Let's call them the "Vanwallies."

Best movie with unexpected casting: "Unleashed." I have great respect for martial arts star Jet Li and old pros Morgan Freeman and Bob Hoskins, but I never imagined a movie that would bring all of them together. Unleashed does that, in a great mash-up of butt-kicking action, sentiment and a harrowing plot concept. I've never seen a Bob Hoskins movie I didn't thoroughly enjoy, and this is no exception. Runnerup in the Hoskins film favorites: "Ruby Blue," in the blossoming genre of movies involving pidgeon breeding, mob violence and transgender issues.

Continue reading " My Personal Oscars, and a Razzie or Two"

Van | 08:31 PM | 03/07/10 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Life and how to live it

February 03, 2010

An Entry in the Museum of Bad Art's Iterpretator Challenge

The Museum of Bad Art in Massachusetts is a little-known treasure of American culture. It challenges notions of good and bad in art, and makes the viewer stop and think, seriously, about what makes a work of art interesting, challenging, or plain ridiculous.

It recently closed the submission period for its seventh "Guest Interpretator Challenge." In this, members of the art-astute public were invited to submit a title and an intepretation for a new acquisition of MOBA. Always being up for a challenge, I looked at this vibrant canvas from every possible angle. After consulting many serious tomes on philosophy, artistic technique and cross-cultural ramifications, I created this submission, of which I am justifiably proud:

Worlds in Collision: When Karl Met Carrot Top

Pointless psychosexual and meteorological tensions permeate this tour de force, depicting an imagined meeting of European fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld and American comedian Carrot Top as a youth. The negative space between the two captures the historic conflict between Europe and America. Sartorially sinister Lagerfeld, embodying the Old World’s dark perspective and penchant for donning sunglasses at night, leers at virginal Carrot Top, the naïve but spunkily practical symbol of America. By placing Lagerfeld on an inexplicable red platform, the confused artist adds either an ominous neo-fascist tonality or suggests that Lagerfeld is a space alien standing on the transporter that beamed him down from the mothership. Behind Lagerfeld, the calm sea, sunset and twinkling stars connote either a peaceful summer evening or a stormy, tragic meditation on the fin de siècle hopelessness of Lagerfeld’s fashion and art weltanschauung. In either case, the painting’s je ne sais quoi remains elusive.

Van | 06:29 AM | 02/03/10 | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Sensual pleasures