יום ז'אב תשס"ו

Zev Day (the seventh day of the month of Av) is my favorite day on the calendar. So, like in years past, I ask you to do something Zev-like on said day, which this year falls out on August 1st.

Every year I get the same question: what is something Zev-like? The answer to that is, you know as well as I. With what sorts of things do you associate me with? Hopscotch? Equestrians ballet? Spelunking? Let the circumstance of the day lead you to impulsiveness...Happy birthday Oren.

A Letter to the Editor

Here is an excellent letter to the editor of the Washington Times I found describing the threat of Hezb-allah and why their attacks should be taken more seriously by the West.

Performative-Egal

A few years ago my friend took me to Shira Hadasha in Yerushalaim. I found that my main objection to Egal is not so much in the theory, but it the practice--it...takes...so...long. Egal (as in other branches of Judaism) just has a more experiential view of religious ritual than traditional Frum shuls do.

Does anyone know of an Ortho-Egal shul that has hot kiddush, 1 1/2 hour Shabbes Shachris, and strict rules about nusach from the ummud (none of this aspirated neo-Israeli pronunciation garbage)? If so I am very curious ;)

M.E. Regional Flare-Up

Just one thought about this current mess:

Every conventional military in the world sucks at a-symmetric warfare (Israel less so than most). As this conflict become more symmetric, the conflict becomes more "favorable" for the Israelis. The inverse and the transpose also hold. Watch for Hezbollah to do more ducking-and-running, oscillating the power of their aggression.

Under these assumptions I cannot understand what Hezbollah stands to gain by firing Katusas on Israel...

The proof is in the bombing

In the 1890's David Emile Durkheim saw a spike in the suicide rate and saw it to be a symptom of a deep social change sweeping Europe. He reasoned that such a rash venture as to takes one's own life must have some deep cause, and could not happen by arbitrarily. To this end I am trying to synthesize Robert Pape's remarks on suicide bombing and nationalism in the 21st century. If nationalism is truly outmoded, why does it produce such violent affects? Take note all ye political theorists, it is significant.

In the mellifluous words of the poet Wu Tang KRS-1, "suicide, it's a suicide, suicide, it's a suicide." Maybe this set of suicides should prompt a similar line of questions as the former epidemic. Apparently Pape does address Durkheim specifically in his book, "Dying to Kill," but as he is an IR guy and not a theorist, it appears is if there ought to be a lot more work to be done to better explore this relationship, beyond simple psychoanalytic prescriptions for suicide, rather looking at the theoretical germ of the outbreak. (Brownie points for the person that shows me the article that already stumbled upon this.)

In Pape's words:
To clarify Pape's argument I decided to transcribe a particularly lucid and concise passage from his book.

The data show that there is little connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, or any of the world's religions...Rather what nearly all suicide terrorist attacks have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that terrorist consider to be their homeland. Religion is not the root cause, although it is often used as a tool by terrorist organizations in recruiting and in other efforts of the broader strategic objective ("Dying to Win" by Robert Pape p. 4)

You are how you read Returns

I saw Superman Returns with my brother motza"sh and was fairly impressed. One shot in the movie caught my particular attention, however. Towards the end of the movie we see Lois Lane pining for her lost love while the camera moves through her study (it might not be hers, but she looks awfully comfortable there). The angle starts low and proceeds through two bookshelves, opposite one another, chock full of books. Not binders or legal books but paperbacks and hardcovers, different sizes, shapes and publishers. There must be six five-foot cases all told. Lex Luthor, to contrast, is seen to own a boatload of sets, the kind of thing you pick up to fill shelves that you will not actually read (self-irony noted, if not intended).

While I think the latter choice says less about Luthor, I really think Bryan Singer crafted the scene with Lois. Lois was never portrayed as a brainy one in the past, but I think Singer composed the scene with the bookshelves to help cast a more contemporary interpretation on Lois as a really smart, contemplative (and, gasp, even intellectual) journalist who is also independent; with or without Superman (why do books=independence? Non-trivial question, with a set of trivial answers; also has to do with the scene--her pining contrasted with her Pulitzer, which she won definently wo/ Superman). Whether Kate Bosworth communicates that is a different issue...

Your are how you read

My dad starts, "There is a store over on Main that makes brass plates for bookshelves. So the question is, what categories do you use to categorize your library."

"Easy," I replied "Literature, Art & Graphic Arts, Politics & History, Social Theory, Religion, Science* & Math, Philosophy and Sifrei Kodesh."

And like that, I realized how simply (re: crudely) I saw the world. Drama is just literature; anthropology, social theory etc. Definitely a worth while exercise.

* by science I "really" mean physics, where biology is just tacked on, the way platypi are kind of like mammals.

Beatles Shmeatles

In the days of raging Beatlemania, the Beatles were not allowed to perform in Israel. The Minister of Education forbade them from doing so, fearing their music would have a corrupting effect on the youth (cf.). Well, that youth has grown up and they've brought the Beatles to Israel. Okay, not the actual Beatles (at least one of whom is dead, I'm told), but a group of young Israelis (about 30-45 yrs young) who can imitate the Beatles. I heard them last night where they performed in an ancient Roman amphitheater near Haifa with the Haifa Symphony Orchestra. In a way it was like a Montessori school reunion with a bunch of 50-60 year old Hilonim dancing, while seated, to the music. But when I took a closer look at their dancing in their seats, I noticed it bore a striking resemblance to the kind of shuckling many Orthodox people do in schul. This was their religion, I realized. Of course they were shuckling.

What if

instead of Lex Luthor, Superman was confronted Martin Luther hammering his 95 Theses to Superman's chest, with a kryptonite nail!!! That would get the Reformation going in a big way.

Saleet's Question

Three years ago Saleet asked me a great question: Why don't you marry Oren?

There are two obvious wrong answers to that question: 1. Because I/we are straight 2. Because Oren is married (which was not the case at the time).

I became further confused today, as I was arguing that their is no essential difference between the two sexes. If that is the case, why can't two men marry, raise a family and have children with a close female friend? Why does the mother of the child necessarily need to be part of the "nuclear" family? If men and women really are the same, is the reason for marriage purely utilitarian, i.e. it is just more practical to have the mother of the child serve as the second parent? Religious doctrine aside, why must sex (v) be confined to/part of marriage?

My only answer now (that I have proved to my self, through contradiction) is that there is generally does exist a distinction between the sexes, which is not a conclusion I am all-together happy with.

Ann Coulter meet Zizek

Listening, as I do daily, to the inimitable Keith Oberman on my way to work (thanks to Podcasting) I was treated to a rather vicious attack by Mr. Oberman of Ms. Coulter for her indictment of a group of widows from the 9-11 attacks who have used their new-found plight as a moral step-stool to assail the Bush administration.

Poor form aside, Ms. Coulter sounded more like Zizek than I could have ever imagined. She use a power argument to maintain that plight and victimhood should not inure one from reproach or rebuttal. These women, using their tragedy as leverage, hope to convince the American public of the political wrongs of the Bush administration. While they surely have suffered great loss, what makes them better spokespersons for Truth than any other citizen of this country? Their victim status somehow rhetorically privileges them above the political debate, and gives them the moral high ground--they can sling their arrows, but those below can volley nothing in return.

The great thing about the argument is that it doesn't really follow from the rest of the rhetoric on the Right. Our soldiers in Iraq are used as victim shields as are the husbands of these unfortunate women. Plenty of White House rhetoric is aimed specifically to disarm their opponents by stymieing debate--you don't hate the soldiers, do you? You don't want to dishonor the victims of 9-11 by letting the terrorists win, do you? Unfortunately Ms. Coulter is an ass and comes off as a bit inured herself. But I still give her marks for trying to slip a PoMo argument by for the Conservative-Right.

Kol Sasson

Welcome, and enjoy your stay. (The title is a link)

Iran will disrupt oil shipments if her right to nuclear power is threatened (JPost). One wonders how badly they need nuclear power if they are able to threaten other countries with cutting off the oil supply.

יום התלמיד

Starting this evening, we at Hebrew University of Jerusalem are celebrating יום הסטודנס. Celebrations involve typical student-like activities such as parties with loud rock-music and beer. Also school has been cancelled to celebrate this day.

In protest, I am celebrating יום התלמיד, a day in which I sit in the library and study all day. This is, I suppose, another way of being a student. The library has at least one thing those loud outdoor parties don't have - an air-conditioner.

Who do they think they are?!

How stupid can you be? It is as if they are sending a formal invitation (printed on card stock, matte paper) to the international community to compare this Iranian regime to 1936 Germany. Who does their PR?

I wonder if they will include a reply card.

Update: I had linked to a National Post article (Canadain national paper) that ran a story about a new law in Iran which would require all members of minority faiths to wear armbands with distinct colors; Yellow for Jews, Red for Christians and Blue for Zoroastians. This report appears to be false, but I would stay tuned as the Iranian gov't is known to have misrepresented themselves before (re: op-ed in the NYT "We do not have a nuclear weapons program" from about a month ago).

Babblefish in the Afterlife (or the lack thereof)

I am in the middle of an article about Cavell, Emerson, Aristotle, et al and I had the most curious thought: What if, when you die, you go to an afterlife that is completely foreign to you. You stand before a daemon, venting power and wrath, except s/he does not speak your language. You are at a complete loss to understand His/Her moral charges, but during the hearing, through no fault of your won, you crack up numerous times when the prosecutor utters words such as "Fuptubarb" and "Rakakamakamon." You can throw gavitas right out of St. Pete's window.

What an absurd ending.

Viva la Lobbists!

I have not learned very much in the past year. One thing I have learned is that democracy is all about making your voice heard...above everyone else's. While other people merely vote in the polls, we (those that bitch the night away) must do something more to insure that America does not make the wrong decision.

How can I make my voice heard over the mass of the loud hoi polloi, you ask? Easy, donate to a campaign. Yes, you, who live in Chicago, NY or New Haven can influence an election in a state that is not even contiguous to your own! God bless America and its nearly boundless freedom of expression, i.e. hard money contributions. So quit whining about interest group politics and become and interest group of your own!

I would have now plugged Casey against Santorum, but as Casey is pro-life, I can't, in good conscience, ask other people to do that.

Of Interest

Like every Monday morning at work, I set about perusing the NYT Online to see what I have missed through my inattention during the weekend. Among other important articles about the resignation of Goss from the CIA, I stumbled across a piece by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt "A Star is Made." It is unimportant to present a careful dissection of the argument, but simply put, the authors posit that talent is near worthless to effort. Great musicians, athletes, writers, etc are not born with talent, but become good through repetition.

Slightly more subtly, the article moves from a paradigm of "practice" to one of "interest"--which was more intriguing to me.

Deliberate practice entails more than simply repeating a task; playing a C-minor scale 100 times, for instance, or hitting tennis serves until your shoulder pops out of its socket. Rather, it involves setting specific goals, obtaining immediate feedback and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome...Ericsson's research suggests a third cliche as well: when it comes to choosing a life path, you should do what you love; because if you don't love it, you are unlikely to work hard enough to get very good. Most people naturally don't like to do things they aren't "good" at. So they often give up, telling themselves they simply don't possess the talent for math or skiing or the violin. But what they really lack is the desire to be good and to undertake the deliberate practice that would make them better.

Like many Levittine arguments, I initially tossed it out; obviously there are people who are more talented than others. While Michael Jordan is a better basketball player than I (which is no surprise, as he has practiced a whole lot more than I have) he is also better than Toni Kukoc, who probably shot nearly as many layups in his life.

What Levitt Inc propose is much more significant however--Michael Jordan is more interested in basketball than Toni Kukoc. Not interested in the sport--I am sure they both love the game--but the article posits that MJ is interested in those facets, the "specific goals" as they are referred to, than TC. Basketball is not one whole unit, but it is made up of zillions of finer aspects: dribbling, layups, guarding, wrist motion, etc. Levitt proposes that MJ just likes the sum of all these parts more than most players of the modern era, and as such, practiced to "obtaining immediate feedback and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome."

The obvious question which this thesis admits is: Ok, you have replaced the word, "talent" with "interest." So what causes one to be interested?

I didn't find the answer to that question in the article, but the conjecture is not as flat as I suggested. It means that if you think you are interested in a vocation, ask yourself, "Do I like the individual aspects, that sum to the whole?" Some people love physics, but are just not interested in doing long intergals or in trig. identities. I got news for you, it means you are not really interested in physics. And if you stay up at night pondering what other groups of Hermitian operators will solve Schodinger's equation, what you are doing in not called curling, it is called physics--sometimes things just get mislabeled (no philosophy of language discussion now, please), and you just might need to relabel them for yourself.

Homer Omer

I realize that this is square in the middle of the counting, but better late than never...

should you be in despair during sefirah, let Homer help you out! Zev would tell me that I would have failed to live up tradition if I didn't spread the word.

The Star Spangled Banner...in Spanish?

I woke up one morning last week to hear the host of the radio program I typically listen to (WLUP - 97.9) soliciting responses from people on the question of whether the recent Spanish translation of the Star Spangled Banner done by Adam Kidron (a Brit) should be encouraged among Latino immigrants in the country. While I expected the responses to be fairly opposed to the Spanish translation, I couldn't help but notice the xenophobic overtones in the comments. While I do think that the song should be sung in English, the issue didn't bother me nearly as much as it did for some of the callers. However, I wasn't sure if I simply couldn't dismiss the fact that the Loop (a classic rock(think 80's) radio station) has a listenership that mostly consists of working class Chicagoans, who might be more likely to have strong patriotic sentiments. I suppose that the question I'm posing is how one makes the distinction between patriotism and xenophobia?