9418kedvale

Something to Ponder for Shabbat

2006-05-05T16:28:00.000-05:00

Is Schrodinger's cat a psik reisha of killing on shabbas?

Hello my Family!

2006-03-02T14:00:00.000-06:00

In a very intimate communication i say hello to my family. Because i know no matter how hard you avoid posting you wander over here occasionally. So i've finally finished my moed alephs (first test dates) and in two weeks i'm presenting my seminar paper and then i''m pretty much done with my degree. (Not that I won't moan and groan any more in the process.) But that realization just hit me today and i feel very accomplished.

The Theology of Dieting

2006-02-07T18:09:00.000-06:00

Today, the New York Times ran an article reporting the results of a major study showing that low fat diets do absolutely nothing for people. The evidence is overwhelming, but nevertheless, some people refuse to believe.

"What we are saying is that a modest reduction of fat and a substitution with fruits and vegetables did not do anything for heart disease and stroke or breast cancer or colorectal cancer," said Dr. Nanette Wenger, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at Emory University Medical School. "It doesn't say that this diet is not beneficial," she added.

As far as I can tell, they've just proved that low fat diets have absolutely no health benefits. So, the only possible benefits must be spiritual, which by definition are unprovable. The Earth Mother must love people who eat food that tastes bad.

Something I'm Conflicted About Posting

2006-01-29T04:54:00.000-06:00

Even though I rarely post comments specific to Life in Israel I really am always trying to find incidents that reflect on my life here. And in that respect this story is appropriate. On the other hand I don't want to write it so that everyone else in the family can feel self-righteous and dismiss all Israelis as bigots.
On Shabbos afternoon I went with 5 other girls to visit patients at Tel Hashomer Hospital. Before going it sounds awkward and uncomfortable-just marching into a hospital room and announcing to the weak patient "we've come to visit you..so how are you doing?" but for every patient who prefers the company of people he knows or just wants peace and quiet to recuperate there is another patient who is lonely and needs to be distracted and really appreciates our presence. First we visited a surgery ward and then the other girls decided they wanted a change of pace and we went to the children's hospital. Almost all of the children are accompanied by a parent but in one room there was a little Arab boy, around 8 years old, who was in a room all alone. Although none of us spoke Arabic it felt wrong to move onto the next room when there was a boy who really needed attention. We tried to talk in that universal method of if I talk loudly and clearly then he/she will understand my Hebrew/Arabic. Luckily he had a few balloons on his bed and we started playing the classic keep the balloon off the floor. The other girls moved onto to the next room but I stayed behind to play with the little boy. In the middle he stopped the game and said to me very deliberately hahasamak. I tried every approximation to hebrew that I could think of but when I couldn't figure it out I remembered there was an Arab Israeli down the hall so I went over to him and asked him to translate for me. (It means "what is your name") On the way back I passed the father of a boy in the room next door to the Arab boy's room who asked me "are you girls Arab?" i answered "no" and he started walking away and then turned around self-righteously and told me "matim lachen l'hiyot" (it's fitting for you to be) [if this next line is inappropriate you can delete it from the post] suddenly i saw all those videos we watched in US history, To Kill a Mockingbird, the sneering "nigger-lover" and it turned my stomach to realize how the cost of intifada and terror isn't only the victims but its also the morality of my country, where a father who also has a son sick in the hospital can't understand that a little 8 year old boy is lonely and afraid all by himself in the hospital but instead all he seems is the enemy.
At this point in the story I'm still the hero, the liberal, humane girl fighting against the prejudices of backwards people. But when i re-entered the room i couldn't view him the same way. he tried to explain to me in arabic why his legs had been amputated and afterwards tired of the balloon game he picked up a foam ball on a string that he had in his bed also and showed me how he whirled it over his head. and i had to leave because all of a sudden i saw rows of little boys hurling rocks at soldiers and i probably imagined it but i saw hate in his eyes.

Creating a Legend

2006-01-24T12:59:00.000-06:00

About three weeks ago I started helping out this family. I'm supposed to give the 6 year old daughter one-on-one attention but in the end her three brothers usually end up tagging along with us. Last week I decided to write a story with the girl and her brothers. In the end we got caught up drawing a map of America and describing why Stalin was such an evil person. (Who was the Communist leader with the goat beard because that's how I drew Stalin and when I looked him up on the internet all his pictures were with a kibbutznik moustache.) And then her 9-year old brother had an idea for a story: One clear day everyone laughed at G-d. G-d punished them.
So for this week I decided to write a story for them to show how it should be done. I tried writing about a party the student union threw but in the end it just sounded like an orgy-dim lighting, loud music, a sumptuous chocolate fountain. So I tried to think of a story that they would relate to, something from my own childhood. But all my memories lack plot, climax, drama.
Step in Joe. My brother Joe is two years older than me. He has brown hair and brown eyes and is very good at sports. A legend is born! In the story Joe rescues the ball by bravely climbing the tree which is even taller than the house but in the process falls on his face but through his quick wits he covers his face and escapes with a broken arm. (I am the nervous younger sister in the story sucking her thumb.)
Anyway, for next week I need to come up with another story involving Joe's larger-than-life espacades, but I don't want it to involve breaking any more bones. Suggestions will be welcomed.

The case for language

2006-01-23T21:18:00.000-06:00

Today, we were eating dinner with some mustard. Tom started pointing at the mustard and saying "da" --- he clearly wanted the mustard. He was becoming very upset about this. When we gave him some mustard, he did not want to eat it. When we gave him the jar of mustard to play with, he seemed happier but then gave it back to us to do something with.

Because he cannot talk, he cannot tell us what he wants to do with mustard! Grunts and hand gestures are not enough. Some people say that they learn Russian to read War and Peace --- well, maybe Tom will learn English so he can play with the mustard the way he wants to.

What do you think Tom wanted? My theory is that he liked to watch us squeeze the jar of mustard

Cute kids

2006-01-14T23:30:00.000-06:00

What is the cutest move of the kids.
1 Ruti's eyeroll
2 Chaim's Veggie Tale singing ( he sings along to all the songs)
3 Yosef's actually ( Actually its....)
Vote in the comments

A Guilt-free Way to lie to the Government

2006-01-08T12:20:00.000-06:00

On January 1rst, Illinois changed the income limits for Medicaid, so now me and Shmuli can get free health insurance. Obviously, as an economist I agree this a completely stupid policy, but it would be even stupider not to take advantage of it. However, I had problems applying, because the computer program insists on asking about income received in the last 30 days. As a student, I'm paid irregularly, so that often I'm not paid at all in a given month, but when it's more than the monthly income limit. I've tried reasoning with the bureaucrats, but they always say that the computer system does not allow people to have irregular pay.

However, I figured out a completely (I hope) legal way to get around it. I applied for FamilyCare using whatever numbers I needed to make the computer system happy. Then, on the signature form, I wrote 'The numbers I gave on the application were altered slightly to make the computer system happy, but I certify that I am legitimately entitled to FamilyCare". I'm 90% sure that whatever bureaucrat that processes the form won't even notice the note right above my signature. So, I can get all the benefits of lying to the government without actually lying to them.

Pictures Here

2005-12-28T10:56:00.000-06:00

Pictures of the boys are up at the linked website (just click on the title). These pictures are the first pictures of the parents taken with new millenium technology (a digital camera).

Randomness

2005-12-26T05:02:00.000-06:00

Chanukah season has begun here marked by really pretty looking doughnuts that are suprisingly doughy and if they have filling its just a small blob. But the beauty of the confectionary sugar sprinkled on top. Every time it fools me into buying them.
Our landlord is coming today, hopefully to fix our heat which is blowing out lukewarm air (does the word lukewarm fit air or is it only for liquids?). With incredible irony we spent this morning cleaning the apartment so that our landlord isn't upset at us when he is coming to fix his broken heat. (Not the most sensical sentence but I needed the parallel italics.) The apartment really was a wreck because we had these 5 australian birthright girls staying by us for the weekend with their luggage for 6 weeks. Given the size of our apartment I think its pretty impressive that we were able to fit 5 more people in. And luckily the downstairs neighbors didn't complain about them making too much noise or anything. (Yet another person who should be our equal bc we both just pay rent but we live in fear of and avoid riding the elevator with)[and i just ended that fragmented sentence with two prepostions] Oh that reminds me, the other day i finally got to show off my english knowledge by editing one of the graduate students paper that he's submitting to a journal. No snide comments about my writing skills, i did an excellent job editing it. The only thing i didn't have the heart to change was his concluding paragraph that began: in conclusion the answer is yes, _____ has been proven to _______. THere was something that seemed a little too boisterous and not-scientific about that sentence. But who am i to come and strip all personality from his paper.
Rachel and Shmuli- i want to see pictures of the new house.
Joe-if you ever want to go to australia the birthright girls pledged everlasting thanks and hosting tradebacksies that you could negotiate for.

Did I Go Too Far In Saving Money Today?

2005-12-15T20:46:00.000-06:00

I need the family's opinion on a minor etiquitte point. I had 15 minutes to kill before picking up Chaim from school, so I went to Main pizza and ordered fries. While there, I noticed that the table next to me had left a meal virtually untouched. I asked the guy cleaning it up whether I could take it and he said okay in a doubtful sort of way. Despite the less than glowing recommendation by the purchasers, the food was actually very good, much better than my undercooked fries.

I'm not terribly worried about germs, I cut off the part why the guy bit into it. And, the germs in half eaten food are relatively benign compared to the toddlers snot or worse I'm continually smeared in.

Nevertheless, I'm aware that asking for leftovers from other people's meals is probably against some social norms. I need an opinion for the service professionals in our family on what they think of it. I doubt the waiter minded, I left him a $1 tip on $2 of fries to thank him for the leftovers. But, did the restaurant owner mind? I wasn't going to purchase lunch, I wouldn't have had time to wait, and the food wasn't worth paying full price for.

A Strange VeggieTales

2005-12-14T11:23:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, Shmuli got a new Veggietales movie. It was "King George and His Ducky", and it was a remake of David and Bathsheba, except he stole a rubber ducky, and the guy survived, so he was able to apologize and give back his ducky. Otherwise, it was extremely close.

However, I was bothered by one thing. They decided that the moral of the story was "Don't Be Selfish". However, that makes the whole movie surreal. It's all very well and good to share rubber duckies, but sharing wives is definitely forbidden.

I think the real problem is that they're confusing two separate morals. It's a bad thing to be selfish (for most thing), but it's really a small sin. On the other hand, stealing is a much bigger sin. I have little problem with the king having a 100 duckies and some people having 0. The problem was that he had 99 and took the other guy's 1. (And of course the murder)

20 Minutes of Wasted Time

2005-12-01T22:26:00.000-06:00

As you may know the Yeshiva has Night Seder until 8:00 three times a week. On Thursday we have, in addition, a 20 minute speech on various topics. This week it was given by a rabbi known for giving short speeches based on gematriot. These are usually dubious but to give you a feel of what we use the time for here's a partial transcript (from memory) of what the speech was.
Rabbi: You probably think I can only give gematriot but I'm going to go farther than that and not give any gematriot in the speech. (applause) He started off by mentioning his second grade Rabbi was the one who told him about a lot of his chassidic ideas which he uses in speeches ( Admitting he was giving second grade level speeches). We see in our parsha that by the birthright it says Eisav ate, drank, got up, and left. This was transformed to he ate without a a brachah, he drank without a brachah, got up without bentching, and left without a yarmulke. (Editor's note by Yitzchak it uses the phrase he ate, and he drank and it doesn't mention a brachah said.) He said it was a chassidic dvar torah and then asked a Rebbe at the school who is a chassidic Rabbi if he had heard the idea and he replied no. The speech continued on with the importance of saying brachos and saying them slowly. Then he went on to an analogy. Rabbi: Suppose someone gives you a check with 3 zeroes and you say that's worthless so he adds another 3 zeroes and then you hand it back and he adds 3 zeroes. Finally he adds a 1 in front and now what is it? Audience: (several at once) A bounced check!
He then went on with the George H.W. Bush idea of telling us to be more like the Walton's who made a blessing before each meal. Finally he used a strawman argument within a strawman argument to make his point. He said the ordinary person who works from 9-5 if you ask him why he works he'll say to pay the bills. Then if you ask why pay the bills he will say "To have a roof over my head." Then if you ask why you need a roof they will say to sleep well. Then if you ask why you need to sleep well they will answer so I can get up for work. For a Jew its different because he's doing it all to serve Hashem's will. ( Of course if you continue that line of questioning it will also eventually be circular.) This is not only demolishing a series of questions and answers that no one would answer but also attacking them even though there's nothing wrong with the answers because he's working to maintain a quality of life which makes him happy.

I thought

2005-11-21T14:41:00.000-06:00

November 21 was Talia's birthday, but since none of her siblings blog-wished her a happy birthday, I must have been wrong.

Life is Good

2005-11-20T11:30:00.001-06:00

Mike's sports life has probably never been as bad as it is now. The Packers are 2-7, as are the Knicks, and while the Yankees had a decent year the ChiSox won it all. Boo-yah

Disclaimer: Tobie consulted in the creation of this post.

Yosef's New Book

2005-11-17T21:18:00.000-06:00

This is a alphabet book with pictures, but I'll describe it for you

A from asparagus
B from bologna
C from carrots
D from dill pickles
E from eggs
F from fish
G from gefilte fish
H from ham
I from ice
J from jelly
K from ketchup
L from licorice
M from maple syrup
N from nuts
O from olives
P from pears
Q from quiche
R from red peppers
S from salt
T from taco chips
U from ugula (?)
V from vegetable called a potato
W from watermelon
X from extra cheese
Y from yellow yogurt
Z from zucchini

IROT DBOO KMHO AR (I wrote the book ?)
IMA DLE ETRS DART OFF OO (I made the letters out of food)
DASH AR (?)
Picture of our family.

Yosef's Book

2005-11-16T22:06:00.000-06:00

1SS PNAT TIM
TAIRW AZAB C - AN DOEN O
EFG HIAND JK LOOK ATLM
NOANDOP LOOKA TQAND RTOSTO TLOOK VTOVTO WXYZ
BOOM BOOM
OWAR
HELR UZUP LEND ABCD EFGHI
NEXTUP DANO EALL OART OF THGE
SEPTO EFAN DGHI JKLM
NOPQ RSTU VWTY 1MOR LEETR ZTHA

See if the codebreakers can figure it out. Otherwise, look below for a translation.

A Difficult Political Question

2005-11-16T11:32:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, Governor Blajoyevich (?) signed a law giving ridiculously cheap health insurance to all Illinois kids. Basically, any parents earning less than $100,000 get access to health insurance from $40-$70 per month for the first two kids, and free for any kids after that. He is claiming that is will cost only $500 per kid per year, and he can cover the costs by cutting Medicaid costs. I don't know where they got the number $500, but health insurance costs 3 or 4 times that per child, so the number is probably just pulled out of thin air. Catastrophic health insurance, with a minimum deductible of $5,000 costs more than $40-$70 per month. Obviously, this is going to be an expensive fiasco, because any business that continues offering coverage to kids is just throwing money out the window. So, this program will either have to be shut down when too many kids join, or it will have to cover every kid in the state eventually.

None of this is difficult economics, so I have no problem saying the plan is stupid and wasteful. But, this plan will be a huge benefit to me personally. It's a large subsidy to people who a)Have kids, especially if they have more than two kids; b)Are willing to take their kids off health insurance temporarily, so they can get cheap health insurance for life. So, I'm deeply torn. At least this billion dollar boondoggle will benefit me personally.

A Strange Survey Question

2005-11-14T18:54:00.000-06:00

Today, I got an e-mail from the University of Chicago asking me to participate in a Student Health Survey. I want prizes as much as anybody else, so I agreed. Guess what the first question was?

What is your Gender: a)Male, b)Female, c)MTF/FTM, d)Other.

I'm amused that they thought the transgendered were a large enough group to get their own survey question. But I'm completely puzzled about what the other category is. Do you think there are amoebas attending school?

Hello? Hellooooooooo?

2005-11-06T22:56:00.000-06:00

Anybody out there? Anybody reading this thing?
Mmmmhmm. I thought so. In that case WHY aren't you posting?
Am I supposed to fuel two blogs, by myself, with only the patheticness of my everyday life?
Cuz I can't.
What about you, David, when did you last post? Or Joe, for that matter?
I'm getting the uncomfortable feeling that this blog is dying, and only YOU can save it.

My Life etc.

2005-11-06T14:11:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone! So I haven't blogged in a while, but then again I'm one of the most frequent bloggers. So classes have begun. For Tobie's count of hours my schedule for the first half of the semester is Sunday: 12-5 Monday 9-10;12-16;18-20 Tuesday 8-18 Wednesday 8-20 Thursday 8-18 Friday 8-12. But luckily after 6 weeks I don't have my 8-12 lab on Wed and Thurs mornings. (I hope this counts as exciting news and not boring litany.)
My article got published this week in the Journal of Chemical Physics. Note the beautiful histograms of the TEM data.
The top picture is the view from our apartment at sunset. It almost makes the eight flight of stairs on Shabbos worthwhile. The white tower in the foreground is the Bar Ilan tower whose two purposes are 1) to smile and look pretty 2)for donors to ride up to the top and point prophetically to a part of the campus saying "upon that land will I build my building" The white buildings all the way in the back are the Azrieli center. In between is a lot of Tel Aviv.
Its a lovely apartment. We just got an internet phone that has a US number. Shmuli says its not safe to post numbers so you can get it from Mom.
Well I better get back to my gallavanting as my apartment lines in shambles. Feeling pretty ubiquitious yet? (Don't worry I'm earning points for all those words)

News from the College Front

2005-10-28T15:24:00.000-05:00

I hope that the title didn't mislead you into expecting real news. This post is going to be devoted strictly to minutae. For example, did you know that it is possible to wash clothes with dish-washing soap? Somebody stole my detergent from the laundry room and I was annoyed and out of clean socks (in fact, already far into the negatives, clean-sock-wise), so I improvised. Seems to be working ok, so far, but I'll know more when the clothes come out of the dryer.
Also, fabulous quote that was actually uttered. In a discussion of Metamophosis, somebody actually said, "The sub-humanity, in our view, of artho-pods". How phenomenally U of C geeky is that? And the best part is that the speaker is this huge hulking guy who is into sports and looks like a charicature of a dumb jock and is actually one of the most intelligent people in the class. Sometimes, I really love this university.
That's actually all that comes to mind for the moment, but I felt the need to feed to the blog, so there you go.

Withdrawal

2005-10-27T08:01:00.000-05:00

Harriet Miers has withdrawn her nomination due to mounting criticism the question is who's next.

I've Given Yosef a New Nightmare

2005-10-15T20:18:00.000-05:00

Yosef has gotten very into the solar system. This is generally good, it's less annoying to have him drawing planets than to have him drawing letters. And, there's a lot more to discuss about the solar system

However, today I really messed up. I told him that in 5-10 billion years the sun would go out. He was immediately very concerned. I tried to reassure him that we could move to a new Earth, but that didn't help very much, because he's also very concerned about moving. I tried to explain that 5 billion years is a very long time, but he didn't seem to really understand that, I'm not sure a 4-year-old has that much grasp on time. Right now, he's calmed down again because he's decided we can get more gas for the Sun when it runs out of gas.

I should have known better, I remember being very concerned with the whole thing when I was 7. But, I had a lot more scary details, like the Sun turning into a red giant and enveloping the Earth. I don't remember anybody explaining to me just how long 5 billion years, but it's possible they did and it didn't help.

Please post your suggestions for the most reassuring lies/promises I can tell him.

I hate Half.com

2005-10-08T23:13:00.000-05:00

I just ordered a few Dr. Seuss books on half.com. Unfortunately, I pushed the wrong key, and they got sent to Mike. I'm virtually certain that they haven't been sent out yet, who is waiting by their computer on a Saturday night, instantly addressing packages that can't be mailed for days? Nevertheless, Half.com doesn't let me change a completed order. So, Mike should view the books he will be receiving as not only a subtle insult about his maturity, but also an Indian gift that he must turn over to his nephews.

My Commute

2005-10-06T12:00:00.000-05:00

The fun thing about blogs is that they make you look at ridiculous experiences as fodder for your own entertainment. Case in point- my and Rachel's trip up north for Rosh Hashana. (Not a ridiculous experience thus far) So, as we were waiting for the last bus in our journey, which took like forever to come, and talking, I think, about methods of suicide, a large black man across the station shouts "Hello, sister." Naturally, we ignore him, and anyway, there was no reason to believe that he was talking to us. A bit later, he shouts it again and it's pretty clear that he is talking to Rachel. In a whirling flash of deduction, she realizes that the snood has lead him to believe she's a nun. The conversation goes as follows, to the best of my recollection:
Rachel (laughing): Oh, no, I'm not a sister.
Random Man: You're not Catholic?
Rachel: No, I'm not a nun.
Random Man: You're not? [Is it so unbelievable? Think of all the people in the world who aren't nuns.]
Rachel: No, I'm Jewish. My law says that married women should cover their hair.
R.M.: Well, at least you're married.
Me (who had been standing around laughing at Rachel):It's true, Rachel. At least you're married.
And then he floats off to inform the woman sitting on the bench that her shirt is pretty bright, leaving us with trying to figure out why it was better to be married. It's not like she was visibly pregnant or anything (or invisibly, to the best of my knowledge, for that matter). By that time, he was haranguing the woman for not taking her husband to the doctor because he wasn't eating enough. We moved away, thinking that it would be rude to laugh in front of him.
When the bus came (thirty blinking minutes later), he was still wandering around, bellowing at an acquaintance that "The policeman said to cool down, so I'm gonna have to curse you out quietly." Was he drunk? Was he crazy? Did he just have an unusual and interesting personality? Who knows? But he not only gave us free entertainment in the bus station, he also provided fodder a nice long blog post on a blog that is sadly lacking in recent entries.

Brag Post

2005-09-28T23:13:00.000-05:00

I've already gloated in person to most members of the family about this, but I'm going to be a published author soon. The paper based on Summer 2004 research with my Stern professor was accepted by the Journal of Chemical Physics and I'm listed as the fifth author!

Classes

2005-09-25T00:01:00.000-05:00

Short post- it's late, I'm tired, and the computer just ate the first draft of this, so if this doesn't sound clever, assume that the first version was brilliant and sparklingly witty, as of course it was if it was written by myself. Anyway...finished registering for classes- I'm taking twelve hours a week plus four hours of physics lab, a paltry sum compared to Talia's course load and one that will leave me with oodles of free time, some of which may be filled by whatever extra-curriculars I will acquire at the club fair tomorrow, if any.
Anyway, Shmuli and I (who had a lot of free time watching Chaim run around the park) wondered how this compared to other college's schedules, so we decided to call for general family input. David, Joe, Talia (Stern days only, we all know about Bar Ilan)- how does this compare? And how does the fact that mine is a quarter system contribute to the whole thing? And for that matter, Shmuli, you can answer too, because I have unfortunately forgotten whatever number it was that you mentioned. As I said, it is late.

a premature gloat

2005-09-20T00:12:00.000-05:00

Four weeks ago, a certain brother of mine, scoffed at me, the chances of the White Sox winning the division are 98%. after untold losses, the margain has gone from 15 to two and a half, and, vending at the Cell tonight, I felt chills in my spine, chills that only a Cubs fan, someone who has seen collapses firsthand can sense, the White Sox will not make the playoffs, I say that with 98% certainty

eh

2005-09-19T17:47:00.000-05:00

Many of you have had the misfortune of learning Ruti's major means of communication; pointing and uttering a sound best spelled "eh". Is this sound properly characterized as a grunt? It seems too weak for grunt, but I can't think of a better term.

Lady in Waiting

2005-09-19T17:08:00.000-05:00

For all those who are keeping track, I admit I haven't posted in a while. Saying that nothing exciting is going on is not much of an excuse giving the caliber of my previous posts. The real man to blame is MIKE who whenever he's home monopolizes the computer allowing family members 5 minutes to check email while he hovers over your shoulder (if he even gives up the chair) and when he's not home using the computer lacks the satisfaction of having bested Mike.
But enough about Mike, let's talk about me. As select family members (Mom, Dad, Mike, Rachel and Ruti) have been privileged to witness I have joined Joe in the elite world of money-grubbing tip-mongering.
Compared to other jobs I've held waiting has the satisfaction of creating it's own excitement. Your job begins when the customer enters, peaks when all the entrees are delivered and is wrapped up when they leave the tip on the table. All you have to give is 40 minutes and you're good to go. Of course there are many overlapping 40 minutes and you can be running around for 3 hours but it's still much more exciting than babysitting and office work.
When I first started the job I was the most polite, smiling, attentive waitress Danali's has ever seen. Besides for the disgusted looks of my coworkers I just can't handle giving 100% any more- so I aim for 90%.
I'm trying to make this sound more exciting and interesting but the truth is after my 6 hour shift (of which I was only working hard 3.5 hours) I'm just too exhausted.
To be continued..................

Tobie...

2005-09-19T17:05:00.000-05:00

Hey Tobie-post a phone number ASAP

No Escape

2005-09-18T00:11:00.000-05:00

for Tobie. She had deluded herself into believing "that I'm going off to college next week and probably won't be collecting the books there." On Friday night, however, after David Rosenberg asked for volunteers to collect siddurim, I spied Tobie carrying a stack. Would Tobie be better off in Israel, where siddurim are smaller but more plentiful, or here in the States?

Tobie's News

2005-09-17T21:52:00.000-05:00

Well, until I get my phone authorization code, which won't happen until I register, the blog is my only means of communicating with my family, so here is all my news: Moved in Friday afternoon. Only person doing early move-in and they didn't bother telling any Orientation aides or RHs, which are the equivolent of Midrichim/ot, so they were all just a little surprised, but friendly. Davening began quite late at Hillel, followed by a communal dinner, where I got to meet other first years and grad students, all later year people not being allowed to move in for a bit. Shabbos day, davening followed by another communal lunch, but I was at the boring table with all the accompanying parents, so I left early and hung out and Rachel and Shmuli's all afternoon. Fun stuff. Then mincha, break and ma'ariv, after which I rushed back to my house meeting twenty some minutes late. We got various forms of house related information- there are about forty new or transfer students, of which around ten are female, and the upperclasspeople are moving in at the end of the week. We also had an icebreaker (Two truths and a lie- where each person tells two true facts about self and one lie and everyone else has to guess which is the lie- my semi-fluent Aramaic impressed people) Tomorrow we start real stuff- for me, registration, and for everyone, math testing. Some of you will see me tomorrow morning (7:30, right?) and so I can give more info then.
Missing you all (well, not you Rachel or Shmuli, because you're right here, but everyone else)

A New Word

2005-09-16T10:12:00.000-05:00

Today, Yosef told me that his bandaid would fall off when it got germs on it. Then he informed me that germs are 'perminacle'. I asked him what that word meant, and he didn't deign to define it for me. I asked him where he learned to the word, and he told me that he knew it, and didn't have to learn it.

I need my gossip

2005-09-15T21:31:00.000-05:00

I was driving home tonight, and the radio was set on a program where people can call in and request special songs for somebody they love. Normally, it's pretty innocuous, people say how much they love their spouses.

But, tonight a woman was calling in requesting a song for her ex-husband. According to her, certain incidents occured, and they had difficulties and now they're trying to get back together. But in the 5 minutes she spent talking she didn't give any details, just euphemisms about problems and losing respect, and working hard to resolve the issue. But the details sounded like they were good gossip.

I'm annoyed, because I'm really curious now. On Dr. Laura people can't get away with talking about 'difficulties'. If you want to share your problems with the world you should give all the humiliating details.

25 Years Ago

2005-09-15T15:55:00.000-05:00

today, my first wife was born.

A Job for the Really Desperate

2005-09-13T13:22:00.000-05:00

Unions have finally gotten efficient. They've outsourced picketing. You'd probably be shocked to learn the pay is lousy, the benefits are non-existant and the working conditions are terrible.

This Is Just Creepy

2005-09-11T14:03:00.000-05:00

In Taiwan, they extracted sperm from a man dead for two days so that his fiancee can eventually bear his child. I don't care whether she buried or cremated the body. But, this just isn't right, even though I can't identify which moral principal it violates.

Paternal nomenclature

2005-09-09T19:27:00.000-05:00

Well, my bold plan to have Tom call me "Old Man" has fizzled.

I just didn't have the guts to actually hear him say those words.

Right now, I am just calling myself "dad"
Now, if I can only get him to call me that too....

Aargh, Does NO one post on this thing?

2005-09-07T18:37:00.000-05:00

Well, I suppose the title pretty much says it all. Despite the fact that I am one of the more recent post-ers, I have stepped up to the plate once again. Not that it's easy, considering as I have my own blog to take care of AND everyone who cares about this one converses frequently anyway. But still, I do what I can, so the family will be treated to a quick description of the bathroom painting extravaganza.
Lesson- never, ever leave Talia in the house for more than 24 hours with nothing to do. Her first day back, she cooked an elaborate dinner. Her second day, she decided the downstairs bathroom needed to have the wallpaper removed and then be re-painte. On Thursday, we removed all the wallpaper, which is hard and disgusting due to the fact that the bathroom stinks, not that we assigning any blame for that. Ahem! On Friday she went to look for a job, but we were back at work on Sunday night, beginning at like ten o'clock and putting on a coat of primer and our first coat of paint and ending past midnight. The next day, we put on another coat and a decorative rim of wallpaper, so that you can't see our more glaring painting errors. The bathroom is now and lovely shade of pink (we tell Mike that it is peach, but only to make him feel better) and the house is awash with the intoxicating smell of new paint, which I love. Sometimes I purposely go into that room just to smell it.
And that's all the news from Lake Woebegone. Isn't it someone else's turn now?

Baruch Dayan Emet

2005-09-04T06:32:00.000-05:00

Rehnquist has just died.

This is New York-Over and Out

2005-08-26T14:47:00.000-05:00

Or something like that. its supposed to be a quote from apollo 13 right before they plunge through the atmosphere. in non-technical english it means that i'm leaving new york on monday
In homes across the country they are reading this blog and wondering-does she have a point or is she talking to hear the sound of her own fingers clicketing (very rapidly i should point out)
yesterday i was at a meeting and there were some israeli professors there and i spoke hebrew with them very well. when you speak hebrew you get so much more nosy. if i spoke to this professor who's head of biomedical engineering at stony brook in english i would be respectful and polite, but in hebrew i almost asked him-az nu matai atah chozer (so, nu, when are you coming back) but then i caught myself. at the meeting a bunch of groups were trying to get funding from this foundation so they had all these high schoolers on a summer program come down and explain their research-and they all used such fancy technical words that i struggled to follow and the practicle applications of their research ranged from solving the energy crisis on up. alas, Mother, when i pulled my controlling size of palldium nanoparticles by changing synthetic conditions and analyzing structure with EXAFS they all looked at me as if i was running a cooking show and had announced "now we're going to make macaroni and cheese". grrr-smart high school students. well maybe they'll give yu more funding because their poor students really need some more resources.
i hope i have amused you enought to make up for my rambling.
shabbat shalom!

Job interviews

2005-08-24T11:20:00.000-05:00

Given that I having been spending my time back home in an absurdly lazy manner, I decided that I would try to get some temp jobs, which are probably the only jobs I can get for only three weeks. So I checked out various temp agencies on the internet and called one up and scheduled a job interview. So far so good. Of course, I had wanted to schedule more than one appointment, but I didn't have the guts to tell this place no in case I got a job elsewhere or cancel my appointment, so I was stuck with this one. Come Monday morning, I got up early, dressed up in interview clothing, got my resume (the story of printing that one is a story of its own, which we shall not go into now), and went off to this place on Old Orchard Road, about a 15 minute drive. I arrived at 9:55, a few minutes before the interview, and the stupid office was locked. So I hung about, thinking that maybe they actually didn't open 'til 10, although that was somewhat ridiculous and then someone from another suite told me that they had moved. Hello! Did they not feel the need to inform me? We never discussed their location, but I don't think it was hasty of me to assume that the address on the internet was inaccurate, and if they recently moved, you'd think they'd tell people where they were in case the other person had the wrong information. So when I got home, I called them up and found the guts to cancel my appointment, since they were all the way out in Northbrook. And then I called up another place, interviewed there, and am currently waiting for them to get back to me when they find a job that fits.
That is not the point- the point is my massive annoyance at this other place that did not feel the need to tell me where they actually were located, nor did they feel in any way guilty for my trouble, etc. And also the point is that I posted on the family blog again, which I have not for a while and had to keep my hand in even if I didn't have anything particularly interesting to say.

Thank You Pat Robertson.

2005-08-23T16:47:00.000-05:00

Pat Robertson recently said that Hugo Chavez had to be eliminated since he was a tyrannical dictator. The National Council of Churches attacked him on the theory that if it is communist it is good. Hugo Chavez is the Castro of South America and this leads liberals including Jimmy Carter to support him even when he steals elections and crushes dissent.

Somebody needs to Tell the Left about Cars

2005-08-22T17:10:00.000-05:00

Juan Cole has a long screed against Bush. I particularly like this part: But working people, whom we on the left are supposed to be supporting, get to work on buses, and buses burn gasoline. If the bus ticket doubles or triples, people who make $10,000 a year feel it. In theory, buses are energy efficient, I doubt prices of gasoline change bus fares much, the major cost is probably the bus itself and the labor of the bus-driver. And fares are set politically, so costs don't really matter very much.

Actually, most people in the United States drives cars. Even, shockingly enough, working Democrats are much more likely to drive cars. Buses are good for energy efficiency because they pack people in, but they're horribly inefficient at actually getting people from point A to point B. Maybe the welfare of all the car-owners doesn't count in a moral sense, after all they're evil energy consumers. But our insane system of democracy counts everybody, even the ecologically insensitive.

Somebody is Missing the Point of Religion

2005-08-22T16:01:00.000-05:00

Today, Salon.com had a letter from a pagan concerned about sending her child to Catholic school. She was perceptive enough to realize the major problem. "When it came to the section on religion, the teacher assured non-Catholic parents not to worry, that the religious instruction would be inclusive because "we're all Christians here." As my husband put it, if my eyes were laser beams, the auditorium would have been filled with little piles of dust. That's my hot button: The attitude that all good, reasonable people must be Christians; none of you hippie Pagan liberal Buddhist types need show your face ... go speak to the teacher and explain our somewhat unique situation, and see if she seems amenable to some compromise, and if she isn't, to request that our child be moved to one of the other classes where the teachers seem a little less evangelical."

Of course, the advice columnist agreed with her worry, and agreed her son was being taught nonsense, though maybe it wasn't quite as offensive as she thought. I'm very grateful we have such tolerant people safeguarding us from Christianity.

Why is the Media So Self Centered?

2005-08-22T15:50:00.000-05:00

MSNBC had an article today about pregnant women being abused

With several high-profile cases in the news over the last year of homicides involving pregnant women, psychologist Robert Butterworth joined MSNBC's Amy Robach on Monday to discuss why this group may be at risk.

Sounds serious, except for one thing: the article hasn't the slightest trace of evidence that pregnant women are likely to be murdered. On the sidebar they say "homicide is one of the leading causes of death for pregnant women", but that's not very informative. Pregnant women are overwhelmingly under 45 and healthy (sick women aren't likely to be fertile, and it's probably not a good idea for them to get pregnant even if they could), so they're not likely to die of natural causes. So the only causes of death left are murder, suicide and accident. That means murder will be one of the leading causes of death, no matter how rare.

The media is obsessed with missing pregnant women beacause it's a good story. The media generally goes for missing women, and pregnancy makes it more exciting because it adds the idea of a time limit. They would be in heaven if there was a beautiful pregnant woman abducted by a shark who was also having an affair with another beautiful woman. That doesn't mean that pregnant women are likely to be kidnapped or murdered.

A Picture

2005-08-18T22:29:00.000-05:00

An Israeli soldier and his sister, a settler in Neve Dekalim, comfort each other near a synagogue.

Arafat

2005-08-17T08:33:00.000-05:00

The Atlantic Monthly had a really good article about Arafat (Sept. 2005). Its so exciting to pick up an American magazine and see a blunt title like "How Arafat Destroyed Palestine: the legacy of one man't corrupt person rule-through the eyes of those who knew him best"
(I think you need a subscription to read Atlantic Monthly stuff online so I won't link)
One of my favorite passages from the aritcle:
Al-Masri remembers sitting with Arafat one night in 1988 as the Palestinian leader negotiated a formula that would allow the United States to recognize the PLO. "They gave him the formula and he said it in a speech in Geneva, but he put in extra words so no one could figure out what he was saying," Al Masri remembers. "The Americans said 'No way!' so I stayed up all night with him and Dick Murphy, the assistant secretary of state, to work out what he must say. The formula was 'We totally and absolutely renounce all forms of terrorism.' So they called a press conference and he said everything right except instead of terrorism he said, "We announce tourism! We announce all forms of tourism!"

A Political Rant

2005-08-17T00:22:00.000-05:00

The whole notion of this Gaza engagement and the way the media is spinning it like its about time the Jews got out of Gaza and there are still some jews who are still protesting is ludicrous. Because it involves a people expected to be civilized and rational, the Jews, the Arabs, unwilling to act rationally, somehow use their lack of rationality as an asset. If Mexicans started claiming amarillo Texas was somehow acquired unfairly or unlawfully and then started blowing up Cheerleaders in Dallas to protest, George w. would never give him an inch of land.... but the Jews are expected to surpass the moral norm and sacrifice, and allow themselves to be shook down by an enemy whose only weapon is their lack of respect for human life............... and those arabs will never take that as a sign that they should give up the the homicide bombings, it only will teach them that to push israel into the sea they must bomb Jewish civillians.!!!!!!

Stupid Surveys

2005-08-16T18:52:00.000-05:00

I've been reading a book about unmarried couples. This book is insanely pro-unmarried couple, for example it is sympathetic to a woman who refused to marry in order to cheat the pension system, and who then doesn't get an inheritance after her boyfriend died.

But, I think the funniest line is "According to a Newsweek poll, three-quarters of Americans now say 'family' is 'a group of people who love and care for each other'". This is funny for three reasons: a)What were the other options? This sounds like one of those spoof 7-up commercials where they find that 80% prefer Coke to the alternative, but the alternative is dish-soap.
b)According to this, dysfunctional families are impossible, any time they're angry the family ceases to exist; c)Does one-way love count? If it does, then the entire Yankees team are part of Mike's family.

Petty Authors

2005-08-16T16:16:00.000-05:00

It is common for books to start with a dedication to the author's family. Normally, the dedication talks about how much the author loves them. However, today I was doing research on the sexual revolution (and whether it was connected to the introduction of birth control pills). I found that people writing books on divorce often write nasty things about their ex-spouses in the dedication. I think it's a very bad idea, I don't take somebody's opinion seriously when the only thing I know about their personality is how much they hated their spouse.

Stupid Slogans

2005-08-16T12:18:00.000-05:00

Today, the University was having somebody clean out the catchment basins in our courtyard (I don't know what that is, but it involves a huge hose and a big truck parked in the street). The University is a socially conscious company, so the company is called "Enviromental Liquids". Underneath the title is the slogan "As reliable as a windmill".
Windmills are incredibly unreliable, because they only work if the wind is blowing. And it can't just be any wind, it needs to be steady wind coming, not gusts back and forth. I wouldn't want to live in a civilization that relies on windmills. (This regularly scheduled program has been canceled until the thunderstorm resumes and your TV's get more power).

More pics

2005-08-15T22:44:00.000-05:00

Disengagement

2005-08-15T00:12:00.000-05:00

I don't know if any of you have been conscious of this, but I feel conspicuously silent on the topic of disengagement. Two posts I devoted to the petty politics of Bar Ilan, and not a single post pretending an insider position on the disengagement issue.
If you are hoping for the real scoop on Israeli public opinion, or better yet what the day after will be like I'll admit complete ignorance. I probably know more than you guys but much less than other people who profess knowing.
Disengagement was originally scheduled during the Three Weeks and the government postponed it to show consideration for the Religious Zionist community (or perhaps to lession the religous zealousness of their cause), but officially making it illegal to be in Gush Katif (Gaza) the night after Tisha B'Av gave disengagement back all the historic timing.
I heard a lot of speeches since I came back to America, many predicated with "no matter how you feel about disengagement..." and the rest making no such pretenses at neutrality. I have forgiven American Jewry the right to have opinions on how Israelis govern their state, we need American Jewry not just because of the financial support and the pressure they put on America but because you don't reject people who truly care about your future. I have made peace with almost all opinions in the mouth of Americans except "Yehudi lo m'garesh Yehudi" (translated as: a Jew does not/should not expel another Jew). That statement crosses the threshold of dictating moral standards without any responsibilty for the consequences of that statement.
This post is not supposed to be about me and the way I am coping with being in America for disengagement. (But while we are on the subject I can say very badly, accompanied by a persistent gnawing in the pit of my stomach that I'm following Elimelech of Megilat Rut-deserting the country in famine.)
I don't know what will happen in the end. CNN had a headline today "violence breaks out in Gaza withdrawl" but the article revealed more rowdy than malicious behavior. I want to promise that we won't let it happen again, that there will be restraint, but if disengagement teaches us anything it is that we don't write history as it should be with a happily ever after ending.
I've been trying to conclude this post for two days now and I'm unable to find the few sentences to wrap it up in a neat package. I guess all I want to say from this is please pray for the Jewish People, the State of Israel and don't give up hope on us.

Typing

2005-08-12T14:05:00.000-05:00

Ever since I took Mavis Beacon back in ninth grade (almost for a whole year of computer class, if not two. But don't get me started on Hanna Sacks curriculum), I guess I've sort of taken the ability to type for granted. So much that I currently can't compose anything, even an essay, past a first draft on paper. The whole editing process only works through computer for me. Which is fine, when you can type, so it seemed like a fine system.
Until today. (Da-DUM!) Today I had to type a paper in Hebrew for my summer Kollel thing, and it took me over five hours to transcribe six written pages. Of course, a lot of that was also editing and correcting and I think that the whole paper is a lot better now, but even so. Five blinking hours. Pen pecking letter by letter and everything. And some of that on a laptop that for no particular reason would change the line I was typing on or start typing over some other things I'd written. Aargh. The only good thing about the whole process was that the paper is now a lot more compact than it would have been- anything that wasn't absolutely necessary got left out, because it wasn't worth ten minutes to say. Think how different this post, for example, would be if I only had to type what needed to be said. It would read something like this, I suppose "Typing's useful. Hebrew is annoying."

Shabbat Shalom!

2005-08-12T11:55:00.000-05:00

I am writing from the annals of National Synchtron Light Source monitoring my samples (aka glancing at a computer screen every 5 min). The really glamorous part of life in a presitgious national lab: everyone has their $10 own coffepot at their desk; second rate scientists, lowly academics, and the average business guy have the time to gather at the communal coffee pot.

2005-08-11T17:54:00.000-05:00

Rally at the Kotel.

mike is setting this up for me because I again got overwhelmed with the technology and couldn't post it today at work.. I wish I would have been able to post it from work, because you bet I would have attached pictures of the giant disengagement rally that were e-mailed to me. I was so overwhelmed by the numbers, and the different kinds of people that were crammed in together--all of one heart and all in so many minyans. Chassids with orange on their black hats, secular, modern, young old. I could feel their strength and I wish, I wish that this unity could stay.

The hidden Ball Trick

2005-08-11T13:31:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the Marlins pulled off the hidden-ball trick with the tying run on third. Trivia Question who hods the modern day record for most times being picked off by the hidden ball trick. Hint he's a manager now.

Doing my best to beat Joe

2005-08-09T22:46:00.000-05:00

I have started my own blog so I won't be posting here as much. I also filled in my profile so anyone interested can view it. I hope Shmuli gets the link title and I apologize to Mike Carminiti and Michael Lewis for my stealing of their phrases.

Deep Theology

2005-08-09T12:13:00.000-05:00

This morning, Yosef told me that milk comes from cows, so we don't have to thank God for milk. It told him that God made cows, then he said "Thank you" to God in English.

PBS pushes polygamy

2005-08-09T11:58:00.000-05:00

Today, Barney had a show about the different types of families. It started out when the children opened one of the nesting dolls. Inside the nesting dolls was a family. The first doll was obviously a man, he appeared to be Turkish. The second and third dolls were identical looking adult women. They had their heads covered in what could be Muslim hijab, though many nesting dolls cover the hair to save drawing costs. Then children on the show ask about different types of families, and the show switched to singing about how all the different types of family are good. (Standard liberal line of married parents good, divorced parents good, no parents good).

As an economist and an Orthodox Jew, I have no strong objection to polygamy in theory. But I thought that the Christian Right and the atheistic Left were united in opposition to polygamy. Why is PBS pushing something this controversial?

Profile Views

2005-08-07T22:04:00.000-05:00

Was just checking the blog when i came upon the User stats portion of the profile, I was horrified to see Rachel dominating the field with a whopping 505 profile views Shmuli is next with 244, and everyone else is lagging well behind. I am dominating Young Mike though 44-32... Now if everyone can just click on my profile 450 or so times, at preferrably 450 different computers, we can have a real battle on our hands

Pictures Just afew hard to load many

2005-08-07T10:50:00.000-05:00

Chemistry Lessons

2005-08-07T10:37:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, Yosef told me that water is called H2O. I responded by telling him that it's called that because water comes from hydrogen, which is H, and Oxygen, which is O.

He wasn't fooled by my ridiculous stories. He condescendingly told me that water comes from a hose, H-O-S-E.

Funny Cartoon

2005-08-06T23:29:00.000-05:00

I found this cartoon hilarious

A New Theology

2005-08-04T08:25:00.000-05:00

Yosef has been talking about God a lot recently. Most of his statements are stuff like God lives in clouds; God's a giant. Sometimes they are strange theologically (He confuses we can't see God with he can't see us), but they normally make some sort of sense.

This morning however, he told me "I know a boy with no feet. His name is God". He then explained that God walks on his tummy.

I first thought that maybe he was thinking of Buddha, who's been a regular character on the Simpsons. I suppose the lotus posture might look like he doesn't have feet. But he said he didn't see God on TV. I'm putting it up to the collective family mind to figure out what Yosef was thinking.

Nanoparticles and niceties

2005-08-03T13:20:00.000-05:00

I can see that everyone has been stunned by the travesty of the USA Today's column and is terrified to post on the blog again. I am proud to break to the fearful silence.
Anyway, I've been in NYC since last Friday. I spent Shabbos with Sima Rochel at her grandparents in Queens and I've been staying in a Stern dorm apartment in Manhattan (184 Lexington) since Sunday. This Shabbos I'm going to spend with Tobie in Boston.
Now you're all thinking enough with the niceties, we want the dirt on the nanoparticles. Well since Monday I've been 9-6 in the lab. (I know that doesn't sound so bad, but an academic lifestyle is supposed to be less rigorous-like that of my professor as I'll explain later.) Synthesizing is only a small part of the action-the real drama is trying to avoid being caught up in the power struggle/blame game in the chemistry department at Stern. My research is officially part of the physics dept but since we're synthesizing all the work is done in the chemistry labs. We bought the basic materials ourselves but all those little things-like gloves, kimwipes, abs0lute ethanol-my professor didn't order so we end up begging/borrowing/stealing from the chemistry department. Unfortunately me and my friend get all the yelling at for materials that we're missing because our professor has a schedule that involves coming every other day from 12-5. Our only satisfaction is that every time he comes he needs to spend an hour aplogizing and kissing up to the chemistry powers.
Our nanoparticles are beautiful
and small
they are raven black
except 1:3
resembling
oj.

A travesty of a column

2005-07-28T15:43:00.000-05:00

USA today published an offensive and obscene column which was wrong no it wasn't ppolitical but anyone who listens to the White Sox on the radio will agree with me. see here

The Sister who mysteriously fell of the Face of the Blog for weeks at a time

2005-07-27T21:58:00.000-05:00

Not as clever as Talia's title, perhaps, but nonetheless descriptive.

Oh, family, family, darling, darling, much-missed family! To be perfectly fair this post should be an in-depth description of the craziness that is my summer, but I just wrote a long summary of all that for my friends, and those of you who really care have probablyu discovered it in person or through the Momophone.
So instead I will be true to family tradition and talk politics. I happen to have a great chance to do that, since I am surrounded in the Kollel by leftists, which I suppose is status quo for Boston, although the director is more libertarian/ conservative. But anyway, most of the boys are the real deal, Bush-bashing, universal health care pushing, you name it. One is a self descriped Marxist and says that the Vietname War was wrong not for the traditional reasons, but because Communism is good and it would have been great if they would have come to America. I kid you not, nor do I Exaggerate. But he is a bit nutty and atypical, to be fair.
A couple of days ago we went to a rally about Darfur as a group. I really think the cause is an important one, but I could not stop cracking up. Rabble rousing in general amuses me, but alos becuase it was so anti-Bush. All the speakers yelled at him for not doing enoug, although no one suggested yelling at the UN. One of the best gimmicks was sending him a giant watch, because his must be broken, because he said that he would not allow genocide on his watch. Get it? I don't. The pun is so poor that it almost makes you think that they're stupid enough have gotten the meanings mixed up. But it did get a big round of applause.

I should write more, but I'm too tired.

Love and miss you all.

The Day in Talk

2005-07-26T21:46:00.000-05:00

Today talk radio was particularly interesting which each host having a unique theme. First Dennis Prager had a Dutch conservative columnist on. The columnist said he thought the Dutch people were actually conservative regarding their country while liberal otherwise. They talked about the Dutch reaction to terror and also the reaction to the assasination of Van Gogh and the columnist who was running for prime minister and killed by an animal-rights nut job. Then Michael Medved talked about his money topic the decline of Hollywood. He felt that the problem was values and though I agree I'd say that they made more money for a long time with bad values the real problem is that they make bad movies. Think of the last time the main movies of a week weren't remakes or sequels. Also the previews for Wedding-Crashers make it look stupid and from experience Star Wars was comicly bad.
I have to say a well made logical movie with bad values is probably more interesting than the most moral movie without talent. Example Monty Python is more entertaining then where did the Aleph Beis Go?. Also In the category of at least it wasn't Woody Allen Oliver Stone will direct the first 9/11 movie. (Spoiler Karl Rove was really the 20th hijacker and the administration did it to get oil and kill the airline unions.)
Michael Savage was his usual crazy self. If you have been following Tom Tancredo's remarks then you will realize even the conservatives are backing off of it. However Mr. Savage felt that the conservativre movement is dead since only Mr. Tancredo is standing by the remark to nuke Mecca. Tancredo answers my question of what Michael Savage would be like if he held elective office.
Hugh Hewitt rounded out the day with an attempt to fix his lack of counterbalance to The SoCal head of CAIR. Basically he was looking to show he didn't stand with Tancredo so he brought the head of Cair on. Throughout the interview when he sidestepped questions like do you support Hamas and does Israel have a right to exist. Mr. Hewitt was looking for a counterpoint. unfortunately the only one he could find was Dr. Morey who had written a book advocating the threat of nuking Mecca. When pressed for a source he would say look at World Net Daily or Jack Morriss's intelligence site. Today Hugh brought the SoCal head of CAIR back on with Hugh's expert Frank Gaffney against him. The head of CAIR was clearly exposed as supporting terrorism. See here for transcript

Strange New York Times Lines

2005-07-24T10:42:00.000-05:00

The New York Times has an article today about an Orthodox Rabbi associating with evangelicals. So far, one paragraph has jumped out at me:

In 1980, the head of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Rev. Bailey Smith, seemed to confirm this stereotype when he publicly declared that ''God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew.'' The grandees of the Jewish establishment were outraged, but Eckstein saw an opportunity. He contacted Smith and offered to accompany him on a trip to Israel.
In Jerusalem, Smith and Eckstein were given the royal treatment. Prime Minister Menachem Begin, having previously lost seven straight national elections, had few illusions about the efficacy of Jewish prayer.

I'm in general pretty dubious about testing whether prayer works. But its truly bizarre to claim that prayer doesn't work because people lose elections. After all, everybody is praying that their candidate wins the election, so we should expect God favors the side with more votes. Strangely enough, that's exactly who wins ( in a well functioning democracy).

Do not challenge me

2005-07-21T18:25:00.000-05:00

for my prescience is unparalleled. As evidence I give you my posts here and here with my predictions. Notice both are dated prior to the events I accurately predicted.

The Secret Order?

2005-07-21T18:14:00.000-05:00

In my first day of work for the Republicans I was asked to look up consultant who offered his services and see if he was a Republican. (I know I sound like J. Edgar Hoover.) And One of the major results on his googled name was that he was a Mason (Not J. Mason). This leaves a question to all the conspiracy buffs. Why would an order plotting world domination put its members so prominently up on a website.

Liveblogging Propaganda

2005-07-21T15:35:00.000-05:00

I currently being used to produce propaganda for the University of Chicago. Even as I write, I am being carefully posed for pictures in a brochure for the GSB. The photographer just gave us a lecture, telling us that even though we are PHd students and very smart, he's a professional photographer, and knows how to make pictures that look natural. So far, the photographer hasn't done very much unnatural. He hasn't given us make-up, or more attractive clothing (Nobody would believe the pictures if we showed any sense of style). However, I am in my second room of a few minutes, and I may go to the computer room soon.
Even though all the people in the pictures are reall students, they are wildly misleading. Through random chance most of the students around today are women. If any of my readers ever apply to the University of Chicago GSB do not be misled, the students are mostly men. The students who happened to be around accurately reflected the diversity of the phd students, mostly white and a decent number of Asians and Indians. In an accurate reflection of the class, almost 50% of the people are Jewish. The photographer has a website http://www.dandry.com/, so we can see if the pictures ever show up.

Roberts is old news

2005-07-21T14:08:00.000-05:00

The question is, who's next.

According to news accounts, Bush interviewed five candidates over the weekend. Roberts, Wilkinson, Luttig, Edith Clement, and Edith Jones. Three premier jurists, two women, and no hispanics. Roberts got the nod, of course. Are the other four in the running for the next retirement? Bush may feel that he can only afford one white male, and Luttig and Wilkinson missed their best shot. On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised that Bush ignored PC orthodoxy with this pick and may do so again. In any case Luttig and Wilkinson probably head the white male non-Senator category for the future. If Bush was sincerely interviewing Clement and Jones then they correspondingly probably head the female category. It is possible that Bush had already decided to name one of the men and had the Ediths along for show. If so, they may not actually head the female category.

The third category is hispanic and the question is what happened to Garza? If Garza's confirmation is at issue , it would be because he has explicitly criticized Roe in a concurrence applying Roe. Edith Jones has done the same, however and was still a finalist. I suspect that Bush wants to appoint Gonzalez to the Court, but will do so only when one of the liberal justices retires and if Rhenquist is replaced by someone the "base" trusts. If Rhenquist and Stevens go together, I think Bush will go with Gonzalez as CJ and Edith Jones as AJ. If Rhenquist goes next alone, I think it's Roberts as CJ and one of the Ediths as AJ. If Stevens goes first Bush will go Gonzo unless he thinks the "base" will feel betrayed, in which case he chooses Edith Clement.

The Sister Who Said Shalom

2005-07-21T02:10:00.000-05:00

(Yes, I think only Tobie will get that reference. Out of desperation I started reading this really poorly written Jewish(e.g. references to mother guilting)/Israeli (e.g. references to falafel) detective story. Just to make sure that people buy the book out of tribal identification its called The Murderer Who Said Shalom.)

Anyway I've got a week left in Bar Ilan and then I fly to New York next thursday to begin research on p_l__d__m n_n_p__t____s (checking how well you read previous posting). Tobie I'd like to speak to you not just to find out how life in kollel is going but also to make plans to see you. Could you email me when's a good time to call you (within the frameworks of 8am-2am my time). tallis1121@yahoo.com

Thank you to Rachel for entrusting me with your credit card information. For anyone who doesn't read the comments on old posts we sent flowers to Uncle Beck and sons and its from all the kids in our family (its supposed to be delivered today).

It's such a great title for a post that I feel I should load it up with more information, but that's about all I have to say.

The New York Times is Creepy

2005-07-18T10:56:00.000-05:00

The New York Times has hated political blogs for a long time. But that hatred at least makes sense, the political blogs disagree with and vehemently criticize the New York Times. But they're now sliming everybody with a personal blog. Yesterday they had article by a woman who read her nanny's blog, and then gathered all the embarassing parts and reported them out of context. This article is legal, after all the goal of a blog is for random strangers to read about your personal life. But it's not fair, especially because the New York Times doesn't link to the blog, so readers won't get the nanny's side of the story. If you want her reply go to http://subvic.blogspot.com/2005/07/sorry-to-disappoint-you.html.

Is Janice Rodgers Brown a liberal judge?

2005-07-18T10:09:00.000-05:00

Todd Zwycki comments on a study of decisions by six judges who are considered Supreme Court possibilities. The ranking from the study is not what I would have expected with Janice Rodgers Brown the least conservative and Wilkinson the most.

Judge	Composite Ideology
Janice Rodgers Brown (SCOCA)	59.9
Frank Easterbrook	68.8
Emilio Garza	70.4
Edith Jones	71.3
J. Michael Luttig	68.2
J. Harvie Wilkinson	79.5
U.S. Court of Appeals Average	64.4

There are three components: criminal justice, civil rights and liberties, and economic and labor regulation. It may be that Janice Rodgers Brown's score reflects different sorts of cases heard in California's Supreme Court or perhaps just different law being applied.

Toilet Training for Normal People

2005-07-17T18:07:00.000-05:00

When toilet training a young boy it is best to dress him in shirts perhaps a little short.

New photos

2005-07-17T11:18:00.000-05:00

We have new photos on our web site!

http://www.waders.org/gallery/joana

kelo-continued

2005-07-11T17:06:00.000-05:00

And now for the rest of the story. The City of New London redevelopment projected envisioned a riverwalk (I guess a riverfront boardwalk), restaurants, stores and a museum. But the nub of the dispute in the Supreme Court was a parcel to be taken to build an office building for Pfizer, something that certainly feels like a private use but also the economic anchor of the project and key to generating the 1,000 new jobs the project was supposed to create.
OK. Justice Stevens wrote an opinion joined by Justices Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer and Kennedy, which said that public use has been interpreted to mean public purpose since the 19th Century and that economic development is indistinguishable from the public purposes that have been found to be sufficient in the Court's earlier cases on the subject. If there is a problem here, States can deal with it through their own state constitutions and eminent domain laws.
Justice Kennedy wrote a concurring opinion in which he said that if the primary purpose had been to benefit private parties, and the public benefits were only incidental, he would say the taking was unconstitutional but here the record showed to his satisfaction that the primary purpose was to benefit the public and the private benefits were incidental
Justice O'Connor wrote a dissent joined by Justices Scalia and Thomas and Chief Justice Rehnquist. O'Connor said that economic development should not be regarded as a legitimate public use to justify the taking of unblighted private property. She also said that the rule adopted by the Court was particularly bad for the poor and minorities whose properties were most likely to be underdeveloped and who have less political clout.
Justice Thomas wrote a separate dissent, for himself alone, which said that the Supreme Court's precedents on the subject (dating back to 1896) were wrong and that public use should be limited to property that the government takes for itself or gives the public the right to use.
OK. What do I think? Hard case. Good arguments on both sides. Potential bad consequences however the case is resolved. I'm going to reserve judgment a while. You be the judges. What do you think?

Chaim's speech Assessment

2005-07-11T12:41:00.000-05:00

Today Chaim had an evaluation by the Chicago Public Schools. The psychologist and speech therapist were very nice to him, and they seemed to know what they were doing, but I doubt they were able to get good data. Instead, they mostly got to observe Chaim throwing a tantrum. Part of this was CPS's fault, they are willing to spend hundreds of dollars (my estimate of the cost, I have no numbers) to evaluate a child, but not willing to make sure the evaluation works.

1)The waiting room had no toys, and the TV wasn't working. I'm not a child psychologist, but I'm pretty sure that preschool children don't sit quietly in chairs and wait nicely.

2)They scheduled the appointments all on one day. Before the evaluation, I was happy with it, because it was convenient for me. But it was obviously too much for Chaim, he was willing to go along with the psychologist for 45 minutes, but he wasn't happy with the speech therapist (she also took his pacifier away, which never improves his mood). By the time he got to the vision and hearing screen he absolutely refused to participate, and my meeting with the nurse was done while listening to him tantrum for 15 minutes, and then fall asleep. If there had been 3 separate appointments he probably would have been adequate for all 3.

3)The normal procedure is to meet with the parents and decide everything right after the assessments. We were warned in advance, so we rescheduled the meeting, otherwise I would have had to make decisions while dealing with Chaim, and not able to consult Shmuli.

Of course, a lot of Chaim's problems were my fault too. I should have made sure he got to bed earlier (He fell asleep at 9:45 and then got up at 7:00). I shouldn't have brought his pacifier with me, I was hoping he would willingly spit it out in the car, but I knew I was taking a big chance. Nevertheless, I'm always happy to blame a big bureaucracy, rather than my own decisions.

Aunt Shirley

2005-07-11T09:54:00.000-05:00

If you'd like to write a card to the family the address is:
335 Central Ave
Wilmette, IL 60091-1941
I really feel that Aunt Shirley cared for the kids of our family so much and was always interested in our lives and seeing us and feeding us even if it entailed so much more effort and so something from us would be especially meaningful.

It might also be nice if we send flowers together. I don't have a credit card-but if someone else has I would be happy to chip in.

Baruch Dayan Emet

2005-07-10T22:12:00.000-05:00

Aunt Shirley died today. The funeral will be in Sheboygan on Tuesday. I remember going to her house for parties so many times, from when I was a little kid, to Dad and Aunt Charlotte's birthday party last year. It must have been so hard to plan a nice party, and then clean up after all the little kids, but she always loved us so much. I hope that she is now enjoying a party where somebody else does all the work.

KiddyLAnd photos couldn't get em all

2005-07-10T11:23:00.000-05:00

Kashrut in Israel.

2005-07-09T21:57:00.000-05:00

Talia I've heard from R' Moshe that some Mehadrin hechshers in Ramat Beit Shemesh are saying that a restaraunt open past 7:00 p.m. (kollel time) isn't kosher is this true.

Kelo

2005-07-08T17:53:00.000-05:00

I saw in the newspaper today that legislation has been introduced to overturn, or restrict the impact of, the Supreme Court's Kelo decision. Among the co-sponsors are Tom Delay and Maxine Waters.
I also read the decision today. Fascinating. Let me tell you about it.
The facts are fairly simple. As part of a redevelopment project intended to improve the City's economy and tax base, and after hearings, and a promise to pay just compensation, the City of New London used its eminent domain power to take private homes that were not blighted to sell the land to other private entities that planned to build restaurants and offices. Was this constitutional?
I'll be old-fashioned and start with the text. The Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says that no State shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property "without due process of law." What does that mean? It could mean that States have to follow established procedures when they deprive people of life, liberty or property, which isn't much of a restriction and wouldn't protect the private home owners in New London. It could mean that States cannot deprive people of life, liberty or property in an unfair way (or a fundamentally unfair way), which could mean anything. As it happens, the Supreme Court has said that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment so, rather than puzzle over the myriad possible meanings of the Fourteenth Amendment, we can turn to the more specific Fifth Amendment.
The Fifth Amendment says "nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation." OK. So just compensation is required. But that's not the issue. The question is whether it was OK to take private property from one person to sell that private property to another person. What does the Fifth Amendment say about that? Well, it doesn't specifically. It says private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation. Does that mean that the Fifth Amendment is not regulating what the government has to pay when it takes private property for private use? Linguistically possible, but dumb. Does it mean that the government has to pay just compensation when it takes private propery, even if the taking is for public use. Possible. But that sort of leaves the words "public use" as surplusage. Does it mean that the government cannot take private property except for public use and then only if it pays just compensation? Well, that seems fairer and probably what they had in mind, even if they didn't say it so precisely.
There was an opinion of a Supreme Court Justice in 1798 (each Justice would give his own opinion back then, a practice we seem to be returning to) which said that if a legislative act (I won't even call it a law, the opinion said) took property from A to give it to be that would be contrary to fundamental principles of government. So that idea is probably what is behind the words "public use" in the Fifth Amendment. Anyway, that is the view of everyone on today's Supreme Court.
OK it is fundamentally wrong for the government to take property from A simply to give it to B. Is that because the governmental action would have no legitimate public purpose? Or some other reason? Do the words "public use" mean something other than "public purpose." If so, what?
Justice Holmes said that, in understanding the law, a page of history is worth a volume of logic. So what's the history here. When the Fifth Amendment was ratified, some States had Mill Acts which allowed owners of grist mills (which were regulated and had to be open to all customers) to flood upstream land, I guess with mill dams, if they paid just compensation to upstream landowners. In the 19th Century, there were laws passed extending the same rights to private factories and allowing eminent domain for private roads.
The Supreme Court has had a number of cases in which takings were challenged as violative of the Public Use requirement. All of them passed muster and, it seems until this year, without much if anything in the way of dissent. Around the end of the 19th Century, there were cases approving takings for irrigation ditches. There is a Holmes opinion which let a mineowner who build an overhead tram over someone else's land to get his ore to market. In the 1950's the Supreme Court approved an urban renewal project in D.C. which replaced blighted private property (and some unblighted) with more upscale private development. There was a land reform case from Hawaii in the 1980's. Apparently, private ownership was concentrated in relatively few hands: on the island of Ohau some 22 people owned something like 72% of the land. To free up the market, the State transferred fee simple title to tenants, with just compensation to the landowners, and the Supreme Court said this was OK. Another case said that in reviewing pesticide applications the EPA could rely on data supplied by a prior applicant, if the second applicant paid just compensation to the prior applicant for use of its data. OK. So taking property from A to give it to B was wrong, in theory, under certain circumstances, but the Supreme Court had never actually found those circumstances. And public use could mean public purpose, which was required for all governmental actions, not just eminent domain.
OK so much for the background. What did the Supreme Court do? I'll tell you later.

Should Bush appoint a politician or a judge?

2005-07-08T16:53:00.000-05:00

Recently Senators Reid, Spector, and Schumer have been suggesting that Bush look outside the judiciary for a Supreme Court nominee. This recalls Clinton's desire to appoint a "big-hearted" politician such as Babbit, Cuomo, or Mitchell to the Court. Clinton backed down because of the likely opposition such politicians would have faced compared to judges like Ginsburg or Breyer. The reason, though, that he initially wanted such nominees was that he believed they would be more likely to implement "big-hearted" policies (i.e. act as super-legislators rather than judges). I suspect that is one reason these Senators want Bush to look outside the judiciary for nominees.

The other obvious reason is that they are Senators and like the idea of once again making the Senate a major souce of Supreme Court nominees. I think this reason is somewhat misguided. A major reason Presidents liked to apponit Senators to the Court, as well as the cabinet, was Senatorial courtesy. Nominees that would otherwise be considered unacceptable would be confirmed. FDR's appointment of Hugo Black is an example. FDR did not believe he could get through as liberal a nominee as Black (today Black would be labeled a right-wing extremist) without the benefit of Senatorial courtesy. The Democrats in the Senate, however, do not seem inclined to allow all Senators through, even the most qualified such as Cornyn. Presidents therefore have a reduced desire to appoint from the Senate.

Supreme Court Reform

2005-07-08T16:19:00.000-05:00

If the GOP really cared about reducing judicial activism they have a wonderful opportunity right now to introduce amendments that would serve this purpose. The Democrats may be more amenable because of Bush's potential to change the direction of the court. My own pet idea is to introduce 9 year terms so that there is one appointment a year. The justices would still have life tenure as appelate court judges. I believe that such a court would act less like a super legislature and defer more to Congress. Further, I suspect that such a Court would look more to the actual constitution when striking down legislation.

In Your Face, Mike

2005-07-08T15:22:00.000-05:00

Drudge says Rhenquist is going today. Mike called into question the accuracy of my earlier post linking to a predicition that Rhenquist would resign this week.

Well ha, ha, ha.

BTW, the earlier post had only said O'Connor would be gone by Labor Day. She's gone before Labor Day, so I guess I'm batting 1.000.

This, young Michael, is how you write a gloat post.

Why you never want more than 2 army guys at a shabbos meal

2005-07-06T14:31:00.000-05:00

http://menacheminisrael.blogspot.com/2005/07/food-for-thought.html

Supreme Court gossip

2005-07-06T07:50:00.000-05:00

Eric at Red State reports that business interests are opposed to Luttig because he is too much of a Scalia clone and would support regulatory agencies against business interests. I wonder, though, is there anybody on the court today that doesn't normally support regulatory agencies against business interests?

Tobie Contact

2005-07-05T20:48:00.000-05:00

Tobie please email Mom a phone number at which you can be reached

Aunt Shirley

2005-07-05T18:41:00.000-05:00

It is so sad to tell everyone that Aunt Shirley is gravely ill. About a month ago she went in for a procedure, and although the procedure was successful, she struggled to recover from the surgery. She spent two weeks in intensive care, and then a week in the main hospital. She had gone to Lieberman for rehab, but after a day they sent her back to the hospital. I saw her yesterday morning, and she was sitting up and cheerful, but in much pain. Yesterday afternoon she went into cardiac arrest. They believe that she was in the room like that for an hour. They did manage to get her heart going again, but she has not regained conciousness. She is in a coma now, being kept alive in every system by machines. Oh how my heart goes out for her! The nurse says that she is unable to feel pain, so that is a blessing.

I surely hope that her sweetness and kindness will be a merit for her to have a complete recovery, but I fear that soon decisions will be made about her that I wish no one would ever have to make, so now I am praying that she have a gentle, natural death. God has such a reward for her, because although she got so little love in her life, she did not become bitter and hard, but all the more loving and kind. And I pray that she soon will surrounded by all the love that she deserves so much.

Please pray for her recovery: Shayna Bayla bas Nechama Rivka

Reading the Newspaper

2005-07-05T02:44:00.000-05:00

The other day when I took the train up to Haifa I decided to buy a paper to make it a well rounded adventure. Although not all papers in Israel are like this I was amazed at the lack of objective journalism.
On the second page they had a legitimate news item about how during disengagement in August most of the police will be in Gaza and there will be less control over regular crime and how they found an internal memo of the police department about which crimes they will delay investigating and which will close without investigation during disengagement. In the box on the side they had an "article" describing the meeting of the underworld in a ritzy hotel in Tel Aviv describing how they want to funnel as much money as possible to the anti-disengagement people so they can procede unchecked with their gambling, prostitution, drug trade etc. [Nowhere on the article did they mark it as fictional.]
And then on the last page there was an article about how the former sephardic chief rabbi R' Mordechai Eliahu decided that most of our tehina isn't kosher since the sesame seeds need to be roasted by a Jew. (R' Ovadiah Yosef doesn't agree so continue eating your tehina.) And then they had an edtirialish/article in a box on the side saying: tehina lovers don't worry, we all remember when R' Eliyahu had an interview on TV strongly suggesting that he doesn't support soldiers refusing orders to evacuate and then the next day his offices came out with a statement that that's not what he meant and he thinks soldiers should refuse to evacuate. No matter how upset they are by his waffling on his position about seruv pekudah that doesn't give them the right to bring it up in reference to kashrut of tehina!
And the final amusing part in the newspaper was a big fight going on between netanyahu and sharon. Some minister proposed legislation to postpone disengagement 3 months, something that sharon was obviously opposed to and didn't have a chance of passing. The vote would have passed unnoticed except Netanyahu made a big deal informing the press that his conscious won't allow him to vote against the measure so he won't come the day of the vote. (Bibi is working really hard to get the right-wingers of likud for the next election without quitting this government. also at the disengagement vote he made a big deal about being conflicted and in the end came 1/2 hr late at the last call for votes and voted for disengagement). Sharon announce that if netanyahu didn't come to support his position he would kick him out of the government based on some knesset law that a minister who doesn't vote supporting the government can be removed. netanyahu countered that that law is only if the minister is in the building and doesn't vote but if he's not in the builiding at all sharon can't remove him.

The Declaration of Independence

2005-07-04T14:31:00.000-05:00

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Haifa

2005-07-04T03:15:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I had a free day that I didn't really need to study and a strong desire to see the world so I went up to Haifa for the day. (Seeing the world may be stretching it-Haifa's only a 50 min train ride from Tel Aviv.) B'kitzur (in short) Haifa is a beautiful city. The best way to describe its beauty is the flat expanse of the Mediterranean on one side and the mountains that rise immediately on the other. Its a beautiful city in that its built right into these mountains or along the coast, but at the same time it has the israeli simplicity of block like apartment building with trisim and mirpesaot with laundry hanging out overlooking a beautiful view of the sea. It also has an intellectual feel because of the two universities there-the University of Haifa and the Technion, or maybe because of the large Russian immigrant population.
Another thing that's really special about Haifa is that is has a large Arab population that does not live segregated but has regular neighborhoods mixed with Jewish ones. From my wanderings in Jerusalem I've picked up the habit- when you start hearing the pedestrians speak Arabic/look Arab retrace your steps back to familiar territory. It was strange then to be in Haifa and be able to walk through a nice middle-class neighborhood with a makolet (supermarket) advertising the weekly specials in Arabic and not feel like I needed to watch my back. (I apologize if this sounds prejudiced. I don't mean to be insulting Arabs, but to be safe sometimes you have to play by the stereotypes.) The beach in Haifa is also really beautiful. It feels more natural and less bleached than in Tel Aviv. At night people walk on the boardwalk- families, teenagers, couples. In town at night people sit out on their porches. In the Russian neighborhoods the parks are full of chess players.

Supreme Court Gossip

2005-07-03T14:37:00.001-05:00

I heard on the radio that some activist group (I think conservative) has raised $35 million to spend on the upcoming Supreme Court campaign. I believe that is more than Jimmy Carter spent to win the White House in 1976. A sad commentary on how political and powerful the Supreme Court has become.
It wasn't always this way. Once Supreme Court nominations were humdrum affairs. Once upon a time, the Supreme Court was a much more modest institution. Divisive social issues were left for States and localities to sort out for themselves. Some problems with that, to be sure. The Warren Court brought about many necessary reforms. And there is no way now to put the genie back in the bottle. Too many people want to make a wish. When Robert Bork suggested turning back the clock, he was run out of town on a rail. So the Court is left having to make what used to be regarded as political decisions and becomes all the more political in the process.
I guess I feel conflicted about the whole thing. In some ways, I would like the Supreme Court to be more like a court and less like a superlegislature. But I want to see, and am dependent on, federal courts being at least somewhat activist and helpful to the underdog. So ....