Tuesday, November 1. 2005
Top Daily Kos posts on Alito, at Decision 08 (thanks, Irish Pennants) Iran cracks down on mannequins: Ace Let the debate begin: Geo. Will Witches get tax breaks. Should have run this link yesterday. Who uses cell phones the most? Hispanics. Does exercise prevent breast cancer? What is an "extreme right winger"? Am. Thinker Alito: Champion of minority rights. Front Page.
American Exceptionalism Yes, I have thought it through several times and I do believe in it. Prager on the subject: "...as in nearly every other area of the Left-Right, blue-red divide in America, the attitude one has toward American exceptionalism ultimately lies in whether or not one wants America's values to remain Judeo-Christian." Read entire.
Misrepresenting Roe v. Wade With all the buzz surrounding Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito and his views on abortion, the same tired old fallacies regarding the Roe v. Wade decision have again been hauled out by the left, always eager to show how overturning Roe would force women to seek Ted Kennedy's infamous "back-alley abortions." Perhaps unsurprisingly, the MSM has been complicit in this distortion of the truth, as seen in the AP article here. A couple choice excerpts: "Samuel Alito's nomination on Monday fanned immediate concern among liberals, but sparked joy among religious conservative groups keen to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion." "Other opponents think Roe v Wade was improperly decided, quarrelling with legal reasoning that banning abortion would infringe privacy rights enshrined in the Constitution."
Can anyone spot the problem here? Since all Roe did was to prohibit states from legislating blanket bans on abortion, to say that it "legalized" abortion, or worse, as implied in the second quote, that overturning Roe would result in a ban on abortions, is simply dishonest, if not duplicitous. Prior to 1973, all state legislatures were free to legalize abortion, though many of course did not. It follows, then, that if Roe were overturned, no state would be compelled to ban abortions, though at least a few most likely would, with others enacting tighter restrictions on access. The matter would simply return to the states to decide - no more and no less. Roe was not exactly the black and white result that many on the left make it out to be, either, as it did allow exceptions to be made after the first three months of pregnancy, and left open a window for bans on abortion during the period when the fetus would be viable outside the womb (e.g. the notorious issue of "partial birth" abortions). Casting the debate strictly in terms of "banning" and "legalizing" abortion hardly helps the public understand the complexities of the decision. In any event, I think the true threat to the right to abortion in any state would not come from a repeal of Roe v. Wade, which makes its case from the perspective of an established right to privacy, but from a law which sought to establish the fetus as a legally protected entity with rights of its own. The beginnings of such legislation are in fact already on the books as the so-called "Laci's Law," which makes it a separate crime to kill or injure a fetus, and which allows the for a charge of murder for killing the fetus even if the mother survives. Though the law provides a specific exemption for abortion, the contradictions apparent in this distinction seem to have already laid the grounds for future lawsuits.
A wide-ranging interview with Harold Bloom The great Bloom discusses himself, aging, literature, wisdom, and, of course, Shakespeare: "He (Hamlet) is simply not the nicest guy in the world. He is as much a villain as he is a hero. He transcends these categories as he transcends any category. He knows too well, he understands too well, he has thought his way to the end of thought. As I read Shakespeare, even though he is humane, he has thought his way into the abyss, into nothingness. Even though Hamlet moves us because there are intimations of transcendence, nevertheless they are of... And I think Shakespeare knows it. I think it's the darkest literary work I have ever read and its implications are shattering." Read entire interview.
Our second installment of Nathan's diary: Click the Aliyah Diary category on upper left to learn what this is about. (Got to remind him to translate all of these Hebrew words into English, in parentheses, for us goyim.) Oct 14, 2005: Yom Kippur and Ariel
A seven year old's comment touches me and makes Yom kippur, although
I must wait until break-fast at her house to have the day fulfilled.
How to picture Yom Kippur in Ra'anana? the streets are empty of moving cars, instead filled with joyful children on bikes, rollerblading, playing. Some adults too are on wheels. I split my time between Kinor David and Shivtei Israel, sneaking off for a nap at 1 and missing the reading of Job (which I read by myself). Kinor David is nonstop praying from 730 am to a bit after 600 pm. At Kinor, they have put my Hebrew name on the white plastic chair I am to occupy: Naftali Sheinberg, in Hebrew. I do believe that for generations, my predecessors had prayed to see their names written like this in a land like this. But, a bit too much religion for me at least in one day. A bit more comfortable at Shivtei, despite the choir; Danny Beller the rabbi has an insouciant sense of humor, and I can slip out without being discovered. I recall being in a choir at age ten with Michael Osband's father; given a short solo, I warbled
the tears into it, singing to the women's section. Later, at break, Osband's pere dumps on me for stealing the show. I wasn't naive about this; I knew that I would sing into the hearts of the women. Perhaps like Amichai, I found the mehitza more enticing than foreboding.
I also thought about the Torah and one haftorah readings for these holidays: Rosh Hashanah starts with the birth of Isaac, and next reading is about Abraham's' near murder of his only son. The word's are short, powerful, Hebraic nomad language. I picture Sergio Leone, who did the Eastwood Spaghetti westerns, doing the laconic portrayal of these pre-cowboy laconic guys in desolate Beer-sheva. God: "Lech lecha", the same words he commands Abraham some 30 years earlier to leave his father's house, journey 1,000 or so "klicks" from fertile Crescent to desolate Beer-sheva basin, God now uses to command Abraham to kill his only son with Sarah (as he once told him to send his only, only soon, Ishmael into the wilderness with his mother). And Abraham's response: the obedient, "Hineni," a Steppin Fetchit kind
of, "Here I is, Boss." Then the reading on Yom Kippur: after God kills Aaron's two sons for the sin of ..... getting too close to God, He goes about business, telling Moses to tell Aaron how he needs to go into the mitbe'ach, the holy sanctuary, only after special cleansing of body and soul and the sacrifice of two rams (I think, rams); one to be butchered near the alter, the other sent into Azalzel, the wilderness which I believe shares a zipcode with where Ishmael was sent. Or at least the same ecosystem. Also, to sprinkle a dab of blood on the horns of the altar (Aaron shouldn't forget whom these two rams are a substitute for). I gather that some of the atmosphere of the mitbe'ach was a charnel house and the Cohanim, well, shochetim.
Continue reading "Guest Author: Aliyah Diary, Part 2"
More on Alito. WSJ opinion site: "Meanwhile, liberal interest groups are massing for battle--though this is as much about raising money for the 2006 election as it is about defeating Judge Alito. Red state Democrats won't be eager to filibuster a man of his credentials, especially when polls show that the vast majority of Americans share his views on abortion and church-state issues." Read entire.
Alito: Hewitt, Patterico, Right Thinking, Ex-Donkey, NPR for the Left: View from 1776 Islamic feminists: Protein. Moslems riot in Paris: Atlas El Salvador's secret: Acton Inst. More on Prince Charles: Samizdata MoDo update: No Oil Bush will discuss Avian Flu today at NIH
Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy. Margaret Thatcher
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