Jewish Press's Jason Maoz on Easterbrook writes:

(For readers interested in a thoughtful and well-written overview of the Easterbrook controversy, Steven Weiss, a contributor to the Forward and other publications, has just the article over at Jewsweek.com.)

Parsha Senryu, Parshas Noach
I'm not sure if I'll write more before the holy, holy Sabbath, but the ones from last year are actually pretty good.

Latest "Faith-Based" in Slate, on the Vatican's ownership of the term "Catholic."

Rebbetzin Jungreis responds to Malaysian Prime Minister
Mahathir. Personally, I doubt that he reads the Jewish Press...

For those of you who enjoyed Avraham's graduation story, be sure to check out how David Wallace graduated in a car dealership.

Satmar brawl in today's NYPost, in which a fight for succession of the current Satmar rebbe somehow led one faction to close a yeshiva "out of spite" for the other faction. No clue how that works, but okay. More info?

We've had lots of people asking/telling us to leave Blogspot for their respective servers, but we're not ready to leave Blogspot just yet. Mobius is the only person to offer us a redesign, and he did a fantabulous job; if anyone's looking for a redesign, he seems to do great work.
BTW: Anyone looking to blog at Jewschool (ostensibly instead of starting your own blog) should send an e-mail to FreshKyke@JewSchool.com.

Cypess produces a new superstition:

After Sukkot was over, I decided I'd freak people out and invent a superstition. This religious process is fun (sorta like how L. Ron created his own religion). The taboo: whatever condition your lulav & etrog are in after Sukkot, that's how you'll be next Sukkot.
It's got all characteristics of a good superstition: (1) fear of calamity, (2) inability to completely control outcome, and (3) nonsense.
I feel I have the authority to create this nahrschkeit because, ahem, my Lulav came out fresh & green, the stupid pitom didn't break, and even my aravot were live and limp.
Have fun.

Better Late Than Never: Yuter finally gets around to responding to the secular college issue that was raging, like, months ago. Clear, rational, and insightful as always. Thats why we keep him around (and by "keep around" I mean "send off to U of C").

David Adesnik has an interesting time at a lecture debunking the supposed supremacy of the Israeli military. The lecturer brought in the cogent point that all of Israel's wars have been against relatively crappy armies -- as the US discovered in the '91 Gulf War when the Iraqis retreated too fast for the US to flank them, and as we learned in March in Iraq.
The mythologizing certainly is prevalent. For as little interest as I have in Israeli military history, I have always known that the Israelis faced hugely daunting odds, yet according to Adesnik's lecturer, "in 1948 the Israelis outnumbered their opponents."
There's an obvious parallel here with what we discussed yesterday about misleading children in Jewish day school (and high school and college).
Now, I can't recall having heard anyone claim an Israeli military superiority to America on a "man for man" (what about women, David?) basis, as Adesnik apparently picked up in his day school education and as lots of adults in attendance at the lecture believed, but the fact that such a thought exists shows true agility in ignorance-seeking.
On the other hand, certain militaries are undeniably capable of developing specific methodologies that make them, at a given point in time, more capable at portions of the military endeavor than the US. Take, for instance, Norway, which is developing some very strong niche capabilities. Which leads us to the obvious US/Israel comparison of dealing with post-victory Iraq and an Intifada-engaged West Bank and Gaza. It is quite likely -- and there are indications thus far that this is the case -- that Israel is more capable at avoiding unnecessary civilian casualties in its anti-terror missions; it is possible that it is more capable at certain other anti-terror maneuvers.
But while there may be cause for some praise in Israel's development of an anti-terror capability, it is important to understand the import of this lecturer's message -- that Israel's achievements are not miraculous and never greater than excellent. This is relevant for providing a proper context to the opinions of right-wingers about how Israel can and should deal with terror. In the extreme-right, decidedly-racist camp that seeks to get all Palestinians out of Biblical Israel by whatever means necessary (to which Sharon may or may not belong), it is important to note that on a pragmatic, military level, Israel simply can't get it accomplished. In the less-extreme rightist camp, we still have an unrealistic viewpoint of Israeli military capability -- that it could, if unleashed, actually end terror.
Even for those who'll assert a might-makes-right approach to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, the plain reality is that Israel's military just doesn't have that might -- which isn't to say that other militaries do, just that the belief in what Israel should do often surpasses what it can do.
Military pragmatism isn't the only thing that makes the right-wingers wrong about Israel, but it is what makes them foolish.

Chareidi economic theory:

Gedolei Yisroel, led by Maran HaRav Sholom Yosef Eliashiv, shlita, have spoken out recently about the need to raise awareness on the obligation to safeguard educational purity of bnos Yisroel by preventing parents and their daughters from being lured by institutions offering professional training for girls outside the Bais Yaakov framework such as Magen and other institutes for professional training.
Maranan verabonon oppose setting up a rabbinical committee to head these institutions because these institutions do not provide chinuch in the true sense, but merely serve to provide career training. This is something that ein ruach chachomim nochoh mimenu and therefore there it is not proper to give them any sort of rabbinical endorsement, whether direct or indirect. This is due to their essential nature and also due to the stumbling blocks they have caused. It is clear that the proper place for bnos Yisroel is only in Bais Yaakov schools.

Basically, women are not supposed to get an education to earn a living, yet they have to raise the children by themselves and support their husband who's learning in kollel.

Mow 'em Down

Senator Trent Lott comments on U.S. response to recent attacks on coalition forces in Iraq:

“Honestly, it’s a little tougher than I thought it was going to be,” Lott said. In a sign of frustration, he offered an unorthodox military solution: “If we have to, we just mow the whole place down, see what happens. You’re dealing with insane suicide bombers who are killing our people, and we need to be very aggressive in taking them out.”

Chareidi music theory:

In earlier times, most of the non-Jewish music was respectable and could be used for singing with holy words. Even simple peasant music was clean and fit for playing at Jewish simchas. But in modern times, with the development of recording and radio and the entertainment business that catered to the masses, a new purpose was found for music -- to arouse the yetzer hora.
It is not a coincidence that the young generation in America began to rebel and discard any ideas of morality and respectful behavior exactly at the time that rock and roll music was introduced. Therefore we must take care to avoid this type of rebellious music that promotes bad influences, and it is obviously absurd to set a rock song to words from holy sources

The Onion | Pope John Paul II: 25 Years Of Laughs:

VATICAN CITY—As Pope John Paul II enters his 26th year as pontiff, the world is stopping to reflect on the legendary funnyman's career as one of the most influential performers in modern history. Standing staunchly against contraception and women's equality right through the turn of the 21st century, the pope and his quirky, deadpan comic persona still entertain audiences around the world.
...
"There will never be another Pope John Paul II," said comedian Jerry Stiller. "He's truly one of a kind, straight out of a time and place that no longer exist."

Well, time again for this week's Jewish Press Letters Section. Good week this week, starting with this line:

A number of years ago it was alleged that James Baker, at the time the U.S. secretary of state under the first president Bush, made a derogatory remark about Jews, dismissing them because “they don’t vote for Republicans].”
Whether or not he actually said such a thing, I’m sure that Baker, as well as other Republicans, feels that kind of frustration whenever they consider the knee-jerk Jewish propensity for voting Democratic no matter how good for the Jews a particular Republican office-holder has shown himself to be.

In many ways it`s never been a better time to be single. The dating pool has been expanded due to a variety of factors. Modern technology allows singles from around the globe to meet. And despite protestations to the contrary, Judaism as a whole is far more accepting than in years past.

"Some problems faced by singles might be reduced if shadchanim were professionally trained and singles acquired formal education about dating and marriage.
1) Professionalization of shadchanim. A communal organization (such as the Orthodox Union or the National Council of Young Israel) in conjunction with a college (such as Touro) should develop a certificate program for shadchanim. Participants would be mental health professionals, such as clinical social workers or pastoral counselors, who have experience working with people. The program would provide education about halacha regarding dating and matchmaking, resistance to commitment, personality problems, lashon hora, working with special populations, and professional ethics. Certified shadchanim should limit the number of clients they serve. They should participate in clinical supervision. They should be credentialed, and be required to periodically renew their credentials based upon continuing education credits and ethical behavior. Credentialed shadchanim should be compensated on a fee for service basis, like other professionals.
2) Marriage education for singles. A social service agency (such as Ohel) or college should sponsor a program, leading to a certificate, which focuses on various aspects of dating and married life. Modeled on a college course, classes should include assigned readings, a term paper, examinations, and a final grade. Singles who complete a marriage education program would be offered participation in a professionally led ongoing discussion group regarding dating and marriage issues.

One of the things that had always been bothering me was that, 23 years into my life and being in school for the past 18, I had managed to finish a full course of study at exactly one academic institution, that being High School. I mean, I never even graduated grade school. Until now. I'm now officially the recipient of a BA in Computer Science from Yeshiva College. This is the end of a saga that began way back last June when I applied for a September degree. This past Monday I realized I hadn't heard from them at all since then, so I went down to the registrar's office and talked to the Guy In Charge (affectionately known to the Registrar's Office People as "The Rabbi"). The Rabbi [=TR] checked his papers and informed me that I'd never applied for graduation and chased me out of his office. Keep in mind that at this point its too already late to apply for a January diploma, so I'm looking at being trapped in YC until May, let alone swallowing another $50 for filing the graduation papers. I'm not pleased. Dismayed, if not surprised, I went to my father's office and told him the whole story. My father then talked to TR. Tuesday morning, I get a phone call from my father who tells me that, not only did TR find my application after all, but that I still can graduate in September despite it being the end of October. I go back to the registrar's office. TR greets me, much nicer than yesterday. It seems he and my father get along rather well. By the way, I have no idea how anyone in YU without connections gets anything done at all. Just a thought. So anyway, it turns out that when you apply for a September diploma it has to go into the computer in several different places than it normally would and that the Registrar's Office Person who was entering my information missed a spot. Therefore, according to their computers, I didn't exist. So ends stage one of the saga. Stage two has to do with my major, specifically the restructuring of the computer science major that occured one year into my YU career. Basically, they collaspsed 4 intro courses into 2, added a requirement, and lowered the number of electives by one. Of course, because of all this, I somehow managed to go through my major by taking one more course than I needed to (11 to 10), one less credit than I needed (47 to 48), but fulfilling neither the old set nor the new set of requirements. Of course, this confused TR greatly, so I had to go plead my case to Dr. Breban, the department head and my personal Computer Rebbe. Of course, I did have a trump card, in the form of an email that Dr. Breban sent me over a year ago, when we last discussed my academic situation. His exact words in that email were "I'll OK." And, sure enough, he did. We had a nice chat, he expressed no surprise that I still lack gainful employment, and he wrote "OK to graduate" on my requirements sheet and signed it. I took the sheet back to TR, who continued to look confused by my failure to have completed either set of requirements. So he took me back to Dr. Breban and made him write "as a CS major with the above courses" under the words "OK to graduate" and sign it again. At this point, I pipe up with a "so can I graduate yet," Dr. Breban responded "behave," and I rejoin, "I'm trying, but you're all making it really hard." TR is completely oblivious. The rest of us are laughing hysterically. TR takes me back to his office, shakes my hand and writes "BA 9/03" on my file-folder. So now I'm a college graduate, with a real degree. Since yesterday my chances of having a real job and making a real income rose dramatically. Yeah, right. In other news, I spent the afternoon in the kollel and am working on my Jewish Studies grad school applications.

ivyJew Yedidiah ponders author Harold Bloom's decision not to give his literary estate to Yeshiva University. The most significant literary achievement that came to Yeshiva University was chasing Chaim Potok away...none of these old authors have any real feelings for the place. Even Eli Wiesel, who's on the Board of Trustees, couldn't tell you much about it.

The weird thing about the current anti-Semitism is just how weird it can get:

During which, some nutter blew a long whistle roughly 20 lines into Paul's prefatory reading of Dover Beach (ironically enough, right around the line about "there is no silence, no peace" &c), and stood up, while carrying a stuffed sheep, and shouted out seven or eight lines in verse, which segued into a denunciation of Jews and Tony Blair (who, as we learned, is the first PM not to be British, as he's Zionist), and ending with the memorable line "the Jews are the real separatists." He was finally convinced to leave, announcing that he was taking his friend, Larry the stuffed sheep, with him.

AKS finds the Israeli Foreign Ministry dumbfounded by the blogosphere:

Seriously, I have been trying to make some of them understand that there are these amazing people out there called bloggers who are advocating for Israel for FREE on their own time -- and many of them aren't Jewish OR fundamentalist Christians.
The officials, exhausted from arguing Israel's case 24/7 to an increasingly hostile world, find this hard to believe and too good to be true.

Imshin's got a great breakdown on why turkeys don't speak Hebrew...which raises the eternal Thanksgiving question: just what makes a turkey kosher?

ANNOUNCEMENT: TOMORROW IS "TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT PROTOCOLS" DAY.
We're very grateful to have so many loyal readers, and we're thinking it'd be really great if we could spread the love. So, tomorrow, when sending an e-mail to a friend, it'd be fun if you included, "BTW: Have you seen this website?"
We're always trying to make Protocols as good a J-blog as possible, and receiving more scrutiny from more readers is key to that.
Thanks.

Interesting:

7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. -- Pro-Israeli organization Fuel for Truth holds second annual Fall Event with a Q&A with Reservists from the Israel Defense Forces and a performance by Remedy of Wu Tang Clan; UJA-Federation of New York, 130 East 59th St., between Park and Lexington avenues.

We just got a search hit for refutation of Protocols...really, if you're finding yourself in a crowd in which you feel the need to refute the Protocols, you should just find some new friends.

Spectator cover story on Darwinism vs. Intelligent Design. (via A&LDaily) The author pretty much forces you to think of him as an idiot, but there's a relatively coherent comparison in this article. Nifty thing, the major anti-religious quote is something i'll often (but not always) agree with:

Dawkins retorts that religion ‘is a kind of organised misconception. It is millions of people being systematically educated in error, told falsehoods by people who command respect.’

Today:

Noon -- ACT UP protests Vatican statements on HIV prevention; Vatican Mission to the United Nations, 25 E. 39th St., Manhattan.

The first Kosher Bachelor dispatch is to be delivered soon (for those of you in the know).

The Broken Glass. (Thanks for the heads-up, Dani.)

Rabbis back Israeli 'guard pigs' -- nothing more to say...

Dani posts some of her take on the Modern Orthodox dating scene. Basically the point is that there's no place (physical place, cultural place) to meet people. This ties into the other problem with the YU campus as currently formulated -- the lack of a place to "be" (beis midrash and library don't count, since those are designed as workplaces). Obviously this all gets back to missing Kaffiene:

Some propose creating a place for this highly specific social group to mingle. “Why doesn’t someone create a place,” asks Tova Klein, “where kids can go, hang out, and talk, without the alcohol and the negative atmosphere that a bar promotes?”
There was such a place last year on the Yeshiva University main campus. Kaffeine, a kosher dairy café, opened with a promise of late hours and fast food to huge crowds. “Kaffeine could have made a killing up here,” says Kinzbrunner. “They shot themselves in the foot with their bad service and by letting the place go to pot. When they opened, it was an answer to everyone’s prayers, and now that it’s gone, there’s nothing to take over.”

NY Times on Magdalene the Apostle, Not the Fallen Woman. Cool.

D. Wallach takes on telemarketers. I guess it might be fun to string them out like that, I usually take a more direct line:
T: "Hello, can I please speak to (Mr.) Avraham Bronstein (the pronounciation of which always becomes an adventure)?"
Me: "Sorry, he fled the country yesterday. You could talk to Interpol if you really need him, I guess..."
They usually get the point. Claiming that I died two days ago generally stops them cold as well...

Good News:

An Oxford University professor who refused to hire an Israeli grad student because of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians has been suspended without pay for two months, the university said Monday.

Yuter's obviously having fun in Chicago: YUTOPIA: Egalitarian Liturgy: An Ethical Imperative?

Girlhock returns.

Found this at OxBlog a bit ago, and didn't get around to blogging it until now, but here's Matt Yglesias on "Jewish Success":

Chris Bertram wants to know why Jews are so damn "in public life and scientific endeavour" without resorting to unpleasant anti-semitic theories. I noted yesterday that the notion that we Jews are a breed of master intellectuals was part of the received wisdom at my Hebrew school and it was accompanied by a quasi-plausible, yet strikingly self-serving, folk explanation.
Traditional Judaism demands intense study of the holy books and of the Talmud, which is very long. Moreover, within the Jewish community, it was scholars of this stuff (rabbis, etc.) who were the leading members of society at a time when elsewhere in Europe ass-kicking knights and such were the thing to be. Hence, Jews put high priority on reading books and doing the whole writing-and-thinking thing, developing a high degree of intellectual competence. Sadly, all this ability was wasted on religion. After the Emancipation, however, non-religious persons of Jewish extraction emerged, who displaced the scholarly tradition onto secular subjects. Ergo: Marx, Freud, Einstein, Kafka, etc. These folks were totally non-religious, but nowadays we can be Reform Jews and therefore still be religious (sort of) while also having the time to create great works of secular intellectualness. Hence Reform Judaism is the best religion ever.
So that's what I was taught, and I haven't really given it much thought since I was 12, but there it is.

Tomorrow:

8 a.m. to 6 p.m. -- Israel Hi-Tech Investment & Venture Capital Conference; Pier 60, Chelsea Piers, 23rd Street and West Side Highway.
--1:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. _ Keynote speeches from the ambassador of Israel to the United States and the vice prime minister of Israel.

A story not destined for OnlySimchas: Wedding of Amy Sohn and Charles Miller.

Another doozy

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush said Monday his staff is cooperating with an independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, but he stopped short of saying whether the White House would hand over top-level papers that may be subpoenaed.

There's a lot of ways to provide information to the commission… And we will continue working with them in a cooperative way to make sure that they have the information they need to complete their work and meet the deadline that Congress created.

Pretty dizzy from all the spinning

WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite two days of audacious, deadly attacks, President Bush insisted Monday that the United States is making progress in Iraq and said American successes are actually spurring the violence by making insurgents more desperate.

Breathe Deeply

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Twelve U.S. states and the District of Columbia sued the Bush administration on Monday to block Clean Air Act changes for coal-fired utility companies that the states say will weaken air pollution standards and harm public health.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday implemented rules to allow U.S. coal-fired utility companies and oil refiners to significantly expand aging facilities without installing pollution-reduction equipment.

Emissions from coal-fired plants can aggravate asthma, chronic bronchitis and pneumonia.

The 12-state coalition called the changes in the EPA's rules a major rollback of the Clean Air Act.

The Yale Herald - Oct 24, 2003 - Of skulls and bones: More secrets of the tomb:

An axe pried open the iron door of the tomb, and Pat[riarch] Bush entered and started to dig...Pat[riarch] James dug deep and pried out the trophy itself...I showered and hit the hay...a happy man...''
So recounts a document thought to be an internal record from the Skull and Bones Society. 'Pat[riarch] Bush' is Prescott Bush, father of an American political dynasty. His 'trophy' is the skull of Geronimo, the Native American spiritual and military leader laid to rest in 1909 at Fort Still, Oklahoma, where Bush and fellow Bonesmen were stationed nine years later.

For those keeping up with the Evangelical Theological Society, an interesting debate about open theism:

Several hundred ETS members will meet in Atlanta Nov. 19-21 and decide whether to expel two of its members -- McMaster Divinity College's Clark Pinnock and Huntingdon College's John Sanders -- who embrace a theological view called "open theism."
Open theists claim that God does not know the future decisions of humans because those choices have yet to be made. In other words, they say, there is nothing to know. Critics call their views heresy.
Two years ago the society passed by a vote of 253-66 a non-binding resolution opposing open theism.
ETS membership requirements are minimal: In addition to a small yearly fee, members must agree with a short two-sentence doctrinal statement, which simply affirms inerrancy and the doctrine of the Trinity.