1. I call you by your first name instead of your nickname, because, babe, I’m not one of your buds, nor do I intend to become one.
2. I apply lip gloss often, but not in your presence. (If you witness makeup application of any sort, start calling yourself Chandler-you’re officially a friend.)
3. I rub my lips together often in your presence.
4. I sit at the edge of my seat.
5. It’s my birthday, and I’m still talking to you 10 minutes after you bought me a drink. (Note: Birthday girls of any age are easy-doubly so at decade markers.)
6. Instead of merlot, I order a Corona, which, conveniently, is served in a bottle-the better to sexily sip from.
7. My speech pattern is starting to resemble, like, Kirsten Dunst’s.
8. You smoke. I don’t. Yet I’m talking to you.
9. I touch you (for any reason) more than once.
10. I laugh, frequently and nervously, even amid humorless conversation.
11. I shout in your ear, because "it’s so loud in here, I can’t hear you!"
12. I use your name often in conversation.
13. I tell you that you look like some particular celebrity, which means I think both you and the celebrity are very hot.
14. I bring up antimatter and black holes, or any other such pseudobrainy and vaguely sexual topic for discussion.
15. The place is a rod-fest, yet I’m talking to you and you alone.
16. My cell phone rings and I don’t answer it. And I turn off my ringer immediately.
17. I say in a quasi-question/observation tone, "Your girlfriend must really like that?!" (A classic fishing-expedition tactic to ascertain whether there’s currently a woman with this title in your life.)
18. I tell you you’re talented. a) It’s a measured remark, so you know I’m sincere. b) By the Mick Jagger Laws of Chemistry, it must therefore follow that I think you’re damn sexy. Talent is personality salsa: adds hot to any dish.
19. I call you first. Or, sometimes, simply, I call you at all.
20. When you take me out for drinks, I’m wearing a different outfit or shoes or carrying a different handbag than when you saw me earlier today.
21. I’m late, but, interestingly, had enough time to put on mascara.
22. I tell you about the new Coldplay album, developments in the Pinochet case, or the new limited-release Dave Eggers novel I "just happened to hear about" because last time we spoke, you mentioned your interest in the London sound, international law, or postmodern literature, respectively.
23. I ask you if you know where the coatroom/bathroom/VIP room in this place is. When you tell me, I raise my eyebrows, turn, and walk in the correct direction.
24. I’m in the bathroom for more than 3 minutes, which is always more than adequate time to actually pee.
25. I ask if you want a taste of my dinner, meaning I’m willing to share more than my gnocchi.
26. You’ve taken over the starring role in all my fantasies. You have no way of detecting this, just thought you’d like to know . . .
Frankly, I don’t care much about art, but I do care greatly about women, and it makes my heart swell that such a fine looking woman was able to get her book made into a movie.
Maybe there is some justice in this world.
What’s extra exciting is that while Lynn is a brunette in the black and white photo above, in this movie she’s a blonde! Truly a woman of many layers.
Joan Allen does the narration. I enjoy her voice. It reminds me of my dead mommy.
Here’s my favorite remark in the film: "All of this accumulated beauty had been stolen by the most murderous thieves that ever existed on the surface of the earth. How they could retain the nicety of appreciation of great art and be exterminating millions of people nearby in concentration camps, I couldn’t understand then and I can’t understand it today." (Dr. Leonard Malamut of the 11th Armored Division)
Bernard Taper dreamed about Raphael’s "Portrait of a Young Man,” the most prized painting looted by the Nazis that has never been found. He spent two years searching for the Raphael in ravaged post-World War II Germany — and for many other works he did recover — as an art-intelligence officer with the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section of the U.S. military.
…"The Nazis were not just the most systematic mass murderers in history, they were the greatest thieves,” says historian Jonathan Petropoulos in the potent new documentary "The Rape of Europa,” which screens at the San Francisco International Film Festival next Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and plays at the Krakow and Jerusalem film festivals next month. Taper is one of several of the so-called Monument Men who appear in the film. They describe the vast hordes of art, furniture and religious objects the Nazis stashed in castles, salt mines and bunkers in Germany and Austria, and the noble efforts to recover, protect and return them to the countries from which they were stolen.
Jointly written, produced and directed by three San Francisco filmmakers — Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen and Nicole Newnham — "The Rape of Europa” is based on the 1995 book of the same name by Lynn Nicholas. Seven years in the making, the documentary delves into the Nazis’ obsession with art, and the fervor for not only wiping out entire races but also their cultural patrimony as well. And it tells the story of the people who tried to salvage the remnants of European culture and those still working to repair the damage: the Monument Men on the front lines in Italy who sought to protect historic buildings and artworks from Allied bombing (sometimes unsuccessfully); the working people at the Louvre in Paris and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, who struggled to save their cultural heritage; and the Italian conservators still piecing together the shattered frescoes from the Camposanto in Pisa, destroyed by Allied shells.
…Taper thinks the work the Monument Men did was not only important in terms of equity, but also as ritual and symbol. "It was a symbol that there were higher values than victory, higher values than patriotism,” he says. "It was a rare kind of behavior, which was a disinterested doing of good.”
In "The Rape of Europa,” an Army doctor named Leonard Malamut, who was on hand when American soldiers discovered Hitler’s vast horde of loot a quarter mile down a salt mine in the Austrian Alps, says: "All this accumulated beauty had been stolen by the most murderous thieves that ever existed on the face of the Earth. How they could retain the nicety of appreciation of great art and be exterminating millions of people nearby in concentration camps, I couldn’t understand then and I can’t understand it today.”
Taper may not understand, but he can fathom it. "Human beings are complicated,” he says. "I’ve read enough Shakespeare to know.”
Still, "amid all the sickening evidence of man’s depravity and destructiveness,” he wrote, it was good to "help preserve some of the things mankind had done that one could not only bear to contemplate but even take joy in.”
AlanLudden: I haven’t been on here in 6 months–and you’ve grown a WONDERFUL BEARD!
AlanLudden: It’s really COOL!
AlanLudden: I’ve been growing my own hair long for the first time in like 30 years.
AlanLudden: Some people are freaked out about it–but I don’t care!
AlanLudden: I figure–if you’ve still got hair at 55 — you should show it!
AlanLudden: Hi Luke….the password is:
YourMoralLeader: legs
AlanLudden: TROLL DOLLS (know who it is now?)
AlanLudden: It’s ELIOT STEIN! One of your more interesting friends!
YourMoralLeader: gday mate
AlanLudden: Well…just like everybody else…enjoying the Political Scene!
YourMoralLeader: reading any good books?
YourMoralLeader: are you teaching?
AlanLudden: Well actually…I had a class read "Flowers For Algernon"…
AlanLudden: (which I read in 1970)
AlanLudden: And they really enjoyed it, but when I showed them the corresponding movie "Charly" from 1968, they hated the movie version.
AlanLudden: I think it was because all the psychedelic stuff thrown into the movie–certainly was NOT in the book…
AlanLudden: the movie was just refelecting the times!
AlanLudden: Since we’re near a Depression again, I showed them "Bound For Glory" about the life of Woody Guthrie…they really got a feel for the Great Depression through that movie.
YourMoralLeader: do you have money in stocks?
AlanLudden: I’ve never been a big stock person. Now I’m glad.
AlanLudden: Next week we all start reading "Tuesdays With Morrie" including me.
YourMoralLeader: oy
YourMoralLeader: i hated that book
AlanLudden: Well, the reason I chose it…
AlanLudden: is because I don’t agree with people who are dismissing John McCain because "he’s too old."…
AlanLudden: SO I had them write a quick essay first on the topic of "WHat Can You learn From People in their 70’s, 80’s and 90’s…Or Can You?"
AlanLudden: Some of them actually talked about the great wisdom and experience older people have…and some said "They’re too old to remember anything useful"
AlanLudden: So maybe we’ll all learn something valuable from the book.
AlanLudden: So is everything going OK by you?
YourMoralLeader: yeah
YourMoralLeader: just trying to grind out a living one blog post at a time
AlanLudden: That’s good to hear.
AlanLudden: I had a student for one week from Australia. He was flown in to star in a movie (they flew the whole family in) and then because of the economy, they had backers pull out–so he went back to Australia
This summer, the rabbi of congregation B’nai David-Judea, Yosef Kanefsky, took a two month Sabbatical.
He stayed in town but davened everywhere but his own shul.
His time at the Happy Minyan was particularly moving and he gave a sermon about it at B’nai David last Shabbos.
B’nai David has a cavernous sanctuary with horrible acoustics. Though the shul can bring formidable firepower to the bima — from Shirat Chana to Reb Mimi to Alex Fax to Josh Sharfman — it’s hard to arouse any ruach (spirit) in the parishioners.
Most Jews when they leave shul after davening feel as alive as Natalie Wood after Thanksgiving at Catalina Island.
Yehuda Solomon is the Happy Minyan’s davening star. He’s the lead singer for the Moshav Band. He gets paid the big bucks to lead services elsewhere but this year the shul came in with a substantial offer to keep him home for the high holidays.
I remember the first time he led the davening at Young Israel of Century City, a proper Yechie-type shul.
Yehuda came in with his ponytail and untucked shirt and sandals and he got the evil eye from the old folks in the shul.
It was a Shabbos mincha. There was a lot of discontent as he was asked to take over at the bima.
As he began to daven, people were talking over him and complaining.
Then Yehuda kicked things into another gear and suddenly the shul came alive as it had never done and everyone started singing and swaying and actually enjoying their davening.
Now YICC has regular Shlomo Carlebach-style davening.
"Don’t give me a bad review," says my rabbi friend.
"I don’t have many friends," I tell him. "You’re protected."
Shabbos afternoon. I want to show how ticked off I am by staying away from my home but my only other frum choice is a place where the fat smelly guy goes and I don’t want to endure that.
I’m gonna swallow my pride. I’m going home. Maybe I was suspended or maybe I was banned for life. It’s time to find out.
I have a long walk ahead and I’m on the other side of the street and 25 yards behind the rabbi.
I feel myself scrunching and skulking and slowing and tightening and wrecking six expensive weeks of Alexander Technique classes.
I run into a friend and pretend to be all hip and carefree with him.
I grind my right hand into a tree until it is covered with soot and sap.
I love doing my own thing but I can’t live without community.
It’s time to face the music.
I walk inside. There are no security guards to boot me. There’s no hostility. There’s no "Sorry, pal." There’s no, "Levi, I’ve got a heavy heart, I hate to do this, but I’m going to have ask you to leave."
There’s just my friends. And Mincha.
I pick up my siddur with more piety than I’ve put on in a long time. I follow along with the Torah reading with an intensity I haven’t felt in years.
I greet my friends in a big showy fashion.
I want to demonstrate my religiosity and camraderie. Not only do I love Torah and love observing Torah, I also love my fellow Torah Jews and am loved by them in turn.
I am an ideal Jew. I am every rabbi’s dream. I am a gift to this shul.
TheSageoftheUWS: I am here to proclaim this truth: DOW 36,000 . . . someday
TheSageoftheUWS: That’s the title of a book from 2000 – "DOW 36000"
TheSageoftheUWS: There also is a book with the title "DOW 100,000"
TheSageoftheUWS: You need to be making more money
TheSageoftheUWS: Unless you plan on marrying well and by well, I mean rich
YourMoralLeader: i got back into my shul
TheSageoftheUWS: Meaning what?
TheSageoftheUWS: They’ve decided to let you out of their closet?
TheSageoftheUWS: What was/is so great about belonging to that shul? Why not attend gay friendly happy minyan type shuls where your future shiksa bride can feel welcom?
TheSageoftheUWS: you should move to New York and become a lion of the Jewish world here
TheSageoftheUWS: If you made the move, you could have your own shul within 2 years
TheSageoftheUWS: …Although they were right that you were wrong to name that 18 year old girl
TheSageoftheUWS: you need to choose your targets more carefully
YourMoralLeader: what’s wrong with naming that girl?
TheSageoftheUWS: She’s just a kid, and did not deserve to be shamed.
TheSageoftheUWS: Choose bigger targets as befits a man who is well into his forties.
TheSageoftheUWS: Did you wave a chicken over your head this year?
TheSageoftheUWS: kipporis
YourMoralLeader: I don’t believe in chicken waving
TheSageoftheUWS: At Bnai Amalek, we use duck
TheSageoftheUWS: And scoff at the chicken waivers
This year CBS News correspondent Lara Logan has gone from media darling to tabloid pariah. Her brand of journalism has been besmirched by critics and at the same time trumpeted by her supporters. As for her employer CBS News, they seem to like what she’s doing. Logan was recently promoted to Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent for the network and moved to Washington, DC from her ever-changing overseas datelines. as CBS’s roving war reporter in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Here at ERS News we have reported on Logan extensively. You can see our stories to date below. They have run the gamut from CBS and Logan making a false claim (later retracted by CBS) that Logan interviewed a terrorist warlord on the run from U.S. forces in Afghanistan — to bogus PR claims about Logan having been the only American reporter in Baghdad when U.S. forces took control of the city in the 2003 invasion. Just last week ERS broke the story of her CBS office furnishings, which include items taken from Iraq The biggest story media wise though has been Logan’s part in an Iraq love triangle scandal that has graced the pages of other mainstream media outlets – not ERS.
Lest anyone believe that The Enterprise Report has it in for Ms. Logan, we assure our readers we do not. We just report the news, when it comes to us and we do it accurately and fairly. Yesterday we received an email in our inbox that we found very interesting.
The story detailed the travails of Jehad Ali, an Iraqi cameraman and journalist, who in the course of doing his job, got an up-close and nearly fatal demonstration of the perils of practicing journalism in Baghdad in recent years. It also explains how CBS reporter Lara Logan helped spearhead outside assistance to help the man get the medical treatment he needs.
The story comes from the Committee to Protect Journalists, a DC based organization that supports journalist and advocates for their safety in covering the news around the world. Rather than retell the story you can read it for yourself. “A California Dream"
Logan who is quoted in the story saying, “I was absolutely astounded by the response,” she said. Money poured in from friends, colleagues, and journalists, including big-name news anchors. By late summer, funds stood at around $50,000. “I was very proud,” Logan said. “Someone in Iraq in Jehad’s condition didn’t normally survive. But he had. He had no big network to take him on … no one to turn to. So I said, ‘Well, he’s a journalist and they have organizations.…’ That’s when I contacted CPJ.”
ERSNews is based in the Los Angeles area of Southern California. We look forward to seeing Mr. Ali here in Southern California getting the chance to sit in LA’s famous traffic on his way to the hospital to get the much needed medical treatment he needs.
In our opinion it just goes to show that the “news” isn’t always bad.
God saw, was vexed, and hid God’s countenance from them, to see how they would fare. (Deut. 32:19–20.) For they were a treacherous breed, children with no loyalty, who incensed God with no-gods, vexed God with their idols; thus God would incense them with a no-folk and vex them with a nation of fools. (Deut. 32:20–21.) A fire flared in God’s wrath and burned down to the base of the hills. (Deut. 32:22.) God would sweep misfortunes on them, use God’s arrows on them — famine, plague, pestilence, and fanged beasts — and with the sword would deal death and terror to young and old alike. (Deut. 32:23–25.)
Punishment restrained
God might have reduced them to nothing, made their memory cease among men, except for fear of the taunts of their enemies, who might misjudge and conclude that their own hand had prevailed and not God’s. (Deut. 32:26–27.) For Israel’s enemies were a folk void of sense, lacking in discernment. (Deut. 32:28.) Were they wise, they would think about this, and gain insight into their future, for they would recognize that one could not have routed a thousand unless God had sold them. (Deut. 32:29–31.) They were like Sodom and Gomorrah and their wine was the venom of asps. (Deut. 32:32–33.) God stored it away to be the basis for God’s vengeance and recompense when they should trip, for their day of disaster was near. (Deut. 32:34–35.) God would vindicate God’s people and take revenge for God’s servants, when their might was gone. (Deut. 32:36.) God would ask where the enemies’ gods were — they who ate the fat of their offerings and drank their libation wine — let them rise up to help! (Deut. 32:37–38.) There was no god beside God, who dealt death and gave life, wounded and healed. (Deut. 32:39.) God swore that when God would whet God’s flashing blade, and lay hand on judgment, God would wreak vengeance on God’s foes. (Deut. 32:40–41.) God would make God’s arrows drunk with blood, as God’s sword devoured flesh, blood of the slain and the captive from the long-haired enemy chiefs. (Deut. 32:42.) God would avenge the blood of God’s servants, wreak vengeance on God’s foes, and cleanse the land of God’s people. (Deut. 32:43.)
Moses came, together with Joshua, and recited all this poem to the people. (Deut. 32:44.) And when Moses finished reciting, he told them to take his warnings to heart and enjoin them upon their children, for it was not a trifling thing but their very life at stake. (Deut. 32:45–47.) That day God told Moses to ascend Mount Nebo and view the land of Canaan, for he was to die on the mountain, as his brother Aaron had died on Mount Hor, for they both broke faith with God when they struck the rock to produce water in the wilderness of Zin, failing to uphold God’s sanctity among the Israelite people. (Deut. 32:48–52.)
In rabbinic interpretation
The Gemara instructs that when writing a Torah scroll, a scribe needs to write the song of Deuteronomy 32:1–43 in a special two-column form, with extra spaces. If a scribe writes the song as plain text, then the scroll is invalid. (Babylonian TalmudShabbat 103b.)
Rabbi Samuel ben Nahman asked why Moses called upon both the heavens and the earth in Deuteronomy 32:1. Rabbi Samuel compared Moses to a general who held office in two provinces and was about to hold a feast. He needed to invite people from both provinces, so that neither would fell offended for having been overlooked. Moses was born on earth, but became great in heaven. (Deuteronomy Rabbah 10:4.) Rashi interpreted Moses to warn Israel that the heavens and earth would be witnesses in this matter. Rashi explained that Moses called upon heaven and earth to serve as witnesses in case Israel denied accepting the covenant, because Moses knew that he was mortal and would soon die, but heaven and earth will endure forever. Furthermore, if Israel acted meritoriously, then the witnesses would be able to reward them, as the earth would yield its produce and the heavens would give its dew. (Zech. 8:12.) And if Israel acted sinfully, then the hand of the witnesses would be the first to inflict punishment (Deut. 17:7), as God would close off heaven’s rain, and the soil would not yield its produce. (Deut. 11:17.) (Rashi to Deut. 32:1.)
Rav Judah and Rava inferred from Deuteronomy 32:2 the great value of rain. (Babylonian Talmud Taanit 7a.) Rava also inferred from the comparison in Deuteronomy 32:2 of Torah to both rain and dew that Torah can affect a worthy scholar as beneficially as dew, and an unworthy one like a crushing rainstorm. (Babylonian Talmud Taanit 7a.) Rashi interpreted Deuteronomy 32:2 to refer to Torah, which, like rain, provides life to the world. Rashi interpreted the request of Moses in Deuteronomy 32:2 for his speech to rain down “as the dew,” “as the rain,” to mean that it should come in small droplets. Rashi interpreted that Moses wanted to teach the children of Israel slowly, the knowledge "raining" down on the people in small portions, for if they were to be subject to all knowledge coming down at once, they would be overwhelmed and thus wiped out. (Rashi to Deut. 32:2.)
Rabbi Abbahu cited Deuteronomy 32:3 to support the proposition of MishnahBerakhot 7:1 that three who have eaten together publicly should say the Grace after Meals (Birkat Hamazon) together as well. In Deuteronomy 32:3, Moses says, “When I (who am one) proclaim the name of the Lord, you (in the plural, who are thus at least two more) ascribe greatness to our God.” Thus by using the plural to for “you,” Moses implies that at least three are present, and should ascribe greatness to God. (Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 45a.)
Rabbi Hanina bar Papa taught that to enjoy this world without reciting a blessing is tantamount to robbing God, as Proverbs 28:24 says, “Whoever robs his father or his mother and says, ‘It is no transgression,’ is the companion of a destroyer,” and Deuteronomy 32:6 says of God, “Is not He your father Who has gotten you?” (Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 35b.)
A midrash interpreted the report of Deuteronomy 32:8 that God "fixed the boundaries of peoples in relation to Israel’s number" (l’mispar b’nei Yisrael) to teach that before the days of Abraham, God dealt harshly with the world: The sins of Noah‘s generation resulted in the flood; the generation that built the Tower of Babel was dispersed throughout the globe, prompting the proliferation of languages; the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were answered with fire and brimstone. According to the midrash, when Abraham came into the world, God ceased the cataclysmic punishments and set the punishments of other peoples in relationship to Israel’s presence in the world. This midrash conveys that the Israelites’ presence somehow lessened God’s anger, bringing greater stability to the world. The midrash teaches that Jews, then, have a unique ability and responsibility to bring peace and stability to the world. (myjewishlearing.com)
The Gemara read the word “Rock” in Deuteronomy 32:18 to refer to God, and the Gemara employed that interpretation with others to support Abba Benjamin’s assertion that when two people enter a synagogue to pray, and one of them finishes first and leaves without waiting for the other, God disregards the prayer of the one who left. (Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 5b.)
The Gemara read the word reshef (“fiery bolt”) in Deuteronomy 32:24 to refer to demons, and the Gemara employed that interpretation with others to support Rabbi Isaac’s assertion that reciting the Shema in bed keeps demons away. (Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 5a.)
Nahama Leibowitz noted that Deuteronomy 32:27 contains a “very daring anthropomorphism indeed, attributing to God the sentiment of fear.” (Studies in Devarim: Deuteronomy, 328.)
Rav Hisda taught that one walking in a dirty alleyway should not recite the Shema, and one reciting the Shema who comes upon a dirty alleyway should stop reciting. Of one who would not stop reciting, Rav Adda bar Ahavah quoted Numbers 15:31 to say: “he has despised the word of the Lord.” And of one who does stop reciting, Rabbi Abbahu taught that Deuteronomy 32:47 says: “through this word you shall prolong your days.” (Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 24b.)
Not to drink wine of libation to idolatry (Deut. 32:38.)
(Maimonides. Mishneh Torah, Negative Commandment 194.Cairo, Egypt, 1170–1180. Reprinted in Maimonides. The Commandments: Sefer Ha-Mitzvoth of Maimonides. Translated by Charles B. Chavel, 2:189–91. London: Soncino Press, 1967. ISBN 0-900689-71-4.)
According to Sefer ha-Chinuch, however, there are no commandments in the parshah. (Sefer HaHinnuch: The Book of [Mitzvah] Education. Translated by Charles Wengrov, 5:443. Jerusalem: Feldheim Pub., 1988. ISBN 0-87306-497-6.)
And according to others, the parshah contains a commandment to listen, hear, and learn one’s ancestral history, as Deuteronomy 32:7–9 instructs one to "ask your father and he will tell you."
David between Wisdom and Prophecy (illustration from the Paris Psalter)
Haftarah
The haftarah for the parshah is the song of David, 2 Samuel22:1–51. Both the parshah and the haftarah set out the song of a great leader. Both the parshah (in Deuteronomy 32:4 and 18) and the haftarah (in 2Samuel 22:1 and 2) refer to God as a Rock.
In the liturgy
Moses’ characterization of God as “the Rock” in Deuteronomy 32:4 is reflected in Psalm 95:1, which is in turn the first of the six Psalms recited at the beginning of the Kabbalat Shabbat prayer service. (Reuven Hammer. Or Hadash: A Commentary on Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Festivals, 15. New York: The Rabbinical Assembly, 2003. ISBN 0-916219-20-8.)
WASHINGTON — Convicted felon Tony Rezko. Unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. And the race-baiting Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It is hard to think of any presidential candidate before Barack Obama sporting associations with three more execrable characters. Yet let the McCain campaign raise the issue, and the mainstream media begin fulminating about dirty campaigning tinged with racism and McCarthyite guilt by association.
But associations are important. They provide a significant insight into character. They are particularly relevant in relation to a potential president as new, unknown, opaque and self-contained as Obama. With the economy overshadowing everything, it may be too late politically to be raising this issue. But that does not make it, as conventional wisdom holds, in any way illegitimate.
McCain has only himself to blame for the bad timing. He should months ago have begun challenging Obama’s associations, before the economic meltdown allowed the Obama campaign (and the mainstream media, which is to say the same thing) to dismiss the charges as an act of desperation by the trailing candidate.
McCain had his chance back in April when the North Carolina Republican Party ran a gubernatorial campaign ad that included the linking of Obama with Jeremiah Wright. The ad was duly denounced by The New York Times and other deep thinkers as racist.
This was patently absurd. Racism is treating people differently and invidiously on the basis of race. Had any white presidential candidate had a close 20-year association with a white preacher overtly spreading race hatred from the pulpit, that candidate would have been not just universally denounced and deemed unfit for office but written out of polite society entirely.
America’s most controversial hockey mom has inspired a new item made for religious women that probably isn’t sold up there in Alaska, gosh darn it!
The “Sarah Palin Wig,” based on the hairstyle of the Last Frontier State governor and GOP vice presidential candidate, is the latest head covering to go on sale at Sheitel.com, a Brooklyn wig shop and Web site for Orthodox Jewish women who maintain modesty by concealing their natural hair.
“One of our stylists thought it would make a good style, so we produced it,” said Boruch Shlanger, one of Sheitel.com’s owners, in an e-mail to The Shmooze. “It is very easy to maintain, and is a very classic look, yet fashion forward!”
Made of 100% human hair and available for $795 (marked down from $895), the wig is the first of its kind inspired by the otherwise “folliclely challenged” Republican ticket — but it is not the only one influenced by a potential American president.
"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff)
