August 2009

Yankees in Charleston

August 31, 2009

What were the odds? Or how to eat up the day. Two bicycle tires flat, at two different times, a scooter throttle malfunctioning. And the dogs ate our homework – after our grandmothers died. More blogging tomorrow. Unless a meteor hits. Share Tweet Subscribe to comments on this post Email

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Ted Kennedy: Not a Life Lived Large, but the Largeness of Life

August 30, 2009

The written responses to Ted Kennedy’s life – from newspaper obits and considerations to blog posts and tweets – have spanned a range. They’ve produced some good writing too. From James Fallows at The Atlantic: The most impressive and winning aspect of his personality was the way he kept on going, with good humor, despite [...]

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Organ Donations vs. Organ Harvesting

August 28, 2009

Israeli Journalist Adi Schwartz offers a particularly cogent response to Sweden’s anti-Semitic tabloid trash. I wrote about that here. AJA Share Tweet Subscribe to comments on this post Email

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Photos along the Way

August 28, 2009

Photos by Julia Dean Share Tweet Subscribe to comments on this post Email

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Whole Food for Thought

August 27, 2009

We are seeing many rich encomia to Ted Kennedy upon his death, and one of the many themes being pursued – the strain began even over the past year, after his illness was known – was his ability to “cross the aisle” and work in a bipartisan manner with strong political opposites. It is true, [...]

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Leonard Peltier, the Sioux, and the State of Native America

August 25, 2009

Imprisoned since 1977 for the murder of two FBI agents during a gun battle on the Oglala Sioux, Pine Ridge Reservation, Leonard Peltier was denied parole this past Friday. Peltier’s last parole hearing was sixteen years ago. He will not receive another hearing until 2024, when he will be seventy-nine years old. People generally inclined [...]

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Sweden: the Face of Anti-Semitism Today

August 24, 2009

Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, the largest circulation newspaper in Nordic Europe, produces a prima facie instance of anti-Semitic slander – an article by Donald Boström headlined “They plunder the organs of our sons.” Offering no evidence, the article reports the accusation of a Palestinian family that Israeli Defense Forces are engaged in organ harvesting from Palestinians [...]

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Boycott America: Whole Foods and Half-baked Ideas

August 22, 2009

Clausewitz’s famous proposition that “War is merely a continuation of politics by other means” might often reasonably and descriptively be turned on its head to state: “Politics are merely an enactment of war by other means.” Absent an attack of some sort on the “homeland” – and for some, not even then – domestic political [...]

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“Mass on the San Carlos Apache Reservation” at Tikkun Daily

August 19, 2009

See Julia’s photo essay “The Catholic Church” (on the San Carlos Apache Reservation) in the Tikkun Art Gallery, and the post about our work on the Daily Blog at Tikkun Daily, with words by Jay. Look back, too, if you missed it, at “The American Indian Church” on Tikkun Daily, photos, again, by Julia, words [...]

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Demagogues & Faces in the Crowd

August 19, 2009

In 1957, the very recently, lamentably departed screenwriter Budd Schulberg and Elia Kazan respectively wrote and directed A Face in the Crowd, starring a pre Sheriff Andy, very finely dramatic Andy Griffith. The film is the story of “Lonesome” Rhodes, a man with a troubled past who goes on to become a broadcasting phenomenon in [...]

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Obama, Limbaugh, Hitler and Hate Speech

August 17, 2009

Menachem Z. Rosensaft argues in the Jewish Daily Forward that the likening of Barack Obama to Hitler by Rush Limbaugh (and others, while we’re at it) is the “functional equivalent of calling for an act of violence against the president of the United States.” He offers in comparison the atmosphere that preceded the assassination of [...]

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Historical Identity and Cultural Responsibility

August 14, 2009

Excuse me. I beg your pardon. Pardon me. My apologies. Forgive me. My bad. Sorry. What’s the point? In any given situation an individual feels wronged, harmed in some manner, embarrassed, humiliated – subtracted from. Some act or failure to act has led a person, through a complex of conditions, to feel that something, tangible [...]

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Good in Theory

August 11, 2009

In honor recognition of the approaching academic year, this nugget, (via Greg Weeks at Two Weeks Notice) concerning the occasional confrontation with reality of idealistic pedagogy. (More often IP continues on its constitutional, head held high and determined not to notice the deep shit.) Our author, the wry Chris Lawrence at Texas A&M, comments on [...]

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Blink, part IV

August 5, 2009

Blink I: In My Bedroom ….. Blink II: In Far Rockaway ….. Blink III: In the World IV. In My Mind To be alive and human is to be shadowed by death. “They give birth astride of a grave,” says Becket’s Ponzo in Waiting for Godot, “the light gleams an instant, then it’s night once [...]

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Wiki Way Native America?

August 4, 2009

Courtesy of NewPages Blog, our attention is pointed to NativeWiki, “a free, open-to-the-public library of information about indigenous nations and peoples (past and present) of the world. We feature major sections on Nations and Peoples, Documents and Materials, Geographic Regions and a Picture Gallery of selected images. Begun in April, 2007, we currently have 1,308 [...]

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Solomon Bibo – Jewish Indian Chief

August 3, 2009

If you’re a blogger, you spend an inordinate amount of time carving waves on the internet, encountering, well, all sorts of good stuff. Julia and I reported on the Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico back in April. We’re still trying to arrange an interview with the tribal governor. Now, my latest find marries two of [...]

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