November 2009

The Open Mind III: Principia Liberalis*

November 30, 2009

When ShrinkWrapped and I announced the inception of “The Open Mind,” we each cited as a motivation behind it the interest, in his words to me, of exploring “how two reasonably bright, reasonably decent people can disagree so significantly in their perception of reality.” One commenter, on one of our posts, suggested that we avoid [...]

25 comments Read the full article →

Poking around the Web: a Reading

November 25, 2009

As the title suggests, I wasn’t surfing. Obviously, that’s surface and quick: a cool glide. I do that, but mostly I poke around. It’s somewhat haphazard, but it isn’t a ride. I stop constantly and I probe. Curiosity is one of the life forces: the simple impulse, desire, need to know. Were the earth and [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

Antisemitism: Let’s get it Right

November 24, 2009

Just when I’m out gettin’ a tooth drilled, Shrinkwrapped goes and adds (I guess it kinda makes sense) an addendum to his post trying to pin anti-Semitism, historically, on the left, stating “For roughly two centuries now, antisemitism has, throughout the Western world, been principally associated with Leftism.” He even trots out a quote from the [...]

6 comments Read the full article →

Whose Left on the Right of Antisemitism

November 23, 2009

It has been only the convergence of many demands – including the work of return home to Los Angeles – that has so long delayed the the next installment of “The Open Mind” debates, what The New York Times and Wall Street Journal have called – well, they haven’t actually called them anything yet. But [...]

6 comments Read the full article →

Eating Poetry (V)*

November 21, 2009

Poem: “Forgetfulness,” read by its author, poet Billy Collins Animation by Julian Grey of Headgear Produced by JWTNY *Ink runs from the corners of my mouth There is no happiness like mine. I have been eating poetry. ~Mark Strand, “Eating Poetry,” Reasons for Moving, 1968 Share Tweet Subscribe to comments on this post Email

0 comments Read the full article →

The Faces of Evil

November 20, 2009

Nothing has bedeviled the human race more than the nature of evil. Organized religion has, mostly, made a cartoon of it, and quite unsuccessfully and destructively warred with nature over it. Secularists have too often dismissed the reality of it, rationalized or pathologized it, pissed on it with irony. Many on the left mocked George [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Who Will Watch the Watchers II

November 19, 2009

Since I posted my first installment of Who Will Watch the Watchers, Richard Landes over at The Augean Stables has very ably pursued the same focus on Human Rights Watch, and more deeply too, emphasizing two issues: the resistance to criticism and the increasing role of postcolonial ideology in driving the agenda, not just of [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

How We Lived on It (6): “”Conscience Do Cost.”

November 18, 2009

“This is Baltimore. The gods won’t save you.” (Hat tip: Jeffrey Goldberg) Share Tweet Subscribe to comments on this post Email

0 comments Read the full article →

A Pause in the Journey

November 16, 2009

A year and and nearly two weeks ago, Julia and I left Los Angeles to travel the country by motorhome and do research for our book on contemporary Native American life. Thursday we returned to L.A., not home quite – because we’ll be setting wheels to road some more, intermittently, throughout the next year – [...]

5 comments Read the full article →

New Work

November 11, 2009

BloodLotus Issue 14 October 2009 ————————————————————————————————— Global Viewpoints Indigenous Peoples My poem “Myth” appears in the latest issue of BloodLotus, just hitting the screenstands. “Aboriginal Sin,” which originally appeared in Tikkun, is now reprinted in Global Viewpoints: Indigenous Peoples. The textbook anthologizes significant works and statements on the situation of indigenous peoples around the world, [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

The Tribal Nations Conference

November 10, 2009

Reports Indian Country Today, on November 5: “More than 400 members of federally recognized tribes gathered today at the Department of the Interior at a Tribal Nations Conference hosted by President Barack Obama, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Cabinet Members.” This was the largest gathering ever of Native leaders. In Salazar’s and Obama’s [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

How We Lived on It (5)

November 9, 2009

Moonwalk, the Mississippi River, New Orleans, Louisiana Jacob was born in Chicago. lived in Texas, then Chicago again, now New Orleans. “For some people, hard times started long before last year.” Song, vocals, and all instruments: Jacob Fisler, from No Place to Hide swfobject.registerObject(“ssg_gplayer_object-3183-0″, “9.0.0″, “http://sadredearth.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/ssg-wordpress-google-audio-player/swfobject/expressInstall.swf”); 01-Something-to-Believe Photography by Julia Dean Share Tweet Subscribe to [...]

Enhanced Podcast Play Now
0 comments Read the full article →

The Refusal II – A Response and Elaboration

November 7, 2009

I’ve received a comment from a reader (“People Are Talking,” at right), a very fine thinker and a reader I admire, that raises problematic issues with my last post, “The Refusal.” They are significant enough to warrant clarification in a post. I need to start near the end. The reader writes Both current Israeli policy [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

The Refusal

November 6, 2009

Goldstone Last night, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Dore Gold debated Judge Richard Goldstone on the subject of Goldstone’s UNHRC report. Gold declared at the outset: “Let me begin by being very direct. The UN Gaza report is the most serious and vicious indictment of the State of Israel bearing the seal of [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

The “Commission” Rules

November 5, 2009

The other day, in consideration of its vote to endorse the Goldstone Mission Report, I did a casual analysis of the character of the United Nations Human Rights Council. I measured the  current members against their recorded votes on the infamous United Nations Resolution 3379, which declared that “Zionism [Jewish nationalism] is a form of [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Yankees Rule! (27X)

November 4, 2009

Live with it. Share Tweet Subscribe to comments on this post Email

2 comments Read the full article →

The Legal and Intellectual Fraud of the Goldstone Report

November 4, 2009

As I argued earlier, the Goldstone Report will be a turning point in the manner of U.N. Resolution 3379, which in 1975 declared Zionism to be a form of racism, and which was repealed sixteen years later. It will reveal, as it continues to be analyzed, the demopathy* of the primary political forces behind it, [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Rep. Howard Berman Responds to Goldstone on H. Res. 867

November 3, 2009

Below is the response that Rep. Howard Berman, Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and South Asia, and Rep. Gary Ackerman, Chair of the Subcommitte on the Middle East, released yesterday in response to Richard Goldstone’s written objections to specifics in H. Res. 867, to be debated today in the House of Representatives. Berman [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

Eating Poetry* (IV)

November 1, 2009

from Prose of the Trans-Siberian and of Little Jehanne of France by Blaise Cendrar But I was a very bad poet. I didn’t know how to go to all the way to the end. I was hungry And all the days and all the women in the cafés and all the glasses I would have [...]

2 comments Read the full article →