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The earthquake
The news from Pakistani Kashmir is unbearable. I have no words. Here is a list of relief resources via the NY Times. Many of the same nonprofits are probably handling Guatemalan relief efforts as well, in the wake of last week’s mudslides. Entire towns have been buried and abandoned as mass graves. Just try to imagine it.
Did you ever notice…
… that hippy-dippy New Age ideas don’t make people more sensitive and thoughtful, but rather more flakey and self-involved?
The far left in focus
Marc Cooper‘s Oct. 7 post (“Dead Serious”) is a must-read. It’s all too easy to laugh off the NYC subway terror threat as convenient right-wing hysteria, Cooper argues. I’m a subway-riding New Yorker (often four times a day) and I couldn’t agree more, though I always counsel against the illusion that any sort of warning will precede terror’s return to
“Do Dogs Think?”
Answer: No. Jon Katz explains. As a dog owner and lover, I hang on this man’s every word. He’s got a new book, Katz on Dogs.
Which Palestine?
Nick Cohen tells it like it is in the New Statesman. Money quote: It’s not radical, it’s barely political, to turn a blind eye and say you are for the Palestinian cause. Political seriousness lies in stating which Palestine you are for and which Palestinians you support.
Unite Against Terror
The petition has been updated in the aftermath of the Bali bombings. Lend your support. And note links to the Madrid11 initiative and Open Democracy. PS: Here’s a great Saletan piece on Bill Bennett’s remarks.
“The Pro-Torture Nine”
That’s what Sullivan has dubbed the following senators for voting against John McCain’s anti-torture amendments: Allard (R-CO)Bond (R-MO)Coburn (R-OK)Cochran (R-MS)Cornyn (R-TX)Inhofe (R-OK)Roberts (R-KS)Sessions (R-AL)Stevens (R-AK) The good news: McCain’s amendments passed in a crushing 90-9 vote. That means it’s veto-proof, and Bush has vowed to veto. Bear in mind, Bush rarely uses his veto, but he’ll do it to thwart
Rosh Hashana 5766…
…brings no pause at all… frantically working while listening to the reissue of Gary Thomas’s Overkill (JMT 1995), which I’d always thought was a jazz/hip-hop crossover of some sort, but no — it’s pure hip-hop and pretty hardcore for a jazz tenor player. See how easily I get distracted from Judaism… but in the NY Times Book Review there was