Monthly Archives: June 2010

Willis Barnstone interviewed in Tikkun

Posted on June 29, 2010 by

Tikkun has an interview with Willis Barnstone in which they discuss Barnstone’s Restored New Testament. I’ve read through a fair share of the RNT (my own interview with Barnstone should be coming out soon in the Journal of Italian Translation), … Continue reading →

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The Jewish question in Southern Italy

Posted on June 29, 2010 by

Haaretz ran a long article back in April on the Jewish revival in Southern Italy. Long story short: once upon a time Italy’s south was brimming with Jewish life, from Roman antiquity straight through the Arab conquest of Sicily, which … Continue reading →

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Pax Ben-Gurioni

Posted on June 28, 2010 by

Last week I had my beef with Susan Jacoby on her reading of the Gaza flotilla raid as a kind of capsule version of Israel-Arab tribal rivalries. This week she hits the mark in a wonderful, highly critical column about … Continue reading →

Posted in Atheism, Humanism & Freethought, Identity, Israel and the Middle East, Italy, Jewishness, Religious idiocy, Separation of church and state | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The banality of conspiracy theories

Posted on June 27, 2010 by

David Aaronovitch explains:

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Cricket match in Rome

Posted on June 27, 2010 by

I was at the park this morning, which is about the best place to be in Rome this time of year. Typically without camera, I saw all sorts of things worth photographing. One was a cricket match, which was kind … Continue reading →

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So you mean my mother’s not a Khazar?

Posted on June 26, 2010 by

The genetic evidence is in and we Jews are basically what we’ve been saying we are all along – a people. No, not a “race.” But a people with a long history which goes back to, you guessed it, the … Continue reading →

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Bomb them with art

Posted on June 26, 2010 by

Today’s Ynet has an article about the first non-Islamic art exhibit in Iran since the 1979 revolution. It seems someone in the regime has understood that some steam needs to be released – via art, among other things. The country’s … Continue reading →

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Zizek!?

Posted on June 26, 2010 by

Lately I’ve been perplexed by the seemingly unstoppable popularity of Slavoj Zizek. Not only does his incomprehensible rhetoric annoy me (that would hardly make him special), but his actual positions are puerile when he finally gets around to articulating them. … Continue reading →

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It’s called mass murder

Posted on June 23, 2010 by

Last week I came across an article Terry Eagleton had written on suicide bombing back in 2005. I wasn’t paying attention back then, but Ophelia Benson was. As I read it and re-read it my blood began to curdle. I … Continue reading →

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Summer Reading

Posted on June 21, 2010 by
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