By Michael J. Smith on Tuesday November 29, 2011 06:47 PM
This is certainly the silliest post I have ever committed here, but I can't resist.
My indefatigable email correspondent, the damp and clammy Rabbi Michael Lerner, just deposited this in my inbox:
New on Tikkun Nov. 23:Comment seems not only superfluous but impossible. It's not even a question of where do you start; but having started, where could you go, and where might you end up? Just the series of participles -- circumcising, embracing, occupying -- is a sort of I Ching Lite. Arrange them in any of the three-factorial possible orders and you end up with six different tractates -- or novels, for that matter.Should circumcision still be practiced? ... We are also featuring perspectives on the Occupy movement and its future. And don't forget to order Rabbi Lerner's new book "Embracing Israel/Palestine," which makes a great holiday gift!
Comments (27)
That book in your stocking would be a sure sign that you had been extra naughty. Do people read such a thing for enjoyment? I think it's more as a way of accumulating moral coin to be used against others. No one actually retains any of it, but they get the pleasure of prefacing their arguments with, "I read a book by the Rabbi Michael Lerner..." I'd rather be circumcised...again.
Posted by Paul Alexander | November 29, 2011 7:55 PM
Posted on November 29, 2011 19:55
It's code. The rabbi wants OWS castrated by the holidays.
Posted by Chomskyzinn | November 29, 2011 9:04 PM
Posted on November 29, 2011 21:04
Should...circumcision still be practiced?
Fuck if I know, Rabbi... there's questions more important, y'know -- like, should I hang my toilet paper so it rolls off from the back or the front?
But, anyway... yeah... circumcise, occupy, and embrace. Sounds like a rejected Microsoft business strategy.
Posted by Mike Flugennock | November 29, 2011 10:18 PM
Posted on November 29, 2011 22:18
Should circumcision still be practiced?
Practiced? Like batting practice or violin lessons?
Posted by Happy Jack | November 29, 2011 10:58 PM
Posted on November 29, 2011 22:58
Lerner is a relic from another era. Time to go after bigger game such as one of the "great bombastic frauds" of our time.
Posted by sk | November 29, 2011 11:29 PM
Posted on November 29, 2011 23:29
Friedman has come in for a brickbat or two here.
The guy I really want to shear, and then flay, is that creep Stephen Pinker, but that would require reading his book.
Posted by MJS | November 30, 2011 9:09 AM
Posted on November 30, 2011 09:09
Please find the strength MJS because Pinker really deserves one in the stinker.
Posted by Paul Alexander | November 30, 2011 10:57 AM
Posted on November 30, 2011 10:57
http://bl141w.blu141.mail.live.com/mail/InboxLight.aspx?n=782414290#fid=1&fav=1&n=778127454&mid=1cae1d47-1ad4-11e1-a389-00237de417b8&fv=1
"Protect IP is legislation that would -- no exaggeration -- destroy the social web as we know it."
markus mutation
uberDOBEE
kos-hive
btw
what ever happened to this sites
kos-hive watch ???
Posted by op | November 30, 2011 11:13 AM
Posted on November 30, 2011 11:13
as a rock ribbed
pythagorian -mandelian genetic determinist
like noam chomsky
i loathe no socio biologist
prima facia
indeed hot spot wilson the ant man is a favorite of mine as is
-- what's his name --
long dong trivers or shiver me trivers
that said
--- i've never never use this horrible phrase
till here ---
pinker is to socio biology
what joan rivers is to one liner stand up
Posted by op | November 30, 2011 11:25 AM
Posted on November 30, 2011 11:25
"...In many cities,there are neighborhoods pockmarked by homes whosefamilies have been forced to leave by foreclosures.What about working with these exiled families and theirneighborhoods to "occupy" these homes and the nearbyschools and community centers, mixing the families andthe Occupiers as the public Occupy parks have mixed thehomeless and the movement?"
a better rabbi wrote that
Posted by op | November 30, 2011 11:39 AM
Posted on November 30, 2011 11:39
Occupying foreclosed homes is a great idea...if you're a bum!
Posted by Paul Alexander | November 30, 2011 12:15 PM
Posted on November 30, 2011 12:15
But to paraphrase Richard Nixon, we're all bums now -- or if we're not, we soon will be.
Posted by MJS | November 30, 2011 12:18 PM
Posted on November 30, 2011 12:18
Few creatures on earth more smarmy or oleaginous than the liberal Zionist. It's all "understanding and tolerance" with a world-weary ovelay of regret and "heartbreak." Yet all roads lead back to the same, sorry place: If only Those People would "make peace with us", and not "slap our wrist when we reach out our hand in peace."
The Master, of course, though he's hardly a liberal: Wiesel. He has innovated all of the affects: regret, heartbreak, world weariness. "It pains me more than it does you to have to shell your refugee camps and kill and main your children."
Posted by chomskyzinn | November 30, 2011 12:41 PM
Posted on November 30, 2011 12:41
Kos is just too depressing.
Posted by MJS | November 30, 2011 2:06 PM
Posted on November 30, 2011 14:06
@ Mike Fluggenock; I think it was one of our anti-insurgency tactics in Iraq.
Posted by par4 | November 30, 2011 6:54 PM
Posted on November 30, 2011 18:54
Great to see some socio-biology kerfuffles here - reminds me of long ago, even Wingo and his era, peace be to the dead.
I commend a book and view that rocked my world more than any book I've ever come across - ALex Rosenberg's "The Atheist Guide to Reality." It is no minor atheist tome, but a full-bore, 100 percent brave new world demolition of cant and supposition that embraces science, even socio-biology - it makes Pinker look like a piker, while endorsing him for some deeds, and smites all other would be historians, self-styled religio- swooners, while having a just a little unseen hand problem, but what the hell, it's the book of the century.
That said, I am proud to announce that having been officially and peremptorily banned from Common Dreams for a short post alleging that CD is a "conservative, ascetic, milquetoast operation," I am a commenter without a country, and see no other lands ahead. SMBIVA - fly high the flag!
Posted by mjosef | November 30, 2011 7:10 PM
Posted on November 30, 2011 19:10
But ... circumcision!
http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2011/07/it-s-official-circumcision-ban-november-ballot-san-francisco
"If passed by voters, circumcision on males under 18 in San Francisco would have been a misdemeanor punishable by a $1,000 fine and up to a year in jail. Schofield calls male circumcision is a brutal practice, just as deplorable as widely condemned female circumcision practices."
Posted by Jonathan Lundell | November 30, 2011 8:36 PM
Posted on November 30, 2011 20:36
San Francisco clearly deserves its preputation.
Posted by MJS | November 30, 2011 9:24 PM
Posted on November 30, 2011 21:24
Should circumcision still be practiced?
Two of the planet's most asshole-infested, militarily aggressive countries have the highest rates of male circumcision. Could there be a connection?
Circumcision was promoted back in the day as a means of keeping Yankee Doodle from yanking his doodle; the rationale being pushed by MD$$$ nowadays is "health concerns." Good to see a lot of parents are opting out of this nonsense despite the propaganda.
WTF is "Israel/Palestine?"
Posted by Sean | November 30, 2011 9:50 PM
Posted on November 30, 2011 21:50
MJS, maybe there's a standard of intellectual integrity to uphold, but Pinker always writes the same thing. The books are longer versions of his articles. You've read one, you've read them all: highly selective inclusion of any actual biology; what there is of it is reduced to snippets of evolutionary theory; from which he omits whatever he thinks is irrelevant. I'm convinced it's a grave cruelty to give his work any serious consideration. It's the equivalent of encouraging a desperate geek to bite the head off just one more chicken.
Posted by Al Schumann | December 1, 2011 2:54 AM
Posted on December 1, 2011 02:54
Posted by MJS | December 2, 2011 4:03 PM
Posted on December 2, 2011 16:03
Is it really true that the USA has a higher incidence of male circumcision than the mostly Muslim nations? I sort of doubt that.
Posted by Boink | December 2, 2011 5:54 PM
Posted on December 2, 2011 17:54
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Global_Map_of_Male_Circumcision_Prevalence_at_Country_Level.png
Posted by Boink | December 2, 2011 5:56 PM
Posted on December 2, 2011 17:56
Oh well. Time to, erm, cut off that line of speculation. Who could have foreskeen it?
Posted by MJS | December 2, 2011 10:17 PM
Posted on December 2, 2011 22:17
Just mohel-ing and toiling away here. Sorry. Sorry.
Posted by MJS | December 2, 2011 10:26 PM
Posted on December 2, 2011 22:26
(sk and other Pinkertons--having been recently forced into it, this one recently delved Pinker for a while. Results here: http://higharka.blogspot.com/2011/12/in-which-voltaire-dies-for-1-millionth.html )
On a separate yet wholly related note, the vast, cold trauma of infant genital mutilation, and its repression and associated misdirected rage, is in large part the motivator behind Zionist cum Amwayican manly bombings.
Posted by High Arka | December 2, 2011 10:57 PM
Posted on December 2, 2011 22:57
Sorry, Boink. I was acting on a good tip when I posted that.
Posted by Sean | December 3, 2011 4:06 AM
Posted on December 3, 2011 04:06