The Jewcer
Hipster parenting 101: Postmodern gadabout Neal Pollack begins the first of many (one-way) conversations about “Alternaparenting.” The definition of which is confusing Gerber baby food with Nutella (munchy-squelcher of choice); asking your kid for advice instead of dispensing it; reading Gravity’s Rainbow: The Pop-Up Book to him at bedtime; and looking very Casual Friday eight days a week. {Features}
Help managing editors help themselves: Joey, Joey, Joey. Who loves ya, baby? Not Steve Halper. Stop trying to woo the wrong people. Is that an L.A. thing? {Features: Comments}
Our first anti-Semite! And I use the word “first” very liberally. We had one industrious little ISP inviting all manner of unpleasantness to our Jewcy video villa. Such is the laser-focused acumen in the office that we automatically thought we knew who this guy was. We called him out by name, he said something like, “Who’s that, you leavened vampire people?” and that seemed to have sent him on his merry way. I blame Pat Sauer’s internet guide to Jew-hatred, myself. Though I’ve been saying for months that a self-hating rabbi ought to be the Jewcy mascot. {Video}
Skiping right along: Spencer Ackerman and Melissa Lafsky continue their fisk-a-rama of blogs. Today on the slab… wait for it…. Marty Peretz’s The Spine – home to the New Republic hierophant’s own musings. Tell your friends. Especially at the Observer.
The World
Anti-Syrian Phalangist assassinated: And James Baker, Robert Gates want to make nice with the Baathist regime what done it: Gemayel is the third prominent figure in Lebanon to be assassinated in the past two years. Former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Saad Hariri's father, was killed in a car bombing in February 2005, and lawmaker and newspaper manager Gibran Tueni was killed in a car bombing in December 2005. {NYT}
Science back on top: Belief may not be on the wane, but as Sam Harris and Dennis Prager have been demonstrating, falsifiable results are very "of the moment": Carolyn Porco, a senior research scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo., called, half in jest, for the establishment of an alternative church, with Dr. Tyson, whose powerful celebration of scientific discovery had the force and cadence of a good sermon, as its first minister. {NYT}
Gay marriage now tax deductible in Israel: Because why pay retail on the love that dare not speak its name? Moshe Negbi, a legal expert, said the court's decision was mostly symbolic because gay couples in Israel already had many of the rights of heterosexual partnerships. The significant changes were that they would now get the same tax breaks as a married couple and be able to adopt children, Negbi said. {JPost}
Michael Richards killed that Phalangist: Racist? Where, where’s the racist? "There's a great deal of disturbance in this country, and how blacks feel about what happened in Katrina and, you know, many of the comics, many of the performers are in Las Vegas and New Orleans trying to raise money for what happened there, and for this to happen, for me to be in a comedy club and flip out and say this crap, you know, I'm deeply, deeply sorry. And I'll get to the force field of this hostility, why it's there, why the rage is in any of us, why the trash takes place, whether or not it's between me and a couple of hecklers in the audience or between this country and another nation, the rage . . . " {WaPo}