On m
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L’shanah tovah tikatev v’taihatem / v’taihatemi; or Happy New Year to my Jewish friends!

…is defending yourself against charges that you stirred up weapons-based attacks against a Jewish congresswoman by calling the charges ‘blood libel’.

‘Blood libel’ is a VERY old and terrible term from medieval times where anti-Semites would charge that Christian babies were being abducted by Jews, who then drained them of their blood and used it in ( Read more... )

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I thoroughly recommend Robert Crumb’s new book The Book of Genesis Illustrated; exceptionally well done, and done straight, word for word.   One note: while reasonably tastefully done, there’s no way to render the begats and things like Lot and his daughters without pictures that would make your maiden aunt Edna go *gleep, that’s a bare hiney*, so ( Read more... )

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While retrieving THE FIXER from one of my off-air VHS tapes, I ran across the real-life story that the movie/novel was based on - see the story of the Beilis Trial in late Tsarist Russia in Wikipedia.  Wow.

Martin Gidron’s THE SEVERED WING, 2003 Sidewise Long Form Award Winner.    Reviews here and here.

(Update: I’m noting this story about Frankfort, KY schools and their handling of gay students, but I’m beginning to think it’s a crock.)

Stephen Fry:

• his blog (he’s a big techie)
• his letter to his 16 year old self.  About love, mostly.
• -on manic depression
• -on his new BBC series on the USA (which I’m about to dig into)
• -on hate and anti-semitism (he’ ( Read more... )

A French court has ruled that the Vichy government of France during World War II was instrumental in the handing over of Jews and others to the Nazis for extermination camps.

Calling for a “formal admission of the state’s responsibility and of the prejudice collectively suffered”, the court said it had concluded that acts such as the arrest, ( Read more... )