From the Wall Street Journal today:
Why is it that whenever Congress gets into an ethics scrape, its first reaction is to further restrict the Constitutional rights of other Americans to influence Members of Congress?
The Redline Shoes
VM reader and former official VM bartenderess Bonnie Erickson purports to be close to launching her own blog. I’ll definitely link to that when it’s up.
Meanwhile, as a PSA, here’s a piece she recently wrote about the importance of the Broadway Dance Center, which is threatened by its new owner’s redevelopment plans.
The more I read of Jane Jacobs, et al., the more worried I get about the mall-ification of NYC.
We Like Jewish People! (or, Psychosemitic)
In today’s Washington Post, there’s an article about evangelical Christians who are becoming “philo-semitic”. While some of the people demonstrate a straight-up belief that Jews are the chosen people, I’ve been a little nervous about this trend for years now.
I guess it derives from my feeling uncomfortable with any religious group that links paradise with apocalypse. There’s a manic evangelical woman in my office who used to put all sorts of “literature” in my mail slot. Since it was a pretty clean ergonomic movement from the mail slot to the trash can, it was never a huge problem.
Then she e-mailed me an excerpt from The Omega Letter, explaining how the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina was God’s revenge for the U.S. support for Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. I flipped out on her, as I predicted would happen last August. All this apocalypso gives me the Heebie-Jewbies:
Julie Galambush, a former American Baptist minister who converted to Judaism 11 years ago, has seen both sides of the divide. She said many Jews suspect that evangelicals’ support for Israel is rooted in a belief that the return of Jews to the promised land will trigger the Second Coming of Jesus, the battle of Armageddon and mass conversion.
“That hope is felt and expressed by Christians as a kind, benevolent hope,” said Galambush, author of “The Reluctant Parting,” a new book on the Jewish roots of Christianity. “But believing that someday Jews will stop being Jews and become Christians is still a form of hoping that someday there will be no more Jews.”
Anyway, what I’m saying is, some evangelicals consider support of Jews just a necessary step in the Second Coming. I’m not saying they all feel this way, because it’d be unfair to characterize everydarnbody based solely on religion. But I’m glad that some — like the profiled Rev. Mooneyham — appear to have different motives for their “charity” for the Jews.
Still, the idea of bringing Russian Jews “home” ties into this idea of prophecy and Armageddon (for me), and this centering of the Jews with history and its end:
Jacques Berlinerblau, a visiting professor of Jewish civilization at Georgetown University, said the rise of philo-Semitism in the United States has led Jewish scholars to look back at previous periods of philo-Semitism, such as in Amsterdam in the mid-17th century. He said revisionists are increasingly challenging the standard “lachrymose version” of Jewish history, questioning whether persecution has been the norm and tolerance the exception, or vice versa.
Still, some Jews think that philo-Semitism is just the flip side of anti-Semitism.
“Both are Semitisms: That is, both install the Jews at the center of history. One regards this centrality positively, the other regards it negatively. But both are forms of obsession about the Jews,” said Leon Wieseltier, a Jewish scholar and literary editor of the New Republic.
Which, of course, brings me back to basketball. Last century, people joked about the eschatological evangelical beliefs of Sacramento’s power forward, Lawrence Funderburke. See, Lawrence had been making comments about how the world was going to end after 1999, but he’d also been holding out for a long-term contract, so the sportswriters had a pretty easy time goofing on him.
So ESPN writer Frank Hughes decided to interview Funderburke about it two days before this projected apocalypse:
Why not sign a one-year deal, or a half-year deal, get everything up front, live it up like a drunken banshee for the remainder of his days and just go nuts in that final game of games, the Kings-Seattle SuperSonics tilt on Dec. 29?
Hey, I realize the globe is about to blow a gasket, and in the larger scheme basketball does not really mean a whole lot since all life on this planet is about to end, but regardless, we’ve still got a job to do. Tip-off at 7:30.
So I go in to talk with Larry after a game the other day, completely prepared to listen to his prediction of Almighty destruction with a smirk on my face.
And guess what? The guy is very well spoken, very intelligent and makes some solid arguments. And after writing the column last week about what a farce some of the aspects of religion are in this league, it was actually refreshing to listen to a man who is so devoted to his beliefs and so willing to shamelessly stand up for them in the face of ridicule and adversity.
Most of Funderburke’s comments were prophecies about Israel weakening, imminent mega-destruction, and the Jews coming to accept that Jesus is the messiah, but he also said something that I found pretty touching:
“I don’t get caught up in the millennium, and I know that it is not going to happen around then. And I think a lot of people will point at Christians and say, ‘If it doesn’t happen, then they are all false prophecies and they are predicting all these things.’ [. . .]
“I live day to day, my life. If you look at Payne Stewart, if you look at John Kennedy, no one knows when The Lord is going to come for your individual life. The main thing is to be ready, make sure you have a personal relationship with Him. I don’t worry about that. I’ve always lived my life day by day. I can’t control the future. No man can. What I try to do is give to the Church, help people out, do all I can to follow Christ’s example. A lot of people kid me, a lot of people ask me questions about Y2K . . . but I tell them I don’t know.”
Apart from the passages about impending nuclear war, his sentiments were pretty close to the those of the Dalai Lama, who contended that the true cataclysm is within the human heart, and that every day can be the millennium for someone.
Have a happy agnostic valentine.
The Mean Streets?
Here’s a lengthy article about the “Red Light District” of northern NJ, South Hackensack. It’s about 25 miles from where I live, and one of our close family friends used to be a night-manager at the main motel that’s profiled.
The writer seems a little conflicted about what to make of the area. Sure, it’s a haven for sex and drug use, but it’s not like there’s any actual drug dealing going on there (that goes on in Paterson and Newark), just consumption. In fact, the more blatant aspects have been cleaned up, and crime rates are dropping each year:
The hookers who once trolled the highway were cleared out some years ago, but dozens of prostitution arrests in the past two years show the world’s oldest profession continues to be a moneymaker – behind closed doors.
Still, that hasn’t stopped officials from talking about redevelopment. The idea is, because the town is connected to Teterboro, a small airport used by Big Money, there should be high-end facilities to get a piece of the money. The problem with that is that Big Money doesn’t care about Teterboro’s amenities (the Plaza 46 Diner notwithstanding). The airport brings in traffic because it’s hassle-free and close to NYC. I can guarantee that P. Diddy doesn’t look at South Hackensack as a place to open a new club; he just likes being able to get his jet off the ground without the delays of Newark, Laguardia or JFK.
It all seems to come off as a non-story: some go-go waitresses are turning tricks; some people are cheating on their spouses; there’s a porno store; one of the 9/11 hijackers stayed at one of the motels the week before the attack (but there was no warrant for the guy, so the FBI & CIA remained uninformed). Probably the most objectionable part of the story for me is this:
Although the strip has been trouble for the town, in some ways it’s also been a blessing. Seizures have brought needed money to the Police Department, which has used the money to purchase four patrol cars, a communications system, new handguns and rifles, and new bicycles the past few years.
Because it implies that the police department busts some “behind closed doors” small-scale crimes to keep funding itself.
Ah, well. As the owner of the local car dealership put it:
“It’s a vibrant area that employs many, many people,” said [Eddie] Goldberg, the former head of the Business Alliance of South Hackensack. “There are no vacancies in any of the stores and there is no blight.”
Prison Cuisine
About six months ago, I wrote about how a friend-of-a-friend is in prison, and how harrowing it all looks to me, as an outsider.
Fortunately, it’s not all hellish, according to John Mandala of The Cellblock Cafe:
Eventually, I learned these “tricks of the trade,” and added my own creations, such as shredded fried roast beef with ketchup and mustard or fried mashed potatoes in butter. Within a few months, I was nicknamed, “Chef-Boy-Ar-Dee.” I soon realized that creating and sharing a tasty, nourishing meal was one of the few enjoyments prison life offered. Surprisingly, I began to experience another kind of nourishment, one of the soul. Creative cooking opened up an avenue of communication, which transcended prison politics, and a healthy meal crossed most cultural barriers as well.
More than a decade later, as a result of good behavior and other accomplishments in prison programs, I am now at Sing Sing Correctional Facilities medium security annex. I share a single stove with 75 men who are Jamaican, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Asian, African-American, Italian and Caucasian. This experience has allowed me to be exposed to different cooking methods, recipes and to taste various types of food.
Without further ado, here are the prison recipes.
Year Zero?
A week or so ago, I mentioned a whole lot of reading that I’m doing as part of my attempt to understand what can be done to help New Orleans recover from the devastation of last August’s hurricane.
The fact that I’m starting with Virginia Postrel and Jane Jacobs probably indicates that I don’t think that federal micromanagement is the way to go. One of Ms. Postrel’s early points in The Future and Its Enemies is that there is no “scratch” from which to start, in a dynamic society. Even annihilating swathes of the city doesn’t mean it’s Year Zero in NO,LA; there are tons of people who have claims on their homes, who don’t want to move away for good, and don’t want to live in federally subsidized housing projects.
All of which is to say, I’m not in agreement with Representative Baker (R-LA), who proposes an $80 billion federal program to “to pay off lenders, restore public works, buy huge ruined chunks of the city, clean them up and then sell them back to developers,” according to the Times. Or, more expansively:
Under his plan, the Louisiana Recovery Corporation would step in to prevent defaults, similar in general nature to the Resolution Trust Corporation set up by Congress in 1989 to bail out the savings and loan industry. It would offer to buy out homeowners, at no less than 60 percent of their equity before Hurricane Katrina. Lenders would be offered up to 60 percent of what they are owed.
To finance these expenditures, the government would sell bonds and pay them off in part with the proceeds from the sale of land to developers.
Property owners would not have to sell, but those who did would have an option to buy property back from the corporation. The federal corporation would have nothing to do with the redevelopment of the land; those plans would be drawn up by local authorities and developers.
So, from what I gather, the plan will involve massive federal involvement and funding, coercive land sales (why not just employ eminent domain, while you’re at it?), and a close alliance with “local authorities and developers” who are among the crookedest in America.
One of the best things about the article — besides the line “the bill has become increasingly important to Louisiana because the state lost out to the greater political power of Mississippi last month” — is that virtually every positive quote about the program seems to be delivered secondhand by . . . Rep. Baker!
And mourn the likely departure of a NYC institution, while you’re at it.
Didn’t Wanna Laugh
But I laughed.
Roth Rules?
Well, we tried listening to David Lee Roth again on the 3-minute drive to Amy’s bus stop. The first thing we heard was ‘Diamond Dave’ saying, “We have on the line a representative from the UAW.”
First thing to flash into my head? The episode of The Simpsons where Bart breaks his leg at the beginning of summer. He decides to chill out and watch Krusty the Klown:
Bart: [laughing at Itchy & Scratchy] You know, this isn’t so bad. I’ll just spend the summer getting better acquainted with an old friend called television.
[kids cheer, Krusty appears and laughs]Krusty: Hope you enjoyed that, kids, ’cause Krusty’s out of here for the summer. In the meantime, we’ll be running [groans] “Klassic Krusty”. [laughs uncomfortably] Enjoy. . .
[the Krusty Show from February 6th, 1961 comes on]Krusty: [chuckles] Good evening. Tonight my guest is AFL/CIO chairman George Meany, who will be discussing collective bargaining agreements.
Meany: It’s a pleasure to be here, Krusty.
Krusty: Let me be blunt: is there a labor crisis in America today?
[looks bored, lights cigarette]Meany: Well that depends what you mean by “crisis”…
[Bart groans]
I can’t begin to do justice to the visual, which consists of an old Dick Cavett set, and Krusty in a black suit, with a white pocket square, smoking away.
Anyway, that was just about my feeling this morning, listening to the over-the-hill former lead singer of Van Halen discussing labor relations. The NYPost was pretty savage this morning (I’d link to the article, but the link would go dead in a week):
Something was missing yesterday as David Lee Roth took over for Howard Stern.
In a word: humor.
For a moment, it was like those Sunday mornings when I zip down to Dunkin Donuts (also 3 minutes away) and click through the stations. The hip-hop station always has its “public issues” show on, which is kinda jarring.
Of course, they put that on 8am on Sundays, not weekday morning drive time.
Stern Effect
I’ve listened to Howard Stern‘s radio show since 1983 (I was 12). A lot of my friends refuse to believe this. Others think it makes perfect sense. When Howard first announced his move to satellite radio, many asked me if I’d buy a receiver and pay $12.95 a month to listen to him.
“Of course I will!” I said.
At the time, there was a lot of skepticism about Howard’s move. The stereotype was that his listeners were poor schlubs who wouldn’t pay to listen to radio. The analysts contended that Howard would have to draw at least 1 million new subscribers to Sirius to warrant his massive contract.
Fortunately, a friend of Amy bought her a Sirius receiver last year for Christmas. We activated the account a few weeks ago, and I began listening to The Chill when I was around the house.
Last week, I thought I’d buy a newer unit, and get a car kit installed so I could listen on the way to work. Know what I discovered?
You can’t find a Sirius unit for sale in the NY/NJ area. The Sportster Replay, which I planned to pick up, is impossible to find. Most of the other units are also sold out. (The Circuit City & Best Buy stores I stopped in sure had a lot of XM units for sale. Good for them.)
Now, I knew that Stern would easily pass the 1 million mark, but I have a feeling that next quarter’s financial statement will include a shocking amount of new subscriptions. But that’s what people get for underestimating the appeal of Howard Stern. For 20+ years.
Gin & Pecans!
Back in the office today, for the first time in almost 2 weeks (except for a one-hour stop last Wednesday when I filled out 3 months’ worth of expense reports). What do I find waiting at my desk? A jar of glazed pecans and a giant bottle of Tanqueray! It’s like the holidays never end!
Should I worry about the fact that my associate editor bought me the gin (one of those 1.75L numbers that comes with its own handle)? I mean, if I’d dropped more hints about the two volumes that I’m missing from the new Proust translation, would she have looked for those instead?