He's the one keeping score

The President is apparently rooting for the Steelers to win the Super Bowl. With good reason.

All the rage

PETA's Super Bowl ad has been rejected by NBC. But you can see it here - if you're not at work.


'Veggie Love': PETA's Banned Super Bowl Ad

And if you're wondering ... it's true.

Big-shot wannabe

Norm Coleman has joined the circus. Now, that may not come as a shock, as he has been wobbling on an electoral tightrope for a while now. On that issue, Coleman is insisting on a trial to back up his claim that the two-headed man double-counted Al Franken's votes.

Until that trial ends, however, the Falling Norminda has teamed up with the pathalogically dishonest troupe of trapeze artists known as the RJC, while still holding out hope that a trial court will save him and toss Franken's votes aside. Until then (which means, of course, forever), Coleman has decided to join forces with those bizarro-universe RJC Men on Wire who - unlike the original, Philippe Petit, the daring young man that carefully walked to fame by crossing a tightrope between the tops of the Twin Towers - instead recklessly stumbled their way to infamy by performing their high wire act on the rubble of those same towers, selling the myth that the disastrous post-9/11 policies of George Bush were good for both the United States and Israel.

From the RJC's press release: "Coleman will help the RJC as it plans for the future and looks at ways to continue its historic record of growth and success." And if wishes were horses, the RJC would have a stable of ponies. And they would promptly screw horns into the ponies' foreheads and call them unicorns. As the worst kind of hucksters, the type that really believes in their own scam, they'd swear that the unicorns are real, insisting that everyone who says that no, the ponies (imaginary ones, at that) are just ponies are, in fact, self-hating terrorist lovers. Because denying the unicorniness of pretend ponies would be a victory for Hamas.

And so the RJC clowns parade witlessly through the streets, amidts laughter from a crowd that they honestly believe is greeting them with flowers as liberators, so lacking in awareness that they don't realize that, along with the cream pies being tossed in their faces, the crowd is also tossing shoes at their heads. Because in their reality, they won. Sarah Palin is a great friend to Israel. Na-na-na-na, hey-hey, goodbye is an affectionate tribute to a loved former President, flying off into the sunset. Thank you very much, former-President Bush and Vice-President Strangelove, for servicing America.

And so, giving proof to the adage often attributed (incorrectly, to prove the point) to P.T. Barnum that "There's a sucker born every minute," but failing to understand the distinction between a performance and the real world, the RJC force-feeds its trayfe mix of artificial cotton candy-wrapped smear ad campaigns against President Obama and deep-fried funnel-cake push-polls of Jewish voters, passing off its lies as health food while gluttonously choking the truth under heaping plates of self-delusion and public deception.

The RJC has always made its name serving up this toxic swill. As I pointed out over the summer, when looking back at their freak show during the 2004 elections:

The consistently dishonest Republican Jewish Coalition spent 2004 distorting the words of Howard Dean, John Kerry and other Democrats to make them appear anti-Israel and "bad for the Jews," most prominently in a series of national advertisements prior to the 2004 elections.

Read the rest - I'm not going to repeat all of that here - but it forms the frame for this circus tent. In short, the RJC is a con, both neo and not so new, as it were.

But the show must go on. So, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, please direct your attention to Ring Number One, where you can witness the RJC's historic success of growing the size and bankroll of its organization while ushering in historically unmatched levels of abject electoral failure for the Republican party. How's that big tent working out?

Now step right up to Ring Number Two, for the baby elephant walk, where we can see the historic success of supporting torture (excuse me, "enhanced interrogation" or "negative reinforcement"), economic collapse and international embarassment. Of course, that's one of their dirty little secrets, that in a twisted mirror-image of the horrific way Ringling Brothers treats its own elephant mascots, which suffer abuse at the hands of their trainers, the Republicans, with pink elephants dancing in their heads - both behind the scenes where no one can see and in public as touted by its pathetic apologists like RJC headliner Bill Kristol ("I’m perfectly happy to defend most of [Bush's] surveillance, interrogation and counterterrorism policies against his critics.") - encouraging and glorifying torture while hiding behind a claim that it is all for the common good. Yet they never notice that their ears are not wings, and the feather in their trunk has no magic powers.

Without realizing that they're Barnum's real suckers, and aroused by the cheap thrill of abusing the defenseless, treated no better than circus animals, these neoconservative chicken-hawk voyeurs swoon at their own perversion of the Constitution. This is no family show. Peering through the peep hole at the masochistic snuff film it helped produce, sell and buy, in one of the most disasterous three-ring circle jerks in history, the RJC has ridiculously confused the growth of the base of their organ with the growth of the base of their organization.

All of that crosses the line of decency, which is just the point, making the RJC circus the perfect haunt for Norm Coleman. The question is, which circus performer job do you want, Norm? (Suspend your disbelief for a moment while I play the part of the elastic man and stretch my analogies a bit.)

How about the the Human Cannonball, crawling into that big tube so you can be shot out, sans helmet (that's Republican libertarianism - the freedom to screw up so bad that everyone else has to clean up your splattered remains) but donning a red cape proclaiming the RJC's historic success of distorting polling on the Gaza conflict to conclude that the "majority of Democrats oppose Israeli self-defense actions in Gaza"?

Or the lion trainer, carelessly sticking your head into the mouth of the King of Beasts to show your wisdom and judgement, by hailing the victory of Saxby Chambliss in the Georgia Senate race. The elephant trainer's charges, however, could never forget that this is the same Saxby Chambliss that took contributions from Jack Abramoff, and announced that homeland security would be improved if we "turn the sheriff loose and arrest every Muslim that crosses the state line." Those are, to the RJC, values. Nor could they forget this coward who avoided service in Vietnam through multiple deferments and then equated his 2002 Senate opponent, Max Cleland - who lost three limbs in service to America - with Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein in order to win a Senate campaign, for which this mouse of a man was even condemned by your elephant party's most recent (taking into account the exile of its leader-in-fact) standard-bearer, Senator John McCain.

What about the Ringmaster introducing the RJC's own General Tom Thumb, a small, small man, made up of small, small thoughts, the "Amazing Mark Steyn!" As highlighted today on the front page of the RJC's website, look right on at the mental acrobatics as the "amazing Mark Steyn comes to the defense of the Jewish people and simple decency." Simple decency is, through the RJC circus fun house mirror, the perfectly warped term to describe the consistently-wrong intellectual contortionist who refers to Muslims as "sheep-shaggers" and effectively shills for genocide against Muslims - none of that weak-kneed get-em Mr. Sheriff stuff that Saxby Chambliss condones, Steyn will do the job right, and for good. There you have it folks, the Amazing Mark Steyn, the smallest man to ever make a claim to simple decency and humanity.

Perhaps if you're man enough, Mr. Coleman, you can work the carnival sideshow, testing the limits of repressed gender boundaries like your other former Senate colleagues, taking a wide stance to shamefully exploit the bearded woman. From this brief history of bearded ladies:

Julia Pastrana, born in 1834, was a quite famous bearded lady as well. She was found in Mexico by Theodore Lent and traveled with him around the world providing hours of entertainment for people who loved to gawk. She had hypertrichosis terminalis, which causes black hair to grow all over the body and gives a deformed ape-like appearance. She died during childbirth, producing an offspring similar to herself that died three days later. Lent, her husband and the father of her child, had his late wife and child mummified where he continued to display them in his traveling show. He was later committed to a mental institution.

Which sums up the RJC pretty well, I think: the shameless exhibition of policies that are better off dead and buried, clinging to the edge of sanity and pretending to relevance.

So go ahead and climb into the clown car with all of your new friends, Norm, juggling the truth and tripping over yourselves to lay claim to the disaster you helped create over your first and last six years in the Senate.

Here's the thing, though, Norm.

The only truly honest job at the RJC circus of horrors is the guy who follows behind the elephants, with a shovel.

UPDATE: Post updated on 1/23 to add link to story on continuation of the recount trial.

Maybe there's not supposed to be any real joy at all

Josh points to this article in The Jewish Week, in which Abraham Foxman is quoted as objecting to the appointment of George Mitchell - the former Senator that brokered a peace in Northern Ireland - because (and I cannot believe I am writing this) Mitchell is "fair" and "meticulously even handed", which effectively means that he is not sufficiently on the side of Israel.

Our community really needs to take a long, careful look in the mirror and assess who speaks for our values and ultimate interests, and what it means (and what it should mean) to be pro-Israel.

Because they keep using that word, and I don't think it means what they think it means.

Long Tall Cool One

Today's front pages.

Difficult words

OK, so over the last few days, I have heard a pretty significant number of reporters (big time reporters - we'll keep names out of this) pronouncing the word "inauguration" in a way that struck me as odd - in-og-ER-a-shun, without any "ye" or "yu" (depending on your spelling preference) sound.

So I pulled out the Websters, and the dictionary indicates, apparently, that either one is an option.

But, does anyone outside the media actually pronounce it without the "y" sound (in-aw-gye-ray-shun)? It strikes me as pretty pretentious. Maybe I'm wrong, and perhaps it is a regional pronounciation that I am not used to. Or perhaps it's a rebellion from eight years of hearing "nuke-yuh-lar" - time to banish the cowboy "yuh" from our speech.

Yet the web seems devoid of any discussion of that, aside from some snark about Arnold Schwarzenegger's pronounciation of the word.

UPDATE: I just found one other discussion of it on a blog earlier this month, although not by someone who I'd typically cross-reference.

It's going to be different

Josh is posting reader comments about what the inauguration of Barack Obama means to them. This commentary gets at some of the ideas that I was trying to express in my pre-inauguration post on Monday:

My biggest surprise is that President Obama's inclusive message and total absence of malice; his reaching out to all Americans has actually affected me. For eight years I have been provoked by the Bush administration. I responded by hurling vitriolic invective at both the person and his policies. I was bewildered by the "undecideds" and contemptuous of those who still had "W" stickers on their vehicles. And who were these 27% that approve of his record? I had nothing good to say about them.

Then about six weeks ago, I noticed that my enthusiasm was gone. My outbursts seemed to be out of place in the hospitable and civilized political arena President-elect Obama was attempting to create. I get it now. I understand that he is trying to restore rational discourse between opposing ideas to synthesize an effective solution. Now I feel uneasy when I hear people criticizing Mr. Bush. They seem out of step. I wonder if this can last. I wonder if other people will get it.

I cannot claim to have achieved the generosity of spirit expressed here - I will never lose the pain over the path that the last administration and its enablers led us on, along with the price that we and our children will have to pay for their dangerous folly. The best I can probably say is that I now feel uneasy when I hear people - and myself - criticizing Mr. Bush.

They are not forgiven, and I believe strongly in accountability, but it's time to move on, and finally move forward, and we need all of the help and participation that we can get.

Gonna be some changes

On this eve of Barack Obama's inauguration as the 44th President of the United States, I continue coming around to the thought - the idea that led me to support Barack Obama rather than Hillary Clinton or anyone else - that, for the first time in my adult lifetime, America is prepared to start moving forward again, rather than lurching from side to side, or left to right, if you must.

This was my understanding of Barack Obama from the start. A man who could transcend division and focus on the best interests of everyone.

I have spent a year (we put up our first Obama yard sign on MLK Day 2008) cringing whenever someone claimed that Barack Obama was the most liberal candidate for President. Whatever that word means in an ideological or political sense, the word didn't apply to Barack Obama's style or inclination as a way of governance. I don't mean to say he does not hold progressive liberal values. But being defined by an ideology - liberalism - is different from believing in goals that are generally liberal in orientation. Obama, to me, clearly fit into the later category, not the earlier one. He wasn't about taking sides, staking claims to representing one side in a war of opposing views. He doesn't aim for division; he aims for bringing all of us together to better the nation. Healing divisions, acknowledging differences and constructively addressing concerns of everyone, rather than expoiting anger and fears. Those are core American values, and the idea that they could be perceived as "liberal" tells us more about America - well, not America but more precisely those who choose to speak for America - than about Barack Obama (or about liberalism or conservatism, for that matter).

Deep down I understood this all along.

Yet I look back on my blog entries over the last eight months or so and I see that my advice and commentary often failed to take this into account. I have been reactionary and angry in response to slights. I have suggested choices that sought to expolit that anger.

And in each of those instances, Barack Obama stayed true to Barack Obama and did not go in the direction that I suggested. For instance, Wes Clark was not selected as Vice President or shadow Secretary of State, and, as much as I admire General Clark, Obama's decision was right. Rather than using General Clark to counter John McCain's Vietnam experience and take McCain down a notch, then-Senator Obama chose not to go there, and distanced himself from that critique, praising McCain's service. In doing so, Obama did a favor for himself and for Wes Clark.

Despite my calls for Obama to aggressively point out the often vulgar distortions by the McCain campaign, Obama also chose not to attack John McCain back in response to McCain's tactics. Rather than shunning Hillary Clinton, he asked her to be Secretary of State, offering her a potentially historic legacy in pursuit of peace between Israel and her neighbors (Palestinian and otherwise).

The examples abound. And Obama stepped beyond that in each of those circumstances, and by doing so showed all of America a new way forward - a new way that is really the old way, the way our parents taught us as children: to treat people with respect and dignity, to achieve based on our own merits and not on the failures of others, to be honest, humble and gracious, to set an example for others with our behavior, that the greatest rewards come from doing your best and helping others.

While I could see all of that in Barack Obama, and it appealed to me in a way that no other candidacy has ever done (and, frankly, I didn't know could), my experience seeing political campaigns over the last two decades told me that Obama needed to become a pit bull (lipstick or no) in order to win the Presidency. I was often too willing to ask him to put his nature aside as the price for victory.

Barack Obama knew better. Every time I feared he risked being weak and naive, he emerged stronger and smarter. He recognized that he needed to be able to govern, and what a polarizing campaign would do to that governance. Obama conducted his campaign and himself with a confidence and a maturity and a dignity that did not demand compromise of his nature. He showed respect not just for his allies but equally for his adversaries, whether it was an adversary from the outside - like Hillary Clinton, John McCain - or from the inside - like Rev. Wright; and in the process earned respect for himself.

Many say that although Barack Obama has shown he is a great orator, he hasn't shown that he can govern; that all of this is just words. I disagree. Finding campaign guidelines that were flawed (attacking rivals, twisting facts, relying on corporate fundraising), he rewrote those guidelines to suit not only himself, it turned out, but a large part of America that was sick and tired of the old game.

Obama has shown that he is more than just words - but words are an important part of Obama, too. Words are where ideas begin. Like these words from Martin Luther King, Jr., whose 80th birthday we commemorate today, along with the ongoing need to be vigilant in his struggle for human dignity and respect and justice:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.... The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.

And Barack Obama has not only shown that he heard these words, but that he is strong enough to live by them, and by doing so help us all find our path out of darkness and back into the light. I expect that he will govern by those words, as well.

He has shown, in word and deed, that he is not hampered by traditional thinking that forces us back into cultural bickering and partisanship. Bush/Rovian rule by fear or Clintonian triangulation or Reaganesque aloofness or Nixonian paranoia and deceit have no bearing in Obama's mindset. Obama's ascendance allows us to turn a corner and face forward.

We have very challenging times ahead.

But I'm optimistic about addressing them together, as Americans, with the leadership of our new President.

The time to move forward is here.

To get it better than today

The country still feels the wounds from Katrina. Let's remember as we turn the page.

Everything comes and goes

As we approach Barack Obama's inauguration, let's all pledge to do our best to not be fooled again.

Gone, gone, gone.

Another Correspondents Association Dinner.

No WMD over there.

And the media shamefully laughed, missing the point of Colbert's media critique in his Washington, D.C. Correspondents Association Dinner appearance attached to my previous post.

Bye, bye, bye.

Colbert's genius.

No Fond Farewell

First in a series of tributes to some of the highlights of the Bush presidency.

This one's just for the fun.

Show your love.

Fond farewell

I never forget a face.

Ricardo Montalban, one of the iconic actors of my youth, dead at 88.

All data and material regarding the project called Genesis won't bring him back, but, as I said recently about the First Lady, he's not really dead, as long as we remember him. Thanks for the memories, Mr. Montalban.

Some classic Ricardo Montalban memories:







Update: Over at Hullabaloo, they've got a nice post up about Ricardo Montalban.

Update #2: NBC's story:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Living in a green valley

Following up on previous posts on this blog, Almost-President Obama and the Democratic Congress are reviewing plans to undo Bush's eleventh-hour anti-environment regulations.

Brain sucking

The Beast publishes its list of the "50 Most Loathsome People in America, 2008." Personal favorites like Joe Lieberman make the list, of course. But make sure you check out entry number 14, on Ashley Todd ("As attention-getting devices go, trying to start a race war is a tad disproportionate. It’s a good thing this batty bitch was completely hopeless as a fraudster, or her 11th hour 'big black Barack backer battered burgled and branded Barbie' [emphasis added] ruse could have done a lot worse than throw Pennsylvania to McCain."). Which proves that someone actually is reading my blog.

Yes, it is all about me.

On the floor

George W. Bush's bizarre obsession with the Oval Office rug has become legendary.

Well, on Thursday all of the living Presidents (former and outgoing) and President-elect Obama gathered in the Oval Office so they could all have lunch together. And Bill Clinton made a point to say to Bush, "I love this rug."

Despite my grumblings about President Clinton's behavior during the campaign, he can still make me proud!

Maybe some day we'll come together

I had a conversation with my daughter's Hebrew School teacher today about a youtube video showing Israeli children in Sderot hiding from Hamas rockets that she had the children watch. I made the point that, while I don't have a problem with my daughter watching the video, I was concerned about the one-sided perspective that they were being given - not just by her, but within the wider discussion of the military action in Gaza within our congregation (and the fear that by even bringing this up, I would be viewed as in some way anti-Israel). We had a good conversation, but it's a difficult issue to deal with within our community.

Completely by chance tonight (really), I was flipping through Rabbi Joseph Telushkin's The Book of Jewish Values: A Day-by-Day Guide to Ethical Living - my wife got it as a Hanukkah present - and opened to the entry for Day 131: "Read and Listen to Points of View with Which You Disagree."

Telushkin discusses the Talmudic story of how the Hillel School was favored over the Shammai School, which had differing views on how Jewish law should be applied. According to the story, a voice from heaven decreed that, while both were teaching the word of God, the Hillel School had the correct interpretation of the law. The reason? Because Hillel's followers studied both sides of the arguments (including Shammai's views), they were more "kindly and humble" and understood the issues in greater intellectual depth.

I could say more, but the rest is commentary.

UPDATE: OK, so here's that commentary, and why this message is important. I don't want my children to grow up to think like Joe. The Talkback comments at the end of the JPost story are particularly freightening - posters clearly have not taken Telushkin's teaching to heart.

The coal dust settles

Based on this report in today's New York Times, the Tennessee coal ash disaster could repeat itself at hundreds of other locations across America. Apparently, there are over 1,300 of them, mostly unregulated.

What happens to all that coal ash when it does leave those dumps?

In fact, coal ash is used throughout the country for construction fill, mine reclamation and other “beneficial uses.” In 2007, according to a coal industry estimate, 50 tons of fly ash even went to agricultural uses, like improving soil’s ability to hold water, despite a 1999 E.P.A. warning about high levels of arsenic.

That's remarkable. This unregulated, poisonous waste which, among other things, causes cancer and birth defects, is used in the soil that grows our nation's food.

And it's all going on right under our noses - in places like next to the so-called "cleanest coal fired plant in North America" outside of Tampa, just down the highway from here, according to a CBS News story from last year - along with other dumps across the country.

Failing to recognize that there are two faces to every coin, this CBS story from last year entirely missed the issue about where waste products scrubbed from emissions go when they are not pumped into the air. The answer, of course, is into the other waste product produced in removing energy from coal: coal ash. Which eventually means this - the problem, and the poison, is in, among other places, the water we drink, the food we eat. CO2 emissions are not the only issue - they may present the most pressing concern with respect to global climate change, but we ignore the poisons put into our air, our soil, our water, with equal peril for all the living things that call earth home.



The production of coal ash has increased tremendously, not simply as a result of increased energy production (which is a problem in and of itself), but also, ironically, because the pollution controls that keep the poisons out of the air, such as the controls on that plant in Tampa, now deposit the toxic waste into the ash (where the concentrations of that poison are even greater than before).

That's today's clean coal technology. That's the hidden cost when McCain-Palin campaign advertisements chaged accusingly that "Obama, Biden and their liberal allies oppose clean coal." That's what happens when you separate rhetoric from thought, when we just argue sides rather than argue facts. Go ahead, drill, baby, drill. Mine, baby, mine. It's all good, right?

Keep that in mind, for instance, when you look at plug-in hybrids as an environmental solution. (On that front, last week reports appeared claiming that Toyota is developing a solar-powered hybrid - alas, those stories don't appear to be true. The answer to me still appears to be a plug-in hybrid powered off a solar grid, preferably the panels on the roof of your home.)

Drawing a long straight line

Walter Dellinger, who was one of my constitutional law professors at Duke, comments on seating Roland Burris. In pointing out that the Senate should go ahead and seat Burris, Dellinger wisely makes this point:

But that some reasons for denying Mr. Burris this seat might not be subject to review by the courts means that the Senate should take more care, not less. As we emerge from eight years of extravagant executive claims of unreviewable authority, Congress should be especially scrupulous about having a solid legal basis for controversial actions.

Just get it done, Harry Reid. You don't save face by stalling - you overreached your authority because Blagojevich is a jerk. It's understandable. But it is what it is. You don't need Burris to add "Martyr" to his mausoleum. (And what's up with Fitzgerald needing more time to bring an indictment? He cannot make the case against Blago?)

Save your strength for when the crazies try to keep Al Franken out.

The congregation's waiting at the altar

I was listening to my iPod this morning when Abigail Washburn's version of "His Eye is on the Sparrow" came on, turning my thoughts again to an issue that I have been puzzling over for some time now relating to my interest in bluegrass music - particularly, why I find some bluegrass so compelling, even when there are significant religious overtones in that music; why, much like my father's reaction to traditional Gospel music, I can find a song like that so inspiring, a song which is literally about Christian faith, yet also a song which I find so oddly Jewish.

His eye is on the sparrow
And I know He watches
I know He watches
I know He watches me.

It can be more than a little confusing. Using the google, a quick hit on "eye is on the sparrow jewish" will take you to some positively freightening (from a Jewish perspective) Jews for Jesus links. Let's be clear on this - it isn't Jewish music. But we (meaning "we Jews") can lose sight of that - either because we don't recognize it as such or just because it doesn't really matter to us. The imagery of the words doesn't necessarily announce to us that it is decidedly Christian folk music; what does "his eye is on the sparrow" mean to me, really? And it's not like we need to understand what all song lyrics mean. What the heck, for example, does "I am the walrus" mean, and who really cares? I could have missed the Christian-ness of Sparrow entirely (well, probably not, but I could have ignored it), were it not for the reference in the song that "Jesus is my portion" - another statement that I don't really understand except to know that, hey, it's not a Jewish thing, now is it?

So, is Carrie Rodriguez talking about - or to - G-d in "St. Peter's"? Maybe, but again, I'm not sure. Is that Christian imagery or a memory of a loved one? If so, why does the song have to have that great hook to it that makes it almost impossible to turn off, that just keeps you waiting through the painful reflection for the joyful spingboard two-thirds into the music, just to turn back to the gripping sense of loss and longing at the close of St. Peter's? Then there's almost all of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Will the Circle Be Unbroken. We're just scratching the surface when it comes to bluegrass - it's pretty hard to get away from its spiritual roots; while much of the new bluegrass has moved beyond those themes, the foundations of traditional bluegrass remain.

History has us hard-wired as Jews to fear much of what we don't understand in other religious and cultural traditions as an attempt to destroy our Jewishness. Much of modern Christian evangelical fundamentalism - the Jews for Jesus movement, Campus Crusade, that whole segment of the mid-to-high teens on the cable box - is a counterpart of a Christian mission to embed New Testament ideas which, when directed toward Jews, as it often is, can and often should be seen, operationally and functionally, if not intentionally, as anti-Semitic in its almost obsessive goal to literally convert our Jewish spirit (through appeal to a stripped-down cultural identity appeal, incorporating stereotypical Jewish appearances and accents and visuals into Christian dogma) into Christain faith. As Jews we live in a defensive crouch on lookout for cult-like evangelicals on a mission to capture the hearts and souls of our children, children who are searching to find their way in a Jewish culture that encourages and demands argument and struggle and questioning, leaving them, we fear, vulnerable against a Christianity that offers a perception of certainty and peace by simple acceptance. Being Jewish, spiritually and culturally, requires hard work (which is, really, an advantage, although not always perceived as such). We instinctively react with a defense mechanism of guarding against those influences that might pose a challenge to Jewish identification and the culturally extraordinary effort required to maintain our identity.

And so at some level it seems that bluegrass Gospel music - from a rural Southern tradition that is interwoven with the Bible Belt - would trigger those primal Jewish defensive instincts, that this is just not kosher music. "What they couldn't achieve through the gas chambers," we can hear our grandmothers say, "you'll let them achieve through their music!" And they'd be right at a certain level - just do that google search I mentioned above. The machinery of annihilation can come in many forms, and it's no less damaging if it is based on a desire to "spread the good word."

Yet my beliefs aren't undermined by listening to those songs. Quite the opposite instincts are triggered, in fact, and I find myself feeling more spiritual (if not more religious) in a Jewish way, closer to a sense of godliness, when I hear some of this gospel bluegrass. Why is that?

This morning I ran across this, which may explain a bit - if not why this music is so compelling, in a uniquely Jewish way apart from its original intention, then at least that I am not alone in my Jewish attraction to it:

In country, Andy Statman is nominated for best country instrumental song. Statman, who plays clarinet and mandolin, is a devout Orthodox Jew. He is considered one of the best bluegrass and klezmer musicians of all time.

Statman was one of the founders of the progressive bluegrass music movement of the '70s and he's one of a surprisingly large number of urban Jews who have become top bluegrass players (Bela Fleck, David Grisman, John Cohen, etc.). Heavily Jewish New York City is known as the best market for bluegrass music outside the South.

One of Statman's best friends is Ricky Skaggs, a famous bluegrass player whose musical roots are in also in gospel music. A religious Christian, Skaggs says:

"There's something that Jewish people love about bluegrass. I'm trying to get my thumb on it as well. There's something very spiritually connected to Israel. I don't know exactly how."

I think Ricky's partially right, though like him, I don't really understand it. But I think the key is less a connection to Israel - I'm pretty sure that Ricky isn't talking about the People of Israel in the sense of the Jewish people, but rather is talking about the nation of Israel - but instead is a connection to the spirituality of prayer, and Jewish prayer, and in particular the role of music in Jewish prayer. I wish I had seen all of this a few months ago - I would have mentioned it to Ricky Skaggs when I met him back in October. It would have made for a very interesting conversation. Ricky's a conservative Christian, and he would most likely find a different message within bluegrass music than the one I hear when I listen, but it would be an extraordinary study.

Rabbi Reuven Hammer points out something interesting in our tradition:

The Talmud teaches that "If one reads [Scripture] without chant or studies [Mishnah] without melody, of him is it written, 'I gave them laws that were not good' (Ezekiel 20:25)." Melody adds not only to the beauty but even to the quality of the words. To this day, learning in traditional yeshivot is done to the accompaniment of a kind of singsong melody. The Torah is not read during the synagogue service; it is sung.

We pray to song, and Jewish prayer is not the same without that song, the melody of a Shabbat service or a holiday or even Shivah, the period of mourning. The tunes brings us closer to our Jewishness, however we perceive that, whether as a relationship with G-d or "godliness" or a deepened connection to our history or our inner consciousness and values. The melody may have even more meaning than the words themselves, in no small part because most of us don't understand most of the Hebrew that we are singing word for word. We generally know what the prayer is about, but a real time, word for word translation as we say the prayer? Not so much. And when we do understand the words? Well, most of our traditional blessings repeat the same concepts over and over again. Thanks, praise and acknowledgement of the supremacy of the one G-d, commitment to and an obligation to follow laws, seeking peace and wisdom, repeat. Music serves to set the mood. We can be most inspired when a service casts off the conversations and responsive readings and floods us over with music, like at B'nai Jeshurun on New York City's Upper West Side, or at our synagogue's monthly musical Friday-night service.

We may even go so far as to say that words can be impediments to the deepest communication, for what words can adequately express our feelings about God? Nor can they truly capture the depths of our emotions at times of grief or of overwhelming joy. In the words of the Hasidic master R. Dov Baer, "The ecstasy produced by melody ... is in the category of spontaneous ecstasy alone, without any choice or intellectual will whatsoever."

Words can become idols. They concretize that which cannot be concretized. Ideas can intellectualize experience. Melody is pure soul. One understands why many western congregations have included "readings"--translations of prayers without any melody-into the service. But we would be well advised not to abandon the use of chanting in prayer. We need not turn the service into a performance and the cantor (hazzan) into a performer in order to avail ourselves of the musical tradition to enhance our worship. Prayer is not a spectator sport. The role of the hazzan is to help us pray, to be the expert we may not be, to inspire us and guide us in a true experience of prayer.

And so the music, as music alone, means alot in our tradition, and cuts deep into our cultural and religious experience. Our cantor was a musician before becoming a cantor, which may not be that surprising, except when you realize that music is so fundamental that Jews actually have a specific clergy position for a singer. This is not some isolated incident, this role of music in Jewish life. Our assistant rabbi was also a professional musician before becoming a rabbi. The cantor/leader of one of my best friend's congregation across town is still a professional musician, who even played for Barack Obama at a campaign event last fall. We are imprinted as Jews, I think, to use music as our bridge from our daily lives to our spirituality, regardless of our religiousness.

And that gives us much in common with musicians like Ricky Skaggs or Bruce Hornsby or Abigail Washburn, who are not Jewish but who explore their worlds through their music.

The bluegrass champion [Ricky Skaggs] says, "I'm hoping and praying in my heart that when I play music, people's minds will be transformed, that they'll be able to focus on the spirit that's coming out of our music and they can have one hour of joy, feel some of the love coming out of our hearts.

"We need love. Everybody wants to be loved, and there's something about bluegrass music that evokes a happy, joyous, celebratory time. It's hard not to listen to How Mountain Girls Can Love and not tap your foot."

A recent phenomenon has occurred with the creation of "Jewgrass" music - not bluegrass played by Jews, but rather music influenced by mountain folk music with uniquely Jewish content to take the place of the Gospel underpinnings of bluegrass. Commentators on the Jewgrass music movement - while observing that country-western music cannot exist outside of its Christain roots - have noticed something quite different about bluegrass:

And there's the rub: Bluegrass' lyrics, like country music's, have always been overwhelmingly Christian. So Jewgrass shouldn't really be imaginable, let alone possible. But it has been. Quarantined by folk music and adopted by a large Northern constituency, bluegrass can pass as a real-live heritage for us all. It doesn't feel like an industry product associated with a particular group and a specific region.

And yet the content of the music matters, too, in its own way, which can sometimes (though not always, but we don't need to listen to it then, do we?) compel us to listen and think of the lyrics in their Jewish context.

Sparrow sends the message, "I know He watches me."

Those bluegrass gospel words provide, in an unexpected way, a profoundly Jewish message, provide not only comfort in our faith but also an obligation and duty, to act in a way that makes the world the best that we can make it. שים שלוֹם

שים שלוֹם Sim shalom.

Grant peace, goodness and blessing to the world, grace, kindness, and mercy to us and to all Your people Israel.

Bless us all, O our Creator, with the Divine light of Your provenance. For by that Divine light You have revealed to us Your life-giving Torah, and taught us lovingkindness, righteousness, mercy, and peace.

May it please You to bless Your people Israel, in every season and at every hour, with Your peace.

Praised are You, O Lord, Bestower of peace upon Your people Israel...

Oh Maker of harmony in the universe, grant peace to us, to Israel, and to all people everywhere.

That peace requires us to act to make it happen - we have been given the tools: Torah (the law), lovingkindness, righteousness, mercy, peace. And so our deeds, using those tools, are required to bring that peace, blessing, grace, kindness and compassion - that godliness - into our lives and into the world. Faith alone is not enough (and perhaps doesn't really matter at all - but that's another conversation). The Jewish conception is not about wishful thinking, or that the truth will set us free. It's about responsibility.

As Hillel summarized the principles of the Torah, as the Golden Rule, "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor: that is the whole Torah; all the rest of it is commentary; go and learn."

In the religious language of Sparrow, He is watching us. And in our Jewish understanding of those words, it is our obligation to not let Him down. Not because score is being kept, but because bettering the world is the right thing to do.

Maybe that's our shared message, why as Jews we can relate to some bluegrass (not all bluegrass, for sure) in a deep, spiritual manner. Ricky Skaggs' quest to bring joy and celebration through his music. Abigail Washburn's and bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley's efforts to help bring positive change our country by helping elect Barack Obama. Our duty to make the world a better place. So this music that isn't intended at all to speak to us as Jews, in a way that conveys a uniquely Jewish message, does just that when heard through a Jewish filter.

Or maybe it's just really good music.

Lots of bad jokes

It's not that I have nothing to say about Blago's attempt to appoint Roland Burris to Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat, or Burris' blunderheaded acceptance of that "appointment," or the Senate's attempt to foil the appointment, or the constitutionality (read: unconstitutionality) of the Senate's ability to refuse to seat an appointed Senator, or what impact this will have on Harry Reid's reputation and ability to lead (I mean seriously, when Reid backs down on this, will it look more ridiculous than when he caved to Lieberman?).

All the more so because any commentary by me would be milk-out-your-nose funny, endearingly poignant, profoundly cynical.

It's just that at this point it seems to me the best thing everyone could do is just ignore it all. No more discussion about it. Ignore Booby Rush's hysterical ramblings. Just shut it out, along with everyone who is earning their underserved, bloated paychecks by feeding on this gravy train with biscuit wheels. Stop giving these clowns - Blagojevich, Burris, Rush, and those who are pushing the idea of race problems due to this silliness - credibility.

Now, when and if armed police prevent Burris from entering the United States Capitol building, that will be worth the commentary.