Do politicians lie about religion?

Do politicians lie about religion? Is the pope Catholic? Is Jon Stewart Jewish? 

Of course politicians lie about religion. They have tremendous incentives to misrepresent their religious beliefs so as to sway people to vote for them.

That's why we judge the idea of a religious test or interview to be a weak or useless means of assessing a candidate in an election. 

Damon Linker of the New Republic thinks it's a good idea to ask politicians questions about their religion. We disagree - strongly.

Maybe that makes sense if the person has never held office and there's no other means to determine what he or she stands for. Actual facts drawn from the politician's performance in office ought to be taken most seriously. Indications from a person's life's record of integrity and character ought to be important factors.

In the Bergen Record, Linker says, "...all candidates for high office should have to take the religious test..." and he gives us his questions. Linker thinks that by invoking JFK's famous speech and then explaining how times have changed, he can justify his case for a "test" of religion for politicians.

JFK put it legally and nobly, as Linker cites, "Kennedy emphasized that Article VI of the Constitution maintains that no “religious test” may keep a candidate from aspiring to political office. He went further, implying that his Catholicism should be off limits to public scrutiny. To treat a politician’s religious beliefs as politically relevant was an affront to America’s noblest civic traditions, he declared."

We disagree with Linker both on those grounds that JFK invokes, and on the cynical terms that we indicated above. A test indicates nothing. Linker does not suggest we put the respondent under oath. So we think it likely he or she often will lie with no compunctions to get elected or to stay in office.

Linker's plan is just plain unfair, un-American and foolish, not at all noble or practical.

Sukkah is Down, Apple TV is Up and Running

It was a nice dry day, and we got the sukkah down right away tonight.

Then we went to work connecting and configuring our new Apple TV.

Bingo. It works as promised, in minutes, like magic.

Accesses NetFlix, YouTube, iTunes via the Internet; local library on my PC -- all my music!

Use the pretty little metal remote or the iPad with an app called "Remote". It works too.

Exciting times and toys.

Shavua Tov. Lots to watch....

Bloomberg: Review of David Sarna's book "History of Greed"

Our neighbor David Sarna has published a new book that has been reviewed at some length on Bloomberg:

Budding Gordon Gekkos Get Tips on Ponzi Scams in `History of Greed'

Should we say kaddish for the New Yorker?

Should we say kaddish for the New Yorker? Yes, judging from the article the magazine published today about its new iPad edition, we should say kaddish -- the prayer for the dead -- for this 20th century publication.

Don't get me wrong. I think that the New Yorker is a literate, quality magazine. It just seems to us that they are so far out of touch with the real world of new media publications, that there is no hope they can survive without some real resuscitation.

Here is the lamest article about a new digital edition that we ever read -- and we join the loud chorus of others who seem to agree. And yikes, the notion that we pay $40 a year for the print magazine and now need to pay another $400 a year for the digital edition -- well that is about as outrageous as it gets!

"Beginning with this issue, that generalized instantaneousness has come: The New Yorker will be available on the Apple iPad, on Mondays, wherever you happen to be," we are told, without adding that each issue will cost you $5.

Download the app, if you dare after reading all the pans that it got. Apparently hundreds of commentators agree that this is sheer nonsense.

And then, in the lamest video of the decade, Jason Schwartzman demonstrates The New Yorker’s new app. 

I'm still upchucking at this attempt at humor.

On the Market: Amazing Gatling Home on Dover Court in Teaneck

On the market -- the Amazing Gatling Home on Dover Court in Teaneck.

The Times extolled this home in 2001, and now it is on the market for ~$1.3M.

You know you want it.

Grab it.

Apple and Archaeology: iPad at Pompeii

As an example of what amazing things iPad can do, Apple assembled an account of how this game-changing revolutionary tool helps archaeologists at Pompeii.

...For Dr. Steven Ellis, who directs the University of Cincinnati’s archaeological excavations at Pompeii, perhaps the most significant discovery at the site this year was iPad. Ellis credits the introduction of six iPad devices at Pompeii with helping his team solve one of the most difficult problems of archaeological fieldwork: how to efficiently and accurately record the complex information they encounter in the trenches... more...

It's just the beginning. iPad -- and its successors -- will change how we live, the quality of many of our activities and professions.

iPad Brings Happiness

Sukkot is called the festival of our happiness. We did have a happy holiday so far with our family and friends.

On a related topic, analysts are pointing out that the Apple iPad device is producing happy users in record numbers.

We've said from day one that the iPad gets it right. Instant happiness with hardly any frustration. Wow. Here is how one blogger at TechCrunch sums it up:

People Are Really Happy With Their iPads

Alexia Tsotsis 

Apparently you can get satisfaction, if you’re the owner of an iPad that is. A report recently released by the American Customer Satisfaction Index shows that consumer satisfaction with personal computers is at an all time high, having grown 4% this year and now registering a 78 on the ASCI 100-point scale.

Leading the pack for the seventh year in row, beloved fanboy brand Apple gains 2% to hit 86 points, its highest score ever and a full 9 points ahead of its competitors Dell, Acer and HP which all scored 77s.

The secret of Apple’s success? CNBC delves deeper and reports that all this fuss is about the iPad.

“The iPad, even at this early stage, pulled up Apple’s overall numbers – which makes it the highest-scoring product Apple has, and therefore the highest-scoring product ACSI has ever tracked.”...

Is Esther Petrack Jewish?

Yes, model Esther Petrack is a Jew from Brookline, MA. She was born in Jerusalem, brought up Orthodox and attended the Maimonides school.

Esther, now all of 18, is a contestant on a TV show which up to now we have not seen, America's Next Top Model.

Tyra Banks, a host on the show, put her on the spot, asking her if she would work on the Sabbath, if her competition required that. She said she would.

An article on Tablet calls all of this a "Modern Orthodox Drama" and terms Esther's answer a "blow... to the Modern Orthodox experiment."

And a rabbi in Israel chimes in to say it indicates, "a serious malaise in Modern Orthodoxy." He adds that it means the community has, "accepted the Western illusion that we can 'have it all.'"

The rabbi cites my teacher Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, who preached that Orthodox Judaism demands of its members a "sacrificial and heroic existence."

We say to both these critics, whoa, don't get your panties in such a twist over this! (Always wanted to say that, and it seems apt here, in light of the modeling context and all.)

Snap Talmudic analysis:

Let's not even start a debate over which is the illusion or who are the heroes.

The occasional actions of individuals ought never be framed as challenges to a great and abiding religious system. Those decisions are indications that we Jews, like all other peoples are constituted of many kinds of people and personalities.

To opine that conformity ought to be total is deliberately to ignore the record, from the ye olde bible, through the ages, and now to the Next Top Model.

We think young Esther is no illusion; she is a vision. She is quite a super-hero and we applaud her efforts and her honesty, and we hope she wins.

Added video:

Are Mezuzas Jewish?

Yes, mezuzas are Jewish. Affixing a mezuza (aka mezuzah) to the doorpost of your house is a prominent commandment to the ancient Israelites in the bible, prominently specified in verses recited by Jews in the Shema prayer twice daily (e.g., Deut. 6:9).

But the Times reports that plenty of non-Jewish people, especially in Brooklyn NY, inherit mezuzas when they move into their houses or apartments.

In a wonderful, warm article the Times notes about those Gentiles who keep their mezuzas:

...But many gentiles choose to keep their piece of Judaica in place.

“It’s good karma, if I can mix my religious metaphors,” said Brian Hallas, a resident of Kensington, Brooklyn, who teaches kindergarten at the Calhoun School in Manhattan. Although his mezuza was heavily camouflaged in what he described as a “lovely institutional beige” hallway tone, he spotted it immediately upon moving in, having once received a mezuza necklace from a college sweetheart... more...

Hat tip to Yochanan Hashlishi.

Is Diaspora Jewish?

If you think Diaspora is Jewish, i.e., a term that describes the dispersion of the Jews over millenia from the promised land, then you would be correct.

But now the term refers to a new Internet platform, something that is not just Jewish. The Bits blog of the Times reports, "Diaspora, the Open Facebook Alternative, Releases Its Code":

On Thursday Diaspora, a social Web site that hopes to offer an alternative to Facebook, announced that its developers would be allowed to download the code used to build the new service and begin exploring and enhancing the Diaspora software.

Diaspora is the result of four New York University students who became frustrated by Facebook’s confusing privacy policy. As The Times’ Jim Dwyer noted in an article earlier this year, the entire project was a “call to arms” over Facebook’s less than transparent explanation of how its users’ data was being exposed to others and to advertisers.

And now be prepared for a slew of reports on Mark Zuckerberg in advance of the release of the new film about him and Facebook called, The Social Network. The New Yorker has a report "Letter from Palo Alto, The Face of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg opens up" by Jose Antonio Vargas, based on their research.

Zuckerberg is not going to let a film define his public persona. He's doing interviews.

Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in his college dorm room six years ago. Five hundred million people have joined since, and eight hundred and seventy-nine of them are his friends. The site is a directory of the world’s people, and a place for private citizens to create public identities...more...