Times runs electric bike story with no mention of oil industry obstructionism

Just boggles our mind that in 2010 the Times could run a story about electric bikes with no research into, or mention of, the oil industry's decades of opposition to this means of transportation that is a fearsome threat to oil company hegemony.

Times, just what the heck are you doing over there?

An Electric Boost for Bicyclists
By J. DAVID GOODMAN

SHANGHAI — Jiang Ruming, a marketing manager, owns a van, but for many errands, he hops on a futuristic-looking contraption that lets him weave rapidly through Shanghai’s messy traffic. He rides an electric bicycle.

Half a world away, in San Francisco, the president of that city’s board of supervisors, David Chiu, uses an electric bike to get to meetings without sweating through his suit.

And in the Netherlands, Jessy Wijzenbeek-Voet recently rode an electric bicycle on a long trip that, at 71, she would not have been able to make on a standard bike.

Detroit may be introducing electric car designs and China may be pushing forward with a big expansion of its highways and trains. But people like Mr. Jiang, Ms. Wijzenbeek-Voet and Mr. Chiu — as well as delivery workers in New York, postal employees in Germany and commuters from Canada to Japan — are among the millions taking part in a more accidental transportation upheaval...more...

Talmud says Jesus is punished in Hell for eternity in a cauldron of boiling excrement

We've known Peter Schaefer for years but have not read his book.

However after reading this early review we must say that the publication seems to fill a much-needed gap in the literature.

What the Talmud Really Says About Jesus
by David Klinghoffer, Religion BookLine -- 1/31/2007

Will Peter Schaefer's new book, Jesus in the Talmud (Mar.), be controversial? "I'm afraid so," Schaefer told RBL. "That's why I'm nervous."

His editor at Princeton University Press, Brigitta van Rheinberg, laughed but agreed: "You think, oh, whoa, this is not going to go over well in certain circles."

The Three Main Tensions in Our Synagogue

These are the three main tensions that we detect in our synagogue nowadays. They have been there throughout our history.

First is the tension of purpose.

Is the purpose of the synagogue to express and address in prayer the needs of the individual Jew - or - the collective agenda of the Jewish people?

Second is the tension of presence.

Is it more urgent for each Jew in the synagogue to focus in prayer his or her presence on the immediate here and now of their experience - or - to transcend their locus and imagine the realms of the heavens above, the times that have past and the future that is yet to come?

Third is the tension of performance.

Is it more apparent that Jews in the synagogue gather together to artfully carry out with aplomb the services of prayers, psalms and bible readings for each other in the four walls of their buildings - or - that they join as one to proclaim with certainty and celebrity the destiny of the God of the people of Israel to be worshiped with no borders throughout the world?

All three tensions are apparent, articulated and addressed right on the surface in the traditional services of the synagogue.

If you have never noticed, then you have not paid attention to the contents of the Jewish prayers.

Perhaps that's because you've been told that the main tensions in your synagogue are...

...whether or not you may converse with your neighbor, whether or not you voted to raise the dues, whether or not you approve of the rabbi's new contract.

Yep, that could be why you didn't notice.

Troubling News about Jewish Bankers, Israel Peace and antiSemitism in Europe

Henry's 3 links, thank you:

We asked Is Goldman Sachs Jewish? on 11/8/09.

Michael Kinsley now explains, "How to Think About: Jewish Bankers" on the Atlantic Wire, and asks questions like this one, "Because Goldman is thought of as a "Jewish" firm, and because it dominates the financial industry, criticism of Goldman, or of bankers generally, is often accused of being anti-Semitic. Commentators including Rush Limbaugh and Maureen Dowd have been so accused. When, if ever, are such accusations fair?"

We ask then in reply, When if ever is Kinsey going to stop acting as if there is an objective measure of fairness and finally accept that everyone's answer to his query is dependent on their inherent biases and their levels of sensitivity?

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Marty Peretz writes mainly about Israel in, "Unsentimental Education: What has Obama learned about peace?" in TNR.

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Open Salon warns us that, "European Antisemitism Soars" By GARY BAUMGARTEN (Paltalk News Network), "A report, released on Sunday, shows that antisemitism in Europe has reached the highest level since the Holocaust."

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Jewish Prayer Software Review: Kavvanah-Kavanah for Windows

Review of "Kavanah Improvement Project" for Windows from Yosi Fishkin, MD. Free. Download at www.GoDaven.com for Windows and Palm PDAs.


Program Description: Kavanah Improvement Project is the first program that provides a complete system designed to help you improve your Kavanah during davening. The program provides daily Kavanah exercises to help you strengthen your Kavanah, helps you track you Kavanah over time, and, based on your progress, it provides customized suggestions to help you improve your particular Kavanah situation.

How does DUNKIN' DONUTS know everything about us?

A friend of ours drove in to DUNKIN' DONUTS recently to get a cup of coffee on his 60th birthday.

He wondered as he drove out, How do they know everything about us?

Is Synagogue Politics Kosher?

Is synagogue politics kosher? You bet. It goes back to an early era of rabbinic Judaism in the second century.

Here's our proof.

There’s a Talmudic narrative in bavli Berakhot 27b-28a that explains how the patriarch Gamaliel was deposed from his position.

Or, translated into contemporary terms, this passage reports on how a rabbi was humiliated in his shul in front of the board of directors over some ostensible dispute over rituals and his contract was not renewed, the gossip that ensued, how a young replacement rabbi was hustled in, and then how the original rabbi wrangled his way back into his position.

One time a student came before R. Joshua.

He said to him, “Is the evening prayer optional or compulsory?”

Joshua said to him, “Optional.”

He came before R. Gamaliel.

He said to him, “Is the evening prayer optional or compulsory?”

He said to him, “Compulsory.”

He said to him, “Did not R. Joshua say to me, ‘Optional’?”

Gamaliel said to him, “Wait until the shield bearers enter the study house.”

Was J. D. Salinger Jewish?

No, according to Jewish law, the author of the novel, Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger was not a Jew because his mother was not a Jew.

But by general cultural and sociological standards, yes J. D. Salinger was half-Jewish because his father was a Jew. Moreover, Wikipedia reports that, "Salinger's mother changed her name to Miriam and passed as Jewish. Salinger did not find out that his mother was not Jewish until just after his bar mitzvah."

JTA reports, "The author was born in New York in 1919 to an assimilated Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother of Irish descent. Salinger's father, Sol, was the son of a rabbi. He worked as an importer of ham and tried to get his son into the business, according to The New York Times, but the younger Salinger instead became a writer."

After 1946 in New York City, some reports say that Salinger studied Zen Buddhism. In later life he lived as a recluse in New Hamshire. He was eclectic in his religious life, at times a practicing Hindu, and a variety of fads and cults at other times, per Wikipedia,

After abandoning Kriya yoga, Salinger tried Dianetics (the forerunner of Scientology), even meeting its founder L. Ron Hubbard, but according to Claire he was quickly disenchanted with it. This was followed by adherence to a number of spiritual, medical, and nutritional belief systems including Christian Science, homeopathy, acupuncture, macrobiotics, the teachings of Edgar Cayce, fasting, vomiting to remove impurities, megadoses of Vitamin C, urine therapy, "speaking in tongues" (or Charismatic glossolalia), and sitting in a Reichian "orgone box" to accumulate "orgone energy".

Salinger died today at the age of 91.

Was Rashi a Blogger?

New book idea, "Rashi and Blogging" in the spirit of Jonathan Rosen's little book (2000), "The Talmud and the Internet."

If Rashi were alive today, we believe he would publish his commentary as a daily Torah commentary blog.

Smart people make a book relevant through literary translation via the available technology. The theory known as Midrash does that for the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible.

Here are some of our thoughts on "Biblical Criticism: Midrash and Medieval Commentary" that we composed for the Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism, recently reprinted.

The text of the Old Testament, known by the acronym Tanakh - i.e., Torah, Nevi`im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings) - for centuries has been subjected to critical scrutiny by Jewish scholars. Rabbinic authorities in late antiquity [called Tannaim and Amoraim] developed some of the best known and most influential forms of traditional interpretive theories of the text of the Bible. The contributions of these scholars has been preserved in numerous volumes of midrash compilations and in the Talmud (the definitive compilation of rabbinic laws, legends and interpretation from the first to sixth centuries).

During the middle ages Jewish scholars developed several types of biblical criticism. These derived from diverse sources: (1) the traditions of conventional rabbinic exegesis; (2) medieval mystical traditions within Judaism; (3) grammatical, syntactical and other critical advances of the middle ages. Many of the commentaries and expositions of that period are eclectic mixtures of these strands of interpretation.

For the rest of this article see here.

Would you torture a stranger on command?

In the famous Milgram experiment 82% of the subjects followed the orders of authorities and administered (fake) electric shocks to strangers as instructed.

A Santa Clara study that repeated the experiment (2008) found that 70% of their volunteers did the same.

We suppose that we should applaud the "improvement" or attribute the differential to the more laid back nature of the Californians recruited for the new study through Craigslist.

Remember however, the Milgram experiment was not meant primarily to be a means of evaluating the moral fiber of our society. It's often discussed in the context of investigating the actions of Eichmann, the Nazis and the Holocaust. But the research in fact was sponsored by the US military to help establish the limits of effective authority in the chain of command and to set guidelines and expectations for field commanders. Accordingly we don't consider the results indicative of whether our evil neighbors will eagerly engage in torture, or indicative of philosophical or moral trends.

Here is a high level account of the new study.

Shocking revelation: Santa Clara University professor mirrors famous torture study
By Lisa M. Krieger

Replicating one of the most controversial behavioral experiments in history, a Santa Clara University psychologist has found that people will follow orders from an authority figure to administer what they believe are painful electric shocks.