Not gone, just busy

Sorry about the dearth of posting here lately–just been up to my noodle in deadlines and stuff.

In the meantime, here’s a lovely quote, brought to you by Uri, to whom I owe an email:

[We] must head out to do our jobs so well that nobody could do them better. No matter what this job is, you must decide to do it well. Do it so well that the living, the dead, or the unborn can’t do it better. If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Raphael painted
pictures; sweep streets like Michelangelo carved marble; sweep streets like Beethoven composed music; sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry; sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: “Here lived a great street sweeper, who swept his job well.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

Dear Jerusalem,

(especially the ninety bajillion people who passed through Gan Sacher this week)

Please pick up your trash.

(I mean for pete’s sake.)

Thanks ever so much.

Love,
Danya

baruch Dayan ha-emet

damn damn damn.

another pigua, at least 6 dead in Tel Aviv. I’m in Jerusalem today, so family and friends: I’m OK.

Healing to all those who’re hurt, and peace to all those already dead.

Oh, and to all those people who want to yell at me because I do post when such-and-such happens to Israelis or when such-and-such happens to Palestinians, or whatever? Bugger off. It’s my blog. I’ll post whatever I want. I have a vaguely unified if somewhat inconsistient policy statement about the Situation and the Conflict and the Occupation how and when I assign responsibility to whom and when and why and when compassion is more at the fore and whatever, and you know what? I’m not required to publish policy statements. Not every post being angry about Palestinian human rights being violated has to include a disclamer about what I think of Hamas and not every mourning for murdered people in Tel Aviv has to include a missive on Olmert’s withdrawl plan.

All I know is that the news uses the phrase “blood splattered on the pavement” and it hurts, hurts so bad. Dammit dammit.

book rec du jour

Carol Lee Flinders is one of the few people out there of whom (for whom?) I’d read just about anything she writes. She’s asking certain kinds of questions that almost nobody else out there is, and there’s very much general spiritual nourishing yumminess in her work. In any case, she’s got a new book out, and it’s looking pretty tasty:
Enduring Lives : Portraits of Women and Faith in Action

(gacked from Amazon):In Enduring Lives, the sister volume to her bestselling classic Enduring Grace, Carol Lee Flinders draws riveting portraits of women who are the spiritual great-granddaughters of the female mystics and saints profiled in Enduring Grace. Flinders explores the spiritual journeys of:

- Jane Goodall, a world-renowned scientist, environmentalist, and humanitarian, whose groundbreaking work runs parallel to a deeply realized spiritual vision for our times.
- Etty Hillesum, a Jewish intellectual in Amsterdam who documented in her diaries an abiding vision for the eventual triumph of human good over evil, even as she faced the horror of Auschwitz.
- Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun who befriended death-row inmates and accompanied them to their ends with the grace of her certainty that “God dwells in the people that we most want to throw away.” (Sister Helen Prejean was portrayed by Susan Sarandon in the Oscar-winning film Dead Man Walking.)
- Tenzin Palmo, a Tibetan Buddhist nun, whose twelve years of meditation in a Himalayan cave led her to emerge with a road map for ending human suffering.

“foolish custom”

Doubtless, some of you are already suffering from Pesach digestive woes (three days of matzoh will do that). Maybe you’ve already hit the stage where rice and broth is sounding pretty good. For those of you looking for a concise explanation of why it’s fine for Ashkenazim to eat kitniyot on Pesach, check out R. David Golinkin’s reasoning (an English summary of his Hebrew-written tshuvah) here.

I guess today is “gack from other blogs” day.

Here’s something on a legislator who doesn’t stink from the infrequently-updated blog at Bitch Magazine. I’m gonna quote most of the post, none of this is mine (and for the record I hate the phrase “anti-choice.” I think abortion should be legal and am frightened and angered by recent movements to overturn Roe v. Wade, and/though I think there are plenty of places in which people who identify as pro-choice and people who identify as pro-life actually have a lot to say to each other about what a healthy, whole society might look like, and using language that polarizes the positions doesn’t help anything.) Anyway, cool state rep here:

Am I allowed to vote for a Kentucky legislator even though I live in New York? If so, I’d like to cast my ballot for Representative Mary Marzian (D-Louisville). She’s introduced a bill to honor Margaret Sanger; she was one of only 16 state legislators to vote against a “marriage amendment” banning gay marriage and civil unions; she’s pushed for expanded access to abortion for low-income women.

And thank goodness for these efforts. As in many other states, Kentucky’s right wing is gathering steam, chipping away at reproductive rights through such measures as mandatory waiting periods for abortions, “conscience clauses” allowing health providers to refuse services, and so-called trigger laws that will outlaw abortion in the state should Roe v. Wade be overturned.

Anti-choicers’ latest ploy: hitting the streets, literally, via the production and sale of “Choose Life” license plates. Legislation authorizing the plates was introduced in 2003, but stalled until a federal court ruled in March that a similar Tennessee statute was legal (this despite the fact that the Tennessee Legislature rejected a “Choose Choice” plate option in 2002). Brings a whole new connotation to John Hiatt’s “Tennessee Plates,” doesn’t it?

Marzian’s response was to introduce the following amendments to the Kentucky plates bill:

“Retain original provisions except…

“…change ‘Choose Life’ to ‘Choose Senior Prescription Drug Medicare Benefit’ and specify that [the] plate bear the likeness of the symbol of prescription drugs as ‘Rx’.

“…change ‘Choose Life’ to ‘Choose An Increase in the Cigarette Tax Instead of Cuts to Human Services’ and specify that [the] plate bear the likeness of a wheelchair.

“…change ‘Choose Life” to “Choose Gambling’ and specify that [the] plate bear the likeness of a slot machine.

“…change ‘Choose Life’ to ‘Peace is Patriotic’ and specify that [the] plate bear the likeness of a dove.

“…change ‘Choose Life’ to ‘Choose Pre-Emptive First Strike Doctrine’ and specify that [the] plate bear the likeness of a cruise missile.

“…change ‘Choose Life’ to “Choose No Death Penalty’ and specify that [the] plate bear the likeness of an electric chair with a red circle and red ‘X’ superimposed on the electric chair.

“…change ‘Choose Life’ to ‘Choose Corruption by Special Interest Money’ and specify that [the] plate bear the likeness of a dollar sign superimposed on the Capitol Dome.”

Read the “Choose Life” bill and Marzian’s amendments here; you can also check out Marzian’s overall voting record. —Juliet Eastland

Go here for the links and stuff.

Beware of empowering consumers

Chevy’s ‘Make Your Own Car Ad’ Campaign not going so much as planned.

Heh.

(From Elegant Hack)

waving hello

Back from Istanbul.

What a gorgeous city. What a wonderful trip.

I saw dervishes whirl, ate myself queasy TWICE on Turkish delight, saw gorgeous Byzantine mosaics and a mosque up there with Notre Dame in its wow-ishness and walked until my butt was so sore I couldn’t move.

Lots more and pictures TK, but it’s 4:30 and the apt has to be clean by the end of tonight. Luckily that’s only a few minor things, plus floors.

Chag kasher v’sameach everyone! More chol ha moed…..

well, gee, Pesach is coming

…guess I better drink this beer, then.

forwarded on from our mara d’atra

I guess it does make eating kitniyot start to look like not that permissive a move after all….