tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65438535237917744632012-01-29T00:11:18.126-05:00Izgad is Aramaic for messenger or runner. We live in world caught between secularism and religious fundamentalism. I am taking up my post, alongside many wiser souls, as a low ranking messenger boy in the fight to establish a third path. Along the way I will be recommending a steady flow of good science fiction and fantasy in order to keep things entertaining. Welcome Aboard and Enjoy the Ride!Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.comBlogger7851100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-21862796532037874662012-01-28T23:59:00.001-05:002012-01-28T23:59:39.850-05:00

This past Thursday night, Miriam and I went to a book launching event for Rabbi Shmuley Boteach's Kosher Jesus. For those of you not following the issue, the often controversial Rabbi Boteach has managed to generate a firestorm of criticism for writing a positive book about Jesus. Rabbi Immanuel Schochet has gone so far as to ban the book and forbid anyone to read it. This is despite the fact

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-89173371230202069682012-01-13T11:40:00.000-05:002012-01-13T11:40:08.153-05:00

Sabbatai Sevi has a nice Jewish beard, a massive biography by Gershom Scholem to smite unbelievers and a hip kabbalist prophet for a sidekick. Antichrist has a nice pair of Jewish horns and controls the White House. Sabbatai is really sneaky in how he converts to Islam to spiritually undermine it. It is not like anyone is going to be fooled when the president is elected pope without even

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-6213271881436176122012-01-02T10:45:00.000-05:002012-01-02T20:15:06.651-05:00

So for the year 2011, between kindle, ipod and traditional print, I read or listened to about 100 books. Here are my nominations for the best books. Some of these books are recent, others are not. I would be curious to hear from readers any thoughts on these particular books or favorite books from their past year of reading. Non-Fiction Related to My Dissertation 1)      The Heavenly City

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-55325265278222534022011-12-22T18:17:00.001-05:002011-12-22T18:17:39.676-05:00

Sorry for not having posted anything these past few months. I have been really busy getting married and all. There has also been my dissertation. Over the past six months I have written over one hundred pages. This is either a very good sign that I am making progress or that I am plodding down a new path in my writing that will make it run over five hundred pages and take me another year

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-84976150610734535042011-09-23T14:02:00.000-04:002011-09-23T14:02:03.679-04:00

In this month's edition of Ami magazine, Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein has an article, "Modern Orthodoxy at a Crossroads," on the challenge posed to Orthodoxy by Rabbi Avi Weiss and his attempt to ordain women. I respect Rabbi Adlerstein as a usually thoughtful Haredi perspective and he deserves credit for presenting Modern Orthodox Jews as human beings and serious Jews. That being said, this

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-86482454348930010632011-09-16T15:01:00.000-04:002011-09-18T11:06:40.835-04:00

Clarissa recently put up some pointers for the study of history, things to remember and questions to ask: Things to remember when reading, watching or researching history: a. There can never be a fully objective account of history b. Don’t read accounts of history to find out what happened. Read them to discover what their author says happened c. Only by accessing and contrasting

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-86568532275986875212011-09-04T17:34:00.000-04:002011-09-04T21:11:30.418-04:00

While I continue to work for Kline Books as their Judaica Cataloger and the writer for Tipsy, I am starting a second enterprise as a tutor for grade school and high school students with Asperger syndrome/autism. The idea is to help students on the autism spectrum navigate school, both academically and socially, and hopefully eventually prepare for college. In addition I would also serve as a

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-69676973722550720522011-08-11T19:03:00.000-04:002011-08-11T19:03:39.196-04:00

I mentioned previously that I have been blogging less because of my new-found social life. There was another reason for this. In July I started working as the Judaica book-cataloger for Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller in Panorama City north of Los Angeles. This is a high end not your usual used book store (though I love shopping at those places); we handle a lot of antique and academic books. Eric

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-86111613646951083452011-08-05T20:20:00.000-04:002011-08-05T20:20:45.439-04:00

In South Pasadena, where Miriam and I are living, there is not much in the way of Orthodox life. We have a Chabad house 3.5 miles away where we pray. It is a small, but very diverse group of people. They have been very good to Miriam in the past and are now very accepting of me. I am happy to be part of this family. While most of the people there became religious through Chabad, as with most

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-57261415777260278612011-08-01T23:30:00.000-04:002011-08-01T23:30:22.209-04:00

Miriam and I are having an engagement party on August 14th. If any of my readers from the Los Angeles area wish to come feel free to contact me and ask.

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-41256512337965022152011-07-31T18:36:00.000-04:002011-07-31T18:36:53.854-04:00

(Part I) So how did I propose to my one and only dream Jewish Asperger girl? Well, like in most relationships I suspect, she really proposed to me while allowing me the pretense of going through the motions of asking her to maintain the facade of my manly control in this relationship. So a few weeks ago Miriam announced to me that she intended to have an engagement party in August. Naturally I

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-34555514930703212172011-07-29T16:54:00.000-04:002011-07-29T16:54:42.838-04:00

For starters I would like to apologize for the lack of posts this past month. Things have been happening in my life that I could not talk about with my readers. Now that things are official I am very pleased to share everything you. This past February I received a call from my aunt. She had been telling people about me and someone had contacted her about a girl in South Pasadena named Miriam

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-4684787099448951072011-07-15T21:24:00.001-04:002011-07-17T14:02:52.064-04:00

I was just shown a brochure for a women's baalat tshuvah (newly religious) yeshiva called Shirat Devorah. I have never been to the place, I am not affiliated with it nor do I even know anyone who is. Perhaps it is a wonderful program, but some things in the brochure struck me as troubling. For example: Shirat Devorah engages each student's intellect, heart, body, and soul in her education. We

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-78574927697601098962011-07-01T21:20:00.001-04:002011-07-14T23:35:56.869-04:00

A decade ago, when I spent my post high school year in Israel, I attended Yeshiva Ohr Hadarom, headed by Rabbi Shalom Hammer. He is a good speaker and a decent person, though we failed to get along due to a personality clash and intellectual differences. Rabbi Hammer, for all intents and purposes, is a Haredi rabbi, operating in Modern Orthodox circles due to his religious Zionist politics and,

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-73078099846104321962011-06-29T12:36:00.000-04:002011-06-29T12:36:04.929-04:00

The American Friends of Tel Aviv offer scholarships for medical research and what do they think to offer as an example but the elimination of autism. It is not like we are lacking in real illnesses in need of a cure like cancer or anything. I never thought I would have anything in common with Palestinians, but I guess we are both potential targets of the Zionist enterprise. How about this for

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-44485339022495849572011-06-26T16:42:00.000-04:002011-06-26T16:42:44.993-04:00

(Hat tip to Atlas Shrugs.) As it should surprise no one, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann takes a strongly right wing stance in favor of Israel and lashes out against President Obama. One can certainly discuss whether or not Ms. Bachmann's policies would be good for Israel. What interests me here is how textbook Evangelical Protestant she is. She talks about growing up as a lover of Israel,

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-76454877167229358182011-06-26T13:57:00.000-04:002011-06-26T13:57:15.539-04:00

I am now in a dating relationship. For those of my readers who are Aspergers or members of an alien species, dating is a process in which the man, in this case yours truly, engages a certain female of interest in a ritual of semi-rational negotiation to convince said female that not only is he not an ax murderer, but that he is also intelligent, sane and useful. If all goes well the female will

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-16267099095544847122011-06-22T14:03:00.000-04:002011-06-22T14:03:05.488-04:00

For the summer I am going to be in Los Angeles. There are certain social reasons for this, which I may choose to discourse in more detail at a later point depending on how things go. In the meantime I hope to be working on my dissertation and I may actually have a job as well. (Again I will provide details at a later date, depending on how things go.) I have a place to crash at short term, but I

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-43788229560091387512011-06-19T19:55:00.000-04:002011-06-19T19:55:51.149-04:00

According to Microsoft Word, I have just crossed the 100,000 word mark for my dissertation. Now granted some of that is from the bibliography and footnotes and large sections are little more than gibberish. That being said I still think it is a milestone worth celebrating (most probably with more work).

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-58226519241561615862011-06-19T16:27:00.001-04:002011-06-19T19:47:29.560-04:00

Bryn Mawr College, where I spent the weekend, is one of the leading women's colleges in the country and has been so since its founding at the end of the nineteenth century. While examining my room I found a column of small plaques listing the various girls who had apparently dormed in the room. My historical interest aroused, I began examining the names. At the bottom was one Mary E. Brayton of '

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-57727153004900160202011-06-17T15:28:00.000-04:002011-06-17T15:28:39.672-04:00

Part of the IHS Scholarship and the Free Society seminar are breakout sessions in which graduate students get to present their own research. The purpose of this is to give presenters the opportunity to receive feedback from a diverse academic audience as well as gain practice in this very process. In keeping with the purpose of the seminar as a whole, which is to foster academics who not only

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-54865377259529073122011-06-16T13:51:00.000-04:002011-06-16T13:51:15.553-04:00

So here I am at a seminar for the Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) on Scholarship & a Free Society at Bryn Mawr College, a women's college near Philadelphia. This school is absolutely gorgeous. IHS is a libertarian organization that conducts educational programs for college students. I am having a great time here. How many other places can I respond to something by discoursing on how this is an

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-31410448671976843352011-06-13T21:03:00.000-04:002011-06-13T21:03:42.594-04:00

I am in middle of watching the Republican Primary Debates. I find it shocking sometimes, when watching Republican politicians, to take a step back and realize how far I have come in the past decade in how little these people speak to me. For example in the opening statement, I think every candidate bothered to mention that they are married with children. Now we know the real reason why this is;

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-57722153676378907912011-06-12T09:42:00.000-04:002011-06-12T09:42:10.827-04:00

This past decade has seen an interesting shift in the question of can books survive in a culture increasingly dominated by visual media. The story has become more complex than high brow literature for elites versus the crass popular entertainment of movies and television, particularly as we have seen shows such as Lost, Battlestar Galactica and Mad Men, which have used the open ended screen time

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-43933934196135452672011-06-10T08:51:00.000-04:002011-06-10T08:51:43.378-04:00

My life as a graduate student; just replace science with history. Now off to grade some forty finals plus a bunch of essays on Candide.

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-37518850108348166312011-06-06T13:56:00.000-04:002011-06-06T13:56:13.878-04:00

My final was scheduled for Shavuot so I decided to simply give an online final. I just sent it out to my students. Here it is. Pick three of the following essay questions and write 2-3 page responses. Each question is worth 50 points. Feel free to make use of your notes and do research online or in books. Your work, though, has to be your own. I will be on the lookout for plagiarism. I

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-18084619647566534692011-06-05T15:11:00.000-04:002011-06-05T15:11:08.445-04:00

Clarissa did an excellent post a few days ago, Why Nobody Wants to be a Feminist where she challenges women to accept the full consequences of being liberated from patriarchy. Feminism has given women a lot in the last several decades. However, new rights always come accompanied with new responsibilities and obligations. While feminism was in the process of granting women rights, they were

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-31897545232917078922011-06-03T14:44:00.000-04:002011-06-03T14:44:06.100-04:00

My roommate just showed me a piece from the Hellblazer comic. For those of you who are only familiar with the character of John Constantine from the Constantine movie with Keanu Reeves, the comic book version is a lot edgier. In the following piece he takes out a skinhead and gives the most pro-Israel and pro-Jewish speech you are likely to ever hear from a comic book character. Considering the

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-79868672974938864032011-06-01T23:25:00.000-04:002011-06-01T23:25:55.493-04:00

My friend Frank Blazich Jr., a fellow graduate student at Ohio State, is a specialist in American Cold War era civil defense. Right now he is working on a dissertation North Carolina's civil defense program. (Why someone would be working on North Carolina history from Ohio is a separate story that you are free to ask him.) A few months ago, he came over to me and asked me if I could translate

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-44942274535759138052011-05-29T20:40:00.000-04:002011-05-29T20:40:59.863-04:00

(Part I) If medieval and early modern Christianity had a pessimistic view of human nature in which man is innately sinful and can only be kept in check by Church and State, we moderns tend to have a rather optimistic view of human nature that stresses man's innate natural goodness. This too has consequences for both theology and politics. If man is good then it stands to reason that he can

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-45503571356311958652011-05-26T23:41:00.001-04:002011-05-26T23:42:32.417-04:00

Extra Credits has a video blog post on why Americans are attracted to first person shooter (FPS) video games. His argument is that this is rooted within American culture and perceptions of violence. Americans tend to focus on the individual versus society. Guns are symbols of personal freedom. Violence comes out of the struggle of the individual for freedom. This plays itself out in FPS games

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-42824953482957390352011-05-26T11:01:00.000-04:002011-05-26T11:01:32.606-04:00

(Go to 2:55 for Candide's showdown with the villainous  Jew.) My last discussion of the early modern debate about human salvation proved surprisingly fitting for the last book we are doing, Voltaire’s Candide. Candide has the advantage of being short enough that we can go through it in two classes. If it is part of the Enlightenment, it is a critique of the old world I have spent the quarter

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-48174107274340090522011-05-24T16:34:00.000-04:002011-05-24T16:34:39.639-04:00

I often seem to find myself in the position of defender and explanator of Christianity, particularly when I teach. For me, educating my Christian students in what they are supposed to believe ranks above even Monty Python and classic films as unofficial purposes of my class. For example the other day I spent a large part of the class explaining Christian notions of salvation (Are all people even

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-51593926941816643992011-05-23T21:38:00.000-04:002011-05-23T21:38:39.553-04:00

Pittsburgh Steeler safety Troy Polamalu just graduated USC with a degree in history of all things. So can I now use this as proof that earning even a B.A. in history plays a productive role on the path to becoming a millionaire? Obviously Polamalu's unique blend of speed and linebacker strength must now be retroactively credited to his mean skills at deconstructing historical texts and not just

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-7816099055550300082011-05-22T12:16:00.001-04:002011-05-22T23:06:52.530-04:00

I found myself up early Sabbath morning so I read John Scalzi’s new novel Fuzzy Nation cover to cover. (It is not that long a book.) I find good science fiction the perfect ticket to feeling spiritual enough to actually pray. This is not Scalzi’s best novel, but considering that this is the author of Old Man’s War we are talking about, that is hardly a knock on the book. The basic premise of the

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-60122948852947929072011-05-20T15:44:00.000-04:002011-05-20T15:44:02.302-04:00

My friends over at Melt Magazine have put up another piece of mine; a review the recent Thor movie. As with most of my reviews, it is only incidently about the movie, which I use to discuss larger issues of interest. This time around, I talk about mythology and what I admire about fantasy novelist Neil Gaiman, whose books often directly confront classical mythological stories. (See also "In

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-73950558724513406502011-05-19T14:17:00.000-04:002011-05-19T14:17:32.432-04:00

Dr. Daniel Lasker gave a second lecture, while he was in Columbus, comparing Rabbi Judah Halevi to Maimondes. Here are my notes; as always, all mistakes are mine. There is a trend in academia to make everything applied that one should not just be sitting in an ivory tower. This is difficult for Jewish thought. Perhaps we can create nano Jewish thinkers. The purpose of this lecture is to 

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-88081975546089071552011-05-18T12:32:00.000-04:002011-05-18T12:32:09.821-04:00

Here is a lecture that Dr. Daniel Lasker gave at Ohio State last Friday on Jewish polemics against Christianity. He argues that Jews in the Middle Ages were more proactive in crafting anti-Christian polemics and that this genre was not simply a response to Christian polemics. I must admit that I am not yet convinced of his argument. I am mainly interested in what happens in the thirteenth century

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-23057785212670831212011-05-16T20:14:00.000-04:002011-05-16T20:14:19.375-04:00

This past Thursday The Ohio State University hosted Victor David Hanson who spoke on “Western Military Dynamism and its Antidotes.” Hanson, in addition to being a conservative commentator, is one of the leading classicists of this generation. His presentation was a bit of both. I must admit that some of his comments made me uncomfortable and I suspect that I was one of the more conservative

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-68748983794638793622011-05-16T12:40:00.000-04:002011-05-16T12:40:33.460-04:00

A former student of mine helped put this short video together for the Halachic Organ Donation Society, which urges Orthodox Jews to agree to donate their organs.

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-39787898402531615342011-05-15T12:42:00.000-04:002011-05-15T12:42:37.336-04:00

My friend Rishona Campbell finally completed her Orthodox Jewish conversion. This took her a number of years. I amazed at her patience at the amount of junk she put up with, putting her life on hold for several years. I wish her best of luck as a Jew. Her post on her conversion story is password attached, but she was kind enough to let me  put up her statements about my grandfather, Rabbi

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-8072910834397741352011-05-13T16:33:00.000-04:002011-05-13T16:33:27.700-04:00

Here is a trailer for a movie coming out next year called Iron Sky. I suspect that many of my readers will be offended, but to me this movie looks like pure genius. (Needless to say I have been let down by horrible movies with awesome trailers before.) So, with Nazis in space, I think there is only one thing that can save humanity, Jews in Space.

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-82913711107980492652011-05-11T10:42:00.000-04:002011-05-11T10:42:52.967-04:00

I remember seeing False Messiah’s post on the doctored photograph in Der Tzitung, a Yiddish newspaper, removing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a week ago and not thinking twice about it; this is the sort of thing I expect from a Haredi paper. Amusing and worth a chuckle at yes; making a big deal about it no. So it was to my surprise that the story exploded from the Jewish blogosphere into

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-24469384610263094202011-05-10T10:46:00.000-04:002011-05-10T10:46:12.447-04:00

To all of my readers, I wish you a merry Al Nakba day. In honor of Al Nakba day and the founding of the State of Israel I wish to put in a word for Uthman Dey. No, Uthman Dey was not a leading Zionist; he was the Muslim ruler of Tunisia in the early seventeenth century best known in the West as a sponsor of the Barbary corsairs, the sort of practice that today we call state-sponsored terrorism. (

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-18759749179087634072011-05-08T01:25:00.000-04:002011-05-08T01:25:34.213-04:00

One of the surprises of the modern world has been the continued persistence of organized religion. Despite several centuries of Enlightenment criticism, religion remains a powerful force within society. Certainly within the United States the vast majority of the population subscribes at least formally to some religion. I would argue that much of this is the result of the inability of secularism

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-48216138733859555572011-05-05T13:44:00.002-04:002011-05-05T19:22:49.548-04:00

So here we have a remarkably intelligent presentation of the economic debate between Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes as a rap song and a boxing match. Hayek is assisted by Ludwig van Mises, Keynes by Thomas Malthus. I must admit I am not sure how Malthus fits with Keynes. I would think of Malthus more as being with Hayek in terms of being against government spending on welfare programs

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-66699739465105250582011-05-04T09:56:00.000-04:002011-05-04T09:56:36.584-04:00

As I am sure by now my readers are aware American, forces have stormed Osama bin Laden's "evil fortress of doom," which, it turns out, was not some cave but an urban compound. I was hoping for bin Laden to go down with a pair of Gatling guns Wolfenstein boss style. It is only fair that the closest thing to a comic book villain this country has had since at least the Cold War should agree to give

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-17240247126708060902011-04-29T19:43:00.000-04:002011-04-29T19:43:38.645-04:00

I am writing to all my readers from Grand Rapids MI (my first overnight stay in the "State up North") where I am attending a symposium on religion and politics hosted by Calvin College's Paul B. Henry Institute. So to get some random thoughts in before Shabbos: I got a ride up to the conference with another Ohio State student. I can't think of many other times where I talked to someone for

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-3578297277135855762011-04-28T13:22:00.001-04:002011-05-06T11:53:14.242-04:00

(Part I) Having decided to begin my long and difficult task of telling over my divine revelation to the world from the comfort of a Starbucks, I must first recruit for myself followers. Such a task requires a charismatic personality. You see most graduate students would not be cut out for being the Messiah as they are unable to keep the attention of a crowd of undergraduates even when backed by

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-2564904804879680432011-04-27T22:37:00.000-04:002011-04-27T22:37:12.467-04:00

For our next book the class picked Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates by David Cordingly. The golden age of piracy crosses over into the eighteenth century, my cut off line for 111, and largely was acted out in the Caribbean and along the North American coast. That being said piracy in this period, even if it took place outside of European waters, was an

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-52005379017844437092011-04-24T00:15:00.000-04:002011-04-24T00:15:51.734-04:00

Over on Newsweek, Jonathan Chait attacks Rep. Paul Ryan for "waging war on the weak" with his budget plan and for his allegiance to the philosophy of Ayn Rand. As Chait summerizes Rand: [She] was a kind of politicized L. Ron Hubbard—a novelist-philosopher who inspired a cult of acolytes who deem her the greatest human being who ever lived. The enduring heart of Rand’s totalistic philosophy was

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-68660560113185935822011-04-22T13:00:00.000-04:002011-04-22T13:00:03.818-04:00

James Poniewozik of Time blog has a long interview with fantasy novelist George R. R. Martin, whose Game of Thrones is now being made into an HBO show. Martin discusses his view of J. R. R. Tolkien, balancing his respect for him with not slavishly imitating him. He makes the interesting point that when fantasy writers try imitating Tolkien what usually happens is that they simply pick up on the

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-9688849020334725972011-04-21T14:32:00.000-04:002011-04-21T14:32:03.619-04:00

A few weeks ago I attended a free screening of the movie Sucker Punch. As luck would have it I ended up sitting right behind Kevin Grimm the editor of Melt, a local free magazine, who was hosting the event. So taking the opportunity to engage in shameless self promotion I decided to introduce myself as a blogger and ask if he was looking for a writer. He took me up on the offer and asked me to

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-33103292588881987772011-04-18T00:04:00.000-04:002011-04-18T00:04:20.601-04:00

(Werner Klemperer was a German Jew, who fled the Nazis in his youth and went on to play the the Nazi Colonel Klink to comic hilarity in Hogan's Heroes. Apparently he got the job due to his ability to do an over the top Prussian Junker.) When I first was accepted to Ohio State and came for orientation I managed to make my advisor rather nervous when, in response to a girl telling me that her

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-34776532191456598002011-04-17T00:09:00.000-04:002011-04-17T00:09:47.738-04:00

Welcome to the April 17, 2011 edition of book review blog carnival. Let me start with a pair of reviews of books that are of particular interest to me. Zohar of Man of la Book presents Book Review: The Instructions by Adam Levin, about a ten year old Messiah. The post also includes a video of an awesome 80s Israeli rock song. I am actually in middle of writing a dissertation on Jewish

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-55343165343014106312011-04-15T11:36:00.000-04:002011-04-15T12:59:08.108-04:00

Yesterday Dr. Mordechai Inbari of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke at Ohio State about the attitude of religious Zionists to the Temple Mount. This lecture caught my attention for two reasons. First it was about religious apocalyptism and politics, my dissertation topic even if Dr. Inbari deals with modern movements while I focus on medieval and early modern ones. Second he discussed

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-20746701320256781282011-04-14T16:55:00.000-04:002011-04-14T16:55:34.803-04:00

For the second book of the quarter the class picked A Brief History of Robin Hood by Nigel Cawthorne. This looks like excellent opportunity to explore the relationship between history and mythology as it relates to the historical method. In keeping with my focus on the historical method my primary question for the class is how does one use the historical method to deal with a legend like Robin

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-13156519722368477372011-04-14T09:05:00.000-04:002011-04-14T09:05:23.171-04:00

I was recently contacted by an old friend of mine from the Yeshiva Collage Dramatics Society, Felissa Elfenbein, (how a woman became a member of a guys theater group is a story for a different time). Felissa is working with Japan Jewish Relief and asked if I could help spread the word so I agreed to allow her to do a guest post.   Benzion asked me how I became involved with helping Japan Jewish

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-72220548017339649732011-04-12T21:23:00.000-04:002011-04-12T21:23:21.592-04:00

Neither Plato nor medieval Islamic philosopher are particularly known for their feminism, though apparently in the case of Averroes (Ibn Rushd), the two seem to have combined to serve such a cause. This is pointed out by E. I. J. Rosenthal in his work on Averroes’s theory of politics: Ibn Rushd's critical attitude to State and Society of his time is also shown in his outspoken pronouncement

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-24153474355630614232011-04-11T23:04:00.001-04:002011-04-12T21:57:58.430-04:00

A few weeks ago, when I hosted the Haveil Havalim carnival, I made the decision to not include a significant number of posts. The biggest reason was simply a matter of quality. If someone came across like you had simply thrown something together in about the amount of time it took me to read the piece I turned them down. In a similiar vein, I also turned down posts that sounded like they came

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-43160315692430972172011-04-07T14:06:00.001-04:002011-04-11T10:29:24.978-04:00

So I have decided to put my dissertation research to some practical use and will be starting my own messianic cult. I figure that, considering my knowledge of the history of religion I should be able to learn from the mistakes of other would be Messiahs and prophets. (Note to readers; being a Messiah is a difficult and dangerous task to be left to those with years of professional graduate school

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-69666306174027601752011-04-05T10:14:00.001-04:002011-04-05T10:15:41.022-04:00

Ehistory already has my review of Molly Greene's Catholic Pirates and Greek Merchants up on its site even though it is officially part of its June edition so go check it out.

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-38652574067971327472011-04-04T22:02:00.001-04:002011-04-05T10:17:50.829-04:00

Recently Judge Richard Goldstone has came out with the stunning retraction of his earlier report on potential war crimes during Israel's invasion of Gaza. According to Goldstone: If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document. ... Our report found evidence of potential war crimes and “possibly crimes against humanity” by both Israel and Hamas.

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-19507046269428468002011-04-03T21:47:00.000-04:002011-04-03T21:47:36.111-04:00

Today at the Jewish Community Center there was a day of learning featuring a variety of speakers on a range of topics for the community here in Columbus. Among the keynote presentations was Dr. Marc Michael Epstein’s “Jews and Art: Secret Transcripts.” Here are my notes. As always all mistakes are mine. The title of this lecture includes the words “Jews” and “art.” This is a difficult task

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-38234620308416551792011-04-01T17:07:00.000-04:002011-04-01T17:07:54.713-04:00

Yesterday my new computer arrived. It is a Lenovo T510. It is replacing my Lenovo Ideapad Y530, with which I have been typing most of these blog posts the past two years. The Thinkpad is a major step up in quality and hopefully will survive for longer than that. I have also been typing out a dissertation on the Ideapad which I hope to finish within a few months with the help of this new

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-52351868698811817062011-03-31T12:26:00.000-04:002011-03-31T12:26:57.398-04:00

The spring quarter has started at Ohio State and I am back teaching History 111. For our first book, the class picked Thermopylae: The Battle for the West by Ernie Bradford (1922-86). As with the case of Spartacus, I assume pop culture played a role here. Most of the class has seen the movie 300. I certainly do not have a problem with this. I will try to interest people in history in just about

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-25416644542596003822011-03-29T12:48:00.001-04:002011-03-29T15:33:41.288-04:00

(Part I) This focus on character and world building leads, in the cases of both Harry Potter and Kingkiller, to something that would in most writers be considered a fatal flaw, but which J. K. Rowling and Patrick Rothfuss manage to survive even if at times by the skin of their teeth, the tendency to abandon plot in favor of character and world exploration. Both of these serieses do have plots

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-47955033831276266152011-03-26T23:30:00.002-04:002011-03-29T10:51:19.128-04:00

Welcome to the March 27, 2011 edition of Haveil Havalim. Founded by Soccer Dad, Haveil Havalim is a carnival of Jewish blogs -- a weekly collection of Jewish and Israeli blog highlights, tidbits and points of interest collected from blogs all around the world. It's hosted by different bloggers each week and coordinated by Jack. I have decided to exert some editorial control over this

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-85879193505062147372011-03-25T12:47:00.000-04:002011-03-25T12:47:01.886-04:00

If I were to describe Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles series in one sentence it would be that it is Harry Potter's more mature and sophisticated sibling, who, instead of going to grade school to study magic, went to collage. In a similar vein, my reaction to watching the first season of Heroes (the only one worth watching) was that it was the younger smarter sibling of the X-Men, who went

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-9157881562392483882011-03-22T11:45:00.002-04:002011-03-22T11:48:31.187-04:00

For my birthday present I bought myself Patrick Rothfuss' Wise Man's Fear on Kindle. Considering how often Rothfuss has been compared to Tolkien, it would have been appropriate for me to take this "precious birthday present" and make it ours. To ensure that no one steals it we could run off to a secret cave underneath a mountain with plenty of fish. There we could read the precious all by

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-40286545647850608782011-03-21T16:17:00.000-04:002011-03-21T16:17:27.433-04:00

Ryan Harper at the Huffington Post has an article on C. S. Lewis' influence on American evangelical Christianity, noting that Lewis is particularly valuable in countering arguments based on relativism. Harper argues, though, that the very strength of Lewis' ideas are having the detrimental effect of furthering Mark Noll's "The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind." As is the tendency with all

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-30230002314288166982011-03-20T15:32:00.001-04:002011-03-22T17:34:11.177-04:00

Today is the Jewish holiday of Purim, the classic "they tried to kill us, they failed, let's eat" festival. One of the traditions on this holiday is Shalach Manot where one is supposed to give gift baskets of food to other people. Think of it as reverse trick or treating. I guess this is part of the hobbit heritage of Jews. If gentiles go around in costume to take candy, we go around and give.

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-20775911627469371592011-03-20T10:43:00.000-04:002011-03-20T10:43:44.200-04:00

How many Jewish Historians does it take to change a light bulb (or even to insert one in the first place)? Well, as with everything in Judaism, it is subject to a Talmudic style debate. Heinrich Graetz: As the light bulb both suffers, by having an electric current pumped through it, and thinks, by lighting up, it is without question a uniquely Jewish symbol and should be placed within our

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-41658300629465451492011-03-19T23:56:00.001-04:002011-03-20T00:00:00.297-04:00

A while back I posted on the odd pairing of ads on the posting board at the back of my classroom. Clarissa objected to the fact that there was a picture of the backside of a girl in a bathing suit and said she would refuse to teach in such a classroom. Well the girl in a bathing suit is down, but I am not sure the replacement is much of an improvement. Now "Christ is Victor" is graced with the

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-69046543965557894802011-03-14T21:06:00.000-04:002011-03-14T21:06:37.906-04:00

Here is the final I gave my History 111 students today. It covers the mix of topics we covered this quarter, Cicero, Spartacus, Christian apocalypticism, the Reformation and religion wars and Giordano Bruno. Readers will likely get a kick out of my second essay question and the bonus. Like this blog, I do try to keep my classes interesting. I. Identify (Pick 7) – 35 pts. 1. Millennium

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-66180858775556586632011-03-13T14:45:00.000-04:002011-03-13T14:45:52.399-04:00

Hat tip to Dasi Schnee. This video is about Chaya Suri, a Haredi woman, who takes off from her husband to go on vacation to Miami. She goes on a shopping spree for shoes and finds herself at a pool sipping an alcoholic drink. The moral of the story though is that it was a good thing she had her shvim kleid on when a man stepped into view and that it is always good to dress modestly.

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-89655431167088758852011-03-11T13:02:00.000-05:002011-03-11T13:02:18.830-05:00

I have a friend who is a Yiddishist, an atheist and a hardcore opponent of circumcision. I sent him an article about the attempt in San Francisco to ban the practice and he responded: Its a good start that hopefully will lead to other bans until it is just illegal everywhere. Really, a consenting adult shouldn't be allowed to get himself circumcised for the same reason we don't just let

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-10193208415346266572011-03-10T13:24:00.002-05:002011-03-10T13:31:57.554-05:00

On the topic of interesting blogs discussing in Judaism in ways that break down some of the traditional ideological boxes, I would like to point my readers to Madlik. The author, Geoffrey Stern, is a graduate of Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, got a degree in philosophy and now considers himself post-orthodox. This week Stern has a post on the potentially corrupting influence of "high holiday" Judaism.

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-13411208485833222892011-03-09T11:16:00.000-05:002011-03-09T11:16:27.776-05:00

In response to my post yesterday about Dan Brown and early modern science, Lionel Spiegel pointed me to a piece written by Dr. Stephen G. Brush on the Whig narrative of science in the introduction to his book, Nebulous Earth: The Origin of the Solar System and the Core of the Earth from Laplace to Jeffreys. In regards to the back and forth shift in scientifiic consensus between the monistic

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-63221229597864432192011-03-09T10:03:00.000-05:002011-03-09T10:03:31.539-05:00

The winner of the Oh Nuts Purim raffle is Shala Darkstone. Thank you to everyone who commented and to Oh Nuts for their kind offer. As this blog is free, the best way to show your support is to support this blog's sponsor. So please check out Oh Nuts for your Purim needs.

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-50460519555563858632011-03-08T09:41:00.000-05:002011-03-08T09:41:31.353-05:00

Over this weekend I finally got around to reading Dan Brown's Lost Symbol, the sequel to the Da Vinci Code. I certainly expected a predictable plot with Robert Langdon spending several hours running around a city discovering ancient secrets with a female companion while being pursued by a creepy mystically inclined assassin while pontificating on all sorts of historical silliness. At this point I

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-47937675310758894122011-03-07T11:38:00.000-05:002011-03-07T11:38:29.672-05:00

One of the things that got me through my breakup with Dragon several years ago was James Maxey's Bitterwood, the first in a trilogy of books about a human freedom fighter/terrorist named Bitterwood trying to free humanity from their dragon overlords. I guess there was something about that time in my life that made the idea of shooting down dragons with a bow and arrow and chopping them up really

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-74624176283155384832011-03-06T11:44:00.003-05:002011-03-06T12:09:05.885-05:00

Wael Ghonim of Google makes a fascinating argument regarding the recent revolution in Egypt that raises new possibilities as to the previously unforeseen implications of the internet for politics. His essential argument is that the revolution in Egypt operated much the same way as a Wikipedia page. In Wikipedia there is no one author of an article, no planing authority. Instead people around

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-80225248596086534802011-03-04T10:05:00.000-05:002011-03-04T10:05:35.256-05:00

(See "Academia as a Bulwark Against Conservatism" parts I, II) As someone who so obviously does not fit into the stereotype of a liberal academic, I believe that I have a special responsibility to advance the sort of liberal academic ideals I have outlined. It is quite possible that I can reach students that others cannot. At Ohio State we certainly have many students from rural Ohio, part of "

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-78250146957584461522011-03-03T13:34:00.000-05:002011-03-03T13:34:24.897-05:00

My roommate has a knack for getting sneak preview tickets so on Tuesday we went to see the new Johnny Depp cartoon, Rango. It is a difficult to describe Rango. Much like Up, Rango is an exercise in throwing some bizarre ideas around to see where things might go. In the case of Rango, he is a theatrically inclined chameleon, in midst of his own dramatic narrative and trying to figure out what

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-25211415616040850642011-03-02T20:37:00.000-05:002011-03-02T20:37:32.663-05:00

Well yesterday I turned twenty-eight. It is therefore useful to take stock and look at what has been accomplished by people my age. Take for example Henry VII, who at my age defeated Richard III at the battle  of Bosworth field in 1485 and seized the throne of England. As Arthur D. Innes notes in his England Under the Tudors: It is difficult to think of the first Tudor monarch as a young man;

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-59570143349054552002011-03-02T10:02:00.001-05:002011-03-02T10:05:13.380-05:00

(Part I) Now if society in order to function needs to be a fundamentally "conservative" one, where everyone accepts certain rules already in place, it is also important that this established status quo be regularly challenged by a "liberal" force. This allows for progress and for society to adept to ever changing circumstances. Following J. S. Mill, I believe a healthy society functions as

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-52417944533599351972011-03-01T09:33:00.001-05:002011-03-01T09:44:54.285-05:00

Clarissa has a post on the issue of academics being politically liberal. Rather than deny the claim she takes it head on with no apologies. This is part of her charm and it works, I find, because, from getting to know her, I realize that, in practice, she is far more nuanced. According to Clarissa: To the contrary of what many conservatives fear, progressive professors don't use the classroom to

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-57892681095496013242011-02-28T19:47:00.000-05:002011-02-28T19:47:00.600-05:00

My friends at Oh Nuts are having a Purim gift basket giveaway for readers of this blog. The winner will get a $30 gift certificate to use at Oh Nuts Readers have 3 ways to enter: 1. Readers should go to the Oh Nuts Purim Basket Gift page. Choose your favorite Purim Gift and leave a comment on under this blog post with the name and url of the gift you love the most. I will pick a random

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-289480131612176542011-02-28T12:42:00.000-05:002011-02-28T12:42:00.841-05:00

I did not watch the Oscars last night, but I am glad to hear that the King's Speech walked away with awards for Best Actor, Best Director and Best Picture. I adore this movie and cannot recommend it highly enough. Aspirations, my autism support group, is actually doing an outing to see the movie, something I pushed for. Now my roommate just pointed me to an article that says that the King's

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-53060513847748593672011-02-27T13:36:00.000-05:002011-02-27T13:36:38.664-05:00

It is funny the unexpected places where one runs into Hebrew. For example the first time I read through Dune I paid little heed to the title used for Paul Muad'Dib, Kwisatz Haderach. In the novel, the Kwisatz Haderach is meant to refer to a theoretical superhuman messiah figure that the Bene Gesserit sisterhood has been working towards for thousands of years through their breeding program. It was

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-46882375677263410952011-02-25T15:20:00.000-05:002011-02-25T15:20:44.988-05:00

Baruch Pelta just sent me a recent post by Emes Ve-Emunah on the issue of gay marriage. It is a pretty good piece attempting to balance a principled opposition to gay marriage with an honest caring for individual homosexuals. Then at the end he drops this bit of wisdom.    The ultimate libertarian ideal is to make no value judgment at all placed on any behavior that is private and among

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-10849696553032804142011-02-25T09:56:00.003-05:002011-02-25T11:03:30.007-05:00

College posting boards, which allow anyone to put up what ever they like as long as someone does not come afterwards to tear it down, can make for some interesting bed fellows. Take for example the posting board at the back of my classroom, with its poster for a vacation spot, featuring the backside of a girl in a bathing suit, and a collection of "Christ is Victor" pamphlets. What story can

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-51877754693579894602011-02-23T09:55:00.001-05:002011-02-23T09:58:02.557-05:00

Yesterday I was invited for a second time to give a presentation to the high school of Haugland Learning Center, a special education school for autistic children. I would like to thank the absolutely wonderful and dedicated staff for allowing me to come and making me feel welcome there. The first time I came I spoke about college and dating. (My main piece of advice for dating was not to be an ax

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-69843885158742047802011-02-21T21:23:00.000-05:002011-02-21T21:23:37.874-05:00

Recently Aspirations, the autism support group I work with here in Columbus, hosted Kelly Hunter to give a workshop on acting. Kelly Hunter is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and specializes in using theater to work with autistic children. (A later search revealed that she also guest starred in an episode of Doctor Who. I will leave it up to my readers to judge for themselves as to the

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-30047706608688449002011-02-19T21:23:00.001-05:002011-02-25T05:15:49.667-05:00

Proving once again that students prefer classical over medieval history, for the final book of the winter quarter my class picked The Spartacus War by Barry Strauss. The book deals with the Spartacus slave revolt of 73-71 BCE. It has much of what I like for a basic level history book. It is short, easy to read, but offers a glimpse into some of the wider complexities of the historical method. All

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-18718129225032172882011-02-18T14:06:00.000-05:002011-02-18T14:06:22.325-05:00

Arianna Huffington has a post on a recent debate in which she joined with conservative David Brooks to defend the proposition that "the two-party system is making America ungovernable" against Zev Chafets and P. J. O'Rourke. What struck me is how gracious Arianna is when talking about the event and the issue being debated, both to a conservative like Brooks and to her opponents; the piece is

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-22941355054640375812011-02-17T13:03:00.000-05:002011-02-17T13:03:52.994-05:00

So the Atlas Shrugged movie is coming out in April. If you are wondering how they are going to turn a thousand plus page book into a single movie, they are not; it is going to be a trilogy. Judging from the trailer, the first movie is going to deal with Dagney Taggart building the John Galt railroad line. It looks like they are going to take the train crash from later in the novel and place

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-57497594055356673072011-02-16T20:04:00.000-05:002011-02-16T20:04:38.791-05:00

As I posted on previously, I struggle with dating in some rather ironic ways. It is not that I do not care, on the contrary at times it is because I care too much, but it is an intellectualized caring lacking formal empathy. Because of this I get hurt from both sides. I am seen as uncaring; this is a damaging accusation since, as someone who often misses social cues, I cannot manage without a

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6543853523791774463.post-49441354375099925592011-02-15T14:16:00.001-05:002011-02-15T15:39:21.006-05:00

A major part of my political evolution these past few years has been a realization that, even as I still accept much of the conservative critique of the modern liberal establishment, I did not fit into the dominant model of conservatism as displayed on Fox news and right wing talk radio. This is not to say that I do not feel a strong affinity for John Stossel and Judge Andrew Napolitano, who both

Izgadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03869626126435460209noreply@blogger.com2