Archive for 2009
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »A Yidiot’s Guide To Hannukah
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on December 11, 2009 by admin in Holidays
Friday, December 11th, 2009The closest a lot of Christian Americans come to religious tolerance is eating Hebrew National hot dogs at baseball games, but the fact is, Christmas wouldn’t be what it is without the influence of Jewish people. Especially that Jesus fellow.
 For some reason, George Bush really seemed to connect with the idea of the “miracle of the container of oil”. |
If you’re someone who celebrates Christmas because you’re, um, maybe a little bit Christian or something, you may wonder why you should concern yourself with the annual celebration of Hannukah. I mean, beyond being all Christian-like and tolerant of other people’s faiths and whatnot. Well, let’s take a moment to remember a few things, some of which you may already know, some of which will surprise you. First, you wouldn’t even have a saviour, if it weren’t for those Hannukah celebraters. Jesus was Jewish, you know. Very Jewish. And for that matter, if you believe what you read in scripture, the WHOLE WORLD might not be here if it weren’t for those folks who wrote the bigger part of your favorite book. Moses? Noah? Yup. Jews. So while you’re all busy being tolerant, remember that they were here first, and so actually they’re being tolerant. They don’t believe in your God man, but rarely give you any crap about it. In fact, as this Slate piece points out, they’ve gone out of their way to play nice and do the gift giving and tree thing. I don’t think Jesus recommended those activities anyway, but whatever. It’s the thought that counts. So if you don’t know anything about Hannukah, take some time to read up, kids. Because without the people that celebrate it, you wouldn’t have on the Levis you’re wearing while you sip that Starbucks coffee as you take a break from buying DKNY and Kenneth Cole gifts at Macy’s. And while you’re reading up, put on some nice Jewish music. This will be easy, because as we pointed out the other day, most of your favorite Christmas songs were written by Jews. Read the rest of this entry »
Whatever Will We Call This Decade?
[ 3 Comments ]Posted on December 10, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Thursday, December 10th, 2009Help me out here, ’cause I got nothin’. Zero. Nil. Zilch. Nada. Nought.
Well, as the year and the decade come to a close, it’s time to start rounding up all those lists of the best of the….oh wait. Ten years have passed, and we still haven’t decided on a name for the friggin’ decade? The oughts? The noughts? The O’s? Nothing seems to quite work. Which is perhaps appropriate, the decade began with a bunch of nothing; the Y2K bug was a big no show, the first election of the decade was a zero sum game, and the biggest stars of the decade were genuine nobodies. Calling the decade the “oughts” won’t happen, but might be fitting for a few reasons. It’s a word that no-one knows, for a decade that has no identity, and it has two silent letters in it. Probably the only hope for naming these ten years is for someone to nail the character of the decade the way that some people refer to the 70′s as the “Me Decade”. And never mind the name, how will the decade be remembered? If the 70′s were disco, leisure suits, The Joy of Sex and Ford Pintos, the 80′s yuppies, Reagan, and Electropop, the 90′s infohighways, grunge, and school shootings, how will we characterize 2000-2009? It’s never what you think it will be. The seventies were probably most influenced by Nixon and the oil embargoes, but we remember disco balls and polyester. I think we’ll be surprised that everyone will forget the whole Bush-driven annihilation of privacy rights and wars of aggression, the bank bailouts and corruption (I bet you already forgot all about Enron, didn’t you!), and remember Susan Boyle
An End To The War On Drugs?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on December 9, 2009 by admin in Politics
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009The main casualties in the War On Drugs have been women and drug users, not the people who produce and sell them. Can this finally change?
 This soldier in the war on drugs doesn’t seem to be putting up much of a fight |
I’ve often said that I did my part as a soldier in the war on drugs, but they just kept coming, and I finally had to surrender and stop doing them. Which is part of why I was a little inspired to find out that the White House – although it will probably never end its war on terror – is allegedly ending its war on drugs. Yes, this is old news, but I think it kind of got buried what with that little global economic collapse and health plan business of the last few months. This NYT piece about A. Thomas McLellan, Deputy Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, seems to be getting a little traction the last couple of days though, and I find it inspiring that the current administration seems to be taking a radical new approach to the drug problem in America. You don’t have to be a genius (or a conspiracy theorist) to figure out that there are a lot of powerful people (including US intelligence services) who want the drug trade to thrive. So it makes sense that the current administration’s strategy is no more focused on stopping the drugs at the source than previous administrations, but is instead focused on dealing with the realities of the problems that drugs create once they’re here. It’s been widely acknowledged for some time that the biggest enemies of the war on drugs were American women (especially black women) and that filling jails with drug addicts is ultimately not a solution. This Drug Policy Alliance article for instance, points out that almost 80% of the US female prison population is serving time for drug-related offenses. If you’re interested in how the war on drugs has affected our culture and you haven’t seen PBS Frontlines’ Drug Wars, you should check it out, it’s fairly balanced in its approach. Maybe even too gentle, but who wants to end up like Gary Webb, right? Read the rest of this entry »
Oye To The World
[ 3 Comments ]Posted on December 8, 2009 by admin in Music
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009You may have heard dj BC’s Christmas mashups, but this year hebrews up a new mix that will help you feel like less of a menorah-ty. And to all you Christmas revelers who feel threatened: Chill. Your songs were all written by Jews anyway.
We’ve all gotten so used to the fact that the first songs you hear on the radio three minutes after midnight on Halloween are either “White Christmas” or “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” that we probably don’t even think about what it’s like to be Jewish around Christmas time. Sure, there’s Hanukkah, but it’s kind of a minor holiday, and historically didn’t have too many catchy pop tunes associated with it. Which frankly is a little odd, because a surprising number of songs that are considered Christmas classics were written by Jewish songwriters. Including the two just mentioned. Expanding on the list just linked to (and offering some free downloads), you might also check out Jewish You A Merry Christmas. But we’ve come a long way since the days when the only hip Jewish holiday songs out there were Adam Sandler’s Chanukah Song and Sarah Silverman’s Give The Jew Girl Toys. We’ve mentioned dj BC’s Santastic Christmas mashups before, but this year hebrews up a new mix with Menorah Mashup, so if you are Jewish, maybe you won’t feel like such a menorah-ty this holiday season. And it has the added Jewish appeal that not only do you not pay retail, you pay nothing at all! It’s a free download. If this were a commercial release though, the obvious single would be “Challahback Girl”, a mashup of Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” and Frank Yankovick doing “Hava Nagila”. So dj BC has graciously provided an additional remix collection that includes both “Orthodox” and “Reform” mixes. That Menorah Mashup link above has the free download links, but if you want to preview the tunes, Exstatica.net has kindly provided the tunes as streams. Chappy Chanukah!
Rudolph: The Nightmare Before The Nightmare Before Christmas
[ 4 Comments ]Posted on December 7, 2009 by admin in Popular Media
Monday, December 7th, 2009Is Hermey The Dentist Gay? Is Yukon Cornelius a bear? Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is more than a Christmas story, it’s a macabre exploration of congenital deformities, parental shame, ethnic and class-based employment issues, and loneliness.
If you’re old enough, the annual broadcast television airing of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer