life

In informal discussions with people, I often shock them when I relate the simple fact that Jewish rabbis spoke Arabic and lived in the Arab-Muslim world. So conditioned have we become to Jews being Ashkenazim from Eastern Europe with their lox and bagels, chopped liver and matzoh ball soup, that it is startling for many to find that Jews once lived in the Arab world and acculturated to the norms of those places.

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“Black America stands at the precipice. African American unemployment is at its highest in 25 years. Thirty-five percent of our children live in poor families. Inadequate healthcare, rampant incarceration, home foreclosures, and a general sense of helplessness overwhelm many of our fellows,” said Princeton Professor Eddie Glaude, Jr., Ph.D.

Charming: Kansas lawmakers are currently considering a law that would bar insurance providers from covering elective abortions — unless a woman pays extra for a special plan…The bill “wouldn’t apply to abortions performed to save the life of a woman, or to pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.” However, in the latter case, women would first be forced to file a police report. “You’d have to have a report that someone stole your car,” said Rep. Steve Brunk, a Bel Aire Republican.

In a fiery speech before a small crowd of Tea Party convention-goers, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin branded President Obama and the Democratic Party as “out of touch, out of date” and “running out of time.” She mocked Obama’s supporters: “How’s that hopey-changey stuff workin’ out for you?” she asked. And she savaged the whole Democratic program: “The only place the left hasn’t placed the blame is on their agenda,” she said.

Warning: Major Spoilers Ahead Welcome to Wife Watch!, the only blog post that ranks the most powerful wives on this week’s episode of Big Love. I mean it as a compliment when I say that watching Big Love always makes me feel kind of sick. Like, I get so tense every week with all the drama and the fighting and the secret loving that I wonder if I should take an aspirin. Of course, that’s what I tune in for, and the latest installment, “The Mighty and the Strong,” certainly keeps me in chest pain.

Democracy worked tonight in Massachusetts. The citizens of the Bay State, in which Democrats outnumber Republicans three-to-one, which doesn’t have a single Republican in its U.S. House delegation, and whose citizens just 14 months ago voted for Barack Obama by a margin of 62 percent to 38 percent , elected Republican Scott Brown, who happily accepted tea party support and questioned whether Obama’s parents were married , over Democrat Martha Coakley for Ted Kennedy’s U.S. Senate seat.

The other day, Sarah Palin announced that she will be working for Fox News. She said one of the reasons that she is excited about working there is because it is a place “… that so values fair and balanced news.” As an opinion columnist, nobody expects me to be “fair and balanced,” but news shows were once. But she actually called today’s Fox News “fair and balanced?” Obviously, the people at Fox may represent the conservative, right wing viewpoint if they want just as MSNBC presents the left wing, liberal viewpoint.

I have to admit that each time I watch a re-run of Sex and The City , I’m jealous of Carrie Bradshaw’s friendships. The foxy quartet seems to have infinite time and opportunity to sit, talk, and laugh. For me, carving out time to meet a friend for a leisurely lunch feels like a guilty indulgence even before I look at the menu. To tell the truth, I’m so pressured by the unfinished tasks on my to-do list that I even hesitate to take the time to catch up with friends by phone.

Politifact already named Sarah Palin’s “death panels” claim its lie of the year — prompting an indignant response from the former Alaska governor. Now Factcheck.org has followed suit, calling the claim that health care reform would lead to euthanasia for the elderly and disabled a “whopper of 2009.” The non-partisan group, however, pinned most of the blame on longtime reform foe Betsy McCaughey .