Today's roundup:
- Speaking Volumes About ‘Hush’ Of Sexual Abuse, by Hella Winston. If I have enough time, I will write a short book review myself.
- The little lies of Jewish history, by DovBear. Excerpt from the quoted article:
So much of what Orthodox, and particularly ultra Orthodox Jews argue for in their own lives, particularly when it comes to family and working life, is based on what they claim is "tradition". Turns out it's not, and probably never was.
- 2010 army figures show 25% jump in Haredi enlistment, Haaretz. What will its impact be? What type of haredi goes to the army? Would be interesting to read a proper study about this.
- Kugel's HTRTB (Part 5): How the Bible Became the Bible, by Larry Tanner on Textuality. I loved Kugel's How to Read the Bible although I disagree with the conclusion. Larry Tanner is brilliant, as always.
- Author Christopher Hitchens in conversation: On his Jewish grandmother, his atheism, his writing—and facing his own mortality, by Noah Richler from macleans.ca. True-sounding quote:
...as can dealing with the argument from charity. If in a seminar you were to argue that I’ve committed a well-known fallacy by not deriving my conclusions from my premises and I reply, “You don’t know what you’re on about, I’ve just given 10 bucks to a homeless person,” my answer wouldn’t be accepted. But if you’re a religious person, it’s a fantastic counter-argument. It’s the special permission they expect to be granted to talk nonsense.
The problem I have with the "whistleblowers" like Hella Winston and Vicky Polin is that these people don't put anything into perspective. It's reminiscent of Soviet propaganda telling, Russians what a hell america was, with homeless bums and racism. Unmentioned was that Russia was far worse.
ReplyDeleteThe fact is that if you don't want your minor children to have sex, becoming an orthodox Jew is probably the smartest thing you can do.
A footnote: Stormfront loves these stories too. Any chance of a joint Nazi/Jewish skeptic blog?
"The fact is that if you don't want your minor children to have sex, becoming an orthodox Jew is probably the smartest thing you can do."
ReplyDeleteActually the smartest thing you can do in that scenario is to cut off the arms and legs of all your chilren, chain them to a wall and lock them in a basement without windows untill their 18 years old. That would ensure your kids wont have sex untill they are adults, and that is a fact.
Therefore that must be the best way to raise your children, right JP?
ReplyDelete"cut off the arms and legs of all your chilren, chain them to a wall"
ReplyDeleteI'm sure some people have tried that one also, however I have a feeling that you would soon be speaking to a lot of nice people from your local police department. Not recommended.
Orthodox Judaism doesn't necessarily have issues with minor sex. Consider the ages at which marriage was allowed by Chazal. It's extramarital sex that's the issue-- and entirely different consideration.
ReplyDeleteHowever considering that the Orthodox community has been verified, in certain circumstances, to protect sexual predators, victimize the victims and obstruct legal action- there is most definitely a place for Winston and Polin.
Their intention is the same as Stormfront - to bash Jews.
ReplyDeleteYou know Polin was once on Oprah claiming Jews practice baby sacrifice. Muslims love that clip.
Anyone who wants to cut back on child sex - make a donation to the yeshiva of your choice.
Equating Polin and Winston with Stormfront is specious and possibly slanderous. I can't respond to the Oprah quote because I have no access to the entirety of the text and you may well be taking it out of context.
ReplyDeleteYou can check out Vicki here.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRYm5YtaCQo
Apparently the halachot of dan l'kaf zchus and loshon horoh aren't part of your philosophy. She makes it clear that most Jewish people have no part in this and do not know that such things exist. I can't imagine that you would be happy if bloggers were posting similar sweeping generalizations and slander about you.
ReplyDeleteSkeptical, I think this thread would be of great interest to some Jewish skeptic bloggers.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.stormfront.org/forum/t451546/
Has anyone ever considered some kind of coordination of white supremist and Jewish skeptics blogs? Some guest posts at least? I see a lot of duplicated effort here.
Maybe kick things off with a nice dinner of pork sausage and beer at Traif NY and see where it goes.
www.traifny.com
L'Chaim and Sieg Heil!