Reb Nachum to SF: Keep Your Laws Off My People’s Body
THERE’S A PLACE — CHELM IS its name — where all the inhabitants are so open-minded that they tolerate any behavior whatsoever from anyone they deem open-minded as themselves. It’s a nice place to visit, but I hope never to have to live there.
From the post title, you can guess where I stand on San Francisco’s proposed anti-circumcision measure, which would criminalize the act if performed on anyone under 18 and disallow religious exemptions. But considering that Matthew Hess, the fellow behind it, is the same fellow behind the eye-washingly anti-Semitic “Monster Mohel” comic book, I feel I know as much about his motivations — and defenders — as I need to.
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Hasidic Zen Riddle
Q: WHAT’S BEYOND GOD?
A: More God.
Toward A Topography Of Dreams
THIS IS LESS A POST than an invitation to share hidden landscapes.
Within the past year or so, and due partly to an almost chronic drowsiness, I began noticing that a significant number of my dreams are set in a handful of recurring locations. The dreams themselves are not repetitious; that is, the circumstances within each setting is different, but the settings themselves are the same — lending to the experience a curious sense of permanence or visitation:
– At (a) Renaissance Pleasure Faire, in the large tree-bordered parking lot; the Faire often recedes as I approach, or is over by the time I make it inside
– A bustling airport, to which I arrived via BART, and whose airplanes have couch seating
– Beach resort alongside a straight highway
– “The towns south:” a forested drive through a number of small California towns, eventually leading to a series of Southern California beach resorts
– High rise hotel with a series of terraced balconies; restaurant at the top
– The Endless Cemetery (ornate crypts & sarcophagi)
– An unknown suburb of Sonoma, sometimes on fire
– Back corridors of the world’s biggest shopping mall
Am I the only one with assigned seating? What are your recurring dreamscapes?
Your Orders
RESIST ENTROPY.
21st Century Magritte
Ol’ Thinkypants: Reality Is What You Get When You’re Not Looking For Reality
“IN THE GOD V. CHANCE debate, some of us are having a long-view chuckle over consciousness’ inability to recognize and appreciate its own inevitability within the Universe it’s trying to understand. Sure, it’s not as dramatic or satisfying as shouting at each other, but it pays the bills.”
Three Word Comfort
“WE’LL GET THERE.”
Ol’ Thinkypants: Sales and Service
“PEOPLE’D BE A DAMN SIGHT more polite to each other in this country if they had to work a year behind a retail sales counter. At least, all my retailer friends think so.”
Pithyism #809
WHEN FACED WITH A NEW Thing, it is often better to pay close attention to the Thing in question than to whether or not it fits your notion of Thingness. (N.B. This is not as obvious as it sounds.)
Scrapheap Waters
THAT’S AN ANAGRAM FOR “EARTH Warps Space,” the latest news out of NASA. Put simply: In our 4th-dimensional universe, gravity runs downhill. Put less simply, http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/04may_epic/. Quoted lede: “Einstein was right again. There is a space-time vortex around Earth, and its shape precisely matches the predictions of Einstein’s theory of gravity.”
My Favorite Osama Bin Laden Rumor
…IS THAT HIS COMPOUND WAS built in the shape of what some would call “Greater Palestine,” with his house corresponding to the location of Jerusalem. (This comes to me from to the French website JSSNews, by way of YNet, by way of The Tablet, which latter is recommended daily fare.)
