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iGod

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OK, tell me you did not see this one coming. The digital Talmud? Why not? In fact, I am amazed that there isn’t an entire seminary curriculum loaded onto iPods somewhere. What happens to doctrine when you hit shuffle? Here is a taste of reporter Alex Mindlin’s report in (naturally) The New York Times: “At the door, handing out leaflets beside the Jews for Jesus and the teenage collectors for Jewish charities, was a 23-year-old entrepreneur named Yehuda Shmidman, who was passing out glossy brochures showing a bearded, black-hatted Orthodox Jew, in silhouette, wearing a pair of white ear buds. Shmidman’s product, the ShasPod, is a solution to a vexing question: How does a commuter study a 2,711-page book?”


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Ashley Smith's vilification begins

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The story of Ashley Smith’s heroism was bound to annoy some journalists as being too pat, too unbelievable, too much of a redemptive ending in a story of carnage and mayhem. Lee Siegel, television critic of The New Republic, raises some fair questions about whether Smith’s story should be accepted uncritically, although reporters will have a difficult time gaining access to her captor, Brian Nichols, for some time to come.


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Common-law polygamy?

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Here’s an interesting commentary from a reader: “Does the Schiavo case implicitly, or maybe explicitly, acknowledge the validity of polygamy? . . . I saw a lawyer on the news last night going down a laundry list of Terri’s decisions and rights, and, to my knowledge, all of this flows from her husband speaking on her behalf. If Mrs. Schiavo II could sue him now for wife-like rights should they separate, the state is honoring polygamy.” The state of Florida does not recognize what in some places is still called Common Law Marriage. But a decade or so and two children? What legal status does Michael’s live-in almost-wife have, in the eyes of the state? Meanwhile, Kathleen Parker asks another question: “When is a husband not a husband?”


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There is no St. Nicholas . . .

At least not in Demre, Turkey. This is the depressing bottom line in Karl Vick’s sad, sad story in the Washington Post. The headline captures the relentless march of the shopping mall into parts of the world that, at least historically speaking, ought to know better: “Turkish Town Exchanges St. Nick for Santa.” But there is hope, in the shape of tourism dollars. “The demotion of the real Saint Nicholas did not go unnoticed. offended parties include Russian Orthodox tourists who venerated the saint made the patron of their homeland by Czar Alexander II; the sculptor, also Russian, who donated the bronze statue five years ago; tour operators who pitch Demre as part of a tour of Turkey’s religious history; and an assortment of bystanders who see the town’s elevation of Santa over Nicholas as the ultimate commercialization of, if not Christmas, something dignified and sacred.” Amen.


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