"I haven't seen performances like these since last year's Douche Bag Summer  Games out in sunny Santa Monica, California".

Ahem ...

:: cough ::

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Snif, cough, sigh.

Good times. Gooooood times.

Yesterday, supporters of the Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA) (KGIA) and Debbie Almontaser held a rally in front of the Tweed Courthouse. It was an attempt to set the record straight as well as to make sure the DOE knows that community support for the School and for Debbie is strong.

I was asked to speak because I was a member of the KGIA Design Team. And, both as a member of the KGIA Design Team, and as a white Jewish parent from Brooklyn, I wanted to make clear that the stated mission and purpose of the school is the opposite of what it’s opponents are making it out to be.

The other speakers at the rally were: Rabbi Michael Feinberg, Executive Director of the

A travesty of justice has taken place in Brooklyn. Debbie Almontaser, the woman who created the vision of a dual-language Arabic-English school in Brooklyn has been forced to resign from her position as the principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA) as a result of a smear campaign carried out by an organization known as “Stop the Madrassa Coalition” (SMC) with a great deal of support by the New York Post and a surprising dearth of support by the Department of Education.

Debbie is a woman who personifies peace and interfaith connections, yet articles in the Post and statements by the Stop the Madrassa group have portrayed her as supporting violence and wanting to create an Islamic school. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Imus was doing what he is paid to do. He was doing his job. He was doing what made him successful. He was fulfilling the role society offered him.

I don't defend what he does or even say he shouldn't get his comuppance. But I do feel that it is wrong that Imus is being dropped like a hot potato for insensitive, rude comments while Bill O'Reilly can tell American Jews to move to Israel if they don't like a Christian America and Ann Coulter can advocate terrorism and violence and largely get away with it.

Imus is a royal asshole. But that was what he was getting paid to be. Ann Coulter is getting paid to advocate violence. Bill O'Reilly is getting paid to advocate pogroms. They are each getting paid far more than I get paid to be a scientist.

This is what society values, if salaries are any indication. Assholes, terrorist advocates and anti-Semites. In the grand scheme of what is wrong in today's media, Don Imus ranks pretty minor in the long list of disgusting statements. He, at least, wasn't advocating violence.

A grad school friend of mine commented on the sexual assault charges against Mike Tyson: "We pay people to beat eachother up, then we are surprised when they are violent."

Warning: the following post includes confusing details meant to discourage public participation. Some patience and bravery is advised.

In a stunning move of extreme waffling, the office of Melinda Katz has rescheduled the public hearing on Duffield Street from April 11 to May 1. Or maybe it will be April 17, but we won't know for sure until a few days before the meeting.

Action Advisory:
Email Christine Quinn at quinn@council.nyc.ny.us and
Melinda Katz at katz@council.nyc.ny.us

Write that the destruction of the Underground Railroad deserves a fair hearing. The City should not waddle through the seizure by eminent domain of private homes in a haphazard manner.

Stick to the announced date of May 1 for the public hearing on the Duffield Street Abolitionist homes!

In their messy attempt to help squelch any further exploration of this history, the City Council has in the space of about three weeks rescheduled the public hearing on this three times. The EDC, with AKRF (a private entity dedicated to destroying communities in the way of big development plans), spent two years studying the historical record. The 500+ page report was released 3/13/07 and the first public hearing was scheduled 3/20, giving the public no time to review the report. After some pressure from Tish James and others, they rescheduled the meeting to 4/11. On April 5 at about 5:00 pm, Council Member Katz's office let word out that the meeting will be delayed until May 1. Or maybe not.

In honor of the suppression of an art exhibition right here in New York where a crucified Jesus made of chocolate was found to be offensive, I present the lyrics to Tom Waits' song, Chocolate Jesus:

Dont go to church on sunday
Dont get on my knees to pray
Dont memorize the books of the bible
I got my own special way
Bit I know jesus loves me
Maybe just a little bit more

I fall on my knees every sunday
At zerelda lees candy store

Well its got to be a chocolate jesus
Make me feel good inside
Got to be a chocolate jesus
Keep me satisfied

Well I dont want no anna zabba
Dont want no almond joy

So some of my diaries seem poised to become traditions. This comes from last year almost without change. Hell, it has been thousands of years since this story was first told, so it is not surprising I have little reason to change it from year to year.

Passover celebrates Moses leading "his people" out of Egypt, the reception of "THE LAW" and the entry into the "promised land."

So just who was this "Moses?" What kind of name is "Moses?" And just who are his "people?" Well, it seems that "Moses" may be a pseudonym or, really, just half a name, the rest having been suppressed. Yes, suppressed because of some dark secret! His people seem to have been a rag-tag bunch of dispossesed ne'er do wells who may have heard about the idea of "one god to rule them all" from a heretic Egyptian king whose memory was being suppressed at the time that someone like Moses might have existed. And the Exodus? It may not have been so voluntary. Maybe they were trouble makers kicked out for subversive beliefs! So just what is this Passover thing anyway?

Passover celebrates, supposedly, the escape of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. This escape is considered one of the defining moments in Judaism, perhaps THE most important defining moment. Into this event is placed the entirety of the ancient Jewish identity, supposedly divided into "12 tribes," as well as the defining of Jewish religious law. The problem is that the bible account is internally inconsistent and is clearly a mixture of several traditions and myths. That does not mean that there aren’t kernels of truth in it, but it is not clear how many events are covered by the Exodus story and what times those various events took place, or if any of the characters involved were real people. The bible cannot be taken literally because it is often internally contradictory. That is odd if it is the revealed word of God…but it is very understandable if it is the collected lore of a small group of semi-nomadic people who eventually established a small state or collection of tiny states and were desperately trying to define their identity in relation to their often stronger neighbors.

I was surprisingly inspired by John and Teresa Heinz Kerry’s new book, This Moment on Earth, coming out March 26th, 2007. This inspiration snuck up on me around the third chapter. Prior to that, I found the book good, well worth reading, but a little bit like just one more book outlining what humans are doing wrong. Starting around the third chapter I realized I was referring to the book in several conversations and several blog diaries and that several of the people and organizations featured in the book I mentally filed away as worth looking into for future political connections, diaries and general research.

In short, almost without my realizing it, John Kerry’s book was getting into my brain and inspiring me. The book starts a bit dull but by the end is excellent.

My earliest impression, from the press material that arrived with the book and from the introduction, was that this book promised something really new and welcome. The book was billed as the next step in the evolution of the environmental debate. I was ready for a book that took as given the problems and focused primarily on solutions. Having been through way too many “debates” online where I yet again outlined the very clear scientific evidence for global warming only to have yet the same false claims that global warming was some kind of scam or myth (these claims are never backed up by scientific evidence of any substance), I really was ready to have a book that moved beyond that.

Passover is rapidly approaching, the day we celebrate freedom from slavery and a supposedly seminal event in our history. Well, the historical basis for this is uncertain. But for Jews around the world this holiday is a major part of our year and Matzah plays a central role.

My family is not so religious, as people have probably gathered. One Passover we spent with a friend that ordered a massive amount of Chinese food for our celebration. The eggroll of our affliction...and pork products did play a role in the seder.

And when it comes to Matzah, my family is ecclectic. We often get egg and onion...usually Streits. My son loves "yellow Matzah" meaning Goodman's egg Matzah. Plain Maztazh is fine. Everything Matzah (Manishevitz) is a bit much, but not bad. The only one we were left a bit flat by, though we appreciated the effort, was Manishevitz "Mediterranean" Matzah...didn't quite work.

This year we happened to buy a 5-pack of Matzah for Passover. We tend to eat Matzah on a regular basis...all of us. So buying in bulk around Passover makes sense.

This year we happened to grab the Osem "Israeli Matzah," subtitled "Matzah with a Mitzvah" because they donate some tiny amount of gelt to plant trees for every 5-pack people buy. Planting trees is good. So we bought it even though we realized it was a touch of a scam.

FINALLY! I have known for over a year that the Brooklyn Museum of Art had acquired Judy Chicago's "Dinner Party." But they have been building a new area to display it. Finally, it is about to open. Judy Chicago doesn't seem as well known here as she is out in Los Angeles. So it is nice to see her art reaching Brooklyn.

I have not met Judy Chicago, but my brother has worked with her on her show "Envisioning the Future" (mentioned here and pictured in the photo on the right in the Hawaiian shirt