Now that we got Obama, I mean Osama, Book Review

Three months ago some Navy Seals killed Osama Bin Laden.  When I think about the raid, I prefer to imagine a kid friendly version where actual seals enter the compound while barking for bait fish and balancing beach balls on their noses.  As the seals bombard Osama with beach balls his multiple wives form a human shield forming the largest animal v. human game of dodge ball the world has ever known.

I suppose it also could have been this guy.

As meaningful as the Osama take down was for its retributive benefit and as an operation to fight terrorism around the world, it holds a different significance for me.  It affirms a universal truth about men.  No, I am not discussing our penchant for human shields.  Rather, I refer to our undeniable exposure to pornography.  In case you didn't hear, Osama had porn.  The leader of jihadists throughout the world who was often referred to as pious was anything but.  Surprised?  I'm not.  The  skeptic in me has known for a long time that there are no truly pious men, just men biding their time until they have a some time alone with the Internet. Of course the issues involving global terrorism and jihad are way more serious and complex that every man's porn habit.

I recently finished a book which deals with some of those issues and more, The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson, ("TFQ").  Let me say first that I'm not a fan of books about Jews.  I'm a Jew, (genetically at least) and I have read, mostly on my mother's suggestion, a shitload of novels that could best be described as Jew centered fiction.  There was the one about the inquisition, the biblical one; she just tried convincing me to read one about a Jewish civil war soldier.  I  picked up TFQ because I heard the end of an interview with Jacobson on NPR where his response to a question about winning the Man Booker Prize was, "it was about time."  So I read TFQ and was not disappointed.

The novel revolves around three friends (two Jewish and one who desperately wants to be Jewish) and touches upon the complexities of their relationships and their feelings about their own religion.  The book, though not lengthy, is not what you'd call a fast read.  What little action there is takes place early on and sets the stage for many chapters which can best be described as "discussion of earlier events".  The entire novel is set against a backdrop of ever increasing European anti-semitism and its relationship to sympathy for Palestinians under Israeli occupation.  One of the main characters has chosen to be an "ashamed  Jew" speaking out against the occupation while the other Jewish character is less political and deeply mourning his wife.  The main character, a gentile, longs to be a Jew; something which he perceives to be special with an intellectual flair which he cannot grasp.  There are other minor characters all which play somehow into the themes of being  Jewish in a Christian world.  The book is funny at times, incredibly well written and rewarding.  It may have Jews but my mother will probably hate it because it's not pulpy trash.

There is one overarching reminder throughout the book.  This is a Christian world (at least Europe and America).  My son is about to start public school after going to a temple school for pre-kindergarten.  We didn't want to send him there but we quickly realized that the non-denominational schools were by default, Christian schools.  Now we are faced with the same problem, public school is Christian.  Christmas is in the curriculum.  We are not religious people, really we are atheists.  But if there is  no true non-denominational option, we'd rather him have a Jewish education than a Christian one.  Today we were at local public high school for my son's basketball trophy ceremony.  The High School rents its cafeteria to a church on the weekends and there were church flyers everywhere.  I wasn't offended but should I be, it's a public school.  We're going to see how it goes with public school, but the second my kid tells me Jesus died for my sins I'm going to start saving up to get him back in the Jewish day school.

Anyone who thinks there is a war on Christianity should feel secure that the war is over and the Christians won.

CRUDBUMP: ____ You If You Don't Like Christmas

Poem for winter in South Florida

In winter the leaves don't fall
well, some leaves fall
but they do not fill bags on every lawn.
We do not own a rake
or a blower
because we are tropical
and have Cuban restaurants in every strip mall.

In winter the children still play soccer outside
in shorts and t-shirts,
and visit the beach
though the wind has picked up
and it is not
possible
to play frisbee.

In winter we wait for our friends from the snow
to visit
on their way to the new
cruise ships and their
gluttonous escapes
into the Carribean.
We drive them
to the airport.

In winter we unpack our one sweater
and wear it one time
and pack it up again
for next year.

We do not realize that spring has arrived.

Cover Songs and Video Games

I am listening to an album of cover songs (the one pictured above) and thinking about how great they can be.  Sara Watkins singing Late John Garfield Blues by John Prine is beautiful and it creates something wonderful while paying homage to the original.  The whole idea has me considering the originality and its necessity, or lack thereof, in the creative process.  The other thing that has me thinking about this issue is video games, or rather, a lawsuit about video games.  A former Arizona State Quarterback has sued EA Sports regarding prior versions of their NCAA football game which used the accurate numbers and information of college players.

The case raises 1st Amendment questions about the use of likenesses in video games and other mediums.  What is it about an expression, video game or otherwise, which qualifies it as protected speech? Video games have already been determined to be the kind of creative expression covered by the 1st Amendment.  So why does this use of a college player's likeness seem so unjust.  I have no good answer.  My problem with this is likely related to Greg Ostertag.  That's the big man up there.  When Ostertag was in college at Kansas, a college basketball mecca, he already had his own family and lived on campus in family housing.  The digs were barely basic but probably what most people would consider acceptable for an amateur athlete in school on a scholarship.  Fine.  Except that while Ostertag and his family were handling their meager existence, the KU store was selling out of Ostertag jerseys, t-shirts and dolls (yes, dolls).  Here was a school, a public institution of higher learning, profiting from the likeness and efforts of one of their student-athletes.  They were not the first or the last to do so.  I know that schools make money from the television broadcasts, etc. of their successful teams, but the Ostertag thing did not seem right to me.

Same thing goes for the EA case.  We can certainly understand that a video game is a creative endeavor, but can't we weigh how creative.  Aren't the EA  sports games more commercial than creative.  It's seems unlikely to me that the 9th Circuit will split hairs betwixt video games and apply some kind of creativity sniff test.  And I understand that is probably the correct decision because we do not want courts drawing fine distinctions about what is creative and what is commercial when so many mediums are both creative and for commercial gain.  However, just like the Ostertag dolls, something about it just doesn't feel right.  We will see what the 9th Circuit does with the case and whether freedoms trump fairness.  Stay tuned for a case update.

Good Radiation (public radio rap)

Halloween, Fat Guy in Driveway

My son was Batman for Halloween, I was a fat guy sitting in my driveway. I wish I had been a Minotaur.

This was our first Halloween in our new neighborhood and I was generally impressed. There were abundant balloons of orange and black with the fancier balloons in the form of ghosts interspersed. The children were polite despite the proliferation of high school kids sans costume looking for candy hand outs. Surely their parents must not be Tea Party members, how could they sanction candy entitlement programs. At the end of the night we had the requisite (and quite dangerous) surplus of chocolate and candy which is now available gratis in the office kitchen.

When I was considering this post I had a varied list of subjects to discuss. (Talking Bird by Death Cab for Cutie just came on my Pandora Station) I could write about why women in an alarming majority uniformly wear slutty costumes at Halloween, or about the disappointing results of the mid-term elections, or about how so many of us wear disguises in our daily life. (A Father and A Son by Loudon Wainwright III just came on my Pandora Station) Ultimately I have decided to incorporate all three subjects because they are undoubtedly related.

Women in Sexy Costumes

(Cocaine Blues by Johnny Cash just came on my Pandora Station (it's the Folsom Prison live version)) Like any guy, I am 100% in support of women in sexy costumes. What I'm more curious about is the psychology behind it. (Give it Up by The Format just came on my Pandora Station) When you put on a costume are you revealing a part of yourself, (Let it Ride by Ryan Adams just came on my Pandora Station) or are you pretending to be something you always wanted to be, or is there nothing special at all about wearing a costume. Don't misunderstand, the sexy permutations are not the point. I am not saying that sexy nurse wants to be a nurse. (The Hazards of Love 4 by The Decemberists just came on my Pandora Station) What I am asking is whether sexy nurse is someone who is always wishing she could have her IV bags on display or is she someone who wouldn't dream of that in her daily life and embraces those few occasions when she can be someone else. I believe it is an important question about motivation: Are you trying to be someone else or exhibiting who you always were?


My wife has just informed me that I am foolish and trying to create meaning where there is none. She also suspects that this post is an excuse to peruse the proliferation of sexy costume pictures on the internet. (You've Got to Hide Your Love Away by The Beatles just came on my Pandora Station) She is probably right, the desire to dress sexy (probably evolutionary) may have nothing to do with deeper seeded thinking about disguises and a person's sense of self but to the extent people are kidding themselves when they put on these costumes, it belies a truth about how we represent ourselves to the world.

The Mid-Term Election

Despite all that Obama has accomplished, the democrats had very little hope of retaining the House. We know that historically the country unseats the ruling party when times are tough, regardless of who created the problem or the progress being made to improve things. What is special about this election is the level of delusion exhibited by voters in comparison to prior elections. The Tea Party has made libertarianism (See Rand Paul) the momentary fashion while simultaneously selling the idea to the same people it would hurt the most. Voting Republican in this last cycle amounted to farmers voting against farm subsidies. More strikingly, but not new in any respect, people without means voted to extend tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, increasing the divide between our working poor and the rich to an even wider chasm. They also voted against funding the programs which prevent our middle class from falling into poverty as they get old or if they become sick.

Part of the reason has to be a deluded self image. My co-worker told me once a while ago that people vote against benefits becasue they believe they'll be rich one day and will get stuck with the bill. Are we really so deluded that we vote R because we think the lottery ticket is a winner or possibly less likely, because we think our hard work will get us to the top. Hard work will not get you to the top, not usually. So everyone should lose that rich guy costume in the polling booth and vote in a way that might positively affect their life. (I and Love and You by The Avett Brothers just came on my iTunes set to shuffle). Instead, the rallying cry is small government and reducing benefits. Because that worked so well before the 1950's. Everyone voting Tea Party should be forced to read the entire Steinbeck collection and then answer book club questions about how much harder life was without government intervention.

Unfortunately, this might be our American nature. I highly suggest you pause in your reading and watch this video animating a lecture by the author of Nickel and Dimed.

We Delude Ourselves

We simply do not value realism, let alone skepticism. Both of which are absolutely necessary if we want to be a society which takes care of its least fortunate and which protects those without means from the people and businesses who would take advantage of an unregulated marketplace. So it is sad that in our daily lives we disguise ourselves as "the guy who will make it big one day," because that is all it is; a disguise which is also a delusion. I am not encouraging laziness, or implying in any way that people are resigned to a life of financial mediocrity. I'm only saying what is true, that most people in the lower to middle income levels are likely to stay that way and will not be a part of that top .2% which is actually affected by the tax cut expiring. In fact, during the Bush administration the wealthiest Americans saw an average yearly income increase of 6% while the middle class and poorer Americans experienced no wage increase at all. So why do we do it, why do we vote with a rich guy costume on? Unfortunately, it may be the American Dream. We are taught early on to measure success in terms of wealth and material things. We also believe that we are one big idea away from easy street. I'm no hippie, but if we want people to be less deluded (I think we do), then we might have to look at our values first.