Political analysts agree on one thing: The Nov. 2, 2004, California congressional and state legislative elections were the most anti-demo-cratic and frightening results yet of the so-called \”safe seats\” scheme, in which the winners are known long before Election Day.
You never forget your first, and mine was Milton Steinberg. Not his novel, \”As a Driven Leaf.\” I\’d read that later in life, after my wife, a rabbi, looked at me unbelievingly one day and said, \”You\’ve never read \’As a Driven Leaf?\’\”
There\’s something very American about a book that claims to be a \”guide to life.\” There\’s also something very Jewish about it.
The memory of the Holocaust has haunted the Jewish imagination for three generations. It represents the rupture in our communal history, its shadow falling on everything else. And yet, we have amassed new memories since. Three books by local authors use the legacy of the Holocaust in their attempts to grapple with many facets of the Cold War.
About the same portion of Americans describe themselves as being liberal (19 percent) as believe that the world will come to an end in their lifetimes (17 percent).
I have a mere two degrees of separation from Yasser Arafat. Down the street from the Arc de Triomphe in Paris is a little hair salon where I get my hair cut.
As President Bush moved closer to re-election, one Kerry fan said he already had a new bumper sticker in mind for his car: \”Hey, We Tried to Warn You.\”
