The start of the event was running late — did I mention it was a Jewish event? — and midway through our green room conversation, Hitchens pulled out a small bottle of Johnnie Walker Black. He emptied it into a 16-ounce clear-plastic cup and drizzled in some Crystal Geyser spring water. And he began sipping.
When I see the coarse arguments currently raging over the issue of same-sex marriage, I don\’t see any thoughtful or fascinating debates or any embracing of tension. I see two armies shooting at each other.
Let us be frank: The current stalemate is ideological, not physical, and it hangs on two major contentions: \”historical right\” and \”justice,\” which must be wrestled with in words before we can expect any substantive movement on the ground.
Maybe the only way you can put down roots in California is with the thought that every place has its own risks, its tornadoes and hurricanes and lightning, that driving on the freeway is even more dangerous than living on a fault line.
Dudamel, who will be 28 when he replaces Esa-Pekka Salonen as music director of the L.A. Philharmonic next year, considers Leonard Bernstein a role model.
\”Irena\’s Vow\” is the story of Irena Gut Opdyke, a young Polish Catholic woman who took unimaginable risks and paid an unspeakable personal price to save the lives of 12 Jews by hiding them in the basement of the villa where she was virtually enslaved by a German major during World War II.
\” . . . Rotbart wants us to feel guilt, regret and fear; the very emotions that the conservative party and our past presidential party have been trying to make us feel for years now. I\’m happy to say that we voted for change, and the days of Jews being stuck in an uninformed past are over . . . \”
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