January 9, 2009

Around the time of Israel’s 60th anniversary, Jewish Current Issues linked to an article from the November 1961 issue of The Atlantic. The author was David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, and in the monthly magazine he was reflecting on 3,000 years of history coming together as the Jewish state came of age.

Ben-Gurion’s no Natalie Portman, but his vision of Israel carries much more water because, um, he helped create the modern Jewish state. And considering Israel’s war in Gaza, now seemed as good a time as any to discuss the half-century-old article.

A lengthy excerpt is after the jump:

Imagine an eccentric college professor telling the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and have a little liberty with the exact details. You might come up with something funny like the above clip from “Adult Swim,” a show I’d never watched and now find to be a surprising member of the Cartoon Network roster.

Even though they lost whatever was left in their account, Madoff investors who took money out over several years or decades may actually have made off with money Madoff received from others, the AP reports:

The many Bernard Madoff investors who withdrew money from their accounts over the years are now wrestling with an ethical and legal quandary.

What they thought were profits was likely money stolen from other clients in what prosecutors are calling the largest Ponzi scheme in history. Now, they are confronting the possibility they may have to pay some of it back.

The issue came to the forefront this week as about 8,000 former Madoff clients began to receive letters inviting them to apply for up to $500,000 in aid from the Securities Investor Protection Corp.

Lawyers for investors have been warning clients to do some tough math before they apply for any funds set aside for the victims, and figure out whether they were a winner or loser in the scheme.

Hundreds and maybe thousands of investors in Madoff’s funds have been withdrawing money from their accounts for many years. In many cases, those investors have withdrawn far more than their principal investment.

“I had a call yesterday from a guy who said, ‘I’ve taken out more money then I originally put in, but I still had $1 million left with Madoff. Should I file a $1 million claim?’” said Steven Caruso, a New York attorney specializing in securities and investment fraud. “I’m hard-pressed to give advice in that situation,” Caruso said.

Tim Tebow loves God. The Florida quarterback is always talking about him. And it seems like everybody loves Tim Tebow.

Let’s reflect quickly on this church sign that sprouted up earlier this season:

Just when you thought Florida quarterback Tim Tebow couldn’t have anymore pressure dumped upon his shoulders, one Gainesville minister posted this sign less than a mile from the Gators’ practice field on Monday morning.

Eric Brown, the 31-year-old minister at Gainesville’s Campus Church of Christ, says he hopes Tebow sees the sign while the Heisman Trophy winner drives to and from campus. If you’re wondering about the Bible verse, Matthew 6:13, you might already know it. It’s the final few lines of the Lord’s Prayer: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”

Pause for a moment to let that thought role around in your brain. For some, Tebow is apparently much more than just a leader of the University of Florida football team.

Brown says he has been preparing a sermon for nearly a month about the Bible verse and, after watching ESPN College GameDay a few weeks ago, decided to add a few thoughts about Tebow to his message. Many media outlets have chronicled Tebow’s use of fame as a platform for his faith. …

“I’m going to pray that [Tebow] is true to his faith because if he falls and gets caught up in some kind of scandal it will be bad for Christianity,” Brown said.

He definitely has. I can’t remember ever seeing a college athlete as mature (see his speech following the Ole Miss loss after the jump), and committed to God, as Tebow. He has been all about Jesus since before he even arrived in Gainesville, and tonight Tebow will be fighting for the second national championship of the Heisman Trophy winner’s college football career. And he’s only a junior.

Go Gators.

Jett Travolta’s death has inspired fresh attacks on the Church of Scientology’s take on medicine. It also caused one reader of E! Online to wonder just what a funeral would look like for a follower of L. Ron Hubbard. I’m embarrassed to say that while I had no idea, E!‘s Answer B!tch did. (To be fair, they probably just got on Wikipedia). Here’s what she wrote:

A hallmark of Scientology is the belief that humans are immortal spirits, or thetans—beings who have lived many lifetimes and whose potential is unlimited.

A funeral, therefore, focuses on the departed like this…

…by addressing him or her directly during the service, urging the departed to move on to better times. Tommy Davis, spokesman for Church of Scientology International, told me today that a Scientology service “addresses the person as a spiritual being and is meant to acknowledge the life they lived and their right to move on.” Scientologists also believe that Jett’s thetan will move to a new home in another human body.

On the official Scientology website, a news release includes a passage from a typical church funeral service. If used to memorialize young Jett, it will go like this:

“We do not contest your right to go away. Your debts are paid. This chapter of thy life is shut. Go now, dear Jett, and live once more in happier time and place. Thank you, Jett.”

In November, I mentioned that Irish bookmakers had set odds on God. That post referenced a new bus campaign in London, led by Richard Dawkins, that states “there probably is no God.” The New York Times has a story about the campaign. An excerpt:

Spotting one of the buses on display at a news conference in Kensington, passers-by were struck by the unusual message.

Not always positively. “I think it’s dreadful,” said Sandra Lafaire, 76, a tourist from Los Angeles, who said she believed in God and still enjoyed her life, thank you very much. “Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I don’t like it in my face.”

But Sarah Hall, 28, a visitor from Australia, said she was happy to see such a robust example of freedom of speech. “Whatever floats your boat,” she said.

Inspired by the London campaign, the American Humanist Association started running bus advertisements in Washington in November, with a more muted message. “Why believe in a god?” the ads read, over a picture of a man in a Santa suit. “Just be good for goodness’ sake.”

Although Australian atheists were refused permission to place advertisements on buses saying, “Atheism: Sleep in on Sunday mornings,” the British effort has been striking in the lack of outrage it has generated. The Methodist Church, for instance, said it welcomed the campaign as a way to get people to talk about God.

Although Queen Elizabeth is the head of the Church of England, Britain is a deeply secular country with a dwindling number of regular churchgoers, and with politicians who seem to go out of their way to play down their religious beliefs.

In 2003, when an interviewer asked Tony Blair, then the prime minister, about religion, his spokesman, Alastair Campbell, interjected, snapping, “We don’t do God.”

Read the rest here.