As an Observant Jew, it pains me to read about these idiots who know no Hebrew, no Aramaic, have no access to the Oral Tradition (i.e., Talmud) or the Commentators spout off on what Bereishis (i.e., Genesis) has to say about the Creation of Everything. Complete nonsense. Science does not conflict with Torah, and Torah does not conflict with Science; indeed, Science is considered to be a subset of Torah. If there appears to be a conflict (and we don't shy away from difficulties, by the way), we believe that the problem lies with our understanding of the two.

It's funny when you become a Ba'al Tschuva (i.e., someone Jewish and not religious who becomes religious); you realize that Observant Jews are first and foremost, people. The whole reason for the religious divide in Israel and elsewhere is precisely because there really isn't a whole lot dividing the secular, "modern" Jews from their observant, "fundamentalist" fellow Jews.

In other words, there are thousands of shades of black.

I really don't care one way or the other if non-Jews leave their boys intact or not, it's none of my business. That said, here are a couple of thoughts:

1) Leave me and my community alone.

2) If you do want to have your boy circumcised, find the nearest Mohel and do it on his 8th day. Don't have it done by doctors, they don't know wtf they are doing. I've seen it, up close and personal many times now, and about half the time the boy doesn't cry. We've been doing it for over 3000 years now, we've got it down pat. A Mohel doesn't become a Mohel until he does his own son.

3) There actually are studies out now that show that there is some protective effect from HIV, be that as it may.

4) During the Holocaust, the Nazis used to check for circumcision in order to see who to send to die, and who not to.

may or may not be a great QB, may or may not be able to throw from the pocket, but dude, are you questioning his manhood? Listen, boychik, bubbeleh and mameleh are for girls, tateleh is for boys. FYI.

but I do know who they want to play the Colts in the Super Bowl: the Giants. Can you think of all the angles for that? Red vs. Blue, Brother vs. Brother, Colts vs. Giants (history), all just off the top of my head.

who voted for Kerry, I have a unique perspective on this (I was the only one). Most Frum Jews aren't worried about the evangelicals because they don't expect anything from them. For example, they were not nearly as concerned as their Frei (i.e., assimilated) cousins about Mr. Gibson's Passion Play; we believe that Hashem will always remind us that we are Jews, even if we forget. The fact that the Xian Right supports Israel so strongly overrides a lot of other concerns. Myself, I thought that a stupid bargain, as, bottom-line, everything Mr. Bush has ever touched has been ruined.

To speak for Ms. Montague, it's not that we don't have anything in common with the non-Torah Observant Jews--G_d forbid! It's not that we hold Reform and Conservative and all the other flavors invalid; it's just that we hold their practices to be invalid Judaism. It's an intra-tribal thing, so if you're not Jewish, don't worry about it.

The whole "Left appeased Hitler" thing would make a great meme were it not completely flipped from the truth. It was the Right pre-WWII that appeased Hitler. Chamberlin was a Conservative; Republicans were isolationist. It was the Xian Right in Europe that collaborated. The non-Communist Left wanted to take on Hitler first and did, in fact, in Spain. Stupid, Lying or Both? I report, you decide!

is fundamentally, unalterably, indisputably asymetric. No amount of ideology or empathy will ever change that. And that makes all the difference.

over a Republican, but the Junior Senator from NY reminds men of their first wife...

is to admit defeat and bug out. The only thing worse than defeat is Bush's "victory". Can you say "South Lebanese Army"?

it's not old to us Pharisees!

How 'bout--Chaos or Kaos?

Why does anybody cluck cluck over someone else's life choices? How does someone staying at home instead of working full-time (or vice versa) invalidate someone else's choice? There's a long history of the various media using really flimsy statistics to create these dramatic stories about how one choice is better than the other. They do it because people obsess over it. In a perfect world, everybody would stop using other people's choices to validate/invalidate their own choices.