until the author started spouting the old canards about the so-called "Old Testament" (its real name is Tanakh, btw). I'm guessing that Mr. Kamiya gets his misinformation from the King James mistranslation.

Please don't pretend that you know anything about the Hebrew Bible until you can read it from right to left.

If you still have the energy, then you can start learning the Oral Tradition that explains and elucidates Tanakh.

First, the diatribe against Bris Milah, now this. Oy, not a good day for the Jews here at Salon.

when people of the Right or Left use the "Wrathful G_d of the Old Testament" line. It's a slur, albeit usually unintentional, like using "Pharisee" as an insult.

We revere the P'rushim (their real name) btw, for preserving the Oral Tradition (known today as the Talmud) through various persecutions.

Here're some things that the Oral Tradition explains that you're not going to get from the Written Torah, and certainly not from that piece of garbage, the KJV:

1) Adam was originally a hermaphrodite.

2) Ham castrated his father Noah after the Flood.

3) Isaac was 37 when Abraham went to sacrifice him.

4) Solomon was 12 when he thought of the "split the baby" gambit.

If you are interested in getting a small taste of what in in Tanakh, The Living Torah/Living Nakh series by Moznaim publishing is the best translation ever done in English, while The Stone Chumash by Artscroll is a wonderful introduction to the Commentaries.

I am now an Orthodox Jew, but I was married to a non-Jew for 18+ years. My non-Jewish ex-brother-in-law is not circumcised, yet decided to circumcise his son, really pissing off his father.

Apparently there is something to the whole "different in the locker room" thing.

Instead of cutting funding for the troops in Iraq, which Bush would just ignore, cut funds for other pet projects (that we really don't need anyways) like Star Wars, new bombers, new nuclear missiles, a man on the moon again, etc.

Indirection is sometimes the way to go.

It is kind of a "have you stopped beating your spouse" question, but here's an absolutely truthful answer to shut that up once and for all:

The Constitution requires that the President be a native-born US citizen at least 35 years old. Those are the only qualifications one needs to become President of the US. Period. Therefore, Senator Obama is indeed qualified to become President of the US.

I'll take my consulting fee now, thanks.

and it would be nice (though don't hold your breath) if the MSM would drop the latest stupid meme. But ladies, please just realize that the bullies have been kicking our asses up and down the playground for years now and finally, finally, our big brother's come home from college and set things right.

It's a boy thing, what can I say?

and I've generally appreciated the feedback. I wrote the articles to be read, not for the money (bwahhahahah). But what's up with criticizing an author for responding to criticism? It's stupid to stay with the old model of print article responsa.

it's that the project management methodology generally used (i.e., waterfall) is based on building buildings. It's never worked, it doesn't work and never will.

People forget that programming is only 5 to 10% of the effort of delivering a solution for people, yet everybody focuses their energies on that specific area.

Oh, and that Floss impact study is bogus. Anything talking about "source lines of code" gets recycled immediately, but that is just not a valid metric of anything.

FYI, Merck basically does vaccine research out of the goodness of its corporate heart. It's really not a big money maker compared to drugs used to treat existing conditions.

Merck is one of the most moral companies I ever worked for. They were so completely anal in everything they did, it drove me crazy. I guess that's why the whole recent scandal with the COX-2 inhibitors was so surprising.

Our record of arming Muslims in the Middle East and Central Asia hasn't been a good one. Arming the Shah, Saddam, the Afghanis, all have come back to bite us. Afghanistan was better off under the Commies!

Lincoln said about Grant (basically): At last, someone who can fight!

"I've never understood why Salon has letter pages when neither authors or editors bother responding at all."

I've read Salon for many years and I've written for them twice. When I write an article, I make it my business to respond to non-snarky letters. I too don't get why most of Salon's writing staff seems stuck in the paper publishing mode of barely engaging the readership on its letters pages.

Unfortunately, the number of snarky responses to decent responses is dishearteningly high. There're only 168 hours in a week, who wants to waste time on that?

Plus, there's always that censorious streak of "how dare you publish this, I'm canceling my subscription!"; these are usually the people who hate the religious right. Hey pot, you're black too...

All that said, Ms. Paglia had a few decent insights on men and their emotions, but her work, like her topics, is just fluff.

Patrick Dorismond. The whole general psycho vibe he projects. Putting his command center in the WTC. Living with an interracial gay couple after he left Gracie Mansion.

I will, however, always love him for giving the squeegee guys the death penalty.

Breast milk is US$0.25 an ounce. Do the math.

They do tend to work, until they don't.

And when they are bad, they are horrid...

And I can tell you first hand (I was a contract programmer for them) that they are completely anal about testing their products. The Viagra thing seemed to be a bizarre psychotic break caused by a meager pipeline. They still have a tin ear as to marketing, but their product is solid. I'm planning to have my 17 year old get it.