Friday night marks the first day of Chanukah, with Christmas just 2 short weeks later. In the spirit of the holidays, I think we can all agree with this cartoon.
Also, I’m including a bonus cartoon, because it’s the holidays, and because I can’t figure out what is going on in the last one, but it makes me smile. Read the rest of this entry »
Last week’s parsha was Va-Yishlah, which continues the story of Jacob. There are plenty of lessons in the reading: Jacob’s need to be left alone, in preparation for making amends with his brother Esau. Or his struggle with the divine being, through which he becomes Israel, his more holy self. These are instructive, and Jacob’s is one of my favorite stories, because he is one of the first of the very flawed fathers of Judaism to prove that he is worthy of God’s choice, and because as someone who has alternated between completely skeptical and deeply faithful, I love that Jacob’s descendents, the Israelites, take for their name a word that means ’struggle with God’. But the lesson that resounds the most, that echoes through my mind at all times, is Genesis 32:27. Jacob has struggled with the being, and been grievously hurt, but he has held his own. The being says, ‘let me go, for dawn is breaking,’ but Jacob refuses. ‘I will not let thee go, except thou bless me,’ he says. Read the rest of this entry »
Last week I was outed on Twitter: the rabbi’s sister called him, concerned that one of her fellow congregants (who also knows the rabbi through her (the congregant’s) husband) pulled her aside and showed her my Twitter feed. Besides the oddity that a woman I have never met would be reading my tweets, this has implications for the rabbi, because he is the most tweeted subject in my feed. I never refer to him by name, and mention few identifying characteristics, but with time, it would be possible to figure out who he is. Because of me, he now has a Twitter presence, without ever having signed up for the service. We are, for better or for worse, now linked in the public sphere, and on a scale that neither of us will be able to control. Read the rest of this entry »
Lots in the news this week regarding soldiers: the Fort Hood massacre and also Veteran’s Day. In honor of all the brave men and women who have lost their lives, and also in remembrance of their families, Thursday Cartoons are a double feature.
Also, in case I haven’t mentioned it recently, I get almost all my cartoons from Daryl Cagle’s Political Cartoonists Index.
The newest issue of New Global Studies (Vol. 3 Issue 2) is now available. I’ve already downloaded two articles and a book review. Enjoy!
My best friend and I are attempting to put together a List of books spanning the entirety of human history, knowledge and literature. One of the potential books for the List is The 10 000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution, by Cochran and Harpending. 
Although I don’t agree with all of their conclusions (they actually argue more on the side that evolution advanced civilization far more than civilization advanced evolution), they make some excellent points, many of which revolve around tipping points, phase transitions, and of course, fitness landscapes and levels. Cochran and Harpending make their argument by looking at the past, without extending it into the future, but of course human evolution will continue in starts and stops. I think we are approaching such a time when evolution may need to make a few leaps forward in order for humans to survive.
I’ve spent July, August and September 1. moving, 2. leaving my job and going on vacation and 3. starting grad school at Georgetown University where I 4. and building this blog for my program. Needless to say, this has kept me pretty busy, especially since it’s been forever since I’ve be on a student schedule, which requires a completely different level of discipline than work and 1-2 nonprofits do. I’m not settling in as quickly as I’d like, and my classes (I’m taking 4) are overall somewhat more difficult than I expected (again, being disciplined (or not being, rather)) but I’m getting there. I also haven’t had reliable internet (we just upgraded our router, so hopefully) and we’re still doing Ikea runs every weekend in an attempt to put this place together before our October housewarming party. But I will start blogging again, mostly because I have to.
I have the option to post to DemocracyandSociety.com as I’d like, and I probably will once I get more confident in world affairs again, but in the meantime, my Networks and International Development class (easily my favorite class, but that’s another post), requires a blog post every week on a topic related to that week’s reading. That blog is protected, but my better posts will find their way over here. I’ll also get back into reading AllAfrica.com as part of my weekly reading for my African Development class. In other words, my almost complete avoidance of the news and blogging begun last year in August is finally coming to a (slightly forced) end. I’m glad this is the case, because I really did miss it, but couldn’t quite find the time or motivation to get back into the habit. Blogging, even on a weekly, rather than daily, schedule, is a time-consuming process that doesn’t have nearly the same immediate appeal as the pub or napping or Project Runway, even as the longer-term benefits can (hopefully) be more substantive.
That’s probably all I’m going to say for now since I still also need to overcome my reversion to extreme introversion and also need to stop procrastinating on my class blog post by doing everything else.
