Thursday, August 3, 2006

Anything is possible.

8:18 begins Tisha B'av, a fast, mourning and this amid a new ground force in Lebanon. Because of this, I've chosen not to watch CNN or MSNBC. There can only be so much, and I'll mourn for it all, but I'd prefer not to see the strikes and the same dark, cloudy footage over and over again. The thing is, while reading the paper today, I focused more on Mr. Gibson. I focused on the reaction of Jewish leaders to his "second" apology and desire to speak with Jewish community leaders. Many obliged and said that after he finishes rehab, they'll speak with him. And I?

I say Mel Gibson is and has been an anti-Semite and will remain so. There's no need to forgive or not to forgive, it's who he is, and if he wants to sound off about the Jews -- drunk or not -- then people need to understand him for what he is. People also need to understand that him saying "I meant none of the things I said" is bullshit. And that, is that.

I realized that I'm in the middle of a bounty of books right now. Among those are:
  • The Bone Woman
  • Born to Kvetch
  • The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara
And now ... I've also started "Yes, but is it good for the Jews?" by Jonny Geller. Why? Well, I went to this used bookstore next to SoHo today that I hadn't realized was there. At this bookstore I procured the aforementioned book, a Tae Bo video and a book on learning Modern Hebrew. Why? Because I have a problem. An addiction. To books. I can't help it. It happens. The best thing about the "Yes, but ..." book is that it's an advance reading copy, which means errors are possible. The best one? In a section about the National Spelling Bee, "spelling" is spelled wrong. Delightful. I'm also excited that I can say a few things in Modern Hebrew (the basic: yes, no, how are you, thank you, are you ...?").

In other news: I've got three papers on the burner, and can't quite decide what to do and where to go with them. It'd be so easy to just stay where I am. I don't really WANT to live in California or in a small town with less than 10,000 people. But ...