Ethics

Terrorists are not criminals

כ״ט בניסן ה׳תשע״א (Tuesday 3 May 2011)

Terrorists are not criminals in the sense that burglars, drunk drivers, perjurers, rapists and litterers are criminals. Terrorism may incidentally be a crime by its inclusion in the statutes that make it one, though pretty much any single action in the modern state is a crime by that standard. The proper paradigm with which to [...]

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Investing in Divorce

כ״ח בכסלו ה׳תשע״א (Sunday 5 December 2010)

From the New York Times, I’ve just learned that other people’s divorces are a sound and even profitable investment opportunity: “Balance Point Divorce Funding [is] a new Beverly Hills lender that offers to cover the cost of breaking up – paying a lawyer, searching for hidden assets, maintaining a lifestyle – in exchange for a [...]

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Stay Away From This Woman

כ״ב באלול ה׳תש״ע (Wednesday 1 September 2010)

Sometimes I can read an advice column just for the questions, and ignore the answers. This is one of those times: Dear Prudence, Twenty years ago, I had a child out of wedlock. I had slept with two men during that period, “Tom” and “Mike.” I assumed Tom was the father, but when I told [...]

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Penmanship

י״ט באלול ה׳תש״ע (Sunday 29 August 2010)

Intelligent people usually don’t start their letters like this: “Say my man, Ain’t nothing happening man…” But then, no one ever accused the boxer formerly known as Cassius Clay of being particularly intelligent (right?). Please note, however, that this guy who threw fists for a living and converted to Islam actually has penmanship that puts [...]

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Divorce Insurance

ט״ז באלול ה׳תש״ע (Thursday 26 August 2010)

Wow. Divorce insurance is a real thing. I can understand the case for auto insurance, though I don’t make car ownership a part of my life. Same for homeowners’ insurance, though I don’t own a home. I can even understand the rumors that Jennifer Lopez insured her ass. But divorce insurance? Really? Why would somebody [...]

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Israel & Turkey

י״ד באלול ה׳תש״ע (Tuesday 24 August 2010)

Whenever I think about Israel’s relationship with Turkey, I think of Jabotinsky‘s book Taryag Millim: An Introduction to Spoken Hebrew (In Latin Characters). Though he was careful to say that he wasn’t using the book to advocate for a Latinized letter system for Hebrew like Mustafa Kemal did with Turkish, the book reflects an interesting [...]

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