EZ Reads 6/17/09: The God King

I will admit that I never understood the concept of (for example) a Shabtai Tzvi, or Jesus, or the like and how simple charisma and presence could somehow sweep the world (or the chunk they are in contact with) to follow such a person all on their own. I must say that I now easily understand how this is so.

• In the midst of Jason Maoz's latest Jewish Press piece, which is quite good, he cites a great paragraph from The Weekly Standard:

  "Obama being Obama, however (and Newsweek being Newsweek), this is not quite your usual God. This is not the God of Battles, to whom Henry V prayed before Agincourt. This is not 'Our fathers' God, to Thee/Author of Liberty/to Thee we sing.' This is definitely not the God of the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic,' as this God isn't given to trampling anything, and when it comes to the terrible swift sword, you can simply forget it. This God doesn't do swords, much less battles. This is a modern God, a media God, a God for Whole Foods, and the Politics & Prose bookstore on upper Connecticut Avenue, a God who is into recycling. There is the God of the Old Testament, and the God of the New Testament, but this is the God of the Newsroom. Religious tradition tells us that God created man in His image, but the press has created this God in its image - diverse, multilateral, and nonconfrontational. He is cool, hip, urbane, and extremely un-Texan. He is all that the Fourth Estate values in life, and aspires to be in its own private dealings. He is all it holds dear.

• The WSJ discusses some of the health care reforms the Obama administration is trying to push through. At least the White House Council of Economics Advisers isn't buying.
  
• A hilarious but rather enlightening satire on health care reform via tax cuts and the great President Obama, circa 2070.
• It is mind-boggling that a major news media network would perform an hour-long piece from within the White House and yet claim to have no subjective bias. It is more mind-boggling that this is largely being ignored as okay. If this would have occurred in any prior administration people would be dumbfounded and the outcry would have been incredible.
• And speaking of things that would have gotten an outcry... firing investigators for doing their job? Nice.
• On a lighter note, another Israeli scientist is trying to make strides against cancer using old herbal remedies that seem to create antioxidants that stop cancer cold.
• Been meaning to put this up for a while: The break of a curveball, and how its study won an international scientific contest.
  

Finally, a huge Mazel Tov to SweetRose on her wedding tonight!