Stop The Olive Presses

Matthew Yglesias is amazed to discover that large numbers of Christian pilgrims visit Jerusalem.

When Christmas Was A "Popish Superstition"

Maybe we Protestants are the problem! Foreshadowing the controversy over Cordoba House (charges of nefarious foreign influence, demands that it move uptown), angry Protestants were outraged when St. Peter's Catholic Church was built in lower Manhattan beginning in 1785. On Christmas Eve in 1806, they started a riot (they were doctrinally against Christmas) in which a policeman died. Read about it here.

Not Walking And Not Blinking At The Same Time

Creative paralysis in Middle East peace efforts.

Trojan Sources

There's irony or aptness, depending on your perspective, as Dwight Chapin returns to his alma mater, the University of Southern California, to participate in a Nixon foundation co-sponsored panel discussion about President Nixon's China initiative. A 1963 USC graduate, Chapin hired classmate Donald Segretti to run dirty tricks during Nixon's 1972 reelection campaign. It was often said that they first stocked their bags of political tricks as undergraduates.

Chapin was jailed for perjury in Watergate's wake. He's making news at the Nixon library by charging that Nixon was present when chief of staff H. R. "Bob" Haldeman gave the order to create the dirty tricks unit. Until now, Nixon was never directly implicated.

Nixon's foundation is currently enjoying a Haldeman renaissance. Joining Chapin at the USC event will be Haldeman's aide Larry Higby, who also features in the library's proposed new Watergate exhibit.

I Swear I Hope It Works

If Bibi gets his way, new citizens will have to declare allegiance to Israel as a "Jewish and democratic state." The oath now in force requires allegiance to the state of Israel. The new one, which has to be approved by the Knesset, embodies one of Israel's dilemmas. Arabs and other non-Jews can vote, and someday there could be enough of them to vote to change the oath back again.

Netanyahu is thought to be proposing the change because the Israeli side is pressuring the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish homeland. Maybe he's giving himself domestic political cover for a concession to the Palestinians on settlements, which would keep the peace talks alive at least for another two months.

The End Of The World At Coney Island

Folksinger and blogger Tom Russell won $60 at Del Mar (he bet on a horse named Modern Song) and went CD shopping. He bought Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs," Jimmy Webb's duets album, and the Beatles' "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." He writes:

My God. Have not listened to this in 20 years. I assumed it would sound like a dated psychedelic artifact. Naw. This is a record about loneliness, depression, age, death, suicide…masked in a circus-musico format. The end of the world at Coney Island, with raunch guitars, superb vocal arrangements, and gut wrenching singing. It’s the Beatles, of course. Unfair to compare them with anyone else. This was like finding a forgotten Van Gogh in the closet. The record was recorded on a four track tape machine 33 years ago. Where has our technology taken us? I would borrow from William S. Burroughs in inferring that modern digital technology may be leading us toward boredom and oblivion....

Needler And Thread

Is Glenn Beck using his TV pulpit to freight, um, weird LDS stuff?

The Miracle Of An Open Mind

Seth Stern, co-author of a new biography of the late William J. Brennan, an associate justice of the Supreme Court:

He has discomfort with women in his workplace, yet he’s a champion of women’s rights in his decisions. He’s uncomfortable about abortion, but his privacy decisions make Roe possible. The press infuriates him at a personal level, and yet he’s a champion of the press.

The Illogical Twins

An LA Times editorial lets California's GOP gubernatorial candidate, Meg Whitman, off the hook for employing an undocumented worker but chides her for her illogical immigration position.

And yet as Cathleen Decker's recent Times analysis demonstrated, almost nobody's immigration position is logical, especially Republicans'. The party's whipsawed between those who want to militarize the borders and a Main St. cohort whose members depend on undocumented workers. The former seem to predominate among party elites, which is why it's a miracle Whitman got nominated after coming out against Arizona's relatively draconian law. That move may prove to the smartest of the year, since Whitman still seems to be doing far better among Latinos than Sheriff Fiorina in her U.S. Senate race against Barbara Boxer.

As for Whitman's opponent, Democrat Jerry Brown's policy on the budget is just as illogical as Whitman's on immigration. He says he wouldn't raise taxes without voter approval. Gov. Schwarzenegger tried that and got schooled. What magic formula does Brown have in mind for fixing the state's structural deficit, except breaking his promise?

We're Going Socialist? How About Maoist!

According to this "Economist" chart comparing how much 81 countries take in taxes out of $100,000 in annual income, the U.S. ranks at #52 (the bigger the ranking number, the more we get to keep). Weirdly, communist China's almost the same, at #48.