Round-up

-Effi Eitam decided he'd rather be more like Meir Kahane than Rav Kook. But the Forward's J.J. Goldberg suggests that Eitam's suggestion that Israel kick out its Arab citizens has more to do with fear of "giving up the 40-year-old dream" of the settlements than anything else. What's really interesting is the reaction (or non-reaction) of Eitam's Religious Zionist peers. "Eitam? Who? Isn't that a kind of pancake?"

-Turns out Senator George "Macaca" Allen is half-Jewish. Even better, he's also black (well, Sephardic. Half-there.)! But, you know, he doesn't want to talk about that, because for him, politics is supposed to be about the music issues:

“To be getting into what religion my mother is, I don’t think is relevant,” Allen responded angrily. “Why is that relevant – my religion, Jim’s religion or the religious beliefs of anyone out there?”
...“ We in the Allen household were simply taught that what matters is a person’s character, integrity, effort, and performance – not race, gender, ethnicity or religion. And so whenever we would ask my mother through the years about our family background on her side, the answer always was, ‘Who cares about that?’"

Yeah, you Jewbag reporters, have some common decency! Wait, no, it's ok, see, he's Jewish, so it's really just an inside joke!

I wonder if he'll find out he's Indian next?

-The Jewish Journal has a fun article about Jewish pirates. Not bad, but we all know the REALLY cool black sheep are Jewish ninjas (and the occaisonal Jewish clown). Come on, Kaifeng was, like, right next door! Also, enough about the Sephardim already. BO-ring!

- The whole "90% of Americans" believe in God thing is stupid and inaccurate. Tell all your idiot friends, neighbors and relatives (hi, Uncle Milt!) to stop referencing it in order to justify burning a Christmas tree on your front lawn. You know the ones.

[A new study] went further by asking respondents what sort of God they believed in. The results put the perennial debate over the role of religion in public life in a new light.

The survey identifies four conceptions of God, which it labels A, B, C and D.

In your face, F! That's right, Fafnir, Norse God of arm-wrestling, you're officially out of the running. But thanks for coming out.

The WSJ has more on this. (Hat-tip: Conservadox.)

-Lastly, if you're like me, you've probably heard a few Hitler (or Holocaust-era) jokes in your time. (I can list five right off the top of my head- the bicycle-riders, the fake tiger, the man who rescues Hitler from a car crash, the left-handed can-opener, the Jewish boy in a classroom, and the Jew who wanted to change his name. Come to think of it, that's six.) Anyway, there's a new book out about Nazi-era humor (no, not NAZI humor, stupid, that would be different and cater to a much different audience). It looks pretty interesting- and it also offers some fascinating insight into the "Hitler hypnotized the Germans" theory that's so often trotted around. Apparently, during the middle-years of the war, a fair amount of the population was already starting to think twice about "der Mustache"- and one of the safe(er) ways of spreading this discontent was through humor. Worth a look.