Miracle Of Life

Every birth is a miracle but some more than others. The birth of Charley Paz Klein to Erez and Dayna Klein in Seattle on Tuesday is one of those more special cases. Dayna, whose picture is to the left, was working at the Seattle Jewish Federation on July 28th when a Muslim gunman entered the building and started shooting. He aimed directly at Dayna's obviously pregnant belly but her quick and instictive covering of the area with her arm saved the baby. She sustained an injury to her arm and thigh but managed to crawl to her desk and call 911. The gunman pointed his weapon at her head but she handed him the phone and persuaded him to talk to the dispatcher. He eventually surrendered and is now facing charges for the murder of Dayna's co-worker, Pamela Waechter, from whom little Charley got his middle name. The terrorist is also facing attempted murder charges for shooting at Dayna and four others.

The whole story, courtesy of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, is here. Actually, the whole story isn't there. While the article tells us where the victims worked, it makes no mention of the terrorist's religious affiliation. Sure, it mentions his name, Naveed Haq, but it wouldn't hurt to know that he belonged to the "religion of peace".

Seinfeld's Lost Episode

Click here.

Catching Up On The Boob Tube

The only reality show that I watch is The Amazing Race. Unlike some of the other big ones from recent years, like Survivor and The Apprentice, TAR is all about who runs the best race, subject to the luck or karma or whatever that can intrude on any contest of skill. There is no subjectivity or popularity contest. Other than the last leg and with certain exceptions for non-elimination rounds, the last team to get to the finish line goes home. When it's down to three teams, the first team to the finish line wins.

This is now the third season of TAR that I have watched. While the race itself has been up to snuff in terms of challenges and locales, this is the first time where Mrs. Zwicker and I don't really care who wins. Of the four teams, the beauty queens are phony wenches, the 'Bama girls complain too much about how nobody likes them and Rob and Kimberly annoy us with their bitching, usually at each other. That leaves the reformed druggies/models as our favorite team, albeit by process of elimination. We will, of course, keep watching because the contest is still compelling. Also, I was laughing loud and hard last night at the preview of next week's episode, where the locals in an unnamed country pelted Kimberly with tomatoes.
Last night Mrs. Zwicker and I finally caught up on Heroes, the new excellent show on NBC. I have refrained from commenting on it here earlier since we have been behind since the first episode and I didn't want anyone to spoil it for us. We agree with Noah Daddy (ND-it looks like you made a good call on Claire's father) that Heroes is the best new show this year. The concept is a new one for television and the writing and acting are great. The show manages to weave together multiple compelling stories without being contrived. If you cannot get this season's earlier episodes online somewhere, I highly recommend closing your eyes and ears to Heroes and catch it on DVD.

Serenity Now!

There has been something lost amid all the noise surrounding Kramergate, like the hateful words themselves, the targets of the rant already hiring a lawyer and issuing a thinly veiled threat of a lawsuit on this morning's Today Show and the ruin of the career of the man who played one of television's most beloved characters. The worst part of the whole thing is that any chance we will ever have to again see the infamous "Puerto Rican Day Parade" episode of Seinfeld is likely gone for a very long time.

Immediately after the first showing of the episode, which depicted Kramer accidentally burning a Puerto Rican flag and other things offensive, it faced condemnation. The show's producers immediately pledged to delete the episode from the syndication catalog. According to Wikipedia, the episode started appearing in syndication in 2002 but I don't recall ever seeing it since seeing its original airing. I'm guessing we will not see it again for a long while. To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld himself, that offends me not as a Jew but as a fan of comedy.

We Are The Champions

I have to admit that I have not been following the Lions too closely this season. With the Tigers' magical World Series run, all the Jewish holidays occurring on weekends and the Wolverines still vying for the national championship, there just hasn't been much time to dedicate to a team that over the past few seasons has, to put it mildly, sucked.

It was therefore with much pleasant surprise that I opened the newspaper this morning to discover that the Lions won the championship. That is so awesome!

What did you say? It was only the CFL's Grey Cup that the Lions won? That's okay, every team must start somewhere and something is better than nothing.

What's that? The Grey Cup winners were the British Columbia Lions and not the Detroit Lions? Damn, the Detroit Lions really do suck if they can't even win the stinking CFL. At least they dumped that Millen guy, didn't they? What?!? Sigh.

The Wrath Of Kidman

Yesterday we were at our friends' house and I saw the most recent People Magazine sitting on the coffee table. Nobody had notified me yet whether I had made this year Sexiest Man Alive list, so I perused the magazine. After once again discovering that the rag's editors have no taste in men, I flipped to one of my favorite parts of People, the letters to the editors.

The letters usually fall into one of two categories. The first, and predominant, group is that of the "you go girl" kind. The second, and far more entertaining are the ones that complain about the kids-glove treatment some celebrities get. This issue's first few letters were about the struggles of country music star Keith Urban, who recently entered rehab, and his wife, mega-celebrity Nicole Kidman. After the usual "we're pulling for you" letters came one that told Kidman to stop playing the victim, both on and off screen.

What made the letter funnier than usual was that the magazine listed the writer as "Name Withheld" from Rancho Mirage, California. I can only conclude one of two things. Either Kidman has a not-yet-publicized vindictiveness that makes her so scary even for a resident of what appears to be a pretty upscale city in the Palm Springs area or Tom Cruise got creative after growing tired of making phony prank calls on the Urban household.

Farther From Free

Every so often, two seemingly unrelated news stories have a very ironic connection. Today is one of those examples. This morning's news brought the story of the city of Belmont, California, banning all smoking except in detached, private dwellings. I have never smoked a cigarette in my life and have no intentions to ever do so. I am also well aware of the dangers to which smokers expose themselves as well as those who must inhale secondhand smoke. Having said all that, I still oppose such laws.

There are places, namely government buildings and other "monopoly" places, that non-smokers have no ability to avoid. In those cases, anti-smoking laws are fair and make sense. There should also be restrictions on people subjecting those who cannot decide for themselves, like children, to the dangers of smoke. On the other hand, property owners should have the right to decide whether to allow smoking in their property and then let the people decide whether to frequent such establishments.

Imagine two restaurants next door to each other. They are very similar except for one thing. One allows smoking and the other does not. People can choose at which restaurant to dine. If enough people frequent the "smoking" restaurant and are willing to assume the risk, so be it. It's not the government's place to be the people's nanny.

That story contrasts sharply with this morning's passing of Milton Friedman in San Francisco, which is only around twenty miles from Belmont. Friedman won the Nobel Prize in economics. He was a longtime and outspoken champion of the free market. He professed that the more limits on government interventions on society, within reason, the more that society would thrive. Below is a video in which Friedman, using a number 2 pencil as his only prop, explains in a simple and entertaining yet powerful way how important is the free market to our everyday lives.

Nordberg Strikes Again

One night in the summer of 1995, my good friend Shanna called me. Shanna and I had gone to college and law school together, albeit on different campuses for undergraduate. Shanna is two years younger than me so she was still in law school after I had already finished my studies there and moved back to Michigan. The conversation went pretty much like this:

S: I am such an idiot!

M: What did you do?

S: As you know, I am taking summer courses. Today, between classes, I was sitting in the student lounge reading. With the O.J. Simpson trial being the only thing apparently happening in the world, that's what the television was showing. I had no interest in it and just tuned it out.

M: Okay.

S: Anyway, some guy, around forty years old dressed in shorts and t-shirt, sits next to me. After a few minutes of him quietly watching the trial, he asked me what I thought of it. I went off on it, saying what a farce it was, how this guy was buying his way out of a murder conviction. He nodded along and walked away. Two minutes late, my friend came over to me and said, "Shanna, what were you and Professor Scheck talking about?"

I tell this story for two reasons. First, it still makes me laugh. Second, Shanna's comments still ring true and very relevant today. With his latest book, "If I Did It," Simpson tells how he would have committed the murders of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman if he were the real perpetrator, someone for whom I assume he is still searching.

If I were a horror movie writer or producer, I would cast my next villain as Simpson. Besides being a real life killer, he keeps popping up no matter how many times you've wished him good riddance. You would think that the man would have some modicum of dignity and live the rest of his life in seclusion and well deserved shame. Instead, he feels the need to inflict himself again and again on American society in general and the families of his victims in particular. To make matters worse, the mainstream media gives him the coverage he so craves.

Scary Office Space

Some Post-Election Parting Thoughts

The luckiest man in America right now has to be John Kerry. Right or wrong, had the Democrats not taken control of Congress as had long been expected, the junior senator from Massachusetts would have taken the blame. Any chances of his getting the Democratic nomination for president in 2008 have evaporated, but at least his botched joke will be nothing more than a historical footnote.

It's funny how all those stories of voter suppression that abounded yesterday disappeared once we got the results.

As the party in control of the House of Representatives, the Democratic party has the right and prerogative to appoint its members as committee heads. Hopefully the party will act responsibly and not simply cave to political pressure from the Congressional Black Caucus and appoint Alcee Hastings as head of the Intelligence Committee, which has access to information that is most sensitive and vital to national security. The problem with Mr. Hastings in particular is that the United States Senate convicted him in 1989 of bribery and perjury, one of only six federal judges to ever leave the bench due to impeachment.

One of the good things about the Democratic Party win yesterday was that they will keep using their most recent slogan, "New Direction," which sounds a lot like "Nude Erection."

Masters Of The House

Between being a political junky and still having adrenaline from playing basketball, I'm still watching the election coverage at 11:30 p.m. As expected, the Democratic party has gained control of the House of Representatives. I'm not angry or surprised by the overall results although certain losses by candidates I favored disappoint me. Rather than offer my own thoughts, I bring you these words that Leonard Pitts, a very liberal, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist, published in his syndicated column this morning:

So, if you win power here, please don't assume it validates anything you've done.
If you win, it's because of Mark Foley and Terri Schiavo and Randy ''Duke'' Cunningham and Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush and Jack Abramoff and Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter and Dick Cheney and Hurricane Katrina and 2,800 dead soldiers and because, as my mom used to say, enough is enough and too much stinks.
More to the point, you don't win because of you. Heck, I don't even know who you are. Ever since Bill Clinton left town, you have been inept at defining yourself, communicating your ideals with all the clarity of, well, John Kerry trying to tell a joke.
I don't know what you believe, what you plan, where you want to take the country. I daresay that most people don't. A victory here just means that you were the only other game in town. And yet, it would give you a rare oppportunity.
I suspect I speak for many when I say I'm tired of wedge politics. I'm tired of stupid, I'm tired of greed, I'm tired of polarization, I'm tired of red and blue mattering more than red, white and blue.
I want to know what it's like to have a sense of national mission, what it's like to strive for instead of against. I want to be hopeful about the future again, want my country to be looked at with respect again. Most of all, I want to see statesmen again. Meaning men and women who can debate, do battle, compromise and disagree over issues of great importance, but not let party, partisanship or politics stand in the way of doing what is best for the country.
In these years of Republican bacchanal, we have seen the fissures between us widened, minorities among us demonized. All in the name of politics. Yet, we've seen very little of substance get done.
Now, if the prognostications are correct, here comes you, taking power in a nation desperate for change.
Which brings me to my plea. By all means, enjoy the champagne and confetti. But once the bottles are empty and the floor is swept and it's time to go to work I wish you would, for me, for all of us, remember to do one thing with this victory.
Earn it.

For The Consideration Of Those Who Haven't Voted Yet

Foot In Mouth, Head Up Butt

Disclaimer: I do not watch the Today Show nor did I even know until yesterday that Meredith Vieira has a blog. I only came to this topic while listening yesterday to the excellent Laura Ingraham's radio show, which you can hear locally on 1400 AM. After hearing Ingraham justifiably mock Vieira for what I am about to describe, I did some surfing on Al Gore's invention.

If you read what Today Show host Meredith Vieira wrote on her blog yesterday, you would think she was only somewhat moronic in her interview of actor Russell Crowe:

Russell Crowe was here for an interview and off-camera I said to him “Great to see you again, I interviewed you at The View,” to which he replied “I’ve never been on The View.” I proceeded to insist that indeed he had been on--I even had someone call The View to make sure I was right, and sure enough…I wasn’t.

That was just the half of it. The interview, which you can watch here, was basically the springboard for Crowe to promote his new movie, A Good Year. The interview takes a really weird twist around the 5:00 mark, when Vieira asks Crowe about his infamous phone throwing incident. She asks him if, facing the same situation again, would he throw the phone again, would he do anything differently. Crowe, to his credit, responded by making a joke and asking if she meant did he want to try for two out of three. Vieira, though, thought the question required an answer and asked it again. Crowe remained cool and turned the conversation back to his new film.

Vieira looked like she finally got a clue to how rude and ridiculous her question was when she asked it a third time and then asked if he would throw a phone at her right then and there if there was one available. Crowe is a great actor but I am indifferent about his off-screen life. At the same time, Vieira's questioning was absurd. Did she really expect Crowe to respond, "Yeah, I clocked the guy good and would do it again if I had the chance."?

Death Unbecoming

I have always been able to joke about death. Maybe it comes from a grandfather with a great sense of humor who was a pulpit rabbi for fifty years and therefore performed so many funerals and unveilings that he had plenty of funny stories. My work also involves doing a lot of research into dead people. Most of the time, my partners, employees and I have been able to laugh at other people's misery.

That being said, mydeathspace.com strikes even me as overly morbid. You can see the latest articles of people's demise. Since the site seems to be an offshoot of myspace.com, almost all the stories are of teenagers who died not from illness, which would obviously be tragic, but from automobile crashes, homicides, suicides and other violent deaths. You can even search recent deaths by geography by clicking on what appear to be 100 Grim Reapers on a map of the United States. What I must admit to finding funny are the ads on which you can also click, like the one for 100% Free Dating. I wonder if it lists the newly single and mourning significant others.

That Penn Party Was Da Bomb

Courtesy of The Appletonian, a blog by a University of Pennsylvania student, comes this picture from a recent Halloween party in Philadelphia. The woman on the right is Amy Gutmann, the president of the University of Pennsylvania. The young man on the left, dressed as a suicide bomber, is a Penn student. The Appletonian asks the obvious yet excellent question-would Gutmann have posed with the bomber and smiled so brightly if he instead came to the party as a Nazi or a member of the KKK? Sadly, in the Ivy League, you could now ask the same question about a student dressed as an IDF soldier. Imagine the outrage.

Hejka Of A Guy

This morning's Detroit Free Press editorial pages are full of letters from readers on the upcoming elections. There is the usual slew of letters advocating for particular candidates or positions on issues. The one letter that caught my attention was from Thaddeus J. Hejka of Canton. After writing that he supports Governor Granholm because she is more liberal on social issues and that there is really no difference between her and Dick DeVos on the economy, Hejka writes the following:

Michigan's population of 10 million is far too large, and it would be preferable that people leave the state to seek work elsewhere. We need to protect what is left of Michigan's natural beauty and promote outdoor recreation and tourism.

It looks like this isn't the first such letter that Hejka has written to a local newspaper on the topic. Just last week, the Detroit News published the following letter from Hejka:

Three hundred million people in the U.S. and 6.5 billion people in the world is no cause for celebration ("300 million Americans worth celebrating," Oct. 18). It also means more pollution, more greenhouse gases and more competition for limited resources such as fresh water and oil.

After doing a little bit of research on some Internet tubes, I discovered that Hejka commutes from Canton to Ann Arbor every day. He might very well be using a fuel-efficient vehicle but he could certainly avoid pollution by not commuting in the first place. He also seems to live in a colonial style house. I assume that he is living in something larger than a one bedroom hut because he has children, something that he claims our state and country do not need. If he does not have children, then he is just wasting land that could be left in its natural state as well as all the utility power to keep it habitable. Lastly, Hejka's concern seems to only extend to Michigan. He wants some of our state's residents to leave and instead let some other state deal with the problem. That sure doesn't sound like much concern about the planet or its people, just Hejka's own little world.

Hejka's concerns about how we live our lives doesn't just extend to the environment. He also worries about our right to practice religion. This past February, the Detroit News published the following letter from Hejka:

The violent response from Muslims in countries throughout the world to the Danish political cartoons depicting Muhammad is frightening and appalling to all those who treasure the freedom of expression. While I agree that these cartoons were highly offensive to most Muslims, this does not justify all the violent protests and the call for the deaths of those who published them. I understand the comfort that religion may bring to people, but I increasingly feel that world peace will never be a reality unless all religions are banned. Of course, neither will ever happen.

I certainly appreciate Hejka's condemnation of Islamofascism. On the other hand, someone should inform him that the same constitutional amendment that offers us freedom of expression also guarantees the right to practice one's religion.

Dad The Sheriff