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I’m back from the Aegean and brief stops in Athens (my first), the islands of Hydra, Mykonos (above), and Rhodes, as well as Marmaris, Turkey. I was on board a yacht with around fifty real estate professionals and their spouses talking about my decade of travel in the region. I wouldn’t say the Greek Isles…

I’m scheduled to board a ship in Athens, Greece, this weekend and sail for Turkey, so I’ll be offline for a few days. In the meantime, here are some links to some fascinating pieces I’ve enjoyed recently. The first is from my longtime friend David Margolick about Elizabeth Eckford, the black schoolgirl dressed in white…

The WSJ opinion page explores how to get conservatives involved in interfaith relations. There is an assumption by commentators on the right and the left that as far as religion goes, it is liberals who work–and care to work–across faith lines. Interfaith activity is understood as a politically and theologically liberal enterprise. This stems in…

First step: Get enough paint. I’ve been on Remsen street three times in the last 24 hours at the site of yesterday’s random swastika painting. I’ve spoken to a number of people quite knowledgeable about the situation. Here’s what I know: The best guess is that someone around 8 pm on Monday night took a…

We’re in full preschool phase-in mode around here. Anyone with young children will recognize the game. Our two-year-olds had their first day of a two-day-a-week preschool a week ago today. For the first day the parents go and stay in the room, then the parents are moved the next day to an adjacent room, then…

First thoughts while watching the extraordinary debate at Columbia today. Lee Bolinger gave a passionate, thoughtful introduction that was a mastery of deft put down. It will likely be viewed as a classic and I thought it was extremely well composed (love the “Would you wipe us out, too?” line), but I thought it was…

A race for the gutter in Washington this week, as United States congressmen trip over themselves to stoke the flames of the religious wars. So a question: Who is a greater threat to America’s security, AIPAC, which Democratic Congressman Jim Moran blamed last week for supporting the war in Iraq, or the “too many mosques…

The NYT jumps on genital mutiliation bandwagon, so to speak, with an article about how Egyptians are bonding together to fight so-called Female Genital Mutilation. This at the same time that a trial is underway in Washington State on the male variety. I find efforts to equate these two customs as stretched. Circumcision, as supporters…

Just when I thought the talk about circumcision might die down around here, along comes a lawsuit in Seattle: A convert to Judaism wants to circumcize his 12-year-old son, but the man’s estranged wife (the boy’s mother) is objecting. A legal battle between divorced parents in Oregon about the circumcision of their 12-year-old son is…

Genius website? Or big disappointment? http://www.speedtrap.org/speedtraps/stetlist.asp.

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