"Secondly, politics can be integrated into other community activities. Although I am a jew, I have a mixed marriage, and my wife and I have brought up our kids as jewish at home, and in the local Unitarian church in our community. I like our neighborhood church very much, because within the 200 to 300 families who are part of that community, there is solid support for activism. For example, one of the main focus areas of the national UU church this year is defending civil liberties. This means that my participation in the church is supportive, not outside of, political activism."

And this why UU's rule.  My parents, both raised Baptist chose to raise my sister and I in this slightly more progressive church.  I'm very grateful to them for this.  However, I am a bit disturbed (or more accurately, confused) over the church's reaction to 9/11.   I suppose it is difficult to find "The inherent worth and dignity of every person" in a world this messed up, but I guess thats the challenge.  I like to think of it as a thinking person's religion.  And if it weren't for UUism, who knows, we might not have had a Web to browse.

Yes, I picked up more CD's today.  Working near music stores is turning out to be very expensive.  On today's menu:

• From Left to Right - Bill Evans
  • I love Bill Evans, and here's an album featuring his Rhodes skills, one of my favorite instruments.
• The Bridge - Karl Denson's Tiny Universe
  • I've been a big fan of Karl in the past, especially his work with the Greyboy Allstars, one of my favorite bands of all time.  His new album features guest spots by musicians like: Chris Wood, Fred Wesley, Michale Franti, Saul Willams, Skerik, Roy Hargrove, Fareed Haque, Robert Walter, and others.  Its hard to lose with a lineup like that.
• All is One - Live in New York City - Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey
  • JFJO is one of my favorite bands of the moment, and quickly approaching all-time status.  A quote from Downbeat says it best: "...this band of 20-somethings was born out of a messianic devotion to the idea that jazz means improvisation. They thrive on risk, often creating spontaneous compositions on stage."  I've been following them fairly religiously since discovering them on Russ Gershon's label (which I've mentioned before in this space, and highly recommend), and they just get better and better as they evolve.  The cd store I bought all these at actually didn't have this CD a few weeks back when it first came out, and I suggested they should stock it.  Imagine my happiness when I found it today while browsing the stacks.  If you haven't heard the Fred yet, hurry up and join us!

It has become synonymous with the terrorist attacks of September 11 - but what is the origin of the name al-Qaida? Giles Foden on how Bin Laden may have been inspired by Isaac Asimov's Foundation

Weird...

I noticed tonight that Monk is airing on ABC.  I'm a big fan of Tony Shalhoub, ever since his not so glorious days on 'Wings' and the prematurely-cancelled 'Stark Raving Mad'.  ABC originally passed on this detective story about an obsessive-compulsive germaphobe with a gift for noticing the details.  USA Network, which co-produced the show with Touchstone Television (owned by Disney), picked up the show, where I caught the premiere and the next few episodes.  I really enjoyed it, but since I'm seldom up on the part of the dial where USA makes its home, I forgot about it for a month.  Tonight, I just happened to catch an ad for it on ABC, and got caught up. 

Now, apparently, in a very interesting turn of events, ABC is airing re-runs from USA Network.  Putting this together with ABC's recent deal to have HBO produce original content for the network makes me wonder if the power is shifting in the television world, or if this is just a sign of ABC's slow and steady demise under the guidence of Der Mouse.

Incidently, in relation to world-affairs, Tony Shalhoub is just one of a large batch of Arab-American celebrities.  I'm, of course, not surprised by this, but its something I hadn't thought of until recently.  Now, I knew Tony was Lebanese, but some of the names on this list surprised me, not because they're of Arab descent, but because I had no idea they were of Arab descent.

For those that don't like to follow links, here's the most surprising of the bunch for me:

• Helen Thomas - LONG time White House correspondent
• Doug Flutie - the quarterback
• G.E. Smith - the SNL band leader
• Marlo Thomas - the actress
• Christa McAuliffe - the Challenger astronaut
• George Mitchell - the Senator
• Frank Zappa - yeah him
• Tiffany - yeah her

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"Zinni made a direct reference to the secretary of state, along with retired generals Schwarzkopf and Scowcroft, and derided the armchair hawks who are promoting "pre-emptive" military action: "It's pretty interesting that all the generals see it the same way, and all the others who have never fired a shot and are hot to go to war see it another way." If I were Dick Cheney or Richard Perle or Paul Wolfowitz, I might have to take that personally. "

When your Special Envoy to the Middle East is telling you its a bad idea, you'd think someone would listen.