BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

Is Bush the worst U.S. president ever? Historians might argue over ranking, but there's no doubt he has been an unmitigated disaster Thomas Walkom, Columnist Historians will argue over whether George W. Bush is the worst president the United States has ever endured. But that is not the point. Five years after Bush's ill-starred invasion of Iraq, three years after Hurricane Katrina and seven months into the unravelling of the U.S. financial system, the point is that the 43rd president of the United States - regardless of his ranking in the pantheon - is a unique and unmitigated disaster. Whether Bush is more of a warmonger than James Polk, who in 1846 manufactured a crisis with Mexico in order to seize what is now California, more tolerant of cronyism than poker-playing Warren Harding (1921 to 1923), or more unlucky than William Harrison (he died after catching cold at his 1841 inauguration) is interesting but irrelevant. What we do know is that this president, this "decid...

Tales from the Tombs of Israel Judith Fein It certainly seemed odd. People who were otherwise sane, intelligent, and credible would travel to the part of northern Israel known as the Galilee to pray at the tomb of the first-century rabbi Jonathan ben Uziel. Afterward, they would rapturously report that they had met their soul mates and gotten married. Since I was in the vicinity of the tomb, I decided to check out the departed matchmaker. Fortified with a healthy dose of skepticism, I entered the tsyun, a low, whitewashed building made of local rocks, cement, earth, and stones. Inside, the sepulcher was draped in dark velvet. On the women’s side — men and women are separated in Orthodox Judaism — some prayed earnestly from Hebrew prayer books and several deposited coins and bills into charity tins. Some left offerings, including bright-colored cloth, silk and chiffon scarves, plastic hair ornaments, and underpants. Underpants? I walked back outside more amused than inspired. When my hu...

OH NO, NOT FRIEDMAN AGAIN! We women have all been to those parties, right? Those social gatherings, usually at someone's home or backyard where the obligatory husband/boyfriend/flavor of the month that we all want to avoid comes. He knows you're into social issues or politics or whatever so you are too polite to just tell him he's a moron so you listen. You listen to him drone on and on. You nod while you look for a polite out. Usually grabbing your children, making for the powder room, anything to shake him off. When you see him you or the female nearest you leans in and says "Oh no, there's Tom again! What does she see in him?" (knowing look) and then you look for the nearest way to distance yourself from the guy. Considering Tom Friedman works for the antisemitic pooper-scooper, birdcage lining, "all the news that fits we print" New York Times I guess he's got the goods on someone there because he's such an idiot. He doesn't re...