'Tis indeed the season to be jolly, a discipline that requires
a single abstinence, which is any thought given to Iraq. It is a
good time to encourage lurking thoughts or diversions that can be
important but are not driven by the day's tides.
The "Critics' Choice" merchandiser for movies offers 1,000
video and DVD selections, touching on everything. Including --
not to say saturated by -- explorations as gross as "The West
Wing." You can have the whole of all seven seasons -- 45 DVDs --
which can be viewed before Christmas, though permitting you no
time left over for Santa Claus. One hundred and twelve hours for
$254.96.
I stared down sadly at "Edward R. Murrow: The Best of 'Person
to Person,'" 7 hours, $33.96. The jacket photo is the famous one:
Ed is smiling, a lighted cigarette in hand. Some will recall last
year's "Good Night, and Good Luck," in which one saw, primarily,
smoke -- Ed's, and that of his team. You get the crazy idea, Are
we collecting carcinogenic materials that led to Murrow's
death?
Moving on, a few weeks ago I recorded in this space that The
New York Times had listed 88 percent of the Jewish vote as going
for Democratic candidates on Nov. 7. Now Jason Maoz, senior
editor of The Jewish Press, is prompted to recall that "no fewer
than seven Jews ... were members of William F. Buckley's inner
circle when Buckley launched National Review, his groundbreaking
conservative magazine, in 1955. ... It remained for the next
generation of Jewish conservatives -- or more precisely those
one-time liberal Democrats like Norman Podhoretz and Irving
Kristol who in the 1970s became known as neoconservatives (and
whose political heirs would reach their pinnacle of power and
influence during George W. Bush's first term as president) -- to
bring a more affirmative Jewishness to their conservative
politics." Though the preponderant Democratic bias among Jewish
voters at large remains unexplained.