I think Hillary needs to up the ante. Forget about polite harrumping about health care and Iraq and Rev. Wright. Let's settle this once and for all with a genuine slammin' TLC match to see who claims the nomination, no holds barred.

What's TLC? you might ask. As well you should. TLC refers not to how Hillary treats overseas campaign donors, but rather Tables-Ladders-Chairs, a wrestling format in which contestants use the props to grab a championship belt suspended above the ring.

That would be political theater of the highest order and the greatest pay-per-view event ever, to see Hillary "Bill Crusher" Clinton battle Barack "The Hawaiian Weatherman" Obama in for the Democratic nomination. Let's stop playing nice and get out the heavy equipment so they can really pummel each other in glee.

First, some history.

Lena and I were classmates at Mission High School in Texas, Class of 1976. She was the student council president, I was the newspaper editor -- teen-age obsessions that immediately pegged our career arcs. She had a great political astuteness and drive from a very young age, and attended American Legion Auxiliary's Girls State and Girls Nation program, quite an honor. The photo belows shows her in action leading a Student Council meeting.

If only Pope Benedict XVI had been around to see it! Perhaps Chabad is planning a repeat performance to get in on the excitement already building at Park East Synagogue, where the Pope will drop by for some Abrahamic shmoozing on Friday.

The Times turned down the ad for various moronic reasons, which Harris explains here:

Here’s the written explanation from Tom Bartunek, president of New York Times Radio and general manager of WQXR:

”In my judgement several elements of this spot are outside our bounds of acceptability. First, the opening line— `Imagine you had fifteen seconds to find shelter from an oncoming missile’—does not make clear that the potential target of the missile is not our listening area, and as a consequence, runs the risk of raising anxiety in a misleading way. Second, the description of the missiles as arriving `day or night’ and `daily’ is also subject to challenge as being misleading, at least to the degree that reasonable people might be troubled by the absence of any acknowledgement of reciprocal Israeli military actions. Finally, in my judgement the `countdown’ device and the general tone of the message do not meet our guidelines for decorum.”

WQXR joins Ms. Magazine in the proud ranks of principled, progressive media outlets that refuse to demean themselves by accepting certain types of filthy Jewish advertising. As I wrote during the Ms. dustup in January, I'm happy to offer the AJC alternative media outlets for its thoughtful ads. If the AJC moves them to another outlet, I will be sure to offer that station (and its many fine, upscale advertisers) my support. So, David Harris, here's your new radio schedule:

'SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!!!"

Sorry, I just had to get that out of my system. I feel better now.

Of the three, The Omega Man had the biggest impact on me when I saw it as a 13 year old in 1971 at the venerable Border Theatre in Mission, Texas. Everything in the movie dazzled me, from the eerie, empty streets of Los Angeles to the extreme irony of Heston, as sole survivor scientist Robert Neville mouthing the words to "Woodstock" as he watches it in a theater. What really gripped my imagination? Hint: what would most appeal to a 13 year old curious about the many-splendored possibilities between a man and woman?

Jackson plays the farmer Lazarus (more than a little symbolism in that name), embittered by the end of his marriage, who finally gets back to his true calling of blues musician through his friendship with trailer-park strumpet Ricci. In watching Jackson play and the plot unfold against the background of sinners trying to get right with God, I was struck by the movie's spiritual connection to Robert Duvall's Oscar winning Tender Mercies, from 1983. While Tender Mercies got great reviews and rewards, Black Snake Moan was considered exploitative dreck by some reviewers.

But it's not. I'll tell you why.

Hillary Clinton walked into a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review conference room last Tuesday to meet with some of the newspaper's editors and reporters and declared, "It was so counterintuitive, I just thought it would be fun to do."

The room erupted in laughter. Her remark defused what could have been a confrontational meeting.

More than that, it said something about the New York senator and former first lady who hopes to be America's next president.

Maybe I'll take another look at Hillary. If Scaife can, I can, too.

It's obvious to me: McCain is going to go for a fusion ticket with Lieberman as VP. Unless he decides to go really innovative with Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana or some other innovative choice, McCain has made his choice. Get ready for an old-fashioned White House seder with all the fixins!

Also spracht Kesher Talk.

Now, Meir Soloveichik has a long and riveting article in Commentary on the image and use of the menorah. He writes,

But if the menorah has indeed been returned, and if the defeat wrought by Titus has been reversed, why then do observant Jews continue to mourn what Titus brought about? Why does the ninth of Av, which embodies the twin ideas of exile and dispersion, need to be observed at all?

In answering this question we need to examine the enigmatic image of the menorah more closely, and revisit a mystery that has confounded many over the centuries.

It's well worth printing and reading.

The second factor appeared yesterday when Ralph Nader '55 announced he was throwing his fuel-efficient hat into the ring once again.

Now if only Donald Rumsfeld '54 would get involved as an advisor to John McCain, the orange-and-black coloration would be complete . . .

I can't definitely vouch for the religious heritage of other speakers, but some of them sure sound and look MOTish to me: Logan Levkoff, Dr. Helen Fisher, Scott Barry Kauffman, Dr. Susan Block, actor/director Paul Thomas, Dr. Judy Kuriansky and Steven Hirsch, co-founder of Vivid Entertainment, whose contract performers will be appearing at Sex Week events.

This sounds like lots of fun, worth a Kesher Talk field trip up I-95 for in-depth reporting.

Teachers, parents and students at the school, which is mostly Hispanic and black, were equally taken aback by the sight of their new leader: A member of the Chabad-Lubavitch sect of Hasidic Judaism with a beard, a black hat and a velvet yarmulke.

“The talk was, ‘You’re not going to believe who’s running the show,’ ” said Lisa DeBonis, now an assistant principal. . .

Mr. Waronker, 39, a former public school teacher, was in the first graduating class of the New York City Leadership Academy, which Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg created in 2003 to groom promising principal candidates. Considered one of the stars, he was among the last to get a job, as school officials deemed him “not a fit” in a city where the tensions between blacks and Hasidic Jews that erupted in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in 1991 are not forgotten.

Think about that "not forgotten." What is that supposed to mean? Who's not forgetting, and what are the implications of memory? That blacks and Hasidic Jews are in a state of eternal warfare?

The story really gets priceless when Gootman interviews a parent:

In fact, one parent, Angie Vazquez, 37, acknowledged that her upbringing had led her to wonder: “Wow, we’re going to have a Jewish person, what’s going to happen? Are the kids going to have to pay for lunch?”

Let's deconstruct what's going on here.

Well, look who's blogging! Yeah, I know. I have been really burned out. I do plan to get back in the saddle eventually. Maybe even soon.

But I had to stop in and deliver a Super Tuesday report. Most of it is up at Pajamas Media (scroll down), including video from the John McCain rally this morning in Rockefeller Plaza. Part of McCain's speech, plus short interviews with several supporters.

Jim:

.....But it's not as though it's in the Dems' interest to have Republicans voting in their primary--presumably the opposite is true.

Ben:

Mathematically, it would be very much in their interest, although neither side chooses to think mathematically. (mostly because to be in politics you have to get so psychologically vested in "your guy".)

THe problem is this: Republican primary voters are a subset, Democrat primary voters are a subset. Performance in a vote among a non-random subset does not predict performace in the general vote. A mathematician named Kenneth Arrow actually won a Nobel for figuring out, basically, that no election system is perfect, and all can give skewed results.

For example, let's assume an election in which all 100% of the people will vote in both elections, and in the primary, 50% will vote in the Republican Primary and 50% in the Democrat primary. Let us assume also that even though this is the case, people may switch parties and vote for the opposite in the General election, if it is a preferred candidate.

Let us assume 4 candidates: