Thursday, January 12, 2006

We need a new word

Ok, when a blogger spouts on and on about how prayer is prohibited in the public school because the ACLU is ruining America, we have a word for that someone. The word is wingnut.

But what word do we have for someone who fills his blog with fact-free nonsense like this:

During the past year the New York City’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Frieden, has engaged in an effort to undermine a sacred component of Mitzvas Milah. He and his department recently stepped up their activities in this regard and issued directives and advisories aimed at planting fear in the hearts and minds of parents who are about to bring their child into the holiest covenant in Judaism.The threat is not only against metzitzah b’peh. It is a slanderous and offensive diktat that undermines not only a specific element of Bris Milah, but assaults the entire concept of Bris Milah itself.He claims to be “educating.” What he is actually doing is far more sinister.

What he is actually doing is saving the lives of infants, you paranoid fear mongerer. Three kids have gotten herpes from their mohel; one died. Don't you think it's the health commissioner's job to make sure that stops happening? More to the point, metzitzah b’peh is not essential to mila according to anyone but the most mystical hasidim. Both the csam sofer and SRH permitted it to be abolished.

So what's our new word-- can we make a contest out of it?