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I thought my comments on this were unusually lucid.

Hitchens was seriously ill at their final debate and Boteach still comes off as an asshole in his eulogy of him.

My comment on Dawkins Boteach was crystal clear - Dawkins did not remember the 1996 debate with Boteach.

Boteach V Dawkins – a commentary

Shmuley comes across as a total imbecile in these debates, and in the end pretends that his association with these people, is enough to make him a worthy adversary - from the title of his "eulogy" -

Christopher Hitchens and the Fall of a Worthy Adversary

had the situration been reversed I wonder if Hitchens would have called Shmuley a Worthy Adversary.

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I find this site amusing and interesting.

Here is the Jewish Journal's refutation of the arms business allegations -

Is Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s family in the arms business?

Somehow reading this article, I am not struck by any grave injustice or smear done to the Botach family and/or Botach Tactical.

Of course, this is probably too complicated for me.

The facts seem to be that his family is to some degree, notably, fucked up.

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Audio: Boteach v. Tovia Singer

I don't completely understand the title, because the audio is actually a two hour rant by Shmuley. Maybe it's me because the comments imply that some people actually heard Singer.

Despite the possible deficiencies of FailedMessiah, I think this comment is remarkably even handed:

One thing that struck me listening to this... Shmuley pointed out that he was driving home with his wife and kids in the car (minivan more likely) and apologized for any noise that they make. It was difficult to imagine how a person could subject his family to two hours of this.

HaRaAYaH

That's all well and good. Amusing and interesting are not synonyms for factual and unbiased.

There is not a shred of evidence ti backup this claim exept for the accusations of an ex-wife....

Because there is a contentious divorce? That makes the family, notably fucked up. Really? That makes no sense at all.

HaRaAYaH

You have to listen in for 1:20 before you get to Singer. I don't agree with the characterization of the conversation......

Sheshbazzar

Not at all difficult to imagine for anyone who has ever suffered being brought up under an insanely religious parent.
Two hours is mercifully short when compared to that night and day raving and ranting that some religionists seem compelled to routinely inflict upon their families.

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A caller to Shmuley's radio rant asked him to address the issues raised by Rabbi Eli Cohen

http://www.amazon.com/review/R34M094...wasThisHelpful

unfortunately the caller made a simple statement about money being a possible motivation for writing the book. This set him off on an amazing tirade, it was as if he was accused of violating his daughter with a strap on dildo. This is almost right at the end of the program.

One unrelated point which came up earlier is that Shmuley doesn't consider the J man to be the messiah because he died before fulfilling some clear prophecies. He made the same comment about his ex boss, the seriously dead 7th Lubavich Rebbe. I suspect the prophecies (or the interpretations) are dubious, if only because once a possible candidate appears there seem to always be knowledgeable people who argue that it isn't that big of a deal.

Toto

Review by Lawrence Schiffman

manwithdream

It bothers me that Schiffman says that Boteach did not deal with any of the scholarship on this subject and just gave his own personal opinions because Schiffman also does that when he says that Jewish people should just basically politely agree to disagree with Christians. I think Boteach has the right to try to fight Christianity or to try to change it if he wants. Schiffman did not cite any scholarly research that says everyone should just try to get along and accept each other's religious beliefs. He just proclaims what the right thing to do is just like Boteach proclaims what he thinks is right on his subject.

There must be some anthropological, sociological, or whatever-ological PhD mumbo jumbo on the subject of interfaith dialogues or debates. I disagree with Boteach's ideas about J because I don't think anyone knows if he was a good Jew or not, but I think Boteach was doing what anyone has the right to do in the marketplace of ideas, using scholarship or not.

Anyway, does anyone know if his book has fizzled out yet or is it actually succeeding? Will it be forgotten soon or will it ever make the national news or whatever that it needs to affect the world in some way? Being banned was supposed to make it a hot topic and something juicy and controversial, but I am not sure if it actually helped in any way.

Kenneth Greifer