NOT NICE EITHER

We hope you didn’t miss this beautiful exposé of the “tackiness and gall” in David Brooks’s know-nothing column about “French gangsta rap” and hip-hop culture in re: the suburban French riots. (The column, posted Thursday, is hidden behind the TimesSelect subscription wall, hélas, but you’ll get his drift from the critique.)
Also, in re: the Evangelical theme park WHERE JESUS WALKED (posted Friday free of charge), Leon Freilich offers this verse commentary:

LOCAL TRADITION
Authenticity is assured;
Worshippers, though, must be inured:
Every Friday, a crucifixion
Re-enacting the affliction
With a volunteer who’s flailed
Cruelly and finally nailed.
Who’s to be the stricken Jesus?
Neither poor nor rich as Croesus;
Someone whole, not someone sliced,
Fully formed to be the Christ.
Muslim men are lining up,
Some as young as a high school pup,
Ready to go through the Passion,
But in their own special fashion:
Being modest, can’t be nude,
Which is reckoned morally rude.
All’re prepared to do their best–
Wearing an Intifada vest.
— TSoT

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