A "Ground Zero Mosque" Protest Jingle
Trade Martin — a country singer who will surely go from obscurity to notoriety and back to obscurity before you can say “publicity stunt” — did something that is either too offensive to be hilarious or too hilarious to be offensive, depending on where you stand: He recorded a completely serious ditty called, ever-so-subtly, “We’ve Got To Stop the Mosque at Ground Zero.”
It goes something like this: We’ve got freedom of religion, I understand But Ground Zero is one location Where a mosque shouldn’t stand!
And if lines like “If we let them build it, can’t you see / They’ll turn 9-11 into a mockery” aren’t enough, he’s gone ahead and made the song into a music video, complete with mumbled asides like “can’t let ‘em build it!” and tasteful and appropriate footage of burning towers.
Oh, just watch it — and try not to sing it quietly on the subway when it gets stuck in your head like some kind of weird dream.
"Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief"
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
