Perhaps I'm a product of another era, but I'm pretty sure that bartenders used to be discouraged from sleeping with their drunk clientele.

When I was young, smoking in dorms was not only tolerated, but encouraged, goddamnit!

Call me old-fashioned, but everyone knows that the real meaning of Valentine's day is celebrating monogamous heterosexual relationships through capitalism.

Maybe I'm just an old coot, but I liked condoms better before they were branded and free.

I may be a ninety-one years old, but there is no way Henry Ford would ever have eaten sushi.

In a debate that could serve as a case study for a 2007 edition of James Davison Hunter's Culture Wars, followers of conservative Judaism have fought long and hard over whether to ordain homosexual rabbis. At the center of the argument lies the Columbia-affiliated Jewish Theological Seminary, the generally-accepted center of Conservative Jewish thought. Although a decision for the broader congregation was made in early December (pro-gay rights), individual institutions (like JTS) have been left to resolve the issue for themselves.

Some mensches at JTS took the matter on and have lobbied for the implementation of the progressive policy, but a verdict hasn't been made as of late. The newest development is JTS' cumulation of opinions of Conservative Jews across the US, picked up by the national news. Armin Rosen sent in JTS Chancellor-elect Arnold Eisen's e-mail with the results of the survey on homosexual ordination ("and other hot-button religious issues"). Rosen writes that the e-mail reflects "remarkably consistent support for gay ordination across the board... whether clergy or other Jewish professionals or lay leaders or students", and the respondents' "no-less-striking... commitment to a number of key principles of Conservative Judaism, notably the centrality of halakhah and egalitarianism; the need for a centralized Rabbinical Assembly Law Committee; and opposition to both patrilineal descent and rabbis officiating at mixed marriages."

In sum, it ain't over 'till it's over. Which it's not. Text of the e-mail and more commentary after the jump.

- JDC