It seems like most of Slate's editorial team is Jewish, which leads to a disproportionate amount of stories surrounding Judaism. This is a minor gripe, I think those stories are well written and interesting, but I wonder if Slate has some blinders on in terms of other faiths when assigning/approving story ideas. I can only remember maybe two stories focused on Catholics in recent memory. Some more diversity on the editorial team would be a good thing.

People write about what they know, and they select associates and employees who are like themselves. A couple of Roman Catholic writers would be excellent additioins to the Slate staff.

I think you have to be careful what you ask for. If they were to add a couple of Lutherans, a couple of Presbyterians, a couple of Baptists, a couple Muslims, a couple Buddhists, a couple Hindus, and some atheists, they'd need a lot more office space. They'd never get anything done for trying to satisfy everyone's objections to this or that statement in a column.

I'm just saying they should be a little more cognizant of that when making hiring/assignment decisions.

I agree, but they'd have to make some contacts with the outside world to do that.

I find a couple of their columnists to be really annoying about being Jewish since one's religion is not the totality of their existence. Dahlia Lithwick, for example. Her kids would be fine if she'd let them alone about things. I bet the rabbi tells her that every time she pesters him with the ridiculous stuff she puts in her column.

I don't have a problem with all the Jews at slate. Most of the articles are fine.

Occasionally, there are articles like Lithiwick's though, which are basically "Hey, look at me, I'm am annoying Jew." Ron Rosenbaum writes a lot of those too.

You might be misreading me: I don't have a problem with "all the Jews at Slate." I just think that when it comes to writing stories, there is a disproportionate number of stories about Judaism, and that the editors may be thinking inside their social bubbles rather than writing for a national audience that's much more diverse than the Slate staff.

Also, with the Political Gabfest, two, sometimes all three of the contributors are Jewish and have very similar political ideologies. Wouldn't it make sense to have some diversity of background and thought there too?

Oh yeah, I totally agree. Just because Jewish writers may be in the majority at Slate doesn't mean that they have to broadcast their cultural musings all over the place.

I mean, what if that practice happened on national level? Can you imagine living in a United States where the religious majority flaunted their beliefs in public? I shudder to think of what our country would be like if Christians tried to saturate our society with their ideological agenda, bombarding us with yuletide music, holiday programming and tacky decorations for days on end. It would be extraneous and insufferable. Yeah, I'm so glad that our society isn't an uber-magnification of the perpetrations enacted by those Jew bastards at Slate...

Oh, wait...

saturnalia9:

I shudder to think of what our country would be like if Christians tried to saturate our society with their ideological agenda, bombarding us with yuletide music, holiday programming and tacky decorations for days on end.

Months and months! Where I live, the stores start putting christmas stuff out in October and start playing carols in mid-November. Seriously, one of these years I am going to take a weed whacker to the first Christmas tree in the mall. They'd just replace it but it would be so much fun!

You must have thought your senitment was oh so brilliant to post the same thing in multiple threads. You seem to be taking offense where a reasonable person would see no cause to do so.

The Jewish-focused content in Slate is more cultural than religious in nature. If a preponderance of writers happened to be of Scottish heritage (approximately the same number of self declared Scots Americans as Jewish Americans) and wrote a large number of stories about being Scottish and the Scottish-American experience, wouldn't you get a little sick of that after a while?

Though it's true that I have been named as TIME Magazine's Most Brilliant Internet Commenter of the year, I'm afraid that what you have mistaken for hubris was actually just a case of sheer laziness. It's exhausting to pen new material, you know. Much simpler to just kill two obnoxious birds with one stone by using the copy and paste function.

If you find Slate's Jewishness so irritating, then may I suggest Salon? It's similar to Slate, but with a fraction of the Gefilte. I don't read it myself, because too many of their articles are about Scottish people, but it's alright if you can get past the bagpipes. Or better yet, make the choice to stop reading all together. Unlike Christmas in America, online magazines are surprisingly avoidable when you make the effort.

And rest assured, I have not taken offense to your remarks from a cultural standpoint. I merely find them to be insipid, just as any other "reasonable" person would do.

What about all of those recipes for haggis? Don't they bother you?

What songs do you allow your children to listen to during the holidays? I forbid anything with a horn in it, as that just harks back to the British nobility. Why oh why are there not more Christmas carols with a bagpipe score? Lets start a facebook group to share tips and suggestions about this extremely pressing problem.

The religious and ethnic intrusion into the culturally-neutral winter spending holiday forum?