or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
January 01, 2009
La La La
Associated Press, "Fighting in dense Gaza brings child casualties":
[A]t least 37 children and 17 women have died, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. The United Nations has said the death toll includes 34 children..."Hamas uses civilians as human shields," said an Israeli military spokeswoman, Maj. Avital Leibovich. "The targets we picked are military."
Osama bin Laden, Messages to the World:
[I]f the enemy occupies an Islamic land and uses its people as human shields, a person has the right to attack the enemy...The targets of September 11 were not women and children. The main targets were the symbol of the United States: their economic and military power.
—Jonathan Schwarz
Posted at January 1, 2009 06:52 PMThe only thing our government learned from Vietnam was that you shouldn’t let publications print pictures of dead mutilated bodies because that was a sure way to lose public support for their atrocities. I recall during the first Gulf War under George the First the news media made a point to emphasize how our military was using smart bombs and missiles to take out the “bad guys” with pinpoint precision which was of course a lot of malarkey. Justifications, justifications, it is always justification and hypocrisy. National leaders are the lowest form of life on the planet, bottom feeders all.
Posted by: Rob Payne at January 1, 2009 07:49 PMApparently, Nizar Rayyan used his wife and three children as human shields. In his home. If he hadn't been so cowardly he would have stood in an open field where the Israelis could have killed him without any collateral damage.
I despair.
Posted by: Bob In Pacifica at January 1, 2009 09:59 PMWars ALWAYS kill many innocent, bystanders caught between desperate armies. BUT Gaza is not this case. This IS shooting fish in a barrel. NO Israeli military casualties. The proper word would be slaughter. This IS why ground forces MUST be brought up, the HOPE OF IDF DEATHS. Then its an official war.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at January 1, 2009 10:27 PMI talked to one of my friends in Gaza on Sunday. Due to overcrowding and shortages, schools run in shifts. First shift was over and children were out and children for the second shift were going to school and they were bombed.
“The children, they were out of school, everyone was panicking. the kids see the horiffic scenes of blood and body parts everywhere. It’ll stay in their memories forever. Psychological warfare,” he added.
Above quote from.....
http://ingaza.wordpress.com/2008/12/28/widespread-attacks-on-gaza-leave-at-least-227-dead-hundreds-seriously-injured/
When this nightmare for Gazans is over, hopefully soon ( though Livni in Paris claimed, there was no Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza and does not want a truce because it will give Hamas legitimacy!!!!), HOW WILL THE ISRAELIS LIVE with what their govt has done?
Posted by: Rupa Shah at January 1, 2009 11:05 PMRupah Shah,
I suppose the Israeli will live with what their government has done the same way many in America live with what their government does. A combination of denial, delusion, self-imposed ignorance, and indifference.
Well, you see, the thing is, Israel is more like a club than a country; the immigration laws guarantee that Zionists are grossly overrepresented among the population. A Zionist, obviously, is much more likely to move there than, say, a humanist (or anybody else) who just happened to have a Jewish mother, and the moment you step off the plane - voila - you're automatically a citizen.
So, Israelis do not constitute a population in the ordinary sense - a group of people sharing some geographical area, normally representing a wide spectrum of political views - no, most of them are people from different places who share the same political view, Zionism.
And so, most of them will live with what their government has done just fine. And they will ask for more of it.
Posted by: abb1 at January 2, 2009 12:58 AM...and that's, btw, why it's so ridiculous to call that place 'democracy'. It's like complimenting a whites-only club for holding regular elections.
Posted by: abb1 at January 2, 2009 01:06 AMa sense of might and vindication.
For a second I thought I might have been to negative. Wrong again.
Posted by: Rob Payne at January 2, 2009 02:02 AMHow will Israelis live with what their government has done?
Violence turns fear into exhilaration. That's what makes it so appealing especially if you're bigger and stronger. It's a great fix but it's just temporary.
How will Israelis live with what their government has done over the long term? Damned if I know.
Posted by: cemmcs at January 2, 2009 10:55 AMVery very sadly, many of the the young IDF soldiers, after completing their service have runaway from Israel, more often than not to India in the mountains to heal their psyche and have drugged themselves to forget it all, sometimes ODed. What a horrible, horrible waste of lives on both sides!
It is the people in power and population that supports their action that I wonder about. And I did hear some interviews on NPR where the Israelis support this offensive. Unfortunately they have overestimated their govt's ability to end the rockets coming from Gaza. If anything, it has only increased the risk of worse attacks.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5430133.ece
ps I posted a comment a while ago but has gone to the modertor.
Posted by: Rupa Shah at January 2, 2009 11:11 AMI know one person who is a humanist and is moving (retiring) to Israel.... to work with the peace activists. He has been a human rights activist for 45 years.
Too bad there are not more of him......
Posted by: Susan at January 2, 2009 07:16 PMI dunno, Susan. As far as I can tell, there are two reasons people move to Israel: Zionism or economics. I don't know your friend, and perhaps I'm too cynical, but I suspect he's a practitioner of some sort of Zionism-light, the "let's be kind to the savages" sort of Zionism. That is not going to work.
Posted by: abb1 at January 5, 2009 06:08 AM
