Thursday, July 24, 2014

Have a Seat


14 comments:

  1. We need DEAN!!

    Could we at least go back to "an eye for an eye"?

    UN shelter in Gaza hit by Israel
    http://m.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28468526

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  2. We all make noise for HOWARD DEAN!

    And lots of hammer noise today. We're finally getting the new roof we ordered the end of November. And they're rushing to finish three days' work in two because it is predicted to rain Saturday and Sunday.

    Since they received the special-order roofing in late December it has consistently been either too cold or too rainy to work. Or they didn't have anybody available on the few breaks in the weather.

    I thought "climate change" meant warmer winters and dryer summers, not the reverse. ;-)

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  3. Alan, re that sought after bumper sticker - LOL

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  4. On last night's News Hour, Gwen interviewed a UN official (perhaps the High Commissioner for Human Rights?) who discussed direct targeting of waterworks, schools and houses of worship among other topics. I can't for the life of me find video or transcript of this interview on The News Hour's site. But there's something really weird going on with the computer and I don't know if it's Window-eyes or the site. When I put the mouse over text, be it a link or the paragraph of description, Window-eyes reads gibberish, strings of seemingly random characters instead of the words printed on the screen. This happens once in a while, but it has never happened before on The News Hour's site. Makes finding anything terribly difficult.

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    1. I haven't found that interview yet, Cat. But here's one in which Judy Woodruff is interviewing Noura Erakat of George Mason University and Amos Guiora of the University of Utah. I bristled when Guiora used the term "collateral damage" and thought Erakat very articulate.

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    2. Wait! Here it is!

      "Gwen Ifill talks to Pernille Ironside of UNICEF, who is in Gaza, about the toll the Israeli military offensive is having on civilians, and especially on children, the damage to infrastructure, as well as the capabilities of UNICEF to provide aid without safe humanitarian access."

      http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/safe-places-children-gaza-unicef-officer-says/

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    3. Y'know, this war is not a religious war, it is a secular war. This is way beyond "an eye for an eye" theology, which was a great improvement in its day. The people of true faith of any stripe are not the problem here. The problem is zest for power at all costs. The PBS Newshour has had some good clips this week. I love Israel and want Israel to be safe. However, I cannot condone the killing of children and UN workers. How were children on a beach a threat? Does anyone truly believe that there were rocket launchers in the UN building? Yes, there is no way it is okay for rockets to be fired into another country. There is also no way it is okay to starve innocent people of another country by long-term blockades. Another solution MUST be found. Let's put the best minds together. I'm not okay with funding war.

      Tonight I wrote to Leahy, Sanders and Welch saying:

      I do not write this easily or lightly. My brother, sister-in-law and niece are Jewish. My daughter’s best friend is Jewish. However, the actions of Israel this month, killing (possibly even targetting) innocent children and UN workers, are unconscionable! I write to you requesting in the strongest terms that Congress withhold funds to Israel until Israel’s reprehensible actions cease. I do not want to be funding their firepower! Moreover, I hope our nation will encourage the UN to investigate Israel for war crimes against humanity.

      A friend wrote: "The answer lies in what the astronauts noticed from space. There are NO boundaries on this earth. They exist only on maps and in man's mind. You can stand with whatever side you wish but in so doing you only perpetuate the problem. The earth is one, humanity is one. The differences we perceive are all on the surface beneath which there is not one iota of difference between a Jew and an Arab, a German and a Japanese except in the mind. Violence begets violence and all of it is due to man's mind, his belief in separateness. The poets have seen this as well as the mystics. Time for the rest of us to catch up."

      Beautiful, isn't it?

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    4. NOURA ERAKAT: So, let me answer the first question.

      With all due respect, Amos, we’re reverting to this talking point that Hamas is using human shields. Again, there is absolutely no evidence for this. It’s Israel’s word against the United Nations, against Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, Breaking the Silence Israel, as well as the National Lawyers Guild.

      What country, what other country would we accept a repeated talking point with no evidence that this is the case?


      VS

      To underscore its message, Israeli leaders and their supporters point to rockets that the United Nations reported finding in two of its schools in Gaza in recent days. The Israeli military on Wednesday also sent a map to reporters that had red, highlighted areas that it said were “Hamas military compounds with rocket caches and openings to terror tunnels” next to blue-shaded civilian houses, a mosque, and Jabaliya Indonesian Hospital. Another showed what the military said were “rocket-launch sites” in a field adjacent to a complex of five Gaza City schools.

      http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/24/world/middleeast/israel-says-hamas-is-using-civilians-as-shields-in-gaza.html?_r=0

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    5. Listener, well said! Also, you found the interview I meant. Thanks, and well done.

      Puddle, that's the problem: the Israeli military says. I note your first instance, siting the UN. All the rest are attributions to the Israeli military. No doubt it's no more than cynicism on my part, but I implicitly doubt any so-called fact with only the military's word for it - any military.

      Apart from that, there is the physical reality of Gaza. It is a small area with a densely packed population. Think New York City for a loose analogy. Excluding Central Park, if militants, freedom fighters, terrorists (call them what you will) wanted to launch missiles into New Jersey, they would be hard put to it to place their rocket launchers someplace where there were not schools and hospitals and apartment blocks. A sprawling metro area like L.A. by contrast might make it possible to install missile emplacements relatively far from civilian sites. Gaza if analogous to NYC not LA.

      I guess my point is, Israel has set things up so they have all the advantages: state-of-the-art (American) armament, superb missile defense system, plenty of empty space and buffer areas and safe places for civilians to shelter while the Palestinians have none of these. For the Israelis it's like shooting fish in a barrel. And the fact I at least always come back to is that, regardless of which side actually starts any given round of fighting, the Palestinians are a brutally occupied, oppressed people with precious few options, being systematically ground into dust by the Israelis. Regardless of where right and wrong started out, any objective view shows that Israel has become the aggressor. And it's damned hard not to admire the Palestinians, even Hamas, for their continued defiance of the occupier.

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    6. http://zionsquare.com/2012/11/29/gaza-population-density-high-low/

      The Gazan, above, claimed NO backup; I presented the UN finding missiles in its schools. So the Gazan is uniformed, stupid, or lying. This happens every time there's a conflict: The Palestinians make all these claims, get lots of international press, it gets investigated by the UN and other outsiders, is proved wrong, and no one ever reads that.

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  5. Tonight, a Luna moth on the french doors on the sun deck. Haven't had one for years and years--since Edwin was alive. Rare and beautiful.

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    1. Oooohhhhhh, how beautiful, puddle! Lovely that it was also a reminder of Edwin. ♥

      We had one on a screen one evening many years ago. Such a rich and wonderful experience.

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    2. No luna moths out here, but the photos do look very pretty.

      --Alan

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