The Hell with all of you
Bookworm on Jan 11 2009 at 7:51 pm | Filed under: Uncategorized
Let me just say that I’m delighted that Israel, finally realizing that, in the eyes of the international community, the only good Jew is a dead Jew, is thumbing her nose at the world, and cleaning out Gaza. Yay!
For a while there I thought Israel would do her typical thing and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, but it looks as if she might actually wipe out the Hamas infrastucture, allowing the citizens a fresh start. Think Japan and Germany in 1945. Of course, back then, the winners had an advantage, in that all of the international bodies weren’t cheering on the Nazis and Japanese imperialists.
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http://2008.weblogawards.org/polls/best-middle-east-or-africa-blog/
I’d like to call for votes for Michael Totten against Informed Comment *Juan Cole’s blog*. Given Cole’s view about the current Gaza crisis and his opposition to Totten, I thought you’d like to stick one in the eye of the other side.
Cracks in the facade: My Jewish wife, a Kool-Aid-drinking liberal, draws the line at Israel. She senses that anti-Semitism is poised to make its biggest splash since Hitler and Mohammed, and that Israel MUST survive.
Yesterday she was reading a story in the S.F. Chronicle by Carla Marinucci, a predictable fellow traveler who skews everything she writes to follow the newspaper’s orthodoxy: gays good, Christians bad, Israel evil, Obama wonderful, Palin abominable, Michael Moore artistic, abortion sacred.
Her “story” [propaganda spiel] was about how Israel is losing the PR war in the United States because of Gaza. I pointed my finger at the story and said, “Ah, another predictable Jew-baiting story by Carla. Watch how a pro distorts what’s really going on.”
My wife usually sighs in frustration when I say things like that because she thinks I’ve gone off the deep right end.
No sighs this time. She’s starting to take my comments seriously.
Please God, please please please please please please please
Let Olmert and Livni be SERIOUS this time.
Please please please please please please please please.
They were serious enough to have asked Bush in 2008 to allow an attack on Iran’s Natanz reactor, asking permission for Iraq flyover, and to receive bunker busting bombs for the attack. Bush refused, apparently – and possibly correctly – that it wouldn’t suffice for halting Iran’s diversified and spread-out nuclear assault program, and therefore the inflamed tensions would not be worth it. Who was right? Hard to say. But at least Olmert and Livni pursued it!!!!!!!!!!!
While I regret the leak of that information, it does give me hope.
Perhaps the horrifying threat of an insane Iran with nuclear bombs has woken up the doves in Israel to their terrifying existential threat. Perhaps this time, when they went after Hezbollah, they did enough damage though they screwed up. Perhaps this time, in going after Hamas, they have learned the Hezbollah lessons, and won’t screw it up.
And all of this may be simply laying the groundwork for the Iran confrontation to come in late 2009 or early 2010. To reduce Hezbollah and Hamas to simply very dangerous rather than very threatening, while dealing with Iran. To be able to hunker down and survive what Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria, and Iran will do – and perhaps other forces in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Iraq may try to do as well – while confronting the monster that is Iran.
My disappointed, angry, furious, skull-blown rant against Olmert and Livni MAY have been displaced, a few days ago. I was so bitterly disappointed at their apparent refusal to take seriously the responsibilities of a civilized nation when under threat from the murderous horde, whichever murderous horde it might be, that wishes to destroy an outpost of civilization. In this case: Hamas.
Was I wrong about Olmert and Livni? Please please please please please please….
Time for one of my angry posts.
The Israeli assertions came a day before Egypt planned to convene negotiations aimed at a cease-fire in Gaza, where the Israeli military assault to silence rocket fire and tunneling by Hamas and other militants opposed to Israel’s existence has wrought extensive death and destruction.
Nearly 900 people have been killed, according to Palestinian Health Ministry officials. Thirteen Israelis have been killed, Israel has said.
My anger:
I must ask anyone who considers themselves enlightened, or even civilized:
What of the conflict concerning Darfur and Sudan? Muslim militants have murdered, I believe, over 100,000 people? Don’t just let your silly American-Idol eyes gloss over that. Take another look, please.
What of the conflict concerning Darfur and Sudan? Muslim militants have murdered, I believe, over 100,000 people?
They have focused on murdering 100,000 Christians and animists. A politico-religious battle of slaughter, driven by Muslims, against those who disagree with them.
ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND PEOPLE.
ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND PEOPLE.
Israel has caused the death of less than 1000 people. Even by Hamas’ dubious accounting, that is less than 500 civilians dead. It is possible that civilian accidental deaths number less than 200.
Meanwhile, in Sudan/Darfur:
ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND PEOPLE. Non-Muslims: Christians and animists. Murdered, deliberately, with all conscious intent, by Muslims.
I do not believe that those trumpeting Israel’s “barbarism” are motivated by fear of rising gas prices in the Middle East. I believe they genuinely hold deep racist impulses against Jews and secretly wish their destruction. There is no other explanation. Not to me. No when facing the obvious contradiction of so many other vicious conflagrations where hundreds of thousands are murdered, DELIBERATELY murderered. And not one peep from those now furiously ranting against Israel.
I am completely set against these racists, these anti-Jews, these haters. I hope that everyone who sees this sees that what is going on is a profoundly deep hatred against Jews themselves. Fight the hatred, the injustice, the lies.
Charles and Book,
Apologies in advance for veering wildly off-topic, but very amusing in that I too have a mixed marriage: My wonderful wife is an unreflective liberal. Plus she works at an (over-rated) Ivy League university, but I repeat myself. It’s taken me awhile, but I’ve learned a couple of things about how to talk politics with her.
First, indirect is best. The occasional ironic aside or question instead of a full-blown debate or bloviation (and man that’s hard for me to forego). For instance, “I feel safer now that Obama has made a decision on Gitmo.” (i.e., not to close it immediately as promised; the implication being maybe Bush wasn’t all wrong after all). First she nods, then she connects the dots. Or maybe not. Cognitive dissonance can go on for a long time.
Second, my attitude towards anybody discussing politics is that unless they’ve actually read the original source material, anything they say is purely for entertainment value. It reveals much more about themselves rather than the purported issue. This motto covers virtually the entire Palin defamation.
It is hard to bite one’s tongue at times. People can inject ignorant political opinions at the most inopportune moments. For example, my wife is on the verge of undergoing chemo for breast cancer. The coordinating nurse at the university medical center met with us to discuss the treatment. For some reason, the subject of leukemia also came up and she mentioned the recent wonderful advances in using bone marrow stem cell transplantation compared to the old method of donor matching. Then the nurse looked at us knowingly, and said, “Thank God it will all be different after January 20th — no more bans on stem cell research.”
Okayyyy….I thought, but did not say, the following to her:
(1) You contradict yourself — it seems that advances in stem cell research were made during the last 8 years.
(2) You probably don’t know what the Bush administration policy was concerning federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
(3) How do you know I’m not a Bush supporter?
She’s a good nurse, a kind person, and my wife’s care is in her hands, so I kept quiet. But she has gone down in my opinion.
So my responses might be cryptic, especially in mixed company, but if asked directly, of course, I do try to back my statements with as much clarity and evidence as I can muster. I wish I could express myself as beautifully as Book in her posts or conversations with liberals.
That’s the great thing about these blogs, contributers like Charles Martel and other commentators, the links, and the distributed intelligence on the web. I think of the evolution of the news media as going from “And that’s the way it is” to “Fair and balanced reporting” to “Read the whole thing”.
First, indirect is best.
Best to bypass those mental defenses by never bringing them up to full power.
I’m hoping and praying that Israel finally cuts the head off Hamas. I fear that some other entity will crop up though. Anti-semitism is a hydra.
Re comment # 5 from gpc31: Ditto, ditto, ditto. I always do best if I don’t get mad, but get subtle instead. What’s frustrating, of course, is when, through subtlety, you’ve got them agreeing with every step along the way (whether it be about immigration, or stem cell research, or terrorism, or the economy), and then they wrap it up with “Bush is evil. I hate his policies. We need to let in more immigrants/destroy more fetuses for stem cell research/stop harassing terrorists/ tax the hell out of everybody.”
They acknowledge the existence of the formula 1+2+3+4 as the correct formula, but still insist that it adds up to 44.
Bush Derangement Syndrome is poised to move into Phase 5 of 7 phases:
Phase 1: I see the GOP is going to run a twangy-tongued mama’s boy “bidness-man” for president. Heh, good luck with that against Al Gore!
Phase 2: Ohmigaw, that warmongering fetus-loving turd has cheated his way into the White House! I hate him! I H-A-T-E him!
Phase 3A: Dear Editor: I wanted to express my outrage at the new municipal trash collecting fees which are yet another example of what happens when an immoral president whole stole an election lies us into a needless war, takes away our rights, tortures people and diverts national wealth that should be going to education, infrastructure and preventing global warming to his cronies at Halliburton. My trash is picked up every Tuesday and. . .
Phase3B: You’re what?!? I told you to use contraception! That goddamned Bush and his regulations against anything but abstinence education is what got you into this mess, Missy. Oh, well, call Dr. Void and we’ll schedule your abortion.
Phase 4: Obama won! Obama won! Only 10 more weeks of that bastard!
Phase 5 (6 months after Obama’s inauguration): Look at the mess that simpleton left behind! It’s going to take Obama YEARS to clean it up.
Phase 6 (the day after Obama loses re-election): That effin’ George Bush wrecked any chance Obama had to work wonders. How was Obama to prevent the depression and the nuke attack on Chicago when Bush provoked the Muslims and shoveled trillions to Halliburton and the Texas Rangers?
Phase 7 (death bed): You sissies can complain all you want about President Pelosi-Azziz, the Jewish labor camps and our one-party congress all you want. But if you want to talk about real evil, I mean evil that will make your hair stand up on end, nothing beats that Texas twit, George Dubyah Bush, the man who single-handedly wrecked a great country.
gpc31:
Thank you for two things: Your very kind words and your very good writing. It’s a pleasure to read you. You join some other wonderful contributors here who have never descended to the mosh pit antics of other blogs.
Looking forward to reading more from you.
Here here!