Medea Benjamin in Greenville

Peace activist Medea Benjamin, author and co-founder of CODE PINK, gave a presentation last evening at the Coffee Underground. This was in association with the Upstate Peace Network--with whom I am proudly affiliated.

An excellent discussion followed.

It was thrilling to meet her and grab a copy of her new book, DRONE WARFARE: Killing by remote control, which you should buy and commit to memory immediately.

~*~

Excerpt from the book:

Over fifty countries have the technology and many of them—including Israel, Russia, Turkey, China, India, Iran, the United Kingdom, and France—either have or are seeking weaponized drones.

Some of these countries do not just possess the technology; they are already using it.

During its 2008-2009 invasion of the Gaza Strip known as "Operation Cast Lead," the Israeli Defense Force repeatedly deployed unmanned aircraft to fire on suspected members of Hamas, the elected Palestinian government.

According to a leaked US State Department cable reported on by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, in one incident an Israeli drone "shot at two Hamas fighters in front of the mosque and sixteen unintended casualties resulted inside the mosque due to an open door through which shrapnel entered during a time of prayer."[i] While the technology may be precise, fallible human beings are still the ones picking the targets and pulling the trigger.

Israel ostensibly ended its military occupation of the Gaza Strip in 2005. But thanks to modern drone technology, it does not need boots on the ground to dominate—and extinguish—Palestinian life.

"For us, drones mean death," said Hamdi Shaqqura of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in an interview with the Washington Post. According to his group, Israeli drones killed at least 825 people between 2006 and 2011, the majority civilians. And that has affected almost every aspect of Palestinian life. According to one study, the majority of children living in Gaza suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of the constant buzzing and bombing of Israeli death machines. Palestinians even have to take drones into account when trying to do something as benign and banal as fixing a broken-down car—you really don't want a group of people lingering around for long when there's a plane armed with missiles hovering overhead. "When you hear drones," Shaqqura explained, "you hear death."

"It's continuous, watching us, especially at night," said Nabil al-Amassi, a Gaza mechanic and father of eight. "You can't sleep. You can't watch television. It frightens the kids. When they hear it, they say, 'It is going to hit us.'"

Along with Israel and the United States, Britain is the only other country to have employed weaponized drones in war as of 2011. In the 1980s, the UK developed the Phoenix, a drone that was briefly used in the Kosovo War and then in Iraq in 2003. So many were lost or crashed that British troops nicknamed the aircraft the "Bugger Off," as the planes rarely returned from a sortie. For Afghanistan, the UK bought US-made Reapers and rented Israeli Hermes drones. This was part of a stopgap measure while developing their own Watchkeeper drone in a joint venture by Israeli and UK private companies that, after many delays, was supposed to be operational by 2012.
Like their US and Israeli counterparts, the British government sees unmanned aircraft as the way of the future, with the Guardian reporting that UK officials say "almost one third of the [Royal Air Force] could be made up of remotely controlled aircraft within 20 years."

In July 2011, British drone operators made a mistake that underscores the continued fallibility of modern weapons, killing four civilians in Afghanistan with missiles fired from Reaper drones that they were piloting out of a US air base in Nevada. (The Royal Air Force has been piloting Reapers from Creech Air Force base in Nevada since late 2007.) Lest anyone believe the incident exposed flaws with the increased reliance on the almighty drone, UK military officials were quick to explain the deaths were the result of intelligence failures on the ground rather than problems with the aircraft.

That fallible human element does not harm just those on the receiving end of the West's liberating Hellfire missiles. When Iraqis were actually able to see the unencrypted video feeds that the unmanned vehicles were broadcasting back to US troops, it gave them the chance to escape and evade assassination. In 2002, Iraqis were also able to use a Soviet-era MIG-25 to shoot down a US drone. In 2006, the Syrian air force reportedly shot down an Israeli spy drone flying on the Lebanese side of the border with Syria. And in a little-reported incident in February 2011, as Yemeni police were transporting a Predator drone that had crashed in southern Yemen, Al Qaeda gunmen attacked, running off with the downed aircraft.

But the perceived enemies of the US government are doing more than just hijacking and shooting down drones: they are using their own.

During its 2006 war on Lebanon, the Israeli Defense Force claimed to have shot down several surveillance drones that Hezbollah had received from Iran. In Iraq, US troops shot down a similar Iranian drone in March 2009.

Just as US drone technology is falling into the hands of less-than-friendly regimes, the technology—like the Hummer and other military equipment before it—is finding its way back to the homeland. In a September 27, 2011 presentation at the headquarters of the US Air Force on the future of "remotely piloted aircraft," the branch's chief scientist Mark T. Maybury pointed to "homeland security" as a key future use of drones, complete with maps of the United States intended to highlight the need for "Integrating [drones] in National Airspace."

The future is here.

In 2005 Congress authorized Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to buy unarmed Predators. By the end of 2011, CBP was flying eight Predator drones along the southwestern border with Mexico and along the northern Canadian border to search for illegal immigrants and smugglers. By 2016, CBP hopes to have two dozen drones in its possession, "giving the agency the ability to deploy a drone anywhere over the continental United States within three hours," according to the Washington Post. And beyond, it seems, as the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has deployed several drones in neighboring Mexico to spy on that country's powerful drug cartels.
In June 2011, the Post reported that CBP's drone fleet had "reached a milestone...having flown 10,000 hours." But they had little to show for it. The paper flatly noted that the 4,835 undocumented immigrants and 238 drug smugglers that the Department of Homeland Security claimed to have apprehended thanks to UAVs were "not very impressive" numbers. What is impressive is the cost: $7,054 for each undocumented immigrant or smuggler who was caught.

"Congress and the taxpayers ought to demand some kind of real cost-benefit analysis of drones," said Tom Barry of the Center for International Policy, a Washington think tank. "My sense is that they would conclude these aircraft aren't worth the money."
But politicians in Washington don't seem too concerned. CBP's Michael Kostelnik told the Post he has never been pressed by a lawmaker to justify his agency's use of drones. "Instead the question is: Why can't we have more of them in my district?"

Remainder of excerpt here.

One of the most disturbing and startling new realities shared by Benjamin: Local law enforcement can't wait to get their hands on drones. It sounds just like the movie Escape from New York--law enforcement will finally be able to physically abandon the inner-cities at last. Nobody needs to get their hands dirty or their shirts bloodied (or worse). That's the plan.

It will all be handled by remote control.

You really MUST buy the book... Medea Benjamin is doing a TEDtalk later in the week, and I will try to link that here as well.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch

At left: We enjoyed sets by The Flashbacks last evening in downtown Greenville. I love me some big brass noise with my old soul music! (You can click to enlarge.)



Our show today had three callers! Woot! Unfortunately, none were (frequently-requested) calls from irate Bob Jones University students, who continue to fulminate on Facebook about Chris Peterman being expelled for watching Glee. They are very upset that he went national with that story, since as everyone around here knows, BJU likes to keep its dirty laundry in-house.

When you ask if you can quote these irate students by name, they immediately flip out. What are they afraid of? Shouldn't they WANT to be quoted and given credit from BJU for their undying loyalty? Hm?

Well, no. Because BJU is a cult, and there is simply no pleasing a cult. These students know, on some level, that they will screw it up. They will say at least one wayward word or use some outlawed phrase that the cult will find displeasing or incorrect, and they KNOW it. So instead of stepping up to preen and get themselves on the air, they shrink and run for the shadows when the spotlight shines on them, and become nearly-hysterical if you suggest you will actually use their names.

They suddenly send a torrent of private messages pleading, pleading, pleading that you will not quote them.

It is patently bizarre, since at the same time, the BJU-student-mouthiness never stops. They do not seem to understand that they draw a lot of attention with their odd behavior, since 1) as products of the BJU-bubble, they don't understand how odd they sound in the first place, and 2) they have not been raised in the glare of the mainstream media, as the rest of us have been. We EXPECT that if we throw a tantrum, people will stare. (By contrast, in the Old South, they would politely look away and pretend they hadn't seen any tantrum. BJU is still steeped in Old South manners and the accompanying paradigm.) The rest of us are aware that if we throw said tantrum in a public place like Facebook, people will inevitably ask for follow-up, they will expect some sort of explanation. They will put the spotlight right on you and gape for several minutes at a time. (And what did you expect?)

These BJU kids seem unaware of this; they are shocked that outsiders like me expect them to answer for their nonsense. And yet, they accuse the world at large of all manner of sins. We just aren't supposed to reply. Instead, they say, they are addressing only Chris Peterman, or other ex-BJU rabble-rousers like Camille Lewis. When somebody like me barges in and asks for clarification, we get the proverbial deer-in-the-headlights expression, and the aforementioned semi-hysterical pleas for anonymity. (Or we can end up simply censored, with no reply at all, as a certain Hidalgo Grain Company person specializes in: endless pissed-off yammerings and then howlings of persecution when those yammerings are taken seriously. This seems to be the general pattern.) Overall: they seem stunned that the outside world exists at ALL.

Well, it does. And we're watching. And we won't stop watching, the way people rarely stop rubbernecking at an especially unpleasant, nasty train-wreck.

We couldn't turn away now if we WANTED to.

I admit: The slow-motion implosion of Bob Jones University is some of the greatest entertainment I have ever witnessed.

~*~

At left: I do not know who this person is, but I knew yall would never believe me (BJU readers excepted) if I didn't take a photo. I saw this Gospel-singing dude on the local Christian TV station late last night, and just check out those flags. (Note: You can see the logo of the Trinity Broadcasting Network in the upper right corner of the screen.)


THIS is what I vainly tried to explain to people in THIS post, and lots of em didn't get it.

As I said in that post, Israel's military well-being is possibly more important to the Christian Right than it is to Jews, and Israel directly benefits from the Christian Right's political power. I would very much like to hear more criticism of this unholy alliance from liberal and anti-militaristic Christians and Jews. But alas... (((crickets))) ... it is not a very popular topic. (Meanwhile, Israel still treats its own Palestinian Christian citizens like shit.)

But take note of that photo, gang... on HIS RIGHT is the Israeli flag. I think the order is supposed to be reversed?

Or maybe not.

~*~

THESE PEOPLE (heavy, heavy warnings) helped me decide that this month would be GAY PRIDE MONTH, on the blog and the radio show. That alarming link takes you to a toddler (!) singing "Ain't no homo gonna make it to heaven" at his church in Indiana. I really wish I was making that up.

Speaking of which, as I reported on my show today, somebody in Texas saw Jesus in their shower mold.

Really.

Fun Friday Links

From here, there and everywhere:


:: CNN reports that the newest poll shows that Voters want to throw em out:

76 percent of voters said most members of Congress do not deserve to be re-elected, the highest percentage Gallup measured in 19 years of asking that question. And the 20% who say congressional members should be re-elected is a record low-one point below the previous low recorded in August.

:: December 6th was the 22nd anniversary of the Montreal Polytechnique Massacre – during which a man named Marc Lepine killed 14 women because he was “fighting feminism”. Please pay your respects.

:: My beloved Elizabeth's jewels are going to auction, the estimated value is $30 million. A stunning collection, well worth ogling.

:: In Occupy news, Thuggish Republican Allen West Says It's OK To Beat Up Peaceful Protesters. Are you surprised? Family Guy writer Patrick Meighan was roughed up during his arrest at Occupy Los Angeles, and has written about it:

As we sat there, encircled, a separate team of LAPD officers used knives to slice open every personal tent in the park. They forcibly removed anyone sleeping inside, and then yanked out and destroyed any personal property inside those tents, scattering the contents across the park. They then did the same with the communal property of the Occupy LA movement. For example, I watched as the LAPD destroyed a pop-up canopy tent that, until that moment, had been serving as Occupy LA’s First Aid and Wellness tent, in which volunteer health professionals gave free medical care to absolutely anyone who requested it. As it happens, my family had personally contributed that exact canopy tent to Occupy LA, at a cost of several hundred of my family’s dollars. As I watched, the LAPD sliced that canopy tent to shreds, broke the telescoping poles into pieces and scattered the detritus across the park. Note that these were the objects described in subsequent mainstream press reports as “30 tons of garbage” that was “abandoned” by Occupy LA: personal property forcibly stolen from us, destroyed in front of our eyes and then left for maintenance workers to dispose of while we were sent to prison.

When the LAPD finally began arresting those of us interlocked around the symbolic tent, we were all ordered by the LAPD to unlink from each other (in order to facilitate the arrests). Each seated, nonviolent protester beside me who refused to cooperate by unlinking his arms had the following done to him: an LAPD officer would forcibly extend the protestor’s legs, grab his left foot, twist it all the way around and then stomp his boot on the insole, pinning the protestor’s left foot to the pavement, twisted backwards. Then the LAPD officer would grab the protestor’s right foot and twist it all the way the other direction until the non-violent protestor, in incredible agony, would shriek in pain and unlink from his neighbor.

It was horrible to watch, and apparently designed to terrorize the rest of us. At least I was sufficiently terrorized. I unlinked my arms voluntarily and informed the LAPD officers that I would go peacefully and cooperatively. I stood as instructed, and then I had my arms wrenched behind my back, and an officer hyperextended my wrists into my inner arms. It was super violent, it hurt really really bad, and he was doing it on purpose. When I involuntarily recoiled from the pain, the LAPD officer threw me face-first to the pavement. He had my hands behind my back, so I landed right on my face. The officer dropped with his knee on my back and ground my face into the pavement. It really, really hurt and my face started bleeding and I was very scared. I begged for mercy and I promised that I was honestly not resisting and would not resist.

My hands were then zipcuffed very tightly behind my back, where they turned blue. I am now suffering nerve damage in my right thumb and palm.

There's more.

:: Lisa understands what some of us are going through, since she is going through it, too: Unemployment Diary: Shortfalls and little sins. Good luck, Lisa!

:: By way of wonderful Onyx Lynx, here is Herman Cain & Eddie Long: A Tale of Two Players, great reading from The Republic of T. He makes an excellent, overlooked point about the Cain scandal, in particular:

It would have been incredibly damaging to Republicans if Cain had actually gotten on the ticket as veep (because we all know he was never going to get the nomination), and then these allegation had come out. (Which is why I’m convinced that someone on the right is responsible for these allegations coming forward. Democrats just didn’t have any compelling reasons to want Cain out of the race. Republicans had lots of them.)

And they sure did, didn't they?

:: Andy Borowitz amusingly follows up on Cain and Mitt Romney's plummet in the polls, with this funny bit titled, Falling in Polls, Romney Considers Adultery:

CONCORD, NH (The Borowitz Report)– Troubled by his fading poll numbers, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is considering a bold strategy to reboot his Presidential campaign: engaging in a high-profile extramarital affair.

At a press conference in Concord, New Hampshire today Mr. Romney confirmed that he was consulting with senior advisors about the best way to proceed with an inappropriate relationship.

“Republican voters have sent the message that they want to vote for an adulterer and I have heard them loud and clear,” he said. “I promise that I will engage in a world-class extramarital affair that will make all of us proud again.”

According to one senior advisor, the Romney campaign was already holding focus groups and conducting special polling to determine the best person with whom Mr. Romney should conduct his extracurricular dalliance.

:: In South Carolina news, Labor Board Drops Case Against Boeing:

The [National Labor Relations Board]’s acting general counsel, Lafe Solomon, said the labor board had decided to end the case after the machinists’ union — which originally asked for the case to be brought — had urged the board on Thursday to withdraw it.

On Wednesday night, the union announced that 74 percent of its 31,000 Boeing workers in Washington State had voted to ratify a four-year contract extension that includes substantial raises, unusual job security provisions and a commitment by Boeing to expand aircraft production in the Puget Sound area.

Mr. Solomon had filed the case against Boeing last April. Agreeing with the union’s position, he asserted that Boeing’s decision to build the $750 million plant in South Carolina constituted illegal retaliation against the union’s members in Washington for having engaged in their federally protected right to strike.

The case against Boeing enraged South Carolina officials, who saw it as an insulting blow to one of their greatest economic development successes. It also angered Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates, who asserted that federal regulators should not engage in heavy-handed regulation that tells companies where they can or cannot invest.

At left: Anti-Newt protester at our Fox News debate demonstration here in Greenville, back in May. This guy warned us that Newt wasn't down for the count, and we should have paid attention!



:: In Newtie news, we learn that Newt Gingrich Sells Books And Films While Campaigning For President:

Gingrich's personal financial disclosure form shows that he and wife, Callista, reported between $500,000 and $1 million in assets from Gingrich Productions, the couple's media company that produces books and films. The filings also list a promissory note worth between $5 million and $25 million owed to the production company, records show, although details of that asset are unclear.

The July filings list Gingrich's income and assets since early 2010, including rental income, investment dividends and capital gains.

Gingrich has turned over the production company to his wife as he works to build support for his White House bid. Yet he still promotes their films, often hosting a screening for them on the sidelines during conservative conferences.

Afterward, aides sell DVDs of the programs and their companion books.

It is a routine for Gingrich. He delivers a rousing speech, as he did at the Conservative Political Action Committee conference in Orlando, Fla., this summer; a short time later, he and wife are at a table signing freshly purchased copies of their books. The same was true last week at events in South Carolina: stump speech, book signing.

Utterly shameless. Even more shameless (as well as racist and bigoted, but what else is new?) is his recent comment that Palestinians are "an invented people":

Newt Gingrich did an interview with The Jewish Channel, and had some interesting comments about the Israeli-Palestinian peace process — possibly leaning toward the expulsion of the Palestinians.

“Well, I believe that the Jewish people have the right to have a state, and I believe that the commitments that were made at a time — remember, there was no Palestine as a state, it was part of the Ottoman Empire,” said Gingrich.

“And I think that we’ve had an invented Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs, and were historically part of the Arab community. And they had a chance to go many places. And for a variety of political reasons, we have sustained this war against Israel now, since the 1940’s, and I think it’s tragic.”

This would seem to imply that Gingrich would not only oppose a Palestinian state — but thinks that Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Territories should have had to leave.

Watch Newtie grovel for that Evangelical money! As I said, utterly shameless. (Interestingly, contemporary conservative pundits aren't having any.)

:: Your combination Friday Cat Blogging and Daily Dose of Cute, comes from Daisy the Curly Cat's new hat and new holiday skirt. Not to be forgotten is Harley, who looks exactly like my dear departed Zeppo Marx Katz, one of the greatest cats of all time. I am fairly certain Harley is Zeppo in one of his later nine lives! (((snugly hugs, purrs and kisses for Harley)))

:: Don't forget to catch me on the radio tomorrow morning, bright and early, 9am sharp! I will be talking about some scary stuff for upstate SC: how nonChristians celebrate this time of year. TUNE IN!

Las Vegas Republican Debate

Yes, I am covering this Republican Presidential debate in (more or less) REAL TIME, just as I did the Labor Day Tea Party debate in Columbia. And let me tell you, nothing much has changed, except the ritzy venue, featuring fashionable Anderson Cooper. For some unfathomable reason, they've tossed in hyper-conservative, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum (currently polling at 1%), for good measure. Probably because of his media-popularity with the Religious Right.

I got a late start, first tuning into CNN during anti-immigration fireworks between Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Texas Governor Rick Perry, who accuse each other of being soft on illegals. Perry says Romney hired undocumented workers in his own home--Romney becomes furious and says that isn't true. Perry loudly and self-righteously announces Romney's statement is "the heighth of arrogance"--which makes me wince. Please, no more Texas governors who mangle the language.

Michele Bachmann talks to "the moms" in the viewership, which startled me. This marks the first time I ever heard a presidential candidate appeal to moms, as a mom. I am not sure what I think of that; none of the male candidates addressed other fathers "as a dad"--but then again, I seem to remember that candidate Barack Obama did. Bachmann tells us the economic collapse greatly threatens mom's "nests" and their babies, and she uniquely understands the fears of moms; hold on, she adds dramatically, help is on the way!

Nests? Sounds like crackpot Christian-counseling lingo, doesn't it?

A Republican in the audience licks his lips in greed and demands to know whether Yucca Mountain (in Nevada) can be "opened up". He means for dumping nuclear waste, but you can tell several of the candidates don't have a clue what this question refers to. Newt Gingrich, eager to show off his superior knowledge, says this would be okay after "tests"--to determine if the location is environmentally sound, and "everything so far says that it is." (Of course, he completely ignores the Western Shoshone and their unique issues in regards to Yucca Mountain.) And then, BOOM, Ron Paul suddenly jumps on it with both feet as a states' rights issue. Why should the other 49 states dump their garbage on Nevada? Why is the government cleaning up what private industry has done? This is for the nuclear power plants themselves to clean up, so why aren't they? Another blistering diatribe from the good doctor, the only candidate who seems to know how to think for himself and actually answer questions. The rest of the candidates gape in amazement, still wondering where/what Yucca Mountain IS... Newt looks sheepish and ridiculous, having just had his clock cleaned by Ron Paul, when as we know, Newt fancies himself a big intellectual policy wonk and college lecturer.

That was fun.

At this point Governor Perry starts babbling oddly about the Tenth Amendment. As you may know, this is also a favorite talking point of our Governor, Nikki Haley, and he seems to be making a rather naked grab for her endorsement. [Local aside: Perry's wife Anita recently visited local Baptist stronghold, North Greenville University and tearfully yowled that "other candidates" have "brutalized" Perry for his faith, which is a real hoot, and ... incidentally, seems to have no basis in reality.] Perry really sounded mediocre, and meandered all over the conservative lot. I am hereby rescinding my prediction (that he will win the SC primary) unless he gets himself ready for prime time, as he clearly is not yet.

Herman Cain, Businessman-candidate and GOP rock star of the moment, gives a decidedly lackluster performance this time around. I didn't hear any references to his much-ballyhooed "999" tax plan. (He may have mentioned it in the first 20 minutes, but I am grateful I missed it, in any event.)

During this debate, I learned Nevada has the highest rate of home-foreclosures of any state. Rick Santorum says the Wall Street bail-out is to blame, which was supported by Rick Perry and Herman Cain. (audience noise: OOOOooooOOOOOhhhhhhHHHHooo)

In answers to questions about Romney's Mormonism, Newt Gingrich goes on an offensive rant about faith. In doing so, he insults all the atheists and agnostics in America, saying you can't trust anyone who doesn't pray, that such a person has no judgment. This from a man who is now on his third wife.

The heighth of arrogance.

Asked about the military, Ron Paul used that forbidden word, Empire. The USA owns more weapons than every other country put together, he said; we have military presences in 150 countries. "Where does it stop? We're broke now!" Every empire has fallen before us, and if we don't stop engaging in Empire, we will fall also. "We are doing it to ourselves," he said, more than once. There was applause, but also slack-jawed amazement on the faces of Romney and Perry, those ideological lightweights.

When asked about Israel specifically, Ron Paul didn't budge, and enlarged upon his ideas: Israel has been damaged by being propped up (financially and militarily) by the USA. In reply, Santorum melodramatically pronounces that our military budget should NOT be cut ONE SINGLE DIME. Perry adds that we should defund the United Nations, that old Bircher line. Later, Romney jumps him for having once worked for Al Gore. Direct hit!

And the rest of the debate was pretty much like this.

Surfwise

Interesting that this illustration gives Dorian a big heart and I didn't see him that way at all.



I just saw Surfwise (2007), a documentary about Dorian Paskowitz, who raised 9 children in decidedly gonzo fashion, traveling around the coasts of the Western Hemisphere and constantly surfing, surfing, surfing. Even the littlest babies surfed. They did not attend school. They lived on the barest essentials. I was amazed. From the New York Times review:

There are many different ways to drop off the grid, but few dropped off with such style and urgency as Dorian Paskowitz, the paterfamilias of what is lovingly and at times enviably described as the first family of surfing. It was an intensity in part born of his passionately felt engagement with history as a Jew, which took him from Stanford Medical School in the 1940s to button-down respectability in the 1950s and, thereafter, on the road and into the blue yonder with a devoted wife, nine children, a succession of battered campers and the surfboards that were by turns the family’s cradles, playpens, lifelines and shields.

The button-down 50s did not suit Dorian, and he rebelled with a fury. The term bohemian barely covers the incredible Paskowitz family lifestyle:

Once Doc’s origin story has been told (the movie says he introduced surfing to Israel), the story moves into its most fascinating phase, namely that stretch in the 1960s and ’70s when he and his wife, Juliette, a Mexican-American looker with an apparently sturdy constitution, raised, with next to no money, eight boys and one girl — David, Jonathan, Abraham, Israel, Moses, Adam, Salvador Daniel, Navah and Joshua — in a 24-foot camper. A few family members repeat the number 24 as if they still can’t believe it; I’m more wowed by the number 9.

Doc, one of his sons explains with a mirthless laugh, was trying to repopulate the world with Jews. Certainly Doc’s sense of himself as a Jew who had escaped the Holocaust only by an accident of birth, by growing up in Southern California, hit him hard and kept hitting him. After two unhappy marriages and an unsatisfying professional stint in Hawaii, where he had settled after Stanford, Doc shed his worldly belongings and old ways, discovered the joys of sex (he’s hilariously ribald on the specifics of that joy) and dedicated himself to uncompromised, uncompromising freedom, embracing the road like Jack Kerouac, one difference being that this dharma bum had a ready-made commune. He fled the greater world, creating a smaller, manageable one in its place.

For a time, the world Doc made fit neatly into that 24-foot camper. Nut brown and slender, the Paskowitz children were beautiful, ideal subjects for an exhilarating, persuasively liberating experiment. But they were also somewhat like lab rats, given to little nips that, in time, as childish energy morphed into adolescent aggression, evolved into violence bordering on the pathological. “I loved supporting the Reich,” says David, the eldest son, who became the captain in an increasingly authoritarian regime. David’s choice of words is pretty startling, particularly given that this is an observant Jewish family.

Indeed, Dorian ruled the family with an iron hand, and it is fairly obvious that no dissent was permitted. His treatment of Juliette enraged me. Like many hippies of the day, Dorian would drive and drive and drive until a locale "felt right"--Juliette's input was not sought or required. She was pregnant and/or breastfeeding, she said, for 10 solid years. "I've blocked a lot of it out," she reports. I would imagine so.

Juliette was not an active part of the surfing fun, the whole raison d'être for the family lifestyle. Instead, she kept the whole enterprise going; the cooking, the cleaning, the continuous and non-stop settling of endless squabbling in a family of 8 boys (all intensely competitive for the attention of Dorian) and 1 girl... all huddled into the now-legendary 24-foot camper.

The children slept, apparently, stacked like cordwood. Their father and mother had sex every night and the kids saw everything (one remarks "and they weren't quiet!") Early in the movie, Dorian tells us straight-faced that his life changed when he learned how to eat pussy. He then went scouting for a woman to match his high sexual appetites, grading them as in a final exam. Juliette registered an admirable 93% and he told her, you will be the mother of my seven sons.

The kids lived on gruel, as in OLIVER TWIST, but they were mostly in excellent health, which was sheer luck. There was one nasty surfing accident that befell one son and his recovery took a whole year. (It isn't very clear from the film, but I think he was left behind while the others moved on.) And there were countless other surfing-related scrapes and nasty-knocks-on-the-head, but the kids quickly adapted and learned to roll with it.

I came away from the movie remembering various rural communes and back-to-the-land experiments I visited in my youth... always upset because it seemed to me that their much-coveted, newly found "freedom" always belonged to men, and women were more enslaved that ever before. (Washing machines, after all, helped women, not men.) Consequently, whenever I hear about men deciding to jettison 'modern conveniences'--I reach for my gun.

It's interesting that a vehicle is never one of those things they choose to do without... and they will invariably be the one driving it, too.

Check out the movie for an interesting look at a fascinating family.

~*~

Trailer--

Juliette de Bairacli Levy 1912-2009

Juliette de Bairacli Levy was born in privilege and grew up with everything. As a young woman, she studied veterinary medicine in the United Kingdom for two years before departing the discipline in disillusionment. Vivisection and animal experimentation were the reasons why. She decided she'd had enough, and wanted to find another way. This brought her to the gypsies and peasants of the world, and she respectfully sought to learn their ways, before they completely disappeared from the earth.

And in so doing, she kept that from happening.

She was called the Grandmother of Herbal Medicine. She passed away last week.



One of her many publishers worldwide, Ash Tree Publishing, provides a partial biography, but her life was so amazing it took a documentary (Juliette of the Herbs) to cover it all:

In the 1940's, while traveling in America, Spain, France, North Africa and Turkey, Juliette gathered herbal remedies from the nomadic and peasant peoples of these lands. When her Complete Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable was published in 1951, it was the first veterinary herbal ever to be published as before this time, the art of farriers, gypsies and peasants had been passed on only by the spoken word.

Thus Juliette became THE pioneer of what is known today as holistic animal care. She went on to write The Complete Herbal Book for the Dog. Both these books together with Juliette's Illustrated Herbal Handbook for Everyone and Natural Rearing of Children have become classics and many generations of humans and animals have been raised and healed on these books.[...] Juliette's two children, Luz and Rafik, were born in the early 1950's. She took her children to live in Israel where they raised owls, hawks, dogs, goats, donkeys and bees. Juliette became famous for saving her hives of bees from shell attack during the Six Day War. In Israel and later when she moved to Greece, Juliette continued to write, to raise Afghan Hounds, to garden and to gather herbal remedies. As well as her herbal books, she has written several travel books, two novels and three books of poems.

One of her poems was titled Gypsy Lane - a rhyme recalling the gypsy manner of death:

You shall die, and I shall die!
Take our places in the sky.
You and she, and he and I,
When the time comes, all must die.
That's a game we would play,
Man and woman, girl and lad,
In gypsy camps far away,
Laughing times, yet passing sad.

Poppy crowns for everyone,
Red rose for the fairest one.
We would shout, King Death to come,
Laughing loudly, turn and run.
Then more the cry! Who will die?
Nor he, nor she, and not I,
Want that fearful power to fly.

We would pass the hours that way,
Bed with Gypsies by cool streams,
Golden days of dance and play,
Harp and flute and tambourines.
But poppy crowns droop and fade,
Feet grow weary, hearts afraid.
Time kills all in Gypsy Glade,
Flower and tree, man and maid.

Gone the Gypsies, every one,
All who played the Gypsy game,
Left the earth, its mirth and fun,
Starry nights and hyacinth lane.
None can play that game alone,
Thus I want to hear the cry,
Come now! Leave thy earthly home,
Join the Gypsies in the sky.


She is there now, this wonderful and amazing prophet who blazed the trail for so many of us.

Play in the sky, Juliette.

Let there be light: Blessing of the Sun

photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images

Left: Orthodox Jews pray during sunrise in the Judean Desert in the West Bank above the Dead Sea. Tens of thousands of Jewish faithful blessed the sun all over Israel. The prayer is said as the sun comes up to mark what according to Jewish tradition is the sun's return to its position at the moment that the universe was created 5,769 years ago. It returns to the spot once every 28 years.(LA Times)


Jews worldwide mark Blessing of the Sun
by Kobi Nahshoni
ynetnews.com
04.08.09

Tens of thousands of men, women and children woke up at the crack of dawn Wednesday to take part on the Blessing of the Sun prayer.

The unique event occurs only once every 28 year when, according to Jewish tradition, the sun reaches the exact spot it graced in the heavens at the moment it was created.

Hundreds of special prayer services were held throughout the Jewish world Wednesday. A mass prayer service was held in the Western Wall plaza in Jerusalem, with senior figures from the religious community in attendance. The service was led by Rabbi Yosef Sholom Elyashiv.

Similar gatherings were also spotted at the capital's International Conference Center and Temple Mount. Tel Aviv marked the Blessing of the Sun with mass services held at Hayarkon Park, Rabin Square and atop the metropolitan's signature Azrieli towers. A special service was also held in the ancient desert fortress of Masada in southern Israel.

"We thank God for the Sun, which lights our days and ripens our crops every day," explained Rabbi Mordechai Gnut. "But nevertheless, once every 28 years there is something out of the ordinary with the sunrise."

According to Judaism, the sun's year is 365 days and six hours long and it is divided by the four seasons. The year's onset is marked on the month of Nissan – the seventh month of the Jewish calendar – which marks the beginning of spring and coincides with the months of April or May on the Gregorian calendar.

According to the calculations of the Bible, says Rabbi Gnut, the sun is reborn on the Wednesday marking the new cycle, at 6 am, but since the Jewish year is never exactly 365 days long, the blessing is not said every seven years but every 28 years. The last time the blessing was recited was in 1981.

The New York Jewish community is said to mark the event with two special services held just outside the United Nations and at a 17th-story penthouse overlooking ground zero (the site of the demolished World Trade Center).

The Orthodox Jewish Chabad Movement scheduled live web-casts from seven service locations as the sun moved across the time zones, starting at 8 am local time in New Zealand, followed by events in Australia, Jerusalem, London, New York, Colorado and Honolulu.

Adding my praise, with everyone else's. :)

More on Israel, Gaza, antisemitism and Armageddon

Although I have written before about having a "black" first name, I have never before written about having a Jewish last name, as I did for over 6 years.

I loved the combination, which made everybody just stare at me... and this was before Whoopi Goldberg became famous, using a similar fun name.

As I have written here, my father and I never got along, and I was therefore happy for the opportunity to dump his name. At age 19, I married a Jewish man, and decided it was my golden opportunity. I changed it as fast as I could. I didn't think twice. Good riddance, I thought, and I have never regretted it. [1]

I liked the double takes I got, from my African-American-associated first name, coupled with the Jewish last name. People would just *blink*--and it was fun and exotic to me.

At first, anyway.

I won't give the name here, but I will say the kind of name it is: Steinberg, Seinfeld, Silverman, Goldstein, Rosenthal. There isn't any question what kind of name it is. [2]

I like to think I catch on quick; it took me no time at all to figure out that there was significant negative fallout from having a Jewish surname. And I was totally unprepared for it. After all, I didn't grow up with the name. Who knew?

In school; on the job; in the Philadelphia airport or the Pittsburgh Greyhound depot; in a doctor or dentist's office; in an argument with some activists in D.C.... and countless other instances I have undoubtedly forgotten. The name would get exaggerated for effect: STEIN-BERG, dragged-out, an unexpected emphasis on the syllables, a certain weird facial expression... showing unmistakable surprise, quickly followed with barely-disguised contempt. A narrowing of the eyes, an unexpected glare or coldness from one who had been friendly only seconds before hearing the surname. In one instance, a superior who engaged in an ongoing, deliberate mispronouncing of the name in endless variations, virtually daring me to correct him.

I learned.

Therefore, let me assure you, I would never argue, in a million years, that antisemitism isn't real or is not a force to be reckoned with. In fact, over the years, I have repeatedly had to argue with skeptical, enlightened-liberal gentiles that YES, IT IS.

And so, in the giant monster thread over at Feministe (the first of a several-part series), I was more than willing to listen to David Schraub's analysis of how Israel's attack on Gaza, of which I have been very critical, must include an analysis of antisemitism.

Unfortunately, I don't think he made the case very well. Which isn't to say he isn't right.[3]

~*~

I moved south in 1987, where there are far fewer Jews than there are in the north, apart from certain long-standing enclaves in the cities (Charleston, Savannah, Atlanta)[4] and retirement areas (Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head). As in the movie Norma Rae (wherein Sally Field suddenly blurts out "You a Jew?"), there can be a free-floating hostility to Jews for reasons nobody can really explain. (In Norma Rae, she adds "I never met a Jew before! I thought yall had HORNS!") Since there has been so little previous interaction, the antisemitism is mixed with general xenophobia. Jews are regarded as weird strangers with strange ideas, and usually liberals.

But not always.

In moving to Greenville, South Carolina, I learned I was moving to a smallish southern town that had elected a Jewish mayor back in the 70s. (Max Heller)

You say what?! I was stunned; certainly, there are plenty of northern towns and cities that can't make that claim. At my first area gig, I learned that wasn't odd at all... local Baptists often regard Jews as special and 'chosen'...after all, they are Jesus Christ's own relatives. And from then on, I discovered a whole fundamentalist Christian cult around Jews and Jewishness, that I had not known existed.

This cultish devotion permeates modern Protestant evangelical theology today. It is most obvious in the whole LEFT BEHIND [5] cult, but is also apparent in the feverish obsession with eschatology in general.

And let me be very clear: this theology prizes the state of Israel, almost as much as it does the USA.

Israel is the crucial cornerstone of this theology. Without Israel, Christian end-times prophecies simply can not happen. Making sure these events DO happen, is regarded as one of the charges to fundamentalist and evangelical Christians; something they have literally conflated with The Great Commission.

Conservative writer Rod Dreher, back in 2002:

It may sound strange, but it's true: Aside from Jews, the strongest American supporters of Israel are Evangelical Christians, many of whom fervently believe God has granted the Jewish people a divine right to rule over historic Palestine. At times like the present, when the Jewish state is largely friendless in a hostile world, the Israelis depends on the backing of this politically potent bloc of American voters to exhort Washington to look favorably upon its interests.

"I think it would be fair to say that Evangelical support for Israel and its legitimate security interests has been paramount to Israel's support in Congress and in many administrations, second only to the Jewish Committee itself," says Republican political consultant Ralph Reed. "The Jewish community has played a strong role in keeping the Democratic party strongly pro-Israel, and Evangelicals have played a similar role among Republicans."

In 1998, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was then prime minister of Israel, was not falsely flattering an Evangelical audience in Washington when he said to them: "We have no greater friends and allies than the people sitting in this room." Indeed, as Columbia University religion scholar Randall Balmer puts it: "Evangelicals have been very charitable, to say the least, toward Israel, because they believe the Jews are the Chosen People of God, even though they failed to recognize Jesus as Messiah. They believe that God's promises to Israel are still good, and that any nation that doesn't line up with Israel is against God."

In this climate, to hold the opinion that Israel is out of line to attack Gaza, is to attack Christianity itself. (As one who took that position a couple of weeks ago, my subsequent emails are a testament to that very strong conviction.)

Thus, when I criticize Israel, I criticize the wedding of Christian theology to government... the unholy union of Church and State, which I think is unfailingly catastrophic for both Church and State, as history has repeatedly shown us.

I am very, very disappointed in David Schraub and other liberal apologists for Israel, who look the other way when this is pointed out to them.

My comments directed to Schraub (blogger at The Debate Link) during the Feministe brawl, echo my exasperation that the conversation remains focused on Israelis vs. Palestinians, overlooking that sticky issue of WHERE THE MONEY TO MAKE WAR COMES FROM in the first place. I was pretty much ignored by people (including Schraub) who don't want to look at that... and having just had a long and convoluted conversation with a fundamentalist Christian who wears a Star of David (really), I am then astounded to go to a thread wherein people say things like "Jews are hated by most"... say what?!?

The juxtaposition of these world-views (my daily-existence here in hyper-Baptist upstate SC/the version of reality reflected in the thread) makes me dizzy. Erasure does that to people. I finally get it: This is New York, the East coast, the West coast, people with highfalutin educations talking. They have no idea what's going on out here. Clueless as hell. They don't even know the lyrics to "Our God is an awesome God"--I should not be surprised. These were the people who were slack-jawed at Sarah Palin's rise; these are the people who argue about Gaza at elite cocktail parties, not with people of faith.

But you know, when you count the votes, they start to add up. There are a lot of us that don't live on the coasts. There are a lot of us who don't even go to fundamentalist churches, yet can give you the 1-2-3 of apocalyptic events, right after the Rapture. It's just osmosis. Of course we know. We know what the Book of Revelation says, what the antichrist is supposed to do, what the Tribulation will involve. This is second-nature if you live in certain corners of the south; how do you avoid hearing about it? I am Catholic, and I was officially told that the End of Days would be, you know (dismissive wave of the hand) a long time from now. I have never heard a single Catholic sermon on the End Times, unless it's to warn you to stop obsessing about it. (My priest, whom I have criticized here before, actually told people in our parish to stop reading the dopey Left Behind books, unless they properly understood it was all fiction.) Everything I know about the Rapture, was communicated to me via Bible tracts, personal conversation, radio, TV, emails, and numerous intense sermons delivered face-to-face.

And as I attempted to tell the intrepid David Schraub: These people are all 100% pro-Israel. Schraub talks about "gentile privilege"--and then refuses to see that the backing of Israel by these Christians, is part and parcel of that privilege.

On the tumultuous thread in question, I wrote:

And I believe an understanding of fundamentalist Christian prophecy, (The Book of Revelation, Armageddon, The Rapture and Tribulation, the antichrist, false prophets, et. al.) is necessary to understand exactly why many Christians will gladly pay any amount of money necessary to do what they believe is crucial to Israel’s survival, which of course means mowing down the heathens and infidels that surround it. No questions asked… I mean, that IS part of the prophecy…you know that, right?

I’m amazed at how many people don’t.

The Southern Baptist Convention (to name only the largest denomination that subscribes to these prophecies) has over 16 million members and more than 42,000 churches. And this isn’t counting the Sarah Palin Pentecostals and countless other fellow-traveler denominations. Now, imagine all those votes, from very politically active people, deciding where the money goes.

Do you see now?

And then David replied:

Daisy: I’ll be talking somewhat about the role Christians have been playing in constructing the norms of philo-Zionist discourse in America a little bit in parts III and IV (short answer, I think what they’re doing is horrific), but the better discussion would be found in my post Can Zionism Be Defended by Proxies?

And if you go to that linked post, you basically get David saying, Wow, we wish the wacko Christians wouldn't use us like that...

You sure?

Rod Dreher again:

...tens of millions of Protestant Christians (though not all Evangelicals) [believe in the Rapture], and they tend to back Israel with an uncritical fervor that exceeds that of even some American Jews. The Israeli government tapped this deep, unlikely vein of support in the 1970s, and has assiduously courted these Christians for a generation — especially because many self-described "Christian Zionists" back Israeli settlements in the occupied territories as part of God's prophetic plan. One of the leading Christian Zionist organizations is the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, a nondenominational Protestant group (without diplomatic standing) which established a presence in the Israeli capital in 1980.

"We're trying daily to encourage the Israeli people," says Susan Michael, director of ICEJ's Washington office. "The Israelis are very depressed. We want to let them know that they have friends who understand the battle they're in."

Esther Levens is a Jew and a Kansas Republican who founded an ecumenical group called National Unity Coalition for Israel, a network of over 200 Jewish and Christian congregations who pray for, donate to and lobby on behalf of the Jewish state. She chides American Jews for being "a little short-sighted" in not properly valuing the efforts Christian conservatives make for Israel.

What is David Schraub saying to Esther Levens and her friends? Anything?

I replied, in part:

David–no offense, but I found a lot lacking in that post you linked to. I’ll be writing more about this myself, because I think it’s a major paradox that needs illuminating when we discuss these issues.

If you want to discuss “gentile privilege”–then understanding that the present agenda has little to do with you, and everything to do with the gentiles, is a necessary first step. You don’t seem ready to do that, since this discomfiting reality disturbs you. Of course, the gentiles will use Israel as the gentiles see fit. That’s what privilege is.

FACT: Zionists are actively collaborating with hard-line fundamentalist Christians, who seek to bring about the conditions necessary for the Second Coming. Period. You don’t get to tell them to back off. They have the privilege, remember? They are calling the shots; you have helped to create a monster. What are you going to do about that, besides pointing at Rick Warren and Mike Huckabee and going “Ew!” –? (PS: They don’t care what you think, they have a prophecy to fulfill.)

You have reminded me of the joke about the southern Baptist preacher who was asked if he believed in infant Baptism.

“Are you kidding?” he said, “I’ve SEEN it done!”

…

“Can Zionism be defended by Proxies?”

“Are you kidding? I’ve SEEN it done!”

Of course, this whole discussion is far from over, and Part II up already, titled Anti-Semitism and Subordination Part II: The Myth of Jewish Hyper-Power...in which Schraub writes:

Folks talk about the way the Christian Evangelical community defends Israel. But as far as I’m concerned, their defenses are anti-Semitic too – the glee they hold at the prospect of Israel being the front-line of the “clash of civilizations” is taking pleasure in Jews dying for their cause.

No, their defenses are not textbook antisemitism... again, Schraub doesn't live here, and has obviously never spoken to these people he thinks he knows.

It is IDEALIZATION of Jews that marks the Evangelical approach, the idea that they are the Chosen People and can therefore do no wrong. [6]

The dominance of the Christian narratives amongst the defenses of Israel considered acceptable in the global sphere isn’t proof of Jewish power, but Jewish irrelevancy. Our voice gets superseded by Christian speakers who claim to be speaking on our behalf, but in fact are articulating a vision of “pro-Israel” that is very hostile to Jewish interests (this is one of the reasons I find groups like AIPAC allying with such speakers to be utterly unforgivable).

How is supporting Israel hostile to Jewish interests? In my humble opinion, that appears to be THE major Jewish interest right now, as evidenced by Schraub's whole series.

~*~


By coincidence, I wrote some of this when I was exhausted from cleaning up a huge mess of Acai berry juice, cheerfully flung across the floor of the store where I toil... by a 3-year-old ball of energy, a human pinball he was, bouncing off the walls and into the produce bins.

"Zion!" his mama kept calling, sternly, "Zion!"

Zion's beleaguered mama was wearing Quiverfull clothes and had five or six other energetic children to tend to.

In short, I very much doubt his name was a reference to THE MATRIX.




~*~



[1] I have been married three times, and I have had three last names. This, of course, echoes my mother, married four times, with four names. She always told me, if you want to be cool, you have the right to use all of them together, just as the Hollywood media has sometimes referred to my idol as Elizabeth Taylor Hilton Wilding Todd Fisher Burton Warner Fortensky. Sometimes, I like to put them all together like that, just to see how it sounds. It makes me sound either like a floozy or worldly, can't decide which.

(Since Liz was married to Richard Burton twice, does that mean we should repeat "Burton" twice? Do any of you Miss Manners fans know the answer to that one?)

[2] Lots of jolly fun at THIS WEBSITE... where you can find out the ethnic derivation of names, and where in the world they are concentrated. My maiden name, for instance, is most concentrated in Waimate District, New Zealand and Leeds in the UK.

This website is as addicting as Hershey's Kisses and you will eventually end up entering every name you know.

[3] Other participants in the thread asked why we had to talk about antisemitism, specifically. What about the concurrent hatred of the people under attack? Are we discussing hatred of Palestinians also? I think this is an excellent point, never sufficiently addressed by Schraub. In any event, I am putting this question on the back-burner for now, to better address my subject. But I do want to acknowledge the importance of this point, and underscore it here.

[4] For those who don't know about the lynching of Jewish factory-owner Leo Frank in Atlanta in 1915, educate yourselves.

[5] The co-author of these billion-selling books, Tim LaHaye, is a famous alumni of Bob Jones University, frequent subject of this blog.

[6] I find this whole sentiment to be reminiscent of the ancient claims about the Merovingian monarchs, recently popularized by the novel, The Da Vinci Code. The concept was that the Merovingian kings of France were actual descendants from the bloodline of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. If this were true, of course, overthrowing them would have been 'blasphemous' and impossible. (This is likely one reason that the royal family never debunked the rumors, even as they regarded themselves as devout Catholics.)

The Evangelical concept that Jews are "Jesus' family" and (as I once heard a local preacher say) have "His actual blood running through their veins"--seems based on the mystical idea that Jews are holy simply by virtue of being related to God Himself. And if Israel is their ancestral home, then Israel is holy, too, and must be defended at all costs.

Odds and Sods - SAD edition

Yes, folks, SEASONAL AFFECTIVE DISORDER (SAD) is real, although it's so common that I don't know if it should even be called a DISORDER. As I peruse the blogs, I see that several people have the winter-blahs, and it's a quite common refrain.

To me, SAD is just another vestige of our primitive past; another useful evolutionary adaptation that we no longer need. Just like that deadly love of fats and carbohydrates... which incidentally, also shoots up like a rocket during the winter. Without these adaptations, we'd all be dead--and don't you forget it... as you gnaw away on chocolate-chip cookies, blaming your munchies on football.

If we hadn't turned soporific and holed up deep inside the cave to sleep away the winter, well, we'd have frozen our Northern-European asses off. And so now, we just want to... well...yawn...(Insert Cowardly Lion voice, as he galloped through the poppy fields with Dorothy: "Come to think of it, forty winks wouldn't be bad!")

Some future day, they'll have this brain chemistry thing all figured out and they'll give us all a shot on New Year's Day, particularly if we have too many of the telltale Northern European genes: "These people are a MESS--they really need to be hibernating!" And poof!--the SAD will all go away. In the meantime, if you don't want to engage Big Pharm, I can recommend the herb Rhodiola, which our ancestors called Golden Root and the Swedes wisely stockpiled for such purposes. I would also add Ashwanghanda and Ginseng, which I (honestly) never leave home without.

And I don't promise these herbs can completely overcome a million years of evolution, either, as BigPharm promises...but you might at least come out of the cave for a few hours, and maybe even function on a fair-to-middling level.

Meanwhile, been checking out the blogs today...


Photo from Movie Crunch.


G of Doves Today writes very well about working at an elite award event in Southern Cal:

"Okay," said my friend, "it's getting close to showtime. Let's check the lobby." And we turned to go out the side door.

Only there was a group of people coming through the door. We stepped back so they could pass us. Oh. It was Them.

Yes, you know who They are!

She's really tiny. He's tall. Her skin is flawless. He's....I'm speechless.

I could never do such work for a living, because I might well involuntarily scream like some silly teenybopper... or as one person commented, giggle insanely.

~*~

mirabile dictu quotes Naomi Klein at The Nation:

Every day that Israel pounds Gaza brings more converts to the BDS cause, and talk of cease-fires is doing little to slow the momentum. Support is even emerging among Israeli Jews. In the midst of the assault roughly 500 Israelis, dozens of them well-known artists and scholars, sent a letter to foreign ambassadors stationed in Israel. It calls for “the adoption of immediate restrictive measures and sanctions” and draws a clear parallel with the antiapartheid struggle. “The boycott on South Africa was effective, but Israel is handled with kid gloves.… This international backing must stop.”

Yet even in the face of these clear calls, many of us still can’t go there. The reasons are complex, emotional and understandable. And they simply aren’t good enough.

~*~

An environmentalist was on TV talking about how he didn't throw anything away FOR A YEAR.

He said what?! I musta heard that wrong.

No, I heard him right. A whole year. And then there was a video report, showing... oh holy God, WORMS in his basement. WORMS. He said they kept it extremely clean, gobbling up all the organic waste matter, like uneaten food. (((screams)))

How did he sleep, knowing there were worms down there?

Here is Sustainable Dave's blog about his year-long experiment, suitably named 365 Days of Trash.

If we require worms close by, I don't know if I can be a good environmentalist. (shame)

~*~

The fabulous and always-honest Sage at Persephone's Box, writes about one of my favorite subjects, friendship... notably the differences between male and female friendships:

What about women as friends? While the guys are falling in love with me or trying to seduce me, the women are protecting their turf against me. Tanya won't do anything without her husband there, and then they just talk together the entire night. Alice got upset when I spoke directly to her boyfriend the day after I had given birth. I was working on sitting comfortably, and she was accusing me of trying to steal her fella. Then there's Jane. I share an office with Paul, Joe and Jane, and I've been hanging out alone in my classroom lately.

Jane and I have been sort-of friends for a decade or so. We work together and sometimes drink together with the guys there, but we never get into really heavy conversations. I never seem to with women I meet in real life, unfortunately. She had a long affair with another teacher who just retired. In the months before he was leaving, she changed dramatically. If I so much as exchanged pleasantries with him, she'd jump up and actually stand between us. I let it go because it was obviously a difficult time for her.

One of the good things about aging is that these things happen to me less and less often, if ever. (And you know, I can truthfully say I don't miss this sorta stuff at all. It is so nice to have women friends who don't assume you are after their husbands.)

Why are women often so jealous of other women? Is this the fault of the pat... uhhhh, the kyriarchy, or is this in ourselves and our own fears of not measuring up? Both? It continues to puzzle me, and as I age and step away from such interpersonal feuds, I find it is now safe to examine these conflicts closer. And I come back to the same conclusion, always: we can not have success in our feminist endeavors, until we STOP.

And speaking of feminism, the best for last:

I often cover the nasty ideological wars in feminist Blogdonia, but I rarely mention it when people discover common ground and rise above their differences. Thus, it gives me enormous pleasure to note that yes, IT DOES HAPPEN! Check out these inspiring posts by Renegade Evolution and Ginmar, who have decided that they can agree to disagree, WITH RESPECT! Because they know they are coming from the same place, deep concern for women. As Ginmar writes:

[Renegade Evolution] was appalled at the way prostitutes, dancers, and other workers were treated, as if all they were were sexual things to be used. In story after story, I noticed that prostitutes were referred to as prostitutes, by the number of times they'd been arrested. I wanted to know where they grew up, what books they liked, what they wanted to be in high school, who they were. The answer the newspapers and judges and others gave was this: she was a prostitute, so it didn't matter. Some of them were desperate women. Some chose the life. Some were trafficked into it. There were so many problems that they had to be distilled to orders of importance, and at the top of the heap was the important one: what is best for women? What do they want? Not deciding for them, but asking them.

There's no perfection in people, and thank God, because nobody I know would meet the standard. We'd all be without friends and have nothing but enemies and judges. But I now have fewer enemies and it feels good. I feel my energy refocused on what's important, what bedevils us all, and clarity feels so good.

Ren Ev and I will disagree. But once you start talking to someone, it's amazing what you can agree on.

Awesomeness! (((Daisy cries copious hippie-peacenik tears!)))

What is great about these posts (AND YOU MUST READ THEM ALL!) is how they show us that we can learn from disagreements... they aren't always "bad"...what is usually "bad" is how we react to disagreement, not the disagreement itself.

~*~

Wow, all that reading just wore my ass out... time to go back in the cave, turn on LAW AND ORDER and chew on some (organic, of course) chocolate-chip cookies...