I don’t have time for a full-scale link encyclopedia but I have these two really great links that I want to share with you.
The first link is to a piece on the horrible damage caused by spanking. The author doesn’t want any comments and I think we need to respect her wishes. I only want to say that I deeply admire somebody who finds the strength to speak out so poignantly and powerfully against a widely spread form of abuse:
Spanking completely eliminated my parents’ trustworthiness and credibility in my eyes. It never once even occurred to me that they might want to protect me from outside threats. It never once even occurred to me that they might have my best interests in mind. It never once even occurred to me that there might be a good reason for any rules they set out. It never once even occurred to me that if I was having a big problem with other adults I could go to them. I never saw them as an ally, always as a threat or an obstacle. All in the name of…what? I don’t even remember what the alleged infractions were that I was being spanked for in the first place!
Let’s stop using the coy word “spanking” and call this brutal and abusive act what it is: beating, child abuse, brutalization of a small human being.
The next link is a very powerful and intelligent piece on Bradley Manning. This is definitely the best article I have read about Manning. This is what the author has to say to the people who have been chirping about how they are disappointed with Manning’s apology for his actions:
And some people dare to be “disappointed” or “puzzled” or “upset.” I cannot properly express the depth of my contempt for such people. Do they honestly believe that, against the background of Manning’s remarkable, incredibly courageous actions and the fate he now faces, anyone gives a shit about their feelings? That any decent human being gives a shit that they’re “disappointed”? Fuck your disappointment. Fuck you. To express “disappointment” and the like is to confess that you may have grown to adulthood physically, but that you have allowed yourself to become fossilized emotionally in a state one might expect from a pathetically narcissistic, very badly damaged adolescent, with no understanding of how human beings actually live their lives or how societies function.
I can only say: a thousand times yes. And it’s time we started seeing a difference between a Hollywood movie and life.
Clarissa's Blog 
Have you begun reading the 2nd blog long ago? The blogger has written many interesting posts, f.e. about children. Loved this post:
http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.co.il/2006/10/politics-of-lies-suffer-children.html
And here is a collection of links:
http://thesacredmoment.blogspot.co.il/2006/02/essays-based-on-work-of-alice-miller.html
“how cruelty to children, both physical and/or psychological — cruelty in the form of not paying attention to the child’s genuine needs, and demanding obedience above all — prevents the formation of an authentic self, and how that lack of a true self can then be enlisted in the service of dangerous and destructive ideologies.”
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Can you recommend several more great blogs, like the 2nd one linked in the post, please?
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I don’t even know how I came across it or when. And then suddenly I noticed it sitting there in the midst of my sprawling blogroll. It is very good, indeed.
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Another 2 great posts:
When Life and Happiness Are Not Enough: The Tragedy of the Unborn Self
http://thesacredmoment.blogspot.co.il/2004/06/when-life-and-happiness-are-not-enough.html
Reminded me of you telling your life goal was to have fun.
THE ROOTS OF HORROR: Mel Gibson, A Public Case Study in Obedience and Denial
http://thesacredmoment.blogspot.co.il/2004/02/roots-of-horror-mel-gibson-public-case.html
Why people adopt and cling to (usually others’) death to horrible ideologies.
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Btw, in the 1st link the blogger presents the lie of “neo conservatives want small government.” By “conservatives” here one doesn’t mean “supporting capitalism”, but rather a certain kind of ideology made clear in the post.
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I also read her post about Gaza and Israel:
http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.co.il/2012/11/let-us-now-speak-plainly.html
Do you agree? What is for Israel to do realistically?
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Well, that depends on what the goal is, of course.
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What do you mean by “the goal”? I don’t think 1 country solution is possible or wanted by either people, so the goal is strong Israel with good relations with countries around us, including Palestinians.
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If the goal is independent Palestine, as you suggest, then the first step would be to grant it independence. I’m not quite sure whose goal that is, though. 🙂
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“If the goal is independent Palestine, as you suggest, then the first step would be to grant it independence. I’m not quite sure whose goal that is, though.”
Simply granting Palestine independence would be the quickest way to destroy the Palestinian people. Realistically, they’ll either devolve into civil war along clan or other lines and/or do something monumentally like declare war on Israel and get their asses handed to them and everybody’s right back where we started…
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My goal is:
“strong Israel with good relations with countries around us”
NOT
“independent Palestine, which will still use terror attacks against Israel”
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You said “with good relations with countries around us, including Palestinians.” To me that sounded like Palestine was supposed to be a country.
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I care more what Israel will be and want real peace, security and good economy in Israel.
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Of course, everybody wants for everything to be good and for nothing to be bad but this is too vague of a goal.
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// Of course, everybody wants for everything to be good and for nothing to be bad but this is too vague of a goal.
No terror attacks in Israel via normalization of relations with Arabs is “too vague a goal”?!
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The point is that the blogger described Gaza as a concentration camp and there is much truth in those words. But how can Israel stop this AND not to have number of terror attacks go sky high?
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You think that the blockade of Gaza is maintained in order to PREVENT terrorist attacks??
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Do you think Israelis want more of them?
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The ones who created the blockade and are maintaining it are obviously not trying to generate any good will.
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On another topic:
http://www.thegailygrind.com/2013/08/19/transgender-woman-brutally-attacked-by-5-russian-neo-nazi-men-video/
A recent poll by Pew Research Center found that three out of every four Russians say society should not accept homosexuality. The percentage of those who think homosexuality should be accepted dropped 4% since 2007, from 20% to 16%.
In March, Levada Public Opinion Center reported that 85 percent of Russian adults said they were strongly against a law that would allow same-sex marriage. They also found that supporters of same-sex marriage in Russia fell from 14% to just 5% over the past three years. On the other side of the spectrum, some expressed strong opposition to homosexuality: 16 percent of those polled suggested that homosexuals should be isolated from society, 22 percent said that the treatment of homosexuality must be made compulsory, and 5 percent said that homosexuals should be ‘exterminated.’
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