Tuesday Link Encyclopedia and Self-Promotion

~ Clarissa

“If Western leaders believe Ukraine is asui generis crisis that, once resolved, will allow them to focus on other things, they had better think again.” So true. In their reaction both to the Israeli/Palestinian and Russian/Ukrainian conflicts, the West just wants the conflicting sides to shut up and go away because the noise they are making prevents the West to wallow in delicious contemplation of its imaginary misry.

“According to a poll released yesterday by CNN, the nine leading prospective 2016 GOP presidential candidates all barely hit double-digits among Republican and independent voters.” Hello, President Hillary!

“The ACA requires insurance companies to spend at least 85% of premium revenue on medical care. What’s good for the goose, is good for the gander. Require any institution that has students that are getting federal loans to spend 85% on “instruction.” Otherwise, no student loans.” Hear, hear!

It takes all I’ve got not to wish PUPPPS on idiots who drawl, “I can’t say I really understand what motivates people to go through this stuff” about women who are trying to avoid pregnancy.

“Sadly, our systems are increasingly set up to let the greedy and jealous grab and hold power.” Yes, because in the past “our systems” were set to let the altruistic and generous to grab and hold power. And of course, this is written by a white guy, who else?

The best concluding sentence to an article, ever: “The evidence continues to accumulate that the Pope is Catholic. Sooner or later even the press will figure this out.”

“The British government announced today that it will hold a public inquiry into the murder of KGB agent-turned-dissident Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned with radioactive polonium in London in 2006.” Because now, suddenly, that murder became a crime and the millions brought to the UK by bandits from Russia are not looking as attractive?

“There is dissent in Putin’s inner circle. Alexei Kudrin, a close associate of the Russian President and a member of his presidential economic council, issued a warning that Russia is going in the wrong direction in an interview with Itar-Tass, a state-run news agency.” There is no “dissent.” This guy wouldn’t offer a squeak without an order from Putin. Let’s wake up already and stop projecting.

“Scan the New York Times bestseller list and you’ll find plenty of mysteries and thrillers. A novel about two children during the Second World War. A female protagonist dealing with substance abuse. Not a single novel about children whose parents can’t find work and must subsist on wits and government handouts. No stories about a carpenter living in his car with his family, chasing across the country in search of any kind of work.” Yes, it seems like all everybody wants to read are escapist fantasies. And that’s just sad.

“By running an experiment among Germans collecting their passports or ID cards in the citizen centers of Berlin, we find that individuals with an East German family background cheat significantly more on an abstract task than those with a West German family background. The longer individuals were exposed to socialism, the more likely they were to cheat on our task.” Tell me about it.

I had no idea there were still folks who are dense enough to believe that the conflict between Israel and Palestine has anything to do with religion: “These people are fighting a conflict based almost entirely on their differing religious views, and the fact that people are still killing each other over the belief that their faith is right while all others are false is shameful and should not be supported or excused by rational people.”

“The tragedy of MH17 should be a wake-up call to Western leaders to stop dragging their feet and to take decisive action against Putin the pariah.” Pariah??? Putin is swooned over in Latin America, welcomed in China, and secretly adored by the EU. Wishful thinking should have its limits.

“How many women *never* orgasm?” None, of course. Those whose conscious prohibition against sexual pleasure is too high experience it in sleep.

“My view is that what the Russians did in Crimea, in particular, was disturbing but probably not all that serious at the same time.” If this issue is not that serious to you (which is a perfectly legitimate approach to take) then maybe it’s a good idea not to write thousands of garbled and stupid words on this frivolous and insignificant little affair.

What this silly photographer doesn’t get is that this isn’t USSR in decay. It is what USSR was like the entire time.

Unknown's avatar

Published by Clarissa

24 thoughts on “Tuesday Link Encyclopedia and Self-Promotion”

  1. // “How many women *never* orgasm?” None, of course. Those whose conscious prohibition against sexual pleasure is too high experience it in sleep.

    But if they don’t remember ever experiencing sexual pleasure, does it matter whether they supposedly had it in their sleep (without remembering it) or not? From their pov, they never orgasmed.

    // I had no idea there were still folks who are dense enough to believe that the conflict between Israel and Palestine has anything to do with religion:

    Here too:

    An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind

    Btw, I have been reading a blog of an intelligent, talented USA Muslim woman for several years. Only recently she began refering to Israel and I have already heard that “Israeli Jews are all European (others don’t count), thus are priviledged by USA and the world” and “IDF targets civilians, while Hamas – only Israeli soldiers.” And she honestly believes all of that. If even the best, brightest Muslims can’t see through feelings and espouse such views … It’s not like she couldn’t support Palestinians, while not saying untrue things about Israel

    Like

    Reply

    1. “But if they don’t remember ever experiencing sexual pleasure, does it matter whether they supposedly had it in their sleep (without remembering it) or not? ”

      – Of course. We often choose to repress a lot of things but that doesn’t make them any less real.

      Like

      Reply

  2. Anti-Semitic protests in Netherlands last week were marked by a terrifying new symbol: the black flag of ISIS. Young descendants of Muslim immigrants, many of them Moroccan, gathered in The Hague, ostensibly to protest the war in Gaza. But the protest became much broader, with protestors flying ISIS’ flag and shouting “Death to the Jews” or “The French killed the Moroccans but they didn’t kill them all; the grandchildren of the few men left protest against the West, America and the Jews.”
    http://www.the-american-interest.com/blog/2014/07/28/isis-flag-appears-at-european-protests/

    (There is a link to the full article inside the 1st link)

    Interesting that they refer to France too, and to the West in general
    While living in the horrible West
    If any extremist wanted to do a terror act in France, he would just need to hop the train

    Badtux has told how his old town was destroyed by racism after desegregation:

    Death in the bayous

    I suppose, looking at people like the above-mentioned protesters “helps” (at least, some of) Europeans to to dismantle their social safety nets (and go down themselves),

    Like

    Reply

  5. Clarissa, have you watched or heard about the movies?

    режиссёр Александр Сокуров – тетралогия власти: «Молох» — «Телец» — «Солнце» — «Фауст».

    «Молох» — about Адольф Гитлер и Ева Браун

    «Телец» — Действие картины происходит на протяжении одного летнего дня 1923 года в Горках, где тяжело больной Ленин проводит последние месяцы своей жизни в окружении бестолковой прислуги и многочисленной охраны, главная задача которой — надёжная изоляция его от внешнего мира.

    «Солнце» — В фильме отображён император Сёва (Хирохито) в последние дни Второй мировой войны. Он показан как человек, который хочет показать что он такой же, как и все его подданные (божественное происхождение императоров Японии), который может заниматься любимым делом, который хочет преобразований, который может вести себя в тяжёлой, мягко говоря, ситуации разумно. Вместе с этим показана трагедия маленького романтического человека находящегося при власти и, как следствие, трагедия всего народа Японии.

    Like

    Reply

  6. Every once in a while, Gawker comes up with something good.

    http://gawker.com/thought-leaders-are-not-behind-the-times-1611959487

    “Newspaper editorial boards are like the Wizard of Oz. Pull back the curtain, and you’ll find it’s nothing more than a conference room full of rumpled moderates chewing over whether it’s safe to embrace things that bolder minds long ago began taking for granted. On the issue of marijuana, High Times is much more of a “thought leader” than the New York Times will ever be. A thought leader should be ahead of the mainstream, staking out righteous positions that others are too timid to endorse. Only after thought leaders stake out these positions do members of polite society, like the New York Times editorial board, venture forth and agree. Both the thought leaders and the timid followers have important roles to play in public discourse, but we should not confuse one for the other. “

    Like

    Reply

    1. Very good article. The NYTimes work process described here reminded me of why I’m avoiding academic conferences nowadays. There is a limit to how much painfully obvious statements delivered with the grandiosity of true trailblazing one can process.

      Like

      Reply

  7. “No stories about a carpenter living in his car with his family, chasing across the country in search of any kind of work.” ”

    A young Australian couple and their dog died in their car whilst looking for work recently. They had a gas warmer on overnight and they died because of it.

    Like

    Reply

  10. I liked the above article about United States’ influence, but what was of interest were the several comments about the falseness of “Israeli settlements preventing peace”. One of them linked to

    The ever-growing settlements
    http://warped-mirror.com/2012/04/10/the-ever-growing-settlements/

    The comments:

    “additional homes beyond the Green Line are within boundaries that have been fixed since Oslo. They reinforce Jewish presence within those boundaries (this is about where Jews may live after all) but do not reduce land available for the new Palestine. What is suspicious is the use of these new homes as an excuse to not negotiate; this was taken up by the P.A. but encouraged by President Obama himself. If the land available was shrinking AND the P.A. desire was for a state as soon as possible, they would be hell-bent on negotiation.”

    “Settlements were never an issue for Arafat and it was Obama who made them an issue for Abbas. Abbas was livid when Obama publicly asked for a settlement freeze; livid because he (Abbas) could not afford to appear to be less Palestinian than Obama, thus forcing Abbas to make settlements an issue. Everyone has always known what “settlements” would remain part of Israel and what areas would go to the Palestinians. Furthermore, arguing in the alternative, even if Israel was making a land grab, doesn’t it have the right to? The land is disputed territory, not “occupied territory,” as there has never previously existed a Palestinian state. And if the Palestinians keep refusing peace offers, as they did in 1948, ’67, 2000, and 2008, why shouldn’t Israel develop the land?”

    Like

    Reply

    1. Freezing settlements prevents peace. Killing civilians and bombing power plants in the middle of summer, so (among other things) people can’t charge their cellphones to take pictures of your war crimes. Now that fosters peace.

      Welcome to el world!

      “But our politicians said on TV that they didn’t do anything wrong!”

      Like

      Reply

  14. Israel and the US secretly decided that Israel will agree to a gradual lifting of the blockade on Gaza Strip, starting with the land crossings and eventually opening up sea traffic. … Under the agreement, Israeli will not oppose the transfer of salaries to Hamas civil workers in Gaza and will allow for the rehabilitation of the Strip with the use of international assistance.[…] The issue of the Strip’s demilitarization, which Israel demanded during Operation Protective Edge, will most likely not be included in the accord developing in Cairo.
    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4560083,00.html

    The result of the above is:

    ‘For first time in years, we’ve seen support for Hamas increase and bypass Fatah in West Bank,’ analysis says, after 66 percent of West Bankers said they believe Mashal played a ‘positive’ role during Gaza war while only 13% said same about Abbas.
    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4560121,00.html

    Like

    Reply

  15. This article is a kind of propaganda, yet the facts and excerpts in it were interesting:

    New Swedish Law Criminalizes Anti-immigration Internet Speech
    http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/europe/item/18116-new-swedish-law-criminalizes-anti-immigration-internet-speech

    I especially liked the last example of which speech is protected and which not:

    In January 2002 … a district court sentenced neo-Nazi Fredrik Sandberg to six months in prison for publishing a Third-Reich-era pamphlet (“The Jewish Question”). But four years later, the official who initiated that case (Swedish Chancellor of Justice Göran Lambertz) discontinued an investigation into the Stockholm Central Mosque regarding its distribution of tapes that encouraged Muslims to kill Jews, described therein as “the brothers of apes and pigs.” His legal justification? “[Such statements] should be judged differently — and therefore be regarded as permissible — because they were used by one side in an ongoing and far-reaching conflict where calls to arms and insults are part of the everyday climate in the rhetoric that surrounds this conflict.”

    Like

    Reply

  17. Now I began reading those 11 myths and Myth#8 includes a stupid statement:

    “. Observers often point out that Gazan leaders chose violence, and they got a full Israeli withdrawal in 2005, but West Bank leaders have chosen peaceful compromise, and their reward has been ever-expanding settlements and occupation. ”

    This withdrawal was done for Israel, and some claim it was on the whole damaging (rather than rewarding) to Gazans and Palestinians in general.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment