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Sunday Link Encyclopedia

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November 1, 2015

A horribly offensive Halloween photo that is causing an uproar at the University of Louisville.

[Russian] The truth about the Russian airplane that crashed yesterday. It was a very dilapidated vehicle.

[Spanish] Zygmunt Bauman has written a weepy, useless article on the refugee crisis. But he’s a genius, he’s allowed an occasional blubber.

Cecile Richards says something deeply stupid. Color me unsurprised.

Feminism today doesn’t cease to amaze. But not in a good way. A feminist website is defending the interests of. . . deadbeat dads. [Just a small warning: there are few groups of people I detest more than fathers who don’t pay child support. It’s useless to try to defend them on this blog.]

Here is a fascinating discussion of the “shadow CV” concept. Please remind me to write my own version.

Ferguson effect, schmerguson schmefect. The crime is on the rise here in St. Louis is on the rise because it’s always on the rise here. There is a million reasons, and they are not Ferguson.

Fertility and the fate of nations. Long, detailed, and fascinating.

Dogs shoot people, too!

After just 9 days without sugar, extremely obese kids see an improvement in their metabolism and lose weight!

Dan Savage hates women with a fiery passion.

Your junk mail shows if you are rich or poor.

The open borders fantasy.

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36 responses to “Sunday Link Encyclopedia”

Dreidel

November 1, 2015

“Your junk mail shows if you are rich or poor (or maybe, if you’re old).”

The vast majority of the junk mail I get falls into three groups:

Invitations to free dinners by idiots who think they know more about investing my retirement income than I do. (If they’re so smart, how come they’re still working, and I’m not?)

Offers from civilian Medicare Plus plans like Blue Cross and Blue Shield, who think their plans can save me the costs of co-payments and prescription medication. (My military record is on the Internet — meaning I don’t pay a dime for ANY Medicare over-costs or prescriptions. I guess it’s cheaper to for those private companies to pay the petty postage for bulk mail than to do a little Google research.)

I also get the occasional advertisement for various “hearing advancement” devices — they aren’t legally permitted to label their product hearing aids — inviting me to their offices for a “free” hearing test. But as long as I can watch “Law & Order” reruns without turning up the TV enough to scare my cat, I figure my ears are doing okay.

The USPS should thank God that it’s allowed to carry first and second class junk mail, and that the private carriers like UPS and FedEx aren’t. (You want to talk about free-market capitalism — in an open, free market, the USPS wouldn’t last a week!)

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1. Clarissa
  
  November 1, 2015
  
  Truly, you live, you learn. Why is it illegal to call them hearing aids??
  
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  1. Dreidel
    
    November 1, 2015
    
    “Why is it illegal to call them hearing aids??”
    
    Bear with me., Clarissa. You asked me what time it is, and I’m going to expound on what it takes to make a watch. :=)
    
    “Hearing aids,” labeled as such, have to pass certain government tests as to their efficiency. “Hearing enhancement devices,” like so-called “homeopathic medical treatments,” are except from government tests, and can make any ludicrous claims on television and in print that they choose. It’s ridiculous that such snake oil products can still slither through regulated medical laws today.
    
    Chiropractors are a good example. I recently saw a chiropractic newspaper ad that claimed it could treat “heart dis-ease,” “back dis-ease,” “neurological dis-ease,” etc. Notice the hyphens that convert the word “disease” into the nonsense term “DIS-EASE” (at best, a ridiculous synonym for distress)? Alas, many readers won’t.
    
    Still, I really don’t have contempt for the world around me. All my life, the world has demonstrated an amazing ability to survive and endure, while my own personal combination of privilege and personal drive has served me very well.
    
    But I’ve learned along the way that much of what I’ve held dear is nonsensical. At my age, it’s time to take the cash and let the credit go. That explains my politics and my worldview, and it doesn’t really bother me if other decent humans (like certain of the sincere commenters on your blog with different life experiences than mine) don’t get it.
    
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    1. Jones
      
      November 1, 2015
      
      … yes, but didn’t Zizek once say that you should “enjoy your symptom”? 🙂
      
      DIS-EASE must be eradicated as a form of a LACK OF EASE!
      
      [your comfort will now be compulsory]
      
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      1. Dreidel
        
        November 1, 2015
        
        Ah, Jones, you’re interested in the study of chiropractic medicine, and how its “practitioners” eradicate DIS-EASE. Here’s an example of one of their quacks “adjusting” the twisted spine of a suffering two-ton elephant:
        
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el

November 1, 2015

Do you agree with:

\ The borders are not drawn taking into account differences; the differences are sought, found or invented based on borders that have been drawn, or at least so said and profusely illustrated the great Norwegian anthropologist Fredrik Barth in his magnum opus ethnic groups and borders. The social organization of cultural difference (published in 1969).

?

As far as I see, it may have worked this way during foundation of some European states, but in the current Middle East I see the opposite situation. Like in Syria or Kurds in Turkey, where the same borders are not sufficient to get rid of differences and / or of desire to have one’s own nation state.

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1. Clarissa
  
  November 1, 2015
  
  Yes, of course, national differences are invented and cultivated very purposefully. With time, however, they become a self-fulfilling prophecy. People actually begin to mold themselves into the manufactured stereotypes of national character. Just like men or women mold themselves into the current gender model and it becomes real for them because they are so invested in believing it is real.
  
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Jones

November 1, 2015

I’ve transitioned the handling of my physical mail to people I can trust to do it well, so I have very little in the way of what you’d call “junk mail” …

I do, however, have rather odd E-mail junk right now: breezy travel mail from Heathrow, an offer to win a DJ mixing controller, a hotel booking agency’s offer to scare me with their savings (or usually, their general lack of any), British Airways offering to give me more Avios, American Airlines informing me that I have enough points to fly back to England, Kobo yet again trying to get me to buy some dodgy novels I don’t want even with a discount, and ten separate E-mail warnings that I will soon have no funds whatsoever in various American banking accounts that I’m finally clearing out.

So does the relative lack of “junk mail” make me richer than rich? 🙂

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Bob Basil

November 1, 2015

I would LOVE to read your “shadow CV,” Clarissa!

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el

November 2, 2015

When it hits close to home (literally), I truly want those animals dead:

Stabbing attacks return to central Israel
Three wounded, including 80-year-old, by knife attack in Rishon LeZion; 71-year-old stabbed in Netanya.
…
The journey by car from Hebron to Rishon LeZion is about 100 kilometers. Rishon LeZion is around 20 kilometers from Tel Aviv.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4719646,00.html

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1. Clarissa
  
  November 2, 2015
  
  What a horrible tragedy. I’m sorry for the victims and for these young people who didn’t find any reason to live and develop peacefully.
  
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el

November 2, 2015

Having high % of religious people does influence politics (both in Israel and in USA, as I noticed). Frightening to think what will happen if Israel has much higher % of religious (who will bring religion into politics / life for everybody) in the future:

Minister urges population transfer: For stray cats
If it wasn’t printed in black and white on an official document you may have thought this was a joke, but Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel (Habayit Hayehudi) was completely serious when he offered up his unique solution to the street cat problem: Population transfer.
[…]
Ariel believes that there is a Halachic (Jewish Law) problem with the current method being used to combat the issue of stray animals – spaying and neutering the animals to prevent population growth- due to concerns for their well being, and the fact that God blessed all the animals when he decreed “go forth and multiply in the land of Israel.”
[…]
The revelation that the minister plans to shutter the program led MK Tamar Zandberg (Meretz) to write a letter to Ariel – urging him to reinstate the program.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4719639,00.html

Habayit Hayehudi is a religious Righ-wing party, Meretz is a fringe small extrememly Left-wing and secular party.

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1. Dreidel
  
  November 5, 2015
  
  “solution to the street cat problem: Population transfer.”
  
  Israel would benefit greatly from a forced population transfer of certain harmful elements — but they aren’t CATS.
  
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el

November 2, 2015

«Хитом» продаж на книжных прилавках Швеции стали недавно опубликованные дневники создательницы Карлсона и Пеппи-Длинныйчулок, шведской писательницы Астрид Линдгрен. Блогер SERGEYBOND, проживающий в Стокгольме, перевёл фрагменты из них на русский язык
http://www.livejournal.com/magazine/1135350.html

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1. Clarissa
  
  November 2, 2015
  
  I never liked this author nor understood what people found in her books, so I’m not in line to read the diaries.
  
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el

November 5, 2015

I hope this clown is fired soon, some people are already calling for it. Both ironically funny and sad:

Hasbarah Chief: Obama an anti-Semite, Kerry a (poor) stand-up comic
Social media posts revealed from Dr. Ran Baratz expressing open disdain for US officials, President Rivlin, creating public controversy.

US President Barack Obama is an anti-Semite and US Secretary of State John Kerry is a stand-up comedian hardly worthy of a stage, according to social media posts from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s newly appointed head of public diplomacy, Dr. Ran Baratz.

Possibly the most problematic comments for Baratz’s new position came following the prime minister’s a speech before Congress in March.

“Obama’s attitude to Netanyahu’s speech is what modern anti-Semitism looks like in Western liberal countries,” wrote Baratz. “And it of course comes with a lot of tolerance and understanding of Islamic anti-Semitism. So much tolerance and understanding, to the point of being willing to give them the atomic bomb.”
[…]
Baratz, a doctor of philosophy, was previously fired from his position as lecturer at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. People close to him say he was fired due to his right-wing opinions but the University denied this. He went on to found the right-wing website Mida.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4721437,00.html

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1. Clarissa
  
  November 5, 2015
  
  On our side of the ocean, there are also idiots:
  
  . . .Tuesday at the University of Minnesota, when an Israeli law professor, currently teaching at New York University, was prevented from starting his talk for 30 minutes while protesters interrupted his attempts to begin speaking.
  
  Those arrested — apparently not students but backed by a pro-Palestinian group on campus — are claiming their free speech rights were violated. Meanwhile, university officials are saying that the protest crossed the line past acceptable forms of protest.
  
  https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/11/05/protest-u-minnesota-delays-speech-israeli-professor-half-hour
  
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Stringer Bell

November 5, 2015

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/5e273a90389145ec8453e23ec934a9c8/federal-lawsuit-questions-st-louis-suburbs-municipal-fines

Last year, the lawsuit said, 2,255 non-traffic tickets were doled out under the municipal code that authorizes citations for such things as having mismatched curtains, walking on the left side of a crosswalk, wearing saggy pants, having holes in window screens and having a barbecue in front of a house, according to the lawsuit.

…

Wednesday’s lawsuit was filed on behalf of Valarie Whitner and Vincent Blount, housemates who the suit alleges have received more than $2,800 in fines for such alleged infractions as having a downspout with chipping paint, not having a screen door behind their home and having weeds in their vegetable garden.

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el

November 6, 2015

Have you heard about this? What do you think?

Portugal has entered dangerous political waters. For the first time since the creation of Europe’s monetary union, a member state has taken the explicit step of forbidding eurosceptic parties from taking office on the grounds of national interest.
Anibal Cavaco Silva, Portugal’s constitutional president, has refused to appoint a Left-wing coalition government even though it secured an absolute majority in the Portuguese parliament and won a mandate to smash the austerity regime bequeathed by the EU-IMF Troika.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11949701/AEP-Eurozone-crosses-Rubicon-as-Portugals-anti-euro-Left-banned-from-power.html

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1. Clarissa
  
  November 6, 2015
  
  I think it’s a good thing. Several European countries are brought to a halt by these ridiculous fantasies of “let’s go back to the pre-EU times when everything was so rosy and problem-free.” We have already seen what this idiocy gas done to Greece and what was achieved exactly? Nothing because this is a pipe dream.
  
  The past is dead and can’t be resuscitated.
  
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el

November 6, 2015

WASHINGTON — Rising global temperatures could push the sun-baked cities of the Persian Gulf across a threshold unknown since the start of civilization: the first to experience temperatures that are literally too hot for human survival.

A scientific study released Monday warns that at least five of the region’s great metropolises could see summer days that surpass the ‘‘human habitability’’ limit by the end of the century. Heat and humidity would be so high that even the healthiest people could not withstand more than a few hours outdoors.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2015/10/26/report-says-climate-change-could-push-persian-gulf-temperatures-lethal-extremes/8RvxLlDbgnl0co4PSywagP/story.html

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1. Clarissa
  
  November 6, 2015
  
  Well, it’s so easy to make predictions for the end of the century given that none of the predictors will be alive once time comes to face whether their predictions have come true.
  
  And this is what passes for science these days.
  
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el

November 6, 2015

Wanted to ask – is Jorge Luis Borges’s “The Aleph and Other Stories” good?

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1. Clarissa
  
  November 6, 2015
  
  He is a great writer. I think everyone should read at least a couple of his stories. I personally am not a huge fan but he is undeniably a great writer. My students dig him.
  
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el

November 6, 2015

How to save Jewish Jerusalem
Op-ed: It’s time to fix the tragic mistake made in 1967 and remove most of the 28 Palestinian villages from Jerusalem’s municipal area, thereby returning 200,000- 250,000 of the city’s Palestinian residents to the West Bank.

Politicians from most Zionist parties swear nearly every day that “Jerusalem is united. The city joined together will never be divided.”

In their foolishness, ignorance and political fear, they are ignoring – knowingly or unknowingly – the known truth: The vast majority of what are called today “the East Jerusalem neighborhoods” were never part of the city in any historical era, so there is no justification for them being part of Israel’s capital today.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4720166,00.html

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1. Clarissa
  
  November 6, 2015
  
  Gosh, I was not part of my current neighborhood in any historical era or even 2 years ago. Let’s ship me out to . . . I’m not even sure where, to be honest.
  
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  1. el
    
    November 7, 2015
    
    I have finished reading Forster’s “Where Angels Fear to Tread.” All the three characters of the ‘rescue party’ were interesting, but I was very disappointed by Caroline Abbott falling in love with Gino since it lessens, even to some extent destroys, Abbott’s character. She is supposed to be able to judge people rightly at the end of her journey, but, instead of that, seems to be blind to what / who Gino truly is because of sentimentalism. Instead of escaping Sawston with Philip, who is equal to her, she will waste her life by idealizing a brutish, ignorant, womanizing man only because Gino is (still) good-looking. Abbott even understands that and says so to Philip (something like “if I saw Gino every day getting older, this would pass, but at distance I will idealize him”), but for some reason believes she can do nothing about it. I still want to believe Philip could save her by revealing his feelings and talking honestly about everything I mentioned. 😦
    
    Btw, like in “The Longest Journey,” Philip’s mother controls everything. Only Abbott tries to stand against her for a while, with disastrous results.
    
    Have you read the book? If yes, what do you think about my position? Btw, Gino was the least interesting character to me.
    
    \ Gosh, I was not part of my current neighborhood in any historical era or even 2 years ago. Let’s ship me out to . . . I’m not even sure where, to be honest.
    
    Clarissa, yours is a completely different situation. The author tries to encourage separation between two warring peoples. Many terrorists come from those Palestinian villages. Palestinians there don’t see themselves as Israelis, but as Palestinians waiting for a Palestinian state to be founded. Whether they would want to live in it or stay in Israel because of money concerns is another matter. Most of them are not Israeli citizens, and many are not even residents. If you’re interested, there is some info in wiki under “Residency” sub-title:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Jerusalem#Residency
    
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    1. Clarissa
      
      November 7, 2015
      
      And I don’t consider myself American because I’m obviously not. Look, trying to convince me that the argument of “go back to where you came from historically”has any validity whatsoever is a waste of time. This is precisely the argument that was used to persecute Jews for 2,000 years and adopting it today would be conceding that all of those anti-semites throughout the two millennia were right. I can’t do that.
      
      Somewhat unrelated, here is a very good recent article about the Holocaust: http://life.pravda.com.ua/person/2015/09/28/200806/
      
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      1. el
        
        November 7, 2015
        
        \ Somewhat unrelated, here is a very good recent article about the Holocaust:
        
        And then I made the mistake of reading the comments (mainly in Ukrainian). 😦
        
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        Clarissa
        
        November 7, 2015
        
        I never read comments anywhere (except for my own blog). One loses faith in humanity if one does. The only way of maintaining a pool of normal, intelligent, polite commenters is severe moderating practices.
        
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el

November 7, 2015

Egypt is so much more effective than Israel, when it’s in their interests (the part in bold). But Palestinian advocated will be silent since Egyptians are not Jews and thus it doesn’t fit advocates’ narrative:

Egypt has been pumping salt water from the Mediterranean into Gaza’s underground tunnels, which Cairo says have been used to smuggle weapons to Islamist insurgents in the Sinai desert.
…
Tunnel-builders said that since September, Egypt has done more damage to the tunnels than Israeli bombing had caused over the past two decades, Reuters reported. It is now thought that less than 20 tunnels remain, with cigarettes the main contraband taken across the border.
http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20151105/1029610334/egypt-flooding-gaza-tunnels.html

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el

November 7, 2015

эффективный менеджер

Получил «патриотическое» письмо с требованием прекратить нападки на Сталина – гениального руководителя, великого полководца и эффективного менеджера, создавшего мощную экономику и спасшего страну от неминуемого разгрома Гитлером.

Родные мои, давайте я вам по-другому объясню. Давайте забудем на минуту, что убивать миллионы людей нехорошо, что устраивать голод и ограбить целую страну – неправильно. Забудем, что Сталин во многом помог Гитлеру прийти к власти, запретив коммунистам выступить единым фронтом с социал-демократами против фашистов.

Давайте я вам лучше расскажу про то, что такое настоящий гениальный руководитель и эффективный менеджер. Чтобы было с чем сравнивать.

http://mi3ch.livejournal.com/3127014.html

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el

November 8, 2015

Sweden: Rape Capital of the West

Forty years after the Swedish parliament unanimously decided to change the formerly homogenous Sweden into a multicultural country, violent crime has increased by 300% and rapes by 1,472%. Sweden is now number two on the list of rape countries, surpassed only by Lesotho in Southern Africa.
…
The internet radio station Granskning Sverige called the mainstream newspapers Aftonposten and Expressen to ask why they had described the perpetrators as “Swedish men” when they actually were Somalis without Swedish citizenship. They were hugely offended when asked if they felt any responsibility to warn Swedish women to stay away from certain men. One journalist asked why that should be their responsibility.
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5195/sweden-rape

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1. Clarissa
  
  November 8, 2015
  
  Until the Swedish feminist organizations – which are quite numerous – decide that there is a problem and choose to do anything about it, everything else is useless. All appeals to male journalists, politicians, or to any organizations that are not strictly feminist are a waste of time. Women’s rights are only ever advanced by feminist groups. Everybody else will sell women’s interests in a flash.
  
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  1. Dreidel
    
    November 8, 2015
    
    “violent crime has increased by 300%”
    
    Violent crime is hardly just a problem for women.
    
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    1. Clarissa
      
      November 8, 2015
      
      If men thought it was a problem for them, they’d be doing something about it.
      
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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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