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Saturday Link Encyclopedia

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Merkel says that refugees will have to renounce anti-Semitism. Well, if she says so, then what choice will they have?

Malik came to the U.S. on what is known as a “fiancé” visa. . . For the visa application, the address she listed in her Pakistani hometown does not exist. Malik received her Green Card this summer, U.S. officials said. I’m guessing that women like this Tashfeen are much more valuable to this country than women like me because for me getting a green card took much longer and the vetting process was a lot more careful.

A really good article on Syria and Chechnya. The author actually knows what she’s saying about Chechnya, which is rare.

Illinois has grown so pathetic that it sues inmates to get them to pay for room and board in prisons.

GREAT NEWS! Type 2 diabetes can be cured! I don’t have type 2 diabetes but I’m predisposed by virtue of family history and gestational diabetes, so I’m heartened by this news.

A teenage daughter of a DEA agent turns out to be a druglord. That’s one massive teenage rebellion.

Finally, a post on Shakesville with which I agree in its entirety. Miracles are possible.

“Classic philanthropy was a gift. Modern philanthropy is “impact investment.” Classic philanthropy was a gift, free and clear. Modern philanthropy comes with many, many strings attached. I will give you money– to do what I want in the manner I direct. That’s not a gift. That’s hire and salary.” Exactly.

Why Jews don’t vote Republican.

57 responses to “Saturday Link Encyclopedia”

  1. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    There’s something wrong with the post after this (about Emory) clicking on the name of the post leads to a 404 message

    “University being a community of care for individuals of all racial, gender, ability, and class identities?”

    Since when have universities been about “all ability levels”? The very idea is bizarre. If you are not of above average intelligence then you have no business at a university (unless it’s the new high school – obligatory in all but regulation).

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    1. el Avatar
      el

      \ If you are not of above average intelligence then you have no business at a university

      What?! cliff, people with average abilities (most people) have always constituted a majority at uuniversities, it’s not a new development. As far as I know, at least. There is a huge difference between studying computers / engineering VS. economics or English lit, the latter two being much-much easier. I don’t know about sociology or gender studies, but they can’t be all that hard either.

      Btw, people with average abilities study computers too. Average abilities does not mean “a fool” and/ or “special abilities” person.

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      1. cliff arroyo Avatar
        cliff arroyo

        “Average” at a university is supposed to be “above average” (in terms of intelligence) with regard to the general population.

        Not everyone (should) want or need to attend a university.

        I’m very curious about what is being taught in high schools in the US now….

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      2. Clarissa Avatar
        Clarissa

        ???????????? Are you having me on? Literature is “much much” easier than engineering?

        With all due respect to engineers, they have extreme trouble vervalizing even the simplest thoughts in their own language in a class setting, have difficulties with abstract thinking, and can’t summarize and retell a fairly short text. The only people I dislike having in my classroom even less are kinesiologists.

        I’ve had math majors in my classes who had public freak outs with tears and shakes because I asked them to express a thought of their own instead of memorizing and reproducing.

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        1. Stringer Bell Avatar
          Stringer Bell

          Present company excluded, I hope (an engineer chiming in). 🙂

          But yeah, anyone who claims literature is easier than math knows is supremely ignorant. How do you even use a framework like ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ to compare different fields in the first place? What does the sentence ‘literature is easy’ even mean?

          Ugh.

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        2. el Avatar
          el

          \ I’ve had math majors in my classes who had public freak outs with tears

          Clarissa, to be fair, most BA lit majors I’ve seen wouldn’t survive BA math degree. 🙂 The opposite doesn’t seem to be true.

          To clarify: I meant that doing BA in English lit is much easier than BA in math or computers, NOT that being a prof in one of the fields is easier. I talked only about BA level.

          \ How do you even use a framework like ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ to compare different fields in the first place?

          Explained this in this comment.

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          1. Evelina Anville Avatar
            Evelina Anville

            With all due respect El, what you have said is deeply insulting and completely false to those of us who have dedicated our lives to teaching literature. You make us sound like glorified baby sitters. And, like Clarissa, I can attest to some science majors completely melting down at the prospect of having to write a 10+ page paper, or reading 100+ pages of fiction in a week.

            Some science majors do very well in my classes of course–just as many English majors do well in science and math classes. But to say that somehow all science majors can succeed in literature classes but no English majors can succeed in science in patently false and feels quite denigrating.

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            1. el Avatar
              el

              \ You make us sound like glorified baby sitters.

              No.

              First of all, you are highly respected professionals whose main job is doing research, not teaching literature.

              Second, PhD students are not BA or even MA students, they are on a very different level. When you teach, your job is to prepare future researchers among other things.

              And I have not said that “no English majors can succeed in science.”

              Also, when you mention “baby sitters”, gender angle seems to come in. Most school teachers are women, but it is not true for academy, right?

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              1. Evelina Anville Avatar
                Evelina Anville

                “First of all, you are highly respected professionals whose main job is doing research, not teaching literature.”

                Actually at my institution, “my main job” is technically teaching. Research is required but considered secondary to teaching excellence when going up for tenure and promotion. I

                “Most school teachers are women, but it is not true for academy, right?”
                That was true maybe a generation ago for the Humanities. Today, And I would say for literature professors in the academy, there are slightly more women than men. I would guess perhaps a 60/40 split. In the sciences, the numbers are far different however and men dominate.

                Personally, I would trace the drop in respect towards literature and humanities in the higher education to the fact that more women have entered the profession.

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            2. Clarissa Avatar
              Clarissa

              It’s OK to say “math is harder FOR ME” or “literature is easier FOR ME” but extrapolating this on everybody is such a far-reaching generalization that I don’t see its purpose.

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              1. Stringer Bell Avatar
                Stringer Bell

                It’s so funny for me to see someone express disdain for the humanities who also happens to lack basic critical thinking skills, and is unable to understand or formulate cogent arguments.

                These things are related, you know!

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  2. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/03/isis-oil/

    “What ISIS has done is to use the old networks that have smuggled oil from the Kurdish Regional Government without any consideration given to Baghdad’s sovereignty over that oil. This had been a point of contention for decades, since the Kurdish region began to exercise autonomous control of the north. Kurdish oil was sold to smugglers who would cart them in tankers across the border into Turkey. In Turkey the trucks would run the length of the country to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. From Ceyhan, which is a port run by the Turkish government, the oil is purchased by transporters whose ships go to Malta, where the oil is transshipped to destinations such as Ashdod (Israel). This has long been a bone of contention between the Iraqi government, the Kurdish Regional Government and the Turkish government. It was documented by Tolga Tanış in his book Potus ve Beyefendi (2015). Tanis accuses Berat Albayrak, son-in-law of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, of involvement in this illegal scheme. ISIS has merely replaced the Kurdish Regional Government in the new arrangement.”

    .
    .
    1. Who is carting the oil from Mosul to the Turkish border? Who owns those trucks?

    Who is carting the oil from the Turkish border to Ceylan? Who owns those trucks?
    How does ISIS oil go through Ceylan, a port owned by the Turkish government?
    Who owns the ships that cart the ISIS oil out of Turkey and to ports afield?
    What banks handle the transaction between the sale of ISIS oil and the foreign buyers? Should they also be implicated in the smuggling of ISIS oil?

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  3. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    My earlier link here seems to have disappeared.

    We Need to Pay More Attention to Politics When We Talk about the Politics of Fear

    Against those who would reduce the politics of fear to what happens in our amygdalas, I’ve insisted that in between the things people fear and the things that the state does lies a vast chasm of elite interests, institutional imperatives, influential ideologies, organizational mobilization, and more.

    So the next time someone says that an unmediated fear on the part of the population, even a fear of a despised other, leads automatically and seamlessly to coercive measures of state, remind them of this moment:

    “The Senate rejected…an amendment from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to prevent individuals on the terror watch list from purchasing firearms on a 45 to 54 vote.”

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  4. Evelina Anville Avatar
    Evelina Anville

    I liked that Shakesville post too but I must say I’m really starting to hate this rhetoric of “not only women need abortions” (it appears in a content note before the post.) This notion that men need access to abortion is becoming an automatic part of feminist discourse and I don’t see how it’s useful to render the feminine body invisible.

    I am not anti -trans by any means and I am happy that trans rights are receiving more attention . But 99% of those who need abortions are women and identify as women. I think the trans community needs to support women here and agree that abortion is absolutely a women’s issue, that it’s OK to have women’s issues, and that women’s issues should be a regular part of political discourse.

    It just seems insane to me that abortion –one of the most fundamental of feminist issues– now has an knee-jerk “what about the men?” rider attached to it.

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    1. el Avatar
      el

      When I read “Please note that not only women need access to abortion,” my first thought was about men who want their girlfriends / wives get an abortion. 🙂

      Agree with your words about trans community. I am afraid the message “women need to have a right for abortion” gets dilluted somehow on its way to the mainstream society, if feminists suddenly start talking about trans people in the same sentence. Or is it done only on feminist blogs? I suppose, the latter.

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      1. Clarissa Avatar
        Clarissa

        Feminists are these days terrified of saying the word “women”and go to great lengths to avoid it. It gets supremely bizarre at times, like for instance, at my university’s “Muslim challenge” where people were invited to share the experience of “veiled Muslims” and not, say, “veiled Muslim women” or simply “veiled women.”

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    2. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      “I liked that Shakesville post too but I must say I’m really starting to hate this rhetoric of “not only women need abortions” (it appears in a content note before the post.) This notion that men need access to abortion is becoming an automatic part of feminist discourse and I don’t see how it’s useful to render the feminine body invisible.”

      I agree completely! It’s getting so annoying that nothing can be discussed without worrying that some men might be discomfited.

      “It just seems insane to me that abortion –one of the most fundamental of feminist issues– now has an knee-jerk “what about the men?” rider attached to it.”

      Absolutely.

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      1. Evelina Anville Avatar
        Evelina Anville

        If I’m being really honest, it’s starting to make me resent the trans community. I’m hoping this desire to elide the feminine body is temporary and resulting from the inevitable growing pains that accompany a new movement (i.e. trans tights.) I believe that it’s possible to discuss trans issues without denying that women have issues that also need to be addressed and fought for.

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        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          “If I’m being really honest, it’s starting to make me resent the trans community. I’m hoping this desire to elide the feminine body is temporary and resulting from the inevitable growing pains that accompany a new movement (i.e. trans rights.) ”

          • Same here. I’m very supportive of trans rights but I don’t see why women’s issues have to be sacrificed in the process of defending them. I believe that this just pitching two communities against each other that is to the detriment of both. There is, for instance, an enormous problem of violence against trans people. Let’s concentrate on that instead of tweaking the empty formulae of “pregnant people” and “men who have abortions.”

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  5. Clarissa Avatar
    Clarissa

    The problem, I think, is not as much intelligence as a difference in preparation. Some students come very well prepared and some are prepared very poorly by their high schools. And absolutely, students will feel that difference every day in class and it will suck.

    However! The way to solve this problem is not to punish professors but to get politically engaged and vote for people who will not defund the public secondary education system. This is the real problem and not the imaginary evilness of mean professors. Nobody wants to make students feel bad. I’m profoundly compassionate towards the difficulties students from underfunded, overcrowded high schools encounter when they come to college. And I support funding those schools and improving conditions in them 100%. I’m not the enemy here.

    But you can’t vote for somebody like Rauner, whose mission it is to destroy the teachers’ union, and then complain that it’s the professor’s fault that your high school education didn’t prepare you for college.

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  6. el Avatar
    el

    Israeli professor renounces ‘royal part’ of Canadian oath of allegiance
    Prof. Dror Bar-Natan received Canadian citizenship, but came out against requirement to pledge fealty to Queen Elizabeth the II, calling the oath ‘repulsive.’
    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4733437,00.html

    Trump: Israel may not want peace with Palestinians
    Republican frontrunner in hot water with Jewish voters after refusing to back down on comments he made to AP; ‘You’re not going to support me even though you know I’m the best thing that could happen to Israel,’ he says.
    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4734724,00.html

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      U of T is known for employing freaks.

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  7. el Avatar
    el

    Why Jenin is staying out of current wave of terrorism
    Jenin, once the home of suicide bombers, is now the quietest city in the West Bank. After 4 attempted attacks at the Jalamah checkpoint, the residents realized their economic prosperity could stop, and rushed to restore calm; ‘an attack at the checkpoint is an attack against us,’ says local businessman.
    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4735014,00.html

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Capitalism rules.

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  8. Dreidel Avatar
    Dreidel

    Medical alert: THERE IS NO CURE FOR TYPE 1 OR TYPE 2 DIABETES!

    The article on type 2 diabetes is misleading, as unfortunately are many articles published in lay publications about medical “break-throughs.”

    Note that the headline (which probably wasn’t written by the author) exaggerates the tone of the article. The headline reads, “Type 2 diabetes CAN be cured…University FINDS.” The first sentence of the article reads, “Type 2 diabetes COULD be cured…a new study SUGGESTS.”

    A single medical study proves nothing except that more medical studies are needed to see if the results/conclusions of the initial study are valid and can be reproduced. Many lay publications falsely hype the results of single studies as if they are proven, established medical facts, and most non-medical people reading those articles don’t have the background to know whether the article is accurate or even if the study had the proper number of subjects, controls, etc.

    The article doesn’t even state the fact that while obesity is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes and losing weight can help improve and control symptoms, there are in fact many skinny people with type 2 diabetes.

    The only type of diabetes that isn’t permanent at the present state of medical knowledge and treatment is gestational.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      “The article doesn’t even state the fact that while obesity is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes and losing weight can help improve and control symptoms, there are in fact many skinny people with type 2 diabetes.”

      • Nobody said losing weight will help all people. But I’m sure it won’t hurt. So I don’t see the point of this negativity.

      I’ve seen people reverse Stage IV cancer after all doctors gave up on them and go on living for 20+ years past what the doctors predicted. There is no reason for diabetes to be all that different.

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      1. Dreidel Avatar
        Dreidel

        “I don’t see the point of this negativity.”

        What “negativity”? I’m simply stating neutral, true medical facts to counter the QUACK claim that type 2 diabetes can be cured.

        There’s nothing wrong with stating encouragingly that diabetes can be helped and controlled with proper care (but of course writing an article saying that wouldn’t be “news”), but an article claiming that it can be CURED is nonsense, and gives misleading false hope to people with the condition. Giving patients realistic encouragement is one thing; misleading them with false information is quackery, and is not helpful at all.

        The day may come when type 1 and type 2 diabetes and some types of cancer (cancer is many diseases, not a single entity as it’s often falsely identified) can genuinely be cured — but that day isn’t here yet.

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        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          “The day may come when type 1 and type 2 diabetes and some types of cancer (cancer is many diseases, not a single entity as it’s often falsely identified) can genuinely be cured — but that day isn’t here yet.”

          Ultimately, everybody has the right to live within their philosophical model of existence. I understand that this is yours. It is not mine, however. And I’m very happy it isn’t because if it were, I’d still be wearing glasses, for instance. And I haven’t even touched a pair for 10 years.This was yet another “incurable” condition that turned out to be easily reversible.

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          1. Dreidel Avatar
            Dreidel

            “if it were, I’d still be wearing glasses”

            It’s very interesting that you said that, considering the true story of my vision. I was myopic (nearsighted) from my early teens until my early 60s, and needed glasses (or contact lenses, which I wore for almost 40 years) to drive, watch movies, and for most activities outside the house. Then around the age of 62, my vision spontaneously changed dramatically in a matter of months. My distant vision in now razor-sharp (better than 20/20, even at night), and all I need are dime-store reading glasses for near vision.

            I’ve very glad that spontaneous visual correction occurred, but I don’t think it had anything at all to do with my “philosophy of existence.”

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            1. Clarissa Avatar
              Clarissa

              “I don’t think it had anything at all to do with my “philosophy of existence.”

              And I don’t dispute your right to narrate the story of your body in the terms that make sense to you. Let’s now give the same courtesy to me. 🙂

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              1. Dreidel Avatar
                Dreidel

                I always have, Clarissa. 🙂

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  9. djiril Avatar
    djiril

    I’m curious what you think of this comedy writer’s take on ISIS propaganda:
    http://www.cracked.com/blog/isis-wants-us-to-invade-7-facts-revealed-by-their-magazine/
    (Note that the title in the url is clickbait and has changed since it was published.)

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      “ISIS also doesn’t shy away from showing off their own nightmarish brutality: On top of being OK with the “terrorist” label, there are many, many pictures in the magazine of captives they’ve beheaded, mass graves filled with massacred civilians, and tons of explosion porn.”

      Marco Rubio has been saying that we need to start a counter-propaganda campaign, telling people what ISIS is really up to. As if ISIS ever concealed what it is really up to or tried to come off as warm and fuzzy.

      Great article, thank you for the link.

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    2. Dreidel Avatar
      Dreidel

      Yeah, very informative article, but it doesn’t appear to be either humor or satire (unless something is going over my head), so I wonder why a magazine (“Cracked”) whose stock-in-trade is parody and broad humor would run what is essentially a serious article (except for the occasional out-of-place vulgar language)?

      “Cracked” started out around 1957 as a print magazine in direct competition with the much-more-popular “MAD Magazine.” Perhaps its current website is trying to be a bit more than that.

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      1. djiril Avatar
        djiril

        They’ve been inching more and more towards serious subjects lately. I think it started out with their “personal experiences” series where they have one of their writers do a Skype interview with someone (or a group of people) who have had interesting or unusual life experiences and turn it into an article.
        http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences/

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  10. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2015/12/cheap-american-labor

    It’s hardly surprising that if American companies are scouring the globe looking for the cheapest and most easily exploitable labor possible that Chinese companies would do the same within the United States when it is in their interests to do so. This story of how Alabama gave a ridiculous package of tax breaks and benefits to a Chinese company in order to draw low-wage work with no chance of advancement is quite depressing.

    .
    .
    In Alabama, Golden Dragon wouldn’t pay taxes for 20 years; it would get free roads and land.

    Alabama also did something no other state was willing to try: Its legislature passed the “Made in Alabama” act, a tailored law that allowed the state to reimburse Golden Dragon for several prior years of tariffs.
    .

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Behold liquid capital in action. . .

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  11. el Avatar
    el

    First report: ISIS may have seized weapons from interdicted shipment to Hamas.

    A Hamas weapons shipment was interdicted in the Sinai last summer by Egyptian forces, but some of the weapons may have reached ISIS, and been used in a massive operation against Egyptian forces.
    …
    Aside from the Israeli concerns that ISIS had seized a chunk of the weapons, the Sinai terror group’s branch has seemingly become independent of Hamas, lest basic logistical ties that were formed between the organizations.

    These ties included the transfer of ISIS fighters who were wounded in gun battles with Egyptian forces last summer, to Gaza’s Shifa hospital for medical treatment.

    The ties between the organizations also included the transfer of hundreds of thousands of dollars from Hamas to ISIS members in Sinai in exchange for the smuggling of raw materials used in the strip’s domestic weapons manufacturing
    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4736420,00.html

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  12. el Avatar
    el

    Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven on Monday tried to improve the strained ties between his country and Israel, but only raised more ire when claiming stabbing attacks were not considered terrorism.

    “No, it is not classified as that. There is an international classification when it is, or is not. What I know is not classified as terrorism,” he told Swedish news agency TT.

    The relationship between Israel and Sweden has reached a new low following a series of comments made by Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström, in the most recent of which she accused Israel of “extrajudicial executions” of Palestinian terrorists on the scene of the attack.
    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4736430,00.html

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  13. el Avatar
    el

    Btw, an article below on the news site was about

    “Suspect who fled the scene of a stabbing attack in October after being critically wounded, was arrested in a hotel in Ramallah after hiding from security forces.”

    I suppose, it wan’t terrorism. It just happened that he with his friend stabbed a Jew, not an Arab, right?

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  14. el Avatar
    el

    That’s almost funny:

    “Inciting dolls,” that is the terminology used by Tax Authority officials to describe boxed dolls which were seized in Haifa as part of a shipment from the UAE.
    …

    Rock holding and Keffiyeh clad dolls siezed at Haifa port
    The inciting dolls were discovered after a shipment from the UAE raised custom’s officials suspicion, 4,000 PA bound dolls were discovered.
    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4736605,00.html

    The article shows a photo of the doll, if you’re interested. 🙂

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  15. el Avatar
    el

    Is Eastern Europe Really More Racist Than the West?

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      What I don’t understand is what any of this can possibly have to do with race. Countries with a weak or barely existing social safety net don’t want to strain it, knowing it will not withstand the slightest pressure.

      France, a country that was beyond tolerant to immigrants now has youth unemployment at over 50% and professional classes forced to leave the country in droves. But no, let’s talk about the racism and the intolerance of the evil French.

      I wish somebody, just somebody, mentioned that the real conflict here is between mass migration and the welfare state. It’s shocking that nobody manages to squeeze out this simple statement.

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      1. el Avatar
        el

        I also thought about social safety net when I was reading. But is it true for England too? He mentions the country in his article.

        \ France, a country that was beyond tolerant to immigrants now has youth unemployment at over 50%

        Why? If there are less young people (as % of total population), finding jobs should become easier.

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        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          “Why? If there are less young people (as % of total population), finding jobs should become easier.”

          • The global economic crisis, the robotization that makes non-skilled work scarce.

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          1. el Avatar
            el

            The global economic crisis has not affected Israel this way. We have large % of poor, but they are mainly from Arab and Haredi sectors, who are themselves responsible for their situation.

            \ the robotization that makes non-skilled work scarce

            Why are 50% of young people non-skilled after exiting French education system? Is it partly since young first and 2nd generation immigrants have not integrated?

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            1. Clarissa Avatar
              Clarissa

              “The global economic crisis has not affected Israel this way. ”

              • Global means global. 🙂

              “Why are 50% of young people non-skilled after exiting French education system?”

              • Secondary education is no longer enough to secure employment in any developed country that I know of. Soon enough, a single college degree will also be insufficient. This is a problem we are all experiencing and it will not be going away. The beginning of the productive, working age is put off more and more. Of course, life expectancy also grows, so that’s not a tragedy.

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              1. Shakti Avatar
                Shakti

                How much of this is secondary education is increasingly shitty v. all of these jobs are actually more complex v. inflationary effect of credentialism?

                The beginning of the productive, working age is put off more and more. Of course, life expectancy also grows, so that’s not a tragedy.
                A later productive working age means a later time to have children if at all, and decreased discretionary spending. This would not be a problem if whole systems were not predicated on having a stable to increasing population that’s willing and able to spend money.

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              2. Clarissa Avatar
                Clarissa

                Western Europeans state openly that they import immigrants to be their breeding classes. That’s their answer to the issue. In the US, the response is different for now: efforts to limit reproductive rights.

                Both approaches are doomed because they are borrowed from the arsenal of the nation-state and don’t correspond to the realities of today and especially tomorrow. Our collective inertia is preventing us from coming up with something new.

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  16. el Avatar
    el

    776,500 Israeli children live in poverty
    The annual poverty report, released by the National Insurance Institute showed a marked increase in nearly all measurements of poverty in Israel.
    …
    In contrast to the poverty levels which experienced a slight increase, the depth of poverty (a measurement measuring the distance between income and the poverty line) rose from 32.8% to 34.6%. The severe poverty measurement (of the poorest citizens) rose by 10%.

    Two groups within the population – Arabs and Ultra Orthodox- still maintain unimaginable levels of poverty, at nearly 50%. According to the report, poverty among Arab families rose from 51.7% in 2013 to 52.6% in 2014.
    Poverty levels within the Ultra Orthodox community rose to 54.3% in 2014. Two thirds of all children in this sector of the population live in poverty.
    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4737047,00.html

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  17. el Avatar
    el

    Wanted to say that I finished reading “We Are Not Ourselves” by Matthew Thomas and enjoyed the experience. It will not become a classic, but it is quite a good novel. The characters (husband, wife, son and a few minor ones) felt like real people to me. It has 656 pages. A short description from Amazon and then my warning:

    ” Born in 1941, Eileen Tumulty is raised by her Irish immigrant parents in Woodside, Queens, in an apartment where the mood swings between heartbreak and hilarity, depending on how much alcohol has been consumed. From an early age, Eileen wished that she lived somewhere else. She sets her sights on upper class Bronxville, New York, and an American Dream is born.

    Driven by this longing, Eileen places her stock and love in Ed Leary, a handsome young scientist, and with him begins a family. Over the years Eileen encourages her husband to want more: a better job, better friends, a better house. It slowly becomes clear that his growing reluctance is part of a deeper, more incomprehensive psychological shift. An inescapable darkness enters their lives, and Eileen and Ed and their son Connell try desperately to hold together a semblance of the reality they have known, and to preserve, against long odds, an idea they have cherished of the future. ”

    My Warning:

    A half of the book happens after a husband falls ill (not cancer) and concerns Eileen’s and Connell’s coping with Ed’s disease. I usually wouldn’t think to read a novel like that, but I didn’t know about the disease when I began reading the book and afterwards began feeling something about all 3 main characters and wanted to continue reading.

    I talked to you about it since I was interested in your view of the characters. Was Connell selfish or a usual teenager? How (un)happy was the couple’s marriage?

    Liked the character of Ed since my ideal husband would be very like him. (Only without the disease, of course.)

    You can try to read a few pages on Amazon to check if you like the writing style.

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  18. el Avatar
    el

    More Heartening News about Israel:

    Israeli security guard murdered in terrorist attack in Copehagen voted ‘Dane of the Year’
    Dan Uzan was protecting a bat mitzvah celebration at a synagogue and prevented the terrorist from entering; Denmark daily newspaper’s readers chose him by overwhelming majority.
    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4737052,00.html

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  19. el Avatar
    el

    Uri’s latest column is pessimistic, but does mention something that is partly true:
    http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1449530461

    I disagree with his claim that Ashkenazis and Orientals are two “separate “sectors”, who don’t like each other very much. ” Whether one’s parents or grandparents were Ashkenazis or Orientals is not important for the new generations of Sabras (born in Israel). Many have one half of family be Ashkenazi, and another – Oriental. It was an issue when Uri was young, when people have just immigrated from different countries and cultures.

    His description of “Russians” suffers from the same blindness. My brother came here in early childhood and he is no “Russian.” He feels himself to be 100% Israeli. The same is true for other children of “Russians” I have seen. People who came in late teens are in somewhat different position since they were almost adult upon immigration. As for those who immigrated at the ages of 10-14, like me, they know Russian better than my brother, may like being Russian-speakers (I sure do), but are Israeli politically / socially and have not really seen adut life in FSU.

    The religious divisions among Jews and the national division between Jews and Israeli Arabs are real problems, not non-existing problems with “Russians” OR Ashkenazis vs. Orientals. Some Israeli politicians like to play on the latter issue in the attempt to get a few more votes, but in a few more years even that will become impossible since everybody will be both. 🙂

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  20. Shakti Avatar
    Shakti

    Because Paintball Isn’t a Thing Anymore

    Local Citizenry Continue to Confuse Sikhs with Muslims in Committing Hate Crimes

    I’m a Warrior For the Babies

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  21. Shakti Avatar
    Shakti

    A cockerspaniel sized dinosaur

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  22. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    http://gawker.com/daniel-holtzclaw-former-oklahoma-city-cop-found-guilt-1747453998

    Not many thought that the jury would find this piece of shit guilty. A police officer found guilty of rape of multiple black women who he specifically chose because of their skin color and because he thought nobody would believe their word over his. And boy, he was wrong.

    You gotta watch this video of him breaking down as he listens to the verdict. Oh god, this is so sweet.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      There was so much drama over this trial, even though it was clear he was going to be found guilty. And I’m glad the verdict is “guilty.”

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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