Opening Cuba to American tourists may deliver the final blow to its inhuman and vicious regime.
Radicalization and European social policy.
Michael Moore’s letter to Trump.
Do you know Rebecca Solnit? The person who made a name for herself based on the “men explain shit to me meme”? Here is her latest silly rant. I can’t read anything by her without wondering if men keep trying to explain things to her because she’s not too bright. Maybe it’s just a pose but everything she writes is just dumb.
The crisis of the Humanities is a myth.
Finally, a really good article on the freedom of speech.
Do people realize how incredibly stupid they sound when they write shit like that: “The Republican debate last night was truly frightening, and not because the candidates kept telling me that I needed to be afraid of ISIS“? Nobody tells you anything, idiot. Nobody knows you exist.
The most hilarious parody on the academic quit lit genre. I laughed until I wept.
I don’t understand why all of these fake, showy Christians can’t find it in themselves to feel compassion towards an obviously broken, miserable human being.
“Overburdening children with caregiving responsibilities can have negative affects in adulthood.” Tell me about it.
Tenure is not a guarantee that one will not be fired. It exists to protect the scholarship of people like these, distasteful as we might find them.
Huge companies have the worst hiring strategies. See this list of idiotic questions Amazon asks at interviews.
Typically American (but not in a good way): an author promises to tell you about Syria and then starts every sentence with “the West” or “the US.” Because Syria doesn’t really exist as anything but a pretext for American navel-gazing.
Clarissa's Blog 
“Do you know Rebecca Solnit? The person who made a name for herself based on the “men explain shit to me meme”? Here is her latest silly rant. I can’t read anything by her without wondering if men keep trying to explain things to her because she’s not too bright. Maybe it’s just a pose but everything she writes is just dumb.”
Bar none the funniest thing I read all day. Not sure if I should be laughing at it though.
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I keep trying to figure out if this obtuseness she keeps milking is a pose or her real way of being.
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“The most hilarious parody on the academic quit lit genre.”
Sadly, I don’t think that was a parody. I think it was serious!
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Really? It sounds way too parodic for me.
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The piece is quite well written — but if it isn’t parody, I hope the lady is investing her current income for the long haul. At 33, she hasn’t got that many profitable years as a stripper left, and she may find it hard to resume an academic career in mid-life.
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An academic career cannot be resumed after a break at all, unless the break is in government or medical.
But if this piece is serious, that’s sadder than the Solnit thing.
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It’s serious — although no doubt embellished with considerable fictitious bravado. Here’s an article on the author: http://clatl.com/atlanta/lux-atl-exotic-dancer-pink-pony-professional-pole-instructor-lux-atl-pole-dance/Content?oid=13354595
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And that’s how my faith in humanity died. . . 😦
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No, because the article is SPECIFICALLY addressed to an American readership, and every “fact” detailed is propaganda intended to show how wrongheaded Western involvement in Syria has been.
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And it will work because the audience doesn’t give a crap about Syria or anything else. It only cares about feeling like the center of the universe.
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Leading Palestinian pollster: Public opinion becoming more extreme
Dr. Khalil Shikaki gave an interview to Ynet, in which he explained why most Palestinians currently support terror:
…
Dr. Shikaki gave three factors he believed are responsible for the change in public opinion: The first is Palestinian alienation toward their own politics. The second is the perception that Israel’s governments don’t want peace, and thus the Palestinian public is disillusioned with the idea of a two-state solution. The third factor is the issue of israeli settler violence towards Palestinians, and the continued worries about the fate of holy sites.
Dr. Shikaki stated that polls indicate Hamas has become more popular than the Fatah in the West Bank, and that if elections were held today, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh would be the leading candidate for President over an incumbent Mahmoud Abbas.
…
Dr. Shikaki explained that the younger generation, born around the time of the Oslo Accords, has a tendency to be more radicalized, and is the one leading the current wave of violence. It seems, Dr. Shikaki said, that they have a tendency to spur both Hamas and Fatah – and that they aren’t particularly motivated by religion either. Their alienation with inner-Palestinian politics, however, seems to be especially strong.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4741205,00.html
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The most “Mother” seems very relevant. Tell a boy he’s a genius, he grows up to be a genius. Tell him he’s a terrorist who’s too dangerous to come into an amusement park, he grows up to be. . . not a genius.
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http://mondoweiss.net/2015/12/newspaper-purchase-mentioning
How do you do a story on Sheldon Adelson, a single issue campaign donor if there were one, without mentioning Israel? Let NPR show you the way. I don’t understand why this garbage network receives all this praise.
It’s like doing a story about Bernie Sanders without mentioning income inequality.
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Because that would be antisemitic. A major network can’t stoop to something like this and NPR is a major network.
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Mentioning Adelson’s support for Israel is anti-semitic now? Learn new things every day!
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What else can one call the suggestion that a purchase of an obscure Las Vegas newspaper is useful to the “Israel lobby”?
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// Because that would be antisemitic. A major network can’t stoop to something like this and NPR is a major network.
I am not sure I agree with you here, but, in general, Adelson does seem to serve as a magnet for all anti-Israel and/or anti-Jewish people.
Even one gifted writer of Israeli Left, who loves Israel and fought in its war of independence, slips into a classic antisemitic mode every time he mentions Adelson. Rich Jews do it to people. Add casinos to the mix and see the sparks fly even more.
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I’m sure there are more effective ways to defend the interests of Israel than buying a paper in Las Vegas. Does anybody in Las Vegas even know what Israel is? Because here in Southern Illinois, not so much.
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\ I’m sure there are more effective ways to defend the interests of Israel than buying a paper in Las Vegas.
Why are you so sure his primary goal in buying this paper was defending Israeli interests? It sounds too close to what antisemitic propaganda wants Americans to believe to me.
I thought Adelson was a rich person, who bought papers / casinoes / etc with the primary goal of becoming even richer and feeling himself more powerful \ influential. In the linked article is written:
\ they cover the gambling. It’s called the gaming industry out there. They cover the hospitality industry. They cover Mr. Adelson and his family’s interests as well as his competitors’ interests and as well as the arguments of his critics and those who might want to regulate it in a different way. In addition, of course, Nevada is a very competitive state at the presidential level, and they’ve got to cover the political implications of things there as well.
Most likely, it’s more about the gaming industry than about political implications & Israel for him.
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“Why are you so sure his primary goal in buying this paper was defending Israeli interests?”
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\ Are people conspiring to annoy me today? I said the exact opposite.
Sorry. I commented and then read again and understood that.
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” In addition, of course, Nevada is a very competitive state at the presidential level,”
This is what I was referring to. This is a swing state. Of course he’d buy the biggest newspaper in the state to give his candidate a better chance to get in the White House so he could get his policies enacted.
Now the only point of contention is what those policies are. You say he’s motivated by money, I say his major obsession is Israel. He talks openly about nuking Iran, he says he wishes he could’ve served in the IDF. He’s a fucking looney.
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SB, do you support massive reportage about every not politically neutral American newspaper? Or are you only interested in publishing warnings about pro-Israeli papers? For instance, would you be for making a great deal of every Muslim-owned paper too? To warn the voters that they are automatically pro-Palestinian because of where the owners come from, like you want to do here with this Jew.
Btw, you leave links about America and Jews, but not about your country India. Why not?
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“Btw, you leave links about America and Jews,”
How many links about ‘Jews’ I’ve left on this blog? Christ, are you stupid? Wait, don’t answer that.
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\ How many links about ‘Jews’ I’ve left on this blog?
This one about Adelson, for instance. I do not remember your posts by heart so can’t give the exact number 🙂 , but do remember there was something before too.
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Only a jaundiced mind like yours would interpret the article about Adelson as one about ‘jews’. He’s a blood thirsty billionaire who has the power to affect presidential elections, and that’s scary. I don’t give a shit about what faith he practices.
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\ Only a jaundiced mind like yours would interpret the article about Adelson as one about ‘jews’.
I see how his opponents (including Jewish ones!) talk about him. One really has to be jaundiced to ignore the classic antisemitism which comes into play time after time. Here you describe him as “blood thirsty” and find his supposed influence “scary.” Is it a coincidence that I have not heard about WASP “blood thirsty” American billionaires? Do they not exist or what? Are they all Democrats and against any violence towards Muslim countries? Why is everybody talking only about Adelson? (Not only you here, but I see him mentioned on the net a lot relatively.)
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Yes, the article only mentions the word “Jews” TWICE and the word “Israel” NINE times.
You really need a jaundiced brain” to make any connection there! :–)
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The political opinions of a newspaper’s owner are in no way indicative of what the paper will publish. Papers will publish whatever sells.
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I don’t think newspapers concern themselves with trivial considerations of profit and loss these days. Bezos didn’t buy the Washington Post for its profitability.
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The political opinions of a newspaper owner often have more to do with what the paper publishes than you think.
The Washington Times has lost money every year it’s been in business
The Pittsburgh Tribune Review is owned by Mellon Scaife and is the more conservative paper in the area. They’d practically beg for subscriptions in which they almost gave away the paper.
It lost money consistentlyAccording to the Scaife divorce papers, Richard Scaife has consistently spent between $20 and $30 million per year to cover the Tribune-Review’s losses.According to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, the Tribune-Review has a combined 221,000 regional circulation, about 7,000 subscribers fewer than its competitor.
By the metrics of the market, the papers should have either folded or gone for a more centrist viewpoints.
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Clarissa, do you agree with German teachers? Here:
German teachers want ‘Mein Kampf’ on curriculum
Hitler’s anti-Semitic manifesto is to be published next year for the first time in 70 years; Germany’s teachers’ association say it could help ‘inoculate adolescents against political extremism’.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4741282,00.html
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The discussion is a little belated given that everybody can read everything they feel like online.
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Perhaps. But what people read online is heavily determined by self-selection and cognitive bias. Very few people are ecumenical in their reading. Also the context in which you read and frame things matters.
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A Lonely Lawyer
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1450459813/
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I checked SB’s latest website and the big news he missed is about New York Times, not that small paper Adelson bought. Look:
This is now the third Times reporter/writer whose son has gone into the Israeli Defense Forces.
…
Rob Eshman at the Jewish Journal meditates: “Through his son, Brooks will be able to get closer to the reality of the conflict, for good or ill, than most other pundits. How is that a bad thing?”
…
Eshman’s proposition would have more weight if there were establishment reporters whose children were serving in Fatah’s military branch or Hamas’s.
The obvious question is how many Times reporters have sons or daughters in the U.S. military.
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/09/surprise-brookss-israeli
And people comment “NYT, WPost, and NPR are all Zionist operated “lie rooms” for Israel”
SB, how have you missed that? 🙂
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Now I am beginning to get worried:
Study: Climate change to destroy Israel’s economy
A new study says climate change will cause growth of Israel’s economy to slow until 2055, after which the economy will significantly shrink by the end of the century.
…
[Israeli] per capita GDP in 2100 is expected to be identical to that of today.
Compare this to Slovenia, which currently has a lower per capita GDP than Israel, but is expected to have an eight times greater per capita GDP than Israel in 2100. Canada’s per capita GDP is now 1.5 times Israel’s, and is expected to be 28 times greater by 2100.
The growing realization that adjustment to climate change can only occur through global cooperation has raised proposals for organized immigration to currently colder areas from hot ones in order to preempt serious damage to the population and the global economy, and in order to take advantage of huge areas near the north pole that will likely become habitable in the future.
Such immigration has already begun, to a degree – many refugees from Africa and Arab countries left their home countries because of wars and conflicts sparked by rises in food prices caused by climate change.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4741316,00.html
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The economists couldn’t predict the global economic crisis of 2008 a week before it happened, yet you expect them to be able to calculate the GDP of 85 years from now?
“Such immigration has already begun, to a degree – many refugees from Africa and Arab countries left their home countries because of wars and conflicts sparked by rises in food prices caused by climate change.”
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But Clarissa, didn’t you listen to Obama’s speech from Paris a couple of weeks ago? The best way for us to fight terrorism is to win the war against global warming!
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It’s not like anybody else has come with a better way to defeat terrorism.
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Your girl Hillary has. (Her plans are only marginally better than Obama’s, but anything at all is better than his total obliviousness to the problem — Obama just wants to run out the clock until January 2017.)
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I am very saddened that Obama couldn’t come up with a better plan for 2016 than continue his obsession with Gitmo and travel to Cuba to prop the useless Castro regime.
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Just read something both sad and partly funny about education school system in France and French reaction to immigration (in Russian):
http://dr-piliulkin.livejournal.com/749045.html
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When Avihay Marciano completed his schooling, he didn’t know how to use a computer or speak English and had only elementary math skills. Now, Marciano and 50 others who left the insular ultra-Orthodox community are suing the state, claiming they were denied a basic education and left lagging far behind secular Israelis.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4743218,00.html
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Good for them! This barbarity can’t be allowed to go on.
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\ Good for them! This barbarity can’t be allowed to go on.
Agree with you, but unfortunately am 100% sure nothing will change. Haredi are too numerous and their parties hold too much power. Till a breaking point, when some catastrophe happens, nothing significant will change.
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I always had a feeling that they love their children. They’ve got to see that this is not good for the children.
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Palestine’s Abortion Problem
Around 40 percent of women in the West Bank have had abortions, though the procedure remains illegal in Palestine. So guess where they go.
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End of an Era: England Closes Its Last Deep-Pit Coal Mine
Closure heralds end of a centuries-old industry that helped build the British Empire
http://www.wsj.com/articles/pit-closure-marks-dying-embers-of-british-coal-industry-1449837861
Btw:
\ Russia has been the biggest beneficiary of the U.K.’s increased appetite for imported coal, providing 46% of its thermal coal in 2014, according to the U.K. government.
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Denmark wants to seize jewelry and cash from refugees
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/12/17/denmark-wants-to-seize-jewelry-from-refugees/
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