Arizona is actually not all bad, believe it or not. Here is a great new campaign that the state’s governor began: “Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey this week launched a campaign to crack down on “the worst of the worst” parents who are ignoring child support payments, posting their names and photos to Twitter and Facebook. The governor said the shaming campaign is targeting 421 deadbeats in the state (34 of whom are women) who collectively owe $20 million.”
“Fat but fit” is a myth: “Scientists say they have bust the myth that you can be “fat but fit” with research showing obese regular exercisers are likely to die before slim unfit people. The study of 1.3 million men found that obese people with high levels of aerobic fitness were 30 per cent more likely to die prematurely, compared with those were slim, despite taking little exercise.” Overweight people fall into two categories re: health: fat and aware of the risks and fat but delusional. The delusional ones are very scary.
Mike talks to a woman in Germany about her experience of daily life.
Obama grew federal spending more slowly than any predecessor of the past few decades.
Americans want everybody to be in the top quintile income-wise. Which is obviously not possible.
A very interesting analysis of the inner conflict of Islam from a scholar of Islam: “All of this needs to be said to expose the illusion that is being propounded in unison by the Islamists and the critics of Islam alike, namely that Islam is waging a war against the West. More accurately, Islam is waging a war against itself; that is to say, the Islamic world is being shaken by an inner conflict whose effects on the political and ethnic map may well come close to matching the dislocations that resulted from the First World War.” He also has some really important things to say about the Koran that I wish more people understood.
A good, intelligent piece on why attributing Trump’s popularity solely to racism is dumb.
“And I ALWAYS write a hand-written thank you note right when I get home from the interview. You wouldn’t believe the number of people who have said that this made a difference in the hiring process!” Question: has anybody ever received any of these handwritten thank you notes (as opposed to emails) from male candidates? I never have. The whole thing reeks of “a good patriarchal woman has to have a stack of cards at hand to do the work of family socializing.”
Sanders promises to raise taxes on everybody while Clinton will only raise them on the rich.
Everybody has been fixating on Cruz’s spanking comments and how they are sexist but nobody notices that the vile piece of trash publicly confessed to brutalizing a small, helpless child. [Hint: I’m not interested in hearing any justifications of the beatings of children in any form or for any reason. Anybody who tries to justify violence against will be banned immediately. Go die, you nasty creep.]
A good article on radical feminism.
American Historical Association rejects anti-Israel measures.
Clarissa's Blog 
Long, but worth it. Dupont secretly poisoning people for decades.
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2016/01/nike-ends-independent-monitoring-of-its-sweatshops
“But in October, Nike announced it would no longer allow investigators from the Workers Rights Consortium to inspect its factories. This decision has received almost zero news coverage. That’s terribly disheartening. Nearly three years after the Rana Plaza collapse, companies like Nike understand that if Americans can’t really see what is happening in sweatshops, that they will do nothing to fight for changes to keep workers alive.”
LikeLike
In case somebody missed this, I was shocked by the photos –
Terrifying echoes of Kristallnacht: Mayor condemns ‘naked violence’ after far-right thugs rampage through streets of Germany smashing windows of kebab shops
Anti-refugee rioters went on a rampage in the German town of Leipzig, trashing doner kebab fast food restaurants
250 hooligans – part of the local branch of PEGIDA known as LEGIDA – set cars on fire and vandalised shops
Mayor Burkhard Jung condemned the ‘naked violence that took place’ and has described ‘terror on the streets’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3395246/Hundreds-far-right-protesters-rampage-German-town-Leipzig-destroying-ethnic-restaurants-takeaways-latest-anti-migrant-demonstrations.html
LikeLike
This is terrifying. And the historic precedent is scary as hell.
Remember that story from back in summer about a German village with its single neo-Nazi? I wonder if he’s still as lonely.
LikeLike
I read the linked article on Islam and found it interesting. Perhaps some day the author and Ayaan Hirsi Ali can have a debate or at least a civil discussion. Hirsi Ali seeks a reformation of Islam through which it reverts to the generally peaceful and tolerant version of Islam preached by Mohammed during his decade in Mecca.
LikeLike
And it would be great if the new version included a provision for the separation of church and state because otherwise trouble will continue.
LikeLike
Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D., founder and president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, seeks just that. He also professes to be a devout Muslim. His approach has been characterized as fantasy Islam. Unfortunately, for now it probably is. I hope that some day it will no longer be, but don’t expect to see that during my life time. Hirsi Ali does not expect to see Mecca Islam replace Medina Islam during her life time either.
For now, there are a few things we non-Muslims can do to encourage the transition. Hirsi Ali suggests several in Heretic.
LikeLike
Yes, this is highly unlikely to happen soon. But it’s either this or constant conflict. As we are seeing right now.
LikeLike
Until (if ever) there is an Islamic reformation, how will Europe and even America — with relatively few Muslims now but with many more apparently likely to come soon — deal with them? Are there ways for them to assimilate in America that Europe has not tried? Or will Americans be required to do as much of the assimilating as is happening in Europe?
Several days ago, my wife and I had two couples over for lunch. One husband was a Panamanian gynecologist who had been graduated from my college alma mater in 1964. During our conversations, I concluded that he is rather an expert on Islam — he has read the Qu’ran in translation, is familiar with the Hadith and Sharia law and has visited several Islamic countries.
I asked him why Muslims, Jews and others in Panama seem to get along exceedingly well. Most of the Jews live in Panama City on the west coast, most of the Muslims live in Colon on the east coast. They have business partnerships at the free trade zone in Colon (to and from which the Jews generally travel daily by train). One never hears of any conflicts with Muslims there or elsewhere in Panama. He had no answers, beyond saying only that it had always been that way and that there are relatively few Muslims.
LikeLike
“I asked him why Muslims, Jews and others in Panama seem to get along exceedingly well. Most of the Jews live in Panama City on the west coast, most of the Muslims live in Colon on the east coast. They have business partnerships at the free trade zone in Colon (to and from which the Jews generally travel daily by train). One never hears of any conflicts with Muslims there or elsewhere in Panama. He had no answers, beyond saying only that it had always been that way and that there are relatively few Muslims.”
“Until (if ever) there is an Islamic reformation, how will Europe and even America — with relatively few Muslims now but with many more apparently likely to come soon — deal with them? Are there ways for them to assimilate in America that Europe has not tried?”
It’s impossible to assimilate people unless they actively choose to be assimilated and pursue that goal with passionate dedication.
LikeLike
“Until (if ever) there is an Islamic reformation, how will Europe and even America — with relatively few Muslims now but with many more apparently likely to come soon — deal with them?”
One way:
“The traditionally inert, neutral and quite homogeneous nation of Switzerland is not used to having cultural integration issues, which is why it has been watching recent events across the German border (and elsewhere in Europe) with sheer terror. And in order to preempt any possible outbreaks of refugee violence against women, or in general, ahead of the Lucerne carnival starting on February 4, Switzerland is getting ready.
According to Blick, the department of Health and Social Services will use the following Austrian cartoon flyer dubbed “Ground Rules””
LikeLike
Of course it’s not. After all, I live here as a shining beacon of sanity in the middle of the desert. 🙂
By the way, are you going to cover the Republican debate tonight and the Dem debate on Saturday?
LikeLike
Oh, there are debates this week? Thank you for telling me, I’ve been out of it completely.
Yes, I will watch the one today. Saturday is tricky, though, because that’s when we have our New Year’s #2.
LikeLike
So watch the debate while you’re pigging out. You’ll be starving by then, anyway…
LikeLike
New Year’s is time for Russian-language television! 🙂
LikeLike
Correction : The Democratic debate is on Sunday night, not Saturday — on NBC at 9 p.m. ET.
LikeLike
Oh, that’s fantastic news! Thank you.
LikeLike
Learning Arabic: the key to coexistence
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4751488,00.html
Judging by his examples of what Arabs say to each other, learning the language would make many Left-leaning Jews trust them less.
Also:
Aliyah from Western Europe hits all-time high
Jewish Agency reports 9,880 western European Jews immigrated to Israel in 2015, most of them ( close to 8,000) from France, as a result of sharp rise in anti-Semitism.
LikeLike
I’m all for everybody learning languages. I’ve got to say, though, that speaking Russian did not foster my tolerance of the Russian people.
LikeLike
Wanted to ask whether you read Philip Roth’s American Pastoral and liked it. I haven’t read it yet. Is it a coming of age novel or something different?
May be, a good movie:
“Война Фойла” и тема “отечественного фашизма”
http://taki-net.livejournal.com/2284843.html
LikeLike
I like Roth, he’s a talented writer. But this is not a Bildungsroman. This is a midlife crisis novel, Roth’s favorite genre.
LikeLike
\ But this is not a Bildungsroman. This is a midlife crisis novel, Roth’s favorite genre.
Based on the short description, I thought it touched on the topic of an American dream like “The Great Gatsby”?
Is Ian McEwan’s “Atonement” a Bildungsroman?
And, as a last question, have you heard about A. S. Byatt’s “The Children’s Book”? Is it good? And is it a Bildungsroman?
LikeLike
“Bildung” means “development”, “personal growth.” It’s a genre that arose in the Enlightenment-era Germany and doesn’t have any connection at all to the American dream. So the way to figure out if a novel is a Bildungsroman is to ask, “Is there anybody in the novel who is pursuing or trying to pursue a project of personal growth?” Whether they are ultimately successful is not important, but the novel should be about efforts to grow. In “Atonement”, nobody is growing, there is no process of self-fashioning.
A. S. Byatt I haven’t read.
LikeLike
The article on radical feminism and the trans movement was indeed excellent. I like the following quotation very much:
“Transgender ideology does not recognise one of the most basic concepts within feminism; that sex and gender are different. When I first took a Women’s Studies course (over ten years ago), one of the critical distinctions I got to grips with was that sex and gender are not the same. Gender is a social construct; it is how individuals are expected to perform in accordance with their biological sex. This is feminism 101, and yet according to some of those within the transgender movement, this has become akin to hate speech.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s my favorite quote, too. 🙂 All of a sudden, gender essentialism is back in vogue, and I find that disturbing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know! I could actually keep quoting this article. I loved the whole thing. I also liked this:
“I am genuinely baffled by the nonsensical form of feminism that argues a female brain is a fact but a female vulva isn’t. Women as a class are being linguistically erased from the conversations that concern our bodies. ”
And that’s he last quotation I’ll paste since you obviously read it and I’m only preaching to the choir. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Those handwritten thank you notes are few, seem out of place, always come from women, look vaguely desperate, and never make a difference. That is largely because they are rarely written by candidates who have given a really good interview, and partly because other factors like quality of presentation weigh much more. Handwritten thank you notes after a dinner party are a different matter.
I did however see a male candidates criticized for not wearing a jacket and for not having the right accent, and a female candidate criticized for “looking pregnant.” Not hiring for those reasons is the same as hiring because of a thank you note.
LikeLike
The jacket and the looking pregnant criticisms are outrageous. People are very disappointing at times.
LikeLike
Those handwritten thank you notes are few, seem out of place, always come from women, look vaguely desperate, and never make a difference.
That is largely because they are rarely written by candidates who have given a really good interview, and partly because other factors like quality of presentation weigh much more.
Really? I know you’re in academia, so YMMV. That’s good to know, since 1) I don’t want to rely on my left handed writing and 2)the idea of thanking someone for a job interview seems ridiculous especially since many employers go to great lengths to hide lots of information that would make a personal note anything more than generic. It’s not as if they’d clutch the note to their bosom and say, “It’s handwritten! I shall treasure this D’ Nealian note forever!” It’s not as if most employers bother to contact you after an interview unless they want to hire you.
cues Jimmy Kimmel note writing music
LikeLike
I’ll ask my sister who’s a recruiter. It might take time because she’s breastfeeding 14 hours a day right now.
LikeLike
A followup email saying it was nice to meet the committee and that you are still interested in the job can be good, though.
LikeLike
Yes, an email makes a much better impression.
LikeLike
Jeet Heer on the tenor of the republican debates.
https://newrepublic.com/article/127778/apocalypse-now
“For his part, Jeb Bush raised the alarm over the fact that the “the world has been torn asunder.” Riffing on the alarm raised by moderator Maria Bartiromo that “the world is on fire” Chris Christie warned that if “you’re worried most of all about keeping your homes and your families safe and secure, you cannot give Hillary Clinton a third term of Barack Obama’s leadership.” It was nearly an afterthought when Carson himself warned that if the Democrats win and appoint two or more Supreme Court justices “this nation is over as we know it.”
LikeLike
Ridiculous fear-mongering whose goal is to sell more guns to even more idiots.
LikeLike
“It’s impossible to assimilate people unless they actively choose to be assimilated and pursue that goal with passionate dedication.”
Assimilation is not possible without outmarriage so groups that prohibit outmarriage (amish, orthodox jews, most muslims) will never assimilate. Outmarriage doesn’t have to be an everyday common occurence but it needs to be possible.
There aren’t that many amish (or similar groups) or orthodox jews so it’s not a big problem to let them form their hermetic communities with minimal contact with non-members.
But there’s way too many muslims for that to work in Europe (or the States but my focus is currently Europe). So muslim communities in their fourth and fifth generations born in European countries produce children who are the equivalent of first generation immigrants (or children born in the old country).
LikeLike
Soviet Jews were completely assimilated without any intermarriage.
LikeLike
“Soviet Jews were completely assimilated without any intermarriage.”
What about your parents? I thought your father was Jewish and your mother wasn’t… did I miss something?
But also Soviet Jews gave up anything that made them stand out like language or special diet or special ways of dressing etc. Were Soviet Jews a visible minority? It was my understanding that the great majority weren’t and the only way you could know if someone was Jewish (beyond them telling you) was by the “nationality” on their papers and/or maybe names?
LikeLike
My parents were unusual. The Ukrainian side of the family never had a problem (they had only a vague idea of who Jews were) but the Jewish side kept finding it difficult to accept.
The Jews were a visible minority because everybody else were so similar to each other. Here in North America, for instance, my father or sister would never stand out. But in the USSR they stuck out like sore thumbs. Of course, the last and often the first names were a dead giveaway.
My mother always told me I was uncommonly lucky because I could “pass” and have the best of both worlds.
LikeLike
\ My parents were unusual.
May be, we are talking about different generations and your parents are closer to my grandparents’ generation than to my mother’s? That would explain it.
I found this on the web:
In 1926, the intermarriage rate was 3% in Belorussia and 5% in Ukraine, but 17% in Russia. By 1936, the rates had climbed all over the USSR, with a large leap, 37%–42% percent, in Russia. Following mass emigration between 1971–2007, the “Jewish marriage market” shrunk and intermarriage rates skyrocketed.
Today probably eight of 10 Jews marrying in Russia marry non-Jews. Demographer Mark Tolts has calculated that in Russia, three of four children born in 1998 who are Jewish according to Halacha have non-Jewish fathers.
http://forward.com/opinion/186698/we-are-all-russian-jews-now/
LikeLike
The problem with these stats is that people put false ethnicites on their papers. An enormous number of people who were officially Russian were anything but Russian.
“Asked which in a list of 17 components “are essential to being a ‘good Jew,’” very few chose religious mandates like keeping the Sabbath or circumcising sons. Nine of 10 Jews in Russia and Ukraine did not observe kashrut, despite two decades of activity by religious emissaries.”
This is what real Jews are like. It’s a source of great pride and a journey for everybody to emulate.
LikeLike
\ This is what real Jews are like.
You are being FSU-centric here. Are Jews in Israel not real Jews?
Poll: 80% of Israeli Jews believe in God
…
A comparison shows that while the 1990s recorded a certain drop in affiliation to Jewish tradition, the following decade recorded an increase in affiliation up and beyond the numbers measured in 1991.
…
a very high percentage of Jews view traditional Jewish ceremonies to mark milestones in a person’s life as extremely important: Ninety-four percent said so about circumcision, 92% about the seven days of mourning after a relative’s death, 91% about the bar mitzvah ceremony, 90% about saying the Kaddish prayer over deceased parents, 86% about Jewish burial, and 83% about the bat mitzvah ceremony.
…
Most Jews in Israel eat kosher food at home (76%) and slightly fewer do the same outside (70%). However, only 63% are strict about not mixing meat and milk. Seventy-two percent say they never eat pork, with the common explanation being the religious mitzvah.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4181776,00.html
LikeLike
Of course, nobody kept kosher or knew what it meant. We had our gefilte fish and things like that but this was the limit of the Jewish way of eating.
LikeLike
\ “Soviet Jews were completely assimilated without any intermarriage.”
Are you serious? Soviet Jews were intermarrying all the way. Both in your family and in mine. My grandmother yet married a Jew, but her children already not.
A family story: When my mother was young and walked with my grandmother near a river in a city with many Jews (forgot the city’s name), she saw many couples with Jewish men and Russian/Ukrainian women. And not even one couple where both were Jews. She said it got on her nerves in a way since it was not a 100% coincidence. By marrying non-Jews, those Jewish men tried to “move up” since being Jewish was the worst nationality to have. Please, understand me correctly. I am not talking about your family, but about a general trend.
LikeLike
Actually, my Jewish part of the family and the Jewish acquaintances always snobbed all over my mother and considered Ukrainians to be inferior. People would mock Ukrainians straight to my face. It was also a class thing, if course. The Jews were all educated, had money, good professions.
As for intermarriage, I know one case other than our family, and the Ukrainian fellow who married the Jewish woman lost his party membership because of this. It was not a decision his party bosses liked.
LikeLike
Latest interesting 3 pieces of news about refugee situation:
News 1 – (el: The destruction of the welfare states has begun in earnest. I read what Clarissa and others said on the blogs, but never imagined it would be so quick. )
Migrant workers would be banned from getting in-work benefits if they fill low-paid jobs under a controversial plan designed to keep Britain in the EU. Germany has offered David Cameron a deal that would see EU citizens who earn only the minimum wage denied state handouts.
But, to make the idea acceptable to Brussels, hundreds of thousands of low-paid British workers would also miss out on tax credits. Insiders say the idea has been embraced by No 10 – which is desperate to declare that it has secured a ‘win’ on limiting migrant benefits.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3400234/Fears-EU-deal-offer-Merkel-curb-migrant-benefits-Nonsense-plans-poorest-Britons-banned-receiving-tax-credits.html
News 2 (el: looks like the ban won’t be lifted anytime soon, if ever. Looks like the creation of parallel societies: frightened locals vs Others.)
A German leisure centre has become the first in the country to ban all migrants after a schoolgirl was sexually assaulted in a public swimming pool by Syrian teenagers.
…
Bornheim social affairs councillor and deputy mayor Markus Schnapka said the move followed an emergency meeting of locals where the swimming pool ban was announced.
…
Bornheim currently has 300 refugees living in accommodation who have been told that the ban will be lifted when the message has been received that women need to be respected.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3400842/German-leisure-centre-ban-migrants-schoolgirl-sexually-assaulted-public-swimming-pool-Syrian-teenagers.html
News 3 (el: I immediately thought: “what if migrants have zero earnings?” Is this really the best way to motivate them to begin working?)
Refugees arriving in Switzerland are facing harsh new integration laws with authorities confiscating valuable possessions and taxing 10 per cent of the migrants’ future earnings. Following the example set by Denmark, in which possessions worth more than 1,000 Swiss francs are taken, the country claims the measures are necessary to pay for the migrants’ upkeep.
LikeLike
Clarissa, my previous comment is hard to read – some words are not visible because the thread got too long. That’s why I post it here. Please, if you respond, do it here or I probably won’t be able to read it.
\ This is what real Jews are like.
You are being FSU-centric here. Are Jews in Israel not real Jews?
Poll: 80% of Israeli Jews believe in God
…
A comparison shows that while the 1990s recorded a certain drop in affiliation to Jewish tradition, the following decade recorded an increase in affiliation up and beyond the numbers measured in 1991.
…
a very high percentage of Jews view traditional Jewish ceremonies to mark milestones in a person’s life as extremely important: Ninety-four percent said so about circumcision, 92% about the seven days of mourning after a relative’s death, 91% about the bar mitzvah ceremony, 90% about saying the Kaddish prayer over deceased parents, 86% about Jewish burial, and 83% about the bat mitzvah ceremony.
…
Most Jews in Israel eat kosher food at home (76%) and slightly fewer do the same outside (70%). However, only 63% are strict about not mixing meat and milk. Seventy-two percent say they never eat pork, with the common explanation being the religious mitzvah.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4181776,00.html
LikeLike
“You are being FSU-centric here. Are Jews in Israel not real Jews?”
“Ninety-four percent said so about circumcision, 92% about the seven days of mourning after a relative’s death, 91% about the bar mitzvah ceremony, 90% about saying the Kaddish prayer over deceased parents, 86% about Jewish burial, and 83% about the bat mitzvah ceremony.”
LikeLike
\ Not all Jews in Israel are into religion. You aren’t, as far as I remember. \
I am unusual because of being a FSU kind of Jew, not a zabar (born in Israel) one.
\ I respect the right of less sophisticated, so to speak, people to look for solace in rituals and superstition.
I want Israeli Jews to be not more religious than Dutch, Swedes, Germans, etc.
Europeans have plenty ” less sophisticated” people too, yet only in Israel among Western countries both many are religious and religion is not separated from the state with very unpleasant to me results.
Unfortunately, judging by demographic data, Israeli society looks like going to get more religious in the long-term. I only hope there will be still enough secular people left till my old age and death. Am I being too pessimistic here?
LikeLike
“I am unusual because of being a FSU kind of Jew, not a zabar (born in Israel) one.”
First of all, it’s not like you are the only FSU Jew in Israel. 🙂 Second, I met several grad students and colleagues from Israel and nobody was into religion aside from some very superficial stuff.
“Unfortunately, judging by demographic data, Israeli society looks like going to get more religious in the long-term.”
This depends on how open the state is to secular Jews. If they feel too squeezed, they might choose to leave in greater numbers.
LikeLike
Uri’s column “The Widening Gap”:
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1452867180
LikeLike
The German news station SAT 1 NRW reports (g) on a recent incident in Dortmund, Germany, in which three North African migrants attempted to stone two transsexuals. […] the three youths said they were planning to ‘stone’ the women to death. The three young asylum-seekers were already known to the police for theft and assault.
…
only 53, or .0096%, had been deported in the first half of 2015. The main reason, according to German officials, is the unwillingness of Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco to furnish the necessary travel documents to permit deportation. […] Fewer than 1% of North Africans qualify for asylum in Germany.
http://www.germanimmigration.eu/2016/01/news-in-brief-attempted-stoning-in-dortmund-0096-of-illegals-from-the-maghreb-successfully-deported.html
You wrote how even the Left does not care about women. Wonder if the same applies to transsexuals whose acceptance seems to be one of feminist issues of the day.
I am surprised EU is unable to put pressure on a few third world countries to take back their illegal migrants to Europe. Don’t those countries get some help from EU or America, or benefit from trade with EU somehow? Why is no pressure applied?
Also, it seems like a few criminals spoil it for all migrants. It would be the best to treat citizens and migrants differently, with migrants being jailed and then sent back after being involved in any crime, let alone assault.
LikeLike
Free Havens for Refugees (mostly by Pieter Cleppe)
Pieter Cleppe, head of the Brussels office of the think tank Open Europe, has written a piece advocating something akin to my idea of passport-free charter cities.
http://openborders.info/blog/free-havens-refugees-pieter-cleppe/
LikeLike
It began as a campaign at the University of Cape Town to remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes that stood on the campus.
https://kenanmalik.wordpress.com/2016/01/13/recolonized-by-the-past/
LikeLike
Are the students demanding an end to the Rhodes Scholarships as well? 🙂
According to the linked article, the privileged student hypocrite leading the “Rhodes (the statue) Must Fall” protest is attending the university on a Rhodes Scholarship!
LikeLike
A bill filed by a Virginia lawmaker this week would require schools to be certain that children are using the restroom corresponding to their “correct anatomical sex.”
The legislation, which would prohibit transgender students from using the bathroom matching their gender, is being sponsored by Republican Del. Mark Cole.
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/01/virginia-gop-bill-would-require-schools-to-verify-childrens-genitals-before-using-restroom/comments/#disqus
LikeLike
Maybe they could provide a single, unshared gender – neutral bathroom.
LikeLike
This idea, along with single, unshared shower stalls for transexual students, has been tried in several American public schools, but the ACLU or some other “civil liberties” organization always sues to block it — because it singles out the transgender student and thus “discriminates” against him/her.
BTW, you are going to follow tonight’s Demo debate on your blog, aren’t you?
LikeLike
I know and fuck the ACLU on this issue. I deeply sympathize with parents of little girls who don’t want any penises in the bathroom or locker with them.
Yes, I’m watching the debate!
LikeLike
Just another day in Israel:
Woman murdered at West Bank home, manhunt after terrorist
Terrorist murders Dafna Meir outside her house south of Hebron and flees; one of Meir’s six children witnessed murder
…
the terrorist had wanted to hurt the children, but that tiny Dafna protected them with all her might as she lay dying.
…
Meir, 38, is survived by her husband Natan and their six children: Renana, 17, Akiva, 15, Ahava, 10, Noa, 11, Yair, six, and Yaniv, four. The four older children are Dafna and Natan’s biological children, and the two younger ones – Yaniv and Yair – are brothers that the couple adopted.
…
“My Dafna is one in a million, who grew up in a house that wasn’t a home and still managed to rehabilitate. She decided to give back grace to the world, and she did,” Natan said of his wife, who grew up in foster homes since she was 13 years old.
…
“We met when we were soldiers, at the south Lebanon border. It only took us a moment to fall in love. My Dafna, thank you for every moment I had with you,” he continued. “Our love is too strong to be a passing thing.”
AND THEN MORE NEWS AS USUAL
\ A pregnant woman was moderately wounded in a stabbing attack in Tekoa near Jerusalem on Monday morning. The terrorist, around 15 years old, infiltrated Tekoa through an existing breach in its fence and arrived at a clothes warehouse in the Tekoa industrial area, where he stabbed 30-year-old Michal Fruman in her chest.
THAT’s why I admit I am deeply suspicious of Muslims and of EU’s idea to admit millions of them. Before Israel was founded, Jews used terror too, but never heard of them behaving thus. Targeting pregnant women and murdering babies. In Syria and other places Muslims do it to each other too, not only to Jews, of course. So not a culture I wish to have near me.
LikeLike
This is not a religious thing. It’s a cultural thing.
But it’s absolutely horrible either way.
LikeLike
\ This is not a religious thing. It’s a cultural thing.
That’s what I have written: “So not a culture I wish to have near me.”
And even when Sweden and other countries talk about accepting lonely children, I think that even those of them who are below 18 years old, may already (or in the nearest future) be a risk both to women and to Jews. Reading “The terrorist, around 14-15 years old” is an everyday thing to me. There were even some 13 year olds, now that was unusual.
LikeLike
Sweden’s “accepting children” policy has already turned into such a travesty that it’s shameful.
LikeLike
\ The terrorist, around 14-15 years old” is an everyday thing to me. There were even some 13 year olds, now that was unusual.
I wrote that before the identity of Dafna Meir’s murderer was published:
\ Security forces on Tuesday morning captured a 15-year-old, Morad Adais, who allegedly murdered Dafna Meir on Sunday in a terror attack at her home. He was apprehended at his home in Yatta, near Otniel, where the murder took place and south of Hebron.
LikeLike
An international LGBT youth conference will no longer be held in Israel after Palestinian gay groups complained.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2011/08/05/israel-lgbt-youth-conference-cancelled/
LikeLike
May this be a new trend? You talked how education becomes more important, but:
Publisher Penguin Random House says job applicants will no longer be required to have a university degree.
The firm wants to have a more varied intake of staff and suggests there is no clear link between holding a degree and performance in a job.
…
Last autumn, professional services firm Deloitte changed its selection process so recruiters did not know where candidates went to school or university.
Ernst and Young has scrapped a requirement for school leavers to have the equivalent of three B grades at A-level or graduates to have an upper second class degree.
The accountancy firm is removing all academic and education details from its application process.
PricewaterhouseCoopers earlier this year also announced that it would stop using A-levels grades as a threshold for selecting graduate recruits.
http://www.bbc.com/news/education-35343680
LikeLike
There are two very different employment models these days: huge corporations and small / medium businesses / startups. People need to know very clearly which one they prefer. Revolving – door corporate – cog to be squeezed out and discarded model is very different from we-will-cherish-your-individuality smaller business model. People who don’t see the difference and apply for both kinds of jobs don’t get hired at all.
So yes, those who want to go the Deloitte / Penguin / Google path need to prepare to be treated like commodities. Many people dig that and will be super happy. It’s actually shocking how many people are deeply uncomfortable with the employment model where their schedules are accommodated, family leave is abundant, every milestone at the company is celebrated with gifts and prizes, there is no dress code or micromanagement, etc. Many workers prefer to ditch all that for a handbook of rules and a dress code.
LikeLike
First, German swimming pools, now this:
Danish nightclubs demand guests have to speak Danish, English or German to be allowed in after ‘foreign men in groups’ attack female revellers
Several bars in Denmark applies language requirement for entry
Guests have to be able to speak Danish, English or German
Some admit to have but in measures in the wake of attacks on women
Danish Amnesty outraged, calling it discrimination against foreigners
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3405167/Danish-nightclubs-demand-guests-speak-Danish-English-German-allowed-foreign-men-groups-attack-female-revellers.htmlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3405167/Danish-nightclubs-demand-guests-speak-Danish-English-German-allowed-foreign-men-groups-attack-female-revellers.html
I see a flaw in the plan. Surely, many foreigners know English?
Since you wrote a lot about the veil:
David Cameron today backed the right of schools and courts to ban people from wearing the veil in some circumstances, while insisting a nationwide ban would not be the right thing to do.
…
The Prime Minister unveiled a series of new policies today which include a threat of deportation to people who arrive in Britain to marry if they fail to make progress in learning English.
The policy applies to all migrants arriving on a spousal visa but the Prime Minister was told he risked stigmatising the Muslim community with his ‘simplistic’ approach.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3404276/David-Cameron-says-Muslim-mothers-integrate-defeat-extremism.html
I think the approach is only one of necessary steps, but is a crucial one rather than simplistic. What stigmatises the Muslim community is lack of intergration, not measures taken to combat it.
LikeLike
Феминизм: через призму сталинистского “социализма”
Сталинистский “социализм” в СССР и других “соцстранах” поставил довольно уникальный эксперимент, и результат его дает убедительный ответ на дискуссионный вопрос. Проще всего описать ситуацию на примере самой “социалистической” на сегодня страны в мире, КНДР.
http://taki-net.livejournal.com/2288983.html
LikeLike
Great post. And I uncharacteristically agree with everything in it. 🙂
LikeLike