Wednesday Link Encyclopedia 

This is why the concept of “hate speech” is dangerous and should be abandoned. Anything, literally anything at all can feel hateful to somebody. How do you prevent those who are offended by the very fact that you are speaking from rising to have power over you? 

And the same goes for the concept of hate crime that is being grievously overused.

great post on the ridiculous anti-pornography measure proposed in South Carolina

Wikileaks is a Russian tool. Color me the least surprised that I’ve ever been. 

Kenan Malik is brilliant as usual on multiculturalism and integration

Only in America: “I regularly diagnose people with mental illnesses. I am myself diagnosed with a mental illness.” And I regularly give people failing grades for their incapacity to speak Spanish. I myself don’t speak a word of it, so I’m a total expert on the matter. 

modern-day Gaugin but without the talent

A Dem Senator finally speaks out against the criminal over prescription of opioids that is driving the heroin epidemic, and the media go into overdrive trying to discredit him. Here is one example and here is another. The servility to drug pushers is pathetic. 

70 thoughts on “Wednesday Link Encyclopedia 

  1. This part was especially brilliant:

    “In this process, social problems that were once seen as political issues have come to be reposed as cultural differences. Political struggles divide society across ideological lines, but they unite across ethnic or cultural divisions; cultural struggles inevitably fragment. What matters in political struggles is not who you are, but what you believe; the reverse is true in cultural or ethnic struggles. As a result of the shift towards a cultural view of social issues, conflicts have become more intractable, and have been channeled into forms that are neither useful nor resolvable.”

    It still amazes me that democrats in this country refuse to play class politics. Well, Bernie tried, but Clinton replied with ‘Blaming wall street will not cure racism’. Talk about a conversation-stopper.

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    1. I hate any kind of system or ideology in which a person is not viewed as an individual in his/her own right but, instead, is viewed as representing some kind of prototype, simply to be stereotyped and pigeonholed.

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      1. Let’s abolish the 2 party system and create 350 million parties, each representing the unique interests of every rugged individual in the country.

        Look, doing politics by definition means banding together to achieve certain objectives. I’d prefer if those objectives were material (raise minimum wage) rather than intangible (dignity! empowerment!). But no matter what, you’re going to have to join in with others.

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      1. I’ve been meaning to ask your opinion about his post on Israel.

        https://kenanmalik.wordpress.com/2016/06/02/what-does-anti-zionism-mean-today/

        Key idea:

        “The notion of the ‘right to self-determination’ expressed in most Zionist arguments is problematic. I opposed Scottish independence, but supported the right of Scots to make that decision. What I would not have accepted is the right of those of Scottish ancestry outside of Scotland to make that decision.

        Similarly, I agree with the right of Jews (and of non-Jews) who now live in Israel/Palestine to collective determine their future. But the Zionist notion of ‘self-determination’ expresses something different. It embodies the idea that Jews anywhere in the world ‘self-determine’ by determining the founding and the future of a state in which the vast majority of Jews do not live, will not live, could not live, and do not wish to live. That, to me, is a highly implausible notion of ‘national self- determination’.”

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        1. I agree, of course, that the future of Israel is only up to the people who live there. But I had no idea anybody thought that the diaspora Jews shoukd have an input. If the government of Israel had any interest in what the diaspora had to say, things would be different in Israel today.

          The problem is that Israel is consumed by such massive propaganda that outside voices are crucial to keeping people at least somewhat grounded in reality. But of course, self-determination resides solely with them.

          As for the rest, I don’t support Zionism but I’m obviously not an anti-semite. The conflation between the two concepts is ridiculous.

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          1. \ I agree, of course, that the future of Israel is only up to the people who live there. But I had no idea anybody thought that the diaspora Jews should have an input.

            I think the diaspora Jews are the (only) ones with such self-serving opinion. 🙂

            Malik is simply wrong on two counts in his claim that

            “the Zionist notion of ‘self-determination’ … Jews anywhere in the world ‘self-determine’ by determining the founding and the future of a state in which the vast majority of Jews do not live, will not live, could not live, and do not wish to live.”

            First, the Zionism I learned in Israeli school talked about the heroic struggles of Israeli Jews, mainly mentioning Jews in the diaspora only as victims of anti-semitism (and never forget Holocaust!).

            Clarissa, you have once mentioned how Zionism may occasionally use anti-semitic stereotypes in its view of not Israeli Jews. How can it go together with giving the diaspora Jews any real influence regarding Israel’s fate? On the contrary, Israel sees itself as a protector of diaspora Jewry, a potential safe haven, if American Jews ever need it.

            Second, the situation in which “the vast majority of Jews do not live” in Israel is hardly true today (6,481,182 Israeli Jews vs. total 14.7–17.3 million, according to wiki), and will become completely untrue in the not so distant future. Jews abroad assimilate very fast, while the Israeli Jewish population keeps rapidly growing.

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            1. “I think the diaspora Jews are the (only) ones with such self-serving opinion.”

              • All kinds of weirdness exist in the world but if this were a mainstream view, I think I’d have heard about it.

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            2. “How can it go together with giving the diaspora Jews any real influence regarding Israel’s fate? On the contrary, Israel sees itself as a protector of diaspora Jewry, a potential safe haven, if American Jews ever need it.”

              • I honestly have no idea where this definition of Zionism as all Jews living everywhere having input on the self-determination of Israel comes from. I never heard of it in my life. But I’m not a specialist on the subject, so I don’t have an opinion other than to say that I don’t get it. The last thing I want as a diaspora Jew is to have to make any decisions on Israel’s self-determination.

              “Second, the situation in which “the vast majority of Jews do not live” in Israel is hardly true today (6,481,182 Israeli Jews vs. total 14.7–17.3 million, according to wiki), and will become completely untrue in the not so distant future.”

              • That’s an incontrovertible fact.

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  2. What bothers me about when someone is “offended by” something I do or say is:
    Why does society give these particular individuals the power-and-control that enables them to demand those in authority punish me in some way on their behalf? And why do those in charge so eagerly comply with the demands these people make of them so zealously?
    Are all these “others” somehow automatically “deputized” the minute they feel themselves to be “violated”? Like they suddenly have some kind of “secondary authority”?
    This is one aspect of society I never HAVE been able to figure out.

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      1. \ This will be yet another anti-EU argument: how did he get to Italy so easily and problem-free after killing a couple dozen people?

        How indeed?

        And he was stopped only by chance too.

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      2. I meant, stopped in Italy during a ‘routine check’ . It sounds like it was pure luck on Italians’ part.

        Unfortunately, everybody in EU seems to be as incompetent as Germans have shown themselves.

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  3. \ “Second, the situation in which “the vast majority of Jews do not live” in Israel is hardly true today
    \ That’s an incontrovertible fact.

    You know, something has been bothering me about his sentence – “a state in which the vast majority of Jews do not live, will not live, could not live, and do not wish to live” – and now I partly understand what.

    The four negations in a row create a powerful rhetorical effect, all of them stressing the imaginary chasm between the Jewish people and their nation state. I know we, Jewish people, are different, but can you imagine the same sentence said about French or Germans? Italians or Russians? Wait, what about Palestinians and their future nation state? Based on statistics (*) and surveys asking Palestinians in PA and Gaza whether they wish to leave the Middle East, what Malik says is actually truer for them than for Jews.

    Moreover, not only Jews “do not wish to live” in Israel, they supposedly “could not live” there. Why not? Looks to me, Israel is a first world country with good economy and plenty of space for more Jews. There are many peoples who can not manage to live normally in their nation states, like Russians or, I predict, Palestinians in their future state, but Israeli Jews enjoy a high standard of living.

    (*) From wiki:
    Total population c. 12.37 million
    – West Bank 2,930,000
    – Gaza Strip 1,880,000

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    1. I live in the US, and one thing is for absolute sure: nobody is preventing anybody from engaging in insanely lavish celebrations of Christmas in any way one wants. There is no “war on Christmas” waged by anybody, Jews, gentiles, Muslims, or a union of tired Santa Clauses.

      This who issue is an example of a distractionary tactic that I talked about earlier today.

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  4. Since it concerns Israeli-Ukrainian relations, I decided to share:

    Stage 1
    The United Nations Security Council voted on a resolution demanding Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including east Jerusalem.”

    Stage 2
    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also serves as Israel’s foreign minister, decided on Saturday to cancel an official visit by Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman to the country, scheduled for next week.

    The decision to cancel the visit was done in protest of the fact Ukraine—normally a very friendly state towards Israel—voted in favor of the UN Security Council’s anti-settlement resolution.

    Stage 3
    Ze’ev Elkin (born 3 April 1971, Place of birth Kharkiv, Year of aliyah 1990) – a member of the Knesset for Likud and Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Minister of Environmental Protection – is on a private visit to Ukraine now. Elkin said Ukraine wanted to abstain from voting, but then Biden phoned the Ukrainian president and pressured Ukraine into voting against Israel.

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    1. Ah, so it was Biden! I wondered. It’s very symbolic of the current situation that Obama makes all these empty symbolic gestures because he can’t do anything real.

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      1. \ It’s very symbolic of the current situation that Obama makes all these empty symbolic gestures because he can’t do anything real.

        I am sad Obama decided to make one last parting shot at Israel this way, three minutes before he steps down.

        He has been one of the less (least?) popular USA presidents in Israel. Now his legacy among Israeli Jews will forever remain as one of “an Israeli hater,” whether it’s true or not.

        Had I lived in America, I would’ve voted for Obama. But now I wonder whether Israeli Jews, who have probably become more enthusiastic about Trump after Obama’s last decision, may not be fully wrong.

        One example of the mainstream Israeli view of Obama (and it is all correct, sadly):

        Analysis: Obama’s chosen legacy is settlement obsession
        This is the legacy he wanted to leave – that he got tough on Israeli settlements and changed the more than 35-year-old US policy of protecting Israel at the UN.

        http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Analysis-Settlement-bookends-476429

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  5. Have you heard about the Russian military plane crashing en route to Syria?

    \ A military Tu-154 airliner with 91 passengers on board crashed in the Black Sea … with entertainment personnel for Russian troops and nine journalists, among others

    In other news, I found the following horribly hilarious. Look what Trump has to dissolve! I guess, putting it in blind trust (or some other legal term?) was not an option.

    \ US President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday he intends to dissolve his charitable foundation, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, to avoid any conflict with his role as president. Trump said in a statement that he doesn’t want “to allow good work to be associated with a possible conflict of interest.”

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        1. I don’t want anybody to die. I want everybody to live well and in peace.

          Dr Lisa has done a lot of good to people for a very long time. I’m sure she was going to Syria to help. Offering a political analysis of the situation was not her strength. But she was all about helping.

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  6. Now saw an article about Dr Lisa on a Hebrew news site. She must have been very famous. /go to read

    Also, after Obama’s decision “US Ambassador to Israel summoned to meeting with Netanyahu over UN resolution.”

    \ While the other ambassadors will be reprimanded by high-ranking officials in the Foreign Ministry, Shapiro will meet with Netanyahu.

    As part of one of the retaliatory measures since the adoption of the resolution, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman instructed the IDF on Sunday morning and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) to halt all state-civil activities with their counterparts in the Palestinian Authority.

    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4898288,00.html

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  7. It is almost funnt how Obama is “a bad cop” in the article below. Also, everything seems to be going on to make Bennett’s vision come true, and surely Samantha Power understands which of the two statements is truly meant:

    \ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed his party Sunday to refrain from making public declarations relating to annexation of territories or construction in the West Bank, warning that more international maneuvers could be made against Israel until the expiration of President Obama’s tenure in office on January 20.

    Despite his exhortations, Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Bayit Yehudi) already called on Israel to impose sovereignty on the West Bank. “In the near future we should impose sovereignty on the the whole of Area C in Judea and Samaria” Bennett said in response to the resolution.

    “There are two alternatives: surrender of sovereignty. We have tried surrendering and giving up for 25 years already. The time has come for sovereignty.”

    But it would not be the first time Bennett has made such statements. Indeed, Shortly after the US population voted for Donald Trump, Bennett hailed his victory, saying that it helped create an opportunity for Israel to abandon its stated commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

    US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power … “The Israeli Prime Minister recently described his government as ‘more committed to settlements than any in Israel’s history,’ and one of his leading coalition partners (Bayit Yehudi Leader Naftali Bennettt—ed) recently declared that ‘the era of the two-state solution is over.’ At the same time, the prime minister has said that he is still committed to pursuing a two-state solution. But these statements are irreconcilable.”

    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4898224,00.html

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  8. The absolute worst thing that Obama could do regarding the Israeli-Palestinian situation in his last 26 days in office would be to follow Jummy Carter’s suggestion that the U.S. grant full formal recognition to the State of Palestine, setting its borders at the 1967 boundaries and declaring all Jewish settlements within the state illegal — and then arrange to have the UN Security Council to do the same.

    Even Obama wouldn’t dare to attempt this. It would trigger a massive rebellion within the already panicked Democratic Party.

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    1. The problem is not that it would cause a rebellion but that it would cause absolutely nothing. The real tangible consequences of such an act would be nil. And that would mean complete loss of face for the outgoing president.

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      1. Why do you say that? So many prominent democrats already made statements opposing him. Party unity lol.

        He really must be scared of offending the Israelis that he does this in the waning days of his lame duck presidency when he personally won’t suffer any political consequences. Right after signing the biggest aid deal to them, of course. He didn’t even do this right after winning in 2012 when there were no more elections for him to win or lose.

        Republican administrations have been harsher on Israel in the UN, by the way.

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        1. That’s exactly what I mean by this being an empty gesture. I’m very tired of empty gestures. Now everybody is eagerly debating this resolution. As if any of these resolutions ever meant anything in practice.

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          1. “I’m very tired of empty gestures.”

            What do you think would be a non-empty gesture from the US to get Israel to cease this occupation?

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  9. \ If that really were the goal – which it absolutely is not –

    What is the real goal behind this trick of Obama’s then? To court Muslim countries?

    You have mentioned fake news helping Trump. Saw this truly embarassing (for Pakistan) case:

    \ A fake news report erroneously attributing a nuclear threat against Pakistan by a former Israeli Defense Minister caused the Pakistani Minister of Defense to lash out on Twitter and remind Israel that ‘Pakistan is a nuclear state too.’

    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4898465,00.html

    In other news, we are also celebrating Christmas here:

    \ ‘Tis the season to be rowdy: Palestinian rioter in Santa outfit fights security forces
    Protests began following the return of the body of a Palestinian terrorist killed during a vehicular attack; security forces responded to stone throwing with tear gas and other riot control methods.

    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4898402,00.html

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    1. “What is the real goal behind this trick of Obama’s then?”

      It was a petty, personal slap at Netanyahu from Obama on his way out the door — nothing more.

      Obama’s gesture may actually end up hurting the UN, if Trump and the emboldened Republican victors decide to cut a significant amount of our excessive annual funding to that risible organization.

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    2. “What is the real goal behind this trick of Obama’s then? To court Muslim countries?”

      • No, of course not. His signature achievement, the Obamacare, failed. He failed also at the second most important duty of the president – to choose Supreme Court justices. He failed to strengthen the party. To the contrary, the party is a wreck, the congress is lost, most of the governorships are lost, the presidency goes to the opponents. And what do you do when you fail so badly at everything internally? You start making grand external gestures. Like when Putin drives Russia’s economy into the ground and distracts attention by bombing Syria.

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      1. I was surprised to hear the description of Obama’s presidency from you which could be summed up as “Obama was a failure.”

        \His signature achievement, the Obamacare, failed.

        Since Trump will destroy it now, or since it was a bad plan overall?

        \ He failed also at the second most important duty of the president – to choose Supreme Court justices.

        It was not Obama’s fault that the old justices continued to feel good enough to function during his presidency. 🙂

        \ He failed to strengthen the party.

        What could he have done?

        I have an idea for a topic of a new post “Things Obama has done wrong and how I, Clarissa, think it could’ve been fixed.”

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        1. \ “Things Obama has done wrong and how I, Clarissa, think it could’ve been fixed.”

          Fixed both in the past (did Obama have better realistic options?) and in the future, when a Democratic president is elected again.

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        2. Obamacare has been failing for a while. Premiums soar and people are unhappy. If the program were great, nobody would be repealing it.

          As for the Supreme Court, one spot did free up a while ago and it still stands empty. It’s a huge gaping failure. And it’s like that with everything. How do you let Russia manipulate the elections on your watch and then announce you knew it was happening but chose not to act?

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          1. \ As for the Supreme Court, one spot did free up a while ago and it still stands empty. It’s a huge gaping failure.

            I thought the spot freed up so close to the end of Obama’s second term that Trump would be able to change any judge Obama chose. Isn’t it true?

            And, I have also heard something about political norms being against appointing a new judge so late in the term. Even though I am sure Republicans would ignore them and do appoint.

            \ How do you let Russia manipulate the elections on your watch and then announce you knew it was happening but chose not to act?

            I cannot understand why Obama hasn’t revealed it before or during the elections. Was he afraid it could hurt Hillary’s chances somehow? Would it be seen as Obama trying to manipulate the election via dubious propaganda? But he was campaigning for Hillary anyway.

            If Obama wanted Hillary to lose, all would be clear. As it is, it’s all looks so weird. I am missing something important. Do you have a theory?

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            1. Scalia died back in February. Trump wouldn’t have been able to do anything if there’d been a new justice appointed.

              As for why he kept quiet about Russians, Liberal Americans are terrified of looking like they are bringing back the Cold War. They are physiologically incapable of saying anything negative about Russians. Besides, there is the typically American hubris of not believing that anybody could touch them in any way. Americans simply don’t believe that anybody on the planet besides them is an active agent. Liberal Americans are particularly entrenched on the issue. It is useless to bring the idea that somebody did something that had some impact without American influence to Liberals. They get extremely upset and cranky. So Obama chose not to go against his tribe.

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  10. Talked with somebody with relatives from Donbass region. Heard that if Jews want to immigrate to Israel, they have to do it from Moscow since Kiev doesn’t recognize their documents. Sounds too weird to be true to me.

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  11. Life can be really funny sometimes (see the last part of the sentence):

    Netanyahu cancels aid to Angola
    After west African oil producer voted in favor of UNSC resolution condemning settlements, PM ends all aid to country; Angola occupies province of Cabinda, who’s people have been fighting for independence since 1960.

    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4899208,00.html

    Also, whether Obama’s gesture was symbolic or not, my PM seems to be trying hard to make Israeli reaction non symbolic: canceling aid, promising to work against Palestinian bodies in UN, promising to work against UN anti-Israeli policy with Trump’s help, etc.

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    1. Netanyahu’s bluster is as empty and as much for show as Obama’s performance. Remember about the weakened national governments and their efforts to distract citizens from their growing irrelevance.

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  12. Agree with the following, we already hear voices like that in Israel:

    \ UNSCR 2334 is a deeply flawed resolution that … betrayed a complete and total misunderstanding of the state of Israeli politics and created an immediate incentive for this Israeli government to build anywhere it wants with total abandon.

    . The plan from Commanders for Israel’s Security to complete the security barrier and freeze all construction to its east is as wise a policy as exists.

    Instead, the net effect of what this resolution actually did is to convince Israelis that the world is out to get them no matter what they do, and provide a fresh tailwind to hardline efforts led by Habayit Hayehudi and much of Likud to annex Area C outright. After all, if Gilo and Alon Shvut are no different than Ofra, why bother to make any distinctions at all and suffer a domestic political cost? The countdown has now officially started not only toward a serious push to annex much of the West Bank, but also toward Israel building in previously untouchable places like E-1 and Givat Hamatos. Once that happens, we really will have crossed the Rubicon absent an enormous upheaval. The passage of this resolution makes that crossing a lot closer than it was before Friday.

    UNSCR 2334

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  13. Can I ask a grammar question? Do I need to put commas somewhere in those two sentences:

    So the traits Tamara has and the experiences with her friends she went through all added to her being chosen as a leader who would have a good chance of success.

    The only one who can remain in this place and succeed is someone who has no fear, and in this case it can only be Tom.

    (I thought to write the second sentence as:

    The only one, who can remain in this place and succeed, is someone who has no fear, and, in this case, it can only be Tom.

    But it seems incorrect)

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    1. “The only one, who can remain in this place and succeed, is someone who has no fear, and, in this case, it can only be Tom.”

      The commas separating the “who…” clause in your second sentence are incorrect. Commas aren’t used around a restrictive clause — one that is essential to define the noun/pronoun to which it refers.

      If it were a non-restrictive clause (“Tom, who has no fear, can remain in this place and suceed”), then commas would be correct.

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        1. “in Russian you always put a comma before ‘who.'”

          This is true in German as well. English grammar is considered simple compared to other languages, but it has so many exceptional rules that it’s very easy to make minor mistakes.

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      1. Thank you. What about the first sentence? Is the following incorrect:

        So the traits Tamara has, and the experiences with her friends she went through, all added to her being chosen as a leader who would have a good chance of success.

        \Yes, it’s a Russianism because in Russian you always put a comma before “who.”

        I studied in Russian school only till the seventh grade, and remember no rules. I do remember Hebrew rules though. 🙂

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        1. “So the traits Tamara has, and the experiences with her friends she went through, all added to her being chosen as a leader who would have a good chance of success.”

          This is an example where English rules are “fuzzy.” The words that you separated from the rest of the sentence are technically a “subject” on equal level with the sentence’s other “subject” (“the traits Tamara has”), and compound subjects connected by “and” aren’t normally separated.

          But commas should be used in your sentence for the sake of clarity.

          Rigid rules in languages make for better grammar.

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  14. A rare example of Jewish-Muslim cooperation in Israel:

    An initiative of two Knesset members from both the coalition and the opposition would add clerics to the termination committee from which a woman seeking to end her pregnancy must attain approval.

    On Monday, the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality will consider the subject “the need to add clerics to the termination committee.” The matter was submitted recently by two different MKs—Rabbi Yehuda Glick (Likud) and Abd al-Hakim Hajj Yahya (Joint List)—in separate applications for a “rapid debate.”

    Under current regulations from the Ministry of Health, committees that are legally required for a woman to attain permission to have an abortion performed comprise three members: a gynecologist, another doctor and a social worker. At least one of the three must be a woman.

    Hajj Yahya wrote in his own application that he was concerned by the rise in the abortion rate amongst Arab women. He detailed, “There is an increase in the number of Muslim, Druze and Arab-Christian women who go to the termination committee, while there is a decrease amongst Jewish women.”

    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4900921,00.html

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  15. Please, may somebody help me with grammar one more time? I tried to use Google, but failed.

    (1) This case, and any other case that happens or is discussed in the novel, is / are …

    (2) remembered on / above the pages of a history book

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      1. \ The second one I don’t understand.

        Эту легенду помнили \ будут помнить на страницах учебника истории

        \ This or any other case discussed in the novel is. . .

        This case, and any other case that happens or is mentioned in the novel, is/are described by men, and result in them …

        Я не сама пишу эти предложения. Мне надо их проверить. Поэтому я спрашиваю. Сама бы я их сформулировала так чтоб знать что они правильные.

        Like

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