Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land

Is this who we really are? Is our own government lying to us, "protecting" us from a truth it thinks we cannot handle? Funny, I don't FEEL like a fascist... I don't recall being indoctrinated into hatred when I went to school. But the images are real, they aren't falsified propaganda. Taken in context or not, they present a very disturbing image of ourselves. I've been wondering, and I've posted about it before; could it be that the people in charge are really that corrupt? That clueless, that power-hungry? Stupid they are not; you don't become Chief of Staff when you're stupid. But if the Other Side can be deceived and deluded, isn't it entirely plausible that we, too, are failing to see the truth?

Putting things in perspective

Good to know.

I was wondering about these pics and it's nice to know someone has finally settled this issue. Maybe we're not total asses?

DVORAK keyboard layout

They say that the QWERTY layout (named for the arrangement of letters at the top left of the keyboard) was designed to keep letters that occur together often away from each other, so that the hammers flying across the typewriter wouldn't get tangled together.

The alternative, DVORAK, is supposedly better-suited for the computer age; and really, it is. I am now typing in DVORAK, and the letters are arranged based on frequency, so, for example, all the vowels are under my left hand, on the home row.

However, does the potential increase in speed justify the ridiculous mental effort required to overlay this over old habits?
Well, not if I need to make a living based on how fast I can type at the moment...

But it's pretty easy to pick up. I wonder if it's possible to retain typing skills in both systems... 'cos obviously I wouldn't have a DVORAK everywhere I go.

Ow, this hurts my wrists and my brain...

Ok, I'm back to normal now. Damn, but now my knuckles hurt so bad I can just barely type normally in QWERTY. What the hell was I thinking? Is it really worth it?

I mean, what kind of increase are we talking here? 15%? 20%? I mean, unless I gain a solid 50% on my typing speed, which is pretty damn good as it is, I don't see why I should persue this. In fact, I can tell it's already affecting me. Now I'm back on the QWERTY, I stall on certain common letters (S and E and T, mostly... I wonder why those...?) because I have the new imprint confused with the old one.

DAMN you, brain. DAMN YOU TO HELL, you worthless, one-track, mono-dextrous piece of goo.

--
May Buddha shine his Gracious Light on your Inner Tiger.

http://www.jonogetsschooled.com

http://www.myspace.com/morbid88

scratch my head, I'm lost

Just spent a week doing active reserve duty, or miluim.

Nothing too serious, I train instructors, so it's basically standing and talking for a couple hours on teaching methods and motivational techniques. Yummy.

But, ultimately, it's the first opportunity I've had of being in service while still technically a civilian. So it raises a few moral dilemmas which have to do with who we're fighting, and how we're going about doing it.

On the one hand, I'm all for military service, doing our duty and giving our little bit to the countr; but then, am I sure we're doing the right thing with our resources?
If I don't like what my gov't is doing with my tax money, do I stop paying taxes? No, I try to get a new government.

Does the same rule apply to military service? I didn't choose it, I didn't elect my generals and the people making the military decisions. So do I get the option of opting out?

Do I want that option? Not sure I would if I could.

An exchange

Me: "Listen, I'm sorry but I won't be able to come help out tomorrow."
She: "Well, we're working through the week, so give me a call and we'll pencil you in for Sunday, Monday, whenever."
Me: "Uh, sorry, I've got miluim on Sunday. I'll be gone all week".
She: "Why?"
Me: "Because they summoned me."
She: "Then don't go."
Me: "I can't not go."
She: "You're going to be fighting on behalf of a bunch of generals somewhere? Why are you going? Just don't go."
Me: "Look, it's not even at the front. I'm teaching."
She: "Yes, but you don't have to go."

Beirut Notes: Hezbollah Is Bringing the Temple Down On Our Heads

Beirut Notes: Hezbollah Is Bringing the Temple Down On Our Heads

Poignantly stated, I think.
As zadigvoltaire states, The blood of Lebanese children is being traded like options, futures and shares and the Iranian and Syrian regimes are filling both their strategic and financial pockets.

The only thing missing is a fucking call to action.

You read the comments on that post, and mostly what you see is Israelis taking the regular "you brought this upon yourselves, now you pay the price", followed by "Israel is the REAL terrorist in this war!" of the anit-Israeli sentiment.

So yes, we've fucked up. in '82. In '67. In '00. Sure. But we're not the cause. Thing is, people in glass minarets shouldn't stone throwers.

The blame at this point is irrelevant. I'm sure that the actions of previous adminstratotions in Israel could have been improved upon, but it still took 30-50 years sometimes to see that.

The Qur'an says, "And remember, when We made a covenant with you whereby you agreed you will neither shed blood among you nor turn your people out of their homes, you promised...
But you still kill one another, and you turn a section of your people from their homes, assisting one another against them with guilt and oppression.
Yet when they are brought to you as captives you ransom them, although forbidden it was to drive them away."

Someone once taught me that "taking responsibility" isn't a question of determining who is at fault. It's about taking control of the situation and resolving it, preferably before anyone causes more damage.
Saying you are helpless when you let the devil into your house is immature.
Saying "look what you made me do!" is what an abusive spouse usually says.

We can probably solve this without those fucking ball-less politicians. Isn't that what Web 2.0 is all about?

Some observations on the Situation

I felt compelled to say something.

Obviously this situation sucks, and for the last four days I've been living off the news feeds on TV and the Internet.
I thought I was the least-politically minded person in this country of politically-obsessed... persons...

Anyway, I found I have an odd fetish for Lebanese blogs, which I've been following.
They started out alright, with mostly cries of anguish and furstration, sense of helplessness and much the same as us.

But recently I've found that they've adopted a strange tone... the anti-Israeli, pro-Hizballah attitude has taken over even the liberal writers, and they now tend to go off on wild rants accusing us of some pretty insane bull-hockey.
(lebop.blogspot.com/2006/07/school-bombed-in-tyre-nasrallah-i... )

So I've become a conspiracy theorist -- they're Hizballah shills... Maybe.

The truth might be very different:
Has it ever occured to anyone... just as an idea... that maybe WE are the ones surrounded by misinformation?
lebanonheartblogs.blogspot.com/2006/07/listen.html
Just a wacky thought.

Somewhere, this girl shows up, ontheface.blogware.com/
She's giving us the Israeli point of view, and she's linked from Perpetual Refugee's blog perpetualrefugee.blogspot.com/

I just can't make heads or tails of the war on the popular front. Then again, I always sucked at this "blogging" thing, what the hell is that all about, anyway?

So if any of you out there have any commentary, maybe you know someone on the other side, or maybe you're just *way* to close to everything going on in our country... Any ideas? I'm bloody lost.

One thing, though...

Using words like "genocide" and "holocaust" to describe our actions?

"Terrorism"?

Bloody uncool. To say the least.

But, and here's the thing, I got to these blgos through www.slate.com, that awesomest-of-awesome online magazines. so obviously this is how the worldwide media is perceiving us. Are we f**king up on that front, again? Or is that one really a battle we've lost even before we've begun?

And to think I'd been so hopeful a few days ago. At least th EU has finally condemned the Hizballah's actions. Thank god for itsy bitsy tiny favours.

Same-same, but different

There is a fundamental difference between the captured Israeli soldiers and the Palestinians held in Israeli jails, which much of the international community seems to disregard completely.

I'll let the esteemed Mr. Ostroff stress that difference.

Hello Cohavniks
I suggest that in our letters and interviews we stress the following which I have extracted from my letter to the Cosatu president.

The media and other opinion makers create the impression that there is a direct comparison between the captured Israeli soldiers and the Palestinians in Israeli jails. They ignore an all-important difference. The families of Palestinian prisoners in Israel know where their loved ones are. They visit them and communicate by telephone. By contrast, the Palestinians deliberately keep the families of captives in a state of unbearable anxiety by holding their captives incommunicado; emulating the late Yassir Arafat. In an exquisite refinement of torture in 1993, Arafat acknowledged that he knew the fate of missing in action soldier Zachary Baumel and handed one half of Baumel's identity tag to Yitzchak Rabin, with a firm promise that more information about Baumel and other MIA's would be forthcoming. He never kept that promise.

The least we should expect from the UN,Amnesty International and politicians who pronounce on the rights and wrongs of the situation, s that they strongly demand that the kidnapped soldiers be accorded the rights set out in the Geneva  Conventions including visits by the Red Cross.
 

You can find more of Maurice Ostroff's writing on his website.

I'm impressed

I'm impressed at Israel's efforts in presenting itself properly on the media.

 

I'm impressed at the media's self-restraint and well-phrased, non-judgemental questions and reports.

 

I tink we can win this one. I really do.

 

I listend to the news earlier, and was quite impressed at Olmert's diplomatic choice of words -- he didn't call it an act of war, he called it a war-like act.

 

On the other hand, he could be just a freakin' PUSSY. But I don't think so, I think he's really taking care to leave a diplomatic option for resolving this conflict.

 

If, however, we do go to war, we'd better do it now, while Jordan and Egypt will stay out of it and Iran is still not "equipped" to do serious damage...

 

But now, it's several hours into this whole debacle, and I don't think the int'l community is being firm enough. No country should tollerate this kind of behaviour, so France's call for "remaining calm" is totally inappropriate.

 

That's off the top of my head.

Convivencia

Hmmm.

I did learn something fascinating today.

On Channel 8 today they had a program on the history of Islam, apparently a British production. The show focused on the Arab conquest of Spain in the 8th Century, and the subsequent thriving of cultural and scientific communities throughout.

The most amazing thing to me seemed the subject of La Convivencia -- the coexistence of Muslims, Christians and Jews in Toledo near the turn of the millennium, in a school for translators. In this place, scholars came from all over Europe and Africa to exchange texts, learn languages, and translate them into Castillian Spanish, Latin, and Arabic. This was an incomparable time of religious tolerance, and more than that -- religious cultural exchange. To wit, the Church of San Roman (pictures of which can be found here) in Toledo has a steeple designed, architecturally, like a classic Minaret, right down to the arches and markings throughout the building.

The founders of the church had commissioned Muslim craftsmen to design and build the building, seeking this exchange of culture and ideas.

Where is all this today?

While we have celebrations of co-existence, tolerance and open dialogue, it seems we're so caught up in trying to just make peace, that the thought of exchanging ideas for the sake of enriching our own selves through other cultures seems further away than ever before.

I don't propse to bridge this gap any time soon. But for my small part, I've opened a group on Couchsurfing, called (I think appropriately), "La Conivencia ".

See you there.

With a little help from Caravaggio...

Yes, that old italian painter hath given me his works as reference.

The original piece appears here.

Click this image to enlarge.

System Files

That's the title of our new comic.
It's in Hebrew, and it's about a news website, behind the scenes.
This is the first strip, that kind of introduces the characters.
If you can't read hebrew, see if you can come up with your own dialogue and email it to me.

Who knew?

I can draw.
Here's the sketches.
I rock.

Only problem is, it took me like FOREVER. Dammit -- going to have to learn to do it a bit faster and more efficiently. Now I remember how I used to do Ping972... I had it all prepared -- every time I had to draw a comic from scratch, it was so bloody daunting!