| (no subject) |
[Nov. 25th, 2009|01:23 pm] |
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I realize it's from two days ago, and therefore pretty ancient by Internet standards, but you all ought to view this if you haven't. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 1st, 2009|10:34 am] |
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Officially adding Sweden to the list of countries I will never visit. |
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| Please spread it around |
[Jun. 19th, 2009|01:22 pm] |
In case you haven't heard, Westboro Baptist Church will be holding a protest tomorrow in front of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. I would like to urge anyone who feels compelled to counter-protest to stay home. Let me tell you why.
The WBC, whose name would suggest that it is a mainline Baptist church, is in fact classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. At last count it has 71 members, of whom only eleven are not relatives of the pastor, Fred Phelps. The church only gains legitimacy through the reactions of its numerous opponents. Here is a partial list of those opponents, whom Phelps has condemned in language I will not reprint:
Homosexuals
Jews
Catholics
Episcopalians
Methodists
Lutherans
Baptists
Presbyterians
Orthodox Christians
Hindus
Muslims
Blacks
Italy and Italians
Sweden
The most interesting thing about Phelps's ministry is that his protests are not intended to bring about repentance among the alleged sinners he targets.* His theology is Calvinist, meaning that he believes all human ends, including salvation and damnation, are predestined. This combined with his abrasive personality makes him (I hope) the only public figure who is likely to tell his ideological opponents that Jesus hates them.
In short, WBC consists of one intensely crazy man, his family, and a few hangers-on. They only matter because sane people allow them to matter; in fact, they have been known to cancel protests upon hearing that there are no counter-protests scheduled. So ask yourself: is this man really worth your Saturday afternoon?
* Indeed, the WBC frequently pickets funerals, certainly too late to convince the deceased of anything. Targets of this form of protest have included Matthew Shepherd, Coretta Scott King, Jerry Falwell (who called Phelps a "first class nut" on record) and Fred Rogers. That's right: they picketed Mr. Rogers's funeral. |
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| Swish |
[Jan. 12th, 2009|02:20 pm] |
Since it's coming up, I'd like to make a quick PSA:
It's pronounced Tu Bishvat. Not B'Shvat, or anything like that. Bishvat. |
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| Gaza FAQ |
[Jan. 5th, 2009|03:00 pm] |
I invite more questions to add to this list.
Q: Why did Israel break the cease-fire?
A: Israel did not. The cease-fire agreement expired on December 19th, 2008. From the 19th to the 27th, at least 130 rockets and mortar shells were fired from the Gaza strip into southern Israel. Israel's assault began on the 27th.
Q: Why, then, did Hamas break the cease-fire?
A: That question assumes that they ever obeyed the cease-fire. 329 rockets and mortars were fired into southern Israel during the six-month term of the agreement.
Q: Isn't there a slaughter of Palestinians going on in Gaza?
A: Roughly 500 Palestinians have been killed during the recent violence, of whom roughly 100 are reported to have been civilians. The rest were part of the military and paramilitary forces of the Hamas government. The deaths of 100 innocent people should never be minimized or taken lightly, but nor should Israel's efforts to minimize collateral damage.
Q: But isn't this all just a pretext for killing Palestinians?
A: Israel's air force is widely considered, man for man and plane for plane, to be the most effective in the world. If Israel had no goal in mind but to kill Palestinians, there wouldn't be millions of them living in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel's decision to initiate a ground assault stems from the fact that, while air strikes from a distance are safer for Israelis, they carry the risk of higher collateral damage. 34 Israeli soldiers have already been wounded and one killed due to this change of tactics intended to minimize the civilian death toll.
Q: Isn't Israel overreacting to a bunch of homemade rockets?
A: As anyone who has been punched in the face can tell you, a crude weapon is not necessarily a benign one. "Homemade" Qassam rockets—whose construction requires machine tools and the skill to use them—have caused dozens of deaths and millions of dollars' worth of property damage in Israel and Gaza. Their primitive nature is relevant only in that it limits their role to semi-random death and destruction. They do not carry guidance systems and cannot be aimed with any accuracy, which makes shooting one toward a population center a bit like firing a gun into a crowd with one's eyes closed. Because of the reckless and unpredictable nature of Qassam attacks, Israeli and Palestinian Arabs are numbered among the dead, and Palestinian houses among the destroyed.
Q: I heard from that lady on Fox News that they don't even have warheads. What's the big deal?
A: Diana Buttu did indeed claim in this segment that the rockets fired into Israel "do not have explosive heads." Ms. Buttu was either misinformed or lying. While Qassams are not of standardized construction, they usually contain an explosive mixture of trinitrotoluene (TNT) and urea nitrate. Some are also packed with shrapnel to increase their antipersonnel capabilities.
Q: Many people who join the Hamas security forces do so out of the need for a steady job, not because they agree with Hamas's ideology. Isn't it wrong to attack those people?
A: America experiences a similar "poverty draft," as do other countries with volunteer armies. Others, such as Israel, have armies filled mainly with conscripts. I have never heard anyone argue that fighting a war with any of these countries is immoral on those grounds.
Q: Why doesn't Israel just negotiate a permanent peace with Hamas? If all they want is land, shouldn't Israel just placate them with land?
A: Hamas does not support a two-state solution. Its immediate goal, stated explicitly in its charter, is to conquer Gaza (accomplished), the West Bank and Israel proper, and to replace their various governments with a militant Islamic theocracy.
Q: What about the international condemnation of Israel's offensive? Isn't it a bad sign when George W. Bush is the only head of state who thinks you're right?
A: The Australian, Canadian, Czech, German and Hungarian governments have also stated that they support Israel's actions and have placed ultimate responsibility for the violence on Hamas. |
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| This is going to sound totally weird, but . . . |
[Apr. 4th, 2008|06:00 pm] |
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. . . anyone out there interested in adopting a well behaved cocker spaniel who was abandoned by his human? If so, let me know. The dog (Sparky) is currently in doggie foster care. Not joking. |
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| On protests |
[Mar. 20th, 2008|11:23 pm] |
It seems like this happens every few months. Someone decides it's time to teach OPEC and the gasoline industry a lesson, and announces that on some arbitrary date all Americans should refrain from buying gas for their cars. The theory is that this would horribly disrupt the companies' internal economies, thus showing them that the consumers are the ones in control. The oil execs would cower at the newfound strength of their once complacent customers, and lower oil prices.
The whole scheme is a waste of electrons. It will never have the effect the organizers want even if everyone listens — not that they do — because of some factors that anyone could figure out given a few moments' thought. Cars need gasoline, and most Americans need their cars in order to go about their daily lives. An astute protester would naturally check her tank the day before the "boycott" (more on this term in a moment) and fill it up if necessary. Some people will run their tanks low during the righteous non-buying binge, thus requiring them to purchase a fair amount the day after. The result would be a sales spike on Monday, a lull (or even complete dropoff) on Tuesday, and another spike on Wednesday followed by normalcy. The execs' likely response: "That was stupid."
The central flaw is that gasoline will still be consumed as long as people are using internal combustion engines. If you want to scare the oil companies, you have to stop driving, and not just for a day. That is something that will not happen in this country in the near future, for two reasons: our population distribution and infrastructure are such that we really do need our cars, and even those who don't are unlikely to make any real personal sacrifice for this cause.
My generation loves the protest rhetoric of the 1960s, but we have proven to be very bad at implementing that era's methodology. "Boycott" is a wonderful word to throw around, and convenient as long as one doesn't commit to anything that might be inconvenient. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was not a day-long protest; it lasted over a year, during which many of its participants and sympathizers were arrested, fined and terrorized by the police and courts. Many of those who were left alone still suffered severe financial losses, like the black taxi drivers who charged their customers the price of a bus fare. Today we use "boycott" to mean "refrain from partaking of something briefly, just to show that we can."
A boycott is not just a form of protest, but a form of coercion. The point is not to show the targeted organization that you care, but to put such a strain on that organization that it, too, is forced to care. That's what happened to the buses of the South when most of their passengers refused to ride; that's what happened to the South African economy after the world refused to do business there; that's what doesn't happen when you temporarily alter your gasoline buying habits. (The next micro boycott of gas is scheduled for the 1 April; perhaps the dates aren't as arbitrary as I thought.)
The hot topic right now is a "content strike" on Live Journal to protest policies enacted at the behest of SUP, the Russian media firm that recently bought this site. People are being asked to contribute no content at all on March 21st, then go about their daily digital lives on March 22nd. Now in my mind a strike is essentially a boycott, with services replacing money as the commodity to be withheld. One day will do very little, particularly since people are still allowed to look at content, which means the folks at Live Journal will continue to receive advertising revenues from Plus accounts like mine. And of course, no amount of inactivity can disrupt the regular flow of cash from paid members, who don't want to lose their accounts. When the sun rises on Saturday, I expect the SUP folks' response to be something along the lines of "Это было глупо."
I admit that I haven't been able to glean much about the reason for all this. The only policy change I have come across is one that expands the corporate definition of child pornography to include non-photographic images, and I'm not about to make a fuss over that. Let me offer a proposal: If by the first of April someone can give me a good reason to want to teach LJ a lesson, I will not use this site for one full week. I will not post, I will not reply and I will not view anything; I won't even sign in. That way the company will get no money from my actions at all. The catch is that if you try to convince me, you automatically join a compact to do the same thing at the same time. Feel free to tell your friends.
I do realize that this is still a temporary measure with a definite ending point, and therefore not a real protest or coercive strike/boycott, but such temporary protests can be effective. Day-long hartals organized by M. K. Gandhi were an effective tool in shaking British control of India, but I think that a content dropoff on a web site may not have quite the same power as the shutting down of an entire country, hence the full week.
Any thoughts? |
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| Yum, I think |
[Feb. 12th, 2008|05:24 pm] |
My mom just sent me a recipe that looks really exciting, though I'm kind of surprised to see meringues baked in such a hot oven. I may have to go out and buy some ancho powder now. |
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| Any takers? |
[Jan. 8th, 2008|01:44 pm] |
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Madeleine Albright will be reading from her book Memo to the President Elect: How to Restore America's Reputation and Leadership at the Union Square Barnes & Noble tonight at 7:00. Anyone else want to come? |
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| So make the best of this test and don't ask why |
[Jan. 3rd, 2008|04:42 pm] |
They let us come to the courthouse late today. We were told that we should arrive at 10:15, but that there would be a grace period of fifteen minutes.* Attendance wasn't taken until 10:40.
Nothing happened, followed by some more nothing. At 12:30 the jurors who were serving their first day were told they could take a lunch break, but that second day jurors should stay for further instructions. Those instructions: take your proof of service when we call you, and go home. According to the State of New York, I have done my part in the preservation of our independent judicial system. Yay.
Court officer, in perfect, stern deadpan: "Your service is counted for the full day. You do not have to go to work, but we do ask that you stay out of trouble."
Had lunch at Buddha Bodai, a vegetarian kosher Chinese place on Mott Street. Very reasonable lunch special, good food, and a Chinese Buddhist proprietor who regularly greets his Jewish customers in Hebrew. Good times.
* I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to tell people about the grace period, since they'll aim for later and come even later than that. |
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| For Judaism nerds |
[Dec. 8th, 2007|07:11 pm] |
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This has been making the rounds for the past nine years, which I suppose makes it a minor classic of Internet literature. |
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| Bizarre fact of the day |
[Dec. 5th, 2007|08:37 pm] |
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The world's tallest man made structure is a TV antenna mast in Blanchard, North Dakota. It will eventually be passed by the Burj Dubai (Dubai Tower), which is currently under construction. |
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| A brief tea question |
[Nov. 28th, 2007|12:25 am] |
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Green teas are supposed to be brewed below the boiling point, usually at 80 degrees Celsius. Short of standing over the kettle with a probe thermometer, how is one supposed to figure out when the water has reached that temperature? Chinese tea production predates the mercury thermometer by a couple of millennia, so there must be some other way. |
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| In the beginning I misunderstood |
[Nov. 18th, 2007|02:24 am] |
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Ever play Scrabble (or its delightful online ripoff, Scrabulous) and wish that an imaginary word were real? Right now I could score a really nice move if only vamputee were part of the English lexicon. |
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| Because some people missed it |
[Nov. 12th, 2007|10:20 pm] |
A little while ago I posted a link to a page sent to me by my uncle. It's very fun, and I recommend viewing if you didn't see it before. I suppose I recommend viewing anyway, since it changes daily.
Oh, and the first person to explain the title of the aforementioned post gets a cookie. |
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