The truth shall set you free?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7861076.stm

Finally, finally Israel's true colors have been starting to show...it's even creeping into American media (i.e., the recent 60 Minutes piece on CBS). I still don't trust our media though.

IS there an answer?

Watch CBS Videos Online

What is the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem? If there's no way a two-state solution will happen, why are they wasting time paying lip service to the negotiation of it?

Is there any possibility of a democratic solution? Of a single government with both Israelis and Palestinians represented? Where Israelis and Palestinians can go to Jerusalem with no problem and Palestinian's homes aren't being occupied? But is the idea of a democratic government just as naive? Israel is wrong to create lush green communities with nice roads and limitless water supply and then treat Palestinians as less than second class citizens, not allowing them to even use the roads, dealing with blockades literally everywhere they need to go, limiting their water supply, chastising them, abusing them, killing them. And this is all on what was supposed to be Palestinian land! How do those in power in Israel sleep at night? How can anyone call themselves a "good" person and rationalize this? This is why we are seeing anti-Zionist movements within the Jewish community in Israel, protesters holding signs screaming to end the settlements.

There is no easy way out of this. I don't think continuing to force people out of their homes, Israeli OR Palestinian, is the answer. It can only result in more bloodshed. No matter who they are or why, people are going to defend themselves. It would be unnatural not to. We all want to survive.

BBC & SKY NEWS: Run the ad!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7850407.stm

The innocent civillians that the DEC (Disaster Emergency Committee)'s advert concerns don't care about political affiliation right now. They care about not dying. THEY NEED HELP TO SURVIVE. The BBC and SKY News can't claim impartiality if in Burma (this year!!!) they did allow the same kind of broadcast once they were sure the aid would actually get to the victims it was specified for. How is this different? They are catering, yet again, to the Israelis. Whether BBC & SKY realize it or not, they are penalizing innocent Palestinian civilians--many more civilians than militants.

Genocide.

Genocide.

Genocide.

Calling it something else doesn't make the outcome any different.

Financial terrorism.

President Obama, we are NOT going to war with Iran!

More of what American media does not tell you

Bravo to the courageous people who search for the truth. Alison Weir researched media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the years and was flabbergasted at what she found--a frighteningly disparate portrait of what we thought we knew. The video above explains her research; the video below reports the death threat she received afterward.

If this doesn't completely break your heart, you don't have one.

Thank you, khany for this. Thank you.

To everyone else, if you're an American citizen, you have an obligation to educate yourself. Our government really is representative of us, whether we like it or not, and whether or not we are too complacent to be involved in it. Our complacency doesn't change the precarious position our nation's foreign policy has put us in from the perspective of the rest of the world. We are complicit in our silence. I am refusing to be silent. It's the least I can do for my country and for innocent Palestinians being slaughtered daily.

Watch this and think about the media you take in on a daily basis. Think about the importance of semantics and narrative in shaping the majority of American citizenry's opinion of the conflict in Gaza, and of the greater Israeli-Palestinian conflict itself. Get your news from broader sources, outside the U.S. The web is our greatest resource now in the face of a spineless and corrupt mainstream American media.

Take this video. Embed it. Post it to Facebook, Myspace, write to your local and state representatives, write to President Obama. Just do something.

America turns a blind eye to genocide

How can so many American citizens, including our new President, turn a blind eye to what we've enabled Israel to do to innocent Palestinians? The cycle of abuse continues. You want an answer to why so many Muslims have a bad opinion of the U.S.? Here's a start.

Boycott Fox News

This is such horse crap. No matter what Obama does during the duration of his administration, they will find a way to tear it down. So what if HBO got the rights to broadcast the Lincoln Memorial Concert? The money HBO paid went to paying policemen working the inauguration overtime and to cleaning up the 130 tons of trash left over afterward. Otherwise these little tidbits would have been at taxpayer expense and Fox would ream his administration for that too. The inauguration was viewable for anyone who wanted to see it, whether on tv or the web. Some stupid concert two days before is really irrelevant. Petty, petty Fox with their cute little bleach blonde wannabe news anchors pretending to be journalists.

The irony is that in the end, this HISTORIC inauguration STILL cost $10,000 less than Bush's.

What "hope" means to me

(Photo courtesy of Jae C. Hong/Associated Press)

Hope.

It's such a loaded word.

Here's what it means to me.

I hope that President Obama will be true to his own words, meaning that he will shape a government that respects the idea of remaining secular and tolerant, not theocratic. As parts of our country grow alarmingly dependent on religion, we who are not religious are that much more dependent on the rule of law to mediate. If the law abandons us, we have little hope. Theocracy has stolen our government for the last 8 years, and I hope that January 20, 2009 marked the beginning of a new way of thinking and practicing foreign policy that is actually very much rooted in our past. Yes, our country was born in the flight from religious persecution, and yes, two-thirds of the delegates dubbed the "founding fathers" were of various (mostly Christian) denominations, but one-third of them were not. One third of them were either non-practicing, agnostic, or atheist. But all of them recognized the importance of protecting and preserving religious tolerance with the rule of law. There is no other way. Man is an emotional creature by nature, and passion is one of the great forces of humanity. But passions are all too often misguided, and when it goes too far we have little but the law to protect us. This must be guarded at all costs.

Good read

If you have the time...

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/09/09/palin_fundamentalist/

Just how effective was that 9/11 Commission Report?

The concession that U.S. foreign policy toward Israel was a direct influence on the motivations of the 9/11 terrorists to attack, and the fact that this concession was LEFT OUT of the 9/11 Commission Report should chill you to the bone.

If it doesn't, you're still not paying attention.

Offshore? Try paying taxes like the rest of us.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090109/bs_nm/us_ubs_1

Finally!

Any American holding an offshore bank account with untaxed money gets no sympathy from me. They're finally starting to get what they deserve. Joe Public doesn't have the funds to hire a broker or to have their money tucked safely away in offshore accounts--Joe is using whatever funds he has to buy GROCERIES, GASOLINE, pay DOCTOR'S BILLS...you know, those luxuries we all love so much.

The rich have screwed this country over from its inception, and globalization is their newest scapegoat. And then they wonder how the economic crisis happened. They have themselves to thank for that--oh but wait, it was the fault of the poor for wanting to own houses they couldn't afford, right? For stupidly believing there was no such thing as 'predatory lending'? Right, right.

Eww, look! It's a liberal!

Why is the term "self-loathing" so often paired with the term "liberal"?

Is this really what people believe? I think liberals are in fact very much the oppposite of self-loathing. Find me a liberal who doesn't love their fellow man. A prerequisite for loving your fellow man is, of course, loving yourself. Now, not every liberal is going to be a people person (not everyone is) but we do share a common belief (I think): by looking out for each other with the best intentions, we look out for ourselves. But it's not about selfishness, it's about understanding what the GREATER GOOD really is. And that is: the survival of mankind. You may say, "geez, it's not THAT serious!" But it really is. How can people continue to oppress each other and call it "moral?" What is this kind of morality you speak of? It doesn't sound very moral to me. It's moral to treat others as you would want to be treated, so why is it okay to ignore that when it comes to civil rights of any kind?

I'm registered as a Democrat, but I feel like an Independent. However, I wanted to be able to vote in the primaries of my antiquated state, so there you have it. It really irritates me when I hear/read people lumping each other into neat little categories like conservative and liberal, but I understand why they do it, and it does serve a purpose. And of course I'm guilty of doing it myself. Personally, I consider myself a fiscal conservative and a social liberal. But it seems so many people feel you cannot be both. Actually, I think most people in this country are fiscal conservatives--especially right now in light of our economic crisis. So what this leaves me with is that we are a country divided by social liberty issues. The so-called "moral" issues like gay marriage, abortion, drugs, etc.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if we agreed to disagree on those social issues, just for the sake of experiment? Does anyone truly think society would fall to pieces?

Any worse than it is right now?

I must rant. Humor me.

Tit for tat.

Tit for tat.

Tit for tat is going to be the death of us all.

Christianity, Judaism, Islam--more blood has been spilled in the name of religion than for ANY. OTHER. REASON. Will humanity ever see the light? The principle of 'an eye for an eye' is the most imbecilic, juvenile, and ignorant tenet of scripture that I can think of. Even in the few painful experiences I've gone through in my life (which are nothing compared to what's going on in Gaza right now), my natural inclination was retribution, yes, revenge. And according to what's beginning to seem like the majority's view of the Bible's teachings, I would've been right to take that righteous revenge. But LOGICALLY I knew that reacting on emotion would only make whatever situation worse, and would, worse yet, bring pain to my loved ones. Unacceptable.

I'm short on sympathy for the idiots on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Palestinians were displaced = wrong. The Jews long before that were displaced by various other faiths/races/regions = wrong. People have died on both sides, and both sides have broken their word. ALL HAVE BEEN WRONGED BY EACH OTHER. Let's not pick and choose reality here.

So if Israel, as a nation, apologized to Palestinians, as a nation, would that fix it? No. Will both sides agree to a bi-national state and sharing the land? No. Are they willing to agree to having two separate states? No. So what's the answer? Oh, well of course it's to BLOW EACH OTHER TO SMITHEREENS! Because we see how well that fixes everything. Imbeciles. Grow up.

It's just lovely to see that the religious/racial intolerance going on in the middle east existed long before black/white enmity in the west. Is this built into our DNA or what? Is this part of humankind's innate ability to destroy itself? The only species bent on its own destruction?

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D95HN1H02&show_article=1

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE50544520090106

In 2002, 2300 Jews fled France and went to Israel because they felt unsafe. This is going to be so much worse, mark my words.

THOSE WHO TRULY SUFFER AND DIE ARE NOT EVEN MILITANTS. They are civilians. You should ask yourselves why any group of people's ideals are enough to take another group of people's lives. Why? Who really determined that this was righteous? Everything is based on subjective perception, and everyone's perception of scripture and of history is different, depending on your viewpoint. So how can people be made to DIE for something everyone doesn't even AGREE on???

We reap what we sow.

Do a little digging after you watch this video. The U.S. has thrown its money behind the likes of terrorists for eons. They're just usually mislabled as "governments." It's this kind of hypocrisy that fuels the fire and continues to breed contempt for Americans--who cannot be bothered to find out what atrocities their own government is and has been involved in. It's got to be hard for Middle Easterners to believe that we as a culture are as far-removed as we are, one might even say oblivious--because for them, there is no escape. Not even in dreams.

Well, thank God (?) for Pat Robertson's sage advice...ugh.

Robertson makes predictions every year, and this year he says the economy is going to improve, despite what the collective of world economists are saying. He also thinks the U.S. will not be looked upon in the world (financially) as it once was, and that we will no longer be a great superpower and will find various dangerous dictators popping up. To this I say: a surprise it is not. At the end of the video he says "Obama will be able to get anything he wants" because people's fears will naturally drive them to socialism. He posits that we will see a greater expansion of governmental power than at any time since the New Deal. Newsflash: it was thanks to the New Deal that many of the great social programs we appreciate in this country even exist. It becomes so easy to take these things for granted after you've enjoyed the benefits for a few decades. If the country repeatedly lurches toward socialism in whatever form, is it not logical to posit that it is an evolutionary shift? We can all see how well capitalism works--ha. But, if socialism is such a scare to everyone, why can't we have a system which combines the best traits of both capitalism and socialism? Why must everything be painted in extremes? Capitalism fails when left to wanton human greed which derives from the natural inclination of self-preservation. Why continue to fight that which is natural? Instead, why not regulate its weaknesses? This is where some of the tenets of socialism apply. This is not to say, "yay--let's turn EVERYTHING over to the government!" But, the argument that this will be the largest expansion of government since the New Deal just doesn't hold water when the truth is that that expansion has slowly been taking place ever since 2001 under George W. Bush and our national reaction to being on the receiving end of terrorism for once. It's so scary to think that the U.S. may not be a world superpower any longer, but by the same token, the U.S. has been an oppressor to many nations and a catalyst in many foreign disputes ever since the birth of this country. We have to accept the history of our own country if we're ever going to make progress in an ever-changing future. And by the way, there have always been dictators. There are always disputes halfway around the world. We have to stop allowing ourselves to be controlled by fear.

I have hope for 2009.

Snapshot: latter half of 2008. War continues in Iraq, spreads in Afghanistan, Russian forces march into Georgia, Syria sits on the fence, Pakistan and India level threats after terrorist attacks in Mumbai, Israel fires on Hamas in Gaza, and the death knell rings louder and louder.

Will it ever stop?

I don't believe in God per se, so I don't have a prayer for 2009, but I do have hopes. I hope that President Obama's idea of diplomacy will not be at the end of a gun, as Cowboy Bush's has been, and in all likelihood, things are going to change substantially. Let's just hope relations in the Middle East aren't so far gone that there's no turning back--that with a President leading America who wants a more open worldwide dialogue between countries, we can make true progress. But these are big dreams, and right now it's hard to see that far into the future. But we keep squinting, peering into that more hopeful horizon. I hope we never stop doing that. It's what makes us human.
On a more personal note, I hope that my lazy ass will go to the gym on a regular basis, since I'm paying for it anyway!! And, I'd like to learn a lot more about digital photography. I had 2 years of photography waaaay back in high school, but none in college, and this was of course only in the beginning of the digital camera era, so of course my school had us using old Pentax cameras. But the same rules of aperture still apply, only you have no true depth of field with a digital camera...but I digress. Regardless, my husband is into photography as well, so we we will embark on 2009's planned vacations with cameras in hand, ready to explore. :)

I hope that the quality of everyone's lives improve, even in these trying times. There has to be light at the end of our very dark economic tunnel somewhere, and here's hoping the best economic minds collected in Obama's cabinet can pool their resources with the humblest of motives: to save us.

May everyone have a prosperous, healthy,
and exciting 2009!