I listened to some of the fake baseball. It is very relaxing and sort of charming, and, yes, I fell asleep but that happens no matter what I listen to at bedtime. (Also, while the Detroit Tigers are my team - and aren't batting much either - I do like listening to the Giants occasionally for the great Jon Miller.)
Pell's detestation of Hamas is understandable, but he ignores Israel's (Bibi's) support of Hamas for many years in its brutalization of Gazan Palestinians, just as he ignores the KKK vigilantism of settlers (with IDF support —much as Southern sheriffs supported KKK viciousness— against Palestinians on the West Bank, and just as he ignores Israel's creation over decades of an apartheid state, with Palestinians treated much as our deep South treated Blacks during Jim Crow. Middle Eastern history did not begin on Oct. 7, and Hamas's viciousness was inspired, though not justified, by decades by Israeli viciousness.
In what way, one wonders, is Israel an ally of the U.S., except in the money the connection funnels to our arms dealers? And why are we supposed to care more for Israeli Jews than for brutalized Kashmiris or Tibetans or Sudanese?
The often-mindless protests on college campuses reflect the newly visible brutality that has become a habit for Israel. What that tiny state, of no strategic interest, is doing to unarmed civilians has revolted much of the world, but Pell is a Zionist first and last and about as open to objectivity as our Magats.
Sadly, he has not commented about Israel's decision to close Al Jazeera in Israel, though it is by far the most objective and thorough publication in the Middle East. I can't recall him linking to a story from Al Jazeera.
It is not mandatory for all Jews to be Zionists, no more than it was mandatory for all Whites to support our own apartheid. One can detest Israeli brutality while simultaneously detesting Hamas's brutality and lock-step ideology.
Re: "Is it that difficult of a line to draw? You can protest. You can't infringe upon the rights of others to go to class, hold events, etc."
My understanding of how protest works is that it's disruptive, but this is an interesting premise. How would you apply this right to go to class, etc., Dave, to universities being bombed and demolished in Gaza with matériel and political support from the US? It's not about Hamas.
"Roughly 244 million Americans will be eligible to vote. But 99.5% of us won't be deciders: We won't vote. Or we always vote the same way. Or we live in states virtually certain to be red or blue." Axios: The titanic Biden-Trump election likely will be decided by roughly 6% of voters in just six states. And those voters are not following each question in the Trump trial or reading 10,000 word articles on the nuances of the campus protests or even basing their political choices on the fate of Kristi Noem's pets. They're harder to reach and the campaigns will spend billions trying to do so."
- To quote Gene Wilder as "The Waco Kid" from Blazing Saddles, these dwellers under the rocks are:
"Simple people, people of the land. Ya know. Morons."
Accordingly, keep pitches at Elementary school reading level. And self-interested. In blindingly obvious ways.
Anybody who can *understand* a complicated argument is either with you already or can rationalize an excuse to still disagree and pretend they are being logical about it.
I listened to some of the fake baseball. It is very relaxing and sort of charming, and, yes, I fell asleep but that happens no matter what I listen to at bedtime. (Also, while the Detroit Tigers are my team - and aren't batting much either - I do like listening to the Giants occasionally for the great Jon Miller.)
Pell's detestation of Hamas is understandable, but he ignores Israel's (Bibi's) support of Hamas for many years in its brutalization of Gazan Palestinians, just as he ignores the KKK vigilantism of settlers (with IDF support —much as Southern sheriffs supported KKK viciousness— against Palestinians on the West Bank, and just as he ignores Israel's creation over decades of an apartheid state, with Palestinians treated much as our deep South treated Blacks during Jim Crow. Middle Eastern history did not begin on Oct. 7, and Hamas's viciousness was inspired, though not justified, by decades by Israeli viciousness.
In what way, one wonders, is Israel an ally of the U.S., except in the money the connection funnels to our arms dealers? And why are we supposed to care more for Israeli Jews than for brutalized Kashmiris or Tibetans or Sudanese?
The often-mindless protests on college campuses reflect the newly visible brutality that has become a habit for Israel. What that tiny state, of no strategic interest, is doing to unarmed civilians has revolted much of the world, but Pell is a Zionist first and last and about as open to objectivity as our Magats.
Sadly, he has not commented about Israel's decision to close Al Jazeera in Israel, though it is by far the most objective and thorough publication in the Middle East. I can't recall him linking to a story from Al Jazeera.
It is not mandatory for all Jews to be Zionists, no more than it was mandatory for all Whites to support our own apartheid. One can detest Israeli brutality while simultaneously detesting Hamas's brutality and lock-step ideology.
Re: "Is it that difficult of a line to draw? You can protest. You can't infringe upon the rights of others to go to class, hold events, etc."
My understanding of how protest works is that it's disruptive, but this is an interesting premise. How would you apply this right to go to class, etc., Dave, to universities being bombed and demolished in Gaza with matériel and political support from the US? It's not about Hamas.
"Roughly 244 million Americans will be eligible to vote. But 99.5% of us won't be deciders: We won't vote. Or we always vote the same way. Or we live in states virtually certain to be red or blue." Axios: The titanic Biden-Trump election likely will be decided by roughly 6% of voters in just six states. And those voters are not following each question in the Trump trial or reading 10,000 word articles on the nuances of the campus protests or even basing their political choices on the fate of Kristi Noem's pets. They're harder to reach and the campaigns will spend billions trying to do so."
- To quote Gene Wilder as "The Waco Kid" from Blazing Saddles, these dwellers under the rocks are:
"Simple people, people of the land. Ya know. Morons."
Accordingly, keep pitches at Elementary school reading level. And self-interested. In blindingly obvious ways.
Anybody who can *understand* a complicated argument is either with you already or can rationalize an excuse to still disagree and pretend they are being logical about it.