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Confessions of a Liberal Zionist
by bslev 7/9/2012 - 2:33 pm
I decided a few months ago that I would cease posting about Israel at dag because it was too contentious and I get too emotionally wrapped up in the stuff. But I know destor misses my blogs on all thinks Jewish (
) so I thought I would give him and some entertainment and share my experience at Elder of Ziyon over the weekend. It is an experience that leads me to conclude that there's no place like home, i.e. with my true friends at Dag, when it comes to being bashed about my views on Israel.
True confession--Elder is a go-to cite for me because it's hosted by an anonymous blogger who focuses on matters pertaining to Israel and Judaism from a "right-of-center" slant, and I learn things and appreciate what he offers--even when I sometimes disagree with him. But his comment section is dominated by a really harsh crowd, and every time I've gone fishing there I've come out all bloodied and bruised.
In any event, this weekend was a quiet one at home, and I made the mistake of responding to a blog post by Elder, which disturbed me, because it was headed "Ramadan TV Channel Where Every Woman Wears a Garbage Bag". The post addressed a report in a state-run Egyptian news service that a satellite television network would run during Ramadan that would only show women wearing a niqab. I was disturbed by Elder's characterization of the niqab, and I was particularly disturbed by some of the comments made by some of Elder's regular fans. One guy who identifies himself as Norman F. wrote:
Muslim women are so ugly they need their mugs concealed from the world.
And Muslim men are savages who cannot control themselves around the sight of a woman with a bare face, hair, arms and legs!
I was shocked and disgusted, and in haste (as usual) I wrote my own comment, as follows:
I rarely post, because I think the comment area of Elder's blogs are too often a cesspool and shameful, and not a reflection of the valuable service that Elder provides. Respectfully, Elder, it is wrong to call the niqab a "garbage bag". You can do better and you almost always do.
Bruce S. Levine
New York, New York
Well you can guess what happened. Having signed my name, and having previously identified myself as a union lawyer some time back on Elder, I became red meat. Here's one of my favorites, from a guy named jzaik, accusing me of being an environmentalist (I think):
And then there's this one:
And, of course, finally, there are the folks who focused on my arrogant cries of bigotry--and yes I do confess to arrogance at times--and really put me in my place:
You can read the entire thread for entertainment and/or disgust if you wish. My name on there is bslev1959. As I believe I wrote in one of my comments, it would almost be amusing if it were not so sad.
My conclusions, for what they are worth, are:
- 1. It is often lonely being a lefty Zionist these days (and no I am not blogging about that!!!).
2. Dag, as contentious as it gets, is really, warts and all, my blogging home. So swing away at this proud unapologetic Zionist because Dorothy was right: there is no place like home.
Bruce S. Levine
New York, New York
P.S. In fairness to Elder of Ziyon, I will link to this blog over at his blog. I guess we cannot blame him for these comments. Or can we?
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I choose to (almost always) side with free speech in the comments unless they are threatening or consistently trolling.
If I would choose to moderate I'd be blogging only about half as much as I do, and I'd probably quit altogether because I don't want to be the comment police. As it is I don't have time to read every one, so I'd probably shut it down.
I used to try to have self-moderation, meaning that when X people didn't like a comment they could flag it and it would eventually disappear. But that didn't work as a core group would censor every comment from certain people even when they were not offensive.
The only other alternative is to get rid of comments altogether. I'm not there yet.
Going past the insults there is often some good stuff there. But I am very unhappy with the ad hominems. I'd love to have a forum for respectful discussion between right and left wing Zionists but it is not going to happen at EoZ.
Elder,
Thanks for stopping by. I know you work very hard at your website and I have an extraordinary amount of respect for you. When I disagree with you I will let you know. But I wish you only good things.
Bruce
You are, of course, welcome here. We have our collective biases, but we play well with others and are always looking for new ideas.
Hey Zion-buddy. Who cares what the commenters said, after you, the blogger, referred to the niqab as "garbage bags?"
What kinda goddamn trash are you?
Seriously, and you think there's a problem with the commenters? Gee, wouldn't want them to become offensive. Moron much?
Bruce, my friend, I think you need to take a breath here. You wouldn't spend 5 minutes on site that started referencing Jews as wearing turd-hats, now would you? Think about it. You walk into some labour meeting, and the other side says, "Oh hey, the Jew's here. At least he's not wearing some Jew garbage." Tell me how long you'd stay in that room.
You're the one who want us to all learn patience and restraint and respect about Israel-Palestine, and work at dialogue and respect, and then we're expected to listen to some redneck dipstick who refers to the clothing of the other as garbage bags? This isn't an issue of being on a left or a right-wing site, it's an issue of being on the site of a complete dirtbag. Yeah, you, Elder-punk.
Genghis and Articleman and the rest of you on the masthead, I'm serious here. You guys can complain about my swearing or fighting if you want, but how about you come on and tell me how long a blog entitled "Women wearing Garbage Bags" would last on here if it referred to Muslim women?
Good God.
Quinn,
I'm not asking anyone to read Elder, really. I did write that I have read his blogposts and have considered him to be a valuable resource. But I'm just making disclosure--a confession as I put it--and not recommending him.
And you're right, without question, because I have downplayed that which is entirely unacceptable, to wit, Elder's reference to "garbage bags". And you're absolutely correct--I would not tolerate or give the benefit of the doubt to a blogger (as I've done here) who chided a Jewish custom (such as orthodox married women shaving their heads as AA points out below). Indeed, I'm the guy who took offense to people like you who were critical of circumcision.
Quinn, I appreciate your candor, and your point is well taken. Thanks for a couple of things, and presumably for giving me the benefit of the doubt.
Bruce
Bruce, you always get the benefit of the doubt - and almost never need it. Especially considering who's doing the ranting here (moi.) Maybe the guy writes other stuff that is somewhat more respectful, and I'm sure the conversation in certain circles is more "vigorous" than I'm used to, but I just couldn't find a way to spin "garbage bags." Anyhoo, I hope life is good, the A/C working, and the Yankees finish a solid 2nd. Best, Q
I do find the referenced comment concerning Muslim women grotesque and incredibly offensive. I would wipe such a blog, since you asked. With relish.
I missed in my first read that the site proprietor wrote that. Honestly, I fully second Quinn's observation about its grossness. My moral relativism swings all over the place, but its solicitude does not reach that far.
Makes one wish for Chris Hitchens to drop by, maybe with Bill Maher.
Sometimes going anonymous or with a pseudonym seems preferable, eh?
And of course it's hard to see what insulting women has to do with Zion. At least our arguments around here are typically about political facets.
You know PP, my experience over at Elder's website makes me realize the difference between the kind of anonymity you and so many over here practice, versus what is practiced by so many of the anonymous posters who comment at his website. I really have little if any respect for people who remain anonymous so that they are able to levy ad hominem attacks and the type of bigoted remarks I witnessed over there. It's awful.
Always, always, always, keep your anonymity.
There are way too many sickos out in the world and if they get aroused, they think it's their duty, to render God a sacred service.
I'm always afraid of the ones that can hack a web site or moderators with an ax to grind.
Remember John Lennon; he got paid to be controversial and gave his life because of it.
Are you getting rewarded; or just taking all the risk?
Its getting to the point..... WHY speak out; like its your patriotic duty. When your patriotic duty is to do or die.
Ask Eugene Debs, who got charged with sedition in the land of free speech.
Now you tell me Resistance!
In case you're no longer reading Elder of Ziyon, there are some things about me that Ian wanted to call to your attention.
One is that I said that some of what happened in 1948 met the United Nations definition of ethnic cleansing. I regret to say that is my view. ("rendering an area ethnically homogenous by using force or intimidation to remove from a given area persons of another ethnic or religious group")
Another is that one of the sources I've cited is "Suez: The Twice Fought War" by anti-Semite Kennett Love. I was surprised to learn that Love is an anti-Semite; there wasn't anti-Semitism in the book, although I guess he was smart enough to hide it.
I've displeased Ian by saying that I don't think Love's anti-Semitism refutes the book. As far as I know, no one has refuted the data in Love's book, and it has been cited as a source by authors like Howard Sachar, who is Jewish and sympathetic to Israel. In my humble opinion, the book can't be rejected on a factual basis because Love is a scuzz; it can only be demolished by showing that he got it wrong, as David Irving's work has been.
Aaron,
Please. You don't have to explain yourself to me. You will find quite a few people over at this place who consider what happened in 1948 to be, at least in part, a form of ethnic cleansing. And they remain my good and respected friends, whose perspectives I value greatly.
As to this guy Love, I confess to have never heard of him, so I have no idea what he's written or what his beliefs here.
If you ever get tired of dealing with all the ad hominem attacks levied against you over at Elder's cite, come on down over here to dagblog. We fight quite a bit, but generally speaking we do so without the personal attacks.
Thanks for stopping by.
Bruce
Nice of you to correct your earlier sloppy work Brucey. I stand by my actual comments, not the ones that you incorrectly attribute to me.
Anyway here you go Brucey, Kenneth Love warming up the crowd for David Irving, enjoy.
http://michaelsantomauro.blogspot.com.au/2011/05/kenneth-love-you-dont-have-to-be-anti.html
I’m sure you’ll agree with most of it.
Have a good long look at yourself in the mirror if you can.
Ian
Ian,
Thank you for stopping by. I responded to you back at Elder's place.
You are welcome to stay here, but I don't think you would last long, because incessant hate-mongering, bigotry, ad hominems, and lord of the flies-like attacks on posters whom the "gang" don't agree with tend to be frowned upon. We're not perfect here, the moderators aren't police officers, but the kind of nonsense and stifling drivel that Elder sanctions is not permitted here.
Frankly, I don't think you and your hating buddies have the stones to come and post outside of your little cocoon/echo chamger that I made the mistake of delving into. I think you all have balls of glass, including you Ian.
P.S. To my colleagues at dagblog, if you're bored, and only if you are bored, you should take a look at the behavior of the folks over at Elder of Ziyon since I made the mistake last week, of trying to get them to change their bigoted and bullying behavior. For posting this blog I was accused of "Goebbelsian tactics" for "denouncing" Elder's kids. Heck, it's been a long time since I've been called a Nazi sympathizer. So be it.
Of course, I also made the mistake of leading with my chin, of identifying myself, and so the folks over there are milking that to death. My bad, but here's some highlights led by a guy who I guess is permitted by the host of the blog to mock Islam [I guess] by using the name Mohammed the Teddy Bear:
Why don't we leave the conflict over there?
Have to agree, Donal. They're morons and I really don't care what they think of dagblog. In fact, I don't care what they think, period.
Yes, although it does raise the entertainingly weird moderation question of when bslev writes a meta blog about another blog and gets flamed there and pastes it here, which is within the ambit of his blog's discussion, is it ok for bslev to say the people whose insults violate our ToS which bslev pasted here have "balls of glass"?
Too entertaining to answer, but if, to invert a metaphor from The Matrix, the Zion mainframe comes over here with flamethrowers, we may have to resort to some neo-moderation tactics in response.
Well when you figure it out let me know, for heaven sakes. The pre-sentencing period is always the worst.
Just bring in Quinn, this is where he shines - "rules? but Butch, we ain't never had no rules before...." "Yep, you're right, ain't no rules.... thwack...." "oooofffffff!!!"
Just tell Q they're baby harp seals/Flyers fans - he knows how to do the rest.
The 3 stupidest words in the English language:
GO FyLYReS!!
Actually we've outsourced moderation to
BlackwaterXeAcademi, so it might take a few minutes for the drones to show up.I just had to get "Zion mainframe" into this thread somehow.
Also: Jordan vs Kobe today.
Where's that blog?
That's not a bad idea for a piece. I will probably resume blogging in two weeks.
Uh, which Jordan you thinking, page 3 man? Hardly seems like a fair contest.
Bslev: even when I'm bored I don't find male teenage locker room banter entertaining; your quotes are a solid "stay away" advertisement. I really can't think of any earthly reason to chose to use spare time to even read them as a lurker, much less interact with them, unless perhaps you're a male who yearns for a visit to the depressing days of puberty.for some strange psychological reason.
No, AA, I think I've had quite enough puberty for one lifetime, although I do think that I could probably help a local shrink or two pay their kids' college education costs.
I have to say, I just got back from chaperoning 10 special-needs five and six-year olds on a trip to the kids' museum on 83rd Street--fabulous place by the way--and the discourse of those kids, my little girl's classmates, can be favorably compared to what I permitted myself to be sucked into over at Elder of Ziyon.
But this blog post, tongue in cheek and all, really was motivated as some sort of confessional, in that as Quinnster pointed out with precision, the commenters and the blogger at Elder of Ziyon are more than adolescent-like--they are in fact bigots. And I don't think I'm a bigot, and for one thing I hope I have never focused on the religion of Islam, or its 100s of million of adherents as a whole, in framing my political views and beliefs on matters concerning Jews, antisemitism, and the State of Israel.
But you ask an important question, and one that has implications beyond me. Why would someone like me visit Elder's site? As you know, I make no secret of my strong and unapologetic Zionist beliefs, and given where I generally stand on matters political, I have no intellectual home where I feel comfortable expressing my views. I love dag, but I really try to stay away to the extent possible from I/P matters, because it's too hard, and I wind up frustrated. And so I have looked elsewhere to express my opinions, and I guess that's why I got sucked into Elder's discussion center. But I really cannot write over there because of the nonsense, and that's frustrating, and that's how I got sucked into this charade, i.e. Elder made his "garbage bag" comment, I commented, and one week later I find myself being admonished by my good friends Donal, Ramona, and you! And deservedly so, because I should know better.
You and others generally see me as someone who will defend the State of Israel at the drop of a hat. And that is me. But that is not all of me. I am appalled by Israel's stubborn and incessant de facto occupation of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). But why write about that here? I would just be preaching to the converted. And, in fact, it is also an incomplete picture of my beliefs, because I recognize Israel's genuine security needs and, candidly, the notion that Jews should not be able to live in a place, for example, like Hebron, is simply unacceptable to me. But if I write about that here, I'll just end up getting into an endless debate and in the end nothing will change.
And so I find myself over at a place like Elder and it frustrates me because I really would like to feel comfortable taking issue with, for example, this ridiculous Levy report that was made public this week, and which finds that it is not a violation of international law for Jews settle anywhere they want to settle in Judea and Samaria. I want to express my view that the legal argument, meritorious or not, misses the point by miles, because the issue of unfettered Jewish settlement is a political and moral issue, and ultimately eliminates the prospects for a two-state solution over there. But if I challenge the lauding of this report at a place like Elder of Ziyon I am attacked as some kind of Jew-hater. And, of course, to challenge the report at dag is too easy and meaningless at best.
So I'm genuinely frustrated because I feel like I have a lot to say on these issues. And there ain't many places to express myself. And maybe that really is a reflection of the reality that the days of "liberal" Zionism are numbered or are simply gone at this point. And if that's the case, I'm distraught, seriously, because truth be told that ain't good for the Jews, my People.
So I'm sorry if I injected this bullshit from Elder on to you and to my valued friends over here. But I hope you can understand what's swirling around in my head.
Bruce
Oh I absolutely understand! I spent like 5 years at TPMCafe hoping some of the grownups from its first few months who were interested in more than just political junkie stories would come back, they never did !And look, geez louise, what did I just do in my last comment here, I let myself get dragged into talking about Clinton/Obama comparisons!
Here's arta's humble advice for a minimum of angst on the internet tubes (while still having some): stay away from un-moderated forums--they suck--if you frequent them, you will just get depressed about the human condition, if not actually clinically depressed, which is quite possible as well.
Why do you think we'd debate you to death if you said Israelis deserve to live in peace, but shouldn't occupy Palestinian land? For those who accept that we're not going back to 1947, it's the most obvious summation.
At that point, it's mostly a question of how to best form a contiguous Palestinian state, what proper security arrangements can be made, how to end the Gaza blockade while guaranteeing no huge influx of armaments or rise in terrorist activity. And how to help the Palestinians into a productive economy and promote a less corrupt government, so they don't labor on in victimhood, which will only end badly.
And I don't mind if US tax dollars go to subsidize progress. I care if they go to subsidize inertia, hatred and repression. Northern Ireland is tame again - people eventually do put away grudges to move on to something better, whether they've won or lost.
Well, shit Peracles, why didn't you frame it like that 7 years ago???? Seriously, I see nothing wrong in your framework at all, and I think the key questions are fundamentally that simple. And off the top of my head, I think the principal reason is that we don't get there because we are too busy focusing on tactics and whether they constitute colonial oppression or terrorism or both. How much ink have you and I, for example, expended on the flotilla and whether it was murder on the high seas or something else? I'm certainly not claiming clean hands, that would be ridiculous, but for whatever reason it seems to me there is very little debate on the left on how the line should be drawn.
The line should be drawn with ending the blockade, guaranteeing Israel security while giving the Palestinians a homeland (including a seaport so they have an independent route to international commerce). As long as we're trying to deliver democracy in a flotilla or via a gunship, the results are already fucked up.
Of course that means pressuring some of the Israeli leaders to get real, just as we've pressured Palestinians all these years. If they can't end the occupation, then lop off $2 billion of aid for a year and see if they feel more secure.
Is there no one in Israel who's studied Public Relations? While I don't expect Muslims to warm to Israel overnight, there's certainly a bit of charm offensive towards Palestinians, towards the Muslim world that could be taken without hurting security - in fact quite the opposite. Why doesn't Israel help Palestine coordinate a Gaza tech zone?
Think of all the resources Israel put into assembling dissident & repressed Jews from around the world, to build kibbutzes bringing water & blossom to the desert, to promote aliyah. Imagine 1/10th that effort going into a positive, friendly effort with Israel's biggest headache & closest neighbor & internal population? I don't blame Israel for anti-semitism or for trying to find a toe-hold in the world. But help make it work for everyone, even if it's not fair, even if Jews put in more effort than Muslims - who cares? As long as the situation and future improves?
My in-laws are very good friends with the chairman of the Board of Directors of Americans for Peace Now and his wife. He and his wife were over for dinner during the Memorial Day weekend, and of course I couldn't help being a pest to him while we should have been watching the damn sunset over the mountains. I said to him, Marty, can't you accept that the Israelis already offered them X, Y, and Z???? And he looked at me and he said, so why not keep offering the same darn thing!???
I heard him, and I hear you.
;-) Think me likes Marty, an admirer of the obvious.
BTW, I left a piece in Creative Corner you might find interesting.
This thing says I can't use my name--Aaron Carine--because it "belongs to a registered user". It does belong to a registered user--me. wtf?
If you were signed in, your name would be there.
Sometimes it logs you out - you have to click "sign in" above. You can't use an existing user name (even your own) as an anonymous poster. I usually just add my pp initials after being lazy.
They really can't end the occupation while Palestinians are still demanding Israel's destruction. Hamas won't recognize Israel's right to exist; Fatah officially does, but her members including Arafat, kept on making statements(in Arabic) about destroying Israel. I want to see a Palestinian state, but it can't happen unconditionally.
Israel controls the conditions. You're worried about a "Mother May I" or "Cry Uncle" moment. Grab your destiny (or have the Israelis grab their destiny, depending on your perspective). If Palestinians tell you "don't pee" do you clench and hold it? If they say "I hate you" do you sit and weep?
Almost every feud involves both sides wanting to snuff out the other. Until they finally reach a truce. And then another 2 generations to forget or at least calm down.
Try it this way - do Israelis really want their grandkids to go through this bullshit, or do they want to just get on with it and make something positive happen? Because from where I sit, in the last 12 years zilch useful has happened. And even that's probably too optimistic.
So yes, it can happen "unconditionally". As Castaneda would say, "find the path with the heart" - and make it happen. Israel has the intellect, the passion, the money, the institutions, the industry to do it. So just do it.
Try it another way - if you can't think of a way for Israelis to live peacefully in the next 2 generations without expecting Palestinians to crawl on all 4's, then have the Israelis pack their shit and move on to New York, LA, Paris, Rio, Odessa, Sydney... - Herzl's dream was just too much to fulfill, the neighborhood too expensive, the people weren't up to the challenge of living creatively - making the desert bloom was always the easy part.
Simple, eh?
Peracles, they can't "just do it" when the other side is promising to destroy them. Netanyahu has said he's for a Palestinian state; asking Palestinians to accept Israel's right to exist isn't asking them to crawl. There has to be reciprocity.
Of course they can. Netanyahu is intent on destroying them as well, and he has the armaments and money to enforce.
My point is there doesn't have to be reciprocity - lead for fuck's sake. Will over matter.
Netanyahu is hardly intent on destroying them. He has accepted Palestinian statehood, although he wants to keep a modest slice of the West Bank.
There does have to be reciprocity, for fuck's sake. One side can't make peace.
Maybe not intent on destroying - quite comfortable with no progress and slow accretion of Palestinian lands. Not the path to long-term Israelie peace and security in the region.
One side can make peace - they just have to try. Netanyahu just wants dominance, how about that? Think of 40 years from now - where will these roads lead.
Try this article on the Levy recommendations - so much for your "just a little piece of West Bank".
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2012/07/13/2417457/trudy-rubin-israel-should-be-wary.html
Maybe this is the equivalent of asking, "Did you plug it in?" but surely there are places other than Ziyon and Dag where you can have a meaningful discussion with people with whom you disagree and agree on this issue.
I waz just wonderin' if some of those guys also get urges to smack some of the silly looking wigs off the heads of observant conservative women, and the urge to hack a few inches off the hems on their schmattas so they don't get stuck in their stroller wheels? How far would they go, would they yank the babushka off their Russian bubbe if she were still alive? And how about those Hasidic men walking around in black silk robes, white silk stockings and no visible pants?
I'd have some sympathy, really I would, for those who wish they would get those bags off their heads IF they would discuss their discomfort in a civil manner!
An anecdote-- my dear departed Mom, the child of Polish Catholic immigrants from Galicia, told me late in her life that she was getting in the habit of getting friendly with women wearing hijab and then trying to persuade them that they really should consider dumping it, especially if they are going to stay in this country, and especially when it's hot out. Because most people in the culture here would support them doing it, and think doing it would not reflect on their religiosity or modesty. That it really didn't have to do with their religion, but was just some stupid convention made up by men. That she grew up used to putting on a babushka or hat when going outside, and definitely going to church, and she sure as hell didn''t miss doing that, that they should know how good it felt to go bare headed. That they should try it, maybe they'd like it! I laughed at her confession, I teased her and say she's become a feminist agitator in her old age. But then I said, "but Mom, you wouldn't do that to nuns!" And she said, "oh yes I would if they were still wearing those danged things!" She just felt she suffered following similar conventions, and she wanted to share the joy with them of letting the conventions go.
The idjits at the forum, they realize not what they do, turning people off to their argument by the way they make it? Or maybe they just really do intend to express hatred and bigotry? It's always a great way to make people on the other side dig in their heels: this asshole doesn't like it, therefore, I'm going to keep doing it!
I'm convinced that careers like Rush Limbaugh's were built this way. If being liberal pissed more or a certain type of people off, he'd say liberal things. But he noticed he could piss of people as a conservative and so he developed that character.
Thanks AA. I was thinking of you while I wrote this. I'm glad Elder came over and replied and stated his view. I know you have commented on any number of occasions on the issue of comment moderation. I think Elder's laissez faire approach has prevented his blog from having the kind of discussions he would undoubtedly be happy with, but as explains above, he just doesn't have the time to do that.
Hey, no way is it his fault alone according to conventional forum moderation wisdom, where he would be considered naive to think that it is possible even if he had the time or behaved better himself. It's generally considered impossible to moderate a open-to-all discussion on I/P. To the point where it is a verboten topic on some sites with commenting; they just forbid any threads on that one topic. No other topic is as notorious for eliciting ad hominens, out right slurs and similar bad behavior and worse, often with bad feelings all around in the forum, including the uninvolved, when normally quite civil members on other topics all of a sudden contract troll disease. The Onion did a good parody on topic in 2009, a point/counterpoint where the first guy is like a parody of a moderator trying to set-up a grown-up conversation, and the second guy is an example of the standard kind of response.
The bigger question is: what does that mean in meatspace that I/P is considered the #1 worst topic for behavior in internet discussion?
I thought the article a little too precious but this companion piece (not surprisingly) cracked me up : www.theonion.com/articles/48yearold-man-actually-very-open-to-dating-25y...
Part of the issue is "those danged things" can be personal choice, enthusiastically so. I imagine many who join the sisterhood are looking forward to wearing the nun's habit with pride, whereas others might think it a backwards repressive vestige of centuries past but required as part of a more noble service.
And a typical college kid running around in whatever the latest fashion or i-dont-care shorts and a t-shirt often looks like an idiot as well - repressed by fashion police or peer-criticism just as badly as a Russian grandmother. How about those 17-year-olds trying to fit into dresses too small to outsex Rihanna - does *every* one of them really want to be that much a sexual extrovert, or do our puritanical or overly sexed cultures make sweeping demands that everyone in the group has to follow?
Fashion and style are clumpy. Some people like uniforms, others don't, but generally we're forced into these in batches, both clothing & behavior - age, sex, religion, occupation, school or company brand, GPS location/nationality, activity... Why exactly we're so down on it when a religious clown demands it, vs. a corporate CEO or a boy scout/girl scout group or the other kids in a class or the entrance rules at the dance club, it's hard to say. Some think it's demeaning, some think it's a sign of inclusion or respect. What was someone pointing out, they had to wear a proper dress or skirt to use a library? Why do we think only of Muslim culture as being a freak show when we have plenty of examples at home?
Bruce,
I do love your I/P blogs. They teach me a lot about a topic I pretty much wish that I had never mouthed off about at any point in my life. The whole issue is so fraught with ambiguities that it's difficult for a goy to get his head around. nAny site should be happy to have you.
It is sometimes dismaying what passes for discussion out there, isn't it?
Thanks destor. I hope you don't mind that I used you as a prop in my little blogpost. All in fun. :)
Great story JR! Your Dad must have been -- or must still be? -- quite the barrister to have written that brief.
He was (you had the tense correct ) Since the privelege has died with both the client and the lawyer, I can add that while the appeal was successful, my father summed up the facts to me as Hoffa having been guilty of the tampering but framed for it by Bobby Kennedy who couldn't prove it on the square, as it were.
For about six years, I read and thought and wrote a great deal about Israel, Palestine and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But after Obama rolled over for Netanyahu within just a few months of taking office, with barely so much as a grimace of embarrassment, I realized that everything I had ever written on the topic was utterly meaningless.
Well Dan, look at it this way. If you hadn't written what you did all those years, I might have sounded like the guys over at Elder's place who I'm having so much fun with now. Wait. . .do I sound like them???????
bslev, just in case you haven't heard about this new website, referred by Uskowi on Iran:
Two thoughts on this, Bruce:
• Is there really much NEW to be said on I/P absent any new moves by the parties? It feels (to me at least) that this topic has been looked at from every angle.
• Personally, I'd love you to blog about the union movement--current status and where it needs to go in the future.
Don't know if that would interfere with your professional obligations, but I would get a great deal out of it. And it's important: Unions are blamed for so much by the other side.