The O'Reilly Factor was on while I was at the gym, and I could.not.stop watching it.
It made my heart rate jump up (which is what I was working on), but OMG, no, really OMG, the insults! the illogical arguments! I mean, they had Coulter, talked about Thomas, Gonzalez, showed horrible racist emails from viewers. And Dennis Miller was SO NOT FUNNY. He tried, he really tried, but his "jokes" were awful. It made me really sad to know that people in my country believe all this stuff and are willing to support it wholeheartedly. It does not help make this a better country. It doesn't.
@Little Green Frog: You don't have to be a hippie to know that this is INSANE. Seriously, the blatant racism, the lack of self-awareness, the heated rhetoric is just frightening. And that they're calling her a racist is mind-boggling. I used to think that Obama being elected signalled a change in how Americans think of race but from the rhetoric I hear daily, I have to weep and think that was so sadly optimistic.
Really, people can't pronounce SotoMayor? Its a fucking compound word with no trilled r'. In terms of latino last names, it can't get much easier than that.
PS If you support the Administration's approach to the Israeli settlement issue, please write and tell them so. If you're a Jewish American, make sure you mention that.
This, in a nutshell, is why I don't live in Israel anymore.
The Zionist project has ceased to be about building a national home for the Jews, and has become about the settlements. Everything Israel does, every budget it passes, every domestic or international decision it makes, always comes back to: the settlements. If we really wanted to protect Tel Aviv (etc), we would reach security arrangements with a Palestinian state, and then protect our borders. But the machinery of the settlements grinds on and on, and most Israelis don't even hear the noise anymore.
When all is said and done, there will be one state, and maybe that is for the best -- personally, I've sort of given up on nationalism as an organizing principle (because, hey, look where it gets us!). But those people who think they're defending the Jewish people and the Jewish state by defending the settlements and deepening the occupation are wrong. And when their grandchildren are issued their Israstine (or will it be Palsrael?) passports, they'll look back at history and know where Zionism ended.
@bluebears: It boils down to two things: 1) This is our land (Greater Land of Israel, Eretz Yisrael), and in all honesty, most of the sites mentioned in the Bible are in fact on the West Bank; and b) once people already live -- and have died in -- a place, it becomes self-perpetuating: We have to build more, because we've had more kids! We can't leave - people have shed their blood for this place!
On one level, I can't argue with any of that. Yes, you're right. We have a right to be there. Yes, you're right, you need more room for the kids. Yes, you're right, leaving graves behind goes against much in our humanity.
But that being "right" doesn't make it smart, and it doesn't negate the (in my mind) equal "rightness" of the other guys -- most of whom, it should be noted, have already accepted defeat. If we were to turn over the Gaza Strip and West Bank in their entireties to the Palestinians today, they would be getting (if memory serves) 22% of historical Palestine. That's what they're fighting for now. The Zionists -- we -- won. We have a state, and they know we're not going anywhere (yes, some Palestinians, including Hamas, still fight that. But so do some Israelis, vis-a-vis the Palestinians, and again, that's what peace is meant to solve).
And since the Oslo Accords (over which I literally danced in the streets of Tel Aviv back in 1993), settlement has well more than doubled, and the West Bank has been essentially sliced into six parts, and the Gaza Strip has been turned into what amounts to an open air prison.
@ellaesther: PS Also, more expansion = "facts on the ground." The more facts on the ground, the harder it will be to uproot anyone and send them back to within the internationally-recognized borders of Israel.
The issue of water sources also plays into it, but I'm less well versed in that piece.
@ellaesther: it all just seems so hopeless. I have to say I just do not understand that sort of blood allegiance to an inanimate piece of land (and I know its on both sides). What do most normal Israeli's think about it?
@bluebears: You know, I try to be careful when I talk about Israelis in general, because my politics are a minority viewpoint (maybe about 30%? At best?), and though I've gone back once and sometimes twice a year since I left, I haven't actually lived there for a decade.
From my 14 years there, and my continuing experience with the country, studying and writing about it and going back and forth, I would say that the vast majority of Israelis feel a very real connection to the land, in an almost subconscious way -- when you're where you belong, you don't really think about it much.
There have always been strong currents of pride in the sacrifices made, and a need to defend those sacrifices, as well as a sense that those who would fight us really just want to see us all die. It's very hard to shake a deeply ingrained (at times entirely justifiable, at times entirely manipulated) fear of the outside world. There is often a strong sense that Israel is on its own, and I feel certain that lots of people over there right now are talking about how this stupid Administration is completely clueless.
Most Israelis have said they want a two state solution. Polls used to indicate that meant co-existence; now that means separation -- go away, don't bother us anymore. They want peace and quiet, and they want their land, and people have failed to make the connection that that's what the other side wants too, and so the only way to get the first, is to share the latter.
@ellaesther: I wish we got a more diverse picture of the citizens of Israel here in the US. I mean I understand being connected to the Nation and feeling a mistrust of outsiders but I think there has to be a point where you grow as a society and look beyond that. Stop being so insular and protectionist in other words. Thanks for all the info!
@ellaesther: Thanks for boiling that down! You helped me untangle some of the issues regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and it's so interesting to get it from someone who's lived in Israel and left it.
@bluebears: "I have to say I just do not understand that sort of blood allegiance to an inanimate piece of land." I'm guessing you don't live in the Deep South, where the prevailing sentiment among those who still live and die by the rebel flag is that the guv'mint has no business taxing or telling them what to do with the land their grandpappy bled and died for. People who say the South will rise again freak. me. out. And there are waaay too many of them.
As someone who's gone through life pronouncing and spelling both her first and last name to just about every she comes into contact with, it really boils me when people act like it's no big deal. (My first name is German, but minus one letter is a very common Anglican name, and my last name is Scottish, but the Anglican variant is more common) My bff once asked why I corrected people, even those I'd never see again. Why? BECAUSE IT'S MY NAME. The people who don't understand have never had to deal with the mispronunciations. Believe me, it gets annoying after some time. It's made me mispronounce other people's names on purpose. Like Crocker here's.
@EkaterinaBallerina: My poor sister had my parents get a little creative with her extremely common name. When mis-pronounced, because of the slightly odd spelling, it sounds like they named her after a common parasite.
@EkaterinaBallerina: You are stronger than I am. My first name is very different and I have gotten to the place where I don't care anymore. It gets tiring having to correct people on how to pronounce a name with only 2 syllables and and 5 letters.
@EkaterinaBallerina: My first name is obviously pretty common, but almost always misspelled. My last name is a big old German mess, slightly helped by the removal of an umlaut many, many generations ago when they arrived here. It is SO frustrating to have to constantly spell ('yes, the a goes before the e, and the t before the s, why yes, I know that's strange') and pronounce and re-pronounce. When my mother remarried, I begged to have my step-fathers incredibly Anglican, 5 letter last name to no avail. I can't wait to be married and rid of it and I wish I didn't feel that way.
@EkaterinaBallerina: My name is old english and completely phonetic, yet NO ONE can pronounce it correctly. When I correct people on pronouncing it, am I being racist against white people? Americans? I'm confused, I need to know!
@stacyinbean: It took me a very long time to get where I am with my name. And now I wouldn't change it for anything. I might stick my married name on at the end, but in all likelihood I'm just going to stick with it. Besides I've gotten really good at the snarky delivery when people don't get it right or feel the need to make a crude joke about the first four letters of my last name.
The worst, by the way, that I ever got was someone who had the nerve to tell me my parents were cruel to put a silent H in my name. I've never been so offended or appalled.
@vamusical: When you correct Americans about how to pronounce your old English name you are clearly trying to keep the people down. Power to the revolution!
@EkaterinaBallerina: I have a hyphenated first name. It's a French name. People think that if they just say the first part of the hyphenated name, that's it, and the second part must be my middle name. I was told as a child that the first part is not my name, and I should not respond to it. When I am in a room and I only hear it called, I look around and assess to see if someone has that name. If they don't I stand up and correct immediately with my hyphenated name. I was the valedictorian at my high school so my name appeared four times in the program, all incorrectly. The senior class sponsor was shocked when I told her my name was wrong at rehearsal. She fixed it but said "Why do you need a middle name?" Because it's what I'm called, jackasses!
@Ms Brangwin wants carnal knowledge of Henry Cavill: My college boyfriend had two first names, with a space not a hyphen, and both more commonly nouns and not names. The college never figured it out...
@sshacker: I can't be bothered, either. Two syllables, three letters, and a vast VAST number of mispronunciations and/or misspellings. But my name doesn't have any cultural or ethnic or family significance, it was plucked straight out of '70s pop culture, so maybe if I were attached to it as a reflection of who I am and from whence my family came, I would be more protective.
At any rate, I don't see why Sotomayor is that difficult to pronounce. It surprised me to hear Obama mess it up several times during his introduction. The correct pronunciation seems like the intuitive pronunciation to me, but then again, I'm not an old white dude. And good for Megan for not Anglicizing "Carpentier." I went to high school with a "Charpentier," Shar-pont-ee-ay, but a lot of teachers just called him "Carpenter." It kind of boggled my mind, as again, NOT THAT TOUGH to pronounce. Not as difficult or counterintuitive as mine, anyway.
Thank you, Megan "Breaking It All Down And Encouraging Wingnuts To STFU" Carpentier for yet another succinct roundup of the news.
If I wasn't excited about Judge Sotomayor before, I am now. Way to mobilize the opposition's base, wingnuts; without those clowns, we'd all just be sitting here enjoying the slow return of civil liberties and social services.
@Tangy.Nihilista.Barcelona: HA! Don't worry, I'm sure Sotomayor will pantomine getting mugged by a Puerto Rican on her way into the Court and the conservatives will be totally distracted.
I'm sad that she ruled in favour of the global gag rule, but she did it for reasons of judicial precedent-- shouldn't conservatives be glad about this? Or are they just ignoring the ways she might rule in favour of their cause because they're so used to talking out their asses that they've forgotten how to think thoughts that aren't full of shit? (see what I did there? heh)
The wingnut reaction to SotomayOR (that's right, bitches, I can pronounce it!) is making me so angry. I haven't felt bile rising in my throat like this since the days of Bushcheney. I didn't miss the taste.
I have a long Greek name that is constantly butchered, so I'm used to it, but most people at least try to pronounce it correctly. I just correct them and we're done with it. The people I hate are the ones who ask me why I didn't change it to my husband's WASPy last name when we got married, because "it's so much easier to say." Gee, I guess I didn't consider YOUR comfort when making a decision about MY name. I'm so selfish - and racist!
@Maritsa: People who complain about pronouncing names are a complete mind-fuck to me. I once had an ex tell me that the "H" in the middle of my name was really hard. It made me wonder, and I believe I said this to his face, how the hell he got into Princeton.
@Maritsa: Wow - you think that you are better than white men because you are Greek!! Shame on you, you should totally just go back to Greece anyways since you hate America so much...
Hearing about military prison rape in Iraq hurts my heart so much-- for the victims mostly, but also for our soldiers who go over there and do NOT abuse prisoners and who do not rape anyone and who do the best they can to act in as humane a way as possible.
@morninggloria: I know. This breaks my heart in all kinds of directions. A lot of men and women who are doing a really hard, painful job far away from home are having to answer for some deeply nasty behavior that they have nothing to do with.
@nothanks: Seriously. The average rape victim has little hope of ever seeing their attacker(s) brought to justice. These people have none. What is wrong with those sick freaks running Abu Ghraib? I'd like to see them try to blame this on the higher-ups, too. Not a one of them has ever taken responsibility for what they did, and I certainly don't expect this to be different.
@morninggloria: My then-boyfriend, one of the best men I have ever met in my life (bettered only by my actual husband!), served as a reservist in the Israeli army during the first intifada. He was one of those guys doing the damn best he could in a situation he felt he couldn't change -- the guy who felt he had to go, but tried to be a person while he was there. He was wrecked by it for a good long while. It moved him from the center of Israeli politics to the distinct left.
Good luck to your friends, honey. I marvel at the fact that so few people who sent them over there have any apparent understanding of what war does to people when they come home.
05/28/09
It made my heart rate jump up (which is what I was working on), but OMG, no, really OMG, the insults! the illogical arguments! I mean, they had Coulter, talked about Thomas, Gonzalez, showed horrible racist emails from viewers. And Dennis Miller was SO NOT FUNNY. He tried, he really tried, but his "jokes" were awful. It made me really sad to know that people in my country believe all this stuff and are willing to support it wholeheartedly. It does not help make this a better country. It doesn't.
(Note: no I'm not a hippie. Really)
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State Department: [contact-us.state.gov]
White House: [www.whitehouse.gov]
JStreet, "the political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement": [www.jstreet.org]
05/28/09
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The Zionist project has ceased to be about building a national home for the Jews, and has become about the settlements. Everything Israel does, every budget it passes, every domestic or international decision it makes, always comes back to: the settlements. If we really wanted to protect Tel Aviv (etc), we would reach security arrangements with a Palestinian state, and then protect our borders. But the machinery of the settlements grinds on and on, and most Israelis don't even hear the noise anymore.
When all is said and done, there will be one state, and maybe that is for the best -- personally, I've sort of given up on nationalism as an organizing principle (because, hey, look where it gets us!). But those people who think they're defending the Jewish people and the Jewish state by defending the settlements and deepening the occupation are wrong. And when their grandchildren are issued their Israstine (or will it be Palsrael?) passports, they'll look back at history and know where Zionism ended.
05/28/09
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On one level, I can't argue with any of that. Yes, you're right. We have a right to be there. Yes, you're right, you need more room for the kids. Yes, you're right, leaving graves behind goes against much in our humanity.
But that being "right" doesn't make it smart, and it doesn't negate the (in my mind) equal "rightness" of the other guys -- most of whom, it should be noted, have already accepted defeat. If we were to turn over the Gaza Strip and West Bank in their entireties to the Palestinians today, they would be getting (if memory serves) 22% of historical Palestine. That's what they're fighting for now. The Zionists -- we -- won. We have a state, and they know we're not going anywhere (yes, some Palestinians, including Hamas, still fight that. But so do some Israelis, vis-a-vis the Palestinians, and again, that's what peace is meant to solve).
And since the Oslo Accords (over which I literally danced in the streets of Tel Aviv back in 1993), settlement has well more than doubled, and the West Bank has been essentially sliced into six parts, and the Gaza Strip has been turned into what amounts to an open air prison.
05/28/09
The issue of water sources also plays into it, but I'm less well versed in that piece.
05/28/09
05/28/09
From my 14 years there, and my continuing experience with the country, studying and writing about it and going back and forth, I would say that the vast majority of Israelis feel a very real connection to the land, in an almost subconscious way -- when you're where you belong, you don't really think about it much.
There have always been strong currents of pride in the sacrifices made, and a need to defend those sacrifices, as well as a sense that those who would fight us really just want to see us all die. It's very hard to shake a deeply ingrained (at times entirely justifiable, at times entirely manipulated) fear of the outside world. There is often a strong sense that Israel is on its own, and I feel certain that lots of people over there right now are talking about how this stupid Administration is completely clueless.
Most Israelis have said they want a two state solution. Polls used to indicate that meant co-existence; now that means separation -- go away, don't bother us anymore. They want peace and quiet, and they want their land, and people have failed to make the connection that that's what the other side wants too, and so the only way to get the first, is to share the latter.
05/28/09
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@bluebears: "I have to say I just do not understand that sort of blood allegiance to an inanimate piece of land." I'm guessing you don't live in the Deep South, where the prevailing sentiment among those who still live and die by the rebel flag is that the guv'mint has no business taxing or telling them what to do with the land their grandpappy bled and died for. People who say the South will rise again freak. me. out. And there are waaay too many of them.
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Really, people. Respect a person's name!
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The worst, by the way, that I ever got was someone who had the nerve to tell me my parents were cruel to put a silent H in my name. I've never been so offended or appalled.
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In short, I understand your pain.
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At any rate, I don't see why Sotomayor is that difficult to pronounce. It surprised me to hear Obama mess it up several times during his introduction. The correct pronunciation seems like the intuitive pronunciation to me, but then again, I'm not an old white dude. And good for Megan for not Anglicizing "Carpentier." I went to high school with a "Charpentier," Shar-pont-ee-ay, but a lot of teachers just called him "Carpenter." It kind of boggled my mind, as again, NOT THAT TOUGH to pronounce. Not as difficult or counterintuitive as mine, anyway.
05/28/09
If I wasn't excited about Judge Sotomayor before, I am now. Way to mobilize the opposition's base, wingnuts; without those clowns, we'd all just be sitting here enjoying the slow return of civil liberties and social services.
05/28/09
[www.latimes.com]
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"To the honorable Barack Obama, President..."
"WE THE WHITE, GODFEARING CITIZENS OF ROCK RIDGE wish to express our extreme displeasure with your choice of" Supreme Court Nominee
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I have a long Greek name that is constantly butchered, so I'm used to it, but most people at least try to pronounce it correctly. I just correct them and we're done with it. The people I hate are the ones who ask me why I didn't change it to my husband's WASPy last name when we got married, because "it's so much easier to say." Gee, I guess I didn't consider YOUR comfort when making a decision about MY name. I'm so selfish - and racist!
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You may also be reverse racist too. You really are a horrible horrible person.
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Good luck to your friends, honey. I marvel at the fact that so few people who sent them over there have any apparent understanding of what war does to people when they come home.
05/28/09