A few more blog posts that caught my interest.
Personal progress:
My medical condition continues to improve. My twice-a-week physical therapist pushes and measures and offers encouragement.
I’m meeting the surgeon again tomorrow.
- My long time personal friend, the very conservative Darrell Michaels back (Yay!) at Unabashedly American, makes a cogent case for abandoning the goal of a two-state solution in the Middle East.
Darrell does tend toward rhetorical excess:- Palestinians become “Palestinians” with scare quotes
- Protestors are now “protestors”
- Michael uncritically accepts the stated Israeli government goal of destroying Hamas from the top down to the ground.
Says my friend:
Current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is correct and thoroughly justified in destroying every last Hamas militant still alive.
While useful as an aspirational slogan, it is unlikely as a practical matter. Destroying every vestige of Hamas leadership is a more realistic necessity.
Those of us who have not given up on a two-state solution should acknowledge that Oct. 7 pushed much further into the future that eventual hope for a secure peace.
Darrell’s argument is worth the investment of a click and a read.
A couple of my own thoughts:
1/2
I think unnecessary exaggeration obscures an important part of the legitimate case you can make.Israel is not committing genocide, unless we change the definition, and is not targeting civilians and children, but rather Hamas hiding behind them.
We can accuse Israel of
— Burr Deming – @BurrLand01@mastodon.world (@BurrLand01) December 1, 2023
2/2
We can accuse Israel of indifference to the suffering and death of innocents as they target Hamas.That is the case you ought to want to make.
We should go on to condemn Hamas, who really do deliberately target innocent civilians, children, and infants then gloat about it.
— Burr Deming – @BurrLand01@mastodon.world (@BurrLand01) December 1, 2023
- The Palmer Report has a plausible theory on why mr Trump so frequently encounters breathlessly uncritical media coverage.
- Rudy Giuliani triumphantly bullied two unsuspecting good citizen type election workers in Georgia, making their lives miserable for three years.
Now Rudy is paying a high price.
PZ Myers seems notably unsympathetic.
- Disaffected and it Feels So Good goes to abortion rights, celebrating two women who declined to be victims, taking on the entire Republican Party.
- Clickbait satirist Reductress warns that making fun of your millennial sibling may be all fun and games until you need help writing an email.
- Mark Waulberg > No, not Mark Wahlberg, the other Mark, brings us Jim Carrey as a graduate of the William Shatner School of Overacting:
- Sorry I missed this, although I have a great excuse. Margaret and Helen are back, with Helen inviting the family to a wonderful Thanksgiving, seasoned with a stern warning.
Key warning:
We might have had our differences in the past, but intolerance won’t be tolerated.