I have difficulty imagining the level of frustration and despair that medical workers must be feeling.

It must be horrific – I’ve seen several videos interviewing docs and they are all exhausted as well.

Please Digg.

What can I say that hasn’t been said repeatedly since this horror started?

I cannot match the feeling of hopeless/helplessness of the Palestinians.

I wish the Israeli government could see itself as others see them.
They seem to have become the enemies of their own ancestors. They have the power to change that, if they want to be remembered for something other than trying to kill every Palestinian they can get at.

What happened to Mosiac? Their latest page is 6 days old.

SD … I’m not sure there is much to say – but we can acknowledge the dead and hope that the Israeli cabinet will at least agree to a truce …

Not sure about their video but Jamal Dajani, their correspondent, is in Israel now and you can read his reports here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..54204.html

The carnage continues without end. When is enough? How many more must die to prove Israel has the bigger dick?

We’re surrounded by violent death. Violence is fed to the public like candy.

Oppenheimer:

“I am become Shiva, shatterer of worlds.”

“The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.”
-George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four

Yes, but lord Shiva is the lord of creative destruction. He also brings renewal.

Some of the articles in Jpost about the readiness for a ground assault read very much in that vein Dr Dick … they were hard to read.

Marty Peretz actually summed up much of the official Israeli policy. Of course I think the current government (as well as Likud) have far darker intentions.

Oppie wasn’t in that frame of mind at the time he said it.

I know. Nor are the Israelis.

I just would like to know what role Rice/shrubco played in precipitating all this.

Words fail … and all we may do is watch in horror as our common humanity shrivels into the bleak emptiness of a too common fatalism and the deepening, dreadful, realization that our species, seemingly, cannot or will not recognize the preciousness of life; preferring, instead, the grim “comfort” of choosing to “believe” that nothing can be done, while the masters of war gleefully count their “gains” … and celebrate their cynical “convictions” that greed is “good” and life is “cheap” … and that pain, loss, and death are for the unclever, worthless “others”.

I’ve been reading quotations on the topic of power and the misuse thereof. I thought this by author David Brin was on the mark.

“It is said that power corrupts, but actually it’s more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.”
-David Brin

I think the Israelis have yet to regret their actions. Only time will tell.

My parents spent a year in Israel back in the 80s. They told me the old Europeans they met would weep about what Israel had become — a country just like the ones they had been forced to escape, down to an Israeli youth organization just like… it beggars the imagination. The abused imitate their abusers, sure, but on this scale, for so long, with so many deaths and atrocities?

I can only hope the Liebermans of the world on both sides of the Atlantic never gain power again, and all the very enlightened Jews like those who worked so very hard for Obama finally get to set the course the planet needs so badly from them. This world could be so great, even now, with just a tiny bit of kindness and common sense — and repudiation of the idiocies of the past.

Whoa, that’s goooooood.

Minimally malign neglect. They have basically sat on their thumbs for 8 years and let things fester there. They have also (out of laziness, possibly fear of ADL and other rightwing Jewish groups, and advice from their beloved neocons) pretty much green-lighted everything that Israel has wanted to do during that time, without ever holding them even minimally accountable.

David…
I’ll be praying.

Far from regretting right now, I would say. I do fear that some will live to regret them very much.

Sometimes my species makes me sick. This is one of those times.

I would generally agree with that. I sometimes make a similar point in my classes. Most people really aren’t all that attracted to power, beyond feeling in control over our own lives, or in wealth, beyond enough to live in modest comfort. There are, however, a small percentage of people in every society who covet these things in excess. Those are the people you have to watch out for.

I’d put the influence of the neocons at the top of the list. Remember, Barnacle had how many copies of The Weekly Neocon delivered to the WH? Kristol, et al, wanted no peace settlement or negotiations with the Palestinians and that’s exactly what they got. Cheney was one of the original members of PNAC. He didn’t need any convincing.

Perhaps, before it is too late, humankind will realize that it makes its own “time” as well as its own world …

What we have is paradise, what we “understand” appears to little apprehend this truth …

Be glad that you are not a cultural anthropologist who works with ethnicity or gender issues. I am teaching both classes this spring.

I love to hear things I don’t already know.
But I know it’s good to Let It Out. The fear. The anxiety.
Still, I’ll be praying.

Time to check my lids for light leaks before they do it on their own.

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things.

Namaste

Rest well.

My hope is that there will be time for humans to evolve into a more rational and less destructive species. I am afraid that window of opportunity may be sliding closed, unfortunately.

We each have our own calling.
Glad, or not…still.

g’nite, SD

That’ll be fun, in a Kristallnacht kind of way.

Aloha, SD!

Good night, SD.

I too, shall shuffle off, in search of dreams which may, perhaps, allow a glimpse of hope and better, more humane pathways.

Celebrate life, it ALL is most precious …

well said wial

Nature does not really select for rationality as such. It is much better at selecting for automatic (whether learned or inherent) responses which require no thought. We already have the potential to avoid most conflict. Did you know that there is basically no evidence for war or similar violent conflict for the first 4.48 million years of our evolutionary history?

goodnight, DWB

Especially the ethnicity class. I always warn them the first day that it is not a bright and cheery class. When competition and conflict are the whole reason for a social institution’s existence, things tend to get rather depressing much of the time. Gender, however, does have a lot of bright moments in amongst the misogyny and oppression.

Night DWB. May your dreams bring you peace and beauty.

This should be interesting…

Foreign journalists demand Gaza access

Israel’s supreme court will hear a petition tomorrow brought by the Foreign Press Association, which represents around 400 foreign journalists, demanding that Israel allow reporters into Gaza to cover the latest conflict.

The sole pedestrian crossing from Israel into Gaza, at Erez, has remained closed to journalists since Israel’s bombing campaign began on Saturday.

We already have the potential to avoid most conflict. Did you know that there is basically no evidence for war or similar violent conflict for the first 4.48 million years of our evolutionary history?

IIRC this is known as the Hippie Period of human evolution.

Did you know that there is basically no evidence for war or similar violent conflict for the first 4.48 million years of our evolutionary history?

Meaning, no fossil evidence of weapons? I watched a nature documentary which showed chimpanzees engaging in mob violence, murdering another chimp who posed no discernible threat to them. I’ve also read accounts suggesting murderous acts by dolphins, although they have ascended a different evolutionary ladder than our own.

yep … I’ve been covering that since having foreign journos in would be a major help (see Penhaul on the Dignity in my post this morning) While there’s a ton of info available from inside Gaza, Israel claims it is all propaganda so having other journos there to report will provide more info that cannot be tainted as just that.

A somewhat strong repudiation of those who say war is innate. War and related forms of violence only show up after people begin settling down more and population densities rise, along with competition for resources. This happens in the Mesolithic beginning about 20K years ago (prior to agriculture, I might add).

Some chimpanzee groups engage in war-like behavior and so may some of our distant ancestors. Actually the evidence is in terms of evidence for traumatic injury to skeletons. You are looking for specific kinds of injuries here, not just any broken bones.

I should also add that murder has probably been around for a very long time. Homicide is found in virtually all societies, even those which have no traditions of warfare or other collective violence.

Some chimpanzee groups engage in war-like behavior and so may some of our distant ancestors. Actually the evidence is in terms of evidence for traumatic injury to skeletons. You are looking for specific kinds of injuries here, not just any broken bones.

That and some fossilized AK-47s.

I realized that after I posted the last comment. Implements necessary for hunting, etc. could as easily have been used against people, so the evidence would have to consist of damage discernable in human remains.

Heh, I’ll bet that they’ll still fire off a round or two… Unlike our Mattel manufactured M-16’s and M-4’s…! ;-)

Yeah. That and a high proportion of younger males who died from traumatic injury or exhibit an unusually high number of traumatic injuries to the head and upper body. Sometimes you even find fragments of projectile points embedded in the bones.

On a brighter note, I think I will follow the lead of those of have already retired, hoping for brighter days ahead for the Palestinians, for the Israelis, and all good people wherever they might be.

I shudder to think of what will happen to the journalists if they do find their way in.

Would you be referring to Acheulian Knobnockers model 47?

Sleep in peace and beauty.

I’m sure they’ll have safe passage from the Gazans… Now, the Israelis might be a prob…!

Tbogg to raise your spirits is up now:
http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2…..rstand-it/

One last note, I have an uncle who is a bit of an expert on the subject of early humans in North America, with a particular interest in Clovis culture. Fascinating stuff.

Okay, I’m really going to bed now.

TBogg, top of the front page, with a George Bush reading primer…

Otto: Apes don’t read philosophy.
Wanda: Yes they do, Otto, they just don’t understand it.

Siun, did you read Pat Lang’s blistering critique today?

Yes, exactly! Well, I’m off to bed too!

Aloha, GW and RF! ;-)

Would you be referring to Acheulian Knobnockers model 47?

Knobknockers? This is a family blog!

Would you be referring to Acheulian Knobnockers model 47?

Almost forgot. ”Acheulian.” Gesundheit!

Are you sure…? ;-)

Yeah, this is a foulmouthed fem blog. Jane said so.

That’s complete bull. “Fight or Flight”. Its hardwired.

Negotiation is the civilizeed response. It’s also very hard.

It is not “bull.” It is demonstrable fact. Most modern mobile foragers have not traditionally engaged in warfare or other forms of collective violence and even homicide is generally fairly rare. Negotiation is a very old trait (it is present in our nearest relatives the chimpanzees and bonobos, for instance). All cultures in the world practice negotiation. It is war that is a product of civilization. FWIW, I have a Ph.D. in anthroplogy, so I am kind of an expert on this topic.

‘Fight or Flight’ does not entail warfare as you seem to regard it as…! Fight, yes, when threatened…

Yeah, this is a foulmouthed fem blog. Jane said so.

Fem, family, I knew it was one of those. And to be honest I think it is a real knobknocker of a blog as well.

I’ve also read accounts suggesting murderous acts by dolphins,

I never did trust Flipper! Heh.

War and related forms of violence only show up after people begin settling down more and population densities rise, along with competition for resources.

Is that what’s known as the “Wall Street” era?

Even then, not automatically and not to the death. All great apes have a variety of mechanisms to defuse conflicts short of violence, though these are not always successful.

Birth of the Goopers, I believe.

Neocons…! ;-)

I shudder to think of what will happen to the journalists if they do find their way in.

Couldn’t they just selectively let the paparazzi press in?

All great apes have a variety of mechanisms to defuse conflicts short of violence, though these are not always successful.

Curiously we have many of the same mechanisms here: intellectual debate, snark, and, of course, poo flinging.

Especially poo flinging!

Good night to all.

Night, Hugh.

Think it is time for me to retire as well. Night to all who are left.

Aloha, Hugh and Dr. D!

late late nite 2 flights up

“A little midrash [a rabbinical commentary], one of the thousands of the many beautiful midrashim that are built on the sacred Torah.

We’re told God saw a group of angels dancing in heaven.

He asked why they are dancing, why do they celebrate.

They said, ‘Because your children the Israelites have just safely crossed the Sea of Reeds, Dry Shadda.’

God said, ‘Why are you dancing? My children the Egyptians are drowning.’”

Quoted by Nat Hentoff in his book on John Cartdinal O’Connor. A happy new year to all, perhaps an oxymoron in these violent and trying times.