(no subject)
There have been an increasing number of important events that I feel like I should write about (or at least mention).
A couple of weeks ago there was a cyclone in Burma. Tens of thousands of people died and tens of thousands more are missing, and there are allegations that the military regime is hoarding all the international aid to help maintain their own power/control/leverage. http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-myanmar-cyclone.html
Last week, HizbAllah instigated violence in Lebanon in protest against the government's attempt to minimize HizbAllah's status as a "state within a state". Dozens were killed, and today the government gave in. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/15/world/middleeast/15lebanon.html?ref=world
Earlier this week, there was an earthquake in China and tens of thousands are dead. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/16/world/asia/16china.html?hp
Regarding the first three, I'm increasingly disturbed by the extent to which the Israeli papers (or their online editions, anyway) only seem to write about world events when Israelis or Jews are affected...With both the cyclone and the earthquake, there was very little coverage until a couple of Israelis turned up alive and relatively ok. With Lebanon, the coverage I read was framed as, "Hey, if HizbAllah wins, we can attack HizbAllah without having to worry about weakening the non-violently-anti-Israel government!" I think the t.v. news is better about reporting events in which people lose their lives in a less Israeli-centric way, but I don't watch regularly enough to be sure.
Yesterday there was a(nother) rocket attack on Ashkelon. A rocket was launched (by PFLP, it seems, as they're the only ones who have claimed responsibility so far) at a shopping mall, mostly damaging a clinic there. Ninety people were injured, of whom four were seriously injured. No alarm sirens went off to warn people to seek shelter; apparently there had been a number of false alarms shortly beforehand and the military decided to temporarily deactivate the system. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/983479.html
Today, California's Supreme Court threw out a law banning same-sex marriage, paving the way for it to become the second state in the U.S. that has same-sex marriage. http://www.washingtonpost.com
On a related note, Ellen and Portia are getting married (aww!). http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20200745,00.html
In the meantime:
Crazy world.
Eran: how are you?
me: pretty good
took a nap :)
8:07 PM Eran: whats that like?
me: hard to describe, you just have to try it for yourself
just like religion
8:08 PM I think napping should be my new religion...
Eran: is napping the prayer?
or the religion
me: napping is the spiritual experience
that you can't describe afterwards
8:09 PM Eran: interesting
where does one experience this spiritual awakening?
me: it's not the awakening that's like a spiritual experience
but the sleeping itself
8:11 PM Eran: interesting
is there a church?
8:12 PM me: no, it's more like meditation as a spiritual experience
best done alone
in silence
8:13 PM Eran: fascinating
tell me more
how many gods are there?
me: it's more a spiritual philosphy like budhism
so none
8:14 PM you can belive in gods in addition to being a sleep-ist
or not
as you see fit
8:17 PM Eran: what about communism?
is that included?
8:18 PM me: mm...I think the communists might have issues with sleepism
8:19 PM Eran: silly communist s
1:00 AM me: go to bed!
Eran: never!!!
1:01 AM i will never succumb do your pagan religion
me: hah!
good answer
1:02 AM So if pork is like the anti-Judaism, is coffee the anti-sleepist?
Eran: probably
pork and sleep apnea
i mean coffee and sleep apnea
1:03 AM me: dunno, most pork is put into really boring bills
that's probably more pro-sleepistUnrelated chatting...
1:10 AM Eran: it feels so late..
me: it is so late
1:11 AM succumb to the pagan religion
take the kosher version of our communion - a slice of turkey and some warm soy milk
Eran: how will i explain my sins the generations to come?
ha
me: just pull a rip van winkle and you won't have to explain a thing
A couple of weeks ago there was a cyclone in Burma. Tens of thousands of people died and tens of thousands more are missing, and there are allegations that the military regime is hoarding all the international aid to help maintain their own power/control/leverage. http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-myanmar-cyclone.html
Last week, HizbAllah instigated violence in Lebanon in protest against the government's attempt to minimize HizbAllah's status as a "state within a state". Dozens were killed, and today the government gave in. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/15/world/middleeast/15lebanon.html?ref=world
Earlier this week, there was an earthquake in China and tens of thousands are dead. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/16/world/asia/16china.html?hp
Regarding the first three, I'm increasingly disturbed by the extent to which the Israeli papers (or their online editions, anyway) only seem to write about world events when Israelis or Jews are affected...With both the cyclone and the earthquake, there was very little coverage until a couple of Israelis turned up alive and relatively ok. With Lebanon, the coverage I read was framed as, "Hey, if HizbAllah wins, we can attack HizbAllah without having to worry about weakening the non-violently-anti-Israel government!" I think the t.v. news is better about reporting events in which people lose their lives in a less Israeli-centric way, but I don't watch regularly enough to be sure.
Yesterday there was a(nother) rocket attack on Ashkelon. A rocket was launched (by PFLP, it seems, as they're the only ones who have claimed responsibility so far) at a shopping mall, mostly damaging a clinic there. Ninety people were injured, of whom four were seriously injured. No alarm sirens went off to warn people to seek shelter; apparently there had been a number of false alarms shortly beforehand and the military decided to temporarily deactivate the system. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/983479.html
Today, California's Supreme Court threw out a law banning same-sex marriage, paving the way for it to become the second state in the U.S. that has same-sex marriage. http://www.washingtonpost.com
On a related note, Ellen and Portia are getting married (aww!). http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20200745,00.html
In the meantime:
- the democratic primary in the U.S. has been getting uglier and uglier with both misogynistic and racist comments becoming more frequent,
- George II is in Jerusalem, much to the chagrin of pretty much everyone in the region except for Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister who's facing serious corruption charges, and
- Israel's junior university lecturers are poised to go on strike http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1209627026250
Crazy world.
Eran: how are you?
me: pretty good
took a nap :)
8:07 PM Eran: whats that like?
me: hard to describe, you just have to try it for yourself
just like religion
8:08 PM I think napping should be my new religion...
Eran: is napping the prayer?
or the religion
me: napping is the spiritual experience
that you can't describe afterwards
8:09 PM Eran: interesting
where does one experience this spiritual awakening?
me: it's not the awakening that's like a spiritual experience
but the sleeping itself
8:11 PM Eran: interesting
is there a church?
8:12 PM me: no, it's more like meditation as a spiritual experience
best done alone
in silence
8:13 PM Eran: fascinating
tell me more
how many gods are there?
me: it's more a spiritual philosphy like budhism
so none
8:14 PM you can belive in gods in addition to being a sleep-ist
or not
as you see fit
8:17 PM Eran: what about communism?
is that included?
8:18 PM me: mm...I think the communists might have issues with sleepism
8:19 PM Eran: silly communist s
1:00 AM me: go to bed!
Eran: never!!!
1:01 AM i will never succumb do your pagan religion
me: hah!
good answer
1:02 AM So if pork is like the anti-Judaism, is coffee the anti-sleepist?
Eran: probably
pork and sleep apnea
i mean coffee and sleep apnea
1:03 AM me: dunno, most pork is put into really boring bills
that's probably more pro-sleepistUnrelated chatting...
1:10 AM Eran: it feels so late..
me: it is so late
1:11 AM succumb to the pagan religion
take the kosher version of our communion - a slice of turkey and some warm soy milk
Eran: how will i explain my sins the generations to come?
ha
me: just pull a rip van winkle and you won't have to explain a thing