Various and sundry links
There's been so much in the Israeli press about the huge numbers of rockets militants are firing from Gaza into Israel, if/when/how Israel should (re-)invade Gaza, and polls and speculation related to the upcoming Israeli elections that I feel I ought to at least mention the subjects. Having done so, I don't really have anything novel to say about them, so now it's on to other links.
While I usually try to attribute frustrating behavior to incompetence rather than malice and to avoid judgement based on stereotypes (i.e. Germans are competent to a fault), when a German cultural exchange program sends a musician who advocates attacks on civilians on a musical tour of the West Bank I can't help but be suspicious that it wasn't due to the incompetence they claim.
The daughter of Noam Federman (leader in one of the few Israeli political parties so racist as to be barred from the Knesset) will refuse to serve in the IDF on "moral" grounds, i.e. its failure to allow settlers to do what they want at all times evicting her family and occasionally other settlers from the houses in which they're living illegally and IMHO immorally (article is in Hebrew).
[Israeli] Arab party saves 1/3 of its spots in the Knesset for women.
Obama invited Rick Warren, a pastor whose church said that queer folks who don't “repent of their sins” won't be allowed as members, to give the invocation at his inauguration. I agree with Rachel Maddow's criticism of the choice, though it does seem that Obama could have done (even) worse than Warren. Warren is bad enough that the choice is still a slap in the face, but given that Obama opposed the Federal Marriage Amendment that Bush advocated and is on record saying he wants to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and “Don't Ask Don't Tell”, both of which B. Clinton signed, he's still shaping up to do a heck of a lot better than any president to date. He also supports expanded hate crimes legislation, which given stories like this one about a lesbian being gang raped after a group of men noticed the rainbow sticker on her car, is pretty damned important. That being said, I shared my unhappiness with his choice of Warren though his transition-period website and encourage you to do the same.
Whatever I may think of Warren's preferred social policies, I have to applaud much of his philanthropy. This opinion piece claims that overall self-identified conservatives tend to give more money to charity than self-identified liberals which at the very least provides some food for thought. Of course, I have a couple of friends who are very xtian but socially liberal who do self-imposed tithing, and I don't know quite how they'd fit in with that dichotomy. To the extent that spending money to help the environment is philanthropy/giving money for the sake of the greater good (though granted over time the investment pays for itself, people with the resources to invest often choose to instead use them more selfishly), another relevant case is the recent decision by the chief rabbinate to have the mikvaot (ritual baths; traditionally married women go each month after their period and can't have sex 'til they do so) recycle water and use greener heating technologies.
Lastly, I'm proud to say that D.C. came in third on a ranking of the most literate cities in the U.S. (and D.C. weather is a heck of a lot better than Minneapolis', which was tied with Seattle for the top place).