Not Anonymous

The day started last night, in which a furnace decided to be set on high upon the entire land. I suspect the entire Northern Hemisphere.

Due to the heat, I basically lay in my bed sweating like a sweating thing. I normally sleep in the buff with a fan over head and for fuck's sake it just did not help. I opened the windows and the air was still.

Sunrise was pretty though.

That was the high light of my day.

I had a cool shower and started getting ready to go to Uni, I had a paper to hand in and exams to take and what not. I thought I'd take an earlier than I normally would train to get to Uni, seeing as all my things to do on campus were an half past twelve, I left quite late regardless.

Now, I live literally two minutes away from the train station. It is a mode of public transport that has frustrated me in the past, but the convenience and comfort very much trumps the occasional extreme lateness of the train.

So there I was yawning away, being entertained by a bunch of kids playing a game of public Truth or Dare¹ and I was just finishing a discussion about sustainability with a fellow train passenger when the University station came into view.

I and a dozen other people walked towards the closest door and waited for the train to stop. It did. We pressed the "Open" button. It didn't work. By the time we all reached a different door the train wasn't letting people on and off.

I was very frustrated.

I got off at the next station, which happens to the Central Tel-Aviv Train station, the hub of the entire train infrastructure of the country. I checked the boards and the next train going back to my station was ten minutes away, so I stood on the platform and waited.
Waited the allotted amount of time + five minutes. Another five minutes and I stomped away from the platform towards the exit, I checked the boards on the way and saw that all the trains were in the twenty/quarter to the hour schedules.

This is me being frustrated that the station didn't even bother to announce that a train was cancelled.

As I stuck my ticket into the gate for the exist, I heard the PA announce a train heading north (the platform I was on not a minute ago) was arriving into the station.

I wanted to kill myself.

So, feeling quite miserable (and hot and sticky) I walked to the taxi bay (the campus is only a five-ten minute drive away) and went to the first cab in the queue.

The Driver was severely hearing impaired, with a very old fashioned hearing aid. Giving him directions was a shouting match between us.

I got to the Uni 45 minutes later than I intended and basically ran around the buildings, printing papers and finding people, it was fucking hot people! A freakin' furnace!

Fast forward a couple hours later and I'm far more calm, attempting to find the humour in my morning, because really, it's real life slapstick, Murphy smiling kindly down on me for a bit.

Little did I know.

It being hot like the hell down below, I decided to take the shuttle back to the train station, I had 12 minutes to spare, so I was speaking to a friend on the phone. I walked into the station, got my ticket and as I passed through the gates I heard the announcement for my train. I sped my pace and when I got to the platform the train was there! It was there! I pressed the "open" button and it wouldn't open! The fucking conductor could see me!

It drove away.

I literally screamed.

It was most opportune that my BFF phoned me as I watched the train drive away and I jumped up and down like a cartoon in rage. She asked what was up and I told her. She laughed as many a BFF would do seeing as I had spoken to her earlier that day and she knew about my predicaments from the morning.

Thus, I was twenty minutes behind schedule, and arrived in my town just in time to walk 15 minutes in the afternoon heat to work, rather than walk in a leisurely pace.

I am fortunate that I work for my dad who, though he mocked me, let me have lunch on the clock and let me leave early.

Damn it's been a long day.

Footnotes
1) I was momentarily irritated by the fact that when one of the kids, it was a group of three pre-pubescent girls and an older teenage guy, presumably a big brother or cousin, dared two girls to kiss each other and they shriked, "we're not Lesbians".
*sigh*
A change is gonna come, you say?
Back to text

I'm having second thoughts about admiring Amanda Palmer these days.

Ironic. You keep using that word, I don't think it means what you think it means.

You know, I like Lady Gaga and AFP for many of the same reasons.
Both have a lot to say about a woman's condition in the spotlight.
Both are open about their bisexuality, which for this queer, is awesome.
Bot perform in over the top costumes, make-up and live!

Their styles are different, Gaga is unashamedly pop-and-plastique, AFP is wonderfully indie-and-dark.

Gaga is all about glitz and glitter.

AFP is all about powder and pastiche.

Gaga has done crip-drag and AFP has done crip-drag.

I've yet to hear Gaga utter a disparaging word againt a fellow artist and performer like AFP has done.

I'm really disappointed in AFP.

I don't know what I'm going to do now.

This is one of the best things I've read and seen in a while.
I generally don't trust the Daily Telegraph but the added footage is just too good.

Cross-dressing cage fighters turn tables on yobs
[...]
CCTV footage shows the pair approach one of the men – dressed in a pink wig, miniskirt and boob tube – before Gardener throws a punch at him.

But the fight is over in a matter of seconds as the other cage fighter, sporting a wig and a sparkling black dress, floors both the assailants with two lightning-quick punches.

One of the cross-dressers then casually picks up his bag before the pair strut off, leaving [the attackers] Gardener and Fender lying on the pavement.

The way they describe the incident along with the footage is just too hilarious.
Not the incident itself, because fuck those two idiots wanted to attack people because they didn't conform to arbitrary gender ideals... and then they kicked ass!
Just, fuck yeah man.
That sort of thing, I like knowing about it, that these homophobic and transphobic sacks of shit don't get to do what they feel they're entitled to do based on the fact that they have a penis and wear trousers.

Of course the Telegraph has to make sure that the cross-dressers do in fact gender conform:

The attackers are arrested by police as they stagger down the road. Officers later learned the cross-dressers were actually cage fighters on a fancy dress stag night out.

Add to that, that the two idiots who tried to assault them were stinking drunk and are thus excused for the behaviour and they were sentenced with curfew, electronic tagging and community service for four moths.

I'm wondering what would have happened if the would-be victims were trans and/or genderqueer people and not two men out for a lark (according to the article... it very well could be that the two cross-dresseres told the police that in order to make themselves appear "gender conforming" on a regular basis in order to avoid being interrogated themselves).

However, like was said at the Magistrate's court:

"You know it cannot have been a good night when you get into a fight with two cross-dressing men".

It really, really can't.

h/t mao4269

Wow, do I have some stuff to share.

Okay so I don't want to make this a huge links post and rant but damn! The weekend was just non-stop with the amount of WTF's that seemed to bleed into the News and I can't not share it with you dear readers.

I hope those of you who are more than just interested in the Occupation and Israeli policy in Palestine did not miss Professor Neve Gordon's Op-Ed in the LA Times: Boycott Israel: An Israeli comes to the painful conclusion that it's the only way to save his country, which came online on Thursday the 20th of August.

It's a whopper and a very important read.

However, it wouldn't be a News day if someone didn't condemn those filthy dirty anti-Zionist Jews with self-hate.
Have you ever notice that only other Zionists accuse us of hating ourselves. What's up with that?

On Friday, the Los Angeles Jewish Community began to mull over boycotting Ben-Gurion University is Israel, which is the Uni in which Prof. Gordon teaches Poli-Sci. Funny Diaspora reaction aside the really special moment and quote comes from the LA Israeli Consulate Mr. Yaakov (Yaki) Dayan:

"I believe that the definitive answer to anti-Zionist lecturers like Gordon is to set up a center for Zionist studies, which unfortunately does not exist in Israeli academia," [Dayan] continued. "This center would help dispel the lies disseminated by Gordon in the name of your university."

Oh my God, my eyes could not have rolled farther into my skull without giving me brain damage.
I just... *sigh*.
As I said, a very special moment.

That's not all. Oh no, not even close. There is more Israeli craziness in store.

Who hasn't heard of the controversial Swedish newspaper article accusing the IDF of murdering Palestinians in order to harvest their organs.
I gotta say, it smacks of hyperbole, but that's not my point.
As controversial as the article may be, I think the Israeli Government's reaction was just beyond out of proportion.
And defensive of course.
PM Netanyahu is set to request, nay, demand that the Swedish government condemn the article.

After the article was published, it would appear Israel did not appreciate the Swedish government's reaction... which was to be quiet about it.

On Friday, the Israeli Ambassador to Sweden Benny Dagan met with Deputy Foreign Minister of the Scandinavian country and urged his government to issue a denunciation of the article. Deputy Foreign Minister Frank Belfrage emphasized his country's freedom of speech and how it limits the ability of the government to respond to articles in the media.
[...]
A Netanyahu aide said that "Israel does not wish to infringe upon the freedom of the press in Sweden. However, as much as the Swedish press is entitled to freedom, the Swedish government should enjoy the freedom of denouncing such reports."

The desk is well acquainted with my head, because really, of a government is nosing into the media, it's no longer a free press.

The Swedish Jewish Community's reaction to this is pretty interesting; one of the head's of the community, Lena Posner, says that until Israel got involved, it was a non-issue:

Posner told Ynet, "The article was published here on Monday, but no one paid any attention to it. It wasn't a news report and was buried in the back pages of a tabloid. The writer is known to many of us as anti-Israel, and so it the entire paper. This is why no one took it seriously – until Israel got involved."

Read this one, it's pretty good and manages to show Lieberman as the paranoid maniac that he is because beyond accusing Sweden of Antisemitism and saying that this silence over the matter is equivalent to their silence during the Holocaust (Godwin! Hello!) - he's gone on to accuse Norway of promoting Antisemitism, here's why:

"I remember that in the Durban-II conference," Lieberman said, referring to last April's UN anti-racism summit which was criticized as allegedly biased against Israel. "The Norwegian representatives were among the few who didn't walk out, and today I realize it's not a coincidence. How low can you go?"

How low indeed.

So... anybody got any good jokes?

And then spit.

Yeah yeah. I know, I've been away.
No inspiration to write will do that to you.

However, just a couple of days ago I came across an article (h/t lishablog) which I found incredibly disturbing (and funny!), as I feel it encapsulates the mainstream view of Israel much more than any other article I've read recently.
Mainstream in that it takes at face value the entire Israeli Zionist discourse.

Here it is, with a few added comments from your truly, who just couldn't help but think that this article deserved to be sliced, diced and criticised in that my oh so delicate and witty style.

Israel still looks good, warts and all
The alliance between the Western Left and Islamic anger is perplexing, writes Greg Sheridan

[...]
That Israel of the Western mind (and indeed of the Arab mind) is a hateful place: right-wing, militaristic, authoritarian, racist, ultra-religious, neo-colonial, narrow-minded, undemocratic, indifferent to world opinion, indifferent especially to Palestinian suffering.

It's really surprising how accurate these "distortions" are of Israel's image, isn't it?!

Yet the Israel I know is mostly secular, raucously, almost wildly democratic, has a vibrant left wing, having founded in the kibbutz movement one of the only successful experiments in socialism in human history.

Did this man step outside North-Central Tel-Aviv? Ever? In his visits, did he actually do things other than visit the regular tourist places, and maybe perhaps go to the Jaffa (Yaffo/Yaffa) that wasn't the port? Or Jerusalem that wasn't the Wailing Wall or the Souk?!
Also, The Kibbutz movement didn't actually work because it operated in a nominally Capitalist economy. The fact that people lived communally doesn't make it a successful socialist movement.

It is intellectually disputatious; any two Israelis will have three opinions and be happy to argue them to a lamp post. It is multi-ethnic,

The Black Panthers (the "Mizrahi Power" movement who were extremely active from the mid-60's all the way the First Intifada) were according to Golda Meir, "Not very nice" (paraphrased)
Arabs, of course, are another "race" altogether.

there is a great stress on human solidarity, there is due process. And I've never heard an Israeli speak casually about the value of Palestinian life.

I snorted so hard, I scared my cat.
The graffiti "Death to Arabs" in Hebrew can be found in many places.

I've heard Israelis voice a desire to neutralise Hezbollah or remove Hamas from leadership in Gaza,

By any means nessecary.
Including bombing innocent men, women and children.
July-August 2006.
December-January 2008-2009.
Just in case someone's forgotten.
( Cut for Length )
I hope you enjoyed that little ride.
It was certainly a fun article of FAIL to make fun of.
And help y'all to read.

Hope everyone is having/had/will have a good New Year's Eve.

The end comes not with a whimper but a bang and the beginning is not so much an event but a continuum.

Yeah.

I'm just spiffing.

And another little something to cheer the spirits:
Israel rejects Gaza truce calls and Israel rebuffs Gaza ceasefire calls.
(same thing, different sources, BBC and Al-Jazeera respectively)

I just love that you know.

We want peace.
So very, very much.
We're willing to do whatever it takes!
Except talk to "the enemy".

Great going.

Goodbye 2008.
Hello 2009.
See you on the flip side.

A few weeks ago the Israeli Police department came out with a new demonstration dispersion method called the Boash - the Skunk - it is a stink spray.
It gets in your clothes, your skin, eyes and stick to everything you come in contact with, meaning it will stink up a bus, a car and your own house.

As one of the demonstrators in Na'alin said in the Ha'aretz article about the Boash:

"A terrible stench - the smell of a rotting, dead animal," says left-wing activist Dr. David Nir in disgust.
[...]
"A week after the demonstration in Na'alin, a white truck arrived at a demonstration in Bil'in," Nir continues. "It began approaching and we tried to keep our distance." The truck stopped near the fence, "and then we heard the motor working harder in order to create condensed air for operating the Skunk cannon. And then it came: Strong bursts of a foul-smelling spray were showered on us, directly hitting those who didn't move away, at up to a 30- to 50-meter radius. Because the wind was with the cannon, most of us were enveloped in vapors of stench that penetrated our lungs. On the way to Tel Aviv we drove with open windows, but we were unable to get rid of the smell even when we sprayed ourselves with deodorant. There are no words to describe it; it's the worst odor imaginable. It's an experience equal to jumping headfirst into a sewer. The Palestinians simply call it 'shit.'"

One would think that this is better than tear gas grenades (it is for sure better than rubber bullets which are lethal), but the smell stays.
And stays.
Beyond the fact that this is a humiliating method of dispersing legitimate demonstrations, it's not as though they're going to be using this exclusively now that it's developed. The Border Police and the IDF are going to continue using the bullets and the tear gas and the various other ways in which these non-violent demo's are radicalized in order to squash them.

What really grinds me though, is this:

Ben Harosh [the Skunk's main developer] claims that using the Skunk in Bil'in and Na'alin was as an alternative to rubber bullets. "What I saw is what I wanted to see," he notes. "The Skunk worked and the soldiers stood behind it, they didn't fire a single rubber bullet during the entire demonstration. After the first use, most of the demonstrators left the area and streamed into the village. They fled in panic. And that's the success, the deterrence. In the final analysis, with all their ideology, they don't want to stink."

Emphasis mine.

This statement really shows me the arrogance and the lack of understanding coming from the Border Police and the IDF and by proxy the whole attitude coming from the government and mainstream analysts. It's not about the bloody Israeli demonstrators! It's about the fact that that fucking fence-to-be-a-wall is appropriating land way, waaaaay beyond the lines put down by International Law and the fact that a fence/wall inhibits the movement of the people living in that place, that is the Palestinians.
The ideology of us bleeding heart Israelis in neither here nor there.
The Palestinians have the basic, human right to protest and object to the fact that an Army is marking no-go areas that belong to the villagers of Bil'in and Na'alin.

As I mentioned, the fact that they didn't have to use bullets in one demo doesn't mean they won't in a next, especially once avoidance tactics are developed to oppose the Skunk.

How humiliating it is for the people living in those villages, who are treated like livestock, sprayed like misbehaving pets to be kept away from an area that actually belongs to them:

Ahad Huja, 52, a father of three and an activist in the Al Mubadara-Palestinian National Initiative, a political movement that favors democratization of the Palestinian Authority, decided in desperation to wash himself with chlorine. The Skunk had hit him in his village of Na'alin.

"When I approached one of the policemen to tell him that we are adults who intended to hold a quiet, peaceful demonstration, he began to spray me with the substance," Huja recounts. "I have never in my life smelled such a terrible smell. It was very humiliating, I was unable to get rid of the smell. I immediately went home, took off my clothes and showered. But that didn't help at all. The entire house was filled with the smell. My wife was cooking at the time and the stench got into the food, stuck to the walls. The children didn't want to eat. After several showers I had no choice, so I tried to clean my body with chlorine. But that didn't work either. Then I tried to shower again with hot water. Nothing. The smell stayed on me. For a week when I went outside everyone smelled my stench from a distance."

This is a dirty tactic.
In every meaning of the word.
I'm not looking forward to it when I get back out into the field, but then again, what do I have to complain about, right?

Tear gas may hurt like hell and also smells, but at least it comes out after a wash and showering once also makes sure that the smell doesn't stay with you.
And as I said, I don't see panicky 18 year olds with guns refraining from using them on the civilian population they've been trained to view as monsters and the Lefties they've come to consider traitors.

All you other Demo goers, look out for this think over the coming months, no way this thing isn't going to be marketed elsewhere.

( Full Text of the Article )

What an interesting story.

On the gut level I thought; fuck that's a brave thing to do.
On the more cognitive level I thought; damn that's clever.
On the student-who-analyzes-everything-she-reads level I thought; well, that's one of the most rebellious, subjective things she could do in that situation.
On the absurd/political level I thought; those men harass her to the extent to which she must bare all, literally and she's reprimanded!?

Just goes to show that sexual harassment is the most normalized crime, there really is nothing wrong with wolf-whistling to a total stranger in the street.
She retaliates to a perceived threat and gets the punishment.

A few prize quotes from the article, just to show a little bit more of the absurd/political side of this:

"She gave the explanation that she had been ... pestered by New Zealand men. She's not an unattractive-looking lady," [Sgt. Peter Masters] said."

Police treated the incident as a one-off.

"She was taken back to the police station and spoken to and told that was
inappropriate (behavior) in New Zealand," [Sgt. Peter Masters] added."

And since this is Ha'aretz, the woman in question is an Israeli tourist.
Take from that what you will.

( Feeling linkphobic? Just Follow the cut )