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

Dear, dear me.

Gone a second time and back with more insight and a bunch of icons.

Where to begin? And can I ever end.

Let me first say, the clothes. My god, the clothes.

Friends, I want to be a dandy.
I want to wear Tweed and braces and waistcoats and a bowler and a cravat! The clothes seemed to be hyped up versions of themselves. Feh, the whole movie was a hyped up version of Sherlock Holmes and was faithful to the books in many ways - though departed in many many others.

( This is a bit long. Just a bit )

Last night was a big mess when it came to be trying to deflect racism, homophobia and sexism.

I dunno what was in the air, but it was irritating.

I had to tell people to stop codifying Islam with "terrorism". I had to tell people that gay people in the States do not want "special rights" when it comes to same-sex marriage. I had to defend this "assimilationist" strategy - when I personally would like to see marriage abolished - because the "LGBT Community" isn't campaigning for separating the 1000+ rights automatically given with marriage and would rather just reproduce straight ideals - this is all coming from straight people by the way.
I had to tell people to stop using racial slurs when describing a black service person - and then went on to "Politically Correct" the language by instead of using racial slurs to say "African" in a very un-ambiguous way while looking at me in irritation.

Thank you for being an asshole.

Someone tried to convince themselves that going to a strip club wasn't contributing to the sex industry in the same way going to a prostitute.
I was shot down time after time when I tried to explain that the only thing you're doing by not going to a prostitute is not paying for sex with a prostitute. Going to a strip club is still contributing to the industry.

Then I'm told that some women chose to work in the sex industry.

I did not mention anything about who chooses to do what! Honestly, sex-work is real work! Just because I'd rather see it sans exploitation and sans human trafficking doesn't mean I am anti-sex work or anti-sex workers!

I think the main issue isn't the fact that women chose to do sex-work (and should be paid accordingly), but the fact that the sex-industry is so bloody duplicitous when it comes to what is legal and what isn't - more accurately, the law regarding the sex-industry is so duplicitous and because there is such a problem of comprehending the difference between legalisation (which often causes just as many problems as it being illegal) and decriminalisation.

Actual sex workers have better and more info on the subject.

All in all, it was an irritating evening in which my family and friends made me feel like a bloody fuddy-duddy, a Politically Correctness-Fiend and an anti pro-sex advocate!
Arrrgh!
But there's no doubt in anyone's mind that I'm pro-porn (which I am, though I'd rather, like other sections of the sex-industry, had a little more respect for its workers and consumers).

*sigh*

Such is the life of the pro-sex, anti-racist, queer feminist student of Literary Theory and Women's studies, I suppose.

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?

Friends, Comrades and Lurkers.

Answer me this.

Who is the Prime Minister of Israel?

Thank you.

The Israeli Socio-Political Satire show Eretz Nehedret - ארץ נהדרת - lit. Wonderful Country is probably one of the sharpest, most biting, satires on television today.
They are definitely up there (at least in my book) with "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report".

On this week's show they had a sketch of hip-hop Hasbarah (Hebrew for "explanation" and what is colloquially known as Israeli for describing the efforts of explaining Israeli government policies, and to promote Israel to the world at large)

The video is brilliant - but unfortunately cannot be embedded at this time, so I've put the direct link here and translated the lyrics which are a mixture of Hebrew and English (everything emphasised is me translating the Hebrew/Hebrish terms)
Link to Video: It's Time for a War Anthem.
( Lyrics under the cut )

Hilarious!
So biting and true!
Though, I acknowledge... it may only be funny for the Israelis and other Hebrew speakers here.

Is it funny, or sad that there's an Ayn Rand Club for Philosophy Students at my Uni and they're spamming the entire Humanities student body's email.
The first meeting is next Wedesnday.

Do I go and mock?
Or do I avoid the proto-fascist crazies?

Help me out dear friends.

I'm just... who would have thought? Randians on campus, and they could be anyone. Cooo! Maybe I should go and scope in order to know who to avoid for the rest of my academic career.
When I was a teenager I was a Randian, read all her books, felt that I was Smarter and More Capable than Thou... loved "The Selfish Ideal".
Then I finished adolescence.
Like may things Randinism is a phase.
How can people, students of high theory, philosophy and such actually consider this woman to be anything other than a stylish author!?
Digressing over.

So? Should I stay or should I go? *duh-na-na-na-naa*

Eight hours and I'm out.

Yes, that job I got last week, the Boss fired me.

After eight hours experience and I've been made redundant.

I'm not really too concerned, this wasn't my bread and butter after all, but seriously, this a wee bit strange.
I'm obviously not up to the standard of a minimum wage, shop-grrl material (which I totally am, by the way).

Maybe my happy-go-lucky disposition offended him...

I really can't say.

I still love that shop and will continue patronizing it, but Dude... I can only imagine that's a permanent "Wanted" sign in the door.

As far as I'm concerned he's missing out on a worker who truly loves the sort of thing that go on in that store; schlepping, dust and everything.

Good luck to him finding someone else who suits that store as well as I did.

But still... *scratches head*

Well... heh... just watch the video (as if you haven't already seen it elsewhere and five hundred times before).



Sometimes it's just hard to believe that The Daily Show isn't regarded as a real News magazine when the entire Fox News channel doesn't even need to be parodied.

Messrs Stewart and Colbert just need to sit back and let those Right-Wing pundits talk and dig and dig and dig...

I come from a family of such weirdos.

A paranoid argument about Chinses economic domination, as though it would have any effect on our culture other than consumption.

The words "Occidental" and "Domination" came up a few times.

Double standard much.

To me it's just proof at the invidiousness of Capitalism and White-Supremacy.

And to think that just a few decades ago this same Occidental culture tried to exterminate us.

How fickle we are.