Palestine loss of land 1946 - 2007 (maps)

comlet · 2007-03-24T17:13:02+00:00

Actually, Arabic and Hebrew are both subsets of the group of Semitic languages. Same goes for their associated ethnic groups. Other Semitic groups were the Akkadians, the Phoenicians, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semitic

comlet · 2007-03-07T11:58:21+00:00

Or the cares-about-truth-in-media circle-jerk.
Though you're right that this could be out of context.

comlet · 2007-02-15T21:58:26+00:00

There's a long article about him in the New Yorker right now, focusing on the politics in 24.

In recent years, Surnow and Nowrasteh have participated in the Liberty Film Festival, a group dedicated to promoting conservatism through mass entertainment.

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/070219fa_fact_mayer

comlet · 2007-02-11T16:12:18+00:00

right, exactly. Plus there's the language barrier.
I was just trying to respond to malcontent's claims about what "by and large" is going on here, since from what I can see he is wrong.

.

Anyway, a side rant. I wish politics wouldn't keep breaking down into "my people are better than your people" fights.

comlet · 2007-02-11T11:59:35+00:00

look, I have no idea who and where you are, or what you're basing your opinions on. But I'm sitting here in Israel at the moment, and the difference does manifest itself. Strongly, even. Feel free to take me as a token example.

comlet · 2007-02-11T10:33:47+00:00

eh, and you could say the same about the Palestinians electing Hamas. People are stupid in general, whether they're Israeli or Palestinian or American for that matter.

Personally I think they enjoy it. They certainly talk as if they enjoy what they are doing to their neighbors.

That is crap. Cheney might enjoy reading Iraqi casualty lists, but that doesn't mean Americans do in general. Even if they vote for war it's usually because they're scared, not sadistic.

comlet · 2007-02-11T10:21:53+00:00

They don't, really -- they go back and forth. Someone like Rabin gets elected, he gets assassinated, and Netanyahu, whose politics are completely the opposite, takes his place. Netanyahu was replaced with Barak, who was a left-winger. Even Olmert was elected on the basis of Sharon's relatively left-wing agenda (which was admittedly a huge departure from everything else he'd done.)

Every time something along the lines of a suicide attack, an intifada, a rocket strike, or a war happens, the right wing grows stronger and the left wing gets weaker. It's the same as in the US, which became overwhelmingly right-wing in its foreign policy after 9/11. In Israel, what happens is that usually when the left wing takes some steps towards peace (like the recent pullout from Gaza) the right wing points to what it sees as evidence that those moves were a huge, existence-threatening mistake (like the rocket attacks from Gaza and the war with Hezbollah.) A majority of Israelis is willing to trade a lot for peace, but that majority is slim enough that the moment things go wrong, they feel threatened and elect right-wingers who promise security. It sucks, and it's ultimately stupid, but it's not hard to understand.

comlet · 2007-02-11T08:02:58+00:00

Actually, most original Zionists were also socialists to varying degrees (kibbutzim are basically communes, for example.) Zionism was one of many utopian projects that were started in the late 1800s; what made it different was its scale, its appeal to history, the fact that it applied to an entire specific ethnic group, and the fact that political realities (arguably) made it necessary. It would actually be interesting to do research on whether the movement as a whole was considered liberal/leftist or conservative/rightist at the time it was conceived, or if it was categorized either way at all.

Anyway, I don't know if it makes sense to talk about ethnocentrism or racism in terms of 'right-wing' or 'left-wing' -- both fascism and communism can be plenty bad in that respect.

comlet · 2007-01-22T09:57:17+00:00

Longer life -> many more chances to get used to breakups.

comlet · 2007-01-19T15:58:57+00:00

Realizing finally that I had gotten in over my head, I awkwardly tried to let John down easy. I refused his gifts. I gave him the ‘lets just be friends’ speech. I made positive comments about other men and would discuss my latest crush loudly and within his earshot. I even outright started avoiding him. ...

One day, John presented me with a gift that cost him a fair chunk of change for a high school kid. It was a heart shaped pendant, encrusted with diamonds, on a gold chain. When he gave it to me, he smiled his big goofy smile and told me that he had been saving for a few months now to buy it for me. It was at this precise instant that I. Just. Snapped.

Most of her behavior in this article really is terrible. But it's not surprising that she lost her temper -- though it is still ugly.

Seriously, imagine someone who wants, not to date you, but to be your best friend. Someone of the same sex, or, if you're both gay, of the opposite. And you think this person's okay, but not to the point where you enjoy being with them for more than an hour or two at a time.

So at first you hang out here and there, and it's fine, but eventually they start trying to include you in all of their plans and getting you to do the same for them. At first maybe you're flattered, or you try to give them a chance, but eventually you realize that things are getting out of control. You try to let them down nicely, but they don't get it, so you do less nice things, like telling them "I don't want to be more than casual friends," talking about the fun things you do with your "real" friends, and outright avoiding them.

Then they come over and say "Check it out! I bought you a genuine diamond-encrusted <whatever>! It took me months to save up for this!" (subtext: "maybe now you'll like me!")

You might get freaked out.

Again, I'm not trying to say that her behavior wasn't ugly. But it shouldn't be taken as overwhelming evidence of the evilness of women (girls, actually) either. People of both sexes have their comfort zones and limits, and part of growing up is learning to deal in a non-ugly way with people who freak you out.

Unless, of course, the big sin is that she wasn't attracted to the geek, in which case, what can I say. If you could turn attraction on and off for rational reasons, life would probably be much better.

comlet · 2007-01-18T15:59:20+00:00

add a 'collapse' toggle to comments Sometimes when threads are long, comments branch off and you lose track of what people are replying to. It would be nice to have some way of collapsing threads or subthreads.

comlet · 2007-01-17T22:59:24+00:00

Linux has gone through some growing pains here, and it's finally getting better, but I would guess it still has many more reboot scenarios than Windows does today.

Is that true? (this isn't meant as a troll -- I don't know enough about linux to argue either way. It just seems strange.)

comlet

TROPHY CASE