Plus ça change
It’s curious how we come to expect everything to remain ever unchanging. For example, I expect the landscape around my house to remain as it is, barring natural growth. I always expect my mom’s computer to be here and be reliable. These are not unreasonable expectations, I think.
And, yet, by these things I have been surprised, this past fortnight. The computer spent twelve days in the shop while the very talented nerds ordered and then replaced two crucial parts. This did not help me battle my tendency to become unhinged during the summer heat. And, pouring salt in the wound, several people commented to me, “ You never know how much you depend upon that technology until it fails you.” Believe me, I am always aware. The keyboard is tethered to my very soul.
Then, practically on the second anniversary of the falling of a tree upon my house, another tree fell on my house. I took it to mean that trees do not like the architecture of my porch. Personally, I am as fond of my house as any woman can be, and so, what remains of the tree in my front yard will be removed rather than allow it a third comment on my architecture... or on the neighbor’s house, for that matter. I’m going to have a naked house, soon. Any squirrels who may be living in that maple, consider this an eviction notice.
The landscape is changing, here and beyond.
Outside my comfy nook, the world had watched complacently as Hamas, al Aqsa, and Hizballah crossed borders to kidnap more Israelis. While the United Nations did not so much as tut-tut over more incursions and killings of Israelis by those who call themselves Muslims, Israel finally said “enough!” and hit back. Naturally, they have been taken to task for having defended the lives of their citizens. Apparently, Jews are supposed to sit down, shut up, and wait for some group of savages or another to kill them. That’s the way it’s always been done, isn’t it? It’s how things have worked in living memory.
Few spoke to complain when Kofi Annan scolded Israel for “targeting UN peacekeepers” in a defensive action against Hizballah forces firing their rockets from right next to them to deliberately put them in harm’s way. When innocent civilians had been targeted by Hizballah throughout northern Israel, Kofi had not a word. Neither were there accusations of “targeting peacekeepers” when Hizballah rockets injured three Chinese blue-helmets.
When Iran’s “President” Ahmadinejead called for a cease-fire and stated it would be used to regroup so that they could ultimately remove Israel from the face of the earth, nobody had much to say. Leaders in Indonesia, Malaysia, and la Fwance all spoke out against Israel, to say that if Israel would just stop fighting, lie down and die, there would be no more strife on this globe. Even the New York Magazine has claimed that Israel was a mistake to be corrected.
What seems to me oddest is, while people all over the planet are threatening to kill all the Jews, and, indeed, one such Seattle individual actually made his own start on that project by shooting people in the office of the Jewish Federation, and others lobbed a firebomb at Baltimore’s Hebrew University, those are not continuing front page stuff. The ongoing headline “anti-Semite” is an actor who has openly expressed his shame for having made a stupid remark while grossly inebriated. The news media spent an entire week talking about Mel Gibson’s original drunken lapse of judgment and slip of the tongue. They’ve made a huge issue out of his remarks about “[expletive deleted] Jews” while being arrested for drunk driving (and say so little about his more dangerous stunt of driving while intoxicated). So, while an actor shows public embarrassment and offers an abject apology for having drunkenly spoken a phrase he no doubt heard repeatedly as he was growing up, the New York Magazine -- with no alcohol as an excuse -- has yet to apologize for its remarks, Blacques Jacques Chirac has failed to apologize for his “sober” assessment of Israel’s actions, and not one Muslim country’s leader has apologized for openly plotting the death of millions of Jews. And everybody acts as if that’s acceptable.
The landscape is changing, all right. It’s returning to 1938. It didn’t take an absent computer or a tree falling on my head to show me that.
Links worth reading: (apparently, I'm not the only one who's seeing this disturbing direction) Gateway Pundit, Victor Davis Hanson, Alan Dershowitz
Update: please take a look at these pictures from Berlin posted at Davids Medienkritik
And, yet, by these things I have been surprised, this past fortnight. The computer spent twelve days in the shop while the very talented nerds ordered and then replaced two crucial parts. This did not help me battle my tendency to become unhinged during the summer heat. And, pouring salt in the wound, several people commented to me, “ You never know how much you depend upon that technology until it fails you.” Believe me, I am always aware. The keyboard is tethered to my very soul.
Then, practically on the second anniversary of the falling of a tree upon my house, another tree fell on my house. I took it to mean that trees do not like the architecture of my porch. Personally, I am as fond of my house as any woman can be, and so, what remains of the tree in my front yard will be removed rather than allow it a third comment on my architecture... or on the neighbor’s house, for that matter. I’m going to have a naked house, soon. Any squirrels who may be living in that maple, consider this an eviction notice.
The landscape is changing, here and beyond.
Outside my comfy nook, the world had watched complacently as Hamas, al Aqsa, and Hizballah crossed borders to kidnap more Israelis. While the United Nations did not so much as tut-tut over more incursions and killings of Israelis by those who call themselves Muslims, Israel finally said “enough!” and hit back. Naturally, they have been taken to task for having defended the lives of their citizens. Apparently, Jews are supposed to sit down, shut up, and wait for some group of savages or another to kill them. That’s the way it’s always been done, isn’t it? It’s how things have worked in living memory.
Few spoke to complain when Kofi Annan scolded Israel for “targeting UN peacekeepers” in a defensive action against Hizballah forces firing their rockets from right next to them to deliberately put them in harm’s way. When innocent civilians had been targeted by Hizballah throughout northern Israel, Kofi had not a word. Neither were there accusations of “targeting peacekeepers” when Hizballah rockets injured three Chinese blue-helmets.
When Iran’s “President” Ahmadinejead called for a cease-fire and stated it would be used to regroup so that they could ultimately remove Israel from the face of the earth, nobody had much to say. Leaders in Indonesia, Malaysia, and la Fwance all spoke out against Israel, to say that if Israel would just stop fighting, lie down and die, there would be no more strife on this globe. Even the New York Magazine has claimed that Israel was a mistake to be corrected.
What seems to me oddest is, while people all over the planet are threatening to kill all the Jews, and, indeed, one such Seattle individual actually made his own start on that project by shooting people in the office of the Jewish Federation, and others lobbed a firebomb at Baltimore’s Hebrew University, those are not continuing front page stuff. The ongoing headline “anti-Semite” is an actor who has openly expressed his shame for having made a stupid remark while grossly inebriated. The news media spent an entire week talking about Mel Gibson’s original drunken lapse of judgment and slip of the tongue. They’ve made a huge issue out of his remarks about “[expletive deleted] Jews” while being arrested for drunk driving (and say so little about his more dangerous stunt of driving while intoxicated). So, while an actor shows public embarrassment and offers an abject apology for having drunkenly spoken a phrase he no doubt heard repeatedly as he was growing up, the New York Magazine -- with no alcohol as an excuse -- has yet to apologize for its remarks, Blacques Jacques Chirac has failed to apologize for his “sober” assessment of Israel’s actions, and not one Muslim country’s leader has apologized for openly plotting the death of millions of Jews. And everybody acts as if that’s acceptable.
The landscape is changing, all right. It’s returning to 1938. It didn’t take an absent computer or a tree falling on my head to show me that.
Links worth reading: (apparently, I'm not the only one who's seeing this disturbing direction) Gateway Pundit, Victor Davis Hanson, Alan Dershowitz
Update: please take a look at these pictures from Berlin posted at Davids Medienkritik
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