scoobdog

Also, this from Salman Rushdie. I don't particularly think Palestinians will turn to a Taliban style rule if a state is created for them, but his words do have some merit. Creating an independent Palestine will take a lot of work from the US, its European partners, and the middle east powers of SA and the UAE. Terrorist organizations like the Taliban and Hamas thrive on dysfunctional, underfunded, and leadership bereft governments. For all those student activists out there focusing on defunding: it would be a far better idea for student activists to focus effort on encouraging their universities and their financial partners in investing in Palestine rather than divesting in Israeli companies. This isn't to suggest that students should stop protesting Israel or call for a complete cease fire. Hostilities have to stop now, regardless of what happens next. Framing the aftermath in terms of reconstruction allows for more constructive dialog on rebuilding the Levant as a more stable environment.

I get your frustration with Biden. There's nothing outrageous about accusing a sitting politician of a war crime when he's obviously using a war to protect his political interests.

I guess I'm glad someone is documenting this so I know what not to look up.

You're telling me 1 guy 1 jar was actually something?

It’s originally a movie, I think. I thought there was a related website at some point, but it looks like it might have been something else called Rotten, maybe? I wasn’t going to mess around with that shit.

Freud might have something to say about this.

Somewhere, there's lonely butthole.

I'm no help because I am also an old man and I haven't heard of half the things you brought up. Would the whole "Faces of Death" bullshit be part of this?

It’s entirely a zoning issue, which is more about competition between business types and traffic flow (both foot and vehicle). Small municipalities have a lot of leeway in determining what businesses can open in commercial zones, which is code for who’s paying off a local planning commissioner. Lawsuits like this are intended to force cities to be more precise about how they determine business zones.

Also, this is most likely a maintenance issue with a very old Bell helicopter, so there’s no immediate connection to Israel.

President is confirmed dead. https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/raisi-iran-president-helicopter-crash-05-20-24/h_08533f1a31f64de7b00790d3e509ebc1

Rigatoni with bracioli. Homemade.

As much as I understand the anger, I’m equally frustrated at how protesters are more focused on canceling than they are in putting out a concise message. They’re speaking to a divided America, and they’re not reaching the voters who can power change through the election by not presenting a complete vision. Some are piggybacking unrelated causes, others are pushing vague objectives like divestment (which is a worthy goal that does nothing to alleviate the current crisis). No one yet has put together a plan forward.

To be more specific, the strokes circle and undulate like puffs of smoke. Not a haze so much, the invisible ringlets almost literally obscure Charles from the gaze of the viewer or cloud Charles’ view of his world. It’s hard not to look too deeply into this portrait because it’s so discomfiting. You don’t get even a humorous place to view this portrait due to the violence it projects.

I kinda doubt that. There are other indications in the paint strokes that suggest the turmoil just below the surface.

But seriously, it’s important to note that King Charles gave his blessing to this portrait. It may say less about the institution of the monarchy and more about the man himself.

It didn’t turn out so good the first time France abolished the monarchy, they should just keep the king and turn the queen into a memetacular.

They’re eye catching, even though they’re hideous.

I like it. Really captures the vibrancy of the flames of hell.

Can you make it special for me?

Does it make special coffee?

I’m not sure how that’s possible. Exchange servers don’t work on the Office 365 Outlook app.

And. for what it's worth, the United States has a hand in this. We didn't push Israel to be more proactive when we needed to, and now we're living with the results in a time when antisemitism is at an all time high.

I've said it before and I'm going to say it again: Israel lost the chance to wipe out Hamas a long time ago. Here's the best analogy I can come up with - Hamas is like a cancer. In theory, it makes sense to blast a tumor with radiation, toxic chemicals, outright surgery, and anything else destructive to the human body you can think of in the hopes that a nuclear option is the best way to kill the cancer cells quickly and thoroughly so that the body can recover cancer-free. What ended up happening, however, was that cancer cells were no so easy to defeat and that, after all the destructiveness of radiation and chemo, the cells came back. Similarly, and frustratingly, Israel's campaign to destroy everything and anything in the vicinity of a Hamas command post was always done with the intention of taking out as many Hamas leaders in one destructive shot as possible. The sheer stupidity of it is that, of course, Hamas always knew how Israel's playbook because of how often they employ it - and they've had the added benefit of years of isolation within Gaza to develop an infrastructure to move their fighters around quickly and efficiently in the event of a rocket attack. For years, cancer studies have shown how a more nuanced and target response to the disease, including changes to how humans live without the diease, have done more to effectively treat and impprove the recurrence rate than any one medical "tool." The single grain of truth in the notion that Hamas had a "right" to murder innocent Jews is the understanding that oppressive circumstances tend to strip the humanity out of the people being oppressed. Yes, eliminating the walls around Gaza would have allowed Hamas more of a free rein to attack and murder Jews, but you still ended up losing thousands of innocent lives with the wall so it's hard to suggest that wall improved anyone's chances of surviving a Hamas attack. More importantly, the isolation stripped Israel of a vital connection with Palestinians who were not radicalized and had no reason to call for the destruction of Israel. Like a change of diet to body friendly foods, a change in approach to the Palestinians allows them to function as a healthy body and gives Israel a much needed tool to root out extremism from the inside. We are now at a point where Hamas can't be rooted out by any possible means. The cancer has spread into the blood stream of Palestinian society, and no amount of bombing, raiding, or murdering is going to be large enough to eliminate them. Even if you wipe Palestine off the maps, Hamas will still exist in the disenfranchised and displaced people that survive. And, it all came about because Israel worked too hard to distance themselves from the Palestinians and not hard enough to incorporate them.