english blog

Earlier in the week, I put up a post about the Budweiser Super Bowl ad called " Puppy Love ".  In that post I noted that : I have several problems with this ad.   The first is the "puppy adoptions" sign. That's an expensive and permanent sign, and those dogs are NOT being "adopted" -- they are pure bred dogs being SOLD. Nothing wrong with that, but do not piss on my leg and tell me it's raining. When you are selling pure breed retrievers... you are not in the ADOPTION business, but in the cash-and-carry business. The word "adoption" here is cynical marketing malarkey designed to "dog wash" this ad from the stigma that is now attached to breeding pedigree dogs. Shortly after posting , someone sent me a link to a rescue in Illinois that was promoting the fact that two of their rescue dogs were being used in the Budweiser commercial.   So was I wrong that these Budweiser dogs came from a high-end pedigree dog breeder? Hmmmm...

Toothless. The "Call of the Wildman" television show on  Animal Planet is stock full of fakery, as I have noted in the past (see " Faking It With the Turtleman ") Now, it turns out that the animals on the show are typically procured from fur farms or trappers and at least some of the animals are drugged before they are put in faked "rescue" situations or on to sets tailored to mimic some hillbilly location. Surprised?   Not me! This is hardly the first tim e  "reality" television has put up wildlife fakery.   As I have noted in the past , Steve Irwin was a big, fat liar   and the "wolf man" show was actually filmed at a pathetic little zoo in England  inside a cage, and starring a fellow was actually a loser in a trailer who abandoned his wife and kids . And then there is the laughable fake "Bear" Grylls who purported to rough it and teach survival, but who actually spent his nights in fine hotels, often only a few hundre...

From Ian: Why you should be proud Zionists Zionism’s astounding success in building a stable democracy makes it a symbol for democracy, not only in the Middle East, but all around the world. What do you oppose when opposing Zionism? There are many more values for which Zionism serves as an ambassador. However, these small examples can help give a clear message: Those who support the BDS movement and oppose Zionism should know that when opposing Zionism, they are in fact opposing the principles of justice, freedom and democracy. Their fight against Israel’s right to exist is a fight for a world without these great values. Those of us who believe in these values should join together and defend Israel against this new strategic threat. Academic extremism threatens democratic values It is the obligation of all academics everywhere to recognize and challenge claims that have no basis in fact or logic. Instead of ignoring historical revisionism or common sense gone awry, they should respond...

Sometimes I tweet things that people like, but I don't blog them. Which makes me feel guilty. Yesterday, I saw posted on CUWI Facebook page an old, great cartoon that I cleaned up and tweeted - and it quickly became very popular: My SodaStream poster , which The Forward mentioned was going viral, made it to the UK: My #SodaStream poster makes it to the UK http://t.co/GsBAKOvJ0V pic.twitter.com/iFtj3ayfn3 — ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) January 29, 2014 The Forward said it was inaccurate, and I answer them in the update to that post . Today, I retweeted a 2011 post of mine that is relevant again, as the BDSers keep saying that "Palestinian civil society" overwhelmingly supports BDS. It turns out that "Palestinian civil society" doesn't representvery many Palestinians at all. Yesterday I tweeted this: Scarlett Johansson's #SodaStream commercial already has 5 million YouTube views: http://t.co/Lwewcavzxg BDSers heads explode — ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyo...

From Ian: Kerry, the Palestinians and the Vietnam model After Yasser Arafat took over the PLO’s leadership in 1969, he went to North Vietnam to study the strategy and tactics of guerrilla warfare waged by Ho Chi Minh. This is also when the PLO started translating the writings of North Vietnam’s General Nguyen Giap into Arabic. Arafat was particularly impressed by Ho Chi Minh’s success in mobilizing sympathizers in Europe and in the United States. Giap explained to Arafat that in order to succeed, he, too, had to conceal his real goal and should use the right vocabulary: “Stop talking about annihilating Israel and instead turn your terror war into a struggle for human rights,” Giap told Arafat. “Then you will have the American people eating out of your hand.” What Giap taught Arafat is that, in asymmetric struggles, the militarily weaker side can win thanks to what became an integral part of warfare in the 20th century: the media. Ultimately, Vietnam defeated both France and the United ...

"“The Syrian regime is as Machiavellian as they come, and there is little it won’t do to hold on to power,” said an American counterterrorism official. “If the regime could strike a tactical accord with an enemy faction to achieve its larger strategic goals, it probably would .”"

"Yet even the Syrian government has disappointed Mr. Putin recently, with its officials acting belligerent and unaccommodating at peace talks in Switzerland, against a surprisingly unified and professional performance by rebel opposition groups ."  The funny thing is that even in Saudi and Qatari propaganda outlets in Arabic, those claims about the brilliant performance of the Syrian opposition in Geneva are not being made.  I guess you have to not know Arabic and not to have watched the press conferences to believe those ridiculous claims.  And who were the rebel groups represented in Geneval aside from the gang of Dr. Engineer General Musician Plumber Painter Lawyer Dentist Salim Idriss?

"United Nations officials described a spiraling conflict, with the mostly Muslim Seleka rebels disarmed and rival Christian gunmen going on retaliatory rampages. “Muslim civilians are now extremely vulnerable,” the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, warned this week ."

Quietly, the Heritage Foundation hosted a group of a pro-Bashshar Christian delegation form Syria this week.

"The resumption of Western supplies is partly a reward to the Syrian opposition for participation in peace talks over the past week in Switzerland ".  What Reuters and other media have not reported is that US aid for the first time is being delivered from the north, i.e. to Islamist fanatical groups like the Islamic Front in order to win them over, so to speak.

"Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) noted that the CIA is banned from domestic spying and searches of Americans inside the United States but asked CIA Director John Brennan if he could assure the committee that it does not engage in such operations. “I can assure the committee that the CIA follows the letter and the spirit of the law in terms of what CIA’s authorities are,” Brennan said in a carefully worded reply. Wyden, who works closely with Udall on intelligence matters, asked Brennan whether the CIA abides by a separate anti-hacking statute that makes it a crime to break into a network without authorization. “ I would have to look into what that act actually calls for and its applicability to CIA’s authorities ,” Brennan said ."

"A woman and her daughter were bludgeoned to death in their Queens home by the woman’s live-in boyfriend, who called 911 and confessed that he had “killed them because they are witches,” law enforcement officials said on Wednesday ."

"“SodaStream is my hope, to enable me to get married, to get everything,” says the former chicken worker, as the sun rises over the littered street. Then he steps on the bus to go to work ."  (White Supremacist press under apartheid used to publish such articles).

This whole article is a laughable account (for anyone who followed the performance of the Syrian opposition delegation in Geneva) about the great performance of the Syrian delegation there. Look how Ms. Barnard substantiates her argument:  "“We surprised ourselves,” Oubai Shahbandar, a Syrian-American consultant to the coalition, said Tuesday...“For the first time, the regime had to sit down and hear the demands of the people,” said Rafif Jouejati, a coalition spokeswoman ."  I read the article and then learned about crudity of propaganda what I knew not before.  But according to here the Syrian delegation won the game because Syrian foreign minister went over the time limit in his speech (as if this is an unusual offense in Arab speech making).  She also cites the able correspondent of As-Safir, Muhammad Ballut, but if she knows Arabic she would have cited his front page article in which he declared that the Syrian regime delegation will return victoriously.  F...

Tziporah Salamon moved to Los Angeles for the winter and she has been having a ball. I snapped a quick photo of her on her last day in NYC. To keep up an all her exciting activities and lectures on vintage clothing CLICK HERE .

Anne Barnard :  "Louay Safi, an opposition spokesman, was tested when a representative of the state-run SANA news agency asserted that in a government-blockaded area “there are no civilians, only terrorists,” and asked if efforts to get food there aimed to “save the terrorists.”  “Two good questions, and I thank you for them,” Mr. Safi said, before calmly answering ." Liz Sly (who is no less an advocate of the Syrian rebels than Barnard):  "“Shame on you,” a correspondent for an opposition television station screamed at a journalist for the state-controlled media, who wore a button bearing Assad’s portrait pinned to his lapel. “You are wearing the picture of a murderer.” “And you are a terrorist,” the journalist yelled back, an exchange that summed up the essence of the divide ."

Today I'm deliberating over which Honor outfit to go for. Decisions Decisions! I adored this collection. It was pretty and romantic and little girly. Just how I imagine my spring to be. See more here. Bunny Kisses Fifi Lapin xxx

""Palestinians and their supporters who have been campaigning for Palestinian rights to settle in the area around Maale Adumim do not see it that way ."" (thanks Michael)

"as with Norway and Denmark, the Swedish right is on the rise. A spokesman for the Sweden Democrats (currently at an all-time high of close to 10% in the polls) insisted to me that immigrants were "more prone to violence". I pointed out that Sweden was one of the most bloodthirsty nations on earth for much of the last millennium ."

"In 2010, Swedish police recorded the highest number of offences - about 63 per 100,000 inhabitants - of any force in Europe. That was the second highest in the world after Lesotho. "According to rape crisis advocates in Sweden, one-third of Swedish women have been sexually assaulted by the time they leave their teens ."

"The Bureau is today publishing a leaked official document that records details of over 300 drone strikes," "The Bureau estimates that at least 2,371 people died in the time covered by the document (excluding 2007, which is missing from the record), while it records 2,217 deaths in total ." (thanks Amir)

Anne Barnard today:  "In a striking development on Thursday, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, an organization operating under government auspices and widely accused of favoring pro-government areas ..."  Widely accused by whom, Ms. Barnard? Should you not provide evidence to your reckless accusation?  I asked a UN official who works in the Middle East to react to this and she (who does not want to be identified) wrote me this: "Not true about SARC. They have members in detention and over 19 killed. Only SARC HQ in Damascus works under auspices of the regime. But check them on twitter they have a very balanced position accusing both parties of obstructing aid delivery. they tweeted that both parties violated humanitarian law and even added that responsibility is proportional."

This is a Special Achievement Hasby Award, given outside the normal nominations process, since I didn't have a category for this - and I should have. The Special Achievement Hasby Award for grassroots activism goes to.... SUSSEX FRIENDS OF ISRAEL I've mentioned Sussex Friends of Israel before . They are a group of people who, on their own, decided to counter-protest the haters who were intimidating a shop in Brighton that was selling SodaStream every Saturday. The greatness of SFI isn't that they are counter-protesting. Their brilliance is in how they do it.  Every week, they come up with a different gimmick - handing out cookies or cake to passersby. They mercilessly videotape and try to interview the haters, exposing their ignorance and how little they really care about Palestinian Arabs. The contrast between the laughing, happy Zionists and the angry, clueless BDSers shows every passerby who is right. Indeed, it looks like a party every week where the pro-Israel crowd g...

What Ilyas Murr said in Wikileaks is worse than anything said by Antoine Lahd in his long despicable career.  He managed to vomit the worst of sectarian hatred mixed in with the worst of loyalty to Israeli aggression--while holding the portfolio of Minister of Defense of the deformed Lebanese republic.  This week, Murr's father, Michel, held a dinner in honor of his lousy son, and who attended--among others? Muhammad Ra`ad (the head of the Lebanese parliamentary bloc) and the Iranian ambassador.  Disgusting if you ask me.

Ghadi Francis is a Lebanese journalist who has a TV show in which she goes on her own to hot spots in Lebanon and Syria.  She is a former SSNP member and her reports are sympathetic to the Syrian regime (she was widely criticized back in 2011 when she wrote in As-Safir that areas under the control of the opposition are like Qandahar, and she was rebuked by Syrian opposition figures and told that the uprising and armed groups are secular and liberal--kid you not).  Her new show is on Yarmuk and while it is biased in favor of the account of the Syrian regime, she has interesting information about the roles of Hamas in Yarmuk and the role of Hizbullah in Syria.

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Who do you count as your early-on writing inspirations when you were getting started. Has that changed over time? How? Why?  by Paul D. Marks My writing inspirations are all over the place. Initially, I aspired to be a latter-day Hemingway, sitting on the Left Bank, sipping absinthe, chatting with my literary buddies. I wanted to live the romantic, adventurous life that Hemingway describes in A Moveable Feast . Yes, I liked his clipped and concise writing style, and his philosophy of the clean, well-lighted place, as well as the eponymous story, but I also loved the idea of that writer's life and lifestyle – so his influence is, or was, as much about the writer's lifestyle as his writing style. But when I tried it, drinking and writing, I just wanted to play – got no work done. Along with Hemingway comes Fitzgerald. Stylistically different, the two just naturally fit together, at least in my mind. One of my favorites stories is still Hemingway's short story, Soldier's...

Here are Friday Questions to close out the week...and month. Chris starts us off: How come Everybody Loves Raymond only had one act break? (At least the first 3 seasons) I mean, I know Phil Rosenthal wanted to create a classic, back in the day family style sitcom, but why didn't CBS push for more ad space? Networks air the same amount of commercials whether it’s two acts or six. When

"Unnoticed by the outside world, the largest single community currently besieged and on the edge of starvation in Syria lives in two Shia towns west if Aleppo, Zahraa and Nobl, with a combined population 45,000. In this case the besiegers are Sunni rebels who accuse the Shia townspeople of supporting the government of President Bashar al-Assad and are seeking to starve them into submission. Zahraa and Nubl form an isolated Shia pocket in an area where most of the people are Sunni supporting the rebels. The towns have received no supplies from the outside apart from an occasional delivery by a government helicopter. Raul Rosende, the head of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Syria said: “We are concerned about the situation in Zahraa and Nubl where 45,000 people are under siege.” A few Shia have escaped into Turkey and then crossed back into Kurdish-controlled north-east Syria. The politics of starvation are complex in Syria and open to manipulation fo...

  Source This picture was taken in May of 1921 in Washington, D.C., and shows Charles Louis Seeger, a composer, and his wife and three sons, including youngest son Peter holding his violin-playing mother's hand. The family had bundled themselves up into a car to go off car camping (that's their tented wagon trailer, above and below) as a way to see the world. The parents did small concerts to raise money as they traveled. Note the big water bag hanging from the lamp and resting on the running board. Charles Seeger, father of Pete Seege r, was himself an anti-war activist   whose brother, Alan Seeger, was killed in WWI at the Battle of the Somme. A poet, Alan Seeger wrote I Have a Rendezvous with Death .  Source The picture, above, was also taken in late May of 1921 in Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C., and shows Charles Seeger, his violin-playing wife Constance Edson Seeger, and their three children, including 2-year-old son Pete, sitting on his father's lap. A M...

Human Rights Watch has a new report on demolition of buildings in Syria.  New TV (a progressive news station in Lebanon which is critical of the Syrian regime and sympathizes with the opposition and which was the most courageous station during years of domination by the Syrian intelligence in Lebanon, whose chief put its owner in jail under trumped-up charges of "spying for Israel"--when he is in fact fiercely anti-Israel) yesterday aired a new report about the HRW report. 1) It said that the report using polemical language that one does not associate with HRW.  2) It said that the report deliberately avoided writing about demolition of buildings in Aleppo because there the destruction was at the hands of the armed groups.  The sympathies and biases of HRW are no more a secret.

"Investigators conceded that the video shown by Nasrallah depicts an individual who could possibly be Lehmann, but they concluded that the footage does not show a transfer of money, and certainly not of thousands of dollars , the source said ." PS The Daily Star is jointly owned by Sa`d Hariri and former prime minister of Qatar--i.e. highest levels of journalism.

After sex, one behaviorist turned to another behaviorist and said, "That was great for you, but how was it for me?" Related Post: ** When B.F. Skinner Became a Joke

Gideon in a hollow tree on a snowy day. .

Can someone run a search to see the extent to which the sieges (by rebels) of the predominantly Shi`ite villages of Fu'ah, Nubul and Zahra' in Syria have been covered in the Western press? Not to mention the siege of the predominantly `Alawite Jabal Muhsin in Tropoli.  There is a high concentration of Western journalists in Lebanon and no one to my knowledge bothered to cover the siege of Jabal Muhsin.