http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8131478.stm

The interviews themselves...

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB279/index.htm

There's also the film made by his daughter....

http://it.truveo.com/-Saddam-Tribe-This-Film-95-Minutes-By-Raghad/id/3586927173

http://www.protonradio.com/

Tune in live!

I love clueless marketing! It just shows how much they actually care.

This guy combines stand up comedy with mad beat box skill and on the fly electro-acoustic production (similar to Matthew Herbert):

As a result of generations of selective adaptation the level of melanin foudn in the skins of the indigenous population of the northwesterly corner of the Euro/Afro/Asian landmass IS significantly lower than the mean for homo sapiens as a whole. Moreover this genetic deficiency can be relatively straightforwardly explained as an adaptive response to limited UV exposure experienced during generations of residence in a cool, cloudy, and relatively northerly territory by a population with a largely vegetarian diet containing low levels of vitamin D (Loomis, 1967). Yet although populaiton genetics does at least partially affirm the notion of European distinctiveness, what it most emphatically does not confirm is the popular assumption that Europeans can be unhesitatingly identified as a clearly demarcated population in biological terms... for a human geneticist it comes as no surprise that the skin colour differential between populations living on either side of the straits of Gibraltar or the Dardanelles is virtually nonexistent. In other words population genetics offers no explanation for the conventional location of Europe's boundaries, or indeed for the erection of any other categorical (and hence "racial") boundaries within the species homo sapiens (Cavalli-Sforza, 1995).

From "Islam and the Construction of Europe" by Roger Ballard (1996). In Muslims in the Margin: Political Responses to the Presence of Islam in Western Europe. Edited by W. Shadid and P. van Koningsveld. Kampen, The Netherlands: Kok Pharos Publishing.

I remember getting this lowdown in both Anthropology and Sociology, but found this passage quite succinct. It's quite lame that this isn't given to students prior to University... or it least not in my school district. The author of this article lambasts the silence over this issue in mainstream educational circles, mainly because school boards don't want to get embroiled in discussions over race from the genetic point of view in classrooms; a legacy of the Shoah (prior to WW2 genetics, although not this benign variety, were taught to school kids).

http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2008/09/the-adaptive-ci.html ;

http://www.informationageprayer.com/index.html

What will they think of next? 

Talking about his book (on the 12 toughest decisions he had to make in office), Bush said, "I'm going to put people in my place, so when the history of this administration is written at least there's an authoritarian voice saying exactly what happened,"  

(italics mine)

SOURCE

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/100-free-useful-applications-for-mac-part-i/

My friend Angelika returned from Nelson BC to the coast, quite abruptly, because her mom's health was failing due to alzheimers. She's quite articulate and thoughtful, and she's started a blog to raise awareness on how alzheimers affects not just the patient but those around them also.

http://thewaningdays.blogspot.com/

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/12/16/bc-drinking-rates-increasing.html?ref=rss

"The average person over the age of 15 now drinks more than 500 glasses of beer, wine, or spirits per year..."

That's more than a drink per day, and not everyone drinks that much - so there must be a lot of people making up for the rest of us.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/12/BAJK158VH3.DTL

Rabbi Alan Lew had a profound influence on how I approach the high holidays.  He emphasizes the cycle as beginning with Tisha B'Av all the way through Sukkot.  "This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared" is a great workbook for the High Holiday season.

Rest in Peace. Shalom Namaste.

 

X-Posted to my Facebook Account. Originally composed last Thursday/ Friday, revised today.

[edit: Jan 15/09: it appears I'll probably be editing this piece as more information is assessed. I'm still looking for better substantiated claims for or against the position that Israel didn't hold up its end of the ceasefire by means of continuing its blockade, and I'm also looking for sources on how involved Israel was in the development of Hamas as Al-Mujama in the 70's and early 80's. please feel free to critique!]

---

I've seen a flurry of postings about what's going on in Gaza over the past couple of weeks.

As a historian and someone who identifies as Jewish, how sources are being used for political ends has been disturbing. War is never pleasant, particularly with civilian casualties. The Rumi video I posted to my profile is the closest thing I'll share with my own position on the matter, but I would like to provide some resources to consider:


OPERATIONS:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/operation-cast-lead-19.htm

Global Security is a non-partisan think tank in the USA. I've found them a consistent source for information regarding military conflict and policy analysis regarding security since the Iraq War. I appreciate their straight-up day-to-day accounts of what's gone on on the ground, without the narrative distractions found in journalistic or blog media.


HAMAS:
Take a look at their charter:
http://www.mideastweb.org/hamas.htm

Take a look at their military infrastructure:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdoq3zpaUQ4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TanEoDVr-tk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WlF_RO-nCE

Getting rid of the Qassam Rockets is like trying to get rid of drug dealers on East Hastings, but at the same time - if Hamas actually had any sort of real military capacity - the civilian casualties would quickly flip in a highly disproportionate way to the other side.

ISRAEL:
Strategy:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050426.html

Many on the left point to this article as exemplary of Israeli subterfuge, and that they've been planning the present "genocide" while posturing towards a peace process. This is quite the worms-eye view, and it naturally feeds into anti-semitic sentiments drawing from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (Judaic conspiratorial manipulations of finance, western government and media) which many on the left seem openly willing to perpetuate. Any country in possession of a military and hostile neighbours (even unhostile neighbours) will create contingency plans to put into effect in the event of a deterioration of diplomatic relations with neighbouring states. For all of those who are so game to post a multitude of articles in defence of the children of Palestine, I ask: Where were the same number of articles for the many more children of the Congo or Darfur who died in unjust conflicts there? Why is it so trendy to take on Palestine as your pet cause, if you are in it only for the humanity?

It is tragic that this war will increase anti-semitisms, anti-islamisms, when it really needs to get back on track as a secular-political issue.

People like to point fingers, particularly in terms of who started it. Clearly Israel made the first overt move in its raid on the Hamas tunnels in early November. This was a pre-emptive strike and we have the Bush regime to thank for promoting this new paradigm of foreign relations. Whether or not they had the moral and just right to enter Gaza in the first place to address a security issue is now a moot point, because so much more has happened. But we should all be clear that it is this act that lit the powder keg.

I personally think the "Bush Doctrine" of pre-emptive strikes is still an academic issue, and should be avoided at all costs until there's greater global consensus on it. The real question in faulting Israel lies with whether or not it had exhausted its options. It seems that Hamas was open to negotiation (while also creating its own contingencies), that it was respecting the ceasefire, and in this sense I'm not certain that Israel had no better option on the table in early November than to stir the coals with its raid on Gaza.

If you look at 2008, you can clearly see that Hamas respected the ceasefire period by curbing rocket attacks, and going after rogue militants who acted outside of their intention to cease hostilities:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MonthlyRocketHits.svg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rocket_and_mortar_attacks_in_Israel_in_2008#November

These figures are from the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

While Israel is at fault for stoking the fire, Hamas is equally at fault for its response to a remote raid by the IDF in its attempt to address a security issue. This event should have been dealt with in other ways than a resumption of rocket attacks. My guess is that Israel was betting on the resumption of rocket attacks, because peaceful negotiations after a successful ceasefire would only further entrench Hamas as a successful leadership in Gaza. So what's gone on since has more-or-less been like watching two kids fight in a schoolyard, but with far more gravity in terms of the human life involved. No ethical adult should stand by and let them have it out. But what can we do?

Ultimately, the bigger picture needs to be considered. Larger geopolitical forces have shaped the middle east since the colonial period.

Some take this view with the utmost cynicism:
http://www.gregpalast.com/blood-in-beirut-7505-a-barrel/

A more prudent view would be to consider who makes billions off the arming of Israel and the neighbouring Arab states?

Ron Paul noted the irony that Israel helped create Hamas:

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z6vMAoFwf4

Hamas was known as "Al-Mujama" in the 1970's, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. Israel gave them a non-profit charter in 1978. Some say Israel also helped fund their Islamic fundamentalist agenda to split the Palestinian cause from the secular agenda of the PLO, but these claims are largely unsubstantiated interpretations of basic facts:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/reports/crs/931014-hamas.htm

Whatever the case, Hamas IS the elected government in Gaza. They were respectful of the ceasefire. Pursuing a policy that refuses to negotiate with them, to recognize them as legitimate, is hypocritical on two accounts. As Ron Paul would put it - the USA invaded Iraq to further the cause of "democracy" in the Middle East. Israel posits itself as the beacon of democracy amidst corrupt Arab nations. It seems to go against the grain of history to deny a legally elected majority government its right to rule by democratic means. The argument that Hamas has advocated for the destruction of Israel in its charter is weak given that Iran is permitted to continue, although its leadership holds similar opinions. This basically sends the message that freedom and justice are irrelevant in the face of who has the bigger guns.

Sadly it seems to be beyond the point of return to healthy negotiation. This present situation will reverberate for years. Israel is playing a dangerous hand, and the only outcome I can see from it is an attempt to convince Palestinians that they made a poor choice of government, a government that operates a military in the midst of civilians, putting them in harms way, and a government who's military strategy is to terrorize civilian populations as a means to an end. There's a truth in that assessment of Hamas, but provoking them and then bullying the Palestinians into submission is not likely going to work.

It's a complex brew, and I don't claim to have any answers. I'd like to see the civilian casualties end, to see the conflict stop. But at the same time, Israel needs to respond to the last 8 years. Obama's position is right on that - the rockets have to stop.

There needs to be a way out that involves both sides coexisting.

That's the only way the vision of Rumi can ever become reality:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSu1h6WBgYk

If anyone's seen Project Grizzly (this guy made a "bear-proof suit"), you'd realize that it was only a matter of time before he moved on to military dreams.