The Media Are Not My Friends

Gnarlie Charlie and Horseface Finally Wed: SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!

Newsflash! Pope Still Dead! Details As They Emerge!: Now some have already mentioned that I appear to have a wee anti-Church bias. I admit, although I point out that my bias is not at all against those truly believe. I have the utmost respect for all spirituality, in whatever form it takes. However, the very astute (and cute!) Rohin puts it best:

It’s a divisive issue. I agree. Divided between those who it impacts (consequently those who care) and those it doesn’t impact. I’m in that second category. If an icon close to my heart died, the world wouldn’t bat an eye. And in like, I can’t bat an eye for a man who never really touched my heart so much as made me shit-scared with his stance on gay rights and other political matters.

And when you consider that the Church, in all its wisdom, has seen fit to invite scandal-addled Cardinal Bernard Law to lead the Mass for Jean Paul II, basically telling the world that it thinks that it’s just great for priests to molest little boys, I’d say there’s a very large gap between the true believers and the Catholic Church.

Palestinian Teenagers Killed by IDF While Playing Soccer: Being a left-wing Jew is like having a juvenile delinquent as an older brother. You’re raised to love him because he’s your brother despite some of the appalling things he does. The rest of the world says to you, “How can you love such a monster?” and your family chides you for listening, and agreeing. But you point out to the rest of the world that nothing is black and white, and that there is a reason for everything, even though the reason is not always an excuse (sometimes it is), and that not everything about him is bad, and the world says that you are exactly the same as your older brother.

But on the other hand, Israel is not my older brother. It is a country of 6.5 million people of varying cultures, varying concerns, varying opinions, varying appraoches to life, and varying joys and fits of melancholy - just like anywhere else. The majority are appalled by the unending violence, the actions the army takes, the hypocrisy of the current administration, and the volatile actions of the extreme right wing who seem bent on prolonging the Intifada and the Occupation, if not annihilation, of the Territories – no matter what the media would have one think.

My condolences to the families of the three boys killed. I wish I could write words to bring them back.

Early Hominid Cared for Elderly: This is the kind of human interest story that doesn’t leave me feeling covered with a slimy coat of saccharine. If our earliest ancestors were capable of such tenderness and compassion, and we know that we’re capable of such tenderness and compassion, why are we constantly at violent odds with one another?