Let's see something different

Here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqEgd3InILA is a link to a youtube video that is simply of American troops returning fire. I find this extremely interesting because watching it I don't have to deal with any political views for or against the war, there are no statistics to be disputed, and I'm not watching any government officials. Instead, this is simply what it looks like when the military comes through your neighborhood. It's truly terrifying to look at it both from the point of a soldier (and its almost impossible to see what's being fired at) or from the point of one of the people whose house they must be on top of.

For a long time I've been interested in military engineers and construction workers. This http://warisboring.com/?p=256 is a link to a short article detailing some of what the Army Engineers have been doing while in Iraq. I personally think it's important for people to remember that not everything is bad and that there are parts of the military working hard not only to fix what has been damaged by war but to improve the infrastructure above what it had originally been.

The Secret Order of the Six-pointed Star

This may have been a more fitting title for the article "The Israel Lobby" because while it certainly does present a number of facts it seems that their connections back to the real world are stretched to say the least. The worst part of all of this, for me, is that I agree with many of the points the authors make, at least on the surface. Is Israel ignoring warnings and continuing illegal activities? yes. Is there a lobby within our governmental system trying to win our support for Israel? sure. Is there a massive conspiracy including that Israel lobby along with many other Jewish orgainizations and most of America's Jews? putting it that way makes the heart of this article seem a little bit more fantastic than the writers might have a reader believe.
I was ready for a new perspective on what was happening in the Middle East and I certainly got one in the article but, for me and for now, too much of it seems thinly connected.


For some reason the debate video wasn't showing on my computer, response to that coming as soon as I can load it.

What can I say?

I'm really not sure how I want to comment on Palestine Peace Not Apartheid so I guess I'd like to just write a mini review and see where that goes.
Without a doubt this book has been the hardest for me to put down out of everything I've read in the last ten months. I really regret that time constraints kept me only to a shortened version of the reading, something I will remedy as soon as I can. I found that within just the first few pages I was eagerly identifying with Jimmy Carter's want for knowledge and also with his realizations of how little he knew.
How do you pick a favorite part of a historically motivated book? I'm not sure, however I do anticipate rereading chapter five more than a few times within the coming months. It seems to me that this chapter may have, for me, some of the best background information that I've really been looking for.
Well, I guess there you have it, my recomendation to classmates and anyone who has only had time to skim this book, remember and read chapter five.

How to be heroic

If there are any heroes in Wild Thorns their identities are nearly hidden and their virtues are certainly confused. However, Basil stands out in my mind as certainly the closest thing to a heroic character that the novel might have. Simply put, Basil's a badass. He goes from simple schoolboy to freedom fighter in only the time it takes for him to curse a soldier.
The meanness and coldheartedness he displays at the end of the novel by demeaning his family is more due to how fed up he is with the situation and the fact that no one is doing anything than him just being a bad guy. He has the conviction of Usama without the fanaticism and the ideals of Adil without the ridiculous and dangerous pacifism.


For a significantly lighter take on the situation in Palestine check out this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T4Wk9M2ObE

Keeping it Real

In most the modern works that we've read it seems that realism is the only style of writing. Long gone is the writing in which a djin is behind every rock ready to put any passerby to some difficult or ridiculous task. But why is it that the magical and the fantastic has left the writing of such a beautiful culture?
While I'm sure there's no one, easy answer I wonder if it isn't the case that hundreds of years of war have taken their toll even on the hearts of these peoples. The beautiful fantasy of ancient fiction seems too often to have been replaced with the historical fiction of wartimes. I hope that I'm making a connection that isn't there or that is so incomplete that it's ridiculous, because if I'm not then what follows is really quite terrifying.
I guess what I'm really wondering at is: can a culture make so much war that when it's all over there may not be much left because the only thing left holding it together was the constant fighting?

Why didn't they bang on the walls?

It's hard for me to imagine a situation that I could be in where I needed to move so badly that I'd risk my life just to cross a border. For the three people in Men in the Sun life seems to have been almost meaningless without successfully being smuggled in to another country. Not only were they willing to sit inside a metal water tank during each checkpoint, in the end they were willing to die rather than be discovered. Granted, they may have been too weak due to the heat by the time they knew they were going to die but its still tragic that they'd rather die than bang the walls. It's also worth noting that the eldest of the three was good at keeping time without a watch so he would have known when too long an amount of time had passed.

Koran Reading

I had a bit of a struggle with this reading and I'm not sure that I got as much out of it as I probably should have, for that reason I'm looking forward to going to the Kalamazoo Islamic Center. The little bit that I did understand I found really interesting. Reading what was more like a criticism of the Christian belief that Jesus was God was facinating. Also the short bits that followed that recalled each of the other prophets from the Bible and then finding out how they related to Islam was also eye opening. Right around that spot though I think I started to get a bit lost because as I understood that each prophet had a relation to Islam I'm not sure I really understood the how.

Right by Occident

Though it really was unintentional that little video bit I posted seems much more appropriate after reading a bit of the history of the Middle East. I'd known, from a past professor mentioning it, that the west had totally messed up the Israel/Palestine area but I guess I'd never been 100% clear on just how it happened. That's awful! How could they/we promise an area to two peoples at the same time? Knowingly creating conflict and potentially civil war, this goes beyond irresponsible.
While the song may call it "an old man's war" it's hard not to understand why the wound continues to be fresh on both sides. Even reducing the issue to almost comical simplicity I could not imagine finding out tomorrow that Michigan had actually been promised to Canada and my choices were to become Canadian or leave. Even in this ridiculous context it'd get me wondering where my home was, on the one hand I'm American and my home would be in America, yet on the other I'm from Michigan and my home should be there. The recurring feeling of alienation that these peoples must deal with is simply staggering.