Patterns

Occasionally I try. Occasionally I fail. Occasionally I succeed. The successes make the failures bearable. The more I fail or succeed, the more practice I get. The more practice I get, the better I get and the more I succeed. The more I succeed the happier I am. The happier I am the more it makes the whole damn process worthwhile.

Corollary: The less I try the more I fail and the more I fail the more miserable I am.

There is a discernible pattern.

g.

Live Forever

Someone once wrote,

To write, is to live forever.

The man who wrote that is dead.  Nobody believed him anyway.

g.

Occasionally More

Occasionally I try. Occasionally I fail. Occasionally I succeed. The successes make the failures bearable. The more I fail or succeed, the more practice I get. The more practice I get, the better I get and the more I succeed. The more I succeed the happier I am. The happier I am the more it makes the whole damn process worthwhile.

Corollary: The less I try the more I fail and the more I fail the more miserable I am. There is a lesson in this.

c.e.s.

not really

To state a simple dichotomy as though it is a great revelation does not make it profound.  It means that you know how to speak bullshit.

“The wise man, grasshopper, is the one who is not the fool.”

“To be frugal is to value value.”

Yeah?  So?

It’s very poor rhetoric and not worth the attention.  Smile at the fake guru and keep on moving.

Timing

I have a theory on “timing.”

It’s either perfect or it completely sucks.  There is nothing in between.

It’s kinda sorta like “you can’t be a little bit pregnant.”

and we thank you for your support.

gryph

Israel and Her Neighbors

 

See Also;

• Israel Strikes Gaza,
• Israel Strikes Gaza: UPDATE, and
• Gaza and Israel

 

The New York Times on Saturday, January 10, 2009 reported from Cairo that inside a mosque, a government appointed preacher, Sheik Eid Abdel Hamid Youssef addressed the congregants,

Muslim brothers, God has inflicted the Muslim nation with a people whom God has become angry at and whom he cursed so he made monkeys and pigs out of them.  They killed prophets and messengers and sowed corruption on Earth.

 

Does this sound like someone we should allow to continue to exist—killers of prophets and messengers, monkeys and pigs who sow corruption on the Earth?  Not if you believe the preacher anyway.  And who ya gonna believe if not your preacher?

 

The war in Gaza is now past its 14^th day.  Uniformed and plainclothes officers stood outside backed by water cannons to stop the group inside the mosque from boiling over outside in protest against the war in Gaza.

 

The governments of Arab nations in West Asia are losing legitimacy.  Not all to be sure, but at least those of Egypt and Jordan.  Why?  Muslim majority populated and ruled nations are suffering a loss of legitimacy if they backed Israel against the actions of Hamas in the Strip.  Egypt and Jordan (as well as the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank) all condemned the actions of rocket launches into southern Israel conducted by Hamas fighters in Gaza and in violation of the now quite dead ceasefire.

 

Egypt and Israel have a peace treaty.  Remember Sadat, Begin, and Carter at Camp David?  Egypt has refused to allow transfer of goods or people through its border with the Strip.  Regardless, tunnels in the desert connecting Egypt and the Strip have and do exist that have allowed the illegal transfer of goods and people—most remarkable of which are rockets that were and are being fired into Israel.

 

Hamas is sworn and dedicated to the destruction of Israel.  Obviously they can’t accomplish this alone.  Militarily they are puny as puny can be compared to the massively (and nuclear) equipped Israel.  So why in hell would they provoke such a fight?

 

Why, indeed.  If they can anger the populace of states who supported Israel in the face of illegal and cowardly attacks, then they can lessen the legitimacy of those states—prompting them to do something to restore that legitimacy.  It will damage and destroy relations not only with those supporting states but also of all the other states around the world.

 

If Israel can be made to look like barbarous, child-butchering monsters then support for the defense of the poor helpless victims of Israel’s brutality will increase.  They hardly need the political support of Syria and Iran.  They already have it.  And as for material support, it is already well known that is coming from at least Iran, which is positioning itself to be the de facto super power of the region.

 

Whatever aid might be coming from Syria et. al. is unknown by this author.  But it would be no surprise to learn of it.

 

Now we all know the reputation of Israel.  Israel takes no shit from anyone.  Israel is a tiny country surrounded by a hostile Arab nation.  There have been wars there in the past contesting the right of Israel to exist and, you can betcha, there will be wars there for a long long time to come.

 

The problem of Hamas’ strategy is that it is transparent.  We can see what they are doing.  We know that they are committed to the destruction of Israel and that they are vastly ill-equipped to do this themselves.  Rationally, we know that a way to achieving their goal is to get the support of governments who support Israel.  We know that one way to do this is by attacking their legitimacy through the popular uprising of the people in those states.  At the same time, we know that their attempts to paint Israel as baby killers can have at least minimal impact on those states that never supported Hamas in the first place.

 

They do this by inciting popular sentiment and emotion.  Hoping to turn worldwide public sentiment in their favor they disseminate images of children killed in the attacks by Israel.  And it works.  I have seen the photographs  (but my sentiments have not changed.)  They are truly atrocious.  And they are excellent tools of propaganda.

 

I have heard how horrible Israel is from more than a few westerners.  Were these people prone to pro-Hamas/anti-Israeli sentiments beforehand?  Most likely.  Will these images and reports of barbarisms influence those who previously held anti-Hamas/pro-Israeli sentiments.  Most likely not.

 

But they may shift the opinions of the who previously  held no opinion of the actions.  Show me a dead baby and you will get my attention immediately.  Forget trying to convert me by logic or reason (especially if your position is untenable in the first place).  Grab me by the heartstrings.

 

And this is what is happening in Eqypt, et. al.  Hamas is angering the populations of those countries and inspiring public/popular revolt.  The Muslim population was already, prima facie, in support of Hamas from the beginning.  How will those governments react?  How and when will this all end?  Hell if I know, but it ain’t gonna happen in my lifetime, or my children’s, or their children’s, et. cetera. . . . well, it could . . . but I don’t want to be around for that, because it sure ain’t gonna be pretty.

 

1. The New York Times
2. The CIA World Factbook
3. My Head and Heart

Don’t Shout. I’m Deaf.

 Why are you shouting?  I’m deaf, not hard of hearing.

 

There is nothing to be gained by repeating yourself to someone unable or unwilling to  understand.  Save it for someone who is.

 

If no one said that before me, then I take credit.

 

Also, you should never argue with a fool.  People might not be able to tell the difference.

 

I didn’t say that one first, but wish I did.

 

c.e.s.