The weather here was good today, sunny and windy, but it was about 8 C (46 F) warm enough for mid November. Tonight or early tomorrow morning we are expecting rain. Current temperature is 0 C (32 F). I hope this does not mean icy streets in the morning when I have to go to physio. I'd hate to miss the opportunity to be chastised by my therapist for falling on my face. I have enjoyed several of Lona's cat naps this afternoon/evening, but the rest of the week is looking quite busy.
Puzzle — Today’s took me 2:57 (average 5:18). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes
NY Times — Ali Awad, 14, was chopping vegetables when the first bomb struck. Adel Tormous, who would die tackling the second bomber, was sitting at a nearby coffee stand. Khodr Alaa Deen, a registered nurse, was on his way to work his night shift at the teaching hospital of the American University at Beirut, inLebanon.
All three lost their lives in a double suicide attack in Beirut on Thursday, along with 40 others, and much like the scores who died a day later in Paris, they were killed at random, in a bustling urban area, while going about their normal evening business.
Around the crime scenes in south Beirut and central Paris alike, a sense of shock and sadness lingered into the weekend, with cafes and markets quieter than usual. The consecutive rampages, both claimed by the Islamic State, inspired feelings of shared, even global vulnerability — especially in Lebanon, where many expressed shock that such chaos had reached France, a country they regarded as far safer than their own.
But for some in Beirut, that solidarity was mixed with anguish over the fact that just one of the stricken cities — Paris — received a global outpouring of sympathy akin to the one lavished on the United States after the 9/11 attacks.
Click through for the rest of the article. High on my mind, like so many others, has been the Friday terrorist attacks in Paris. I had read about the Beirut bombings and I was sad for the people, like I am sad for the people of Syria and Iraq who endure so much death and uncertainty daily. But what makes Paris so different to Beirut? In reality, nothing. In both cases, innocent lives were broken apart by the same group, Daesh. The people in Beirut ask a valid question, do Arab lives matter less.
“When my people died, no country bothered to light up its landmarks in the colors of their flag,” Elie Fares, a Lebanese doctor, wrote on his blog. “When my people died, they did not send the world into mourning. Their death was but an irrelevant fleck along the international news cycle, something that happens in those parts of the world.”
Do we in the west have a double standard? Do some lives matter more than others. This is a question we all should be wrestling with. All lives matter equally!
Mother Jones — "The Court now has the opportunity to decide whether we will continue to allow elected officials to play politics with women's health," wrote Ilyse Hogue, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America,in a statement. "This case represents the greatest threat to women's reproductive freedom since the Supreme Court decided Roe vs. Wade over 40 years ago. Laws like the ones being challenged in Texas are designed to subvert the Constitution and end the right to a safe and legal abortion."
Click through for the rest of the article. With the decision expected in early 2016, this issue, no matter which way it goes, will likely be an election issue. It is time for women to stand up forcefully for their reproductive health. Women and their doctors should be making these decisions, not politicians.
Raw Story — Following Friday night’s terrorist attacks in Paris that claimed 129 lives, prospective 2016 GOP presidential candidates were quick to find fault and assign blame by going after Democrats and slamming Syrian refugees before French authorities even began their investigation.
Republicans flooded the airwaves Sunday morning, variously criticizing their Democratic counterparts for failing to use the term “radical Islam,” and faulting the administration for not putting “boots on the ground” in Syria while warning of another 9/11 attack in the U.S.
Responding to all three Democratic nominees using “radical jihadists” in their debate instead of blaming Islam, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee claimed Democrats are more invested in defending Islam than protecting Americans.
“It’s become apparent on the Democratic side, whether it is the current president or the one who wishes to be president, they’re more interested in protecting the image of Islam than they are protecting Americans,” Huckabee told Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Click through for the rest of the article. Is there anyone of sound mind in the Republican Party? Here is Jeb Bush on the subject (from Raw Story).
And Ted Cruz of course has plenty to say (from Raw Story).
Cruz made the case that the terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday night proved that Christians are under siege, even though the attacks were on nightlife hot spots and not religious targets. Before the rally, Cruz told to reporters and said Christians need constitutional protections because they are most ostracized today, according to CNN…
Do I think Christians are under siege as Cruz says? No! Do I think that Christians need constitutional prtections? They already have 1st amendment rights. What these pseudo Christians are wanting is the right to discriminate and the right to turn the US into a Christian theocracy.
My Universe —
8 Responses to “Squatch’s Open Thread 16/11/2015”
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NY Times: Media seems to pick and choose, sadly. My heart goes out to ALL lives affected by this violence.
Mother Jones: This will put undue hardship on those women seeking abortion here in Texas, the map is dismal if clinics fall to 10, if enacted. They need to help not hinder these women.
Raw Story: Yea, Repubs have a 'disconnect from reality' all right. What asinine comments.
My Universe: Where do they get their energy? Simon is cute with his antics.
Have 3 busy days at school this week, I do enjoy my time w/students. Hope that your visit to physio goes well, and that it's not icy. Have a great day, and Thanks, Lynn.
Quick ways to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit is double the C° and add 32°. (The higher the temp, the greater the variation – but it gives you an idea.)
Beirut Suicide Bombings
Not paying attention to the tragedy AND acts of heroism that occurred in Beirut (to which I plead guilty) is particularly ironic given that Beirut has been called “The Paris of the Middle East”.
Of course their pain is our pain – their loss is our loss. I suppose it’s become such a commonplace thing in that region that we’ve become inured to it – but only to our detriment.
Je Suis Paris (I am Paris).
أنا بيروت (I am Beirut).
أنا سورية (I am Syria).
I am… WE are the world – and we’re all in this together.SCOTUS & Texas’ Efforts to Deny Women’s Access to Health Clinics
If you need a good reason to vote for a Democrat – ANY Democrat – in the upcoming election, this is it!
I predict it will all come done to swing-voter, Justice Anthony Kennedy … AGAIN.
(Small nit to pick: SCOTUS rulings are typically handed down in June – just for the heads-up.)
"Radical Islam"
If Pres. Obama could end terrorism by simply uttering the words “Radical Islam” – then I’d be all for it.
But Rethuglicans need to provide more details on how this exactly works. I mean, would it be like Dorothy clicking her ruby slippers together three times and saying, “Radical Islam, Radical Islam, Radical Islam”?
Details … we need details!
And a reminder to all those hate-mongering GOPers who loved John Dickerson hectoring Hillary during the debate because she appropriately called them “Radical Jihadists” and refused to use their “magic words” – it was DUBYA who said “Islam is peace.”
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010917-11.html
Just because some priests molest children, we don’t start calling it “Radical Christianity”
Or because some “ministers” are in favoring of executing gays, we don’t start calling it “Radical Christianity”
Or because the KKK wants to associate itself with the cross, we don’t start calling it “Radical Christianity”
Hillary got it right! They’re “Radical Jihadists”
Hope you got to physiotherapy without inflicting even more damage on an icy street, Lynn! She must like you a lot, she won't be out of a job soon with you around. Hmmm… for some reason I've assumed your physiotherapist is female, don't know where I got that from. Anyway, I hope she wasn't too hard on you.
NY Times: Kudos and green stars for posting this article on the bombing in Beirut, Lynn, the world has indeed forgotten about that. It has been on my mind and I also wondered why France's "horreur" completely overshadowed that of Lebanon. True, the number of dead and wounded was greater in Paris and the horrific stories from witnesses of the killings in Bataclan have really hit home, but as always with any terrorist attack ALL those killed or wounded were innocent, random victims. Sadly, the answer to the valid question "do Arab lives matter less" is: yes, to the Western world in general they do. There are terrorist attacks in the Middle East almost on a daily basis, but they are hardly mentioned by the media unless the death toll is extraordinary or Westerners are killed or wounded. Our attitude is also debit to the growing rift between Arabs/Muslims both in the Middle East and in Europe and America and Westerners and a feeding ground for young recruits for Da'esh.
Mother Jones: Of course this abortion case will be an election point, but the scary thing is that's exactly why it is uncertain what the SCOTUS will decide. Republicans have the majority in SCOTUS and in the past have had no problems in letting religious/Republican arguments prevail above legal ones (e.g. in the Holly Hobby case). Times for Republicans are bad, especially with a Clown's Car filled with atrocious Republican hopefuls, so it may be in the Republican's interest to rule in favor of the Texas abortion law, effectively destroying Roe vs Wade, a ruling that can't be appealed, Democrats will have to start from the beginning to contain the aftermath of this ruling in other states and they can only do that if they have enough power, i.e. win the 2016 elections.
Raw Story 1, 2 and 3: You forgot the barf bag alert, Lynn. I usually kid about that, just like everyone else, but reading and hearing Huckabee's, Jeb's and Cruz' delirious hate speech against Islam and the way they dragged Christianity into it, all three conveniently forgetting that France is a secular state and an attack on Christianity couldn't be further from its mind, really made me queasy. Yes, it could have been my stomach bug playing up again, but these vicious zealots are too much to bear. You'd think they actually want to provoke an attack on Christians, just to prove their point.
My Universe: And then there's Simon's cat, making life bearable again. Well, not for Simon of course.
4:59 (5:18) The person who wrote the description must be American (US). "The family that hunts." Shudder.
NY Times – Nameless has it right: "I suppose it’s become such a commonplace thing in that region that we’ve become inured to it – but only to our detriment." I was thinking it is the element of surprise. We expect deaths from acts of terror in Beirut. We don't expect them in France. The unexpected catches our attention. It doesn't mean that the lives in Beirut matter less to us (although I suppose they do to bigots). But we need to find ways to express that outrage is stll outrage even when it is expected. And we need to do so before we need to be reminded that, hey, there are other places on earth, y'know. Because the unexpected, like sex, sells. So media has a vested interest in stressing the unexpected to the detriment of the expected.
Mother Jones and Raw Story make it clear that there is really no such thing as a "one-issue voter." Opponents of abortion are not one issue voters. They are people who want the kind of Christian theocracy described by Cruz, Huckabee, and Bush3, and will use abortion as a club to impose it. "Pro-Life" my unreplaceable body parts. We have a tenet that they only care about children before they are born. We need to revise our thinking on this. They don't even care about children before they are born. They just say they do, because that is how they wield the club. But in reality, they care only about control. Incidentally, they don't care about Christianity either. How could they when they don't have the foggiest idea what it is? CONTROL. That's what they care about. They use the words "babies" and "Christian" because real people do have real feelings about them.
Nameless, we don't call it "Radical Christianity" because from the inside of Christianity we can see that it is not Christianity at all. But maybe we should.
Universe – Simon's cat is so smart and clever. Yet Simon never seems to learn. Do we cat people see ourselves in that?
3:57 Feeling kind of pokey today.
Je suis toutes les nations.
4:14
Beirut has such a history if violence, we're not surprised by incidents there.
I have little hope for Texas' women.
Republicans want us to associate terrorism with Islam to draw attention away from Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian terrorism.
any time a life is ended prematurely (ie not by old age) it is a sadness
We may have a double standard, but I was coming to this comment ith the same idea that TC put forth, no one is any longer surprised at violence in Beirut…just as no one is surprised at violence in the U.S. inner cities, though we do bemoan it.
Cruz is so damned brain dead, but this is the same thing we hard from the Bushtwit's White House, that the rest of the country hated Christ. If there i a spiritual Christ, somewhere, I expect that he is sorry that he can't come back and slap these asses silly!