Idealism and demagogy

The problem with any individual or movement is that it places himself or itself into an unfair position from the start, if it adopts, what is considered high moral values in the western society. When abiding those principals, you handicap yourself while competing with an opponent who doesn't play by your rules.
History teaches us that in those cases, the opponents don't hesitate to use this for their advantage. Therefore this path is very difficult, and very few people manage to not go astray. Even fewer, succeed in achieving position of power. These individuals are adored, feared or worshiped.

There is other kind of people. Those who pretend to be from the fist group, use their rhetorics, but do not hesitate to break their alleged principals to achieve their goal. Those are demagogs and hypocrites. Unfortunately the last are much more numerous, and some times dangerous.

Now lets apply it to the modern politics. Both groups occupy the whole political spectrum, but it is noticeable that the most dangerous of the second group are the two opposite edges, while sharing many similarities. Two most prominent examples in modern history are fascism an communism. I will not discuss their similarities, since there were many studies that would do that much better than I possibly can.

Todays public sentiments and opinions made the far right groups to be considered unpopular, their rhetorics - bad tone, while oblivious to the demagogs of the far left. I may like, or dislike members of the first group, despise the demagogs, and it doesn't matter which side they belong to.

Watch the racists, who pretend to be minority rights defense groups. Watch the violent anti war activists, who dare to call themselves pacifists. Watch the xenophobes who call themselves patriots.
Watch them and know what they are. Demagogs and hypocrites. Don't let them fool you.

Copyright on public domain?

While trying out the Google book search I found out that Scholastic Inc. is claiming copyright for.... "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" by Jules Verne.
Anyone else finds that something is terribly wrong with this picture, or is it just me?
If I'm not mistaken classics are a public domain and nobody can claim copyright for it.
Perhaps I'll claim copyright for Shakespeare's works, or better still for the Bible. Imagine the revenues from that!

The ass and the MSM

Two of the things that really despise in the mass media are yellow paper style and inconsiderate invasion of privacy. The recent prominent example was presented by the British tabloid The Sun, which is notoriously known for exactly what I stated to hate. The Sun had published very unfitting paparazzi photographs of the German chancellor Angela Merkel, showing her exposed behind. Sadly almost every other media channel is guilty as well, since they have reprinted the notorious pictures while The Sun is “taking the blame”.
MSM people! If you have an uncontrollable desire to publish a picture of an ass, then this one I'm willing accept:


Graham Dudman, current Managing Editor of The Sun.

Lukashenko banned in EU

EU has decided to pose sanctions on president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko. He was declared persona non grata in 26 European countries.
Too bad that EU are not so eager to pose sanctions on Hamas.

Haveil Havalim # 65

This week's Haveil Havalim is up and this my first participation in it. Irina, who volunteered to host this week HH has done a tremendous work, and this one of the most comprehensive HH I have ever seen. Good job Irina.

A sad mistake

I would like to share a story about an event that took place last Sunday, right under my nose, in a small town, where I live called Bney Aish. The next day I started to hear rumors that a terrorist was caught in my town. The rumors also told that the police brought the sapper robot to destroy his explosives charge. I searched the media for this event and found nothing. So I started to ask people, and so I present you what I believe is the most accurate version of events that too place.
A cleaning lady at the local sport center saw a young man, wearing a thick jacket and holding a large bag, standing as waiting for something. This raised her suspicion and some other's who were nearby. Someone has approached the young man and asked him to identify himself. Instead of answering he started to run, surely making everyone to believe that their suspicions are true. The men who were nearby chased and caught him, while the cleaning lady called the police. The over enthusiastic people who caught him, didn't wait for the police and strip searched the "terrorist"; giving him some beating by the way. When the police arrived they took custody of the suspect, and started a routine procedure regarding his bag. In other words they brought the sapper robot to shoot holes in it.
Eventually the "terrorist" turned out to be a Bedouin who lived in a rented apartment nearby. Ironically he was awaiting a ride to an army base since he was summoned to serve in the IDF.
I'm really sad about this incident. I don't know what made him run away. Perhaps he was intimidated by the people coming at him.

And he was a Deputy President...

South African ex-Deputy President Jacob Zuma said he showered after sex with an HIV-positive woman, thinking this would reduce his risk of being infected.

This emerged as he was cross-questioned during his trial for rape.

Einstein once said:

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

The question is:
Is it stupidity, ignorance or a combination of both?

Source BBC
Hat tip andrushka-il

Thimble game

Remember the thimble game? Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had to play this game while forming the future government. He had to decide in which of the three prestigious offices Mr Peretz will cause the least possible damage: Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Finance or Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Olmert made his bet. Peretz will get the Ministry of Defense.

How can they miss him?

In the last two week s I watched a few good Russian TV series based on famous books. In two serials the story takes place at the post war Soviet Union, during the last and the most harsh Stalinist repressions. One of the serials specifically talks about it. It is called “In the First Circle” and the script is written by Soljenitzin himself, based on his book. From the stories of the hell that people went through and the cynicism of the Soviet government, you have to ask yourself, how can so many people miss Stalin and his regime? When there were almost no families left, untouched by Stalin's terror? Even thou that I heard the reasons for people's nostalgia, I simply cannot grasp the thought that someone could miss this monster.

Striving for my words

My blog was pretty quiet lately. The reason in not lack of time, but rather lack of ideas that I would like to blog about. Writing is a difficult task for me and I find it hard to write about something, when I do not have the right emotional state. Moreover, I set for myself some standards that I do not wish to fail, consequently putting further restrictions on my posts.
Funny thing is that in my school years, I considered creative writing lessons as repetitive torments. If someone had told me that I would keep my own blog, I would laugh in his face.