Here’s a clip of my favorite Israeli songwriter (one of my favorites in general for that matter) Ehud Banai performing with two legendary Palestinian musicians, George Samaan and Salem Darwishe, on the shores of the Galilee. The song is called Nitzotz Ahava or Spark of Love. It contains the lyric “What for me is peace, for you is war” followed by “The place you are going to, there I will also reach.”
What would peace here sound like? A lot like this. Pretty damn good I think. Enjoy.
No, not him.
Not him, either.
This ass-hat is the one I’m talking about.!
Top Ten Reasons to Make Gay Marriage Illegal
01) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.
02) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
03) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
04) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn’t changed at all like many of the principles on which this great country was founded; women are still property, blacks still can’t marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.
05) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of marriages like Britney Spears’ 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
06) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn’t be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren’t full yet, and the world needs more children.
07) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
08) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That’s why we have only one religion in America.
09) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That’s why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.
10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven’t adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.
I brought this up in an earlier post on my site, The Journeying Progressive, but no one has commented on it directly…didn’t Thomas Jefferson write that we were endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, and that “among these” are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
On my way into the center of Jerusalem this week, I witnessed some proverbial “writing on the wall.” An enigmatic call appeared in graffiti on the retaining wall of a park I pass through each morning. Against the pale stone background someone had spray-painted in Hebrew: “If Obama will not come to the mountain; the mountain will come to Obama.” Beyond the worrying placement of Obama’s name where that of Muhammed usually appears, I am not sure what the scrawl defacing this picturesque park intends to say. But an editorial by Aluf Benn in this morning’s Haaretz clarified to me that in order to move forward here, it is time for the President to come to the mountain, to the original “city on a hill.”
more…
What was The Journeying Progressive thinking today, politically, American-ly?
I have to tell you…it isn’t pretty…and the Tour action that got my blood flowing lead to a little bit of passion against one of my biggest pet peeves, in Stage 4 of our Tour de Progress:
Michael Jackson was laid to rest today, in a process that would only make sense for kings, queens and someone quite possibly more widely known than any royalty who ever lived. In between other things throughout the day I variously listened and watched the procession and the memorial and have caught other pieces repeated later (Stevie Wonder is singing now, for example).
It is an interesting and unique opportunity to consider the impact of entertainment on the human condition, on the value of exporting culture through entertainment. To consider the good that wealth can make possible (Michael’s financial success allowed him to support more charities than any other pop star), and the burden of childhood fame.
At the end of the day, it took a child – a daughter – to bring it down to the human level. In a moment already criticized by some, Paris Jackson told us she loved her father. I don’t pretend to know what is best for a young lady in a position like hers – I doubt there are many precedents to look to – but in the context of her life I will simply say that I admire her for speaking up for her father, and I will leave it there.
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As an honorary Nuyorican (New York Puerto Rican) and long time activist in the Puerto Rican community, and wife of a Puerto Rican, I’m appalled at the blatant racism of the stepped-up attacks against not only Sonia Sotomayor, but Puerto Ricans, who are US citizens.
As you all know the latest salvos against Sonia Sotomayor concern her seat as a member of the Board of Directors of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (recently renamed Latino Justice PRLDEF). Wingers are spewing tons of misinformation about the organization, and its role in defending Puerto Ricans, and others against systemic discrimination.
Doubtful if the same wingers could get away with such open bashing of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, founded in 1940 by Thurgood Marshall, but since Puerto Ricans are a minority within a minority they have less of a national presence, and far fewer voices to defend them.
It’s interesting, in the full Chinese curse sense, that so many Republicans have turned from conservation and environmental protection. Especially, when you see one of my State Senators, Sylvia Allan, in full wing nut mode.
I especially like the 6000 years that the Earth’s been here. Which is perhaps where we have some of the divide.