Gaza Massacre! Film at 11.


Basically, the shit is hitting the fan again in an entirely broken record sort of way. Palestinians fire rockets at Israelis for several days, during the holiday of Hanukkah no less. The embattled Israeli government, already under pressure to become more hawkish or risk the election of conservative nutjob Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu decides not to take the rocket firings lying down and batters down on Gaza with effortlessly disproportionate force. The UN cries about it. The impotent United States Government justifies Israel and continues to use its media to muddle an already convoluted and Byzantine tale of woe between Israelis and Palestinians. The destruction goes relatively ignored in a morass of power struggle and opportunism by both groups and at home the pressure is felt by an Israeli national like myself to respond to my friend's facebook comment by saying "Uh, its both sides that are playing war stupid, so how can the Israelis be committing the only war crimes."

It all gives me a gigantic headache and its not just the caffeine withdrawal of the past couple days. I am hoping that Obama will stabilize the region and convince this stupid politically driven killing to stop before a huge shit bomb flies itself over to the campus of Berkeley where Arab Israeli tempers flare up more frequently than bong loads. I want to start reading happier emails from my friend about the latest New York Gay Club and not about how disproportionately evil Tzipi Livni is compared to Ismail Haniyeh. Maybe I am selfish and helpless, but I really do feel exasperated for all of the children Arabs or Jews who can't play outside today because a few politicians could not do what is right and stop flinging bombs at eachother.

Response to my sister: Part 1
She sent me the following link extolling the purity of Dr. Bronner's soap

Note that the other products have a substantial amount of ingredients and chemical names. I chose to focus on Dr. Bronner first and then get into interpreting the other brands later when I have more time.

This is my email in response:

Not everything with a chemical name is bad for you and not everything without a chemical name is good for you.


Coconut oil saponified: sodium cocoate
Olive oil saponified: Sodium olivate
hemp oil:
43-62%Linoleic acid (LA) Omega-6*19-25%Alpha Linolenic acid (LNA) Omega-3* 7-9%Oleic acid Omega-9* 2-4.5%Gamma Linolenic acid (GLA, not shown)1-2%Stearidonic acid (SDA, not shown))8-10%Saturated Oils
jojoba oil:
* Eicosenoic Acid 66-71%
* Docosenoic Acid 14-20%
* Oleic Acid 10-13
peppermint oil and mentha arvensis (similar):
Menthol, menthone, 1,8-cineole, methyl acetate, methofuran, isomenthone, limonene, b-pinene, a-pinene, germacrene-d, trans-sabinene hydrate and pulegone.

Also note that Dr. Bronners does not have a preservative that prevents the rapid growth of bacteria or mold. You may want to throw it out after a few months. However, I absolutely love it for backpacking since it does not impact the environment very much. Caveat: I used a lot of it one time and it burned my eyes.

It occurs to me that no one reads this, and if they do they should delurk so I don't feel like a lonely angry woman on the internet with her rants. Wait I feel like that already..nevermind.

Detroit without us
I've been reading this book called The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. It is a post-apocalyptic journey of life after mankind assuming the non-human world is intact. The situation in Detroit is a fairly dire one, and the government has been summoned to rescue automakers who determine the livelihood of this city and the state of the American economy. However, Detroit has already been undergoing extreme poverty for a long time and these photos are hauntingly similar to the descriptions of the first chapter in the book of New York City. I can not help but think of what would happen if the bailout fails and the ensuing economic crisis destroyed cities in such a way that nature would actually take over. If the bailout fails, Detroit will be a live example.