"Where else would you go when you have an ax to grind?"

Saturday, July 22, 2006

You have to be carefully taught
Peace in the Middle East is not going to happen because of a treaty or because of a wall or because one group largely exterminates another. It is going to happen when the number of people on each side who consider those on the other side to be just as human as themselves outnumber those who hate and dehumanize their opponents. A lot of those who side with Israel like to criticize the Palestinians for "raising a generation of terrorists" in the refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank. They love to post pictures of Palestinian toddlers waving toy guns and "death to Israel" signs to prove their point. Corrente, with a very graphic selection of photos, shows the Palestinians are not only ones teaching their children to hate.

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear
You've got to be taught
From year to Year
It's got to be drummed
in your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught

You've got to be taught
To be Afraid
Of people whose eyes
are oddly made
And people whose skin
Is a different shade
You've got to be carefully taught

You've got to be taught
Before it's too late
Before you are 6 or 7 or 8
To hate all the people
your relatives hate
You've got to be carefully taught
-Rogers and Hammerstien

Geography lesson
Remember when the U.S. precision bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade and blamed inaccurate maps for mistargetting? We keep seeing surveys about how a lot of people in the U.S. lack a knowledge of the world outside the U.S. and seem, like their president, to be more than a little trigger happy when it comes to going to war, but I've never really believed that there are Americans aside from the small minority who eat paint chips and call talk radio shows who truely can't find Iran on a map and think their country should go to war with France. This clip from Australian Television shows how wrong I am.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Deja vu all over again
This is every argument you've ever read online and every discussion you've ever had with a "rock-ribbed" Republican, Reform Party member or Fox News fan.

(thanks to Canadian Cynic for pointing the way)