Want to Take a Walk on the Wild Side? - Kos Israel/Palestine Diaries

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Friday July 25, 2014 · 8:53 AM PDT

2014/07/25 · 08:53

Maybe its vice versa and should be the Palestine/Israel Kos. This could be debated by the kos members for hours. Natural Law would be cited; Inalienable Rights;
One thing for sure:

Everyone hrs everything. If it bothers you don't participate in those diaries.

Recently, the pissing contests have been relatively moderate. The HR's questionable in most cases. Except for conspiracy theories, Kos appears to let most anything else ride. Then he apparently goes all-in every couple of years with a purge.

What is telling is the lack of rec's after an HR or or two, or TEN. Most kossacks don't want to get involved in i/p pipping contests.

And then there's this worthy quote from dkosopedia:

http://www.dkosopedia.com/...

To Troll Rate something has exactly one meaning. When you Troll Rate something, as a trusted user, you are stating that the comment should be made invisible to all site users. You're saying that the comment is so bad -- so disruptive or damaging to the community -- that it isn't worth even a debate, but should be deleted from the discussion as being simply inflammatory, simply off-topic, or simply a lie. Remember that, because that is the only use of the troll rating.

Given My First HR in Seven Years

Notreadytobenice

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Sunday July 06, 2014 · 12:10 PM PDT

2014/07/06 · 12:10

My first HR since becoming a kossack in 2007. A comment in Lib Dem FoP's worthy

diary concerning the death of the Palestinian boy and whether it's fueling a new intifada.

I have made over 3,000 comments without a HR but have written only 5 diaries. My first diary was in 2011 titled "Syria 25 deaths today." It's a short ditty ending with:

The Syrian people uprising may have legs as the minor nobility resists as well as those concerned at the degradation next door in Iraq. I wish them well.

My comment concerned the right wing assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the unknown killer of Yasser Arafat:

Arafat + Rabin and look what happened to them. n/t (1+ / 3-)

(8:30 p.m. last night, 7/06/14)

We can wish the middle east "well" but that's all we should do. We have tried for many years but whatever our country touches in the ME we break.

Today, I asked my 20 something kids if they know who Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat were; they did not. Told them the story; President Clinton's hard work; their Oslo peace prize; the assassination of Rabin by a right-wing assassin soon after; the poisoning of Arafat by an unknown murderer. Also, quoted Rabin:

After the historical handshake with Yasser Arafat, Rabin said, on behalf of the Israeli people: "We who have fought against you, the Palestinians, we say to you today, in a loud and a clear voice, enough of blood and tears ... enough!

(Source: Rabin's wiki).

A warning to Americans. We should pack our bags and leave. "I have had enough of them." The ME is a mess. In the movie Riddick is this quote:

In our religion, you keep what you kill

Aaron Swartz, Carmen Ortiz and M.I.T.

Notreadytobenice

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Tuesday August 13, 2013 · 7:35 PM PDT

2013/08/13 · 19:35

Wired Magazine's lawsuit for secret service documents pertaining to Aaron Swartz's indictment just resulted in the release of 104 heavily redacted pages. Over 10,000 pages left to go. Here a quote from Wired:
http://www.wired.com/...

After half-a-year of delays and roadblocks, the U.S Secret Service today released the first 104 pages of agency documents about the late coder and activist Aaron Swartz, including a brief report on Swartz’s suicide less than three months before his scheduled trial.
“On 1/11/13, Aaron Swartz was found dead in his apartment in Brooklyn, as a result of an apparent suicide,” reads a January 17, 2013 Secret Service memo. “A suppression hearing in this had been scheduled for 1/25/13 with a trial date of 4/1/13, in U.S. District Court of the District of Massachusetts.”

These documents were released in perfect harmony with the juror's decision in the Whitey Bulger trial here in Boston. Several juror's expressed their disdain of the federal prosecutors and the FBI. United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Carmen Ortiz almost had an orgasm in reading prepared remarks about how wonderful she is and between the lines, how wonderful a governor she would be. For a recap of the verdict check out this website:
http://thetrialofwhiteybulger.com/...

Ah, we still have the delusional FBI to contend with which thinks its policy of hiding behind “under investigation” and its corrupt ways are behind us. If only it were so but we still await the answers in its two-year investigation of Rossetti, why it failed in the Marathon Terrorist Attack, and why it killed Todashev in Florida and James Lee DiMaggio in Idaho. By the way did you notice when two Boston cops were shot on Dorchester Avenue and the guy who pulled a gun on them killed, there was a deputy superintendent from the Boston police at the scene telling us what happened. Had two FBI agents done the same thing, we’d have to wait months to find out. Agent Lisi should know we’re not buying what he’s selling.

In the middle is the weak knee'd nobility of the beaver clan at M.I.T. the wired magazine article linked above say's this:

After coming under harsh public scrutiny for its role in the case - including accusations that university administrators targeted Swartz and sought his prosecution - MIT released a report in July absolving administrators of any wrongdoing. Critics have also wondered why university officials were kept out of the public eye while assistant US Attorney Stephen Heymann assembled the case against Swartz, even as the suspect himself publicly proclaimed his own innocence.

Here in Boston, the shit has hit the fan with the corruption and incompetence of the FBI and the federal prosecutors. Totally missed the marathon bombers spending all their time on Schwartz and Bulger.

M.I.T. can claim mia-culpa but their role in Swartz's death is a permanent stain.
And the media happily plays along. Disgusting.

Israel/Turkey Make Nice (Again)

Notreadytobenice

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Friday March 22, 2013 · 9:43 AM PDT

2013/03/22 · 09:43

Breaking news
Just google "Netanyahu Apologizes to Turkey" and take your pick.
And what's sweet:

"...the phone call between Netanyahu and Erdogan took place in a trailer at the Tel-Aviv airport where President Obama was taking off for Amman. The senior administration official said at one point Obama jumped in on the call..."

Source: Israel Apologizes To Turkey Over 2010 Flotilla Raid
by EYDER PERALTA
March 22, 201311:18 AM

What's amazing is the voluminous negative comments. Russia Today (RT) reader comments particularly sucky.

A little wiki ancient history: http://en.wikipedia.org/...

The Battle of Kadesh (also Qadesh) took place between the forces of the Egyptian Empire under Ramesses II and the Hittite Empire under Muwatalli II at the city of Kadesh on the Orontes River, in what is now the Syrian Arab Republic.
The battle is generally dated to 1274 BC, and is the earliest battle in recorded history for which details of tactics and formations are known.[11] It was probably the largest chariot battle ever fought, involving perhaps 5,000–6,000 chariots....
....The running borderlands conflicts were finally concluded some fifteen years after the Battle of Kadesh by an official peace treaty in 1258 BC, in the 21st year of Ramesses II's reign, with Hattusili III, the new king of the Hittites. The treaty that was established was inscribed on a silver tablet, of which a clay copy survived in the Hittite capital of Hattusa, in modern Turkey, and is on display at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. An enlarged replica of the Kadesh agreement hangs on a wall at the headquarters of the United Nations, as the earliest international peace treaty known to historians.

Sound familiar.

Ortiz costs US another Million today

Notreadytobenice

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Friday January 25, 2013 · 8:50 AM PST

2013/01/25 · 08:50

About half to pay for legal fees and another half in additional Ortiz minions time.
Judge decides MA motel won't be confiscated by Ortiz. Not a good day for the Federal Attorney General office here in Boston. Here's the headline on the wbur (Boston University) website:
"Judge Dismisses Government Seizure Attempt Of Tewksbury Motel"
By David Boeri January 24, 2013 Updated Jan 25, 7:02 am

In what is being called a triumph for property rights, a federal judge in Boston has rejected the federal government’s attempt to seize a family-owned motel in Tewksbury under a controversial civil forfeiture law.
The owners of Motel Caswell have never been charged with any crimes and have never come under police suspicion. But in a trial last November, the U.S. attorney’s office sought to take the property because it alleged the motel — the building — had “facilitated” drug crimes.

“I’m in shock right now,” said 69-year-old Russell Caswell. “Been three and a half years of this garbage. Takes a while to comprehend it’s finally over with.”

WBUR link: http: http://www.wbur.org/...

And highly respected retired federal Judge Nancy Gertner had this to say a week ago:
"Retired Federal Judge Joins Criticism Over Handling Of Swartz Case"
By David Boeri January 16, 2013

...For 17 years, Nancy Gertner sat as a federal judge here in Boston. She says she was troubled by much of what she learned and saw from the bench before leaving in 2011. And she says Ortiz should not have prosecuted Swartz.
“Just because you can charge someone with a crime, just because a technical crime has been committed, doesn’t mean you should,” Gertner said.

Lactose Intolerance/Persistence

Notreadytobenice

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Monday October 10, 2011 · 4:26 PM PDT

2011/10/10 · 16:26

This quote from the (great) diarist Ojibwa on "Ancient Scotland" caught my attention:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
"...In addition to cereal crops, cattle appear to have been an important part of their subsistence. This suggests that they were descendants of the Homo sapiens population in Turkey about 8,000 years ago when there was a genetic mutation that allowed adults to consume milk..."

Have gone down the milk wiki well. Let me share with you what I have found about adult consuption of milk. Here's a wiki on "lactose persistence":
http://en.wikipedia.org/...

It has a spreadsheet showing lactose intolerance ranging from .2% for Basques, 10% for Brits, 50% for Italians, 80% for Chinese through to 100% for Native Americans.

I am old and remember a conflict between my first generation Italian parents pushing milk even though they were not big fans. I remember my immigrant grandparents not being fans of milk. Big fans of wine with parmesian cheese.

This wiki link on gene-culture coevolution is interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...

"....Culture can profoundly influence gene frequencies in a population. One of the best known examples is the prevalence of the genotype for adult lactose absorption in human populations, such as Northern Europeans and some African societies, with a long history of raising cattle for milk. Other societies such as East Asians and Amerindians, retain the typical mammalian genotype in which the body shuts down lactase production shortly after the normal age of weaning. This implies that the cultural practice of raising cattle for milk led to a selection for genetic traits for lactose digestion.[18] Recently, analysis of natural selection on the human genome suggests that civilization has accelerated genetic change in humans over the past 10,000 years...."

The BBC has an article on China going from no big fans of milk to milk being all the rage:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/...

"..."When I first went to Hong Kong in the 1960s, I would bring in little pieces of New Zealand cheese. At one point the landlord, a Cantonese guy, saw the cheese and got violently ill just by the sight. It grossed him out, as much the idea of eating rotten cow's milk as anything. Now his grandchildren are eating pizza and processed cheese...."

In the back of my head there's an aversion to dairy products. I'd rather have a wine orange cooler or even better a wine whiskey manhattan :-)
Some of my earliest memories are drinking wine coolers and an occasional sip of a manhattan at my grandparents homes.

I may have a cultural aversion to drinking dairy products but i'm not lactose intolerant.
Seems with what's happening in historically milk aversion countries like China is an intersesting story of cultural changes trumping natural selection.

Syria 25 deaths today

Notreadytobenice

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday April 22, 2011 · 10:13 AM PDT

2011/04/22 · 10:13

While we focus on our own internal troubles, NPR, ALJ, Guardian et al are reporting on the unrest in Syria that is "certainly troubling the regime." "Deep frustration that change has arrived so late and has not gone far enough"
NPR reporter continues: "The regime has been remarkably quiet" and they are "playing with the old rules" sealing the border and think "the word will not get out."

"There is an economic elite that has done very well." Others such as "religous and ethinic minorities" look to Iraq and see not so good for them.

The report was for 5 minutes at 12:35 EST.

Here's a link to a VOA video (and old report).
http://www.voanews.com/...

I have watched the struggle in the fertile crescent and it's colonies since Tunisia uprising and remember those familiar with Tunisa as to comments that this was going spread (even to former outlying areas such as the Turk republics). Something our intelligence agencies have apprently totally missed.

ALJ spenidng a lot of time on the protests. Happy to see NPR devote five minutes. The Syrian people uprising may have legs as the minor nobility resists as well as those concerned at the degradation next door in Iraq. I wish them well.

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