Baron Dave Romm
Hamas
By Baron Dave Romm
Shockwave Radio Theater podcasts
Franken vs. Coleman: The Saga Continues
Why won't Gov. Tim "Mayor Daley" Pawlenty let Minnesota have two senators?
Right wing satirists don't spread the love
Haven't heard from Paul Shanklin about We Hate The USA, as discussed last week. Not everyone sends me a CD, even if it means a review and airtime. Oh well. I don't care enough to take major action, but I'll get around to digging out a cut or two.
Generic comment #1: Free speech means free speech for all.
Generic comment #2: "The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously." -- Hubert H. Humphrey
So there.
Meanwhile, my opinion of Chip Saltsman remains the same: A right-wing blowhard with no values worth promoting, who is pandering to the mean-spirited "base" of the GOP. If the goppies are smart -- and they rarely are except by accident -- they won't let him run the Republican National Committee.
Thugs and murders
*sigh*
I've been putting off writing about the current conflict in Israel, and I'm mostly going to continue putting it off. Just a few comments here. Israel is one of the weaknesses of the liberal movement. In their rush to out-compassion the right, they have glommed on to the "Palestinians" as a cause, even though they don't deserve any respect and their wounds are largely self-inflicted.
Every time I defend Israel and Israel's actions, however grudgingly, I get accused of being in cahoots with the far right elements of the Bush administration. Yeah, well fuck you too.
You on the left can't whine, "Oh, every criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic" and then judge us on the same one-note sound bite that you don't want to be judged by. The fact remains that all those who hate the Jews are sympathetic to the "plight" of the residents of Gaza/West Bank. In discussion recently, the neo-Nazis have come out and they don't sound all that much different than the screeds from the left or from the knee-jerk Muslim community. No, you aren't necessarily a Nazi if you condemn Israel for some actions, but you are in very bad company and you have to separate yourself from your worst elements. In just the same way that those of us who support Israel must separate ourselves from the worst anti-Muslim hatemongers. You can't hold a double standard without losing credibility.
Hmm... I'm madder than I thought. Geeze, some of the "dialog" is disgusting, and very reminiscent of Germany about the time of Kristolnacht. So let me try to explain my position as calmly and dispassionately as possible in a frenzied and emotional situation.
I don't like what Israel is doing. But I understand it. I hate what Hamas is doing, and I don't understand it.
Hamas could have had peace... the refugees could have had a country... several times over the last 60 years and kept throwing away the opportunity. I'm with Golda Meir: "There will be peace in the Middle East only when the Arabs love their children more than they hate Israel."
Hamas refused to continue the ceasefire. The people of Gaza/West Bank knew exactly what they wanted, which was to fire missiles and continue attacking Israel. And they knew retaliation was going to happen. They relied on comments like many expressed here, full of fury at the side defending itself. As an American, I support the lone democracy in the region. As a person who wants peace, I'm tired of thugs pretending to be a legitimate political force. If the radicals refuse to negotiate, all civilized people should push them into negotiations or punish them when they go on murderous sprees.
No, it's not that simple.
Rosa Brooks wrote a pretty good commentary, only a little biased in favor of the refugees. The Gaza Blame Game:
How to be stupid . . .She goes on, and you should read the whole thing, if you haven't already. But she left out a major aspect of the conflict, one that the left routinely ignores. The "Israeli/Palestinian" conflict isn't solely between Israel or those claiming to be Palestinians. To separate this conflict from similar murderous sprees in Egypt, Morocco, Jordan etc etc is foolish and blinds you to any real solution. So let me add to Brooks' list: How to be stupid . . .
. . Hamas style Refuse to recognize Israel. Remind the world that the establishment of Israel in 1948 was accompanied by the often violent displacement of 700,000 Palestinians, but ignore the fact that more than 60 years have gone by, making it a bit late for a do-over. Ignore the fact that most Israelis weren't even born in 1948, and that Israel is recognized as legitimate by an overwhelming majority of the world's states. Keep insisting on its destruction.
Treat the residents of Gaza/West Bank like political pawns. Since they arrived in the area around the 1900, the migrant workers were in a lower caste. They were never "brothers" of other arabs. They were the last hired and first fired under any circumstance. They were told, by the arab states, not to accept the UN agreement in 1947 and told to stay put in the war of 1948. They are not treated like brethren by Muslims or arabs. They exist for propaganda purposes.
Don't allow residents of Gaza/West Bank into your country, even if their family has roots and close relatives. The reason the people in Gaza have no hope isn't because of Israel, it's because they can't go home. None of the other countries will take them. When they did, they learned to regret it. More "Palestinians" have died at the hands of other arabs and other "Palestinians" then from Israeli action.
Pretend that the conflict with Israel is unique, and completely separate from your own conflict with radicals. Be careful what you wish for. You might get it.
Don't include your country's refugee situation in any peace agreements with Israel. Egypt an Jordan, to name two, have co-existed with Israel for sixty years. Yet their treaties don't say anything about accepting those of Egyptian or Jordanian ancestry back into their home country. Jordan tried that, and would up killing 10,000 of expatriates. If the arab states won't let them come home, they should find a place for them.
Israel, surrounded on all sides by people who have vowed ethnic cleansing, has given land for peace under many circumstances. It is time for the arab states to give a little land for a lot of peace. And the land they should give up is Gaza and the West Bank. The time for any "two state" solution is long passed, destroyed by the second Intifada and children who are suicide bombers.
To make peace, the arab states must take some responsibility for the problem.
No, it's not that simple.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog, plays with a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E. Podcasts of Shockwave Radio Theater. Permanent archive. More radio programs, interviews and science fiction humor plays can be accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
The Weekly Poll
Break Time
I'm gonna take a break for a week or two to catch up from the holidays and focus on some personal affairs (mainly relocation closer to my immediate family).
I'll be back soon, I assure you!... Meanwhile, don't let the bastards get ya down!
BadToTheBoneBob ( BCEpoll 'at' aol.com )
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Nat Hentoff's Last Column: The 50-Year Veteran Says Goodbye (villagevoice.com)
I've borrowed Woody Guthrie's 1942 song to report that this is my last column for the Voice. I'm not retiring; I've never forgotten my exchange on that decision with Duke Ellington. In those years, he and the band played over 200 one-nighters a year, with jumps from, say, Toronto to Dallas. On one of his rare nights off, Duke looked very beat, and I presumptuously said: "You don't have to keep going through this. With the standards you've written, you could retire on your ASCAP income."
FROMA HARROP: Onus Now on Dems for Ethical Government (creators.com)
There are those who regard politics as sport and those who see it as an adjunct to government. They frame things very differently. When New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson exited as commerce secretary nominee, the sports fans saw a dropped ball by an otherwise flawless player, Barack Obama. The good government crowd deemed it a save.
FROMA HARROP: The Mortgage Thieves Return (creators.com)
First come the shady operators, then comes the collapse, then comes the bailout, then come the shady operators. That, too often, is the sad history of financial meltdowns and their cleanups.
STEPHEN MIHM: Dr. Doom (nytimes.com; from 15 August 2008)
On Sept. 7, 2006, Nouriel Roubini, an economics professor at New York University, stood before an audience of economists at the International Monetary Fund and announced that a crisis was brewing. In the coming months and years, he warned, the United States was likely to face a once-in-a-lifetime housing bust, an oil shock, sharply declining consumer confidence and, ultimately, a deep recession.
ROB HORNING: Depression Modern (popmatters.com)
Americans can't afford to spend like they used to, but is frugal living ever really going to become trendy?
Hattie Collins: "Lady GaGa: the future of pop?" (timesonline.co.uk)
Ask New York who will be big in 2009 and you'll only get one answer.
Little Boots: the big sound for 2009 (timesonline.co.uk)
She's Blackpool's answer to Kylie and a fan of unhinged escapism -- Sophie Heawood meets Little Boots, hot tip for 2009.
'I've done so much embarrassing stuff it's untrue' (guardian.co.uk)
A year ago she was singing Madonna covers in her pyjamas on YouTube. Now she has been voted the hottest act of 2009. Alexis Petridis meets Little Boots.
Seconds out for Mickey Rourke (timesonline.co.uk)
As "The Wrestler" holds a mirror to the actor's own life, the actor lays bare the torment behind his hellraising past.
"The Donna Reed Show: The Complete First Season": A Review by Jake Meaney (popmatters.com)
Am I arguing for a contemporary relevance of a 50-year old program? Perhaps. But perhaps also its impossible now to see what was there; perhaps we no longer have the ears to hear its gentle message, to appreciate its lack of cynicism. Perhaps we no longer have the capacity to entertain its impossible idealism. But if there's a ray of hope left, if we are able to find some sort of resonant chords of optimism and decency within ourselves, then Donna Reed has arrived on DVD not a moment too soon.
"Here's the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice" by Maureen McCormick" A Review by Siobhan Welch (popmatters.com)
But like many child stars before and after her, who grow up in the business with a sense of entitlement, McCormick wasn't exactly trying to succeed. She wasn't working on her craft, studying acting or doing theater. She was snorting coke with other wayward actors looking for hand-outs.
David Bruce: The Funniest People Who Live Life (Free Download)
This book contains 250 anecdotes, including these: 1) Like other satirists, Mort Sahl is angry and he wants other people to be angry. (Certainly we have enough things to be angry about, and getting angry about them may result in change.) He once advised, "You know what I want you to do? I want you to blow out the candles and curse the darkness." Mr. Sahl was a good friend of jazz musician Paul Desmond, a sax player. Mr. Sahl once gave Mr. Desmond a cigarette lighter inscribed, "To the sound from the fury." 2) Comedian Pat Henning once toured England, then many years and a toupee later, toured England again. The toupee did its job-theater managers told him that he was much funnier than his father had been.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
Your Woman. My Woman! Your Wife - AGAIN?
A Prequel in the Further Risque Adventures of Ol' W?
MAM 
responded:
Reader Comment
Re: Fruit Helmets
Now, Marty, doesn't that story about the fruit helmets in Nigeria scream out to have the picture of the kitty with the lime helmet attached to it??
Linda >^..^<
Thanks, Linda!
This one? 
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny with summertime temperatures.
1 In 200 Kids
Vegetarians
Sam Silverman is co-captain of his high school football team - a safety accustomed to bruising collisions. But that's nothing compared with the abuse he gets for being a vegetarian.
"All the time, my friends try to get me to eat meat and tell me how good it tastes and how much bigger I would be," said Silverman, who is 5-foot-10 and 170 pounds. "But for me, there's no real temptation."
Silverman may feel like a vegetable vendor at a butchers' convention, but about 367,000 other kids are in the same boat, according to a recent study that provides the government's first estimate of how many children avoid meat. That's about 1 in 200.
Other surveys suggest the rate could be four to six times that among older teens who have more control over what they eat than young children do.
Vegetarians
Surfs With Orcas
Craig Hunter
A New Zealand man surfed with three killer-whales at the weekend, saying the waves were too good to be put off by the predators, a local newspaper reported.
Craig Hunter, who has been surfing off New Zealand's North Island for almost 50 years, told the Dominion Post he spotted an adult orca and two young calves lurking just beyond the breakers as was surfing Saturday.
"There was no way I was going in because the waves were too good," Hunter said, adding that this was not the first time he had surfed with an orca. He said he was too old to be bothered by the possibility of being attacked.
"My outlook is they are big enough and quick enough. If they thought I was a seal, I'd be long gone." There have been no known cases of orca attacking humans, the Dominion Post said.
Craig Hunter
Wedding News
Ferguson - Duhamel
The Dutchess is a bride. Her manager says Fergie and Josh Duhamel have been married.
Manager William Derella said by e-mail that the 33-year-old "Fergalicious" singer-actress, whose real name is Stacy Ferguson, and the 36-year-old "Transformers" actor were married Saturday at the Church Estates Vineyards in Malibu.
The Black Eyed Peas singer launched her solo career in 2006 with the hit album "The Dutchess" - the title is a misspelled variation of the title formerly held by Sarah "Fergie" Ferguson, the Duchess of York.
Ferguson - Duhamel
Baby News
Baby Boy Henson
Singer and presenter Charlotte Church gave birth to her second child with rugby star Gavin Henson.
The 22-year-old was at home the Vale of Glamorgan in south Wales with Henson for the birth just after midnight.
The baby boy weighed in at 7lb and 5oz but the couple have yet to announce a name for their son, a statement on the star's website said.
Baby Boy Henson
Recycling The News
Sean Hannity
Barack Obama may be moving into the White House and the Democrats tightening their grip on Congress, but conservative talk show host Sean Hannity is looking on the bright side.
His self-titled Fox News Channel/Republican propaganda program premieres on Monday, and he hopes some of the 57 million Americans who voted for Republican candidate John McCain will tune in.
"This is an incredible time in our nation's history and as a fiscal and social conservative . . . I won't be hesitant to share my corporate masters views with my audience," he says.
Sean Hannity
Visited Sandy Hook
NJ's Dolphins
The survivors of a group of dolphins living in a New Jersey river have returned after briefly heading toward the sea.
Three of the five dolphins returned to the Shrewsbury River after they were spotted Saturday in Sandy Hook Bay, authorities said. They were apparently frightened by construction noise near the bay, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center said.
Four dolphins tried to cross again Sunday but turned back, although it wasn't clear why, the center said.
Three dolphins had been confirmed dead out of the original group of 16 that spent the summer and fall in the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers. Authorities don't know what happened to the others.
NJ's Dolphins
Charged In Stabbing
Samy Naceri
French actor Samy Naceri, who starred in the World War II film "Days of Glory," was jailed Sunday after being charged with stabbing his ex-girlfriend's companion in a confrontation on a Paris street, judicial officials said.
Naceri, 47, was charged with armed voluntary violence. He was also charged with making repeated death threats, the actor's lawyer Francoise Cotta said.
Naceri, who suffers from a liver illness, was recently freed from prison for medical reasons.
He has had frequent run-ins with the law. He was most recently convicted in November and given a six-month prison term for striking a police officer with his car as he drove without a license. He is appealing that case.
Samy Naceri
Migrates To US For First Time
Pine Flycatcher
Birders with binoculars and cameras are flocking to a remote state park in search of a small yellow-chested bird that apparently crossed the U.S. border for the first time from its high-mountain habitat to the south.
At 5 inches with beige and yellow markings, the pine flycatcher doesn't look like much, but its unprecedented migration from Mexico and Guatemala is exciting birders all over the country.
"It's not a thrilling bird visually. It's thrilling because it's a first U.S. record," said Wes Biggs, who flew to Choke Canyon State Park from Orlando, Fla., to catch a glimpse.
The bird, which appears to be alone, was first spotted last month and as recently as Friday. The sightings have been confirmed by photographs and recordings of its chirping. The bird, with a solitary nature, usually stays at high elevations but made its winter home in the low Texas scrubland about 200 miles north of its usual habitat.
Pine Flycatcher
Weekend Box Office
`Gran Torino'
Clint Eastwood has had the best movie opening of his long and esteemed career. His "Gran Torino" revved up the winter box office with $29 million in ticket sales in its first weekend of wide release, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Eastwood stole the box-office bouquet from Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson. Their wedding comedy "Bride Wars," released by 20th Century Fox, came in second with $21.5 million. The horror film "The Unborn" from Universal Pictures followed with $21.1 million in its debut.
Focus Features' "Milk," Paramount Vantage's "Revolutionary Road" and Fox Searchlight's "The Wrestler" - all with awards hopes at the Globes and beyond - were among the best performers in screen average. Each hopes to continue to build momentum as the Oscars near.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Gran Torino," $29 million.
2. "Bride Wars," $21.5 million.
3. "The Unborn," $21.1 million.
4. "Marley & Me," $11.4 million.
5. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," $9.4 million.
6. "Bedtime Stories," $8.6 million.
7. "Valkyrie," $6.7 million.
8. "Yes Man," $6.2 million.
9. "Not Easily Broken," $5.6 million.
10. "Seven Pounds," $3.9 million.
`Gran Torino'
In Memory
Don Randall
Don Randall, the marketing dynamo who gave Fender's Stratocaster guitar its name and led the brand to onstage ubiquity, has died. He was 91.
Randall was born Oct. 30, 1917, in Kendrick, Idaho, and moved with his family to California when he was 10.
He was managing an electric parts wholesaler in Santa Ana when he learned about the lap steel guitars and small amplifiers Fender was building in his small radio shop in nearby Fullerton. The two teamed up to form what is now the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Fender Musical Instruments Corp.
He named Fender's first commercially available guitar the Broadcaster in 1950, then renamed it the Telecaster following a trademark dispute with another company. In 1954, he tapped into his background as an aviation enthusiast and pilot to dub Fender's newest guitar the Stratocaster.
Randall negotiated the 1965 sale of Fender's firm to CBS for $13 million. In 1970, he founded Randall Instruments in Irvine, which he sold in 1987. Fender died in 1991.
Don Randall
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