Reading about Mary Beard and the rape she experienced and her [later] reporting of it, on the New Yorker's web site, has made me want to do the same. Her experience could be called a date rape, just as mine is/was, and she and I didn't quite know how to look at it in those days. It was only later, when the phrase date rape became a part of our lexicon, that I was able to see it for what it was.

It was long ago, in my bathtub-in-the-kitchen Sullivan Street walk-up, that it happened. A man I had always liked a lot dropped in one evening--we'd seen each other at several recent parties. Actually, I don't think it was a drop-in; I think we'd made a date. Anyway, I was of course happy to see him. (I think we called him Red for his hair, but I don't remember his real name.) He proceeded to take me to bed, my own bed, despite my objections. I thought of everything; I tried everything, including the words "no" and "stop," but nothing worked. He was determined; I was a well-behaved young lady. Hitting him over the head with a frying pan never occurred to me (it might have been possible--well, maybe a heavy book would have been closer to hand). Calling the police? Faggedaboudit. They would have laughed at me. Of course I never told anyone. I felt very much as if it was my fault. Until many years later, when date rape was invented. Then I knew what had happened.

I am so appalled by Israel's murderous attack on Gaza, just ending now apparently. It seems so obvious to me that Israel wants simply to get rid of the Arabs, views them as less than human (much as I hate these comparisons, I'm afraid that was the way the Nazis viewed the Jews). They do all they can to ruin the Arabs's lives, short of just gunning them down, except in what they call war. To expect a people to live for years under occupation and then to be shocked by an intifada? Give me a break. They want ethnic cleansing, but they are not quite arrogant enough to announce that to the world. Just make their lives so horrible that they will leave (although sometimes they can't even if they want to, but I guess the Israeli government enjoys watching their dilemma--it sure does seem that way. I fear the government has also brutalized its people--Jews are not well-known for behaving this way. All this schadenfreude. I wouldn't have expected it.

NOTE FROM SAM HARRIS'S BLOG (on Gaza): "It is worth observing, however, that Israel isn’t “Jewish” in the sense that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are “Muslim.” As my friend Jerry Coyne points out, Israel is actually less religious than the U.S., and it guarantees freedom of religion to its citizens. Israel is not a theocracy, and one could easily argue that its Jewish identity is more cultural than religious. However, if we ask why the Jews wouldn’t move to British Columbia if offered a home there, we can see the role that religion still plays in their thinking.]

Sam Harris seems to feel quite strongly, despite several caveats, that Israel is, in sum, right. That's a position I cannot agree with, but especially I don't know what he's talking about in the "note" above. What does the part about Israel not being Jewish in the same way Saudi Arabia... is Muslim mean? And all the rest. Don't get it.

I definitely feel there's no excuse for Israel's behavior in Gaza and on the West Bank. I also believe Jews SHOULD be held to a higher standard and, while I thought right after the Holocaust that they (we) should have a country of their (our) own, I'm not at all sure I believe that now. Plus, why shouldn't the Palestinians have a country of their own. It was theirs when the Jews came. Seven hundred thousand people were displaced. That is wrong.

Why Do Our Elites Keep Behaving Like Criminals And Sociopaths?

- The question is from: http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.mx/#sthash.R544K0aF.yRXG6FTy.dpuf But isn't it obvious? Not only are they criminals and sociopaths who cannot behave any other way, but also, they love money and this behavior gets them more of that.