Overdetermined. The word of the year? The decade? The century? While "overdetermined" was used quite a bit in the last century, in this one, it seems to be taking over. In just the last day, I have come upon it in about four times in four web excursions. Very useful it is, too, when you're talking about something we all know and are already bored with. But is the word "overdetermined" also overdetermined? Yes, I think so.

Jeff Koons at the Whitney:

A wonderful piece by Jed Perl in the New York Review of Books: "His combination of in-your-face banality and in-your-face extravagance"is just one beautiful phrase among many. How I detest that banality and that extravagance and everything this "artist" stands for, including getting the largest amount ever for a piece--82 million dollars, maybe. Not while I'm eating.

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.

The Bergdahl Swap

It seems that conservatives spent a lot of time accusing the Administration of weakness for not getting Bowe Bergdahl back from the Taliban, but as soon as Obama did that, they began talking about Bergdahl being a deserter (which they could well have known beforehand) and about Obama's perfidy in freeing five Taliban from Guatanamo. For heaven's sake, I would think any excuse for getting prisoners out of Guantanamo would be worthwhile. But here's my question: Why doesn't Obama talk about this? Gosh, why must he be so sniveling. All he has to do is say, Hey, you guys wouldn't shut up about this and about my weakness in not getting him back, for years. Now that I've done what you asked, you're attacking from the other angle. It just seems so obvious. I also would like to know about these five "Taliban." Why have they never been tried? No evidence, maybe? Or maybe they've been tortured and thus there's way of trying them? What's the story, news media?