It is really sickening to watch the resurgence of coal energy, and it’s labeling as the energy source of the future. It isn’t. It is amazing that certain industry and interest groups could get away with such a corny mindfuck.

• It doesn’t just warm your house – While just over half of the electricity generated in the US is from coal, coal sources account for over 80% of CO2 emissions, the main greenhouse gas. Yes, they talk about clean coal technologies, but as of today that is still science fiction.
• Extraction methods are environmentally devastating – It absolutely amazes me that mountain top removal is a legitimate practice in the 21st century. The latest administration streamlined the process and relaxed regulations allowing coal companies to fill thousands of miles of waterways with toxic sludge.
• It is destroying communities – Mountain top removal was developed as a mining technique that negates the need for a large (unionized) workforce. As such, coal-rich communities don’t get the same employment opportunities as they used to. But they still pay a heavy price in loud blasts, sludge, floods, dried or contaminated wells, etc. Often the homes in these areas are rendered unlivable and people are forced to leave. The mining companies are rarely held accountable for any of this, while families see the price of their home drop to nothing, and their children’s health compromised. This is happening here, in America. Some of the poorest communities in the states are demonized as being backward, inbred, and unsavable, while mining companies rob them of the little they have on this earth.
• It is not renewable – When we finally deplete coal, rape our environment, poison our water, and pillage Appalachia, we will remain with the same hippie energy options we face today.

So I decided to do my blogger’s duty and get the word out, I also added a badge to my site which is very not like me. Sign it!

Happy Ireland Day.

• 1 cup of butter
• 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1 tsp. of vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups of flour
• 1/4 tsp. of salt
• 3/4 cup of finely chopped nuts

Chill dough. Roll into 1 inch balls and put in the oven at 325F for 12 minutes. They are ready when they show slight cracks on top, before they brown!

Public Criticism

The honorable defense minister, mayors, public figures, journalists, radio and television, teachers, and masters.

Embarassed and ashamed, and also overwhelmed with gratitude I stand here before you today. Your sincere and inexhaustible efforts to take down “The Shampoo Queen” opened my eyes and made me contemplate again on what I have written. Now, with the play taken off the stage of the “Cameri Theater”, I could admit with a bowed head: I was wrong. I took advantage of the principles of democracy and freedom to undermine the morale of the public, to abuse and ridicule Israel’s struggles, and to disseminate confusion and loathing in a united nation; and all this using banal words, evidence of my psychosis.

I repeal every word and punctuation that I wrote. I ask of you all, in a humble voice, to attribute my mistakes with my young age, and the substandard education I received from my parents

And with this request for forgiveness, I hope I will get another chance to prove myself with productive work as a beneficial citizen – for the glory of the state and nation.

There are two songs from the play that I would like to translate for y’all. The first one is called “Promise”. I really should have posted it after Olmert gave his Churchillian speech this summer about the “blood sweat and tears” that we were to expect from his war (“..one of the most justified wars in Israel”). The scene that this is sung in has to do with a government meeting, the singer is the defense minister. I can’t say more than that, since I haven’t actually seen the play, I am too young.

Promise

I promise you all blood and tears
- and my word is a real promise -
And if I promise you blood and tears,
everybody knows that it’s blood and tears,
not to speak of sweat.

Soon it will be very bad for you all
- and my word is a real promise -
And if I say that it will be very bad,
you could be assured that it will be very bad,
and maybe even worse than bad.

With no glimmer of hope, you all will continue to live
- and my word is a real promise -
and if I say that you all will continue to live,
then a few of you really will continue to live,
don’t ask for what.

I was first introduced to these lyrics by Dudy Levy, he is a rock musician who came out with an tribute album with Hanoch Levin material. So below I included links to both the original, and the Dudy Levi rendition of this song.

• Shampoo Queen – Promise
• Dudy Levi – Promise

I’ll introduce another song in the near future. Check back in soon.

On June 26th, 1945 the United Nations Charter was signed by 50 nations in San Francisco, immediately following WWII. It’s main goal was to prevent the tragadies of global war and genocide. It was founded as a protector of minorities and disenfranchised people world wide, and a conduit to avoid armed conflict by diplomatic means.
The prevalent example at the time for a disenfranchised minority were the Jewish survivors of the mechanized Nazi killing machine, and the U.N. was quick to provide a long lasting solution for the Jewish people: a state of their own. This happened with Resolution 181 that was voted in on November 29, 1947.
In 1955, Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister (but then only defense minister), suggested forcefully expelling all Fedayeen fighters outside of the Gaza strip. Prime minister Moshe Sharet objected, saying the U.N. would not allow such an action, and that it must be respected, since without the U.N. Israel would not have been founded, to which Ben Gurion replied “Um Shmum” (Um is U.N. in Hebrew, “Shmum” is a dismissive).
Since that day the U.N.’s general assembly and security council have passed over 100 resolutions regarding Israel, the majority of which condemn Israel for various actions, from military aggression, to down right war crimes and human right abuses.
Today, Israel’s government and it’s “friends” see the U.N. as a weak, antisemitic, and useless organization. And reject it’s resolutions again and again. For 50 years the U.N. has been hindering Israel with such petty issues as human rights, and unchecked aggression. But luckily for Israel, it has a super power as it’s ally, so it does not need to conform to the same international laws that were inspired by tragedies in the likes of the Holocaust.

The latest outrage is Israel’s success in undermining the U.N.’s fact finding mission headed by Desmond Tutu.

לכתבה בהארץ

I feel sad that the two countries that I am associated with: Israel and the U.S. are so high on the torture approval list. And between them is Russia which is confidently marching on the path towards authoritarianism.

I am a privileged citizen among globally oppressive regimes.

Gossip-Telepathy integration has recently picked up pace, and is starting to gain a lot of positive attention. I feel like I am playing a key role in this, and I hope I still will be 12 days later when I return from holiday.