Truth Collective

This is money:

Girl: I’m a political science major, so like, I know my shit!
Interviewer: Do you know who Benjamin Netanyahu is?
Girl: No.

Philip J Cunningham writes on Informed Comment:

“Freeman’s only qualm about the killing of pro-democracy students at Tiananmen in 1989 was that the Politburo waited too long before ordering the People’s Liberation Army to start shooting. Even a hard-headed realist ought to distinguish between the need to cooperate with China and a betrayal of America’s true allies. Freeman was brought down by the wrong forces for the wrong reasons.”

–Boston Globe editorial, March 30, 2009

It’s editorials like the one quoted above, in which the Boston Globe viciously attacks veteran diplomat Chas Freeman for alleging that the Israeli lobby influences US politics– that makes me despair for the future of newspapers.

link to full article.
link to his other recent article, “The Bells of Tiananmen”

I recently saw a film called Waltz with Bashir, directed by Ari Folman.  The animation was a provocative visual and audio experience that I was excited about for awhile; however, I was unprepared for the intensity of its message.  It reveals something of the Israeli political consciousness–which may be relevant to the current state of affairs there–while neither placing blame on nor apologizing for Israel’s actions at Sabra and Shatila.

From an interview with the director over at Twitch:

It took four years for Israeli director Ari Folman to complete his animated documentary Waltz With Bashir, which was entered in the competition for the Palme d’Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Though—despite predictions—it did not win that honor, Waltz With Bashir went on to win six awards from the Israeli Film Academy, including Best Picture. It had its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and its US premiere at the 46th New York Film Festival. The film has been submitted as Israel’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards, as well as for Best Animated Feature. Concerned with the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre, the film came highly praised at its Cannes premiere as one that would “leave its mark forever on the ethics of war films in general” (Screen Daily). Variety hailed it as “something special, strange and peculiarly potent.” Time magazine asserted that “the message of the futility of war has rarely been painted with such bold strokes.”