Desperate situations ...

apparently excuse all and any violence. According to Jenny Tonge, that is. Consider these pearls of wisdom on Palestinian suicide bombers: "I think if I had to live in that situation, and I say this advisedly, I might just consider becoming one myself." Read more at The Guardian website.

Interesting. Where does Dr Tonge stand on the issue of Israeli desperation?

Because if my child/mother/father/sister/brother/husband/wife/friend and so on had been blown into tiny pieces while engaged in the deeply offensive and provocative act of taking a bus to school or work, I'd be pretty desperate. If my family or friends had been shot down in cold blood carrying out such oppressive actions as lighting their Shabbat candles, or reading a bedtime story to their kids, I'd be pretty desperate too. If most of the world said my country (and therefore I) had no right to exist, and the UN, who had voted for my country's creation did little or nothing to stem the tide of hatred, I'd be pretty desperate. Yet Israel's every act of self-defence is decried as oppression by such 'liberals' as Dr Tonge (and I vote for her party. Hooray for CK for showing her the door). Individual Israelis have resorted to violence. And Israel punishes them with the full force of the law. Israel doesn't believe that her citizens' desperation excuses violent or criminal acts.

I noticed that the 'they're-driven-to-it-by-brutal-Israeli-oppression' brigade were remarkably silent when the two British suicide bombers murdered Israelis in Mike's Place. Neither of these men was of Middle Eastern origin. What made them so 'desperate'? Could it ... could it possibly be ... [GASP], that Israel has occupied Hounslow and Derby? Or could it be that this whole desperation excuse is nothing more than smoke and mirrors?

Desperate people do commit suicide. And they may do it publicly and dramatically to draw world attention to their plight and that of their people. When their suicide takes the form of an act intended to kill and maim as many innocent people as possible, they become murderers. Let's not fudge the issue.

Blaming the Israelis for the evil deeds of an individual, or those of the men of violence that indoctrinate them does the Palestinian people no favours at all: it demeans them, belittles them, it prevents them from taking responsibility (not the same thing as claiming responsibility) for their own actions.

Of course the Palestinians live in an atmosphere of political hopelessness, because they're backed by forces that don't want them to enjoy democracy or a decent standard of living — they're far too useful as they are. And suicide bombing is sometimes not so much an individual's despairing response as a course of action forced upon them. Consider this:

Translation by IMRA Sunday, January 18, 2004 How Hamas Turned Adulteress Into Suicide Bomber Alex Fishman, Yediot Ahronot 18 January 2004 Military sources claim that the terrorist Reem Al-Reyashi, who blew up four days ago at the Erez Crossing and killed four Israelis, was forced to carry out the suicide attack — as punishment for cheating on her husband. A few hours after the suicide attack the Hamas published the will of the 22 year old mother who became a terrorist. With a broad smile on her face and a rifle in her hands Al-Reyashi read her shocking desire: "I always wanted to be the first woman who sacrifices her life for Allah. My joy will be complete when parts of my body fly in all directions." But information that reached Israel regarding the situation that led Al-Reyashi to carry out the attack raises a completely different picture. According to this information this is not a cold blooded terrorist, steeped in faith and madness, who chose out of free will to turn her two young children into orphans — but instead a woman who was forced to carry out the act. According to military sources, the terrorist paid a cruel price for being involved in an illicit love affair and was forced to sacrifice herself in order to clear her name and the honor of her family. IDF sources said that already at the beginning of the investigation it turned out that Al-Reyashi's husband, an activist in the Hamas organization, not only knew about his wife's plans in advance — but even encouraged her to carry out the suicide attack. This even though he knew that with his wife's death he would be left to raise their two small children alone. Another thing turned up from the investigation: the person who was chosen to recruit the 22 year old Al-Reyashi to carry out the suicide attack and equipped her with the explosive belt was none other than the lover with whom she cheated on her husband. The British Sunday Times reports in this morning's edition that the husband even drove his wife to the Erez Crossing [read it here hedgie]. In contrast to previous female suicide bombers, Reem Al-Reyashi had no family member who had been hurt in the course of the Intifada. She is the daughter of one of the established families in Gaza. Her father was the owner of a large factory for the production of batteries in Gaza that markets most of its production in Israel. The IDF refuses to believe reports that the family of the suicide bomber was shocked to discover what she had done. This morning the entrance of workers from the Gaza Strip to Israel will be renewed — but the security demands will be stricter. From now on workers will not be allowed to enter Israel with bags or satchels — including bags containing food. Workers who wear shoes with heels will be barred entrance. They will also be barred from bringing back things from Israel when they return. The investigation of the attack over the weekend finds that the suicide bomber tried to enter the Israeli side of the Erez Crossing twice. When she passed the first time the metal detectors sounded an alarm and Al-Reyashi was asked to leave. After a short time she joined a group of female workers and returned, but the metal detector sounded an alarm again. The terrorist was asked to remove her jewelry but even after she did that the electronic detector continued to sound an alarm. The terrorist was only allowed to enter after she burst into tears and begged to be allowed to pass.

Plus ça change ...

I'm sitting here timewasting, because if I go offline I have to face the mountain (probably a molehill to anyone else) of things that need doing and the sheer horror of my existence. In cyberspace I'm safe. Nothing to do but fiddle around with templates. No, that's not strictly true — I have a website in urgent need of updating. Others are affected by my failure to act. That comes into the category of 'things that need doing', though and is therefore off limits. I have to give myself permission to ignore all these things; then I find it easier to do them.

I sit at my desk all day with curtains drawn and use a light box to compensate. Crazy.

Forget the Golden Globes
You have until 31 January to vote for your favourites in [fanfare] The Bloggies. I couldn't be bothered to vote in all the categories, but I voted for the best Middle Eastern blog, and was glad to see that one of my favourites, Alison Kaplan Sommer's An Unsealed Room was in the running. I cast my vote for Alison's "window on life in Israel", but had she not been among the nominees, I would certainly have voted for Baghdad Burning.

Baghdad Burning is life in Iraq from the viewpoint of an intelligent, literate Iraqui woman. Her English is impeccable. What have we done to these people? I can say 'we', because although I was against the war, I didn't do anything: I didn't sign a petition, I didn't go on a march, I didn't write to the PM or the President or my MP. Yes, Saddam was a monster. So was Stalin. Did we topple him? All right, he had muscle. So does the government of China, so presumably we won't be going after them for the - what? hundreds? thousands? of Tibetans who have suffered under their rule. And what of the 'disappeared' in Argentina? Did anyone ever suggest a 'regime change' there?

I tire easily these days, and cannot sustain an argument for long, but, please, read Baghdad Burning to learn what you won't learn from the BBC, ITV, CNN, or Fox et al. The most recent posting concerns the decision to replace Family Law with Shari'a.

The White Dog revisited

I wasn't going to have another dog ever again. And here is the result of that decision:.

And if you think this blog is crap, you should have seen the state of her paws after her run this morning.

The White Dog

This was my black dog's successor . She died (i.e. the vet said it would be the kindest thing ...) last September, aged almost 17. Didn't do a great deal for my depressive state.

The Black Dog

Isn't that what Churchill called depression? My black dog was a great comfort to me.

I think I prefer to think of it (depression, that is) as running through water: a great deal of effort moves you on only a little way and the whole business is so tired and frustrating that in the end you give up. Maybe that's not such a good analogy: at least one is left with the cool water swirling round one's legs. All right then: running through water on a dark night in a thick fog.

Everything that mattered to me once seems pointless now.

Question: If I Blog regularly about my depression, does it in fact mean that I am coming out of it?

Question: Wouldn't this sort of misery be more appropriate to my Live Journal (no link — it's a secret. As if anyone cared)?

The Winter of Enchantment or Where is Victoria Walker?

It has to be said that I don't really care where she is so much, as why she has stopped writing. In 1969, at the age of 21, she wrote a wonderful novel called The Winter of Enchantment. It is about a young boy, Sebastian, who, with the aid of a winking teapot, a magic mirror, and a cat who's swallowed a magic fish, rescues a girl from a hundred-year-long captivity and defeats the evil Enchanter.

The first I heard of this author was when I started hanging out at abebooks.com and abebooks.co.uk. There was a spirited discussion on the Booksleuth Forum about the book. That's great fun, BTW. If there's a book you loved, but the title and the author's name have escaped you, you can ask for help in the forum by giving as much info as possible. Example: "India. Repressed woman. Trip to caves. Trial". If all goes well, one or more helpful types will (virtually) jump up and down shouting, "A passage to India! A passage to India!".

Anyway, let us return to our muttons. It transpires that both The Winter of Enchantment and the sequel, A House Called Hadlows are out of print. There are only about six copies in private hands according to one poster.

I decided to try my library. Nothing in my branch, but Tunbridge Wells had a copy. I reserved it. It came. I read it. I LOVED it. A House Called Hadlows was at another library and I tried to reserve it. Alas, this library is out in the wilds of rural Kent where computers are unknown (they're still using those cardboard tickets and a stamp). The book could not be found. A copy can command about £450!!!!!!!!!! I told the librarian the good (or bad) news, and suggested that maybe they would like to take steps to make sure that The Winter of Enchantment does not do a disappearing act.

Write Neil Gaiman has taken up the trail as well. Check out the relevant entries at his site.

WOOHOO!! A new look. It was touch and go for a few minutes, but I've got my hedgehog and my search box so I'm happy.

What's in a name? revisited

I have just changed the name of the Blog from The Narcissistic Hedgehog to The Eclectic Hedgehog. Since so many disparate items take my fancy and are thrown together willy-nilly, I felt it was a more appropriate name. See the original explanation here.

OK, more Simpsons stuff: this time from The Guardian

Eat my lab coat Looking for good science on TV? Try the Simpsons, suggests Michael Gross Thursday October 30, 2003 The Guardian When my youngest daughter became addicted to the Simpsons, I found myself slowly drawn in. For her, the initial attraction was in the yellowness of the characters — yellow being her favourite colour. For me it was the humorous yet highly sophisticated angle the series offers on science. As far as I am concerned, it is abundantly clear that the people behind the Simpsons are proceeding with a scientific rationale. The core object of their investigation, the Simpson family, is a system trapped in a dynamic yet extremely stable equilibrium. In 14 years, and more than 300 episodes, virtually nothing has changed irreversibly. In every episode, the writers change just one parameter in order to probe the response of the equilibrium system. The change may temporarily affect many people in the Simpsons' home town of Springfield and turn their small world upside down, but by the end of the episode, the system will have returned to its initial state. The meandering path on which it returns allows us to observe the mechanisms of reactions between the system's components. For example: Homer breaks his jaw and has to wear a brace that doesn't allow him to speak. To break out of the isolation, he encourages others to speak to him about their problems and he learns to listen. Thus he is suddenly seen as a thoughtful and understanding person by all around him. Other initial disturbances include Bart and Lisa being transferred to different schools, Marge rediscovering high school admirers, and Grandpa Simpson falling in love. Each of these experiments triggers major reactions, but by the end of the episode, everything is back to normal. Notable exceptions to this rule are the Halloween episodes, forming a mini-series under the title Treehouse of Horror. In total reversal of the general policy, these episodes feature "magical" and unrealistic events that snowball into ever bigger catastrophes, leading ever farther from the normal state. While the normal episodes illustrate the "negative feedback" situation, where changes result in forces that lead back to the initial state, the Halloween episodes show positive feedback, where a small change can trigger a major catastrophe, and the planet is eventually taken over by dolphins, zombies, aliens or some such. Circumstantial evidence for the scientific thinking behind the series is found in many science-based jokes featuring the laws of thermodynamics, nuclear power and evolution (often greatly egged on by radiation leaks from the nuclear power station where Homer works). Modern technology is represented not only by the power station, but also in advances such as the town's notoriously flawed and pointless monorail. While there is no criticism of the technology as such, its failure is shown to result from the involvement of stupid operators (Homer responding to imminent meltdown at the power station by playing "eenie-meenie-minie-mo" with the control buttons, for example), greedy proprietors, and gullible customers. Lack of scientific knowledge in the general public is a recurring theme. Homer, of course, represents the absolute zero level of scientific literacy. When the family is playing scrabble and he moans, "Nobody can make a word with these letters," we are then given a glimpse of the letters aligned in front of him: "O X I D I Z E." Even though his job at the power plant would in theory require some knowledge of physics, glimpses of understanding are extremely rare. (Although they are worth waiting for. When Bart is busy building a perpetuum mobile for a school project, for example, Homer storms around shouting: "In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!") Homer's daughter Lisa is the person to turn to for competent scientific answers on everything from astronomy to zoology. On some occasions, she even gets to practise real scientific research, for example when she isolates the pheromone that makes bullies attack nerds, and when she compares Bart's intelligence with that of a hamster. Her scientific prowess does her little good, however, as most of the other characters are too dumb to appreciate herknowledge. She also lacks role models, as the only scientist to appear regularly is a "mad inventor" style nerd. Thus, while extending the scientific method of experimental analysis to the field of cartoon series, the Simpsons presents some sobering lessons to real-life scientists. I love the fact that we have a TV format where you can mention thermodynamics without scaring people away. But as my kids and I are getting close to having seen all the episodes, and there is the danger that the Simpsons may come to an end at some point, we desperately need more TV made by people who care about scientific understanding, not about blinding their viewers with techno-babble. In other words, please give us less kryptonite and warp drive, and more power stations and three-eyed fish. Michael Gross is a science writer in residence at the school of crystallography, Birkbeck College, University of London. His latest book, Light and Life, is available from Oxford University Press.

If Professor Frink is reading this, perhaps he would care to e-mail me his comments.

"When troubles come they come not single spies but in battalions", and that's all I want to say about this disastrous year.

On to more important things:

The Independent had a piece on Fox's lawsuit against The Simpsons D'OH!

Doh! Murdoch's Fox News in a spin over 'The Simpsons' lawsuit By Andrew Buncombe in Washington 29 October 2003 Serious news is no laughing matter. Especially at Fox News Channel. That, at least, is the allegation of The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, who has accused Rupert Murdoch's "fair and balanced" news channel of threatening legal action after a particularly pointed episode poked fun at Fox. The episode in question featured a "Fox News Crawl" at the bottom of the screen, which parodied some of the more unlikely items featured by the right-wing news channel. The cartoon ticker read: "Pointless news crawls up 37 per cent ... Do Democrats cause cancer? Find out at foxnews.com ... Rupert Murdoch: Terrific dancer ... Dow down 5000 points ... Study: 92 per cent of Democrats are gay ... JFK posthumously joins Republican Party ... Oil slicks found to keep seals young, supple ..." Mr Groening told National Public Radio that, after the cartoon was broadcast last year on Fox Entertainment Channel, he was threatened with legal action by the news channel. He said: "We did the crawl along the bottom of the screen. Fox said they would sue the show. And we called their bluff because we didn't think Rupert Murdoch would pay for Fox to sue itself. We got away with it. "But now Fox has a new rule that we can't do those little fake news crawls on the bottom of the screen in a cartoon because it might confuse the viewers into thinking it's real news." Yesterday, Robert Zimmerman [any relation to Bob Dylan?], a spokesman for Fox News Channel, denied that the news channel had ever threatened a lawsuit. "We are scratching our heads over here," he said. "We liked the cartoon. We thought it was great." Earlier this year, Fox tried to sue the comedian Al Franken over his book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. The suit was thrown out of court and the publicity helped Mr Franken's book become a bestseller. 29 October 2003 10:56

The Achinoam Nini Page "The Web's first and largest Achinoam Nini fan site". So says its creator, (and I think it's great, and much better than the official site); he goes on to say that Noa is "Israel's greatest female singer". There I part company from him: I think that honour goes to Chava Alberstein. Ofra Haza would have been in the running too, had she lived. Forget her disco stuff — listen to Yemenite Songs. I believe that has also been released under the title Fifty Gates of Wisdom.

Nevertheless, Noa is wonderful. I'm listening to her singing Nocturno, and it's sending shivers down my spine. Here is a translation of the lyrics taken from the CD liner notes. They are by Leah Goldberg and have been translated from the Hebrew. Can't find details of the translator.

All the stars hidden away
and the moon in a pich black night
From the north
to Yemen
not a ray of light.

Morning, loyal widower
clutch your grey sack tight
From the north
to Yemen
not a ray of light.

No light, not a ray of light.

Light a small white candle
in this darkened tent,
this heart of mine
From the north
and south to Yemen
then a brilliant light will shine!

The light, the light will shine.

Ay caramba! Is it really this long.

A most heartening article in my daily e-mail from the BBC today, on the role of painkillers in preventing Alzheimer's. There is even hope that a treatment may follow. If there is an upside to my taking anti-inflammatories for all these years, it must be that.

Blogging is big business according to New biz on the blog, an article in today's Guardian. Apparently "Weblogs are one of the few things online still capable of generating both media buzz and bucks".

WOOHOO!!!!



CNN.com - Fox renews 'Simpsons' through 2005 - Jan. 17, 2003

Message from Blogger Control in response to my issue: one of the BlogSpotPlus servers was down — hence the disappearing archives. That hasn't resolved my problem with the other two blogs though. Think I'll let the dust settle for a few days in the hope it'll right itself.

Now to more sensible matters. The Daily Mail [yuk] has published a fearless exposé of Kabbalah, which it calls a religion. Firstly, Kabbalah is not a religion: it is a mystical expression of Judaism. Secondly, the 'pop' Kabbalah espoused by Madonna et al has nothing to do with 'real' Kabbalah. For more on the latter go to Aish.com and click on Spirituality and then on Kabbalah101. You will find only good wholesome fare there. The site makes it clear that the study of Kabbalah cannot be divorced from the study of Torah.

WOOHOO!!! they're back, they're back! My own dear little Archives.

I want my Archives (and I want them NOW!!!)! I've had nothing but trouble since I opened the new blogs!!!!

WOOHOO!

Cracked it! I'm up to my ears in new blogs. Must have been a temporary glitch .

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Ever the optimist, I tried using Netscape. No luck!