I’m so sorry: If you have to go back to work today, allow me to offer my sincerest condolences. And if you never got a break over the holidays at all, I’m even more sorry. That’s not because I think the world should stop for a Christian holiday or anything, I just think we should all work a lot less. Love you!
Not much holiday cheer in Bethlehem: Bethlehem, a town in the West Bank that’s cited as Jesus’s original birth place, cancelled their Christmas festivities once again this year as Israel continues its genocide in Gaza. Since Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has displaced millions and killed tens of thousands in a death toll the media has basically stopped updating as we probably won’t truly understand the scale of the carnage until after a ceasefire. In just the last 24 hours, as many across the world celebrate Christmas, Israel has killed 38 people in Gaza and injured more than 100 others. Not only that, but Israel’s ramped up its violence against Palestinians in the West Bank as well.
Protect journalists: Quds Today, a Palestinian TV station, says Israel targeted and killed five of their journalists outside of a hospital where one of the journalists’ wife was giving birth. The victims include Ibrahim Jamal Ibrahim Al-Sheikh Ali; Faisal Abdallah Muhammad Abu Qamsan; Mohammed Ayad Khamis al-Ladaa; Ayman Nihad Abd Alrahman Jadi; and Fadi Ihab Muhammad Ramadan Hassouna. They are among 133 Palestinian journalists killed by Israel since Oct 7. 2023. Israel claims the five people were actually “Islamic Jihad operatives posing as journalists,” according to the BBC.
There’s not an appropriate holiday pun for this: It’s just awful.
On Christmas Eve, ICE is deporting 31 people on a flight from Seattle’s Boeing Field to El Paso, Texas. Volunteers with @ResistenciaNW observe flights in and out of the airport every week, monitoring the agency’s deportation activities. pic.twitter.com/g6stkxKlXl
— Guy Oron (@GuyOron) December 24, 2024
Weather: That was some rain yesterday, huh? Well, today should be drier! By the time you’re reading this, the showers should have stopped and by noon we’ll even see some sunshine. As for temperature, expect things to hover around the high 40s and low 50s. If you’re a fiend for sunshine, take advantage of whatever rays we get this afternoon because the clouds and rain will roll back in tomorrow! For the full weather report, check here or whatever weather source you trust most—and if that’s just this blog, you are probably very hot, but very chaotic. We should be friends.
Whoooooosh: We’re not out of the woods in terms of wind until about 1pm today.
But wind doesn’t have to be all bad:
Discovery Park this morning. So cool to watch. #wawx pic.twitter.com/bDBWro2wUn
— Tina Shepard (she/her) 🏔🏃🏻♀️🟧 (@shepard_tina) December 24, 2024
Edmonds is not defunding the police: Right-wing media made a big stink about the City of Edmonds considering a proposal to shut down its police department in the face of a $13 million budget deficit. I’m totally into tightening up bloated cop budgets instead of making like the mayor of Seattle and cutting hundreds of millions from more preventative spending like affordable housing. But that’s not what’s happening. Edmonds is considering, among other options, closing the department and contracting with a county sheriffs department—possibly Snohomish County or King County—which many small towns do to save money. The Seattle Times has more.
Azerbaijan airplane down: An Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed Wednesday in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people on board. Another 32 people survived the crash, but have been hospitalized. Many remain in critical condition. So far, it’s unclear what lead to the tragic crash—theories include an “emergency situation” onboard after a bird strike, according to Russia’s aviation watchdog on Telegram, as well as as bad weather conditions along their route, and a Russian missile. The Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliye cautioned against speculation: “There are videos of the plane crash available in the media and on social networks, and everyone can watch them. However, the reasons for the crash are not yet known to us. There are various theories, but I believe it is premature to discuss them.”
Six days til sex with robots: Expect a huge cultural shift very shortly!
REVEALED: Women will be having more sex with ROBOTS than men by 2025 https://t.co/TO87mbCAHw pic.twitter.com/qKrTIIuAFP
— The Sun (@TheSun) June 30, 2016
Ukraine update: President Joe Biden denounced Russia’s Christmas Day attack on Ukraine, which he said aimed to cut off Ukrainians access to heat in the winter and jeopardize the country’s safety grid. He promised to continue sending guns to Ukraine in the wake of the attack. But Biden’s only president for a few more weeks and it seems President-elect Donald Trump may be kinder to Russia. Trump’s choice for special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, also denounced Russia’s attack, but added that the world is “closely watching actions on both sides” and committed to peace vaguely enough that he could mean total capitulation to Russia. Just sayin’!
Christmas should be a time of peace, yet Ukraine was brutally attacked on Christmas Day. Launching large-scale missile and drone attacks on the day of the Lord’s birth is wrong. The world is closely watching actions on both sides. The U.S. is more resolved than ever to bring…
— Keith Kellogg (@generalkellogg) December 25, 2024
PSA: Hey, cat owners. Northwest Naturals, a pet food company based in Portland, has recalled a batch of its Feline Turkey Recipe cat food after it tested positive for bird flu and killed a house cat. So if you have a two-pound plastic bag of the food with “best if used by” dates of May 21, 2026, and June 23, 2026, throw that shit away.
You gotta hear this: I played this track earlier this week when asked about my favorite Christmas song and I have amazing taste if I do say so myself.
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@46-@49: While I understand that — by your standards — you packed an incredible amount of truly creative original work into those comments, your abuse of the word, “genocide” is a product of your demonstrated malice, not a figment of your self-attested imagination.
And especially @49, at this time last year, UN Women was still smarting over their initial refusal to condemn Hamas’ 10/7 gang-rapes of Israeli women. Truly a profile in courage, that…
geesh
averagebob
give it a Rest!
they’ve been building
their case for Palestinian An-
nihilation ever since Oct/7th with
their constant and uninterrupted ‘Remember
October Seventh! as if every day were the 8th of October
wat they’d
Love for us to
Forget is Israell
higher-ups, labeling
Gazans as Vermin to be
Exterminated by ALL means
Possible — precisely what our
Wormtongue absolutely abhorrs
to Admit — expressing EXPLICITLY
what bibi’s Crew was Gonna fucking DO
‘from the Earth
to the Sea we will
soon enough be Free
of ‘Palestinian Pestilence’
or words of equal and
equally Horrifying
demeanor cuz
which’s
what they
Did. are Doing
admitting so doing
is tantamount to
a Confession
right,
wormmy?
@50 “you packed an incredible amount of truly creative original work”
That’s rich coming from someone who makes the same absurd comments over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over for the last 14 fucking months and NEVER addresses the substance of what is being said to him … DID I say you make the same stupid comments over and over again as if repeating them once again and once again would make them a little less stupid than before? Like Kristo, I hardly ever read your comments because not only are they so full of tortured logic that they are absurd which makes them painful to read (may be your intent is to cause pain to your readers), and but needless to say it again you already said everything you had to say a very long time ago, however senseless it was the first time.
Everything you just said in your comment, you already said it a few dozen times (hundreds perhaps) before and everything in it has been debunked many times but NOOOOOOO you keep on pretending you just proffered some original thought that we haven’t easily shat on before.
@50 “your abuse of the word, “genocide””
“Genocide is taking place in Gaza,” [Doctor Without Borders] says”
@50 “your abuse of the word, “genocide””
“Amnesty International investigation concludes Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza “
@50 “your abuse of the word, “genocide””
“”Israel’s Crime of Extermination, Acts of Genocide in Gaza”
Human Rights Watch
@50 “your abuse of the word, “genocide””
“UN Special Committee finds Israel’s warfare methods in Gaza consistent with genocide, including use of starvation as weapon of war”
@49, A committee can say anything the committee members want the committee to say. They can have the committee allege anything they want to allege.
Committees are self-selecting in the sense that countries with a particular point-of-view or area of interest are going to express an interest in serving on subject Committees that will allow them to advance their view, even if the membership must ultimately be approved by the whole General Assembly.
The Committee’s allegations are, so far at least, un-adjudicated by an independent panel into a final finding and judgement.
Assume for the sake of argument that the Committee is correct. What Genocide Rescue Team is the U.N. going to send into Gaza to use force against the IDF, and or Hamas, to enforce their findings and orders?
Will Gazans be any better off with U.N. artillery and bombs falling on and around them as they fire on the IDF and/or Hamas to force them to stop fighting among the non-combatants of Gaza?
@50 “your abuse of the word, “genocide””
REV. MUNTHER ISAAC: “Never again” should mean never again to all peoples. “Never again” has become “yet again” — yet again to supremacy, yet again to racism and yet again to genocide.”
@54, Amnesty International is not a neutral fact finder or judicial body. They are prosecutors, if you will, of what they allege are war crimes.
Get back to me when a court, or the U.N. Security Council, finds against Israel and has raised a force 60,000 or more to invade Gaza to stop the IDF from going after Hamas amongst the Gazan non-combatants.
@50 “your abuse of the word, “genocide””
A new survey of Middle East scholars, with over 750 mostly U.S.-based respondents, reveals [..] Respondents describe Israeli actions in damning terms, with 41% saying they constitute major war crimes akin to genocide, nearly 34% saying they constitute genocide, and 16% saying they are not akin to genocide, but are still major war crimes.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/gloom-about-the-day-after-the-gaza-war-pervasive-among-mideast-scholars/
@50 “your abuse of the word, “genocide”
1/3 of US Jews call it genocide in Gaza. So much for the “token Jews” …
May 31, 2024
Survey Among American Jews: Approximately one-third of respondents agreed with the accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, while about half disagreed.
https://jcpa.org/survey-among-american-jews-over-51-support-for-bidens-decision-to-withhold-arms-shipments-to-israel/
@60 — “… Like Kristo, I hardly ever read your comments because not only are they so full of tortured logic that they are absurd which makes them painful to read (may be your intent is to cause pain to your readers)… ”
the guy who said
“the Cruelty IS
The Point.”?
named his socking-the-commentariat
puppet Thump the Commentariat
with Every stinkin’ Reply:
That guy?
oh
say
it aiin’t so:
the
Cruelty IS
the bloody Poiint.
just.
Like.
Palestine.
lol, not sure what AverageBob thinks he is proving by citing polls in which a minority of respondents agree with him while the majority disagree with him 😂
What’s there to say? Some people think it’s a genocide. Most people don’t. The ones who do are wrong. There ya go. 😁
@60, Yup a survey. That will get the IDF and Hamas to lay down their arms and take Gazans out of the crossfire.
thank you
averagebob for
your counternarrative
to the Wormtongue’s in-
sidious excuses and inces-
sant Justifications for bibi’s
Freedom for bibi! campaign cum
Major War Crimes Fiasco in the M.E.
now if
we might
pull the plug
on his 🔨ing🛴.
You all are a bunch of idiots – but congrats on accomplishing nothing.
@62 “What’s there to say?”
1) The most reputable human rights and medical NGO’s (Amnesty, HRW, MSF) that have studied the evidence say it is genocide.
2) 1/3 of US Jews who are under intense pressure to defend Israel and subject to US media propaganda say that it is genocide. Hardly a few “token Jews” as you usually like to call them
3) 75% of Mideast experts say it is at the minimum akin to genocide. Hardly a minority, except in the mind of a propagandist fond of twisting the meaning of words
4) UN Human rights experts that have studied the evidence say there is good reason to believe it is genocide
5) Israel and its allies who are complicit, and the lap dog media say it’s not genocide.
@63 “Yup a survey.”
well, elections are surveys too, but keep pretending that public opinion doesn’t matter
@58 “Get back to me when a court, or the U.N. Security Council, finds against Israel and has raised a force 60,000 or more to invade Gaza to stop the IDF”
Do you believe Netanyahu should surrender himself on the warrant to the ICC for adjudication? If the war crimes allegations are substantiated should the US intervene militarily to put a stop to them?
@28: Article 28 of the Fourth Geneva Convention spells it out for you, in full: “The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations.” (https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/gciv-1949/article-28?activeTab=1949GCs-APs-and-commentaries) If Hamas uses a children’s hospital as cover for combatant operations, then Hamas has stripped that children’s hospital of protection. Hamas has made it into a legitimate military target, and the IDF may bomb it, as the IDF deems necessary, to protect Israel.
Over the course of the past year-plus, this point has been explained many, many times in these threads. Your apparent dislike for international law on this point does not invalidate international law in the slightest.
@52: “Everything you just said in your comment, you already said it a few dozen times (hundreds perhaps) before and everything in it has been debunked many times…”
Why? Because you say so? Someone has “debunked” NATO’s report on Hamas’ extensive use of Gazan civilians for human shields? Someone has “debunked” the Wall Street Journal’s review of Sinwar’s commands for Hamas to get as many such human shields killed as possible? Who has shown NATO and the Wall Street Journal to have been incorrect on these matters? Do tell.
“Like Kristo, I hardly ever read your comments…”
HA HA HA HA HA HA!! kristo’ has responded to multiple comments from me in this thread alone. He even misattributed Nikolai’s comment @9 to me. Here’s a thread wherein I posted no comment at all, and yet kristo’ still addressed me personally: https://www.thestranger.com/queer/2024/02/16/79388863/a-dog-a-fox-and-a-rabbit-walk-into-a-bar/comments
Do those sound like the behaviors of someone who “hardly ever reads” my comments?
@67, And what did the last election do? It put someone even more pro-Israel in office. Red shift everywhere.
Gaza didn’t move votes.
@68, What army is going to invade Israel to take Netanyahu into custody and remand him for trial? How would that stop the fighting in Gaza and get non-combatants out of the crossfire? International Courts are a feckless diversion from stopping the fighting by having one side, or both, lose so they will stop fighting, and non-combatants can win.
@60 What you are doing is called lying by omission. You keep repeating that Hamas uses human shields without saying that Israel is guilty of much worse forms of using human shields. Some use of civilian facilities by Hamas fighters has been documented (though nowhere as many as would be necessary to justify destroying Gaza or parts of Southern Lebanon) and Hamas is clearly guilty of melding among the population where they live like all fighters in asymmetric conflicts do. In turn, for decades, the IDF has routinely forced Palestinians civilians (including children) to clear a path free of bombs for its troops and positioned its troops among civilian populations. The former being a much worse form of human shield use than the later. What has been repeatedly debunked is your constant lying by omission, not the fact that Hamas uses human shields.
@70 “Gaza didn’t move votes.”
False. The Gaza probably played a significant part in voter turnout and surely played a significant part in swing states with a large uncommitted vote.
@70 “What army is going to invade Israel to take Netanyahu into custody and remand him for trial?”
I’m asking if you think he should voluntarily surrender himself for adjudication by the court. You made multiple comments indicating your belief that a court should determine whether Israel has committed any crimes. If that’s a sincere belief, given the ICC has issued a warrant for his arrest, don’t you think it would be right and proper for him to surrender himself?
And if a court does find that Israel has committed crimes do you not think the US has a role in ensuring they are stopped?
“Bethlehem, a town in the West Bank that’s cited as Jesus’s original birth place,”
It’s well worth noting that the claim Jesus was born in Bethlehem has no basis in fact. Even Bible authors did not agree on it:
‘The gospel of Matthew depicts Jesus’s family as living in Bethlehem and has him being born there in their house. They then flee to Egypt to escape the murderous King Herod the Great and on their return settle in Nazareth in Galilee because Herod’s son is now ruling Judea, preventing them from returning to Bethlehem.
‘The gospel of Luke tells a completely different story. In this story, his family live in Nazareth and travel to Bethlehem for a Roman census. Jesus is born in a stable in Bethlehem, then they return to Nazareth. No element found in the gospel of Luke is found in the gospel of Matthew, and vice versa.’
[…]
‘The choice of Bethlehem as the supposed birthplace, the only common factor in the two stories, performed an important task for these two unknown gospel writers as it would have been seen as fulfilling an Old Testament prophecy in Micah 5.2:
‘”But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”
‘In other words, these gospel writers wanted it to be seen by the Jews of the day that this “ruler over Israel” was Christian, not Jewish; yet another reason for them to convert and follow the still very new religion of Christianity instead of Judaism.’
(https://www.quora.com/Was-Jesus-born-in-Bethlehem-or-Nazareth)
It seems confusion over events in that part of the world has a very long history indeed!
Happy Holidays, everyone.
@72, “The Gaza probably played a significant part in voter turnout and surely played a significant part in swing states with a large uncommitted vote.”
“probably” So by your own omission, speculation, not fact.
So without a citation to prove that assertion of yours, it hasn’t been demonstrated that Gaza moved votes.
Trump won Michigan by 3 points, in a state where the Arab American vote is 3% of the electorate. Polling indicated that this was the only population demographic that indicated Gaza would move their vote. So in Michigan, which has the largest Arab-American population of any state, your hypothesis might be correct, but you have provided only speculation, not facts to support the hypothesis.
@73, No I do not think he should surrender. He, like any other defendant, enjoys the presumption of innocence.
No Defense Attorney, with a client with a warrant, that is in a place where they are not extraditable, is going to advise a client to advantage the prosecution by surrendering. They are going to advise their client to preserve their liberty and presumption of innocence.
I am also pragmatic. Such a surrender does nothing to get Gazans out of the crossfire. Ending the conflict does. That happens when one-side, or both, decides its too costly, in blood and treasure to continue. Increasing that cost, to one, or both sides, is what will save Gazans. The U.N. and international courts are a side-show distraction from the pragmatic and expeditious.
Within Israel, even those who want Netanyahu’s government to fall, and prosecution within Israel, don’t support his surrender to an International Court. It ain’t gonna happen, and its taking bandwidth from deliberating a course of action that could actually save Gazan lives.
@74, Nothing in the Matthew text depicts Mary and Joseph as living in Bethlehem and being born in the family house.
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ5 took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed6 to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
The Visit of the Wise Men
2 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men1 from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” 3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: “
Nothing in the Matthew text contradicts Luke or tells a different story. They are two different accounts by two different chroniclers of the day, indicating where Jesus was born, and the connection to prophecy. One includes detail of how and why Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem, the other just states they were there, and remained there for some period of time after Jesus birth. They are complementary, not contradictory accounts.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Mt 1:18–2:5). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
@76 “Such a surrender does nothing to get Gazans out of the crossfire. Ending the conflict does. That happens when one-side, or both, decides its too costly, in blood and treasure to continue. Increasing that cost, to one, or both sides, is what will save Gazans”
So you agree the US should cut off arms and aid to Israel if they don’t get out of Gaza?
@71 was for tensor the liar @69 of course
Anybody else noticed that tensorna went silent on the topic of human shields when his lying by omission was documented once again?
Anyhow, another example of tensorna lying by omission is on the issue of sexual violence. Tensorna repeatedly made the point that Israeli women were despicably attacked by assailants on October 7 (like @69) but tensorna never acknowledges that sexual violence toward Palestinian women by Israeli soldiers is also well documented
“United Nations experts on Monday condemned “unacceptable” violence by the Israeli military against women and children during the ongoing war in Gaza, particularly sexual violence and enforced disappearances.
“We are appalled that women are being targeted by Israel with such vicious, indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, seemingly sparing no means to destroy their lives and deny them their fundamental human rights,” the seven special rapporteurs said in a statement.”
https://www.barrons.com/news/un-experts-condemn-israel-s-sexual-assault-and-violence-in-gaza-80373a1e
@75 at least and contrarily to you, I readily admitted that I had no absolute proof of my saying that Gaza probably affected turnout so I offered a probability, whereas when you claimed that Gaza had no effect on the vote: you just asserted it without ‘proof’, nor mere evidence. In other words, your own demonstration was non-existent, yet you have the gall to complain when I offer a significant probability because a proof will be forever impossible.
@77: “Nothing in the Matthew text depicts Mary and Joseph as living in Bethlehem and being born in the family house.”
Of course it does. Matthew 1:25 has Jesus born to Mary and named by Joseph; Matthew 2:11 has the Three Wise Men first see Mary and Jesus when the Wise Men come “into the house,” which is where the Star of Bethlehem had led them. There’s no mention of Jesus or Mary going anywhere between those two events, so it should be obvious they were still in the place where she had given birth to him.
“Nothing in the Matthew text contradicts Luke or tells a different story.”
Now you’re just being silly. Matthew does not have Jesus born in a manger, whilst Luke (2:16) does. Luke does not have the family flee to Egypt, which Matthew (2:14) does.
As nothing was (or is) known about Jesus before he started his career as an itinerant preacher, each author wrote a nativity story which needed to do two things. First, to satisfy Micah 5:2, Jesus had to be born in Bethlehem. Second, as Jesus had not grown up in Bethlehem, that had to be explained as well. So they each created a nativity story which had Jesus born in Bethlehem, but grow up in Nazareth. Their stories agree on those required plot points; on other points, their two stories contradict each other, to the extent of becoming opposite accounts.
Matthew has Jesus born in Bethlehem, because Mary and Joesph already lived there. To get Jesus out of Bethlehem, the author of Matthew uses as a plot device Herod’s slaughter of the innocents (which Flavius Josephus somehow never mentions) to send Jesus to Egypt (which was important to the author of Matthew for other reasons). The family then returns from Egypt, not to Bethlehem, but to Nazareth.
Luke’s story has Joseph and Mary start in Nazareth. To get them to Bethlehem for Jesus’ birth, the author of Luke uses as a plot device the Roman Empire’s taxation of a non-Roman territory (!) by making everyone go to their paternal family’s home town (which Roman tax records somehow never mention). After that expensive trip, Joseph and Mary return to Nazareth with Jesus.
“They are complementary, not contradictory accounts.”
They contradict each other, and each contradicts known history as well. Each story relies upon a different fictional plot device, a plot device loosely based upon some real — but greatly embellished — local history. Herod was an evil king, but never slaughtered innocent boys; the Romans always demanded everyone pay taxes, but subjects of Roman-controlled ‘independent’ kingdoms paid them indirectly, via tribute paid to the Romans by the Romans’ local puppet king. The Romans’ local puppet king, not the Romans themselves, had to collect the taxes and render the tribute. Therefore, the Romans would neither have ordered nor conducted a taxation census of Herod’s kingdom. (As Asimov notes, Herod’s kingdom was a borderland for the Roman Empire, so having large numbers of persons moving about within Herod’s kingdom would itself have created a security risk to the Roman Empire — and the Romans were notoriously intolerant of such risks.)
In sum, then, the story of Jesus being born in Bethlehem was fabricated after his death, to demonstrate Jesus had fulfilled the prophecy made by Micah. The authors who fabricated two of these accounts neither agreed with each other, nor with secular records kept at the time.
imagine
if you will
an Expert on
Matthew utterly
Immune to Matthew’s
teachings.
oh
the
Irony:
it
Kills.
“Such a surrender
[bibi’s, to the International
Court of Justice]* does nothing
to get Gazans out of the crossfire.”
when bibi leaves
his pro-genocide
coalition Evaporates
his one-man
keep-outtta-Prison
gambit’s the Sole excuse
for this Retribution gone Mad
let’s try it
and see if
I’m worng.
this is so
fucking BAD
for both Israel
and Jewish peoples
not to fucking
Mention for
Palestine.
*or
Whomever
@82: More interesting is the lasting propaganda value created by Jesus’ fictional birth in Bethlehem. The Stranger (run by persons not famous for adhering to Matthew’s teachings, BTW) uses some of this propaganda value in this very headline post. Hence my calling attention to the fictional basis of that story.
your
Immunity
to Matthew
is vastly more
Fascinating than
tS’s choice of headline
and tells us all
we need to
know.
depose bibi
or pardon him
End this madness
& these War Crimes
& the Abuse of our $$$.
@84 thanks for clarifying that the son of God made flesh, born via immaculate conception, who would later rise from the dead to save humanity from its sins, was born in a manger but NOT in Bethlehem–that part is fictional.
@79: You addressed your comment @69 to yourself @60. Your inability to count that high is not my problem. I didn’t “go silent,” so much as I had better things to do than figure out if the comment you’d mislabeled was for me or not.
You keep claiming a ‘gotcha’ on me with this story, even though I’ve repeatedly acknowledged Israelis used human shields in Gaza, and that every war crime should be investigated. (There, I’ve typed those words, yet again, for you to ignore. I have full confidence you will again succeed in ignoring them.) NATO’s report on Hamas’ use of human shields in Gaza mentions how the Israeli Supreme Court put a stop to the practice back then. That report predates the current conflict by many years, so your implicit claim to have found something new in this matter fails, each and every time you make it.
You further ignore that Hamas uses civilians and their infrastructure in Gaza (e.g. hospitals) for human shields as a matter of policy. You keep trying to equate the two sides, but the Wall Street Journal was clear that Hamas very much wants more civilians killed in Gaza.
Yes, the UN reports you quote are very quick to allege sexual violence by IDF soldiers against civilians in Gaza. (Again, “war crimes, investigation,” etc. for you to ignore. Again.) That same UN was really, really slow to acknowledge gang-rape of Israeli women by Hamas on 10/7; in fact, women’s groups had to demonstrate in front of UNHQ in New York before UN Women would say anything at all. You keep trying to use the UN as some fountain of truth and moral superiority, but you do so by ignoring UN Resolutions you happen not to like (e.g. UNSCR 1701) and by ignoring the UN’s own moral failures.
@85: My immunity to fictional “historical” accounts really does bother you, doesn’t it? Care to speculate on a reason for that?
sure thing
wormmy
I just don’t get
socio- nor psychopathy
it just seems so
inHumane to me
and yet just Lookit all
the CEOs and Poli-
ticians so afflicted
Brutalitarians’re
absolutely the
Wrong choice
to lead Humanity
outta the Swamps and
yet we just keep installing
them to our Eternal Detriment.
xina seems to me
to be quite
Correct:
how the Fuck
do we even
Deserve
Planet
Earth?
and Now
back to
the
Bombing
of Civilians
with OUR $$$.
back to our
Omnicide.
@88: Yes, I understand my ability and willingness to separate fact from fiction, and to do so here, constantly, over your many clear and loud objections, must put incredible stress upon your ability to continue believing what you type. But that’s really your problem, not mine.
“… I
understand
my ability and willingness
to separate fact from fiction,
and to do so here, constantly… “
oh
wormmy
I believe you
may have a big
Future in Stand-up.
you’ll
Never
be short
of Material
Bravo!
@81, A manger in that time was often found in the ground floor of a house, with living quarters above, or on the same site as a house. Note its “a” house, not “their” house, or his family’s house.
@78, So as long as Gazans are dying with weapons purchased on international markets, including black markets, you are happy to see Gazans killed with those weapons.
There was an arms embargo in 1947 and 1948. That stopped the Nakba cold didn’t it?
I can guarantee you that any weapons on the open market, won’t be as precise as those acquired from the U.S. The less precise they are, the more non-combatants get killed.
If the Arabs gave a shit about people in Gaza and the West Bank, Israel wouldn’t exist. 473 million Arabs could march in unarmed waves at 9 million Israelis until Israel ran out of bullets, bombs, and nukes. They could push Israel into the Med. They haven’t. Some might call that a miracle. Some might call it callous indifference to the fate of Palestine.
@92: Luke (2:7) explicitly says they stayed in a manger, “…because there was no guest room available for them.” In Luke’s account, Joseph and Mary are visitors in Bethlehem, because of Luke’s (non-existent) Roman census tax on a non-Roman territory. The Bethlehem manger could not have been in their house, because according to Luke, their house was in Nazareth. So, even if Matthew’s version, where they remain in Bethlehem, has them stay in a manger which is also in their house (?!?), they did so for a different (and completely unexplained) reason than the reason Luke gives. (Unless you’re also claiming there was no guest room in their own house for them?)
I hear the bible
was rigorously fact-
checked by great teams
of translators all throughout
its History and if there were Ever
any ‘discrepancies,’ the investigations’d
be Ceaseless til they got to the Bottom of things
and No One was allowed to be
Alone with it at Any Time so
OBV we can take it Literally
and at face value. if only
FOX ‘news’ were as
Legitimate as That
Great Work.
“…you
are happy
to see Gazans
killed with those weapons.”
–@mister magoo
hmmm. your vile extrapolation
seems an Awful lot more
like a Projection cum
Thinly-veiled
confession
have you
considered taking
out an an I, Anonymous?
you know, get it
Off your chest?
uh-oh
only
3 more
comments til