Rum Doings Episode 169: She’s Got A Special Brain Module
by John Walker on Aug.05, 2014, under Rum Doings
In our 169th ever Rum Doings, our topic is, why aren’t aeroplane flights available on the NHS?
There is a weird audio issue on this one. It’s Nick’s fault, even though it only happens when John speaks. So apologies. On Nick’s behalf. We talk about holidays, pregnancy, and then, at some length, Israel and the coverage of the Gaza situation.
We move on to talk more generally about the filters that are necessary for parsing any news stories, and John’s plans to get rid of his baby if he’s born on his birthday. And then John’s glorious air conditioner!
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[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/169_rumdoings.mp3]
August 9th, 2014 on 11:09
I’m increasingly of the mind that religious and ethnic enmity in Africa and Western Asia threatens not only the local civilizations but civilization itself.
I’ve been fielding a lot of passionate disagreement and anger from my leftist friends over this stance, and over my (general) support of Israel.
I’ve had erstwhile leftist friends call me a genocide supporter. Words lose their meaning! As you said, Nick, the IDF can likely level Gaza ten times over with conventional ordnance; this is a super-feckless genocide.
It’s absurd. A freedom fighter rests a rifle on the shoulder of his own child and an IDF soldier is disturbed and doesn’t return fire (or does return fire and is thus sullied by the enormity). What would happen if the roles were reversed? What would Palestinian fighters do if IDF soldiers were using Jewish innocents as human shields?
I’m slightly heartened by your positive outlook, Nick, but increasingly I feel as though the West is already defeated. In the US we’re still having debates about gays and contraception and poverty and healthcare, and I don’t think we have the political will to meaningfully confront this kind of extremism. And I don’t think Europe is inclined to do so, either, and it would take the both of us to do anything substantive.
I also don’t think isolationism will help anything, but that’s become an extremely common suggestion. I don’t think the fractured peoples in these broken states will suddenly long for pluralistic peace after the cleansing is over. It seems quite unlikely to me that they’ll simply unite and then hug it out with the rest of the world.