...as I write this.

I'm not ashamed.

I decided to watch it, so that I could pin-point my hate of this franchise. Yes, I went into it knowing that I'd hate it.
Twihards, I know Good Vs Bad is hard to resist. I also know that reading about a girl who could be you (because you can transplant your personality onto her) being with a handsome boy who isn't all about the sex (though it really is) is compelling.

But let's get one thing straight; abusive relationships are not romantic. Thinking your boyfriend is a predator is not sexy. Stalking is a crime.

Also, my god she could be replaced by a blow-up doll and it have the same effect on plot, narrative and her personality.

That's great female role-modelling you've got there.

WTF! Sparkles?!

*sigh* I'm disappointed in literature sometimes, and thus the human race.

Related to this, I've taken to reading fandomsecrets. It's very fascinating, what anonymity enables us to say and do. Most of what's written there is quite common and a large amount of the secrets repeat each other in variations.
By reading F!S I can also tell which Fandom is bigger than others.

Today, this secret appeared:
( Hating Fiction ).
You can read the comments here.

I'm not planning on commenting.
Mainly because I find the "secret" a fascinating one. To me it reads as someone who possibly enjoys reading fiction that they are ashamed of.
Fiction and possibly fanfiction because it is de facto unedited by an outside reader and usually Beta readers (the editors of the Fanfic world) encourage the writers to go beyond what they consider their limits - you can read that often when authors thank their Beta readers.
The all encompassing offence of this "secret" is just incredible.

The way I see it, fiction gives us the ability to discuss all the "offensive exploitation and glorification of real issues" - humanity is not really good with dealing with things head on. We do truly horrible things to each other.

The monsters of fiction (Vampires and Werewolves and Zombies... whatever) are yet to have been verified by science - but we all know those people who suck the life out of us, those people who can be the sweetest people one second and then without warning can make you cry from the violent cruelty they impose and who hasn't met those people who just wander through life without passion and want nothing but to take the passion out of others.

Most of life's bad things are not actually spoken about. We do not talk about torture or how sexual it is. We do not speak about the fact that rape is a crime against humanity and that it is committed against 1 in 4 women, 1 in 10 men, 1 in 6 children of any gender - usually by someone they knew.
That incest is far more common than we want to imagine.
Fiction is able to present us with a disturbing, yet palpable picture of the world.

The "secret" is obviously accusatory, but I think it's more inward than anything else. The person who wrote the "secret" most likely has read a bunch of fiction that "offensive" and "glorified violence", enjoyed it and was ashamed of pursuing the stories that were gritty, disturbing, kinky and fantastic (= fantasy, not "amazing").

I say, if we can't discuss, talk, explore and live fictional lives how can we do the same for non-fictional lives - in which we hide, repress, suppress and oppress so much more?

As I finish writing this, the credits of Twilight are rolling. A more boring movie I can't remember seeing. Disturbing gender, race and class relations abound.
This is fiction that many find meaning in. It is bad, it glorifies behaviour that in our world can get you killed, relationships that can wreak emotional havoc and personalities I hope one day get help to sustain healthier lives.

If we can't say that on a world found in books, how will we ever be able to say it about the world that exists at the end of our nose?

Quoi?
What kind of internet user thinks up these questions?

In short, I wouldn't ban any book. Really. No, not even The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, not Mein Kampf, not Huckleberry Finn.
Not any hate-mongering, free-love-ing, right wing, left wing... what have you.

That doesn't mean I'm not going to tell the kid who may or may not be interested in a book to be aware that every book presents and represents a certain stand-point and that it's usually better to be not take every piece of writing at face value.

Literary merit is for book critics, not for critical analysis.

I'd prefer to steer teens towards work that doesn't implicitly (or explicitly) state that some people are more human than others - because that would just make me a hypocrite. But I think that disallowing those subjects simply make it harder to fight and oppose the ideas and ideals which exist - having them where you can see them, makes it easier to argue and fight against.

That's what I think.

Vampires have taken over our lives. They suck out time via books, television and film like no other supernatural beast ever could.

Why?

Because they look like people, like you and me, they can walk among us unknown and seduce us with their glamour, mystique and plain ole' attractiveness.
Vampires are always beautiful, those that ugly, do not need to be. We are attracted to the fact that they are excluded from daylight, that they are reflected only in the eyes of human (their prey) and to the fact that they are immortal.

They do not die.

We pass away and they pass on.

Vampires have reached a kind of peak of pop-culture popularity. Ten years ago when I was fourteen and obsessed with Buffy, I read Dracula, Interview with a Vampire and thought Bella Lugosi was the shit.
Vampires were awesome.

Now... they're poster boys for Abstinence.
Where have we gone wrong.
( This glamour will make you click on the cut )

When some one links to an article titled The War on Science Fiction and Marvin Minsky on a website called The Spearhead and the Author's nick is Pro-male/Anti-feminist Tech; you know you're in for some fun sci-fi critique!

My first thought after reading that diatribe of misogyny, homophobia and exclusionary nostalgia, was pretty uncharitable, petty and mean.
Not even the most "one of the boys/I'm not a feminist" female-geek wouldn be able to consider this person particularly tasteful.
Seeing as he's laying out misogyny and homophobia pretty fucking thick. Without any shame and certainly without any self-reflection.
But That's what cowards do.

I'm reminded of my entry into the comic book world, there are women there (readers that is) and I gravitated to the classics (Batman, Superman, Catwoman, Wonder Woman, the Justice League - yeah, I'm a DC grrl) and to horror-fantasy (DC's Vertigo line; Sandman, Hellblazer, Fables, Lucifer etc).
This is not an odd thing, most people like more than one kind of genre in they chosen form of medium, but I definitely felt the overwhelmed by the amount of boys in this medium and how my reading of the stories being feminist (even before I could articulate why it was feminist - I was 15 when I got into comics) made me iffy about getting into discussion with other Batman fans - many of them, somehow, ignoring the fetish gear he dons in order to fight crime and the only women he's ever been interested in sexually (he doesn't do romance) have been other criminals who wear costumes.
I digress.
( This is cut for length )

Times they are a changing, and guess what, they've been "changing" and "changed" since the mid-60's, you, Pro-Male/Anti-Feminist Tech failed to get on that boat and complaining about us women and queers taking over your genre and taking your jobs in science...
This is not a tree-house club and there are no more Wendy houses.
This is a sandbox - please stop peeing in it.

ETA: I couldn't stop myself. I commented, sans a link to this blog. I don't need to make easier for them to find me.

In my previous post regarding the Lammy Awards I was very fuzzy on where I stood regarding the fact that non-queer authors were now disqualified from submitting their work for the award.

The way I roll, I think stories should be honoured first and foremost. Just this evening I was talking to my older sister and she was telling her kids how their dad was seeing the same Moon in India right now (because that's where he is) and it slipped out of my mouth "Because all times are now and all places are here. And that's why even fictional people are real" h/t rm.
My sister agreed with me whole heartedly and it began a whole discussion with my seven year old nephew about the veracity of Vampires and Werewolves.

My concern, first and foremost, is the policing of identity. We live in such fluid times, it causes problems.
I know I prefer to my Lesbian Friends and Sisters when it comes to political identification and queer social gatherings... I'm also wary of the fact that if I ever date a man (cis man specifically, whether he is queer or not), that I will be viewed as though I'm betraying some kind of identity promise.

That's a Queer concern.

So are the Lammy Awards.

When I first read about the Lammy Awards change, the people who were raising alarms and concerns were people who are openly queer.
Later on, as I read more on the issue I encountered the voices of straight authors who write same-sex romance, specifically m/m. Professional Slash authors, as they've been dubbed and like most Slash authors they are Straight.
Straight Cis authors who write LGBTQ characters, I thank you for writing awesome people with which we can fall in love, identify with and celebrate.
That doesn't mean you get to say that by taking Orientation into account you are being oppressed.
You are not, because you have straight and cis privilege.
By bringing up the fact that you're a member of another oppressed community you're derailing and playing the Oppression Olympics.

Stop it, just... no. Your entitlement and privilege blindness is showing by demanding to be recognised in an Award that is about celebrating our lives and stories. You happen to write people who could live our lives, and that's great, I love reading and knowing stories like that, that still doesn't entitle you to come into our space and trample all over what we (or the Lambda Literary Foundation, rather) built so that our status and visibility could be elevated.

I'll not be writing any more about this, but I wanted to get my piece out there. I wanted to say, this is a queer concern, about queer visibility, queer identity and queer story telling. As such, it's not about straight cis people.

The end, ces't tout.

Now I have to decide whether I'm going to write about Rape Culture, or about the fact that my Identity is flaunted as propaganda in order to deflect criticism over the human rights violations my country commits on a daily basis.

Any takers?

The Lambda Literary Foundation, for those of you who do not know, is an American LGBT Literary that works to raise the status of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender authors, who are marginalised, in the literary world.

Awesome says I.

An organisation that works to elevate the visibility and merit of LGBT(Q!) authors is good.

The Lambda Awards (hereby known as the Lammy's) though, are about the stories. Or at least, that's what I (and probably many others) thought.

However, the new guidlines contain within them a new rule, which is a source of contention:

The Lambda Literary Foundation (LLF) seeks to elevate the status of openly gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people throughout society by rewarding and promoting excellence among LGBT writers who use their work to explore LGBT lives.

As such, it should be noted that the Lambda Literary Awards are based principally on the LGBT content, the gender orientation/identity of the author, and the literary merit of the work.

Let's get one thing straight (laugh it up); queers having our own space, our own awards and our own rules as to who applies, is not a bad thing.
Really, it's not.
The problem is, who decides.

The Lammy's guideline specifically states:

As to what defines LGBT? That is not up to anyone at Lambda Literary Foundation to decide. The writers and publishers are the ones who will be doing the self-identifying. Sexuality today is fluid and we welcome and cherish this freedom. We take the nomination of any book at face value: if the book is nominated as LGBT, then the author is self-identifying as part of our LGBT family of writers, and that is all that is required. There are many permutations of LGBT and they're all welcome as that LGBT term we've all adopted makes clear.

Okay, so they accept anyone who ID's as part of the LGBT(Q damnit!) family. And if that bisexual cis woman who is married to her straight cis male husband of such-and-such years submits an award. Sure, of course she's eligible.
But wait, no she doesn't, she doesn't live the "lifestyle".
An exaggeration?
Not so much, when that kind of thing happens all the time, you're not queer enough if you have het privilege.
Is it stupid? Of course it is, but whoever said marginalised groups were good with the whole acceptance thing.

Honestly, I don't think it would go that way, I'm also obviously being satirical here. I mean, it could, but I'm trying for optimism here. LGBT(Q) authors having their place and awarding those of us who wrote a story in which our portrayal brings us and the characters in the story alive is a very good thing.
Telling people that who they are may not be enough in order to be eligible for the award is not the way to go.

The main problem that came out of this whole thing is that the change in the guidelines came with such short notice.
The notice of the change came out September 25th, submission begins October 1st and ends December 1st.
Yeah, no matter how you look, that is short notice, especially when it's effective immediately.

I say my opinion is fuzzy, the "litmus" should be for people to be able to say:"I'm queer", accept that statement at face value and move on in order to read a good book or story about people who are like me (potentially). But queer isn't a visible thing, our statements of who we are, are under constant attack because we are marginalised, because we are not "normal", because if we really wanted to and tried hard enough, we wouldn't have to be marginalised, now would we.

I'm getting frustrated from all this thinking about which box we're supposed to fit into. Sexuality is fluid (not for everyone!), but it better remain in that little bowl.

Regardless of how us queers feel about the change in the guidelines, which is not clear cut at all, here is one thing I have to say about those straight authors, who are yelling at the Interwebs, about being marginalised because the Lammy's changed the rules on their gay romance.

Shut up.

No, really. Shut. The. Fuck. Up.

I've had it up to fucking here with stupid straight people appropriating my space, in order to promote an agenda that has nothing to do with actually being queer, and has everything to do with "but I want to play in this sandbox too".
Yes, well, at the moment you are peeing in it, because the attitude of entitlement is not the one members of the LGBTQ family who happen to be cis and straight should be throwing around.
You feel strongly about your portrayal of gay characters, that's good, I feel strongly about it to.
Saying that because you feel excluded from a prize, you are oppressed is irksome, irritating and shows that you are so privilege blind that you really have no fucking clue what homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, etc actually causes the psyche of a person who does deal with these prejudices and hates on a bloody daily basis.

God, am I the only one who had a flashback to the trek stupidity a couple months back.
Seriously, peeps, what the fuck?!

On that, I'm not so fuzzy headed.

A thanks to rm, kynn and vashtan; their posts really enabled me write this post in a (hopefully) semi-coherent way.
Their own opinions and fact finding skills were extremely helpful.

If you still want in on this meme, you can fill it out here.
But now, the lists!

There is no hierarchy to this Top Five Lists, all are equally awesome in my mind!

( Top Five Catchphrases )

( Top Five Musicians )

( Top Five Fights )

( Top Five Books )

( Top Five Comic Book Characters )

( Top Five Dream Jobs )

Any questions?

Via sabotabby:

Every now and then the police arrest somebody suspected of some terrible, violent crime, and as a piece of public relations they'll announce all of the horrible books, movies and/or CDs they found in the suspect's house, as if to prove that the suspect is obviously guilty and horrible and monstrous.

So here is my challenge to you. You can either do this from memory or take a moment to look through your book and music collections, and then answer this question:

Name ten books, CDs and/or movies that you own that the police would cite as evidence against you at their press conference.

Now, I don't actually have much "subversive" stuff in Hard Copy (I'm pretty screwed if the authorities get their hands on Ursula the Laptop and/or my Disk-on-Key), but here are the things I think may raise some suspicion if I'm deemed "anti-social":
( Under the Cut - Nothing by Marx! )

I have some Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky, Bertrand Russel and the like, and of course, other books about sexuality (queer, BDSM) and various other feminist politics, but those are just for fun.
Of course.

Here is a funny usage of Amazon Rank, I shall be using it as much as I can.

And a whole bunch of links about the issue to be found here at meta_writer.

If you find more info or interesting posts on the subject you can and should comment to the post linked above at meta_writer.

Thanks.

Also: Amazon: What Does the Amazon Sales Rank Mean and is It Significant?.

Amazon.com, the great book, music, dvd and other assortment of commodities has revamped their sales ranking system.
They're in fact, removed the sales ranking from what they deem "adult" material.
What does this actually mean, you ask?

An author of a young adult book with an m/m relationship at the centre noticed that the sales of his book disappeared and he wrote to Amazon, this is the reply he received:

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude "adult" material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

Hence, if you have further questions, kindly write back to us.

Best regards,

Ashlyn D

Member Services

Amazon.com Advantage

Here is a list of the books that have been "purged" - It is long and they are all GAY!.
Please note that children's books like Heather has Two Mommies and Am I Blue? are included in this list.
The Playboy Centrefold, however, is not.

Books containing LGBT material of any kind are no longer ranked in sales and are not part of best seller searches.

So much for targeting "adult" content.

This is blatant homophobia and I urge you, if you care about the representation and treatment of queers in real life and the media write letters and boycott them.
In Protest of Amazon's New "Adult" Policy - Petition.

If you want to buy books online might I suggest Better World Books?

I'm off to remove my Wish list from Amazon and create an independent one.

I'm more boggled than pissed off to tell you the truth, as just today I added things of they consider "adult" content to my shopping cart and must say I'm so very disappointed in their (what I feel is) a reactionary response to the changing social climate on the US.

Screw them.

Yeah... I am a bit pissed.

Edited to Add: Means of directly contacting Amazon.com:
connect-help@amazon.com
http://clicheideas.com/amazon.htm

Jeffrey Bezos, CEO
AMAZON.COM
1200 12th Avenue South
Seattle, Washington 98144-2734
United States
Phone: 206-266-1000
Fax: 206-622-2405

Edited to Add again: I love you Neil!!!

As usual.
Neil wins.

And they're both so cute!


Must get The Graveyard Book already!
And I want the English edition, I don't want want imprinted with the Newberry emblem.

* Grab the nearest book.
* Open the book to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions if you want to.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

"She is the most beautiful of dusky Dianas and the belle of the Piccaninnies, coquettish, cold and amorous by turns: there is not a brave who would not have the wayward thing to wife, but she staves off the alter with a hatchet."

Peter Pan; childhood classic? Or Imperialist propaganda extraordinaire?
Who can tell.

I always preferred Tiger Lily to Wendy.

Today on the News I watched an Economic Commentator compare the bailout plan to a defibrillator shock.
That comparison really scared me, because after reading The Shock Doctrine, which was one of the first economic commentaries/exposes I'd ever read, I've been trying to keep a keener eye and ear out for the language used by pundits, politicians and sound bite economists.

The worst thing about this is that the really wealthy won't notice this, those whose entire capital was invested in stock will get benefits from this bailout and thus will be able to go on their merry way, while inflation goes over board and unemployment abounds.

I'm parroting the News and I can't help but wonder, do these people understand who inflation and unemployment hurts most? Are they aware that small businesses (like my father's) can go under simply by employing people, because prices soar and no one can pay a salary because no one can afford because the customers themselves lose their job and are forced to go onto welfare and social security... which in my little Hell Hole is dwindling and dwindling.

I myself am also thinking about my future. What I'm to do with my degree in Useless studies Lit. and Gender studies.
I once thought of getting an MA or Certificate in Information/Library studies.
But when I think about what I really want to do and considering what I'd like to use my degree for, I always think of my mother, who is a teacher.
And this week a friend of the family who runs a chapter of an organization that tries to encourage education/literacy among the Indigenous people in Australia. She and her Significant Other (who also works at this NGO) were telling me about some of the projects and the young teachers that work at the organization and all I could think was "yes, yes... this is what makes the difference".
I'm still young enough to remember that I thought teachers were idiots and that I almost all of them.
Except my literature teachers in Junior High and High School.
And my Drama teacher from when I was 11 'till 14.
And sometimes I fantasize about being that kind of influence, if that one awkward weird kid can look back and think... I'd like to be like that.

Real world cynicism (and having a parent as a teacher) lets me know that fantasy aside, being a teacher is a thankless job in today's economic reality, especially in Israel where if you don't have tenure you barely get enough pay to make ends meet.

So... yeah.
This is what I think about when I have time. And I get memory streams, but that's the subject of a different entry.

I have a Job!

At a book shop.

An Independent second hand (and also new) book shop.

It pretends to be a second hand book shop, but there is a stairwell to a basement filled with Sci-Fi and Fantasy books, Comics, Action Figures, Dolls, Zines, Magazines, Shirts and Props.

How cool is that?!?!

So yeah, there's schlepping, and filing, and cleaning and all that other stuff that you have to do in order to work in a shop (I've been told by the Boss that I need to lose my conscience ASAP... Woe!).

Also, I'm working minimum wage. Which is okay (it's peanuts) but what do I have to complain about, I just need to keep my bank account from dropping too much before the bank starts telling me that that minus is their plus, forever.

Anywho... isn't that the coolest thing ever!?

Here's a Plug.

I want to be excited about Watchmen, but I'm just not managing.

The Trailer is very cool, visually beautiful, though I'm not sure why Dr. Manhattan is so shiny and Silk Spectre has this whole half naked thing going on... strange, no?

It would seem that Mr. Moore (as in Alan Moore, the one who wrote the bloody graphic novel!) has requested that his name be removed from the credits and wants to disassociate himself from the movie, which is only natural... seeing as adaptations tend to not be similar to their original medium - this is notorious when it comes to Alan Moore comic and their movie adaptations.

I love V for Vendetta, as you know; kind of hard to miss V's introductory speech posted on the side bar (also Vox Populi, Vox Dei, right :). I love the book - which can leave you speechless - and the movie - which makes you run out and read the book! Having read V4V before I saw the movie I went in there with quite low expectations and was not disappointed.

Watchmen is one of those life changing books. You come out of it different than when you went in. Very few books have the power to alter your perspective on things.
I became a comic book reader quite late in life, at around 15 and it started with Neil Gaiman - Sandman is another of those life changing stories - and when I began to delve deeper into the genre and its history you can't not find the Daddy of the Modern Age and read him.
I always think how much more appreciative I would have been of Gaiman (whose power comes from creating a meta level in the stories themselves) if I'd discovered and/or read Moore before hand (whose power comes from completely recreating the foundation of sequential story telling, beyond meta and deconstructing itself).

Watchmen takes the classic comic book genre (super heroes) and completely turns it on its head. After Watchmen heroes could no longer be Good and villains could no longer be Bad. It made no sense for things to be that way anymore.

The ethical questions raised in the story (and answered in one of the most gruesome and brilliant, sequences ever written and drawn) are questions we tend to not ask ourselves, they are too big and most likely not something we think about on a conscious level.
In any event it is a book of great philosophical and social commentary on the simplest of levels, so a deeper reading can be mind blowing.

I'm not excited about the movie. I thought I would be. I want to be. But I really can't imagine what a director like Zack Snyder will be able to get out of it. Especially since his directorial record leaves much to be desired in my opinion: Dawn of the Dead didn't live up to the original and 300 couldn't have been good since the source material was an overrated, indulgent, racist, testosterone laced excuse of Effing Frank Miller's self-congratulatory wank fests.
And so was the 300 the movie.

That's not to say I won't go see it when it comes out, but my expectations that it manages to even capture the atmosphere of the book are pretty much non-existent.

The trailer is cool though: ( Watch it )

Mother unit is learning to play Bridge with a bunch of friends, while Moi is blogging about it in the corner of the living room, having been moved away from my regular spot behind the couch because the whole furniture arrangement had to be changed.

I dunno why.

Mummy is on a bit of a moving around spree because we're going to get the whole house (my room not included as it was painted less than two years ago) so there is a cleaning frenzy because this is an opportunity to get rid of things she had been trying to for years.
Personally, this is a chance to, um, attain more books from the old bookshelves in the various (every single one of the) rooms that contain books.

There is something to be said about "Summer Cleaning".

For instance, I found a book I forgot I had and got another in, oddly, the same subject: Nonie Darwish's "Now They Call Me Infidel" and Ayaan Hirsi-Ali's "Infidel", respectively.
I have issues with some of their politics, but as women from "Muslim" countries now living in the "West" they have a unique perspective of those countries and I think a lot of people on the Left choose to ignore what these women say because they're used (and enable) certain aspects of media to use their (valid, in their experience) criticisms of Islam and the cultures they come from to show Islam as entirely anti-Woman and incapable of evolving from the "Barabrism" it's currently in - yeah, I know, *vomit*.
None the less, if you can, it's important to read what they have to say, even if I disagree with a lot of their politics.

And here's something interesting; it would appear that British Muslims feel like European Jews. This was said by First British Muslim Minister Shahid Malik who is basically saying that Muslims are targets of prejudice and discrimination, etc. etc.
Links to the articles in The Independent and Reuters.

Now, while no doubt Minister Malik has legitimate claims of discrimination towards Muslims, I mean, duh. I have a problem with the comparison to Jews. I mean, the Jews of Europe were and are treated like European Jews, just because there was an eradication attempt doesn't mean there aren't any left and in England there are quite a few Jews.
I'm sorry to say that antisemitism really isn't gone and to compare the rise in anti-Muslim and anti-Islam sentiment to the fact that antisemitism in it's current (racial) form has been around for nearly 200 years.
The anti-Muslim and anti-Islam is on the rise and has risen because of the West's (re: the USA since the Second World War and became the planet's most destructive butt-insky) constant need of an Evil Enemy.

It's West bloc vs. East bloc.

What I'm saying is, like a lot of things to do with Jews, Antisemitism is uniqe and to try and pretend it doesn't exist anymore by trying to say that Jews have been replaced by a new scapegoat doesn't sit well with me.

Huh.
This entry turned much longer than I intended... forgive me folks, my rants tend to get the better of me.

Ever.

Go to it.
Read it.
Now!

Copulsory Reading.

I can't give you any panel for a preview of the essay strip, but suffice to say, for all us bookworms and manic readers, this is the best comic strip ever written.

Go.
Read it.
Shoo!
What are you still doing reading this boring-ass entry?!

Mummy and Daddy are back home from the States.

Very happy about that, because suddenly the house doesn't seem so empty like it did when they were gone, add to that the fact that many nights of the past week were spent alone (I'm glad Wish deigned to sleep with me) I'm extra delighted.

I got prezzies of course:
Three books; Yentl's Revenge, She Who Dwells Within and Exist Wounds - I meant to write "Exit Wounds" - (my next books are this and this); a reusable shopping bag (we're fast becoming a plastic shopping bag free home); an NYC M&M Snowglobe and a M&M key ring, both of which have joined my other knick-knacks which beckon to be dusted after the Weeks of Sandy Heat Waves brought about by the Encroaching Desert.

But the best is having them home.
I really missed them.

A few days ago former Knesset Speaker and former Jewish Agency chief Avraham "Avrum" Burg gave a speech and interview about Israel, Palestine, the Jewish nature of the state, the state of Judaism in Israel and lots of other things in this close to 90 minute session - yeah, it's long. But if you get some spare time (like I had yesterday) listen to what he has to say.

Avrum Burg Speech MP3, via Jewschool

Perhaps a little background information is needed on the man, in order to appreciate the speech. I unfortunately am not that good at summarizing a man's life, so I'll refer you to his wiki page - Avraham Burg, which is as good a starting point as any I suppose.

What one really needs to know about Mr. Burg is how he is now perceived in mainstream Israeli society. He is viewed on the negative side, due to his criticisms of Israel's policies, nature and over-all screwed upness. This is especially hackling to most Israelis because, as before mentioned, he's a former MK Speaker and former Jewish Agency chief (pretty much as Zionist as can be) and he's now been flagged, and if I'm not mistaken (though don't take my word for it) has said about himself, that he is a post-Zionist, his stronger critiques have called him an anti-Zionist.
His politics and opinions became very public after the publishing of his (semi-biographical/semi-autobiographical) book about the Holocaust and Israel and his own family's history on the subject. The book is called לנצח את היטלר (english: Defeating Hitler) and I recommend it heartily, I found it moving and correct in it's assessment of the trauma that Israel has incorporated into its national identity.
Over the book's publishing in the summer of 2007, he was interviewed in the Ha'aretz magazine - which you can conveniently read here in Hebrew and in English - and it was the kiss of death to his mainstream image.
I liked what he had and still has to say.
Suffice to say, I'm in the minority here.

I. Want. These.
Now!
( Fangrrl Squeee! )

Wouldn't you want something like that on your book shelf!

First sight of them here.