The Jawa Report has had a number of interesting posts on the incident on the Mavi Marmara recently. I thought I would hit a few highlights:
The story is really coming in from the commandos’ point of view now, and at least one of them is being considered for a medal of valor. The story includes much more information about what was happening in the first seconds on board the ship than I’ve seen anywhere else (including details on the shots fired at the commandos and the fact that the attackers were apparently trained and well paid). Naturally, it doesn’t fit the narrative that much of the media has already created, so it’s being brushed aside.
It would be interesting to analyze the progression of the story from the initial reports to the current narrative, and see how the story has changed. How does the narrative actually change as new details come out? Have individual organizations / governments / media outlets actually corrected previous inaccuracies, or have they simply shifted the story and assumed people would catch up? How much of the shift is intentional, and how much unconscious? It would probably make an interesting paper. (In fact, if anyone wants to collaborate on such a paper, let me know!)
I had seen this elsewhere earlier, but I’ll give the hat tip to the Jawa Report.
UPDATE: YouTube has pulled this video because apparently they don’t understand the Fair Use Doctrine. There’s another copy of the video here, but I’ll leave up the original embedded video as a reminder of YouTube’s perfidy, and my own laziness.
More concerning overall is the situation that Israel has found itself in even before the current problems. The Obama administration in Washington is beginning to engage in dialogue with Hamas (which, the last time I checked, was still officially classed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization), and is oscillating rapidly on whether or not to support Israel’s status in regards to their nuclear power status. It’s no wonder that Israel currently feels the need for a more iron-clad assurance of its ability to defend against Iran. I wonder how soon Obama will realize that allowing Israel to be pushed into a corner in dealing with Syria and Iran could be a very bad thing.
Tomorrow (20 May 2010) is up on some calendars as “Draw Mohammed Day,” a movement largely popularized on Facebook. The most coherent explanation of what it is and why it’s being done that I have seen is this video:
The concept is definitely getting some attention – the Pakistani government has blocked Facebook for the rest of the month for allowing the page to stay online. In the mean time, some Muslims are continuing the same things that sparked the backlash to the backlash:
I started to worry when Obama signed an executive order some months ago allowing INTERPOL to operate in the United States. Things like this are one of the main reasons why. While it still seems to be true that INTERPOL wouldn’t be allowed to arrest anyone on American soil, it’s still worrisome that the organization can convince banks to close your accounts and refuse to allow you to open a new one. While the director of INTERPOL in the US says that the executive order “give[s] them the same authorities and immunities that any international organization that’s based here in the U.S. has, nothing more, nothing less” (does anyone else find it odd that he’s the director and he refers to the organization in the third person plural?), it doesn’t quite ring true. Other international organizations aren’t very likely to shut down your bank accounts and threaten to arrest you, now are they?
Luckily, this has happened before, and it’ll probably come back (for those of you who are afraid of losing your landmark and missing your turn on the far side of the asteroid belt).
While teaching gym the other day, I was supervising the students practising their golf swing. One student was standing next to his ball, talking to some other students, and the rest of the group was waiting for him to finish so they could go retrieve the balls they had already hit.
“Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to hit that?” I asked.
Said the student next to him, “That’s what she said!”
I was very interested to see an article on CNN discussing Amish business successes. I was discussing this with my cousin recently, and it’s nice to see the pros take an interest in what the Amish can show them about life.
I was teaching freshman civics the other day. The class was watching a video on the eighth amendment. One of the students asked me what video they would be watching.
I said, “it’s called ‘Cruel and Unusual.’”
He said, “oh, like ‘cruel and unusual pleasurement.’ No, wait, that’s not it…”
It’s good to see American soldiers interacting with civilians in Iraq. You do have to wonder what the Iraqis think of the young men and women that they meet…
The U.S. Air Force. Bringing surrealism to a desert near you.
