Israel envoy defends his attack on 'suicide bomber' art exhibit

this incident raises a number of questions for me:

1. is the ambassador's actions a justifiable response to the exhibit?
2. was the exhibit anti-semitic?
3. what was the artist's motivation? glorifying suicide bombing, or soliciting shock and disgust?

re #1.
argument pro: he was reacting as a human being, and as a jew. he saw the suicide bomber floating in a pool of his people's blood -- who wouldn't react with outrage?
argument con: he is an ambassador, and should be expected to comport himself with dignity. his reaction was knee-jerk and unjustifiable in light of his position as a dignitary (read: act with dignity).

re #2.
argument pro: any glorification of palestinian suicide bombing is by definition anti-semitic because the terrorists who support suicide bombing aim to wipe out the jewish people (at least from the land of Israel, if not everywhere else they find them).
argument con: the artist was Israeli, a jew, and an outspoken critic of Israel. His art reflects this criticism and not an expression of anti-semitism (which, it would turn out, would be self-hating).

re #3.
glorifying suicide bombing: not having seen the actual exhibit, but after reading several descriptions of it, it seems that the exhibit would appear to glorify suicide bombing. Why else put a nice picture of a "martyr" in a boat, floating in a bloody pool? Why else make the analogy between a suicide bomber and Snow White? It seems to indicate something of glorification to me...Snow White is analogous to being of "clean hands", pure as the driven snow, without blemish, victim of the evil plotting of the wicked queen. Can one really say this of a murderess without embracing the ideology that it is a higher moral purpose to blow yourself up and kill civilians?

shock and disgust: "The Madness of Truth" -- okay, I understand the madness part, but what truth is he trying to get at here? The truth that suicide bombing is shocking and disgusting? The truth that his exhibit would evoke shock and disgust among any person with half a human soul???

for my part, I hope I never have to see this, or any other, art exhibit that would be so disgusting and insensitive. For if I were to, I don't know that I would be able to comport myself with any more dignity than the Israeli ambassador.

I'm not necessarily condoning his reaction, but I do find it an understandable human response to such a disgusting display.

"mom" suicide bomber...

a new low for palestinian terrorists...now they are recruiting mothers.

The mom/terrorist (who, consistent with my policy of not memorializing murderers, shall remain nameless on this blog) is quoted:

“I always wanted to be the first woman to carry out a martyr attack, where parts of my body can fly all over. That is the only wish I can ask God for,” she said with a smile.

okay lady. #1 -- you are not the first "woman" terrorist -- albeit you are the first "mother". #2 -- who on earth yearns to have their body parts fly all over the place? how sick can you be?

The mother had two children: a girl, 18 months, and a boy, 3 years.

poor kids. they will have to grow up being told that they don't have a mommy because their mommy was a great martyr. cold comfort.

fear and loathing...again

the saga continues.

the only grade posted is from contracts. and I got the lowest grade humanly possible.

I hate forced curves.

for all I know, everyone aced the exam and because I didn't mention one pesky issue, I got forced to the bottom.

so what to do? I send a message to the prof. asking to review the exam and discuss how to improve my performance.

as yet, no reply.

does anyone wonder why I fear and loathe this class?

wake up! it's time for school.

well, the time has come to get ready for a new semester.

yet we don't have our last semester's grades yet! (this is so incredibly lame, and there is no excuse for not posting the fall grades before the end of the year.)

I've been mostly sleeping during the break, and now I realize that I have a ton of reading homework to catch up on.

jump back on the treadmill...

I need to buy one book for Constitutional law, then I need to read the assignment before Tuesday.

And to add more stress, I am trying to get everything in order for Spring OCI. This is stressful because we have to have our resumes approved before we can bid, and the bidding closes on friday. I suppose I should have worked on it during the break, but I didn't and now I feel like it is too late.

Well, I suppose it doesn't much matter because I will be in school during the summer anyway and probably can't take a full time job (unless I get a great offer).

crossing fingers that the grades are respectable, will find out tonight.