The Offline Life.

It really is better out here -- healthier.
Make it a great weekend all, whatever it is your job to dish up today...

(Pray for Parity, people everywhere... Do you see what I see? A child, a child, bleeding in the night, we will bring him goodness and light. We will bring him goodness... and light!)


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ADDED: Susan Estrich -- a mighty Jew, strongly supporting the Israeli military killings for security and peace -- ironically wonders why life has become so cheapened, even here in America. Eventually, I suspect, she'll make the connections.

Senseless violence is, almost by definition, hard to understand. Not that I can understand terrorists who kill from hate, but at least we can identify a reason — a terrifying one, to be sure, grounded in a violent belief system — for what they do.
...
What was most terrifying was not the anger that came through, but the utter lack of humanity. Violent predators are not like the rest of us. They kill for fun, for sport, for the sake of it. To compare them to animals is an insult to animals. To expect that we can rehabilitate them assumes a will to change.

But your ways are winning, Susan:
Might makes right. Death and destruction is like mowing the lawn.

Why so surprised when others imitate your ways, and seek to eliminate the "others" they don't think belong in their own neighborhoods, closer to home? Really, talk about wanting to have it both ways...

ON A RELATED NOTE:
David Grossman is miles ahead of Susan, in thinking about why violence rarely brings the victory sought:

I do have a sense that Israel is growing up. Sadly, painfully, gnashing its teeth, but nonetheless maturing — or, rather, being forced to. Despite the belligerent declarations of hotheaded politicians and pundits, beyond the violent onslaught of right-wing thugs against anyone whose opinion differs from theirs, the main artery of the Israeli public is gaining sobriety.

The left is increasingly aware of the potent hatred against Israel — a hatred that arises not just from the occupation — and of the Islamic fundamentalist volcano that threatens the country. It also recognizes the fragility of any agreement that might be reached here. More people on the left understand now that the right wing’s fears are not mere paranoia, that they address a real and crucial threat.

I would hope that on the right, too, there is now greater recognition — even if it is accompanied by anger and frustration — of the limits of force; of the fact that even a powerful country like ours cannot simply act as it wishes; and that in the age we live in there are no unequivocal victories, only an illusory “image of victory” through which we can easily see the truth: that in war there are only losers.

There is no military solution to the real anguish of the Palestinian people, and as long as the suffocation felt in Gaza is not alleviated, we in Israel will not be able to breathe freely either.

He gets it.
Killing Palestinian kids is not going to bring about peace and prosperity in Israel. (Susan isn't there yet, not even close...)

[T]he Palestinian majority, represented by Mahmoud Abbas, has already decided in favor of negotiation and against terrorism.

Will the government of Israel, after this bloody war, after losing so many young and beloved people, continue to avoid at least trying this option? Will it continue to ignore Mr. Abbas as an essential component to any resolution? Will it keep dismissing the possibility that an agreement with West Bank Palestinians might gradually lead to an improved relationship with the 1.8 million residents of Gaza?