Saturday, March 03, 2007

Looking back over the blog recently I noticed a post I made about Robert Fisk's book, The Great War for Civilization: The Conquest of the Middle East, which I praised based on the two or three chapters I had read. This was on my mind when I heard an interesting interview with him on The Rachel Maddow Show yesterday, where he had a great deal to say (all of it critical) about the current escalation of U.S. and British troops in Afghanistan. As it turns out, I never got much farther into the book, and the reasons why are interesting although I didn't post about it.

As you may recall, in the summer of 2006 Israel was trying to eliminate Hezbollah by attacking targets in Lebanon, while Hezbollah was retaliating with rockets fired into northern Israel. While the figures for deaths and destruction of civilian infrastructure favoured Israel by something like ten to one, a lot of people (myself included) considered the outcome a propaganda victory for Hezbollah, both because Hezbollah survived and due to the number of innocent lives ended by Israel to achieve this non-result. While this was going on I happened to hear Fisk being inteviewed on the CBC about it. I was listening with considerable interest until he said something that left me incredulous. The details are a bit hazy in my recollection but in effect, Fisk claimed unequivocally that, were Israel to withdraw from some particular piece of disputed land on the border, Hezbollah would be entirely satisfied with that move, and that this would represent a step toward peace. To be clear, Fisk's claim was not that Hezbollah would be happy to score a victory against Israel (clearly they would) but that peace with Israel was, in some sense, Hezbollah's objective, and that settling this claim one way or the other would somehow be a step in that direction.

There's a lot to admire about Robert Fisk. Not only is he a very experienced journalist, but he manages to be a highly knowledgeable Western observer of the Middle East who is not also a patronizing Orientalist (click here for more information). Unfortunately from my point of view this remark led me to seriously question his judgement. I am no fan of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians or of its outright rejection of Palestinian national rights, but whatever the intrinsic merits of some land claim, Hezbollah will be using it as a stepping stone to their ultimate aim: the destruction not only of Israel but most likely the Jews themselves. This remains true no matter what role land claims might play in some peaceful settlement down the road. To take at face value the idea that Hezbollah's aim is limited to one parcel of land represents the triumph of optimism over common sense.

As it turns out, I'm not the first person to go after Robert Fisk for this kind of thing, although I probably still have a lot more in common with him than the kind of people who like to use his name as a verb. In future, I'll continue to give his views a respectful hearing; I'll just have to keep a salt shaker handy.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Heard Julia Sweeney on The Penn Jillette Show a week or two back – good stuff. Supposedly it plays on 97.1 FM from 2-3 pm out of Detroit, but I never get to listen to the radio on weekday afternoons so I listen to the podcast (RSS) instead. Check it out if you get a chance.

For those of you who don’t remember, Julia is a former Saturday Night Live cast member best known for her heavily overmilked character Pat, whose defining characteristic is that no one can figure out whether Pat is male or female. The skit was funny once, slightly, but when they made it into a movie, I was more surprised by that than the fact that the movie tanked. I don’t hold that against her, though; I’ve always understood there’s intense pressure on that show to create breakout characters/skits along the lines of Wayne’s World. (Incidentally, for those who don’t know, Mike Meyers was portraying Wayne long before SNL, and he even shows up in former MuchMusic VJ Christopher Ward’s forgettable Boys and Girls video. Also Wayne was originally from Scarborough, thank you very much, not Aurora, Illinois.)

The only other thing I knew about Julia Sweeney until recently was that, post-SNL, she had survived a bout of cancer and had written a one-woman show about her experience. It sounded interesting and I made a mental note at the time to check it out if I got the chance, but I never did and eventually forgot about it. What a pity, because hearing her on Penn inspired me to go look it up. While I haven’t found the actual show yet, I did find an episode of This American Life online, taken from soundboard tapes of her original talks, on stage at an improv club, which were the basis for the show. At the time these recordings were made, first her brother (who didn’t survive), and then Julia herself, were going through cancer treatment, one after the other, and she would go up on stage to talk about the situation.

Wow. Oh, wow. Wow.

Go ahead, listen. It takes less than an hour.

Now, don’t let the title of her show fool you (it’s called, God Said, “Ha!”). Like me, Julia is an atheist, and sooner or later, every atheist’s civility gets tested with claims like, “There are no atheists in foxholes” (specious), or “You’ll feel differently when you’re on your deathbed” (Really? Why not visit me when I’m actually on my deathbed and find out?). This happened to me most recently at John Allan’s funeral, when the celebrant made some remark or other about those benighted individuals who reject the promise of a life to come, the congregation chuckled, and Tara followed up with a reproving look in my direction. When 90% or so of the people in the world think they're doing you a favour by mocking you for limiting your beliefs to what reason and evidence can prove, you develop a thick skin and learn to pick your battles with care.

That's why it’s heartening when you occasionally come across someone who not only shares your priorities, but demonstrates singular courage by facing her pain and mortality with no spiritual weapons except her own good humour and biting wit. We can all learn from this amazingly brave and funny woman.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Just discovered online: Indexed. Jessica uncovers the hidden connections in our lives and renders them visible using friendly charts, graphs and Venn diagrams. Be sure not to miss my personal favourite.

My baloney has a first name, it's J-E-S-S-I-C-A.

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