You know that point in the movie where the gang leader hands someone a gun and tell that person to shoot someone right in front of him? It is that loyalty test. That test that comes at a crossroads. Johnny Newbie has been around the gang for a little bit but hasn’t fully committed. So there is this grand loyalty test so the gang leader knows that Johnny Newbie will do whatever he says with out question. During this time we are all yelling at the screen, “Don’t do it!!!”. But then they do.

That is the first thing I thought about when I heard about the TSA patting down a 6 year old. Ok, that wasn’t the first thing I thought of. The first thing I thought about is how the Federal government was willing to violate children and that I would have charges filed for sexual assault or molestation. But back to my point….

I saw I video on Youtube say how it only lasted 20 seconds. Just do it and get it over with, you can’t do anything about it. It reminded me of something horrible. It reminded me of the mentality that used to be prevalent around those that accepted rape and molestation as an unpleasant but nonnegotiable part of life. Ever heard the phrase “Just lay back and enjoy it”? That led me to thinking of the gang banging rapes that happen as initiations.

The toleration of these TSA pat downs are ridiculous! Not only as a rights violation but also because there is no proof that they make us any safer! But they do have a real point. They are slowly breaking down our willingness to stand up on our own against the Federal government. The Federal government is working on building a population that is willing to substitute the government’s judgement in place of their own.

I am sure you want me to break down this illustration to show precisely what I mean. Well, you have the TSA agent who has been convinced that it is imperative for American safety that they violate someone’s private spaces because the Federal government said so. I mean we know it isn’t because the empirical data supports it. Then there is the parent. The parent has been convinced to cede their child ‘s body to “the greater good of the state” because no one can even pretend that was being done for her good. And the kid. The poor kid. If this continues, the kids in this country won’t have to be convinced to allow the Federal government to think for them because they will not know there is an alternative.

So, are we as a population going to be willing to substitute the Federal government’s judgement in place of our own. I urge that we don’t!

I really dislike double standards but I realize that they unknowingly happen. You find yourself holding the older child to a different standard than the younger, etc. But once it is pointed out you fix it, right?

Not the Democratic Party.

While I do not disagree per se on the bombing of Libya, it amazes me that President Obama, Hillary Clinton, etc support it. After all the rhetoric that has been spewed from the left about Iraq! At least we had reason to think that if Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that he would come after us. And that is in addition to the fact he was torturing his citizens.

So will the people who elected Obama stand up to him and his ilk? So much of the election rhetoric hung on us not doing things just like Libya!

I could rehash some of the most recent crazy rhetoric. But instead I am jut going to point you in the direction of some posts that have done it for me.

Do you think I am wrong? Do you think it is a double standard?

Jim Treacher asks Remember when bombing Muslim countries was a BAD thing?
A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days writes So Much for Principles
Adam Freeman at Ricochet has Hilary: The Multilateral Exception to Congressional War Powers

My childhood is filled with 3rd Intifada memories. I became interested in Israel quite young. So I remember reading Newsweek and watching CNN and being place of frustration because cafes and buses were being bombed indiscriminately. Why? It amazed me that the people of Israel knew that around any corner there could be another bombing, another madman. I also knew that this was Israel’s problem. No country in the world could or would help them.

Has the Intifada come again?

March 11, 2011 there was a massacre in the settlement of Itamar. Yes, massacre is an inflammatory word but that is what it was. 5 members of a family were stabbed to death including a 3 month old! Frankly, when the story came out I wouldn’t even read anything about it. Seeing the tweets made me cry. And we aren’t going to discuss its proximity to Purim. But I was hoping it was a crazy person cause every group has one (or more) and basically an isolated event.

I can’t imagine any person I know and respect endorsing what happened in Itamar. Regardless of what your political beliefs are about Israel can anything justify stabbing 3 young kids? I don’t think so but apparently many Palestinians disagree with me.

So jump to today. There was a bus bombing in Jerusalem. 1 person is dead and 50 are injured. Add to that the fact a bomb was left by the side of a road a while back and there have been violence in Gaza. While it is claimed that all of this isn’t connected it makes me wonder. Is Israel going to be thrown back into a state of constant violence? Constant fear? I am nervous how bad it is going to get.

Am I over reacting? Or are things getting worse?

(Please let me know what you think but remember, you cuss at me and I delete;)

For those of you who may not know, Egypt has shut down just about all the internet in the whole nation. There was a video put up of a protester being killed and then the internet was turned off. President Obama had a press conference calling for Egypt to turn everything back on with and interesting universal rights arguement.

“I also call upon the Egyptian government to reverse the actions that they’ve taken to interfere with access to the Internet, with cellphone service and to social networks that do so much to connect people in the 21st century.”

Yes, that is a simplified recap;). But what is this going to mean to the whole area? With Tunisia overthrowing their dictator, revolution is in the air!

Some hope for more than just a governmental revolution. My friend Andrea, GreenBacksGal, tweeted for liberation for the women of the area.

#Egypt – the oppression you are protesting against is nothing compared to the oppression your women face every day. You MUST free your women

I am glad to see some reach so high but I am cynical as to this having such far reaching effects. What do I really hope for? That this has a rolling effect. First Tunisia, then Egypt and maybe this will get all the way to the students in Iran.

NerdDad and I were talking about what it would really take to exact the political/governmental change we hope to see. And what I came up with is something that went out of style/became illegal in the 1980’s. These revolutionaries need arms! When they have enough weapons to protect themselves from the tyrants that rule over them then and only then will we see the people of the Middle East have true self determination!

I am not saying that we should pick out who we want to win and arm them. But there has to be something we can do as a nation and international super power to help these people to determine their own fate. And I mean something other than going in and actually policing these nations. When we armed the Mujahideen to prevent Russia from just rolling their tanks over all of Afghanistan and the desires of the Afghani people in the 1980’s it seemed to help. And it wasn’t that we were just empowering a government that we wanted, or it would have been a democracy, but trying to enable them to be self determined.

I don’t know if that is the magic answer but there must be something that we can do without taking control. What would you propose?

I pray for the rebels in Egypt and Iran for their safety and for them to possibly see that everyone in their society desires the rights they are so desperately fighting for!

I didn’t realize that today was International Holocaust Remembrance Day (versus Yom HaShoah which is in April and I am very familiar with) until I was reading my newsletter from the Jerusalem Post. Of course there were a couple pieces on today’s events. So as I was reading something odd jumped out to me.

At the same time, a study published on Thursday showed Israeli, Polish and German citizens believed that Israel should take part in funding the preservation of the former Nazi camp, whose buildings and artifacts are in need of restoration.

Ok, really? Is it just me or does the idea that Israel should fund the upkeep of Auschwitz seem dumb? So the idea is that concentration camps should be maintained so that the events that took place will never be forgotten. So maybe the countries that did the doing so be doing the maintaining. I think if Israelis personally want to donate money to the upkeep that is one thing but to put the responsibility for that on Israel as a nation. Well, I don’t know. It just doesn’t sit right with me.

So do you think I am way off base? I am a big girl, let me know what you think!