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#1

Off the Record / Re: TV/Movies Megathread

Last post by HVC - Today at 08:52:43 PM

Just finished Shogun.

I'll be shocked if this doesn't win a shit ton of awards.

Deservedly so.

#2

Off the Record / Re: Israel-Hamas War 2023

Last post by Admiral Yi - Today at 08:49:57 PM

I remember plenty of protests against war that turned violent.

I do remember reading about riots during the US Civil War and then during the Vietnam war.

Between a riot an "Burn tel Aviv to the ground"  I think I'll take the moron with the hate speech.

Besides, isn't hate speech protected in the US?  Isn't this a value deer to the right and particularly the GOP and its supporters, without any limits?

"Kill the enemy" is not an anti war slogan.  It's a pro war slogan.

#3

Off the Record / Re: Lost books

Last post by Tonitrus - Today at 08:46:10 PM

Mark Twain wrote enough travel journals and such, you could easily argue his entire body of work comprises a memoir. 

But I'd be seriously interested specifically in Lincoln writing his retrospective on being President during the ACW. 

#4

Off the Record / Re: Israel-Hamas War 2023

Last post by viper37 - Today at 08:29:37 PM

"Burn Tel Aviv to the ground" is a very unorthodox anti-war slogan

I remember plenty of protests against war that turned violent.

I do remember reading about riots during the US Civil War and then during the Vietnam war.

Between a riot an "Burn tel Aviv to the ground"  I think I'll take the moron with the hate speech.

Besides, isn't hate speech protected in the US?  Isn't this a value dear to everyone and particularly the GOP and its supporters, without any limits?

#5

Off the Record / Re: TV/Movies Megathread

Last post by Tonitrus - Today at 07:55:25 PM

Thinking about it some more, I guess the "average Joe" series are mostly workplace comedies now? The Office, Superstore, etc?

I think so.

But I was thinking about your post and how we've shifted. Were there any sitcoms about friends or flatmates etc (not family and not colleagues) before the 90s? I can't think of any off the top of my head

Edit: Actually in a British context - maybe Hancock's Half Hour and Rising Damp.

Three's company

Bosom Buddies (with Tom Hanks), Perfect Strangers, maybe Mork & Mindy?  Also Laverne & Shirley.


(I watched way too much TV as a kid.)

#6

Off the Record / Re: Israel-Hamas War 2023

Last post by Razgovory - Today at 07:54:30 PM

"Burn Tel Aviv to the ground" is a very unorthodox anti-war slogan

#7

Off the Record / Re: Israel-Hamas War 2023

Last post by viper37 - Today at 07:53:32 PM

Slogans heard at Columbia:

"We say justice, you say how? Burn Tel Aviv to the ground!"

"Al-Qassam you make us proud! Take another soldier out!"

"Hamas, we love you! We support your rockets, too!"

"Red, black, green, and white, we support Hamas' fight!"

"It is right to rebel, al-Qassam, give them hell!

Not that catchy, but Josq has told me that nobody supports Hamas.

Ohhh.  University students have radical leftists spouting anti war slogans!

It's a first!  Stop the press!

#8

Off the Record / Re: Indian Elections 2024

Last post by Razgovory - Today at 07:41:15 PM

Based off my experiences with one Indian guy (so yeah. He could just be a werido) Islam as the foreign invaders religion certainly seems to be key to the hate.
I remember a few times he spoke about how great things were in ancient India, free love peace and glory, until the fire nat... Muslims invaded.

I get the feeling that some of it might be displacement of some of the post colonial inferiority complex about the UK since English and other colonial introductions are so core to India they can't really be challenged nor would it be wise to.
Islam on the other hand is a far safer target to bash.

So it's just more decolonization stuff?

#9

Off the Record / Re: Israel-Hamas War 2023

Last post by Razgovory - Today at 07:35:59 PM

Yeah, there has been quite a bit about this.  Many, many peeps.  Keep in mind CAIR is a somewhat dodgy organization.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/california-muslim-leader-warns-about-polite-zionists-drawing-rebuke-from-adl/

California Muslim leader warns about 'polite Zionists,' drawing rebuke from ADL
Activist Zahra Billoo tells pro-Palestinian conference to monitor 'Zionist synagogues'; Anti-Defamation League calls speech 'vile, antisemitic, conspiracy-laden garbage'

. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA — A Muslim civil rights attorney and activist is drawing criticism, including accusations of antisemitism, from local and national Jewish organizations after a November 27 speech.

Zahra Billoo leads the San Francisco office of CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

In her speech, which drew attention after excerpts were republished by the Israel-advocacy website Israellycool on Dec. 2, she asked attendees gathered at a pro-Palestinian conference in Chicago to focus on not only extreme right-wing forces, but also "polite Zionists," including the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Federations, Hillel and "Zionist synagogues."



"When we talk about Islamophobia, we think oftentimes about the vehement fascists," Billoo said.

"But I also want us to pay attention to the polite Zionists. The ones that say, 'Let's just break bread together.'"

"They are not your friends," she said.


In the speech, delivered at an annual conference of American Muslims for Palestine, Billoo described a well-funded campaign to bolster Islamophobia around the world and an interconnected network of Zionist-supporting organizations working to harm Muslims.


She also repeated a false claim, one that circulates among some left-wing activist groups, that "police officers in the United States who kill unarmed black men, women and children are trained by the Israeli military."

A number of Jewish organizations offered harsh criticisms of her comments, saying they echoed antisemitic tropes of Jewish power and control.

The ADL's national director Jonathan Greenblatt issued a searing rebuke, calling the comments "textbook vile, antisemitic, conspiracy-laden garbage attacking the mainstream US Jewish community."

The San Francisco-based office of the Jewish Community Relations Council also excoriated the speech in a statement, calling it "antisemitic and deplorable, seeking to divide and besmirch efforts at cooperation and coexistence."

The incident illustrated the political chasm that separates many mainstream Jewish organizations from pro-Palestinian Muslim activists on the subject of Israel, even as they may agree on other political issues such as gun control, immigrant rights and combating racism.

The statements were also a rebuke of not only right-wing, pro-settlement religious Zionism, but also more moderate Zionist views widely held in the American Jewish community. According to a recent Pew survey, roughly 8 in 10 American Jews say they feel a connection to Israel and that it is an important part of their Jewish identity.

Billoo said during the speech she does not support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "Allah has promised us victory," she said.

Billoo, a member of CAIR since 2009, is a celebrated civil rights attorney with a law degree from UC Hastings who appears in television news interviews and newspapers.

Over the last 12 years she has helped pursue civil rights lawsuits against Southwest Airlines, Abercrombie & Fitch and the US Justice Department, and has won accolades for her work. She has also partnered with a left-leaning Jewish group for at least one 2019 event.

In 2016, a few weeks after Donald Trump was elected president, Billoo posted on Facebook, "He's going to do to you Muslims what Hitler did to the Jews."

In 2019 Billoo became one of a handful of Women's March organizers who either left or were removed from organizing roles amid claims of anti-Israel animosity and antisemitism. Her removal came after criticism from the ADL and others stemming from a 2015 tweet in which she wrote: "I'm more afraid of racist Zionists who support Apartheid Israel than of the mentally ill young people the FBI recruits to join ISIS."

Billoo and the national office of CAIR did not respond to a request for comment.

In the end, CAIR supported her https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/cair-supports-member-that-said-zionist-synagogues-behind-islamophobia-688510

#10

Off the Record / Re: Football (Soccer) Thread

Last post by FunkMonk - Today at 07:00:34 PM

Desperately resisting the urge to post about Arsenal vs Chelsea