"Landmesser later on created problems to the regime by wanting to marry a Jewish woman. He did not survive the war. Nor did his wife.

...

Do you know if you would salute under the same circumstances?

One thing is for sure.

    Books of the Year: The Best Books of 2012

T2. The Homecoming of Samuel Lake" - Jenny Wingfield This family saga was called "Southern Gothic at its best", touching "on many genres—family life, Christian fiction, coming-of-age, and suspense". USA Today wrote "anyone who loves Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird will   delight in Swan, the Lakes' eleven-year-old daughter".r

From Amazon: Every first Sunday in June, members of the Moses clan gather for an annual reunion... Samuel Lake, a vibrant and committed
young preacher... In the midst of it all, Samuel and Willadee’s outspoken eleven-year-old daughter, Swan, is a bright light. Her high spirits and fearlessness ... But just as the reunion is getting under way, tragedy strikes, jolting the family to their core and setting the stage for a summer of crisis and profound change.

3. "Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman" - Stefan Zweig  Zweig is one of my favorite writers, and he didn't disappoint in this biography.

About his other works: "The Royal Game", a novella about a monarchist in the period after Austria's annexation, is one of the most famous of Zweig's works, but his stories on other topics are no worse. I especially like how he conveys the inner world of children, as in "Burning Secret" (a good review).

The Austrian Jewish writer had to leave his country in 1934 after Hitler's rise to power. Despite physically escaping Hitler, seeing the horrors of WW2 made him feel hopeless and in 1942 commit a joint suicide with his wife.  

4. "Cows, pigs, wars & witches : the riddles of culture" - Marvin Harris  Entertaining &  thought provoking book.

THE TALE OF CUSTARD THE DRAGON by Ogden Nash

This horrible tragedy was on the 1^st page of Israeli newspapers too. Wanted to share some thoughtful posts I read:

February 13, 2013: The School Shooting Pivot Date  analyzes people's reactions.  “Frantic hyperactivity to mask impotence, frantic hyperactivity to signal to some omnipotent entity that you are trying to make things right– it’s the description for what’s happening now and the definition of obsessional neurosis.”

Can’t Bear to Look: Why the Media is Full of Distorted/Freak Photos of Adam Lanza."If we’re going to learn from this tragedy, especially with all the question marks that exist surrouning mental health, distorting Lanza’s image beyond his already thoroughly internally-distorted self is a bad idea. Rather, it is incumbent on us to try and see him as clearly as we can."

Stop Comparing the United States to Israel. Why presenting Israel "as some sort of shining beacon of what a country with an armed citizenry could be like" is mistaken. I was extremely surprised some people in US thought this about my country. In one of Israeli newspapers they even had a table, comparing US vs. Israeli gun laws, and in Israel laws are significantly stricter.

You Cannot Make Me Own a Gun: What Gun Culture Looks Like. A teacher writes why forcing teachers to carry guns isn't the best idea, and about gun culture of her town in general.

Drew Magary in "Down With Big Gun" offers to target the industry of firearms manufacturing.

Today in Maariv, one of the main Israeli papers, on the front page:

Israel identified new shipment of Fajr-5 rockets headed to Gaza from Iran.

Israeli spy satellites have spotted a cargo vessel at the Iranian port being loaded with [rockets and] other weapons. * Israeli intelligence sources estimate: the goal is to refill the stock of Fajr-5 rockets that were shot at Gush Dan * Hamas: the ceasefire doesn't include smuggling

Note: Gush Dan, or the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area,  includes "areas from both the Tel Aviv and the Central Districts of Israel. [...] The Tel Aviv metropolitan area is the largest metropolitan area in Israel and consists an estimated population of 3,206,400 residents, 95% of whom (3,000,000) are Israeli Jews. It houses about 42% of Israel's population." [wiki]

In Israel many think the operation ended too fast, without providing sufficient deterrence (delay till the next round). Especially, the South's citizens who have been living for years under rocket fire.

A few days ago one of the interviewers offered to let me do a Thanksgiving sentiment. I was not able to take advantage of the opportunity for I had already declined two chances and it would not be fair to be inconsistent and unreliable unless I could do good by it or there was graft in it somewhere, for the family.

Besides there is another aspect to this matter. Every year every person in America concentrates all his thought upon one thing, the cataloguing of his reasons for being thankful to the Deity for the blessings conferred upon him and upon the human race during the expiring twelve months. This is well and as it should be; but it is too one-sided. No one ever seems to think of the Deity’s side of it; apparently no one concerns himself to inquire how much or how little He has had to be thankful for during the same period; apparently no one has had good feeling enough to wish He might have a Thanksgiving day too. There is nothing right about this.

Do you suppose everything has gone to His satisfaction during the year? Do you believe He is as sweepingly thankful as our nation is going to be, as indicated by the enthusiasms which will appear in the papers on the thirtieth of this month from the pens of the distinguished persons appointed to phrase its thankfulness on that day?

( Thanksgiving address - cont. Collapse )

One is justified in fearing that the Deity’s Thanksgiving day is not as rosy as ours will appear when the Thanksgiving sentiments blossom out in our journals and that if He, now voiceless, should utter a sentiment it would be tinged with a pathetic regret.

Today because everybody is hearing about Israel on the news now;

Because more than 80 rockets were fired towards Southern Israel,

killing a soldier and a civilian;

Because the 90-kilo Iran-made Fajr rocket hit a residential building in Rishon Lezion, only 12 km south of Tel Aviv, slightly injuring four;

I will link to something different. To a good post with great photographs, showing a glimpse of what Israel is like.  

I won’t write about the conflict.

Yes, I know I’m from there. I know I must have Such Interesting Perspectives on that whole…situation.

[…]

To those who have never been to Israel–and that’s most Americans, even those who have plenty of opinions on the conflict–it must be hard to imagine thinking and writing about Israel without also thinking and writing about the conflict.

I think of those things, too. I have to.

But I also think of […]

So I won’t write about the conflict.

I will only write about my home.