Notices by Noam writes (noam@libranet.de), page 2

@liztai I agree with one of the links in your blog: an artist doesn't control what the audience sees in their art. So even if the intention was referencing a different painting, millions of people saw this as the Last Supper, simply because it's the most famous painting of that type.

Something else puzzles me: May I ask why you take referencing the painting of the Last Supper as blasphemous?

Olympic record broken, then lovingly mended.

#SixWordStories
#2024Olympics

#MythologyMonday - big cats

Samson challenges his wedding guests to answer the riddle

This is a reference to Samson's earlier adventures killing a lion, and later passing the same way and finding honeybees and honey in the corpse.

The wedding guests extort the answer from Delilah, Samson's wife. As Samson lost the wager, he has to give his 30 guests a good suit each. He acquires them by killing thirty men. Ain't the Old Testament grand?

@liztai Trying to summarise my experiences, hopefully not too cynical.

libranet.de/display/0b6b25a8-6…

@liztai Needs a better headline, something like:

Hell of a Ride!

To Hell and Back!

Infer(no) the Ride of Your Life!

@liztai Thanks for your piece! I don't watch Chinese dramas, and had no idea this anti-China thing was a thing.

Also thanks for the link! I grew up in Israel but have lived in the UK for over 20 years. The UK's wholesale adoption of American culture wars is something I have regular rants about.

OK, so a mini-series about a #gay couple who want to #adopt a kid is amazing. And they're lovely and imperfect, and it's so moving.

But... Andy's death. I'm so fucking tired of shows where gay men are killed by #violence. Cucumber did it too. Gay writers, move on from this please. That ruined it for me, even though the last episode was still very good.

Rant over. As you were.

#lostboysandfairies #queer #lgbt+

... And through the tunnel and back in the UK. No spoilers for Lost Boys and Faeries, please.

Or for Dr Who, for that matter.

I had one of the greatest #autocorrect moments a few days ago, when a friend invited me to see the #film Dunelm 2.

#Dune2 was very good, BTW.

(Dunelm is a chain of home furnishing stores.)

@liztai An interesting one. Both companies have bad reps in leftist circles. Starbucks both for bad treatment of coffee growers and for using sheer corporate power to put local cafés out of business. McD for poor treatment of employees including antiunion stuff, and a big lawsuit against those who dared say it wasn't healthy food.

So I don't feel sorry for the companies, or large corporations in general, when they lose money. The question of employees losing out is a difficult one, though. When corporations take over from local businesses, it's a complicated one.

@fedpagan

♲ mas.to/@bloodravenlib/11211282…

@liztai As soon as I read your post, I thought, "She means in the US, doesn't she?"

Prejudice or realism? 🤔

@whitedove I would say Zionism means supporting a homeland for the Jewish people in Israel, loosely defined. This was arguably achieved in 1948, and use of the term since then has been counterproductive. People who identify as Zionists have a range of opinions, e.g., pro-two state solution or against it. It's their right to identify as they see fit. But as far as I'm concerned, non-Jews don't have a say in what Zionism means. Its misuse and abuse is unhelpful.

Anti-Zionism seems to have a range of meanings, from opposing the occupation to opposing the existence of the state of Israel. It is not explicitly anti-Semitic, but they do overlap, and a lot of anti-Zionist narratives draw on anti-Semitic narratives, intentionally or not.

The #philosophy of #war

#Existential #Comics #humour existentialcomics.com/comic/52…

A message from Breaking the Silence. (full text below the image)

There are some things that must be made crystal clear: #Hamas has committed crimes that should horrify any decent person. As people who firmly criticize Israeli policy in the #Gaza Strip and the West Bank on a daily basis, it is our moral duty to state things as they are: this weekend, Hamas blatantly violated humanity’s basic moral norms.

As people who have been in the struggle against occupation and apartheid for twenty years, we must unequivocally state that it’s impossible to justify the massacre of hundreds of civilians at a music festival, or the murder and kidnapping of countless men, women and children – even in the name of an anti-colonial struggle or popular struggle. It is impossible to construct theoretical justifications for the kidnapping of mothers and their children, of senior citizens, of teenagers.

The struggle for human rights does not differentiate between blood, between people of different religions, ethnicities and nationalities, and it is incumbent upon us to be consistent. The struggle for the legitimate rights of one nation cannot be an excuse to decimate the rights of another. That is a basic principle: not only of international law, but of simple moral decency. Without this, all that’s left is a cycle of blind, indiscriminate revenge. Those who find some kind of twisted theoretical logic in order to justify a massacre are not fighting for human rights, and push the goal of liberation further out of reach.

Almost every one of us knows someone who was killed, was taken hostage, gone missing, or spent hours locked in bomb shelters in fear for their lives. Many have no idea where their loved ones are, more than 48 hours since the start of fighting. We are anxious for the welfare of our families, as well as for the welfare of our Palestinian partners and for the innocent civilians who live in this land from the river to the sea.

We dedicate our lives to the struggle to end occupation and the siege on Gaza because no human being should live under tyranny, and because no one’s blood is redder than any other. Every single person who lives in this land deserves to live a good life, safe and free. This is why we struggle – and will continue to struggle – against collective punishment, against killings, against the dangerous policies to “maintain occupation” and the rounds of endless war. This is why we will continue the struggle, as we have for years, against the indiscriminate firing policies in Gaza. Our stance is clear: every human being deserves a life of safety and freedom. Palestinians and Israelis both.

#Israel #Palestine

#Gender #humour from #smbc. 😆

PS If anyone can do this visual #joke justice with #AltText I'll be glad to add it! I think something would be lost in translation.