Arnon, this has nothing to do with your posting of today but I have been hurting all day over this one tiny little photo that was added to an overview of 2007 and needed to share it. To me, as a mother (note how every cell of thie woman's body breathes exactly that: mother) this is the most horrifying image of 2007. Someone please tell me what can we do to stop wars?

http://gorillasguides.com/2007/12/11/iraq-education-becomes-the-new-casualty-in-baquba/

Noa

'This war is noise'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYt65DbHKtk

Subterranean homesick + Happy New Year

Wonder where they got that from...
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=srgi2DkDbPU

Happy New Year for everybody.
I was planning to stop visiting and contributing to this site but I changed my mind. My plans for the new year, including this site, are on my blog.

RHCdG

Yes, Bob Dylan.
Why did you change your mind? No references to the Nietzsche quote, please.

Thanks for the link David. It seems to me the guy loves himself more than his message.
Someone once told me "film is the playground of the middle class." He fits the bill.

Noa

I don't know what his message is, but the person in the video sure can't compete with your motherly love.
Anyway, the line: 'This war will never end' contains more truth than the line: 'Stop this war'. On a personal and political level.

Yes, of course I know this. But even though what you're saying may contain more truth, at the same time it's simply a useful excuse for passivity. As all cynicism is.
Perhaps there's only one chance at stopping wars: if the world were to consist entirely of mothers, or at least the politics were to be defined by mothers. It's hard to explain to non-mothers, once you have given birth, there's this certain 'thing' that connects you to every other mother in the world. It 's called love.

Dear Noa,

i think your idea about mothers (and maybe women) as the the embodiment of goodness is incorrect. Don't forget that mothers usually bring up the same people who do all the evil in the world.

Some more madness

I have to rebut Dens for his ' overcompensating behaviour' in regards of the novel I thave written. Your ( but are you US-citizen?) Philip Roth said something like " weak/poor readers tend to believe writers are what they write about'. Not so.

We overhere in the Netherlands, on the other hand, we have had an author called R. Klinkhamer who hammered ( what's in a name) his wife to death, after which he wrote a grotesk novel on this murder. Years later they found the poor women, burried in his garden.

So my question to you, Dens: are you a weak/poor reader?

I am a bit late but I just came back from Africa (with its limited internet abilities) and still want to wish all of you out here a great 2008. May your wishes come true and may the universe present himself with a better future for those who are less fortunate then we are.

Noa

Please tell me you are joking.

Neria, I made a mistake - I wasn't intending to start a debate (I should have resisted David's cynicism). I simply wanted to share that photo and if anything - discuss that photo, nothing else. Everyone may conclude whatever they want on looking at it, but cynicism seems to be the most desired trait on this site. Thank god Ilanit's back.
David - please tell me you're not Johannes. And did you take a good look at the photo? The answer to the first will in part make me understand your answer to the second.

Noa

I didn't mean to upset you, I'm sorry.
No, I'm David. What made you think I am somebody else?
And what is it with this use of pseudonyms on websites? I think it's really childish.

Noa,

i wasn't cynical.
You did ask how can we stop it and also offered mothers to reign. i can only be glad that the same Sarah who first made her maid her husband's whore and then sent her with her child to die in the desert and later didn't stop her man from butchering their only child to appease god doesn't live with us anymore and will not be able to take care of the world. Her prototype, alas, is to be found all around. i think the only way to stop it from happening is to respect and love children so they will grow up to respect themselves and others later in life. But in most cases people bring children to the world without being able to love them.
You're welcoming Ilanit's return to the blog and i wonder how haunted she is and if she will continue standing behind IDF if her boy would arm himself with a wanted's neighbor. Please dare asking the real questions, power joga, museums and a comforting tone are only varnish, i suspect. Of course, i'm always open to women's wisdom and collegiality, but not blindly.

@Neria, I was asking a real question, yet you avoid answering it. As for Sarah: don't forget the Bible was written by men, and I hope I don't need to explain what this reasoning means.
@ David, using pseudonyms is not at all childish, quite the contrary. There's always a reason they are used. But perhaps you find our host's use of various pseudonyms quite childish. Besides, internet is the playfield of alterpersona, alteregos' and lots more, why pretend to be real when the aspects you choose to reveal online are not?

Noa,

it was implied in your comments that if it were the mothers' business, such horrible picture would have never been taken. i am more than agree with you that the bible was written and edited by men but women taught it and supported its values for thousand of years, and alas, to this very day. What can i say? this is all very tragic for everyone.
i did answer your question, maybe you didn't like it so you didn't realize you read it, which is ok.
i don't want to be intrusive but i wonder if your latest personal bombaanslag reminds you of your need to be secure and protected by your mother. i hope for you that she was there enough times to hold you in times of distress. i'm not so much the huggung person so i hope you do have someone near to hold you now and to comfort you, and i wish this whole nasty business will belong to your past soon. Your daughter(?) needs a cheerful and a strong mother to hold her when she'll need it.

Noa

I wrote 'on websites', I was not referring to a masquerade like Marek van der Jagt.
Maybe you are right, If you are searched for by the police, or if your boss checks the websites you are visiting during work time, it's a good option to use a pseudonym.
By the way, I think the most people here who I suspect of using another name are quite honest about their opinions. If they're not, they disguise it really good.
However, mothers and fathers using pseudonyms to lie around on websites like you say they do - I didn't know this - don't set a good example for their children. And there is a war to be stopped, right?

Neria, thank you for your concern. I'm not in need of motherly love, rather: a bloody good lawyer. Thank goodness the man that was recommended to me agreed to take the case today. I'm no longer to discuss details of the case as recently there's been some press-attention and I have to be careful not to damage my position. Perhaps, one day Arnon would let me borrow one of his saturdays in Het Parool so I can write a letter of my own...

Noa,

Veel veel succes! :)

Noa

I was thinking about the use of pseudonyms again. There are more reasons. (The second reason I mentioned earlier didn't make sense I think.)
In certain states some political opinions aren't tolerated, other people might want to visit erotic chatboxes/forums and there are people who use it to talk about terrible experiences which have to remain private.

@David - what is it you're wanting to tell me exactly?