conuly

We've been having spotty internet lately, and have finally tracked down the problem: My router, which was cheap when I bought it, is eight years obsolete. I need to get a new one. Well, they can't possibly have gone up in price, so it won't break the bank, I don't think.

Gave away a kitten today. Apparently, this was Evangeline's favorite kitten. Tough for her. I didn't say it to her face, but I'm sure he'll be happier in a home with three doting grown-up people who are at home all day than in a home where his needier siblings hog most of the attention and the only one who dotes is six years old and still thinks he likes being hugged. (No, I don't let her squeeze kittens around the middle, even though she wants to.)

Anyway, on to those links!

Israelis Facing a Seismic Rift Over Role of Women
There are pictures

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New Definition of Autism May Exclude Many, Study Suggests

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Here's an article about segregated housing for vegetarians only in Bombay

And one on Bastøy, a very free prison in Norway

State notes alarming spike in starvation of adopted children. They list the signs of potential starvation in a child, but of course it's worth noting that with adopted children, many of these psychological signs (like hoarding food or bolting it down quickly) could be a sign that they went hungry BEFORE being adopted.

Report: Medical Marijuana Laws Reduced Traffic Fatalities

Texas doctors lead open-notes movement

And finally, BSG (remake) as an 8-bit RPG!

Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel protested the integration of a religious girl's school

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And, in other news, nobody is taking away student metrocards. Truthfully, I think nobody really believed they would, because students and their parents make their school choices depending on getting those cards. When you live in the Bronx and go to school in Queens, you can't just walk to save the fare. They just suggested it so that they could take it off the table later and say "Look, we saved the student metrocards, but we still need to cut the budget so you can't grumble about losing express service at this and that stop". Everybody is scrambling now to produce ads saying "Protest cutting THIS service, protest cutting THAT service, THIS publicly funded something needs the cash", but at this point in the game the state, the city, they have to cut *something* from *somewhere*, and we'll all be unhappy. But at least the kids can get to school.

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Taken from kynn.

One on the denial of food aid to Palestinians for the past week, taken from kynn. I agree with the poster and kynn, who say that this is abhorrent and unconscionable. You can't keep any semblance of the moral high ground this way. Thinking selfishly, you can only breed new terrorists by these actions anyway. No excuse no matter how you think of it. (And would you believe, only one of my friends, that's kynn, has posted about this? I guess I'm not much better than that, I waited on it first out of laziness.)

And one on Israeli settlers who want to leave the West Bank but who can't afford to.

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And I understand why the Palestinian refugees are celebrating. Really, I do. You left your home with nothing, you've been stuck in camps for how long, and now you get to go home, it's great.

But.

Celebrating while people are still being dragged from their homes? Bad idea. And not because it's tactless, either, but because this is yet another one of those things which is counterproductive. When all is said and done, and the dust clears, the last thing you want is for people to point at every Palestinian, even the ones who were somber, and say "See? They were happy to see us kicked out, they rejoiced to see us torn from our homes, they're heartless and callous, and that's just the way it is".

That would be bad, for reasons I hope I never have to explain.

Even if deep down, you're sure you're not the better person, you sit and pretend like you are, because people believe liars sometimes. And if you're so confident that you are the wronged party, then you really have to act like the better person, because the people in power already think you're all of you, every one of you, likely to bomb them.

One would really have thought all this was self-evident, but apparently not. Maybe I downplay my social skills too much? Or possibly other people exaggerate their own?