Man, y'all can be a judgmental posse.

Sorry. Stepping away for a bit. Neighborhood-specific issues.

huh. I live in a part of the bay area that is quiet. and I have seen people step into the path of everything behind them, wander across the street and down the middle of the street ( we have sidewalks) .

~ma as requested for Kathy, ChiKat, and Calli.

~ma as requested for Kathy, ChiKat, and Calli.

As Windsparrow said.

Java, perhaps you are the exception that proves the rule, in this instance. Your behavior regarding responsibility for Chile on retracting leash is certainly an exception in the experience of most people who've weighed in here on the subject. Generalizations are unwise when they're a reflex, but they exist for a reason.

Teaching starts tomorrow. Nervous.

New tagline, also, reflecting new attitude. I'm just sick of the world right now.

Sleep, health, job and general ~mas to all needed. By buckets.

"A deep, dark stream of violence flows into the veins of Israeli society like a deadly disease, and it gets stronger from war to war. It has no smell and no shape, but we feel it very clearly here. It is a type of euphoria and trigger-happiness and joy of revenge and power-drunkenness and love of Mars, and the burial of the noble Jewish commandment: “when your enemy falls - do not celebrate”. Our morality is so polluted, so soiled now that it seems no washing will be able to remove the stains. Our democracy is so fragile, that you have to weigh every word in order to safeguard yourself".

This.

This morning, after I miraculously managed to drag myself out of bed, I got sickened by one of the congratulations ads for Waltz With Bashir on the paper. It just showed a V sign, with a hand.
And every Israeli who's been here in the Second Lebanon War in 2006 will instantly be remembered in this picture. (Grammar here doesn't make sense, bear with me).

Everyday I wake up and a small, hopeful part of me is convinced I'll just open the news portal and all of it (the op) would go away as it never existed, like a bad dream.

{{{Shir}}}

Oh, Shir. I wish I could wave a wand and fix it.

Regarding retractable leashes, I've never seen a larger number of poorly-behaved dogs on them in the Greater Seattle Area. This could be a difference in urban density. I don't think there's anything wrong with them, and have used them myself on dogs I've looked after. They just may not be suited for a high-density urban environment except for a superstar performer kind of dog.

Shir, I want to thank you for posting that.

I just watched the Joe the War Correspondent video again: [link] . Where he starts out with asking stupid questions, and ends up with saying that reporters shouldn't report on war. But this time, I watched the face of the guy next to him. He's some sort of Israeli army PR person -- based on his accent, I'd say most likely grew up in England and came to Israel as an adult, or at least as a teenager. And as Joe's ramblings get weirder and weirder, you can see this guy get this "Is this man a complete fucking idiot?" expression on his face. It's hysterical.