No, surely not....
Wow, so as promised...thats right as promised here I am again less than 24 hours since my last post. Well bugger me backwards with a blunt market vegetable!
Now yesterday I left myself topics to return to, so whilst its probably not entirely a surprise that I am keeping good on my promise, butt hat said Ive had a couple of things ive been wondering about whether they might feature in today's action packed post...#
Reflecting on what I wrote yesterday, I've been thinking about ways to up my hits and contributions, which whilst in themselves would probably serve to increase visitors to m'blog, I was considering some sort of PR move. Y'see there is a website outthere called jewishblogging.com which is some sort of one-stop-shop for those who blog Jewishly and those looking for such materias.
This raised a question to me, just how Jewish does your blog need to be to be included into the apparently broad church that is jewishblogging.com? And of course just how Jewy is my blog and would joining my site restrict the things I could witter on in-coherently about here? The first part of this question was brought into particularly sharp focus by the fact that yesterdays post was essentially free of Jew content other than the fact that I am a Jew and that the story that I related had to do with me, a Jew- in caser you were still confused. I mean short of concockting some sensationalist and frankly spurious anti-semitic angle to add to the anal ridiculousness to the events that befell me in central park, I cant think that yesterdays post has much to offer the world of Jewish blogging , nor really would I want it to, either.
In not-so-unrelated-as-it-seems-news I've also found myself wondering about the British public reaction to the recent spate of British military casualties in Afghanistan. It seems that some sort of tipping point has been reached, where minds will again have to be focused on the aims of the campaign and questions re-examined as to how best this serves the British national interest. According to an article on BBC news late last night in proportional terms the amount of British casualities can be acquated to the numbers of American causalties suffered at the height of the Vietnam War. This does put things in a different perspective but I have to admit that I was struck by the strength of emotion on display amongst the mourners that came to pay their respects to the courtage as it passed. The fact that they came to line the route at all is in itself exceptional in recent history and thus news-worthy.
I dont mean to be disingenuious but, having witnessed these scenes as reported on the news I was struck particularly by this question: What makes the sacrifices of these young men any more honourable than those of the 200 or so of there fallen commrades who have fallen to date in the campaign in Afghanistan, after all there deaths in the main were not accompanied by a similar response? Of course the answer, sad to say, is nothing. Force of numbers have understandably caused this outpourring and and Britain's mission in Afghanistan to take centre stage in the news agenda.
But lets not make these latest fallen heroes any more or less worthy of our respect and gratitude than those that have laid town their lives before them.
My point in writing this is not simply because its been on my mnind but also because it is an example of another thing i wanted to commit to paper that is not so Jewisjh in content and thus might not make me so consistently ideal for those fine chaps and chapesses at jewishblogging.com.
Of course as I begin the process of reflecting on why I am concerned about this aspect of the reporting of the war in Afghanistan, my sense is that my concern for the individual honour of each soldier might be rooted in the very Israeli approach to commemoration to which I have become condition and which I find profound. It is ofcourse on the one hand national collective and on the other deeply individual. Television on Yom Ha-Zickaron is almost exclusive populated by programmes telling the personal stories of soldier after soldier and victim after victim who have died either in service of Israel's military or at the hands of terrorists.
So, after all that, there really is no escaping the Jewish angle after all...
Now yesterday I left myself topics to return to, so whilst its probably not entirely a surprise that I am keeping good on my promise, butt hat said Ive had a couple of things ive been wondering about whether they might feature in today's action packed post...#
Reflecting on what I wrote yesterday, I've been thinking about ways to up my hits and contributions, which whilst in themselves would probably serve to increase visitors to m'blog, I was considering some sort of PR move. Y'see there is a website outthere called jewishblogging.com which is some sort of one-stop-shop for those who blog Jewishly and those looking for such materias.
This raised a question to me, just how Jewish does your blog need to be to be included into the apparently broad church that is jewishblogging.com? And of course just how Jewy is my blog and would joining my site restrict the things I could witter on in-coherently about here? The first part of this question was brought into particularly sharp focus by the fact that yesterdays post was essentially free of Jew content other than the fact that I am a Jew and that the story that I related had to do with me, a Jew- in caser you were still confused. I mean short of concockting some sensationalist and frankly spurious anti-semitic angle to add to the anal ridiculousness to the events that befell me in central park, I cant think that yesterdays post has much to offer the world of Jewish blogging , nor really would I want it to, either.
In not-so-unrelated-as-it-seems-news I've also found myself wondering about the British public reaction to the recent spate of British military casualties in Afghanistan. It seems that some sort of tipping point has been reached, where minds will again have to be focused on the aims of the campaign and questions re-examined as to how best this serves the British national interest. According to an article on BBC news late last night in proportional terms the amount of British casualities can be acquated to the numbers of American causalties suffered at the height of the Vietnam War. This does put things in a different perspective but I have to admit that I was struck by the strength of emotion on display amongst the mourners that came to pay their respects to the courtage as it passed. The fact that they came to line the route at all is in itself exceptional in recent history and thus news-worthy.
I dont mean to be disingenuious but, having witnessed these scenes as reported on the news I was struck particularly by this question: What makes the sacrifices of these young men any more honourable than those of the 200 or so of there fallen commrades who have fallen to date in the campaign in Afghanistan, after all there deaths in the main were not accompanied by a similar response? Of course the answer, sad to say, is nothing. Force of numbers have understandably caused this outpourring and and Britain's mission in Afghanistan to take centre stage in the news agenda.
But lets not make these latest fallen heroes any more or less worthy of our respect and gratitude than those that have laid town their lives before them.
My point in writing this is not simply because its been on my mnind but also because it is an example of another thing i wanted to commit to paper that is not so Jewisjh in content and thus might not make me so consistently ideal for those fine chaps and chapesses at jewishblogging.com.
Of course as I begin the process of reflecting on why I am concerned about this aspect of the reporting of the war in Afghanistan, my sense is that my concern for the individual honour of each soldier might be rooted in the very Israeli approach to commemoration to which I have become condition and which I find profound. It is ofcourse on the one hand national collective and on the other deeply individual. Television on Yom Ha-Zickaron is almost exclusive populated by programmes telling the personal stories of soldier after soldier and victim after victim who have died either in service of Israel's military or at the hands of terrorists.
So, after all that, there really is no escaping the Jewish angle after all...
posted by Ben at 2:21 pm
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