Quick Links January 2

This isn't a "New Year's Resolution" but this morning I'm gonna put up a few links without much comment. It has been my habit to select one or two items daily for personal commentary. But you know what they say about opinions...

If this works to my satisfaction I may do it again.
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Chares Krauthammer's Moral Clarity in Gaza frames the Gaza/Israel conflict in compelling language.

...The grievance? It cannot be occupation, military control or settlers. They were all removed in September 2005. There's only one grievance and Hamas is open about it. Israel's very existence.

Nor does Hamas conceal its strategy. Provoke conflict. Wait for the inevitable civilian casualties. Bring down the world's opprobrium on Israel...

Details? You want details? They're all there, like ducks in a pond.
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hilzoy on PTSD, Supporting Our Troops: Once More, With Feeling.

""The first words out of the Mental Health Authority was, 'we are severely understaffed,'" Mr. Needham said in an e-mail message to an officer at Walter Reed. "If you're suicidal we can see you twice a week, otherwise once a week."

This morning's reports of four (or five) suicides of recruiters underscores the importance of this post.
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digby says ... if you need a primer on the Great Depression read this...

Hoover appointed Walter S. Gifford, president of AT&T, to the "President's Organization on Unemployment Relief." Appearing before a Senate committee he said, among other things, he was against federal aid."...that it would reduce the size of private charity." His "sober and considered judgment" was that "federal aid would be a 'disservice' to the jobless."

Even now there are some who believe that FDR actually prolonged the Great Depression.
I am mystified at such thinking. The same voices argue against government stimulus efforts, holding that this unhappy time will pass and the economy will recover "on it's own."
Question: If the private sector creates jobs on it's own, then where are they? What are they waiting for?
What am I missing?
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This is surreal.
Nora Younis, Egyptian blogger, gets a New Year's greeting from a friend in Rafah, across ths Egypt/Gaza border.

Look outside
F-16 SMILING for you
MESSILES dancing for you
ZANNANA singing for you
because I requested them ALL to wish you a *HAPPY NEW YEAR"

Turns out the message is not original. I didn't know what "zannana" meant so I looked it up. It's the Palestinian name for pilotless drones. Here it is again from another of the Electronic Intifada diaries.
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Found at UAE Community Blog...an appeal for humanitarian contributions to relieve Palestinian needs in Gaza. The young woman posting, screen name Veiled Muslimah, makes it a point to keep politics out of the mix:

Also, please, keep any political talk about Israel/Palestine out of this. You all can argue about it somewhere else. This post is about sending aid and helping people. Thank-you.