Saturday, August 13: One is Too Many
If you're having a nice morning, maybe hold off on the top story for now
To be a downer, or not to be a downer? That’s the question we face most mornings. Saturday morning as a child meant watching cartoons or maybe being driven to a soccer game by my parents. As an adult sometimes it can mean sleeping in after a long workweek or waking up early to watch your favorite European sport. Or perhaps you’re the sadistic type who enjoys reading about outrageous injustice early in the morning.
As a fragile cease-fire holds, and after a week of brutal attacks that killed at least 48 Gazans, let’s take a moment and consider what “the most moral army in the world” has done. This article dispenses with the notion that Israeli airstrikes are targeted and precise. The policies in place allow for, indeed account for, a certain number of “non-combatant deaths” with official operations, and in the past week, these non-combatants have included at least 16 children.
By interviewing former Israeli soldiers, the author learns first-hand about the calculations that go into determining exactly how many civilian deaths are permissible. As if that’s not bad enough, Israeli officers also take advantage of their surveillance abilities and listen in on the phone calls of those attacked in order to learn exactly who was killed. The article includes more detail, but be warned, it’s not typical Saturday morning material.
Author Salman Rushdie was attacked and stabbed onstage at a talk in western New York. Some know Rushdie as the subject of a piece of trivia on “The Office”, but the writer spent years in hiding after having a fatwa issued against him by the Iranian government in 1989. He is reportedly on a ventilator after the attack and his condition remains unclear
In yet another sign of our impending doom, Amazon will be making a TV show along the lines of “America’s Funniest Home Videos”, using the footage from doorbell surveillance and smart-home cameras
Countdown to the World Cup starts now, as the tournament kicks off in 99 days (!) at which point I’ll hopefully transition to writing an annoying amount about football/futbol and less about the general decline of modern society