A daily miasma of frivolity by two wanna-be cultural critics. Or: just, like, some good links, dude.

Tag Archives: Israel

Aug 06 2012
Mark Twain, probably

US sees Israel, tight Mideast ally, as spy threat

US sees Israel, tight Mideast ally, as spy threat

Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo for the AP:

The CIA station chief opened the locked box containing the sensitive equipment he used from his home in Tel Aviv, Israel, to communicate with CIA headquarters in Virginia, only to find that someone had tampered with it. …

It was a not-so-subtle reminder that, even in a country friendly to the United States, the CIA was itself being watched.

… according to another two former U.S. officials, a CIA officer in Israel came home to find the food in the refrigerator had been rearranged.

How is this something that happens in real life and not a bad spy movie?

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Apr 12 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Paintballing with Hezbollah

Paintballing with Hezbollah

Mitchell Prothero, writing in Vice Magazine:

We figured they’d cheat; they were Hezbollah, after all. But none of us—a team of four Western journalists—thought we’d be dodging military-grade flash bangs when we initiated this “friendly” paintball match.

This is one of the most fascinating pieces about the Middle East I’ve read, well, possibly ever — certainly this year. Read every word.

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Mar 24 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Israeli law eyes super-thin models as bad examples

Israeli law eyes super-thin models as bad examples

Daniella Cheslow writing for the AP about a new Israeli law that regulates the thinness of models in advertisements:

The new law requires models to produce a medical report no older than three months at every shoot for the Israeli market, stating that they are not malnourished by World Health Organization standards.

The U.N. agency relies on the body mass index, calculated by factors of weight and height. WHO says a body mass index below 18.5 indicates malnutrition. According to that standard, a woman 1.72 meters tall (5-feet-8) should weigh no less than 119 pounds (54 kilograms).

But be sure to read the whole article, it has a lot of background about just how damaging this is to young girls and young models.

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