Please Pass the Shame: A Meal with a Side of Hypocrisy

Tonight I sit in a restaurant eating a lovely meal, when a news feed on a big screen catches my eye.

1.8 million Palestinian hostages in Gaza are being starved to death by Israel. Skeletal figures appear on the screen, motionless, fading, the sparkle in eyes lined with suffering, gone. The food sours in my mouth.

Israel calls it a "military operation" and the BBC reports Netanyahu says he's going to "expand" it.

No remorse. No horror. No regrets.

The BBC calls this outrageous display of blatant genocide a "war" - despite any sign of actual combat or military resistance - and interviews the brother of an Israeli hostage - who apparently has been starved along with his Palestinian captors. Who really starved him? Is that not Israel? Of course it is.

Some "war".

COPE Lied To Us!

Late last year I was part of a group that lobbied the new party COPE to include GLBT rights in its policies and manifesto. COPE was then making all the right human rights noises and astonishingly even invited GLBT to the table. It seems in hindsight, that it may well have been just another ploy to win as much support as they could, at almost any cost. Almost.