>>> People who try to live in the past only lie to themselves. They know
>>> when change is coming and they do their best to ride the old wave as
>>> long as they can. While the mouthy old bitches hide out in the
>>> kitchens and keep carping against men the young ones go along with the
>>> changes. It's our job to make sure that they don't have an easy
>>> retreat when they're hitting 30-40-50-60.
>> Yep. That's the big hole in the floor of that idle threat:
>> "when the pendulum swings the other way..." When it swings
>> the other way, non-competitive drones who are always
>> dependent on the rebound give them harbor instead of saying
>> "No. You made this bed for yourself. Now sleep in it."
>>
>> So, what we've got is a system of: "When you're young say
>> this, and when your old say that." Try that with anything
>> else, and see how far you get.
>>
>> You got that shit right. Enough of this free ride, "I'll be
>> 'good' to her", nostalgia.
>>
>> Once you're married, these days, you're saddled. SHE can
>> jump off anytime things don't go her way, with or without a
>> divorce. There are few-to-no counter-pressures the Man can
>> exert because she sets her own hours and her own days off
>> ...as many as she wants or needs to get even and stay in
>> control of the power contest.
>>
>>> Fuck that shit. I told a couple of my girlfriends up front that if
>>> they lost their jobs to not bother coming home. One tried it anyway
>>> and I had the locks changed on her and threw her shit out on the lawn.
>>> Come garbage day I moved what was left to the curb.
>>> That's the way all guys have to think these days. Look out for #1, or
>>> you'll have the same thing done to you.
>>>> Old women step forward as 'martyrs'
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> A 70-year-old blew herself up in a Hamas attack. She may be
>>>> just the first of many elderly recruits
>>>>
>>>> Sandra Jordan in Beit Hanoun, Gaza
>>>> Sunday December 3, 2006
>>>> The Observer
>>>>
>>>> In the centre of Beit Hanoun, there is nothing left of the
>>>> 800-year-old mosque but the minaret. It looks like a
>>>> lighthouse stranded in a sea of rubble. People whose homes
>>>> were demolished during the latest Israeli army incursion sit
>>>> on plastic chairs around bonfires. At night they bunk down
>>>> with the neighbours. One of them is Watfa Kafarna.
>>>>
>>>> 'I saw the Israeli soldiers eye-to-eye,' she said. 'They
>>>> took my four-year-old grandson, Mahadi, who has Down's
>>>> syndrome. They shook him and yelled: "Where are the guns?"
>>>> Now he is traumatised and wets the bed every night.'
>>>>
>>>> Article continues
>>>> Not his own bed - the Kafarna family is homeless, living off
>>>> the charity of friends. Tears run from Watfa's eyes as she
>>>> looks at her son, daughter-in-law and grandchild huddled
>>>> around a brazier. Her husband, Diab, shuffles across the
>>>> ruins towards his wife. 'Bossa!' he says, 'A kiss!' In a
>>>> highly unconventional move, Diab kisses his wife on the
>>>> mouth. 'She is my heart, my eyes, my light. We have lost our
>>>> house but not each other.'
>>>>
>>>> During the incursion, Israeli soldiers detained all men aged
>>>> 16-40, including Watfa and Diab's sons and grandsons. The
>>>> army targeted the mosque, attempting to arrest militants
>>>> hiding there.
>>>>
>>>> The women put up their own resistance, gathering as human
>>>> shields around the mosque to help the militants escape. 'I
>>>> am 72, says Watfa, 'but by doing this I felt 20, young and
>>>> useful and ready to act.' She pulls off her long veil and
>>>> holds it high in her right hand. 'I waved my hijab as a
>>>> white flag and prayed with the other women in front of the
>>>> holy mosque. But the Israelis continued to destroy it.'
>>>>
>>>> Two women were killed by the Israeli Defence Force that day.
>>>> Watfa was bruised, as was 70-year-old Fatma Najar, hit by a
>>>> bulldozer. Three weeks later, Najar blew herself up near
>>>> Israeli soldiers, wounding two. In Gaza she is seen as a
>>>> heroine. 'If the Israelis came to my house to gun down my
>>>> children and I had a belt, I would do the same,' says Watfa.
>>>> 'The woman is the biggest loser here,' says Khola, a
>>>> neighbour, standing on the remains of a kitchen where flour
>>>> is mixed with pulverised masonry. Two hundred homes were
>>>> destroyed in Beit Hanoun. 'Fatma Najar, an old woman, did
>>>> what many people don't have the guts to do. If you go back
>>>> and research Fatma,' says Khola, 'you will see her home was
>>>> destroyed on top of her head, her sons jailed, her grandson
>>>> killed.'
>>>>
>>>> 'We want to believe in peace, but how can we when the
>>>> warplanes still fly over our heads every night,' asks Watfa,
>>>> 'making our grandchildren cry and wet themselves? When there
>>>> are still tank movements on the border? I can't believe
>>>> there will be peace.'
>>>>
>>>> Najar's family heard of her attack on the radio. 'We thought
>>>> it must be another Fatma Najar,' said her son, Jihad, 35.
>>>> 'It never occurred to us it could have been my mother. Then
>>>> the crowds started to arrive and we knew it was true. We had
>>>> mixed feelings, sadness at her irreplaceable loss. But pride
>>>> too.'
>>>>
>>>> There is a huge shaheed - 'martyr' - poster of Najar on her
>>>> house. It is shocking to see an old woman carrying an M16.
>>>> Some of her 70 grandchildren and great-grandchildren play
>>>> beneath the picture. Israa, six, wears a pink top with
>>>> 'Happy Childhood' embroidered on it. 'My grandmother's gone
>>>> to heaven. Because she shot the Israelis,' she says.
>>>>
>>>> The funeral tent is empty now, the three days of official
>>>> mourning over. On the first evening, men from the Qassam
>>>> Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, arrived. Her son Inam
>>>> said: 'They told us: "Your mother has been asking to do this
>>>> for two years. We said no. Finally she said, if you don't
>>>> give me a belt I will go anyway and get killed and my blood
>>>> will be on your hands. We gave in".'
>>>>
>>>> Other old women now want to become suicide bombers. The
>>>> family talks of why she did it. Perhaps it was her
>>>> grandson's death. 'My son, Adil, was 18 when he was killed,'
>>>> says Fathiya, 52, Najar's eldest daughter. 'He was throwing
>>>> stones at the Israelis.' Then there was Fathiya's other son,
>>>> Sha'aban. He attacked an Israeli soldier with a knife. He
>>>> was shot 72 times, lost a leg and is paralysed. The family
>>>> show a photo of Fatma, a sweet-faced woman in a white cotton
>>>> scarf. Neighbours crowd in with stories of her generosity,
>>>> how she gave sweets to local children, told stories, played.
>>>>
>>>> Najar was a religious woman, involved with mosque committees
>>>> and close to memorising the Koran. It was only after her
>>>> death, her family discovered she had been working for Hamas:
>>>> 'They told us she had carried food, water, ammunition to the
>>>> resistance at the front line. We had no idea.'
>>>>
>>>> The night before her suicide operation, Najar went to visit
>>>> all of her children and grandchildren. She brought clothes
>>>> and sweets. 'But she was always so good to us,' says Inam.
>>>> 'As she left me for the last time, she looked back in a way
>>>> that made me wonder, but then she was gone.'
>>>>
>>>> 'On the day she acted like it was a normal day. She baked
>>>> the bread in the clay oven. She took a shower, put on a new
>>>> dress and went out,' said Jihad.
>>>>
>>>> 'I think the final straw was the Beit Hanoun massacre [a
>>>> family of 17 killed at dawn when Israeli shells hit their
>>>> house]. Mother went to the family's home and asked the
>>>> women: "Why leave it to your sons to die? If Allah allows, I
>>>> will become a martyr." They said: "You think they will take
>>>> an old lady like you?"'
>>>>
>>>> A fortnight later she was a suicide bomber, injuring two
>>>> Israelis, decapitating herself. This weekend Hamas held a
>>>> ceremony in Beit Hanoun, in memory of the 140 Palestinians
>>>> killed in November. Thousands attended, waving Hamas flags.
>>>> The mayor, Dr Nazek el-Kafarna, made a speech in honour of
>>>> Najar: 'This old lady looked at the houses destroyed and the
>>>> trees uprooted. She looked at how our people had been
>>>> humiliated. She took her soul in her hand and rushed to her
>>>> martyrdom.'
>>>>
>>>> Huda Haim, a Hamas PLC member, believes Najar's act begins a
>>>> new culture. 'We know behind the Israeli leaders there are
>>>> decision-makers studying the behaviour of the Palestinians.
>>>> Fatma told them they can't end the Palestinian issue with
>>>> violence.'
>>>>
>>>> The audience was thronged with women, many elderly, many
>>>> clinging to photographs of their dead. 'We all want to be
>>>> like Fatma,' they shouted.
>>>>
>>>> 'I am happy about the ceasefire,' says Zaifa. 'But if the
>>>> Israelis come back, they will see what we will do, we will
>>>> be like Fatma Najar.'
>>>>
>>>> 'I know at least 20 of us who want to put on the belt,' said
>>>> Fatma Naouk, 65. 'Now is the time of the women. Now the old
>>>> women have found a use for themselves.'
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----
>>>>
>>>> "It's absurd. How can I set free anyone who doesn't have
>>>> the guts to stand up alone and declare his own freedom?"
>>>>
>>>> ~ Jim Morrison
>>>>
>>>> - - -
>>>>
>>>> "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye
>>>> him":
>>>>
>>>> Turin
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I have such sites to show you...
>>>> ------------------------
>>>>
>>>>
http://members.fortunecity.com/turinturambar/
>>>>
http://groups.google.com/group/Men_First
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------
>>>>
>>>> "He who changeth, altereth, misconstrueth, argueth with,
>>>> deleteth, or maketh a lie about these words or causeth them
>>>> to not be known shall burn in hell forever and ever...."
>>>>
>>>> -----