Eric the Blue

Regarding the outpouring of love for Dolly Parton, here is a tweet from Eminem in which he posts a note he received from her on the occasion of his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame:

And, regarding “Huckabee swings, hits a fair ball,” here is a link to an interview, conducted by The New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner, with a retired IDF commander who is now working as a volunteer for Looking the Occupation in the Eye, a group that tries to protect Palestinians from settler violence in the West Bank. I’m sure it’s behind a paywall so here are some excerpts:

Q: What does protecting Palestinians in the West Bank entail for a group like yours?

A: The settlers are trying to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians in lots of ways, and one of them is with violence. There are other ways that they are trying that have to do with the Israeli legal system, but when the government cannot do things legally, the settlers try to expel Palestinians from their villages and their homes. So what we are doing is coming to these communities or villages–and we aren’t big enough to go everywhere–and we are staying there twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and when the settlers attack, we try to stand between them and the Palestinians. Sometimes we call the police or the army. They don’t help all the time. Sometimes they do O.K. We also try to take the settlers to court. But we try to place our bodies between them . . . .

Q: So the hope is just that settlers won’t commit as much violence with a Jewish Israeli like yourself present?

A: Their main aim is to expel the Palestinians from their villages. We want them to stay and not let the settlers expel them. We know, and the Palestinians know, that they will start by attacking people on the outskirts of the village, rather than the center of the village. And if those people run away, the next houses will be the ones closer to the village. So we try to protect them and stop them from having to run away, and we do what we can. But the first thing is to protect them. And we set up cameras. We also try to help with water and electricity . . . .

Q: So [the current Israeli government wants] to change facts on the ground before the election?

A: Absolutely, they want to occupy as much as they can . . . .

Q: How have your conversations with Palestinians changed over the past few months?

A: They are very worried about what is happening. There are many more people that need help than we are able to help. People call asking for help, but we cannot help everyone. What can I say? Many of them are very brave. I don’t have one good sentence to put in your piece. They have families. And they don’t want to give up their homes.