The March of Progress?

Emerging from an unexpected dose of heat-stroke and the usual war-stress-related insomnia, last night I caught the final 3 episodes of "Blackadder Goes Forth" in the wee hours on (the all-new bizarrely-logo'ed) BBC Prime.

While there were a few very amusing gaffs which provoked bittersweet chuckles, overall it's messages about the futility of war and the fragility of man made it more difficult viewing than I could previously recall, presumably in view of the current horrendous reality we're living and breathing. And it made me further reflect that this frantic checking of the news and obituaries, this inability to stop staring at images of death and destruction, and above all this continuous and anxious contact with friends and loved ones stationed up north or in Lebanon, all carried out against the backdrop of seemingly peaceful and unperturbed Jerusalem, is enough to render any half-normal person insane enough to stick underpants on their head and pencils up their nostrils.

I'd actually found some non-war related things to blog about, but it seems highly trite to talk about anything else when this is what one opens up the paper and finds:

Witnesses described the barrage of rockets as "enormous" and that it lasted more than fifteen minutes.

An eye witness told Haaretz "I was sitting with my friends in a parking lot and got up to get a cigarette." "I heard a big boom and came back running to see the bodies of my friends," the witness said.

I only hope that I don't have to write many more posts in the sombre tone of this one- because above all, neither the Israelis nor the Lebanese deserve this to be our continuing reality. Although at this rate, there's little to be optimistic about.