This makes my eleventh post today. I have modified the comments box, installed some plugins, played around with the templates, and put some old posts into their new home.

Now, it’s time to watch the crappy movies I rented yesterday. Not crappy, really. Just mindless. Vin Diesel in The Pacifier. Sondra Bullock in Ms. Congeniality 2. Can’t decide where to start, there or my tape of last week’s episode of “Rome.”

I do believe, however, that I am done posting for the day. This makes it an even dozen.

Remember, if you have favorite posts from the old blog, let me know, and I’ll move them here.

Originally published on May 24, 2004

Over the weekend, someone who calls himself “The Exile” put up some pro-palestinian comments in this post. I found them to be rather offensive, as they began with, “I can’t believe someone of your intelligence level can’t tell the difference….”
(more…)

Bowing to the inevitable, I downloaded a trial version of Fireworks 8 (which rocks, by the way. And so I give you: Tigger.

He always wants to get into the closets, and I let him sometimes. This time, there were no towels on the shelf to cover with cat hair. Darn.

And then I give you: Gracie.

Gracie is afraid of everything. So I thought she’d be terrified of my new exercise machine for quite some time. Nope. She has claimed it as hers, sleeps in, on, and around it, and uses it for chinrubs and as a plaything.

Gracie is a CAT, you see. Wholly unpredictable.

This post is for you, Rahel. And for some of the others, but mostly for you.

The AP is still whitewashing terror incidents.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A car bomb ripped through a market in a poor Shiite Muslim neighborhood on the eastern outskirts of Baghdad at sunset Saturday, killing at least 30 people and wounding 38, police said.

Near Abu Ghraib prison, a suicide car bomb wrecked three vehicles in a U.S. convoy Saturday, and insurgents fired seven mortar shells at the jail just west of Baghdad and used grenades to damage three armored vehicles in another U.S. convoy in the area, police said. The U.S. military issued no immediate casualty reports.

Interior Ministry police Maj. Falah al-Mhamadawi said an explosives-packed car was parked in front of fruit and vegetable stands in the market at Nahrawan, about 20 miles east of Baghdad, a poor suburb heavily populated by Shiites.

He said at least 30 people were killed and 38 wounded.

This is an example of a terrorist attack, not an “insurgent” attack. But it is found in an article with many other attacks by the “insurgency,” as the AP calls the terrorists. Here is how they explain the bombing.

Shiites have suffered the brunt of massive campaign of bomb and shooting attacks launched on Wednesday and claimed by al-Qaida in Iraq.

The Iraqi insurgency is predominantly Sunni Muslim and has vowed to continue stirring sectarian conflict as the date approaches for the Oct. 15 referendum on a new constitution, which most militant Sunnis have already rejected.

Actually, the “insurgency” is littered with foreign fighters, which even AP’s own articles report, and yet, they keep pretending that the bombings are solely the response of the “insurgency”—even when terrorists claim full responsibility and declare war on Iraqi Shiite Muslims.

To review, the AP covers the following events in this article:

• A suicide bombing of a marketplace in a poor Shiite neighborhood
• A suicide bombing of American military vehicles near Abu Ghraib prison
• Mortars fired at Abu Ghraib
• Grenades fired at a U.S. convoy
• A suicide bombing of an Iraqi army patrol
• An attack on a convoy of trucks carrying food for the U.S. military

One of these things is not like the other.

AP can’t tell the difference. But I can.

Dafydd ab Hugh, whom I first “met” on the message boards on GEnie, I think, has his own blog. Duly noted.

And no, really. I didn’t know he was Jewish.

The AP has been pushing this breathless take on the Saudis “allowing” women to vote for the first time—in a chamber of commerce election. Somebody catch me; I think I’m going to have a case of the vapors and faint from the excitement of it all.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Saudi women will be able to fully participate in an election for the first time in this ultraconservative Islamic kingdom, after the government ordered a local chamber of commerce to allow female voters and candidates.

The Jiddah Trade and Industry Chamber had rejected the nominations of 10 businesswomen to run for the chamber’s governing board. Trade Minister Hashem bin Abdullah Yamani overruled this decision, a Saudi official said Friday.

The move is a small but unprecedented step in Saudi Arabia, where women are under heavy restrictions. They are barred from driving a car while a male guardian must give permission for women to get an education or job.

See, it’s a “small but unprecedented step.” It’s a move forward. Women can vote—once again, I must pause to take deep breaths due to the excitement of the issue—in a local chamber of commerce election in Jiddah.

But wait, there’s more! Women were kinda sorta maybe allowed to vote, earlier this year, in another chamber of commerce election!

Earlier this year, businesswomen in the eastern city of Dammam were allowed to participate indirectly in the local commerce chamber election - but male guardians had to cast their votes for them.

I’m faint, faint I tell you, from the major steps forward Saudi Arabia is making in the department of women’s rights.

Women were prevented from voting or running in the country’s landmark municipal elections in the first three months of this year.

Okay, let’s review. Women cannot drive. They cannot vote. They cannot leave the house without a male guardian accompanying them. They cannot leave the country without their male guardian’s permission. They, uh, need an effing male guardian in order to do what nearly every other woman around the world does as a matter of course.

But now they can vote.

In a chamber of commerce election in Jiddah.

The mind reels at these giant steps forward. If they keep up this pace, in a couple of centuries, they’ll have reached 1945.

I’ve added a couple of plug-ins that affect your ability to write comments. I’ve added a preview that you’re probably not used to (it reproduces the text as you type it), and a bunch of quicktags that I have to change the appearance—I mean, ew—but this is a work in progress.

Work is progressing.

Suggestions will be taken under advisement. WP isn’t MT, and I’m only just learning my way around it. I get no time to do this except on weekends.

The new yourish.com theme is in the works; be patient. I’m betting we have it up by Rosh Hashana.

Originally published on April 28, 2003

The last word on Aziz and Tacitus, dudes

Judith Weiss wrote a wonderful summary of what went down, but I realized that I need to sum up for my own readers, in my own way. Go to Kesher Talk for the links if you think you need more information. I’m like, too beat after writing this.
(more…)

Originally published on June 11, 2005

Alex Bensky, the uber-commenter, has an explanation as to why groups like Human Rights Watch are so focused on Israeli human rights violations, and rarely on violations against Israelis:
(more…)

I won’t be converting my HTML archives into WordPress blogs, but I will go back and choose some of my best posts and reproduce them here, now, for new readers and for reference (and searches) back.

If you have a favorite post from my pre-WP days, post the URL in the comments, or email me. I’ll get it onto the new blog when I get the time.

I haven’t been linking Ocean Guy lately. I am fixing that error now. Solly’s right, this map post and this one are extraordinary in their simplicity.

Solomon, as usual, makes me wonder how he has time for anything but blogging. Good answer to the idiot Islamic representative in this post.

Also via Solomon, someone new for the blogroll. Adloyada is obviously an Apprentice of Juvenile Scorn:

Is there some malady called Israel Dependency Syndrome down there? I mean, what liberation movement worth its salt feels powerless to control its own people unless the former brutal occupying oppressors first make the arrangements for the celebration party and related outing in the park?

Neo-neocon found an article from 1961 about the palestinian refugees, showing that it’s been a neverending victimhood enforced by the Arab nations and the UN.

Judith, as always, is on a roll. No single link, just go read.

Add your links or trackbacks to the comments of this post for other bloggers and posts of interest.