Lebanon is trying to rid itself of Syrian proxies, and while doing so, they’re doing a favor for Israel–getting rid of the PFLP.

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Having rid itself of Syrian occupying forces with a show of people power, Lebanon is now deploying its army to cut off Syrian support for its proxy - a Palestinian group behind some of the worst attacks against Israel over the years.

To many Arabs, the outfit that goes by the name of PFLP-GC, for Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, is Syria’s tool in its shadowy war against its enemies. It is on the U.S. State Department’s terrorist list and has lately been accused of involvement in the February assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri - the event that ended up forcing the Syrians to pull out of Lebanon.

Lebanese troops and armor have surrounded some of the PFLP-GC’s bases in the rugged mountains along the Syrian border. The government has said it will not use force, but wants to stop weapons and reinforcements coming in from Syria which it fears will be used to stir up trouble.

The U.N. investigator’s report that accused Syria of engineering the Feb. 14 killing of Hariri mentions “people” from the PFLP-GC of having had contacts with three of four Lebanese generals jailed on charges of planning the fatal car-bombing. However, investigator Detlev Mehlis later said its leader, Ahmed Jibril, is not a suspect.

Another U.N. report this week also said that Lebanon’s efforts to disarm Palestinian militias such as Jibril’s have made little headway, partly because they have been receiving more weapons from Syria.

A happy byproduct of the expulsion of Syria from Lebanon, but it could also lead to better relations with Israel.

On that same note, the king of Jordan canceled the showing of a vile, anti-Semitic program during Ramadan, after receiving a letter signed by 24 American rabbis.

There do seem to be some baby steps forward in the Arab/Muslim world towards Jews.

Each year at Passover, my family reads the story of the Four Sons–the wise son, the contrary son, the simple son, and the son who is too young to know how to formulate a question. Every year, we read:

The contrary son asks: “What is the meaning of this service to you?” Saying you, he excludes himself, and because he excludes himself from the group, he denies a basic principle. You may therefore tell him plainly: “Because of what the Eternal did for me when I came forth from Egypt” I do this. For me and not for him; had he been there, he would not have been redeemed.

There have always been Jews who feel like the contrary son. There will probably always be Jews who feel that way. But they’re not so easy to identify these days, because they don’t separate themselves from their Jewishness–at least, not publicly. Publicly, they proclaim their Jewishness and their Judaism from the mountaintops, while decrying the “misdeeds” (or even “crimes”) of their fellow Jews.

We have all seen them, the anti-Zionist Jews. They’re the ones marching against Israel in every “peace” march held across the planet. They’re the ones that do not get barred from speaking at ANSWER-organized marches because they are not against Israel’s policies enough for the taste of the organizers. (One would think this would be enough to stop these Jews from trying to work with organizations like ANSWER. One would be wrong.)

(more…)

Daylight Savings Time wreaked havoc with the post scheduling of WordPress, so I’m not exactly sure when my essay will be up, but somewhere between ten and eleven a new piece that’s worth a read should show itself to you. It is called “Ex-Jews,” and one that’s been bouncing around in my head for ages. Lynn gave me the impetus to write it by mentioning some schmuck on a Daily Kos comments thread.

I am attempting to write posts that can be scheduled to pop in throughout the day instead of all at once, so that you have something to distract yourself with while you’re working (and isn’t it nice to have a job where you can blog; because I can’t).

And once again, I am running late. Gotta go grab breakfast before getting to the office.

And a big thank you to Glenn, for linking my help-wanted post. He should rename himself the Instamensch.

The UN Security Council released a “statement” chiding Iran for calling for the destruction of Israel. The non-Arab, non-Muslim world reacted with outrage. We’re still waiting to hear from an Arab or Muslim nation that they don’t agree with Iran’s stance, although I may have missed a statement from one of the more moderate nations (Jordan, for instance).

Iran’s government has quite clearly come out in support of its president, in spite of the media spin to the contrary.

Editorial writers from around the world are recoiling in horror that Iran would give George W. Bush exactly the kind of leverage he needs to prove that Iran is a rogue state, while managing to downplay exactly what Iran said to give W. that leverage.

In the meantime, Iran offers Islamic Jihad a bounty for firing rockets into the West Bank while denying that it supports palestinian terrorists–which denial is quoted throughout the wire services and other media as if it might actually have some basis in fact, despite the overwhelming evidence that it is a lie–and still, Kofi Annan is going to visit Iran next week.

Actions have consequences. If Israel had called to wipe Iran off the map, she’d have been expelled from the UN in a heartbeat.

Once again, the Exception Clause applies. I hold out little hope that Annan will cancel his visit to Iran.

So the highly-touted Egyptian guarding of the Israeli border in Gaza will likely turn into the same lack of guarding that they’re doing in the Negev.

Rocket threat in the West Bank? The Shin Bet has detained three “Qassam rocket engineers” belonging to the Popular Resistance Committees terror group on their way from Gaza to the West Bank town of Jenin.

The terrorists were apprehended near Mitzpe Ramon, in the southern Negev desert, at the beginning of the month, but the story was only now cleared for publication. According to the Shin Bet, the three were able to enter Israel with the assistance of bribed Egyptian police officers and a Bedouin accomplice.

Unfortunately, Israel is ignoring the danger on her southern border:

The latest arrests revealed once again Israel’s ongoing failure to secure its southern border. The breached border between Israel and Egypt in the area south of Nitzana has become one of the country’s most pressing security concerns.

IDF Intelligence Chief Aharon Ze’evi Farkash lately warned that the al-Qaeda terror organization has established a base of operations in Sinai.

A top intelligence source told Ynet, referring to the southern sector, that “if Israel continues to be indifferent to this problem, this will become our next Lebanon.”

Time to build another fence.

Y’know, I look at the post that lists my job skills and I think, “Wow, how could anyone not hire someone with those qualificaitons?” Then I go to the various online job sites, and I think, “Wow, how can they find anyone with all of those qualifications?”

I don’t suppose a job is going to drop from the sky into my lap, though, so I’ll just remind you that yes, I’m still looking, and no, Large Financial Company in Richmond isn’t smart enough to hire me. So keep those cards and letters coming, folks. I’ve got a 30-day reprieve, but I still need a permanent position, and I still can’t afford to be unemployed.

I really would like to give my nieces and nephews nice presents in the upcoming holiday season. A permanent position will help me do that.

The latest Carnival of the Jews, Haveil Havalim, is up.

So is the latest Carnival of the Cats.

In this Ynet story about the killing of one of the terrorist masterminds of the Hadera bombing, we get this about the supposed cease-fire agreement:

Earlier, the Palestinian Authority announced that it reached an agreement with the various factions and terror organizations whereby they would refrain from launching Qassam rocket or terror attacks from Gaza against Israel.

That leaves a whole lot of other places from which to launch attacks.

I’m sure they’ll try. Just as they’ll probably succeed. They’re being helped by Abbas’ own people.

Meanwhile, the “Red Dawn” alert system was activated twice in the southern town of Sderot around midnight, after Qassam rockets were launched at the community, apparently in response to the operation in Kabatiya. One rocket landed in Sderot while another one landed nearby. No injuries or damages were reported in the attack.

The Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed responsibility for the strike. Earlier, two rockets were fired by the Islamic Jihad but landed in Palestinian areas. The Qassam strikes came despite a deal struck between Palestinian officials and terror groups earlier in the day on ending all Gaza-based attacks on Israeli targets.

I wonder if Abbas, like Arafat, is giving the orders for attacks behind the scenes, while pretending shock, shock I tell you, that rockets are falling in Israel. Or is he truly that powerless?

The IDF got the bastard who dispatched the Hadera suicide bomber.

Three Palestinians were killed Sunday in a shootout with Israel Defense Forces troops in the West Bank town of Qabatiyah. The army had entered the town south of Jenin to hunt down members of the Islamic Jihad cell responsible for the Hadera suicide bombing last week and Palestinian sources said that one of the men killed was Jihad Awidat, the Jihad operative who dispatched Hassan Abu Zaid to Hadera.

Got a few more while they were at it.

Good.

Exactly what does it take to make a crow blush?

WTF kind of headline is this?

Iran Rejects Derision of Leader’s Remarks

“Derision“?

“Contemptuous or jeering laughter; ridicule. 2. A state of being derided: The proposal was held in derision by members of the board.

“An object of ridicule; a laughingstock.”

The United Nations is being contemptuous or ridiculing Iran? This is derision?

The members of the Security Council condemn the remarks about Israel attributed to H.E. Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The members of the Security Council support the Secretary-General’s statement of 27 October noting that, under the United Nations Charter, all Members have undertaken to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State.

I think this is the derision that the headline should be referring to:

“The statement by the president of the U.N. Security Council was proposed by the Zionist regime to close the eyes to its crimes and to change the facts, therefore it is not acceptable,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry said.

“Iran is loyal to its commitments based on the U.N. charter and it has never used or threatened to use force against any country,” the ministry added.

Let’s roll back the clock to Wednesday, shall we?

Referring to Palestinian suicide bomb attacks in Israel, Ahmadinejad said: “there is no doubt that the new wave in Palestine will soon wipe off this disgraceful blot from the face of the Islamic world.”

Now that’s derision. And it is not the first time a high-ranking Iranian threatened the destruction of Israel. A former president of Iran said nearly five years ago that a nuclear weapon would destroy Israel, but leave the Islamic world mostly intact. Rafsajani, by the way, is considered a moderate. Yes, a moderate.

It seems that both Iranian moderates and hardliners agree on something: The destruction of Israel. Color me unsurprised.

This part of the recent AP article–which article, of course, goes unedited in thousands of newspapers around the world–is a perfect example of the anti-Israel media bias via lack of context.

The violence this week began Monday with Israel’s killing of a top Islamic Jihad gunman. An Islamic Jihad revenge bombing Wednesday killed five Israelis, and on Thursday, missiles fired at a car from Israeli aircraft killed four Islamic Jihad members and three bystanders.

The authors of the road map peace plan - the United States, the United Nations, Russia and the European Union - took a strong stand against Palestinian militants on Friday, demanding that Syria immediately shut down the offices of the militant Islamic Jihad group in Damascus and prevent use of Syrian territory for acts of terror.

Islamic Jihad has been responsible for the most violent attacks against Israeli targets since a February cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians, including a suicide bombing on Wednesday.

The Monday to which the writer refers is October 24th. So the reader is led to believe that on Monday, Israel up and decided to go after Islamic Jihad. There is no reason given. Why would Israel suddenly decide to return to her practice of targeted assassination? Well, without context, one would think simply because Israel wants to do so. But let’s step back in time a whole ‘nother week. I know that’s asking a lot, but let’s do it:

Israel slapped tough travel restrictions on the West Bank after Palestinian gunmen killed three young Israelis and wounded four others in a drive-by shooting at a crowded bus stop near Jewish settlements.

The Palestinian attack near the Gush Etzion block of settlements yesterday was the bloodiest since July, and it followed warnings from Isaeli intelligence that with Israel’s pullout from Gaza last month, Palestinian militants would shift their focus to the West Bank.

Minutes after the bus stop attack, militants carried out a second drive-by shooting, targeting an Israeli vehicle in the another part of the West Bank, seriously wounding an Israeli, officials said.

Oh. Terrorists murdered Israelis before any of the targeted assassinations occurred. How about that? Who knew?

The AP knew.

That’s their article I quoted from.

But when it comes to Israel, there is never any justification for “violence.” The AP leaves the justification to the “militants” figting the “resistance.”

File this under “Reason Number 5,473 Why I Hate The Media.” Because by omitting context, the AP is effectively lying by omission.

My temporary assignment has been extended through the end of November, which is actually a good thing, except for the not getting the full-time job with benefits part. But I need the work and the money, and I can use the time to keep learning Vignette Portal, add to my resume and experience, while looking for a new job. I have a few prospects thanks to Scott and my readers, and hope to get more next week.

I’ve been bookmarking news stories right and left so I can catch up on my blogging. The media bias bookmarks alone have nearly chocked Firefox. Okay, I’m exaggerating. A little.

I’ll get them up over the weekend, in between checking online for jobs.

Keep those cards and letters coming, kids.

And now, I’m going to bed. I have a hours of sleep debt to catch up on. I don’t sleep very well when I’m stressed and unhappy, and that’s how I was feeling until this afternoon.

TGIF.

I may have time to catch up on blogging next week, if they don’t bring me back. I couldn’t say.

In any case, I can’t thank Scott enough for what he has done. He made a Blogad for me, too.

It’s a tough time for me right now, and it’s great to know that so many of you are pulling for me.

One resume is winging its way to another Large Company in Richmond as we speak. It’s working.

Thank you, everyone.

Thanks to everyone who emailed, commented, or linked. Some excellent suggestions were made, and I’ll follow up on them.

In the meantime, I’m going to rewrite my resume to include my current position, cross my fingers that FPL will get the power up by tomorrow or Saturday, and hopefully get a little sleep tonight. I tend not to sleep when I’m upset, and I didn’t get to bed until 1 yesterday.

There has to be something in the area for me. I mean, sure, Richmond is a small city, but it’s a city, nonetheless. Then again, Dahlgren wouldn’t be too awful a drive. Fredericksburg? Maybe, but I think the action is all from there to DC. And DC is too far to commute on a daily basis.

I know I could get something in my field if I moved back to NJ, but I really like Richmond. I’m very comfortable here. I just need a job to make it almost-perfect.

So let’s see: A typo in the last thing I added to the post below (this morning, while rushing to leave for the job that will be terminating my employment soon). And a phone call from my mother during work.

She moved to a town in the center of the power/water/fuel shortages/outages. She and my aunt drove north to Melbourne and are staying in a hotel. Today, she realized that a) It’s going to take a long time to restore infrastructure to her new home and b) She can’t keep spending money on a hotel and three meals a day.

Mom’s coming to Richmond this weekend, and staying until the power and water go back on in her neighborhood. We have no idea how long that will take.

So I’ll be conducting a job search, ending a temporary assignment while wishing all the time they’d hired me instead of whomever they hired, and dealing with a visit from Mom, who was just here for Rosh Hashana for a week.

Life is going to be very interesting for me in the next few weeks.

Update December 2006: Yes, I am still looking for permanent work. I’ve seen two jobs disappear out from under me at Large Company in Richmond, and my contract is up the end of the month. And I’m really tired of updating this post.

Update August 2006: I’ve finished a contracting tech writing position, and am still looking for permanent work.

The job that I’ve been temping in these past two months will not be going to me. I found out this week that the company is filling the position with someone who will work for far less money than I. That’s their decision, and though I think it’s not the best decision to make, I have no say in the matter. (Update: It isn’t going to anyone just yet.)

But I really need a job. I can’t afford to be unemployed. At all.

Here’s what I need you all to do for me, especially Richmond-area readers. Pass along this post, or link to it, or email the link to a friend (http://www.yourish.com/2005/10/27/235). (For bloggers, the trackback to this link is http://www.yourish.com/2005/10/27/235/trackback/ ). You can right-click and copy the link in most browsers. It worked for Scott. Maybe it’ll work for me.

To prospective employers:

I have spent the last year in web content management and technical writing (training documents, white papers, and programming guides). Clips are available on request.

I have an extensive background in publishing, both print and electronic. I have years of experience as a typesetter (Atex, AM Varityper) , a desktop publisher (Quark and Pagemaker), a web developer (HTML, Claris Homepage and Dreamweaver), and now I have experience on Vignette Portal and a proprietary content management system. I have experience with many of the major blogging tools (Moveable Type, WordPress, Blogger) and have been writing this weblog (until this year, in Dreamweaver) since April of 2001.

I also have experience editing, proofreading, and copy editing in the magazine and book industries. I am a superb proofreader and copy editor; you will have to look long and hard to find typos in my posts. I have written various pieces for company newsletters and intranets. I am a very fast writer–I once stunned a PR manager by giving her a 200-word story in 30 minutes after she gave me three articles about one of our corporate officers to condense and rewrite. (”You’re finished already?”) The article went into the newsletter without a single edit. Although I prefer the essay form (that’s why I blog), I have written dozens of news, sports, and feature articles if we count my college newspaper–which I also edited. I have done tech writing, including the sysops’ manual and help files for 2AM-BBS, a proprietary software system.

I was an entry-level programmer. My programming skills are rusty, but I never forget the basics of what I am taught. The following are skills that I am light in, but that can be brought up to speed if need be: C++, SQL, Java, JavaScript, ASP, VB, DB2, Oracle, and Access. I’m not really looking for a programming position, but I do have more than a passing grasp of what programming entails. I have a much deeper knowledge of HTML and CSS, and a smattering of XML.

There is a saying that someone’s knowledge of a subject is a mile wide and an inch deep. My knowledge of many subjects is a mile wide and a foot deep. In some places, it is several feet deep.

In most interviews, your candidate tells you that she is a quick study. It’s a cliché. Well, it’s not a cliché with me. I taught myself Adobe Pagemaker in three days for a job interview with the New Yorker. (The job went to a relative of the production manager; go figure.) I took the Microsoft Office skills tests when I registered with Kelly Services last year, and managed to pull out decent scores even on the programs I hadn’t used in five years. I have shaken the rust off my Powerpoint and Outlook capabilities since working for my current temporary assignment.

I built and maintained intranet sites for Lucent. I manage intranet content for my current employer, as well as deliver new HTML/CSS pages for the intranet. I am not an official proofreader, but I do bring discrepancies, bad grammar, and errors to the managers’ attention. I create graphics and adjust images for the intranet articles. In short, anything that needs doing, I will do.

I am a teacher and a trainer. I teach fourth-grade religious school, and I have trained people in the Atex typesetting system—a painstaking, three-month process—and can sit down with a 73-year-old woman and teach her how to download her mail from AOL.

As I said above, my salary requirement and departmental budget constraints are what’s keeping my current company from hiring me. I can supply references from current and past managers, including my manager from Lucent, with whom I still keep in touch six years after being laid off (in the first wave of Lucent cutbacks).

I don’t want to relocate. I like the Richmond area. If you have a job for me outside my area, telecommuting would be a great thing, but I am also open to traveling onsite on a regular basis.

In any case, I am a devoted, loyal, hard-working employee. If you think you have a position that I can fill, or know someone who might, my email address is meryl - at - yourish -dot - com.

I need a job. Do you need an employee?

Posting will be a bit light today, except for the post above (after, or to the left or right, databases confuse me so) this one.

Not that I expect the AP to care, but many hours after yesterday’s suicide bombing, they have yet to put the names of the murder victims in the article.

The name of the terrorist has been there almost since the get-go.

Wednesday’s suicide bomber was identified as a 20-year-old from the West Bank town of Qabatiyeh. His name, Hassan Abu Zeid, was announced over a bullhorn in Qabatiyeh, residents said. Israeli police said the man had been standing in line at the falafel stand before blowing himself up.

His parents were evacuating their home, fearing an Israeli response. His mother, Raqaiah, wailed, “Where are you, my dear son?” Relatives said he worked as a blacksmith with his father and disappeared after morning prayers Wednesday.

Six people, including the bomber, were killed in the blast, rescue service officials said. More than 30 people were wounded, nine of them seriously, they said.

There’s also a picture of his mother “wailing.”

No pictures of grieving relatives of murder victims. But in an earlier story, there’s this picture of Israeli rescue workers loading a body of one of the murder victims into an ambulance. I suppose that counts for something.

Ha’aretz has the names of four of the victims:

Jamil Mohammed Ka’adan, 48, of Baka al-Garbiyeh; Michael Koifman, 68, of Hadera; Sabiha Nissim, 66, of Moshav Ahituv; and Perahiya Makhlouf, 53, of Hadera.

Uh-oh, at least one of those names sounds Arab. Let’s keep a watch and see if he shows up in the next day or so.

The dehumanization of murdered Jews, begun centuries ago and brought to a horrific peak in the last century, continues–nonstop–in the twenty-first century. In the meantime, Iran calls for the destruction of Israel and the death of all the Jews inside, but the world will not stop this nation from achieving a nuclear weapon.

Do you truly doubt where they will test the first one? I don’t.

Regarding Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s statement Wednesday about wiping Israel off the map:

The palestinians already have.

This is one of my all-time favorite Tig pictures. It’s an oldie-but-goodie that was attached to one of the Cattales links.

Hey, I could submit it to CoTC. It’s been around since before CoTC existed.

Yes, this blog is that old.

Cattales. Old cat pictures, but still good.

When I get home from work, I will explain why I need to look at kitty zen pictures.

Things could be better.

So the president doesn’t think it’s a good idea to “interfere” in the palestinian elections, and has forced Israel to drop its demand that the PA forbid Hamas members to run for office in the upcoming elections.

Here are the thoughts and words of one of those Hamas leaders. Once again, the Exception Clause–the understanding that the laws that apply to the rest of the world, such as not allowing terrorists to run for office in Afghanistan and Iraq, do not apply when it comes to the safety of Jews.

Hamas will increase the number of kidnappings of Israelis if Israel does not release Palestinian prisoners, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Dr. Mahmoud Zahar, told Haaretz this week.

He added that the group will not extend its participation in a cease-fire among Palestinian organizations beyond the end of 2005 if the Palestinian Authority reneges on its promise to hold elections in January.

So there you have the first admission: Hamas will be back murdering Jews as soon as the elections are over–elections in which they are expected to take as many as a third of the positions.

Zahar said that although Hamas participated in municipal elections and while it may agree to temporary political arrangements, it has not changed its basic position that Palestine between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River is sacred Muslim land. He conceded that the Hamas charter calling for the destruction of Israel could change, but “the subject is not under discussion right now.”

I’m not getting how the charter can change if he insists that Israel is Muslim land. This is the latest Hamas spin. It’s bullshit. But they know the world will take the spin and say, “See? They can change! They’ve said so!” while ignoring the rest of the words. Case in point:

Zahar said he believed Oslo would lead to “one big zero” politically. “But today the situation is different. There is Palestinian consensus regarding the 1967 borders and some people think this is a strategic alternative and the end of the story. But Hamas regards these borders only as a stage in the struggle, which will be decided by a change in circumstances. Some Israelis think when we speak about the West Bank and Gaza it means we have given up on the historic war and this is not the case.”

But that isn’t the money quote. Here it is:

“The present cease-fire is not a change of position. … There is a difference between a change of circumstances and a change of position.”

Hamas is a group of murderers and Islamic fanatics. They will never change their charter, they will always reject the presence of infidels on “sacred Muslim land,” and they will never get along with Israel.

What is it about that the world can’t understand? The murderers say it, and say it, and say it again–and the EU opens negotiations with them, the UN refuses to call them terrorists, and the Bush Adminstration says it’s okay for them to run in palestinian elections.

The only explanation I can find is that there is one rule for the world, and one for the Jews.

The world does not like the Jews.

The palestinians are not anti-Semitic. Oh, no, they’re simply anti-Israel, or anti-Zionist, or anti-something. Because if they were anti-Semitic, they’d say things like this:

About 10,000 people attended Saadi’s funeral in Tulkarem on Tuesday, including members of most Palestinian militant groups. The town was completely shut down, with shops and schools closed for the day.

Saadi was blamed for the deaths of 12 Israelis in a series of attacks in recent months.

Saadi’s body was carried across town as the masses chanted for revenge. “God is great. God loves him. God hates the Jews. They are killers,” some mourners chanted.

Funny, that chant. Because it’s almost as if the palestinians weren’t angry with Israelis. It’s almost as if they, well, hate the Jews.

Oh, wait. Israelis are Jews, mostly. Certainly the ones the palestinian paraders were yammering on about.

It is my fervent wish that the palestinians experience many, many more funerals like this one. Keep on killing the terrorists, please. Then we don’t have to watch them get released from prison and kill more Jews.

I believe the phrase the palestinians should have been chanting is “We hate the Jews.” Because it’s been effing obvious for decades.

It’s called “Intelligent Design,” thus assuming that the design had some modicum of intelligence.

I give you Exhibit A: The duck-billed platypus

Sorry, folks, but I got up late, am running late, and was too tired to prepare any posts last night.

So I guess you can consider this an open thread. Post links to any interesting articles or blog posts, and I’ll see if I can post on my lunch break.

Murray Hill (if you ever lived in the NY Metro area, you’ll know why I love that name) explains to me why I shouldn’t consider Bruce as a blogger husband.

Spit-monitor warning.

A few weeks ago, just after my mother’s visit, I was washing sheets and blankets. When I brought them upstairs, Tig followed me. Tig loves when I make the bed, because he loves running under the sheets as I flap them and put them on the bed. He plays Cave Kitty until he gets bored, or falls asleep.

Apparently, something happened the last time he played Cave Kitty. In fact, I think it’s possible that the Blanket Monster tried to eat Tig. Little did I know when I shot this picture that as soon as I left the room, something sinister would occur. Alas, poor Tig, innocent to the fate that would befall him.

So here’s the thing. I put on the fitted sheet without letting Tig under it. Then I put on the flat sheet, waiting until Tig was comfortably esconced. I tucked in the edges at the foot of the bed. Then I put on the light blanket I sleep with during the summer, watching Tig turn into a happy, purring, blanket-covered lump not unlike the one you see in this picture:

And that, I thought, was the end of that.

Except that Tig stopped sleeping in my bed again. He did this once before, for several months, a long time ago. I assumed the last time that Maintenance Guy, whom I had called to try to find a squirrel in my attic (shut up), had frightened Tig. But now I think I was dead wrong.

Now I think what happened was Tig fell asleep, curled happily underneath the sheet and blanket. When he woke up, he tried to get out from under them, but went in the wrong direction–toward the ends that were tucked underneath the mattress. Then, feeling trapped, Tig went a little bit insane until he finally figured or fought his way out of the blanket. As a result, he held the bed in deep distrust and refused to sleep on it again.

Since Rosh Hashana, Tig has been sleeping on his kitty condo, or in a box downstairs, or on my shelf. He hasn’t slept in the bed at all, and washes himself compulsively the second he comes into the bedroom to try to talk me out of the Blanket Monster every day. At most, he’s been standing on the left-hand side of the bed, yowling piteously for me to get out of bed (generally at 6 a.m., the bastard) while refusing to jump in bed himself. Gracie, of course, has been glorying in being the only bedcat, and sleeps wherever she wants, including on his side of the bed.

Last week, he leaped into bed, jumped over me, and leaped out. A day or two later, Saturday, come to think of it, he was yowling at me to wake up at 7 a.m. I ignored him. He jumped into bed on my left side (Gracie’s spot), stayed for a minute or so of petting, then leaped out of bed, washing his shoulder.

This morning, he jumped into bed, stayed to let me pet him, and rolled over for a bellyrub.

I think he has forgiven the Blanket Monster again. At least, until the next time the goofball falls asleep underneath the blanket and can’t figure out which way is the exit. I expect he’ll sleep with me tonight like he usually does, or if not, within the next few days. Now I can look forward to his walking over to my head and yowling in my ear for me to wake up and pet him. At 6 a.m.

As Lair likes to say: Cats!

The Carnival of the Cats is at Mind of Mog, who has recovered from her momentary disappearance. Say, Mog, how did it feel to be invisible?

Don’t do it again, ‘kay?

I find myself unable to contact my mother in Tamarac.

If anyone has any idea how badly that town was hit, please let me know. Can’t get through on cell phones, and I’m at work and can’t really spend a lot of time surfing for info.

Update: The cell towers must not all have blown down. Got a call from my brother, who is still in Tamarac from the move. They were eating supper by candlelight when they called. Everything’s all right; no damage to them. Just another hurricane story to tell, thankfully.

And thanks, Bear and Jay. Appreciate the help.

Israel won’t actively try to stop Hamas from running in the PA elections.

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel has dropped its campaign to ban the violent Islamic Hamas from Palestinian parliamentary elections, admitting defeat after President Bush pointedly skipped repeating the demand in a public appearance with the Palestinian leader last week.

Israel says it is still strongly opposed to Hamas participation, because its charter calls for destruction of the Jewish state, but it will take no steps to stop it.

“Are we going to go to war on this issue or interfere on this issue? No,” a senior official said Sunday.

Also, Israel said if Hamas took part in the Palestinian government, there would be no hope for peace talks. That threat still hangs in the air.

“This organization will not be a legitimate partner for peace,” said one official. “It’s Hamas or us.”

During the last five years, Hamas has carried out dozens of suicide bombing attacks which have killed hundreds of Israelis. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make official policy statements.

When a government says they will refuse to deal with an organization that allows terrorists into its midst, I’m not clear on why that should be called a threat. But then, I’m not an AP writer or editor.

On the other hand, they actually blamed Hamas for the murders of hundreds of Israelis with no weasel words attached. And the article does contain these two paragraphs:

When Abbas was in Washington, Palestinian gunmen killed three Israelis in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank, and the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, linked to Abbas’ Fatah, claimed responsibility.

[...] Previous efforts to disarm Al Aqsa have ended in failure. An offer by the Palestinian government to buy weapons from militants fizzled, and earlier programs to give gunmen posts in security services have not yielded significant results.

Since Al Aqsa is close to Fatah, failure to bring its gunmen into the official fold would bode ill for similar efforts toward Hamas, the main Fatah rival.

Gee. They’re almost making sense. I think we’ll track this article and see how much it changes.

So let’s see: The PA wants to co-opt terrorists instead of forcing them to disarm. How do they intend to achieve this? By hiring them into the security forces. Because it’s not like, say, palestinian police haven’t been implicated in numerous terrorist attacks on Israel.

The Palestinian Authority announced on Sunday a security plan aimed at disbanding the armed wing of Fatah and recruiting hundreds of its members to the security forces.

Endorsed by the PA’s National Security Council during a meeting in Ramallah, the plan calls for establishing training camps for the militiamen - most of who belong to the ruling Fatah party - as a first step towards incorporating them into the security forces. The meeting was attended by commanders of all the PA security forces.

The plan was originally approved several months ago, but was not fully implemented because of numerous demands set by the gunmen, including higher salaries and senior positions in the security forces. It was also unclear Sunday night whether all Fatah militiamen had accepted the plan.

What a farce.

The IDF killed a terrorist who never should have been released from prison in the first place:

The IDF says it has killed leading terrorist Louie Sa’adi, released as part of the Tenenbaum deal – since then Saadi has stood behind a series of terror attacks, including the suicide bomb attack at the Stage club in Tel Aviv, and the bombing of the Netanya shopping center; Islamic Jihad vows revenge, IDF raises level of alert

IDF forces on the border with Gaza raised their level of alert following the death of Islamic Jihad commander Louie Sa’adi in Tul Karem.

The IDF believes there is a possibility that terror organizations will try to revenge incidents in the West Bank through mortar and Qassam attacks on Sderot and the western Negev. At this point, there has not been an increase of forces in the area.

Palestinian terror spokesmen have responded to the killing with severe threats. Islamic Jihad chief in Damascus, Ramadan Abdullah Shalah, promised revenge that would “shake up” Israel in response to the killing of Sa’adi, who he described as the “a great leader with a unique military capability.” He added that Sa’adi’s death would not harm the Islamic Jihad which he said would recover from the difficult blow that landed on them.

“There’s no doubt that the killing Sa’adi brings us to a new point, and we must carry out a series of attacks against Israel and within the Green Line,” said an Islamic Jihad member.

Don’t you just love the math? Israel kills a killer of Jews, so the terrorists must kill more Jews in revenge.

And of course, the media will take this as a legitimate excuse when it writes about the mortars raining down on Israel.

Technorati has changed the way they calculate a blog’s popularity. It is no longer sufficient to be linked to by bloggers. You must be active and popular, but they’ve redefined the meaning of the word “popular.”

For URL search, we’ve been looking closely at how we calculate the number of links and sources pointing to a blog, and we’ve made some tweaks to the display to better surface recent blog activity. Technorati now displays the total number of links from blogs over the last 6 months. Up until now, we displayed a count of all links from blog homepages, which tended to weight more highly blogs that have been around for a long time, even if they have not been posting recently.

The change affects how Technorati ranks its over 18.5 million blogs. Our new link counts expose more active blogs and rising stars, allowing readers to discover blogs currently receiving the attention of the blogosphere.

So what Technorati is saying is that weblogs that have been around for years, that are still active, that are still read, but are not considered “hot”–have lost links that were previously counted by Technorati. Why? Because not as many people are linking to those bloggers’ individual posts. In other words, you can have hundreds of blogs linking to your weblog every day, but that no longer counts in the Technorati ranking system. That explains why my ranking dropped from 500 to 2900 in one day. Technorati simply discounted 600 links because they are from blog homepages to my weblog–not to recent posts of mine.

Put another way, I have a permanent link in Instapundit’s sidebar. That link brings me consistent traffic from Glenn’s site every day, but that link is not counted at all under Technorati’s new system. Instead, they’re tracking–well, flash in the pans. From the same Technorati post:

Michael Barnett (interdictor), a blogger who actively covered Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, is an example of an emerging blog of interest in the past few months. Interdictor is currently the 90th most uniquely cited blog tracked by Technorati.

Huh. A guy blogging about Hurricane Katrina during and after Hurricane Katrina was a popular blogger in September. Imagine that. Except there’s a catch: The Interdictor is now yesterday’s news, and his blog stats reflect that. A quick check today shows that he is no longer in the Technorati Top 100. A look at his stats show 2,000-plus links, most of which obviously came in the last couple of months. So who’s reading him now? Interdictor’s recent linkage is 20 links in the last 4 days. Hell, there hasn’t even been a new post on Interdictor since Thursday, which would make him, I think, one of those inactive blogs that Technorati doesn’t want to count in their ranking system.

I’m thinking the new system has a few kinks.

If one of the problems of the old system is that some blogs that are no longer active link to blogs that are still active, then why is Technorati tracking inactive blogs? Why are they not removing inactive blogs from the list instead of removing all blog homepage link–effectively punishing bloggers for having seniority? Is this new system really going to change the way new blogs are treated? I don’t think so.

Sometimes, blogs skyrocket to the top and stay there. We’ve seen more than one example. But more often, blogs that skyrocket to the top because they are the Hot Topic of the Day tend to fizzle out and fall to earth not very long after. But that doesn’t seem to matter. The new system fairly screams “Hot or Not?”:

Technorati determines a blog’s ranking based on the number of links from unique blogs over the last 6 months. If John links to Susie 5 times in 5 months Technorati will count 5 new links to Susie from 1 unique source. Susie’s rank will change based on this 1 new source.

So basically what they’re saying is that they’ll track links to posts, but not sidebar links on a blog’s main page. But isn’t that what a tracking service is supposed to do? Track links?

If Technorati is going to tout itself as a service that tracks links from blogs to blogs, then it should be tracking all the links, not just the ones Technorati thinks are the right ones to track. Established bloggers have more links from homepages? That’s too bad. We earned those links by writing consistently, over time, on weblogs that other bloggers want to link from their homepages.

Having said that, longevity alone does not confer popularity. I started blogging long before Power Line, currently number 17 on the Technorati Top 100. I have never cracked the Technorati 100, and probably never will. Longevity is not a factor in their popularity. Subject matter is the reason people link to Power Line, not the fact that they’ve been around for a while. Subject matter is, ultimately, what blogs are all about. People are going to link to what they want to read, and share those links with their readers. The homepage link is the ultimate method to share subject matter with your blog’s readers. A homepage link tells your readers that you like a certain blogger enough to send traffic his or her way. Technorati, by using this new method, is shredding the merit system of blogging and resorting to the methodology that we might call “Fad of the Day.”

Am I just upset because my blog rank has dropped? Well, I’d sure like my six hundred links back. I have an ego, like most bloggers. But that’s not what this post is about. This post is about accuracy in numbers. If six hundred more bloggers are linking to me than Technorati is reporting, then their reporting is flawed.

I don’t think that’s the kind of reputation that a blog tracking service wants.

Time for a good news post: Seton Hall University honored a nun today who spent her life improving Jewish-Catholic relationships, and fighting against anti-Semitism. Sister Rose Thering is one of the Righteous:

Seton Hall University, where Sister Rose was a teacher for decades, is holding a tribute for her today at 3 p.m. in the Jubilee Auditorium on its South Orange campus. It is being billed as both a farewell and a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of a document that church officials issued during the Vatican II Conference — the Nostra Aetate, which declared that Jews no longer could be blamed for the death of Jesus Christ.

Thering wrote a doctoral thesis credited with influencing the passage of the document.

She has been an outspoken champion of Israel and a spokeswoman for interfaith dialogue. She once went to Austria to protest Kurt Waldheim, who was elected president of Austria even though he was accused of being part of Nazi military units that committed war crimes during World War II.

And she did this in spite of an anti-Semitic upbringing, which makes me like her even more:

She said she is going back to St. Catherine of Siena in Racine, Wis., because that is where she came from so many years ago, and she no longer is comfortable living alone. She recalled details of her childhood in Plain, Wis., her parents telling her that Jews killed Jesus, teachers in catechism class saying the same thing and telling her that’s why Jews wandered the world without a home.

She said she never believed God would harm people he created. She said she asked a lot of questions and was told to be quiet. She said she knew from childhood that such teachings were the product of bigotry.

54 visits to Israel

She said her parents came to understand that also, many years later. after she gained some notoriety. After the death of her father, she said her mother accompanied her on one of her 54 visits to Israel. She said her mother became a supporter of Israel and came to understand much of what she had been talking and writing about for so many years. She said her mother came to support her work.

Thering was in her 30s and studying for a doctorate at St. Louis University when she said her mentor, the Rev. Maher Trafford, asked her to be part of a project examining Catholic textbooks for prejudice. She told him it had to be done. She remembered what she had been taught in childhood. She remembered being a principal of a Catholic elementary school and a first-grader coming up to her.

“Sister Rose, look what those bad Jews did to Jesus,” he said.

“I told him it was our sins that put Jesus on the cross,” Thering said.

She wrote a report at St. Louis University that examined anti-Semitism in Catholic textbooks. She presented her findings to a group of Catholic educators who criticized her work. One of them called a local bishop to complain that a nun was attacking the Church. She said she thought she was going to be thrown out of school.

Then Trafford called and told her he wanted her work to be published. She turned it into her doctoral thesis.

It became part of the debate that led to Nostra Aetate, which passed on Oct. 28, 1965, 40 years ago this Friday.

God bless you, Sister Rose.

Joe Katzman found one. Frank J. found one. Lots of people are finding spouses through their blogs. This is the latest in a series of my search for a blogger spouse.

Long before he was Tom Paine, he was simply Bruce Hill, and he wrote a blog called War Now!, an obvious takeoff of the Peace Now crew. I don’t remember exactly which of his posts I read first, but I do remember sending him an email asking him to marry me, which is my highest compliment to a fellow blogger. Bruce sent back a response that was less than enthusiastic (I suspect he thought I was rather unwell in the head, shall we say), but I forgave him, because he’s Jewish, a Zionist, and underwent the same change in political outlook as I did after 9/11. Plus, he speaks with a nifty accent, though I didn’t get to hear it until he visited Richmond in November of 2002. But enough of that. Let’s get to the main event.

(more…)

Remember that letter from an Egpytian I posted, where she couldn’t understand why Jews wanted a state of their own in the midst of all those Muslims? Well, Egyptian Muslims rioted on Friday to let their fellow Egyptians–who just happen to be Coptic Christians–how tolerant they are.

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (AP) - Thousands of Muslims rioted outside a Coptic Christian church Friday to denounce a play deemed offensive to Islam, prompting police to beat protesters and fire tear gas into the crowd, officials said. One person died and more than 90 were injured.

Police said 53 protesters were arrested as people hurled stones, smashed windows and tried to storm St. George Church. Protesters also set a police car on fire and wrecked eight other cars, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The police were firing rubber bullets. I expect to hear the international human rights groups and the UN denounce the practice immediately, just as they do when Israel does it.

A photographer for The Associated Press saw police fire rubber bullets into the crowd, causing injuries. Police claimed officers only fired rubber bullets into the air while trying to disperse the crowd.

One protester, Mohammed Zakaraya Hassan, 48, died of circulatory collapse after being trampled and inhaling tear gas, according to a police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

So what was the great offense that sparked the riots?

The riot was sparked by the distribution of a DVD of a play that was performed at the church two years ago. The play, “I Was Blind But Now I Can See,” tells the story of a young Christian who converts to Islam and becomes disillusioned.

That’s the AP whitewash. Let’s see what other news services have to say, like the BBC:

Entitled I Once Was Blind But Now I See, the drama tells the story of a poor young Copt who is drawn to Islamist militants who then try to kill him.

But… why are they trying to kill him? I don’t get it? What’s so offensive about that? Let’s see if the AFP can tell us what the deal is:

The play, performed by amateur actors, tells the story of a young Christian who converts to Islam and is exhorted by a sheikh to kill priests and destroy churches, according to the independent Al-Dustur paper.

Performances of the play had to be abandoned after it sparked a public outcry.

Church authorities have distanced themselves from the new recordings of the play.

Ohhh, now I get it. The play is calling Muslims terrorists.

The really sick thing is the way some news sources portrayed this stabbing attack on a nun. From the BBC article, which includes a picture of the nun:

On Wednesday, a Muslim man stabbed a nun in protest at the sale of a DVD of the play, staged at the church in 2003.

From the AFP:

The protests came three days after a man lightly wounded a nun with a knife at the entrance to the same church, and a man who came to her aid was stabbed in the back.

From the AP:

No, you’re not misreading, and I didn’t forget to cut and paste. The AP didn’t mention the stabbing at all. Why, you’d think they were trying to whitewash violent Muslim activity or something. The closest you get to it is this statement at the very end of the article:

Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s 70 million people, who are overwhelmingly Muslim. Accusations of forced conversion are common in the country.

Accusations of forced conversions from what to what? Notice the deliberate vagueness that allows you to blow off the accusations because they are unclear. Shall I clear it up for you? Muslims are not being forced to convert to Christianity.

Yeah, that’s some religion of peace and tolerance. Not.

Because James Edwards, who is flying on USAir today, whose plane was delayed 27 minutes, causing him to miss his connecting flight, does not have access to my voice mail.

Tough luck, Jimmy. Next time, put the right phone number in the information.

The Dorktator’s goons killed Rafik Hariri. We kinda figured that.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Top Syrian intelligence officials approved the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and their Lebanese counterparts helped organize it, according to a U.N. probe that officially linked Damascus to the slaying for the first time.

The exhaustive report into the Feb. 14 car bomb that killed the popular opposition leader and 20 others stopped short of fingering Syrian President Bashar Assad or his inner circle. But it accused the regime of failing to cooperate in the probe and alleged Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa lied in a letter to the investigating commission.

It also cites one witness as saying Assad’s brother-in-law Assef Shawkat, who is Syria’s military intelligence chief, set up a false confession to Hariri’s murder 15 days before it took place.

Syria rejected the report.

Chief investigator Detlev Mehlis’ findings were issued to the U.N. Security Council late Thursday and will almost certainly inflame tensions in the region.

My prediction: The UN will not bring sanctions against Syria, but it will threaten Syria and tell it to behave better. The Dorktator will blame Israel and Jewish conspiracies.

I don’t think the UN wants to give W. more ammunition against Arab dictators, period. There are still some who insist that he should have let the Iraqis take care of Saddam Hussein.

The only thing the world can get a consensus on in the Middle East is that Israel should give the palestinians a state. Violence from Arabs against Arabs, and Muslimns against Muslims, or Muslims against Christians and Jews? Too damned bad, not our problem.

Why, yes, I’m a little annoyed this morning. Why do you ask?

As if the previous post weren’t bad enough, there’s this report of the Bush/Abbas press conference in the Jerusalem Post:

n a joint press conference in the White House Rose Garden, Bush demanded that the PA confront violence before the elections, but refrained from demanding that Hamas be disarmed before it is allowed to take part in the political process. He referred only to “armed gangs,” and did not mention Hamas by name.

[...] Bush was full of praise to Abbas in their joint press conference and repeated several times that he had chosen the way of peace and had run for office with a platform of peace.

Sure. The way of peace and the platform of peace: Peace between palestinians. Let us not forget that Abbas was Yasser Arafat’s hand-picked choice, and that he stood shoulder to shoulder with the mass murderer for decades.

The message to Abbas, according to one source, was that: “You have to role up your sleeves and start working, buddy. Otherwise you’re not going to have a Palestinian state.”

He also dismissed the notion that Israel would be disappointed that Bush did not call on Abbas to ban Hamas from participating in elections or even refer to it by name.

He said Bush was leaving the “internal matter” of who participates in elections up to the PA, but warning it that it would face the consequences of allowing armed groups to run. The source summarized: “It’s your problem, and it’s a problem you have to solve.”

No, I think it’s going to be Israel’s problem, when the arms are directed her way, and the blood starts flowing freely again.

Funny. The Taliban wasn’t allowed to run in the Afghan elections. Ba’athists were prevented from running in the Iraqi elections. But it’s just ducky to let Hamas terrorists run in the palestinian elections.

Why? Because terror against Jews is part of The Exception Clause. But you all knew that already.