Ilyka Damen did this ages ago, and I loved reading those posts of hers. So I’m going to try it myself and see if I think it’s TMI and stop, or if I’m going to make it all the way up to 50.

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So, should I just get rid of the concept of being a blogger and think of this site as a frequently-updated website?

Because nobody links to me anymore. And few people comment. And yet, my stats are up significantly in the past few months.

I don’t understand….

The proxy war between Iran and Israel, and the war that never stopped, between Israel and Syria, continues. The IDF says that Iran and Syria told Hezbullah to light up northern Israel.

Syria and Iran instigated the latest flare-up by Hizbullah along the northern border to stave off international pressure on Damascus and Tehran, IDF Intelligence Chief Aharon Zeevi Farkash told the Knesset Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee Wednesday.

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A Yemeni citizen and American college student who grew up in Saudi Arabia and professes to want to spread democracy via college campuses (yes, he said that) thinks that it’s okay for the student government to pass a rule that would forbid students to pose for nude pictures. In this politically correct decade, of course, the rule says “males or females,” but in practice, of course, it is aimed at the women who posed for Playboy’s college girl editions. (The discussion is all about women, though he is careful to say “males and females” in his quotes.)

Funny, I just don’t see this as a democratic ideal:

Undergraduate Student Government President Yaser Alamoodi is hoping to pass a rule that would prohibit males and females from posing in magazines he believes are damaging to ASU’s reputation.

“I was concerned to see logos and the name of ASU being associated with such magazines,” he said. “I don’t want the name of ASU to be a joke anymore, and I think the Playboy association is a big reason why the ASU academic reputation is not up to what it should be.”

Under the proposed rule, students who posed would be punished by the rules set forth in the student code of conduct.

According to the code, any student who is found to violate the rules is subject to expulsion, suspension, probation, warning or payment of restitution.

The harshest punishment would be expulsion or suspension from ASU, but Alamoodi doubts it would come to that.

“Hopefully, coming close to [expulsion or suspension] would be enough of a deterrent for males or females to engage in this,” he said.

Funny, I’m still not seeing the democratic ideal in this proposal. Granted, the objectification of women is, well, objectable to some, but to make a rule that counts expulsion from college as a punishment for posing in the nude? If we haven’t time-traveled back to the nineteenth century, I’d have to say that is right up to par for a country like, say Saudi Arabia. Well, if you add the stoning and the lashes.

You can take the boy out of the Shari’a, but you can’t take the Shari’a out of the boy, it seems.

Luckily for us, this is America. The campus newspaper is laughing at him. The students are laughing at him. The college president is laughing at him.

During a campus town hall meeting Nov. 17, President Michael Crow said he did not think there was much the University could do about students posing in Playboy.

“Such matters are private,” he said. “It’s not part of the University student code of conduct. If they’re over 18, they can do what they want.”

But this doesn’t seem to be stopping the man who wants to spread democratic ideals and ethics.

Alamoodi said he was not surprised by Crow’s response, but was still planning to pursue the issue.

“Like any other academic, he is strongly committed to the freedom of speech,” Alamoodi said. “It’s part of my efforts to convince the administration and the students of the benefits we can get out of [the rule].”

Interesting, isn’t it, how quickly Alamoodi, that defender of the spread of democracy, is so quick to denigrate free speech when the freedom involves something of which he disapproves? Must be that Saudi upbringing.

In any case, let’s let Macy Hanson have the last word, in the final paragraph to his column (and boy, does this bring back memories of my college Op-Ed days):

I simply hope that we can all agree on two things. First, Alamoodi must immediately set up a committee to review all of the past instances of ASU students posing for Playboy. And second, he should name me to this committee.

God bless the irreverence of the college newspaper Op-Ed pages.

Saab Erekat is whining to the world that the Israelis are going to interfere with palestinian elections in January.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official, raised concerns Tuesday that Israel might try to sabotage Palestinian elections in January or even resort to assassination to upset balloting.

After talks at the White House and then with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the longtime associate of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said thousands of monitors were needed to oversee the elections Jan. 25.

“We want the American administration to help us, to send as many observers as possible, people to help us in the training and making sure that the Israelis don’t sabotage or obstruct those elections,” he said in a doorway of the State Department after meeting with Rice.

Later, at a news conference at the Palestine Center, a half-mile from the department, Erekat referred a half-dozen times to the possibility of Israeli sabotage and twice to assassination.

“We want the United States to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with making sure elections take place … and to protect us from any Israeli effort to sabotage the elections with assassination,” he said.

In response to a reporter’s question, Erekat, who is a top Palestinian negotiator, said he did not have any evidence Israel was contemplating assassinations, but said Israel was refusing to cooperate in setting the stage for elections.

That’s a very interesting theory, especially as how he has absolutely no evidence for it. But here’s a group of people who actually are interfering with palestinian elections, and it’s funny, but Erekat didn’t say a word about them.

The Palestinians’ ruling Fatah Party halted its primary election across the Gaza Strip on Monday after angry gunmen shot in the air at several polling stations, stole some ballot boxes and destroyed others.

Fatah officials said the votes cast Monday would be nullified, and the primary would have to be rescheduled. The election violence highlighted the ongoing lawlessness in Gaza’s streets.

[...] Even before the new problems emerged, scheduled votes in Rafah and areas of central Gaza were postponed until Wednesday because of technical hitches, Fatah officials said.

In one station in eastern Khan Younis, about 15 armed gunmen came to vote. When they did not find their names on the registration list, they fired in the air, witnesses said.

Officials closed the polling station for about 45 minutes after the incident.

A similar incident in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun also forced the closing of a polling station there, officials said.

Could this be what is known as the Distraction Policy? Instead of discussing the palestinians’ inability to have free and fair elections, blame Israel for an election that hasn’t even happened yet?

Yes, those were rhetorical questions.

This disturbing article says that Zaka is nearly bankrupt. Contributions are down because terrorism attacks are down, and people are under the mistaken impression that Zaka only responds to terrorist attacks. Not so:

His group responds to all non-natural deaths in Israel. This does not just include terrorist incidents but murders, suicides and accidents, currently averaging around 35 each week.

Members of the 1,400-strong Zaka volunteer network respond to all incidents to ensure that the body of the deceased is treated with the appropriate dignity as demanded by the Jewish Torah.

With a fleet of 34 ambulances and 150 motorbikes, it costs Zaka £35,000 a month just to cover its costs. Last year’s total budget was £1.1 million although Mr Meshi Zahav declined to reveal the shortfall.

I found a website called ZakaUSA. I haven’t vetted it, but if someone has the time to check it out and let us know in the comments, please donate. These people perform an invaluable, if heart-rending, service.

When I got home from work tonight, I was not greeted at the door by Tig. I didn’t see him in the living room or kitchen. I hurried upstairs, and found him–ta da!–in the bed. On his side of the bed. Not mine. His. Not the side with the nighttable and alarm clock and telephone and flashlight. His side. Not the side where he’s been sleeping every night for the past three nights, making me actually move the travel alarm onto his side of the bed so I didn’t have to reach over Tig (and all of the space he seems to seize) to turn off the alarm. His side.

I cannot tell you how happy this sight made me.

Now I can share that happiness–and that sight–with you. He stayed up there long enough for me to get a picture, and then I heard the familiar (extremely loud) thump that indicates Tig will be downstairs to annoy me forthwith, and he trundled over to me, eyes half-closed in happiness, demanding attention.

His side of the bed. Not mine.

His.

In the spirit of naked egotism and my quest to move up just a notch or three in the blog rankings, I am declaring today to be Link To Meryl Day.

Actually, I should declare it Link To Yourish.com Day, because the concept of someone linking to me is just a tiny bit creepy, because it would probably involved a lot of strangers actually touching me, and, eww–cold season.

Go ahead. Find a post. Link to it.

In return, I will–uh–um–post more! Yeah! I’ll post more.

Also, you may request post topics. I know Rahel wants more cat pictures. I will attend to that tonight after I get home from teaching.

Anyone else want anything in particular covered?

Here’s a teaser: I have the first post in my “Fifty Things About Meryl” series written, but have hesitated to publish it. Given the right incentive, it might come out of posting limbo.

A meme that has caught on in far too many places has been bothering me for quite some time. “X are the new Jews,” goes the meme. Sullivan whined about gays being “the new Jews.” Slate declared Asians “the new Jews.” The worst part of the meme, the one that drives me to see a curtain of red across my eyes, is the meme that the Muslims are “the new Jews.”

I started to write an essay on this topic, but Fjordman beat me to it (via Solomonia).

Jews in the 1930s were a minority everywhere, and had no country they could call their own. Jewish refugees were rejected by many countries even when some of them tried to escape the rise of the Nazis. Muslims today count more than one billion individuals, and constitute the majority in about 60 countries worldwide. In most of these countries, non-Muslims face various levels of discrimination, or even in some the continuous threat of physical extermination. Jews in Western countries do not constitute a terror threat, and never have. Muslims do all the time. Jews do not have a history of more than 1000 years of armed attacks on Europe, India, Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. Muslims do. Jews do not cut the throats of Buddhist monks in Thailand, massacre Hindus in Bangladesh or stab Christian nuns in Egypt. Muslims do. Jews do not take hostages, decapitate them and distribute videos of their acts. Muslims do. Jews do not gang rape Christian women in Western nations. Muslims do. Jews represent the most prosperous and talented ethnic groups in Europe. Muslims in Europe are ranked close to the bottom of all indicators of education and social achievements. Muslims, being 20 % of the world’s population, have produced only three Nobel laureates in science and literature, whereas Jews, being only 0.2% of the world’s population, have received more than 120 Nobel prizes in science, economics, medicine and literature. Jews before WW2 filled up Europe’s universities. Muslims now fill up Europe’s prisons.

In fact, the comparisons to the 1930s make a lot more sense if you compare Muslims to the Nazis. And there was a connection, even during WW2. Adolf Hitler is reputed to have stated his admiration for Islam, and thought it would be a better match for Nazism than Christianity, with its stupid notions of compassion for inferior people. Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem and the leader of Muslim fundamentalists in Palestine, resided in Berlin as a welcome guest of the Nazis throughout the years of the Holocaust. The Nazi-Islamic love affair remains strong. Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ is a bestseller in Islamic nations such as Turkey, at the same time as Turkish PM Erdogan wants anti-Islamism to be accepted as a crime against humanity in the EU. And not few Muslim leaders state their wish to finish what the Nazis started. Broadcasts from imams in the Palestinian Authority have stated that: “The day will come when we will rule America. The day will come when we will rule Britain and the entire world – except for the Jews. Listen to the Prophet Muhammad, who tells you about the evil end that awaits Jews. The stones and trees will want the Muslims to finish off every Jew.”

Read it all.

Another Arab state suppresses the media, and the world yawns:

SAN’A, Yemen (AP) - The masked attackers pushed reporter Nabil Sabaie to the ground on a main thoroughfare, stabbing him in both arms and firing warning shots to keep onlookers away.

Yemeni journalists once were some of the Arab world’s freest. But recently they have faced a rash of mysterious beatings, arrests and other forms of intimidation as the government cracks down on the media ahead of next year’s presidential elections.

The campaign includes plans to introduce tougher press laws that leave the door open for reporters to be sentenced to death.

Yes, the Arab nations regularly brutalize their people, but since it doesn’t fall within the paradigm of “occupiers” and “indigenous people,” it falls on deaf ears.

Imagine the outcry if these reporters had been beaten in Israel, or America–no matter who had done it.

Funny how the media are mostly silent on things like this, but they pass along lies like the U.S. military deliberately targeting reporters.

J’accuse, media.

A poem:

I could not find it on the floor
I could not find it by the door
I could not find it in my bed
I could not find it on my sled
No wait, I do not have a sled
At least it was not near my head!
I could not find it here or there
I could not find it anywhere

Could he, would he, is he done?
Is all that extra cat-puke gone?
Thank you, thank you, Tig the cat
The yakking’s done, thank you for that!

You have been warned.

Oh, wait, not.

Here. If you follow this link, then follow the link on the page he links to, etc., etc., you can keep yourself busy for hours.

I don’t think he liked my no-comment comments-requested post.

Saudi Arabia’s dictator is endorsing the Labor candidate, Amir Peretz, in the upcoming elections. That sound you hear? It’s the death knell of the left and the right in Israel, as Labor and Likud are showing themselves to be out of touch with the mainstream.

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah said new Labor Party leader Amir Peretz may help unite Israel’s peace camp and lead to progress in talks with the Palestinians, the official Saudi Press Agency said on Monday.

“I want to give more chance to the peace process, and the emergence of Amir Peretz as the leader of the Israeli Labor Party may pave the way for a breakthrough and lead to unification of the dispersed peace camp in Israel,” SPA quoted Abdullah as telling journalists on Saturday.

Peretz has pledged to restart talks with Palestinians if Labor wins, and has hinted at sweeping Israeli withdrawals from settlements in the West Bank, mirroring Israel’s recent pullback from Gaza.

A 2002 Arab peace offer, proposed by Abdullah and rejected by Israel, offered Israel peace and normal relations with Arab countries in return for withdrawal to the borders as they stood on the eve of the Middle East War of 1967.

Luckily for Israel, I’m thinking they’re going to go with someone that Abdullah doesn’t like.

I’m going to include the more option here for those of you who are a) uninterested in news of my cats and b) have weak stomachs. Well, it’s not really all that gross, but I will be discussing Tig and his vomiting problem.

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I’m a garden-variety North American Jew.

I can’t decide if I’m being complimented or insulted. Nor can I decide if I am meant to stand in as an example of all North American Jewish bloggers. (Who knew my blog was that broad?)

Garden-variety, indeed.

Does this woman not know that I am the Master of Juvenile Scorn(TM)?

I’m not quite sure how I missed this one in the spring, but I did. Here’s a fascinating piece on what the world would be like if Israel had never existed:

Let us start the what-if procession in 1948, when Israel was born in war. Would stillbirth have nipped the Palestinian problem in the bud? Not quite. Egypt, Transjordan (now Jordan), Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon marched on Haifa and Tel Aviv not to liberate Palestine, but to grab it. The invasion was a textbook competitive power play by neighboring states intent on acquiring territory for themselves. If they had been victorious, a Palestinian state would not have emerged, and there still would have been plenty of refugees. (Recall that half the population of Kuwait fled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s “liberation” of that country in 1990.) Indeed, assuming that Palestinian nationalism had awakened when it did in the late 1960s and 1970s, the Palestinians might now be dispatching suicide bombers to Egypt, Syria, and elsewhere.

Let us imagine Israel had disappeared in 1967, instead of occupying the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which were held, respectively, by Jordan’s King Hussein and Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Would they have relinquished their possessions to Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat and thrown in Haifa and Tel Aviv for good measure? Not likely. The two potentates, enemies in all but name, were united only by their common hatred and fear of Arafat, the founder of Fatah (the Palestine National Liberation Movement) and rightly suspected of plotting against Arab regimes. In short, the “root cause” of Palestinian statelessness would have persisted, even in Israel’s absence.

[...] Can anybody proclaim in good conscience that these dysfunctionalities of the Arab world would vanish along with Israel? Two U.N. “Arab Human Development Reports,” written by Arab authors, say no. The calamities are homemade. Stagnation and hopelessness have three root causes. The first is lack of freedom. The United Nations cites the persistence of absolute autocracies, bogus elections, judiciaries beholden to executives, and constraints on civil society. Freedom of expression and association are also sharply limited. The second root cause is lack of knowledge: Sixty-five million adults are illiterate, and some 10 million children have no schooling at all. As such, the Arab world is dropping ever further behind in scientific research and the development of information technology. Third, female participation in political and economic life is the lowest in the world. Economic growth will continue to lag as long as the potential of half the population remains largely untapped.

Will all of this right itself when that Judeo-Western insult to Arab pride finally vanishes? Will the millions of unemployed and bored young men, cannon fodder for the terrorists, vanish as well—along with one-party rule, corruption, and closed economies? This notion makes sense only if one cherishes single-cause explanations or, worse, harbors a particular animus against the Jewish state and its refusal to behave like Sweden. (Come to think of it, Sweden would not be Sweden either if it lived in the Hobbesian world of the Middle East.)

It’s another RIF (read-in-full) recommendation.

Haveil Havalim, a.k.a. Carnival of the Jews, is up.

Carnival of the Cats is over at IMAO, the man who discovered the secret puppy-blending life of Glenn Reynolds.

Smooth Stone has been around for a while, but I’ve only just learned about it. Go look. Especially this post on how phony palestinian “history” really is. Lynn tipped me off to this blog.

A British columnist in the Telegraph points out that Israel was not always hated in an essay that says that as Israel goes, so goes the West:

But there’s also an important difference from Rome: the purpose of victory has been more about security than conquest for its own sake. Israeli politics for the past dozen years has been the attempt to reconcile extrication from territory with security. That is what Sharon thinks about all the time, as did his Labour predecessors, Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak.

In the history of the West, such a narrative used to command fascination and respect. Many could apply it to their own people. British people whose convict cousins had built Australia out of their barren exile could understand; so could Americans, who had overcome hostile terrain and hostile inhabitants, and forged a mighty nation. So could any country formed in adversity, particularly, perhaps, a Protestant one - with its idea of divinely supported national destiny and its natural sympathy for the people first chosen by God. The sympathy was made stronger by the fact that the new state was robust in its legal and political institutions, free in its press and universities - a noisy democracy.

Anti-imperialists and the Left also found much to admire. They admired people whose pioneer spirit kept them equal, who often lived communally, who fled the persecution of old societies to build simpler, better ones. If you read Bernard Donoughue’s diaries, just published, of his life as an adviser to Harold Wilson in the 1970s (a much better picture of what prime ministers are like than Sir Christopher Meyer’s self-regarding effort), one difference between then and now that hits you hard is Donoughue’s (and Wilson’s) firm belief that the cause of Israel is the cause of people who wish to be free, and that its enemies are the old, repressive establishments.

This one gets a RIF (read-in-full) recommendation.

Belated hat tip: Joel G.

The time simply flew. I could swear I was driving up to NJ a few hours ago, and now I’m home, hungry, already played the game of “Find the cat puke” and won (there was none! Woo-hoo!), tired, hungry, and, oh yeah, hungry. I didn’t stop for lunch on the road. Traffic was nearly as bad today as it was on Wednesday, so I wound up taking 301 all the way down after struggling through a few miles of Delaware (but no tolls–I bailed before the tolls).

Tig’s been out twice. Gracie half-hid on me, then decided I wasn’t going to put her in a carrier or something evil, and allowed me to pet her. My freezer is full of kosher meat again. Fresh rib steak for dinner. Yum.

Right. Hungry.

Say, as for the previous post, don’t blame me. Blame her.

So I was wondering: If the Lost folks are just part of one big experiment, could I do a little one on my blog?

Tellya what. I’ll leave it up to my readers.

Leave a comment if you think I should perform behavioral experiments on my readers.

A tale of two schoolchildren: First, let’s see the latest palestinian propaganda move about the big, bad Israelis being mean to palestinian children:

Palestinian schoolteachers taught pupils in the road outside an Israel Defense Forces checkpoint in the West Bank city of Hebron on Wednesday to protest what they consider to be unnecessarily intrusive searches of the children on their way to school.

IDF soldiers search bags and make children lift their shirts before passing through the checkpoint on the way to school. The IDF says the high-tech checkpoint, which includes metal detectors and an X-ray scanner, is in an area where militant activity has been high.

About 200 children and 10 teachers began protesting at the checkpoint at 7 a.m. Some took part in the classes, and dozens of others tried to burst through the checkpoint, but soldiers shoved them bac.

No injuries were reported.

Pupils carried signs reading, “We have the right to learn,” We have the right to pass to our school,” and “We want to go to school.” Others carried posters of the late Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.

Oh, those mean Israelis! Stopping palestinian schoolchildren from learning! Cruel! Inhuman! Horrible!

Well, maybe not. Let’s take a look at the reason the IDF stopped this palestinian schoolchild:

“I stood next to the metal detector at the checkpoint. A 16-year-old Palestinian youth arrived, looking frightened. He approached me, carrying a bag which looked like a school bag,” he said.

“I opened one of the zippers and saw two improvised pipes. I became suspicious, opened the other zipper and found two improvised handguns. We immediately closed the checkpoint, removed the people and dispatched sappers to the scene,” he added.

Zavatsky said that the boy looked frightened and did not say a word.

Interesting things palestinian schoolkids are packing in their backpacks these days, hm? Perhaps the soldiers have reasons for searching those backpacks, after all.

So let’s see. Israel has leverage over Hezbullah. She could withhold the bodies of the terrorists killed in the invasion a few days ago, bargain with them to gain information about Ron Arad, as Lair Simon pointed out. So what does Israel do? Hand over the bodies as soon as the Lebanese grumble about it.

And today, the palestinians officially opened the Rafah crossing. The various terrorist groups will be celebrating shortly, with fireworks inside of Israel, complete with ball bearings and shrapnel to make as big a blast as possible.

Funniest of all is Mahmoud Abbas’ claim that he’s going to cut down on “lawlessness” in the terrortories (sic):

Abbas inaugurated the terminal by cutting a ribbon in front of 1,200 guests, then toured the refurbished facility.

He also announced a major security clampdown in the West Bank and Gaza, saying the Palestinians must end the lawlessness in their territories to spur economic recovery and revive peacemaking.

You can’t revive something that was never alive to begin with. Abbas is Arafat under a different name, and with less influence on his own people.

Hope? What’s that?

I am now happily ensconced (thanks for the spelling tip, velvel) in my brother’s dining room. One of the kids is downstairs in her bedroom. I think my brother is downstairs watching TV. The other teen is in his room playing video games, and the third is off with Grandma. He’s staying over there and going to the doctor’s tomorrow. Eric is on his way home. I’m staying here tonight.

I told my nephew that I was going to Rockaway Mall tomorrow to get my hair done by my favorite stylist, which I do every time I come up to NJ. “Can I come?” he wanted to know.

“Sure.”

Of course, you can’t ask one without asking the others. So tomorrow, two of them will accompany me to the mall, and if Mike is out of the doctor’s in time, Grandma will drop him off.

Um. I’m going to be in a NJ shopping mall on Black Friday. Yikes. And: Oy!

But then, I don’t care. I like the idea of having three teenagers around. There is a very comfortable, happy feel to this house. We sat around the table for a long time after dinner, telling stories. Then we got back around the table for dessert and told some more. The kids liked the stories about the fireworks and the hickory nut fight and the magnifying glass and the newspaper. (”Kids, don’t try this at home,” we’d preface those stories with.) They told stories in their turn.

The wind is howling outside. It rained, snowed, and sleeted during the last twenty minutes of my drive this afternoon, and the temperature is dropping to the twenties overnight. But it is very, very warm inside my brother’s house.

And oh yes, dinner was superb.

I am happily ensconced in central NJ, at the home of Kim and Bob, friends I’ve known for some fifteen years. They took me out to dinner at a restaurant I had previously admired, where I ordered the prime rib, and we bantered with the waiter who was from Brooklyn, making jokes about my being back in civilization again. I thought he had me cornered after I told him I can distinguish southern dialects fairly easily.

“Then you can tell where I’m from,” he said.

“I don’t do New York dialects.”

“C’mon, try.”

[pause]

“Brooklyn.”

I was right. He told me to answer “Brooklyn” anytime anyone wanted to test me, and I’d be right half the time. Then he said that people from Lawn Guyland weren’t really New Yorkers. (Sorry, Michele, he said it, not me.)

I’m quite proud of myself today. Last night, I sat down with a map of Maryland and plotted out a way to avoid I-95 completely. If possible, I’d like to avoid Delaware completely. I prefer not to think of it at all, really. Delaware has the most traffic, the most cops, and charges the highest tolls on the east coast, and we’re talking per mile. Delaware reeks. Normally, I take 301 until it merges with another road that brings you into 95 south of the rest stop, which puts you into the middle of the worst of the traffic. This time, I veered off on Route 40, which put me into Delaware on the ramp to the Delaware Memorial Bridge. So I didn’t pay Delaware one red cent this time around. I may take 301 every time, Thanksgiving or no Thanksgiving. In fact, I didn’t pay a dime to the state of NJ, either. I took 295 to 130. No tolls. The only tolls I paid were the fifty cent toll for the Powhite in Virginia, and the Bay Bridge toll in Maryland.

Speaking of bridges: I am never going to take that bridge again. I’ve changed my mind about taking 301 every time. I forgot about the bridge. My fear of heights is back with a vengeance, and the Bay Bridge is 186 feet at its highest, and 4.3 miles long. Stop and think about that a minute: 186 feet is nearly nineteen stories high.

I suppose the good news is I’d be dead the second I hit the water. The bad news is it would take me a while to fall 19 stories.

Have I mentioned that I am afraid of heights?

Thinking about it now, I can’t believe I snapped pictures the first time I went over that bridge. I put them up in a post some time ago, I think. If not, perhaps I’ll dig them out and post them so you can all see how friggin’ high that bridge is.

Nineteen stories. Geez.

I need to stop obsessing over this.

Anyway.

Except for the bridge, the ride was uneventful. I’ve learned how to avoid all the major traffic areas by now. I never go near D.C. on holidays, and I have a few alternate routes if need be. Funny, I didn’t see many cops on the road today. They’re usually all over on a holiday. I saw maybe two or three cop cars, that was it.

And that’s it for this post. My eyes are starting to close. I think I’ll call it a night and really rest up for tomorrow.

Today’s a travel day for me. Posting will be light, but then, you’re all going home from work early and most of you will be traveling as well. Well, many. of you I have a lot of visitors from other countries.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Israel dropped leaflets over Beirut, telling them to rein in Hezbullah.

“To the Lebanese citizens, who protects Lebanon?” read the small leaflet written in Arabic. “Who is lying to you? Who is sending your children to a battle they are not ready for? Who wishes the return of destruction? Who is the tool in the hands of his Syrian and Iranian masters?”

Then in bold letters, it said: “Hezbollah is causing enormous harm to Lebanon,” and added that Israel was determined to protect its citizens.

The note was signed “The State of Israel.”

By the way, the AP quotes Hezbullah, but does not quote a single Lebanese citizen who is not a terrorist. Because, like, it’s not important to get the Lebanese point of view on having an Iranian/Syrian-controled terrorist army on their southern border. No bias there. Or here:

Hezbollah guerrillas attacked Israeli military outposts on Monday and Israel pounded guerrilla positions with artillery and by missiles from warplanes. Four guerrillas were killed and 11 Israeli soldiers were wounded in the clashes in a disputed area near the border in some of the worst fighting in three years.

Hezbollah, the militant Shiite Muslim group, is a close ally of Syria and is backed by Iran. The fighting may have been intended to take the pressure off Syria, which is facing an international probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri.

Hezbollah has denied it started Monday’s fighting. But the U.N. undersecretary-general for political affairs, Ibrahim Gambari, said Tuesday the shooting started on the Lebanese side of the border.

Israel, under military pressure from Hezbollah, withdrew its army from a border buffer zone in southern Lebanon in 2000, ending 18 years of occupation.

For the AP, that’s practically balanced: Getting a third party to affirm Israel’s statement that Hezbullah invaded her northern borders with the intention of killing and kidnapping her citizens.

Michael Oren was interviewed by a writer for Yeshiva University’s newspaper.

I got only the briefest of glimpses, because this is a travel day, but here is a quote that fairly leaped out at me:

Q: Do you believe that Israel will ever see peace?
Oren: The period of 1960-67 is considered one of the most peaceful periods in Israeli history. Do you know that per-capita more Israelis were killed every year in terrorist attacks during that period than today? We’re in the Middle East, a very unstable and violent area, and, accordingly, we have to have realistic expectations of what peace means in our area. Peace for us really means the absence of active war.

There is a fairly annoying registration process in order to read the full interview. They lie when they say it’s a brief process.

The Doctor posted the 1,000th comment since this blog went WordPress.

Okay, it’s a silly milestone, but a milestone nonetheless, and it is the Doc’s.

I’m claiming my feed, dudes.

Interesting.

I password-protected the post, which, duh, now that I think of it, would not allow feedsters robot to find it. No wonder it took a few tries.

It’s all done now. Never mind.

Lynn B. has a fascinating account of an evening with Khaled Abu Toameh, one of the few true palestinian journalists. Worth the read, and click on the link to the speech from last year as well.

Dave has the best roundup of information on Ariel Sharon’s withdrawal from Likud.

He also points out that David Moskovitz, the hero who prevented Hezbullah from succeeding yesterday, is a yeshiva boy. I meant to say that in my earlier post. And don’t miss this post on how the PA handles car theft. Spit-monitor warning.

Soccer Dad messes with your mind in this post on the Times’ paean to Ariel Sharon. And he joins my attempt to save our cities a few bucks by helping Baltimore, which is high up on the shitty-city list, too.

Rick Richman had the honor of introducing Deborah Lipstadt. Read what he said about her.

Ynet profiles the young marksman whose efforts thwarted the attempt by Hizbullah to kidnap Israeli soldiers.

Markovitz joined the army in the framework of the Hedser Yeshiva program in March 2005. He resides in the community of Gamzo, and will celebrate his 21st birthday next week.

The incident took place Monday during an ambush near the border crossing in the village of Rajar, which is located on the border between Israel and Lebanon.

“The soldiers spotted four terrorists dressed in black, and moving in an orderly fashion toward the roadblock. Behind them the soldiers noticed jeeps and motorcycles - logistic support for the abduction operation,” Elaluf recounted.

“The group was carrying an antitank missile, which was ready to be launched. They approached the force and at a distance of about 40 meters from the force, soldiers opened fire before the terrorists had a chance to respond,” he said.

Markovitz, who was the force’s marksman, “calmly conducted precise shooting. He shot, diverted the weapon, and hit all four men. The missile they were carrying blew up. Three were killed immediately, and the fourth terrorist fell on the ground, crawled for a short time and then died as well,” Elaluf described.

Marokvitz is twenty years old.

You see: The terrorists don’t stand a chance against armed, alert soldiers. They know it. We know it.

The “first major cross-border conflict in five months” (as the AP calls it) in detail by Arieh O’Sullivan of the Jerusalem Post:

The attack began with a massive barrage directed against IDF posts on Mount Dov in the afternoon. It quickly spread westward. Shortly after the initial barrage, IDF troops prevented an attempt to infiltrate an outpost on Mount Dov, killing at least one gunman. An officer and soldier were seriously wounded in this apparently botched kidnapping attempt. An unspecified number of soldiers were also lightly wounded in the gun battle. The wounded were evacuated to Haifa’s Rambam Hospital.

In nearby Rajar, a village of Alawite Muslims located in Israel, Hizbullah gunmen rode in on motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), Army Radio reported. They opened fire on a building housing the local council. IDF forces intercepted the gunmen and returned fire, killing three.

As gun battles continued around Rajar, the mortar barrages moved westward, targeting Metulla and Kibbutzim Ma’ayan Baruch and Snir.

Hizbullah later extended the fighting across the entire northern border, as mortars landed near the western towns of Nahariya and Shlomi.

As a result of the shelling, residents of the north from the Mediterranean to Mount Hermon were ordered into bomb shelters Monday evening for the first time in years.

A house in Metulla was directly hit by a Katyusha. While family members were in the house at the time, no injuries were reported. Extensive damage was caused to the building.

IDF artillery returned fire alongside IAF air strikes from helicopters. IAF aircraft bombed a number of roads as well as a building used by Hizbullah as a headquarters in southern Lebanon. According to Lebanese security officials in south Lebanon, Israeli warplanes also fired missiles at suspected terrorist hideouts about 500 meters from the Lebanese-Israeli border.

And yet, the AP tries to make it seem like this was a tit-for-tat exchange of fire. No, it was a major invasion and kidnapping attempt that was repulsed by the IDF (and may I say, hurrah for the IDF!), resulting in at least four dead terrorists.

Notice, too, that the terrorists weren’t particularly caring that they also invaded a Muslim town and fired on their co-religionists. But we’ve already noticed that.

Hezbullah attacked Northern Israel yesterday. It was clearly an unprovoked attack. The Israeli media was full of news about the IDF on high alert on its border with Lebanon for this very reason. Here’s what Ynet had to say about what happened:

IDF, Hizbullah clash on border
Hizbullah bombards northern Israel Monday afternoon; 12 Israelis hurt, several terrorists killed in apparent attempt to abduct IDF troops. Army responds with artillery fire, Air Force fighter jets bomb Hizbullah targets in Lebanon

A day of fighting in the North: Twelve Israeli soldiers and civilians were hurt in one of the most ferocious Hizbullah offensives on the northern border since the IDF’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000.

Two soldiers sustained serious wounds in the attack, but their condition improved later in the evening. Meanwhile, at least five terrorists were killed in gunfights with IDF troops.

The offensive began around 3 p.m. Monday with a heavy barrage of mortar shells and Katyusha rockets directed at Mount Dov army posts and residential communities in the area. Following the strike, northern Israel residents were instructed to take cover in bomb shelters for the first time since Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon.

Here’s what the AP wrote:

Israel Troops Kill Four Hezbollah Fighters
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Hezbollah rockets blasted Israeli army outposts and Israel’s warplanes and shells hit guerrilla targets Monday in a sharp escalation of violence linked to political upheaval in Lebanon.

The fighting was the first major cross-border conflict in five months and the heaviest between the two sides in more than three years.

Witnesses in southern Lebanon said heavy exchanges lasted for two hours in the evening and continued intermittently into the night as Hezbollah guerrillas fired truck-mounted rockets at Israeli army positions. Israeli warplanes launched an airstrike late Monday night, Lebanese security officials reported.

Hezbollah guerrillas blamed Israel but the Jewish state said Hezbollah attacked first and with the backing of supporters in Syria and Iran.

Notice the language in the AP article: “heavy exchanges.” “a sharp escalation of violence.” “the first major cross-border conflict in five months.” And they quote “witnesses in southern Lebanon.” Gee, who would those witnesses be? The Hizbullah “fighters” who were attacking Israel to begin with?

It was an effing unprovoked attack by a terrorist group on a sovereign nation.

It was every bit as unprovoked as the suicide bombing of three hotels in Amman. But the AP isn’t finished equivocating yet.

The United States, which considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization, condemned the guerrilla rocket attacks but also urged Israel to exercise restraint in its response.

Right. Show “restraint” to an unprovoked mortar and rocket attack that wounded eleven Israelis. Show “restraint” to an unprovoked attack whose purpose (besides killing as many Jews as possible) was to kidnap Israeli soldiers and hold them as hostages in exchange for convicted terrorists.

I. Hate. The. A. P.

One of my readers suggested I try to get a job in the AP’s Richmond office.

I will beg for money in the streets first. I will sell a kidney before I work for an organization that slants the news so horribly anti-Israel.

What objective media?

My RSS stats are up to 15% of total entry pages. Fifteen percent of you are getting this site through an RSS reader, and my site stats are up in reflection of that. Well, and they’re up because my site traffic is improving. There’s been a 25% increase in traffic since I went to WordPress. I think there’s been an increase in posting as well, but my stats don’t track that. Well, WP tracks number of posts, but I’d have to count my posts in the pre-blogging tool days, and I haven’t the time nor the inclination to do that.

So it’s cheers all around for WordPress, and no way in hell am I giving up control of my RSS feed.

By the way, if any of you are looking for a designer, One Fine Jay has a lot of good ideas, and his service is above and beyond the call of what he’s supposed to do. Since he’s the WP expert, if something goes blooey and I can’t figure it out, I yell for help in an email and he’s fixed it within minutes.

Another thing I like about Jay is that he has a very good grasp of what he thinks fits my personality and that of my site. He put a big thumbs-down to my idea of changing the name to “Center Stage” and going with an auditorium/stage graphic. It isn’t me, he said. He’s right. It’s nice that he didn’t simply take the idea (and the money) and run with it, like the previous designer did.

If you’re looking to redesign your site, I recommend Jay. He’s getting quite the portfolio going, too. He was my designer for The Jewish View as well.

Now if I could only find a little time to work on the site CSS. I have ideas of my own that I’d like to implement, and don’t need Jay to edit the style sheets. I just need the time.

This morning, I meant to write about this article, in which we learn that Hezbullah, trying to deflect world attention away from the fact that Syria is stonewalling on the Hariri assassination, intends to shoot rockets at Israel and try to kidnap Israeli soldiers.

This afternoon, Hezbullah, trying to deflect world attention away from the fact that Syria is stonewalling on the Hariri assassination, shot rockets at Israel and tried to kidnap Israeli soldiers. They failed, but not for lack of trying.

At least 11 Israelis were hurt, including two IDF soldiers who sustained serious wounds, after dozens of Katyusha rockets and mortar shells were fired Monday from Lebanon Monday at Israeli communities situated along the northern border.

IDF Northern Command officials estimate the heavy rocket fire was intended to distract army forces while a Hizbullah terror cell infiltrated Israel using all-terrain vehicles with the intension of abducting soldiers. Hizbullah members opened fire in all directions in an attempt to create mayhem and kidnap a soldier from an IDF base located in the village of Rajar. At least four terrorists were killed in the ensuing shootout.

An hour after the incident, other terrorists approached an IDF post in the Mount Dov area and opened fire at soldiers. At least one terrorist was killed in the gunfight.

Iran’s proxy war against Israel continues. Iran funds and supplies weapons (and instructions) to Hizbullah. Thankfully, the IDF is more than a match for the terrorists.

Bono had some nice things to say about himself on 60 Minutes.

The Irish rocker also predicted that his music will still be around in 100 years, explaining that his songs occupy “an emotional terrain that didn’t exist before our group did.”

And Bono said he has no intention of slowing down. He noted that people in rock ‘n roll burn out at age 40, and said he wanted to see if his band could continue making “extraordinary” music.

Let’s see what was around 100 years ago:

1. Give My Regards to Broadway
2. I Love a Lassie
3. In My Merry Oldsmobile
4. In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree
5. Loch Lomond
6. Under the Anheuser Bush
7. Yankee Doodle Boy

Granted, they’re not top 40 hits anymore, but three of those songs are pretty easy to identify even today, 100 years later. I’m betting even teenagers can hum the tune to “Yankee Doodle Boy.”

“In the Name of Love”? I’m thinking not.

Rarely does a news article enrage me to the point of cold, speechless anger. But this one did (via No Parasan).

Mr. Barthel walks me through the school, which was built three years ago to what he calls “new specifications for a new reality.”

“All of our windows are made with glass both bomb- and bullet-proof; there are security cameras in all the common rooms,” he says. “You will also notice there is no sign outside of the school that could single it out as a Jewish place.”

[...] Mr. Barthel explains the buddy system instituted at the Benvenuti school for children both arriving and leaving the premises. The students must travel in a pack and are not allowed to wear visible skullcaps or Stars of David anywhere but inside the school. They are also discouraged from dressing in a manner that Mr. Barthel calls “Shalala,” meaning that they asked to refrain from dressing in a style which in North American parlance might be termed “Jappy.”

“The Diesel jeans, the tight bomber jackets, these things can also make them look like Jews,” he says. “They must look more quiet now, for safety.”

Mr. Barthel is the father of two young children. Last year, his children’s school bus, belonging to a Jewish school in Epinay-sur-seine, a northern suburb of Paris, was set on fire. “The bus was empty when it was attacked, but still, nobody did anything about it, not the police, not the government.”

Angry enough yet?

There will soon be few Jews left in France. They are going to be driven out. And the French will stand by and do nothing, as always.

(more…)

The so-called “relative calm” or “lull” that is reported on regularly consist of events like this:

Israel Defense Forces troops arrested a Palestinian woman bearing a knife at a checkpoint south of Jerusalem, Israel Radio reported Saturday. The woman admitted during an interrogation that she planned to stab a policeman.

Also on Saturday, IDF soldiers arrested a Palestinian youth who was found to be carrying two pipe bombs at the Jenin checkpoint in the West Bank. The 17-year-old male was nabbed when one of the bombs he was concealing dropped to the ground.

Initial interrogations revealed that he intended to detonate the explosives near the soldiers at the checkpoint.

There was a terror alert in Jerusalem on Sunday that was lifted earlier. But there will be more:

At this time, security authorities are dealing with 42 terror warnings regarding plans by terror groups to carry out attacks in Israel.

Ha’aretz says there are more than 42 terror warnings:

The defense minister told the government before his meeting with the prime minister on Sunday that there are currently ten alerts for terror threats in Israel, and 50 tips on terror organizations preparing attacks.

But there is a “relative calm.” A “lull.”

Honest.

I was starting to believe more and more that Islam had less and less to do with the French riots of the last several weeks, and more to do with the same situations of the causes of the riots in Watts and Newark and other American cities in the sixties.

I’m thinking perhaps not, after all.

All indicators point to the involvement of some Pakistani, Algerian and Moroccan members of the London-based Hizbut Tehrir (HT) in the violence by sections of angry Muslim youth, which has rocked the suburbs of Paris and some other towns of France since October 27,2005.

2. The outbreak initially was spontaneous following the electrocution of two Muslim youth as they were fleeing away from a random identity papers check by the Police. The violence continued to be spontaneous, with no external instigation, for three days. In the meanwhile, it is reported by reliable sources, the headquarters of the HT in London saw the agitprop potential of the developments in Paris and sent some of their experts, who had participated in instigating the violence earlier this year in Afghanistan over the alleged desecration of the Holy Koran by the US guards at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba and in Uzbekistan over the allegedly autocratic ways of the local Government, to Paris to stoke the anger of the youth and exploit it for their purpose.

3. With the help of the sleeper cells, which the HT has already established in Paris and other parts of France for some months, they drew up plans for keeping the violence sustained in order to further radicalise and mobilise the youth against the French Government. For this purpose, they exploited the already prevalent anger in the Muslim community of France over the ban on the wearing of head scarves by Muslim girls in public schools and over the ruthless action taken by the Police in the past against suspected radicals. The intemperate and insensitive language used by the French Interior Minister, which is perceived as an insult to Islam and the Muslim youth, facilitated the task of the HT.

Columbia University calls the South Asia Analysis Group, who created this report,

“An Indian think-tank group, with notes, analyses, papers, updates, on all aspects of Indian security issues and international relations. Analysts include B. Raman (retired Addtional Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and presently Director of the Institute for Topical Studies, Channai), S. Gopal (former Special Secretary, Govt. of India), Dr. S. Chandrasekharan, C.S. Kuppuswamy (former Director of the Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India), and others. “

Perhaps what is needed in France is more than just throwing more money at the problem, which is what Villepin says must be done.

Perhaps they need to tear out the hatred by its roots.

I have entered post-Modern American society. Yesterday, I picked up a prescription of Valium. For Tig. To try to end his neurotic episode that’s causing him to lick himself compulsively, thus eating more hair than usual, thus causing him to throw up a hairball nearly every day (sometimes twice a day!).

That’s right. Valium. For my cat.

Actually, it was the generic, and cost only five bucks. My allergy medication cost twelve times what I paid for the Valium knockoff.

For my cat.

I think I’m embarrassed.

Yep. I’m embarrassed.

Last year, Richmond was the ninth-most dangerous city in America. This year, we’re number five. Woo-hoo! We’re movin’ on up!

The Morgan Quitno Safest City Award is based on a city’s rate for six basic crime categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft. All cities of 75,000+ populations that reported crime data to the FBI for the six crime categories were included in the rankings. In this year’s survey, 369 cities were considered for the award. Final 2004 statistics, released by the FBI on October 17, 2005, were used to determine the rankings.

Camden, perennially on the nation’s “most-something” list, so long as it’s bad, is number one for the second year in a row. (Take a bow, my former native state!) And Richmond, CA, the city that shows up in my searches for Richmond companies, is number 11. Friend! Way to go!

I’m thinking we should start a new slogan. Here are a few:

• Richmond: We’re not the murder capital of America yet, but we’re trying!
• What do you mean, the war is over? We’re not finished shooting down here!
• Who cares about crime? We’re building a new baseball stadium!
• Gas prices too high for you? Bring your car to Richmond. We’ll take care of it.

Your turn.

Ariel Sharon is leaving Likud and forming his own party.

I’m thinking his party is going to take the elections by a large margin. It’s going to be the Goldilocks syndrome: “Oh, Likud is too right.” “Labor is too left.” “This one is juuust right!”

It is rather strange to be thinking of Ariel Sharon as a centrist, but the man is an incredibly astute politician. I’m saying right now that he’s going to come through this crisis as Prime Minister, again.

If only American politics could create a third party as easily.

No. Effing. Way. Hubris is a Days fan. (You are not looking for logic in soap operas, are you? I mean, really. Logic. In. Soap. Operas. They effing have people coming back from the dead on a regular basis, looking completely different, taller, shorter, different eye color, thinner, fatter, and the people they loved just buy into it.) And Days is the worst of them all. Marlena was possessed by the devil, let us not forget. Excorcist-style. Floating over the bed.)

I’d better stop now.

Anyway, Hubris. Funny. Very, very funny. Go read.

Haveil Havalim is up. I had to find out from Instapundit, though. I didn’t get the email. SoccerDad doesn’t love me anymore. Sniff.

So is the Carnival of the Cats.

Feel free to put up a link to a blogger or post you think people here would like. That m