Seventh light

Yasser Arafat left a legacy of death and destruction behind him. It was his organizations that “improved” the terrorist’s favorite weapon–the nail bomb–to cause as much death and destruction as possible. Witness the attack on Christians in Indonesia:

PALU, Indonesia (AP) - Suspected Islamic militants set off a powerful bomb packed with nails Saturday at a busy market frequented by Christians, killing eight people and wounding 45 as they bought pork for New Year’s Eve celebrations.

The blast occurred in Palu on Sulawesi Island, which has been plagued in recent years by religious violence and terrorism by Islamic extremists.

The early morning explosion sent ball bearings and nails tearing into vendors and shoppers, leaving the market scattered with dismembered bodies. Police and passers-by carried bloodied bodies to cars. One man, apparently unhurt, held his head in his hands as he screamed.

“There was a billow of smoke and then a massive bang and my ears were deafened,” said Kartini, a 32-year-old Christian woman who was hospitalized with shrapnel wounds to her chest and feet.

“I was in shock and had to tell myself to move away. I screamed for help,” said Kartini, who like many Indonesians uses a single name.

Police said eight people died in the attack. Hospital officials said at least 45 were wounded, with more than 20 suffering serious injuries.

Israelis create drip-irrigation technology, cures for diseases, and inventions that help the world. Palestinians create ways to cause more death and destruction, and then pass that knowledge onto other terrorists.

And the world demonizes Israel.

So tell me, what were the root causes of this bombing of the Christian market in Indonesia? How will Israel giving up the West Bank prevent this from happening in the future? If the U.S. withdraws from Iraq, will that stop the Muslim terrorism of Christians throughout the world?

Shyeah, right.

A few days ago, there was an article in the Jerusalem Post that I ignored. Here are the salient parts:

Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip on Thursday dismissed as “unacceptable” a call by the Quartet to exclude from any future Palestinian Authority cabinet members of any group that is not committed to Israel’s right to exist.

However, some Hamas leaders hinted that the movement would endorse a “pragmatic and realistic” strategy once its representatives join the PA establishment. They argued that the international community’s fears of Hamas’s rising power were “unjustified and exaggerated.”

Hamas leader Mahmoud a-Zahar said he did not rule out the possibility that his movement would even negotiate with Israel in the future. His remarks, like those of other top Hamas leaders, are seen as an attempt to send a message to the international community that would soften its position after next month’s parliamentary elections.

Sources close to Hamas told The Jerusalem Post that some of the movement’s leaders, who met recently in the Gaza Strip with EU representatives, stressed that Hamas was in the process of transforming into a political party.

The reason I ignored that? Because the palestinians have learned how to lie to the public to get what they want while they continue to murder Israelis and try to destroy the state of Israel. And yesterday, buried deep within an article about the chaos at the Rafah crossing, was this news:

Hamas’ political chief said Friday that the Islamic group’s decision to run candidates in the election did not mean it was willing to end its armed struggle against Israel.

“We will enter the parliament and (engage in) political work … without giving up one inch of Palestine,” Khaled Mashaal said in a speech in Damascus, Syria, marking the 18th anniversary of the founding of Hamas.

Followed yesterday night by this:

The political chief of Hamas, the militant Palestinian group, has said the organisation would participate in upcoming legislative elections but would not negotiate with Israel, vowing to continue its armed struggle against the Jewish State.

“We will enter the parliament and engage in political work without giving up one inch of Palestine,” Khaled Mashaal said in a speech marking the 18th anniversary of the founding of Hamas.

[...] He said he rejected US and other demands to disarm and said: “We will show America, Israel and the international community… . We insist on combining the resistance with politics without compromising.”

“We will engage in politics in another language, without necessarily negotiating with the enemy,” he said.

Mashaal said his group would not stop its armed resistance until all the territory claimed by the Palestinians is free from Israeli occupation.

The last two paragraphs of the AP story are important, because they put the lie to the European claims that Hamas can be negotiated with, or turned into a political body that will stop murdering Jews. So of course, the AP puts those grafs at the end of the story–they’re the eighth and ninth–knowing full well that many local newspapers cut the story about four paragraphs in. Yes, even when the AP admits publicly they will continue to murder Jews, the AP whitewashes it.

Hamas is a terrorist organization every bit as evil as Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda will not stop until militarily defeated.

Neither will Hamas.

A menorah was vandalized in Santa Fe. How many does that make now?

A local rabbi says anti-Semitism is behind the vandalism of a large Hanukkah menorah on Santa Fe’s Plaza.

Branches on the menorah were twisted and bent Tuesday night, the glass tops on the candelabrum were thrown to the ground, and electrical wires were yanked out, said Rabbi Berel Levertov of Chabad Jewish Center.

[...] The $1,000 menorah — which measures about 6 1 /2 feet wide and 8 feet tall — could not be lighted Wednesday, though Levertov said he planned to repair and light it today. Hanukkah runs through Monday night.

A menorah has stood on the Plaza for the last six Hanukkahs with no problem, Levertov said. He believes the vandalism was an anti-Semitic act, he said, because the perpetrators could have chosen to rip down other holiday decorations in the area.

Gee, ya think?

A menorah flag was burned in Bristol, Virginia.

BRISTOL, Va. - Bob Land was waiting for guests to arrive for a holiday party Thursday night when he saw a dark station wagon pull up in front of his house.

Seconds later, a flag bearing an image of a menorah - a Jewish symbol - had been pulled down from a pole on the front lawn and lay burning on the grass.

Proving that the general public can’t tell that “messianic Jews” aren’t really Jews, they also defaced a church group’s posters.

Posters advertising a congregational meeting of Messianic Jews who meet at the Manna Bagel Shop on State Street were vandalized the night of Dec. 17.

Vandals wrote “Lies” on the storefront’s glass after the word “Jewish” on each of three posters, which were posted on the inside of the window. They wrote the phrase “Doom & Gloom” atop one of the posters as well.

Proving that the police in the town of Bristol are morons is this quote by the police captain:

Police said they have no reason to believe the incidents were connected or that they rise to the level of bias crimes, said police Capt. Tim Eads.

“We’ve had nothing that points in that direction,” he said.

Sure. People go around burning flags at people’s houses every day of the week. No biggie.

A menorah was vandalized in Latvia. I’m sure there were many more vandalized menorahs around the world, but they haven’t hit the news yet.

You may be asking yourself why the rash of Jew-hatred all of a sudden. It isn’t all of a sudden, and it’s because this is the time of year when Jewish symbols are the most visible, and the most vulnerable. Since the average Jew-hater is a cowardly little rat, an attack on an inanimate object in the middle of the night, or a drive-by burning when no one is watching, is the preferred method of attack.

Because they’re afraid of Jews like this:

I think I’ll be thinking of the IDF when I light my menorah tonight–modern-day Maccabees, every one.

I think it is possible to overdose on the Gilmore Girls. I had no idea I’d watched six episodes today. It might have been seven. Some before dinner, some after. I had to force myself to turn off the DVD player.

I think I have a habit.

Of course, the pastel DVD case covers may be just enough to cure me. You know, I get that they’re girls. It’s in the title. Get it? Gilmore Girls. “Wow, they’re girls,” some marketing genius must have thought. “Girls watch this show. Let’s put the DVDs out in pastel colors for each season!”

Yeah, because Lorelei and Rory are so pastel.

Not.

I have to take Season 3 off my wishlist. Mom gave it to me for Chanukah. Well, okay, she sent me a check, and I used it to buy the set.

The last episode I watched had a hilarious scene with a rabbi, a minister, and the mayor of the town. I’d completely forgotten it.

Have I mentioned how much I like the Gilmore Girls? All I need now is Season 4, and I have the complete run.

Gonna be doing a bit of DVD watching in between cleaning the apartment this weekend. Blogging will likely be light.

Sixth light (which I lit in real life before Shabbat).

There was a song from the 1950s or 1960s that went on about how this girl had personality, then burst into something like “Plus she’s got a brand new car.”

I can’t find it via Google because the words are too common. Any help would be appreciated, as I need the lyrics for a parody I’m working on. It will be about King Kong.

The Jewish and Israeli Blogger nominations are up. I don’t know what I’m doing in Best Personal Blog–this one isn’t very personal very often. Any way to pull out of that one, Dave? (Here are all of the nominations on one page.)

There’s a new Elder in town. And he hasn’t got a Jewish name. Smith? Smith? SMITH? You couldn’t at least call him Smithberg? Oh, all right. He can stay. He saved me the trouble of writing something sarcastic. about the EU monitors pulling a Brave Sir Robin and running away from the Rafah crossing.

Starring Tom Paine as Laurence Simon: This podcast carries a spit-monitor warning. (By the way, the author of this blog is good. Really good.

It’s the Jew Factor: Treppenwitz notices discrimination in Israeli house building–and it’s not against the Arabs.

Cute pictures are not enough: I miss Sarah, and I miss Twinsday. Save Monday for me.

The IDF has an all-female reserve unit.

“Over the years, we had quite a few female instructors who served here and constituted the basis in all matters related to preparing troops for a variety of actions,” one officer at the base told Ynet. “We always used to call up some of the females for a short reserve stint, but this was never organized under one roof.”

“The IDF instructors deal with a variety of areas, including shooting practice, mortars, and various aspects related to infantry and armored corps forces,” he said. “We realized we needed to set up an orderly unit so we can always call up the required instructors and not undermine regular training sessions.”

“We certainly see the girls are motivated,” the officer said.

Sigh. Girls. I understand Israel has a sexism problem. Go read the talkbacks to the article, and you’ll see.

There’s also a video. Now if I were working for the IDF PR team, I’d subitle it in English and send it around the web.

I’ll betcha any one of these women could take on David Duke with one hand tied behind her back.

It’s no longer a civil war. The Gaza strip is becoming Gazastan.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Palestinian policemen angry over the killing of a fellow officer stormed the Gaza-Egypt border crossing Friday, firing in the air and forcing European monitors to flee and close the crossing for several hours, officials said.

About 100 policemen stormed the Rafah compound and took up positions alongside border patrol officers at the customs section of the crossing, Palestinian security officials and witnesses said.

[...] The policemen who stormed the border crossing were friends and family of an officer killed Thursday in a family feud in Gaza, Palestinian security officials said. They said no Palestinian officials would be allowed to leave Gaza until the gunman responsible was executed, according to officials.

The policemen shut the border’s main gate and fired in the air when a car carrying an unidentified Palestinian official tried to enter the compound. The chief Palestinian security officer at the crossing asked the policemen to leave, but they refused.

The border had been closed because according to the Israeli-Palestinian agreement the crossing cannot operate if the European contingent is not present, said De La Guardia.

By the way, in between the ellipses? More news about the PIJ suicide bombing. And once more, the AP names the bomber, but no longer names Lt. Uri Binamo. He is simply “a 21-year-old army officer.”

No media bias. Nope. None.

First I get a bandwidth exceeded page over at Winds of Change. Now Israpundit has been suspended. WTF is going on out there?

Update: Israpundit is asking for donations. It’s a bandwidth thing. If you have a few dollars, please donate.

Fifth light

Once more, the AP has changed the headline of a story to make palestinian terrorists look less evil than they truly are.

The headline through most of today: Palestinian Bomber Kills Israeli Soldier

The headline on the article now: Israeli Soldier, Two Palestinians Killed

The difference between the two articles? Five or so hours. (Actually, three–the last time I checked the update at 10:52 still had the same headline.)

Notice that the headline deliberately removes the suicide bombing context, and makes you think instead there was a conflict resulting in the deaths of one Israeli and two palestinians. This is not an unintentional effect.

And, in a move that makes me think someone from the AP is reading my blog, the AP has finally named the Israeli soldier who was murdered. Of course, there is still more information on the bomber than on the Israeli soldier, but at least Lt. Binamo has been named.

The army said the bomber, an accomplice and the taxi driver were killed, along with a 21-year-old Israeli army officer, Lt. Uri Binamo. Seven Palestinians and three soldiers were wounded.

Palestinians identified the attacker as Ala a-Sadi, a 23-year-old Palestinian police officer from the northern West Bank town of Jenin whose family had links to Islamic Jihad. There was pandemonium at the family home, where relatives were trying to call a-Sadi on his cell phone with no success. No militant group released the name of the bomber, as has been the practice in the past.

Notice how you have the name, age, home, and family reaction to the terrorist’s death, but only the name and age of the murdered soldier. Yet another subtle distinction that most people miss. And hey, Abu Mazen, great work on co-opting the terrorists by bringing them into the PA security services. It’s really working, isn’t it?

Not.

Now let’s look at some more of the differences in the article. The first paragraph from the early version:

TULKAREM, West Bank (AP) - A Palestinian suicide bomber trying to enter Israel blew himself up Thursday at a military checkpoint in the West Bank set up to foil the attack, killing an Israeli soldier and two other Palestinians.

The first paragraph in the updated version:

TULKAREM, West Bank (AP) - A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up Thursday, killing an Israeli army officer and two other Palestinians after Israeli soldiers ordered him to remove his overcoat at a West Bank checkpoint set up specifically to foil the attack.

Whoops, guess that “trying to enter Israel” phrase was too high-risk. Might make people think the guy was out to murder civilians or something.

And so, we have yet another example of how the AP downplays terrorism. And yet another example of the AP’s media bias against Israel. This is classic AP-speak:

Palestinian official Saeb Erekat condemned the bombing and called on all groups to honor the cease-fire. “The Palestinian Authority is committed to the cessation of violence,” he said.

Where is the condemnation in that paragraph? There is none. The AP never manages to come up with a direct quote that condemns the suicide bombing, because the PA never condemns it. But the AP–and other media outlets–keep on passing along the lie.

I’ll keep on passing along the truth.

Previous posts on the AP habit of making stories more anti-Israel and pro-palestinian as they update through the day are here and here.

Update: They’ve changed the headline again, to finally use the phrase “suicide bombing.”

West Bank Suicide Bombing Leaves 4 Dead

About friggin’ time.

Al Qaeda is claiming they sent missiles into Israel.

If this is true, it was one of the most piss-poor Al Qaeda attacks ever.

“The lion sons of al Qaeda launched … a new attack on the Jewish state by launching 10 missiles … from the Muslims’ lands in Lebanon on selected targets in the north of the Jewish state,” said the statement, attributed to al Qaeda and posted on an Islamist Web site. It did not give the date of the attack.

None of the ten missiles seems to have landed anywhere.

My gut says: Bogus. (Actually, my gut says, “BWAHAHAHAHA! WHAT A BUNCH OF MAROONS!”)

The Quartet of nations (remember them? the architects of the Road Map?) has released a statement that says (among other things) the PA should not allow terrorists in its cabinet.

Interesting spins on this statement. The AP actually spins it exactly as I state above.

The Reuters spin? Anti-Israel, of course.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Major-power mediators for the Middle East conflict urged Israel on Wednesday to work with the Palestinian Authority to ensure Palestinians in East Jerusalem can vote in next month’s parliamentary elections.

The quartet of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations also urged the Palestinian Authority to assure the security of polling stations and employees of its Central Election Committee.

If you read the statement, all but the last two sentences are focused directly on the PA working towards free, fair, and democratic elections, safeguarding the voters, and working to eliminate terrorists from the PA lists. The first two paragraphs bear directly on those issues, and insist the PA must renounce terrorism.

Two sentences call on Israel directly for actions. Two. The gist of the four-paragraph statement is for the PA to clean up its act.

So what is Reuters’ headline?

Mideast quartet pushes for East Jerusalem voting

What objective media?

Lynn B. is right. It wasn’t the security fence that stopped the latest subhuman from reaching a larger group of Israelis. It was the intelligence services, checkpoints, and the IDF.

At least three people - an Israel Defense Forces officer and two Palestinians - were killed Thursday morning when a suicide bomber blew himself up at an IDF checkpoint in the West Bank set up in response to warnings of an impending terrorist attack. The officer killed in the attack was named as Lieutenant Ori Binamo, 21, from Nesher.

Military sources said they believed the bomber intended to travel via the Qalandia crossing to the Tel Aviv area, where he was to set off the 10 kilograms of explosives he was carrying, probably at one of the many Hanukkah shows scheduled for Thursday.

“This attack was intended for inside Israel proper and against Israelis celebrating the Hanukkah festival,” David Baker, an official in the Prime Minister’s Office, said.

By the way, Reuters didn’t carry the name of the dead Israeli. Neither did the AP. The information is easily available, but for some reason, the major news wire services never bother to get the names of the killed Israelis.

Lieutenant Ori Binamo, 21, from Nesher. May his name be remembered.

Some people are asking why I’m increasing my Jewish and Israeli blogroll, or more specifically, why am I adding them.

I’m not trying to hurt anyone’s feelings, but I think you’re all giving my blogroll far more credit than it deserves. It isn’t a list only of blogs I like and read–at least, it hasn’t been in quite a while. I can’t get to all of the ones on my list every day, or even every week, and frankly, some of them I don’t like very much (no, I will not name names). But they’re Jewish bloggers, and so am I. I have been remiss in adding bloggers to it. Laziness is the overarching term for it, or I’d have all the Jblogs on it. There are many, many Jewish bloggers out there, and I feel like I’m ignoring them. (Again, the laziness factor enters.)

My traffic is not nearly as great as people think. One of my stats programs says I get about 1200 unique visits per day. Another says I average 2200. Split it down the middle, and I’m still nowhere near the big-traffic bloggers–but you are welcome to whatever hits I can send you, because that’s the way the blogosphere should work.

I don’t often read religous blogs because I feel like a child overhearing an adult conversation she doesn’t quite understand. But that doesn’t mean they don’t belong on my blogroll. (You want to talk about blogwars, yeesh, go see what they say to each other when they argue interpretation. Double yeesh.)

I was thinking of perhaps subdividing my blogroll into religious Jblogs and just Jewish and Israeli bloggers, but I’d need someone who has a lot more time than I to check which one is which. Or the authors of the blogs could email me (hint, hint).

Lastly, I’m adding more Jewish bloggers because I should have increased my Jblogroll a long time ago. That’s why I keep asking you folks to let me know who else. As long as they’re not of the ex-Jew variety, they’re welcome on my blogroll. I think the only limitation will be that the blog has to be regularly updated–I’d rather not send my readers to someone who writes once a month.

Some of you have already written me and asked to be included, and I never put you on the blogroll. Write me again. The policy has changed.

Update: This has to come out from my reply to Ezzie in the comments.

Which is not to say I don’t like the blogs I’ve added recently–just don’t take my opinion too personally. There are tons of blogs out there, some of which I like, some not so much. There are tons of bloggers out there, some of whom like me, some not so much.

That’s what makes a horse race, they say.

What do you get when you cross 20 tons of explosives with a bunch of murdering subhumans?

Palestinian rocket scientists.

Gaza (ANTARA News) - A Palestinian militant group in Gaza declared success on Monday of a newly-developed homemade rocket with a distance range of 15 km.

Mohamed Abdel el-Aal, better known as Abu Abeer who is spokesman of the Popular Resistance Committees, told reporters in the Gaza Strip that the group`s armed wing Sallah el-Dein Brigades had developed the homemade rockets which were fired into Israel during the past few months with an accuracy rate of about 80 percent.

He also declared that his group had all maps of Israeli army bases and towns and cities near the Gaza Strip, adding that the group can mount attacks on any Israeli target accurately.

[...] In addition, Israeli Army Radio quoted high-ranking Israeli army officials as saying on Monday that about 20 tons of explosives had been recently smuggled into the Gaza Strip through the borders between Gaza and Egypt.

The radio said the explosives would be used by Palestinian militants in making rockets.

But the Palestinian Interior Ministry dismissed the report as totally untrue.

Oh, well then it must be so. Because we all know how hard the PA is working to disarm the terrorists.

The war is building. I’m thinking late spring. After elections. Watch for a sudden upswing in rocket and terror attacks. Don’t be surprised if it’s from Gaza and Lebanon.

Oh, look. The AP has recognized that the rocket attack on Israel yesterday was–a rocket attack.

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Lebanon’s prime minister on Wednesday condemned a rocket barrage fired a day earlier into northern Israel, while a U.N. envoy urged the Lebanese government to assert control over the tense border region to prevent future attacks on the Jewish state.

The rockets landed in a residential area of the northern town of Kiryat Shmona, damaging property but causing no casualties.

That’s right, rockets were finally launched from Lebanon, as opposed to simply”landing” in Israel.

Funny, isn’t it, how until the rocket attack was condemned by someone other than Israel, the AP couldn’t call it a rocket attack? But they still can put this at the end of their article on the Fatah split/not-split:

In another development, Israeli jets blasted a base south of Beirut of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a small Syrian-backed group, hours after rockets hit a northern Israeli border town. No one was hurt, but several houses were damaged.

It was Israel’s deepest strike into Lebanon in 18 months. Rocket attacks from Lebanon have been rare since Israel pulled its forces out of south Lebanon in 2000.

No, there’s no media bias. It’s sheer objectivity. Just like this passage is purely objective:

Since Israel’s withdrawal in September from the Gaza Strip, militants have continued to fire homemade rockets into southern Israel. Although the rockets are notoriously inaccurate, more Israeli towns, including the city of Ashkelon, are in rocket range now that Israel is out of Gaza.

Once again, the potential damage to Israel is downplayed, while the potential damage to palestinians is always emphasized. Here comes the fabled (and fabling) palestinian spokesliars’ quote:

Israel began enforcing a no-go zone in northern Gaza, firing shells and threatening to shoot anyone who approaches the border - an attempt to stop Palestinian rocket fire. Two Palestinians, including a 14-year-old boy, were wounded, Palestinian doctors said.

Once again, the completely objective world of the AP and Israel.

Fourth Light.

Glenn Reynolds gets the story, but misses the big picture in this blog post and news article about a serious plane accident that could have resulted in a plane crash and the loss of 140 lives.

An Alaska Airlines jet with a foot-long hole in its fuselage was forced to make an emergency descent from 26,000 feet and return to Sea-Tac Airport Monday after the plane lost cabin pressure.

The MD-80 jet, which had been en route to Burbank, Calif., landed safely and none of the 140 passengers was hurt. The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating, as is Alaska Airlines.

An aviation expert close to the investigation said the jet was probably struck by a baggage cart while at Sea-Tac and the incident was not reported before the plane took off for Burbank.The damaged area of the plane would have been weakened by the ramp incident and the aluminum skin then likely ruptured once the jet neared its cruising altitude, according to this person, who did not want to be identified.

Why wasn’t the incident reported? Because the airline is outsourcing jobs to cut costs. Apparently, this outsourcing doesn’t include educating people who work around airplanes on the problems inherent in damaging the aircraft.

Earlier this year, the airline eliminated more than 400 unionized baggage handling jobs at Sea-Tac Airport as part of a cost-savings move. That work was outsourced to Menzies Aviation, which is based in the United Kingdom.

Looks like some unions still have their uses. Funny, that.

You know, I’m not a lawyer or a doctor, but I can sure tell crazy when I hear it–unlike the moron judge who granted a restraining order against David Letterman to this nutjob:

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - A state judge has lifted a restraining order granted to a Santa Fe woman who accused talk-show host David Letterman of using coded words to show that he wanted to marry her and train her as his co-host.

Judge Daniel Sanchez on Tuesday granted a request by lawyers for Letterman, host of CBS’”Late Show,” to quash the temporary restraining order that he earlier granted to Colleen Nestler.

She alleged in a request filed Dec. 15 that Letterman has forced her to go bankrupt and caused her “mental cruelty” and “sleep deprivation” since May 1994.

Nestler requested that Letterman, who tapes his show in New York, stay at least 3 yards away and not “think of me, and release me from his mental harassment and hammering.”

Why did the judge previously grant one? Are you ready for this?

(more…)

Ah. Now I know why I’ve been getting hits from Ilyka. She tagged me with the “Seven Things” meme.

Seven Things To Do Before I Die
1. Find Ilyka and smack her upside the head for tagging me with this particular meme
2. Visit Israel during Christmas season (so I can be in a place that mostly ignores it; I will be nowhere near Bethlehem on that trip)
3. Visit Israel during Passover
Screw it, I’m tired of this.

(more…)

Via Althouse, yet another blog hit piece.

What Golding demonstrated - and what we’re witnessing as the Blogosphere’s offspring multiply - is that people tend to abuse power when it is unearned and will bring down others to enhance themselves. Likewise, many bloggers seek the destruction of others for their own self-aggrandizement. When a mainstream journalist stumbles, they pile on like so many savages, hoisting his or her head on a bloody stick as Golding’s children did the fly-covered head of a butchered sow.

Schadenfreude - pleasure in others’ misfortunes - has become the new barbarity on an island called Blog. When someone trips, whether Dan Rather or Eason Jordan or Judith Miller, bloggers are the bloodthirsty masses slavering for a public flogging. Incivility is their weapon and humanity their victim.

I mean no disrespect to the many brilliant people out there - professors, lawyers, doctors, philosophers, scientists and other journalists who also happen to blog. Again, they know who they are. But we should beware and resist the rest of the ego-gratifying rabble who contribute only snark, sass and destruction.

We can’t silence them, but for civilization’s sake - and the integrity of information by which we all live or die - we can and should ignore them.

Translation: “The peasants are revolting!” (using both definitions of the word).

As we were saying: Yesterday’s article on rockets being fired into Israel was headlined “Rockets in Israeli Town Cause Minor Damage.”

Today’s article on Israel’s raid to prevent this from happening in the future: “Israelis Attack Militant Base in Lebanon.”

Because the AP is an unbiased, objective media outlet. Sure. Honest. I swear.

The lead from the rockets-land-in-Israel article:

JERUSALEM (AP) - Three rockets landed in a residential area of a northern Israeli town near the Lebanese border late Tuesday, damaging some property but causing no injuries, the army said.

The projectiles landed in the town of Kiryat Shemona. It was not clear whether the explosions were caused by katyusha rockets or mortar fire.

Channel Two television showed the remains of what appeared to be a katyusha, along with pictures of holes in the ground and in the side of a home.

(more…)

As promised, the best of the lot:

That’s my Tig.

Because assholes with tiny penises to match their tiny brains and inability to contribute to the world, who take out their anger about their inadequacies on the Jews, (who have contributed more to the world in the last ten years than the entire anti-Semitic movement has in its history), and try to post links to anti-Semitic websites like David Duke’s and Stormfront, have to have their comments approved before they can be seen by anyone but me.

We do not approve.

I have been remiss in my Jewish and Israeli bloggers link. I’ve added Daled Amos, Elder of Ziyon, Judeopundit, and SerandEz. Once again, please leave more suggestions in the comments or email me. I’m lazy, is all. I forget to add people even after they remind me.

And oh yeah–don’t forget the Dry Bones Shmendrik Awards. (Because until now, I did.)

For the past couple of days, the AP headline on its main Israel stories was a variant of “Israel Fires Missiles Into Gaza.” The story, of course, is bullshit. Israel hit two empty buildings and hurt no one.

Today’s story, of rockets being fired from Lebanon into Israel?

Rockets in Israeli Town Cause Minor Damage
JERUSALEM (AP) - Three rockets landed in a residential area of a northern Israeli town near the Lebanese border late Tuesday, damaging some property but causing no injuries, the army said.

The projectiles landed in the town of Kiryat Shemona. It was not clear whether the explosions were caused by katyusha rockets or mortar fire.

Channel Two television showed the remains of what appeared to be a katyusha, along with pictures of holes in the ground and in the side of a home.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Both Hezbollah guerrillas and Palestinian militants operate in nearby southern Lebanon.

A Hezbollah spokesman in Beirut said he had no knowledge of Tuesday’s attack, and the top commander of the Palestinian Fatah faction in Lebanon, Brig. Gen. Sultan Abul-Einein, denied Palestinian involvement, according to the local Future TV station.

So, uh, how did the rockets get into the Israeli town? Did they hitch a ride? Take a bus? Oh, wait. The “projectiles landed.” I see. Someone just, I guess, threw them up in the air and hoped they’d land in Israel. Because it’s not, like, say, Hizbullah or palestinian terrorists launched rockets at civilians in Israel. Nope. Nothing to see here, move along.

And the slide towards less-than-reptile continues for the AP editorial policy on Israel. I’m thinking if we reverse them along the Bear’s ecosystem, we could get them down to amoeba level before long.

Third light:

As promised, here are the pictures I took of Tig the Goofball sitting underneath the globe to my hall light. The one in which he is almost perfectly centered has to have some work done on it with Photoshop. I emailed it to my work account.

I decided against the more prompt. That makes it look like I’m ashamed of catblogging or something.

Feel free to caption the pictures. Funniest caption will get a print of the picture via snail mail.

There is no water in my building today. Something about a water main break, it’ll be fixed sometime after five p.m., go to another building if you want water, coffee, or need to use a bathroom. There was a rumor that they’d send us home, but I’m thinking not. Too bad. I wouldn’t mind leaving early.

Of course, the moment you see the sign that says none of the bathrooms are available, you suddenly have the urge. Human nature. Annoying.

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I successfully talked Sorena out of making me see Aeon Flux with her on Sunday. Two turkeys (see: King Bomb) on one holiday weekend were really too much. I pointed out to her that the film was unavailable for review prior to its release, which is only done when it’s a surefire bomb, and her father backed me up. So, after all that work, I checked the moving listings, and Aeon Flux wasn’t playing anywhere. At all. The Commonwealth 20 was closed, and the Towne Center was on holiday staff, so it was playing only half its films.

Which is why she and I went to see Narnia instead.

Y’know, I probably could have gotten away with, “Sorry, kiddo, it’s not playing anywhere near. Let’s go see Narnia, okay?”

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Tig the Goofball: I cannot wait to get home and start working on the picture of Tig I got this morning. Y’know, this morning was a pretty funny morning all around, starting with the last dream I had before waking. You know how sometimes, something strikes you as so funny that you laugh so hard you can’t tell anyone what’s making you laugh so hard because you’re unable to do anything but laugh? Well, I had a dream I was doing exactly that shortly before waking. So I woke up in a damned good mood considering I had to go to work this morning.

Anyway. Yesterday, the bulb in the upstairs hallway light burned out. I took off the globe, replaced the bulb, and had a lot of trouble putting the globe back on. Suffice to say that I finally said, “Screw it!”, left the globe on a folding chair underneath the lamp, and the bulb hanging from the fixture. It needs to be put back in either by me or Maintenance Guy, whoever gets to it first, and right now, my money is on Maintenance Guy. The chair is in the corner on top of the stairs where Tig likes to sleep. I was wondering if he’d try to work his way around it, but he did me one better: I got up to the third step and saw him sitting, perfectly centered, underneath the folding chair, on which there is the white globe of the lamp.

I will be putting the picture under the “more” prompt with a spit-monitor warning, because it is quite a funny shot. And Tig, ever the goofball, stayed put while I got the camera, and posed as I snapped away.

I should be leaving work early. I’ll have the post up before dinner.

Looks like some Canadian Jew-haters were busy this Christmas:

Edmonton’s police hate crimes unit is investigating an act of vandalism at a synagogue where swastikas and lettering were painted on its walls on Christmas Day.

Vandals had painted a metre-wide black swastika, along with the acronym ZOG, with a circle and line through it on Beth Shalom synagogue.

ZOG stands for Zionist Occupation Government, a fictional body cited in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, which claims Jews control global seats of power.

Const. Dave Huggins said the symbol was not commonplace, leading police to suspect the vandalism was a definite show of anti-Semitism and not a childish prank.

Gee, ya think?

By the way, this isn’t the first time Beth Shalom was attacked.

The Beth Shalom synagogue is no stranger to acts of vandalism motivated by hate.

In the fall of 2000, the synagogue was firebombed with Molotov cocktails twice in three weeks.

Both Beth Shalom, at 11916 Jasper Ave., and the Beth Israel Synagogue in the west end were set ablaze by firebombs on Halloween night that year.

Yousef Sandouga, originally from Jordan, was charged in the Halloween night attack on Beth Shalom after he left his cellphone at the scene and was forced to go to hospital when he burned himself during the attack.

Unfortunately, the bastards that hit Beth Shalom this time weren’t as stupid.

Guess they couldn’t find a menorah to vandalize.

There’s a new Russian/Syrian deal worth $2.7 billion: Russia is going to build a refinery for Syria.

Syria has signed a US$2.7 billion memorandum of understanding with a Russian company for construction of a refinery and petrochemical plant in northeast Syria, the official Syrian news agency reported Tuesday.

Do not hold your breath waiting for Russia to vote for sanctions against Syria for any reason.

And they call us the imperialist capitalist pigs.

The EU and others keep insisting that Hamas is an organization that will become less violent as it is brought into the political process.

But Hamas publishes a children’s newspaper, and in that newspaper, Hamas calls on Muslims to “liberate” Spain from the rule of the infidel. (Arabic link)

Sure. They’re definitely going to change their tactics once they get control of the PA, and the billions of dollars in international aid that comes with. I’m sure not a penny of that aid will be spent on weapons and bombs.

A menorah was vandalized in a Orange County, California.

And another in New York.

For the second year in a row, the Baldwin, Long Island menorah is vandalized.

This one wasn’t vandalized, but it’s on the Great Wall of China. (How cool is that?)

So, do the idiots who keep on destroying menorahs get how much they’re actually emphasizing the message of the holiday?

I’m thinking not.

The second light:

I’ve added a few more blogs to the blogroll, including the IRIS blog.

The editor of Jewish World Review asked me to link to this Chanukah music special (listen while you surf) with songs mostly in English.

Omri is finally back and catching up on events. I am very much looking forward to his evisceration of Munich, and will hold him to that promise. Plus, it’s long past time the two of us wrote nearly the exact same post on the exact same subject with the exact same take on it. Omri is probably going to be next up in the Mr. Meryl Yourish series.

Armed Jews Week is what Dave Kopel calls Hanukkah in a post from last year. (Hat tip: Bill R.)

Lair’s kitties are playing dreidel. Frisky has some holiday fun with his new toy. Y’know, Frisky is one handsome kitty. And Nardo has his own Lizardoid minions.

The crew over at Simply Jews are up to their usual tricks; the Iranian spy satellite appears to be malfunctioning, and, via Snoopy, we get this article on the newest, ah, fuel to power batteries of the future. (Hint: It’s pee. Yes. Really.) Snoopy also links to two very funny Hanukkah songs in this post; click on both links. The singing menorah is a hoot, and The Lonely Jew is even funnier.

Dave has a post on what some may consider divine justice, while others consider it a job barely begun–but it is deliciously full of schadenfreude.

No wonder I’ve been getting hits from her. Ilyka is back blogging again. And she reminded me that Judith’s Munich Massacre coverage is the perfect counterpoint to Spielberg’s Munich-Moral-Relativism movie.

And, oh yeah–scroll around in Ilyka’s site, because it’s classic Ilyka:

In the author’s defense, that could just be my pathological hatred of cell phones talking: You show tolerance for cell phones, I lose all tolerance for you. Truss says hearing people talk on their cell phones “humanizes them.” That only reminded me, yet again, that I don’t really like humanity.

I used to live across from some neighbors who had their washer and dryer repossessed. They began hanging all their laundry out to dry on clotheslines strung across their back patio.

It totally humanized them to me; I’m just not sure that was a good thing. Do I need to know that my neighbor prefers briefs to boxers? Do I need to be able to estimate his wife’s bra size? Look at the way the cups catch the wind! That’s got to be at least a 38C, don’t you think?

A little humanity goes a long way.

That should keep you busy while I don’t blog today. Hey, Dixie’s back on AMC, I’ve got some soap-watching to do.

In honor of the BBC’s winning The Jews Killed Christmas Award for 2005 (honorable mention to the CBC, which managed to flip-flop so fast I got a whole new case of whiplash), we here at Yourish.com (which is, uh, me) have made up a song for the ceremony.

Maestro, if you please:

O great big wall of Bethlehem
You’re making Jesus cry
Below thy deep and darkest brick
The media doth lie
They lie about the passage
Of pilgrims here today
With myths and lies they do despise
Where Israel’s safety lay

Thank you, and thank you to our participants. I’m sure that the AP and Reuters will try harder to win the award next year. As always, the Arab press is automatically disqualified, as is any Indymedia outlet.

You know, I can’t get a handle on the AP these days. They are utterly obsessed with the body fat ratio of the average Israeli, it seems.

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israelis began the eight-day festival of Hanukkah at sundown Sunday with a warning against overdoing the holiday culinary specialties from someone who should know - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Families gathered at sundown to light the first candle of the Hanukkah festival, which commemorates an ancient victory of Jewish forces in the Holy Land against foreign conquerors.

After the candle lighting, many families sat down to a traditional meal that included delights like fried potato pancakes and jelly-filled doughnuts.

Many assume they’ll gain weight during the festival, when children are off from school, families get together and - in the rainy days of winter - there is little else to do than sit and eat.

Well, at least they’re not as bad as the CBC. Their headline for the above story?

Israelis begin Hanukkah festival with warning against overeating

And to that I say: Latkes, latkes, latkes, and sufganiyot, sufganiyot, sufganiyot. In other words: Plptptptptptpt!

Recommendation: Do not go to a movie theater near a mall on the day before Christmas shopping ends.

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I went over Heidi’s and G.’s on Saturday. I’ve been spending the Christmas holidays with Heidi and her family since, let’s see–1996, I think. Sorena refuses to allow me to sleep in my own bed on Christmas Eve; I must spend the night there and be there for the morning festivities. I told Heidi that this is probably my last year doing so–Sorena will be 13 next year, and old enough to understand that I want to do Jewish things on Christmas.

Or I may change my mind and still spend the night there. Who knows?

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The Chronicles of Narnia is an excellent movie, and more than makes up for my shelling out six bucks to see King Bomb. I’m afraid I must have blinked and missed all the Christian symbolism. Solly was right.

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You know, my parents’ generation all had a Solly that they knew somewhere. I think we ought to bring back the name, so I can have a Solly to refer to that isn’t the guy who runs Solomonia. Then again, I don’t mind referring to that Solly, so maybe I should just count my Sollys and be quiet.

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Driving home tonight, there were two restaurants with full parking lots: The Denny’s and the Waffle House, just off I-95 in Small Town South of Richmond. I had been tempted to stop off at Waffle House for some hash browns, but decided I could live without them. I was at the Waffle House at the Fredericksburg rest stop years ago, taking a break while driving from NJ to Richmond on Christmas Eve. It was full then, too. I always wonder who the patrons are, and where they’re going, and whether they’re in transit or have nowhere to go for Christmas. It’s very interesting, being Jewish on Christmas. Then again, people are probably wondering the same thing about me. I should wear a button or something saying, “I’m not alone on Christmas, I’m Jewish.”

Shyeah, that would bring in the stares.

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You know, I come home from a house with a Great Dane puppy that steals my sneakers and swipes my sleep-mask out of my bag, only to have my cat pull my sweater off the chair where I left it to dry.

Cats.

Dogs.

Feh.

Haveil Havalim is at Daled Amos’ place today. Go. Read. What, I should send you an engraved invitation?

Ynet reports that the BBC did, indeed, say that Israeli policies in Bethlehem would make the baby Jesus cry:

Had Jesus’ parents Joseph and Mary tried to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem nowadays, they would find it to be a near impossible task due to the IDF roadblocks and the West Bank security fence, a BBC reporter claimed in a televised broadcast this week.

The news story, by BBC correspondent in Israel Matthew Price, has brought the already shaky relations between the U.K. television channel and Israel to a new low, Israel’s leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported Sunday.

In the report, Price reenacted Joseph and Mary’s historical route from Nazareth to Bethlehem, by accompanying an Israeli-Arab Nazareth carpenter, who will be forced to skip his annual visit to Bethlehem on Christmas this year, due to the army’s traffic restrictions and the exhausting effort entailed in crossing the IDF roadblocks.

Unfortunately, I do not have a link to any kind of transcript, but I should like to poin