I’ve been looking for someone whose name I didn’t recognize for a couple of weeks now. I couldn’t remember where I knew him from, thought maybe one of Lair Simon’s readers took him up on his suggestion and bought me a birthday present. Today, I came across the Amazon receipt again, and saw what I’d missed the first time.

Dr_Funk sent me the Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack CD.

Thanks, Doc, and my apologies for the lateness of this thank-you note. I was looking for your alter ego, and couldn’t find him anywhere.

And thanks also to Rahel, who emailed me three Jewish elephant jokes, all of which I laughed at. I told you, I like elephant jokes. I wasn’t exaggerating. And Jewish elephant jokes are even better than regular ones.

The IDF got a terrorist in Gaza.

The Israel Air Force launched a missile strike Wednesday at a vehicle in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, killing the commander of the Popular Resistance Committees’ military wing.

Two other activists were also in the car at the time of the strike. Palestinian sources confirmed that Mahmoud al-Arkan, commander of the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, the Salah a-Din Brigades, was killed in the attack.

IDF sources confirmed that the targeted killing was directed at al-Arkan, as he was involved in manufacturing Qassam rockets and mortar shells.

Sources also said he was involved in a number of terror attacks along the Philadelphi route, including the death of IDF officer Avi Karutshi on July 19.

He was also instrumental in carrying out several attacks in collaboration with Islamic jihad during the disengagement.

Al-Arkan’s name was transferred to the Palestinian Authority, in a bid to assist in his arrest. However, the PA did not take any steps against him. His was a former police officer.

So much for Abbas’ policy of co-opting terrorists. Works really well, doesn’t it?

Well. Tuna for Tig and Gracie tonight.

I’ve been watching Invasion since the pilot, which was excellent. The first few episodes were also quite good. But it’s been a bit of a yawner since then, and now it’s dropping into stupid territory while trying to go all X-Files on us.

See, here’s the thing. One of the supporting characters is a cop with only one arm. We’ve been wondering why he has only one arm because, well, you don’t often see one-armed police officers in real life, what with policing being a physically demanding job and all that. Last week, we discovered why he has only one arm: So he can cut it off again.

No, seriously. This guy suddenly becomes a pain in the ass to the series villain, who happens to have been taken over by the aliens ten years ago. He Finds Out Too Much. So the sheriff decides to turn him into One Of Us. (A quick review: Aliens are these glowing, sting-ray shaped things that attach themselves to humans, kill the human host, and regrow their own human body, who then always appears naked out of the water [get it? get it? Naked, water, rebirth? Deep, mon!], often disoriented, and usually different. So we picked up on the fact that the aliens regrow via human DNA, and when one of them attacked the one-armed cop–who lost his arm while serving in the Marines–I thought, “Uh-oh. Sheriff, you don’t know your basic science. Everyone’s gonna know something’s wrong.”)

So One-Armed Cop comes back with two arms, Sheriff knows he’s screwed, so he tries this “God is testing you” line on the one-armed cop, replete with chainsaw, shed in woods, and no one around. Now the writers would have us believe that One-Armed Cop was devout enough to cut off his own arm because God wanted him to.

Hokay. He’s devout, not stupid. And neither are we.

I suspect I will not be watching this show for much longer.

And let me ask you: What was with the alien leaking acid during the autopsy? Could you be any more derivative? (See: Alien, Ridley Scott version.)

Last week’s episode also gave us the most amount of information to date: There’s something in the water in the Florida Everglades that is allowing the aliens to successfully integrate with their human hosts. Yeah, we coulda told you that. Florida is already home to hundreds of thousands of aliens.

Hm. Maybe the true subtext of the series is illegal immigrants. We’ll have to keep watching to be sure.

There’s an interesting analysis in a Canadian paper about Israel’s efforts to prevent a nuclear Iran.

The use of the submarines in the Indian Ocean, off the Iranian coast, could spare Israel the need to fly over Arab countries — as it did in 1981, when it flew over Jordan to destroy the Iraqi nuclear reactor near Baghdad.

An Israeli attack from a submarine in the Indian Ocean could spare the U.S. and the Arab countries lots of embarrassment.

Finally, the third “signal.” Although the “secret” was known to many people, Israel allowed the publication Friday of news that Israeli companies are building in Kurdistan a new military and civilian airport. The building and the modern equipment are financed by the U.S.

Needless to say, should the Bush administration or any future administration decide to strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities, this airport in northern-Iraq, close to the Iranian border, could serve as the launching pad for such an attack.

These three signals were accompanied by rare public warnings from Israel’s top political and military leaders.

I didn’t know that bit about a new airport in Kurdistan. But I am not nearly as confident as the author is about his conclusion:

Nevertheless, the U.S. is unlikely to change its current decision that it will not turn to the UN Security Council unless it is absolutely certain that its draft resolution will not be vetoed by Russia and China. Therefore, the U.S. is now engaged on two parallel diplomatic tracks. Relying on past Russian and Chinese assurances that Moscow and Beijing are opposed to Iran’s nuclear plans, the U.S. has joined its European allies in supporting the Russian proposal that Iran be allowed to produce nuclear fuel precursors, but these precursors will be shipped for enrichment in Russia. Should Iran reject the Russian proposal, Washington hopes Russia and China would join in having the security council impose economic sanctions on Iran.

Those “hopes” are all we’ve got right now. Russia is showing signs of retreating to its Cold War mentality (which admittedly isn’t a very big step back) and is using Iran to beat up the U.S. The new billion-dollar weapons deal with Iran makes me think there’s no way in hell Russia is going to vote sanctions over pocketbook. Let’s not forget who sold Iraq most of its weaponry. China has its own aims as well, though I cannot comprehend why they think a nuclear-armed Iran is a good thing.

To top it off, the U.S. Army is of the opinion that Israel alone cannot carry out a successful strike on Iran’s nuclear capabilities this time.

I am not encouraged by this analysis, but it’s good to know about the airbase in Kurdistan.

Soccer Dad tagged me for the latest meme:

1. Turn on your mp3 player.
2. Hit shuffle.
3. Put the first fifteen songs that come up in a post. No matter how embarassing. No cheating!

1. Okay.
2. Um, problem.
3. No cheating. No problem. I don’t own an mp3 player.

Yep. Easiest. Meme Tag. Ever.