This one’s for the ladies: Britain’s started a new trend: Naked butlers. Well, mostly naked. (My buddy Stretch sent me this in email. I’d read the story but didn’t know there were pictures, so blame Stretch. Or thank him for it.)

Presented, for your amusement: Butlers in the buff.

Yep. That’s all they wear. And oh, the picture is from this link. It’s a gay news site, guys, so don’t blame me if you see something you don’t want to see.

Yeah, I remember the pink houses link. I said it was for women only, and you guys went and clicked, anyway. Hmfph.

I suppose this must be the lead-up to the second annual Blog Nekkid Day. Mike’s Matt’s trying to get me to sign up again. Dude, that’s a work day.

Have you heard that Groucho Marx quote? The one that goes: “I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member”?

Well, it comes to mind immediately upon reading this:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - If you’ve ever dreamed of living the simple life on a tropical island, a new online eco-tourism venture could turn that fantasy into reality for just a few hundred dollars.

Tribewanted.com — a new spin on the concept of timeshare vacations — is the brainchild of two British entrepreneurs who are seeking 5,000 people to join an online community to oversee the sustainable development of a 200-acre (81-hectare) Pacific island.

For a fee ranging from $220 to $660, members can join the “tribe” for one to three years and buy the right to visit the island of Vorovoro in Fiji for between one and three weeks.

The three-year project will be filmed for a documentary and weekly videos will be available online, but organizers say a key principle is: “This is not reality TV — it’s real life.”

“Unlike reality television, this isn’t about the game,” co-founder Ben Keene said Tuesday. “There is no winner, there’s no voting people off.”

Yeah, there is. I’ve already voted myself off. Oh. My. God. Can you imagine the kind of nutjobs this place is going to draw?

“It may not sound like a lot, but we’re looking at a very simple sustainable village, not big concrete structures,” Keene said. “As much as this is an adventure for everyone involved, we’re also trying to raise awareness about ecological living.”

Tribe members will design the infrastructure of the island, from solar power systems to nonpolluting toilet facilities.

Experts will work with the local tribal chief, Tui Mali, to make key decisions along with the tribe members who will vote online for what they want.

“At any one time you’ve got the 4,900 people in the online community and 100 on the island,” Keene said.

Wow, it’s the ultimate voyeur vacation! I’m betting webcams will be watching the villagers’ every move. Oooh, how exciting. I can hardly wait!

Well, yeah, I can. I can’t think of anything more offensive than sharing my vacation spot with thousands of strangers who expect me to work instead of lie in the sun and swim all day.

Transportation to Fiji is not included in the membership fee.

When members visit, starting in September, they can choose to help build facilities, go fishing or just read a book on the beach. Carpenters and others with useful skills are encouraged to join, but Keene said anyone with a sense of adventure was welcome.

“We’re looking for people who have ideas for how they’d like to pass on their skills, whether they’re yoga instructors or sports teachers or maybe artists,” he said.

Uh-huh. They want you to pay money to spend your vacation building your vacation site. Or spend your vacation teaching other people. Oh, they say you can just lie around on the beach, but watch what happens the first time someone decides they’re tired of hammering and want a swim. Ursula LeGuin covered it quite nicely in The Dispossessed. Egoists! Egoists! Don’t be selfish, join the community!

Sounds very relaxing to me.

The last time I went to a tropical island, I spent one day climbing the rock falls, one day in town buying crappy wooden beads and cups, and the entire rest of the time lying on the beach or at the pool. Oh, wait. We spent an afternoon on a booze cruise. That was pretty hard work, trying not to drink too much to ruin the day.

I think I’ll pass on my tropical island vacation turning into a working vacation. Not my idea of fun at all.

The palestinians have been telling the world that the lack of funds is causing flood, famine, earthquake, crises — and oh yeah, a health crisis within the PA. So Israel said they’d transfer $50 million worth of medicines to the PA to stave off any potential health crisis.

Eff you, the pals said. Give us the cash instead.

Several weeks ago, Israel turned to the Palestinians through the WHO in a bid to clarify which hospitals were in need of medical equipment and medications in order to purchase them with the money in its possession.

Israeli defense officials said that “the Palestinians’ stance reveals that there is no real health crisis in the PA and that they are trying to use the money for other needs.”

[...] The decision to purchase the medications and not give the Palestinians money was made by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who sought to address the PA’s humanitarian problems, but to prevent the transfer of funds to the Hamas-led government which will use them as it pleases.

WHO representatives recently got back to Israel, saying that the Palestinians were not interested in receiving the medications. According to the representatives, the Palestinians are interested in cash for their own needs

Apparently, the health crisis is not as severe as the palestinians would have you believe. So don’t believe a word of it when you read in the media about palestinians dying for lack of medical aid. If they’re dying, it’s because the leadership wants them dead. Better to show off corpses from “Israeli oppression” than let their people live healthy, happy lives.

Can the depravity get much worse?

I’m betting yes.

I simply can’t let all the other bloggers have all the fun and schedule all the conventions. So I’m announcing YourishCon, a convention where my readers, and anyone else interested (all six of them) will get together and discuss very Yourish-y issues. A tentative schedule of panel discussions:

Anti-Semitism: We Know It Exists, Now Can We Have Lunch? Panelists will discuss anti-Semitism, and then go to lunch.

Anti-Israel Media Bias: Yes, We Know It Exists, Now Can We Have Lunch? Panelists will discuss the anti-Israel media bias, then go to lunch.

Terrorism: Yes, Yes, Yes, But When is Lunch? Panelists will discuss terrorism, and then discuss when to have lunch.

The Great Chicken Soup Debate: What To Put In, What To Take Out. Panelists will discuss their chicken soup recipes, and their bubbes’ recipes handed down over the generations. All sharp instruments, including pens, will be removed from the room before the discussion begins. Guests are encouraged not to sit in the first three rows.

Catblogging: How Much Is Too Much? Hosted by Laurence Simon. Panelists will not include Kevin Drum. Tigger and Gracie will make a special guest appearance via webcam. If they’re not sleeping.

Hulk Smash: Don’t Mess With Me About My Guy. Meryl spends the entire panel discussion proving that Hulk can beat any other comic book character, up to and including Superman and Galactus. Parents are urged to leave children at home, as this discussion has been known to bring them to tears. (Read the title: Don’t Mess With Me About My Guy.)

Please feel free to add your own suggestions for panels and guest-moderators.

Marc Grajower, our reader from Brussels, found a priceless quote in an article from Birzeit University. Before we go to the quote, it is worth mentioning that the PR machinery of Palestinians becomes more and more adept in artfully mixing half-truths with slogans - quite impressive.

But this post is only about that quote. Here it goes:

12 students from Gaza have been denied permission to go to Bethlehem and study Occupational Therapy (a course not available in Gaza).

Surely we all know that this specific therapy is not available anymore in Gaza, there was no need to add that. But the fact is amazing: it is less than a year since IDF left Gaza to deal with itself as Gazans see fit, and they are already missing the occupation? So much so that they have to go to Bethlehem?

I share with the authors of the article the ire toward the authorities who prevented these 12 students from going to Bethlehem. On the other hand, I could outguess the logic the authorities employed in the decision process: judging by the number of Qassams that continue to fall in Israel, IDF will have no choice but to get back to Gaza. Then these 12 students will be saving the travel expenses.

Another point in that article that just begs for a clarification is a description of rude treatment of an American student (by the border police, obviously).

He was strip searched, yelled at, called an “arsehole”, had his face photographed as if he were a criminal, and when it transpired he was half-Arab the interrogator responded “what a pity, what a pity”.

• First of all, let me assure you that the exclamation “arsehole” is not an indication that the policeman found an arsehole on the student during the strip search: our border police folks know/were taught to expect that even Americans have one (at least). In reality this exclamation was about the mere idea that an American citizen will decide to enroll in Birzeit. See it as an unsolicited advice.
• About the photograph: it was taken just to show the friends afterward, for pure fun (see above why)
• Regarding that “what a pity” response: being a border policeman, the interrogator was in a quandary. He was unable to decide to which part of the visitor to apply that famous border police club - is it the lower part that is American or the upper? And let us see you resolving this one.

I hope it clears any possible misunderstandings now, doesn’t it?

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

The IDF says that Hamas was directly involved in the latest kassam rocket attacks that wounded one Israeli. The day before, a rocket landed on a child’s bed a few minutes after the child left for school. (But these “crude, homemade rockets” “rarely cause damage,” as the AP and Reuters would have you believe.)

Israel Defense Forces sources on Tuesday blamed Hamas for direct involvement in the barrage of Qassam rockets fired at Sderot on Tuesday that wounded one woman.

The accusation is the second of its kind made over the past week, the first after renegade Hamas gunmen were said to have fired Qassam rockets that landed near the Sderot house of Defense Minister Amir Peretz.

The sources said Israel would take the apparent Hamas involvement in the rocket fire into account when considering responses to Qassam cells.

So how does the AP report the rocket incidents falling on Israeli homes? By neglecting to report them at all. Note the lack of context in this article. It makes no mention of the hits and damage that have occured in Israel lately.

Meanwhile, Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a street in northern Gaza and at a building in Gaza City early Wednesday, witnesses said. No one was hurt.

Witnesses said the street targeted was a launching area for rockets aimed at Israel. Less than an hour earlier, Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a facility of the militant Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza City. The PRC claimed responsibility for firing nine rockets at an Israeli town on Tuesday.

Later Israeli aircraft fired three more missiles at empty fields, residents said. Israel often targets launching areas in northern Gaza with artillery and air strikes.

“Launching areas” — what an innocuous term. In reality, the “launching areas” are the equivalent of the enemy’s artillery fire. But you will never see a major media outlet admitting that the palestinians shooting rockets into Israel is anything other than, well, kinda like sending a bunch of fireworks heading towards Israel.

Except these fireworks have killed.

But let’s get back to the point:

Palestinians fired at least six Qassam rockets at Sderot yesterday, lightly wounding one woman and sending another into shock. Two of the rockets hit houses in the Negev town. An examination of the rockets showed that the Qassams fired yesterday are models that only Hamas builds. These models are more likely to cause damage than the models used by other Palestinian groups.

I guarantee you that this information will not show up in the AP or Reuters reports if the IDF does start targeting Hamas (and frankly, I think they should).

Read the full article that I linked last for the list of Hamas involvement in current terror attacks. There is no truce. There is only the appearance of truce, and Hamas’ not running full-fledged suicide attacks by their own members at the moment. As soon as the Hamas leadership decides that there is no more use in the “truce,” off will come the gloves.

It is not that simple to understand what is going on in this picture:

Who is the person in a black T-shirt and why is he pointing his gun into space?

Is he a:

1. Undercover police agent?
2. Mafia goon on assignment?
3. Bird hunter?
4. UFO vigilante?
5. New kind of Sun worshipper?
6. Hater of flying pigs?
7. Proud member of the “Mustache and AK48″ society?

None of the above, if you believe the following AP caption:

A PA officer the securing the area after RPGs were fired into the Preventive Security Service’s headquarters in Gaza City on Tuesday. (AP)

It appears that there was a slight tiff between Hamas and Fatah in Gaza (again). The good folks of Hamas decided to put some of their RPGs to a use more creative than just waving them at the watchers during the incessant parades.

Still, the caption leaves one with a feeling of being underinformed, so to say. Does that black T-shirt signify that its wearer is a “PA officer”? And if the gentleman is a PA officer indeed, why is he looking for the source of these RPG grenades up there in the sky? Is there a new brood of Hamas folks buzzing around in the sky like flies and shooting off their RPGs?

Questions, questions…

Cross-posted on SimplyJews