I have now finished eight full days of the Prevpack, which means, let’s see… 3,000 mg per day of antibiotics, 9.5 packages of Florastor at 5 billion cells per package (give or take 50 or 60 million that got stuck on the sides of the glass), and 30 mg of Prevacid before swallowing any of the antibiotics.

I think that although the probiotics are definitely working, the antibiotics have effectively deforested my innards. Think of it having my good bacteria napalmed along with the filthy, Communist H. pylorii. Sure, I can keep on putting it back in, but the antibiotics are taking it out fairly quickly. Heidi has accused me of being a mass murderer. She says I am not excused for ingesting the Florastor, in fact, I am causing the death of billions more Saccharomyces boulardii, because after I take the Florastor, I’m still taking the antibiotics.

You know, I really think that when your best friend is accusing you of being a Saccharomyces boulardii mass-murderer, she shouldn’t be grinning with enjoyment. I suppose I could utterly turn the tables on her, what with her being a nurse, so she has to have been involved in destroying gazillions of bacteria cells, what with having to keep patients clean and all that.

What, only the good cells count?

Anyway, I found it astonishing that I spent nearly an hour on the internet and the phone before I finally found the Florastor for grownups (a capsule! Hurray!), and I wound up having to wait until the drops in my eyes cleared a bit. You should see my pupils. They look like I dropped three or four hits of LSD. That’s because I had an eye exam today and had the full glaucoma test. My mother had it in both eyes, and even though the pattern is mother to son, I think it’s wise to be tested. But I don’t think it’s wise to drive the length of Midlothian Turnpike (which faces west) while your eyes are so dilated as to make a traffic stop cause for a blood test.

In any case. The big Ukrops had what I needed, and tonight, I will not have to drop a packet into a glass of juice and try to get it down without breathing. For the last two mornings, I put the Florastor in the last of my milk. It turned it sour. Immediately. I’m not joking. I have chocolate milk in the morning (old habit that I’ve never changed), and it made it sour. Over the chocolate. Ew. Nate was so right. The powder is nasty.

So. I got my eyes examined, got a new prescription, ordered new lenses with clip-on sunglasses, and will be looking mighty cool in about a week and a half. Which is not to say that I don’t already look mighty cool. I do. But these are cool new glasses, and I like the way they look. Oooh! By the time I have them, I’ll have the hard top off my Jeep, too. Now that is coolness. Riding top-down in the summer again.

I wonder when the doctor is going to want to take another blood test to see if we’ve defeated H. pylorii. I kinda want to know ASAP. Then again, I’d be really unhappy if we lose this battle.

All right, troops! Your future eating french fries depends on winning the war! Now GO GET THAT H. PYLORII, and don’t come back until it’s dead!

There. That ought to do it.

Yeah, I’m a bit off tonight. Must be the eye drugs.

Anyone want to bet that the bailiff in this case said “Well, I guess he isn’t in the front row, Bob!” ?

You know, I know the terrorists operate from civilian areas. But when are enough civilian casualties enough?

The IDF can do better than this.

Grave consequences: Three children – 6-year-old Muhammad Roka, his 5-year-old sister Nida and 16-year-old Bilal al-Hizi, were killed Tuesday evening as the Israel Air Force attempted to assassinate a group belonging to the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in the Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, the al-Shifa Hospital Director Dr. Jumaa al-Saka told Ynet.

The Israel Defense Forces expressed its regret “if civilians not involved in terror activities were hurt in the operation,” adding that “responsibility lays on the terror organizations and on the Hamas government.”

Another 15 people were wounded in the strike, including two group activists who were in the car and sustained serious wounds

Eyewitnesses added that some of the passengers managed to escape from the jeep before it was hit.

I’m sorry. I can’t keep defending actions like this.

A senior Air Force officer said that no civilians were identified in the vicinity of the target attacked in northern Gaza.

“When the two missile were fired at the vehicles in Jabalia no civilians were identified around it. We will investigate the incident like every other Air Force operation,” said the officer. He added that the cell hit was responsible for firing Qassams into Israel. (Hanan Greeneberg)

I get that the terrorists hide behind women and children. I know the IDF doesn’t deliberately target civilians. But this is too many times in too short a period that the IDF is getting too much “collateral damage.” There simply has to be a better way.

There has to.

There was an international uproar yesterday after a player from Ghana, who plays in Israel during the year, waved an Israeli flag after Ghana beat the Czech Republic. Why did he do it? Apparently, to reward his fans.

Pantsil said that he wanted to make the Israeli fans who came especially to watch him happy. He didn’t mean to make the headlines and definitely did not intend make a political statement for or against Israel…” said Adjei.

Pantsil said people in Ghana fail to understand why he waved the Israeli flag and not the flag of Ghana, adding that he is a religious man who holds a special place in his heart for Israel.

He said that he received many phone calls, one in particular from Aryeh Hershkowitz, the manager of his Israeli soccer club Hapoel Tel Aviv.

“Everyone was very proud of me for bringing a little happiness to Israel,” he said.

There is such hatred of Israel in the world that Ghana felt it had to apologize for Pantsil’s actions. He had to apologize to the Ghana Football Association as well. And here’s a quote that is also going into the running for Ironic Quote of the Month:

“He met with us and apologised and we also want to say that we are here for football and not for politics.”

Funny, if he had waved any other nation’s flag, would the furor have been so widespread?

So what’s going on today?

John Painstil is undergoing a special psychological therapy to enable him to come to terms with the current difficulties he is facing with the furore that greeted his celebration of the Black Stars victory against Czech Republic on Saturday, with an Israeli flag.

The Arab world has even protested against the defenders action, insisting the player exhibited an open bias against them. But Abbey says “the player’s action was devoid of any political stand. Kit was based on shear naivety and nothing more than that.”

That’s right. Gd forbid he should actually support Israel.

The Egyptian press is furious.

“Egyptians supported the Ghanaian team all the way until the 82nd minute, and regretted it after the Israeli flag (waving),” screamed a bold red headline in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom.

The live commentator on the Arab satellite channel broadcasting all World Cup matches in the region abruptly cut short his trademark “goooaaaaaaal” when Pantsil brought out the flag.

“What are you doing, man?” the bewildered commentator said.

Some Arab papers described 25-year-old Pantsil as a “Mossad agent,” others said “an Israeli had paid him to do it.”

But the most elaborate theory was offered by the top-selling state-owned daily Al-Ahram.

Prominent sports analyst Hassan El-Mestekawi wrote that many Ghanaian players attend football training camps set up by an Israeli coach who “discovered the treasure of African talent, and abused the poverty of the continent’s children” with the ultimate goal of selling them off to European clubs.

There’s one more thing that nobody seems to notice, or care about. Two things, actually:

In the past, Pentsil has displayed both the Ghanaian and Israeli flags during soccer matches, most recently after Hapoel TA won the Israeli Cup.

Israel failed to make the World Cup after finishing third in its European qualifying group.

Thing One: Waving flags after a goal is what Pentsil does. He waved the flag of Ghana in Israel to no ill effect.

Thing Two: Israel plays in the European group because they have been blocked from the Asia group by Muslim nations.

Once again, proof that it is always Israeli Double Standard Time.

Just a few days ago, I thought I’d found the height of irony. But this beats it.

The discussion, titled: “Why anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism,” was filmed against a backdrop reading “Zionism: The cancer at the heart of international affairs.”

If you can read that without doing a double-take, you should read it again.

Where was the discussion held? Iran? David Duke’s living room? The Carter Center?

Nope. London.

LONDON - Informed, honest debate on the Middle East has been stifled because of a fear of being accused of anti-Semitism, according to the participants in a discussion hosted by the Islam Channel in central London on Thursday. The broadcaster is the largest Islamic television outlet in Europe.

And what is considered “informed, honest debate”? Why, it’s a debate in which there is only one viewpoint.

Three Jewish anti-Zionists sat on the panel, including a representative of the haredi Natorei Karta, along with Palestinian scholar Ghada Karmi.

Ilan Pappe of the University of Haifa’s political science department, a revisionist historian at the forefront of calls for a boycott of Israel, said that to divorce Zionism from Judaism it was necessary to refrain from using Zionist terminology. For example, you should not talk about a Jewish Diaspora. “The only diaspora is the Palestinians, therefore there is a need to adopt new language,” he said.

The Natorei Karta sect was represented by Rabbi Ahron Cohen, who was a member of the delegation that went to Iran to offer support to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in March following his comments that Israel should be wiped off the map.

And what about anti-Semitism?

The discussion was chaired by Alan Hart, a former ITN and BBC correspondent whose latest book, “Zionism: The real enemy of the Jews” was recently published. He said, “The anti-Semitism card is something the Zionists have exploited to suppress debate.”

He said the mainstream media had concealed “the truth of history” out of fear of offending Jews and thanked CEO Mohammed Ali of the Islam Channel for “his courage in widening the debate.”

Uh-huh. So, in order to get “informed, honest debate,” you have to get onto an anti-Israel Islamic television station, surround yourself with people who agree with you completely, and console yourself with the fact that you got the truth out, in spite of those evil Zionists who control the world media (and probably your thoughts when you take off your tinfoil beanie).

Shyeah.

Solomonia has an extensive post summarizing the situation. In it, he links to Jim Berkley’s report, which examines the committee vote in-depth, and summarizes it:

In all, the Peacemaking Committee’s solution appears much more even-handed, reasonable, balanced, and diplomatic than what the 2004 Assembly produced—the product of coming together to reason, rather than squaring off in opposition. The committee rejected all outside “solutions”—especially the plan brought by the General Assembly Council—and carefully produced its own plan. That example may just show the rest of the commissioners what Presbyterians at their best can accomplish.

It does seem like Sabeel has been stopped cold for the moment, but the General Assembly has yet to vote on the issue.

This was good to know:

Earlier that day, former CIA Director James Woolsey spoke forcefully against divestment from companies doing business in Israel. He warned that such a one-sided action targeting only Israel would amount to siding with the Palestinian Authority, now controlled by the theocratic totalitarian Hamas movement. Woolsey actually spoke twice—in a public lecture co-sponsored by Presbyterian Action and in the committee open hearing about divestment.

Nice to see that not everyone from the Carter era hates Israel. (Okay, so I’m exaggerating, but still—Brzezinski and Carter come immediately to mind on the anti-Israel front.)

I’ll wait to see what the General Assembly does before heaving a sigh of relief. But I’m thinking many Presbyterians are extremely unhappy with their leadership’s decision on divestment, judging from comments on my blog, other blogs and news articles popping up, and emails I have received.

Stay tuned.

By making them take their exams:

Education was also added to the list recently, at the Civil Administration’s recommendation and with the Defense Ministry’s approval. That is why Israel coordinated with the Palestinians on holding this year’s matriculation examinations in the West Bank. For this purpose, Israel approved the passage of teachers, proctors and pupils between various regions.

Security sources told Haaretz that “without this coordination with us, the entire school year in the West Bank would have been wasted. There is no justification for doing that to pupils who have completed 12 years of studies. It is not their fault that Hamas rose to power.”

Chalk up another piece of news you will never see in the mainstream media. However, I do recall reading a story on the misery of students in Gaza, who can’t go to school for some reason or other. Nothing on Sderot’s students having to dodge near-daily rocket attacks, of course.

What time is it, kids? That’s right, it’s Israeli Double Standard time.

Well, it looks like anti-Semitism rages on at the ICRC as Muslim countries are effectively stonewalling any discussion of adoption of the new symbol:

An attempt to end Israel’s long isolation from the Red Cross humanitarian movement hit a snag Tuesday as Muslim opponents used procedural moves to block progress at a decisive international conference, delegates said.

The International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, which opened Tuesday and is expected to conclude Wednesday, is being asked to approve changes to meet Israeli demands of almost six decades that it be granted full membership without using the cross or crescent to identify itself.

But Red Cross officials hosting the conference confirmed that the meeting’s validity had been challenged. They declined to identify the delegation that filed the motion because the session was being held behind closed doors.

It’s got to be Syria. They were the designated spearpoint for the Arab League and OIC’s offensive against Magen David Adom in previous meetings, and there’s nothing suggesting that the two groups have handed off responsibility for blocking the Jews at any point.

We’ll see if the same rock-throwing stonewallers attempt to do a procedural end-run around the current stalemate with Magen David Adom to get the terrorist taxis of the Palestinian Red Crescent full ICRC member status.

They found our missing soldiers, dead. Fox News says the bodies showed signs of torture, which is what I expected when I heard they’d been kidnapped. Expect the video to show up on terrorist websites soon.

But buried in the news article about the two missing U.S. soldiers’ bodies being found is something just as disturbing, if not moreso:

Elsewhere, a suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt blew himself up in a home for the elderly in the southern city of Basra, killing two people and wounding three.

[...] The motive of the attack on the elderly home was unclear and an investigation was under way, police Lt. Col. Karim al-Zaida said. Two women were killed.

The AP is unbelievable. “The motive … was unclear.” Let’s try “terrorism” on for a possibility. Let’s add “depravity” and “barbarism” to the description.

A suicide bomber purportedly fighting the “occupation” strapped on a bomb belt and went into a home for old men and women (mostly women), and then exploded himself.

If someone can explain to me how, in any way, this advances any cause, is considered in any way, shape, or form a thing that is permitted or encouraged, I’d appreciate it.

Because to me, it shows the depravity of the bomber, the people who recruited him, the “insurgency,” and their disgusting version of Islam that says it is acceptable to murder old women in a nursing home.

May the bomber, and all who were involved in this attack, roast in hell.

From Ynet:

As news of the death of Iraqi al-Qaeda terror chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi filtered through jihadist internet forums, many members of radical organizations expressed ‘joy’ at what they described as Zarqawi’s ‘martyrdom’ and imminent ‘wedding’ with virgins. Sheikh Omar Bakri, a top pro al-Qaeda jihadist preacher who is based in Lebanon, and who has a number of disciples in Britain, was quoted by one of his followers on the UK-based Muntadaa internet forum as saying that al-Zarqawi is now being ‘married’ to virgins in heaven, the fate he said awaited ‘martyrs’ of Islam.

I wonder, could we send a present to the newlyweds via the good services of the learned Sheikh? He will be able to use the opportunity to partake of the supply of the virgins (or raisins or Virginians, as the case may be).

P.S. As an aside: the Blogger spell checker tries to translate “Zarqawi” into “carcass”. Let’s see:

Noun: carcass

The dead body of an animal especially one slaughtered and dressed for food

I am not that sure about eating Zarqawi, unless one is a worm, but otherwise - bull’s eye!

Our minister of defense promised to stop the Qassam barrage “in a few hours” yesterday. So far we are still counting the hours. But promise of a minister is only what it is - a promise of a minister.

On the other hand… no, actually on both hands: Olmert has a serious problem with his vice- (or deputy- or who the heck knows-) PM Shimon Peres. According to Haaretz:

Vice premier Shimon Peres (Kadima) on Monday voiced skepticism over the reaction of the government and the citizens of Israel to Qassam rockets.

“We have to stop the hysteria we are all rousing. Instead, we must say: ‘We will get through this, we won’t leave here.’ What happened? Qassams, shmassams! Kiryat Shmona was also fired upon for years.”

This is one turbulent priest (of geriatric variety), whom I wouldn’t mind seeing pensioned off. Or simply muzzled, for public safety reasons. Ideas, anyone?

In an op-ed for the Financial Times, Robin Shepherd says just about everything I’ve been saying about the prisoner’s document, but then points out something I didn’t:

But taking a broader view, what is in the document to be set before the Palestinian people on July 26 is far less worrying than what is left out. The point is this: nearly six decades since the Jewish leadership accepted the United Nations’ decision to establish two states, we are still dealing with a Palestinian leadership that will not offer its people a document for popular ratification that explicitly recognises Israel’s legitimate right to exist as a Jewish state. In the context of all that has gone before, “implicit” recognition is, at best, meaningless. At worst, it is yet another subterfuge along the lines of the famous letter sent by the Palestine Liberation Organisation to Yitzhak Rabin, the then Israeli prime minister, on September 9, 1993. In this letter, the PLO said it recognised the right of Israel to exist in peace and security - a promise whose emptiness was revealed by Yassir Arafat’s subsequent rejection of the Bill Clinton-brokered Camp David accords and the bloody intifada he launched after it.

Outside the region, it is perhaps understandable that many in Europe and the US have chosen not to delve too deeply into what Mr Abbas is, and is not, proposing. The referendum gets them out of a hole. It would allow the west to participate in a polite fiction, letting them restore aid to the Palestinians and thus regain some much sought after moral authority in the greater Middle East.

But inside the region, there is no substantive reason to doubt the assertion of Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister, that, as far as peace prospects are concerned, the referendum is basically pointless. That conclusion is bolstered by the fact that, even as some polls show it would be passed by the Palestinian people, two other recent polls published by the Palestinian Wafa news agency’s website show more than 60 per cent of them opposed to the proposition that Hamas should recognise Israel in return for the resumption of foreign aid. In other words, most Palestinians will not even recognise Israel if they are paid to.

Of course, the FT put this in its op-ed page, a day after passing along the lies in a news article about the document.

But Shepherd is right. The world thinks it’s just fine that palestinians refuse to explicitly acknowledge Israel, and constantly ignore voices to the contrary. And now we learn that our own State Department knew that Arafat murdered American diplomats, and covered up that knowledge for decades.

I hold out little hope that anyone will see this document for what it is: An internal agreement that stops a potential civil war, while not recognizing Israel’s existent at all—neither implicitly nor explicitly.