Even though SNN is on hiatus, I think I’m going to do a short one on Sunday. Any suggestions or topics you’d like me to discuss?

Oh, and which are the free podcast hosting services? I’ll put it there.

Chatting with Sarah this afternoon, we were discussing the various types of girls that her daughter could grow into, and both were expressing our thankfulness that she shows absolutely no sign of becoming one of those hothouse flower types that lives only to be frail and served by Manly Men.

“Oh, I hate that type,” I said. “Grow a pair. I mean, I know you’re a woman, but grow a pair!”

But that reminded me that I almost never use my status as a woman to get guys to do things for me. Well, except when I really, really don’t want to do something. Like, put on a new pair of windshield wipers. I bought a pair of them on the way home from NJ last summer, and mentioned to the man behind the counter that I wasn’t sure I could remember how to put them on.

“Give me a minute, I’ll do it for you,” he said. Which he did, faster and more easily than I would have done, I’m sure.

Then there was the time I simply did not want to be thrown in a pool. I was in college, at a student government leadership weekend. I was lying by the pool fully clothed, and a few of the guys were throwing people in the pool. When they came to get me, I said, “Uh, guys, I have my period.” They all hemmed and hawed and moved on to the next person, evidently unaware of the invention called “the tampon.” Besides, I wasn’t having my period at the time. I just didn’t want to get thrown in the pool.

I think this one comes under the heading of “Messing with a control freak” rather than “abusing your gender role,” but shortly after I moved in with my father, he was watching me mop the kitchen floor one day and told me I was doing it wrong. After a few words were exchanged, I said, “Show me” and handed him the mop. Then I pretended I didn’t get the difference between his mopping and mine until he’d done about half the kitchen, which, of course, he figured out by then and wasn’t very pleased about.

So. Ever used your gender to get a result from the opposite sex, girls? How about you, guys?

Hey, it’s something for a lazy Friday afternoon. Although it may get me thrown out of the Feminist Bloggers Society. Oh, wait. There is no FBS. Never mind.

This is a hilarious (to me) account of a man trying to cancel his AOL account, but getting The Phone Rep From Hell, who simply will not take “no” for an answer.

AOL: Okay, I mean is there a problem with the software itself?

VINCENT: No. I just don’t use it, I don’t need it, I don’t want it. I just don’t need it anymore.

AOL: Okay. So when you use this… I mean, use the computer, I’m saying, is that for business or for… for school?

VINCENT: Dude, what difference does it make. I don’t want the AOL account anymore. Can we please cancel it?

[...] AOL: I am trying to help.

VINCENT: Helping… listen, I called to cancel the account. Helping me would be canceling the account. Please help me and cancel the account.

AOL: No, it wouldn’t actually…

VINCENT: Cancel my account…

AOL: Turning off your account…

VINCENT: …cancel the account…

AOL: …would be the worst thing that…

VINCENT: …cancel the account.

There is no way my call would have gone on that long without an immediate demand for a supervisor. I simply don’t take that kind of crap. I am always polite to CSRs, but man, do I hate it when they don’t take no for an answer. One of them stopped the spiel after I got tired of saying no and said, “What part of no don’t you understand?” which, I suppose, isn’t all that polite. But no means no, y’know?

Side note: Neither MSNBC nor the local NBC affiliate station get it. Neither one posted the guy’s URL, which has the original tape.

Here’s a link to the full tape, which I suspect you may not get at the NBC stations, what with the end being expletive-impeded.

You know, I normally don’t jump on the “The media is a Fifth Column!” bandwagon. But I can’t see how disclosing the details of how the U.S. finds terrorist funding does anything but harm our efforts to prevent terrorist attacks.

Among the successes was the capture of a Qaeda operative, Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, believed to be the mastermind of the 2002 bombing of a Bali resort, several officials said. The Swift data identified a previously unknown figure in Southeast Asia who had financial dealings with a person suspected of being a member of Al Qaeda; that link helped locate Hambali in Thailand in 2003, they said.

In the United States, the program has provided financial data in investigations into possible domestic terrorist cells as well as inquiries of Islamic charities with suspected of having links to extremists, the officials said.

The data also helped identify a Brooklyn man who was convicted on terrorism-related charges last year, the officials said. The man, Uzair Paracha, who worked at a New York import business, aided a Qaeda operative in Pakistan by agreeing to launder $200,000 through a Karachi bank, prosecutors said.

In terrorism prosecutions, intelligence officials have been careful to “sanitize,” or hide the origins of evidence collected through the program to keep it secret, officials said.

So the Times has just given our enemy another bit of information that they probably did not have before. Thanks so much, Bill Keller, for this:

The Bush administration has made no secret of its campaign to disrupt terrorist financing, and President Bush, Treasury officials and others have spoken publicly about those efforts. Administration officials, however, asked The New York Times not to publish this article, saying that disclosure of the Swift program could jeopardize its effectiveness. They also enlisted several current and former officials, both Democrat and Republican, to vouch for its value.

Bill Keller, the newspaper’s executive editor, said: “We have listened closely to the administration’s arguments for withholding this information, and given them the most serious and respectful consideration. We remain convinced that the administration’s extraordinary access to this vast repository of international financial data, however carefully targeted use of it may be, is a matter of public interest.”

Public interest. Shyeah. That’s the excuse you use. But I suspect if you polled a number of the public regarding whether or not this article should have run, the result would have been for the Times to keep quiet and let our officials do their jobs. Especially in light of the fact that no chargers of abuse of this program have been tendered. They even told the Times they’d dismissed an agent for an

Among the safeguards, government officials said, is an outside auditing firm that verifies that the data searches are based on intelligence leads about suspected terrorists. “We are not on a fishing expedition,” Mr. Levey said. “We’re not just turning on a vacuum cleaner and sucking in all the information that we can.”

[...] Because of privacy concerns and the potential for abuse, the government sought the data only for terrorism investigations and prohibited its use for tax fraud, drug trafficking or other inquiries, the officials said.

[...] Swift and Treasury officials said they were aware of no abuses. But Mr. Levey, the Treasury official, said one person had been removed from the operation for conducting a search considered inappropriate.

In other words, the safeguards employed by the government caught any potential abuse and rectified the situation. So the reason the Times chooses to divulge this secret program is…?

That’s right, I forgot. It’s in the “public interest.” It’s not to scoop other papers, win a Pulitzer prize, or bash the Administration that the Times hates so much. It’s the public interest being served. Because of course the public would trust the New York Times on matters of national security.

This matter is very different from the NSA’s phone records data mining. This involves only those suspected of terrorism, not every financial record of every American. On this matter, I stand with the government and think the Times should not have published this information.

She added: “We know the terrorists pay attention to our strategy to fight them, and now have another piece of the puzzle of how we are fighting them. We also know they adapt their methods, which increases the challenge to our intelligence and law enforcement officials.”

Way to go, Times. Of course, if a terrorist does manage to get through the net and attack Americans again, you get to blame the Bush Administration for not doing everything they can to stop the spread of terrorism. With no blame to yourselves, because your actions are in “the public interest.”

Britain’s Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks (sorry, but knighthoods are not in the category of Things I Recognize As Real Titles), has an interesting article in a British Jewish newspaper. It gave me a better perspective on the current celebrations going on in the U.K. regarding 350 years of “letting” Jews come back to England. I really couldn’t understand celebrating a condescension like that, but this shows a different side to things.

Non-Jews remember what we all too often forget, that greater than the contribution of Jews to British society has been the contribution of Judaism. They know that what has made the Jewish community distinctive has been its faith, its value system, its way of life. Subtract religion from the Jewish people, and in the long run little remains.

The re-admission of Jews to England in 1656 was primarily a matter of religion. Yes, there was an issue of pragmatism. Cromwell knew, as Rabbi Manasseh ben Israel reminded him, that the presence of Jews in the sceptred isle would bring economic advantage. Out of historical necessity, Jews had become masters of trade and finance. Their presence made a significant difference to Venice in the 16th century and the Netherlands in the 17th. But this was secondary.

At the heart of Rabbi Manasseh’s essay “The Hope of Israel” (1650), the first move in the Jewish appeal for re-admission, was the curious argument that the Messiah would only come once Jews had been scattered to every country on Earth. A traveller to Ecuador, Antonio Montezinos, had claimed to have discovered an Indian tribe descended from the lost tribes of Israel. The one country that had no Jews was England. It was therefore a standing obstacle to Divine redemption. It was defying God’s script for human history.

It’d give it a read-the-rest recommendation.

After the latest al-Zawahiri video surfaced in the media, an unnamed intelligence agency intercepted a package addressed to the fugitive. Apparently, the package was sent by al-Zawahiri’s senior wife. A short letter was enclosed, we have obtained its translation.

My dear lord and husband,

I am using this opportunity to send you a letter with the neighbors’ boy Abdallah, who is going to Afghanistan to become a martyr* for the cause. I have seen your picture on TV in the internet cafe, and my heart stopped beating. You are so pale, my dear husband - it seems that all these years in a cave made your skin look like one of these British or American infidels, but please do not get angry with me for saying this. And that yellow circle on your forehead: Osama (more about him later) says that it could be from a laser sight. I do not know what this means, but please be careful when out of the cave.

We are doing well, do not worry about us. Of course, the money you send runs out too quickly, what with feeding all these 23 children, but we do with what we have. I have learned to bake a camel dung pie you will like very much, I put a piece of it in the package.

Our daughter Mabrouka is already nine years old and I have given her a blessing to become the third wife of Mahmoud, son of the Hussein the cobbler. It is true that Mahmoud is blind on one eye and drags his left foot a bit, but he already has six children and his father still employs him.

I am enclosing a picture of our son Saddam, he is three years old. He looks just like you when a light falls on his face in a certain way. It is true that I have not seen you for the last eight years, but this is an Allah’s miracle that puts to shame that silly story the Christian infidels tell about their “immaculate conception”. Tell you more when we meet.

Osama sends you his greetings, he visits me on his way to the clinic in Switzerland where they cut his face twice each year to make him look like someone else. The last time they made him look like some infidel named Newt Gingrich. Don’t know who this Gingrich is, but Osama laughed a lot about it for some reason.

I think maybe it is a good idea for you too. I am enclosing a few pictures of infidels. The one with the long hair - Orlando Bloom - may suit you very well, although there are some rumors that he may be Jewish, so it is up to you, of course.

You loving wife,
[signature illegible]

(*) Abdallah went off prematurely, as a result of pulling the cord by mistake when trying to swat a fly. The fly and Abdallah’s camel perished as well.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

If you read the Arab press rather than the Guardian, you’ll find a much more negative view cast on the prisoners’ document from a Hamas spokesliar.

Cairo, Asharq al-Awsat- The Palestinian Minister of Information Youssef Rizka warned of the dangers of a referendum to recognize Israel set for 26 July and said it will sow discord in the Palestinian arena. He predicted the government will be dissolved and a state of emergency declared, should the referendum take place. He explained that the Hamas government rejected the referendum and, consequently, would not be allowed to oversee it. Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority could then dissolve the government on the pretext it is not cooperating with his presidency. The issue would then be raised in parliament, where Hamas, who holds the majority will reject it and consider the referendum unconstitutional. This will usher in a constitutional crisis that could paralyze the Occupied Territories , in addition to the US-Israeli ongoing blockade.

In an exclusive interview with Asharq al Awsat on a visit to Cairo earlier this week, Rizka said the Palestinian prisoners’ document was no more than an excuse and a justification to dissolve the government. He also noted that members of the former cabinet wanted to hold early elections. Azzam al Ahmad, head of Fatah’s parliamentary bloc, Yasser Abd Rabo, member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s executive committee and al Tayyib Abdul Rahim, the president’s advisor, had all called for early elections.

According to Rizka, the current Hamas government has clarified its position; it believes the only way to achieve unity amongst Palestinians is to hold a dialogue. The proposed referendum, he cautioned, would sow discord instead of cementing national unity and would be a waste of money.

See any signs that Hamas is close to agreement in those quotes? No? How about here?

He predicted the blockade will disintegrate from within because it was unfair and corrupt and its only aim was to break the will of the Palestinian people. The current government, he added, was doing its utmost to ensure all employees receive are paid. Russia had succeeded in transferring $10 million through the presidency and more Arab money could be on it way. “We do not differentiate between the presidency and the government,” he said.

And here’s the quote that puts paid to the ridiculous notion that Hamas is ready to accept the existence of Israel in any way, shape, or form:

The Hamas official attacked Israel for wanting the Palestinian people to acknowledge Israel’s right to occupy their land and accept to live as second-class citizens under a so-called autonomous rule with limited authority.

And the biggest laugh-line:

The Palestinian official urged the international community to deal with the Islamic movement because it reflects the moderate vision of Islamic ideology and was flexible enough to deal with the Arab and western worlds in a pragmatic manner.

Hamas has already cracked down on music, dancing, and is talking about adding more sharia law to the terrortories[sic]. This “moderate” version of Islam states in its charter:

The day that enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In face of the Jews’ usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised.

It also says:

“There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.”

Tell me again how Hamas is going to moderate, accept Israel’s existence, lay down its arms and have peace (with moderate Islamic law governing the terrortories). Because, well, they won’t. Anyone who believes otherwise is fooling himself.