Or at least, his Ba’ath party does. The Dorktator is still too scared to come out of his bunker to see his shadow. (Six more weeks of shelling.)

Syria will support Hezbollah and Lebanon against Israel’s attacks on the country, the ruling Baath Party said on Friday.

“The Syrian people are ready to extend full support to the Lebanese people and their heroic resistance to remain steadfast and confront the barbaric Israeli aggression and its crimes,” said a communique from the party’s national command issued after a meeting.

It said Israel and the United States “are trying to wipe out Arab resistance in every land under occupation” and that President Bashar Assad was aware of the seriousness of the situation in the region.

Okay, so let me get this straight. Lebanon isn’t occupied. Well, it is, but it’s by Syrian sock-puppets and a Syrian- and Iranian-supplied terrorist group.

Gaza isn’t occupied.

On the other hand, Syria probably considers Israel to be occupying Arab land, as the Muslim sense of history seems to always neglect the fact that Jews have been in Israel for 3,500 years.

And on the third hand, if Syria wants to give Israel an excuse to send tanks to Damascus—well, Israel certainly doesn’t want to open a third front. But she won’t ignore an attack by Syria.

I don’t think Syria is going to do more than bluster.

A mother and her four-year-old child died of wounds sustained in a direct katyusha strike on her home.

Hizbullah continues to strike north: A mother and her four-year-old son who were injured by a Katyusha rocket that hit a house in the Miron community near Safed early Friday evening died of their injuries.

Magen David Adom paramedics said three children and an elderly woman were wounded in the attack.

At least 300 Katyusha rockets and 500 motar shells have been fired by Hizbullah into Israel since violence started three days ago.

The cities of Carmiel and Nahariya suffered direct Katyusha hits earlier Friday. Paramedics reported that two people were lighlty injured in Nahariya.

Throughout the day, Katyusha barrages landed in Safed, Nahariya, Hatzor, Kiryat Shmona, Karmiel, Matat, Sasa, Pki’in and Beit Jan. One of the rockets directly hit a house in Safed, injuring 12 people. One person sustained a very severe head injury.

Rockets fired from southern Lebanon have also landed on Shomra, Metula, Zarit, and Even Menachem. Magen David Adom paramedics said over 50 civilians have been treated so far, including two in Yesod Hamaale where two katyusha rockets exploded.

In light of these facts, STFU, Jack. How would you feel if rockets landed on your houses?

President Jacques Chirac said Friday that Israel’s military offensive against Lebanon is “totally disproportionate” and asked whether destroying Lebanon was not the ultimate goal.

However, he also said that rockets fired on Israel by Hezbollah and Hamas are “inadmissible, unacceptable and irresponsible.”

Hezbullah HQ is a mass of rubble. Unfortunately, Nasrallah wasn’t in it at the time.

Olmert stands tough:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would not halt its offensive until Hezbollah was disarmed in a telephone call with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Olmert agreed to let a U.N. team try to mediate a cease-fire, an official close to Olmert said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

Bush talks tough:

Jul 14, 2006 — ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - President Bush wants Israel to minimize the risk of casualties in its campaign in southern Lebanon, but will not press it to halt its military operation, the White House said on Friday.

Gorilla Boy talks trash:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Israel against extending its assault into Syria and said the Jewish state couldn’t harm Iran, which also backs Hezbollah.

Iran is calling for outside intervention:

Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Friday said the United Nations and international community should intervene immediately to stop Israel’s military offensive in Lebanon.

“The situation in Palestine and Lebanon is worrying and dangerous,” Mottaki said after talks in Athens with Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and senior Greek diplomats.

“The international community and the United Nations must intervene to stop this crime,” he said.

But—but—why can’t Iran simply “wipe Israel off the map,” the way they’ve been threatening to for ages? C’mon, Mahmoud, now’s your chance to lead the Islamic world in its glorious jihad against the “Zionist regime.” Or is it possible your talk is all—bluster?

And finally, Hamas terrorists blew up the Rafah (Egypt-Gaza) border crossing:

GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian gunmen blew a six- meter (20-foot) hole in the Gaza-Egypt border wall on Friday, allowing nearly 1,000 Gazans stranded by the closed border to cross home, officials and witnesses said.

[...] Because of Rafah’s closure, Israel said it had offered to let the Palestinians pass through the nearby Kerem Shalom border crossing into Gaza.

But Palestinian officials rejected the Israeli proposal, insisting Rafah be reopened.

Good to know that Egypt and the UN are keeping the agreements signed last year when Israel withdrew from Gaza.

Visit these bloggers for more info.

More IAF strikes in Lebanon overnight:

The Israeli air force on Friday fired missiles at a bridge on the Beirut-Damascus highway over the Zahrani river and a Hizbullah base in Khiam.

The navy bombarded launch pads used by Hizbullah to fire Katyusha rockets into northern Israel.

Witnesses in Beirut said the Israeli Air Force again attacked the city’s international airport, according to Hizbullah’s television station al-Manar.

[...] Lebanon police reported that IAF aircrafts attacked a base of Ahmed Jibril’s organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command, at the Bekaa Valley, only 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) away from the Syrian border.

More rocket attacks on Israeli civilians today:

Katyusha rocket hits house in Safed, wounding 12 people. One person in serious condition after sustaining head injuries; some 14 rockets hit town Friday afternoon. Simultaneously rockets fired at Nahariya, land in heart of town; two lightly injured in strike.

More than 700 katyusha rockets and mortars have landed in Israel since the beginning of hostilities. Imagine the “disproportionate” response of any other nation under these circumstances. Like, say, Russia. Or France, who threatened to nuke Iran only this past year, as I recall.

Still waiting for UN condemnation of Hezbullah rocket attacks on Israel. No, not really.

Baby Assad is feeling the heat. His ambassador to the U.K. called on Hezbullah to stop firing rockets at Israel.

In a significant move, the Syrian ambassador to London, in an interview with the BBC, called on Hizbullah to stop firing missiles at Israel.

“Syria is not interested in joining the battle,” the ambassador said. He also asked Hizbullah to come to an arrangement that would include exchanging prisoners.

You know, this could be the Syrian version Groundhog Day. If Baby Assad comes out of his bunker and sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of war. If he stays inside, it will be a long war. Either way, Baby Assad will not be getting a tan this summer.

Terrorists are still firing kassam rockets into Sderot. Obviously, Israel needs to make the message louder and more clear. Hamas hasn’t heard it yet.

Michael Oren writes that Israel needs to take the war to its originators: Syria and Iran.

Israel refrained from large-scale military reprisals for this aggression, confident of having won international goodwill through its withdrawals and fearful of being dragged back into the Lebanese and Gazan morasses. But Israelis have learned that unprovoked violence against them raises little outcry in the world and that failure to react to isolated acts of terror invites unremitting terror. Today a united Hezbollah-Hamas axis has emerged, financed and trained by Syria and Iran, with the goal of destabilizing Israel and frustrating its efforts to disengage from the conflict. In spite of the perils that this front poses to Israel, and the ethical dilemmas that fighting it raises, Israel can transform the situation into one that promotes both domestic and regional stability.

In countering Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel has little choice but to strike at those who authorize the attacks: the heads of those organizations. Both Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza and Hasan Nasrallah in Lebanon appear indifferent to their own people’s safety. For propaganda purposes, they order rocket crews to operate in densely populated areas so that Israeli retaliation will inflict the maximum number of civilian casualties. But these leaders remain extremely reluctant to pay for terror with their own lives, a fact that Israel discovered when its policy of targeted assassinations compelled Hamas to agree to a cease-fire.

[...] Efforts by the United States, the United Nations and the European Union to dissuade Iran and Syria from activating their terrorist agents have consistently proved ineffective. Therefore Israel has no realistic option but to convince these states that the price of promoting aggression is prohibitive. If Israeli soldiers and civilians are the targets of Iranian- and Syrian-backed terror, then the Iranian and Syrian militaries must become targets for Israel.

In the Toronto Star, Mitch Potter says that Hezbollah has bitten off more than it can chew:

“Hezbollah made the mistake of thinking an untested Israeli leadership would repeat the past and back down,” said Meir Javandanfar of the Middle East Analysis Company.

“But what they didn’t realize is that the overwhelming majority of Israel’s generals are not only ready to fight, but ready to take some bruises along the way. And they are not going to leave the ring until Hezbollah has a very bloody nose.”

In the International Herald Tribune, an Israeli writes:

Since then, we have had the Yom Kippur War, the Attrition War, the Lebanon War, two intifadas and endless terror. Israel has not only survived, but has become stronger. It is a vibrant and prospering democracy, with robust economic growth over the last five years, the highest number of books published per capita in the world, and second place in the world in the publication of articles in scientific journals.

The Arabs, in the meantime, with all their aggression, have only brought on their peoples misery and poverty. President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and King Hussein of Jordan tower above this self-destructiveness as leaders who really served the best interests of their people by making peace with Israel.

So now Hamas and Hezbollah are again feeling Israel’s muscles, to see if we have mellowed. It has long been the idea of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, that Israel has become weak, like a cobweb that can be easily torn apart, or better, destroyed from within. These people, who mistake democratic life for weakness, just can’t grasp the fact that a democracy, if attacked, will always have the upper hand because free and proud people who fight in self defense will not be defeated.

Read them all.

In our era of narrowing scientific expertise, rarely does a person discover a hidden connection between seemingly unrelated areas of knowledge. Discoveries of this kind are becoming things of the past, and, I fear to say, the golden age of Leonardo will never return.

It is absolutely astounding when in this age someone breaks the mold. Extends the envelope, makes a breakthrough, pushes the pedal to the metal, takes it all, spanks the ca… Er… scratch the last one. Anyway, you know what I mean.

In short, when a momentous discovery of a link between two so far seemingly unrelated entities - Zinedine Zidan and George Bush - is made, easily and elegantly, as if an afterthought, and by a person who’s only claim to a scientific title is that she served 8 years as adjunct professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Journalism - why, doesn’t it make you cry tears of happiness?

While the whole world stood agape at the sight of Zizou headbutting an Italian player, and then waited for a week for an explanation of this inexplicable phenomenon, never observed hitherto on a myriad football fields in the world, only one person - Patt Morrison, she of many titles and achievements, kept her cool and analysed. And analysed. And a… Sorry, I am still overexcited.

Anyhow, here it comes - the groundbreaking scientific article disguised as a humble “opinion” piece in LA Times.

NOW WE KNOW why France’s team captain lost his cool in the World Cup finals and France lost the trophy to Italy.

Terrorism.

Zinedine Zidane, who is of French and Algerian ancestry, head-butted an Italian player who insulted him. Although Zidane in an interview Wednesday would not say what words provoked him, a lip reader hired by the Times of London claims Marco Materazzi called Zidane “the son of a terrorist whore.”

That’s pure trickle-down politics. From the White House to the soccer pitch, “terrorist” has “cooties” and “your mother wears combat boots” flat beat as the top playground potty-mouth slur for the 21st century.

Who’s surprised? The Bush administration has been scattering the word like ticker tape on a Manhattan parade. Old McDonald left the farm for the NSA, and now it’s here a terrorist, there a terrorist, everywhere a terrorist.

Are you sufficiently breathless? No? Your worthless body and worthless mind don’t contain a single scientific molecule then. Turn yourself in to the nearest butcher as a suitable material for cat food.

Hat tip to Andrew Ian Dodge - you made my day!

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

A quick look at reactions around the world:

THE EUROPEAN UNION criticized Israel for using “disproportionate” force in its attacks on Lebanon. The EU also called Israel’s naval blockade cutting off supply routes to Lebanon unjustified.

EGYPT warned that the violence could engulf the entire region in conflict and called on all sides to avoid “being dragged into a new cycle of violence and counterviolence.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nothing new there, except the “disproportionate” mantra, which has obviously replaced the “Israel must use restraint” mantra. Say, has anyone ever told Russia that their actions in Chechnya were “disproportionate” force? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

IRAN’S PRESIDENT warned Israel against extending its offensive in Lebanon to neighboring Syria, saying such a move would be regarded as an attack on the whole Islamic world and be met with a “crushing response,” the official Iranian news agency said today.

“If the occupying regime of Jerusalem attacks Syria, it will be equivalent to an attack on the whole Islamic world and the regime [Israel] will face a crushing response,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by IRNA. The Iranian leader called on Muslim countries to create a united front against Israel.

He’s putting himself in a very precarious position. If Israel does attack Syria, Iran is going to have to use more than words, since the country signed some kind of mutual-aggression pact and put Syria under its “protection.” And oh, by the way, Gorilla Boy? STFU. Your missiles are landing on Israelis and killing them. Your country is responsible for shedding Israeli blood. Your country is the one Israel should be bombing, and that may well happen, once Hezbullah is taken care of. The proxy war is on, and Iranian Revolutionary Guards are murdering Israeli civilians.

SAUDI ARABIA, the Arab world’s political heavyweight and economic powerhouse, accused Hezbollah guerrillas — without naming them — of “uncalculated adventures” that precipitated the latest Middle East crisis.

Wow, Sunnis really, really hate Shias. Saudi Arabia is no fool, though. It’s on Iran’s list, and the royal thieves know it.

AT THE UNITED NATIONS, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was “deeply alarmed” by the escalating violence. Lebanon asked the U.N. Security Council to demand a cease-fire.

We should probably start numbering Kofi’s statements. “Concerned,” “Alarmed,” “Deeply Alarmed,” and “Downright Unhappy.” Okay, so he uses the first three but not the last. We can add our own, including “Useless Tool.”

RUSSIA’S FOREIGN MINISTER, Sergei Lavrov, said, “This is a disproportionate response to what has happened, and if both sides are going to drive each other into a tight corner, then I think that all this will develop in a very dramatic and tragic way.”

Once again, Chechnya. Chechnya. Chechnya, you bloodthirsty, hypocritical bastards. And by the way, you still owe Israel for those effing Protocols, so shut up.

PRESIDENT BUSH backed the Israeli action. “Israel has a right to defend herself,” he said at a news conference in Germany with Chancellor Angela Merkel. “Every nation must defend herself against terrorist attacks and the killing of innocent life.”

U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE told reporters, “We just continue to ask that the Israelis exercise restraint, be concerned about civilian casualties, be concerned of course about civilian infrastructure.”

Israel is always concerned about the above. But terrorists use the civilian infrastructures, which is why South Beirut was bombed last night. That’s where Hezbullah lives.

Muslims care so much for the welfare of other Muslims, Egyptians are letting palestinians die at the border of Gaza.

A confrontation developed Thursday at the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt when a few dozen armed men tried to open the crossing and allow thousands of Palestinians waiting on the Egyptian side through.

The Palestinian Authority’s Presidential Guard stopped them.

In the past several days, eight Palestinians have died at the Rafah crossing, waiting for days with no shelter and an inadequate water supply.

Israel offered to open the Kerem Shalom crossing to allow those waiting to cross the border, but the PA refused, fearing that Israel would force the travelers to undergo security checks - which they do not at the PA-controlled Rafah crossing.

I’m sure the world will spin this anti-Israel, but let me point out that the border crossing is the border between Gaza and Egypt, and the PA won’t let people through the Israel-controlled crossings. Not the IDF. The PA.

I just got an unexpected windfall due to making a really stupid mistake on my taxes. I am using the tax money to buy an mp3 player. I was thinking of buying an iPod, then got into a couple of discussions with people.

As I know exactly zero about mp3 players (other than their general concept), any suggestions out there from my readers? iPod or not iPod?

I want two things: A decent amount of storage (I’ll get the 60 gig iPod if I go that way) and the ability to play videos (but not on a one-inch screen, I’ll probably plug it into my widescreen laptop or my TV set). Wait, three things. A decent headset to go with.

Anything else is gravy. Lair Simon suggested a player that comes with a phone. Or a phone that comes with a player. Don’t need it, and really don’t want it to be overly complex.

Suggestions? Comments? Preferences?