Lair reminded me that it’s Tummy Tuesday, time to show off our catbellies. Tig has quite the belly to show off, too, as you can see in this series of shots.

Here, Tig’s fast asleep.

Two hours laters, Tig’s still fast asleep, but has changed position somewhat.

I love the delicately-held leg in mid-air.

The flash has woken him up, but that doesn’t stop him from continuing to look goofy.

And finally, the big stretch, in preparation to: Go upstairs and go to sleep. After eating something first, of course.

These pictures were taken while Gracie was still not eating, and I was waiting for the biopsy results. That’s her towel, not his, on the sofa. She slept on it while she was recovering. She is on the chair next to me as I write this, and her tail is almost back to its whip-like strength. (When she is fully recovered, I’ll have to remember to once again move my drinks out of range—that tail knocks things off my table at will.) And, best of all to report on a Tummy Tuesday—two nights ago, she lay down and rolled over for a bellyrub, though she didn’t stay long, and didn’t want the area with the scar touched at all. But she has a furry chest at the top of her tummy that she liked getting skritched just fine.

And the deep, throaty purr is returning.

Toldja so. He’s not Jewish. Which makes him even more of a bigot, what with now also being charged with anti-Semitic rants as well.

Last week, crisis-management expert Howard Rubenstein acknowledged that Richards had shouted anti-Semitic remarks in an April standup comedy routine well before his appearance earlier this month in which he harangued hecklers with the n-word. But he defended Richards’ language about Jews, saying that the comic “is Jewish. He’s not anti-Semitic at all. He was role-playing.”

As Rubenstein’s assertion circulated, Jewish organizations and commentators pointed out that the man who played Cosmo Kramer on “Seinfeld” has not converted to Judaism and neither of his parents are Jewish.

Right. Not Jewish. How does his idiot publicist spin this?

“Technically, not having been born by blood as Jewish and not formally going into a conversion, it was purely his interpretation of having adopted Judaism as his religion,” Rubenstein told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “He told me, `I’m Jewish,’ when I asked him.

“He said there were two mentors who raised him and who had a big influence on his life, and they were Jewish. He said, `I agree with the concepts and the religious beliefs of Judaism and I’ve adopted Judaism as my religion,’” Rubenstein said. “He really thinks of himself as Jewish.”

You know, I really think of myself as telekinetic. Therefore, I can move objects with my mind.

Oh, yeah. Logic sets in. You see, Michael Richards is as Jewish as I am telekinetic.

I’m going to guess that the closest he’s ever come to Jewish is being circumsized as a baby. And I wouldn’t lay odds on that.

And now, let the bigot magnet commence, so I can get more samples for my freakmail folder. I’ll use it in another podcast someday.

I swear, you could recycle my posts. Just look back in my archives to find the exact same thing.

Okay, so a cease-fire is declared for Sunday. Terrorists launch rockets into Israel an hour after it was supposed to take effect.

Terrorists launch rockets on Monday.

Terrorists launch more rockets on Tuesday.

Ceasefire breached again: A Qassam rocket fired by Palestinian gunmen into Israeli territory Tuesday evening landed in an open area next to Sderot; a short while later a second rocket landed just north of the western Negev town.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the military arm of Fatah, took responsibility for firing the two Qassam rockets that landed Tuesday next to Sderot. The organization announced that the shootings will continue in response to continued Israeli violations of the ceasefire.

And yet, the world media declares the cease-fire to be “holding.” They call it “fragile,” too. And as I said in my last post, when the IDF goes after the terrorists who are launching the rockets, the headlines will read “Israel violates cease-fire.” Trust me on this one.

And oh, yeah—the terrorists have developed a new, presumably deadlier, rocket.

Way to go, Ehud! Great cease-fire!

As the fragile ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians goes into its third day, dozens of members of the of the Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade gathered in Nablus for a military parade showing off what they say is the new and improved rockets of the organization in the West Bank.

The activists claimed that the rocket is a new model called Jund Allah 1, and it will be operational soon to be launched at Israeli targets.
The Brigades clarified that in case of an Israeli escalation, the rockets will land in a short time in Israel.

Al-Aqsa is run by Fatah, which is run by Mahmoud Abbas, who pretends that he has no control over his own organization. And the media pass on those lies.

Palestinian lawmaker Saeb Erekat on Monday condemned a Qassam rocket strike on Israel from Gaza earlier in the day, but said that the day-old cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians “can work, and I believe we have to make it work.”

Speaking to Channel 2 Television, Erekat called for patience regarding the truce violations. “I admit there were Palestinian violations, [and] let me condemn them,” he said.

No worries, Saeb, please feel free to condemn them. Let’s just read together the following quote from the same article:

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks.

Them Al-Aqsa Wannabe Martyrs - are they from your own (Fatah) gang, as it looks? No mistake?

OK, now let’s hear the condemnations…

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

You can tell the guy who wrote this really, really, really wanted to use the word “defenestrate.”

Police suspect Hadera woman was defenestrated
By JPOST.COM STAFF

A woman in her 30s was listed in moderate to serious condition on Monday afternoon with injuries sustained after she fell from the third story of a Hadera building.

Police suspect that the woman had actually been defenestrated by her husband, but wer unable to question him immediately after the incident, as he appeared to be drunk.

And although “defenestrated” sounds dirty, for those of you who are too lazy to look it up via dictionary.com, it means to throw out a window. As in, the husband threw his wife out the window. Oh, sure, it can conserve space. But you know the writer really, really, really got a kick out of being able to use “defenestrate” in that story and headline.

Here’s a story with the wonderful news that an off-duty policeman attacked an Orthodox Jew on the streets of Melbourne. Nice.

The softly spoken Melbourne businessman, an orthodox Jew, was walking along a street in his East St Kilda neighbourhood one Saturday in October with two of his young children when drunken football fans in a minibus first verbally abused him. One then punched him in the face.

Attacks such as the one on Mr Vorchheimer reached a record high of 156 in the year to the end of September, according to a new report to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

The category of “attacks” includes abuse such as arson and vandalism, while “threats” include threats via telephone, leaflets, posters or email.

The combined total was 442, including the vandalising of synagogues, a Jewish university student being spat on and worshippers leaving a synagogue being pelted with eggs.

Former council president Jeremy Jones, who has been compiling the figures since 1989 from community reports, said a rise in reports generally occurred when perpetrators believed they could get away with them.

Weeks after the attack on Mr Vorchheimer, with no charges laid, it came to light that the driver of the bus was an off-duty policeman, and last Friday, the day before the Victorian state election, Mr Vorchheimer handed Premier Steve Bracks a copy of his police statement and urged him to take action.

So, what’s the headline to the story? Is it “Anti-Semitic attacks up in Australia”?

Nope.

Rise in attacks on Jews tests forgiveness

Because, after all, forgiveness is what we should be focusing on. Not the rising number of attacks on Jews.

Morons.

(It’s no use telling self to limit the surfing to places self already knows. Self seems to be incorrigible.)

And so it happened that I have stumbled upon another interesting bunch of people that call themselves (a bit pompously to my simple tastes) “FFIPP, the Faculty For Israeli-Palestinian Peace”. On the face of it, not a bad idea: we cannot have enough of cooperation between all Palestinians and Israelis of good will and good intentions.

But then it all went downhill very quickly. Starting with the Guiding Principles (see the link above) that mention the security of Israelis in passing only in item 9:

9. FFIPP-I views the struggle for justice and the support of Palestinian rights as simultaneously a struggle for the security and moral status of Israelis and world Jewry.

The formula is extremely ambiguous. Does it mean that the struggle for justice/support for Palestinians automatically resolves the security and moral status [sic!] of Israelis? And what does “world Jewry” have to do with all of the above? Too mealy-mouthed for my taste. Or made vague intentionally?

Other than the already quoted, the Guiding Principles do not mention the security of the darn Israelis (that, in general, seem to be rather a hindrance to the whole FFIPP business). Well, in fact they do, but in a negative way:

3. FFIPP-I regards academic freedom for Palestinians as a key issue, focusing on the human right of the Palestinians to study free of hardships. This entails a struggle for the immediate alleviation of the conditions of the vast majority of the Palestinians, i.e., an end to checkpoints, dismantling of the Wall, and a complete end of occupation.

Dismantling of the Wall… Surely, this measure is going to improve the security of both sides to no end. Let’s see what does a more… er… down to earth, so to say, more practical person, in other words - Secretary General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization - has to say on the subject of the Wall:

Secretary General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization spoke with the Lebanese al-Manar television station and said that the security fence built by Israel has made it very difficult for his people to conduct attacks against the Jewish state.

“The fence is a barrier and has completely changed the situation on the ground,” said Ramadan Abdallah Shalah, secretary general of the terror group which operates in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, but is headquartered in Syria.

Of course, it is perfectly possible that the fence (which is a barrier at the same time) described by this expert is not one and the same as the Wall that should be dismantled, according to FFIPP. Notice - it is not that they demand that the “wall” follow the so called Green Line, no - they want it to be removed. Probably to reduce the frustration level of Mr. Ramadan Abdallah Shalah (PBUH) that seems to be mightily displeased with that unfair interference with his plans.

So much about the Guiding Principles. Aside of this interesting exercise in fairness and balance, I have read only one other document: An Urgent Call to Stop Violence and Make Peace. To let you go to your beer and pretzels quicker, I shall summarize it for you: it follows the general line of its first sentence and a half: “The Palestinian people are again subject to horrific violence and unbearable suffering. Particularly critical are the conditions in Gaza…”

That is not surprising. What is surprising indeed is that the whole document does not mention Qassams nor the kidnapping of our soldier. That from a Faculty For Israeli-Palestinian Peace (not just Palestinian Peace, mind you). And then, another “surprise”: “While it considers resistance to occupation legitimate, FFIPPI promotes non-violent practices as the best path for justice and peace.”. So, Qassams on Sderot are legitimate, but FFIPPI will be willing to consider some non-violent practices as a… what? An alternative? An addition to Qassams? Unclear…

Now to the point. What FFIPPI stands for is more or less clear and hardly surprising. What does take the biscuit in this story is this list of signatures. The number of Jews who have signed it, if indeed they did, is amazing.

I really don’t know - does high education and specialization in some narrow area of science harm some basic brain cells? Do I have to be happy for the high moral horse some of my people are riding or to cry that my people seem to give birth to so many useful idiots? Aw, what the heck - mere rhetoric it was, and you and I know it…

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

So let’s see what the cease-fire and Olmert’s major concession speech have wrought:

Hamas says they’re going to kidnap more Israeli soldiers. And why wouldn’t they? Look what kidnapping Gilad Shalit has done: It’s gotten Israel to offer them a state.

Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal has threatened further kidnappings of Israeli troops on Monday afternoon, according to the Hamas affiliated Palestine Info website.

Kidnappings like the abduction “done four months ago” of Gilad Shalit would go on, the report said, as part of “a bid to swap them for Palestinian detainees languishing in occupation dungeons.”

“As long as there are (Palestinian) captives, the resistance will continue to capture Zionist soldiers to exchange them for those captives who spent long years in occupation jails,” Mashaal was quoted as saying.

Yep. And oh, yeah, Hamas wants free passage in the West Bank, too. Never mind that the security forces are constantly stopping terror attacks (they got another one only last week, and found one with liquid explosives a short time ago). Sure, let them have free passage. It’s not like they want to murder Israelis or anything like that.

I hate linking WND, but Ynet keeps using them, so I’m going to assume that the stories Ynet links are legit. Because they interviewed a PRC terrorist, who said they’re using the cease-fire to rearm and reload. Color me unsurprised.

The ceasefire to which Israel and major Palestinian factions agreed yesterday will be used by Palestinian groups to smuggle weapons into Gaza, reinforce and train “fighter units,” and produce rockets for a future confrontation with the Jewish state, the leaders of the four most significant Palestinian terror groups in Gaza told WND in a series of exclusive interviews.

“The ceasefire offers a period of calm for our fighters to recover and prepare for our final goal of evacuating Palestine,” said Abu Abir, spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, a Hamas-allied terror organization in the Gaza Strip responsible for many of the recent rocket attacks against Israeli communities.

“We will keep fighting (Israel), but for the moment we will postpone certain parts of the military struggle,” Abu Abir said.

Ehud Olmert is the biggest disaster to hit Israel since the one-two punch of Bibi Netanyahu and Ehud Barak (can you say “Wye River Accords, Camp David 2000, and Taba”? I knew you could.).

However—and I can’t believe I’ve sunk this low—I’m ready for Bibi again. I think that at least this time, he won’t sell the farm. Someone has got to manufacture a no-confidence vote for Olmert and watch Kadima come crashing down.

Even the AP has noticed the council’s anti-Israel bias.

The UN Human Rights Council on Monday passed two resolutions criticizing Israel, but kept its record intact of singling out no other country for human rights abuses.

The 47-nation council, which has censured only Israel since it began operating six months ago, this time took the Jewish state to task for its occupation of Syria’s Golan Heights and for building settlements in occupied Arab territories.

The council voted 32-1 with 14 abstentions to declare illegal Israel’s 1981 annexation of the Golan Heights and demand that Israel rescind its decision to impose its laws and jurisdiction on the area, which it captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Canada, which said the resolution was unbalanced, was the only no vote, and European Union members abstained.

Then it voted 45-1 to demand Israel reverse its policy of building and expanding settlements as a first step toward dismantling them. Again, Canada was the only country to vote against the resolution.

The United States and Israel are not members, but Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva said Syria had proposed the Golan Heights resolution “purely to draw attention away from its … own deplorable human rights record.”

You know it’s got to be a major bias when the AP notices it. Wow.