The roaring in my ears has settled into some kind of thing that includes my usual un-fever (96.7) and now, a lethargy spread over my entire body.

Blogging may be light tomorrow.

I don’t remember. Did I mention the ear-roaring thing here? I think I did.

Doctor’s appointment in the morning.

I’ve been doing a long-overdue housecleaning, and here are some of the things I’ve found:

• At least half a dozen pens (including a Sharpie)
• The missing battery for my digital camera
• One earring
• My white baseball cap (yay!)
• A giant dark chocolate nonpareil that I bought, put aside, and forgot about (after eating its partner)
• A holiday card I forgot to open. Gee, what a cute baby, Ed!
• A gift I’d forgotten I got (a credit card wallet, which I desperately need to use)
• The card to my motor vehicle registration (I put the stickers on the plates and didn’t put the card in my wallet)
• A prescription for something I never filled, and don’t even know what it is. (Threw it away, since I couldn’t ID it.)

Things I lost:

• One earring (but I think I know where it is)

I have a long way to go. I’m really bad about clutter. But I think I’m going to get this done. After all, in all likelihood, I will be working from home soon. I need to have a clean and organized work environment. With cats.

Last year, the Socialist Left Party in Norway called for a complete boycott of Israeli goods.

It didn’t work.

In 2006, Norwegian firms imported Israeli goods worth NOK 650 million.

This is an increase by NOK 80 million, or 15 per cent from the year before, the strongest increase in many years.

This is shown by figures from Statistics Norway (SSB).

SV party secretary Edle Daasvand, who has led the campaign, says to the newspaper Vaart Land that it is not pleasant for the party to note that the import from Israel is increasing.

(You have to read the above with a Scandinavian accent. Use the Jamie Lee Curtis one from the end of “Trading Places.”)

Economic boycotts aren’t the ones that really hurt Israel. She gets her goods out eventually, because her products are worth having. The boycotts that hurt Israel are the arms boycotts—the ones that aren’t announced, but are in effect, such as the U.K. refusal to allow certain military parts sold to Israel.

This, mind you, is one of the reasons why Israel cultivates a relationship with China. If Western nations won’t sell Israel vital military parts that she doesn’t produce on her own, then Israel will turn to other nations for those parts.

Switzerland admits being the mediator in the secret Syria-Israel talks that no one in Israel authorized: Because those secret negotations known as Oslo were such a success. Thanks, Switzerland, and hey, how ’bout all those millions you stole from Jewish Holocaust victims? Yeah, we love Switzerland! Not.

Gabi Ashkenazi is the new IDF chief of staff: Say, with a name like that, ya think he’s an Ashkenazi Jew? In any case, I’ve been reading his bio, and he looks like a good choice. Here’s hoping.

Yeah, that’ll happen: The US has drafted a UN General Assembly resolution condemning Holocaust denial. Five bucks says a) It never passes or b) the OIC slams an anti-”Islamophobia” portion onto it.

Russia screws over the West: The sale of 29 Tor M-1 missile systems to Iran has been completed, and fuckyouverymuch, Russia, for all your help. Bastards. They haven’t quite figured out that they lost the Cold War, have they?

Some British Muslims ignore the MCB: Really, this is news? Some British Muslims won’t be boycotting Britain’s annual Holocaust Memorial Day. The The MCB boycotts it on the grounds that it doesn’t recognize Muslim genocides. (Yes, I know, the logic escapes me too, but I’m not a Muslim raised in an atmosphere of victimology.)

I have an idea. How about we make it Holocaust and Armenian Genocide Day? That will commemorate a Muslim genocide. Oh. Wait. They don’t want to commemorate the genocides that Muslims perpetrated? Whoops. My bad.

So much for the Ummah: You know, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that much-vaunted Muslim unity is a house of cards. Why? Because another top Sunni cleric in Saudi Arabia has declared Shiite Muslims heretics. Ut-oh. Now that’s not going to go over well in Iran and Iraq. Not to mention in the Saudi’s own backyard, where they have a substantial Shiite population.

Look, we Jews fight among ourselves all the time, but it almost never comes down to killing. So which one is the true religion of peace, huh? Huh? Huh?

That’s right. We are, baby!

And that’s all the news I feel like summarizing. Go read the rest for yourself, lazybones.

Gee, let’s think. Who on earth would want to “send a message” to Mohammed Dahlan, one of Mahmoud Abbas’ major allies? Who has threatened Dahlan in the past few weeks? Think, think, think, think. Oh, right. Hamas.

Dozens of masked gunmen claiming to be members of al-Qaida stormed an empty Gaza Strip beach resort Tuesday and blew up a reception hall, saying they were sending a message to an ally of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, witnesses said.

[...] Officials said there were no injuries in the beach attack in Gaza City, and they were investigating the claim of al-Qaida involvement. Security officials have discounted such claims in the past.

The resort’s manager, Yousef Sari, said about 40 masked gunmen raided the building with a warning for Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan, an Abbas confidant.

“Tell Dahlan al-Qaida has arrived in Gaza and his property and assets are targets,” Sari quoted the attackers as saying.

Dahlan is widely rumored to own the resort, which was popular with Israeli tourists in the 1990s but has closed after years of fighting. He denies any business connection.

So let’s see. Dahlan supposedly owns the resort. The masked gunmen claiming to be Al Qaeda blow in with a “warning” to Dahlan. Oh, yeah. They’re Hamas.

Stupid AP can’t even point out the fact that Hamas has been trying to kill Dahlan, Abbas’ strongman, for ages.

I’d work up some outrage about this story, but, well, there won’t be a unity government. And, well, I’m not really suprised by this. And, well, I’m tired of being outraged over palestinian behavior.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday he would not demand that Hamas recognize Israel as a precondition for the establishment of a unity government in the Authority.

“However, I am demanding that the government adhere to the agreements of the Palestinian Legislative Council and the decisions reached by the United Nations,” he said.

The talks on the establishment of a Palestinian unity government are expected to resume Tuesday on the heels of Abbas’ meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Damascus.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The talks that keep collapsing. Sure. We got it. Now pull the other leg.

The palestinians will never have a unity government, because even though they’re working for the same aim—the destruction of Israel—they are using different methods, and Hamas has proven itself physically incable of Fatah-like lying about accepting the existence of Israel. Every time Hamas says something remotely close to it, and it gets reported worldwide as acceptance of Israel’s existence (even when it isn’t), within hours, their spokesmen are on the horn to the media telling them they never meant to recognize Israel.

If you want to talk about a true “cycle of violence,” that would be the way the press keeps portraying these scenarios as if they’re actually going to happen. There are only so many times one can see these stories before one wants to throw a brick through the television or computer.

First, get Aron Heller to write it. Then, don’t let an editor touch it. How else to explain the full, correct reasons behind the war in Lebanon last summer?

Israel launched the full-scale assault just hours after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed three others in a July 12 cross-border raid. The resulting 34-day war killed more than 1,100 Lebanese guerrillas and civilians while Israeli officials said 159 Israelis were killed, including 39 civilians.

What? No, “most of them civilians” in the boilerplate about Lebanese casualties? What? You mean Hezbullah killed soldiers while kidnapping the others?

In any case, the piece is fascinating. It’s about a fake Arab village built in the Negev for IDF soldiers to hone their combat skills.

Under the cover of thick smoke, a Muslim call to prayer sounding in the background, the masked Israeli commandos stormed a concrete building and “killed” two soldiers posing as Hezbollah guerrillas.

Monday’s drill was accompanied by simulated helicopter, tank and rocket fire, but it was the setting that really made it realistic - a mock Arab city in the Negev desert complete with mosques, apartment buildings, even a faux refugee camp.

Last year’s war in Lebanon showed a great many shortcomings in IDF training and preparedness, particularly in regard to reserves. Israeli commanders will be using this fake village to redress those shortfalls.

The new commander’s main task will be restoring confidence in the military, whose preparedness and tactics have been harshly criticized. The Urban Training Center can play an important role toward that goal, recreating the conditions that bedeviled troops during the fighting in Lebanon.

“This is a very important part of the solution,” said Brig. Gen. Uzi Moskovich, the center’s commander.

[...] The training center consists of some 500 structures packed into eight square miles. It has all the elements of an Arab city of 50,000 - a main square, high-rise apartment buildings, even a mock refugee camp, Moskovich said.

Some buildings are designed to rotate and walls to become transparent, enabling the military to prepare for various scenarios of urban warfare - in Lebanon or against Palestinian militants in the West Bank or Gaza.

In the future, the training center will host friendly foreign armies for a series of war games.

Overall, the piece is nothing but positive. I wonder if the editors will spin it negative before the day is out. Probably not. It’s more of a feature than a news story.