When the New York Times leads with this in the film review, I think that, added to the “this movie has really graphic violence” meme going around, will lead me to pass.

“300” is about as violent as “Apocalypto” and twice as stupid.

And while we’re talking about comics, Marvel killed off Captain America, who apparently was a victim of 9/11, or something like that. I don’t really know. I read about it, got annoyed, then remembered I never really read Cap, shrugged, and moved on with my life.

It’s not like they’re not going to bring him back in a few years anyway. Nobody’s ever really dead in comic books or soap operas.

Those wily Jews have done it again. They’ve invented a robot that will take the place of a soldier. Count on these robots saving Israeli—and probably American—lives once this thing goes operational.

A new, smart Israeli military robot can fight its way down dark alleys, through caves and over rubble, seeking out bombs and booby traps along the way and warning human foot soldiers of enemies and danger ahead, its manufacturer said Thursday.

Elbit Systems, one of Israel’s leading defense electronics companies, said its robotic point man, designated VIPeR, is small and light enough to be carried into battle on a soldier’s back, but the 11 kilogram (25 lb), 23 centimeter (9 inch) tall tough guy packs a full-size punch.

The remote-controlled unit can be fitted with a mini-Uzi automatic pistol, fragmentation, stun and smoke grenades, explosives sniffer and day and night vision cameras, Elbit said. It can climb stairs and find its way around with preprogrammed mapping software. The company said that the IDF was planning to carry out operational trials with the VIPeR with a view to deploying it with infantry units.

Elbit said the VIPeR is currently making its first public appearance at the winter exhibition of the Association of the United States Army, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Let’s check that ally status again.

Israel: Inventions that help the world, aid American soldiers and citizens, and improve life overall, as well as sharing intel and training on current asymmetrical warfare
Egypt: Ummmm….
Saudi Arabia: Oil, which is often used in boycott and price-rising threats
The Terrortories[sic]: Suicide bombs, the training of jihadis in tactics to be used against Americans, a base for al Qaeda fighters and a proxy army for Iran

Who is it that America thinks is the true ally of the above?

Israel, of course.

Why I will never stop reading Laurence Simon.

Spit-monitor warning. There’s a punchline.

Egypt is not allowing 2,000 Coptic Christians to make their annual Easter pilgrimage to Jerusalem due to trumped-up spying charges. Will the world rise up against this religious discrimination the way they do when Israel refuses to allow terrorists to travel to Mecca?

Of course not.

Some 2,000 Coptic and Greek Orthodox Christians in Egypt have been forbidden from making a pilgrimage to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in east Jerusalem this coming Easter.

Egyptian travel agents have informed their Israeli counterparts that the authorities in Cairo have decided not to allow this year’s pilgrimage, Yedioth Ahronoth has learned.

The decision is apparently not related to the uproar in Egypt surrounding the Israeli documentary film “Shaked Spirit “, but rather to the arrest of Mohamed Essam Ghoneim el-Attar, who is currently standing trial for allegedly spying for Mossad.

Will the wire services run story after story about how these Egyptian Christians are being denied their religious rituals, the way story after story about the lack of Christmas in Bethlehem are run each year?

I don’t think so.

Will the major church groups release outraged statements regarding this discrimination?

Probably not.

What time is it, kiddies? That’s right. It’s Israeli Double Standard Time!

The Iranians have got to be sweating bullets today. The general that defected is a former commander of the Revolutionary Guard, and is chatting away to Western intelligence. Unfortunately, he wasn’t involved in the nuclear program. But he was one of the men responsible for founding Hezbullah, and that means he can tie Iran to the murder of American Marines and probably the source of the bombings of the Buenos Aires Israeli Embassy and the Jewish Community Center.

A former Iranian deputy defense minister who once commanded the Revolutionary Guard has left his country and is cooperating with Western intelligence agencies, providing information on Hezbollah and Iran’s ties to the organization, according to a senior U.S. official.

Ali Rez Asgari disappeared last month during a visit to Turkey. Iranian officials suggested yesterday that he may have been kidnapped by Israel or the United States. The U.S. official said Asgari is willingly cooperating. He did not divulge Asgari’s whereabouts or specify who is questioning him, but made clear that the information Asgari is offering is fully available to U.S. intelligence.

Asgari served in the Iranian government until early 2005 under then-President Mohammad Khatami. Asgari’s background suggests that he would have deep knowledge of Iran’s national security infrastructure, conventional weapons arsenal and ties to Hezbollah in south Lebanon. Iranian officials said he was not involved in the country’s nuclear program, and the senior U.S. official said Asgari is not being questioned about it. Former officers with Israel’s Mossad spy agency said yesterday that Asgari had been instrumental in the founding of Hezbollah in the 1980s, around the time of the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut.

This is probably the biggest defection since the end of the Cold War. Iran is trying to downplay the effect of one of their highest-ranking Revolutionary Guards telling all to the West, but I’m not buying it.

An Iranian official, who agreed to discuss Asgari on the condition of anonymity, said that Iranian intelligence is unsure of Asgari’s whereabouts but that he may have been offered money, probably by Israel, to leave the country. The Iranian official said Asgari was thought to be in Europe. “He has been out of the loop for four or five years now,” the official said.

Israeli and Turkish newspapers reported yesterday that Asgari disappeared in Istanbul shortly after he arrived there on Feb. 7. Iran sent a delegation to Turkey to investigate his disappearance and requested help from Interpol in locating him.

Former Mossad director Danny Yatom, who is now a member of Israel’s parliament, said he believes Asgari defected to the West. “He is very high-caliber,” Yatom said. “He held a very, very senior position for many long years in Lebanon. He was in effect commander of the Revolutionary Guards” there.

Ram Igra, a former Mossad officer, said Asgari spent much of the 1980s and 1990s overseeing Iran’s efforts to support, finance, arm and train Hezbollah. The State Department lists the Shiite Lebanese group as a terrorist organization.

“He lived in Lebanon and, in effect, was the man who built, promoted and founded Hezbollah in those years,” Igra told Israeli state radio. “If he has something to give the West, it is in this context of terrorism and Hezbollah’s network in Lebanon.”

The noose is tightening around Iran. Even the UN can’t pretend that Iran has nothing to do with Hezbollah. Couple this with the news that there are massive protests and arrests in Iran these days, and the dough may very well be working that might rise and bring down the mullahcracy. One can only hope.

This is why I don’t live in New England.

It’s a video of what happens when you bring water to a boil and then toss it into -34F cold.