The one with the scraggly tail
How much is that Gracie in the basket?
I hear that she really can wail.

Because sometimes, you just need to post cat pictures.

I think this recording of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp survivors singing Hatikvah says it all, particularly the last line: “Am Yisrael Chai—the children of Israel still live!”

Do they bury you barefoot? I mean, in Jewish burials.

I love going barefoot. I was born barefoot. Iwouldn’t mind if I died barefoot. And I would like to be barefoot when they put me in that pine box.

I wonder if the rabbi would think it an odd question at our monthly “Ask the Rabbi” service.

If you go to the New York Times Flash presentation of the Tech timeline, a couple of things leap out at you right away. Go to image 6. You’ll see that Rooms 204 (image 15) and 205 (image 14) had the highest survival rate. Everyone in Room 205 survived. Here’s why:

The small group of 10 in Haiyan Cheng’s computer class heard the loud banging outside. She thought it was construction noise at first, but it distracted her. No, they were pops. Then silence, then more pops. Cheng and a female student went to the door and peered out. They saw a man emerge from a room across the hall. He was holding a gun, but it was pointed down. They quickly shut the door. More popping sounds, getting louder, closer. The class was in a panic. One student, Zach Petkowicz, was near the lectern “cowering behind it,” he would later say, when he realized that the door was vulnerable. There was a heavy rectangular table in the class, and he and two other students pushed it against the door. No sooner had they fixed it in place than someone pushed hard from the outside. It was the gunman. He forced it open about six inches, but no farther. Petkowicz and his classmates pushed back, not letting up. The gunman fired two shots through the door. One hit the lectern and sent wood scraps and metal flying. Neither hit any of the students. They could hear a clip dropping, the distinct, awful sound of reloading. And, again, the gunman moved on.

Room 204 was Liviu Librescu’s class, where he blockaded the door as long as he could, giving his students a chance to escape.

The other factor that made a difference in the survival of the students: Rooms 204 and 205 were the last ones that Cho got to. By the time he tried to get into the rooms, the teachers and students had figured out that something horrible was going on, and barricaded their doors. That’s also how the wounded survived in Room 207—after Cho left, they blocked the door with a table.

The Tough Guys who think the students should have fought back and disarmed Cho don’t seem to have twigged to the fact that many of the students did what they could to fight and survive—without facing a man carrying two semiautomatic weapons loaded with hollow-point bullets. The ones that did face Cho did what I’d probably have done: Dove for cover while he was shooting at them.

And one more thing: How many of you readers have ever heard live gunfire, in person? Do you know what semiautomatic gunfire sounds like? Do you know why people say it sounds like firecrackers? Because it does. That’s a fact that, unfortunately, I’ve come to know in person due to my neighborhood having gone downhill these last few years.

I heard shots fired in my neighborhood again last night. It’s gotten so I stop to listen, count the number of shots, and then call the police and tell them how many shots and where I think they came from. When the shots come out like this: “powpowpowpowpow”—I know someone’s got a semiauto in the neighborhood and is having a little fun with it.

If I’d been in one of those Tech classrooms, I’d have known that someone was firing a gun down the hall—because I know now what gunfire sounds like. But when I was in college, I most emphatically did not know the sound of a gun being fired, except for the ones I heard on TV.

Most of those kids didn’t know what hit them. Especially the ones in the first class he entered.

The attacks were over in ten minutes. I fail to see what more the students could have done.

The faux truce, during which hundreds of rocket attacks, shootings, stabbings, attempted suicide bombings and suicide bombings killed and wounded dozens of Israelis, has been declared “over.” One might ask how a truce, which is defined as a cessation of hostilities, had ever been in effect, what with all the bombs and rockets and bullets flying, but then, one would not be a reporter if one asked that question.

Here is today’s example of media bias.

Hamas militants fired a barrage of rockets and mortar shells toward Israel on Tuesday and said they considered a five-month truce with Israel to have come to an end.

[...] Tuesday’s rocket attack, which came on Israel’s 59th Independence Day, did not cause any damage or injury. However, it marked the first time Hamas openly acknowledged firing shells toward Israel since agreeing to a cease-fire along the Gaza-Israel border in November.

A spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing said the group considered the truce to have ended.

“The cease-fire has been over for a long time, and Israel is responsible for that,” the spokesman, Abu Obeida, told the Voice of Palestine radio station.

Uh-huh. “The first time Hamas openly acknowledge firing” rockets. They’ve been partnering with PIJ and other terrorist groups the entire time. But the news media will never acknowledge that. Note the weasel words to describe how Hamas has been almost, kind of, sort of keeping the truce.

Hamas had largely held back on attacks in recent months, particularly during its negotiations on a power-sharing agreement with the Fatah movement of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Now the Muslim militant group appears to be spoiling for a fight, especially in the absence of any progress toward the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

Israel has largely held back on major offensives, but whenever Israel doesn’t go into Gaza, the headlines read something like, “Israelis threaten major Gaza offensive” and the reason is always “in retaliation for attacks” when, in fact, it is to capture the murderers and prevent more killing. It isn’t retaliation. That’s what the terrorists say they do.

And now we come to the usual double-standard in reporting on Palestinian deaths. Buried deep in the bottom of the story is the report of Palestinian children being shot. But they weren’t shot by Israelis, so they don’t get a headline, or much attention at all. This is the very last paragraph of the story. There is no other notice of these incidents.

On Monday, a 12-year-old boy was shot dead in northern Gaza by a stray bullet fired by gunmen, while in a separate incident a 5-year-old girl suffered serious head wounds when she was hit by another stray bullet.

What media bias? That media bias.

Voting is now open at the Jewish and Israeli Blogger awards.

There are lots of good people needing votes there. Omri’s been nominated, for instance. I’m up against him in one category. That’s the one I’d rather you didn’t vote for me. There are other bloggers who are quite good and deserve your vote (most of them are on my blogroll).

I have a few in the best post categories. You can vote for those when they’re ready.

This year, there’s only one vote per category. I like that. So much better than nagging readers to vote, vote, vote. So, I’m nagging you to vote, instead.

But really, choose someone else for Best Israel Advocacy Blog in the Group A category. I have a JIB Award from a couple of years ago in my left sidebar that I’m quite content with. Best Post. I want you all to push me in the Best Post category.