Took the afternoon off to go see Spider-Man 3. No spoilers will be included with this post.

I liked it, but there were some plot twists I didn’t care for, and totally didn’t expect. Didn’t much like the ending.

On the other hand, the CGI has finally caught up to Spidey. It was really, really good in this film. One reason I haven’t bought the Spidey films is because the CGI sucks. It isn’t that you just always know it’s CGI—it’s that it looks like a computer game in the middle of a movie. Not this time. The Venom and Sandman effects were amazing.

Bruce Campbell plays a small, but very funny part. I miss Bruce Campbell. He needs a new TV series. So does Ted Raimi.

They showed seven commercials and five movie previews, taking a total of 15 minutes. I so should have tried to make the 1:30 screening. I wouldn’t have missed a thing but the commercials. Think I’ll start working that into my movie timetables.

One of the previews was the international trailer for the next Harry Potter film. They really make it look great. That’s another one I’m looking forward to. The summer movie season is here, finally. A big fat “Yay!’ from me.

I tend to rent most of my movies these days, but I’ll pay to see the big action flicks in a theater.

Apparently, I was linked by and published in the NY Daily News last week and didn’t know it.

When I commuted to Montclair State via bus from Elizabeth in my freshman year, I had to take a bus to downtown Newark and from there to Upper Montclair. I read the Daily News cover to cover in those days. It’s one of the ways I learned to write a news story. The Daily News may not be as highbrow as the New York Times, but they sure know how to present the information you want high up in the lede.

Anyway, my pal Drew alerted me to it. Okay. Letter to the editor of the New York Times: Check. Daily News: Check. Time to hit the NY Post.

Ew! Girl cooties!

Iran’s foreign minister walked out of a dinner of diplomats where he was seated directly across from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on the pretext that the female violinist entertaining the gathering was dressed too revealingly.

“I dont know which woman he was afraid of, the woman in the red dress or the secretary of state,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday.

You know, right now, I’m actually perfectly happy that the Iranians so disrespect women. It handicaps them in their efforts to take over the world, because they’re cutting out a large percentage of their potential scientists and engineers. That’s most of the reason why the Arab/Muslim world is so backwards. When you refuse to use half of your population’s assets, no way you’re going to keep up with, say, Israel.

I’m thinking a Nelson laugh is appropriate here.

I’m beginning to think that Gracie’s OBD is finally, finally under control. I’ve been reducing her prednisone gradually for months now, and last week spoke to the vet and reduced it to half a pill (2.5 mg), once a day. One of the problems with the prednisone is that it’s making Gracie’s stomach bleed, so she also gets a quarter pill of generic Pepcid for stomach irritation. And the way I found out about her stomach bleeding was after the IBD made her eject the contents of her stomach. She’s since been eating grass, and I’ve twice more seen traces of blood. So I spoke to the vet again this week, and said that there was no negative symptom at all since cutting her down to the half-pill. So now she’s on a quarter pill per day, and it’s been two days, and not a sign of ill effects. The rain has kept her inside, so no throwing up grass, either. I’ve been watching her closely the last two days, and breathing a sigh of relief every morning when I wake up and find no signs that Gracie vomited during the night.

What makes me think even more that the IBD is nearly gone: Gracie is happier than she has been in years, and I have the action shots to prove it. She rarely plays with toys, but she’s been playing with her ribbon toy for a couple of weeks now.

That is, of course, her tissue-paper nest. When Gracie is feeling exceedingly joyful, she takes a flying leap onto the sofa and lands on the tissue paper, happily rustling it into the corner and then yowling for me to come fix her nest. She has even gone after my hand while playing, something I can’t remember her doing since she was a kitten.

Just this morning I got her to leap over the side of the sofa onto her nest, and could not stop laughing as she pawed at the ribbon toy in mid-air and then landed in the nest. Alas, we did not get that one on film. Some other time, I hope.

These are the pictures of a happy, happy cat. I think that springs from several sources. She feels better than she has in months, perhaps even longer than that. I now work from home, so I’m around more than I’ve been in years. And I keep more of an eye on her, so she gets more petting and playtime than she has in the last couple of years—and Tigger doesn’t get to pick on her while I’m around. The vet mentioned that they’re really not sure what triggers IBD. It could be diet, allergies, germs, or even stress. The stress part of Gracie’s life has been greatly reduced, thanks to a confluence of events.

As a result, my girl is very, very happy, and at the age of ten, starting to play like a kitten. She’s stopped licking herself bare, and all of the former bald spots are growing back—even her tail, which you can see in this picture. I think part of that is stress, part dry skin. Next winter, we shall get a vet’s opinion the moment she starts up.

And she may be able to go off the Prednisone very, very soon. Here’s hoping. Now excuse me, I have to answer an Imperius Mew from Princess Gracie. She wants me to pay attention to her.

Stupid editorials in the New York Times.

Because Soccer Dad wrote it, so I don’t have to.

Hold onto your hats, folks. Azmi Bishara, the Arab member of the Israeli Knesset who is about to be charged with espionage and treason for aiding Hizbullah in the Second Lebanon War, is likening himself to Alfred Dreyfus. Say hello to yet another example of the Palestinians trying to co-opt Jewish symbols.

And of course, it’s in the LA Times. Grab your hankies, people, it’s a tearjerker.

I AM A PALESTINIAN from Nazareth, a citizen of Israel and was, until last month, a member of the Israeli parliament.

But now, in an ironic twist reminiscent of France’s Dreyfus affair — in which a French Jew was accused of disloyalty to the state — the government of Israel is accusing me of aiding the enemy during Israel’s failed war against Lebanon in July.

Israeli police apparently suspect me of passing information to a foreign agent and of receiving money in return. Under Israeli law, anyone — a journalist or a personal friend — can be defined as a “foreign agent” by the Israeli security apparatus. Such charges can lead to life imprisonment or even the death penalty.

The allegations are ridiculous. Needless to say, Hezbollah — Israel’s enemy in Lebanon — has independently gathered more security information about Israel than any Arab Knesset member could possibly provide. What’s more, unlike those in Israel’s parliament who have been involved in acts of violence, I have never used violence or participated in wars. My instruments of persuasion, in contrast, are simply words in books, articles and speeches.

These trumped-up charges, which I firmly reject and deny, are only the latest in a series of attempts to silence me and others involved in the struggle of the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel to live in a state of all its citizens, not one that grants rights and privileges to Jews that it denies to non-Jews.

Once again, what is going to convict Bishara?

His own words.

The case was built using wiretappings conducted by the Shin Bet during the Second Lebanon War.

[...] In one of the conversations Bishara was asked an unusually direct question by his Hizbullah contact who wanted to know how Israel would respond if it were hit by long range missiles which would reach beyond the city of Haifa. Bishara mumbled and admonished his contact, hinting that the conversation may be monitored, but after a short while his aspirations got the best of him and he told the Hizbullah man that such an action would serve Hizbullah’s goals. Several days later rockets began hitting targets south of Haifa.

Here we have the kind of prevarication that is most common from the “oppressed minority” p.o.v.:

I have certainly ruffled feathers in Israel. In addition to speaking out on the subjects above, I have also asserted the right of the Lebanese people, and of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, to resist Israel’s illegal military occupation. I do not see those who fight for freedom as my enemies.

This is what he considers “freedom fighters” and “ruffling feathers.” But the fact of the matter is, he doesn’t get to “think” these are his enemies. They are, by their actions, legally and physically enemies of the State of Israel, and he was, until last week, an officer of the government of Israel.

Bishara never equivocated about his loyalties, which invariably lay with Israel’s foes. After the IDF’s retreat from Lebanon in 2000, he crowed at an Umm el-Fahm rally: “Hizbullah won and for the first time since 1967 we taste victory. Hizbullah is justly proud of its achievement in humiliating Israel.”

He later repeated the same sentiments in Damascus, leading the Knesset to lift his parliamentary immunity, facilitating an indictment for supporting terrorist organizations. The Supreme Court, however, let Bishara off the legal hook. Likewise, in 2003, the Court overturned a Central Election Committee decision to disqualify Balad from the Knesset race.

Despite such tolerance, Bishara hectored in Beirut: “We don’t want your [Israel's] democracy. Give us Palestine.”

This time, Bishara isn’t getting off the hook, and he knows it. This time, he’s going down for treason and espionage. That’s why he fled. Don’t expect him to come back. He knows they have the goods on him.

In his own words.