Sarah has finished book 7, and I said a few days ago that I’d wait until she finished the book before posting about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I guess I should wait for Larry to finish it, though, seeing as how he reads this site every day too.

In the meantime, if you have already read the book (spoilers at most of the links), you’ll enjoy this WSJ review. It discusses religion in Harry’s world, and contains absolutely big-time spoilers. If you haven’t read the book, don’t click the link.

There’s also this MSNBC article from Rowling’s appearance on the Today show last Friday. Yes, it contains some major spoilers, so don’t whine to me if you haven’t finished the book and click on that link.

MSNBC was on a roll with the Rowling stories. This one has spoilers, but it also reveals which character got a reprieve from death after having been scheduled to die in the series. I was surprised, but pleased to find that one out.

And last, but not least, Rowling talks about her plans to write the Harry Potter encyclopedia, and spills the beans about what happens after the book ends, as well as why she changed the last word of the final book (which was originally supposed to read “scar.”) Here there also be spoilers.

So you think this one can get on lolcats?

“I can sings oppra?”

President Bush is proposing a multibillion dollar arms sale to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other Gulf States. The sales include JDAMs and other advanced weaponry that can seriously harm Israel’s current advantage against the Muslim world.

Other salves to Israel in light of the proposed deal include asking the Saudis to accept restrictions on the range, size and location of the satellite-guided bombs, the Times said. The Pentagon is also asking for a commitment not to store the weapons at air bases close to Israeli territory, it added.

There’s no way that these sophisticated weapons could possibly end up in the hands of people wishing Israel and America ill, is there?

Now Condoleeza Rice says really, it’s okay, it’s all in our best interests and to prevent Iran from taking over the Gulf.

The Bush administration said Monday that its plan to provide billions of dollars in advanced weapons to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel over the next 10 years was intended in part to serve as a bulwark against Iran’s growing influence in the Middle East.

[...] Ms. Rice took pains to dispute the notion that the Bush administration was trying to buy Saudi cooperation on American policy initiatives in Iraq and Israel in exchange for the military package. Three times during a briefing with reporters aboard her plane en route to the Middle East, she said no quid pro quo was involved in the arms sale.

“We are working with these states to give a chance to the forces of moderation and reform,” she said on an overnight flight before a refueling stop in Shannon, Ireland.

Many members of Congress are not happy.

But signaling a possible battle between the White House and Congress, Mr. Lantos said lawmakers wanted assurances that the weapons package “include only defensive systems,” not weaponry that could be used by Arab states to attack Israel’s military.

[...] R. Nicholas Burns, under secretary of state for political affairs, said Monday that a majority of the weapons systems intended for the Gulf states were defensive.

But some defense experts said any battle between Congress and the White House over the definition of “defensive” versus “offensive” weapons systems might be futile because the terms can be malleable.

And Olmert is a fool.

Let’s take a look at another arms deal that was made to prop up Fatah over the years, and what happened to it in only the last couple of months.

When the Islamist group Hamas conquered the Gaza Strip in June it seized an intelligence-and-military infrastructure created with U.S. help by the security chiefs of the Palestinian territory’s former ruler.

According to current and former Israeli intelligence officials, former U.S. intelligence personnel and Palestinian officials, Hamas has increased its inventory of arms since the takeover of Gaza and picked up technical expertise — such as espionage techniques — that could assist the group in its fight against Israel or Washington’s Palestinian allies, the Fatah movement founded by Yasser Arafat.

Hamas leaders say they acquired thousands of paper files, computer records, videos, photographs and audio recordings containing valuable and potentially embarrassing intelligence information gathered by Fatah. For more than a decade, Fatah operated a vast intelligence network in Gaza established under the tutelage of the Central Intelligence Agency.

[...] But a number of former U.S. intelligence officials, including some who have worked closely with the Palestinians, said there was ample reason to worry that Hamas has acquired access to important spying technology as well as intelligence information that could be helpful to Hamas in countering Israeli and U.S. efforts against the group.

Close ties between Hamas and the governments of Iran and Syria also mean that intelligence-and-spying techniques could be shared with the main Middle East rivals of the Bush administration. As the White House prepares to lead an international effort to bolster Fatah’s security apparatus in the West Bank, the losses in Gaza stand as an example of how efforts to help Fatah can backfire.

[...] “The United States invested a lot of effort in setting up this system in Gaza — construction, equipment, training… filings, the logistics, the transportation. It was a big operation, and it’s now in the hands of the other side,” said Efraim Halevy, who formerly headed both the Mossad, which is Israel’s foreign-intelligence agency, and Israel’s National Security Council. Mr. Halevy said, however, that he didn’t want to overemphasize the value of Hamas’s potential intelligence gains.

And now let’s look at the sales of advanced equipment to the Saudis in another way: How close are the Islamists to the security services of the countries that will be receiving the JDAMs? How many members of the army are affiliated with al Qaeda and its network of terrorist groups, salivating over the chance to get the most sophisticated missiles available? What will JDAMs be used for in the hands of terrorists? Gee, let’s think.

There is simply no way this ends well. We are arming our enemies, and with our own weapons, no less.

So, why exactly would the Iranians need Hebrew speakers? Because they’re recruiting Palestinians who can speak and read Hebrew.

The Iranian regime needs Hebrew speakers to work as translators, intelligence agents and as part of its propaganda machine against Israel. The main source of Hebrew speakers is Palestinian students studying abroad or Palestinian terrorists sent for military training in Iran and Lebanon.

One of the most prominent centers for Hebrew studies is located at Iran’s embassy in Beirut, where Hizbullah members learn Hebrew at the Islamic Culture and Education Center.

The embassy owns a vast library of Hebrew newspapers and books, including even children’s’ books. It was there that Hizbullah had trained, with the aid of Palestinians, a large group of fighters who were placed in charge of tapping Israeli communication systems, in a bid to collect intelligence on the “Zionist enemy” before and during the Second Lebanon War.

According to the Shin Bet, Israeli Arab students studying out of the country are an attractive target for Hizbullah, because it is easier for the organization to recruit and train them abroad.

However, turnabout is fair play:

Meanwhile, in Israel, the Mossad has recently published an ad in the newspaper inviting Farsi speakers to apply for “an interesting, challenging position,” which apparently includes listening in on Iranian transmissions and translating materials published in Iran.

There are a lot of Farsi speakers in Israel. That’s because of the exodus of Iranian Jews since the Islamic revolution in 1979. I think the Mossad will easily meet its goals.

The war is coming.

For me it started with the article by Debbie Schlussel in the FrontPage magazine. Let’s not mince the words - the article is a hatchet job, and a very thorough one to boot. Debbie has definitely gone overboard, trying to judge the movie as if it were financed by the Israeli Tourism ministry and should have been focused solely on the Jewish motives. That bit of criticism really cracked me up:

And don’t forget Wall Street Journal reporter Steve Levine, played by Gary Wilmes, the most stereotypically Jewish-looking actor they could cast - a living embodiment of the angst-ridden, sweaty big-nosed, glasses-wearing Jew you’d find in “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” picture book for kids.

I have even taken the trouble to look up the poor guy’s picture. I am not sure that Gary Wilmes is that living embodiment mentioned above, but it is clear that he will have to consider an investment in some major plastic surgery now.

But after looking up some stuff on Debbie’s site, I think I have caught the drift. It seems that Debbie is sometimes slightly overexcited (all for the good cause, no doubt), like in this case, for instance:

Then, there is this BS:

In Palestine, Jewish terrorist attacks finally persuaded the British to pull out.

WRONG again. The Brits pulled out, if anything, because they were tired of Islamic/Arab violence (there was no Jewish violence against the Brits) against British soldiers, and because eventually the land was carved up into Israel, Jordan, etc.

Ah well, as I said, it is all for the good cause, and anyway history these days is a flexible science…

But… Saying all this, there is more to Debbie’s article than meets the eye. Of course, there is no place to criticize Winterbottom, Julie and Pitt for focusing on Mariane Pearl and the chief of Pakistan’s counterterrorism unit. After all, it is their movie and their license.

But blaming the barbaric execution of Daniel Pearl on the misdeeds of US in Guantanamo is pure unadulterated bullshit. The list of kidnappers/murderers demands includes the one re Gitmo prisoners indeed, but read it in its entirety:

We still demand the following:

• The immediate release of U.S. held prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
• The return of Pakistani prisoners to Pakistan.
• The immediate end of U.S. presence in Pakistan.
• The delivery of F-16 planes that Pakistan had paid for and never received.

We assure Americans that they shall never be safe on the Muslim Land of Pakistan.
And if our demands are not met this scene shall be repeated again and again…

It is quite clear that the absurd list was never intended as a base for negotiations and that its sole purpose was to increase the publicity for the planned act of murder. The fact that Winterbottom, Julie and Pitt made Gitmo a focal point of the movie is telling.

Another salient point in the article - disregard of the fact that Daniel Pearl is Jewish. As noticed here:

…something could have been inserted about Daniel Pearl, a man from a family with deep Israeli roots — scenes and sentiments that would make him a real person who once lived, loved, and later died a horrible death, publicly.

It is not certain that Daniel’s fate was sealed by the fact of his Jewishness, but it is certain that the fact did not escape the attention of his murderers and they obviously enjoyed it. The title of the execution clip - “The Slaughter of the Spy-Journalist, the Jew Daniel Pearl” is sufficient testimony.

The royal pair of Hollywood is definitely way above their heads into politics. Not that it makes them outstanding, many other Hollywood stars and mega-stars have discovered the politicking as a new and glamorous pastime. But the mix of the mega-star popularity, naivety, good will and ability to dumb down any complex issue to a set of childish slogans has a definite impact on general population. Here is one example of a rave review by a groupie:

…without apology, it is simultaneously an unabashedly political vehicle that does not fall victim to sloganeering or jingoism, as well as an effective and gripping re-telling of a story that is still fresh in the minds of the audience. I know a lot of people are criticizing the movie.. but the best thing about this movie was it does not points finger on anyone.

Yep. An unabashedly political vehicle that does not “points finger on anyone”, indeed…

But the best expression of the above mentioned Hollywood mix is provided by the royal pair:

The hero of this movie is a Muslim Pakistani Captain . . . . Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jewish–they all came together, all of them becoming great friends.

Why, indeed, can’t we all get along and be friends? I really don’t know. Maybe because there are too many gently smiling folks like this one:

I really recommend this clip as a mandatory viewing. Notice that the person that appears in it is an American resident and knows his rights exceedingly well. It is also worth your while to visit his site at _http://www.al-buruj.com/_ to get an in-depth understanding of the creature. And the ideology that moves him and his ilk, making it kinda difficult to make friends with him.

But don’t tell Brangelina about it - it may distress them, possibly on a shooting day, and then the damage to the world will be immeasurable …

Hat tip to Bagel Blogger.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews.

This one is making the rounds of YouTube, and it is effing hilarious. Watch out! There are hordes of gangs roaming the internet, and they want to steal your passwords!

I thought Mahmoud Abbas’ party was cracking down on this:

An armed Palestinian was arrested at the Hawara Checkpoint on Sunday night, Army Radio reported.

The gunman was carrying a pistol and a magazine when security forces caught him at the checkpoint, located south of Nablus.

And this:

Palestinians threw rocks at an Israeli car driving near Tekoa, south of Bethlehem, on Sunday night.

No casualties or damages were reported.

And this:

An Israeli was lightly wounded Sunday night after Palestinians threw rocks at his car while he was driving near Halhoul, north of Hebron.

No? So let us review: Hamas now controls the Gaza Strip. Abbas has his thugs sign a piece of paper that says they won’t attack Israelis anymore. In return, Olmert releases hundreds of Palestinian terrorists and hundreds of millions of dollars, allows Jordan to supply the PA with rifles, and is discussing having the Jordanian army help police the West Bank. And Abbas has his Prime Minister say that resistance against Israel is legitimate, but leave out the words “armed struggle.”

Wow. I’m underwhelmed with the results that Israel is getting from Abbas, and starting to wonder if the people who think the whole Hamas/Fatah war was a setup aren’t wrong.

Okay, no, not really. I’m not into the conspiracy theory mindset. But I do know that terrorists are opportunists, and Abbas has seized this opportunity with both hands and feet, and seemingly only one Israeli politician can get it right.

And oh yeah—the daily rocket bombardment continues. Not that the world cares, any more than they care that the Lebanese army has been bombarding Palestinian “refugee” camps for the past few weeks, killing civilians indiscriminately. The AP is covering up the casualty count, something they would never do were it Israel shelling the camps. But that’s a story for another post.

It looks like the Israelis have finally figured out that they’ve lost the media war for decades. They’re working to change the information battlefield.

A year after the Kafr Kana bombing during the Second Lebanon War and the IDF’s failure to speedily produce video footage justifying its attack, the IDF Spokesman’s Office has implemented a number of lessons aimed at preventing future operational failures from having detrimental diplomatic consequences.

[...] The Kafr Kana bombing has not been forgotten by the IDF and serves today as a key case study for the IDF Spokesman’s Office during training for field commanders on the importance of correctly utilizing the media.

According to a number of senior IDF officers interviewed by The Jerusalem Post, the failure to quickly release the rocket-fire footage was due to a misconception and under-awareness by the Israel Air Force of the event’s far-reaching consequences.

According to a high-ranking military source, shortly after the bombing an IAF general dismissed a number of requests by IDF Spokeswoman Brig.-Gen. Miri Regev to receive the footage, claiming that it was classified and could not be released to the public.

Yes, that’s the bad news. Now the good news:

Since the war, the IDF Spokesman’s Office under Regev has worked hard at training field commanders to better interact with the media. Last week, she laid the cornerstone for a military media school next to the National Defense College at Glilot that will provide compulsory classes on the media to high-ranking officers.

“The most important lesson learned from the Kafr Kana incident was that there needs to be better awareness throughout the IDF about the importance of cooperating with the Spokesman’s Office and to keep it in the operational loop,” a senior IDF officer said Sunday.

The lack of media awareness was not limited to IDF officers but was also seen in government officials, including a senior politician, involved in the decision-making process throughout the war, who said there was no point in releasing the footage earlier in the day since, according to him, the networks would broadcast it.

To improve this, the IDF Spokesman’s Office provides regular lectures teaching field commanders the importance of releasing footage and information about operations as quickly as possible. In addition, the IDF has recently made technological upgrades to some of its systems that allow for quicker collection, retrieval and release of media-worthy material.

The IDF Spokesman’s Office has also been working to train its reserve officers, particularly those from the Foreign Press Section, to better recognize events that could have diplomatic consequences and to more assertively state their case before field commanders.

File this under: About frakkin’ time. Years ago, the Israeli ambassador to Washington spoke at my synagogue. Afterwards, one of the congregants and I were discussing with the ambassador Israel’s negative image in the media. We tried to explain to him that Israel was getting hammered by the Palestinian representatives. He kept telling us, over and over again, that Americans supported Israel. Not the point, we told him, and tried to explain that you can’t keep getting hammered in the world media without seeing your image suffer. He absolutely refused to hear us, and we left feeling very frustrated. That was Israeli policy—and still is, in far too many quarters—toward the Palestinian media blitz that’s had decades to dig itself in. I can’t find the article, but I do recall reading that Arafat sent his media people to top PR classes and learned from the Soviets how to get his message across.

It’s about damned time that Israel finally started facing its crappy relations with the media and began fighting back with the same tools. If there’s video footage available, the networks will use it. That Qana video would have gone a long way towards proving that Hezbollah lied about stationing missiles in civilian areas. They should make these tapes available on YouTube, as well. Viral marketing isn’t only for commercial products.

Israel needs to get her side of the story out on a regular basis, and stop letting the terrorists frame the narrative. Hezbollah did that par excellence last summer.

When Israel launches an investigation into the failings of the Second Lebanon War, the investigation actually, well, investigates. When the Palestinians launch an investigation into the debacle that was the Gaza war with Hamas, they launch a kangaroo court.

“A week prior to the outbreak of the fighting with Hamas,” says Samir Masharawi, a Fatah leader from the Gaza Strip, “Abu Mazen [Abbas] called a meeting of the central committee of Fatah the leadership of the organizations. He asked seven of them to travel to the Gaza Strip and lead the organization, in view of the deterioration of Mohammed Dahlan, who was undergoing medical treatment, and due to the fact that Abu Mazen was busy with other issues. He gave them all the authority and explained, ‘You are authorized to do whatever you consider necessary to bolster Fatah. You claim that Dahlan is the problem. Now Dahlan is not there, take care of the problem.’”

Masharawi adds that, “Two of the committee members, Tayeb Abd al-Rahim and Ruhi Fatah (Abu Mazen’s adviser) agreed to travel to Gaza immediately. The other five found all sorts of excuses not to do so. In the end, none of the seven came to Gaza. How is it that a committee investigating the failure of Fatah and of the security organizations in the confrontation with Hamas, did not find them responsible? Where is the responsibility of the political leadership?”

“Does your Winograd Committee blame only the army officers or also the politicians? Like you [Israelis] say: ‘Blame the guard at the gate.’ Those really responsible have to surface,” the Fatah leader said.

Yeah, this is why I’m not too enthusiastic about the so-called “new” Fatah under Mahmoud Abbas. Until we see new leadership that isn’t made up of terrorists and terror-supporters, nothing will change. Here’s a question: Have the Palestinians stopped the incitement in their Friday sermons yet? Have they ordered new textbooks for the upcoming school year that actually show Israel on the map?

When both those questions can be answered in the affirmative, I will believe that change is coming.

Check out this change in the story about Palestinians entering Israel. From yesterday’s story:

Hamas, which wrested control of the Gaza Strip last month, denounced the deal since it allowed Israel to decide who could enter Gaza. Hamas officials and supporters would presumably not be allowed to enter through Israel.

And now, today’s:

Hamas has criticized the plan to transfer the stranded Palestinians through the Al-Oja and Erez crossings, saying it increases Israel’s control over Gaza. Hamas officials and supporters would presumably not be allowed to enter through Israel.

I should check my server logs. But I think someone at the AP reads my blog.

Good.

A Rahel fundraiser: You folks helped me out big-time last year when Gracie was sick, and now we need to help Rahel. The vet bills were high, but Lady has recovered from her diabetes and is happy and healthy and no longer a stray. Paypal won’t send money to Israel (I don’t know why; I’m working on that). So I think we’re going to have to send checks. Or international money orders.

Them’s fighting words: I want this t-shirt. I REALLY want this t-shirt.

Can’t drive in Saudi Arabia, but she can drive in Israel (that racist, apartheid state): A Muslim woman taxi driver in Jerusalem, and the BBC notices. (And they don’t seem to be able to hit Israel with anything for it, either.) Seriously? There’s only one woman cab driver in Jerusalem? You know, come to think of it, I never had a woman cab driver in NYC. Not once.

Sending your children off to war: The left can pretend that the world is really a peaceful place, but it isn’t. Lady-Light writes about her daughter’s choice of unit for her IDF service.

Haveil Havalim: I forgot last week’s, which was at Reb Chaim HaQoton’s. Complete with commentary. Well, what’d you expect, with a name like Reb Chaim? (Oh, so that’s where Sabba Hillel got the post about the cost of building the First Temple. Billions and billions, folks.)

Never too late for Tisha b’Av: Judith Weiss’ annual Tisha b’Av post. Read it, and weep. Really.

The great, brave leader of Hezbollah, who was hiding in some underground bunker somewhere, afraid to show his face, told Israel that she had achieved none of her objectives during last year’s war. Proof again that the Arab/Muslim world seems utterly immune to irony.

But Hezbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, said the U.S. vision aimed at reinforcing Israel.

“There is no new Middle East,” Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah told a mass rally in the southern town of Bint Jbeil, one of the towns hardest hit by the war. “It’s gone with the wind.”

Nasrallah did not personally attend the rally to mark the first anniversary of the war which Hezbollah calls “a divine victory. His speech was relayed to the crowd on a giant screen set up in the main square of Bint Jbeil.

Yes, brave man, addressing the rally from somewhere else for fear of an IDF Hellfire salute to Nasrallah.

There is, of course, the obligatory AP anti-Israel bias:

The offensive killed more than 1,000 Lebanese, most of them civilians, according to tallies by the Lebanese government, human rights groups, and The Associated Press. Hezbollah launched nearly 4,000 rockets at Israel during the war, which killed 119 Israeli soldiers and 39 civilians

The IDF reckons that more than half the Lebanese killed were members of Hezbollah. These figures are never cited as an alternative, however.

Israel identified 440 dead guerrillas by name and address, and experience shows that Israeli figures are half to two-thirds of the enemy’s real casualties. Therefore, Amidror estimated, Hezbollah’s death toll might be as high as 700.

There’s also word out today that one of the two kidnapped soldiers is dead. But we’re not going to know unless there is a deal made with Hezbollah, and so far, that shows no sign of happening.

How long you figure it will take Bibi Netanyahu to deny this article? I say the moment Shabbat ends, he holds a press conference or sends out his statement to the press.

Egyptian FM: Bibi not opposed to Arab initiative

[...] Abul Gheit said opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu told him during talks in Jerusalem earlier this week that he was not opposed to the initiative. Netanyahu was said to be opposed to the Arab peace plan because he redeemed it dangerous to Israel’s security.

“We presented to him the Arab position. Netanyahu focused on the importance of economic cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians to benefit the Palestinians. We also spoke about the need to revive the peace process,” Gheit told al-Ahram.

“In general I can say that Netanyahu does not express opposition to the Arab initiative although he wanted to check some points, especially in relation to the Palestinian refugees. He wanted to know the principles of the initiative. In a general manner he did not rule out the initiative,” he added.

Yeah, countdown to the denial in one, two….

The Palestinians trapped in Egypt will be heading home via Israel and then into Gaza. The AP piece looks almost balanced.

Israel has agreed to allow Palestinians stranded in Egypt for weeks to pass into Israel and then into the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said Saturday.

Palestinian Information Minister Riad Maliki said that some of the 6,000 Palestinians who have been waiting in the Egyptian border town of Rafah would be allowed to pass at the beginning of next week.

Hamas, which wrested control of the Gaza Strip last month, denounced the deal since it allowed Israel to decide who could enter Gaza. Hamas officials and supporters would presumably not be allowed to enter through Israel.

Israel has agreed in principle to the passage of the Palestinians, and must approve of the names of potential passengers on lists the Palestinians must compile, Maliki said.

The Palestinians would pass from Egypt into Israel through the rarely-used Al-Oja crossing, then into the northern Gaza Strip through the Erez crossing, he said.

Israel did not immediately comment on the deal. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev would only say that Israel was searching for “creative solutions” to return the Palestinians to Gaza.

“No one wants to see those people trapped indefinitely,” Regev said.

Here’s the part that I think includes a very subtle bias:

Hamas, which wrested control of the Gaza Strip last month, denounced the deal since it allowed Israel to decide who could enter Gaza. Hamas officials and supporters would presumably not be allowed to enter through Israel.

When the AP quotes Israel’s reasons, they nearly always include something like, “Israel says,” as in “Israel says the militants were planting explosives near the fence.” It takes away the certainty of the facts and makes it look like the AP isn’t really sure that Israeli sources were telling the truth. Yet when quoting the anti-Israel forces, the AP allows the facts to be represented as truth and does not include any watering down of those facts. What that paragraph should have said, however, is something like this:

Hamas, which wrested control of the Gaza Strip last month, denounced the deal because Hamas says that it allowed Israel to decide who could enter Gaza. Hamas officials and supporters would presumably not be allowed to enter through Israel.

I know some of you think my radar is set far too sensitively when it comes to anti-Israel media bias. But these are the things I see repeated in stories about Israel, and these are the patterns that I think aid in the delegitimization of Israel, bit by bit.

Note from Meryl: This made the rounds years ago. I received it from my friend JJA, and posted a link to it in one of my earliest blog posts, and again a couple of years ago. It’s worth re-posting on a regular basis.

Subject: I’m glad I have cats
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 23:38:10 -0700 (PDT)

(forwards removed….)

Recent thread in rec.pets…
- ——————————————-

Anne V - 01:01pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1318 of 1332)
Okay - I know how to take meat away from a dog. How do I take a dog away from meat? This is not, unfortunately, a joke.

AmyC - 01:02pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1319 of 1332)
Um, can you give us a few more specifics here?

Anne V - 01:12pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1320 of 1332)
They’re inside of it. They crawled inside, and now I have a giant incredibly heavy piece of carcass in my yard, with 2 dogs inside of it, and they are NOT getting bored of it and coming out. One of them is snoring. I have company arriving in three hours, and my current plan is to 1. put up a tent over said carcass and 2. hang thousands of fly strips inside it. This has been going on since about 6:40 this morning.

AmyC - 01:19pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1321 of 1332)
Oh. My. God. What sort of carcass is big enough to hold a couple of dogs inside? Given the situation, I’m afraid you’re not going to be create enough of a diversion to get the dogs out of the carrion, unless they like greeting company as much as they like rolling around in dead stuff. Which seems unlikely. Can you turn a hose on the festivities?

Ase Innes-Ker - 01:31pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1322 of 1332)
I’m sorry Anne. I know this is a problem (and it would have driven me crazy), but it is also incredibly funny.

Anne V - 01:31pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1323 of 1332)
Elk. Elk are very big this year, because of the rain and good grazing and so forth. They aren’t rolling. They are alternately napping and eating. They each have a ribcage. Other dogs are working on them from the outside. It’s all way too primal in my yard right now. We tried the hose trick. At someone elses house, which is where they climbed in and began to refuse to come out. Many hours ago. I think that the hose mostly helps keep them cool and dislodges little moist snacks for them. hose failed. My new hope is that if they all continue to eat at this rate, they will be finished before the houseguests arrive. The very urban houseguests. Oh, ghod - I know it’s funny. It’s appalling, and funny, and completely entirely representative of life with dogs.

Kristen R. - 01:37pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1324 of 1332)
I’m so glad I read this thread, dogless as I am. Dogs in elk. Dogs in elk.

Anne V - 01:41pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1325 of 1332)
It’s like that childrens book out there - dogs in elk, dogs on elk, dogs around elk, dogs outside elk. And there is some elk inside of, as well as on, each dog at this point.

Elizabeth K - 01:57pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1328 of 1333)
Anne, aren’t you in Arizona or Nevada? There are elk there? I’m so confused!We definately need to see pics of Gus Pong and Jake in the elk carcass.

Anne V - 02:03pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1329 of 1333)
I am in New Mexico, but there are elk in both arizona and nevada, yes. There are elk all over the damn place. They don’t look out very often. If you stand the ribcage on end they scramble to the top and look out, all red. Otherwise, you kinda have to get in there a little bit yourself to really see them. So I think there will not be pictures.

CoseyMo - 02:06pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1330 of 1333)
“all red;” I’m not sure the deeper horror of all this was fully borne in upon me till I saw that little phrase.

Anne V - 02:10pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1331 of 1333)
Well, you know, the Basenji (that would be Jake) is a desert dog, naturally, and infamous for it’s aversion to water. And then, Gus Pong (who is coming to us, live, unamplified and with a terrific reverb which is making me a little dizzy) really doesn’t mind water, but hates to be cold. Or soapy. And both of them can really run. Sprints of up to 35 mph have been clocked. So. If ever they come out, catching them and returning them to a condition where they can be considered house pets is not going to be, shall we say, pleasant.

CoseyMo - 02:15pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1332 of 1333)
What if you stand the ribcage on end, wait for them to look out, grab them when they do and pull?

Anne V - 02:18pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1333 of 1333)
They wedge their toes between the ribs. And scream. We tried that before we brought the elk home from the mountain with dogs inside. Jake nearly took my friends arm off. He’s already short a toe, so he cherishes the 15 that remain.

Linda Hewitt - 02:30pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1336 of 1356)
Have you thought about calling your friendly vet and paying him to come pick up the dogs, elk and letting the dogs stay at the vets overnight. If anyone would know what to do, it would be your vet. It might cost some money, but it would solve the immediate crisis. Keep us posted.

ChristiPeters - 02:37pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1337 of 1356)
Yikes! My sympathy! When I lived in New Mexico, my best friend’s dog (the escape artist) was continually bringing home road kill. When there was no road kill convenient, he would visit the neighbor’s house. Said neighbor slaughtered his own beef. The dog found all kinds of impossibly gross toys in the neighbor’s trash pit. I have always had medium to large dogs. The smallest dog I ever had was a mutt from the SPCA who matured out at just above knee high and about 55 pounds. Our current dog (daughter’s choice) is a Pomeranian. A very small Pomeranian. She’s 8 months old now and not quite 4 pounds. I’m afraid I’ll break her.

Lori Shiraishi - 02:38pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1338 of 1356)
Bet you could fit a whole lot of Pomeranians in that there elk carcass! Anne - my condolences on what must be a unbelievable situation!

Anne V - 02:44pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1339 of 1356)
I did call my vet. He laughed until he was gagging and breathless. He says a lot of things, which can be summed as *what did you expect?* and *no, there is no such thing as too much elk meat for a dog.* He is planning to stop over and take a look on his way home. Thanks, Lori. I am almost surrendered to the absurdity of it.

Lori Shiraishi - 02:49pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1340 of 1356)
“He is planning to stop over and take a look on his way home.” So he can fall down laughing in person?

Anne V - 02:50pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1341 of 1356)
Basically, yeah. That would be about it.

AmyC - 02:56pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1342 of 1356)
>no, there is no such thing as too much elk meat for a dog.”
Oh, sweet lord, Anne. You have my deepest sympathies in this, perhaps the most peculiar of the Gus Pong Adventures. You are truly a woman of superhuman patience. wait — you carried the carcass down from the mountains with the dogs inside?

Anne V - 02:59pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1343 of 1356)
>the carcass down from the mountains with the dogs inside?
no, well, sort of. My part in the whole thing was to get really stressed about a meeting that I had to go to, and say *yeah, ok, whatever* when it was suggested that the ribcages, since we couldn’t get the dogs out of them and the dogs couldn’t be left there, be brought to my house. Because, you know - I just thought they would get bored of it sooner or later. But it appears to be later, in the misty uncertain future, that they will get bored. Now, they are still interested. And very loud, one singing, one snoring.

Lori Shiraishi - 03:04pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1344 of 1356)
>And very loud, one singing, one snoring.
wow. I can’t even begin to imagine the acoustics involved with singing from the inside of an elk.

Anne V - 03:04pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1345 of 1356)
reverb. lots and lots of reverb.

Anne V - 03:15pm Sep 9, 1999 PDT (# 1347 of 1356)
I’ll tell you the thing that is causing me to lose it again and again, and then I have to go back outside and stay there for a while. After the meeting, I said to my (extraordinary) boss, *look, I’ve gotta go home for the rest of the day, I think. Jake and Gus Pong are inside some elk ribcages, and my dad is coming tonight, so I’ve got to get them out somehow.* And he said, pale and huge-eyed, *Annie, how did you explain the elk to the clients?* The poor, poor man thought I had the carcasses brought to work with me. For some reason, I find this deeply funny.

(weekend pause)

Anne V - 08:37am Sep 13, 1999 PDT (# 1395 of 1405)
So what we did was put the ribcages (containing dogs) on tarps and drag them around to the side yard, where I figured they would at least be harder to see, and then opened my bedroom window so that the dogs could let me know when they were ready to be plunged into a de-elking solution and let in the house. Then I went to the airport. Came home, no visible elk, no visible dogs. Peeked around the shrubs, and there they were, still in the elk. By this time, they had gnawed out some little portholes between some of the ribs, and you got the occasional very frightening limpse of something moving around in there if you watched long enough. After a lot of agonizing, I went to bed. I closed the back door, made sure my window was open, talked to the dogs out of it until I as sure they knew it was open, and then I fell asleep.

Sometimes, sleep is a mistake, no matter how tired you are. And especially if you are very very tired, and some of your dogs are outside, inside some elks. Because when you are that tired, you sleep through bumping kind of noises, or you kind of think that it’s just the house guests. It was’t the house guests. It was my dogs, having an attack of teamwork unprecedented in our domestic history. When I finally woke all the way up, it was to a horrible vision. Somehow, 3 dogs with a combined weight of about 90 pounds, managed to hoist one of the ribcages (the meatier one, of course) up 3 feet to rest on top of the swamp cooler outside the window, and push out the screen. What woke me was Gus Pong, howling in frustration from inside the ribcage, very close to my head, combined with feverish little grunts from Jake, who was standing on the nightstand, bracing himself against the curtains with remarkably bloody little feet.

Here are some things I have learned, this Rosh Hashanah weekend:
1. almond milk removes elk blood from curtains and pillowcases,
2. We can all exercise superhuman strength when it comes to getting elk carcasses out of our yard,
3. The sight of elk ribcages hurtling over the fence really frightens the nice deputy sheriff who lives across the street, and
4. the dogs can pop the screens out of the windows, without damaging them, from either side.

Anne V - 09:58am Sep 13, 1999 PDT (# 1401 of 1405)
What I am is really grateful that they didn’t actually get the damn thing in the window, which is clearly the direction they were going in. And that the nice deputy didn’t arrest me for terrifying her with elk parts before dawn.

AmyC - 09:59am Sep 13, 1999 PDT (# 1402 of 1405)
Imagine waking up with a gnawed elk carcass in your bed, like a real-life “Godfather” with an all-dog cast.

Anne V - 10:01am Sep 13, 1999 PDT (# 1403 of 1405)
There is not enough almond milk in the world to solve an event of that kind.

Note from Meryl again: And here is the author herself, expanding on what happened.

Compare and contrast:

The Israeli army suspended an officer and five soldiers involved in wounding a Palestinian man in the southern West Bank and put all of their unit’s operational duties on hold, the military said Friday.

In the incident Thursday, Palestinians in the village of Dahariya said soldiers shot and seriously wounded a man. The army denied involvement at the time, saying only that troops evacuated an injured Palestinian from a military checkpoint to an Israeli hospital.

But in a statement Friday, the army said the six-man patrol entered the village Thursday, took over a Palestinian taxi and shot a Palestinian man they believed to be suspicious. The soldiers did not give first aid to the wounded man and didn’t report the incident, the army said.

The step of immediately suspending soldiers and freezing their unit’s operations is unusual and indicates that army commanders believe the incident involved a serious violation of orders.

There will be an investigation, and if laws and procedures were broken, there will be a trial and punishment.

Now let’s look at a story that also took place in the West Bank:

A university student shot during a brawl between supporters of Fatah and Hamas at a West Bank university died of his wounds Friday, hospital officials said.

The student, 20-year-old Mohammed Radad, was shot by Fatah-allied gunmen on Tuesday, when students aligned with the rival groups clashes on the campus of An Najah University in Nablus. Palestinian security forces intervened, accompanied by Fatah men in civilian clothes, wounding three students with gunfire.

Witnesses said Radad, a Hamas supporter, was shot in the head by one of the armed men.

I’m going to take a wild guess that there will be no investigation, no trial, and no punishment. Possibly the student’s relatives will seek out and kill the man who shot him, since tribal justice is all the rage in the Middle East. This is the state that Olmert is about ready to create next door—one that resembles the Wild West more than any kind of civil society. Or perhaps a thugocracy.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s closest confidants said Friday that Israel should withdraw from “most” of the West Bank in a negotiated deal with the Palestinians and that a previous plan for a major unilateral pullback was no longer viable.

Vice-premier Haim Ramon, one of the politicians closest to Olmert, told Israel Radio that he favored reducing the Israeli presence in the West Bank to the “large settlement blocs” and that NATO forces could replace Israeli troops in the areas evacuated.

No way anything good can come of this. When Olmert’s “closest confidant” is openly talking about withdrawing from the West Bank, you can pretty much bet that Olmert has already drawn up the plans. This disengagement policy has been a disaster, and yet, he’s willing to go one step further and put uncontrolled enemies on Israel’s every border.

The IDF security services say the PA is actually turning over information about terrorist attacks.

Palestinian security organizations loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas have transferred information on terrorist plots in the West Bank to Israel, Israeli security sources said. The information served Israeli security services in countering plans to carry out terrorist attacks.

However, Israeli security sources emphasized that the Shin Bet does not rely exclusively on Palestinian security organizations for intelligence, and recognizes the limited nature of this information.

Israel and the Palestinian Authority have resumed limited security cooperation in recent weeks, considered to be the most significant exchanges of this type in the past six years.

Palestinian security sources also confirmed that limited coordination has been resumed with Israel. However, they complained that Israel is not interested in full and extensive security cooperation and charged that senior IDF officers are trying to avoid meetings with their Palestinian counterparts.

A serious gap in expectations is also apparent in the Palestinian request for the transfer of some West Bank cities to the control of PA security organizations, Palestinian sources said.

This happened years ago, when Arafat wanted to look like he was cooperating. Mahmoud Abbas learned at Arafat’s feet. I am unconvinced that this means the Palestinians are willing to forego terror.

Another report, however, is making me think that perhaps—just perhaps—a turning point is on the horizon. “Guarded pessimism” is what I would use to describe my feelings about this:

The Palestinian Authority government published its platform on Friday, which for the first time does not include a reference to armed struggle against Israel, Israel Radio reported.

Nonetheless, the government stressed that it is committed to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ call for a “popular struggle against the Israeli occupation.”

The Arabic word muqawma, which literally means resistance and has appeared in all prior PA governments’ platform, is generally understood to mean armed struggle. The term “popular struggle” includes, among other things, demonstrations and political activism.

Wordplay, however, is the least of what needs to be changed. A whole generation’s mindset has been poisoned. When Abbas stops the incitement in the schools, on TV, and in the Palestinian newspapers, then I will believe they are truly willing to change.

For now, I’ll take the extra help on terror attacks and expect much, much more.

Tired of the bias and inaccuracy of the mainstream media? So are a lot of people. And they’ve started a new Wiki called Media Mythbusters so there is a source that can counter the media bias. The objective:

To be the Internet source of comprehensive facts and links chronicling major journalism’s treatment of certain stories in which questions have arisen regarding facts or methods of reporting. These treatments of news events by major media have direct and significant impact upon public opinion and upon policymakers. Careful consideration of the way these stories were handled by the media is essential to both a well informed public and policy, and are intended to contribute to a more reliable and responsible major media desired and needed by all. The goal of this site is to be a reliable resource, accessible to all, to provide news consumers with a tool and information to allow them to determine how best to process information they receive through major media outlets.

We have CAMERA, and MEMRI, and other sites that cover the media’s many inaccuracies and biases. Now we have a Wiki that can collate the errors (Fauxtography, Jamil Hussein, and now, the TNR Scott Thomas case) and put it all in one place. With hard work and an adherence to strict guidelines, Media Mythbusters can be a powerful force for making the media actually mean what they say when they claim to be objective. Or at least, that’s my hope.

In any case, I have joined the Media Mythbusters. I look forward to linking to my first entry there.

This, rather mundane these days headline, is repeated every week or so:

The U.N. Mideast envoy warned Wednesday of impending economic collapse in the Gaza Strip unless Israel reopens the Hamas-led territory’s main commercial crossing to the outside world to ease international isolation.

I’m sure that the writer did not mean anything but well, same as Michael Williams, the quoted UN envoy. And that the statement in its published form was crafted for brevity and for maximum impact. So, putting that “unless” on paper, the author of the statement had a tough choice to make. Either go the fool-proof, short and easy way (which was the eventual decision, obviously) or to make an effort and to say that unless:

• Hamas stops the attacks against Israel - both by its own members and by the other gangs
• Hamas stops the incessant attacks against and digging under the border crossings
• Hamas starts cooperating with Israel and international organizations that try to feed and to cure the people of Gaza

the tragic situation of 1.5 million citizens of Gaza will get worse and worse.

It must be said that, surprisingly, the UN envoy referred to some of the salient points:

Williams said Palestinian militants fired 192 rockets and mortar shells at Gaza’s crossings and into Israel in the last month. He said Hamas’ military wing was responsible for most of the attacks on the crossings, while Islamic Jihad fired most of the rockets and mortars into Israel.

However, the AP hack conveniently placed this text way down, where most of the readers do not arrive, getting first slightly incensed by the intransigence of these cruel Jooz and then bored by the whole damn subject.

And so the wheel turns…

Cross-posted on SimplyJews.

The world continues to ignore the daily bombardment of Israeli towns, both an act of war and a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Two Qassam rockets fired by Palestinians in Gaza slammed into a home and a warehouse in Sderot Thursday evening. A woman sustained light shrapnel injuries, while a number of other residents suffered from shock.

The home, which was deserted, was severely damaged.

A total of six rockets landed in Israeli territory throughout the day, as did a few mortar shells, which landed near the border fence with Gaza and near the community of Native Ha’asara, located just north of the Strip.

If the home had not been deserted, likely there’d have been deaths to report—which, of course, would finally have gotten the world media’s attention on these “crude, homemade rockets.”

Doing the IDF’s work for them: 15 Syrian soldiers are dead in a blast that is attributed to the heat.

“There is a heat wave and temperatures reached close to 50 degrees, which caused an ammunition dump to explode,” one official told Reuters.

Uh-huh. Works for me, because a nation with desert temps in the summertime wouldn’t prepare their ordnance containers for, say, high periods of heat. Noteworthy facts: It occurred in a complex housing Syrian special forces teams. Say, anyone think maybe Iranian weaponry had anything to do with it?

The Liar’s Club: PA forces say they found a Hamas weapons cache. Hamas says it isn’t theirs. It’s hard to tell which terrorist group is lying. The PA could very easily pretend to have found a weapons cache by, say, exposing one of their own, saying it’s Hamas, and then, of course, keeping the weapons. Like it makes a difference, because Jordan’s handing over another 3,000 rifles, and Olmert is fine with arming the PA again. Because it’s not like those weapons don’t find their way into the hands of murderers of Israelis. Oh. Wait. They always do.

Gee, thanks, Tony! Hamas says that Britain is expanding contact with Hamas.

“I cannot deny that there are now other contacts, other channels of communication with the UK and these involve people of high rank, although I am not personally involved,” he claimed in an interview with the Guardian.

“The main aim of the contacts is to improve our democracy and governance. This is just part of the many contacts that are going on with other governments around the world.”

He added that Britain wanted to keep the contacts secret.

Guess you shouldn’t have told al-Guardian, then, hm? And hey, Tony, good to know you’re willing to talk with Jew-hating murderers in the interests of peace. Because it’s not like they don’t call for the destruction of Israel and the death of Jews in their charter or anything like that. Oh. Wait. They do.

The Arab League delegation arrived in Israel today, and, well, I simply can’t get up the energy to think anything good will come of it. Because the Arab League’s push to use the Saudi initiative as a peace treaty between Israel and the Arab states is simply unworkable.

The foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan began a historic visit to Israel on Wednesday to formally present an Arab peace plan, saying they were extending “a hand of peace” on behalf of the region.

The ministers arrived as representatives of the Arab League, the first time the 22-member group has sent a delegation to the Jewish state. The Arab League peace plan envisions full recognition of Israel in return for evacuation of lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

“We are extending a hand of peace on behalf of the whole region to you, and we hope that we will be able to create the momentum needed to resume fruitful and productive negotiations” between Israel and the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world, Jordan’s foreign minister, Abdul-Ilah Khatib, said at a news conference with Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said the two delegates had been asked by the league “to come and offer Israel the Arab peace initiative.” He urged Israel to consider the plan seriously.

The Saudi plan includes a return of all Palestinian refugees, which would effectively destroy Israel as a Jewish state, and let’s face it—how could Israel absorb 5 million new citizens, nearly doubling her population? It’s a logical impossibility on every level. It’s simply not going to happen. The plan was a non-starter from the get-go. Since the Arab states forced out an equal number of Jewish citizens from 1948 to the 1960s, call it even and move on.

Israel has welcomed the plan as a basis for negotiations, but raised concerns about certain aspects. Israel rejects a full withdrawal from the West Bank and east Jerusalem. It also objects to the plan’s apparent call for the return of Palestinians who became refugees in the 1948 Mideast war and their descendants. Israel says a large-scale return of refugees would destroy the country’s Jewish character.

That, and the influx of terrorists would pretty much guarantee an end to Jews at all in the land of their ancestors. It simply is not going to happen. The problem with the “negotiations,” such as they are, is that the Arab world has consistently said that Israel must revert completely to the 1949 Armistice Lines, and oh yeah, let the pre-1949 population back so that Israel is no longer Israel at all, in spite of the fact of winning some five wars for her existence. The Arabs continue to insist on a do-over, and work for the world’s help in forcing Israel out of existence.

This is not a basis for peace. It is the basis for the extinction of Israel. Which is why I think the Arab League can make all the visits it wants, and take all the photo ops of shaking hands with Peres it can get, and still, nothing is going to change. Not as long as the Arabs are intransigent.

It isn’t the Israelis who have refused to negotiate all these years.

And a closing thought: Take note that the only members of the Arab League to actually take part in this delegation are from Jordan and Egypt, who already have relations with Israel.

Arab diplomats played down the gesture. Egypt and Jordan already have full relations with Israel, and despite U.S. and Israeli appeals to expand the number of Arab participants in the talks, Saudi Arabia and other Arab League members with no formal ties to the Jewish state have refused to take part.

This is a sham visit, and I think nothing will come of it. However, count on the world media to blame Israel when nothing happens. Because the fault never lies in Arab intransigence. No, it’s always Israel’s fault for refusing to give concessions.

Saab Erekat, the highest-up of the Palestinian spokesliars, told Tony Blair that he’s not interested in negotiations. He wants a state.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Dr Saeb Erekat said the meeting dealt with the need to establish a Palestinian state.

“We made it clear that we are no longer interested in talks, declarations or even initiatives. We are interested in the creation of mechanisms in order to implement all the ideas for the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

“The economic issue and the building of institutions are part of the overall diplomatic issue, and therefore one must not distinguish between the economic situation and the affects of issues such as the building of the fence and the settlements on the economic situation.

“What is needed, therefore, is a mechanism for the implementation of all the ideas as one in order to reach the goal, which is ending the occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state in the 1967 borders.”

Economic issues? Like the one in Gaza, where Palestinians destroyed most of the greenhouses left when the Israelis were forced out two years ago? Where Palestinian terrorism keeps the crossings closed so that Palestinian goods can’t go out and Israeli goods can’t go in? Or the lack of work caused by Palestinian workers shooting their bosses during the intifada called by Arafat in 2000 resulting in Israel importing new laborers? You mean the economic issues caused by the corruption and graft of the Palestinian Authority, of which Erekat is a member, resulting in Yasser Arafat becoming a billionaire? Those economic issues are all going to be solved when there is a Palestinian state next to Israel?

Somehow, I think not.

It isn’t just the Jewish “jokes” at Gawker and Wonkette. It is things like this that make me think that anti-Semitism is about the only “ism” that’s allowed today.

A Taunton School Committee member with a history of berating colleagues and the district superintendent at meetings has sparked an outcry by calling a Jewish board member Hitler and allegedly giving him the Nazi salute.

Alfred Baptista , who has been on the board for 22 years, stood up and said “Yes, heil Hitler. Sieg heil” to committee member Barry Cooperstein , who had admonished him for interrupting and yelling at district superintendent Arthur W. Stellar.

How, in any way, shape, or form, is that acceptable in polite conversation? And of course, the non-apology apology.

The Taunton Daily Gazette, which first reported the encounter last week, has called for Baptista’s resignation and Mayor Charles Crowley has demanded a public apology. The City Council plans to vote on a resolution condemning the remarks and apologizing to Cooperstein and Jewish residents at a meeting tomorrow.

In a phone interview yesterday, Baptista said he deeply regretted the remarks and had not meant any harm.

“It was a very unfortunate choice of words, and I feel terrible about it,” he said. “I’m not a racist, I’m not an anti-Semite.”

An “unfortunate choice of words.” He didn’t mean any harm. No, he just figured a Nazi salute and a “Heil, Hitler” was an appropriate thing to use when arguing with a Jew.

And oh, yeah. He didn’t do it. Really. His gesture was misinterpreted.

He said he did not make a Nazi salute, but was gesticulating. Baptista said he was angry at the way Cooperstein was running the meeting.

“I probably should have said, ‘Stop being a dictator,’ ” he said.

Baptista said he believes some people have misconstrued his remarks and that he does not intend to resign. He said he has received a number of calls of support from people who said they understood he misspoke.

Sure. “Misspoke.” Because “Heil Hitler” is such a common phrase to use when you’re angy, especially now, 62 years after the end of WWII. What, doesn’t everybody use it?

The thing I hate almost as much as the anti-Semitic remarks are the pathetic excuses used when the haters are called out for their hate. Not an anti-Semite? Then how is it, pray tell, you used that phrase when arguing with a Jew? And an observant Jew, no less.

Such a coincidence. Such a load of bull. And yet, this man will not be forced to resign. The town has already shown its support for the poor, misunderstood bully.

The mayor is also pleased with the apology.

“That’s what we were asking for, and I hope it was heartfelt and that Mr. Cooperstein considers acceptance of it,” Crowley said. “Hopefully that conduct will not continue in the future. Every public official — not just Mr. Baptista — should conduct themselves in a professional manner, whether they’re addressing another committee member or anyone from the public.”

City Councilor David Pottier, who last week said Baptista should resign, is no longer calling for the longtime committeeman to step down.

“Taking his word and many years of service into account, if it’s good enough for Mr. Cooperstein and the ADL, then it’s good enough for me,” Pottier said. “I really appreciate that Mr. Baptista apologized. Hopefully we can move on from this.”

Uh-huh. Move on. Until the next time.

The AP is joining the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the LA Times with this piece of garbage, and the New York Times-owned International Herald Tribune was only too happy to pass it along:

BEIRUT, Lebanon: Militant Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah suggested Tuesday that Israel may be behind two recent bomb attacks that targeted United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon.

[...] No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks. But in a videotape earlier this month, al-Qaida’s deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri blessed the attack against the Spanish contingent, fueling speculation that it was carried out by al-Qaida-linked militants.

In an interview Tuesday on the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera television, Nasrallah said that while it was possible that al-Qaida or other extremist groups were behind the attacks, Israel could also be the culprit.

“Why not Israel?” Nasrallah said, adding that “Israel has an interest in attacking UNIFIL with the aim of transforming the force into a multinational force under Chapter 7.”

He was referring to a section of the U.N. Charter that empowers a U.N. force to suppress threats to international peace and security — reflecting what could be his perception that Israel hopes to see U.N. troops actively moving against Hezbollah guerrillas in the future.

He also suggested Israel may want UNIFIL out of Lebanon, in case of another Israel-Hezbollah war.

Thanks, AP and the New York Times Company, for our anti-Israel media hit piece of the week!

Every summer, I have my own ways of keeping my home cool, and trying not to expend more energy cooling it down after I cook. The thing is, I’m not much of a scientist. I never took physics in high school. Physics confuses the hell out of me, most of the time. I have some of the more general aspects down (mass, inertia, energy), or at least, I can look them up online and try to get them straight in my head.

So I was wondering something, having just used the toaster oven to make hot, buttered Italian bread. In the summertime, I tend to close the toaster oven door and let it cool down slowly. When I boil corn or peas, immediately upon putting them on the dinner plate, I pour the boiling water down the sink and run cold water on the pots to cool them down so less heat gets into my kitchen, in the thought that it will need less energy to cool it down (and give me savings on the electric bill).

But really, does it make a difference if you, say, let the toaster oven cool down faster by leaving the door open? Isn’t it going to release the exact same amount of heat no matter what you do, and won’t it take the same amount of energy from the AC to keep up with it?

I think I’m onto something with pouring the boiling water down the sink, but it occurs to me that I’m wasting my time with the incremental cooling of ovens. Or am I? Any physics geeks out there want to take this one?

The good news is they haven’t managed to penetrate as many Fatah cells as they’d like. The bad news is they’ve restored their long-range missile capability. Yeah, that arms embargo and the UNIFIL troops have proven so effective, it makes me want to get UNIFIL here to police our border with Mexico.

Hezbollah has restored its military capabilities, particularly its long-range missile arsenal, nearly a year following the Second Lebanon War, senior Israeli security sources confirmed Monday.

On the other hand, Hezbollah’s influence on Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades has been checked in recent months, Palestinian security sources said Monday.

According to Palestinian security sources, Hezbollah has not ceased its efforts to penetrate Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades cells, but its ability to do so has been seriously curtailed.

The sources pointed to a number of reasons Hezbollah is finding it difficult to penetrate the organization and gain control of its members in order to carry out terrorist activities on its behalf against Israel.

Israel’s security forces have primarily succeeded in killing or arresting many of the cells that had been under Hezbollah control, mostly in the area of Nablus and northern West Bank.

Also, the flow of cash from Hezbollah to West Bank militants who carry out attacks, has been contained. The Palestinian Authority has also made an effort to convince many of the militants not to accept funding from foreign sources.

Palestinian security sources also insist that contact between Hezbollah and the West Bank has been weakened. They say this is due to a breakdown in cooperation with Palestinians in Lebanon who collaborate with the Shi’ite group and international jihadist elements based there.

Gee, I wonder if the current destruction of Palestinians in Lebanese “refugee” camps had anything to do with that last.

A mother’s quick thinking saved the life of her baby. Not that you could find this in the mainstream media. It was full of more important news, like the deaths of four terrorists in the act of trying to kill Israelis. Rockets landing on Israeli homes for the second day in a row? Not important.

A Qassam rocket was launched Monday from the Gaza Strip and directly hit a house in Kibbutz Karmiah in the western Negev, penetrating through the roof before exploding in an 8-mont-old baby girl’s bedroom.

When the “Color Red” warning sounded, the mother took the girl from her crib and ran with her to a safer part of the house, since there are no reinforced “safe rooms” in the kibbutz.

Three of the family members- the grandmother, the mother, and the baby -were taken to the hospital for medical assistance.

Cribs and homes destroyed by random rocket fire from Hamas-occupied Gaza? No big deal.

And if Israel should send in soldiers to find the terrorist launching the rockets? Suddenly, the world media has headlines screaming “Israelis Kill 4 Palestinians in Gaza.”

Because that’s the important angle in this story. Israeli civilian casualties? Who cares, when you can post a picture of the damage a rocket caused in Gaza. Because that’s the more important angle, clearly. No matter that a baby was nearly murdered in her crib. Hey, the “crude, homemade rocket” missed, didn’t it? Didn’t it?

Yeah.

So Hamas says it’s willing to talk to Tony Blair. Ehud Olmert says that if he talks to Hamas, he can talk to Olmert’s hand. Hamas also claims to have stopped an attack on IDF forces. (Yeah, and I have this bridge in Brooklyn, been in my family for years, and you can have it dirt cheap, really!) I believe the word used was “unacceptable.” Or, the more diplomatic version:

If Blair was to ever contemplate meeting with officials from