May I just say how very, very, very much I hate the Al Qaeda subhuman bastards who do things like this?

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — The death toll in the suicide bombings Tuesday in northern Iraq has risen to at least 500, local officials in Nineveh province said Wednesday.

Iraqi Army and Mosul police sources earlier put the number at 260, but said it was likely to rise. 320 were reported wounded.

The Tuesday truck bombs that targeted the villages of Qahtaniya, al-Jazeera and Tal Uzair, in northern Iraq near the border with Syria, were a “trademark al Qaeda event” designed to sway U.S. public opinion against the war, a U.S. general said Wednesday.

The attacks, targeting Kurdish villages of the Yazidi religious minority, were attempts to “break the will” of the American people and show that the U.S. troop escalation — the “surge” — is failing, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon said.

The bombings highlight the kind of sectarian tensions the troop surge was designed to stop.

Al Qaeda in Iraq is predominantly Sunni, and Mixon said members of the Yazidi religious minority have received threatening letters, called “night letters,” telling them “to leave because they are infidels.”

“This is an act of ethnic cleansing, if you will — almost genocide when you consider the fact the target they attacked and the fact that these Yazidis, out in a very remote part of Nineveh province, where there is very little security and really no security required to this point,” Mixon said.

Hate. I hate them with a blinding hatred, and I wish them all manner of ill.

The next time some asshole tries to tell me that Christian or Jewish extremists are no different from Islamic extremists, if they are within arm’s length, I am going to punch them in the nose.

Not that I ever intend to change my name at this point in my life, but this would be a great solution for me if it didn’t screw up the eponymous blog thing.

Jersey writers Alice Kirby and Larry Charny decided to marry in 1988, she refused to take his name, but so did he.

Kirby, 54, is a fiction writer and Charny, 48, is editor of The Story Prize. With a nod to the creative world of fiction, the couple abandoned their family names and adopted a new surname. Today, they are Alice and Larry Dark.

Smart. No muss, no fuss.

Many women keep their maiden names as a mark of independence. Still, an overwhelming 90 percent of all brides drop their surnames, according to the Lucy Stone League, named for the woman who refused to take her husband’s name in 1855.

But today, in a trend that is not new but growing, couples are constructing their own names — sometimes mixing syllables from both sides of the family and often just picking a name that has special meaning or rolls well off the tongue.

Kirby-Charny would have been a mouthful, notes Dark, who toyed with the sardonic moniker Dark Jr.

I am (and have always been) enough of a feminist that I think changing my name to match my husband’s would be a remnant of the days when women were physically the property of men (ergo the name change). Plus, I like the idea of both halves of the couple starting over. This makes a whole lot more sense than hyphenation.

Darcie Shapiro and Jeff Klein created a new name in preparation for their marriage in 2003. The New York City couple, both 28, constructed it from their mothers’ maiden names.

Darcie’s mother was born Behar and Jeff’s was Ruthberg. “Har” and “berg” mean mountain in Hebrew and German, respectively. So they opted for a blended name — Sharlein.

Darcie Sharlein, who is studying to be a Jewish cantor, said she never assumed she would take her husband’s name.

“It was important for us to have the same last name and one day our imaginary children would also have the name,” she said. “It was a way we could honor both families, a symbolic way of joining them together.”

Yep. I like this idea a whole lot. But at this point in time, I don’t ever see me changing my name. Not unless I have to perform some kind of life-changing act, have plastic surgery, and get a new identity through a black-ops agency of the U.S. government. Oh, wait. That never happens in real life. Yourish it is.

The people who put up the Hezbollah sign in Windsor, Canada, say they achieved their purpose.

The controversial billboard depicting Hezbollah’s leader has disappeared, but one of the men responsible for the sign says it’s not because they’re backing down from fierce public backlash.

“Whatever we believe, we’ll speak about it anytime,” said Hussein Dabaja. “We will speak about human rights, about the truth, about Nasrallah. We’re going to do it and nobody can stop us.

“We’ll talk about it anywhere, any place we have a chance.”

[...] The billboard Dabaja said organizers took up a collection from community members to pay for the billboard, and many of them were willing to pay more to keep it up.

He said the company that owns the sign, CBS Outdoors, removed the billboard because the Lebanese community members only paid to have it up over the weekend. “We paid for the weekend and it’s done,” said Dabaja. “We have our message, and our message got the point across.”

CBS Outdoor didn’t return phone calls on Monday.

Which makes me wonder exactly what they were trying to accomplish.

Dabaja said the billboard was meant to honour friends and family in Lebanon who died fighting against Israel, and promote peace.

He said the point of the message will be driven home today, when Nasrallah makes a speech in Beirut honouring Hezbollah’s “victory” against the Israeli occupation.

I wonder if he pays Hezbollah membership dues. Because he sure toes the Hezbollah line.

Dabaja said he doesn’t understand why Kessler and others are so upset. He has no quarrel with Jewish people, he said.

“I am Canadian, he is Canadian,” he said. “The Jewish are not the enemy. When Hezbollah fights the Israeli army, they fight the Israeli occupation to Lebanon. We are not fighting them because they are Jewish.”

Dabaja said he had considered putting pictures of coffins and the bodies of Lebanese people killed in the fighting on the billboard, but instead chose a more peaceful picture.

“I chose something to show some respect,” he said.

Yeah. Respect. Here’s another Lebanese opinion.

Elias Bejjani of the Lebanese Canadian Co-ordinating Council, a collection of non-profit groups focused on educating people about Lebanese issues, said there was more to it than that.

“It was a challenge,” he said from Toronto. “They were testing the seriousness of the Canadian government to its anti-terrorist act. It was more than somebody putting up a billboard. It is symbolic. As Canadians we can not be neutral. There is no neutrality when it comes to terrorism.”

I’m going to side with Bejjani. It was a challenge. They deliberately put up a billboard honoring a terrorist organization, knowing full well there would be a backlash. They were testing the waters to see if they could get away with propagandizing Hezbollah in Canada.

Something that these terrorist groups do, that the media and government do not acknowledge, is fight an effective public relations war. Al Qaeda is winning it. Hamas is working hard to do the same. Hezbollah had a superb PR effort during last summer’s war, tightly controlling everything that came out of Lebanon, while Israel allowed reporters far more leeway to report the news from Israel. The result: Israel was once again demonized, and the world rose up in favor of the terrorists who started the war. Even today, you cannot get an honest summation of what happened last year. Reading this NPR hagiography of Hezbollah’s “victory” celebration, you’d think that the IDF were the terrorists and Hezbollah the unassuming victims.

The conflict erupted when Hezbollah guerrillas launched a cross-border raid and captured two Israeli soldiers. Israeli warplanes unleashed waves of airstrikes against Lebanon and sent troops and tanks across the border. Hezbollah then retaliated by firing Katyusha rockets at Israeli cities and towns.

Really? That’s how it began, is it? I call bullshit on NPR.

Western Galilee residents woke up to loud sounds of exchanges of fire on both sides of the border. Explosions were heard on the central and eastern zones. Six people were injured on the western area of the border, one of them sustaining moderate wounds. They were evacuated to the Nahariya hospital.

In the villages of Natua and Zar’it, which are close to the fence, residents reported hearing sounds of light and heavy weapons. At least two mortar shells landed in the area and five soldiers were wounded. The alert level was raised in Israel Defense Forces posts and IAF aircrafts flew over Lebanon.

A ground chase was being conducted in the field, along with aircrafts, in a bid to locate the missing soldier.

“We received instruction that all residents should enter reinforced rooms and shelters,” said Gabi Neeman, head of the Shlomi Regional Council. “Our first concern is of course for the children in kindergartens and summer camps.

Total bullshit.

In the Shlomi and Maale Yossef regional councils, residents were asked to take shelter in underground bunkers. In Nahariya, the municipality decided to transfer children in summer camps to safer locations.

Army vehicles could be seen on roads leading to the border, but there was little civilian traffic.

Zar’it residents said the Hizbullah attack started at about 9 a.m.

“At around nine in the morning there was a very loud and prolonged explosion accompanied by light and heavy fire…I can’t remember an incident like this in the recent past, not since the IDF left Lebanon,” a resident said.

Israel is losing the information war, and losing it badly. Yes, it’s always been an uphill battle for the Jewish state. But western news media make it even harder when they are so blatantly biased. America and Israel need to sharpen their own PR machines and thwart the Hezbollah/Hamas/Iran/Al Qaeda messages.

Of course, that begs the question: If the PR machines on our side sent out information, would the mainstream media actually disseminate it?

Yet another depressing thought that makes me wish I were the dictator of the world. Oh, how fast the MSM would change.

Two conflicting articles from Ynet on whether or not Syria will go to war to get back the Golan Heights:

Yes:

“If military confrontations break out between Syria and Israel, that would be the fulfillment of the general’s plan,” a Lebanese official told Yedioth Ahronoth.

[...] Former foreign minister and Vice President Farouk al-Shara has been marginalized and Foreign Minister Walid Moallem has been banned from hosting American, Arab and European officials.

Arab officials believe Shawkat, Assad’s brother-in-law, wants to drag Israel into a conflict in Lebanon, and possibly Syria, next month.

[...] The United States accuses Shawkat of harboring hundreds of insurgents who killed US soldiers in Iraq. He is barred from the United States.

Shawkat, who has been linked to the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, fears that Assad might hand him over to an international tribunal to ease US pressure on his regime.

No:

Syria is not interested in embarking on a military conflict with Israel in order to win back the Golan Heights, Syrian Vice President Farouk Ashara said Tuesday.

“Israel knows that we do not desire a war. Damascus will always be ready for a response to an Israeli attack but Syria will not initiate one,” Army Radio quoted Ashara as saying.

Maybe:

Neither Israel nor Syria are interested in a war so there is no reason for one to erupt, but Syria is still reinforcing its army and arming Hizbullah in Lebanon, Israel Radio quoted Jerusalem officials as saying on Wednesday.

The officials added that Syria’s declarations that it did not want a war were important but that its actions alone would determine the future.

You pays your money and you takes your choice.

At least when this guy talks, I don’t immediately think, “Liar.” Instead, I simply think, “Yeah, right.”

Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik met late Tuesday night with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in New York City and the two discussed the efforts being made to release the Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hizbullah and Hamas.

Ban told reporters before the meeting that the issue of the MIA Israeli soldiers topped his daily agenda and that he is working hard to resolve the matter.

Please. The UN couldn’t find its ass with its own hands, and UNIFIL has been unable to interdict the massive amounts of arms coming into Lebanon from Syria. Why should we believe that Ban can do anything about a terrorist organization that refuses to so much as tell the world whether or not the soldiers are alive?

The fake Fatah peace:

A bomb exploded near IDF forces operating in Nablus overnight Monday, prompting the troops to fire in the direction of the attack.

Nobody was wounded in the incident. Two Palestinians were arrested during the operation, and were transferred to security forces for further interrogation.

The fake West Bank peace:

Palestinians opened fire on an Israeli car on the Trans Judea Road near the settlement of Adora, which is in the vicinity of Hebron. No one was hurt and there was not damage reported.

IDF soldiers scanned the area and found bullet casings.

And from Gaza, where British MPs and other European politicians want Israel to talk to Hamas:

A Kassam rocket struck an open area in the western Negev Tuesday morning.

Nobody was wounded in the attack, and no damage was reported.

But what was the main Israel news yesterday? An IDF strike on terrorists in Gaza. The headline: “6 Palestinians Killed in Israeli Raid.”

Israeli aircraft attacked Islamic militants in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday and ground troops clashed with fighters in a daylong raid against suspected extremists.

Four fighters and two civilians died in the clashes and 26 people were wounded, including at least five civilians, Palestinian medical officials and militant factions said. Israel’s army said its soldiers arrested some 100 militants before withdrawing.

The constant terrorist attacks in Israel are unnoted by the world at large. They only notice when an IDF “incursion” occurs. The very word “incursion” is a negative connotation, as is “raid,” the other favorite term for IDF operations to terminate terror against Israel. And of course, there’s the ever-ready “retaliatory strike” after a suicide bombing occurs.

And the media bias against Israel continues unchecked.

I like this news:

Two Hamas security men were killed on Tuesday evening in heavy clashes with members of the Dogmush clan in Gaza.

Palestinian sources reported 20 more men had been wounded in the exchanges of fire as Hamas lay siege to a house west of Gaza City which several clansmen have barricaded themselves in.

Hamas said in a cryptic statement that its forces came under fire while on a mission in the area. The Doghmushes said the fighting began after Hamas came to arrest a clansman and confiscate his car.

The clan, one of the largest and most powerful in the Strip, is responsible for the March kidnapping of BBC reporter Alan Johnston and involved in the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in June 2006.

Hamas officials have threatened to storm the clan’s compound if the fighting continues, any such raid would likely result in numerous casualties.

Oh, don’t tease us!

I hope they both lose.