Internet Explorer, for reasons I cannot understand, is causing comments to be posted twice. There is no such problem with Firefox.

I’m going to take a wild guess and say I need to update my WP and/or my comments plugin.

in about four minutes.

Did you remember?

I forgot to keep up on the online comics, but I did what my friend Lynn suggested and just watched the finale again.

And I was so right about Nathan and Peter. (Had to get that in one more time.)

Commence talking in this post after the West Coast had a chance to see the show.

I finally got the offer from Company in Northern Virginia. I accepted the verbal offer and am awaiting the written offer. If all goes well, I will be on staff by October 1st.

5768 is starting out well for me.

As soon as I have that offer letter in hand, I’m going to visit some banks to discuss mortgage options. I found a development that I really, really like. I want to see if I can afford it. It’s a development that builds to suit. I would buy now and move in next May or June. That would work. I’m steadily working my way out of debt, and that would give me a chance to work up a larger down payment.

A job and a new home… big year ahead for me. Don’t worry. The blog is going to stick around.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not respond fully to a single question asked by either the National Press Club, or anyone at Columbia. In fact, he actually answered a question on why Iran is executing homosexuals by declaring that there are no homosexuals in Iran.

As I said the other day, talking to Mad Mahmoud is a waste of time. He lies, denies, and redirects the question (thanks to KCtheKat for that particular turn of phrase).

About the only thing I learned today is that Mahmoud gets really pissed when people ask him tough questions.

If you listened to his long, boring, droning speeches before the question-and-answer sessions, you may have wondered, “WTF?” Well, remember that in his pre-presidential life, he was an academic. He thinks very highly of himself. Also, he finds himself in the rare position of being able to preach Islam to thousands of infidels (if not millions via TV, the web, and various video outlets). And then there’s his belonging to the cult of the Twelfth Imam, who’s hiding down a well somewhere waiting to come back, but not before destroying much of the infidel world first, I think. Not sure of the details; don’t care to look them up.

I’m sure Robert Spencer will have a post analyzing the Islamic messages that Ahmadinejad was trying to get across. Here’s a sample:

He said people should follow God, who would lead them to a “sublime” state.

“When we take a look around us, we are not happy with what we see,” Ahmadinejad said. “Threats of war have affected everyone. Continuous wars have in fact hurt the human spirit. If we look at the root cause of some of these problems, we will be able to think about how to build a better future, a more prosperous future based on peace and security of all humanity.”

Spencer says:

No one realizes, of course, that when he is calling people to follow God, he is calling for the institution of Sharia.

Uh-huh. I’m sure there’s more.

Podcast is looking at a graphic novel

This week we’re talking to graphic novelist, Bosch Fawstin. He speaks here to Shire Network News’s deputy-assistant under manger with responsibility for graphic novels, cartoon and illustrations, “Tom Paine” about why he’s decided to tackle the enemy head on. This interview was recorded on September 11th, at just about exactly the time the two towers were hit. Just so you know.

You can find his website and order his previous graphic novel, “Table for One” at this website: BoschFawstin.com.

In “The Mideast Core” The editors of the Washington Post argue

Ms. Rice should also discourage Israel from intensifying the ongoing conflict with Hamas-ruled Gaza by shutting off its electricity and fuel supplies. It’s hardly possible that Mr. Olmert will be able to negotiate peace with one set of Palestinians while waging war against another. Instead, Israel should be open to striking a cease-fire with Hamas and opening peace talks with Syria.

The logic here is, in a word, rotten. At the beginning of the editorial the editors were joyfully proclaiming “serious” talks between PM Olmert and President Abbas, then they show exactly how “serious” they truly are. A country’s first priority is to defend its citizens. If “highly inaccurate” Qassams are continually fired into Israeli territory, Israel ought to be defending itself regardless of who it’s negotiating peace with. After all wouldn’t it be a measure of the seriousness of the peace if Abbas would say, “We understand why you are doing this you must defend your people.” That, of course, is the rub. The Post knows how unserious these talks are. They aren’t about peace but about what Israel can do for the Palestinians - and get nothing in return. And they know that the moderate Abbas will never countenance Israel defending itself - even against Hamas who was throwing Fatah people off tall buildings a few months ago. But if Abbas can’t accept the how serious can the peace be? If the Post were serious about peace, it would be encouraging a real Palestinian (and Arab) change of heart. Instead, it just continually asks for Israel to do more and more with ever lessening (positive) returns.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

israel, peace process.

I’ll be a guest on the World Have Your Say BBC radio programme (using BBC spelling in honour of BBC programme, must stop now). The topic: Should Ahmadinejad be allowed to lay a wreath at Ground Zero. The show starts at 1 p.m. EST, but I probably won’t be on until about 1:30.

Just got off the phone with a chap who asked me many background questions, including “Are you Jewish?”

“Is that relevant?” I asked.

“No.”

I don’t think an American radio backgrounder would ask me that. But it’s not like I hide it or anything.

He says the debate should be lively, but civil. Here’s hoping.

Think I’ll be the only one holding the opinion that Ahmadinejad shouldn’t even be let into the country?

Gee, here’s a shock. One of the 180 terrorists who signed an agreement swearing that if Israel took him off a most-wanted list, he’d stop trying to murder Jews, was captured with—weapons and explosives.

Border Police special forces Sunday arrested a Fatah militant that had been pardoned by Israel some two months ago, on suspicion that he had resumed militant activity.

Fares Mansour, a member Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, was found in possession of explosives and weapons. He was one of around 180 Fatah militants granted amnesty by Israel two months ago in a deal with the Palestinian Authority.

Mansour, like all prisoners pardoned in the July deal, had signed an affidavit renouncing terror acts, however he was suspected of involvement in shooting attacks on Israel Defense Forces troops. Explosives, a rifle and a handgun were found in his home.

Way to go Ehud Olmert! Keep on pulling back on the policing, definitely release 91 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture, and oh yeah, while you’re at it, make sure you allow the Palestinians to police Nablus themselves. Because it’s not like Nablus is a hotbed of terrorists or anything.

Oh, wait. It is.

On Saturday, militants fired at an Israeli hitchhiker from a moving car on Road 60 in Israel’s South. The hitchhiker was not injured in the shooting, and the IDF began searching the area for the perpetrators.

During the search operation, troops entered a home where one of the militants, a Hamas chief in Nablus, was hiding under a bed upon which a pregnant woman was sitting, saying she did not feel well.

The troops looked under the bed and found the militant.

In a word, “no.”

I received an e-mail from a reader asking me to respond to a recent item in Scott Adams’ blog. (I have to admit that the foul language of the item is very offputting. Adams has talent, why he can’t express himself without an excess of 4 letter words is beyond me.)

It appears that this is the offending sentence:

Aren’t there any Iranian words for saying a set of historical facts has achieved an unhealthy level
of influence on a specific set of decisions in the present?

I’m sorry but I didn’t read this the way my correspondent did. Here was the previous sentence:

Furthermore, why does an Iranian guy give a speech in his own language except for using the English word “myth”?

Adams’ complaint wasn’t about the Holocaust. It was about Ahmadinejad’s use of the term “myth” to describe the Holocaust. Adams was noting that is was convenient for Ahmadinejad to use the English word myth, but not very convincing. So he mocked him, in the next sentence with his “historical facts” line. (I’m not sure when Ahmadinejad actually said “myth” in English, asAdams said.) But that’s Adams’s point, Ahmadinejad says myth; Adams, in his rant, says “historical fact” and then uses the phrase “unhealthy level of influence” to describe Ahmadinejad’s beliefs, not his own.

The construction is awkward, but I can’t make the inference that my correspondent made.

In a follow-up post Adams - mercifully free of expletives - wrote

With your indulgence, allow me to clarify.1. I am not happy that Hitler killed your relatives.
2. I do not support the killing of Americans
3. I do not support nuclear annihilation of Israel
4. I do not support the stoning of virgins in Iran
5. I believe the holocaust happened

I also don’t argue there’s a moral equivalence between Iran and the United States, or Israel and the Palestinians, or anyone and anyone else. Groups pursue their own perceived self interest. Arguing relative morality is an idiot’s game. Pointing out similarities in policies, and shaking the box, is good clean fun.

The tone is snarky and non-apologetic, and the politics are muddled. There’s a lot to disagree with. But I just don’t see him providing the comics version of Walt and Mearsheimer?

Am I being too generous? Let me know in the comments and if you blog and wish to comment on it, e-mail me and hopefully, I’ll link to you.

I see a couple of bloggers (at least) have registered their views what Adams wrote. Ranting to /dev/null seems to agree with me. Dossy’s blog OTOH, agrees with my correspondent, but unlike my corresponent, finds those views admirable.

UPDATE: via memeorandum
Daimnation reads Adams the same way my correspondent (Balashon - see below) does:

Yeah, Syria would be the new Singapore if it wasn’t for these pesky Zionists keeping them poor. And Israel’s need to control as much territory as possible explains why they gave the Sinai Peninsula back to Egypt. Reverse psychology, you see.As for a Palestinian “Gandhi,” I’d like to think Adams is saying he’s come under fire from Hamas or the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. But I have my doubts.

UPDATE II: Treppenwitz weighs in with his own thumbs down.

The post is such a well written bit of irony / sarcasm, and so disarmingly charming (despite the gratuitous swearing) in its mock rage, that one doesn’t immediately ‘get’ that his deadly serious intent is to criticize Israel and Jews.Reading the piece through the first time was like being a lone American at a dinner party amidst a bunch of Brits… grinning along with the well-bred banter for ten or fifteen minutes before realizing with dawning horror that the ‘colonial’ they’ve been making jokes about all evening is you.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

scott adams.

The stories about Israel hitting a Syrian/Korean nuclear facility have been coming fast and furious, and the most sensational are the ones in the London Times, penned by our old pal Uzi Mahnaimi. I would like to refresh your memory on some of the more spurious of his claims (the ethnic bomb that was supposed to target only Arab genes is the first and worst of his claims and, in fact, won me my title of “Master of Juvenile Scorn” during a blogwar several years ago).

There’s actually a very recent article by our man Mahnaimi that can be used to illustrate, well, how wrong he is. This is from June 17th:

ISRAEL’s new defence minister Ehud Barak is planning an attack on Gaza within weeks to crush the Hamas militants who have seized power there.

According to senior Israeli military sources, the plan calls for 20,000 troops to destroy much of Hamas’s military capability in days.

The raid would be triggered by Hamas rocket attacks against Israel or a resumption of suicide bombings.

Barak, who is expected to become defence minister tomorrow, has already demanded detailed plans to deploy two armoured divisions and an infantry division, accompanied by assault drones and F-16 jets, against Hamas.

And if that wasn’t breathless enough, there’s this conclusion:

A source close to Barak said that Israel could not tolerate an aggressive “Hamastan” on its border and an attack seemed unavoidable.

“The question is not if but how and when,” he said.

Let’s see, June 17th to September 24th, carry the one, um—suffice to say, more than three months have passed since Uzi Mahnaimi assured us in the Sunday Times that an attack on Hamastan was practically imminent, and definitely unavoidable.

Three months. Heading towards four.

When you read anything by Uzi Mahnaimi, add about three shakers of salt. And I have no confidence that his co-author, Sarah Baxter, has any legitimate sources in the Israeli Defense Forces, either. She co-authored one of the Mahnaimi pieces that purported Israel was about to attack Iran. As Allison Kaplan Sommers wrote about that article:

One thing is clear: Mahnaimi makes a regular habit of reporting that Israel is about to attack Iran. If his reporting was accurate, Iranian nuclear facilities would already be a smoking ruin – not once, but multiple times.

If you click the link to Allison’s PJM piece, you will find out exactly how many times Mahnaimi has claimed this. And Sarah Baxter is right there along with him for the ride on the last article. And just in case you’re not tired of the “Israel is going to bomb Iran” articles, they also wrote one about how America is planning to bomb Iran.

Read their words about Israel at your own risk. The truth is out there, but I don’t think it’s in the Sunday Times, no matter how many co-authors they give our man Mahnaimi. Once a liar, always a liar.