Okay. This weekend was rough. Tig was declining more and more. None of the treatments suggested was working. So I wrote that post last night thinking that Tig was only a day or two away from that final shot. And I called the vet this morning, and took Tig in for help putting his sub-q fluids in him, and to talk to the vet and discuss our options.

Before I got to the vet, I talked to the tech. Told her what was going on. That Tig still purrs, still sits outside, and, well, this morning he surprised me and came into the bathroom after I turned off the shower. I didn’t feed him, but I did manage to get a Pepcid into him. I think I finally got the hang of the piller. You set it up like a pinball machine and shoot that sucker straight down the gullet with the same kind of snap you use to shoot the ball. Anyway. I did. Tig got the antacid. Then he got 200 ml of fluid. And the tech pointed out to me that he was still alert, aware, and happy. He was purring when cuddled or when doing something he liked. That it wasn’t time yet. By the time the vet told me that yes, he was purring, but he wasn’t eating, meaning he didn’t feel well, and his bloodwork was awful and that it was only a matter of time, I’d made up my mind. “It’s not today,” I told him, and we went home.

Tig spent the entire day outside. I was on the phone with work when I saw the grey Maine coon thinking that he was going to take over Tig’s territory while Tig was still alive. I yelled and ran out with the metal rod I use to bar my patio door, and banged it on the AC unit to make sure the interloper got the idea that he was not welcome here. Sure, Tig was purring a little more today, and seemed happier, but still—he lost another two-tenths of a pound. He’s down to 10.8 pounds from an average of fifteen. And he looks crappy. His fur is getting ragged, he’s thin and bony, he isn’t grooming as much.

Tonight, I took Sarah’s eldest son to a concert because, for reasons too complicated to go into, Sarah needed me to take him. I had to grab Tig and bring him inside before I left. He didn’t want to come in. Then I had to get him a second time, because he dashed out between my legs when I went out the front door. I tripped over him. He hissed. I grabbed him. He swatted. I didn’t think much about it. Because if I had, I would have noticed that he ran out between my feet to get outside.

I got home from the concert about fifteen minutes ago. Tig was eating. The dry food. The good, low-protein kidney diet food. I tried to get him to have some more of the kidney diet wet food, but he declined. Then I asked if he’d like to go out. He ran out the door. Ran. I haven’t seen him run in weeks, except when he rushes downstairs to get away from us after we’ve stuck him with sub-q fluids, and when he goes downstairs, he has gravity on his side. I don’t think it counts.

But today, he ran.

He ate.

And just now, he got into a fight with the grey Maine coon. I don’t see a mark on him. I think I scared the grey away. I put Tig out front instead.

He ran again. To go out.

I think I’m just going to stop trying to figure things out. Perhaps I should just go by whether or not Tig is breathing, because I’m starting to think that’s how I’m going to be able to tell if he’s on his way out.

The podcast is up, and it’s another good one, with another great feature interview: Mark Steyn, talking about many things, but also about the suppression of his work in Canada.

My contribution is about scientology and Sderot, with a special guest appearance by Tom Cruise.

Remember you don’t need an iPod or an mp3 player, just a computer with Microsoft Media Player (most of them come with it). You can also catch my portions alone by clicking on the “On Second Thought” page.

The Egyptians and the IDF didn’t get all the suicide bombers that got out of Gaza and into Israel. Yeah, there’s a reason Gaza is closed off. It’s to keep out subhumans like this one:

A suicide bomber blew himself up in the southern town of Dimona at around 10:30 A.M. Monday, killing a woman and wounding 11 others, in the first terror attack of its kind in over a year. Click here for map

Negev Police Chief Yossi Porianta said that there had been two suicide bombers, but only one managed to detonate his explosives belt; the other was shot dead by security forces before he could blow himself up.

The second bomber had apparently been knocked out by the force of the first blast and was about to detonate his own belt, when rescue teams noticed the explosives and alerted police, who shot him at point blank. The suicide bombers entered Israel from Egypt after Gaza militants blew
up the Gaza-Egypt border wall, a Palestinian militant said.

And the kicker: It was Fatah, not Hamas. The AP is covering up or whitewashing these facts as fast as they can.

It was the first suicide attack in Israel in a year, and officials were investigating whether the attackers came in through Egypt after Palestinian militants breached the Gaza-Egypt border last month.

An offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement claimed responsibility, complicating recently renewed peace efforts. The attackers, they said, came from the West Bank, though the claim could not immediately be verified.

Funny, they don’t have any trouble verifying it in a later article.

Abu Fouad, a spokesman for the Fatah-allied Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades - which claimed responsibility for the attack - said the operation had been planned for a month, but was made possible after militants violently opened Gaza’s border with Egypt on January 23.

Or by Ynet.

Abu Fouad, a spokesman for the al-Aqsa Brigades, said in a press conference in Gaza that “the attack has been planned for a month, but was only made possible after gunmen bombed the fence at the Philadelphi route on January 23.”

Once again, the pretend-moderates of Fatah send their murderers into Israel to kill civilians. Once again, the pretend-condemnation by Abbas.

Abbas’ office denounced the attack. But it denied Al Aqsa was involved and linked the bombing to an Israeli raid in the West Bank that killed two Islamic Jihad militants before dawn Monday.

In the next breath, he denies that Fatah had anything to do with it.

Typical.

Condi Rice has this attack’s blood on her hands. She pushed Israel to give up the Philadelphi corridor. If the IDF still controlled it, the wall would not have been breached.

The Washington Post reports Egyptians Reseal Border, Cutting Access From Gaza

Egyptian construction workers in blue hard hats rolled barbed wire across the last breaches of the Gaza Strip’s border wall with Egypt on Sunday, reasserting Egyptian control of the frontier after Palestinian guerrillas used explosives and machinery to knock down the barrier.Egyptian and Palestinian forces had been signaling for days that the border would be sealed again, slowly choking off access for the hundreds of thousands of Gazans who had sought to leave the strip after the walls fell 11 days ago. This weekend, milling crowds of Gaza traders only watched, without throwing stones or shouting, as Egyptian construction workers and soldiers hoisted concrete blocks and rolled out barbed wire over the last gaps in the wall.

I guess we’ll see how long this closure will last. But it’s interesting how the crisis is described.

The border crisis began late last month when Israel sealed entry points from Israel into Gaza. Israeli officials said they were acting in response to guerrilla rocket attacks from Gaza toward southern Israel.

The crisis began with an Israeli action. The qassams? Well “Israeli officials said they were acting…” “Said they were acting?” Any idiot could see that 40 qassams a day was an intolerable situation and yet the reporter qualifies her report with “Israel officials say” as if that were a debatable point.

Of course the Post portrays the diplomatic aspects of the Gaza-Egypt border fence but ignores the terror enabling aspects of the breach, even in speculation.

But there’s no reason to speculate. The Jerusalem Post reports, Woman killed, one critically hurt in Dimona suicide attack:

One woman was killed and 38 people people were wounded, one critically, in a suicide attack in a Dimona commercial center Monday morning.Police said the attack was carried out by two attackers, but only one succeeded in detonating his explosives. The other terrorist was killed - seconds before he could detonate his explosives belt - by Kobi Mor, a police officer from an elite unit who happened to be on the scene.

More on the heroism that stopped the attack from being worse:

Shalom Bar Avi, a journalist speaking to Channel 10, said “I am here no longer as a journalist but as a simple citizen … I pray and hope my wife is okay.”Bar Avi praised the police’s quick response to the attack, and said Mor, the officer who identified the second attacker shot “four or five times … he took no chances.”

Later Mor’s heroism was revealed in detail: He shot the terrorist in the head, and when the latter in his last breath still tried to press the detonator button, shot him four more times and killed him. Mor managed to kill the terrorist before he could explode and without hitting his explosive belt, thus preventing a much more devastating attack.

Given the proximity of this attack to last week’s border breach, it’s safe to assume that this attack was enabled by the passage of munitions and terrorists across the Gaza-Egypt border. Just like terrorists fired a Grad missile at Ashkelon shortly after the Iran/Hamas group of pilgrims returned from their hajj. Hamas looks like it’s using these opportunities to widen their array of attacks against Israel. It’s a slow escalation, looking to see what it can get away with. Hamas’s patron Iran must be very pleased with the results of the latest escalation.

And of course the issue isn’t just the immediate terror attack, it’s the longer term that’s got to be a concern now. (h/t Backspin)

Considerable amounts of high quality weaponry were smuggled into Gaza through the breached border with Egypt along the Philadelphi rout, Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin stated during a cabinet security briefing Sunday. Diskin further stated that “its is difficult to determine the precise amounts, but a great deal of high quality weaponry, including long range rockets, antitank missiles and anti-aircraft missiles, was smuggled into Gaza, and these are weapons that usually do not find their way into the Strip.”More troubling, noted that Shin Bet chief, is the fact that the breach along the Philadelphi route allowed many militants trained in Egypt, Syria and Iran, to return to the Gaza Strip.

Predicting that the border with Egypt might likely remain breached for quite a while, Diskin warned that “all activities that previously took place underground can now take place far more easily above ground.”

Meryl concludes

Israel cannot trust her security to anyone else. Time and again, the world has proved that it has no problem with dead Jews.

Somehow I don’t think this is the time to be strengthening the hand of Hamas.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has decided to relax the criteria regarding prisoners to be included in an exchange for kidnapped soldier Gilad Schalit and push forward with a swap, despite vociferous objections by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), The Jerusalem Post has learned. Olmert met on the matter Sunday with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Vice Premier Haim Ramon, Internal Security Minister and former Shin Bet head Avi Dichter, Minister without Portfolio and former Shin Bet head Ami Ayalon, Environment Minister and former deputy Shin Bet head Gideon Ezra, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann.

And that’s against the recommendations of one of his intelligence directors.

The withdrawal from Gaza followed by the withdrawal from the Philadelpi corridor has been a security disaster for Israel.

Liveblogging Israelly Cool! now has the death toll at 3. And of course the peace partners celebrate the terror. Harsh words from Bloodthirsty Liberal.

UPDATE: Seraphic Secret explains the heroics of Kobi Mor:

Head shots, even from just a few yards, are incredibly difficult. In the aftermath of a homicide bombing, as another terrorist is about to detonate, your every instinct is to flee. Kobi Mor is an exceptional man.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Being himself a journalist, Ambrose Bierce didn’t define “Journalist” in The Devil’s Dictionary. The only mention of this venerable occupation he made in this document:

There are men called journalists who have established ink baths which some persons pay money to get into, others to get out of. Not infrequently it occurs that a person who has paid to get in pays twice as much to get out.

Of course, when I get indignant about journalists, I don’t mean them all, just some specific ones that get on my nerves. Some of my best friends etc…

In this specific case, though, it is not just a professional journalist, it’s a professor of journalism at Stanford University and a former foreign policy correspondent for the New York Times, one Joel Brinkley. And the reason he got on my nerves is the following quote from his article Hamas explodes a giant hole in Egypt’s political cover.

For months now, Hamas has been firing rocket volleys over the Gaza border fence into Israel. Most fall harmlessly in the desert, but the attacks terrify and occasionally injure citizens of Sderot, a small town just east of Gaza. In response, Israel has cut fuel and other supplies to Gaza.

It is more than seven (7) years, and aside of hundreds “occasionally injured” there are thirteen (13) dead by now. You would think that a veteran journalist like this one could at least open a Wiki entry on the subject. But no, it would have interfered with his analytical effort.

The article as a whole is full of doubtful statements and conclusions, but they can be attributed to professor’s somewhat faulty analytical abilities. At least it explains why NYT got its reputation for under-researched (to be gentle) articles and frequent disregard of facts that don’t match the journalist’s agenda.

I wonder what kind of standards does professor Brinkley impress on the youngsters in Stanford.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews.

An EU official says that half the anti-Semitic attacks in Europe are carried out by Muslims.

The figure comes from European Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini, who is responsible in the EU for combating racism and anti-Semitism in Europe. Frattini mentioned it in a conversation with Minister for Diaspora Affairs Isaac Herzog last week, and said it was based on European Union reports.

Gee. Remember that suppressed report about anti-Semitism in the EU? The one that the EU said wasn’t suppressed because it showed most anti-Semitic attacks were carried out by Muslims, but that it wasn’t “ready” or something equally ridiculous? It’s still online. And Muslim anti-Semitism has gotten worse. Muslims are a minority in Europe, and yet, they’re carrying out half of the attacks on Jews.

So. What are the Europeans doing to stop the overt anti-Semitism?

According to Herzog, European governments are responding to this “aggressively,” including educating Muslim imams throughout the continent on “European values, principles of democracy, the rights of women and the like.”

Oh, that’ll help. Because it’s done so much to stop it so far. All you have to do is read back through my archives to see how well that’s worked.

Jack’s Shack continues his stewardship of Haveil Havalim - The Jewish and Israel related blogging carnival - with the prophetic Haveil Havalim #152 - Patriotos must lose edition.