A break from the usual. I have many pictures of Tig, including a close-up of him enjoying the bag that Herschel’s donation bought for him:

It was a week for close-ups. You can see his Maine Coon paws in this one.

Here’s part two of Tig in the Bukkit.

And here’s a quiet moment in my lap. Believe me when I tell you the quiet moments are few and far between, and I have the scars to prove it.

Here’s one that looks like he’s standing in front of an odd watercolor. It’s the trees through my window, and the way the camera processed them.

He’s yowling to be let out now, but he was out most of the morning and afternoon. He scared himself when he leaped onto my foot massager and accidentally turned it on. He decided to go after Gracie’s tail, which was hanging down from the chair next to me, and she let him know that was never going to happen. There were many growls and hisses today and yesterday, as we are trying to merge the cat populations of the Yourish household. And I went running upstairs earlier thinking that Gracie was after Tig, only to discover that the hisses and growls I heard were Tig himself. Gracie was on the sofa downstairs, watching me curiously and wondering why I just ran up the stairs.

He’s yowling now, and I’m off to Sarah’s for a relaxing afternoon and evening with kids and dogs. There will be barking, but probably no hisses or growls.

There’s something that’s missing from the latest AP stories on the negotiations with Syria about the Golan Heights.

Israel captured the strategic plateau in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed the area. Many Israelis are reluctant to relinquish the Golan, which overlooks northern Israel and borders the Sea of Galilee, a key source of drinking water.

No, that’s not it.

In the most recent talks, conducted by then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Israel reportedly offered to withdraw from the Golan, but the talks broke down because Syria wanted Israel to pull back several hundred yards more to the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.

No, that’s not it.

Israel and Syria have fought three wars, their forces have clashed in Lebanon, and more recently, Syria has given support to Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas and Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip. Israel is also concerned about Syria’s close ties to Iran.

No, that’s not it.

The Israeli public opposes giving up the Golan, home to a thriving tourism and wine industry. An opinion poll last week found that only 19 percent of Israelis are willing to cede the entire plateau - even in exchange for peace.

Nope. That’s not it, either. But hey, way to make Israelis look like warmongering, selfish scumbags, AP. No, Israelis don’t want to give back the Golan, even in exchange for peace. And by the way, how is that not an editorial statement? The “even” makes it seem that Israelis want war, no matter what. Nice little bit of yellow journalism there.

Perhaps we can find out why 81 percent of Israelis don’t want to give back the Golan. Maybe we can dig around a bit and see what the AP thinks is not important enough to mention about the Golan when describing why so many Israelis are reluctant to give the Heights back. In fact, we can find it in the AP factbox that was released on May 21st, so we know they had the ability to relay this information only five days ago:

Soldiers shelled northern Israel from the Golan Heights between 1948 and 1967. Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed it in 1981. No country recognized the annexation.

Ohhhhhh. Syria regularly bombarded Israeli communities from the Golan Heights for nineteen years. Say. I wonder if that has anything to do with why 81 percent of Israelis don’t want to give back the Golan.

The AP description above makes it seem like Israelis want to keep the Golan for their own personal pleasure and profit—not because it’s a strategically important plateau used to launch deadly attacks on civilian communities. (Gee, that sounds familiar. The Arab ways have not changed in sixty years.) The shelling stopped on June 10, 1967, when the IDF captured the Golan Heights.

After the 1948-49 War of Independence, the Syrians built extensive fortifications on the Heights, from where they systematically shelled civilian targets in Israel and launched terrorist attacks (in gross violation of Article III of the Israel-Syria Armistice Agreement of 20 July 1949). 140 Israelis were killed and many more were injured in these attacks between 1949 and 1967; heavy property damage was also inflicted. During the 1967 Six-Day War, the IDF captured the Golan Heights — in response to Syrian attacks — in just over 24 hours of intense fighting on 9-10 June. Nearly all of the Golan’s Arab inhabitants fled as a result of the war; four Druze villages remain, three on the slopes of Mt. Hermon and one in the northern Golan.

Funny how you never see mention of Syria being in violation of the Armistice Agreement—for nineteen years—by shelling northern Israel, and yet you always see drek like the AP boilerplate about how no one recognizes Israel’s annexation of the Golan.

Another sterling example of your objective media at work. Another example of why I’ll keep blogging, as long as the media keep on defaming Israel.

In his column today, William Kristol writes in Remember to Remember:

One retired general I know urges civilians to go out of their way to say thank you to servicemen and women they happen to encounter. At first I thought such a gesture might be intrusive, or awkward, or unwelcome. I was wrong. When civilians walk over to express appreciation to men and women in uniform, in airports or restaurants or the like, the recipients seem a little embarrassed — but grateful. So perhaps we all should be less shy about thanking our troops for their service.The men and women in the military know their fellow citizens are grateful to them. Many of them say, though, that they’re not confident their countrymen are aware of what they’re accomplishing.

Airports?

How about this?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

If you have not yet seen Iron Man, go. Sarah and I went last night, and we thoroughly enjoyed the film. It was also great to be in a half-empty theater with choice of seats. And a definitively metal soundtrack… totally fitting, but I thought they should at least have had the lyrics during the end credits.

This one’s a keeper. I may even buy it on Blu-Ray and I don’t even have a Blu-Ray player.

Looking forward to the new Hulk movie next month, too. I’m taking two of my first-year students, who I took to see the X-Men film six years ago. I suspect that they won’t have to peek through their fingers during the really violent parts this time, though. They’re fifteen by now.

Marvel characters really do seem to get the better movies. The only DC movies that have been truly great are the first two Christopher Reeve Superman movies and Batman Begins.

I really like that we have movie producers, writers, and directors who have grown up reading comic books. It makes the difference between a great comic book movie, and a piece of crap like the 1980s Swamp Thing. Ew. Now a Swamp Thing movie that was faithful to the Alan Moore series…. brrr. That’d be scary. I probably wouldn’t watch it. The comic books used to freak me out to the point that I wouldn’t read them at night. It’s not that I’m a chicken. It’s that I get really involved in whatever I am reading or watching. I have a hard time remembering it isn’t real. That’s why I can’t watch horror films. That, and the fact that they give me nightmares.

Anyway. Go see Iron Man. It rocks.