Because the previous post has the world’s ugliest man, here are some of the world’s cutest kitties:

Hey you broke it!

Moore’s picture broke my computer. Tig doesn’t care.

My chair. I say, MY chair.

Gracie isn’t allowing me to sit in my chair much these days, and as she is still losing weight (she’s back to Miss Bony Butt), I am spoiling her and allowing her to sleep in the chair when I’d really rather be in it. Sometimes. She grumbles when I kick her out of it.

You can’t see me.

Mr. Tig, looking even cuture than usual, deciding that he’d go under the tissue papers instead of on them.

There. Phew. Had to get that ugly mug off my screen. Mission accomplished.

According to this, the world-famous creator of post-documentary documentaries found a new proof of existence of deity and His/Her attention to political affairs in US of A:

During an appearance Friday on MSNBC, Moore noted the coincidental timing of Gustav, which threatened the Gulf Coast on the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina as the Republican Party planned to hold its convention in St. Paul, Minn.

“I was just thinking, this Gustav is proof that there is a God in heaven,” the Oscar-winning director of “Fahrenheit 911″ said. “To just have it planned at the same time, that it would actually be on its way to New Orleans for Day One of the Republican convention, up in the Twin Cities, at the top of the Mississippi River.”

I was just thinking after reading the above that:

1. This mug is another proof that the deity exists and that He/She has been unusually cruel toward the mug’s parents. On the other hand, the parents might have sinned mightily - who knows?
2. Michael Moore must have been paid by Republicans to sabotage the Democrats’ cause.
3. Krispy Kreme donuts definitely cause brain damage in the long run, especially if a person who is a walking cemetery of these donuts wasn’t a genius to start with.
4. Being an ugly, fat and lying jerk is not an excuse for moral debauchery. Or for idiocy.
5. Who is hating America more - Osama or Michael Moore?
6. Re item 1: Since we have established the existence of the deity, there is a five words message the deity should have passed to the parents (probably mislaid it due to extreme busyness): “Contraception, contraception, contraception!”.
7. More miscellaneous items that could not be published.

As you might have noticed, the items are not arranged in a particular order. Just thinking, you know…

More on the slobbo here.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews.

Despicable. Worse than despicable.

In this framework dozens of children have undergone training in the past few days by gunmen from the Salah al-Din Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees. The training included firing pistols and rifles.

“I am learning how to fight the Jews and kill Jewish children,” 11-year-old Muhammad told Ynet, “the parents of the Jewish children are the soldiers and officers who kill us here. I want these parents to get a taste of what it’s like to have your children killed, just as the Palestinians experience every day.

“I would rather die fighting the occupation than die at home from a missile, which is what happened to hundreds of Palestinian children,” he said.

But of course, it’s anti-Zionism, not anti-Semitism. Religion doesn’t enter into this conflict at all, right?

Plus, it’s been a while since we heard an open-the-gates-of-hell statement, so here you go:

The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad on Saturday threatened to unleash “the fires of hell” on Israel, as it staged a military parade in the south of the Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip.

“We will unleash the fires of hell if the Zionist enemy continues its crimes,” said the group’s military chief Abu Hamzeh after the parade by around 800 Islamic Jihad members, an AFP journalist reported.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But the gates of hell will be opened. If those children fight in battle and are killed, watch for the AP to blame the Israelis—not the Palestinians, for putting them in harm’s way to begin with.

This is the sentiment, exactly, on what many women feel about Obama not choosing Hillary for VP:

“If 18 million votes is not enough, what does it take in the Democratic Party to get a woman on the ticket?”

Time was, when the two top candidates were in a statistical tie, no one was “anointed.” They fought it out on the floor of the convention, and then the loser became the VP candidate.

Then again, this is also the fault of the arcane rules the Dems chose so that they could take the choice away from the voters and put it back into career politicians’ hands (read: Superdelegates). One person, one vote? Not for them.

What people don’t understand when they fling around the easy label of “identity politics” is that like it or not, identity politics exist. When we see the sexist and misogynist comments on blogs and online news sites, we tend to get angry. It’s something that comes up every single time. I have never seen a discussion on any kind of women’s issue that doesn’t devolve into sexism and/or misogyny. Or, worst of all, the pretense that white males are being discriminated against as much as, if not more than, women and minorities. Shyeah. How many white male Senators are there again? How many female and minority candidates for VP and president have there been again?

But I’m getting off the point. The point is, the choice of Sarah Palin as McCain’s VP underlines the perception that women were slighted, yet again, by the Democrats. And that isn’t really what the Democrats want.

As I said, I was going to vote for McCain anyway. The addition of Palin has made me want to pay attention for the rest of the campaign. And the reaction from the Democrats and progressives?

Despicable.

I received an email today from a disaffected Hillary fan who plans to vote for McCain come November.

I am a died-in-the-wool Democrat, but when Obama turned his ass to Hillary and called her “sweetie,” I didn’t know what to do. I thought that I would write Hillary’s name in.

But McCain has given me a choice. While I disagree with most all of their policies (except for the honesty and integrity part), I’m voting for Sarah.

Can you start a women for Sarah group? That I’d like to join and work for!

Really. You cannot overestimate the negative effect that the naked sexism and disrespect shown towards Hillary during this campaign has had on women. I expect to be getting more emails like this as the sexism lands on Sarah Palin as well (and of course, it already has). Witness the comments over at John Cole’s Balloon Juice, a site where the reading comprehension is so great that the commenter who linked me there called me a Hillary voter. (Shyeah.)

Ninerdave Says:

She looks like a stripper in teachers garb. I keep expecting her to rip off her glasses and grab a pole.

And then there’s this charmer:

r€nato Says:

this pick just REEKS of desperation. I can’t wait to see Biden wipe the floor with her in the Veep debates.

And yes it is creepy to see old man McCain standing next to a cute chick 30 years his junior.

Even creepier when you remember that McCain’s second wife, Cindy Hensley McCain, is 18 years his junior.

I think the Obama campaign should definitely consider pushing an undercover ‘McCain digs chicks young enough to be his daughter’ meme.

I mean, great for the old guy that he can get young chicks… everyone else pretty much thinks it’s creepy.

Or this.

AkaDad Says:

When I think of Palin, I’m thinking “Drill Here Drill Now.”

You stay classy, progressive Democrats. And try to wonder why women are unhappy with your party these days.

You know, I always hated Cole’s site. This garbage reminds me why.

Jonathan Last points out the Battlestar Galactica angle on the Republican slate:

Watching Palin’s introduction it became immediately clear that she looks uncannily like a young Laura Roslin.* This can only bode well for Palin. But the parallels don’t stop at her looks. Like Roslin, Palin was basically a private citizen (Roslin was a teacher, Palin was a reporter) before being pulled into politics. Neither seems to have had any larger ambition, until events pulled them into prominence. And both were immediately discounted by outside observers as being unequal to the demands of their new positions.

Jonathan, you’re such a geek. (And I say that very fondly, as I have all of season four on my DVR and am going to use every wile I have to not let Comcast make me change DVRs when I move next week.)

Like Adama and Roslin, McCain and Palin should complement each other well. I eagerly await the moment in the VP debate when Palin is asked what she would do with Osama bin Laden if he were captured. One assumes her answer will be some variation of, “Put that thing out the airlock.”

It’s a slam-dunk.

I’m getting emails from Hillary supporters telling me they’re now going to vote for McCain. Now we can shoot for the SF fan base.

Hat tip: Chris H.

Rats. Just when I finally found the issue that gets people commenting (it is apparently politics, and not Israel or even—sigh—my enthralling cat and life posts), I have to do things like, gee, move.

I’m off for the entire next week, albeit not really, as I will be doing work in the evenings, probably. But I will be cleaning, packing, closing, painting, and moving into my new home. This is the last weekend I’ll be spending having to listen to noisy people in the parking lot at midnight, or cars coming by with their stereos literally shaking the walls to my apartment, or neighbors screaming at each other or partying.

I won’t be missing this place. Only its central location. But I’m not moving very far, just about ten miles west. It will add about 5-10 minutes to my trip to NorVA, but cut my time to just about everywhere else. Except going to Heidi and Sarah’s places. There are almost no direct routes between where I am and where they are. It’s slightly annoying.

The close is supposed to happen Tuesday morning at 11, but may be pushed back a few hours. I’m getting really excited. Moving into my own home. How cool is that?

A word to the men who read this blog: While I don’t claim to speak for all women, I can claim to give you a woman’s point of view on what John McCain choosing Sarah Palin for his vice presidential candidate means to me. And remember that I voted for Al Gore in 2000. (W. in 2004.)

It tells me that the Republicans believe that a woman can do the job equally as well as a man.

It tells me that John McCain isn’t going to demean the women reporters around him by calling them “Sweetie” and brushing them off.

It tells me that the Republicans think that now is the time for women to step up to the podium they’ve been aiming for for decades.

It tells me that 18 million voters, who were essentially ignored by the Democratic party, are not being ignored by the Republicans.

It tells me that politics are forever changed in America, and love her or hate her, you have Hillary Clinton to thank for the choice of Sarah Palin.

I simply cannot describe to you what a difference the choice of Palin makes for us. I watched the McCain news conference, and as he walked onto the stage, I found myself thinking that this boring old man had managed to make me feel excited about his campaign. And I am someone who intended to vote for him since he was assured the nomination. Two of my closest female friends feel the same way. There is a groundswell of excitement for McCain now, and next week’s convention suddenly got a lot more watchable.

Sarah Palin has made me excited about politics again, so much so that I’m contributing to the McCain campaign. So much so that I’m going to try to get to any and all of her appearances in Virginia. So much so that I can ignore the issues that she and I disagree on—and there are many—because it’s about damned time that women had a shot at the Executive Suite to top all Executive Suites.

American history changed today every bit as much as it changed with Obama’s nomination—but this one means more to me, for obvious reasons.

Obama can go home and grow a little in November. He’s not ready to be president. But Sarah Palin is more than ready to be VP.

And if she and McCain win, four or eight years from now, there could be an all-female presidential race. Now how cool would that be?

Susie B. is smiling.

Israel has evidently decided that she is alone on the world stage. Actually, she’s always known it, but not it’s been codified:

Israel will not agree to allow Iran to achieve nuclear weapons and if the grains start running out in the proverbial egg timer, Jerusalem will not hesitate to take whatever means necessary to prevent Iran from achieving its nuclear goals, the government has recently decided in a special discussion.

According to the Israeli daily Ma’ariv, whether the United States and Western countries will succeed in toppling the ayatollah regime diplomatically, through sanctions, or whether an American strike on Iran will eventually be decided upon, Jerusalem has put preparations for a separate, independent military strike by Israel in high gear.

While this is the stuff that conspiracy nutjobs live on, and the fodder for the fever swamps that are the lefty blogs, it’s also the best thing I’ve read in quite some time:

Sneh also visited Switzerland and Austria last week in an attempt to lobby those two states. Both countries have announced massive long-term investments in Iranian gas and oil fields for the next decade.

“Talk of the Jewish Holocaust and Israel’s security doesn’t impress these guys,” Sneh said wryly.

Hearing his hosts speak of their future investments, Sneh replied quietly “it’s a shame, because Ido will light all this up.” He was referring to Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, the recently appointed commander of the Israeli Air Force and the man most likely to be the one to orchestrate Israel’s attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, should this become the necessity.

“Investing in Iran in 2008,” Sneh told his Austrian hosts, “is like investing in Krups Steelworks in 1938, it’s a high risk investment.” The Austrians, according to Sneh, turned pale.

There’s a lot more at the link. Recommendation: Read in full.

Fox News confirms that John McCain has chosen Alaska Governon Sarah Palin for his vice presidential pick.

This is the BEST pick possible. It shows that the Republicans are just as progressive as the Dems this time around, and I’m betting that a lot of angry Hillary voters will now give a lot more thought to voting for McCain.

I’ve been hoping for this for a while. I don’t care that she’s more conservative than I’d like. What I like is that women have not been shut out yet again. I loathe Hillary, but I do agree with those who resent the rise of Obama, the far less qualified [male] candidate, over the woman who’s been around a lot longer, and working a lot harder.

I was already going to vote for McCain, but this would have locked it up for me.

Sarah Palin may become the nation’s first female vice president. Awesome.

“Swiss FM would talk to bin Laden“, the headline says.
But don’t get your knickers twisted, there is a purpose to this:

Switzerland’s foreign minister told top diplomats on Monday she favours direct talks with Osama Bin Laden to tackle the threat of terrorism.

I can imaging the forthcoming meeting - somewhere in a cave near Pakistan - Afghanistan border:

M: Good morning, dear Mr Bin Laden…
O: Oh, just call me Sammy, please, let’s dispense with formalities!
M: OK, fine, but only of you call me Micheline.
O: So, Micheline, how do you do? You look younger than the last time I’ve seen you.

[Embarrassed silence for a minute or two, one of Osama's bodyguards faints]

M: You too, Sammy, look quite good. I would say more attractive than ever…

[Osama faints. More embarrassed silence interrupted only by goat bleating]

O [recovering]: Do you know what, Micheline, let’s be done with the Oriental small talk. So what brings you here?
M [unperturbed]: Why, it’s that thing I always root for [Osama blanching]. I mean the threar of terrorism, of course. Er… eliminating it.
O [visibly perking up]: Oh, that… Sure, sure, why not? Do you want some goat cheese, figs and pita before you go?

Well, and more in that vein. Anyhow, I cannot even start guessing what the heck is there for Swiss FM to talk about with OBL. At least we know why she went out of her way to kiss and make up with this one:
(Even Mahmoud The Mad seems to be somewhat put off, but let’s write it off on cultural shock).

The aroma of natural gas permeated by a strong aftertaste of oil is surely a great stimulant. But what kind of gas does she expect to get from Osama?

Update: there is someone jealous of that Swiss one-upmanship.

Norway has joined Switzerland in opening up for talks with terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. That doesn’t mean Norway is going soft on the fight against terrorism, though, said the country’s deputy foreign minister.
…
He noted, though, that he has no illusions that bin Laden would sit down for negotiations. I don’t think Osama bin Laden or the forces around al-Qaida want dialogue,” Johansen said. “They prefer rather to take the lives of infidels.”

Go figure that diplomatic lingo. Does it mean “buzz off” from Norwegian FM to the Swiss FM?

But it’s hardly material. What is more intriguing still: what the heck these two would talk to Osama about, assuming he is available for such an eventuality?

Cross-posted on SimplyJews.

The good guys win one for a change, and the woman who brought HP down has been banned from the UCU mailing list on which she linked to an article on convicted felon David Duke’s website.

Time for one of my universally popular interventions,” Waddup wrote. “I have received complaints from list members about the linking by another member to a Web site which contains highly offensive, racist material.

“I acted to suspend the posting rights of the list member as soon as the union became aware of the link, and having reviewed this and previous conduct; I have now suspended their list membership indefinitely,” he wrote.

Of course, the list is still full of anti-Semites masquerading as anti-Zionists, but it’s a start.

Still, it’s nice to actually win one once in a while.

One of my readers forwarded me information on The Cat House, a no-kill shelter in California. So all my west coast readers can check it out and if you’re up for adopting a new kitty, well, look at these faces.

And there’s video.

And a contribution page. Kick in a couple of bucks. This woman is a saint.

Verizon sucks.

Several months ago, I started having troubles with my phone line after a heavy rain. Verizon took a week to fix it the first time. I had no phone service for a week except for my cell. It happened again after another heavy rain. They told me it would take a week to get a repairman out. I told them to stick their service where the sun don’t shine and switched to Cavalier Telephone. Turns out they charge about half what Verizon was charging me, too.

But what Verizon didn’t do was send their repairman out a second time, so after the heavy rain from the remnants of Fay, I have no land line service. I am currently in live chat with Cavalier, which is taking an extremely long time for the rep to respond. Makes you wonder what the heck they’re doing on their end. Computer games? TV? Chatting with seven people at once? Really getting tired of seeing this:

JoannaD: Thank you for waiting. I’ll be with you in just a moment.

They’re scheduling a service call. 24 hours at the most. Well, that’s better than Verizon’s one-week service time, but I still have no phone until it dries out or they come and fix it.

I am so glad I’m leaving this craphole. The water comes into the front picture window when the gutters get full of pine needles. The gutters are full of pine needles, and my requests to have them cleaned have gone unanswered. I have towels in my windowsill to keep Tig from (sigh) drinking the water, or to keep it from getting into my living room. So far, it hasn’t done more than pool on the windowsill and rot out the wood under the picture window. Which, of course, doesn’t bother the management company.

Five days until the close. Eight days until I’m moved out of here.

I can’t wait.

Update: Something tells me CavTel shut my phone off several days early. I’m getting an out-of-service message now.

Well. I have a brand-new Blackberry that T-Mobile gave me for free. Don’t call me on the home phone, people. Try the cell.

When I was their age, my relatives gave us pen sets.

Nowadays, children get their first email accounts.

Sarah and Larry’s two oldest children have their first email accounts. Being a dutiful aunt, I sent them emails at Larry’s request.

On Sunday, I had dinner with my family, and my nephew was texting and receiving texts throughout dinner. His phone never stopped buzzing.

It is absolutely a different generation.

I don’t feel old, though. I’m going to upgrade my cell phone this week and start texting my nephew. Who may be going to my alma mater next year.

The years are sure going fast. I could swear he was only four years old last week. Nine at the most.

On an completely different note, Sarah is the Chocolate Chip Cookie Champion of Chesterfield County. She won first place in the fair, and third place for the cake.

Okay, so the Arab/Muslim conflict isn’t with Jews. It’s with Israel. Their proponents tell us so all the time, as do the media. So perhaps someone can explain to me how this relates to anti-Zionism:

Agents of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah have allegedly set up a special force to attempt to kidnap Jewish businesspeople in Latin America and spirit them away to Lebanon, according to the Western anti-terrorism official. Iranian and Hezbollah operatives traveling in and out of Venezuela have recruited Venezuelan informants working at the Caracas airport to gather intelligence on Jewish travelers as potential targets for abduction, the Western anti-terrorism official said.

See, not “Israeli” businesspeople. Jewish businesspeople. Like, say, my relatives the bookstore owners who decide to visit their relatives in Buenos Aires.

And if the kidnapping does occur, will the world make a peep? No, there will only be shrugs, unless Israel refuses to ransom the kidnap victims from the terrorists that are now part of the legitimate government of Lebanon.

South American Jews are in the crosshairs. And all roads lead back to Tehran, and the Jew-haters there.

Hezbollah operatives based there participated, along with Iranian spies, in the car bombings in Buenos Aires of the Israeli Embassy in 1992 and a Jewish community center two years later that killed a total of 114 people, an Argentine indictment charges.

In the aftermath of that indictment, filed in 2006, Hezbollah and its Iranian sponsors, chiefly the Revolutionary Guard, decided to shift from the increasingly scrutinized tri-border area to other countries, including Venezuela, Western anti-terrorism officials say.

“It preserves the capability of Hezbollah and the Revolutionary Guard to mount attacks inside Latin America. . . . It is very, very important to Iran and Hezbollah right now.”

Don’t tell me that the Iranian people are friends to the Jews. Because their leaders haven’t shown such friendship. And I have personally experienced the bigotry of Iranian students in America. One of these days, I’ll have to write about those experiences from my twenties. Because there’s nothing in Iran to prove to me that country has changed, and the students I met in the early 80s are now the ruling political class in Iran. Their hatred never went anywhere. It seems only to have deepened.

In a recent article, Isabel Kershner of the New York Times wrote the following about Israel’s security fence:

Israel started building the barrier in 2002 with the intent of preventing Palestinian suicide bombers from reaching Israeli cities. Consisting mostly of wire fence but also, in parts, of high concrete walls, much of the barrier, which is about 57 percent complete, has been constructed on land east of the 1967 boundary, inside the West Bank, leading Palestinians to characterize it as a land grab.

In July 2004, the International Court of Justice in The Hague issued an advisory opinion describing the routing of the barrier inside the West Bank as a violation of Israeli obligations under international law.

Israel’s Supreme Court, in response to petitions, has ordered several sections of the barrier route to be moved closer to the 1967 line, but most of the alterations have not yet been carried out.

There are several important things to note about these paragraphs.

Nowhere does Kershner write that since the fence has been built terror against Israel has decreased.
She mentions the ICJ’s ruling but doesn’t explain that the ruling is political not legal.
Even the Supreme Court’s ruling didn’t ignore the security issues involved.

When the Israeli High Court of Justice (or Supreme Court) ruled on the route of the fence in 2004, it wrote:

56. From a military standpoint, there is a dispute between experts regarding the route that will realize the security objective. As we have noted, this places a heavy burden on petitioners who ask that we prefer the opinion of the experts of the Council for Peace and Security over the approach of the military commander. The petitioners have not carried this burden. We cannot - as those who are not experts in military affairs - determine whether military considerations justify laying the Separation Fence north of Jebel Mukatam (as per the stance of the military commander) or whether there is no need for the Separation Fence to include it (as per the stance of petitioners’ and the Council for Peace and Security).

Still it concluded:

60. Our answer is that there relationship between the injury to the local inhabitants and the security benefit from the construction of the Separation Fence along the route, as determined by the military commander, is not proportionate. The route disrupts the delicate balance between the obligation of the military commander to preserve security and his obligation to provide for the needs of the local inhabitants.

Understand what’s going on here. The court admitted that it could not determine whose security credentials to trust: Whether to trust those then currently in the military or the partisan ex-officers. In the end, it ruled that the security question was moot, but determined that the damage caused by the fence was too great to justify any lessening security that might result from rerouting the fence.

Israel’s high court didn’t ignore the security issues it just ruled that they were irrelevant.

Now contrast that report with that about another recent court ruling.

On Sunday night, the Israeli High Court of Justice rejected a petition from an organization of terror victims, Almagor, against the release.

Among those freed Monday were two men whom Israel says have “blood on their hands,” meaning they had been convicted in attacks that harmed Israelis. Said al-Atabeh, 57, who had been in custody since 1977, was the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner.

Now Almagor had empirical evidence that prisoner releases were dangerous. Nadav Shragai recently provided the details of how released prisoners end up committing more terror.

I have no idea about the nature of Almagor’s petition. But if they provided proof that many of the terrorists freed in previous releases had indeed returned to terror and the court rejected that petition, then it showed once again that it deems the security of Israel’s citizens unimportant. It has demonstrated that inconveniencing Palestinians is worse than risking Israeli lives.

The media as demonstrated by the NY Times’s reporting also shows that their concern for the very real risks taken and negative rewards reaped by Israel is less important than that a process not leading to peace takes place. And, of course, Israel’s judicial system’s concern for Palestinian inconveniences at the expense of Israeli lives is met with Durban II.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

An Israeli drug companing has developed a drug that not only alleviates symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease, but it slows the progression of the disease. But by all means, boycott Israeli academics, and don’t let Israeli scientists come to international conferences. Because why would you want to encourage Israeli to develop things like this?

[...] In its clinical trial, named “Adagio”, patients who took a tablet of Azilect once a day experienced slower disease progression in the early part of the trial and a steadying of symptoms in the last part of the trial, Teva said yesterday. They also experienced a smaller decrease in baseline function.

Parkinson’s disease patients who took Azilect tablets once a day from the time when they joined the trial demonstrated significant improvement compared to those who started the drug only nine months later.

Yes, go ahead, Britain. Keep working on that academic boycott of Israelis. Prevent Israelis from getting all the knowledge they need to forge ahead with improving the lives of non-Israelis. It’s not like the world needs alternative energy sources being developed by Israelis.

Yeah, go ahead. Boycott Israel. Because it’s not like Israeli scientists and entrepreneurs are doing anything special.

Oh. Wait.

UN Watch has another report on the upcoming UN anti-Israel and Democracy Conference The World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. It seems that not only is Durban II going after Israel, but it’s really going to try to codify anti-Islamic blasphemy.

UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer, a modern-day Don Quixote who bangs his head against the windmill called United Nations, spoke against the declaration.

The declaration makes only one reference to a country situation, “reiterat[ing] its concern about the plight of the Palestinian people under foreign occupations.” Neuer asked, “Why is a non-African situation mentioned in a declaration about Africa, one that references neither Sudan’s racist killings, nor any other country in Africa?”

“The special reference to the Palestinian issue implies that Israel is practicing racism. This reverts to the discredited rhetoric of the UN’s 1975 “Zionism is Racism” resolution, sponsored by the Soviet and Arab blocs, which was repealed by the United Nations in 1991, and which has since been repudiated by its highest officials,” said Neuer.

But the UN representatives were unimpressed.

“It is only one paragraph that mentions the Palestinians, so the interest of Israel was never badly damaged,” Ibrahim Wani, from the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, told Reuters, after the 3-day talks in Abuja.

Durban II is part of a strategy developed long ago by Israel’s enemies to dehumanize her in every forum available.

[...] the “Durban strategy” — a two-pronged tactic launched at the ‘01 conference to paint Israel as a “racist, apartheid” state and isolate the Jewish nation through boycotts, divestment and sanctions.

The Ford Foundation is still funding the Jew-haters. Henry Ford would be proud.

The Ford slice of funds to anti-Israel nongovernmental organizations may pale compared to that provided by Europe and its myriad governmental agencies. But the Ford funding enables the groups to wage low-key, diplomatic and economic warfare against Israel, dragging the Palestinian conflict from the battlefield into international forums, media, the Internet and college campuses.

[...] Despite the revised guidelines, Ford appears unable — or unwilling — to prevent some of its grantees from lending support to the movement that was launched in Durban.

The new JTA investigation, which examined a large cross-section of Ford grantees that speak out on the Middle East conflict, finds that several signed a major 2005 boycott and divestment petition against “Apartheid Israel.”

Signatories agreed they were “inspired by the struggle of South Africans against apartheid, and in the spirit of international solidarity, moral consistency and resistance to injustice and oppression.”

There is an organized, well-funded movement to discredit and dehumanize Israel in every aspect. The world media ignore the daily attacks on Israel by the terrorists on her borders and within, while holding up every injured Palestinian as an example of Israeli cruelty or negligence—unless those Palestinians are harmed by their fellow Palestinians or Arabs. Egypt is murdering Sudanese refugees for the crime of trying to enter Israel, and the world media barely touches upon it—or on the cruelty and lack of compassion by Egypt for the refugees within its borders that forces these people to risk their lives to enter Israel.

The only true democracy in the Middle East is demonized and hated. Europeans use the Palestinians as an excuse to rid themselves of the guilt of nearly destroying European Jewry—as poll after poll shows how much Jews are still hated in the countries that the pro-Palestinian left say that Israelis should “go back to” (utterly ignoring the 50% of all Israelis who are descended from the Jews of Arab countries who were forced out after 1948).

As always, Jews are the canary in the coal mine. Because the second great aim of Durban is to strangle democracy’s most precious posession: Free speech.

The new text calls upon states to avoid “inflexibly clinging to free speech in defiance of the sensitivities existing in a society and with absolute disregard for religious feelings.” Other provisions in the text on “incitement to religious hatred,” said Neuer, “mirror efforts by Islamic states at the UN Human Rights Council to insinuate Islamic anti-blasphemy prohibitions into international law. Yet UN expert on religious freedom Asma Jahangir and other international human rights experts have expressly opposed ‘defamation of religion’ resolutions, which seek to alter international human rights law by defining religions — instead of individuals — as the bearers of rights.”

The declaration’s attack on free speech contravenes the Article 19 guarantee of freedom of expression of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Durban II: Bigger. Badder. Bolder. And full of bull.

“The law is an ass”, they say, and there is a good measure of truth in it. The (temporary, I hope) demise of Harry’s Place (HP) blog has shown again how easy it is in Britain to suppress any kind of writings anyone deems offensive (libelous will be the term used) to him/her. Even when the contents of that writings happen to be perfectly true.

The story starts with an “anti-Zionist” lady, one Jenna Delich, warmly recommending an article published on David Duke’s (the famous Jew-hater who will not be linked from this place) site to her buddy. When Harry’s Place made the story public, another “anti-Zionist” (and AssaJew to boot), Mike Cushman, advised Ms Delich to complain to the HP’s ISP, which she has promptly done.

As a result, the blog that simply told the truth is shut down.

Aside of the current UK law on libel being ridiculous, there is a supreme irony in the way the two lowlifes mentioned above behaved. These two belong to a small but vociferous crowd of “anti-Zionists” that chronically complain about being muzzled by everyone - from the Zionist lobby to the British Royal Post. And look what have they perpetrated. It will be quite difficult for them to revive their favorite strawman now, I am afraid.

To make the rest easier for myself, I shall quote the beginning and the end of an excellent post by Ami Isseroff:

Next time you read that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism, and next time you hear that the Zionist conspiracy is “muzzling” criticism of Israel” remember this one.

And:

Remember Jenna Delich next time you read that “anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism.” Remember Mike Cushman when someone tells you, “he can’t be an anti-Semite, he is a Jew.” Remember Harry’s Place when someone tells you about the “Zionists” muzzling criticism.

Indeed. Now read the rest of that post.

And a few technicalities:

• You can follow the new developments on a mirror blog The Jenna Delich Archives
• You can express yourself by e-mailing these two characters:

• Jenna Delich: jenna.delich@sheffcol.ac.uk
• Mike Cushman: m.cushman@lse.ac.uk

Good luck.

Update: HP is back on-line.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews.

Since the name of “peacekeeping” Russian operation against Georgia - “Принуждение к миру” - was first published, I had one heck of a trouble translating it into two other languages I claim to be more or less familiar with. The literal translations - “Coercion to peace” or “האלצות לשלום” sound so outlandish that people whose (respective) mother languages are English and Hebrew just goggle stupidly, and no explanation penetrates.

Thankfully, the Russian authorities haven’t been deaf and/or blind to the issue of translation. To help out the curious foreigners, they have decided to offer several examples that will definitely make you grok the above:

• Coercion to generosity = robbery
• Coercion to a vacation = firing (sorry, it’s “downsizing” these days)
• Coercion to better health = beating
• Coercion to change of scenery = arrest
• Coercion to a wedding = rape
• Coercion to friendship = raising natural gas price to $500

Capisce?

Cross-posted on SimplyJews.

Chris Muir tells me that every time I link to him, you folks click in large numbers. I may not be Instapundit, but dammit, I have a great crowd here.

And it’s fundraiser time again. Chris supports himself by these donations, and keeps Day by Day coming. It’s a worthy cause. Toss a few bucks his way. He definitely deserves it.

And oh yeah, Chris? Some of us want Zed hotness. I mean, what use is Sam hotness to straight women?

The Obama campaign has long taken a tack suggesting that those who don’t support the senator may well be racist. I’ve noted how this has manifested itself in the Jewish community. Sometimes it’s the campaign’s media surrogates who take this tack, sometimes it’s just the usual political organizations.

A week and a half ago the Baltimore Jewish Times looked at the views of Baltimore’s Orthodox community towards Senator Obama and there were two names missing from the article: Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Sen. Joseph Lieberman. What wasn’t missing was the typical “only the ignorant or racist wouldn’t support Sen. Obama comment, delivered by my “representative” State Delegate Sandy Rosenberg.

Mr. Rosenberg stirs his lemonade and chooses his words. He’s heard the bad buzz, too. It sounds like a “typical Republican smear campaign,” he says, carefully crafted to pick up on Jewish fears.

“If they could make John Kerry look like a draft dodger instead of the war hero he was,” Mr. Rosenberg says of the 2004 “Swift Boat” campaign, “imagine what they can do to Obama,” the first black presidential candidate whose middle name is Hussein, to boot.

Well no, the criticisms of Sen. Kerry did not make him look like a draft dodger. They asked whether he betrayed his comrades in arms after he returned stateside. But that’s perhaps too subtle a point.

And what about substantive criticism of Sen. Obama, here’s how the article deals with two:

A woman calls the BALTIMORE JEWISH TIMES to report that a local radio talk show host said there is a mention on Mr. Obama’s official Web site of “Jews and oven,” an obvious allusion to the Holocaust. [We didn't find any.]

A member of the Orthodox community assures this reporter that one of Mr. Obama’s closest advisers publicly said the hindrance to peace in the Mideast lies in New York and Miami, both cities with large Jewish populations.

As far as the first incident, this did indeed happen. Bill Levinson of Israpundit recorded a screenshot of the offending blog. The reason the reporter couldn’t find it is because the Barack Obama website took it down, but it was up.

Sen. Obama’s website allowed users to set up their own blogs on the campaign’s website. And in quite a few instances, those setting up blogs expressed vile antisemitic sentiments.When it became of these blogs, the campaign correctly deleted them quickly. But it still raises the question of why so many people who feel this way, feel that Sen. Obama is the preferred choice for president.

And the adviser who blamed the lack of peace in the Middle East on Jewish voters has a name.

Gen. Merrill “Tony” McPeak, seemed to identify Jewish voters when asked to name the biggest obstacles to Middle East peace. “New York City. Miami. We have a large vote…here in favor of Israel. And no politician wants to run against it,” McPeak said.

But it’s not just McPeak who was problematic among Sen. Obama’s advisers. He was advised by Robert Malley the only member of the American team at Camp David in 2000 who didn’t blame the failure of the talks on Yasser Arafat. And Zbigniew Brzezinski endorsed the opinion of Walt and Mearsheimer.

And let’s not forget that Sen. Obama said himself that he opposed the Likud. If elections are held in Israel, it might very well be that a President Obama will have to deal with PM Binyamin Netanyahu of the Likud. And we know that Obama will go into such a relationship with a negative perception.

(I’d also point out that J-Street, a supposedly “pro-Israel, pro-peace” lobbying group is funded by one Alan Solomont, who is also one of Sen. Obama’s financial supporters. J-Street believes that peace will only come when America pressures Israel to make concessions. I’d have to think that Mr. Solomont sees Sen. Obama as the candidate most likely to support this agenda.)

So instead of answering these concerns, those supporting Obama cite the “Barack is a Muslim” e-mails. (These most likely came from his opponents at the time: other Democrats.) I am informed. And my information tells me that Sen. Obama will not be as supportive of Israel as I would like. Israel is an important issue for me, though it isn’t the only one. I can’t think of any major issue where I prefer Sen. Obama’s approach to Sen McCain.

And let’s get to those two glaring omissions. Rev. Wright, who preached anti-White bigotry and antisemitism from the pulpit is an issue that ought not to go away. Rev. Wright didn’t take over a church that Sen. Obama attended. Sen. Obama sought out Rev. Wright as a way of bolstering his radical credentials. That’s not a smear. It’s a praise, written in a glowing profile of the senator appearing last year in Rolling Stone magazine.

And why is Sen. Lieberman’s ties to Sen. McCain not mentioned in the article. I don’t agree with Sen. Lieberman on domestic issues, but in foreign policy I mostly agree with him. Furthermore in a campaign supposedly about the new politics, Sen. Lieberman is Exhibit A of Sen. McCain’s cross-aisle appeal. It stands in stark contrast the partisanship displayed by Sen. Obama during his short senate tenure.

The most honest assessment from a Democratic official in the article came from former State Senator Paula Hollinger:

To Paula Hollinger, the current rhetoric in the Jewish community has a familiar ring. Mrs. Hollinger, the former veteran state senator from the 11th District, says the Orthodox register Democrat in order to vote in the primary elections. “But 99 percent of the time they vote Republican for president,” she says.

In the 11th District, for example, which includes heavily Jewish precincts in Pikesville and Owings Mills, the vote in presidential elections generally splits 50/50 Republicans to Democrats.

If Obama’s supporters want to convince more politically conservative Jews that he’s the right man, they need to explain and not just vilify.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

The approach to threats against Israel is one of those things that is taken casually. Here’s Secretary Rice on the regular but (relatively) infrequent Qassams that still get fired into Israel despite the ceasefire with Hamas:

QUESTION: How does the ceasefire in Gaza help matters? Has it endured better than you imagined?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, it has its ups and downs, obviously. But look, I - we said early on that if there - that calm in Gaza would be a useful thing because it - the Egyptians, who - with whom we worked, have managed to keep what is a very fragile situation at least stable, and that’s certainly a help to any process of trying to move forward on the peace process.

Ultimately, though, Gaza has to be resolved and it has to be resolved on the basis of the - Abu Mazen’s program for it, which is that legitimate Palestinian Authority institutions have to be reinstated. I think we want to continue to look at what can be done at the crossings for regularization of those ultimately along the lines of the November 2005 agreement. So this is not, I think, a metastable situation, but it’s a situation that for now has seemed to allow at least people to - you know, the levels of violence to stay low, and that’s welcome.

(h/t My Right Word)

Nothing about the threat from Hamas’s building of fortifications and re-arming. Somehow Abu Mazen (she’s using his nom de guerre, how reassuring) is going to impose his authority on Gaza.

And how’s that Abu Mazen thing going? Didn’t Israel just build his confidence? Why yes they did. The New York Times reports:

Israel released almost 200 Palestinian prisoners Monday in a good-will gesture aimed at reinvigorating the faltering peace process. Hours later, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in the country to make her own push for a deal between the two sides.

And what does this “good will gesture” entail?

Among those freed Monday were two men whom Israel says have “blood on their hands,” meaning they had been convicted in attacks that harmed Israelis. Said al-Atabeh, 57, who had been in custody since 1977, was the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner.

“This is a great joy for our mothers and our people, but it remains a small step because we left behind us thousands of prisoners,” Mr. Atabeh said after his release, according to Reuters.

Mr. Atabeh had been convicted in bombings that killed one Israeli woman and wounded dozens of people.

A second long-serving prisoner was Mohammed Abu Ali, who had been jailed since 1980 for the murder of an Israeli settler in the West Bank.

However, most of those set free had been arrested for lesser crimes within the past two years.

“It’s not easy for Israel to release prisoners,” said a government spokesman, Mark Regev, according to The Associated Press. “But we understand the importance of the prisoner issue for Palestinian society.”

(h/t Boker Tov Boulder)

Note that “blood on their hands” is in quotes. Why not just write “who were convicted of murder in the commission of acts of terror?” (without the quotes, of course) Why is almost as much time spent describing the prisoners by the length of time served as by the crimes they committed?

By emphasizing the time served changes their status from terrorists to prisoners. Put another way Snapped Shot asks and answers a question about the coverage of the prisoner release:

How does our “impartial” press choose to represent them?

You guessed it: As heroes.

And as far as the release of prisoners being important for Palestinian society, Israelly Cool explains why it’s important.

These murderers are but two of the “prisoners” we freed today, as a “goodwill” gesture to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. And he reciprocated with a goodwill gesture of his own - a threat that unless all the “prisoners” are freed, there will be no peace.

Speaking of gestures, this one made by the released prisoners does not mean “peace.” It means “V for victory”, and is basically a promise that the terrorism will continue.

JoshuaPundit writes (regarding Condoleeza Rice but the general point holds) about what’s not important:

No mention of course on whether it might matter a lot to the Israelis to keep these killers behind bars.I doubt that matter penetrates her consciousness.

Nor does it matter to Mahmoud Abbas, who referred to the released terrorists as ‘heroes’ and made a point of saying that no peace agreement with Israel was possible until all of the terrorists are released.Nor did eithr he or Condaleeza Rice have the common decency to mention a single word about Gilad Shalit, who’s still being held incommunicado in the Gaza Strip.

And as noted before past experience shows that these prisoner releases will lead to more terror, not peace.

Israel freed 400 Palestinian prisoners and five other prisoners in return for Elhanan Tannenbaum, who was held captive by Hizbullah, and for the bodies of three soldiers kidnapped on Mount Dov. According to Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Tzahi Hanegbi, from the date of the deal on January 29, 2004, until April 17, 2007, those freed in the deal had murdered 35 Israelis.

The Washington Post describes the issue of prisoner releases like this:

Israel has periodically released Palestinian prisoners, whose fate is among the most politically and emotionally compelling issues for the Palestinian public, to shore up Abbas’s government. Abbas favors negotiations with Israel to create an independent Palestinian state, while the rival Hamas movement has advocated destruction of the Jewish state. The releases, although modest, are designed to show that Abbas’s approach yields rewards.

“Modest?” “yields rewards?” No mention that there’s a very good chance that a portion of the terrorist released will likely return to terrorism. So who receives the “rewards” other than terrorists who have seen their terms reduced, is not clear. No mention that the fellow who “favors negotiations” considers resistance (i.e. terrorism) to be peace. There’s something really Orwellian here.

And as a Blog for All writes:

It’s supposed to help bolster Fatah in their internecine struggle with Hamas, but all it does is provide more fodder for the terrorists to hold out hope that they can beat Israel for control over all territory West of the Jordan River.

Despite the romantic terms used to describe the prisoner release, they present a real risk to Israel. When will the world demand that the Palestinians take similar risks for peace?

Crossposted on Yourish.

The Spine links to a plea from a liberal Kuwaiti writer translated by MEMRI:

“I would like to shout to the Arabs and the Muslims: Oh, people! Enough! Oh, [champions] of war, struggle, jihad, and honor! Enough! Life in our homeland has been destroyed. By the doors of the embassies of the French and British, against whose colonialism we fought, stand crowds of young people belonging to the new generation, who are applying for entry visas. The U.S., whose flag we burn at every demonstration, is the one safeguarding peace in the countries of the Arab and Muslim world, as well as in many Third World countries…”

Still the parts excerpted don’t mention Israel or even the Zionist entity. So is it the hatred of the West and Israel that he’s decrying or just Arab on Arab and Muslim on Muslim violence?

Compare with this:

” Obviously not all Muslims are terrorists but, regrettably, the majority of the terrorists in the world are Muslims. The kidnappers of the students in Ossetia are Muslims. The kidnappers and killers of the Nepalese workers and cooks are also Muslims. Those who rape and murder in Darfour are Muslims, and their victims are Muslims as well. Those who blew up the residential complexes in Riyadh and Al-Khobar are Muslims. Those who kidnapped the two French journalists are Muslims. The two [women] who blew up the two planes [over Russia] a week ago are Muslims. Bin Laden is a Muslim and Al-Houthi [the head of a terrorist group in Yemen] is a Muslim. The majority of those who carried out suicide operations against buses, schools, houses, and buildings around the world in the last ten years are also Muslims.”

Crossposted on Yourish.

Never mind that Israel allows large quantities of goods into Gaza and the Palestinians themselves smuggle even more in via tunnels from Egypt. But a bunch of anti-Israel activists decided to make some PR and “run” Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza.

Two wooden boats carrying dozens of human rights activists reached the Gaza Strip on Saturday afternoon after the Israeli navy decided not to hinder the challenge to Israel’s blockade of the Palestinian enclave. Thousands of Palestinians turned out to welcome the group, which brought token humanitarian aid, including hearing aids and balloons.

The Post’s headline proclaims that the boats “broke” the blockade, but Israel let them pass unhindered.

(In some of the early publicity - it wasn’t news, it was unvarnished PR - it was noted that a Holocaust survivor was going to be on the boat. The Post’s PR release doesn’t mention her among the celebrities on the boat. Did she change her mind or was the Post just unaware of her presence.)

Meryl points out that since the ship of fools didn’t meet any resistance they charged that Israel jammed their instruments to prevent them from reaching Gaza.

However Backspin points out that the activists may not have such an easy time leaving Gaza as they did arriving.

And despite the crowds cheering their arrival, left unreported by many organizations was

once it turned out these boats contain too little food and mostly activists…some people left the beach disappointed.

(h/t Judeopundit - read the whole thing! )

Funny but there was a whole lot else going on in Gaza this weekend that somehow the Post’s Linda Gradstein failed to report:

Hamas stormed Al Azhar University in Gaza and the ensuing riots saw many injuries, including professors and a vice president of the university.

A teachers’ union in Gaza decided to go on strike to protest these sorts of attacks against teachers by Hamas. Hamas responded by abducting a Rafah school principal, one of the leaders of the union.

So a bunch of self promoting dweebs shilling for the Hamas government go sailing and that’s news. But when the government they’re supporting suppresses academic freedom that’s not news.

If the sailors wanted to do good, why couldn’t they go to the Sinai find some smuggling tunnels, stand in front of them and demand that the Palestinians not smuggle weapons into Gaza? Or at least insist that the Palestinians build tunnels that meet OSHA standards?

Crossposted on Yourish.

Daled Amos notes that the Israeli government apparently views the release of terrorists as a good thing. He sums up a news article like this:

In other words, Israel is hoping to force Hamas to the negotiating table with the same or increased demands for the release of terrorists with blood on their hands so that Israel can release them and gain Shalit’s release.

However Nadav Shragai notes that releasing terrorists doesn’t always build confidence the way Israel would like.

According to an informal estimate by Israeli security bodies, about 50 percent of the terrorists freed for any reason whatsoever returned to the path of terror, either as perpetrator, planner, or accomplice. In the terror acts committed by these freed terrorists, hundreds of Israelis were murdered, and thousands were wounded.

Israel freed 400 Palestinian prisoners and five other prisoners in return for Elhanan Tannenbaum, who was held captive by Hizbullah, and for the bodies of three soldiers kidnapped on Mount Dov. According to Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Tzahi Hanegbi, from the date of the deal on January 29, 2004, until April 17, 2007, those freed in the deal had murdered 35 Israelis.

Something to keep in mind when recalling that Jordan last week released terrorists who had been transferred from Israel last year. The reason: Israel’s deal with Hezbollah to free Samir Kuntar put pressure on the Jordanian government to release the terrorists early.

In reaction to the early Jordanian release of the terrorists, Daled Amos asks:

I guess it would be too much to ask that in the interests of goodwill the Jordanians don’t celebrate and honor murderers of Israelis?

Except the record shows that releasing terrorists strengthens the extremists. So yes, it is asking too much.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

The Palestinian welfare culture is so incredibly ingrained, that no good deed goes uncriticized.

The big lefty boat extravaganza—the ones that Israel allowed to land in Gaza after all, rather than cause front page pictures of the Israeli navy forcing the “peace protesters” away from Gaza’s shores—landed in Gaza to, well, not cheers. Jeers.

A Gaza activist told Ynet Saturday that local residents were disappointed by the small quantities of food brought in by two boats carrying international leftist activists.

“Many people thought these boats will make a significant contribution to break the siege, not only politically but also in terms of brining in goods, equipment, food, and medicine,” he said. “However, once it turned out these boats contain too little food and mostly activists…some people left the beach disappointed.”

So, basically, the activists didn’t coordinate their activities with the Palestinians—not surprising, as Hamas isn’t Fatah, and Gaza isn’t Ramallah. But the ingratitude of the Palestinians is a wonder to behold. Not as good as the Israeli foreign ministry, however.

The Foreign Ministry slammed the leftists and said that they did not deserve to be referred to as “peace activists,” branding them as a “handful of provocateurs seeking a public relations stunt who initiated a political protest aimed at boosting Hamas’ regime of horrors in Gaza.”

“How does such delusional journey promote peace?” the Foreign Ministry added. “What kind of contribution does this journey make to the promotion of ideas of reconciliation and compromise? None.”

Israeli officials noted that genuine humanitarian groups can provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population through existing land crossings, branding the leftist activists as “propagandists.”

Funny, though, how the L.A. Times has a different spin.

Arriving to a boisterous reception, the international activists aboard the boats said they hoped their symbolic breaking of the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip was just the beginning.

“We will surely try to bring the boats back again,” said Huwaida Arraf, one of 44 passengers who overcame rough seas and communications problems after setting out Friday from Cyprus. “The goal is to open a route between Cyprus and Gaza.

Really?

But Mekel warned that future attempts might get a different reception.

“I don’t know if others will want to do this,” he said, “but this is not a precedent for future.”

There’s something else that happened to the boats on leaving Cyprus. Now remember that previously, this mission was stopped by storms. Twice.

The two boats ran into trouble almost as soon as they left Cyprus. The navigation and communications systems on both failed, and some activists accused Israel of jamming them. Israel denied the allegation.

Paranoid much? But it wasn’t Israel that did it. I think it was a force far more powerful than the nation of Israel. Like, the power behind the nation.

Those “activists” better watch their asses if they put out to sea again, I think.

Two trucks got into the way of my travel plans, but in both instances, I found out about them long before I could get stuck in the traffic they caused.

First, a pickup truck being towed off the Nice Bridge changed my driving plans from “back way” to “Damn! I have to drive the Beltway.” No real traffic on the Beltway, though, or anywhere, until I got to effing Delaware. I hate Delaware. Don’t even get me started on how much. Ten minutes to get across, and they make you pay through the nose to do it. Plus they steal the rest of the country’s business by their sweet incorporation deals.

Told you not to get me started.

Then, once in NJ, a truck accident shut down 295 at precisely the exit I needed to get off. Some frantic phone calls to Bob and Kim, and I took an alternate route, only to miss 206 and wind up on the scenic route through Trenton. It seems to have picked up some in the years since I was last there.

We’re heading off to the pool for the rest of the day. Posting will be light. No, nonexistent.

The kingdom of Jordan, which was the guardian of Jewish holy sites from 1948 to 1967, is lecturing Israel on digging near the Temple Mount.

Jordan said on Thursday it summoned the Israeli ambassador to protest against plans for excavation and construction work near the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Jerusalem’s most volatile holy site.

“Foreign Minister Salah Bashir summoned the Israeli ambassador this week to officially inform him that Jordan rejects such illegal measures,” said MP Mohammed Abu Hdeib, head of the lower house of parliament’s committee on international affairs, after meeting Bashir on Thursday.

Really? Jordan objects to such “illegal measures”? And yet, Jordan had no such objections when it was using Jewish cemetery headstones to pave roa