5/11/02
A trip to MEMRI this evening found this paragraph in a compilation (third paragraph) of what the Saudi press was saying about the Crown Prince's visit with President Bush:
In response, the White House sent the prince a draft of a proposed joint statement which according to the Saudi London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat made no reference to the Saudi peace proposals. This perceived slight caused the prince to reach a level of anger that "could not have been cooled by the entire New York City Fire Department." The Saudis faxed the White House a draft statement to Secretary of State Colin Powell who, according to this daily, was not in the loop and was not aware of the White House draft. Protesting the draft's content, the Saudis demanded that another statement be drafted jointly or, alternatively, each side would issue its own statement. The White House withdrew its draft.(4)
That would be the Fire Department that lost hundreds of its Bravest as a result of two groups of Saudi citizens plowing a couple of passenger jets into the World Trade Center.
The nerve of that line goes beyond any definition I can think of. The entire New York City Fire Department. Send the prince to talk with even one New York City fire company, they'll show him what anger is.
Fifteen of the nineteen. Osama bin Laden. A gift from Saudi Arabia to you, America. permalink
Laurence Simon of Amish Tech Support has a wicked, wicked sense of humor.
He's sent in an entry for the Guardian's contest to choose the new European Union flag.
I like it a lot. I think you will, too. permalink
Victor Davis Hanson turns Edward Said's words back on him with an essay about the East vs. West:
The Israelis produce the best tank in the world, and export everything from drip-irrigation technology to computer software; their enemies whine that America does not give them more and better weapons. Not even Saddam Hussein could establish a modern aircraft factory, nor could the formidable Assad dynasty produce a single destroyer. All the arms in all the Arab countries are either imported from Europe, Japan, or America — or licensed and built from Western designs in China and Korea.
We see such a very thin facing of material prosperity in almost every picture that is broadcast from the Middle East — thousands of consumer goods, movies, videos, and processed food that would be impossible without the West. Bin Laden himself, after calling for a medieval caliphate, bought a cell phone, a video camera, and sophisticated weapons — products that his own anti-rationalist madrassas and mosques could not produce. The Taliban liked SUVs, but the government and school system they established ensured that not a single Afghan would ever acquire the knowledge to produce such pricey appurtenances. The killers in Palestine must bring in everything, from their rifles to their bombs — and the expertise to use them. Those few who do possess indigenous knowledge of sophisticated destruction either are foreign-educated or got the requisite information off the Internet. permalink
Haven't read the news, or turned on the tube, or done anything at all except gotten up, showered, ran out to the grocery store to buy cat food (sorry, guys) and things for dinner with my brother tonight (Yukon Gold potato chips, yum!), and had brunch. I think it's mostly because I took a Benadryl last night both to get rid of a sinus headache and to try to knock me out so I can get rid of this on-again, off-again stomach virus. The result was falling asleep hours earlier than usual, and waking up feeling like I need another ten hours' sleep. Man, the heaviness of antihistamines that affects your body for the next day or two is worse than being sick, sometimes.
So we'll just write about the fun stuff today. Like going outside to check on Gracie, calling her when I can't see her, and watching her race out of the bush and up the sidewalk at my call. Or watching her sniff a dandelion puff and get half the seeds stuck to the fur of her face. Or watching Tig come charging down the sidewalk, running like a jackrabbit, two front legs at once, two back legs, one big, fat Tigger butt jiggling.
I took a pass on the "English Country Faire" at Edgemont Park this year; you can dig through my archives and find out what happened last year. Even the duck-herding couldn't tempt me today, though the weather is superb once more.
And may I add that I think there is a worse thing to be than a Christmas baby. That is a Mother's Day baby, which is what my older brother is. Every year, he gets robbed because the two days are either too close together or the same day. Well, happy birthday, Er, and maybe we'll hit Holsten's for dessert. permalink
5/10/02
Asparagirl has a great couple of posts. Today's is about the Israel Day Parade:
And a little part of me couldn't help comparing what I was seeing to the orchestrated demonstrations and compulsory parades you might see on the news from Pakistan or Iraq or the West Bank or Iran or wherever in the Arab world. I'm not trying to set up some sort of "our parade is better than their parade!" thing going on here ("nyah nyah!"). Except that, well, it was. It's probably needless to say that no flags were burned at this parade, no one shouted "death to Arafat", no guns were fired into the air, no shock troops marched in formation, no women were forced to stay at home or be covered from head to toe (although many did wear long skirts, usually because it was part of their school uniform). The icons being held up everywhere were several stilt-walking Uncle Sams and Statues of Liberty and one Abraham Lincoln lookalike. Fifth graders walking up Fifth Avenue holding cardboard doves and happily singing "Oseh Shalom" off-key (translated lyrics: "May He who makes peace in the highest bring this peace upon us and upon all Israel, and let us say Amen") just doesn't seem to have a parallel in the Arab world, where their "peace activists" are the title reserved for gunmen who took over the Church of the Nativity.
There was, however, one not-so-nice incident that did stick out. Skipping, literally skipping, up Fifth Avenue with one of the many school groups were two young teenage girls, with a megaphone. They were sing-songing: "2-4-6-8, Israel is a Jewish state! 1-3-5-9, no such thing as Palestine!" and grinning from ear to ear. I cringed.
Yesterday's is a take-down of a troll that infested her comments last week. She's shining brightly in both of them. permalink
I was going to write about how the European and American "activists" holed up in the Church of the Nativity didn't want to come out. But then I read Bruce Hill's post about it, and now I don't have to.
... Afraid they might be deported.
There's no might about it.
Jesus Horatio Christ on a fucking motorcycle, what's next? Clowns, dancing bears and street mimes staging anarcho-symbolist performances against patriarchal notions of art? Just bung a few stun grenades into the church, take out the Euro-trash inside, and boot their arses on a plane back to Vichy-land so they can write term papers about their experience confronting Zionist opression and get impressionable first year co-ed Poli-Sci majors at the University of Padua to sleep with them. Having seen a few photos of the "peace" mob, I'd say it's the only way any of them will get to reproduce naturally. Do they HAVE soap in European university towns?
That's my sweetie.
The article says the "activists" (we should just call them terrorist sympathizing scum and be done with it) wanted to have a lawyer present before they would leave. I'm amazed they didn't insist on Amnesty and Human Rights Watch. Greenpeace, too, what the hell.
There's also this article, which details the filth and weapons (including bombs) the peaceful, innocent Palestinians left behind, as well as how they used the altar in the Armenian section of the basilica as a table for meals. Yeah, tells us again how much the Islamofascists respect Christians and Christian tradition. And you'll hear nothing about this, because Arab Christians are in the minority and regularly threatened and brutalized by Arab Muslims living in the same cities and towns. Not unlike how Jews were treated before the modern State of Israel was born. permalink
My best friend's husband does a hilarious imitation of Sylvester Stallone as Judge Dredd, the awful film based on the pretty bad comic book. At least once during each visit there, he has to pull out his Stallone Judge Dredd, and it's most likely because it cracks me up every time. In order to have the full idea of the imitation, it's not just the four words in Sly Stallone style--he changes the emphasis of the words each time he utters the sentence. "I am the law." "I am the law." It's sort of like watching an actor practicing lines for an audition, with the added charm of being from a really bad movie by a really bad actor. As I said, I laugh every time.
I was reminded of this because reader Lynn B. sent me a letter making me aware that there is a Palestinian organization called LAW, which, of course, documents Israeli abuses, real and perceived, of Palestinian human rights. Besides human rights, their society, they tell us, "represents Palestinians in legal cases to do with the environment, on the basis that environmental rights are integral to human rights." And may I say, "Huh?"
The reason I mention this organization is because they have issued a press release objecting to the deportation of the terrorists holed up in the Church of the Nativity, on human rights grounds. Well, now I'll let Lynn speak.
LAW condemns deportions. Well, so do I. The murderers should have been tried and convicted in Israel as required under Oslo instead of getting a free pass. No? No. Once again, it seems, the nasty Jews have committed a "war crime."
By the way, a search of their website brings many instances of complaints about Palestinian deaths due to Israeli soldiers, but I could not find a single instance of LAW protesting the deaths of alleged "collaborators" at the hands of the Palestinian "police force" or other masked Palestinians. Why am I not surprised? permalink
I read the news today. Oh, boy.
From the Miami Herald: Arab States Want UN Children Meeting to Rap Israel
And here's the nut graf:
It is not unusual for the Middle East conflict to be inserted into every conference at the United Nations but normally these arguments are in the context of a final declaration. At this session, language on occupied territories has been agreed, according to Carol Bellamy, the executive director of UNICEF, the U.N. Children's Fund.
I never thought I'd ever utter these words, but now I'm doing it. Will someone please tell me why we're even bothering to remain a member of this corrupt, racist, dictator-supporting, Jew-hating, anti-democratic organization? Its sole purpose these days seems to be sheltering dictatorships from criticism while attacking Israel and/or the United States at every opportunity.
And yet--it gets worse.
Pipebomb boy wanted to make a statement. He was trying to draw a "happy face" on the map--with the placement of his bombs. No, this isn't SatireWire or the Onion. This is for real. This idiot blew off granny's fingers because he wanted to draw a smiley face.
How sick do you have to be to do something like this?
Maybe putting him in a federal prison might wipe that smirk off his face. Please, please, please put him in the general population.
You know anti-Semitism is getting bad when the Brits are starting to acknowledge it in their Op-Ed pages. (via Middle East Realities)
I'm going to stop before I wind up throwing this laptop across the room. permalink
5/9/02
I like stealing movie titles for headers; so sue me.
I was catching up on Bill Allison's Ideofact this afternoon, as he wrote that he had added more thoughts on the abominable Arab News editorial profiled immediately below. And it occurs to me that if you don't have the time to read books like Bernard Lewis' "What Went Wrong?", you could probably read Ideofact instead for a thoughtful review and analysis. And then scroll down the rest of the page, where you'll be treated to a quick history of invention during the Dark and Middle Ages, and why Western civilization outstripped Islam in developing technologies, and a host of more fascinating and worthwhile reading.
In fact, I highly recommend reading Bill's current main page from top to bottom. Or from bottom to top, if you're into chronological order. Discussion on the issues without polemics--imagine that. Bill's a wonderful writer. I'd put him on your must-read list.
The only thing more annoying than junk mail is junk mail contaminated with an odious perfume from another piece of junk mail. And I don't seem to have received the odious other piece of junk mail--yet my mail reeks of lousy perfume.
Odius. Reeks. What elegant forms of the word "stink" we have. Ain't English grand?
Gary Farber's weblog is now on my links page. Hm. Perhaps the answer to his implicit question in this item (re: writing my blogs in his sleep) is--maybe we were separated at birth? permalink
Bill Allison over at Ideofact pointed out this--this--this abomination. It's an editorial in the Arab News, Saudi Arabia's daily English newspaper. Nothing goes in this paper without the sanction of the Saudi dictatorship, and remember--this is Saudi Arabia, our "partners in peace," who are pushing their "peace plan" for the Middle East.
I tried to write a sarcastic blow-by-blow, but it didn't work. This article isn't funny, it's sad. It is tragic. It is evil. It is an attempt by the organ of the Saudi dictatorship to justify terrorism against Israel and Jews while decrying terrorism against the French, or any other foreign nationals in Pakistan.
I can't make fun of words like these without losing a little bit of my soul:
The Karachi bomb was a tragedy for the victims — and for Pakistan itself; its credibility is damaged. The Israeli bomb was a tragedy for everyone involved: Victims and bombers alike, their families, the entire Palestinian people, the Israelis as well — a tragedy because the Israeli government is so determined to trample the Palestinians under heel, and has the power to do so, that an entire nation has been reduced to desperation, and through desperation to extreme violence where even self is of no concern. The action of the bomber is the action of the voiceless, the victim with no other way of hitting back at the oppressor. And whether we approve or not, it is also an act that has the support of almost all Palestinians, a people overwhelmed with half a century of occupation and no means left to scream out to the world the injustice they have to endure.
The car bomb in Karachi fits none of that. It was not an act of desperation. It was not the work of the voiceless. Pakistan is not an occupied country, unable to defeat the occupier. This was terrorism as the whole world understands it. It was repulsive, barbarous and evil. And the Pakistanis themselves are appalled by it.
I can't crack wise on this:
These are people from a country that has consistently tried to uphold a degree of morality in international politics, a country that never ceases to annoy Washington because of its willingness to question and challenge US policies, particularly in the Middle East, a country that is noted for its sympathy toward the Palestinians and criticism of the Israelis. Can we therefore assume that the Pakistani militants, in killing French nationals, are closet anti-Palestinians and pro-Israelis? That is a logical conclusion.
The reality, of course, is that Pakistan’s terrorists do not care who they kill. It might as easily have been a group of Palestinian, American or even Saudi foreign workers. What they want is maximum carnage for the shock effect. They are the ETA of Pakistan’s politics, its IRA.
Their "logical conclusion" is that the deaths of Jews are always excusable and downright correct; the deaths of the French are a shame because the French hate the Jews, too. And the above paragraphs are merely a prelude to being able to blame Israel for both the deaths of the French and the deaths of the terrorists who killed the French.
In their own way, they are no different to Ariel Sharon. They imagine that they can terrorize a nation into submission. They constitute Pakistan’s very own version of fascism. Musharraf must crack down on them.
The astonishing moral relativism sickens me more than anything I have previously read or heard by an Arab nation justifying terrorism against Israel and the Jews. These are the ideas they would spread through the world? These are the people our State Department and President treat like honored friends, while giving the Israelis the back of their hand?
The behavior of the Bush Administration toward these parasites--and they are parasites, producing nothing of worth, contributing nothing of worth, knowing only how to take money for the oil that sheer coincidence brought to their arid, worthless, god-forsaken lands--shames me, and it shames our nation. permalink
5/8/02
Medley sent me an email suggesting that my upstairs neighbor's mystery machine may be a rowing machine. She may be right; I haven't asked him yet. I don' t know if he was using it this morning. I know I was up at 5:30, but I don' t know if that would be his fault or the stomach virus that I've been fighting on and off for the past week. It seems to be losing at the moment, but man, it was winning this morning. But I think it's also possible he may secretly worship Roy Rogers and be practicing his lariat, thus allowing for the strange whirring noises. Hey, ya never know.
The thing about living in a crowded suburban area like Montclair is that you, well, hear things. Meet people. And did I mention hear things?
Someone in an apartment nearby plays the flute. Someone else plays the trumpet. So during warm weather, I hear them practicing. The trumpet guy is newer than flute person (who seems to play the same descending scales, over and over and over and OVER!), and, well, maybe even less experienced. So a week or two ago, I had my balcony door open, and I heard trumpet guy practicing "Taps". You haven't experienced weird until you've heard someone who can't quite play the trumpet attempt to play "Taps". It was lame enough that perhaps it could have been played for someone with a cold, but definitely not for someone with the flu.
Yet another buzzing insect update: There is a hole in my apartment. There is absolutely a hole in my apartment, and this morning, a wasp found it, and then it decided it would take a tour of my bedroom. While Gracie leaped about in a vain quest to capture the wasp, I threw the sheet over my head and waited for it to vacate the room, as it is now warm enough to sleep in shorts and a t-shirt, which I was. (I found my favorite Hulk t-shirt. The one with the scene on the mountaintop from the Peter David days--"I lied". Hm. I just may have to dig out my Hulk collection and reread those.) Far too much bare flesh with which to tempt a stinging insect.
I did not ask it to show me its belly. permalink
File13 has another hilarious reason to visit: He's resurrected the 2,000 year-old man.
Raison d'blog, part the next, uh, day
And so another primal scream wraps itself deeply within my mind, as I watch reports of another 15 dead Jews, scores more injured. And I think to myself, well, there goes your schizophrenic blog of yesterday.
No. Not yet. This time, I will maintain my schizophrenia. When I can stop thinking about my people being killed, I will write about my experiences with bees and trips to the vet and dinners with James. And it occurs to me I forgot to credit the kind readers who sent me information on the bees (besides my brother, that is, who sent me three articles on carpenter bees--dude--one was more than enough). Ah, here they are--Cheri and Mike J. Thanks, folks!
And the fact that this goddamned bottled water tastes like the plastic I bought it in. Eeyuck. permalink
Victor Davis Hanson: With a name like that, he must be Jewish
Mr. Hanson has another brilliant piece in NRO.
We do not quite know why anti-Semitism persists in a supposedly educated and modern Western world at a time when assimilation, integration, and intermarriage are ever more common and a crass secularism has blurred distinctions among the major religions. Traditional stereotypes and hatred, of course, are always passed on to each new generation; and we must never forget the power of envy that highly educated, competent, and professional Jews incur from the less gifted and less successful. Nevertheless, the current rise of anti-Semitism is quite blatant — especially the shameful blasphemy in the indiscriminate use of the words "holocaust" and "genocide," and in the sudden reappearance of swastikas next to Stars of David. I am a 48-year-old Swedish-American Protestant and have expressed support for Israel for 30 years — but never once before had I been asked, "Are you Jewish?" This past year alone, however, that question — usually framed as an accusation — has arisen at least 50 times — along with printed and electronic invective that would make Mr. Goebbels proud.
Because only a Jew, of course, would sympathize with Israel as deeply as does Mr. Hanson. It has nothing to do with the righteousness of the cause.
For those of you who are interested, here's the URL to Hanson's entire NRO archive. Every piece a gem. permalink
5/7/02
For the past few weeks, many bloggers and journalists have been noting that large pro-Israel rallies have been ignored by the major media outlets. The New York Times makes sure its front-page picture of Sunday's Israel Day Parade has a prominent anti-Israel banner held by protestors in front of the marchers for Israel. All the New York networks buried the parade several stories in, as a local murder was deemed more important than a parade that drew hundreds of thousands (unlike, say the St. Patrick's Day Parade, which usually leads the news).
What does it take, we wonder, to get important Israeli news to the fore?
This.
At least 15 killed in Rishon Lezion billiard club terror attack
Rescue crews are still unable to reach an unknown number of people trapped in the ruins of the structure
By The Jerusalem Post Internet StaffA Palestinian suicide bomber exploded at 11:03 p.m. in a billiard club south of Tel Aviv, killing at least 15 people and wounding of at least 60 others.
Reports indicate the entire building in the Rishon Lezion's new industrial area - at 17 Lishinsky Street - has collapsed as a result of the blast.
Police reports indicate at least 15 people were killed in the blast. permalink
It's another one of those thoughtful days. It is also another one of those schizophrenic days, in the old, incorrect meaning of the word (the multiple personalities meaning, that is). I could call it Blog DOD, but then people would think I mean Department of Defense, not Dissociative Identity Disorder, which is, uh, DID, not DOD. (By the way, my Arpanet folks made it back in the nick of time last month, and there are more visits this month, so I am happy. I missed having you around. I'd give you a shout-out, but I don't know where you are other than Arpanet. Oh, what the hell: Hey, Arpanet! Glad to have you aboard.)
Would somebody call the Parentheses Police and report me before I strike again? Thank you.
What I was trying to say, before I so rudely interrupted myself, was that I was corresponding, as usual, with a correspondent (oh, gawd, she's really hitting the bad jokes today), and the Meaning Of Blogging came up, albeit briefly. And since I'm in such an egocentric place at the moment, of course I meant the Meaning Of My Blogging.
The upshot is that I seem to have regained a bit of my center, if I may psych-speak, or would that be New-Age-Speak? Nah, it's just a term that means I'm feeling a bit better, thank you. And a little less likely to turn into Hulk Smash!
And so my weblog gets to bounce you back and forth between the Middle East and the fact that I have discovered that I am finally, finally, finally free of soap operas! And that it's barefoot weather, and now my new neighbor has some kind of exercise machine that he uses at 5 a.m., which is quite unacceptable to me as my bedroom is directly below his, and let me ask you--what kind of machine sounds like a whirring rope? It couldn't have been a jump rope, as there were no loud thumps, but there was a strange, loud buzzing noise as of someone twirling a lariat and then chasing it slowly across the room. Couldn't have been a treadmill, because it moved. An abdominizer? Does that make a weird whirring noise as you roll it across the floor?
These questions are important, and must be answered! Because I may just have to move my exercise machine, which squeaks horribly, into the bedroom and make my exercise routine, oh, around midnight.
Yeah, I'm feeling much better these days. My level of anxiety has retreated a bit. Here's hoping it stays this way, at the very least. permalink
The Church of the Nativity game
Watching and reading the news about the end of the siege, I've been laughing out loud more than once. Because these so-called innocent Palestinians--the dozen or so hard-core terrorists that Israel wants to exile to Europe--can't find a taker. Nobody wants a bunch of murderers in their hands.
Hey. I'm sure they could find a peace activist or three who wouldn't mind sponsoring them. No? Funny, that. The Europeans are all for stopping Israel from arresting the terrorists, but they won't allow them to set foot in their nations. Could they be afraid terrorist strikes and hostage-taking would happen to get the hard-cores out of jail?
Ya think? permalink
Ben Henick is a weblog pal of mine who knew me when, and who has far superior web development skills than mine, and a fascinating weblog as well. His style is unique--nobody else has a weblog set up quite the way he does. And I'm embarrassed that I'd forgotten to put him on my links page. He's there now. Take a little time to check around his site. In between the web development stuff are gems like this:
Observation No. 9:
Reading legitimate journalism immediately after a visit to The Onion is a bad idea.
Gretchen Pirillo linked to me ages ago, and I forgot to put her on my links page. This is now fixed. Apologies, Gretchen.
One of these days I'm going to have to go through the past several months worth of blogs and update my links pages. That'll probably be the same week I clean out my spare room. No, really, I have to. I'm moving in about two months.
And Mike Sanders and Meryl Evans are always worth reading. (Meryl's the other half of the Meryl Webring, and my Texas name-twin.) permalink
Some very sweet and informative readers sent me information on the species of bee that was trapped in my doorframe. Although I never did get a look at its abdomen to see if it was a carpenter bee, I suspect it was, as there are many of them flying around the eaves of my apartment building. (Black, shiny abdomen = carpenter bee, striped, fuzzy abdomen = bumblebee--but they never did tell me if bumblebees sting, and the last words I was thinking would be "Show me your belly" when confronted with a possible stinging insect in my home. I do, however, say "Let me see your belly" nearly every day to Tig, because he needs to have his belly brushed as well as his back. He doesn't sting, but he bites and scratches, sometimes when showing you his belly because you get a little too close to his nether regions with the brush. Oops.)
There was that digression thing again. Oh, the new buzzing insect. Well. Yesterday, in my kitchen window, between the screen/storm window and the closed window, was a yellowjacket. Now those I know, having had the misfortune of stepping on one while barefoot some years ago.
I did not ask it to show me its belly. permalink
5/6/02
There's this Brit, you see, who likes to go into small-town America and then misrepresent American opinions and, well, America itself. He was properly excoriated last time around, but this did not stop him from going to a town called Chunky, Mississippi, and proclaiming that--wait for it--Americans are fat. Lee Ann over at Spinsters.com takes aim at our British analyst, but I saw something that had me on the floor that she apparently missed. Emphasis mine.
For a start, in some parts of the country, Americans have eliminated not merely the need to walk, but even the possibility of it. "I'd love to be able to walk to the store, pick up some milk and come home again, but our towns don't really allow that," laments Mary Gilmore, a dietician in Meridian. The distances are too great, the pavements non-existent. In the sprawling suburbs and small towns, public transport is often as rare as in an English village. In any case, it is almost impossible to carry the milk: it usually comes in gallon containers (a US gallon is four-fifths of a UK gallon). In a country where the cost of packaging exceeds the cost of the food, buying any other way is far more expensive.
It is almost impossible, Matthew Engel says, to carry a gallon of milk. An American gallon weighs eight pounds, apparently, our much stronger and healthier Brits are able to carry ten pounds of milk without mechanical aid, whereas we rely on, um--well, he didn't say. Perhaps our gallons of milk drop from the sky and appear in our refrigerators magically. But apparently, in Engel's small-town America, you can't buy half-gallons or quarts or pints of milk. You are forced to buy it in gallon containers, which you can't carry. So one must assume that the gallon containers wind up discarded by exhausted buyers, forming a heap outside the door of the milk store, growing day by day into an impenetrable wall surrounding the small path into the store, all the while the smell of spoiled milk rotting in the hot Mississippi sun permeates the air of little Chunky town.
Or maybe it's not so hard to carry a gallon of milk. I mean--eight pounds. My cat weighs twice as much as a gallon of milk, and he doesn't come with a handle. Somehow, I do manage to get him in his five-pound carrier to the vet's without fainting from exhaustion due to my American obesity. Sometimes I have both cats in the carrier, and Gracie weighs one and a half times as much as a gallon of milk.
Hm. Perhaps we should invite Mr. Engel here, where he can write a column on the morbid obesity of American cats, based on his anecdotal information on mine. It would probably be as factually accurate as his article on Chunky, Mississippi. permalink
Something was missing from the parade yesterday. Wait a minute--it'll come to me. Oh, yeah! There were no signs calling for "Death to the Arabs" or equating Islam with Nazism.
There were, however, protestors. I saw one sign that mystified me. I'm still trying to parse its meaning. The sign read, "Identify yourself with the whole of mankind."
If it means what I think it means, that is one of the most hateful signs I've ever seen in my life. Perhaps I'm misreading it. Reader assistance on this would be greatly appreciated. permalink
5/5/02
Endgame at the Church of the Nativity
Apparently, several of the worst terrorists will be deported to Italy.
Perhaps they can take over the Vatican while they're there, and make it a twofer.
Words fail me for a description of this history of the UN resolutions against Israel.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on March 25, 1999, described the infamous "Zionism-is-racism" resolution as "perhaps our low-point in our relations; its negative resonance even today is difficult to overestimate." Calling for a "broader fight" against anti-Semitism, Mr. Annan said:
"I know that the United Nations is regarded by many as biased against the State of Israel. I know that Israelis see hypocrisy and double standards in the intense scrutiny given to some of its actions, while other situations fail to elicit the world's outrage and condemnation. Still the broader fight against anti-Semitism must be addressed. We must denounce anti-Semitism in all its manifestations."
Let the denouncing begin. permalink
The Norwegian Blogger strikes again
Vegard Valberg looks at the Middle East situation through Jonathan Swift's lens, and comes up with A Modest Proposal to settle the problem.
When one sees it like this the Arab reaction is much more understandable, after all what is the creation of the State of Israel but one giant act of aggression? Indeed was not the purchase of land by the Jews an act of oppression and aggression on the scale of what McDonalds is dealing out in Europe today? Now obviously it is unfortunate that Jews are blown up by suicide bombings, and that Jewish children are blown up by suicide bombers, but when you see how the Jews use that as a justification for making Palestinians wait behind checkpoints you are really disgusted.
It is really just tit for tat, during an attack a piece of shrapnel from a Israeli gun might strike a young Palestinian child, some people might blame the Palestinian freedom fighters for opening fire when there are civilians around, but remember that this is one of the situations where the press is the friend of the struggling Palestinian people, fearful of world opinion the Jews will be careful when they return fire least they strike a civilian. Then the Palestinians might disguise themselves as Israeli soldiers, and sneak into the home of a family killing everyone there, and shooting a five year old girl at point blank range. The Jews would not doubt claim that there is a difference between accidentally killing a child, and between deliberately shooting a sleeping child at point blank range, but dead is dead, and when thinking about the poor Palestinians it is quite frankly distasteful the way the Jews insist on talking about such technicalities.
My hat is off to the man. Impeccable reproduction of the master's wit. permalink
Two days ago, I looked up at the date on my wall clock and said to myself, "May 3rd--why does that date mean something? Is it someone's birthday? What did I forget?"
Sometime yesterday afternoon, I realized--it's the fourth anniversary of my kicking the nicotine habit. My cousin, with whom I made a bet that I would quit smoking if he would lose weight, still has about 90% of his excess weight to go. (Hint, hint, if you're reading this.) But I have saved an estimated $6,760, less the first few months' payments for nicotine patches--let's call it an even $6,500. Not to mention the health benefits--I used to come down with colds on a frequent basis; now I get perhaps one or two a year. At the rate the price of cigarettes keeps going up, I figure my not smoking will, by the time I'm finished paying off my Jeep, have covered about 30% of the cost of my car. Wow. It's almost like I sent in cigarette coupons and earned a car with them!
And no, I am not old enough to remember cigarette coupons--I just read a lot, and remember what I read.
So happy anniversary to me, and if Phillip Morris ever invents a cancer-free cigarette, I'd be back on it in--sigh--a second. Alas, I'm like an alcoholic. I can't take so much as one drag without going back on the habit.
Saw the Spider-Man movie yesterday. Must go back and see it another half-dozen times to catch it all. It was wonderful, and I didn't even recognize Bruce Campbell as the MC at the wrestling match. Stay for all the credits if you want an extra giggle before you leave. There was, however, a terrifying few moments for us women. I leaned over and whispered to Kim, "Can't take any more ugly nekkid guy chests--my eyes! they burn! they burn!" Luckily, Tobey McGuire buffed up for all but the first scenes. But man--did they have to show us Willem Dafoe's chest? Eww. I'm going to have to break out the DVD of X-Men for some Hugh Jackman action to compensate. (Will whomever called us the Merry Marvel Blogging Society come to the front desk for his No-Prize?)
Is the Apocalypse coming? I got a referrer from a Rapture message board website. I have no idea what they're saying about me, because the referrer was cut off and I couldn't find the exact thread. I hope it was something nice. But add to that the fact that I just subscribed to the Weekly Standard today, and one has to wonder: What happened to that commiesympinkohippie who led the fight to shut down the NJ State College system for two days in, uh--wait. I'm not telling you when. Never mind.
Have I mentioned Josh Trevino's blog lately? I especially like the description of his meeting with the President (scroll down to May 3, he's still hasn't gotten a blogging tool or put in permalinks himself even after I sent him explicit instructions on how to achieve same, and no, I'm not trying to embarrass him in public, and does embarrass have one r or two? I should look it up.) Wow, thought I'd never get out of those parentheses. Oh, and check out the list of bloggers on my portal page and find a name that you think is neat and check him/her out. I need to add a few more, like, oh, Hawkgirl. Time to update the links page. permalink
Last week's blogs are archived. If you're looking for the Human Rights commission documents, or the Yasser Arafat Secret Phone Transcripts, click on the links. Iseema bin Laden's diary is also a good bet if you've never been here before.
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