Very interesting… Ynet says Benjamin Netanyahu took a trip to Russia to discuss their selling of arms to Iran. The PM’s office says he never left the country. There are also rumors that Bibi visited an Arab nation that has no ties with Israel. Hm. Double hm. Regardless of which report is true, I think it’s proof that Bibi is working hard for Israel.
Ehud Olmert: It’s not just a river in Egypt. Ehud Olmert is defending the disengagement—still. Because it worked so well for Israel. Let’s see, four years later, Gaza has turned into Gazastan and is being run by Hamas, which is building up Gaza as a doppelganger of Israel’s border with Lebanon, complete with thousands of rockets. The Obama administration is completely negating any deals made with the Bush administration regarding settlement growth, which was part of the reason Ariel Sharon wanted to give up Gaza in the first place. The world now accuses Israel of keeping Gazans in a “giant prison,” ignoring the fact that Egypt closes its border with Gaza. So, yeah, the disengagement was an absolute success, if by success you mean “achieving the opposite of what you wanted to achieve.”
Awesome! I picked up the use of naming things “Fred” from a friend I knew ages ago. My wireless network is named Fred (“Connection to Fred: Excellent”). And now, NOAA has made me a very happy woman by naming a hurricane Fred. And Fred is being a bad boy, indeed. He’s up to a Category 2.
Gee, we couldn’t see that coming: Taxpayers are going to eat the auto bailout funds. It seems the brilliant minds in the government said that the auto companies would only have to pay back the funds if their stock prices reached—get this—a market value of over $10 billion more than it was when the bailout occurred. Because gee, the public is just so confident in the American automakers that they’re looking to add them to their portfolios. Yeah, we were had. Like anyone didn’t think otherwise?
Actually, I have read reports that the “Cash for Clunkers” program managed to crash the auto market as well. Apparently (according to some market analysts) the only thing that the program accomplished was to get people to buy earlier than they would have otherwise. Oh yes, and trick “Government Motors” into increasing production to have enough cars to sell in the future, even though the new production would not come onto the market until after the program closed and people stopped buying.
I can only hope that Bibi wasn’t making secret trips to Argentina. :-)
I still remember many years ago seeing the caption of a picture of Ramot describing it as “occupied Arab East Jerusalem.” Ramot is in the north of the city.
I know that there are before and after photographs of the synagogues in the Old City of Jerusalem – before and after its capture by Jordan. I wish the Israeli government would publish them.
As you know, Meryl, I’m reluctant to show off my classical education, but I wonder if your friend used “Fred” because of the wonderful old BBC radio program, “The Goon Show.”
They used the name “Fred” a lot, from episodes like “The Terrible Revenge of Fred Fu Manchu” and “Foiled by President Fred.” Later on they tried to translate Goonery to tv with “A Show Called Fred.”
“Goon Show” programs can be found and heard on the net and I strongly recommend doing so to anyone who wants to hear one of the all-time high points in comedy. And remember, “With a saxophone, and only in the mating season.”