It was time to update the commenting policy to include a disclaimer. I do approve many comments that I don’t agree with, though usually none that break the No Israel-Bashing rule. And while I don’t approve of comments like this one, it’s not breaking any rules. But it occurred to me that perhaps a disclaimer is in order. Now I have one:
Disclaimer: Although these comments are moderated, posting a comment does not constitute an endorsement of the commenter’s views.
Finally figured out a good one.
Keep an eye out for Tig on I Can Has Cheezburger, and go vote for him if he shows up.
Hamas calls for Israel’s destruction again. Trust me when I tell you that this will not get major play in the same media that tells us that British MPs, members of the EU, and various other idiots think Israel should deal with Hamas.
“Palestinians will fight Israel for generation upon generation until victory,” Haniyeh told a rally in Gaza on Thursday. “If Israel is not defeated in this generation, it will be in the next generation.”
They can write all the lying op-eds they want, Hamas will never be anything other than an organization of terrorists and murderers. The world’s Christians should be taking note: Hamas is forcing Christians to convert, destroying their places of worship, and otherwise terrorizing the remaining non-Islamic popluation of Gaza. Hamastan lives.
But by all means, encourage these actions by saying Israel should deal with Hamas, the organization that nakedly calls for Israel’s destruction, and still manages to get people to say they really don’t mean it.
So, when Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi says:
“Hamas exists. It’s a complex structure that we should help to evolve – but this should be done with transparency. One must push for dialogue so that it happens, and not shut anyone out.”
and Hamas responds by calling for Israeli’s destruction three days later, what message, exactly, do you think that Hamas is getting from the world?
That’s right. The message is that Jewish blood is still cheap to the rest of the world. Well, it’s not cheap to us. Screw you, Prodi, and screw you, British MPs, for pretending that Hamas wants anything less than the destruction of Israel and the death or expulsion of every single Jew in the Holy Land. And screw you, mainstream media, for not showing the world what bloodthirsty murderers Hamas really are.
The Israeli government is looking to cut corners. Here’s a really bad piece of logic:
The public transportation security unit, established during the second Intifada in order to prevent suicide terror attacks against Israeli buses, will be shut down due to the sharp decline in such attacks in recent years, Maariv reported on Thursday.
According to the report, a number of days ago commanding officers in the unit were given notice and were apprised of the decision to put an end to their activities as of September 1.
See how the logic goes? Suicide attacks are down, so you can cut back on costs by eliminating the guards, who prevent suicide attacks. Not only is this really bad logic, but it gets worse. Why? Because Olmert is talking final status issues with Abbas, and discussing removing checkpoints in the West Bank. Let us review: What happens every time checkpoints are eased? That’s right. Terrorist attacks, generally featuring terrorists wearing explosive belts, follow. And what is one of the favorite targets of terrorists wearing explosive belts? Buses.
So what brilliant bureaucrat thought this one up? Because I see a recipe for murdered bus riders, and so, trust me, do the terrorists. Who are not putting down their arms and who are not stopping in their goals to murder Israelis.
If you’ve been following the Tay Zonday YouTube phenom, you’ll love this: Chad Vader covers Chocolate Rain.
You know, it took me a while to figure out why the audience at Jimmy Kimmel Live were so dumbstruck by Tay. It isn’t the voice. It’s the song. The song is a hook. There’s no verse, no chorus. Just a hook, over and over again.
Be warned: It’s a viral hook, and will drive you crazy. I recommend listening to something great right afterward. This works.
It seems that the Hamas op-eds in the New York Tmes, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times were all, shall we say, a bit misleading? Rather than working for peace, Hamas keeps getting caught with its weapons up. And tunnels down.
Ahmed Yousef wrote:
“Palestinians want, on their terms, the same thing Western societies want: self-determination, modernity, access to markets and their own economic power, and freedom for civil society to evolve.â€
[…] Our stated aim when we won the election was to effect reform, end corruption and bring economic prosperity to our people. Our sole focus is Palestinian rights and good governance. We now hope to create a climate of peace and tranquillity within our community
Yes, and tunnels into Israel from which they can murder and kidnap Israelis:
The IDF on Tuesday uncovered an underground tunnel leading from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, the army said Wednesday. The tunnel shaft was connected to a Gaza hothouse used to grow tomatoes and situated 700 meters from the border fence.
The tunnel was detonated in a controlled manner by the IDF on Wednesday evening.
Army officials believe that a terror attack had been foiled by uncovering the tunnel. According to estimates, Palestinians planned to use the tunnel in order to smuggle explosives and bomb them under an Israeli military or civilian target.
The IDF was also looking into the possibility that the tunnel was slated to be used to smuggle terrorists into Israel.
And of course, Hamas will deny that they had anything to do with the tunnel. As for the greenhouse where the tunnel originates? That would be one of the greenhouses formerly run by Israelis, bought and paid for by stupid Americans and Europeans who thought that the Palestinians were truly interested in anything but the destruction of Israel.
Unfortunately, the tunnel destroyed yesterday was only one of dozens.
So first I find a story in the Daily Mail that says the unemployment rate in Great Britain is actually six times higher than official government figures.
Nearly ten million people in Britain are out of work – more than six times the official unemployment rate – it was revealed last night.
The ‘hidden army’ of jobless accounts for a quarter of the working-age population.
Critics said the staggering numbers represented a ‘huge pool of wasted talent’ and fuelled concerns about the drain on the economy.
Ya think? 25% of the working population is a “huge pool of wasted talent”? And yet, how is it that 1 out of every four working-age Brit is able not to, well, work for a living?
They are not listed as unemployed but do not go to work because they are sick, looking after family or simply refuse to find a job.
While they are not claiming unemployment benefits, many rely on other handouts such as incapacity benefit.
The ‘economically inactive’ currently form 21.2 per cent of the working-age population – 124,000 more than a year ago and the second highest figure on record.
The highest figure was in May 1997 – the month that the Conservatives lost the General Election after a severe economic downturn – when 21.6 per cent were inactive.
Some 1.89million of the current total are students, 2.35million are carers for elderly relatives or stay-athome mothers, and 2.04million are on long-term sickness.
A further 198,000 are on temporary sickness leave, 619,000 have retired early and 35,000 are classed as ‘discouraged workers’, meaning they are not interested in finding work.
So that tax rate in the U.K. is supporting 25% of the working age population, as well as the uniform health care system, the BBC, and those Big Brother cameras all over the nation. Now let’s take a look at another interesting story out of Great Britain:
But men in their late-30s and early-40s are the least content of all of us, it seems.
Whether they are mourning the passing of their prime or struggling to cope with the demands of a job and young family, those aged 35-44 invariably hit a mid-life crisis when their happiness level plunges lower than at any other age, according to a study for the Government.
Let’s see… age 35-44… now what would that make them? That’s right. Working age men. Who can’t find work.
Most men rated their carefree teenage years between the age of 16-24 as one if their happiest periods, with an average score of 7.55 out of ten.
But halfway through their careers, satisfaction levels dipped to a low of 6.8, only rising again to nearly 7.8 once they had crested retirement age.
Granted, I’m making a huge cognitive leap here. But compared to what some bloggers do, hell, I’m practically writing a fact-based thesis on why unemployed men in Britain are unhappy.
And with that caveat, I find it interesting that British men get unhappier in their middle years, which would be about the time a man feels most useless if he hasn’t got a job. Meantime, women of that age are still caring for their children and starting to re-enter the workforce. As for unemployed kids, well, twentysomethings don’t care. It gives them more time to party.
Another factor of that depression statistic is that the older you get, the tougher it is to recover from tough times, physically and mentally. And if you lose a large chunk of your working life, it affects you financially for a long time, and takes a long time to recover.
So maybe the real reason British men are so unhappy is simply that they can’t find a decent job. But sure, U.K. You keep on importing more immigrants. No doubt they’re doing the jobs that Britons won’t do. Meantime, Brits are talking about emigrating (and doing it) in record numbers.
Time was when Brits would work on fixing their nation, not fleeing it.
Times change.
May I just say how very, very, very much I hate the Al Qaeda subhuman bastards who do things like this?
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — The death toll in the suicide bombings Tuesday in northern Iraq has risen to at least 500, local officials in Nineveh province said Wednesday.
Iraqi Army and Mosul police sources earlier put the number at 260, but said it was likely to rise. 320 were reported wounded.
The Tuesday truck bombs that targeted the villages of Qahtaniya, al-Jazeera and Tal Uzair, in northern Iraq near the border with Syria, were a “trademark al Qaeda event” designed to sway U.S. public opinion against the war, a U.S. general said Wednesday.
The attacks, targeting Kurdish villages of the Yazidi religious minority, were attempts to “break the will” of the American people and show that the U.S. troop escalation — the “surge” — is failing, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon said.
The bombings highlight the kind of sectarian tensions the troop surge was designed to stop.
Al Qaeda in Iraq is predominantly Sunni, and Mixon said members of the Yazidi religious minority have received threatening letters, called “night letters,” telling them “to leave because they are infidels.”
“This is an act of ethnic cleansing, if you will — almost genocide when you consider the fact the target they attacked and the fact that these Yazidis, out in a very remote part of Nineveh province, where there is very little security and really no security required to this point,” Mixon said.
Hate. I hate them with a blinding hatred, and I wish them all manner of ill.
The next time some asshole tries to tell me that Christian or Jewish extremists are no different from Islamic extremists, if they are within arm’s length, I am going to punch them in the nose.
Not that I ever intend to change my name at this point in my life, but this would be a great solution for me if it didn’t screw up the eponymous blog thing.
Jersey writers Alice Kirby and Larry Charny decided to marry in 1988, she refused to take his name, but so did he.
Kirby, 54, is a fiction writer and Charny, 48, is editor of The Story Prize. With a nod to the creative world of fiction, the couple abandoned their family names and adopted a new surname. Today, they are Alice and Larry Dark.
Smart. No muss, no fuss.
Many women keep their maiden names as a mark of independence. Still, an overwhelming 90 percent of all brides drop their surnames, according to the Lucy Stone League, named for the woman who refused to take her husband’s name in 1855.
But today, in a trend that is not new but growing, couples are constructing their own names — sometimes mixing syllables from both sides of the family and often just picking a name that has special meaning or rolls well off the tongue.
Kirby-Charny would have been a mouthful, notes Dark, who toyed with the sardonic moniker Dark Jr.
I am (and have always been) enough of a feminist that I think changing my name to match my husband’s would be a remnant of the days when women were physically the property of men (ergo the name change). Plus, I like the idea of both halves of the couple starting over. This makes a whole lot more sense than hyphenation.
Darcie Shapiro and Jeff Klein created a new name in preparation for their marriage in 2003. The New York City couple, both 28, constructed it from their mothers’ maiden names.
Darcie’s mother was born Behar and Jeff’s was Ruthberg. “Har” and “berg” mean mountain in Hebrew and German, respectively. So they opted for a blended name — Sharlein.
Darcie Sharlein, who is studying to be a Jewish cantor, said she never assumed she would take her husband’s name.
“It was important for us to have the same last name and one day our imaginary children would also have the name,” she said. “It was a way we could honor both families, a symbolic way of joining them together.”
Yep. I like this idea a whole lot. But at this point in time, I don’t ever see me changing my name. Not unless I have to perform some kind of life-changing act, have plastic surgery, and get a new identity through a black-ops agency of the U.S. government. Oh, wait. That never happens in real life. Yourish it is.
The people who put up the Hezbollah sign in Windsor, Canada, say they achieved their purpose.
The controversial billboard depicting Hezbollah’s leader has disappeared, but one of the men responsible for the sign says it’s not because they’re backing down from fierce public backlash.
“Whatever we believe, we’ll speak about it anytime,” said Hussein Dabaja. “We will speak about human rights, about the truth, about Nasrallah. We’re going to do it and nobody can stop us.
“We’ll talk about it anywhere, any place we have a chance.”
[…] The billboard Dabaja said organizers took up a collection from community members to pay for the billboard, and many of them were willing to pay more to keep it up.
He said the company that owns the sign, CBS Outdoors, removed the billboard because the Lebanese community members only paid to have it up over the weekend. “We paid for the weekend and it’s done,” said Dabaja. “We have our message, and our message got the point across.”
CBS Outdoor didn’t return phone calls on Monday.
Which makes me wonder exactly what they were trying to accomplish.
Dabaja said the billboard was meant to honour friends and family in Lebanon who died fighting against Israel, and promote peace.
He said the point of the message will be driven home today, when Nasrallah makes a speech in Beirut honouring Hezbollah’s “victory” against the Israeli occupation.
I wonder if he pays Hezbollah membership dues. Because he sure toes the Hezbollah line.
Dabaja said he doesn’t understand why Kessler and others are so upset. He has no quarrel with Jewish people, he said.
“I am Canadian, he is Canadian,” he said. “The Jewish are not the enemy. When Hezbollah fights the Israeli army, they fight the Israeli occupation to Lebanon. We are not fighting them because they are Jewish.”
Dabaja said he had considered putting pictures of coffins and the bodies of Lebanese people killed in the fighting on the billboard, but instead chose a more peaceful picture.
“I chose something to show some respect,” he said.
Yeah. Respect. Here’s another Lebanese opinion.
Elias Bejjani of the Lebanese Canadian Co-ordinating Council, a collection of non-profit groups focused on educating people about Lebanese issues, said there was more to it than that.
“It was a challenge,” he said from Toronto. “They were testing the seriousness of the Canadian government to its anti-terrorist act. It was more than somebody putting up a billboard. It is symbolic. As Canadians we can not be neutral. There is no neutrality when it comes to terrorism.”
I’m going to side with Bejjani. It was a challenge. They deliberately put up a billboard honoring a terrorist organization, knowing full well there would be a backlash. They were testing the waters to see if they could get away with propagandizing Hezbollah in Canada.
Something that these terrorist groups do, that the media and government do not acknowledge, is fight an effective public relations war. Al Qaeda is winning it. Hamas is working hard to do the same. Hezbollah had a superb PR effort during last summer’s war, tightly controlling everything that came out of Lebanon, while Israel allowed reporters far more leeway to report the news from Israel. The result: Israel was once again demonized, and the world rose up in favor of the terrorists who started the war. Even today, you cannot get an honest summation of what happened last year. Reading this NPR hagiography of Hezbollah’s “victory” celebration, you’d think that the IDF were the terrorists and Hezbollah the unassuming victims.
The conflict erupted when Hezbollah guerrillas launched a cross-border raid and captured two Israeli soldiers. Israeli warplanes unleashed waves of airstrikes against Lebanon and sent troops and tanks across the border. Hezbollah then retaliated by firing Katyusha rockets at Israeli cities and towns.
Really? That’s how it began, is it? I call bullshit on NPR.
Western Galilee residents woke up to loud sounds of exchanges of fire on both sides of the border. Explosions were heard on the central and eastern zones. Six people were injured on the western area of the border, one of them sustaining moderate wounds. They were evacuated to the Nahariya hospital.
In the villages of Natua and Zar’it, which are close to the fence, residents reported hearing sounds of light and heavy weapons. At least two mortar shells landed in the area and five soldiers were wounded. The alert level was raised in Israel Defense Forces posts and IAF aircrafts flew over Lebanon.
A ground chase was being conducted in the field, along with aircrafts, in a bid to locate the missing soldier.
“We received instruction that all residents should enter reinforced rooms and shelters,” said Gabi Neeman, head of the Shlomi Regional Council. “Our first concern is of course for the children in kindergartens and summer camps.
Total bullshit.
In the Shlomi and Maale Yossef regional councils, residents were asked to take shelter in underground bunkers. In Nahariya, the municipality decided to transfer children in summer camps to safer locations.
Army vehicles could be seen on roads leading to the border, but there was little civilian traffic.
Zar’it residents said the Hizbullah attack started at about 9 a.m.
“At around nine in the morning there was a very loud and prolonged explosion accompanied by light and heavy fire…I can’t remember an incident like this in the recent past, not since the IDF left Lebanon,” a resident said.
Israel is losing the information war, and losing it badly. Yes, it’s always been an uphill battle for the Jewish state. But western news media make it even harder when they are so blatantly biased. America and Israel need to sharpen their own PR machines and thwart the Hezbollah/Hamas/Iran/Al Qaeda messages.
Of course, that begs the question: If the PR machines on our side sent out information, would the mainstream media actually disseminate it?
Yet another depressing thought that makes me wish I were the dictator of the world. Oh, how fast the MSM would change.
Two conflicting articles from Ynet on whether or not Syria will go to war to get back the Golan Heights:
Yes:
“If military confrontations break out between Syria and Israel, that would be the fulfillment of the general’s plan,” a Lebanese official told Yedioth Ahronoth.
[…] Former foreign minister and Vice President Farouk al-Shara has been marginalized and Foreign Minister Walid Moallem has been banned from hosting American, Arab and European officials.
Arab officials believe Shawkat, Assad’s brother-in-law, wants to drag Israel into a conflict in Lebanon, and possibly Syria, next month.
[…] The United States accuses Shawkat of harboring hundreds of insurgents who killed US soldiers in Iraq. He is barred from the United States.
Shawkat, who has been linked to the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, fears that Assad might hand him over to an international tribunal to ease US pressure on his regime.
No:
Syria is not interested in embarking on a military conflict with Israel in order to win back the Golan Heights, Syrian Vice President Farouk Ashara said Tuesday.
“Israel knows that we do not desire a war. Damascus will always be ready for a response to an Israeli attack but Syria will not initiate one,” Army Radio quoted Ashara as saying.
Neither Israel nor Syria are interested in a war so there is no reason for one to erupt, but Syria is still reinforcing its army and arming Hizbullah in Lebanon, Israel Radio quoted Jerusalem officials as saying on Wednesday.
The officials added that Syria’s declarations that it did not want a war were important but that its actions alone would determine the future.
You pays your money and you takes your choice.
At least when this guy talks, I don’t immediately think, “Liar.” Instead, I simply think, “Yeah, right.”
Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik met late Tuesday night with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in New York City and the two discussed the efforts being made to release the Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hizbullah and Hamas.
Ban told reporters before the meeting that the issue of the MIA Israeli soldiers topped his daily agenda and that he is working hard to resolve the matter.
Please. The UN couldn’t find its ass with its own hands, and UNIFIL has been unable to interdict the massive amounts of arms coming into Lebanon from Syria. Why should we believe that Ban can do anything about a terrorist organization that refuses to so much as tell the world whether or not the soldiers are alive?
The fake Fatah peace:
A bomb exploded near IDF forces operating in Nablus overnight Monday, prompting the troops to fire in the direction of the attack.
Nobody was wounded in the incident. Two Palestinians were arrested during the operation, and were transferred to security forces for further interrogation.
The fake West Bank peace:
Palestinians opened fire on an Israeli car on the Trans Judea Road near the settlement of Adora, which is in the vicinity of Hebron. No one was hurt and there was not damage reported.
IDF soldiers scanned the area and found bullet casings.
And from Gaza, where British MPs and other European politicians want Israel to talk to Hamas:
A Kassam rocket struck an open area in the western Negev Tuesday morning.
Nobody was wounded in the attack, and no damage was reported.
But what was the main Israel news yesterday? An IDF strike on terrorists in Gaza. The headline: “6 Palestinians Killed in Israeli Raid.”
Israeli aircraft attacked Islamic militants in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday and ground troops clashed with fighters in a daylong raid against suspected extremists.
Four fighters and two civilians died in the clashes and 26 people were wounded, including at least five civilians, Palestinian medical officials and militant factions said. Israel’s army said its soldiers arrested some 100 militants before withdrawing.
The constant terrorist attacks in Israel are unnoted by the world at large. They only notice when an IDF “incursion” occurs. The very word “incursion” is a negative connotation, as is “raid,” the other favorite term for IDF operations to terminate terror against Israel. And of course, there’s the ever-ready “retaliatory strike” after a suicide bombing occurs.
And the media bias against Israel continues unchecked.
I like this news:
Two Hamas security men were killed on Tuesday evening in heavy clashes with members of the Dogmush clan in Gaza.
Palestinian sources reported 20 more men had been wounded in the exchanges of fire as Hamas lay siege to a house west of Gaza City which several clansmen have barricaded themselves in.
Hamas said in a cryptic statement that its forces came under fire while on a mission in the area. The Doghmushes said the fighting began after Hamas came to arrest a clansman and confiscate his car.
The clan, one of the largest and most powerful in the Strip, is responsible for the March kidnapping of BBC reporter Alan Johnston and involved in the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in June 2006.
Hamas officials have threatened to storm the clan’s compound if the fighting continues, any such raid would likely result in numerous casualties.
Oh, don’t tease us!
I hope they both lose.
Didn’t catch this until a little while ago. Phil Rizzuto, the ex-Yankee who broadcast the Yankees games during the time I was an absolutely fanatic Yankee fan, died Monday night.
Phil Rizzuto, the sure-handed Hall of Fame Yankees shortstop nicknamed The Scooter, who extended his Yankee life as a popular and even beloved broadcaster, punctuating his game-calling with birthday wishes to fans and exclamations of “Holy cow!â€, died late Monday night. He was 89.
[…] Rizzuto’s ramblings and pro-Yankee sentiments maddened detractors. But his fans adored Rizzuto as they would a delightful uncle, and colleagues were fond of recalling his scorecard notation of “W.W.,†for “Wasn’t Watching.â€
Rizzuto often left a game at Yankee Stadium before its conclusion to beat the traffic over the George Washington Bridge. As one game headed into extra innings, he asked Messer, “Want a cup of coffee?†Messer nodded. But Rizzuto was gone, to his home in New Jersey. As he entered the broadcast booth the next day, Rizzuto tapped Messer on the shoulder and said, “Here’s your coffee.â€
Love him or hate him, he was the voice of the Yankees for decades. When the Yankees were in post-season play during the 70s and 80s, my father and I would turn off Howard Cosell or whoever was announcing on TV, and turn on the radio for the Yankees teeam. Mind you, we really wanted to hear Frank Messer and Bill White, because even back then Rizzuto drove us nuts, but still—he made us laugh.
