Ilyka said that Tig was simply ripe for LOLification, and she’s right.
But I found one for Gracie, too.
Do you like her pretty new purple paper? It was a gift from me to Jake (okay, it came inside his gift bag, but I chose it with Gracie specifically in mind), who then graciously gifted it to Gracie.
I do believe when I am feeling particularly inspired by a pose, we may have more LOL kitty pictures.
This is what Hamas calls “order” and “justice.”
Palestinian civil servants said they came under gunfire from a Hamas-led force as they tried to report for work on Thursday, which Hamas has decreed a day off.
Dozens of employees arrived at their offices in Gaza to find entrance doors chained and Hamas’s Executive Force threatening to arrest them, witnesses said.
No one was hurt in the incident.
“The (Executive Force) fired into the air first and then when employees did not (leave), they fired on the ground, near women employees,” said Finance Ministry worker Mesleh al-Kilani.
“Yes, they fired,” many of his colleagues shouted.
Guidelines for the working week by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s emergency government set Sunday to Thursday as working days with a Friday/Saturday weekend.
I guess in Hamas’ world, “women and children first” means kill the women and children first. And of course, we won’t hear much about this in the mainstream press.
You know how you keep reading criticism of Israel for not opening the Gaza crossings? Think you’ll hear HRW criticizing Hamas for this?
Hamas’s threat to open fire at throngs of Palestinians stranded in Egypt has thwarted Israeli plans to open the Kerem Shalom crossing to southern Gaza on Wednesday to let the travelers return to their homes, defense officials told The Jerusalem Post.
According to the officials, 6,000 Palestinians have been marooned on the Egyptian side of Rafah since Hamas’s violent takeover of the Gaza Strip three weeks ago and the closure of the Rafah crossing into Egypt. Palestinians shelled the crossing last week, forcing its closure after it had been used as an alternative to the Karni cargo crossing to send food and other supplies into Gaza.
But it gets worse.
In an effort to allow the stranded Palestinians to return home, the IDF recently offered to Egypt to open the Kerem Shalom crossing – which connects Israel, Gaza and Egypt – to pedestrian travel. Egypt contacted Hamas and, according to Israeli officials, was told that if Kerem Shalom was opened they would attack the crossing with mortars and gunfire, even at the price of killing thousands of Palestinians.
Israel immediately canceled the plans and is waiting to see if Egypt succeeds in convincing Hamas to allow Kerem Shalom to be used to help the stranded Palestinians.
Nope. I doubt you’ll hear the UN Human Wrongs Council say a word about this. Except to blame Israel for not opening the crossing.
AISH.com has a new Jewlarious film (hat tip: Sabba Hillel) about the cost of boycotting Israeli goods.
It’s pretty funny. Go click. (Flash player required.)
They need to make these things available as an embed on YouTube.
Happy Fourth of July to my fellow Americans, and to my fellow Americans in spirit.
Long may she wave!
Every year on this date, I post this:
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
As is my custom, I’ll be heading out to Fort Lee to celebrate the Fourth on an Army base, surrounded by soldiers, flags, and extremely happy and patriotic Americans.
That’s it for the day. Go forth and enjoy!
Listen to this week’s podcast while you’re waiting for the festivities to begin. Nothing says “freedom” like my piece on Americans informing their Senators that they work for us, not the other way ’round. Or Nick Cohen, the feature interview, trying to convince the left that Islamism is not democracy, and democracy is not fascism. (Yeah, good luck with that, Nick. British lefties are lost.)
Download it and listen at your leisure, or listen to it online from your computer. All you need is Windows Media Player or its equivalent, not anything special.
Say, remember how Alan Johnston said in a video that he was being treated kindly and looked after well? Turns out not so much. (Well, no, we didn’t believe him.)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) – Gaunt but smiling, kidnapped BBC reporter Alan Johnston emerged Wednesday from 16 weeks of solitary confinement in a dark room, an experience he said was “like being buried alive.”
[…] At a news conference with Hamas officials, Johnston – who was held in captivity far longer than any other foreigner kidnapped in Gaza – described his experience as “occasionally terrifying.”
“The last 16 weeks, of course, were just the very worst you can imagine of my life, like being buried alive, really, removed from the world,” he said.
Headed by a man known as Abu Khaled, he said, his kidnappers were “often rude and unpleasant.” They kept him chained and in solitary confinement for 16 weeks and “did threaten my life a number of times in various ways,” Johnston said.
[…] After his release in Gaza, Johnston recounted for reporters how he was chained up for 24 hours at one point, moved twice during his captivity and beaten “a bit” in the last half hour before he was released.
After getting sick because of the food early in his captivity, he said, he was given a simple diet of bread, cheese and eggs. After the first month, he was confined to an apartment where the shutters were always drawn.
“It’s been basically three months since I saw the sun,” he told BBC TV.
Imagine that. His Islamic captors were not the kind, gentle captors that we are told Muslims are supposed to be. I’m shocked. Shocked, I say. I simply can’t imagine how Gilad Shalit is being treated, assuming (and it’s still a very big assumption) that he’s still alive.
I found this part of the article very interesting:
After his release, Johnston was surrounded by armed Hamas security men and hustled to a press conference with Ismail Haniyeh, the former Palestinian prime minister who now heads the Hamas regime in Gaza. Haniyeh draped a Palestinian flag around Johnston’s shoulders – which he quickly removed – and pinned a Palestinian flag pin on his blue blazer.
Trying to keep that famous impartiality, eh?
Love the way Hamas is milking this. There are currently over 1800 news items on Google News, second only to the Scooter Libby story. But I think it will be short-lived, and it will do nothing to change the way the world thinks of the organization of terrorists and murderers.
And of course, Johnston did not go to Egypt when he was freed. He was rushed to Jerusalem, where he knew he would be safe and cared for.
After a breakfast of beans and falafel with Haniyeh, Johnston set out for Jerusalem in the company of British diplomats, arriving at Britain’s Jerusalem consulate later in the morning and waving to a crowd of reporters waiting outside. The BBC’s Jerusalem bureau was decorated with colorful balloons, and bottles of champagne were open on the newsdesk.
Yep. Safe in Israel. Not safe in Gaza. It’s a no-brainer.
Asked if he would return to Gaza, Johnston told Al-Jazeera satellite news, “After many months of kidnapping, I think I need a break.”
There’s a live press conference with Johnston right now. First thing he said: “My job is about putting ideas into words.” Uh, no, that job is to report the news. At least there’s no sign of the Palestinian flag pin on his jacket anymore. He’s thanking the international media and the BBC. He is most notably not thanking Hamas. Hm. There may be hope after all.
Hamas murdered at least one bystander and threatened God knows what, but Alan Johnston is now a free man. I’m thinking it’s not going to really improve Hamas’ image, but hey, what do I know? Jimmy Carter thinks we should deal with the murderers.
BBC correspondent Alan Johnston has been freed by his captors in Gaza after his abduction nearly four months ago.
Television pictures showed Mr Johnston, 45, leaving a building and entering a white car, accompanied by armed men. He said he was tired but in good health.
And watch Haniyeh milk this for all it’s worth. Too bad the Brits are a little more occupied with terror attacks at the moment. There won’t be much capital to be had from this, I’m thinking.
“I was released a couple of hours ago. It was an appalling experience as you can imagine. Occasionally quite terrifying… Now it really is over,” Johnston told BBC News from the home of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
The journalist added: “I am hugely grateful to the people who worked [for the release]. I think I am OK. to keep my mind in the right place was a constant battle.”
[…] Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said Wednesday the freeing of the BBC journalist showed his movement had brought order to the Gaza Strip by seizing power in the territory last month.
“We have been able to close this chapter which has harmed the image of our people greatly. The efforts by Hamas have produced the freedom of Alan Johnston,” Meshaal told Reuters by telephone from Syria.
Yeah. Except in order to keep order, they had to surround the compound and murder innocent bystanders.
Eariler Tuesday night, exchanges of fire between Hamas and Army of Islam gunmen were reported in Gaza City. Palestinians said a bystander was killed in the crossfire.
Palestinian sources reported of a number of injuries on both sides. Hamas gunmen encircled the complex of the Dogmush family, one of the strongest in Gaza. Mumtaz Dogmush heads the Army of Islam with the support of the entire family.
Meanwhile, Palestinian sources said the wave of kidnappings in the Strip is continuing in the framework of the struggle between Hamas and the Army of Islam.
Yeah, that sounds really peaceful and orderly. Good job, Hamas! Gaza’s still a shithole!
Are you ready to take the MSNBC citizenship challenge? It’s a snap. Only one question gave me pause, and that’s because I’m not a lawyer.
Please note that I scored 100%. That’s right, baby. I’m not just a red-blooded American, but I can pass the citizenship test, too. Without errors.
Go ahead. Take the test and post your scores in the comments. I’m betting my readers all score pretty high, too.
And an early Happy Fourth to me.
I hope they both lose.
Hamas gunmen on Tuesday took up positions around the stronghold of the shadowy group holding kidnapped British journalist Alan Johnston, stepping up the pressure to secure the correspondent’s release.
Members of Hamas’ 6,000-strong militia moved onto rooftops of high-rise buildings and deployed gunmen in streets in the Gaza City neighborhood inhabited by the Doghmush clan. The large, heavily armed family leads the Army of Islam, a little known group that has been holding Johnston for nearly four months.
In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the other Gaza clans see this as a clear threat to themselves and join in yet another civil war in the Gaza Strip.
Interior Ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal said security forces “will not spare any efforts to free the British journalist.” Hamas radio also broadcast a toll free phone number, urging people to call in any information about the case. Witnesses said at least four members of the Doghmush clan were detained by Hamas.
Please excuse me while I laugh my head off. A toll-free number? For what? Hamas knows who has Alan Johnston. The whole world knows it. These are the same people Hamas is using to hold Gilad Shalit.
Since seizing control of Gaza last month, Hamas has demanded Johnston’s release in an apparent bid to gain favor with the West.
The Army of Islam, whose formerly close relations with Hamas have soured, has demanded that Britain first release a radical Islamic cleric with ties to al-Qaida. It also has threatened to kill Johnston if Hamas tried to free him by force.
On Monday, Hamas arrested the spokesman of the Army of Islam, giving it a potentially valuable bargaining chip in its efforts to release Johnston.
I read somewhere else that the Doghmush clan then kidnapped ten members of Hamas. Can’t find the link.
The same group was involved in the capture of Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was seized more than a year ago in a raid on an Israeli army post near Gaza.
Uh-huh. But let’s play pretend and stand outside posing for the cameras for the release of Alan Johnston. Because nobody would suspect Hamas of staging this whole thing to make it look like they care about releasing a BBC reporter.
Nope. Nobody.
I think I’ve hit upon something that nobody else has realized about the British terror attacks. Look at what so many of the conspirators have in common:
Terror suspects all linked to NHS
Eight people arrested in connection with failed car bombings in Glasgow and London all have links with the National Health Service, the BBC has learned.Seven are believed to be doctors or medical students, while one formerly worked as a laboratory technician.
You see? That’s why socialized medicine is bad for a country. It encourages terrorists! It creates terror networks! It’s obvious the Brits can’t get enough homegrown doctors because they’re all fleeing to countries that pay their doctors more, so it leaves a gap—to be filled by terrorists!
If Hillary brings socialized medicine to the U.S., the terrorists will have won!
If you haven’t seen or heard of John Smeaton, you’re missing an amazing cult hero being born. He’s the baggage handler who helped subdue one of the terrorists as he fought the policeman to get near the passengers and complete his mission. He’s already a YouTube hero because Glaswegians can understand him, but the rest of us have almost no idea what he’s saying. I tried to transcribe him, but couldn’t get it all, and then got bored and gave up.
But there’s a very funny site up, with one person’s hunt for Smeaton, and the promise of 1,000 pints to the homegrown hero. It made me think of several things.
First, my great-grandfather escaped from Latvia to Berlin after going underground for several years to avoid being impressed into the Czar’s army. When he got to Berlin, he took a look around and decided he didn’t like Germany. There was something about it. So he went to Scotland—Glasgow, in fact. My grandfather was born there. But when the U.K. entered WWI on the same side as Russia, my great-grandfather decided he couldn’t stay in a country that would work with an evil nation, so he brought his family to America. So if it wasn’t for that little incident, I’d be speaking Glaswegian today meself. My grandfather had one remnant of a Scots accent. He’d say “Och!” whenever he was annoyed. And I think he was more Scots than he realized. When I was a teenager, I asked him why he didn’t have a Scottish accent. It would have been “neat,” I told him. “What good would it have done me?” he asked scornfully.
Yup. Still a bit of the Scots in him.
And the other thing I was thinking: Remember those British sailors who folded so quickly at the horror of their Iranian treatment? It seems that not all Brits are that far gone. Those of you insisting that we’re seeing the end of Britain need to take another look. I have maintained all along that reports of Europe’s death are greatly exaggerated. John Smeaton is a grand example that I’m right.
The Brits are getting more and more sure that Al Qaeda in Iraq was directing the terror attacks against them.
CBS/AP) British intelligence services increasingly believe that the failed car bombings in London and Glasgow bare the fingerprints of al Qaeda in Iraq, CBS News has learned.
Intelligence sources tell CBS News that the people behind the attempts were directly recruited by Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, the present leader of the terror group’s Iraq franchise.
[…] Sources tell CBS News that al-Muhajir recruited the men between 2004 and 2005, while they were living in the Middle East, upon orders from then-al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Al-Muhajir was told to recruit young men who could easily move into Western countries, assimilate and lay low until the time came to attack. Britain has a fast-track visa program for medical students which makes it easier for them to enter the country.
[…] Authorities identified Bilal Abdulla, an Iraqi doctor who worked at the Glasgow hospital, as the other man arrested at the airport.
According to the British General Medical Council’s register, a man named Bilal Talal Abdul Samad Abdulla was registered in 2004 and trained in Baghdad. Staff at the Glasgow hospital said Abdulla was a diabetes specialist.
Britain’s The Independent and The Muslim News newspapers reported that a man arrested in Liverpool late Saturday was a 26-year-old doctor from Bangalore, India, who worked at Halton Hospital in Cheshire, northern England. Police would not immediately comment on the reports.
The Muslim News also said the Indian doctor had used the car, cell phone and Internet account of a fellow physician who had moved from England to Australia around a year ago. It said police had asked friends of the Indian for details about the man who went to Australia.
Of course, this is going to feed into the “It’s all Britain’s fault” theory, but the fact of the matter is, Al Qaeda in Iraq is an offshoot of Al Qaeda. The good news is that it’s not nearly as easy for them to create car bombs in a civilized nation as it is to make them in Iraq. The better news is they didn’t train their terrorists well enough to construct working bombs.
Six doctors have been arrested so far in the plot. So much for the “oppressed poor” who have no other choice but to blow themselves up.
Something about the beautiful summer weather brings out the crazies and the idiots. Of couse, I think the “Jews” for Jesus people are both, but I’m glad I don’t work in metro DC and have to put up with this crap:
A two-week evangelical campaign designed to bring Jews to Jesus is underway in Washington, taking this question to Metro stations, Nationals games and popular spots like U Street: Is Jesus the Jewish messiah?
Well, no, he wasn’t, but don’t let that get in the way of your ability to annoy.
That is the core belief of the international missionary organization Jews for Jesus, the best known of dozens of messianic Jewish groups that have sprung up in recent decades. Followers believe that Jesus was the messiah mentioned in Jewish scripture. The group, which has a $17 million annual budget, defines its mission as “making the messiahship of Jesus an unavoidable issue to Jewish people worldwide.”
And here we must point out that the budget is almost wholly devoted to converting Jews, and yet, the Jews, they do not convert in droves. Go figure.
The group is loathed by many mainstream Jews.
You got that right, sister.
Washington area Jewish organizations and the InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington have condemned the campaign, saying Jews for Jesus proselytizes too aggressively and misleads potential followers by using Jewish symbols, portraying their places of worship as synagogues and referring to Jesus by Hebrew names.
This is what’s known as the tactic of “lying.” It’s used when you have no other way to get your point across. One of the other ways that J4Js lie is when they pretend their congregations are Jewish, when in reality, just about every J4J congregation fills its seats with Christians, many of whom have no idea that the “Jews” in their church aren’t really Jewish. Because the other thing that J4Js do is call everyone who has a drop of Jewish blood in them Jewish. You grandfather was Jewish? Cool! We have another Jew in our J4J congregation. Halachic law? What’s that? The stuff that was superceded by Jesus? Whoops, wait, I didn’t mean to say that….
“You don’t dress up fundamentalist, evangelical Christian missionaries in Jewish clothing and call it Judaism,” said Scott Hillman, director of the regional office of Jews for Judaism, which works against groups trying to convert Jews to Christianity.
Amen, brother!
Oops. I got so caught up in the Christian evangelical part of the J4Js, that I forgot where I was.
More than 30 Jews and Christians from Washington and across the country are participating, a far smaller number than in 2004, when 600 volunteers were trained to hand out leaflets.
Aw. Gee. They’re losing ground. Could it be that those wily Jews have caught on to these bogus Jews? Ya think?
Organizers say that is because 2004 was part of an unprecedented five-year, 38-city, global Jews for Jesus campaign that cost millions. The D.C. area push that year, which cost about $200,000, was also promoted heavily by the Rev. Lon Solomon, senior pastor of the McLean Bible megachurch in McLean and a member of the Jews for Jesus board of directors. This year, McLean contributed a small number of volunteers and the campaign has no advertising, as there was in 2004.
Once again, I have to say that when you lower your budget, your employees, and your expectations, it shows that you are—say it with me, folks—losing. And losing makes you—once again, people: Losers.
But it comes at a time when congregations of messianic Jews are growing, albeit slowly. There are about 300 such congregations in the United States, up from none around 1970, according to the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations. Jewish groups that work to oppose conversion efforts estimate that 200,000 American Jews have become believers in Christ in the past three decades.
What else has grown since 1970: People who have home computers, VCRs, SUVs, PDAs, stock portfolios—I mean, really. If you have to reach back to the organization’s beginnings to prove that it has grown, you are reaching, indeed. However, we can take a look at one congregation of Faux Jews in particular that I encountered some time ago. The “rabbi” of that congregation actually bragged that he had A 34% Jewish congregation. Wow. One-third of his congregation called themselves Jews, or had Jewish parents or grandparents or great-grandparents. Which means that two-thirds did not. That’s something you never hear about from these J4Js: How high a percentage of their congregations are not Jewish. And then you get the nutty stuff like this, which makes real Jews sit up and, well, laugh.
Congregation Zion’s Sake also sponsors a Messianic Davidic dance team led by Rebbitzin Barb Carlson. Many of their dances consist of the “circle dance” which represents unity. It is a traditional Judaic belief that demonic forces cannot penetrate a circle. They dance before the Lord, sowing praise and worship unto the God of Israel! The Zion’s Sake Dancers have ministered locally and globally, having been called to worship and share Yeshua in our local prisons and jails, numerous churches, city festivals, and to the nations having ministered in St. Petersburg and Omsk, Siberia-Russia.
I’ve never quite heard the Hora described in such a manner. Next time I dance it at a bar or bat mitzvah, I will remember that I’m also guarding against demons. By dancing “Davidically.”
And just in case you think that this is an oddity, read on:
“How can you say you love Jews if you withhold the messiah from them?” asked Stephen Katz, director of the local Jews for Jesus office, who handed out brochures to commuters at the Foggy Bottom Metro during Tuesday’s morning rush hour.
Working with him was Adam Myers, 21, a junior at Liberty University, who said it bothers him that so many people at his church believe that proselytizing to Jews is unnecessary.
“It’s just not politically correct to tell people that if you want to go to heaven, you have to accept Jesus. What we’re saying is intolerant, just like if a doctor said you need to take this medicine, that is intolerant,” he said.
If anyone can please interpret what Adam Myers means about doctors and tolerance, I’d appreciate it. Because it makes absolutely no sense to me. Or to another college student, who happens to be Jewish:
While passing out brochures, Katz got the e-mail address of Michaela Curtis, a 21-year-old intern from North Carolina who grew up in a Christian household where interest in Judaism was high.
“Jews for Jesus is true Judaism, because Jesus was the king of the Jews,” she said. “It makes perfect sense to me.”
But nearby was Bess Lender, a Jewish George Washington University senior, who disagreed.
“They’ll promote themselves as Jewish,” Lender said, “but it’s just silly to me to think you can be Jewish and believe in Christ as the messiah.”
Attagirl. Show ’em why the J4Js are doing such a crappy job. Because their mission is stupid to begin with.
Jewish. Christian. Pick one, and only one. Stop trying to pretend you can be both.
Yesterday, I emailed Allahpundit that “Jordanian” is almost always code for “Palestinian,” and to watch the word come up as the story unfolds.
Doctors from Iraq and Jordan were among the seven suspects arrested in the failed car bombings in London and at Glasgow’s airport, officials said Monday. A witness said police were closing in on the terror network just before attackers rammed the Scottish terminal building.
I was right.
One of the suspects arrested in Britain by police investigating three failed car bombings is a Jordanian surgeon, unnamed officials in Jordan said.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said his wife had also been arrested.
The doctor is of Palestinian origin and carries a Jordanian passport, they said. He obtained his medical degree in Jordan.
Where else have Palestinians been trying to murder Brits? In Iraq, of course, where they also help train Iraqis in making bombs to kill Americans. These people are not our friends.
Omri caught it first, because one of us has to work for a living. And because today has been a very, very busy day work-wise.
An end-note: I’ve seen a few people make fun of the failed bombings (from both sides of the political spectrum), especially concentrating on what losers the bombers were because the bombs failed to go off. Perhaps our armchair quarterbacks should take a deep breath and thank God that the bombers screwed up the mixture necessary to create the kind of devastating bombs those might have been. Britain would be mourning hundreds today, possibly thousands, if those bombers had succeeded. I see nothing amusing about it.
