Matan Vilnai - Palestinian Holocaust - short post

Idiot.

Cold - hot - cold - hot

It seems that Earth has entered that period of hot and cold flashes lately. Take this, for instance:

The total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C -- a value large enough to wipe out most of the warming recorded over the past 100 years. All in one year's time. For all four sources, it's the single fastest temperature change ever recorded, either up or down.

The value is not large enough to wipe out a certain Nobel prize, I suspect, but adds to the long list of questions.

This is not to say that there is no merit to the position of proponents of global warming theory. Or is there merit? Quite confusing for a mere mortal. But there is hope. We have now a site by two New Zealand professors that show both sides of the dispute - side by side, as it is. So you have to decide for yourself.

Via Texas Scribbler.

The awesome power of non-violence

An article by Jonathan Freedland.

And yet, the power of mass non-violence would be undeniable. My own hunch is that even Israelis themselves, given enough of a respite from rocket assaults and suicide bombings, and forced to confront the realities of Palestinian life, would waver in the face of such a movement.

I think that this idea, tried in earnest by Palestinians, could be their best political move ever. Unfortunately, it has never been tried in earnest.

Nor was it tested by our side, true. Aside of "you started it, no it is you who started it", the song is pretty much the same for the last one hundred years.

The only exception in the generally good article is this sentence:

But they [the Palestinians] need to find one soon - if their suffering is not to become one of the last, unchanging facts in a fast-changing world.

That would be crap - in my book, at least. Look around, Jonathan.

(Via my easily combustible pen-friend Gert).

Is this how holocausts begin?

I think this describes a possible trek toward one.

I also think who the heck is John Berger (I think I know now, but...)? Do I care?

But mostly I think... no, I envy. If only I were half - no, one tenth that good. Maybe then...
Nah, forget it...

The Gay Black Jew has spoken

And since this specific Elder cannot and will not disobey The Gay Black Jew's verdict, it will have to be Obama from now on.

Sorry, all of you otherwise inclined folks...

As an aside - more on earthquakes.

William F. Buckley Jr. - RIP

You could agree or disagree with him - but he was a brilliant man and will be missed.

They don't make them like this one anymore...

P-Mate: now you can write you name on the snow too!

I have never doubted that this primitive ability male are born with is a real (and only, I guess) source of envy the better gender suffers from. Truth of the matter is that most males, after a few experiments, tend to forgo and forget this trick.

But women never forgot it, this is why.


Oh well, if this is what it takes...

Cleaning the sinuses

Blogging will be light for the next several days. Or, maybe, more.

It will be mostly linking to all of you good people from the blogroll and beyond and just pointless drivel.

Golden quotes

This one from a lecture on history of religion (lecturer unknown):

Being unaware of the existence of Jews, the ancient Maya ascribed all their misfortunes to the dark forces of nature.

Wanna be a scientist?

No sweat: get a calculator and you are all set.

American Jews are the country's highest earning religious group, according to a research study released this week, with 46 percent of Jewish respondents reporting annual incomes of $100,000 or more.

The far-ranging study conducted by the Washington D.C.-based Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life also showed that Mormons and Muslims were the U.S. religious groups with the largest families. More than one in five Mormons and 15 percent of Muslim adults in the United States have three or more children living at home, the research showed.

"Far ranging study". Far out. Argh....

Debate Zapatero vs Rajoy

If half of what I heard on local radio about this debate is true, and I cannot check it due to my somewhat rusty Spanish (most of the saucy details are lost in translation), then... oh boy... I thought this kind of language is used only in our Knesset.

An independent confirmation from a Spanish - speaker will be appreciated.

The third option

Haaretz with another on-line editing blooper:

The blooper is not in the header text: when you open the linked article, what you see is:

But let's not dwell on the vagaries of being an on-line edition editor.

The happy news are that the bombastic headline, no matter who coined it, happens to be wrong. Neither Haaretz strategists nor Hamas thought in advance about the third option: that the whole brouhaha will turn out to become a political flop and some egg on Hamas' face.

Gaza siege protest yields disappointing turnout

A Palestinian attempt to draw international attention to Israel's siege on the Gaza Strip yielded a disappointing turnout Monday, with a few thousand, rather than the expected tens of thousands, forming a human chain of protest.

Yep.

A new medical discovery - Amir of ...

There is no clarification in the article (that comes from the main Chechen mouthpiece, Kavkaz Center) which ward of the hospital will provide the victors, so we should wait for more information on this.

The man in the picture calls himself:

Amir of the Caucasus Emirate, Abu Usman (Dokka Umarov)

Just to let you know - don't ask what all this means, please.

Protecting Sderot and the murky waters of politics

Dr. Reuven Pedatzur, a person whose opinion one should certainly respect in all matters military, writes in Haaretz on the amazing discovery: the much touted Iron Dome anti-rocket system will not be able to protect Sderot from the Qassams. He demolishes the whole idea using simple arithmetics, so you don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand it:

The distance from the edge of Beit Hanun to the outskirts of Sderot is 1,800 meters. Therefore, a rocket launched from Beit Hanun takes about nine seconds to hit Sderot. The developers of Iron Dome at Rafael Advance Defense Systems know that the preparations to simply launch the intercept missiles at their target take up to about 15 seconds (during which time the system locates the target, determines the flight path and calculates the intercept route). Obviously, then, the Qassam will slam into Sderot quite a number of seconds before the missile meant to intercept it is even launched.

But besides not being able to protect the border communities, Iron Dome will also not be able to cope with rockets that are launched much farther away. According to data available from Rafael, the average flight time of the intercept missile to the point of encounter is another 15 seconds. In other words, to intercept a rocket using Iron Dome requires at least 30 seconds. This is the time it takes a Qassam to cover six kilometers.

Pedatzur adds:

The disturbing question is why no one bothered to apprise the prime minister of this simple calculation, to make it clear to him that Iron Dome, in the development of which his government decided to invest hundreds of millions of dollars, will not be able to protect Sderot.

The article was published on February 22, and today (February 24) Olmert continued touting Iron Dome as the ultimate solution:

Olmert said the protection of Gaza-area communities will include a combination of solutions such as the Iron Dome defense system, an early-warning system, new school buildings in addition to the partial fortification of homes.

Strange, ain't it? And there are more disturbing questions, such as the cost of each intercept missile (about $100,000), its ability to tackle mortar shells (about 0), but most of all the curious (to say the least) rejection of all and any US-made protective systems. It looks like a pathological case of NIH (Not Invented Here) syndrome:

Part of the explanation for the opposition to the laser system may lie in remarks made by Shimon Lavie, from the R&D directorate, who was the officer of the Nautilus project in the United States, on the "Fact" TV program, broadcast on Channel 2 last December. "We in the directorate are responsible for developing blue-and-white [Israeli-made] systems, which the Nautilus was not. We had hoped for intense cooperation with Israeli firms. If that had happened, it might have had an influence [on the decision about whether to acquire the laser system]."

Bingo. There is no need to add anything, is there? The article mentions other strange items, such as the fate of the (initially) joint US-Israeli development of the laser defense system Nautilus / Skyguard, and much more - worth reading in its entirety.

It is also worth mentioning that while the citizens of Sderot remain unprotected and crying for help and while mandarins fight their turf wars, several anti-rocket and anti-mortar systems are coming to maturity and being used in the field, protecting US troops in Iraq.

Another expert claims that the solution to Qassams already exists.

Farber's suggestion is to deploy American artillery batteries called Phalanx around the Qassam-battered town of Sderot, to intercept the rockets fired by Palestinians.

The U.S. army has been successfully operating the system in Iraq, where it provides its bases with protection from rockets and mortar shells.

Something definitely smells fishy in the whole business.

Cross-posted on Yourish.com.

Lawmaker to do what?

Yep, here it is - a snapshot of a new political move that will make history:

Yes, for the vision challenged:

‘Truck Nuts’: Oklahoma Lawmaker Moves to Castrate Crude Vehicle Testicles

Full story here.

So, if your vehicle has grown a crude pair of nuts, you better take it to a vet. Or else.

Ida Nerina Sex Scandal and Video

As usual, would not be found here, but you know - it's a fake story anyway. So better watch this picture - I named it in your honor - "Loneliness".

Do you feel better now? I thought so...

Ahmydinnerjacket has to decide...

Either it was an intentional use of mixed metaphor or, as I suspect, lack of education, but Mahmoud the Mad has to do better in his next speech. He said:

World powers have created a black and dirty microbe named the Zionist regime and have unleashed it like a savage animal on the nations of the region.

Here is a microbe:

And here is a savage animal:

A most cursory examination will show the differences. So...

This reminds me an old joke by a writer Ilya Ilf:

He was ignorant enough to imagine a microbe as a large dog.

Bullseye.

Government Continues to Declare Living Tennessee Woman Dead

Says Fox, with a cute second header: Laura Todd is tired of being dead.

Because of an eight-year-old error that attached her Social Security number to a dead woman in Florida, the Nashville resident has had to prove over and over again that she is, in fact, alive, WSMV-TV reports.

But there is a silver lining, I think:

The Internal Revenue Service has twice refused to process Todd's tax return.

No need to pay taxes, and what health insurance will refuse to insure a person with such a pre-condition? Gosh, it could be better than a lottery win...

My bro will beat the crap out of you

Many of us remember using this (mostly futile) threat when the fate, in the person of a neighborhood bully, was too close for comfort. Usually we stopped using this trick sooner or later.

It was rather strange to see something similar uttered by a fully grown up man - one Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the infamous Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

In the near future, we will witness the destruction of Israel, the aggressor, this cancerous microbe Israel, at the able hands of the soldiers of the community of Hezbollah.

Well, another variation on the eternal melody rendered usually so well by Mahmoud the Mad, you might say. However, more watchful people - in this case professor Barry Rubin of GLORIA Center - noticed that strange "delegation" of the task to Hezbolla.

One could just take that as bluster and propaganda. Yet, wait a minute; it reveals a major shift from what has been true for the last 60 years or more.

Jafari, and other Iranians, don't want to say that Iran itself is going to do the wiping out. After all, such hints in the past strengthened international resolve against Iran getting the nuclear weapons that it might use to destroy Israel. Such a posture also justifies an Israeli attack on Iran, since that country is openly threatening genocide against it.

More here. Read it.

That we should have come to this...

You - yes, you, looking stupidly at the screen! Take that grubby finger out of your nostril and concentrate. Look at this:

Woman 'raped by Sally Anne accused'

Do you understand what it is about? No? Good. Now go to the garden, dig out your shotgun, your rifle, your pistol. Time to act.

You see, man (woman) - Luddites were right. Time to finish all this crapola.

You, you and... OK, you there - you are going for the on-line editors.

No prisoners, but.

Photohunt: Wooden

The theme for this week PhotoHunt is "Wooden".

There are lots of beautiful things men make of wood. This would be one of them, I think:

Shot in Victoria, British Colombia ( in somewhat unfavorable lighting conditions). More on the totem poles here.

And now to something completely different - a wooden furniture item with no wood visible:

Of course, I mean the coffee table and not the 8 kg (about 18 pounds) of prime feline occupying it. The table is wooden, I swear, it is just faced with some fancy stone. Weighs much more than The Big One that occupies it, but then - you don't have to worry about spilled drinks and stuff.

If you liked what you have seen (or read) in this post, add your link in the comments:

I promise to visit your place as soon as possible!

To look for other photo hunters, go there.

***

The tale of two Finks

Of course, it is a coincidence: (Deborah) Fink and (Norman) Finkelstein. It's not a coincidence, probably, that I got to these two interviews in two consecutive days. Probably the deity intended to ruin my appetite (a side remark - perish the thought, dear deity - my appetite us robust above everything else). Two finks in two days is still too many...

Unfortunately, I cannot show you the picture of the first fink (see the whole shebang here), so you will have to make do with the following quote:

It is very difficult to get my views across to other Jews. Non-Jews are quite impressed that there are Jews who are completely against what Israel is doing.

Read it again and again until it sinks. It is not that easy to stomach (if your stomach is less robust than mine, that is) in all its humongous stupidity.

The second fink - here you have a snapshot of a good moment and a good quote in one:

And here is the whole interview, but be warned: where the first fink is merely (but immeasurably) stupid, the second one leaves Goebbels standing.



Bob from Brockley has more on the second fink. Good stuff.

Nasrallah's speech - a side remark

From the last videotaped speech by the Lebanese "liberator":

Like all human beings we have a sacred right to defend ourselves.

But isn't hiding a year and a half in a bunker taking that sacred right a bit too far?

Just asking...

Cross-posted on Yourish.com.

Edison Chen, Gillian Chung and Cecilia Cheung

It's all here. After satisfying your sickish curiosity, watch this:

And relax.

Guardian revelations: a boil that erupted

Irene Lancaster, a person and a blogger I respect very much, posted an article under a headline Has The Guardian made history? An article sympathetic to Israel on Comment is Free.

My comment to it (something happened with the comment during the posting) starts with a sentence "I would say, let's not get overexcited". Eternal pessimist, me.

But today even my trained pessimist receptors were overwhelmed by a unprecedented tsunami of mass celebration... of a kind, at least, in the above mentioned rag. At least six entries in the on-line edition:

1. Leader: Hidden words
2. How the word Israel was deleted
3. The FO's case to the information tribunal
4. Israel's weapons - a diplomatic no-go area
5. The Foreign Office is extraordinarily sensitive about Israel
6. Iraq dossier secrets

Judging by the sheer quantity of pieces on the same subject, one could have surmised that something really awful has happened. Like a terrorist bomb killing a hundred people in Afghanistan. Or another thousand victims expired from strife and hunger in Darfur. Or a tyrant retired from his office. Or a French securities trader stealing a few billions for his bank. Or a fuel tank of a spy satellite falling in the backyard of The Guardian, exterminating a busload of best and finest in British press (oops, this couldn't have happened).

No and no to all of these awful possibilities. What happened is, to extract the essence from the avalanche of crapola, the following:

During preparation of the (in) famous Iraq dossier on Saddam's WMDs, some FO mandarin put a word "Israel" in the margins of the draft document.

It referred to a sentence which said of Saddam's Iraq: "No other country has flouted the UN's authority so brazenly in pursuit of weapons of mass destruction."

Whether the learned mandarin was right or wrong* in his (assumed) logic is immaterial. What is material that the discovery of The Word, omitted (or, rather, not entered at all) in the final version of the dossier, caused this unbelievable deluge of orgiastic frenzy. If you read the leader, the pompous wording will make you think that indeed, omission of that lonely fart by a bored mandarin is the sole cause of Iraq war (well, most of the Guardian regulars don't need another proof of Israel being the sole reason anyhow).

Wow... what can I say? Just a remark or two:

• Dear Guardianistas and the regulars: do you really need such a flimsy excuse for more Israel-bashing?
• Dear Guardianistas: why have you wasted so much ammo in a single day? Is there something left for tomorrow (well, I guess, we'll see...)?
• Dear Guardianistas: that other mandarin that defended the FO's decision to exclude the mention of Israel knows precisely why: you see, there is a remotely operated nuke under 10 Downing Street. And guess in whose pocket the remote control resides - between all these summons to police investigations and bounced checks? Yes, you are right.
• Dear Guardianistas: remain calm - there is nothing under the Guardian offices. No reason.
• Dear Guardianistas: I really don't blame you. It is all because of Irene Lancaster (start reading this post again now).

(*) He was wrong, by the way - the history of the (alleged) development of nuclear weaponry by Israel has a very different background and very different interaction with UN, but this is really not that important.

Cross-posted on Yourish.com.

China accuses US of double standards over satellite strike

Says a happy Guardianista. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

But at least it made some panties wet with happiness in London...

Another day, another cable laid by CNN

It could have bothered me several years ago, today I am just registering it as another typical news item. This time from CNN:

Israel kills 4 Palestinians in Gaza operation
The headers-scrolling reader will get only this: Jooz continue killing defenseless Palestinians. A more curious person will peek at the beginning of the article:

An Israeli airstrike killed at least three Palestinians and wounded 16 others Sunday...

To learn about the fourth innocent victim, the reader will have only to go another sentence:

Another Palestinian was killed and 10 others wounded in an earlier incident...

99% of the readers will stop here, sated by the gory details as they are. And only a devilishly stubborn ones will go further, to the middle of that article, where some confusing information is located. About the first three:

The three gunmen were from Hamas and another militant faction, the Popular Resistance Committees, Hassanain told the newspaper.

And more about the fourth one:

Palestinian sources told CNN the person killed by Israeli gunfire was a "Palestinian activist."

Activist... What does an American reader imagine seeing this word? A nice young Mormon guy ringing at your door for a chat about the eternal and the really sacred? A tree-hugger parading half-dressed near a cosmetics lab? A frisky, but friendly volunteer for someone's election effort?

Anything but not a Kalashnikov - carrying martyr-to-be, that's for sure.

And this is the way it works...

No more fisking the Fisk

It was already agreed in the blogger community that fisking Fisk has lost its appeal due to this specific target becoming too pathetic, senile and totally cooking on another planet. Barmy, in one word.

However, one can still enjoy an occasional gem in Fisk's article. If one is not going to fisk it, of course. So here we are:

I had gone to see Mougnieh to plead for the release of my close friend and colleague Terry Anderson, the Beirut bureau chief of the Associated Press, kidnapped in 1985 and subsequently held for almost seven years in sealed rooms and underground dungeons.

Mougnieh tried to reassure me. "Believe me, Mr Robert, we treat him better even than you treat yourself." I shuddered.

I shuddered too, realizing that I am in total agreement with the recently departed bastard in this case...

Hey, it gets cold here too!

This one comes from the north parts (Galillee) - shot this January.


By Amir Bechar (follow the link to see more).

Shas MK blames gays for recent earthquakes

As it is told here:

Shas MK Shlomo Benizri blamed gays Wednesday for the earthquakes that have shaken the region in recent months, telling a Knesset plenum debate on local authorities' earthquake preparedness that government action on homosexuality would do much to prevent the tremors.

This one is an eye opener for me. It seems that the ancient question "did the earth move for you?" is relevant to the gay folks more than to the others.

Wow...

On art

There is no accounting for taste, they say. An they know better, since:

The art performance titled "Glory to General" was given by the Korean People's Army Song and Dance Ensemble in Ryanggang Province on Feb. 13 to celebrate February 16, the birthday of Kim Jong Il.

Wait, there is more to come:

The art troupe of Koreans in Japan gave music and dance performance "We Will Firmly Defend Our General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) to the Last" at the Pyongyang Grand Theatre on Wednesday to celebrate February 16.

And more. There even is a flower:

Put on display are tens of thousands of potted Kimjongilias contributed with sincerity by more than 100 units including armed forces organs, ministries and national institutions, servicepersons of the Korean People's Army, people from all walks of life and school youth and children, the Central Standing Committee of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon), the General Association of Koreans in China...

I kid you not, here it is:

The new strain was developed by Kamo Mototeru, a Japanese horticulturalist, after 20-odd years of painstaking efforts. He named it after Kim Jong Il out of his lifelong dedication to the greatest man ever lived and his sensitivity to the trend of the times, and presented it to him on his February birthday in 1988.

I wonder how it smells...

Tell me who your friends are...

I am not into American elections scene at all, catching only some ricochets from the friendly bloggers. So, following this tradition, a recent post by Ami Isseroff:

I can feel in my heart much better than I can explain, the need to make Barack Obama president, and the will to believe that this man who talks about change and has captured the imagination of the American people can really make it happen. I also want to believe that Barack Obama is the American leader who will finally have the stature to somehow make peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors. That would truly be a wondrous miracle.

However, I am not willing to sacrifice Israel in order to realize the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. Whatever my heart tells me, my head tells me that Wright, Malley and Brzezinsky can't be good for Israel, and if they are Obama's associates, whether day-to-day or only on Sundays, he can't be good for Israel. And my head also tells me that the villains of Washington DC or those in Tehran for that matter, cannot be defeated just by chanting "Yes we can."

Yep. The unholy trio of Wright, Malley and Brzezinsky makes me uncomfortable too. Especially the last "expert". Are we looking at another peanut president stretch?

Cross-posted on Yourish.com.

The book I am

You're Cat's Cradle!

by Kurt Vonnegut

You believe quite firmly that free will deserted you long ago and far
away. As a result, it's hard to take responsibility for anything. Even though you show
great potential as a leader of a small 3rd world country, the choices are all made ahead
of time. You're rather fond of games involving string. Your fear of nuclear weaponry is
trumped only by your fear of ice.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

I must say it's uncanny. One of The Books for me indeed. Only two corrections: "nuclear weaponry" should be replaced by "militant feminists" and "ice" by "cockroaches".

Via Jams.

A very cheap prophecy

"I'm not thinking to cut my beard, because I'm accustomed to my beard and my beard means many things to my country. When we have fulfilled our promise of good government I will cut my beard."

--Castro in 1959, interview with CBS's Edward Murrow, 30 days after revolution.

From Death by 1000 Papercuts

Will we ever get to the bottom of this?

The man is barely dead, but the contradictory information is being piled on by the media relentlessly. In a year or two we'll know even less about him than today.

To start with - the name. Mugniyah, Mugniyah, Murnieh, Mughniyeh, Moghaniyah... he is going to beat (posthumously) the infamous Moammar Kadafi / Gadaffi, he of many names.

Who killed him? Mossad, CIA, Syrians, Hezbollah, Diego Armando Maradona, the aliens - it is your guess.

Now even Mitsubishi Pajero that took him to paradise appears to be not his car at all.

Al Watan further said that the car Moghaniyah was in did not belong to him, as initially reported.

This part I can understand - he thought himself a real man, one that would be only seen dead in a car with this reputation. Which is what has happened, in fact...

But is it a fact? This article in Al Jazeera may have told more than intended. Take a look at this picture they have carelessly made public:

Elusive indeed, as you shall shortly see for yourself. Certainly more elusive than anyone imagined. Take a look at another mugshot:

Oh boy... Have they eventually got the poster man? I have always suspected that the story about his execution back then in Bolivia smells fishy. And that this caricature is wrong:

But if my hunch is true, the whole story of the Damascus assassination is a smokescreen. He is changing his identity again, I am afraid.

Confused? Discombobulated? I can understand it. But now let's make another logical step: if M was really C (or, rather, is C, because you just cannot kill off good ole C) - is M J... no, I simply cannot go there.

Do you feel the onset of total confusion? I do, and thus:

Update: Hezbolla meanwhile plays the comedy out:

Hizbullah won't rush to retaliate for the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh but it eventually intends to target Israeli figures of a similar rank to the terror chief...

Sorry, but we have never had anyone as rank as this creep. Imagine the smell of his quasi-military garb after a few months in a cave. Duh...

Oh Debka, Debka...

Another installment in the series. This time a short one:

Iran’s advanced centrifuges process small amounts of gas usable for nuclear warheads

Nuclear warheads burping gas at the target? Wow, these Iranians...

No, really!

So she doesn't know a country that begins with U. Do U really care?


Pish!

Lindsay Lohan, Marilyn Monroe, Fidel Castro

What do these three names have in common - besides being surfed a lot?

JFK seems to be a link from MM to FC. LL is accidental to the big picture.

All else is digital (or other) photography. Speaking of photography:

Relax. The Beard will soon join the poster boy...

She speaks out rarely,

but when she does, you better listen good.

Hear, hear!

Moral relativism? Nah...

In an uncommon act of journalistic contrition, the BBC has apologized for equating former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri and Hizbullah terror chief Imad Mughniyeh as "great national leaders."

Just a terminal case of idiocy.

More here.

Ronaldo career in balance

Is this how it will end?

Where is my sign of despair?

On the other hand, we got that Mughniyeh bastard...

No, it doesn't balance...

Ex Oriente Lux

Here from No Good Boyo. Enjoy.

Not all is rotten in the Kingdom of Denmark

Definitely not.

Sunday links

Haveil Havalim #154 is looking real splendid rendered by Ya'aqov of Esser Agaort. And there is nothing about local football, thanks to Ya'aqov. Cool.

Dumb and dumber

When you think nothing UN does or says will surprise you anymore, they pull another one from the hat.

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Michèle Montas, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, and the Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly, Ashraf Kamal.

Question: You read a statement about the situation in Gaza before and I know it's difficult to change terminology, but we have a new Secretary-General now, so let me try it again. A year and half after the last Israeli withdrew from Gaza, the UN system still refers to Gaza as an Occupied Palestinian Territory. The only people who are not Palestinian in Gaza currently are UN people. Do you mean that Gaza is occupied by the UN?

Spokesperson: Definitely not.

Question: So who is it occupied by?

Spokesperson: Well…

Correspondent: I think there are some Israeli soldiers on the border…

Question: Not borders, who is Gaza occupied by?

Spokesperson: Traditionally, this is the terminology we have used. Yes?

Question: But the situation on the ground changed since Israel withdrew from Gaza.

Spokesperson: I will look into this.

Correspondent: Thank you.

Uhu...

H/T to Ami Isseroff.

The Buba of the Lemba

It is not a typo, this is what is said here* :

A British anthropologist arranged for genetic testing of members of the tribe, finding that 10% of Lemba men carry the kohen modal haplotype on their Y chromosomes. Even more impressive, the Lemba have a priestly clan whom they call the Buba. Fully 52% of Buba men who were tested bear that same marker of kohanic descent.

Oh well, at least it is not Bubba. It almost had me worried. A bit.

P.S. Here comes more material, and here are some pictures too.

P.P.S. I am concerned about my own modal haplotype, it seems to be rather weak lately...

(*) The link changed due to disappearance of the old JP link, the new one may not contain the same exact content, but is fairly close to it.

Yoko Ono sues Lennon?

As heard on the radio, it sounded completely stupid: Yoko Ono sues a singer Lennon Murphy for the use of Lennon's name.

WTF, says I - since when there is a copyright on a name?

Now it appears that the story is a bit different.

Ms. Murphy's band is called Lennon, and she is attempting to register that band name as a trademark.

It's amazing how stupid can people get...

You Zionist, Racist Dogs!

he screamed at the stolid council members, most of whom averted their eyes. "You greedy, white, zionist racists have stolen everything."

That's by Blaine Coleman, "a fierce Ann Arbor activist", a lawyer to boot.

The defense rests.

H/T to Ami Isseroff.

More here and here.

Something to think about...

This great article is filched from Beaman. It is a mandatory read. I am not sure I agree with everything in this text, but it is definitely thought-provoking.

A man whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism.

"Very few people were true Nazis "he said," but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories."

We are told again and again by "experts" and "talking heads" that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectre of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam. The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history.

It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honour kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. The hard quantifiable fact is that the "peaceful majority", the "silent majority", is cowed and extraneous.


Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. China's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.

The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet. And, who can forget Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were "peace loving"?

History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence. Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up, because like my friend from Germany, they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.


Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghanis, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late. As for us who watch it all unfold; we must pay attention to the only group that counts; the fanatics who threaten our way of life.

Lastly, at the risk of offending, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious is practically contributing to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand.

England has almost surrendered to the Islamic wave having more than 130 new mosques built in 2005 and proposed 100 to be built in 2006 - in 2007 the count was 843 prayer meeting places with howling/wailing towers across England.


(The author seem to be Mr. Paul Marek of Saskatoon, Canada, here is the original)

More female Israeli Army soldiers

I have forgot my promise made to some people to scare up more of this stuff. But now I have stumbled on some new material. Hot Israeli babes coming up, AAB - 8 minutes of pure fun!


Keep a cool head!

He He He

Actually Ha Ha Ha!

Imad Mughniyeh, may he Rest In Pieces

Imad Mughniyah aka Hajj, is one of the short list of people I would be happy to push a button at. No matter whodunit, he or she has performed a great service to the planet. There are hundreds (if not thousands) reasons why, read the linked above - it gives only bare bones on that vermin.

As to the who pushed the button: US and Israel have each a score to settle for a heck of a long time, and of course we cannot totally exclude the possibility of a spontaneous combustion of that Mitsubishi SUV he was in.

But my bet is on Argentina. First of all, their score is also quite high. Secondly, they have an ideal person to carry out the act. While in the haze of semi-permanent drug abuse he licks ass of many a tyrant, he is not above carrying a favor with powers that be in his home country. He is one of the few who are free to roam the places where the tyrants are nesting. And he has a lucky hand...

Good job, comrade!

Update: according to the latest report there was no explosion at all: the vehicle just collapsed around Mughniyeh. The cause - passenger's weight:

Update 2: an intercept of a conference call between Nasrallah's bunker and an emergency committee of prominent Lebanese dietitians and nutritionists included at least 7 mentions of "these damn pitas and humus". An urgent order for daily supply of chicken soup and rice crackers was issued immediately after he call.

A strike in the dark indeed...

A Strike in the Dark is the headline of a huge opus by the inimitable Seymour Hersh about this mysterious sortie in Syria by IAF in September 2007.

I have only two or three things to say about this (7 pages!) article:

1. My resolve in reading it through to the end was just sheer bloody-mindedness. Really.
2. There isn't a single new crumb of information beyond what could be found in the myriad articles already printed on the subject.
3. Mr Hersh invested a lot of ink (or virtual ink, whatever) in telling all of us once again how well-connected he is in this world.
4. The result is excruciatingly boring - you have been warned!
5. But I have liked the picture on the first page:



6. While it is totally wrong, if you believe the first three words in the article ("Sometime after midnight"), there is something poetic in it, and I am sure the boy or girl on the other shore has something he/she will be able to tell the grandchildren.
7. All in all - a load of crapola.
8. But a huge one.

Ann Coulter on JewTube

First of all - if you, like I, didn't hear about JewTube, now you know.

Second - Ann the perfectionist gets it in the neck.


Er... in the Adam's apple, to be precise.

Oldies but goodies

Oldies because this post by Adloyada dates from December 8 (that's last year) and I have missed it. Goodies because... just read it.

I am especially happy that Ms Alibhai Brown realized that the wrath of Moses* is something she should be afraid of. And that our friends the shape-shifters could be a significant health hazard. When we tell them to be, that is.

Good.

(*) While the old man was more into long-range guided tours and didn't deal with anti-Zionists like Pharaoh and his minions, leaving this side of the business to the Elders, we don't mind him being feared personally. Ambiance is 99% of success in our tasks.

John Podhoretz on Michael Chabon - OTT?

Over The Top, I mean.

All it took is one book (Yiddish Policeman’s Union) and one article on Barak Obama to classify one of the best contemporary writers as an Israeli-hater with passion for tikkun olam.

While I didn't fall in love with the Yiddish Policeman’s Union, just like with any other "what if" piece of fiction, I was having lots of laughs caused by the book detractors riled by Chabon's depiction of Jewish gangsters and other unsavory characters (whether it's naivety or plain ignorance, but many a Jewish writer, Isaac Babel at the top of the pyramid, could teach the detractors a thing or two about the subject).

I wouldn't argue the case against or for Obama, being ignorant on the subject, but the proximity of the "Messiah who is the gay junkie son of an obese Hasidic rabbi-gangster" and "half-Kenyan, half-WASP Hawaiian-born Senator from Illinois" is a case of bad writing at best or a case of being over-incensed to distraction at worst.

I am not trying to advocate the stance of Michael Chabon on Israel, but here is what he says about the subject:

I strongly believe in Israel’s right to exist; but even more, I fear that it is necessary...

I have no doubt whatsoever that there is only one regime, one government in the world that can be trusted not to turn its back on Jews.

On the other hand, the unreasoning, knee-jerk support for any country, including Israel — the ‘my country right or wrong’ attitude — is utterly alien to me.

I will gladly sign under every word of the above quote. Whatever else Chabon has written or said about Israel is hardly more compelling.

With all respect to John Podhoretz, this one was definitely not the best example of his writing.

No contradiction

CNN says BlackBerry out of service in North America. Adding two statements:

An outage has disconnected BlackBerry smart phones across North America.

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion did not immediately return a phone call.

It figures, don't it?

Maggie Q Nude Photos in Edison Chen Sex Scandal Leaked?

This must be important enough to cause most of the Eastern hemisphere a loss of sleep. I am told that a nice sunset picture facilitates healthy uninterrupted sleep. So here a glamorous one (ain't it surprising how easy sunsets are to most cameras?):

If you enlarge the picture sufficiently, you should be able to see a most hateful sign (lower left). Then breath deeply and count to 1267.

Peace...

On the undersea Internet cables mystery

Only people of CNN's level of naivety could publish headlines like Ship's anchor cut Mideast Internet cable. People who really suspected something are more outspoken:

Middle East Undersea Cable Cutting A Zionist-NeoCon Covert Operation?

What about those Israeli Dolphin subs?

I'll bet ISRAEL is still up and running. CIA/Mossad/M15/6 (strong arms of the military/banking/industrial complex) don't want you to see via video what they're about to do. Hang on to your hats folks.

The ziothugs and their minions are getting more brash by the day!

Folks - I am not sure brashness has anything to do with this, nor do Dolphins factor in any way in this story. Time to show the word the new Elder's achievement in genetic engineering, the proud result of the operation Fish and Chips. Here you can see a young genetically modified piranha getting its initial training:



Of course, this baby fish is about 5% of the size and weight of the fully grown Z-ranha. And underwater communication cables are just another training mission for the Zionist superfish. Equipped with an advanced gefilte chip, Z-ranha will easily destroy any seaborne enemy boat, ship, submarine, tanker, you name it. No sweat for its beryllium/diamond teeth - in a few minutes any steel armor will become a sieve and the hapless sailors - so much shark food.

And we are putting finishing touches on Z-ranha's little brother/sister - the M-rahna, a micro-piranha that will reach our enemies via sewage and water pipes, traveling in swarms of tens of even hundreds of tiny killers. No bath or even shower will remain safe. Even total abstention of washing will be in vain, because our trained squirrels (already tested in UK), homing on the smell of an unwashed anti-Zionist, will wait outside, ready to pounce...

You can run but.

On the Middle East leadership vacuum

The day of giants--though some of them were ogres--is certainly over among Middle East leaders. In fact, what is most remarkable fact is how unremarkable the current rulers are.

Professor Barry Rubin of GLORIA Center reviews the current leaders of the Middle East countries. The conclusion is inescapable.

To add a side remark - not that we here in Israel are otherwise blessed at the moment.

British Jewish group sparks outrage?

The full Haaretz' headline is British Jewish group sparks outrage with Gaza blockade criticism.

Er... no. Jacqueline Rose and other Roses, Tony the thieving GreenStalin and other attention-hungry misfits can spark maybe a slight sense of pity. But that's all. So I'll better quote this:

A critic of the group, lawyer and academic Anthony Julius, disputed the claim that Israel was in breach of international law. "It is by no means unarguable that Israel is right to treat Gaza as an enemy territory. It is hard to see on what basis Israel's actions can be seen as a violation and only one or two of the signatories could grapple with issues involved."

Yeah...

That's some journalist...

Being himself a journalist, Ambrose Bierce didn't define "Journalist" in The Devil's Dictionary. The only mention of this venerable occupation he made in this document:

There are men called journalists who have established ink baths which some persons pay money to get into, others to get out of. Not infrequently it occurs that a person who has paid to get in pays twice as much to get out.

Of course, when I get indignant about journalists, I don't mean them all, just some specific ones that get on my nerves. Some of my best friends etc...

In this specific case, though, it is not just a professional journalist, it's a professor of journalism at Stanford University and a former foreign policy correspondent for the New York Times, one Joel Brinkley. And the reason he got on my nerves is the following quote from his article Hamas explodes a giant hole in Egypt's political cover.

For months now, Hamas has been firing rocket volleys over the Gaza border fence into Israel. Most fall harmlessly in the desert, but the attacks terrify and occasionally injure citizens of Sderot, a small town just east of Gaza. In response, Israel has cut fuel and other supplies to Gaza.

It is more than seven (7) years, and aside of hundreds "occasionally injured" there are thirteen (13) dead by now. You would think that a veteran journalist like this one could at least open a Wiki entry on the subject. But no, it would have interfered with his analytical effort.

The article as a whole is full of doubtful statements and conclusions, but they can be attributed to professor's somewhat faulty analytical abilities. At least it explains why NYT got its reputation for under-researched (to be gentle) articles and frequent disregard of facts that don't match the journalist's agenda.

I wonder what kind of standards does professor Brinkley impress on the youngsters in Stanford.

Cross-posted on Yourish.com.

Sunday links

Haveil Havalim #152 is up under the talented new manager. While there are multiple references to something called Patriots (some American version of flu, I guess), it is a serious business venture. Take your time out to wade through all of it.

Barak's conundrum

Let me see what of Barak's "I am staying" speech I predicted right a few months ago:

I gave it a lot of thought and consideration and then decided...
Check
I am aware of the challenges Israel faces - Gaza, Hezbollah, Syria, Iran, and rehabilitating the army...
Check
The Winograd report was harsh, and it has implications and complicated conclusions regarding both individuals and ethical issues.
Check.
I intend to address these conclusions when the time is right, and set a date for elections.
Check.
I know that I could pay a political price, but I am ready to do so.
Oops... Just a sec - what price?

Now to these other jokers:

"As expected, Barak has run away from his responsibility," said Likud in a statement. "Barak is assisting the leadership that according to both the Winograd Committee and the public has failed and he prefers his political survival than the good of the country."

Check.

Anyone needs a part-time prophet?

The sad fate of cyber-terrorist

This is how the story starts:

One of al-Qa'eda's most influential cyber-terrorists, who used the internet to distribute images of beheadings and jihadist propaganda, ran his operation from a top-floor flat in Shepherd's Bush, west London.

This is how the story ends:

The courts took his activities so seriously that the 10-year jail term handed down to him at Woolwich Crown Court last year was increased to 16 years last month by the Court of Appeal.

This is what the "most influential" terronerd looks like:

The story doesn't say whether the picture was taken in the jail or before and whether the red splotches are traces of lipstick or not. If not, he can definitely do with some. But in jail... oh well...

Hitchens vs Boteach

As an atheist, I would of course be in Hitch's corner in any fight (not that I generally consider debates of the kind god exists / god doesn't exist able to bear any possible fruit aside of heartburn) on the subject of religion.

But in this specific case I was really flabbergasted. This fight should have ended few minutes after it started, with the referee stopping it for sheer mental knockout experienced by Mr Boteach. Watch an episode to see it all:


Generally, I wonder about the mere idea to put rabbi Boteach who is definitely not a reincarnation of B. Spinoza (I am being generous here) against one of the sharpest debaters this side of the century.

H/T Will.

Punxsutawney Phil Sees Shadow on Groundhog Day

The guy doesn't appreciate the global warming threats it looks like.

Who's damned?

We are damned from birth according to these disciples of the Jewish settler from the Jewish settlement of Nazareth.

Ami Isseroff on Christian Peace Team shenanigans. Your time spent on reading this article will be used much better than on your usual Nintendo, porn sites and the replay of the yesterday's football game. I promise.

Martin Amis on Israel

By Abe Greenwald in Contentions. Short and to the point.

Bad news bloggers - welcome to the madhouse

This Haaretz report caused me to add a new blogroll list: "Bad news from:" (on the right side of this blog).

What began six months ago as a brazen attempt to counter a perceived anti-Israel slant in the Dutch media, has evolved into a network monitoring the media in eight countries across the world. The idea is simple: Beat press bias at its own game by advertising only bad news about one place.

Not sure it is the best way, but whatever it takes. So enjoy.

Keely Shaye-Smith, Pierce Brosnan, bikini shots

I really hesitated on this one. It shows that a papparazi can get as desperate as the next man. But no, here you go again:

Click on it, look at it, relax. And I hope you like dates.

Maria Sharapova in Israel

Later today she's going to tear apart our poor Tzipi Obziler.

Which outcome wouldn't bother in the slightest the male fans who crowded the arena.

In related news: office of the Messiah has denied the rumors of his coming to be expedited.

Oxfam strikes again

There are moderate elements in Hamas, as in every nationalist movement - we cannot foster them by isolating them.

Says Oxfam director.

What is a moderate Hamas member: one who just wants to kill Jews but not wipe out Israel?
...
As I have said for a very long time to friends. Next time you think of giving to an NGO make sure you know what they are really up to with your money. Oxfam has been off my list for quite a while and this just makes it clear I was right.

Says Andrew Ian Dodge.

More here.

Abu Laith al-Libi offed... or not

According to CNN:

Abu Laith al-Libi, a wanted al Qaeda terrorist, was killed in Pakistan by a CIA airstrike, three U.S. officials told CNN Thursday.

Why does it take three officials to produce one sentence is unclear, but this is not the main issue. The question is who it is exactly that was eliminated. Here is the picture from CNN:

But here we have another picture of a person in training you know where and for what:

Due to low quality of that shot you may have your doubts, especially with the beard not fully grown, but look at this now:

Since it was, most probably, a high altitude strike, we'll never know whether shreds of movie-making equipment were found at the site. So the mystery will not be resolved that soon.

But in any case - they have fixed one of the two, which is not bad.

All things considered...

When some Jooz speak out

one wonders whether it would have been better for all concerned if they kept mum. A few handy recent examples here.

David Hazony quotes in the Commentary article Getting It Wrong Again on Gaza a new verbal escapade by the pride of our literature, A.B. Yehoshua.

If the US is a true friend of Israel, it must help her through a symbolic act of protest that would express its dissatisfaction. By doing so, it would boost and stimulate it, like a loving yet strong father, to start overcoming its addiction to this destructive drug.

That was re Israeli failure to dismantle West Bank outposts. Without going into rights and wrongs of the outposts issue, there is something sickish in that desire of a grown-up man for his country to be nurtured and told to by a (hopefully benevolent) daddy. Some spanking, Mr Yehoshua?

And here comes another wisenheimer - the president of the European Jewish Congress, Moshe Kantor:

Israel's leadership should recognize that all the Jews in the world have the right to vote in Israel elections.

Dunno about the leadership, they may very well accept any outlandish idea. As for KISS (keep it simple & stupid) response to that desire: why not, Mr Kantor. But first come here, get a citizenship, settle down, make a few children, do some army service, you see what I mean? Meanwhile you can undeniably vote for the weather (more rain, please), for peace, for betterment of our uncouth behavior - all that from where you are now. Some people call it prayer, I believe.

And for dessert - another blooper from Amira Hass who issued an opus called Finally, a popular uprising. How popular could be seen from the first sentence.

The fall of the Rafah wall was a fitting combination of planning and the precise reading of the social and political map by the Hamas government...

With all due respect (and frankly, none is due from me), dear Ms Hass: "popular" means not quite what you have put on paper this time. Try again, please...