That was surely true:
And our ally Israel can defend itself with overwhelming force, as well as the unshakable support of the United States of America.
At least the first part of the sentence...
But, much as I hate to agree with
Mr Lieberman, he seems to be right at that:
“We rely only on ourselves. At end of the day, from 1948 onward, no outsiders protected Israel. We dealt with all threats alone. We have no expectations or demands from the world,” the blunt-talking Liberman told Israel’s Channel 2 TV. Similarly, where Iran’s nuclear program was concerned, Israel “will have to deal with it on our own”
As for all kinds of unshakable commitments: pull another one, please...
Also:
check out this, by Isi Leibler. Hard to argue with that one.
Nothing symbolic in these two meeting on the same page. Well, aside of the two being great buddies and both hardly being able to stop talking when silence is prescribed. Anyhow, the first one got an object lesson from the Soviet Russian top dog:
Did Putin, not particularly an Obama fan, provide the President with an out for avoiding military action in Syria for the good of the world or to receive more White House concessions?
Don't bother to answer this one. There is so much more to the latest development than just some new concessions to Russia...
And the second one has got
another cause to go into one of his famous snits:
"It hasn't been fair," Erdogan told Turkish media. "In a way, they are cutting ties with the 1.5-billion people Muslim world."
Oh baby, don't cry, please, you make us so sad!
But you should remember in the future not to make
Auntie Tzipi angry. Capisce?
Just read what Terry Glavin had to say on Facebook today about tons of arguments that support the other point of view (the one what says that the strike on Syria will be useless):
What makes this different than 99 per cent of the anti-interventionist drivel making the rounds is that it isn't drivel, but is rather an argument that is serious and intelligent: "The issue hinges on whether one believes a pointless and ill-considered strike by this president against the Syrian regime does more or less damage than a congressional 'no' vote that would make America even more of a non-entity in international affairs." What an epic cock-up this whole thing has been...
Terry offers
this Commentary article as an example.
Confusing? You bet. I
fully agree that there are a myriad perfect reasons why not to strike Syria. I consider that there is one compelling reason to eradicate Assad and his clique, but...
Anyway, here is
another good reason to leave Syria alone.
By the 1980s, the report stated, the Syrian regime had begun storing chemical stockpiles in 50 different towns throughout the country. In case the army is in need of the arsenal, aerial bombs, artillery shells and ballistic missiles and rockets have already been prepared in advance.
The sarin and VX gases, according to the report, is manufactured in five different locations throughout Syria: The main facility in Al-Safir, and the others in Homs, Latakia, Hama and Palmyra. The poisonous gas is transferred to storage facilities at Al Furqus, Dumayr, Khan Abu Shamat as well as in the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center in Damascus.
Different reports show that the Damascus center, which is under Assad's direct control, also houses biological weapons.
Now, did I say that the story told in this article provides a good reason to leave Syria alone or that it provides an even better reason to get busy with burning all these stockpiles down and darn the consequences?
Confusing, innit?
Hat tip: Shira.
And these are the last words he heard.
Oh, man, what can I say. Only one thing worth noting: if your brand new spouse says that she has "reservations about having gotten married" - run like a hare. And don't look back.
The Elder of Ziyon has posted part of an article that comes from here, which is actually from the Jerusalem Post, but who's counting? I just thought it worth passing on, both the Elder bit and the longer article which mentions all sorts of other blogs that you may or may not have heard of.
Just don't stop reading this one as well!
By Brian Goldfarb.
This story, that appeared on a Russian site URA.ru, was helpfully translated on Facebook by the Kansas City blogger KCMeesha.
So I filched the text from KCMeesha's Facebook page. Enjoy.
Serious injuries resulted from a bear's encounter with tourists from Chelyabinsk* at the Tatra National Park (Poland). Animal was operated on and sent to recover at the Krakow Zoo, and the employees of one of the steel mills 37-year-old Vasily Dubenko and 29-year-old Alexei Pavlovich will be forced to pay for his medical treatment and answer according to the law on the protection of nature, the correspondent «URA.Ru» citing Humbug.pl.
As it turned out, Chelyabinsk residents were on a week-long vacation in Zakopane and decided to take a trip to the Tatra National Park in the Sea Eye. Excursion to the Roztoki Valley was interrupted by the incident. "At 10:45 we received a signal from the tourists coming from Palenica direction to the Sea Eye, that the two men are beating a bear...with their fists. Of course, we did not believe this report, but repeated calls persuaded us to intervene. To our surprise, we did discover the unconscious bear and two bloodied citizens of the Russian Federation, Vasily D. and Alyosha P."- said employees of the Tatra National Park.
As it turned out, Chelyabinsk residents entered the territory of the national park without paying for a ticket. They thought a bear was a disguised employee of the park, and, afraid they got caught, decided to conduct a "preventive" attack. "We did not know it was a bear," - said Vasily Dubenko embarrassed. "We wanted to punch him in the face once, so he would leave us alone. Oh, and a fight broke out," - adds Alexey Pavlovich.
As a result of the accident the bear, which park workers affectionately call Samson, was tranquilized and taken to the surgical clinic of Krakow. The animal was operated on by putting 9 stitches just on his head and removing a broken canine tusk. Samson is now undergoing rehabilitation at the zoo.
(*) Chelyabinsk is a city that has become a source of a myriad jokes in Russia lately. The fair citizens of Chelyabinsk are considered to be the toughest and the roughest in the country. Russians have a popular genre of jokes that start with: “Chelyabinsk blokes are so hard that...”. They all stem from the idea that Chelyabinsk has pretty tough living and working conditions. The best example is that joke born after
the meteorite strike in the vicinity of the city. It says:
Meteorite dwellers view approach of Chelyabinsk with horror.
'Nuff said.
Update: I was asked to give a few additional examples of Chelyabinsk's people toughness. So here they come:
- Chelyabinsk children are so tough they eat candy with the wrapping.
- Chelyabinsk virgins are so tough they make men cry after sex.
- Chelyabinsk weathercocks are so tough, they set the wind direction.
- Chelyabinsk porn is so tough that it was banned in Germany.
- Chelyabinsk junkies are so tough they use IVs instead of syringes.
- Chelyabinsk men are so tough they shave with chainsaws.
- Chelyabinsk designers are so tough they use only MS Paint.
- Chelyabinsk parents are so tough they make their kids watch Teletubbies up until they reach 18.
- Chelyabinsk rappers are so tough they perform at KKK meetings.
- Chelyabinsk postmen are so tough they bite dogs.
- Chelyabinsk circus is so tough they sell tickets to exit, not enter the show.
- Chelyabinsk is the Motherland of toilet emery paper and steel dummies for babies.
- Chelyabinsk's system administrators are so hard that they crimp RJ-45 jacks onto twisted-pair cables with their teeth.
- Chelyabinsk's system administrators are so hard that their users work on abacuses only.
- Chelyabinsk's alcoholics are so hard that they don't drink vodka. They swallow it together with a bottle.
- Chelyabinsk's babushki (old ladies) are so hard that in buses even drivers give up seats to them.
- Chelyabinsk's businessmen are so hard that they sell heroin to Afghanistan.
- Chelyabinsk's ATMs are so hard that they give 1 kopeck coins at withdrawals.
- Chelyabinsk's bloggers are so hard that they copy-paste and comment "War and peace".
- Chelyabinsk's traffic policemen are so hard that they stop even airplanes and fine pilots.
- Chelyabinsk's DVD-writers are so hard that they write even on vinyls.
Etc and ad infinitum.
Are really of no interest to this here blog. Watch this to relax:
After you watch the picture long enough you will notice that the bartender cheats.
How could I fail to draw this piece to your attention? Titled "A coffee shop in a slaughterhouse" and subtitled "Stable amid the Middle East chaos, Israel is watching the collapse of Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, a deepening intra-Sunni war, and the revival of an old ally, Egypt", it's a shoo-in for posting here! When, on top of that, the opening sentence of Avi Issacharoff's article is "The neighborhood in which Israelis live has changed completely", the temptation to post it becomes irresistible.
The "coffee shop in a slaughterhouse" title comes from an unnamed Israeli official, cited by the Washington Institute’s David Makovsky. The intent is clearly to create a picture of (relative) peace and stability in the middle of a madhouse. Not that Israel, within its original de facto 1948 borders has ever, really, been anything else. It is however a pleasant change, from the point of view of Israelis and their friends, to see what's happening outside the peace and quiet of the coffee shop and to see that, rather than the behaviour of those inside the coffee shop, as the focus of attention.
Of course, given that we're talking about Israel and the Middle East, nothing is allowed to be that simple (as I'm sure Snoopy and/or Gideon will make clear in short order): Issacharoff notes that Israeli doomsayers are only too willing to predict chaos and worse for Israeli as a result of anything that happens outside Israel's borders. Rather, he divides the situation up. To the north, Lebanon is in danger of falling apart, as Syria is already doing; Iraq is in chaos...and this bodes no good for Israel, especially if the trouble spills over into Jordan, fragile at the best of times. However, given that "...after years of turning a blind eye, the Egyptian army is also fighting Hamas, and has brought smuggling between Gaza and Sinai through tunnels to an almost complete halt", at least there there is a sense of stability.
It's a long article, but well worth the trouble.
By Brian Goldfarb.
First the "ball-cutter" fish was discovered in US: Iowa and Illinois. Then the Sweden's turn came.
And now Pacu is seen to be making home in that Moveable Feast of the city, Paris.
The French capital is reeling from the news that a Parisian fisherman found the testicle-munching fish with eerily human teeth at the end of his line late last week. River police soon confirmed it was none other than the pacu, a cousin of the piranha.
Since pacu seems to be getting everywhere, the scientists have decided to become more explicit in their warnings:
The pace is not normally dangerous to people but it has quite a serious bite. There have been incidents in other countries, such as Papua New Guinea where some men have had their testicles bitten off.
And them eggheads certainly have a way with words:
"They bite because they're hungry, and testicles sit nicely in their mouth," he explained. "And its mouth is not so big, so of course it normally eats nuts, fruit, and small fish, but human testicles are just a natural target," he added.
Well, dunno about you, but I am done with lakes and rivers. Jacuzzi and bath are out too, and I would check the shower stall carefully before entering, if I where you.
And, in related political news: the fate of the French socialist president
is at stake, because of a particularly inane facial expression:
They call it a smile, to me it looks like a rictus, caused by something extremely painful. Could it possibly be because one of them pacu fishes got him under the table?
You tell me.
And what do you think was the reason for the excitement?
- The folks of Falkland decided to join Argentine after all?
- Baby Assad declared war on UK?
- A huge cosmic goat the size of Solar system is going to attack Earth and tear it to smithereens?
- England won the Mondial*?
- British pound doubled its value overnight?
Nope to all of the above.
It is just that British cops haven't recognized Prince Andrew, Duke of York, who was strolling in Buckingham Palace gardens and stopped him for questioning.
Jayzus!
(*) That was really cruel and uncalled for, my apologies to English footie fans.
The headline says in huge bold black letters US, EU see new hope for Iran nuclear talks, but the picture of the hopeful person under the headline looks like that:
Something must be wrong with one of the two, doesn't it?
The only item of wisdom relevant to the issue presented above is the one issued by the first (and so far only) artificially synthesized intelligence being, the Russian
Kozma Prutkov:
If you see a "buffalo" sign on an elephant's cage, do not trust your eyes.
So there.
Only one mass media outfit, Daily Mail, pretty despised as a yellow tabloid, published this news item:
An Iranian strategic expert has warned that one of President Obama's daughters will be kidnapped and raped if America attacks Syria.
The man was pretty meticulous about his other plans for responding to American attack on Syria:
'Hopefully Obama will be pigheaded enough to attack Syria, and then we will see the … loss of U.S. interests [through terrorist attacks],' he threatened.
'In just 21 hours [after the attack on Syria], a family member of every U.S. minister [department secretary], U.S. ambassadors, U.S. military commanders around the world will be abducted. And then 18 hours later, videos of their amputation will be spread [around the world]'
Being (as an Elder) naturally suspicious, I have traced the links to the
source, Farsi site of the "strategic expert". The picture of the POTUS with his family jumps out at you:
As published by
Reza Kahlili,"
“We should remind Obama that if you are a bastard, there are other bastards all around the world who can rape [assault] Sasha.” The statement is written in both English and Farsi, but in the Farsi version, Forghani clearly stated that Sasha will be raped by someone who has been able to get close to the Obama family."Now, this discrepancy between the Farsi and the English text is a great opening for Juan Cole and his ilk to look for a mistranslation, so I am copying the original Farsi text at the bottom of this post. I guess that Cole's version of "assault/rape" will be "befriending" or summat... My attempt for translation using Google says "rape" clearly and unambiguously.
Beside his masturbatory fantasies of revenge, Mr Forghani appears to be a strategic thinker of the first degree. Reza Kahlili has more to tell about the genleman:
Forghani, though not holding an official position within the regime but in a country that tightly censures the media, has stated his radical positions in articles that have been run by the majority of the regime’s media and has written several commentaries on the need for the destruction of Israel. One such article described the need for the Islamic Republic to have nuclear weapons and in another he laid out the legal case for the annihilation of Israel and all Jewish people. The latter, which ran in all of the regime’s media outlets, called for a pre-emptive strike on Israel. Based on this pre-emptive doctrine, he suggested, several “ground zero” points of Israel must be destroyed and its people annihilated.
While the masturbatory qualities of these articles cannot be disregarded, in
another article Reza Kahlili noticed that:
The article, written by Alireza Forghani, an analyst and a strategy specialist in Khamenei’s camp, now is being run on most state-owned sites, including the Revolutionary Guards’ Fars News Agency, showing that the regime endorses this doctrine.
Back to the rape threat: interestingly, none other MSM outfits seemed to pick up this item so far. I would understand if everyone considered being fare above such dirty gossip. But are they really? Dunno...
Snapshot of the Farsi text from Alireza Forghani's site:
He is at it
again:
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that any international military intervention against Syria should be aimed at overthrowing the President Bashar Assad from power. “A limited operation cannot be satisfactory for us,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying by the NTV news channel.
Why does looking at the man's picture and reading his rants invariably remind me this:
Dunno. You tell me.
