No, it is definitely not terror

Scorpions on planes 'not terror,' say feds

Under this headline, WND tells the story of two airline passengers stung by a scorpion on two different flights recently.

The first incident took place Jan. 3 as David Sullivan of Stowe, Vt., was stung twice on a trip home from San Francisco. He and his wife, Helena, boarded a United Air Lines connecting flight in Chicago, and were just minutes from their destination in Burlington, Vt., when he first noticed a problem with his right leg, feeling as if it had gone to sleep. After the plane landed, Sullivan was waiting for his luggage, and again felt a strange sensation, but this time it was his left shin.

David Sullivan checks his shin where he was bitten by a scorpion

When he pulled up his pants leg to investigate, an inch-and-a-half-long scorpion scooted down his leg and onto the floor, where a fellow passenger stepped on it.

But it is the second incident that made WND sit up and listen:

The second incident took place Sunday, as a Canadian college student was returning to Toronto on an American Airlines flight out of Miami. Anthony Harris, 21, who had been in Costa Rica prior to stopping in Miami, suddenly felt as if someone were tearing the hair out of his leg. He told the Toronto Star that when the sharp pain dulled to a throbbing ache, he thought his leg had simply cramped up. "Then I looked down and there was a scorpion crawling up my leg," he said.

Of course, the headline is quoting a TSA official who does not see these two incidents as a manifestation of a new wave of terrorist activity. Obviously, TSA, unimaginative folks that they are, cannot comprehend that a bioterror is going to be the new fashion of the day.

Still, regardless of the predictions, TSA guy is correct: these two stories do not a terrorism activity make. Proof? Obviously these scorpions were self-made terrorists who did not undergo elementary training or even cursory preparations. Witness the fact that both stung their intended victims in the lower leg area. It clearly shows that both scorpions did not study the victims and the potential sting points that would have most effectively disabled the latter (backside in the case of the student and hand/arms in the case of Mr Sullivan, who is a builder).

But the most revealing mistake was the choice of targets: why haven't they had a go at the cockpit?

Nah... Take it easy, WND.

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Havel Havalim 102 is up!

It really crept up on me unaware - it was that kind of week. But here we are, celebrating the next bold step in its second century (in terms of HH, of course). And who is better qualified to guide the ship into the second century than Soccer Dad - the inventor, the designer and the builder all in one person?

Now leave this lowly blog and go there to enjoy the diversity.

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Zionists: "giving goal in free field".

This is not about football (soccer for some of you). The story as told by B.Ali of Kavkaz Center Letter department unfolds a new page in the sinister plot by Zionists, a "silent and soft aggression and backdoor invasion" in Afghanistan.

The gist of the diabolical enterprise is found in the paragraph:

Besides this military and political invasion, the zionists are also launch a public and social invasion. They already involved in educational and humanitarian activities over the Afghan people. They have not only hired the politicians and warlords by money, but also try to hire the people by aid and assistance.

But the details are no less enthralling. Please do not laugh when reading the quotes: it should be clear to all that B.Ali is a valiant fighter against all forms of education, and it shows.

American Jewish World Service (AJWS) is helping the educational program in Herat and Parwan province. AJWS supports two organizations Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) and Afghan Women's Resource Center (AWRC). They work for girl and woman education and empower women. AJWS supports AWRC in empowering Afghan women through providing literacy courses and health education to 100 women and girls living in Khwaja Khel village, Parwan province.

That's really vile, I tell you: education, women and empowerment combined are a sure recipe for trouble, as any self-respecting Muslim male knows only too well... And of course, B.Ali is well aware of it:

But we are everybody know, zionists are not good-wisher of the Muslims. They interfere in the Muslims by getting the chance of poverty and illiteracy.

But they will not hoodwink B.Ali, no, sir:

So it is out of question to oppose female education by any Muslim. We only oppose the Zionist invasion: either on male, or on female; either on adult, or on child. We only oppose the anti-Islamic education and brain-wash project of our enemy. It is our duty to protect our men and women, youths and children from being hijacked by satanic circle. We must save our integrity of family and society.

It goes without saying then, that if you are a good Muslim and have detected a sign of Zionist invasion on a male or female; either on adult, or on child - you should immediately call for the nearest Muslim Purity Vigilante Squad. Visual aids for identification of such invasion will be provided.

And the source our friend B.Ali uses for this fiery sermon gives more on the Zionist plot:

We do not blame all Women organizations. But those organizations, who oppose Islam, recognize Islam as against women rights, encourage women to sexual perversity, create difference and violence between men and women; are undoubtedly represent the Jews. It is mentionable that, Jewish's support to the women organizations are not for helping the women, it is only for encouraging women against Islam and break our family by creating violence between men and women. ... So, the enemies of Islam, either Jew, or Communist, who want to take our women to give any kind of training or education, either want to encourage them against family, society and religion, or want to enjoy them sexually.

See now? It's all crystal clear. I only wish some good Muslim would interfere in B.Ali about his English. I am still trying to get the meaning of this:

They use the strategy of Ferawoon, who killed the men, and alive the women.

How does one alive the women and is it good for one's skin?

Cross-posted on Yourish.com

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These pesky civilians

The incomparable Aljazeera.com is bravely denouncing the US Zioimperialist strikes on the defenseless Somalia Islamists.

The article is a jumble of contradictory statements, as could be seen for these two quotes:

Somali officials confirmed the death of many people in Monday's strike -- the first overt U.S. military action in Somalia since a disastrous humanitarian mission ended in 1994.

"America wants to cause confusion as a pretext to give it reason to once again attack and destroy the Republic of Somalia," SUPKEM chairman Abdulghafur El Busaidy said during a Press Conference.

"Once again" means that there has been another, prior attempt by US to attack and destroy the republic of Somalia. Strange, ain't it. On the other hand it is the Islamic Courts that are doing their best to depose the current government. Go figure...

There are two other interesting angles in the article.

Days after the U.S. air strikes in Somalia, which sparked worldwide criticism and resulted in the death of many civilians, reports emerged that British passport holders were involved in the fighting.

Looks like the export of Islamic extremists becomes one of the significant items in British economy lately. Unless the air strike hit a tour bus full of old ladies from north Ipswich. Which is somewhat unlikely in the circumstances.

And regarding these "many civilians" angle: it seems that the Palestinian knack of declaring each Kalashnikov-clad terrorist (er... "freedom fighter") a civilian as soon as his Kalashnikov and the spare magazines are passed to the next martyr-to-be, has been eagerly adopted by other freedom fighting outfits in different parts of the world.


In any case, apparently the AlJazeera.com folks like that picture of the C-130 gunship in all its glory. Just make sure you don't find yourself on its business end, comrades.

Cross-posted on Yourish.com

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A matter of taste

CNN reports:

An Air Force staff sergeant who posed nude for Playboy magazine has been relieved of her duties while the military investigates, officials said Thursday.

"This staff sergeant's alleged action does not meet the high standards we expect of our airmen, nor does it comply with the Air Force's core values of integrity, service before self, and excellence in all we do," Oscar Balladares, spokesman for Lackland Air Force Base, said in a statement.

Who cares? As far as the Elders are concerned, the staff sergeant meets their high standards.

So the Airforce spokesman can go and stuff himself...

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Bunnies for Kim Jong Il?

No, that's really not what you thought at first, my perverted readers. This is real McCoy now. In the sense of real bunnies.

The Juche idea now gets some stalwart and unswerving support for new glorious generations to come under the banner of Songun. And the support comes from a totally unexpected direction - a German pensioner and his giant bunnies.

Karl Szmolinsky has been given a contract by North Korea to supply giant rabbits to help to boost meat production in the reclusive Communist country, which is suffering severe food shortages. The only problem is that such huge rabbits consume vast quantities of food themselves as they grow.

Mr Szmolinsky, from Eberswalde, in the east of Germany, was contacted by the North Korean Embassy in Berlin in October after Robert attracted press coverage. “They want to boost meat production. They’ve arranged for me to go to Pyongyang in April to advise them on setting up a breeding farm,” Mr Szmolinsky, who is 68 next month, told The Times.

Whether the bunnies could resolve the nutrition problems of North Korea is in doubt. The article mentions this. Also the sheer expense of growing them to the record size:

The rabbits are also voracious eaters, which is why Mr Szmolinsky said that he would not be boosting his own annual production because feeding them would be too expensive.

There is another problem that should be stated in advance, while there is still time for the NK to reconsider this project. Looking at the rabbit, the idea of the diminutive leader being pictured in the company of one of these rabbits may... how to say it gently... put the whole glorious Juche idea in a wrong perspective. If you know what we mean.



And I don't even want to think what could happen if a male bunny like this one decides that Kim is another competing male. Rabbits are widely known to have a nasty bite...

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Inanities of the day

In an article A Chinese sphere of influence Aluf Benn says:

The immediate response of many Israelis to the news that their prime minister is visiting China is "what is he looking for there?"

But really, cannot Aluf Benn calm these Israelis down a bit? China is a huge country. We can even say humongous, and even Olmert will not cause it any lasting damage in one visit. I mean, take a look at this picture:


This is what happens in China when a sergeant enters the barracks and says: "You, you and you - come with me, we have a PM from a tiny country to honor".

On the other hand, same Aluf Benn reports that even during the exciting escapades in China bad news from Israel do not leave Olmert completely alone:

The call from home woke Yoram Turbowicz, the prime minister's chief of staff. When the evening news is aired in Israel, it is 2 A.M. in Beijing. On the other end of the line, Turbowicz learned that Baruch Kra of Channel 10 reported that in the near future a criminal investigation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would be opened in connection with the sale of Bank Leumi.

While dismissing the news lightly, Olmert had time to try on what many will suspect is a prison uniform:


Just in case, you know... I suspect he may bolt, asking for a political refugee status there. It is not for nothing Haaretz posted such an ambiguous headline:

PM dismisses Meshal comments that Israel's existence is a reality

I wonder, is Olmert so used to dismiss everything Meshal says, even when Meshal is right or he is feeling so far away at the moment that he says what he really thinks?

Maybe Olmert has already heard that MK Esterina Tartman declared that the Zionism suffered a lethal blow, and this explains his pessimism.


But no worries, Ehud: we are confident that same Esterina (or is it Histerina really?) could remove the source of her ire (Raleb Majadele, the newly anointed sport and science minister of Arab provenance). She could just give him The Look (as in that picture) and he wouldn't last long, you can take it to the bank.

On the other hand, the cavalry is already coming to the rescue of Raleb. When a Likud MK like Michael Eitan calls somebody's crap racist, the crap tends to stay racist.

He said that he "rejected with disgust Tartman's racist pronouncements".

Wow, dude!

In related news, colleague JudeoPundit reports on a UFO crash in Iran. That's cool, really. Maybe the aliens could chill out Mad Mahmoud a bit? Oh, and let them change his green halo to something more user friendly. Like blue?

Now to the ticker tape news related to the above:

12:08 Fars news agency: Three strong explosions jolt southern Iran (Reuters)

More UFOs? Or is it just Mahmoud the Mad displeased with something?

18:24 Iranian official arrested on suspicion of spying on Tehran nuclear program (Haaretz)

I don't know why they punish people for this. I am kinda curious too, you know, so arrest me!

Anyway, a few more items:

04:34 Israeli, Syrian officials mark 15th anniversary of historic summit in Spain (Haaretz)

That's a new one: now we'll start celebrating no-peace anniversaries?

17:00 German Interior Minister: EU must help Islam embrace the Enlightenment (Reuters)

It seems to go rather the other way around: Islam is embracing the EU. But whatever tickles them...

01:16 Barghouti: I will go on hunger strike if Hamas, Fatah continue fighting (Israel Radio)

We are already used to these fake hunger strikes of Bargouti.


The fatso can try Atkinson this time instead. It wouldn't work anyway.

***

Weizmann Institute research promises antibiotics revolution

That is rather good news:

Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science have developed novel antibiotics that are more effective than conventional drugs in fighting bacteria. The substance they developed melts the germ's cell surface rapidly, preventing it from producing a new generation of bugs that have adapted to the medicine. But it may be a decade before the discovery is put into use.

The world is witnessing a resurgence of diseases that were considered conquered and forgotten some years ago, since the first antibiotics came to rescue. One of the most terrifying - tuberculosis - is back, since the bacilli that cause it became immune to most of the modern antibiotics. The doctors and our ignorance also play a role: unchecked user of antibiotics and wrong us of them made it easy for all kinds of bacteria to develop immunity.

Now Weizmann Institute scientists, headed by Professor Yehiel Shai, have designed a more powerful antibiotic. The system that Shai and Ph.D. students Arik Makovitzky and Dorit Avrahami of the Biological Chemistry Department have developed causes massive destruction of germs and completely melts their cell surface. The germ is destroyed too fast to enable it to study the medicine's characteristics and thus it cannot transfer information to the next generation.

Some experts say that we have already lost the war against the bacteria. Let's hope that this or similar bacteria killer will come just in time.

***

Has he changed?

This title of Yoel Marcus' article should have been "Have they changed?", after all he talks about two characters for most of his piece: Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak. But it's a small matter in comparison to this most intriguing question: can that tiger change his stripes?

In democratic countries, politicians who have screwed up big-time rarely, if ever, get a second chance, the way Benjamin Netanyahu did and Ehud Barak would like to. But around here, people come and people go, mainly because of the leadership vacuum.

That's questionable. Isn't this vacuum caused by our (questionable too) political system that tends to squash mavericks and cause good people a permanent turn-off from political activity? We can say that its is not Israel-specific disease, but the fact of the vacuum remains there, and we need good leadership a bit more than, say, Switzerland. Don't we?

Barak, the "most decorated soldier in the Israeli Army," charmed world leaders with his brilliant analyses from his first month in office. Yeltsin, Blair, Abdullah, Clinton and others lapped up his words. He promised Israel to end the conflict and to establish permanent borders by February 2000. Not only did he misread the political map, but he didn't have a clue how to do it.

That true. To treat the international (and internal) politics like a sandbox with pliable soldiers, schedules for peace treaties and military-style prescriptions for all players' behavior is an indelible mark of military mind, albeit, according to rumors, a brilliant one.

These two stars, who rose big-time and fell big-time, are now using the same comeback tactic. Both have solemnly admitted to making mistakes. They have learned their lesson, they say, and they have changed.

In the letter Barak wrote, announcing his desire to compete in the primaries, he says: "I made mistakes. My inexperience did me in. Today I know that there are no shortcuts, and that leadership is not a one-man show. I believe I have the experience and maturity to be the next defense minister."

It seems that this unexpected show of humility unsettled Yoel Marcus so much that he exclaimed:

Hello? Is that Barak? The little guy with the Napoleon complex?

Napoleon, as Barak, was a genius not only in military strategy but in tactics as well. So I would be extremely careful to believe that guy to the degree Marcus did, reaching the following surprising conclusion:

With Israel's military deterrence seriously eroded and war looming on the horizon, maybe the time has indeed come for Barak to make the switchover from politician to professional, and become a defense minister.

How about waiting for, say, another 30 - 40 years and then check again? And, since Bibi is mentioned in the same breath, why can't we buy that old Sabena plane (Belgians will be only too happy to sell it for scrap, what with Sabena's finances) and let the two reenact that star moment of their lives. With dummy bullets, to insure one of them doesn't get hurt.

We'll deal with the vacuum meanwhile, after all what is 50 years when you love someone?

What do ya'll say?

***

Owls and more owls

If you like that picture, this place offers a few absolutely stunning albums of birds, mostly owls.

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Little knowledge...

is a dangerous thing, as some people learn only too late, to their chagrin.

Dick Stanley, the Texas Scribble, shares a sweet news item. I just must copy/paste it:

Minnesota Muslim congressman Keith Ellison's use of Thomas Jefferson's two-volume copy of the Koran to take his oath of office was a pretty slick idea, until you consider that Mr. E. probably didn't take the time to turn a few of its pages and read what was written there. If he had, according to the Austin-based community Web site Altmuslim.com, he would have discovered that the translator, George Sale, "calls the Prophet Muhammad a 'criminal... imposing a false religion.'" Oops.

Yeah. Oops would be a mildest description of that... no, I do not swear on Wednesdays.

But where's our embarrassment symbol? Oh, here it is:

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Editorials backfire too

I was reading the article Boycotts Backfire in JP with a sense of wonderment that grew all the way to the article's end. To start with the opening sentence:

If there is one arena where international politics is set aside to an unusual degree, it's sports.

It's a strong statement, but patently untrue. Just to give few examples:

• The use of Olympic games by Nazi Germany to laud the "superiority" of Aryan race
• Stalin sending footballers (Moscow Spartak, 1942) to Gulag for a loss of an international game
• Chinese ping-pong diplomacy
• Boycotts of Olympic games (The biggest in 1980 when 62 countries including USA, West Germany and Japan refused to attend in protest at the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan.) More on history of such boycotts here
• And more...

When an article starts with such a glaring blooper, it is a bit difficult to take the rest seriously, however I have tried. The story of Mushir Salem Jawher of Bahrain who run in the Tiberias Marathon last week and as a result was stripped of Bahrain citizenship has been already in the air for some time. It is a sad case of stupid and irrational act of hate and as such should be protested by all means.

But what with the main premise of the article - that the boycotts backfire? I have tried to find a tiniest crumb of proof of that statement and could not. The only person who got the backfire quite badly was Mushir Salem Jawher. Otherwise, it is difficult to discern any signs of trouble the endless boycotting of Israel causes to the Muslim world. Just recently Saudi Arabia was accepted to WTO, their consistent boycott of Israel notwithstanding.

The article is supposed to be an editorial. Amazing...

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The bitter fruits of globalization

U.S. Submarine Hits Japanese Tanker in Arabian Sea

And I bet the Philippine workers of the Singapore shipyard are already alerted for emergency repairs...

***

Socialism according to Hugo

But also according to Guardian, it appears. I must confess that I started to look at the Guardian only a few years ago. It begun with my sensitive self being irked, angry and sometimes vivid. Now I got used to it, and it is most of the time just a quiet amazement. Were I able to distill it into nirvana, I would have already been the happiest (and, probably, the richest) of all mortals. Anyway, today Guardianistas have done it again:
OK, you would say, so what - the usual on-line editor blooper. Could be, but let's try the article.

Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's president, has promoted loyalists to key positions and said he will shut down a pro-opposition television station on the eve of his third term in office.

Mr Chavez has signalled more radical policies by tightening his grip in the run-up to his inauguration on Wednesday, the start of what he said would be a new phase in his "socialist revolution".

This is just for starters - now try to savor this morsel:

Venezuela's foreign ministry rejected the criticism and said shutting RCTV would guarantee freedom of expression.

If you are able to translate it into plain English, please feel free to do so in the comments area.

Last week he fired the vice president, José Vicente Rangel, a powerful and totemic political veteran. Jorge Rodríguez, a former chief of Venezuela's electoral council, was appointed vice-president and the president's brother, Adan Chavez, was named education minister.

Mr Chavez also announced a plan to merge his movement's amorphous grouping of more than 20 political parties into a single body, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela.

And if, after reading the above, you have some miracle potion to dispel my foreboding that Venezuela is up the excrement creek with no paddles, please feel free to do so too.

And my last question: how exactly does the author of the article, one Rory Carroll, imagine socialism?

Cross-posted on Yourish.com

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Men Not Invited 2

Even some prominent bloggers do not eschew the simple art of linking. Pity, of course, that they do not link to Simply Jews, that bastion of straight and insulting talk, but it could not be helped.

Figuring that a) sucking up to people cannot harm; b) the best people are those of female persuasion; c) the previous and first in the world carnival of female bloggers was a smasher and d) what the heck, we have decided to make the Men Not Invited carnival a regular feature here. Well, as far as regular features go in this world, of course.

So I am starting the roll of recent posts by this (superior in all ways) segment of the blogging world. There are no other preconditions to be included save one: be linked from Simply Jews. Of course, it would have been even better if same bloggers were linking to Simply Jews, but one cannot enforce this, so...

Adloyada, thinking about wedding styles, dispenses highest praise for Pootergeek with his Wedding photography blog. That last paragraph goes from merely highest praise to a degree of adoration that will make even a wooden mega-blogger jealous.

Yael of Aliyah! Step by Step seems to be recovering from tribulations of her family visiting, electric power problems, flooding etc. On the way she succeeds in saving a dog (why, for all felines' sake?). Reading Yael's blog is more thrilling than Le Carre and Crichton united, and the latest exploit (bruising her tongue) puts her up there at the summit, looking down at all the others. Also - I would like to know why does she mention only seven cats in the recent post? Where are the other 24? And no less important - why am I banned from commenting over there, getting this "Regex ID: 106 () appears to be an invalid regex string! Please fix it in the Blacklist control panel." message? Blacklist, eh?

After inquiring about the more or less permanent absence of Angua in the previous carnival, she produced this thought-provoking post on the Democrats' win in the elections. Only to disappear again. I shall be patient. Especially since that post I mentioned did not make the issue totally clear for me (but I do not have to vote in US).

A bout of flu got Rinat of Balagan all cranky and grouchy toward the new year's eve. By now she is, most probably, sharing her time between West Bank, Tel Aviv, Zimbabwe, Somalia and few other exciting regions of this globe. As usual, all at the same time. Waiting for a new dispatch.

Montchan is another cat lover from Sweden. No, from US. No, from Hong Kong. No, from South Africa. Anyway, go to her blog and try to figure it out by yourself. What is important for you to know, if you are a warlock with a condo in Cancun - just forget it - you don't have what it takes to get her. To understand more, and to see some amazing shots from Cape Verde, look in this general area.

That Broad of Cup of Love has done two interesting posts: one on our friend Chavez and one on thongs. Knowing something about the former, I have found the totally new for me data on the latter much more fascinating. And educational. Still, on the whole, I prefer thongs to Chavez, to be truthful.

Lesley of The Debris Field presents a strange object picked up On Giza Pyramid webcam and a huge object sighted over Cambridge, England. I, personally, would go with the former. Them Cambridge folks have still not been totally cured of that deadly habit of mixing their drinks. A person should stay with one kind of poison during any given evening (morning, whatever), is my motto.

Hak Mao of HakMao. Where do I start? Every post is a little gem. I wish I could express so much in so short a post. Like this one. Or this one. Or that one. Aside of this inexplicable obsession with cricket (bleh...), of course. But I still hope it is curable. She just needs a good poster* of this kind on a wall:


Sue Helen (temporary name till she breaks and discloses her real one) of I Was Trailer Trash has done a good one on the Florida swearing in a new gov'nor. Although, I must say, "pathetic" and "traditions" were two dead giveaways. It is not easy doing one's best to be trailer trash...

Irina of The Ignoble Experiment got some mysterious company lately. If I were in the society gossip business, I would say... nah. Anyway, as long as she and the Company remain true to their present photography style of film noir, their secrets remain safe (that was half joking).

Loud mouthed, crass, fashionable, fantabulous Tanisha of La Dolce Diva went underground since the end of October. I wish I knew what happened. Let's hope that she will resurface in 2007...

Kateland, aka TZH of The Last Amazon took the rumors on the impending Israeli nuclear strike on the Iranian nuclear installations more seriously than I did. She is optimistically stating that "... for the Israelis not to have a plan for a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities would be gross negligence on an unheard of scale even for the Israeli state." Ehehe... When gross negligence will be abolished as our middle name, maybe...

Meryl of... no, just Meryl dedicated two (2) posts to the Israeli preparations of the strike mentioned above. Since this motif is repeated in both Kateland and Meryl's posts, I just have to comment on this Sunday Times quote: "On a plasma screen, Shkedi will be able to see dozens of planes advance towards Iran...". It may be OK for Sunday Times, but since the last Lebanon bash that plasma screen became one huge joke here in our neck of the woods. One of the things IDF was used to is to see our chiefs up there in front of the troops. Now it is plasma screens... behind...

Mog of Mind of Mog: but first read this post by Meryl, it says it all. Mog needs help. At the moment, though, the blog is quite active. Mog, like many other bloggers, is worried about that "nuclear on nuclear" story. And I totally agree with her that people who don't dig cats (a temporary aberration, we all hope) would not be able to understand that.

I have started to key "Miriam of Miriam's ideas" but was immediately engrossed and then grossed out by the immense, simply unbelievable stupidity and lack of sensitivity displayed in this story she refers to. Then I was educated (somewhat) on libraries, one of my favorite places to be in, and chilled out somewhat. Anyway, thanks, Miriam.

Imshin of Not a Fish tells about (and shows) flash floods in Israel. By no means a phenomenon unique to Israel, but what is (probably) unique to us is the number of dolts that get swept and frequently killed by these floods. See "gross negligence" above in this post. She also let me know that beauty of a statement: "People that hate cats, will come back as mice in their next life." Already used it on a fellow blogger who is in denial re cats. He is still recovering... And yeah, I believe that the world is fair, at least in this regard. Only - why are the comments in her place closed to the public?

Lisa of On The Face: no, I have a grudge here. I keep checking on a daily basis on that promised post about the bloggers do in Herzliya. I need more input for a project related to it, and what now? Anyway, I'll wait for a while. But then, she is moving to another apartment... Oy vey...

Batya, she of many blogs, is telling in Shilo Musings about the bitter fate of a marathon runner from Bahrain who dared to break the taboo. She also reminded me about a distinguishing mark of many a new Oleh (repatriant):


How true. And, since I tend to disagree with Batya on many occasions, here is a point good for a minor disagreement: Batya dismisses the claim that the late President Ford was good to Israel. At least in one aspect I have to disagree: The Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which was signed into law by Ford in January 1975, helped hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews to escape, a good part of them to Israel. Yours truly was one of this bunch (although this specific case does not have to be counted as a positive one). So here.

Noorster of Shutterfool has disappeared lately under a technical pretext. One of the latest communications from her was about a problem with her laptop, strangely enough named Frank. I have to mention this, since she persists in calling her male cat Marzipan, causing him no end of identity issues, no doubt. I respectfully submit that switching the names between the two will settle both technical and psychological problems at once.

Tafka PP of Slightly Mad disappeared approximately at the same time as Noorster, which makes me wonder about the Silvester (New Year's Eve) debauchery and its lasting impact. Anyway, her two last posts: one on the Christmas countdown and the other on the charms of boycotts are inspiring and highly recommended.

Scribbles of Small Town Scribbles surfaced for a short post on January 2. Migraine is briefly mentioned, and I definitely start to see a trend here. So meanwhile enjoy this post about the non-existence of god and these two about different angles of Saddam's demise.

Liza of Something Something is a new discovery for me, but definitely something something. I have found her blog while rummaging for info on that Herzliya bash on Hasbara (a separate post on a related subject is brewing... oh well, for almost half an year now). This post gives you an idea of the capabilities. Wow.

Sonia Belle reviews some of the more exciting (keep you underage progeny away) movies of 2006 and briefly compares the late Saddam H. with the upcoming caudillo Hugo C. I am not sure that the latter has already grown into the former's dimensions. But a rope may be used to restrain as well as to hang someone...

Shoshana the Sweet Rose wonders about the dead end the ultra-Orthodox women find themselves at, as far as the ways and means of education are concerned. Unfortunately, I do not wonder, Shoshana. It is only too painfully clear. At least in Iran there is one woman driving a race car in rallies... Too bad... Anyhow, I agree that tagging people is a bad habit.

Deborah of The Thought Mill has already recovered from both the exams and the festivities (no hangovers for a Muskovite girl, unlike some frail Anglosaxy!) . She is catching up quickly, and aside of an obvious Photoshop con job on an old (but still funny) picture, has already posted quite a few good ones.

Rachel of Tinkerty Tonk, like Adloyada, has succumbed to the charms of Pootergeek (this bloke is surely becoming one huge international menace, needs to be sorted out somehow...). But I fully and readily agree with her on the subject of food: better to croak happily sated than to die of hunger, that's for sure. In the vicinity of a good library would be my preference (and it is not about sucking up, mind you). But no, I have not counted wrinkles on Barbara Walters' chest, besides I am afraid of her.

Allison of An Unsealed Room decided to leak some information about herself. And hey, what do ya'll know - Rubens is one of my favs too! Allison, like other two bloggers above, thinks that the Herzliya conference participants "did not make beautiful music together", but further details are not forthcoming (Lisa?).

The last (but far from the least, and the next MNI will start backwards in alphabetic order again, promise) - WestBankMama of West Bank Blog has a story about visiting an open market. Reminded me that STG family has been feeding of the tasteless supermarket produce for years, due to sheer laziness. Sad. But The Doldrums post made me wistful: unfortunately, from my xx years of experience, the moment we start complaining about inactivity, excrement hits the air conditioning here. I wish we had like a thousand boring years. But I know that WBM meant something else.

To conclude, I have borrowed a picture from Deborah:

This beautiful gal in the picture (Artemis, by the way, if anyone is interested) is always an excellent reminder to MMM (mere male mortals) that on one hand there is a freedom of expression, but in that other hand there always happens to be a sharp object. This to demonstrate again my absolute humility and to prepare an escape venue in case I have fouled up badly with some of the bloggers here.

(*)"Poster" in this sentence is not meant in the sense of a blogging person. Rather in the sense of an oblong piece of quality paper with a face (usually that of Che Guevara - see under "Poster boy") depicted on it. I am saying this to insure that HakMao does not decide to skin me and nail the proceeds to a wall.

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