Israel: Gay marriage in the Holy Land?

Arab gays face forced hormone treatment

That pretty much sums up the cultural differences, doesn't it? Maybe we can get the UN to send a strongly worded statement to the UAE. That will make many people feel good so they can sleep well at night while Mengele-like medical procedures are performed on gays in the Arab world.

Pardon me if I paraphrase Martin Niemoeller.

First they came for the gays, and I did not speak out--
because I don't like the Israeli occupation;

Took the family to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center yesterday in Glen Rose, TX - great day trip from the Dallas area. I hadn't driven that far to the southwest since we moved here a few years ago - it's amazing how the terrain goes from brown and flat to (relatively) green and hilly in a relatively short time.

The NY Times gets the understatement of the day award.

Regarding the opening of the Rafah crossing which is now in the hands of the Palestinian Authority, it is said:

The Egyptians, who controlled Gaza from 1948 until the 1967 war, were requiring Palestinian men aged 18 to 40 to obtain visas before entering Egypt, Palestinian officials said. Egypt is likely to have economic as well as security concerns: many young Gazan men are unemployed, and some have links to militant groups.

Some? To me a fully-rostered baseball team is more than "some", so I don't know how many the Times considers "some".

Dare I mention that Hamas is considered a terrorist group even by the European Union, but that's not enough for the NY Times to stop calling them "militants".

One would think that an organization large enough to be of concern to various nation-states would consist of more than "some" people. If I were Israeli, there is no f-ing way I would go on vacation in Sinai again.

CNN's editors' wishes come out in their headlines:

Bullets fly over hang glider incursion
Israeli troops cover man's dash back across Palestinian border

Palestinian border?!? This incident didn't even happen in the West Bank or Gaza, but on the Israeli border with Lebanon. WTF? Thanks to Backspin.

As someone who does actually freak out whenever my wife or kids takes the last "whatever" I was saving from the pantry or the fridge, aish.com's Salomon Says has a great lesson about sharing.

Now that I'll be good, I guess I won't need go out and buy a lock for my Ben & Jerry's. Seriously.

Every once in a while I feel the urge to write on the parsha of the week, and given that I'm feeling a little bit under the weather and need to compensate for my failure to attend Kabalat Shabbat services - here it goes.

This week's parsha is Chayei Sarah - The Life of Sarah

My post has more to do with my eternal internal conflict between my respect for the Ortohodox (without wanting to be Orthodox) and my failure to understand Conservatism (although that's the movement with which I affiliate myself).

This is the opening line of the parsha transliterated from the Hebrew:

Vayihyu chayei Sarah me'ah shanah ve'esrim shanah vesheva shanim shnei chayei Sarah.

On the Chabad website, the line is translated as follows:

And the life of Sarah was one hundred years and twenty years and seven years; [these were] the years of the life of Sarah.

In Etz Hayim, the new standard Conservative chumash, the line is translated thusly:

Sarah's lifetime - the span of Sarah's life - came to one hundred and twenty-seven years.

Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of Hebrew can see that the Chabad translation is more exact than the Eyz Hayim translation. The name Sarah clearly comes at the beginning and end of the phrase and not one time right after the other. In addition, it is obvious that a form of shana (year) is used three times, not once as in the Conservative translation.

In fact, the writing of Sarah's age as "one hundred years and twenty years and seven years" leads you to ask, why would this be written this way?", whereas the Etz Hayim translation instigates no discussion at all.

The funny thing is that Etz Hayim provides a midrash on the topic anyway as follows: Sarah retained the innocence of a seven year old when she was twenty and the beauty of a twenty year old when she was one hundred. Chabad quotes the Midrash the other way around - Sarah retained the beauty of a seven year old when she was twenty and the innocence of a twenty year old when she was one hundred. An OU website confirms the Chabad understanding.

Therefore, not only does the Conservative movement provide it's congregants with a less-meaningful, simplified translation, but the commentary it provides is totally backwards.

I imagine that the vast majority of Conservative Jews who bother to read the Chumash at all wouldn't ever notice this, but the fact that our religion is based on this book, gives me considerable pause when I hear the "we're just more modern" mantra from Conservative leadership.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

There seems to be some more "the President is hiding documents" talk on the web, due to an article in the National Journal, a publication with which I was not previously familiar.

Powerline, of course, is on the case. What I don't understand for the life of me are the following:

The September 21, 2001, briefing was prepared at the request of the president, who was eager in the days following the terrorist attacks to learn all that he could about any possible connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda.

Why would the President need to request something that's produced every day (and has been for years)?

Indeed, the existence of the September 21 PDB was not disclosed to the Intelligence Committee until the summer of 2004, according to congressional sources.

How is it possible that the they were unaware of the existence of a doucment that's produced daily? Isn't that like saying that they were unaware that there was an issue of the NY Times prepared on September 21?

Am I missing something?

If this is the kind of obnoxious bullying that the liberals were worried about, I'm proud to call myself "not liberal".

US pressures UN to condemn Hizbullah

Following intense US pressure, the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday issued an unprecedented condemnation of Monday's Hizbullah attacks on northern Israel.

This condemnation - slamming Hizbullah by name for "acts of hatred" - marked the first time the Security Council has ever reprimanded Hizbullah for cross-border attacks on Israel. The condemnation followed by two days a failed attempt to get a condemnation issued on Monday, the day of the attack, when Algeria came out against any mention of Hizbullah in the statement.

When asked what changed from Monday to Wednesday, one diplomatic official replied: "John Bolton," a reference to the US ambassador to the UN. Bolton lobbied vigorously for the passage of the statement.

I've spent much of the last five plus years watching kids cartoons and programs as my little ones grow up. Dragontales, Dora the Explorer, Caillou, etc. The characters may differ in each program, but the message is always the same - love, caring, sharing, etc. Any "bad" charaters stop their evil ways by just the good guys telling them "no don't do that" or inviting them to their Super Silly Fiestas.

My five year old has recently found the Boomerang channel which plays all the cartoons from when I was growing up. Popeye, Tom and Jerry, Bugs Bunny. The Claasics. You know, people (and animals) just beating the sh*t out of each other for 10 minutes straight. I just saw one "bad" character eat a grenade and have all his teeth fall out.

I'm not really sure which is worse for my kids, but I have been feminized enough by society to be uncomfortable watching the Boomerang stuff with them.

Well, at least it's not this - Barney as Tupac.

Now it may very well be that the Nation of Islam never had control over Michael Jackson's business affiars. But I have no doubt that they have exerted some control over his mind.

Jewish group demands apology from Jackson

LOS ANGELES - The Anti-Defamation League on Wednesday demanded an apology from Michael Jackson after ABC aired what was said to be a telephone answering-machine message in which the pop star referred to Jews as “leeches”....

A transcript provided by King’s office quotes Jackson as saying: “They suck them like leeches. ... They start out the most popular person in the world, make a lot of money, big house, cars and everything and end up penniless. It’s a conspiracy. The Jews do it on purpose.”

I'd ask Michael Jackson's security detail what they think, but I imagine they wouldn't welcome the question.

David Ignatius of the Washington Post is apparently not paying attention to what President Bush has been saying and thereby gives the impression that all of Iraq is now at odds with him.

So Iraq's Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds finally found something they can agree on. They are jointly demanding that the United States set a timetable for withdrawal of its troops from their country. That's hardly the rallying cry the Bush administration might have hoped for, but perhaps it could provide a base line for stabilizing Iraq.

Just this morning his own paper reported the following from Reuters:

Bush has consistently said that U.S. forces would stand down when Iraqi forces stand up. He hinted at the possibility of a troop drawdown on Sunday in Beijing. "As the Iraqi security forces gain strength and experience we can lessen our troop presence in the country without losing our capability to effectively defeat the terrorists," Bush told reporters.

Seems then that the Iraqis were parroting the President's desire. Not only that, in the second paragraph of Ignatius' article he reports the following:

According to an account in the Arabic daily Al Hayat, sources at the conference said they wanted the withdrawal to take place over the next two years. That's not very different from the gradual pullout that U.S. military planners have been discussing.

This is what happens when a "reporter" throws his liberal bias into what is purportedly a news piece. Perhaps a better headline might have read:


IRAQIS AGREE WITH BUSH POLICY TO GRADUALLY DECREASE US PRESENCE

All bow to Norm. There exists no clearer voice of reason on the war.

All those who, in opposing the war, claimed to have the interests of Iraq and the Iraqis at heart should be calling, not for a timetable of withdrawal, but for getting behind the effort to ensure a successful democratic transition in Iraq. Getting behind it - in the sense of actively debating how that battle can now best be fought, previous errors best be corrected and remedied, the expertise and resources of other members of the community of nations most effectively be drawn on, and so forth. A common discourse, in other words, across those who supported and those who opposed the war, and for the sake of common liberal and democratic objectives in Iraq. That would be quite something, no?

Compare this to the insight we get at DailyKos.

Saddam tortured, we torture. Saddam used WP chemical weapons against insurgents and civilians, we use WP chemical weapons against insurgents and civilians.

Saddam's Iraq and Bush's America - same thing. Right.

Hizbollah launched a sustained attack against Israeli soldiers and civilians across the internationally recognized border with Lebanon. The Jerusalem Post reports 11 Israeli soldiers wounded and 4 terrorists killed.

Somebody saw this coming.

Mr. Mofaz added there are dozens of other intelligence warnings pointing to terrorist activities, as well as information that Hizbullah is planning a qualitative terror attack against Israel. - Nov. 20, 2005 (yesterday)

Actually, later that afternoon, Israel's leaders were getting ready.

No news of these attacks in the U.S media that I can find.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz took part in a security briefing Sunday afternoon in response to intelligence information about irregular Hizbullah maneuvers in the Har Dov region.

The IDF raised the alert along Israel's northern border with Lebanon two weeks ago due to concern over attacks from the Hizbullah terror group. Precautionary measures went so far as to limit hiking near the border for fear of kidnappings.

More on the point raised in the previous post. Unless you go to the Washington Times or even Al-Jazeera, you have no idea that 100,000-200,000 Jordanians (this in a country with only 5 million people to begin with) went to the streets to protest against Al-Qaeda in general and al-Zarqawi more specifically.

"I came specifically to say to those terrorists and al-Zarqawi that we are all united against them. We do not want them on our land," said Ghazi al-Hajjaj, 43, who journeyed from Tafila, 183km south of Amman, to attend the rally.

Palestinians from Jordan's 13 refugee camps also took part in the protest.

In al-Zarqawi's hometown of Zarqa, 27km northeast of Amman, dozens of angry members of his al-Khalayleh tribe held a rally, pledging allegiance to King Abdullah II and denouncing their infamous son.

"If my son was a terrorist, I wouldn't hesitate to kill him," said Musa al-Khalayleh, who said he spoke on behalf of the tribe.

Tens if not hundreds of thousands of Arabs protesting against an enemy that we're at war against and neither the Washington Post, LA Times or CNN has thought this important enough to waste precious internet space.

More on the demonstrations here.

When you go to the NY Times home page, there is usually a link under the principal news story about Iraq called, "Complete Coverage". Let's take a look at the headlines on the linked page (this will obviously change over time):

Uproar in House as Parties Clash on Iraq Pullout
Mosque Attacks Kill 70 in Iraq; Hotel Is Hit, Too
Iraqi Qaeda Leader Is Said to Vow Attacks on Jordan
Sunnis Tell of Abuses in Iraqi-Run Detention Sites
Halliburton Case Is Referred to Justice Dept., Senator Says
As Italian Vote Nears, It's Hard to Tell Hawks From Doves
U.S. Aide Accused of Graft in Iraq Had a Shadowy Past
Names of the Dead
Fast Withdrawal of G.I.'s Is Urged by Key Democrat
Issuing Contracts, Ex-Convict Took Bribes in Iraq, U.S. Says
Iraq Dogs President as He Crosses Asia to Promote Trade
Torture Charges Deepen Rift Between U.S. and Iraqi Leader
Survey Finds Deep Discontent With American Foreign Policy
Names of the Dead
Iraqi Rift Grows After Discovery of Prison
Suicide Bomber Kills Two Afghans
5 Marines Dead and 11 Hurt in an Ambush by Insurgents
Sunnis Tell of Abuses in Iraqi-Run Detention Sites
General Rejects Any Call for Timetable for Withdrawal of Troops
Pentagon Justifying Incendiary Arms Use
Names of the Dead
Cheney Says Senate War Critics Make 'Reprehensible Charges'
Senate Presses Administration for Iraq Plans
11 Top Jordanian Advisers Resign in Wake of Attacks
Torture Alleged at Ministry Site Outside Baghdad
Names of the Dead

Is there absoultely NOTHING positive to report ?!? I'll even take a positive based on a negative like "Family who lost 6 men to Saddam's torture now preparing for constitutional vote". No wonder so many people think this is Vietnam.

I didn't see anything about the following in Pravda, I mean the Times, which you would think is a big step towards our goal of unifying Iraq.

Iraqi leaders embark on reconciliation quest

CAIRO (AFP) - Iraqi leaders have gathered in Cairo for Arab-sponsored talks aimed at ending sectarian strife, amid mixed expectations and continued jostling over the inclusion of former Baathists in the discussions.

The landmark meetings, due to lay the basis of a reconciliation conference in Baghdad, came against a tense domestic backdrop, after insurgent bombings in
Iraq over the last 24 hours killed more than 90 people.

Arab League chief Amr Mussa, whose organisation has recently stepped up its involvement in Iraq, described the start of the three-day meetings as "an historic day launching the reconciliation process".

Nov. 19 - ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - International donors pledged another $3.4 billion in quake aid to Pakistan, surpassing the amount sought by the government, officials said Saturday. The U.S. nearly tripled its pledge to more than $500 million in a show of support for a key ally in the war on terrorism.

----------

Nov. 19 - MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan chided the international community Friday for a "weak and tardy" response to the South Asia quake that killed more than 87,000 people.

I'm glad that's settled.

I just sent the following letter to the folks at abcnews.com:

To Whom It May Concern,

Although I disagree with our country’s use of certain techniques referred to as torture in “CIA’s Harsh Interrogation Techniques Described”, I am deeply offended by the following line:

“While some media accounts have described the locations where these detainees are located as a string of secret CIA prisons — a gulag, as it were…”

While the gulag was indeed a chain of secret (or not so-secret in some cases) detention facilities, they were primarily forced labor camps where millions of civilians, many from the Soviet Union itself, were sent because of their political or religious beliefs. Of these, at least several million died from the harsh labor and living conditions and millions more suffered injuries and/or psychological damage.

To compare the treatment of a small number of people who are almost undoubtedly active enemies of this country in a time of war with the gulag system is not only ridiculous on its face, but similar references are already being used as anti-war propaganda by those who would wish that our enemies prevail. Don’t be surprised if Osama bin Laden sends you all a note of thanks.

As a Jewish-American it bothers me when terms like “holocaust” and “Nazi” are thrown around to represent much lesser evils. I’m not sure if Americans of Russian descent would look at your comparison and laugh or cry.

You might as well call public schools “concentration camps” since large groups of children are rounded up by the government every day to be taken away from their families, the youngest ones crying in desperation not to be separated. The similarities are striking. Not.

Touchdown Jesus.



Need I say more?

As our troops fight and die in Iraq to bring freedom and democracy to the Middle East, this is what House Democrat John Murtha of Pennsylvania has to say...

"All of Iraq must know that Iraq is free," he said. "Free from United States occupation."

Disgusting.

Kudos to the NY Times for putting a long Republican response on the front page.

I (Kay Granger of Texas) traveled to Iraq and I listened to our men and women in uniform who told me how proud they are of what they're doing, and some with tears in their eyes, because they say, The people understand it back home? Do they still support us? Are they still with us? And I've also worked with the women of Iraq who literally risked their lives to run for office so that they could be a part of writing a constitution and having a form of democracy -- and, as they said to me, and having the freedoms, Kay Granger, that you have in the United States.

-------

I'm Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a member of the International Relations Committee. I represent Miami, Florida.

My stepson, Douglas Lehtinen, and his fiancee are currently serving as Marine officers in Iraq. They are flying F-18s. They enlisted. They're proud to serve their country.

And when we have the ability to communicate with Dougie and Lindsey almost daily about what they're going through, they are very proud of their mission. They're proud of their service. And they know that pulling out now is a serious mistake, not just for the morale of our troops -- who understand their mission -- but also it would be a great defeat for the Iraqi people, who have struggled for so long to build up their country and to make sure that they have democratic governance.

----------

I have no doubt that, during the darkest days of the Second World War, when reports came back to this country of the number of casualties that we took in, let's say, taking Iwo Jima or in the Battle of the Bulge, I have no doubt that there were Americans who said, God, I wish this was over with. God, I wish those troops could come home.

But I doubt that there were many that said at the same time that they were willing to do it before the job was done and before victory was achieved. - Rep. Tancredo of Colorado

Oh, the noble Democrats! THEY didn't invade Iraq during the Clinton years becuase they really couldn't be sure about Saddam's WMDs and besides sanctions were working!

If this is so, why the scare tactics?

Here's a picture of Clinton Secretary of Defense William Cohen holding up a bag of sugar on ABC's "This Week" program to show how dangerous WMDs in the hands of a country like Iraq could be.



And here's a part of a speech he made at a DoD News Briefing on November 25, 1997.

"Iraq continues to evade and to deceive the United Nations inspectors who are working to destroy Iraq's program to build these weapons of mass destruction. If we can turn to a chart that many of you are now familiar with in terms of what Iraq originally stated it had in its possession, later determined to be outright lies, and there are suspicions on the part of the United Nations that there are much -- more volumes of these deadly nerve agents and chemicals than have previously been suspected.

As I point out on this chart, originally they indicated they had just a small quantity of VX. One drop on your finger will produce death in a matter of just a few moments. Now the UN believes that Saddam may have produced as much as 200 tons of VX, and this would, of course, be theoretically enough to kill every man, woman and child on the face of the earth."

Even Bush never hinted/suggested/subtly placed into the American subconscious/ the notion that Saddam had the ability to kill everyone on the Earth! No hyping intelligence here...everyone just move along.

Welcome to everyone who's come by from the Pre-War Intelligence Carnival at OSM. Thanks, Glenn & Co.!

Did Bush really create the impression among the American public that Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the 9/11 attack? Or is this another liberal media lie which can be attributed to Bush Derangement Syndrome?

Let's see what the some people have been saying:

From the Christian Science Monitor - March 2003

Polling data show that right after Sept. 11, 2001, when Americans were asked open-ended questions about who was behind the attacks, only 3 percent mentioned Iraq or Hussein.

Also....

"The administration has succeeded in creating a sense that there is some connection [between Sept. 11 and Saddam Hussein]," says Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland.

Yet, according to a Washington Post poll taken in September 2003, when asked, "How likely is it that Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the September 11 terrorist attacks?", 69% percent of the respondents answered "very" or "somewhat likely". Surprisingly, this is down slightly from 78% two days after the attacks.

Therefore, Bush did not create the impression that Iraq was repsonsible for 9/11, and as an Instapundit reader writes, "Could it be that Clinton and the Democrats had led us to believe Saddam was dangerous and capable of such a thing? Nah. They'd rather blame Bush."

Also, this forgotten nugget from a press conference in the U.K. in January 2003.

Q One question for you both. Do you believe that there is a link between Saddam Hussein, a direct link, and the men who attacked on September the 11th?

THE PRESIDENT: I can't make that claim.

THE PRIME MINISTER: That answers your question.

Ugh - I go to this Ben's Deli all the time when I'm in Queens.

Eat At Your Own Risk Goes To Queens

"Come hungry and leave stuffed" with a doggy bag." That’s what Zagat says of Ben's Kosher Deli in the heart of the Bay Terrace Shopping Center in Bayside.

But in August, the city stuffed a health inspection report with eight critical violations including hot and cold food held at unsafe temperatures, mice, flies, and food not protected from potential sources of contamination.

The manager on duty, wouldn't comment, but over the phone an officer of the company told us the problems were corrected. On a re-inspection in September, despite two more critical violations, Ben's passed.

First of all, it's hard for me to believe that this article is talking about the safe, heavily Jewish neighboorhood I grew up in as a kid in the '70s.

GUNSHOT SENSORS PUT THUGS ON RUN

For years, gun-toting thugs in Co-op City have tested their weapons by firing rounds from the rooftops of high-rises. The deafening echoes of muzzle blasts ricochet through the sprawling complex's canyons — emboldening crooks and frightening the development's 50,000 residents.

"It's just a horror," said Iris Baez, chairperson of the complex's security committee. "I'm concerned that one of these bullets is going to go through a window and hit a child."

And for the museum of ironic ad placements, this appears on the very same page.

Could Kinky Friedman really be our next governor?

"If you will it, it is no dream." - Walter Sobchack in The Big Lebowski.



I mean Theodor Herzl, originally.

File this under "Who Knew"? Oksana Baiul, gold medal winner in fugure skating at the 1994 Olympics, is Jewish.



Oksana Baiul, figure skating champion, embraces Jewish roots

Finding her father was a part of that trip. So was getting to the truth about an old rumor that she was Jewish, although she had been raised Russian Orthodox. “When I was growing up in Russia, you were either Russian or Ukrainian. You couldn’t be Jewish. That would be an embarrassment.”.....

“It was very emotional,” she said. And while with him (her father), she asked about her roots. “’Is that true, that rumor that I am Jewish?’ I asked. He said, ‘Yes, your [maternal] grandmother was Jewish.’.....

“I’m exploring Judaism now. I’m just at the beginning. I’m taking it one day at a time, opening myself to the experience. It’s happening slowly but it feels good.”

How bad an effect does popular rap or hip-hop have on today's black community?

If 50 Cent represents a major movement, we ought to spare ourselves the illusion of racial progress and bring back the Klan.

Um...no thanks.

Arabs kill Arabs. Arabs kill Americans. Arabs kill Jews. Who's to Blame?



Many in Jordan See Old Enemy in Attack: Israel

While most Arabs have long viewed Israel as their enemy, the extent to which Israel weighs on the regional psyche and diverts attention away from social, political, religious and economic issues that cannot be ignored, many social and political analysts say. Blaming Israel is not just a knee jerk, they say; for many Arabs, it is their reality.

Beautiful story. I Never Knew His Name

I thought to myself, isn’t this the kind of world we are fighting for — a world where an Imam teaches a Rabbi words from the Holy Koran to comfort a young Muslim boy, and that rabbi himself is comforted by a Christian, a Catholic priest.

Bush's Gettysburg?

From a small town in Pennsylvania, the president came to finally answer critics of an increasingly unpopular war, a war that Democrats hoped would sweep them into office in the next election.

But enough about Lincoln at Gettysburg 142 Novembers ago; let me analyze George Walker Bush's speech today in Tobyhanna, Pa.

Much attention is being given to his blasting the revisionist history of Democrats who supported the war to get by the 2002 election and now cluck their tongues.
Who cares?
WMD were not what the Iraq war was -- or is -- about. The president:

"If the peoples of that region are permitted to choose their own destiny, and advance by their own energy and participation of free men and women, then the extremists will be marginalized, and the flow of violent radicalism to the rest of the world will slow and eventually end. By standing for hope and freedom of others, we make our own freedom more secure."

That is it. That in a nutshell is how America will be free: By making sure that all men enjoy the rights to which they were endowed by their Creator.
America is not alone. The president noted:

"General David Petraeus says, "Iraqis are in the fight. They're fighting and dying for their country, and they're fighting increasingly well." This progress is not easy, but it is steady. And no fair-minded person should ignore, deny, or dismiss the achievements of the Iraqi people."

These are things that should have been said a long time ago. But like Lincoln in November 1863, Bush had to wait for the right moment.

"We don't know the course of our own struggle will take, or the sacrifices that might lie ahead. We do know, however, that the defense of freedom is worth our sacrifice, we do know the love of freedom is the mightiest force of history, and we do know the cause of freedom will once again prevail."

If you're Jewish like me and have any doubt about the last point, remember that the principal manner in which God asks us to remember Him is by the freedom he gave us.

There are some who choose to see Veteran's Day as an opportunity to mourn lives lost by referring to fallen soldeirs as sheep who died in the service of evil men. Others choose to acknowledge those same soldiers as individuals, each with their own reasons for choosing to defend their country. These are the people that were willing to die if it means that future generations that they could never know will have the choice to live in liberty and freedom.

“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing of worth for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made so and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.” John Stewart Mill (1806-1873)

Here are some thoughts from veterans of the current conflict. They're not hard to find.

``Well,'' he said, ``this is the suck tape. If you are watching this one, then you know I won't be coming home.'' He told Deanna and the children that he knew it would hurt "but I will always be there with you."

He added that there were things left undone in Iraq the last time he was in that part of the world in the Gulf War and that he believed we had to go back if the people of Iraq were to have a better life and better opportunity like his family enjoys here.

"The price is worth it," Sgt. Salie said. "In my heart."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Army Pfc. Jeff Coyne lived through the blast of friendly fire that killed three from his unit in Iraq.

He thinks about them constantly as he hobbles through the daylight hours, trying to strengthen damaged muscles in his back, chest and abdomen. After dark, he struggles to sleep because of nightmares about the explosion.

A boyish-looking 28 in his black crewcut, Coyne went to war uncertain whether the cause was just or worthwhile. Now, even as he mourns for his fallen friends, he has been transformed into a believer.

Nothing President Bush said or did influenced Coyne. Rather, the soldier from Dormont was swayed by the sad conditions of the Iraqi people.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Many times I wonder if it is worth it. Then I think of the 3-year-old boy dressed in a suit watching his daddy graduate as a new Iraqi soldier. As he runs toward me, I am in battle uniform and ballistic armor, with weapon at high ready. He smiles big, waves and says, "I love you, American!" Yeah, it's worth it.

------------------------------------------------------------------

MARGARET WARNER: And Sgt. White, how do you feel? Do you feel the sacrifice is worth it? Did you feel that way about yourself personally when you left this spring?

SGT. SAM WHITE: Absolutely, I did. And what I did is I looked at the town next to us, the town that we were protecting, the town that we took antibiotics to the sick children, food, candy on a regular basis in the town. And they saw us, my squad, personally diffuse a daisy chain mine. And I don't know if you know what a daisy chain is, but the few that don't know, it's several mines linked to each other next -- they're connected by wires, and when one goes off, the rest of them go off. And they saw us diffuse this right next to their soccer field.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SGT. BENJAMIN FLANDERS: I think it was worth it in the sense that when I think about the enemy we were confronting. You know, this is an enemy that was targeting civilians. It was targeting their own security force, as well as political leaders within a democratic process. And without any -- a viable police force, a security force for Iraq to have, I felt it was our responsibility to stay until we could stand that back up, reconstitute it. So it was worth fighting for people that couldn't fight for their selves, definitely.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

For Rhodes, 23, risking life and limb was worth it. He believes in the value of the Operation Enduring Freedom, the government’s name for the Iraq war. “Every single thing somebody’s done over there was worth it,” he says. Those views made some of the news from Champaign tough to stomach. Early in his Iraq tour, Rhodes spotted a photo of a campus protester on the front page of the Daily Illini. The protester was holding an American flag upside down with a peace sign spray-painted on it. “That got me pretty upset,” he says.

Upon returning to campus in 2004 to finish his political-science degree, Rhodes learned that opposition to the war was widespread even though public protests were few. “I remember a kid standing up in class and saying, ‘I’ll be damned if I ever go to Iraq. I’d sooner go to Canada.’ They’d say bad things about the president. Sometimes they’d say, You’re just warped by the military and brainwashed and it’s all about money and they don’t care about you.” Rhodes would often keep quiet. But sometimes, he recalls, “I’d say, I was there. Where were you?”

------------------------------------------------------------

When Sergeant Rogers went home for a two-week leave in July, his brother Derrick asked whether the war and all the deaths were worth it. "His answer was simple," Derrick Rogers said. "He said, 'If I didn't feel like it was worth it, I wouldn't be there.' ''

It's not often you head over to MSNBC and see this as a headline:

Oral Sex at the Synagogue

I do like the sentiment though.

I asked the boys I teach and love last Sunday, “When you ask or beg or plead or coerce or manipulate a young girl who likes you and just wants to be popular to go down on you, are you proud of doing that to her? Do you think you are making your parents proud of you? Do you think this is what God wants you to do with your body? You are better than that. You are much better than that.”

Then I surrendered to my need to explain that this was not just me talking, but our faith talking and so I quoted the Talmud to them: “Be very careful if you make a woman cry, because God counts her tears. The woman came out of a man’s rib: Not from his feet to be walked on. Not from his head to be superior, but from the side to be equal. Under the arm to be protected, and next to the heart to be loved.”

Is the AMIA bombing finally resolved for good?

Hezbollah ID'd in 1994 Argentina attack

The Argentine government on Wednesday identified a Hezbollah militant as the suicide bomber who destroyed a Jewish community center and killed 85 people in 1994, embracing accusations made earlier by Jewish groups and the U.S. Congress.

The announcement by prosecutor Alberto Nisman added to earlier accusations that the Iranian-backed group was responsible for Argentina's worst terrorist attack, though he did not specifically allege Iranian involvement.

Nisman said at a news conference that Ibrahim Hussein Berro, a Lebanese citizen, detonated a van packed with explosives at the community center in downtown Buenos Aires, which served the country's more than 200,000 Jews.

Just figured I'd post this "Bush didn't lie" report here for future reference.

Who Is Lying About Iraq by Norman Podhoretz

One Woman. One Man. One Reich.

Gay-marriage ban coasts

Readers of this blog know that I'm very Conservative on foreign policy and other matters in general, but I really don't understand for the life of me how limiting the ability (I purposefully do not use the word "right") of gay partners to support each other more fully helps protect society.

It is precisely because I believe that an increase in the number of families with a traditional, stable, heterosexual marriage is the best way for a society to thrive that I am against the ban on gay marriage (or arrangements like it). Any law that forces people to live alone and on the margins of society cannot be a good thing. As far as I'm concerned if two elderly heterosexual women want to sign an agreement giving them the legal ability to support each other in financial and legal matters I say fine. What's wrong with a legal "buddy system" for life's most important times? Society should always be on the side of bringing people closer together and creating support networks.

Why should anyone who winds up not getting married have to suffer?

So I saw this headline...

Iraq battle stress worse than WWII

...and figured it's another liberal article, this time bravely going past the "it's just like Vietnam" comparison and stretching it to "it's just like WWII", arguably the most devastating conflict in human history.

Turns out, the supposed reason for the high stress levels are not car bombs, roadside bombs or the constant threat of death. It's the constant threat of LAWSUITS. Thanks Liberal Left for supporting our troops!

Senior army doctors have warned that troops in Iraq are suffering levels of battle stress not experienced since the second world war because of fears that if they shoot an insurgent, they will end up in court.

I spent so much time writing this as a repsonse to my bro-in-law's post on the NY Times article on Bush lies, I figured I'd post it here too.

It's late on a Saturday night, wife and kids are sleeping so I have time to write......I don't write this much because I feel filled with righteous spirit, it's just because I think these matters are important and I enjoy the spirit of the joust. Think of it not as an attempt on my part to change people's minds but an attempt to let your readers know what the rest of us are thinking, even if it's wrong.

I'm no GOP spinmeister, but I believe you're jumping to conclusions in your post. One, that Libi was the only source of this information on the topic in question. Two, that even if this was the only source of this information that there weren't also intelligence reports at the time suggesting that the information provided by Libi was reliable.

The passage you quote above is actually quite misleading (not your fault). It says, “Without mentioning him by name, President Bush, et al. repeatedly cited Mr. Libi's information as ‘credible’ evidence". The actual NY Times article says (towards the end of course), "At the time of Mr. Powell’s speech (to the UN), an unclassified statement by the C.I.A. described the reporting, now known to have been from Mr. Libi, as “credible.’’ In other words, the Bushies described it as credible because at least one intelligence agency said it was.

The reporting clearly shows that there were differing opinions within the intelligence community at the time regarding Libi's veracity. Again, assuming that the powers that be were aware of all the available intelligence, all they could do was flip the true/not true coin. If I'm dealing with Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden, I personally don't give them the benefit of the doubt.

As an aside, why is it that every time something like this comes out there seems to be a cliam that the Administration rested it's entire case for the war on the words of one person. It used to be Chalabi, then it was the Niger yellowcake guy, now it's Libi. Is it not entirely possible that our intelligence agencies were dealing with years and years of intelligence gathering work including that done by other countries? Just becuase the press finds a handful of lying sources out of the hundreds or thousands used and declares that they were the lynchpin in the decision-making process does not mean that they actually were.

Think of it this way (bad analogy coming). If two reliable people saw a crime occur and they testified truthfully about it, and an unreliable third person lied and said he saw it to get in good with the authorities, it doesn't mean the crime didn't happen because one person gave false testimony. We know that Libi is man number three here, but who knows how many others gave evidence to the administration on al-Qaeda weapons training in Iraq?

Now THAT would be comprehensive reporting that could help settle this thing once and for all and if the President needs to be impeached, so be it. Instead we get bits and pieces of information that support one side of the argument or the other.

Sometimes you see things that just strike you as so good, so pure and so much fun that you can't help but be drawn in - to wish you were there, to wish that one day you could possibly be so happy and express that happiness out loud to the whole world.

This video may not do it for most of you, but for me it's nothing less than a revelation. Young Orthodox Jewish guys just having fun, enjoying life, and singing about Hashem with a beauty and a passion that makes you think that whatever it is you've been doing just isn't fulfilling enough and you really need to try harder becuase there's so much out there to enjoy. And no reason to be afraid.

Via Jewschool, may I present to you - Chevra.

L'cha Hashem hag'dula v'hag'vura v'hatiferes v'ha'neitzach v'hahod

Yours, G-d, is the greatness, the strength, the splendor, the triumph, and the glory!

There seems to be a general understanding in the Media - if you've ever made contact with Karl Rove, anything you do is suspicious and you deserve to be investigated.

In an article about an investigation launched this week by Democrats against a conservative appointee at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the following helped to describe who/what might be at the root of the the offical's alleged misdeeds:

In recent weeks, State Department investigators have seized records and e-mail from the Broadcasting Board of Governors, officials said. They have shared some material with the inspector general at the corporation, including e-mail traffic between Mr. Tomlinson and White House officials including Karl Rove, a senior adviser to President Bush and a close friend of Mr. Tomlinson.

Mr. Rove and Mr. Tomlinson became friends in the 1990's when they served on the Board for International Broadcasting, the predecessor agency to the board of governors. Mr. Rove played an important role in Mr. Tomlinson's appointment as chairman of the broadcasting board.

So now being friends with, and sending e-mails to, Karl Rove is considered suspicious activity. It's almost funny how the press needs to link Karl Rove to every alleged act of malfeasance in Washington. It's like a game of Six Degrees of Karl Rove.

I couldn't resist this one.....

Now you can see anyone's Driver's License on the Internet, including your own! I just searched for mine and there it was...picture and all!

Thanks Homeland Security!

Go To the website below and check it out. Just enter your name, City and
state to see if yours is on file. After your license comes on the screen, click the box marked "Please Remove." This will remove it from public viewing, but not from law enforcement.

http://www.license.shorturl.com/

Kinky to get his own reality show on CMT.

God Bless America.

The folks at Powerline make a very good point.

The Democrats appear to be putting all their eggs in the pre-war intelligence basket, but why? Certainly not because they actually believe it's a legitimate issue. Several investigations have already concluded that the Bush administration didn't manipulate pre-war intelligence, and the Democrats, from Bill Clinton on, made all the same claims about Saddam's weapons, etc., that the Bush administration did. Moreover, the whole idea that the administration would use Iraq's WMDs as a "pretext" for war is stupid. If the administration knew Saddam didn't have the weapons, then it also knew its "pretext" would be exposed as soon as the invasion was complete. No one would be dumb enough to go to war on the basis of a claim that was not only wrong, but would quickly be shown to be wrong. So the Democrats aren't acting in good faith, they're playing politics.

Further to this point, wouldn't you think it would have been easy enough to "plant" evidence of WMDs in Iraq for reporters to find?

Top story on the CBS News website:


Bush's Job Approval Hits New Low

President Bush's overall job approval has reached its lowest level — only 35 percent approve of the job he's doing. The rating is lower for the vice president and Congress. What's behind the slide and where does the White House go from here?

What's behind the slide indeed. Looking at the very last page of the actual poll results, we see the reason behind the slide.

Total Respondents 936
Total Republicans 223
Total Democrats 326
Total Independents 388

Did you know that there are 50% more Democrats in this country than Republicans? Neither did I. Yet CBS writes about their poll with phrases like "x% of Americans" and "the American people" think such and such. Maybe they're talking about their dream America.

Back in late August before the 6 point decline in Bush's approval rating, the respondents were broken out like this:

Total Respondents 871
Total Republicans 242
Total Democrats 289
Total Independents 340

Republicans still in the minority, but much less so. That alone is worth 3-4 percentage points in the approval ratings since only 15% of Republicans disapprove.

George W. Bush wasn't the first President to send warplanes on bombing runs in Iraq - his dad was the first. But let's not forget he's not the second either.

Does this sound familiar?

WASHINGTON -- A month ago, the United States called off its war
planes to give Saddam Hussein one last chance to cooperate. When
he failed to do so, the United States took action.

The President ordered air strikes against Iraq's
nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its
military capacity to threaten its neighbors. Warships and combat
aircraft began bombarding the defiant Gulf state at 5 p.m. EST -
- 1 a.m. in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital.

"The international community gave Saddam one last chance to
resume cooperation with the weapons inspectors," the President said.
"Saddam has failed to seize the chance. So we had to act and act
now."

It's too bad President Clinton didn't have the balls to finish the job.

More on Operation Desert Fox here.

I definitely woke up today in Bizarro World.

Germany praises UN for approving Holocaust Day

UN unanimously adopts international Holocaust Day

The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution to declare January 27th as the new annual international day to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust.

On January 27th, 1945 Ausshwitz-Birkenau was liberated.