Yippee!  My letter to the editor (based on this LJ post) of the Dallas Morning News will be published sometime later this week.  I'll let y'all know when it appears.  Chances are I'll be in NY, so I'll have to ask the wife to pick up a few hard copies of the paper.  I find that it's much easier getting published if I remove the snarky comments I might usually make.

Time is almost up on the ultimatum that three Palestinian groups have given with regards to the kdnapping of Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit.  Some say he's a prisoner of war and that it's not a kidnapping - he was "captured".  To me if you're demanding a ransom, it's a kidnapping.  Or a hijacking if a plane is involved.  But those don't happen much anymore, in part because of the Raid on Entebbe, 30 years ago today. (Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe remembers it having taken place on July 4, 1976, but that's because we all remember the exciting news publsihed in the papers on the same day as the US Bicentennial - it actually took place the night before).

In a related story, the Israeli army has found and captured those responsible for the murder of Eliyahu Asheri.

"I have one big request for you Eliyahu," (his mother) Miriam said, "when you stand before God, please defend the people of Israel in all its actions."  Amen.

This is the quintessential deifference between the Muslim fundamentalists and the typical Jew. they attack.  They "know" they are doing G-d's bidding.  We just hope we're doing the right thing becuase we realize that we can never know what G-d wants.

Guessing game - who is the queen of humble who had this to say?  "It's frustrating, because sometimes, when you are attractive, people don't acknowledge that you are talented as well. "I mean, I'm a songwriter, I'm a producer, I have a strong voice, I'm a dynamic performer. Sometimes people forget that."  OK, now check the link.

I've started reading "The Tango Singer" by Tomas Eloy Martinez about a young man's quest to search Buenos Aires for a tango singer that may just be a rumor but is supposedly better than even Carlos Gardel.  It's a pretty short book and I'm only 15 pages in, but the descriptions of Buenos Aires and it's people are so on-the-ball I can tell I'm really going to enjoy the whole thing.  On deck is John Stossel's "Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity".

Dippin' Dots are so amazing, especially if you're at an outdoor ballgame when it's 90 degrees or so.  Yum.