Don't know if posting will be light over the next 10 days as the GBAM family goes on an old-fashioned, see-America road trip from San Jose up to Seattle.  I will make extra sure not to speak to anyone about politics.  Hell, I probably shouldn't bother when I'm not on vacation either. :-)

Hey, I like to shop in Whole Foods as much as anyone, but sometimes I think the women in the flowered sundresses and sandals can see right through me as someone who just likes the presentation and doesn't care so much about all the things that they probably care about.  That being said, I do have a conscience and the "paper or plastic" question always gets me.  Isn't paper killing trees and isn't plastic supporting the oil oligarchy?  And does my answer tip the cashier off to whether I'm an intruder in this liberal bastion int he red heart of a red state?  I thought I'd provide a few links on the subject..

Paper vs. Plastic Bags (plastic wins)
Paper or Plastic Bags (unclear)
Q&A: Retail Carry Bags - Paper or Plastic? (both are bad, but pastic wins)

So...even though it feels wrong emotionally, I think I can ask for plastic with confidence.

In the fight against Hizbollah, things are not quite as they appear to be.  I was thinking this as well.

Video of a Hizbollah missile launcher taking cover in a civilian building and then being blown to smithereens by a missile.

I wonder if Lebanese civilians executed by Hizbollah as "spies" have wound up in our newspapers as photographic evidence of Israeli war crimes.

The Mets are still kicking ass and taking names.  Just thought I'd mention it.  Beltran, El Duque lead Mets in romp.

As I haven't linked to it yet - 'I am a Muslim American, angry at Israel' - one dead and five injured in a shooting at the downtown Seattle office of the Jewish Federation.

I want to thank the leaders of the local Muslim community.  I turst that no one will be stupid enough to perpetrate a revenge attack.  May Peace be Upon their community.  Shabbat Shalom.

Hell No...Not Here, Not Ever, Not In My Name - Dr. Hesham A. Hassaballa

In the Name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

I categorically condemn, with every cell in my body, the attack on the Jewish Federation Building in Seattle.

STATEMENT BY SEATTLE MUSLIM COMMUNITY

The Muslim community of Greater Seattle area watched in horror as news broke of a shooting at the Jewish Federation building. While many of the details of this shooting remain to be determined, what is clear is that a senseless and ruthless act of violence has taken place and resulted in the loss of at least one life.

We categorically condemn this and any similar acts of violence. We pray for the safety and health of those injured and offer our heartfelt condolences to the family of the victims of this attack. We also hope that the perpetrator of this crime is brought to justice.

There is no room for such acts of violence in our city and community. When one of us is attacked, none of us are safe. We refuse to see the violence in the Middle East spill over to our cities and neighborhoods.

We reject and categorically condemn any attacks against the Jewish community and stand in solidarity with the Jewish Federation in this tragedy.

Talking Jewish With Deborah Tannen - author of You Just Don't Understand and You're Wearing That?

When Tannen later listened to the tape of the lively discourse, it struck her: unlike the three Gentiles (whom she calls Sally, David and Chad), she and the other two Jews (Steve and Peter)—all of whom had grown up in New York City and were of Eastern European descent—spoke dramatically and rapidly and pursued a variety of topics simultaneously. In fact, so many distinctions between the two groups were apparent that she decided she would no longer schlepp her tape recorder everywhere; the dinner’s smorgasbord of interactions would be the sole focus of her dissertation.

I was very impressed with Anderson Cooper during his Monday evening program.   While being led on a guided tour of Beirut by Hizbollah he tells us right to the camera that it's all bullsh*t.  Transcript here. Thanks to Israellycool for reminding me about it.

I usually try not to link to a lot of things that are readily available on widely read blogs but these issues seem so clear to me that it astounds me that there are large groups of people that don't believe what I do. Abortion, gun rights, stem-cell research, global warning - I can see the nuance of both sides. I don't see any here.

On the concept of proportionality.

"...parties to armed conflict are required to distinguish between combatants and civilians, and, therefore, are prohibited from attacking purely civilian targets--that is, targets with no military function. However, the law recognizes that targets with military objectives may be situated among civilians or have both civilian and military uses. In such cases, the law prohibits indiscriminate attacks and requires the attacking party to employ methods of warfare that minimize the harm to civilians."

Yay John Bolton - by Alan Dershowitz.

"Most importantly, Mr. Bolton understands that his job is to represent the United States and our interests to the world, and not the other way around. When The Washington Post's Dana Milbank chided Mr. Bolton for "disparaging the very organization he would serve," the Wall Street Journal's James Taranto promptly corrected him by saying, "the American ambassador to the U.N. is supposed to serve America, not the U.N."

Ouch.

'Disproportionate' in What Moral Universe? - by Charles Krauthammer.

What other country, when attacked in an unprovoked aggression across a recognized international frontier, is then put on a countdown clock by the world, given a limited time window in which to fight back, regardless of whether it has restored its own security?What other country sustains 1,500 indiscriminate rocket attacks into its cities -- every one designed to kill, maim and terrorize civilians -- and is then vilified by the world when it tries to destroy the enemy's infrastructure and strongholds with precision-guided munitions that sometimes have the unintended but unavoidable consequence of collateral civilian death and suffering?....

When the United States was attacked at Pearl Harbor, it did not respond with a parallel "proportionate" attack on a Japanese naval base. It launched a four-year campaign that killed millions of Japanese, reduced Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki to cinders, and turned the Japanese home islands into rubble and ruin.

Disproportionate? No. When one is wantonly attacked by an aggressor, one has every right -- legal and moral -- to carry the fight until the aggressor is disarmed and so disabled that it cannot threaten one's security again.

I am appalled.

Peace prize winner 'could kill' Bush

NOBEL peace laureate Betty Williams displayed a flash of her feisty Irish spirit yesterday, lashing out at US President George W.Bush during a speech to hundreds of schoolchildren.

Campaigning on the rights of young people at the Earth Dialogues forum, being held in Brisbane, Ms Williams spoke passionately about the deaths of innocent children during wartime, particularly in the Middle East, and lambasted Mr Bush.

"I have a very hard time with this word 'non-violence', because I don't believe that I am non-violent," said Ms Williams, 64.

"Right now, I would love to kill George Bush." Her young audience at the Brisbane City Hall clapped and cheered.

She goes on the explain how the US and UN killed Iraqi children due to the embargoes during the Hussein regime.  No mention of any mass graves or reasons for the embargo though.  Or even if these types of goods were kept by the regime for their own use or for sale on the black market. 

Speaking of embargoes, everyone talks about how Bush's war in Iraq has made things so much worse than the status quo ante.  Tens of thousands, maybe even a hundred thousand Iraqi civilians have died.  Notwithsatnding the fact that they are mostly killing each other and I feel the blame should be placed on the killers, UN estimates show that between 500,000 and 1.2 million children died during the years of the sanctions in the 1990s.   I blame those deaths squarely on the shoulders of Saddam Hussein and his cronies, but that being said, whose policies resulted in more Iraqi death and suffering?  Bush's or Clinton's?  I know what the media leads us to believe.

So, John Kerry claims, "If I was president, this wouldn't have happened", referring to the current war between Israel and Hizbollah.  I actually saw a Democrat pundit on one of ther major cable news stations yesterday trying to defend this by letting us know how Bush didn't keep his eye on the ball in the Middle East, etc.  However, one would think that in order to have done things differently, one would have had to have a different outlook on the situation, and tried to focus national attention on the issue.

I don't remember John Kerry mentioning Hizbollah or Lebanon in the 2004 Presidential Debates or any other time for that matter.  Do you? 

Besides what kind of diplomacy was there to be done with Hizbollah? Israel already withdrew to it's border in 2000.  What was israel supposed to offer Hizbollah to get them to disarm?  And is it anything but laughable that Kerry would have had some kind of tougher policy on Iran when he wasn't even willing to do anything more than continue with WMD inspections in Iraq, a much weaker country?

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

I saw two movies over the weekend.  "Duma" is the story of a South African teen's adventure in trying to find a home in the wilderness for a domesticated, grown cheetah after events force his family to move from a farm to the big city.  Great story, beautiful scenery.   The kind of film that made great family TV on Sunday nights when I was growing up.  The other is "Fateless" a semi-autibiogrpahical story written by  Nobel Prize winning author, Imre Kertesz.  The story tells of a Hungarian Jewish teen who finds himself suddenly caught up in a deportation to Auschwitz and how his.  The move is very European, meaning lots of beautiful cinematography in muted colors and silent or near-silent scenes which make you think about what it means to be a human being.  The acting of the main character is so understated that it's not until the end that you say to yourself - how did that kid do such a great job without having been in such a terrible situation himself.  Wow.

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

When Israeli author and peace activist Amoz Oz speaks up on behalf of Israel's actions in Lebanon, there can be no doubt that Israeli society is united.

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

A really detailed map of southern Lebanon for those keeping track of what's going on.  From Pajamas Media which has one of the best roundups of news on the conflict.


 

The evil Israel lobby has done it again!  The House passed a resolution, "condemning the recent attacks against the State of Israel, holding terrorists and their state-sponsors accountable for such attacks, supporting Israel's right to defend itself, and for other purposes."

This is a point that I hadn't really thought of - the House "demands the Government of Lebanon to do everything in its power to find and free the kidnapped Israeli soldiers being held in the territory of Lebanon".  I myself have bought into the argument that the Lebanese government are just a bunch of innocents with no responsibilites, caught up in the middle of a war that is not of their making.  When I thought of the situation in reverse, if the Minutemen (for example) were holding some Mexican army guys hostage, damn right we would be responsible for helping to find them and they're not elected memebers of the governement as Hizbollah members are.

Now for the Hall of Shame, those reps that voted against the resolution are the following - Democrats in italics.  Since I am part of The Lobby, I am obligated by our evil overlords to print them.

Abercrombie

Conyers - "Hezbollah...must be dismantled and disarmed...This conflict cannot be resolved militarily; only diplomacy can bring an end to the bloodshed." - His district is in the Detroit area.

Dingell - He represents Dearborn, so no surprise there

Kilpatrick (MI) - Same as Conyers and Dingell

McDermott - I hope I don't have to go into this one.  I wonder why his buddy McKinney of Georgia didn't bother showing up.

Paul - He just doesn't like the U.S. being involved in the Middle East at all. I give him a pass.  Plus his name isn't in Italics.

Rahall - He is of Lebanese descent.  "I was in Beirut 24 years ago almost to the day when Israel was bombing that country to rid it of the PLO when President Ronald Reagan had the courage and sense to personally call then Prime Minister Menachem Begin and say enough is enough."

Stark

Most of this team votes against anything related to the support of Israel, even disengagement from Gaza.

I don't know whether the Prime Minister of Spian is anti-Semitic or not as many of these charges are new to me, but he certainly ain't exacty pro-Israel.  My interest was sparked when I read about Prime Minister Zapatero's wearing of a Palestinian kaffiyeh/flag scarf.  Oh, and Hizbollah and Israel...same thing.

In Spain, anti-Semitism is new leftist trend

Spanish Jews knew there were hard times ahead. Prime Minister Zapatero has not disappointed them

Yesterday evening I spent an hour at a pro-Israel rally/prayer meeting at Congregation Beth Torah in Richardson.  There were 700 people but the only news crew that showed up was CBS - Channel 11.

Local Jewish Leaders Start Israel Support Campaign

I'm not sure why the article needed to have a counterpoint from a Lebanese-American, but I can't bring myself to criticize the article too strongly because it is so short and weak on background to begin with.

It seems when they published an article about the worries of a local Lebanese family a few days ago though, (Texans Make Contact With Family In Lebanon), they didn't need to spend half the article finding someone to talk about the Israeli point of view.

Anyway, the meeting was quite uplifitng with comments by various local rabbis, a leader of the Jewish Community Relations Council and the local Consul General of Israel.  The best comments of the night came from Alan Greenspan who said that if we feel uncomfortable defending Israel to our local community, think of how uncomfortable people are living in bomb shelters.  He also reminded us that when people complain about Israeli "massacres" of Lebanese civilians to remind them that under international law, terrorists who use civilians as human shields are committing war crimes and any civilians that die as a result are legally their responsibility.

After singing of the Star-Spangled banner and Hatikvah to close the meeting, people spontaneously broke out into singing "Am Yisrael Chai" - The People of Israel Live.

May he who makes peace
in the high places
make peace for us,
and for all the people of Israel
and let us say, Amen.

Creepy.  Video at Crooks and Liars.

On his way here, the president spent much of Thursday with Merkel in her Bundestag district in northeastern Germany, building on a friendship that began with her earlier visit to the White House, a welcome guest after her conservative coalition turned Gerhard Schroeder out of office last fall. Schroeder's opposition to the war in Iraq had made him a thorn in Bush's side.

It's safe to say the former chancellor never got the treatment Merkel received from the president.

Entering the meeting room, as relayed by a Russian television camera, Bush headed directly behind the chancellor, reached out and, placing both hands on the collar of her gold jacket, gave her a short massage just below the neck.

She smiled.



OK - maybe we shouldn't let him out of the 'House.

Diary of an Israeli pilot.

It's strange how the focus in these missions is not to succeed, hit the target precisely, but rather - not to make any mistakes. The message is clear all the way from the Squadron commander to the last pilot. One mistake can jeopardize the whole war, like in Kfar-Kana, in one of the last operations in Lebanon, where artillery bombarded a refugee camp, killing over 100 people, which resulted in international pressure that halted the operation.

Esteemed almost-Yale professor Juan Cole doesn't agree

If the reports coming out of Lebanon can be believed, the Israelis are only sometimes striking known Hizbullah safe houses or facilities or missile emplacements. A lot of their bombardment appears aimed at punishing civilian populations and forcing them north to Beirut. Such an approach would help explain the high number of civilian casualties. That is, there may be an element of ethnic cleansing in Israeli tactics.

An "element of ethnic cleansing"? It either is or isn't - why can't he just be a man and call the Israelis Nazis.  In either case, "a lot of the bombardment" is not what Hizbollah is using against Israeli civilians, it's "all of ".

Well,  it's 95 degrees in New York and things start shutting down.  It's 99 degrees here in Dallas with a forecast high of 106 and we're doing just fine thank yo....oh sh*t there go the lights.... (Just kidding). :-)

My town (Plano, TX) is number 11 on Money Magazine's newly issued list of Best Places to Live. Neighboring towns Richardson and Carrollton come in at 15 and 19 respectively.  Not bad to have 3 of the Top 20 together.  The funny thing is that this seems to be one of the few places in the country that the housing bubble hasn't come to, probably becuase there's so much building going on.  Demand goes up, but the supply goes up even more.  It is frickin' hot though.  Feels like 102 degrees and it's only noon.

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

When I was 15, I went on a very popular six week teen tour to Israel.  It was the summer of 1982, only weeks after Israel invaded Lebanon.  It was probably safer then than at any time in the recent past.  Israel cleaned the PLO (the resident terrorist organization at the time) out of the area and chased them all the way to Beirut.  We even went up to the Lebanese border and could see the ex-PLO fortifications up close, went to a fair with captured military equipment, and got a first-hand lesson on how the media distorts the news to increase sales or pitch a particular point of view.  To this day, those six weeks represent the most significant time of my life, not counting marriage and children.

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

On the day in 1989 when Robert J. Gschaar proposed to his girlfriend, he showed her two $2 bills. "It was a second marriage for both of us," Myrta Gschaar recalled last week. "It was our second chance at happiness. That's what the $2 bills represented."

They both tucked their $2 bills in their wallets, vowing never to relinquish them......

Their future together ended the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when Robert Gschaar, 55, called his wife in Spring Valley after the first plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center. He said his Aon office on the 92nd floor of the south tower was being evacuated.

That was the last she ever heard from him.....

Now, Myrta Gschaar knows for certain that her husband perished along with 2,748 others that bloody day. His remains have been positively identified through DNA testing.....

In addition to having his remains, she also was given his wallet, which was recovered from under tons of debris at the World Trade Center site.

The battered brown wallet, caked with dust and grime, contained the ordinary objects of a working person's life — a driver's license, credit cards, tickets for the Red & Tan bus Gschaar took from Rockland into the Port Authority every morning, a library card from the Finkelstein Memorial Library in Spring Valley, a picture of his wife, a Pathmark savings card.

And in the wallet Myrta Gschaar found the final, incontrovertible proof that her husband was gone: his $2 bill.

Full article here.  After having been unemployed for four years, Gschaar began working for Aon in July 2001.

Regarding the "kidnapping" versus "capturing" thing, a soldier might be "captured" if they're on the battlefield in some disputed territory. At that point they are usually held prisoner until hostilities end or they are killed if they are particularly unfortunate. They are "kidnapped" when they are taken not in a battle to determine who gets to hold the terrain, but as part of a plan whose sole aim is to retreat with the soldier(s) in custody and then ask for ransom against the threat of killing the captive.

Under the normal rules of war, soldiers are "captured" under two circumstances that I can think of. Either they are taken by force and kept alive because they may know something of value or they have voluntarily surrendered either as an individual or part of a larger, defeated group. There are no usually no "conditions" assigned to their eventual release and certainly no death threats.

On the other hand, I would never call attacks on soldiers "terrorism" as some do. I reserve that for deliberate attacks against targets where the only conceivable casualties are civilians. The attackers may still be "terorrists" though in my opinion if they incorporate attacks on civilians as part of their plan to gain power.

"See, the irony is what they really need to do is to get Syria to get Hizbullah to stop doing this (expletive)." - President George W. Bush. C'mon 43, it's what we need to do.

BINGO - (see my post yesterday) - Israel sends ground forces into Lebanon. May G-d protect the Israeli forces and innocent Lebabnese civilians.

I am a strong believer that the Israelis do not target civilians on purpose, and because these reported deaths were neighbors of ours, Canadians, I have been trying to find out what Israel was aiming at in that area.  I haven't found any additional information, nor the name of the family involved. (I'm trying not to be suspicious of the report). At least one Canadian columnist believes what I do.

As long as the victims were civilians, whether vacationing or resident, Canadian or Lebanese, old or young, men or women, we know Israel's bombs weren't meant for them.

Is reducing the federal debt a bad thing?  The Skeptical Optimist thinks so - remember the contraction that began at the end of the Clinton era when we finally started recording triple-digit surpluses?  Seems it's happened everytime we've tried to run surpluses.

When I remember, I try to find out if the Space Shuttle will be de-orbiting anywhere near my neck of the woods (and no, not because of the tragic explosion over Texas).  Unfortunately it's coming in across Central America and over the Gulf of Mexico, so there'll be no chance to see it.  I did discover on the same page, awesome videos taken from cameras attached to the Solid Rocket Boosters.  Wow.

Via Instapundit - a scienific analysis of how you can get better mpg's out of your car, here's the layman's version from the government.  I can probably stand to cut 10mph or so off my typical speed.

I saw Adam Sandler's remake of "The Longest Yard" on DVD.  4 out of 10.  Some funny parts, extremely formulaic, pretty bad acting and casting.  Adam Sandler as a tough guy?  Almost, but not quite. 

On Firday night, I heard some guy call in to a talk radio program saying that if we thought that there was a war going on then, wait until Monday - Israel was just getting warmed up, definitely preparing for a ground invasion.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Two grand slams in one 11 run inning.  Up 12 games in mid-July.  Best record in the National League.  Is this my Mets we're talking about?

Sandmonkey explains all.  "All of this talk about Israel targeting civillians really pisses me off. Let me clear it up for you once and for all: Hamas and Hezbollah don't have military bases: they plan, operate and attack from homes, where their families are. The Israelis, in order to retaliate, they have to attack those homes, which always lead to those women and children, who live in those houses, to die. If Hamas and Hezbollah don;t want civillians to die, don;t fuckin plan your attacks or launch your attacks near civillians. But you know they do this on purpose, so it would look bad on the Israeli if they attacked. Dude, they called the airport 1 hour before they hit it to have it evacuated, they warned all of southern Beirut yesterday to take cover because they don't want to kill them. Not hezbollah. Hezbollah doesn't give a shit who their missiles hit. And somehow, they remain blameless in the arab mind: after all, they are not jews.  Listen, you can not talk shit about how you will beat and destory Israel, and then scream "Humanatarian crisis" when they hit you back. Either suffer the consequences of your actions or SHUT THE FUCK UP."

All this talk of proportionate response by israel is ridiculous.  All that really means is that Israel's critics want the status quo to remain.  In order for their to be true peace, someone has to win and in order for someone to win, one side has to be disproportionally stronger and/or smarter.  Otherwise all you have is years and years of conflict.  In my opinion those countries critical of Israel are lying anyway so that terorrists don't go after their own citizens in their own countries.

Pajamas Media is the best place to get concise, just the facts updates on the situation in Lebanon and Gaza.

The last eight episodes of The Sopranos will be delayed two months until March due to unexpected knee surgery for Tony.

A personal report from blogger The Muqata in Israel - "All of the West Bank is alight tonight with fireworks from the Palestinian villages (along with scattered automatic gunfire), as our neighbors celebrate...the shelling of Haifa."

If you want to help Israel manage the crisis in a small way, you can donate to the American Friends of Magen David Adom (the Israeli Red Cross).  If you prefer to help a similar cause elsewhere, you can pick the peoples of your choosing here.

Life In Israel makes a good point - "The powers to be have declared that this is a major escalation, and basically that now we will show them....Why is attacking Haifa an escalation? Is attacking the border not enough? Is raining Katyushas on the whole northern Israel not enough....the reaction should be harsher to stop the rockets, but not because Hizb'Allah has escalated the conflict, but because that is the appropriate reaction to when your country has been attacked by a foreign government."

The Plames have filed a lawsuit against Cheney, Rove et al. for exposing them and ruining their lives.  Good luck. 

Random thoughts on the situation in the Middle East.

Isn't it the position of the "reality" camp that Sunni and Shi'a terrorists (excuse me - hardliners) can never work together in the fight against the West?  That's the inconvenient truth as to why Saddam could never have helped Osama, right?  Well, Hamas (Sunni) and Hizbollah (Shi'a) don't seem to have a problem.

Armed resistance groups in Gaza Strip, West Bank and Lebanon standing together against Israeli aggression and occupation

Also from a NY Times report - “The capture of the two soldiers could provide a solution to the Gaza crisis,” he Hizbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said. The operation had been planned for months, he said, though he added, “The timing, no doubt, provides support for our brothers in Palestine."  And the Gaza incident wasn't planned for months?  Curiously, a Google search with the phrase "support for our brothers in Palestine" brings up the original Times article, but the paragraph has since been removed.

Martin Peretz, Editor-in-Chief of The New Republic had this to say back in March about relations between Hamas and Hizbollah - The Sunni-Shia rift is very deep, and even hatred of the Jews will not bridge it in the long run.  Oops.  Just goes to show that Phd form Harvard and a professorship doesn't make you all-knowing.

Amnesty International weighs in - “Israel must put an immediate end to attacks against civilians and against civilian infrastructure in Lebanon, which constitute collective punishment...Hizbullah must stop launching attacks against Israeli civilians..."

First lesson - non-guided missiles lobbed into city centers with express hope of killing civilians are equivalent to smart missiles which target military objectives where civilians may be present.

Question for discussion - are airports, roads, bridges or power stations illegitimate militrary targets becuase they are used primarily by civilians in peacetime.  During a time of hostilities, regardless of who's to blame, is the causation of hardship to the civilian population a war crime?  If so, what then is a legitimate target to prevent the movement of, and communication between, enemy combatants, especially where they are using the civilian infrastructure themselves?  Wouldn't Amnesty's stance have theoretically prohibited the bombing of train lines used to send Jews to concentration camps?

The goal of many in the international community seems to be "let's just get back to the status-quo" when the status quo is what caused the problem in the first place.  We must have clear victory or defeat here in order to get things to change.

We know that Iran supports the "freedom fighters" in Lebanon and the Occupied Territories.  However, if they do become openly involved, bombs away my friends. And I suggest this man's house first.

Some good news from Iraq - a first, albeit quiet, Iraqi province is officially coalition soldier-free.  One report already has a second province being handed over.

Not only am I outraged at Hizbollah's actions against Israel, but I'm outraged at the bullsh*t coverage in the media.

The NY Times reports - "The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a brazen raid this morning along Israel’s border with Lebanon."

CNN Reports - "Three of the seven soldiers who were killed Wednesday died during fighting with Hezbollah along the Israeli-Lebanese border"

Along the border!?!  What the hell is that!?!  Hezbollah attacked Israeli military positions (and civilian towns) INSIDE Israel.  This is an invasion and without qualification an act of war - the Israelis weren't standing with one foot on one side and the other foot on the other side.  And the border is internationally recognized.

I say a big F*** You to any other country or group of countries who ask for "proportionate" retaliation when missiles and attacks are flying on two (if not three) fronts.  This is a war and Israel has to fight to win, which means defeating their enemies.  If that means making a big mess while doing it, too bad.

The Washington Post Op-Ed page becomes Propoganda Central for Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh.  Read how he gives the American people a guilt trip for supporting Israel.  Hey Haniyeh, not even a thank you for American and International support for Palestinian arms smuggling and praise for suicide bombers?

Whenever I see that the NY Times writes an editorial about the economy, I know I'm in for a good laugh.

A growing number of economists, most prominently from the Congressional Budget Office, point out that upsurges in revenue are also the result of growing income inequality in the United States, an observation that is consistent with mounting evidence of a rapidly widening gap between the rich and everyone else.

So the Times' hope is that the rich and corporations start paying less in taxes so that the middle classes will have a greater share of the tax burden in order to prove greater income equality?  In any case, they're missing the big point in that spending is way out of control (notwithstanding expenses related to the war or hurricane relief which don't seem to merit the Times' attention even though their elimination would bring the budget into balance, or close to it.)  If the Times considers these costs unavoidable and unqiue challenges for the Bush budget, that should be included in the analysis.  Those who claim that the cost of the war is avoidable are forgetting that they wanted to spend the same money, just "smarter".

Well, I did promise to read John Stossel's Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity : Get Out the Shovel--Why Everything You Know is Wrong.
I'm about 30 pages in, and while it's kind of entertaining, it's going to go in the magazine/book rack that is conveniently built into the wall of the "water closet" in the master bathroom.  (This is my favorite feature of our house, by the way).  Most of the "myths" he uncovers are well-known arguments by conservatives/libertarians against traditional thinking and they comes in 1-2 page bites, which makes it easy to read a little at a time.

An example.  Women supposedly earn xx cents for the same job that men of the same caliber get paid a dollar to do.  He claims that if this were really the case, smart business people would only hire women becuase they're willing to work for so significantly less pay. 

Instead of finishing the Stossel book, I whipped through Anderson Cooper's bio, Dispatches from the Edge : A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival. I was pleasantly surprised to find it available at my library in the New Books section - normally you have to put yourself on the waiting list for current bestsellers.  I wouldn't have paid to read it, but since it was there.....

The most surprising thing I found out was that Cooper's mother is Gloria Vanderbilt and that his brother committed suicide. (I din't realize that the Gloria Vanderbilt designer label still exists - man that stuff was popular in the disco era.)  This just goes to prove my feelings that most famous people had some kind of unusual (to put it mildly) family situations which compeled them to seek significance/relevance outside their immediate surroundings.  Othewise, the book is an interesting look at what it's like to be in places of intense human suffering.  On Iraq, I found him fair and balanced.  On Katrina, I was surprised to learn that he didn't actually get to New Orleans until well after the storm had passed and that he had significant family roots in the area.  I probably would have known that had I been paying more attention.

And, for those who are interested, he does not comment on any personal relationships of his own, even as he surrounds himself with macho military/police types who frequent strip clubs and are constantly described as "lonely" and "horny".

From World Wide Rant.

Imagine my delight when I discovered, on YouTube, this glorious, seven-minute-long live performance of "Superstition," by Stevie Wonder, from the early 1970s...

On Sesame Street.

Direct link to video here.

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

Bill Maher on Amazon Fishbowl here.  Very funny and entertaining - it will be interesting to see if this plays well with the customer base.  You certainly won't see Wal-Mart advertising by celebrating casual sex, drugs and gay rights and railing against Big Business and the President.  New episodes will premiere each Thursday this summer at 8 p.m. Pacific Time and can be seen anytime at www.amazon.com/entertainment.  Quote of the day..."televison, that is so 20th century..."

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

If I didn't mention before, there's no reason to go anywhere other than the new townhall.com if you need to know what's on the conservative mind.  If only there were a liberal media aggregator I would only have 2 bookmarks to go to.  That and the Mets' website.

The New York Post reports on a different kind of subway assault.  No cordess power saws involved.



A massive subway ad campaign by the controversial Jews for Jesus group is infuriating some Jewish leaders and straphangers.

The ads - which encourage Jews to accept Jesus as the Messiah - went up in subway cars and at the Times Square station as part of the organization's $1.4 million campaign this month to proselytize around the city.

As one reader comments, it is still somewhat less annoying than when they stand around pushing pamphlets in people's faces.  I wonder, does the Church have anything to say about this?  I'm too lazy to look it up right now.

Joe Biden Classic Video - "You CANNOT go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent ... I'm not joking."



Howard Dean on the New York State Court of Appeals decision that gay marriage is not a right under the New York constitution - "Today's decision by the New York Court of Appeals, which relies on outdated and bigoted notions about families, is deeply disappointing, but it does not end the effort to achieve this goal."

Howard Dean reiterating the 2004 Democrat party platform on gay marriage - "marriage is between a man and a woman." 

Actually that's not fair because he misstated the correct position which says "the party is committed to full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and leaves the issue to the states to decide."  Well, the state of New York did exactly what the platform calls for and Dean's still outraged.  How about a little intellectual honesty here - support legislation to push gay marriage rights through Congress.

The Israeli cafe chain Aroma opens the doors to its first international branch this weekend, on Wooster Street in New York's trendy Soho district.

"I believe that we have a different style to our competition here," said Berman when asked how Aroma would fair against existing coffee shops such as Starbucks. "We have worked hard to develop our style, the coffee is gourmet and the food is all fresh and healthy. Starbucks does not have a kitchen, they serve mostly ready made cakes.

"I think our concept - fast food but with an elegant, healthy and sophisticated presentation - will give us the edge.

For the life of me I can't find an Israeli website for Aroma.

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

Nine months ago, Israel forcibly removed all the Jewish settlers in Gaza.  One of the main arguments against the Israeli settlements, was that 8,000 Jews lived in 40 percent of the land and 1.3 million Palestinians were relegated to the other 60%.  Today, the Israeli army retook three of the abandoned, EMPTY settlements.  EMPTY?!?  Didn't Israel leave these places because the Paelstinians wanted them so badly that they killed for it?  Isn't someone responsible for not getting the Palestinians to spread out a little now that the land available to them has increased by two-thirds?

If Israel ever falls, this is the precursor to the greatest mystery of the future - Palestinians will never move "back" to pre-1967 Israel because no one really wants the land anyway - they just want to get rid of the Jews and will be more than happy to remain where they are now.

My letter to the editor of the Dallas Morning News, somewhat abridged methinks, can be found online here.  I'm used to toning down the rhetoric and being even-handed so that I can get into the New York Times.  Sometimes I forget that the Dallas paper is not afraid to print a little red meat from the readers - see the following person's comments on the same subject.

My frustated internal journalist -ego feels somewhat appeased but is never fully satisfied.

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.

Last week, Senator Rick Santorum and Rep. Peter Hoekstra forced the publication of an April report by the U.S. Army's National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) stating that approximately 500 chemical weapon warheads have been found in Iraq since 2003. The revelation was mostly ignored by the press and where it was reported, emphasis was put on the fact that the warheads were in a "degraded" state and were "old".

The Washington Post finally catches up today with the story (not one Page One, heaven forfend) by reporting on hearings of the Senate Armed Services Committee regarding the discovered munitions. The article emphasizes the political effect of this disclosure which can be shown in their headline

Munitions Found in Iraq Renew Debate

Panel Is Divided Over Whether Troops Uncovered Weapons of Mass Destruction

But is that really true?

Rep. Susan Davis (D-Calif.) asked whether the munitions could be characterized as "the Golden Oldies of weapons of mass destruction." (Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency) Maples said he was "not sure what Golden Oldies are" but added that the munitions were "dangerous. . . . even in a degraded mode, they will produce hazardous and potentially lethal effects and that we would categorize them as weapons of mass destruction."

Is that unclear? What part of "we would" did the Washington Post fail to understand? Oh, I see..they said the Panel was divided, i.e. the Democrats refuse to take Maples at his word. Or more likely they're working on their own historically revised definition of WMDs such as if the were produced before the Gulf War they don't count regardless of whether they could cause massive casulaties.

I would also refer you to the Panel's press release issued after the hearing.

Two panels of witnesses testifying today about approximately 500 chemical munitions found in Iraq—the existence of which was made public only last week by the Director of National Intelligence—largely agreed that these weapons constitute weapons of mass destruction and remain hazardous and potentially lethal.

Weldon asked if Iraq is a “WMD-free zone,” to which Maples responded, “I would not say that, sir.” In fact, Maples said, “Our concern is, what else is out there?” He also indicated that there are still significant numbers of people searching for WMDs in Iraq.

“There are WMDs,” said Rep. John McHugh (R-NY), adding, “I find it surrealistic that we’re discussing the birthday of a weapon in regards to its ability to affect human life.”

“One point that will be particularly relevant ...about the discovery in Iraq of hundreds of ‘pre-Gulf War’ chemical munitions is the fact that those were precisely the WMDs Saddam was supposed to destroy. He was not supposed to manufacture any others. Suggestions that we subsequently went to war only over different weapons, produced post-Gulf War, are erroneous and misleading.”