The reason why I blog, as opposed to write professionally is that instead of eviscerating Tom Paulin with a well written, barb filled missive, I'd merely tell him to suck my Brooklyn-born, Jewish dick.
So I'm back from spending a week in Montreal. Normally, I'd be full of incisive wit and analysis but right now, I have nothing to add to the anouncement of my return.
I'm leaving for Montreal tomorrow and will be there for a week, so expect light blogging.
In the meantime... Merry Christmas to all my readers who are celebrating.
While flipping through the channels on the TV this morning, I paused on MSNBC, in order to hear them tell me that there was more violence in the Middle East today: one armed Palestiniand and one Israeli were killed. Of course, they neglected to tell me that the one Israeli was a Rabbi who was gunned down while driving his wife and 6 kids. I guess it's all the same...Palestinian terrorist and a Jewish Rabbi. More proof that the Jews own the media I guess.
Because our government is so interested in helping to wean us off of foreign oil, it is giving large tax breaks to small business owners and self-employed individuals who buy trucks that have an unloaded gross vehicle weight of 6,000 pounds or more.
While the intent of the laws were to give tax breaks to business who purchased construction, transport or farming vehicles, people are using them to buy those ever necessary BMW X5's and Chevy Suburbans.
It's good to know that instead of giving tax breaks for buying expensive, but fuel efficient cars, Uncle Sam is giving them out for buying oversided gas guzzlers. But it's not just the government that's at fault here. At some point, individuals have to take some responsibility for their buying habits - you don't have to buy the big truck just because you can, folks.
While I was waiting for members of my thesis committee to arrive at my meeting, I picked up a copy of MIT's Technology Review which had an article that discussed potential new technologies that could increase the fuel efficiency of both cars and trucks. Unfortunately you have to subscribe to get access to the entire article, but it's definitely worth reading. Based on what I read it seems that gas usage can be reduced without necessarily reducing acceleration or weight, the two factors many claim are the only ways to reduce fuel use.
Some of the ideas included cars that no longer idle, a camless engine, and an electronically controlled drive train. Each of these can cut fuel consumption by about 10% or so which, when multiplied by the number of vehicles on the road, makes for a large reduction in oil consumption.
According to this article, the technologies are not far way from being ready to be mass produced, but the auto industry has little incentive to apply them. How many of us, knowing that gas is so cheap, would fork over a couple of thousand dollars to buy a more fuel efficient car? Probably not many. And this brings me to something under discussion at Haggai's blog about the where to use money that's being allocated to deploying a missile shield that really doesn't work. I suggested that we allocate a great deal to alternative fuel/conservation research so that we no longer need to worry about the stability of the inherently unstable Middle East. The projects discussed in this article further bolster my idea - if the federal government granted tax credits to people who bought cars with these new technologies, there would a greater demand for them, meaning that the automakers would probably be more likely to produce them. I know that there are many who bristle at the idea of government directed social engineering, especially among individualistic Americans, but I believe that there are times when the greater good must take precendence, and this is one of those times. So I say, let's push to make these new technologies commonplcae, and I'll buy one of these cars.... as long as they don't look like this.
I've been busy preparing for my thesis committee tomorrow morning, so blogging has been next to non-existant. I'll be back by Friday morning, do not despair.
After nary a peep for two weeks from the luminaries over a warbloggerwatch, we a finally treated a demonstration of their wit, knowledge, and intellegence: a complete misunderstanding of a month old Scott Ganz post.
Obviously reading comprehension was not a required skill for joining WBW.
Robert Fisk, 8/18/02: "And, save for 10 Lebanese men hiding in a Palestinian camp — who may have no contact with Al-Qaeda — there isn’t a single Osama Bin Laden follower in Lebanon."
Bashar Assad, 12/14/02:"Syria fought al-Qaeda in Lebanon four years ago."
I'm not sure what happened to a previous post about Reuters story but now what's written is worse. Before, the headline of the story was "Israel kills 5 unarmed Palestinians," and you had to read the story to realize that the 5 Palestinians were attempteing to sneak through a border crossing when the IDF had warnings that a terrorist infiltration could occur in that area.
But now Reuters one ups itself by changing the story, because now 2 other Palestinians (both armed gunmen) and 2 Israelis (both unarmed civilians) have been killed. Of course, Reuters makes sure to note that 5 of the Palestinians were unarmed, but somehow forgets to make the same note of the Israelis.
Don't ever tell me that Reuters doesn't have an agenda.
Update: It appears that the two Israelis killed were soldiers. I suppose I am partially wrong about Reuters, but my comment about the original headline still stands.
This is one of the more reasonable essays on what an Israeli withdrawal from the territories means. Shavit knows that withdrawal is necessary but also recognizes that it's not a simple process.
I don't completely agree with the sentiment of this reworked fable, but since it does involve a Grasshoppa, I thought I'd post it anyway:
The Ant and the Grasshopper - CLASSIC VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building
his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper
thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no
food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
The Ant and the Grasshopper - MODERN VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his
house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks
he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come
winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands
to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while
others less fortunate are cold and starving. National News shows up to
provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant
in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. The nation is
stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of
such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
The opposition parties stage a demonstration in front of the ant's
house, where the news stations film the group singing, "We Shall Overcome."
A local member of government rants in an interview with celebrity news
reporter that the ant has gotten rich off the backs of grasshoppers, and
calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share".
Finally, the Government drafts the Economic Equity and Anti Grasshopper
Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for
failing to hire green bugs for help and, having nothing left to pay his
retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.The story
ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's
food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be
the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is found dead in
a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by
a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.
So Keith Olbermann thinks that we should be more sympathetic to the poor celebrities who walk around with veritble targets on their backs, subject to a cruel (and unusual?) public ridicule. One wonders if Keith longs for this so called target, realizing that it has faded along with his celebrity status. As I was reading this article, I started hearing music in the background... the sound of the world's tiniest violin playing. Fame and fortune has a price, Mr. Olbermann, and for financial comfort, the ability to get away with, well sometimes, murder, and a bully pulpit, being subjected to public ridicule when you screw up seems a small price to pay.
It's the use of that bully pulpit that makes Olbermann's article that much more infuriating. The celebrities who signed that inspid petition expect their voices to count more than anyone elses precisely because they are celebrities. The large majority of those signatories have precious little expertese in geopolitics (Cary Elwes? Angelica Huston?) yet they expect their views to be taken more seriously than anyone else's merely because they're famous. Sorry folks, you can't have it both ways.
A man in Gloucester, UK, has been warned that he would be breaking the law if he broke into a mini-van that has been parked in front of his garage, preventing him from getting his car out. The car doesn't belong to any of his neighbors, and the police won't tell him who the owner is since it would be violating data-protection law, nor will they tow it for him since it's not creating a "public disturbance."
This is what happens when society is over-legislated and the authorities have no common sense. But hell, it's a boon to drivers who can't find parking. Just park on anyone's private property since it can't be towed.
According to Diane, Salam took down his blog after being mentioned by Reuters. I'm sure he now fears for his life, given the Iraqi government's distaste for dissent. Someday, journalists will realize that people's lives are more valuable than getting their scoops.
This is a letter that was published in today's Boston Metro:
Cheers to Winona Ryder who got off with probation and community service for supposedly shoplifting in Beverly Hills. The real crooks are the folks at Saks Fifth Avenue, who put ridiculous markups on clothing while paying sweatshop wages to the manufactuerers, as well as the prosecution whose real beef with the acress is that she's prettier an more talented than they are.-Kevin Shelley, Allson
While I cannot argue that the clothes at Saks is ridiculously overpriced ($100 for socks?), painting Winona Ryder, a woman who could actually afford to shop in Saks, as the champion of the foreign sweatshop workers is just plain ludicrous.
If you've ever taken an IQ test or something like it, then you'll be familiar with those questions that give you a series of numbers and ask you to fill in the next two or three numbers to logically follow. I was reminded of this kind of question when I received the following in an email to all students in my grad program:
The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has expanded the Special Registration program to require certain nonimmigrants who now in the United States to report to an INS office in order to be registered in the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS).Males over 16 who were last admitted to the U.S. on or before September 30, 2002, and who plan to remain in the U.S. until at least January 10, 2002, and were born in and/or hold citizenship from one of the following countries:
Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Eritrea, Lebanon, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, or Yemen
must formally register with Boston Immigration at Room E-140 of the JFK Building in Government Center, Boston (Massachusetts residents only) by January 10, 2003.
Individuals subject to this requirement who fail to register by January 10, 2003 will be considered by INS to be in violation of their immigration status. Compliance is mandatory to maintain legal non-immigrant status in the US.
Previous information regarding Special Registration still applies: citizens or nationals of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, or Syria are required to comply with these procedures by December 16, 2002.
So we have the following series: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Eritrea, Lebanon, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, or Yemen. Who's missing?
Could it be the country which was home to 15/19 of the 9-11 hijackers? The country whose royal family is accused of indirectly funding 2 of those same hijackers? Yes, it could be.... Saudi Arabia.
Of course it could also be the county who was so generous to supply us with the leader of the 9-11 crew as well as the nutjob who shot up the El-Al terminal at LAX. Yes, it could be Egypt too.
Honestly, I'm not real thrilled about this whole registration process, as it is insulting to the law abiding nonresidents from those countries. It's one of those cases of a few bad apples spoiling the bunch. However, if such a process is going to be installed, then it should at least be done effectively. Exempting citizens from Egypt and especially Saudi Arabia cuts into this effectiveness.
Before begining this story, I'd like to present you with this cute chanukiah. It's definitely one of the more entertaining flash movies I've come across.
Now the story:
On Sunday evening, my girlfriend and I walked into our apartment, after driving up from Long Island, where we were spending the Thanksgiving vacation. Upon entering our room, we found a gift from my roommate on the bed. We opened the box and inside was a beautiful chanukiah (menorah) that coincidentally, matched a kiddush cup that I had. Both my girlfriend and I were shocked, and of course pleasantly surprised. For one, I generally don't expect gifts from my roommate, but more importantly, my roommate is a Jordanian Palestinian (or is that Palestinian Jordanian?).
I believe that what surprised me the most was not so much that he bought us a Hanukah gift, but that he specifically bought a Jewish religious object. I know that he is as pro-Palestinian as they come, but he is a reasonable guy (perhaps one of the nicest guys I know) and he obviously knows the difference with being pro-Palestinian and anti-Semitic (something the intellectual left around the world should learn).
After thanking him profusely for the gift, we lit the Hanukah candles in front of him, his Muslim friend and his American girlfriend. It was a touch moment, as they all watch us silently and respectively. Afterwards, I spoke with his Muslim friend (with whom I'm friendly), explained to him the purpose of the shamash, and then discussed some aspects of Ramadan and Eid-al-Fitr, especially how Ramadan is harder to observe in the summer when the days are much longer.
When my girlfriend and I were alone again, I mentioned to her that I had planned on getting my roommate a Christmas gift anyway (he's Christian, obviously) because I feel bad that he cannot celebrate the holiday with his family back in Jordan. Then I said that given what we were able to do tonight, perhaps there's hope for peace yet. To which she replied, if everyone were as nice as my roommate and his friend, there wouldn't be a problem. Indeed.
After disappointing us with her self-imposed exilte from blogging, Diane has returned. Sometimes, blogging is like a heroin habit I think.
In any case, as a welcome back gift, I'm going to give Diane a couple of suggestions to help her with her shopping. She might think she got some deals, but let me tell you, I've got the means to find better ones. So here we go:
1. Fatwallet.com. Hang around this place long enough, and your wallet will be thin. The Hot Deals forums is where the action is.
2. Ableshoppers.com. A good place for a summary of hot deals.
3. Ben's Bargains. Another good place for a summary of hot deals with the added benefit of the ability to discuss the deals.
4. Anandtech forums. Similar to Fatwallet but with more of a focus on computers and technology. There's probably a higher signal to noise ratio here than on Fatwallet, but they won't let you post coupon codes there.
5. Pricegrabber. If you want to know what the going rate is for a large variety of items, this is the place to go. It's especially useful to do some research here before putting a bit on ebay. I laugh everytime I see people put up bids that are higher than what they could pay at the store.
That's all I have for now. Happy shopping folks!
I never thought I'd live to write those 4 words, but after reading Ian Buruma's comment, I was left with little choice. I present what I thought was the most important section, but I urge you to read the whole thing:
Besides snobbery, there is a worse reason for being more outraged by western vulgarity than non-western murderousness. It might be called moral obtuseness, or even moral racism. The assumption appears to be that Africans or Asians can't be held to our own elevated standards. They are more like wild animals, whose savagery should not be provoked by our foolishness. When we do provoke them, the consequences are entirely our fault. It would be as misplaced to apply our moral standards to their behaviour, as it would be to expect tigers to talk. The murder of Nigerians or Indian Muslims, or Iraqi Kurds, is par for the course, unless we did it, or Americans, or Israelis.
Renata (sorry, her permalinks are screwy, so scroll to the Dec. 2 entry) recounts a tale of her friend inquiring about a job in a clothes store and being denied simply because her friend is a recent immigrant. I suppose it's easy to dismiss this story as the typical immigrant experience in any country, but I would think given that Israel desires more Jews to make aliyah, and that Israelis would like to see more Jews visit (let alone move there), that Israelis would be more welcoming to the recent immigrants. With the amount of violence perpetuated by the Palestinians in Israel lately, many of these immigrants, such as Renata and her friend, could have been living much safer lives had they not chosen to come to Israel. While I don't suggest that Israelis roll out the red carpet and rose petals to these new immigrants, I would suggest that they, at the very least, should treat them as equals.
While I'm on the subject Renata, and I've been meaning to write this for a long time, I feel that she should be admired for leaving her comfortable life and having the courage to move to Israel despite the situation there. Unlike most of us who give lip service to Israel while living in relative safety, she has put her money where her mouth is. And while she could still be derisively called a Likudnik or an "intransigent zionist" (as opposed to the "please sir can I have another" Zionism that Max espouses), she, like millions of other Israelis, will have to live with the consequencies of whatever the Israeli government does. So hats off to Renata and her friend for taking Zionism to heart.
For all of you Jewish seafood lovers, I present you with the means to remove your guilt: kosher oysters.
Bon appetit.
(For some reason, this story reminds of my childhood friend who tried to convince me that he was eating kosher for Passover bread.)
Those who think that Hamas is and its ilk would be content were the "mere" destruction of Israel would do well to read the comments of Sheikh Yussuf Kardawi, considered to be one of the Hamas' most influential spiritual leaders. When asked by a reader of islamonline.net about the struggle between Islam and the West, he replied:
"The city of Herkel (Constantinopal) was conquered in 1453 by the 23yr old Ottaman Muhammad Ibn Morad, known to us as Muhammad the conqueror. Now we need only await the conquest of Italy, and in this we hope and believe. These signs mean that Islam will once again return to Europe as a conqueror and that it will triumph after having been expelled from it twice. It was expelled the first time from Andalusia (Spain) and the second from the East of Europe after trying to conquer Athens (Greece). I believe that this time we will succeed to conquer Europe not by the sword (combat), but by the spread of Islamic ideology. The conquest of Rome is but a step in the expansion of Islam, which will include the entire world, the East and the West. This is based on the ways of the prophet and the signs of salvation. "
I wonder if the Vatican is listening.
After that much discussed tape which allegedly contained the spoken voice of Osama Bin Laden was authenticated by both US expers and the head of the Japan Acoustic Lab, the Lausanne-based Dalle Molle Institute for Perceptual Artificial Intelligence said it is 95-per-cent certain the tape does not feature the voice of the long-absent terrorist leader.
I don't know who to believe and I'd love to get a hold of those tapes so I could do my own analysis. I'm sure that if my Arabic speaking co-worker and I worked together, we'd be able to make at least an educated guess, and we definitely wouldn't make any ludicrous claims that the speaker has liver or bladder disease as did the head of the Japan Acoustic Lab.