If you're planning to visit the UK anytime soon, you'd best brush up on your Beatles trivia, lest you get deported.
My God, now France is claiming 10,000 people have died from the heatwave. Incredible.
1. I wonder how they came up with this number. How did they distinguish deaths from the heatwave from those that would have occurred anyway? (Reuters claims 13,632 deaths - a number a bit too precise for my tastes).
2. I do feel bad for those who have lost loved ones, but my sympathy is tempered by the fact that the French are blaming America for the heat wave:
There, on the front page of the newspaper Le Monde, was a cartoon: an oppressive sun, with eyes made of dollar signs, smoking a cigar/factory with dollar signs, sending out thunderbolts of heat that pierced a prostrate Europe. In Paris, I asked a young businessman about the cartoon. “Well, of course,” he said as if I were an idiot. “Your President Bush did not sign the Kyoto Accord.” In other words, America was at fault because it had not signed a treaty that will not go into effect for years. And France was NOT at fault, even though its auto fleet contains millions of diesel engines and its nuclear power plants are turning French rivers hot enough to boil mussels
Diana is a wee bit angry one might say. I'm not too surprised by such an outburst; given the recent murderous bombing in Jerusalem, she's probably articulating what many are thinking. However, I am surprised that it was apparently triggered by a rather oblique perceived nod to the Nazis*. I would have figured the deed itself or its associated celebrations thereof would have been more likely triggers.
*I thought Anees disliked Churchill because he believed Chruchill equated Palestinians to dogs.
Honestly, I truly despise Ted Rall, but unfortuantely, he does have a point. Why, of all companies, is the fraudulent, bankrupt, inexperienced, MCI-Worldcom, getting the contract to build a wireless network in Iraq? Rall believes it's because of certain large donations made to the GOP and he's probably right.
I can certainly understand the desire to give the contract to an American company, so why not give it to one that's successfully built a wireless network: Sprint, Verizon, AT&T wireless, or Cingular. And although this will thoroughly annoy Steven Den Beste, they should probably build a GSM network since that's what is used in the Middle East. That leaves AT&T and Cingular as the best candidates.
Well I hope MCI can pull it off, but maybe if we actually get electricity functioning over there, 24/7, the Iraqis will be too elated to care about 3rd rate wireless service.
Apparently, American forces in Iraq have captured Chemical Ali. I find it hard to believe that it took so long to find a corpse. I sure hope that dead men do tell some tales.
For those of you who think that Kansas is as flat as a pancake, I have news for you. You're wrong. It's actually flatter than a pancake. Not surprisingly, Kansans were not amused.
Now the death toll is up to 20 including at least one American. I point out the American death, not because I feel she is more important than the others, but merely to compare the defeaning silence of those, like the whiny Hesiod and the odious Sawicky, who prostrated themselves before the altar of St. Rachel Corrie. I suppose that Americans killed while protecting terrorists are more important than those killed while riding a bus home.
Update: Unsurprisingly, some Palestinians (in Lebanon) are celebrating.
Update 2: Now there are 5 Americans dead:
1. Mordechai Reinitz, 47
2. Yitzhak Reinitz, 9
3. Goldie Taubenfeld 43
4. Shmuel Taubenfeld, 3-months
5. Tehilla Nathanson, 3
And still no self-righteous outrage from the worshippers of St. Corrie.
First, a truck bomb struck the UN headquarters, killing at least 15 people including the UN Special Envoy to Iraq.
Now a suicide bomber has blown up a bus in Jerusalem, killing at least 7 and wounding scores more. The bus was headed from the Western Wall, making it seem likely that this attack was meant to send a message as well as avenge the killing of the Hamas terrorist last week. I hope that Rinat is ok.
The four men who were convicted of murder in the bombing attacks in Casablanca last may were sentenced to death by a Moroccan court.
Two things come to mind:
1. I hope the authorities were able to squeeze every last bit of information from them, otherwise executing them would be a waste.
2. This piece of news has flown under the media radar screen as far as I can tell and as such there's been precious little protest over this death sentence. Keep this in mind if and when Zacharias Moussoui is sentenced to death.
Paying boy Assad's summer house a visit was a brilliant response to Hizbollah's recent murder of an Israel teenager. It was non-violent, succinct, yet very embarrassing to Syria (imagine if a Mexican plane buzzed Crawford, Texas) and thoroughly ominous. Well done.
Somehow I think that this move is only going to cause more trouble. I shed no tears for the dead Islamic Jihad terrorist, but the probability of a retaliatory suicide bombing are now pretty close to unity.
France claims that approximately 3000 people have died as a result of the two week heat wave that recently hit the country. That number is staggering... and they the American healthcare system is bad.
The sting that resulted in the arrest of three men who apparently were trying to smuggle shoulder launched missile launchers into the US was originally going to be used to try and infiltrate al-Qaeda. Unfortunately, the BBC broadcasted the new of the arrest prematurely, runing the plan. Although many are quick to blame the BBC (of which I am no fan), it seems to me that the bulk of the blame should be ascribed to the law enforcement agent that leaked the story. He/she should have known better.
After Israel killed the two Hamas bombmakers, this was bound to happen. So far, two dead and thirteen wounded, and I suppose given the typical casualty counts of suicide bombings, it could have been worse.
I first heard about the attacks while listening to NPR as I was stuck in traffic this morning. It was broadcasting the BBC world report. Knowing the well documented BBC bias against Israel, I prepared myself for blame being layed at Israel's feet. The BBC didn't disappoint as they played a long statement by Hamas spokesman Rantisi without comment and then proceded to grill Zalman Shoval. It was one of the most infuriating interviews I've heard, but Shoval handled himself well, proceded to explain how Abbas et al. have lived up to exactly zero of their committements and basically shut the pompous interviewer up. Well done Zalman.
It seems that the Dixie Chicks were silenced so completely by the McCarthysism running rampant in this country that they grossed $60 million from their tour, making them the highest grossing country music tour.
No doubt that Israel is going to be condemned for today's raid, especially if this "truce" completely unravels. However, according to the post, the purpose of the raid was to arrest, not kill, and it was the Palestinians who fired to the first shots (and make the first kill).
The truce puts Israel in a difficult position. If they know of an imminent threat and seek to remove it, they are violating the "truce." If they do nothing and the Palestinians attack (which seems to agree with their notion of a truce) then there are more dead Jews.
It's incidents like this that make sites like
If you ever needed another reason to ignore anything Uri Avnery has to say, all you need to do is read this disgustingly fawning biography of Yassir Arafat. Some representative tidbits:
Arafat himself, according to the testimony of his assistants, is far from being cruel or blood-thirsty. Only in rare instances did he confirm death sentences, and that only when the public demand was irresistible. The number of executions carried out in his domain is incomparably lower than in former Governor's George W. Bush's Texas.
The October 1973 war changed his strategic concept. Until then he believed that Israel could be overthrown by force. The Palestinian struggle was designed, primarily, to cause a general military confrontation between Israel and the Arab world, as happened in 1967. In October 1973 Arafat realized that this hope had no basis in fact. The armies of Egypt and Syria did indeed attack Israel and achieved initial surprise, giving them a resounding victory, but within two weeks the Israeli army had turned the tables and was advancing on Cairo and Damascus. Arafat, forever the rational engineer, drew the logical conclusion: there exists no military option.
From there it was but one step to the second conclusion: the Palestinian state can only be founded on compromise, by a political settlement with Israel. He started to work on it.
But not the slightest hint of suspicion ever attached itself to Yasser Arafat himself. While Ariel Sharon is sinking in a morass of corruption affairs and world leaders like Helmut Kohl in Germany and Jacques Chirac in France have starred in major scandals, Arafat has remained above suspicion. Neither his opponents at home nor the Israeli intelligence agencies have succeeded in discovering any spots. He lives a very simple life, has no home of his own, his clothes are his khaki uniforms.
If you ever wondered why the Arabs think that they'll eventually defeat Israel, it's because men like Avnery once served as a member of the Knesset.
Anyone who hasn't been living under a rock knows that today is the 58th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb . Fewer know that is also the 30th anniverary of my birth.
Update: It seems that's Sgt. Stryker's birthday as well.
Wow, even time travelers have resorted to spam. Times are indeed tough...
Subject: Dimensional Warp Generator Needed
Hello,
I'm a time traveler stuck here in 2003. Upon arriving here my
dimensional warp generator stopped working. I trusted a company here by the name
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fled on me. I am going to need a new DWG unit, prefereably the
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warp stabilizers, 512GB of SRAM and the menu driven GUI with front
panel XID display.I will take whatever model you have in stock, as long as its received
certification for being safe on carbon based life forms.In terms of payment:
I dont have any Galactic Credits left. Payment can be made in platinum
gold or 2003 currency upon safe delivery of unit.INSTRUCTIONS MUST BE FOLLOWED EXACTLY:
Please transport unit in either a brown paper bag or box to below
coordinates on Tuesday August 5th at (exactly 5:00pm) Eastern Standard Time
on the dot. A few minutes prior will be ok, but it cannot be after. If
you miss this timeframe please email me. I will not be there prior to
4:45pm EST, so do not transport before then.Item is to be delivered at (out of service tennis court) located at:
Latitude N 42.47935 & Longitude W 071.17355 and the Elevation is 119.
WARNING: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO TRANSPORT ITEM BY REGULAR MEANS OF
TELEPORTATION. THEY ARE MONITORING AND WILL REDIRECT THE SIGNAL!!
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SPYING EYES WILL POSSIBLY BE ABLE TO REDIRECT THE TRANSFERENCE. IT IS
VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU BE ABLE TO MONITOR THE TRANSFER.
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Those of us who haven't been blinded by the professed idealism of the International Solidarity Movement have always known that they weren't peace activists - they merely supported the other side. However, the end of this Jpost article contains this little tidbit:
[Emphasis mine]According to a senior security government source, the International Solidarity Movement receives funds from both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.
"Peace activist" indeed.
Well, when Arabs are stereotyped as hook-nosed shysters, Diana, then we can call this anti-Arab.
It has been suggested that all men learn to put down the toilet seat. A worthy goal to be sure - why irritate a women over such a trite thing, but I'll never understand why leaving the seat up is such an annoyance. I've been told that women like the seat down so that they don't fall into the bowl when they sit, something quite understandable. But do women walk into the bathroom backwards? Don't they glance at the state of the toilet? Has milennia of evolution led to women naturally assuming the seat is down? Surely this is one of the great mysteries of our time.
(And for the record, I do put the seat down, but I also put down that seat cover because I don't find an open toilet to be asthetically pleasing)