Grasshoppa

2002-08-14T15:41:00.000-04:00

Go to the new site! I've moved (again) but this time for real. Go to "www.meltzner.net/grasshoppa" for the latest blog entries. There will be no more posting here. Thanks Blogger. It's been real. It's been fun. But I can't say it's been real fun. Ciao

2002-07-18T16:38:00.000-04:00

Argh. If you're reading this, it's because someone has an old link to this blog. However, since my webhost is on the fritz (possibly permanently) I can't blog on my new site. So no blogging until I fix things one way or the other. Then on to moveable type!

2002-07-05T15:19:00.000-04:00

Airport Shoot 'em up. Now that the dust has settled, it would apear that the gunman who killed two civilians at LAX yesterday was an Egyptian immigrant. I suppose I leave myself open to the accusation of "racism" if I say I'm not surprised, but I'm not. After all, who else would go on a suicide mission to kill Jews and Israelis? Neo-nazis may want to kill Jews but they're not suicidal. And this was a suicidal mission. No person would enter an El Al terminal armed with two guns and an knife expecting to come out alive. Whether his motivation was a sheer hatred for Jews or just a misguided attempt to avenge Palestinians with whom he identifies, his goal was to kill as many Jews as he could before he himself was killed. And this was a terrorist attack. The terrorist may have been acting alone, but he must have known that his actions would terrify both Americans and Jews, especially those who are planning on flying. The government agencies are playing down the terrorist angle mostly likely to allay the fears of the general public and to cover there asses. After all, how could a terrorist attack an airport with all of the new-fangled security measures that were reportedly implemented? But let's be fair, an attack like this is impossible to prevent. If there were screenings at the enterances of the airport, the gunman would have shot people waiting outside. The best that can be done is to have armed, competent security guards ready to end the threat immediately. Just like was done yesterday.

2002-07-03T13:42:00.000-04:00

Forced Hiatus. So I moved to this new webhost in order to avoid the blogspot blackouts and since then the provider has gone down more than a few times. As a result, they are physically moving their data center across 6 states to what should hopefully be greener pastures. As a result this site will be down for the next few days. This is somewhat convenient as it is July 4th weekend, and I want to migrate this site to Moveable Type. Now I can learn some moveable type and be prepared for when the move is complete. See you all then, and to my fellow American readers, Happy Independence Day! To my British readers (are there any?) no hard feelings, ok?

2002-07-02T17:01:00.000-04:00

Call me Sergei Not terribly surprsing that I'd be Rachmaninov - he's one of my all-time favorite composers. I dare you to play my 2nd piano concerto...mwahahaha.

If I were a Dead Russian Composer, I would be Sergei Rakhmaninov.

I lived in the early Twentieth Century and was well known for my compositional, conducting, and piano skills, yet I am melancholy despite this talent. My famous works include my nearly-impossible piano concerti.

Who would you be? Dead Russian Composer Personality Test

2002-07-02T09:58:00.000-04:00

Ah censorship. I want to move this blog over to Moveable Type, but when I try to get to the download page, it gets blocked by my hospital's net nanny because it somehow falls under the category of "sex". I am now doubly frustrated because I cannot get the download file and because now I have to find out what's in Moveable Type that makes it inappropriate for my innocent self. If anyone has the install file, could you please email it to me? Thanks.

2002-06-27T15:07:00.000-04:00

Got virgins? After reading this IMRA piece I don't know whether to laugh or shake my head in disgust:

Michael Widlanski/Media Line: VIRGIN VIDEO ON ARAFAT'S TV PROMISES SEXY AFTER-LIFE FOR 'MARTYRS' By Michael Widlanski (The Media Line) June 27, 2002 When Palestinian terrorists who blow themselves up in order to murder as many Israelis as possible, are they acting out of despair or out of hope? A new Palestinian movie video, which aired today (June 27) on Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation gives an inside view into Palestinian thinking that may supply the answers. A dark-haired and good-looking 35-year-old Arab man is seen walking with an attractive woman of about the same age. It is clear that she is his wife or his girl-friend and that he loves her, but the movie has no dialogue or written on-screen text, only background music and some very clear and heavy suggestions. The movie clip, which preceded and introduced the 3PM afternoon news, is about Palestinian "martyrdom"-its causes and its rewards. The man and his wife see Israeli army (IDF) soldiers, and frowns darken their features, and the music is very morose. The young man clearly starts thinking about how to strike out at the Israeli soldiers. Almost immediately, the music changes to a more optimistic tone as, out of a kind of mist, stunningly beautiful young women-between 18 and 22 years of age-begin to beckon to him. The gorgeous women, who are younger than his wife, are all clad in billowy white robes. They are all smiling fetchingly as they call to him, making motions with their hands as if to say "come-here" and "join us." We next see the man after he is captured by the IDF following an apparent attack on them. But, as the music takes on another sinister twist, the Israelis deliberately release the Palestinian man. Their plan is clear: they are going to kill the handsome Arab man "while trying to escape." He appears as a target in the cross-hairs of an Israeli automatic rifle. His wife cries, her face screwed up in agony, but the end is not sad. The camera moves quickly from the bereaved widow to the new Palestinian martyr who is smiling in paradise. One of the gorgeous women in white greets him and pulls him into the mistwhere she and seven or eight beautiful women begin to surround him and gently caress him. The video ends on a happy note without a word having been said, but the message is clear: here is the Islamic tradition of a martyr being welcomed into paradise where he will be ministered by 72 beautiful virgins.

This ad reminds me of the movie "Crazy People" where assylum residents would come up with blunt ads like "Volvos: they're boxy but they're good", or "Come to the Bahamas and get laid." Somehow, I think someone funnier could make this into a "Got Milk?" spoof...."Got Virgins?" By the way, isn't the PA (and Palestinians in general) strapped for cash? Where do they get the funds to produce these ads?

2002-06-26T09:43:00.000-04:00

Oops! In a stroke of Enronesque accounting, Worldcom now admits to overstating its cashflow by a mere $3.8 billion. And of course, guess who was Worldcom's auditor until last month? Yep, you guessed it: Arthur Andersen. So, in the past 8 months, we've now seen 3 large corporations get hit with major accounting scandals, causing 2 of them (so far) to go under. The third, Worldcom, is merely laying off 17,000 workers. Let this be a reminder to those that think that privatization is the panacea to all government woes: private companies can screw up just as badly as the government, and can often cause just as much (or worse) damage. Just ask those 17,000 dead Worldcom employees walking.

2002-06-25T15:56:00.000-04:00

Murphy's law. Just when I get a little recogntion, thanks to John Hawkins, my new host goes down. Maybe I should return to blogspot... As for the list, I'm flattered to be a part of it, although I believe that I am definitely outclassed by the other members of the list. But thanks anyway, John.

2002-06-25T09:06:00.000-04:00

Weird. You Brits you do have a strange sense of humor

2002-06-24T12:10:00.000-04:00

Lies, damn lies, and statistics. Scott Ganz takes the folks over at Warbloggerwatch (WBW) to task for, among other things, using incorrect statistics. The WBW claims that according to B'Tselem "only" 354 Israelis (civilians and security perssonel) were killed by Palestinians in the past 15 years averaging out to 24 deaths per year. Let's inpect this claim a bit. First, the B'Tselem statistics are from Dec 9, 1987 until Jan 31, 2002 which does not constitute 15 years as WBW claims - it's actually 14 years, 2 months (14.1667 years). However let's ignore the 9 deaths that occured between Jan 1, 2002 and Jan 31, 2002 because obviously one month does not constitute a year. After all, the death toll has increased by about 200 (I think) since Jan 1, 2002. And we'll also throw out the month of Dec 1987 in which no deaths occured. This gives an average of 23.2 deaths a year but a standard deviation of 24.5 deaths a year. When the standard devation is greater than the arithmetic mean, the mean isn't a very telling statistic. However, the larger problem with this claim is that WBW only mentions the Israelis killed within the Green Line and ignores the deaths of 312 Israelis (both civlians and soldiers) that occured in the Occupied Territories. (Those statistics are right below the previously cited ones, so they're not too hard to find). Those deaths in fact double the overall death toll. I suppose ignoring these Israeli deaths goes hand in hand with the ideology of those at WBW, I find it remarkable how people who supposedly value life so much that they are virulently anti-war, can simply toss aside the murder of civilians. But then again, those were Jews who were murdered so who cares, right?

2002-06-24T11:09:00.000-04:00

Merkava IV The IDF unveiled its new Merkava IV main battle tank today. Improvements over the Merkava III include a more powerful engine, improved firing system and night vision, and advanced modular armor. Apparently the tank is now protected from both vertical and horizontal attack. One wonders if they strengthened the underbelly which was shown to be a weak spot. While the new tank is cool from the perspective of new "toys" are always cool (I've always been fascinated by weapons technology and always enjoyed those ~~War~~ History Channel programs about modern weapons, but once you realize what those weapons are designed to do, they're not so "cool" anymore) this sort of weapon is not going to help Israel out in the short run. I'm sure it will be very useful say against the Syrian army, but it seems to me that the use of heavy armor to fight Palestinian terrorists isn't all that effective.

2002-06-21T15:33:00.000-04:00

What the hell is this this?

WASHINGTON — Terrorists may try to use fuel tankers as weapons to attack Jewish neighborhoods, synagogues and fuel depots, the FBI advised law enforcement agencies on Friday. Officials stressed that the advisory was based on unsubstantiated and uncorroborated information and was not a warning to the general public, but rather an advisory issued to local police departments.

If this was just an advisory to the police, why leak it to the general public especially if the information is flimsy at best? The warning is supposedly based on the results of interrogations of captured al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. Sounds like these jihad boys were just shootin' the shit, thinking "wow, Achmed, wouldn't it be really cool to go blow some tankers in the neighborhoods of those dirty Jews?" "By Allah, you're right, Abdul! Too bad we're stuck here in Cuba..." You know, I was planning on staying in lab and working all weekend, but maybe I'll go to synagogue and then hang out in the falafel shop just to spite those damn terrorists. Yeah, that's the ticket.

2002-06-21T15:00:00.000-04:00

Settle down, part 2. There seems to be a big catfight going down in the blogosphere. (Did I get everyone?). And that's not even counting what's written in the various comments sections. So yes, it wasn't Asparagirl's best post, and yes, Pejman is a cyberflirt (sorry Pej, but you are), and yes, Jeff Goldstein can be rude and crude (but funny), etc. etc. etc. blah blah blah. Christ, I feel like I'm in high school again...get over it.

2002-06-21T13:57:00.000-04:00

The clock has struck midnight. The US World Cup run is over as they were defeated by Germany 1-0. I watched the first half and really thought the Americans were going to win until Germany scored. Two things: 1. Kudos to the German goalie, Oliver Kahn, for keeping his team in the game. I would have been 3-0 US after 30 minutes, if not for him. 2. I really thought the call that lead to the German goal was quesitonable. I said it when the ref called it and I'll say it now but I thought the German player took a dive. Oh well, c'est la vie, but congrats to the US Team - you did us proud.

2002-06-21T13:52:00.000-04:00

Not good, not good at all. Today, the IDF killed 4 Palestinian civilians (3 children and one 50 year old man) and wounded dozens others when they opned fire on a market in Jenin. Reportedly, the Jenin residents thought a curfew had been lifted and went to the market when IDF tanks opened fire. The IDF said an initial inquiry "indicates that the force erred in its action." Well duh I sure as hell hope it was a mistake, and not intentional, although one wonders why the IDF was using tank shells as crowd control. Perhaps they thought the crowd at the market were gunmen, I don't know. However, the army claims it was mistake, and pending a further investigation, I trust that it was just that, a tragic mistake. I'm truly sorry for those deaths, but I know that no amount of apologies and excuses will bring those lives back. I will say this much though: these deaths, as well as the almost 2000 other Israeli and Palestinian deathss that have been lost in the past 20 months or so could have been prevented, if Arafat had made the decision to accept the Clinton/Barak plan back at Camp David. Now it's too little too late. There is no way the Israeli public is going to believe Arafat, and there is no way they're going to give Arafat and his terrorist thugs 97% of the West Bank as well as part of East Jerusalem. Right now, the best I think the Palestinians can hope for is all of Gaza, and the part of the West Bank Israel feels it can live without. Good luck getting any more. This is obviously (to me at least) nothing but another ploy by Arafat to put pressure on Israel by demonstrating to his friends in the EU and the US State Department that he really is interested in peace. Moreover, he's trying to save his sorry ass because he's losing control over the myriad of terrorist groups prevalent throughout the territories. In saner times, the world would see this gambit for what it is, but these are not sane times.

2002-06-20T17:11:00.000-04:00

Tom Paulin would be proud. Palestinian gunmen killed a mother, her two children, and another man in the settlement of Itamar, near Nablus. Time to confiscate more land. Perhaps they can rock the casbah of Nablus.

2002-06-20T14:10:00.000-04:00

Altered Logic. Eric Alterman cites piece as a reason why we should never believe what Daniel Pipes says about the Mideast. Allow me to summarize: when Joan Peter's book From Time Immemorial first came out, Pipes praised it. However, 2 years later, after Peters had been severely criticized for her methods and conclusions, Pipes also echoed those criticisms. And thus, for this behavior, Pipes should be distrusted. Now, as everyone knows, Alterman published his blacklist of all "reflexively pro-Israel" pundits (hey Daniel Pipes is on that list, imagine that!) that are present throughout the American media. Moreover, as most of us know, he placed Cathy Young on his list even though she had never written a column on the Mideast. Oops, Alterman made a mistake! Alterman found all kinds of ways to justify his mistake and issued some non-apologies. Thus I invoke Alterman's logic and propose that we should never believe anything Alterman writes about other columnists, including Daniel Pipes.

2002-06-19T16:41:00.000-04:00

Little red audi. Today's suicide bomber reported got out of a red Audi, broke past a group of security forces and set off his bomb. I hope the IDF finds that car and its driver. Who knows, maybe it's Noam Chomsky's.

2002-06-19T13:05:00.000-04:00

Hey Jack Do you have any compassion for this fucker as well?

2002-06-19T11:51:00.000-04:00

Hit 'em where it hurts. Since the Palestinians appear to have a deathwish, Israel has decided to change tactics and take what the Palestinians so desperately desire: the land. Obviously this will send the Chomskies, Fisks and Saids into conniption fits (a worthy goal in itself), but the change in tactics is a smart move: 1. The main goal will no longer be to kill and capture Palestinian terrorists, it will be simply to confiscate land - a procedure, unlike death, that can easily be reversed. 2. This simple act will be effective at crushing the hopes of those Palestinians who think that they can regain their country by blowing up buses full of civilians. Everytime Palestinian terrorists kill Israelis, they lose more land. 3. It will give Israel more bargaining chips when it comes down to the final negotiations. The downside is that this action will continue the occupation indefinitely, and it remains to be seen if the pros will outweigh the cons. However, at this point I don't see any other option other than ethnic cleansing, which, frankly, is not really an option.

2002-06-19T11:04:00.000-04:00

The victims have names. Here are the names of some of the victims from the bus boming: Shiri Nagari, 21: Worked at Bank Leumi, was to begin studies at Hebrew University in the fall. Leah Baruch, 59: Oversaw the official residence at Beit Hanassi for 23 years. Boaz Aluf, 54: A 'humble, family man' on his way to work at Bank Tefahot. Galila Bugala, 11: Fifth grade pupil at the Paula Ben-Gurion school in Jerusalem's Rehavia neighborhood. Her parents immigrated from Ethiopian 11 years ago. Shani Avi-Tzedek,15, pupil at Boyer High School in Jerusalem. Her parents reportedly identified her remains by a new bathing suit she was wearing to participate in a class outing. Michal Biazi, 24, was on her way to a niece's birth party. Dr. Moshe Gottlieb, 70. Chiropractor and grandfather who worked "to heal the people of Jerusalem and Israel." Liat Yagen, 24, attorney's assistant. Gila Nakav, 55, worked at the City of David archaeological site. Helena Ivan, 63, housekeeper originally from Romania. Tatiana Braslavsky, 41, civil engineer who immigrated from Uzbekistan 11 years ago. Mendel Barzon, 72, shoemaker Baruch Gruani, 60, retired Israel Military Industries employee. Raphael Berger, 28, musician and a master's degree student in chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Iman Kabha, 25, an Israeli Arab student from Barta village. Lived in a rented apartment in Beit Safafa, near where the blast took place. Orit Hayla, 21. Raisa Dikstein, 67 Rahamim Tzidkiyahu, 51, the bus driver, from the East Talpiot area. Yitkadal v'yitkadash...

2002-06-19T10:39:00.000-04:00

Moron. British Foreign Sectrary, Jack Staw, expressed "compassion" for suicide bombers:

“When young people go to their deaths, we can all feel a degree of compassion for those youngsters — they must be so depressed and misguided to do this”

It baffles me how somone in Mr. Straw's position can express compassion for a murderer of a bus-load of school children, especially a murderer who knew exactly what he was doing. The sucide fucker, al-Ghoul, was a 22 year old graduate student in Islamic studies who knew exactly what he was doing. At what point do we no longer consider a person a "youngster" who is not responsible for his/her actions? A 22 year old isn't a youngster; he is a man, an evil man who could think of no greater joy than murdering as many Jews as possible. Hey Laurence, I have a new experiment for you to perform. Walk up to Jack Straw and hand him a small slip of paper that says "BOOM! You're dead." and see how much compassion Mr. Straw has for you.

2002-06-18T15:26:00.000-04:00

We're famous! The project of which I am a part is covered in the first part of this Newsweek article. Read the part about the artificial larynx - that's us. Dr. Hillman is one of my advisors. Notice the term "elite group of researchers" phrase. Cool eh?

2002-06-18T14:16:00.000-04:00

Sigh. So there was yet another sucide bombing in Israel today, which killed 19 people and wounded at least 40. Frankly, I don't have much to say. I could vent my anger and rant on about how Israel needs to hit back hard, but it would be nothing more than spitting into the wind. Bush says one thing, Powell says another. Sharon says "terror must be struggled against and fought against" and then sends in tanks to lay siege to Arafat for a couple of days, and then let him go. Right now, the Israeli security cabinet has reportedly approved an "unsually harsh" retaliation which may include a mass deportation of terrorists and the expulsion of Arafat. Right. I won't be holding my breath. Besides, I'm not even sure what good it would do. It's painfully obvious that neither the American nor Israeli governments have any idea of what to do. Then again, neither do I. Update. Laurence Simon has far more interesting things to say. His experiment is eye-opening and his comparisons of the family of the Palesinian murderer and the families of the Israeli murdered are depressingly accurate. Too bad he had to sacrifice himself in order to make his point.

2002-06-18T10:12:00.000-04:00

New link. Check out the newest link, the CitCUN. They combine a lot of good factual information with some good commentary. Definitely take a look.

2002-06-14T16:26:00.000-04:00

I'm off. After trying to read and understand various papers and books on various forms of Code Excited Linear Prediction (CELP)speech coding, I've given up for the day. (It's all Greek to me... oh wait, some of the symbols ARE Greek) I'm leaving for Montreal (yet again) tomorrow morning and won't be back till Monday evening, so don't expect any updates until Tuesday. However I will leave you with this bit which should tell you just how far we've come in the past 17 years: One of the papers I was reading was written in 1985 and explained how processing 1 second of speech took 125 seconds on a Cray-1 computer. In the next few months, the new 3G cellphones (some the size of a deck of cards) will be able to run a more complicated (albeit probably more computationally efficient algorithm) in mere milliseconds. How's that for progress? P.S. While I'm gone, if anyone could figure out where my archives disappeared to, I'd really appreciate it.

2002-06-14T12:25:00.000-04:00

Against the flow. Christopher Johnson of the Midwest Conservative Journal has moved TO blogspot.

2002-06-13T12:51:00.000-04:00

Echos of Golda Meir. Meir once said, "We will have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us." Judging from this MEMRI translation (with David Tell editorializing), that day is far from imminent:

Then there's the May 9, 2002, program on "discipline in the family," featuring one Jasem Al-Mutawah, an "expert on family matters," who patiently describes to his viewers where on her body, how severely, with what weapon, and under what circumstances a man should beat his wife. And, most harrowing of all, perhaps, especially if you have kids of your own, there is the May 7, 2002 edition of "Muslim Woman Magazine," hosted by Doaa 'Amer, a soft spoken, highly polished anchorlady who might just as well be Joan Lunden or Katie Couric--except that she's wearing a body-length robe. And also that she's a monster. Ms. 'Amer begins as follows: "Our report today will be a little different, because our guest is a girl, a Muslim girl, but a true Muslim. Allah willing, may our God give us the strength to educate our children the same way, so that the next generation will turn out to be true Muslims who understand that they are Muslims and know who their enemies are. This girl will introduce herself immediately. She is the daughter of my sister in faith and of the artist, Wagdi Al-Arabi. Her name is Basmallah and we will ask her as well." The camera then begins a low pan downward and to the right as Ms. 'Amer offers a "peace be unto you" welcome to her guest. Who turns out to be . . . a toddler. Toddler: Allah's mercy and blessing upon you. 'Amer: What's your name? Toddler: Basmallah. 'Amer: Basmallah, how old are you? Toddler: Three and a half. 'Amer: Are you a Muslim? Toddler: Yes. 'Amer: Basmallah, are you familiar with the Jews? Toddler: Yes. 'Amer: Do you like them? Toddler: No. 'Amer: Why don't you like them? Toddler: Because . . . 'Amer: Because they are what? Toddler: They're apes and pigs. 'Amer: Because they are apes and pigs. Who said they are so? Toddler: Our God. 'Amer: Where did he say this? Toddler: In the Koran. 'Amer: Right, he said that about them in the Koran. Okay, Basmallah, what are the Jews doing? Toddler: The Pepsi company. 'Amer: [Approving laughter.] You also know about the boycott, Basmallah? Did they love our master, Muhammad? Toddler: No. 'Amer: No. What did the Jews do to him? Toddler: [Pauses, struggling for the right answer.] The Prophet Muhammad killed someone . . . 'Amer: Obviously, our master Muhammad was strong and could have killed them. All right, you know the traditions about the Jews and what they did to the Prophet Muhammad? Toddler: [Mumbled assent.] 'Amer: Is there a story you know? Toddler: Yes, the story about the Jewish woman. 'Amer: The Jewish woman? What did she do to our master, the Prophet Muhammad? Toddler: The Jewish woman? 'Amer: Yes. Toddler: There was a Jewish woman who invited the Prophet and his friends. When he asked her, "Did you put poison (in my food)?" she said to him, "Yes." he asked her, "Why did you do this?" and she replied, "If you are a liar you will die and Allah will not protect you; if you speak the truth Allah will protect you." 'Amer: And our God protected the Prophet Muhammad, of course. Toddler: And he said to his friends, "I will kill this lady." 'Amer: Of course, because she put poison in his food, this Jewess. Toddler: Oh. 'Amer: [Speaking directly into the camera.] Basmallah, Allah be praised, Basmallah, Allah be praised. May our God bless her. No one could wish Allah could give him a more believing girl than she. May Allah bless her and her father and mother. The next generation of children must be true Muslims. We must educate them now while they are still children so that they will be true Muslims.

2002-06-13T11:12:00.000-04:00

Settle down people. I have never seen so many people get so upset over such a meaningless article. And yet, while ranting against the perceived smear written by a current NC resident (and former Houston resident), these folks respond with some nasty generalizations and ignorant claims of their own.
Plenty of New Yorkers may think their city is the center of the universe, but plenty of Texans think that Texas is God's crowning achievement. And yes, New York's air is far from clean, but Houston's air is the worst in the country, even "besting" LA. And Laurence how was Giuliani asleep on the job when those planes hit the WTC? I didn't know the Logain airport security fell under the domain of the mayor of New York.
Obviously neither city is perfect, but frankly I think you Houstonians could learn something from New Yorkers: they don't give a shit if someone insults their city. Neither should you.

2002-06-13T07:54:00.000-04:00

Glenn, we hardly knew ya Now that he's officially a Harvard alum, Glenn Kinen is going to hang 'em up. It's a shame really...Glenn was one of those bloggers who could produce some thoughtful writings without taking himself too seriously. He also has good taste in beer, which is always a good thing. By the way, Glenn, I don't think Joanne Jacobs' comment was all that bizarre - exaggerated, but not bizarre. Think "Soul Man" for homosexuals.

2002-06-12T22:34:00.000-04:00

You can go to Mars. No doubt, Glenn Reynolds would appreciate this

2002-06-12T16:12:00.000-04:00

Ouch. No sooner did I move off of blogspot did my new host go down. I hope this isn't a bad omen.

2002-06-12T13:32:00.000-04:00

Turning lemons into lemonade. I read this story in today's Boston Metro:

" China. Beijing is enlisting an army of ducks to eat countless locusts engulfing valuable cropland, but the birds with end up in restaurants. The Manasi locust station will unleash 4,000 hungry ducks into fields to munch their way through as many insects as they can. "Ducks are the best way to get rid of locusts because they have such a big appetite," a locust station spokesman said. "After two or three months, they typically weight around 2 kilos and can be sold to markets for roasting."

Mmmm Peking Duck...

2002-06-11T15:23:00.000-04:00

Why now? If what the government is saying about Jose Padilla/Abdullah al Muhajir is true, why are they only now announcing his arrest now when he was arrested a month ago. Is it because they were hoping to catch his collaborators, or is it because the government is trying to take some heat off of the embattled FBI and CIA.

2002-06-11T14:25:00.000-04:00

Welcome! Welcome to my new home. Please update your bookmarks and links accordingly!

2002-06-11T14:14:00.000-04:00

Moving time! I broke down and got my own server and domain name. So please note that this blog will now be published at http://www.meltzner.net/grasshoppa . Please update your bookmarks and links accordingly.

2002-06-10T13:45:00.000-04:00

Just a thought. It occurred to me that we all could use an Eminem remake of "Ice Ice Baby" as a sort of tribute to the man that made it all possible.

2002-06-10T13:42:00.000-04:00

Boom. I have to agree with Jim Henley here. I cannot see Arafat's blustering as a veiled threat of a nuclear attack. It won't take much to ignite a major conflict in the region; imagine if (God forbid) a Palestinian attack killed only (!) a 100 Israelis. Can you imagine what the Israeli reaction would be? Frankly I'd rather not. Then again. I too could be misreading Arafat...perhaps he was warning us about this.

2002-06-07T16:57:00.000-04:00

Captain Euro. This cheesy comic is not only racist but also promotes the usual anti-American stereotypes as well. Check out in the Origins episode where Captain Euro uses the term "polyglot" and the American tourist (accompanied by cheesy country music) says "would they even understand polyglot in Milwaulkee?" This is because, you know, all Midwesterners are illiterate bumpkins. I would think that this is just a big joke, but it appears to be the real deal. Do European kids actually like this thing? Most kids I know would be ripping this cartoon apart.

2002-06-07T10:47:00.000-04:00

Muntz to you. I can't say I've been following the World Cup too closely, but I cannot help be satisfied with the way things are panning out so far: 1. Saudi Arabia is the first team eliminated from the World Cup tournament after losing to Cameroon 1-0. Ha ha. 2. France is on the verge of elminatrion after tying Uruguay 0-0 (a symptom of why pro-soccer isn't so popular here). Ha ha 3. The US pulled off an upset by defeating 5th ranked Portugal 3-2. Way to go boys! As far as soccer goes, I really do enjoy playing it, and I used to referee when I was kid, but I just get bored watching it. I can deal with low scoring affairs...after all, low scoring hockey games aren't uncommon. But at least in hockey, there are usually tons of close calls. I can live without the goals if I get to see lots of great saves and near misses. However, from the soccer games I've watched, you just don't see those kinds of things that often. It seem to me that 90% of the action occurs between the 18-yard boxes and it's really quite boring. I know billions of people love watching the game...I'm just not one of them.

2002-06-07T10:32:00.000-04:00

American Jihad, again. For some reason this site is #2 on Google for searches on "Zayed Yasin." I don't understand why since I don't have a lot about him on here. For those that are interested in more information, check out Glenn Kinen or Matthew Yglesias. But while I'm on the topic, it's now one day past Harvard Commencement. Did anyone hear Yasin's speech and/or have a transcript. Does anyone have any comments on it?

2002-06-05T17:29:00.000-04:00

Dumb and dumber. Renata brought this up the other day and since I too saw the ad (and the petition) I will comment on it as well. Basically, one time when I was reading the Ha'aretz front page, there was a banner ad at the top calling for Israel to join the EU. Frankly, this has to be one of the most inane ideas I've read since I started blogging. There are several reasons for Israel not joining the EU. A sacrifice of both economic and diplomatic independence jump out among the others. It's bad enough that the Europeans feel they can dicate how Israel should act towards its Arab enemies; one could only imagine how they would act if Israel were a full EU member. However, my biggest problem with is petition is because it reminds me of the slightly chubby, fashion challenged high school teenager doing what ever it takes to be accepted by the popular, yet annorexic beautiful people. Let's face it, the EU does not like Israel and would prefer that it never had been created. Why in God's name should Israel want to join a club of nations that question its very right to exist? Although I am not Israeli, I always understood the Israeli spirit to be defined by a fierce independence. Joining the EU is nothing short of forfeiting Israeli independence for basically nothing. Do yourselves a favor, my Israeli friends, stay far far away from the EU.

2002-06-05T16:15:00.000-04:00

First time for everything. Well, it only took about five months, but I finally got my very own anti-Semitic response Too bad the anonymous pussy can't even spell. By the way, coward, I tracked down your location and I will be informing the elders of Zion so that they can take care of the problem ;)

2002-06-05T12:32:00.000-04:00

Actions speak louder than words, redux:
American Jihad

or Islamic Jihad

You decide.

2002-06-04T16:22:00.000-04:00

How fitting. N.Z. Bear has a classification of all the bloggers he's permalinked to. Not surprisingly, "Grasshoppa" is classified as an insect. Good job. Update. It looks like I've evolved into a slithering lizard! I pity the fool that doesn't accept the theory of evolution!

2002-06-03T14:35:00.000-04:00

Traffic wars. Memo to Glenn Reynolds, Andrew Sullivan, the folks at Tapped, and Eric Alterman: No one gives a shit.

2002-05-31T11:54:00.000-04:00

Looking out for fellow bloggers. This is for Tim Blair and Bruce Hill. Just in case...

2002-05-31T10:55:00.000-04:00

The untold story. Christopher Johnson alterted me to article which goes into the gory (literally) detail of those injured by suicide bombings in Israel. The death total is often the only cited statistic in media articles, but after reading this story and looking at some of those x-rays, it's not too big a stretch to say that those who died are probably better off than some of those who survived. Update: After reading Tim Blair's blog, I think that perhaps Brianna Martin should read this article to see exactly what suicide bombing is all about.

2002-05-30T14:11:00.000-04:00

By their deeds ye shall know them. I've refrained from adding much commentary to the "American Jihad" controversy surrounding the planned speech to be delivered by Zayed Yasin at Harvard's commencement next week. However, I happened to have caught part of the segment on Foxnews this morning that had both Yasin and Harvard Senior, Ben Galper. Galper made his point, although he often looked away from the camera and wasn't exactly the most articulate person Yasin, on the other hand, was very smooth, articulate and polished. Nevertheless, once you get by the veneer and listen to his answers, they are most enlightening. I was only able to listen to one question put towards Yasin, something along the lines of how he feels about being a part of the Holy Land Foundation which the US government claims funnels money to Hamas. His reply consisted merely of retelling his experience with the HLF in Albania and how he can't believe that such a foundation would be connected to terrorist groups. Notice the lack of condemnation of Hamas' methods and also notice the lack of hypothetical condemnation, i.e.something along the lines of "if the HLF were truly in bed with Hamas, then I would condemn this." Perhaps something more eloquent would sound better, but you get my point. However, while I am contemptuous of anyone who supports or sympathizes with Hamas (or finds Hamas not to be a black and white issue), what troubles me most is not so much Yasin's title, but what the gist of his speech is most likely to be: an apologia for Islam. There was a letter published in the Boston Metro (for those of you unfamiliar with the Metro, it's a free paper published in several major cities) which I will cite here:

"As an American and as a Harvard alumnus, I was pleased to read about Harvard's Zayed Yasin's commencement address. Some concerns about the title, 'American Jihad', merely illustrates [sic] why a talk like Yasin's is so needed. If the students actually understood the concept of Jihad before condemning Yasin's talk, I trust that they would have reacted differenlty.
Misconceptions of Islam (and especially of Jihad) are a major obstacle to cross-cultural understanding withing our society. The eight million peaceful and productive Muslims in America should be appreciated as valuable contributors to society, not as some kind of foreign threat."

The probably erronious population statistic notwithstanding, this letter exlempifies what the problem with Yasin's proposed address is. It seems to me that it is not your average American that has a problem understanding the concept of Jihad, it's a sub-group of Muslims that have a problem. I have read essays and listened to speeches (including one given by the Aga Khan at a Brown graduation some years ago) about how Islam is a peaceful religion and how "Jihad" really means an internal struggle. Upon hearing and reading these exhortations, I am always reminded of the axiom, "actions speak louder than words." To illustrate my point, peruse Fred Pruit's list of organizations and count the number of them that include the word "Jihad" in their names. I don't believe that they're all groups dedicated to helping their members with their own struggles. When an Islamic Jihadi blows himself to kingdom come in down town Tel Aviv, I just can't beleive he is completing his internal battle. When chief potato chip boy, Yassir Arafaft, shouts, "Jihad! Jihad! Jihad!" I'll wager any amount of money that he's not exhorting his people to fight their inner demons. And frankly, crashing civillian airliners into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon in the name of bin Laden's jihad is just not a great way of informing the American public that jihad is essentially an internal battle with oneself. I'll wager that Yasin's speech will parallel many aspects of the one I heard the Aga Khan give several years ago. While I disagreed with the Aga Khan's contention that Islam is essentially peaceful, I at least didn't feel it was inappropriate to make such a speech at the time. However, today we live in a different era, one in which Americans are tired of being told by Muslims that they do not understand the concept of "jihad" when it's apparently their co-religionists who are misconstruing its meaning, often with deadly effects.

2002-05-29T10:39:00.000-04:00

Hungry Hungry Egyptians Damian Penny points out the rather paltry donations the manufacturers of Yassir Chips are making to the "Palestinian Cause." Just to give some perspective, let's throw around a few numbers. Egypt's population is about 70,000,000. If every Egyptian ate one bag of Yassir Chips, they'd raise a whopping US$70,000 to the "cause." World Arab population is about 300,000,000. If every Arab ate one bag of Yassir Chips, they'd raise a whopping US$300,000 to the "cause" World Muslim population is about 1,000,000,000. If every Muslim ate one bag of Yassir Chips, they'd raise a whopping US$1,000,000 to the "cause". The amount raised by that Saudi telethon: US$56,000,000. Keep eating guys. (I wonder how much Semtex costs?)

2002-05-28T15:43:00.000-04:00

More lists. There was a whole to-do over at little green footballs over some alleged anti-Israeli comments made by some announcers at the Eurovision 2002 contest. Now seeing as I didn't get to watch the contest, I was suffered watching videos of the contests to see what all the fuss is about. I think the German article Glenn Kinen cited is fairly accurate, but allow me to add my comments:

Cyprus: If you cross the New Kids on the Block with A Night at the Roxbury, you get the Cypriot group, "One".
United Kingdom: I've always wondered why Brits loses their accents when they sing.
Austria: Can we bring Falco back from the dead? Austrian Rick Astley wananbes just don't cut it.
Greece: I always wondered what happened to Information Society.
Spain: Even a Lenny Kravitz cameo can't decrease the cheesiness factor in this video.
Croatia: It's the Croatian Shakira. How do you say "Small and Humble" in Croat?
Russia: Wow, Color Me Badd has made it big in Russia!
Estonia: How does the host country get away with having a foreigner compete for them?
Macedonia: Is that the lead singer or a life size blush applicator?
Israel: If I were a commentator, I'd tell my audience not to vote for this one too. Please blow out this candle.
Switzerland: A better title would have been "Dans le jardin de mon cul" Ugh!
Sweden: It's a younger version of the Pointer Sisters...only worse.
Finland: Disco's back in Finland!
Denmark:She can't lip sync, but dropping the i-book in the fish tank was a nice touch.
Bosnia and Herzegovina: I swear that this is a song from a bad radio commercial.
Belgium: Oh my God... it's a bleach blond Tom Jones.
France: I actually liked this one. I feel dirty.
Germany: I can live without her music. I promise.
Turkey: The song sucks, but the video has some promise as a promotional video for the Turkish tourism industry.
Malta: This one might actually make it on the American Pop Charts - maybe.
Romania: Tell me why you are singing this godawful song!
Slovenia: These guys would scare Marilyn Manson.
Latvia: Watch out Ricky Martin...you may have met your match!
Lithuania: This guy OD'ed on Jheri Curl.

If I had to vote, I would have voted for the French contestant. More likely, I would have thrown my shoe through the TV after the third contestant. Ugh.

2002-05-26T10:11:00.000-04:00

Sign this. Concerned about Hamas sympathizers giving commencement speeches at Harvard? Me too. That's why I signed this

2002-05-24T13:38:00.000-04:00

It's not a good point. Over at the corner, Rich Lowry posts this snippet of an email he got as a justification for arming airline pilots:

“How it is perfectly okay to arm an armored truck driver who spends a good quarter of his day out hauling funds around in public but it is not okay if it is a pilot transporting humans?”

Well, the Brinks truck driver doesn't have to worry about a stray bullet ending the life of the money he's transporting, he doesn't have to worry about a stray bullet puncturing a hole in the truck causing a massive change in cabin pressure, and he doesn't have to worry losing control of his gun to a hijacker who may use it to make swiss cheese out of a passnenger or two. Honestly, I'm still on the fence regarding the arming of airline pilots but Lowry's posting doesn't sway me towards his position.

2002-05-23T16:31:00.000-04:00

No amount of PR can save them. Howard Feinberg over at Kesher Talk reports that the organized Saudi campaign for a better image in the US has been ineffective, to put it nicely. I can't tell you just how broken up I am over this. I guess the Saudis can change an American's opinion piece, but they can't change an American's opinion.

2002-05-23T14:06:00.000-04:00

The Canadian Military. Inspired by Bruce R.'s lamenting the state of the Canadian military and its official pullout from Afghanistan, I dug up some photos that my Canadian friend sent me that document Canada's contribution to the war on terrorism:

Helmet provided by Roots

The Canadian Smart Bomb

Osama had better not try to swim for it

Frankly, I don't know what Bruce is worried about...

2002-05-22T15:24:00.000-04:00

Selective Editing. My curiosity was piqued by this Arab news article by "I. Heichler" and then by what Damian Penny had to say about it, espcially the missing numbers, 2 and 3. So I used that invaluable tool, Google, and did a search on "I Heichler". And Lo and Behold, I found a Lucien Heichler. I guess that "I" was a lower case "L" for some reason. I would think that the folks at Arab News would know the rules of capitalization. But sadly, that's only a minor error in the publication of this whole piece. You see, I found this link which has the original article. If you compare the original vs. the Arab News version, you get a vastly different picture. Let me illustrate:
A Jewish View of the Jewish State As a Jewish refugee from the Nazis who narrowly escaped the Holocaust, I feel free to express negative views of the Zionist experiment, Israel’s policies, and one-sided U. S. support of Israel without fear of being instantly branded a Jew-hater. Jewishness, I insist, does not require jingoistic, uncritical support of Israel, especially not of the policies of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Likud-led governing coalition. As an American, I am deeply concerned about the huge cost of U. S. support of Israel—not only in terms of the astronomical sums of money we spend annually on Israel’s survival—but, far more importantly, in terms of our deeply strained relations with the Islamic world. Our lopsided support of Israel over the past half century has precluded our pursuit of a balanced, realistic, flexible and potentially successful policy vis-á-vis the Arab and/or Muslim world. While there are obvious additional reasons for the virulent, violent antagonism we face, I consider knee-jerk support of Israel as the primary cause of the unprecedented terrorist attacks on America. While we have achieved remarkably rapid successes against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan, I submit that the unabating bloodshed in Palestine will increasingly hamper our war on terrorism. I may belong to a minority, but I count myself among the Jews who oppose the Zionist movement. Perhaps it was in part because of Nazi insistence on defining me as a member of a different, "non-Aryan" race that already as a boy I came to regard Judaism as first and foremost a religious faith and community. As a young teenager in Nazi-occupied Austria, I was offended by what struck me as parallels between Nazi and Zionist definitions of the Jews as an ethnic group. When I first read The Jewish State, the "bible" of the Zionist movement written by founder Theodor Herzl (comparable in its political influence to Uncle Tom’s Cabin), I came across the naive, romantic slogan coined by this Austrian Jewish journalist, "People without land, come to the land without people!" That sentence alone persuaded me to regard the Zionist experiment in Palestine as based on a hopelessly unrealistic premise, doomed to create the tragic, insoluble problem which now confronts us daily in newspaper headlines and television news footage. Even allowing that as a poor backwater of the dying Ottoman Empire 19th century Palestine seemed far removed from Vienna, how could Herzl believe that this land was empty of people, that after two thousand years it patiently awaited the return of the Jews from the Diaspora? How could the Zionist movement simply ignore the existence of a Palestinian population, or expect the inhabitants of Palestine to move quietly aside and make room for the establishment of a Jewish homeland? From its beginnings Israel has faced an insoluble dilemma: In order to survive, it cannot allow the Palestinian population to become a majority within its borders. While many Palestinians fled after the creation of the Jewish state in 1948, many more remained. The neighboring Arab countries have cynically refused to admit and absorb the Palestinians, condemning hundreds of thousands of them—generations of them—to live out their lives in execrable refugee camps, in order to keep the issue alive as a weapon to use against Israel. Today the population of the territories occupied since 1967 is growing much faster than that of Israel, and there is no obvious solution to that equation. If I could envisage a reasonably quick and comprehensive solution to the crisis in Israel/Palestine, I would not have entitled this piece "The Insoluble Problem." I do believe that certain steps are possible to mitigate the crisis, but here, too, I am pessimistic that moderate or even drastic changes in American policy will improve our relations with the region, at least over the short term. 1. I advocate that we adopt a much tougher stance, using our massive assistance program much more effectively as leverage to insist on Israeli compliance with UN resolutions and our long- standing demands that settlement construction cease. Already existing settlements in the occupied territories should be dismantled. As for our dealings with the Palestinian side, there the problem is aggravated by uncertainties about a meaningful, reliable interlocutor: How much power does Arafat really possess? We continue to demand that he put a stop to the almost daily acts of terrorism, but do we know to what extent he is in fact able to control and restrain the terrorist organizations like Hamas, Islamic Jihad et al.? And who will come after Arafat one day? 2. Even while I support a harder, more even-handed approach, I do not believe that it is in the U. S. interest to abandon Israel—it is and should remain our ally—but for years I have felt strongly that we should use our massive aid as leverage to make the Israeli government abide by our wishes. We might achieve some amelioration of the situation by being a lot tougher and more hard-nosed than we have been in the past. 3. I believe that Israel must withdraw from the territories it has occupied since the Six-Day War in 1967. What I see as a policy of half-measures pursued over the past 35 years has led to steady deterioration of Jewish-Palestinian relations and to a dead end. One could ask whether Israel might have done better to face the wrath of the world and openly annex the conquered lands back in 1967 rather than render their occupation irreversible through the back-door method of building all these settlements. Instead, Israel has succeeded only in creating three classes or, better yet, "castes" of people: Jewish citizens of Israel; Palestinians with citizenship rights in Israel proper; Palestinians living in the occupied territories without any apparent rights or protection against arbitrary measures taken against them by the Israeli authorities. Is it possible to imagine a surer recipe for anger, hatred and violence? 4. In the event of withdrawal, Israel must repatriate the settlers, daunting though the size of the problem (200,000 people) makes this task.* But they cannot be left behind without facing almost certain slaughter. 5. I am deeply skeptical that the "Palestinian Problem" (how eerily reminiscent of what the Nazis called "the Jewish Question") can be settled by the creation of two gerrymandered, barely viable mini-states sharing the soil of a very small country. Ideally, only the willingness of Jews and Arabs to live together in one secular state, in peace and mutual respect, holds out any hope for the future, and I see very little chance of such a vision ever becoming a reality. 6. The United States is committed to fighting terrorism in every form, whether it is state terrorism or terrorism practiced by non-governmental organizations. Our efforts to combat terrorism should include the present situation in Palestine, which can only be described as mutual, self-defeating terrorism. I define terrorism as cold-blooded murder of innocent people for the sake of gaining attention, making a point, promoting an objective—"collateral damage," as our home-grown terrorist Timothy McVeigh callously dismissed it. I find not only the PLO, Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, al Qaeda, El Sendero Luminoso and so on and so forth, ad infinitum, guilty of terrorism, but equally so the government of Ariel Sharon with his brutal and futile efforts to impose "peace" on the Occupied Territories, equally guilty the increasingly brutal Israeli military which is harassing, maiming and killing innocent people, including women and children, wantonly razing civilian homes, tearing up their streets and roads, keeping people pent up and prevented from going where they need to go in order to earn a livelihood. Can there be a more cruel historical irony than Jews inflicting on Palestine’s native population forms of harassment, suffering and horrors reminiscent of what their forefathers were condemned to experience at the hands of the Nazis half a century ago? A plague on both their houses, I say—Arab and Israeli terrorists both in their pursuit of policies and actions which create no solutions but only more rage, more violence, more terror! I deeply regret the way events have borne out my worst fears. Despite winning war after war against its Arab neighbors, Israel has never been able to live and develop in peace, without external help—and I fear that it never will be; it will continue to exist only as an armed camp surrounded by enemies on all sides. I am convinced that whatever lies, empty promises and apparent peace offers Arafat and the PLO may yet put on the table, the total destruction of Israel will remain the ultimate Palestinian objective, however unrealistic this objective may be. For this reason I believe that the so- called "peace process" is doomed to fail. After the murder of Rabin, after the failure of the Oslo Accords, after the collapse of the Camp David negotiations, I am more pessimistic than ever. Postscript—An Appeal to the American Jewish Community: As an American citizen of Jewish birth, I am deeply worried that many non-Jews may think that Jewish support of Israel is and must be automatic, even at the expense of American interests in the Middle East and around the world. I fear that the consistent U. S. "tilt" toward Israel, our unwavering support of Israeli policy, stems from fear by our elected officials of a specter called "the Jewish vote." I fervently hope that this "Jewish vote" is a political myth, that in reality there is no such bloc vote. Having suffered Nazi hatred and persecution at first hand, I am like the child "once burned, twice careful," and I worry that, fed by blind support of Israeli policies and actions by many American Jews, and by powerful lobbies like AIPAC (the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee) and even the terrorist gang known as the Jewish Defense League, Anti-Semitism may increase rapidly in America. I fear that blind Jewish support of Israel will sooner or later give rise to suspicions of divided loyalty. It may seem absurd (for now), but as a retired US Foreign Service officer, I have nightmarish visions of Jewish Americans being excluded from the Foreign Service and other sensitive government agencies because of doubts about the reliability of their support of American policy in the Middle East. And may Heaven preserve us from another Jonathan Pollard! Hence I implore American Jews to recognize the danger confronting them and remember that the country to which they owe loyalty is the United States—only the United States—and that as American citizens it is their obligation to promote our interests and defend our institutions—and not those of any other country. Now kids, take a look at what's been emphasized in bold. That is what the Arab News intentionally deleted and it explains why the version they carry is so incoherent. You'll notice that any hint of criticism towards the Palestinians (see the missing part about the cynicism of the Arab policy of keeping the Palesitinans as refugess) is deleted, any mention of the US War on Terrorism deleted, and that Heichler's words are deliberately twisted to express a hatred of Israel. The most pointed example is in the final sentence carried in the Arab News version which says: "It may seem absurd (for now), but as a retired US Foreign Service officer, I have nightmarish visions of Jewish state." versus the original sentence which says: "It may seem absurd (for now), but as a retired US Foreign Service officer, I have nightmarish visions of Jewish Americans being excluded from the Foreign Service and other sensitive government agencies because of doubts about the reliability of their support of American policy in the Middle East." This is nothing short of straight out lying committed by the Arab News. How anyone would agree to have them publish their work is beyond me. The Arab News has featured the writings of Robert Fisk, the darling of the intellectual left. Do you think he'd care about the lack of scruples of the Arab News. Probably...as long as he could blame it on Israel.

2002-05-22T11:34:00.000-04:00

Some new links. Blogs seem to pop up everyday like dandelions, yet some of them are definitely worth reading and thus linking to: Arrgh...the scurvy Privateer Eerily reminiscent of The Cable Guy, I present the Israeli guy The classy Tiger Lily (who seems to have gone on hiatus...) A refugee from the People's Republic of Berkeley and... The cutest Zionist in the blogosphere, Renatinha

2002-05-22T11:28:00.000-04:00

Why I love Martin Peretz. In the section of his latest piece discussing the signatories of the insipid divest from Israel petitions at Harvard/MIT and Princeton, Peretz notes one name that's curiously missing:

Where is Cornel West? Did the famously anti-Israel philosopher of self-promotion decide that Israel wasn't the moral equivalent of apartheid South Africa after all? I doubt it. More likely he couldn't decide whether to sign the Harvard list or the Princeton one.

2002-05-22T10:59:00.000-04:00

IDF = Pizza Nazi The IDF has told its soldiers No Pizza for you!. Fearing that terrorists will take advantage of the pizzas ordered via internet for IDF soldiers, the IDF has banned all pizza deliveries not personally ordered by IDF soldiers. While an understanable precaution, it's sad that a good gesture can easily be turned into a deadly boobytrap

2002-05-20T14:06:00.000-04:00

The Cartoons of M. Kahil. Perhaps because I was procrastinating, or perhaps because I'm just a masochist, I was perusing the cartoons that walleyed cartoonist, M. Kahil, that are prominently featured on the Arabnews website. I thought I'd share some comments on a few of them.
I found this one laughable seeing as how it basically states that a small country with a population of 6 million somehow rules the world. Mr. Kahil must have some serious inadequacy problems.

Obviously Mr. Kahil's target audience must consit of cretins and imbeciles if he feels he has to label the axe and knife as "axe" and "knife."

Nevertheless, it speaks volumes when an Arab is willing to admit the truth about Arafat.

2002-05-20T14:03:00.000-04:00

He's baaaaaack. After the imposed absence brought about by the passing of my grandmother and a following (unrelated) lack of interest in blogging, I'm back. But before I begin blogging, I want to thank everyone who was kind enough to express their condolences and sympathies about my grandmother. They were very much appreciated.

2002-05-14T00:45:00.000-04:00

Strange coincidence. While Stephen Green (to whom I extend my condolences) struggles with saying goodbye to his dying grandmother, I will be attending the funeral of my grandmother in the morning. After almost a two year bout with bone cancer, she passed away on Mother's day. I'm not going to wax nostalgic here about my grandmother, but I will say this much. Out of all my grandparents, she was the one I really ever knew, and she was the one who knitted 75 kippot for my bar-mitzvah, despite her arthritis. I will be wearing one of them tomorrow.

2002-05-13T15:17:00.000-04:00

Myopic Idiots. The Palestinians may be adept at missing opportunities, but no one can top the Israelis in the skill of shooting oneself in the foot. And thus we have the latest in a series of embarrassments to Israel, the Likud party vote against having any sort of Palestinian state. This may be an internal power play but to the rest of the world, always hungry for more reasons to gang up on Israel, it looks like nothing short of Israeli intransigence. Even if the Likud does not want a Palestinian state, it was foolish to make this view official for all the world to see. Waving the olive branch in one hand and whacking with a stick in the other has worked wonders for the Arab world recently; it would behoove the Israelis to do likewise. Instead, the Arab world, already buoyed by the Saudi peace sham will look like the party truly interested in peace. Absolutely brilliant guys. Really...bravo. Bibi, your calling is not to be prime minister of Israel. Tell Arik to make a ministry of hasbara in his cabinet (what's another cabinet member when you've got like 26) and do what you do best: look good on TV. Don't coopt the best interests of Israel for your lust for power.
(The Amercian Kaiser has a better take on this.)

2002-05-13T13:42:00.000-04:00

Phallic Trees. This gives a whole new meaning to "getting wood."

2002-05-13T13:24:00.000-04:00

Sheesh. Everyone's a critic. Sorry my Norwegian friend, but it's the 21st century and since I'm making the rules, no "ands" allowed.

2002-05-13T11:35:00.000-04:00

Dershowitz Lays Down the Gauntlet. In Friday's MIT Tech, Alan Dershowitz challenges Chomsky to a debate on the divestiture from Israel. You go Alan, with your Chutzpah self.

2002-05-13T10:47:00.000-04:00

The Censored Award. In the ever expanding effort for a egotistical, control-freak, network administrator to control what the employees at the hospital I work view on the internet, more sites have been banned by our "net-nanny." As such, I will start giving out the "Censored Award" to those sites which I enjoy that have been banned. Prior to the creation of this award, sites that have been banned include Plastic (Adult Material), Mr Cranky (Tasteless), and Ken Layne (Adult Material). But today, I award the Censored Award to ........ Charles Johnson who has been banned for being "Tasteless". Congrats, Charles!

2002-05-10T14:34:00.000-04:00

Sign this. Outraged about the idiotic effort to try and convince MIT and Harvard to divest themselves of companies that do business with Israel? Then sign this.

2002-05-10T10:32:00.000-04:00

An open letter to Chretien and Manley. I'm not Canadian, but I do have some important Canadian (more than) friends who passed along this open letter to the Canadian govenment. Obviously the last paragraph doesn't apply to me, but I thought the retelling of certain events is informative, especially the part I've emphasized:

Dear Hon. Mr. Manley, and Rt. Hon. Mr. Prime Minster Chretien: I would like to offer this note to bring to your attention that we do not appreciate terrorism in Canada, nor should we protect people that hold themselves beyond the justice of the country in which they have commmitted crimes. 1 - October of 1970 I trust Mr. Chretien remembers the October Crisis of 1970. The government to which he belonged, and the party to which you both belonged, saw it fit to declare the War Measures Act into effect and send tanks into Montreal because of a few mail-box bombs and the singular death of an international representative. Yet, the same government and party doesn't seem to understand or support Israel in its current campaign against MULTIPLE SUICIDE bombs that has killed MULITIPLE people, and not a person and many mailboxes. 2 - 60 Minutes I trust that Mr. Manley remembers what he said when he appeared on CBS concerning Canada's role as a harbouror of terrorists. Our reputation, especially here in Montreal is being tarnished internationally every time somebody like Ahmed Rassam is captured. How many more houses were raided in Montreal alone after his capture? Here is something else to think about, also in Montreal, where do the university organizations Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) receive their funding from? What did it mean when the student council's agenda published by Concordia's Union of Students prior to the beginning of the semester said "September 11: the Splitting of the Skies"? What does it mean when somebody like Israel Shamir can speak at McGill University in blatantly anti-semetic rhetoric and receive support from the local Arab student unions and SPHR? 3 - Hizbollah Parade I trust that my eyes were wrong then when Israel pulled back from Southern Lebanon a few years ago at the end of May/beginning of June and there was a parade of Hizbollah flags speeding down St.-Catherine Street and St.-Laurent Street in downtown Montreal. So Mr. Manley should be aware, that these terrorist groups don't even attempt to be clandestine in Canada, they feel free to parade already. 4 - 25,000 demonstrators supporting Israel In Montreal recently there was a tremendous out-pourring of support for Israel, for peace, for JUSTICE. Accepting known criminals and violent individuals from other countries will not hold well for electors that appreciate Israel, appreciate peace, and especially not for those that appreciate JUSTICE. I vow, that in the event that Canada willingly accepts criminals or terrorists from any country, even if they are accepted into a Canadian jail, I will work tirelessly to make sure that electors do not forget the type of society that the Liberal Party of Canada wishes to provide for Canadians.

Now, I'm particularly curious about the part I've emphasized in bold. I know that falsehoods are constantly sent around the internet so I'd really like to know if that tidbit is true. If anyone has any hard information about this, I'd really like to know.

2002-05-10T10:19:00.000-04:00

A request. I know they're are plenty of these floating around out there, but I don't have the time to go websuring for them. Can anyone pass along some info as how to donate some money to the Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorists? Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks.

2002-05-10T09:53:00.000-04:00

Infamous list update. Surprisingly, this list has become far more popular than I had anticipated, so I thought I'd start filling in the blanks with some of the suggestions I've received. You can see them below. And hello to all you new readers.

2002-05-10T09:51:00.000-04:00

EU Flag update. Jay Zilber has proposed some designs for the new EU flag which are far prettier than mine. I particularly enjoyed the mosaic version. But, as I told Jay, think of the children! How ever are they going to be able to draw his proposed flags? Since I have the drawing skills of a 5 year old, I understood their plight and thus felt that my design would suit them best.

2002-05-09T16:10:00.000-04:00

Cool. I have a self-described fan. Obviously since this man has such good taste it behooves you to read his blog as well.

2002-05-09T15:54:00.000-04:00

Oh Canada! Jean Chrétien yesterday tentatively offered sanctuary in Canada to 13 Palestinian militants who have been under siege in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity since April 2. Perhaps not so coincidentally, the Toronto Maple Leafs have been decimated by injuries and are seeking replacements.

2002-05-09T15:31:00.000-04:00

One man's scum is another's separatist. After some terrorists set off a bomb during a military parade in the town of Kaspiisk in the Russian province of Dagestan, killing 34 people, Russian President Vladimir Putin said,

"This crime was carried out by scum who hold nothing sacred. We have the right to regard them as Nazis, whose purpose is to sow death and kill. During the war, there was the slogan, `Tread the viper.' And it was destroyed. Difficult as the tasks facing us today are, they will be carried out."

Who wants to lay odds on Colin Powell urging the Russians to act with caution Anyone? Anyone?

2002-05-09T15:09:00.000-04:00

Making a list, checking it twice. The following is a list of all the nations that voted for that UN assembly resolution condeming Israel just as a Palestinian terrorist killed 16 Israelis. Since this is my blog and I can do what I want to, I'll comment on each nation. If the nation has no comment, I just couldn't think of one (but I'm open to suggestions).
Algeria: This country is so bad that people are dying (ha!) to leave it for France.
Antigua and Barbuda: This is a country? You cannot be a single country and have an "and" in your name. Sorry.
Argentina: I won't be crying for you while your economy is a disaster.
Armenia: Don't expect much sympathy from the Jews about your genocide.
Azerbaijan: A post-USSR basketcase..woopee!
Bahrain: An Arab-Muslim country; I'd expect nothing less
Bangladesh: Poster-child for the term "banana republic."
Belarus: Just because you beat Sweden in Winter Olymics ice hockey doesn't mean anyone cares what you think.
Belize: Only claim to fame is being the locale of "Temptation Island".
Bolivia: You're supposed to have one capital guys.
Brazil Your World Cup team lost to France. Ha ha.
Brunei Darussalam: Home of a royal family whose corruption is only rivaled by that of the Saudis.
Burkina Faso Who?
Cambodia: The country which produced Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge criticizes Israel. Only at the UN.
Cape Verde: Who cares?
Chile: Sorry, you're name sounds too much like a food. Your opinion doesn't count.
China: Yes Israel, you're bad. And no, we're not occupying and colonizing Tibet.
Colombia: We've being very nice to our civilians while fighting the FARC.
Côte d'Ivoire: Another African mess.
Cuba: Fidel knows human rights.
Cyprus: Look! Something both halves of the island could agree on.
Democratic People's Republic of Korea: Q. How many N. Koreans does it take to change a lightbulb? A. What's a lightbulb?
Djibouti Shake shake shake, shake shake shake, shake Djibouti
Ecuador So the equator bisects your country. Big deal.
Egypt: And if you'll give us $100 billion, we'll actually do something to fight Israel
Eritrea Shouldn't you be more concerned with your starving population?
Guinea: Sub-Saharan mess, just like all the others.
Guyana: A South Amercian country no one cares about.
Haiti: People are dying to leave this country too.
India: So much for that Indian-Israeli alliance.
Indonesia: Just look at what we did in East Timor as an example of how to act.
Iran: Do I have to comment?
Jamaica: What exactly were you smoking?
Jordan: 70% of the population is Palestinian, what do you expect?
Kuwait: We're allowed to kick the Palestinians around; you're not.
Lebanon: What Syria said...yeah, yeah.
Malaysia: Muslim country, would expect nothing less.
Maldives: Muslim country, would expect nothing less.
Mali: How sad to be named after a forgotten empire.
Malta: I hope you get EU membership. You deserve each other
Mauritius: Don't know much about it so I can't comment.
Mexico: I hope the US seals the border just to piss you off.
Morocco: Arab Muslim country, would expect nothing less
Myanmar:: We just freed Aung San Suu Kyi, so now we're good enough to criticize Israel.
Namibia:
Nepal: Only our rebels can't be trusted; you can trust the Palestinians. (scutum)
Nigeria: See? We didn't actually stone that woman for daring to be raped!
Oman: Arab/Muslim country...'nuff said.
Pakistan: We just had free elections..honest!
Panama: Aren't we cool? Van Halen wrote a song about us!
Paraguay: Because two guays are better than one (Steve Moe)
Philippines: We can fight Islamic terrorists, but you can't.
Qatar:Home of Al Jazeera. Need I say more? (Meryl Yourish)
Republic of Moldova: Another post-USSR mess.
Russian Federation: We're not really raping Chechnya, honest!
Saint Lucia: huh?
Saudi Arabia: hehehehehehe...ooh I can't stop laughing.
Senegal:
Sierra Leone:Hey, Palestinians! If you run out of bombs, we can show you how to use machetes instead! ("Dean" from the comments)
Singapore: We almost didn't vote for this resolution because it didn't comdemn Israelis for chewing gum.
South Africa: Everything they said in Durban was true!
Sri Lanka: Only Tamil suicide bombes are terrorists.
Sudan: We really do care about Christians; they make such wonderful slaves.
Syria: Want to know how to fight terrorism in a civilized manner? See what dear ol' Dad did in Hamat.
Thailand: Don't mind us, we're busy with our bustling child-sex industry.
Togo: This could be a place to party!
Trinidad and Tobago: See Antigua and Barbuda
Tunisia: That Synagogue attack was an accident..really!
Turkey: See Chile.
United Arab Emirates:just like the United States of America, only without that whole democracy nonsense. (Kevin Downey)
Uruguay:
Venezuela: See Argentina (Sasha Castel)
Yemen:See the other Arab countries.
(Update: please don't take this to mean I think Israel is beyond reproach or that I hate all these countries and their inhabitants. I'm just sick of the one sided resolutions that constantly emanate from the UN)

2002-05-09T14:18:00.000-04:00

I'm embarrassed that I am a student at both MIT and Harvard after seeing this crap I guess ol' Noam took a break from sucking off Arafat so that he could host this farce.

2002-05-09T13:24:00.000-04:00

Oh the irony. I couldn't help but snicker at this. I wonder if the British were fighting those terrorists who were not Palestinian as Chris Patten described it.

2002-05-09T13:22:00.000-04:00

Gnarly. This is what happens when you screw up a suicide bombing. I do hope they were able to save the bastard, just so he can suffer for the rest of his miserable life with his horrible wounds and knowing the fact that he was an incompetent screw-up. (Link via Glenn Kinen)

2002-05-08T12:55:00.000-04:00

They blinded me with bad taste.

It looks like the EU is considering this atrocity to become their new flag. Seeing as how it's destined to receive a failing grade, I propose the following as the new flag:

(link via Damian Penny)

2002-05-08T11:20:00.000-04:00

I won't hold my breath. The EU is studying the Israeli report documenting that EU funds for the Palestinian Authority were used to fund suicide bombers. According to EU Commission spokeman Gunnar Wiegand,

"These are serious allegations and we will look at them in a serious way."

So far, so good, but then I continued to read on and I ran across this:

Wiegand said Wednesday the 15-nation EU had strict rules and conditions on attributing the aid, which totals 369 million euro (337 million dollars) over the past two years, to make sure it was being spent on civilian purposes only. EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten is expected to highlight the issue when EU foreign affairs ministers hold their monthly meeting on Monday.

Chris Patten eh? This is like the fox inspecting the henhouse. Once this investigation is finished, I fully expect to see a press conference where Chris Patten acts like Leslie Nielsen saying "Nothing to see here, move along."

2002-05-08T11:08:00.000-04:00

A good read. I really do hate jumping on the NRO/Victor Davis bandwagon, but his latest summarizes a great deal of my thoughts on the situation in the Middle East.

2002-05-07T16:58:00.000-04:00

Possible terror attack. There has been an explosion in a Rishon Lezion event hall that is being treated as a terror attack. Right now there are reports of at least 40 injured and of several others remaining trapped in the ruins of the collapsed building. If this indeed is a suicide bombing, expect some wishy-washy condemnations by EUro types followed by a big BUT... Update: Ha'aretz is reporting at least 10 dead. Question 1: How long will it take until someone makes the comparison between Palestinians caught in the rubble of demolished houses in Jenin to the Jews trapped in the rubble of this demolished building? I say 24 hours. Any other guesses? Question 2: Should I hold my breath waiting for the EU and the UN to demand that a fact finding mission be sent to Rishon Lezion to investigate whether or not there was a massacre and if any war crimes were committed?

2002-05-07T14:25:00.000-04:00

Apologies. I didn't mean to offend the folks behind the American Kaiser. I was just reminded of the Guess Who song, "American Woman." To make amends, I'm adding them to the blog list on the right. Now don't be so sensitive guys, ok?

2002-05-07T13:04:00.000-04:00

Infinite loop. I don't have anything useful to say today, so I present to you instead, my pseudocode version of what happens on a daily basis in the blog world: While (Robert Fisk == Afghan punching bag) Glenn Reynolds will be proclaimed as a blogger “god”; if (reading Instapundit) ingest lots of fluff but no substance; Pejman Yousefzadeh will write something really long; Charles Johnson will never cease to be amazed by the amount of Jew hatred in the Arab world; The UN will be shown to be a useless anti-Semitic organization; Europe will be shown to be led by a bunch of clueless weenies; Andrew Sullivan will hand out a bunch of awards to people he doesn’t like all while pining for the opportunity to give George Bush a rimjob; if (reading Libertarian Samizdata if (poster==Perry de Havilland) read about forced collectivism; if (poster==Natalija Radic) read about Croata or incest; endif Asaparagirl will post something that will be deemed insightful and then will be beset upon by a bunch of cybersuitors in her comments section; Damian Penny, glutton for punishment that he is, will read yet another indymedia post that will give him agita; Nothing useful will be written on this blog; end

2002-05-06T15:27:00.000-04:00

Only in the blogosphere will you find a political critique of They Might Be Giants lyrics (ok ok, so it was a cover, but you get the point).

2002-05-06T15:13:00.000-04:00

Assassination. Lex Luthor..er I mean Pym Fortuyn, an anti-immigration Dutch politician was shot dead today after giving a radio interview. I won't make any comments since almost nothing is known. It will be very interesting to find out who the killer is.

2002-05-06T13:11:00.000-04:00

American Kaiser .... stay away from meeeeeheeeee. Well that's pretty harsh, but that's the first thing I thought of when I read the name of that blog.

2002-05-06T12:47:00.000-04:00

Welcome to reality. You've just now figured out what the Catholic Church is all about? Where have you been for the last millennium and a half ?

2002-05-06T12:45:00.000-04:00

I have returned... and all I'd like to do is give a hearty fuck you to Bin Laden, his henchmen, and the pipebomb terrorists, who caused the US government to tighten the US/Canadian border so that it takes an hour and a half to cross into the US.

2002-05-02T15:50:00.000-04:00

Ok now I'm really gone. Ciao and have a good weekend.

2002-05-02T15:38:00.000-04:00

Whoa. I'm not quite sure what to make of this:

The US Congress will vote today on a proposal to recognize the West Bank as sovereign territory belonging to the State of Israel. Rep. Richard Armey, the Republican Congressional leader, said the Palestinians should build their national home within a neighboring Arab country. Armey noted Arab nations have large tracts of unsettled territory where the Palestinians could build a nation. In Armey's opinion, there is no reason for Israel to hand territory over to the Palestinians in exchange for peace. The White House is urging Congress at this time to dramatically tone down the proposal's language, Israel Radio reported.

It appeals to me on some level; after all it would simplify things. But then again, forcing 1.5 million people to just uproot and move doesn't sit well with me.

2002-05-02T15:33:00.000-04:00

Away again. I am leaving for Montreal to see my girlfriend's newborn niece. I won't be blogging again until Monday. In the mean time, feel free to show me some love and leave some comments. You can also read Mark Steyn's latest. There's a reason he gets paid to write and why the rest of us are only pathetic wanabees who clog up the internet with our pathetic writing.

2002-05-02T13:47:00.000-04:00

Gee, what do you expect? Roger Clegg over at NRO is concerned about supposed special efforts being made by American universities "to boost Jewish enrollment." He quotes Vanderbilt Chancellor, Gordon Gee, saying, "

"Jewish students, by culture and by ability and by the very nature of their liveliness, make a university a much more habitable place in terms of intellectual life."

Three things about this: 1. I don't want any univeristy, save Yeshiva U or the like, going out of their way to recruit Jews. I specifically turned down an offer of admission from Caltech (sorry Paul) because they paid for college visits made by "underrepresented minorities" and women. This practice made me feel unwanted so I said screw 'em and found greener pastures elsewhere. However, specifically recruiting my ethnic/religeous group doesn't make it any better. As far as I'm concerned, all such efforts are wrong, regardless of the target, except perhaps for the economically underpriviledged. 2. Gordon Gee is a schmuck. Clegg mentions that he recently arrived from Brown but doesn't mention anything about his tenure there. I'm a little fuzzy on the details since I heared things second hand via my sister, but he was unanimously reviled by the Brown community. Given his might short tenure at Brown, I sincerely doubt he would know what "Ivy League" status means. 3. Imagine UC Berkeley specifically recruiting Jews when posters such as these are so common. I'm sure that if the Berkeley students found out about such a program, they'd proclaim it was a Mossad plot trying to ruin the integrity of the school.

2002-05-02T12:16:00.000-04:00

How about this reason? I knew this would happen sooner rather than later, but the lazy pseudo-intellectuals comprising the anti-Israel crowd are complaining about the apparent double-standard applied by the UN towards Israel and Iraq. Damian Penny suggests some reason why Israel was right to rebuff the UN but Iraq wasn't. Allow me to suggest another. As part of the agreement which ended the Gulf War, Iraq (the defeated party) agreed to allow UN inspectors into their country. Israel has made no such deal.

2002-05-02T12:09:00.000-04:00

You go with Sunoco. I am leaving for Montreal this afternoon and I filled up my car before leaving. I usually fill up at a Sunoco station because it's conveniently located and competitively priced. But now I've learned of an even better reason to buy Sunoco. (Link via Damian Penny)

2002-05-02T11:27:00.000-04:00

Breaking news! We are receiving reports that Lazarus has returned to the holy land. According to video caught by IDF drones,

"In the tape you see the fake corpse being wrapped and then lying down on a stretcher. The stretcher bearers are not particularly adept and you can see him fall off several times. One time he falls off the stretcher when he is already in a crowd. This is being filmed by the Palestinians for their own purposes - to show as many casualties as possible were buried inside Jenin.When he came back to life in the middle of the crowd the crowd breaks up because they didn't know that it wasn't really a corpse."

With the return of Lazarus, rumors of Jesus' immientent return have been running through the Holy Land like wildfire. Our IDF source claims that Jesus is being held hostage in the Church of the Nativity by Palestinian terrorists demanding that he produce enough fish and loaves of bread of them to eat. Jesus is refusing to comply, reminding them that if they hurt him, his father is going to come and kick their asses.

2002-04-30T15:26:00.000-04:00

No teeth. Like your typical yipping dog, the UN's bark is worse than its bite. Now Kofi Annan is reportedly learning towards disbanding the Jenin probe. That didn't take much, now did it?

2002-04-30T12:11:00.000-04:00

Hehe. Find out the truth about Jenin.