Israel needs the death penalty

and damn soon. Whether Hez kidnapped Israeli soldiers to achieve the release of prisoners is doubtful. They probably just felt like killing, torturing, and upsetting Jews and showing the world what big, bad guys they are.

However, the prisoners Hez says it wants released, particularly Samir Kuntar, could not even be used as a pretext if Israel had the death penalty, and used it. If it's good enough for Eichmann, it's good enough for Arab terrorists.

Israel has no qualms about targeted assassination. So why not the death penalty? These guys all want to rejoin Allah ASAP. It would be a real kindness to give them a helping hand.

Gender confusion?

Poor guy.

Dear Ann Landers: What are first date panties?

Can someone enlighten me?

I got a new pair of first date panties. I am optimistic that they will be worn sometime soon. I also got becca a pair of fdp's. She was so embarrassed I thought she might just walk out of the store. Hers is black, sheer, thong with ruffles and this feather type thing on the crotch. perfect first date panties.

What would second date panties look like? Engagement panties? Wedding panties? The possibilities are endless.

A new holiday

coourtesy of I got news:

Today is BlogDay! Yay!

What is BlogDay? It's simple. We're celebrating bloggers and the blogosphere by going out and finding 5 new blogs that we didn't know about before. We're telling them that we've nominated them for BlogDay and we're listing them. I say "we" cause I hope you'll join me. It's fun.

Good idea!

Vacations from blogging?

Mark posted this

From the Wall Street Journal:

I

n the height of summer-holiday season, bloggers face the inevitable question: to blog on break or put the blog on a break? Fearing a decline in readership, some writers opt not to take vacations. Others keep posting while on location, to the chagrin of their families. Those brave enough to detach themselves from their keyboards for a few days must choose between leaving the site dormant or having someone blog-sit.

Sigh.

Pumping, and not pumping, gas

My regular readers (Hi there, both of you) will know I have a thing about pumping gas. I seriously dreaded leaving New Jersey because you aren't allowed to fill your own tank in the Garden State.

When I first moved to Delaware, I thought I'd get used to doing it myself. So far, I have managed to snooker someone else into pumping for me every time. I've now developed a real phobia about doing it.

Then I drove to Massachusetts, with my partner in crime, BG. BG not only can't pump, she can't even drive. On the way, as is inevitable, we had to stop for gas in some godforsaken place in upstate New York.

Park car. Check. Open gas tank. Check. Get out credit card. Check. Okay so far. Then I fumble with the gas cap--I can't get that sucker open.

An older man sees me and BG struggling futilely with the gas cap. He comes over to "show" us how to do it. He opens the cap, filled the gas tank, and then demonstrates how to close it. We thank him profusely.

He leaves with a jaunty, "Good luck, girls!"

So far, so good.

In Lenox, I remembered, there is a full-service gas station, complete with attendant. I stopped there and got the attendant to do the dirty deed.

On the way home, I had to go through New Jersey, so I got a full tank pumped for me. Pure bliss--my vacation was a success.

Two who googled me

1. Naked while drinking Diet Coke

2. Pronounce Skuylkill?

The others are even less interesting.

Just think, there's another poor soul out there like me, not knowing how to pronounce Skuylkill!

Islam is the religion of peace: discuss.

by Astute Blogger.

Question: If Israel has to give up its territory, why shouldn't Islam give up the Christian and animist countries they conquered? Fair is fair.

If Bush were really a dictator...

he would have Jimmy Carter rubbed out.

My little brother

 
Who now has grey hair and a beard, and three children. 

What does John Kerry want to be President of?

The smoking hole in the ground that will be all that remains of this country when our enemies finish us off?

Just asking.

A couple of teenagers overheard in the diner

Girl I: "If I had to pay my own phone bill, I'd kill myself."

Girl II: "You mean you don't pay your own phone bill?"

Girl I: "Are you kidding? My last phone bill was over 560 dollars."

If I were her mother, she wouldn't have to kill herself. I'd do it.

An ode to the Ginsu knife

From Jack.

I feel sorry for Wal-Mart

First, Andrew Young, and now Al Gore is making nice.

Corporate disaster is sure to follow.

Advice for Mayor Nagin...

on how to run a city:

We lived in Chicago for awhile. There were a couple of snow disasters awhile back -- and the people of Chicago promptly voted out the mayor who failed to get the snow plowed. The result is that the streets in Chicago get plowed. The streets in Chicago will probably continue to get plowed for two years after Armageddon.

Richard Daley's been in office for a couple of decades. It's the family business, his father Richard J Daley's remembered fondly as Da Mayor. But, do you think for a second that Richie Daley will let his city die while he's photo-opping Democrat talking points? Do you think for a second that he'd keep his office if he did?

Read the whole thing.

I've been memed

by Snoopy:

Book that changed my life: (face turns red) It was Mary Poppins, when I was about 7. A chapter book. I was able to read it from start to finish, proving to me that I could read real books (not picture books), and started a long career of pleasure.

Books I've read more than once: There are so many. Let's start with Pride and Prejudice. Morte D'Urban by F. X. Powers, which I've read so many times I can't read it any more.

Books I'd like to read on a desert island: Middlemarch. I read it once, and loved it. But have been unable to re-read it yet. It's a long book, so if I haven't been rescued by the time I've finished it, call off the search.

Book that made me laugh: The first Jeeves book had me rolling on the floor, howling. Subsequent applications of P G Wodehouse had a similar effect. He's great for chasing the blues.

Book that made me cry: Jude the Obscure. I cried more from annoyance than anything else. I must admit that Jude was an unlucky cuss. His author, Thomas Hardy, obviously had it in for him.

Book I wish I'd written: Pictures from an Institution, by Randall Jarrell, a wicked send-up of a "progressive" girls' college, written over 50 years ago.

Book you wish had never been written: the da Vinci Code. Its presence on the bestseller list makes me wonder whether democracy is such a hot idea.

Book I'm currently reading: Paradise News, by David Lodge. Excellent. I'm racing through it.

Book I'm meaning to read. In Search of Lost Time, by Proust. I can't seem to finish it. Maybe I'll pack it with Middlemarch for my desert island sojourn.

Tag 5 other unlucky souls:
Rachel; Air Force Wife; Akaky; Matt; and Greta.

Al Gore's global warming messes up my vacation

What a weird summer! First rain, torrential rain, then heat that practically set the lawn ablaze, than when I go on vacation, freezing!

I froze my butt off in Canada, came home and did my laundry, then went to the Berkshires to enjoy some of their rainy, cold weather. We wore all our clothes--at the same time--and even stopped off at a local Marshall's to buy a couple of jackets to protect us from the elements.

Tanglewood was terrific, as usual, but very few people turned out for Friday evening's concert.

I blame it all on Al Gore's global warming. Not content to invent the Internet so child molesters could more easily find victims, he had to go and invent global warming, which caused the Berkshires to lose their sunny charm. All the motels had vacancy signs.

Innkeepers of Massachusetts, unite! Put a stop to this international menace, and foil his knavish tricks.

If someone doesn't take action, what catastrophe will happen next? I hate to even think about it.

Going away again

 
to the beautiful Berkshires. Back Saturday or Sunday. 

At typical school in rural England

From our friends at Little Frigging on the Wold.

This post made me think twice

It's so easy to get discouraged, if you watch the MSM and listen to the talking heads. This post is reassuring.

[T]ying Iranian-backed Shi'a militias in with Baathist and Salaafist fighters (who spent a significant amount of time and effort killing Shi'a) is wrong at best, dishonest at worse.

What this uptick in violence represents is not an angry country trying to rid itself of an occupying power... that's silly. If that's what the goverment wanted, all they have to do is say "leave," rather than "please don't go away yet." What this is is the increased aggression of foreign-backed militias. They've gotten themselves into a zealous, earth-cleansing crusading frenzy, helped by the Hezb'Allah drama and Ahmadouchebag's apocalyptic rhetoric, and by god they're going to purify their land with fire and blood. (they really do talk like that you know)

There may be a civil war in Iraq if no suitable peaceful way is found to reduce these militias; but it won't be sectarian. It'll be US- backed/nationalist/loyalist and Iran-backed/religious/rebel. If we depart without leaving a secure, unchallanged government (in whatever form) then we've handed the country to Iran and invited intervention by the other Arab powers. They've been working against us almost from the beginning, first with money, then with bombs and bullets.

The Baathists are beaten, and Al Qaeda is beaten. Now it's a war by proxy with Iran. Inshal'lah, after them there won't be another enemy and we can go home. Or invade Iran. Whatever.

Read the whole thing.

I can't forget how we were snookered during the Vietnam War by the MSM, led by Walter (the most trusted man in America) Cronkite. We won the Tet offensive! Who knew? It was presented as a disastrous loss, and there was no-one to say otherwise.

I did feel that my country was besmirched when we left hurriedly, abandoning thousands who had counted on our support. We had blood on our hands -- a shameful episode in American history.

The media did not approve of the invasion of Iraq even before it occurred, and have gone out of their way to paint it as a disaster. Of course, our political leadership is at fault for not making a case with the American public. Apparently this is a lost art. The last President who took the trouble to educate the electorate was FDR.

Meanwhile, the press has done a world of harm, particularly the NY Times. The publicity they gave to Stalin and Fidel Castro was crucial to persuading the American people to buy into the schemes of these two enemies of humanity.

If I find even myself, a skeptic, inclined to believe the worst, how about the rest of the public?

Meanwhile, the beat goes on. Lebanese children's bodies are shown pulled out of the rubble. Apparently Israeli children are bulletproof. And Hezbollah is a big benefactor of the Arabs.

Keep up the good work.

Babies in bathtubs

 
  

Kofi and dear, dear friend, 2000

 

How many believe the UN will give the Israelis a fair shake? Raise your hands. No-one. I thought not. 

Disgusting!

Don't read it!

I warned you!

Actors (and other show biz types) we can love

Nicole Kidman and others speak out against terrorists:

"We the undersigned are pained and devastated by the civilian casualties in Israel and Lebanon caused by terrorist actions initiated by terrorist organisations such as Hizbollah and Hamas," the ad reads.

"If we do not succeed in stopping terrorism around the world, chaos will rule and innocent people will continue to die.

"We need to support democratic societies and stop terrorism at all costs."

A who's who of Hollywood heavyweights joined Kidman and Murdoch on the ad.

The actors listed included: Michael Douglas, Dennis Hopper, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Danny De Vito, Don Johnson, James Woods, Kelly Preston, Patricia Heaton and William Hurt.

Thanks to Texas rainmaker for the heads-up.

Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia

  



Rainy day, craggy landscape, driving wind, stormy sea--perfect.

Whattayabet

that Hezbollah, Kofi Annen, the Pres of Lebanon, and Jacques (400 troops!) Chirac jointly win the next Nobel Peace Prize?

That's how bad an idea the ceasefire is.

Studly guys wanted

no experience needed.

German national conscience suffers from a poor memory

Poor Gunter Grass!

He occupied a place that has no parallel in Canada, the U.S. or Britain. He was a national moralist-in-chief, often called "the conscience of the postwar generation." He hated the postwar government of Konrad Adenauer, whom he considered a puppet of Washington, and he was appalled by the consumerism that accompanied economic recovery in the 1950s. He thought Germans too eager to forget the crimes of the Nazis, especially the Holocaust. Rightly, he believed that wound should "be kept open," as he said when accepting the Nobel Prize.

Grass was no communist, but he looked benignly on communist East Germany and favoured appeasing the Soviets. He believed the U.S. started the Cold War. He was the kind of Western intellectual Lenin meant when he used the phrase "useful idiots."...

His credibility shrank when the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 revealed East Germany as a prison. He was appalled to see East Germans pouring into West Berlin, seeking, of all things, fresh fruit. He was also dismayed by the apparent victory of capitalism: "Capitalism has never been more barbaric, beast-like than after the victory over the communist system." ...
His self-importance knew no bounds. In the 1980s I was with him at a conference in Budapest of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. He began his speech with a parody of modesty -- "My name is Gunter Grass," he said, as if there was anyone in the room who didn't know the king of German letters was among us. He made it clear that he stood far above the petty struggle between Washington and Moscow. He made his point (a proposal for a new East-West cultural institute) and then vanished, there being no one else at the conference he cared to hear.

During his long career as a public man, Grass has never passed up a chance to speak out for outspokenness. "The job of a citizen is to keep his mouth open," he liked to say. Though not necessarily in all cases, of course.

He joins the ranks of the immortals--the immortal whited sepulchers, I mean.

Baby carriages, Pier 21, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Pier 21 is where the immigrants to Canada landed. There was a display of antiquated or quaint items. One of them was this pair of baby carriages.

 
I had one like the one in back for my oldest daughter. Of course, now English prams are as popular as hoopskirts, but they were quite the thing then, back in the twentieth century. 

Jewish Community Center, St John's, NB

There is only a small remnant of the community left. I couldn't get a picture of the synagogue, but this is the Jewish Community center.  

I'm back, but not for long

 

I'm just as mean as ever. Exposure to 17 Democrats is about 16 Demos too many. My family members are really nice, interesting people--but;

They excoriate Lieberman;

My brother is "very impressed" with Ron Dellums;

They don't allow you to have a different opinion; when I tried gently to differ with my dad, he was almost in tears. Well, the man is 94, and I don't want his death on my conscience.

Don't get me wrong. My family members are nice, but differing from them on politics is like dropping in on the Pope and putting down the Holy Ghost or telling him the Trinity is a childish concept. It's a religion with them.

More later. 

I'm sailing

to Nova Scotia. Back next Thursday.

Lieberman makes a point

which the Democrats don't understand.

“How the heck can we be in a battle in which we are fighting as Democrats and Republicans against each other when these terrorists certainly don’t distinguish based on our party affiliation?” Mr. Lieberman said. “They want to kill any and all of us.”

Indeed.

Miriam's porn site

That's one of the google searches that came to my site. The searcher must have been very disappointed.

Other google searches which led to me: serious boobs; breasts + worship; illegal aliens in New Jersey; how to get rid of old books; and of course, Natalee Holloway.

Go figure.

Little girl

  

More little girls

Flappers

My mum and chum, back in the day
  

Lieberman's loss: good or bad for the Jews?

My grandma's guiding principle was, is it good or bad for the Jews? Thus, in her lexicon, Roosevelt=bad, Truman=good. Truman aided the founding of Israel, therefore he was better for the Jews.
According to realclearpolitics, it's bad for the Democrats:

CT Senate Results Bad News For Dems

[I]f these numbers hold up (Lamont 52%, Lieberman 48%) it is just about the worst result possible for the Democratic Party. First, it almost guarantees that Lieberman will run as an independent.... Lieberman's 48% makes him the clear favorite in the three-way. Republicans Chris Shays and Rob Simmons have received a boost in holding on in their vulnerable districts, two seats the Dems have to win if they hope to capture the House. And as much as mainstream Democrats may try to downplay this result as a Connecticut issue, the rejection of a three-term Senator who was the party's VP nominee only six years ago will have repercussions throughout the country and they don't help the Democratic Party.

Yes, it's bad for the Jews. Why? Because it's bad for the whole country. The Dems just want to bring down Bush, even if the country falls down around their ears. That an honest man who stands by his principles should be defeated by a country club twit doesn't not bode well. For the Jews, the Dems, everybody but the Cindy Sheehan wing of the party.

It is most upsetting to me that Lieberman should be rewarded for his years of service by this treachery. The man who was his party's vice-presidential nominee to be thrown over like this! I hope the Democrats come to their senses. A good sound trouncing is what they need.

I must control myself--I have a big event this weekend. I'm going to Mel Gibson's bar mitzvah.

I hope his circumcision went well.

I understand that a couple of drinks makes the pain bearable. Get plenty of Manischevitz, Mel.

A peaceful summer evening

in Little-frigging in the Wold.

Mel Gibson amuses me

not through his films. I've never been able to stay awake through one of them, except the Patriot, which I saw in a theater. I think the sheer lameness of the film kept me awake, or maybe I had an ample supply of popcorn.

In these glum times he provides a little comic relief. First by his stupid remarks, then the way everyone piled up on him, and then his breast-beating and multiple apologies. I expect to see him in a tallit and payes any day now, praying at the west wall.

I enjoy the Gibson jokes that are floating around the Internet, the cartoons, the parodies on late night tv, the cartoons, etc. Gibson has given me more pleasure in his role as a rank anti-semite than he ever did through his efforts at legit entertainment.

We can all dump on Gibson without harm. It's good, clean fun, and it doesn't hurt him any. He still retains his millions, his family, his many homes and his other possessions, including Malibu, apparently.

I admit to a bad case of schadenfreude, taking delight in the foibles and misfortunes of others, particularly rich, famous others. I like to read about Naomi whatsherface's attack on her maids, Whitney whoever absently leaving her baby in the middle of the street or dropping him on his head. A really juicy divorce can keep me going for weeks. The Woody Allen-Mia Farrow thing was a gift, a story full of fascinating details. Did you know that Woody has a gym, a real gym, in his Manhattan apartment? Also, that he refuses to bathe if the drain is not centered in the floor of the shower? Needless to say, she's also nuts.

Mr Charm pretends to be above all this petty stuff, and only reads the war news and the political news, which make him despondent and angry.

There are two reasons why I enjoy celebrities' capers: 1. They prove that you don't have to be smart to be rich, which is a comfort; and 2. It's a pleasure to read about someone dafter than my own family.

Plagiarism by Hezbollah

Copying the Jews!.

I like to run a clean, family-friendly blog...

so don't click on the link.

Give people what they want

and they will be sure to show up.

The Rev Ian Gregory, a cleric well known to readers of The Daily Telegraph for launching the Campaign for Courtesy in an attempt to improve manners, has embarked on a new project which he calls "Christianity without religion".

Out goes the "archaic mumbo-jumbo" of church services and the "silly arguments about things that don't and shouldn't matter"; in come chats about anything that makes you feel good and the world's first dedicated "laughter room" because "laughter is as important as prayer".

You can get people to church if it stops being about "religion." This reminds me of one of those ardent discussions librarians have about "getting people into the library." This despite the fact that those who never come to the library give us the least trouble and are our biggest fans.

All sorts of ideas were suggested to increase library attendance. As these notions got wilder and drifted further from our purpose (being a library), someone finally suggested that we would attract more people if we sold crack. The discussion ended, and none too soon.

I wonder if the churches have ever tried distributing narcotics? They would get a whole new type of customer.

Thanks to Rachel.

Can war ever be the answer?

I spotted a Kerry/Edwards supporter sporting this bumper sticker: War is not the answer.

What if the question is, Name a three-letter word that means armed conflict?

Pennsylvania man seeks more freedom

in Mexico.

Ted Pollard of Wayne traces his roots in America to Nicholas Cooke, colonial governor of Rhode Island. His grandfather, Rear Adm. Edward Ellsberg, was an accomplished World War II leader and a prolific author. His cousin is Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame.

"That was patriotism," he said of Cooke's refusal to help the British halt the colonial rebellion. Studying his family's past, he's learned "what it means to be an American and what it means to be free."

But today, he fears, "those freedoms are eroding."

So, Ted Pollard, 61, president of the Radnor Historical Society and former township commissioner, plans to leave his country - for good.

Pollard joins a growing number of U.S. citizens who have found the grass is greener in Mexico, Panama, Argentina, even Croatia - literally in dozens of countries around the world.

[]
The U.S. State Department doesn't have statistics on the number of citizens moving permanently out of the country. Laura Tischler, spokesperson for the Bureau of Consular Affairs, said yesterday that was because people cannot be compelled to register at U.S. embassies or consulates.

For many people, taxes, real estate prices, and increasing costs of living provide reason enough to search the world for more economical lifestyles or more affordable retirement.

Of course, the financial incentive sweetens the deal:

"I was in Mexico a year and a half ago," Pollard said. "I found a lovely four-bedroom house with a swimming pool and a little house out back, for an office. Taxes were a hundred bucks; $125,000 for the house. That really got me thinking.

"I can live pretty well someplace else for what I pay in taxes, insurance and heat here."

His business, a health-care Web site, is portable; he has no family ties to keep him here and is looking for new challenges. "I want to be able to go do things while I'm able to," Pollard said.

He'd been thinking of moving "off shore" for years for the economic benefits and the adventure, but lately a "darker side" to American life has strengthened his resolve, allying him with others fed up with the direction of the country's politics and priorities.

"We're moving, really, toward a police state in this country," Pollard said, citing as examples the Patriot Act and the NSA's tapping of phone calls. "It's very sad, very scary," he said, adding that "9/11 was the catalyst."

Mexico, he acknowledged, "is not perfect." Although it has its drug problems and commonplace corruption, he said, "I'm not talking about drugs, but about actions that infringe on your liberties." No one he's talked to who has moved to Mexico has "expressed that kind of fear," Pollard said.

"I grew up in Maine; I was a lobsterman when I was a kid," he said. "There's a theory about putting lobsters in cold water and then turning on the heat, and they cook slowly... . By the time they realize they're too hot, they're cooked.

"Well, the same thing is happening to the people in this country... . Suddenly, you'll be totally in the grips of the power elite and won't have the freedom to be able to move about and do the things you want to."

[]


Pollard said he has heard the "snide" remarks and wondered if people who came to America were likewise considered traitors by their countrymen. What he's planning, Pollard said, "is not like draft dodgers during the Vietnam War."

Of course, that's not a big deal for patriots like Pollard.

Army discovers soldier involved in community theater

and throws him out.

They asked him if "he understood the military's policy on homosexuals, if he had any close acquaintances who were gay" and if he had "ever engaged in homosexual activity or conduct." Of course, the fact that he wanted to learn Arabic in the first place was already highly suspect and his alleged homosexuality alone would be incompatible with military service. But these factors were not the main reason for Copas's discharge. After interrogators had worn him down, they posed the question that would finally hammer the nail in the coffin of his military career: They asked "if he was involved in community theater. He answered affirmatively." Once investigators had confirmed their suspicions of Copas's thespianism, he was discharged from the military.

You can't be too careful--he might turn out to be another Tom Cruse.

Pedophile defends lifestyle

I haven't seen such chutzpah since the last time Jimmy Carter opened his mouth.

Some scientific terms explained

by Stephenesque:

Q: How does the Greenhouse Effect work?

A: Dinosaurs are pressed into a Fossil Making Machine (FMM) which then catches fire when you try to drive it to Kyoto. Fumes from the burning FFM fall into the holes in the Ozone layer and form massive tropical greenhouses in the atmosphere which slowly turn the Earth into a huge, prize-winning cucumber that withers away and everybody dies.

Read the whole thing.

If you must get falling down drunk, wear nice undies...

and have a wax.

The heroic rescuer of dead children

Shiloh Musings noticed this, as did others:

The men parading around with dead children dressed as "rescue workers" are the same man, photographed again and again. He's the main actor.... The same man was caught in similar photos in 1996 parading around with a dead child, which means that he is a professional dead-child parader, a very prestigious job that has been created by terrorists concerned about CNN's ratings.

Could this be true? I can't verify it.