Weekend Review
Let's see what shall we start with ... Hamas!
The more I think of it, the worse I feel about the next little while in that neck of the Middle East. Hamas ... will not recognize Israel and points to Syria, saying "why do we have to if they don't? They still have no peace treaty with Israel, but haven't shot a bullet in 30 years at them." Uh, sorry, Hamas (which has its political headquarters in Damascus), but that is not quite true. The 60 odd fighters shot down by Israel over the Bekaa valley were not Hezbollah aircraft. They were Syrian (and rumor has it that may were in fact piloted by Soviets). And the tit for tat of missles over the Northern Israeli border is just the same as Syria having done it directly. Don't flatter yourselves there. Syria just knows that they would get their asses kicked ... again.
And where exactly does Hamas get off equating itself (even as the "elected" government of the Palestinian people) with Syria? And, in case this has escaped the Hamas mind, Syria is regarded by most western countries -- that really means the "free" world where people have a real vote and can express themsevles without the threat of a religious police force hacking their tongues out -- as a rogue state and a supporter of terrorist organizations. Not exactly great company. Poor Israel is surrounded by this sort of thing. Loudly the world press condemns Israel for shooting a few missles at houses occupied by commanders who just shot a few batteries of Katyusha missles at some Kibbutz. Yes, women and children do get killed -- only because the cowardly scum that order the murders hide in houses occupied with women and children as cover. Or shoot at US soldiers from mosques. Remember in the first Gulf War that grotesque sign hastily put up "Baby Milk Factory?" Or making an air raid shetler out of a command and control bunker? Tell me that is not cynical. Especially when it became clear that any such bunker would be obliterated. But Saddam had no qualms about it ... it would make great anti-war press coverage showing the brutality of those evil Americans. And the Israelis face the same crap every day when they go after bomb factories and weapons caches. Or is it only fair to let them launch an attack and then try to kill the attackers during that attack?
Meanwhile I was wrong about the number of people on the PA payroll -- there are over 600,000 people tied directly to the outlays of a functioning PA. But "Hamas has rejected as "blackmail" Western demands that it renounce violence against Israel or risk losing aid. It also suggested it could look for alternative sources of funding in the Arab world and beyond." Yep blackmail. "You can't withhold your cash to force me to renounce terrorism!!!" And these turkeys got over two-thirds of the vote. So they'll go to Iran? Or Syria?
What else? Tiger wins his first tournament of the year. OK, it was in a playoff, but he was 9-1 in payoffs before today.
US beats Norway 5-0 in soccer. 16,000 attended at some arena in California. A national match. Pathetic. But a good result.
Greenspan retires at the next Fed meeting. Eeeekk.
20th anniversary of the Challenger explosion. Why, oh why, are we watching this again and again on TV. Are we crazy? A bunch of "snuff flick" freaks? People died when the rocket went poof. That firey explosion with the two boosters taking off like pronged forks ... that was when good, brave people died. Say a prayer for their souls, don't watch it. I had the misfortune to watch it on an instant replay, seconds after it happened. I was in a Citibank trading room and the noise went from 100 db to silence was in about 30 nanoseconds. We prayed then. We should do likewise now.
Bird Flu found in Cyprus ... the Turkish part. Not good this.
The more I think of it, the worse I feel about the next little while in that neck of the Middle East. Hamas ... will not recognize Israel and points to Syria, saying "why do we have to if they don't? They still have no peace treaty with Israel, but haven't shot a bullet in 30 years at them." Uh, sorry, Hamas (which has its political headquarters in Damascus), but that is not quite true. The 60 odd fighters shot down by Israel over the Bekaa valley were not Hezbollah aircraft. They were Syrian (and rumor has it that may were in fact piloted by Soviets). And the tit for tat of missles over the Northern Israeli border is just the same as Syria having done it directly. Don't flatter yourselves there. Syria just knows that they would get their asses kicked ... again.
And where exactly does Hamas get off equating itself (even as the "elected" government of the Palestinian people) with Syria? And, in case this has escaped the Hamas mind, Syria is regarded by most western countries -- that really means the "free" world where people have a real vote and can express themsevles without the threat of a religious police force hacking their tongues out -- as a rogue state and a supporter of terrorist organizations. Not exactly great company. Poor Israel is surrounded by this sort of thing. Loudly the world press condemns Israel for shooting a few missles at houses occupied by commanders who just shot a few batteries of Katyusha missles at some Kibbutz. Yes, women and children do get killed -- only because the cowardly scum that order the murders hide in houses occupied with women and children as cover. Or shoot at US soldiers from mosques. Remember in the first Gulf War that grotesque sign hastily put up "Baby Milk Factory?" Or making an air raid shetler out of a command and control bunker? Tell me that is not cynical. Especially when it became clear that any such bunker would be obliterated. But Saddam had no qualms about it ... it would make great anti-war press coverage showing the brutality of those evil Americans. And the Israelis face the same crap every day when they go after bomb factories and weapons caches. Or is it only fair to let them launch an attack and then try to kill the attackers during that attack?
Meanwhile I was wrong about the number of people on the PA payroll -- there are over 600,000 people tied directly to the outlays of a functioning PA. But "Hamas has rejected as "blackmail" Western demands that it renounce violence against Israel or risk losing aid. It also suggested it could look for alternative sources of funding in the Arab world and beyond." Yep blackmail. "You can't withhold your cash to force me to renounce terrorism!!!" And these turkeys got over two-thirds of the vote. So they'll go to Iran? Or Syria?
What else? Tiger wins his first tournament of the year. OK, it was in a playoff, but he was 9-1 in payoffs before today.
US beats Norway 5-0 in soccer. 16,000 attended at some arena in California. A national match. Pathetic. But a good result.
Greenspan retires at the next Fed meeting. Eeeekk.
20th anniversary of the Challenger explosion. Why, oh why, are we watching this again and again on TV. Are we crazy? A bunch of "snuff flick" freaks? People died when the rocket went poof. That firey explosion with the two boosters taking off like pronged forks ... that was when good, brave people died. Say a prayer for their souls, don't watch it. I had the misfortune to watch it on an instant replay, seconds after it happened. I was in a Citibank trading room and the noise went from 100 db to silence was in about 30 nanoseconds. We prayed then. We should do likewise now.
Bird Flu found in Cyprus ... the Turkish part. Not good this.
posted by Zaphod at Sunday, January 29, 2006
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