There are often times when reality can seem infinitely less real and much more amusing than comic fiction.

This video supplies a prime example.

…continue to inflict their Islam on one another.

Hundreds of Hamas fighters firing rockets and mortar shells captured the headquarters of the Fatah-allied security forces in northern Gaza on Tuesday, scoring a key victory in the bloody battle for control of the seaside strip.

Both sides said Gaza had descended into civil war, as the death toll from two days of Palestinian fighting reached 37.

Tuesday’s battles marked a turning point, with Hamas moving systematically to seize Fatah positions in what some in the Islamic militant group said would be a decisive phase in the yearlong power struggle. The confrontations became increasingly brutal in recent days, with some killed execution-style in the streets, others in hospital shootouts or thrown off rooftops.

And liberals believe that these evil murderous creatures are capable of maintaining a civilized sovereign state?

Battles raged across the Gaza Strip during the day. The staccato of gunfire echoed across Gaza City, plumes of smoke rose into the air from far-flung neighborhoods and one firefight sent a dozen preschoolers scrambling for cover.

Truncating,

Many Gazans, pinned down in their homes, were furious with the combatants. “Both Fatah and Hamas are leading us to death and destruction,” said Ayya Khalil, 29, whose husband serves as an intelligence officer. “They don’t care about us.”

They are such a stupid people. They supported Arafat and Fatah for decades and, knowing full well that Hamas is a terrorist organization, voted them into political leadership, and now that their chickens are coming home to roost, they are whining. Whine, terrorist supporters, whine! They’ve proven repeatedly, for over half a century, that they are incapable of learning from their mistakes, so by all means let them fall back to their default position (whining).

There was concern the fighting might spread to the West Bank, where Fatah has the upper hand, as Hamas notched victories in Gaza. Late Tuesday, Fatah gunmen wounded four Hamas activists in the West Bank city of Nablus, Fatah said in a statement.

Good, let’s leave them alone, and let them kill each other off wherever and whenever they can.

In the fairly recent past, I posted that Canadians were beginning to become aware of evidence pointing to the North American Union (NAU) agenda that has been concealed behind the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

As it turns out, awareness of the agenda has been increasing in Canada for some time, apparently more so than the same has happened here in the United States.

Even when our Republican President fights to make criminal aliens legal, most Americans see nothing more than an attempt to help fellow Texas businessmen with cheap labor. We observe (at least the more aware among us) that Mr. Bush says nothing to dispel that image while pounding away at his amnesty (err, excuse me, “immigration reform”) agenda.

After all, why should he?

From his point of view, it’s better if folks believe that than consider how much more smoothly the adoption of the NAU would go in some three years if amnesty was already a done deal and there had been sufficient time for We, The People to have adjusted to it.

This just goes to show how out-of-touch people who have spent too much time in politics or at the pinnacle of the corporate world are with the American people – we’re not likely to “adjust” to such a compromise of our nation’s sovereignty without making trouble of one kind and another.

Or perhaps that’s the true purpose of the administration’s having brought all of our various federal security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies under the umbrella of one central authority – the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Under the conditions of the NAU, I entertain no illusions that DHS will fulfill any other role than that of federal security, intelligence and law enforcement command for the entire continent, and that the parameters of their responsibilities and authorized procedures will expand a little more than we’d like.

There are a few obvious comparisons I could make here, such as referencing a past similar blanket agency whose control was consummated from a Dzerzhinsky Square address, but I will not presume to make such predictions as they would be rejected out of hand by approximately 99.9999% of all Americans, including myself (hopefully).

But all digression aside, let’s return to the Canadian end of things which is, after all, the purpose of this post.

Vancouver author and journalist Murray Dobbin comes across with a spot-on perspective, based on a lengthy list of evidence, that should serve as a strong warning to his fellow Canadians, and to us here in the United States, as to what we can expect in the all too near future if we allow it to happen.

Mr. Dobbin’s article is here.

Here are 10 developments in the plan to disappear Canada.

1) Pesticides ‘harmonized.’ The most thoroughly reported story (though even this did not go much beyond the CanWest chain) was the revelation that Canada was about to “harmonize” its regulations, setting limits for pesticide residue on fruits and vegetables. In 40 per cent of the cases, the U.S. allows for higher levels. Richard Aucoin, chief registrar of the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, which sets Canada’s pesticide levels, said that Canada’s higher levels were a “trade irritant.”

The downgrading of health protection had been a NAFTA initiative, but is being “fast-tracked” as part of the Security and Prosperity Partnership. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Some 300 regulatory regimes are currently going through the same process.

2) Tory tirade. The next story that broke through the wall of media silence reported on the paranoid reaction of the Harper Conservatives to any criticism of the SPP. The occasion was hearings of the Commons International Trade Committee into the SPP, forced by the NDP.

Gordon Laxer, head of Alberta’s Parkland Institute, was testifying on the energy implications of the SPP, warning that eastern Canada could end up “freezing in the dark.” He had barely started when the chair of the committee, Conservative MP Leon Benoit, demanded that Laxer halt his “irrelevant” testimony. The Committee members overruled Benoit — who promptly (and illegally) adjourned the meeting and stomped out. The NDP and Liberal members nonetheless continued without him.

3) Council of corporate power. The SPP initiative began in earnest back in 2002 with the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (formerly the BCNI), the most powerful corporate body in the country. It continues it leadership role, but does not promote the scheme just in its own name. It instead has helped create several supportive bodies that now help drive the agenda. Included in these are the North American Competitive Council (NACC), which includes CEOs of the largest North American corporations, and which institutionalizes the exclusively corporate nature of the agreement. The NACC is the only advisory group to the three NAFTA/SPP governments.

4) Secretive summit. The NACC at least is public. But much of what happens in building the elite consensus for deep integration is done in absolute secrecy or very privately, away from the prying eyes of the media. The most secretive of these was held last year from Sept. 12 to 14, in Banff Springs. As The Tyee reported, the gathering was sponsored by something called the North American Forum* and it was attended by some of the most powerful members of the North American ruling elite.

Attendees, according to a leaked list that could not be confirmed, included Donald Rumsfeld, George Schultz (former U.S. Secretary of State), General Rick Hillier, Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor and Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day. The media was not informed of the meeting and it was first revealed by the weekly Banff Crag & Canyon.

Stockwell Day refused to even confirm he was there, but said that even if he was, it was a “private” meeting that he would not comment on. There is no better indication that these meetings, and the SPP itself, constitute a parallel governing structure — unaccountable to any democratic institution or the public.

5) ‘No fly’ coordination. Canada will have its own “no-fly” list just like our U.S. “partner.”

As the Council of Canadians pointed out: “The no-fly list is very much a Security and Prosperity Partnership initiative. ‘The SPP Report to Leaders, August 2006′ outlines 105 SPP initiatives. Initiative #93 states, ‘Develop, test, evaluate and implement a plan to establish comparable aviation passenger screening, and the screening of baggage and air cargo (for North America).’”

Canada’s privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart has raised a number of concerns about the plan including the fact that the list will be shared with the U.S., that “false positives” are a virtual certainty, and that there is no evidence put forward by the government that the list will improve airline security.

6) Bye, bye Canadian dollar? David Dodge, the head of the Bank of Canada, told a Chicago audience that a single currency for North America “is possible.” That would see a big chunk of Canadian Sovereignty and the ability to guide the economy through monetary policy go out the window. It’s not the first time Dodge has mused about abandoning the Canadian dollar - or deep integration.

7) Water and oil giveaways. The deep integrationists clearly see Canadian water as a North American resource, not a Canadian resource. At yet another very private meeting, held in Calgary on April 27th under the auspices of yet another forum, it was made clear that water is on the table for negotiation.

Discussion of bulk “water transfers” and diversions took place at a Calgary meeting of the North American Future 2025 Project (partly funded by the U.S. government). The meeting based its deliberations on the false notion that Canada has 20 per cent of the world’s fresh water. Actual available supply amounts to only around six per cent — about the same as has the U.S.

The water (and environment) meeting was preceded by another on April 26th talking about “North American” energy. The beneficiary of these discussions is pretty clear when you realize Canada has no national energy policy. We are the only energy exporting country in the world without a one.

Gordon Laxer told the Parliamentary committee: “The National Energy Board wrote me on April 12: ‘Unfortunately, the NEB has not undertaken any studies on security of supply.’” He was also told by the NEB that Canada does not maintain a 90 day energy reserve as other developed nations do. As Laxer points out, “Canada may be a net exporter, but it still imports 40 per cent of its oil — 850,000 barrels per day — to meet 90 per cent of Atlantic Canada’s and Quebec’s needs, and 40 per cent of Ontario’s.”

Canada exports 63 per cent of its oil production and 56 per cent of its natural gas, percentages that can never decrease under NAFTA.

NAFTA Superhighway. State governments in the U.S. are becoming increasingly alarmed at the prospects of deep integration. Earlier this year, Idaho became the first state to pass a legislative resolution directing the U.S. Congress to drop out of the SPP, which is referred to as the North American Union amongst U.S. opponents. Thirteen states in addition to Idaho are calling on Congress to abandon the SPP: Georgia, Arizona, Missouri, Illinois, Oregon, Montana, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah, South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington and Virginia.

Part of the opposition is focused on plans for a so-called NAFTA Superhighway: actually a corridor several hundred metres wide including rail lines, freeways and pipelines from Mexico to the Canadian border. There is a growing grass roots movement against the SPP in the U.S., but led by the right over the issue of compromising American sovereignty.

9) Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA). While U.S. states, concerned about state rights under an unaccountable “North American Union,” are organizing against the scheme, Canadian provinces are either blithely unaware or knowingly complicit in the deal. More Canadians may be aware of TILMA — the investors’ rights agreement between B.C. and Albert — than they are about the SPP, but in reality they are one and the same.

TILMA is major piece of the deep integration, deregulation imperative and fits hand in glove with the SPP. There is a similar, though more informal, process evolving in the Atlantic provinces, called “Atlantica.” And B.C. is now pushing the so-called Gateway Initiative, a kind of regional superhighway project that will see huge and environmentally disastrous expansion of ports, highways and pipelines to further supply the U.S.’s insatiable demand for resources and cheap Asian goods.

10) The next SPP summit. The third leaders summit on the SPP will take place this August 21-22nd in Montebello, Quebec, not far from Ottawa. By the time it does many more Canadian will be aware of it.

Part of the reason that news of the SPP/deep integration issue is finally seeing the light of day is that opposition is growing and groups fighting the SPP are having an impact. The Council of Canadians, the CLC and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives held an SPP teach-in in Ottawa last month and many civil society groups are now taking deep integration to their members. Demonstrations are planned for the summit. The NDP continues to press the government on SPP secrecy and the Green Party’s Elizabeth May has said deep integration will be a focus of the party’s election platform.

Mexican perspective here would be graphically moot: Of the three countries involved, they would be the least significant (by far) on the contribution end of the deal (except in the export of two legged parasites), yet they would receive a full share of the “spoils” and a full partnership in continental government.

Bummer.

Mega H/T to Cubed.

As I’ve said herein a few times before, the roll of protector (a job that includes or consists solely of security responsibilities) is more akin to a sacred duty than simply a paycheck generator.

Others are placing, whether they know or even know of their protectors or not, their lives, property and general well-being in the hands those who have agreed to safeguard these precious commodities. By taking any security job, high end to low, one is in effect vowing to assume a great trust.

Unfortunately, too many security functions are relegated to people who possess neither the mindset nor the single-minded dedication required to effectively protect others.

One of my pet peeves, as has undoubtedly become pretty obvious, is the security, or lack thereof, that we can expect to find at various and sundry airports that demonstrates the low priority placed upon our lives by bean counters and outright stupid individuals at the upper management levels of airlines and airports and, arguably, the TSA and those who hold its purse strings. (At this point, the image of an English teacher of yore appears in my mind’s eye, saying something or other about run-on sentences).

So, yes, here is yet another among the many disconcerting stories of security in air travel.

After an investigation uncovered what appeared to be major lapses in security, a prominent U.S. lawmaker is calling for transatlantic flights from the main airport in Britain’s second-largest city to be suspended.

In a six-month undercover investigation, Britain’s ITV News videotaped security staff at the Birmingham International Airport apparently sleeping on the job, not bothering to examine luggage being x-rayed, and leaving planes unguarded.

Lovely. What say you, Osama?

Among the incidents recorded was a conversation between two ICTS UK supervisors, cursing Continental Airlines and expressing the wish that one of its planes would blow up.

“You know what? F— Continental,” one said. “I’m f—ing sick of Continental.”

In another recorded conversation, two baggage checkers teased each other about not watching their screens as baggage was being x-rayed and laughing about how their brains were “miles away” from the task at hand.

Okay, sure. I understand that the interviewers, personnel screeners and other folks involved in the process of hiring these jamokes have busy jobs, and probably don’t have much in the way of hands-on security embedded in their career histories, but that’s not — or should not — be responsible for placing the lives of an unsuspecting public at risk.

Positions whose accents are on security should be filled entirely via processing by security personnel, not by human resources folks whose preponderant concerns involve staffing the production and marketing sectors of company affairs. This may involve spending more money, which holds more sway with many firms than the concept of people dying. Some idiotically and irresponsibly prefer to gamble that “nothing will happen”.

After viewing the footage, Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security, said the U.S.-bound flights should be suspended until security is improved.

Ah, rare good sense from a Democrat in Congress! Make it happen, Bennie.

Chris Yates, a British aviation security expert, told Cybercast News Service on Thursday that the problem stems from a”culture of denial.”

The staff appeared to be poorly supervised and nobody in charge wanted to hear about any problems, he said.

“The whistleblower in the program, Colin Cross, said that he flagged issues up to his superiors and to the airport itself but nothing was done,” he noted.

Yates pointed out that ICTS subsidiaries are contracted to other American airlines in Europe, and said he worried that similar conduct might be taking place at other airports on the continent.

“If it’s happening at one, it’s happening at others,” he said.

Exactly.

-

… –remember him, the first Islamic member of the U.S. House of Representatives, as of last November? — didn’t waste any time in buddying blatantly up with the PR firm most favored by Islamic terrorists — the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR, and another advocate of Mohammedan mass murderers, the Muslim American Society of Minnesota.

What is strikingly wrong here is that there is no takiyya involved, Ellison is not attempting to conceal any of his affiliations with supporters of so-called “militant Islam”. Unless he was a total moron, which I don’t believe he is, he would know that because he is a Muslim there will always be concerned infidels watching his every move. You can’t blame them, given the combination of the office he holds and his faith within a religion that just happens to represent not only the worst enemy in the history of the United States, but of the free world as well.

The Muslim congressman from Minnesota who used a Quran for his swearing-in ceremony now is cavorting with the Muslim American Society, and either should distance himself from that group –or resign, say critics.

As WND has reported, Ellison also allowed his election supporters to shout, “Allahu Akbar!,” the same phrase allegedly used by the 9/11 suicide pilots, and he has confirmed to reporters that “in terms of political agenda items, my faith informs these things.”

As the linked article points out, there are many who consider Ellison, as an occupant of his government position and an associate of terrorist supporting Islamic organizations, to be a national security risk.

Founded in 1998, Americans Against Hate is a civil rights organization and terrorism watchdog group whose goal is “to be an active voice against those that spread bigotry and violence.”

The group said just days ago, Ellison gave the keynote address in front of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota at the group’s fourth annual convention
“While Ellison spoke, the group was actively spreading vitriolic hatred and violence aimed at Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims via its website,” Kaufman’s statement said.

He cited the following statements on that group’s Internet site:

“The Holy Prophet (and through him the Muslims) has been reassured that he should not mind the enmity, the evil designs and the machinations of the Jews…”

“In view of the degenerate moral condition of the Jews and the Christians, the Believers have been warned not to make them their friends and confidants.”

“If you gain victory over the men of Jews, kill them.”

“The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say, ‘O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.’”

“May Allah destroy the Jews, because they used the graves of their prophets as places of worship.”

“A Muslim must always worship Allah and wage jihad until death in order to reach his ultimate goal… Regularly make the intention to go on jihad with the ambition to die as a martyr.”

This guy could well prove an even greater threat to our national security than Nancy Pelosi or the New York Times, and a prized asset to al-Qaeda. He is now in the position to vote on security related issues, read classified documents and contribute Muslim biased positions.

“Following the election, Ellison continued to cavort with CAIR, addressing its November 2006 banquet, in addition to speaking at events sponsored by other groups connected to terrorism,” Kaufman said.

Kaufman said the MAS was founded in 1993 and, “today, it mostly acts as an activist organization, holding conferences and youth camps throughout the United States.”
But he said the Minnesota chapter provides information about “waging jihad” against non-Muslims.”

“One [discussion] reads, ‘A Muslim must always worship Allah and wage jihad until death in order to reach his ultimate goal, although the goal is invisible and it takes a long time to achieve,’” Kaufman said.

The website has one section devoted to “Stoning to Death of Jews and other Dhimmis,” Kaufman said.

“Additionally, MAS-Minnesota’s website contains laudatory declarations towards Hamas,” he added, where the organization is called a “steadfast, brave, aware Islamic resistance movement.”

You know, there is a difference in meaning between the terms permissive and tolerant. By allowing an enemy of the state to be a leader of our country, we are being (insanely) permissive, yet if we attempt to deny him such status, him being a Muslim and all, we will be called intolerant (along with racist, of course), by the usual suspects.

It would appear that Islamofascism has its first foot in the door of the United States Congress.

I am happy to announce that I was wrong when I predicted that the amnesty supported by the President, the Democrats and a few worthless Republicans was likely a done deal. Fortunately, the bill kinda sorta fell apart in the heat of a rather fierce battle.

The jubilation that I have since received in emails and read of in a number of other places, however, should be tempered: It was such a spirited ruckus, including a Republican filibuster and politicians of both parties crossing the aisle and some proposals that threw everyone for a loop that the folks at the Tower of Babel could sooner have produced a coherent result.

Harry Reid finally jerked the bill, stating time concerns, so it is not yet any kind of a resolved argument.

The immigration “grand bargain” imploded in the Senate last night under a Republican-led filibuster, with the bill under attack from both sides and collapsing of its own weight.

In two votes yesterday Republicans blocked Democratic leaders’ bid to end to the debate and hold a final vote on the bill — each time joined by more than 10 Democrats.

At the end of the day, it was certainly the hammering voters all over the country gave our senators and their staffs regarding the will of the people that spawned those results.

To add to the positive side, RINO John McCain, a Kennedy Kohort in the attempted sellout of America, went away mad. I’ll bet he was muttering “drat, and double drat!”

Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican and a 2008 presidential candidate who had invested a lot of his political capital in the issue, refused to talk to reporters as he left the Senate floor.

“I don’t have anything to say. I apologize, but I don’t have anything to say,” he said as he ducked inside the senators-only elevator. Mr. McCain was one of the seven Republicans who sided with Democrats to break the filibuster.

This is far from over, count on it.

But Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican and another who voted to break the filibuster, said he will try to force the bill back onto the schedule.

“We could see the finish line,” he said. “At the end of the day, there’s a small group of people, probably on both sides, that want to make sure we don’t succeed. And we’ll find a way around that.”

Mr. Reid left open the possibility of returning to the bill again this year, but Democrats said that will depend on Mr. Bush.

“When the president calls Harry Reid and says I can get some more votes for you, we’ll come back to it. But until that time we can’t,” he said. “They said he made some phone calls, but he could only deliver six or seven votes.”

Passing an amnesty bill is of vital strategic importance to the Democrats: Doing so could literally blast the Republicans out of the ball park. The severe damage it would also inflict on our economy and our national work force are of no concern to the Democrats, not when compared to their party’s political aspirations. So much for patriotism.

Outside winning the War on Terror, the same amnesty is Bush’s first priority, and the President can’t campaign for reelection, as he’s had his two terms.

Given that his own political base is opposed to amnesty for criminal aliens, this says quite a bit,
that he has motives that are strong enough that he’s willing to tell his own party to go piss up a rope.

I’ll bet that when the bill was yanked (not defeated, remember), he was on the telephone with one of his senior people at the Committee On Foreign Relations, discussing strategies for garnering more support for the next go-round on the issue. Amnesty soon would make the transition, three or so years in the future, to the North American Union infinitely smoother.

Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy and the rest of that crowd will no doubt be browbeating or offering pork bribes to the Democrat senators that oppose amnesty, setting the stage, along with Bush, for enough votes to kill a filibuster and win a vote.

The amnesty bill will be bock!

Here is one idea I think needs to be forgotten about immediately.

Senior Fatah officials in the Gaza Strip have asked Israel to allow them to receive large shipments of arms and ammunition from Arab countries, including Egypt.

The group says it needs the weapons to counter attacks by Hamas, which has an overwhelming advantage in the Gaza Strip.

You mean, allow Palestinians to receive an arsenal and armored mobility?

Israel has not officially responded to the request, which includes dozens of armored cars, hundreds of armor-piercing RPG rockets, thousands of hand grenades and millions of rounds of ammunition for small caliber weapons.

For Palestinians, right?

Under certain circumstances, Israel may allow the transfer of armored vehicles, since they are not considered a threat to its security. In the past, during the Oslo Accords, Israel allowed then-Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat to receive a number of outdated armored vehicles.

When the second intifada began, the armored vehicles were destroyed in air strikes.

On the other hand, Israel is unlikely to allow rockets to enter Gaza, since they may fall into the hands of Hamas and be used against Israeli forces.

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas was quoted as saying during a closed meeting on Wednesday that he is “very frustrated by the fact that Israel is not permitting the transfer of arms and ammunition for his men.”

“The legal organs of the Palestinian Authority have become weaker than the militias due to the lack of equipment,” Abbas added.

Israeli intelligence officials are not unanimous in their assessments of
Fatah’s and Hamas’ strength in Gaza. Most Shin Bet experts and officers in charge of activity in the territories believe that Fatah is on the verge of collapse in the strip ¬and that a future confrontation with Hamas may bring about its final defeat. They argue that there is no point in supporting Fatah, because all the equipment the movement receives will eventually fall into Hamas’ hands.

On the other hand, Military Intelligence and other intelligence experts believe that Fatah is not close to surrendering, and that reinforcing the group with equipment from abroad should be considered seriously.

Wasn’t it Mahmoud Abbas who said not long ago that rather than Palestinians (Hamas and Fatah) fighting among themselves, they should all be turning their guns on Israeli Jews?

Giving guns to the Palestinians?

I’m all for allowing those animals to kill each other off, but I’m against supplying them with more ordinance than they already have. Let either side wipe out the other, then the IDF should take its queue and destroy the surviving faction, root and branch.

The last paragraph of the article drew a good laugh from me.

Also on Wednesday, Palestinian sources in Gaza said the military wing of Hamas has acquiesced to cease firing Qassam rockets at Israel, following intense pressure by the political leadership. Iz al-Din al-Qassam will continue launching attacks, but it will revert to using mortars.

ROTFLMAO!!!!

This perspective arrived via link in an email from Ryan Jones at zionist.com.

Israel this week marked 40 years since its stunning victory over vastly superior Arab forces in the 1967 Six Day War. The rest of the world remembered the event by unleashing a flood of criticism over Israel’s continued “occupation” of Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights.
When Israel’s detractors speak of the “illegal occupation” they are basing their position on UN Security Council Resolution 242.

However, an honest examination of the resolution and the subsequent events of of the past four decades reveals that Israel’s control of these territories in fact constitutes a legal occupation.

Read the rest.

I couldn’t care less who’s ahead of who on a reality TV show or which designer clothed some actress for a major award show, for that matter I don’t even give a flying whatchamacallit who won the damn Grammies. This may have something to do with the fact that I rarely even watch TV anymore unless I have a DVD in my deck or I’m watching a political program or Presidential speech.

I read and hear all the chatter about celebrities whose names are meaningless to me but seem to be a big deal to so many other people.

I could care less which Hollywood star married which other Hollywood star, which empty eyed teen sex symbol is divorcing which professional gigolo in order to hang on to all the profits from her next tour or….

….about the trials and tribulations of a spoiled, talentless, mega-rich girl who’s been living in her very own narcissistic fantasyland party ever since she came of age. A “celebrity” without portfolio who is, literally, famous only for being famous. You see her name on Yahoo, Excite and other home pages under “Top Ten Searches”.

“Waaaah,” she bawls, “it’s not fair! You people are interrupting my party!”

The fact that such a creature is a “person of interest” in this country makes a highly revealing statement about the evolution of the public mindset….

…of a long time back, before I became mired in barrages of work and other inescapable responsibilities and my posting here was punctuated by long gaps, a few days or even a week at times, and just one post a day when I could work in the time.

Now it seems that when folks visit, they often expect that whatever new post they see is the only new one, read it and move on. (sigh)

Back in my earlier blogging days, it wasn’t unusual for me to do multiple posts in one day. Now that I’m doing my semiretirement thing and getting more time to myself, I hope to have more days (well, maybe I shouldn’t say “days”, since I prefer to blog in the stillness of the hours between midnight and dawn) like that.

It felt good to be able to do that this morning.

That said, here it is, four decades after a tiny country called Israel beat the everlovin’ tar out of the overwhelmingly massive bulk of the Arab world in a mere six days. I imagine that a lot of red faces peered out from within the confines of their dish towels after that humiliating attempt at an invasion was over, and that a lot of Islam’s wives and daughters, in the absence of dogs for fathers and brothers to kick, were thoroughly beaten by male family members.

Yeah, that was one solid ass whuppin’, and Israel even came away from dishing it out with some nice parcels of real estate. The Arabs could’ve had it back had they been smart enough to negotiate peace, but they preferred to play the roll of Menacing Moozlims, and so after a few years, Israel made use of the land, settlements sprawling out as Jewish immigrants arrived from America and Europe.

After losing a rematch in 1973 (Syria and Egypt were the unlucky attackers there, with a new, and as it happened, short lived monicker: The United Arab Republic, or UAR), the Arabs decided that the smart thing to do was to let the so-called “Palestinians” carry on the campaign of ridding the Mideast of Israel and the Jews by proxy. Israel is still there, along with lots and lots of Jews.

Muslims and other Israel haters, most of these styling themselves “intellectuals”, including many shamefully misguided liberal Jews here in the west tend to have revised history to support their descriptions of Israel as a usurper of Palestinian lands, the perpetrators of an “occupation”, “oppressors”, etc. Forty years means those of us old enough to remember are at the youngest middle aged and provides the opportunity for the creators of anti-Israel propaganda to use it to disinform two generations’ worth of subsequently born young people via schools and the media.

This OpEd from yesterday’s Opinion Journal by WSJ Editorial Board member and columnist Bret Stephens unrevises some embroidered or otherwise innacurate accounts of situations and events circling around, or as results of, the Six Day War.

On the morning of June 5, 1967, a fleet of low-flying Israeli jets surprised the Egyptian air force on the ground and destroyed it. This act of military pre-emption helped save Israel from what Iraq’s then-President Abdul Rahman Aref had called, only several days earlier, “our opportunity . . . to wipe Israel off the map.” Yet 40 years later Israel’s victory is widely seen as a Pyrrhic one–”a calamity for the Jewish state no less than for its neighbors,” according to a recent editorial in The Economist.

And the alternative was?

The linked article, while not long, is a good and worthwhile read. Here it is again.