Chamblee54

In Gaza, Israel continues to extract an eye for an eyelash.
PG is not a purist. If this sort of overwhelming reaction is needed for Israel to survive, then so be it. The question does arise, is this war in the best interest of Israel?
There is a feature about civilian casualties by Michael Totten. He is a supporter of Israel. He says about the current fuss ” Innocents as well as combatants die in every war. If you have nothing to object to besides that, then you should oppose the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan for the same reason.”
Not everyone thinks the war in Afghanistan is a great idea. It was launched as revenge for 911. Seven years later, there is no easy way out. The people of Afghanistan have been invaded many times, and do not greet invading armies as liberators. They whipped the Soviet Union. This defeat was a factor in the collapse of that “evil empire”.
There is another thing being said about Gaza that applies to Afghanistan. James Fallows writes about “a situation in which short-term tactical victories may lead to long-term strategic defeat”.
Yes, the I.D.F. is winning, militarily. They are also losing the strategic war ( Despite the best efforts of Joe the Plumber). In Afghanistan, the Taliban was quickly driven from power, but much of the countryside remains in hostile hands. Al Queda was not destroyed. And Afghanistan is next to Pakistan. If the war in Afghanistan spills over into Pakistan, and destabilizes this poor Muslim country, the result could make Gaza look like a Sunday School Picnic.
HT to Andrew Sullivan for the features by Totten and Fallows.

One of the bloggers in the frequent folder here is Avitable. At the top of his homepage, he is riding in a convertible eating an ice cream cone. The other passenger is Adolph Hitler. The slogan below that is “tact is for pussies”.
He was recently sent five questions by Hilly. He invited his readers to give their answers in his comments. This is a “green” blog that recycles. These five questions will make the nucleus of a dandy post here.
1.) What is the one thing that a blogger can do to really annoy you? The one thing would be music players with auto start. Jasmine Cannick has an auto start player. It would have been rude to turn it off, so I had to hear a performance by Shirley Q. Liquor.
2.) Even though I HATE this phrase, do you consider yourself an “A List Blogger” or do you see it a different way? I am lucky to get into double digits most days. Technorati has me in the top 800,000. In honor of our new president, I am going to claim to be an ” O List Blogger”.
3.) If you did not work for yourself, what kind of job would you like to have? Something that does not cause brain damage, and where the checks don’t bounce.
4.) If I dared you to talk dirty to me, could you do it? Why or why not? It depends on who “I” is. If it was Avitable, I seriously doubt it. Mostly, I feel silly talking dirty.
5.) How many folders do you have in Google Reader and what are their labels? There is a file on my machine which does not allow me to use google products. This is the reason I went from Blogger to wordpress. As for the whole rss thing…I just do it manually. I have a frequent folder with shortcuts to the blogs. Drag the thingie into the firefox, and I don’t miss anything important.

There are a few things to like about Sarah Palin. She is not famous because of her husband or father.Todd is the decorative spouse, or “first dude”. She is pretty, especially for a grandmother in her forties. In the video going around this week, she sits with a stocking covered knee displayed. In much of the world, and in much of our own history, that would be a scandal.
It is known that candidates for public office are puppets. There are interests pulling the strings. If we are going to have an actor reading lines off a teleprompter, then it may as well be a pretty face.
OK, so much for nice things. This is a blog, it is not supposed to be fair. Fair is a baseball hit between first and third base. And this video is full of nonsense.
Will conservatives EVER quit whining about liberal media? The corporate media here is a profit attempting endeavor. They tell people what is convenient to say. With the internet, more people have access to the unwashed public. With the recent reprieve from the water shortage, maybe a few will take a shower.
Yes, there are people who still suspect that Trig is not really Sarah’s baby. Cajunboy has been on the story, and presents a summary of what is known ( Check the comments). At the very least, there were some strange things going on. The story of flying from Dallas to Alaska after starting labor… well, it just doesn’t hold water.
As for the family of Ms. Palin, there are some unique circumstances. You see, SEX was a big issue in the campaign. Gay marriage, abortion, sex education got a lot of attention, even more than 150k troops in a war eight time zones away. Ms. Palin was an advocate of abstinence only sex education. Her unwed daughter gets pregnant. Life is bad fiction. In a perfect world, yes, the family would be off limits. In this perfect world, girls would not get pregnant before their wedding night.
When BHO did a fist bump with his wife, there was lots of criticism. Mrs. O caught a lot of flack for saying that she was proud of America for the first time in her life. If Caroline Kennedy ever runs an election campaign, you can rest assured that the New York press will cover her every move. It is already happening, and she hasn’t even been appointed yet. Maybe she can buy the senate seat in Illinois. Oh, and this is for the Senate, not Vice President behind a 73 year old President.
In the interview, Ms. Palin was asked how she would have been treated if BHO had chosen her as his running mate. This is about as likely as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asking her to be assistant Ayatollah.
Sarah Palin ( her name is spelled correctly) is going to be with us for a while. She is the photogenic heroine of the conservative movement. Between the makeup and a thick skin, she can take criticism. This video is just more preaching to the choir. 2012/2016 is a few years away, and the conservatives are not going to tire of her. Many of the rest of Americans already are.

There is a blog called “People who deserve it“. The basic concept is to describe examples of annoying people. The answer for everything is to hit the person in the mouth.
Did you notice the word people instead of man? PWDI does not discriminate. An example is #58 “Everything’s an emergency girl” “remind her you can’t cry wolf with a mouth full of fists”
A search of “about” or “terms of use” does not show that these people are kidding. It also does not show a face or name of who is responsible. The “about” page even says “On this space log, you will find examples of socially responsible reasons to punch someone in the face. And remember, we do it for the kids”
While it is understood that you should not take the internet literally, some people just do not get it. Add alcohol, anger, religion, and general human nuttiness into the mix, and a suggestion to hit a person because he/she is wearing sunglasses inside may be taken seriously. If the person is armed there might be fatal complications.
We have a violent society. Force is seen as the answer to a lot of problems. From the Gaza strip to the Standard restaurant, there is way too much might makes right. The verbal abuse of the Jesus Worship church fuels the fire. And then PWDI appears, and makes jokes about hitting women.
The internet has done very well without censorship so far. The appearance of irresponsible nonsense like PWDI should not be the final straw. The obvious answer is that PWDI should do an entry about themselves… that people who say to hit women need to taste a knuckle sandwich. But two wrongs do not make a right. HT to Andrew Sullivan.

PG was going to write about war and murder. Then he got an email. Man’s cruelty to his fellow man is not going to go away.
PG does not vouch for the accuracy of the following statements.

If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee…If you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb… The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet…A pig’s orgasm lasts 30 minutes…A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death… Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories a hour…The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male’s head off… The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It’s like a human jumping the length of a football field…The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds…Some lions mate over 50 times a day… Butterflies taste with their feet…The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue…Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people…Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump… A cat’s urine glows under a black light… An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain…Starfish have no brains…Polar bears are left-handed…Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.

JoemyG-d has been running videos of number one hits lately. Today, the numero uno is from 1967. It is by the Monkees, called “I’m a Believer”.
PG always liked the Monkees. They were the twelve year old’s band when he was twelve years old.
There was an article in the Saturday Evening Post about the “Pre Fab Four”, and a classmate of PG said that he was disillusioned. Certainly no one was confused about the made for tv nature of the band. The rumors…which turned out to be true…said that the Monkees did not play the instruments on their debut album. Still, a seventh grader is easily amused, and the show was fun to watch.
“I’m a Believer” was written by Neil Diamond, aka the Jewish Elvis. Mr. Diamond played guitar on the Monkees version of IAB.
IAB is part of the rock tradition of misunderstood lyrics. PG thought that Mickey said he “needed sunshine on my brain”. PG did not learn the truth for many years. One afternoon, he heard a band on the radio do IAB, and the lyrics were understood. What the song really said was, “when I needed sunshine I got rain. “

It is a notorious quote, used to fan the fires of war. It may yet lead to a nuclear Holocaust. The only trouble is, the famous quote is not exactly what he said.
The phrase in question is by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He is the public face of the current government in Iran. The amount of power he holds is a matter of conjecture. The quote in question is about “wiping Israel off the map”. The exact quote is “Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad.” Catchy, huh?
Many scholars maintain that what he really said was “”The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time”. The original is a quote from Ayatollah Khomeini. It would seem that quote refers more to a change of government than a mass slaughter of Israelis. This is similar to the “regime change” that the US pulled off in Iraq, though hopefully not as expensive.
Mr. Khomeini was in charge of Iran after the Shah was evicted. During his tenure, Americans were held hostage at the US embassy, which upset a few people. Could it be that some want revenge for the hostages?
Another event of the Khomeini regime was a nasty war with Iraq. During this war, Iran bought weapons from the USA, with Israel serving as a middleman. This reporter does not know when Mr. Khomeini made the original call for regime change in Jerusalem. Was it before or after Israel helped ship weapons to Iran?
Getting back to Mr. Ahmadinejad, he is playing games with the quote. Whenever he is asked whether he called for the destruction of Israel, he changes the subject.
The source of this feature is THE MOSSADEGH PROJECT. Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh was the Prime Minister of Iran. He was overthrown by a CIA led coup in 1953. HTs also go to Detain This and the WordPress home page.