I woke up this morning quite early and Fox was live with the report that Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig were released and "unharmed" after being the recipients of "Arab hospitality".  They were quickly brought to a hotel in Gaza and then were brought *to safety* in Israel.

Well there's just so much here to infuriate me I hardly know where to begin. 

They're only truly safe when in Israel.  Go figure.  The media (and Mr. Mel Gibson) would have us believe the Israelis are the root cause of all the strife on the planet.  Yet everyone breathes a collective sigh of relief once across the Israeli border.  That bit of duplicity disgusts me but not more than this:

They were released because they were converted to Islam with a gun to their head.  I don't consider that being unharmed.

This is what's in store for all of us.  Convert or die. 

Journalists are so happy to pat themselves on the back going into the dangerous hot spots to tell the "real story" (tm) and Anita McNaught was standing in solidarity with all the  :-( unhappy Pali women who want their killers, I mean loved ones, released from Israeli jails.  "Journos are there for you!  To tell your story!"

To lie for you.  To enable you to keep murdering and destroying.   

Hey we deserve another pat on the back!  Aren't we wonderful!  Aren't we marvelous!  Pass the Pulitzers.

I can't go on with this.  I will just say one thing.  Until journalists start telling the story as it really is, I'm going to criticize them by every means possible. 

It might be lack of sleep or one emotional shock after another experienced in a succession too rapid for processing.  The world has taken on a dreamy quality similar to that hazy state of being between consciousness and unconsciousness.  I fall back 60+ years and images of my home state and what it was like at that time, the cars, Muriel X with the ration cards and the endless logs of trying to make their slim finances stretch, not ever having enough money and yet being part of a community where no one was well compensated for anything they did and they still continued to do it because everyone believed it was honorable.

I wonder who is a model of how to behave during a world war, how to mount a citizen's response, a citizen's resistance.

There is so much talk about this long war and who to bomb and  what is crucial to understand about the enemy but no one talks about how we're supposed to live through this.  Maybe we will all become like Israelis who today were at the beach even though in the north the war rages on.  The pizza shop bombers and bus bombers become part of life.  I suppose dirty bombs and chem attacks could be commonplace as well as we press forward into a tenuous future while half of us live in denial and blame whatever convenient public figure is available for all the things going wrongs, the high gas prices, the resultant higher food and clothing costs as if any one person could wield so much power, that it's the war, stupid, the Jihad, stupid.

I wonder how long we can maintain the illusion that we are not at war, that war is a construct of the Bush administration and if only the Rethuglicans can be removed from office it's free pot and beer for everyone.

What was the winter of 1941 like.  What was the weather like on December 7?  People sat frozen at their radios as FDR addressed the nation.  Was it frozen outside?  What was Christmas like that year?  Did people that day think it was going to be a long war?  This war already is longer.  We're losing our patience with it.  We long for the commercial break and the announcements of new programming.

What would WWII have been like if we could have seen the Dresden bombing.  What would it have been like if instead of Adnan Hajj we had Dieter Kohl taking pictures of happy workers at Buchenwald.  "Smile Jewish pigs or you die.  Wave for the stupid Americans, this will be in the New York Times next week, Walter Duranty will see to it."  And the stupid Americans would see the Jews at the spa camp in the mountains, so thin because they are recovering from TB receiving treatment from the finest of German doctors and hate the Jews even more because most Americans in rural areas couldn't afford to go to mountain spas and receive free medical treatment from a beneficient government.

Would Americans in those days watching the war on TV as we do, propaganda tool that it is, wonder why we were fighting the Germans.  The Japanese yes a case could be made for fighting them, but the Germans?  Even Lucky Lindy didn't want to go to war.

War is the result of not working at diplomacy harder.  Everyone can be tempted, there is something everyone wants.  It just a matter of someone like Dennis Ross finding out what it is and giving it to them.

What Dennis Ross and the rest of us don't realize is that what they want is to destroy us.  Not even the Nazis wanted the entire world.

Just what we need--another commentary on Mel Gibson.  Probably not.  So I'm not really going to comment on him or his immortal soul.   I don't particularly care about him or his lilywhite butt (check Lethal Weapon if you don't believe me).

The gift is one of polarization.  People who didn't normally take a stand were forced into it.  It's very hard to shrug something off when about 60 years ago you probably had family members gassed and now you're being blamed for everything wrong in the world including Elvis' death while you watch Israel fighting for survival.

It takes someone (let's talk about Jews for the moment) pretty dense to not see this as a personal threat.  Okay, Babs, probably isn't getting it but I said pretty dense  and we know she's not even in that category.

Under normal circumstances what Mel said would be easily shrugged off but not when it's coincidental with Ahmonajihad encouraging the extermination of Israel.  It's too real to ignore even in Hollywood.  People, Jews, saw that someone they worked with, dined with and fraternized with and maybe helped make millions of dollars thinks they're dirty, loathesome and probably deserving of every bad thing that ever happened to their clan.

Such deeply held feelings (and I do believe this is a deeply held belief of Mel's) don't sit well when death stops being just a theory or obscure history.  You realize he's not talking about a vague group, no, he's talking about YOU.  You're responsible for all the wars.  His father insists the Jews in Poland weren't gassed or put into ovens, they MOVED!  They went to Sydney where they bothered him no doubt after he left Mount Vernon to get away from all the NY Jews.

But this isn't about Mel and his stupid father and their demons.  This is about the free world and thinking people.  Mel did us a favor as few people could because he's a superstar.  And what he said sparked discussion.  The gift that keeps on giving.  It's a meme that's on the radar and it's not going away no matter how many PR people Mel gets to work on it.  Apologize all you want, Mel, know the one about unringing a bell?

That bell is waking the sleepers.

And for that I thank you.

Kate.  Now There's A Wench

Today it seems to me that the President looked into the future on September 12, 2001 and saw this was not only a physical war but an ideological one.  He looked at the Middle East and saw Iraq, a country (one of 'em) with a dictator.  The country is positioned nicely, centrally.  Install democracy there and upset everyone.

He fought Islam at its heart and no one is getting it.  He won't get recognition for this brilliant maneuver for decades.

God has blessed us with a President with the insight and determination of George Bush.

--Kate, Now There's a Wench

Hezbollah.  Hizbullah. Hezanything but what it is.

It's Hezb' (party of) Allah (yeah him).  It's not Party of G-d.  It's Allah running the show, dictating all the killing.

Why are we in the West so squeamish about saying the words, naming the names?   We're not reluctant to use the F word, or (please don't!) the C word.  We openly discuss all sexual acts as if they were items on a restaurant menu but when it comes to the Muslims we suddenly shut up.  We can't bring ourselves to use the correct terms.  Apparently we are more afraid of being politically incorrect than saving our own lives.  CAIR and the ACLU are strict tutors in this lesson.  If we can't figure out how not to offend the ever-seething Ummah (Muslim communiity), they will instruct us by incessantly doling out lawsuits which the lamestream media devotes endless coverage to.  Some Helen Thomas look-alike was recently on Fox chastising the government for not hoisting her butt out of Lebanon fast enough.  Never mind that there were travel bulletins on Lebanon and never mind that by the 3rd page of this lawsuit we get to the real point which is an immediate cease-fire. 

People.  Learn now.  The Umma is always at work against us.  And they're not squeamish.

Need to go pee-pee?

Alan Colmes. This is a particularly sad case of many elements converging at one locus. Unfortunately for Alan, this crash site is on the most widely viewed cable news network, Fox, so many, many people witness his ignominy. Fortunately (?) for Alan, he is completely unaware of this fact.

Night after night Alan embarrasses himself, sometimes happily, sometimes frantically, sometimes desperately but never with any sense he knows what he's doing. It's as if some demon lifeforce enters his mind as the red light goes on atop the camera in front of him and he's possessed for the next 60 minutes. Alan struggles to defend the indefensible left viewpoint against some of the sharpest minds of our time and Alan is not in their company. What can he do but switch topics and repeat himself, or ask inane, inappropriate questions?

A couple nights ago, he embarrassed himself with Newt Gingrich and it was particularly painful to witness. Here's an exchange from FNC's Hannity & Colmes with Bibi Netanyahu (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,205547,00.html)

<snip>

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Much has been made about U.N. Resolution 1559. There is some controversy it seems about U.N. Resolution 242, which of course calls for Israel to remove itself from territories acquired in the 1967 war. Is it your view that that has been fulfilled, or is there still some issue about whether or not that has been adhered to?

NETANYAHU: Well, it calls for Israel to remove itself from territories — or not the territories — to secure and recognize boundaries. We've done — the question is, what is a secure boundary? The 1967 lines were obviously insecure, because we were attacked from them time and again.

But even so, we moved to the '67 lines, both in Lebanon and in Gaza, and we were attacked. And we certainly don't have any recognition, any peace that is quid pro quo of peace. So the conditions of Resolution 242 are not met.

They're not just an Israeli withdrawal. First of all, they're not withdrawal from the territories. They're withdrawal from territories in exchange for security and recognition. We got neither security or recognition. We've got insecurity, terror campaigns, and war.

COLMES: I know there's been some — I know the word "the" is not in there, but there are those who interpret it as meaning "the territories," even though the word "the" is not in there.

Syria is now saying it is ready for talks with the United States, for example, to broker a cease-fire. Why wouldn't that be a great opportunity to try to bring peace?

NETANYAHU: Syria says that from one side of its mouth and on the other side of its mouth — or, if you will, from its hidden hand — it has been supplying in the course of the recent outbreak, it has been supplying Hezbollah with rockets. So Syria has to decide which side it wants to play.

<snip>

Whatever is Alan trying to say? He wastes precious airtime on the word “the”. Then he naively suggests that since Syria is asking for talks with the US (buying time, it's called hudna, this shouldn't be taken seriously by any rational person) it's a great opportunity to bring peace.

Where? On Pluto? What planet is he on? What sandbox is he playing in because usually only 4 year olds are this trusting. Who believes Syria actually wants peace? Alan!

For the most part, the guests tolerate him well but every so often you see a flash of wonderment, nay, disbelief cross their faces as Alan embarrasses himself yet again.  The problem is that the message he conveys to the audience is confusing in a time of war.  He does not add to our understanding of the gravity of the situation.  When all of our lives hang in the balance, those with national or international platforms have a responsibility to educate themselves to the true nature of our enemy.  Alan, seemingly quite cavalierly, has not.  Why not?  Because he has no awareness of all that he doesn't know.  As I said, it's sad. He's more to be pitied than censured.

Wait. No. Censuring works for me.