It's been a LONG Time........

...........since February 18 of this year, to be specific. How can I explain my absence? It's kind of hard to do so, other than to say "Life got in the way". Like so many others, I am dealing with the fallout of our ailing economy (and where's that recovery that the New York Times keeps hyping? It's not in the legal field, I can tell you that much), and frankly, my main concern has been on keeping my job, rather than on the blog. And, what with the four kids, the three dogs, what can I say--life got in the way.

So, where to begin? So much to discuss.............

1) The economy: It sucks, both in a macro and a micro sense. I alluded to this above. The MSM keeps reporting that things have improved, but I'd like to know where. Companies are still shedding jobs. The dollar keeps tanking (more on that below). The stock markets have come back a long way from their bottom earlier this year, but are still over 4,000 points from their peaks in October 0f 2007. All in all, not good. I suppose that at some point things do have to pick up, but the government's spending itself (and us by extension) isn't helping matters any. And, lest anyone think that this is all on President Obama, that is not the case. This began when Bush 43 was still in the White House, and the size of our national debt and the annual budget deficits is well beyond numbers that ordinary people can comprehend. This can and will ultimately lead to that dreaded curse of the President Peanut Farmer years, "Stagflation". When it does, look out Democrats. There's only so long that you can blame the Republicans, who haven't controlled the Senate since 2006 and the House since the last election. At some point, people WILL hold you responsible for this mess.

2) Afghanistan: President Obama campaigned on a slogan of getting us out Iraq and committing us "full time" to the war in Afghanistan. Leaving aside for the moment my thoughts on Iraq, I had no problem with getting the army the resources it needs to fight properly in Afghanistan. The problem is, the President's base, which is somewhere to the left of Karl Marx, never supported the Afghan War any more than it supported the Iraq War (or any war, for that matter). The left doesn't believe in war, period, and now the President is trapped between his flowery rhetoric and the desire of that left wing base to get us out of Afghanistan. It's a conundrum for him and one that is not easily solved.

3) The Nobel Peace Prize: Someone needs to explain to me why President Obama received it. Keep in mind, the nominations were due 12 days after he was inaugurated. So, in those 12 days, what exactly did he do to merit receiving it? In fact, in the almost nine months that have passed since he took office, what has he done? Iraq: We're still there. Aghanistan: Ditto. The Middle East: things are more bleak than ever (more about THAT below). Iran: Heading full steam towards nuclear armament. North Korea: Already a nuclear power, and just tested out some new missiles last week. I could go on and on, but the Nobel Peace Prize has always been an award based on achievement. I may disagree with the awards received by President Peanut Farmer and former Veep Al Gore, but at least they had accomplished SOMETHING. One argument I've heard is that Obama's award was based on the "changed sentiment towards America" around the world. Really? We've alienated Eastern Europe with our cancellation of the missile shield plans. We've ticked off the Chinese with our insane monetary policy. We've even antagonized the French, who now have have a more muscular foreign policy than we do. So, ultimately, who have we made happy? A bunch of Norwegians. Yeah, that's change we can believe in..............

4) The Dollar: The last I checked, it was heading for parity with Monopoly money. The "weak dollar" policy started under the Bush 43 Administration, and the Obama Administration hasn't done anything to change it. I hated it then, and I hate it now. The value of a currency is a reflection of the confidence other countries have in your economy and your country in general. The dollar's collapse is a clear indication that no one has any faith in the currency. That ought to worry everyone. Worse yet, the sheer amount of money in circulation will only make it that much harder to dig the dollar out of this hole..........if that can ever be done.

5) Iran: It WILL become a nuclear power, if not in 2010 than shortly thereafter. So, what have all those negotiations done for us? Nada. They gave Iran time and it laughed in our faces. There's no other way to describe what we're doing as anything other than appeasement, but history has always shown that appeasement does not work. The Iranian Mullahs are a bunch of apocalyptic loons and their front man is an anti-Semitic, terrorist thug. How can anyone seriously believe that you can negotiate with these people? It truly boggles my mind..........

6) Health Care: I hate this whole issue. I really do. While I am not supportive of the President's plan, I don't get as worked up about it as others do. I grew up in Canada, with socialized medicine, and in terms of what I would call "day to day" care, it was fine. Honestly. HOWEVER, when it came to dealing with specialists, there were wait periods, not only for visits and treatment. Those are waits that we here in he U.S. do not have to endure. Both systems have their virtues, but I think that on balance, our system works better.

7) Israel: Apparently, the one country that merits the ire of the Obama Administration is Israel. Not Iran, not the Palestinians, not North Korea, not Russia. Just Israel. That is why relations between the United States and Israel are as cold as they have been since the Eisenhower Administration, and are likely to grow even worse. Israel is facing an existential threat in Iran, one that the West in general seems to not be taking seriously at all, and yet all that concerns the United States is those horrible "settlements" in the West Bank. Let me ask a rhetorical question: Israel is 20% Arab, and if it were to expel those Arabs, there would be a hue and cry the world over. Yet, it is pretty much accepted that any future Palestinian state would HAVE to be Judenrein. Why? Why is the standard so different? And, then we have the Goldstone Report, which was commissioned by that noted friend of Israel, the United Nations Human Rights Commission, to examine Israel's "conduct" during the Gaza War last December and January. It found that Israel had basically committed one giant war crime from the beginning of the war until the end. In order to arrive at this conclusion, it basically accepted unequivocally every single contention made by the Palestinians while at the same time rejecting all of Israel's arguments. The Report will now be taken up by the U.N. Security Council. Given the dramatic cool-down of American-Israeli relations, does anyone out there think that anything positive will come of this? Yeah, me neither..............

8) Sports: i) It's not a huge issue, but is anyone else out there as appalled by some of those "retro" uniforms we have seen in the NFL this season as I am? Earlier this season, we had the Seattle Seahawks wearing bright green unis that made them look like a bunch of key lime pies. This past weekend, the Denver Broncos wore canary yellow and black unis that made people with good vision envy the blind. Maybe the NFL will sell some extra jerseys, maybe not, but to me, these things are simply hideous.

ii) My Miami Hurricanes are apparently back! After as tough an opening four games as I have ever seen a team play (at Florida State, at home to Georgia Tech, at Virginia Tech, at home to Oklahoma), the Canes emerged 3-1. Before the season, I thought that they could realistically go 0-4, and that 2-2 would be as good as it could possibly get for the team, but the young players, and in particular QB Jacory Harris, are growing up quickly. The team is now 4-1, ranked in the Top Ten, and as well as it has played this season, is probably still a year away from its best.

iii) Back to the NFL: Has anyone seen a year where there have been this many bad teams? Cleveland is 1-4, and this past weekend, its quarterback, Derek Anderson, went 2 for 17 for 23 yards.......and the Browns STILL won, beating the equally hapless and hopeless Buffalo Bills 6-3. The Bills are also 1-4. And, scary as it may seem, these aren't the worst teams out there. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 0-5. Ditto the Kansas City Chiefs. The Rams are also winless and the Washington Redskins have one win, which was over the Rams. The Oakland Raiders are an atrocious 1-4, with their single win coming over Kansas City. And even though the Detroit Lions FINALLY won a game (perspective check: it was over Washington), they're still 1-4. The combined record of those teams: 5-35.

iv) The NHL season has started, and my Habs are off to a sputtering 2-3 start, including a blowout 7-1 loss in Vancouver. I wasn't optimistic about the team even before the season began, as last year's collapse, which resulted in a blowout four-game sweep by the Boston Bruins in the first found of the playoffs, resulted in a gutting of the team. Somehow, after all was said and done, the Canadiens managed to get smaller and even less tough. Worse yet, their best defenseman, Andrei Markov, is injured and out until at least February. It's going to be a lousy season in Habs-land.....................

v) The Baseball playoffs are well underway. Three of the Division Series' resulted in sweeps (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim over my Boston Red Sox, Evil Empire New York Yankees over the Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles Dodgers over the St. Louis Cardinals), and the other one only went four games (Philadelphia Phillies over the Colorado Rockies). Honestly, I don't seen anything that will prevent the Evil Empire from capturing World Series title number 27. Yeah, I know that the Angels have in the past given the Yankees problems, but this New York team is an offensive machine that just can't be stopped. It's nauseating, but the Angels, Phillies and Dodgers are simply battling for the right to call themselves the second-best team in Baseball. Even more depressing, you can be sure that the Evil Empire will use the billions of dollars at its disposal to sign even more free agents this coming off-season. As I said, depressing.........

That's it for my first blog entry in nine months. I'll try not go as long before the next one!

It's January

I hate January, which is by far my least favourite month of the year. The days are short and cold, it seems to go FOREVER, etc., etc. That said, at least it's one step closer to summer. With that complaint out of the way, here are some random thoughts for a cold Saturday morning:

1) Israel is continuing its military operations in Gaza, the U.N. Security Council's (UNSC) demand for an immediate halt to the attack notwithstanding. There are a couple of things worth mentioning here. First, the feckless behaviour of the United States in failing to veto the UNSC resolution was pathetic, but not entirely surprising. We have seen the State Department's Arabist influence over the Bush 43 Administration's foreign policy grow by the day, and now, as we approach the last 10 days of its life, President Bush appears to have finally capitulated entirely to the wishes of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to be more "balanced" (in other words, more pro-Arab). So, Israel is now truly alone. Second, Israel can't afford to stop right now. After the debacle in Lebanon in 2006, Israel MUST be seen in the Arab world as being the unquestioned winner of this conflict. The bigger question is, how does it achieve that? Obviously, zero missile/rocket/mortar launches out of Gaza would be the best case scenario, but I don't know if that's doable. The thing is, if it doesn't you will eventually see a situation where there are similar attacks out of the West Bank. That's not a question of "if", but "when". The bottom line? I don't know how Israel wins....................

2) On a similar theme, the reverberations from the Israeli operations in Gaza have been felt all over the world, whether it's protesters in Fort Lauderdale screaming "Jews to the ovens" (isn't THAT a nice sentiment?) or an Italian trade union calling for the boycott of all Jewish-owned businesses to the desecration of cemeteries across the continent and attacks on Jews in Denmark, France, the U.K., Holland, etc. (nothing like a Middle East war to get the Europeans to show their true, anti-Semitic selves). We here in the U.S. and Canada are fortunate in that we have been largely insulated from the more violent elements of the anti-Israel movement, but it's only a matter of time before similar events occur here.

3) So the University of Florida Gators are the "undisputed" national champions in NCAA Division I football after their methodical 24-14 win over Oklahoma in the BCS title game. Can we just permanently ban Oklahoma and Ohio State from the national championship game (unless they play each other)? You KNOW that if one of these two teams shows up, the team they are playing is guaranteed to win. And here's another thought: I would not have voted UF number one. My vote, if I had one, would have gone to Utah, the only undefeated team in major college football. Utah soundly beat Alabama 31-17 in the Sugar Bowl, in a stadium that was about 70-75% pro-Alabama. In fact, it never trailed in the game. As you will all recall, Florida was losing to Alabama going into the fourth quarter of the SEC title game before coming back to win 31-20. And, I don't know if Florida would have beaten USC. After watching the Rose Bowl, I don't think that there is a more skilled, faster team out there than the Men of Troy.

4) Round One of the NFL playoffs is done, and here comes Round Two. Without further ado, here is how I see the games shaking out:
i) Arizona at Carolina: The Cardinals are trying to play the "we get no respect" card, but there's a reason why they get so little respect--they don't deserve any. The Panthers will punch them in the mouth, and while the Cardinals will score their points, it won't be anywhere near enough. Carolina 38, Arizona 21.
ii) Philadelphia at NY Giants: I think that the final score of this game will be 23-17. I'm just not sure who will have the 23 and who will have the 17. I'm leaning toward the G-men, who I think want to make a statement after Philadelphia beat them in Week 13.
iii) Baltimore at Tennessee: The will be an old-fashioned slugfest. I see the Ravens playing just a little bit better than the Titans and escaping with a 17-16 win.
iv) San Diego at Pittsburgh: Arguably the most intriguing game of the weekend. The Chargers barely scraped into the playoffs at 8-8 (but they were red hot down the stretch, winning their final four games of the regular season and then edging Indianapolis in Round One of the playoffs) while Pittsburgh comes into the playoffs a bit banged up, though it did have the bye week last week. The Chargers don't have a great history in cold weather games, and it will be very cold in Steeltown this weekend. Steelers 23, Chargers 13.

5) We are almost at the All-Star break in Hockey, and here are my thoughts on the season so far:

i) San Jose is the best team in the west, for now. I'm still not sold on the Sharks in the playoffs, and Detroit is just as good as it was last year. That would be one heck of a playoff series.
ii) The Winter Classic at Wrigley Field was great. Seeing the players skate around with the famous Wrigley Field scoreboard in the background was just amazing, and viewers agreed. The NHL actually got measurable ratings on NBC for the game.
iii) The Boston Bruins are for real. I read an article that compared them to the 2006 Carolina Hurricanes team that won the Stanley Cup, and it was a very good analogy. Everybody kept waiting for those Hurricanes to fall on their faces, and they didn't. Similar predictions are being made about this year's Boston team. I don't know if the Bruins will have enough to beat either Detroit or San Jose in the Stanley Cup Finals, but I do think that Boston will get there, barring injuries.
iv) Is it possible for a team as hyped as the Montreal Canadiens to fly under the radar? Montreal is in the midst of its 100th anniversary celebration (word of advice to all hockey fans: go out and buy the DVD collection of the 10 best games in Canadiens' history: It's well worth the investment), and it has amassed an impressive point total, but because of the stellar play by Boston, it has been largely ignored. If Boston does cool off, it could be in for a dogfight atop the division.
v) Sidney Crosby is incredibly talented, but I don't know of a bigger crybaby in the sport. It is very easy to cheer against him, given his petulance and whining every time a call is not made in his favour. I wish that Mario Lemieux would sit him down and tell him how to behave properly.

Hmm, wonder who did this?

There has been yet another anti-Semitic attack in Paris, and though the article seems to go out of its way to avoid saying it, it is fairly obvious that the attackers were Muslim: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20080907-1018-france-anti-semitism.html. For the most part, this story has been ignored in North America (no surprise there, I know).

What I can't figure out is why any Jew would still want to live in Western Europe. Incidents like this are only increasing in frequency.

It's just France being France

The French can't help themselves, they really can't. No matter how hard they try to no be duplicitous and sycophantic vis-a-vis the Arab world, they still are. Thus, we have French President Nicholas Sarkozy traveling to Syria to meet with the Chinless Wonder, Syrian "President" Basher Assad: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/03/AR2008090303873.html.

So much for that western isolation of a terrrorist-enabling, pariah regime. France has just eliminated that threat. Way to go, Sarkozy!

An all-too-rare moment of sanity at an insane place

The Arab Bloc at the U.N. has "voluntarily" withdrawn the resolution it submitted seeking to condemn Israel for its "West Bank Settlements" after being told that the United States, France, Great Britain, Belgium and Croatia would all vote against any such resolution: http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1005285.html. It's not surprising that the U.S. would send out this signal, but it is pleasantly surprising that the European nations would do likewise. However, Europe being Europe, I have no doubt that it will soon return to form, and to its traditional anti-Israeli mindset.

How freakin' juvenile can you get?

France is currently hosting a conference at which both Syria and Israel are present, and true to the nature of Arab states, the Syrians are being incredibly juvenile. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert tried to make eye contact with Syrian dictator Basher Assad, and Assad actually put his hand up in front of his face to avoid it: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL1332985620080713. At a separate meeting in which both the Israeli and Syrian foreign ministers were present, the Syrian represenative left when the Israeli representative, Tzipi Livni, was going to speak.

Are we really to believe that peace is possible between these two countries when the Syrians are pulling crap like this?

Debunking a myth

I have avoided the Mohammed al-Durra story throughout this blog's short life, mainly because I have never viewed it (the story that Israeli troops killed al-Durra) as being legitimate. Pallywood-style fake deaths are nothing new to those who follow the coverage of Israel in the MSM, and supporters of Israel have learned that the MSM takes as gospel truth anything that is said and shown to them by the Palestinians. The al-Durra blood libel was just one more of those stories, in my mind.

That said, I SHOULD have paid more attention to this story, if only because of the hold it still has on the public's imagination. Mohammed al-Durra has become an iconic figure in the Muslim world (as well as in Europe, where people apparently still love to believe in a good yarn about those EEEEEEEVVVVVVVVVVIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL Jews). The story that he was shot by Israeli troops stubbornly persists, though increasingly large cracks are appearing in the official version of the story, as propagated by France 2, the official French television network. Charles Enderlin, the journalist who narrated the report which first accused Israel of killing al-Durra, now has considerable egg on his face after a French appellate court vindicated blogger Phillipe Karsenty, who had accused Enderlin of fabricating a hoax. Enderlin then sued Karsenty for defamation, and won a symbolic victory at the trial court level. Rather than pay, Karsenty appealed, and he won big time: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121183795208620963.html?mod=djemEditorialPage.

Charles Enderlin has now appealed this decision to France's highest court. If he wins, you can be sure that it will be splashed across the front pages of newspapers across the West and the Arab World. If he doesn't, you can be sure that the decision will receive the same amount of attention that Karsenty's victory received, which is to say, none. Can't let a good blood libel die easily now, can we?

Time to starting hating France again

That Nicholas Sarkozy honeymoon didn't last long. It turns out that his government is just as anti-Israel as any of its predecessors, as his foreign minister, Bernard de Kouchner, has been meeting with Hamas: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1210668673709&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull. The fact that even the Arabist EU considers Hamas a terrorist organization doesn't matter to these people.

God, I HATE France.................

UPDATE (12:35 p.m.): Then again, why SOULDN'T France talk to Hamas, given that the feckless, duplicitous Olmert government is doing the same thing: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/984388.html.

I'm not sure who hates Israel the most, the Arabs, the Europeans or the Olmert government..........

Why the U.N. should be expelled, reason #3,894,234,623

The U.N. is appointing a special investigator to investigate racism. So far, so good. Where is this investigator being sent? Not Saudi Arabia, where all faiths other than Islam are banned. Not Iran, where calls for genocide against Israel and Jews are greeted with a collective yawn by the world community. Not France, where race riots in the infamous "banlieus" are commonplace. Not China, where the Falun Gong is being brutally oppressed. Nope, the U.N. is sending that investigator............................HERE: http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSL1684309820080516?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&rpc=22&sp=true.

If you needed yet another reason to hate that odious organization, there it is..........

The French are still the French

There are few certainties in life--Death, taxes, Philadelphia's professional sports teams will not win a title, and..............the French will always remain true to their character: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/12/europe/france.php. This means, of course, that they will stick a knife in the back of the United States at each and every opportunity, and Sarkozy or no Sarkozy, they will sell Israel out at the first available opportunity (though in all fairness, Condoleeza Rice seems determined to do much the same thing).

I guess that the old cliche is true; a leopard really can't change its spots.

Disappointed, but not surprised

French President Nicholas Sarkozy has abandoned his plan to teach the Holocaust to grade school children in France: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/142358. There has been a loud and vigorous campaign mounted against the plan on the part of the left in France because, God Forbid, any child should be exposed to the horror of the Holocaust, which might scar them for life (or so they said), though if you ask me, I suspect that the French left was merely kowtowing to the Islamofascists in the country, who were vehemently opposed to the Sarkozy plan.

The bottom line is that once again, France's Jews have been given the short end of the stick. As I asked with the Jews in the U.K., so I ask with those in France--Why do you even live there?

Up is down

Black is white, night is day, right is wrong, right is left, etc., etc. What else can you say when the President of France, no matter who he or she may be, is Israel's bes friend: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/pollak/2523. That is exactly the geopolitical situation right now, where France's Nicholas Sarkozy is saying and doing all the right things vis-a-vis Israel. In fact, he is doing everything that President George W. Bush used to do before 2006. Jacques Chirac must be cringing right now.

No, no, NATO

Canada is calling out the Euroweenies in NATO. With the United States and Canada (and the U.K.) disproportionately taking on the burden of trying to keep the peace in Afghanistan, Canada's Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, has called on other NATO countries (primarily Germany, Spain and France) to do more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120182510813133677.html.

The position of Canada is correct. Western Europeans, much as they did during the Cold War, have been content to let the Americans do the heavy labouring, with the key assistance in Afghanistan of the Canadian troops, who are stationed in the ever-restive southern part of the country. This is unfair but typical of the Western Europeans, who seem unwilling to fight for anything.

9/11: The Video Game

I kid you not. Some creep (from France, naturally) has designed a video game based on 9/11: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4074265. The goal of the game is to shoot down planes before they crash into the Twin Towers. The maker of the game has claimed that the game is designed to show the futulity of "America's War on Terror", because "no one can ever win".

Rarely am I speechless, but this is just such an occasion.

A politically correct guide to the latest French riots

I should have expected nothing else from Canada's Islamic-friendly CBC, and here it is: http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/paris_riots/. Nary a mention of the religion of the rioters, except in passing. No, no, it's all about how racist and oppressive French society is. While that may or may not be true, why doesn't the fact that Muslims are rioting in the most dhimmi-like society in Europe merit discussion?

Disaffected "Youths"

That's who's rioting in France, shooting at the police, etc., etc. Not (gasp!) Muslims, even though the reality of the situation is that it is unassimilated Muslims who are doing just that: http://www.jewcy.com/cabal/psst_french_rioters_are_muslim.

Why, why, why, why, WHY can't our media acknowledge the obvious? Can't the MSM get past its politically correct bias JUST ONCE?

Respect towards everyone and everything.......except Jews and Israel

Britain's "Respect Party" is slowly but surely accumulating votes in every election. It has gone from one seat to 19, and there are no signs that this trend will reverse itself anytime soon: http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=5&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=253&PID=0&IID=1911&TTL=Britain%E2%80%99s_Respect_Party:_The_Leftist-Islamist_Alliance_and_Its_Attitude_toward_Israel. Among Respect's strongest policies is one of implacable opposition (one could say hatred) towards the Jewish State. The growth of Respect is one reason why I think that, shockingly enough, the situation in the U.K. may be even more dire than that in France. Let's keep in mind who Respect's most prominent spokesman is: George Galloway, who does not make any efforts to hide his antipathy towards Israel or the United States.

What is going on with the U.K.?

Maybe one of my readers, Najistani, can explain this one. While the Gordon Brown government is at least paying lip service to the idea of tougher sanctions against Iran, the British bureaucracy is helping subsidize the Iranian economy: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2890957.ece. This is one of those things tha ordinarily would be hard to believe, but in fact is completely in keeping with the prevalent, Islamic-supporting mindset of the British government.

I couldn't have predicted this a year or two ago, but it really does seem as though France and the U.K. have swapped mindsets.......................

France has what it takes, we don't

For all of the (well-deserved) ridicule that France receives regarding its "military prowess", The French can and must receive credit for the way they deal with wacko Islamofascist clerics in their country. In short, they toss them out of the country: http://www.meforum.org/article/1803. What do we do here? The answer, unfortunately, is "not much". Any moves against radical Islam are immediately met with public cries of condemnation by CAIR and lawsuits by the ACLU.

I honestly wonder sometimes whether there isn't a mindset on the left which believes "Better dead Americans than irritated or inconvenienced Muslims".

France looks hard, finds spine

How ironic it is that as the United States drifts away from Israel, France of all countries is increasingly supportive of the Jewish State: http://www.nysun.com/article/66067. You can't say that French President Nicholas Sarkozy is doing this because it is politically expedient, or because of international pressure. If anything, the "easy" thing for him to do would be to continue the policies of his loathesome predecessor, Jacques Chirac. Certainly, no one else in Europe is going in this direction.

Given Sarkozy's moves, I am sure that somewhere, Jacques Chirac is fuming.........