The JackB

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

Archives for January 2009

War in Gaza Update #18

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Welcome to the War in Gaza Update #18.

Previous editions of the round up can be found below:1* 2 *3* 3.5* 4* 4.5* 5* 5.5* 6*6.5 *7* 7.5* 8* 8.5.*9, *9.5, *10, *10.5, *11, *11.5, *12, *12.5, *13, *13.5, *14, *14.5, *15, *16 and 17.

From the traditional media we have:

CNN: U.N. condemns shelling of aid complex
CNN: Third-ranking Hamas leader in Gaza killed
CNN: Arab nations split on Gaza diplomacy
NY Times: War on Hamas Saps Palestinian Leaders
Time: Hamas Ranks Showing Signs of Division
Time: How Badly Has Hamas Been Hurt in Gaza?
WSJ: The No-State Solution
Guardian: Gaza split prompts Arab countries to boycott emergency summit
YNET: Iran: It is not feasible for Israel to live
YNET: Olmert’s ill-advised move
Commentary: Con Denver
Commentary: An Obama Peace Process?
Commentary: An Exercise in Comparing and Contrasting

National Review: Can We Trust the Casualty Numbers?

From the blogosphere:

Aussie Dave and The Muqata continue live-blogging the war. The IDF blog has Summary of Overnight Events, 15 Jan. 2009 08:30 IST.

Take a letter, Dear World.

From Mere Rhetoric
Top US Communication Listserv: Hey, How About Some Anti-Israel David Duke Pamphlets?

At Daled Amos Talk Again Of Ceasefire–But Not Of Gilad Shalit? and United Nations Relief and Works Agency: We Employed Terrorists At Palestinian Schools.

The Elder continues to produce posts you need to read such as Fact: Palestinian Arabs lie and Morning news roundup.

Crittenden blogged about The Media War. Soccer Dad asks Who’s getting sapped?

Jewish Current Issues shared Three Posts on Judging and Justifying Israel. Discarded Lies has IDF get another “rich” target: Hamas interior minister.

At Yourish go read It’s not anti-Zionism—it’s anti-Semitism.

Carl and Atlas Shrugs talked about the shelling of the UN complex in JIHAD USES UN COMPOUND TO FIRE AT ISRAEL and.’Palestinians’: UNRWA headquarters on fire; UPDATED: ‘Palestinians’ fired anti-tank missiles from UNRWA HQ.

Jack and Jill Politics has a different perspective What’s Happening in Gaza is Wrong & It Needs to Stop Now.

Back at Yourish read Hamas: Still hurting, still needing to be destroyed. and Mark Regev responds to biased CNN anchor

From Sderoth Some Musings on Proportionality.

Shiloh Musings wants to know why Israel won’t finish off the terrorists.

You might want to read Six wounded, two seriously as Grad hits Be’er Shev.

More idiocy from the protests Ringo’s Pix: Bad Craziness in Los Angeles.

This is not a picture of the latest bomb shelter.

This concludes the round up. More to come later.

The Facebook Fight

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It has been my experience that in most relationships there is an exchange of information about things/people/experiences that took place prior to your time with your significant other. I suspect that out of respect for your significant other many of these stories are censored. You don’t really want to tell them that you and Jimmy once held the record for most sex in the dorm or other intimate things.

Sure, you want them to know about your past. You love them and want them to feel like there are no secrets between you, but do they really need to know all of the sordid details. Probably not and chances are they don’t really want to know those about you either.

Thanks to the joys of modern technology this is something that could potentially become more of a challenge for couples. My friend Ken called me an hour ago to catch up on life and shoot the breeze. During the course of the conversation he told me that Facebook was going to cost him about $50 bucks in flowers.

I of course asked him to tell me why and he related the following tale. He and his wife both have Facebook accounts. Over the course of the last month or so he had reconnected with a bunch of friends from high school and college. Several of his new Facebook friends were women, a few of whom he had once dated.

She knew a few stories about them and as far as he knew had never cared. But their reappearance on Facebook was a different story. She was very uncomfortable with it and wanted to know why he felt the need to be in touch with them. He explained that it had been more than 20 years since he dated any of them and said that he had no interest.

It didn’t satisfy her and she demanded that he unfriend them. He refused.

Bam, Facebook had suddenly gone from something fun to the impetus for a power struggle in the relationship.

I told him that I understood his position and that I understood hers. The funny thing about feelings is that they aren’t based upon logic. Sometimes rational thought is not something that you associate with anger/love/joy/sadness etc.

I received a somewhat sarcastic thank you for not taking a position and was asked to provide advice. I laughed and reminded him that I wasn’t married to her, but if it was me I’d find a way to resolve it. He lives with her. He wants a future with her. Figure out a way to make her relax and she probably will end up not caring about them.

It seemed to me that his insistence on keeping them made her angrier and fueled her concern. So defuse the situation. Give everyone a moment to calm down and then reapproach it. It is like two kids fighting over the same toy. Take it away for a moment and when they are calm they both can play with it.

Of course I also told him that if this didn’t work or led to a bigger fight I took no responsibility. Sometimes it is good to be the one advising an attorney. 😉

War in Gaza Update #17

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Welcome to the War in Gaza Update #17.

Previous editions of the round up can be found below:1* 2 *3* 3.5* 4* 4.5* 5* 5.5* 6*6.5 *7* 7.5* 8* 8.5.*9, *9.5, *10, *10.5, *11, *11.5, *12, *12.5, *13, *13.5, *14, *14.5, *15 and 16.

From the traditional media we have:

Fox: U.N. Agency That Runs School Hit in Gaza Employed Hamas and Islamic Jihad Members
CNN: Medical toll (Excuse me for being skeptical about some of these numbers.)
CNN: Bin Laden message (Wonder if he is hiding in the same cave as Nasrallah)
CNN: Bergen: Tape shows Gaza conflict ‘big deal’ to bin Laden
NY Times: Why Israel Can’t Make Peace With Hamas
NY Times: Israeli Rights Groups Call for War Crimes Inquiry
TNR: Why Do the Jews In the Media Love Hezbollah?
TNR: Coverage of the Gaza Crisis
JPost: Hamas accepts Gaza cease-fire initiative ‘in principle’
JPost: ‘Are human rights for some, but not for others?’
The Atlantic: Race and The Israel Lobby
The Atlantic: The Walt Counterfactual
Commentary: Let’s Get Real

From the blogosphere:Aussie Dave and The Muqata continue live-blogging the war. The IDF provides IDF VLOG: Israeli Airstrikes Aborted to Protect Civilians.


and here is a video of a strike against Hamas terrorists.

Seraphic Secret has the scary story Marriage Hamas Style. Soccer Dad is Teaching Thomas.

Omri has
No, Of Course Hamas Didn’t Accept A Ceasefire, Hezbollah Using Proxies To Bomb Israeli Civilians, Erode Israel’s Deterrent and

Red Cross: Of Course Israel’s White Phosphorus Shells Don’t Violate Int’l Law.

Rafi has the picture of the day. Meryl pointed out Catch-22 on ICC in Gaza and Iranian ship turned back by Israel and Egypt.

Treppenwitz covered Okay, now that everyone has ‘checked in’… and Picture this…

At My Pet Jawa read sabbah.biz: source of Palestinian campaign targeting Israeli officials’ communications and The War Victims the Media Forgot.

Joshuapundit provided “Dear World”…An Open Letter From An Israeli Jew.

Weasel Zippers has the shameful story about New Zealand: Muslim Cafe Owner Kicks out Israeli Customers, Refuses to Serve Jews Until Gaza Offensive Over….

Go to Simply Jews Hamas – change of language and pricing issues. Rob wrote Gaza and Mogadishu.

American Power blog has Fanatical Islam’s Tightening Grip in Britain. At Daled Amos Video Alert: The UN Lynch Mob.

Gateway Pundit says Helen Thomas Compares Jews to Nazis, HAMAS FIRES PHOSPHORUS BOMB INTO ISRAEL and 55 Anti-Semitic Attacks in France Since War In Gaza.

EOZ continues to set the tone with ICRC president inflates Gaza’s population density and Free Gaza Movement allows dozens to die!

From Taylor Marsh The Thugocracy of Hamas in Gaza. Planck’s Constant says Arabs Live Better under Israeli Rule.

No Quarter offered “Gaza Burning” – Worldwide Impact »
From Shiloh Musings “I Need Help,” My Friend Said and Frightening Pictures.

Don Surber has Israel.

Stay tuned I will update this later today.

Kissing

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The big guy who helps run this joint has become interested in kissing. He routinely tells me that it is gross and that he never wants to do it. But every now and then he’ll approach me and ask if I like to kiss girls and why.

I tempted fate once by telling him that if he does a proper job of kissing a girl he can leave the seat up all the time and gain a maid and personal shopper. Men, learn from my experience, don’t say this thing in range of women who wear pointy shoes or have heavy purses. Those things leave a dent in the old melon.

But because I push my luck I once said that kissing is a necessary evil called foreplay. This in turn generated the question of “does that mean that I get to kiss and play with four girls at once.” I said something to the effect of it only works that way if you are Hugh Hefner.

Anyhoo I have attempted to try and explain to the young lad that kissing is an exercise that can blow your mind, but only if you are kissing the right person. Because when you have that sort of chemistry it is an organic experience that is worth doing over and over again. In fact a good kiss has been the reason why I got onto an airplane to fly untold miles to experience that again.

It was a life changing kiss that one. It was the sort of kiss that you find unsettling. It is so good that you can’t help but ask yourself it is real. And if you are like me you open your eyes in the middle and find her staring back at you. At that point in time you reach into your pocket and hand her a breath mint. Don’t forget to duck.

But on a serious note it was the kind of thing that spoke of unlimited potential. The kind of kiss that makes it clear to yourself that if you don’t pursue the situation further you will forever be known by the moniker of “Super Schmuck” because only a super schmuck would walk away from that. There are some things in life that you can dream of and experience. And some experiences that are so good they are a dream.

Before I forget today’s lucky numbers are as follows:

1 15 03 8 31 68 5 9 69

If you share that combination of numbers than you are guaranteed a chance to engage in the most incredible and amazing experience you have ever had. Sheer bliss.

I hate to walk away and leave this post half done, but I have to attend to putting a young child back to bed.