Ariel Sharon is a butcher. That fat fuck has absolutely no right to label Arafat as a ‘threat to the free world’. Sharon has commanded attacks that over the years have resulted in several hundred civilian deaths (it's believed that he's indirectly responsible for the massacre of hundreds of Palestinians in Lebanon in 1982, directly carried out by a Christian group while Israeli troops surrounded the refugee camp).

A massacre isn't considered terrorism from any angle? The Jews cry about a Holocaust but sit back while civilians are innocently slaughtered? And weep for the relatively small casualty from people who have nothing else to live for? The people of Israel receive billions of dollars in aid from America each year, building settlements that resemble a rich American neighborhood while Palestinians live in ghettos confined to areas patrolled by Israeli soldiers that can decide whether to allow a Palestinian to leave or enter. (I heard a story on NPR in which humanitarian groups were refused the right to deliver food to Palestinian camps on a few occasions.)

I don't condone terrorism per se, but Palestinians have to fight back somehow. They have a right to. The Israelis will continue to expand their settlements regardless: it's Sharon's plan and dream to secure that land for the Jews. The idea of peace is to control or completely throw out the Palestinians. If, God willing, Sharon has a heart attack and dies, Netenyahu will likely come into power. He directly rejects the idea of a Palestinian state; he doesn't want them to buy weapons to guard against their own security and freedom.

It's also ridiculous how much the US spends on Israel (the fact that Russia helped early on is a moot point now). Roughly one-sixth of America's total foreign aid goes to Sharon's government. The continent of Africa receives less than that amount. The whole situation is political. If non-Jewish Arabs occupied high political positions in America then maybe Palestinians would receive ample rewards for guns and missiles. It's illogical and unfair to give these 5 million people money when state-sponsored terrorism is carried out. And there are millions upon millions of people that can use those billions of US dollars for food and water and vaccination. Israelis don't need aid.

This isn't an anti-Semitic rant. It's just another perspective on what's happening. What shouldn't be happening, of course, is continued aid to Israel. The occupied territories should also be given up.

And it's not as if Arafat is a real hero or anything. He's as stubborn as Sharon and holds a nearly equal grudge. He shouldn't have rejected the land deal offered to him many years ago.

Though peace doesn't seem feasible, I hope it happens.

Congraturations! You have birthday happy!

In her June 7, 2002 article ‘Best way to honor victims is to rebuild World Trade Center’ she bucks the trend of backing opinion with facts. The first half is rather drab (actually, all of it is – she's a bad writer), and there's that base level ignorance I've come to expect from prominent conservatives: when stating that the Arabs will eventually pose a threat on the level of Japan she quips ‘who would have imagined…that the Japanese were governable?’ (Yes, forget about those other forms of Japanese government and society prior to the atom bomb. They were all heathens, right?)

A few sentences later is where she lets the shit soar from her mouth:

Muslims feel humiliated now? We'll show them humiliated.

The bitterness and disbelief after reading that was indescribable. How can anyone blame and attack a billion people for the actions of a small minority? What right does she have to group me with Al Qaeda, or say that my family members are somehow responsible for the terrorists?

Unfortunately, there's more:

…Islam reveres a God who creates nothing. It is a central tenet of Islam that God did not even create the [Qur'an]…“For a believing Muslim to create is a rash and dangerous act”.

Coulter's words come not from studying the Qur'an or even a standard high school history book, but from a historian named Daniel Boorstin; I suspect that she took the liberty of decontextualizing his words (quick research on Boorstin reveals that he's a Pullitzer Prize winner, and I don't think any writer to win this would simultaneously be a total dipshit).

She ignores every Muslim's belief that God created the Qur'an and revealed it to Muhammad. She glosses over scientific and cultural achievements of the Muslim empire from mid-9th century into the 13th century. Then there's the work of Rumi and beautiful Muslim architecture in Spain. This is the ‘uncreation’ of Muslim beliefs? These are the ‘barbarians’ who need to be humiliated?

More hurtful than her words is, like I've already mentioned, the media's willingness to publish this filth. This is the mentality I expect from the KKK or the terrorists. There's an air of hypocrisy in America that lets this unjustly scornful, hate-filled mentality spread through electronic signals and printed words.

People want to fight for freedom but don't have a problem exercising racism by complaining to pilots that the brown-skinned guy in first class is threatening.

The terrorists must pay, but forget about US policies – embargoes that have contributed to the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens, supplying Saddam Hussein with chemical and biological weapons in the 80s, favoring the Saudis while condemning Castro – because America isn't at fault for anything.

Yes, let's also fight for the Constitution which we hold so dearly, but here's the Patriot Act to appease the scared and ignorant public: all foreign Arab/Muslim men can and will be detained indefinitely based on ‘secret evidence’ that even the suspects and their lawyers aren't allowed to see. No need for that writ of habeas corpus.

We can't let any charities with one or two senior members consorting with terrorist groups continue to collect or give out money, but it's acceptable for Dick Cheney to treat mullahs from the Taliban to fancy hotels and dinners in hopes of securing pipeline rights through Afghanistan.

There's plenty more to be cynical over.

Right-wing fanatics have this tremendous leeway in speech and policies. Words like Coulter's are damaging: there are too many people who will read her words and not look to anything else for truth; it satisfies their cause to hold on to prejudices, to look away at wrongs. The final outcome if this continues will be a terrible, time-consuming mess to undo. But even starting to fix it seems hopeless.

39 megs and 2 hours to go…

[This is fun to watch many times over.]

I'm always weary of running into someone just as I finish peeing. If someone else comes in (or is wrapping up his business), I vary my flow: steady streams become sputters, starting and stopping like my brother at a stop sign. This usually buys enough time to let the other guy leave. And if I run out, I act as though there's still some left over, patiently waiting until the reserve is empty.

The biggest scare, though, is that other task. There's a practical concern: who (more importantly, what) else has been on the toilet seat? Toilet paper is key: I just tear off two long strips (for each cheek) and fold it over two or three times, then place it on the seat; seat covers will also work, but they're a little too thin for my liking.

Hygiene and safety aside, I'm worried that someone else will be in the bathroom as I step out of the stall. The methods that follow are almost guaranteed to let you slip out without embarassment:

These may seem like petty worries, but there's one other person who shares a concern for at least the latter (and we can't be the only ones). Besides, public bathrooms are rarely as inviting as your home's. Think of all the prostitutes who could've made the stall you're in an active workplace.

I've been a bit grouchy this morning.

It's still a bit strange to just steal a big jar of change when several other goodies were present. My theory is that the robber needed quick cash. Maybe he took a poop somewhere and used parts of the pillow's remnants to cover his gift?

I can't say I'm totally surprised. The house is a fortress with no guards and an open gate. (And there are still a few other ways to get in if the doors are locked. I know this because I've had to make use of such an entrance once.)

You can never lose your cool in these situations. You can't show fear (because it means they've won). Remain calm and keep your thoughts in order.

Leptocephalus: do you have keys to the front door/
Timmy Teabags: nope. just back
Leptocephalus: damn, no one has a front door key except mike
Timmy Teabags: i think i tried to get it duplicated once, but it had a 'don't duplicate'
Timmy Teabags: give herschel a call. i'm sure he'll get one to you asap
Leptocephalus: yeah, i thnk i will
Leptocephalus: what's his number?
Timmy Teabags: 367-9409
Leptocephalus: that's our number
Leptocephalus: 367-0956
Timmy Teabags: haha
Timmy Teabags: yeah
Timmy Teabags: woops

Some scientists have discovered that every galaxy is built around a blackhole (yes, that includes our own Milky Way). The theory now is that something sparked a blackhole, which began sucking in cosmic dust at incredible speeds. Some of the dust clumped together, increased in size, and moved away from the blackhole (with so many things colliding at such high speeds, not everything had to get drawn in). This continued until the blackhole got full; it had little snacks every now and then from that point on.

Now that these stars were formed – some at sufficient distances from the blackhole to not be affected by its gravitational pull – new planets and such began to form around them. Voila: a galaxy. (Blackholes are still lethal things if you get too close, even if they are full.)

I think it's pretty damn fascinating.

Oh, and down with the queen.

Of course, he was right. The first italic typeface was commissioned by Aldus Manutius and designed by Francesco Griffo, two Italians, way back in 1499. Italics initially consisted of lowercase letters (which developed after uppercase roman letters).

I'm only going by what The Elements of Typographic Style says, and Robert Bringhurst is respected in the field of typography, so I'll assume he speaks the truth. It's an interesting read.

My dad is also in better shape than I am. And my hair is thin on top.

Ah, pathetic life I have.

Two years of my boring life have been deleted from the server. I'll try this again.

Hurray for Good Eats. But I'm not fond of eggplants.

Dear Editor,
 
Thank you for printing the excellent editorial by Rabbi Michael Datz, which explained the Mideast crisis so clearly. I hope it was read by Palmer Blevins and other letter writers who have recently come down on Israel.
 
That people in the United States would not favor support for Israel blows my mind. We owe most of our Western Judeo-Christian culture to the Jews. My father often said that if the Apostle Paul had not heeded the call to "come over to Macedonia and help us" but had gone East instead, as he'd planned, our hemisphere might still be in the dark ages! I never read the Bible without thanking God for the Jewish people who wrote it.
 
Even the New Testament, except for Luke and Acts, was written by Jews. How could we not support Israel, just out of sheer gratitude? I'm also hoping for a just solution for the Palestinians. But I can't help remembering that it was Arabs who gave us 9-11.
 
Grace Cogsevell

I said:

Dear Editor,
 
The remarks of Grace Cogsevell sound cold. How can she weigh the terrorist acts of 9-11 against the people of Palestine? It wasn't Arabs behind 9-11, it was a terrorist group. To blame Arabs in a broad sense is to blame Jews and Christian as well as Muslims (I assume she's targeting the latter).
 
Supporting Israel now means supporting the Israeli government, whose army has unflinchingly destroyed homes and villages and several hundred Palestinian civilian lives; accident or not, these deaths are a direct result of attacks by Israeli troops. It's terror they're using to fight terror - isn't that hypocritical?
 
And how can anyone dismiss the contributions of Arabs? While a Christian Europe was in its dark ages, treating sickness by drilling holes in the heads of patients to release demons, Islamic scholars preserved and advanced contemporary sciences, among them mathematics, physics, and medicine. Show Arabs some respect, if only out of sheer gratitude.
 
It's not right to play off Arabs against Israelis when the current regimes are largely to blame. There must be strong leaders willing to look ahead and not recall past atrocities when drawing a plan for the future. These people must have proper guidance.
 
Kaiser Shahid

It would have been nice to point out the fanatical Catholics of Spain during their persecution of Muslims, but there were word constraints to be met. Ah well. My third letter to the editor (which he thanked me for and called ‘thoughtful’) has finally been published, leading me to think that he didn't find my first two thoughtful. Better one than none.

No, this doesn't actually change things in the bigger picture. But I couldn't let Grace's words go unchallenged. Can't let racism slide by.

Yup.