Terrorism as defined by the FBI:
“the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a Government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”
Thankfully, the FBI has finally acknowledged that the July 4th attack at the El Al terminal at LAX was indeed a terrorist attack. I blogged about this in October. One doesn’t have to be part of a large terrorist network to commit terrorist attacks.
Knesset corruption
I have been on a blogging break a couple of days now. I was planning on continuing the hiatus until at least this weekend. Then I came across something so infuriating I had to post.
The Knesset kids are urging Attorney General Rubenstein to drop the corruption case against Likud MK Naomi Blumenthal.
Some of the brilliant comments of members of the Knesset followed by my comments:
Am Ehad MK David Tal said it appeared that Blumenthal was being “victimized.” Tal said other Likud members were “not more righteous.”
Good logic MK Tal! So let us let’s not prosecute other criminals as well.
Likud MK Inbal Gavrieli, whose election to the Likud as an unknown touched off public speculation of corruption in the Likud elections, also expressed opposition to the indictment.
Perhaps Gavrieli should keep her damn mouth shut unless she is saying “you want fries with that?”. Her family is to Jaffa what Gambino is to NY.
Likud MK Gideon Sa’ar said that while Blumenthal might be better off to go to court and prove her innocence, he did not think that the state should invest time and energy in the case. “I doubt there will be a conviction,” he said.
Right, we shouldn’t let a judge decide. Let’s just throw the case out.
Sa’ar and National Religious Party MK Shaul Yahalom said that the party members only got a few hours to sleep in the hotel, seeing that they met with Blumenthal at 1 a.m. and got up in the morning at 6 a.m. to go to the Likud elections in Tel Aviv.
I have a friend who stole a candy bar when he was a teenager, got caught and was severely reprimanded. He had to include the details of his arrest on Law school application (he got in anyway). He stole and according to the law he should have been punished. Whether my friend ate the candy bar or not is totally irrelevant. He still stole it.
Read the full article here.
Interesting day. I spent the afternoon at the American Cultural Center doing research on a project I am working on. I passed by the building hundreds of times, never realizing what was inside. Tons of American books and magazines and free internet terminals (email and chat groups are forbidden!). It turns out they didn’t have what I was looking for so I spent a couple of hours reading the totally irrelevant music magazine, Rolling Stone.
There were several other people there as well. Some guy studying for the SATs. The rest were a hodgepodge of what can best be described as misfits. There is a small phenomenon among American immigrants to Israel. Time stopped for them the year they made aliyah. These people parade around in clothing from the late seventies and early eighties. It’s not a fashion statement either, I assure you. They just haven’t gotten had the time or drive to buy new clothes in a couple of decades. To each his own I guess. I noticed this for the first time when I was in the army guarding in Hebron and a couple of small settlements near Sussiya (Yes, I know that the majority of settlers aren’t immigrants).
Well, a number of these folk were in the library with me. I felt like I was in a time warp. It was truly bizarre. On several occasions I felt a presence over my shoulder and turned around to find someone peering over my shoulder. A couple of people were staring at me as well. I just glared back and asked, “Can I help you?”, this quickly stopped the staring. Maybe it’s the mohawk. I can be very intimidating when I want to be. Blah.
There is nothing better than driving around the Judean Hills with the sunroof open the windows down blasting the latest New Pornographer’s album (downloaded and burned, but I’ll certainly buy it when it comes out!) next month. I took a quick detour to Yad Kennedy on my way home. Sat down on a picnic bench and enjoyed a nice cold cola. Refreshing.
Blogging has been quiet this week. Sometimes I just don’t have what to say. I open up the blogger interface and stare at it for several minutes. I then get frustrated and don’t write anything. As I lay in bed and drift off into sleepyland an idea always pops into my head. I then wake up in the morning and completely forget what I wanted to write about. It’s very frustrating.
The weather has been beautiful the past two days. Today was hot. I realized on the way to work that I forgot to put on deoderant. Not very comfortable.
Note to self: Bring a bar to work and keep it in the desk drawer.
Ha’aretz redesigned their site. I’m sure they’ll tweak it in the coming days - it looks way too crowded and incredibly messy.
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