'Nother Solent

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

Matthew 10:29-31

Department of smug.

The Independent and the Guardian are both carrying stories about how newly discovered memos from Bush's time in the National Guard reveal he pulled strings to get out of his duties.

Because I read US blogs I knew hours ago that this story has, to put it mildly, moved on.

Teehee!

UPDATE: Spent most of the day wearing flip-flops specially but not one lefty gloated over Bush so I could say, "Oh, we -" (Honorary 'we' - I'm a blogger, aren't I?) " - we have already dealt with that one." Much annoyed.

Big post

here on Biased BBC on use/avoidance of the word "terrorist".

Read

these posts by Norman Geras: The Evil Done and Terror Without Moral Limit.

The Jews are the canary, as always.

Once it became acceptable to a broad section of Islam (and to Western apologists for terrorism) to select Jewish children as targets it was only a matter of time before non-Jewish children would also be selected. Children are the most convenient terrorist target as they are physically easy to control or kill, and because people will concede more to save them. The only thing that stops a Beslan happening every week is the shreds of morality that remain even in the minds of terrorists. Once the taboo was breached for Israeli victims it was breached for everyone.

I am surprised that there has been little mention outside the Israeli press of the massacre at the school in Maalot in which 21 children were killed by the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. This is how the Wikipedia entry linked to above describes what happened:

Palestinian terrorists broke into the high school in Maalot, a community in northern Israel. The terrorists immediately killed a security guard and some of the children, the remaining children and teachers were held as hostages.

In the morning, the terrorists were identified as members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine who had infiltrated into Israel from Lebanon. They presented their demands: release Arab terrorists from Israeli prisons, or they would kill the children. The deadline was set at 6:00 p.m. the same day.

The Knesset, the Israeli parliament, met in an emergency session, and by 3:00 p.m. a decision was reached to negotiate, but the terrorists refused a request for more time.

At 5:45 p.m., a unit of the elite Golani Brigade stormed the building. All of the terrorists were killed in the assault, but not before they used firearms and explosives to kill 21 children that afternoon. All told, 26 people were killed and 66 wounded (not including the terrorists), including several people murdered by the terrorists on their way to the school the night before.

Computer problems.

I'm having them. The sclerosis of this computer has increased, is increasing and should decrease. And don't talk to me about how many tries it took me to finally connect to the internet to post this. Really don't talk to me; the last time something like this happened I ended up wiping out all my email records to free up memory. What I've needed and haven't had over the last few weeks is an uninterrupted day or several to work out what to do. I shall bring to this task all the enthusiasm I usually bring to dentist's waiting rooms, but now that the school term has started it may finally get done.