I made that title up. Rather nice I thought.
After a day at a local job fair, fighting everyone else who took the car as there are no buses, I offer this link to cheer us all up.
Rings
THE SECRET DIARY OF ARAGORN SON OF ARATHORN
Day One:
Ringwraiths killed: 4. V. good.
Met up with Hobbits. Walked forty miles. Skinned a squirrel and ate it.
Still not King.
We have a general strike here today and yet another bombing to go with it. Mike's place was one of my watering holes when I was in Tel Aviv. They serve good food and it's right next to the US Embassy. 3 dead and 25 injured. What a great start to the day.
I just noticed this in Haaretz. 'Syrian FM says Damascus interested in peace with Israel that restores all occupied territories back to Arab countries (AP)'. No link yet. This may be the first sign of the promised Middle East changes that were supposed to follow the Iraq war. Syria used to have the position that they would only start talks with Israel if Israel promised to give up the Golan in advance. Now it may seem they're becoming a little more reasonable.
Nice article on Israeli blogging here. Written by Allison from A Unsealed Room.The blog listlink doesn't work though.
I dreamt about my blog last night. This is getting too much. Someone had found my password and was busy turnng it into a MLM marketing site. Horrors.
So North Korea joins the ever growing group of countries with nukes. In the UK, they are sometimes called 'Buckets of Instant Sunshine'. Rather chilling I always thought.
I admit it. I had far too much to drink last night. It was fun though. Now to spend some quality time with my blog and other peoples.
Having flogged the sealed room theme to death, I shall go back to Shakespeare. BlogRoll seems to be down at the moment, and I'm not happy to see BlogPro spellchecker away on holiday.
Israel was looking it's very best yesterday. The rivers and streams had water in, the flowers were beautiful, the children were well behaved. We had a lovely day. A final visit to the Kinneret showed that it is as full as full can be. There are plenty of drowned trees that grew in the now disappeared shoreline. We have a photo of the children under a beach umbrella from about 3 years ago. The water is now up to the top of the umbrella.
The spat with Arafat and Abu Mazen reminds me of a public row many years ago about peace talks between the North Vietnamese and the USA in Paris. Ostensibly, the talks were delayed due to arguments about the shape of the conference table. It wasn't of course, that was just the Press playing silly buggers as usual. The real reason was should the VietCong be a party to the talks. They were supposedly an independent bunch of fighters in the South whereas everyone knew they were controlled and equipped by the North.
It’s the same here. Abu Mazen wants to disarm Fatah, then Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Arafat doesn't want a possible bloody Palestinian civil war. Someone won, but I'm not sure who it was.
The row about the UN, weapons inspectors and WMDs rumbles on. This one has a lot of life left in it yet. I would like to know, if the documents showing uranium imports to Iraq were forged, who forged them and why?
George Galloway fights back against claims he took money from Saddam. This one will also run for years given the snail like progress of the UK courts.
Abu Mazen plans to pick up the ball and go home. Yet another endless story with no clear ending.
So , as it's a holiday, I shall take the entire family to gaze on the nicer bits of Israel and try some canoeing for a change.
My car looks like I've been looting in Baghdad as I clean out the office.
I fail to see why Reuters should label this perfectly normal British behaviour as eccentric. I see nothing odd about playing with marbles, Easter egg rolling, lawn mower racing, worm charming, cheese rolling, nettle eating, lying contests and mud racing. They missed gurneying , which is a West Country sport. In this, the contestants try to make the ugliest face possible and the most horrific wins. Throwing Wellington boots was popular in my youth.
Now I will have some leisure time at the expense of the Israeli taxpayer, I plan to introduce competitive worm charming to Israel. I forsee a great sport coming to life in the Holy land. Are worms kosher though?
Will he, won't he, will he. The never ending story of trying to get Palestinians to agree on anything.
I was musing on the old pipeline that ran from Mosul in Iraq to Haifa and wondering if it could be re-opened. I know the old pipeline is still there because I fell over it some years ago when on a trip. A bit rusty and the pipes would need replacing but the route is till there.
You may have seen references to H1 and H2 when readin about the wars in Iraq over the last few years. The 'H' stands for Haifa and this was the terminus for Iraqi oil when the Brits were top dog in these parts.
So, much to my suprise I stumbled on this story about just this topic. The report is inaccurate as the oil continued flowing until 1952. Nobody wanted to annoy the British that much until alternative sources of bunker oil could be found for the Mediterranean fleet. It would be nice in several ways. Israel would get oil transit fees. Israel's energy bill would go down some (what price Gaza gas now?)
I shall watch with interest. As an added bonus, it would irriate the hell out of Syria.
Stuart Hughes is a journalist - who lost part of his leg on a landmine while reporting in Northern Iraq - has a blog which I've been following for some time. Not for the sensitive though.
One of the nicer parts of our trip down south was a visit to the monastery at Latrun. For Mrs ExpatEgghead and her old history teacher who she still visits regularly it was then a mediaeval music recital. For me it was an extended tour of the Amoured Corp Museum hosted at the old British Police Fort at Latrun, the scene of heavy fighting in 1948. They have increased their collection since I was last there but I wish they would keep the signs by each vehicle up to date and in place. Well worth a visit though
For those tanks buffs, there was a front engined tank before the Merkava. A French AMX built in the 1970s.
I will buy a digital camera one day.
We were near Bet Shemesh , a small town to the south west of Jerusalem. The upgraded Tel Aviv railway line passes by there and a new station is being built.
Alas, a good thing but as it won't operate on Shabbat, won't do much to reduce the death and injury toll on Israel's roads on the weekends. 120 injured this weekend which seems rather a lot.
On Friday morning we were in Jerusalem. Trying to park was a nightmare. We ended up in a multi story car park near Jaffa Gate. On the way out, everybody wanted to leave before they shut the gates. A large queue for the single cashier backed up three floors. She Who Must be Obeyed went down the cashier to witness a near riot as people refused to pay for the hour they had been sitting waiting to get out. Eventually they gave up trying to collect the money and opened all the exits.
If I ever meet the driver of the Subaru who drove down the up ramp and then reversed back into the outgoing queue there will be words.
What a nice holiday. I eat far too much, travelled too far and Mr & Mrs ExpatEgghead are tired. Number One Teenager stayed home and was out when we came back home. The house was immaculate which was nice but made us suspicious. What was she hiding? Then we felt shamed for doubting her motives. All in all the best Pesach ever. We even made it to Jerusalem.
I saw no TV, only listened to music and didn't touch a computer.
I sit here at work surrounded by boxes as we pack up four years worth of books and paperwork, I remembered I haven’t done a blog of the day for quite a while. So welcome to veiled4allah,the occasional thoughts of a Muslim woman. Go say hello.
Happy Holidays to all. Blogging will be light over the next few days as we're travelling. Rebellious Teenager Number 2 wants to go to Bombamella, a happening down south somewhere. Number 1 stays home while we're away and gets to practise with the vacuum cleaner after her friends have left.
I'm still looking for a new job.
BBC World suddenly reappeared on cable last night. I have no idea why. So we don't move to Yes which is a shame. I was looking forward to it.
The kids are upset with me as well. It seems that one of their rock band friends decided to promote his band via mass email or spam. He hit all of my work accounts and home accounts and doesn't have an internet connection any more. They think I'm cruel. I think he got what he deserved. When it comes to spam, I'd shut down my work internet access if I found the sales team spamming.
Any movable type people around who have some spare time, please think about helping Matthew Yglesias who has had his blog chewed up by MT. Please?
There is a giant ripping sound all over Israel as people tear down the sealed rooms. Large lorries roam the street packed with disused duct tape and plastic sheeting. Supermarkets are empty as people use up the days of stored food and water. Guest workers and visitors queue up at Home Command centres to return their gas masks.
I may have slightly exaggerated some parts of the above post.
The Kurdistan Observer doesn't like the USA State department. Well, there are plenty of people in the US government who share that view.
It is absolutely astonishing to see the United States is willing to ignore the sacrifices of the Kurds and for that matter the sacrifices of their brave servicemen to be magnanimous to Turkey, whose pre-war haggling and obstructionism may have cost the allies a substantial number of casualties before this war is all over.
From DARPA, the agency that brought the internet to the world, we now have anti tank mines that talk to each other and can jump 30 metres to fill in any gap caused by an opponent breaching the mine field. The advantage of this self healing approach is that you don't need overwatch of the field nor do you need antipersonnel mines. Thanks to Vulture Central for this tip.
Well, virtually none of the bad things happened during the war so far.
Abdul Majid al-Khoei was killed in Najaf yesterday. I don't suppose the bullet proof vest would have saved him from being hacked to death. Perhaps Ahmed al Chalabi, leader of the INC may stay in London after all. Looks like the State Department won that battle.
Mrs ExpatEgghead proved once again , that the pavement is harder than her ribs so another day finding out how good the Israeli Health service is. Other than that , I watch events with interest. President Assad is probably a very worried man. Are there any statues of him in Damascus?
As there is no strike, we collected 'Eldest Fighting Teenager' from the airport with no problems. Twenty one minutes from plane landing to out of the terminal door. Luckily she only has 7 months left before she isn't a teenager. Amazingly happy to be home and loves Israel and her family right down the fish in the pond. The complete opposite of when she left.
As Baghdad falls and Tikrit gets hammered, Abu has two more weeks to try and persuade Arafart(sic) to let him form a cabinet. So expect a resignation in two weeks. As a conviction Gush Shalom supporter I see no hope for peace of any description while the 'Old Man of Ramallah' is still around.
vital
adj 1: urgently needed; absolutely necessary; "a critical element of the plan";
Necessary to continued existence or effectiveness; essential
[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin vitalis, from vita, life.
Having or likely to have a major effect; important
Latin significans, significant- present participle of significre, to signify
Deserving to be considered; important; momentous; as, a significant event.
So I see the great hope for peace in the Middle East, the new Prime Minister of the 'Palestine that isn't but might be' has managed to appoint an office manager and ... well that's about it. Time for Plan W. Plans A- V have failed as Arafat plays silly buggers again..
The amount a nation spends on defence says a lot about it. Becuase of the size of the USA it has the largest defence budget. It is interesting to see that Japan feels the need to be second in absolute terms.
Even more interesting in the amount a country spends per full time employee or soldier/sailor/airman/marine.
Country Amount Employees Cost per employee
Come on, admit it, you always wanted to know what a Google Dance was didn't you?
PageRank and Google are trademarks of Google Inc., Mountain View CA, USA.
The contents of this document may be reproduced on the web, provided that a copyright notice is included and that there is a straight HTML hyperlink to the corresponding page at dance.efactory.de in direct context.
Co -worker "OK, explain why the design is done like that"
Me. "Read this document I wrote last year. Pages 12 to 16 are good"
Co-worker "And why does this bit work like that?"
Me "You'll find that on Page 20"
Co-worker "I can't be bothered to read it. Just tell me instead"
Me "No"
Co-worker retires hurt. So what's the Russian for RTFM?
The man from the tyre shop hurled my car round a bend for the third time trying to check that the balance at the back was just right. We both agreed it was fine now, in spite of a very large pot hole destroying two hubs and tyres.
When we got back, he said something that made me think.
I'm a Bedouin, not an Arab. I don't like Arabs very much. I'm not really an Israeli either. I think like a Bedouin but I work like a Yekki.
My friend Svicka claims there is no morality for companies, only the bottom line. I disagree. Hence, in Israel, after a strike, the strikers can negotiate payment for the days they were on strike. Wonderful.
So says the Jerusalem Post, referring to the postponment of the budget. This is supposedly to gather more support and head off Histradrut chairman MK Amir Perez (One Nation) who has a veto on these things.
There I was comparing him to M. Thatcher. Not at all it seems. She would have handbagged the guy.
My current boss pointed out yesterday that Thatcherism will never work in this country. There are too many powerful groups who can stop any reform they deem too radical.
Supreme Council of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (SCIRI)
Ayatollah Sayed Mohamad Baqir Al-Hakim. Born in 1939, he has opposed Saddam for as long as anyone can remember. This got him 18 family members executed. Backed by Iran , he is violently opposed to an American led government in Iraq. Nobody from the US would talk to this person, never mind letting him into the country.
Has a small well equiped brigade of Iraqi exiles and a rather larger fedayeen group in country but lying low for now. He will be a factor in post war Iraq.
I read this on my bank's website and decided it could be applied to my blog as well.
This website may contain information which is forward-looking and involves risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements.
I am grateful to the Inquirer for pointing out that the new law in the UK means that those people with dual passports can't serve in the cabinet. So , out goes Gordon Brown.
Blunkett, speaking through his PR dog Sophie, said: "This will mean that we can render stateless any of those bastard Picts from north of the Great Wall of Julius Caesar".Tony Blair, who claims he is a Scot, an ex-rock star and a prime minister, will not face the full force of the new law because he is from Edinburgh, which is well known to highlanders to really be part of England.
It was very quiet on the way to work today. That is because those Israelis who have a job are on strike. Well, not all of them but it seems like it. Reminds me of the Thatcher days even down to the bombings and shootings.
I was to have posted about the lone settler in the West bank guarded by 5 soldiers costing $SHEDLOADOFDOLLARS per month but it's all too depressing. Wasn't it Mitterand who said of M.Thatcher "The lips of Marilyn Monroe and the eyes of Caligula"?
I shall try to think of something similar for Bibi, our wonderful finance minister.
Iraq National Accord
Founded by Ayad Alawi who will never get a place anywhere in the USA dominated Iraq. Joined loosely with the SCIRI, KDP, and PUK parties, mainly Shiite in composition. He opposes US troops in the region and has ties with Iran.
His brother, Ayad Alawi was shot in Amman in 1998. Expect more of the same.
Disliked intensely by the existing Baathist regime in Iraq, it has tried to assassinate him a few times. However, being opposed to Saddam does not automatically make you a friend with the USA.
The dullest blog in the world is the blog of the day. Thanks to BloggerHeads for the link. Before you go and look, yes , it is painfully dull. Soporific even.
