Bricks and mortgage

End of year good news: UK house prices continue to rise steadily.

I was one of those lucky enough to be able to jump on the housing ladder in the mid-1980s. Survived the recession and house price collapse. Bottom of market early 1994 had enough equity and mortgage power to put together with Good Sport’s ditto. Stretched more and bought a wonderful place at below the already low market value as it was in need of a certain amount of renovation to put it kindly.

Ten years on it’s (nearly!) done and worth some amazing amount of money with quite a bit of equity. Typical Londoner’s story: the equity is the savings.

All fine as long as real mortgage interest rates remain low and the mortgage remains affordable.

But this is no time to be complacent.

Interest rates are rising again and unlike other parts of the world most UK mortgages are variable-rate. Also even well-paid first-time buyers (the bedrock of the market) must now double up to buy even the smallest flats in our inner north London area. On the other hand, the Bank of England (which now controls monetary policy including interest rates) and the Government (which controls tax policy) have no wish to repeat the last recession where many people had their homes repossessed as unemployment and interest rates soared.

Another major victory for freedom

It is such a relief and no doubt my family and you will be joining in extra special celebrations for this New Year. It appears that it is perfectly legal to take nude pictures of Barbie being menaced by kitchen appliances. Oh frabjous joy, ... where's my camera.

Blogroll

As it’s near the end of the year, I thought I’d do a blogroll roundup. Here’s what the others are saying.

Amitia Notes is worrying about the young and old, specifically funding for current entitlement programs. Wrinklies can worry.



An Unsealed Room points out that Israel is determined to help with the Iran earthquake even if they don’t want it.



Aron's Israel Peace Weblog doesn’t agree with the Israeli military that they are winning the war on terror.


Asymmetrical Information points out a Wall Street Journal article about the health costs for the elderly and obesity costs.



Baghdad Burning . Riverbend hasn’t posted for a while but describes life in Baghdad which is noisy.



Balagan is cross with Iran for refusing Israeli aid and is amazed to find out that there is no such thing as Israeli nationality.



Beyond Northern Iraq . Stuart has a new leg to replace the one he left in Iraq and talks about presents.



BloggerHeads is aas manic as ever and lets us know that parts of the Patriot II act are now law.



Call Centre Confidential is away until the 5th of January. Lucky buggers.



debbie\'s blog doesn’t blog that often but writes well on blogging for business.



Draxblog muses over Serbia and Croatia and links to InstaPundit. It’s all Clinton’s fault.



Dutchblog Israel has a link to an IHT article about three Israeli novelists with differing views on Israel and the future. So that’s 6.4 million plus three.



Expat Yank got a biography of James Longstreet for Xmas and likes it.



Give War A Chance . Emily is taking a blog break.



Healing Iraq says it's good to be back to normal again. By normal I mean total chaos, endless lines for gasoline, long electricity outages, and sounds of unknown explosions and gunfire.



Israellycool tells us that most people would prefer to skydive with Homer Simpson than George Bush. Hmmm…



Jezblog gets to play in an concert and hit things.



Lawrence Lessig remembers Phil Goldman former Apple software engineer.



Library Girl hasn’t posted for while since the knob fell off.



Matthew Yglesias regrets the bad news from Serbia.



Merde in France has taken a holiday break but his last post says that the French are ‘… a bunch of impotent, terrorist appeasing good-for-nothings’. Oh well, I still remember Elizabeth with a smile on my face.



MoorishGirl has a link to a nice 9-11 story in College Review.




moxie has a fire with no flames or smoke.




North Atlantic Skyline has more beautiful pictures from the West of Ireland.



Not a Fish is busy and working late.



Oscar Jr. Was Here isn’t here any longer.
Overtaken by events links to the 2004 Prediction Contest or ‘First Annual Peerless Prognosticator Contest for Humor and Accuracy.’



Pepys' Diary . It was a Saturday on the 29th in 1660. Mr Pepys has a busy day.



Pickle juice is tired and needs more tea.



Points of departure thinks about Taoism related to traffic. Road traffic that is.



Protocols has the Tale of the Aggressively Driving Mohel. Really.




RuminateThis raises a glass to an activist 2004! He has lots to act about.



Salam Pax is too famous to blog much anymore.


Sha!recommends Mark Steyn for good reading.



Silflay Hraka congratulates a new arrival in the small bunny category. Blackavar has a baby. He also has a link to Blogmadness which I’ll look at later.



Tal G. gets more comments for less posts than anyone I know.


The Head Heeb. mentions Former Mauritanian president Mohammed Ould Haidallah and has a very interesting post on Hellenism and the Jews.



The talking dog mourns the Clinton legacy of a dysfunctional, soulless Democratic Party that doesn't know what it stands for beyond the cult of Bill and Hill, and seems to have a deathwish for itself. Oh dear.




This Normal Life worries about Twelve-year-old Amir being out late.



Tikun Olam has a piece on a CBS documentary about Vietnam KIA’s and the families they left behind.



veiled4allah congratulates Rep. Dennis Kucinich on trying to repeal parts of the Patriot Act.



War Liberal gets mean about Britain’s less than brilliant Beagle 2 mission to Mars.



what\'s in rebecca\'s pocket . Rebecca is looking for Swedish magazines. No, not those kinds of magazines.



Winds of Change has some sermons from the Palestinians available. Disturbing reading.



Nicely toasted has some lovely Christmas photos.



And that’s all.

Spam

A post from Tal.G on spam reminds me I haven't written a post on spam for a while.

For those of you who hate spam as much as I do, things are going to get much worse from January. The EU has finally managed to require member states to implement 200258/EC which , in essence, says you can only send marketing messages to persons who have explicitly asked for them. That's prior consent and the would be marketer must be able to prove it. Default check boxes on a web page where you enter an email address doesn't count. Selling email addresses might get you into serious troubles.

Regretfully, the majority of spam orginates in the US. There, Congress has seen fit to pass a misnamed bill called 'Can Spam'. It will do nothing of the sort. It allows marketing messages to be sent as long the source is easily indentifable and there is a clear route for the recipient to opt out of further mailings. This is a recipe for disaster and a quick read of this article shows why.

E-mail list manager OptInBig found that the federal legislation is good for business. "Our January bookings skyrocketed after the passage of the Can Spam Act," said CEO Scott Richter, because its marketer clients no longer have to worry about California's strict law, which Federal law would supersede. One of the largest e-mail senders in the U.S., the company says it has over half of the 100 million unique e-mail addresses in North America in its database. "We're very happy that we now have one law instead of 37 individual state laws to deal with," Richter said. "We try to be in compliance with all of them, but some of them were so farfetched and changing so fast, it was hard to keep up."

Scott Richter is currently being sued by Microsoft and New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer on violating consumer laws. He's the number three spammer in the world after Alan Ralsky and Damon DeCrescenzo of DocDrugs. Using hikacked proxies around the world and open email servers (less and less of those now) he pumps out spam by the billions.

The new US law overrides State law from January 1st 2004. Expect more spam. Here's a Wired article on the new law.



Some spam fighting links.


Blocklist: Spews .




Fight back with Spamcop .



Dig deeper with Samspade. .


Spamhaus: .



Spam stats:.


More spam stats from Brightmail.


Join up. Coalition against unsolicited commercial email. .


Laws on spam. .




MAPS:

Shaky ground

Or why I do not live in California (no. 263)

So the Islamic Republic of Iran welcomes help from everyone and everything except You Know Who…

Live fire

It appears that the Prime Minister alsothinks using live ammunition against protesters is fairly stupid. Good for him. I could start liking the man after the Herzaliya speech and this.

Weather

It's been raining here up North. 70 millimeters in one day and a metre of snow on Mount Hebron. Wonderful.The Kinneret even rose 3 centimeters.

Sunday

I have mixed feelings about working on a Sunday. It seems odd somehow although I've got used to it now. Work place is near a Christian Arab area so we hear a church bell in the morning. Also chickens from somewhere. The local corner shop has a Christmas tree and waiters in some on the restaurants wear red hats.


I just noticed that the Infrastructure Ministry chief scientist has pointed out that Israel will face a large scale earthquake at some point. Thanks for that. I would prefer not to know thank you.


It will be New Year in a few days time. Israelis consistently call this Sylvester which always make me laugh. It sounds like a cartoon character. They got this from the Germans of course. It is a big party with one old custom of melting some lead and dropping into cold water. The shape will tell your fortune for the New Year. I may try this at home as 327.502 °C seems achievable.

Eating in Israel

We had our Christmas lunch yesterday as one family member was working Thursday. I spent most of the day slaving over a hot stove when 'She who must be Pampered' went to the hairdresser. The meal was great and the turkey must have led a happy and fulfilling life until it's timely end.


Today was a relatives' 80th birthday party in a hotel in Acco. He's still going strong and farms avocados. More food.

IDF and protests

Using live ammunition against protestors who pose no immediate threat is wrong and stupid. Whoever gave those orders needs to explain and fast.

Celebrating the sixth day of Hanukkah

A long-standing custom on “the twenty fifth of December” with Zogperson (me) and Good Sport (my companion) is an awayday from London.

First an exhilarating nice fast fun drive to somewhere interesting generally coastal. Then a long bracing walk with lunch al fresco (or in the car if weather is not permitting). Walk often finishes after dark. Thermos of hot tea and goodies back at the car. Next a fun, dark drive back to the centre of the universe (north London). Finally a lovely dinner with a well-matched wine. It works because the roads are generally light and the footpaths uncrowded. Good Sport is in charge as always of the food.

We went to Maldon in Essex. This area is the home of the best salt in the world, a quay side full of interesting sailing barges and other boats old and new and masses of sea birds including a bird sanctuary at the North Sea end. Lots of good walking along the estuary and teeny roads to enjoy skilfully.

Off now to light 7 +1 candles to welcome the 7th day of Hanukkah and later that meal! The only sadness of the day is Adrian's post just below.

Not happy

More injured. Will it never end.

No news

Good wishes all around. Israel has provided all the ingredients for our normal Saturnalia as usual with the exception of crackers. If anyone wants to send some for next year, we would all be grateful. A new supermarket near here has been very good, they even have Stilton, Grolch and sausage rolls
The spell checker wanted to replace Stilton with Stalin. Is this some kind of subliminal message? I do not dare to tell you what it made of Saturnalia.

Peeking duck

So “a company in Israel” requires male Chinese workers to sign a document agreeing to have no contact with Israeli women.

Has Purim come early? Is it a light news day with one AP report being globally circulated and embellished? Is this verifiable (such as which company)?

If factual it is yet another sad reflection on the the Israeli economy and only reveals further insecurities with sexist and racist overtones. At least it’s not homophobic. Seems to be OK for the Chinese men to meet, have sex with or try to convert Israeli men.

And if there are any female Chinese employees it seems they can choose male and female Israeli friends and lovers as they prefer.

The dullest blog in the world

The dullest blog in the world can be found here. The last entry has 87 comments. Some people have no life at all and no, it's not going into the blogroll.

Merry Christmas

'Twas Christmas Eve in the workhouse, that day of all the
year

When the paupers 'earts is full of gladness and their
bellies is full of beer.

Up spake the Workhouse Master, "To all within these walls,

I wish a Merry Christmas", and the paupers answered....

Operation Telic: Forces

For those of you who may have forgotten the British support for the Iraq mission here's a link showing the current forces supporting Operation Telic, the UK MOD name for Iraq. No, Telic doesn't mean anything.

Operation Telic: Forces

As a quick summary, there's two frigates, a support ship, HQ, 3rd Division, with the 20th Armoured brigade. Other forces under command are:

• Italian brigade


• Dutch battalion


• 
  
• Romanian battalion


• Czech MP company plus field hospital and Civil affairs


• Norwegian Engineering company.


• Portuguese Security Company


• New Zealand Engineer detachment

Plus some air assets , transport elements and medical support, mainly reservists and Territorial Army.
I hope they have a peaceful Christmas.

Knesset surprises even Israelis

Yehiel Hazan/ a member of the Knesset requested that a House Committee lift his immunity from prosecution so that he could face charges on double voting fraud. Incredibly, the Knesset panel did not agree. Two Likudniks were brave enough, Roni Bar-On and Inbal Gavrieli to vote against. They are both lawyers. The others voting for were Likud except where stated.Ruhama Avraham(Poltical Science), Ehud Yatom, Eli Aflalo and Daniel Benlulu. Nissim Ze’ev (Shas, Rabbi), Yitzhak Cohen (Shas), Eliezer Cohen (National Union)(Pilot) and Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash) also voted against and Barakeh's vote doesn't surprise me at all.

For lifting immunity were Roni Bar-On(Lawyer) , who is chairman of the committee, Danny Yatom (Labor)(Maths, Physics,Computer Science), Michael Melchior (Labor)(Rabbi), Shalom Simhon (Labor)(Social worker) Ronnie Brizon (Shinui)(Politcal Science), Reshef Chayne (Shinui)(ex Essex Llb) and Avshalom Vilan (Meretz)(Economics and Philosophy) voted in favor of the move.

Michael Gorlovsky , another Likudnik is next.

There's a message here from the Government. It's OK as long as it's only us doing it.

Overpaid Knesset members

A Ha'Aratez headline Knesset panel decides that legislators will be exempt from paying the Trans-Israel Highway toll. Why not income tax and VAT as well? Even better, more freebies abroad on fact finding missions.

Refuseniks

I have mixed feelings about citizens who refuse to serve in the terrorities. I understand their concern but I'm not in favour of showing it this way.

Draxblog

Thanks to Imshin I've discovered a new blog. It's Drax blog from Split, Croatia. It draws its inspiration from soc.history.what-if , available from your newsnet feed.
Well worth a read.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz

Who has too much mouth and too little sense.

Trees and the future

The phones are back as Bezeq managed to stir themselves away from the latkes and fix the lines. Odd how ADSL wasn’t affected though.

I was musing on Israel’s strategic position as we drove in our annual ‘find a Christmas tree’ hunt. 'She who must be listened to' is always embarassed by this but having a tree came with the marriage. I sing all the Pesach songs after all. As usual, we ended up in Nazareth, fighting the traffic in the main street which is always jammed. Having brought the last one available, we headed home again and listened to the news which was all about Libya’s decision to abandon WMDs and generally be nice to everyone in the hope that Shell and Esso would come and fix the over strained oil fields and maybe put up a few McDonalds and Pizza huts as well. All those years of talking finally got somewhere.

Where is Israel now?

After 55 years Israel has become a mature democratic country and is in the rather painful process of switching to a knowledge based society from an agricultural base. It has fought several wars and come out militarily on top only to see a political victory eluding it.
When Israel looks out to the rest of the world, it sees a friendly USA with everyone else ranging from outright enemies to part time bastards.

Per capita GDP peaked in year 2000 at around $20,000, which is close to European levels. Pretty good for a new boy on the block.

Since 2000, everything has been sliding. GDP has fallen to around $17,000 with a tax base that is one of the highest in the world. The average Government take on a minimal salary of 5,000 NIS per month is around 51% including sales taxes. Immigration has slowed to a trickle, tourism is dead, and the current conflict shows no sign of ending. Israel leaders are baffled over how to bring it to an end and now realise that short of a full reoccupation of the West Bank and Gaza, there is little more to be done.

Finance Minister Netanyahu is busy promoting long overdue reforms to the government structure and is being pressed by Washington to sell of State owned enterprises and turn Israel into a full market economy. This is liable to bring about short term pain with the promise of long term benefits. He hasn’t followed the Thatcher policy of making Joe citizen stake holders but sold on the market. Privatising El Al was a test case and went well after all. Various other Government companies are likely to follow.

There is a vision of the future around. It’s a budding Palestinian State, dependant on Israel for it’s economy, increasing in numbers and finally swamping Israel demographically. Here is the rationale behind trying to open the borders between the West Bank and Jordan and Gaza and Egypt. A brave idea but not one that will produce the desired effects. Gaza is too far from any population centre of Egypt and Jordan is still insisting on a $5,000 bond before West Bank residents can cross over.

The IDF has complained bitterly about recent budget cuts and is trying the normal tactic of cutting the most visible bits first in the hope that the public will notice. Reservist training cuts show up very quickly in the general population. A work colleague who runs an artillery battery pointed out to me that it’s three years since he saw his 155 self propelled gun. However, the IDF has made itself over the years into an ‘all arms’ force with weapons ranging from cruise missile subs to satellites and anti missile missiles. The home designed Merkava tank is a world leader and the IDF is confident about being able to take on any two opponents at once and win. The problem here is that there is no one left to fight a conventional war with any more. Israel will lose one armoured brigade, has retires all AFVs other than the Merkava and is selling it’s surplus abroad at low, low prices.

The constant drip of anti terrorist duties mandates feet on the ground with a large burden falling on reservists and this takes it’s toll on the economy.

The main advantage any Israeli government has right now is the general apathy of the population at large. As long as the shops stay open and there are some jobs with the possibility of a holiday, you won’t see demos on the street about anything the government is likely to try. Arik Sharon knows that when George Bush gets releected as he surely will be, then Israel will feel even more pressure to settle with anyone around.

The Palsetinians haven’t changed much either. Everything is Israel’s fault and always will be. I hope that Arafat’s longevity genes get damaged.

Gulf War II has not been kind to Israel. It is increased the natural anti semitism found in the Arab capitals around the world and in Europe as well. Israel is increasingly seen as a puppet state of the USA (I wish) and being the only possessor of WMDs in the area, increasingly anachronistic. There will be more and more pressure to abandon settlements in the West bank and Gaza with probably not very much to show for having done so. Syria will continue to offer to dicker for the Golan and eventually Israel will at least have to talk. Personally I’d keep the Golan as I don’t think a peace with Syria is worth swapping it for.

A future certainly, but not a very bright one.

Parliamentary, my dear Ellman

In the House of Commons the Leader of the House Peter Hain wished the Jewish community a happy Hanukkah and the condemned the rising tide of anti-semitism. He was responding to a statement and motion by MP David Cairns.

Shortly afterwards, Labour MP Louise Ellman gave a speech highlighting the role that Islamicist organisations such as the Muslim Association of Britain play in demonising and inciting hatred against Jews in the UK. MAB leaders such as Azzam Tamimi are connected to Hamas and are on record preaching hatred and violence. He openly supports suicide bombers.

The response from Tamimi is telling. He verbally abused Ms Ellman but specifically did not deny any quotes attributed to him and indeed referred us to his websites for clarification.

Israel today

It's wet and cold and the first day of Hannukah. The phones are out in this area due to line damage but Bezeq is on strike/work-to-rule over pensions so no repairs.

Last night Arik Sharon gave a speech In Herzliya. You can read the full text here in English.

The Israel goverment site hasn't put it up yet. This may coma as a surprise but I thought he was quite brave. If he manages to implement it, it would be a good start as Yossi Belien has said.

The architects of the Geneva Accord termed the address "one small step for Sharon, and one giant step toward Geneva," but Yossi Beilin warned the Labor Party not to be drawn into the prime minister's trap. "In Sharon's Herzliya speech, the mountain didn't even give rise to a molehill," he said.

This bit I found very significant.

Israel will meet all its obligations with regard to construction in the settlements. There will be no construction beyond the existing construction line, no expropriation of land for construction, no special economic incentives and no construction of new settlements.

He wouldn't have said that at election time. The tide is turning. On the security fence, news is mixed. It will be completed. For those of who who haven't seen why I and many others object to it, I suggest a good look at this map. It is not the wall/fence that is the problem. It's where it's being built. If were built along the 67 boundaries, I would blanch at the cost but accept it. Building the eastern section is a message to the Palestinians that they will never have a state so stop trying. Really, go look at that map once again. If you want more detail, there's a PDF version here.

Pulped friction

The UK’s first toll motorway is up and running. At two quid the M6 toll is a bargain as it bypasses one of the country’s busiest car parks motorway sections. Today it emerges that the motorway was constructed with unsold Mills & Boon novels. I knew there must be some use for them…

Work and the economy

As the Israeli recession bites ever deeper in spite of what Bibi thinks, we are moving to a four day week with a commensurate pay cut. Just peachy. Time to dust off the CV and try again I think. Even a contract job in the UK would be better than this 'death by a thousand cuts' approach.

The best of British blogging

The Grauniad has Guardian'The best of British blogging' award winners here. I've blogrolled Samuel Pepy's who would have blogged had the Internet been around then.

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Oh ferrets. There's me scratching my head over why my Java app shows Hebrew very nicely but it's always left justified in a JTable. It's a Sun bug . . Bugger.

Give War A Chance

Don't know why Emily disappeared from the blogroll. She's back in now and annoyed with Gwyneth Paltrow.

A shivering future for Israel

Ha'Aretz has an article supposedly from the CIA which predicts no peace here in Israel until 2020 and a fair chance of another Israeli Arab war. I don't see that on the horizon yet but perhaps they have better vision than I do.

In the Jerusalem Post, a short front page filler says that 95% of Israelis and 73% of Palestinians have been exposed to the full details of the Geneva accord. 34% of Israelis and 19% of Palestinians support it. On that basis, there is no possible agreement available. If Israelis think Geneva is too much, and the Palestinians too little, then there can be no middle way. As I came to work today, I pass by an IDF induction center. Every week, there are car loads of anxious parents and friends come to see another Israeli teenager joining the IDF. I'll be there next year with my son. I don't see this ever ending.

Given the demographics in places like Jerusalem and the West Bank, Israel has a poor future ahead of it. This week, the IDF will attempt and probably fail to evacuate Migron in the West Bank. If this small settlement of perhaps 40 families won't go, then none of them will and there will never be peace here. Arik Sharon will make a speech tomorrow where he is widely expected to say exactly what he has in mind. I shall watch with interest.

Avi Dichter , the head of Shin Bet, gave a speech yesterday in Herzliya where he did see a silver lining in my black cloud. He also warned against the growing threat of Jewish terrorism which he says is a strategic threat to Israel. It's unusual for the head of Shin Bet to speak in public. I welcome it.

Update:

I see in the JPost that 60% of Palestinian youth support negotiations with Israel and the same proportion support the Intifada until Israel leaves the West Bank and Gaza. I'm not sure if this is good news or bad news. Probably the latter.

An Arab Jerusalem

I didn't know Moshe Amirav was once a Likud council member in Jerusalem. In this article he points out that the Arab population there would allow Arab control of the local council with the Mayor's position as well by 2008.

War Liberal: War And Pisces

War Liberal has a hilarious spoof of the ending to Lord of The Rings - Return of the King right here. Well worth a read.

Comments

I see Iain Murray has disabled comments over at England's Sword. I hope this doesn't become a habit as comments are a vital part of blogging.

Just a minute

After another session with paint brushes and the BBC, I would like to point out to the Beeb that just about everyone on the planet has heard of the capture of Saddam. Thank you.

Beware baring dicks at Greeks

Some light relief on this historic day is in today’s Observer re a contemporary art show in Athens. What seems to have pissed off (so to speak) this far-right-wing Orthodox Christian politician was not so much the cum on the cross or the erect member per se but the fact that it was circumcised…(sadly the picture is only available in the print edition).

Saddam captured

Or so it says here. What now? Alive would be difficult, dead easier but he has a story to tell. Book rights anyone?

Update from the BBC:

Coalition authorities have said that the former Iraqi president, if captured, could be tried at a war crimes tribunal, with Iraqi judges presiding and international legal experts acting as advisers.

I hope he gets to tell all. There are a few things I would love to know such as what happened to all those centrifuges he had and what he really expected to happen when he launched Scuds at Israel. I suspect there are a number of Iraqis who would be glad to see him dead without the kiss and tell show.

Mongering

Some prosecutors can really work the library.Greenpeace, the well known environment organisation has been charged with 'sailor mongering'. That's enticing sailors off ship into bars and brothels. All they were doing was highlighting illegal imports of Brazilian hardwood into the USA.

Israel and doors

One of the many things I like about Israel is that the internal doors are all on lift off hinges, making repainting easy. Yes, I've been decorating preparatory to moving some time next year. However , this being an oldish house which we rent until the house purchase gets started, has windows in three layers. First an old wooden folding set, then a sliding fly screen and finally shutters. Complicated to clean and paint.

Arise, Sir Mick

Sir Mick Jagger gets his gong.

Shalom, Ach!

So Peace Now UK has launched its Israel boycott-lite.

I am in the process of thinking this one through… Some questions:

• How and why will this selective boycott result in the withdrawal of Israel from the occupied territories?

  
  
  

• Why some products, not others?

  
  
  

• Why Gaza and West Bank but not Golan? (the argument that the Golaners are more moderate and willing to leave is insufficient here)

  
  
  

• How will this progress the path of peace?

  
  
  

• Won’t this play into the hands of the rejectionists on both sides?

  
  
  

• Will this really make “the Israelis” feel OK that Peace Now is not supporting a total boycott of Israel goods?

  
  

The Onion - CEO's Marital Duties Outsourced To Mexican Groundskeeper

The Onion | CEO's Marital Duties Outsourced To Mexican Groundskeeper:

"'It was time for a change,' said Reinhardt's wife Melanie, who has been married to the CEO for 17 years and has conducted her sexual business almost exclusively with him since 1984. 'While I was generally satisfied with the level of servicing that I received under Howard, it was my feeling that a younger, more aggressive hand on the tiller might bring some new ideas into play. No matter how mutually satisfying the old deal was, its time had passed.'"

Ah, the Onion can cheer me up. Let's hear it for outsourcing.

Home made

A bomb, but home grown this time.

Olmert hits back at right-wing critics

I could agree with his statement that the radical right live in a virtual reality. I feel it as well. Just the thought that if the Palestinians stopped the terror attacks, everything would come out right. It won't.

Peace plans - take your pick

There are seven peace plans outlined here in Ha-Aratez. Take your pick. Notice that the Road Map is not mentioned as is doesn't have any final status arrangments. Also missing is the Saudi peace plan. None of these are going to acceptable to everyone. Referendum anyone? The Yesha plan hasn't made it to a draft text yet and probably never will. The last mentioned 'peace plan' has us all packing up and going to live in Europe.

Update: There are ten of them now. Two I hadn't heard of before.