Slate: Why Israel's war on terrorism is working

[P]rior to Israel's offensive in the West Bank, suicide bombers were striking at nearly a once-a-day rate. Since then, they've struck at a rate closer to once a month. [L]ast week's attacker came from the one location (the Gaza Strip) that Israel didn't target. Imagine if the government gave flu shots to residents of every state except New York. If a flu epidemic then hit New York, would it demonstrate that flu shots can't stop the flu?

This quote distills the key facts of the conflict into one sentence:

Palestinian terrorism does not result from Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, but from Israel's existence.

A quick Google search for map of palestine returned this page as its third result.

It's impossible to read in this reduced form, but let's play the game "one of these things is not like the other," shall we?

In the bottom left lies the Sinai penninsula. The text there marks it as Egypt. Beyond the shoreline of the upper left, they show the Medeterranian Sea. Following clockwise, the top says Lebanon, then comes Syria at 1 o'clock. The Jordan river somes next, and then Jordan, the country.

We know what that yellow area is. Or do we. My atlas would describe that as a country called Israel. This Palestinian map doesn't call it anything.

These people don't show Israel on their maps. They sometimes use simplified maps, that call the whole chunk by a simpler name: Palestine. And that's what the leadership wants. They want to push the Jews into the sea. They want to rid the holy land of those pigs and monkeys, the Jews.

After all, wouldn't it be easier if we didn't have to worry about that "shitty little country"?

Update:

Note the emblems of some famous Palestinian organizations. All share one feature. Can you guess what it might be? You'll find another view at the bottom of this page.   

11:14:17 PM  comment []    

Sondra in Kausfiles

Reader S.K., an ex-Microsoftie, says they just need to modify Microsoft's in-house bug-tracking software, called DIAL. ("It's got everything that the FBI could use to track terrorism reports: color-coded urgency and severity indicators, ways to track by source of problem, who reported it, what--if any--resolution occurred and by whom.") Maybe Mr. Ballmer will patriotically donate it.

Too bad he doesn't have permalinks: it's about a third of the way down the Tuesday post.  

11:20:01 AM  comment []    

Too Many Mysteries

Update. They did the right thing and took it back without any issues. They laser-focused in on the potential ABS problem. High Road tells me that it's a common failure and I'm sure that they didn't even want to know. They're going to wholesale the car. I offered to take it off their hands for $2,000 less than the original price. They demurred.

Back on the car hunt!  

9:45:59 AM  comment []    

New Car Considered Confusing

I bought it with one contingency: that I be able to take it into my mechanic and have them do what they like to call a pre-sale inspection. If they came up with more than $500 of work, I could get the dealer to fix it or they could choose to void the transaction.

The guys at High Road poked and prodded and identified several "issues", as I fully-expected they would. Yes, it came to more than $500, but that came as no surprise.

Some of the issues:

• Entire car has been repainted. And the right-front door is mis-aligned. And the front-end is out of alignment. And the tires are brand-new (el cheapos from the dealership). What kind of accident was it, I wonder?
• There was brake fluid near the ABS unit, which would amount to a $1500 repair if it's leaking and needs replacing.
• There's some oil blowby in the air intake system, indicating sludgy oil.
• It's just about at 90,000 miles, so it's due for a timing belt & water pump. It also is due for a "full service": a valve adjustment and a tuneup on steroids.
• Clutch master and slave cylinders are leaking and need replacement
• Outer driveshafts need rebooting.

If the ABS needs replacement, this all runs to about $4,600. From my frequent discussions with the High Road guys, I've learned that that's common even for younger cars than mine.

If you think about it, it makes sense. If you've started thinking about a new car, do you feel tremendously willing to do gobs of maintenance? Unlikely. I expected at least $2,000 of work.

But $4,600?

High Road suggested that I could figure out the first problem (potential collision damage) by getting the thing aligned. If it aligns properly, then everything's straight. If they can't get it aligned, then the suspension needs attention. OK.

The ABS mystery amounts to the biggest unknown. The dealership does a pressure test, while my guys prefer to clean it up, apply some substance to the surrounding area, then let it drive around for a couple of weeks to figure out if there's a leak and whence it comes. I sure don't want to wait any damned two weeks.

Then there's the work that just plain needs doing (clutch cylinders, rebooting, & thermostat). That work, with the alignment and ABS unit pressure test, comes to about $1,000. I want the dealer to cover all of that.

They've offered to do the alignment for free and sell me the rest of the work "at cost". Even the service manager offered that he had no idea what "cost" might be. He did offer me a $5.00/hr. discount on labor. How munificent.

If the alignment comes back bad, the deal's off. I don't trust the dealership to have standards quite as high as my guys, so I've got it set up that they'll check the alignment after it's been aligned.

If the ABS comes back good, that cuts $1,500 off of the repair tab, though again, I don't fully trust that they'll be as sensitive to potential problems as High Road. Liability concerns might trump economic incentives in this case.

Sondra's the bad cop in this situation. She wants it all. I'm pretty sure that there's absolutely no chance to get what we want. So I'm tempted to take the car back today, get my check back, and call it good. But from a deviousness standpoint, I'd much rather see the results of the alignment and the ABS test before giving any ultimatums.

If the ABS looks good, I can probably justify paying for the stuff I want above -- it certainly nets out less money. If it's bad, they're now in a position where they need to fix $1,500 total at retail, with a $1,200 (retail) part. I don't think they'd be smart to sell a car with a bad ABS system, but they're a car dealership.

In any case, I think I'll wait, then give my ultimatum.

And then -- maybe -- start looking again.   

1:17:38 AM  comment []    

Parents say kid's thong is just plain wrong

And, taking offense at the idea that some parents suggest Abercrombie is inciting pedophilia, Carney contended the thongs were designed for girls to enjoy, and no one else. He said he could list at least 100 reasons why a young girl would want thong underwear, the need to hide pantie lines being one of them.

via Triboluminescence

12:55:30 AM  comment []    

In Guatemala, a Rhode Island-Size Jade Lode

In the end the scientists made a series of discoveries culminating in bus-size boulders of Olmec blue jade, some astride creeks. "It kept getting better and better," said Virginia B. Sisson, a geologist at Rice University who has recently examined jades in Myanmar as well as Guatemala. The blue jade, she said, "is all over the hillsides."

12:11:10 AM  comment []