I can‘t take issue with much of what WILK’s Nancy Kman had to say about the Israeli/Hezbollah conflagration. In a nutshell, she thinks Israel should be allowed to defend itself from attacks from abroad. But she did make a statement a few days back that got me to giggling.

While bemoaning the loss of innocent civilians in Lebanon, she said something to the affect that Israel’s smart bombs aren’t so smart--so accurate--after all. That statement is patently absurd and most likely just an emotional response to the loss of innocent life, but I’m here to suggest that those “smart bombs,” judging by the one-sided news coverage, are deadly accurate. In fact, they never, ever miss their “intended” targets.

AWACS, baby! AWACS!

Think about it. Every time Israel lets one loose they kill only women, the smallest of the children and the elderly. Every time. Every time the bodies are neatly displayed for the cameras, there’s never an adult male among them. It’s getting to the point where I’m thinking maybe Lebanon outlawed all men some years back and exiled them to a rogue nation somewhere near you. Or maybe the news coming from the war zone is simply the work of propagandists.

Well, that is to say, the men may have been exiled, but the male terrorists haven’t been even though a U.N. resolution ordered them forever banned from Lebanon after the last Israeli pullout. Funny thing about U.N. resolutions: they are never enforced.

Which makes me wonder why we keep looking to the U.N. to end the world’s seemingly nonstop hostilities when, in fact, the U.N. makes a piper tiger look fairly menacing by direct comparison. Iran, excuse me, Hezbollah wanted a war and they got one. Now they don’t like it none too much and want an immediate cease-fire. And if you seek proof that Hezbollah is being routed, look no further than the urgent need for a cease-fire. What was that overused line about being doomed to repeating history?

The Arabs push and the Israeli’s push back much, much harder. And when the rout is on, everyone involved except the Israelis starts demanding an immediate cease-fire? Why?

So they can all regroup, reload and re-deploy in advance of the next ill-advised and totally needless attack upon Israel.

Sadly, wars do not come to an end until one side emerges victorious. And in the middle east, a cease-fire amounts to little more than a brief time out. Thank the oft-disgruntled Arabs for that, and do not stupidly confuse a cease-fire with peace. When the groupthink includes unrelenting dreams of genocide and mass murder among it’s other various and tawdry visions of twisted illogic wrapped in a religion, the dogs of war are sure to be released over and over again.

So, the unrelenting bloodlust goes on and on, but the half time show ought to be good, though. And what do we have to look forward to? Well, Hugo Chavez has a legitimate shot at joining the U.N. Security Council. Hey, what’s one more lunatic running the asylum? No problem.

We’re but a few short years, possibly even months from watching a mushroom cloud expand ever skyward “live” on CNN.

But have no fear, Bush will get the lion’s share of the blame.

He ate my children.

I found an extremely revealing e-mail exchange published on the pages of The American Check-Up.

Here’s my excerpted version of the exchange:

Question: …what is your objection the right of a Green Party candidate to run in the race?

Answer: We aren't challenging the right of the Green Party candidate to run, we are challenging fraud.

Interestingly enough, the question was asked of a Bob Casey stalwart.

So, if Carl Romanelli is being capably assisted by Republican donors and whatnot, that’s fraud? As I said the last time I bored you, Democrats just love third party spoiler candidates if and when their entry into a race benefits said Democrats. Oh, but when a spoiler rears it’s ugly head in pursuit of voters that typically lean towards the left, well, then that’s fraud. That’s presented as proof of cheating?

That’s hog swill.

With that in mind, can someone explain to me how it is not fraud when MoveOn.org lunatics from all over the earth pool their money to affect the outcome of political races thousands of miles away from their home districts? George Soros, anyone? Club For Growth, perhaps? People in Illinois can interject themselves into the middle of Joe Lieberman’s unceremonious kissing off? From my chair in Wilkes-Barre, I can donate monies to be used against a candidate 3,000 miles away?

If you ask me, American politics has become one huge fraud sandwich and everyone is clamoring to take a healthy bite.

Thank goodness for that uber effective McCain/Feingold bill.

Hayna?

First it was the godless, imperialistic, murderous hordes--the communists--tirelessly working for our eventual demise. Now it’s the “religious,” imperialistic, murderous hordes--the jihadists--doing much the same thing.

The problematic part is…we don’t even seem to have the gonads necessary to defend ourselves. How’s your 401K performing these days? Think it’ll take a serious hit, or disappear altogether when the events of September 11, 2001 seem like a walk in the park compared to the next diabolical undertaking?

Cut and run? Where are going to run to when you consider that our own soil has already come under direct attack over and over again? Last week it was a shooting in a Seattle synagogue. What’s it going to be next month? And the month after that?

I talked recently with a city detective who has taken to arming himself while off-duty for the first time in many a year. It seems he seriously annoyed some locally-based jihadists by arresting some of them for selling narcotics, oh…and for possessing an automatic weapon. One of those military-grade weapons. Not like your granddaddy’s twelve gauge.

Then, it was discovered that our little friends, the jihadists, had police headquarters under surveillance in the hopes of determining where certain police officers happen to reside. Instead of buying back guns from the public, maybe the cops ought to be handing them out.

Like it or not, war has been declared against us. And it isn’t necessarily as far away as you might want to believe.

Wish us luck, because with the ho hum attitude far too many of us seem to have, we are setting ourselves up for a mighty fall.

It might be time to take a page from your great-grandparents’ depression-era playbook and stuff your future investments into your mattress.

I’m just saying.

Nifty!

From The Times Online (UK):

Let’s see here. Canned goods, water, medicines, batteries, pictures of a scantily-clad Deborah Harry, an AM radio, a Geiger counter and tons of ammunition. Yes, indeedy. I’m ready.

My neighbors were all buggin’ me to attend the bicentennial functions on the square over the weekend, but I was preoccupied with a clandestine project my brother and I concocted.

Keep your lips zipped on all of this.

Mine and my sister’s birthdays are but 3 days apart. And with those two dates fast approaching, she has been led to believe that a surprise birthday party in my honor is afoot. What she doesn’t know is that my party is a ruse wherein she will be on the receiving end of shouts of Surprise!!! Devious prick, ain’t I?

Anyway, I’ve got two surprises in store for her. First, I’m having a 30-year-old Super 8 film of my brother’s 5th birthday party being converted to DVD. Neat. That was filmed back when all of our now-dead relatives were still alive and doing something reasonably close to kicking. Then, I’m putting together a massive photo slideshow that begins with my mom’s travails in the mid-50s and runs right up to the present day. It started out as a sort of “This is Your Life, Suzie” display, but quickly became a “This was Our Life” video thingamabob. Cool.

And trust me, when it comes to stockpiling memorabilia and suchwhat, I am a Jedi master second to none. I think. The larger, non-green Yoda of piling ancient things upon further ancient things for no discernable reason, if you will. Huh? I dunno.

This video presentation of mine is now in it’s 4th draft, but after watching the very first, my daughter Ebon said it’s going to make my sister cry. Maybe so, but if so, I’d take that as a compliment. Only powerful or ultimately touching images can make someone as tough-minded as my sister cry. Either way, I’m supremely confidant that she’s going to love the finished product.

There were plenty of bumps along the way, but I’ve always thought of our lives as being separated into 4 distinctly different parts. The first part was awful. The second part was confusing and frustrating. The third part was much better. And this current part has been just fine. We may be getting older, but things have gotten much better as we’ve aged. And in my tattered book, that’s about all anybody should realistically hope for.

I guess.

Anyway, Suzie is in for one helluva shock come mid-September.

I can’t wait.

Wifey and I enjoyed yet another lengthy bike about earlier today, although, it did include Zach’s debut on the trail bike. He did just fine. Actually, not falling off the first time out is good enough. Bumps and such, you know?

It was weird, though, because that trail bike has always been considered the sole property of one Gage Andrew. In fact, he calls it his ‘blue bike.’ And here I was letting some other grandrodent ride on it while trailing behind me. I felt, well…bad. Sort of. I felt like I was cheating on my little biking buddy. Fact is, time passes and things change. Gage is no longer 2, 3, or even 4-years-old. He’s 5 now and but days away from being whisked off to kindergarten class by some crazy lady of a bus driver probably not very well versed in what stop signs, yield signs or speed limits are all about. You’ve all seen those crazy school bus-driving chicks. You know what I’m talking about. Whatever. I cheated on Gage.

The theater was humming as per usual, and so was the soup kitchen. The pool hall on the square looks just about ready to open. And the new Flashbacks dance club has “now hiring” signs hanging in the windows. Those returning college kiddies are in for a real treat come this semester. And the new amenities can only help both Kings College and Wilkes University attract even more students in the future. As a result, I hope some people associated with those two outfits are thinking long-term whereas what on and off-campus housing needs might be in the not so distant future. Enrollment can only increase. That’s the way I see it.

We saw Mayor Tom pedaling his way through the downtown today, and it does my heart good to know that we have a mayor young enough and active enough to fully understand that recreation has to be heavily included in the city’s mix after it’s all done reinventing itself. I eagerly await news of what will become of Coal Street Park. I’m told something big might be in the works, and with huge outlays of money being invested in this city at a dizzying rate, I fully expect to hear something good at some later date. Will they finally build that spaceport I asked for?

It’s actually hard to frickin’ believe, but after Wilkes-Barre had fallen so far and it’s future seemed nothing but bleak, we’ve somehow clawed our way back from the depths in less than 3 years and I’m starting to get used to hearing good news. I could certainly get used to this good news stuff continuing. And I could get used to voting for Tom Leighton.

Make checks payable to: The yet to be created Committee to Reelect Tom Leighton.

Sez me.

Later