Hey, Mr. Pope, you twit
: So the Pope scolds Israeli for "humiliating" the Palestinians. Oh, for Christ's sake.
How about condemning the Palestinians for selling their own children as murderers who are killing innocent Israelis, Mr. Pope?
Says the Times of London (with my italics):
The Vatican also denounced suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism by Palestinian extremists against Israeli civilians, reflecting the Pope’s growing alarm over the threat to Jerusalem’s Holy Sites posed by the fighting. It said that the Pope believed that reprisals and revenge attacks did nothing but feed the sense of frustration and hatred in “this dramatic situation”.
The burden of the Vatican’s remarks was, however, seen by diplomats as anti-Israeli, with the statement calling on Israel to use proportionate force in acts of legitimate self-defence. It said Israel should respect United Nations resolutions, a reference to Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian-ruled areas.
L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, accused Israel of desecrating the birthplace of Jesus, as Israeli tanks encircled Manger Square in Bethlehem.
And what would you call "proportionate response," Pope guy? Murdering hundreds of innocent Palestinians, perhaps?
And what about the armed Palestinians who entered the birthplace of Christ? How is that not desecration?
You might want to be concerned about the Vatican's history of standing back and letting anti-Semites murder Jews, eh?
But screw history. You have plenty of problems today, Pope boy.
Your church is responsible for hiding the molesters of children and you're not taking action to fix it. It's so bad that the usually conservative, cautious talk radio I sometimes suffer here in Jersey (just to get the traffic report) has not hesitated to devote hours to all the reasons why no one should trust you or your church.
You have problems, Mr. Pope.
You have a moral credibility gap the size of Siberia.
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The real quagmire
: Thomas Friedman can't make up his mind. A few columns ago, he was insisting that American troops had to go to Israel and the nascent Palestine to keep the peace (on the assumption there will be a peace to keep).
Today, he is warning: "President Bush needs to be careful that America doesn't get sucked into something very dangerous here." Well, yeah.
Yet Friedman still plays Palestinian polyanna as he tries to get us on the ground over there:
People say that U.S. troops there would be shot at like U.S. troops in Beirut. I disagree. U.S. troops that are the midwife of a Palestinian state and supervise a return of Muslim sovereignty over the holy mosques in Jerusalem would be the key to solving all the contradictions of U.S. policy in the Middle East, not new targets.
And what happens the first time that the Palestinians unleash more suicide-murderers -- whether or not they are sanctioned by the alleged leadership or come from pissy splinters -- and our troops have to go ferret out the ferrets and bring them to justice or disarm them? Who are the Palestinians going to be mad at? Us. Who are they going to bomb? Us. Where are they going to do it? There and here. And if they don't, other insane Arabs will... again.
Yes, we have a role in trying to bring and keep peace to the Middle East but we must not lose sight of the fact that we, too, are hated. We learned that all too well on 9.11. We cannot afford to forget that. Ever.
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A thank-you note
: I'm really bad at sending thank-you notes. I was a rotten grandson and a worse nephew.
That occurred to me today as I read James Lilek's latest bleat with the last word (we all hope) on that flaming jackass from beantown. It occurred to me today because I never sent Lileks a thank-you note. Every day, he gives us quips and bon mots and observations and bleats and wisdom and entertainment and he does it, as he says, because he's having fun and he's assuming we are. It's a gift he gives us. So thanks, Lileks.
: Jim Treacher sends better thank-you notes than I do. Aunt Edith would be so proud.
: And thanks to Matt Welch today for his heartfelt piece on discovering that a neighbor died on 9.11. The ripples have not stopped.dfx version 7.05 serial
Hey, Mr. Pope, you twit
: So the Pope scolds Israeli for "humiliating" the Palestinians. Oh, for Christ's sake.
How about condemning the Palestinians for selling their own children as murderers who are killing innocent Israelis, Mr. Pope?
Says the Times of London (with my italics):
The Vatican also denounced suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism by Palestinian extremists against Israeli civilians, reflecting the Pope’s growing alarm over the threat to Jerusalem’s Holy Sites posed by the fighting. It said that the Pope believed that reprisals and revenge attacks did nothing but feed the sense of frustration and hatred in “this dramatic situation”.
The burden of the Vatican’s remarks was, however, seen by diplomats as anti-Israeli, with the statement calling on Israel to use proportionate force in acts of legitimate self-defence. It said Israel should respect United Nations resolutions, a reference to Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian-ruled areas.
L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, accused Israel of desecrating the birthplace of Jesus, as Israeli tanks encircled Manger Square in Bethlehem.
And what would you call "proportionate response," Pope guy? Murdering hundreds of innocent Palestinians, perhaps?
And what about the armed Palestinians who entered the birthplace of Christ? How is that not desecration?
You might want to be concerned about the Vatican's history of standing back and letting anti-Semites murder Jews, eh?
But screw history. You have plenty of problems today, Pope boy.
Your church is responsible for hiding the molesters of children and you're not taking action to fix it. It's so bad that the usually conservative, cautious talk radio I sometimes suffer here in Jersey (just to get the traffic report) has not hesitated to devote hours to all the reasons why no one should trust you or your church.
You have problems, Mr. Pope.
You have a moral credibility gap the size of Siberia.
dfx version 7.05 serial
The real quagmire
: Thomas Friedman can't make up his mind. A few columns ago, he was insisting that American troops had to go to Israel and the nascent Palestine to keep the peace (on the assumption there will be a peace to keep).
Today, he is warning: "President Bush needs to be careful that America doesn't get sucked into something very dangerous here." Well, yeah.
Yet Friedman still plays Palestinian polyanna as he tries to get us on the ground over there:
People say that U.S. troops there would be shot at like U.S. troops in Beirut. I disagree. U.S. troops that are the midwife of a Palestinian state and supervise a return of Muslim sovereignty over the holy mosques in Jerusalem would be the key to solving all the contradictions of U.S. policy in the Middle East, not new targets.
And what happens the first time that the Palestinians unleash more suicide-murderers -- whether or not they are sanctioned by the alleged leadership or come from pissy splinters -- and our troops have to go ferret out the ferrets and bring them to justice or disarm them? Who are the Palestinians going to be mad at? Us. Who are they going to bomb? Us. Where are they going to do it? There and here. And if they don't, other insane Arabs will... again.
Yes, we have a role in trying to bring and keep peace to the Middle East but we must not lose sight of the fact that we, too, are hated. We learned that all too well on 9.11. We cannot afford to forget that. Ever.
dfx version 7.05 serial
A thank-you note
: I'm really bad at sending thank-you notes. I was a rotten grandson and a worse nephew.
That occurred to me today as I read James Lilek's latest bleat with the last word (we all hope) on that flaming jackass from beantown. It occurred to me today because I never sent Lileks a thank-you note. Every day, he gives us quips and bon mots and observations and bleats and wisdom and entertainment and he does it, as he says, because he's having fun and he's assuming we are. It's a gift he gives us. So thanks, Lileks.
: Jim Treacher sends better thank-you notes than I do. Aunt Edith would be so proud.
: And thanks to Matt Welch today for his heartfelt piece on discovering that a neighbor died on 9.11. The ripples have not stopped.dfx version 7.05 serial
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