Cast Aweigh Some More

When I got home I took a long hot bath. I did not have any fresh food in the kitchen so I had dinner delivered. I might have ordered one of everything. As long as it didn’t have mustard.

My bed never felt more comfortable. It was nice to sleep without worrying if I gathered enough tinder.

And I thank God for indoor plumbing.

Cast Aweigh

I determined the first thing I should do was find water. There was plenty of vegetation but I could not find any surface water. I dug in next to some especially green grass and found plenty of groundwater but it tasted salty, probably from a mineral bed or seawater intrusion. I eventually noticed some moisture on a large rock. I could have used a thread from the suture kit or a lace from my boot to collect the water and filter it into my canteen but that would have taken all day. I was wearing thermal underwear that I needed to take off anyway since it was too hot. I spread the top half against the wettest part of the rock. My reasoning for using the top was that it spread out more to cover more of the rock. By saving the bottoms I would at least have half at night. And if it was still too cold I could always dry the tops at the fire. Assuming I could make one. In about an hour the underwear was wet enough to wring water into the canteen.

American Idol

Obama to launch PR campaign to sway Israelis, Arabs on peace 
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz

In light of the difficulties it has encountered in advancing the diplomatic process in the Middle East, the Obama administration plans on launching a public relations blitz in Israel and the Arab states. 

The New York Times reported on Monday that President Barack Obama plans to grant a number of interviews to Israeli and Arab television stations as part of his campaign to sway public opinion in the region in favor of his vision for peace. 

Good luck with that.

The Birthday Babysitting Orgy Club and Rhythm Revue

The orgy scenes in the DVD we saw were not digitally censored. But the music was censored. Some morally outraged Hindu groups complained that the music during the orgy sequence was a Hindu prayer even though it was not. Either they don’t recognise their own prayers or they never saw the movie. I’m guessing that just like every other morally outraged religious group that complains about a movie, they never saw it.

So while what we saw was Kubrick’s vision, what we heard was not. For all the controversy around this movie before and after it was released what they changed was the music. Stanley Kubrick is probably in that great orgy in the sky laughing about it all.

Natural Disasters

Israel is prone to earthquakes but there has not been a noteworthy one since before my grandmother’s grandmother was born. People still mention that it completely destroyed the Jewish side of town while the Muslim side had only minor damage. Further proof that we are the Chosen People, I suppose.

We can’t have typhoons. Tsunamis are unlikely. Parts of the country are prone to sandstorms, but not where I live. This might be the safest place I have ever lived. Discounting rocket attacks.

True Israelis

My favourite part of the report was that almost everybody polled thought freedom of speech was essential and applies to everybody equally but “harsh criticism” against Israel should be prohibited. There goes my Russian Israeli readership.

The Killing Fields

New York woman arrested over strangling death of Holocaust survivor 
By The Associated Press

A New York City woman has been accused of strangling an 89-year-old man who survived the Holocaust after being sent to Auschwitz. 

Guido Felix Brinkmann, who used to run a nightclub in New York, was found in his bed with his hands bound Thursday. He had been asphyxiated. 

Investigators said he regularly invited younger women to his apartment for sex. Brinkmann's doorman told police a man and a woman went to the home the night before his body was found. The two were later seen in Brinkmann's car.

Brinkmann was the former owner of a nightclub called Adam's Apple. 

Angela Murray, 30, of New York, was arraigned Sunday on murder and robbery charges. Her male companion was being sought.

From another article:

The story of Felix Brinkmann is a long one, full of trials and triumphs, and one far more worthy of telling. Originally from Latvia, Guido Felix Brinkmann spent time in the World War II Nazi concentration camps of Mauthausen, Ebensee and Auschwitz. Scheduled to die in the gas chamber five separate times, Felix Brinkman was fluent in German, using his verbal prowess to talk his way out of a death sentence. 

When the war ended, Felix Brinkmann was crossing a bridge in Germany when he was stopped by a Russian guard. Speaking Russian, Brinkmann explained that his entire family had been killed in the concentration camps. Another man attempted to cross the bridge and was found to have been an SS soldier, one of Hitler's elite. The Russian guard handed his machine gun to Brinkmann and told him to kill the man, but Brinkmann refused, handing the gun back. The Russian killed the German soldier.

After the war, he was shocked to find that his wife had also survived the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. According to Rick Brinkman, the Holocaust survivor amazingly found his wife alive in Poland. Reunited, they immigrated to America. Felix Brinkmann would then begin years of service in the New York bar and nightclub business. At one time he co-owned the popular Adam's Apple disco, where, according to the New York Post, he was pistol-whipped by three men after closing when they attempted to rob him. The thieves got nothing. 

Rick Brinkman said that his father told him the last time he visited him: "I feel I had a fortunate life. Even going through the three concentration camps, I somehow was able to make the best out of the worst. I never would have thought growing up as a boy in Riga, Latvia that I would end up in the greatest city, in the greatest country in the world."

How to Be Stupid

The UN envoy to the Middle East said that evicting people was against the Geneva Conventions guidelines for occupied territory. Somebody needs to tell the UN that Israel does not consider any part of Israel occupied territory.

I would like Tel Aviv to be the capital just as much as any European. It would make my life easier on a number of levels. But sooner or later we are all going to have to face the fact that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. You can’t decide ours anymore than we can decide yours. And if we can then I say San Francisco is America’s new capital. Just to force all those politicians to live there. Republicans will love the Castro.

And anybody whose job title is UN envoy to the Middle East should be sacked immediately. None of the parties involved care what the UN says. You might as well make Tony Blair a special peace envoy. That would be funny were it not so appalling.

What Is Terrorism?

We consider any attack from Palestinian militants or their sympathetic neighbours to be terrorism. But is any premeditated shooting against a group of people you don’t like terrorism? Palestinian terrorists are not terrorists because they are Palestinian. They are terrorists because they are killing innocent civilians, mostly children and the elderly, simply because they do not like us.

Vote For This Post

In looking into this blog award thing I have found there are entire websites dedicated to giving out awards to blogs. Are we really that needy? Will your cooking improve if you have the Best Food Blog? Will your children grow up happier if you are the Best Mommy Blog? Will you be a better person if you post the Best Blog of All Time? Those are all real things, although I think it might be a little too soon to know which is the best blog of all time.

I think once you are desperate for one of these awards you start pandering. Then what is the point of doing it at all? That is like only writing in your diary what you want your nosey sister to read. Guilty parties know who they are.

Soon we will have the Twitter awards, or #twitties. There will be awards for Best Smileys, Bst Abbv, Biggest Twit. Acceptance speeches can only be five words or less.