With temperatures so low the mercury fell out the bottom of the thermometer, and wind chills sufficiently sharp to slice a steak, if held outside the door for more than a few seconds, Illinois has been a most inhospitable place this last week.
Winter metes out a raw and terrible punishment on any without adequate shelter, whether of the human species, or another.
The glory and joy of winter comes from the comfort of a centrally-heated home, with the additional warmth and glow of a log fire blazing in the hearth. The drifting scent of baking bread and mince pies from the oven add to a sense of contentment, and as dusk’s gray tinge advances upon the window panes, I rise to draw the drapes on a scene of icy desolation beyond the double glazing.
Momentarily, I pause, as on the ice covered earth beyond the pane a lone deer stands motionless, nervously eyeing the terrain. A young doe, probably one of last season’s fawns. Her gaze moves to the lighted window. I’m spotted. Suddenly, she’s gone, vanished, her flight distracting a squirrel busily searching for scraps at the base of an old Maple in the front yard. It darts swiftly up the bark to the safety of a nest high in the topmost branches.
The world beyond the window returns to lifeless desolation. The lone deer must continue to wander through the night, finding whatever sparse shelter can protect her from the biting cold. The squirrel will snuggle deep into its nest of twigs and leaves, and hope the wind blows not too strong.
I draw the drapes, return to my chair fronting the hearth, and reach for a warmed mince pie.
While the subject of the previous post (see below) can be forgiven his basic stupidity, there is another who revels in exhibiting a cold and calculating attitude towards anyone remotely critical of the Israeli state. He is Australian, intelligent, obviously ambitious, was once a prominent member of the Socialist-Zionist youth movement, Ichud Habonim,[1] and is in Sparrow Chat’s opinion, a perfect example of the worst form of Israeli Jew.
Mark Regev is Olmert’s frontman. It’s his face you’ll see staring back at you whenever the media have questions about Israeli actions. It’s his sneer that dominates the screen as he wriggles and twists his way around journalists’ questions.
Regev, from his actions and responses, makes clear he considers himself superior to any Palestinian, or indeed, any Arab, particularly if they dare to criticize the actions of the Israeli government. He’s made a career out of dodging tough questions and parrying criticism of his political masters.
Frankly, with US pressmen, his job is seldom difficult. Thankfully, we still have British journalists like Alex Thomson (January 8th 2009):
There are idiots in this world, and then there are total morons:
The man who added more than a soupcon of embarrassment to the presidential election, and probably did as much as Sarah Palin to wreck John McCain’s chances, still seems hellbent on making an utter fool of himself, this time in Israel.
Samuel Wurzelbacher, otherwise known as “Joe the Plumber”, has arrived in Sderot, a town in northern Israel that’s received more than its fair share of Palestinian rockets over the years. He’s now working as a reporter for some way-out TV network no-one’s ever heard of.
Wurzelbacher’s first observation on arriving in Sderot was that he had “rarely seen such suffering”.
“The people of Sderot can’t do normal things day to day, like get soap in their eyes in the shower, for fear a rocket might come in. I’m sure they’re taking quick showers. I know I would.”
Presumably, use of the word “rarely” means he has seen such suffering before? Back in Toledo, Ohio, perhaps?
I have some advice for Joe the Plumber: take a trip to Gaza City. They have no showers there. In fact, they have no water at all, or food, or power. Instead they have plenty of mortars, missiles, white phosphorus bombs, tank shells. They’re so plentiful they drop out of the sky continuously – far more than the rockets that fall on Sderot.
No-one wants to live under the threat of death from the sky, be it Israelis in Sderot, or Palestinians in Gaza, and it’s not Wurzelbacher’s fault that he’s a total moron. It’s truly not his fault. He was indoctrinated into believing all the guff poured out by successive American governments, taught for years in American schools, and spewed forth ad infinitum by the media mouthpiece.
If you’re an averagely-intelligent being, capable of thinking for yourself, the chances are you’ll reach an age where such indoctrination is analyzed and rejected. With total morons that never happens. They just keep on swallowing the same old same old until the day they die.
Has Joe the Plumber ever asked himself why the Palestinians keep firing primitive rockets at Israel, when they know the retribution will be mighty? Has he ever bothered to learn of the hardships imposed on the Palestinians, over many years, by successive heartless and vindictive Israeli governments? Does he know the Gaza Strip is a worthless piece of land twenty-five miles long by seven wide, surrounded by barbed wire on three sides, and the sea on the fourth? Is he aware that everything needed to sustain life has to be trucked in from outside, and the outside is Israel, the check-points are Israeli, the decision whether to let one and a half million inhabitants live or die, is an Israeli decision?
Does Joe the Plumber even care that for three weeks the Israeli military has been bombarding what is in reality a huge refugee camp, where every square mile houses, on average, 8,500 people. Over one third of them are children. In reality, of course, the main centers are much more densely populated, as much of the Strip is scrub and desert.
Joe the Plumber knows none of these things. If he did, he probably wouldn’t care. Joe the Plumber’s a team man. He’s decided which team he’s going to support and nothing, nothing, will ever cause him to alter his allegiance.
In his own words:
“When someone hits me, I’m going to unload on the boy. And if the rest of the world doesn’t understand that, then I’m sorry.”[1]
Israel is Joe the Plumber’s team. He’s going to ensure the world knows he’s their greatest fan.
Samuel Wurzelbacher takes the prize, as an all-American, total and utter, moron.
