Monthly Archives: December 2008

Happy New Year!

Year-end stories are mostly about what a horrible year 2008 was, and how 2009 can only be better. There’s certainly some truth to that, but for us, as for most people, 2008 was full of blessings, too. It’s hard to say that we had less fun or, on the whole, a less rewarding year than usual. Of course, our 201(k) plans aren’t what they once were, but it’s only money, »

Hoping for Change in Our Middle East Policy

Demonstrations against Israel’s attacks on Hamas have taken place around the world; those of most interest to me have been the ones in the U.S. Here in Minnesota, pro-Hamas demonstrators assembled outside a building in which Senator Amy Klobuchar has an office, and later congregated inside for a kind of sit-in: If you read to the very end of the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s account, you learn that the demonstration was »

Hamas H.Q. Bombed; Power Line, too

Talk about disproportionate response. Just an hour or so after Power Line posted a series of videos from the Israeli Defense Forces–videos that, as Scott discovered, YouTube had pulled–we experienced a Denial-of-Service attack from a cabal of a half-dozen servers in the U.S. The attack sought to make Power Line and the videos we are hosting inaccessible by overloading our server. Our data center promptly registered the attack, and then »

In search of fireworks

The Times (London) reports that women in Naples are staging a sex strike in an attempt to stop their menfolk from setting off New Year fireworks that are said to cause injury and even death. Carolina Staiano is the leader of the strike. Ms. Staiano poses the stark choice: ”If a sex strike is what it takes in order to get the attention of our men, husbands, partners and sons, »

Disproportionate idiocy

Alan Dershowitz addresses the subject of “Israel, Hamas and moral idiocy” in a Christian Science Monitor column that bears the stamp of his characteristic verve. On the same subject, Victor Davis Hanson offers seven moderate proposals that in their own way get at the moral idiocy Dershowitz addresses: 1) Request that 50% of Israel’s air-to-ground missiles be duds to ensure greater proportionality. 2) Allow Hamas another 1,000 free rocket launches »

Why don’t they want you to see the IDF videos?

As Joe Malchow explains in this post, Power Line promptly came under attack yesterday when we became the home for the IDF videos (posted here) that YouTube removed from the IDF’s YouTube channel. I believe this was the first ever Denial-of-Service attack we have experienced in over six-and-a-half years of operation. The videos depict the lethality and precision of IDF’s attacks on Gaza’s terrorist infrastructure. Why does YouTube find the »

Surviving Hell

Retired Lt. Col. Wyly Watson served two tours in Vietnam. He might be expected to appreciate the memoir Surviving Hell by Leo Thorsness, and he did. in the book, Thorsness recounts the aerial combat over North Vietnam that resulted in his receiving the Medal of Honor as well as his ensuing six-year captivity in and around Hanoi. Watson’s review of the book in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal eloquently captures the »

Israel Rejects Truce Proposal

Israel has said “No” to France’s proposal for a 48-hour “humanitarian truce” in Gaza: Israel on Wednesday rejected a French proposal for a 48-hour cease-fire in the Gaza Strip to allow the flow of humanitarian aid into the bombarded coastal territory. … “That proposal contained no guarantees of any kind that Hamas will stop the rockets and smuggling,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said. “It is not realistic to expect »

We’re Back

The site has been down (or hopelessly slow) since late this afternoon. The problem apparently was a denial of service attack. We understand that the attack originated from five IP addresses, all located in the U.S. While there is no way to be certain, we assume it most likely came from someone who is unhappy with our commentary on events in Gaza. Our data center has taken counter-measures and we »

Those weren’t capitol police officers

Cynthia McKinney apparently was uninjured when an Israeli patrol boat collided with the vessel she was aboard, which was attempting to bring supplies to the Gaza Strip. “Free Gaza,” the outfit that sent the supply boat, claims the Israelis “gave us no warning” and “rammed us three times.” The Israeli government described the incident as an accidental “collision” that occurred after the aid vessel drew near to an Israeli military »

History resumes

E.J. Dionne asserts that “the outcome of this year’s election means that 2009 will, finally, mark the beginning of the 21st century.” The 21st century did not begin after 9/11, Dionne sniffs, because President Bush “resolutely forced events into the interpretive boxes fashioned in the previous decade.” Let’s give Dionne the benefit of the doubt and construe this fancy locution to mean that Bush dealt with the terrorists severely enough »

Blago makes it interesting

Gov. Rod Blagojevich has named former state attorney general Roland Burris to the Senate seat being vacated by Barack Obama. Burris may well be a machine hack (so says Jim Warren of the Chicago Tribune) but, as a pioneer African-American office holder, he’s the kind of hack the Democrats have a difficult time saying no to. Blagojevich apparently did what he could to drive home the point at his press »

IDF Videos — See Them Here

This morning, Scott noted that the Israeli Defense Force had set up a YouTube channel to which it uploaded videos of the fighting in Gaza, but YouTube deleted some of the videos. With the assistance of Noah Pollak, we’ve obtained the videos and will be posting them this afternoon. This one shows Hamas members loading Grad missiles into a truck, just prior to being on the receiving end of a »

Putting Blame Where It Belongs

You may have seen the tragic story of the Palestinian family whose house, located next to a mosque that was used by Hamas, was destroyed by an Israeli strike on the mosque. Five sisters, aged 4 to 17, died when the house collapsed on them. In this video, broadcast on Palestinian Authority (Fatah) TV, one of the surviving sisters describes what happened and puts the blame where it belongs, on »

Minnesota Senate Recount, Update XIV

Minnesota’s Canvassing Board met today and completed its review of ballots to which the campaigns had withdrawn challenges. The net effect (an additional two votes for Coleman and six for Franken) was to push Franken’s lead to 50 votes. The next step is trying to deal with the “fifth pile” ballots that we wrote about here and elsewhere. On December 18, the Minnesota Supreme Court ordered the state’s county election »

Now see this

The IDF’s International Press Branch has opened a YouTube channel. They will be uploading IDF footage as it comes out. The Jerusalem Post report on the channel is accessible here, with a link to the channel in the report. . Via Aliza Landes/IDF and Fern Oppenheim. JOHN adds: It’s worth noting that IDF Foreign Press chief Maj. Avital Leibovich explained the YouTube channel by saying, “The blogosphere and new media »

Higher education, Hamas-style, part 2

Yesterday we noted that Israel bombed Islamic University in Gaza. We pointed to the Jerusalem Post article reporting the higher education in bomb building and weapons storage among the pursuits at Islamic University. I was previously unfamiliar with Islamic University. Not so Patrick Poole, who summarizes the record on the funding of the terror labs by an American Islamic group — Arab Student Aid International, based in Dublin, Ohio. Poole »