The Flaslight, August 26-31, 2006
THE FLASHLIGHT, August 26-31, 2006
URL: http://theflashlightnet.blogspot.com
Editorial comment is made within square brackets [ ]
Sources consulted regularly: New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian (UK), Time, Newsweek, The New Yorker, The Economist,
Google News, and Ha’aretz (Israel)
The Middle East
The Mood of Israel
[from Tim McGirk, “The End of Invincibility,” in Time, September 1, 2006]
“The war in Lebanon has induced a new sense of national vulnerability, heightening Israelis’ anxiety about the dangerous neighborhood they live in. In the past, Israelis believed that their military was mighty enough to scare away Arab attackers. No longer. During the war, as many as a million Israelis were forced to flee the north or hide in bomb shelters from Hizbollah’s rockets….
“But Israel’s adversaries believe its leaders still haven’t got the central point. The Lebanon war, says a Palestinian minister who prefers not to be identified, exposes ‘Israel’s incapacity to absorb the fact that Arabs are no longer just donkey riders.’ He adds, “Arabs are changing, but Israelis aren’t,’ meaning that Israel must recognize Arabs as equals and seek political solutions rather than military ones.”
The Use and Abuse of Air Power
[From The Economist, August 26]
There is an enduring illusion: that air power alone can defeat an enemy, and that only a short ground war is necessary after air attacks. In Lebanon once again this illusion has been exposed. Good intelligence is necessary to make bombing effective, and even then many civilians are likely to be killed. In Lebanon Israel failed on almost all counts: it killed many Lebanese civilians and it failed in its objectives to kill key Hizbollah leaders, crush Hizbollah, and to recover its two kidnapped soldiers. At the end more rockets than ever were hitting Israel. Only Hizbollah’s launching sites for long-range missiles were damaged.
p. 37-38. “Israel cannot impose peace by force of arms.”
Nasrallah Apologizes (Guardian, 8-28)
Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hizbollah, apologized for the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers, the incident that provoked the war. He said Hizbollah had no idea that a war would follow.
[This apology was not mentioned in the Internet editions of the New York Times and the Washington Post.]
News about Lebanon. NY Times 8-29
Fuad Siniora, Prime Minister of Lebanon, said that Lebanon has now deployed 8,600 troops along its Syrian border. Germany has offered technical equipment and training to help these troops prevent unauthorized weapons entry.
Guardian 8-31. A meeting in Stockholm of governments and organizations who wish to donate money to Lebanon to reconstruct its infrastructure was very successful. The target sum was $500 million. The amount pledged was $950 million.
Death of Arab Literary Giant (Washington Post, 8-31).
Naguib Mahfouz, the Egyptian author of The Cairo Trilogy and much else, died at 94. . His great work won a Nobel Prize for Literature. He stood for moderation and religious tolerance, and was once stabbed by a religious fanatic.
US News
Politics
Iraq Policy. PBS 8-25. Mark Shields said that the President looks delusional or deceitful on Iraq. 70% of Americans now disapprove of the Iraq War. The Administration has revived the older political terms “fascist” [applied to terrorists] and “appeaser” [applied to politicians arguing for a scheduled withdrawal from Iraq]. The President called for “sacrifices.” [The mail on this subject coming to CNN is mostly abusive of the Administration.]
Leak Case. NY Times 8-30. The CIA Leak Case has fizzled. The original leaker, state department official Richard Armitage, has now admitted it in public. He did not know that Valerie Plame was an undercover agent, and so he is not going to be prosecuted.
Global Warming. NY Times 8-31. Governor Schwarzenegger and the Democratic-controlled California State Legislature, despite resistance from Washington, have decided on the most sweeping plan of controls for carbon dioxide emissions in the nation. The goal is a 25% reduction in emissions from automobiles and industries by 2020.
Polygamy. NY Times 8-30. Warren Jeffs, 50, one of the top 10 most wanted criminals on the FBI list, was arrested by a policeman just north of Las Vegas. He was charged as an accessory to rape for arranging marriages between underage girls and older men. He leads the “Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints,” which may have 10,000 members, centered in the isolated towns of Hilldale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona. When arrested he was riding with his brother in a red 2007 Cadillac SUV without proper license plates.
Noticing how nervous the two men seemed, the arresting officer searched the trunk and found $50,000 in cash and many wigs, disguises, and dark glasses. He drew the proper conclusion. 94% of people on the FBI top 10 list have been captured.
US Economics.
NY Times 8-28. Wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation’s economy since the US began recording the data in 1947.
NY Times 8-30. Editorial. Most of the increases in household incomes have been in the 23 million households headed by a person over 65, and thus probably derived from investments and Social Security payments, not wages and salaries. For the other 91 million households, there was a drop of $2,000 in income between 2001 and 2005.
Those without health insurance stood at 46.6 million in 2005.
PBS 8-30. The cost of health insurance per family today is $11,000, one fourth of the median household income of $46,000.
Humor
Postcard from a manic-depressive on vacation: “Having wonderful time, Wish I were dead.”
Women in dental chair to the dentist: “ I would rather give birth to a baby than have a tooth extracted.”
Dentist: “All right, but I’ll have to readjust your chair.”
From the Journal of Irreproducible Results:
Genghis Khan, but Immanuel Kant.
URL: http://theflashlightnet.blogspot.com
Editorial comment is made within square brackets [ ]
Sources consulted regularly: New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian (UK), Time, Newsweek, The New Yorker, The Economist,
Google News, and Ha’aretz (Israel)
The Middle East
The Mood of Israel
[from Tim McGirk, “The End of Invincibility,” in Time, September 1, 2006]
“The war in Lebanon has induced a new sense of national vulnerability, heightening Israelis’ anxiety about the dangerous neighborhood they live in. In the past, Israelis believed that their military was mighty enough to scare away Arab attackers. No longer. During the war, as many as a million Israelis were forced to flee the north or hide in bomb shelters from Hizbollah’s rockets….
“But Israel’s adversaries believe its leaders still haven’t got the central point. The Lebanon war, says a Palestinian minister who prefers not to be identified, exposes ‘Israel’s incapacity to absorb the fact that Arabs are no longer just donkey riders.’ He adds, “Arabs are changing, but Israelis aren’t,’ meaning that Israel must recognize Arabs as equals and seek political solutions rather than military ones.”
The Use and Abuse of Air Power
[From The Economist, August 26]
There is an enduring illusion: that air power alone can defeat an enemy, and that only a short ground war is necessary after air attacks. In Lebanon once again this illusion has been exposed. Good intelligence is necessary to make bombing effective, and even then many civilians are likely to be killed. In Lebanon Israel failed on almost all counts: it killed many Lebanese civilians and it failed in its objectives to kill key Hizbollah leaders, crush Hizbollah, and to recover its two kidnapped soldiers. At the end more rockets than ever were hitting Israel. Only Hizbollah’s launching sites for long-range missiles were damaged.
p. 37-38. “Israel cannot impose peace by force of arms.”
Nasrallah Apologizes (Guardian, 8-28)
Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hizbollah, apologized for the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers, the incident that provoked the war. He said Hizbollah had no idea that a war would follow.
[This apology was not mentioned in the Internet editions of the New York Times and the Washington Post.]
News about Lebanon. NY Times 8-29
Fuad Siniora, Prime Minister of Lebanon, said that Lebanon has now deployed 8,600 troops along its Syrian border. Germany has offered technical equipment and training to help these troops prevent unauthorized weapons entry.
Guardian 8-31. A meeting in Stockholm of governments and organizations who wish to donate money to Lebanon to reconstruct its infrastructure was very successful. The target sum was $500 million. The amount pledged was $950 million.
Death of Arab Literary Giant (Washington Post, 8-31).
Naguib Mahfouz, the Egyptian author of The Cairo Trilogy and much else, died at 94. . His great work won a Nobel Prize for Literature. He stood for moderation and religious tolerance, and was once stabbed by a religious fanatic.
US News
Politics
Iraq Policy. PBS 8-25. Mark Shields said that the President looks delusional or deceitful on Iraq. 70% of Americans now disapprove of the Iraq War. The Administration has revived the older political terms “fascist” [applied to terrorists] and “appeaser” [applied to politicians arguing for a scheduled withdrawal from Iraq]. The President called for “sacrifices.” [The mail on this subject coming to CNN is mostly abusive of the Administration.]
Leak Case. NY Times 8-30. The CIA Leak Case has fizzled. The original leaker, state department official Richard Armitage, has now admitted it in public. He did not know that Valerie Plame was an undercover agent, and so he is not going to be prosecuted.
Global Warming. NY Times 8-31. Governor Schwarzenegger and the Democratic-controlled California State Legislature, despite resistance from Washington, have decided on the most sweeping plan of controls for carbon dioxide emissions in the nation. The goal is a 25% reduction in emissions from automobiles and industries by 2020.
Polygamy. NY Times 8-30. Warren Jeffs, 50, one of the top 10 most wanted criminals on the FBI list, was arrested by a policeman just north of Las Vegas. He was charged as an accessory to rape for arranging marriages between underage girls and older men. He leads the “Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints,” which may have 10,000 members, centered in the isolated towns of Hilldale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona. When arrested he was riding with his brother in a red 2007 Cadillac SUV without proper license plates.
Noticing how nervous the two men seemed, the arresting officer searched the trunk and found $50,000 in cash and many wigs, disguises, and dark glasses. He drew the proper conclusion. 94% of people on the FBI top 10 list have been captured.
US Economics.
NY Times 8-28. Wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation’s economy since the US began recording the data in 1947.
NY Times 8-30. Editorial. Most of the increases in household incomes have been in the 23 million households headed by a person over 65, and thus probably derived from investments and Social Security payments, not wages and salaries. For the other 91 million households, there was a drop of $2,000 in income between 2001 and 2005.
Those without health insurance stood at 46.6 million in 2005.
PBS 8-30. The cost of health insurance per family today is $11,000, one fourth of the median household income of $46,000.
Humor
Postcard from a manic-depressive on vacation: “Having wonderful time, Wish I were dead.”
Women in dental chair to the dentist: “ I would rather give birth to a baby than have a tooth extracted.”
Dentist: “All right, but I’ll have to readjust your chair.”
From the Journal of Irreproducible Results:
Genghis Khan, but Immanuel Kant.
posted by THE FLASHLIGHT at 12:01 PM
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