Here’s an interview with an Israeli woman who lost both her mother and her infant daughter in a recent terrorist attack. I found the interview via the American Kaiser blog. I cannot begin to imagine the emotional impact of such an experience, but her analysis is cool and clear enough:
CNN: How do you see the future? How do you see this unfold?
Chen: I’ll tell you how I see the future: I think Israel is like the canary in the coal mine, and that’s what the Europeans – and I am sorry, I know this goes to Europe, and I said different [more positive] things to America [on CNN-USA] – but we in Israel are dying now. We are slaughtered on a daily basis, but – you’re next! You’re next, buddies. I understand that you have a lot of Muslim minorities. That’s OK, everybody should live where he wants – but you are appeasing terrorism! And you hope that if you tolerate it, and try to understand its motives, and you give it reasons, whatever they are… I ask the Europeans: Do not tolerate murder! I don’t want to use the word terrorism, because it’s banal. Do not tolerate murder, do not appease the terrorists! Not for oil, and not because you’re scared – because the more fear you show, the faster it’s going to be on your doorstep – and then, G-d help you, because you gave it legitimacy. And my baby’s blood is just as precious as any French blood — G-d help these hypocritical people…”
Doesn’t that say it all?
THE SIMPSONS ON SOCCER: A reader kindly sent me the following Simpsons transcript on soccer. More eloquent than I:
TV Announcer: The Continental Soccer Association is coming to Springfield! It’s all here–fast-kicking, low scoring, and ties? You bet!
Bart: Hey, Homer, how come you’ve never taken us to see a soccer game?
Homer: I…don’t know.
TV Announcer: You’ll see all your favorite soccer stars. Like Ariaga! Ariaga II! Bariaga! Aruglia! And Pizzoza!
Homer: Oh, I never heard of those people.
TV Announcer: And they’ll all be signing autographs!
Homer: Woo-hoo!
TV Announcer: This match will determine once and for all which nation is the greatest on earth: Mexico or Portugal!
Well, maybe not Portugal any more. They just got their asses kicked.
SIMPLY NO CIRCUMSTANCES: A terrific piece from Larry Grafstein in TNR, reminding us of the moral basics of youthful suicide bombings. They are depraved in any context. Amazing it’s necessary to write that. That’s another reason why the Israelis are right to hold Arafat responsible for the latest such slaughter of innocents. If Arafat cannot stop this violence, then he is simply irrelevant to any peaceful solution to the conflict. If he can stop this violence and won’t, ditto. All of which means that there can be no progress until Arafat is removed. His very irrelevance on the ground combined with his relevance in diplomacy guarantees that the stalemate will continue.
EUCLID UPDATE: An email from her new owners:
She is doing well. I took her to the vet for shots and they performed some routine tests and found that she had heartworms. She was treated this week and came through the treatment with no problems. The vet said that she had very hearty appetite, and told us to feed her as much as she wants to each, and to change her to a mix of canned and dry food. (I wish my doctor told me I could eat as much as I wanted.)
She has only barked twice more since you last saw her, once when she got stepped on, (sorry, Euclid) and the other in excitement to ‘Does Euclid want to go for a walk?’
She has learned a number of things: how to find the most comfortable spot on the living room couch; how to jump up on the bed from a very slippery hardwood floor; how to signal us that she wants to go outside to go potty; how to eat all the canned food from around the dry; and how to wrap two middle-aged men around her little paw.
You see. Another argument for gay adoption.
THOSE WEB STATS: Curious about the American Prospect’s alleged web supremacy, touted by none other than the Columbia Journalism Review and Eric Alterman, I emailed the estimable Nick Confessore for more details. I asked, for example, what the daily unique visitors number was for the American Prospect. He told me it varied between 10,000 and 26,000. Let’s split the difference and make it 18,000. For TAP to get 450,000 unique visitors a month, as they claim, of the 18,000 they get daily, around 14,000 of those would have to be completely new to the site each day, and not log on again in the month. That’s a simply phenomenal turn-over, and, frankly, unbelievable. My suspicion is that they are simply adding up their daily unique visitor totals for the whole month – as if none of these visitors are repeats. To give you a comparison. I get somewhere between 19,000 to 25,000 daily unique visitors on weekdays. But my monthly unique visitor total is around 240,000 – because many of those daily visitors are repeats and not “unique” for the month. A long time ago, I made a mistake and added up my dailies, which would give me a monthly total of around 650,000 – nearly three times the correct total. Some of you remember that I quickly corrected my error and apologized. Maybe The American Prospect really does attract up to 14,000 brand new visitors a day. Nick says he will ask someone with more expertise in this department than he has. Watch this space …
The Dish 