(Snark briefs)
The passing of a righteous woman: Miep Gies, the woman who helped shelter Anne Frank and who saved her diary from the Nazis, died last week. She did not think she was a hero.
“Imagine young people would grow up with the feeling that you have to be a hero to do your human duty. I am afraid nobody would ever help other people, because who is a hero? I was not. I was just an ordinary housewife and secretary.”
She said she did what any person should have done. There’s a picture at this link. “May you live to be 100” was exactly what she did. And yes, Mrs. Gies, you were a hero.
Iranophobia: Just when you thought we could not see the victimology brand get any broader, Iran is now complaining that they are being discriminated against. Because the world wants to stop Iran’s nuke program, and yet ignores Israel’s. Uh-huh. Watch this latest talking point get picked up by the neo-Nazi morons and the Buchananites. Hey, first one with a link wins a Yo-prize. (That would be a Yourish.com No-prize.) ((Hey. I like that idea. I’m going to start giving out Yo-prizes to readers.))
What’s missing from this Amnesty report on the Gaza blockade? Here’s a hint: It has five letters, is the other counry that borders Gaza, and it’s the land of the Pharoahs. Yes, it’s time for another anti-Gaza-blockade PR campaign that ignores utterly the fact that Egypt controls a major border crossing with Gaza and keeps it shut as well. Hey, just for kicks and giggles, I entered “Gaza” into the Amnesty search engine. 594 hits. Then I tried “Shalit.” Thirteen hits, most of which say Israel shouldn’t be able to blockade Gaza because Hamas is holding Gilad Shalit prisoner. There is also the little legal assumption that the world makes that is not necessarily so: Israel no longer legally occupies Gaza. It is not an occupied territory at all, in fact. But why let the truth get in the way of yet another slap at Israel?
Hugo Chavez is a big fat idiot: Yeah, we found someone dumber than Danny Glover, but Chavez is such a cartoon already that I’m letting Danny keep his idiot crown. Chavez says the U.S. is occupying Haiti under the pretense of giving aid to the earthquake-devastated nation, thus proving that there is no low to which Chavez won’t sink.
And tomorrow, we’re going to ask Ebenezer Scrooge to contribute to our charities: Shyeah, this’ll happen. Here, let me link the entire headline: Rights groups urge Hamas to allow war crimes probe. Hands up, everyone who thinks this will convince Hamas to see the error of their way and suddenly become a group that believes in basic human rights. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Did you know that Marvel used to actually mail out No Prizes? It was a Marvel letterhead envelope, with nothing inside.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/13/NoPrize.jpg
I did not know that, and as a result, the first Yo-Prize goes to Eric J. Congrats! That, and four or five bucks, will get you a Starbucks cup of coffee!
“Chavez says the U.S. is occupying Haiti under the pretense of giving aid to the earthquake-devastated nation.”
The Haitians should be so lucky. The only time in Haiti’s history when it had halfway decent government and the tax money was spent on benefiting the Haitian people rather than fattening the bank accounts of the politicians was when the U.S. Navy and Marines were running the place, from 1915 to 1934. President Hoover wanted to withdraw the Marines in 1929 but the Haitian Congress begged him to let them stay, because the Congresscritters there knew that if the Marines weren’t running things they’d quickly have a corrupt dictator again. And they were right.