Giving the world a hand since February 3rd, 2002. "If you're gonna dine with them cannibals, sooner or later, darling, you're gonna get eaten."




Comments by YACCS

 
With all the moral certainty of a little kid calling "Truce!" after smacking his big brother, Arafat agreed to work on an unconditional truce after a paticularly deadly suicide bombing in Israel. I think it was the mere gall of his doing so that paticularly pissed off the Israeli cabinet, allowing Sharon to let loose the restraints of the more hard-line members of his government. Israel began calling up reserves, something no government does lightly, reminding observers of 1967 and the ferocity of that conflict. Arafat, to his credit (or lack therof), spent the day in his office consulting with other arab leaders, doing propoganda broadcasts on the Al Jazeera network, and the occasional phone interview for Western news agencies. He seems more interested in becoming an martyr than a leader, which, considering how his leadership has been in the last couple of years, is perfectly understandable.

Links: CNN, NY Times, UK Times

Interesting fact: Arafat has a history of screwing up by pushing his opponents too far. In 1982-3, it was the US & other Western powers that evacuated Arafat to Tunis from under the guns of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. This time, instead of negotiating for the general good he held out for all of his desires, knowing full well that Sharon would not agree.
so wrote Leper around about 2:20 AM

 
World reaction to the Israeli moves: "France insists that Israeli authorities respect the security and the physical integrity of Mr. Arafat."

Huh? "Physical integrity"? What exactly does that mean? Don't poke any holes in him? Don't force him to pose for any embarassing photos? Don't dip his hand in warm water while he sleeps?

Y'know, it's funny....I see lots of talk on the part of other nations, but no one seems to be willing to 'step up to the plate' except the US. Why doesn't the EU send a team of negotiators? Why doesn't the Arab League go directly to Israel with their offers? What makes the Americans so special to both parties in this process? No, seriously, I wanna know....
so wrote Leper around about 2:02 AM

 
Researchers: most men want women with medium sized breasts. Personally, I prefer small to medium, but right now I'm not that picky...

Plus: March 30th is National Cleavage Day in the UK. Now, do you greet people with "Merry National Cleavage Day" or is it "Happy National Cleavage Day"? I always get those confused....
so wrote Leper around about 11:06 PM

 
From BBSpot:

Overclocked Jesus Performs Miracles Faster

Chicago, IL - A group of bored students in Chicago overclocked Jesus so that he now performs miracles nearly twice as fast as before. Goran Radovich and Trey Gafney managed to overclock Jesus and keep him stable at a record 3.69 GHz. "We were just sitting around the other day and Goran says 'Hey, don't you have a spare Jesus around here? Let's see if we can overclock him'," said Gafney, "So we got out the Jesus and cranked up the clock. He started sweating pretty profusely at about 2.5 GHz so we went out and got the hose and started spraying him down." The boys then fitted Jesus with some spare heatsinks they had and tried for the Jesus overclocking record. "When we got him up to about 3.75 GHz that was when we started having some problems like that hole in Tommy's abdomen and the sudden change of seasons," said Radovich. "After that we clocked him down and he was stable most of the time at 3.69 GHz." We had all the bread and fish and wine that we ever needed," continued Radovich, "and we both had straight A's so we took him down to the hospital to do some more miracles there. We turned him on and his arms were flying around and deaf people could hear, the crippled could walk. Of course, a couple of times he got going too fast and a couple of blind guys got an extra eye." Donna Samson was one of the cured, "Jesus came walking down the hall and he looked like he had drank about 10 cups of coffee. He laid his hands on me and said my cancer was cured. It was and as a bonus I got this extra leg too!" The young men explained that they expect to get Jesus saving people even faster when they figure out how to safely immerse him in liquid nitrogen. Gafney and Radovich broke the previous record of 3.43 GHz set by a group in Norway last month.

so wrote Leper around about 9:58 PM

 
The Palestinians have walked out of the Arab Summit in Beiruit over an apparent snub to Yassir Arafat. Now I can understand using that kind of tactic on the Israelis, but on your fellow arabs??? Prima donna antics such as these will not help their cause in the world's eye.

I've said it before, Arafat doesn't want peace. Without violence, the Palestinians have no leverage over the Israelis to force the concessions that they so desire. In addition, continuing violence also breeds world opinion against the Israelis, thereby upping the ante. I can almost guarantee that this will backfire on the Palestinians, as even more militant hard-liners wait in the wings to take over for Sharon, whom they see as being "soft" on the Palestinians. Sharon's coalition government is heavily dependent on the support of those same hard-liners, so such a coup would be all too easy.
so wrote Leper around about 9:00 PM

 
I splurged the other day & bought "Snatch" on DVD. No, it's not porn, it's a wonderful movie by director Guy Ritchie (the same guy that directed "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels") that's part black comedy, part farce, and partially resembling an English version of "Pulp Fiction". The movie follows the path of an 84 carat diamond, involving such characters as a crazed gangster that feeds his victims to pigs, an underground bareknuckle boxing promoter, a squeaking dog, a bullet-dodging ex-KGB arms dealer, and Brad Pitt as an Irish gypsy who's accent is so thick as to be completely unintelligible. This movie has quickly moved to one of my Top 5. Run--don't walk--to your nearest outlet to purchase this screen gem.
so wrote Leper around about 12:26 AM

 
Freaky news of the day: Robert DeNiro is financing a musical based on the songs of the UK band Queen. The scriptwriter describes it as "The Matrix meets an Arthurian legend meets Terminator 2" and it will feature 31 Queen hits, including "We Are The Champions", "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love".
so wrote Leper around about 12:10 AM

 
Bruce over at Flit has an interesting take on the solution to the current Israeli-Palestinian crisis. Several of his points are that Israel should evacuate Gaza entirely, annex the Golan Heights, & that the US should recognize Kurdistan as a nation (to take some of the heat off of Israel). I'm not sure I agree with all of his points, but we do agree on one thing: there is another war brewing up in the Middle East. As for the author, he's in the Canadian military, so his 'blog tends to be slanted more towards military issues, but it's still well worth the read. Check it out.
so wrote Leper around about 12:01 AM

 
From The Daily Probe:

Authorities Confirm: Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting
DETROIT, MI (DPI) - Authorities have confirmed that a situation that erupted late yesterday was, in fact, kung fu fighting-related. Police Chief Jerry A. Oliver confirmed to press in a statement that the combatants, who witnesses reported being "fast as lightning," included funky Billy Chin and little Sammy Chung, described by Oliver as "Funky Chinamen from funky Chinatown." "They were chopping them up and they were chopping them down," said eyewitness Laurie Yates, 26, who happened upon the scene on her lunch break. "Those cats were fast as lightning," she declared. "In fact," she admitted to reporters, "It was a little bit frightening, but they fought with expert timing."

so wrote Leper around about 11:52 PM

 
Arafat has apparently forged an alliance with militant Iranians to aquire weapons for the Palestinian campaign against Israel. Well, duh! I think I'll file that one in my memory banks next to "fire is hot".

There will be no peace in the Middle East because nobody really wants peace. Most of the really militant factions of the Palestinian terrorist groups won't settle for a Palestinian state, they want the destruction of Israel as well. Iran, Iraq, and anyone else that hates the Israelis are perfectly happy to fight a proxy war through the Palestinians. The Israelis would allow a Palestinian state, if only they could trust the Palestinians to stop blowing them up--a trust which Arafat & his "government" are currently unwilling/unable to earn. Until then, the people of Israel are going to vent their frustration & anger in the only viable way available to them: military action. Caught in the middle are the everyday people (both Israeli and Palestinian) that just want the shooting to stop.
so wrote Leper around about 1:03 AM

 
Just heard on "Space Ghost: Coast to Coast":

"Saddle me up & ride me into the future!"

Little things like that are why I love Cartoon Network's Sunday night Adult Swim. My favorite Adult Swim cartoon is "Sealab: 2021". The creators have taken a cartoon from the early 70's & redubbed/re-edited it into 15 minutes of pure genius. Any cartoon that quotes entire scenes from "Apocalypse Now" is tops in my book. That, plus one of the characters is voiced by Eric Estrada from "CHiPs". Check it out.
so wrote Leper around about 11:52 PM