BUZZURRO

For those unfamiliar with the story of Hannukah here is a link :

The celebration of Hanukkah goes back to 165 B.C.E. (B.C.E. stands for “Before the Common Era,” which is an alternative way of referring to the Christian-based calendar). At that time, the Jews of Judea had lived for many years under the oppressive hand of Syria, whose rulers outlawed Jewish worship and desecrated the temple in Jerusalem. Even though they were outnumbered, the Jews took up arms to defend their lifestyle and religion. They overwhelmed the Syrians in two decisive battles. Their leader was Judah Maccabees, whose mythic strength earned him the nickname “The Hammer.”

Legend has it that when the Jewish army entered the temple to reconsecrate it, their first task was to rekindle the Eternal Light, a sacred oil lamp that was left burning continuously. The Maccabees had one jar of oil, enough to keep the flame lit only for a single day. They sent out a messenger to find and bring back more sanctified oil, and it took the messenger eight days to return. Miraculously, the Eternal Light continued to burn those eight days. Hanukkah, which also is called the Festival of Lights, celebrates that wonder.

One of the traditions Jewish people do is to light one candle a night for 8 nights to commemorate the miracle of the lights (that lasted for 8 days instead of one). One other thing they do is to eat foods fried in oil to commemorate the miracle of the oil (that lasted for 8 days instead of one.)
Now here is my dilemma; as any overweight person trying to lose weight can tell you, eating food fried in oil is a no-no.
One of the traditional foods is latkes, usually made with potatos and onions. They not only are fried in oil, because of their consistency, they also absorb a lot of oil. One latka alone packs a lot of calories and fat.

What do I do?
Eat them anyway !

Happy Hannukah everyone !

This is the fourth year that the Weblog Awards take place.
Let me say they are a farce.
The rules say it is not allowed to vote more than once in 24 hours from the same computer.
Although, it is very easy to cheat and vote multiple times per day:

For those who wants to vote more than once a day, just go to root:\Documents and Settings\userid\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\
#SharedObjects\????????\weblogawards.org\award_poll_1_15.swf\
and delete the file poll_34.sol.

Apparently, this or other techniques have been put into practice during this edition of the Awards. Some claimed they have seen exponential, miraculous growths of votes, at frequencies of hundredths in hours.
Personally, I can say that tonight I casted a vote. Then, I could see the total votes for all competitors in the same category. Then I refreshed the web page from which I voted, and saw that the votes of one of the competitor blogs increased by one. Then, I refreshed the page after one second. The votes for that blog increased. Then, I refreshed. Then, they increased again. And so on. And so forth. Nice, huh ?

Several months ago while looking for a job in the newspaper Santa Fe New Mexican, a coworker said to me, ” Why are you reading the Santa Fe New Mexican? It is the absolute worst newspaper I have ever seen. Try the Albuquerque Journal. (a statewide newspaper). I answered “I’m looking for a job in Santa Fe. Those classifieds are more helpful to me because it is from Santa Fe.” ” That makes sense, but the rest of it really sucks.”
Today I picked up a Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper. One of the stories was of the suicide bomber in Iraq who drove his truck to an area where many poor Shiite seeking work gather. He offered them a job, and then as they gathered around the truck he exploded it. It was packed with explosives and many people died, with many more maimed victims. The article was on page 3, but there was a quote on the front page which is what grabbed my attention. It said “76 Iraqis seeking work are dead from suicide bomber, but they knew that the area had several suicide bombings in the past.”
As if to say their deaths were indirectly their fault for being at that location in the first place.
As a person who has sought work before, as most have done at somepoint in their lives, I was deeply offended. These poor people were just seeking work. They nneeded money. They weren’t kidnapping others for ransom or doing anything horrible; just seeking work and they do not deserve to die or even to carry a small amount of blame for their deaths as the person who wrote /said the quote implied on the first page. It’s a tragedy. A big tragedy. The terrorists who did this horrible act are one hundred percent guilty of being the most scoundrelly low form of life, and to even imply that the victims were at fault for seeking work in an area known for having had several suicide bombers in the past is completely wrong.
I decided with much anger to turn to page 3 to see what other crap was said in this terrible article that in effect blamed the victims. This is the article titled For Laborers, Seeking Work Is Risking Death.
I read the article once and then I read it twice. Nowhere in that article is the blurb I read on page one telling the reader to read the story on page 3. My question is “Who write this crap? Someone from Iraqi terrorists are really good guys fan club? .” I can’t believe an American newspaper, one that tries to impartially report the news, would be so favorable to the humanoid forms that brought about such a horrible attack. Obviously though, someone at the Santa Fe New Mexican thinks up and writes such crap..
It is true that I picked up the newspaper which is what the editor wants all possible customers to do, but I’m not going to pay any money for this junk. I’ll buy a real newspaper. The Santa Fe New Mexican really is the absolute worst newspaper.

…idiot of the month.

This is ridiculous:

When the State Department recently asked the CIA for names of Iranians who could be sanctioned for their involvement in a clandestine nuclear weapons program, the agency refused, citing a large workload and a desire to protect its sources and tradecraft.

Frustrated, the State Department assigned a junior Foreign Service officer to find the names another way — by using Google. Those with the most hits under search terms such as “Iran and nuclear,” three officials said, became targets for international rebuke Friday when a sanctions resolution circulated at the United Nations.

(…)
An initial Internet search yielded over 100 names, including dozens of Iranian diplomats who have publicly defended their country’s efforts as intended to produce energy, not bombs, the sources said. The list also included names of Iranians who have spoken with U.N. inspectors or have traveled to Vienna to attend International Atomic Energy Agency meetings about Iran.

It was submitted to the CIA for approval but the agency refused to look up such a large number of people, according to three government sources. Too time-consuming, the intelligence community said, for the CIA’s Iran desk staff of 140 people. The list would need to be pared down. So the State Department cut the list in half and resubmitted the names.

In the end, the CIA approved a handful of individuals, though none is believed connected to Project 1-11 — Iran’s secret military effort to design a weapons system capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

Still we have not learned how important collaboration among federal agencies is for U.S. national security, as it was recommended by 9/11 Commission.

…OK, so we are screwed.

(Hat tip: StoptheACLU).

Some details about the case of the imams removed from a US Airways flight:

Contrary to press accounts that a single note from a passenger triggered the imams’ removal, Captain John Howard Wood was weighing multiple factors.

* An Arabic speaker was seated near two of the imams in the plane’s tail. That passenger pulled a flight attendant aside and, in a whisper, translated what the men were saying: invoking “bin Laden” and condemning America for “killing Saddam,” according to police reports.

* An imam seated in first class asked for a seat-belt extender - the extra strap that obese people use because the standard belt is too short. According to both an on-duty and a deadheading flight attendant, he looked too thin to need one.

A seat-belt extender can easily be used as a weapon - just wrap one end around your fist, and swing the heavy metal buckle.

* All six imams had boarded together, with the first-class passengers - even though only one of them had a first-class ticket. Three had one-way tickets. Between the six men, only one had checked a bag.

And, Pauline said, they spread out - just like the 9/11 hijackers. Two sat in first class, two in the middle and two back in the economy section, police reports show. Some, according to Rader, took seats not assigned to them.

* Finally, a gate attendant told the captain she was suspicious of the imams, according to police reports.

“I think it was either a foiled attempt to take over the plane or it was a publicity stunt to accuse us of being insensitive,” Pauline told me. “It had to be to intimidate U.S. Airways to ease up on security.”

Probably the latter. It seems too blatant to be true. Anyway, would you feel comfortable flying with them ?

Cartoon by Chuck Asay (hat tip: ZionistYoungster )