Quick Round-up

- I find a new target. I anticipate hours of fun. They even make doomsday predictions!

Rabbi Eliyahu Leon Levi, who frequents the Western Wall every Saturday night to recite Psalms and teach Torah, told his students that there is an "evil decree" of war looming on the horizon. According to the Rabbi, Syria is liable to join Lebanon in firing missiles at the Jewish State in the pending war.

..."It's not going to be 'katyushas shmatyushas' this time which have only tens of kilograms of explosives. The enemy will launch, G-d forbid, rockets carrying 500 and 600 kilograms of explosives," Rabbi Levi told his students.

...Rabbi Levi said that though Israel "may, G-d forbid, pay a heavy price initially, the Jewish People would muster strength to crush their enemies leading to a great sanctification of G-d's name through ultimate victory."

He emphasized that the decree can be annulled through prayer, repentance, and good deeds. "In the spiritual world, things can rapidly change. But right now, it appears that war could break out soon after or even during the Passover holiday." Rabbi Levi said that the allocation of food to the needy and the great acts of charity which preceded the Passover holiday made a great impression in the heavenly court and sweetened the judgment to a degree.

"We are on the brink of redemption, and a great war is coming." he said. "Whoever doesn't prepare himself spiritually is at great risk. A person must turn to G-d in prayer and cry and confess his wrongdoings, and rectify his ways. A person must recite Psalms as we do every Saturday night here at the site of our holy temple. The recitation of Psalms constitutes a spiritual rinsing of the mouth from idle talk, as well as from the transgression of causing others pain through our speech. Come with your children to cry and pray before G-d and ask forgiveness."

...Rabbi Levi said that those who recite Tikun Hatzot (the Midnight Rectification) along with a Tikun Yesod (rectification of the covenant of sexual purity) will have an invincible shield of protection (ohr makif) around him.

The kabbalist pointed to sexual wrongdoing, immodest dress, and addiction to pornography on the internet as additional factors which bring about harsh decrees on Israel.

You know, maybe it's just the fact that I've been reading Left Behind comics recently, but I can't help thinking these guys are just like John Hagee with cooler facial hair.

- LGF rants (justifiably) about how Pakistan still isn't doing anything about the Taliban. Rather than criticizing Bush for supporting Musharraf, a bunch of the partisan-blind commenters blame Democrats:

Nothing to worry about.
We know they did not attack us on 9/11. Just ask Rosie and Charlie Sheen. It is all George Booosh!

and

All I can say is for God's sake, let's not monitor these Jihadi's phone calls, banking records, and internet exchanges. It just wouldn't be fair. After all, they're just trying to destroy us. What's the big deal? Can't we just talk?

/Pelosi voter mode off

and

Right now the liberals are fast at work trying to figure out how to meld the two philosophies of liberalism and islamofascism despite the obvious contrary views of the two groups on women, homosexuality, promiscuous sex etc. because in the most important area, being anti western culture, they are on the exact same page.

and

Let's have Ken Starr investigate these people and impeach them.

Then our do-nothing Congress can take over and really give them a good lecturing in front of the MSM.

If Starr is unavailable, I'd then let the US attorney in Louisiana prosecute them, just like he is (not) doing to William Jefferson (D-LA).

Or we could send Rodney King over to reason with them. Beg them to just "all get along".
Yeah, those are really good plans.
Why haven't the effing libs thought of this.

Wow. Those are some nice logic leaps, guys.

- Dennis Prager longs for the bygone days of British Imperialism. Yeah, I was just thinking, what the world needs now is another good Opium War.

It used to be said that "The sun never sets on the British empire." That is how vast Britain's influence was. And that influence, on balance, was far more positive than negative. Ask the Indians-- or the Americans, for that matter. The British colonies learned about individual rights, parliamentary government, civil service and courts of justice, to name of few of the benefits that the British brought with them. Were it not for British involvement, India might still have sati (burning wives on the funeral pyre of their husband), would have no unifying language, and probably no parliamentary democracy or other institutions and values that have made that country a democratic giant, now on its way to becoming an economic one as well.

This is sort of like when people claim slavery benefited black people because it meant they weren't getting chased by lions. Yeah, way to subjugate Indians for a good 200 years, Britain, go you. And incidentally, Dennis, not everything in American democracy was imported by the British- check out the history of New Amsterdam sometime. And obviously the Founding Fathers didn't think that teaching us about "civil service" (which we Cro-Magnon proto-mericans obviously would never have picked up on our own without help) was enough to give Britain a free pass because, well, there was that whole revolution thing. Or maybe you would have been a Tory back then. And news flash, Dennis, being a British colony didn't end every problem in India- there's still that awesome caste system thing going on, for one. If they were so enlightened, why didn't they work on that?

the British government did not confront the Iranians in any way reminiscent of a great country, let alone of Britain's great past. If we judge the British government's reaction alone -- without any reference to the behavior of the British sailors and marines -- Iran was the feared power, not Great Britain, which acted like the supplicant.

Yeah, what happened to the old bad-ass Britain? Why not use some of that awesome trench warfare on them? Or whip out some old-school RAF Spitfires on their ass?

But what really makes one weep for Britain's lost greatness is what has happened since the sailors and marines were released.

The UK Minister of Defense, Labor MP Desmond Browne, announced that the released sailors and marines were all free to sell their stories to the media, "as a result of exceptional media interest." If this is not unprecedented, it would certainly be difficult to find anything similar in the annals of military history.

Actually, not so much. Check out, say, anyone remotely connected with the Great Game. You doof.

And John Tindell, the father of another of the hostages, said the marines were planning to sell on eBay the vases given to them by the Iranians.

What SHOULD they do with them? Use them as chamber pots and shoot them out of a cannon? I once saw someone selling Sharon's bloody head-bandage and Moshe Dayan's eyepatch on eBay! So what?

Oh, the Internet.