I Wonder if He Means It

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It reminds me a lot of what W said after 9-11.  And I remember how that all ended up.  To my mind the only way Netanyahu can prevent the same thing from happening again is to empty out Gaza and draw a final line on the map between Israel and the Palestinians.

Is he willing to do that?  Is he even able to do that?  I guess we’ll see.

Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו
@netanyahu
“This morning, on Shabbat and a holiday, Hamas invaded Israeli territory and murdered innocent citizens including children and the elderly. Hamas has started a brutal and evil war. We will be victorious in this war despite an unbearable price. This is a very difficult day for all of us. Hamas wants to murder us all. This is an enemy that murders children and mothers in their homes, in their beds, an enemy that abducts the elderly, children and young women, that slaughters and massacres our citizens, including children, who simply went out to enjoy the holiday. What happened today is unprecedented in Israel – and I will see to it that it does not happen again. The entire government is behind this decision. The IDF will immediately use all its strength to destroy Hamas’s capabilities. We will destroy them and we will forcefully avenge this dark day that they have forced on the State of Israel and its citizens. As Bialik wrote: ‘Revenge for the blood of a little child has yet been devised by Satan’. All of the places which Hamas is deployed, hiding and operating in, that wicked city, we will turn them into rubble. I say to the residents of Gaza: Leave now because we will operate forcefully everywhere. At this hour, the IDF is clearing the terrorists out of the last communities. They are going community by community, house by house, and are restoring our control. I embrace and send heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families whose loved ones were murdered today in cold blood and endless brutality. We are all praying for the well-being of the wounded and all those who are being held hostage. I say to Hamas: You are responsible for their well-being. Israel will settle accounts with anyone who harms one hair on their heads. I appeal to the residents of the south: We all stand alongside you. We are all proud of your heroism and your fighting. To our beloved IDF soldiers, police officers and security forces personnel, remember that you are the continuation of the heroes of the Jewish people, of Joshua, Judah Maccabee and the heroes of 1948 and of all of Israel’s wars. You are now fighting for the home and future of us all. We are all with you. We all love you. We all salute you. To the medical and rescue teams, and the many volunteers who came out in force today in a long list of places, the people of Israel salute you. With your spirit, we will overcome our enemies. Today, I spoke with US President Biden and with other world leaders in order to ensure freedom of action for Israel in the continuation of the campaign. I thank President Biden for his strong and clear words. I thank the President of France, the Prime Minister of Great Britain and many other leaders for their unreserved support for Israel. I now appeal to all citizens of Israel: We stand together in this campaign. This war will take time. It will be difficult. Challenging days are ahead of us. However, I can promise one thing: With the help of G-d, the forces that we all have in common and our faith in the Eternal One of Israel, we will win.”

07OCT2023 – The Mundane and the Murderous

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So, my heating system maintenance contractor claims to have a replacement part to make all my problems go away.  But the guy who really knows what he is doing isn’t available until Wednesday.  Wednesday it is.  Cold showers until Wednesday.  Whoo!

Well, let’s see.  Inside their terror campaign the Palestinians are desecrating the bodies of murdered Israeli women.  Netanyahu says they will pay a terrible price.  He has his work cut out for him.  This has the potential of being the straw that breaks the camel’s back.  I wonder if the Israelis will decide to empty Gaza.  It would be horrendously provocative but what else will be effective as a defense against these kinds of attacks?  The only other solution is retaking Gaza and policing it which is also a daunting prospect.  Wait and see.

More and more as the world spins out of control the situation in the United States takes on a surreal aspect.  Currently we aren’t engulfed in war and destruction.  Not yet.  But the tyrannical forces that bring war to the streets of Beirut, Jerusalem and other flash points, we begin to see it demonstrate its power over the American people through lawfare and voter fraud.  Antifa and BLM become the shock troops in a way that is not wildly different from Hamas and Hezbollah.  We’re all living in a world becoming increasingly radicalized.

Will that change?  Could Americans successfully pull back from this undermining of the values we depended on to make our lives normal and stable?

Possibly.  But not surely.  Probably not even likely.

We may have crossed over some tipping point where there are just too many bad guys breaking things and not enough good guys trying to fix them.  But we’ve got to play the hand we’ve been dealt.  There’s no choice.  We watch the events playing out in crime ravaged cities and the halls of Washington DC as awful public policies and nonsensical or even malignant belief systems cause enormous damage to millions of individuals and the fabric of all of our lives.

But the real problem isn’t even with the Left that spreads these problems.  It’s our side that has failed.  Our leaders are compromised.  It’s our children who believe in these false values and policies.  They’ve given up on the things that made life wholesome and productive.  That is why I doubt this can be fixed.  So that only leaves the option of watching and doing our small bit and protecting ourselves from the fallout from the crash.  A grim existence.

The basset hound puppy is getting big.  She’s teething horribly and some of her teeth have already fallen out, but she bites Camera Girl’s hands relentlessly.  But she’s enjoying raising the crazy little dog too much to complain.  I on the other hand put on a pair of cowhide gloves whenever I’m in charge of her.  She’s a rambunctious creature but there is an infectious energy when you’re playing with a puppy.  It does make you feel more alive.  So, life goes on.  Even surrounded by crazy people overseas, crazy people in our cities and crazy people running our government we still do the things we must.  And try to find some joy too.

Upheaval and Disaster Stalk the Compound

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Several days ago, I called up my cable and internet provider.  I had previously received a cryptic warning about changes that would take place on a certain date and the equipment I would receive to allow for these marvelous changes to occur.  When the day of reckoning had almost arrived and no equipment arrived, I felt I had no choice but to do the unthinkable.  I would call my service provider up on the telephone.

This may sound like a normal activity.  I simply dial a number and I talk to a human being for a few minutes and communication occurs.  I remember when I still believed in such things.  Ah, those were the days.  Back when the cable guy would be sent to your house and install stuff and adjust things and telephone calls were answered by human beings or at least what sounded like human beings.  Wasn’t that an amazing time?

But now is not that time.  After dialing the number, I was greeted by the robo-voice giving me options in Spanish and English and so began my odyssey.  First in line was the repair/technical journey.  And this was the most straightforward part of the adventure.  They had contacted me.  They had told me what they were going to do.  They were upgrading the speed of my connection and so they had to send me higher speed equipment to take advantage of this upgrade.  And since my present equipment wouldn’t function after the change date, they had promised to send me the magical new equipment.  But where was this new equipment?  What had intervened to prevent my reaching the promised land of higher speed data transfer?

So, I selected Technical.  And then the dreaded canned music began.  It was as stultifyingly boring as anything I have ever heard.  After a mere ten minutes my skin was crawling and I could feel my resolve slipping away.  I was tempted to hang up and call back later.  But I knew the foolishness of such a cowardly act.  After all this was just the first round in what I knew must be an epic struggle to retain consciousness.  I persevered and after a reasonable twenty-minute wait I was speaking to a real live person.  And it was someone who sounded normal.  A woman who spoke English and was polite and understood what I was asking her.  It was too good to be true.  She understood exactly what was supposed to have happened and she only put me on hold for ten minutes while she reviewed the facts of my case.  I was ecstatic.  But what a fool I was.  When she got back, she was noticeably saddened.  She informed me that because my contract was very old the changes proposed could not be performed without transferring me to Billing.

My heart sank.  I had never been transferred to billing without suffering exasperation or even rage.  I have mocked and shouted at billing operators on numerous occasions.  I think it’s part of their training.  Here I was thirty-five minutes into the journey and I was being thrown off the parapet and into the dungeon.  I could hear in her voice just how guilty Technical felt.  It was as if she had given me a death sentence.  I said resignedly, “Okay transfer me.”  And the music began again.

I waited about five minutes.  It’s much easier to get through to Billing than Technical.  Then again nobody really wants to speak to Billing.  The people there are petulant, easily flustered, impolite and not very helpful.  Several times while I attempted to explain what I needed I was cut off by the rep.  And each time it was clear she misunderstood the situation.  Finally, after several system queries, she believed my side of what needed to be done.  She must update my contract to allow the normal equipment shipping order to go through.  The only thing that needed to be done to accomplish the update was to add five cable channels to my selections.  I told her to select them at random.  I didn’t care because I wouldn’t be watching them anyway.  But in an almost gleeful announcement, she told me that only a Specialist could approve the additional channels.  I would have to be transferred yet again.

I don’t think I cried out.  I think I staggered back a step or two.  I choked out the words, “Then transfer me.”  And the elevator music started up again.  I was a solid hour into the call and I knew that the wait for a specialist would be something between twenty-five and thirty-five minutes.  I put the phone down on a table and set it to speaker.  I stared out the window on a sunny fall morning turning quickly to afternoon.  Camera Girl walked by and heard the music and understood what was going on.  I could see she felt for me as a true and loyal wife should.

After the requisite half hour, the Specialist made her presence felt.  And she really was special.  She needed no information from me.  She methodically laid out the actions that she would take and the results that would follow.  She apologized for the problem and assured me that the upgrade would improve my service by a speed increase of 50%.  I was off the call in about two minutes.

An hour and a half.  This is the nature of our relationship to the companies that supposedly connect us to the world.  They erect barriers that punish their customers to avoid communication at all costs.  Remarkable.

And now I am faced with another equally maddening customer service nightmare.  My oil company also provides service on my heating system.  Or in theory they do.  A few days ago, we noticed that there wasn’t any hot water.  Because it’s been so warm for the last few days, we hadn’t noticed that the heating system wasn’t working.  I went into the basement and watched what was going on with the furnace.  When it called for heat the system went through its cycle but when it reached the point where the oil pump turned on it made an awful grinding noise and failed.  I called up the service number and told them what was happening.  They said they’d send a technician within from four to nine hours.  None hours later one showed up and after a couple of hours he had the system running again.  Apparently, a set screw had come loose in the coupling between the motor and the pump.

Hurrah, the system works.  Slowly, maybe, but it worked.  Then this morning, no hot water.  Wonderful.  Well, no shower but the promised four to nine hours later (well let’s just call it ten hours) the same tech is back.  But the news is bad.  Now it’s a part that they don’t stock.  And it’s the weekend.  And now I’m annoyed.  An hour ago, I hear the circulation loop running in the living room.  I run to the basement and see that somehow the heating system is running.  I run upstairs and manage a hot shower.  I’ve beaten the system, at least for tonight.  The weekend is sure to bring more tales of woe from the oil company.  Like the cable company they are there to make my life awful.  But this is the nature of the dysfunctional world we live in.  Customer service is a euphemism for customer abuse.  For them customers are supposed to be kept at arm’s length and prevented from costing anything more than the absolute minimum.  The idea that customer satisfaction is something that these corporations should strive for is laughable.

In both cases my providers are literally the only game in town.  Monopoly compels me to make the best of a bad situation.  Tomorrow I’ll install the new internet and cable devices.  I’m sure there will be numerous snafus.  And tomorrow I’ll begin negotiations with the oil company’s tech manager.  One way or another we’ll get something going.  And that’s the reality of life in Joe Biden’s America.  Satisfied customers are a thing of the past.  Now it’s stand in line and stop complaining if you know what’s good for you.  Welcome comrades.  Enjoy the hold music.  Next!

The Shining (1980) – A Horror Movie Review

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I recently rewatched the movie “The Shining.”  This is the Stanley Kubrick film with Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall in the lead roles.  I saw this movie in the theater when it came out and I am a huge fan of the Stephen King book that it is based on.  In fact, I believe the book was the best thing King ever wrote.

Kubrick is a famous director and I’m sure the deletions from the book’s plot and the changes made were necessary to bring the movie into a reasonable length.  But making these changes makes the movie a different story from the book.  And that makes the book a much richer story than the movie.

That being said, “The Shining” is a great horror movie.  Jack Nicholson was born to play Jack Torrance.  And Shelley Duvall is Wendy Torrance from head to toe.  Watching Jack descend into madness you could believe that no ghosts were necessary.  All of it could be credited to a combination of writer’s block, cabin fever and a disastrous marriage.

But the supernatural aspects of the story are blended into the psychological situation flawlessly.  You really can’t tell where one aspect ends and the other takes over.  The conversations between Jack and Wendy on the one hand and Jack and his spectral associates are so intertwined that it’s obvious that the ghosts understand Jack better than his own wife does.

The plot is telegraphed early on when Jack is interviewing for his job as winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel.  His employer ends the interview by revealing that a few years earlier a man named Delbert Grady who had taken on the job of winter caretaker had gone mad and chopped up his wife and two young daughters with an ax and then committed suicide with a shotgun.  His boss explained that living in the Overlook during the mandatory five-month winter isolation in the remote Colorado location had been known to cause “cabin fever” for some vulnerable souls.

Later on, Jack actually meets Mr. Grady when he shows up as a waiter in the spectral party that seems to run endlessly in the Overlook’s shadow world.  When Jack finds out his friend’s name he asks, “Weren’t you the caretaker here Mr. Grady?”  Grady claims to have no memory of that.  On being further prompted by Jack about his murders and suicide and Jack insisting, “You were the caretaker here.” Grady replies, “You are the caretaker Mr. Torrance, you’ve always been the caretaker here.”

And that’s the essence of how Jack’s destruction is accomplished.  The Hotel (in the person of Grady) plays upon Jack’s sense of failure and his resentment toward his wife and son because of the humiliating employment choices he’s had to make when he yearned to be a writer.  Now the Hotel plays up his importance and the trust that the Hotel has in his competence.  When the Hotel physically attacks his son Danny, Wendy tries to convince Jack to take them back to Denver.  Jack snaps and starts raving about his responsibilities to his employers.  But instead of meaning the owners of the hotel he’s talking about the ghosts.  And from there it’s only a short step to the ax and more murder.

I suspect most people have seen this movie and know the plot.  But I’ll stop there with the plot.  It’s too much fun to give it all away.  Suffice it to say that between little Danny’s gift (the “shining” of the title), the Hotel’s desire to possess Danny and that gift and Jack and Wendy’s deeply scarred marriage this is a powerful witch’s brew of supernatural and psychological horror.  In a later review I’ll tackle the book it’s based on.  And whether you read the book first or watch the movie I’ll leave it to you to decide.  But both are excellent within their medium.

Highly recommended.

(Strong Language warning for this clip)

06OCT2023 – Ah the Irony

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Non-Binary by any other name would smell as sweet.  So the gals in tech are outraged that their job fair has been hijacked by a bunch of Indian and Chinese nerds who claim they are “non-binary.”  Well, well.  I guess if we can’t define a woman then we can’t say whether someone isn’t one.

Keep it coming all you weirdos.  Let the women, whatever they are, stew in the irony of allying themselves against white men for all these years.  Surely the Asian guys who have discovered the joys of non-binary (isn’t computing binary by definition?) will step aside and let the “ladies” through.

No?  Oh well.