It’s over!!! It’s over!!! The Mariners won!!! The Mariners won!!! The Mariners beat the Yankees 6-5! No, the Seattle Mariners did not just win the World Series. Mariners’ 12-game losing streak - the longest since i became a Mariners fan - is finally over!!!
I have just found this neat little thing about iTunes in Mac OS X 10.4.7 (this might work on earlier version of Mac OS X). If you store your music files on a AFP share folder (i am storing some of my iTunes music files on my network-attached storage Thecus N2100), even when the share folder is not mounted, when you try to play the music file in iTunes, the share folder will be AFP-mounted automatically. Cool!
Apparently, Ms Anna Botting of the British Sky News is not the only one suffering from miniscule memory capacity of only a few weeks, our dear President Bush can’t seem to “remember” things that happened barely more than a month ago. According to the Los Angeles Times, Bush in declaring that Hezbollah has been “defeated”, claimed that “Hezbollah attacked Israel, Hezbollah started the crisis, and Hezbollah suffered a defeat in this crisis.”
If the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel started on July 12th, as Mr Bush would want all of us to believe, then it does appear that it was Hezbollah who started the crisis by seizing two Israeli soldiers. But if you are willing to go back as far as Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, you will find how much Israel has been “respecting” Lebanon’s territory between the 2000 withdrawal and the seizing of its two soldiers. According to the Ron HaCohen’s chronicle, copied from the official reports of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon:
Interim report of the secretary-general on the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, April 30, 2001:
“Since the resolution was adopted [i.e., since Israel's withdrawal], the situation has remained essentially unchanged, although there were further developments in the dispute over Shab’a farms area. As before, there were frequent minor ground violations of the Blue Line. There were, in addition, almost daily violations of the line by Israeli aircraft which penetrated deeply into Lebanese airspace. I have been in touch with the parties concerned and other interested parties to urge respect for the Blue Line and to avert further escalation.”
Report of the secretary-general for the period from July 18, 2000, to Jan. 18, 2001:
“Israeli violations of Lebanese air space, which had resumed after Hizbollah’s attack on 7th October, continued on an almost daily basis.”
For the period from Jan. 23, 2001, to July 20, 2001:
“As reported in April, Israeli aircraft violated the line on an almost daily basis, penetrating deep into Lebanese airspace. These incursions, particularly those at low level breaking the sound barrier over populated areas, were especially provocative and caused great anxiety to the civilian population. The air violations are ongoing, despite repeated démarches to the Israeli authorities.”
For the period from July 21, 2001, to Jan. 16, 2002:
“Israeli air violations of the Blue Line, however, continued on an almost daily basis, penetrating deep into Lebanese airspace. These incursions are not justified and cause great concerns to the civilian population, particularly low-altitude flights that break the sound barrier over populated areas. The air violations are ongoing, although démarches to the Israeli authorities […] have been made repeatedly by me, other senior United Nations officials and a number of interested Governments.”
For the period from Jan. 17, 2002, to July 12, 2002:
“Unjustified Israeli air incursions into sovereign Lebanese airspace continued on an almost daily basis throughout most of the reporting period, often penetrating deep into Lebanon and frequently generating sonic booms. In the latter half of April, a pattern emerged whereby the aircraft would fly out to sea and enter Lebanese airspace north of the UNIFIL area of operation, thus avoiding direct observation and verification by UNIFIL. In January Hezbollah began responding to the overflights with anti-aircraft fire. This activity has continued through the present. On a number of occasions […] shells crossed the Blue Line. Calls on Israel to cease the overflights […]”
For the period from July 13, 2002, to Jan. 14, 2003:
“There were sporadic Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace, with periodic lulls in such activity punctuated by abrupt increases over periods of several days. On two occasions in November, Israeli overflights exceeded any recorded number since Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000. Many of these air violations penetrated deep into Lebanon, often generating sonic booms over populated areas. The pattern identified in my last report continued, whereby the aircraft would fly out to sea and enter Lebanese airspace north of the UNIFIL area of operation, thus avoiding direct observation and verification by UNIFIL.”
For the period from Jan. 15, 2003, to July 23, 2003:
“The most significant sources of tension were the persistent Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace and instances of Hezbollah antiaircraft fire directed across the Blue Line towards Israeli villages. […] Israeli air incursions into Lebanon increased overall during the reporting period, though the numbers have declined since early July. UNIFIL recorded almost daily violations across the Blue Line in some weeks. As in the past, Israeli overflights penetrated deep into Lebanon, often generating sonic booms over populated areas.”
For the period from July 24, 2003, to Jan. 19, 2004:
“The recurrent Israeli air incursions into Lebanon continued. The numbers abated at times but periods of little or no activity were invariably followed by an intensification of the flights. […] Hezbollah continued to react […]”
For the period from Jan. 21, 2004, to July 21, 2004:
“A cycle of disruptions and armed exchanges across the Blue Line commenced on 5 May. Israel carried out more than 20 air sorties over Lebanon, a number of which generated sonic booms. Hezbollah subsequently fired several antiaircraft rounds […]”
“Israeli air incursions were on the whole less frequent than in the previous period, although they were notable for their intensity and the large number of aircraft involved. Israeli officials maintained that there would be overflights whenever Israel deemed them necessary. As in the past, Israeli aircraft often penetrated deep […] sonic booms over populated areas […] fly out to the sea […] avoiding direct observation […]”
For the period from July 21, 2004, to Jan. 20, 2005:
“Israeli air incursions into Lebanon continued throughout the reporting period. […] Israeli officials maintained the position that there would be overflights whenever they deemed them necessary. […] As in the past […]”
For the period from Jan. 21, 2005, to July 20, 2005:
“Violations of the Blue Line continued throughout the past six months, most often in the form of recurring air violations by Israeli jets, helicopters and drones as well as ground violations, from the Lebanese side, primarily by Lebanese shepherds. […] The Israeli Air Force continued their air incursion […] deep into Lebanon […] sonic booms […] whenever Israel deemed […]”
For the period from July 22, 2005, to Jan. 20, 2006:
“The Israeli Air Force violated Lebanese airspace on many occasions during the reporting period, disturbing the relative calm along the Blue Line. […] [I]n November, overflights by jets, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles or drones were numerous and particularly intrusive and provocative. […] There were no instances of Hezbollah antiaircraft fire across the Blue Line […].”
For the period from Jan. 21, 2006, to July 18, 2006:
“Persistent and provocative Israeli air incursions […] remained a matter of serious concern. […] A reduction in the number of air incursions in April contributed to an atmosphere of relative calm along the Blue Line, but this trend was reversed in May.”
The common theme among the reports are recurring violations of Lebanese airspace by Israeli jets, intrusive and provocative, causing great distress to the civilian population. And yet, our great “Decider” would bring up none of these reports, not to mention the hundreds of Lebaneses kidnapped by Israel during its 22-year occupation of Lebanon. The key Hezbollah demand is for Israel to release the kidnapped Lebaneses in exchange for the two seized Israeli soldiers.
In the same Los Angeles Times article, Bush also shamelessly said that “none of this would have happened” if a previous resolution, 1559, “had been fully implemented.” In saying that, Bush seemed to imply that the Lebanese and the UN are both to blame for not fully implementing UNSC Resolution 1559, part of which called for the Hezbollah to be disarmed. Let’s take a look at the number of UN Security Council Resolutions on Israel which it has not yet fully implemented:
Resolution 242 (November 22, 1967): Calls on Israel to withdraw its forces from the occupied territories. Israel has since returned the Sinai peninsula to Egypt but it is still occupying Gaza, West Bank, Shebaa Farms and Golan Heights since 1967.
Resolution 425 (March 14, 1978): Calls on Israel to withdraw its forces from Lebanon. Israel withdrawed from most of Lebanon in July 2000 but it is still occupying Shebaa Farms.
Resolution 446 (March 22, 1979): Determines that Israeli settlements are a ’serious obstruction’ to peace and calls on Israel to abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention. There are still hundreds of Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights and West Bank.
Resolution 452 (July 20, 1979): Calls on Israel to cease building settlements in occupied territories. Israel has been building settlements since its occupation of West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights since 1967, and is still expanding existing settlements in West Bank.
Resolution 497 (December 17, 1981): Calls on Israel to rescind its annexation of the Golan Heights. The resolution’s main provision is “the Israeli decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null and void and without international legal effect.” The Golan Heights is still occupied and annexed by Israel.
Why is Mr. Bush not holding Israel accountable for not fully implementing all the past UNSC Resolutions against it? Is there a separate set of rules for Israel from those that are applicable to the rest of the world? If Israel had fully implemented all these resolutions, would the conflicts between Israel and its neighbors, including the Palestinians, have continued until now?
If Israel has ended its occupation of West Bank and Gaza, and has dismantled all its Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, there might not have been any attacks on its citizens from the Palestinians.
If Israel has released all the captured Palestinian women and children, the militant wing of Hamas might not have captured the Israeli soldier.
If Israel has released all the captured Lebaneses, Hezbollah might not have captured the two Israeli soldiers.
If Israel has relinquished its occupation of the Lebanese territory of Shebaa Farms, and has stopped its frequent violations of Lebanese airspace, Hezbollah might not have any excuse to retaliate against Israel.
And finally, if President Bush and all previous recent administrations have been more even-handed in the conflicts involving Israel, in not shielding Israel in the UN security council by vetoing numerous resolutions against Israel, in not supplying more than $3 billion dollars of arms each year to Israel, and in holding Israel accountable for the countless human rights abuses committed by Israel, Israel might have no choice but to implement all those UNSC resolutions.
See how Anna Botting of Sky News got her ass whopped by British MP George Galloway when he confronted her biased reporting in the conflict between Israel and Lebanon.
Back when i was working for my former employer, i thought Microsoft Outlook was the worst email application i had ever used. After changing job, i find myself working for a firm that uses Lotus Notes. I have used several email applications over the years and i have to say that i have never seen a worse email application than Lotus Notes. Lotus Notes has the most illogical and non user-friendly interface. It is like this is version 1.0 of the product. But no, i am already on version 6.5.2 of Lotus Notes. Using Lotus Notes makes me savor the days when i was still using Outlook, and something really has to be that awful for me to say that.
Thanks to slowpoke, i found Lotus Notes Sucks, a site that contains all the things i hate about Lotus Notes and more.
“The difference between Ahmadinejad and Olmert is that the Iranian president is a blowhard. The one who had practical plans to wipe a country off the map was Olmert.”
