Desperation?

David Ignatius in the Washington Post appears to be trying to act as an intermediary for Hezbollah.

To stop the war in Lebanon, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will need to start with some basics: The best strategy for containing a militia such as Hezbollah is to build a strong Lebanese state; any lasting solution for this conflict will be political, not just military; continued Israeli bombardment of Lebanon to destroy terrorists might backfire by creating another failed state from which terrorists can operate more freely.

The outlines of a settlement that recognizes these basics were floated Monday in Beirut. The Lebanese urged Rice to consider a compromise package — of the sort that Beirutis describe in a French phrase meaning "neither victor nor vanquished." That kind of negotiated truce would not please those on either side who would like to see their adversaries eradicated. But it might be the best chance of achieving Rice's goal of replacing the dangerous prewar status quo in Lebanon with something more secure and stable for everyone.

….

Lebanese sources outlined for me the compromise package they say was discussed Monday when Rice met with Fouad Siniora, the Lebanese prime minister, and Nabih Berri, the parliament speaker and leader of the Shiite militia known as Amal. The cornerstone of this package, according to my sources, is that Hezbollah would agree to withdraw its armed fighters from south Lebanon and accept an international force there that would accompany the Lebanese army. Israel, for its part, would agree to halt its attacks and lift its air and sea blockade. The United States would call for negotiations over the return of a disputed territory known as Shebaa Farms, claimed by Lebanon even though the United Nations ruled in 2000 that it was Syrian.

Within 24 hours after a cease-fire, there would be an exchange of prisoners as part of this package: Hezbollah would give up the two Israeli soldiers it captured in the July 12 border raid that started the crisis; Israel would release Lebanese prisoners it holds. The package also includes some minor provisions, including an Israeli agreement to provide maps of land mines placed just north of the Lebanon-Israel border.

What's in it for Israel to accept such a deal, which would allow Hezbollah to survive? The answer is that an attempt to go all the way and destroy the Shiite militia would require a full-scale invasion of Lebanon, and might well misfire in the same way as Israel's 1982 invasion. Better to go for a solid half a loaf — pushing armed Hezbollah fighters north of the Litani River and bringing in an international force to help the Lebanese army police a buffer zone — than to risk further setbacks.

Lets all put the best face on this. Ignatius means well here. He wants to stop the bloodshed. A good and a noble cause. I think his desire to do so may be overriding his reporter's instincts. Something about this effort to contact a WaPo opinion writer directly, stinks out loud of desperation. I think Hezbollah is in serious trouble and knows it. They are actively trying to get the Western press to support a deal - any deal - that allows them to survive. Because Israel is hurting them a lot worse than they thought possible. I think I see what is blinding Ignatius on this issue in his final paragraph:

Wars end when both sides decide they can gain more from a negotiated settlement than from continued fighting. Nearly two weeks into the Lebanon war, Israel and Hezbollah both seem split between those who think they can gain from more combat and those ready to cut a deal. As of late Tuesday, Rice was continuing to resist mounting international demands for a cease-fire, presumably to allow Israel more time to hammer Hezbollah. But that strategy is becoming dangerous for all sides. Rice should turn now to negotiating a formula that can halt the bombs and rockets — and enhance the authority of the Lebanese state. Bargaining with the devil (or at least the devil's intermediary) is part of the job description for an American secretary of state. (Emphasis added)

No, Mr. Ignatius. Wars end when someone wins. And I sincerely am beginning to think Israel is winning or Hezbollah would not be trying this back channel approach. It already looks likely that Hamas has folded because of a robust Israeli response. It may be instructive to see what happens to Hezbollah because of their failed strategy and gross miscalculations. Maybe it's time to stop dealing with devils.

Bubbling Crude

Come 'n listen to my story 'bout a man named Jed
A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed
And then one day, he was shootin' at some food
And up through the ground come a bubblin' crude
Oil, that is, black gold, Texas tea
Beverly Hillbillies theme

So, are oil prices right now actually a bubble? Could they collapse? Could George Soros be involved? Robert Samuelson asks two out of three of those questions (not the Soros one) in the Washington Post.

Could there be an oil "bubble''? Well, yes. In early 2002 oil sold for roughly $20 a barrel; now it's close to $75. The main cause lies in tightening supply and demand — and the fact that supply (as the present Middle East fighting reminds us) could be interrupted at any time. Old-fashioned speculation may also have played a role, and that raises the possibility of a bubble. But any bubble would be a peculiar beast, and if it burst and prices dropped significantly, we shouldn't delude ourselves into thinking that this might signal a new era of comfortable abundance. It wouldn't.

In financial bubbles, prices become disconnected from "fundamentals." At the height of the tech bubble, stocks of dot-com companies with no profits (and little prospect for them) sold at fabulous prices. By contrast, oil prices aren't unhinged from "fundamentals." Despite all the griping, gasoline is still affordable. Even at $3 a gallon, it costs Americans only about 4 percent of their disposable income, reports economist Nigel Gault of Global Insight. The same is true globally. At $70 a barrel, global crude sales would total about $2.2 trillion annually; that's still a tiny share of the $50 trillion world economy.

So is the price of oil disconnected from reality? Yes and no.

For decades, crude was in surplus. In 1985, for example, the world used 60 million barrels daily (mbd) of oil, while countries could produce about 70 mbd. Refineries were also in surplus; in 1985, U.S. refineries operated at 78 percent of capacity. Loss of crude supplies or refineries didn't create scarcities. "Historically, when something went wrong — and something was always going wrong, a pipeline outage or refinery accident — the problem was made up somewhere else," says economist Lawrence Goldstein of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation, an industry think tank. Prices moved by a few pennies or dimes. Hardly anyone noticed.

Now demand is about 85 mbd, and extra capacity is 1 to 2 mbd. Even this surplus is more apparent than real, notes Goldstein. It consists mainly of high-sulfur ("sour'') oil, for which there is scant refining capacity. All refineries are stretched tight. The U.S. operating rate typically exceeds 90 percent of capacity — a margin needed for maintenance.

Samuelson makes the case that it really doesn't matter if there is a temporary collapse in price. We still should be finding and using alternate sources. He's likely right, but I suspect that there is no silver bullet, either.

Human Shields - Or Not - As The Case May Be

There is one - and only one as far as I can tell - report coming out of Gaza that Israeli troops used civilians as human shields. This is from the BBC and is based on a single report of an advocacy group with the stated mission of:

… B'Tselem acts primarily to change Israeli policy in the Occupied Territories and ensure that its government, which rules the Occupied Territories, protects the human rights of residents there and complies with its obligations under international law.

They receive their funding:

B'Tselem is independent and is funded by contributions from foundations in Israel, Europe, and North America that support human rights activity worldwide, and by private individuals in Israel and abroad. (Ed Note: And I would dearly love to know where all that money is coming from, wouldn't you?)

This report is based on an uncorroborated statement from one Hazem Ali:

The three brothers were blindfolded, says Hazem, and their hands tied behind their backs. He shows me the wounds on his wrists from the plastic handcuffs - still sore and infected, but beginning to heal over.

He shows me where the soldiers positioned them: outside the entrance to his flat on the third floor, in the stairwell, facing down the steps.

"I think they put us here because they were expecting suiciders to come into the flat because none of the soldiers were on the stairs - they were all inside the flat. They put us here so we'll be shot first."

Inside the flat, the soldiers punched holes in the walls of his living room, and bedroom. Through them, snipers exchanged fire with Palestinian militants. Hazem and his brothers heard it all, but could see nothing.

Hazem says he had little idea at the time exactly how long he was kept there. All he remembers was listening to the heavy gunfire around him, and counting the calls to prayer as they echoed over the area: one at lunchtime, one at tea-time, and one in the evening as the sun set. Twelve hours in all.

He says he expected to die any second. He still can't understand why, as civilians, they couldn't be kept in a room somewhere inside the house, where they would have been safer. But they put us in the middle of the clashes, he says. "There was no need for that."

(There is a picture of Ali's arm in the story. The supposed mark from the plastic cuffs appears to be very high on his arm. If the cuff were placed in that spot, there would be more than enough slack in the cuff for Ali to have slid the cuff off over his wrist. That should be obvious to a casual observer. If you doubt that, get a nylon cable tie and try it yourself. If it is positioned that high on the arm, your wrist will slip right out. Cuffs are normally applied just above the wrist bones to avoid that possibility.)

Aside from all of that read this again:

He shows me where the soldiers positioned them: outside the entrance to his flat on the third floor, in the stairwell, facing down the steps.

"I think they put us here because they were expecting suiciders to come into the flat because none of the soldiers were on the stairs - they were all inside the flat. They put us here so we'll be shot first."

Inside the flat, the soldiers punched holes in the walls of his living room, and bedroom. Through them, snipers exchanged fire with Palestinian militants. Hazem and his brothers heard it all, but could see nothing. (Emphasis added)

So, they put the men out  away from the gunfire? And that is using them as human shields?

All of that said. IF the Israeli unit in question actually used these men as human shields, of course it is wrong and they should be disciplined for it. But it is not the systematic, continuous use of human shields the Hezbollah thugs use, as even the UN has charged. So yes, Kathy, I would condemn it if it didn't stink this badly as being a false charge meant to stir up the left. As it has done so well in your case.

“Now It Is Finally Clear To Everyone…”

"…that these rockets do more damage to Palestinians than Israelis," said Qais Abu Leila, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization. This is an enormous development. The Guardian reports on the potential offer of a ceasefire from the Palestinians in Gaza.

Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have agreed to stop firing rockets at Israel and to free a captured Israeli soldier in a deal brokered by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.

The deal, agreed on Sunday, is to halt the rocket attacks in return for a cessation of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, and to release Corporal Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier captured on June 25, in exchange for the freeing of Palestinian prisoners at some point in the future.

An adviser to Mr Abbas told the Guardian that all Palestinian politicians were united on the need to free the Israeli soldier and stop all violence in Gaza, but the obstacles were the Israeli government and the Hamas leadership in Damascus.

"The problem is that both Islamic Jihad and Hamas have to seek the advice of their political bureaux in Damascus and we are waiting for their response," he said.

Ibrahim al-Naja, a Hamas minister in Ramallah, told the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz: "This initiative was presented in an attempt to alleviate Palestinian suffering, but now it depends on Israel, which is showing no indication yet of its willingness for a ceasefire."

The ceasefire has yet to take hold completely but there has been a marked reduction in the number of rockets fired at Israel. A spokeswoman for the Israeli army said 16 Qassam rockets were fired at Israel on Sunday, seven on Monday and three on Tuesday. None caused any injuries.

Qais Abu Leila, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, said the Hizbullah rocket attacks had highlighted the futility of Palestinian attempt to build home-made rockets. "Now it is finally clear to everyone that these rockets do more damage to Palestinians than Israelis," he said.

The Israeli army has withdrawn from all areas of the Gaza Strip but is still firing shells and carrying out air attacks. Five civilians, including two children, were killed by Israeli shells on Monday. An adviser to Amir Peretz, the defence minister, said there was still no agreement but added: "There are negotiations going on."

I had an earlier post on proportionality linked by a left-leaning site that did not agree with my opinion that a slap should be responded to with a roundhouse.

I think the roundhouse got the Palestinian's attention this time. And now maybe the two sides can work toward true proportionality of zero for zero.

Irresponsible Words

Kofi Annan has, if possible, sunk even lower than his past corrupt and irresponsible behavior. He has made the diplomatic equivalent of a capital charge against a sovereign nation. This is so irresponsible that words fail me.

Some four peacekeepers on Tuesday were killed in an Israel Air Force strike on a UN base in southern Lebanon.

Israel said on Wednesday it regrets the "tragic" deaths of the four and will thoroughly investigate the causes that led to the unintentional strike that killed them.

"Israel sincerely regrets the tragic death of the U.N. personnel in south Lebanon," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had earlier called for an inquery into what he called Israel's "apparently deliberate targetting" of the UN observer force. (Emphasis added)

The four peacekeepers were killed after a bomb directly impacted the building and shelter of an Indian patrol base from the observer force in the town of Khiyam near the eastern end of the border with Israel, said Milos Struger, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon known as UNIFIL.

"There are casualties among the observers. UNIFIL immediately despatched a rescue and medical team and they're currently on the location but unable to clear the rubble," Struger told The Associated Press late Tuesday.

Despite the use of the word 'apparently' charges like that can not be laid unless there is hard evidence. Unless Mr. Annan produces that evidence - immediately - this charge is unconscionable, irresponsible and grounds for Mr. Annan to lose his job once and for all. Mr. Annan has demonstrated his antipathy toward Israel time and time again. This is the last straw, or should be.

UPDATE: More from CNN.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was "deeply distressed" by the "apparently deliberate" strike.

"This coordinated artillery and aerial attack on a long-established and clearly marked U.N. post at Khiyam occurred despite personal assurances given to me by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that U.N. positions would be spared Israeli fire," he said in a statement.

"Furthermore, General Alain Pelligrini, the U.N. force commander in south Lebanon, had been in repeated contact with Israeli officers throughout the day on Tuesday, stressing the need to protect that particular U.N. position from attack."

Ayalon called Annan's statement "outrageous," while Israel's U.N. ambassador, Dan Gillerman, said he, too, was "deeply distressed" that Annan alleged that the strike was deliberate.

"I am surprised at these premature and erroneous assertions made by the secretary-general, who while demanding an investigation, has already issued its conclusions," Gillerman said in a statement.

The IDF said it was looking into the report, which came as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice proposed an ambitious plan in which international military forces would help the Lebanese government stabilize southern Lebanon, Lebanese political sources said.

The Fury Of The Norsemen

From the fury of the Norsemen, O Lord deliver us. An old Irish prayer dating back from when the vikings were invading Ireland starting around the year 795. Now, there's no hint that the Norsemen had anything to do with this particular find, but the timing seems about right. And it would have been likely that someone would have tried to hide valuables if the Norsemen were coming. A worker digging in a bog in Ireland spotted something just beyond his backhoe bucket. He stopped and looked and discover a book of psalms, dating from somewhere between 800 and 1000 AD.

The approximately 20-page book has been dated to the years 800-1000. Trinity College manuscripts expert Bernard Meehan said it was the first discovery of an Irish early medieval document in two centuries.

"This is really a miracle find," said Pat Wallace, director of the National Museum of Ireland, which has the book stored in refrigeration and facing years of painstaking analysis before being put on public display.

"There's two sets of odds that make this discovery really way out. First of all, it's unlikely that something this fragile could survive buried in a bog at all, and then for it to be unearthed and spotted before it was destroyed is incalculably more amazing."

He said an engineer was digging up bogland last week to create commercial potting soil somewhere in Ireland's midlands when, "just beyond the bucket of his bulldozer, he spotted something." Wallace would not specify where the book was found because a team of archaeologists is still exploring the site.

"The owner of the bog has had dealings with us in past and is very much in favor of archaeological discovery and reporting it," Wallace said.

Crucially, he said, the bog owner covered up the book with damp soil. Had it been left exposed overnight, he said, "it could have dried out and just vanished, blown away."

The really ironic thing? The book was open to a certain page:

The book was found open to a page describing, in Latin script, Psalm 83, in which God hears complaints of other nations' attempts to wipe out the name of Israel.

17-Year Old Sniper Suspect Held

A 17-year old has allegedly confessed to a series of sniper attacks in Indiana that killed one man, wounded another and damaged a number of vehicles.

Zachariah Blanton was arrested earlier in the day and was jailed in Jackson County. He faced preliminary charges of murder, attempted murder and criminal recklessness, prosecutor Stephen Pierson said.

Blanton, of Gaston, admitted to the sniper shootings during questioning by investigators, State Police Superintendent Paul Whitesell said.

Blanton's great-aunt told The Star Press of Muncie that she was shocked by the allegations against him. "I can't imagine that he would be involved," Denise Blanton said.

Pierson said state police had recovered a rifle they believed was used in the shootings. The two sniper victims were hit early Sunday as they rode in pickup trucks on Interstate 65 near Seymour, south of Indianapolis.

About two hours later, bullets struck a moving tractor-trailer and a parked sport-utility vehicle on I-69 in Delaware County, about 100 miles to the northeast near Blanton's home. No one was hurt in those shootings.

It's a good thing they caught this guy before he could do more damage.

The Bear Truth

The animal uprising continues and it's now getting even more ominous. We have brought you plenty of tails tales of the key role the bears are playing. Now they have kicked it up a notch. They are trying to catch joggers and bicyclists. And this past weekend, they got one.

DENVER - Triathlete Sabrina Oei was speeding downhill at nearly 40 mph, cycling through the Colorado foothills during a race, when something brought her to a sudden, painful, stop: a bear.
 
Oei, 31, slammed broadside into a black bear when it wandered onto the race course Sunday. She went airborne, then slid on her back across the pavement.

She wasn't seriously injured and even finished the triathlon. The bear didn't seem to be hurt, either, scampering back into the woods.

But the unusual high-speed encounter is a dramatic example of what experts are seeing across the West as drought forces bears to forage farther for food while urban development pushes into formerly wild areas.

Oei said she was focusing on the paved trail in the Boulder Peak Triathlon, which draws more than 1,400 athletes to a course just three miles outside of Boulder. She spotted the bear out of the corner of her eye and knew in a flash she had no way to avoid it.

"It was just unbelievable," Oei said Monday, recovering from scrapes and bruises. "In that moment you think, 'I'm going to hit this bear.'"

Oei's encounter is the latest anecdotal evidence coming in from around the West this year: In Nevada, near Lake Tahoe, a bear climbed into a vintage convertible July 2 and snacked on pizza and beer as a crowd gathered. In Alaska, a bear charged a jogger in an Anchorage city park this month. In Colorado Springs, a woman last week came home to find a bear rummaging through her refrigerator.

Colorado Division of Wildlife biologist Jerry Apker said encounters are up and will likely become even more frequent next month when bears start packing on weight for the winter.

"By mid-August, they start shifting gears when they start feeding. They might be foraging 22 hours a day," he said.

See! See! They are going for the fit ones! There will be no survival for the fittest! Don't say we didn't warn you. Stop exercising at once. (At last we have a good excuse! "Sorry, honey. I can't go for a walk. The bears will eat me.")

Hezbollah’s Surprise

In the first public admission that they made a major miscalculation, a senior Hezbollah official said that they had not expected Israel to react as they did to the kidnaping of two soldiers.

A senior Hizbullah official said Tuesday the guerrillas did not expect Israel to react so strongly to its capture of two IDF soldiers this month.

Mahmoud Komati, the deputy chief of the Hezbollah politburo, also said that his group would not lay down arms.

His comments were the first time that a leader from the Islamic militant group has suggested it miscalculated the consequences of the July 12 cross-border raid that seized the two.
"The truth is - let me say this clearly - we didn't even expect (this) response…. that (Israel) would exploit this operation for this big war against us," said Komati.

He said Hizbullah had expected "the usual, limited response" from Israel.

In the past, he said, Israeli responses to Hizbullah actions included sending in commandos into Lebanon and kidnapping Hizbullah officials or briefly targeting specific Hizbullah strongholds in southern Lebanon.

He said his group had also anticipated negotiations to swap the soldiers with three Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails, with Germany acting as a mediator as it has in past prisoner exchanges.

Komati also gave higher casualty figures for the guerrillas than the 11 the group has reported so far in the 13-day-old conflict. He said that as of Monday 25 were killed, including 17 in ground fighting with IDF troops assaulting several south Lebanese border towns since the weekend.

I'm also guessing their casualties are higher than they are letting on.

UPDATE:

UPDATE: Reader_I_Am from Done With Mirrors also sees the problems with proportionality being seen as weakness by bullies. The fact that Hezbollah thought it would be just business as usual shows the mindset.

A Long Journey Home

Confederate Yankee has a great post up about the effort to bring home the longest serving World War Two era Fletcher class destroyer, the John Rodgers (DD-574).

Holmes And Watson Ride Again

While cleaning the birdcage, yet another fragment of a manuscript written by Dr. Watson fell out of the newspaper used to line the bottom of the cage. Are we lucky or what?

       The Adventure of Leopold's Thumb

Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his notice — that of Leopold's thumb, and that of Colonel Warburton's lost luggage. Of these the latter may have afforded a finer opportunity for generating salable copy, but the other was so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it does give me gas even to think about it. The story has,
I believe, been told more than once in the blogs, but, like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when set forth en bloc in a single belch of pixels than when the facts slowly evolve before your own eyes. As each clue piles one upon the other, eventually you get bored and fall asleep, smacking your forehead sharply on the
keyboard. Which is how I got this raging headache and the reverse image of the letters 'QWERTY' embossed on my dome.

 One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by the maid tapping at the door to announce that a man had come from Paddington and was waiting in the consulting-room. I dressed hurriedly, not even bothering to tie the laces on my shoes. After examining the man for only a moment, I ran to get Holmes.
"Come quickly," I exclaimed, "It is the worst case I have ever seen!"
As we enetered the examining room we beheld the sight of the man, Who I will call 'George', Sitting quietly with a jumble of words and letters heaped all around him on the floor.
"What's all this, then!" Holmes nearly shouted.
"I do not know what is afflicting me, sir. That is why I came to see the doctor." George answered, hesitantly. As he spoke his words became visible, floating gently in the air in front of him. Then the words began to change!
"I do not know who you think you are but I know people who can hunt you down like a dog and that is why I came to see the doctor." His words now read.

"I have never seen anything like this before, Holmes! What can it be, his words are visible!" I was shaking, I was so overwrought.
"Calm yourself, Watson. The words becoming visible happens all the time. You must not watch enough cartoons. It is the changing of the words that is of concern. This is easily the worst case of word-in-mouth-itis I have ever seen!"
"Can you help me, good sirs?" George pleaded. His words writhed and changed to,"I'm going to shoot your dog, then steal your woman".
"Elementary, my dear George. I know the proximate cause of the phenomenon you are being subjected to. I sense the presence of Leopold's Thumb!"

"Leopold's thumb?" I asked, "What is this affliction? I have never heard of it!"
"It is a condition caused by a sockpuppet rewriting your words and republishing them on a blog". Holmes answered. "There's only one way to cure it! We must get the TRUTHOUT!"
I shuddered in horror as I realized I could see Holmes' words! They shimmered and heaved and became something entirely different as I watched.
"I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too."
I turned to flee……

Here endeth the fragment.

Proportionality

I think Richard Cohen is trying to make amends for his column last week where he called Israel a mistake.

If by chance you have the search engine LexisNexis and you punch in the words "Israel'' and "disproportionate,'' you run the risk of blowing up your computer or darkening your entire neighborhood. Just limiting the search to newspapers and magazines of the last week will turn up "more than 1,000 documents.'' Israel may be the land of milk and honey but it certainly seems to be the land of disproportionate military response — and a good thing, too.

The list of those who have accused Israel of not being in harmony with its enemies is long and, alas, distinguished. It includes, of course, the United Nations and its secretary general, Kofi Annan. It also includes a whole bunch of European newspapers whose editorial pages call for Israel to respond, it seems, with only one missile for every one tossed its way. Such neat proportion is a recipe for doom.

The dire consequences of proportionality are so clear that it makes you wonder if it is a fig leaf for anti-Israel sentiment in general. Anyone who knows anything about the Middle East knows that proportionality is madness. For Israel, a small country within reach, as we are finding out, of a missile launched from any enemy's back yard, proportionality is not only inapplicable, it is suicide. The last thing it needs is a war of attrition. It is not good enough to take out this or that missile battery. It is necessary to re-establish deterrence: You slap me, I will punch out your lights.

I am one of those who believe that well-meaning people, by trying to limit Israel and the US by holding them to a high standard of conduct while giving the other side a pass on their behavior, actually cause more death and destruction. But I'm funny that way.

It's clear now that those boundaries — a wall, a fence, a whatever — are immaterial when it comes to missiles. Hezbollah, with the aid of Iran and Syria, has shown that it is no longer necessary to send a dazed suicide bomber over the border — all that is needed is the requisite amount of thrust and a warhead. That being the case, it's either stupid or mean for anyone to call for proportionality. The only way to ensure that babies don't die in their cribs and old people in the streets is to make the Lebanese or the Palestinians understand that if they, no matter how reluctantly, host those rockets, they will pay a very, very steep price.

Readers of my recent column on the Middle East can accuse me of many things, but not a lack of realism. I know Israel's imperfections, but I also exult and admire its achievements. Lacking religious conviction, I fear for its future and note the ominous spread of European-style anti-Semitism throughout the Muslim world — and its boomerang return to Europe as a mindless form of anti-Zionism. Israel is, as I have often said, unfortunately located, gentrifying a pretty bad neighborhood. But the world is full of dislocated peoples and we ourselves live in a country where the Indians were pushed out of the way so that — oh, what irony! — the owners of slaves could spread liberty and democracy from sea to shining sea. As for Europe, who today cries for the Greeks of Anatolia or the Germans of Bohemia?

These calls for proportionality rankle. They fall on my ears not as genteel expressions of fairness, some ditsy Marquess of Queensberry idea of war, but as ugly sentiments pregnant with antipathy toward the only state in the Middle East that is a democracy. After the Holocaust, after 1,000 years of mayhem and murder, the only proportionality that counts is zero for zero. If Israel's enemies want that, they can have it in a moment.

I think the zero for zero proportionality is something to strive for. But until then, a slap should bring a roundhouse in return.

Shocking Article On The Big Dig

It's shocking because it is from the AP and it is not a thinly disguised political hit piece, like the Washington Post ran a few days ago. It actually points to the bureaucratic failures instead of trying to pin it on "Republican governors".

BOSTON - When Boston's Big Dig was still on the drawing board, state and federal transportation officials picked an engineering powerhouse and a smaller, well-established firm to build the forbiddingly complex tangle of tunnels, ramps, bridges and highways.

And then, critics say, the officials stepped back and let the two companies do their job with little or no oversight.

In the weeks since 12 tons of ceiling panels from a Big Dig tunnel fell, crushing a woman to death in a car, critics say one of the key flaws in the project was the way it was managed.

Bechtel Civil Inc., part of San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp., teamed up with the design firm of Parsons, Brinckerhoff Quade and Douglas Inc. to work on the project, starting in 1985. The consortium was known as Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff.

"It's been the fox guarding the hen house," said Sen. Steven Baddour, chairman of the Legislature's Joint Transportation Committee. "They are the only entity that has been with the project from the very beginning, and they've skated."

The $14.6 billion Big Dig, the most expensive highway project in U.S. history, has been plagued by delays, cost overruns, leaks, falling debris and allegations of shoddy workmanship and inferior materials.

Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff has largely avoided blame, despite occasional talk among state officials to ban it from other projects.

Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff required that questions for this story be submitted in writing so they could be reviewed by its attorneys. Nearly a week later, the company still had not provided a response.

Considering the size and number of lawsuits they almost certainly will be defending themselves from, it's not at all surprising they do not want to talk to the press. Read the whole thing if you're interested in seeing how a bureaucracy can fail to provide adequate oversight. Kudos to the reporter, Steve LeBlanc, for playing it straight and not turning it into a hit piece.

Diversion To Macedonia

Need a break from politics and war? How about a virtual trip to explore Macedonia.? Long a crossroads of empires and perennial battleground, here's a tour of both the nation's history and it's present. Don't miss the pictures.

Step Away From The Koi

One wonders just what in heck the State of Maine is thinking. Or if they are thinking at all. Armed game wardens and police conducted a raid on a restaurant in Freeport, Maine owned by a man who escaped from Vietnam 25 years ago. The massive display of police authority was used to seize the subject of the search warrant the wardens had obtained.

10 pet koi that had been living in a fish tank at the restaurant for 15 years.

FREEPORT, Maine - Armed game wardens seized 10 exotic fish from the tank of a popular Chinese restaurant, leaving its owner shaken and outraged.

"They treated me like a criminal," said Cuong Ly, who escaped from Vietnam 25 years ago. "I lived under communism and I felt like I'm back there again."

Ly, 45, said his pet koi were like family members and their confiscation in what he described as a heavy-handed raid made him "want to explode inside."

After obtaining a search warrant, two uniformed wardens and a biologist, accompanied by Freeport police, visited China Rose on Wednesday, taking away the 10 fish that ranged in size from 12 to 14 inches (30.5 to 35.5 centimeters).

The koi had been on display since Ly opened the restaurant nearly 15 years ago and he credited them for bringing good luck to the business in a way akin to the arrangement of articles in the ancient Chinese practice of feng shui.

A few years ago, however, Maine outlawed the importation and possession of koi, and Ly was charged with importing freshwater fish without a permit.

"These fish can grow to be very large," said Sgt. Tim Spahr of the Maine Warden Service. "And when they grow out of their indoor habitat, they may be taken to a lake or a river or stream, and what you have is an invasive species that can compete with the native fisheries."

Spahr said wardens had acted in response to a tip but he could not comment on the specifics of Ly's case while it was pending. The warden said he personally had been involved in three koi seizure cases within the past year.

Apparently there's a hot koi ring operating in Maine. The authorities turned the koi over to a pet store which promptly sold them back to Cuong Ly. Which goes to show exactly how dunder-headed this law is in the first place.

The koi were transported to the Little Shop of Pets in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which agreed to let Ly buy them back.

Ly, which planned to place his koi with a relative in Boston while awaiting the final outcome, said he could not bear losing the fish.

"It's like someone taking your dog or your cat away," he said. "These are like my children. I clean the tank every other week, keep them nice and healthy, clean and happy. As long as the fish are happy, I'm happy, and I do good business."

This is the kind of stupid, heavy-handed police activity that makes a state, and some of the laws they pass, look really, really dumb.