-Abu Sinan’s eldest son, Sinan, is sick right now. Everyone please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery.

-Some asshole just stole about $100 from me by using my credit card. I canceled the card and am trying to get the money back before the 1st, when I need it for rent and bills. I have to wonder what goes through peoples’ heads; the person ordered a bunch of things to be delivered to their place, which means they’ll likely be easy to find, which means they’ll probably be in big trouble for theft and for what? Some videos from Colombia House and some tracks off of itunes? Peoples’ priorities never cease to astound me.

-McCain has disowned Hagee’s endorsement. No, not because of the anti-Catholic or Anti-Muslim sentiment, or even the remarks about Hurricane Katrina being a punishment for homosexuals (a weird view to take, N’awlins is not exactly a hub of gay life). No, apparently back in the 90s, Hagee said this;

“Theodore Hertzel is the father of Zionism. He was a Jew who at the turn of the 19th century said, this land is our land, God wants us to live there. So he went to the Jews of Europe and said ‘I want you to come and join me in the land of Israel.’ So few went that Hertzel went into depression. Those who came founded Israel; those who did not went through the hell of the holocaust.

Then god sent a hunter. A hunter is someone with a gun and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter. And the Bible says — Jeremiah writing — ‘They shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and from the holes of the rocks,’ meaning there’s no place to hide. And that might be offensive to some people but don’t let your heart be offended. I didn’t write it, Jeremiah wrote it. It was the truth and it is the truth. How did it happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said my top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel.”

I don’t get the uproar. The statement is both idiotic and offensive, but it’s just a logical extension of all the evangelical nuttiness over Israel. I mean, Pat Robertson says that during the rapture the Jews “will call out in vain to the one they have so long denied” (and he doesn’t mean Jesse Jackson). I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; evangelicals love Israel like child molesters love playgrounds, and any Jews allying with them are wading in some bad waters.

-As much as Tibet protesters piss me off sometimes and in my view acted disgracefully during the Olympic torch’s move to China (as if Americans have any fucking room to criticize anyone else for unjust occupations), I am also not a sinopologist and I hope that the recent controversy will bring some real attention to the issue. I would like to simply see an honest dialog for once where people don’t dismiss Tibet as a “hippy cause” or present the Dalai Lama as some sort of demigod presiding over a perfect state before the mean ol’ Chinese invaded. Change needs to come, but not in the form of a return to a medieval theocracy propped up by the CIA.

-Trying to stay eating healthy lately, and have discovered a great breakfast for that; ricotta cheese pancakes. Seriously, try them. Delicious, filling, and if you do them right, healthy.

-My USB cable is not working, so haven’t been able to put up the newer pics on my flickr page. Hopefully I’ll have some up later this week. In the meantime, though, anyone who reads the blog and has flickr, throw me a contact message. http://www.flickr.com/photos/parallel_sidewalk/

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