September 3rd, 2008

I have always rejoiced in my loyalty to the Sovereign. In fifty-years of service to her peoples, Her Majesty has never once failed to exemplify with dignity, simplicity and good humour all that is best in our institutions and traditions. She is owed, by birthright, our unswerving loyalty, but she has deserved yet more than that: our deepest affection.

August 30th, 2008

…During that committee hearing, at the height of the Lebanon War, Sen. John [sic] Biden (Delaware) had attacked Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria and threatened that if Israel did not immediately cease this activity, the US would have to cut economic aid to Israel.



When the senator raised his voice and banged twice on the table with his fist, Begin commented to him: “This desk is designed for writing, not for fists. Don’t threaten us with slashing aid. Do you think that because the US lends us money it is entitled to impose on us what we must do? We are grateful for the assistance we have received, but we are not to be threatened. I am a proud Jew. Three thousand years of culture are behind me, and you will not frighten me with threats. Take note: we do not want a single soldier of yours to die for us.



After the meeting, Sen. Moynihan approached Begin and praised him for his cutting reply. To which Begin answered with thanks, defining his stand against threats.

Jerusalem Post, 1992, [via] I like your style

August 24th, 2008

August 21st, 2008

I’m really pleased with MobileMe. It’s alone in offering an OSX based, centralized personal data center for calendar, contact and email that can be accessed by any desktop, web or mobile device client and push data pretty well instantly in all directions.

The initial MobileMe glitches, which are evidence, not that the product was badly designed, but just that its launch was not prepared sufficiently, are trivial in comparison with the unique power it offers.

I’m hoping that its two glaring faults, lack of support for own-domain email and poor spam management, will be ironed out in the next release.

August 20th, 2008

Frenchman Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad thanking Allah after his Olympic silver medal at the 3,000 metre steeplechase.

But did he really need to do it crouching on his national flag?

August 5th, 2008

Virulent feminism and assertive homophobic prejudice are now certain to have destroyed that unique, quintessentially English compromise: Anglicanism. Yet recent media coverage has completely overlooked that the issues that have caused the most rancour are actually trivial and non-doctrinal. They risk bringing crashing down an edifice whose original purpose was compromise and in which men and women holding totally incompatible opinions on major subjects of dogma cohabited peacefully for over four hundred years. And homophobic Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria ought to meditate on the fact that there was a time when the Church thought it inappropriate to raise black men to the dignity of the episcopacy.

August 3rd, 2008

Well, I’m now back. Sort of. In English, with a modest assignment of keeping tabs on anything new in my own life and in the world around me.