Individual Liberty — Individual Responsibility 

Cease-fire? What cease-fire?

Is it a cease-fire if all sides don't stop shooting? Hamas and Fatah have agreed to a truce with Israel, but they're not the only terrorists in the neighborhood. Islamic Jihad has been deliberately trying to sabotage the truce, and they promise to step up their efforts if Israel strikes back. The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (supposedly loyal to Fatah) is also not honoring the truce... From Haaretz:

The Iranian-backed militant group Islamic Jihad is firing Qassam rockets at Israel with the intention of sabotaging the month-long Gaza truce and provoking Israeli retaliation, members of the group said Wednesday.

"That's one of the main reason for resuming [rocket] attacks," said Abu Ahmad, a spokesman for the group.

Meanwhike [sic] two rockets fired at Israel Wednesday evening landed south of Ashkelon. There were no injuries or damages in either incident.

An Islamic Jihad rocket attack Tuesday evening on the nearby Negev town of Sderot seriously wounded two 14-year-old boys and triggered the Israeli decision to resume targeting the rocket squads.

In the wake of the Tuesday night strike on Sderot, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz on Wednesday morning instructed the Israel Defense Forces to resume pinpoint operations targeting rocket launching cells in Gaza.

A short time later, another Qassam rocket struck an open area north of the western Negev town, causing no damage or injuries.

...

According to the Prime Minister's Office statement, the IDF has also been instructed to uphold the cease-fire in general. "In parallel, Israel will continue to maintain the ceasefire and work with the Palestinian Authority so that immediate steps are taken to halt the Qassam firings."

Government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said Israel would do its best to preserve the truce, even while attacking rocket-launching cells. "Israel has shown restraint," she said. "Israel will continue to be restrained, and we will only take pinpointed action against the launching cells."

...

Islamic Jihad, however, threatened to increase the rocket fire in response to the decision.

"Stop the attacks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip immediately or expect more rockets on Sderot and on Ashkelon and beyond," warned a leaflet issued by Saraya al-Quds, the military arm of Islamic Jihad.

"There will be no truce with the Israeli enemy at the expense of the blood of our people," the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades also threatened, the semi-official, semi-independent armed wing of President Mahmoud Abbas' opposition Fatah party.

So Islamic Jihad has said that they have begun attacking Israel to provoke a response. At the same time Islamic Jihad has said that if Israel responds to those attacks, they will fire even more rockets. Israel can't win as far as Islamic Jihad is concerned, without responding with total war. The only way that Israel will see peace from Islamic Jihad is when every member of Islamic Jihad is realizing the truth through experience -- There are no virgins awaiting them in Hell.

How long will it be before Tehran owns up to their responsibility in pushing this war of aggression against Israel? Time and again Israel has tried to make peace with the Palestinians only to have that peace threatened by militant terrorists that can't be negotiated with, both from inside and outside Palestine. How much longer must this go on before the world sees the truth?

I'm not going to hold my breath waiting. You can bet that it won't be too long before someone at the United Nations twists this bit of news into yet another resolution condemning Israel. It probably won't be long before President Carter or David Duke calls the restrained actions the IDF takes against the rocket launching cells "unprovoked".

Trackposted to Rightwing Guy, Is It Just Me?, The Bullwinkle Blog, The Random Yak, The HILL Chronicles, and High Desert Wanderer, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

President Ford - R.I.P.

The 38th President of the United States is dead.

Texas Fred has breaking details.

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President Ford served a short term. He was appointed to the Vice Presidency under the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution when Spiro Agnew resigned. He became the United States' only unelected President when Richard Nixon resigned.

He would have been an infinitely better man to serve another term as president than his successor, Jimmy Carter. Sadly it was not to be.

1979 Drag Racing Corvette For Sale

Well, my holiday is over. It's back to work in the morning. I must say it's been refreshing to have a weekend away from work, to celebrate Christmas with my family and to hang out with the kids.

Today wasn't exactly the most fun day I've had though. Thursday night when I got home I parked my car in the driveway. After taking care of a few things in the yard I went inside. Later that night I came out and discovered that my left rear tire was flat. On Friday I was going off to Spokane for a visit with my wife's sister and her husband.

There wasn't time in the morning on Friday to fix the tire. It didn't really matter much since we were taking my wife's van on the trip anyway, so we left it sitting in the driveway. Over the weekend the tire stores were closed. And, of course, they were closed on Monday. So today, I put the spare on the car, and, after taking Lucas to go spend some of his Christmas money on a game for his new Nintendo DS, went off to have the old one repaired or replaced.

When I got there, the parking lot was full of cars (naturally, they were closed for three days). When I got through the line at the counter the woman there told me I would have a two and a half hour wait.

Two and a half hours later and I was beginning to lose my patience. I'm not particularly known for my patience. They still hadn't even started working on my car, and I had seen people come in after I did who appeared to be served before me. The same woman who told me two and a half hours before told me it would be another twenty minutes or so before they got to my car.

I'm afraid I was a bit short with her. She didn't deserve it. About twenty minutes later they finally got to my car. About a half an hour later and it was time to settle up. This time a different person came to talk to me. Someone had noticed that I had bought the tire that had just been replaced at the same store. Because of that I received a deep discount based on the road hazard warranty.

He thanked me for my patience, and I told him that I was sorry that I hadn't actually been more patient. He also noticed the racing participant stickers in the rear window of the car and asked me if I was a racer.

I told him that I had been, but that due to an unfortunate incident that happened near the end of the racing season I was no longer racing, and that I was in fact selling the car. He took the information about the car, but expressed his doubts about buying it.

In any case, if you're interested, I have a 1979 Corvette racecar for sale. The car has been modified for drag racing, with a six point roll bar, and stripped interior. It has a TH350 automatic transmission with a manual shift reverse pattern valve body and ratchet shifter, and the powerplant is a GMPP LT4 crate motor that's had some port work and gasket matching done. The camshaft has also been replaced with the LT4 hot cam.

The car's best quarter mile ET is just under 11.6 seconds, although the quickest I've ever gone with it was in the 11.7s. If you think you might be interested in buying the car, drop me a line in the comments or send me mail at perri AT nofemotorsports dot com.

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Wednesday Hero - 12/27/2006

Every once and awhile I'll do a Wednesday Hero that doesn't profile a single soldier. Sometimes it's been two or three from the same unit, sometimes it's been an entire group of soldiers like the Navajo Code Talkers. I even did an organization once, Operation Iraqi Children. This weeks Wednesday Hero is one of those sometimes. This weeks Wednesday Heroes are the parents of soldiers.

These people sacrifice just as much, if not more, than the soldiers themselves. They, in many cases, are having their babies leave home for the first time in their lives. While most parents only have to adjust to them moving a few miles away or going off to college, these Blue Star Parents have to watch their children go off to a very dangerous situation and can only hope and pray that everything will turn out okay. I don't have children of my own, so I can't even imagine what that is like. We have a few Blue Star Parents in the blogroll, so to them, and every parent of a Hero, I tell you we all stand with and support you and your family.

There's a site that everyone should check out if they haven't already. Blue Star Mothers Of America.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero. We Have Every Right To Dream Heroic Dreams. Those Who Say That We're In A Time When There Are No Heroes, They Just Don't Know Where To Look

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. If you would like to participate in honoring the brave men and women who serve this great country, you can find out how by clicking here.