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Comment Re: Nuke those terrorists (Score 1) 868

I am saddened to read your most recent addition to our conversation here. Where to begin? Perhaps at the point where you insinuated that Israel's plight in Gaza might lead them to chose to, well, here are your own words:

"They could just march through Gaza killing every last brownskin, and they haven't."

This pathetic bit of race-baiting has been frequently bandied about by those who hope to use the "racial" sensitivities of their intended audience to fuel their attempts at demonization of Israel in her trials with her Arab neighbors. And of course it fits well with that other slander of "apartheid". Well, what of it? How do Israelis stack up, "racially" speaking, against their neighbors? Let's go to Wikipedia because it's so easily accessible to us:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_people

DNA and genetic studies

In recent years, many genetic studies have demonstrated that, at least paternally, most of the various Jewish ethnic divisions and the Palestinians - and in some cases other Levantines - are genetically closer to each other than the Palestinians or European Jews to non-Jewish Europeans.[111]

One DNA study by Nebel found genetic evidence in support of historical records that "part, or perhaps the majority" of Muslim Palestinians descend from "local inhabitants, mainly Christians and Jews, who had converted after the Islamic conquest in the seventh century AD".[111] They also found substantial genetic overlap between Muslim Palestinians and Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews, though with some significant differences that might be explainable by the geographical isolation of the Jews and by immigration of Arab tribes in the first millennium.[111]

Surprised?

Let me reiterate the first sentence so that there is no mistaking it:

In recent years, many genetic studies have demonstrated that, at least paternally, most of the various Jewish ethnic divisions and the Palestinians ... are genetically closer to each other than the Palestinians or European Jews to non-Jewish Europeans.

I'll bet you didn't know that. You saw suntans in Gaza and thought, well, you wrote what you thought, friend, but there are some pretty deep suntans in Israel also.

Alas for the hate-mongers, the genetics don't jibe with the libelous claims of "white" Israelis killing "brownskin" Palistinians.

Comment Re:Youtube of this same idea (Score 2) 182

Replying to myself just to add:

1. Instead of taping the filter onto the outflow side of the box fan, tape it onto the inflow side so that the filter protects also the fan itself from the dust in the incoming air.

2. I first used Filtrete "Elite Allergen" but then switched to the cheaper "Ultimate Allergen Blue" for better air flow. Both work well though.

Comment Re:Youtube of this same idea (Score 3, Informative) 182

Yes, same thing but he uses a fancy looking fan instead of a cheap old (in the US) box fan. He even uses a particle counter to measure the result just like the MD in your second link "from a university" (the University of Michigan) did. I'm posting the UoM link below; it contains a link to the Youtube video you posted.

"Build a do-it-yourself air purifier for about $25"

http://www.uofmhealth.org/news/sinus-hepa-0630

The difference in this case so far as I can tell is that instead of showing people how to make an air purifier for the price of a box fan and a furnace filter, he's trying to start a company to manufacture and sell the things.

I have a couple of these at home and yes, they work great.

Comment Re: Nuke those terrorists (Score 1) 868

This has been a very interesting conversation for me NoImNotNineVolt and I get a sense you are honestly trying to understand the issues rather than to simply propagandize for a terrorist organization that has purposefully placed its own civilian population in harm's way to gain international sympathy when that population is harmed. However you appear to be bending far over backwards to avoid confronting full recognition of the Hamas strategy and the complicity of UNRWA.

The UNRWA spokesperson you quote, Chris Gunness, is according to what I have read from him over the years either aligned with Hamas or as the saying goes, a "useful idiot" for them.

Let's look at Mr. Gunness' prevarications.

"'According to longstanding UN practice in UN humanitarian operations worldwide, incidents involving unexploded ordnance that could endanger beneficiaries and staff are referred to the local authorities,' Gunness told The Daily Beast in a statement. 'Local authorities fall under the government of national consensus in Ramallah. They pledged to pass a message to all parties not to violate UNRWA neutrality.'

"'As far as we are concerned, the government that we are dealing with now is the government of national consensus and they have authority over the organization that we dealt with for getting rid of these rockets from our school,' he said. 'We handed them over to the relevant authorities, and that organization, as it were, the experts that came and did it, are under the government of national consensus in Ramallah.'"

The "government of national consensus in Ramallah"; Mr. Gunness likes that phrase so much he repeats it over and over. This is the Fatah organization whose members have been tortured and murdered by Hamas. So UNRWA handed the rockets over to "local authorities", i.e., Hamas, but not to worry - those local authorities report to the folks they murder whenever possible.

The Daily Beast article you quote from states: "UNRWA has opened an investigation into the rockets found in its school in July but may not release all of its findings. 'When our report comes out, we will take a decision on what we will release,' Gunness said." Thus, UNRWA is "investigating", will write a "report" on their findings, but "may not release all of" the findings. I call "bullshit" on Mr. Gunness.

That same article goes on to state: "UNRWA had other options, though. The agency isn't in the ordnance disposal business, of course. But it could have turned the rockets over to a third party. It could have closed off the school until another international organization with ordnance disposal skills secured the area." and "The fate of the rockets is now unknown."

Quoting that Daily Beast article again: "In a statement on July 17, UNRWA condemned the storing of rockets in the school and called the incident the 'first of its kind' in the Gaza Strip. In November 2012, UNRWA denied claims by the IDF that Hamas was using UNRWA facilities to store and fire rockets." Then of course there was the second "discovery" of its kind a few days later, and then the third a couple of days ago. Do you think that perhaps Mr. Gunness is beginning to see a pattern emerging? Probably so, because despite that investigation that UNRWA will be making, they "may not release all of its findings". Of course they won't, they are protecting Hamas in the arena of world opinion, and they don't have much to work with besides cover-up.

Finally you write, unsurprisingly given your bend-over-backwards acceptance of the circumlocutions provided by bullshit artist Chris Gunness, "Probably the latter, but do you feel that this excuses Israel's war crimes? Do two wrongs now make a right?" I'll tell you my friend, that war is hell, and Hamas purposely makes it more hellish for the citizens of Gaza so that Hamas can reap the propaganda benefit of world outrage when photographs of dead and injured children appear in the news media. And I'll tell you further that the humanitarian restraint demonstrated by Israel time and time again heartens me that it is possible for humanity to stand on a higher moral ground even in the midst of bloody war against an enemy whose tactics are immoral, are in fact, evil.

Comment Re: Nuke those terrorists (Score 1) 868

You write, " I hope you'll be pleasantly surprised when you discover that the rocket caches that were found were not given to Hamas militants, but instead were handed off to the Palestinian Authority government, which promptly destroyed them."

But waitasec, didn't you say previously that Hamas is the governing body in Gaza? I know somebody said that. So you're saying that returning the rockets to Hamas wasn't giving them to Hamas? Or are you saying that the Hamas political entity won't pass Hamas ordinance on to the Hamas military entity?

And would you happen to have one of those shiny citations for the part where you say that Hamas "promptly destroyed them"? (Oh, I guess that may just be semantics though, because certainly firing them at Israel would lead to the ultimate destruction of the rockets, so I guess we're all good here.)

I'm a bit credulous when it comes to news reports, yes, so I "fell for that" as you say:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/chief-alarmed-rockets-put-gaza-site-24685070

UNITED NATIONS â" Jul 23, 2014, 9:02 PM ET Associated Press

The U.N. secretary-general on Wednesday said he was "alarmed" to hear that rockets were placed in a U.N.-run school in Gaza and now "have gone missing," and he demanded a full review of such incidents.

...
On Tuesday, UNRWA reported a second incident, saying it found rockets hidden at a vacant school during a regular inspection. "UNRWA staff were withdrawn from the premises, and so we are unable to confirm the precise number of rockets," its statement said. "The school is situated between two other UNRWA schools that currently each accommodate 1,500 internally displaced persons."

...
"Even more alarming were reports that in the first case, officials with the United Nations returned these weapons to Hamas, a listed terrorist organization, once Israeli officials discovered their location," he said. ["he" being Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird]

And then I happened across this article:
http://www.worldtribune.com/2014/07/23/un-acknowledges-facilities-gaza-used-store-hamas-rockets

The UN Relief and Works Agency has reported at least two incidents in which its schools were used for the storage of rockets amid the war with Israel. In both cases, the UN refused to confiscate the rockets and instead asked Hamas to retrieve the weapons.

So what do you think? When the "UNRWA staff were withdrawn from the premises, and so we are unable to confirm the precise number of rockets," who was it who took posession of those rockets? Why was UNRWA staff withdrawn?

And when a news report says, as it often does, that news media were barred (by Hamas) from the site of a blast, do you think it's because Hamas doesn't want them showing the Israeli shell that hit the location, or the Hamas rocket that went astray and hit a Gaza schoolhouse instead of an Israeli schoolhouse?

Comment Re: Nuke those terrorists (Score 1) 868

Youtube can be such a waste of time, but:

"Hamas Terrorists Fire Rockets from a Gazan School"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-fh-fRs7To

And it was previously two UNRWA schools in which rockets had been found stored, and then returned to their owners by the glorious UNRWA staff. But today it's three:
http://af.reuters.com/article/egyptNews/idAFL6N0Q45TO20140729

Ah, but why dwell on the numbers? If you have a cache of rocket bombs, and the school has an empty space next to the kindergarten, what possible harm could there be in storing those rockets in the empty space? It's not like they could blow up or anything.

Comment Re:Don't let the facts get in your way (Score 1) 868

Ah, yes, "contains a claim" from "an unnamed contact".

And the article ends with the statement, "The file does not make it clear how seriously the government took the claim that Israel also may have aided the hijackers."

My dear fellow, you may claim that your shit tastes like strawberries, and someone may be foolish enough to believe you.

Comment Re: Nuke those terrorists (Score 1) 868

The table in that article lists 22 rockets, 4 mortar shells in January 2014; 9 rockets in February; 65 rockets, 1 mortar in March; 19 rockets, 5 mortars in April; 4 rockets, 3 mortars in May; 53 rockets, 1 mortar in June; and 2,319 rockets and numerous mortars in July (still counting).

Does your calendar begin in July? If so, that would explain a lot.

Comment Re:Don't let the facts get in your way (Score 1) 868

FACT? You must be joking!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Entebbe

Operation Entebbe was a counter-terrorist hostage-rescue mission carried out by commandos of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on 4 July 1976.[6] A week earlier, on 27 June, an Air France plane with 248 passengers was hijacked, by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the German Revolutionary Cells, and flown to Entebbe, the main airport of Uganda. The local government supported the hijackers and dictator Idi Amin personally welcomed them. The hijackers separated the Israelis and Jews from the larger group and forced them into another room.[7][8][9] That afternoon, 47 non-Israeli hostages were released.[7][9][10] The next day, 101 more non-Israeli hostages were allowed to leave on board an Air France aircraft. More than 100 Israeli and Jewish passengers, along with the non-Jewish pilot Captain Bacos, remained as hostages and were threatened with death.[11][12]

The IDF acted on intelligence provided by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. The hijackers threatened to kill the hostages if their prisoner release demands were not met. This threat led to the planning of the rescue operation.[13] These plans included preparation for armed resistance from Ugandan military troops.[14]

And the icing on the cake:

Ugandan reaction

Dora Bloch, a 75-year-old British-born Israeli, had been released by the hijackers due to illness and taken to Mulago Hospital in Kampala. After the raid she was killed by officers of the Ugandan army, as were some of her doctors and nurses, apparently for trying to intervene.[18][nb 2][53] In April 1987, Henry Kyemba, Uganda's Attorney general and Minister of Justice at the time, told the Uganda Human Rights Commission that Bloch had been dragged from her hospital bed and killed by two army officers on Amin's orders.[54] Bloch was shot and her body dumped in the trunk of a car that had Ugandan intelligence services number plates. Her remains were recovered near a sugar plantation 20 miles (32 km) east of Kampala in 1979,[55] after the Ugandan-Tanzanian War ended Amin's rule.[52] Amin also ordered the killing of hundreds of Kenyans living in Uganda in retaliation for Kenya's assistance to Israel in the raid.[56]

Comment Provide apprenticeships to highly skilled workers? (Score 2) 225

Something is a bit off.

If H-1B is for hiring foreign highly skilled worker -- people who have skills that just aren't available in the US workforce -- then how are they "apprentices"?

Isn't an apprentice someone who is learning the trade, not someone who is teaching it to the "master"?

Comment Re:I can't ever work for IBM again .. (Score 1) 282

"Right to work" actually is an anti-union term. It doesn't mean that the worker has a right to a job, it means only that the worker cannot be required to join a union at the job site.

And the terms don't have to be "enforceable" in the legal sense, all they have to do is scare away any subcontractor companies from hiring the pariah. See "chilling effect".

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