Double Stuf?!

I'll take your f and raise you an umlaut!

Just so you know, the oreos, with double the stuffing. They are called double stuf, as in double stew-f.

We will forgive Oreo for their spelling issues, and as a result, awkward pronounciation of their product. We will also forgive their need to copyright this mistake and play it off as planned.

We are this forgiving solely because we love their frosting, and hope they will one day come out with an Only Stuf product (ie, Oreo minus the cookie***).

And before that day I will copyright "Only Stuf" so that they will need to come up with another misspelling...*evil laugh*

***for the few that will get the reference: We are the cream of the oreo cookie! Maybe I will change the name from Only Stuf to Carter Cookies...in memory of a horrid Middle School Principle...

JK Rowling gone too far!

I am still in denial about Dumbledore dying, how can she do this to Harry?!?

"I can completely understand, however, the mentality of an author who thinks, 'well, I'm gonna kill them off because that means there can be no non-author written sequels' as they call them.'
"So it will end with me and after I'd dead and gone they won't be able to bring back the character. -JK Rowling

One hundred reasons why that is RIDICULOUS:
(i'll spare you the whole list, but here are my 2 cents)

Rowling has done something with this book that very few people have accomplished. She has put together a piece that attracts a large range of people: kids, young adults, parents, etc. all around the world. People are sold on the clever world she has created, the amazing characters they meet, and even in some part, people are sold on JK Rowling's story of poverty to surprise success.

The idea that "I'm going to kill them off so noone can go on with this seris" is idiotic. It's selfish, and petty, and most of all seems insecure. JK Rowling did it! She wrote the great child/young adult novel/series of this time period. She's gotten the world hooked, why ruin it with a bad ending? So what if people continue with non-author sequals? They will be a tribute to her, and everyone will know they aren't the real thing.

random sidenote: if she does in face kill off harry, i would pay good money for someone to re-do the seventh book in a way where the major characters don't die...

So, JK Rowling, if killing Harry or the other main characters makes the book that much better than sure, kill away. But don't ruin the ending of an amazing series because you want ownership of it...it's already yours. And we already love you for it.


***Contrary to this diatribe, I really do like the Harry Potter series, HP6 almost ruined my relationship (I ignored my boyfriend for the 2 or 3 nights it took me to read the book - and yes, it took me that long because i was working during the day and couldn't stay up random hours to finish up, sorry -), and if HP7 is any good, it may post some problems as well!

A leftist opinion...

An interesting perspective on recent events:
compliments of a Jewish Israeli who lives with his family in Sderot...

here news are great as you know.

its a terrible country to live in.

we are all refugees because of murderous leaders - Palestinians and Jews.

who would have thought that in less than 100 year we will destroy our culture

and make it into the lowest of nationalistic terrorist armies. its not Judaism, it is AVODA ZARA

worshiping the nation - and its done with 99% agreement of Jews all over the world.

GOAL NEFESH

hoping for better days

This opinion startled me at first, but I'm not quite sure I totally disagree with it anymore...

it's complicated with....Facebook

Valentine has requested to add a relationship that's complicated with you, but before we can do that, you must confirm that you are actually in a complicated relationship with Valentine.

There's friendster, myspace, a bazillion other networking websites, what makes Facebook different? and what makes it great?
(the complicated relationship bit above is wholly irrelevant to this post, it's just amusing...at least to me)


#1 TARGET POPULATION
Facebook's focused communities is an advantage over its competing sites.
A. Membership
Originally, Facebook was a website for Harvard students to post their pictures, information, etc. so that they could contact each other as an alternative to Face books colleges gave out. With the immediate success at Harvard, Facebook was opened up to other universities and then eventually to high schools as well.
This type of connection does not exist on MySpace or Friendster or similar websites where the population is completely random. Sure some people join, and they have groups of friends they are connected to on the website, and yes, because it is un-focused there are more people on MySpace than on Facebook, but the percentage of people who are in colleges and highschools registered (on facebook), that are actually on facebook is amazing.
Why sign up? Easy! All my friends are on it, and this way I can get information if I need to email them, call, etc., see what theyve been upto, keep in touch, and most importantly, find out any juice info like whom they are dating and what he/she looks like! There is an entire community of people that I know on facebook, through college and highschool, and for the majority of people that I don't know, I am probably just one or two "friendships/connections away from them"...This just isn't true with other, non-focused websites
B. Security
Facebook calls itself an online directory, and it's true, whenever I am looking for someone's information often the firt place I go is facebook. And part of what makes it so successful is that people do feel secure in posting their information on it. Why? Because I know that the only people seeing my information, besides my friends, are other Northwestern students. There are multiple layers of security on the site, but ultimately, the fact that the site is focused on other students, makes people comfortable in using it to it's full extent.
C. Advertisements/Income
Facebook has a specific population of educated young adults, a very large one at that (7th most viewed American website/roughy 7 million members). If I were an advertisement company trying to hit this demographic...what am I waiting for?!
(Also, facebook does specific advertisements based on university, which is great for student groups trying to put out info about their event, it doesn't quite bring in the big bucks as the aformentioned, but it is a great resource for college students)


So, Friend me! Stalk me! Check out my pictures, my info, my complicated relationship, and don't forget to join the Valentine Fan Club while you're at it!

When to Start Trying Out Your Pick up Lines...is 5 too young?

During services on Saturday I was attacked by an adorable 5-year-old boy of my aquaintance, who proceeded to poke me and shower me with questions (of the "why are you wearing that?" "do you and your boyfriend live together?" "why are you here?" "why *insert other "non-soup" questions*?" variety). After being ignored for a bit, he noticed silvery, shiny, reflective things on my skirt, and started playing with them and looking at his reflection, and announced:


"I see myself in your skirt!"


I did everything I could to keep myself from laughing, and proceeded to inform my boyfriend he had some competition at the end of services.


If he's playing that one off at 5, just imagine how smooth he will be at 25...

note to self: wear skirts with little silver things on it more often

Bias? in the Press? . . . NEVER

Interesting thoughts on the news lately...

You hear about different news services and their leanings as far as politics is concerned. Here are several different news papers and their take on today's events in Israel (read: bombing of Hesbollah headquarters, and some newspapers also mentioned the murder of two Israeli civilians)...

DAILY TELEGRAPH:
Israelis forced to protect borders

JPOST:
IAF destroys Hizbullah headquarters in Beirut
Woman, granddaughter killed as rocket hits home in Meron

HAARETZ:
Two people killed in Moshav Meron rocket attack Israel hits Hezbollah headquarters in south Beirut

FOX NEWS:
Israeli artillery pieces fire into Lebanon.
Israel blasts Beirut; Gaza gate forced open; Haifa targeted

ARUTZ SHEVA:
IAF Strikes Deep in Lebanon, Heavy Fighting at the Border

BBC:
Israel steps up Lebanese strikes

ASSOCIATED PRESS:
Israel batters Lebanon
Israel bombards Lebanon

CNN:
Rockets fly into Israel as it pounds Lebanon

THE GUARDIAN:
Lebanon suffers as Israel braces



All i have to say is, I think I'm moving to Australia!

Orange in hind sight?

We gave them South Lebanon, and now we have to deal with Hesbollah.
We gave them Gaza, and now we have to deal with Hamas.

(not that they didn't exist beforehand, but the disengagement definitely gave both parties a lot of political support in their respective regions)



Revisiting the question of disengagement - Was it the right thing to do?
I think I still say yes. But I'm not nearly as sure as I was last summer.

Security Concerns
As far as security is concerned, with South Lebanon and Gaza, these organizations have been able to infiltrate further into Israel than before (e.g. the first time to hit Haifa EVER was this weekend by our good friends, Hesbollah). At the same time, now when we attack these regions, we no longer have to worry about Israeli casualities in the area, because civilians have been relocated away from those territories.

Political Gain/World Support
What does it mean to take the political high ground, when the support doesn't last. Sure, everyone was cheering Israel on when they left Gaza, and the UN patted their back when they gave back South Lebanon, but the second they bring up a strong military defense (yes, defense, Israel didn't start this...and guess what? some Arab States will even back me on this one: http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0706/344340.html

" Moderate Arab governments reacted with relative restraint, apparently reflecting a sentiment in Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia that Hezbollah — and by implication its top ally Syria — had started the fight with Israel."

) the world turns and condemns Israel for her "aggression".

Internal Struggle
Beyond the political and security ramifications of disengagement. Pulling out of Gaza displaced a lot of people, it created an even larger rift between a large part of the religious population and the rest of the country (i'm not even going to mention the religious/zionist/IDF issues), and it came close to resulting in a sort of civil contention (i wouldn't quite call it war)in the country.



Some say that they would rather have this (pointing at the TV showing what was going on in Israel today), than keeping those territories. Others have been proudly pointing and saying "I told you so". Either way, it doesn't change where things are today, but...it's a tough question, and one that will be hard to revisit.

"Someday somebody's going to have to explain to me the virtue of a proportional response..."

Operation-Ruin-Lebanses-Infrastructure...
Is it proportional? don't kid youself
Will it solve our Hezbollah problems? not on it's own
Is it necessary? yes.

Valentine's 3-Step Guide to Peace in the Middle East
Step (1) Undermine Lebanese support of Hezbollah.
Step (2) Get the world to comdemn/attack Syria and Iran.
Step (3) Deal with Hamas.

While Hezbollah is responsible for the kidnappings and northern attacks on Israel, Lebanon has been housing the organization, and Syria and Iran have been financing its efforts. The only way to properly combat Hezbollah is to shut it down on all sides: first undermine Lebanese support, then go on to attack its supporters/financers: Syria and Iran.

(1) Undermine Lebanese Support

Some history: (special thanks to Wikipedia)

Hezbollah, along with the mainly leftist and secular groups in the Lebanese National Resistance Front, fought a guerilla war against Israel and the Israeli proxy South Lebanon Army, causing Israel to withdraw its army from south Lebanon in May of 2000.
Hezbollah's role in the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon gained the organization much respect in Lebanon and the wider Arab and Islamic world, particularly among the country's large Shi'a community. The President of Lebanon, Emile Lahoud, said: "For us Lebanese, and I can tell you the majority of Lebanese, Hezbollah is a national resistance movement. If it wasn't for them, we couldn't have liberated our land. And because of that, we have big esteem for the Hezbollah movement."
At that time, Israel withdrew from Lebanon to the UN-agreed Israeli border, and their pullout was certified by the UN as complete. However, Hezbollah still claims the Shebaa Farms, a 28 sq. km. area, which is still occupied by Israel, to be Lebanese territory, and on that basis has continued to engage Israeli forces in that area.
Since then, Hezbollah abducted three IDF soldiers during an October 2000 attack in Shebaa Farms, and sought to obtain the release of 14 Lebanese prisoners, some of whom had been held since 1978. On January 25, 2004, Hezbollah successfully negotiated through German mediators Israel agreed on an exchange of prisoners. 30 Lebanese and Arab prisoners, the remains of 60 Lebanese militants and civilians, 420 Palestinian prisoners, and maps showing Israeli mines in South Lebanon were exchanged for an Israeli businessman and army reserve colonel kidnapped in 2001 and the remains of the three IDF soldiers mentioned above, who were killed either during the Hezbollah operation, or in its immediate aftermath.

And Today (well, yesterday):
Hezbollah kidnaps two Israeli soldiers, demanding a prisoner trade for the remaining three Lebanese prisoners held by Israel.

My2Cents:
It worked in the past...that was a mistake. Will it work this time? No.
Nasrallah promised he would kidnap Israelis to get his people back, but what will happen when Israel promises to ruin Lebanese infrastructure until it gets its soldiers back? Welcome to Operation-Ruin-Lebanese-Infrastructure. Is it a proportional response? probably not, but it's the only way to show Lebanon that (a) we hold the cards, not Nasrallah and (b) that Nasrallah's interests are not inline with the Lebanese cause, destroying Lebanese infrastructure will hopefully distroy support for Nasrallah in Lebanon, and make him go to Syria/Iran where (a) he gets along with them much better but (b) the world doesnt so much at all.


Step (2) Get the world to comdemn/attack Syria and Iran.
They have nuclear weapons, they support terrorist organizations, the world condemned them after the Hezbollah kidnappings, how hard would it be to get the world to do something against them? HARD

For some reason Israel can't get people to stay behind it (unless people is the United States or Britain)...

So, I'm still working on Step 2...I'll get back to you with that one, in the mean time I'll email Bush and ask him if I could borrow some ICBMs...

Step (3) Deal with Hamas.
When (and by when I really, unfortunately mean if) Hamas no longer has Syria/Iran to back its efforts, and no longer has Hezbollah cheering it on from the north, what will happen to the organization that no one - neither Israel nor any of the Arab states, - wanted in its country?

In the mean time, we will have to continue our defenses in the west, protect against further kidnappings and kassam rockets, and respond with proportional(?) military aggression in gaza.

If only it were that easy.

But throught this all, our prayers go out to the civlians whose lives were taken away from them, the soldiers, their families, and of course, the state of Israel.