Self Hate in Action

HaAretz, my wife´s daily fishwrap, has stolen the Army´s secret database on Jewish settlements in Yehuda and Samaria, and is publishing it garnished with venomous comments. The self hating Jews of the paper discover that Ofra, a forty years old Jewish village, is built on a plot that under the Jordanian regime, had been registered as private land. There are people born in the place who already are grandparents, and our leftists are determined to expulse them from their ancestral homes. I dont know how property rights are legally acquired in Israel and in Samaria, but I know that in Spain land was conquered from the Muslims and distributed according one´s participation in the war. In the Roman Empire, the legionnaires after 25 years of militqary service received a plot of land to settle, mostly in conquered territories. Latin American lands were distributed by the Spanish Crown or sold to settlers. In my youth, the Government of Paraguay advertised in the University of La Plata offering 5,000 Hectares of land in the Chaco to anyone with an academic title promising to settle for the land for five years. Not one I know of took up the offer. I know that Amman, the capital of Jordan, was settled by Muslims from the Caucasus, sent by the Turkish Sultan. Transjordan, as Palestine, was empty and desolate. I suppose the Sultan granted them property rights. Ofra was built on lands bought on land bought for money. The fact that it was made under miliary occupation invalidates the sale? After forty years? In Argentina, if one occupied a land for 25 years, it was his. Legally. He could inscribe it in the Catastro. The point is that the Palestinians are quite passive, they have paid for their rights, but the Jewish leftists will not stay quiet and let their brothers live in peace. They are decided to throw them out of their homes and exile them, possibly to Brooklyn.

On the other hand, the Beduin nomads of the Negev, have taken over most of public lands and built goatskin tents and goat and camel corrals. Apart from Social Security payments, their main economic activity is stealing. There are no roadside signposts in the Negev, they have been collected and sold as scrap metal by the Beduin. Jewish leftists are forcing the Government to grant property rights to their extensive "farms" and provide free water, electricity, sewage, schools and clinics. Why Beduins, our enemies, are defended, while Jews in Samaria, are attacked? My conclusion is that Jewish leftists are not interested in the Palestinians or justice or equality, they are moved by bitter hate against the Jewish nation. They want to harm us. They want us to notice them. They are sick. Sick, sick, sick.

Why there are no Jews in Tabriz?

An old parsi (Iranian Jew) story:

A Jew arrives to Tabriz with an ass and a chicken and twenty rials. He is hungry and asks a passingby what to buy to eat. The Tabrizi says: Buy a melon. You eat the melon, the chicken the seeds, and the ass the rest. Wow, says the Jew, these Tabrizi people are smart, this is not a place for a Jew and left town.

The KOOR Play

Koor works as an option on Credit Suisse. Koor paid an average of 35 CHF and today it is 29.66, so it is losing very much. When Credit Suisse reaches 40 CHF (approx. 35 US$) I shall be happier.

Time to formulate a new investment strategy

Last year I formulated an investment strategy that incredibly, worked, and around july I found myself among the so-called upper five thousand here. Then, the tide changed, but I failed to wake up and did nothing. I am now almost poor. It was a very fearful fall. That is where I am now. Time to pick up the pieces and remake myself. A need a new strategy, what to do this year. I shall start thinking in the coming days.

ORCKIT doubles in three days

Orckit rised 20% yesterday. For no reason known at all. Shlomi123 says that the reason is that Obama is planning immense investment in American infrastructure. In internet infrastructure, America has fallen behind of Japan and Germany, so it is reasonable to expect that much moeny will be channeled to this area, which is where Orckit exists. Nortel has suddenly disappeared, leaving Cisco with lots of cash and a market awaiting upgrading. The speculation is that Cisco will buy Orckit, which is very cheap, and all its shares are in the hands of the public. A public with large losses, desperate to recoup even a little of its money. I hold a few shares of Orckit.

Inflation Coming

California’s bills exceed its tax revenues and credit line.

The state is going to print its own money known as IOUs.

California is the world’s eighth largest economy, and it is broke.

How long before Washington will be printing money?

Kadishman

Kever Benjamin Air Unbreathable

Inhabitants of the El Ram neighborhood are complaining non stop. They cannot go on living with the polluted air the breath, some of the children have been hospitalized, others developed asthma, and many are leaving. They have stopped paying city taxes. Kever Benjamin´s doctors are saying that these diseases ar caused by the envornment. The Major is hiding himself behind two reports by Israel´s most prestigious sewage planners: Tahal Consulting and HAGAM Consulting Engineers. A large, white container has been stationed in the Bar Ilan street, and supposedly it purifies the air. The inhabitants of the neighborhood are desperate and live behind closed windows and doors. In the Municipality they are sick of the issue and no one wants to talk about it. I proposed a technical solution which was to be implemented with the participation of the public, but no one wants to be seen as linked or eventually responsible of the problem.

The Hate

From Jewlicious: In the Arab world, the shoe is a very powerful symbol. When Saddam Hussein was deposed and statues in his honor began to tumble, angry Iraqis would take their shoes off and whack the statues in what was then considered the most humiliating symbolism one could resort to. Hitting someone with your shoe was more than just about administering a few good whacks. It was about denigrating the other person with the lowest thing in your possession - the humble shoe. All that changed when Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi hurled his shoes at then President George W. Bush. Suddenly his modest shoes achieved heroic dimensions! This really came home with the recent unveiling of a sofa sized statue of a shoe in his honor in Tikrit, the hometown of the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
AP reports that:
Baghdad-based artist Laith al-Amari described his fiberglass-and-copper work as a homage to the pride of the Iraqi people… The statue also has inscribed a poem honoring Muntadhar al-Zeidi, the Iraqi journalist. Al-Zeidi was charged with assaulting a foreign leader, but the trial was postponed after his lawyer sought to reduce the charges.

Marilyn Forever (2)

Marilyn: Father, Norvegian, Mother born in Mexico.

Pavel

I am grading the exam on pumps and pumping stations of my last course for water engineers. The first exam was administered together with hydraulics and they spent all the time on solving hydraulics problems and most had no time to answer the pumping part. So we gave them a second opportunity, with plenty of time and plenty of solved exercises and background material. Most succeeded, and one Russian even wrote a computer program to optimize the size of wet chambers in sewage pumping stations. But one paper was really pityful, the writer had not the minimal understanding of the subject. It was Pavel, a green-eyed friendly Caucasian Jew, always sitting in the first raw and copying laboriously my equations on the board. He checked my numbers and corrected my errors. He was one of the stars of the class. How is that his work was so bad? It is clear case of the brilliantness phenomenon. Some student are brilliant in class, participating actively and being very positive and helpful to the teacher. But when the time of reality comes, they are zero.

It is explained by low IQ. But how is that I cannot recognize low IQ in class and in cafeteria chats? Cochrane has the opinion that IQ is very visible in daily life. He might be right, by my personal experience, repeated Pavel after Pavel, is that I cannot.

Gvaot Olam

I did work getting water to HaNekuda, in Gvaot Olam settlement near Itamar, but for me it was a group of derelict huts on a windy hilltop, without any ideological meaning. But after reading an article on Avri Ran, I understand a bit more.

"There are also no fences surrounding any of Ran’s hilltops. He considers fences to signify defensiveness and a willingness to forgo that which is outside the fence. Many others have now emulated Avri's way of settling the land - leaving the confines of the gated communities for the biblical bounty of the barren hills and valleys of Judea and Samaria and making them blossom."In the beginning I was completely alone," Ran said. "Ten or fifteen Arabs would come. Fierce confrontations. They had to bring me a needle and thread to stitch up my wounds. Always alone. Nobody ever heard me scream ‘ay.’ ""Slowly a group of youngsters formed around me - teenagers who had not found their place. I had to live with the vomit and craziness of some of them, to sign papers at the nuthouse that we would be responsible for others. Everything with the agreement of their parents."We went to another hilltop and another. The moment a community was founded, I would move to another hilltop and the confrontations would start anew. I was portrayed as one of the things that I had tried to escape from my whole life - as a leader, a guru. Incorrect claims. I never agreed to be either a politician or a shaliach tzibor, a prayer leader."I was apparantly threatening to the neighborhood, though," Avri added. "The phenomenon was difficult for the members of the Yesha Council of Judea, Samaria and Gaza Communities. After years of no communities being founded in the State of Israel through private initiative and means, it was unacceptable to them. They said to me, ‘Avri, because of you we are not receiving budget allocations - get down quickly!’ I answered them, ‘I am not your emissary. I am from the Land of Israel, and me and my sweet nation are doing things.”

After a year and a half on the outskirts of Itamar, during the heat of the Oslo Accords era, Ran decided to move out to a hilltop simply called “The Point,” a mile away from Itamar. It was the first outpost in a long series of them. His reputation and stories of his self-sacrifice spread. Rumors of the non-conventional settler reached far and wide and youth began to make their way to the outposts to see for themselves that Zionism was alive and well. Members of the Yesha Council were displeased. They did not understand how someone could just get up and decide that he is going to found a community. Even Ariel Sharon visited Ran and told him, “Enough. What do you need this for? It is preventing the flow of budgetary allocations.”Sharon Ran described what it was like when her husband left their home to capture his first hilltop. “He took a tent - actually just the lining of one - and just went to the hilltop,” said Sharona. “Our mode of communication was via a taxi radio. I would bring him food and equipment. It was a series of obstacles to get there, despite the not-so-distant location. We would spend the Sabbath there with a small generator. We began to sell our assets because we needed to fund everything on our own. We sold two houses in Jerusalem and the farm in Beit Meir. Within a year there were four families living on ‘The Point.’ " Ran then moved to the next hilltop, Hill 851, another mile from the previous one along topographically difficult terrain. It could only be reached via tractor. He stayed there for a number of months until others joined him and settled the place. Then he continued forward.In 1998 Avri founded G’vaot Olam, which means “The Hills of the World,” a name Sharona came up with. “We must connect the mountain communities of Samaria to the Jordan Valley,’ Avri told me,” recalls Sharona, “ ‘this is an indispensable corridor of settlement.’ ”Now G’vaot Olam is home to animal pens, fields of organic vegetables, olive and apricot groves, a dairy, flour mill and synagogue. An efficient marketing setup brings G’vaot Olam’s goods to every natural foods store in Israel. Almost all of Ran’s children live at G’vaot Olam, including his married daughters, who all met their husbands at the farm. The houses are well-groomed and the paths are lined with flowers. There are no locks on the doors. Instead of a fence, there is a large watch tower. Arabs in the neighboring village of Yanoun tell all sorts of stories about Ran, claiming that he burned their generator, that he blocked their road and that he demands that they inform him of any changes in the status quo that they wish to make. Left-wing activists with the Ta’ayush organization, as well as European volunteers, have entered the village and attempted to help the villagers fight Ran's authority using the willing media. “The left chose Yanoun in order to show the world ‘the Sheriff of the Hilltops,’ ” Sharona said, “the man who terrorizes. How many time have they opened a table in Yanoun and called Avri down to settle their internal disputes? I witnessed many such night-time phone calls. When they didn't have water we brought it for them. What the residents of Yanoun say now can fly from here to Uganda. As long as the leftists were not there, they didn’t say anything. True, there is no wimpiness here. Avri is a man, and he behaves like a man - and one who knows Ishmael and the Arabs knows that this is the language that speaks to them. That is the condition for quiet. They don’t understand how there is a Jew here that is unafraid.”“I am, as a settler, an anomaly and exception," Ran concedes. "When I have a problem with members of a certain village, I go there and solve it with the Mukhtar, the elder of the village. Once I caught someone who came to steal from me. I brought him to the Mukhtar. They made him an ‘arrangement’ there. Not me. Afterward, he claimed that I beat him. I didn’t touch him."

What, the water I was providing was forwarded to the Arabs? One never knows.

There is no pardon for the Malshin

The Ugly: The Peace Now welcomed President Obama’s envoy Mitchell with a report on the growth of Jewish villages in Judea and Samaria. This action places Peace Now in the category of malshin, Jewish informers. According to the rabbinical law, a malshin must be executed, no Sanhedrin required.

The Beautiful: The Peace Now documents population growth in Judea and Samaria to 285,000 Jews - whom the peace-lovers seek to evict. In what should be a mild praise for Olmert’s government, Peace Now reports 69% construction growth over 2007, though it comes to mere 748 permanent homes and 509 caravans despite 15,000 population increase. Despite numerous restrictions and demolitions, Jewish pioneers set 261 caravans in “illegal outposts” on hilltops.

The Winter is Over

Today was the first day in TASE (Tel Aviv Stock Exchange) that all my stocks rised, some of them, like Koor (10%), potently.

Febo asoma, Ya sus rayos, Iluminan el histórico convento.

More Secret Zionists

Mahdi Khazali – the son of a leading supporter of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – writes in his blog that Ahmedenijan is, in fact, a Jew. Khazali, son of Ayatollah Abu Al-Kassam Khazali, says that Ahmadinejad changed his Jewish name on his ID card in order to hide his roots. The Iranian President hides his Jewish roots by attacking Israel and the Jews, and by expressing strong Muslim religious beliefs.

It is no secret that Ahmedenijan is an adopted name, that the family changed his name some reason. A record of the name change still appears on the president’s ID card, however, says Khazali. His old name was Saburjian, and he hails from the Aradan region of Iran. The name Saborjhian derives from thread painter -- sabor in Farsi -- a once common and humble occupation in the carpet industry in Semnan Province, where Aradan is situated. Ahmad, by contrast, is a name also used for the Prophet Muhammad and means virtuous; nejad means race in Farsi, so Ahmadinejad can mean Muhammad's race or virtuous race.

Now, this sounds to my ears as true. It also sounds like Israeli disinformation. But in war, everything goes.

The Secret Zionist

Yesterday a roadside bomb killed on soldier in the frontier with Gaza, but his identity is being kept secret by the Army, by request of the family. The soldier is survived by his wife and two children. He served as a tracker with the Desert Patrol Battalion of the Givati Brigade. Friends of the family said that he had lived with his parents and was planning to build a home in a new neighborhood under construction in the town.

"He was a good man, entirely dedicated to the army," a neighbor said. "The family is religious, and his father is a sheikh, so they prefer to keep a low profile." Other neighbors said Bedouin often play down military service as many of them have relatives and friends in the Gaza Strip.

Often overlooked is the fact that many Palestinians - Druzes, Beduins, plain Arabs - are willing fighters for Israel. Israel organized and maintained a full Arab army in South Lebanon for more than a decade. Levantines are known for public and convincing demonstrations of absolute willingness, no, desire to be a martyr for the Prophet, while betraying him to the Authorities. The English knew the Arab character, but they have forgotten.

Salmonella in Peanut Butter

I do a lot of work for the food industry so the health inspection of a peanut plant infected with Salmonella is of interest to me.

Inspections of the plant in Blakely, Ga., by the State Agriculture Department found areas of rust that could flake into food, gaps in warehouse doors large enough for rodents to get through, unmarked spray bottles and containers and numerous violations of other practices designed to prevent food contamination. The plant, owned by the Peanut Corporation of America of Lynchburg, Va., has been shut down.

A typical entry from an inspection report said: “The food-contact surfaces of re-work kettle in the butter room department were not properly cleaned and sanitized.” Additional entries noted: “The food-contact surfaces of the bulk oil roast transfer belt” in a particular room “were not properly cleaned and sanitized. The food-contact surfaces of pan without wheels in the blanching department were not properly cleaned and sanitized.” A code violation in the same report observed “clean peanut butter buckets stored uncovered,” while another cited a “wiping cloth” to “cover a crack on surge bin.” Tests on samples gathered on the day of that inspection were negative for salmonella.

They are tough.

The New Europe

Prayers were held recently outside the Duomo in Milan and the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna (pic), with thousands of prostrate Muslims facing Mecca, had been accompanied by flag burning which was not only anti Israeli but anti Semitic, with protesters carrying banners depicting the Star of David alongside the Nazi swastika.

I wonder how Italian Catholics are going to respond. They may be take up a competition with the Muslims condemning Israel, to show that THEY are the original and most ferocious antisemites ("Gaza is a concentration camp", The Pope), or trying to avoid losing their own homelands to Christianity's traditional enemy.

Madjar - Magyar Kurultay

The Hungarian people's closest relatives are the Madjar tribes in Kazakhstan, in the Saray river valley. Now a kurultay (meeting of all tribes) is being organized to renew the long lost connection. The pic shows a typical kurultay.

Israel´s worst dry spell

Israel is currently undergoing the worst drought in the recorded history of the modern state. People is pessimistic regarding the future for farming in Israel. Last month, 100 million cubic meters were cut back from irrigation. According to my estimate, about 15,000 hectares of irrigated land will be abandoned this year (about 10% of the total).

F-15 Refueled in Air

A fully armed F-15E fighter is being refueled from a KC-135R Stratotanker over Afghanistan. A feat of courage and technology. The Americans have the best weapons.

The West Eyeing Mexican Water

From Denver Post, Susan Greene writes:

Interior officials and Mexican diplomats shook hands and smiled for cameras Wednesday after pledging cooperation on the Colorado River. Just another ceremony in Washington, D.C.? Hardly.

The meeting marks a new era in Western water politics when parched communities in Nevada, Arizona and California are eyeing water south of the border, not just north from Colorado and our neighbors. "This takes some of the pressure off us as Coloradans," says Glenwood Springs water lawyer Jim Lochhead, a lead negotiator in the deal. Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming must meet their obligation to deliver 7.5 million acre-feet annually to Arizona, Nevada and California, which, in turn, must send 1.5 million acre-feet to Mexico under a 1944 treaty.

If drought continues three more years, Las Vegas is projected to lose 40 percent of its water supply. If it continues five more years, it could lose 90 percent.

That's why they're looking to Mexico for salvation. Water talks between the two countries were set back dramatically in September when the main U.S. and Mexican envoys on the issue were killed, together, in a plane crash.

"We have no choice but to bring in supplies from the outside," says Southern Nevada Water Authority's Pat Mulroy, who also is eyeing piping in water from the Mississippi River to quench her customers. "Mark my words," she continues, "unless we do something considered outrageous by today's standards, the West is going to run dry."

The Mississippi seems to me rather far away. But the fact it is mentioned means that the West is getting rather nervous and desperate.

Mexicali, watch out!

The Pozole Cook

Santiago Meza Lopez, known as the "Pozole Maker" after a local stew made by cooking maize grains in lime, is accused of disposing of 300 bodies for Teo, a former lieutenant of the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix drug cartel. Meza told the reporters how he did it: first dumping the corpses in large plastic bins filled with caustic soda, then burying any remains. Meza himself got rid of 300 bodies. Drug violence extinguished 5,300 lives last year in Mexico.

Quod Erat Demonstrandum

(copied from an US military site) WASHINGTON, Jan. 24, 2009 -- French based news service AFP reported Saturday that two men released from the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have appeared in a video posted on a jihadist Web site, according to the the Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE) Intelligence Group monitoring service.

One of the two former detainees, a Saudi man identified as Abu Sufyan al-Azdi al-Shahri, or detainee number 372, has been elevated to the senior ranks of al-Qaida in Yemen, a U.S. counter-terrorism official told AFP.

Three other men appear in the video, including Abu al-Hareth Muhammad al-Oufi (shown in the pic here), identified as an al-Qaida field commander. SITE said he was detainee No. 333.

Q.E.D. is the traditional formula Quod Erat Demonstrandum, what had to be proved. I am referring to my note of two days ago "The coming wave of racism" ("... I feel that obviously incompetent elements have reached high political positions in America ..."). We are starting to understand the message of the N.Y. Stock Exchange (that fell 20% in the few last days). I am not happy. I am shocked. I didnt expect to be proved so fast. I dont like it.

Post Scriptum: It is the next day. I checked and could not find the pics and the above note on the website. Instead, there is a long declaration by Vicepresident Biden that the new government is examining what they have inherited in Guantanamo and similar jails. Now I am confused. What is what they want, presumably.

Clearing the Lines of Vision

As the details of the latest Gaza operation are filtering out to the public, we hear about military bulldozers ordered to raze blocks of buildings - not because they were booby-trapped, but because they were blocking the forces' "line of vision."

Nicely put. One standing on a low hill on the Israel-Gaza border cannot see the Mediterranean because the City of Gaza is blocking the line of his vision. Alo, hayal (soldier), you on that Bulldozer, got it?

Winding Down

Yesterday´s entry in Jerry Pournelle´s Blog:

I did run out of energy eventually, and crashed after dinner. All's well but I have to finish stuff tomorrow. A lot of what I intended to do didn't get done -- and won't tonight. So it goes.

Weitzen Synagogue Restored

Weitzen (Vac) is a solid 30,000 strong German town on the Danube, near Budapest. During the last two centuries a Jewish community prospered in the city, and my mother was born there. The entire community was put on cattle wagons and transported to Auschwitz, and after the war almost no one came back to the city. Yet I am reading that the 200 old synagogue has been restored. It is a latin-romantic style building erected by the Italian architect Alois Cacciari. The building survived intact the war and communism, and it was purchased back from the town by the Jewish community led by Turai János. The reconstruction costs 200 million forint and was financed mainly by the community. It is incredible that sixty years after the Holocaust the Weitzen Jewish community is active and more, it is building. The old new synagogue has been already defaced by local nazis, which caused a public condemnation by the town´s major.

Is Judaism a Suicide Cult?

Is Judaism a “suicide cult”? The question was asked in a white nationalist blog which I like to read because contains lots of intelligent people who dedicate much time to think on the Jewish phenomenon. They often have interesting insights. My father z"l used to say that Judaism is a mental disease, although he was a fanatical Jew as the most Orthodox of us. The Qumran essenes, who did not marry and maintained their numbers by adoption, surely were a suicide cult. But the mainstream? It is a good question.

In fact, in view of the strength of European antisemitism, many Jews decided they had enough of it and silently deleted their Jewish background and disappeared in the great masses of the White peoples. Only from a few salient failures to assimilate we know about the depth of this movement. One is Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State. Her parents decided to forget the whole Jewish thing and emigrated to the US and never told anyone not even their children about Europe. Another example is John Kerry, whose grandparents changed their name and invented a story. Both persons were genuinely surprised to learn about their true genealogy. I presume that for every one case there are hundreds that successfully managed to lose themselves in the mass of common humanity.

From these examples it can be derived that yes, Judaism is a suicide cult, that leads its followers or their descendants to destruction, any sane person would try to escape from it. The same can be said of the Jews who came to Israel, it cannot be explained why they leave the safety and prosperity in Europe and America to live under the bombardment of HAMAS and irritating the thousand million fanatical muslims, some of them already armed with nuclear bombs (Pakistan) and other like Ahmedenijad, soon to be.

In summary, the question if Judaism is a suicide cult or not is legitimate and intelligent. However, regarding the dwinding number of Jews due to their refusal to reproduce, it has nothing to do with Judaism. Jewish reproduction is similar other highly educated, middle class people, be it Episcopalians or Catholics. In Northern Italy and Spain, the numbers are similar if not worse. The infertiity of European middle classes is general, not a specifically Jewish pehonomenon.

In summary, I do believe that Judaism has many elements of a suicide cult.

The Coming Wave of Racism

I feel that the election of Barack Obama is the prelude of the next wave of racism in America and the world. The final triumph of the Civil Rights Movement of the fifties has evolved into a system of Black privileges, which I think is based on a lie and has to explode in the coming years. Americans are not stupid and when the Politically Correctness starts to really hurt them, they will come to their senses and the system will explode. The result will be, I think, return to explicit, open verbal and behavioral racismץ Given the Anglo Saxon love of the law, racism will not evolve into a tacit, silent, almost cordial discrimination a la Brazil, but it will enshrined in legal regulation.

I think any honest person will admit that the Advancement of Coloured People has surpassed equality and is starting to hurt white American majority. I feel that obviously incompetent elements have reached high political positions in America (like Washington´s major, the recent Secretary of State, etc.) on the basis of their tribal affiliation. Not only that, important business positions are being occupied by incompetent people, such as CEO of large banks and industries, and this surely decreases America´s world competitivity. Since America´s economy is being nationalized, having politically connected people will be ever more important in the business world, so this trend will increase to finally become intolerable and explode. What is going on in the Universities?

Dr. Bernard Davis, a faculty member at Harvard Medical School, exposed this travesty in 1975. Affirmative action resulted in the admission of black medical students who were far below the usual standard for Harvard, which is, of course, one of the most selective schools in America. The average MCAT score of black admittees was in the mid-400s, which was lower than the average score of white applicants who were rejected by all medical schools in the country. Naturally, these students fared poorly, but the school hid the disparities by lowering its standards. Harvard replaced the usual letter grades with a pass/fail system to obscure differences in student performance. Also, the medical school began offering repeat examinations for students who failed courses and lowered exam standards. Even worse, Harvard devalued its medical degree. Whereas previously Harvard had required that degree recipients do much better than the minimum national standard on standardized tests for medical students, the school began granting its degrees to all students who performed at the minimum level or above. However, even this was not enough to guarantee passage of black students. In 1975, the dean of the medical school granted a degree to a black student who had failed to meet the minimum national requirement on standardized tests after having taken them five times. The indignant Davis made the whole mess public. In recompense for his bravery, students picketed his office, and he was denied promotion.

Question: Knowing that things are like that, why would anyone consult a Black medical doctor graduated by Harvard? Any university title granted to a Black person is suspect and may be worth next to nothing. It seems Americans are unaware of this fact, since I have not read anything explicit on the subject. The bravest, Steve Sailer, investigated the university background of Michelle Obama, and how she was being paid 300,000 dollars per year for a job that basically was a sinecure. What Sailer wrote in 2008 will become obvious in future years and highly visible not only by way of the exotic green-yellow robe she wore at the Inauguration.

I hope America find its way out from this mess without any social disturbance. Because we out here very much need a strong, efficient, competent America.

The Next Big Thing

Today the Ministry of Defense of the Environment (the Israeli EPA) submitted a large document to the Parlamentary Commitee to Find Out Why There is a Drought or something about the so called water crisis. The document states that 90 million cubic meters of water are lost each year because urban runoff is not used to refill aquifers. From this and other sign, I see that the next big thing in my profession here in Israel will be architecture and urban planning dedicated to catch and refill underground water reservoirs. Traditionally, urban runoff is considered contaminated by motor oil, but it can be separated and reused. Gardens and private houses will be forced to refill the aquifers. I made already a few projects in this area, and am well positioned to exploit this opportunity. My problem: little time. Life is so short.

Taki Drives Women Crazy. Not!

Takimag, the house organ of the Greek multi-billionaire known as Taki, publishes an article titled "Do the Rich Have Better Sex?" posted by Robert Stacy McCain. The article is illustrated with a picture of Taki himself, see here to the left. At first, I thought "One more wet boot-licking by a hired word-meister to feed Taki's vanity." Presumably, the author was about to demonstrate scientifically, sociobiologically, that rich people in general and Taki in particular drive women crazy, that women explode in convulsive orgasms under the decrepit magnate. Only that not.

The article courageously argues that Taki does not drive women extatic. Mr Robert Stacy McCain must be looking for a new job.

Adios

Spring Festival

In China.

Starch in the Wastewater

Today I made the wastewater treatment design for a vegetable factory. It is a very low tech industry, yet the parking was full of large, new, luxury vehicles. There is money to be made in low tech. Mostly they peel potatoes, carrots, onions, and sell it industrial kitchens. They use rods covered with schmirling - paper. The wastewater is pure starch and sugar suspension, clear and rich. They must have very high BOD content. The solid waste goes to feed cows. The place is semi rural, slowly gobbled up by the city and they are being cought by the regulatory web of the bureaucracy.

It´s Final: Drought in Israel

All pumping was suspended from the Kineret (Lake of Galilee). Bad news.

La Raza Cosmica

Vasconcelos wrote about the Raza Cosmica, a new man emerging from Latin American ethnic melange. This man has emerged, and is Barack Obama. At the inauguration, the president’s elderly stepgrandmother brought him an oxtail fly whisk, a mark of power at home in Kenya. Cousins journeyed from the South Carolina town where the first lady’s great-great-grandfather was born into slavery, while the rabbi in the family came from the synagogue where he had been commemorating Martin Luther King’s Birthday. The president and first lady’s siblings were there, too, of course: his Indonesian-American half-sister, who brought her Chinese-Canadian husband, and her brother, a black man with a white wife. In this pic, President Obama hugged his half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, at her December 2003 wedding to Konrad Ng, third from right, in Hawaii. From left, his daughters, Sasha and Malia; his grandmother Madelyne Dunham, seated; Konrad’s parents, Joan and Howard Ng, and brother Perry Ng; and Michelle Obama. Definitely not a Jewish family.

Pessimism in the Air

Today President Barack Hussein Obama was inaugurated in Washington. The NASDAQ fell almost 6% and Bloomberg reported that the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 14 percent between Barack Obama’s election and Inauguration Day, the biggest decline ever. It appears that the markets would have liked McCain more. As always, I am confused and dont really know if Obama is good or bad, but it looks quite worrying.

Missing Death, by a minute.

This afternoon I had a meeting in Elon Moreh settlement in Northern Samaria, to verify on the site the advance of my water recycling project and to approve the payment of the contractor´s first bill. The work seems to be advancing, soon we shall have water for irrigation. Driving back to Kever Benjamin City, around 4 PM, about a km south of Elon Moreh and before the Hawara checkpost there was a barrier of big rocks aligned on the road, so I had to stop. This is the standard Palestinian terrorist trap, to forc e a car to stop in a selected place, and whan it tries to reverse, they start shooting from the road side. I was lucky, the road obstacle had been reported a minute before at Elon Moreh checkpost (I heard something but gave no imporance to it) and the security people from Elon Moreh arrived very fast and without a word they took up positions and cleared the road. Almost immediately arrived a military jeep and helped them to clear the stones. One kilometer ahead a roack check had been already improvised and the Army was stopping cars and registering the Palestinians. Thus did I escape possible death today in Samaria.

This is part of a pattern. Yesterday a resident of Kochav Hashahar was seriously wounded when a gunman opened fire on his car on the highway near the settlement. Moshe Avitan, who was driving at the time, suffered wounds to his face from the shooting. His wife took the wheel and drove to the community's security guard.
At the time of the attack, Avitan and his wife had been on their way home from the Shilo area.

Marilyn Forever

Unexpected Bonanza

I hold some shares of DELEK which yesterday were almost worthless. Today it was announced that the Tamar 1 well, located in 5,500 feet of water, drilled to a total depth of 16,076 (4,900 meters) feet to test a subsalt, lower-Miocene structure in the Levantine basin, has gas. The thickness and quality of the reservoirs encountered were greater than anticipated at the well location. Delek Group's share shot up 35% to NIS 243 at the opening today. The best advice I received was from Valery in TAHAL: ¨Hang around enough and you will score too.¨ She didnt say that, but meant it. Maybe.

Pre-Action Sprinkler Systems, No!

I have been hired to design a Pre-Action Double Interlock Sprinkler System for an electrical supply room of a very large computer farm, in the deep intestines of this monstrous Building, and I submitted a first escribing the different options. When they read it, they decided that after all they never wanted a system like that, they want a fire fighting system based on gas. I pointed out that the electricity boxes have openings for air and therefore gas will not extinguish fires. Moreover the Americans recommend preaction for electric rooms. Yeah, they said, but water will flood the transformers, etc. and then it will have no importance if they burned down or they were flooded with water. They are gone. And we have no place for the compressor in a fire isolated room. We opt for gas. So I have finished my mission? Yes, I mean no, and they went on to find me something to work on. The building is very impressive, it took ten years to reach this point. It was abandoned and sold more than once, and now, if I am well informed, belong to the Israeli tycoon Fishman. The one who lost 500 million dollars in a specuilation on the Turkish lira.

Mexico at Risk

Some sectors in the USA feel that Mexico is in growing risk of faling in disorder. ¨Mexico is one of two countries that bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse," according to a report by the U.S. Joint Forces Command (JOE 2008) on worldwide security threats. The other: Pakistan.

"The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and press by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state. Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone." Let me quote from the local journal of my favorite Mexican city.

Tijuana (OEM).- Otra jornada sangrienta se documentó el día de ayer al encontrarse los cuerpos de cinco personas que fueron privadas de la vida de forma violenta en cuatro diferentes eventos ocurridos en distintos puntos de la ciudad. Destaca el hallazgo del cuerpo de una fémina cobijada y otra que fue quemada en la vía pública.

El macabro espectáculo se registró a las 06:10 horas de ayer en la esquina que forman las calles Ébano y Abeto, de la colonia Jardín, en la delegación San Antonio de los Buenos, en donde los
criminales le prendieron fuego al cadáver de la mujer de entre 20 a 25 años de edad, luego de estrangularla con un cable eléctrico.

Los oficiales de la patrulla 3419 refieren que a 10 metros de distancia del cuerpo se hallaba
atravesado en la calle un automóvil Accura 1991 y al inspeccionarlo las autoridades estatales localizaron en la cajuela un zapato de dama que resultó ser coincidente con otro izquierdo que aún portaba en el pie la fallecida.

Pero además, alrededor del cuello tenía pegados trozos de hilo de cobre del cable que se utilizo para privarla de la vida mediante el ahorcamiento y luego los asesinos la rociaron de gasolina para quemarla.

Otro tétrico hallazgo ocurrió a las 07:30 horas de ayer al hallar el cadáver de un sujeto no
identificado que fue decapitado y su cabeza dejada entre medio de sus piernas, pero además calcinarlo en un 80 por ciento al incendiarlo en la calle "B", entre Primera y Segunda, de la colonia Granjas Familiares, en la delegación Centenario.

Los tripulantes de la unidad 3787 describen que el ejecutado tenía las manos sujetas a la espalda con un cincho de plástico dentado, pero debido a la acción del fuego no les fue posible obtener las características físicas y edad probable del finado.

A la misma hora, pero en la calle Guadalupe Victoria, entre Palmas y Jesús Ruiz, del Ejido Rojo Gómez, en la zona rural de la delegación La Presa, se halló el cuerpo de otra fémina desconocida
de unos 30 años de edad, envuelta en una cobija de color rosa, con un balazo en la cabeza y hematomas por golpes en el rostro y humanidad.

Los agentes de la patrulla 4191 sólo aportan como características físicas que es de tez morena por motivo de que el cadáver de inmediato fue levantado en el estado original en que se hallaba por instrucciones de las autoridades estatales.

Con los nombres tentativos de Jesús Natividad y Guadalupe Bernabé Benítez Valencia, de entre 45 y 50 años de edad, fueron reconocidos los cadáveres de dos personas que fueron asesinadas con impactos de cartucho de escopeta calibre 12 y numerosos proyectiles de pistola escuadra 9 milímetros.

Los restos de los fraternos fueron descubiertos a las 10:30 horas de ayer en un paraje desolado que se encuentra en el camino vecinal que conduce a la quinta sección de la colonia Altiplano, en la delegación La Presa.

Por las evidencias recabadas en la escena del crimen se presume que ambos fraternos fueron objeto de una emboscada en el sitio, ya que sus cuerpos estaban separados a una distancia de 30 metros uno del otro. En el sitio se recogieron seis casquillos percutidos de calibre 9 milímetros y otro de escopeta.

En todos los crímenes violentos se apersonó el agente del Ministerio Público del Fuero Común para llevar a cabo la fe ministerial de los cuerpos y disponer que fueran ingresados para la necropsia de rigor a la morgue del Servicio Médico Forense. Ya suman más de 30 personas muertas en los sólo 13 días transcurridos del año 2009.

Summary: More than thirty persons were killed in the first thirteen days of the new year in the city of Tijuana alone. More than total Israeli losses in the current war. A few years ago Colombia was falling in chaos, with widespread guerrilla areas and quasi-independent drug gangs. It took ten years to turn round the country.

Water Master Plan for Ensenada, Baja California

The pic shows the treated wastewater discharge from Tijuana's overburdened Punta Bandera wastewater treatment plant. New plants are expected to relieve the city's treatment system. But a development boom along the Tijuana-Ensenada corridor has forced renewed scrutiny of coastal discharges.

I am learning the situation, as I am writing a grant application for the Water Masterplan for Ensenada (500,000 hab.). Did you know that Tijuana had only 200 habitants in 1900 and Mexicali 400 (mostly Chinese expulsed from the USA)? The whole State of Baja California had a population of only 20,000.

My gang yay, your gang boo!

Need I add more?

The War Nerd Speaks

The Kosovo Albanians proved that military skill doesn’t matter, because they tried and failed to conquer Kosovo the old-fashioned way: armed rebellion by the Kosovo Liberation Army. It was a wipeout: local Serb militias, a bunch of tired middle-aged part-timers and cops, crushed the KLA. What happened next is a beautiful illustration of the way losers win these days: the Albanians took the bodies of KLA men who’d been killed in battle, stripped all weapons and ammo from them, and showed them to gullible Western reporters as victims of a Serb “massacre.” It was a massacre, all right, but only because the KLA couldn’t fight worth a damn. Alive and armed, they were a joke; dead and disarmed, they helped win Kosovo by making their side the "victims," which led directly to U.S. military intervention.

To win the way the Albanians won in Kosovo, you need to make a lot of babies. It’s that simple. And to see how it works, you have to drop the namby-pamby liberal idea that people only have babies out of “love.” In lots of places on this planet, baby-making is a form of weapons production.

In some places, it’s open policy. For example, in Palestine there’s an all-out birthrate war going on between the Palestinians and the Israelis. And one of the most frustrating things about this kind of struggle, from the Israeli perspective, is that the worse you make life for the people in the occupied zones, the more kids they have. The Gaza Strip, for instance, has one of the highest fertility rates in the world outside Africa, at 5.6 kids per woman.

The rate for Israeli overall is about 2.8 children per woman, high for a rich country. But the most amazing rates anywhere, even higher than for the Gaza Palestinians, are in the most extreme Zionist groups, the Haredi “ultra-orthodox” Jews. Until recently they averaged eight or nine children per woman. There was actually a big panic in the Israeli settler press when news hit that their rate had dropped to a mere 7.7 kids per woman. That’s actually higher than the rate for Mali (7.38 per woman), which has the highest birthrate in the world.

Maintenance Works in the Mexicali Irrigation System

The Canal Internacional of Baja California flooded several colonias (agricultural settlements) and CONAGUA had to mobilize their employees to drain and disinfect the area. The cause of the inundation was the solid waste thrown into the canals. CONAGUA says thatis unable to control 1980 kilimeters of lined canals, 473 kilometers of dirt canals and 1683 kilometers of drainage canals.

Actualmente, agregó, autoridades de la CNA están en pláticas con los módulos de riego y con la CESPM para implementar acciones conjuntas para mantener libre de residuos sólidos a estos desagües.

Pláticas, pláticas. Talks to avoid dumping waste in the irrigation canals.

Punishing The Water Criminals

Most parts of Israel have received only 60 to 80 percent of their normal rainfall for this time of year. The situation is particularly grave in Lake Kinneret, which is Israel's principal water source. Barring a last minute miracle rain, the lake is likely to remain so low as to virtually preclude pumping from it.

The Water Committee chairman MK Ophir Pines-Paz said that "the crisis is severe, but there is no sense of crisis and no one is behaving as if it were a crisis. We expect the government to adopt a determined, aggressive police of enforcement and punishment, including criminal charges [against violators of water restriction regulations]."

Incredible, but the ancient, savage mentality of searching for individuals guilty of causing the drought and punishing them, sacrificing them in honor of the rain god, is still dominating public mentality. Pines is inciting the people against the "water criminals" and demanding harsh punishment against them. Could it be that sacrificing a few water criminals, like those watering their garden during daylight (and not at night, as regulations demand) will make rain?

Amalek Identified

The Chief Rabbi of Safed, Shmuel Elyahu, declared that the war against Hamas is "a war of the people of Israel against Amalek." I had thought that Amalek has been destroyed aeons ago and his memory erased. Now that Rabbi Elyahu has found them once more, what is that is written in the Bible we should do with them?

Fighting and Negotiating

We are fighting but also negotiating with the HAMAS, since we are not interested in ruling the Palestinians but disarming them and stopping their attacks on Israel. Gilead (pic) is our chief negotiator and is constantly transmitting messages between Cairo and Tel Aviv. Apparently he has some kind of skin disease, which may add to his arguments. My comments on the Gaza war have attracted a number of Arab commenters, and while I do enjoy their threatening exabruptos, I cannot publish them here. Please, shababbi, keep expressing your self !

Viduy (Extremaunción)

The Rabbi Without a Cause blog writes about the Viduy (confession), a Jewish ceremony I never heard about before and that seems to me very similar to the Catholic confession (extremaunción).

The gemara [Shabbos 32a] talks about a person in a life-threatening situation reciting "viduy", admitting his transgressions and repenting. We are taught to help a person to say that viduy, but to be encouraging, pointing out that many people have recited viduy and recovered and lived.

This has to be one of the toughest parts of my job. Sometimes it involves sitting with someone who’s weak and barely conscious and saying the words with him. Sometimes it involves explaining a whole lot of basic Jewish thought to a beginner in order to get around to the idea of repentance. Sometimes, frankly, it involves watering down the viduy into a form that will be comfortable for someone whose life has been led far from Judaism, something simple, along the lines of, “If I’ve hurt anyone, I’m sorry for it.” And sometimes it’s sitting with a friend and barely holding it together enough to convincingly say, “Many have done this and recovered and lived.”

One can learn the Talmud his whole life and die feeling he knows nothing.

On being a magnet for f-cked up projects

I am member of the consultant team hired to resurrect a large building project near Kever Benjamin City. Originally, the place housed a car factory, and as the city advanced, it was moved out. Fishman, one of our tycoons (he lost 500 million dollars in a speculation against the Turkish lira, but he didnt lose his optimism), bought the place and started an enormous mall, industry and office buiding. Only the firefighting reservoir is 500 cu m., like a small city. The management of the project was weak and the project lost its focus and fizzled. There is only one tenant in the 3rd floor under the ground. Now, after nine years (!) and countless changes in concept and management, the project is slowly starting to recover its vitality. Trying to orientate myself in the monstrous corridors of the building, I discovered that the contractor has been advancing and changing things without designs (!). The chief architect is expecting that after completing the building, he will receive an as made drawing, and then all will be right. I have to elaborate my own as is drawings and insert my design. For example, a need a compressor room for the pre-action sprinkler system, a detail no one foresaw nine years ago, and now I have to improvise. How is that anybody who has a f-cked up project finds me? I must be a magnet for these impossible jobs.

Allah didnt protect him

I wonder if Allah is keeping up with the supply of virgins for the increasing numbers of ¨martyrs¨ that are arriving to his paradise lately. The Army says that the pic shows the late Mr Siam, HAMAS´s Minister of Interior and Police´s house. I see no house. Sometimes it is difficult to believe Israeli propaganda.

The Good Guys

GULF OF ADEN (Jan. 10, 2009) A rigid hull inflatable boat departs the amphibious transport dock ship USS San Antonio (LPD-17). San Antonio is the command ship for Combined Task Force (CTF) 151. The task force conducts counter-piracy operations in and around the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and the Red Sea and was established to create a lawful maritime order and develop security in the maritime environment. (U.S. Marine Corps photo)

Gaza Population Having an Educational Experience

"Humanitarian disasters"

Three Zahal, the Israel Defense Forces´s shells found their way to an UNRRA compound with 700 people inside. Also the Al-Quds hospital is burning. An "humanitarian disaster", the number one item on HAMAS´s wish list. CNN and Reuthers are extremely excited and Al-Jazeera is having an orgasm. The United Nations is demanding, in very strong words, immediate cease of fire.

At the UNRRA compound three employees cut their hands with broken glass, and all the people have been evacuated from Al-Quds hospital without casualties. Maybe the disaster is that there is no disasters.

The Enemy

HAMAS' Sallah Al-Bardawil negotiating a ceasefire.

AGAM Chemicals Burning

AGAM pesticide factory in Ashdod is burning. My grand uncle lives in Moshav Nir Galim nearby andhas been asked to stay indoors. Fortunately, the wind is blowing away the toxic fumes toward the sea. Apparently it was an accident in the warehouse, and not a HAMAS rocket. Much damage done.

A Strong Argument Against Racism

Bryan Caplan in a 2006 blog entry explains why it is rational to favor the multiplication of low IQ people in general and to promote their immigration to the US in particular.

"... it's plausible that if we could have one more person, it would be better if he had a high IQ. But that's a trade-off we virtually never face in the modern world! There's plenty of food, and if low-IQ families have fewer kids, high-IQ families are not going to "take up the slack." If you are really worried about dysgenic pressure retarding the advance of civilization, there are two sensible solutions. The first is to encourage high-IQ people to have more kids to
increase the supply of brains; the second is to
encourage low-IQ people to have more kids to increase the demand for brains. Urging either group to have fewer kids "for the good of society" is not smart. "

It is the same concept I formulated in a less clear way: High IQ people live selling their services to low IQ people, so more low IQ people is GOOD. If everybody would be smart and could solve hydraulic problems, my income would not suffer (Ricardo) but in real life that possibility just does not arise, as high IQ people are unfertile. If I was member of a population of one hundred thousand individuals and only I am smart enough to solve hydraulic problems, the demand for my services would increase and my income would not suffer at all.

The conclusion is that immigration of low IQ people to the USA has a neutral impact on the high IQ minority, or more probably, a slightly positive effect. It may hurt the low IQ native population, may be not. Bryan provides no answer to this question, obviously, the issue is not his first concern.

The Reservist Enter Gaza

The reservists, after a week of training, entered Gaza. Here a PR pic, with the necesssary African Jewish soldier.

Taki is Very Mad

By "Mad" I mean "angry", of course. And he perfectly right, because he has been badly robbed and hurt by Bernie Madoff. I also understand that this accident in his life as an investor did nothing to make him love Jews more than he did before. But attacking the Picciotto family because of the particle "de" in their name only reflects Mr Taki's ignorance. And malignancy. He writes: I will start with one Michael de Picciotto. His uncle, Edgar de Picciotto, is the founder and chairman of Union Bancaire Privée, a Geneva-based bank that invested client money with Madoff. The Picciottos are Syrian–Lebanese Jews who have become extremely rich these past 20 years. Somewhere along the way they picked up the aristocratic ‘de’, that being the only similarity any Picciotto has had with anything resembling aristocracy. In some period of my life I had been very close to the Picciotto - Safra - Lagniado hamula (clan) and they never ever pretended to be anything different of what they were, a centuries old family of Middle East Jewish bankers. No pretensions to European noble titles or manors. The "de" was always there. The Picciotto people originate in Spain and older members of the family spoke Ladino, that is, Medieval Spanish. When expulsed from Spain, the Picciotos went to Italy, and from there they spread all over the Middle East, including Khartoum under the British rule, always dealing with trade and finance. As any person with a minimum of culture knows, the Spanish "de" does not signify any aristocracy, in fact, most Spanish names start with it. My own Mother was registered in Argentina as "de ..." and was always called, like everybody else, "Señora de ... ". Any Spanish telephone book is full of De Something. To any person living in a Latin country this is very obvious, but it seems to have escaped the attention of Mr Taki.

but it has not escaped Mr Taki that the very ancient banker Mr Edgar de Picciotto is ugly. I dont remember, the hamula is distinguished by reddish blond hair and watery blue eyes. Ah, yes, and curved Jewish noses. Ugly? Is Mr Taki beautiful? The pic shows Theodoros Kolokotronis, a famous Greek hero.

Power Law Distributions

A 2001 research brings me to the reflection that in social activities, the mass is rather passive and unimportant, while a very restricted minority is the responsible for most of the action. In economy is the Pareto Law, that says that income is distributed 80/20 - a few people tends to make most of the total amount of available income. The analysis of sexual contacts formed by 2,810 Swedes has shown that the number of partners follows an unusual type of distribution, described by what mathematicians call a power law, so that most people are between three and seven degrees of separation from each other. A power law distribution meant that many people had few sexual contacts, some had an intermediate number, and a few had a huge number. "Indeed two men in the sample we analysed claimed to have 600 and 800 partners and a woman claimed to have more than 100 partners." The study shows that the average number of partners for men is 15, but that the 10 per cent most connected men have 48 per cent of the sexual connections, while the one per cent most connected men have about 15 per cent of connections. The power law explains the development of AIDS into an epidemy: it is probable that the few active people will catch the virus and they transmit it to a large number of partners. Eliminating the few actives from the population would basically stop the AIDS epidemy. The corollarium is that it is enought to jail or transport to Tasmania the few troublemakers to depress the overall level of troublemaking. Vice versa, you need only a few hyperactives to change the general conditions in society. A small party of professional revolutionaries can change everything. In a way, this supports Prof. MacDonald's analysis. The graph compares random and power law distributions.

Gaza, Day 17

Israel suspended its activity in Gaza for three hours to allow humanitarian assistance to reach the population. During this period HAMAS fired several deadly Russian-designed Grad rockets on Ashkelon urban area. One Grad exploded on a school, fortunately empty. According to game theory, our best strategy would be to play tit-for-tat and pulverize their largest school when they are less expecting it. But we are not applying our best strategy. We should if we are to survive long in this neigborhood.