Refresh: Bombing In Natenya

As always, somebody hears about a bombing and the passes forth this information until we all seem to know about it. So it was today and so it was I went to the Israeli news to see all the W's that surround such an event.

The article I was reading from CNN listed 4 people as being murdered by the homicidal maniac (actually that's maan-yak which basically means "asshole" but that's another story). After teaching a class, I hit "refresh" and nothing on the page changed except the number of people who had been killed. It went from 4 to 5. How strange.

I also read the typical Saeb Erekat quip which condemns this act not because it killed innocent people who were doing nothing more than shopping, but because it hurt the Palestinian cause. Sorry Saeb but that's sick. Condemn the act and shut your political mouth at least for a day. Causes are the cause in the end.

By the way the over used phrase "At the end of the day," I believe was coined by Saeb Erekat. I have observed over the years that he uses this more often than people like myself who hate to speak in front of crowds use "um." I wonder if such a phrase really reveals that the individual who utters it has no idea about what he/she is speaking about or is really not all that invested in the issue as he/she might appear. It is a linguistic cop out kind of like the all too used "thingy" that so many kids these days implant in their sentences. Just give the guy a Ding Dong (remember those goodies) and send him away.

Four dead? Five dead? Lives changed forever. I think I heard the explosion too for I had the strangest premonition at about 11:30 this morning. I did hear a concussive sound and the thought went through my head that a bombing had taken place. Also, my teaching friends and I were out the other night and our couple from the states commented on how "safe" things actually appeared to them. I told them not to be fooled by this lull as any time, any time, silence can be filled with grief. It's the Middle East after all.

However...it really is calm here compared to...Baghdad...L.A., Detroit, Hartford, Bridgeport, Miami, Houston... Right?

J