It's been a while since I made any entries to this blog, partly for technical reasons, but also in part because I didn't feel like saying much. In any case, I expect to be a lot more active in the coming days.

"German racists are young, uneducated losers, according to Reuters. I'm pretty sure that there are many German racists who don't fit this profile - and this is true for all western countries, not just Germany - but it comes as no surprise that those who would actually go to the trouble of personally torching refugee hostels and attacking "dark skinned" people should turn out to be the dregs of German society.

Seen in today's NYT:

Implicating the United States in the captivity of Mr. Arafat, [Marwan Barghouti] said: "This aggression is by an American decision, and American weapons. America now is the one providing cover for terrorism and supporting terrorism."

If the Palestinians think they can threaten the United States and get something out of it, they have completely lost touch with reality. The only reason Yasser Arafat is still alive is because of the United States' intervention with the Israelis on his behalf. The Israelis would have killed him months ago were it not for the Americans, just as they would have done in 1982 if not for American intervention. A cynical observer might suggest that Barghouti wants to see Arafat get killed, as there seems to be no rational explanation for such an outburst.