Out of Pocket

Going to be out this week - off to Oregon on business. Watch this space for pictures, though.

Remembering

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

Today is for remembering those who fell in defense of their nation and home; those who left the world they knew in order to protect it, and died in its defense.

Remember.

Rocky Mountain High

Come Again?

From Haaretz:

Some 23 percent of Israelis would consider leaving the country if Iran obtains a nuclear weapon, according to a poll conducted on behalf of the Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University.

Some 85 percent of respondents said they feared the Islamic Republic would obtain an atomic bomb, 57 percent believed the new U.S. initiative to engage in dialogue with Tehran would fail and 41 percent believed Israel should strike Iran's nuclear installations without waiting to see whether or how the talks develop.

But what caught my eye was this odd statement:

"The findings are worrying because they reflect an exaggerated and unnecessary fear," Prof. David Menashri, the head of the Center, said.

How is that an "unnecessary" fear?

You have a leader of a nation engaged in developing nuclear weapons making statements that the Holocaust never happened and that Israel should be destroyed.

That sounds like an inherently logical fear to me.

Granted, Islamic extremists tend to talk a lot. But eventually they follow through on their threats.

And they only have to succeed once.