O.k., back to more of the local issues. As I have stated before, we are in the process of building a new house. Said new house won't be ready for at least another month. We sold our other place in January or Febuary, I don't remember which. That left us with trying to find somewhere to live in the interim, which we did. We got lucky, in some respects. We found a house, near where we are building (very convienient), where we could take our little dog, and it wasn't an apartment. Also, the owner of the house understood our predicament of only needing temporary housing and let us rent month-to-month without a lease. The house is not that great, and the rent is higher than what it should be, but, wtf, with all the other benefits, described above, it seemed tolerable in the short term. Now for the fun part.

The problems with the house are too numerous to mention, however, we have tolerated them. The owner has been in a prolonged campaign (for lack of a better word) to sell the house. The house will never, ever pass a house inspection, much less bring anywhere near the asking price. Anyway, during the hottest summer on record, (and I hate summer and heat, in general), the air conditioning system went out. It's about 1:00 a.m. as I type this and it is at least 90 degrees in this house. I, along with Rusti and Tommie, am totally miserable. I've been sitting around sweating this evening, trying not to move too much. It is hell on earth. The owner of the house seems to think that it is funny. Hmm.

Just venting a little because I am absolutely crazy from the heat. I am about afraid to even be on my computer due to the heat and humidity. God, I hope our house gets done soon.

So that is really accelerating my enjoyment of my days off. I dread going back to work and trying to sleep in this hotbox. As a sidenote, my Sargeant and his wife made it back from Barbados safely. He came by last night and we played some ultra-competitive golf (Tiger Woods 2005) on the Playstation. Sadly to say, he beat me more than I beat him. It was probably the heat that killed my game. Till next time.

I should probably stay away from politics in this blog, and leave analysis to the 'experts'. I will try, for the most part.

A couple of quick things, though. I support Israel, and it's inherent right to self-defense. Israel is surrounded by enemies, and I think that if they really threw off the shackles of restraint, they could wipe out all of their enemies in the region in about a day and a half. I think America has many historic and cultural ties to Israel, and I am glad we support them on the world stage. Of course that opens us up even more for the wrath of the 'mullahs', but they will always hate us, because, deep down, in their collective 7th century stone cold hearts, they are jealous of us. I have lived amongst them, and I think it really boils down, essentially, to something as petty as jealousy. I don't think that they want what we have, especially, but I don't think they want us to have it either. Anyway, it appears that God's Chosen People have opened up an industiral-sized can of whoop-ass, and I don't think they are gonna put the lid back on until the job is done. Just my humble opinion.


THE FACE OF MADNESS!

One other thing before I close this out for today. Who are all of these Americans 'trapped' in Lebanon? I know that there are Government employees there, both official and un-official. Who are these 'tourists'? Can anyone tell me. I mean, c'mon, who vacations in Beirut? What could you be thinking? I'm wondering, personally, if this is not Darwinism in action.

Anyway, end of rant for today. More later, hopefully I can keep it more on the local level.

A few links of interest:

http://www.iaf.org.il/Templates/HomePage/HomePage.aspx?lang=EN

The English version of the IDF Air Force Website!

http://www.iaf.org.il/Templates/HomePage/HomePage.aspx?lang=EN

The English version of the IDF Website!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_Special_Forces

A Wikipedia article on Israeli Special Forces!