The Mack Attack

Thought-provoking clap-trap for the skeptic-minded

Monday, June 18, 2007

Israel Bombed By Lebanon

(6-17) JERUSALEM - Two Katyusha rockets fired from Lebanon fell on northern Israel Sunday afternoon, police and the military said. No one was hurt, but there was some damage, they said.
They were the first rockets fired from Lebanon since last summer's war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas, when almost 4,000 rockets were fired at Israel.
Sunday's attack raised the possibility of an Israeli reprisal raid and a new flare-up between the two countries. It came as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was arriving in the United States for talks. In New York, an official with Olmert said the prime minister was briefed about the incident. "Israel will not succumb to this provocation but will monitor the situation carefully," the official said, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, indicating that Israel would not hit back.
Al-Manar, the Hezbollah TV station in Lebanon, broadcast a denial of Hezbollah involvement in the attack.
The rocket attack came as a new defense minister, former premier and army chief Ehud Barak, was about to take over from Amir Peretz, defeated in a party primary election.
Peretz was convening military and security commanders for a meeting that was planned before the rocket attack. Security officials said they would discuss how Israel should respond.
One of the rockets hit a factory and the other hit a car. Channel 2 TV's Arab affairs analyst, Ehud Yaari, said a splinter Palestinian group in Lebanon was probably behind the attack.
In Beirut, there was no immediate comment from the Lebanese army, Lebanese security officials or the Hezbollah group.
'Heaven help us'The rockets exploded near the northern town of Kiryat Shemona, hard hit during last summer's war. The mayor of the town, Haim Barbivai, called for a tough response from both the Israeli and Lebanese government. "Heaven help us if we have another summer like the last one. That would be a tragedy," he told Channel 2.
An eyewitness told Channel 2 TV that she saw one of the rockets explode and heard the other one. Eli Bin, director of the Magen David Adom rescue service, said no one was hurt.
There was no immediate response from Israeli officials.
Area police commander Nir Mariash told Channel 2 that residents in Israel's north were not instructed to enter bomb shelters, rather, "to maintain normal life."
Channel 2 said the rocket fire came from the southern Lebanese village of Adaiseh, just across a ridge from northern Israel.
Channel 2 showed footage of a small crater in a street, and a damaged car. The station's military reporter said that based on the limited damage, the rocket was small. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the rockets were 107mm.
A sign at a mineral water factory in the northern part of Kiryat Shemona was pockmarked by shrapnel from one of the rockets.
The 2006 war started with a cross-border raid by Hezbollah in which three Israeli soldiers were killed and two captured. Israel launched a full-scale air offensive against Hezbollah targets and Lebanese infrastructure, as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged to return the captured soldiers and smash Hezbollah.
The war ended inconclusively after 34 days.

Friday, June 15, 2007

New Silver Surfer movie far from golden

Just saw the new Fantastic Four II; Rise of the Silver Surfer movie.

Where to begin? Let's start with the fact that they took the ever-suffering Silver Surfer; the character with godlike powers but also a poet's heart; the one soul in the entire Marvel Universe who displays the most humanity...and reduced him to a stiff CGI gimmick.

They also turned the mighty Galactus (another favorite character of mine) into an interstellar dust storm. Yes, that's right. Galactus in this movie is just so much cosmic dust, coming down the pike to destroy earth. No Watcher, either.

And Sue Storm, what have you done to yourself? Jessica Alba looks like an even more tarted-up version of Christina Aguillera in this film; complete with the collagen lips and straw-like hair of Pamela Anderson, and the (so-blue-they're-fake-looking) colored contact lenses that you might see on any light-skinned Wal-Mart checkout girl with a weave.

Also, the Fantasticar is now a Dodge product-placement (complete with the obligatory "Hemi" joke thrown in).

If you look hard enough, you will also see a "Dos Equis" beer product placement as well.

I really enjoyed the first FF feature film, but this one is an insult.

For those out there who know what I mean by this, this movie is much more Hulk than Spider man.

Friday, June 08, 2007


STARE AT THE SUN AND WIN A FREE DOG...

CHELSEA – A woman facing jail time for "staring" at a police dog had charges against her dropped Monday after an Orange County prosecutor viewed videotape of the alleged crime.Jayna Hutchinson, now of Lebanon, N.H., was scheduled for a jury trial this week on a misdemeanor charge of cruelty to animals.A Vermont State Police sergeant said Hutchinson was intoxicated and stared at his police dog in a "taunting/harassing manner" last July while officers were in the process of investigating a reported melee outside a West Fairlee establishment."Prosecuting a woman for staring at a police dog is absurd," said Kelly Green, a public defender appointed by Vermont District Court in Orange County to represent Hutchinson. She likened the act to giving a police officer the finger – a form of expression protected by rights accorded under the First Amendment."After looking at the video, I did not think it was worthwhile proceeding," Orange County State's Attorney Will Porter said Tuesday.He said it would be difficult to prove that Hutchinson's behavior met the statutory standard for cruelty to animals, which in this case would have required that Hutchinson "intentionally torment(ed) or harass(ed) an animal owned … by a police department."According to an affidavit, Hutchinson approached Sgt. Todd Protzman on the night of July 31 as he and at least three other officers were investigating a fight. Hutchinson, who later registered a .218 blood-alcohol content, told Protzman she wanted to report that she had been beat up the night before by one of the men involved in the fight, according to Green.Green said the video showed Protzman mocking Hutchinson's appearance."I think his comment about Jayna's looks revealed the real reason he arrested her," Green said. "I'd venture a guess to say that if she'd been small and pretty and had been complaining of being assaulted, he may have done more to investigate her claims."Porter said he saw no indication of improper behavior by Protzman and that he was doing his best to deal with a very intoxicated person."Ms. Hutchinson was very intoxicated. Did he have some abrupt comments toward her? Yeah," Porter said. "He had some curt responses to get her out of his hair so he could attend to what he was there for."

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