You may have noticed I haven't ranted about anything in the news lately; more specifically, I haven't ranted about Israel in a while. Once again, I find myself overwhelmed by all the shit going on in the world, and I haven't felt compelled to comment on it all. Really, what have I got to say that hasn't already been said?

There's the (now) usual attacks in Iraq, this time with a bomb going off at a funeral (which to me is about the lowest thing you can do). Reports put the death toll around 6. This has lead Iraq to adopt "emergency powers law" to try and slow the deteriorating situation there. I really hope and pray for Iraq to get back on it's feet....it's such a terrible situation.

Then there was a suicide bomber in Sri Lanka; a women blew herself up taking somewhere between 4 - 14 people along with her. Yet another page right out of Israel's story....dealing with suicide bombers. Sri Lanka, Iraq, wherever..... It's just unbelievable that this is becoming the norm for terrorizing. How can you fight back against someone who doesn't value his or her own life?

Meanwhile Muslims are killing Muslims in Sudan, and the world seems all too focused on their own "wars against terrorism" to notice that thousands of people are being murdered. Seems the Arab Muslims aren't too fond of the Black Muslims, and are looking to wipe them out. It's a sad state of affairs and it's high time the UN quits sitting on it's hands and fighting over petty issues (like picking on Israel for trying to protect it's citizens by building a fence) and get in there to stop the massive slaughter that's going on. Just what kind of priorities are those??

And don't even get me started on Israel. Sick and tired of Palestinians lobbing rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip (and killing people recently by doing it), Israel has gone in with helicopters to target terrorists and their locations from which they launch these attacks into Israel. This situation pisses me off because Israel is in the process of pulling out of Gaza, just like the Palestinians have wanted all along, and still they attack Israel. Do you want Israel out or not?? Then quit it!!!!!!!!! Israel has enough to worry about, like convincing the hard core settlers to leave Gaza and West Banks settlements; there are new fears that an Israeli will try and assassinate Prime minister Ariel Sharon in order to "save all of Israel". That's about the last thing Israel needs right about now and let's face it, an assassination in the past by an Israeli against an Israeli (Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin) was a horrible and tragic event. Israelis need to stand together, not turn on each other. If that happens, then the Palestinians win.

There's also the nuclear issue heating up in the Middle East again; Iran seems to be creating a new program, and has never been too fond of Israel (then again, few countries in the Middle East are). So that's a bit worrying.
And don't even get me going on the nasty anti-semitism going on in the Dutch soccer arena. Stop threatening Jews with bombs; it's tiring and it's just not nice.

So all this chaos in the world has me feeling a bit like I'm heading for a news overload. I admit, I am a news whore and read far too much news throughout the day. And it's my addiction to the news that has me feeling sickly and makes me feel grim when I think of the world's future. Instead I will talk about other things to get my mind off what's going on.

For instance, let's talk about Coca Cola 2 (or C2, as it is cleverly marketed). I have been reading a bit about this on Meryl's blog, and most recently Grasshoppa's blog (he has a review of the product since I have yet to try it). Firstly, I am really *quite* sick of the whole "low carb" craze. The fact that a new low carb potato is being developed is really a sign that this is concept out of control. ANYway, the marketing geniuses at Coca Cola are claiming this fine new product has half the carbs and "half the cals" (that would be "calories" for those not hip to the catchy marketing lingo). Perhaps Coca Cola didn't learn from their "New Coke" fiasco in the 80's, but they really should have learned that messing with the formula tends to piss people off. But of course they wish to cash in on the low carb phenomena and so they have tossed their hats into the ring. I may or may not bother to try it when it finally makes it's way up to Canada, but judging by Meryl's scathing review it's pretty awful stuff. I already have an aversion to drinks with Aspartame (as most diet beverages do) so if I try it I'm betting I'll only try it once. Anyone else try it yet?

And only Rat and Solomon seemed to be moved by my very enthusiastic post about the Firefox web browser. I have only come to love it more and more and I *strongly* urge Solomon to stick with it a bit longer to really give it a chance. Like anything else it takes time to get used to. It's all too easy to go back to what you know and are comfortable with, but in time you will be just as comfortable with Firefox. I promise. And if the recent reports about the Internet Explorer hacks don't move you to at least try an alternative, I don't know what will. Here's an article by a guy who lists the reasons why he's staying away from Internet Explorer, check it out.
I have also downloaded the mail client that compliments Firefox, called Thunderbird. It's pretty damn cool in it's own right and had I found this a few weeks ago I might not have ditched my main e-mail account in favour of Gmail (I was swamped in nearly 200 spam messages a day). This mail client handles the spam like a dream and in a way Outlook Express can only dream of. Down with Microsoft!!!! hahaha...

and before I go I just wanted to acknowledge a few new blogs I am adding to my blogroll: Bloghead, a witty and well written blog with a slant on Israel and other Jewish issues (but not exclusively, kinda like me). Yesterday's post was pretty amusing. And Angry Chad, a hilarious blog full of bitter rants. VERY good for a laugh when you need it. Sure feels good to vent, doesn't it?
*wink*