One man's terrorist is another man's Prime Minister

Hamas has won in the Palestinian elections, which is bad news for the peace process in Israel. Hamas has declared in no uncertain terms that they hate Israel, and will not recognize it, and they have claimed responsibility for many suicide bombings during the intifadah. I had such hope after Arafat died--I truly believed the Palestinian people wanted peace and Abbas could make it happen.

My friend djeber says it nicely:

Here are some thoughts: the Palestinians were given a choice, and now they've shown the world what they stand for. I don't care how corrupt Fatah was or how many schools Hamas built. None of that changes the fact that the Palestians have put into power a fundamentalist, terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel. As such, I now just hope that they give Israel an excuse to wipe them off the planet. And if some civilians get caught in the crossfire, well, they put Hamas in power, so now they can reap the consequences. I won't lose any sleep over it.

Well, at least we (what is, Israel) know what we're dealing with--the gloves are off and Israel can continue to build that wall. Jesus. Yay for democracy?

Ozma of Oz

There's another assistant on this floor named Evelyn, and as I walked by, someone called her "Ev" which got me to thinking about the Kingdom of Ev which borders the Land of Oz in the Oz books. We first hear about Ev in the third book, Ozma of Oz, which is about Ozma's mission to try to liberate the Royal Family of Ev from the cluthes of the Nome King who had transformed them all into brik-a-brac. Baum was an uneven writer (the inconsistencies drove me nuts, even as a kid) but he certainly knew how to intrigue a child--I loved the symmetric nature of the Royal Family. There was one mother (the King of Ev had sold his family to the Nome King, and then jumped into the sea) and 10 royal children (5 of each gender, naturally), all with names that started with Ev--Evanna, Evring, Evrose, Evington--and the King turned them all into purple ornaments. While they're in captivity, the Kingdom is "ruled" by a very lazy Princess, Langwidere, who has 30 different heads, but can only wear one at a time. Eventually Ozma and her company liberate the Ev Royal Family, and the oldest son is introduced to his subjects. I love this passage:

They found the Princess Langwidere in her mirrored chamber, where she was admiring one of her handsomest heads—-one with rich chestnut hair, dreamy walnut eyes and a shapely hickory-nut nose. She was very glad to be relieved of her duties to the people of Ev, and the Queen graciously permitted her to retain her rooms and her cabinet of heads as long as she lived.

Then the Queen took her eldest son out upon a balcony that overlooked the crowd of subjects gathered below, and said to them:

“Here is your future ruler, King Evardo Fifteenth. He is fifteen years of age, has fifteen silver buckles on his jacket and is the fifteenth Evardo to rule the land of Ev.”

The people shouted their approval fifteen times, and even the Wheelers, some of whom were present, loudly promised to obey the new King.

So the Queen placed a big crown of gold, set with rubies, upon Evardo’s head, and threw an ermine robe over his shoulders, and proclaimed him King; and he bowed gratefully to all his subjects and then went away to see if he could find any cake in the royal pantry.

The kid in me loves the exacting numerology, but what happens when he turns 16? Does he get a new jacket? But the ordinals would still be off, unless he leaps forward in time to reign after the next King named Evardo.