Sunday, June 15, 2003
Ahhh...Y'know, I went out this morning for a nice lunch at Rainforest Cafe with the family. Nothing says "Father's Day" like a steak and shrimp in a faux-jungle with a two-year-old crawling all over you. Fending off stampeding elephants in a thunder-storm while enjoying a plate of meat - makes you appreciate being at the top of the food-chain.
Then it was off to the garden center for some grub-control and some herbs for the garden and the rest of the afternoon (the first sunny day in, it seems like, weeks) was spent mowing, cultivating and generally getting the place looking good for what remains of the summer.
Then it was inside, big cold drink, shower and lay down on the couch near an open window, body all a-tingle to enjoy the remainder of the day.
First a quick look at the latest news:
(Via LGF) Bush urges ''deal harshly'' with Hamas
''The free world and those who love freedom and peace must deal harshly with Hamas and the killers,'' Bush told reporters when asked whether Israel was justified in recent attacks against the group.
''That's just the way it is in the Middle East,'' he said as he left Sunday services at First Congregational Church in Kennebunkport.
The remarks were his most extensive on the situation in the Middle East since a wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence last week threw his peace ''road map'' into turmoil, and they intensified earlier calls for action against Hamas.
Hamas has defied the Palestinian Authority and rejected the road map as too generous to Israel. It claimed responsibility for the most lethal incident in the current outbreak, a suicide bombing in Jerusalem on Wednesday which killed 17.
The Bush administration had criticized Israel for trying to assassinate a Hamas leader on Tuesday, but trained its sights on Hamas in the wake of the Jerusalem bombing and complaints from pro-Israel groups in the United States.
Bush said the United States was helping the Palestinian Authority reconstitute a security force to take on Hamas, but declined to say if Washington would provide arms or money.
U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, the Republican chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said, ''clearly, if force is required ultimately to root out terrorism, it is possible there would be American participation.''
Asked if that meant such troops would go after Hamas or other groups, he said, ''That may be the conclusion.''
''...It may not be just Hamas but clearly Hamas is right in the gunsights,'' he added.[...]
Man, the day just gets better and better. Here I was, worrying about the approaching Oslo redux, and dismayed that our friend Bush was starting to go wobbly, and a little dash of my faith has been restored. He must really have heard from all different directions after his comments of the other day, and now he seems to be getting back on track - remembering the laws of the jungle, and getting ready to do what needs to be done to make the ground bear future fruit.
