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Via IsRaelli - 20 tips on what to do with your leftover matzah!

Caption Contest!!

Please help me out with some good ones... I'm too tired to come up with them by myself.

"Words don't stop missiles, and [in any case,] there's nothing to talk about"

"Words don't stop missiles, and [in any case,] there's nothing to talk about."
- Defense Minister Ehud Barak

Via Israel Matzav comes a short report on the Israeli verbal reaction to Syrian mobilization and Iranian threats of genocide.

The best line is above, from the defense minister Ehud Barak.

On a personal note, in the Jewish month of Nissan we were redeemed from Egypt, and in this month of Nissan we will be redeemed in the future. May it be God's will that there be no more war and that He bring peace speedily and in our days.

Chag Kasher v'Sameach.

Cleanup on aisle 4!

Israeli Pilot Causes Alert in North

(IsraelNN.com) An Israeli pilot accidentally put the army on alert on Saturday when he failed to identify himself after taking off in a light aircraft. Air Force planes and jets were called to the scene, and area residents reported seeing heavy aircraft traffic for several minutes.

The incident ended when the pilot [desperately] contacted air traffic control and identified himself [shrilly]. The IAF went off of alert, and all planes returned safely to their bases. The IAF will not be responsible for the pilot's laundry costs. [ed. ok, I added the last sentence]

When you sell stuff, you always need a buyer

So everyone is freaking out about the huge debt sell-offs. My thoughts on the issue are that while some banks were not properly positioned for the current economic climate, in no way does that mean the economy itself is tanking. For when banks sell off their debts to generate liquid cash, there is a buyer out there willing to shell out those billions of dollars, betting that the economy is not tanking, and that the borrowers, whose loans they have just purchased, will be paying the loans back in the future.

But the dollar still will tank much further. Gold, oil, and food prices will increase substantially. But that's neither here nor there. I was just sayin'.

Deutsche Looking to Sell Private-Equity Debt
Following Citigroup's bid to dump the broad array of troubled debt weighing down its balance sheet, Deutsche Bank is trying to "sell as much as $20 billion of debt related to leveraged buyouts to a collection of investors that include private-equity firms," people familiar with the matter tell The Wall Street Journal. But unlike Citi, "which is looking for buyers of a $12 billion package of loans and bonds, Deutsche Bank is selling off its debt in parcels," the Journal reports. Separately, Wachovia, fifth-largest U.S. bank, "which barreled into adjustable-rate mortgages with the huge acquisition of Golden West Financial near the peak of the housing market, could announce as soon as today that it is getting a capital infusion of several billion dollars from outside investors," the Journal adds, citing people familiar with the matter. In exchange for $6 billion to $7 billion in cash, the investor group would get shares in Wachovia priced at about $23 to $24 apiece, a 15% discount to Friday's closing price.

Nationwide Emergency Drill

Children carry a "wounded" classmate to a bomb shelter at the Frankel school in Jerusalem on Tuesday as sirens wail across the country during the largest civil defense nationwide exercise in Israel's history.
Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski

The picture above shows the disparate rearing of children in the Arab communities and the Jewish ones. The Arabs give their children suicide vests and rifles, the Jews teach their children how to sing through with raining missiles and explosions, and to hide from attempts to kill them.

May God end all war in the world and bring Mashiach quickly.

From Haaretz:

Defense Minister Ehud Barak assembled the new National Emergency Authority on Monday as part of the Home Front preparedness exercise being conducted this week throughout the country.

As part of the drill, known as Turning Point 2 (Nekudat Mifne 2), the siren sounded for a minute and a half. There was no alarm sounded for the drill in Sderot and the rest of the communities bordering Gaza.

Before the warning sirens sound, the Home Front Command inaugurated its new broadcast studio in the command's Ramle headquarters with a live TV broadcast on Channel 33 on proper emergency procedures.

As the sirens sounded, school and nursery school children were taken to the closest shelters, to spend an hour learning about emergency procedures. Government employees will also be expected to man their posts in shelters and protected rooms.

All local authorities were to undertake drills, based on different scenarios provided by the Home Front Command. In the afternoon there will be emergency exercises in Nazareth and the Northern Galilee, to practice rescuing survivors from buildings hit by missiles.