Saturday Updates

Happy Star Wars Day to those that celebrate. We have no insights. 

Services last night.  The Friday service lasts about an hour and is followed by the oneg (food, sweets) and kibitzing. 

We had an excellent weightlifting session at the gym yesterday. This is going so well we might go to three weightlifting sessions a week. We've dropped to 242 pounds. Could we get to the coveted 239 by the end of the month? Feels like a stretch.

Reports say Hamas has agreed to the first part of the proposed hostage deal. This would be a six week truce and 20-33 Israelis released. Israel insists the war will go on. The agreement could fall apart on that point, and Hamas could say, 'we tried' and then shift blame to Israel. We shall see. There's no formal announcement yet and we suspect some diplomatic rigmarole remains. If the deal goes through*, it's good for Israel and good for Netanyahu. 

Hamas is claiming the US has guaranteed the war will end. Arutz Shiva reports, 'A diplomatic source has said that the US' willingness to provide Hamas with guarantees that Israel will not resume the war following a ceasefire-prisoner swap deal will lead to Israel losing the war, Israel Hayom reported.' Quite right. While it is true Israel could probably extract some major concessions from the US, this blog stands by its call, made countless times. Not peace. Victory.

This blog restates its opposition to the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act. See Mark Steyn for more commentary.

Regarding all the counter-protestors at SEC schools, the leader of this blog's Confederate Contingent (of course) tells a good one, 'Pro Hamas groups got off to a great start with three non-conference wins but the Grind of a SEC schedule was too much for them to handle.' The joke was there, he had to take it. For those who don't know college football's SEC is like the English Premier League. 

The Things.

A slow but steady week with War Night and Other Stories of the Great Nuclear War of 1975. The Lexington story is not done, but we know where it's going. The mayor gets reports of traffic stalled on the interstate, chaos at a hospital, which he'll visit. All while waiting for the bomb to hit the city. War Night is 29,000 words. 

Debbie sent us back the World War 1990: Norway MS. We went over her questions. We'll be consulting another guy who did a read through on Monday. Our grognard continues to grognard. We awake with dread to see messages from him, 'Christ it's too early in the morning for this crap.' That's what we pay him for. 

Our story, Standoff at San Miguel has been accepted to Hooves, Sabers and Tracks. We're getting downright emotional. 

*The more we read the more it sounds like nothing is actually happening. The deal dies on Israel refusing to end war and blame for the conflict shifts back to Israel. More ammo for this theory. Even more ammo. 'The Hamas official also charges that the United States could end the war in Gaza immediately if it chose to. “If the United States administration has said clearly to Netanyahu, ‘enough is enough’… I assure you that will happen,” he claims.'