On fear
Today I missed the bus and got home late.
Well, actually, I intentionally avoided taking the city bus and instead waited for my direct bus home because I was mortally afraid.
Well, at least I think I was; I've forgotten what not being mortally afraid feels like (I swear!), so I don't know about that.
There was a suicide bombing at a falafel stand in Hadera, which is a city in Israel, which is the country I live in. Which is a ridiculously small country, by the way - that terrorist, once he'd gotten in, could have chosen to explode in Tel Aviv, where I was at the time, or in Lod, where I live, or anywhere really.
Anyhow, having heard about the attack on the radio practically in real time (half an hour after the actual explosion), I decided to stay off city buses for a while. In a mostly Jewish city, in an area where no Arabs would likely be affected by an attack, a bus full of Jews isn't somewhere you want to be. Particularly when you've just been reminded that there really are people who are out to kill you - who've just killed someone that could've been you.
Speaking of reasons to be mortally afraid... The Islamic Republic of Iran, a UN member state and all, is currently executing a nuclear energy research program, which it claims has nothing to do with weapons development; This claim is widely believed to be, well, a lie, and there is in fact some evidence to the contrary, as well as some well-publicized groundwork for a potential attack on Israel (their successful ballistic missile program already covers the distance, for example).
In any case, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran since not long ago, gave an unusually unpretentious speech today in front of thousands of students at a convention. Pay attention now.
The convention was titled "The world without Zionism". The main statement by Ahmadinejad? I'll give you the Aljazeera.Net headline...
Ahmadinejad: Wipe Israel off map
Now, remember what I said about Israel being ridiculously small? Very nuke-economic. So, uh, hey, US? World? Anyone? We could use some help here. Like, soon. Thanks.