You can find more news and up-to-the-minute updates at UgandaCAN.org.

Historic peace talks to end the 21-year war in northern Uganda resumed Thursday, with the two sides beginning discussions on the most complicated and crucial agenda item: accountability and reconciliation. Prior to the resumption of the Ugandan government announced its decision to drop an earlier demand that peace negotiations be given a timeframe.
Read more at the Daily Monitor …

The Ugandan government urged donors and human rights groups on Wednesday to accept "Mato Oput" traditional justice systems as an alternative to jail sentences for dealing with LRA war crimes. The head of the government peace team, Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, made this statement: "Our traditions have sustained our societies for centuries. Instead of abandoning (them) ... and jumping into Western solutions, Uganda (may) decide to stick with our traditions," he said. "They have resolved conflicts in the past."
Read more at Reuters AlertNet …

The U.S. remains publicly absent in supporting the peace talks between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government. However, Resolve Uganda -- the new face of Uganda-CAN -- is trying to change that. Led by the new U.S.-based organization, thousands of Americans wrote their representatives last week, calling for their country’s leaders to take action. For more information visit: www.resolveuganda.org

I have been waiting, but the mainstream media silence is becoming too much to bear.

In the past few days Hamas has launched 106 missiles and 36 mortars into the Israeli town of Sderot and its surrounding area. These Kassam missiles have no guidance system and are fired indiscriminately into an area without regard as to where it may land. Hamas fires them into civilian areas with the hope that maximum civilian damage will ensue. Hamas is violating Article 58 of Protocol 1 of the Geneva Conventions, which requires parties to a conflict to "avoid locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas" by launching their missiles from an urban area. Where is the international outrage?

Well there was a glimmer of outrage when Israel responded and wiped out a building that served as the Hamas security headquarters. Moscow, while silent on the Hamas rocket barrage has criticised Israel's reply. The Iranians have also branded Israel's reaction as "war crimes." Both Palestinian factions, while unable to pull themselves away from the unbridled bliss of slaughtering one another, have taken enough time out to place the blame for their woes on Israel. Israel has acted in a very restrained manner throughout this crisis.

Where are the editorials praising Israel for her restraint? Last year the press jumped all over Israel for her "disproportionate response". Shouldn't these same pundits who were so quick to condemn Israel for her actions last year be heaping praise on her. Last summer the media raced to condemn Israel to the point where utter and complete fabrications were actually reported as fact. Please take a look at this, this and this and then decide whether you can ever trust AP, AFP, BBC or Reuters to practice due diligence when reporting their fairytales. These hoaxes helped to turn the tide of popular opinion against Israel, to the point where she has to be very careful in her actions. Now she is acting with complete restraint and refusing to get suckered in by these hatemongers. Why is the mainstream media silent? Why is there no encouragement from the Western governments and the U.N.?

Both Fatah and Hamas should be very wary. They should know by now that they should never push Israel too far. When she has been pushed too far there will be a response. That's the deal with Israel. They make no bones about it. They are not looking to win any popularity contests. Many citizens of Israel can still remember the results of waiting for the rest of the world to come to their rescue. That didn't turn out too well. Ultimately Israel will act to ensure the safety of her people (something that Arab nations have no desire to do).

One of the most admirable aspects of Israel as a nation is her ability to absorb lessons and learn from her mistakes. There have been many bumps in the road, but the larger picture shows a nation that is steadily moving forward and attempting to ensure dinity and rights for ALL her citizens. Sometimes her methods appear harsh, but she lives in the roughest neighborhood on this planet. Compare this to her neighbors who seem to be perpetually caught in the same cycle of strife, year after year, never able to pull themselves away from it, never learning from their fiascos. While Israel respects history and cares for her children, her neighbors use history as a justification for all their crimes and strap bombs to their children.

Hamas should beware. Israel is unlikely to repeat the mistakes of last summer. Israel is not a nation of undisciplined sandbarbarians. I will give them credit when credit is due.

NEW YORK - An Andy Warhol painting sold for more than $71 million, more than quadrupling the previous top auction price for the pop artist’s work, an auction house said.  You can read the rest of the AP article here.

Not surprisingly;

The buyers were not identified. Calls to Christie’s representatives were not immediately returned early Thursday.

Bloody hell, if I wasted $71 million on that piece of crap, I wouldn't want anyone to know who I was either.

Thank you all for your concern. No, I'm not dead. I've been sequestered in my cone of silence for the last couple of weeks. The surprising thing about blogging is that it can become a bit like work, the difference being that I can completely screw this up and neglect it without facing too many consequences. While this blog has pulled in surprising numbers (not the kind that would make Rudy Giuliani take notice and proclaim "whoa, that's the guy I want blogging for me."), I do realize that I could be doing more. Perhaps it would help if I posted more frequently. Yes, I do have a couple of long winded discourses queued up, and I promise not to bash Michele Landsberg in either one of them.

What I do find rather amusing is the way that people stumble across the blog. I have attached a screenshot of my "search engine queries" page. This page provides me with the search engine that led someone to my blog and the word(s) used to get there in the last two days. What the Holy hell? Someone actually typed in the term breast enhancement and my blog came up on search.live.com (an engine that I didn't even know existed). I'm normally unconcerned with breast enhancements (mine are nice and perky and in no need of any enhancements, thank you very much) and I can't recall ever having used the words "breast" or "enhancement" never mind having used them together in a phrase. Dog sites in Ottawa? What the hell is zyrtec, and why does this blog pop up when someone types that word into a search engine? And while I know exactly where the term home coziness appears in this blog, I can't understand why anyone would conduct a search for that phrase.

Some of you do actually read what I write and I get some pretty nice emails (by the way, my real name isn't actually Malcolm Schrodinger - although that does have a pretty neat ring to it), but I know that many of you are searching for Russian brides. I'll try to update that section more frequently for your benefit.

Anyway, toodles for now.