an answer

 "I wish I had an answer to that, because I'm tired of answering that question."

Yogi Berra.

severe rodent infestation

Yes, there is currently a severe rodent infestation throughout the Gaza Strip, particularly affecting displacement camps and tent settlements. According to recent reports, over 80% of displacement sites surveyed in April 2026 experienced regular infestations of rats and pests.

The infestation has reached crisis levels, with rats and parasites spreading through tent camps, biting children and adults as they sleep, and gnawing through possessions. Health officials have reported that every day hospitals record cases of patients being admitted due to rodent-related incidents, particularly among children, the elderly, and the sick.

The World Health Organization has recorded more than 70,000 cases of ectoparasite infections and rodent-borne illnesses in Gaza since the beginning of 2026. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, four displaced people have died from skin diseases directly linked to rodent infestations.

The crisis stems from the widespread destruction of infrastructure, including water and sewage networks, combined with the accumulation of rubble and waste, which has created favorable conditions for rodents to thrive. Aid efforts have included the transfer of about 90 tons of pest control materials and over 1,000 mousetraps into Gaza, but these measures have proven largely ineffective in the current environment.

The problem has now spread beyond Gaza's borders, with thousands of rats reportedly moving into Israeli settlements surrounding the Strip, causing significant agricultural damage.

magnificent language

 “Profanity is the parlance of the fool. Why curse when there is such a magnificent language with which to discourse?"

-Theodore Roosevelt

Sound familiar?

 

The wise will understand. 

German roots around the world

 

Millions left Germany over 300 years. Today about 1 in 8 Americans reports German roots, more than 40 million people. Do you have German roots? Where did the Germans go? 1683: Germantown, Pennsylvania 1763: Catherine the Great invites Germans to Russia 1816–1914: about 5.5 million sail overseas, most to the U.S. 1941: Stalin deports the Volga Germans east Since 1990: about 2.2 million moved to Germany from the former USSR Today more than 40 million Americans report German roots.

“A New Look at the 1948 Arab-Israeli War,”

“Benny Morris on “A New Look at the 1948 Arab-Israeli War,” Wilson Center, 43:15

“The war was definitely not a jihad or a religious war on the Israeli side. On the Israeli side, the Jewish population in Palestine, the yishuv, was 90% secular at the time. And the leadership of the yishuv was almost totally secular. The military leadership, the political leadership. It was a very secular society. You get an optical illusion when you look back from 2016 when Israel has become much more religious or a larger part, segment of its population is religious. But in 1948 the people who counted and actually the vast majority of the population was of course non-religious. In fact they were children, or actually the people themselves, who had rebelled against religion. This is what Zionism was all about, partly, against rebelling against the old world of their fathers, which was a religious world. They rebelled also against God. So they didn’t approach the war at all as a religious war, not the generals, not the politicians, not Ben-Gurion, not Sharet, not Allon, not Dayan. They were irreligious people, maybe even they were anti-religious, so the religious people saw them.”

Benny Morris, a self-proclaimed Zionist and a Jew who himself is not religious, is one of Israel’s leading historians.

My Lai

 

In 2004, Mike Wallace interviewed Larry Colburn and Hugh Thompson, members of an American helicopter crew who were credited with saving Vietnamese civilians during the 1968 My Lai massacre, which killed more than 500 unarmed civilians. In 1998, 60 Minutes first returned to Vietnam with Colburn and Thompson, where they met some of the people they rescued in My Lai.

The wise will understand. 

Israel does not feed Gaza

I heard the claim recently, that "Israel feeds its enemies." This was meant as praise, but some will say it out of criticism.

Despite the naive claim, Israel does not feed its enemies and doesn't feed Gaza, not that more than a small portion of Gaza is an enemy.

Before the war, 300 food trucks entered Gaza a day. That's enough to feed 3 million people, but Israel does not supply the food.

Bottom line: The international community (UN, governments, NGOs) pays for the food; commercial truckers transport it; Israel controls whether it enters.

Who Supplies the Food

Source	Examples	Role
UN Agencies	UNRWA, World Food Programme (WFP)	Largest suppliers; UNRWA specifically serves Palestinian refugees
Government Aid	USAID, EU humanitarian aid, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey	Direct government donations and funding
International NGOs	Red Cross/Red Crescent, MSF, Oxfam, Save the Children	Emergency food, medical supplies
Local NGOs	Palestinian charities, community groups	Distribution inside Gaza
Private Donors	Islamic Relief, Catholic Relief Services, etc.	Faith-based and secular charities

If 500 trucks enter daily (the pre-war Gaza average):

Assumptions:

• ~60% carry food/water = 300 food trucks
• Average truck: 20 tons capacity
• Daily food delivery: 6,000 tons (6 million kg)

• Daily food need per person: ~2 kg (including staples, not just calories)
• 6,000,000 kg ÷ 2 kg = 3 million people fed daily

This tracks — Gaza's population is ~2.3 million, and 500 trucks/day was the baseline import level for all goods (food, fuel, medicine, construction materials, commercial trade).

Current situation: During the 2024-2025 war, daily aid often dropped to 10-50 trucks/day — roughly 5-10% of minimum needs, which is why famine conditions developed.

Etymology of deer

 

Bull

Bull as a word for falsehood comes from the old French bole which means deception. It comes from the Latin word for air bubble. It has nothing to do with cows. 

So you don't need to say bull s..t. Just say bull or bole. Baloney is good too. 

Etymology: 12th century, bole, "club" [in English]; 19th century, meaning "head" [in English] From the Latin bulla, "air bubble."