(e:Zobar) -

Whoever did the iPod versions of the 2006 Artvoice menus - thanks! That is a simple but great idea. I slapped those bad boys on my G5 30GB black bundle of joy yesterday, and now wherever I am, if I need some restaurant advice on the fly... there I am!

Thanks again, to whoever set that up. I hope to see that feature stick around in the future. Look at me, thanking Artvoice! Ha. You guys aren't so bad after all. Just keep getting Niman his meds and we'll be okay.

- Josh

One thing that you wouldn't realize if you werent me and lucky (or unlucky depending on the mood) enough to travel all over the country every week is the absolute wealth of latino people in rural areas. Its obviously no coincidence that these pockets of latino population are near manufacturing jobs, but the best part of this is being able to sample the absolutely authentic Mexican joints that sprout up in these rural areas. I like to take parts of my trips home with me, whether it be a t-shirt, or a picture... or a recipe.

I've been known to bust out and cook for friends on occasion and have even inspired friends to dash out on their own and make a recipe - my boy Jerry makes a killer, killer chili for example. I don't know why I haven't really been inspired lately, but I stumbled upon a quesadilla recipe that I'm going to convert into soft tacos, teamed up with a smoky guacamole made with chipotle peppers in adobo.

Cooking for me is about the same things that playing a musical instrument is about - its about the creativity, of finishing something you start and not just enjoying the final product but attempting to excel at it.

Anyhow, about the food. I need *the* definitive produce section in Buffalo. The Co-Op's produce, hate to say it, is abysmal. I've actually been to some of the fruit processors that they supply from, and I know for a fact that they shelve fruit at the Co-Op that the producers themselves would not consider prime fruit by any stretch. So, that leaves me with Weg, the Farmer's Market and Guercio's. Where do I buy my produce here? Weg is particularly strong and I am aware of their extremely tight produce standards but Guercio's based on reputation alone seems to be an excellent choice.

Its a great day, isn't it?

This morning at 6:45am I woke up hearing some rustling around my window. I open my eyes and look at my window fan, and I see a guy in an orange t-shirt trying to remove the fan from my window, obviously trying to break in.

So I snuck up to the window (he couldn't see me through the fan) and shouted at loud and as startling as I could at him, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" He ran down the fire escape. I kind of wish that I would have waited to take the fan out of the window so I could have crushed his face.

I got out of bed, through on some quick clothes and took a little lap around the hood to look for the guy - nowhere to be found. However, the door to the carriage house is open and I'm afraid that someone's bike may have gotten stolen.

In any case, just a heads up for the locals. Keep your shit locked and watch out!

Yep I've been sweltering in the heat like y'all. After my post about the breakin I have yet to reinstall my window fan. As a result, I've been sleeping on the floor of the living room because that is where the AC is. My freakin' back hurts so I'll likely be wedging in my fan one way or another this afternoon.

Anyhow, more madness from the Middle East. Those of you hoping and/or wanting and/or demanding a cease-fire... flush the idea down the toilet. It isn't going to happen for a variety of reasons, the primary one being that Hezbollah's mandate is the eradication of all Jews in the area. For those of you who don't know, that little tidbit is actually in their founding charter. Hezbollah's master, the state of Iran, wants the destruction of Israel. Hezbollah provoked Israel into bombing Lebanon, not the other way around. Israel will not cease firing until A) it gets its soldiers back, and B) the rockets stop flying into northern Israel. Oh, and by the way, forget about Israel negotiating with Hezbollah over the release of prisoners. Negotiating with a terrorist group that has aims to kill every single last Jew is the most idiotic and suicidal foreign policy that Israel could possibly implement. Like I've said before - the only way that this problem is going to end is if one side wins and one side loses. Peaceful co-existence isn't an option when one side is drunk with bloodlust for the other.

The Iranian President, as reported through Iranian state media, claims that the permanent solution to the Middle East crisis is the destruction of Israel (!!!). If you are surprised by this then you haven't been paying much attention. As long as Iran is meddling in the affairs of its neighbors and arming Hezbollah there is going to be no lasting peace. Its a proven historical fact that cease fires in the ME only serve to give the terrorists a break to build back up, only to shoot again. To attempt such a strategy again is absolutely laughable.

That isn't the most enraging part of the story though. King Abdullah, our buddy over in relatively moderate Jordan, claims in the article that Israel must give up occupied terrotory and "set up a Palestinean state," as well as stop "agression" in order to get the Arabs to calm down. I call BULLSHIT. A) Israel already has given up Gaza and West Bank... they've already done that and they got rockets from both sides of the border in return. You can throw that theory out the window. B) "Agression?" Who does this guy think he's kidding? Firstly, Hezbollah instigated this current fight, and since Mr. Abdullah and the rest of the Arab speaking world refuses to acknowledge Hezbollah's part in this how is it possible to take anything these people say in a serious manner? Yeah, Jewish citizens are dying too, but you don't see much focus on that in the MSM or the Arab world, do you? Secondly, if Hezbollah and the Palestineans stopped monkeying around and left Israel alone the conflict would be OVER. Israel just wants to be left alone. To somehow suggest that Israel is an aggressor in the region is completely insane and is an opinion born from a lack of historical knowledge and perspective.

I will congratulate Hezbollah on their tactics, however brutal they are. Its nothing short of a miracle that these people operate out of civilian areas, effectively using innocent people as human shields in the case that Israel tries to go after them... and the civilians then blame Israel when they strike! That is nothing short of brilliant. Hezbollah is directly responsible for where Israel is targeting due to their predilection for putting civilians at risk, and the civlians completely whitewash the fact that its Hezbollah that is enabling Israel to target places were civilians live and work. Why do they whitewash Hezbollah's part? Because despite Hezbollah putting innocent people at risk these people have been brainwashed since a young age to believe that the Jews and the Americans all need to either convert to Islam or die. They could care less about what Hezbollah does as long as Jews die and they keep operating hospitals.

I'm going to say something relatively startling, but you've learned to expect that from me. Any American who doesn't believe that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization needs to have their citizenship revoked. This includes a certain Democratic Representative from Michigan, Mr. John Dingell. When asked recently to discuss the recent crisis in Lebanon, Rep. Dingell refused to take sides between Hezbollah and Israel, and when asked if he believed that Hezbollah was a terrorist organization he said "no."

This is the same organization that packed enough explosives in a truck to level the strongest and most secure building in Lebanon and resulted in the deaths of 240+ U.S. Marines. The very definition of terror, and this guy, as a member of U.S. Congress, is refusing to condemn Hezbollah? This guy is going to be crucified publicly, as he should. His career is over, but just wait for liberals to condemn Republicans for character assassination on this guy... which nobody with a brain would actually believe since this guy did it to himself.