Thanks to Pamela/Atlas

Skate Club

There was a passel of geeks parked outside of our local phone store today, tapping on laptops, sipping Starbucks and waiting, waiting..

According to Yahoo, the iPhones finally arrived.

(no, I didn't get one. I'm a graphics geek, not a phone geek)

Photos from the Origami USA 2007 convention in NYC.

Via FAPO and TED:

Seldom do I see a technological advance that is virtually jaw-dropping. This one fits the bill. It shows a new technology being nursed by Microsoft that spatially relates photographs of the same subject to provide an amazing interactive visual experience.

In his Middle East Journal, Michael Totten insightfully critiques Islamist Rage Boy and his ilk - and the paparazzi who pursue them:

If there is any more absurd a group of “activists” in the world than Rage Boy and his Islamist pals throwing tantrums over Salman Rushdie’s novels and knighthood, Korans allegedly flushed down the can, and pencil drawings in Danish and other newspapers, I don’t know about them. I have deliberately avoided writing or even posting about such people because they really ought to be starved of media oxygen.

..I can think of no better evidence of journalism malpractice than the fact that the popularity, strength, and sheer malevolence of the region’s bad actors are both exaggerated and downplayed by the same media organizations.

There is no shortage of lunatics in the Middle East who blow up civilians with car bombs, kidnap journalists, hurl political opponents off skyscrapers, shoot rockets at foreign cities, and do everything in their power to exterminate racial and religious minorities. These people are very often portrayed as less extreme and dangerous than they really are.

Meanwhile, average Middle Eastern people are indirectly shown to be more extreme than they really are by the gross and apparently deliberate magnification of stunts by the most extreme elements of their societies. Almost every photo I’ve ever seen taken in the West Bank shows a nut job with a hood over his face and a rocket launcher or gun in his hand. But I didn’t see a single person who looked anything like that when I went to the West Bank myself.

There’s a flip side to this story.

I was in downtown Beirut when Hezbollah first occupied it with their sit-in and rally last December, and I took the following photos of Martyr’s Square.

Martyr’s Square is by far the largest open area in the city. It’s where Lebanon’s famous March 14 rally against Syrian occupation took place. Hezbollah claims they filled Martyr’s Square and the rest of downtown with demonstrators. They claim their rally was much larger than the anti-Syrian rally on March 14 the year before.

It’s a lie, as those pictures show. The Lebanese Army barricaded the entire area and forced Hezbollah into much smaller parking lots for their rally and photo ops.

The previous year Lebanon’s Syrian-installed President Emile Lahoud remarked that the March 14 rally against his patrons was tiny. March 14 responded by saying Zoom Out so the world could see how many people actually showed up to protest downtown.

Here’s the zoomed out picture.

That crowd was genuinely enormous. That’s Martyr’s Square, the area Hezbollah wasn’t allowed to even set foot in. Almost a third of the country’s population showed up that day.

When you zoom out the cameras on Hezbollah, Rage Boy, and the masked men of Fatah, they look pathetic and small by comparison. Zoom out on the liberals of Lebanon and you’ll see an ocean of people.

A few weeks after I returned from Beirut, I went to a pro-Hezbollah "teach-in", sponsored by local Rage Girl Charlotte Kates and the New Jersey based Activists for the Liberation of Palestine. The speaker, Bill Doares, Workers World writer and friend of Ramsey Clark, had also returned from Beirut.

Doares told the group that there were 2.5 million people at the march on December 10th, an absurd exaggeration given that the population of Lebanon is 4 million. If he'd said that there were eleventy million protesters, I wouldn't have been surprised.

According to most reports there were "thousands", many fewer than at the March 14th Cedar Revolution rally...

During the question and answer session, I mentioned that I was attending this talk because I also been in Beirut during the Dec. 10th rally. Doares wasn't happy to hear that. I mentioned that the crowd at the rally wasn't nearly as big as he'd claimed. Doares said I was lying. I said that I could prove what I said with photographs of the empty streets set aside for the protest.

Again, the 1.5 million crowd at the March 14th rally:

vs. the much smaller "in the thousands" crowd at the largest pro-Hezbollah rally on December 10th.

Here are the many empty spaces the pro-Hezbollah crowd didn't fill on December 10th, 2006, the day of their largest rally...

Walking past the razor wire

empty streets surrounding the rally

Aounists in Santa hats walk past police patrol

Doares didn't ask to see the photographs but he dropped the "2.5 million" issue like a hot potato.

Charlotte Kates immediately jumped in and screamed "this is not a debate!".

I won that battle, but since Doares and the Rage Boys and Girls of the world never stop repeating the same old lie, the war of words is still going on.

Hopefully these pictures are worth at least eleventy-million words.

Via CNN: Report Blasts U.S. for failures in fighting terrorism

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A just-released report slams the federal government for failing to coordinate the work of U.S. law enforcement agencies overseas to fight terrorism.

The Government Accountability Office found that in one country a lack of clarity about the roles and responsibilities of the FBI and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency may have compromised several investigations intended to identify and disrupt potential terrorist activities.

The GAO did not name the country in its report.

The White House has long issued directives asking that U.S. law enforcement agencies assist foreign nations' anti-terrorism efforts.

But the report finds that embassy and law enforcement officials told the GAO "they had received little or no guidance" on how to accomplish that...

...The 2003 National Strategy for Combating Terrorism instructed the State Department to develop and coordinate U.S. counterterrorism policy abroad, but the report says that was not done.

The 2004 Intelligence Reform Act shifted that responsibility to the National Counterterrorism Center and, although a general plan has been drafted, it has not yet been implemented...

In all four there was more U.S. funding devoted to fighting drugs than to fighting terrorism, the report said

In one country, described as an "extremely high terrorist threat to American interests globally," the State Department provided six times more funding to stop illicit drugs and crime than it did for anti-terrorism assistance, the report said.

In another country, an embassy official said most training and assistance funding from the U.S. was dedicated to counter-narcotics efforts "even though drugs were no longer a strategic concern in that country."

Also, the report revealed that information about terrorists is not always shared or acted on.

Fonzie Jumps

In her post Muslims Riot. The World Yawns, Cinnamon Stillwell says:

Enraged Muslims are rioting, burning effigies, cursing the West, promising suicide bombings, and threatening to kill Salman Rushdie...again. What else is new?

At this rate, the international community is going to start suffering from Muslim riot fatigue. I know I am.

Cinnamon isn't the only journalist suffering from Muslim Riot fatigue. When major media outlets bother to pay attention to this story at all, the yawns behind the scenes are almost audible. Another day, another burning KFC - what's Paris up to now?

Have Enraged Muslims(TM) jumped the shark? Ali Eteraz answers this question with this post at Dean's World:

A Pakistani Mullah Council has knighted Bin Laden "The Sword of God."

Don Knotts on Scooby-doo

If Osama gets pregnant, or is replaced by Dick Sargent, it's curtains for that Sharia Show.

At Michael Totten's, Noah Pollak describes Iran's victory:

Gaza has fallen to Hamas, but not just to Hamas: the group is the newest member of Iran’s growing portfolio of allies, clients, and proxies, and thus its victory was also a triumph for Iran’s policy of manifest destiny in the Middle East.

Iran’s Revolution is no mere socio-political phenomenon, and its goals are not limited to one country.

Its goals are clearly stated in the constitution as "Framing the foreign policy of the country on the basis of Islamic criteria, fraternal commitment to all Muslims, and unsparing support to the freedom fighters of the world" ..

...And who are those freedom fighters? Well, simply all those whose freedom is beholden to the views of the leader of the "Umma", a "just and pious person", who is in charge until the return "of the Wali al-'Asr".

The army has again charged that the militants were using the civilians still trapped inside the camp as human shields.

"The Fatah al-Islam gang has used mosques and some humanitarian centres inside the camp to launch its attacks, stock its weapons and booby-trap them," the army command said.

"They have also attacked civilians after using them as human shields in order to incite public opinion, particularly Muslim, in a cheap and brazen way."

Current events have shown us that an Islamist government is grotesquely brutal when compared with nearly every other form of government.

Brutality is just one aspect of Islamism. There's also the cultural stasis that results from the combination of Imperialist Faith + Politics.

In his post True Believers, Jeha notes that the Islamist group Hezbollah is evolving from an Islamic-revolutionary group into a mix of Millenarian/Cargo cult.

In Afghanistan, London, Thailand, in the Palestinian areas of the Middle East we're seeing a similar (de?-) evolution.

If I were given a choice of living under A) a military dictatorship B) a monarchy or C) democratically elected Islamism I would choose A or B. Civilization, progress and knowledge can be irrevocably dismantled, and like the Catholic-led governments of the Dark and Middle Ages, Islamism is the perfect storm that can do it.

Islamists are bloody-minded cultists, but they're not stupid. They know that democracy can be a viable backdoor entrance to an Islamist theocracy. Promoters of liberal democracy as a cure-all for terrorism, oppression and the heartbreak of inequality need to look at the examples of Gaza, Iraq and Lebanon's Tripoli. It's not working.

Inspired by the situation in the unoccupied territories, my favorite Big Lebowski scene...

Dad sailing, Lake Chautauqua

Mom and Dad at the Gates, NYC

Charles Malik reports on the effect of the the assassination of anti-Syrian MP Walid Eido:

It's too soon to tell, but dynamics in the country are changing quickly.

The war between the Lebanese Army and Fatah al Islam in the Nahr el Bared Palestinian refugee camp redefined the lines of Lebanese politics. Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun strongly supports the Army, while fellow opposition leader Hassan Nasrallah drew national - and, more importantly Shia - criticism for seemingly supporting the anti-Shia, anti-Lebanese, Sunni extremist, terrorist organization, which slaughtered 17 Lebanese Army soldiers in their sleep.

The bombings in Christian areas seemed like repeats of the bombs that went off in 2005 - minimal casualties, out of the way locations, and Christian targets. Then, the popular West Beirut shopping district Verdun was bombed. Then, the Druze stronghold Aley was bombed.

Although Shia-majority residential areas and financial districts have not been hit, the Shia population is as scared and angry as the communities who've experienced the brunt of the terrorist brutality...

...Eido's assassination has shaken the 14 March Coalition, but it has not brought out massive support for Hariri. If anything, the terrorist attacks and the effective government responses to terrorist threats are bringing more Lebanese to respect the government and goverment institutions, like the Army and the police.

Near Ein Gedi, Israel

Thanks to Richard Landes* of Second Draft

If you want to understand the troubling relationship between the MSM and the success of Jihad in the 21st Century, this film is the place to start. Second Draft releases the third in the series According to Palestinian Sources. Written, researched and produced by Richard Landes, a medieval historian turned media critic, Icon of Hatred explores how the media-created icon of Muhammad al Durah’s death, helped launch a new phase of global Jihad at the dawn of the 21st century.

To this day, most Westerners typically greet any effort to discuss the Al Durah MSM scandal with: "Fuggedaboudit! It's over. History. Let sleeping dogs lie."

But such is not the way with blood libels. They constantly emit their poison into the information bloodstream. So once the Al Durah "lethal narrative" entered the mainstream of public opinion worldwide, it exerted – and continues to exert — an astonishingly noxious influence, blighting our young and global 21st century.

Icon of Hatred explores

1) how PA TV took the footage of what was, at most, an Israeli error, most likely a work of Pallywood, and turned it into an accusation of cold-blooded murder, a proof of Israeli intentions to commit genocide.

2) how this "blood martyr" became the icon not only of the "Al Aqsa Intifada," but of global Jihad, catapulting Jihadism from the margins to the center of Muslim "street," making suicide bombing the weapon of choice.

3) how Al Durah became the symbol of outraged compassion in the West, fueling an anti-Zionist crusade that aligned the "human rights" and "anti-war" left with the most murderous theocrats on the globe. And how, in embracing the Muslim equation of Israel with Nazis, European intellectuals have encouraged the surge of Islamist triumphalism not only in the Middle East, but within their own countries.

Your Personality is Somewhat Rare (ISTP)

Your personality type is reserved, methodical, spirited, and intense. Only about 6% of all people have your personality, including 3% of all women and 8% of all men You are Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, and Perceiving.

Link thanks to Tatyana

From Michael Totten:

Lebanese Member of Parliament and Chairman of Parliament’s Defense Committee Walid Eido was assassinated in West Beirut’s Manara district, along with his son and four other people. This was just down the hill from my old apartment...

Lebanon needs another tribunal, or something a little more muscular, if they don’t want a regime-change in Beirut by process of one-by-one elimination. Eido (of course) belonged to the anti-Syrian March 14 bloc.

MP Walid Eido, his eldest son and four other people were killed in a seafront blast in the Lebanese capital on Wednesday, his party's television station said.

Eido, the chairman of parliament's defence committee, his eldest son Khaled, his two bodyguards and two civilians were killed, said Future Television.

Pieces of flesh and splashes of blood stained the ground as relief workers rushed to transport the wounded to hospital and to treat passers-by for shock, an AFP correspondent on the scene said.

Troops cordoned off the area where there are a number of popular cafes and beaches, including the military beach club.

Eido is the third member of the parliamentary majority to be killed in a car bombing in the past two years.

I was 50m from this attack.

We were in a cafe next to Luna Park enjoying the late afternoon next to the sea after an intense day.

Children were playing on the equipment under the setting sun. Mothers were holding their babies. Old men were smoking argile.

BOOM!!!

Everyone hit the floor, except the group of European tourists who just looked surprised. Waiters dived under the tables. Mother grabbed their crying babies.

Human flesh landed in the children's play area.

We didn't know what happened. All I knew was that a bomb went off in the passageway between the Nejmeh Football Club and the Luna Park, a children's amusement park on the Mediterranean coast.

The US was able to defend the Kurds against Saddam's aggression for years without going to war. The Kurds had to provide some of their own defense, but the Lebanese seem to be more than willing to do that.

They could also deal with Hezbollah's nectarine factories.

early morning

According to recent research, Anger Fuels Better Decisions

Despite its reputation as an impetus to rash behavior, anger actually seems to help people make better choices—even aiding those who are usually very poor at thinking rationally. This could be because angry people base their decisions on the cues that "really matter" rather than things that can be called irrelevant or a distraction.

Previous research has shown that anger biases people’s thinking—turning them into bigger risk-takers and making them less trusting and more prejudiced, for instance.

But little has been done to study how, exactly, anger affects a person’s thinking...

..In both studies, the researchers found that the angry subjects were better at discriminating between strong and weak arguments and were more convinced by the stronger arguments. Those who were not made to feel angry tended to be equally convinced by both arguments, indicating that they were not as analytical in their assessments.

The angry students were also better at weighing the arguments appropriately depending on which organization had made them.

The latest issue of Discover magazine featured an article by Todd Pitock, "Science and Islam" on the front cover.

"Science and Islam" focused on the problems caused by mixing the poltiical philosophy of Islamism with scientific research. It was the most enlightening article that I've read on the subject of the problems of mixing faith, politics and science. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find it on the Discover Magazine site or through search engines, so unless someone out there is a better Googler than I, you'll just have to find a hard copy.

Some clips from "Science and Islam":

The Islamic world looms large in the history of science, and there were long periods when Cairo...was a leading star in the Arabic universe of learning. Islam is in many ways more tolerant of scientific study than is Christian fundamentalism. It does not, for example, argue that the world is only 6,000 years old. Cloning research that does not invovlve people is becoming more widely accepted. In recent times, though, knowledge in Egypt has waned. And who is accountable for the decline?

El-Naggar [Islamic fundamentalist and member of the Geological Society of London...ed.] has no doubts. "We are not behind because of Islam." He says. "We are behind because of what the Americans and the British have done to us."

The evil West is a common refrain with El-Naggar, who, paradoxically, often appears in a suit and tie…he says that he grieves for western colleagues who spend all their time studying their areas of specialization but neglect their souls; it sets his teeth on edge how the west has "legalized" homosexuality. "You are bringing man far below the level of animals, "he laments, "As a scientist, I see the danger coming from the West, not the East"

El Naggar even sees moral meaning in the earthquake that triggered the 2005 tsunami and washed away nearly a quarter of a million lives. Plate tectonics and global warming be damned; God had expressed his wrath over the sins of the West. Why, then had God punished Southeast Asia rather than Los Angeles or the coast of Florida? Because the lands that were hit had tolerated the immoral behavior of tourists.

Critics are quick to point out that Islamic scientists tend to use each other as sources, creating an illusion that the work has been validated by research.

Soltan, who got his doctorate in the University of Northern Illinois [says] "Their methodology is bad" Soltan explains that Islamic scientists start with a conclusion(the Koran says the body has 360 joints) and then work toward proving that conclusion. To reach the necessary answer they will, in this instance, count things that some orthopedists might not call a joint. "They’re sure about everything, about how the universe was created, who created it, and they just need to control nature rather than interpret it," Soltan adds. "But the driving force behind any scientific pursuit is that the truth is still out there."

…Badewy, who specialized in solar energy conversion while working for Siemans in Germany in the 1980s, does not consider himself an "Islamic scientist" like El-Naggar. He is a scientist who happens to be devout, one who sees science and religion as discrete pursuits.

"Islam has no problems with science," he says. "As long as what you do does not harm people, it is permitted. You can study what you want, you can say what you want."

What about, say, evolutionary biology or Darwinism? I ask. (Evolution is taught in Egyptian schools, although it is banned in Saudi Arabia and Sudan). "If you’re asking if Adam came from a monkey, no," Badawy responds. "Man did not come from a monkey. If I am religious, if I agree with Islam, then I have to respect all of the ideas of Islam. And one of those ideas is the creation of the human from Adam and Eve. If I am a scientist, I have to believe that."

But from the point of view of a scientist, is it not just a story? I ask. He tells me that if I were writing an article saying that Adam and Eve is a big lie, it will not be accepted until I can prove it.

"Nobody can just write what he thinks without proof. But we have real proof that the story of Adam as the first man is true."

"What proof?"

He stares at me with disbelief. "It's written in the Koran."

The Koran says, "Read," but it does not even say "Read the Koran" Just 'Read'" says Prince El Hassan bin Talal…The 60 year-old-prince, who speaks classical Arabic and Oxford English and has studied biblical Hebrew, can tick off a whole list of things that are wrong with Jordan, from Western governments and non-governmental organizations that come proposing solutions without having identified the causes of the problems to a culture that does not value reading. He is bookish himself; during our 40 minute plus interview, he refers to Kierkegaard, Karen Armstrong's A History of God and What Price Tolerance, a 1939 book by his wife’s relative Syud Hossain.

He is also candid, calling suicide bombers "social rejects" and questioning the validity of those who would take the Muslim world back to the times of the Prophet Muhammad. "Are we talking Islam or Islamism?" he asks, pointing out the difference between the religion and those extremists who use the religion to advance their own agendas. "The danger [posed by Islamists] is not only to Christians but also to Islam itself. The real problem is not the Arab-Israel issue, but the rise of Islamism."

Also for more information about how politics and dogma tend to dumb science down, read the following article about the persecution of climate change dissenter Henrik Svensmark.

Got to get ready for my daughter's high school graduation. Enjoy your weekend!

Water buffalo vs. lions:*

Some water buffalo sympathisers might applaud their defense of their young, but most in the international community recognise this action as yet another example of buffalo tendency to inflict extremely disproportionate violence on the oppressed predators in the area.

Buffalo control most of the territory, they force the predators to live on a very small portion of the land and they take their water. Yet, when these oppressed lions make a desperate bid to survive, the brutal ungulates crush the lions' right to self-determination.

We must, through the use of boycotts and laws, force the world to recognise the absolute illigitimacy and illegality of this water buffalo land grab. Unnatural tragedies, like the one we saw here, must be forever averted.

* Link thanks to Dean

The New Jersey Turnpike via Google's new Street Views

Via CNN

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Several thousand Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq early Wednesday to chase Kurdish guerrillas who operate from bases there, Turkish security officials said.

Two senior security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the raid was limited in scope and that it did not constitute the kind of large incursion that Turkish leaders have been discussing in recent weeks.

"It is not a major offensive and the number of troops is not in the tens of thousands," one of the officials told The Associated Press by telephone.

Col. Hussein Rashid, a top official with the Iraqi border guards, dismissed the report.

"Not even a single Turkish soldier has entered Iraqi territory," he said by telephone from his post near the border with Turkey, although he pointed out that Turkish troops have been operating very close to the border as part of a recent buildup. "I have made contacts with many border posts and none report any incident."...

..An official at military headquarters in Ankara declined to confirm or deny the report that Turkish troops had entered Iraq.

Turkish troops have staged so-called "hot pursuits" into northern Iraq in the past, usually after citing reports of attacks against Turkish soldiers in the border region.

This and more pearls of wisdom from Vlad-the-House-Elf Putin at Siberian Light.*

* link thanks to Infidel 753

Via the New York Sun:

Federal prosecutors have named three prominent Islamic organizations in America as participants in an alleged criminal conspiracy to support a Palestinian Arab terrorist group, Hamas.

Prosecutors applied the label of "unindicted co-conspirator" to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America, and the North American Islamic Trust in connection with a trial planned in Texas next month for five officials of a defunct charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.

While the foundation was charged in the case, which was filed in 2004, none of the other groups was. However, the co-conspirator designation could be a blow to the credibility of the national Islamic organizations, which often work hand-in-hand with government officials engaged in outreach to the Muslim community.

What is an unindicted co-conspirator? Someone by and about whom hearsay is permissible in the courtroom. Here is a definition by legal journalist Stuart Taylor, discussing an entirely unrelated case:

The prosecutor is saying in essence in court … that we believe this man was part of the criminal conspiracy, along with the people who are on trial. We haven't indicted him but the relevance of that for the purposes of the trial is that [it] lets them get in more evidence about the unindicted co-conspirator's … out-of-court statements than they otherwise could. It's a way around the hearsay rule. … For example, if they want … one of their witnesses, to talk about what [a person] said to him, ordinarily that would be barred by the so-called hearsay rule. You can't … testify in a trial about what somebody else said out of court. That rule has a lot of exceptions. One of the exceptions is if the person who you're trying to quote … is named by the prosecution as an unindicted co-conspirator, then you can talk about what he said out of court.

Substitute "organization" for "man" and "person" and this description applies to the situation of CAIR ISNA, and NAIT.

Comments: (1) CAIR being named as an unindicted co-conspirator complements the fact that many of its staff and associates are associated with terrorism, as I have documented in this entry.

(2) It is only logical that CAIR, whose origins lie in the Islamic Association for Palestine, which was founded by Hamas, be legally investigated in connection with Hamas.

(3) This may be the first time since 1994 that the press could not find a CAIR spokesman for a comment.

* link thanks to Brazilian Neocon

Searching for info on the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, I came across this quote from Michael Totten

Noah and I sat in the hotel lobby and surfed around Web sites for digital cameras on his lap top. He was shopping for a new high-end camera and we discussed the pros and cons of various lenses. BOOM. We kept surfing. BANG. Ooh, check out that lens. CRASH. “Nikons are better than Sonys,” I said, “and more worth the money.”

I completely forgot I was in a war zone even though I could hear it outside. I was just as calm sitting there as if I were reading the morning newspaper at the Oregon Coast.

We all know fear is contagious. What might be less understood is that calm is also contagious. It’s hard to even want to freak out when no one else is freaking out.

As part of my daughter's prom night preparations, I took her to the spa for a treat - a facial for her and a massage for me. I haven't had one in years, since I left Cape May mostly because of the trepidation that comes with going to a new spa. According to Dr. Helen, kinesthesia, the power of touch, is as important as skill:

The other day I went to get a massage and the regular female massage therapist I usually saw was out; I was presented with a male therapist which was fine. I have no qualms about the sex of the massage therapist as long as they are good. However, I did notice that although the massage was technically very good, it just did not feel "right" to me. Afterwards, I tried to think about what it was that bothered me and hoped that I was not some type of sexist who just didn't want a male therapist. But that wasn't it. I realized that it has more to do with the body type of the person and the kinesthetic feel of their hands and touch...

..and the massage was great.

After a long, hard day unsuccessfully dodging tour guides and salesmen in Jerusalem's old city, Judith and I walked up to a rooftop cafe in the hotel, St Andrew’s Scottish Guest House.

Other levels of the roof were accessible via ladder, so we checked out the views. The buildings in Jerusalem are faced with a lightly golden toned stone. The stone is attractive during the day, but I guessed that it would be gorgeous as sunset approached.

However, sunset was a few hours away. It was so nice and quiet up there, I decided to take a nap, accompanied only by a grackle who really didn't want me up on his roof.

Before sunset arrived, I watched as people came home from work, set up restaurants, took tourist photos and got stuck in traffic. The Old City had left me feeling claustrophobic and annoyed, but viewing things from the open air made me appreciate Jerusalem again.

[More about St Andrew’s Scottish Guest House here, including a very interesting history]