the money shots
screencaps thanks to Moon of Alabama:
Apparently, CIA Director Hayden told employees on Thursday that they should “take heart because our team effort on the Al Kibar reactor is a case study in rigorous analytic tradecraft, skillful human and technical collection, and close collaboration.”
Connoisseurs of the English press will not be surprised to hear that although The Independent offers an unsigned editorial casting doubt on the credibility of the story, The Grauniad buys it hook, line, and sinker.
April 26, 2008 at 12:37 am
Rowan, are you familiar with the Maskilon textbooks and what is your take on them?
April 26, 2008 at 1:16 am
I never saw that site before, or the books that it appears to promote, but it looks good - the verbs are the hardest things to deal with, because the forms they take often seem quite unrelated to the roots, so you don’t know how to look them up in the dictionary. Ordering the books is a bit tricky, since their online sales agent doesn’t sell outside the US and Canada, rather arrogantly.
The method they describe on their site sounds splendid, and I am reassured that they say they cater to “a diverse community of new and veteran olim, tourists and visitors, diplomats and others, from all persuasions and backgrounds, who seek to learn more about and become part of Israeli society and culture,” because that describes me to a ‘T.’
I might even write to them and tell them about myself, since none of this study will make me happy, or useful, unless I can ” become part of Israeli society and culture,” even though the mere intention to do so without accepting “conversion to the Jewish religion” as a pre-condition automatically challenges the entire basis of jewish identity (I almost wrote “human identity” - what a freudian slip!).
April 26, 2008 at 4:57 am
After a long history of not being able to find good Hebrew texts we came across it (vol II, Grammar; vol I is verb tables and vol III is a dictionary) completely by accident on a shelf in an ordinary Barnes & Nobles (a retail bookseller a step below Border’s, which is the best American national chain). It looks pretty good and we’re going to give it a shot over the next few months. There seems to be a small explosion, and not just in availability, in Hebrew texts (and foreign language instructional books in general) in our area.
April 26, 2008 at 10:16 am
well, I found a complete new set of them on amazon.com (in the USA) which is quite cheap because of the good exchange rate, so I have ordered that.
the dictionary I have now is the one that spironitza recommended. It’s a total pain to use, and I feel rather sure she recommended it either because she gets a commission, or simply because she thought it would be a good practical joke to saddle me with the most inappropriate dictionary possible. My entire experience with her clique suggests that their favourite way of dealing with “non-Jews” is by ridiculing and humiliating them, with practical jokes, frame-ups for “hate speech,” etc.
but remember, for the pronunciation, if you want to avoid paying some clown like spironitza for endless lessons, this is the place to go - it has a complete audio course in basic modern conversational hebrew, and the associated textbook in .pdf form, all free of charge:
http://fsi-language-courses.com/Hebrew.aspx