As I wander through the blog roll I’m reading the annual spate of people questioning why they do this, and if it’s worth it. A lot of this is the let down as the holidays pass into memory, and the effects of reduced sunlight for some.

It’s hard to get enervated when the weather is miserable, and the economy is in the tank. I don’t have any magic answers, each of us has to find our own. A bit of the Russian soul has rubbed off on me and I understand the basic concepts: When things are bad, they will get better. When things are good, they will probably get worse.

A curious contradiction, but it works for me.

CNN has this up: Gaza relief boat damaged in encounter with Israeli vessel

(CNN) — An Israeli patrol boat struck a boat carrying medical volunteers and supplies to Gaza early Tuesday as it attempted to intercept the vessel in the Mediterranean Sea, witnesses and Israeli officials said.

CNN correspondent Karl Penhaul was aboard the 60-foot pleasure boat Dignity when the contact occurred. When the boat later docked in the Lebanese port city of Tyre, severe damage was visible to the forward port side of the boat, and the front left window and part of the roof had collapsed. It was flying the flag of Gibraltar.

The Dignity was carrying crew and 16 passengers — physicians from Britain, Germany and Cyprus and human rights activists from the Free Gaza Solidarity Movement — who were trying to reach Gaza through an Israeli blockade of the territory.

[Read more →]

On MSNBC, another reminder, as another Israeli spy pleads guilty.

NEW YORK – An 85-year-old former Army mechanical engineer pleaded guilty to conspiracy Tuesday and admitted he passed classified documents to the Israelis in the 1970s and ’80s.

Among what was passed were documents on US nuclear weapons. He worked with the same Israeli agent who controlled convicted spy Jonathan Pollard.

Reported by the BBC: Sir Terry Pratchett, for service to literature.