It's 'Isra-el' not 'Is-real'

The firecrackers feared by the DOH are nothing compared to the firecrackers cracked by the Israelites and the Lebanese Hamas against each other.

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In the current war between Israel and Hamas, Hamas is maintaining battalions of Boy Scouts to boost its military reserves. Mostof these Boy Scouts are no longer boys but men with beard.

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Hamas has a massive Boy Scouting program where the "boys" are taught military tactics. Compared to the Hamas Boy Scouts, Pinoy Boys Scouts would look like a bunch of sissies.

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An Israeli journalist once told me: "Americans wrongly pronounce Israel 'Is-real' and I notice that many Filipinos are following this American mistake ... The correct pronunciation of Israel is 'Isra-el.'"

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E-mail from NV of Mandaue: "The 'baddest' news to break out in the New Year is the report in your paper that 'Erap is running for President in 2010'. Wa na gyuy lain out of the 85 million Filipinos?"

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E-mail from Servando: "Have you observed that everytime the New Year comes in, the Old Year leaves as a bad year? And then the new year which we welcomed with joy and hope becomes another bad year? And so on."

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E-mail from Justice: "All the banks experienced heavy withdrawals during the holidays. The ATMs ran out of cash. And also my piggybank."

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Many of the New Year greetings I received through my mobile phone were in Cebuano or Binisaya. They touched me more than the wornout "Wishing you a Happy New Year."

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Dr. Reynaldo Jugar, a political science scholar, saw me last New Year's Day pertaining to a political article he was writing and planning to contribute to this newspaper. I asked him about his thoughts on the news about Erap Estrada's reported plan to run for President in 2010.

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He said: "You know, everytime I read about Erap's plan to run in 2010, I want to look for the nearest cuspidor. I want to puke."

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I said: "But legal luminaries consulted by Erap assured him it's okay for him to run. No hitch. Legal hitch, that is." Dr. Jugar replied: "Who are those legal luminaries? They are all Erap's cronies who want the deposed President to make another shot at the Presidency because they want to move around in the corridors of power again."

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As one of my readers said in his e-mail (5th paragraph this corner) about the news on Erap running for President in the 2010 elections: "Wa na ba gyuy lain out of the 85 million Filipinos?"

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