Possibly some great news out of the ME. Haaretz is reporting that Gilad Shalit is going to be turned over to Egypt within the next few days. Details are sketchy but apparently involve a transfer of prisoners between Hamas and Fatah. Nothing about Israel exchanging prisoners in return for Shalit but you never know with these things until they're done.

If this happens I think the Troopathon should take all the credit. That would be more honest than Obama saving any jobs but he will probably credit his Cairo speech.

Let's keep Shalit in our thoughts and prayers and see if it happens.

I'm remembering back to when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan. The regime was going to destroy Babylonian statues because they violated a Muslim precept against graven images. The media made a big hubbub about the potential damadge to the culturally significant statues but made no mention of the government's regular repression of women.

So if the story doesn't fit the narrative it does not get publicized...

Johnny:

I have little faith that Shalit will ever be released, except as a corpse. Why would they bother keeping him alive when they can kill him and trade his body for high value terrorists?

Aharon:

I believe you mean the Buddhas of Bamyan.

here's the link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhas_of_Bamyan

But, yes, you're point is well taken.