We'll Always Have Paris...

...or so it may seem. But CNN tells us that it may not to be. I saw the Fox News piece first, and instinctively said a word inappropriate for a blog for all ages. If that was true, then he is alive for sure, and has a chance for some kind of recovery. But then CNN tells me us that

Ailing Yasser Arafat refusing doctors' recommendation that he go to Paris for treatment...

This almost certainly means that he is dead or in a coma. Except, of course, for this picture, released by the Palestinian Authority. It isn't really absolute proof to know he is alive. Indeed, the fact that it was released by them, and that they are holding Arafat up may show him to actually be the puppet for once. However, it certainly does make it more likely he still has a heartbeat. Brain activity is another matter. If he really is a "puppet", they are covering his death up, at least for the time being, this story is setting up a report later of how Arafat died because of his refusal to fly to Paris. Perhaps the Palestinians will use it as another attempt to blame Israel. In other news, the Pope is found to be Catholic.

Edit: With the French sending a plane, I think its safe to assume he is still alive. It looks now like he was on the verge of dying earlier, and the Pali leaders started preparing for this eventual death. Once he stabilized they had to furiously backpedal. It now appears he may be a vegetable, or near enough like it that he won't be regaining power soon, if ever. Perhaps a slow lingering death is to be his fate, and I can't really help myself from saying that he deserves it.