Maybe this is why Git Rebase is so confusing?

The Basic Rebase section: way too verbose and separately confusing. 

Why can't they just say, instead of creating a separate commit with the msg "Merge branch [x] with branch [y]", it simply RE-uses/shifts the commit of the branch point on the checked out branch to the head of the other branch? (I reduced several paragraphs into 1 line)

http://git-scm.com/book/en/Git-Branching-Rebasing

this one has a better rebase description: http://ftp.newartisans.com/pub/git.from.bottom.up.pdf