We have to see the chimp playing hockey! That's hilarious! The ice is so slippery, and, and monkeys are all irrational. We have to see this!

Anya ,'Bring On The Night'


Spike's Bitches 43: Who am I kidding? I love to brag.  

[NAFDA] Spike-centric discussion. Lusty, lewd (only occasionally crude), risqué (and frisqué), bawdy (Oh, lawdy!), flirty ('cuz we're purty), raunchy talk inside. Caveat lector.


Shir - Jan 09, 2009 8:47:33 am PST #7390 of 10000
"And that's why God Almighty gave us fire insurance and the public defender".

OK, Typo Boy, now I have time to reply. Since it was 182 posts ago, I'm copy-pasting your original post here (just for convenience):

Shir, what gave me the impression that my posts bother you was where you said that "what bothers me about your posts". OK I take it you meant what you disagreed with rather than that they disturbed you. So sorry for the misunderstanding.

Sorry! I'm pretty sure I meant "what bothered me about your posts". Past tense, and I mostly mean your latest post. And yeah, I meant bother as disagree, not as if is your arguments upsets me.

And in terms of the right path, talking is good, avoiding war crimes is good stopping collective punishment is good, in general avoid creating ten armed opponents for every one your nation defeats. Beyond that, I think that negotiations for a two state solution could be more successful than most people think. The reason for pessimism is that the usual story is that the Palestinians spat on a generous proposal. But there is a lot of evidence that the failure of Oslo was a joint Israeli/Palestinian screwup. It is a lot harder with Hamas than Arafat of course, but there is evidence of some openess even there. Note that saying it was a joint screwup is optimisic, not pessimistic. If it was all or mostly the fault of the Palestians and that would be an almost impossible situtation to remedy. If there were big Israeli screwups then that means there are things Israel can fix.

Well, for start, I think you're right at the start, but a little bit overgeneralizing. Because if bombing civilians as a war crime, then Hamas and Fatah are doing so for the past 8 years. All in all, I find it extremely disturbing that wars are being held with great involvement of civilian population.
Also, I don't think Oslo was a failure. The thing that most people find easy to forget about this, is that it was just the first step of a long process. And the process stopped after that very first step, and then the situation went hellish. Not to mention, Rabin's assassination. I don't think that it's harder with Hamas than it was with Arafat. Anyway, as for Palestinians spitting on a generous proposal, it all goes way back to the U.N. original plan for dividing Palestine, back in 1947. The Jews then (it feels wrong to call them Israelis in 1947), of course, won more land than anyone expected them to ever have.

Israeli policy for a long time has been all sticks and no carrots. And punishing Arafat got Israel Hamas. Continuing not to deal with Hamas may result in the leadership of the Palestinians in a few years being Islamic Jihad.

Yes, Israel is very much responsible to the rise and fall of many terror organizations, though I think it tried to "punish" Fatah, which brought the Hamas the winning of the elections. Israel now, of course, trying to deal with Hamas by eliminate it - not that I believe is possible, or a good idea. Islamic Jihad, btw, is active in the Strip, West Bank and South Lebanon as is. There's way too much organizations, knowing who's in charge is a mess, and as we saw just few days ago in South Lebanon, not all of them obey the "main authority".

Not that any of this is a valid reason for the mess these days. I asked a pretty-much-moderate cab driver who drove me yesterday in Be'er Sheva if they're not tired of it all by now, because I'm young and sick of all of this. Violence will bring nothing but more violence. He just sighed and rhetorically asked "yeah, but what can you do? No matter what, the terror doesn't stop".

And I find it a global problem, not only Middle Eastern one. Hell (and for one thing), my country's fighting with weapons provided by U.S, Palestinians fighting with weapons provided by Iran and Syria (which came from Russia, at least partly).


beth b - Jan 09, 2009 9:23:05 am PST #7391 of 10000
oh joy! Oh Rapture ! I have a brain!

So Matt in his infinite brilliance has a job interview 3 days after he found out his job will end on the 16th. Now there has already been some schedule changing for the interview, so he'd like a bit of job ma ~~~ .


DCJensen - Jan 09, 2009 9:25:19 am PST #7392 of 10000
All is well that ends in pizza.

Jobma~ Sent.


DCJensen - Jan 09, 2009 9:29:09 am PST #7393 of 10000
All is well that ends in pizza.

On my way to work yesterday I had the chance to hear part of Obama's economic speech live on NPR.

I think it's nice to have an incoming President who can properly use the word paradox and is not afraid to do so.

I was grinning as I went in to work.


erikaj - Jan 09, 2009 9:33:57 am PST #7394 of 10000
Always Anti-fascist!

wrod.


Toddson - Jan 09, 2009 9:36:43 am PST #7395 of 10000
Friends don't let friends read "Atlas Shrugged"

It's such a relief to know we'll have a president who can speak in complete sentences that actually make sense.


beth b - Jan 09, 2009 9:39:47 am PST #7396 of 10000
oh joy! Oh Rapture ! I have a brain!

Interview canceled due to a family emergency --

patience is the word for the day


erikaj - Jan 09, 2009 9:42:47 am PST #7397 of 10000
Always Anti-fascist!

IME, no is fast. Yes takes longer.


Shir - Jan 09, 2009 9:48:10 am PST #7398 of 10000
"And that's why God Almighty gave us fire insurance and the public defender".

General job~ma to Matt, even if the interview doesn't happen today.


Barb - Jan 09, 2009 9:50:48 am PST #7399 of 10000
“Not dead yet!”

I posted this in Natter, but since we're talking about Obama and his ability to speak in complete sentences, I thought y'all might like this. Robin Williams riffing on the election and Obama and McCain and stuff.

Despite the fact that it's Robin, the language is work-safe. The laughing your ass off, NSM.

[link]