HisSelf

I think it's dangerous to take a guy like Einstein outside of his area of expertise, no matter how brilliant he may be.... and there can be no question that Einstein was brilliant. We're talking Newtonian brilliance... Da Vincite. Archimedic... whatever.... I think the idea of a chosen people is a little silly myself, since I am an atheist, but then I'm no Einstein. LOL.

Indeed.

Apparently you've never been to Jordan and have no idea of who Feisal or Abdullah are, and what their role in history might be.

China has had a massive earthquake. Chinese rescue workers are crawling over the place. The torch relay in the area has been put on hold - and if you have been watching the progress of the Olympic torch, you know that this is a big thing. The Chinese community in Canada has mobilized and has set up a 1.800 number to co-ordinate contributions... Compare that to the junta douche-bags in "Myanmar" who took two weeks to process the paperwork.

I should mention that such an agreement would need to be interpreeted generously with respect to right of return, rather than miserly.

My solution is the merging of Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and Jordan into a single democratic state. This state would have immense power - it would, after all, control the land corridor between Egypt and Lebanon/Syria. It would be a land bridge between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. It would guarantee democratic human rights for all within its borders and it would institute Abudllah II as a constitutional Monarch like the House of Windsor in Great Britain. It would guarantee the right of return for all Jews who migrate there up to a agreed upon cutoff date, and for all Arabs who lived within its borders up to the 1948 war, or who have been born there since. It would have its capital in Jerusalem.

There was a time when you could have made the saem basket case argument for Israel. Jordan may indeed be able to absorb the West Bank, and it may be motivated to do so were Israel to vacate back to the 1966 borders, but it certainly has to be given a better deal than the current settlement mosaic. Jordan has access to the sea, but it has a lot of challenges, water rights for one, and it is a Hashemite Kingdom that would be asked to swallow the detritus of Israel's birth. This is a very thorny problem for Jordan - it has always been a Bedouin State, after all - and it needs to have a prize to make it worthwhile. What are you offering as a prize? Joint ownership of Jerusalem might work. You've got to trust somebody, and Israel might very well be wise to trust Jordan. Jordan has been the best friend Israel has had in the Arab world, right from the pre-1948 war. Abdullah, like Feisal, was willing to deal with Israel, when nobody else would. Israel has a very good friend in Jordan. Gaza is a very different case. These people have been screwed miserably - which is why they are willing to suffer so much to give Israel the finger - and I doubt they are going to want to become a minor province of Egypt. Gaza is going to be a real challenge, and if Israel is not careful, it will end up as a province of Syria or Iran, if it isn't already. Gaza is

So do you think somebody could get away with that again? You never step in the same river twice.

You're welcome. Happy you agree.

What agenda? International human rights? The Geneva Conventions? The International Court in the Hague? What should we do if our resources are coveted by somebody with a big army and a convincing media presence? No doubt there will be some who will think I am talking about the US, but China is now ascendent. And Russia. If there is not an international court to adjudicate matters of law, we will be forever at the mercy of the same kind of people who illegally took ownership of the Russian oil industry, who are now running Burma and Zimbabwe, and who invaded Iraq on a whim and a prayer. Do you really want a guy like Dick Cheney running your country? That's what you seem to expect the Iraquis to do.

So if you put on a uniform and buy a helicopter or a tank you can put explosives anywhere you want?

Anybody who goes to a party thinking they will be fun generally turns out to be the guy everyone ignores. Damaging. Not damaging. Are you talking about me or talk shows? If you are talking about talk shows, I think they are just part of the great cosmic white noise. You have yer talk shows. You have yer preachers. You have yer drinkin' buddies. You have yer buddies at work, you have yer wife, you have yer relatives, you have yer in-laws, you have yer barber... I could be wrong, but anybody who is influenced by a talk show - I mean look at the spectrum - Jerry Springer? - is probably so confused that they probably don't even bother to vote. I'd love to see an exit poll - who did you vote for and do you watch Jerry Springer? LOL.

I know. How did people like this wind up on centre stage? There is this thing about the American media. It seems to be attracted to loud and proud. I think it is the wellsource of their creativity, and bless them for this, but it is like standing in a cyclotron and wondering where the protons will hit....

I once entered Israel passing over the Allenby bridge. With my Canadian passport, I got an easy walk. My Palestinian companion had to wait 3 hours and during the inspection had to undress competely and pull her blue jeans through a brass ring having the diameter of a hockey puck. During this process she was called a cockroach. Israel is a democracy if you are a Jew. Otherwise, you are nothing but a poster child for how Israel is a democracy.

What? Prostitutes? The biggest whores on the stage would have been Letterman, Leno, O'Brien and Kimmel. These guys are just billboards. Watch the Hollywood movie releases. We get a new movie on the cusp of a release and .. jeez, how did that happen.... one of the movie's stars show up on a late night talk show. These guys are just another version of People Magazine. Slick, but managed by the kind of spin doctors who produced the invasion of Iraq. There have been very, very few nights when I watched these guys because they were the best thing on offer. Better a travelogue on Tuscany. I've already been there, and I doubt I'll go again, but at least the pictures are pretty, and they are real. I mean really. If you go to New York, is your first, second or third stop gonna be the 'Hello Deli'? If it was, what would that say about you? Welcome to the trailer park?

If you are including the surrender of all illegal settlements, then maybe we are not so different after all.

Anna Livia Plurabelle. Google that, Argus. My English be damned. No, half the world's media is not in Luxembourg; that is exactly the point.

Are you using Windows XP and did you just upgrade to service pack 3? Good ol' Bill decided that with SP3 he'd tell us all how much more he knows about our favourite sites than we do. If you are using IE6, click on tools, Internet Options, Security. You might need to add MLF to your trusted sites and uncheck the box that requires SSL. Just a guess.

Feisal did. You blew it, and you're dragging the rest of us in with you.

Can we add this one to the top ten signs... You are blonde, you have big bazoobs, and you write a book called "How to talk to a liberal if you must"

I am addressing this to Argus, who is participating in this thread. The big mistake that the Zionists made, and that Israel continues to make, is that the party line has always been (Ben Gurion on down) 'Get the hell out of here. This is OUR land.' If the Zionists had come and said "We have this problem, see (doing Bogart here). We are suffering persecution and we need a place to call our own.' they might have had a better chance. The Arabs were yearning for just the same thing after years of suffering under the Turks. This is why Weitzmann was able to talk turkey (lol) with Feisal. They were talking the same language. If the Zionists had said to the Arabs... "We know a lot. We can tell you how to build cities, how to cure people, how to make your business more efficient." If they had gone on to hire Arabs, school their children, buy from their businesses, invite them into the political process.... would it have been better? You bet it would.

Thank you. You are exactly right. It is discrimination on the basis of belief.

Ha ha. So that was you? Ha ha. Good one Rue.