"Or is it that Gazans voted for Hamas so as punishment they should all be fenced in and starved? By that reasoning, then because Americans voted for George Bush (who has been responsible for vastly more deaths in Iraq than have Gazans firing rockets into Israel), all Americans deserve to be punished."

No, but Gazans voted for Hamas, and don't seem to want to get Hamas out of office, and Hamas claims to be at war with Israel and is dropping rockets on Israel and that seems to be alright with the Gazan citizenry, so it's a bit odd for folks to be saying the Gazans are innocent and it's unjustifiable collective punishment for them to be taken off Israel's welfare rolls now and then. I mean, come on.

the B vitamins are metabolically active; it's not completely out of the question that overdoses could have side effects. for instance, a lot of folks are taking a lot of niacin these days and that can have side effects from hot flashes to clobbering your liver.

"a normal, healthy woman should not need to take folic acid supplements proir to and during pregnancy."

Indeed, so very often it's shown that supplements of vitamins etc. are nutritionally inferior to just eating the food with the vitamins in it. usually something cabbagey, or maybe berries.

You get people who can't even spell what they're googling, which ends up splitting off idiots into their own world of bad information with no rebuttals.

For instance, try googling (firearm injury researcher) "Arthur Kellermann", and his apparent evil twin "Arthur Kellerman". See if you can guess which is the correct spelling and which belongs to the realm of spittle-spewing ignoramuses who endlessly recycle the same BS among themselves.

'Why do I get one hit for this search string - "the poem is like a new world seen for the first time"

And zero hits for this search string -- "the poem is like a new"'

Well, truth to tell a find a lot of hits for that second string. But I do see similar illogical search results all the time, and they do change with time so I don't doubt that you got zero hits for that shorter string at one point. And the problem is even worse with Google Groups; I can get different numbers of hits for the same string, searching two seconds later. Either something's a reliable search engine, or it's not.

dropping rockets on civilians; refusing to provide fuel oil. yeah, same thing. totally symmetrical. there's no moral reason to pick which one should stop first to see if the other eases up.

"Israel created Hamas in a divide and rule strategy to weaken Fatah who were left-leaning and secular.

this actually is true, really you should look into it, well maybe not created but covertly worked to strengthen knowing that hamas would be less likely to be reasonable and therefore cause pressure to be brought on Israel to really settle a deal."

really, i should look into it. right after i find how the jews are controlling the egyptian government to prevent them from greeting the escaping palestinians as their brothers in Islam.

"Muhammed is the only founder of a religious faith to have also had temporal authority"

Abraham or Moses, whichever you pick as founder, had no authority over the Hebrews?

seriously. next year, watch the puppy bowl. nonstop action.

the woman who looks after your kid engenders a certain response in any male who is wired correctly. evolution, I would guess.

take it for granted your kids know where everything you have hidden in the house is. In fact, when they get old enough that you worry about their having condoms available when they need them, just fill a shoebox full of so many that you won't know some are missing, and "hide" it in your closet.

building more nuclear reactos will, in the short term, only make the problem worse, from the emissions that go into their construction. they won't be delivering electricity for a decade.

then there's the question of why exactly is it better to switch from one limited nonrenewable resource with waste products which are problematic, to another limited nonrenewable resource with waste products which are problematic?

if nuclear power has any role to play in getting us out of this mess, it's got to lie with the existing, already functioning reactors.

a mccain huckleberry ticket, to unite the troops; on the other side, a clinton to bring out the clinton-hater army (preemptive for the record: I think hillary would be a fine president, and so would obama).... we could see another 2000 election here, folks.

although i am glad to see progress, what could be more american than patting ourselves on the back for having a female and a brownish (but not BLACK like even Chris Rock) candidate, when every other civilized nation has had presidents/prime ministers who were female and/or of a minority race, years ago? back in the last millenium?

and the rest of them, just won't shut up about it.

"talk to hamas, find out if they are willing to share the land with you in a secular nation called palestine"

Seems a bit dubious, what with article 6 of their charter stating

"The Islamic Resistance Movement is a distinguished Palestinian movement, whose allegiance is to Allah, and whose way of life is Islam. It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine, for under the wing of Islam followers of all religions can coexist in security and safety where their lives, possessions and rights are concerned. In the absence of Islam, strife will be rife, oppression spreads, evil prevails and schisms and wars will break out.

"How excellent was the Moslem poet, Mohamed Ikbal, when he wrote:

"If faith is lost, there is no security and there is no life for him who does not adhere to religion. He who accepts life without religion, has taken annihilation as his companion for life."

and all.