Mr. Behrend asserts:

"As for the fate of "Jews" (by which I assume you mean a particular subset of Israelis), I'm not at all certain what their fate might be under a pluralistic secular state in which the interests of one ethnic group or religion or portion of the populace weren't institutionally or legally or militarily privileged."

This is wrong. There are now virtually no Jews in North Africa, nor in the Middle East (except of course for Israel). They were pretty much chased out (those who were not killed). Any uncertainty that Mr. Behrend has in this regard is based on an intentional refusal to face the facts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/28/world/middleeast/28refugees.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

doc5467 claims that there are jews in Lebanon--maybe a few, but they are negligable demographically and politically...per wikipedia,

"In the 1980s, Hizballah kidnapped several Lebanese Jewish businessmen, and in the 2004 elections, only one Jew voted in the municipal elections. By all accounts, there are fewer than 100 Jews left in Lebanon"

Of course, it's unlikely that the wikipedia article takes into account the IDF members deployed now there.

I'm a surgeon with almost-off-the-scale myopia, and I have worn glasses since I was in first grade. Glasses can be a hassle, but I do think they have kept my eyes a bit protected from injury, including the inevitable flying dust and sand which is intercepted by the lenses. Not having to wear glasses would be a huge convenience, and I do look better without them, especially since mine are of the coke-bottle-bottom thickness. I tried contacts, but they were irritating, though for arthroscopy (in its original days, when you had to look through a lens instead of at a TV screen)it was a heck of a lot easier when I didn't have to have my glasses removed every five minutes to wipe off the condensation. When the LASIK, and other corrective scarring procedures first came out, of course I was interested, so I asked my colleague, a fine opthamologist, to tell me when the percentage of opthamolgists undergoing the procedure was greater than or equal to the analogous percentage in the general population. I am still waiting.

Newsflash! Out-of-control self-righteous fool gets thrown in the slammer for outrageous disruptive behavior, with other sociopaths, some of whom probably acquire AIDS for their cruel and bestial rape.

Sure, Iran is not "a mad state bent on Israel's destruction". But it's a state whose president has explicitly called for Israel's destruction. I'm sure that Iran is no more monolithic than the USA is, but under-estimating the malign intentions of its current government vis-à-vis Israel and the USA is a mistake.

It's true that Islam has no monopoly on religious extremism; although there was some pious hand-wringing about the assassination of abortion providers by some in the Christian right-to-life movement, most of them seemed to be pleased. However, such atrocities are rare among Christians; honor killings by (mostly) Muslims are relatively much more frequent. Yes, I do blame Muslims for them, just as I blame Chrisianofascists for the (as I said, much rarer) assassinations.

Organized religion has a lot of blood on its collective hands, and I see no benefit in excusing its excesses as the whacked-out nuttiness of a fringe.

Gambling is generally a tax on the stupid, and a regressive one at that. But trying to suppress legally this basic human drive inevitably leads to the kind of prohibition which now plagues the drug addiction problem. Maybe a War on Gambling would provide work for greedy academics?

"100 is the average IQ, meaning that half the population has an IQ below 100. Presumably this is where Republicans come from."

Well, no. Republicans are probably about as intelligent as Democrats (or any other large political party). It's a mistake to assume that because many of them are lying racist closet perverts that they're not capable of thinking rationally. They just have a different world view.

It seems obvious why high heels damage the feet, but somewhat surprisingly, they are also associated with knee problems--the incidence of osteoarthritis of the knee is twice as high in women with a history of wearing high heels (just google osteoarthritis+"high heels"+knee). As in any retrospective observation, it may be that some other behavior among high-heel-wearing women is really the cause, and one can amuse oneself trying to imagine what it might be...but I don't wear them (well, the decision is probably easier for a man).

I've been using the free version of Glary Utilities for a while, with excellent results. I do imagine the Glary folks would like one to purchase the upgraded, non-free version, but the vanilla free one is enough for me.