Israel is an albatross around this country’s neck. Despite the author’s assertion that Israel is a democracy, it is in reality a brutal theocracy that just happens to worship desert Djins of another name than it’s equally deluded neighbors.

And honestly, let’s stop pretending that Israel is a sovereign nation. It’s a country invented by it’s American and British patrons to solve a refugee problem that neither country was morally equipped to solve through assimilation on their own territory. Israel gets six times the federal funding per capita of any other State in this union along with an alliance that guarantees protection so let’s also quit pretending that we have to play nice and gently encourage them to deal fairly with the Palestinians.

In a perfect world the President would give Israel their marching orders and tell them to shape up or fuck off. But no president will. Why? Because we are a country controlled by Christian wing nuts that see the eventual destruction of Israel as a precursor to the end times (oh the irony; we protect Israel so that it can be destroyed properly one day) and other religious wing nuts that think that this little piece of land the size of a Texas landfill is somehow more important than the rest of the world (religion really does poison everything!).

We will never have any appreciable peace in the Middle East until Israel realizes that its shit stinks just like everyone else’s and grants political and geographical equality to the fifty percent of it’s countrymen who are currently disenfranchised.

The subtext of this question is really “Which candidate will best pander to the interests of this second rate theocracy?” A theocracy, I might add, that holds tenaciously to the absurd fantasy that by virtue of being a ‘chosen people’ (a self claim based on a rotten little political tract written 25 centuries ago to disenfranchise a rival tribe in the same area) God has given them exclusive rights to that land—in perpetuity. This right also allows them to practice open apartheid against the other fifty percent of the population, who by any measure of fairness, have equal claim to that land.

So the opening question on this article is really: “Which President will best back up the silly tribal claims of the Israelis by keeping a boot on the neck of the Palestinians—thus keeping both the middle east conflict and terrorism in the region alive and well.”

Sometimes you have to call things for what they really are.

I guess there is some confusion as to what makes this strip funny. Let me try to help.

The place is supposed to be clean...but there a fucking hedgehog in the toilet.

Does that clear things up?

You said:

"In Nov., it will be raining McCain!"

You are either:

a) a troll

b) a republican

c) a moron

Either way you are taking up precious air on the planet. Please vote yourself off!

If Hillary were the Democratic pick instead of Obama I would get behind her 100% without needing need any coddling or "winning over". Why? Because I'm a Democrat- and that's what Democrats do when facing Republican lickspittles like John McCain.

To suggest that Hillary's supporters need some kind of sop to lure them to the polls is silly and childish. Honestly, what are they really going to do? Stay at home? Vote for McCain out of spite?

Tomorrow, Clinton will concede. She will be gracious in defeat and throw all her support behind Obama. Why? Because she's a Democrat and a professional political opperative that understands the stakes.

I suggest that Hillary's supporters do the same-- instead of threatening to take their ball and going home!

At first I thought you were being ironic,--with the nom de plom of turnip and all--a turnip being a symbol of stupidity. then I read your other letters an realized you are actually stupid!

I don't buy the "they stoped trying" bit for 'the Needham question'. It's silly and unsubstantiated.

For a better explanation read the last chapter of 'Guns Germs and Steel' by Jared Diamond. The chapter, titled 'Yali's question', gives a much more plausible explanaiton based on Chinas relative isolation, political climate and overall geography.

Clark is looking like a good match. He's got the age,the southern pedigree and the military experience that Obama lacks.

I like horses too much to ever support or participate in such a barbaric and inhumane sport.

Thanks for the explanation.

You said: "The good news is that you can learn these technologies (like meditation) and make the observations yourself and see if they hold up. I've read that it takes about 5 years of daily practice for major results to turn up."

I still think this is a sort of special pleading. If I spent five years of daily practice trying to convince myself that I was Attila the Hun- I have no doubt that I could do it. Likewise if I spent five years searching for some inner something which was bound to an outer nothing in a labrynth of all of something...you get my point- I have no doubt that I would find it. The brain is an amazing little organ chalk full 'o' chemicals and all sorts of wacky stuff we know very little about. So yes, I do believe that people can reach states of bliss or nirvana- or whatever you want to call it- but I don't believe that they are accessing anything outside themselves or inside themselves except a physical manipulation of biological, chemical and neural processes. I also don't think that I am going out on a limb in saying that there is little or no evidence to the contrary.

On a personal note, if I was going to spend five years of my life practicing anything on a daily basis I'd go with the piano.