I am watching Hillary Clinton closely for signs of madness. She is on a slide toward some kind of delusional disorder that makes her think she is "toe-to-toe" with Barack Obama and it is sad to watch her embrace her inner Lucia or something like that.

She will have a hard time in the Senate if she is seen as wrecking Obama or embracing a racist (even veiled) line. She needs to stop this now. The Credentials Committee meets on the 31st and that should be the end of it. If she graciously withdraws on June 1st, in advance of the primaries on the 3rd, she will do a lot to advance her own cause and that of the Democratic Party. She has a chance to be the logical successor of Ted Kennedy should he have to leave the Senate for medical reasons and she shouldn't blow it. She has shown that she can cross the aisle and that is a terrific contribution to the country as well as to her own party.

Enough, Senator Clinton. As St. Paul said, you have run the race.

The biggest proponent of settlements is the group around McCain, including Hagee and Lieberman. The Christian Zionists, people Lieberman has hugged, think that anything, including a major war, that destroys the Palestinians and makes it possible/attractive for all Jews to come to Israel, will hasten the return of Jesus. Jesus will then slaughter the Jews who don't convert to evangelical Christianity (Catholicism is a whore, remember?) This is the stark choice that Jews who are considering voting for McCain in 2008. A victory for McCain would empower the most right wing elements of the Israeli electorate, the most radical and troublemaking, the group that murdered an Israeli PM, remember. They would further alienate Israel from the world and more endanger Israel.

Obama is the safest bet for Israel. Rice legitimated HAMAS by ignoring both Israel and the PA and forcing elections on the Palestinians. Bush's one-dimensional view of Israel endangers her survival more than anything that Obama could. The Messiah does not govern Israel. A secular government does. A secular government has to be responsive to the world around it.

Settlements HAVE to stop. The pioneers from Brooklyn have to be removed from their settlements and either returned to the US or settled within Isreal for their safety. The settlers who welcome the ideas of Hagee and company have to realize that, in Hagee's views, when they don't convert, they will be tossed into a burning lake forever by Jesus. If they don't get the supidity of their situation, it has to be forcefully discussed with him.

An entity called "The" Jews does not exist. I am Jewish and I have characteristic views some of which are conservative, some libertarian and most liberal. I am comfortable with arguments that are not favorable to the present Israeli government, which I think is a disaster for Israel. I refuse to be under the same roof with Joe Lieberman under any circumstances ever because I consider him a schlang.

I refuse to be lumped. I don't want to be "loved" because I'm a Jew any more than I want to be hated for that reason. I am all too aware how easily love can turn to hate when it's not rooted in the particularities of a person. I don't love my fellow Jews as a group. They are my tribe and I have a special feeling for them but there are some Jews I don't like at all. It's not because they are Jewish or despite the fact. They just stink as people. A corrupt nursing home administrator who stints on care is just that even if he is dressed as either a Litvak or a Chasid. A kosher turkey is still a turkey.

I am voting for Obama not on the basis of his views on Judaism or Israel but because I perceive him to be competent and that competence will be incidentally good for Israel and for the Jews/Christians/Muslims/whites/blacks/Latinos/Chinese....all of the above...who live here and make their lives here.

Anyone who wants to be more scared than a fictional account like "The Stand" can give is welcome to read Laurie Garrett's superbly reasearched "The Coming Plague." Her end notes are superb. Much more worrisome than Andromeda, her book raises the consequences of our almost unpardonable neglect of global public health issues. It covers the early years of the AIDS plague better than most sources and more readably.