I'm no fan of wingnut Zionists like the loon who assassinated Rabin, or the Likudniks, any more than I care for the fools who killed Sadat. But Israel has to live in that neighborhood. We don't. I take the same view as many Israelis whose voices we don't get to hear often in America, that they are dooming themselves, and by making them the 51st state of America, officially or unofficially, it only hurts them in the long run. Before Billmon stopped blogging the last time, he gave them 30 years at the outside if they keep on trucking down the highway to hell they are on. I just hate to see us riding down the same road, and we have been, right along side of them.

That being said, AIPAC doesn't pay my bills and I don't like them paying my elected officials bills either.

If that isn't the biggest crock of shit I have ever read...

Let the accusations of anti-semitism commence...

-- L.W.M

Calm down. You're not the only one who realizes that AIPAC isn't representative of Israel or Jews in general. I equate the repeating of the 'antisemitism' charge against those who deride AIPAC with the Anti-American charge repeatedly claimed against those who oppose the GWB administration or, for that matter, against those who oppose US Government policy in general. The US government is not America. AIPAC is not Israel or the be all to end all representative of Jewish-Americans. Most of us are aware of that.

>>What we seek is a delightfully diverse, safe, healthy and just world, with clean water, air, soil and power, that is economically, equitably, ecologically, and elegantly enjoyed.<<

Now, that's an idealism I can identify with! But as a friend said to me recently, our future is far more likely to look like Blade Runner than Star Trek.

Don't get me started on AIPAC. But it might be encouraging to know that I recently heard a call-in show out of New York City in response to that insane book "A Match Made in Heaven" (if you want to be really scared for America, read the reviews on Amazon). They were almost uniformly, to put it in a nutshell, from pissed off Jewish people who are sick of AIPAC and the "far right" of the Israel lobby.

RTF100: "Why is that far left shills such as [Glenn] IMPLY that the war will end if the US pulls out (meaning, of course, ASAP). You know exactly what will happen if the US pulls out precipitously, but you really don't give a "bleep" because you can make a career out of blaming somebody else for the carnage. This is the same gross dishonesty and deceit that you beat up the administration for, yet you conveniently ignore the consequences of your own proposals, both real and implied."

The "sea change" sensed includes the belated realization that the removal of Saddam by outside forces touched off an inevitable struggle for power in post-Saddam Iraq between Sunnis and Shiites. Bush-Cheney had no strategy to deal with that reality, only a lot of happy talk about purple thumbs and other nonsense that was really aimed at red state voters in the U.S. Absent a strategy, the US/UK military presence can only postpone and in the meantime further complicate the inevitable day of reckoning for Iraqis.

The Shiites of Iraq and Iran have a long account of debt and injury to settle with the Iraqi Sunnis; and unless Iraq's Muslim neighbors are willing and able to try to stop it, there will be a reckoning regardless of what the U.S. does or doesn't do. That is what those familiar with the region tried to tell Bush-Cheney back in '02-'03; but alas, they did not listen.

our future is far more likely to look like Blade Runner than Star Trek.

I share your concerns, introvertgirl. (I try to fight my own personal pessimism on a daily basis. Blue sky!) But, to which vision would you prefer to devote your personal energies? Isn't that the challenge?

That unless I missed it, elephantman didn't even show up to this one, and 242's attempt was so weak I couldn't help but LOL.

Frank Rich says today:

"After last weekend’s correspondents’ dinner, The Times decided to end its participation in such events."

More support for sea change?

(That was the dinner where Rove was a guest of NYT; sitting at their table. After his run in with David & Crow, NYT quoted both sides the next day and left it at that. In other words, they couldn't get the scoop even when the guy in the center of it was SITTING AT THEIR DINNER TABLE WHILE IT WAS HAPPENING!!! )

>>But, to which vision would you prefer to devote your personal energies? Isn't that the challenge?<<

Of course, you're right, it's just that I'd like to be able to _enjoy_ the world a little without always feeling like I have to fight to protect it. And that just sounds like whining.

Although, if I think about it seriously ... Harrison Ford or Patrick Stewart? Mm, the latter, I think. Always had a crush on both, though. But if I were a heterosexual male, Sean Young wins hands down over Marina Sirtis.

First, be polite and unbuckle the belt or girdle before bellying up to the thirsty bar. It's okay to burp. A burp or passing a silent wind is polite.

Second, something very hateful is breaking my computer. Hate never succeeds. It seems the hate in the world will win on some days, but, sooner or later, love always prevails. A clanging chime, a yacker hacker, what breaks down forces us out of time. Love does not accept limits. Of all that we feel and do, all virtues and all sins, love alone crowds us at last over the edge of the world. For love is always more than a little strange here. It is not explainable or defined. It justifies. We can't make it or sell love. If it dod not happen to us, we could never imagine it. Love includes the world and will suffer and forgive It is in the world but it is not actually altogether of it. A mystery. It is eternity in the present. It takes it's embrace of each individual when the individual feels most broken and surrender to love.

Belly up. Bottoms up. Loose buttons. Gulp with a good empty thirst. Drink for a beely button burst? huh? Cork it. Burp.

Maybe I best start burping and buy a corked bottle of Guy/Gal Noir-Noir and un-cork a wine bottle. Burp. Maybe that is enough for today. Burp. Bottom's up in the blue sky air, exposed in the sunshine, keep burping with a bottom's belly's bottom's up, for a belly button? huh. Burp. "Belly Up to the Bar," said it best.

Bye bye computer? Damn "Bleep" People. Burp. Bottom's up and NO bombs away. Belly Up to the bar. okay. burp. burp. stop hate. 'shad up' and talk to fish and jump in a lake. by. bye computer?