id you're an American, that should be how you identify yourself. The rest of the world invariably identifies itself by nationality or sometimes by continent. "Extraction" is a word that suggests the dentist and pain. Maybe it's painful for you. Anyway, despite your family connection with North Africa, you have made no contribution at all to this blog, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with Glenn Greenwald's thesis. Playing the Court Jester may suit your purposes, whatever they are, but you've shown none of the indignation that the bludgeoning of a captive people by a huge military onslaught should elicit in anyone with human sympathy. If you can only deal with the world through mockery and flitting around every topic, then that's your way but I don't necessarily agree that it's admirable. To each his/her own. As for Durian Joe, maybe you think "well of bottomless bile" is a mild tut-tut but you must not have noticed how the gentleman,having no respect for my views,insinuate that I hated Jews. I haven'tmet enough of them to have any opinion of them as they all seem to be living in America; as some writer on this thread indicated, there are more people of the Jewish faith (orthodox and other) living in America than in Israel. Zionism is the issue and it's a low blow to accuse everyone who criticises Israel's military aggrandisement of Palestinian lands as anti-Jewish; it's low but that doesn't matter but it's the only jibe they've got.

Klytus,your "lighten up" advice to me comes from someone who persistently taunted me because, surprise, surprise, you put me in a religious category, calling me a Mother Superior and suchlike. You were very nasty to me because I wasn't in awe of Obama. I'm having my breakfast now but I thought I'd let YOU know what I think of your gadfly goofball "persona" on the Net, which may not be the real you at all, of course. There are a lot of emotionally immature people who think it's witty to mock someone's legal name. It's not unusual for children to do it but it's insulting for an adult to indulge in an attempt to diminish a person in such a manner. As a matter of fact, O'Donnell is my husband's name; I came into the world as the daughter of a man with a different name, a name which had neither O nor Mac as a prefix. That would have deprived some of the clowns of their fun. Continue to write your versifications for those who enjoy that sort of trivia. I'll just walk on.

because it seemed to be censorious of a louche way of life. It was as if sexual morality was the only topic that mattered in America at a time, as it later transpired, the immorality of the financial system was incubating a deadly virus that would destroy many lives forever.making people unemployable and homeless in many cases. Sarah Palin's version of Christianity is unknown to me but evangelism is the fastest-growing religion in sub-Saharan Africa and in South America. The pastor who prayed to save Sarah from withcraft was a visitor to her church and was an African. To him, witchraft represented evil and, whether you're aware of it or not, animistic religion still clings on in some African villages where human sacrifice is practised and where albino Africans are the object of superstitious hate and fear. Of course, you don't have to believe me. You can read about Adam, the unsolved Thames murder (2001) in wiki. The British police found out a lot about ritual killing when those involved in the "Adam" case went to Africa for clues. In these circunstances, the Rev. Muthee's (if that's the name I recall) blessing of Sarah Palin doesn't seem so strange because of his own bacground.

Then we come to Mormons or what's officially known as the Church of Latter-Day Saints. As an outsider, I noted how easy, even acceptable, it was to scoff at Mitt Romney's religion, making him an untenable candidate for the Republican Party. "Only in America" was once a boast; now it could be followed with a sigh. The media behaved like a pack of hounds baying at Palin and hunting her into the covert; Romney was also a media-target. Although Steele the First may be o.t.t. he has a very cogent argument in stating that all religious affiliation can be held up for laughs and sneers except one. The media doesn't see it as a source of amusement at all, even though in its most extreme form it is dragging the USA into wars on the other side of the globe.

This is very much an "Only in America" phenomenon. I've read articles by Rabbi Julia Neuberger who is a rabbi, social reformer and now member of the House of Lords. She was previously Chancellor of the University of Ulster. She is not orthodox in her religion or in her outlook so that it's wrong to regard the Zionist rabble-rousers now exulting in the destruction of Gaza as representative of Jews all over the world. They may have been molly-coddled in the USA but, elsewhere in the world, they do very well through their own talents and will to succeed, without having to be propped up by anyone. There will be exceptions but that is the way of the world.

You lord it on too thick

One 'o these days

You'll make your poor heart sick.

You and Furian Joe

Oughta cool your fool heads

Kiss 'n make up

And take in a picture show.

One more thing of note

About our "good Samaritan"

The Furian Joe bloke.

Old Joe

Is a half cocked hot head

Notorious

For flogging horses

That are notoriously

Stone dead...

Hamas, Likud, and the Republicans; they're the same party. They're the party of "if they fuck us, we'll fuck them right back, and we won't stop until there's nothing left to fuck."

People like that. It's strong.

Think about how weak and conciliatory the liberal who says "let's talk instead of fight" seems. You know that guy, the limp-wristed little milquetoast who's always talking about "peace"? That's the Palestinian who opposes Hamas.

Folks is just folks.

People correctly identify Hamas as the villain of this story. The anti-semetic, theocratic nationalism they advocate is objectively inferior to the sort of progressive, humanitarian, pluralist, representitive democracy practiced by the Western world.

What do you expect the Palestinians to do about it?

Engage in symbolic, non-violent protests against the Israeli occupation?

Understand that there are many Israelis and Americans that are sympathetic to their plight and that the militant foes that make up the majority of their experiences are not representative of our nations as a whole?

Follow their rational impulses and cooperate with a well-meaning occupying power at the expense of their local, exploitative ruling class?

Accept the reality of their ancestors' crimes and make a personal commitment to take responsibility for those crimes?

Since when have hippies ever had political influence?

Folks is just folks.

Hamas and the Republicans are enemies, but they don't oppose one another. They both want the same thing - pride in a national identity that exists without compromise. The only difference that exists between them is the color of the flag they salute.

So long as America exists, we will have Republicans. So long as Palestine exists, it will have Hamas. The only way Israel will ever defeat them is to destroy the Palestinians as a unified people, to irrevocably break their nationhood. This is because these parties exist to counter fear and uncertainty with an expression of power. That urge is fundamentally human.

Folks is just folks.

What do I think Palestine should do? They should give control of the country to the hippies. I say this because I am a hippy myself. I think the hippies should control America and the hippies should control Israel.

This requires courage, because the country that isn't ruled by hippies retains the power to hurt the people it doesn't like, and the country that is ruled by hippies has less power to stop them.

This is a truth that Republicans instinctively understand. What they fail to do is make the logical leap: by asking their enemies to surrender, to let the hippies rule instead of Hamas, they are asking the Palestinians to be better than we are.

Folks is just folks.