S-News
There is very little to comment on as the news is very boring of late. But I feel I need to post something, so here's a quick roundup:
NSA Surveillance: President Bush and his supporters in the press continue to defend the practice of secretly monitoring some Americans' communications without a warrant while his critics and Democrats continue to condemn it. This will presumably go on at least until Bush leaves the White House.
Senate Debates the Alito Nomination: Democrats are upset that the nominee didn't provide clearer answers that would have allowed them to more confidently label him a racist, sexist, fascist, and bully. Republicans, on the other hand assure us that the nominee, who they fervently hope will vote to overturn Roe v Wade, outlaw affirmative action, rein in civil suits, and uphold the Patriot Act, is in fact completely open-minded on these issues.
Palestinian Election: The people who danced in the streets on 9/11 and have been proudly sending their young men into Israeli territory to kill jews by incinerating themselves have ovewhelmingly elected their own home-town terrorist organization, Hamas, to run their government.
Canadian Election: Conversely, Canadians - although not all that many of them - decided 12 years of liberal rule were enough, and so barely elected a conservative government. Apparently the difference between liberals and conservatives in Canada is that the liberals favor the slow disintegration of the country via expansive welfare and third-world immigration while conservatives would prefer to just break it up now and be done with it.
Iran Standoff: Iran's silly president makes one outrageous statement after another while the country insists it will continue to do stuff with nuclear energy - what exactly is not entirely clear. The U.S. and Europe insist that Iran cease and desist while China and Russia act like they agree but don't really seem to be very concerned, even though they're right next to Iran while the U.S. is on the other side of the world.
Like I said, boring stuff. I'll try to find something more inspiring to blog about tomorrow.
NSA Surveillance: President Bush and his supporters in the press continue to defend the practice of secretly monitoring some Americans' communications without a warrant while his critics and Democrats continue to condemn it. This will presumably go on at least until Bush leaves the White House.
Senate Debates the Alito Nomination: Democrats are upset that the nominee didn't provide clearer answers that would have allowed them to more confidently label him a racist, sexist, fascist, and bully. Republicans, on the other hand assure us that the nominee, who they fervently hope will vote to overturn Roe v Wade, outlaw affirmative action, rein in civil suits, and uphold the Patriot Act, is in fact completely open-minded on these issues.
Palestinian Election: The people who danced in the streets on 9/11 and have been proudly sending their young men into Israeli territory to kill jews by incinerating themselves have ovewhelmingly elected their own home-town terrorist organization, Hamas, to run their government.
Canadian Election: Conversely, Canadians - although not all that many of them - decided 12 years of liberal rule were enough, and so barely elected a conservative government. Apparently the difference between liberals and conservatives in Canada is that the liberals favor the slow disintegration of the country via expansive welfare and third-world immigration while conservatives would prefer to just break it up now and be done with it.
Iran Standoff: Iran's silly president makes one outrageous statement after another while the country insists it will continue to do stuff with nuclear energy - what exactly is not entirely clear. The U.S. and Europe insist that Iran cease and desist while China and Russia act like they agree but don't really seem to be very concerned, even though they're right next to Iran while the U.S. is on the other side of the world.
Like I said, boring stuff. I'll try to find something more inspiring to blog about tomorrow.
posted by ziel | 1/26/2006 07:34:00 PM
6 Comments:
A bumper sticker I saw once:
More hummus,less Hamas.
Now there are few better things than a good hummus - I haven't had any in years - I've only had supermarket hummus lately - the preservative acids are awful. Have you ever made it from scratch?
Maybe it's just me but I find these items pretty interesting.
Interesting? You're not completely sick of hearing the back and forth on the NSA spying, Alito, and Iran's nuclear program? There's never anything new on these - just back and forth bickering.
The Hamas election was interesting the moment it was reported, but faded 2 seconds later when we realized that the Palestinians had done something self-destructive. Next.
The Canadian election? Only the most boring country in the world could have the most boring election featuring the ouster of an incumbent.
"Interesting," you say.
Truth is, simply by particpating in the election Hamas will find itself being "tamed".
The election gives the Palestinain people a feeling of sticking in the eye of Israel and the world without actually committing any violent acts whatsoever.
That is what elections are good at - channeling anger from violence and other disrutive action to more productive outlets.
Israel and the world get to jump up and down and act upset and then everyone will sit down at the table and talk.
Not a bad deal, really.
Brian, what you're saying is certainly plausible, but we really won't know for a while - then we'll find out if you're right.
Some confounding factors are:
- Israel's reaction
- America's reaction
- Influence of other Arab/Muslim states
- Hamas' rank-and-file membership - do they reject a moderate leadership and continue their own extremist approach
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