Gorgon

No, it's not Irrelevant. Arafat owed Palestinian self rule to capturing the attention of the world to the plight of the Palestinian people. Do you think he would have addressed the UN as the 'leader of a dispossessed people' or got the Nobel peace prize if nobody had known his name. Do you think he would have gotten anything at all from Israel. It seems to me that you are busy making judgments about how things should be in your opinion, rather than how they are.

Me, and world opinion. We are pretty fickle about what is terrible enough to make us want to act. Show enough starving African children and we cease to notice, and that's the point. It's not like Hamas are ever going to win the battle of Israeli public opinion.

Yes, but there have been too many of those for it to shock anyone anymore. Having Israel kill a hugely disproportionate number of Palestinian civilians in their incursion will further the Hamas agenda more. These are 'countries' at war so it doesn't apply except at the level of international opinion, but one of the theories offering a possibility of revolution and regime change through terrorism suggests that causing the state to react disproportionately is key to turning the population against the state and eventually have them side with the terrorists. It's never worked to my knowledge though, terrorists organizations seem entirely too optimistic about what it takes to break down the established order. In the case of the Zionists, they already enjoyed a degree of popular support. Nevertheless these were the kinds of thoughts going through the heads of RAF when they started their kidnappings back in the 70s.

The State of Israel gained full independence following a terrorist attack which killed the ranking English administrators. September 11 was an overwhelming success on the symbolic level, and terror is all about perception,the casualties themselves are insignificant, at least until the dreaded nuclear terrorist event actually happens. One attack could hardly have hoped to achieve more. So, terror is effective, but rarely so. It needs to be spectacular, out of the ordinary, and it needs to succeed in nudging events just so in the desired direction. Another suicide attack against an Israeli city has been done so many times before it people are numb to it. A retaliatory incursion like this one with a massive civilian death toll does a lot more to move public perception, or in this case world opinion, since that conflict is as seminal as ever.

I watched an episode of 'The Unit' where they planned to frag their commanding officer because he'd slept with one of their wives. Yes, I'm sure that's all very authentic. It was also impressed by how nauseatingly flag waving it is. I mean where else would you hear 'Are you a true American' used in general conversation. Can't the PC brigade get off their arses and try to have it banned, I'm genuinely worried about the effect this show will have on children. Mostly it just saddens me to see half decent actors belittling themselves like this, it's like watching Al Pacino turning tricks in drag on Hollywood Boulevard.

Yes but since when did "thin" equal 2d. If I go on an extreme diet I will turn sprite based. >_

It's "-" Apparently. Surprise, surprise.

Whats the parameter for excluding a word from a search engine result. I know there are some common commands like asterisks and the like that supposedly modify search results, but I never gave it much thought.

I wonder what 'very thin two dimensional objects' are. To my knowledge it's either 2d, or 3d, and there isn't anything in the physical world that's d2.

The latter point strikes me as equally ignoring the fundamental issue above. Israel couldn't ignore the rockets and press on with peace talks, because the rockets represented a clear message that peace talks had been rejected in favour of military force. It seems to me that a weeks foray into Gaza would do very little long term to curb the rocket problem, getting at the core would probably mean an occupation and policing the population. Israel doesn't want a mess like that. It's easier to give Gaza a quick shake every once in a while, regardless of whether doing so costs 1000 Palestinian casualties to the, what, 10 Israeli lost to Hamas rockets in the same period.

All they can achieve are symbolic victories, continuing the bombardment despite a heavy Israeli presence could be considered one, reminiscent of Hezbollah.

A bus jumping over motorcycles, shouldn't that be the other way around.

Animal rights is a laudable enterprise, too bad these PETA nincompoops ridicule it so.

I guess I'm musing that the people who blame computer games think they have found one.

It's hard being a parent, now if only there was some easy fix solution that would ensure impressionable young people do not turn to the dark side...

Whoever is in power is always fair game, other than that comic strips always fail when they take obvious sides. I wonder who would think any of those were funny.

I don't know if jealousy is egotism, it certainly is an emotion powerful enough to provoke murder in those capable of it though. The man sounds like a pathetic case too, I'd wager his problem is self loathing more than it is self absorption.

It's like the perfect excuse to be a rotten bastard.

I love the way his views are portrayed here as being the product of a 'funny sense of humour', rather than rabid egomaniacal loathing. It's never a healthy thing to start believing in your own myth, all the great 'mystics' did. As a complete aside, my mother broke it off with my father at the time he was writing a book on Crowley, she says writing it was turning him satanic.

ahh, no just a famous lunatic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley

Didn't he name himself after some famous Satanist. The name rings a bell.

One man or woman one vote. Anything other than proportional representation means one man 1.3 votes in one area, and one man 0.82 votes in another.

Seems like Satanism is entirely incidental, some kind of jealous obsession more likely.

I never subscribed to the notion that if you haven't got anything constructive to say you shouldn't say anything either. It's gotten me into trouble on more than one occasion.

More likely they just don't care as much as they perhaps ought to.