Bill Collector

Cat Rent

On the note of religious Israel:

If any of us do or still believe in a God and Israel’s supposed righteousness, why would anyone not see that Israel is in an abusive relationship with God?

If there’s anyone who would, Ariel Sharon it is, where I could only sum up that his response to the violence as a muted challenge to God itself but not that he could comprehend it well enough except to act in decisive ways without being detrimental to its own cause.

His holiness, the Dalai Lama, was interviewed once on the issue of religion and he concluded the errors of religious exclusivity, especially the monoeistics. On the term “chosen people”, his holiness concluded that it was the worst of all exclusivities.

Not that I want or has the authority to dispute the Dalai Lama (he has a good point there), but I was hoping for a more rational and in-depth response to the questions we are all perplexed with.
If his holiness can falter with a stumped response, what do we make of the average individuals?

Not to underestimate our fellow man, but I think, we are incapable to address issues on such breath and scale. The best of the average among us can only speak of immediate terms relative to our own self.

My apology to the Dalai Lama (actually I am a fan of Buddhism) if I have misquoted out of context.

Phil’s insights on issues dear to him are his and in no way, any of us should feel slighted but his viewpoints in fact helps us to comprehend Phil the person.

Phil’s annoyance (satire is his best form of making an impact to smart listeners but more for Phil himself) is that for such a seemingly strong state like Israel, it is unable to act decisively for victory (victory does not mean annihilate its foe but to free itself from the unending burden and misery it inflicted on its own population).

History aside, the average individuals have the tendency to be swayed by factors unbeknown to him and thus the world’s political power collectively form groups that holds sway to world opinion to ostracized an entity they perceived to be evil just for the thought that the supposed evil is hardworking and smart (and possibly blameless?). Is this the world’s fear of them – because they (the world) can’t match up?

Personally, I think it’s the world’s incompetence to handle itself in just ways and the collective powers understands the opinion-game and played it rather well (even with cunning evil) to undermine the group of hardworking-and-smart people. They have propagated incompetence to slow down the tiny advancing nation for these irrational fears.

“Brilliance is this world is denied at every turn”
Is there any wonder why misery is inflicted upon this group of people?

Dave: Thanks for proving my point. Practically no one in the Muslim world gives any kind of real support in terms of social programs or education to palestinians, with the only exception being Hamas. If Hamas is the only group willing to lend this kind of support, it doesn’t reflect too highly on the many millionaires and billionaires who could help, but don’t. Gee, maybe that’s why Israel is the only democracy in the Mid-East?

Tom: actually, the reason they’ve been tough to remove is that they do provide social programs and the like–this is why they get local support and why, until recently, Europe was reluctant to block funds to them, etc.

In fact, according to this link, 90% of Hamas’ $70 million budget goes to these programs:

From http://www.terrorismanswers.org/groups/hamas3.html

“In addition to its military wing, the so-called Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigade, Hamas also devotes much of its estimated $70-million annual budget to an extensive social services network, which includes schools, orphanages, mosques, health care clinics, soup kitchens, and sports leagues. “Approximately 90 percent of its work is in social, welfare, cultural, and educational activities,” writes the Israeli scholar Reuven Paz. Since the Palestinian Authority often fails to provide such services, Hamas’ efforts in this area explain much of its popularity.”

What I find trully amazing is how offended people are by the truth. Phil: Once again you get many points. The fact is that the Mulsim Machine, which includes many billionaires and lots of land has NOT succeeded at much, other than lavishly spending oil money and getting members from the poorer segments of their society to blow themselves up, usually taking innocent people with them. Israel and Jews historically have helped other Jews by….helping them. In fact, a lot of th people fighting for the rights of palestinians are…Jews. When Jews have been imperiled throughout the world, Israelis do not send weapons and instruction videos on how to suicide bomb, they provide physical and diplomatic support (Russia, Ethiopia, et al) necessary to get them out of the place where they’re oppressed, and into Israel. That’s right, despite the ethnic and cultural diversity among Jews, they’re more than happy to welcome to their tiny homeland. Muslims, on the other hand, despite their vast financial holdings and enormous lands, never do anything other than vote against Israel and for SuiBombers, and sometimes offer reward money to the families of these “martyrs” (I get sick at the thought of using the term even sarcastically there). So Phil, please to continue to tell it like it is. Sadly, Hamas is the most successful enterprise in the world o’Islam-that’s a fact. Maybe they should focus on education and social programs rather than indoctrination, hate and teach terrorism-skills.

What has Chaichi been smoking? Merderous Jews? Is that a French spelling?

For reference, that last message was referring to Philip’s original post and not to a later comment.

This is a pretty poor analogy. It assumes that a simple comparison can be drawn between organizations with such vastly disparate goals. But tearing things apart is a lot easier than smoothly building them up. The former, too, can be a lot flashier with a lot less effort. But there are many things in society for which no news is good news. Just because they lack coverage doesn’t mean they lack impact. Their success lies in their seamlessness; their impact in their very invisibility. I would suggest stock exchanges fall into this category. Using these criteria, Grasso has, to my admittedly limited knowledge, been successful. Even after 9/11, the exchanges were up and running in days. That takes skill, even if it is a skill that lacks the romance of the revolutionary.