Mid-East Views, Land and Resources.

[tcpip]

YouTube has an excellent six minute video that show many of the difficulties of Palestians living under Israeli occupation. Many of el-jays resident libertarians show themselves to be against freedom (for Palestinians). On topic, homais says some very sensible and balanced things about the current conflict in Lebanon, which are quite similar to the concerns of Johnathan Steele. How could both sides have blundered so badly?

A certain trouble maker has been warbling on about land and housing issues. The fundamental claim is correct; well meaning legislators who ration land are just as much to blame for rising house costs as a taxation system that does not capture the unearned increment in rising land prices. In other resource related news, the ALP is set to ditch their uranium policy, an action will undoubtably lose more votes than what they'll gain. Professor Emertius Ian Lowe has a different idea about energy. Further on-topic (from soulvessel Exxon is still avoiding payouts from the Valdez oil spill of 1989. You can email the CEO here.

claudine_c's speech at the Unitarians on rural health work in India was excellent. Noted the particular difficulties of dealing with an entrenched caste system and the inappropriateness of "western" medical mores. Followed by Brent McAuslan's discussion on the history of war at the philosophy group. Discussion tended towards the psychological motivations. Then the Cybernoia game which imajica_lj has summarised. In rodent news, Vagabond has hurt his spine, probably following a fall. Every dozen steps he lets out a sharp squeak of pain. He's currently drugged up on metacam and sleeping soundly ;-). Well done to dr_nic for providing the worst company URLs.

Comments

democratising or necrotising?

[decrypt-era.livejournal.com]

It's a pity that th hard-core Zionists are in th driver's seat in Israel;
most of th Israelis i'v met in person are relaxed ppl,
outspoken yes, but quite adept at getting along with others.
Israel th state, however, was designd to be th stick to stir th pot,
so we never see th moderation of th majority of their popn.

Likewise, most Lebanese i'v met are unusually hospitable, civilised ppl.
This conflict belittles both sides, it belittles our whole species.
We'r being played. It's time to wake up.

To generalise even further
(which we must wheneva we talk about groups of ppl),
i think this Lebanon mess is happenin mainly to provide th US with an "in" to Iran.
China & Russia are taking Iran's side
(to make their central-asian energy trading bloc complete),
so th US desperately needs Euro support to make this fly.
But it hasn't been forthcoming has it?
Their involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan has brought home to them some ugly realities.
What th US could use is a wtc-scale terrorist attack in Europe, and soon.
Pinning it on Hezb'Allah would give US a green light on Iran,
but first, they need to make sure the world media learns Hezb'Allah = Iran.
Also, Israeli occupation of Lebanon will engage not only Hezb'Allah, but Syria too,
which is necessary if an Iranian invasion is to be even slightly feasible.

And after orchestrating all this suffering n misery,
America's plans will fail anyway.
While their air force & socom might remain compliant,
i think th army & navy will refuse to take on Iran,
because militarily, it's an inherently stupid idea,
even if they weren't alredy over-extended.