(Cross-Posted at My Left Wing.)

When discussing Israel one of the questions that perpetually arises is the question of land ownership among Jewish people, in terms of the size of the state of Israel, after the smoke cleared in 1948.  The perpetual charge is that Israel, Zionists, or Jews, "stole the land."

In order to put this into any sort of perspective the first thing to note is that Israel is about the size of New Jersey.  Its population as of May, 2008, was 7,280,000 people, about 20% of whom are Arab.

In 1948, the year of the War for Israeli Independence, there were 538,000 Jews living in the area partitioned by the UN for Israel, alongside 397,000 native Arabs.</div>

(Cross-posted at My Left Wing.)

Recently Markos asked the question:

When I get an email with the word "zionist" on it, how come it's ALWAYS some crazy, anti-semitic conspiracy rant?

Perhaps I can help answer that question.

I would like to propose that if the people of Israel hope ever to achieve anything in the way of peaceful coexistence with their Palestinian neighbors than complete withdrawal from the West Bank, perhaps back to the ’67 borders, be initiated along with a "Marshall Plan" for the Palestinians.  

When Barack Obama becomes president one of his first priorities should be, with the approval of the Palestinian leadership, to set in motion such a plan.  What he needs to do is announce his intention to spearhead such a project and then put together a commission of academics, politicians, and business people to investigate just how to go about implementing it.  Among scholars he would need to bring in experts on Palestinian culture, religion, and demographics, experts on Israeli culture, religion, and demographics, as well as experts on international economics, medical health, and engineering, among other possible fields.  From politicians he would need draw upon the expertise of diplomats from around the globe who have experience with the Palestinian people.  From the business community he would need to bring in people who have expertise in a whole variety of possible endeavors, including agriculture, infrastructure, and consumable technologies.

(Cross-posted at My Left Wing and Docudharma.)

I hate cars.  I hate them.  I hate driving them.  I hate being a passenger.  I don’t like crossing the street in front of them.  I don’t like being anywhere near them.

Yet, they are everywhere.  Every single time I step from my apartment, there they are.  Hundreds and hundreds of these steal monstrosities flying around, dominating the cityscape.  According to the United States Bureau of Transportation Statistics, every year about 40,000 people die in the US due to auto accidents.

40,000!

{YIKES!  That's a scary picture, huh?}

Cross-posted at My Left Wing

As anyone who knows anything at all about the I/P debate within these moronic websites can tell you, it is little more than constant warfare.  Zionists and anti-Zionists continually spit flames and poison at one another.  At any given moment, on any given day, somewhere in the tubes people are screaming and crying and gnashing their teeth over I/P.  The situation got so bad that perhaps a score of pro-Palestinian advocates were summarily booted off of the Great Orange Satan, Docudharma decided to outlaw the conversation entirely, and My Left Wing has been left a shell of its former self, in part because of I/P wars and allegations of anti-Semitism.

This is just a quick note to let you guys know that MSOC has finally (at long last) banned Francis L. Holland from My Left Wing.

I have banned Francis L. Holland. Despite his persistent attempts to paint this as my caving to pressure from various nefarious sources, I have banned him of my own accord because I am sick to fucking death of him and his bullshit -- period.

When I was growing up, in the 1970s, my folks subscribed to the New York Times.  Every day the paper boy would deliver it to our house in Connecticut.  My father was from Brooklyn and my mom from the Bronx and for them, as for me, the Times represented the primary source of news.  

But it was more than that.  In the years prior to cable, we might tune into CBS or NBC or ABC, but it was the Times that most reliably defined political reality.  It was the Times that represented a sort-of bedrock of political reality.  It was the Times, foremost among all news outlets, that we relied upon in order to make sense of the world.

They call us the extreme left.

But we are, in fact, the mainstream.

Over the last 150 years, or so, far left always meant Soviet Communism or some brand of non-democratic Socialism.  Sometimes far left referred to violent leftists like the Weathermen or late-19th century / early 20th century anarchists... those charming fellows with their little round bombs.  And sometimes far left meant "second wave" feminists, like Shulamith Firestone, who advocated the dissolution of the nuclear family.

Whatever the reasons for Muslim rioting and protest over the cartoons published by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, one thing is sure:  it advances the idea that Muslims are nuts.  

If the Bush Administration decides to attack Iran this notion, you can be sure, will be a significant part of the U.S. government's public relations campaign to whip up support for more war and more needless misery.

The reason that such a PR campaign will probably succeed is that it is has the requisite truthiness.  For propaganda to function there must be a "hook" or "peg" to justify the proffered idea.   When the administration makes the case for blood, and as the traditional media amplifies and supports that case, they will argue that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a violent and irrational extremist, a terrifying menace, who, if he gets nuclear weapons, will surely use them against Israel and/or the United States.