the middle east policy

it looks like the egyptians had israel, but was taken over by the jews when charlton heston took a few of his peeps and settled in. they dug in for a while and the land went back and forth between empires until rome finally took charge in 70. the romans then named the land syria plaestina and kicked all the jews out. the arabs took over from the romans in 638. then the crusades happened (see kingdom of heaven). in 1517 the ottoman empire took over. remember these guys? wwi took care of them. in the late nineteeth century, jews bought land from the ottomans and other arabs. jews immigrated like mad after wwi and during wwii. but the arabs would have none of this. in 1947, the u.n. divided the territory into a jewish state and an arab state, with jerusalem being an international territory administered by the u.n. sounded like a good idea but the arabs rejected this and basically started a war on jews. jewish militias fought back. in 1948, the state of israel was declared. other arab nations were on the side of the palestinian arabs and six other nations decided to attack israel. during the war, israel whooped ass and captured 26% of extra palestinian land. some of that land went back to palestine expect gaza and the west bank. some of the countries have made peace treaties with israel like egypt and jordan. but those whacks in lebanon and syria still want the jews gone. and of course there is palestine. the oslo accords in 1993 allowed for a self-ruled palestine. israel gave the gaza strip to palestine last year and the terrorist group hamas won big time in palestinian elections and now has the majority. so it’s really not all that complicated. i’m still not sure what right the u.n. had to just give that land up any way they felt like it. i wish i could say that the best solution is to just let them all duke it out. how do you think 80% of the governments today got their land? aside from alaska, it wasn't by writing a big check to the previous owners. it all came about by blood, so why stop now? i'm a big fan of peace, but it just ain't gonna happen with these people. so when the fighting commences, israel would beat the tar out of the palestinians at first, then palestine's big brother iran will jump in. this is fine and dandy so far, so long as this battle begins soon so that iran hasn't built their nukes yet. if they didn't have the bombs yet, then it would turn into a pretty good size war and i'm sure at this point we'd jump in. this could become the start of some wwiii because more arab countries would join in with iran and palestine, and israel is pretty buddy buddy with so many other westerns, so of course they'd jump in as well. while we are over there fiddling around in the desert, those commies in china will probably pull a pearl harbor on us. in the end, we'd win and there would be lots more boundary changes in that region. this would be only temporary until the next time this all happens again. now if iran has nukes by then, well, remember that scene from terminator 2 where sara is out in the desert, dozes off and starts to dream about that lovely day on august 29, 1997? anybody not wearing 2 million sunblock is gonna have a real bad day. why do we have to be on israel’s side all of the time anyway? is it because we feel bad for them and what happened in wwii? is it because we owe it to them for giving us jurassic park and annie hall? we tend to forget that without the arab world we would be without sayid from lost or the kabob palace on jeff davis highway in arlington. well, i hope peace will happen sometime in our lifetime. it's apparent from their recent action at the polls that the people of palestine don't seem to want it. moving on...

oh happy dizzay. in late february or early march my work is moving from its current location in a school building just north of campus, to some building closer to the rest of campus. meaning, i get to go pick up an employee parking pass for free. i'm thrilled because up until now i've had to take my chances parking at the forty minute meters.

today i finally, finally finished senator clinton's autobiography. after reading it, i absolutely cannot wait for her to become president. it's going to be so great. serban, if you are reading this what are your thoughts on her?

congratulations to bode miller on an impressive sixth place finish today. he must have gone easy on the tequila last night because at least this time he didn't disqualify. america's hopeless is now 0-4. here's a great olympic article on what is and isn't a sport. y'all should take a gander.

so kim and i have new plans in the works. straight up after st. patrick's day, i'll drive out to that big square state to the east and do the hanging out and concert thing with my bro. i'll stay until tuesday or so and drive back to pick up kim and we'll keep on driving down to southern cal. we'll chill there until sunday maybe. of course anything can still happen this early on in the game. and it's all dependent on a few things. kim was supposed to be in bean town that week for some conference, so she's gotta get out of that. i'm gonna have to miss school monday and tuesday (four classes), so colorado might be out unless i have no major exams or anything. and i'll only go to cali if i can finish all my assignments that are due up to that point. this includes a looooong legal memo i have to write, three papers for one class, a paper for another, about fourteen chapters to read out of random books, and regular homework assignments here and there. i started and finished one paper this past sunday and am slowly working on my memo now. it's a start i guess. if all of this works out, then we'll be on our way. i'll be passing through san bernardino so maybe i'll stop and see my dad too. i still gotta ponder that one.

i wish my brother would get on myspace. i think he claims that he has no time for it or maybe that he's too cool for it. at least that sounds like something he would say. so this is my plea to him: do it.

art direction to harry potter for the same reason as i said best makeup to star wars. for costume design, i really don't care who it goes to. walk the line i guess. it will boost ryan phillipe’s ego, even though all it really means is that he is living in the shadow of his wife. good job queer bait. it's like nick lachey wanting spousal support from jessica. part of me wants to give him a high five for taking her money, part of me wants to punch him in the face for thinking he needs more money than i'm sure he already has. maybe i'll do both.