Deja vu

After almost a quarter of a century Lebanon is again racked by violence between Arabs and Israelis with no prospect of it abating anytime soon. Lebanon is a battle field with Israeli soldiers and militant Arabs locked into mortal combat. Israeli planes are bombing Beirut, refugees are scrambling to escape and Syria and Iran are boiling the pot.
If I didn't know it was 2006 I would think it was 1983. You don't even need a program for the current war. The players and rules are the same as they were in 1983 and again we are the ones trying to broker a peace. The rest of the world is calling for the Israelis to use restraint while Hezbollah keeps firing rockets into Israeli
Just imagine that this morning 50 missiles were launched from Cuba and exploded in Miami killing scores of people and destroying buildings and homes. Now imagine that the rest of the world told the USA not to be too aggressive and to use restraint. Our history shows us that America always rejects such advice. Each time there has been a direct attack on our soil we have never used restraint. We have set about defeating and ending the treat just as the Israelis are trying to do in Lebanon.
The key to ending violence in Lebanon requires that Hezbollah as a military force be vanished but that will never happen. The Israelis will eventually withdraw from Lebanon, Syria will continue to meddle in Lebanese politics and Iran will keep supplying weapons to Hezbollah.
If only this war was as simple as Cowboys and Indians! All the Israelis Cowboys would need to do is make sure the Hezbollah Indians found the stash of fire water, wait till the Indians were too drunk to shoot straight, capture them and march the off to the reservation never to cause any trouble ever again. Well this is not 1850, Muslims don't drink fire water and I don't think promising the Hezbollah Indians they can sell no tax cigarettes will keep them on the reservation and make them a peacefully lot. There is always going to be friction between different religions somewhere in the world. At least its not the Baptist against the Presbyterian

CHANGE! Do I have to

I recently attended a wedding which signified the coming together of two families and the union of two people. A wedding seems like eternity. Oh I have lived in so called sin many times but second guessed myself about the walk down the isle, always in fear of that eternity. I really have no ideal how much work a marriage can require or how much more difficult it would become once children are under foot. By the time I considered the walk down the isle I had been shamelessly shacked up for some time. Although the shacking up part never bothered me one bit, the rest of the world saw it as a sin. At least I never killed any of my lovers, now that would have been a sin. Isn't living is sin like an engagement without a ring? I have come close to marriage a few times but the thought of that down hill slide into eternity has always kept me away from the isle.
Marriage is equal parts of love, compassion, understanding and blackmail. I always had too much of the first three and never enough of the fourth. The key to marriage is choosing your battles but the battles you will most want to choose are the ones better left alone. I would have never made for a great General. The locations, subjects, timing and defenses were always wrong so my emotions usually lost the battles for me.
I might be willing to try the wedding thing some day if I could ever solve the age old problem that starts when a marriage begins. A woman gets married thinking that the man will change and he ends up staying the same. A man gets married thinking the that the woman will stay the same and she ends up changing.
I have never really liked change very much and always been thrown into it one way or another, usually by no fault of my own. It's best that change stays around for without the fear of it I would have two kids, a white picket fence, weigh 30 pounds more and always be looking towards the day I would have do battle with eternity.

100 Corners

Houston do you copy

Admittedly, I don't have all the toys. I don't own a cell phone because I refuse to give up my bubble of invisibility. I don't use IM because I don't want to be bothered while I am online. But I do have a high speed internet connection and a laptop with a sweet spot for wireless hotspots.
The evils are not all bad, they let me order just about anything from anywhere in the world and investigate or research anything my mind can come up with. I can do all this without having to buckle my seat belt and drive to a store or library. Now that's a beautiful thing. It's priceless!
Any tool, evil or not, used incorrectly can be dangerous. I'll admit I have thought about checking email while engaged in conversation with someone and sometimes feel alarmingly unconnected when I am no where near a wifi wireless hotspot while I am on the road. "Houston we may have a problem" Lots of adults limit their kids internet use but the only limit I set for myself is not to surcome to the temptation of connecting to the net with an internet device while in a moving vehicle. The key word is moving because many times I have checked email while setting in my car while it was parked in a lot. " Houston I know we have a problem".
But aren't those evils largely human created and not technological created? After all we are the ones incharge, RIGHT! Technology is as much a part of oue lives as running water and electric lights. The advantages far outweigh the evils.
I am lucky enough to have all the tech goodies I wish and use them when ever I want. Maybe I'll check my email one less time each day, that will cure my technology social skills. "Houston the problem has been solved" Now where is that wireless wifi hotspot?