Wednesday HodgePodge

6. When Dick Cheney and the oil company and energy executives met in private to plan America’s energy policy, how much of their goal was to benefit consumers?

7. Do you believe in the President’s call for an Era of Personal Responsibility?

8. Since Republicans control the White House, Senate and House of Representatives, how personally responsible are they for conditions in America today?

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16. Do you like the government collecting personal data on you without a warrant?

17. How much money do you have in your bank account, stocks and investments?

18. What’s your partner’s favorite sex position?

19. If you have nothing to hide, why aren’t you answering?

Warfare is not about keeping score, or getting even. It’s about the lives and deaths of real people. And thought it’s a cliche, most of them are just like me and you. War should never be a question of what is justified. But rather what is the minimum amount of violence absolutely necessary to achieve whatever that “just” goal might be. Does Hezbollah have a right to camp out in Lebanon and hurl missiles at Israel? Of course not. Hezbollah must be rolled back and disarmed, but not by flattening Lebanon and enflaming the entire Arab world.

Likewise, one might ask: Do Israelis have the right to continue occupying Palestinian territory that — frankly — just doesn’t belong to them? Does Israel have the right to continue an occupation that deprives Palestinians of their sovereignty, their dignity and their equal rights? Of course not. A two-state solution must be reached and the Israeli domination of the Palestinians must come to an end, but not by supporting Palestinian suicide bombers nor any other atrocity committed against the Israeli civilian population.

I’m sorry to be so blunt, but only a fool — yes, a fool — would watch unperturbed as match after match is tossed into the sea of gasoline that is the Middle East. If Israel’s retaliation, which now includes wholesale bombardment of Lebanese cities driving hundreds of thousands from their homes, morphs into a wide, regional war will anyone be consoled ten years from now by standing on the smoking ruins and simply saying, “Oh well, you know, the Hezbollah are the ones who started it.”

Parents are told that smacking can be a “10-to-15-minute process” and that if a child reacts angrily, such as by slamming doors or “pouting”, they should be smacked again.

“Smacking is meant to drive the foolishness, the sinful manifestations, out of the child’s personality so that they do not become permanent fixtures,” [the ‘guide to smacking’] says.

If UNIFIL had done their job, this conflict would never have been allowed to escalate, and Hezbollah would of never been allowed to mass this type of force. You have to realize, that if Hezbollah wasn’t firing at UNIFIL (and they weren’t), UNIFIL must of not been a threat to Hezbollah. That means they weren’t doing their jobs. Bombing an observation post may not of been the most tactful thing, but hey, even Reagan bombed the French Embassy when we went into Libya. Sometimes a message has to get across…