12.26.06
Death of the West – today’s installment
Little Green Footballs, the place to go for so many important scoops, has two harbingers of our demise: Olmert, having already said he’d free a bunch of Palestinian terrorists (without demanding that Hamas cough up that kidnapped soldier from last summer) and cut loose a bunch of aid money to the Pals, now says he’s gonna dismantle checkpoints. Also, the head of the Anglicans demonstrates how to cloak animosity toward Israel in the vernacular of moral equivalence.
From Tel Aviv to Canterbury, we don’t know which end is up anymore.
Mr. Dings said,
December 28, 2006 at 10:01 am
From the blog cited: “Williams’s sermon comes after a visit to the West Bank town of Bethlehem — a place of pilgrimage for Christians because of its significance as the birthplace of Jesus — to see at firsthand the lives of ordinary Palestinians.
During the trip, he described the Israeli-built security barrier that surrounds the town as symbolising what was “deeply wrong in the human heart”.
Don’t like our current prexy, impeach him: “I think the wall is a problem…it is very difficult to develop confidence between the Palestinians and Israel with a wall snaking through the West Bank.” President Bush, July 25, 2003
Mr. Dings said,
December 28, 2006 at 10:10 am
Walls, like nukes (oops, Ohmert might have let it slip that they have them too), are fine if you are the gander and not the goose. Or shall Robert Frost be our arbiter?
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
“General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
From President Ronald Reagan’s Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate
West Berlin, GermanyJune 12, 1987. This speech was delivered to the people of West Berlin, yet it was also audible on the East side of the Berlin wall.
2,703 words
Bentnotesmanhisself said,
December 28, 2006 at 1:19 pm
Oh, please. I know you know the moral difference between the Berlin Wall and the Israeli wall.
Mr. Dings said,
December 28, 2006 at 3:40 pm
Sure I do. Just somethings thereare that do not love walls. Just somethings and somebodies. But we are building one too. Guess good fences make good neighbors. Sometimes.
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, “Good fences make good neighbours.”
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
“Why do they make good neighbours? Isn’t it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.” I could say “Elves” to him,
But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father’s saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, “Good fences make good neighbours.”
Mr. Dings said,
December 28, 2006 at 3:59 pm
It should be clear that I for one among many would like to see US work these things out as amicably as possible. But I know I am perceived as a wus to put it lightly. I read all sides to the best of my ability and time constraints and I must say I side with negotiating
peace if possible in preference to the simple brutal alternative we likely will end up pursuing anyhow.
I not only fear, though, I KNOW, given history and the times we live in now, that the proverbial poop has already hit the fan. And has only begun to splatter, this go around. So I will keep my wary eye on things and go on about my business of living and learning as long as I can, avoiding despair with prayer and trying to keep blood from my hands. And rereading a Sermon on a Mount. We all have a Maker to meet. Again?
Mr. Dings said,
December 28, 2006 at 4:02 pm
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
6Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
7Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
10Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Crying Eagle said,
December 28, 2006 at 5:35 pm
Ooops, my bad. It was President Carter who pardoned the Vietnam draft dodgers and not Gerald Ford as the tribute to Gerald Ford on either FOX or MSNBC gave Ford credit for this act, but in reality it was President Jimmy Carter. So, my position that Gerald Ford was Republican savior is correct and not peacemakers on both sides of the isle as many are attempting to now give him that credit. Gerald Ford is responsible for sheltering America of the crimes of the President, therefore permitting it to happen all over again. That is not the make up of a good president, since it appears he did this act in favor of saving the Republican Party and had nothing to do with healing America. It sheltered the truth from America and has allowed the presidency to misbehave all over again as demonstrated by George W. Bush.
Mr. Dings said,
December 28, 2006 at 10:14 pm
For crying out loud, eagle, get your poopie over to the Gerald Ford blog where it belongs. (Tee hee, insert silly face emoticon here).