February 2012

The recent crisis in the Middle East has enflamed passions and continued the argument over history on the originations of the conflict. However, I have no desire to take this issue to task or recount different versions of a tortured history, and instead will focus on the reaction by Israel towards Lebanon in the context of democracy and international responsibility.

The problem for the West, Israel included, is not the terrorists themselves, but the atmosphere and conditions that create sympathy and participation in extremist behavior. Outside of Israel, there are three democratic states in the Middle East: Lebanon, Palestine, and Turkey. On the ground level, the average Palestinian makes 700 dollars a year, compared to over 30 thousand dollars for the average Israeli, Palestinians and Arabs in general live in autocratic, undemocratic, and economically stagnate societies, and the state of education and civil rights has regressed in the past fifty years. This provides ample support among the populous for movements that not only promise to punish the enemies of the West, but provide services and political outlets against undemocratic regimes that legitimize their actions. The popularity of extremist groups has meant nations, specifically Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, have provided economic support and refuge for known terrorists. The pursuit of terrorism on a strictly military level fails to address the means about which terrorism becomes acceptable and entrenched into society.

The capture of two soldiers by Hezbollah and subsequent reaction by Israel has created a victim of Lebanon. Israeli military has been quick to punish Lebanon for the actions of Hezbollah as it seeks to reassert its ability to defend itself, provoked or preemptively. No matter how incapable Lebanon is of removing extremism on its own, Israel views it as still implicitly culpable for the acts of Hezbollah carried out on its territory. This can be defined as a bad apple spoiling the bunch, or for simplicities sake, collective punishment. While in the short term, this may be seen in Israel or the West as necessary action against a nation harboring terrorists, it is against the long term interests of all parties to undermine one of the only democracies in the Middle East region that apart from Hezbollah, has disavowed itself of militarist elements.

Lebanon is simply a fragile nation and a fledgling democracy. In the past thirty years, it has experienced a tortuous civil war along religious lines, a military occupation by Syria (left following the Cedar Revolution in 2005) and Israel (left in 2000 after 20 years of occupation), and has been an unwitting battleground in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The current crisis is an extension of the past that has proven peace is often a pseudonym for a lull in violence. The acts of collective punishment — the bombing of infrastructure, the debilitation of a nation, the killing of civilians in ‘collateral damage’ — are not only immoral but counter-productive towards stability and sustainable peace. While Israel has the right to defend itself, it must not pursue a defensive policy by compromising the chances for future peace, undermining the Lebanese government, and provoking hostility towards the West and sympathy for extremists by endangering civilians.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060723/ap_on_re_us/indiana_shootings

Scary shit. What the hell is wrong with people?

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Zee Germans do not like to be touched!

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/*
* Baby, let’s implement these methods together. Please, won’t you let me see your private members?
*/

int main() {
ASSERT(OrianeIsGreat);
Guy me = Guy::HookersForJesus;
Girl you = Girl::OrianeIsGreat;

int heart = me->say(you, “what’s a girl like you doing in a Web2.0 place like this?”);
if (heart <3)
HappilyTogether we = you + me;
else
me->MurderSuicide();
return LOVE;
}

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Because the only time I care is when I pay:

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God hath no fury like the legal system, and corresponding video:

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First, go here: http://www.tenthdimension.com/flash2.php

Click on “imagining the ten dimensions” and watch the video. See—you gotta’ do a little homework to get this post.

Now you can mind dance with me. We dance the tango. I’ll lead.

I’m a big fan of theoretical science. But—and I think the evolution skeptics will agree with me here—the string theory, or M theory (the basis for the flash movie) is just theory. And in fact, I have no qualms with the characteristics of most of the dimensions outlined in the flash presentation or really the notion that there are more than four dimentions. It may be a little tought to conceptualize, but I don’t take much objection.

This shouldn’t surprise anyone as I’m not a Theoretical Physicist, but something didn’t sit right with me when the movie explained the fifth dimension. According to the String theory, the fifth dimension exhibits all different timelines based on infinite variations of the Big Bang existence. It basically says that there are multiple other worlds in which you and I and everything else range from slightly to totally fuckin’ different—which brings me to free will.

The question is, “Do we have free will?” And the answer, as I see it, is, “No.”

Two twins are separated at birth. They do not know that they are twins. They do not know they are siblings. They live in completely different areas—different cultures. When they are middle aged they meet. It turns out they have strikingly similar characteristics. Their mannerisms are the same. Their taste in women is the same. They like the same books, movies, and cars.

This has happened. This has happened more than once. And the phenomenon doesn’t just occur with twins, though it is most pronounced with them. They’re so similar that the only way to account for it is to conclude that genetics play a role in our identities.

The x factor in these twin situations that makes them different at all is environment. There are some environmental factors that inevitably play into a person’s identity. Whether it be a traumatic accident or the death of a loved one or even something as simple as getting coffee in the morning, these thing effect us and the way we act in much the same way our genetics do.

So if a person’s environmental factors could be understood completely and their genetic factors could be understood completely, then that person’s every action could be predicted and thus free will would become merely an illusion.

But if everything can be predicted—if we are on this path that is the relationship between genetics and environment—If existence is just, as Modest Mouse Says, a “Math Equation”—then how are their an infinite number of timelines to our existence?

Now, I used to think that believing that Jesus was the son of god born to a virgin, that he walked on water along with a slew of other unlikely ruckus, then dyed, resurrected, went to hell and then to heaven, was tough to commit to. But Science, well, looks like you’ve outdone god again.

…dont get me wrong I still take science over jesus Im juts saying’

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