Quote of the day:

We always find it funny that you can use sex to sell jewelry and cars, but you can’t use sex to sell condoms.

And quote of the day, part 2:

A politically connected lawyer — wearing nothing but glasses, socks and a hands-free headset — masturbated in front of two women at a shopping center, police said.

Coming Anarchy has the latest article by Robert Kaplan called Forgetting the Obvious. It deals with the theme of being able to successfully wage wars in opulant societies that may have lost their will to fight, even in the face of something worthwhile. In his point of view, this is America right now vs the Islamic Jihadist threat. My only problem with this piece is he gets from point A to point B, but there is a lot of inbetween. The Last Two Big Wars have been utter disasters for the United States, and I think the citizenry reflects this. This is not only a case of social stagnation or the misdirection of the moral compass but the fact that recent experience with war has not been positive for America. In fact, each passing day in Iraq reminds me (and others I imagine) of our fantastic end in Vietnam high-tailing it out of there with our tail between our legs.

And since I wrote this piece on Palestine, I wanted to suggest a few others: The World’s Next (and Smallest) Islamist State, Why Martin Indyk Is Director Of The Saban Center for Middle East Policy And You’re Not, Is Palestine heading for a three state solution?, Is Palestine al-Qaeda’s Next Target For Takeover?, How the Media Distorts the Israel/Palestine Conflict, and Gaza – West Bank rift might lead to Peace in Our Time.

Other things worth checking out: Harbinger of War, In hindsight, Powell wouldn’t have supported Iraq war, 56% of Atheists Believe Christianity is Just as Dangerous to America as Islam, and Can I tell you how stupid some right-wing, right-to-life, so-called Christians can be?