chaos and honey

money for oil and your chicks for free,
that aint working, thats the way you do it,
get your money for oil and your chicks for free.........
i want my, i want my, i want my u.n post..........

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/29/opinion/29safire.html?oref=login&hp

with apologies to dire straits......fine article by william safire on kofi's son who seems to have worked the perfect job.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0411280298nov28,1,4996809.story?coll=chi-news-hed

the above is meant to reassure you that the world will be kept a very busy place for at least the next thirty years.........

it appears in that in his twilight years of leadership castro is going to not only find a way to make his country utterly contemptable economically but is going to rip off all of his population one last time.........
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/28/international/americas/28cuba.html
either castro is suffering from illusions of grandeur and believes somehow he has stumbled his way onto the great cure all for his country. or he has begun to accumulate wealth in secure and far away bank accounts for many of his associates who will have to flee cuba upon castro's death because the population will seek revenge. a great prize for helping keep one of the last communist ideologues in power so long.
is there anything nicer than retiring in some island resort with a numbered bank account just down the block? i wonder if they have squirreled away a nice stash of cigars too?

here is a very good opinion piece by frank rich of the ny times on morals and america and just how over hyped, over sold, and much nonsense the whole thing is.......
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/28/arts/28rich.html?8hpib
point is that, even though i suspect rich is not a republican, some of us here should note that you can be a fun loving agnostic who is actually educated and voting for the right too.
last time i checked their were even one or two openly gay republicans who serve in politics......jim kolbe from arizona being one of them who serves in the u.s. house of representatives comes to mind.
point is that you can still choose to use your mind and see the other side whether you are left or right, and frankly for the most part most people by and large are centrists who merely vote what they feel their country needs at a particular time in history.
on one side we have those who speak about all arabs as if every single one of them is out to kill us
and others only offering holiday greetings to only 49 percent of the people in the states because they knew best to vote against bush.
perhaps i am carrying things to far but the entire world is not polarized, we live on a planet in which a strong opinion sells better, looks better on camera, but the reality of it is that IT (the polarization) is not reality.
last but not least, this doesnt mean we have to walk down the streets waving hello to everybody and holding hands with our neighbors, but for just a second it would be wise to remember that at the end of the business day in the pits that guys go out and have a few drinks together even though they just spent the day trying to hammer each other on the floor.
life, my friends, is exactly the same. you want to be a fanatic, ok, good for you,
but i doubt most dont need it and arent quite as myopic as others hope.

this is quoted directly from www.debka.com which means that you should read it and consider the source. it is an interesting news sight with a definite opinion on events..........opinion being the key word in the sentence, nevertheless, it is an important sight to read and stay abreast of news while considering all perspectives.
HERE IS THE QUOTE.....
"Arafat’s widow absconds to Tunis with his medical files ahead of his nephew al-Kidwa’s arrival in Paris to collect them.
French defense ministry says al Kidwa is entitled to access medical information on Arafat’s never-publicly-diagnosed illness. But Suha’s lawyers say only children and widow
She took the files and ran after Palestinian TV broadcast Friday sermon threatening her life. She used Arafat’s plane, flouting Palestinian Authority’s demands for its return.
PA hoped to publish record and lay to rest rumors of foul play, including Israeli poison. DEBKAfile’s Paris sources convinced widow will hold onto medical files as collateral for agreed PA payments and as leverage to help radicals Kadoumi, Mussa Arafat and Force 17 commander foil Abbas’s bid for succession"

all i can say is that arafat unfortunately remains interesting even in death. it is very much like a bad b movie and once again stains the palestinian cause by making the cause a comic afterthought. in essense i am left with the thought that it is much more important to have power and influence instead of respect and a country within some of the palestinian quarters. maybe that is unfair, maybe suha represents the last breaths of this dying regime which is an unhealed sore for all of us to leer at.
the sooner she and her gang of money grabbing power hungry bacteria disappear from the scene the better the middle east will hopefully be.
i use the word hopefully because there are no absolutes left for us over here. we are a region in which hope has become an optimistic banner in which one can be made to feel like an idiot for keeping afloat sometimes.

why most apes dont have sexy asses..........
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/17/health/17cnd-run.html?hp&ex=1100754000&en=bbfc417ff4406754&ei=5094&partner=homepage

do they still operate the doomsday clock at the university of chicago? if not maybe they should consider dusting it off and hanging it up back on the wall.amazing that after the berlin wall came down, after we watched one eastern europe country return to freedom after another and spoke (some of us) of a world in which there would only be limited conflicts.......that we find ourselves only 15 or so years later not only being confronted by pirates (terrorists), small fanatical countries acting in unison with certain pirate organizations, large polars jealously fighting for acceptance (euroland), and now the re-emergence of a in your face arms race between not only the u.s. and russia, but all other nuclear powers and up and comers........
point? it is the same old crapoola that we grew up with in the 60's and 70's, we have actually returned home again........thomas wolfe must be spinning in his grave.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/17/international/europe/17cnd-russ.html?oref=login

why is it so hard for the palestinian leadership to tell the truth over the most basic of things? yesterday in gaza an attempt was made on the leadership of the pa, yet they are downplaying the incident and saying that it was only guns being fired into the air, how exactly does that explain at least two dead one of whom was the body guard for abu mazzan? it is a bad sign that the leadership of the current pa cannot even admit what the rest of us see and witness. it reminds me of when the communists slowly but surely were losing power in the soviet union and for everything that was clearly white we would get the party line that all things were black..........
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/501559.html

various articles and comments about arafat's death from around the world:
new york times -
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/11/international/middleeast/11mideast.html?hp&ex=1100235600&en=d74abaa3d1783f25&ei=5094&partner=homepage
ha'aretz -
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=499937&displayTypeCd=1&sideCd=1&contrassID=2
bbc-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3984841.stm
clarin (from buenos aires, in spanish) -
http://www.clarin.com/diario/2004/11/11/elmundo/i-02201.htm
al jazeera (in english) -
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D72BBBD7-AAC6-4F8F-964B-09408636973C.htm

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=7365
here is a comment piece in the american spectator regarding what is taking place in the netherlands......

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3998347.stm

you can bet now that suha wont be attending any ceremony in ramallah i would think, and more than likely will never step foot in palestine again.if anyone had any doubts left about just how corrupt yassir arafat and his wifa suha are (and were) there is no better evidence than what is happening right now in paris. suha is demanding a financial package for herself and her daughter from the palestinian ministers if they want to basically retrieve the body of yassir arafat. the man who has her power of attorney turns out to be none other than Pierre Rizk, who? well he happens to have held a key position in the lebanese christian phalanga. what type of position, a key intelligence position. who are the christian phalanga? they happen to be about the most hated rival of the palestinians. do you remember Sabra & Shatilla - these are the places where the phalanga undertook the massacre of the palestinians in the lebanese refugee camps. are you kidding me? lets get this straight, the man who was as much responsible for the massacres of the palestinians in the lebanese camps as anyone is now the one holding a large position of power over the palestinians because he is having some type of relationship with suha (who happens to be a christian too). what is going on? with all the contacts the palestinians have is someone going to tell me that yassir arafat didnt know about the relationship between suha? also fair to say that there is no doubt because rizk had filed a law suit against arafat for failing to comply to a business agreement a while back.......it has become a sick joke.you want convoluted, i will give you convoluted.....

is it a mistake or intentional that the ny times used in a headline today PLO and that the writer, steven erlanger, referred to arafat and his aides who canceled a trip to paris as part of the palestinian liberation organization. am i missing something? i thought they officially changed their name to the palestinan authority after the oslo accords. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/international/middleeast/08mideast.html?hp&ex=1099976400&en=4d6fdd75c8348688&ei=5094&partner=homepage

allow me to tell the next major flash point between israel and the palestinians - the burial place of arafat........already it is easy to see that the crapoola will hit the fan because of this. the entire matter has the possibility of becoming quite internationalized.
arafat and the palestinians no doubt want him buried in jerusalem. the israelis, particularly sharon is dead set against this..............i believe arafat wants to be buried close by or within al aqsa mosque which is near the dome of the rock (temple mount). watch carefully, because there will be a political earthquake over this...........
arafat being buried at al asqa will not only need israeli permission but to the best of my knowledge it would need permission from jordan - perhaps king abdullah himself. why? because jordan to the best of my knowledge is still considered a guardian of the dome of the rock and its immeadiate area by islamic authoritites and israel.
sharon and many within the israeli govt seem to think gaza is the only place arafat should be buried, but how much pressure will israel face from the united states and others over this? the political ramifactions are huge because it allows for myths and legends which will effectively become the foundations of nation building. sharon and israel are well aware of this. the place that arafat gets buried will become a focal point of arafat's de-facto victory or his defeat.
what happens after arafat passes away or has his powers transferred to others? if the palestinians can put forth a leadership that is cognizent of certain political realities it will make it much easier for israelis to contemplate a negotiation over final status. it will also clearly put much more pressure on israel from abroad particularly from the united states if a palestinian leadership is functioning properly and shows that it is ready to go forward. the sooner the palestinians are able to do this the sooner the israeli public will put an immense amount of pressure on its leaders to do the same. as i have said before the majority of people on both sides are sick and tired of the chaos and want to get on with their lives. we must see if the palestinians can transfer power without a quagmire and civil war erupting within their population.
israel cannot pick the next palestinian leader, we would like to but there is no way it is about to happen, nor should. certainly we would like to see a moderate leadership. i think most israelis understand the notion that the palestinians want a country for themselves and should have one.
it would be a huge mistake on israels part to get to involved in trying to pick a palestinian leader. we must let the palestinians decide for themselves. both the palestinians and israelis will deal with the consequenses for good or bad in short order. i remember when the this intifada broke out, i was on a biz trip in italy. though i was only gone for about five days i returned home to a completely different country, one in which much of the hope we had built up for peace started disappearing before our eyes.
the palestinians will have their funeral procession when it is time and i hope for the sake of our two peoples that within a month or so that we will once again have some reason to hope for better days.
the death of yassir arafat and his burial when that time comes will tell us a lot on how israel and the palestinians will function with one another. will there be some type of compromise, some type of coordination, or will bedlam rule the day?

http://blogger.xs4all.nl/steeph/archive/2004/11/02/13287.aspx?Pending=true
the above link is a blog from the netherlands from steeph. it has interesting insights and opinions and is worth taking a look at. the two of us disagree about some things but it is important to see what everyone is thinking and that we are all basically hoping for the same kind of resolutions........though we sometimes dont agree on the method of getting there.

http://www.washtimes.com/world/20041105-111203-2758r.htm
there is little to say about what is taking place in the netherlands internationally. i dont know why that is particularly except to say that i wonder if it is an effort to either make believe the murder of van gogh didnt take place or a desire to wish the nightmare away? is this the work of a small band of fanatics or is this something larger which can be equated to a cancer growing within? the netherlands has one of the more proud traditions within europe for free speech, freedom of religion, and a very open society. if the enemy is real it is also true that it will be able to use some of these same beliefs against the dutch themselves, by that i mean the unwillingness of the dutch to confront what 'might' be lurking could be because they believe the fanatics are a small group of extremists and not a threat to the nation. unfortunately it could also be a systemic weakness within an open society to really grasp that one entity can really hate another enough to declare a 'fanatical jihad/battle/conflict against something that really doesnt want a fight and had no intention of even considering the need that it would have to protect itself. i wish that i could readily say that we are up against a few monsters who are merely misinformed fanatics with no following, but unfortunately i do not believe that.
how is what happened to van gogh any different than any other victim of this international plague of fanatical islam which has declared that the west must be destroyed?
how long will the west continue to close its eyes to the chilling facts?
i wish to the great sleeping giant in the sky that i could agree with my friend, steeph, in the netherlands and that what we are witnessing could simply be taken care of by a better understanding of the fanatics that are around us and by having better communication with moderates. certainly that would help, i do not deny that. but too, part of the reason we have such a dangerous group of fanatics is because conditions are ripe for them to feel that they must join a movement. we are witnessing before our eyes a great many people who feel marginalized by the cultures they have moved into and by the cultures they have left. these same people are told from an early age that most of their problems are in essense because the west is an evil entity that has no morals, no communication with 'god', and works solely to destroy islam. it obviously doesnt make it correct, it obviously has quite a bit to do with the amount of corruption one can find in many of the islamic/arab countries in which a good percentage of the money that is made and or gathered by the govt is siphoned away by various corrupt means. we are therefore dealing with a group of people who dont believe much of anything - except to say what they are being taught by other fanatics. hate is a powerful mechanism and it gives the downtrodden a purpose and a justification to act with disregard as to what the victims will feel. i think one of the most important tasks confronted by the west right now is to show that its culture is worthy of consideration for these people (fanatics) who feel compeled to attack. my fear is that the netherlands and other european countries will not take this threat seriously enough and that things are going to get worse before they get better. as of now we have only a limited amount of fanatical endeavors to really bother ourselves with, but obviously the painful question is - what is the potential for these confrontations and deaths growing out of control? as i believe i have said to you before i believe we are being confronted by another 'big lie' during our lifetime, i am hoping that this one will not be allowed to perpetuate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/05/opinion/05fri2.html