The Shrine

Should be a *very* interesting time in the mideast pretty soon. They'll probably be backing off big time on their "Destroy All Zionists" party line, but I doubt that dinners with Israeli officials will be comfortable any time soon.

It's kinda like with the Quebecors up here. All of the sane Palestinians have left the West Bank, so the ones that are left are as extreme as the party they elected.

It just seems surreal. I'd just assumed that Hamas would lose. I thought of them as sort of the Palestine version of something like the Green party - a fringe element (well, perhaps more than "fringe" in Hamas's case) with their supporters, but with no chance of actually winning.

It's kind of scary how out of touch with the world I am. Omigod, what was I talking about?! I think I missed American Idol!

From what I've heard, the Palestinian Authority has been massively corrupt for some time. It doesn't surprise me that they want some kind of change.

However, this isn't doing anything to disturb my theory that I need to move someplace nice and neutral until the damn world gets less conservative, across the board. Vancouver is starting to sound better and better...

Mental wrote:From what I've heard, the Palestinian Authority has been massively corrupt for some time. It doesn't surprise me that they want some kind of change.

However, this isn't doing anything to disturb my theory that I need to move someplace nice and neutral until the damn world gets less conservative, across the board. Vancouver is starting to sound better and better...

I thought about moving one time, too, but have come to realize that even though my country may participate in things i dont approve of, it doesnt really effect me all that much day-to-day. A completely selfish approash, i know, but its true, thus i dont really care.

It's the point at which it *may* affect me - suddenly and violently, like 9/11 - that I'm hoping to avoid. L.A. doesn't seem like a prominent target, but all we need is for some crazed cleric to match it up with the "sin and debauchery" (or the Arabic words for those concepts) being "spread" by Hollywood, and we could be targeted.

If Bush and his cohorts manage to keep getting away with everything they're getting away with (suppression of free speech and unilaterally pissing off the rest of the world), and don't get horribly impeached or discredited prior to reelection, I really may move, since that would mean the American people no longer care what they do. To me, that's the beginning of the end right there.

Doesn't mean anyone else has to, though.

Don't forget, a lot of Americans feel that what Bush is doing is OK and right. You're talking about a point of view difference here

And they can have their point of view without me just as well - perhaps even more easily, come to think.

This, boys and girls, is what we call a "brain drain", as relatively high-income (though I'm not actually doing all that well at present) and high-education (that one I will claim, however) citizens move the hell out of countries which are being run into the ground by idiots.