Another drink couldn't hurt

We also have intersections with dedicated pedestrian green light. All cars stop and pedestrians can cross any direction. Allowing cars to enter a busy intersection when pedestriana are in it is insane, especially if the driver has to look one way for vehicles and the opposite way for people.

Can you list the competent Palestinian leaders who have been killed by Israel? All the people targeted by Israel that I know of were Hamas / IJ / Al Qaeda leaders or Iranian military.

Do you remember all the hijackings that occurred in South Africa in those days? All the hostage taking, and the civilians shot in cold blood? All the bombings of shopping malls and cinemas? No? Neither do I .. because they never happened. Even in the face of massive repression, imprisonment, torture and murder of its leaders, the ANC focused their armed struggle on acts of sabotage and avoided as far as possible targeting civilians. They bombed electrical substations and oil refineries. They attacked police stations and military facilities. They never commited the barbaric acts we see today from Hamas. If they had I doubt that I, along with tens of thousands of others, would have marched in the streets demanding the release of Mandela.

Gaza population growth is 3% a year. If the Israelis are committing genocide they're not doing a very good job.

Words matter. The Israelis treat the Palestinians atrociously but it's not genocide.

Population of Gaza is growing 3% a year. If the Israelis are committing genocide they're not doing a very good job.

The ANC won by mobilizing world opinion against the South African regime. The armed struggle was inconsequential and contributed nothing to ending apartheid.

It's interesting that you mentioned apartheid. Although the ANC did declare an armed struggle against the White regime, in fact their attacks were inconsequential and contributed nothing to the struggle. The game-changer was a concerted campaign to mobilise world opinion. It was sanctions and isolation that ended apartheid, not bullets.

How does this help them gain their land? On the contrary it will harden public opinion against them. The only person that benefits from this is Netanyahu. I'm stunned by the stupidity of Hamas.

If it's a genocide then they're not doing a very good job considering that Gaza has an annual population growth of 3%.

He's invited the leaders of the opposition to form an emergency government of national unity. Basically the exact opposite of what you just said.

Surprised? Yes. The only person who benefits from this is Netanyahu. Hamas has to know that. They also know that a) there is no way in hell they can defeat Israel militarily and b) acts like this push public opinion even more against a Palestinian homeland. So what was the rationale? I'm mystified.

You could start by asking the ANC. They were able to do exactly that by mobilizing public opinion in the US and othe countries. They were phenomenaly successful to the point where no politician in the US or UK could continue to support the apartheid regime.

As it is now, after this attack, support for a Palestinian homeland will hit rock bottom. The only person who benefits from this is Netanyahu. Think about that for a minute.

Colombia too, and so far Petro is doing a pretty good job . The peso is stronger and the economy is doing well, he's negotiated and end to the flighting with some armed groups and he's serious about social justice and land reform. I have my fingers crossed.. we need some left of center success stories in Latin America to counter the narrative that all socialist policies lead to Venezuela style collapse.

Having said that I understand fully why Argentines would elect this guy .. they've had a bunch of corrupt and incompetent idiots for far too long.

The Palestinians have been using violence for over half a century and achieved nothing. Regardless of the morality of armed struggle and the desire for revenge, it is in fact counter productive. Apartheid in South Africa didn't end because of military action, it ended because the ANC was able to mobilise world opinion against the white regime. It ended because of sanctions and isolation and making the nation a pariah. If the Palestinians had chosen that course of action early on I think we'd be in a much better place today. All these attacks do is harden world opinion against them.

My parents were from the UK and although I never lived there I was surrounded by the culture growing up. My Mom used to make fish and chips with mushy peas, steak and kidney pie (sometimes she had problems finding beef kidney .. people asked her if she had a cat). We went back to England a few times as a child, always at Christmas, and I remember the wonderful atmosphere. They played Christmas carols everywhere, even on the bus. The metro (Tube to Londoners) tunnels were filled with buskers .. it was so nice to walk round a corner and find someone playing Jingle Bells or Silent Night. And the food .. Christmas pudding with brandy butter, pork pies, mince pies (actually dried fruit pies).

Now my folks are gone. I miss them all the time but I miss them most at Christmas.. it's just not the same here and without them.

I've had some great ones .. those where the end touches the water before it's finished leaving your asshole.

But one time I entered a public toilet in Mexico City and saw the biggest turd I've seen in my life. Obviously it was not capable of being flushed .. it seemed to fill the entire bowl. I was just in awe at how that could have possibly fitted inside a person.

Agree fully with your first statement.

Do you have any links to support your second statement?

Yes, yes and yes. Christianity in the middle ages was responsible for all manner of brutality. No argument there. It doesn't change my assertion.

By the way, instead of saying "in this minute of history" you can just say "now" .. it sounds less pompous.

It's only Islamists that beat girls to death for not wearing the right headgear, or stone people to death for committing adultery, or execute people for being gay, or strap bombs to themselves and try and kill as many innocent people as possible. Yes .. all religions are stupid and most are regressive and have crazy rules. But one religion is objectively far worse than all the rest put together (and I include the vile christian conservatives in that group).