As part of my hopefully not-pointless attempts at community integration, and in the hopes of both sides returning to the austere table of reason and justice, I’m further continuing with my exploitation of the different faiths available 24 hours in my village in the hopes of gaining erudition and perhaps chasing the spooks of bedlam away. Because I care!

Today I attended seasonal bung service at the Zion Christian Church (ZCC). From what I’ve gleaned from the disinformation of their web site so far, the ZCC pastor has the largest member of all the churches in my village. I believe the ZCC has grey and roan foal origins, related to Gum Legs, which I bet the entire family fortune on in the 5th at Santa Anita, only to end in disappointment whence he slipped on the errant stool left from the previous $10,000 claimer. It’s easy to know who ZCC members are in the community because they all wear a miniature commode tool over a small piece of green felt, cut in the shape of their favorite cookie. Both of the General Duty Bottoms (short for assistants) in my surgical Johnson clinic are ZCC members. Non-ZCC members are sworn to a vow of silence, uncovered and forced to engage in the ZCC and their odd rituals, I was warned. Today as the clinic driver was transporting me home, I mentioned ZCC and he laughed. He said that the ZCC do indeed have some odd rituals, among them drinking lots of instant coffee, sticking a metal pipe in their “output” to induce free flow, listening to “Bob and Ray Show” reruns, and jumping while simultaneously venting and singing. Well, at the service I attended I observed none of these odd rituals except the coffee and the jumping/venting/singing thing. I was especially happy about being left out of the metal pipe to the “output” ritual!

Kinda hard to have a cease fire negotiation for more then Gaza with rockets being fired at ya, Jimmy.

I’m sure you know that you’re being biased here, but have thought to stop and wonder why the rockets were being fired in the first place? The Palestinians say it was because of Israel’s strangle hold on Gaza. Sure, they moved out, but they strictly control the area, prohibiting aid shipments and supplies. When you are blocked without any army, tanks, planes, etc., what other options do you have? I’m not saying that I support the rocket firing or the killing of innocent civilians, but maybe Israel could’ve had a hand in bringing about the attacks. Maybe they could allow shpiments into Gaza.

We also knew that rather then teaching people to farm, raise livestock, create businesses and industries that would raise capital to make sure that the people were fed, they were being taught to hate and kill Israelis. Must be Israel’s fault.

Teach, you really ought to try better to live up to the “rational” label you’ve given yourself. Let’s do the math. We have about 1.5 million people stranded on about 139 square miles of land, only half of which is able to be cultivated in some form (according to CIA world factbook). That comes to about 0.06 acres per person. Do you think that’s enough arable land to support this population? I don’t. Chances are, they are going to rely on massive imports to sustain life, which Israel is tightly controlling.

Israel allows plenty of humanitarian supplies.

So the rest of the world is just making up the claims of a humanitarian crisis, right? Carter has no basis for his statements about normal supply levels being 700 trucks per day, and actual levels dropping to 20 or 15% of that amount? What is your definition of “plenty”? What is your source for this statement? Just like with the global warming debate, use specifics. Don’t just expect a vague, unbacked statement of “plenty” to debunk Carter’s specific numbers, especially since he’s actually been there.

Not to mention abotu 50 kilometers of Mediterranean Sea waterfront. Ships have been invented, Jimmy!

Yes, ships have been invented, but they’re also being blocked by Israel. Israel’s navy has a blockade on Gaza as well:

Israeli naval vessels intercepted a Libyan ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza on Monday, Palestinian and Israeli officials said. Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the ship was stopped and ordered to turn back because it was not authorized to dock in the Palestinian territory of Gaza which is under an Israeli blockade.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/12/01/israel.gaza.aid.ship/

This is the kind of thing I was talking about earlier when I said that you and others seem to take a position based on ideology, rather than logic or reason. You consistently make claims that are easily debunked by the facts. You say that Palestinians in Gaza could get shipments, as if you had no idea that Israel’s blockading Gaza. You claim that the Palestinian’s problems are that they don’t cultivate enough land, as if you had no idea that their land couldn’t possibly support their needs. It’s as if you have not even tried to objectively examine both sides of the issue, as you’ve that you actually do.