Anthony Bourdain unavailable for comment.

Ever since I was a kid, 30 or so years ago, we've always had to worry about these intemperate middle eastern farkheads who can't stop killing each other.

Screw building a fence on the Mexico border - let's build a giant fence around the entire middle east and then go pick up the pieces after they are done with each other.

I love fear-mongering and news reports with no solid news.

Greenlight? Awesome.

WolfinPHX: Anthony Bourdain unavailable for comment.

I saw that episode. It was excellent. But gave an idea of the mind set there. Which seems to be ignore and party--as long as it doesn't upset my nightclub.

There are big issues there. Perhaps this might be a good thing, that both sides might face issues and realize their truce has forces that are still actively fighting against peace and problems still exist and can't be ignored for the sake of techno clubbing and eating in high-end restaurants while missiles fall.

The Kuwaiti ambassador says it isnt true (new window)

monty666: Ever since I was a kid, 30 or so years ago, we've always had to worry about these intemperate middle eastern farkheads who can't stop killing each other.

Screw building a fence on the Mexico border - let's build a giant fence around the entire middle east and then go pick up the pieces after they are done with each other.

Seriously. Let's make a really big straw, post up somewhere in the Persian Gulf, drink their farking milkshake, and never deal with them again. It would be better for the entire world.

eyehate: I love fear-mongering and news reports with no solid news.

Not to mention the emphasis on "OMG THIS IS SERIOUS!"

And then the cutesy little poll: "Run up to the Big Show", or "Just noise. It'll die down.", or "Nothing at all."

Not that the U.S. sending warships to Lebanon means anything. No, citizen - nothing to see here.

Maybe they decided not to postpone the elections for the 143th time and Hizballah are getting ready to take control.

Mildly more informative story, w/flag-burning pic (new window)

143th?

143rd, dude.

monty666: Ever since I was a kid, 30 or so years ago, we've always had to worry about these intemperate middle eastern farkheads who can't stop killing each other.

Screw building a fence on the Mexico border - let's build a giant fence around the entire middle east and then go pick up the pieces after they are done with each other.

Most of the Middle East's problems are a result of the US and Europe dicking around with its internal politics. So the fence comment really isn't so far off, except that the fence's primary purpose would be keeping the West out. That way, liberal elements in the Middle East could gain influence and, over time, take over. As it is, the main reason the Middle East continues to be so screwed up is because its extremist religious fundamentalists are constantly gaining power due to the perceived threat of the US and Europe. Kind of like how the US would be if we had a 9/11 every month or two.

The article lost me at the word "definately."

Why is it so farking hard to spell that word correctly? Definitive. Finite. Infinitely. There are a number of other words that give the writer helpful clues when it comes to the spelling of the more commonly used "definitely."

/

OK, I read the rest of the article. And by article I mean blog post. Actually seems like some serious #!@$ might be going down in Lebanon again. Is it a new week already?

Might be something in this, for once...

Link (new window)

paulseta: Link (new window)

Another link empty of real information?

Here's a little more meat... (new window)

El_Dan: because its extremist religious fundamentalists are constantly gaining power due to the perceived threat of the US and Europe. Kind of like how the US would be if we had a 9/11 every month or two.

would be?

/ I keed, I keed

http://www.jamiefarr.com/images/jff_cvr.jpg
DOES NOT APPROVE

Brockian Ultra Cricket, anyone?

Daily Kossack = Not True

Governor Trumbull and George Washington are holed up in the War Office as the British......

wait.....

sorry, wrong Lebanon.

So there's a guy from Palestine, and a guy from Israel, and they both find a genie's lamp at the same time. Genie says that in order to be fair, they each only get one wish. Guy from Palestine wishes that, in order to protect the integrity of his great country, he wants a wall 150 feet high surrounding it so that no one can get in or out.

Guy from Israel now gets his wish: "Fill it with water"

Shaggy_C: Not that the U.S. sending warships to Lebanon means anything. No, citizen - nothing to see here.

Including the USS Cole I hear! You know it's about to hit the fan when the news of a flotilla of US warships steams towards a country then a news black out ensues.
Generally things are heating up in several places because the enemy's of freedom just don't care or think the response will come.
Iran and Syria can throw money and materials and ferment hate around Gaza and the west bank and Lebanon with out any risk to themselves.

Egypt on the other hand the sleeping giant with the Muslim Brotherhood just waiting for an aging president to falter is ripe for the taking too.

If I was the young King of Jordan I'd be very worried because his 25 percent Palestinians have already rose up once thanks to the Brotherhood and a young Monster Arafat.

An attemt on Israel's nukes was prevented last week by using in-tell methods we now no longer are able to use because of perverts and drug dealers needing their privacy. Fark Um !

ndotseth: Daily Kossack = Not True

Well, they are hyperventilating drama queens, that much is true, but you have the power to type "Lebanon" into Google news search and find out just what is actually going on. I would say the same about Freeper madness.

My take is this shiat happens all the time, and basically there is never a good time to go to Lebanon in the first place anyway. I doubt war is about to break out.

fubuvsfitch: 143th?

143rd, dude.

One hundred forty... thorth?

In Lebanon, Hell doesn't so much break loose as to take a leisurely stroll around the block.

Sulfus: One hundred forty... thorth?

It's one hundred forty thrithe.

El_Dan: Most of the Middle East's problems are a result of the US and Europe dicking around with its internal politics. So the fence comment really isn't so far off, except that the fence's primary purpose would be keeping the West out. That way, liberal elements in the Middle East could gain influence and, over time, take over. As it is, the main reason the Middle East continues to be so screwed up is because its extremist religious fundamentalists are constantly gaining power due to the perceived threat of the US and Europe. Kind of like how the US would be if we had a 9/11 every month or two.

Yes the middle east was rainbows and ice cream before the west came.

El_Dan: Most of the Middle East's problems are a result of the US and Europe dicking around with its internal politics. So the fence comment really isn't so far off, except that the fence's primary purpose would be keeping the West out. That way, liberal elements in the Middle East could gain influence and, over time, take over. As it is, the main reason the Middle East continues to be so screwed up is because its extremist religious fundamentalists are constantly gaining power due to the perceived threat of the US and Europe. Kind of like how the US would be if we had a 9/11 every month or two.

Damn. A million times this. Americans need to realize that they would be doing the exact same thing as the Middle East if it was subject to similar external and internal pressures.

Yet another impending Middle Eastern "end of the world." If i had a nickel for every time someone warned about "war" breaking out in the Levant, I'd have more money than Bill Gates.

The iddle of Nowhere

Why are middle east experts so unfailingly wrong? The lesson of history is that men never learn from history, but middle east experts, like the rest of us, should at least learn from their past mistakes. Instead, they just keep repeating them.

The first mistake is "five minutes to midnight" catastrophism. The late King Hussein of Jordan was the undisputed master of this genre. Wearing his gravest aspect, he would warn us that with patience finally exhausted the Arab-Israeli conflict was about to explode, that all past conflicts would be dwarfed by what was about to happen unless, unless... And then came the remedy-usually something rather tame when compared with the immense catastrophe predicted, such as resuming this or that stalled negotiation, or getting an American envoy to the scene to make the usual promises to the Palestinians and apply the usual pressures on Israel. We read versions of the standard King Hussein speech in countless newspaper columns, hear identical invocations in the grindingly repetitive radio and television appearances of the usual middle east experts, and are now faced with Hussein's son Abdullah periodically repeating his father's speech almost verbatim.

What actually happens at each of these "moments of truth"-and we may be approaching another one-is nothing much; only the same old cyclical conflict which always restarts when peace is about to break out, and always dampens down when the violence becomes intense enough. (new window)

canyoneer: FTA: Western analysts are forever bleating about the strategic importance of the middle east. But despite its oil, this backward region is less relevant than ever, and it would be better for everyone if the rest of the world learned to ignore it

So the less attention the general public pays to one of the world's most volatile and strategically important regions, the better? Riiiight.

They've been killing each other since before forever. As long as they don't damage my oil this isn't news. Might raise the price of gas to $7 gallon and push the underclass off my roads and onto buses where they belong.

Hopefully CNN is on the job and we'll get excellent camera angles of stuff blowing up, collapsing and catching fire.

fezziwig
They've been killing each other since before forever.

Moran. The region was peaceful in the 1880s and before, despite the 10% Jewish population.

What happened? Well, it's complicated and not attributable to any one phenomenon. But one factor was certainly the advent of militant Zionism as philosophized and developed by Europeans.

El_Dan:

Most of the Middle East's problems are a result of the US and Europe dicking around with its internal politics.

The Persians/Muslims/etc. have been hating on the Jews for nearly 3000 years now. After that it was the Byzantines, and after that the Europeans and the Muslims. Don't believe me pick up a copy of John. J. Norwich's: A Short History of Byzantium and get back to me.

Cauchy_Riemann_equations
The Persians/Muslims/etc. have been hating on the Jews for nearly 3000 years now.

Oh look, it's someone else who has absolutely no idea what they're talking about. Congratulations on dropping that completely made-up and untrue knowledge, bro.

mrexcess: Moran. The region was peaceful in the 1880s and before, despite the 10% Jewish population.

Um. You realize in that peaceful time the Ottomans were occupying parts of Greece and the Balkans and not letting people speak their native languages, right? This lead to the first and second Balkan wars. Or you could just go ask the Armenians and Bulgarians about how they felt about this peaceful region.

mrexcess:
Moran. The region was peaceful in the 1880s and before, despite the 10% Jewish population.

You're kidding, right? Please tell me you're kidding.

Hint: Britain occupied Egypt in 1882. Before? Roman empire breaking bad. Nutty Mohammad. Then you've got the Turks. Don't forget the Crusaders and hey, how about those wacky Mongols?

Good grief.

Cauchy_Riemann_equations
You realize in that peaceful time the Ottomans were occupying parts of Greece and the Balkans and not letting people speak their native languages, right?

Yeah, I realize that what we call freedom was nothing but a glimmer in the eye of more ancient civilizations.

fezziwig
You're kidding, right? Please tell me you're kidding.

Perhaps I shouldn't have said "region", I'm not discussing the entirety of the middle east. I'm talking about the territory we call Israel and Palestine, and conflict between the native residents of that region. If you go back and look at the 1880s and the centuries before, things were rather peaceful between the locals.

Yea, happily my knowledge of history goes back further than say 400 years. Also amusingly enough my family is from Thessaloníki, you know where the Jews ended up. They have roads paved out of their headstones from WWII, because well that part of the world just didn't like the Jews much -- heck the University of Thessaloniki is built on the old Jewish cemetery.

Anywho. Last time I checked going about 2500 years ago the Jews ended up in Babylon for some reason. I'm pretty sure that's what I was alluding do. Oh, damn, History does indeed go back further than that crappy one semester course you took on Western Civ at your community college.

Gosh, Darnit.

Oh and since you were too stupid to pick up on what I was saying about the Persians and the Byzantines I was referring, specifically to the campaigns of the Emperor Heraclius who laid waste to the Persian Empire and so weakened it allowed for the Muslim religion to take root.

But seriously, get back to me when you've actually read a book on the subject not just what you've seen on the history channel on how that entire region was so just peaceful before those nasty Europeans came along.

Cauchy_Riemann_equations
Yea, happily my knowledge of history goes back further than say 400 years.

Apparently not! Your first statement was to claim that Persians/Muslims/etc (lol) have been hating on Jews for 3000 years. When I demonstrated the falsehood of that claim by citing one instance of notable cooperation between those cultures, specifically that referred to as the Golden Age of Jewish culture in Spain(!), you just move on and ignore my point.

Quit trying to peddle your ignorance as useful information.

A much more historically accurate claim would be to have said that Europeans have a 3000 year history of hating on the Jews. But of course, we'd all see that for the ridiculous and precedent-to-bigotry claim that it is, wouldn't we?

mrexcess: Cauchy_Riemann_equations

Quit trying to peddle your ignorance as useful information.


Seriously. Your education is lacking.

Cauchy_Riemann_equations
Seriously. Your education is lacking.

I don't claim to know everything. Indeed, there's much I have yet to learn. But unlike yourself, it would seem, one thing I have learned is how to admit when I'm wrong. I'm not wrong here.

monty666: Ever since I was a kid, 30 or so years ago, we've always had to worry about these intemperate middle eastern farkheads who can't stop killing each other.

Screw building a fence on the Mexico border - let's build a giant fence around the entire middle east and then go pick up the pieces after they are done with each other.

Perhaps if we stopped giving the people in the middle east so much money to buy weaponry, they would discover ways to get through the week without shoooting at each other?

As it is... the US is like some guy handing out free bottles of whiskey to all the homeless people every Saturday night, and then biatching about all the vomit and passed-out alchoholics the next morning.

cacaine is a hell of a drug

I wasn't aware it had ever actually stopped.

Cauchy_Riemann_equations: El_Dan:

Most of the Middle East's problems are a result of the US and Europe dicking around with its internal politics.

The Persians/Muslims/etc. have been hating on the Jews for nearly 3000 years now. After that it was the Byzantines, and after that the Europeans and the Muslims. Don't believe me pick up a copy of John. J. Norwich's: A Short History of Byzantium and get back to me.

So you think the Middle East is an area that simply inherently lacks liberalizing elements?

She dreams of nineteen sixty-nine
Before the soldiers came
The life was cheap on bread and wine
And sharing meant no shame
She is awakened by the screams
Of rockets flying from nearby
And scared she clings onto her dreams
To beat the fear that she might die

And who will have won
When the soldiers have gone
From the lebanon
The lebanon

Before he leaves the camp he stops
He scans the world outside
And where there used to be some shops
Is where the snipers sometimes hide
He left his home the week before
He thought hed be like the police
But now he finds he is at war
Werent we supposed to keep the peace

And who will have won
When the soldiers have gone
From the lebanon
The lebanon
The lebanon
From the lebanon

I must be dreaming
It cant be true
I must be dreaming
It cant be true

And who will have won
When the soldiers have gone?
From the lebanon
The lebanon
The lebanon
From the lebanon

mrexcess: Apparently not! Your first statement was to claim that Persians/Muslims/etc (lol) have been hating on Jews for 3000 years. When I demonstrated the falsehood of that claim by citing one instance of notable cooperation between those cultures, specifically that referred to as the Golden Age of Jewish culture in Spain(!), you just move on and ignore my point.

Quit trying to peddle your ignorance as useful information.

Did you actually read the link you posted?

he so called "golden age" is hardly a solid historical fact.

"The claim to tolerance, now much heard from Muslim apologists and more especially from apologists for Islam, is also new and of alien origin. It is only very recently that some defenders of Islam have begun to assert that their society in the past accorded equal status to non-Muslims. No such claim is made by spokesmen for resurgent Islam, and historically there is no doubt that they are right. Traditional Islamic societies neither accorded such equality nor pretended that they were so doing. Indeed, in the old order, this would have been regarded not as a merit but as a dereliction of duty. How could one accord the same treatment to those who follow the true faith and those who willfully reject it? This would be a theological as well as a logical absurdity."

"Mark Cohen, Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, in his landmark 1995 book on the subject, Under Crescent and Cross, argues that the "myth of an interfaith utopia" was first promulgated by Jewish historians such as Heinrich Graetz in the 19th century as a rebuke to Christian countries (particularly in Eastern Europe) for their treatment of Jews."

All hell will break loose? How will they tell? The Middle East is full of nutjobs. The only time arabs aren't killing jews is when they're too busy killing each other. A hundred years ago, this was not a problem. Rifles and cannons at the most. Now with modern weapons their idiocy spreads into other areas that want no part of it.

Isreal pulled out of Gaza. If Israel should have said they were sealing all of the Gaza Israel border, anything else was the responsibility of Gaza. Meaning the border with Egypt, and the ocean. Israel should have said leave Israel alone, nothing happens. gaza fires rocket after rocket into Israel, gets mad when Israel fires back? Fark Gaza. let the arabs kill each other, the world will be a better place once they actually finish each other off.

Lots of people don't like the jews. But you don't see jews killing other jews the way other groups kill each other.