Its time to start blogging again

Its funny that I was more apt to blog during the school year when I did not have time. Sitting at my desk in my classroom, the internet had a greater draw for me than grading papers, filing, or planning. However, now that I actually have time I feel like I need to blog again. This whole fucked up world is also pretty big incentive to write something.

First, We are almost 12 hours into a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon/Hezbollah. Will it stick? My guess is no. There is already "small fighting" between the sides, which I guess doesn't count in the ceasefire? One side or the other is probably going to launch a bunch of missiles saying that the other side was about to. Why do I think this? History. That's how it works with Israel and pretty much every other country these days. One example: the Six-Day War. Israel attacked Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Syria because Egypt was building up troops near the Egypt/Israel border. Justified or not, Israel went on to not only defend the territory they already had, but increased their land as well - not too defensive of a war in my view. I don't want you to see this as an example of how bad I think Israel is, but instead how things tend to escalate quickly in the Middle East. Honestly, I think Israel was a little justified in going after Hezbollah, not for the reason they originally gave (two kidnapped Israeli soldiers), but for their own protection. However, it has clearly become a case of attacking a country instead of the terrorists, as many innocent Lebanese have been killed in the Israeli attacks. The standard argument is that Lebanon won't do anything to stop Hezbollah, so its their fault. What this argument forgets is that many in the Lebanese army are Shiites, so they will not kill the Shiites in Hezbollah, thus making the Lebanese Army more or less useless in this situation. Also, Israel has been cutting off aid to the people of Lebanon, including fuel, which is needed to run important things like hospitals(you may need a membership to NYTimes for this link). To sum it all up, I think Israel needs to either look to other countries for help in actually going after Hezbollah instead of innocent Lebanese OR they need to just back off.

Second, this whole terrorist plot busting has got me worked up for several reasons. #1: How did we not know that liquids could be smuggled onto a plane and used to blow it up? I say that because this same thing was going to happen in 1995. Why do we always decide to ban things after we almost get blown up by them? Shouldn't somebody look back at 1995 ad say "You know, they had a plan to smuggle liquids onto a plane to blow the plane up, why don't we ban liquids from being brought onto a plane?" That wouldn't be so hard. People really don't need to carry-on their shampoo because every hotel in the world gives you some for free. The airlines bring water, soda, booze, etc. on the plane so you don't have to. Just put your cologne into the checked luggage. Seems easy enough. Its like after 9-11. All of a sudden we have these restrictions where we have to take off our shoes, can't bring on nail clippers or box-cutters, etc. Who the hell needs box-cutters on a plane anyways? Leave that shit at home! #2: Isn't it interesting that the day before this plot was broken up, many big Republicans were randomly going after Democrats for being weak on terrorism? Well, this article thought that was pretty interesting too (thanks to Bob over at In the Belly of the Whale for posting this earlier - read his post). Why not go after your opponent when you can give a perfect example of terrorism the next day? Don't get me wrong here. This is not entirely a criticism of Republicans (although it is mostly that) because I know that Democrats would have done the same thing. They are all douchebags. #3: Who actually complains about extra airplane security? Only assholes. One lady on the news said that when she weighed the costs and benefits of tighter security in considering the inconvenience placed on passengers, she said the extra security was not worth it. Are you fucking kidding me? She needs to be blown up on a plane. I am more than happy to take off my shoes, have them search my bag, and even have them feel my balls (with the back of their hand of course) if it means my plane is that much less likely to blow up or crash into a building. Yes, I know that its a bigger deal for women, but you won't have boobs for the security to feel after you explode over the Atlantic. That's my point. Let's learn how to cope.

That's all for now. I am building up a collection of douchebags and plan to post again tonight.

I feel like I said some offensive things above. If your offended, I'm sorry - sorry that you're so easily offended - get over it.