I really don't think much of Thomas Friedman, but sometimes he
comes up with something interesting. His recent column raised
questions about the effects of climate change and oil depletion,
and their effects on Iran and Egypt. Yet it raised another BK>>consideration.

Thomas Friedman is yet another individual who's boots Klahn
isn't qualified to wipe.

Richardson would spit on Friedman's boots, and not to shine
them, but his is so warped he now praises Friedman.

Thomas Friedman was educated in no less than six
universities, including Brandeis, Oxford, and the American
University in Cairo.

Which does not mean he knows one damn thing about the world of
manufacturing, or the lives of the middle class. Yet he comments
on those things as if he does, which is nwy I don't think much
of Friedman.

He is also a well-published author and has won the Pulitzer
Prize three times.

Which does not mean he has the slighest idea what he is talking
about, only that he writes well.

I have long believed the great majority of Muslims don't give a
damn about Israel or Palestinians.

For people who `don't give a damn about Israel or
Palistinians'...they sure kill a lot of innocents.

Not Israelies or Palestinians. The great majority of Muslims are
no where near Israel or Palestine.

And have been murdering Americans for several decades now.

And Americans and Europeans in general have been responsible for
inflicting brutal dictatorships on Muslims for generations. The
US is responsible for the breakdown of order in Iraq, and the
deaths of at least 100,000 people since 2003.

Just recently the CIA released a report admitting they
engineered the coup that put the Shah of Iran in power.

Most are far away from the area, most thousands of miles away.

As we have fround out in recent years, a muslim is as far
away as their nearest koran. The islamics are the
modern-day inquisition: convert to islam or die.

All that does is reveal Richardson's ignorance of Islam. Now had
he said the Saudi based Wahhabi I would not disagree. OTOH,
Jews and Christians have lived under the rule of Muslim
governments for over a thousand years. The time of Islamic rule
of Spain called the period of the greatest flowering of Judaism
in Spain by the Jewish Virtual Library.

On top of that, Richardson is likely ignorant of the fact that
the Orthodox Christian Churches have a patriarch over all the
branches. He was originally located in Istanbul, back when it
was Constantinople. He is still there, after all these centuries
of Islamic rule, the Orthodox Christians felt no need to move
him to a Christian country.

The Catholic Church wiped out whole ancient civilizations
and cultures in their time.

Now he wants to go off on an anti-Catholic rant.

The tremendous loss of the
ancient library in Alexandria alone was a crime committed
by the `Church' lost who knows how much ancient lore and
knowledge to the world, due to the murderous zealotry of
some Catholic fanatic bishop (or whatever he was) in
Alexandria. The heavy-handed destruction of the materials

Which apparently is a false description of the destruction of
the library. Just google library of alexandria burning. I opened
the first four articles to show up.

there that had been accumuliated since three hundred or
more years before Christ was born, was a loss beyond
calculation.

Other than the fact that didn't happen, what's your point? Oh,
the library was burned, but it wasn't just burned once, but at
least 3 and as many as 5 times. The records are not very good.

The first time was not long after it was built, during a civil
war.

The second was when Julius Caesar burned part of the city as a
tactic in a battle. The Library was in that part of the city,
though the Romans did loot a lot of the library before the
burning. Notice all that happend long before there were
Christians.

The third time was when Emporer Aurelian invaded Egypt about 273
AD. In 391 the Coptic Patriarch Thiophilus burned the library
putting down a rebellion. At that time the Coptic church was
Eastern Orthodox, not Roman Catholic.

There is no evidence the library was totally destroyed in any of
those fires, and good evidence it was not.

With two thousand years of `Christianity' under our belt,
and finally, within only the last couple of hundred years,
winning freedom from the zealotry and blind stupidity of
Catholicism (which caused who knows how many deaths and
countless amounts of destruction for almost 18
centuries)...modern man is now being assaulted by an even
crueler and more vicious religious zealotry, Islam.

It appears you are hostile to all forms of religion. Or is it
just monotheism?

Muslims, for the most part, are no more aligned with or supportive of BK>>others sects or even their own than Christians are of other Christians.

Where we have pretty much gained control over
Christianity's dark side...not so, Islam. The modern-day
Islamic fanatic has far more destructive tools at their

Which seems to be a small fraction of the Islamic population.
Notice how the current crop of fanatics are radicalized in
Europe, or the US, not in the Middle East? What mosques are
radicalizing them? Who subsidized those mosques? Want to take
bets?

disposal. It is only a matter of time before an aircraft
with a nuclear weapon aboard, or a freighter or
petroleum-bearing ship carrying carrying a nuclear missile,
with fanatical Islamics at the controls of the one or the
other, delivers the ultimate terrorist attack to America's
shores.

It's only a matter of time until a fanatical Christian launches
a nuclear war that destroys civilization.

I am speculating that the animosity against Israel is
concentrated largely in the Middle East. I am further
speculating that is has little to do with Jew or Muslim, Abraham
or Muhammed, but mostly is concerned with water.

So far...even counting since 9\11\2001...I haven't heard a
single word about this all being `about water'.

What have you heard about Israel? 9-11 had nothing to do with
Israel. Iran has nothign to do with Israel, other than Netanyahu
and his groups exploitation of the situation for political gain.

The whole problem is (and always has been) Israel. Jews and
Arabs have never gotten along in five or six thousand
years. And it wasn't about water back then, either.

Since pretty much all Jews were Arabs 6 thousand years ago,
until probably the Babalonian captivity, that's absurd.

Considering the majority of the Jews in Israel were Arabs until
the 1990s, that's again absurd.

In fact... desalination plants along the Mediteranian coast
of Israel provide a large amount of Israel's water, along

A large amount? What percentage? At what cost?

with the lake Kinneret, also known as `The Sea of Galilee'.
And a new desalination plant soon to go into operation,
will provide Israel with around 7 million gallons of fresh
water per hour.

Try giving your figures in terms used in Israel, so they can be
compared.

Now...aside from a few crops of whatever they grow in the
way of vegitables and hay or straw...I don't see Israel
having much in the way of resources. Most of the oil is in
Arab countries. And most Arab countries with oil are rich
beyond any real need. So...they can build their own
desalination plants, a lot of them.

Which Arab countries? Saudi Arabia has a per capita GDP lower
but a great deal than the US or many European countries. Iraq
has an oil industry that is still crippled. Iran is not Arab,
but it is hobbled by sanctions. So, where are these rich Arabs
who can pay for water? And are they the ones in conflict with
Israel?

Water is the most valuable resource in a desert land, and
religion can be just another division along which to align to
divide up the resources.

It just boils down to a fanatical religion. If it were

It just boils down to the anti-religion fanatics.

`about water'...why would they go to the trouble of
declaring death sentences on anyone who insults their
so-called prophet, Muhammad?

Since when does that have anything to do with the subject?

Anti-religion rant deleted.

No...it isn't `about water'. Its about Israel. And it
became aimed at America because of America's support of
Israel.

Again, why would they give a damn about Israel? Notice the most
fanatical nation, Saudi Arabia is one Arab nation you hear so
little of hostility toward Israel?

BOB KLAHN bob.klahn@sev.org http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

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