FARM MATH a scan of an 1885 one room schoolhouse 8th grade math book.

ARTIFACTS Really look at whats been found.

GIBBON The Decline and fall of the Roman Empire, Vol I.

OBITUARY I'm so far below the radar I may as well be dead.

EUGENICS The way women will run it.

VILLAGE LIFE The way it can be reconstructed.

Yes, Islam has problems with Israel & the West. But follow the borders of the Muslim world clockwise from the Caucuses, China, the Lakash on the Pakistani/Tibetan border, the Hindu Kush, then down to Indonesia, Philippines, and across the Indian ocean to Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, and across to Nigeria.

Is there anywhere the Muslim world gets along with a non-Muslim culture? In fact the Shiite and Sunni cant get along either. So, this idea of the elimination of Israel or the withdrawal of US troops bringing peace and stability is obviously delusional.

To say that we cannot install a democratic system like that in the USA assumes that what the USA has is a functional democracy. Granted Jews control much of US media; but are they any worse at it than Christian demagogues or politically correct secularists? Show me who you plan to replace the Jews with before you have them dragged out to be shot.

Machiavelli said an intractable political problem is one that is not properly understood, and this is certainly the case with Jews, Israel, and the Muslim world. A large part of the problem is that people just cant deal with the complexity and ambiguity of a multipolar Machiavellian balance of powers, especially with so many of them are failing to adapt to modern economic reality.

For instance Syria, where Islamic laws against birth control expanded the population beyond what the Syrian resource bases, including oil, could support. A problem all across the Muslim world, and part of why Iowa farm land now sells for 5000$, even $20,000/acre, and corn that usta sell for a nickel a pound now goes for nearly a dime.

A big fucking deal if you only make 2$/day, or even 20, and you got 9 kids. Assad has failed to see his people have been properly fed, should have reduced the birth rate, but its too late now, and whatever interference NATO, Mossad, or the CIA cause is trivial in comparison.

But of course, we in the West like to think what we think or do matters. We'd do better to remind them its the will of Allah that they suffer. Or Assad, acting in his name. That his goon squads murder is not helping him because their activity has also destroyed the tourism business, and other businesses are shutting down as well, which is cutting off the cash flow needed, among other things, to buy corn. A point urban policy wonks dont pick up on.

One more point Machiavelli got, was that during crisis, demagogues will arise to scapegoat minorities, which is vastly easier than dealing with the root problem. Thus, Christians, other Muslim traditions, and/or tribal identities all fear democracy will result in majority repression. Moreover, every group, no matter how it defines itself, is plagued with too many chiefs and not enuf Indians. The men there, if asked, will recite descent from long lines of great warriors that didnt take no shit from anybody, and they are not gonna compromise with anyone now. This kind of thing is written on the Y chromosome, and whatcha get breeding goon squads.

The only solution is to let the women have a turn running things. Grandmas are not fond of making martyrs of grandsons. And, oh ya. OPEC should've seen that if they raise the price at the pump, the cost of tractor fuel and petrochemicals used to raise corn would drive up the price of corn.

Sorensen, for one, for a decade now, has been trying to promote http://energyfromthorium.com/essay3rs/, the Lithium/Fluoride/Thorium nuclear reactor, which if you go thru the link can see its a safe & environmentally friendly design that would go a long ways twards solving the Global Energy problem.

But like my effort to stop the drug war, not really getting anywhere. I've been posting about the drug problem and how its been run like a speedtrap for years, and Sorensen's been posting, but also appearing, as he did at a TED.com talk- yet neither of us having any discernable effect. But all along the numbers who've gotten online and posting on the forums has been increasing.

This often challenges the propaganda from the corporate mass media as well as offering an opportunity to use this grassroots networking to create a new national party that will not have lawyers as candidates, but who promise to represent constituencies rather than national party dogma. But I dunno if the electorate is rational enuf for all the above to matter.

Its not that presenting the facts ever changes anyone's mind mind you, but what it does do, by exposing the irrationality of zealots, is decrease their motivation to support and/or vote for demagogues. Which, if the more rational realize, will motivate them to appear at the polls- along with poll watchers and concerned citizens outside taking surveys from voters as they leave.