Mehlman LIes

“Art, Ken Mehlman Thinks he can fool all the people all the time,” Max said to me as we watched Ken Mehlman on the evening news at Max’s apartment. I had come over to help Max put together still another bookcase – his apartment is full of them, full of books.
“Why do say that, Max?” I asked, knowing I was in for another of his fascinating expositions.
“ He’s forever saying the Republican party is good for the security of our country when I’m sure he knows, as anyone with his contacts would know, the security of the US is the last thing the Republican Party cares about.”
“Max, that’s a pretty strong statement. Your going to have to back it up.”
“Okay, Art, that easy. For the last six years they have been in control of the Presidency and both house of Congress. In the same period the War on Terrorism began. Yet, the borders of this country are wide open and people from all over the world enter illegally. Also, the ports are wide open and only a small portion of shipments into this country is inspected for containing WMD’s. Furthermore, at the end of the Clinton administration this country had considerable respect around the world and that respect was growing because the US was trying to solve problems like Palestine, North Ireland and Kosovo. The Bush administration turned all that around and so angered the Muslim world that Muslim radicals carried out the attacks of 9/11. The horror of these attacks brought much sympathy around the World, but the Bush administration’s aggressive attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq followed by their brutal and corrupt administrations of those areas caused most of the world to hate the US. It has also brought on a spectacular growth of Islamic radicalism. I could go on and on, but this show that Mehlman is not on the level. He knows that there are people in our country who think of themselves as conservatives and who think of the US as a fighter for freedom and justice. He lies to them that the Bush administration is fighting for freedom and justice and maintains conservative viewpoints, but the opposite is true. In the last six years our freedoms have been diminished more than in any other period and the Bush Administration has spent the nation into near bankruptcy and have carried out trade policies that resulted in our industry being shipped abroad with the great loss of good jobs. Mehlman knows all this but still he tries to fool the public. Luckily we have the Internet with its informed bloggers who won’t let this happen.”
“
“Wow! Okay Max; you’ve made your point.

The Holy Land

Max Angst likes Italian food, so one evening we met at Mama Teresa’s restaurant for supper. I had linguini in white clam sauce Max had Lasagna. We started by sharing a plate of calamari and enjoyed a bottle of Chianti.
“So what do you think of the mess in the Middle-East?” I asked Max.
“It makes me sick. For millennia those people have been slaughtering one another. No one ever wins, no one ever comes out ahead,” He responded.
“Do you think they’re bloodier than people in other parts of the world?”
“Perhaps not, but they’re getting the publicity right now. So I have a proposal for them.”
“A lot of people have tried that Max.”
“Sure, but who knows maybe my ideas will be useful.”
“Okay, go ahead.”
“As everyone knows the underlying problem is Palestine. But, if you go to the online World Atlas of Maps, there is no map for Palestine, The areas that some people call Palestine are part of Israel on the map. For close to sixty years , attempts have been made to separate the West Bank, Gaza and parts of Jerusalem from Israel, but this has only led to death and suffering for everybody: Muslims Jews and Christians. So lets grow up and stop the bloody nonsense. Let’s not separate anything. Let’s come together and build a country where all can find a peaceful life.
“Max, that will never be accepted. One reason that I can think of is that the Palestinians wouldn’t accept Israel as the name for their country and the Jews wouldn’t accept Palestine. And in each country there are social power structures. The Palestinians have their leaders and the Israeli theirs. These leaders won’t agree to give up their influential situation.”
“To answer the second objection first, the alternative to the leaders giving up their positions of power is the continuation of the slaughter. It is the ordinary person who gets butchered; the powerful use their influence to stay alive. The ordinary people – Muslim, Jew, Christian and any other group—have to stand up and say enough, we don’t want our children, our spouses, our friends and our neighbors killed so you can keep your position. People should organize around this idea and using the peaceful methods of Ghandi and King work together to found a peaceful country where Israel is now. It will, quite fittingly, be called The Holy Land.”
“Wow! Do you really think it can be done, Max?”
“Art, it must be done. It must serve as a model for the rest of the world. All across our planet people have to learn to stop killing and to come together to build a peaceful environment. If they don’t, I don’t give humanity a hundred years,