I hate to make excuses, but

it seems, lately, that everytime I have an idea for a good post I get interrupted.

See! The baby just came down with an earache. We're trying Dimetap and a heat-pad. Earaches almost always start with a runny nose, and she's had one for a few days now. I know how to keep gunk out of my eustacian tubes, but it's tough to teach that to a baby.

I suppose I should get in the habit of calling her a toddler. She definitely toddles these days.
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I'd say the minimum research for a good post is three news articles. Four, if one's an editorial. Sometimes I post on less--when I think it's a good idea to just get my gut reaction out there, as I did on my last post. My opinion on the UAE deal stands until I'm proven wrong.

Hannity's on right now citing Dubai Ports World's support for Hammas and other shady UAE dealings. I haven't expressed my thoughts about Hammas winning the Palestinian elections, I guess. I think they'll actually do better than the PLO. If they look like they're pulling a Hitler, they'll be stopped.

Though, ugh! That reminds me of a theory I used to hold--and maybe still do, though it hasn't been tested much lately: stopping fights between people who want to fight only brings on greater catastrophes later. And, more importantly, delays (or destroys the opportunity for) a reconciliation.

Sadly, that means that, in the short term, there will be violence. But the combatants will burn out their hostility and learn to respect and love each other afterwards.

I developed this theory in Junior High, with the help of some friends, and I have yet to see it disproven.

How should it work in practice?

1. Don't interfere with the initial blow up. As long as deadly weapons aren't involved, third parties should mind their own business.

2. Third parties must confine themselves to ensuring a "fair fight." That is, one combatant versus one opponent. Third parties must not judge the adequacy of either, lest they unfairly weight the competition toward one or the other. However obvious the outcome may seem, you could be wrong, and interference will not bring about love between the opponents.

This is the essence of The Rule of Law.

I saw many fights in Junior High in which the combatants learned to respect each other and made up to become the best of friends. I've seen no evidence that international relations are carried on on a higher level of thinking, though I've seen plenty of evidence that diplomats think they can make people feel what they feel.

Another example from my personal experience comes from my time at the Grand Canyon. Back in 1986 I lived in a dorm with all the other lower-echelon schlubs there, and the neighbors were given to having drunken parties. I would have joined them, but my job started earlier than theirs, so I had to get to sleep earlier, and my work-week ran Thursday-Monday.

Anyway, one night the neighbors were partying and one of the drunks grabbed this girl's ass. She was rightly offended and dressed the offender down thoroughly. Unfortunately, she didn't let it drop at that point. She threatened the guy with everything she could think of-including a thorough pounding by her boyfriend, as soon as his work-shift ended, and hounded him with these threats for the next several hours until her boyfriend did finally arrive.

All this was going on on the other side of the paper-thin walls of our dormitory while I was trying to go to sleep.

For the next hour, the two men kept trying to have a proper fight and the neighbors kept separating them. The monkey-wrench was that the offended girl would start screeching at the offender every time she saw him.

Finally, the offender went back to his room--which was unfortunately, right next door to mine--where he pulled out his revolver. The girl goaded her boyfriend into finally confronting him there.

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The boyfriend is no longer with us.

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I blame the girl first, for not taking care of her own ass, and demanding that somebody else do it for her.

Second, I blame the people who thought it was a great idea to interfere with a fist-fight. Instead of peace, they got death.

I want that case to be studied by all so-called Peacemakers.