terrible stews

I remember years ago on one of those Sunday shows, they were talking about the Mideast peace talks of the time and shaking their heads sadly about the hopelessness and somebody, likely Sam Donaldson, or some Sam Donaldson type, piped up to George Will, "Well isn't it a good sign that at least they are talking about peace?"  And Prissy George Will pursed his lips and said, "No."

I like George Will a little now that he has come out as an Anti-Trumpist, but back then I seldom agreed with him, but on that particular question I thought that he was spot on.  The thing is there were moderates on both sides (more then than now I think) and everytime they got together and moved close to an agreement, the hard-liners on both sides became alarmed, and these guys don't write searing letters to the editor, they go out and kill members of the other side, so maybe they are better off just not talking at all.

I don't know about the boundaries.  This is an argument that was common in the sixties, kind of an anti-colonialism thing where the people fighting each other were blameless because it was the result of  boundaries established by those awful White colonialists, like all would be hunky dory if that had never happened.  I'm not buying it. 

I wonder if any conflicts could be resolved without the outside influence of the big nations like the US, Russia, China, the EU, or any of their neighbors waiting on the sidelines trying to pick a winner. 

What I think Old Dog is saying is that maybe these combatants would be better off if the first and second world didn't stick their noses in.  I am thinking of those proxy African wars of the late sixties, early seventies, where one side would appeal to the USA or USSR so the other side would appeal to the other, and sometimes one side would switch backers so the other side would do the same, kind of a checkers game we and the USSR were playing on the blackboard of Africa about which neither side gave a shit.  That was bad.

One thinks of the Mideast as rather a sleepy part of the world before Israel and oil, and strangely enough neither of those things seem to be driving the current hostilities.  Israel is sitting on the sidelines taking cheap shots at Syria, and oil, the world seems to be awash so it is not such a big deal to outside powers.  One side appears to be Russia/Iran/Shiite, and the other side USA/Saudi Arabia/Sunni, the whole thing breaking down to fanatics and warlords and innocent bystanders at the ground level, a terrible stew.


I didn't get much out of that Bill Gates thing.  Of course he doesn't want to be taxed.  These wild ideas out of the left are just that, ideas.  It seems to me that they are worthy of some discussion rather than being slain in their nests.

I'm a little confused by Beagles' proposal.  Is he saying that instead of taxing people the government should just print more paper whenever it wants to fund something?