Two-State Solution

If there is no two-state solution, there will be a one-state solution — and given demographic trends, that will mean either the end of Israeli democracy or the end of the Jewish state. Zionists should be absolutely clamoring for a Palestinian state.

-- Nicholas D. Kristof for The New York Times

Better yet, of course, if a Palestinian state wouldn't be a terrorist state, but that would make life too easy, and where's the fun in that?

In any case, Kristof is not introducing a new proposition into the debate, but it has been a while since we've put something down on Israel, and Kristof is naturally looking at the prospect of a new American administration coming to the issue.

Two-State Solution

If there is no two-state solution, there will be a one-state solution — and given demographic trends, that will mean either the end of Israeli democracy or the end of the Jewish state. Zionists should be absolutely clamoring for a Palestinian state.

-- Nicholas D. Kristof for The New York Times

Better yet, of course, if a Palestinian state wouldn't be a terrorist state, but that would make life too easy, and where's the fun in that?

In any case, Kristof is not introducing a new proposition into the debate, but it has been a while since we've put something down on Israel, and Kristof is naturally looking at the prospect of a new American administration coming to the issue.

Grocery List

Grocery list tonight -
grind my soul into wretched dust!
It's a simple matter of subtraction,
deleting needless items from a word-processed list,
but it's still a precious hour of life-sucking effort
that could be put to more gratifying uses,
such as avatar-fucking.

( naughty pic )

Grocery List

Grocery list tonight -
grind my soul into wretched dust!
It's a simple matter of subtraction,
deleting needless items from a word-processed list,
but it's still a precious hour of life-sucking effort
that could be put to more gratifying uses,
such as avatar-fucking.

( naughty pic )

Blood Coltan

Has the video game industry dug up its very own blood diamond?

According to a report by activist site Toward Freedom, for the past decade the search for a rare metal necessary in the manufacturing of Sony's Playstation 2 game console has fueled a brutal conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

At the center of the conflict is the unrefined metallic ore, coltan. After processing, coltan turns into a powder called tantalum, which is used extensively in a wealth of western electronic devices including cell phones, computers and, of course, game consoles.

Allegedly, the demand for coltan prompted Rwandan military groups and western mining companies to plunder hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the rare metal, often by forcing prisoners-of-war and even children to work in the country's coltan mines.

"Kids in Congo were being sent down mines to die so that kids in Europe and America could kill imaginary aliens in their living rooms," said Ex-British Parliament Member Oona King.

-- Ben Silverman at Yahoo

Kids are perishing in the mines to satisfy the greed of African war lords. I'm sure there are other ways to manage supply-demand problems. But it is a striking relationship, if hardly unusual.

Blood Coltan

Has the video game industry dug up its very own blood diamond?

According to a report by activist site Toward Freedom, for the past decade the search for a rare metal necessary in the manufacturing of Sony's Playstation 2 game console has fueled a brutal conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

At the center of the conflict is the unrefined metallic ore, coltan. After processing, coltan turns into a powder called tantalum, which is used extensively in a wealth of western electronic devices including cell phones, computers and, of course, game consoles.

Allegedly, the demand for coltan prompted Rwandan military groups and western mining companies to plunder hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the rare metal, often by forcing prisoners-of-war and even children to work in the country's coltan mines.

"Kids in Congo were being sent down mines to die so that kids in Europe and America could kill imaginary aliens in their living rooms," said Ex-British Parliament Member Oona King.

-- Ben Silverman at Yahoo

Kids are perishing in the mines to satisfy the greed of African war lords. I'm sure there are other ways to manage supply-demand problems. But it is a striking relationship, if hardly unusual.