In The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Tom Friedman, whose brain must have been replaced with a pile of crap when he was an infant, suggested the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention.  The theory states that "when a country reached the level of economic development where it had a middle class big enough to support a McDonald's network, it became a McDonald's country.  And people in McDonald's countries didn't like to fight wars anymore, they preferred to wait in line for burgers."  While this sounds silly, it is simply a restating of some older theories of warfighting and its prevention in more modern terms.  At the time that he wrote the book, this was pretty much true, excepting civil wars, where McDonald's was a neutral party. 

 

But now we have this:

 

and this:

 

I suppose if you asked Friedman (the crap-brained man) what he thought of this development, he would bluster something about how Lebanon didn't make war against Israel, it was Hezbollah.  But Israel sure attacked all of Lebanon, indiscriminately and without regard for who belonged to Hezbollah and who didn't.  So perhaps he could fast-talk his way out of it, but I would still argue that, even in the face of conventional wisdom regarding economic development overriding a country's bloodlust and thirst for war, there's just no accounting for some people's sociopathy, arrogance in the face of international law, and ill-will toward their fellow human beings.

 

 

On a different point, I find it interesting, in perusing the casualty figures from the month of hell, to note the percentage of Israeli dead who were in the military vs the percentage of people who were killed in Lebanon (to include the UN workers and the Lebanese army, both parties that Israel specifically claimed to be avoiding) that were in Hezbollah.  I find this interesting most notably because Hezbollah was using short range rockets with very little in the way of guidance, to say nothing of precision while Israel was using some of our more advanced precision guided munitions the entire time.  Makes one wonder how such an advanced military can claim to have made so many targeting mistakes while a guerrilla force with a 30 year old radar guidance system can seem to have such an edge in hitting their intended target.  Of course, the other day, Israel struck a plainly marked Reuters van.  Twice.  And they hit an ambulance during the actual fighting.  so perhaps some of their pilots are color blind or something and couldn't see the big red cross on top of the ambulance.  Or maybe one pilot was so unfortunately illiterate that he couldn't read 'TV' written in English, Arabic, or Hebrew.  Maybe they should make pilots take a test or something.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my favorite dessert.  It is simple and delicious. 

 

 

 

 

 

...in the nude. 

 

 

 

That is what the sign said at the commissary today.  How the hell are you out of chicken?