ttbn, what a nasty, despicable bastard you are for such a comment about another!

I don't care if I get suspended for call you a bastard, cause that's all you are!

Dear Paul,

You might enjoy this:

I saw a bumper sticker on the back of a car in
Los Angeles once, prior to an election which read:

"Some people are better on paper.
Specifically, that roll by the toilet".

There's something I'd like to say before I choose
to go away. The only way humanity can survive -
is we must get rid of hatred and learn to be kind.

Maya Angelou - the American poet put it so well:

"You may write me down in history
With your bitter twisted lies
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still like dust, I'll rise

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk/talk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops
Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my hautiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Çause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin in my own backyard

You may shoot me with your words
You may cut me with your eyes
You may kill me with your hatefulness
But still like air, I'll rise

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from the past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Like a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave
I am the dream and the hope of the slave
I rise
I rise
I rise ".

I wasn't going to comment here but just a summary of my thoughts
might be worthwhile.
The Jews were living in many parts of what we call the Middle East.
Their "capital" if that is the word for the earliest times was Jerusalem.
They were driven out by anyone passing by such as The Romans
but they usually came back.
Hundreds of years later Mohammad is said to have founded Islam.
One of his earliest actions was to raid and kill the people of a
village whose name starts with K. Even today Islamists threaten Jews
with the name of that village.
Then in the 700s ad the Moslems invaded Mesopotamia and drove the Jews
and Christians out of the area. That started the Crusades.
The Jews settled in Nth Africa and Europe until the Holocaust and then
many left for Israel and the US.
The Koran calls for the destruction of the Jews in particular and the
rest of us in general. So nothing has changed in 2000+ years and
no one has an answer to the question why do they pick on the Jews?

Dear Bazz,

«Then in the 700s ad the Moslems invaded Mesopotamia and drove the Jews
and Christians out of the area.»

The Jews were never driven out. They only were required to pay the Jizya tax. As a result of wanting to avoid that tax, nearly all these Jews who never left Israel, converted into Islam - and now form the bulk of those who call themselves "Palestinians".

«The Koran calls for the destruction of the Jews in particular and the
rest of us in general.»

No, only of the "infidels" (like me, I suppose). Jews and Christians are categorized as "the people of the book", not as infidels, and therefore only need to pay the extra Jizya tax, not to be destroyed.

---

Dear Foxy,

«The only way humanity can survive - is...»

What exactly do you mean by "survive" and what is your thesis based on?

Facts are that in the long term we know for certain that humanity will be extinct and in the short term, here a few hours passed since your post and humanity is still around despite hatred not going away.

Dear David,

I recently came across the lovely picture book -
"Natalie Portman's Fables," which I'm going to
give as a gift to my grand-daughter because I
want her to become familiar with the classics.

"Tortoise drowned out the
distraction of noise
And plodded along with
Resilience and poise

She knew that she didn't have
Hare's speed or sneer
But also a braggart cannot persevere".

Whilst browsing I came across a poem by Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow "The Jewish Cemetery at Newport". A poem I
was not familiar with - and one I didn't know Longfellow
had written. I was moved by it. It was studded with allusions
to Jewish history. A most impressive work and
containing the Longfellow elegiac tone.

Are you familiar with it?