February 02, 2004
Sea change in the middle east
A while ago Sharon said he was considering pulling back a few of the West Bank settlements, which was promising. Now he's announced that all Gaza settlements will be evacuated. If he's serious, this is the biggest news in the Middle East in decades. Yes, even including the various American wars over there. It doesn't completely solve the problem, but actually ceding Gaza to the Palestinians is such an awesome act of good faith that we might actually see real progress in the West Bank negotiations, too. Wow.
"Common names are bad. Unlisted numbers are tricky. States where you need to prove you're related to obtain official records are a challenge. People with no affiliations with organizations, too. Not knowing a state or city---annoying. Those who never get arrested or do anything noteworthy in their communities---frustrating.
The uberchallenge, though, is trying to find someone who never existed in the first place." --Gel Thelen
Posted by blahedo at 12:54pm on 2 Feb 2004