whoa whoa, so a Christian who adheres to the "standard" (the Bible) and who doesn't reject said standard is a conservative? but a Muslim who adheres to (basically the same standard of) the Koran is a liberal? but isn't that some form of moral relativism? which is a liberal idea? #mindblown

OT but I passed the CA bar exam last night! Add another commie liberal west coast lawyer to the list!

I've said it and I've said it....if the BULLDOZING DEATH of a pretty young American woman didn't cause a MASSIVE shift in public opinion against Israel and our support for them, nothing will.

That shows you the incredible power of their propaganda machine.

the REAL libertarian/conservative angle would be that you don't send your kids to commie public school because the government can't do anything right anyway, so you should shell out that $20k to send your kids to a nice Christian school where they'll never learn real science.

jesus fucking christ. when are these wingnuts going to realize their views are EXACTLY THE SAME as the crazy muslims they despise so much? hatred of gheys? check. no sexytime before marriage? check. ambiguous lines between church and state? check.

the only difference is that american muslims are so fucking terrified of upsetting anyone that they keep unusually quiet in their communities, considering their numbers. so everyone needs to CALM THE FUCK DOWN.

my facebook newsfeed is now being sullied with comments like "LIES! obama was recorded on tape saying he will always stand with muslims!!!!111" the stupidity/open bigotry of these people is astonishing.

How long before the Israel dick-sucking begins? I WANNA SEE SOME ISRAEL DICK SUCKING

I graduated high school in 2005. I, and almost all the kids I was friends with (who were also taking a full course load of AP classes) never had jobs in high school. that's because, well, we were all busy with...academics. And sometimes extracurriculars, yes. But all those kids ended up going to college, most of them went to top UC's (UCLA, Berkeley, etc.). One went to Harvard and one went to CalTech. Now we're all in grad school or newly minted post-graduate professionals.

My point is, sometimes teenagers don't work because they're lazy, yes. But sometimes they don't work because they're focused on academics, and working part time would serve very little purpose other than making grades suffer. I didn't work until well into college, and I don't think my work ethic or job-finding skills have suffered at all.

You win the internet today.

Yes, the travel situation is seriously messed up. I came here with my dad and because he couldn't fly into Tel Aviv, we had to fly into Amman instead and drive across the border into the West Bank (the border is also controlled by Israel).

The general consensus, especially among the Left in the activist movement, is that a two-state solution at this point is totally untenable. The settlements in the West Bank and the roads surrounding them, combined with the wall that Israel is building which deeply encroaches into the West Bank means that any future Palestinian state comprised of the West Bank and Gaza would be nothing more than a series of bantustans reminiscent of apartheid South Africa. There is a strong push now towards a one-state solution with Israelis and Palestinians living in one democratic state. Of course, this presents Israel with a serious demographic problem because Palestinians would easily outnumber Israelis and Israel would lose its Jewish character, which in my opinion was the original sin of its founding anyway (ostensibly democratic while still insisting on maintaining a cultural/racial majority). So the American and Israeli position, at least rhetorically, is still in favor of two states, although like I mentioned, that's no longer realistic. It's also unrealistic for Israel to maintain its occupation indefinitely--history tells us that.

The first step is to replace the current Palestinian government and like I said, there are rumblings of an Arab Spring in the West Bank. I've been here a week and there have almost daily protests in Ramallah over the price of gas, which is hogtied to gas prices in Israel through the Oslo Accords. So when Israel raises its gas tax, Palestinians have to pay for it too. The PA is complicit in all of it and the people know it. Something's gotta give, and soon.