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Israel. They have developed techniques to make it work.

Yes, and those techniques involve irrigation using so much water taken from the Jordan River that the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea have shrunk dramatically. At this point unless something drastic is done, in another 40 years Palestinians on the "West Bank" will be able to drive to Jordan.

But yeah, those "techniques" are totally sustainable with no side effects, aren't they?

a hell of a prayer

Funny way to put it, though I agree. Full text here.

The prophet killed 1200 jews in one of his religious massacres (e.g. google for "khaybar").

Perhaps you are not a native speaker of English. The word "massacre" is generally reserved for cases where one side has no ability to resist the other; the word for what occured at Khaibar, where a 1,400 to 1,800-men army of Muslims attacked a fortress occupied by about 10,000, would be "battle" or "siege". HTH.

That the early Muslims fought a lot of people, no one disputes. We may argue about the justification or brutality of these battles. But to call these battles "religious massacres" is simply inaccurate.

Saying that religiously massacring jews is wrong is saying islam is evil.

So saying that religiously massacring Midianites is wrong is saying Judiasm is evil? And saying that religiously massacring Muslims is wrong means that Hinduism is evil? And saying that religiously massacring Protestants is wrong means that Catholicism is evil? And..well, choose your match-up.

(1) In Ms. Nasar's article with Mr. Gruber, she labeled both Professors Shing-Tung Yau and Shiing-Shen Chern as "the Chinese mathematician". In fact, both are U.S. citizens born in China. It is important to note that only mathematicians of Chinese heritage were labeled this way in the article. This labeling is in contrary to the common practice of using the term "Chinese American mathematician" in the mainstream news media in both the U.S. and China. (In Chinese media, Yau and Chern are called "mei ji hua ren"-U.S. citizen of Chinese heritage.) Ms. Nasar went to length to describe the contributions of Yau and Chern to the scientific development in China but neglected to mention that both were awarded this nation's highest scientific honor, the National Medal of Science. The subliminal message is that both Yau and Chern work only to advance the Chinese interest. Such bigotry is nothing new in this country: Jewish people have been subject to such stereotype for a long time. (2) While there were extensive discussions on original ideas in mathematics in this 14-page long article, not a single sentence, as far as I know, associated mathematicians of Chinese heritage to originality. Even the originality of Yau's Fields Medal work was downplayed. This article promotes the false and harmful stereotypes that mathematicians of Chinese heritage are "technical" but not "original". (See an open letter to Ms. Nasar for more detail on this point.) (3) Seven mathematicians of Chinese heritage were named in the article: Yau, Chern, Gang Tian, Huai-Dong Cao, Xi-Ping Zhu, Kefeng Liu, Bong H. Lian (implicitly, as the coauthor of Liu and Yau). While there was only minimal coverage on Chern, all six others were alleged, one way or another, to involve in plagiary and/or claiming undeserved credits. More importantly, in the article, no other mathematicians but only those of Chinese heritage were alleged to involve of such unethical practices. This is biased, prejudiced, and, in fact, racist. To illustrate this point, substitute all Chinese names by Jewish names, China by Israel, and Chinese by Jewish. This article would then have been easily recognized as anti-Semitic. (4) This is not the first time Ms. Nasar spews anti-Chinese venom. In her article Best Business Book 2003: Globalization, she promoted the book World on Fire by Amy Chua. Here is what Ms. Nasar wrote:

Chua compares the wealthy Chinese, like her aunt, who dominate the markets of many Asian countries to the successful Jews of Europe in the 1920s. "In the Philippines, millions of Filipinos work for Chinese; almost no Chinese work for Filipinos. The Chinese dominate industry and society at every level.... When foreign investors do business in the Philippines they deal almost exclusively with Chinese." When she was 8 years old, she recalls, she stumbled into the servant quarters in her aunt's villa: "My family's houseboys, gardeners, and chauffeurs ... were sleeping on mats on a dirt floor. The place smelled of sweat and urine. I was horrified."

Maybe if Israel didn't build a giant apartheid wall deep into Palestinian territory in flagrant violation of international law, didn't have the IDF shoot
Palestinian children with snipers as is documented in Pulitzer prize winning journalist Chris Hedges excellent book, "War is Force that Gives Us Meaning."

http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id =25166

Didn't kill Palestinian civilians at 4:1 ratio to Israelis deaths as I documented before. And further didn't have Jewish only roads in the Palestinian territories, THEN maybe Arabs wouldn't be so mad at them. Would we accept whites only roads in the U.S.? I don't think so.

"But many of the checkpoints, fences, military patrols, Jewish-only roads and land expropriations that infuriate and disrupt the lives of ordinary Palestinians are not aimed only at stopping terrorists. Rather, they are part of the presence Israel maintains in the West Bank to sustain the settlements there."

http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=1 0922

The Israelis have only created their own very serious problem by killing thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians and occupying Palestinian territory in flagrant violation of international law. Arabs are right to be outraged over this just as they outraged over the U.S.'s brutal occupation of Iraq. And no Israel won't get nuked as Israel is the terror state which currently has nuclear weapons, that should be an effective deterrent from Iran's HYPOTHETICAL nuclear weapons.

I will say one good thing about Israel at least they had some sense and elected the moderate Kadima party into power and not the Zionist nut case Likud party that got it's ass kicked, ha.

As opposed to the people in France who throw rocks at Jewish schoolbuses and carve swastika's into a 12 year old Jewish girl's forehead?

Social cause? What's that? (Serious question!) Literature, yes. Poetry, not so much.
Be interested in something bigger than you. If you and your date actually have the same interests, then perhaps you two can discuss that. I've wowed some of the CS and CPE majors I've dated by taking an interest in their disciplines. Having an interest in politics, or the environment, or even history, is something because it gives you something to talk about, and it shows that you are not two-dimensional. Two-dimensional really only works if you're one of those rare hetero male-models, or if your date is socially inept. :) What it really comes down to is that you should show that you have interests and concerns, that you're life isn't only about one thing. Now, I'm sounding like Shannon Doherty in Mall Rats

On the flipside, don't be a firebrand preacher about your interests. Politics and religion are pretty risky topics for a first date. See, even the most secure independent minded trash-talkin slashdotting girl wants a knight in shining armor, a Prince Valiant. A Harrison Ford Han Solo... meow.

So equality... is it good, or is it whack?
Equality is very good. Some girls like to be babied to the extent that they don't like being cluttered by indepdent thoughts. The Hilton sisters would be a prime example of this, but she doesn't have to be a poor little rich girl to be like this either. It's okay to put a girl on a pedestal, but don't pamper her unless she pampers you. The last thing you want is to invest all your effort in a cold fish. If she wants to pay for dinner, don't be offended. She has the right to be proud of her financial accomplishments, and if she asks to take you out, don't be alarmed by her liberal heresy, but please at least open the door for her.

Wow, thanks for letting me be myself. I can be a geek. Isn't that nice.
I'm not the only one who says so, Teresa Strasser is a cute TV personality who also writes a singles column (mostly geared toward Jewesses), but it's a fun read for those of us who aren't Kosher:

In Praise of Geeks

I think a lot of those funny slapstick sex farces from the 70s and 80s like "Revenge of the Nerds" really give geeks a bad rap.

And we're supposed to read and understand them all? It's not like you've given us a manual or something, you know.
No, no manual, but in return we give you head. What's the complaint? It's either us or sheep. Besides, some women are so transparent that anyone whose played the Legend of Zelda would be able to figure them out.
So being late is ok if you're a girl? Why?
You get paid more than us, and you get to play pro baseball. Is it so much to ask that we make you wait? Seriously it's not good to make anyone wait, and I try not to, but we are expected to look good for our dates. We have to do our hair, match the right clothing, and that takes time. Now, if a girl makes you wait and she still looks horrible, then you've got a worthy complaint. :)