From a different perspective: Rethinking Ariel Sharon & Chris Christie

    Ever since Ariel Sharon began rising up through the ranks of Israeli neo-con politics by hook or by crook, I've always viewed him as a Bad Guy.  But maybe he wasn't all that bad after all -- at least not within the time-frame right before his sudden stroke.  According to former IGF officer Roi Tov, Sharon might have finally seen the light and started actually implementing some of the few hopeful features of GWB's ill-conceived "Road Map," now a document as long-forgotten as Mr. Bush himself.

     Tov is an Israeli journalist who I always love to read because he always seems to have juicy insider knowledge of all the latest hot gossip about what is going on in the highest Israeli neo-con circles.  And according to Tov, Sharon had been taking the Peace Process a little bit too seriously right before his sudden stroke and, like Rabin, needed to be stopped.  http://www.roitov.com/articles/sharonmahriv.htm

     Sharon himself must have constantly been aware, like all good neo-cons everywhere have known since way back in JFK's day, that when you play in neo-con Big Leagues, you gotta toe the current party line or else.  But at least Sharon, there toward the end, might possibly have tried at long last to do the Right Thing toward establishing peace with Palestine -- perhaps knowing full well that doing so would cause him to tangle with the Shin Beth.  Perhaps I should give Sharon snaps for that.  Taking on the Shin Beth is not for the timid of heart. 

     Perhaps Sharon finally wanted to atone for being the Butcher of Sabra and Shatila.  Hey, it could happen.

    But, if so, Sharon must have also forgotten the Number One neo-con rule:  "Cross us and you are a dead man.  We eat our young."  Sucks to be you, Ariel Sharon!

    Anyway.  We may never know the whole story.  Neither Sharon nor Rabin are talking.  And neither is the Shin Beth.

     Israeli politics are so much fun to watch -- almost as much fun as watching American politics.  Which brings me to the subject of Chris Christie.  "What did he know and when did he know it?" seems to be the big question on everyone's lips.  But, for me, the real question here should be, "Why the freak do Americans continue to passively put up with all of America's constant and soul-killing traffic jams in the first place?" 

     If Christie and/or his loyal staff hadn't caused the Fort Lee traffic jam, then something else would have caused it. 

     There are traffic jams all over America right now, night and day.  24/7.  And nobody seems to even notice or care.  We all just passively endure wasting hours and hours of our life each day that we will never get back. 

     For instance, the new San Francisco bay bridge is awesome to look at, but as a vehicle-mover, it sadly fails.  The old bridge handled up to one-third more cars-per-hour than this new, spectacular one.

     But all these new bridges and old bridges and freeways and rush-hour traffic jams all beg the huge major question, which is:  "What kind of harsh air-pollution hazards are all these idling, gridlocked vehicles creating?  And when are we going to finally take climate change seriously and start eliminating the use of pollution-causing motor vehicles entirely?"

      This new scandal regarding Governor Christie and Fort Lee might be offering us a really good opportunity to start a national dialogue with regard to, first, the development of more public transportation options in order to alleviate traffic jams and save the air, and, second, finally doing something about the limited safety and diminishing returns of using cars themselves in this disastrous day and age of life-threatening climate change.

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