I do agree, however. It’s rude for past presidents to undermine their successors by speaking like common folk. In fact, why stop at past presidents? Why not extend this honourable action to _current_ presidents as well? Why should the president comment on public policy–the word “public” implies that that sort of thing should be decided by the government, the people.

And now for something completely different….

Hamas is a rather interesting little group. Yes, it is a terrorist organization. Unlike other groups like al-Qaeda, however, Hamas doesn’t have designs on America. It seems content to carve out a chunk of the Middle East in the hopes that the world will one day call it “Palestine”. But Hamas isn’t all bad. As Scott Adams observed, now that the group is in power as a democratically elected government, it has had to curb its more radical elements (albeit perhaps somewhat ineffectively) in order to try to play ball with Israel. Like it or not, a Palestinian state will happen–hopefully within our lifetime. Whether or not Israel officially recognizes Palestine, the fact that it hasn’t actually gone and reclaimed the part of the its land we’re close to calling Palestine is an implicit acknowledgement of legitimacy. Of course Hamas shouldn’t be allowed to destroy Israel–that would be a tad overdoing it. But to paint the group with one, thick, irredeemable terrorist brush is unwise, for it is just as an extremist viewpoint as Hamas extremists have of Israel. I don’t know what Carter is doing there (and I don’t really care), but the way to peace will be through negotiation and compromise with the more moderate aspects of the Hamas leadership.

Sometimes when I think of the situation in the Middle East, I get this scent of “Rwanda”. Then I shake my head. So far.