PLO THREATENS TO ABANDON TWO-STATE SOLUTION. This is crazy. I'm not even sure if the report is to be believed. It quotes a legal adviser to the PLO, Diana Buttu and an Israeli general, Amos Gilad. Buttu says, "We have basically concluded that if the colonization continues at this pace, we are going to have to start questioning whether a two-state solution is even plausible." On the other hand, Gilad states that he thinks Arafat's long term goal is a pan-Palestinian state including what is now Israel and Jordan.

We can dismiss Gilad's view. It's hardly new and I'm sure it's the outcome Arafat and most Palestinians would prefer in an ideal world.

However, Buttu's comment is troubling. Pragmatically, what does it mean? What is the alternative? If the Palestinians aren't going to accept a separate state, they are essentially declaring war on Israel. Of course, the current situation is awfully war-like, but at least most people accept that there will eventually be two states.

Realistically, there will be a Palestinian state one way or another within the next 10 years. At this point, the new state will probably be born as a result of a unilateral Israeli demarkation of the borders and a pullout from the majority of the West Bank and Gaza. When this happens, we will see if Buttu's views are representative of the new Palestinian government.

ARAFAT BEARS POLITICAL BLAME FOR BOMBS-RIGHTS GROUP. Wow. That only took a couple years to sink into Human Rights Watch's head. Maybe Amnesty International will hop on board next.

Some cyclists give the rest of us a bad name. I watched as one cyclist forced traffic to stop for her as she crossed a major street. She had the stop sign (it was a 2-way stop), but she didn't wait for a gap in traffic. Instead, she made one herself by inching across the road. Maybe she thought she could be treated as a pedestrian since she had one toe on the ground.

RUSSIAN MINISTER DEFENDS ASSAULT and his points are sound. What he doesn't even mention, let alone defend, is Russia's total bungling when it came to treating the hostages. Russia is getting a lot of flak for not divulging the type of gas used to medical personnel who may have been able to properly treat the hundred plus that died. I read one rationalization of this secrecy (on InstaPundit or lgf, but I don't remember) that said Russia wants to keep it secret so future terrorists can't take advantage of this knowledge.

There's really no excuse, though. Russia could have had military doctors ready with antidotes or whatever to treat the hostages as soon as possible after the rescue. Instead, the reports describe soldiers dumping unconcious hostages onto buses and I suppose they were taken to hospitals with unprepared staff. Except for this fatal mistake, the assault itself was brilliant and hopefully a deterent against future hostage takings. Of course, the terrorists will just resort to some uglier methods like suicide bombings.

That sucks. I just lost an entire posting after blogger barfed when I tried to post it.

Good thing it wasn't important.

I have an itch to write. Unfortunately, like most things, one isn't simply able to just write one day. You have to practice... This blog is my practice ground. For some reason, I find it easier to write if I'm sitting in front of a computer than if I only have a pen and paper. So, here we go.

One day, I may make this blog public, but for now there's no point. Who really needs another blog anyway?