Port Nonsense

Well, Glatt, its about like Katrina. Horrific natural disaster that no one could have foreseen? Government indifferemce? Governmnet prejudice toward the black and the poor? Stupid poor people who "shudda planned"? Who knows? So, scores of people in a foreign country were killed. So what? Dubai Ports was created by a member of the local ruling family. If you're Sheik Whoever the 42nd, you don't really care about the popular vote. It says on your birth certificate that you get to be bossman. Workers be damned.

I'm sure the Dubai Royal Family is both educated enough in Western Ways and astute enough that they won't allow such a thing to happen in NYC. They may follow local custom and allow it in N.O., but that's not the point.

If I were a member of a group that was as out-gunned and out manned as the Taliban is, I'd play chess with my enemy. I'd know that a head-on confrontation would mean that I'd lose. I'd acess my strong points. Hmmm... Oil, number one, the straits of Hormuz, a zillion plus fanatical followers who grow in number with each "collateral" casualty inflicted by my enemy...

Sure, I've got a knight on the board who could take the opposing player's bishop. I also see that this move would allow my opponent to take my queen by sacrificing a mere pawn. I sit back and study the situation carefully....

Didn't the Arabs invent the game of chess in the area which is now modern day Pakistan?

2,800 casualties - WTC
2,300 casualties and counting - US military

My father who taught me how to play chess, didn't mind losing the occasional pawn. He guarded his queen well and was a sly player of the game. He told me that he learned his best moves from a houseboy in Burma during WWII.