BuzzMachine

Numbers
: Douglas Rushkoff says the just-passed law trying to discourage (to say the least) Israel/Palestinian marriages is really a matter of numbers:

The most ancient, but relevant fact in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is the numbers game. Whoever is the most fruitful and multiplying, wins. Israel realizes that within a few years – 4 to 8 by most counts – the Israelis in Israel will be outnumbered by Palestinians and Arabs.

This is why Sharon and even the most radically conservative members of his government support the formation of a Palestinian state. It’s also why their parliament passed today what can only be understood as a racist law under which Palestinians who marry Israelis will be denied citizenship (while others who marry Israelis will face no such restriction). …

This is also an major reason why Palestinian militants seek to slow down the peace process. The longer it takes, the less it will matter whether Israel accepts a Palestinian state. It will simply become one….

The blogger candidate
: Phil Wolff urges Dave Winer to run for governor in California as the bloggers’ candidate (and then he puts forth a platform of the, well, Bloggers Party). The idea is that people would then be motivated to ask, What the heck is a blogger? Not a bad idea. No offense to Dave, but if he runs would Howard Dean still be known as the grumpiest politician? Any other nominees?

Post-industrial
: hAiko hebig points us to some magnificent photos of the aftermath of industry.

One more
: Add to my list of presidential-candidate weblogs, below, a weblog from one of the movements to draft Wesley Clark. And another for him.

: And, thanks to a commenter below, the Kucinich blog.

: Yo, Bush, where’s your blog?

Murder on murder
: This scares Salam Pax, and for good reason:

Two hours before the dawn call to prayer, in a village still shrouded in silence, Sabah Kerbul’s executioners arrived. His father carried an AK-47 assault rifle, as did his brother. And with barely a word spoken, they led the man accused by the village of working as an informer for the Americans behind a house girded with fig trees, vineyards and orange groves.

His father raised his rifle and aimed it at his oldest son.

“Sabah didn’t try to escape,” said Abdullah Ali, a village resident. “He knew he was facing his fate.”