Guns at 10 paces...

The state of the world is in question right now...no other period in history has had so many events hold such ironic twists and had so many world citizens gracefully demonstrate their idiocy in such an outlandish fashion as before. The Israelis and Palestinians have been at each other's throats for years, fighting like they were kids in a grade school playground.\nSharon: Stop hitting me! (Sends Tanks to Nablus)\nArafat: No, you first! (Stays in compound to defy Sharon)\nSharon: No, you first! (Sends bombers to destroy apartment buildings)\nMeanwhile, back in the west, Saddam Hussein and some American groups are analogous to the kids in the circle around the fight, pushing them to continue.\nJerry Fallwell (On CBS's "60 minutes"): I have studied Islamic history, and I am convinced that Mohammed was a man of war, a terrorist.\nInterviewer: So you think that because of this, Muslims are pre-disposed to violent acts?\nFallwell: Well, duh! Look at bin Laden for cryin' out loud...\nThe Christian Right: We are the biggest supporters of Israel, even more than American Jews … we believe that the Jews should take every bit of land from the Jordan River to the Dead Sea...\nInterviewer: So I take it you disagreed with Itzhak Rabin's land for peace program?\nChristian Right: Yes.\nInterviewer: That treaty never saw fruition because of Rabin's assassination...\nChristian Right: Well, everything happens for a reason, you can't go against God...\nSaddam Hussein (To a weeping Palestinian mother): Aw, your daughter strapped a bomb to her chest and committed suicide for nothing but to continue the cycle of senseless violence? Here's ten grand for funeral expenses and groceries. Go PLO! Go PLO! Go PLO! \nIn another seemingly unrelated incident, a politician in Peru decided to defend his honor by challenging the vice-president to a duel. Pistols at 10 paces, Aaron Burr style. \nOn a hypothetical note, this sort of thing could do wonders for world issues. Bush wants a regime change in Iraq? Take two revolvers and settle this on the oil field. Sharon really hates Arafat? Give each man a gun (or a tank) and let them shoot it out John Wayne style. Then we'll see who deserves what - who really has the guts. \nIn real life, George W. Bush and Tony Blair have been rumored to be in contention for the Nobel Peace Prize. Some would argue that selection, but I agree in a fashion - giving Bush the prize would return the Nobel Prize back to its roots, for Alfred Nobel, the creator of the prize, was also the inventor of dynamite. In his will, Alfred Nobel stated that the Peace Prize would be given to the person who has "conferred the greatest benefit on mankind."\nThough Nobel didn't say whether that benefit would be measured in lives saved or kilotons delivered.