The Hobbit Hole VIII - Still round the corner we may meet...

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[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

Still round the corner we may meet...

• First thread: New Zealander builds Hobbit hole
• Second thread: The New Hobbit Hole
• Third thread: The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads! (Congratulations, we filled it up!)
• Fourth Thread: The Hobbit Hole IV - The Road Goes Ever On...
• Fifth Thread: The Hobbit Hole V - Where Many Paths and Errands Meet...
• Sixth Thread: The Hobbit Hole VI - And Whither Then? I Cannot Say...
• Seventh Thread: The Hobbit Hole VII - But not yet weary are our feet...

New verse:

Upon the hearth the fire is red, Beneath the roof there is a bed; But not yet weary are our feet, Still round the corner we may meet A sudden tree or standing stone That none have seen but we alone. Tree and flower and leaf and grass, Let them pass! Let them pass! Hill and water under sky, Pass them by! Pass them by!

Still round the corner there may wait A new road or a secret gate, And though we pass them by today, Tomorrow we may come this way And take the hidden paths that run Towards the Moon or to the Sun. Apple, thorn, and nut and sloe, Let them go! Let them go! Sand and stone and pool and dell, Fare you well! Fare you well!

Home is behind, the world ahead, And there are many paths to tread Through shadows to the edge of night, Until the stars are all alight. Then world behind and home ahead, We’ll wander back to home and bed. Mist and twilight, cloud and shade, Away shall fade! Away shall fade! Fire and lamp, and meat and bread, And then to bed! And then to bed!

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[Fedora]

You don't need a weather man

To know which way the wind blows

LOL! I was just reading something on the history of that quote last night--I guess it was pretty popular in Chicago in October 1969.

[Wneighbor]

Yeah, but if the wind blew in another direction, would Qaddafi obtain more WMD's? That is my doubt.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

I believe him to be the ultimate pragmatist. He's balancing his prestige in the Arab world against angering the U.S. As soon as a Democrat is in office and the pressure is off, I believe he'll be back to strutting in front of his fellow despots, crowing about how he "played" the U.S. leadership for fools.

[Ramius]

give up WMDs, stay in power. Oh, decisions, decisions...

...and play golf. Don't forget golf. I really think that good ol' Moammar is far more concerned with working on his long iron game than working on his WMD. He has a really easy choice. He can basically retire in the lifestyle of a despot with all the nice perks, or he can live in fear of precision munitions for the rest of his natural life.

If it were me... it's a pretty easy call to make.

[Fedora]

I don't trust Pakistan, either. Their intelligence agency has been linked to Al Qaeda since AQ's beginning and is heavily compromised by both AQ and Iranian intelligence, among others. I'm very surprised Musharraf is still alive. On the other hand, I don't trust India, either, so we're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place there.

[Wneighbor]

't's what I'm afraid of. 't's why I say I don't trust him.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Subterranean Homesick Blues, by Bob Dylan.

[Wneighbor]

Ditto on the Pakistan issue.

We've got them between a rock and a hard place right now but gotta watch our backs.

[Fedora]

Qaddafi is being a pragmatist, all right--did y'all see this thread?

Al-Qaida assassins after Gadhafi: Intel suggests dictators's sudden cooperation due to holy war

Citing a Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or CSIS, report, The National Post reports the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, or LIFG, is waging holy war against Gadhafi in an effort to establish an Islamic state in Libya. "In order to achieve their goals, the LIFG has made numerous attempts to kill Col. Gadhafi," said the "Unclassified: For Official Use Only" report, dated September 2002 and recently obtained by the Canadian daily. "The group has clearly stated its view on the use of force, promoting the ideology that Libyan people can only gain freedom by actively supporting the mujahedeen in the war against Gadhafi's regime," the report continued. The LIFG began trying to kill Gadhafi in 1995, according to the report. Its last attempt was in August 1998 when the colonel's motorcade was attacked.

[Fedora]

Thanks--I thought I'd heard somewhere they got that from a Dylan song, couldn't remember for sure :)

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Yep, apparently so!

[Ramius]

On the other hand, I don't trust India, either, so we're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place there.

Quite true. This in a nutshell is why the U.N. is a failed idea that will never work. Nations do not have common global interests. Nations have interests. Sometimes those interests coincide. The U.N. is a morass of competing interests, not a common interest.

I honestly believe that the U.N. causes more problems than they solve. The U.N. is like getting all the biggest bullies in town all together at the same bar at the same time. And somehow people are surprised when fights break out. Imagine that.

[Sam Cree]

Hi, Bear!

Was out for a minute.

[Wneighbor]

of course, this is exactly why the US should abandon the UN. They don't serve our interests!

[Wneighbor]

of course, if i follow that line of reasoning i can explain why Texas should not be in the US too.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Welcome back!

[Sam Cree]

What's a yurt?

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

hehehehehe!

[Sam Cree]

Gracias!

[Fedora]

Agree. I think to get nations to cooperate peacefully you need to negotiate based on what's in their individual interests and how that generates mutual interests; whereas the UN and the League of Nations before it were based on trying to artificially impose super-national interests on individual nations without taking those nations' individual interests into account. IMO for international peace we need something like the Metternich System of post-Napoleonic Europe where you have great powers working in concert, not something like the UN where PC policies give the Communist bloc and Third-World countries negotiating power disproportionate to their economic contributions and geopolitical significance.