Tom was one of our great writers and poets.  And one of our great under appreciated writers and poets.  He was also a sad soul who could not face his remaining time on earth without agony, and chose to end his own life on this past July 4th, Independence day 2008.

Tom was a friend of mine, I am proud to say, because his friendship was a validation of my own value.  I don't need to have my value proven to me, but to earn the care and love of such a special person is special.  And my care and love for Tom was easy, because he appreciated me for whatever reasons.  

Are you familiar with Tom Disch?

"We can lie in our beds and hear the moans of dying snobs who are soon to find equality for once in their lives."

This is the raving hallucination of a drug addict, Hypo Sleigh, speaking as one already in his grave.  But he is delivering this fantasy to the bored mates in his jail cell at the turn of the century, in Jim Tully's "Shadows of Men."  Tully's books are mostly forgotten, but they are torn from his experience as a road kid (a young hobo), an apprentice roughneck in circuses and traveling shows, and a boxer.  Tully came of age with the lowest of the low, and his writing about it eventually earned him a three acre estate on Toluca Lake.

And somehow, that one line from Tully brought to mind a book by the brilliant Norman Spinrad.  His "Bug Jack Barron" from 1969, is a frightening and prescient novel that points at the ultimate exploitation of the rich by the poor.  The way in which those "dying snobs" could escape Tully's final equality

With the Israeli blockade of Gaza, we are having very nearly the same old I/P debate over yet again... but this diary will attempt to discuss something new.  At least one recent and important development, the destruction of the wall separating Gaza from Egypt, now appears to have been carefully planned by Hamas.  This event may turn out to serve the greater good of the entire region.

Let's propose as a hypothetical, without prejudice towards any, that Gaza is indeed, a "concentration camp."  Two days ago, one of its walls, a wall maintained by Egypt, was spectacularly breached.  Considering the growing crisis within those walls, the "breakout" by thousands of Palestinians seemed unavoidable, even necessary.  

Some Israeli government officials appear to be quite pleased with the results of this breach, and are now floating the idea of handing over permanent "border duty," provisioning, power and water supply to Egypt - essentially putting all responsibility for the Gazans in Egyptian hands.  The Egyptians definitely don't like the idea, but how can this not be an improvement over the horrible relationship between Gaza and Israel?

This is still a local story from my area, but it should and will undoubtedly go national soon.  Hal Turner, North Jersey's most prominent Neo-Nazi, "radio host," racist troublemaker, and regular contributor to the Sean Hannity show has been outed - he's accused of being a front man for the FBI.

Last Friday, as per my usual routine, I was having my morning coffee and reading our regional newspaper, the Hudson Valley's own Times Herald Record, when I had to raise an eyebrow over a rather quizzical story.  Hal Turner was discontinuing his Neo-Nazi internet radio show and website because: “my heart just isn’t in it anymore."

Today, the possible truth came out, thanks to the Southern Poverty Law Center and some unidentified hackers who have fed them information liberated from Turner's server.

This is presently a Flame Free Zone®.  Be prepared for constructive discussion by people who actually care about the lives of Palestinians and Israelis.  No pertinacious ideologues allowed!

Finger pointing and spewing the same old talking points at each other over and over (and over) gets nothing done except maybe raising one's pulse.  (Though I think the rush of rhetorical combat may actually be the ultimate goal of many here.)  In my last (and first) diary I said as much, tried to find a point of commonality (didn't really, but found something else quite disturbing, and hopefully I'll get to that before too long) and bemoaned the lack of creativity.

Sure, there is a measure of creativity exercised in the realm of argumentation, justification, rationalization and vituperation, but precious little applied to elucidation, extrication and solutionification.

Step into my parlous parlor and challenge yourselves to consider a bit of the lastly aforementioned.

Abandon all hope, yee who enter.  I think that about summarizes the opinion of most here regarding IP debates.  And there are good reasons to stand aside from these contentious proceedings - the participants have refined the arts of personal attack, innuendo, self-righteousness, and accusatory politics to their most exquisite expression.  Go in with spotless self-regard and idealism; come out soiled with a TR for your troubles.

It doesn't have to be that way.  I contend that here at dKos, we are nearly unanimous in a single shared opinion, a most important opinion.  And I believe it is the right opinion.

But there is a fly in the ointment.