First things first: a warm welcome back to all Propeller members, and a sincere wish that the next year will be a little easier on our collective nervous system. Now, which story elicited the noisiest reaction from the community in the last week? That would be "Panetta to Be Named C.I.A. Director," with 81 props and 357 comments. For pc25, who posted the story, Obama's motive was clear: "It's about having a guy at the top who's untainted by 'torture.' So untainted, in fact, that he's also untainted by any intel experience whatsoever." Replied Goppy: "Not to worry. GWB appointed Porter Goss... he had covert experience, and he wrecked the CIA." Said 4thchance: "What a mess the Democrats are already making. In about two years, we will all be saying, Boy, I wish we had Bush back!" This preemptive bit of nostalgia was soundly rebuffed by hamy: "You will never ever hear me pine for Bush/Cheney. As the Rapture takes everyone away and our country is invaded by N. Korea, I will still say 'thank God Bush is gone.'" For slate, the appointment was another index of Obama's own thin resume: "Good presidents don't put obviously inexperienced people in high level positions of national security." To which mesodude replied with an exasperated shot across the bow: "You people elected Bush and Cheney twice and you were all set to replace them with an ancient, unstable coot with anger management issues and a chesty, illiterate, trigger-happy beauty pageant runner up who hasn't read the Constitution." MARCHING INTO GAZA
"Historical Amnesia and Gaza" racked up 114 props and 271 comments. There were some pointed, sometimes vituperative divisions in the comment thread. Radiofreeeuropa owned up to some honest perplexity: "If your son or father were killed by a group of people, how can you be expected to NOT hate them? Yet no one gains anything through the violence. Somehow, some way, it must stop. All I can say is Ghandi and Martin Luther King won their wars. And the reverberations are still being felt today." To which MRCOFFEECAKE replied: "Actually Ghandi didn't really win. But that aside, he certainly made for better opportunity." Argued Poulenc: "The conflict can't end until both sides favor peace more than they're willing to tolerate war." Another member, rightfromwrong, still chalked up the problem to America's unconditional support of Israel: "If the USA took a neutral stance in the Middle East, Israel would have to abide by the UN resolutions. [Instead], the USA continues to give billions in aid to Israel and carte blanche on weapons and the latest technology." But Locky12 snorted at this evocation of the UN, which he wrote off as "a bunch of Arab Muslim shills. It was never a big deal for Hamas to rocket Israel all it wanted. It's all of a sudden a big deal when Israel actually uses its power to stop it." Several related stories also caught the community's attention, including "Israel, Hamas, and moral idiocy" (80 props, 211 comments), "Don't pity the Palestinians," (88 props, 189 comments), and "Effects of Israel's New Weapon: Photos from Gaza" (58 props, 192 comments). AND DON'T OVERLOOK....
Which story was seen by the most people over the past week? That would be "Best-selling God author faces plagiarism claim," with 39 props, 163 comments, and 77,501 page views. One member, bigstream01, expressed some concern for the alleged sinner: "Wow. I've heard the topic of the anecdote, God, has a temper. I'd be careful crossing the street if I were this guy." But mommdiana declared the whole incident a tempest in a teapot (or maybe chalice): "We have become a society of people who focus on the mistakes of others and try to bring them to their knees for it. Forgive and move on!" (Added flipflopwigwag: "I think I saw this on an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.") Elsewhere, "More Polar Bears Going Hungry" stirred up a predictable rumble about global warming. Who will feed the starving bears? "Al Gore and Obama should and will feed them," opined Sandmonster. "I'm not a global warming denier," Mutainia was quick to point out. "I just have a hard time [believing that] CO2 is causing it, due to the fact that even the polar caps on Mars are melting." This earned a blunt rejoinder from FrauBlucher (extra points for the Young Frankenstein reference, by the way): "Well, why don't you go live on Mars then, for Christ's sake?" And finally, there was "Australians angry over bid to ban topless sunbathing," with 71 props and 52 comments. This puritanical crusade by a conservative lawmaker puzzled one member, mntnman444, to no end: "Now, let me get this straight... this is a guy who wants them to keep their tops on? Boy, everything is opposite south of the equator."
