Until you agree that “settlements” are illegal, there is no point in continuing with you.

I saw EW&F in concert in 1979, a fantastic show!

The damage Israel is doing against Lebanon now is utterly wrong, so out of proportion. Destroying whole villages is inexcusable. Israel slaughtering Lebanese civilians: wrong, wrong, wrong.

I oppose Israel’s aggression against their Palestinian and Lebanese civilians. I’m not aware of their aggression against Israeli citizens. If Israeli citizens are peaceful and following international law, they should be left undisturbed. IDF though must quit murdering Palestinian civilians.

Opinion | What Replaces Deported Immigrant Workers? Not Americans.

Americans won’t take over farm jobs now met by immigrants. In 2011, of 500,000 unemployed North Carolina residents required to apply for work to get state benefits, only 268 applied for farm jobs. but only 2/3 showed up 1st day, and only 7 worked through the harvest. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/o...

One of your questions was do I support killing random people? No, I oppose that.

Israel killed thousands of random people, which is documented, as I linked above. One guy was a militant; that doesn’t justify Israel murdering thousands of civilians, including children. That’s collective punishment, another Israeli crime against humanity, in addition to the genocide in Gaza.

Did you say genocide? That’s projection.

I’ll repeat the question: Are Israel’s settlements illegal or not?

You disabled my reply to your settlements post. If you can’t condemn Israel’s “settlements” then you are supporting criminal acts, and you have abandoned any pretense of good faith discussion. Will you condemn the settlements?

The deadliest 10 minutes in decades: Lebanese reel from Israeli strikes that killed hundreds Beirut residents and officials say civilians were main casualties in operation that bombed 100-plus targets in 10 minutes

Israel killed hundreds in minutes earlier this month, for example. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

I thought you would like my supporting Israel in its 1967 borders. Instead you defended “settlements.” Sigh.

Israel has frequently murdered random people, including many in Lebanon in recent weeks.

As I said above, I support UN principles. Any country that invades another should be stopped. I know the UN isn’t in reality up to it, because the US always protects Israel and Russia would block moves against its Arab allies.

The “settlements” are illegal taking territory by force, and should never be allowed. Even as we speak, Israel is expanding them forcibly. This is indisputable.

An impressive technological achievement! I wish my country was at the forefront of such developments. And at the same time, in a contradictory way, I fear that these developments will mean impoverishment of people, while a few reap the rewards.

It's a tragedy here in NC. Decent education is our best way to provide equal opportunity, even if schools alone can’t make up for other hurdles people face. Providing every child is the least we should do to give everyone at least a chance. Tax the wealth that there is in this state to pay for it.

Similarly, at this time, I think Israel should stay within its 1967 borders, and not continually take over more and more Palestinian lands. The “settlements” are illegal and wrong. Any invasions from neighboring countries should be opposed. I support the UN principle: no territory taken by force.

I can answer what I think should have happened in particular times in history. Around 1776, Great Britain tried to prevent Europeans from moving into the Ohio river valley. I would have supported the Shawnee killing any European that tried to move in. All should have agreed to hold that line.

No, Israel is conducting ethic cleansing , illegally expanding their territory to southern Lebanon.

Replies to my reply were disabled. So I will except lain here the pattern of settler colonialism where a foreign people move in, encounter resistance, then “defend themselves.” The original inhabitants are defending themselves.

I see a direct parallel with other settler colonial states like South Africa and my own country of the United States, where the original inhabitants were displaced by an influx of large numbers of people from somewhere else.

The change in land ownership in Palestine from Arabs to European Jews was a loss for the former residents. The Jewish population wasn’t zero but increased dramatically in the 1920s and 30s. The Palestinians also lived there since forever.

This is the typical pattern of settler colonialism: Foreigners move in and take land. Native people resist. Foreigners then “defend themselves” against the original inhabitants.

First punch: large numbers of European Jewish migrants moved into Palestine. In the 1930s the growing transfer of land from Arabs to the Jewish settlement agencies, such as the Jewish National Fund, increased the number of Arab farmers evicted while also removing the land as a source of livelihood

No, it was always lean Democrat on the strength of the particular candidates: Dem 2-term Governor Roy Cooper was popular. The Republican candidate is much less well known, just a Party insider, mid level staffer, and the former chairman of the Republican National Committee.

The Question    Erm, well – I begin, shifting nervously in my chair –  if it’s true there is no heaven and no hell,   no eternity or long hereafter,   no divine plan or offstage direction from an invisible hand,  then how do we make sense of it all,  how do we make our way through this life, this glorious, ridiculous, ramshackle world of ours,  with its wars and brutality, conflicts and petty arguments,  the ten thousand tiny acts of kindness   which happen unnoticed before breakfast,  and all that love and pain, happiness and loneliness  that comes to us unannounced, by turns,   as if we ourselves were pitched daily   onto the waves of one of its vast, mysterious oceans,  not knowing whether today is the day we drown  or we find ourselves washed up   on some strange but friendly shore?     Mmm – you say, after a lengthy silence –  what I meant was … do you have any questions   about the job?  Brian Bilston

Today’s poem is called ‘The Question’.

Congress must stand strong against these continued attempts to strip Americans of their 4th Amendment rights as the new deadline of April 30th approaches.

Unfortunately the Republican gerrymandered state Legislature will give our voter rolls to FOJ, and use their notoriously flawed database to flag potential noncitizens.