Israel launches second day of air strikes in Gaza

Israel launches second day of air strikes in Gaza

www.newsdaily.com

GAZA, May 2, 2009 (Reuters) — Israeli warplanes bombed tunnels beneath the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt on Saturday after militants fired several mortars at the Jewish state from the coastal territory, the Israeli military and witnesses said.

There were no reports of casualties from the air attacks. An Israeli military spokesman said the strikes targeted three tunnels used to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip near the town of Rafah, along the Egyptian border.

(visit the link for the full news article)


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www.boston.com
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Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
www.newsdaily.com...

No casualties so i think it might just be Israel taking of some rust to keep up to speed maybe, or hell who knows with the way things are going now... it's also probably a show of force to Iran..

it's all head games to push agendas forward, though i do think an all out War will happen soon..

WWIII-NWO/Illuminati Agenda-USIsrael

www.newsdaily.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

It's my humble oppinion that it was Internet Bloggers around the world that helped make Operation Cast Lead an international embarassment to the Israeli's that their mighty propoganda machine could not overcome and they ceased the operation as a result of not International Government pressure, but International Citizen pressure.

Will bloggers abandon the Swine Flu threads they are currently obsessed with to rush to the aide of Gaza again?

I don't know but it wouldn't surprise me if the Israelis are trying to find out with some provocative and violent acts to test the waters.

Sorry but bloggers play NO role in political and military decisions, that is why the Television, News Papers and Radio is there. Internet is just a spin off nothing more nothing less... Get over it...

Thirty Israelis who were hurt during the Second Lebanon War filed suit on Friday against North Korea and Hizbullah for more than $100 million in Washington District Court, one of their lawyers, Nitzana Darshan-Leitner of the Israel Law Center, said Friday.
The plaintiffs, all of whom hold US citizenship, charged that North Korea trained senior Hizbullah officers and built a series of bunkers in south Lebanon to store Katyushas and other rockets that the Hizbullah used against Israel during the 2006 war, thwarting IAF efforts to locate launching pads.

www.jpost.com.../JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1238562952090

Lets not forget that all ths begun when the U.S. had announced that

Beirut - The United States is to donate 12 Raven unmanned aircraft to the Lebanese army as part of its military assistance programme, the US embassy announced on Tuesday.

The aircraft would be provided "in the coming months", an embassy statement said.

Lebanese army commander General Jean Kahwaji and Defence Minister Elias Murr agreed to the donation while visiting the United States earlier this year, it added.

The US Defence Department is also training Lebanese army pilots on the Raven as "part of the comprehensive, robust US military assistance programme to Lebanon", the statement said.

The Raven has electronic sensors providing immediate intelligence information and can perform remote reconnaissance and surveillance.

US military assistance to Lebanon has totalled more than $410m since 2006 and includes aircraft, tanks, artillery and training.

www.news24.com...


Keep in mind, as we speak there is a military exercise in Southern Lebanon at this very moment and the bombing was just make to sure that Israel is sending the message that they are here, ready and willing to do it all over again.
However, Israel and the U.S. are counting on those drones to be shipped to locations which either of them know about so they can be tracked via the eye in the sky. As i have said in many posts, its just another espionage trick to monitor current and future installations.
Often in the cold war various equipment was left to be stolen or agreed as a freindly gesture so it could be tracked into hidden and not known bases.

No need to appologize for your oppinion my friend.

Politics is by strict definition the process of forging a common ground consensus amongst dissparate parties.

I find it nearly impossible to believe that Government Agencies, Officials, Politicians, Media Companies and Personalities, and other corporate interests don't constantly monitor the Internet and use it to gauge the marketability of everything from tooth paste to wars, and to tailor their approaches and pitches based on objections of potential customers which is what sales is all about. Getting people who are inclined to say no, to instead say yes. The Internet is an incredibly powerful tool to that end which is why most big media companies have entire branches devoted to maintaining online forums or online forums attached to their websites. In fact everyone from AOL to the New York Times and Military.com have blogs so they can gauge public reactions and keep browsers on their sites in hopes that they will buy products from them or affiliated click through advertisers, including ATS.

Israel itself set up a Twitter Account to post 'Official' Operation Cast Lead News...and made direct appeals through online forums advertising for 'volunteers' to post Israel's official version of events and reasons on online forums.

Now maybe this is the Israel Government's version of handing out coloring books and crayons to children at Bob's Big Boy Restaurants. Keep the kiddies busy so mom and Dad can enjoy their meal.

War is simply a continuation of politics by other means, and politicians the world over are cognizant and somewhat beholden to over whelming public oppinion...if once again to do nothing else but tailor their sales pitch.

Israel concluded the operation well short of their stated goals, and the mighty Israeli propoganda machine found that public oppinion on and off the Internet throughout the world was voisterous and rancorous against the operation. Most of those offline demonstrations were organized and promoted online because simply put the Internet is the broadest reaching, most efficient, cost effective communications medium in existence in the world.

I find it highly suspect that unlike myself who puts this forth as my humble oppinion that you on the other hand attempt to authoratatively and unequivacally state it has no bearing what so ever...while coincidently putting forth your own agenda on the topic at hand promoting your own political goals, which by the way would be pointless if the Internet had no value in shaping oppinion and events.

Of course my oppinion is just my oppinion and you know what they say about everyone having an oppinion, which is why I tend to try to put mine forward humbly instead of...

Sorry my friend, I suggest sales 101 before your next attempt.

Hypothetical Scenario

If you had all the Internet at your disposal and i had Either TV or News Papers or Radio, either one, it does not matter and we put forward an experiment to the world announcing that the moon is responsible for photosynthesis in plants and not the sun.
Who do you think would achieve the goal ?

The difference between the Internet and the three other forms of media is that it costs less for one to obtain information and thus making it more plausible to influence the masses in one single swoop rather than isolated communities or forums. This is why advertising either through TV or News Papers / Magazines and Radio has a higher cost in comparison to the Internet.

I wont even get into the topic of successful subliminal advertising, thats another topic in itself. As for sales 101 , well i would rather use methods that have been adopted and will continue being adopted through media source's that you and i were exposed to from childbirth. These methods have shaped nations and cultures even before the person has been conceived. It would not be wise to dismiss or even place the Internet on the same level as what humanity has adopted as official source of information.

Originally posted by tristar
Hypothetical Scenario

If you had all the Internet at your disposal and i had Either TV or News Papers or Radio, either one, it does not matter and we put forward an experiment to the world announcing that the moon is responsible for photosynthesis in plants and not the sun.
Who do you think would achieve the goal ?

The difference between the Internet and the three other forms of media is that it costs less for one to obtain information and thus making it more plausible to influence the masses in one single swoop rather than isolated communities or forums. This is why advertising either through TV or News Papers / Magazines and Radio has a higher cost in comparison to the Internet.

I wont even get into the topic of successful subliminal advertising, thats another topic in itself. As for sales 101 , well i would rather use methods that have been adopted and will continue being adopted through media source's that you and i were exposed to from childbirth. These methods have shaped nations and cultures even before the person has been conceived. It would not be wise to dismiss or even place the Internet on the same level as what humanity has adopted as official source of information.

What you are missing my friend in my oppinion as to why the Internet is truly more powerful is the Internet is interactive and allows for two way, and instantaneous two way communication at that.

CNN can air a story, The Los Angeles Times can print it, The Learning Channel can do a documentary about it, and Double Day can print a book about it...but they have no idea as to how well or how completely their message is being recieved.

You and I can discuss this for hours or days if we want. We can do it in an environment where we never meet one another, never know one another and perhaps neither will convince one another...yet you know from my last response your message hasn't taken hold, and I know from your response my message hasn't taken hold. We have as many do overs and attempts as each of us are willing to engage in, as long as we have an interest.

TV, Newspapers, Text Books do not have that advantage...

Yet before I stopped watching TV (By the way some people do not even listen to mainstraim media for a wide range of reasons from poverty, to distrust) I would often communicate with CNN through Jack Cafferty's Cafferty File.

How would Jack Cafferty invite people to communicate with him? Through email! Through the Internet.

Now from time to time Jack would read one of my email responses on air, broadcasting it to millions.

One day a few years ago when President Bush was still in office, Jimmy Carter had just released a book which in it he named Bush as the worst President America has ever had. If you are not familiar with Jack Cafferty he appears on multiple hourly segments of Wolfe Blitzer's Situation Room Show on CNN.

Wolfe Blitzer had Jimmy Carter as an in studio, on air guest for an interview primarily about the book. Blitzer and Cafferty treated the former President with all the respect and protocol you might imagine a former President of the United States would likely command and be given, that is with great deference, and admiration, and great consideration to his words and the utmost politeness.

Immediately following the interview with Jimmy Carter, Wolfe Blitzer handed over the Show to Jack Cafferty for his segment and Cafferty's question of the hour was do you think Jimmy Carter is correct in asserting George W. Bush will go down as the worst President in U.S. History.

As I looked back at the 70's which I lived through, and Carter's troubled Administration I thought to myself, he sure is a fine one to talk! I am no fan of George W. Bush and don't vote or care for partisan politics but I felt honestly and still do Carter was a terrible President.

So I wrote a scathing E-mail on Carter's Presidency in reply, highlighting his many policy failures and their repercussions, including how some of his decisions were still troubling us today.

I didn't think Jack Cafferty would read it, as it was a bit off topic, and they had been so polite and respectful and defferent to the former President and appreciative of him stopping by in person and appearing on their show.

Jack Cafferty read the usual 6 or 7 pro and con emails he typically selects to represent the divergent oppinions of the viewers and their responses to his question and as I suspected would be the case mine was not one of them selected...

As Wolfe Blitzer then cut back in from his Studio in Washington D.C. to Jack Cafferty's Studio in New York he asked "So, Jack what's your personal oppinion in regards to what former President Jimmy Carter has to say about the current Administration and President Bush?"

..."Well, Wolfe...Jimmy Carter is a fine one to talk" my ears perked up as that was how I started my email...Jack Cafferty cast his eyes downward almost as if he was afraid to look into the camera for fear that I somehow might be able to see through the TV and not wanting to see his Producer's reaction and began to read my email word for word, putting it forth as his own oppinion and his own words!

It was clear by Wolfe Blitzer's reaction that it was an impromptu, unscripted act on Jack Cafferty's part that he did not anticipate, entirely approve nor appreciate...Cafferty concluded with a "I am sorry, Wolfe but the truth is the truth and I lived through it".

I had shamed him into reading it because what I had written was so poignant, so poignant in fact Cafferty was obviously defying his Producers by reading it, and putting it forth as his own Editorial versus my E-mail that the Producers had rejected as being suitable for the occassion.

That's the power of the Internet...one guy, and his words, suddenly changing minds and hearts and the actions those hearts and minds had originally planned to take.

I was pretty good at getting under crumedgeonly old Jack Cafferty's skin. A year or so later he asked a question one afternoon asking if the Government was doing enough 2 years after Hurricane Katrina to reconstruct New Orleans. I wrote an email reply asking Jack Cafferty if he himself was as guilty as the Government and if he himself was using his own position and wealth to the extent he felt the Government should be...and maybe he ought to admitt to the audience that he as well as all of us are guilty along with the Government of not doing more to help them out...

A few minutes later I got an email in my inbox from an address I hadn't seen before and clicked on it to open it and began reading what was a scathing attack on my charachter and a strenuous defense of someone else's actions.

It took me a few moments to realize Jack Cafferty was writing me back from his personal E-mail account, because my E-mail had gotten that under his skin.

I thought to myself wow, here is this broadcaster in New York City, making big dollars, with a big name, and big books on the market, whose at work, on a live TV Show writing me realtime at my home/office in Miami?

So I wrote him back appologizing if he took my E-mail the wrong way, and why I had written it that way, and why I thought it would do the 'cause' more good if he himself admitted he could do more, to prompt other people to do more...he was upset because he had a daughter in Tulane and had donated some sizeable money to the recovery effort and gone to a few events to promote it and thought I was just being unkind in my ignornace of those things. We exchanged a couple more E-mails on his private account as opposed to the one CNN has set up for E-mail replies to his show...and eventually agreed on my strategy.

Think the Internet isn't a powerful tool. That was two seperate occassions I changed the tone and scope of the message being Broadcast to millions through your favorite medium. That would have never happened without the Internet.

It has incredible power to shape oppinion, all kinds of oppinions, and all kinds of people oppinions.

Some food for thought my friend.

Hi,

To begin with your post was most enlightening and educational in every way and as you have put it we can both be here stating how effective one medium is in comparison to another. The fact is that you may have been one voice who changed the direction of a single person who obviously influence's millions across the nation and perhaps abroad.
But as you stated its precisely what i was referring to, its the delivery mechanism in this case being Television which influences millions simply by
a flip of switch, keep in mind that you do have some freedom of changing channels or stations but ultimately its the main stream media mechanism's which influence the way the general population thinks,acts,believes,obeys. The Internet is a division of that mechanism, i do not down play its importance but i cannot accept it holds the same weight as Television or Newspapers. Maybe in due time a new form of medium will evolve through the merging of both resources but that would depend on the advancement
of the current infrastructure.
Currently there are TV and Internet as a single unit, but its still very far from being the basic apparatus of informing the nation or the world,
although i do believe that in the not too distant future (5-10 years) it will be a basic component in every house hold.

edit: I cannot seem to fix those breaks in the lines, have no idea why its not back spacing at all

[edit on 2-5-2009 by tristar]

Originally posted by tristar
Hi,

To begin with your post was most enlightening and educational in every way and as you have put it we can both be here stating how effective one medium is in comparison to another. The fact is that you may have been one voice who changed the direction of a single person who obviously influence's millions across the nation and perhaps abroad.
But as you stated its precisely what i was referring to, its the delivery mechanism in this case being Television which influences millions simply by
a flip of switch, keep in mind that you do have some freedom of changing channels or stations but ultimately its the main stream media mechanism's which influence the way the general population thinks,acts,believes,obeys. The Internet is a division of that mechanism, i do not down play its importance but i cannot accept it holds the same weight as Television or Newspapers. Maybe in due time a new form of medium will evolve through the merging of both resources but that would depend on the advancement
of the current infrastructure.
Currently there are TV and Internet as a single unit, but its still very far from being the basic apparatus of informing the nation or the world,
although i do believe that in the not too distant future (5-10 years) it will be a basic component in every house hold.

edit: I cannot seem to fix those breaks in the lines, have no idea why its not back spacing at all

[edit on 2-5-2009 by tristar]

Hi my friend, you might want to try hitting your computers insert key a time or two, sometimes after you hit a delete key it will just kind of suck everything together until you hit the insert key.

No worries though with me anyway. I am not the spelling, grhamer or presentation police!

There is no denying the propoganda and indoctrination value of broadcast and print medias and that they reach what is still likely a larger number of people than alternative Internet forms...

But those demographics are shrinking each and every year.

I am 45 and because of my professional life became familiar with computers from just about the time they were introduced into the private business world with slow and relatively limited DOS applications and was right there to adopting the first and subsequent versions of Windows and AOL while most of the people in my age group and older gasped in horror!

"How on earth do you know what you are doing with that thing? I could never use one of those?" was something I heard a lot from people at the time.

My five kids though don't actually fully comprehend there was a time when their weren't computers!

I not too long ago explained on a thread about Internet Censorship how the Military had developed the concept to be an alternative source of communication for them in the event of an all nuclear attack and the process at use in that day of live telephone operators and manual switching stations to make and complete phone calls because there were no computers to carry out that task and the young people on the thread were flabergasted that life was so primitive by their standards in the not all that distant past.

Good thing I didn't mention some of the neighbors on our party telephone line when I was a kid didn't even have indoor plumbing yet and were still using out houses huh?

The under thirty crowd turns to the Internet for it's news and not the Television Networks. They might log on to CNN.com but they aren't going to turn CNN on TV. All the Online News Outlets have comment sections for readers and viewers to post oppinions and if you ever take the time to read through them, even on the most main stream sites there is always some rebel rouser like me attempting to expose it all as a lie. Simply put the younger generation is constantly exposing itself to independent commentary and editorial that currently is rarely censored, and while many people might be inclined to skeptically dismiss some non mainstream assertions at first glance the seed is planted and after a while if it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck people will often say hey wait a minute...it's just like that nutty guy posted on that blog...that is a duck and not a swan.

Book sales are way down, which in my humble oppinion is truly sad. The classics are hardly read any more nor most of the stuff being written today and there is a real dumification process going on through the educational system and the media that often strives to herding people to the lowest possible common denominator when it comes to art and literature, entertainment and langauge, as well as current events and how watered down and distorted versions of history sometimes shape current events.

In my estimation that's a double edged sword because a largely empty canvas is something that allows for broad strokes from another brush.

People with a herd like diminished capacity to reason and understand are theoretically easy to control, but also easy to stampede!

A look at the typical ATS thread will clue most people in to the fact that people are quick to panic, which is what causes stampedes. While the Cowboys are usually in control mounted on their horses with whips and lassos for the random stray, when the heard stampedes they run for cover!

The younger generation does not read Newspapers either and with automotive and residential real estate sales way down because of the recession which account for 80% of all Newspaper advertising revenues many Newspapers are in financially dire straights and many may have to go out of business or depend on stream lined shortened online versions utilzing wire services even more heavily. Currently most major Newspapers maintain online editions many of which have a wider circulation based on tabulated page views than actuall hard copy sales.

Most major Newspapers like the major broadcasters all have comment sections under each and every story and more and more you do see that lunatic fringe of it's all a lie, it's all an illusion this is what's really going on posting on them. The only thing ever edited are profane and threatening language, though many do limit the maximum posting charachters for brevity's sake limiting the independent commentary in some fashion that way.

In large part that's why the IDF and the Israel Government took to having their own official Youtube and Twitter Accounts and I suspect some online forums like AOL's "Yedda" are Israeli Government owned.

It's why the Center for Disease Control now has a Twitter account as they have publicly stated that they know because of network demographic studies conducted by orginizations like Neilson to use as guides to Advertisers buying advertising slots that the under thirty crowd is not tuning in to Network News but is getting it through alternative Internet outlets like Twitter that do allow for unedited uncensored independent commentary.

In many ways we are both right, my 78 year old mother gets her news from TV only, my 19 year old daughter gets her news from the Internet only.

What I tried to demonstrate in my previous post that the Internet does allow for an average guy to in essence shape to a certain extent what goes out on both.

The difference between the two mediums from a purely political standpoint is that it becomes much harder to gauge the effectiveness of those only watching TV or hard copy print media as the only way they can be polled is through telephone research which is something not every TV viewer will participate in when they get that call to poll them.

The Internet though is easy to poll on and ATS for example has been surprised by some of the poll results they have recently gotten in their President Obama 100 day poll when those voicing absolute or relative faith in him through the poll were far fewer in number than those members who were promoting him during the election cycle.

In business, and politics is business, and war is business timing is everything. Timing becomes ideal when the broadest and largest number of people are receptive to your agenda.

When the Internet is screaming it's not receptive in the majority, and it starts spilling over into the streets like the demonstrations that took part against Operation Cast Lead and most recently the Tea Parties against the Bailouts it becomes very hard for politicians to not take notice and speak to them. President Obama did mention the Tea Parties during his 100 day Televised Press Conference and both cautioned and asked people to "Not play games".

Fox News might have promoted the concept but most of them were organized at the local level through people using the Internet as an orginizational, justification and invitation tool to bring them about in cities from coast to coast and many of them did end up having local, State and Federal Politicians attending as sometimes entirely unwelcomed speakers by the crowds.

While the Broadcast Media didn't highlight Congressmen from the Federal Government getting jeered and cat called the videos of it happening have been viewed millions of times on places like Youtube and ATS and many other online forums.

Believe me when I say the Internet is causing some very powerful, ambitious and determined people some serious alarm and concern...and other relatively powerful and ambitious and determined people are looking constantly for ways to tap into it for the sake of their power and ambitions.

Media, Business and Government are in no ways ignoring it, minimizing it or dismissing it's power to broadcast their messages just like the TV but they are also very wary of it and concerned that people like you and I can have such conversations as these and practically anyone in the world can log on and be privy to it any time of the day or the night.

Neither of us are wrong but I am sure glad the neighbors got indoor plumbing!

reply to post by Darth_Prime


No 'civilian casualties'.That's the big difference.
I was disgusted by the last barrage and slaughter,like many others here.

The point being,Israel has a huge intelligence network,sophisticated weapons and political support.
Instead of using them effectively,they went in like a bull in a china shop.

THIS TIME,they went for a genuine 'military target' and the people killed were the ones digging the tunnels.

Israel does have a right to protect itself,sure.
Effective strikes like this? They'll get support.

Last time? Well.. let's just ask Turkey shall we?
Why has Israel's only Muslim supporter(ex-supporter now) in the Area now decided to strengthen ties with Tehran?

600–700 factories,
24 mosques,
31 security compounds
10 water or sewage lines
Destroyed
£2billion in damage..

THAT ,like the similar crime against Lebanon,was an attack on the infrastructure.

I'd call that a BIG difference in strategy and a lot wiser.

Hi,

Would like to reply by mentioning that i honestly did not expect this level of dialogue within the current site. As i have seen many posts that are, lets say far from stimulating and in all accounts one should steer clear of.

To begin with, i should mention that your brought a smile to my face while reading how you informed a younger aged person(s) how the Internet was some ten years ago and perhaps more. My own initial exposure to the web was on a similar time frame as yours since we share a common age bracket.

Now the difficult part. We see and read and stumble across so many forms of input thats its becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish what is fact and what is fiction. I do see that ultimately that the Internet will be censored and monitored with the same process as the Television and Newspaper are in todays society regardless from which country one is. If we take a step back in time, when Television was at its infant stages there was a boom in so many station's sprouting just like corn in a field, this obviously posed a threat and was dealt with by providing a mechanism to curb and harvest who fell into place who had other intentions.

So too will the Internet on a global scale fall into the same process. Currently there are so many news portholes who feed off and supply news based on around three hundred news corporations who in turn feed the majority of blogs,forums,internet radio streamed or internet television broadcasts. How ever its unfortunate and its increasing exponentially the amount of news that is being trafficked through the internet without it being filtered as either false or misleading news. Yet they are allowed to inform the global community with a simple rss feed. You would only need to take a look at how effective this is within the ATS site, so many paranoid and misinformed posters who blindly followed news links and posted the link with their views without assessing the true nature or origin of the content.

Me, well i enjoy what i do, its what you would call data mining, A basic project when i am involved stems from at least 6 months and has reached into three years. One of the most successful but not the only one, was with Shell, who managed to save 5 million dollars in over 2.5 years on a cross platform and multilingual monitoring scale within a custom built intranet network specifically designed for that company, this was not my project but was very interesting to see the mechanisms used to identify and filter valuable information. So in reality i do accept your point on the power behind the Internet, its just that many, well the majority have no idea what exactly is available to them. This is why you see so many depressed and insanely aggressive people throughout the web who feel that their view is the right one and we should do "this" and not "that".
What i tend to teach people is a simple analogy of that puzzle which im sure you have done at some point in life. Its called connecting the dots, when finished you were presented with an image, this methods is just a basic concept of how the global network is when your really do want to find out specific information about a specific topic.

A prime example of this would be this so called conspiracy regarding aliens and ufo's or the 9/11 or what is currently going on in the Middle East.
When i hear that there is to be a presentation with speakers for a particular topic that i must access in order for it to be included in an ongoing project i often see the most basic error from day one.

Its called "access" , when you limit the amount of "access" to the information gathered by a particular profit or non-profit organization to the target group you have originally intended to present it too, then its like trying to create a hole in water, how ever hard you or they try its bound to fail. People often forget basic principles which helped shape todays science,medicine,education,philosophy and the list is endless. I tend to have this rule as pre built in fail safe mechanism to what ever i choose to undertake, every action has an equal and opposite reaction .

Ass you mentioned state run forums and sites specifically designed to harvest opinions and views are and have been and will be a basic initial stage of monitoring to influence any negative or positive ideology's.
Its true, that many on the Internet spend afew hours each day, the majority tends to surf through spontaneous links and the rest are targetet to a specific list. One of the most threatening but very and highly advanced methods of data mining is what has been branded in today's society and they are called hackers.

The information acquired by a specific person or person's is infinite in comparison to so called business's who sell similar products but with the blessing of the legal system. As you most likely are aware of, that there are so many back end methods of acquiring data on an agreed target that its pointless in trying to restrict it, as everything that is digital is susceptible to intrusion.

I am not referring to home pc's but on the corporate level or above. We often here so many cases on a daily basis that its stupid to even conceive that this is not happening. As we speak global conglomerate's are the prime employers of such person(s) who are active in this area and off course those who venture in this field of occupation are not people who sit behind a computer in a basement or garage.

I guess i have gone off track and do apologize to any reader viewing the current section.
So in closing, i see we both share a similar idea on how and what influence's the masses, its all a matter of from which angle you are viewing it.

reply to post by tristar


Thanks for the great response my friend. That's what I love about the Internet being able to learn from other people who have a passion for sharing.

My whole life's passion has been doing my best to be a repository for and a font of otherwise relatively obscure and seemingly worthless knowledge, that every now and then to other people's delight and surprise becomes worthwhile knowledge when on that rare occassian it momentarily becomes pertinent.

I would have never had the good fortune of interacting with you likely in any other medium and I find it hard not to be grateful for each and every occurence when someone such as yourself can add to that repository of knowledge I so enjoy collecting for the pure joy of learning and discovering.

Yes, we have gone pretty far off topic, and as I posted in my original post to the thread the Swine Flu has a very large portion of the online blog world totally and exclusively absorbed.

Normally a thread pertaining to violence between Israel and Gaza would be hopping with lots of passionate people on both sides of the conflict and nuetral people lamenting that there is a conflict.

While we have enjoyed debating the shaping power of the Internet and blogs on policy makers in making their decisions and how broad a range and how effectively the Internet reaches the masses...the masses on the Internet are busy giving their attention to some other topic they deem more critical to their own passions in life.

So I don't think we have done to much topical drift harm here and might have given the few who have perused the thread an enjoyable and informative suprise in the process...

I can't think of anything to add on or off topic at this time beyond it would be an opportune time for Israel to engage in something that might normally cause more controversy because of the intense interest most people have right now in the Swine Flu.

When opportunity knocks smart people are prone to listen. I just like to point out somehow, somewhere, that those so inclined to see, that I am listening too...well...that and speaking.

Thanks for sharing my friend.