Jan,
What you say about dismantling SA’s nuclear program under pressure sounds believable. Thanks for that insight. It makes sense.

My belief system has gone through continual adjustment it seems. As a young child I grew up in a place and time in which blacks were considered as “less than Whites.” Some people even acted as if they were some step between apes
and humans. My immediate family wasn’t so extreme, but in my (segregated) school I heard people talk that way.

As part of my “spiritual maturity” I discarded those attitudes and came to believe that all men and women are at least equal in God’s eyes and ought to
be in man’s eyes too. I also saw how so many of the attitudes prevalent in much of the society in Mississippi was just plain wrong and unjust.

Later, I came to rediscover that in nearly every stereotype there is almost always a significant element of truth. I have come to rediscover “the Bell Curve” on my own, though I never read the book. But I believe that it is an injustice to treat individuals as a stereotype instead of as a unique individual who may or may not fit the usual stereotypes. I’ve had no problem
working with blacks in this country, but I do see some stereotypes reinforced – And injustices too sometimes.

I believe that US “affirmative action” (preferential hiring of blacks and women) might (?) have been justified as a temporary measure for a given generation. But now, 40 years after the Civil Rights Acts; that time is over. Racial and gender bias is just plain wrong no matter which side gets the advantage. I believe that ultimately it harms both sides.

In the USA we have the example of the Native American “Indians”. I won’t go into that long sorry history. But one thing that is apparent is that if you
take a group of people and provide them a subsistence living for free but no good employment or career options you wind up with a people who tend to drink themselves to death. Times have changed over the past couple of
decades for the Native American’s – I believe mainly because they figured out how to use a loophole in USA gambling laws to create an industry. Not out-and-out subsidies, but a business opportunity in Indian Casinos. I’m not over fond of gambling as industry, but it is a lot better than collecting tribal subsidies! I fear that many USA blacks have fallen into this same pit that the American Indians were in.

Oh well, enough about race issues that you cannot talk about here…

I have a bad feeling that most of my predictions are going to come true this year. It’s early May and gasoline is already at $3.43 per gallon unleaded – with no sign of tapering off yet. Interest rates are inching up and home
foreclosures are inching up too in our overvalued southern CA housing market. Whatever is or isn’t raising ocean temperatures seems to be continuing. In North America, hurricanes feed off stored heat in the Gulf of
Mexico. When the air begins to cool off just a bit in the fall, that stored ocean heat powers the storms.

On the good side, the Republicans are worried about the elections in November. So it’s highly unlikely that Bush can pull off any more wars before then – It would hurt his party’s chance. And if the Democrats take charge of congress, there is talk of investigations and maybe even
impeachment talk. So Bush cannot afford to do anything that would make him and his party more unpopular. That takes an actual war with Iran off the table for this year. On the other hand, if something did come up it won’t be
like Iraq. I don’t think anyone in the USA has the stomach for troops on the ground in Iran. Nor is it necessary. It would more likely be air strikes and commando units. But, that stirs up the hornet’s nest and who knows what
comes next.

Anyway, regards to you and thanks for the input.
Charles (Chazzz)