From: psperson@old.netcom.invalid   
      
   On Thu, 15 Jan 2026 11:02:11 -0500 (EST), kludge@panix.com (Scott   
   Dorsey) wrote:   
      
   >Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=   wrote:   
   >>Reading a book on the early history of Mesopotamia just made me sad.   
   >>The first city-states in the world, the beginnings of civilization,   
   >>and they spent centuries warring against each other. Time after time,   
   >>a strong king would arise who unified a bunch of them into something   
   >>resembling the beginnings of empire and some kind of peace within its   
   >>borders, only for it to fall to bits again after his death, and   
   >>everybody to go back to warring against each other again.   
   >   
   >Sadly, this is the story of so many places.  China is one of the most    
   >fascinating.   
      
   And about due for another Warring States period.   
      
   Well, Warring Socialist People's Republics, anyway.   
      
   With nukes.   
   --    
   "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,   
   Who evil spoke of everyone but God,   
   Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)