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Palinodus?

By Michael J. Smith on Sunday May 24, 2009 04:38 PM

These lefty mailing lists are a mixed bag. The same list that embroiled itself recently in a purplefaced cunno-machia brought me yesterday this nice bit of news:

'1 in 4 Israelis would consider leaving country if Iran gets nukes'
By Ofri Ilani, Haaretz Correspondent

Some 23 percent of Israelis would consider leaving the country if Iran obtains a nuclear weapon, according to a poll conducted on behalf of the Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University.

One of the comrades promptly came back with the only possible response:
Here's to Iran obtaining FOUR nukes!
Well, I wish I'd said that. All that's left for me is a bit of pedantic niggling.

It's well known that Marxists are overoptimistic, and mostly no good at arithmetic -- even the Old Man labored over his long division. These things combine multiplicatively, not additively.

So scaring away three-quarters of the Israeli population would require about 5.3 Iranian nukes ((1 - 0.23)5.3 ≈ 0.25). Getting the population scared down to 10% of its present size would require almost 9 Iranian nukes -- a hair over 8.8.

Still, we're on the right track. Contributions to the Iranian nuclear program can be sent directly to me. I'll see that they get into the right hands.

Comments (5)

hce:

Israelis are master bluffers. They make Kruschev look like a scaredy-cat. Just as Netanyahu shakes his fist and thunders threats of existential retaliation against Iran, his ungrateful supporters up on their settlement walls shout back, "if you don't protect us, we'll leave!" Ironic, eh?

Never trust an Israeli public statement!

MJS:

Very true. But geez, a guy can dream,can't he?

Sean:

I wonder if any math whizzes out there could calculate the risk a devoutly Muslim ruler would ever nuke the Holy Land. It might put our Israeli friends at ease.

LOL! Four, eight, whatever. I just hope that Iran's missiles are good enough to scare off Israel and the U.S.

Like Reagan said, we need peace through strength.

op:

"These things combine multiplicatively, not additively."

"It's well known that Marxists are overoptimistic" ..and dogmatical

one may have a very non linear function evidencing itself here

if y = the # ready to leave as a result of the iranian nuke pile

and x= the # of farsical n devices

then y(x)
could look mighty non linear eh ???

might be closer to
its upper asymptote already even at
just the thought of one nuke
then us optimisitic trierian reds
spontaneously imagine ??

my gut sez
them stiff necks will stick ...mostly

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