Amos,

I'd love to meet your priest or rabbi -- or at least get my hands on some of what you're smoking.....

Yeah, we've made a little progress in social structures. But if you look at what's happening in the Balkins, the Middle East and lots of other places around the world, it might occur to you that 1) the UN is pretty damned ineffectural and 2) even the most apparently stable political structures can come tumbling down pretty quickly when one unscrupulous leader wants to whip up and exploit age-old animosities.

If I've learned anything in my lifetime, it's that you can never over-estimate mankind's greed and stupidity.

Progress? I'd love to believe it, but I just can't.....

cheers,

david