دمشق أحبطت اتفاق المصالحة اللبنانية الأسد يريد ربط الأمن اللبناني بالأمن السوري

i think it's like fighting the dark side, will the force prevail...

الولي الفقيه in action

caution advised, very graphic video


Support iranians' struggle against theocracy

the above is a sample of the brutality of a theocratic and hypocritical regime that some mindless lebanese choose to glorify and emulate; Yet another unfortunate example why it is good that march 14 won the lebanese elections.

iran elections

you will obey...or else

iranian people versus ayatollahs

another reminder VIDEO HERE why it is good that march 14 won elections

iranian morality police in action

good thing march 14 won the lebanese elections
iranian moral police in action

did hasan nasrallah and hezbollah kill hariri???

der spiegel: hezbollah killed hariri this article sent shivers down my spine

U.S. Retreats, Iran Fills the Void

wsj article here

grudgingly, but i guess this is justice and the rule of law in action...

these people are evil regardless of assassination charges, they are responsible for countless human rights abuses against the Lebanese people. They should rot in jail.judge releases the Lebanese generals

memories of west beirut الغربيه

an archive article in the new york times unleashes a flood of memories long forgotten: west beirut c. 1987 nytimes

ابو عنتر.

RIP ابو عنتر

friendly neighbour

bear hug

(click map to enlarge, map from debka.com)

from the mean streets of ras beirut

daily star on ras beirut

of things to come...

photo-persepolis

marry or lose job

اذا اراد حزب الله ان يكون لبنانياً

اذا اراد حزب الله ان يكون لبنانياً an interesting article from الشراع

again we have been defeated

the doha agreement is a capitulation to the brute force of syrian/iranian hegemony in lebanon.

The lebanese majority did not achieve anything, no matter how they spin it.
They gave concessions and diluted their power to give iran and syria effective veto power over the lebanese government and people, which can block anything the majority wants to do, even the tribunal....

The criminal syria/iran weapons were not addressed which will only embolden the aggressors on the lebanese people.

The squatters in downtown left, but this was again a victory for the iran/syria camp, because it was a mini occupation , an aggressive action, that again paid off , because it was reversed for political gains by syria and iran.

So what did the lebanese gain? an iffy president, who watched and turned his head away when lebanese butchered by iranian /syrian gangsters were begging for him to save their lives.

Let us remember who probably approved the current army chief's position several years ago.

just a reminder to everyone who got excited when lahoud was made president.

defeat no matter what you call it sucks, because u feel it inside, and you know you have lost...

Welcome to Hizballahstan

from time magazine: welcome to hizballahstan

do not fear the darkside

a long tradition of fighting oppression... and big bullies...

shame on you lebanese army

beirut, may 2008

"resisting" in beirut

check out reuters photostream of events from today's peacefull hizbollah demonstrations in beirut (warning: can cause ptsd flashbacks for lebanon war survivors)
brought to you courtesy of hasan nasrallah (a.k.a gimp of tehran mullahs)...photos

the darkness

cometh...

lebanese blond...

with a beard...

free tibet

the machine

the fox machine starts to moves against obama,
its alive....

geopolitical Lego

new pics

kudos wired discretion advised

Is the party over for Beirut's clubbers?

thank you hassan nasrallah and company for almost succeeding in doing what no one has managed to do before...kill the lebanese spirit....and make the party grind to a halt... but who cares about the earthly pleasures... you will lead us to divine victory... and ever lasting glory and revel in the culture of martyrdom...and the never ending party of misery and sorrow you seem to enjoy so much...thank you!

while you were singing....

while you were singing...
riad seif ,  a political activist, sick with cancer, was dragged into the dungeons again , by your art and culture loving hosts.

kiss my ass tehran times

i guess the lebanese who dare oppose the little mullahs in lebanon and their masters in tehran are.....guess what?
take a wild guess?...... zionist puppets ...who should be....

Lebanon made it to a top ten list on reuters !

Thank you all hizbollah supporters and orange sidekicks for all you hard work and hopefully next year we will place higher on the list  than #8.

Monopoly, how could you?

growing up playing monopoly in the malja'a (bomb shelter)by candle light , is a quintessential lebanese expeience, people of a certain age group will remember well.

So naturally it was exciting when i read that monopoly is making a new edition with famous city names on the squares.
 
You can choose from 68 cities,  the 22 with most votes go on the board. choose here

I thought beirut must be on the list, surely, I scrolled through , no beirut, checked again, looked closely between Lithuania and Latvia, Nothing!

i feel cheated , and as if to rub salt in my wounded city's ego, there at the bottom of the list was her nemesis, new and shiney Dubai.

maybe someone has wasta with hasbro and can put beirut on the list

as for me i wont be palying monoply anytime soon, it aggravates my ptsd.

genius, self hate, and cold war paranoia

“Chess is war over the board. The object is to crush the opponent’s mind.”
Bobby Fischer...story in NYT

i always wanted to believe ...

are  they  following me to my adoptive city ?
or just more magical thinking
see more video

more at www.clevelandufo.com

will wait patiently for now ....

Jumblatt on IRAN TV

watch jumblatt and an idiotic iranian journalist 

superman

سوبرمان سوري

not surprising if you have a super-natural leader radiating positive energy and enlightenment to his grateful subjects...

Blackwater shot our dog...

RIP Hentish

"The Syrians are very happy"....

"The Syrians are very happy," says Sami Moubayed, a Syrian political analyst. "I think this is what the Syrians always wanted — Suleiman."   read more

There's a feeling I get when I look to the west...

(xkcd)

it makes me wonder....still

Bliss street is blue today

Nov 11th 1992 - Oct 10th 2007

you will be sorely missed and fondly remembered
thank you for all the memories

bliss street will miss your little paws
goodbye Cookie.... have fun in doggy heaven...

'Druze honor gang' behind woman's killing

or incompetence with a ready made reason courtesy of historic Arab chauvinism
story from haaretz

250K is too much for an Iyraqee, 15000$ is more like it

redneck rampage,


from NYT:

"Report Details Shooting by Drunken Blackwater Worker'


By ERIC SCHMITT
Published: October 2, 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 — A Blackwater USA employee under investigation in the killing last December of an Iraqi bodyguard in an off-duty confrontation was so drunk after fleeing the shooting that another group of guards took away the loaded pistol he was fumbling with, a report to a House committee said Monday.
The Reach of War
Go to Complete Coverage »

The guards, employees of Triple Canopy, another private military contractor, returned the weapon to the Blackwater employee, who smelled of alcohol, and escorted him away from their guard post in the fortified Green Zone, the report said. Shortly afterward, the police detained the man, a 26-year-old firearms technician whom the report did not name, at the Blackwater camp inside the Green Zone, but determined he was too intoxicated to be interviewed.

Within 36 hours, the report said, Blackwater fired the man for possessing a firearm while drunk and arranged with the State Department to fly him back to the United States, angering Iraqi officials who said the Christmas Eve shooting was murder.

The acting ambassador at the United States Embassy in Baghdad suggested that Blackwater apologize for the shooting and pay the dead Iraqi man’s family $250,000, lest the Iraqi government bar Blackwater from working there, the report said. Blackwater eventually paid the family $15,000, according to the report, after an embassy diplomatic security official complained that the “crazy sums” proposed by the ambassador could encourage Iraqis to try to “get killed by our guys to financially guarantee their family’s future.”

The report did not identify the acting ambassador, but a State Department spokesman, Karl Duckworth, said it was Margaret Scobey.

The shooting is under investigation by the Justice Department, but it remains unclear what laws might be applied in the case, because it occurred overseas.

According to the report, which was based largely on internal Blackwater e-mail messages and State Department documents and compiled by the Democratic staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the episode began between 10:30 and 11:30 p.m. on Dec. 24 when the off-duty Blackwater employee, who witnesses said had been drinking heavily, passed through a gate near Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s compound in the Green Zone.

When confronted by bodyguards to Vice President Adil Abdul Mahdi of Iraq, the Blackwater employee fired his Glock 9-millimeter pistol, hitting one of the guards, Raheem Khalif, three times. Mr. Khalif, 32, later died at an American military hospital.

The Blackwater employee fled to the Triple Canopy guard post, where he told the guards that he had been in a gunfight with Iraqis who were chasing him and shooting at him. But the guards had not heard any shots.

The next day, the Blackwater employee told Army investigators that he had fired in self-defense after the Iraqi bodyguard shot at him. On Dec. 26, Blackwater flew the man out of Iraq to Jordan, and then to the United States.

Senior American Embassy officials immediately determined that Blackwater should send the dead Iraqi man’s family a letter of condolence and a cash payment.

In an e-mail message, Ms. Scobey asked if the embassy’s regional security officer would be following up “to do all possible to assure that a sizable compensation is forthcoming.”

“If we are to avoid this whole thing becoming even worse, I think a prompt pledge and apology — even if they want to claim it was accidental — would be the best way to assure the Iraqis don’t take steps, such as telling Blackwater that they are no longer able to work in Iraq,” Ms. Scobey continued.

The embassy officials disagreed over the size of the payment until the Diplomatic Security Service official prevailed.

“As you can imagine, this has serious implications,” the embassy security official said in an internal e-mail message. “This was an unfortunate event but we feel that it doesn’t reflect on the overall Blackwater performance. They do an exceptional job under very challenging circumstances. We would like to help them resolve this so we can continue with our protective mission.”

Dinner in Beirut, and a lesson in courage

Secrecy, an intellectual said, is a powerful aphrodisiac. Secrecy is exciting. Danger is darker, more sinister. It blows like a fog through the streets of Beirut these days....

Robert FISK, the Independent, read the rest

my dying city

this city has withstood the ravages of time and the horrors of war
we shared the worst of days and enjoyed life in the city of love and hope.
now, i feel i have returned to a city on its deathbed...

choking to death by the yellow plague that is slowly strangling her...
the yellow plague festers in tent cities that surround its heart...
where thuggish man-boys sit around with a sadistic glaze in their eyes,
beneath Orwellian banners they sit: defeat is victory, dying is living,misery is pride, and master knows best.

The cult of the glorification of death and blood knows it has won. It slowly twists the blade in her wounded side. She stays silent in her pride. The great leader in his den awaits his messianic orders from his warrior-priest masters from beyond the deserts...

some choose to party on, even harder than before, but they all know in their secret heart, that the city of life and everlasting hope is taking its last agonal breaths.

It will be soon transformed into a new city, the city of resistance and victory, with the grand wizard ever in the shadows , he is magnanimous in victory, he will take good care of you.

For he is the divine victor, and to the victor go the spoils...

going home

Generalissimo!

generalissimo speaks to Cham Press-SANA

arab liberal and religous extremist debate

an amusing egyptian liberal vs. angry fanatic
debate

exigent

Unquiet mind musing
Dark and heavy

The endless concentric
Not forsaken

Reeling with ambivalence
Worlds collide and dreams

Life is exigent
Someone once said

cognitive dissonance

dissonance

funniest comedy central show yet

sample clips

of hearts and minds

winning hearts and minds
from the independent

lost in amorica

Mr Wiam Wahab enlightens us on syrian TV with his infinite wisdom

wiam in action

why can't we all just get along

vSocial!

Holy land ;)

Lebanon as seen in Haaretz through the Pew Global Attitude Project

Interesting numbers and stats .
HERE
full survey available on PEW website.

happy birthday

america

nostalgia and downward mobility

a vanishing class, the arab aristocrats
hussein fahmi

صاروخ

rockets in suburbia

a face to go with the voice

read story - confirms my conviction that every idiot squatting in downtown and every apologist for the so called "opposition" is atleast morally responsible for the assasinations occurring....

to hear what the stupid b**ch said click here to listen

redux

could be

another tricky drive home....
last post

going underground

3rd decade

reluctantly stumbling into the third decade




beirut,love,and the rain

so it goes ........

i finally saw it, bitter sweet..........

Goodbye, L!enin.....

soon u ll be off in ur little red jacket....

I ll be staying here in my voluntary exile in the rust belt rusting away.....

the eastern mediterranean will have to wait....sometimes i fear it will forget me

instead i took a trip to the store

a misadventure it was, got lost in the soft drink aisle

panicked and could not choose

ambivalence then derealization

only to be rescued by the head that was never on my shoulders

hurried back home to the waiting potato juice

R.I.P. Kurt V

over and out...............

the 50 year Reich

rejoice, weak mortals, it has been foretold!

50 years of glorious rule by the flawless ayatollahs ,

50 years of rule by the god of the katyusha

50 years and the Reich will be re-established

50 years and all morally corrupt weak willed stooges of the west and their Zionist masters, will be crushed like the bugs that they are......

read the speech of the glorious Fuhrer who will lead us to final victory...... err sorry....Supreme Leader/ Warrior-Priest, who is by the way (sole representative of morality and righteousness in Lebanon)

Rage Against the Machine, especially towards the end of their song , sum it up very nicely......

مكان آخر في ما وراء الوطن والمنفى

a reflection on the self and the sad state of affairs of the arab world/people and self....
in the words of adonis (again), a long read but very good, (in arabic) from al -hayat

storm clouds of april, club togo, and a mosque

where is it

ze axis of evil

laughter is good medicine

arab american stand up comics

axis 1
axis 2
axis 3
axis 4

music for ADHD ears

new streaming radio for the inattentive and easily distractable, yet highly intelligent individuals, who live in organized chaos.
If you feel that 3-4 minutes is just too long, unless its radiohead, and just want some background music that you can hear but not necessarily listen to,
wait no more: Radio SASS (Short Attention Span System) is for you,
to listen click here

how to pick a medical speciality

an interesting algorithm for med students to help choose medical specialities...(which seems to be quite accurate).
(sent to me by an ophthalmologist friend)

في أحضان الامبرالية الاستعمارية الأميركية الفرنسية

a very enlightening article from a prominent lebanese (i think) journalist, posted on a bastion of internet free speech and thought.

It was so moving that it did actually prompt an apology, watch apology

into the white

last week's blizzard...
if u listen very hard, u can hear the magnetic fields....

min khara, la akhraa

from being a "an indivisible part of syria" to becoming a limb of iran.... a tail (danab) of some sort maybe?
thanks ahmadi, but no thanks.....
lebanon (my lebanon, atleast) does not want to be one of your "limbs"

adonis

adonis's thoughts...watch

adonis

adonis's thoughts...watch

lunch box

a long time ago
i had a lunch box
it was a black battle star galactica lunch box
it was beyond cool
it was super cool
but that was then
and this is now

the boat is leaking and the captain lied

psychiatrist dont sleep well, no? said the fat Man
is this why you look tired and unshaven?
is this why you are always just a little late?
but u seem not to care, what is on your mind? he asked............

today was a bleak and cold day with dark thoughts and mostly spent day-dreaming about home, beirut, loneliness, nostalgia and memories, uncertainty and the salmon of doubt, boredom and apathy, and The Fall...

everybody really knows

powered by ODEO

they shine for you...

yalli istahou matou

shameless!
each idiot who supports the so called opposition, (although in my mind "the true opposition" is march 14), is morally responsible for the death of these people.
this is the ultimate in cheap hypocrisy, shame.....

a long time ago

when life was simple ...

Plan B

safarjal

everyone sometimes needs a muse ...

and cowboys, robots, unicorns, and kung-fu moves....

the wonder years

funny how life tends to repeat itself....

enjoy the days of wonder in an enchanted place

happy new year .....

happy eid

a big "Bali" laugh

it seems i don't laugh as much as i used too...
today, at work , i was reminded of how good it is to laugh out loud....

merry xmas and happy new year

first holiday season away from home....

senseless sit in drags on

insights from al hayat article , touches on a bunch of things....

"nouvelle" drive

yet another video, unedited, uncut, and for the first time in color
the significance is unclear yet, for now something semi-creative to do....
maybe a round about way to share music

sah el noum

posted by special request

a glimpse of the future if they have their way

a hizbollah monkey climbs a pole and performs a trick involving the lebanese flag

cute korean killer robot

how terminator began
and how we might end
see it hunt humans

Thermopylae

it seems that history does repeat itself sometimes....
almost 2000 years ago the persian empire was trying to complete its domination of the Mediterranean....as it is trying to do today.
there was one free state left in their path, ancient greece
a massive horde of hundreds of thousands descended on greece
a few hundred spartans stopped their advance.
those spartans eventually all died...but they delayed the persians enough for the rest of greece to prepare and eventually defeat the persians...
the place where Xerxes was stopped by the free democratic greeks was called Thermopylae...
so i guess quality does trump quantity...
السرايا is the new thermopylae......

the empire strikes back

soon the hordes of the dark side will swarm into the streets of my city
they will try to overthrow the republic...
the whole scenario is a little starwar-esque... with the following cast of characters...

Jedi who will defened the new republic:
yoda-hariri
obi wan- jumblatt
luke skywalker- saad
han solo- geagea
princess lea- strida
chewbacca- gemayel

Sith who want to take us to the dark side:
palpatine- khamenei
vader- bashar
jabba hutt- nasrallah
count dooku- aoun
darth maul-lahoud

"The dark side clouds everything. Impossible to see, the future is."
—Yoda from wookieepedia

(silliness is good sometimes)

the whore of tehran and the demented jester

a young man was assassinated today in lebanon
a few years older than me
maybe not an exceptional man, but he belonged to an exceptional current of change in lebanon
who killed him , we might never know
who pulled the trigger on the silenced makarov we will probably never know
but i know one thing
i know who is morally responsible...
it is the whore of tehran who hides in the sewers of dahyie, hiding beneath his turban and fantasizing about the mullahs of iran sodomizing him with their nuclear tipped shihab III...
and the demented sad little man, the jester of rabieh , who has become a sidekick to the sewer rat, in the hope that if he is an obedient little gimp one day he can sit on the little red velour chair in baabda and call himself the fool of "Lebanistan"...
and you know what no apologies to anyone...

american colosseum

the sound and the fury...

free association with an andalusian dog

when it all stops making sense and things seem unreal
the mind still roams free
going to places where it shouldn't be

november rain

a drive with the pixies down memory lane...

enemies of the internet

here they are in no particular order:

belarus, burma, tunis, syria, saudi arabia, nepal, china, cuba, vietnam, north korea, eygpt, iran, turkmenstan. (from RSF)

see how you can help spread freedom and read more

Götterdämmerung and self defense

poor ego;
orphan child of the war between a harsh super-ego and an irresistible id
what's an ego to do....
it comes up with defense mechanisms...
from the semi conscious ones to the sub conscious ones
from simple ones to elaborate ones
from well concealed ones to obvious one
projection, denial, repression, supression, reaction formation, humor, altruisim, sublimation, rationalization, intellectualization, dissocaition, undoing, splitting, and last but not least :
projective identification.......
the most primitive yet most elaborate...What is projected is most often an intolerable, painful, or dangerous idea or belief about the self that the person cannot tolerate....it may be directed toward the ideal object to avoid separation........
for now i will stick with my own defense, " the little prince" defense and live on b612....
i am a contemplating moving there soon.....
"On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux"

A revolution in the arab world ?

maybe everybody will more relaxed and calm down....
an interesting german perspective ....(from der spiegel)

the lion's den

Just read this disturbing article from TIME.
the hypocrisy it revealed is sickening. The great syrian baath regime, the daily lecturers to the lebanese among others; on arabism, nationalism, pride, and "resistance", is no more than the torture bitch of the CIA.
The regime accuses most lebanese of being anti arab, pro israel, anti "resistance" traitors, and wanabee phoenicians, but they gladly oblige and torture their own citizens for the CIA.
To be fair other countries do it or facilitate it, but they have the common sense to stay quiet about it or just stay quiet in general. Is the syrian militaristic-fascist regime(SMFR) experiencing a severe case of reaction formation?
It will be fun how the local lebanese gimps of SMFR will deal with this story, other than deny it as an imperialist plot hatched by the great satan to embarrass them.
Especially now, since the protector and number one super best friend of hassan and the "resistance" seems to be sleeping with enemy.
So maybe hassan and his friends; the last bastions of resistance , honor , and pride in the levant should be a little more careful, because if the nice men in black ski masks ask very , very nicely, he might be making a surprise trip to palestine.
Not the palestine he wants to liberate but the little piece of hell on earth, Palestine branch prison in Damascus.
The name of this little den of horrors in itself is another extreme case of reaction formation.

moving on to another amusing subject (briefly): If generalismo aoun was such good friends with hassan, why didn't he ask him to use his divine powers and intervene with god to make sure the weather stays good for the orange parade. Too bad it was cancelled :)
My chemical romance sums up my mood, disgust, dissappointment , with a little hope. listen

yet another arab contribution to science

this latest invention by arab young women will surely compete for next year's noble prize; a very serious and dangerous problem has been solved by this great scientific invention....
This might be even greater than the robotic camel jockeys recently invented to replace the asian underage boy camel jockeys ...

lost boy

i stumbled across this article and i had a flashback...
when i was little i also used to draw tanks, bombs, planes and guns ....
the first time someone pointed it out was i went to school outside lebanon, the art teacher was concerned about my drawings....
have many of us who grew up during the hawadith internalized collective ptsd and it has warped our psyche forever...
sometimes, i still catch myself doodling....tanks and bombs....

the ominous incident at زاروب الطمليس

amusing name aside, is this a sign of things to come?
what happened at زاروب الطمليس ?

1/2 self

even the mirror noticed

dream reconstruction

an attempt to piece together a dream.
a recurrent dream of searching....then realizing...

(a more sophisticated attempt at wasting time; best enjoyed late at night, with volume on high, and your choice of mind altering substance)

special thanks to the little blue car and the video cellphone who cooperated nicely together in making this video possible, (with the help of some surgical tape)

Kiss my Ass Hassan

"Anybody who claims to have divine authority is crazy. Anybody."
quote from the very end of this interview

somewhere over the rainbow

made the rain worthwhile
everyone has a little rainbow inside

wasting time

i like to waste time. i also like toys (mostly things that move and can be controlled remotely).
(does this reflect my immaturity and wishes to control others?)
so in my continued efforts to waste time creatively I have combined my two and only skills in my first youtube video.
(taken with my new cell phone ,nokia 6223, courtesy of a certain overweight jolly bavarian who gave it to a certain special someone who gave it to me)

a day in pictures

every morning i go here where i am a little cog in the medical-industrial-insurance-pharmaceutical-complex-machine...


psychosis induced origami, left as gift for me, high point of the day


then i go to the lizard yalli bighmouz, haram el lizard not only is he in this glass prison all day, he has to hang out with these guys....


after a "few" i see this.....is the blur from my eyes or from the camera...
outside there was a blue moon too,then I went home....

Petrodollar Rap

from a somewhat obscure comedian who does equal opourtunity political incorrectness.
carlos mencia. you might catch his show if u have time on your hands and stay up late.
(bear with the 1st minute before the skit starts)
:)

hehe

this pic made my morning today :)

read

schizophrenic ambivalence

perpetual gray sky
i don't mind it anymore
time passes by so slowly
but the days seem to fly
i peek into cyberspace
throw a pebble into the binary sea
the ripples fade
and i wait...

maladaptive attachment to an inanimate object

a sign of mental illness vs. schizoid PD?

well 2805-s301, it has been a long ride; almost 5 years now.
we have been through many things together
crossed the atlantic together, got bad looks together from the TSA guys me for my unshaved face and you for you banged up body, missing screws, and suspiciously empty battery bay...
you have stayed up with me many nights, never getting bored or tired..
you have seen my secret words and thoughts, and tried to protect them, fought off the hackers bravely .
you have insights into my unconscious from inferences made from google searches...
tastes of my longings from wandering, lost in cyber space, searching.
And suffered from listening to my music..

You have broken down a few times, and I thought you were done, but you managed to rise from the dead again. I thought about replacing you a few times but I never did.

But now in the twilight of your years we have to move on, today I will go look for your replacement and you will get some well deserved rest.
thank you for all the pixels...
a song for you

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

where have all the hawker hunters gone?

#2801 the last remaining lebanese "hawker hunter", (made in UK, circa 1950's)
IAF you have been warned...

miss you

hope you are doing all right
must be tough being alone and abandoned in your doggy old age
I heard you have lost your apettite
what did all the unconditional love get you? you must think

i call and check up on you, i ask them to say hello
and rub your belly

i hope you will hang on and be a good guest

hopefully we will meet one more time...
and you can eat all the chocolate you want

just wanted to remind you that you are not forgotten
thank you for being a great friend...

alienated alienist

today i realized something that depressed me even more,
technically i am currently a refugee
i am stuck in the land of the Cuyahoga
the land of the mindless zombies....

i have lost a little something that kept me going...
i always felt i can just say fuck this shit and leave,
go back home
but now, i have no where to go....except maybe another voluntary exile
physically and psychologically i am homeless and stateless
this must be how palestinians feel...
what if the natives decide to kick me out? I have to stay nice and polite...smile and nod...and hold doors open for people...
I cant go to lebanon now even if i wanted to now, maybe i can stay with kofi in NY...

being here now is surreal, people think you are a commie/anarchist if you try to explain why you don't go to drug rep dinners....
what if you try to explain about the downtrodden of this world, or the shame and humiliation of weakness and despair, or of people broken and destroyed and homes burned, and loves lost...you just might be a "T" word lover...

or maybe i can be happy here and they are right: eat , get fat, not worry, conform and consume, be a good zombie, read what oprah recommends to me in her book club, and marvel at how cheap things are at walmart...and tivo american idol

thank you hassan , thank you ehud for waging the proxy war for your masters and the petrodollar,
on the cheapest most disposable battlefield around, east of the Mediterranean,
The place i call home....

goodbye cruel world

is this some bad cosmic joke
does God think this is funny
qana again, is this possible, another qana massacre
i still vividly remember the first one so well
it was on my birthday, i was having a haircut at mike's
when the pictures started on tv
is life as a lebanese one recurring bad dream
is there nothing else for lebanon

what makes it worse is being away
the media here, mind numbing,
constant brainwashing has managed to de humanize huge chunks of humanity in the middle east,
no one genuinely cares, about the loss of life

fox news is going to be the end of me
it is like torture, but i cant stop watching it
the news presenters are so pretty on fox
maybe they should change its name to wolf

to make things even worse there are rumblings in the lebanese blogosphere
scary rumblings from a distant past..
about tony the mechanic http://anecdotesfromabananarepublic.blogspot.com/2006/07/tony-killer-mechanic-lebanon-against.html
and the druze village forcibly preventing hizbollah from entering it
hopefully just some fear mongering http://blissstreetjournal.blogspot.com/2006/07/siege-of-mari.html
(sorry I dont know how to embed links in a nice way yet)

and why was the UN /escwa building attacked to day?
, anger does not justify senseless destruction
and now it just plays over and over on wolf news
bearded scary looking men ransacking the UN offices

I cant take this shit anymore...

being a DjewZe

it can be lonely sometimes being a non Christian non Muslim Lebanese
it gets tiring explaining to the natives here what that means, and then finally because their ears are so used to it they say:
native : AH!, so you are a" JewS "!
me: No, No it is with a "D" and "Z"
in times of crisis like these; when every Lebanese becomes a political expert you feel left out.
both kinds of Lebanese are guarded in their approach, each thinking that your opinion must be closer to the other site's opinion , and keep invisible ceilings on their opinions...
some remark off handedly , almost jokingly, " you want peace because "jama3etkon" are in their army and are getting killed", but sometimes there is nothing funny in their eyes.
some are more subtle:" it was so quiet in the shouf in '82"...
little stabs at your "watanieh" when you argue a point.
but i feel as Lebanese as the best of them, and arab at heart like the rest of them. ..

I feel being free of formalized religion was liberating and made me a good Lebanese
there is no religious tides pulling me in any direction.
you can be Christian or Muslim Lebanese and be non-religious, but it is not the same , hard to explain.
The center for religion in my mind was never formed, for me to need to suppress or repress it consciously or unconsciously.
other Lebanese can be truly non religious or not care about religion; but somewhere in their psyche there is a lithe box filled with his/her religion's ideals inherited from their parents. And at some point in their life they have been in a church or mosque, if even as a social duty . So they can identify with some formal religion at some level. ( and of course there is nothing wrong at all with being religous)
Is this an advantage or disadvantage? I do not know, but I cannot help but think about it these days.
maybe I am more aware of this phenomenon now because I am the only "Djewze" here, in this forsaken land of the post industrial apocalypse?
or maybe i am just being paranoid again...

when playing with fire

you can burn your house down

leaving beirut again and again and again....

Roger Waters visited beirut when he was a young man...
he later wrote these lyrics:

So we left Beirut Willa and I.
He headed East to Baghdad and the rest of it.
I set out NorthI walked the five or six miles to the last of the street lamps.
And hunkered in the curb side dusk.
Holding out my thumb
In no great hope at the ramshackle procession of home bound traffic.
Success!
An ancient Mercedes 'dolmus 'The ubiquitous, Arab, shared taxi drew up.
I turned out my pockets and shrugged at the driver
" J'ai pas de l'argent "
" Venez! "
A soft voice from the back seat.
The driver lent wearily across and pushed open the back door
I stooped to look inside at the two men there
One besuited, bespectacled, moustached, irritated, distant, late
The other, the one who had spoken,
Frail, fifty five-ish, bald, sallow, in a short sleeved pale blue cotton shirt
With one biro in the breast pocket
A clerk maybe, slightly sunken in the seat
"Venez!" He said again, and smiled
"Mais j'ai pas de l'argent"
"Oui, Oui, d'accord, Venez!"......
(to read more) : http://www.roger-waters.com/lyricsbeirut.html

i think it is very touching a little sad, or maybe i just like pink floyd...and feel pathological nostalgia...(or this might be quite stupid, which is quite possible since I have been feeling stupid for some time now)

strategic balance of stupidity

15 cows were killed after rockets landed in a cowshed near Kiryat Shmona. Other rockets hit a building and open fields. No people were hurt in the attack. (Hagai Einav)


for a more sobering story about animals in war:(not for dog lovers)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tank_dog

Wish you were here

Hey big guy, how is it going...
maybe you left just in time not to see what is happening to us....
what they are doing to our Lebanon....
we hysterically squandered the gifts you gave to us in your life and death....
your bridges are kneeling, your schools empty, your airport is burning....
maybe they still feel your spirit around and want to drive it away....
whish you were here to pick up the broken pieces of a failed nation and make it all good again
to give us a smile....
and a big bear hug.
forgive us all for what we let happen, maybe we are just sheep living among the wolves of the world, or maybe we just don't know any better.
anyways wish you were here...
take care wherever you are....
because few have the misfortune of being murdered twice....

fear and loathing

I woke up today with a strange feeling
slowly bubbling to the surface, then I realized...
I feel ANGER....
I feel angry at the world
angry at religious fanatics
angry at self righteous fools
angry at hubris
angry at the tv
angry at pundits
angry at the lebanese
angry at the Israelis
angry at myself
angry at cowardice
angry at guilt
angry at the gods who have forsaken humanity
angry at THE MAN
angry at my career and work for boring me
angry at hypocrisy
angry at cigarettes for enslaving me
angry at alcohol for numbing me
angry at friends
angry at enemies
angry at stereotyping
angry at love for tormenting me
angry at growing up and being responsible
angry at learned helplessness
angry at my stranded brave old dog
angry at the sun trying to shine through my broken blinds
black fumes of anger cloud my brain and poison my soul
it is thick and heavy , suffocating and foul
will I ever be the same....

Dissociative Fugue

something struck me today, how little I have seen of lebanon...
for the first half of my life due to events quite similar to those happening now, my lebanon was a few blocks of ras beirut, with the occasional trip to the jabal, (my jabal that is)
ras beirut was what i thought all of lebanon was like...

then things got better, I grew older and didn't have time to explore lebanon.
weekends were spent partying and sleeping late
vacations travelling with friends to pass the summer

There never was a sense of urgency, lebanon is not going anywhere , it will always be there...

maybe we have taken lebanon for granted...maybe we have neglected it too much...

I hope it will stay there, next time you are in Lebanon take the time to smell the roses...

Why we fight?

the following was not actually written by me, I just compiled and paraphrased it...
(long read but interesting...I think)

1- war's causation must encroach into political philosophy and into discussions on a citizen's and a government's responsibility for a war.
(to what extent is the citizen morally responsible for war?), but with regards to war's causation, if man is responsible for the actual initiation of war it must be asked on whose authority is war enacted?
one may inquire who is the legal authority to declare war, then move to issues of whether that authority has or should have legitimacy.
For example, one may consider whether that authority reflects what 'the people' want (or should want), or whether the authority informs them of what they want (or should want). Are the masses easily swayed by the ideas of the élite, or do the élite ultimately pursue what the majority seeks?

2-Some claim war to be a product of man's inherited biology, theories include those that claim man to be naturally aggressive or naturally territorial, more complex analyses incorporate game theory and genetic evolution to explain the occurrence of violence and war. some accept that man's belligerent drives can be channeled into more peaceful pursuits some worry about man's lack of inherited inhibitions to fight with increasingly dangerous weapons and others claim the natural process of evolution will sustain peaceful modes of behavior over violent

3-Many who explain war's origins in man's abandonment of reason also derive their thoughts from Plato, who argues that "wars and revolutions and battles are due simply and solely to the body and its desires."
man's appetite perpetually overwhelms his reasoning capacity, which results in moral and political degeneration.
In Freud's on war ("Why War") in which he sees war's origins in the death instinct, or in Dostoyevsky's comments on man's inherent barbarity: " In every man, of course, a beast lies hidden-the beast of rage, the beast of lustful heat at the screams of the tortured victim, the beast of lawlessness let off the chain." (Brothers Karamazov, ii.V.4, "Rebellion")

4- Psychologists argue that human beings are inherently violent. While this violence is repressed in normal society it needs the occasional outlet provided by war. This combines with other notions, such as displacement where a person transfers their grievances into bias and hatred against other ethnic groups, nations, or ideologies

5-One alternative is to argue that war is only, or almost only, a male activity and if human leadership was in female hands wars would not occur. Critics, of course, point to various examples of female political leaders who had no qualms about using military force, such as Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi or Golda Meir

6-Other psychologists have argued that while human temperament allows wars to occur, they only do so when mentally unbalanced men are in control of a nation. This extreme school of thought argues leaders that seek war such as Napoleon, Hitler, and Stalin , and ?????, were mentally abnormal.

7-Evolutionary psychology tends to see war as an extension of animal behaviour, such as territoriality and competition. However, while war has a natural cause, the development of technology has accelerated human destructiveness to a level that is irrational and damaging to the species.
We have the same instincts of a chimpanzee but overwhelmingly more power

8-Anthropologists take a very different view of war. They see it as fundamentally cultural, learned by nurture rather than nature. Thus if human societies could be reformed, war would disappear. To this school the acceptance of war is inculcated into each of us by the religious, ideological, and nationalistic surroundings in which we live.

9-This theory argues that all wars are based on a lack of information.
If both sides at the outset knew the result neither would fight, the loser would merely surrender and avoid the cost in lives and infrastructure that a war would cause.
This is based on the notion that wars are reciprocal, that all wars require both a decision to attack and also a decision to resist attack.

10- AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST (the romantic answer):
Marxist theory of war, which argues that all war grows out of the class war.
It sees wars as imperial ventures to enhance the power of the ruling class and divide the proletariat of the world by pitting them against each other for contrived ideals such as nationalism or religion. Wars are a natural outgrowth of the free market and class system, and will not disappear until a world revolution occurs.

which one applies to us?

يا ست الدنيا يا بيروت

نزار قباني
يا ست الدنيا يا بيروت
1
يا ستَّ الدنيا يا بيروتْ...
مَنْ باعَ أسواركِ المشغولةَ بالياقوتْ؟
من صادَ خاتمكِ السّحريَّ،
وقصَّ ضفائركِ الذهبيّهْ؟
من ذبحَ الفرحَ النائمَ في عينيكِ الخضرواينْ؟
من شطبَ وجهكِ بالسّكّين،
وألقى ماءَ النارِ على شفتيكِ الرائعتينْ؟
من سمّمَ ماءَ البحرِ، ورشَّ الحقدَ على الشطآنِ الورديّهْ؟
ها نحنُ أتينا.. معتذرينَ.. ومعترفينْ
أنّا أطلقنا النارَ عليكِ بروحٍ قبليّهْ..
فقتلنا امرأة.. كانت تُدعى (الحريّهْ)...
2
ماذا نتكلّمُ يا بيروتْ..
وفي عينيكِ خلاصةُ حزنِ البشريّهْ
وعلى نهديكِ المحترقين.. رمادُ الحربِ الأهليّهْ
ماذا نتكلّمُ يا مروحةَ الصّيفِ، ويا وردتَهُ الجوريّهْ؟
من كانَ يفكّر أن نتلاقى - يا بيروتُ - وأنتِ خرابْ؟
من كانَ يفكّر أن تنمو للوردةِ آلافُ الأنيابْ؟
من كانَ يفكّر أنَّ العينَ تقاتلُ في يومٍ ضدَّ الأهدابْ؟
ماذا نتكلّم يا لؤلؤتي؟
يا سنبلتي..
يا أقلامي..
يا أحلامي..
يا أوراقي الشعريّهْ..
من أينَ أتتكِ القسوةُ يا بيروتْ،
وكنتِ برقّةِ حوريّهْ؟
لا أفهمُ كيف انقلبَ العصفورُ الدوريُّ..
لقطّةِ ليلٍ وحشيّهْ..
لا أفهمُ أبداً يا بيروتْ
لا أفهمُ كيف نسيتِ اللهَ..
وعُدتِ لعصرِ الوثنيّهْ..
3
قومي من تحتِ الموجِ الأزرقِ، يا عِشتارْ
قومي كقصيدةِ وردٍ ..
أو قومي كقصيدةِ نارْ
لا يوجدُ قبلكِ شيءٌ.. بعدكِ شيءٌ.. مثلكِ شيءٌ..
أنتِ خلاصاتُ الأعمارْ..
يا حقل اللؤلؤِ..
يا ميناءَ العشقِ..
ويا طاووسَ الماءْ..
قومي من أجلِ الحبِّ، ومن أجلِ الشّعراءْ
قومي من أجل الخبزِ، ومن أجلِ الفقراءْ
الحبُّ يريدكِ.. يا أحلى الملكاتْ..
والربُّ يريدكِ.. يا أحلى الملكاتْ..
ها أنتِ دفعتِ ضريبةَ حسنكِ مثل جميعِ الحسناواتْ
ودفعتِ الجزيةَ عن كلِّ الكلماتْ..
4
قومي من نومكِ..
يا سُلطانةُ، يا نوَّارةُ، يا قنديلاً مشتعلاً في القلبْ
قومي كي يبقى العالمُ يا بيروتْ..
ونبقى نحنُ..
ويبقى الحبّْ...
قومي..
يا أحلى لؤلؤةٍ أهداها البحرْ
الآن عرفنا ما معنى ..
أن نقتلَ عصفوراً في الفجرْ
الآنَ عرفنا ما معنى ..
أن ندلقَ فوقَ سماءِ الصّيفِ زجاجةَ حبرْ
الآن عرفنا ..
أنّا كُنّا ضدَّ اللهِ .. وضدَّ الشّعرْ ..
5
يا ستَّ الدنيا يا بيروتْ ..
يا حيثُ الوعدُ الأوّلُ .. والحبُّ الأوّلُ ..
يا حيثُ كتبنا الشعرَ ..
وخبّأناه بأكياسِ المُخملْ ..
نعترفُ الآنَ .. بأنّا كُنّا يا بيروتُ،
نُحبّكِ كالبدوِ الرُحّلْ ..
ونُمارسُ فعلَ الحبِّ .. تماماً
كالبدوِ الرُحَّلْ ...
نعترفُ الآنَ .. بأنَّكِ كُنتِ خليلتنا
نأوي لفراشكِ طولَ اللّيل ...
وعندَ الفجرِ، نهاجرُ كالبدوِ الرُحَّلْ
نعترفُ الآنَ .. بأنّا كُنّا أميّينَ ..
وكُنّا نجهلُ ما نفعلْ ..
نعترفُ الآنَ، بأنّا كُنّا مِن بينِ القَتَلَهْ ..
ورأينا رأسكِ ..
يسقطُ تحتَ صخورِ الرَوْشَةِ كالعصفورْ
نعترفُ الآنَ ..
بأنّا كُنّا - ساعةَ نُفِّذَ فيكِ الحُكمُ -
شهودَ الزورْ ..
6
نعترفُ أمامَ اللهِ الواحدِ ..
أنّا كُنّا منكِ نغارُ ..
وكانَ جمالكِ يؤذينا ..
نعترفُ الآنَ ..
بأنّا لم ننصفْكِ .. ولم نعذُرْكِ .. ولم نفهمْكِ ..
وأهديناكِ مكانَ الوردةِ سِكّينا ...
نعترفُ أمامَ اللهِ العادلِ ...
أنّا راودناكِ ..
وعاشرناكِ ..
وضاجعناكِ ..
وحمّلناكِ معاصينا ..
يا ستَّ الدنيا، إن الدنيا بعدكِ ليستْ تكفينا ..
الآنَ عرفنا .. أنَّ جذوركِ ضاربةٌ فينا ..
الآنَ عرفنا .. ماذا اقترفتْ أيدينا ..
7
اللهُ .. يفتّشُ في خارطةِ الجنّةِ عن لُبنانْ
والبحرُ يفتّشُ في دفترهِ الأزرقِ عن لُبنانْ
والقمرُ الأخضرُ ..
عادَ أخيراً كي يتزوّجَ من لُبنانْ ..
أعطيني كفّكِ يا جوهرةَ اللّيلِ، وزنبقةَ البلدانْ
نعترفُ الآنَ ..
بأنّا كُنّا ساديّينَ، ودمويّينَ ..
وكُنّا وكلاءَ الشيطانْ
يا ستَّ الدنيا يا بيروتْ ..
قومي من تحتِ الرَدمِ، كزهرةِ لوزٍ في نيسانْ
قومي من حُزنكِ ..
إنَّ الثورةَ تولدُ من رحمِ الأحزانْ
قومي أكراماً للغاباتِ ..
وللأنهارِ ..
وللوديانِ ..
قومي إكراماً للإنسانْ ..
إنّا أخطأنا يا بيروتُ ..
وجئنا نلتمسُ الغفرانْ ..
8
ما زلتُ أحبُّكِ يا بيروتُ المجنونهْ ..
يا نهرَ دماءٍ وجواهرْ ..
ما زلتُ أحبُّكِ يا بيروتُ القلبِ الطيّبِ ..
يا بيروتُ الفوضى ..
يا بيروتُ الجوعِ الكافرِ .. والشّبعِ الكافرِ ..
ما زلتُ أحبُّكِ يا بيروتُ العدلِ ..
ويا بيروتُ الظلمِ ..
ويا بيروتُ السّبْيِ ..
ويا بيروتُ القاتلِ والشاعرْ ..
ما زلتُ أحبُّكِ يا بيروتُ العشقِ ..
ويا بيروتُ الذبحِ من الشّريانِ إلى الشّريانْ ..
ما زلتُ أحبُّكِ رغمَ حماقاتِ الإنسانْ
ما زلتُ أحبُّكِ يا بيروتُ ..
لماذا لا نبتدئُ الآنْ؟

عروبة وحلوى ووهم الكرامة المهدورة

preparing another generation of arabs to waste their lives

Aslong as we do not learn to value our lives and those of our children and not to be willing to sacrifice them on the Jaheleya days' alters of honor and revenge....

Aslong as we glorify martyrdom, death, and stubborness in the face of certain self destruction...
no one will value our lives...

so stop looking for the world to stop what is happening to us, and do something about it...

Khalas, Enough!

Plan to end this fiasco:
1- Hizb of Death hands over the 2 soldiers to UN
2- Israel stops bombing Lebanon
3- Hizb hands over rockets and all weapons to Lebanese army
4- Lebanese Army takes control over all of Lebanon
5- Israel releases Lebanese prisoners as a gesture of good will
6- Lebanon is saved from certain destruction

Pity the Nation

nothing to say anymore...

Malignant Narcissism

Nero (64 AD, burned ROME)
Nasrallah (2006 AD, burned BEIRUT)

How to destroy your own country

Today I woke up and read the news.

In a way I was not surprised.

If you want to destroy your country , what better than to provoke the meanest, baddest, biggest kid on the block into doing it for you.

Shame on Hezbollah and its leader, into dragging Lebanon and its people into this fiasco. If they are on a suicidal death mission the rest of the Lebanese are not.
What right do they have to take these irresponsible an dangerous action an expose Lebanon to the devastating effects of Israeli retaliation.

Mr nasrallah thank you for liberating Lebanon, but you are not the master of Lebanon , regardless of what you or your supporters think. Lebanon is for all Lebanese it is not yours to throw away or cause it to burn , because of your ideological beliefs, or maybe bravado.
Who will repair the damage, who will pay for it. Can Lebanon take on more loans ?
who will protect the innocent civilians who will be bombed from the sky. You might not care because you are in your fortified bunker underground somewhere in haret hriek.
Maybe you don't care , maybe impressing Iran and Syria and getting their praise is enough satisfaction for you.

Enough of this let us move on, let us live and prosper and flourish.

You know maybe you just need to chill out and enjoy life a little.
Have a drink , maybe smoke a joint.
But enough of this travesty, enough of this sado-masochism your are inflicting on Lebanon and the Lebanese.
Remember this is not your country alone, and it will never be, and stop being holier than thou.
Isn't achieving peace a quicker and easier and less painfull way of liberating Lebanese prisoners?
Do not worry people might still like you, you will not be less popular and magnificent if you stop being a mighty warrior-priest-sheikh.

Yalla think about this , and maybe go have that drink...

pic from reuters escape air raids lebanese style

Lebanese Asshole

A true lebanese asshole...
check him out
http://www.almustaqbal.com/stories.aspx?StoryID=187125

Let your name live on forever and get arabs to space

Send your name to the asteroid belt on the Dawn spacecraft. Your name will be recorded onto a microchip that will be placed aboard the spacecraft accompanying it on its mission to the asteroid belt.
click below to send ur name

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/DawnCommunity/Sendname2asteroid/index_asteroid_blt.aspx

Hadji Girl

Marine in Iraq sings about his Hadji Girl.....

moving up in the world

Craig's List in Beirut

http://beirut.craigslist.org/

should be interesting

Having fun in Bahgdad

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5734528875668338561&q=aegis

Android Nightmare

the adventure of 207 in dystopia
http://www.undergroundfilm.org/films/detail.tcl?wid=1027959

Did Navy sonar kill Zanzibar's dolphins?

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania (AP) -- Scientists tried to discover Saturday why hundreds of dolphins washed up dead on a beach popular with tourists on the northern coast of Zanzibar.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/04/29/dolphin.deaths.ap/index.html

Finally an Arab contribution to civilization

Camel's milk could become the latest super food to hit the shelves of health food shops and upmarket retailers

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4930094.stm

more Haiku

future in the past,
laughter wafts slowly
Cigarette burns

drifting lawns
rustbelt groans,
Cuyahoga burns

when i think of you
the roses bloom,and take me
to a love so true

Haiku Contest

Haiku （俳句） is a mode of Japanese poetry. A traditional haiku consists of a pattern of approximately 5, 7, and 5 syllables, phonetic units.
examples:

1. Behold the ego
Set in glowing emptiness
On the edge of time

2.Silence--a strangled
Telephone has forgotten
That it should ring

3.Night; and once again,
the while I wait for you, cold wind
turns into rain

4.In my old home
which I forsook, the cherries
are in bloom

feel free to post your haiku...

On smoking

every puff burns some of me away...
haze in my eyes blurs the world
chemicals blunt the mind
stop. reality crashes in.brain screams for dopamine
smoke again, and again...

"Again we are defeated"

from the "7 Samurai"

some shock and awe, in my fleeting existence...

staring at the sun

bad things happen when we do things we shouldn't do...
http://www.assafir.com/iso/today/local/109.html

رئيس تتارستان يبدأ زيارة لسورية

رئيس تتارستان يبدأ زيارة لسورية: تجمعنا علاقات تعاون وطيدة
دمشق صحيفة تشرين صفحة اولى الخميس 30 آذار 2006

who your friends are says alot about who u are...

once you leave home you can never go back

"A numbness strikes him, half-way between north and south, leaving him unable to return” from Season of Migration to the North.

What to say...
it has been a long time since I shared my thought with the denizens of cyber space
so many things occupy my mind, the present the past and the future....
politics , religion, science, life, death, purpose...
frequent wanderings to home, nostalgia, change, growing up, Beirut, being an expatriate, stranger in a strange land...
half composed poetry in my mind,
wikipedia and limewire like a cyber hypnotic,
to tivo or not to tivo...
maybe give up, conform and consume...
american voluntary exile...
slow death by american idol...

Hypocrits

the people who always doubt lebanon and the lebanese people and accuse them of being cronies to the west and israeli, showed us a new level of hypocrisy, the same people whose gang called Mr Harriri a traitor and sell out:

from Haaretz:
"The Syrian president sat in the chair behind me ... we exchanged smiles and shook hands," Katsav, president of Israel.
Katsav said that it was Assad who initiated the handshake, and that he obliged. Syrian television initially denied that the two had shaken hands, but later Friday the official Syrian news agency confirmed the handshake had taken place
At the conclusion of funeral services, the Iranian-born Katsav also shook hands with Iran's President Mohammed Khatami. Katsav said the two spoke briefly in Farsi about the fact that they were born in the same part of Iran.

WHY

The movement to sell a portion of IMF gold reserves to finance debt relief for poor nations hit a roadblock as a key US lawmaker said Congress and the Bush administration would block any such move...AFP

me 

al moudhik al moubki

HAARETZ:
Israel to dump 10,000 tons of garbage a month in the West Bank.
Israel has decided to transfer garbage beyond the Green Line and dump it in the West Bank for the first time since 1967.
Transferring Israeli garbage to the West Bank will be much cheaper for D.S.H. than taking it to a site in Israel. Local and regional councils pay NIS 90 to NIS 105 for removing a ton of garbage to a transit station in Israel. They pay the dump some NIS 40 per ton for depositing the waste and the transporter gets another NIS 30 per ton.......

no comment

الرئيس الأسد يهنئ رئيس تتارستان بتجديد ولايته

Downfall

I just watched the downfall. It showed the horror of war and the absurdity of mindless loyalty. the loss of reality and the end when it comes crashing down on the heads of those who distorted it. i couldnt help but think about saddam and his likes and how they have fallen, how they must have felt, the disbelief , the frightened mignions. i couldnt also help wondering who will be next, maybe an opthalmologist or his speedo wearing friend.
only time will tell...