The News Bomb!

It's back and I know you missed it, The News Bomb. A collection of news bits that catch my eye, not worthy of a whole post but certainly worth mentioning.

By the way I'd like to take this moment to thank all people for whom without The News Bomb would't be possible, the crazy a$$holes, the stupid people, the hypocrites, the extremists, the politicians (who may fit any one or more of those categories) and of course you the readers (who hopefully don't fit any of those categories).

Q: How do you cause fear and enable prejudice against your religion?
A: Everytime someone says something "offensive" about your religion go nuts, riots, death warrants (fatwas) etc.

Since the Mohammed cartoons and the Pope Benedict debacle the world has learned their lesson. As a result an opera in Germany which depicts the severed heads of Mohammed, Jesus, Buddha and even Poseidon has been canceled. I guess some people just don't have esteem for the arts.

I think Israel, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia are trading Ideas with each other, they seem to have an affection for walls, first there was the apartheid wall in Israel then the illegal immigrant wall in the U.S. and now Saudi Arabia has come up with their own wall, a wall to keep their own people from crossing the border into Iraq. How bad does a problem need to be for you to build a wall spanning 560 miles designed to keep people in!?

Just as predicted violence goes up in Iraq during Ramadan. I find it sad and ironic specifically because historically the month of Ramadan in pre-Islamic Arabia was a month in which rivaling tribes had a truce with each other. Now Sunnis and Shi'as are killing each other as they leave the mosque after prayer!

First there were the moderate Arab blogs, now moderation and anti jihadist opinions have hit the Arab airways, in Syria no less.

Political Analysis

Sorry for no post this morning, I dont want to tie myself to a schedule but I generally dont like to have an off day. I will however post some stuff this evening for you to enjoy, in the meantime here is something to hold you over.

Hold The Bacon!

About a week before the start of Ramadan I met up a female Muslim friend for lunch, with Ramadan soon approaching, religion was an inevitable topic of conversation. We were walking downtown on the way to the sandwich shop and so it began..

Yours Truly: Are you dreading the start of Ramadan or are you prepared this time?

The Friend: Umm, I'm not going to fast, I just don't see the point, I mean I'm not your typical Muslim.

Yours Truly: What do you mean?

The Friend: Well I drink alcohol, I don't wear a Hijab, I don't pray, I wear clothes that show my cleavage and I just don't agree with a lot of Islamic teaching.

Yous Truly: Hahaha. Yea I don't think you own a shirt that doesn't show your cleavage, you dress like a stripper!

The Friend: Shut up! The point is I don't know if I'm Muslim, I don't think I believe in any of it.

Yours Truly: So you don't believe in God?

The Friend: No I believe in God it's just Islam, I don't think I agree with any of it.

Yours Truly: OK this is too heavy for a Monday, can we eat now?

At this point we arrived at the restaurant and stepped up to the counter to order, my friend ordered first.

The Friend: Hi how are you? Can I get a turkey bacon wrap with NO bacon.

Cashier: No problem, anything else?

The Friend: No but its really important that you don't put bacon on it.

Cashier: No problem ma'am, I promise, no bacon.

The Friend: OK thank you.

Yours Truly: Haha, what are you allergic to bacon?

The Friend: No, eating pork is Haram ( a sin ).

Yours Truly:Hahahahaha

The Friend: What!?

Yours Truly: You just said you don't believe in Islam, you drink and we both know you dress like a street walker, so who cares about pork!?

The Friend: I don't understand what you mean.

Yours Truly: Nevermind!

Chicken Of The Sea.

My dolphin shaped piece of Chicken from Popeye's

The Current State Of Terror.

According to a new article by the Associated Press, several U.S. Intelligence agencies as well as numerous private analysts are stating, they view Al-Qaeda as a significantly lower threat to the United States since 9/11.

The article cites recent terrorist acts such as the Syrian militant attack on a U.S. Embassy and the random attack of a British tourist in Jordan as in no way being Al-Qaeda related. Recent small scale terrorist acts coupled with French intelligence reports of a dead Osama bin Laden have turned Al-Qaeda from the most threatening evil in the world to a mere propaganda machine, an idol which fuels small and acutely unorganized terrorist groups.

I don't believe the majority of people will realize it today or tomorrow but one day in the future when we look back on "The War on Terror" we'll see we were at war with anti American extremism as we were in the 80's against Iran and not so much "Al-Qaeda". If you don't believe in the war you must concede, all of our chips are in and there is no turning back, we are in it to win it, and to win it we must always be steps ahead of those who desire our destruction. Right now America is losing the propaganda war, we don't seem to know exactly who our enemies are, if we continue to skower the mountains searching for Osama bin Laden, we might as well dig our graves now.

If not Al-Qaeda than who?

The enemy is the ideology that was given birth to 70+ years ago by Hassan al Banna and 40 years ago by Sayyid Qutb . The two are the fathers of militant extremism in the Middle East, who if Satan never created, Al-Qaeda would be non-existent.

What now?

Though we need not fear Osama anymore we're now faced with a new menace, the jihadist training camp which is the Iraq war just as the Russian/Afghan war was a training ground for mujahideen soldiers like Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Musab al Zarqawi. The American people are culpable for our failures in Iraq, the U.S. government has failed to make Iraq a safer place and we the people are responsible for not holding our leaders accountable for their failures. Remember patriotism is NOT blindly following Fox News and whoever sits in the oval office, its not standing by a president solely because of our dislike for the opposite party, it's constantly striving to make our country better and our misappropriation of consciousness is an enabler in not accomplishing that goal.

Uhh, Can I Speak To Your Marketing Department?

This is a paper toilet seat cover.


This is the label on the box of toilet seat covers at work.


Ironic or intentional?

Boredom Equals Terrorism.

I have a theory about jihadists, I think they're just bored. Imagine what it's like to live in Palestine, your a refugee in your own country, you've been cornered into a slum called the Gaza strip, you have a 10 o'clock curfew imposed by another country, most of your buddies from high school are dead, your dirt poor, you have no job and if you do have a job they don't pay you. That sort of thing tends to create a lot of hostility plus you have TONS of time on your hands, you might as well join a neighborhood terrorist group. It's a simple formula...

Multi-generational occupation
+
Poverty
+
Boredom
=
Blood thirsty jihadist

Next time you're SUPER bored think of how many other things you'd rather be doing, killing people might be one of them. Usually when I'm bored I want to murder my friend "Special K".

Dear Mahmoud Abbas

Dear Mahmoud Abbas,

The pressure has been mounting for several years now, it's ironic really, no one will acknowledge Palestine or even the Palestinians but somehow you've conceded in acknowledging Israel's 'right to exist'. Now that you've made a significant step towards peace in the Middle East you will soon find yourself among great men like Anwar al-Sadat and Yitzhak Rabin of course by "among" them I mean dead. You have successfully signed your death certificate and WOW you sure do have great timing. The Arab world is furious over the Lebanon war, extremist jihadist groups are springing up daily and the Palestinians are more oppressed today than they first were in 1948, desperation is at an all time high. Not to mention your the most boring, lame duck leader in the Mid East, if you had an approval rating it would be lower than George W. Bush's. To put it mildly, your F***ed.

Sincerely
D.B. Shobrawy

Stupid People All Around Me!

I'd like to say I hate stupid people and I often do, but if it weren't for stupid people I'd probably have nothing to write about. Luckily for you readers stupidity is delivered to my doorstep daily.

Today's delivery was completely unexpected, I went downtown to attend a seminar, when I walked into the the room I was excited to see one of my friends, "The Iraqi Jeweler". I gave him a quick, "hello, how are you" in Arabic which was a big mistake. Sometimes using Arabic in public is like a call for all dumbasses to present themselves. The most notable dumbass was this Iranian guy who insisted on knowing, where I'm from, what nationality I am, etc. After accessing his audience this guy goes into some pro-Iran rant concerning the Israel/Lebanon conflict. It went a little something like this........

-------
Iranian dumbass-Iran is strong and WE are getting stronger, the U.S. knows they can't mess with US!

Me-Oh really?

Iranian dumbass-Yea, you know what the Israel/Lebanon war was really about? That was a war between the U.S. and Iran. Hezbollah uses OUR weapons, they have all of OUR bombs and WE ALL know Hezbollah won.

Arab looking guy from across the room-Yea!

Me-What?! Are you mentally retarded? I guess you define victory as having your country turned into a burnt crater, Lebanon is still smoking.
-------

There is only one type of person who dares suggest Hezbollah won the war and that's desperate Islamic extremists. For those who weren't familiar with my blog during the conflict, allow me to summarize my stance. I supported the Lebanese people who I believe were given the shaft in this conflict, they were caught in the crossfire of a Mid East chest pounding contest. However when viewing the tape at the end of the day you cant deny that NOBODY won, nothing was accomplished and that if anyone lost it would be everyone living in Lebanon. Therefore to call Hezbollah the all out winner is simply an Islamic extremist's wet dream.

I'm a nationalist, I love Egypt more than anyone but this is one of the evils of nationalism. If you leave your country to escape tough conditions (like the Iranian Islamic revolution of 1979) don't pucker up to the oppressive government of your former country just because its your former country. Be proud of your culture, your religion, your people, that's fine but when you cheer on your former nations government over your adopted countries, that qualifies you as a traitor and you know what we do to traitors right?

What A Headline!

I opened my Yahoo news feed page this evening, as I do every evening, and scanned the headlines. I generally search and read articles until I find something that compels me to write, today I stumbled into a headline which required no reading, "Iraq Bracing For Ramadan Violence". I nearly choked on my tea when I saw that. Apparently in the Middle East violence goes up during the holidays which I guess shouldn't surprise me, I know what Egypt's like during Ramadan, no body works, all the stores are closed, people are starving from fasting and crabby from waking up early to pray, once sundown hits everyone is fighting over food. Take that same scenario, add civil war and you have a lot of angry gun toting people ready to kill over the last falafel sandwich.

Adding My 2 Cents On The Pope.

Over the past weekend my inbox has been flooded by readers of my site asking me my opinion of the controversy surrounding the Pope. I didn't feel compelled to write about it until I was approached by several friends (who are unaware of my sites existence) demanding my views.

This is how I see it, obviously some Muslims are angry, angry enough to demand the Popes murder, angry enough to burn down some churches, angry enough to murder an elderly Nun, but Muslim world if you can hear me, "don't be angry"!! Not in the interest of peace or a moderate and tolerant world, who cares about that stuff? I'm interested in accuracy... I'll explain. The Pope quoted 14th century theologian Manuel II Paleogus who said in reference to Islam, that the Prophet Muhammad encouraged Islam to be spread by the sword. Tell me is this truly a matter of contention? If you accused a Christian of believing sinners would go to hell, would he deny it, should he?

The fact that Islam was spread by sword wielding armies on horse back is not denied by Christians, historians or Muslims, so what's the fuss? Why should Muslims hide what the Quran teaches and be angered by statements like the Popes, does the Quran not say,

"Fight those who do not believe in God and the last day...and fight People of the Book, who do not accept the religion of truth (Islam) until they pay tribute by hand, being inferior." 9:29

and

"I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them." 8:12

I believe the Pope's intentions were to express his difference of opinion with Islamic teaching and to inspire "open dialogue" as he said, which resulted in the Pope speaking a little more freely than the Vatican probably would have wanted.

To my disgust many OpEd pieces I read were filled with liberal, idealistic gibberish which ignorantly expect the Pope to agree with all religions like some kind of fruit cake, sissy Dali Lama. Allow me to turn on my bull horn and make a little announcement,

THE POPE IS NOT IN THE BUSINESS OF BELIEVING THERE IS ANY TRUE RELIGION BUT CHRISTIANITY!!!

Unfortunately some people forgot that, like every news channel I watched. "Should the Pope apologize", was splashed across every news show graphic. Which leads me to my next point...

Benedict you idiot, why did you apologize!!?? Truly a sissy, Dali Lama move from His Holy Popeness. By apologizing the Pope only furthered the misconception that there was something wrong or insensitive about what he said. Which by the way was a half ass apology anyway, it was one of those apologies you make when some one forces you to apologize but you're not really sorry. He said,

"I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims."

That's like saying, "I'm sorry you're so ugly that nobody likes you".

WMD's, Who's Next?

The Iranian "situation" is growing increasingly complicated each day, I don't know how many more news bulletins I can stand to read. This newest tid bit caught my eye and probably wouldn't have if not for the Iraq "weapons of mass destruction" debacle. The IAEA, which monitors international nuclear activity, is accusing U.S. officials of exaggerating and being 'dishonest' about Iran's nuclear weapons capability. According to the IAEA Iran's uranium enrichment is far too low for weapons use.

Let me be clear, I don't doubt Iran's capability for nuttiness, however whets the rush, if they are a definite threat we don't need to push the nuclear issue. It's not necessary to plant a gun on Al Capone, you know what I'm saying?

A Little Help In Afghanistan... Kinda.

Ahhh yes, a little relief for American troops in Afghanistan...Perhaps. Who's helping out you say? Poland, yes Poland is sending 1000 troops to Afghanistan.

Insert joke here!

Who's going to send troops next, Kazakhstan?

Iraq and Iran, Together At Last.

Question: If our purpose in Iraq is spreading democracy through the Middle East, how much control on that democracy do we have if the new Iraqi government is in bed with our biggest enemy? Lets be honest, the new Iraqi government is designed in our image, to be our hand in the Middle East. With that being the case why is our hand reaching out to Iran, why is Nouri al-Maliki In Iran asking AJ to "help bring stability to Iraq"? What will happen as a result of this alliance, will the U.S. stick to their guns and say "Iran has harbored Al-Qaeda militants" and is an enemy of the U.S. or will they use Iran as an under-the-table ally in suppressing Sunni insurgents in Iraq?

Hmmm I don't know.

The Newest Bloging Trend. Count Me In.

This is like 6 degrees of separation or something. Leilouta started this last week when she showed us what she carries in her purse and what her husband carries in his pocket. Then she invited Highlander among other people do the same, Highlander invited Twosret and Twosret invited me. It doesn't end there folks! Leilouta also invited Shlemazl who invited Noah who has also invited me, apparently all roads lead to Whisper of Madness.

Now for the inventory


- Wallet.
- Cell phone.
- Banana, great source of potassium and looks good in my front pocket.
-10 American dollars and 55 cents. (change is one 50 cent piece and a nickel)
-Keys with Egyptian flag key chain.
-Tea bag, an Egyptian never leaves home without it.
-Afro pick w/black power symbol. Sometimes I need to tease my hair doo.
-Corona, I don't know I just grabbed it out of the fridge.
-Desert Eagle hand gun, you never know when you might have to eliminate the terrorist threat.

Simple enough, Now I have to tag right? This is like a chain letter. Carmen, Rhino-itall, Miss C. Show us your goods!

My Own Airport Incident.

I've been looking forward to telling this story...

About six months ago I was on a business trip that took me from Chicago to Salt Lake City, then to Denver and then back to Chicago. Everytime I travel I'm reminded of how much I hate the TSA rent-a-cops. You know those people in the white shirts at the metal detectors who scream at everyone to place their loose change in the basket like its a matter of national security. I get it their jobs are important but they are furiously rude to an extent that makes an inner city postal worker seem warm and friendly.

When I boarded in Chicago the TSA's ate me alive, I was instructed to remove my laptop from its bag and place them both in the X-ray machine. I took my laptop bag, placed it in the plastic bin and put my laptop on top of it. As soon as the bin went into the machine the conveyer belt stopped and the TSA lady watching the X-ray screen started screaming...

TSA Lady-"What the hell is this? Sir you're going to have to separate the bag from the laptop, how the F*** am I supposed to see the laptop if your bag's underneath it?!"

Me-"I'm sorry Ma'am I'm not familiar with the limitations of your equipment, I didn't think an X-ray machine would have trouble seeing through a thin leather bag. "(sarcastic tone)

TSA Lady-"Excuse me, do we have a problem here?"

TSA Lady #2-"Sir do we have a problem that needs police involvement?"

I've been through this routine for less inflammatory behavior before, I also had to beg a TSA officer not to call the police and have my brother arrested on a previous occasion, so I should know better not to mess with these people. At this point I decide it's not worth causing a problem and ruining my trip.

Me-"No there is no problem at all, I'm sorry, would you like me to place the bag in a separate bin?"

Situation overted! I arrived safely in Salt Lake City and met up with my boss, I spent a day and a half there and dreaded the moment I would have to leave for Denver, the thought of going through security again terrified me. I must say, TSA officers in Salt Lake City are the BEST. No yelling, no cursing, no mean faces, nothing excessive except for smiles. Would you believe that the TSA's even told me "please" and "thank you", I know you don't believe me but its true! I guess Mormons are nice people.

I get to Denver via propeller plane in the middle of a snow storm and kiss the ground when I arrive, I literally got on my hands and knees outside the gate and kissed the ground, the guy who was sitting next to me on the plane kicked me in the booty as he walked by.

Denver was alright but the client sucked and I was exhausted, I just wanted to go home. I grabbed my stuff and waited for the shuttle in front of the hotel. From this point on every step bringing me closer to my door step in Chicago moved excruciatingly slow.

3:13 p.m.-Shuttle picks me up, I'm the only one on it. I am happy.
3:27 p.m.-Driver picks up passenger #4. Still happy.
3:47 p.m.-passenger #10. Happiness decreasing.
4:15 p.m.-#15. Happiness decreasing further.
4:19 p.m.-we get on the highway. Happiness goes up slightly.
4:20 p.m.-we hit rush hour traffic. Happiness gone.
5:26 p.m.-We arrive at the airport just before I can break down into tears.
5:38 p.m.-Claim boarding pass.
5:42 p.m.-I walk towards security, I'm tired and not looking forward to dealing with the TSA's but I figure the only way it could be worse than what I have been through in the past is if they subject me to anal probing. I join the line which happens to be the longest line I've ever stood in, I thought I was at Disney World.
6:42 p.m.- I reach the front of the line, nothing out of the ordinary. I continue to the gate.

The airline I was flying was Southwest. If you have ever flown Southwest you might be aware that there are no assigned seats. Its more like first come first serve based on a letter on your ticket, I was one of the first allowed to board. I step up, hand my pass to the attendant and start walking down the tunnel. This is great, I'm almost there and then...

Attendant-"Excuse me sir!"
Me-Yea?
Attendant-"Umm, I'm sorry could you wait right here, I cant let you board yet."
Me-"What, why not!?"
Attendant-"I'll explain in a bit."

I stand there and watch every last person board the plane, finally the steward tells me my boarding pass specifies I have been randomly selected for "special" security screening but that because security forgot to conduct the screening they can't let me board until they do.
7:03 p.m.-They call a TSA officer to the gate.
7:15 p.m.-I threaten the airline attendants, "the plane better not leave without me!"
7:18 p.m.-I warn them again.
7:20 p.m.-I explain, "If the TSA officer acts like an asshole I'm going to flip out."
7:32 p.m.-TSA officer finally arrives. I'm steaming mad.

Screening includes feeling my nuts, going through my carry-on piece by piece, feeling my nuts again and uhh.... Oh yea feeling my nuts. The passengers have been waiting for nearly 45 mins, by now they are notified why there's been a hold up. I walk down the tunnel, step on the plane and turn the corner, immediately the entire plane full of passengers starts applauding for me, I hear someone yell out, "he made it" another one yells, "he's not a terrorist" I pause and think to myself, "I wonder if they'd be clapping if they knew I was Egyptian?"

Who's Your Habibi?

I was driving down the street with my friend "Special K" near my apartment last week, I had my windows rolled down, listening to some good music at high volume when I suddenly found my self stuck in traffic only 3 blocks from my street. There was a mob of people crossing the road and several charter busses lining the street, apparently Louis Farahkhan was giving a speech about how much he hates white people and Jews. The following details require me to describe my appearance.

I'm not the most Egyptian looking Egyptian, first of all I have Straight hair as opposed to the usual brillow pad head found in most Egyptians. I don't have any "extreme" Egyptian features, for example I was blessed with a "normal" un-Egyptian nose, my eye brows don't touch and hair doesn't grow under my eye on the top of my cheek. I'm your typical brown man, basically I look like a Mexican. I've been mistaken for a Mexican more times than Paris Hilton has seen a mans winky. To add to the Mexi-look I was coming back from the Gym so I was looking extra greasy.

While stuck in the traffic there was a car of ghetto youths (with all the markings of gang members) to my right who were trying to creep ahead into my lane in order to avoid getting trapped behind the bus ahead. I noticed he was trying to get my attention so I turned down my music and leaned in towards my passenger window when finally the driver yelled out to me,

Ghetto youth- "Yo habibi, habibi, can I get ahead of you?" *
Me- "uhhh, yea sure"

I thought my ears were playing tricks on me, I completely ignored the fact that this guy called me habibi, then Special K turned to me and said,

Special K- "Did that black dude just call you habibi?"
Me- "I'm not sure, I think so. Dude do I look like an A-rab?"
Special K- "Umm no I don't think so"
Me-"Dude where did that guy learn what a habibi was?"

I guess I should be happy, apparently I'm more Egyptian looking than I thought.

*Habibi-"My love" in Arabic.

To Clarify The Iraq Armed Forces Handover.

As some of you may allready know, yesterday U.S. Armed forces "handed over" authority to Iraqi forces. There are so many implications here, especially how this "hand over" has been reported. First things first, elections are comming and the Republican party (who has a near monopoly on the senate) is in danger of losing control over the house. If republicans lose control of the senate then Bush's Patriot act as well as the NSA wire taps are at risk, right now he can pass nearly any bill he wants. This "hand over" is perfectly timed to give the voting public the impression that we have taken a step in the direction of leaving Iraq, however Iraq's military is divided into 10 different divisions and the hand over symbolizes the transfer of only one of those divisions.

Another problem facing American forces in Iraq is political and religious division within Iraqi military ranks, the same division we saw within the Iraqi police. Several attacks on police and American military proved to be the work of Iraqi officers who were loyal to Sunni or Shi'a causes. With that being said, how safe can Iraq be if Iraqi soldiers are divided by their religious affiliation?

If you somehow believe Iraqi's can act in the interest of the country without religious division you need not look further than the Iraqi parliment to see otherwise. On the same day of the hand over a legislative session broke out into a shouting match as Sunni members accused Shi'a members of trying to divide Iraq into sectarian groups.

So as the Kurds of the north find themselves in their own autonomous region and the Shi'a dominated and oil rich south grows increasingly Shi'a dominant, the Sunni population finds themselves in danger of being pushed into regions that are completely devoid of resources. Mix that with a religiously divided parliment and military and what words come to mind...Full out civil war.

I Think Enough Is Enough!

I think its fair to say that with every day that passes, the tension between the Arab world and Israel reaches a new height. With numerous wounds still fresh and some wounds still being inflicted I have to ask, is now the best time to put 700 new Israeli settlements in Gaza? (the IDF is still in Gaza actually) Remember the whole, Israel has pulled out of Gaza and handed over control of the territory? Remember the Israel has removed settlements from Gaza thing? Well If you needed more proof that wasn't true, I believe this is it. It's not that hard to understand, how do you put settlements in someone else's country?
________________________________________

While the government of Ehud Olmert had been systematically closing down settlements in Gaza, the Housing Ministry issued tenders for construction of two settlements of 342 units in one site and 348 units at another, Ha'aretz reported.
________________________________________

Someone explain this to me!

British Man Killed In Jordan

Monday, in Amman Jordan, a British man was killed at Jordans Roman ruins by a gunman who also injured 6 people before he could be wrestled to the ground. Who helped capture the gunman? Two Iraqi refugees, gotta love that!

Not Again, Not Another Train Crash!

Would you believe that there was ANOTHER passenger train crash in Egypt today? This couldn’t have come at a worse time, as some of you might already know there was a train crash only 2 weeks ago which killed 58 people. You could say the heat is on but when I think about it I come to a simple conclusion...What's the big deal? Seriously, I know it seems sad and tragic and sometimes it's as if it happens too often, after a while you have to assume something is wrong with Egypt, even the Minister of Transportation thinks so but I disagree and I'll tell you why. The problem isn't with Egypt the problem are trains in general. In the United States there are literally *THOUSANDS of accidents per year, many of them involving hazardous materials. The cause of the accidents are generally negligence and faulty equipment which not surprisingly are the same causes for the recent Egyptian train crashes. For Egyptians like me who are often cynical about Egypt and its problems, its easy to observe and say, "of course, it’s Egypt" after which we make some joke about the train operator spilling tea on his lap or smoking a hookah while driving.

*In order to view the PDF of American train accidents go down to 3.04

Syria Agrees To Enforce Border?

Through talks with Kofi Annan, Bashar al-Assad has agreed to protect its border leading into Lebanon in order to keep arms from being smuggled in (to Hezbollah obviously). If you're familiar with the U.N. and Mid East politics you should be laughing by now, you might have actually spit your morning coffee allover your computer screen. It's laughable for a couple reasons, in order to understand lets introduce the major players.

Bashar al- Assad

Not the outspoken infuriater that Ahmednejad has become, prefers stirring up trouble from behind the scenes. Bashar is like that friend who smiles in your face, tells you what you want to hear but in reality he hates your guts. He's too much of a sally to do anything about it himself so he goes behind your back hoping someone else will settle the problem for him. What a prick! The worst part about Assad is, just like that back stabbing friend, when you find out he's a snake and you make him aware you know what he's doing, he still comes up to you and acts like you're buddies. Which only pisses you off more!

Kofi Annan

Shameless people pleaser who is doomed to be disliked by the whole world. I feel bad for this guy, his job completely lacks purpose, he's powerless to the extent that he has to accept verbal agreements from guys like Bashar al-Assad and if Bashar violates that promise what is Kofi going to do? He'll beg the security council for permission to send guys in blue helmets with guns that don't have bullets. Kofi is that annoying friend who wants you to be friends with pricks like Bashar the back stabber even though you both know he's a back stabber. He keeps telling you, "come on he's a nice guy, give him another chance". It doesn't take long before you start ignoring guys like Kofi.

The biggest problem in this whole mess is that the U.N. is flawed by nature, it has no power, no political agenda and no balls which results in countries like Syria playing with them like a cat and a ball of yarn. Bashar has this all planned out, he knows that by putting personnel on the border he can appease the U.N. and use the agreement as an alibi with the U.S. to say "look, we're helping you out here" while at the same time making it even easier to transport weaponry.

Carmen is SUPER Pissed

Carmen is SUPER pissed regarding comments left on her page and she's got some words for the voices of ignorance in a new post. Its a good rant.

Here's an excerpt
----------------
Here's one of the things I discerned from the comments: we "Muslims" need to watch ourselves. We need to make sure we don't agitate the poor, scared average American. Watch what you wear, watch how you act, watch what you say. What a load of f*%king bull$hit. Are you Americans so f#*king stupid that you can't distinguish between a "threat" and (for lack of a better word) normality??? What a bunch of backward folk then!
----------------

Here's is the whole article and the context of the controversy. To get a full sense of the issue at hand you'll need to read the comments.

As far as my own opinion on the matter, I will unleash them in the comments that will inevitably develop from this post.