Archive for March 27, 2008

I don’t like flags, and I don’t like nationalisms but for Palestine and the Palestinians, anything and everything.

Posted on March 27, 2008 by As'ad

The press office of the Lebanese Forces militia in Lebanon said that Samir Ja`ja` (Ga`ga` in Egyptian accent) continued his tour of the US, and that he gave a speech “in the state of Cleveland.” Kid you not.

Posted on March 27, 2008 by As'ad

Kim Philby. In his autobiography, My Silent War, Kim Philby, obviously, takes issue with John Bullock’s account of the Philby’s spy case. Philby said: “I have even read recently, in John Bullock’s Akin to Treason, that Lebanese security is “very efficient”–a misuse of language by any standard.” (p. 135 of the American edition). I have [...]

Posted on March 27, 2008 by As'ad

In his new book, Sen. Chuck Hagels said that Rafiq Hariri had told him that Saddam had no WMDs.

Posted on March 27, 2008 by As'ad

The most competent and qualified Lebanese official ever. Lebanon has over the years sent official representatives and delegates to international and regional meetings and conferences. Meet above the most competent and qualified Lebanese official.

Posted on March 27, 2008 by As'ad

Tyre in the 1880s. Badr Al-Hajj is probably the foremost expert (and publisher) of old photographs of the Middle East. He sent me this picture: “a view taken in 1880′s by a French photographer residing in Beirut. His name is Jean-Baptiste Charlier (1822-1907). He owned a book shop at Suq al-Tawila and a silk factory [...]

Posted on March 27, 2008 by As'ad

I hate it when people try to validate their religions and holy books with science. Science is science and religion is religion, and a potato is a potato, and they will never meet. OK? So NASA posted pictures of the moon showing evidence of cracks. Some Islamic religious group is asserting that this had been [...]

Posted on March 27, 2008 by As'ad

This will be a cause for celebration. The Lebanonese will declare it evidence of the presence of the White Man in them: “The team says it found a particular DNA signature which recently appeared in Lebanon and is probably linked to the crusades.” (thanks Kawkab, Jens, and David)

Posted on March 27, 2008 by As'ad

I am not making this up. Arab League clown-general, `Amr Musa, spoke at a press conference in Damascus today. He was asked by a reporter whether the delegates discussed the issue US ships off the coast of Lebanon. He answered by saying that the delegates did not discuss the US war ships off Lebanon because [...]

Posted on March 27, 2008 by As'ad

I should have a regular feature titled MEMRI lies and propaganda. So MEMRI sent out a new item titled: “Lebanon publishes New Evidence of Ties between Syria and Fath Al-Islam.” You read the item further and you discover that it refers to a Hariri family-appointed prosecutor who submitted a report which, in MEMRI’s own words, [...]

Posted on March 27, 2008 by As'ad

“Mr Strasler did not mention the recent declaration – equally remarkable in the eyes of many secular Israelis – by one of Shas’s most prominent Knesset members, Shlomo Benizri, that recent mild earthquakes in the Middle East were caused by Israel’s permissiveness towards gays. Unfazed by the fuss caused by his remark – which anyway [...]

Posted on March 27, 2008 by As'ad

Don’t you like it when the Israeli state, which routinely kills innocent Palestinian women and children, feigns feminism? “Together with leading figures in the Bedouin community, the state will initiate a program to address the problem of polygamy, which Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog described as an “epidemic.””

Posted on March 27, 2008 by As'ad

Don’t you like it when US liberals say: …But Israel does not have the death penalty. And you want to tell them: …but Israel–of all countries–should have the death penalty because it routinely kills without trials or due process. “The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has requested a criminal investigation into the deaths of four [...]

Posted on March 27, 2008 by As'ad

“In England, Elizabeth I declared that she bathed once a month “whether I need it or not.” In Spain during the Inquisition, Ashen­burg says, Jew and Muslim alike could be condemned by the frightful words “was known to bathe.” Nor was sanitation prized in France, where feces left in the halls of Versailles were carted [...]

Posted on March 27, 2008 by As'ad

Kissing fatwawawa: Jamal Al-Banna’s fatwawawa permitting kissing between unmarried men and women.

Posted on March 27, 2008 by As'ad

Domestic violence and national security: “Once, according to the file, his behavior included “shoving her to the ground and refusing to allow her to leave during a verbal dispute.” Other times, she reported, Mr. Diveroli arrived at her home unannounced and intoxicated “going about the exterior, banging on windows and doors.” The woman worried that [...]

Posted on March 27, 2008 by As'ad

Clerical kooks Update. The chief of culture, guidance, and Qur’an matters in regional Awqaf in Egypt, Shaykh Husayn Sa`d Ad-Din, said in an interview here that the Prophet visited him in “dream visions” and gave him on five different occasions letters to Husni Mubarak. One of the letters dealt with the reform of the people [...]

Posted on March 27, 2008 by As'ad