It's been a long time. I essentially chose to divest time from writing and "punditry", but lately, I've been suppressing too much.

Che: 'The icon and the ad'

I think it's a shame how over-commercialized his image is, at least in the Western (developed) world. It's everywhere. I personally know individuals who never knew who he was, what he stood for, and his ideology, but they've seen his face on stickers or t-shirts, and decided to buy a T themselves. I think its dreadful to have people who don't even..uhhhhhhhh.........hate it.

'Geeks and Nerds caught on film lacking geeky nerdiness'

By Kelly Fiveash
5 Oct 2007 15:27
Canadians assailed by shoddy repairmen

Canada was shocked to its honest-to-goodness core this week by the news that the country's PC repairmen are undermining its sweet as maple syrup image. Canadian TV show CBC Marketplace did a hidden camera investigation into computer repair firms to see how many technicians could correctly fix a hardware problem.

Of the 10 filmed, only three were able to diagnose the fault: a blown memory module which would cost just $25 to replace. CBC's targets included Geek Squad and Nerds On Site. The film highlighted a stark inconsistency among the repairs carried out. One bloke suggested that the computer would need to be sent to a dust-free room at a staggering $2,000 cost.

Others advised that the computer's motherboard should be replaced.

'Hands off Iran: Why Iranian women don’t need rescuing by the US'

'Israel's Toy Soldiers'

" If you are a young Muslim American and head off to the Middle East for a spell in a fundamentalist “madrassa,” or religious school, Homeland Security will probably greet you at the airport when you return. But if you are an American Jew and you join hundreds of teenagers from Europe and Mexico for an eight-week training course run by the Israel Defense Forces, you can post your picture wearing an Israeli army uniform and holding an automatic weapon on MySpace.

The Marva program, part summer camp part indoctrination, was launched in Israel in 1981. It allows participants, who must be Jewish and between the ages of 18 and 28, to fire weapons, live in military barracks in the Negev desert and saunter around in an Israeli military uniform saluting and taking long hikes with military packs. The Youth and Education Corps of the Israel Defense Forces run four 120-strong training sessions a year..."

'Was the Iraq War Inevitable?'
For A Critical Appraisal of the Background that Led to the War
by Fawwaz Traboulsi

"Banning Desmond Tutu"

'The Islamization of Palestine' (in Arabic)

"To illustrate the point, the Kurdish regional government recently signed five unilateral oil exploration deals with foreign companies, including Hunt Oil of Texas, an erstwhile Bush campaign supporter, to fury in both Baghdad and Washington. In the south, Mr Maliki's key Shia backer, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, wants the nine majority Shia southern provinces to join together in what could effectively become a state within a state."

"A third-year Bradford University student – one of hundreds whose continued studies are at risk because they cannot leave Gaza – yesterday lost his legal attempt to be allowed urgently to return to Britain. Israel's Supreme Court yesterday rejected a petition brought on behalf of Khaled al-Mudallal by the Israeli human rights organisation Gisha, which it hoped would pave the way for the departure of Palestinian students trapped since Hamas's seizure of Gaza in June."

I shall start writing again...

'Searching for the Truth About the USS Liberty'

'Believe It or Not in the Middle East'

'London sees biggest ever Palestine protest'

'DePaul denies tenure for controversial professor'

"Islamic militants are hardly alone in seeking to rationalize innocent deaths, says John O. Voll, a professor of Islamic history at Georgetown University. “Whether you are talking about leftist radicals here in the 1960s, or the apologies for civilian collateral damage in Iraq that you get from the Pentagon, the argument is that if the action is just, the collateral damage is justifiable,” he says."

"A British businessman standing by the window overlooking Hyde Park, drinks in the decadent scene, not sure if he has landed in heaven or in hell. "It was my first party with the Saudis, in the early Nineties, and it was a bit of an eye-opener," he recalls. "We'd been to the casino and I watched the princes gamble like there was no tomorrow. The money they threw around was staggering. Then we went upstairs for the party. It was shocking but fascinating." One woman told him she was paid hundreds to attend and would earn much more by sleeping with one, or more, of the visitors. "She said she would get £2,000 for spending the night with a prince," he says. "The Saudis had their favourites and liked to think they were their girlfriends in London. They don't like to admit they are paying for sex.""

"The head of the Syrian Reform Party is expected to arrive in Israel to try and dissuade officials from entering peace negotiations with Syrian President Bashar Assad."

" A video showing Lebanese soldiers cordially offering Israeli troops glasses of tea during the military offensive earlier this month has hit Israeli and Hezbollah airwaves."

anyone remember this?

'JEWISH CRITICISM OF ZIONISM'

"Over the preceding 15 years, the number of Palestinians who had left the West Bank for the east had reached 200,000. Moreover, approximately 100,000 Palestinians had left Jordan altogether. Hussein’s effort to integrate Palestinians was “a positive phenomenon from Israel’s point of view,” concluded the final position paper that emerged from that winter’s discussions. Hussein was acting to eradicate the Palestinian question, and this was an excellent reason not to take the West Bank away from him."

"UNHCR estimates there are some 1.9 million Iraqis displaced internally, and up to 2 million in neighbouring states, particularly Syria and Jordan. Many were displaced prior to 2003, but an increasing number are fleeing now. Egypt hosts an estimated Iraqi population of more than 100,000, and in 2006 Iraqis had become the leading nationality seeking asylum in Europe."

Amira Hass: Israeli occupation united the Palestinians

Also, I find it amusing that the Lebanese Army did not fire a single shot (aside from "rogue" elements that found it impossible to not defend the homeland) against the Israeli military, but did not hesitate to display and fire their "advanced" weaponry at refugee camps. "Serve tea to the occupiers, shell the camps." It seems as though they've learned from the Israelis, as have other Arab countries.

The "Fatah al-Islam" really is the Lebanese al-Qaeda. Fundamentalist movement (one of the many Sunni radical groups) that was perhaps funded by Saudi/Lebanese elements in an attempt to re-shape the sectarian scape and re-invigorate and mobilize armed footmen in the secrtarian "struggle". This is a product of Lebanese inner-conflict. I cannot help but think that, due to the group's firepower, that it is/has been backed by governmental forces, because, there is no way that Palestinian factions would supply such a group and risk to the possibility of throwing off the power balance within the camp...impossible. Also, as we have learned from recent reports (and which should have been known all along), the majority of the members are not even Palestinian. Rather, they are Lebanese (mostly), Saudi, Yemeni, Tunisian, etc. I believe that since the refugee camps have been so isolated from everything, that fundamentalist indocrination and arming of such elements by Saudi and Lebanese (and all else who conspire) has not penetrated the camps, rather, it is possible that foreign elements arrive and burrow in the camps in order to dodge certain authority/intelligence apparatuses. Nonetheless, Fatah al-Islam is by no means a legitimate Palestinian nationalist movement. I mean, they have not mentioned one word about Palestine. Doesn't anyone find this strange? And do you really think that secular or leftist elements within the camps would allow them to freely operate and arm had they not power-backing? Highly doubtful. It truly is a by-product of Lebanese sectarianism, which never abstained from dabbling into fundamentalist ideology (particularly against Hezbollah).

"A UK government file on the crisis, released from the National Archives, contains a claim that Israel itself was behind the hijacking. An unnamed contact told a British diplomat in Paris that the Israeli Secret Service, the Shin Beit, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) collaborated to seize the plane. The flight was seized shortly after it took off from Athens and was flown to Entebbe, where 98 people were held hostage, many of them Israeli citizens....He adds: "My contact said the PFLP had attracted all sorts of wild elements, some of whom had been planted by the Israelis.""

"All civilians living in Gaza are collectively guilty for Kassam attacks on Sderot, former Sephardi chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu has written in a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Eliyahu ruled that there was absolutely no moral prohibition against the indiscriminate killing of civilians during a potential massive military offensive on Gaza aimed at stopping the rocket launchings."

"Talabani and Livni spent several minutes discussing the peace process while they participated in a panel on the topic. In discussion with Talabani, Livni described the situation faced by residents of Sderot in Israel's south, who are terrorized daily by Qassam rockets fired from the nearby Gaza Strip."

I had finals, and went on vacation for three weeks, this is why I was MIA.

"King Abdullah II has been calling for talks to solve the Israeli-Palestinian problem in the face of the Islamist challenge. But he also appears to believe that Israel has no reason to withdraw from the West Bank, let alone make peace, unless the Palestinians put their house in order." (NYTimes)

Jordanian involvement, or "stewardship" in the West Bank is not the answer. I mean, the Jordanians aren't doing much right themselves.