Can you really not see? (Yes Amira Hass, they have been blinded. The Quran tells us about this over and over and over....)
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/756413.html
By Amira Hass
Let us leave aside those Israelis whose ideology supports the dispossession of the Palestinian people because "God chose us." Leave aside the judges who whitewash every military policy of killing and destruction. Leave aside the military commanders who knowingly jail an entire nation in pens surrounded by walls, fortified observation towers, machine guns, barbed wire and blinding projectors. Leave aside the ministers. All of these are not counted among the collaborators. These are the architects, the planners, the designers, the executioners.
But there are others. Historians and mathematicians, senior editors, media stars, psychologists and family doctors, lawyers who do not support Gush Emunim and Kadima, teachers and educators, lovers of hiking trails and sing-alongs, high-tech wizards. Where are you? And what about you, researchers of Nazism, the Holocaust and Soviet gulags? Could you all be in favor of systematic discriminating laws? Laws stating that the Arabs of the Galilee will not even be compensated for the damages of the war by the same sums their Jewish neighbors are entitled to (Aryeh Dayan, Haaretz , August 21).
Could it be that you are all in favor of a racist Citizenship Law that forbids an Israeli Arab from living with his family in his own home? That you side with further expropriation of lands and the demolishing of additional orchards, for another settler neighborhood and another exclusively Jewish road? That you all back the shelling and missile fire killing the old and the young in the Gaza Strip?
Could it be that you all agree that a third of the West Bank (the Jordan Valley) should be off limits to Palestinians? That you all side with an Israeli policy that prevents tens of thousands of Palestinians who have obtained foreign citizenship from returning to their families in the occupied territories?
Could your mind really be so washed with the security excuse, used to forbid Gaza students from studying occupational therapy at Bethlehem and medicine at Abu Dis, and preventing sick people from Rafah from receiving medical treatment in Ramallah? Will also you find it easy to hide behind the explanation "we had no idea": we had no idea that the discrimination practiced in the distribution of water - which is solely controlled by Israel - leaves thousands of Palestinian households without water during the hot summer months; we had no idea that when the IDF blocks the entrance to villages, it also blocks their access to springs or water tanks.
But it cannot be that you don't see the iron gates along route 344 in the West Bank, blocking access to it from the Palestinian villages it passes by. It cannot be that you support preventing the access of thousands of farmers to their land and plantations, that you support the quarantine on Gaza which prevents the entry of medicine for hospitals, the disruption of electricity and water supply to 1.4 million human beings, closing their only outlet to the world for months.
Could it be that you do not know what is happening 15 minutes from your faculties and offices? Is it plausible that you support the system in which Hebrew soldiers, at checkpoints in the heart of the West Bank, are letting tens of thousands of people wait everyday for hours upon hours under the blazing sun, while selecting: residents of Nablus and Tul Karm are not allowed through, 35-year-olds and under - yallah, back to Jenin, residents of the Salem village are not even allowed to be here, a sick woman who skipped the line must learn a lesson and will be purposefully detained for hours. Machsom Watch's site is available for all; in it are countless such testimonies and worse, a day by day routine. But it cannot be that those who are appalled over every swastika painted on a Jewish grave in France and over every anti-Semitic headline in a Spanish local newspaper will not know how to reach this information, and will not be appalled and outraged.
As Jews we all enjoy the privilege Israel gives us, that makes us all collaborators. The question is what does every one of us do in an active and direct daily manner to minimize cooperation with a dispossessing, suppressing regime that never has its fill. Signing a petition and tutting will not do. Israel is a democracy for its Jews. We are not in danger of our lives, we will not be jailed in concentration camps, our livelihood will not be damaged and recreation in the countryside or abroad will not be denied to us. Therefore, the burden of collaboration and direct responsibility is immeasurably heavy.
...yes Amira Hass....if you only knew how heavy. Thank you Amira Hass...there are some good people left.
And here is another Bright Movie video almost as good as the Burninator with Strong Bad....
http://youtube.com/watch?v=oS2ESHKhBQY
30.8.06
Iran Hates To Have Its Fingernails Pulled Out By The Great Satan:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/28/world/middleeast/28iran.html?ex=1157515200&en=e369d6401b2198f1&ei=5070&emc=eta1
"Israeli" journalist writes to provoke shame in US policymakers...nothing new there! Man they never give up the whining anymore and we are all getting pretty darn tired of it. NO ONE should go fight for Zionism, let me make that perfectly clear. If they want to fight, then let 'em....but US soldiers deserve better. Bring 'em home.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/756412.html
The Iranian rejection of the Security Council's demand that it freeze its enrichment program as a condition for negotiations left no doubts about Tehran's determination. As Iran's determination grows, the West's resolution weakens. It is not just that today, the Western public, especially in the United States, has no interest in talk about exercising the military option against Iran: The Israeli experience in Lebanon weakened belief in the ability of aerial bombing to achieve diplomatic goals. Rather, it seems there is a fear of any confrontation with Iran.
The American fiasco in Iraq and the 34 days of pointless fighting in Lebanon have engendered fatigue over the use of force in the United States. A confrontation with Iran means another dramatic rise in gasoline prices, which are already very high. The statements made two months ago about economic sanctions against Iran under the auspices of the Security Council are now dissolving rapidly.
An American friend who holds a senior position, and who has been steeped for years in the secrets of the diplomatic effort over Iran, told me this week that he has never been this depressed, as a result of the West's inability to act with determination on the issue of nuclear proliferation. He cannot detect in any Western capital a leadership with the determination and the public support to take action to stop Iran's nuclearization. The only capital in which he discerns determined leadership with a clear strategy and direction is Tehran.
There is a feedback mechanism between Iranian belligerence and Western defeatism. Just as Iran today is more deterring than deterred, the reverse is true of the West. Just as Hassan Nasrallah likened Israel to a spiderweb, the Iranians now see the West as a dog that barks, but does not bite. The Western nations' inability to enforce the Security Council resolution on Iran is the clearest expression of this syndrome.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/28/world/middleeast/28iran.html?ex=1157515200&en=e369d6401b2198f1&ei=5070&emc=eta1
"Israeli" journalist writes to provoke shame in US policymakers...nothing new there! Man they never give up the whining anymore and we are all getting pretty darn tired of it. NO ONE should go fight for Zionism, let me make that perfectly clear. If they want to fight, then let 'em....but US soldiers deserve better. Bring 'em home.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/756412.html
The Iranian rejection of the Security Council's demand that it freeze its enrichment program as a condition for negotiations left no doubts about Tehran's determination. As Iran's determination grows, the West's resolution weakens. It is not just that today, the Western public, especially in the United States, has no interest in talk about exercising the military option against Iran: The Israeli experience in Lebanon weakened belief in the ability of aerial bombing to achieve diplomatic goals. Rather, it seems there is a fear of any confrontation with Iran.
The American fiasco in Iraq and the 34 days of pointless fighting in Lebanon have engendered fatigue over the use of force in the United States. A confrontation with Iran means another dramatic rise in gasoline prices, which are already very high. The statements made two months ago about economic sanctions against Iran under the auspices of the Security Council are now dissolving rapidly.
An American friend who holds a senior position, and who has been steeped for years in the secrets of the diplomatic effort over Iran, told me this week that he has never been this depressed, as a result of the West's inability to act with determination on the issue of nuclear proliferation. He cannot detect in any Western capital a leadership with the determination and the public support to take action to stop Iran's nuclearization. The only capital in which he discerns determined leadership with a clear strategy and direction is Tehran.
There is a feedback mechanism between Iranian belligerence and Western defeatism. Just as Iran today is more deterring than deterred, the reverse is true of the West. Just as Hassan Nasrallah likened Israel to a spiderweb, the Iranians now see the West as a dog that barks, but does not bite. The Western nations' inability to enforce the Security Council resolution on Iran is the clearest expression of this syndrome.
28.8.06
http://www.electronicintifada.net/lebanon/
THIS kind of Zionism pal. Not the other 'kind', you know, the one that supposedly publishes us poor poets.
Some reports in the comments and some, highlighted here regarding Zionist Torture which looks a helluva lot like Nazi brutalities:
Since the brake out of Al Aqsa Intifada on 28/09/2000, ten Palestinian prisoners have died as a result of the practice of physical torture, medical neglect, and a failure to provide the necessary health care. The ten martyrs are: 1. Prisoner Waleed Mohammad Issa Amro, 24 years old from Dora, Hebron. Died on 19/02/2003 in Nafha Desert Prison. After he suffered a heart stroke, he never received the necessary medical attention 2. Prisoner Basheer Oweis, 27 years old from Balata Refugee Camp, Nablus. Died on 16/09/2004, in Megiddo Prison after he suffered a severe apoplexy and the prison’s medical team never provided him anything other than tranquilizing injections every time his case deteriorated3. Hasan Abed Al Salam Jawabrah, 21 years old from Arroub Refugee Camp, Hebron. Died on 28/05/2005, in Megiddo Prison where he suffered a case of psychiatric disorder and severe depression after he was brutally beaten and physically tortured during interrogation 4. Anas Kamel Mustafa Masalmah, 18 years old from Dora, Hebron. He died on 09/03/2003, in Ashkalon Prison. He suffered serious bullet wounds before he was arrested, but he never received the necessary medical attention5. Mohammad Hasan Abu Hadwan, 65 years old from Shu’fat, Jerusalem. Died on 04/11/2004, in Al Ramlah Prison Hospital after he spent 19 years imprisoned, and suffered from a heart condition. 6. Fawaz Saeed Hassan, 27 years old from Tulkarem. He died 16/09/2004, in Megiddo Prison after he suffered a severe heart attack. He had a heart condition 7. Abed Al Fattah Yousef Raddad, 25 years old from Tulkarem. He died on 05/05/2005, in Al Ramlah Prison Hospital, after he had gone through brutal interrogation as he suffered a bullet wound in the foot8. Rasem Suleiman Ghneimat, 27 years old from Ramallah. He died on 27/01/2005 in Megiddo Prison after a fire burned part of the prison9. Ali Mohammad Tawfeeq Abu Al Rubb, 20 years old from Jenin. He died on 10/06/2005 in the prison of Rosh Bina after he had undergone severe physical torture. He was found hung in his prison cell, traces of strikes were located on his skull 10. Bashar Aref Bani Odeh, 27 years old from Tammon, Tubas. He died on 23/06/2005 in Gilboa’ Prison after he suffering a heart attack
THIS kind of Zionism pal. Not the other 'kind', you know, the one that supposedly publishes us poor poets.
Some reports in the comments and some, highlighted here regarding Zionist Torture which looks a helluva lot like Nazi brutalities:
Since the brake out of Al Aqsa Intifada on 28/09/2000, ten Palestinian prisoners have died as a result of the practice of physical torture, medical neglect, and a failure to provide the necessary health care. The ten martyrs are: 1. Prisoner Waleed Mohammad Issa Amro, 24 years old from Dora, Hebron. Died on 19/02/2003 in Nafha Desert Prison. After he suffered a heart stroke, he never received the necessary medical attention 2. Prisoner Basheer Oweis, 27 years old from Balata Refugee Camp, Nablus. Died on 16/09/2004, in Megiddo Prison after he suffered a severe apoplexy and the prison’s medical team never provided him anything other than tranquilizing injections every time his case deteriorated3. Hasan Abed Al Salam Jawabrah, 21 years old from Arroub Refugee Camp, Hebron. Died on 28/05/2005, in Megiddo Prison where he suffered a case of psychiatric disorder and severe depression after he was brutally beaten and physically tortured during interrogation 4. Anas Kamel Mustafa Masalmah, 18 years old from Dora, Hebron. He died on 09/03/2003, in Ashkalon Prison. He suffered serious bullet wounds before he was arrested, but he never received the necessary medical attention5. Mohammad Hasan Abu Hadwan, 65 years old from Shu’fat, Jerusalem. Died on 04/11/2004, in Al Ramlah Prison Hospital after he spent 19 years imprisoned, and suffered from a heart condition. 6. Fawaz Saeed Hassan, 27 years old from Tulkarem. He died 16/09/2004, in Megiddo Prison after he suffered a severe heart attack. He had a heart condition 7. Abed Al Fattah Yousef Raddad, 25 years old from Tulkarem. He died on 05/05/2005, in Al Ramlah Prison Hospital, after he had gone through brutal interrogation as he suffered a bullet wound in the foot8. Rasem Suleiman Ghneimat, 27 years old from Ramallah. He died on 27/01/2005 in Megiddo Prison after a fire burned part of the prison9. Ali Mohammad Tawfeeq Abu Al Rubb, 20 years old from Jenin. He died on 10/06/2005 in the prison of Rosh Bina after he had undergone severe physical torture. He was found hung in his prison cell, traces of strikes were located on his skull 10. Bashar Aref Bani Odeh, 27 years old from Tammon, Tubas. He died on 23/06/2005 in Gilboa’ Prison after he suffering a heart attack
Deportations, transmigrations and State Sponsored Slavery of Ethiopian Jews, the many tie ins with "captives" and the Traditional Wars of the Ancients, hidden from view...you gotta look for this stuff folks, you have to READ:
http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/briefing/daily_briefings/1991/9105/086.html
Q Can I ask a couple questions about the MiddleEast. There's a report that we're blocking the flow offinancial aid to Lebanon until Western hostages held by thepro-Iranian militants are free. Have you anything -- MS. TUTWILER: Never heard that. Q O.K. It was out today. And then another thingwas Israel's Defense Ministry says that it's encouraged byShi'ite Muslims in Lebanon, saying that they've offered to tradeIsraeli prisoners for the Lebanese held by Israel? Anythingthat it bodes well for our hostages perhaps? MS. TUTWILER: As you know, we do not discuss hostagesfrom this podium nor does really the President or the Secretaryof State, other than to consistently restate our policy thatthey must be released immediately and unconditionally. And so Idon't, number one, know about the two specifics you've justmentioned to me, but I know that we really -- our policy is thatanything you may say could somehow do harm, which is notintended, and so we just simply don't discuss them, other thanto say what our standard policy is.
These types of things are what I read. I don't generally read the LANGUAGE school poets much other than to cop a good laugh out of their baloney as it pertains to the real role of POETICS. The Grand Old Style of Changing the World types of things, the ethical poetics of yesteryear. So lets see...anything else of interest from the 1991 May meeting of the State Department?
Q That the United States has somehow been exportingtechnology to South Africa which wound up in Iraq? MS. TUTWILER: I have no idea, number one. I was soundasleep when Nightline was on last night. I have not heard aboutthe report, and I haven't seen it. Q Jack will get you a tape. (Laughter)
...now if you don't mind, I'd like to remind you of the nice little tidbit left behind by our famous president Ronnie Reagan who basically took Saddam off the Terrorist hitlist in 1982 and lifted the ban on "Dual Use Chemicals"...oh, you know the type....stuff to make Sarin and the like. Mustard gases..the old school drugs of choice.
You see, US foreign policy requires a bit more than the usual USA Today mentality. A bit more than that and Lanny taught me that sort of thing....HOW TO LOOK. Need I remind anyone here of the headline that broke the Zionist's back in Apartheid South Africa?
ZIONISM IS RACISM
http://www.jews-for-allah.org/Jews-not-for-Judaism/racism_against_ethiopian_jews.htm
Factoid: Due to the plan to build a barrier between the indigenous laborers called Palestinians, they literally had to import "Jewish" slaves
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/08/27/powell.un.race/index.html
Ethnic Cleansing is OPENLY discussed in the Knesset:
http://newsmine.org/archive/war-on-terror/israel/apartheid/israeli-mp-proposes-ethnic-cleansing.txt
Settlers poisoning livestock, just like in the Old Testament! This is 2005 people, not 105.
http://newsmine.org/archive/war-on-terror/israel/apartheid/settlers-poisoning-palestinian-livestock.txt
Secret jails? Who? er....only if they want to keep you a secret hostage from the unwary American press:
http://newsmine.org/archive/war-on-terror/israel/apartheid/abuse/israel-acknowledges-running-secret-jail.txt
And this is just so precious:
http://newsmine.org/archive/war-on-terror/israel/apartheid/abuse/hizballah-leader-says-israel-tortured-him.txt
On Tuesday, he told a Tel Aviv court that the Shin Bet security services kept him naked in an interrogation facility for a month as they questioned him around the clock.The interrogators alternately splashed him with hot and freezing water, shook him until he fainted, squeezed his testicles, sodomised him and sexually assaulted him with a stick, he said. "I would pray that I'd die," said Dirani.Dirani described how one captor named George brought a uniformed soldier nicknamed Kojak into the room. The soldier dropped his pants and George told Dirani the soldier would sodomise him if he did not talk, he said. Days later, Dirani was shackled and pushed down onto a bench, he said. "I couldn't see or resist ... I was raped by the soldier. He said he would rape me, and he did," he told the court. In the courtroom, Dirani identified George from a photograph he was shown. Tuesday's comments were his first since being kidnapped.
IS IT ANY WONDER THAT ISRAEL DOESN'T WANT TO RELEASE THESE PEOPLE? IT IS BECAUSE THEY WILL BE ABLE TO RELATE THE HORRENDOUS FORMS OF TORTURE, THE SAME TYPE THAT THE MOSSAD HAS BEEN TEACHING TO THE US MILITARY FORCES, PUBLICALLY?
WHAT A BIG SURPRISE. NOT.
http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/briefing/daily_briefings/1991/9105/086.html
Q Can I ask a couple questions about the MiddleEast. There's a report that we're blocking the flow offinancial aid to Lebanon until Western hostages held by thepro-Iranian militants are free. Have you anything -- MS. TUTWILER: Never heard that. Q O.K. It was out today. And then another thingwas Israel's Defense Ministry says that it's encouraged byShi'ite Muslims in Lebanon, saying that they've offered to tradeIsraeli prisoners for the Lebanese held by Israel? Anythingthat it bodes well for our hostages perhaps? MS. TUTWILER: As you know, we do not discuss hostagesfrom this podium nor does really the President or the Secretaryof State, other than to consistently restate our policy thatthey must be released immediately and unconditionally. And so Idon't, number one, know about the two specifics you've justmentioned to me, but I know that we really -- our policy is thatanything you may say could somehow do harm, which is notintended, and so we just simply don't discuss them, other thanto say what our standard policy is.
These types of things are what I read. I don't generally read the LANGUAGE school poets much other than to cop a good laugh out of their baloney as it pertains to the real role of POETICS. The Grand Old Style of Changing the World types of things, the ethical poetics of yesteryear. So lets see...anything else of interest from the 1991 May meeting of the State Department?
Q That the United States has somehow been exportingtechnology to South Africa which wound up in Iraq? MS. TUTWILER: I have no idea, number one. I was soundasleep when Nightline was on last night. I have not heard aboutthe report, and I haven't seen it. Q Jack will get you a tape. (Laughter)
...now if you don't mind, I'd like to remind you of the nice little tidbit left behind by our famous president Ronnie Reagan who basically took Saddam off the Terrorist hitlist in 1982 and lifted the ban on "Dual Use Chemicals"...oh, you know the type....stuff to make Sarin and the like. Mustard gases..the old school drugs of choice.
You see, US foreign policy requires a bit more than the usual USA Today mentality. A bit more than that and Lanny taught me that sort of thing....HOW TO LOOK. Need I remind anyone here of the headline that broke the Zionist's back in Apartheid South Africa?
ZIONISM IS RACISM
http://www.jews-for-allah.org/Jews-not-for-Judaism/racism_against_ethiopian_jews.htm
Factoid: Due to the plan to build a barrier between the indigenous laborers called Palestinians, they literally had to import "Jewish" slaves
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/08/27/powell.un.race/index.html
Ethnic Cleansing is OPENLY discussed in the Knesset:
http://newsmine.org/archive/war-on-terror/israel/apartheid/israeli-mp-proposes-ethnic-cleansing.txt
Settlers poisoning livestock, just like in the Old Testament! This is 2005 people, not 105.
http://newsmine.org/archive/war-on-terror/israel/apartheid/settlers-poisoning-palestinian-livestock.txt
Secret jails? Who? er....only if they want to keep you a secret hostage from the unwary American press:
http://newsmine.org/archive/war-on-terror/israel/apartheid/abuse/israel-acknowledges-running-secret-jail.txt
And this is just so precious:
http://newsmine.org/archive/war-on-terror/israel/apartheid/abuse/hizballah-leader-says-israel-tortured-him.txt
On Tuesday, he told a Tel Aviv court that the Shin Bet security services kept him naked in an interrogation facility for a month as they questioned him around the clock.The interrogators alternately splashed him with hot and freezing water, shook him until he fainted, squeezed his testicles, sodomised him and sexually assaulted him with a stick, he said. "I would pray that I'd die," said Dirani.Dirani described how one captor named George brought a uniformed soldier nicknamed Kojak into the room. The soldier dropped his pants and George told Dirani the soldier would sodomise him if he did not talk, he said. Days later, Dirani was shackled and pushed down onto a bench, he said. "I couldn't see or resist ... I was raped by the soldier. He said he would rape me, and he did," he told the court. In the courtroom, Dirani identified George from a photograph he was shown. Tuesday's comments were his first since being kidnapped.
IS IT ANY WONDER THAT ISRAEL DOESN'T WANT TO RELEASE THESE PEOPLE? IT IS BECAUSE THEY WILL BE ABLE TO RELATE THE HORRENDOUS FORMS OF TORTURE, THE SAME TYPE THAT THE MOSSAD HAS BEEN TEACHING TO THE US MILITARY FORCES, PUBLICALLY?
WHAT A BIG SURPRISE. NOT.
For those who wish to actually UNDERSTAND Islam a little better and determine the nature of the new Islamic unity, I am providing a link to the foremost in treatises that eloquently relates what the problems are and how agreement was eventually reached between the major scholars at the turn of the last century. This unity is actively being sought out and destroyed by the US/Zionist forces in countries where there are Shi'i/Sunni majorities. In Sunni countries (like Saudi Arabia) this book is banned and it is no wonder.
http://www.al-islam.org/murajaat/index.htm
3) The generations of the first three centuries, then, never followed any of those sects at all. Where were those sects during those three generations, the best generations ever? AlAsh`ari was born in 270 A.H. and died in 320 A.H. Ibn Hanbal was born in 164 A.H. and died in 241 A.H. AlShafi`i was born in 150 A.H. and died in 204 A.H. Malik was born in 95 A.H.[1] and died in 179 A.H. Abu Hanifah was born in 80 A.H. and died in 150 A.H. Shi`as follow the sect of the Imams from the Prophet's Household, and the household surely know what their house contains. NonShi`as follow the sects of the learned sahabah and tabi`in; so, what makes it "mandatory" on all Muslims, after those three centuries had gone by, to follow those sects instead of the one followed before them? What made them divert their attention from those who were peers only to the Book of Allah and its own companions, the descendants of the Messenger of Allah and his trustees, the nation's ark of salvation, the leaders, the security, and the Gate of Salvation?
...that is only one of the proofs provided in this magnificent book regarding the validity of the Shi'i stance. Truly, people in the West do not understand Islam nor do they understand the critical nature of the war in Iraq and what US interventionism has done there. They could not possibly understand the nature of a muslim's support of Bush due to the fact that US style 'democrazy' was the "next best thing" to establishing unity amongst the TWO sects of Islam (not Sufis, not Wahhabis..but the realdeal, Sunni/Shi'i). When the Shi'i mosque in Iraq was destroyed...it became quite clear to the Shi'i that foreign mercenaries and agent provacateurs were busy trying to spawn a civil war. They (the Mossad and Wackenhut operatives) were getting impatient with their war torn ideas. As they were getting impatient with Lebanon who refused for TWO years to indulge in this nice little thing called a Civil War....you see...they sent that Valentine to Lebanon two whole years ago and hadn't received what they expected out of that....therefore they used the Israeli soldier's captivity to launch the largest WAR CRIME since Saddam Hussein's invasion of Iran at the behest of the Sunni sponsors: AMERICA (Zionist backed and vice versa the Christian Zionist Bush and Co. plus Osama's family business partners).
Politics is only one level of all of this. We also need to check in on those notorious Taif accords. Why was Taif chosen?
Only a real muslim knows why.
http://www.al-islam.org/murajaat/index.htm
3) The generations of the first three centuries, then, never followed any of those sects at all. Where were those sects during those three generations, the best generations ever? AlAsh`ari was born in 270 A.H. and died in 320 A.H. Ibn Hanbal was born in 164 A.H. and died in 241 A.H. AlShafi`i was born in 150 A.H. and died in 204 A.H. Malik was born in 95 A.H.[1] and died in 179 A.H. Abu Hanifah was born in 80 A.H. and died in 150 A.H. Shi`as follow the sect of the Imams from the Prophet's Household, and the household surely know what their house contains. NonShi`as follow the sects of the learned sahabah and tabi`in; so, what makes it "mandatory" on all Muslims, after those three centuries had gone by, to follow those sects instead of the one followed before them? What made them divert their attention from those who were peers only to the Book of Allah and its own companions, the descendants of the Messenger of Allah and his trustees, the nation's ark of salvation, the leaders, the security, and the Gate of Salvation?
...that is only one of the proofs provided in this magnificent book regarding the validity of the Shi'i stance. Truly, people in the West do not understand Islam nor do they understand the critical nature of the war in Iraq and what US interventionism has done there. They could not possibly understand the nature of a muslim's support of Bush due to the fact that US style 'democrazy' was the "next best thing" to establishing unity amongst the TWO sects of Islam (not Sufis, not Wahhabis..but the realdeal, Sunni/Shi'i). When the Shi'i mosque in Iraq was destroyed...it became quite clear to the Shi'i that foreign mercenaries and agent provacateurs were busy trying to spawn a civil war. They (the Mossad and Wackenhut operatives) were getting impatient with their war torn ideas. As they were getting impatient with Lebanon who refused for TWO years to indulge in this nice little thing called a Civil War....you see...they sent that Valentine to Lebanon two whole years ago and hadn't received what they expected out of that....therefore they used the Israeli soldier's captivity to launch the largest WAR CRIME since Saddam Hussein's invasion of Iran at the behest of the Sunni sponsors: AMERICA (Zionist backed and vice versa the Christian Zionist Bush and Co. plus Osama's family business partners).
Politics is only one level of all of this. We also need to check in on those notorious Taif accords. Why was Taif chosen?
Only a real muslim knows why.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525955870&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Three bombs in a Turkey.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1154525953563
Illegal to import "information" into the USA.
**Is it any wonder why Americans are ignorant? Good people starving for good information.
My suggestion: Read the Israel dailies.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525950456&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
The trick to reading these articles is to read them beyond the second paragraph. In this article, we find the truth at about paragraph 7-8 and then, further in the article, it lapses into the typical "rewriting" of events that Israel engages in constantly. The JP by the way, is to news what FOX is to CNN. The JP reflects the fundamentalist views of Israeli citizens while the Ha'retz is the liberal POV. Here is paragraph 7 & 8 for your perusal:
Asked whether that meant that Germany was already actively mediating for the soldiers' release, Erler said, "There's an old rule that if you can mediate successfully, you don't make details public.
"We all hope for a success and therefore shouldn't press for every detail to be made public in advance," he said.
As far as Nasrallah's comments related by this article...well....it is a well known fact that Israel twists words to suit whatever it is they want people to believe about the fictional state they created and that they live in. They generally don't mention too much about things like the Reuter's van they bombed yesterday or the names of the real human beings that they kill that are of Arab descent. That is pretty much 'status' quo for all of their media products.
How do you know? Well easy. When they quote a seriously God Fearing fighter like Nasrallah saying that this victory was not "divinely aided" they are literally lying out front. All muslims know that whatever we get we always say "al'ham'du'lillah". The Israelis wouldn't know that because they do not fear God anymore. They are mostly athiests and POORLY informed "Jews" who have been lied to and think that they will attain heavenly divinity if they OCCUPY LAND which belongs to others via Zionist recruitment tactics which historically served the purpose of manning the Zionist army which now incites hatred of Jews worldwide and murder of innocent human beings who believe in the same God of the Jews. Horrible.
Three bombs in a Turkey.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1154525953563
Illegal to import "information" into the USA.
**Is it any wonder why Americans are ignorant? Good people starving for good information.
My suggestion: Read the Israel dailies.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525950456&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
The trick to reading these articles is to read them beyond the second paragraph. In this article, we find the truth at about paragraph 7-8 and then, further in the article, it lapses into the typical "rewriting" of events that Israel engages in constantly. The JP by the way, is to news what FOX is to CNN. The JP reflects the fundamentalist views of Israeli citizens while the Ha'retz is the liberal POV. Here is paragraph 7 & 8 for your perusal:
Asked whether that meant that Germany was already actively mediating for the soldiers' release, Erler said, "There's an old rule that if you can mediate successfully, you don't make details public.
"We all hope for a success and therefore shouldn't press for every detail to be made public in advance," he said.
As far as Nasrallah's comments related by this article...well....it is a well known fact that Israel twists words to suit whatever it is they want people to believe about the fictional state they created and that they live in. They generally don't mention too much about things like the Reuter's van they bombed yesterday or the names of the real human beings that they kill that are of Arab descent. That is pretty much 'status' quo for all of their media products.
How do you know? Well easy. When they quote a seriously God Fearing fighter like Nasrallah saying that this victory was not "divinely aided" they are literally lying out front. All muslims know that whatever we get we always say "al'ham'du'lillah". The Israelis wouldn't know that because they do not fear God anymore. They are mostly athiests and POORLY informed "Jews" who have been lied to and think that they will attain heavenly divinity if they OCCUPY LAND which belongs to others via Zionist recruitment tactics which historically served the purpose of manning the Zionist army which now incites hatred of Jews worldwide and murder of innocent human beings who believe in the same God of the Jews. Horrible.
27.8.06
The other calicoe:
http://uiforum.uaeforum.org/showthread.php?p=62916#post62916
Once upon a time on the Sillimania boards, a Turkish poet was discussed and I said to the silly posters there something they didn't quite comprehend. I said, in response to the excerpts from his book, that it is "clear" that that poet had not negotiated his Islamic contract with poetry yet.
There were many dazed looks. Those looks now reflect a kind of silence and it is now that a reminder is sent to them....I negotiated my contract.
Jihad is a misunderstood word. EVERYONE performs jihad when they speak the propaganda that we all speak or spread. All speech is personal propaganda. Jihad however is applied to muslims in particular and it is a much feared concept. If only people understood their own linguistic properties better.
A funny incident happened to me yesterday. I visited what will be my new home for a while to see if the real estate agent had started cleaning it up for me. I met the neighbor and he introduced me to his very loud Chow Pooch. We made small talk....he is a prison worker as so many are these days and in these parts. Obviously a Bush supporter as well because all prison workers in the US anymore work in some way or another for Dick Cheney and Halliburton which is engaged in the building of prisons and prison compounds. The conversation with my new neighbor "Bob" turned to the satellite dish and I asked him if it would be a good idea to get that service as opposed to simple cable and the usual AMERICAN cable broadcasts (which I'll tell you, from having lived overseas for so long, are horrendously one sided regardless of which channel you switch to).
Bob said, "Yeah, you can't get news. About the best thing you can get is FOX news."
Oh dear. Me and Bob. Good thing he has three dogs: Rottweiler, Police Mutt (retired) and Chow. And he added, "Everyone seems to hate Bush now."
Yes, indeed. Isn't it wonderful how things pan out in the end. Sadly enough, those that hate Bush hate him for all the wrong reasons and still do not know why they hate muslims so bad.
It is all about TV. Why, even in Saudi Arabia, the cablevision is owned and operated by the Zionists. A fact many did not know. How else is it that the Holy Lands play porno at night!
http://uiforum.uaeforum.org/showthread.php?p=62916#post62916
Once upon a time on the Sillimania boards, a Turkish poet was discussed and I said to the silly posters there something they didn't quite comprehend. I said, in response to the excerpts from his book, that it is "clear" that that poet had not negotiated his Islamic contract with poetry yet.
There were many dazed looks. Those looks now reflect a kind of silence and it is now that a reminder is sent to them....I negotiated my contract.
Jihad is a misunderstood word. EVERYONE performs jihad when they speak the propaganda that we all speak or spread. All speech is personal propaganda. Jihad however is applied to muslims in particular and it is a much feared concept. If only people understood their own linguistic properties better.
A funny incident happened to me yesterday. I visited what will be my new home for a while to see if the real estate agent had started cleaning it up for me. I met the neighbor and he introduced me to his very loud Chow Pooch. We made small talk....he is a prison worker as so many are these days and in these parts. Obviously a Bush supporter as well because all prison workers in the US anymore work in some way or another for Dick Cheney and Halliburton which is engaged in the building of prisons and prison compounds. The conversation with my new neighbor "Bob" turned to the satellite dish and I asked him if it would be a good idea to get that service as opposed to simple cable and the usual AMERICAN cable broadcasts (which I'll tell you, from having lived overseas for so long, are horrendously one sided regardless of which channel you switch to).
Bob said, "Yeah, you can't get news. About the best thing you can get is FOX news."
Oh dear. Me and Bob. Good thing he has three dogs: Rottweiler, Police Mutt (retired) and Chow. And he added, "Everyone seems to hate Bush now."
Yes, indeed. Isn't it wonderful how things pan out in the end. Sadly enough, those that hate Bush hate him for all the wrong reasons and still do not know why they hate muslims so bad.
It is all about TV. Why, even in Saudi Arabia, the cablevision is owned and operated by the Zionists. A fact many did not know. How else is it that the Holy Lands play porno at night!
Wild World
(Cat Stevens, aka Yusef Islam)
Now that I've lost everything to you
You say you wanna start something new
And it's breakin' my heart you're leavin'
Baby, I'm grievin'
But if you wanna leave, take good care
I hope you have a lot of nice things to wear
But then a lot of nice things turn bad out there
Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world
It's hard to get by just upon a smile
Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world
I'll always remember you like a child, girl
You know I've seen a lot of what the world can do
And it's breakin' my heart in two
Because I never wanna see you a sad girl
Don't be a bad girl
But if you wanna leave, take good care
I hope you make a lot of nice friends out there
But just remember there's a lot of bad and beware
Chorus
Baby, I love you
But if you wanna leave, take good care
I hope you make a lot of nice friends out there
But just remember there's a lot of bad and beware
(Cat Stevens, aka Yusef Islam)
Now that I've lost everything to you
You say you wanna start something new
And it's breakin' my heart you're leavin'
Baby, I'm grievin'
But if you wanna leave, take good care
I hope you have a lot of nice things to wear
But then a lot of nice things turn bad out there
Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world
It's hard to get by just upon a smile
Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world
I'll always remember you like a child, girl
You know I've seen a lot of what the world can do
And it's breakin' my heart in two
Because I never wanna see you a sad girl
Don't be a bad girl
But if you wanna leave, take good care
I hope you make a lot of nice friends out there
But just remember there's a lot of bad and beware
Chorus
Baby, I love you
But if you wanna leave, take good care
I hope you make a lot of nice friends out there
But just remember there's a lot of bad and beware
26.8.06
25.8.06
On the Curious Works of Strangers
Belshazzar
(translated by Daniel Platt)
The midnight hour drew closer on;
In mute repose lay Babylon.
But up in the castle of the king
There's noise, and torches flickering.
Up there in the kingly hall so vast
Belshazzar held his king's repast.
The lackeys sat in a shimmering line,
And emptied their beakers of sparkling wine.
The beakers were klinking, the lackeys were loud,
It did the stiff-necked monarch proud.
The king's cheeks glowed with a fervent shine;
And boldness quickened with the wine,
And by this boldness blindly spurred,
He blasphemed God with a sinful word.
And he boasted and mocked the holy name;
The lackey troop roared its acclaim.
The king called out with a haughty face;
The servant flew and returned apace.
He bore on his head much golden ware;
From Jehovah's temple, plundered there.
And the monarch seized, with outrageous whim,
A holy beaker, filled to the brim.
And he drained it rashly to the drips
And cried aloud with foaming lips:
Jehovah! I scorn Thee from now on -
I am the king of Babylon!
Yet scarcely were the words expressed,
But a secret trembling began in his breast.
No laughter rang out loud and shrill;
The hall became cadaver-still.
Behold! Behold! upon the wall
A thing — a hand — came in the hall;
And wrote in fire upon the wall,
And wrote, and vanished in the pall.
The king just sat there, goggle-eyed,
With knocking knees, pale, terrified.
The lackey troop, by horror bound,
Sat cold and still, without a sound.
Magicians came, yet none at all
Could decipher the flame-script on the wall.
But Belczar, that very night
By his own men was killed outright.
The Map of Cars, Mercury and Marquis
That was the labrynth we skirted in the gulch
a hard right past the Philadelphia where
hash was the babysitting tutorial.
The only baby is in that jar, it is lifted.
Carmen and Peter and all Jewish Jon ran off
while my sister tailed along
to see some more of the avante garde
on subway street. Can't remember
changing the diapers but I must have arrived
to that engagement in the brougham.
Boy it was so big where the cop ran me down.
Found the brougham a week later in front of elmo's,
he stood in front of me (in high heels) with his black boots,
"Do that again young lady and you'll get
fleeing arrest," what a thing! and now it's small.
Fleeing arrest, no better way to describe that
glide down youngblood with brakes tapping,
the sides of the alley almost scraping
stopping just short of a decision,
up to zacatecas or down to the lyric,
but old bear was up in the canyon
casting spells on the mons, mine
and several others so you file down to the bottom
again, another hard right past the grassy,
past the flood-stained county library
up to the baptist church where pies
never burned, zig zag the castle rocks
where turquoise bob was selling coke
from an old barbeque grill window, the cafe
nearwhere the brakeman broke his victorian spine -
the old coaster races that Jack runs now,
up to the iron man part of Cork, all those
serenity prayer miners hacking in the echoes,
crawling slowly just out of sight of the rectory
slow enough to catch a whiff of the votives.
Another right but not so hard into garden
past spider across from our cousin's house
which was then empty except for the touching
we did under the ocatillo canopy with the harsh
tunnel under the stairs and into the garage, buried in the hill.
Up to mayer, back that brougham in, her long spine
and they are all girls we said, part of the celtic
myth of deers, the two point
bucks and doe eyed weaklings, all the cars
are girls, and you got away and pushed her spine
to the end of laundry hill and let her down easy.
The eight track was hauling out year of the cat.
http://thomasfly.com/songs/Al_Stewart/Year_of_the_Cat.htm
Belshazzar
(translated by Daniel Platt)
The midnight hour drew closer on;
In mute repose lay Babylon.
But up in the castle of the king
There's noise, and torches flickering.
Up there in the kingly hall so vast
Belshazzar held his king's repast.
The lackeys sat in a shimmering line,
And emptied their beakers of sparkling wine.
The beakers were klinking, the lackeys were loud,
It did the stiff-necked monarch proud.
The king's cheeks glowed with a fervent shine;
And boldness quickened with the wine,
And by this boldness blindly spurred,
He blasphemed God with a sinful word.
And he boasted and mocked the holy name;
The lackey troop roared its acclaim.
The king called out with a haughty face;
The servant flew and returned apace.
He bore on his head much golden ware;
From Jehovah's temple, plundered there.
And the monarch seized, with outrageous whim,
A holy beaker, filled to the brim.
And he drained it rashly to the drips
And cried aloud with foaming lips:
Jehovah! I scorn Thee from now on -
I am the king of Babylon!
Yet scarcely were the words expressed,
But a secret trembling began in his breast.
No laughter rang out loud and shrill;
The hall became cadaver-still.
Behold! Behold! upon the wall
A thing — a hand — came in the hall;
And wrote in fire upon the wall,
And wrote, and vanished in the pall.
The king just sat there, goggle-eyed,
With knocking knees, pale, terrified.
The lackey troop, by horror bound,
Sat cold and still, without a sound.
Magicians came, yet none at all
Could decipher the flame-script on the wall.
But Belczar, that very night
By his own men was killed outright.
The Map of Cars, Mercury and Marquis
That was the labrynth we skirted in the gulch
a hard right past the Philadelphia where
hash was the babysitting tutorial.
The only baby is in that jar, it is lifted.
Carmen and Peter and all Jewish Jon ran off
while my sister tailed along
to see some more of the avante garde
on subway street. Can't remember
changing the diapers but I must have arrived
to that engagement in the brougham.
Boy it was so big where the cop ran me down.
Found the brougham a week later in front of elmo's,
he stood in front of me (in high heels) with his black boots,
"Do that again young lady and you'll get
fleeing arrest," what a thing! and now it's small.
Fleeing arrest, no better way to describe that
glide down youngblood with brakes tapping,
the sides of the alley almost scraping
stopping just short of a decision,
up to zacatecas or down to the lyric,
but old bear was up in the canyon
casting spells on the mons, mine
and several others so you file down to the bottom
again, another hard right past the grassy,
past the flood-stained county library
up to the baptist church where pies
never burned, zig zag the castle rocks
where turquoise bob was selling coke
from an old barbeque grill window, the cafe
nearwhere the brakeman broke his victorian spine -
the old coaster races that Jack runs now,
up to the iron man part of Cork, all those
serenity prayer miners hacking in the echoes,
crawling slowly just out of sight of the rectory
slow enough to catch a whiff of the votives.
Another right but not so hard into garden
past spider across from our cousin's house
which was then empty except for the touching
we did under the ocatillo canopy with the harsh
tunnel under the stairs and into the garage, buried in the hill.
Up to mayer, back that brougham in, her long spine
and they are all girls we said, part of the celtic
myth of deers, the two point
bucks and doe eyed weaklings, all the cars
are girls, and you got away and pushed her spine
to the end of laundry hill and let her down easy.
The eight track was hauling out year of the cat.
http://thomasfly.com/songs/Al_Stewart/Year_of_the_Cat.htm
24.8.06
Noam Chomsky on Nasrallah: "He (Nasrallah) has no objection to Noam quoting him on anything he has said, and his last question to Noam is a request for advice on what Hizbullah can do to counter the pernicious propaganda in the US. "
In response to Assaf Kfoury’s July 12 ZNet article “Noam Chomsky in Beirut”,
where Chomsky is quoted as saying ” I think Nasrallah [head of
Hizbullah] has a reasoned and persuasive argument that the arms should
be in the hands of Hizbullah as a deterrent to potential aggression,
and there are plenty of background reasons for that . . . .”, a ZNet Sustainer
asked Noam “Now, I know you dislike labels, but I’m pretty much feeling
your ethics are Consequentalist, so I am wondering what are a number of
the top consequences you expect (ed) from making this statement?”
Below is Noam’s response…
Reply from Noam Chomsky:
Thanks for raising an important question.
We can drop abstruse matters like consequentialism, and keep to
one of the most elementary of moral truisms: we are responsible for the
anticipated consequences of our actions, or inaction. Of course, that
does not provide a simple guide, because there are always many varied
and often conflicting consequences. But the question does come up all
the time, and is worth considering. Take a few examples.
In 1977, Edward Herman and I revealed gross distortions, often
outright (and uncorrectable) lies, in coverage of Cambodia. In
particular, we pointed out that in the major book on the topic,
considered then the prime source (rightly), the death toll resulting
from the US bombing of Cambodia was vastly exaggerated, apparently
because of a misreading of "casualties" as "deaths." I was aware that
pointing that out might embolden elements of US political and
intellectual classes to continue their support for terrible crimes and
their preparation for others. Not a consequence I wanted, of course,
but I thought it was outweighed by the need to unearth the truth.
To take another case, more closely related to your apparent
concerns, for about 30 years I've been harshly condemning crimes of the
PLO, and writing that Israel should have the rights of any state in the
international system, including the right of self-defense. I realized,
of course, that such statements and the review of the evidence could
well contribute to the dedication of the US government, with the strong
support of articulate opinion, to provide the requisite means for
outrageous Israeli atrocities and to the unilateral US undermining of
the very real opportunities for political settlement. But again, I
thought telling the truth outweighed those dire consequences. There are
many other cases.
Interestingly, none of these cases has ever elicited a word of
criticism. I don't recall receiving any letters from you about them,
for example. Need we ask why?
Turning to your question, an accurate account of my response to a
question asked by a TV journalist in Lebanon, and the context, has
already appeared on Znet: an article by Assaf Kfoury, who accompanied
my wife and me throughout my trip to Lebanon (and knows far more about
Lebanon than I do, as does Irene Gendzier, who also accompanied us
throughout, including visits that you didn't learn about from your
sources, such as much longer ones with the leading opponents of
Hezbollah). *
His account on Znet also answers your question. As he points out,
the anticipated consequence of the comments is that they should "feed
the right-wing rumor mill for a long time to come," thereby
contributing to US-Israeli crimes against Palestinians and Lebanese.
These are now reaching new levels of intensity, with the US-Israel
virtually destroying Lebanon, continuing the massive assault against
Gaza, and systematically pursuing their programs of annexation,
cantonization, and imprisonment in the West Bank to ensure that
Palestinian rights will never be recognized.
So yes, the anticipated consequences were very ugly -- though of
course I didn't know then how grotesque US-Israeli behavior would
become. I didn't anticipate that Israel would step up its atrocities
(always with US backing and the complicity of articulate opinion and
the media) by kidnapping two civilians in Gaza, a doctor and his
brother, and removing them to the oblivion of the thousands of others
like them in Israeli prisons, commonly without charges or sentenced in
courts that are a bad joke, hence kidnapped.. That was June 24. On June
25, in probable retaliation, Palestinian militants captured a soldier
of the attacking army, Corporal Gilad Shalit. Israel responded by sharp
escalation of its crimes in Gaza, followed a few weeks later by the
kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah and new US-Israeli war
crimes in Lebanon.
The pretext is the kidnappings, but any person who bothers to
think, instead of reflexively repeating state propaganda, knows that
the US-Israel regard kidnapping is quite fine, including kidnapping of
civilians, a far worse crime under international law than kidnapping of
soldiers. The June 24 Israeli kidnappings are only one of many
examples. Since the powerful don't investigate their own crimes,
details are unknown, but there is plenty of evidence nevertheless. For
example, the shocking revelations about Israel's secret prison/torture
chambers, far worse than Guantanamo, in which hundreds of Lebanese have
been kept, many abducted from Lebanon, some kept as hostages for many
years. No one knows what happened to them, beyond the few who are
acknowledged. There are some who are concerned about them, among them
the father of the captured Israeli soldier Ehud Goldwasser, who
expresse his sympathy for the families of the abducted Lebanese
prisoners in Israeli jails (Israeli radio, July 20).
That's barely the tip of an iceberg. We can dismiss the pretexts
with contempt. Returning to your question, there are also "opportunity
costs": while you and I are discussing this, we are not acting to put
an end to the horrendous ongoing atrocities for which we both share
responsibility. Back to the elementary moral truism. ..
http://blog.zmag.org/node/2689
*in reference to http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=22&ItemID=10568 which is an article detailing NC visit to Nasrallah, Khiam prison, the south, Sabra and Shatila.
In response to Assaf Kfoury’s July 12 ZNet article “Noam Chomsky in Beirut”,
where Chomsky is quoted as saying ” I think Nasrallah [head of
Hizbullah] has a reasoned and persuasive argument that the arms should
be in the hands of Hizbullah as a deterrent to potential aggression,
and there are plenty of background reasons for that . . . .”, a ZNet Sustainer
asked Noam “Now, I know you dislike labels, but I’m pretty much feeling
your ethics are Consequentalist, so I am wondering what are a number of
the top consequences you expect (ed) from making this statement?”
Below is Noam’s response…
Reply from Noam Chomsky:
Thanks for raising an important question.
We can drop abstruse matters like consequentialism, and keep to
one of the most elementary of moral truisms: we are responsible for the
anticipated consequences of our actions, or inaction. Of course, that
does not provide a simple guide, because there are always many varied
and often conflicting consequences. But the question does come up all
the time, and is worth considering. Take a few examples.
In 1977, Edward Herman and I revealed gross distortions, often
outright (and uncorrectable) lies, in coverage of Cambodia. In
particular, we pointed out that in the major book on the topic,
considered then the prime source (rightly), the death toll resulting
from the US bombing of Cambodia was vastly exaggerated, apparently
because of a misreading of "casualties" as "deaths." I was aware that
pointing that out might embolden elements of US political and
intellectual classes to continue their support for terrible crimes and
their preparation for others. Not a consequence I wanted, of course,
but I thought it was outweighed by the need to unearth the truth.
To take another case, more closely related to your apparent
concerns, for about 30 years I've been harshly condemning crimes of the
PLO, and writing that Israel should have the rights of any state in the
international system, including the right of self-defense. I realized,
of course, that such statements and the review of the evidence could
well contribute to the dedication of the US government, with the strong
support of articulate opinion, to provide the requisite means for
outrageous Israeli atrocities and to the unilateral US undermining of
the very real opportunities for political settlement. But again, I
thought telling the truth outweighed those dire consequences. There are
many other cases.
Interestingly, none of these cases has ever elicited a word of
criticism. I don't recall receiving any letters from you about them,
for example. Need we ask why?
Turning to your question, an accurate account of my response to a
question asked by a TV journalist in Lebanon, and the context, has
already appeared on Znet: an article by Assaf Kfoury, who accompanied
my wife and me throughout my trip to Lebanon (and knows far more about
Lebanon than I do, as does Irene Gendzier, who also accompanied us
throughout, including visits that you didn't learn about from your
sources, such as much longer ones with the leading opponents of
Hezbollah). *
His account on Znet also answers your question. As he points out,
the anticipated consequence of the comments is that they should "feed
the right-wing rumor mill for a long time to come," thereby
contributing to US-Israeli crimes against Palestinians and Lebanese.
These are now reaching new levels of intensity, with the US-Israel
virtually destroying Lebanon, continuing the massive assault against
Gaza, and systematically pursuing their programs of annexation,
cantonization, and imprisonment in the West Bank to ensure that
Palestinian rights will never be recognized.
So yes, the anticipated consequences were very ugly -- though of
course I didn't know then how grotesque US-Israeli behavior would
become. I didn't anticipate that Israel would step up its atrocities
(always with US backing and the complicity of articulate opinion and
the media) by kidnapping two civilians in Gaza, a doctor and his
brother, and removing them to the oblivion of the thousands of others
like them in Israeli prisons, commonly without charges or sentenced in
courts that are a bad joke, hence kidnapped.. That was June 24. On June
25, in probable retaliation, Palestinian militants captured a soldier
of the attacking army, Corporal Gilad Shalit. Israel responded by sharp
escalation of its crimes in Gaza, followed a few weeks later by the
kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah and new US-Israeli war
crimes in Lebanon.
The pretext is the kidnappings, but any person who bothers to
think, instead of reflexively repeating state propaganda, knows that
the US-Israel regard kidnapping is quite fine, including kidnapping of
civilians, a far worse crime under international law than kidnapping of
soldiers. The June 24 Israeli kidnappings are only one of many
examples. Since the powerful don't investigate their own crimes,
details are unknown, but there is plenty of evidence nevertheless. For
example, the shocking revelations about Israel's secret prison/torture
chambers, far worse than Guantanamo, in which hundreds of Lebanese have
been kept, many abducted from Lebanon, some kept as hostages for many
years. No one knows what happened to them, beyond the few who are
acknowledged. There are some who are concerned about them, among them
the father of the captured Israeli soldier Ehud Goldwasser, who
expresse his sympathy for the families of the abducted Lebanese
prisoners in Israeli jails (Israeli radio, July 20).
That's barely the tip of an iceberg. We can dismiss the pretexts
with contempt. Returning to your question, there are also "opportunity
costs": while you and I are discussing this, we are not acting to put
an end to the horrendous ongoing atrocities for which we both share
responsibility. Back to the elementary moral truism. ..
http://blog.zmag.org/node/2689
*in reference to http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=22&ItemID=10568 which is an article detailing NC visit to Nasrallah, Khiam prison, the south, Sabra and Shatila.
23.8.06
ISRAELI PRISONERS.....ER.....THAT MEANS, NOT TWO SOLDIERS OF ISRAELI NATIONALITY BUT ARABS ILLEGALLY RETAINED IN ZIONIST PRISONS:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1714466442511220171&q=Captured+Prisoners
"The norm is physical torture."
Watch this film.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1714466442511220171&q=Captured+Prisoners
"The norm is physical torture."
Watch this film.
http://archmemory.blogspot.com/
Sad poet stories, are there more? Who are these poets and why are the "big guys" not talking about anything except their belly buttons?
Blogrolling the Courageous, non bigoted poets as follows (you won't find Ron Silliman on this blogroll!):
http://joshcorey.blogspot.com/
http://pjoris.blogspot.com/
(..to be continued as research takes time)
Notes of City Sheperds
This land is written
by the indigenous,
flowers and broad striped fish,
terrain split by rivers<<<<<
in hard tilled land.<<<<
Great patchwork fields
become deeds forever
tucked into blankets.
On and on so balances
feign universe like this,
bi and tri lingual.
The mass of ocean
measures time against
sand so entranced,
washed stones strike,
in salty kilns the others,
the smooth and rocky hearts
piled with no reason.
Chorus:
This border of our land
runs ragged to tarmac
near city maze.
North wind sculpts
with horse hair bow
in buffet of silence everlasting.
Dry down the daisy
in limestone rock
perched accidently there.
Sing: our misery in shepherd
gapes open to the sea.
This map a cold front
coda to an end
it points.
Spring falls from
trees to apple blossom.
Peat steams joy for screams
in breaths forgotten,
these of foreigners
built into boots
of perfect straw.
Where we have been
in order to go
silent and single filed.
Whirl to down
our set of stairs
into calcitic waters
to rise like light
from wells inside wells.
So wait our magical bones,
types of things unspeakable,
in! swallowed the skin.
Miracles of tedium,
quick fingers in violin.
Second Chorus:
This border of our land
runs ragged to tarmac
near city maze.
North wind sculpts
with horse hair bow
in buffet of silence everlasting.
Dry down the daisy
in limestone rock
perched accidently there.
Sing: our misery in shepherd
gapes open to the sea.
Final Chorus:
North wind sculpts
horse hair bow
down the daisy
over tarmac heart
bow the buffet
daisy it down to
horse everlasting
in boots of straw
near kilny sea.
North wind sculpts
horse hair bow
down the daisy
over tarmac heart
down near the sea
down near the sea,
down and near
the sea.
Final:
Da cow and da sheep
da cow and da sheep
dae weep and dae weep,
'caus dar is no sleep
for da cow and da sheep.
Sad poet stories, are there more? Who are these poets and why are the "big guys" not talking about anything except their belly buttons?
Blogrolling the Courageous, non bigoted poets as follows (you won't find Ron Silliman on this blogroll!):
http://joshcorey.blogspot.com/
http://pjoris.blogspot.com/
(..to be continued as research takes time)
Notes of City Sheperds
This land is written
by the indigenous,
flowers and broad striped fish,
terrain split by rivers<<<<<
in hard tilled land.<<<<
Great patchwork fields
become deeds forever
tucked into blankets.
On and on so balances
feign universe like this,
bi and tri lingual.
The mass of ocean
measures time against
sand so entranced,
washed stones strike,
in salty kilns the others,
the smooth and rocky hearts
piled with no reason.
Chorus:
This border of our land
runs ragged to tarmac
near city maze.
North wind sculpts
with horse hair bow
in buffet of silence everlasting.
Dry down the daisy
in limestone rock
perched accidently there.
Sing: our misery in shepherd
gapes open to the sea.
This map a cold front
coda to an end
it points.
Spring falls from
trees to apple blossom.
Peat steams joy for screams
in breaths forgotten,
these of foreigners
built into boots
of perfect straw.
Where we have been
in order to go
silent and single filed.
Whirl to down
our set of stairs
into calcitic waters
to rise like light
from wells inside wells.
So wait our magical bones,
types of things unspeakable,
in! swallowed the skin.
Miracles of tedium,
quick fingers in violin.
Second Chorus:
This border of our land
runs ragged to tarmac
near city maze.
North wind sculpts
with horse hair bow
in buffet of silence everlasting.
Dry down the daisy
in limestone rock
perched accidently there.
Sing: our misery in shepherd
gapes open to the sea.
Final Chorus:
North wind sculpts
horse hair bow
down the daisy
over tarmac heart
bow the buffet
daisy it down to
horse everlasting
in boots of straw
near kilny sea.
North wind sculpts
horse hair bow
down the daisy
over tarmac heart
down near the sea
down near the sea,
down and near
the sea.
Final:
Da cow and da sheep
da cow and da sheep
dae weep and dae weep,
'caus dar is no sleep
for da cow and da sheep.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/753657.html
LONDON - In a report to be released Wednesday, Amnesty International accuses Israel of war crimes, saying it broke international law by deliberately destroying Lebanon's civilian infrastructure during its recent war with Hezbollah guerrillas.
The UN's children's fund, UNICEF, estimates that some 1,183 people died***, mostly civilians and about a third of them children, while the Lebanese Higher Relief Council says 4,054 people were injured and 970,000 displaced. UN officials reported that around 15,000 civilian homes were destroyed.
The Amnesty report cited "the widespread destruction of apartments, houses, electricity and water services, roads, bridges, factories and ports," which, taken with statements by Israeli officials, "suggests a policy of punishing both the Lebanese government and the civilian population in an effort to get them to turn against Hezbollah," it said. It accused Israel of applying an overly broad interpretation of what constituted a military objective when it attacked power plants, bridges, main roads, seaports and Beirut's international airport, all of which are "presumed to be civilian."
***Died is a euphemism for WERE KILLED.
What can be said about Ha'retz is that it is a newspaper that tells it like it is. You have to give the Israeli journalists there credit for honesty, including the story they printed many years ago now about the 2 hour warning which was recieved prior to the WTC attack by Israelis. That story DID appear in Ha'retz and Amiri Baraka who cited this phenomenal warning given to Israelis (not Jews as was related in the popular media and on anti semitic hate sites) lost his position as the poet laureate of ?New Jersey (poor memory for states it seems save for that horrible place called Newark, awful city). Now, let it be known, Amiri Baraka didn't deserve Ron Silliman's heinous attack either nor did he deserve to be 'de-lauralized' for relating the TRUTH.
The truth hurts everyone sometimes. Now that the Islamic world has had to face the truth about Al Qaeda, it is time for EVERYONE to face the truth about so-called Israel and its so-called democracy and its abuse of religion which it utilizes to keep people from criticizing their heinous acts against muslims worldwide, in the media and for real as is the case with the Israeli destruction of an ENTIRE COUNTRY.
Right to exist? Who asks? Lets see...when a person has a right and abuses it, what happens next to any given individual? They lose that right. They go to jail.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/753202.html
So next up: Should Israel evacuate the Golan Heights which it literally STOLE during a cease fire during the Six Day War? Food for thought regarding this current cease fire in Lebanon...they are up to their old tricks again and EVERYONE is watching this time, ESPECIALLY the freedom fighters of Lebanon who managed to nab a few "commandos" in the Beka dressed up nicely as Lebanese Army personnel. I'll bet few of you know that Ehud Barat, ex prime minister of Israel who was in charge when Lebanon was finally LIBERATED by HEZBOLLAH a few years back....dressed up as a woman in order to enter Lebanon and assassinate Yasser Arafat. I'll bet most didn't know that!
LONDON - In a report to be released Wednesday, Amnesty International accuses Israel of war crimes, saying it broke international law by deliberately destroying Lebanon's civilian infrastructure during its recent war with Hezbollah guerrillas.
The UN's children's fund, UNICEF, estimates that some 1,183 people died***, mostly civilians and about a third of them children, while the Lebanese Higher Relief Council says 4,054 people were injured and 970,000 displaced. UN officials reported that around 15,000 civilian homes were destroyed.
The Amnesty report cited "the widespread destruction of apartments, houses, electricity and water services, roads, bridges, factories and ports," which, taken with statements by Israeli officials, "suggests a policy of punishing both the Lebanese government and the civilian population in an effort to get them to turn against Hezbollah," it said. It accused Israel of applying an overly broad interpretation of what constituted a military objective when it attacked power plants, bridges, main roads, seaports and Beirut's international airport, all of which are "presumed to be civilian."
***Died is a euphemism for WERE KILLED.
What can be said about Ha'retz is that it is a newspaper that tells it like it is. You have to give the Israeli journalists there credit for honesty, including the story they printed many years ago now about the 2 hour warning which was recieved prior to the WTC attack by Israelis. That story DID appear in Ha'retz and Amiri Baraka who cited this phenomenal warning given to Israelis (not Jews as was related in the popular media and on anti semitic hate sites) lost his position as the poet laureate of ?New Jersey (poor memory for states it seems save for that horrible place called Newark, awful city). Now, let it be known, Amiri Baraka didn't deserve Ron Silliman's heinous attack either nor did he deserve to be 'de-lauralized' for relating the TRUTH.
The truth hurts everyone sometimes. Now that the Islamic world has had to face the truth about Al Qaeda, it is time for EVERYONE to face the truth about so-called Israel and its so-called democracy and its abuse of religion which it utilizes to keep people from criticizing their heinous acts against muslims worldwide, in the media and for real as is the case with the Israeli destruction of an ENTIRE COUNTRY.
Right to exist? Who asks? Lets see...when a person has a right and abuses it, what happens next to any given individual? They lose that right. They go to jail.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/753202.html
So next up: Should Israel evacuate the Golan Heights which it literally STOLE during a cease fire during the Six Day War? Food for thought regarding this current cease fire in Lebanon...they are up to their old tricks again and EVERYONE is watching this time, ESPECIALLY the freedom fighters of Lebanon who managed to nab a few "commandos" in the Beka dressed up nicely as Lebanese Army personnel. I'll bet few of you know that Ehud Barat, ex prime minister of Israel who was in charge when Lebanon was finally LIBERATED by HEZBOLLAH a few years back....dressed up as a woman in order to enter Lebanon and assassinate Yasser Arafat. I'll bet most didn't know that!
22.8.06
In The Locality Of Whimpers
The static of those times was deafening,
transcripts and telegrams bogging
down all the lines, apothecaries
and epistlaries grew quite rich.
They all began to tell their stories,
everyone of them, quite dismal
because of the chatter and negations. We all
hoped for more but came up with so much
less. So many forgotten aftermaths,
so many more to make, we felt quite sad.
Our whimpers grew into infamous
proportions, exponential even,
until we wept with a single growl,
"Enough is enough, we want more."
Lost as strangers in the strangeness
of going home to find the huts burned
to their very interior ashes, those
ashes in the sky or the breath
of our friend Iblis. He was tremendously
hard to find except in the fine print
of the conventions. He wasn't
what you would call, a good listener.
Iblis produces ashes like whispers,
his spooky action at a distance
and stands to gain more than a few
borrowed souls and heartbroken women,
a real deadbeat dad rounding up his vixen.
That is what they say about him anyway.
She said to him early on, "Come and get me,
if you can. I hide quite near the tan area
called the gray matter. It isn't easy to find
but try anyway. I've got nerves of steel."
***And who was to figure that he'd burn my hut too. Never a dull moment in this battle.
The static of those times was deafening,
transcripts and telegrams bogging
down all the lines, apothecaries
and epistlaries grew quite rich.
They all began to tell their stories,
everyone of them, quite dismal
because of the chatter and negations. We all
hoped for more but came up with so much
less. So many forgotten aftermaths,
so many more to make, we felt quite sad.
Our whimpers grew into infamous
proportions, exponential even,
until we wept with a single growl,
"Enough is enough, we want more."
Lost as strangers in the strangeness
of going home to find the huts burned
to their very interior ashes, those
ashes in the sky or the breath
of our friend Iblis. He was tremendously
hard to find except in the fine print
of the conventions. He wasn't
what you would call, a good listener.
Iblis produces ashes like whispers,
his spooky action at a distance
and stands to gain more than a few
borrowed souls and heartbroken women,
a real deadbeat dad rounding up his vixen.
That is what they say about him anyway.
She said to him early on, "Come and get me,
if you can. I hide quite near the tan area
called the gray matter. It isn't easy to find
but try anyway. I've got nerves of steel."
***And who was to figure that he'd burn my hut too. Never a dull moment in this battle.
In every time zone
a soldier patrols the perimeter of the site
in a certain kind of loneliness.
He persists but I do not.
A prayerful moth, rather large,
finds sanctuary on top of the blinds
but we do not.
Momentary gladness fills the room,
grace ends with a smile.
Your presence fills nothing but the void
as a car loading explosives at dawn
shuts prophecy down for the day.
It is grown here and exported, how?
Radishes grow into melons.
Dogs scattered in various poses
at the road side, mangled and all
quite dead. How can this be?
Who is painting the roads red?
A minaret climbs through the arcadia door,
it is almost beautiful, a knick knack.
The men in clusters near the bottom
count several angles, another balances
high on the scaffold with bare chest.
A slaughter in the dust one year ago
and next year my decorations will
sing everything is loved once before
building a reputation, wherever that is.
a soldier patrols the perimeter of the site
in a certain kind of loneliness.
He persists but I do not.
A prayerful moth, rather large,
finds sanctuary on top of the blinds
but we do not.
Momentary gladness fills the room,
grace ends with a smile.
Your presence fills nothing but the void
as a car loading explosives at dawn
shuts prophecy down for the day.
It is grown here and exported, how?
Radishes grow into melons.
Dogs scattered in various poses
at the road side, mangled and all
quite dead. How can this be?
Who is painting the roads red?
A minaret climbs through the arcadia door,
it is almost beautiful, a knick knack.
The men in clusters near the bottom
count several angles, another balances
high on the scaffold with bare chest.
A slaughter in the dust one year ago
and next year my decorations will
sing everything is loved once before
building a reputation, wherever that is.
21.8.06
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail58.html
A real life dragon burninates the countryside, burninates the peasants.
STRONG BAD. Don't miss it. Hilarious and worth the time it takes to click.
A real life dragon burninates the countryside, burninates the peasants.
STRONG BAD. Don't miss it. Hilarious and worth the time it takes to click.
Crash Course: Revisionism
"He beat me and attached the electrodes to my nipples. Then all I remember is that I was screaming." - spoken by a woman imprisoned by Utopians in Khiam prison in Southern Lebanon aided by their collaborators, mostly Maronite Christians.
Welcome to the newest visitors to this blog, the FREEPERS. I've long wanted a rational discourse with those whose only media contact is with Rupert Murdoch's FOX broadcasting network. Thanks to the work of a journalist actively involved in the US military, I now have access to the minds of the most incalcitrant non thinkers.
Start here to learn how the state of Israel came into being as part of the Collective Jungian Consciousness of America:
http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Palestine-Remembered/Story674.html
Now, in order to understand this bogus Arab-Jewish conflict, it is necessary to review the concept of slogans such as the one that was used to convince the nations of the world to accept the violent expulsion of an invisible population of humans known as Palestinians. That slogan which was coined by the Zionists in WWII GERMANY is:
A people without a land and a land without a people.
Now, how is it that both cases can exist so easily side by side in the consciousness of some people? If Israel was a land without a people then how exactly and when exactly and WHERE exactly did this 2,000 year long war between the "Jews and Arabs" take place?
The Big Fat Myth: THERE WAS NO 2,000 YEAR OLD WAR and there has not been 'centuries' of conflict. There were wars amongst believers of various stripes including the humungous oppression of the Sunni Ottoman Empire which was waged more upon the Shi'i muslims while the Jews enjoyed long periods of peace under the protection of Ottoman Rule. And the Christian oppressions of both the Jews and the Muslims. To this day, Turkey enjoys a healthy population of Jews and to a large extent, they are the 'movers and shakers' of Turkish society. You never see Turkey involved in a religious war even though the population of Turkey is overwhelmingly muslim. Where is the war with the Jews? And since when is it considered a healthy aspect of democracy to encourage oppression via the rule of minorities over majorities as is the case with the openly stated desire of the Zionists in WWII Germany to create a Maronite Christian State in Lebanon which was always a country designated as the refuge of all believers including Jews, Druze, Fatimids, etc. ad nauseum? What kind of people use collaboration as a means of guaranteeing their own self indulgent security?
http://www.inminds.co.uk/khiam-prison.html
"Khiam prison was a detention and interrogation camp during the years of the Israeli occupation in Southern Lebanon. From 1985 until the Israeli defeat in May 2000, thousands of Lebanese were held in Khiam without trial. Most of them were brutally tortured - some of them died.
The prisoners included members of the resistance, their relatives, civilians by the dozen whose crime was innocence, who would not collaborate with the Israelis or the SLA, who refused to join the murderous little militia, who declined to give the Israelis information about the Lebanese resistance."
THERE is no war with the Jews waged by the Arabs. There never was one. The war, as Americans know it, is the ARAB-ISRAELI WAR and it has been continuously raging on since the creation of the fictional state of Israel and has absolutely nothing to do with Islam. It has nothing to do with the Jews although many Jews would beg to disagree. They also have a collective conscious and one that has also been exploited and manipulated by corrupt leaders such as Begin, Sharon and the current Zionist president, Ehud Olmert. I've little doubt that Jews worldwide are shocked and dismayed by the example set by these people who have done little to promote peace and much to promote killing of Arabs. I have little doubt that their psychology is reeling from the impact of being implicated in serious war crimes....after all, the reason Israel was CREATED was supposedly due to the horror called the HOLOCAUST.
If I were a Jew of ANY nationality (like Muslims, Jews can live anywhere they please in the world and being Jewish has nothing whatsoever to do with Israeli citizenship)...I would be horrified if I created a holocaust when in fact, I was the victim of one.
And seeing as how most people are result driven and definition oriented, it has never been more important to study the meaning of the word ZIONISM. Zionism is literally defined as UTOPIA.
WHERE IS THIS UTOPIA? All I see is murder and expulsion, the creation of more and more refugees and anger towards Utopians.
These same Utopians have entered Lebanon dressed as Lebanese Army Soldiers and were attacked by the resistance in the Bekaa valley just a few days ago. In fact, those same Utopians are busy at work in Iraq having arrived a full year ahead of the US Occupation army there. These same Utopians are in charge of the training of US special forces who methodically torture muslims using religious knowledge and the muslim aversion to dogs and sodomy.
"He beat me and attached the electrodes to my nipples. Then all I remember is that I was screaming." - spoken by a woman imprisoned by Utopians in Khiam prison in Southern Lebanon aided by their collaborators, mostly Maronite Christians.
Welcome to the newest visitors to this blog, the FREEPERS. I've long wanted a rational discourse with those whose only media contact is with Rupert Murdoch's FOX broadcasting network. Thanks to the work of a journalist actively involved in the US military, I now have access to the minds of the most incalcitrant non thinkers.
Start here to learn how the state of Israel came into being as part of the Collective Jungian Consciousness of America:
http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Palestine-Remembered/Story674.html
Now, in order to understand this bogus Arab-Jewish conflict, it is necessary to review the concept of slogans such as the one that was used to convince the nations of the world to accept the violent expulsion of an invisible population of humans known as Palestinians. That slogan which was coined by the Zionists in WWII GERMANY is:
A people without a land and a land without a people.
Now, how is it that both cases can exist so easily side by side in the consciousness of some people? If Israel was a land without a people then how exactly and when exactly and WHERE exactly did this 2,000 year long war between the "Jews and Arabs" take place?
The Big Fat Myth: THERE WAS NO 2,000 YEAR OLD WAR and there has not been 'centuries' of conflict. There were wars amongst believers of various stripes including the humungous oppression of the Sunni Ottoman Empire which was waged more upon the Shi'i muslims while the Jews enjoyed long periods of peace under the protection of Ottoman Rule. And the Christian oppressions of both the Jews and the Muslims. To this day, Turkey enjoys a healthy population of Jews and to a large extent, they are the 'movers and shakers' of Turkish society. You never see Turkey involved in a religious war even though the population of Turkey is overwhelmingly muslim. Where is the war with the Jews? And since when is it considered a healthy aspect of democracy to encourage oppression via the rule of minorities over majorities as is the case with the openly stated desire of the Zionists in WWII Germany to create a Maronite Christian State in Lebanon which was always a country designated as the refuge of all believers including Jews, Druze, Fatimids, etc. ad nauseum? What kind of people use collaboration as a means of guaranteeing their own self indulgent security?
http://www.inminds.co.uk/khiam-prison.html
"Khiam prison was a detention and interrogation camp during the years of the Israeli occupation in Southern Lebanon. From 1985 until the Israeli defeat in May 2000, thousands of Lebanese were held in Khiam without trial. Most of them were brutally tortured - some of them died.
The prisoners included members of the resistance, their relatives, civilians by the dozen whose crime was innocence, who would not collaborate with the Israelis or the SLA, who refused to join the murderous little militia, who declined to give the Israelis information about the Lebanese resistance."
THERE is no war with the Jews waged by the Arabs. There never was one. The war, as Americans know it, is the ARAB-ISRAELI WAR and it has been continuously raging on since the creation of the fictional state of Israel and has absolutely nothing to do with Islam. It has nothing to do with the Jews although many Jews would beg to disagree. They also have a collective conscious and one that has also been exploited and manipulated by corrupt leaders such as Begin, Sharon and the current Zionist president, Ehud Olmert. I've little doubt that Jews worldwide are shocked and dismayed by the example set by these people who have done little to promote peace and much to promote killing of Arabs. I have little doubt that their psychology is reeling from the impact of being implicated in serious war crimes....after all, the reason Israel was CREATED was supposedly due to the horror called the HOLOCAUST.
If I were a Jew of ANY nationality (like Muslims, Jews can live anywhere they please in the world and being Jewish has nothing whatsoever to do with Israeli citizenship)...I would be horrified if I created a holocaust when in fact, I was the victim of one.
And seeing as how most people are result driven and definition oriented, it has never been more important to study the meaning of the word ZIONISM. Zionism is literally defined as UTOPIA.
WHERE IS THIS UTOPIA? All I see is murder and expulsion, the creation of more and more refugees and anger towards Utopians.
These same Utopians have entered Lebanon dressed as Lebanese Army Soldiers and were attacked by the resistance in the Bekaa valley just a few days ago. In fact, those same Utopians are busy at work in Iraq having arrived a full year ahead of the US Occupation army there. These same Utopians are in charge of the training of US special forces who methodically torture muslims using religious knowledge and the muslim aversion to dogs and sodomy.
20.8.06
Ode To The Gully Washer
(for James Corner)
When it came down we'd bow
our heads and utter each to each
the plain-spoken dialogue
of the deluge. Years' worth
of waiting over in a flash. Resurrection's
aisle cleaned up, mint and grass
combed out properly in three directions.
A kicked ball would turn up
near the corner in a stretch
of wild rasberry wholly out
of reach, no trespassing sign needed.
Tadpoles and water walkers,
giant red dragonflies called snakefeeders:
everything with a description
sorting origin and function, a collection
of results-specific identifiers
for the concerns of our people.
Wasps with addresses and vendettas,
rocks with names beside
bean vines and China Berries,
pop beetles and walking sticks.
A host of communion eaters
and seekers, drought prone to river wise.
Our contempt reserved for the fires.
http://bisbeedailyphoto.blogspot.com/
The second photo is taken a hundred yards from where I am living, displaced by Israel. I'd say it is one of the most unexpected things that could have happened to me thus far. Bisbee is now a town full of affluent Californians who have literally "bought" a piece of timeless real estate. What did they buy? Do they know our stories? Why me? Well, why not me? I must be here for a reason...to write the Glory Hole Ode and others (to Buckets and Leaks) based on xenophobic fantasies, as all the Odes are and ever were. It is such an important detail....and such an evocative tale.
How hard it is to walk around with miracles inside of one's head. Is it any wonder why there are so many insane ones on the streets in America? Back in Haris, South Lebanon, I only ever saw one. One solitary insane man who always wore a coat, winter and summer, rain or shine.
(for James Corner)
When it came down we'd bow
our heads and utter each to each
the plain-spoken dialogue
of the deluge. Years' worth
of waiting over in a flash. Resurrection's
aisle cleaned up, mint and grass
combed out properly in three directions.
A kicked ball would turn up
near the corner in a stretch
of wild rasberry wholly out
of reach, no trespassing sign needed.
Tadpoles and water walkers,
giant red dragonflies called snakefeeders:
everything with a description
sorting origin and function, a collection
of results-specific identifiers
for the concerns of our people.
Wasps with addresses and vendettas,
rocks with names beside
bean vines and China Berries,
pop beetles and walking sticks.
A host of communion eaters
and seekers, drought prone to river wise.
Our contempt reserved for the fires.
http://bisbeedailyphoto.blogspot.com/
The second photo is taken a hundred yards from where I am living, displaced by Israel. I'd say it is one of the most unexpected things that could have happened to me thus far. Bisbee is now a town full of affluent Californians who have literally "bought" a piece of timeless real estate. What did they buy? Do they know our stories? Why me? Well, why not me? I must be here for a reason...to write the Glory Hole Ode and others (to Buckets and Leaks) based on xenophobic fantasies, as all the Odes are and ever were. It is such an important detail....and such an evocative tale.
How hard it is to walk around with miracles inside of one's head. Is it any wonder why there are so many insane ones on the streets in America? Back in Haris, South Lebanon, I only ever saw one. One solitary insane man who always wore a coat, winter and summer, rain or shine.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=74819
What did my fellow evacuees know about the pirates aboard the USS Trent?
Nothing. Only a few of us knew. It might have made some people a little nervous.
What did my fellow evacuees know about the pirates aboard the USS Trent?
Nothing. Only a few of us knew. It might have made some people a little nervous.
17.8.06
The Migrants Speak of God
These eyes look different
now and this gut hurts
more when a lease is signed
against the will. Other people's
beds smell awful as a body
forces itself
between the stray sheets,
talk about the tyrannies!
Beggars with cars have dogs
that sit inside and wait for hours
snapping at the flies.
The smart ones wait
for just the right time
and if they swallow
the tiny prey, it is with little regret.
These eyes look different
now and this gut hurts
more when a lease is signed
against the will. Other people's
beds smell awful as a body
forces itself
between the stray sheets,
talk about the tyrannies!
Beggars with cars have dogs
that sit inside and wait for hours
snapping at the flies.
The smart ones wait
for just the right time
and if they swallow
the tiny prey, it is with little regret.
To The Israeli Soldiers Who Shat In My House And Left It
Ah, if only I could be
a dam I'd ask the water
how do you break me
or a rock, you move me
the bottom of the sea
you fill me a cloud
release me, a river
guide me or a storm
begin and end me
a flood. If only
the droughts weren't so long
such frozen lakes
parables of motion
persistent as flies,
thine aid do we seek,
flee then seek again.
The forgotten Jews,
the twelve springs of Abraham,
those Mary tears.
Birth waters preceed every soul.
The lacking planets dry as fists
arranged silently in rows
study it all in dreams,
these illusions are invitations
when moths gather light
among the particles of night.
In Zacatacas the floods
are very old and carry
the mountains away as if
to card seeds from wool,
the vibrations of thunder
asssistants of demise,
incalculable lines of light
choose, they choose
certain walkers and runners
and promise so many
such bitter escapes.
The furthest destinations
where miracles are light weight
passengers as feathery
as seeds, graceful, determined.
They don't look back.
They never return home and know
where they are going -
to that end in another country's grave.
Bint Jubail buries her shops
in mortars and C'naa remembers
the people twice, poor people
wearing plastic slippers,
not well-dressed and familiar with the rain.
Ah, if only I could be
a dam I'd ask the water
how do you break me
or a rock, you move me
the bottom of the sea
you fill me a cloud
release me, a river
guide me or a storm
begin and end me
a flood. If only
the droughts weren't so long
such frozen lakes
parables of motion
persistent as flies,
thine aid do we seek,
flee then seek again.
The forgotten Jews,
the twelve springs of Abraham,
those Mary tears.
Birth waters preceed every soul.
The lacking planets dry as fists
arranged silently in rows
study it all in dreams,
these illusions are invitations
when moths gather light
among the particles of night.
In Zacatacas the floods
are very old and carry
the mountains away as if
to card seeds from wool,
the vibrations of thunder
asssistants of demise,
incalculable lines of light
choose, they choose
certain walkers and runners
and promise so many
such bitter escapes.
The furthest destinations
where miracles are light weight
passengers as feathery
as seeds, graceful, determined.
They don't look back.
They never return home and know
where they are going -
to that end in another country's grave.
Bint Jubail buries her shops
in mortars and C'naa remembers
the people twice, poor people
wearing plastic slippers,
not well-dressed and familiar with the rain.
16.8.06
First, the vicious and animalistic IDF went in to my house by exploding a grenade in our stairwell. The moved into it and tore it apart in their vicious hate crime frenzy. They destroyed all of our furniture, ripped out appliances and to make it clear who was in our home, they left their FECES all over the bathroom. Unclean. They are not only unclean people but they are hateful murderers who have not only lost a war but have changed the way the world thinks about terrorism. We will be documenting the war crimes perpetrated against our family and may pursue a lawsuit against the IsUNreal State because lucky for me, I have dual rights according to US laws that changed in terms of recognition of the rights of foreigners because it was discovered that Clinton's cabinet was chock full of Israeli Nationals who NEEDED this right. Oh well. But read this from Har'etz and then, read something else from Allah.
Oh, and I left out the best part....the Zionists WIRED my home with a very big bomb, the size of a BATHTUB and no doubt planned to murder my family as they re-entered....luckily however, they had to run away like Little Bo Peep before they got the chance to really display their TRUE HATRED of all Non Jews. Wow. My poor in laws are truly homeless and al'ham'du'lillah, I left my house for them up in Beirut to live in. They are devastated because what was destroyed was not just a house but an entire family that was split apart. A home that had become a beacon of hope for all my husband's IMPOVERISHED aunts, uncles, cousins, dogs and yes, stray cats. My mother in law loves stray cats.
You be the judge and for crying out loud....wake up.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/750990.html
The Day After / How we suffered a knockout
By Reuven Pedatzur
The United States' defeat in the Vietnam war started becoming evident when Gen. William Westmoreland, commander of the U.S. forces in Vietnam, started using body counts as an alternative to military victories. When he could not point to achievements on the battlefield, Westmoreland would send a daily report to Washington of the number of Vietcong soldiers his forces had killed. In the past few weeks, the Israel Defense Forces has also adopted the body count approach. When the largest and strongest army in the Middle East clashes for more than two weeks with 50 Hezbollah fighters in Bint Jbail and does not bring them to their knees, the commanders are left with no choice but to point to the number of dead fighters the enemy has left behind. It can be assumed that Bint Jbail will turn into a symbol of the second Lebanon war. For the Hezbollah fighters it will be remembered as their Stalingrad, and for us it will be a painful reminder of the IDF's defeat.
Ze'ev Schiff wrote in Haaretz on August 11 that we had "gotten a slap." It seems that "knockout" would be a more appropriate description.
And what does the Quran say about the Zionists?
Sura 2 verse 17:
Their parable is like the parable of one who kindled a fire, but when it illumined all around him, Allah took away their light, and left them in utter darkness.
Deaf, dumb and blind so they will not turn back.
Iran...well...Peres just said in a televised press conference that he prefers that the US and Europe fight those guys so the Jews don't have to.
Don't let your sons die for these people. If you do, you have no one but yourselves to blame.
Oh, and I left out the best part....the Zionists WIRED my home with a very big bomb, the size of a BATHTUB and no doubt planned to murder my family as they re-entered....luckily however, they had to run away like Little Bo Peep before they got the chance to really display their TRUE HATRED of all Non Jews. Wow. My poor in laws are truly homeless and al'ham'du'lillah, I left my house for them up in Beirut to live in. They are devastated because what was destroyed was not just a house but an entire family that was split apart. A home that had become a beacon of hope for all my husband's IMPOVERISHED aunts, uncles, cousins, dogs and yes, stray cats. My mother in law loves stray cats.
You be the judge and for crying out loud....wake up.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/750990.html
The Day After / How we suffered a knockout
By Reuven Pedatzur
The United States' defeat in the Vietnam war started becoming evident when Gen. William Westmoreland, commander of the U.S. forces in Vietnam, started using body counts as an alternative to military victories. When he could not point to achievements on the battlefield, Westmoreland would send a daily report to Washington of the number of Vietcong soldiers his forces had killed. In the past few weeks, the Israel Defense Forces has also adopted the body count approach. When the largest and strongest army in the Middle East clashes for more than two weeks with 50 Hezbollah fighters in Bint Jbail and does not bring them to their knees, the commanders are left with no choice but to point to the number of dead fighters the enemy has left behind. It can be assumed that Bint Jbail will turn into a symbol of the second Lebanon war. For the Hezbollah fighters it will be remembered as their Stalingrad, and for us it will be a painful reminder of the IDF's defeat.
Ze'ev Schiff wrote in Haaretz on August 11 that we had "gotten a slap." It seems that "knockout" would be a more appropriate description.
And what does the Quran say about the Zionists?
Sura 2 verse 17:
Their parable is like the parable of one who kindled a fire, but when it illumined all around him, Allah took away their light, and left them in utter darkness.
Deaf, dumb and blind so they will not turn back.
Iran...well...Peres just said in a televised press conference that he prefers that the US and Europe fight those guys so the Jews don't have to.
Don't let your sons die for these people. If you do, you have no one but yourselves to blame.
HOW INNOCENT AMERICANS PAY FOR ZIONIST WAR CRIMES
From Wednesday, May 17, 2006
A Bright Movie*
The saris go by me from the embassies.
-The Woman at the Washington Zoo
by Randall Jarrell
Beirut is a city of gold and fatique -Mahmoud Darwish
Whilst gadding about and on the way back
this long story started to end as it should
in the middle. Stopped on a corner,
the same one-legged old man there
sitting on the curb. In a country like this
no one has a sign: Will Work For Food
because that would be just too
crowded. It used to be that he'd stand
on his leg in the middle of the road
to collect alms for himself
but now times are tough he has to wait
to be called over. Not like the guy
in the wheelchair on the East Side who gets
onto the macadam between twelve
chaotic lanes, God Only Knows How
(probably dropped off by a taxi, must be).
Not like the kid up by the Phoenicia
whose hands were burnt clean off,
who smiles and earns so much for that smile.
His job is easy. But a one-legged man
has a different problem in a bad economy.
Standing on one leg for hours isn't what you'd call
without problems. You don't do it for nothing.
So I stopped and called him over.
I'd passed by him at least five times in three months
to avoid pissing off the guy in the rear view mirror.
This time though I called him over to hand him a fiver.
Five times one thousand equals roughly five thousand.
It was good and I noticed the girl behind me
doing the same, dragging coins out of the purse
that must have been in her lap. It felt good.
I knew that if I hadn't stopped she wouldn't have either.
I lost her near the airport tunnel. You know
how it is in the subterranean tunnel that
goes right under the Hariri International tarmac.
I was just about to enter when I saw everyone
coming out the other way, HCE. Turn around.
Lucky today it seems because once you get in
that tunnel and there is an accident, you
are in there. Full of exhaust and exhaustion,
pushing and shoving until two lanes turn into four.
You smoke three cigarettes that you didn't need.
You get tired of listening to the Eagles sing
on a corner in Winslow Arizona ONE MORE TIME.
You get out and head back up the wrong way
on an exit ramp but that's okay, in Lebanon
everyone knows what you're doing. They
would do the same. Like yesterday's fender
bender in the Ouzai. Not paying attention
and wham! Right into the back of a taxi.
The driver gets out and he's mad. I'm ready
to fight it, to say he is a taxi driver and a cheat.
I'm ready to do that when a thirty kg kid squeezes
between me and the city bus.
"What are you doing there kid? Move away,
you are going to get hit." He was just trying
to help. In Lebanon the kids settle disasters
too, they've seen so much and damn if they
don't have the audacity to tell you how to
handle a fender bender. The boy did what I
told him to do and seemed rather pleased
that I'd thought enough of him to tell him
to get out from between me and the bus.
The taxi driver is there at my window.
I just ask him, instead of fighting it all,
"What do you want from me? Is twenty
bucks okay?" Sure is. I know once I drive
away he would have settled for ten and he
knows too, he could have asked for thirty.
A deal is a deal though and we drive away
pleased. Some poor man leans in my window
and says, "Hamdu'la sah'lahme" which to me
sounds an awful lot like Thanks for the salami.
But it means, Thank God you weren't hurt.
I agree and the man reminds me, "Haram, he is
a taxi driver." Means that twenty bucks is like
thirty customers and worth a bit of bent chrome.
I left the scene of the accident feeling pretty good.
Today as I avoided the tunnel wondering
about the bodies that might have been there,
the ones I could have seen had I had the time
for the Eagles and three more cancer sticks,
I cruised through the old airport road that starts
right by Fadallah's Mobil station, a station
that gives everything to orphans
(reminded myself to go there next time to buy gas) .
I saw the following:
carcasses of sheeps and goats and cows
still bleeding into the gutters plastic balls
in net bags voluptuous Shia girls some
covered and some not taxis stopping every
few meters letting out little old men and haggard
old women muffler shops and bread stores until
finally I saw what it was I was after. A sign that read:
The School of Opulent Knowledge,
a little run down and right on time.
**This poem suffered under a horrible name. This weekend while in South Lebanon I watched the movie Syriana with old what's his name...from Ocean's Seven....and boy! What a bunch of plotless bullshit. And the parts about Beirut...so out of context. Since the movie takes place now...post 9/11 and in the Era of so-called "Oil Wars" how is it that in Beirut the stage is set with Freedom Fighters on buildings with machine guns? Now...back in the early to mid eighties there were a few of those but mid to late 90's? Nope. But that is the point of propaganda......to make you confused. Never was there a more beautiful depiction of confusion. But the great part is the hero (in the end) just goes home like Bilbo Baggins with some kind of 'knowledge' ring...you, the movie going public are supposed to believe and that knowledge is that there is no POINT to these things that people do in the Middle East to each other. It's just sort of a crazy game played by oil tycoons. Like Steven STEALBERG (Terminal starring Tom Hanks) who stole a movie plot from a REAL IRANIAN who REALLY WAS stranded in CDG AIRPORT for NINE YEARS and isntead, made the main character into one from a 'fictionalized' EASTERN BLOCK country, er, like the kind of people who have "returned" to the Promised Land called IsUNreal which is labelied by the Iranian president a "Fictional State" imposed by the Zionists on the Palestinians and the world (US contributes 4B USD every year to the Zionist regime and has been doing so for a very long time folks) and hence, justifies absolutely his motto of driving the Zionists into the sea. Well, Steven Stealberg is another case in point and donated a whole bunch of money LAST WEEK to the war criminals in order to protect his own fictions. Wow. BOYCOTT HIM. BOYCOTT LIARS THAT CONTRIBUTE MONEY TO DELIVER CLUSTER BOMBS TO THE NEEDY AND USE YOUR TICKET PRICES TO DO SO.
Was ZIONISM mentioned in the plot of the movie called Syriana? Oh sure...I guess you could call it that "protocols of zion" type of thing and they flash on some old newsreel of the Rockafellers.....right in the beginning. And that's it. Nary a mention of the single most IMPORTANT cause of the crisis in the MIDDLE EAST. Just like the politically non savvy and flabby poets at Silliman in their former discussions of the ME conflicts...those old spittle busting conversations in which flabby poets share amylase with the rest of the blathering that goes on in the Language School and elsewhere.
A type of racism and bigotry and all out HATRED of a large number of people called:
ZIONISM. There you have it. And yes...see the movie. It is worth a scratch on the head and perhaps one in the crotch. (You know Arab men are always scratching their crotches and thank the Lord this is never portrayed in movies...God only knows what devastation that might provoke in the 'civilized' nations...you know the ones...like American that support Zionism and Christian Zionism to the tune of several billions of dollars yearly).
Addendum: Shi'ism is the MIDDLE ROAD of Islamic Politics. The Shi'i have supported Bush's war on terror by handing over several Osama type folks from the region involved in the US Occupation, Iraq. What has baffled some is that the Shi'i could support such a man. Well, it is because the Shi'i are OBLIGATED to avoid things that split Islam like those involved in the WTC which divided not only Islam but divided the people of the United States into two diametrically opposed groups. Those that HATE BUSH and those that don't. Now though, it is a further 'sorting' of those who not only hate Bush but admire the Middle Road of Shi'i politics and the actual putting ones' money where ones' mouth is i.e. fighting and dying for one's country or one's conviction that hypocrisy and oppression are ALWAYS bad, regardless of the color of one's skin or one's passport or one's religion. And yet, there are still those who KNOW the truth of this story but fail to stand up for justice. They still bow to an imposed ideology that has used the Jewish religion to promote hatred of Muslims.
It is funny to watch the media now turn on its back again and do things like label the Gulf States as moderates. They were never moderates. They were simply Kings in love with their thrones and in love with American briberies. Not Hezbollah though. Hezbollah leader Nasrallah has vowed to pay the rent of every homeless victim of Israeli Brutality for a FULL YEAR. The Iranian president, a former commander of the army in the Iran/Iraq war (a war promoted by the US(who sponsored the terrorist Saddam Hussein)/funded by Saudi/Israel selling weapons to the Iranians) who holds a PhD....has also vowed his support. Not to the Zionists though and for this, he is made into a new dragon. These idiots who work hand in hand to deliver cluster bombs to 'the needy' specialize in creating dragons which they can in turn, slay for the American Populace. Amusing to hear about the slaying of a high ranking commander of Hezbollah a short time before the 'cease fire' and watch how the media couldn't drum up anything other than a 'so what' because they were unable to label the dragon before they slew him. That is because he wasn't a dragon, he was a dragon slayer. The real kind. An honorable resistance fighter of south Lebanon.
And please note, Sayyed Nasrallah already lost ONE SON to Zionist brutality while fighting the illegal occupation of Southern Lebanon by the Zionists almost a decade ago. And this time, during this latest Zionist brutality, his other son was....you know where? FIGHTING for the Freedom of Lebanon from Israeli/US/Zionist oppression. In the trenches. Don't find many leaders who will put their own sons in the line of fire now do you? Think again about those dragons. And don't ask me to apologize to the dragon makers...they are just illusionists.
From Wednesday, May 17, 2006
A Bright Movie*
The saris go by me from the embassies.
-The Woman at the Washington Zoo
by Randall Jarrell
Beirut is a city of gold and fatique -Mahmoud Darwish
Whilst gadding about and on the way back
this long story started to end as it should
in the middle. Stopped on a corner,
the same one-legged old man there
sitting on the curb. In a country like this
no one has a sign: Will Work For Food
because that would be just too
crowded. It used to be that he'd stand
on his leg in the middle of the road
to collect alms for himself
but now times are tough he has to wait
to be called over. Not like the guy
in the wheelchair on the East Side who gets
onto the macadam between twelve
chaotic lanes, God Only Knows How
(probably dropped off by a taxi, must be).
Not like the kid up by the Phoenicia
whose hands were burnt clean off,
who smiles and earns so much for that smile.
His job is easy. But a one-legged man
has a different problem in a bad economy.
Standing on one leg for hours isn't what you'd call
without problems. You don't do it for nothing.
So I stopped and called him over.
I'd passed by him at least five times in three months
to avoid pissing off the guy in the rear view mirror.
This time though I called him over to hand him a fiver.
Five times one thousand equals roughly five thousand.
It was good and I noticed the girl behind me
doing the same, dragging coins out of the purse
that must have been in her lap. It felt good.
I knew that if I hadn't stopped she wouldn't have either.
I lost her near the airport tunnel. You know
how it is in the subterranean tunnel that
goes right under the Hariri International tarmac.
I was just about to enter when I saw everyone
coming out the other way, HCE. Turn around.
Lucky today it seems because once you get in
that tunnel and there is an accident, you
are in there. Full of exhaust and exhaustion,
pushing and shoving until two lanes turn into four.
You smoke three cigarettes that you didn't need.
You get tired of listening to the Eagles sing
on a corner in Winslow Arizona ONE MORE TIME.
You get out and head back up the wrong way
on an exit ramp but that's okay, in Lebanon
everyone knows what you're doing. They
would do the same. Like yesterday's fender
bender in the Ouzai. Not paying attention
and wham! Right into the back of a taxi.
The driver gets out and he's mad. I'm ready
to fight it, to say he is a taxi driver and a cheat.
I'm ready to do that when a thirty kg kid squeezes
between me and the city bus.
"What are you doing there kid? Move away,
you are going to get hit." He was just trying
to help. In Lebanon the kids settle disasters
too, they've seen so much and damn if they
don't have the audacity to tell you how to
handle a fender bender. The boy did what I
told him to do and seemed rather pleased
that I'd thought enough of him to tell him
to get out from between me and the bus.
The taxi driver is there at my window.
I just ask him, instead of fighting it all,
"What do you want from me? Is twenty
bucks okay?" Sure is. I know once I drive
away he would have settled for ten and he
knows too, he could have asked for thirty.
A deal is a deal though and we drive away
pleased. Some poor man leans in my window
and says, "Hamdu'la sah'lahme" which to me
sounds an awful lot like Thanks for the salami.
But it means, Thank God you weren't hurt.
I agree and the man reminds me, "Haram, he is
a taxi driver." Means that twenty bucks is like
thirty customers and worth a bit of bent chrome.
I left the scene of the accident feeling pretty good.
Today as I avoided the tunnel wondering
about the bodies that might have been there,
the ones I could have seen had I had the time
for the Eagles and three more cancer sticks,
I cruised through the old airport road that starts
right by Fadallah's Mobil station, a station
that gives everything to orphans
(reminded myself to go there next time to buy gas) .
I saw the following:
carcasses of sheeps and goats and cows
still bleeding into the gutters plastic balls
in net bags voluptuous Shia girls some
covered and some not taxis stopping every
few meters letting out little old men and haggard
old women muffler shops and bread stores until
finally I saw what it was I was after. A sign that read:
The School of Opulent Knowledge,
a little run down and right on time.
**This poem suffered under a horrible name. This weekend while in South Lebanon I watched the movie Syriana with old what's his name...from Ocean's Seven....and boy! What a bunch of plotless bullshit. And the parts about Beirut...so out of context. Since the movie takes place now...post 9/11 and in the Era of so-called "Oil Wars" how is it that in Beirut the stage is set with Freedom Fighters on buildings with machine guns? Now...back in the early to mid eighties there were a few of those but mid to late 90's? Nope. But that is the point of propaganda......to make you confused. Never was there a more beautiful depiction of confusion. But the great part is the hero (in the end) just goes home like Bilbo Baggins with some kind of 'knowledge' ring...you, the movie going public are supposed to believe and that knowledge is that there is no POINT to these things that people do in the Middle East to each other. It's just sort of a crazy game played by oil tycoons. Like Steven STEALBERG (Terminal starring Tom Hanks) who stole a movie plot from a REAL IRANIAN who REALLY WAS stranded in CDG AIRPORT for NINE YEARS and isntead, made the main character into one from a 'fictionalized' EASTERN BLOCK country, er, like the kind of people who have "returned" to the Promised Land called IsUNreal which is labelied by the Iranian president a "Fictional State" imposed by the Zionists on the Palestinians and the world (US contributes 4B USD every year to the Zionist regime and has been doing so for a very long time folks) and hence, justifies absolutely his motto of driving the Zionists into the sea. Well, Steven Stealberg is another case in point and donated a whole bunch of money LAST WEEK to the war criminals in order to protect his own fictions. Wow. BOYCOTT HIM. BOYCOTT LIARS THAT CONTRIBUTE MONEY TO DELIVER CLUSTER BOMBS TO THE NEEDY AND USE YOUR TICKET PRICES TO DO SO.
Was ZIONISM mentioned in the plot of the movie called Syriana? Oh sure...I guess you could call it that "protocols of zion" type of thing and they flash on some old newsreel of the Rockafellers.....right in the beginning. And that's it. Nary a mention of the single most IMPORTANT cause of the crisis in the MIDDLE EAST. Just like the politically non savvy and flabby poets at Silliman in their former discussions of the ME conflicts...those old spittle busting conversations in which flabby poets share amylase with the rest of the blathering that goes on in the Language School and elsewhere.
A type of racism and bigotry and all out HATRED of a large number of people called:
ZIONISM. There you have it. And yes...see the movie. It is worth a scratch on the head and perhaps one in the crotch. (You know Arab men are always scratching their crotches and thank the Lord this is never portrayed in movies...God only knows what devastation that might provoke in the 'civilized' nations...you know the ones...like American that support Zionism and Christian Zionism to the tune of several billions of dollars yearly).
Addendum: Shi'ism is the MIDDLE ROAD of Islamic Politics. The Shi'i have supported Bush's war on terror by handing over several Osama type folks from the region involved in the US Occupation, Iraq. What has baffled some is that the Shi'i could support such a man. Well, it is because the Shi'i are OBLIGATED to avoid things that split Islam like those involved in the WTC which divided not only Islam but divided the people of the United States into two diametrically opposed groups. Those that HATE BUSH and those that don't. Now though, it is a further 'sorting' of those who not only hate Bush but admire the Middle Road of Shi'i politics and the actual putting ones' money where ones' mouth is i.e. fighting and dying for one's country or one's conviction that hypocrisy and oppression are ALWAYS bad, regardless of the color of one's skin or one's passport or one's religion. And yet, there are still those who KNOW the truth of this story but fail to stand up for justice. They still bow to an imposed ideology that has used the Jewish religion to promote hatred of Muslims.
It is funny to watch the media now turn on its back again and do things like label the Gulf States as moderates. They were never moderates. They were simply Kings in love with their thrones and in love with American briberies. Not Hezbollah though. Hezbollah leader Nasrallah has vowed to pay the rent of every homeless victim of Israeli Brutality for a FULL YEAR. The Iranian president, a former commander of the army in the Iran/Iraq war (a war promoted by the US(who sponsored the terrorist Saddam Hussein)/funded by Saudi/Israel selling weapons to the Iranians) who holds a PhD....has also vowed his support. Not to the Zionists though and for this, he is made into a new dragon. These idiots who work hand in hand to deliver cluster bombs to 'the needy' specialize in creating dragons which they can in turn, slay for the American Populace. Amusing to hear about the slaying of a high ranking commander of Hezbollah a short time before the 'cease fire' and watch how the media couldn't drum up anything other than a 'so what' because they were unable to label the dragon before they slew him. That is because he wasn't a dragon, he was a dragon slayer. The real kind. An honorable resistance fighter of south Lebanon.
And please note, Sayyed Nasrallah already lost ONE SON to Zionist brutality while fighting the illegal occupation of Southern Lebanon by the Zionists almost a decade ago. And this time, during this latest Zionist brutality, his other son was....you know where? FIGHTING for the Freedom of Lebanon from Israeli/US/Zionist oppression. In the trenches. Don't find many leaders who will put their own sons in the line of fire now do you? Think again about those dragons. And don't ask me to apologize to the dragon makers...they are just illusionists.
15.8.06
Hymn For Mohamed Al Dura
(Written a short time before 9/11)
A weeping man and his boy
at salvation's door,
at gunpoint.
The gaze of the deadly IDF,
a photographer and the world.
Surely it will win the Pulitzer,
some say
lolling on Friday afternoon
before another dinner
and the stretch of time
stolen from a mere
ten year-old boy.
So easily forgotten,
who is it that sheds
crocodile tears.
Some forget Goliath
that largeness, what it meant.
The great heaving machine
plunders and rapes
with the rapture of a criminal.
I once saw a baby
murdered at C'anaa,
his scalp peeled forward
from his pillaged cranial vault
as the UN peacekeeper wept.
A whole family shredded
like coconuts, opened wide
at their table
and the father still
with his legs stretched
in post prandial grace.
You want me to paint sunflowers,
write hymns?
We drive through the South
past a village marked
by the bones of houses
and a rusty sign
knowing treason
galloped before us,
taking with her all
the flesh and secrets.
I arrive at the border,
declare myself dangerous
armed with small stones,
praying for the desecration
of the giant
like a Moses in Sinai.
I will use my mouth
as a bomb,
my heart a plane.
Launch rockets from my womb
if that is what is left me.
Emily Dickenson is not my mother.
Do what you want with my clothes,
burn them, bury them.
*The truth behind the Al Dura murder scene is that the IDF went in 24 hours later and bull dozed the evidence, erasing their own tracks. Then they blamed the Palestinian 'gunmen' whom they always blame (victim blaming). The photographer that took the Shot Heard Round The World was awarded a prize by the French Press and Israel denied the Palestinian Photog to travel there to receive the much deserved award for his bravery in documenting the murder of a boy who was being shielded by his father.
I knew then that something 'big' would happen in order that Israel 'redeem' itself from the international attention showered on the truth of the situation...it was then that the US and Zionists allowed the WTC to be attacked and yes, I believe the Saudis were aided and the event was what is called a 'false flag' operation used to take America to war. Just like Amiri Baraka said and was dethroned from his seat as Poet Laureate of ? New Jersey for openly stating that a 'two hour warning' had been sent to Israelis employed in the WTC (not Jews mind you). The Ha'retz (which is now calling for the resignation of the war criminal Ehud Olmert) reported this story regarding the warning.
My awareness of the Palestinian Crisis has never ended and it is exactly that (I was pointing out the way in which the media twists semantics to support the imposed dictatorship called Israel) which one man responded to with a stupid question: What is Zionism. Then he changed it, edited it and was noted as saying: Israel has had such a hard time defending itself. Yeah right buddy. To the tune of 4 billion US Taxpayer dollars per year (an unending river of taxpayer money has poured into Israel since its inception) and as well, an unending stream of powerful weapons, nuclear warheads and triggers, surveillance equipment plus a variety of guided missile systems. Unabated.
Some people are just too happy to bury their heads in the sand.
(Written a short time before 9/11)
A weeping man and his boy
at salvation's door,
at gunpoint.
The gaze of the deadly IDF,
a photographer and the world.
Surely it will win the Pulitzer,
some say
lolling on Friday afternoon
before another dinner
and the stretch of time
stolen from a mere
ten year-old boy.
So easily forgotten,
who is it that sheds
crocodile tears.
Some forget Goliath
that largeness, what it meant.
The great heaving machine
plunders and rapes
with the rapture of a criminal.
I once saw a baby
murdered at C'anaa,
his scalp peeled forward
from his pillaged cranial vault
as the UN peacekeeper wept.
A whole family shredded
like coconuts, opened wide
at their table
and the father still
with his legs stretched
in post prandial grace.
You want me to paint sunflowers,
write hymns?
We drive through the South
past a village marked
by the bones of houses
and a rusty sign
knowing treason
galloped before us,
taking with her all
the flesh and secrets.
I arrive at the border,
declare myself dangerous
armed with small stones,
praying for the desecration
of the giant
like a Moses in Sinai.
I will use my mouth
as a bomb,
my heart a plane.
Launch rockets from my womb
if that is what is left me.
Emily Dickenson is not my mother.
Do what you want with my clothes,
burn them, bury them.
*The truth behind the Al Dura murder scene is that the IDF went in 24 hours later and bull dozed the evidence, erasing their own tracks. Then they blamed the Palestinian 'gunmen' whom they always blame (victim blaming). The photographer that took the Shot Heard Round The World was awarded a prize by the French Press and Israel denied the Palestinian Photog to travel there to receive the much deserved award for his bravery in documenting the murder of a boy who was being shielded by his father.
I knew then that something 'big' would happen in order that Israel 'redeem' itself from the international attention showered on the truth of the situation...it was then that the US and Zionists allowed the WTC to be attacked and yes, I believe the Saudis were aided and the event was what is called a 'false flag' operation used to take America to war. Just like Amiri Baraka said and was dethroned from his seat as Poet Laureate of ? New Jersey for openly stating that a 'two hour warning' had been sent to Israelis employed in the WTC (not Jews mind you). The Ha'retz (which is now calling for the resignation of the war criminal Ehud Olmert) reported this story regarding the warning.
My awareness of the Palestinian Crisis has never ended and it is exactly that (I was pointing out the way in which the media twists semantics to support the imposed dictatorship called Israel) which one man responded to with a stupid question: What is Zionism. Then he changed it, edited it and was noted as saying: Israel has had such a hard time defending itself. Yeah right buddy. To the tune of 4 billion US Taxpayer dollars per year (an unending river of taxpayer money has poured into Israel since its inception) and as well, an unending stream of powerful weapons, nuclear warheads and triggers, surveillance equipment plus a variety of guided missile systems. Unabated.
Some people are just too happy to bury their heads in the sand.
14.8.06
Titled The End
As I walk through the valley in the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil.
Well, not exactly. I do fear lightning, thunder and centipedes. My grandmother cautioned my mother to place the legs of the crib in cans of water to prevent their ascent. Just this morning, my daughter woke me up and guided me out of the 'guest house' where I was sleeping and into the cabin's kitchen. My eyes weren't completely open and she shoved a cup under my nose to show me the limp, hundred-legged orange and black snake which she captured early in the morning hours, managing to overcome her own fear of bugs and things that can sting a person even after they lay limp and lifeless.
I managed a sleepy shriek and looked her dead in the eye and said what every parent should say to their child in respect to things like that. "Be careful. Those things can ruin your life even after they are dead!"
The myth of the centipedes grasp is an oft told story at our house. The fact that you have to slice them into pieces with a pocket knife even as they climb up your legs and dig into your flesh with their soiled and horned feet. It is well known amongst us but nowdays, stories like that are seldom told to our children and their importance is hardly noticed. Stories of neglect and confusion. The stories of St. Patrick's cathedral where once I stood in the choir loft to sing hymns over the passing of once alive parishioners, the central aisle still covered in the same lawn-colored astroturf where my own mother's coffin lay on expandable metal saw-horses so many years ago. The same church where Lisa and I used to scrape wax off the hard wood floors near the apse for Father Padilla so that he'd give us each a dime for a coke up at the Artic Circle. Now though, one just inserts a bit of silver and the flickering prayer lights just come on, coin-op votives. Is it any wonder about the Catholic Church -why even the smoke and mirrors people have sold out to technologies in which coins teach children to gamble in the arcades in the cities.
I begged my husband yesterday to attend the 9:30. We were walking past St. Pat's and finally, after years and years of hoping to get in the now "mostly locked doors", I got in. It used to be open 24/7 but now it is banker's hours and funerals only, for well-scheduled masses. No more children stopping by at noon on Saturday just to see, "what is up with God today?" No more of that!
The same woman greeted us at the door. She has been greeting Catholics in Bisbee at those same gigantic, bilateral chunks of wood ever since I was a wax-scraping, choir loft-cherishing kid. She never dies. She never gets old and she never tires of smoke and mirrors. The Holy Water sprinkled through the pews by the priests always reaches her. When the attendants respond to the priest as he says, "Peace upon you all," she not only responds but she thrusts her hand out and points her finger at Him as if she is throwing Him a line. The people in the front pews follow her lead and she is the reason they select the front row seats in the first place. I know that is why I chose the fourth pew by the center aisle because I knew she would be close by. I think her name must be Irma.
I pointed out to my Shi'i husband who was unshaved and and had not yet brushed his teeth, the cistern from which I was baptized as an infant. I explained each thing to him as I did a whispery inventory regarding the cash value of all those figurines, some of them life sized! The Virgin and Joseph (whom the priest called the "step father of Lord Jesus) and Jesus himself, perched high on the immense gothic alabaster tabernacle. Priceless to a collector of artifacts and it is no wonder the Church is operated as if the priest is there to curate a museum. And like all museums, it is never open when you need a bit of off-hours inspiration.
It was no surprise to me to see a young woman slide into the pew in front of us dolled up in a halter top which displayed her grapefruit sized breasts and bare back leaving little to the imagination. Anyway, the church goers were mostly women and a few impotent old men, members of the funereal guard called the Knights of Columbus. The altar boy indeed looked almost 70!
We opened our workbooks to August 13, 2006 and I noted with some little surprise that I was finally in church and it was the "19th Week of Ordinary Time," and thought to myself how religious pursuits are mostly a string of bread crumbs distributed by Hansel and Gretel and one has only to follow the trail. The Catholics now refer to Ordinary Time and I suppose it has something to do with Easter and Orders. But there I was thinking, "Ah, Nineteen! I've got your number!"
Then the priest named Larry started talking and although I can do without that sort of thing anymore, captain of my own ship so to speak, I began to listen intently. What were the first words out of his mouth? That 'some people think St. Paul smoked pot'. I had to wonder, does he, Father Larry smoke pot? He sure sounded like he was on some kind of trip and when he poured the wine into the chalice which the elderly altar-assistant had provided to him with such a sense of the sacred, I noticed that the pouring of wine had been amplified by a mike so that every single person all the way to the back pews, could hear the drip-drops of Christ.
As Larry blessed the Eucharist (this man somehow in charge of the safekeeping of secrets that change water into wine and bread into flesh), the first peal of thunder poured through the beautiful transoms of stained-glass, without amplification, during the Nineteenth Week of Ordinary Time and I thought, al ham'du'lillah.
That was just for me and I watched as Larry lifted his sacred objects halfway over head almost with a sense of trepidation regarding his powers. I disguised my smile with a look of deep consternation and thought to myself how old this house of God really is. How much had happened there to me and the other believers in attendance - housefires to the occassional murder, the burial of my own brother's molester complete with high honors only a year or so ago. I let it pass but cannot let it pass here in this silly story.
At long last everyone, well, almost everyone, got in line for Communion. The whole time I'd been battling the stock responses to the Liturgy that are engraved in the minds of Catholics from a very early age. H'sanna in the Highest, Lamb of God, etc. My husband made as if to get up and get a taste of the wafer but I nudged his knee with my own and told him, mum'nuaaa. Forbidden. You see, he grew up and attended mostly Catholic schools and had played along his entire life so as not to 'stick out' as the only muslim kid in church. Now though, things are different. He was afraid somehow we'd be noticed but I assured him that not everyone takes communion. Those who have not turned over their secrets to the priests in confessions are ostracized. They must wait until another day because they know that they have erred against God or the Church. Yet how many know they've erred against themselves out of ignorance. Who knows because those types don't attend church anymore and most of them don't believe in God either. I almost got in line myself and who wouldn't! The taste of those pressed wafers melting between the roof of the mouth and the tongue, dried breasts of flesh soaked in wine, is mighty tempting. I almost partook of the cheap thrill myself in order to avoid ostracism because most of the believers yesterday in St. Pat's know I am a muslim. They've known me since catechism. Some of us even shared a row in front of Sister Josepha. I'm famous, Bisbee famous which is a special kind of famous.
When the mass was completed, Father Larry did what priests have been taught to do for nearly two millinea and walked down the center aisle like a brideless groom towards the exit. I filed by and stopped in front of Larry as he stood just inside those two great doors saying good bye to his flock, to whomever got close enough or bothered to take the time and I said:
Salaam wa alaikum.
He didn't even hear me or perhaps, he failed to know the proper answer outside the context of his well worn rituals:
Allaiku'wa'salaam.
The End.
As I walk through the valley in the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil.
Well, not exactly. I do fear lightning, thunder and centipedes. My grandmother cautioned my mother to place the legs of the crib in cans of water to prevent their ascent. Just this morning, my daughter woke me up and guided me out of the 'guest house' where I was sleeping and into the cabin's kitchen. My eyes weren't completely open and she shoved a cup under my nose to show me the limp, hundred-legged orange and black snake which she captured early in the morning hours, managing to overcome her own fear of bugs and things that can sting a person even after they lay limp and lifeless.
I managed a sleepy shriek and looked her dead in the eye and said what every parent should say to their child in respect to things like that. "Be careful. Those things can ruin your life even after they are dead!"
The myth of the centipedes grasp is an oft told story at our house. The fact that you have to slice them into pieces with a pocket knife even as they climb up your legs and dig into your flesh with their soiled and horned feet. It is well known amongst us but nowdays, stories like that are seldom told to our children and their importance is hardly noticed. Stories of neglect and confusion. The stories of St. Patrick's cathedral where once I stood in the choir loft to sing hymns over the passing of once alive parishioners, the central aisle still covered in the same lawn-colored astroturf where my own mother's coffin lay on expandable metal saw-horses so many years ago. The same church where Lisa and I used to scrape wax off the hard wood floors near the apse for Father Padilla so that he'd give us each a dime for a coke up at the Artic Circle. Now though, one just inserts a bit of silver and the flickering prayer lights just come on, coin-op votives. Is it any wonder about the Catholic Church -why even the smoke and mirrors people have sold out to technologies in which coins teach children to gamble in the arcades in the cities.
I begged my husband yesterday to attend the 9:30. We were walking past St. Pat's and finally, after years and years of hoping to get in the now "mostly locked doors", I got in. It used to be open 24/7 but now it is banker's hours and funerals only, for well-scheduled masses. No more children stopping by at noon on Saturday just to see, "what is up with God today?" No more of that!
The same woman greeted us at the door. She has been greeting Catholics in Bisbee at those same gigantic, bilateral chunks of wood ever since I was a wax-scraping, choir loft-cherishing kid. She never dies. She never gets old and she never tires of smoke and mirrors. The Holy Water sprinkled through the pews by the priests always reaches her. When the attendants respond to the priest as he says, "Peace upon you all," she not only responds but she thrusts her hand out and points her finger at Him as if she is throwing Him a line. The people in the front pews follow her lead and she is the reason they select the front row seats in the first place. I know that is why I chose the fourth pew by the center aisle because I knew she would be close by. I think her name must be Irma.
I pointed out to my Shi'i husband who was unshaved and and had not yet brushed his teeth, the cistern from which I was baptized as an infant. I explained each thing to him as I did a whispery inventory regarding the cash value of all those figurines, some of them life sized! The Virgin and Joseph (whom the priest called the "step father of Lord Jesus) and Jesus himself, perched high on the immense gothic alabaster tabernacle. Priceless to a collector of artifacts and it is no wonder the Church is operated as if the priest is there to curate a museum. And like all museums, it is never open when you need a bit of off-hours inspiration.
It was no surprise to me to see a young woman slide into the pew in front of us dolled up in a halter top which displayed her grapefruit sized breasts and bare back leaving little to the imagination. Anyway, the church goers were mostly women and a few impotent old men, members of the funereal guard called the Knights of Columbus. The altar boy indeed looked almost 70!
We opened our workbooks to August 13, 2006 and I noted with some little surprise that I was finally in church and it was the "19th Week of Ordinary Time," and thought to myself how religious pursuits are mostly a string of bread crumbs distributed by Hansel and Gretel and one has only to follow the trail. The Catholics now refer to Ordinary Time and I suppose it has something to do with Easter and Orders. But there I was thinking, "Ah, Nineteen! I've got your number!"
Then the priest named Larry started talking and although I can do without that sort of thing anymore, captain of my own ship so to speak, I began to listen intently. What were the first words out of his mouth? That 'some people think St. Paul smoked pot'. I had to wonder, does he, Father Larry smoke pot? He sure sounded like he was on some kind of trip and when he poured the wine into the chalice which the elderly altar-assistant had provided to him with such a sense of the sacred, I noticed that the pouring of wine had been amplified by a mike so that every single person all the way to the back pews, could hear the drip-drops of Christ.
As Larry blessed the Eucharist (this man somehow in charge of the safekeeping of secrets that change water into wine and bread into flesh), the first peal of thunder poured through the beautiful transoms of stained-glass, without amplification, during the Nineteenth Week of Ordinary Time and I thought, al ham'du'lillah.
That was just for me and I watched as Larry lifted his sacred objects halfway over head almost with a sense of trepidation regarding his powers. I disguised my smile with a look of deep consternation and thought to myself how old this house of God really is. How much had happened there to me and the other believers in attendance - housefires to the occassional murder, the burial of my own brother's molester complete with high honors only a year or so ago. I let it pass but cannot let it pass here in this silly story.
At long last everyone, well, almost everyone, got in line for Communion. The whole time I'd been battling the stock responses to the Liturgy that are engraved in the minds of Catholics from a very early age. H'sanna in the Highest, Lamb of God, etc. My husband made as if to get up and get a taste of the wafer but I nudged his knee with my own and told him, mum'nuaaa. Forbidden. You see, he grew up and attended mostly Catholic schools and had played along his entire life so as not to 'stick out' as the only muslim kid in church. Now though, things are different. He was afraid somehow we'd be noticed but I assured him that not everyone takes communion. Those who have not turned over their secrets to the priests in confessions are ostracized. They must wait until another day because they know that they have erred against God or the Church. Yet how many know they've erred against themselves out of ignorance. Who knows because those types don't attend church anymore and most of them don't believe in God either. I almost got in line myself and who wouldn't! The taste of those pressed wafers melting between the roof of the mouth and the tongue, dried breasts of flesh soaked in wine, is mighty tempting. I almost partook of the cheap thrill myself in order to avoid ostracism because most of the believers yesterday in St. Pat's know I am a muslim. They've known me since catechism. Some of us even shared a row in front of Sister Josepha. I'm famous, Bisbee famous which is a special kind of famous.
When the mass was completed, Father Larry did what priests have been taught to do for nearly two millinea and walked down the center aisle like a brideless groom towards the exit. I filed by and stopped in front of Larry as he stood just inside those two great doors saying good bye to his flock, to whomever got close enough or bothered to take the time and I said:
Salaam wa alaikum.
He didn't even hear me or perhaps, he failed to know the proper answer outside the context of his well worn rituals:
Allaiku'wa'salaam.
The End.
From the War Zone Called
The United States of America
United? Hmm. Not really. The journalist who interviewed us the other day is actually a reservist in the Air Force. He has been to Iraq in just the past year. An older man, well traveled and apparently, a Christian. As you can see, even he is willing to provide some of the truths as long as he remains faithful to this Patriotic Code that has been used to divide Americans amongst themselves.
In Ramstein Germany, at that AF base, I had the opportunity to meet with several members of that branch of the military. Nice guys, the cream of the crop. We sat outside the community center where they had set up a station to receive the refugees fleeing Israeli War Crimes in Lebanon. Fine people. All except one young man who was obviously just a jerk regardless of whose side of a war he was or will be fighting on. Jerks are the same regardless of what uniform they wear. Anyway, I had the opportunity to speak candidly with some of these fine young people about things...you know..things. They listened intently but especially two black guys. They were my real audience. There was also a Christian Maronite man, a moderate (yes, the Maronites also have their XENOPHOBES which is a better word to describe those who label all muslims as terrorists etc.).
We discussed both politics and Islam. There was also a young girl with us and her beautiful baby named Lilly.
The young girl was unmarried and had been staying with her muslim family from her father's side in Beirut. She was unmarried and copped to having left the neglectful father of the child in Phoenix, AZ. Oh...she was a cutie and the AF guys thought so too. I knew better though as she had been with us all the way from Beirut and I'd had the opportunity to watch as she demonstrated neglectful patterns of parenting. She had abandoned the tot on the USS Trent for over three hours leaving the people around where she had left the tot sleeping on a cot very worried and concerned. I think she is typical of many young women in America today (like the two girls in my daughter's senior class here)....helpless and with a child to care for. Anyway...the talk amongst the cadets turned to beer and the need to 'get some' because this young mother decided suddenly, at three in the morning GMT +1 that it would be a fine idea to get drunk with a bunch of strangers.
I stepped in and said, much to the surprise of those around me, "No, you don't need beer right now. You have a job to do and take care of Lilly." There was a bit of shock and the jerk looked daggers at me. A real Shaitan in him you see....but the black guys? They were amazed. When we ambled out to the bus that was to carry us to yet another AF cargo plane the two of them ran out onto the tarmac and shook my hand and asked where they could buy my book. I laughed about those Odes and the other, The Book of Warnings and told them...it isn't published yet but when you see it, my face will be there and you'll recognize it. You see, Islam is particularly valuable to blacks who have suffered and continue to suffer racial bigotry. In Islam there isn't such a thing as 'color' in terms of discrimination. All there is is discrimination against belief and non belief. And even then, non believers are treated with all due respect. All due respect until they violate us or our treaties with the Creator. Then they are treated like open enemies. The Shaitan you see, is the OPEN ENEMY of the believer....says so in the Quran. Easy to see for a believer. Very.
That however isn't what I wanted to relate here. At some point during the conversation, the AF cadets or whatever you call them, said to us, "Well at least you are going to a place where there isn't any war."
I said, "To the contrary. Americans are at war in their MINDS."
As we strapped ourselves into the jump seats in the cargo plane I happened to look across the aisle and notice the moderate Maronite Christian (and I say moderate in the sense that he has lived in the US for years and years and hasn't seen the inside of a church in about as long)...I saw him staring at me, his chin low to his chest so that his eyes were aimed up from under half closed lids...I saw him make a quick sign of the Cross as if to show me he wouldn't give up.
Yes, there is a long road ahead for Lebanon and for Islam. Islam wasn't over when the Ottoman Empire collapsed. That, my dear readers, was only the tiny beginning. And hopefully, the middle part will be much more pleasant now that some people on the planet have their thinking caps on.
"Hope the car starts. Hope is all there is." -The Book of Warnings, Darla Whitehead
The United States of America
United? Hmm. Not really. The journalist who interviewed us the other day is actually a reservist in the Air Force. He has been to Iraq in just the past year. An older man, well traveled and apparently, a Christian. As you can see, even he is willing to provide some of the truths as long as he remains faithful to this Patriotic Code that has been used to divide Americans amongst themselves.
In Ramstein Germany, at that AF base, I had the opportunity to meet with several members of that branch of the military. Nice guys, the cream of the crop. We sat outside the community center where they had set up a station to receive the refugees fleeing Israeli War Crimes in Lebanon. Fine people. All except one young man who was obviously just a jerk regardless of whose side of a war he was or will be fighting on. Jerks are the same regardless of what uniform they wear. Anyway, I had the opportunity to speak candidly with some of these fine young people about things...you know..things. They listened intently but especially two black guys. They were my real audience. There was also a Christian Maronite man, a moderate (yes, the Maronites also have their XENOPHOBES which is a better word to describe those who label all muslims as terrorists etc.).
We discussed both politics and Islam. There was also a young girl with us and her beautiful baby named Lilly.
The young girl was unmarried and had been staying with her muslim family from her father's side in Beirut. She was unmarried and copped to having left the neglectful father of the child in Phoenix, AZ. Oh...she was a cutie and the AF guys thought so too. I knew better though as she had been with us all the way from Beirut and I'd had the opportunity to watch as she demonstrated neglectful patterns of parenting. She had abandoned the tot on the USS Trent for over three hours leaving the people around where she had left the tot sleeping on a cot very worried and concerned. I think she is typical of many young women in America today (like the two girls in my daughter's senior class here)....helpless and with a child to care for. Anyway...the talk amongst the cadets turned to beer and the need to 'get some' because this young mother decided suddenly, at three in the morning GMT +1 that it would be a fine idea to get drunk with a bunch of strangers.
I stepped in and said, much to the surprise of those around me, "No, you don't need beer right now. You have a job to do and take care of Lilly." There was a bit of shock and the jerk looked daggers at me. A real Shaitan in him you see....but the black guys? They were amazed. When we ambled out to the bus that was to carry us to yet another AF cargo plane the two of them ran out onto the tarmac and shook my hand and asked where they could buy my book. I laughed about those Odes and the other, The Book of Warnings and told them...it isn't published yet but when you see it, my face will be there and you'll recognize it. You see, Islam is particularly valuable to blacks who have suffered and continue to suffer racial bigotry. In Islam there isn't such a thing as 'color' in terms of discrimination. All there is is discrimination against belief and non belief. And even then, non believers are treated with all due respect. All due respect until they violate us or our treaties with the Creator. Then they are treated like open enemies. The Shaitan you see, is the OPEN ENEMY of the believer....says so in the Quran. Easy to see for a believer. Very.
That however isn't what I wanted to relate here. At some point during the conversation, the AF cadets or whatever you call them, said to us, "Well at least you are going to a place where there isn't any war."
I said, "To the contrary. Americans are at war in their MINDS."
As we strapped ourselves into the jump seats in the cargo plane I happened to look across the aisle and notice the moderate Maronite Christian (and I say moderate in the sense that he has lived in the US for years and years and hasn't seen the inside of a church in about as long)...I saw him staring at me, his chin low to his chest so that his eyes were aimed up from under half closed lids...I saw him make a quick sign of the Cross as if to show me he wouldn't give up.
Yes, there is a long road ahead for Lebanon and for Islam. Islam wasn't over when the Ottoman Empire collapsed. That, my dear readers, was only the tiny beginning. And hopefully, the middle part will be much more pleasant now that some people on the planet have their thinking caps on.
"Hope the car starts. Hope is all there is." -The Book of Warnings, Darla Whitehead
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