April 2009
2 posts
Taha Muhammad Ali
MEETING AT AN AIRPORT You asked me once, on our way back from the midmorning trip to the spring: "What do you hate, and who do you love?" And I answered, from behind the eyelashes of my surprise, my blood rushing like the shadow cast by a cloud of starlings: "I hate departure... I love the spring and the path to the spring, and I worship the middle hours of morning." And you laughed... and the...
February 2009
1 post
this is what happens when I put in Farsi into an online translation service (babylon)—note that this comes from a pashto website’s farsi version:
(dtvrh) (bvà)“(h) (nshraaty) (aarà«aan) (lkhvaa) door (myaashtngh) (nvlsmh) (à«à¼h) press kings. (pnàpm) (kaal) (dryymh) (à«à¼h) (prlpsgh) (nvlsmh) (à«à¼h) _ (d،d¤d¢d) (©h) vomition (shàbaan) - (d،d£d¨d) (§l) and (tqrybaa) eleven spring...
December 2008
6 posts
I need to stop obsessively watching/reading news about the Israeli airstrikes. I’m not going to post up my entire opinion yet, but here are some more interesting articles:
Tom Segev writes an excellent op-ed in Haaretz English.
Al Jazeera English interviews Israelis from all over the country. If only it could be on their Arabic site, too…
Oh, no. Haaretz Hebrew says lots of...
155 dead in rocket attack
In response to dozens of rockets hitting southern Israel from Gaza, Israel launches a rocket attack which has killed, at most counts, 155 people. The strike targeted Hamas militants who had resumed launching massive amounts of rockets (after a six-month cease-fire):
NYTimes and Washington Post, as usual, summarize the attacks pretty well, although, let’s be honest- might come off to you as...
Who decided Afghanistan was exactly like Iraq?
Because it isn’t. In practically every single way. Yes, Afghanistan is ethnically divided—and so is Iraq. Unlike Iraq, though, And yes, both countries have been ruled at one point or another by different ethnic groups, but unlike Iraq, which after 1920 or so was essentially ruled by one leader, Afghanistan, well, has had a series of shaky governments and has always had struggles with tribal...
Please Stop Acting Like We are Doing Iraq a Favor.
John McCain, Joe Liberman, and Lindsay Graham published a piece entitled “A Chance for Consensus in Iraq’ a few days ago in the Washington Post. Citing recent security gains, the transfer of power from Coalition Forces to the Iraqi Security Forces, and positive steps towards democratization, the authors essentially laud the current effort in Iraq and make a case for what they term “reasonable”...
September 2008
2 posts
why "it's always sunny in philadelphia is the...
Dennis: I don’t get it Dee, there are tons of women in this city, where do they go?Sweet Dee: They’re at velvet rope clubs on Delaware Avenue.Dennis: Why?Sweet Dee: Dennis, our bar is south Philly in a scary alley… might as well call it “Rape Bar.”
actual things my english students said were...
1. Cooking skills.
2. A car.
3. Money.
4. A pretty face.
5. Loyalty.