أعداء الانترنت

list from reporters without borders مراسلون بلا حدود قائمة

الباب العالي

the arabs' new high porte

letter to walid jumblatt : the great arab prison

it is a a large prison this arab world. a prison of broken dreams and un realized potential. a prison of tears, the tears of crying on the remains and the loss of granada. you reached for the key from your fathers executioner and our warden's chain of blood. you held the key and put it in the prison door's lock. the masses urged you on and cheered. the fear and loathing was gone. sunlight broke through the prison doors. the doors swung open and you faltered afraid of life outside the great prison; that is this arab world.

دمشق أحبطت اتفاق المصالحة اللبنانية الأسد يريد ربط الأمن اللبناني بالأمن السوري

i think it's like fighting the dark side, will the force prevail...

الولي الفقيه in action

caution advised, very graphic video


Support iranians' struggle against theocracy

the above is a sample of the brutality of a theocratic and hypocritical regime that some mindless lebanese choose to glorify and emulate; Yet another unfortunate example why it is good that march 14 won the lebanese elections.

iran elections

you will obey...or else

iranian people versus ayatollahs

another reminder VIDEO HERE why it is good that march 14 won elections

iranian morality police in action

good thing march 14 won the lebanese elections
iranian moral police in action

did hasan nasrallah and hezbollah kill hariri???

der spiegel: hezbollah killed hariri this article sent shivers down my spine

U.S. Retreats, Iran Fills the Void

wsj article here

grudgingly, but i guess this is justice and the rule of law in action...

these people are evil regardless of assassination charges, they are responsible for countless human rights abuses against the Lebanese people. They should rot in jail.judge releases the Lebanese generals

memories of west beirut الغربيه

an archive article in the new york times unleashes a flood of memories long forgotten: west beirut c. 1987 nytimes

ابو عنتر.

RIP ابو عنتر

friendly neighbour

bear hug

(click map to enlarge, map from debka.com)

from the mean streets of ras beirut

daily star on ras beirut

of things to come...

photo-persepolis

marry or lose job

اذا اراد حزب الله ان يكون لبنانياً

اذا اراد حزب الله ان يكون لبنانياً an interesting article from الشراع

again we have been defeated

the doha agreement is a capitulation to the brute force of syrian/iranian hegemony in lebanon.

The lebanese majority did not achieve anything, no matter how they spin it.
They gave concessions and diluted their power to give iran and syria effective veto power over the lebanese government and people, which can block anything the majority wants to do, even the tribunal....

The criminal syria/iran weapons were not addressed which will only embolden the aggressors on the lebanese people.

The squatters in downtown left, but this was again a victory for the iran/syria camp, because it was a mini occupation , an aggressive action, that again paid off , because it was reversed for political gains by syria and iran.

So what did the lebanese gain? an iffy president, who watched and turned his head away when lebanese butchered by iranian /syrian gangsters were begging for him to save their lives.

Let us remember who probably approved the current army chief's position several years ago.

just a reminder to everyone who got excited when lahoud was made president.

defeat no matter what you call it sucks, because u feel it inside, and you know you have lost...

Welcome to Hizballahstan

from time magazine: welcome to hizballahstan

do not fear the darkside

a long tradition of fighting oppression... and big bullies...

shame on you lebanese army

beirut, may 2008

"resisting" in beirut

check out reuters photostream of events from today's peacefull hizbollah demonstrations in beirut (warning: can cause ptsd flashbacks for lebanon war survivors)
brought to you courtesy of hasan nasrallah (a.k.a gimp of tehran mullahs)...photos

the darkness

cometh...

lebanese blond...

with a beard...

free tibet

the machine

the fox machine starts to moves against obama,
its alive....

geopolitical Lego

new pics

kudos wired discretion advised

Is the party over for Beirut's clubbers?

thank you hassan nasrallah and company for almost succeeding in doing what no one has managed to do before...kill the lebanese spirit....and make the party grind to a halt... but who cares about the earthly pleasures... you will lead us to divine victory... and ever lasting glory and revel in the culture of martyrdom...and the never ending party of misery and sorrow you seem to enjoy so much...thank you!

while you were singing....

while you were singing...
riad seif ,  a political activist, sick with cancer, was dragged into the dungeons again , by your art and culture loving hosts.

kiss my ass tehran times

i guess the lebanese who dare oppose the little mullahs in lebanon and their masters in tehran are.....guess what?
take a wild guess?...... zionist puppets ...who should be....

Lebanon made it to a top ten list on reuters !

Thank you all hizbollah supporters and orange sidekicks for all you hard work and hopefully next year we will place higher on the list  than #8.

Monopoly, how could you?

growing up playing monopoly in the malja'a (bomb shelter)by candle light , is a quintessential lebanese expeience, people of a certain age group will remember well.

So naturally it was exciting when i read that monopoly is making a new edition with famous city names on the squares.
 
You can choose from 68 cities,  the 22 with most votes go on the board. choose here

I thought beirut must be on the list, surely, I scrolled through , no beirut, checked again, looked closely between Lithuania and Latvia, Nothing!

i feel cheated , and as if to rub salt in my wounded city's ego, there at the bottom of the list was her nemesis, new and shiney Dubai.

maybe someone has wasta with hasbro and can put beirut on the list

as for me i wont be palying monoply anytime soon, it aggravates my ptsd.

genius, self hate, and cold war paranoia

“Chess is war over the board. The object is to crush the opponent’s mind.”
Bobby Fischer...story in NYT

i always wanted to believe ...

are  they  following me to my adoptive city ?
or just more magical thinking
see more video

more at www.clevelandufo.com

will wait patiently for now ....

Jumblatt on IRAN TV

watch jumblatt and an idiotic iranian journalist 

superman

سوبرمان سوري

not surprising if you have a super-natural leader radiating positive energy and enlightenment to his grateful subjects...

Blackwater shot our dog...

RIP Hentish

"The Syrians are very happy"....

"The Syrians are very happy," says Sami Moubayed, a Syrian political analyst. "I think this is what the Syrians always wanted — Suleiman."   read more

There's a feeling I get when I look to the west...

(xkcd)

it makes me wonder....still

Bliss street is blue today

Nov 11th 1992 - Oct 10th 2007

you will be sorely missed and fondly remembered
thank you for all the memories

bliss street will miss your little paws
goodbye Cookie.... have fun in doggy heaven...

'Druze honor gang' behind woman's killing

or incompetence with a ready made reason courtesy of historic Arab chauvinism
story from haaretz

250K is too much for an Iyraqee, 15000$ is more like it

redneck rampage,


from NYT:

"Report Details Shooting by Drunken Blackwater Worker'


By ERIC SCHMITT
Published: October 2, 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 — A Blackwater USA employee under investigation in the killing last December of an Iraqi bodyguard in an off-duty confrontation was so drunk after fleeing the shooting that another group of guards took away the loaded pistol he was fumbling with, a report to a House committee said Monday.
The Reach of War
Go to Complete Coverage »

The guards, employees of Triple Canopy, another private military contractor, returned the weapon to the Blackwater employee, who smelled of alcohol, and escorted him away from their guard post in the fortified Green Zone, the report said. Shortly afterward, the police detained the man, a 26-year-old firearms technician whom the report did not name, at the Blackwater camp inside the Green Zone, but determined he was too intoxicated to be interviewed.

Within 36 hours, the report said, Blackwater fired the man for possessing a firearm while drunk and arranged with the State Department to fly him back to the United States, angering Iraqi officials who said the Christmas Eve shooting was murder.

The acting ambassador at the United States Embassy in Baghdad suggested that Blackwater apologize for the shooting and pay the dead Iraqi man’s family $250,000, lest the Iraqi government bar Blackwater from working there, the report said. Blackwater eventually paid the family $15,000, according to the report, after an embassy diplomatic security official complained that the “crazy sums” proposed by the ambassador could encourage Iraqis to try to “get killed by our guys to financially guarantee their family’s future.”

The report did not identify the acting ambassador, but a State Department spokesman, Karl Duckworth, said it was Margaret Scobey.

The shooting is under investigation by the Justice Department, but it remains unclear what laws might be applied in the case, because it occurred overseas.

According to the report, which was based largely on internal Blackwater e-mail messages and State Department documents and compiled by the Democratic staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the episode began between 10:30 and 11:30 p.m. on Dec. 24 when the off-duty Blackwater employee, who witnesses said had been drinking heavily, passed through a gate near Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s compound in the Green Zone.

When confronted by bodyguards to Vice President Adil Abdul Mahdi of Iraq, the Blackwater employee fired his Glock 9-millimeter pistol, hitting one of the guards, Raheem Khalif, three times. Mr. Khalif, 32, later died at an American military hospital.

The Blackwater employee fled to the Triple Canopy guard post, where he told the guards that he had been in a gunfight with Iraqis who were chasing him and shooting at him. But the guards had not heard any shots.

The next day, the Blackwater employee told Army investigators that he had fired in self-defense after the Iraqi bodyguard shot at him. On Dec. 26, Blackwater flew the man out of Iraq to Jordan, and then to the United States.

Senior American Embassy officials immediately determined that Blackwater should send the dead Iraqi man’s family a letter of condolence and a cash payment.

In an e-mail message, Ms. Scobey asked if the embassy’s regional security officer would be following up “to do all possible to assure that a sizable compensation is forthcoming.”

“If we are to avoid this whole thing becoming even worse, I think a prompt pledge and apology — even if they want to claim it was accidental — would be the best way to assure the Iraqis don’t take steps, such as telling Blackwater that they are no longer able to work in Iraq,” Ms. Scobey continued.

The embassy officials disagreed over the size of the payment until the Diplomatic Security Service official prevailed.

“As you can imagine, this has serious implications,” the embassy security official said in an internal e-mail message. “This was an unfortunate event but we feel that it doesn’t reflect on the overall Blackwater performance. They do an exceptional job under very challenging circumstances. We would like to help them resolve this so we can continue with our protective mission.”

Dinner in Beirut, and a lesson in courage

Secrecy, an intellectual said, is a powerful aphrodisiac. Secrecy is exciting. Danger is darker, more sinister. It blows like a fog through the streets of Beirut these days....

Robert FISK, the Independent, read the rest

my dying city

this city has withstood the ravages of time and the horrors of war
we shared the worst of days and enjoyed life in the city of love and hope.
now, i feel i have returned to a city on its deathbed...

choking to death by the yellow plague that is slowly strangling her...
the yellow plague festers in tent cities that surround its heart...
where thuggish man-boys sit around with a sadistic glaze in their eyes,
beneath Orwellian banners they sit: defeat is victory, dying is living,misery is pride, and master knows best.

The cult of the glorification of death and blood knows it has won. It slowly twists the blade in her wounded side. She stays silent in her pride. The great leader in his den awaits his messianic orders from his warrior-priest masters from beyond the deserts...

some choose to party on, even harder than before, but they all know in their secret heart, that the city of life and everlasting hope is taking its last agonal breaths.

It will be soon transformed into a new city, the city of resistance and victory, with the grand wizard ever in the shadows , he is magnanimous in victory, he will take good care of you.

For he is the divine victor, and to the victor go the spoils...

going home

Generalissimo!

generalissimo speaks to Cham Press-SANA

arab liberal and religous extremist debate

an amusing egyptian liberal vs. angry fanatic
debate

exigent

Unquiet mind musing
Dark and heavy

The endless concentric
Not forsaken

Reeling with ambivalence
Worlds collide and dreams

Life is exigent
Someone once said

cognitive dissonance

dissonance

funniest comedy central show yet

sample clips

of hearts and minds

winning hearts and minds
from the independent

lost in amorica

Mr Wiam Wahab enlightens us on syrian TV with his infinite wisdom

wiam in action

why can't we all just get along

vSocial!

Holy land ;)

Lebanon as seen in Haaretz through the Pew Global Attitude Project

Interesting numbers and stats .
HERE
full survey available on PEW website.

happy birthday

america

nostalgia and downward mobility

a vanishing class, the arab aristocrats
hussein fahmi

صاروخ

rockets in suburbia

a face to go with the voice

read story - confirms my conviction that every idiot squatting in downtown and every apologist for the so called "opposition" is atleast morally responsible for the assasinations occurring....

to hear what the stupid b**ch said click here to listen

redux

could be

another tricky drive home....
last post

going underground

3rd decade

reluctantly stumbling into the third decade




beirut,love,and the rain

so it goes ........

i finally saw it, bitter sweet..........

Goodbye, L!enin.....

soon u ll be off in ur little red jacket....

I ll be staying here in my voluntary exile in the rust belt rusting away.....

the eastern mediterranean will have to wait....sometimes i fear it will forget me

instead i took a trip to the store

a misadventure it was, got lost in the soft drink aisle

panicked and could not choose

ambivalence then derealization

only to be rescued by the head that was never on my shoulders

hurried back home to the waiting potato juice

R.I.P. Kurt V

over and out...............

the 50 year Reich

rejoice, weak mortals, it has been foretold!

50 years of glorious rule by the flawless ayatollahs ,

50 years of rule by the god of the katyusha

50 years and the Reich will be re-established

50 years and all morally corrupt weak willed stooges of the west and their Zionist masters, will be crushed like the bugs that they are......

read the speech of the glorious Fuhrer who will lead us to final victory...... err sorry....Supreme Leader/ Warrior-Priest, who is by the way (sole representative of morality and righteousness in Lebanon)

Rage Against the Machine, especially towards the end of their song , sum it up very nicely......

مكان آخر في ما وراء الوطن والمنفى

a reflection on the self and the sad state of affairs of the arab world/people and self....
in the words of adonis (again), a long read but very good, (in arabic) from al -hayat

storm clouds of april, club togo, and a mosque

where is it

ze axis of evil

laughter is good medicine

arab american stand up comics

axis 1
axis 2
axis 3
axis 4

music for ADHD ears

new streaming radio for the inattentive and easily distractable, yet highly intelligent individuals, who live in organized chaos.
If you feel that 3-4 minutes is just too long, unless its radiohead, and just want some background music that you can hear but not necessarily listen to,
wait no more: Radio SASS (Short Attention Span System) is for you,
to listen click here

how to pick a medical speciality

an interesting algorithm for med students to help choose medical specialities...(which seems to be quite accurate).
(sent to me by an ophthalmologist friend)

في أحضان الامبرالية الاستعمارية الأميركية الفرنسية

a very enlightening article from a prominent lebanese (i think) journalist, posted on a bastion of internet free speech and thought.

It was so moving that it did actually prompt an apology, watch apology

into the white

last week's blizzard...
if u listen very hard, u can hear the magnetic fields....

min khara, la akhraa

from being a "an indivisible part of syria" to becoming a limb of iran.... a tail (danab) of some sort maybe?
thanks ahmadi, but no thanks.....
lebanon (my lebanon, atleast) does not want to be one of your "limbs"

adonis

adonis's thoughts...watch

adonis

adonis's thoughts...watch

lunch box

a long time ago
i had a lunch box
it was a black battle star galactica lunch box
it was beyond cool
it was super cool
but that was then
and this is now

the boat is leaking and the captain lied

psychiatrist dont sleep well, no? said the fat Man
is this why you look tired and unshaven?
is this why you are always just a little late?
but u seem not to care, what is on your mind? he asked............

today was a bleak and cold day with dark thoughts and mostly spent day-dreaming about home, beirut, loneliness, nostalgia and memories, uncertainty and the salmon of doubt, boredom and apathy, and The Fall...

everybody really knows

powered by ODEO

they shine for you...

yalli istahou matou

shameless!
each idiot who supports the so called opposition, (although in my mind "the true opposition" is march 14), is morally responsible for the death of these people.
this is the ultimate in cheap hypocrisy, shame.....

a long time ago

when life was simple ...

Plan B

safarjal

everyone sometimes needs a muse ...

and cowboys, robots, unicorns, and kung-fu moves....

the wonder years

funny how life tends to repeat itself....

enjoy the days of wonder in an enchanted place

happy new year .....

happy eid

a big "Bali" laugh

it seems i don't laugh as much as i used too...
today, at work , i was reminded of how good it is to laugh out loud....

merry xmas and happy new year

first holiday season away from home....

senseless sit in drags on

insights from al hayat article , touches on a bunch of things....

"nouvelle" drive

yet another video, unedited, uncut, and for the first time in color
the significance is unclear yet, for now something semi-creative to do....
maybe a round about way to share music

sah el noum

posted by special request

a glimpse of the future if they have their way

a hizbollah monkey climbs a pole and performs a trick involving the lebanese flag

cute korean killer robot

how terminator began
and how we might end
see it hunt humans

Thermopylae

it seems that history does repeat itself sometimes....
almost 2000 years ago the persian empire was trying to complete its domination of the Mediterranean....as it is trying to do today.
there was one free state left in their path, ancient greece
a massive horde of hundreds of thousands descended on greece
a few hundred spartans stopped their advance.
those spartans eventually all died...but they delayed the persians enough for the rest of greece to prepare and eventually defeat the persians...
the place where Xerxes was stopped by the free democratic greeks was called Thermopylae...
so i guess quality does trump quantity...
السرايا is the new thermopylae......

the empire strikes back

soon the hordes of the dark side will swarm into the streets of my city
they will try to overthrow the republic...
the whole scenario is a little starwar-esque... with the following cast of characters...

Jedi who will defened the new republic:
yoda-hariri
obi wan- jumblatt
luke skywalker- saad
han solo- geagea
princess lea- strida
chewbacca- gemayel

Sith who want to take us to the dark side:
palpatine- khamenei
vader- bashar
jabba hutt- nasrallah
count dooku- aoun
darth maul-lahoud

"The dark side clouds everything. Impossible to see, the future is."
—Yoda from wookieepedia

(silliness is good sometimes)

the whore of tehran and the demented jester

a young man was assassinated today in lebanon
a few years older than me
maybe not an exceptional man, but he belonged to an exceptional current of change in lebanon
who killed him , we might never know
who pulled the trigger on the silenced makarov we will probably never know
but i know one thing
i know who is morally responsible...
it is the whore of tehran who hides in the sewers of dahyie, hiding beneath his turban and fantasizing about the mullahs of iran sodomizing him with their nuclear tipped shihab III...
and the demented sad little man, the jester of rabieh , who has become a sidekick to the sewer rat, in the hope that if he is an obedient little gimp one day he can sit on the little red velour chair in baabda and call himself the fool of "Lebanistan"...
and you know what no apologies to anyone...

american colosseum

the sound and the fury...

free association with an andalusian dog

when it all stops making sense and things seem unreal
the mind still roams free
going to places where it shouldn't be

november rain

a drive with the pixies down memory lane...

enemies of the internet

here they are in no particular order:

belarus, burma, tunis, syria, saudi arabia, nepal, china, cuba, vietnam, north korea, eygpt, iran, turkmenstan. (from RSF)

see how you can help spread freedom and read more

Götterdämmerung and self defense

poor ego;
orphan child of the war between a harsh super-ego and an irresistible id
what's an ego to do....
it comes up with defense mechanisms...
from the semi conscious ones to the sub conscious ones
from simple ones to elaborate ones
from well concealed ones to obvious one
projection, denial, repression, supression, reaction formation, humor, altruisim, sublimation, rationalization, intellectualization, dissocaition, undoing, splitting, and last but not least :
projective identification.......
the most primitive yet most elaborate...What is projected is most often an intolerable, painful, or dangerous idea or belief about the self that the person cannot tolerate....it may be directed toward the ideal object to avoid separation........
for now i will stick with my own defense, " the little prince" defense and live on b612....
i am a contemplating moving there soon.....
"On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux"

A revolution in the arab world ?

maybe everybody will more relaxed and calm down....
an interesting german perspective ....(from der spiegel)

the lion's den

Just read this disturbing article from TIME.
the hypocrisy it revealed is sickening. The great syrian baath regime, the daily lecturers to the lebanese among others; on arabism, nationalism, pride, and "resistance", is no more than the torture bitch of the CIA.
The regime accuses most lebanese of being anti arab, pro israel, anti "resistance" traitors, and wanabee phoenicians, but they gladly oblige and torture their own citizens for the CIA.
To be fair other countries do it or facilitate it, but they have the common sense to stay quiet about it or just stay quiet in general. Is the syrian militaristic-fascist regime(SMFR) experiencing a severe case of reaction formation?
It will be fun how the local lebanese gimps of SMFR will deal with this story, other than deny it as an imperialist plot hatched by the great satan to embarrass them.
Especially now, since the protector and number one super best friend of hassan and the "resistance" seems to be sleeping with enemy.
So maybe hassan and his friends; the last bastions of resistance , honor , and pride in the levant should be a little more careful, because if the nice men in black ski masks ask very , very nicely, he might be making a surprise trip to palestine.
Not the palestine he wants to liberate but the little piece of hell on earth, Palestine branch prison in Damascus.
The name of this little den of horrors in itself is another extreme case of reaction formation.

moving on to another amusing subject (briefly): If generalismo aoun was such good friends with hassan, why didn't he ask him to use his divine powers and intervene with god to make sure the weather stays good for the orange parade. Too bad it was cancelled :)
My chemical romance sums up my mood, disgust, dissappointment , with a little hope. listen

yet another arab contribution to science

this latest invention by arab young women will surely compete for next year's noble prize; a very serious and dangerous problem has been solved by this great scientific invention....
This might be even greater than the robotic camel jockeys recently invented to replace the asian underage boy camel jockeys ...

lost boy

i stumbled across this article and i had a flashback...
when i was little i also used to draw tanks, bombs, planes and guns ....
the first time someone pointed it out was i went to school outside lebanon, the art teacher was concerned about my drawings....
have many of us who grew up during the hawadith internalized collective ptsd and it has warped our psyche forever...
sometimes, i still catch myself doodling....tanks and bombs....

the ominous incident at زاروب الطمليس

amusing name aside, is this a sign of things to come?
what happened at زاروب الطمليس ?

1/2 self

even the mirror noticed

dream reconstruction

an attempt to piece together a dream.
a recurrent dream of searching....then realizing...

(a more sophisticated attempt at wasting time; best enjoyed late at night, with volume on high, and your choice of mind altering substance)

special thanks to the little blue car and the video cellphone who cooperated nicely together in making this video possible, (with the help of some surgical tape)

Kiss my Ass Hassan

"Anybody who claims to have divine authority is crazy. Anybody."
quote from the very end of this interview

somewhere over the rainbow

made the rain worthwhile
everyone has a little rainbow inside

wasting time

i like to waste time. i also like toys (mostly things that move and can be controlled remotely).
(does this reflect my immaturity and wishes to control others?)
so in my continued efforts to waste time creatively I have combined my two and only skills in my first youtube video.
(taken with my new cell phone ,nokia 6223, courtesy of a certain overweight jolly bavarian who gave it to a certain special someone who gave it to me)

a day in pictures

every morning i go here where i am a little cog in the medical-industrial-insurance-pharmaceutical-complex-machine...


psychosis induced origami, left as gift for me, high point of the day


then i go to the lizard yalli bighmouz, haram el lizard not only is he in this glass prison all day, he has to hang out with these guys....


after a "few" i see this.....is the blur from my eyes or from the camera...
outside there was a blue moon too,then I went home....