Kerry Would Continue Bush’s Pro-Sharon Policy

Lately, Senator John Kerry has been reassuring voters that he will be as pro-Israel as President Bush. He has expressed his support for Sharon’s policy of unilateral disengagement, building of the so-called security barrier and the political isolation of Yasser Arafat.

The candidate’s present position toward Middle East peace contradicts his past support of the Oslo peace process and provides a surprising contrast to his views when he was a young anti-war leader in the early ’70s.

Last year Kerry told an Arab-American audience that the so-called security barrier that Israel was building was “an obstacle to peace.” Now he claims he has no problem with the barrier.

In summer 2003, Mr. Kerry published an article in a Brown University publication titled, “A Powerful Journey, An Essential Dream,” where he wrote, “in this difficult time we must again reaffirm we are enlisted for the duration – and reaffirm our belief that the cause of Israel must be the cause of America – and the cause of people of conscience everywhere [emphasis mine].” Kerry ends his article with a slogan associated with the religious pro-settler bloc, “am yisrael chai” or long live the people of Israel.

I think that it looks like no matter who is president of the United States, things don’t look like they’ll change at all for the suffering Palestinians.

[Source: Electronic Intifada]

The Best of Star Academy on LBC

Today LBC aired a special called “The Best of Star Academy” in which they presented the best moments of the recently finished Arab Star Academy.

As I mentioned before, I only got to watch the last prime, and actually thought that Bashar deserved to win.

Anyway, after watching the best moments from the past primes and some other off-prime moments with the candidates, I actually think that either Ahmad (the Tunisian) or Bashar (the Kuwaiti) should have won.
They both have the best voices of all, even though Bashar is more active and more present on stage.

Anyway, I can also see why people liked Mohamed Attiah, the winner of Star Academy LBC, he seems like a really nice and funny guy.

What I find the most interesting from this whole Star Academy experience is how much people got addicted to it and how it became some sort of cult.
It’s one of the first attempts at reality tv by Arabs and it somehow revolutionized prime tv.

Joy Of More Sex

No, it doesn’t blind you. And now medical researchers say it’s not going to give you cancer either.

Frequent ejaculation during masturbation or sex, a new study has found, isn’t associated with an increased risk for prostate cancer, laying to rest a popular misconception. In fact, it may even decrease the risks for certain people.

The research, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is based on surveys of nearly 30,000 men from 1992 to 2000. The mostly white males, ages 46 to 81, provided histories of sexual intercourse, nocturnal emission and masturbation during their twenties, forties and within the previous year.

Results showed no relationship between ejaculation frequency and prostate cancer for most categories.

In fact, men who reported frequent ejaculation over their lifetime–that’s more than four to seven times per month, in case you’re counting–had fewer overall cases of prostate cancer than those who ejaculated less often.

And those tireless individuals averaging 21 or more ejaculations a month over their lifetime showed only half the risk for developing the disease.

The researchers noted 38% of married people over 60 in the United States have sex one-to-four times per month, while 15% are sexually active at least five times per month.

Hmmm, very interesting ๐Ÿ˜‰

[Source: Forbes]

Arab Summit in Tunisia

So finally, after a lot of time-wasting and useless rambling, it’s decided that the recently postponed Arab summit will still be held in Tunisia.

Tunisia will host the Arab summit in May, following a preparatory meeting of foreign ministers in Cairo.

When Tunis postponed the summit, the Egyptian government jumped up and offered to host a summit in its place.

Tunisia said it was postponing the summit because some Arab governments were unwilling to make a strong commitment to democracy, human rights and opposing “extremism”. Many delegates have disputed the Tunisian explanation for its decision.

The summit is expected to concentrate on Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and reform in the Arab world.

Better ways to attack Bush

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We passed by Carrefour today to get something fast for dinner, and as usual we had to follow our feet and check out the magazines and newspapers.

What caught my eye was the cover of The Economist which reads: “Better ways to attack Bush”.

It’s a rather interesting cover offering points that can be used against Bush in the election race and debates.

I actually agree that almost all these points are weaknesses that could break him in the elections.
All but the gay rights point. I think that maybe his strong position when it comes to this issue is more favorable among most Americans, or at least I’d like to think so.

The 11 ways listed on the cover are:

  • Never hears a spending plan he doesn’t like
  • Backs unequal rights for homosexuals
  • Strong, but not humble
  • Hot air on WMD
  • No cojones on Palestine and Israel
  • All hat and no plans for post-war Iraq
  • The miscommunicator
  • Too close to vested interests
  • Budget belt far too loose
  • Weak-kneed on trade: farms, steel, sugar, cotton…
  • Tramples on civil liberties

Ken Livingstone Quotes

Some interesting quotes by Ken Livingstone, mayor of London:

On Ariel Sharon:
“I’d like to see him locked up in the next cell to the former Serb President Slobodan Milosevic.”

On the Saudi Royal Family:
“I just long for the day I wake up and find that the Saudi Royal family are swinging from the lamp-posts and they’ve got a proper government that represents the people of Saudi Arabia.”

On Bush:
“I’m not even sure he was aware there were any Palestinians before he was elected, any more than he knew the name of the President of Pakistan.”

On the Middle East:
“[There will be no peace until] the West shows it is taking on board the injustice of what’s happening to Palestinians, and looks at the financial network of corruption between some of the oil sheikhdoms , the oil companies and the White House.”

[via Jalan-Jalan]

Body Madness

Body piercing and tattoos make way — the latest fashion trend to hit the Netherlands is eyeball jewellery.

Dutch eye surgeons have implanted tiny pieces of jewellery called “JewelEye” in the mucous membrane of the eyes of six women and one man in cosmetic surgery pioneered by an ophthalmic surgery research and development institute in Rotterdam.

The procedure involves inserting a 3.5 mm (0.13 inch) wide piece of specially developed jewellery — the range includes a glittering half-moon or heart — into the eye’s mucous membrane under local anaesthetic at a cost of 500 to 1,000 euros (270 to 540 pounds).

This is simply mad. First it was tatoos and they had them everywhere, then it was piercing and they didn’t leave one tiny part of the human body without putting a hole into it, then came tongue splitting which happily didn’t spread that much and now it’s eye jewellery.
What’s next in this mad series of body mutilation?
Maybe cutting off pieces of our bodies will become hip soon!

[More: Yahoo! News]

Damn! I’m MAD!!!

Man, am I mad right now!

This truly sucks big time!

I wake up this morning, already feeling like shit because I didn’t get enough sleep, and what do I find?
I find that during the night, my car was opened and stolen from!
My original music cds, my jacket, my wife’s jacket and the extra tire, all stolen by some bastard(s)!

I hate this!
People keep telling me that thankfully it wasn’t such a big thing that was stolen and that other people had it worse, but I don’t care what happened with other people right now, all I care about and know is that my shit was stolen.
Stuff that I worked hard to get and that some bastard off the street stole from me so easily!

Plus, out of nowhere now I’m faced with expenses to buy a new extra tire, wire the car with a security alarm and more.

Anyone else dare to tell me that it’s ok and I’ll screw his head off his body!

Where the hell were the damn security people who are supposed to be guarding the place?!
That just beats me!
Probably in their little room jacking off to some gay porn while thieves go around stealing people’s cars and houses.

Oh God, am I mad right now!