Smoke Kills

I never understood how some people enjoy smoking their lungs out.
It’s like God created us whole, perfect and healthy and we’re on a marathon to try and ruin all that in the shortest time possible through smoking, drinking, doing drugs, …etc.

Anyway, back to smoking.
Just recently i saw a new Marlboro pack a friend of mine at work had, and which he was smoking cigarette after cigarette from.
The pack’s design has changed a lot ever since i last saw one, and most of it now is warning messages that are bigger than the logo itself.

The messages say:
“Smoking seriously harms you and others around you”
“Smoke contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide”

Now, i can’t imagine how anyone could take another puff after reading stuff like that.
I mean, the people who are making these cigarettes themselves are telling everyone that smoking is screwing them up, and yet they don’t seem to care.

That one cigarette contains stuff that belongs in a car’s exhaust system and not in someone’s lungs !

Oh anyway, everyone’s free to do whatever they want to do with their health, i guess.

On a lighter note, here’s a fun flash animation about how Smoke Kills.

Democrats Go Off the Cliff

This is a very interesting piece about democrats and where they stand right now in the US, and what a hard time they’re facing.
Democrats Go Off the Cliff.

As i mentioned before in one of my blogs; if i were an American, i’d certainly be a democrat, so it’s really sad to see the situation they’re in now.

I think it’s pretty obvious that Bush is going to win again in 2004, although that’s another mistake, but the lack of a strong enough democratic candidate is a big problem.
Howard Dean is maybe the only candidate gathering some steam, but i don’t think they’re gonna let him get anywhere.

I think the only way democrats could win this election was if Al Gore or Hillary Clinton ran for it, but obviously they opted out.
So, Democrats will most probably have to wait for the 2008 elections for a good chance to win back the White House.

For the time being, maybe they should focus on winning back the house, the senate and the supreme court 😉

US Strategy in Iraq

“You have to understand the Arab mind. The only thing they understand is force – force, pride and saving face.”
Captain Todd Brown

So, is that right ?
And why do Arabs only understand when they’re treated by force ?
Are they too dumb to talk with you and understand ?
Or is it that you simply don’t want to talk, and it’s easier for you to just use force and push them around as you wish ?
Force is met with force, and reason is met with reason, so if the only thing you find is force, then just look at what you’re doing and you’ll see why.
As for the pride part, it’s true, they are very proud of who they are and where they come from, and no one can shake that no matter what.
Saving face ? i think the only people who should be trying to save face now are the US administration after the big mess they’ve made.

With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot of money for projects, I think we can convince these people that we are here to help them.
Lieutenant Colonel Nathan Sassaman

That’s maybe the dumbest thing i’ve read in a long time.
So you come into someone’s country, you tear down his house, kill his family, and put a fence around him, deny him his simplest rights, then wave around some money he’ll never get, and you expect him to think you’re there to help him ?
What kind of sick twisted logic is that ?
Wake up !

And now, to top it all, they’re taking lessons from Israel, the number one terrorist state, using tougher tactics, building fences and walls around villages and towns as well as destroying homes and buildings they suspect Iraqis are planning against them in.
“… we recently traveled to Israel to glean lessons learned from their counterterrorist operations in urban areas.”
Brig. Gen. Michael A. Vane

Interesting insight into the strategy of the world’s most famous democracy and peacemaker in a country they supposedly went to liberate and help.

First 5+5 Dialogue Summit – Tunis 2003

So today and tomorrow, Tunisia is hosting the first 5+5 dialogue summit with the participation of ten leaders from the western Mediterranean region.

Our President is receiving the heads of state and government of Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Mauritania, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Malta.

The agenda of the Summit will include various items of interest to the Mediterranean countries such as those of common security, stability, political consultation, economic cooperation and trade, regional integration and various social and cultural issues.

I think it’s great how Tunisia is playing more and more of a pivotal and center-stage role in the world today, and how it’s pushing forward a lot of great initiatives and ideas.
Makes me more and more proud of being Tunisian every day 🙂

For more info, visit the official website for the First 5+5 Dialogue Summit – Tunis 2003.

US denies Iraqis the right to choose

They went there with their tanks, their guns and a false claim that they were going to liberate Iraqis and give them democracy.
And now, they deny them the first and most important right they should have, which is the right to choose who they want to rule them.

The US rejected the plan by Iraqi census officials to count the country’s entire population next summer, prepare a voter roll that would open the way to national elections in September and enable Iraqis to vote themselves for who they want to rule them.

Instead they want to set up a forced dummy puppet government (

Lablabi

Last night, after picking up my wife from her French course, we decided to go and have Lablabi for dinner.

Lablabi is a Tunisian speciality which is especially great in winter time, it’s basically bread crumbs, chick peas, some spices, an egg, olive oil, and a lot of harissa (our famous hot sauce).

I haven’t had lablabi in a long long time, maybe over 6 years. And my wife never tried it before even though she heard a lot about it since she came with me to Tunisia.

So, it was her first time and she liked it a lot, even though her mouth nearly caught fire with all the hot sauce that was in it, and as for me, i loved it, and it was a delight eating it again.

Winter is late this year, and is barely beginning, but i have a feeling that we’ll be eating lablabi more often this winter 😉

Jewish exodus threatens Israel

Alarm over emigration levels is growing among Israel’s political leadership as the country’s Jews seek to escape the violence in the country and the deepening recession.

“Israel is falling apart and enough is enough” said Ms. Shalev, who works for a delivery service in Tel Aviv.

“I feel betrayed,” said Hila, 37, whose husband, Dror, is also 37. “I don’t want to raise my children in such a brutal society. … My grandparents had such high ideals. What has become of Israel makes me so sad and bitter.”

“There is big concern about what is happening,” says Michael Jankelowitz, a spokesman for the Jewish Agency, a government body responsible for bringing Jews to Israel. “This is why finding a peaceful resolution is so important. At the moment people do not see a solution and this is the tragedy. The insecurity drives them crazy. It’s like Russian roulette ? you don’t know when it is going to hit you.”

The government wants to bring another million Jews to Israel by 2010. Yet figures released by the ministry responsible for helping new immigrants show that an estimated 760,000 Israelis are living abroad, up from 550,000 in 2000.
Just 23,000 people are expected to move to Israel this year, the lowest figure since 1989.
A quarter of the Americans who have come to Israel since 1989 have left.
Many families are heading for Canada. So far 6,000 Israelis have moved there this year, double last year’s total.

Demographers have warned that at the present rate, Jews will become a minority in Israel and the occupied territories within 20 years.

Read the full article: Jewish exodus threatens state’s composition.

Another interesting link: Ta’ayush (Arab Jewish Partnership).

Everything Eats Everything

I’ve been getting some hits lately on my old post Fish are friends not food !, and a comment i read there yesterday by a vegetarian got me thinking again about vegetarians and carnivores like me 😛

I agree with vegetarians that animals are friends, in fact not only animals, everything alive, including plants, are friends.
So why don’t we stop eating plants too ??

If we just think of it a bit more, we’ll see that we eat animals and plants to survive. Animals eat us, other animals and plants to survive. And plants eat us, other plants and animals to survive, it’s a whole circle of life, a food chain.

Let me explain.
We eat animals and plants, that’s easy, no further explanation needed.
Animals, either eat other animals that are further down the food chain, or they eat plants, and occasionally if they find a human around they won’t hesitate to eat him/her.
Plants: some plants eat animals/insects and the rest feed from the soil, which is enriched by the minerals of the decaying bodies of animals and humans.

So basically, everything eats everything, and when it’s part of the food chain, there is no problem with humans eating animals or plants, it’s only normal and natural, and in the end of the day, the chain will be completed and each will be eaten too.

I think the main problem is with abusing animals, and killing them for leisure,decoration or whatever else.
That’s the real problem which is against nature’s laws and which is unethical and sick. It’s murder and should be totally forbidden and punished.