colonialist cuisine

basketball logos

this is the logo of a team from the national basketball association ...




and this is a logo for a team from the phillipines basketball association ...

apparently

soccer trumps politics ...

the invention of lying

this movie has a lot of great comedians in it ... ricky gervais is the lead role ... then you have small roles by people like jeffrey tambor, tina fey, jason bateman, rob lowe, edward norton ... basically the movie is imagine a world where there is no lying ... not because people choose to tell the truth ... but because lying as a concept just doesn't exist ... enter ricky gervais who tells a lie one day ... and once he starts he cannot stop ... and people believe everything he says no matter how absurd it may seem ... at the same time he is trying to get jennifer garner to fall in love with him ... and so he has this moral dilemma of should he lie to win her over ... there are plenty of funny moments but the movie is just corny ... the premise is clever and could have potentially resulted in a good movie ... but the execution is just corny like i said ... 3/10 ...

so instead of wasting your time and watching this movie ... read this book ... it's about the same thing ... sort of ...

the definition of melodrama

A French parliament report called Tuesday for a ban on the full Islamic veil, saying Muslim women who wear the burqa were posing an "unacceptable" challenge to French values.
After six months of hearings, a panel of 32 lawmakers recommended a ban on the face-covering veil in all schools, hospitals, public transport and government offices, the broadest move yet to restrict Muslim dress in France.
"The wearing of the full veil is a challenge to our republic. This is unacceptable," the report said. "We must condemn this excess."
The commission however stopped short of proposing broad legislation to outlaw the burqa in the streets, in shopping centres and other public venues after raising doubts about the constitutionality of such a move.
"The wearing of the full veil is the tip of the iceberg," said communist lawmaker Andre Gerin, the chair of the commission, who presented the report to the parliament speaker.
"There are scandalous practices hidden behind this veil," said Gerin who vowed to fight the "gurus" he said were seeking to export a radical brand of fundamentalism and sectarianism to France.
Tensions flared at the last minute when a group of right-wing lawmakers pushed unsuccessfully for a tougher measure to ban the burqa in all public venues.
In the end, the commission called on parliament to adopt a resolution stating that the all-encompassing veil was "contrary to the values of the republic" and proclaiming that "all of France is saying 'no' to the full veil".

sounds pretty serious right ... except ...

Despite a large Muslim presence, the sight of fully-veiled women is not common in France. Only 1,900 women wear the burqa, according to the interior ministry.

story

Nilin Photo Garners Dutch Award

A photographer from Holland won the Silver Camera Award for a picture he took of the Israeli army showering the nonviolent protesters in Ni’lin village, near Ramallah, with tear gas.
The photo was taken by Cris Toala Olivares in October 2009 as he was in the West Bank during the olive harvest season.
The Silver Camera Award is the top prize for press photography in the Netherlands.

source

here we go again

Egypt is going to face Algeria in the Cup of African Nations semifinals ...

school of rock

i know i know ... it's really old ... but i just watched it for the first time the other day ... there's a lot of old movies in my collection that i still haven't seen ... gladiator for example ... anyway if you haven't seen it yet then you should ... it's great ... the kids are adorable ... and jack black is hilarious ... 10/10 ...

that's deep

reading the road these days by cormac mccarthy ... no i did not get it because of the movie ... i've had this book for a year now ... but i will admit the fact that it's been made into a movie kind of encouraged me to finally read it ... anyway there was a nice quote in there ... when i read it i was like that is blog-worthy ... so here it is ...

You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget.

recount

saw this movie last night ... it is a tv movie that aired on hbo ... as you might have guessed it's about the recount that happened in florida when bush and gore went head to head in the 2000 elections ... all-star cast and superb acting ... however being a political movie it's not very exciting ... just a lot of political babbling ... only watch if you find such matters interesting ... if you do then you will enjoy the movie ... if not then you won't .. 8/10 ...

not that it matters but

the office

i have been waiting for the latest office episode for a long time ... the show has been on break since christmas ... so it's been about a month ... so i was delighted when it was available for torrent download today ... then i was disappointed after i was done watching it ... first of all it was a clip show ... that is it was just a parade of clips from past episodes ... so nothing you haven't seen already ... it kind of reminded me of seinfeld's final episode ... remember where they are in court and they just keep bringing up old clips ... so on that note ... could this be the office's last season ... i hope not ... i really like that show ... although ... it has been six seasons ... the british one concluded after only two ...
here's another useless fact about the show ... david wallace ... also known as the name of the character who plays dunder mifflin's cfo on the show ... he's actually a wealth management advisor in real life ...

martyrs

martyrs is a french movie ... i don't speak french so i had to watch this one with subtitles ... now it's described as a scary movie but i don't think that's very accurate ... it's really not that scary ... it's dark ... disturbing ... gory ... at some points so gory it's just gross ... but scary not so much ... so it's about these two girls ... lucie and anna ... now lucie was imprisoned in a basement and tortured when she was a child ... she manages to escape and ends up in a foster home ... that's where she meets anna who becomes her best friend ... many years later they leave the foster home ... lucie goes back to the house where she was imprisoned and murders everyone inside ... the father the mother and their two children ... she does so with a shotgun ... the mother survives being shot so lucie bashes her head with a hammer to finish the job ... she calls anna to come help her ... but shortly after anna arrives lucie kills herself ... so now anna is in the house with five bodies ... then anna finds the basement where the prisoners are kept ... and she finds another girl there ... she tries to help her ... but then these strange people arrive and kill the imprisoned girl ... and lock anna up in her place ... and this is where the movie really starts ... so watch the movie to find out what happens to anna and why these girls are being locked up ... all i will say is that the explanation for why these girls are being locked up is so lame ... can't say i enjoyed this movie ... i would recommend people watch requiem for a dream instead ... i give it a 5/10 ...

Dunk of the Day

useless fact of the day

never knew this before ... remember that lady from the office ... carol ... michael dates her for a few episodes ... turns out she's actually his wife in real life ... and that is your useless fact of the day ...

Dunk of the Day

(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

they won't read this but

you ... fucking call me already ... you said you would ... and i already called you twice ...

you and you ... i'm sorry and i will stop being an asshole very soon ... but you started it ... and you really hurt me ... just payback is all ... sorry again ...

الأشقاء العرب

يتعرض صيادون فلسطينيين للاعتداء الجسدي واللفظي وتقطيع شباك صيدهم، عندما يعبرون بقواربهم بضعة أمتار من الحدود البحرية المصرية، لأنهم بحسب القوانين والأعراف تجاوزوا سيادة بلد مجاور

ويعتبر الصيادون الغزيون الأمتار التي يلجؤون إليها في المياه الإقليمية المصرية مسرحاً للصيد الوفير بعد أن منعتهم إسرائيل من الإبحار في مياه بحر غزة الواقع تحت سيطرتها البحرية

ويقول الصياد جمال بصلة إن جنود خفر السواحل المصريين باتوا أشد قسوة من الإسرائيليين، وأوضح أنه تعرض للحجز والضرب وتمزيق شباكه على أيدي الجنود المصريين، مشيرا إلى أن مثل هذا العمل يمارسه الإسرائيليون بحق الصيادين الفلسطينيين كل يوم، ومن الغريب أن نجده من المصريين

المصدر

the onion mocks dubai

click here to read the article ...

year one

people told me it was bad ... but i watched it anyway ... and oh my god it is bad ... there were a few moments that made me laugh out loud ... but still ... awful awful movie ... despite the strong comedic cast ... and on top of that it's blasphemous at times ... the bottom line is that this is one terrible movie ... i would tell you what it's about but there's no story ...1/10 ...

song of the day

this song reminds me of my university days ...

Dunk of the Day

Copyright 2010 NBAE (Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images)

song of the day

mumblings

i wanna give God a hug ...

movies

two movies ... first one is i love you man ... starring paul rudd and jason segel ... i like both of those guys ... i think they are funny ... so it's like paul rudd is marrying rashida jones ... but he has no male friends ... no best man ... no buddies ... and suddenly he becomes very self-conscious about it ... so he tries to make some male friends ... and he ends up hooking up with jason segel ... and it kind of affects his soon to be held wedding ... it is a funny movie but not hilarious ... but yeah not bad ... more of a romantic comedy ... or at least something you'd watch with your significant other ... i would say 6.5/10 ...

second movie is animal factory ... i had high hopes for this movie ... it got 88% on rotten tomatoes ... willem dafoe ... mickey rourke ... that kid from american history x ... directed by steve buscemi ... and it's a prison movie ... but i was disappointed ... the movie is awfully boring ... there's no real story ... it's just like a prison documentary ... there's all the cliches ... the stabbings the riots the collusion between inmates and guards the drugs the rape etc etc ... willem dafoe is kind of like the prison alpha ... and when the kid comes in he sort of becomes a father to him ... and that's pretty much it ... oh and spoiler alert he helps him escape at the end ... but i only told you that because i don't expect you to watch it ... really it's boring ... 4/10 ...

true or false

it's better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all

it's getting ridiculous

Israel's prime minister has ordered the construction of two massive fences along the long and porous southern border with Egypt, saying he wants to stem a growing flood of African asylum seekers and to prevent Islamic militants from entering the country.
The structure would come in addition to a massive fence surrounding the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, as well as a separation barrier that snakes along parts of Israel's more than 400-mile (680-kilometer) frontier with the West Bank, biting into chunks of the territory as it runs. Egypt has its own fence along Gaza's southern border, and is reinforcing the area with underground metal plates to shut down tunnels used to smuggle goods and weapons into Gaza.
story

2010 is going to be a good year

From: BMW (A00542302@itesm.mx)
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To: bmwwinner@bmw.com

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quote of the day

we must first decolonize the mind before we decolonize the land

Sousan Hammad in her latest article

song of the day

hummus wars

If you're looking for a Guinness, you won't find one in Abu Gosh.
No one in the largely Muslim village sells beer.
But if it's a Guinness world record you want, they now have one: the world's largest dish of hummus. And it's a dish all right.
A 6.5-yard satellite dish with more than 9,000 pounds of hummus, the stuff of both consensus and controversy in the Middle East.
The new record beats one set only two months ago in Lebanon, which has been waging a culinary-rights war with Israel for the last two years.
story

مش خايفين

An Israeli border police officer holds up his weapon in front of a Palestinian during scuffles between Palestinians and Jewish settlers near the West Bank settlement of Halamish January 8, 2010.

REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman
(WEST BANK - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST IMAGES OF THE DAY)

slice of life

if you live or ever lived in saudi then you know what meed is ... meed is like saudi's answer to 7 eleven ... there are like hundreds of meeds across the kingdom ... anyway we have two in our neighborhood ... one at the gas station ... so i went to it today ... i wanted cigarettes ... cigarettes cost 7 riyals ... they used to cost six ... and i got a couple of mirindas ... mirindas are 1.5 riyals each ... they used to cost a riyal ... everything's getting more expensive ... but that's not why i'm telling this story ... so two mirindas is 3 riyals ... you know 7 plus 3 is 10 so that would make for convenient change ... i paid with a 100 riyals ... the guy's like oh i don't have change ... now if it was a 500 i could be like ok ... a 200 even ... but come on 100 ... and it was noon ... he should have change for a 100 ... so i'm like fine i'll get change from one of the gas station attendants ... i left the mirindas on the counter but i kept the cigarettes in my hand as i walked out ... he's like sir the cigarettes ... i turned around and gave him this look like i'm coming back dude and just kept walking... idiot ... anyway i go to the attendant ... i ask him for change ... he gives me two fifties ... i go back to meed and give him the 50 ... oh did i mention the guy was on the phone ... even when i tried to pay him the 100 ... he was still yakking away when i came back with change ... so he continues yakking while counting my change ... he was supposed to give me 40 back ... but as i walk back to my car i realize he's actually given me 5 tens ... hehe what an idiot ... now i've been in this situation before and done the right thing ... but not this time ... i put the money in my pocket and drove home ... well later that afternoon ... the unsuspecting neighbor with the amazing internet connection that i have been using for like a month now decided to get a password ... coincidence ... or karma ... i don't know ... anyway there's another unsecured network i can still use but it's not nearly as good ... oh well ...

quote of the day

When I was in the West Bank, before I went, I was told that the Palestinians are going to hurt me, they are going to do awful things to me. But they were the ones that protected me. In one demonstration, in 2006, near Ramallah, I lost some of my hearing because an Israeli sound bomb went off very close to me. The Palestinians near me were very concerned. I was strip-searched, internally searched at Israel's David Ben Gurion airport, I was told that “I was a terrorist, I'm a security risk.” An 80-year-old woman is a terrorist? What, do I have a bomb in my vagina?
Hedy Epstein

Hedy Epstein is what some might see as a contradiction in terms: a survivor of the Holocaust and also a staunch advocate for the Palestinian people. Born in 1924 in Freiburg, Germany, Epstein was 14 when she escaped from Nazi persecution via the Kinderstransport to England. Since her 1948 arrival in the U.S., Epstein has been an advocate for peace and human rights.
In 2001 she founded the St. Louis chapter of the Women in Black anti-war group that originated in Israel, and has actively advocated for Palestinian rights since visiting the West Bank in 2003. As the last decade came to a close, Epstein continued her advocacy by traveling with the women’s peace advocacy group CodePink to the Gaza Freedom March. The Dec. 31 march was a planned nonviolent demonstration to protest Israel’s blockade of Gaza, with 1,000 advocates from abroad joining Palestinians in a march to the Gaza-Israel border checkpoint.
source

beirut protests

Children with tape over their mouths, protest against Egypt's border barrier between Egypt and southern of Gaza Strip, during a demonstration in front the Egyptian embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, on Sunday Jan. 3, 2010, with placards written in Arabic, at left, 'Hey Arabs, stop killing the innocents on your metal wall, and right, reading 'From Lebanese children to Gaza children, be patient the victory is soon'.
(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A protester helps others setup a makeshift wall during a demonstration by Islamic groups to protest against Egypt's border barrier with the southern Gaza Strip, in front the Egyptian embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2010.
(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

everyone loves mubarak

Jordanian demonstrators burn a picture of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during a protest against the installation of an underground metal barrier at the border between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip, in front the Egyptian embassy in Amman January 3, 2010.
REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed (JORDAN - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST IMAGES OF THE DAY)

Jordanian demonstrators burn a picture of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during a protest against the installation of an underground metal barrier at the border between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip, in front the Egyptian embassy in Amman January 3, 2010.
REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed (JORDAN - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST IMAGES OF THE DAY)

بلاد الطوائف

work secrets

so something weird happened at work today ... i can't tell you what it is though ... you never know who might be reading your blog ...

sacrilege

3ala2 mubarak got to wash the ka3beh ... no kidding ...

meanwhile in beirut

read a sad story about a domestic worker committing suicide in lebanon ... not an uncommon thing over there apparently ... it happened in sanaye3 ... that was close to where i used to live ... there was a park ... anyway ... this is just another reason why arabs suck right now ... we treat our domestic workers like slaves ... remember those commercials that used to come on tv ... about treating your domestic workers like human beings ... they used to break my heart ... they stopped showing them though ...

interesting

The suicide bomber who killed eight people inside a CIA base in Afghanistan claimed to have information about Osama bin Laden's second-in-command, and was being recruited as a double agent to infiltrate al-Qaida, a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a foreign government official confirmed Monday.
The bombing killed seven CIA employees — four officers and three contracted security guards — and a Jordanian intelligence officer, Ali bin Zaid, according to a second former U.S. intelligence official. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the incident.
The former senior intelligence official and the foreign official said the bomber was Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, a 36-year old doctor from Zarqa, Jordan, who had been recruited by Jordanian intelligence. Zarqa is the hometown of slain Al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
story

meanwhile in the jordanian press ...

واستشهد النقيب الشريف علي بن زيد آل عون يوم الأربعاء الماضي أثناء مشاركته في أداء الواجب الإنساني الذي تقوم به القوات المسلحة الأردنية في أفغانستان ليلتحق بكوكبة الشهداء الأردنيين الذين قضوا نحبهم في ميادين الشرف والرجولة وإعلاء سمعة الأردن والمساهمة في حفظ السلام ومساعدة المدنيين المتضررين في مناطق الأزمات في مختلف دول العالم مسطرين أبهى صور التفاني والتضحية في القيام بالواجب خدمة للوطن وللإنسانية جمعاء.

المصدر

trick'r'treat

great halloween movie ... not so great horror movie ... you might think what's the difference between a horror movie and a halloween movie ... well there just is ... halloween movies are not as scary ... horror is more psychotic ... so anyway ... 7/10 ... so if you ever want to do halloween movie night with your significant other then this movie might be a good idea ... other than that there's really no reason to watch it ... i think that was the plan the makers of this movie had for it anyway ...

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

v

i think i posted this back in ramadan but why not again ... nice way to start the new year ...

slice of life

we used to have a science teacher called mr. cason ... rhymes with mason ... or jason ... anyway ... mr. cason ... and some kids started referring him as mr. no-sack ... which is funny ... then one day on the bus ... i was like guys i just realized something really funny ... cason backwards is no-sack ... and everyone was like that's how he got the name idiot ... and they laughed at me ... not my proudest moment hehe ...

kermit and big bird get stoned

another classic comedy soundclip ... i think the first time i heard this i wasn't even in highschool yet ...

up

i've had this movie for a long time but never watched it until today ... one word ... pixar ... and as we all know pixar = perfection ... that's all i have to say about it ... 10/10 ...

song of the day

-MW-

i wanna use that photo of you smiling as my wallpaper ... on my laptop ... on my phone ... in my room ... pretty much everywhere wallpaper is an option ...

BAS

أمة الإسلام

قال عليه الصلاة والسلام : مثل المؤمنين في توادهم وتراحـمـهــــــم وتعاطفهم، مثل الجسد الواحد إذا اشتكى منه عضو تداعى له سائر الجسد بالسهر والحـمى

********************

Egyptian soldiers are seen securing the Egyptian side of the border with Gaza, as Palestinians demonstrate on the Gaza side against Egypt installing a border barrier to block smuggling tunnels with Gaza, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 28, 2009. Egypt acknowledged last week it is installing a series of metal sheets deep along the Gaza border to block tunnels used to smuggle weapons into the Palestinian territory.
(AP Photo/Eyad Baba)

bad ass

A Palestinian demonstrator throws a stone at Israeli troops during a protest against the Israeli separation wall in the West Bank village of Nilin near Ramallah January 1, 2010.
REUTERS/Steve Crisp

resolutions and a song

so it's a new year ... a new decade ... no big resolutions ... i have a couple of little ones i was already kind of doing before new year's ... no quitting smoking is not one of them ... although ... nah ... anyway ... so one of them is trying to watch my weight a little bit ... my gorgeous figure is gone lol ... no seriously i had a gorgeous figure hehe ... and it's nothing but a memory now ... it all started the day i moved back after graduating ... well i'm not really dieting ... all i did was essentially stop drinking soft drinks ... i drink juice now ... like a LOT of juice ... also i'm avoiding meals now ... i just get the sandwich and just eat it at home with some juice ... i figure subtracting the fries and drink has got to be worth something ... i wanna start working out again but i've been saying that forever ... the other resolution if you wanna call it that is i'm listening to quran in the car a lot more ... in ramadan i played quran all the time but that was mostly because that's what you're supposed to do you know ... i have a yaser eldosary playlist on my ipod so i play that ... i don't pray much as i should ... i usually don't miss fridays but other than that not much ... so i wanna start praying but until then at least quran in the car ... so as not to be completely godless ... so yeah those are my two resolutions ... sort of a mind body soul dynamic if you will ... i don't know what i'm talking about ... nevermind ... just enjoy the song ...

back-handed compliment

i wish i was you ... only better ...

quote of the day

"There is no justice," said Bura Sadoun Ismael, who was wounded by two bullets and shrapnel during the shooting. "I expected the American court would side with the Blackwater security guards"

Iraqis seeking justice for 17 people shot dead at a Baghdad intersection responded with bitterness and outrage Friday at a U.S. judge's decision to throw out a case against a Blackwater security team accused in the killings.
story

shawerma reem is famous

shawerma reem has been featured in the new york times ... no kidding ... the article calls it a "place with a reputation for the best beef and lamb shawarma sandwiches in the Middle East" ... but they are professional enough to point out that "there is no way to say for sure that Reem’s shawarma is the best in the Middle East" ... obama is also mentioned in the article as saying "Michelle and I love Reem's shawarmas" ... no i made that last part up ...

if i ever open a shawerma restaurant ... i'm going to call it ... devour-ma-shawerma ... get it ... pretty clever no ...

song of the day

2oolu ameen

here's wishing that this will be a good year for me and you and the arab world ... well we know it won't be a good year for the arab world ... so let's make it just me and you ...

another classic