19. Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison

Written in 1967 and set in 1999 New York city, this is the story of a cop, a beautiful woman and a Chinese boy as they struggle through their lives. By 1999 the world is severely over populated and replacable resources have come to an end. England is one giant city, New York has a population of 35 million, the rest of the US is similarly over populated, water has to be rationed, there is no more food as we know it today and people are basically at each other's throats.

I am not going to reveal the plot of the story as it would be too easy to spoil it for you. I do recommend this book it is an entertaining read.

17 and 18. Scarlet Surf at Makaha and Hang Dead Hawaiian Style by Patrick Morgan

I will quote what my good friend Mt. Benson had to say, "[n]eedless to say, you get more groovy babe-ballin', ass-kickin' surfer action once again with Bill Cartwright, agent for the secret undercover organization: Operation Hang Ten!" Both Excellent surfing action books.

Coup d'Etat

Coup
Originally uploaded by buzby.

Wow! It's been a long time since we had a good old cold war/third world style coup d'etat. The PM was in New York so the army, allied with the King, came in and overthrew him, took control of the television and radio stations and we're off to the races!

16. Globalized Islam by Oliver Roy

As with many books written in English by Frenchmen this is written in exceedingly complicated English to the point that many sentences deserved a second read.

The main thesis of the author is that Moslems living in Western Europe feel deterritorialized and their paradoxical way of Westernizing Islam is by reaching back to an imaginary super pure form of Islam that has never existed.  Consequently these Western Moslems are becoming even more extreme than their counterparts living in countries with a Moslem majority.

Similarly, Moslems living in the Middle East have become disenchanted with the ossification of Islam in the hands of the ruling elite and are reacting by also reaching back to a similar super pure form of Islam.

I am not educated enough on this subject to be able to tell you that his arguments are sound but they do sound reasonable.

Roy also makes another interesting point.  He explains that Western intellectuals often search for an explanation for the current world in Islam itself and suggest that it is an extreme religion which has always put violence on a pedestal.  He argues that this kind of thinking is wrong.  Instead he posits that the ruling elite of the Middle Eastern countries have taken command of Islam and have prevented it from growing with the times as other Western religions have grown.  He says that Islam has become an instrument of the Middle East elite and is not something that controls the elite.

I firmly believe in this part of his argument.

Shameless!

WASHINGTON -- President Bush acknowledged the existence of previously secret CIA prisons around the world and said 14 high-value terrorism suspects -- including the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks -- have been transferred from the system to Guantanamo Bay for trials.
Mr. Bush said the "small number" of detainees that have been kept in CIA custody include people responsible for the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 in Yemen and the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in addition to the 2001 attacks.
"The most important source of information on where the terrorists are hiding and what they are planning is the terrorists themselves," Mr. Bush said in a White House speech with families of those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks making up part of the audience. "It has been necessary to move these individuals to an environment where they can be held in secret, questioned by experts and, when appropriate, prosecuted for terrorist acts."

Bush and his cronies are taking liberal democracy turning it upside down and inside out all for the advancment of their own marginal and extreme ideologies.  Absolutely reprehensible.

15. The Foreign Correspondent by Alan Furst

This is the first book that I have read by Furst who, annoyingly, refers to himself as the "pre-eminent historical spy novelist of our time." I don't think so. Notwithstanding his ego, the book is an excellent if short read. It is the story of a group of Italian political resistors living in Paris in 1938 and 1939 as Mussolini strengthened his power in Italy and became ever more closely allied with Nazi Germany. The resistors main business is publishing an underground liberal paper in Italy until the Italian secret service starts killing members of their editorial committee. The resistors are naive in the world of spy craft and almost accidentally get involved in it.

It is a well written book, good summer reading.

Is Rumsfeld such an Idiot?

I preface all of my remarks with a disclaimer that I have never been a fan of Rummy. I find his support for the war in Iraq, going into Iraq without a long term plan, thinking that he is a movie star more than the Secretary of Defense and his general neo-conservativeness quite abhorrent. But I read an op/ed piece that he wrote for the LA Times today and I wholeheartedly agree with this part of his assessment:

"The enemy we face today is different from the enemies we have faced in the past, but its goal is similar: to impose its fanatical ideology of hatred on the rest of the world."

I disagree with how he proposes to deal with "the enemy" but I don't disagree that we face this enemy and we must deal with it. Interestingly, he never actually defines this enemy other than to call it terrorism, maybe he is afraid of offending Arab Americans or our Saudi allies. So, in case anyone is unsure, the enemy he refers to is fundamentalist Islam spread from the Middle East to South East Asia.

14. Dirty Snow by Georges Simenon

This book is one of Simenon's psychological thrillers unrelated to his world famous Maigret detective stories. It is an amazing book both in its writing and in its story. Frank is an eighteen year old son of a prostitute coming of age in an unknown country in occupied Europe. He is morally bankrupt - murdering people without forethought or regret, inflicting emotional pain on women when they are desperately in love with him and emotionally torturing anyone who comes in contact with his life.

WARNING SPOILERS BELOW

The first half of the book relates Frank's exploits: the night he kills an army officer just for his pistol, the multiple times he screws the prostitutes in his mother's whore house and leaves them longing for some emotional output from him, the night he arranges for Sissy, his young virgin girlfriend, to be raped by Kromer and the night he kills the woman who brought him up as a child when his mother was absent just to steal a watch collection that she had.

All of this eventually catches up with him and one of the sections of the occupation authorities arrests him, and the second half of the book relates the story of his slow psychological breakdown and decay as he is held and tortured in a school converted to a prison.

This is a thoroughly 'entertaining' and well written book. I highly recommend that you read it.

"We Are Hizbullah"

"We Are Hizbullah"
Originally uploaded by buzby.

Let me point some things out about these placards. First, how big is the woman in the forefront's mouth, amazing. Second, there's a placard that says, "support a caliphate." Which means that one should support a Pan-Islamic/Pan-Arab regime focussed on Sunni Islam to take over the Middle East. This is something that this is really deserving of our support. Third, we have the previously mentioned "We are all Hizbullah" poster shamelessly using injured innocents to promote an agenda that is very far removed from peace. These people make me sick.

13. The Shia Revival by Vali Nasr

The Shia Revival
Originally uploaded by buzby.

Nasr's main argument is that intertwined with the general anti-Americanism and anti-Israelism of the Arabs and Iranians is a deep seated rivalry between Sunni and Shi'a Muslims.

For background, after the death of the Moslem prophet Mohammad two sects of Islam began to take shape: the Sunnis and the Shi'as. The main difference between the two is that the Sunnis believe that after Mohammad Islam should be governed by caretaker Caliphs who do nothing more than insure that Koran is implemented throughout Islamic life; while the Shi'as believe that after Mohamad's death his sons and relatives took over the administration and execution of Islam and that they continued to interpret Islam as it applied to the world. Most Shi'as believe that after Mohamad there were twelve Imams (prophets or relatives of Mohamad) who presided over their religon and they believe that the twelfth Imam disappeared before he died and will reappear in the future when Mohamad is about to return to earth. Sunnis believe in the Caliphate structure and believe that there were a number of important Caliphs after Mohamads death. The concept of Caliphs has been somewhat subordinated in today's world.

The bitterness between the two sects began immediatly after Mohamad's death but became more fierce in about 700 CE when the Shi'a Imam Hussein was on his way to what is now Saudi Arabia to claim the Caliphate but was ambushed by an army of Sunnis who killed him in Karbala in what is now Iraq.

Since then there has been a bitter divide between Sunnis and Shi'as.

Nasr believes that there is a great divide between Sunnis and Shi'as that explains much of the dynamic of current Middle East affairs. He argues that after the revolution in Iran when Khomeini was trying to export his Islamic republic to Saudi Arabia, the Arabs countered Khomeini's Shi'a ideology by promoting fundamental Sunni ideology instead. So, Saudi Arabia financed the nuclear bomb in Sunni Pakistan, supported the Taliban in formerly Sunni Afghanestan, supported (or simply did not criticize) Sunni led Iraq and tried to isolate Shi'a led Syria. The Saudi Arabian strategy led to somewhat out of control fundamentalist regimes throughout the Middle East and the current 'civil war' in Iraq.

In the mean time, Nasr argues, Iran, which is the largest Shi'a nation in the world, understood that it had lost the battle with the Saudis and focused its energies internally. Nasr claims that today Iran is ascendant, it is culturally the most vibrant country of the Middle East, it is politically the most democratic and it is intellectually the most advanced. Furthermore, Iran is now surrounded by Shi'a dominated Iraq which is being assailed by a Sunni onslaught and Shi'a dominated Afghanestan which is finding its way in the world. Nasr argues that the real battle in the middle east will be between the Sunnis and the Shi'as as they fight for influence over Iraq and Afghanestan and, to a lesser extent, Syria and Lebanon. He almost suggests that the anti-western rhetoric and actions of the Islamic fundamentalists is a by product of the greater Sunni-Shi'a war.

I personally don't believe in this great divide theory for a variety of reasons. First, the author provides little in support of his argument. He conceeds at the beginning of the book that it is a book of "big ideas" written for a mass audience so he will not be providing much support for his ideas which is okay, except that if he really wants me to buy into his arguments then I need the support. Second, there are a number of cases where his theory breaks down in real life. For example, based on his theory, Sunni Hamas should not be working with Shi'a Hezbollah - but they work very closely with each other.

This is an interesting and educational book and provides a different perspective of what is going on and even though I don't agree with all of the author's arguments, I recommend that you read it.

The French Committment

The Financial Times reported the following:

France has said it will command the UN force, but on Thursday announced it would send just 200 engineers immediately to help with the deployment of Lebanese army forces in southern Lebanon.

They have also said that they might provide naval support.

Nice.

Israel, Lebanon and the Idiot Bush

When the latest war between Israel and Lebanon began I said (and I have witnesses) that America should pursue one of two strategies: either they should come down hard on the Israeli's immediatly after the conflict began and make them stop or they should let Israeli move forward unchecked and allow them to destroy Hezballah.

Bush and the idiot Rice did neither. Instead they let the conflict go on for a few weeks, Israel did not emerge as the victor and it did not manage to destroy Hezballah. The result of this policy is that the one thing that was going well in the Middle East, Lebanon, is now a disaster on a similar scale as Iraq.

By virtue of the fact that Israel did not achive its objectives, Hezballah has emerged victorious and is now the effective ruler of southern Lebanon and Lebanon is no longer a real country. This is reinforced by the deal that the Lebanese government has struck with Hezballah "allowing" them to keep their weapons so long as they don't show them off to the world. Hezballah's victory has undermined the legitimacy and power of the elected moderate and largely secular Lebanese government. Finally, the investigation into Rafik Harriri's assasination has all but ended in failure.

Bush's policy results in a loss for Israel, a victory for Hezballah and, most importantly, a victory for Hezballah's backer, Iran.

Seperately, I want to draw your attention to a couple of funny or ironic things that I saw during this conflict.

First, when I was looking over the pictures of the anti-war protests in London, I saw a bunch of pasty yellow toothed English people carrying sings that read, "we are Hezbollah." What does that mean? We are a bunch of people who launch missiles with the sole aim of killing Israeli civilians? We are a bunch of people who use innocent Lebanese villagers as human shields to launch these missiles? We are a bunch of people who receive arms and money from Iran? I am sick and tired of the panzys who don't understand the gravity of what is going on in the Middle East.

Second, after the war ended and after the French had committed to the UN peacekeeping force that will be going into Southern Lebanon, the French leadership come out and state that they will not provide any soldiers until Hezballah has been disarmed. Who is supposed to disarm them - the good for nothing Lebanese military or perhaps some mysterious alien force? This French request is so disingenuous that I cannot find words to describe it.

12. The Chinese Bell Murders by Robert Van Gulik

Bell Murders
Originally uploaded by buzby.

A highly entertaining detective story. Written in the 1920s by a Dutch diplomat living in China but set in an unknown period in ancient China, this, and other stories in the series, follow Judge Dee as he solves crimes in the town of Poo-Yang. Judge Dee is the head of the local tribunal and seems to also serve as the head detective of the local police force. The Judge and his four loyal servants solve the Half Moon Street rape-murder, the case of the dishonest buddhist temple and the long running dispute between the Lin and Liang families. I highly recomend that you read this.

Landis

This morning Landis' "B" sample test results confirmed that there was a lot of testosterone in his system after his amazing ride on Stage 17 of this year's Tour.

While it is possible that one of the four excuses that Landis and his handlers have given over the past week is reasonable, I doubt it.

When this news first broke a lot of experts and reporters questioned why Landis would have taken testosterone because, in an endurance sport like the Tour de France, testosterone doesn't do you a lot of good.

What these people missed, however, is that after breaking on the final climb of Stage 16 and losing minutes to his chief rivals, Landis was desperate to do something.  He was dehydrated, suffering from a sore hip and he didn't have a lot of energy.  He needed the kind of pick me up that a healthy dose of testosterone would give an athelete.

My theory is that, out of desperation, Landis took a bunch of testosterone and it worked better than he expected.  He came out for Stage 17 and he crushed his competitors.  At the beginning of the stage he was over 8 minutes behind the leader, at the end of the stage he was just 30 seconds behind the leader.  In two days, Landis lost the race and won it back.

My other theory is that someone either working on Landis staff (like a cook or something) or one of the technicians at the French drug testing lab spiked his food or his sample with testosterone.

11. Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon

This is the second Loen book that I have read and once again I found it to be a light and enjoyable mystery. The story revolves around her ususal protagonist, Commissario Guido Bruneti of the Venice Police, as he finds his way around the mystery and pulls a surprising resolution out of the bag.

There were some annoying elements about the book: the tenderness that this hard boiled detective feels for his wife, the hurt that he feels because his teenage son is behaving as teenagers should and the repeated references to how hard it is to be a lesbian in Italy (two of the characters in the book are lesbians). But they were not annoying enough to overwhelm the quality of the book.

10. Solar Lottery by Philip K. Dick

Solar Lottery
Originally uploaded by buzby.

I thought that I was reading this on Mount Benson's recomendation but as it turns out he's never heard of it. As with other PKD books this was an excellent story which begins with the protagonist getting fired from his job. In the 23rd century the world works on pure chance and is run by machines called the Bottles. Most people have P-Cards which are the same as lottery tickets so that when the Bottles twitch and call a person's P-Card then he becomes the leader of the world. The leader is know as the Quizmaster and even he is not immune from the twitches of the Bottles.

The story follows a guy called Bentley as he leaves his job, moves to the capital of the inter-planetary system and gets a job with the Quizmaster. Excellent book, as I said, well worth the read.

9. Glorious Revolution by Edward Vallance

Glorious Revolution
Originally uploaded by buzby.

This one was tough to get through.

Historians and Britains make much of the country's so called "Glorious Revolution" when comparing it to the revolutions of their European counterparts. They say that the revolution was peculiar in its lack of blood shed and in its failure to overthrow the establishment regime - not that it was trying to do so.

James II was a Catholic king who succeeded his brother in the midst of a lot of anti-Catholic hysteria. At first he cooled his heals and didn't do anything to upset the Anglicans but slowly he began to ask parliament to pass religious toleration bills, he appointed Catholics into the army and as his advisors and stacked the committees that picked the candidates to run in each riding with Catholics. These measures gripped the country in fear that the French would invade England or the King would somehow pledge allegiance to the Vatican. So, a bunch of noblemen went to William of Orange, the King of Holland who was married to James' daughter, and asked him to invade Britain, which he successfully did. Thus began the rein of William and Mary.

This was an interesting book I would recommend it but you need to be in the right frame of mind to read it.

Economic Nationalism Part II

There has been yet another case of economic nationalism recently in Europe.  Last week the New York Stock Exchange, which is now a publicly traded company, made an offer for a stock exchange in Europe called Euronext.  The bid was accepted by the board of Euronext who agreed that it was superior to the bid that they had received from Deutsche Bourse (the German stock exchange).  Within days of the board's announcement leaders in France and Italy came out and said that they prefer an all European merger for social reasons.

What a crock.

I would agree that there might be social reaons to prefer one deal over another when, say, some strategic asset of one country is being acquired by a foreign country.  But there cannot be any social reasons to prefer one or the other stock exchange merger.

In fact, the only social reason is that Chirac continues to show the long tradition of French insecurity over its place in the world:  they think they're a super power but really they're not even close and they are constantly trying to show that they are.  And Prodi, the newly elected Italian PM, wants to distance himself from Belusconi's trans-atlantic ties.

In stark contrast, the NASDAQ exchange has purchased 26% of the London Stock Exchange and is on its way to acquiring the whole thing.  There is not even muted protest in Britain over this tie up.

If I were President I would announce to the world that until the continental Eruopeans open their markets to American capital then they cannot expect to have open access to American markets.  Unfortunately, Bush even falls short in this conservative idealogical stronghold.  He can't fight wars, he lies and he can't run the economy.  Why do people vote for him?

The Reprehensibles Part X - Was I Dreaming?

I was listening to CNN this morning as I was shaving and I heard a new story about congressional aides who had accepted travel worth about $30 million from various private lobby groups.  These aides had accepted 200 trips to Paris, 150 trips to Hawaii and 140 trips to Italy, all of which are places that are highly deserving of a congressional aides attention.

I have searched Google, CNN, USA Today, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Yahoo! and I can't find any mention of the story.  I know I wasn't dreaming.

The tenth edition of my prize goes to all of these aides.

The Reprehensibles Part IX

Joe Thiesman is the winner of this installment of the increasingly prestigous award for lambasting Ricky Williams all because he smoked pot. Honestly, how many skeletons do you think that Joe Thiesman has hiding in his closet?

"I don't ever want to be mentioned in the same breath as Ricky Williams as a football player. He's a disgrace to the game. The man doesn't deserve to play football. He should go on with his life and treat his drug addictions or go do whatever he wants to do. He's been suspended from the National Football League on multiple occasions. Doesn't anybody have any class anywhere? For gosh sakes, let the kid go do what he wants to do. He doesn't want to play football," Theismann, who is part of ESPN's Monday Night Football announcing crew, said.

I also like the usage of the phrase, "For gosh sakes."

Sports Post Trifecta

I am pleased to relay to you that Ricky Williams, of Miami Dolphins fame, has signed with the Canadian Footbal League's Toronto Argonauts.  In Canada not only do we have an unlegislated but practical decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana we also take in any player who has been suspended for marijuana use as our own!

Oil Slick!

Last night, Edmonton became the first number 8 seed ever to advance to the Stanley Cup finals. Nice.

Excitement

Both the NBA and NHL playoffs have been very exciting this season although, I admit, that I just follow the NHL during the playoffs and even then I don't watch any games but read about them and look over the box scores.

But the Oilers of Edmonton, a true Cinderella team, has got the Might Ducks of Anaheim in a precarious position.  The Oilers could have closed it out two days ago at home but failed, tonight they will have to try to get the job done on the road.  Exciting.

On the other coast you have a lesser Cinderellala, the Sabers of Buffalo, in a tied series against the Hurricane of Carolina.

I admit that what I like is that none of the colossal hockey machines - NJ, Ottawa, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Colorado etc. - have made it into the playoffs and instead you have four small market teams fighting it out.

The NBA is equally exciting to the point that I can't decide who I should support.  The Dallas - Phoenix series with its run and gun style of play is very attractive almost like going to a great action movie that doesn't require a lot of thought.

On the other coast, the Miami - Detroit series is equally attractive but more like a thought provoking drama.

June will be a good sports month!

8. People and Places by Richard Cobb

It has been a prolific month of reading for me so far but I fear that things will slow down with my next book. Richard Cobb is my favorite author, so much so that my dog bears his last name. This book is a compilation of short biographies of important historians and descriptions of some of his favorite places. It is written in classic Richard Cobb style and is very well worth reading.

7. JPod by Douglas Coupland

The only book that I have read that is only ever so slightly worse than this one is Confederacy of Dunces which I was forced to put down without reading the whole thing.

This edition of Coupland's Generation X franchise is about a group of people working at a sports game software developer in Vancouver, a thinly veiled reference to Electronic Arts. The reason it is called jPod is that the last name of all five of the employees sitting in this particular pod of desks begins with J.

The main character in the book is Ethan, a nerdy C++ programer, whose father has given up his real job in a futile effort to land a speaking role in a movie, whose mother has a surprisingly high tech and productive home based grow operation and whose brother is a highly paid realtor catering to the Asian community. His four other pod mates are also programers and suffer from similarly unbelievable families. And, coincidentally, all of the jPod-ers families have large grow ops. The story, if you can call it that, is about Ethan's life at work, his interaction with his parents and with an ironically friendly Asian criminal who smuggles people and drugs to and from Hong Kong and China.

Now let me tell you why this book is so bad:

1. The author incorporates himself into the book, at first by strange third person references to himself and then as a character in the book. He begins by inserting a paragraph claiming that the idea for the show Melrsoe Place was stolen from his book Generation X and suggesting that the producers of the show should pay him or that he should sue them. He then inserts a dialog about how Douglas Coupland is so cool and cutting edge. He moves on by inserting himself as a character that Ethan meets on a flight to Shanghai and re-inserts himself by bumping into Ethan in rural Guangxho Province.

2. The book is 500 pages long but could easily be 300 pages long because the author has inserted about 200 pages of useless information into the book. For example, the jPod-ers are discussing Scrabble, one of them comes up with a list of the 900 possible three letter words that one can use in Scrabble and Coupland then spends the next 40 pages listing out the words. Or, the jPod-ers are having a conversation when one of them says that he has found a web site that shows pi to the millionth decimal place. Coupland spends the next 90 pages showing pi to the millionth digit.

3. It is a fundamentally badly researched and poorly put together book. There is no depth to the characters or their lives and what depth there is, is absolutely unbelievable.

All copies of this book should be incinerated and the author should be exiled from Vancouver, he gives the place a bad name.

6. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell

Down and Out in Paris and London
Originally uploaded by buzby.

I had forgotten how cool Orwell's writing was. This is an excellent book that should be on everyone's must read list.

5. Fleshmarket Close by Ian Rankin

Fleshmarket Close
Originally uploaded by buzby.

I got to this book because of a book review in the G&M and because of a post on the famous Mount Benson Report.

Ian Rankin tells the story of several race based crimes in Edinburgh through the eyes of DI Rebus and his colleagues. The story begins with four seemingly unrelated crimes whose arcs become intertwined because of the common people working on them and some of the common protagonists in the crimes.

It is a good detective story although I found that it could have been more suspensful.

4. State and Society in Iran by Homa Katouzian

1845112725
Originally uploaded by buzby.

This book presents a fascinating account of the Constitutional Revolution of 1906 and the coup d'etat of 1921 that brought the Pahlavi dynasty (subsequently deposed in 1979) to power.

The authour begins by making a compelling argument that to date Iranian history, politics and, most importantly, revolutions have been studied using western revolutionary models when in reality none of the models are truly applicable to Iran. He argues that Iranian society has long been based on arbitrary power which is a concept that has not applied to western states for at least two centuries. The author then describes a theory that is more applicable to the particular style of Iranian arbirary power.

The theory forms the basis of the rest of his analysis of the events between 1906 and 1921, although he focuses more on the period from 1991 to 1921. I found it to be a very interesting book but definitely not for the casual reader.

3. Endgame by Jennifer Siegel

Many historians contend that the Great Game ended in 1907 with the signing of the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 which settled the posturing between the Russians and English in Persia, Afghanistan and Tibet – the three important Great Game countries.  Historians have given different reasons for why the Russians and English entered into this agreement.  Some of have said that it was because both countries needed to focus on European issues and could not afford to be distracted by Central Asian issues.  Others have suggested that the British finally realized that they were no match for Russia’s overwhelming military might.

This book is a detailed examination of these theories.  The author contends that the Great Game did not end with the signing of this agreement, it simply took a different form.  Furthermore, she argues against those historians who argue that the genesis of this agreement was a need to focus on European issues.  For the most part her analysis is thorough and convincing.

For those of you interested in the Great Game I would highly recommend this book.

The Reprehensibles Part VIII

My first award of 2006 cuts across both parties and both houses of Congress. Chuck Schumer, Democrat, New York, is the nominal recipient but the award has to be shared with Hillary Clinton, Peter King, Bill Frist, all of the members of the House Foreign intelligence Committee, Lou Dobbs and the mass media. They are recipients of this prestigious award for the work that they did to kill the Dubai Ports World deal.

Dubai Ports World, one of the largest operators of ports worldwide, acquired the British company, P&O, in a transaction valued at about $6B. P&O also operates ports throughout the world including 5 high profile ports in the US: New York/New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia. Dubai Ports World is owned by the Government of the United Arab Emirates. Soon after the acquisition was announced Lou Dobbs, the CNN anchor, reported in his usual biased way that a UAE company will be in charge of operating five important US ports and he went on to report that two of the 9/11 hijackers were citizens of the UAE. He left his viewers to make the connection: UAE = 9/11 hijacker or selling these ports to Dubai Ports World = more 9/11 like events.

Step in Chuck Schumer the loudmouth senator from New York. For two weeks Schumer and his band of liars, trashed the deal between Dubai Ports World and P&O, the President's approval of the deal and anyone who stepped up in favor of the deal. They relentlessly argued that Dubai is unsafe, the home of terrorists and a deal with them will mean that terrorists will be able to get into the US and do more damage. They pointed the finger at Bush claiming that he is soft on terrorists, he doesn't have a plan and that he mishandled the approval of the deal. They so dominated the news cycle with their message that nobody was able to argue the other side.

Not once did they mention that the deal was approved by the non-partisan body which approves all major foreign investments in the US. Not once did they mention that Dubai Ports World is not taking over the coast guard or the INS - the bureaucracies that are responsible for the safety of our ports. Not once did they think about the damage that this could do to foreign investment in the United States. Not once did they consider that the US economy is surviving in large part because of investments in the US' debt by China, Japan and the Middle East and that the US would quickly slip into a recession without this foreign financing. Not once did they think that they were behaving just like the French who they so love to pillory. Not cone did they think that they were being racist.

This was the worst case of election year posturing and lies that I have seen in a long time. Absolutely reprehensible.

2. Curzon Imperial Statesman by David Gilmour

This biography of George Curzon was generally a reasonable one except that it seemed to lack a lot of substantive criticism of Curzon's life and work. It was somewhat critical but it could have been more critical. I became interested in Curzon because when he was Foreign Minister in the post war years he was responsible for a failed treaty with Persia. I have always felt that the treaty was an anachronism borne out of the mind of a man who did not understand the new realities of the post-WWI world. This book helped me understand some of the reasons behind the treaty.

Curzon was an accomplished imperialist. He had a short tenure as an MP, a few years as undersecretary to the India Office, seven years as the Viceroy to India, a number of years as a member of the Imperial War Cabinet and four years as the Foreign Minister.

He became familiar with the near and middle east as well as the Indian subcontinent by taking regular six month voyages traveling to Egypt, the Sudan, the Arabian Peninsula, Persia, Afghanistan, Turkey and India.

He was a consummate imperialist and a great believer in the Great Game - the decades long cold war between Russia and Britain to control the land passage to India and the Caucuses. It was this Imperialist philosophy that blinded him to the realities of the post world war one world: he continued to believe that it was important to try to restrain Russia even though England was under huge economic pressure to cut its expenditures on the empire and the Russian revolution had significantly reduced the military might of the Tsarist empire.

For me this book answered a lot of questions. For those of you interested in great imperialists and/or the Great Game this is a worthwhile read.

1. A Peace to End All Peace by David Fromkin

0805068848L
Originally uploaded by buzby.

Finally I am on the board, it took me a while to slog my way through this book. Not because it was uninteresting but because I was in a bit of a reading funk. Fromkin's book is a detailed account of the political and military campaigns in the Middle East during WWI that led to the partition of the Middle East along the geo-political lines that we see today. It is an interesting and informative read and sheds new light on the causes of the Middle Eastern mess that we have today.

For example, I was surprised to learn that the pan-arab nationalist movements that caused a lot of turmoil in the Middle East in the mid-twentieth century were actually orginiall advocated by the British.

24. America, Russia and the Cold War by Walter Lafeber

Just nosed this one in. This book is a great survey of the cold war and highly recommended for those of us not too familiar with the period.

The similarity between the tactics used by Truman (democrat) and Bush (republican) to get what they wanted is quite stunning.

I highly recommend that you read this. Not only is it an excellent history but it provides an excellent context for today's mess.

23. Hardball by George Stalk et al.

This book was recommended to me by a consultant friend of mine. It is a reasonable business book that focuses on how one can build a company that is aggressively competitive.

It is short and sweet and I would recommend it.

22. The Lights that Failed by Zara Steiner

I read this 800 page beast in one week - I love holidays! Zara Steiner does an admirable job at describing European international history between 1919 and 1933.

Ideologically she is neither in AJP Taylor's camp (who believe that the the Treaty of Versailles caused the rise of Hitler and WWII) or Hugh Trevor-Roper's camp (who believe that the two events cannot be related). Instead she falls squarely in between them. She acknowledges that Versailles did have some impact on the rise of Hitler then she cautions that the period is far too complicated to tie the two together as simply as the Taylorites do.

If you have the time, this is a very good history of the period and I would recommend it.

Honestly, we don't all listen to this stuff!

Western Music Is Banned

TEHRAN, Dec. 19 (AP) - President Ahmadinejad has banned Western music from Iran's radio and television stations, reviving a cultural decree from the early days of the 1979 revolution.

Songs like George Michael's "Careless Whisper," Eric Clapton's "Rush" and the Eagles' "Hotel California" have regularly accompanied Iranian broadcasts, as do tunes by the saxophonist Kenny G.

But the official daily Iran reported Monday that Mr. Ahmadinejad, as the leader of the Supreme Cultural Revolutionary Council, ordered the enforcement of a ruling by the council in October to ban Western music.

Music was outlawed as un-Islamic by Ayatollah Khomeini soon after the revolution. But as the fervor of the revolution started to fade, light classical music was allowed on radio and television. Some public concerts reappeared in the late 1980's.

21. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris

This is a sequel to Me Talk Pretty One Day and it is a poor one. The stories are, for the most part, not funny and are rather average.

Not recomended.

The Reprehensibles Part VII

You might have read that on Monday the Supreme Court agreed to hear four law suits brought by various organizations regarding the mid-census redistricting that went on in Texas.

The story is that Tom Delay and his cronies engineered a redistricting of the Texas congressional districts in 2003. They relied on 2000 census data even though Texas' population had been increasing by about 1.5M people per year. They gerrymandered the districts in such a way that the Democrats ended up losing 5 congressional seats.

The controversy was fueled last week when the DOJ leaked a memo written by its bureaucrats unanimously condemning the attempted redistricting. Any time there is an attempted redistricting a team 4 lawyers and 2 statisticians - all DOJ bureaucrats - review the submission. In this case they all said that this was unconstitutional. This is the memo that has been leaked.

What the Republicans are doing is simply bad for democracy in addition to being dishonest.

The Reprehensibles Part VI

Just look at her. You know that she has been torturing people. I would like to go on record to say that I believe that the US is running secret torture camps, they are breaking at least the spirit of international law with their rendition programs and they have killed numerous prisoners by torturing them to death.

This practice and by association this government goes against everything that was good about America and everything that America was founded upon.

All Americans should hang their heads in shame and in sorrow for this is the darkest day of US government in living memory.

20. Post War by Tony Judt

Post War
Originally uploaded by buzby.

This is a beast of a book at about 900 pages but I am proud to have made it through.

The relationships drawn by the author between the psychological impact of the war on European people, the subsequent birth of social democracy (as opposed to comunism or conservatism) and the resulting differencs between European political thought and American political thought is quite enlightening. As are the authors descriptions of the period between 1945 and 1955 when cold war communism was being born, the cold war battle lines were being drawn and there was still widespread persecution of Jews and other minorities.

It is a challenging book to make it through becuase it is so filled with facts, figures and arguments but it is rewarding to have read a book like this. I would recommend it.

The Fallacy of American Democracy

Federal congressional redistricting and State sanctioned redistricting has gotten so out of hand that even though, based on Tuesday's elections, many voters appear to want to oust their republican incumbent congressmen in the 2006 mid-term elections they will not be able to do so because, as the Wall Street Journal says:

"Even in their improved position, Democrats will have limited numbers of targets. Because congressional boundary lines place most lawmakers in districts clearly favoring one party or the other, fewer than 10% of House seats held by Republicans currently are considered at risk. Most Senate Republican incumbents facing re-election next year remain favored to win."

Between the Electoral College and overt partisan redistricting, how can we really say that there is a great American democracy?

19. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

Fiction! This story is set in a late 1960s world where the allies had lost WWII to the Germans and Japanese who have split North America in half - the eastern half is German and the Western half is Japanese. It is an interesting story filled with unexpected twists and turns. I recommend it.

The Reprehensibles Part V

With a single stroke -- the nomination of Harriet Miers -- the president has damaged the prospects for reform of a left-leaning and imperialistic Supreme Court, taken the heart out of a rising generation of constitutional scholars, and widened the fissures within the conservative movement. That's not a bad day's work -- for liberals.

There is, to say the least, a heavy presumption that Ms. Miers, though undoubtedly possessed of many sterling qualities, is not qualified to be on the Supreme Court. It is not just that she has no known experience with constitutional law and no known opinions on judicial philosophy. It is worse than that. As president of the Texas Bar Association, she wrote columns for the association's journal. David Brooks of the New York Times examined those columns. He reports, with supporting examples, that the quality of her thought and writing demonstrates absolutely no "ability to write clearly and argue incisively."

The administration's defense of the nomination is pathetic: Ms. Miers was a bar association president (a nonqualification for anyone familiar with the bureaucratic service that leads to such presidencies); she shares Mr. Bush's judicial philosophy (which seems to consist of bromides about "strict construction" and the like); and she is, as an evangelical Christian, deeply religious. That last, along with her contributions to pro-life causes, is designed to suggest that she does not like Roe v. Wade, though it certainly does not necessarily mean that she would vote to overturn that constitutional travesty."

Who do you think wrote this editorial? It wasn't some democrat upset at how badly he's been spanked for 6 years. It was Robert Bork - the conservative of all conservatives, the neo of all neo-cons and one of the biggest Bush supporters around.

With his nomination of his personal lawyer (that's right not district attorney or even a justice department lawyer) Bush has chosen the single least qualified person he could to fill the O'conner vacancy. Some politico, I can't remember who, said that Harriet Miers would not make it on anyone's list of top 100 conservative lawyers in America. Why? Because she is simply not bright enough!

Bush is surpassing the Clinton white house's cronyism with this appointment.

I'm Happy to be Arrested!

Hi, I'm Tom Delay. I am so happy to be arrested by the Houston police.

18. A Wrinkle in the Skin by John Christopher

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Originally uploaded by buzby.

Other than that the last quarter of the book is dense with somewhat annoying romantic themes and, more importantly, that the author never once writes about how these people go to the bathroom in the post apocalyptic world this book is excellent.

You laugh about my last statement but the author spends a lot of time on diseases coming from all the dead bodies lieing around but spends no time talking about diseases from all the fecal matter that must be all over the place.

Also, the book is very well reviewed by my friend Lantzvillager

17. America Unbound by Ivo Daalder and James M. Lindsay

I don't need to read any more books about why Bush decided to wage war on Iraq because nobody appears to know why. The reasons are variously: (a) revanche! for Saddam trying to kill his father; (b) to help American oil interests; (c) because he really believed that Iraq had WMDs; (d) because after 9/11 he had no policy and invading Iraq was the only choice on the table; (e) because he really believes that he can democratize the middle east and tame fundamentalist Islam.

Bush himself may not even know why.

This book does not add anything new to the picture.

The Reprehensibles Part IV

The Republican Study Committee ("RSC") is a group of over 100 House Republicans organized for the purpose of advancing a conservative social and economic agenda in the House of Representatives. Most of the brilliant ideas to pay for the $200B+ tab for Katrina come from this group.

Last week these people launched "Operation Offset," a way to find money to pay for the costs of Katrina by cutting government expenses. Some of their ideas are not bad but many of them are just dumb, like cutting Medicare and Medicaid coverage, eliminating national science foundation grants, cutting back on foreign aid or eliminating funding for NPR.

These 100 Representatives should really be reprimanded.

The Reprehensibles Part III

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Originally uploaded by buzby.

Oh, there are so many things to say about Tom Delay (rhyme not intended).

He is a truly incorrigable Representative, constantly pushing the envelope of appropriate behavior.

He is a guy who wanted to bring the judiciary under the control of the legislature after the Schiavo debacle; he has taken golf trips (described as fact finding missions) to Scotland with the now notorious lobbyist Jack Abramoff; he has been indicted by a grand jury in Texas for campaign finance violations; as a result he has been kicked out as Majority leader of the House of Representatives; and finally, he headed the Texas congressional redistricting which resulted in one of the most lopsided congressional redistricting efforts in history.

If you don't dislike him for all of the above reasons, then you should dislike him just because his nickname in the House is "Delay the Hammer".

The Reprehensibles Part II

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Originally uploaded by buzby.

There are not enough bad things to say about Bill Frist. First his name is far too similar to the word first. Second, he is a doctor and he came out during the whole Terry Schiavo situation and said that he felt that all of the doctors that had actually examined Schiavo and said that she was brain dead were wrong. He mad this assessment despite the fact that he had never met, much less examined, Terry Schiavo. Third, he is just George Bush's little panzy. Fourth, he regularly signs up for broadcasts on the closed circuit church network which is aired in many US churches every Sunday morning.

His only redeemning quality is that he has disagreed with Bush et al about stem cell research.

He is going to run for the Republican nomination in 2008. I hope that he gets beaten badly.

The Reprehensibles Part I

From the congressmen who are suggesting that we cut Medicaid or NPR funding to pay for the expected rebuilding costs of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, to the Louisiana delegation who is so corrupt you would think that we were in Somalia, to the press who are just hyping things and are failing to report the facts. They are all disgusting and their behavior is reprehensible.

I have read and heard a lot of things these past couple of weeks. I will catalog them in a number of posts to this blog.

Post 1

Brown, the former head of FEMA, was testifying before Congress this week. Regardless of his incompetence he, quite rightly in my opinion, laid some of the blame for the mess on LA's poor government and New Orleans idiot of a Mayor. William Jefferson, an LA congressman representing New Orleans, was extremely upset. But here is a guy who was last seen on TV commandeering a military vehicle in order to rescue suitcases from his home in a cordoned-off neighborhood.

What an ass!

16. In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs by Christopher de Bellaigue

rose
Originally uploaded by buzby.

The author interviews about a dozen Iran-Iraq war veterans about their experiences from the war. He begins with those who served in the early part of the war when Iran was winning and ends with those who fought towards the end when the Iranians were the victics of frequent chemical weapons attacks.

Incidentally, Saddam Hussein's ability to make these chemical weapons was financed and facilitated by Germany and the USA. But that is an aside.

These veterans stories are sometimes funny, especially when you compare the organization of that war with the 1991 Gulf War, for example. Other times these stories are quite horrifying and sad.

I would recommend this book, it is a quick read and quite enlightening.

15. The Road Ahead: Middle East Policy in the Bush Administration's Second Term edited by Flynt Leverett

Back to the social sciences.

This is a book of essays by members of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy which is a non-partisan think tank. The authors each cover one of the major countries in the middle east and offer a crtitique of current US policy and make recommendations for the future.

It is really stunning how wron Bush's current program is and how he is able to get support for it.

14. Dr. Bloodmoney by Philip K. Dick

Whoa, my first true fiction tilte of the year!

I quite enjoyed this book. It is the story of a number of people living in different parts of Northern California set mostly 7 years after a nuclear war.

It's either a total coincidence or well planned, but it seems that so many of PKD's novels are ready for a movie version. This one is no different. Set in Berkeley in the early 1980s when the Chinese, Russians and Americans are armed to the teeth with nuclear warheads, this is a story of a dozen or so people and their lives in the post holocaust world after the Chinese have attacked the Americans. Some of the people actually know each other but most of them are either distant acquaintances or new post holocaust friends.

Just as many other PKD books it is an easy and quick read. I recommend it.

13. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

This is the first piece of literary non-fiction that I have read all year. You can tell that I am trying to beef up my stats as the year comes to a close!



This is a book of short stories by David Sedaris whom, I gather, is quite a hip author these days. I've had this book on my shelf for months but I have been reluctant to read it because I feared that it would turn out to be something like the Confedaracy of Dunses - so much hype and so little substance.

But, I am pleased to say that I really enjoyed the book. There were even some laugh out loud moments when he is describing the ups and downs of learning French.

Tattered US Flag

Once again a tattered US flag is becoming the symbol of a grieving nation.

I'm tired of this tattered US flag crap, especially the way the one from New York has been taken around the country to open everything form the Salt Lake Olympics to small charity events.

I really hope that this image of the resilience of the US flag - after all, it survived a hurricane when some things and people did not - does not take on the same significance as the last one. I can imagine people thinking that the US flag is so tough, it's way tougher than other nylon flags (especially the old Iraqi flag) and it means that come terrorists or big storms our spirit will not be quenched.

It's all way too boring and annoying.

12. The Opportunity by Richard N. Haass

This book is an extremely high level overview of one possible foreign policy option suited for today's world.

It is refreshing that the author seems fairly non-partisan, condemning Bush's Iraqi mis-adventure and praising Clinton's efforts in Kosovo, for example. This is offset by the fact that he appears to believe that the current administration actually thought there were WMD in Iraq which is why we went to war - am I the only person who knew that there were no WMD in Iraq at the time of the most recent invasion?

In any case, the author calls his approach integration. Generally speaking, he argues that the world and the great powers are faced with a great opportunity to restructure international relations so that they work better. The reason we have such an unprecedented opportunity, according to the author, is that unlike most other times in the past 100 years there is negligible chance that the great powers will go to war against each other in the near term so we can focus all of our efforts on rebuilding.

The author might be correct but the flesh that he puts on the skeleton of 'opportunity' is fairly half baked and not nearly detailed enough. He suggests that we - being the US - begin by getting the current world powers to agree to a set of principles that we feel cannot be breached by any country. He suggests that these principles should be very general and almost no brainers such as, we will not tolerate any country that commits genocide.

He then suggests that the US needs to take a leading role to get the major international powers to buy into these principles by arguing that nations do not need to be as sovereign as they are today, there needs to be greater economic integration, there needs to be more multi-lateralism and there needs to be less dependence on fossil fuels.

The fatal flaw of this book is that the author puts forward a very high minded approach for us to take but he does not account for any of the roadblocks to implementing this approach. In a world that is so self interested that the so called great powers almost ignored genocide in the former Yugoslavia, totally missed the genocide in Rwanda and are doing the same with the Sudan how can someone possibly think that we are ready to aspire to the higher more self-less goals that the author speaks of?

Doppe! Doppe!

That was the cry of the French when Lance Armstrong was climbing the Plateau de Baille in the Summer of 2002. In fact, that has been the cry of many anti-Armstrong cycling enthusiasts for many years now. It now appears that the cry of the French is a step closer to the truth. There is a lot of noise around this issue so let's try to examine the facts as we know them.



Arguments for drug use by Armstrong

1. Traces of EPO found in his 1999 'B' urine samples;
2. The tests were conducted by a credible lab, one of very few labs that has the ability to do EPO tests and is commissioned by the IOC to run some of the Olympic tests;
3. Close association with Dr. Michele Ferrari, the European BALCO, meaning that he used Ferrari as part of his training regime and had a close relationship with him until Ferrari was taken to court;
4. The book L.A. Confidential (which has never been translated from the original French) is a chronicle by a respected English cycling journalist of the things that people who are no longer in Lance's inner circle did to hide the doping, including taking bags of needles and disposing of them;
5. In the 1999 Tour de France Amrstrong tested positive for using a corticosteroid cream which he said was to treat saddle soars;
6. In March 2005 a former assistant claims that he was fired after finding a box of steroids in Armstrong's bathroom.

Arguments against drug use by Armstrong

1. He is the most drug tested athlete of our time and if he was using EPO presumably it would show up in other tests;
2. Many French people hate him so this could easily be a case of an angry lab worker trying to frame him;
3. The French newspaper L'Equipe which revealed the results of the tests has always had an axe to grind with him;
4. His cancer therapy likely required him to take a lot of EPO so it is conceivable, but unlikely according to an oncologist I spoke to, that there would be remnants in his system;
5. The test results revealed by L'Equipe were the results of research, it is unclear if the proper protocols were followed in these tests.

I am a big believer that the simplest answer is generally the right answer. And have long maintained that the simplest answer is not that there is some conspiracy against Armstrong but that he has taken EPO or other drugs from time to time.

I doubt if anything will come of this though. The B sample is not enough, in and of itself, to convict Armstrong and it appears that all his other samples are clean.

11. Islamic Modernism, Nationalism, and Fundamentalism Episode and Discourse by Mansoor Moaddel

My objective in reading this book was to try to get a better understanding of the rise of fundamentalist Islam. As it turned out this book is more sociology than history and as a result I struggled to get through it, not because it was boring but because sociology is a discipline that has so much jargon that it is difficult to read a book like this which offers little in explanations of this jargon.

Nevertheless, as best as I can tell, the author's thesis is that the development of fundamentalist Islam in the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent was not the result of consistent long term economic, social or political changes in the Middle East, rather, the shift from the previous ideology in the Middle East to today's fundamentalist ideology was an episodic discourse that happened sporadically over a period of time.

Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the theories that the author is trying to refute to tell you whether he is right or wrong, what I can say is that he puts forward a fairly compelling analysis to support his thesis.

What I found most interesting about the book is that at some point in the modern era Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Iran all had fledgling liberal democratic regimes that, at least, held power for a short period of time. In Iran, for example, between 1905 and 1911 the country was run as a bona fide constitutional monarchy; in the 10 years prior to the Ba'ath party's take over in both Syria and Iraq both countries were also run as mostly secular democracies; and in the late 1800s the incumbent political party in Egypt was, what the author calls, a liberal modernist Islamic party which was a lot better than what came after it.

In all of these countries the last half century has seen a regression from fledgling liberal democracies to totalitarian Islamic states. The author ascribes a variety of reasons for these changes but it basically boils down to the following pattern: (1) the liberal democracies emerged in each of these countries; (2) the leaders of these democracies tried to devise secular governments; (3) the Islamic clergy, who in each case had a lot to lose financially, opposed any such change and mobilized diverse groups of people against the liberal democrats; and (4) the governments could not sustain the pressure from the clergy and collapsed.

In the case of Iran, the Shah replaced the liberal democracy twice - once in 1911 and a second time in 1963 - and was eventually overthrown by the clergy when he went too far in trying to create a secular state.

It was an interesting but tough book to get through.

A Little Education on the Islamic Faith (from Islam Online)

Islam's stance on oral sex 3/3/2004 10:30:00 AM GMT

Respected scholars of Islam, As-Salamu `Alaykum wa Rahmatu Allah wa Barakatuh. What is the Islamic stance on oral sex between the husband and his wife? Jazakum Allah khayran.


Answer
Wa`alykum As-Salaamu Warahmatullahi Wabarakaatuh.

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

Dear questioner, thank you so much for your concerns about your religion and Allah’s teachings even in what concerns your sexual life with your wife.

As regards your question, it is to be noted, first of all, that all acts that aim at satisfying and pleasing the spouses are allowable so long as two things are avoided, that is anal sex and having sex with a wife while she is still in her menstruation. Thus, it is permissible for a husband and a wife to practice cunnilingus and fellatio. Following we’d cite the opinions of some well-known Muslim scholars in this regard:

The eminent Muslim scholar, Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi states:

“I was asked about oral sex in America and Europe when I began to travel to these countries in the early 70s. We are not used to be asked these questions in our Muslim countries. Those Western people are accustomed to stripping naked during sexual intercourse. These are communities of nakedness, and from the licentiousness of the woman that she wears nothing to screen her body in her daily life.

So, they are in need of more excitements during copulation. However, men in our Muslim societies see nothing in the Muslim woman that can excite them on the basis of her wearing either Hijab (veil) or Niqab (face cover). But concerning whether being in complete nakedness during practicing copulation is lawful or not, the Prophet of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, is reported to have said, "Guard your private parts except from your wife or your slaves."

Muslim jurists are of the opinion that it is lawful for the husband to perform cunnilingus on his wife, or a wife to perform the similar act for her husband (fellatio) and there is no wrong in doing so. But if sucking leads to releasing semen, then it is Makruh (blameworthy), but there is no decisive evidence (to forbid it).

These parts are not dirty like anus, but it is ordinarily disgusting to man. But there is no decisive evidence to make it unlawful, especially if the wife agrees with it or achieves orgasm by practicing it. Allah, Exalted and Glorified be He, says: "And who guard their modesty, save from their wives or the slaves, that I heir right hands possess, for then they are not blameworthy, but Who so craveth beyond that, such are transgressors.” (Al-Mu'minun: 5-7)”

In the light of this, scholars maintain that the husband is allowed to enjoy his wife through any means of enjoyment except anal sex, for that is strictly forbidden.

Dr. Ali Jum`ah, professor of the Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence at Al-Azhar Univ., says further that licking, sucking and kissing spouse's sexual organs are all allowed, as long as it gives a person sexual gratification that will keep him away from Haram (unlawful) or starring at opposite sex (marriageable). But every Muslim must keep in mind that sexual intercourse is just a lust and passion that must be satisfied in a lawful way; it's not to be perceived as necessary as foods and drinks, as it's the case in the Western perverted ideology.

Shedding more light on this, Dr. Sabri `Abdul Ra’ouf, professor of Islamic Comparative Jurisprudence, at Al-Azhar Univ, says that it's allowed for the married couple to enjoy each other as long as what they do does not run counter to the teachings of Islam or violate the public norms. He also gives support to the view of Sheikh Al-Qaradawi that oral sex or kissing private parts of the spouse is something viewed disgusting to Muslims, but if the aim is just kissing (without having constant indulgence in it) it's not sinful to do that, but people of high morality normally keep away from that, as not to give in to imitating non-Muslims.”

In conclusion, it has become clear now that oral sex is not prohibited, but it is not the normal choice for committed Muslims and Muslimahs. That's, despite that oral sex is not Haram, it is completely disgusting and does not conform to the pure taste and decency of a Muslim personality.

Here, it should be noted that one of the main objectives of Shari`ah is to safeguard the life of people and keep them healthy. Based on this, if it is scientifically proven that oral sex or such practices cause mouth cancer or form a danger on the health of a person who practices it, then it becomes totally prohibited.

10. Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman and the Surrender of Japan by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa

Racing the Enemy
Originally uploaded by buzby.

Phew! If you are looking for a blow by blow account in less than daily increments of the end of World War II, then this is a good book. If not then it is boring. I was not looking for such an account.

What I found quite surprising is the number of peace overtures that Japan made towards the end of the war that were ignored by Truman and his cabinet who seemed bent on dropping the A-bombs.

9. What Went Wrong? by Bernard Lewis

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Originally uploaded by buzby.

This book is a comparative survey of the differences between Western Christendom and Middle Eastern Islam with the avowed objective of reaching some kind of a conclusion about the state of the world today and how we got here.

The book fails on two counts. First, the author tries to answer questions, such as why Middle Eastern scientific development stalled in the 1500s just as the same was getting started in Renaissance Europe, that people dedicate their entire lives trying to answer in just a few pages.

Second, the author never tells us what he thinks has gone wrong. He concludes the book by writing about what various historians believe has gone wrong.

The sixth chapter dealing with the history and significance of secular governments was most interesting. In this chapter Lewis points out that in Islam the church is the state and there is no history of conflict between church and state, whereas in Christianity there has always been a conflicted relationship between church and state that eventually led to the western secular governments of today.

Not a great book.

8. The Persian Sphinx: Amir Abbas Hoveyda and the Riddle of the Iranian Revolution by Abbas Milani

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Originally uploaded by buzby.

Since 1925, when the Pahlavi dynasty began, the Shah of Iran has asserted that he has the constitutional right to appoint the prime minister. And since the two Shahs since 1925 were both a little insane the prime minister's office was an annual revolving door. Until, that is, the mid 1960s when Hoveyda was appointed prime minister and served the country for 12 years.

This story is the biography of one of the great men of Iranian politics. He came to power, tried to foment as much change as he could while operating under the constraints of the monarch and was brutally executed by Khomeini's men in 1979.

It is a very well researched and written biography and I would recommend it, even to you infidels.

Taxi Fascist

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Originally uploaded by buzby.

When it comes to cabs I am the most tyrannical guy you've ever met. I think that the London black cabs are what all cabs in the world should strive for. They are comfortable, always clean, rarely smelly and, since the drivers are all owner operators and make a lot, they always know where they are going.

New York, however, is the antithesis of London. The cabs are uncomfortable, they tell you that they can take 5 passengers but you really can't fit 4 people on the rear bench seat and the front seat is often occupied by the driver's junk, there is practically no leg room and the cabs often stink.

The problem with NY cabs is really well exemplified in the fight that went on between the mayor and the cab companies a few years ago when the mayor was forcing them to install air conditioning for the back seats. In a city with summer time temperatures in the 90s and an almost constant sticky humidity you would think that air conditioning would be a no brainier. Wrong. The cab companies fought it tooth and nail but were finally forced to cave.

Toronto cabs are worse than NY. At least NY cabs generally know where they are going. In Toronto you have to give them directions to even the most central locations.

I was recently in Florence and found that I could appreciate the cab system there. Like in London there are specific customer friendly standards for the cabs (pictured). All of the drivers are owner operators and I never had to give directions to any of them even though my hotel was a little out of the way. The cab ordering system there was the coolest. Instead of telephoning for a cab, you simply press a button on a credit card approval like device which spits out a small piece of paper with the eta of your taxi and the taxi number.

7. An Army at Dawn by Rick Atkinson

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Originally uploaded by buzby.

The bottom line is that this is an entertaining and informative read about the North African campaign in WWII.

But it has its problems. First, in one of the early chapters the author writes that it would be too cumbersome to cite every reference that he has used so he does away with footnotes and suggests that his impressive bibliography should suffice. I think that that is wrong. Second, it is written too much like a story and too little like a history book. For example, at one point the author writes that Eisenhower's stomach was churning with anxiety as he headed towards the front. How could anyone possibly know this? In the absence of footnotes we will never know.

My criticisms only serve as minor annoyances to a generally good book.

6. War and the American Presidency by Arthur M. Schlesinger

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Originally uploaded by buzby.

This is one of those books where you can almost tell that the author punched it out to take advantage the sujet de jour.

Except for the chapter on the electoral college and its history and the paragraphs describing how crazy Ahscroft is, it is not a particularly informative book.

Ashcroft's particular branch of Christianity frowns upon public dancing, which makes Footloose a political criticism well ahead of its time.

5. Modern Iran by Nikki Keddie

This is a history of modern Iran written by a Marxist historian. In the book she argues that the revolution was largely the result of a class struggle between the ruling elites on the one hand and an alliance of the clergy, the merchant class and the urban and rural poor on the other hand.

I believe that her arguments have some merit, however, as with many other Marxist historians she gets trapped by the rigidness of the Marxist historiography and fails to see that there were other causes of the revolution beyond the class struggle that she articulates.

A Debate Worth Having

Liberals of varying colors spend a lot of their time deriding Bush's foreign policy and mis-adventures in the Middle East. But what if, in four years time, we have an independent and democratic Palestinian state in stable co-existence wit Israel, a fledgling democracy in Iraq, an independent Lebanon, and no nuclear weapons in Iran. What will we say about Bush then?

The reason I bring this up is that this scenario was a virtual impossibility a few months ago but is now a possible, albeit unlikely, outcome.

We will certainly be able to roundly criticize Bush's domestic policies. But it will be difficult to describe him as an ass.

The Craziness - A Little Cultural Education

You guys will not be alone if you are wondering why these insane looking shi'as are bloodying themselves on this the holiest day of the shi'a calendar known as Ashura. So here is a brief explanation.

After the prophet Mohammed died in the 7th century there was a battle between the Arabian Caliphs and Mohammed's sons as to who would take over as the ruler of Mecca. The Caliphs wanted to put themselves in charge and the sons of Mohammed wanted to put themselves in charge.

The Caliphs killed two of the sons. The third son, Hussein, who was living in Iraq at the time started to head back to Mecca to try to take over the throne. He was ambushed and killed by the Caliph's men as he was going through Karbala in Iraq.

So today's Shi'a are bloodying themselves to show their respect for Hussein's suffering. This ritual, however, is a concotion of modern fundamentalist Islam and not something that has been done for hundreds of years. The truly traditional way to mark this holiday is by prayer.

Oh Canada!

The Toronto Star's headline today blared that the two greatest hockey players of all time (pictured) who happen to be Canadian have stepped in and are poised to save the NHL season.

Their sources said that a season saving announcement will be made today and a 28 game hockey season will begin on March 1st.

Update

I am overwhelmed by emptiness now that not even these great Canadians could save the hockey season.

Gawk

I have found that since I've been engaged and the motivation to try to get women's attention has largely been eliminated I am totally unapologetically checking women out without even caring if I get busted.

4. The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq by Kenneth M. Pollack

pollack
Originally uploaded by buzby.

This book was written in 2002 before the actual invasion of Iraq. Also the author (pictured) can be described as a hawkish democrat. He is definitely not one of the neo-conservatives running the US today.

The premise of this book is two fold: that Saddam Hussein is developing Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and that Saddam Hussein is one of the more evil leaders of modern history. Consequently, the author argues that the western world should take steps to try to oust him from Iraq. Pollack then produces a rigorous analysis of the different foreign policy options available to the United States to achieve this goal.

He convincingly argues that the policy of Containment, which has been in place since Saddam fist invaded Kuwait, is now falling apart because some European countries, the Chinese, the Russians and the Turks are not abiding by the sanctions any more. He further argues that it will be next to impossible to bring these rogue nations in line with the containment policy again.

Pollack then tackles the policy of Deterrence where the west essentially allows Saddam to do whatever he wants within his borders but hits him hard if he makes any predatory moves towards other countries. He also argues that a policy that seeks to overthrow Saddam by using the CIA also will not work in Iraq.

In a lengthy chapter analyzing the invasion of Afghanistan he demonstrates why an approach like the one that the US used in Afghanistan where it used the Northern Alliance as a proxy invading force will not work in Iraq.

Finally, almost by elimination, he shows that the only viable foreign policy option is to invade Iraq.

One of the key arguments that Pollack uses to support his thesis is that Iraq's WMD program is substantially more advanced than it turned out to be. He believed that in 2001 Saddam had over 300 missiles capable of delivering either chemical or biological weapons as far as Tel Aviv. Furthermore, he believed that Iraq's nuclear program was sufficiently advanced that it could produce a bomb in the next 5 years.

Clearly he was wrong. If Iraq's weapons programs had been as advanced as he believed then his arguments and suggestions would make a lot of sense. The book, however, is an excellent primer on the foreign policy issues facing the United States in the Middle East.

The Wheels Are Coming Off

Rafer
Originally uploaded by buzby.

I have never seen a basketball team disintegrate as the Raptors are doing. If you go to their games you can tell how disaffected the players are: they're practically walking up and down the court, they are not paying any attention to the coach during the breaks and they often seem more excited to see their opponents - chest thumps, smiles and some easy conversation - before the game than winning the game for their team.

Then there is the off court stuff. Last week Alston and the coach, Sam Mitchell, got into a fight at half time in the locker room. Alston did not play the rest of the game and was ultimately escorted by security guards to the team's bus. Some witnesses say that the he was in tears. For the past few days Alston has been asking for an apology and some of his team mates agree that he deserves one.

Then last night Vince's mom came out and said that in December Vince and Mitchell also got into an altercation in the locker room.

I have seasons tickets to the Raptors and I sit next to the "super fan," who is on good terms with most of the Raptor players and, for example, went to Vince's wedding last summer. He has taken a paternalistic liking to me and often tells me stuff about what's going on with the team. I don't entirely believe everything he has to say but I can't totally discount it either.

According to the "super fan," Mitchell has a very physical style and is often wrestling and sparring with the players in practice and in the locker room. So he was not at all surprised at the Alston situation. The "super fan" thinks that Mitchell will be fired very soon.

If all of this is true Mitchell is a very bizarre guy.

So we are left with a team without a franchise player, which has gone through something like 5 coaches in 8 years and no real prospects on the horizon.

Two years ago Maple Leaf Entertainment - the company that owns the Air Canada Center, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors - was sold to a very large Canadian pension fund. In a subsequent post I will tell you why I think that today's Raptors are just what the owners want.

Go Daddy Ads - The Ugly Side of the Superbowl

According to the Go Daddy web site, they had purchased two ads for the superbowl: one to run in the first quarter and the second to run at the 2 minute warning in the first half. They allege that after the NFL saw the first ad they phoned FOX and got them to pull the second ad.

I find this a little difficult to believe because I think that the NFL would have checked the ads well before the game had started.

If Go Daddy is telling the truth then it is very sad how much control corporations are exerting over our lives and how spineless some corporations, like FOX, have become.

T plus 46 days

The wheels are coming off! All of a sudden my idea of not registering for wedding gifts and asking people to donate to charities is coming under attack on multiple fronts. My mother, who is supported by my sister, think that our guests will perceive it to be a form of snobbery if we don't register. They argue that people will think that we are so well off that people couldn't possibly buy us a gift that we don't have.

Others have weighed in saying that our guests will not listen and buy gifts anyway so you might as well try to get them to buy you things you want.

And still others have said that we should donate to charities anonymously so asking guests to donate in our name is not good.

I thought it was such a good idea...