All my life, I’ve always found it weird to see fans crying when their favorite celebrity dies. Now, I didn’t cry when I heard the news, but I was pretty saddened.

In a lot of ways Michael Jackson was my childhood. His music filled it with lots of joy and beautiful memories. It uplifted me when I was down. It made me happy when I was sad.

And as awkward and flawed as he was, I will dearly miss him and his talents.

RIP Michael.

I still remember singing similar crap during my primary school days in Qatar. Only years later did I come to realize the negative effects it had on my thinking.

The video has over a million views on YouTube, and the show is apparently becoming very popular in the Arab world.

For all of you non-Arabic speakers, the girl is singing:

When we seek martyrdom, we go to heaven.

You tell us we’re small, but from this way of life we have become big.

Without Palestine, what does childhood mean?

I’m glad many Arab writers have written articles condemning the sickening dangerous nature of this show.

The people responsible for producing it and broadcasting it should be exposed and condemned. Shame on them. Shame on all of them.

It’s disgusting.

And it reinforces the notion that the Palestinian issue (while an important and worthy cause) is somehow the main source of the many problems of the Muslim world, when it’s clearly not.

I mean seriously, how the hell are we supposed to build healthy functioning societies, when we teach our children to value death more than life? Heck, why study? Why become entrepreneurs and create employment? Why engage in something constructive?

Naaa, too hard. It’s too much work. Might as well just blow up ourselves, skip judgment day, and go straight to heaven. Lots of candy. So much of it there in paradise, it’s actually better than Disney Land.

Screw life. Yeah, screw it.

Death baby, oh yeah.

Here I come, wooohoooo!

Here’s a wonderful example from the American Jewish magazine, Moment, highlighted nicely by Avveroes Press.

Moment is an American Jewish magazine “dedicated to serious, highly-literate, intellectual journalism.” Unfortunately, its current issue carries a contribution that seriously tarnishes the magazine’s claim to an intellectual discourse.

The magazine posed a question to several Rabbis ranging from Humanist to Conservative and Reform to  Reconstructionist.

The question was “How Should Jews Treat Their Arab Neighbours?” and the answers ranged from deep empathy towards Palestinians to philosophical and theological.

Rabbi Fred Schindler Dodd  wrote:

“…what about “love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18)? Arabs and Jews are by necessity neighbors and will be in any ethical scenario. By tradition (Torah and Quran alike) we’re more than neighbors, we’re kin?and though cousins fight, they’re still family.”

Nice, high five Rabbi Fred. I can respect the values and morals of your interpretation. Okay, now we come to the not so nice part.

Rabbi Manis Friedman of the Bais Chana Institute of Jewish Studies answered:

I don’t believe in western morality, i.e. don’t kill civilians or children, don’t destroy holy sites, don’t fight during holiday seasons, don’t bomb cemeteries, don’t shoot until they shoot first because it is immoral.

The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way: Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle).

… Zero tolerance for stone throwing, for rockets, for kidnapping will mean that the state has achieved sovereignty. Living by Torah values will make us a light unto the nations who suffer defeat because of a disastrous morality of human invention.

Yikes!

I’d love to see Rabbi Manis thrown together with some fanatic Talibani nut for a special episode of… The Holy Room. They’d make really good friends.

Asshole.

KHARTOUM (AFP) – A Khartoum court condemned four Islamists to death on Wednesday for the 2008 killing of a US diplomat and his Sudanese driver, as the US embassy warned of possible retaliation over the verdict.

Judge Said Ahmed al-Badri sentenced the four to be hanged for the murders.

A fifth man, who had provided the other defendants with the weapon but did not take part in the murder, was sentenced to two years in prison.

… Federal Bureau of Investigation officers from the United States had helped to investigate the killings which sent shockwaves through the sizeable Western community in Khartoum, a city usually considered one of the safest in Africa.

Again, I must stress that when this murder occured, the vast majority of Sudanese were vocal in their condemnation. Nobody wants crimes like this to be come a trend, except for the jihadists types of course who are a tiny minority.

Here’s to justice being served in elsewhere.

*Cough* Darfur *cough, cough* … Hey, I can dream, can’t I?

To get a sense of what’s happening, watch this video.

To understand how Twitter and new media are such a central part of the psychological warfare getting waged by both sides, read this and watch this video.

More on leveraging Twitter to help Iranian activists here.

Yay to cyberwar.

Anyways, me will be back with more.

Meanwhile, you can dive in and drop your reaction. Good thing Mr. President mentioned Darfur once.

UPDATE: Been crazy busy, but had time to drop a quick comment here. If you’re curious about where Obama got some of his ideas for the speech especially in regards to which Quranic veses to use, then find out here. Meanwhile, me is keeping track of the situation in Iran.

Virtually all my Iranian friends (at least those who are not apathetic and who voted, the majority), are pretty pissed off at what happened, and rightly so. If one word can describe their fight both online and offline at protests, then it’s this.

Inspiring.

According to them, this time it’s different, and unlike any unrest before since the revolution took place. So, let’s see what happens, and how Obama will respond.

Here’s to hoping that filthy bitch called Ahmadinejad gets kicked out. While the lovely Mullahs and supreme leader will remain, it will still be a positive outcome.

Almost every day, I hear people uttering a phrase that I can’t help but grit my teeth to: “Everything Happens for a Reason.”

We use it to console ourselves when something goes wrong. Almost like an automatic cooling mechanism that kicks in on an overheating nuclear reactor.

We use it to philosophize our life’s circumstances. And in many cases, it’s the only thing left for us to hold on to (or so we think).

But - regardless of whether you believe in the concept of religion - could this yearning for a higher purpose to everything we do be nothing more than a comfortable illusion?

First of all, let’s identify which definition of ‘reason’ we’re referring to.

If you define reason through a simple cause-and-effect model (such as if you work hard, you’ll reap the results), then everyone can pretty much agree that everything does without a doubt happen for a reason.

The other model, however, is the one I have problems with:

The belief that everything that happens is just a small puzzle piece of a higher power’s master plan.

i.e. if you get in an accident and lose your leg, it’s actually because god planned this for you, and he wants you to learn something from it.

I ask you this question in a tone as inoffensive as I can muster: Don’t you think the latter model is just a tad presumptuous and self indulgent for us as mere mortals to hold on to?

If there is a god out there, I find it hard to believe that he’d micro manage the destiny of every single person, animal and inanimate object on the planet.

It’s easier to believe that he just made us, and put us on autopilot, leaving us to figure things out for ourselves.

In fact, it makes a lot more sense.

If you lose your leg in an accident, it could be because you were careless. Or because another driver was careless. Or because your car malfunctioned.

It could be all of these things, or it could be none of these things. Billions of tiny, seemingly insignificant variables work in unison to determine our fate.

Even something as small as leaving your house 5 minutes late because you forgot your keys could snowball into a monumental occasion, like meeting the love or your life, or yes, losing your leg in an accident.

The question is, why do so many of us invariably end up attributing these variables to the machinations of a higher power?

By our very nature, we struggle to find meaning and purpose in everything, often where there is none.

This may be an extreme example, but some of us worship pieces of toast that bear a passing resemblance to Christ.

But out of the billions of pieces of bread that have been made since the beginning of time, doesn’t it make sense that one of them will eventually end up looking like a bearded man?

Some of us witness extraordinary occurrences like people recovering from cancer, and we call it a miracle or an act of god.

But once again, out of the millions of people suffering from cancer, isn’t it just nothing more than a statistical inevitability that some will survive the disease?

I’m not suggesting you give up your religious beliefs, if any. I’m merely suggesting that we stop looking for reason where there is none, and embrace the freedom that lies within the randomness of reality.

Because ultimately, life is what you make of it.

The Star Trek Movie Trailer

The show seemed silly to me. Weird looking people and space monkeys, wearing weird looking costumes, firing around weird looking lazers. The spaceships were cool though, that’s for sure.

At the time, I didn’t understand or speak English. And given the techie english language of the show, its Arabic subtitles were awkward and hilarious to read

So basically, when the movie came out recently, I wasn’t too excited to see it, but my friends insisted.

Hence, I went, and damn was it awesome!

Not the greatst movie I’ve watched. It didn’t enter my favorite top 10 list, but nonetheless it was pretty entertaining.

However, besides all the cool action and special effects, what caught my attention was the dominant theme of attempting to reconcile “Logic Vs Emotion, Reason Vs Faith” throughout the movie.

Logic being the Vulcans, Emotions being the Human race, and the struggle to reconcile both being symbolized by Spock, the deeply conflicted child of two worlds, born of a Vulcan father and a Human mother.

It got me thinking about the ongoing fun debate on Islam and faith in my head. It also reminded me of the super cool Foundation book series by Isaac Asimov.

Where does the balance lie in the reconciliation and use of both logic and emotions in our daily lives? How much of each is too much, and how does the answer depend on context?

Too much logic, and you risk being an emotionless computer-like Vulcan. Too much emotion, and you risk becoming an irrational, angry, or even pacifist, dysfunctional “Human.”

Is and can love ever be logical?

What is consciousness?

Are emotions merely the product of electrochemicals released and interpreted by our brains? Such would be a materialist reductionist, and also scientifically incorrect view.

Th movie certainly re-triggered questions that I placed on the shelf and brought them back to the forefront again. It left me wondering about which Star Trek movie character I’d like to be if I had a choice.

I’m thinking the humanized Spock at the very end of the movie after he gave in to feelings and got “emotionally compromised.”

Now, what about YOU?

…

Live long and prosper,

Drima

Throughout the debate I found myself agreeing most of the time with Avraham Burg, former speaker of the Israeli Knesset.

Michael Scheuer, a former unit director at the CIA, came across as a bit of an angry nut. Disloyal American fifth column?

Erm, okay.

As for Alan Dershowitz, and especially the former Israeli ambassador to the UN, Dore Gold… well, they certainly cracked me up with some of their ludicrous statements.

Here’s part 1 of 5.

Here’s the rest:

• Getting Tough on Israel - Part 2 of 5
• Getting Tough on Israel - Part 3 of 5
• Getting Tough on Israel - Part 4 of 5
• Getting Tough on Israel - Part 5 of 5

Given the results of the debate, can we predict the gradual downfall of the notorious AIPAC, and the eventual rise of the better J-Street as a replacement?

Looks like it.

However, with American public opinion on Israel seemingly shifting towards the left, we can only expect more friction between the US and Israel as Israeli internal politics tilt towards the right.

Hint: Lieberman.

– Albert Einstein