Happy Birthday Rumi... 800 years young!

When it's cold and raining,
you are more beautiful.

And the snow brings me
even closer to your lips.

The inner secret, that which was never born,
you are that freshness, and I am with you now.

I can't explain the goings,
or the comings. You enter suddenly,

and I am nowhere again.
Inside the majesty.

Big Brother is Real

Ok ok ok. So this is perfect. It turns out that George Orwell wasn't being paranoid when he thought he was being spied on in the 1930s. According to a spy file just released, he was under surveillance by both the Soviet secret police during the Spanish civil war in 1937, and by MI5 when he was living ("down and out") in Paris. Man, I just love it when life imitates art imitates life...

Don't worry, despite his socialist leanings and the fact that he dressed "in a bohemian fashion both at his office and in his leisure hours", he was cleared of Communist accusations. Oh, but they did find that he was a "bit of an anarchist". Wonder where they got that idea?

Well it's about time!

For Saudi women to demand the right to drive that is (I'll have none of you make mention of my tooootally necessary sabbatical from the blogosphere).

So as usual, i invite you all to weigh in on the issue. Is this a good thing, or are Saudi women denying themselves a chance to salvage their honour and modesty and dragging themselves down to the depths of permissiveness and sin? I know, I know, you're probably thinking "wait, but what does Dr. Abd Al-'Aziz Al-Fawzan have to say about this?" So here you go: