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:

Gaddafi's Laaaaadies

They're hot, they fight, they have big guns, and damn, they make those uniforms look good. Did I mention they're virgins? Are there 73 of them? No, only 40. You guessed it, I'm talkin' about Colonel Gaddafi (aka "Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya" or "Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution")'s Amazonian Guard, the elite team of martial arts experts that serve as his personal bodyguards. Ooh, and these ladies mean business:

"All of them swear an oath that they will give their lives for him. They never leave his side, night or day, & he insists they remain virgins. There is no shortage of volunteers for what is seen as a prestigious job. A special training college puts recruits through a tough program. Girls who don't drop out emerge as trained killers, experts with firearms & martial arts. Gaddafi makes the final selection &, despite the virginal tag, rumors abound that he demands their sexual favors."

Ok ok, so they have to be virgins in order to get the job. Then... well, let's call it a harem with attitude. My guess is, if he wasn't the illegitimate leader of an oil-rich country, then we'd probably find him getting whipped down at the local sado-maso.

Get Thin or Die Trying

For once, this clever little title isn't one I came up with on my own, it's the name of a Facebook group that, along with the groups "Yes, I have an eating disorder. No, it's not your problem" and "Quod me nutrit me destruit" ("What nourishes me destroys me"), serves as a social networking facilitator for girls with eating disorders (read an article about them here). Of course, some claim that these groups serve as support for girls who just happen to be thin, and are "tired of hearing rude comments about [their] perfectly healthy bodies", and accuse obese America for having "lost sight of what healthy really means". Aaaaaaaaaha. Apparently, according to the extensive "thinspiration" photos posted on the group site, young women should strive for the healthy natural weight of these beauties:









(Ok, maybe one of these photos was my own addition)

And with that, courtesy of Mika-obsessed bga, I bring you something "big" and beautiful to contemplate:

Feed the Birds

Only in the States. In a country where birth control is increasingly difficult for teenage girls to find (especially in Texas, where an emphasis on “abstinence only” has led to the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the country), it is being handed out freely to pigeons by mixing it with their feed. Hollywood residents, apparently, feel that birth control is the most effective and humane way to control the population (psst… World Bank, this might be worth looking into)

Oh yeah, and hey pro-lifers! Where are you now??

ILUVU4URARGLP

Ok so for all of you who have been asking me what the difference is between Persians and Arabs, I've finally got an answer for you (besides language, culture, history, and food, that is):


So to clarify, Persians enjoy greasing their hair and wearing badly cut suede jackets and pouting, while Arabs enjoy long white robes and exotic birds. Perfect.

This photo is courtesy of my new favourite group on Facebook: RGLP (Ridiculously Good Looking Persians). As their homepage states, "Some people wish for perfection, others are just born Persian!"... please look up this group for some of the most unfortunate photos of Persians I've ever seen. I mean, good lord. Also, look for the pic of Ahmadinejad.

Should I send a pic in and show them how it's done?