INSIDE DREAMSPACE

OIL

while I don't speak Arabic or Hebrew, I am completely fluent in the language of petroleum.

You don't need a degree in geology to know that there's no oil in Israel, Palestine or Lebanon. (A few weeks ago, I was joking around with Afif Safieh, the Palestinian Authority's ambassador to the US, asking him why he was fighting to have a piece of the only place in the Middle East without oil. Well, there's no joking now.)

Let's begin with the facts we can agree on: the berserkers are winning. Crazies discredited only a month ago are now in charge, guys with guns bigger than brains and souls smaller still. Here's a list:

1. Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, whose approval rating in June was down to a Bush level of 35%. His poll numbers among Israeli voters have now more than doubled (to 78%) as he does his bloody John Wayne "cleanin' out the varmints" routine. But let's not forget: Olmert can't pee without George Bush's approval. Bush could stop Olmert tomorrow. He hasn't.

2. Hezbollah, a political party rejected overwhelmingly by Lebanese voters sickened by their support of Syrian occupation, holds a mere 14 seats out of 128 in the nation's parliament. Hezbollah was facing demands by both Lebanon's non-Shia majority and the UN to lay down arms; few Lebanese would now suggest taking away their rockets. But let's not forget: without Iran, Hezbollah is just a fundamentalist street gang. Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, could stop Hezbollah's rockets tomorrow. He hasn't.

3. Hamas, just days before it kidnapped Israeli soldiers, was facing certain political defeat at the hands of a Palestinian majority ready to accept the existence of Israel as proposed in a manifesto for peace talks penned by influential Palestinian prisoners. Now the Hamas rocket brigade is back in charge. But let's not forget: Hamas is broke and a joke without the loot and authority of Saudi Arabia. King Abdullah could stop these guys tomorrow. He hasn't.

Why not? Why haven't those we laughably call the "leaders" of the US, Iran and Saudi Arabia called back their delinquent spawn, cut off their allowances and grounded them for six months?

DO YOU DREAM?

I heard about a "giant inflatable" taking off but was shocked to read in the paper that it was Maurice Agis' Dreamspace. For me, Dreamspace is the most important and universally accesible pieces of public art I have ever seen.

I first came across Dreamspace in mile End park maybe 10 years ago when I was doing a lot of acid. The whole experiece of taking yourself out of the chaos of natural and man-made forms into this repeating illusion spoke to me on levels I can't remember. I ended up flyering Dreamspace for nothing I was so excited by it and wanted people to see it. I think Maurice and his girlfriend thought I was a bit wierd in the end. I probably was.

When I was handing out flyers I remember I asked "Do you dream?" and if they took one I'd say "I thought so."

That was my first experiece of "trawling" a passing civilisation. People who recoiled or were negative I'd let pass without a second thought. The more adventureous I'd end up having beautiful conversations with and I met lots of nice girls that way.

I really feel for Maurice but have no idea how to contact him. I hope Dreamspace comes back. I really can't speak highly enough about it as an artistic experiece.

Maurice Agis' CV with pictures
BBC article

My Pet Jawa

via Hengineer

India has been taken hostage by its sizeable Muslim population. It is afraid of its own citizens. It fears that if they are exposed to that which is religiously offensive, that violence might erupt. That if the government doesn't do something, then they might just have to do something about the government.

India's banning of this and other websites, then, is completely rational. It is based on the real fear of real people who do real violence. Thus, it is completely understandable.

While we might understand India's reason for banning our website, we certainly don't condone it.

HADES

Sometimes public scenes can get very involved and multiple, with Dominants and submissives scening in the same area. This type of close contact of mingled scenes can be enormously exciting for those involved and those looking on as spectators. It is important to remember that in-scene subs are solely responsive to the direction of their personal dominant and that any in-scene touching, scening or playing with any submissive not your own is considered not only rude but non-consensual.

When a scene commences in your vicinity you should respectfully withdraw to a distance sufficient to allow the players ample room to accomplish to scene without interference.

You should never move into an ongoing scene and touch or involve yourself in any way. You should also be alert to the usage of tools and equipment as their usage in tight space presents real danger of inadvertent contact for those not paying attention.

It's great to watch, enjoy and learn but please refrain from masturbation.

SNOW STOPPING

Annan speaks for the victims
============================================
Frustrated by the scale of the obstacles his team on the ground have
encountered and by apparent American and British determination to sit on
their hands, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has come out with one of
the strongest speeches I’ve ever heard him make.

He condemned Hizbollah and Israel in equal measure, damming Israel’s
"disproportionate use of force and collective punishment of the Lebanese
people", adding "it must stop".

He also says "Israel must allow humanitarian agencies to access
civilians".

He confirms the view that the Lebanese Government has, that some
500,000 people have been displaced and he concurs with their observation that
the real figure may be closer to a million.

Tonight we are in the US and in Beirut where Jonathan Miller reports on
the aftermath of 26 tonnes of Israeli bombs dropped on a suspected
Hizbollah HQ and he also has an interview with a Hizbollah leader.

snowmails

watch the report here

Dear Palestinian Arab brethren:

The war with Israel is over.

You have lost. Surrender and negotiate to secure a future for your children.

We, your Arab brothers, may say until we are blue in the face that we stand by you, but the wise among you and most of us know that we are moving on, away from the tired old idea of the Palestinian Arab cause and the “eternal struggle” with Israel

Palestinian media 1

Palestinian media 2

Israel struck again and again and still continues to strike. Now most of the people of Gaza (approximately 1.4 million people) have no electricity, no power, and over 100 people have lost their lives in air strikes. I speak with my relatives there on a regular basis, but I don't know what I could possibly do to make it better for my uncle, who has been out of work for years. My little cousins who wake up screaming in fear from the sonic booms and the air strikes. Why is collective punishment acceptable only when it comes to the Palestinians? Imagine there is a kidnapping/murder in your neighborhood (which is not exactly the same context as what happened in Gaza, but just imagine). Imagine that in response, the city of Houston decides to demolish half the homes, cuts off power and water, kills a few dozen men, women and children, and blocks anyone from exiting or entering. And Bush says "Well, the city of Houston has the right to defend itself."

via Rightwingsparkle Gazawia is a fellow blogger from the Houston Chronicle.

Hadeel Assali is a Palestinian-American originally from Gaza, living and working in Houston as a chemical engineer. She lives in the Houston Heights and is currently traveling, writing, and visiting relatives in the Middle East. (Gazawia means "girl from Gaza" in Arabic.)

Images coming out of Lebanon are horrifying, body parts everywhere. Are you seeing this in the US?

But in the US, I know everyone stopped watching long ago the body parts flying all over Iraq. So why would Gaza and Lebanon be any different?

Everyone here is really hoping Hizbollah is not just all talk. Palestinians are eager for anyone who will keep Israel in check. I am spotting Hizbollah flags more and more...and I laugh to myself when I remember that the US has termed Hizbollah a terrorist organization while Israel is the ally.

I am not editing this as I write. All of us here, all of us in Palestine really wish that folks in the US even cared, but the email from my friend is not encouraging:

The conflicts between Muslim and non-Muslim servicemen and the suspicions of improper relationships with the detainees by Muslim chaplains had taken root at Guantánamo well before Captain Yee arrived.

"They were always under suspicion by the interrogators, because they were interacting with the detainees and giving them Korans. The M.P.'s suspected them all the time, too. They just didn't like the chaplains going around talking to the detainees."

"Lots of the guards saw us as some sort of sympathizers with the detainees," Airman Al Halabi recalled in one of several interviews. "We heard it many times: 'detainee-lovers,' or 'sympathizers.' They called us 'sand niggers.'"

Glade Festival 2006

Well that was funny, but I was only able to laugh about it once we actually left the site. 4 hours a day looking after drug casualties, for a free ticket sounds good but manuevering a plastic bag trying to catch the puke of an acid casualty is just not any skill I want to develop. I realised I am actually not a very nice person. I've got a lot of admiration for the sort of people who can do welfare at festivals, I'm just not one of them. I actually felt violent towards the sort of sad faces "welfare" attracts.

We were sharing showers with security, who were dropping drug casualties off on us, but had to argue with some nob-end in black every time we wanted to use them. The bosses were OK once we kicked off enough to get refered up to them but with a security firm with the initials SS what do you expect eh?

In between sessions I couldn't take psychedelics because the last thing I wanted was to be coming down off of psychedelics myself with people who were freaking out on them. I did a few mushrooms on the Sunday and had to "welfare" myself in my tent to be OK for work at night. All of this probably coloured my vision of the festival, what can I say, I've never been so happy to leave a festival site in my life and believe me, I've had some seriously bad times at festivals.

The production values were excellent, particularly the ID Spiral chill space. The toilets were cleaned regularly, the music shut off at 4am and started at midday the next day. It was like raving with L-plates. I was struck by how seriously conservative rave music is. Trance all has to sound the same, chill-out music sounds the same. It was nice to see Juno Reactor, they did a ten-year old set but played my personal favourite homit so I was happy. On the monday I couldn't help de-rig fast enough and did a line of ketamine before getting into the van. As we cleared the site exit I started laughing and laughed most of the way home. I did more K and laughed hysterically into the night.

I met a few very dear friends who I hadn't seen for years so I don't mind really, I will just NEVER volunteer for welfare again.

pictures from London Alive

I am off to help in the drug casualty tent of this years Glade festival. Hopefully wont become one myself. Have a nice weekend.

All in all, if a person pulled a bandage off their face and revealed such carnage, the normal human reaction would be to gasp, jump back, and hold your hand to your heart.

But the reaction to Kaylee’s titties is:

(In unison): “OOhhh! Those look sooo good!”

“That’s exactly how mine looked at two weeks!’ squeals a girl with nice implants.

Kaylee beams. “I’m so excited for them to heal.”

“Oh, they will! They heal quick. Congratulations!”

“Thank youuuu!”

There are a handful of girls in every club who have had so much plastic surgery, they become strippers both at work and at home. There’s no going back for these women. I imagine their daily lives consist of wearing bikinis to various Hooters restaurant openings or when cut-rate shock jocks make guest appearances at Car Washes in New Jersey.

These girls are treated with enourmous respect by other dancers, me included. The only time we speak to them is to complement something they’re wearing. No one talks shit about them behind their back. It’s part admiration and part pity. By getting three nosejobs, innertube lips, constant fake-baking, and long platinum blonde weaves, these girls have given up the privilege of being anonymous. The club has become their life.

Militant groups Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen on Wednesday denied any role in the bomb blasts in Mumbai and described the attacks as "barbaric" or "outrageous".

Security officials have said Pakistan-based LeT is the prime suspect for the seven bomb blasts on Mumbai's rail network on Tuesday. But Lashkar denied any role.

"These are inhuman and barbaric acts. Islam does not permit the killing of innocent people," a man who identified himself as "doctor Ghaznavi", spokesman of the Lashkar-e-Taiba said.

"Blaming LeT for such inhuman acts is an attempt by the Indian security agencies to defame Kashmiri mujahideens (freedom fighters)," he said in telephone calls made to newspaper offices in Srinagar.

Mumbaihelp via Rightwingsparkle

via God is NOT an Asshole

ANTI-PUTIN

The "anti-summit" was an attempt to persuade the West to get tough with the Russian leader. Speaker after speaker complained about the state of democracy and urged G8 leaders to stop treating Mr Putin as a democrat.

The event was marred by heavy-handed policing, with the venue, a hotel in central Moscow, flanked by 13 busloads of riot police including special forces and plain clothes FSB security service agents.

Four members of the anarchist National Bolshevik Party were handcuffed and bundled into a nearby car, a German photographer had his camera confiscated after filming the incident, and the British ambassador was heckled and insulted as he addressed the summit. The heckler shouted "Glory to the [Russian] empire!" before telling the ambassador, Tony Brenton, in colourful language to leave.

For crazy diamonds everywhere

Syd Barrett, the man who hit the city and lost his band, died on July 7th. Although it was announced officially as unknown causes, the most popular theories seem to include cancer or diabetes. He was 60 years old. He was a founder and lead singer of Pink Floyd, and he retained influence over the band long after they had excused him from being a member.

He'll be remembered most for his extreme moments, like playing the same note over and over again for half and hour at a time during live shows or locking his girlfriend in his bedroom for days during drug-induced madness. He shoved biscuits under the door so that she could eat but refused to let her out.

But maybe the most important thing that Syd Barrett taught the world was that as an artist, you're remembered and celebrated for going to the extreme, whether it's in your music or your personal life.

'BRING ME THE B*LLS OF MARCO MATERAZZI'

THE furious mother of Zinedine Zidane last night PRAISED her son for his disgraceful World Cup headbutt on Marco Materazzi.

And Malika Zidane warned the Italian defender she wants his "b*lls chopped off for his part in the French skipper's sending off amid claims he branded her a "terrorist whore" in the ugly spat.

Algerian Malika, who is recovering from an illness, claimed Zidane, 34, was simply protecting her honour when he butted Materazzi in Sunday's final.

She told friends: "I am utterly disgusted by what I have heard. I praise my son for defending his family's honour.

"No one should be subjected to such foul insults on or off the football pitch and I don't care if it was a World Cup Final.

"I have nothing but contempt for Materazzi and, if what he said is true, then I want his balls on a platter.

BRITAINS FIRST SUICIDE BOMBER

Britain's First Suicide Bombers tells how Omar, a man from an unremarkable, provincial background, came to believe that by committing suicide and murder, he would achieve martyrdom and find a place in paradise.

Suspected of knowing his plans, Omar's wife, Tahira, and his older brother, Zaheed, were charged with failing to alert the authorities to a potential terrorist act. His older sister, Parveen, was charged with incitement to commit a terrorist act.

The documentary reconstructs key moments from the trials, using transcripts from court, letters and e-mails. The three defendants were found to be not guilty.

Really good doc last night which showed that whilst Omar Sharif's sister may not have known specifics about his plan to become a martyr she certainly knew it was his intention. I can now reveal that the consultant on this programme, Claudio contacted me asking if these two had any connection with Hamza's posse.

Claudio is much more serious than I am, as he's got kids to feed, but it seems he did much the same thing with Bakri's posse I was trying with Hamza's lot. In conversation he l told me that he had a proper "visit" from MI-5, not like the little chat the FIT squad had with me.

This is interesting from the Telegraph:

A BBC documentary tomorrow will claim that Mohammed Siddique Khan, the ringleader, had previously met two British Muslims who went to Israel to carry out a suicide mission.

It quotes an alleged witness, who has not come forward before, as saying that he collaborated with Omar Sharif, from Derby, and Hanif Asif, from Hounslow, north-west London, to recruit young Muslims for training camps in Afghanistan five years ago.

Kursheed Fiaz, a businessman who runs an information technology company in Manchester, says that he had four or five meetings - the first in 2001 - with Khan, who was initially accompanied by Sharif and later by Asif.

If true, this would have significant implications for the investigation into extremist jihadi groups, suggesting closer links than had been realised.

However, this connection is unknown to police and MI5 officers who have been compiling a profile of Khan and his associates in the year since the London attacks. There is some scepticism about the claim among counter-terrorism specialists, not least that the operation mounted by the two Britons in Israel was carried out by Hamas, not al-Qa'eda.

The program alleges he had contact with Abu Hamza. This maybe true, I don't know. I very clearly remember when asked whether he knew them Hamza answered in typical style

"When people shake my hand I say, brother don't tell me your name, so that if ever I am upside down with someone hitting the soles of my feet no one can beat it out of me." he added "I hope they are in paradise."

As outlined in the doc, Claudio met the guy as Omar Bakri's right hand man. It certainly seemed to me that there was no friendship between Bakris group and Hamza's lot if not open enmity. which would suggest no connection, but as I say, i don't know.

For me, this was the first program which doesn't shy away from the big question "why" they did it. The psychological signs from the words of their friends seem so obvious after the event. Young Muslims so dangerously distant from the humanity around them by their own decisions and their place in the current history of british immigration. You see the answer very simply in the videos they made, and in the video Mohammed Sadiqui Khan made which the film finishes with.

They seem to be saying that whilst Muslims are being killed with deaths being swept under the carpet worldwide, and Islam as a nation is being supressed with the backing of western governments, people like them will be amongst us blowing themselves up, eye for an eye.

Terrorism. And I didn't need the deaths of 30-100 000 innocent Iraqis to know that.

Basayev 'killed'
==============

Shamil Basayev, who was the guiding hand behind the appalling Beslan siege and much else, has been killed, according to the Russian government. As leader of the breakaway Chechen rebel forces, he was Russia’s most wanted man, and it's an extraordinary act of timing that appears to have led to his death on the eve of the G8 summit in Moscow.

More than 300 people -- half of them children -- died at Beslan. Basayev was also thought to be responsible for the Moscow theatre siege of 2002, in which 129 people died. Russian special forces killed him overnight in Ingushetia, according to the head of Russian state security.

The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, described Basayev's killing as "deserved retribution".

The Chechen leader appeared on Channel 4 News last year in his first broadcast comments about Beslan, in which he justified the killing, =saying "How can they be innocent? Russians are accomplices in this war. It is just they don't all have weapons in their hands."

SNOWMAILS

Phelps fan's buttocks

via rightwingsparkle

In a hectoring address, Tanweer, who killed seven passengers, said that his actions had been provoked by British foreign policy and the persecution of Muslims. He said that terrorist attacks would continue British forces were withdrawn from Afghanistan and Iraq.

“What you have witnessed now is only the beginning of a string of attacks that will continue and become stronger until you pull your forces out of Afghanistan and Iraq and until you stop your financial and military support to America and Israel,” he said.

Tanweer, from Leeds, was on screen for only 30 seconds in a tape that had been carefully edited by al-Qaeda’s video production unit. He spoke in English but his words had been dubbed into Arabic.

The Times understands, however, that Tanweer, 22, whose remains are buried at a religious shrine in Pakistan, recorded at least 15 minutes of tape and that more footage may be released today Hassan Shweiki, editor of al-Jazeera in Qatar, said that the network received the tape only yesterday. “The package is much longer and we only showed a small portion. But we showed all of Tanweer’s words. We are hiding nothing.”

FOOTBALLS TRADE SHOW IS A FLOP

What a complete non-event. Having cycled frantically back for the second half of the World Cup I walked out after twenty minutes in digust. If Zidanes last act in football had actually drawn blood from the Italian tossers nose I would have enjoyed something. What a pile of shit.

What a pile of bollocks all this ENGER-LAND flag waving bollocks is. Not waving your flag now are you? Those 11 guys represent no-one but themselves. If the Italians had played football i would have been very happy for them. If I want a bunch of sportspeople to represent something about my Britishness I think I would be glued to womens beach volleyball rather than this ludicrous bunch of cheating, repressed homosexuals patting each others bottoms.

via God is NOT an Asshole

Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre

Remembering the 7/7 victims
============================

Today is dominated by thoughts of the July 7 2005, the bomb attacks on
London and our attempts one year still to try to find out what it was
really about. We have the London Met police commissioner Sir Ian Blair
on tonight and he has some interesting thoughts about al-Qaeda and also
about Forest Gate, the raid a few weeks back in which 250 of his men
went after a supposed chemical weapon but found nothing.

He says his men are still looking for the weapon and the source had
given reliable material in the past. I will be broadcasting from Regents
Park where there is a service getting under way to remember the dead.

Today is especially poignant for the hundreds of survivors of the
attacks - many of whom suffered lasting psychological trauma as a result.
One of the survivors of the Piccadilly line bomb who spent half an hour
trapped in a smoke-filled carriage waiting to be rescued tells us how
she has been dealing with the last 12 months.

SNOWMAILS

He never speaks for himself. Whether he speaks for God, I can't say, but certainly Dr. Robertson uses his television platform to preach the evangel of the elite to which he was born. His father, U.S. Senator Absalom Willis Robertson, was the mentor of Senator Prescott Bush. "I am not a 'televangelist,'" he told me. "I am a businessman."

And when he spoke of taking down Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela, Robertson was all business. The hit the Reverend proposed was calculated for risks and rewards like any investment: "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war, and I don't think any oil shipments will stop. This is a dangerous enemy to our South controlling a huge pool of oil that could hurt us very badly ... We don't need another $200 billion war ... It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

When I met with President Chávez in Caracas, in April 2002, he offered to write the introduction to the Spanish translation of my last book. I'm not crazy about politicians endorsing journalists, but I agreed on condition he meet the deadline: He'd have to write it before he's dead. Chávez wasn't overly concerned. "It's a game of chess, Mr. Palast. And I'm a very good chess player."

He's more than that. He is, as Robertson says, a dangerous man. But dangerous to whom? Mr. Beale, the Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity.

In October 2005, Hugo Chávez defied gravity and withdrew $20 billion of Venezuela's petro-dollars from the United States Federal Reserve and deposited the money in an account with the International Bank of Settlements for investment in Latin America. There is no Third World, there are no nations, Mr. Beale, there is only IBM and Exxon. Maybe.

At the beginning of 2001, Venezuela instituted a new "Law of Hydrocarbons." Henceforth, Exxon, British Petroleum and Shell Oil, the major oil extractors in Venezuela, would get to keep only 70% of the sales revenues from the Venezuelan crude they sold.

The oil majors had grown accustomed to their usual take - 84%. The reaction to the reduction in Big Oil's share of the Venezuelan pie was swift. Otto Reich, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemispheric Affairs, met with Venezuelan "dissident" billionaires and shortly thereafter, on April 11, 2002, Chávez was kidnapped. The President of Venezuela's Chamber of Commerce, an oil industry lawyer, declared himself President of the nation - giving a whole new meaning to the term "corporate takeover."

The coup d'état against the elected president, Chávez, was endorsed by The New York Times. On April 12, banking and oil industry chiefs held an inaugural party in Venezuela's Presidential Palace. The U.S. Ambassador rushed down to have his picture taken with his arms around the partying coup leaders. But within twenty-four hours, the party was over.

I learned later that Chávez, geopolitical grandmaster, had expected the coup and planted commandoes inside secret passages of the Presidential Palace. When informed that Chávez had secretly moved his knights into kill position, the partygoers took off their custom-made Presidential sashes and costumes and returned the real President to his desk, without bloodshed, within 48 hours of his capture.

The Times apologized. But not the White House. Bush's spokesman conceded Chávez "was democratically elected," but, he added, "legitimacy is something that is conferred not just by a majority of the voters." I see.

Indigobusiness

Simply put, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Our thoughts determine the present and future of what is contained within our lives. It’s all about our choices. How and what we choose, upon what we focus, concentrate, or direct our attention, and where we spend our mental and emotional energies -- this is precisely what we will attract or draw to ourselves. And the universe always provides.

via Dave in Texas: Do you have what it takes to become a citizen?

FUNK

Ivor started, and looked round, alarmed, and I instantly felt terrible. I realised I shocked him. What right had I to sing this man's songs to him in a shop? I apologised, and said, "You're Ivor Cutler, aren't you?" He blinked and visibly recovered.

"No no," he said, "that's quite alright, quite alright, you rather took me by surprise." He gazed at me with soft yet penetrating eyes. Here was the man who had gone onstage in the middle of sixties acid rock gigs and blown their minds with his words alone.

Miserable Donuts

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Angry Veteran

Murtha, a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq, said at a news conference Wednesday that sources within the military have told him that an internal investigation will show that "there was no firefight, there was no IED (improvised explosive device) that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood."

Military officials say Marine Corp photos taken immediately after the incident show many of the victims were shot at close range, in the head and chest, execution-style. One photo shows a mother and young child bent over on the floor as if in prayer, shot dead, said the officials, who spoke to NBC News on condition of anonymity because the investigation hasn't been completed.

via Rightwingsparkle YOU ARE WATCHING FOX. also Hardball with Cindy Sheenan

"They lived and worked in the United States, enjoyed all the freedoms our great nation offers, yet they pledged their allegiance to al Qaeda," Pistole said in Washington. "Their goal was simple: Commit attacks against America."

Fadi was happily riding the new bike his father had given him, when suddenly on that 5th day of October, 2004, he was yanked off his new bike and kidnapped by terrorist Islamist Kurds. His family went crazy wondering what had happened to little Fadi, until a neighbor found Fadi's body thrown out on the roadside like garbage. He was in pieces. His body was barbarically mutilated and burned, and he was beheaded in a most horrific manner.

As unthinkable and unimaginable as this crime was, it wasn't the first that the residents of the Assyrian district of Ba'asheeqa had seen. Just prior to this, the Assyrians had mourned another son, 14 year old Julian Afram Yacoub when he was hit in the head with a concrete block and then burned. Killing innocent Christian children has become fashionable in Iraq, forcing many Christians to flee their homes and villages, money-less and helpless.

Bold as Love

The Hognosed snake when threatened will put on an impressive display of hissing, spreading their neck like a cobra, and even striking with their mouth closed. If one continues to bother it, they will roll over on their back and play dead. Despite their bold act, they never intentionally bite humans.

I can't play guitar anything like this.

If anyone wants me I am outside.