Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
"Rules" for writing?
No wonder the blank page elicits something like constipation for students! Bemused by some teachers' insistence that essay-writing students should never use a first-person pronoun, I found this blurp, whose intention seems to be to lighten up on the rules; yet it introduces scarily rigid tenets - by means of so many unnecessary words that it veers toward opacity. A travesty. You who read this instant protest could prune that blurp down to half its length and make it clearer in the process. And then do the same with this instant protest
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Cuckoo's Song
SUMER is icumen in,
Lhude sing cuccu!
Groweth sed, and bloweth med,
And springth the wude nu—
Sing cuccu!
Awe bleteth after lomb,
Lhouth after calve cu;
Bulluc sterteth, bucke verteth,
Murie sing cuccu!
Cuccu, cuccu, well singes thu, cuccu:
Ne swike thu naver nu;
Sing cuccu, nu, sing cuccu,
Sing cuccu, sing cuccu, nu!
Lhude sing cuccu!
Groweth sed, and bloweth med,
And springth the wude nu—
Sing cuccu!
Awe bleteth after lomb,
Lhouth after calve cu;
Bulluc sterteth, bucke verteth,
Murie sing cuccu!
Cuccu, cuccu, well singes thu, cuccu:
Ne swike thu naver nu;
Sing cuccu, nu, sing cuccu,
Sing cuccu, sing cuccu, nu!
- Anonymous (c. 1250 CE)
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Oh no! Suleiman's Worse!
Pleasure in torturing "people he doesn't know":
The intelligence chief tapped by Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak as his vice president and potential successor aided the U.S. with its rendition program, intelligence experts told ABC News, and oversaw the torture of an Al Qaeda suspect whose information helped justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
MORE VIDEO
WATCH: The Egyptian People Celebrate
WATCH: What's Next For Egypt?
WATCH: Into the Heart of Revolution
In the midst of Egypt's protests, Omar Suleiman went on television Monday to say that President Mubarak had ordered him to launch reforms and begin talking to opposition parties. But for the U.S., the CIA, Israel, and Egypt's Islamist opposition, 74-year-old Suleiman, who has been the head of Egyptian intelligence since 1993, represents a continuation of the policies of the old regime.
"Mubarak and Suleiman are the same person," said Emile Nakhleh, a former top Middle East analyst for the CIA. "They are not two different people in terms of ideology and reform."
Ron Suskind, author of the book The One Percent Doctrine, called Suleiman the "hit man" for the Mubarak regime. He told ABC News that when the CIA asked Suleiman for a DNA sample from a relative of Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Suleiman offered the man's whole arm instead.
"He's a charitable man, friendly," said Suskind. "He tortures only people that he doesn't know."
Suskind said Suleiman "was our point man in Egypt for many years. Everything went through Omar. We never had to talk to anyone else. When we wanted someone to be tortured, we'd send him to Egypt to have them tortured. We wanted to get intelligence and we didn't need it to be stuff that could be doublechecked."
"As chief of the Mukhabarat, or General Intelligence Directorate," said John Sifton, who authored the 2007 Human Rights Watch report on torture conducted by Egypt's other intelligence agency, SSI, Suleiman oversaw joint intelligence operations with the CIA and other Arab countries "which featured illegal renditions and tortures of dozens of detainees."
As revealed in U.S. cables released by WikiLeaks, Suleiman has cooperated closely with the U.S. and with Israel in trying to undercut Hamas, the Islamist party in the Palestinian territories. The Mubarak regime views Hamas, which has its roots in Egypt's own Islamist opposition, the Muslim Brotherhood, as a threat.
"Our intelligence collaboration with Omar Soliman," says a 2006 U.S. State Department memo, using an alternate spelling of his name, "is now probably the most successful element of the [U.S.-Egypt] relationship." During a 2009 meeting with U.S. military officials, Suleiman said his "overarching regional goal was combating radicalism, especially in Gaza, Iran and Sudan," according to another WikiLeaks cable.
Other U.S. cables describe paranoia within the Mubarak regime, call it a dictatorship, say "torture and police brutality are widespread" -- and that six years ago, Suleiman was already seen as likely to become vice president.
1 | 2NEXT > Go to the link: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/egypt-crisis-omar-suleiman-cia-rendition/story?id=12812445
RELATED
The intelligence chief tapped by Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak as his vice president and potential successor aided the U.S. with its rendition program, intelligence experts told ABC News, and oversaw the torture of an Al Qaeda suspect whose information helped justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
MORE VIDEO
WATCH: The Egyptian People Celebrate
WATCH: What's Next For Egypt?
WATCH: Into the Heart of Revolution
In the midst of Egypt's protests, Omar Suleiman went on television Monday to say that President Mubarak had ordered him to launch reforms and begin talking to opposition parties. But for the U.S., the CIA, Israel, and Egypt's Islamist opposition, 74-year-old Suleiman, who has been the head of Egyptian intelligence since 1993, represents a continuation of the policies of the old regime.
"Mubarak and Suleiman are the same person," said Emile Nakhleh, a former top Middle East analyst for the CIA. "They are not two different people in terms of ideology and reform."
Ron Suskind, author of the book The One Percent Doctrine, called Suleiman the "hit man" for the Mubarak regime. He told ABC News that when the CIA asked Suleiman for a DNA sample from a relative of Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Suleiman offered the man's whole arm instead.
"He's a charitable man, friendly," said Suskind. "He tortures only people that he doesn't know."
Suskind said Suleiman "was our point man in Egypt for many years. Everything went through Omar. We never had to talk to anyone else. When we wanted someone to be tortured, we'd send him to Egypt to have them tortured. We wanted to get intelligence and we didn't need it to be stuff that could be doublechecked."
"As chief of the Mukhabarat, or General Intelligence Directorate," said John Sifton, who authored the 2007 Human Rights Watch report on torture conducted by Egypt's other intelligence agency, SSI, Suleiman oversaw joint intelligence operations with the CIA and other Arab countries "which featured illegal renditions and tortures of dozens of detainees."
As revealed in U.S. cables released by WikiLeaks, Suleiman has cooperated closely with the U.S. and with Israel in trying to undercut Hamas, the Islamist party in the Palestinian territories. The Mubarak regime views Hamas, which has its roots in Egypt's own Islamist opposition, the Muslim Brotherhood, as a threat.
"Our intelligence collaboration with Omar Soliman," says a 2006 U.S. State Department memo, using an alternate spelling of his name, "is now probably the most successful element of the [U.S.-Egypt] relationship." During a 2009 meeting with U.S. military officials, Suleiman said his "overarching regional goal was combating radicalism, especially in Gaza, Iran and Sudan," according to another WikiLeaks cable.
Other U.S. cables describe paranoia within the Mubarak regime, call it a dictatorship, say "torture and police brutality are widespread" -- and that six years ago, Suleiman was already seen as likely to become vice president.
1 | 2NEXT > Go to the link: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/egypt-crisis-omar-suleiman-cia-rendition/story?id=12812445
RELATED
Cairo
In the waning hours before Mubarak's goon squad trod in:
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/2/2/voices_of_the_egyptian_revolution_democracy
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Le Morte D'Arthur XVIII.xxv (spring fever)
CHAPTER XXV
How true love is likened to summer.
AND thus it passed on from Candlemass until after Easter,
that the month of May was come, when every lusty heart
beginneth to blossom, and to bring forth fruit; for like
as herbs and trees bring forth fruit and flourish in May,
in like wise every lusty heart that is in any manner a lover,
springeth and flourisheth in lusty deeds. For it giveth
unto all lovers courage, that lusty month of May, in
something to constrain him to some manner of thing
more in that month than in any other month, for divers
causes. For then all herbs and trees renew a man and
woman, and likewise lovers call again to their mind old
gentleness and old service, and many kind deeds that
were forgotten by negligence. For like as winter rasure
doth alway arase and deface green summer, so fareth it
by unstable love in man and woman. For in many persons
there is no stability; for we may see all day, for a little
blast of winter's rasure, anon we shall deface and lay apart
true love for little or nought, that cost much thing; this
is no wisdom nor stability, but it is feebleness of nature
and great disworship, whosomever useth this. Therefore,
like as May month flowereth and flourisheth in many
gardens, so in like wise let every man of worship flourish
his heart in this world, first unto God, and next unto the
joy of them that he promised his faith unto; for there
was never worshipful man or worshipful woman, but
they loved one better than another; and worship in arms
may never be foiled, but first reserve the honour to God,
and secondly the quarrel must come of thy lady: and
such love I call virtuous love.
But nowadays men can not love seven night but they
must have all their desires: that love may not endure by
reason; for where they be soon accorded and hasty heat,
soon it cooleth. Right so fareth love nowadays, soon hot
soon cold: this is no stability. But the old love was not
so; men and women could love together seven years, and
no licours lusts were between them, and then was love,
truth, and faithfulness: and lo, in like wise was used love
in King Arthur's days. Wherefore I liken love nowadays
unto summer and winter; for like as the one is hot and the
other cold, so fareth love nowadays; therefore all ye that
be lovers call unto your remembrance the month of May,
like as did Queen Guenever, for whom I make here a little
mention, that while she lived she was a true lover, and
therefore she had a good end.
How true love is likened to summer.
AND thus it passed on from Candlemass until after Easter,
that the month of May was come, when every lusty heart
beginneth to blossom, and to bring forth fruit; for like
as herbs and trees bring forth fruit and flourish in May,
in like wise every lusty heart that is in any manner a lover,
springeth and flourisheth in lusty deeds. For it giveth
unto all lovers courage, that lusty month of May, in
something to constrain him to some manner of thing
more in that month than in any other month, for divers
causes. For then all herbs and trees renew a man and
woman, and likewise lovers call again to their mind old
gentleness and old service, and many kind deeds that
were forgotten by negligence. For like as winter rasure
doth alway arase and deface green summer, so fareth it
by unstable love in man and woman. For in many persons
there is no stability; for we may see all day, for a little
blast of winter's rasure, anon we shall deface and lay apart
true love for little or nought, that cost much thing; this
is no wisdom nor stability, but it is feebleness of nature
and great disworship, whosomever useth this. Therefore,
like as May month flowereth and flourisheth in many
gardens, so in like wise let every man of worship flourish
his heart in this world, first unto God, and next unto the
joy of them that he promised his faith unto; for there
was never worshipful man or worshipful woman, but
they loved one better than another; and worship in arms
may never be foiled, but first reserve the honour to God,
and secondly the quarrel must come of thy lady: and
such love I call virtuous love.
But nowadays men can not love seven night but they
must have all their desires: that love may not endure by
reason; for where they be soon accorded and hasty heat,
soon it cooleth. Right so fareth love nowadays, soon hot
soon cold: this is no stability. But the old love was not
so; men and women could love together seven years, and
no licours lusts were between them, and then was love,
truth, and faithfulness: and lo, in like wise was used love
in King Arthur's days. Wherefore I liken love nowadays
unto summer and winter; for like as the one is hot and the
other cold, so fareth love nowadays; therefore all ye that
be lovers call unto your remembrance the month of May,
like as did Queen Guenever, for whom I make here a little
mention, that while she lived she was a true lover, and
therefore she had a good end.
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