Much thanks and appreciation to Steven, the website guru, for helping set it up.

Am I the only person out there who thinks that Presidential candidates should not campaign in churches? Is it not enough that we had to tolerate CNN’s inane faith forums (or whatever they were called)?  What issues could religious people possibly discuss that could not be shared in a non-religious setting or theme?  Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Church, mentioned he would ask “personal questions” at today’s forum.  Should I start puking now?  So the economy sucks, wars are breaking out, and gasoline prices make some of us want to cry, but Rick Warren wants to ask the candidates “personal questions”? So not only is this church event a dismissal of the principle of separation of Church and State, it will also probably be a complete waste of your time.

I understand why the candidates would participate in this event. After all, evangelical Christians are a voting bloc.  If only they were voting for who Jesus’s best sidekick would be. Nevertheless, I am fully aware that many Americans are religious (and don’t read the Constitution). But I don’t recall what happened the last time voters elected a church man. Oh that’s right—he went on to become one of the worst presidents in American history.  Keep your religions at home, people!

(1.) The Olympics.

This list is subject to change. Except for numbers 6, 7, and 8 which have an enduring quality of pissing the shit out of me.

Today is a sad day.  Mahmoud Darwish has died at the age of 67 after complications following a heart surgery he underwent on Wednesday.  If you do not know who Mahmoud Darwish is, he is only the most profound Palestinian poetic voice to emerge from the Occupation.  Born in the village of al-Birweh in Galilee, Darwish became a refugee at the age of 7 after his village was demolished by Israel.  Indeed, his words were more powerful than any rock, bomb, or rocket launched.  He was once quoted saying, “I thought poetry could change everything, could change history and could humanize …  but now I think that poetry changes only the poet.” However, Darwish’s poetry has changed everything. It embodied the Palestinian identity at a time when its existence was denied, and communicated the Palestinian struggle when the Palestinian voice was silenced.  At a time when Golda Meir was quoted saying, “There is no Palestinian people,” Darwish’s work had served as one of the greatest weapons against Israeli occupation insofar as it reclaimed the negated Palestinian self and conveyed the national identity and struggle. I know this all sounds like an exaggeration, but look at Arab and Palestinian leadership—neither can be attributed with the influence that Darwish has had on the Palestinian people.  

Last time I was in contact with my Arabic professor at Berkeley (which was over a year ago), he was in Galilee and Ramallah conducting research to write a book on Mahmoud Darwish.  In his class, we translated one of Darwish’s notable poems titled “Identity Card” or Betaqat Haweyyah.  I leave you with the English translation, but if you want to read the Arabic original (and it is better in Arabic) and/or more poems in Arabic and English visit Darwish’s official website.   

Identity Card by Mahmoud Darwish

Record !
I am an Arab
And my identity card is number fifty thousand
I have eight children
And the nineth is coming after a summer
Will you be angry?

Record !
I am an Arab
Employed with fellow workers at a quarry
I have eight children
I get them bread
Garments and books
from the rocks…
I do not supplicate charity at your doors
Nor do I belittle myself
at the footsteps of your chamber
So will you be angry?

Record !
I am an Arab
I have a name without a title
Patient in a country
Where people are enraged
My roots
Were entrenched before the birth of time
And before the opening of the eras
Before the pines, and the olive trees
And before the grass grew.

My father..
descends from the family of the plow
Not from a privileged class
And my grandfather..was a farmer
Neither well-bred, nor well-born!
Teaches me the pride of the sun
Before teaching me how to read
And my house
is like a watchman’s hut
Made of branches and cane
Are you satisfied with my status?
I have a name without a title !

Record !
I am an Arab
You have stolen the orchards
of my ancestors
And the land
which I cultivated
Along with my children
And you left nothing for us
Except for these rocks..
So will the State take them
As it has been said?!

Therefore !
Record on the top of the first page:
I do not hate people
Nor do I encroach
But if I become hungry
The usurper’s flesh will be my food
Beware..
Beware..
Of my hunger
And my anger !

From Publishers Weekly
Veteran journalist Scheer (With Enough Shovels: Reagan, Bush, and Nuclear War) takes aim at America’s defense policy and bloated military budget in this pugnacious and rigorously researched polemic. Tragedy can be opportunity, Scheer writes, and 9/11 provided the defense industry with the opportunity it had long been seeking. Unable to persuade the first Bush and Clinton administrations to invest in expensive, state-of-the-art weapons, the defense industry found fresh life as the current President Bush launched his war on terror and military expenditures swelled to the highest level in history. Scheer argues that war cannot defeat terrorism. What’s required is simple police work—dogged, boring and not terribly expensive—not trillion-dollar bombers, submarines and nuclear arsenal—expenditures he contends are unrelated to defeating terrorists and of little use in Iraq. He soberly reminds readers that Americans have never objected to wasteful defense budgets, and antiwar elected officials fight as viciously as neoconservatives to bring money to their district’s defense industries. Scheer’s prose is as clear as his evidence; readers will be galvanized by his incendiary account. (June 9) 
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