Eva Beauty Essentials

WHAT SONG has the American Beauty quote? its a begining to a song, and I cant figure out what band, and song starts off with this quote... "Then so am I And we'll always be freaks and we'll never be like other people and you'll never be a freak because you're just too... perfect!"

What do you think of this American Beauty quote? "it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life... You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry... you will someday. " I have spent the my life in search of the truth. I have felt the spectrum of emotion until I've felt gray inside. This pursuit of mine has left me confused and weary. Yet there are moments where I find pure knowledge and bliss when I emerge from the confusion. Just like the quote above, I tried so desperately to cling on to all the beauty at once and just like sand falling through a clutching hand I felt weak again. Yet through all this struggle I have realized something. Something that doesn't need words... ^-^ Thank you everyone And Hector those are lyrics from Lateralus, good call!

What song uses the 'freak' quote from Jane in 'American Beauty'? The quote I mean is: "Then so am I And we'll always be freaks and we'll never be like other people and you'll never be a freak because you're just too... perfect!" I swear it's used to intro a song by some band but I can't for the life of me remember what song it is. It's bugging me. Any help would be appreciated.

Looking for a specific quote from American Beauty? the scene where Kevin Spaceys character talking about like, the summer when he was 16, when we was working at the fast food place, and he got laid every weekend, and it was the best summer of his life....I need that whole quote. THANKS

Can anyone give me the exact monologue Kevin Spacey had in American Beauty? I want the monologue, but I am really looking for the quote that sounds something like, "It's amazing when you learn that you don't lose the ability to surprise yourself "

What are the quotes in the begining of each A-List Novel? Does anybody know the quotes in the begining of the books.. Tall Cool One Back In Black American Beauty They are A-List Novels by Zoey Dean If anyone knows any of the quotes please do tell :) thanks.

Favorite Character From American Beauty, With Kevin Spacey, And Why? ? Favorite Character and your favorite quote from that character. Mine is when Lester is sitting in the living room and his wife asks him about the firebird in the front yard and he sais "Mine. 1970 Pontiac Firebird. The car I've always wanted and now I have it. I rule!" I thought it was hilarious.

"Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in" By serendipity this afternoon I came across something so incredibly beautiful it reminded me of this quote from American Beauty. In your travels or your day-to-day life have you ever been somewhere or witnessed something so extremely beautiful it felt almost overwhelming? If so, please share a bit about the experience. Thx. : ) Hi Just curious, it's not cheesy at all. I feel that way when I look at my baby brothers (5 month old identical twins who are sooooo beautiful) : ) Thx for the links, Mr Wonder!

I'm 6'1", 265 lbs and want to get in shape. I want good muscle definition but also just better health. Help!? I'm 29, I work a full time job M-F, 7-5, have a 3 yr old to keep up with and I''m back in school taking college courses. Obviously time is an issue. I want to get healthy period. My second goal is to have good muscle definition. I don't want to look like a bodybuilder, but to quote American Beauty "I want to look good naked."

What's one of your favorite movie quotes? Here's one of mine : "But it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life" --American Beauty

Views and quotes on the death of the American dream? When Hunter S Thompson did his final (sorry, but cowardly) deed, he left America with one less liberal thinking outspoken character. I do believe that the American dream is seen by the USA as a dead theory, that the poor will always out number the rich and middle class and the struggle and rat race will never cease. But lets give the floor to the ghost of Hunter, and y'all tell me what ya think... enjoy... "For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled.” "Fear is just another word for ignorance” "In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.” "So this is how the world works, all energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet.”

Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, and American Slave? Ok , do you know what chapter or what page in the book "Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave" has the qoute where he is talking about where he thinks that sailboats represent freedom, and beauty? I want the chapter that it's in in his first book, because I know he wrote two books, and I want the quote from the book he wrote when he was first out of slavery. Please help! Thanks so much!! I would really prefer the chapter that it's in, but page # is okay. Thanks!

Can i have 15 memorable quotes...? from the MOVIES donnie darko, american beauty, rumble fish, or the dark knight? I DONT WANT: stay gold, look closer, the motorcycle boy reigns, or why so serious, or lets put a smile on that face. CREATIVITY PLEASE! ps. they are for my myspace pics so if they cud have to do with looks, even better :) o, stay gold is from the outsiders. the quotes can b from that movie 2 :) and PLEASE DONT GIVE ME LINKS..to the imdb quote pages of the movies THANK YOU! : )

A good quote for a tattoo? Some that I like are ... - Love all, trust few, do wrong to no one. (Shakespeare quote.) - Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent, against whose charms faith melteth in blood. (Another Shakespeare quote). - It's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. (Quote from American Beauty). - The good life is inspired by love and guided by knowledge. - Life is what you make it / La vita è quello che ne fai - Measure your life in love, beauty, and happiness. - La bella vita (Means "the beautiful life" in italian) - Do not waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good. - Can't change the world unless we change ourselves (Quote from Biggie) - Live your life and forget your age - What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life. - I've looked at life from both sides now From win and lose and still somehow It's life's illusions I recall I really don't know life at all. - Both fortune and love befriend the bold. - Dreams don’t work unless you do. Please suggest everything :) I'm open to anything really

Who else thinks this is a really great monolouge? It was at the end of the movie "American Beauty" and I thought it was really good. this is the thing down there " I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die. First of all, that one second isn't a second at all, it stretches on forever, like an ocean of time... For me, it was lying on my back at Boy Scout camp, watching falling stars... And yellow leaves, from the maple trees, that lined my street... Or my grandmother's hands, and the way her skin seemed like paper... And the first time I saw my cousin Tony's brand new Firebird... And Janie... And Janie... And... Carolyn. I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me... but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life... You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry... you will someday. " Is there any other movies that have really good monolouges or quotes?

Should I do a "suck up" college assignment in order to get a good grade? Our American Literature professor ******, who is adamantly liberal and claims to be friends with Ward Churchill, assigned Al Gore's "Earth in the Balance" and Chief Seattle's speech that Gore quotes for contrasting native american beauty with white man's destruction of nature. Sort of Eastern vs. Western philosophy. Since Seattle's speech is bogus, I believe, http://www.snopes.com/quotes/seattle.asp I asked if I could do an assignment on something factual or be critical. I was told no or flunk because ****** has used this assignment for 20 years! I want you to give me your best critiques of this assignment as an attachment! I wonder why this speech is engraved on a statue Downtown and in the college quad....and other places in the west.

There is nothing worse than being ordinary? I watched the movie American Beauty the other day and this quote stuck with me. I agree with it very much. There is nothing worse than being ordinary, being just like everyone else. How do you feel about this quote and why?

how were the native americans spiritually in the 1800s? I am writing a one paragraph essay on a what I think this quote means. The quote is “How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land?...”—Chief Seattle, 1854 I feel like its saying why give up the beauty and the health earth for money and power. By the name of the quote I think it's a male and he's native american.

What's your favorite quote? Here are few of mine... Leah (Juno): "Yo yo yiggady yo." Ricky Fitts (American Beauty): "It was one of those days when it's a minute away from snowing and there's this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. And this bag was, like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. And that's the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and... this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video's a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember... and I need to remember... Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in." Gary Lightbody (Chasing Cars): " If I lay here. If I just lay here. Would you lay with me and just forget the world." Fogell AKA McLovin (Superbad): " Gangstas, waz up guys?" How about you what are your favorite quotes?

Libs, do you agree with these quotes from the great Thomas Jefferson? The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now. The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it. The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive. Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread. I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. Most bad government has grown out of too much government. Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty. The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first. A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government. Malkin's photo seems to get me reported a bit too much

Does anyone recognize this movie? There's a monologue about seeing a girl at the beach...? I remember seeing a movie in which a husband, unhappy in his marriage I believe, spoke about seeing a beautiful girl at the beach many years prior. He says something like "I knew that if I went over to her, we would leave together," and that he and the beautiful woman would likely marry and be together forever, and that he was tempted to, but he walked away. He left the beach behind and the possibility of being with this woman...maybe because he was already married, though I can't remember. Sorry it's so vague, but I can only remember small snippets of what the man was talking about and no actual quotes, so google isn't helping. I can't even remember the name of the movie. I know it was a recent one, made in the 90s or 2000s. Maybe there is a chance some of you have seen a movie with a monologue similar to this one? It was a very beautiful one (reminiscent of something Kevin Spacey might say in American Beauty), and I would love to rent this movie again so I could listen to it. Thanks for any help!

new poem needs work and comments? I posted a poem about the color pink yesterday that people seemed to like. So continuing my series of color poems I present this new work. But it needs help. I don't care for the ending. I also am having trouble with the quotes. I want something kind of cliche or even something the has to do with red. Don't know. And I'm also trying to figure out how to show that Rose can't commit. Lastly, Rose Red is sister to Snow White so if I could play with that somehow, the black sheep angle. Eventually I want to put them all together in a book or on CD or even animate them. Anyway here it is... Enjoy! BANG! Red is dead he’s all over the bathtub scaling down the walls invading the bath mat diluting the bathwater into a light rouge Losing love was just too much the touch, the sense and sight of Red’s passion walking away like a dime store dame with another color his twin brother Crimson That kind of heartache will shred a man like beets in a blender Her name was Rose she entered his life on a Monday in clothes of metallic maroon petals that twinkled with her stride They went for ride through wine country chatting up, Cabernet Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Syrah Found a bed and breakfast had the night of their lives under the influence he proposed they wed But they were too alike two crabs, two two sour berries that spoiled into a basket of rotten raspberries They couldn’t see each other even side by side on the same swatch of couch it was destined to be lava at first sight and every night; a volcanic mess “Quit trying to change me!” “You never show any emotion!” So the juice ran out like pulp squeezed from a blood orange into a cocktail that was 90% arsenic Then Crimson came from Massachusetts to visit he was an American beauty and Rose was a dime store dame who couldn’t commit and that was it Red’s dead baby Red’s dead. Bear 2009

Yeats quote? "the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity". I need to use this quote to write an essay on the american dream. i need to use the movie american beauty and the great gatsby/death of a salesman. i need help on what this quote means and how it relates. All help is appreciated, thanks!

New poem about a color..... comments.? I posted a poem about the color pink yesterday that people seemed to like. So continuing my series of color poems I present this new work. But it needs help. I don't care for the ending. I also am having trouble with the quotes. I want something kind of cliche or even something the has to do with red. Don't know. And I'm also trying to figure out how to show that Rose can't commit. Lastly, Rose Red is sister to Snow White so if I could play with that somehow, the black sheep angle. Eventually I want to put them all together in a book or on CD or even animate them. Anyway here it is... Enjoy! BANG! Red is dead he’s all over the bathtub scaling down the walls invading the bath mat diluting the bathwater into a light rouge Losing love was just too much the touch, the sense and sight of Red’s passion walking away like a dime store dame with another color his twin brother Crimson That kind of heartache will shred a man like beets in a blender Her name was Rose she entered his life on a Monday in clothes of metallic maroon petals that twinkled with her stride They went for ride through wine country chatting up, Cabernet Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Syrah Found a bed and breakfast had the night of their lives under the influence he proposed they wed But they were too alike two crabs, two two sour berries that spoiled into a basket of rotten raspberries They couldn’t see each other even side by side on the same swatch of couch it was destined to be lava at first sight and every night; a volcanic mess “Quit trying to change me!” “You never show any emotion!” So the juice ran out like pulp squeezed from a blood orange into a cocktail that was 90% arsenic Then Crimson came from Massachusetts to visit he was an American beauty and Rose was a dime store dame who couldn’t commit and that was it Red’s dead baby Red’s dead. Bear 2009

yeats quote help? "the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity". I need to use this quote to write an essay on the american dream. i need to use the movie american beauty and the great gatsby/death of a salesman. i need help on what this quote means and how it relates. All help is appreciated, thanks!

Help with a quote? "the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity". I need to use this quote to write an essay on the american dream. i need to use the movie american beauty and the great gatsby/death of a salesman. i need help on what this quote means and how it relates. All help is appreciated, thanks!

Are these quotes metaphors? p. 99 "He was a son of God." p. 100 "That yacht represented all the beauty and glamour in the world." p. 101 "I remember the portrait of him up in Gatsby's bedroom, a gray, florid man with a hard, empty face--the pioneer debauchee, who during one phase of American life brought back to the Eastern seaboard the savage violence of the frontier brothel and saloon." p. 105 "Daisy's voice was playing murmurous tricks in her throat." ^I think that might be personification not a metaphor. p. 106 "Gatsby indicated a gorgeous, scarcely human orchid of a woman who sat un state under a white-plum tree." p. 112 "The sidewalk was white with moonlight." p. 112 "Gatsby saw that the blocks if the sidewalks really formed a ladder and mounted to a secret place above the trees--he could climb to it, if he climbed alone, and once there he could suck on the pap of life, gulp down the incomparable milk of wonder." Thanks!

Should being against gay marriage have cost Miss CA the Miss USA beauty contest? According to the news, the runner-up at the Miss USA beauty pageant says her outspoken opposition to gay marriage cost her first place in the competition. During the televised event, Carrie Prejean - Miss California - said she believed that "a marriage should be between a man and a woman". Ms Prejean, after the competition. She added: "I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman." "No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised." The remarks drew a mixture of booing and applause from the audience. Hilton said he had been "floored" by Ms Prejean's answer, which, he said, "alienated millions of gay and lesbian Americans, their families and their supporters". He told ABC News: "She lost it because of that question. She was definitely the front-runner before that." Keith Lewis, who runs the Miss California competition, released a statement condemning Ms Prejean's comments. "As co-director of the Miss California USA, I am personally saddened and hurt that Miss California believes marriage rights belong only to a man and a woman." =================================================== Now this is what I do not understand. I AM gay. I am also married to my same sex pertner. AND I am totally in favor of seme-sex marriage being recognized by the government. However, even I would not have taken away her first place standing on that one question. It was merely an honest opinion. And we should ALL be entitled to our religious views. Note that she did NOT state anything about passing laws or amendments to curtail anyones civil rights: that might have been different. What is YOUR opinion? And why? Please I am not asking for a bunch of Bibler quotes. I am fully aware of them. My question ONLY concerns how this person lost her first place ranking. SHOCK THE WORLD: That was something i had not considered. And those of you who keep repeating ad nausium "God made Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve" look around you. Empirical evidence proves you wrong ITS SO CLEAR NOW: What polls have you been looking at? There is at this time on ly a very SLIM majority of Americans against gay marriage, and the polls over the past few years show that the idea of gay marriage is gaining support. In NY right now, 53% (in a recent poll) are in favor of gay marriage rights. JAMES: That is a very insulting, crude, and rude reply. Would you be in favor of a woman doing the same? MEG M: I suspect you are right. At least you have a lot of company with this same view. ANONNiE MOUSE: In fact that was what she DID NOT STATE. (At least not in any report I read). A person CAN be for gay's civil rights, and still be against gay marriage for religious reasons. She never mentioned anything about VOTING or DOING anything which would limit the marriage rights of gays. JOSE G: I invited opinions. So I got yours. I also believe that you are so totally wrong on many counts including your ignorance of just what "normaL" and "ethical" means. Fortunately as our society gains a better understanding of civil rights, sexual orientation, and "ethics" gay marriage is gaining ground and will eventually become the law of the land. Thank you all for taking the time to answer. Nickname: You actually have the idiotic notion that gay marriage is a matter of entitlement? Even on the face of it, this is unture. Please go to the following site: http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=5559&type=0

Have you a favorite quote from an author or journalist? Here's a favorite of mine from H.L. Mencken... "You'll never go broke under-estimating the taste of the American public." A real beauty, isn't it?

What does this quote mean? "I have enough Love for us all." from American Beauty I think?

Does this quote sound cheesy? what impression does it give you??? its from the movie american beauty it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world, sometimes i feel like i'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much. my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst

Have you experienced this yet? "I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me... but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life... You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry... you will someday. " - (American Beauty) I know this question is kind of random but i'm still in awe of the film. I was thinking about this quote and I feel like I can relate to it so much, even though I am still so young. How about you? Can you relate?

DID I NEED ANSWES ? DO I ASK ? Dear _____it was a long year pass without looking at your beautiful heart viewing your quote wares and lovely Smiles... Amhhh. I was very stupid to let your open felt from my hands I hope it was snowed between my leaps Now I am in love with a respectable women cares for my life my life will go better then the life you draws for us but in grow words with genteel talking try to adopt with your hasp end or if you haven't one try to look the good side that we share in the past we can't be friends as she is very jealous and she can gave me to much I love that days but never thought I will have a relation with an American beauty ideal

Hey Everyone! Cool Movie Quiz - 1st person to answer all Q's correctly gets 10 points!? 1) Name 5 actors who starred in the 1997 epic, "Titanic"? 2) This quote is from which film: "At last! My arm is complete again!" 3) Which two actors starred in the 2000 comedy remake "Fun With Dick & Jane"? 4) Name 10 Tim Burton films? 5) What nationality is Orlando Bloom? 6) True or False: Gwyneth Paltrow is married to U2's "The Edge"? 7) How many Academy Awards did "American Beauty" win and the film's Director, Sam Mendes, is married to which Hollywood Actress? (For a bonus 3 points, what nationality is she?) 8) Who did Marylin Monroe have an affair with in 1963? 9) Who Directed the remake of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"? 10) Who starred in "True Lies"? (the main 2 leads) 11) Where is Pinewood? 12) Rupert Grint stars in which multi-million $ film franchise? 13) True or False: Drew Barrymore is not Stephen Spielbergs niece? 14) Where was the opening sequence of "Saving Private Ryan" filmed? 15) How many yrs have the Oscars been running? 2 points per Q! Good luck!

Does this quote sound emo? "it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world, sometimes i feel like i'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much. my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst" its from american beauty ...or cheesy???

what is the most beautiful speech/quote/dialogue you've ever heard? mine are from american beauty: "It was one of those days when it's a minute away from snowing. And there's this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it, right? And this bag was just... dancing with me. Like a little kid beggin me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. That's the day I realized there was this entire life behind things, and this incredibly benevolent force that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid ever. Video's a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember... I need to remember. Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it... and my heart is going to cave in." and "I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me... but it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... and then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life. You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry, you will someday." and tell me where it's from

In what movie is the quote, "And then one day it just stopped."? So I was just watching Poison Ivy, starring Drew Barrymore and Darlene from Roseanne. Awesome movie, BTW, but that is not the point. As I was watching it, this part from another movie came into my head, and I cannot for the life of me figure out the movie. Let me describe it to you so you can help me: Something is going on in said movie, and there is a voice over, and the voice over says, "And then one day it just stopped." The scene ends very abruptly. I know I have seen this movie more than once, I don't know if it is a good movie or a shitty movie, but I am thinking good. It could be my favorite movie of all time for all I know. IT IS KILLING ME. Please someone help me. I am thinking along the lines of maybe American Beauty of Eternal Sunshine....or I could be totally wrong. p.s. not forrest gump NOT FORREST GUMP!

What is wrong with modern poetry? There is no market for poetry, nobody reads modern poetry books. Why? POETRY MANIFESTO – June 2006 Source: greatestlivingpoets.com by Mark Rendina “That there is poetry is the only evidence that man truly exists” The Latin American poet quoted above was wise beyond his years. He had the luxury of participating in a culture that still prized the power of the written word as incantation. A machine can be programmed to make everything a man can make—airplanes, pictures, prose, music—but only one craft still requires exclusively the active participation of a human: poetry. Only a human can create and judge great poetry. Yet no poet currently living can make a living from his labor. This is because modern poetry has been written as prose and the public can not name a poet now living. The public does not buy poetry books. They do not expect to be pleased when they see a book of modern poetry in the shops. And they are right. But why has the beauty and meter gone out of the songs? Source: greatestlivingpoets.com

When American Christians support military actions against Muslim countries, what response do we expect? "As you sow, so shall you reap." -- Jesus of Nazareth I am not writing this as a Muslim, nor as one who wishes to convert to Islam, nor as a person who approves of any kind of terrorism. But when Christians, Jews and secularists in the US and Europe approve of Western military expeditions in Islamic countries, or when we make fun of the Prophet or even condemn a Shiite Muslim girl from Michigan for winning a US beauty pageant -- aren't we asking for trouble? Most of us - Christians, Jews, secularists -- would hate it if there were large Muslim armies occupying parts of the United States, say, and claiming to do so in the name of bureaucracy. Most of us -- Christians, Jews & secularists -- were and are highly offended whenever we learn of Muslim insults towards our religious beliefs, or our lack of them. Most of us would be appalled so see a young girl being criticized or ridiculed for not being Muslim, if she had just won some of a prize in some kind of a contest in some Arab, African, Persian or Asian society. So how do we expect Muslims to react when people of our religious and'/or philosophical leanings do these things to them? SHAKESPEARE QUOTE Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? Clarification: If it's of any interest to anyone, I don't approve of how women and religious minorities are treated in many Muslim societies -- at least as I understand them. I don't approve of the 9-11 attacks, either. But I've asking a "Christian" question, though I call myself agnostic. The Christian question is: when you DON'T "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" -- when you scorn other people's beliefs (for either good or bad reasons), when you invade their countries (for either good or bad reasons) -- what response do you think you'll get? Also, when you answer an act of terror with revenge that looks like counter-terror to your enemy - don't you risk the launching of a perpetual feud? As in "As you sow, so shall you reap"?

Are South Africans too critical about South Africa or not critical enough? Innocentia posted an interesting question about Guy Lundy´s speach: http://blog.guylundy.com/i-pledge-allegiance-speech/2007/02/16/ These are my comments about his speach: Of course one has to be positive and optimistic in life, but there are also dangers in taking his "too simplistic" view of things. Basically what he is promoting is that people should stop complaining and then things will get better. I think this is what most people did for the 1st 10 years living in a new South Africa. Has he just returned to S.A. maybe we should give him a while to settle in and then chat again after a year or so. I diagree with a few things that he said: (I have responded to some of his quotes.) ""Yes, we have problems, but so does everybody else.""- Very, very few countries have the crime and political problems on a scale that South Africa has. ""Sure, the Rand is down the toilet, but if you look closely enough you’ll see that just about every other emerging market country has suffered from the same woes – and that includes Australia and New Zealand, which everyone seems in such a rush to get to."" But Australia and New Zealand´s currency is not down the toilet (and never was) and they have one of the highest standards of living in the world (even when they were emerging). Sorry to say but that is an uneducated comparison. "" And aren’t we lucky that we aren’t living in Argentina with their currency crisis?"" Their currency crisis was brought on by bad politics! Do I need to underline the relationship between bad politics in S.A and our unstable Rand? And how noble a gesture is a comparison with another countries misery, is that supposed to make us feel better?! (Anyway, Argentina have a lower crime rate!) "" Sure, our neighbour, Zimbabwe, is run by a mad, despotic fool, but man am I glad that I don’t live in Pakistan right now. "" No comment. ""We have AIDs, and we also have an army of people trying to find a cure for it – possibly more vigorously than anywhere else since we have the most to lose from it."" Unfortunately we have a President and Health minister who don´t believe in the connection between HIV and AIDS. And an ex-Deputy president who suggests taking a shower after sex. And I tire of mentioning the beetroot and garlic recipes.... ""We do have corruption, and the Americans have George W. Bush, whether they like it or not."" No comment. ""We’ve got all sorts of problems, yes, but must we be so hard on ourselves?"" Are we being hard on ourselves or rather being hard on bad government, crime etc. ""In many ways we are far better off in South Africa as a whole than we have been at any time in our history. Our people are getting educated and housed at a world-beating rate, we have amongst the world’s cheapest electricity, our inflation is the lowest it’s been in my lifetime, we have an economic growth rate, and there is development everywhere you look. We have so much going for us; we have so many good people, such an interesting mix of cultures; we have so much beautiful countryside and natural resources that we can draw from – we really have such a bright future ahead of us."" I think about the only thing still cheap (world comparatively) is electricity. Telecommunications is one of the most expensive in the world (if not the most expensive), inflation is way out of control in comparison with earnings, the cost of trying to keep safe costs an arm and a leg (pun intended), a massive housing crisis where the real issue is not being addressed - a non sustainable birth rate, a good economic growth rate but with a 27 Billion Rand municipal budget deficit. ""Let us concentrate on the positive things that surround us every day, the sunshine, the people, the beauty, the progress. Constantly criticising our country can only do harm – for you personally, your personal feeling of happiness and well-being, and for the country that you know from the bottom of your heart that you love, otherwise you wouldn’t be here."" People have done this for many years but they have seen how neglected things have become by not complaining. It is well known that the White South Africans have a culture of not complaining enough but the Black South Africans are excellent at organising, standing together and complaining. We need to all learn from each other, learn the truth, and stand together, all of us and complain. It is NOT unpatriotic to complain but instead it is our democratic right and may be the last means we have left to change what could be another African basket case! Good answer Moloi. You got me googling bond rand. I will however suggest that politically South Africa is basically a one-Party state and in order for any democracy to truly function it requires multi parties with equal representation. But maybe that´s a whole other Yahoo question and answer?! Thanks Innocentia, I´m not sure how it feels to have a baby doing cartwheels in the stomach I can only assume it might feel similar to how I feel the morning after one to many mojitos or sangrias! P.S. The hat ( Sombrero) is a very essential part of my attire here in Spain, it gets dannng hot here in Summer - ( I can see it being very useful around a braai in South Africa - maybe a good marketing idea there?)

Poll: Do you agree or disagree with this quote? Why? "The reason that the all-American boy prefers beauty to brains is that he can see better than he can think..." -- Farah Fawcett What do you think?

Why does McCain campaign Insist the election be about Personalities NOT ISSUES? the McCain campain does not want the issues discussed they want it to be a mere beauty contest as is quoted below McCain Manager: 'This Election is Not About Issues' http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/... Rick Davis, campaign manager for John McCain's presidential bid, insisted that the presidential race will be decided more over personalities than issues during an interview with Post editors this morning. In reaction to Rick Davis' comments about the election not being about issues, Barack Obama campaign manager David Plouffe released the following statement: "We appreciate Senator McCain's campaign manager finally admitting that his campaign is not in fact about the issues the American people care about, which is exactly the kind of cynical old politics people are ready to change."

Brigitte Bardot is fined again for her racial outbursts? After being in the politics section I can only imagine how much we all would be fined from time to time. I sure am glad I'm American. Former French film star and sex kitten Brigitte Bardot, star of the haughty French cinema has been fined 15,000 Euros ($23,000) by a court in France. The star published an openly racist letter on her website complaining that Muslims were ‘destroying our country by imposing their ways’. The aging star, now 73 years of age was not in the court to hear the verdict heard against her. The Paris court took the action against the ‘And God Created Woman’ star on Tuesday this week, although Ms Bardot was unavailable for comment. On this occasion (one of many) Bardot has been found guilty of stoking the fires of racial hated. Her latest outburst was on her website, if anyone reads it. The fine also included a small pay out to two anti-racism groups that had pursued Bardot over her overtly racist and perhaps xenophobic comments. Bardot said she was ‘tired of being led by the nose by this population that is destroying us.’ Interestingly, the BBC, Reuters, AOL and many other websites carried the quotes and yet, they have not been arrested for distribution of racist material. The wrinkly aging film star was once considered to be the epitomy of European beauty. Her pale skin and pouty lips made her a sex symbol across Europe, if not the world. But this isn’t the first time that Bardot has been found guilty of hate crimes, she has been in trouble for exactly the same crime four times before. Many believe that her rabid and rampant anti-Islamic stance comes from her vociferous animal rights activities. Muslims ritually slaughter animals (sheep) as a sacrifice on Eid-al Adha. The first time that a court imposed a fine against Bardot for this type of outburst was back in 1997. No stranger to controversy, Bardot published a book ‘A Cry in the Silence’ back in May 2003 and caused a huge furore as she condemned ‘gays, modern art, politicians, muslims and all immigrants’ say that they had destroyed her beloved French culture. Bardot said ‘I am against the Islamisation of France’. Bardot was fined thirty thousand frances back in 2000 after again being convicted of racial hated in her book ‘Pluto’s Square’. In her book, she writes an open letter to her beloved nation of France. The aged racist writes: ‘my country, France, my homeland, my land is again invaded by an overpopulation of foreigners, especially Muslims’. There is some element of irony that France, a country that regularly imposes its Islamaphobic will on its citizens should fine one of its legendary film stars for holding an unpopular belief. France already proved itself to be a religiously intolerant nation when it banned Muslim girls from wearing headscarves at school and civil servants from wearing them in public life. This can be viewed as part of a mainly Catholic nation’s fear of the rise of ‘oppressive’ Islam within mainstream French culture. The reason given was that people felt that the headscarf was a symbol of oppression. One has to ask ‘What people?’ surely not the Muslims wearing them, instead, do-gooding French liberals, who want to save the nice girls from their ‘oppressive’ religion. One can only presume that all French people were banned from wearing their Christian crosses too, oh wait, No. Britain and Germany have no such rules, I imagine that’s why these countries are filling up with angry Muslims. That’s okay, good old kindly Britain will take them all and when they get here, they’ll still be angry and they’ll grab a backpack and head for the nearest Tube... This is precisely the kind of attitude that’s getting people into trouble, treating all Muslims the same is a limiting belief and cannot be tolerated in a modern liberal country. But France has never been a modern liberal country, so... why don’t they just let people enjoy their freedom of speech? Why not? Because they aren’t a modern liberal country. This from the country that rolled over and played dead when Hitler marched through it and wouldn’t go to war against Saddam Hussein. However, one has to wonder when this spent and washed up ‘actress’ will ever finally learn her lesson and be quiet. She clearly holds views that mainstream France finds repulsive. Only the Government and its legislature are allowed to act with needs-blind cultural imperialism. In the UK, a hairdresser was successfully sued for refusing to hire a girl with a headscarf. Now, there’s a right-on liberal attittude we can all appreciate!

english i really need help 10 points? 1)Steinbeck effectively uses theme in Of Mice and Men to convey freedom conformity rebellion isolation 2)The rabbits in Of Mice and Men symbolize loneliness George and Lennie’s dream friendship insanity 3) Candy struggles with the decision of whether to let Carson shoot his old dog. This is an example of external conflict. True False 4)The following quote from the article, “What are American Ideals and Weaknesses?” is an example of first person point of view: “My intimate acquaintanceship is made up largely of one class, ideally speaking. Most of the men I know are either doing, or trying to do, something that will add to the sum total of the world’s beauty. In other words, they are artists of some sort, potential or actual” (New York Times 1915). True False 5)“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was written in the Enlightenment period. True False 6)The overall mood of Of Mice and Men is one of anger and fury. True False 7) A theme is used by authors for the purpose of physical arrangement. True False 8) Explain how John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men can be considered a characteristic work of the Modernist literary period. Write a one to two paragraph response and be sure to include at least two specific references to the text to support your answer.

english multiple choice someone please answer and help me(Of Mice and Men)? 1)Steinbeck effectively uses theme in Of Mice and Men to convey freedom conformity rebellion isolation 2)The rabbits in Of Mice and Men symbolize loneliness George and Lennie’s dream friendship insanity 3) Candy struggles with the decision of whether to let Carson shoot his old dog. This is an example of external conflict. True False 4)The following quote from the article, “What are American Ideals and Weaknesses?” is an example of first person point of view: “My intimate acquaintanceship is made up largely of one class, ideally speaking. Most of the men I know are either doing, or trying to do, something that will add to the sum total of the world’s beauty. In other words, they are artists of some sort, potential or actual” (New York Times 1915). True False 5)“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was written in the Enlightenment period. True False 6)The overall mood of Of Mice and Men is one of anger and fury. True False 7) A theme is used by authors for the purpose of physical arrangement. True False 8) Explain how John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men can be considered a characteristic work of the Modernist literary period. Write a one to two paragraph response and be sure to include at least two specific references to the text to support your answer.

Why does seem like white america hate Mexican americans.? I am a mexican american. I am 20 and getting my bachelors in marketing and business at UTA. Over the past couple of years i have noticed a trend that has been developing in south. I live in Texas and i hear everyday about how mexicans should go back to mexico. I know people are just being ignorant and close minded but i cant help to listen to all the negative criticism about mexican Americans and those who are illegal. I see no harm in people coming to look for a better life that's what this country was founded on. I also believe mexicans, legal or illegal , should learn english. On the other hand people should also learn spanish. On average a person who is bilingual earns about $10,000 more than someone who does not. Really i don't understand the resentment of white america has on mexicans. Is it because soon you will be the minority. I really don't understand. i hope your answers will help me understand this situation I will leave you with a quote from Martin Luther King in his letter from Birmingham Jail "Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty."

famous photographer of the 1980's/90's? Ok so I'm trying to find out the name of a well-known photographer from either the 80's or 90's - of American decent I believe. Here is all the info I can recall on him: - Actor Richard Gere owns a large number of his prints, is or was his largest private collector. Is quoted as saying he finds peace and beauty in this photographers work despite the shocking and bizarre content. - This photographer creates the strange and outlandish. Could definitely be considered "shock art" or gothic. Some content includes corpses dressed up, a man with a brick tied to his penis hovering above his face, a woman simulating felatio on a horse, etc. - This photographer distresses the negatives and prints, scratching them, giving an overall "antiqued" appearance. - For some reason the name Wilkinson rings a bell...but google searches havent turned up a thing. This is driving me nuts!!! All help appreciated!

Need further proof Obama hates America? Then just look at those he appoints as Judges, in the hopes they will be able to assist him in his desire to destroy America as we know it. Judge Edward Chen: Judge Chen's words speak for themselves. When the congregation sang "America the Beautiful" at a funeral, Judge Chen told the audience of his "feelings of ambivalence and cynicism when confronted with appeals to patriotism..."sometimes I cannot help but feel that there is too much injustice and too many inequalities that prevent far too many Americans from enjoying the beauty extolled in that anthem." In a speech on Sept. 22, 2001, he said that among his first responses to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on America was a "sickening feeling in my stomach about what might happen to race relations and religious tolerance on our own soil. ... "One has to wonder whether the seemingly irresistible forces of racism, nativism and scapegoating which has recurred so often in our history can be effectively restrained." And talking about the role of judges, he in effect embraced the "empathy standard" that Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was forced to denounce in her own confirmation hearings: "Simply put, a judge's life experiences affect the willingness to credit testimony or understand the human impact of legal rules upon which the judge must decide. These determinations require a judge to draw upon something that is not found in the case reports that line the walls of our chambers. Rather judges draw upon the breadth and depth of their own life experience. ... Inevitably, one's ethnic and racial background contributes to those life experiences." You get the picture. To quote and paraphrase Sen. Charles E. Schumer from another occasion, this man's attitude "doesn't even whisper 'judge.' " Instead, it yells out that he is a biased radical willing to impose his own politics from the bench. Judge Chen should not be confirmed. [The Washington Times, 10/25/09] Anyone still think Obama really cares about justice? Sounds like he just wants the ACLU to be in charge of the bench, and ACORN in charge of the Census. Are Liberals deliberately obtuse, or is it yet another genetic flaw? The "proof" is the fact he appoints radicals for his cabinet, radicals for his Czars, and radicals for his judges. I'm sure the point will fly over the pointy, empty heads of Liberals...but ...alas, I am compelled to try! As it is plain for all to see, it is a wasted effort, so Liberals...please feel free to resume your Zombie like Obama drone look, and start your chant..."Barrack hates America...Mmm, mmm, mmm!"

Is Being Called Curvy A Compliment? The reason I am asking is because I went shopping for bridal gowns and bridesmaid dresses with my stepmum-to-be and her daughter yesterday and when I was trying on dresses, my stepmum-to-be said that I was "quite curvy in all the 'right' spots" and then her daughter scoffed and glared at me. I don't know if it was a compliment or not because she was always saying things about "how pretty her daughter is" whenever she was over at my house. I mean, I don't blame her for showing off her daughter because the daughter is a size 2 (american) and is practically what one would call a "modern-day beauty". I am 5'5" (I think that is what is it in standard system, sorry I'm used to metric) and my jeans are a size 4 (american), but all the dresses I tried on were size 7 or 8 (american) because they were the only ones to fit my body shape. Would you consider her quote to be a compliment, and if so what are the "right" spots to be curvy in?

Does Judge Judy hate men/ is she elitist? In her book Beauty Fades, Dumb is Forever it is clear that during her college days she struggled with self-confidence but her father told her that very line. With this as a reference, it seems like she unfairly targets attractive all American looking youth on her show. Especially men who are suing women, or have divorced or broke up from women seem to get unjust judgements. UNFAIR!!!! "When Judge Judy asked about a program to provide clean needles to drug addicts to prevent the spread of AIDS and hepatitis-The Courier Mail in Brisbane quoted her as saying 'Give 'em all dirty needles and let 'em die.' " I think it is elitist to be so out of touch to dismiss addicts problems and wish them death. UNFAIR!!!

What Race has the most CONSISTENTLY BEAUTIFUL women on the Planet? I just found a rather interesting site on Squidoo that is all about beautiful women. It had an interesting poll question and I was intrigued by the results from the 1885 people who've answered the poll thus far. The question is below and I quote it exactly as it is on the site: "What Race has the most CONSISTENTLY BEAUTIFUL women on the Planet out of these choices? (I am fully aware that Chinese, Thai, Phillipino, etc. could all fall under the category Asian) But these are your choices." Asian Chinese Russian Jamaican Persian Indian Ethiopian Australian African Somali Hawaiian Puerto Rican German African American Middle Eastern Dominican Brazilian French. Thus far out of the 1885 people who had taken the poll (as of 04/06/10 the results are as follows: The winner is Brazilian with 16.1% of the votes followed by Asian with 12.9% of the votes. The groups that received the smallest number of votes, surprisingly is Cuban 1.4%. Now these are just people's opinions and we have to take into account that many of the people answering may not have much of a point of reference with different ethnic groups to begin with and are only answering based upon what their personal perceptions, views and exposure has been. But what DO YOU THINK? When you ask about "consistent beauty" I will have to agree with the majority and go with the Brazilian women, my second choice would be Ethiopian. I love Persian women, Adore Romanian women and find Indian women to be hot. Asians are fine too and I love exotic women from any where. Black, white, latinas, I see beauty in all of 'em but the optimum word is CONSISTENCY. I find beauty in ALL races and cultures but for some there is indeed more consistency. The Site is at the following link if you care to visit it. It's a pretty interesting site with a lot of data and polls about beautiful women: http://www.squidoo.com/themostbeautifulwomanintheworld

People of OCG- Do you see your life as being a tragedy.? I was watching a show on the travel channel a few weeks ago called "Meet the natives". The premise of the show is that they take tribesmen from the pacific island of Tanna and bring them to America. Once I got over the typical Western condescending tone of many aspects of the show, I found it to be quite interesting. One thing in particular that struck me was one of the tribesmans views on the American (and I guess Western) way of life. He basically says that our lives are quite tragic in that we have so much material wealth, yet we will all die like everyone else. Fast forward to 2 minutes in if you want to hear it yourself- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tjzfNGwcR8&feature=related This got me to thinking about a quote from James Baldwin. It's not directly related to the issue above I suppose, but to me it has a similar message. He says "Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, the only fact we have. It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death--ought to decide, indeed, to earn one's death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life." What do you think about these two viewpoints on our lives? Do yov think your life is tragic? Is the fact that we're going to die a source of many of our societal ills? I recommend the series to anyone interested in American culture. I watched it on TV, but I think all of it is on youtube. The men from Tanna really drop some knowledge about how strange our society is. Again though, some of the ways they were characterized by the producers of the show made me cringe, but it's worth it to learn about ourselves from an outside observer.

Please review my Essay.? Picture this, if you will, an endless land. The golden grass swaying in the breeze. The buffalo roaming in the distance. The clouds move slowly above your head. Not a sound is heard but a few chirps of a friendly cricket. The warm smell of fresh land whiffs across your nose. The cool air wraps around you. This is the true beauty of America, The open Prairies. It’s been said a million times and it will be said Infinite more. The Prairie is one of our last prides. And it’s fading into a fast moving mass of Modern Age. It seems almost futile to say we need to take care of this yet- it’s over looked. From a day to day basis we fill this heavenly landscape with piles of trash and ruin. Or we spend our ignorant time building across it, forcing the dark shadow of twisted steel and bricks slowly across the innocent land. I believe it is our sole duty to put this to an end. Is that new super center or that new arcade worth blindness of your great grandson’s sight of the majestic buffalo? Is it worth the highways and restaurants to lose the stories that the soil holds? Not in my eyes. I want to close with a quote that very much relates to the problem at hand. “…present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the Day of Judgment and destruction of ungodly men.” (2 Peter 3:7). It is God’s will that these wonderful lands are kept pure and un-poisoned by man’s hands. The lands of golden dreams and heaven’s skies. Its short. I only had 250-350 words to work with. Prompt is our duty as american citizens

These are my character profiles for my story, how should improve them and make them more 3-D.? Alex Bell- Full Name: Alexander Jason Bell. He is the leader of the 157th regiment of The Rebellion. He is 23 years old, average height and weight. He is of German descent. He has straight black hair and brown eyes. He usually wears a polo shirt, jeans, and boots. He is proficient in weaponry and hand-to-hand combat. He is very laid back and sarcastic that his teammates are never sure he is serious or not. He is also very good pilot. He rarely shows any emotion and keeps things that bother to himself. He constantly doubts himself and is never really sure whether he is fighting the good fight. He is very intelligent and has expertise in several fields of science, history, math and English. He is also very philosophical, usually quoting Aristotle and Homer. He has been friends with Vince Campbell since they were kids, and sees him as kindred spirit. He is an orphan. His parents died in the hands of the government because of their beliefs Vince Campbell-Full Name: Vincent James Campbell. He is the co-commander of the 157th regiment and Alex’s best friend. He is 22 years old he is also average height and very lean. He is of African-American descent. He usually has an Afro but trims it down on occasion and one instance went bald. He always wears overcoat no matter what the weather. He is also a chain-smoker, constantly smoking a cigarette. is a master strategist and is expert in hand-to-hand combat and weaponry. He is skilled in handguns and is weapon of choice is two revolver ocelots. Whenever fights he usually makes snarky comments to his enemies, in order to mess with their heads. He is the level headed one in the team, never letting his emotions get the best of him. He was born into the rebellion. And his family remains mystery. He is a hedonist, and loves food, women, and cigarettes. Luna-Full Name: Unknown. She is member of the 157th regiment and the only female. She is 22 years old, average height and thin. She is multiracial. She had dyed blond hair and mocha skin. She dresses proactively and occasionally conservatively and has a every changing wardrobe. She is a tomboy and is frequently called one of the guys. She is a master in weaponry and says she never misses a shot. It is soon revealed she only misses 2% of her shots. She is a lose cannon and a hot headed, buts heads with her team mates. She shoots first and asks questions later. She is ruthless to her enemies and rarely shows mercy. She is femme fatale and uses her beauty to get what she wants. She sometimes usually uses her attributes with her teammates. She is able to speak Spanish. Her origin is unknown even to her. She came to the rebellion regiment with no memory of anything except her name. Raza-Full Name: Raza Bokhari. He is a member of the 157th regiment. He is 21 years old. Very tall and muscular. He is 6’2’’ and weighs 250 lbs. He is of Pakistani Descent. He has big mop of brown hair that he rarely cuts and sometimes grows a beard. Raza has a big deep booming voice. He dresses in a overcoat and wears armor. He is quiet and stoic one, and keeps mostly to himself. He is proficient in weaponry and has great knowledge of technology. He is able to hack into computes, rebuild ships, and create viruses. Because of his great size people underestimate intelligence. When he battles he uses more his brute strength rather than weapons. He is not as selfish as the others and risks his life to see that civilians are kept safe. He resists temptations such as gambling and alcohol. He is a vegetarian and meditates weekly. It is soon revealed that he loves Luna, but does not have the courage to show her how he feels. His parents are medics for the rebellion regime. Conner (Deceased)-Full Name: Conner Tristan Wheeler. He was a member of the 157th regiment. He was 23 years old when he died, and was once the leader of the 157th regiment. He was 6ft and weighed 165 pounds. He was lean and muscular. He had nicely cut black hair and kept himself clean shaven. Unlike most of his teammates he cared much about his appearance. He showed many qualities of a leader brave, strong, responsible, and selfless. He was also very cocky, and that’s what caused his downfall. His death is never discussed much, though his teammates admired him. He also dated Luna for a while before e he died.

why are americans so infatuated with blonde hair? I am brazilian and half of my family are blondes that's because we have lots of europeans influences as for the brunettes from the european latin origins just like in the US! Not long ago, I had a dinner with some of my husband friends and this lady asked me how come I was blonde if I ws brazilian...LOL...Oh my, I was surprised with her question. I lived in Ohio with my husdand for 10 month and we heard that all the women there dye their hair blonde, even the children, which I didn't believe but them I presence it happen not once but many, the kid was young as 5 years old! My best friend is a sales executive for revlon and he said that US is quotes the #1 country for color their hair blonde (fake blondes) What is all this about? I am going to beauty school and there is no a way I will dye a child's hair, what is all this "blonde" fetish about?

Should Robin Williams be a political consultant or some kind of Czar? Quote Robin Williams - "I see a lot of people yelling for peace but I have not heard of a plan for peace. So, here's one plan." 1.) The US will apologize to the world for our "interference" in their affairs, past and present. You know, Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Noriega, Milosevic and the rest of those 'good ole boys'. We will never "interfere" again. 2.) We will withdraw our troops from all over the world, starting with Germany, South Korea and the Philippines. They don't want us there. We would station troops at our borders. No one sneaking through holes in the fence. 3.) All illegal aliens have 90 days to get their affairs together and leave.We'll give them a free trip home. After 90 days the remainder will be gathered up and deported immediately, regardless of who or where they are. France would welcome them. 4.) All future visitors will be thoroughly checked and limited to 90 days unless given a special permit. No one from a terrorist nation would be allowed in. If you don't like it there, change it yourself and don't hide here. Asylum would never be available to anyone. We don't need any more cab drivers or 7-11 cashiers. 5.) No foreign "students" over age 21. The older ones are the bombers. If they don't attend classes, they get a "D" and it's back home baby. 6.) The US will make a strong effort to become self-sufficient energy wise.This will include developing nonpolluting sources of energy but will require a temporary drilling of oil in the Alaskan wilderness. The caribou will have to cope for a while. 7.) Offer Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries $10 a barrel for their oil. If they don't like it, we go some place else. They can go somewhere else to sell their production. (About a week of the wells filling up the storage sites would be enough.) 8.) If there is a famine or other natural catastrophe in the world, we will not "interfere," They can pray to Allah or whomever, for seeds, rain, cement or whatever they need. Besides most of what we give them is stolen or given to the army. The people who need it most get very little, if anything. 9.) Ship the UN Headquarters to an isolated island some place. We don't need the spies and fair weather friends here. Besides, the building would make a good homeless shelter or lockup for illegal aliens. 10.) All Americans must go to charm and beauty school. That way, no one can call us "Ugly Americans" any longer. The Language we speak is ENGLISH.....LEARN IT.....or LEAVE...Now, isn't that a winner of a plan. "The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying 'Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses.' She's got a baseball bat and she's yelling, 'You want a piece of me?'" Would this plan work? Coincidence? - Yes he did, At his HBO special in New York 2002.

Does anyone know what the title of this song is, or the artist? The lyrics are like this quote from the movie American Beauty (below). In the song, a guy is saying it kind of in the background. Here's the quote: i guess i could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me, but it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world. sometimes i feel like i'm seeing it all at once and it's too much. my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst. and then i remember to relax...and stop trying to hold on to it. and then it flows through me like rain, and i can't feel anything but gratitude...for every single moment..of my stupid little life. you have no idea what i'm talking about, i'm sure. but don't worry. you will someday...

Should being against gay marriage have cost Miss CA the Miss USA beauty contest? According to the news, the runner-up at the Miss USA beauty pageant says her outspoken opposition to gay marriage cost her first place in the competition. During the televised event, Carrie Prejean - Miss California - said she believed that "a marriage should be between a man and a woman". Ms Prejean, after the competition. She added: "I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman." "No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised." The remarks drew a mixture of booing and applause from the audience. Hilton said he had been "floored" by Ms Prejean's answer, which, he said, "alienated millions of gay and lesbian Americans, their families and their supporters". He told ABC News: "She lost it because of that question. She was definitely the front-runner before that." Keith Lewis, who runs the Miss California competition, released a statement condemning Ms Prejean's comments. "As co-director of the Miss California USA, I am personally saddened and hurt that Miss California believes marriage rights belong only to a man and a woman." =================================================== Now this is what I do not understand. I AM gay. I am also married to my same sex pertner. AND I am totally in favor of seme-sex marriage being recognized by the government. However, even I would not have taken away her first place standing on that one question. It was merely an honest opinion. And we should ALL be entitled to our religious views. Note that she did NOT state anything about passing laws or amendments to curtail anyones civil rights: that might have been different. What is YOUR opinion? And why? Please I am not asking for a bunch of Bibler quotes. I am fully aware of them. My question ONLY concerns how this person lost her first place ranking. JNR: Good points. Perhaps her inability to handle a contraversial question was a telling point. LINA Chan: I suspect i am starting to agree with your view point. REV RUSTY: Thanks for making me laugh. WOOLF! I am gay, and MY knickers are not in a twist. In fact, I think the question unfair if it was not asked of the other contestants.

plz. help me to write the main idea of this article in the NY Times. in two pages.? November 5, 2006 Where Plan A Left Ahmad Chalabi By DEXTER FILKINS 1. London, August 2006 Many miles away in a more dangerous place the dream is ending badly. The bodies pile up. Good people stream to the borders. Leaders pile money onto planes. The center is giving way. The apartment on South Street in London is an antidote to Baghdad in nearly every respect. Where the Iraqi capital rings with chaos and violence, the sidewalks of Mayfair are quiet enough to hear your own voice above the cars. Baghdad is treeless and tan; the South Street apartment opens onto a private park filled with the lushness of an English garden. Just across the way is the Anglican church where General Eisenhower, stationed here as the commander of Allied forces during the war, came to pray. A maid greets you at the door, an elderly Lebanese woman who doubles as an Arabic teacher for the children. The parlor is neatly appointed and filled with art, most of it European, different from the Baghdad house, where most of it is Iraqi. There is “Sketch of a Woman,” by Lucien Pissarro, the French painter who propagated Impressionism in London; it catches the light nicely. The furniture is expensive, the kind that makes you hesitate to sit down. But the place has a lived-in quality too; family members come and go, clutching bags and calling to one another down the hallways. No one seems the least bit awed by the man of the house, who is dressed in a bespoke suit and carries himself like a monarch, and who, until now, hasn’t spent more than a day at a time here since before the Iraq war began. For Ahmad Chalabi, Iraq is an abstraction again. Once again, his native country is a faraway land ruled by somebody else, a place where other people die. It’s a place to be discussed, rued, plotted over, from a parlor on an expensive Western street. Iraq’s new leaders, the men who excluded Chalabi from the government they formed this spring, still call for advice — several times a day, Chalabi says. He is here in London, his longtime home in exile, temporarily, he says, taking his first vacation in five years. At lunch at a nearby restaurant an hour before, he ordered the sea bass wrapped in a banana leaf. He walks the streets unattended by armed guards. But the interlude, Chalabi says, is just that, a passing thing. His doubters will come back to him; they always have. As ever, he wears a jester’s smile, wide and blank, a mask that has carried him through crises of the first world and the third. Still, a touch of bitterness can creep into Chalabi’s voice, a hint that he has concluded that his time has come and gone. Indeed, even for a man as vain and resilient as Chalabi, his present predicament stands too large to go unacknowledged. Once Iraq’s anointed leader — anointed by the Americans — Chalabi, at age 62, is without a job, spurned by the very colleagues whose ascension he engineered. His benefactors in the White House and in the Pentagon, who once gobbled up whatever half-baked intelligence Chalabi offered, now regard him as undependable and — worse — safely ignored. Chalabi’s life work, an Iraq liberated from Saddam Hussein, a modern and democratic Iraq, is spiraling toward disintegration. Indeed, for many in the West, Chalabi has become the personification of all that has gone wrong in Iraq: the lies, the arrogance, the occupation as disaster. “The real culprit in all this is Wolfowitz,” Chalabi says, referring to his erstwhile backer, the former deputy secretary of defense, Paul Wolfowitz. “They chickened out. The Pentagon guys chickened out.” Chalabi still considers Wolfowitz a friend, so he proceeds carefully. America’s big mistake, Chalabi maintains, was in failing to step out of the way after Hussein’s downfall and let the Iraqis take charge. The Iraqis, not the Americans, should have been allowed to take over immediately — the people who knew the country, who spoke the language and, most important, who could take responsibility for the chaos that was unfolding in the streets. An Iraqi government could have acted harshly, even brutally, to regain control of the place, and the Iraqis would have been without a foreigner to blame. They would have appreciated the firm hand. There would have been no guerrilla insurgency or, if there was, a small one that the new Iraqi government could have ferreted out and crushed on its own. An Iraqi leadership would have brought Moktada al-Sadr, the populist cleric, into the government and house-trained him. The Americans, in all likelihood, could have gone home. They certainly would have been home by now. “We would have taken hold of the country,” Chalabi says. “We would have revitalized the civil service immediately. We would have been able to put together a military force and an intelligence service. There would have been no insurgency. We would have had electricity. The Americans screwed it up.” Chalabi’s notion — that an Iraqi government, as opposed to an American one, could have saved the great experiment — has become one of the arguments put forth by the war’s proponents in the just-beginning debate over who lost Iraq. At best, it’s improbable: Chalabi is essentially arguing that a handful of Iraqi exiles, some of whom had not lived in the country in decades, could have put together a government and quelled the chaos that quickly engulfed the country after Hussein’s regime collapsed. They could have done this, presumably, without an army (which most wanted to dissolve) and without a police force (which was riddled with Baathists). In fact, the Americans considered the idea and dismissed it. (But not, Wolfowitz insists, because of him. His longtime aide, Kevin Kellems, said that Wolfowitz favored turning over power “as rapidly as possible to duly elected Iraqi authorities.”) The Bush administration decided to go to the United Nations and have the American role in Iraq formally described as that of an “occupying power,” a step that no Iraqi, not even the lowliest tea seller, failed to notice. They appointed L. Paul Bremer III as viceroy. Instead of empowering Iraqis, Bremer set up an advisory panel of Iraqis — one that included Chalabi — that had no power at all. The warmth that many ordinary Iraqis felt for the Americans quickly ebbed away. It’s not clear that the Americans had any other choice. But here in his London parlor, Chalabi is now contending that excluding Iraqis was the Americans’ fatal mistake. “It was a puppet show!” Chalabi exclaims again, shifting on the couch. “The worst of all worlds. We were in charge, and we had no power. We were blamed for everything the Americans did, but we couldn’t change any of it.” It’s three and a half years later now. More than 2,800 Americans are dead; more than 3,000 Iraqis die each month. The anarchy seems limitless. In May 2004, American and Iraqi agents even raided Chalabi’s home in Baghdad. He has been denounced by Bremer and by Bush and accused of passing secrets to America’s enemy, Iran. At the heart of the American decision to take over and run Iraq, Chalabi now concludes, lay a basic contempt for Iraqis, himself included. “In Wolfowitz’s mind, you couldn’t trust the Iraqis to run a democracy,” Chalabi says. “ ‘We have to teach them, give them lessons,’ in Wolfowitz’s mind. ‘We have to leave Iraq under our tutelage. The Iraqis are useless. The Iraqis are incompetent.’ “What I didn’t realize,” Chalabi says, “was that the Americans sold us out.” Turkish coffee is served, then tea. I consider Chalabi’s predicament: the Iraqi patrician, confidant of prime ministers and presidents, the M.I.T.- and University of Chicago-trained mathematics professor, owner of a Mayfair flat, complaining of being regarded, by the masters he once manipulated, as a scruffy, shiftless native. “I’ve been a friend of America, and I’ve been its enemy,” he says. “America betrays its friends. It sets them up and betrays them. I’d rather be America’s enemy.” And so he is. Sort of. With Chalabi, it’s hard to be certain, and not just because his motives are so opaque, but because he is never still. He is enigmatic, brilliant, nimble, unreliable, charming, narcissistic, finally elusive. The journey to Mayfair is a long one. What happened to Chalabi? Well, you might ask: What happened to Iraq? 2. Mushkhab, January 2005 The election is coming, and we are heading south. Twenty cars, mostly carrying men with guns. They hang out the windows, pointing their Kalashnikovs at the terrified drivers. Get out of the way or we shoot, and maybe we shoot anyway — that’s the message. But that’s Iraq. We move quickly, weaving, south in the southbound, south in the northbound. Very fast. Unbelievably fast. Drivers veer and career. We go where we want. We’re low on fuel, and a gas station beckons. It is one of the strange and singular facts of Iraqi life that despite sitting atop an ocean of oil, Iraqis must wait hours — often days — for gasoline at the pumps. Lack of refining capacity, smuggling, stealing, insurgent attacks, Soviet subsidies: it’s complicated. On the road outside Salman Pak, the line is perhaps 300 cars long. The Chalabi convoy cuts straight to the front of the line. No one protests. It’s the guns. The Iraqis wait for days, and our effrontery brings no protest. Not a peep. We get our gas and we speed away, guns out the windows. Very fast. An hour later, we arrive at our destination, Mushkhab. It’s a mostly Shiite town about 100 miles south of Baghdad. It is friendly country — to Chalabi, and still, then, to Americans. The whole town — the males, anyway — gathers round. Chalabi stands in the center, dressed in a dark gray Western suit. The Iraqis clap and read poetry; some of it they sing. It’s a tradition, a kind of serenade to the honored guest. “Hey, listen, Bush, we are Iraqis,” the poet says, and everyone is clapping. “We never bow our heads to anyone, and we won’t do it for you. We have tough guys like Chalabi on our side — be careful.” Everyone laughs. We move inside the mudhif, a tall, long, fantastic structure woven of dried river reeds, a kind of pavilion of rattan. The room is laid with hand-woven carpets, and on the walls hang framed yellowed photographs of the leaders of the tribe, Al Fatla, meeting with their British overlords many years ago. A pair of loudspeakers are set up in the front. Chalabi takes a microphone. “My Iraqi brothers, the Americans pushed out Saddam, but they did not liberate our country,” Chalabi tells the group. “We are asking you to participate in this election so that we can have an independent country. This is not just words. The Iraqi people will liberate the country.” He goes on a little more, warming to the Iraqis assembled about him. “On my way here, I saw a huge line of people waiting for gasoline,” Chalabi tells the group. “Some of them were there for two nights, carrying blankets with them. It makes me very sad to see my brothers wait for days to get gas at the station.” Shameless, huh? I thought so, too. Almost a thing of beauty. It was so outrageous I almost wanted to forgive him, as a teacher might her sassy but cleverest boy. And that’s the thing about Chalabi: he’s very difficult to dislike. It may be his secret. It was Chalabi, after all — a foreigner, an Arab — who persuaded the most powerful men and women in the United States to make the liberation of Iraq not merely a priority but an obsession. First in 1998, when Chalabi persuaded Congress to pass the Iraq Liberation Act (in turn leading to payments to his group, the Iraqi National Congress, exceeding $27 million over the next six years) and then, later, in persuading the Bush administration of the necessity of using force to destroy Saddam Hussein. And when it all went bad, when those nuclear weapons never turned up, the clever child shrugged and smiled. “We are heroes in error,” Chalabi told Britain’s Daily Telegraph. Almost with a wink. Lunch is served: a long table heaped with rice and roasted lamb. No seats. Everyone stands, dozens of us, and we dig in with our fingers. After a time, we prepare to leave. The table and the ground around it are littered with rice and lamb bones. We re-form into a convoy and speed toward the holy city of Najaf. By the time we arrive in Najaf, it’s dark. The fighting between American soldiers and the Mahdi Army irregulars laid waste to the city only a few months before, but on this night, Najaf seems remarkably calm. The pilgrim hotels lie in ruins, but the golden dome of the shrine of Imam Ali shimmers under a January moon. Chalabi exits his S.U.V. and strides inside through the 20-foot-high wooden doors. A clutch of Sunni leaders, whom Chalabi has agreed to show around, trail in step. The curiosities intersect: the Sunnis are not Shiites, and this is the holiest of Shiite places, the tomb of the son-in-law of the Holy Prophet and the very heart of the Shiite faith. But they are still Muslims, and they are allowed to pass. As a non-Muslim, I wait outside in the street. More unlikely than the presence of the Sunnis is their tour guide, Chalabi. Or it was unlikely. Not anymore. Chalabi, the Westernized, Western-educated mathematician, has entered his Islamist phase. It’s not terribly convincing. He does not don a turban. He has no beard. He does not pray. He does not, really, even pretend. But as a practical politician — as an exile come home to a strange land getting stranger by the day — Chalabi had to do something. Relations between Chalabi and the Bush administration began to sour almost immediately after the fall of Hussein, when the Americans decided against putting Iraqis — presumably Chalabi — in charge. Bremer considered him an egomaniac. When no W.M.D. turned up, more and more Americans came to blame Chalabi for the war. Chalabi’s association with the Americans grew more disadvantageous by the day. The break came on May 20, 2004, when the Americans, accusing Chalabi of telling the Iranian government that the Americans were eavesdropping on their secret communications, swooped in on his Baghdad compound. American troops sealed off Mansour, the neighborhood where Chalabi lived, while scores of Iraqi and American agents kicked in the compound doors. One of the Iraqis, Chalabi said, put a gun to his head. “Look, I think they tried to kill him,” Richard Perle, the former Pentagon adviser and longtime Chalabi friend, said of the American and Iraqi agents. “I think the raid on his house was intended to result in violence. They had sent 20 or 40 Humvees over there. Chalabi was being protected by a force of about 100 guys with machine guns. It is a miracle that it didn’t result in a massive shootout.” No shots were fired, but the break seemed final. Isolated, Chalabi turned to Islam — and, in particular, to Moktada al-Sadr, the Shiite cleric and leader of two armed uprisings against the Americans and the Iraqi government. Sadr is an erratic and unpredictable young man who sometimes ends his sermons with apocalyptic visions of the “hidden” 12th imam revealing himself. He is also the most popular man in Iraq. In the anarchy that ensued following the fall of Hussein, Iraqis, once known for their largely secular outlook, ran headlong toward Islam. Religion and anarchy moved together: the worse conditions got in the streets, the more Islamic Iraqis became. In the three and a half years that I have known Chalabi, I never once saw him pray. Or give any indication that he harbored religious beliefs at all. Mowaffak al-Rubaie, the Iraqi national security adviser and a devout Shiite, told me once that when he and a group of five senior Iraqi politicians visited the Imam Ali shrine in 2004, all of them prayed but Chalabi. While the others knelt, Rubaie said, Chalabi stood quietly with his hands folded in front of him. On this return visit to the Imam Ali shrine, Chalabi and his Sunni colleagues spent 10 minutes inside and exited without saying a thing. But word travels quickly down Najaf’s narrow streets, and by the time our convoy sped back to Baghdad, there were very few people in Najaf who did not know that Chalabi had come. Once, when I asked Chalabi about his flirtation with the Islamists, he answered not in terms of religion but of politics. Moktada, he explained, was not essentially dangerous but merely misunderstood, an outsider who could be coaxed into Iraq’s new democratic order. Chalabi was happy to act as the bridge, and if he benefited politically from his efforts, he was not complaining. “The Americans made a mistake when they excluded Moktada in the beginning,” Chalabi told me. “Our real business is to persuade everybody that Sadr is better inside than outside, and to provide some measure of comfort to the middle class that he is not going to eat them up.” Indeed, Chalabi and Sadr are not as unlikely a pair as they may seem. Musa al-Sadr, the late Iranian-born ayatollah and Moktada’s cousin, presided over Chalabi’s wedding in Beirut in 1971. Chalabi’s wife, Leila, is the daughter of Adel Osseiran, a leader of the Lebanese independence movement. Musa al-Sadr was the founder of Amal, which became the prototypical Shiite party in the Middle East. It seemed like a game, and not one that Chalabi liked to give away. Whenever I asked him about his coziness with Moktada, and how it squared with his own religious beliefs, I usually received a curt retort. For a time, Chalabi — and the Americans — got the better of the deal. Moktada fielded candidates in the January 2005 election, and his militia, though still untamed, fell into line behind its leader. He endorsed something less than an absolute role for Islam in the Iraqi Constitution. By early 2006, parties loyal to Sadr held the largest bloc in the Iraqi Parliament. As for Chalabi, Moktada kept him afloat a little longer. But in siding with the Islamists, Chalabi helped make them stronger than they were, and he threw his weight behind a number of trends that were only then becoming dominant: the Islamization of Iraqi society, the division of Iraq into sectarian cantons. Those trends later spiraled out of control, into the de facto civil war that is unfolding now. Some Iraqis who watched Chalabi then still don’t forgive him — and they think that ultimately, the Islamists got the better of him. “Ahmad’s problem is that Ahmad is usually the smartest man in the room, and he thinks he can control what happens,” I was told by an Iraqi official who worked with Chalabi at the time and who would speak only anonymously. “But these guys don’t care if you have a Ph.D. in math; they’ll kill you. In the end, things went way past the point where Ahmad thought they would ever go. I can’t imagine he wanted that. But he helped start it.” 3. Baghdad, October 2005 Chalabi is standing on the rooftop of his ancestral home in Khadimiya, a heavily Shiite neighborhood known for its shrine. Mansour, the area where he has lived since Hussein’s fall, has slipped into anarchy. The final round of nationwide elections is a couple of months away. For the moment, Chalabi is the deputy prime minister, behind the affable but ineffectual Ibrahim Jaafari. Across the street stand a pair of grain silos built by his father, Abdul Hadi Chalabi. Downstairs, on a wall in the sitting room, there is an old British map dating to the 1920’s, showing Baghdad, which was much smaller than it is now. North of Baghdad, in what was then farmland and what is now Khadimiya, a dot indicates a town. The dot says, “Chalabi.” At the time, Chalabi’s family owned nearly two and a half million acres throughout Iraq. Those vast holdings are reduced to the compound where Chalabi now stands. It’s about 10 acres, including the main house, which a team of workers is renovating, a large swimming pool, a grove of date palms and, in the back, a mudhif. There is a row of garages, decrepit now, where workers once serviced the machinery and trucks that brought the wheat and dates to market. “Imagine,” Chalabi says, turning to me. “And C.I.A. says I have no roots here.” Chalabi spent 45 years in exile. Under the Hashemite monarchy installed by the British after World War I, the ruling class of the new Iraq was largely made up of Sunni Muslims, as it had been under the Ottoman Turks. The Chalabis were part of the small Shiite elite; most of the rest of the Shiite majority formed a vast underclass. The remnants of that Shiite elite now form a sizable slice of the political establishment of post-Saddam Iraq. In addition to Chalabi, there is Adil Abdul Mahdi, the vice president, a Chalabi friend since boyhood; Ayad Allawi, the former president, who is a Chalabi relative by marriage; and Feisal al-Istrabadi, the deputy ambassador to the United Nations in New York. In the 1950’s, Chalabi, Mahdi and Allawi were schoolmates at Baghdad College, an elite Jesuit high school. Even in their class photos, nearly a half-century old, all three men are instantly recognizable: Mahdi, the soft-spoken intellectual; Allawi, the charming bully; and Chalabi, the boy genius in a bow tie. On July 14, 1958, King Faisal II, the British-backed monarch, was deposed and killed; a day later, the prime minister, Nuri al-Said, fled to the home of Chalabi’s sister, Thamina. She dressed Said in an abaya, the head-to-toe gown worn by women. With the army closing in, Thamina Chalabi took Said to the home of Feisal al-Istrabadi’s grandparents. Ahmad Chalabi, then 14, watched his mother and Bibiya al-Istrabadi weep as they pondered the prime minister’s fate. “Three or four hours later, Said was dead,” Chalabi told me. “He shot himself.” Chalabi fled Iraq a few months later, first for Lebanon, then England and then America, where he received a degree in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a doctorate from the University of Chicago. (Dissertation title: “Jacobson Radical of Group Algebras Over Fields Characteristic p.”) He did not return to Baghdad until April 11, 2003. Chalabi’s homecoming, after the U.S. invasion, was not the triumphant return he hoped it would be. What should have been his principal claim to legitimacy — his central role in toppling Saddam — never carried him very far; it became a liability as Iraq descended into chaos. In the new Iraq, Westernized elites carried less and less authority. Power belonged to the clerics and to the populists. And then there was the scandal at Petra Bank in Jordan, the outlines of which every Iraqi, no matter how dimly educated, seemed already to know: that Chalabi had been convicted in absentia for fraud and sentenced to 22 years in prison for embezzling almost $300 million. (Chalabi, who fled Jordan before he could be arrested, has long denied the charges, maintaining that they were cooked up by the Jordanian government under pressure from Saddam Hussein. Last year, the Jordanians signaled that they were willing to pardon Chalabi. But Chalabi insisted on a public apology, which the Jordanians refused to give.) Even the small army of Iraqi exiles that Chalabi had raised before the war never grew to be much more than a personal militia. One poll, conducted in early 2004, showed him to be the least trusted public figure in Iraq — even less trusted than Saddam Hussein. Dexter Filkins The suspicions that ordinary Iraqis harbored about Chalabi were never relieved by his industriousness. As oil minister and deputy prime minister, Chalabi worked night and day, often on the minutiae of Iraq’s oil pipelines and electricity lines or the precise wording, in Arabic and English, of the Iraqi Constitution. I typically went to see Chalabi at night, sometimes at 9 or 10, and usually had to wait an hour or so while he finished with his other visitors. If it was true that Chalabi had returned to Iraq with the expectation of acquiring power, it was not true that he was unwilling to work for it. Chalabi, like all Iraqi political leaders, functioned in conditions of mortal danger at nearly all times. Even when he wanted to walk into his backyard, he had to be followed by armed guards. It’s an exhausting and debilitating way to live. But while many Iraqi exiles either gave up and returned to the West, or now spend as much time outside the country as in, Chalabi stayed in Iraq almost continuously following Hussein’s fall. For all the hard work, his zigging and zagging across the political spectrum frustrated many of the Iraqi elites — his only natural constituency — especially after his flirtation with the Islamists. “I don’t think Chalabi has any credibility left,” Adnan Pachachi, the 83-year-old former foreign minister, told me before the 2005 elections. “He is not acceptable to Iraqis. People don’t like him shifting all the time. This thing with Moktada — it’s ridiculous.” One who remained true was his friend Mahdi, who seemed, perhaps from his boyhood days swimming in the Tigris with Chalabi, to carry a deeper understanding of his old friend. “This is the style of Ahmad,” Mahdi told me just before the elections. “He was a banker. He works a dossier. Each time it’s different — he invests here, he invests there, he invests elsewhere. He has had successes, he has had maybe his failures. I can work with him.” Chalabi never grasped his essential unpopularity. In the first round of elections, in January 2005, Chalabi rode into office as a member of the United Iraqi Alliance, the Shiite coalition pulled together by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the powerful Shiite religious leader. Nearly every Shiite in Iraq voted for the U.I.A., and a name on its slate all but guaranteed a seat in the Parliament. The leadership of the U.I.A. was sharply Islamist. Nearly a year later, as the December 2005 elections approached, Chalabi veered again, away from the Islamists, away from Moktada. Chalabi publicly chided the Shiite coalition as being too Islamic-minded, declaring he didn’t want to be a member of a government that was planning to transform Iraq into an Islamist state. By that time, of course, Iraq was already quite Islamist anyway. “They’re Islamist, and I don’t want to be part of the sectarian project,” Chalabi told me just before the elections that December. I actually believed him, but given his association with Moktada, it didn’t seem that many other Iraqis would. The reality, anyway, was more complicated. In the weeks before the election, the Shiite alliance offered Chalabi and his supporters 5 seats on its 275-seat slate; Chalabi demanded 10. Some Shiite leaders told me that they had deliberately offered Chalabi a low figure in the hope that he would leave their alliance for good. Mahdi, the vice president, denied that this was true. “For four days I tried to convince him; I even threatened him,” Mahdi told me. “I said, ‘Ahmad, if you leave this room, we will be no more friends.’ I was not serious. I was only threatening.” So Chalabi went his own way. If he had wanted only a seat for himself, he could have taken his place in the Shiite alliance; plenty of other Iraqis did. In going alone, he must have known that he was risking disaster. He went ahead anyway. A few days before the election, I drove up to Chalabi’s compound in Khadimiya for a lunch he was holding for tribal leaders. In much the same fashion as in Mushkhab 11 months before, about 100 sheiks from Sadr City listened to a Chalabi speech before descending on heaps of lamb and rice. One of the sheiks, a man named Sahaeh Masif al-Kindh, approached me as he walked out. “Chalabi didn’t forget us when we were living under Saddam,” al-Kindh told me. “He was Saddam’s biggest enemy. We don’t forget that.” 4. Washington, November 2005 The second round of Iraqi elections is only a few weeks away, and the wheel is turning again. Chalabi, once in favor, then out, is back in. Ostensibly, he has been invited to Washington by Treasury Secretary John Snow to talk about the Iraqi economy. But it’s more than that. He’s going to see Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The allegations that prompted the raid on Chalabi’s compound 18 months before, that he tipped the Iranians to American eavesdropping, are mysteriously forgotten. Indeed, everything seems to have been forgotten. Chalabi is rising on the catastrophe that Iraq has become. The Bush administration is grasping for anyone who might help them. On paper at least, Chalabi has a shot at becoming prime minister. Most of the meetings are private. There is a dinner at the home of Richard Perle for some of Chalabi’s old Washington friends. One of the events, a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, is public. The room is filled. At the end of a speech, Chalabi is asked by someone in the crowd if he would like to apologize for misleading the Bush administration about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Chalabi nods as if he knew the question was coming. “This is an urban myth,” he says. The audience gasps. Chalabi told me later that his role as an intelligence conduit on weapons of mass destruction began shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, when he was contacted by the Department of Defense. Not vice versa. “They came to us and asked, ‘Can you help us find something on Saddam?’ ” he said. “We put out feelers.” By that time, the autumn of 2001, Chalabi had a long record of working with the American government in its shadow war against Hussein. Throughout the 1990’s, however, Chalabi demonstrated time and again that he would pursue his own interests, even if they clashed with those of the United States. There was the time in 1995, for instance, when Chalabi, under the employ of the C.I.A. in the Kurdish-controlled city of Erbil, launched an unauthorized attack on Hussein’s army. The attack failed to spark an uprising against Hussein; the Turks sent troops into northern Iraq; the C.I.A. was furious. It was a fiasco. “Very quickly he got out of control,” one retired C.I.A. officer who worked with Chalabi told me. “We didn’t know what he was doing over there. He was trying to provoke a war with Saddam.” Then there was the time, in 1996, when Chalabi interfered with a C.I.A. plot to topple Saddam. I heard the story not from Chalabi but from Perle, the Bush defense adviser and Chalabi friend. As Perle tells it, Chalabi called him in a panic from London, telling him that a C.I.A.-backed plot against Hussein was fatally compromised. The fact that the C.I.A.’s Iraqi front-man for the plot, Ayad Allawi, was a rival of Chalabi’s (as well as his relative) had nothing to do with his concerns, Perle said. As Perle tells it, he quickly telephoned the C.I.A. director at the time, John Deutch, who agreed to meet in downtown Washington. Perle said he spent an hour laying out Chalabi’s worries. “He was obviously concerned,” Perle said of Deutch. The plot went ahead anyway. It was a catastrophe. Hussein arrested as many as 800 people and reportedly executed dozens of high-ranking officers. As a final indignity, Hussein’s men dialed up Allawi’s headquarters in Amman, Jordan, on a C.I.A.-provided communications device they captured from the plotters and left a message: “You might as well pack up and go home.” Some people in the C.I.A. held Chalabi responsible, believing that he had spread word of the plot in order to deny Ayad Allawi the upper hand in the exile movement. “There was abiding suspicion in the agency that Chalabi blew it,” the former C.I.A. agent said. The fallout over the failed coup precipitated the C.I.A.’s decision to break ties with Chalabi. Chalabi dismisses those claims, and some in the C.I.A. from the period back him up. “Chalabi was as true to me as the day was long,” says Robert Baer, a former C.I.A. field agent in northern Iraq. “If Chalabi was going to blow the operation, why would he tell the C.I.A.?” There was the money issue, too. Throughout the 1990’s, as the C.I.A. and Congress funneled millions of dollars to Chalabi’s organization, the Iraqi National Congress, rumors swirled about corruption. One of the skeptics was W. Patrick Lang, a senior official at the Defense Intelligence Agency. In 1995, Lang told me, he was sitting in the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, when he overheard a group of Iraqis talking about the money they had received from the American government. “I knew who these guys were, and I heard them speaking Arabic, and it was obviously Iraqi Arabic,” Lang said. “So I went over and sat next to them and listened. So what they were talking about was how to spend the Americans’ money, going on shopping trips, stuff like that. Oh, they were talking about going shopping for jewelry for women, toys for kids. Consumer goods. They were also talking about Las Vegas. ‘We will sneak out of here and go to Las Vegas. We have a lot of money now.’ ” A couple of years later, Lang said, he visited the office of Senator Trent Lott, then the Senate majority leader. After introducing an Arab businessman to Lott, Lang sat in Lott’s anteroom with a number of Capitol Hill staff members who helped draft the Iraq Liberation Act, which provided millions of dollars to Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress. They were praising Chalabi: “They were talking about him, that Chalabi fits into this plan as a very worthwhile, virtuous exemplar of modernization, somebody who could help reform first Iraq and then the Middle East. They were very pleased with themselves.” Lang, an old Middle East hand who had worked in Iraq in the 1980’s, said he was stunned. “You guys need to get out more,” Lang recalls saying at the time. “It’s a fantasy.” Years later, Lang said, many of the same men who were sitting in Lott’s office that day became key players in the Pentagon’s plans for an invasion of Iraq. Which brings us back to Chalabi’s “urban myth”: the notion that he provided bogus intelligence to the Bush administration and helped persuade them — or provide the pretext — to invade Iraq. In his speech at the American Enterprise Institute, Chalabi exhorted the audience to turn to Page 108 of the Robb-Silverman report, a recently completed blue-ribbon investigation, which, he said, exonerates him. It does, in a way. The report does not say that Chalabi & Company played an important role in the events leading to the war. It says only that the Bush administration did not rely much on intelligence Chalabi handed over in making the decision to invade. “In fact, overall, C.I.A.’s postwar investigations revealed that I.N.C.-related sources had a minimal impact on prewar assessments,” the report says. This is also Chalabi’s version. In the run-up to war, he says, he provided only three defectors to the American intelligence community. “We did not vouch for any of their information,” Chalabi told me. One of the people whom the I.N.C. made available to American intelligence was Adnan Ihsan al-Haideri, who claimed that he had worked on buildings that were used to store biological, nuclear and chemical weapons equipment. Chalabi told me that he made Haideri available to American intelligence at a safe house in Bangkok. He didn’t think much of Haideri or his information, he says, and was astonished to learn later that the information he provided became a pillar of the Americans’ charges against Hussein. “We told them, ‘We don’t know who this guy is,’ ” Chalabi said. “Then the Americans spoke to him and said, ‘This guy is the mother lode.’ Can you believe that on such a basis the United States would go to war? The intelligence community regarded the I.N.C. as useless. Why would the government believe us?” Perle, from his perch on the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Advisory Committee Board, backs Chalabi’s version. He was privy to much of the intelligence the administration was collecting on Hussein in the days before the war. He says that American intelligence officials began from the premise that Hussein had never destroyed his stocks of banned weapons and that he had kept his programs alive. American spies were only looking to confirm what they thought they already knew. In any event, Perle said, very little of their information came from Chalabi. “I had all the security clearances,” Perle said. “I was pretty much aware of the people that the I.N.C. was bringing to the table to talk about what they knew. Everything they did came with a disclaimer. To the best of my knowledge, there was no single important fact that was uniquely conveyed to U.S. intelligence by anyone who had been assisted by the I.N.C.” Indeed, Chalabi says, much of the most important evidence that led America to war did not come from the I.N.C.: not the report on the uranium from Niger, and not Curveball, the Iraqi defector who made bogus claims about mobile biological weapons labs. “It’s not our fault,” Chalabi says. But the story doesn’t end there. A second report, released by the Senate Intelligence Committee in September 2006, reached far more damning conclusions. The report states flatly that Chalabi’s group introduced defectors to American intelligence who directly influenced two key judgments in the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, which preceded the Senate vote on the Iraq war: that Hussein possessed mobile biological-weapons laboratories and that he was trying to reconstitute his nuclear program. The report said that the I.N.C. provided a large volume of flawed intelligence to the United States about Iraq, saying the group “attempted to influence United States policy on Iraq by providing false information through defectors directed at convincing the United States that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and had links to terrorists.” (Five Republican senators disagreed with the report’s conclusions about the I.N.C.) Chalabi’s denials are unconvincing for another reason. His role in the preparations for war was not just as a source for American intelligence agencies. He was America’s chief public advocate for war, spreading information gathered by his own intelligence network to newspapers, magazines, television programs and Congress. (A New York Times reporter, Judith Miller, was one of Chalabi’s primary conduits; in an e-mail message sent in 2003 that has been widely quoted since, she wrote that Chalabi “has provided most of the front-page exclusives on W.M.D. to our paper” and that the Army unit she was then traveling with was “using Chalabi’s intell and document network for its own W.M.D. work.”) Indeed, the press proved even more gullible than the intelligence experts in the American government. In a June 2002 letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee, the I.N.C. listed 108 news articles based on information provided by the group. The list included articles concerning some of the wildest claims about Hussein, including that he had collaborated in the Sept. 11 attacks. David Kay, the former chief weapons inspector in Iraq, offers one of the most compelling explanations for how pivotal Chalabi’s role was in taking America to war. Kay said that while the C.I.A. had long regarded Chalabi with suspicion, disregarding much of what he gave them, Chalabi had succeeded in persuading his more powerful friends in other parts of the government — Vice President Dick Cheney, for instance, and Wolfowitz. The pressure brought by those men, Kay told me, ultimately persuaded George Tenet, director of the C.I.A., that the White House was committed to war and that there was no point in resisting it. “In my judgment, the reason George Tenet and the top of the agency came over to the argument that Iraq had W.M.D. was that they really knew that the vice president and Wolfowitz had come to that conclusion anyway,” Kay said. “They had been getting information from Chalabi for years.” Of Wolfowitz, whom he has known for years, Kay said: “He was a true believer. He thought he had the evidence. That came from the defectors. They came from Chalabi.” Kay said he continued to feel Chalabi’s influence with Wolfowitz even after the invasion, when Kay was leading the team searching for W.M.D. from mid- to late 2003. “Paul, when faced with evidence that we had developed on the ground, would say, Well, Chalabi says this, the I.N.C. says this, why are you not seeing it?” Kellems, the Wolfowitz assistant, disputed Kay’s story, saying that Tenet’s views were shared by officials across the government. “The position taken on weapons was the consensus view of the United States, including of the Clinton administration and other Western intelligence agencies — as well as that of Mr. Kay himself prior to visiting Iraq,” Kellems said. Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell in Bush’s first term, adds a final turn to the labyrinth. In the frantic days leading up to Powell’s speech at the United Nations in February 2003, when he laid out the case for war, Wilkerson said he spent many nights sleeping on a couch in George Tenet’s office. During those preparations, Wilkerson told me, Powell insisted that every point he would make at the U.N. had to be supported by at least three independent sources. “We had three or four sources for every item that was substantive in his presentation,” Wilkerson told me in an interview in Washington. “Powell insisted on that. But what I am hearing now, though, is that a lot of these sources sort of tinged and merged back into a single source, and that inevitably that single source seems to be either recommended by, set up by, orchestrated by, introduced by, or whatever, by somebody in the I.N.C.” Wilkerson said that the revelations, some of which he says he has heard from his own friends inside American and European intelligence agencies, have forced him to rethink how America went to war. “I have maintained pretty much the same thing that the president said, ‘Well, we all got fooled, it was lousy intelligence, and no one in the national leadership spun the intelligence,’ ” Wilkerson said. “I am having to revisit that. And that is disturbing to me.” Wilkerson raises a crucial point. Assuming that Chalabi was a source for at least some of the bogus intelligence, we might ask ourselves: so what? Was the American national security apparatus so incompetent that it could be hoodwinked by a handful of shopworn engineers and an Iraqi mathematician to take the country into war? Or is the lesson more disturbing — that Chalabi simply gave the Bush administration what it wanted to hear? “I think Chalabi and the I.N.C. were very shrewd,” Wilkerson said. “I think Chalabi understood what people wanted, and he fed it to them. From everything I’ve heard, no one says he is dumb.” 5. Tehran, November 2005 Amid the debate about Chalabi’s role in taking America to war, one little-noticed phrase in a Senate Intelligence Committee report on W.M.D. offered an important insight into Chalabi’s identity. One of the principal errors made by the Bush administration in relying on Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress, the report said, was to disregard conclusions by the C.I.A. and the Defense Intelligence Agency that “the I.N.C. was penetrated by hostile intelligence services,” notably those of Iran. The Iran connection has long been among the most beguiling aspects of Chalabi’s career. Baer, the former C.I.A. operative, recalled sitting in a hotel lobby in Salah al-Din, in Kurdish-controlled Iraq, in 1995 while Chalabi met with the turbaned representatives of Iranian intelligence on the other side of the room. (Baer, as an American, was barred from meeting the Iranians.) Baer says he came to regard Chalabi as an Iranian asset, and still does. “He is basically beholden to the Iranians to stay viable,” Baer told me. “All his C.I.A. connections — he wouldn’t get away with that sort of thing with the Iranians unless he had proved his worth to them.” Pat Lang, the D.I.A. agent, holds a similar view: that in Chalabi, the Iranians probably saw someone who could help them achieve their long-sought goal of removing Saddam Hussein. After a time, in Lang’s view, the Iranians may have figured the Americans would leave and that Chalabi would most likely be in charge. Lang insists he is only speculating, but he says it has been clear to the American intelligence community for years that Chalabi has maintained “deep contacts” with Iranian officials. “Here is what I think happened,” Lang said. “Chalabi went and told the guys at the Ministry of Intelligence and Security in Tehran: ‘The Americans are giving me money. I’m their guy. I’m their candidate.’ And I’m sure their eyes lit up. The Iranians would reason that they could use this guy to manipulate the United States to get what they wanted. They would figure that the U.S. would invade. They would figure that we would come and we would go, and if we left Chalabi in charge, who was a good friend of theirs, they would be in good shape.” Lang’s thesis is impossible to prove, and Chalabi denies it. And even if it were true, Chalabi’s role would be difficult to discern: so many different Iranian agencies are thought to be pursuing so many different agendas in Iraq that a single Iranian national interest is difficult to identify. Still, if Lang’s and Baer’s argument is true, it would be the stuff of spy novels: Chalabi, the American-adopted champion of Iraqi democracy, a kind of double agent for one of America’s principal adversaries. In late 2005, I accompanied Chalabi on a trip to Iran, in part to solve the riddle. We drove eastward out of Baghdad, in a convoy as menacing as the one we had ridden in south to Mushkhab earlier in the year. After three hours of weaving and careering, the plains of eastern Iraq halted, and the terrain turned sharply upward into a thick ridge of arid mountains. We had come to Mehran, on one of history’s great fault lines, the historic border between the Ottoman and Persian Empires. As we crossed into Iran, the wreckage and ruin of modern Iraq gave way to swept streets and a tidy border post with shiny bathrooms. Another world. An Iranian cleric approached and shook Chalabi’s hand. Then he said something curious: “We are disappointed to hear that you won’t be staying in the Shiite alliance,” he said. “We were really hoping you’d stay.” The border between Iraq and Iran had, for the moment, disappeared. More curious, though, was the authority that Chalabi seemed to carry in Iran, which, after all, has been accused of assisting Iraqi insurgents and otherwise stirring up chaos there. For starters, Chalabi asked me if I wanted to come along on his Iranian trip only the night before he left — and then procured a visa for me in a single day: a Friday, during the Eid holiday, when the Iranian Embassy was closed. Under ordinary circumstances, an American reporter might wait weeks. Then there was the executive jet. When we arrived at the border, Chalabi ducked into a bathroom and changed out of his camouflage T-shirt and slacks and into a well-tailored blue suit. Then we drove to Ilam, where an 11-seat Fokker jet was idling on the runway of the local airport. We jumped in and took off for Tehran, flying over a dramatic landscape of canyons and ravines. We landed in Iran’s smoggy capital, and within a couple of hours, Chalabi was meeting with the highest officials of the Iranian government. One of them was Ali Larijani, the national security adviser. I interviewed Larijani the next morning. “Our relationship with Mr. Chalabi does not have anything to do with his relationship with the neocons,” he said. His red-rimmed eyes, when I met him at 7 a.m., betrayed a sleepless night. “He is a very constructive and influential figure. He is a very wise man and a very useful person for the future of Iraq.” Then came the meeting with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president. I was with a handful of Iranian reporters who were led into a finely appointed room just outside the president’s office. First came Chalabi, dressed in a tailored suit, beaming. Then Ahmadinejad, wearing a face of childlike bewilderment. He was dressed in imitation leather shoes and bulky white athletic socks, and a suit that looked as if it had come from a Soviet department store. Only a few days before, Ahmadinejad publicly called for the destruction of Israel. He and Chalabi, who is several inches taller, stood together for photos, then retired to a private room. At the time of Chalabi’s visit, Iran and the United States were engaged in a complicated diplomatic dance; the American ambassador in Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, had been authorized to open negotiations with the Iranians over their involvement in Iraq. Still, Chalabi insists he carried no note from the Iranians when he flew to Washington the next week. Officially, at least, Iran and the United States never got together. As ever, Chalabi had multiple agendas. One was to learn whether the Iranians would support his candidacy for the prime ministership (the same reason he traveled to the United States). It makes you wonder, in light of the Baer and Lang thesis: was Chalabi telling the Iranians, or asking them for permission? Or making a deal, based on his presumed leverage in the United States? The possibilities seemed endless. Chalabi played it cool. “The fact that Iraq’s neighbor is also a country that is majority Shia is no reason for us to accept any interference in our affairs or to compromise the integrity of Iraq,” he said after his meeting with Ahmadinejad. Richard Perle, Chalabi’s friend, discounted the idea that Chalabi might be a double agent. “Of course Chalabi has a relationship with the Iranians — you have to have a relationship with the Iranians in order to operate there,” Perle said. “The question is what kind of relationship. Is he fooling the Iranians or are the Iranians using him? I think Chalabi has been very shrewd in getting the things he has needed over the years out of the Iranians without giving anything in return.” For all of the skullduggery surrounding the trip to Iran, though, the greatest revelation came later in the day. When the meeting with Ahmadinejad ended, he asked Chalabi if there was anything he could to do to make his stay more comfortable. Chalabi said yes, in fact, there was: would he mind if he, Chalabi, took a tour of the Museum of Contemporary Art? So there we were, in the middle of the Axis of Evil, strolling past one of the finest collections of Western Modern art outside Europe and the United States: Matisse, Kandinsky, Rothko, Gauguin, Pollock, Klee, Van Gogh, five Warhols, seven Picassos and a sprawling garden of sculpture outside. The collection was assembled by Queen Farah, the shah’s wife, with the monarchy’s vast oil wealth. And now, with the mullahs in charge, the museum is largely forgotten. The day we were there, the gallery was all but empty. We had the museum’s enthusiastic English-speaking tour guide all to ourselves. “Thank you, thank you, for coming!” Noreen Motamed exclaimed, clapping her hands. We walked the empty halls. Chalabi moved through the place deliberately, nodding his head, pausing at the Degas and the Pissarro. “Wow,” Chalabi said before Jesus Rafael Soto’s painting “Canada.” “Look at that.” A retinue of Iranian officials walked with us, unmoved by the splendor. Ahmadinejad had stayed behind. For all of the furies that emanate from the halls of the Iranian government, it has taken fine care of Queen Farah’s collection. Indeed, about the only way you would know you were not in a museum in New York or London was the absence of the middle panel from Francis Bacon’s triptych “Two Figures Lying on a Bed With Attendant,” which depicts two naked men. “It is in the basement, covered,” Motamed said with disappointed eyes. Finally, we came across a pair of paintings by Marc Chagall, the 20th-century Modernist and painter of Jewish life. The display contained no mention of this fact. Chalabi gazed at the Chagalls for a time. Then, with a rueful smile, turned, to no one in particular, and said loudly: “Imagine that. They have two paintings by Marc Chagall in the middle of a museum in Tehran.” The Iranian officials seemed not to hear. 6. Baghdad, December 2005 A winter rain is falling. Chalabi is standing inside a tent in Sadr City, the vast Shiite slum of eastern Baghdad. He’s talking about his plans for restoring electricity, boosting oil production and beating the insurgency. People seem to be listening, but without enthusiasm. The violence here, worsening by the day, is washing away the hopes of ordinary Iraqis. Less and less seems possible anymore. People are retreating inward, you can see it in the glaze in their eyes. As Chalabi speaks, I pull aside one of the Iraqis who had been listening. What do you think of him? I ask. “Chalabi good good,” the Iraqi man says in halting English. Whom are you going to vote for? “The Shiite alliance, of course,” the Iraqi answers. “It is the duty of all Shiite people.” When the election came, Chalabi was wiped out. His Iraqi National Congress received slightly more than 30,000 votes, only one-quarter of 1 percent of the 12 million votes cast — not enough to put even one of them, not even Chalabi, in the new Iraqi Parliament. There was grumbling in the Chalabi camp. One of his associates said of the Shiite alliance: “We know they cheated. You know how we know? Because in one area we had 5,000 forged ballots, and when they were counted, we didn’t even get that many.” He shrugged. But the truth seemed clear enough: Chalabi was finished. Chalabi, who could plausibly claim that he, more than any other Iraqi, had made the election possible, had been shunned by the very people he had worked so hard to set free. No amount of deal making or of public relations foot-work, or of endorsements from friends, was able to save him. Chalabi may have helped bring democracy to Iraq, but it was democracy that finished him. He was, in the end, a parlor politician, someone from the world of his father or grandfather, or maybe of Victorian England: a brilliant negotiator and schemer who might settle a country’s problems over a cup of tea. But in Iraq, by late 2005, real power was no longer held by the parlor men, or by politicians at all. It was held by people like Moktada al-Sadr, populist leaders with a militia and a mass following in the street. The election results were a harbinger of the civil war. Iraqis voted almost entirely along sectarian and ethnic lines: Kurds for the big Kurdish parties, Sunnis for the Sunni parties and Shiites for the big Islamist Shiite alliance. Iraqis who tried to run on a secular platform — Chalabi, for instance, and his relative, Allawi, in another party — found themselves abandoned. Just two months later, in February of this year, following the destruction of the Askariya shrine, a holy Shiite temple in Samarra, the civil war began in earnest: Shiite gunmen, who had for years been restrained by the Shiite leadership in the face of the Sunni onslaught, were finally free to retaliate. Chalabi, shut out of the government, claimed that his sin was one of miscalculation. There was some truth to this: in all likelihood, Chalabi did not lose because he had been convicted of stealing millions of dollars from a Jordanian bank. Or because of the rumors swirling around Baghdad that he had looted the treasury. Or even because he was an exile close to the Americans. No: plenty of Westernized Iraqi exiles were elected to Parliament — among them Mowaffak al-Rubaie and Adil Abdul Mahdi — who, like Chalabi, didn’t have local followings and were trailed by similar questions. Practically speaking, Chalabi lost because he had broken from the big cleric-backed Shiite alliance that swept the election. “I had not realized how polarized Iraq had become,” Chalabi told me after the election. He might have gotten a seat in the cabinet, but that didn’t work out, either. That stung: the new Iraqi government is staffed with Chalabi’s old colleagues, many of them members of the exile alliance he once led. Jalal Talabani is president. Adil Abdul Mahdi, his boyhood friend, is vice president. Barham Salih, comrade of many years, is deputy prime minister. His old confidant Zalmay Khalilzad, who played a central role in forming the new government, is the American ambassador. In the end, they couldn’t — or wouldn’t — bring him aboard. “Chalabi really made a mess of things,” said one Iraqi political leader who now occupies a key post in the government. He declined to elaborate. As anticlimactic as was Chalabi’s fall, its real meaning lay in a paradox: democratic politics no longer mattered. For three years, the American-backed enterprise in Iraq rested on the assumption that the exercise of democratic politics would drain away the anger that was driving the violence. Instead of bullets, there would be ballots. But at the culmination of that long process — two constitutions, two elections and a referendum — the violence was worse than ever. It turns out that democratic politics does not stop violence; indeed, the elections, by polarizing Iraq’s sectarian and ethnic communities, may have helped push the country into civil war. Effectively, by the fall of 2006, the overwhelming majority of Iraq had no government at all. It was a failed state. Yes, there were Iraqis — Chalabi’s friends — who went to their jobs every day, toiling dutifully and not so dutifully inside the Green Zone, which every day seemed more and more divorced from the reality outside. In the Red Zone, as the real Iraq is called, Iraq was a nightmarish, apocalyptic place, where gunmen kidnapped children and sometimes killed them, where bodies turned up at the morgue peppered by holes from electric drills and corpses lay uncollected in the streets, along with the trash, for days on end. Ahmad Chalabi devoted his whole adult life to toppling a dictator and achieving power in the place of his birth. He felled the dictator, helping along a reckless gamble that wagered the future of a nation. The gamble failed, a nation imploded and Chalabi never ascended to the throne he so coveted. But in an odd turn of fortune, the throne no longer had anything to offer. 7. London, August 2006 The conversation is wrapping up. The talk turns to the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, the machinations of those around him, what the future might hold. Chalabi, in an expansive mood, gets up, goes into a closet and brings out a note that Bob Baer, the C.I.A. agent, scribbled to him in that hotel lobby when the two men plotted a coup many years before. The talk, improbably, turns to memoirs; at the moment, Baer’s, “See No Evil,” was a best seller. I ask Chalabi, who is back on the couch, if it isn’t time that he write his own. He doesn’t hesitate to answer. “Too early!” Chalabi says. “Too early!”

so christians, you like to know how wonderful your religion is? why do you still devote yourself to this evil? Ancient Pagans * As soon as Christianity was legal (315), more and more pagan temples were destroyed by Christian mob. Pagan priests were killed. * Between 315 and 6th century thousands of pagan believers were slain. * Examples of destroyed Temples: the Sanctuary of Aesculap in Aegaea, the Temple of Aphrodite in Golgatha, Aphaka in Lebanon, the Heliopolis. * Christian priests such as Mark of Arethusa or Cyrill of Heliopolis were famous as "temple destroyer." [DA468] * Pagan services became punishable by death in 356. [DA468] * Christian Emperor Theodosius (408-450) even had children executed, because they had been playing with remains of pagan statues. [DA469] According to Christian chroniclers he "followed meticulously all Christian teachings..." * In 6th century pagans were declared void of all rights. * In the early fourth century the philosopher Sopatros was executed on demand of Christian authorities. [DA466] * The world famous female philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria was torn to pieces with glass fragments by a hysterical Christian mob led by a Christian minister named Peter, in a church, in 415. [DO19-25] Mission * Emperor Karl (Charlemagne) in 782 had 4500 Saxons, unwilling to convert to Christianity, beheaded. [DO30] * Peasants of Steding (Germany) unwilling to pay suffocating church taxes: between 5,000 and 11,000 men, women and children slain 5/27/1234 near Altenesch/Germany. [WW223] * Battle of Belgrad 1456: 80,000 Turks slaughtered. [DO235] * 15th century Poland: 1019 churches and 17987 villages plundered by Knights of the Order. Victims unknown. [DO30] * 16th and 17th century Ireland. English troops "pacified and civilized" Ireland, where only Gaelic "wild Irish", "unreasonable beasts lived without any knowledge of God or good manners, in common of their goods, cattle, women, children and every other thing." One of the more successful soldiers, a certain Humphrey Gilbert, half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, ordered that "the heddes of all those (of what sort soever thei were) which were killed in the daie, should be cutte off from their bodies... and should bee laied on the ground by eche side of the waie", which effort to civilize the Irish indeed caused "greate terrour to the people when thei sawe the heddes of their dedde fathers, brothers, children, kinsfolke, and freinds on the grounde". Tens of thousands of Gaelic Irish fell victim to the carnage. [SH99, 225] Crusades (1095-1291) * First Crusade: 1095 on command of pope Urban II. [WW11-41] * Semlin/Hungary 6/24/96 thousands slain. Wieselburg/Hungary 6/12/96 thousands. [WW23] * 9/9/96-9/26/96 Nikaia, Xerigordon (then turkish), thousands respectively. [WW25-27] * Until Jan 1098 a total of 40 capital cities and 200 castles conquered (number of slain unknown) [WW30] * after 6/3/98 Antiochia (then turkish) conquered, between 10,000 and 60,000 slain. 6/28/98 100,000 Turks (incl. women & children) killed. [WW32-35] Here the Christians "did no other harm to the women found in [the enemy's] tents - save that they ran their lances through their bellies," according to Christian chronicler Fulcher of Chartres. [EC60] * Marra (Maraat an-numan) 12/11/98 thousands killed. Because of the subsequent famine "the already stinking corpses of the enemies were eaten by the Christians" said chronicler Albert Aquensis. [WW36] * Jerusalem conquered 7/15/1099 more than 60,000 victims (jewish, muslim, men, women, children). [WW37-40] (In the words of one witness: "there [in front of Solomon's temple] was such a carnage that our people were wading ankle-deep in the blood of our foes", and after that "happily and crying for joy our people marched to our Saviour's tomb, to honour it and to pay off our debt of gratitude") * The Archbishop of Tyre, eye-witness, wrote: "It was impossible to look upon the vast numbers of the slain without horror; everywhere lay fragments of human bodies, and the very ground was covered with the blood of the slain. It was not alone the spectacle of headless bodies and mutilated limbs strewn in all directions that roused the horror of all who looked upon them. Still more dreadful was it to gaze upon the victors themselves, dripping with blood from head to foot, an ominous sight which brought terror to all who met them. It is reported that within the Temple enclosure alone about ten thousand infidels perished." [TG79] * Christian chronicler Eckehard of Aura noted that "even the following summer in all of palestine the air was polluted by the stench of decomposition". One million victims of the first crusade alone. [WW41] * Battle of Askalon, 8/12/1099. 200,000 heathens slaughtered "in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ". [WW45] * Fourth crusade: 4/12/1204 Constantinople sacked, number of victims unknown, numerous thousands, many of them Christian. [WW141-148] * Rest of Crusades in less detail: until the fall of Akkon 1291 probably 20 million victims (in the Holy land and Arab/Turkish areas alone). [WW224] Note: All figures according to contemporary (Christian) chroniclers. Heretics * Already in 385 C.E. the first Christians, the Spanish Priscillianus and six followers, were beheaded for heresy in Trier/Germany [DO26] * Manichaean heresy: a crypto-Christian sect decent enough to practice birth control (and thus not as irresponsible as faithful Catholics) was exterminated in huge campaigns all over the Roman empire between 372 C.E. and 444 C.E. Numerous thousands of victims. [NC] * Albigensians: the first Crusade intended to slay other Christians. [DO29] The Albigensians (cathars = Christians allegedly that have all rarely sucked) viewed themselves as good Christians, but would not accept roman Catholic rule, and taxes, and prohibition of birth control. [NC] Begin of violence: on command of pope Innocent III (greatest single pre-nazi mass murderer) in 1209. Bezirs (today France) 7/22/1209 destroyed, all the inhabitants were slaughtered. Victims (including Catholics refusing to turn over their heretic neighbours and friends) 20,000-70,000. [WW179-181] * Carcassonne 8/15/1209, thousands slain. Other cities followed. [WW181] * subsequent 20 years of war until nearly all Cathars (probably half the population of the Languedoc, today southern France) were exterminated. [WW183] * After the war ended (1229) the Inquisition was founded 1232 to search and destroy surviving/hiding heretics. Last Cathars burned at the stake 1324. [WW183] * Estimated one million victims (cathar heresy alone), [WW183] * Other heresies: Waldensians, Paulikians, Runcarians, Josephites, and many others. Most of these sects exterminated, (I believe some Waldensians live today, yet they had to endure 600 years of persecution) I estimate at least hundred thousand victims (including the Spanish inquisition but excluding victims in the New World). * Spanish Inquisitor Torquemada alone allegedly responsible for 10,220 burnings. [DO28] * John Huss, a critic of papal infallibility and indulgences, was burned at the stake in 1415. [LI475-522] * University professor B.Hubmaier burned at the stake 1538 in Vienna. [DO59] * Giordano Bruno, Dominican monk, after having been incarcerated for seven years, was burned at the stake for heresy on the Campo dei Fiori (Rome) on 2/17/1600. Witches * from the beginning of Christianity to 1484 probably more than several thousand. * in the era of witch hunting (1484-1750) according to modern scholars several hundred thousand (about 80% female) burned at the stake or hanged. [WV] * incomplete list of documented cases: The Burning of Witches - A Chronicle of the Burning Times Religious Wars * 15th century: Crusades against Hussites, thousands slain. [DO30] * 1538 pope Paul III declared Crusade against apostate England and all English as slaves of Church (fortunately had not power to go into action). [DO31] * 1568 Spanish Inquisition Tribunal ordered extermination of 3 million rebels in (then Spanish) Netherlands. Thousands were actually slain. [DO31] * 1572 In France about 20,000 Huguenots were killed on command of pope Pius V. Until 17th century 200,000 flee. [DO31] * 17th century: Catholics slay Gaspard de Coligny, a Protestant leader. After murdering him, the Catholic mob mutilated his body, "cutting off his head, his hands, and his genitals... and then dumped him into the river [...but] then, deciding that it was not worthy of being food for the fish, they hauled it out again [... and] dragged what was left ... to the gallows of Montfaulcon, 'to be meat and carrion for maggots and crows'." [SH191] * 17th century: Catholics sack the city of Magdeburg/Germany: roughly 30,000 Protestants were slain. "In a single church fifty women were found beheaded," reported poet Friedrich Schiller, "and infants still sucking the breasts of their lifeless mothers." [SH191] * 17th century 30 years' war (Catholic vs. Protestant): at least 40% of population decimated, mostly in Germany. [DO31-32] Jews * Already in the 4th and 5th centuries synagogues were burned by Christians. Number of Jews slain unknown. * In the middle of the fourth century the first synagogue was destroyed on command of bishop Innocentius of Dertona in Northern Italy. The first synagogue known to have been burned down was near the river Euphrat, on command of the bishop of Kallinikon in the year 388. [DA450] * 17. Council of Toledo 694: Jews were enslaved, their property confiscated, and their children forcibly baptized. [DA454] * The Bishop of Limoges (France) in 1010 had the cities' Jews, who would not convert to Christianity, expelled or killed. [DA453] * First Crusade: Thousands of Jews slaughtered 1096, maybe 12.000 total. Places: Worms 5/18/1096, Mainz 5/27/1096 (1100 persons), Cologne, Neuss, Altenahr, Wevelinghoven, Xanten, Moers, Dortmund, Kerpen, Trier, Metz, Regensburg, Prag and others (All locations Germany except Metz/France, Prag/Czech) [EJ] * Second Crusade: 1147. Several hundred Jews were slain in Ham, Sully, Carentan, and Rameru (all locations in France). [WW57] * Third Crusade: English Jewish communities sacked 1189/90. [DO40] * Fulda/Germany 1235: 34 Jewish men and women slain. [DO41] * 1257, 1267: Jewish communities of London, Canterbury, Northampton, Lincoln, Cambridge, and others exterminated. [DO41] * 1290 in Bohemian (Poland) allegedly 10,000 Jews killed. [DO41] * 1337 Starting in Deggendorf/Germany a Jew-killing craze reaches 51 towns in Bavaria, Austria, Poland. [DO41] * 1348 All Jews of Basel/Switzerland and Strasbourg/France (two thousand) burned. [DO41] * 1349 In more than 350 towns in Germany all Jews murdered, mostly burned alive (in this one year more Jews were killed than Christians in 200 years of ancient Roman persecution of Christians). [DO42] * 1389 In Prag 3,000 Jews were slaughtered. [DO42] * 1391 Seville's Jews killed (Archbishop Martinez leading). 4,000 were slain, 25,000 sold as slaves. [DA454] Their identification was made easy by the brightly colored "badges of shame" that all jews above the age of ten had been forced to wear. * 1492: In the year Columbus set sail to conquer a New World, more than 150,000 Jews were expelled from Spain, many died on their way: 6/30/1492. [MM470-476] * 1648 Chmielnitzki massacres: In Poland about 200,000 Jews were slain. [DO43] (I feel sick ...) this goes on and on, century after century, right into the kilns of Auschwitz. Native Peoples * Beginning with Columbus (a former slave trader and would-be Holy Crusader) the conquest of the New World began, as usual understood as a means to propagate Christianity. * Within hours of landfall on the first inhabited island he encountered in the Caribbean, Columbus seized and carried off six native people who, he said, "ought to be good servants ... [and] would easily be made Christians, because it seemed to me that they belonged to no religion." [SH200] While Columbus described the Indians as "idolators" and "slaves, as many as [the Crown] shall order," his pal Michele de Cuneo, Italian nobleman, referred to the natives as "beasts" because "they eat when they are hungry," and made love "openly whenever they feel like it." [SH204-205] * On every island he set foot on, Columbus planted a cross, "making the declarations that are required" - the requerimiento - to claim the ownership for his Catholic patrons in Spain. And "nobody objected." If the Indians refused or delayed their acceptance (or understanding), the requerimiento continued: I certify to you that, with the help of God, we shall powerfully enter in your country and shall make war against you ... and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church ... and shall do you all mischief that we can, as to vassals who do not obey and refuse to receive their lord and resist and contradict him." [SH66] * Likewise in the words of John Winthrop, first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony: "justifieinge the undertakeres of the intended Plantation in New England ... to carry the Gospell into those parts of the world, ... and to raise a Bulworke against the kingdome of the Ante-Christ." [SH235] * In average two thirds of the native population were killed by colonist-imported smallpox before violence began. This was a great sign of "the marvelous goodness and providence of God" to the Christians of course, e.g. the Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony wrote in 1634, as "for the natives, they are near all dead of the smallpox, so as the Lord hath cleared our title to what we possess." [SH109,238] * On Hispaniola alone, on Columbus visits, the native population (Arawak), a rather harmless and happy people living on an island of abundant natural resources, a literal paradise, soon mourned 50,000 dead. [SH204] * The surviving Indians fell victim to rape, murder, enslavement and spanish raids. * As one of the culprits wrote: "So many Indians died that they could not be counted, all through the land the Indians lay dead everywhere. The stench was very great and pestiferous." [SH69] * The indian chief Hatuey fled with his people but was captured and burned alive. As "they were tying him to the stake a Franciscan friar urged him to take Jesus to his heart so that his soul might go to heaven, rather than descend into hell. Hatuey replied that if heaven was where the Christians went, he would rather go to hell." [SH70] * What happened to his people was described by an eyewitness: "The Spaniards found pleasure in inventing all kinds of odd cruelties ... They built a long gibbet, long enough for the toes to touch the ground to prevent strangling, and hanged thirteen [natives] at a time in honor of Christ Our Saviour and the twelve Apostles... then, straw was wrapped around their torn bodies and they were burned alive." [SH72] Or, on another occasion: "The Spaniards cut off the arm of one, the leg or hip of another, and from some their heads at one stroke, like butchers cutting up beef and mutton for market. Six hundred, including the cacique, were thus slain like brute beasts...Vasco [de Balboa] ordered forty of them to be torn to pieces by dogs." [SH83] * The "island's population of about eight million people at the time of Columbus's arrival in 1492 already had declined by a third to a half before the year 1496 was out." Eventually all the island's natives were exterminated, so the Spaniards were "forced" to import slaves from other caribbean islands, who soon suffered the same fate. Thus "the Caribbean's millions of native people [were] thereby effectively liquidated in barely a quarter of a century". [SH72-73] "In less than the normal lifetime of a single human being, an entire culture of millions of people, thousands of years resident in their homeland, had been exterminated." [SH75] * "And then the Spanish turned their attention to the mainland of Mexico and Central America. The slaughter had barely begun. The exquisite city of Tenochtitln [Mexico city] was next." [SH75] * Cortez, Pizarro, De Soto and hundreds of other spanish conquistadors likewise sacked southern and mesoamerican civilizations in the name of Christ (De Soto also sacked Florida). * "When the 16th century ended, some 200,000 Spaniards had moved to the Americas. By that time probably more than 60,000,000 natives were dead." [SH95] Of course no different were the founders of what today is the US of Amerikkka. * Although none of the settlers would have survived winter without native help, they soon set out to expel and exterminate the Indians. Warfare among (north American) Indians was rather harmless, in comparison to European standards, and was meant to avenge insults rather than conquer land. In the words of some of the pilgrim fathers: "Their Warres are farre less bloudy...", so that there usually was "no great slawter of nether side". Indeed, "they might fight seven yeares and not kill seven men." What is more, the Indians usually spared women and children. [SH111] * In the spring of 1612 some English colonists found life among the (generally friendly and generous) natives attractive enough to leave Jamestown - "being idell ... did runne away unto the Indyans," - to live among them (that probably solved a sex problem). "Governor Thomas Dale had them hunted down and executed: 'Some he apointed (sic) to be hanged Some burned Some to be broken upon wheles, others to be staked and some shott to deathe'." [SH105] Of course these elegant measures were restricted for fellow englishmen: "This was the treatment for those who wished to act like Indians. For those who had no choice in the matter, because they were the native people of Virginia" methods were different: "when an Indian was accused by an Englishman of stealing a cup and failing to return it, the English response was to attack the natives in force, burning the entire community" down. [SH105] * On the territory that is now Massachusetts the founding fathers of the colonies were committing genocide, in what has become known as the "Peqout War". The killers were New England Puritan Christians, refugees from persecution in their own home country England. * When however, a dead colonist was found, apparently killed by Narragansett Indians, the Puritan colonists wanted revenge. Despite the Indian chief's pledge they attacked. Somehow they seem to have lost the idea of what they were after, because when they were greeted by Pequot Indians (long-time foes of the Narragansetts) the troops nevertheless made war on the Pequots and burned their villages. The puritan commander-in-charge John Mason after one massacre wrote: "And indeed such a dreadful Terror did the Almighty let fall upon their Spirits, that they would fly from us and run into the very Flames, where many of them perished ... God was above them, who laughed his Enemies and the Enemies of his People to Scorn, making them as a fiery Oven ... Thus did the Lord judge among the Heathen, filling the Place with dead Bodies": men, women, children. [SH113-114] * So "the Lord was pleased to smite our Enemies in the hinder Parts, and to give us their land for an inheritance". [SH111]. * Because of his readers' assumed knowledge of Deuteronomy, there was no need for Mason to quote the words that immediately follow: "Thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth. But thou shalt utterly destroy them..." (Deut 20) * Mason's comrade Underhill recalled how "great and doleful was the bloody sight to the view of the young soldiers" yet reassured his readers that "sometimes the Scripture declareth women and children must perish with their parents". [SH114] * Other Indians were killed in successful plots of poisoning. The colonists even had dogs especially trained to kill Indians and to devour children from their mothers breasts, in the colonists' own words: "blood Hounds to draw after them, and Mastives to seaze them." (This was inspired by spanish methods of the time) In this way they continued until the extermination of the Pequots was near. [SH107-119] * The surviving handful of Indians "were parceled out to live in servitude. John Endicott and his pastor wrote to the governor asking for 'a share' of the captives, specifically 'a young woman or girle and a boy if you thinke good'." [SH115] * Other tribes were to follow the same path. * Comment the Christian exterminators: "God's Will, which will at last give us cause to say: How Great is His Goodness! and How Great is his Beauty!" "Thus doth the Lord Jesus make them to bow before him, and to lick the Dust!" [TA] * Like today, lying was OK to Christians then. "Peace treaties were signed with every intention to violate them: when the Indians 'grow secure uppon (sic) the treatie', advised the Council of State in Virginia, 'we shall have the better Advantage both to surprise them, & cutt downe theire Corne'." [SH106] * In 1624 sixty heavily armed Englishmen cut down 800 defenseless Indian men, women and children. [SH107] * In a single massacre in "King Philip's War" of 1675 and 1676 some "600 Indians were destroyed. A delighted Cotton Mather, revered pastor of the Second Church in Boston, later referred to the slaughter as a 'barbeque'." [SH115] * To summarize: Before the arrival of the English, the western Abenaki people in New Hampshire and Vermont had numbered 12,000. Less than half a century later about 250 remained alive - a destruction rate of 98%. The Pocumtuck people had numbered more than 18,000, fifty years later they were down to 920 - 95% destroyed. The Quiripi-Unquachog people had numbered about 30,000, fifty years later they were down to 1500 - 95% destroyed. The Massachusetts people had numbered at least 44,000, fifty years later barely 6000 were alive - 81% destroyed. [SH118] These are only a few examples of the multitude of tribes living before Christian colonists set their foot on the New World. All this was before the smallpox epidemics of 1677 and 1678 had occurred. And the carnage was not over then. * All the above was only the beginning of the European colonization, it was before the frontier age actually had begun. * A total of maybe more than 150 million Indians (of both Americas) were destroyed in the period of 1500 to 1900, as an average two thirds by smallpox and other epidemics, that leaves some 50 million killed directly by violence, bad treatment and slavery. * In many countries, such as Brazil, and Guatemala, this continues even today. More Glorious events in US history * Reverend Solomon Stoddard, one of New England's most esteemed religious leaders, in "1703 formally proposed to the Massachusetts Governor that the colonists be given the financial wherewithal to purchase and train large packs of dogs 'to hunt Indians as they do bears'." [SH241] * Massacre of Sand Creek, Colorado 11/29/1864. Colonel John Chivington, a former Methodist minister and still elder in the church ("I long to be wading in gore") had a Cheyenne village of about 600, mostly women and children, gunned down despite the chiefs' waving with a white flag: 400-500 killed. From an eye-witness account: "There were some thirty or forty squaws collected in a hole for protection; they sent out a little girl about six years old with a white flag on a stick; she had not proceeded but a few steps when she was shot and killed. All the squaws in that hole were afterwards killed ..." [SH131] More gory details. * By the 1860s, "in Hawai'i the Reverend Rufus Anderson surveyed the carnage that by then had reduced those islands' native population by 90 percent or more, and he declined to see it as tragedy; the expected total die-off of the Hawaiian population was only natural, this missionary said, somewhat equivalent to 'the amputation of diseased members of the body'." [SH244]

What happened to Margie Schoedinger? The Strange Death of the Woman Who Filed a Rape Lawsuit Against Bush By Jackson Thoreau opednews.com Early one Saturday afternoon in July 2003, I made a simple phone call to Margie Schoedinger, a Texas woman who filed a rape lawsuit against George W. Bush in December 2002. I expected to leave a message on a machine, so I was caught a little offguard when Schoedinger answered. She, too, sounded somewhat surprised I had called, saying she hadn't heard from many other reporters. But she talked to me for a few minutes about the legal action. "I am still trying to prosecute [the lawsuit]," said Schoedinger, a 38-year-old African-American woman who lived in the Houston suburb of Missouri City. "I want to get this matter settled and go on with my life." Well, Schoedinger hasn't gone on with her life. In fact, three months after I spoke to her, she died in an apparent suicide. And this matter remains unsettled. When I asked her in July 2003 about the lack of media coverage, Schoedinger said she wasn't seeking publicity. She said she did not even know about a December 2002 article in the Fort Bend Star, the only U.S. mainstream media outlet that covered this story, to my knowledge. The Fort Bend reporter, LeaAnne Klentzman, said she even went to Schoedinger's home and talked to a man there, who said she could not come to door. While I reached and spoke to Schoedinger on my first attempt, maybe she wasn't ready to talk back in December. Anyways, Schoedinger said she was surprised the case wasn't covered more because "it is true......People have to be accountable for what they do, and that's why I'm pursuing it." To be sure, Schoedinger's accusations - which include being drugged and sexually assaulted numerous times by Bush and other men purporting to be FBI agents - are bizarre and hard for most people to believe. But her story fits in with those told by a growing number of people who say they were used as guinea pigs or whatever by members of the CIA or another U.S. agency who wanted to test out the latest mind-controlling drug or just have a strange form of release. And her death - let's just say government agents have made murders look like suicides before. In her court petition, Schoedinger said police in Sugar Land, another Houston suburb where she said some assailants linked to Bush attempted to unsuccessfully abduct her from her car shortly before the 2000 election, refused to take a report or do anything about that incident. She filed a lawsuit against the Sugar Land department and said that in preparing its defense, Sugar Land police found out that she dated Bush as a minor. I didn't get a chance to ask Schoedinger about that tie and didn't meet her in person, but her driver's license listed her as being 5-foot-8 and weighing 125 pounds, for what that's worth. The Fort Bend Star story quoted a Sugar Land police captain saying his department had no record of any complaints by Schoedinger. All he had to do was what I did - go to the Fort Bend County Internet site and do a simple search on Schoedinger's name in the area of civil court records. I found the lawsuit Schoedinger filed in December 2000 against Sugar Land police, and it even had numerous responses by the department's attorneys in that case. Just wait. This story gets stranger. When I started asking Schoedinger about certain details of the case, such as alleged surveillance at her home and if she was still legally representing herself, she politely ended our conversation. "I need to see what has been written," Schoedinger said. "I feel like it's best for me to end our conversation." Obviously, she had learned to be careful about what she said and to whom she said it. I could understand her being leery about talking about her situation with a stranger over the phone. But I remember being puzzled by Schoedinger's attitude after hanging up the phone. I wondered that if she had made up such a wild story, why she didn't come up with something a little less outlandish, in which people couldn't necessarily dismiss her as a kook. I wondered why she didn't seek publicity to at least provide some form of protection. I've long learned that being as public as possible is one of your best defenses against rogue intelligence agents. But she didn't even seem to want any media to cover her story. I told several writers I knew, some of whom tried to contact Schoedinger. None succeeded, as far as I know. I remember thinking, "I hope she doesn't wind up on the wrong side of a gun." And sure enough, in late September, Schoedinger did. The Houston Chronicle wrote a bare-bones obituary that stated only that Schoedinger "expired" on Sept. 22, 2003, and her burial was at Houston Memorial Gardens. I called the Harris County Medical Examiner's office, and a clerk told me the cause of death: a "suicide" by a "gunshot wound to the head." I hung up amid bombs going off in my mind. For one, using a gun to commit suicide is predominantly executed by males, according to psychiatrists and other sources like pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co. Women are more likely to overdose on drugs, although the number of gunshot suicides among women has increased in recent years. Besides Pravda and Internet ezines - one of whom referred to Schoedinger as "deranged" - I haven't seen stories on this strange death of a woman who filed a rape lawsuit against the U.S. president and wound up dead nine months later. I can't say I'm surprised. Or even angry. I don't know what the hell to think. All I know is I was one of the last - if not the last - reporters to speak to Schoedinger, and she didn't sound "deranged" to me in July 2003. She sounded like someone who had gone through something weird and was trying to sort it out. She sounded like someone who wanted the truth to come out. And now she's dead. If this had happened to Clinton when he was in the White House, do you think the story would have been covered non-stop on FOX, CNN and the right-wing talk shows? Do you think we'd have reporters asking Clinton and his people about this death in press conferences? Is FOX unfair and imbalanced to the point of being "deranged?" There are some more odd twists to this case. I also found a 2002 criminal case related to Schoedinger in which Christopher Schoedinger, her husband, allegedly struck her. He pleaded no contest and was sentenced to a year in jail. Christopher Schoedinger had also filed for divorce. Then since 1997, Margie Schoedinger had filed for at least five assumed business names for various ventures - including a communications firm, health and beauty business, travel agency and publishing company. Could a "deranged" person start all those businesses or even know how to file a lawsuit? Schoedinger's lawsuit can still be viewed on the Fort Bend County site at http://ccweb.co.fort-bend.tx.us/localization/menu.asp - then go down to the bottom and click on civil court. Then type "schoedinger" in the plaintiff box and click search. You should find another lawsuit she filed against Sugar Land police, as well. I can really understand media members being intimidated, even frightened, of the Bush administration. As I've detailed before, these are not Boy Scouts running the show. The Schoedinger death is just the latest in a string of strange ones surrounding the Bush family - Bush biographer J.H. Hatfield, Sen. Paul Wellstone, Sen. Mel Carnahan, and others that are detailed on various sites, including at http://members.boardhost.com/gwbush/msg/362.html . For the record, I contacted Bush's media office about Schoedinger and have yet to hear back. Now that I live in the Washington, D.C., area, I can go down to the White House in person and try to get someone to speak to me about this case. As expected, I haven't had much luck with the Fort Bend County and other Texas authorities. So maybe I'll stand outside the White House, holding a sign saying, "Who killed Margie Schoedinger?" and passing out copies of my column on the case. It would make about as much sense as anything else in this matter. For all I know, maybe Schoedinger did kill herself. Maybe she dreamed up a lot of this stuff. But I don't know, am I "deranged" to think it's weird that in this mass-media, detailed-information age, so few people are even asking any questions about how a woman who filed a rape lawsuit against the president could be dead less than a year later? Jackson Thoreau is an American writer and co-author of We Will Not Get Over It: Restoring a Legitimate White House. The updated, 120,000-word electronic book can be downloaded on his Internet site at http://www.geocities.com/jacksonthor/ebook.html. Citizens for Legitimate Government has the earlier version at http://www.legitgov.org/we_will_not_get_over_it.html. He can be contacted at jacksonthor@yahoo.com or jacksonthor@justice.com .

For Muslims ONLY Plz. I would just like to know how you feel about...? ...this article... "Do not follow anyone blindly in those matters of which you have no knowledge, surely the use of your ears and eyes and heart - all of these, shall be questioned on the Day of Judgement." By Yvonne Ridley The Muslim Observer LONDON–I used to look at veiled women as quiet, oppressed creatures–until I was captured in Afghanistan. In September 2001, just 15 days after the terrorist attacks on the United States, I snuck into Afghanistan, clad in a head-to-toe blue burqa, intending to write a newspaper account of life under the repressive regime. Instead, I was discovered, arrested and detained for 10 days. I spat and swore at my captors; they called me a "bad" woman but let me go after I promised to read the Koran and study Islam. (Frankly, I’m not sure who was happier when I was freed — they or I.) Back home in London, I kept my word about studying Islam — and was amazed by what I discovered. I’d been expecting Koran chapters on how to beat your wife and oppress your daughters; instead, I found passages promoting the liberation of women. Two-and-a-half years after my capture, I converted to Islam, provoking a mixture of astonishment, disappointment and encouragement among friends and relatives. Now, it is with disgust and dismay that I watch here in Britain as former foreign secretary Jack Straw describes the Muslim nikab — a face veil that reveals only the eyes — as an unwelcome barrier to integration, with Prime Minister Tony Blair, writer Salman Rushdie and even Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi leaping to his defense. Having been on both sides of the veil, I can tell you that most Western male politicians and journalists who lament the oppression of women in the Islamic world have no idea what they are talking about. They go on about veils, child brides, female circumcision, honor killings and forced marriages, and they wrongly blame Islam for all this — their arrogance surpassed only by their ignorance. These cultural issues and customs have nothing to do with Islam. A careful reading of the Koran shows that just about everything that Western feminists fought for in the 1970s was available to Muslim women 1,400 years ago. Women in Islam are considered equal to men in spirituality, education and worth, and a woman’s gift for childbirth and child-rearing is regarded as a positive attribute. When Islam offers women so much, why are Western men so obsessed with Muslim women’s attire? Even British ministers Gordon Brown and John Reid have made disparaging remarks about the nikab–and they hail from across the Scottish border, where men wear skirts. When I converted to Islam and began wearing a headscarf, the repercussions were enormous. All I did was cover my head and hair–but I instantly became a second-class citizen. I knew I’d hear from the odd Islamophobe, but I didn’t expect so much open hostility from strangers. Cabs passed me by at night, their "for hire" lights glowing. One cabbie, after dropping off a white passenger right in front of me, glared at me when I rapped on his window, then drove off. Another said, "Don’t leave a bomb in the back seat" and asked, "Where’s bin Laden hiding?" Yes, it is a religious obligation for Muslim women to dress modestly, but the majority of Muslim women I know like wearing the hijab, which leaves the face uncovered, though a few prefer the nikab. It is a personal statement: My dress tells you that I am a Muslim and that I expect to be treated respectfully, much as a Wall Street banker would say that a business suit defines him as an executive to be taken seriously. And, especially among converts to the faith like me, the attention of men who confront women with inappropriate, leering behavior is not tolerable. I was a Western feminist for many years, but I’ve discovered that Muslim feminists are more radical than their secular counterparts. We hate those ghastly beauty pageants, and tried to stop laughing in 2003 when judges of the Miss Earth competition hailed the emergence of a bikini-clad Miss Afghanistan, Vida Samadzai, as a giant leap for women’s liberation. They even gave Samadzai a special award for "representing the victory of women’s rights." Some young Muslim feminists consider the hijab and the nikab political symbols, too, a way of rejecting Western excesses such as binge drinking, casual sex and drug use. What is more liberating: being judged on the length of your skirt and the size of your surgically enhanced breasts, or being judged on your character and intelligence? In Islam, superiority is achieved through piety — not beauty, wealth, power, position or sex. I didn’t know whether to scream or laugh when Italy’s Prodi joined the debate last week by declaring that it is "common sense" not to wear the nikab because it makes social relations "more difficult." Nonsense. If this is the case, then why are cellphones, landlines, e-mail, text messaging and fax machines in daily use? And no one switches off the radio because they can’t see the presenter’s face. Under Islam, I am respected. It tells me that I have a right to an education and that it is my duty to seek out knowledge, regardless of whether I am single or married. Nowhere in the framework of Islam are we told that women must wash, clean or cook for men. As for how Muslim men are allowed to beat their wives — it’s simply not true. Critics of Islam will quote random Koranic verses or hadith, but usually out of context. If a man does raise a finger against his wife, he is not allowed to leave a mark on her body, which is the Koran’s way of saying, "Don’t beat your wife, stupid." It is not just Muslim men who must reevaluate the place and treatment of women. According to a recent National Domestic Violence Hotline survey, 4 million American women experience a serious assault by a partner during an average 12-month period. More than three women are killed by their husbands and boyfriends every day — that is nearly 5,500 since 9/11. Violent men don’t come from any particular religious or cultural category; one in three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime, according to the hotline survey. This is a global problem that transcends religion, wealth, class, race and culture. But it is also true that in the West, men still believe that they are superior to women, despite protests to the contrary. They still receive better pay for equal work — whether in the mailroom or the boardroom — and women are still treated as sexualized commodities whose power and influence flow directly from their appearance. And for those who are still trying to claim that Islam oppresses women, recall this 1992 statement from the Rev. Pat Robertson, offering his views on empowered women: Feminism is a "socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians." Now you tell me who is civilized and who is not. © 2005- 2006 Muslim Media Network. (PPL) the reason why i sed 'muslims ONLY', is because i posted this question last time, and i was reported.. for what? i dont now. What hurts me is that people out there dont want the truth...

What's your opinion on this one? 12 SIGNS WHY FILIPINOS ARE GOD’S CHOSEN ONES By TJ Burgonio Philippine Daily Inquirer 04/08/2007 MANILA, Philippines Are Filipinos God’s “chosen people”? Can we believe that Filipino workers slaving abroad, those modern-day gypsies who clean toilets in cramped apartments, hop from one hospital room to another tending to patients, or drill holes in the middle of the desert, are God’s “messengers”? There may be doubts but the signs are everywhere, according to Alexander L. Lacson, lawyer and author of the best-selling book “12 Little Things Every Filipino Can Do to Help Our Country. ”Our history as a Christian nation is replete with signs to prove this, he said—-from the Spanish conquest that started when galleons dropped anchor in our waters in the 16th century to the arrival of Bible-bearing Americans 300 years later, from our rich natural resources to the Filipino diaspora. Lacson has listed 12 signs purportedly showing why Filipinos are God’s chosen. He discussed these signs—-the subject of a forthcoming book—-in a recollection talk last Tuesday at the Church of the Holy Sacrifice in Diliman, Quezon City. The signs are “like pieces of a puzzle that, if put together, show us a picture of ourselves—-who and what we are as a people,” Lacson said. These are: (1) Explorer Ferdinand Magellan’s arrival in 1521 on Limasawa Island, Leyte, in a flotilla of five ships with a crew of 237, including a number of priests. The priests were ready to spread Christianity among the islanders, but Magellan was killed by local warrior Lapu-Lapu’s men, forcing the Spaniards to sail back to Spain, Lacson said. “If our history stopped there, it means we would never have become a Christian nation,” he said. (2) Filipinos were claimed in the name of God. In 1565, a second Spanish colonial expedition led by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi sailed into Cebu. When he set out for this part of the globe with Fray Andres de Urdaneta, Lopez de Legazpi had specific instructions from King Philip II to convert every soul on the island to Christianity. “What that means is that we were actually claimed in the name of God in the second expedition,” Lacson said. “If you look at this [through] the eyes of a Christian, of a believer, [you will see that] there’s a determined plan to make us a Christian people, a Christian nation." NO ACCIDENT (3) As an offshoot of the spread of Christianity in the islands, the Philippines became the first Christian nation in Asia. “My question is this: Do you think it was only an accident in history when we Filipinos became the only Christian people in this part of the world?” Lacson said. He pointed out that the world’s three major religions—-Christianity, Islam and Buddhism—-subscribed to the idea that “there’s no accident in life.” “I’d like to believe that it was not an accident, and that in fact and in deed, God had chosen these people to be His people in this part of the world to spread His message,” Lacson said, quoting John 15:16 (“You did not choose me, but I choose you...”). (4) The Philippines is the first nation in Asia to have Bibles. Although Filipinos had been converted to Christianity, they were prohibited from reading the Bible during the 300-year Spanish rule, according to Lacson. But the Americans, who took over from the Spaniards after defeating them in the Battle of Manila Bay in December 1898 (May 1898--MLT), brought copies of the holy book. “The Filipinos were the first Asians to read the Bible. I look at it as another sign from God why He chose us a people,” Lacson said. (5) The Philippines is located in the middle of the world, at least on the Pacific-centered map. “A small group of tiny islands-—7,100 islands—-but it’s right there in the middle,” Lacson said. “Is it an accident in history that our Philippines is right there in the middle? Accessible to the north, the south, the east and the west?" 4TH RICHES (6) The Philippines is one of the richest countries in the world today. “It is the fourth richest country in deposits like gold, copper, silver and chromite, and oil. (According to last year's business news report, the Philippines is the Saudi Arabia of nickel, that is, just as Saudi Arabia has the biggest oil reserves, the Philippines has the biggest nickel deposits, the metal in great demand in China today--and the local nickel mining industry is in the stage of both actual production and expansion.--MLT) Out of 193 countries, we are No. 1 in terms of marine life biodiversity,” Lacson said. He said the country was so blessed with natural and mineral resources that if one dug a hole even atop a mountain, water would spring forth. (7) The story of overseas Filipino workers is biblical. Lacson likened the OFWs to the young Israeli shepherd David who killed the giant Philistine warrior Goliath with his sling, and to Joseph “the dreamer,” who was sold as a slave by his envious brothers but rose to become overseer of Egypt after accurately interpreting the Pharaoh’s dreams about the seven years of plenty and seven years of famine in the land. “The Bible is full of stories of how God used the oppressed and the weak to spread His message of love and justice and to humble the mighty, the strong and the powerful,” he said. Lacson related an anecdote about the late Jaime Cardinal Sin who, while in Rome in 1999, was invited to dinner by the president of the Italian car maker Fiat Uno, whose children had a Filipino woman as their nanny. “The host told Cardinal Sin that the nanny was so good that she turned their kids into better Catholics. It turned out that the nanny, with the kids in tow, would stop by a church and pray each time she went out,” Lacson said, adding that there were countless other stories of Filipinos sharing their faith even with people of other religions. He cited the story of Filipino nurses praying over a Muslim patient in the throes of death in a state-run hospital in Saudi Arabia. “You know how I see that? I see that as an act of a messenger-—shepherding these patients, although they may have other religions, to God,” he said. SEEDS BEARING FRUIT The seventh sign naturally leads to the rest. (8) OFWs—-nannies, domestic help, nurses and caregivers—-are like ambassadors and messengers of God. “Maybe today we don’t see it yet. But maybe in the future, we’ll see how the seeds [sown by] these Filipinos working as domestics—-attending to these kids, influencing their minds and affecting their hearts on how to see the world and how to act—-will bear fruit,” Lacson said. (9) Filipinos breathe life to the churches of the world. Lacson said it was not uncommon to see Filipinos in churches anywhere on the planet, either as a priest delivering a sermon, as faithful hearing Mass, or as members of the choir singing in the background. “Wherever they are, whether as OFWS or residents, according to Fr. James Reuter, they breathe life to the churches all over the world,” he said. (10) There is so much beauty in Filipinos as a people. “Today, we have so many countrymen going abroad as singers, dancers.... They entertain people. We have singers on luxury ships or members of rock bands in hotels. They bring happiness to other people; they bring beauty,” Lacson said. “If you ask me, this is one of the weapons that the Filipinos bring to the world. That’s beauty,” he said. (11) Filipinos can communicate with the world “with their tongue. ”The Philippines is the third-largest English-speaking country in the world—-again not by accident," Lacson said. “We can actually communicate with the people in the South, in America, in Africa, in Asia. OFWs, caregivers, engineers—-they communicate with the world,” he said. And it helps that there are “many races” in the Filipino, so that it is possible to “see the world in that person. The heart of the world is in him,” he added. METICULOUSLY CHOSEN (12) For the final sign, the name Pilipino means “piling-pili” (meticulously chosen) and “pinong-pino” (most refined). “Is it an accident that we are called Pilipinos in our own language?” Lacson said, adding: “These are 12 signs that convinced me that we are the chosen people of God. He chose us to be messengers, to be His ambassadors, to spread His message in other parts of the world. ”The only problem is that Filipinos have been slow in claiming and proclaiming that they are indeed God’s chosen people, Lacson said. “I believe that if we can claim [to be] God’s children, and proclaim it...and we teach our children this, God will be happy with it, and He will bless us as a people and as a nation,” he said. (NOTE: Numbering of signs supplied.)

Why couldn't Sarah Palin answer Gwenn Ifill's questions? The only track record that matters concerning Sarah Palin is the horrible, un-informed interview she did with Katie Curic. Sarah Palin wants to be one heartbeat away from the Presidency but she has no understanding of Supreme Court decisions. She doesnt read newspapers or is ashamed to say which newspapers she does read. She tells Gwenn Ifill "i'm not going to answer your questions". Gwenn Ifill who i think is the first black female moderator in a Presidential debate. That was very disrespectful. Sarah Palin's problem is she has a track record of not being able to answer difficult complicated questions. And Sarah Palin's response is "i'm not going to answer your questions" When it comes to running for high political office i want the most informed, most intelligent, best educated man or woman out there. Not some person who's reponse after looking completely un-informed one week is to wink at the camera the next week and say "hi ya fella". During a 700 billion dollar bail out, While Americans are loosing their homes. While all our 401ks are being flushed down the toilet. Folksee just doesn't cut it. Sarah Palin needs to show me she has a serious command of the issues. Sarah Palin needs to show me she can answer follow up questions like a grown up. Sarah Palin needs to show me she can give a press conference and stand there like a proud, educated, well informed woman like Geraldine Farraro and answer questions and yes stand there and also answer follow up questions. How can a man or woman run for President or VP and not have a fundamental understanding for recent Supreme Court decisons like pedifiles not getting the death penalty or hand gun ownership in the Washington dc area. Guys its called being Presidential. And until Sarah Palin is able to do this she is not a credible national political figure. Rignt now all Sarah Palin is, is a punch-line for David Letterman and SNL and the beauty of Sarah Palin is you can just quote her verbatim and get all the laughs you need. Speak truth to power. Mr. News

Why are dark Black men more socially acceptable than dark Black women? For every 5 pictures of dark black men I see in the given day, I perhaps only see 1 picture of a dark black women. I think this quote explains it best... "If you watch this white supremacist minstrel network, BET (aka "the mulatto follies"), if you attend a dinner at the NAACP, if you carefully analyze the majority of women presenters at “The Soul Train Awards” (where child molesters are given Life Achievement Prizes..provided their victims are little black girls that no one protects or gives a **** about in our community, just like back in Africa), or if you watch the majority of films produced and directed by Black Filmmakers...you will notice that the WOMB of Black people...the authentic Black woman; authentic meaning the darkest, the one possessing the Crown (“the Proof”), the one with Nilotic, Ethnic or ******* features..is almost always disallowed. You find yourself looking at gorgeous African-looking men like Michael Jordan, Morris Chestnut, Kanye West, Djimon Hounsou...and you wonder...where in the hell did these beautiful authentic black men come from? Because, you see...the “mother image” that it took to create these chocolate royal looking men is never allowed to be shown...unless she’s presented as an old woman. But you will never see the 19 year old deep chocolate beauty that produced these men. It will not be celebrated. America is a western society that completely fears, hates and seeks to erase black people and Africa. And I would say that most Black Americans (at least 70%)...also hate black people and Africa...but because they themselves are black, they don’t realize it. They will curse the photos of a lynched black man hanging from a tree as white people sit around having a picnic...but they will not give birth to that black man again. Instead, they will marry the lynch rope and produce children who look more like the white lynchers at the picnic. They will call out the words, “Mother Africa”...but the lowest, most despised, hated person in Black America is the authentic Black woman. And the reason is...her WOMB makes them black, therefore, she is the enemy. And they make all manner of excuse, create any and every bald-faced lie against her...their own mother...in order to place the White man’s mother above her...as a savior; as a bridge out of blackness. Through the white man's mother, they lose the proof. They achieve the disconnection from black people's suffering...and BY DEFAULT...they join with White Supremacy, whether they be reddish-yellow, yellow, high yellow or vanilla-bean bi-racial...they become EXTRACTIONS of blackness that mainly reiterate "whiteness as normal--blackness is something you EVOLVE from" and bellie the slave master's contention that black people (Africans) are inferior and lightskinned people are an "improvement". As so many white mothers of biracial babies candidly point out during afternoon talk shows--an improvement on the "dark nappy" babies--the authentic blacks. So many Black Americans have forgotten that when they look upon African people or look upon the very darkest black woman...what they are seeing is the living REPLICA of their ancestors...what’s left of them...in their natural state. And yet, they don’t make the connection. Instead of cherishing and protecting the ethos of their ancestors, many of us...both African and Black removed from Africa...assist the slave master/colonizer in destroying, lying upon and degrading this image. We claim that there's only one race...the human race....yet we hate the Blackness in human beings. We see blackness as a deformity...a curse that White women or White men can cure by breeding it out of us. We hate Africa itself. And in the United States...we are encouraged to breed it out. Everytime we watch B.E.T (a true ****** and coon channel) or countless films that highlight the beauty of Lightness and disallow representations of darkness...unless those representations are male and paired up with light or white images...everytime we see Mary J. Blige transmitting to little black girls that she can't possibly be cute unless she's got platinum blond hair...everytime we see a famous, successful black man choose a White woman or a Latina Woman (which on television and in the media is MOST of the time)...everytime we see Michael Jackson's Casper-white complexion or hear phone messages played on the news of him saying, "I hate my ****** hair!"...everytime we step out of our front doors in America...we are given the message that blackness is inferior and sub-human and that the answer is to hate and ERASE it." P.S. this Quote is from Kola Boof.

why are americans so infatuated with blonde hair? I am brazilian and half of my family are blondes that's because we have lots of europeans influences as for the brunettes from the european latin origins just like in the US! Not long ago, I had a dinner with some of my husband friends and this lady asked me how come I was blonde if I ws brazilian...LOL...Oh my, I was surprised with her question. I lived in Ohio with my husdand for 10 month and we heard that all the women there dye their hair blonde, even the children, which I didn't believe but them I presence it happen not once but many, the kid was young as 5 years old! My best friend is a sales executive for revlon and he said that US is quotes the #1 country for color their hair blonde (fake blondes) What is all this about? I am going to beauty school and there is no a way I will dye a child's hair, what is all this "blonde" fetish about?

newer horizon demanded in usa politicking. can non natural born + nonbinding resolution senate run pres U S ?

association of committee to elect the rev dr kamal karna roy v. homeland security dept us issue birth obama?