Never a Dulles Day

I couldn’t help but chuckle today when I read about Honduran President Manuel Zelaya boarding a plane at Washington D.C.’s Dulles Airport to return to his country after a coup had removed him from power.  I found this amusing because that airport is named after Jon Foster Dulles who served as Secretary of State in [...]

Visiting Iraq

On my list of things I hope to do before I die is visiting all 22 countries of the Arab League (only 10 to go!).

It seems like getting to Somali and Iraq will be my biggest obstacles.

These are both countries I have wanted to visit for a long time, but have not made it yet.

I have been drawn to Iraq since I was a kid when my cousin gave me an wrist watch from there with a tank on the face.

If Arab Leaders Made Movies…

Apparently Kim Jong-il kidnapped a South Korean film maker and forced him to re-make Godzilla as socialist propaganda in the 1970s [added fun fact, Jong-il fed the poor director grass as punishment-- good times].  Although Arab leaders routinely show a total lack of imagination it begs the question– What films would Arab leaders try to have [...]

Obama’s Address to the Muslim World: Preview

The Washington D.C. Kabob-investigative bureau recently obtained a draft copy of President Obama’s much heralded upcoming address to the Muslim world. Here are the highlights: 1) I am totally against brutal dictatorships in the Muslim world, like the regimes of Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah… 2) I am so happy to be here in Egypt [...]

On Pirates and Pacification

As the US military’s disastrous planning for their occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan has been reveled many people have tried to figure out where to look for inspiration. Vietnam? Not so much. Since the US was “never a colonial power” strategists started looking at other colonial histories. Out of this effort has come the lionization [...]

You Heard the Verdict?

Living in the US I take a relatively uncensored internet for granted. It took me a while to figure out that the lists of proxies on the walls of internet cafes in Syria were to avoid censorship so that people could check dastardly anti-government websites like… yahoo mail (gasp!). There was a time when the [...]

Do You See What I See?

I have often wondered how aware international figures are of the depictions of themselves in the media. Has Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seen the Saturday Night Live song “Iran So Far“? Has Obama seen the Turkish reporter talking about him in blackface? Well apparently we have confirmation that Saddam Hussein saw the South Park: Bigger, Longer & [...]

The The The Red!

Andalusia has it all, history, food, art, culture and tons of pasty drunk people from the UK on the gorgeous beaches. I even got to hang out with some great Mauritanian guys and some fancy British-Arabs while I was there. Of course the highlight for me was Alhambra, something my dad had told me about [...]

The Nimr!!

Sundance Channel Hookin’ You Up

If you are in the good ole US of A there might be a few treats waiting for you at home courtesy of your cable provider.  Both Time Warner Cable and Direct TV are offering three documentaries about the Arab world for free courtesy of the Sundance Channel.  I have not seen Hometown Baghdad yet, but I [...]