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Under AIPAC pressure, there are few significant countervailing voices in the public arena, and any balanced debate is still practically nonexistent in the U.S. Congress or among presidential hopefuls
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The American friends of Israel who demand such subservience are in many cases sincere and well-intentioned people, but on this crucial issue, they are tragically mistaken. Their demands subvert America’s ability to bring the Israelis what they most desperately need and want
Map Of World Happiness
The first World Map of Happiness has been published by scholars from the University of Leicester. The map is a global projection of subjective well-being (SWB), taken from a variety of recent sources, and compared with related data from UNESCO, the UN and even the CIA.
[Via: Technovelgy]
7 Habits of Highly Ineffective People
A twist on the famous list of the 7 habits of highly effective people, gives us the 7 habits every person should avoid in order to remain effective.
The list of no-no’s goes as follows:
1. Not showing up.
2. Procrastinating half the day.
3. When actually doing something, doing something that isn
People: Roles vs. Personality
Something I’ve noticed many times over the years is how some people seem to slip into different personalities when they change or assume different roles in life, work or elsewhere.
It’s as if a dial in some imaginary control room is turned, switching the person to another completely different personality.
And in most cases it doesn’t feel natural at all, it’s just an act the person is putting up, just because he thinks he should be acting in a certain new way, because of their new status.
I’ve seen this in newly married friends, colleagues who got a work promotion, people who have just had a kid, and in various other instances; and the people just change, abruptly, without warning and unbelievably.
People change. That’s a fact. But normal change is mostly done over a period of time, naturally, with people barely feeling it. It only hits them after a long period when they look back and see what a big difference there is between what that person was and what he now is.
But, the change I’m talking about here is the kind that happens almost over-night, and when asked, a lot of these people simply reply that their new responsibilites or their new status in life require a new way of doing things and handling themselves.
Is that true?
Doesn’t it mean that the person isn’t doing it because he naturally progressed to it and because he wants to, but rather because he feels that he has to?
Doesn’t it imply that he wasn’t proud of or confident in what he was?
Plus didn’t he get to the place he is now because of how he was and what he was like? So why should he change it once he got there?
It’s true that certain things in life and certain responsibilities require some changes in how a person deals with things, but I think they’re more or less small targeted changes that touch on a specific area of that person’s life depending on whether it concerns his household, work, passions & hobbies or whatever else; but not a total flip of that person’s personality.
I think it’s very important to have a balance between a person’s roles and his personality, because it can be very tiresome and troublesome to act a personality for a role, or to bend a role for a personality.
Each and every one of us is unique in his own way, that shouldn’t be lost just to fit a certain stereotype of a role, but rather used to enrich it, all the while fulfilling the new obligations of the role.
1408 – The Movie
Last night, I finally got around to watching “1408“, a movie based on Stephen King’s short story of the same name, and featuring John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson.
I’m a fan of John Cusack’s, especially his lighter comedy roles, he’s a great actor who can take on many different roles so naturally, and who picks his roles really well; so I try to never miss a movie he’s in.
I can’t claim to be a big fan of Stephen King though; I loved some of his works and their movie adaptations, but I was also let down a number of times, especially when the stories took weird twists towards including a bunch of unexpected aliens in the story in a pretty annoying way.
Anyway, back to 1408, it’s about a writer, who specializes in debunking paranormal occurrences and ghost stories, who checks into a fabled room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel, despite being warned by the Hotel manager that it is an evil room; And then genuine terror begins.
The movie started off really well, and got scarier by the minute, building up that creepy atmosphere that has you all alert and all; in other words: scary in the good old sense of scary movies, not the torture-porn or teen-startle stuff studios are putting out these days; but two thirds of the way into the movie, things started falling apart for me, and the movie just started losing my interest; I don’t know it just felt like they were padding it to make it longer, which kind of made the ending a bit less powerful for me.
Anyway, all in all, it is a good movie; I liked the idea of the story, the evolution of its events, and the acting.
Do I think it could have been done better? Maybe.
Do I recommend it? For people who are into this genre of movies, yes, it is an interesting movie, and there aren’t that many of its type out there these days.
Overall, I’d give it:
Fish Museum Aquarium – Carthage
Yesterday, we thought we’d go check out the Aquarium in Carthage, the Fish Museum as they call it, or “Dar El Hout” (Fish House) as it’s called in Arabic.
It’s located in Carthage near the old Punic Ports.
A number of people told me about the place before, and I was expecting a really cool aquarium, but I was somewhat let down, as it turned out to be pretty mediocre.
The “Fish Museum” is divided into three parts; a Historic one giving insight into the maritime/marine history of Tunisia, Fresh water fish and salt water fish.
There aren’t really that many unique species of fish to see, just the usual ones from the Mediterranean region; the same ones you’d see at the nearest Tunisian fish market, if not less.
It’s a shame that establishments such as this one and the zoo in Belv
Dumpukht – Indian Restaurant – Les Berges Du Lac
On our way back home today, we were both a bit hungry and felt especially like having some Indian food. Being in Tunisia, the options in this area are very limited, and the only place we could think of was this new Indian restaurant called “Dumpukht” that opened in Les Berges du Lac a few months ago.
The place is really nice, pretty well decorated, has Zee TV playing Indian music videos on a flat screen, and has this nice comfy feel to it. The waiters are all Tunisian, dressed in Indian clothes though, and the chef is Indian, which is the most important point to me.
I had some Chicken Tikka Masala and Eman opted for a Chicken Biryani; the food was really good and delicious. I personally really enjoyed it.
The prices are quite ok as well, with most main dishes being in the 8-13 Dinars range. Of course that doesn’t put it in the list of places you’d go to everyday, but once in a while when you feel like Indian food, it is a good option.
And as is the case with every good Indian restaurant, you go home smelling of curry and other Indian spices… Yummy…
The restaurant is in Les Berges du Lac, on the corner between the main road and Rue du Lac Windermere, close to Hotel Acropole.
A New Motto for America
We should drop the motto “In God We Trust” and adopt a new one, “Let Us Mind Our Own Business.”— Charley Reese, A New Motto for America
George W. Bush, The Mass Murderer
Ex-Reagan Aide Calls Bush a “Mass Murderer”…
Bush has discarded habeas corpus and the Geneva Conventions, justified torture and secret trials, damned critics as anti-American, and is responsible, according to Information Clearing House, for over one million deaths of Iraqi civilians, which puts Bush high on the list of mass murderers of all time. The vast majority of “kills” by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan are civilians.
Now Bush wants to murder more…
— Paul Craig Roberts, The War Criminal in the Living Room
[Via: AlterNet]