Moon Burn

 The moon was the fullest it has been in the last 18 years and the fullest it will be until another 18 years come to pass.  I am convinced I could get a "moon tan" and subsequent "moon burn" if I were lay out tonight.


Today was a special day in many ways and I am glad that the state of the moon could commemorate it.  Nolan and Kerry (AUB Beirut and JHU!) and I hiked up a hill downtown, chilled in the Roman Amphitheater and cafe-hopped until day turned into night.  In the aftermath of finding out that my aunt had passed on after an exhausting battle with cancer, I just needed to have a haste-free day among friends and a familiar night sky.  Orion watched over me again and the shooting star, which I can swear was only for me to see, looked like a single streaking tear from the hunter's face.

View of the rising moon from the Old View Cafe on Rainbow Street

The day came full circle for me and a sense of surreal "closure" was at hand.  The calm acceptance that characterized my mood seemed to be reflected in the mood of the city.  Not one person harassed us as we wandered the streets, intentionally lost.   I was reminded that 2.5 years ago, Nolan, Kerry and I met for the first time in the woods of southern PA on a Hopkins Pre-Orientation trip where the moon was omnipresent as well.  We reminisced about home in a cafe with the most gorgeous view of East Amman, and yet, we were all so content to be abroad.  Kites chased each other in the distance in anticipation of the moon and I derived sober happiness out of stoic sensitivity.


And here is the first edition of "A Piestre for Your Thoughts"...
Intriguing Political Quotes from my lectures and leisurely reading:


“Our exchange underscored a danger inherent in the American political system.  For all its condiferable merits and inspirational principles, the American system is based upon a continuous uninterrupted process of election campaigns, stretching out year after year.  Lost in the perpetual scramble is any long-term vision capable of addressing the complex tangle of causes at the root of human suffering, especially in the Middle East." -Queen Noor


"Sultan Qaboos is very much 'all things to all men'; and he lives by the foreign policy principle 'don't piss anyone off'"- Alexander Brown, guest lecturer in Oman.


"A major obstacle to positive change is that [the Omani people] think that the state is their mother/father and they demand more and more privileges and services." -Alex Brown


"The problem with the monarch system is that they listens to a smaller and smaller circle of people over the years, who are more and more reluctant to tell them what is actually going on."- Alex Brown


"Swearing is a criminal offense because 'offense to dignity' is a punishable offense in the Qur'an." -Alex Brown

"Hershaw conceded that man, a social animal, could not avoid government, any more than an individual could escape bondage to his bowels." (95) Robert Heinlein   Stranger in a Strange Land

“A prude is a person who thinks that his own rules of propriety are natural laws.” (130) Heinlein

"Man born of woman and born to trouble—and someday you will grok its fullness and laugh—because man is the animal that laughs at himself." (142) Heinlein

"Obscurity is the refuge of incompetence.” (326) Heinlein

"Submission [to the will of God] can include—does include—utter responsibility for the fashion in which I, and each of us, shape the universe." (397) Heinlein

“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own [...]

Jealousy is a disease."  (363) Heinlein

"The disruptive reforms that have so changed the private sector should now be let loose on the public sector. The relationship between government and civil society has been that between master and servant; instead, it should be a partnership, with the state creating the right environment for companies and charities to do more of its work." -John Micklethwait

In Tobruk, a young boy, atop the shoulders of a man most likely his father, held a placard and a message for Colonel Qaddafi: “Irhall, irhall, ya saffah.” (“Be gone, be gone, O butcher.”)  -Fouad Ajami

"No foreign gunboats were coming to the rescue, the cause of [the Libyan's] emancipation would stand or fall on its own."-Fouad Ajami


"Unlike Ben Ali and Mubarak, Gadhafi is a megalomaniacal crank absolutely sold on his own history-altering significance." -Austin Bay

"We in the West are like tourists in Middle East politics: we see something interesting, focus with our zoom lens, frame a pretty picture, and depart."  -Charles Moore

What is a culture of shame?

"A "shame culture," as opposed to a "guilt culture," means that people are constrained to behave themselves properly by an aversion to being judged negatively by those around them, rather than internalizing a moral imperative."  -Thomas Lifson

 

"If drinking was socially acceptable among Middle Eastern dignitaries then after a few "Arbaa Mashnoon" (4 lokos) the peace talks would be peace slurs and much would be accomplished." -Anne Hobson

Playing a drinking game of 3-finger "never have I ever" would be like this:

Oman's Sultan Qaboos: "Never have I ever accepted Foreign Aid from the United States."

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah: "Ha haram guys, haram.com"

Jordan's King Abdullah: "Never have I ever invaded a country with the intention of staying there indefinitely."

Iraq's Talabani: "Meh." 
UN Diplomat Nathalie Carmer: "Abdoun bidoon pantaloon."

Syria's Al-Assad: "Never have I ever recognized Israel as a sovereign nation."

Bahrain's Khalifa: "Amen." 
Israel's Natanyahu:  "Wa'allah shebab?  I'm sitting right here."
Palestine's Abbas:  "Do you hear something Assad?"
Syria's Al-Assad: "Nope, ma ishee."

Iran's Ahmadinejad: "Never have I ever spoke Arabic with a Philidelphian accent."

Israel's Netanyahu: "Oh come on! I always lose.  There's not even any manachevitz left."

Mars' Representative Valentine Michael Smith: "Drink deep, Netanyahu.  Thou art God."