Links and News

We've each got one more day of exams (Saturday and Sunday) and then we can kick back, shake up some pina coladas, and snooze under the ozone depleted sky.

End of Semester Wongs.

Wong: adjective, the definition of nothing. Vacuous. Pertaining to actions one would not usually commit.

Examples:> speaking in 3 different accents in one class. Old fashioned London accent (suppose old chap, we are having a vastly entertaining time!). Irish accent (Tis a grand ting to be sure). The third was a mixture of Mexican and Arab.

> Forming Conga lines down the stairs.

> When vending machines commiserate with us by refusing to let go of their babies:

It just wouldn't come down.

World Nursing Day came to BZU on Wednesday in the delightful new Nursing building. Avatars were running amok eagerly offering their services: testing eyesight, color-blindness, diabetes, blood pressure. Wanna know your height and weight? Also part of their services. Plus there was a grand tour of the labs in the building.
In the week building up to the 62nd Nakba Day, campus was filled with little makeshift tents with posters displaying brave words asserting our RIGHT that we WILL ONE day return to our homes! There were banners across the chain-link fence above the track field that listed each city and the villages that were eradicated/fully occupied by God's chosen children. For some reason, Gaza was missing. Which really dampened our mood. Come on, Haifa, Yafa, Akka, and other cities in the West Bank were included, where the hell is Gaza's banner? Oh wait, is it not included in Salam Fayyad's 2011 Palestinian state? Douches. Ramallah had a lot of banners and posters, some declaring when the protest will take place and where, others using language to make sure no one forgets what May 15 means to Palestinians. What we can't for the life of us get is why the protest was scheduled for Monday the 17th, two days after the Nakba Day? There are some things that don't make sense but then can be explained, and then there are other things that don't make sense and seem happy to stay like that.There was one that said: The Right of Return is a Political Red Line That Should Not be Crossed. You hear that, Abbas? Proximity talks schmoximity blabber.

On Monday 17 Noam Chomsky was supposed to be at Birzeit Uni, in the Kamel al-Nasser Building at 12, giving a lecture about "America and the World" and "America at Home", the former about US foreign policies, the latter a discussion about developments in the US. After five hours of waiting and interrogation at the Allenby Bridge border crossing from Jordan, Chomsky and his daughter's passports were stamped with ENTRY DENIED. Democracy Now! has an interview about what happened. Chomsky says that the reason why he was refused to enter the West Bank was purely because he was going to Birzeit Uni, and not other Israeli universities. Seriously, this inferiority complex is grating! In Chomsky's own words:

"They don't like the idea that a Palestinian university can be independent and pursue its own policies the same way any other university in the world does."

He was able to give his lecture from Amman to the university (Room 101, Women's Building) via video conference. Can you believe he is 82 years old! Looking good too...but you didn't hear that from us.

Now we come to more general news. As many of you are aware, the first Arab American Muslim Miss USA 2010 is Lebanese hot stuff Rima Fakih. We don't know why Arab-Americans are thrilled at this piece of news, like so what? Congratulations, Arab MUSLIM women have been accepted at the American face value of misogynistic objectifying! No, we're not going to start a tirade about the abominable sexist beauty pageants etc etc etc, but rather the fact that Rima is the first agent for Hizbollah in the US! You can't make up shit like this. Neocon/Moron commentator Debbie Schlussel has sounded the warning siren:

"Rima Fakih, Miss Michigan USA, who will compete in Sunday Night’s pageant broadcast on NBC, is a Dearbornistan Shi’ite Muslim who is a supporter of Hezbollah and used the pageant name at a forum promoting Islamic subjugation of women."

You really. Cannot. Make. Up. This. Kind. Of. Shit. Moronic Hater went on to say that Rima's 'devout' Muslim family (we doubt that they're practicing Muslims, bikinis are favored over burkas in their case) have, according to 'intelligence sources' at least 3 relatives who are currently top officials in Hizbollah and that 8 of her relatives were terrorists killed by Israel in past Israeli interventions into Lebanon. Our brain cells just terminated themselves. Now we have festering right wingnuts' incredibly racist juices sloshing from our eyes. Quick, a way to counter that!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh...MUCH better...extra large pictures of beautiful people automatically regenerate our brain cells again.