August 2004

The Archives

• straw polls

  The Tipping Point

  08.25.04 | Permalink | 6 Comments

  My theory about the upcoming elections has been that the country cannot remain in such close contestation for too long - that something will happen that will prove to be the tipping point and, well, Kerry will win in a landslide. I believe that (barring any “revelations”), the presidential debates will be that point. Think [...]

• homistan

  The Secret Lives of Internet Cafes II

  08.24.04 | Permalink | 12 Comments

  My most popular post seems to be this one which got posted on some desi chat rooms and now I get 50 hits a day from people looking to find pictures of some net cafe action. Not here, people. Nothing to see.
  I want to give an update that, according to today’s Daily Jang editorial, the [...]

• better with tablas

  Britney Needs My Uncle

  08.23.04 | Permalink | 2 Comments

  Britney was seeking to cast her new video and, apparently, she asked for a Pakistani. She should have called me. Unlike sven, I am not a fan of Ms. Spears talents but I do want Pakistan getting proper respect in soft-core music videos. I would have asked one of my retired elders to lend some [...]

• straw polls

  Picking Kerrys in Ohio

  08.23.04 | Permalink | 5 Comments

  Good to be back. I have said, in public, that Kerry will win in a landslide; that the country cannot teeter on pinpoint for that long; that the debates (or some new tell-all revelation about Bush) will be the catalyst; that this race is most akin to 1980 with a sitting President bungling up a [...]

• optical character recognition

  God Speaks Arabic

  08.17.04 | Permalink | 9 Comments

  A friend send me a link to a review of a new English translation of the Qur’an by Prof. Abdel Haleem of SOAS. The translation is getting some good press and my friend thought that I should use that for my upcoming class. I wish I had know about it sooner because I surely would. [...]

• talkies

  Are we shooting people or what?

  08.16.04 | Permalink | 1 Comment

  David O. Russell is one of my favorite directors. I was watching Flirting with Disasters on cable this weekend and laughing my ass off. That guy knows how to film farce.
  Which made his 1999 film Three Kings that much greater. I remember reading a small interview in NYT before Gulf War II, where they asked [...]