Threw a kick-ass Halloween party last night and had a blast. Lots of friends and lovers and tons of pirate kids. Went this morning to a GOTV training session. Felt empowered until I was reminded of my non-voting status. Boo. I live in Chicago. I can vote, right Mayor Daley? So what if losing the [...]
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I love Kentucky. Mainly because I love Steve. And he represents Kentucky. It is a gorgeous state filled with some truly special people. The senate race in Kentucky is pretty tight. The incumbent Jim Bunning who was gonna win handsomely started acting a tad weird – calling his opponent, Dan Mongiardo, the son of Saddam [...]
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Imagine, if you can, a Kerry presidency. Really think about it. Doesn’t it feelbetter? Like a tall glass of cool lemonade on a hot summer day? That ticker which runs constantly along the bottom of your screen won’t say “Threat Level: Elevated Threat Level: Elevated Threat Level: Elevated Threat Level: Elevated Threat Level: Elevated”. Tom [...]
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Yesterday, the Lower House of the National Assembly in Pakistan “banned” karokari (honor killings). Specifically, the legal code will now treat such acts not as “crimes of passion” but as premeditated murders and upped the punishment for such a crime. I know that there are some serious reservations about the amended law, and it’s all [...]
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The video is amazing [also here or here or here]. The lyrics are harsh and powerful (strap him with an AK 47, let him go/ Fight his own war, let him impress daddy that way). This is what F 9/11 hoped it could be. Eminem’s Mosh could very well be our anthem, our Times They [...]
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Will Safire is troubled. In today’s column, he writes that the Arab Americans are ALL voting for Kerry. Which is ok, he says, it is their right. But, the bizarro world scenario is that the majority of Jewish Americans are also voting for Kerry! His overall point is that the Jewish Americans should vote en [...]
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Over at tsk, is an ad hominem attack on Cricket. And I am asked to defend it. Just as tsk has to defend white man’s brutal colonialism that has led to the unfortunate situation where a poor sepoy has to defend the landed gentleman’s leisurely pursuit of sipping tea and knocking around a leather ball [...]
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Amazing. I don’t really have any passion for the Red Sox – although they appeal to my inner demons. I do have a real passion against the Yankess. They appeal to everything I hate about organized sports in the US. Last night, I went over to tsk‘s crib and we enjoyed a multi-screen bonanza of [...]
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And here is a close up of the text for my persian readers. In the spirit of Ramadan and holiness and neighborliness, above is an image from an early 17th century Persian translation of Valmiki’s Ramayana from Gujarat. Interesting thing about this image is the calligraphical style which is made to emulate a Qur’anic manuscript [...]
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Continuing from yesterday, I started to think about the role of law enforcement in apprehending Veerappan. Linking back to the Thuggees, it reminded me of the innovations that enabled the Company to consolidate and institutionalize its dominion over India. Specifically, the civilizing mission (let’s stop the barbaric sati) and law and order (Thuggee Act of [...]
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Imagine that Miramax trailer guy doing the voice-over a dark, inner jungle tracking shot….His home was 4000 miles of jungle….He was ruthless….He helped his people….He killed his enemies….An army was after him….Veerappan. Flashing shots of him running through the brush, Raj Kumar looking nuts, attacking police teams, sniffing sandalwood etc. The poster would have a [...]
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The 33rd Annual South Asia Conference – the AHA/MLA of this field was over the past weekend. The big group hug. I had a paper to present which is kinda important to do for that ole’ CV. I was very happy with the way the panel went. We had a solid “history” panel – filled [...]
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Kavi had the 2nd birthday. Lots of two-years old getting funky with the cake. I did some partying of my own in Madison at some bar that had a giant fake tree in it for unexplained reasons. Here are a few things to keep you going through the Sunday night. Everyone is talking about the [...]
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3-0. This was Our Fearless Leader’s best performance. And the saddest. Confession time: I don’t hate George W. Bush. I detest his policies, his rudimentary grasp of the world he so profoundly inhabits, his oedipal fixation on Iraq, his cultivated homeliness. And his overtly expressive face. But, not the man himself. He is not evil [...]
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The election, the class, and my job application occupy me all day looong. sigh. December cannot come soon enough. This past weekend, after quite a while, we went to the movies. Saw I ♥ Huckabee on Saturday and on Sunday, after a day of pumpkin farm goodness in gorgeous weather, saw Sky Captain and the [...]
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Over on hijabman, he mentioned last week that he was not going to vote for Bush or Kerry. As he lives in Pennsylvania, I urged him to re-consider and also requested if he will share the basis of his decision. Hijabman was gracious enough to write a post explaining his viewpoint – something he was [...]
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On October 2nd, in Sialkot, a suicide bomber walked into a Shi’a mosque and killed at least 30 people. On October 7th, in Multan a car bomb killed 40 at a commemoration gathering for the slain radical Sunni cleric Azam Tariq. On October 9th, in Karachi, two senior-most clerics at Banuri Town madrasa – a [...]
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Turkmenbashi (Father of all Turkmen) Saparmurat Niyazov is my favorite dictator in all of this world. I like him better than The General or lil’ Kim or Saudi Faudi, or Qaddafi. Sure, he does the usual portraits everywhere and gold-plated statues (though, his rotates throughout the day and always faces the sun. cool.) and all [...]
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On October 8, 1871, a fire started in or around Mrs. Kate O’Leary’s barn on 37 DeKoven Street on Chicago’s West Side and over the course of the next three days wiped out most of the rollicking business district of the city by the Lake. 300 Chicagoans died, 90,000 lost their homes, and the property [...]
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In Greenville and Malm¯, babies are coming. Ed and Lisa and my brother and his wife are all expecting 2005 stork-editions. Naming those babies is gonna be tricky. Armenian-Norwegian and Pakistani-Danish combo babies have all those weird amalgamation of consonants to contend with. Of course, I take a lot of interest in all that gives [...]
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