"Get Into Brad's Pants"

..well not exactly, but you CAN have and get into Angelina Jolie's if you bid on them on EBAY.

My organization, GIRLS INC. and Warner Brothers have partnered for the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie. So several actresses have signed and decorated jeans to put up for auction and our nonprofit gets 80% of the donations.

Pretty cool, eh?

What ya waiting for, start bidding!!!

"Motel Morocco"

Our policy: Our door is always open...(me: why??)

OK, I'm serious now, I am going to start charging people who sleep at out house, or I am going to leave a donation cup with a sad looking picture of myself in the guest room, with some fuzz and corroding pennies inside of it. Or better yet, I am going to get a change cup and a cane and knock on the guest room door in the middle of the night , rattling my change-can. Yeah, I like that one.

Last night takes the cake, taht's why, I'm going to start charging.

There will be 5 exceptions to the charge:
1)MY friends and family
2)If you are married to a Moroccan
(cause odds are if you married a moroccan (and you yourself are either half or not Moroccan at all), you were either:
a) drunk
b) in love or
c) totally unaware of your surroundings
and in that case, you will need shelter and a place to escape to)
3) a cute and cuddly animal who cleans after themselves
4) Habibi's friend Rashad
5) Vin Diesel (in that case, you can sleep with me **wink wink**)

Those who will be charged a hefty fee:
1)People too lazy to go home to their own homes
(especially when you live 10 blocks away)
2)Moroccans we don't know
3)SIL's family
4)SIL
5)George W. Bush

P.S. Breakfast and a bathrobe are not included!

Let me tell ya why:

Last night I am innocently watching the season finale of various TV shows when BIL comes into the room saying he has to talk to me about something important. Habibi is in another borough picking up his paycheck and having dinner with friends, SIL is BIL forever shadow and chatterbox.

The important thing to ask me is: "remember so-and-so who was here once and then gone tomorrow? Well, he has a cousin's best-friend's sister who was visiting with her fiancee and before they could step onto the plane to get back to Morocco one of them somehow managed to trip and fall and crack their cocunut open all over the boarding bridge at JFK and could we please pick them up from a hospital so far away and ancient that it just so happened my dad was born there and bring them to our house to sleep, eat and poop? Is it ok with you, Stacey?"

Knowing full well that Habibi's belief that a Moroccan need is our new best friend, I agree. All is well the girl comes back without finacee who has to have some tests done. We all eat and go to bed around 1 a.m. At 2:45 a.m. some crazy-ass hospital worker with no common sense calls the house to wake me up out of a seriously deep REM sleep to ask me where I live and when will I be picking ole boy up from too far away from equator hospital? I tell her I don't even know where the f*ck (yes I did) I am now and bang on SIL door and let them deal with it. Hey, it's not me driving to pick them up, I just make and turn down the beds. Ugh! So random and yet so annoying. I am cranky and tired and I do feel bad for people who go away on vacation and have bad things happen to them. I am glad we could help but this is getting a bit out of hand.

As my dad always says, "a friend is need, is a pest!"

"The Buzz on Blogs Continues..."

Compliments of the NYTimes

Are Bloggers Setting the Agenda? It Depends on the Scandal
By TOM ZELLER Jr.

In the spring of 1712, the British essayist Joseph Addison rambled from pub to parlor seeking the pulse of his countrymen regarding rumors (false, it turned out) that the king of France, Louis XIV, had died. The St. James coffeehouse, Addison reported in The Spectator, was "in a Buzz of Politics."

In the 18th century, "buzz" was part of what social theorists called the emerging - and powerful - bourgeois public sphere. In the 21st century, the buzz is in the blogosphere.

Or at least, that's the popular mythology. As a result of their influence in incidents like the "60 Minutes" episode in which CBS was duped by forged documents related to the president's National Guard service, bloggers have taken on the role of agenda-setters - citizen scribe-warriors wresting power from a mainstream media grown fat and lazy.

But according to a preliminary study - the first rigorous look at the influence wielded by political blogs during the 2004 presidential campaign - bloggers are not always the kingmakers that pundits sometimes credit them with being. They can, it seems, exert a tremendous amount of influence - generate buzz, that is - but only under certain circumstances.

Buzz is potent stuff.

"Buzz can alter social behavior and perceptions," wrote the authors of "Buzz, Blogs and Beyond," published last week by the Pew Internet and American Life Project and the market research firm BuzzMetrics. "It can embolden or embarrass subjects. It can affect sales, donations and campaign coffers. It can move issues up, down and across institutional agendas."

To analyze Web log buzz, the study zeroed in on a few dozen political blogs, from left-leaning forums like Daily Kos and AmericaBlog to conservative ones like Instapundit and Power Line, as well as middle-of-the road sites like BuzzMachine and Wonkette. All were "filter blogs," or blogs that comment on - and link to - content found elsewhere on the Web, according to an emerging taxonomy of the form.

BuzzMetrics tracked the frequency with which "buzz topics" - Mary Cheney, the Osama bin Laden tape and so forth - appeared in the last two months of the campaign, not just on blogs but also on other "channels": the mainstream media, official campaign statements and other Internet forums like newsgroups. The resulting "fever lines" charting the results on a graph, the study's authors suggest, offer a glimpse into which channels set the agenda and which react in response.

Whether that methodology proves sound after other researchers have had a chance to digest the findings remains to be seen, and the study's authors caution that their findings are still being fine-tuned. Comparing buzz in the cheap and limitless space of the Web against buzz generated in the finite and expensive news space on television and in newspapers is, after all, fraught with pitfalls.

Still, on issues like Iraq, weapons of mass destruction or the military draft, the Pew study found the chatter profile to be mixed, with buzz originating from several information channels. In instances in which blogs took the lead, such as the mysterious bulge that appeared on President Bush's back during the first debate (a radio receiver, some liberal blogs posited), they were often unable to get other channels to follow.

The CBS News scandal, in which the network based a critical report on President Bush on what turned out to be forged Vietnam-era documents relating to his National Guard days, was another story. In that case, the researchers suggest, the conditions for a broad-based scandal - and potent blog buzz - were ripe.

Although left and right diverged on theories of who might have been behind the fake memos, there was broad agreement that political dirty tricks were involved, and the blogosphere lighted up with detective work and theorizing.

The high name recognition of CBS News and Dan Rather helped, as did the fact that the network and the anchor initially defended the memos, creating grand targets for the longbowmen of the blogosphere. And both the timing and the high stakes made for fertile buzz territory.

"This was not a cold or distant case," the study suggests. "The election was weeks away, and the candidates' service records during the Vietnam War had been a major topic of discussion for months."

For all that, though, the most crucial factor contributing to blog influence in that issue may have been the smoking gun: digital copies of the 1970's-era documents and their impossibly modern fonts.

These became powerful totems because they could be relentlessly examined, tinkered with, traded and discussed online by blogs of all political stripes, each with its own agenda and each contributing to a buzz that ultimately could not be ignored.

In the absence of such a totem, the ability to generate buzz in the blogosphere, at least for now, appears diminished. (That may change as the number of blogs - now at 10 million, according to the blog search firm Technorati - continues to grow.)

Applying the same methodology last week to the recent Newsweek crisis, in which an apparently incorrect item reporting desecration of a Koran by American military interrogators sparked riots abroad and claims of journalistic incompetence (and political bias) at home, the researchers found blog buzz much slower to develop, despite widespread coverage in the mainstream media.

Why? Perhaps because there was no smoking gun to pass around.

"The blogosphere is half forensic lab and half tavern," said Michael Cornfield, an adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University and the chief author of the study.

"The magic of the Internet is you can be looking at evidence, at direct documentation, while you're talking," Mr. Cornfield said, referring to the fake memos that turned blogs into influential buzzmakers. "It would be as if the Nixon tapes were available in MP3 format during Watergate."

"Moroccan Poetry"

Fatiha Morchid was born on March 14, 1958. She received her doctorate in medicine in 1985, and has specialised in pediatery since 1990. Unlike most Moroccan poets, who generally came to poetry from the academic study of literature, Fatiha Morchid came to poetry from science, which is perhaps why she seems free from a certain tendency to conform to academic poetic norms, or to indulge in obscurity and experimentation.

The impression one gets from reading the poetry of Fatiha Morchid is that of a Moroccan woman standing at the edge of a big ‘Borgesian’ mirror that not only duplicates reality in its minutiae, but creates and transforms it. One sets out on a journey from the edge of ordinary everyday reality, but slowly finds oneself turning to the world beyond – a world starting at home and extending into the so-called ‘unhomely’, which according to Hanna Arendt designates “everything that ought to have remained secret and hidden but has come to light”. Such a world can be none other than a Moroccan woman’s world, an upside down world where the day starts at sunset, promising profound interior revelations that belie the apparent weakness in daily feminine resignation, and turn the latter into a challenging stoicism:

By sunset
Her day rises
It no longer matters
Who the person is
That will ride
Her horse

Ready is she
To die

Reading Morchid’s poetry is discovering the mysterious reservoir of power from which Moroccan women tap their strength to survive in a harsh, unfriendly reality. This is perhaps what gives Morchid’s poetry its sense of urgency – the speakers of her poems do not seem to have any time at all for the usual elitist preoccupations.

In addition to practising medicine, Fatiha Morchid researches and presents medical tv-programmes for the Moroccan channel 2M TV.



For my palms


When out of a nightmare
You come to me
To exchange
Your bed . . .
For my palms
I let my locks hang down
Like navy-blue curtains
Spread out the gloom of waiting
Like a Sufi carpet
Then like a gypsy wet-nurse
Sit in solemn submission . . .
Shaking fatigue off your feet
And clouds off your forehead
Telling the story
Of Sleeping Beauty
Hoping you lie
Forever in my palms.

Here's how it looks in Arabic, so pretty:


 

"Women in Combat"

"Many Americans feel that women in combat or combat support positions is not a bridge we want to cross at this point," said Rep. John McHugh, R-New York, who sponsored the amendment.

So apparently both the House and the Senate have created bills that would bar women from being in actual ground or supportive battle positions. I have to be honest here, I don;t know how I feel about this.

On the one hand, we should all have equal opportunity to go for the same jobs, and opportunities but are we equally capable of fulfilling the same task? Let's look at it this way, some guy who is the same height and weight as me is a fireman. I don't know if I would have the strength to carry someone out but at the same time, I would be resourceful enough to find other option to carry them out.

I think, if women want to do it they should be allowed. Thus far, they have not allowed women on a voluntary basis (to my knowledge anyway) to participate in actual on the ground fights. I say, let's take a core group of women and try it. Thus far alot of the decisions have been based on studies and closed room "tests". That the results are too much for the men to see a woman being tortured and such. I say, let's look at what's been put on TV, women activist, reporters and soldiers have been taken hostage, POW and killed and tortured. These events have been put on TV, streamed on the internet and images blasted all over the media. The world has been exposed to the abuse of women not only in a military/war scenario but on the streets and in the homes of domestic life.

I don't know,what do you all think?

I know my tirade the other day kind of went off on the deep down and darker side of married life to a Moroccan but just like in life, there is a brighter side to things.

A Moroccan Wedding is one of the most elaborate and fun parts of being married to one. There are several parties, outfits and food. It's true that the party can be about 3 days long. It's not like an MTV beach party, more like there's a girls party on one day, the guy's bash and then the joint celebration.

The outfits are outrageous. At my engagement Habibi's mom hired 2 women to come in and dress me and to escort me from room-to-room preceded by a loud song which is a prayer. Some celebrations involve the wedding gifts and party to be carted around the neighborhood by a horse (or mule) drawn wedding wagon. You get to wear several different dresses throughout your wedding. I think the average number of dresses is 7-8, I had 4 at my engagement. It's alot of fun but a little hot and tiring after awhile.

It's not like an American wedding where you get to walk around, eat, and dance with your family. You are the deocration on top of the cake, a fixture in the pretty backdrop that is your wedding. All Habibi and I wanted to do at our party was dance and his family kept breaking us up and making us sit back down on the faux thrones that they had made. We even had a dance routine, quite hysterical.

Even though being married isn't easy. No one knows me better. I don't know anyone who gets so much joy out of making me my favorite meal and I know when he's been bad and when he wants to be naughty. I know that when he's nervous he lashes out but when he's happy he just rambles on to me. I love the sweetness and the reaching out and the peaceful night sleeps we get when we're next to each other. The good so outweighs the bad, it's just unfortunate that the bad always gets the most talk time.

"It's Got Something for Everyone..."

The New York Times that is.

Today is my Monday. I am back in the office from being away in DC all last week and I worked from home yesterday because our bathroom sink is need of repairs which never happened.

So some of you may think this post is a cop out and maybe it is but the articles here touch on some topics I've talked about in past posts and I think its always good to be in the know. Now please keep in mind, that the NYTimes should not be your only source of information. I encourage you to check out other national papers as well as other nations papers. Most have English versions of things now and there is no excuse--it's the internet, open your mind! Explore! It's what you pay your $19.95 a month for. Oh, that's right, I forgot some of you like porn. For the none porn addicts here's some news you can use...

Kuwait's Parliament granted full political rights to women on Monday, making way for them to vote and run for office in parliamentary and local elections for the first time in the country's history. The surprise amendment to Kuwait's election law ends a decades-long struggle by women's rights campaigners for full suffrage, and promises to redefine the city-state's political landscape. Support our sisters in prayer & politics by reading on...

As if this will make it all better. The Financial band-aid or cure-all:
Lawrence H. Summers, the embattled president of Harvard University, announced yesterday that the university would spend at least $50 million over the next decade to recruit, support and promote women and members of underrepresented minority groups on its faculty.

When Taking a Painting, Don't Leave Your Picture

A Critic Takes On the Logic of Female Orgasm If you need to be schooled on this one I'll refer you to my good friend and former roommate. Boy, did I get an education from her!

Today in History:
On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court issued its landmark Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka ruling, which declared that racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal.

"No One Said It Would Be Easy..."

...then again, no one said it would be this hard.

What am I talking about?

MARRIAGE.

The top 2 things couples argue about the most are 1) Sex and 2) Money. We solved the first one by being good at it. I'm not bragging here, I'm liberating. Why make something that's suppose to be enjoyable hard work. It's the one opportunity where the two of you can express yourselves openly and honestly. Money, well we have very little of it to start but we made a very conscious decision to keep things completely separate. We're aware of the others amount of debt and savings and how the prior so out weights the later. We both work hard to save and pay off debt but who knows if we'll ever have it all. I once explained my financial situation to an AMEX Financial advisor and she thought our plan was brilliant. We have love, trust and friendship, I believe that the $$$ will come.

No, the thing we argue about the most is:

TIME

Not enough of it spent on me and what I want is my argument, his is that I worry about it too much. Some of this I don't know if its a case of MMIS (Moroccan Machismo Idiot Syndrome) or just a simple case of MIS (Machismo Idiot Syndrome. Whatever it is, I need a cure and I need one quickly. Preferably one that would cause him a bit of pain and discomfort. A boot kick to the ass perhaps?

I have my things, Ihave my interests but if you were to ask him what they were well, he'd fail at every question. There are only so many times I can sit on the sidelines and watch him play soccer with his buds. Quality time spent with my butt kissing the ground. Not what I had planned or hope for.

We joke and laugh at times about how Americans are raised. I'm a product of a 30 year plus marriage. I was trapped in a house with two soul mates joined at the lips. My mother giving everything to my father, and he returning the love. My standard on love is so high my mom once told me that I was setting myself up for failure. On the other hand, you have someone who is a product of not only divorce but abandonment in a country and a religion that does not allow such things. At the same time you are not allowed to show affection in public. But this is who I get my biggest and most criticism from about how kids are raised in the US.

I'm frustarted because this is a 6 year old argument that still burns me and I've lost the words to articulate my argument. I've resorted to door slamming, pillow beating and cursing like a sailor. I even have a bag packed for such an occassion that this argument flairs up, I can pull out the old overnight bag prop and see if I get a reaction then. I just can't take the dramatics anymore-- I've run out of materials and props.

Maybe I expect too much? Maybe this isn't meant to be? Habibi hopes that my American Apple Pie Prince will come for me someday. I just hope some day Habibi realizes that its a Shebekkia Sheik I want.

Maybe I'll try something new on Sunday's, and post a photo from my trip to Morocco. Gosh, cannot believe it was only a year ago. I feel like I just came back. This is from the center of Casablanca, in the Medina section. 

"Back to the Madness"

Even with my SIL in the other room yammering away as if she were talking to Morocco through a soup can, I am glad to be back in the NYC, the Big BK and home in my room with my Habibi and crazy cat.

This past week was long and tiring and a bit scary. All in all, a good productive week which I think finally reflected my maturity and strengths.

Just to re-cap:
Every year, around this time, we go to Washington, D.C. to celebrate our annual Girls Inc. Girls Rights Week. We plan an array of events in the nation's capital. This year, we had a meeting of our Girls Advisory Board which is made up of current and former Girls Inc. scholars, visis on Capital Hill with Senators, Congress people and their aids to discuss a aspecific topic that affects girls lives, and our Celebration Luncheon for fundraising purposes.

This years theme was once again Violence. The re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) expires on October 1st. Last year and this year we asked members of the House and Senate to remember this act and support it. We held a Congressional briefing in the Capital building on Wednesday morning where 2 of our girls spoke about violence in their and their friends lives. It was standing room, filled with congressional staffers and aides and other nonprofit institutions. It was a very successful briefing. An article about our 2 girls appeared in that morning's Chicago Sun (will provide link later).

Afterwards, we attended an official press conference with Senators Whyden and Allen who were supporting the academic side of Title IX andannounced their committment to support and encourage young women's interest in the math, science and technology fields. They let the audience know that Title IX was not just about gender equity in sports, but the acdemics too. During the Q&A portion of this press conference, the security alarms sounded. We partnered and buddied up with our girls, for many of the this was their first time away from home or even on a plane. Most of them came from the middle-of-n0-where America and the look of confusion and fear on their faces was enough to shock all of the adults into attention.

I shouted commands. You take so-and-so, you, take these two. Stay together, if we get separated you have the name of the hotel and phone number in your info packets. Run fast, go to the right and try to stay together! We couldn't have had a better contingency plan if we had planned it 6 months in advance. The other thankful thing was all of our girls had their red and white Girls Inc. tote bags and could be spotted from across the national mall. We had all managed to get out safely and meet up in a far off location without too much confusion.

We were scheduled to make Capital Hill visits in the afternoon but most of the girls expressed hesitation in going back and so we cancelled our afternoon and just relaxed. One brave girl did go back and let her voice be heard on violence to Congresswoman Sanchez of California. It was the same girl who I practically tucked under my arm like a football and ran out of the Capital with. Needless to say, we were both very proud of each other.

The rest of the week was focused on the Luncheon, the girls speeches and our board meeting. It was the 1st GRW that I wasn't stressing over things that were work related. A shot or two of plum wine took care of the other stress. It's amazing what Post Tramatic Stress Disorder makes you do. I hadn't had a real drink in about 5 years. I had a couple this week. (Allah forgive me)But when someone of authority looks you in the eye and tells you to "run for your life!" it puts a whole new perspective on your life and how you react to things-- big and small.

As much as I wanted to drop the hands of my two charges and run screaming and crying all the way back to NY, I looked at their pale faces and the frightened face of one of my co-workers and swallowed the large sob wedge in my throat and tightened my grip on them and went into adult safety mode. I hope to never be frightened like that ever again.

"On the Road Again"

Leaving DC today, we are driving back. Looking forward to getting back to the NYC. A refreshing change but I've had enough excitement for one week. I'll give you a full re-cap on our trip this weekend. Be well!

"I AM OKAY"

For those of you who knew I was going to be in DC this week, I just want you to know that yes, I was in the Capital Building today, attending a press conference when the alarm sounded to evacuate. I am ok. A little freaked out but ok. I'll write more later. Thanks.

The holiday of Cinco De Mayo, The 5th Of May, commemorates the victory of the Mexicans over the French army at The Battle Of Puebla in 1862. It is primarily a regional holiday celebrated in the Mexican state capital city of Puebla and throughout the state of Puebla, with some recognition in other parts of the Mexico, and especially in U.S. cities with a significant Mexican population. It is not, as many people think, Mexico's Independence Day, which is actually September 16.  

It's also my SIL's birthday (or the day she was hatched, spawned, battery inserted, however you choose to say it). I was very good and got her a dozen deep-colored hot pink roses from Habibi and me. I think I deserve a gold star for that one, don't I?

"Morocco Is 4 Lovers"

Guess which new celebrity lovebirds were spotted in Morocco

"In the News..."

Greetings!

I'm PMS-ed to the max today and instead of ranting on about raz al hamar, I'd rather stay constructive and positive and share some news items with. Knowledge and action are thekey to change!


Great News!
Last Thursday, the NCAA took official action in support of Title IX.

By unanimous resolution, the NCAA Executive Committee urged Education Secretary Spellings to repeal the March 17 Title IX "Clarification", which promotes the use of flawed interest surveys to suppress the growth of women's sports. And the NCAA urged all member institutions to essentially ignore the new Title IX guidance. The NCAA has demonstrated itself to be a friend of Title IX.

If you haven't yet emailed Congress about this issue, please click here to do so.

For more details about the NCAA action, see this



Seriously, come on now, what are they so afraid?
Conservative lawmakers in Kuwait's Parliament on Tuesday created a constitutional roadblock that effectively killed a measure that would have allowed women to participate in city council elections for the first time. Hours later, the elections were called for June 2.

The action eliminates any chance that women will be able to take part in elections for another four years, when city council seats are again up for grabs.

Check out the complete article

Teri Schiavo's Blessing
Maybe something positive came out of the Teri Schiavo affair. A lesson to teach the government to stay out of the personal and private decisions of an individual.

After first resisting a judge's order to allow a 13-year-old in state custody to get an abortion, Gov. Jeb Bush's administration changed course on Tuesday and said it would abandon the legal fight.

Read on

"Way-lee!"

Wayli is a moroccan word that when you ask someone what it means, they're hard pressed to give you a definitive definition. That's because it really doesn't have one its more of an expressive word than an actual word. The American-English equivalent would be "Get out of here!, You're kidding me! No way!, Oh sweet Jesus!" You can use wayli for several different occassions to express suprise, disbelief, make a exlamative statement.

I've seen it used in a low toned voice accompanied with a sort of bobble-head movement, said three times quickly: wayli, wayli, wayli. Translation is usually: tsk!, tsk!, tsk! The way I personally like to use it is a long, drawn out call, similar to a pig call: A Waaaaaaaay - leeeeeeeee!

The reason I bring this up is because this was the word and theme of the weekend. We ventured back to this Moroccan club in the city- Masa Club, And it was just hysterical. The outfits or lack of on some of these girls was outstanding. I mean, wayli! As I entered the club my eye was immediately drawn to an exposed boob, being stuffed back into a pink, lace corset. I mean, way-lee! Then there was the pig-in-the-blanket, the style dress not an hors d'ouvre- she looked like she was wearing a sausage wrapping. Wayli, wayli, wayli!

The worst offender was actually someone we are acquainted with. Too tight jeans that made her skin and all its dressings hang over the side (she was a thin girl too), and this top that was a half sweater thingy that pushed her "girls" up. It wasn't even her boobs, it was just extra-ness, all pushed up and spilling over. She got a big triple waaaaaaaay-leeeeeee! from Habibi, me and a friend.

The best/worst wayli of the night goes to me though. I was sitting at the bar, bobbing my head to the music. Habibi had walked away from me to socialize and his friend from out of town was standing next to me but with his back to the whole scene. This guy holding a wine glass came over to me and wanted to dance, I politely said no and then he pulled me off my chair. I pulled back, still smiling and walked back to my chair. To me, it was no big thing, someone's had too much to drink the least of their problems is me. Well, Habibi and his friend made it this guys problem. Habibi is very level headed and I don't worry about him at all. He spoke calmly and politely to the guy suggesting he be careful the next time he tried to dance with some girl because she could be someone's wife. This guy wasn't hearing it, went to swing at my Habibi but before anything could happen Habibi and security had knocked the guy to the ground and pushed him out of the club. Habibi's friend who was sort of looking for a fight wanted to, but out of nowhere I leapt up and grabbed his friend from behind and held him. Waylee!

With all that pretty boobage just flouncing and bouncing around. A fight broke out over lil ol me...wayleeeeeee!

This is the World Press Photo of the Year 2004. BY Arko Datta, India, Reuters, Titled: Mourning a tsunami victim, Tamil Nadu, India, 28 December.