New Crusades and War on Women

We learn from history that we never learn anything from history. "Hegel"
Please watch these videos in Belle of Writes.

Read this article on "Crusaders Past and Present" by Hmaid Dabashi.

Films on the brutality of War

Read Amy Goodman's interview with Alex Gibney in Democracy Now on his documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side", based on the story of Mr. Delawar an Afghan farmer and taxi driver who was in custody of American troops, detained and tortured to death. Tim Golden has a full report in The New York Times.
Read also Amy Goodman' s column on this film in Truthdig.

See this powerful film "Redacted" directed by Brian De Palm, and listen to his interview in Fresh Air. Redacted retells a true story about Abeer Qasim Hamza a 14-year old Iraqi girl who was raped and murdered by U.S. soldiers. Abeer's parents and her younger sister were also killed by the same soldiers. Watch a video clip....

Please don't let me be misunderstood!

Listen to the song and watch this video "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" by Nina Simone.
Another version by The Animals.

Decline of Values!

Values should be analyzed and defined once again. What is moral truth?
Read Politics of Xenophobia...

Executions in Iran!

Watch this recent video. His smile speaks to the world!! And the execution of 16 years old Atefeh Sahaleh in August 2004.
Viewers may find images in these reports distressing.

Nina Simone.....I Got Life

Ain't Got No/I Got Life

By: Nina Simone
(Watch the video. Listen to her song)


I ain't got no home, ain't got no shoes
Ain't got no money, Ain't got no clothes
Ain't got no perfume, Ain't got no skirts
Ain't got no sweaters, Ain't got no smokes
Ain't got no god.
............................
Ain't got no....More
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there is something i've got,
nobody can take it away...
Got my hair on my head
Got my brains, Got my ears
Got my eyes, Got my nose
Got my mouth, I got my smile
I got my tongue, Got my chin
Got my neck, Got my boobies
Got my heart, Got my soul
Got my back, I got my sex
More..
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The Art of Losing

One Art
By: Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
.....................
I lost two cities, lovely ones.  And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

---Even losing you.....More

I, Too, Sing America

I, Too, Sing America by Langston Hughes
......
They'll see how beautiful I am
................
I, too, am America.

Gore Vidal

Gore Vidal the most precious writer and historian, in an interview says:
...I'm so alarmed by what is happening with our global empire and our wars against the rest of the world....More

Unity is waht I sing...

A great poem by Rumi:

I am neither a Moslem nor a Hindu
I am not Christian, Zoroastrian, nor Jew

I am neither of the West nor the East
Not of the ocean, nor an earthly beast
I am neither a natural wonder
Nor from the stars yonder

..............................................

My place is the no-place
My image is without face
Neither of body nor the soul
I am of the Divine Whole.

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Unity is what I sing, unity is what I speak
Unity is what I know, unity is what I seek

Susan Jacoby and The Age of Unreason

Excerpt from Bill Moyers' interview with Susan Jacoby on her latest book "the Age of American Unreason".

BILL MOYERS: You have a powerful section in here on what's happened to our political language. How, for example, politicians so often talk these days not about people but ab-

SUSAN JACOBY: Folks.

BILL MOYERS: --folks-

SUSAN JACOBY: Folks.

BILL MOYERS: --about the folks. What's wrong that?

SUSAN JACOBY: What's wrong with it is folks used to be a colloquialism. It was the kind of thing that you'd talk about mostly in rural areas, mostly in the south and the Midwest. People talked about folks. It was not considered suitable for public speech. If you used it in the classroom your teacher would, you know, would get after you, because it wasn't considered appropriate language.

But think about ....More

Laughters and Cries!

Watch this video!

The folly of attacking Iran

The Folly of Attacking Iran

Stephen Kinzer, the award winning author and former foreign correspondent for the New York Times, along with a diverse group of other experts on Iran, Congressional leaders and military experts are traveling across the country to counter the message from Washington and to present options for a more rational foreign policy towards Iran. More…

New Dark Age!

Indeed, we live in the dark ages!
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Ah, what an age it is
When to speak of trees is almost a crime
For it is a kind of silence about injustice!
And he who walks calmly across the street,
Is he not out of reach of his friends
In trouble?
..............
Bertolt Brecht

Marjane Satrapi and Persepolis

"Be careful, you might considering Iranian people HUMAN BEING!!"
Marjane Satrapi on Comedy central.
I saw this clip first in my sister's blog Belle of Writes.

Dennis Kucinich

A conversation with Dennis Kucinich.

Chris Hedges: Why has the Democratic Party not done what it should do?

Rep. Dennis Kucinich: Lack of commitment to Democratic principles. No understanding of the period of history we’re in. Failure to appreciate the necessity of the coequality of Congress. Unwillingness to assert Congressional authority in key areas which makes the people’s House paramount to protecting democracy. The institutionalized influence of corporate America through the Democratic leadership council. Those are just a few......

More

"I".....

I, Ezzat Goushegir and I, Bertolt Brecht have nothing to do with I, Rudy!!!

How about I, Sarah Bernhardt?

Raymond Carver

It was 1987 when for the first time I was introduced to Raymond Carver's short stories. I read his book "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" in Iowa City, where I was at International Writing Program. It was his minimalist style which gave me a new perspective in writing fiction. It also reminded me of how the art of seeing is essential in creating a world which is invisible to others. As Marguerite Duras says in "Hiroshima My Love" , "the art of seeing has to be learned".