Putting my foot down!

Okay, there comes a time when a blogger has to step in and interfere personally in his/her comments section. I usually prefer to not do that partly because I believe that people are entitled to express whatever opinions they hold- no matter how stupid or deluded or extreme- as long as they can defend them and partly because between my job, writing those posts, maintaining a social life, taking care of my mom and sleep, I simply do not have the time to leave or comment on the comments people leave. Today, I decided not to blog as much and do some responses instead, because it was brought to my attention that discourse over here has turned kinda ugly, so I am gonna have to put my foot down. Now, first of all, the Louise and Twosret beef: To clarify things, Twosret, what Louise said that men who have swaggering machismo make lousy lovers for the women they are with. She didn’t say that all Syrian and Lebanese are lousy lovers, just the really angry kind. Now, louise, it’s safe to assume that this might be kind of a generalization, cause let’s face it, most of the people at protests who are angry are usually angry at a certain incident or issue. They don’t all have anger management issues or machismo overdose. Not to mention it means they are passionate about things, and u know how important passion when it come to being a lover. Either way, it was a generalization to probably label all of them to be bad in whatever relationships they would get involved in. The same goes for you twosret: saying that all american lovers are lousy and that american women would be wowed by syrian and lebanese lovers is one hell of a generalization as well. What, did you try them all out and conducted a survey? Not to mention, we all know that there is only country that always produces studs in the sack and that country is of course EGYPT (Sorry, couldn’t help it), and I can’t believe I am even writing this or having this discussion on a political blog. How did it come to this? Anyway.. The point is, the two of you are two smart intelligent well read women who have been leaving comments on this blog since its inception; You shouldn’t be calling eachother sluts or shits or whatever. This adds nothing to the discussion. Twosret, Louise has actually said that she did find the US unflinching support to Israel over the year troubling and a big part of the problem, and she is a right-wing Bush supporter. This is one thing that the two of you seem to agree on. Louise thinks it’s a hopeless cause however, and Twosret doesn’t. Why not discuss that instead of calling each other names? Sure, call eachother’s views naïve, or deluded, or even stupid. But anything beyond that is crossing the line into personal insult category and only me is allowed to stoop that low on this blog ( because I am the writer and I could do as I please goddamn it). So please, if it’s possible, apologize to eachother for taking it that far and if not, at least try to play nice when you are at my turf. And if you have to insult something, then please insult the ideas, not the person. This goes double to you as well David. One more personal insult to anyone and I might have to take you on personally and believe me you don’t wanna be on the bad side of this sandmonkey. Now moving on to Mr. James: dude, the thing about the splodyvest? SOOO NOT COOOOL when dealing with arabs, and with Palestinians especially. God knows I am not mr. PC in any way shape or form, but you are definately crossing the line for a lot of people there. My personal advice: don’t go there. I understand your point and what you meant, but any point you would’ve made in that comment got marginalized by adding that little statement. It’s kinda of ignorant and unrealistic, cause there are a lot of people over here sharing Twosret’s views and they are not blowing themselves up anytime soon. And to prove my point further to you : T. is actually a Christian, and a very practicing one, so let me assure you she is not gonna pull any jihadist stunts, ever. An apology might also be in order, just a suggestion. Then we have Sheriene. Hi Shery. Personal Note: Just because people don’t think exactly like you doesn’t make them stupid, nor does it make you more intelligent then them. This blog lacks intellectuals? What makes you the authority on who is or isn’t an intellectual sweetie? I am glad you are here, I like your comments and I want you to stay, if for no other reason that Tina and Louise make such an effective tag team for their side that it would be good to have one from the other side and you and T. would be prime candidates for it. Not to mention, I always feel bad for T being the lone dissenting voice on this blog. She could use the support. Ya know? But yeah, you wanna discuss things intellectually, then raise intellectual topics and be prepared to discuss them with people who might not share your point of view at all. Unless you are prepared to do that sweetie, you have no right to complain about the “intellectuals” on this blog. You live in a glass house babe, you shouldn’t be throwing stones. And finally, last but not least, Mr. Karim. Kimo, habiby, I want you to take a look at the pics that I posted today from yesterday’s protest against Syria in Lebanon. It seems that this is not just me who has got his wires crossed, more then a million Lebanese (Christian, sunni and druze-which one are you btw?) seem to have their wires crossed as well. Strange phenomenon, don’t you think? But answering your point and Highlander’s point before you (btw, highlander, I can’t access your blog anymore. What’s up with that?), I do recognize that Syria did come to Lebanon initially to keep the peace and I am glad they did that. But I also recognize that the Ta’af agreement, which was drafted in 1989 by the way, stated that a timetable for Syrian withdrawal had to be made, something the Syrians stalled on for 15 years and for good reason: They needed Lebanon. They needed Lebanon for strategic reasons: as a buffer zone between them and Israel and a spring board from which they can attack Israel indirectly, cause they can’t afford to attack it directly. They needed Lebanon for economic reasons: Lebanon provided a place for cheap Syrian labor to get jobs and get dollars that would be transferred back to Syria, which doesn’t have anything resembling a real economy anyway. So they need the Lebanese economy in order to survive. The Lebanese don’t like it because they suffer from unemployment and because Syria dictates what goes down in the Lebanese political scene. For the Lebanese people there these days, things are stable and the possibility of another civil war is the last thing on anyone’s mind. They feel like they don’t need the Syrians running things anymore, but the Syrians don’t wanna leave. Hence the current problem. As for the wrong image to the west accusation, I am not gonna answer that. There are pics posted below. They will answer that for me. And yes , the Egyptians love the Lebanese, and I do for personal reasons (one of my favorite ex’s was Lebanese). I love Lebanon so much that I would like it to be sovereign and independent. I would love that for Lebanon and I am not Lebanese, I find it ironic that you are Lebanese and you don’t! That is all I have to say today folks. We will resume our regular broadcasting tomorrow. Have a nice day, SAM