In the past...

...few weeks I have read two different books. The first one I finished was Tariq Ali's "The Clash of Fundamentalisms". Irreverant, at times overly biased by the author's personal opinions, and perhaps a tard inaccurate at some instances, the book is nevertheless well-written.
The second one which I quite recently finished is "Shut Up, I'm Talking" by the Canadian jewish author Gregory Levey, who has written his experiences at Israel's UN Mission and then as a speech writer for the Israeli prime minister. Being written by a jewish author with obvious symathy for Israel, the usage of the vernacular normally employed in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian situation, whereby Palestinians are terrorists, but jews are extremists (if they happen to murder a prime minister of their own), is understandable, though I find the storyline of the author having reached the position of a speech writer for the prime minister while merely seeking internship a bit incredulous. Furthermore, I found the praise for the former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon very distasteful, e.g. that maybe he "...really is invincible", and attempts to brush under his past even more so, e.g. by writing that he has a "controversial past". A controversial past one has certainly, when one is held personally responsible for the murder of more than a 1000 men, women and children by one's own courts.

A good report...

...about the game of cricket being played in Italy, of all places.
Cricket: Immigrants feel at home batting for Italy

Between last Saturday...

...and today, I was able to watch the men's 100, 200 and 4x100 m, and the women's 100m races in the Beijing Olympics live. And wow, what good viewing it was. What I liked most was Usain Bolt's attitude: complete "thand program" (sth those exposed to the Lahore vernacular can understand).

Bombs have started...

...exploding in Pakistan again and again. The last time this occured in such a way was in Feb/March of this year, after Bush's friend had been bamboozled in the general election. Now this is happening after he has resigned.
Can anyone see some pattern here?

This, of course, in addition to what is happening in the North of the country, where the military is rocketing its own people, and where some sinister groups have sprung up suspiciously-all-of-a-sudden, and when there is a near insurrection in the western province of Baluchistan, rich in minerals, and located in prime geographical real-estate.