More balancing act...

...comments from Hillary Clinton to US TV:

"We also don't want to see some takeover that would lead not to democracy but to oppression and the end of the aspirations of the Egyptian people."

Errr.....it took you 30 years to realize this? Or is it that the democracy BS ain't important, as long as the son of a bitch belongs to you?

"And how rich...

...an irony it was to hear Tony Blair – the man who so heedlessly helped to topple Saddam Hussein – speak yesterday of the need above all for stability in Egypt."

He he

read it here.

While the...

...oppressed and repressed are showing themselves not so oppressed and repressed any more in Egypt, the cynic in me is thinking about the outcome of this all. Not good is what it's going to be, for if it happens in Egypt what has happened in Tunisia, what will happen to the rest of the despots imposed on their people (with the help of the civilized world, one should mention), and what then about the champions of democracy in the civilized world, who have worked so hard to maintain the despots in place?

The pawns in...

...middle east must be shakin', if not out of fear, then perhaps disbelief, the people of the most repressed countries of the region finally mustering courage to protest out in the open:

Protests in Egypt and unrest in Middle East – live updates

And what is the position of the champion of democracy across all the middle east, the leader of the free world:

"Our assessment is that the Egyptian government is stable and is looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people," US secretary of state Hillary Clinton declared on Tuesday night.

Where else...

...would despots (of the Muslim persuasion, at least) find refuge, than Saudi?

For anyone...

...wanting to read too much into the flight of Tunisia's "friend of the West" despot, the following should provide a good dose of reality:

The brutal truth about Tunisia

Some old...

...fossils in the middle east must be shakin' in their chairs/beds/thrones...

Tunisia protests: 'The fear has gone … I've been waiting 20 years for today'

Or is it that a petty pawn has outlived his utility, and has been moved by his masters, just like Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan's case?

Read the following...

...headline:

Religious extremists banned from picketing...shooting funeral

Where is this news from? Pakistan? Surely, where a governor was recently shot dead by his police guard, and the country is now about to be taken over by religious extremists, and the "liberal" voice has been silenced, and (put your favorite BS here)....

Further reading suggests, however, that this news is not from Pakistan, but instead, wait a minute, from the, Oh My, leader of the "civilized" world:

Religious extremists banned from picketing Arizona shooting funeral

Well, err, is the US about to be taken over by religious extremists?

Most funny was the effort in the media to paint the killer in the US as a loner. Strange that whenever something like this happens in Pakistan (the world's favorite whipping boy), there are hordes of savages waiting to take over (no one mentions that the poor country has more than 170 million even poorer souls, not an empty house that can be taken over by squatters), but the exact same thing in the "civilized world" is always by loners!

Facebook is now...

...telling me that it will force its New Profile down my throat in a few days. Previously it just reminded me that so many of my friends had already had their new profiles :-)

If we read...

...this:
"People tend to pooh-pooh this business that we hear about all the vitriol we hear inflaming...by people who make a living doing that," he said. "That may be free speech – but there are consequences."

We might think this is something from the "Muslim" extremists or their so-called apologists, who want to stifle free speech. But the full text, as reproduced below, would suggest otherwise:

"People tend to pooh-pooh this business that we hear about all the vitriol we hear inflaming the American public by people who make a living doing that," he said. "That may be free speech – but there are consequences." Source here.

On a related note, recently a governor in Pakistan was shot dead by his police guard due to reasons allegedly related to religious sensitivities. Immediately, it was a battle for the soul of Pakistan, a battle between progress and stone-age, the very existence of Pakistan at stake, this being a demonstration of Pakistan as a failed state, and all the similar BS one can think of.
My question: a US member of the congress was shot through the head, a judge, and many others shot dead, but why ain't anyone questioning the existence of US into question, or calling it a failed state?

Pakistan is definitely knee-deep in excrement, the ordinary people stuck between religious and liberal extremists, torn apart in suicide bombs in cities, or blown to pieces in drone attacks, the quality of life in general falling down to dust, but failed state it ain't.

UPDATE:

Further to what was written above:
Overestimating the right

From the...

...mathematical certainty of 75% of all "terror" plots originating in Pakistan, it has come to this:

White girls 'easy meat' to Pakistani men, says Straw

"But there is...

...something rather stomach-churning at the sight of those such as Amis and his political allies, champions of a civilisation that for centuries has wreaked untold carnage throughout the world, shrieking for illegal measures when they find themselves for the first time on the sticky end of the same treatment."

Read on the Wikipedia entry for Martin Amis.

There is something...

...brutal about morality; like the most moral army in the world murdering someone "holding a bottle", or real human beings "eliminated in the most humane way" by civilized europeans.

"Would that...

...death had been the end of me".

Beautiful recitation of the Quran.