Thank you for the thoughtful comment.

If this woman wants to work within the system, then fine. More power to her.

But until her country turns into something that even remotely resembles a liberal democracy then she has no credibility when it comes to criticizing countries that are more free than hers.

And yes, Iran - until very recently - has been more democratic than Dubai. Iran's political system has only been around 30 years... and they have consistently elected their president and parliamant.

Dubai, on the other hand, has for 40 years been an autocracy in which parliamentarians are apparently appointed. Najla al Awadhi is living in a glass house, and yet she feels self-confident enough to cast stones at Iran... even though Ahmadinejad (who may not have really won) still got more votes than Miss Awadhi (who was appointed).

I am not critical of her wanting to bring positive change to her country. I am only critical of her being a hypocrite.

Blaming Bush is fine if (and only if) Obama is going in the right direction. But Obama is going in the wrong direction. With regards to the economy, his policies are making the guys on Wall Street richer (as unemployment continues to rise). Obama can't blame Bush for the economy if Obama is making the economy even worse.

As for the wars, Obama is supporting a corrupt, illegitimate government in Afghanistan. This, in turn, is causing huge instability in that country since the Pashtuns trust the Taliban a little bit more than they trust their own government. This situation is helping the Taliban take over large parts of the country.

Also, Obama's drone strikes in Pakistan have led to the militants retaliating against the Pakistani military and against Pakistani civilians. We're seeing enormous instability in Pakistan that we did not see under Bush. Obama does not have the right to criticize Bush as Obama's policies are turning out to be worse than Bush's.

You are totally overreacting. Different people have different opinions on rape scenes. Take the HBO serious The Sopranos, for instance. There's a scene in which Dr. Melfi (played by Lorraine Bracco) gets raped. Apparently, Ms. Bracco did not have a problem with that male-on-female rape scene, and neither did her director, and neither did her co-stars, and neither did many of the viewers. Are millions of people "ignorant?"

Thank you for the comment. I have one question: do you believe Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver became a raving lunatic or was he a raving lunatic to begin with? In other words, did he devolve into a madman over the course of the movie or was he always a dormant madman? It seems to me that he had the lunacy within him right from the start, and it eventually took over his psyche.

Thank you for your thoughtful reply, Sir. I could not agree more with your assertion that Western colonialism is the most recent. There is no hypocrisy on my part. I am willing to acknowledge that people resent what they can remember. My parents come from Pakistan, and my grandparents came from India. India has been invaded countless times by many different people. But we remember the Brits. We're not hypocrites. We're just human. It's human nature to resent the wrongs that you remember.

We can't remember being wronged by the Mughals because none of us were alive at the time. The British colonized India for over 200 years. I would agree with you that there were positive aspects to the British Raj. For example, access to better education. But there were many negatives as well. People's rights were brutally suppressed, their nation's wealth stolen, their natural resources exploited. So one must not gloss over these crimes.

The Ottomans are not admired by the Armenians because the Armenians still remember the fact that one million of their brothers and sisters were murdered in the Armenian Genocide. The Kurds are still resentful of the Turks because of present conditions in the Kurdish parts of Turkey. Iran is viewed negatively by many Arabs because many still remember the Safavid imperialism.

Also, many Hindus and Sikhs view the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb very negatively due to his radical orthodoxy. So not all of the non-Western colonial powers are viewed positively. And the Western colonial powers are viewed negatively because they are the most recent.

My grandmother is still alive. The British partitioned her country. A million people died in the 1947 Partition. The crimes of the British have had readl consequences. India and Pakistan do not get along. The British also partitioned Israel and Palestine, and that conflict continues as well. So we have real reasons to resent the West because: (i) we can remember, and (ii) the effects are still present.

Agreed!

You're absolutely right. It was unfair of Christiane Amanpour to equate Muslim fundamentalists with Christian fundamentalists. Christian fundamentalist violence has not been a huge problem in the 21st century, so I can see why Christians would be offended by the "God's Warriors" series.

I think that the media should respect all religions. Since Kanye West is a generally benign public figure, his appearance as Jesus was not as outrageous or controversial as drawing the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb on his head. If Jesus had been depicted in a way that editorialized about the Catholic priest abuse scandals, then I think that would be the Christian equivalent of the Danish cartoons.

I don't know if she's actually an egomaniac. Beyonce has talked about her alter ego (aka Sasha Fierce). In other words, Beyonce claims she is playing a character that is self-confident and edgy... and that in real life, she's a bit more humble.

I don't think the Mousavi camp is going to back down. They are committed to achieving their goal... which, at the moment, is to have their votes count. I think at some point, there is some chance the Ahmadinejad camp will compromise... though I'm not sure what the nature of the compromise will be. Ahmadinejad has a knack for pissing off both liberals and conservatives.

The Iranian system is inherently flawed. Khomeini once said that the legitimacy of a government is based on the will of the people. And he's the one that came up with the system of clerical rule. But what if the people don't want to be rules by clerics? The system would appear to contradict itself.

Be careful though. Bimbos like to spend their men's money like there's no tomorrow!

I was genuinely surprised to read the news that Russia would be allowing the US military to move its supplies through Russia to its forces in Afghanistan. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised. Russia tends to play nice whenever oil prices are low.

Putin is one of the most shrewd world leaders around. Even if he doesn't take Obama seriously, he'll never let on.

On the other hand, Sarkozy (who happens to be a US ally) went as far as to call Obama "inexperienced," and this was after Obama had been inaugurated.

Thanks very much. :)

If I had Obama's charm, I would totally be using it to full avail! ;)

Thanks very much. :)

If I had Obama's charm, I would totally be using it to full avail! ;)

Lebanese women are the most beautiful in the world. There were a lot of them at the high school I went to (International School of Choueifat in Abu Dhabi), so I've seen them up close. Exquisite and ravishing!

I was surprised to learn that Andy Roddick had thought about quitting the game after his disastrous performance last year at Wimbledon. I had always viewed Andy as a highly motivated player. So it was kind of a shock for me to read about how he had had conversations with his wife last year about whether he could still compete at a high level.

I'm sure they exist. :) It's just that we don't get to run into as many Saudis and Kuwaitis around the world due the fact that they tend to stay within in their (relatively stable) countries. We tend to run into more Palestinians and Lebanese people around the world because often times they're fleeing their (relatively war-torn) countries.

I think part of the reason we're not hearing about the reporters is that if they get a lot of publicity, this would lead Jim Jong-il to think he can link the release of the reporters to a deal on his nuclear program. But if the media stays quiet about the reporters, this takes away Kim's bargaining chip.

Like I said in the article, if it's a situation that makes it necessary for you to have to view the lady's face the she should reveal her face. But aside from that, I think that ideally a multicultural society should value and respect cultural diversity.