And in surveillance news, the US has apparently been spying on its own military folk abroad.  GASP!  As our own Chris Soghoian said in a tweet yesterday: “The upside of the NSA tapping the phone sex calls of U.S. soldiers? Anyone defending the NSA can be accused of not supporting the troops”

If you haven’t checked out Berberus.com yet, you ought to.  It’s a fantastic way of finding North African blogs on any subject!

Credit goes to Pundit Kitchen

The premise, you ask? Not too long ago I purchased the brand new iPod Touch. I’d had my original 20GB iPod for nearly four years, and its battery had kicked it…twice. I wanted an iPhone but not the $100+ monthly contract that comes with it in the States.

It was basically love at first sight. Accompanied by my favorite headphones, the iPod has not left my back pocket/hoodie pouch in weeks. I adore it. I play games with it, send e-mails from all over Cambridge (yay Harvard wi-fi), and of course, listen to lots and lots of music, very easily, on it.

Last week, while purchasing my morning cappuccino from my very favorite cafe, I decided to take advantage of their very awesome free wi-fi and download some new tracks. I settled on Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor (a seriously awesome album) and went on my merry way, listening to the new tunes on my ‘pod, happy as a clam…

…Until a few hours later when, after plugging the ‘pod into my MacBook and upgrading iTunes, Food and Liquor was nowhere to be found. I checked my Trash, I dug through iTunes on my computer…nothing. Then I got pissed.

Now, I should note that I don’t sync my iPod with my MacBook. It doesn’t make sense; I have over 25GB of music on the ‘Book, and only 8GB of ‘pod space. Silly. And iTunes doesn’t make the method of transferring music purchased through the Touch obvious (although apparently it is quite easy).

Of course I complained, sending a proper complaint through Support as well as a cheeky one (”Hi, this is John Mayer here) to sjobs@mac.com. It took less than 24 hours to get a response (presumably due to the proper complaint):

Hello Jillian,

Greetings from California! I hope that this email greets you in good spirits. My name is Emily and I am happy to assist you until this issue is resolved to your satisfaction.

I understand that you purchased some items from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store and they were erased when you connected your iPod Touch to your computer to update it. I know how frustrating that is. I will be more than happy to help you with this today.

I have posted “Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor” to your account for you, and you can download it via your computer. First, make sure you are using the latest version of iTunes, which is available free of charge.

The rest of the e-mail was just as lovely and polite. Now, I’m sure it’s just a form e-mail, but it sure beats Dunkin’ Donuts‘ customer support. Rock on, Apple.

Apparently another ridiculous Sheikh has made his way into the international news.  This time it’s a Saudi, and he would like women to go around without depth perception and looking like pirates.

The Sheikh’s feeling is that allowing women to go around exposing themselves by showing both eyes is just too seductive, and is thus advocating a veil that shows only one eye. I mean, after all, the eyes are the windows to the soul…

The good news is that, at least in the States, women could still drive dressed this way (apparently every state allows one-eyed driving)…but they can’t drive in Saudi Arabia anyway, so that’s a moot point.

There’s a program on MTV called “Sex with My Mom and Dad,” serving only to remind me of why I don’t watch MTV.  I don’t even change channels.

VH1, on the other hand, is showing the top 100 hip hop songs of all time.  “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” underscores a Wu-Tang biopic, lamenting the sad death of Ol’ Dirty Bastard (best Wikipedia sentence ever: “In April 1998, he announced his new stage name, Big Baby Jesus (the first of many alternate stage names; see the list below), but was never able to give a coherent explanation for the very brief switch.“)

I want to keep watching, and am fortunately interrupted by a Taco Bell ad, allowing me to flip momentarily.

Flavor of Love, which I have actually never seen, is on the TV Guide channel…um, ok.  I did see its predecessor, that ridiculous celebrities-locked-in-a-fancy-house-boo-hoo, but never imagined that it would spawn not one, but five spinoffs, one of which would invite former contestants from, and I quote, “Flavor of Love, Rock of Love, and I Love New York.

What is wrong, my country people?  Why are you subjecting yourselves to this crap?  Seriously.  I mean, there is absolutely no excuse for this.  You’re watching major television companies capitalize on a program featuring Flavor Flav hitting on dumb girls by then hiring one of the program’s “losers” to “star” in her own “reality” (aren’t you glad I’m typing rather than reciting this?”).

This season, they’re actually bringing back 90210.  I’ve watched it.  It’s total TV porn for kids of my generation who loved Brenda and Kelly…um, because they’re still on the show.  And that’s not the worst of it - there’s a show called Privileged; I saw an episode the other night in which the subject matter of a teenage girl buying porn from Amazon.com was dealt with…wha?  And please don’t get me started on Gossip Girl.  I’ve never even seen it, but I already know.  Oh, I know.

My hour’s up.  Remind me not to turn on my TV again until October 8.

I’d only just heard about the film Towelhead when I read this KABOBfest post. I’d seen a preview, which made it abundantly clear that there would be some sort of inappropriate sexual relationship between the characters played by Aaron Eckhart and Summer Bishil, but aside from that had no idea what I was getting into.

Let me address the Arab issue quickly and move on. First of all, main character Jasira and her father are Lebanese Christians living in Texas. Her father is fairly conservative, mostly supporting President Bush Senior’s policies on Iraq, and posting an American flag on the front lawn to one-up the neighbors. He’s also conservative in the other sense, slapping his daughter in one early scene for coming to breakfast in skimpy pajamas and telling her not to date a black boy from school, lest he ruin her reputation. He is also a single father who has not had any hand in raising his daughter and thus doesn’t know the first thing about how to do it.

But, for a movie called Towelhead, you could’ve too easily substituted “Lebanese” with “Greek” or “Latino” (and towelhead with another unpleasant moniker) and it would’ve been almost the same film. The actual Arab issue (including the repeated use of the words “towelhead”, “sand nigger”, and “camel jockey”) was hardly dealt with which, to me, was a good thing, but to the vast majority of whitebread Americans that will see this, is unfortunate. I actually overheard someone in the cinema say “I didn’t know there were Arab Christians.” But I digress.

Aside from that, my first impression of the film was that a) It was extremely difficult to watch and b) that I enjoyed it nonetheless. Hard to watch because Jasira is so painfully awkward. And the story is more a lesson on what happens when a young, beautiful girl has no strong adult figure in her life than anything else. Her father is at first strict, but then frequently leaves her home alone for sleepovers at his girlfriend’s house. Her mother is a negligent woman who sends her to live with her father when things get rough, then begs her back and cries loneliness when Jasira doesn’t want to go. And it only gets worse from there.

I won’t delve into the plot too much, but what I think a lot of people will not take away from this film is how - statutory rape aside - utterly normal Jasira’s sexual curiosity and even experimentation are. Fortunately, one character - a little too late in the film if you ask me - gets it. Their pregnant hippie-esque neighbor, played by Toni Collette, takes an interest in Jasira and manages to save her from her predatory neighbor, albeit somewhat too late. She also manages to sum up what I hoped the film would by helping Jasira understand what’s normal and what’s not (namely sexual curiosity = normal, sleeping with your married adult neighbor = not).

Another itty bitty bit of pleasing salvation comes when the neighbor/rapist briefly encounters Jasira at the end and tells her “it ain’t your fault.” Cinematically, it was probably used to show that Jasira will eventually be okay, which makes total sense given how rapidly the movie ends after that; realistically, I think it shows that these things aren’t as black and white as we’d like them to be. That although inter-generational sex as such is certainly against the law and certainly unhealthy, between the two parties involved, it’s just not that simple.

Anyhow, I liked the film, but I’m glad I saw it with a female friend with whom I’m close. I cannot imagine any two people wandering into that on a first date. Holy awkward. In fact, if you’ve read this far still having not seen the film (what did I tell you?) but are intrigued, do me a favor and wait for it on DVD.

Katie: Explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials?

Sarah: Well, it certainly does, because our next-door neighbors are foreign countries. They’re in the state that I’m the executive of.

Some Saudi cleric is answering a question about mice; namely, whether or not they should be killed in the house. It’s a valid religious question that anyone might consider (including PETA), but the cleric goes perhaps a little too far and claims that the presence Tom & Jerry has softened kids to the evils of mice. Here’s the video:

It’s pretty clear to me that when he says “according to Islamic Sharia, Mickey Mouse should be killed,” he’s saying it with a smirk on his face and a tongue in his cheek. And yet the American media got ahold of the video (which was put out by MEMRI) and all hell breaks loose:

Suddenly the cleric’s words are being twisted to say that Mickey should die, that there’s a fatwa on Mickey, that Tom & Jerry are evil. Dude didn’t say that at all. What he said is that, according to Islam, mice are dirty and when found indoors should be killed. He only brought up Mickey to explain how children have become immune to mice because they see them as cute little cartoons rather than dirty, infected rodents.

Give me a break, FOX and accomplices.

I think the truth is that I need to drop a couple things. Frankly, I take on too much (and have done so for the past six or seven years). And for a long time, it’s been worthwhile to me…work really hard, get my name out there, trade in a personal life for one of work 24/7. I’m no longer sure it’s worth it. I treasure my weekends with friends, my weeknights out, and my time by myself (which, until recently, always involved my MacBook).

On the other hand, this was a good test for the future…what am I capable of? The answer, I suppose, is that I’m asking the wrong question. It isn’t a matter of what I’m capable of, but what I actually desire. And the answer apparently isn’t what I thought it was.