Nimium Papa: Is the Pope Arab?
Embedded Military Experts, Muqtada, and Hillary's Blank Cheque.
Oddest new regulation: Extreme Red Light laws on the Gulf.

Nimium Papa:
The Pope is a good person. I am sure the last three Popes, at least, were all good, nice people. Things get a little murky as we move away beyond those three or four latest ones. Other Popes way back in history werre not so nice, especially the Borgia Pope Alexander the nth- according to Mario Puzo anyway. In fairness, the history of Islamic top banansa has not been any better over the centuries, most have died violently or suspiciously prematurely. I am not sure about the Jews: perhaps they were kept too busy over the past two millennia to develop an omnipotent and rapacious hierarchy like the two latecomers.

The Pope deserves a lot of attention on his US visit, since it is a rare visit, mercie a dieu, Gott sie dank!

But I can't turn on any news channel today without seeing His Holiness, or mediaheads parsing his every word as if he is running for the Democratic nomination. This place has looked, at least on TV, as fundamentalist as my homeland on the Gulf. It reminds me of the ubiquitous kings and presidents of the Arab world, those potentates whose every move is broadcast on state TV evey day. (Hey, he did reduce TV time for the Texas polygamists, which is not a bad thing).

The good news is that he will be gone in a few hours. The Arab kings and dictators, unfortunately, will be on television, haunting their peoples, boring them to death each and every day.

Embedded Military Experts, Muqtada, and Hillary's Blank Cheque:
Finally we learn that all those retired generals and colonels embedded with the cable news networks as experts are moles, planted by the administration to push its foreign policy, especially about Iraq and Iran. The exception may be the Fox News fair 'n balanced military "experts".

Muqtada al-Sadr is threatening all out our if his Mahdi militia are not left alone and US-Iraqi assaults on their areas not ended.

Hillary Clinton is doing anything she can to look macho, short of growing a moustache. She has just issued a blank cheque covering all moderate New Middle East countries, which on the face of it is welcome news to the countries concerned. But it complicates things in the region. Still, she will never out-McCain McCain.

Senator McCain says he will act "quickly and decisively" on the economy. How? Ba, ba, ba, bomb inflation...
He also said that "time for partisan debate in the United Sttes is over". I wasn't aware that the elections were over.

In case anybody has noticed: the Lebanese have not yet agreed on selecting a new president, not that it matters anymore. The country may be functioning better than a few months, or even a year ago. Perhaps all Arab states should pack their heads of state to a vacation somewhere in Europe, to their London or PAris mansions, and try to get along a la Rodney King?

Oddest new regulation: In one Gulf state, the Ministry of Interior (in charge of police and immigration) has ruled that all foreigners who drive through a red traffic light will be deported. The first two "victims" were Syrians.
Queston: what happens if a Saudi or an Egyptian runs a red light? What if it is a citizen mof the country? Will he be shot?
Cheers
Mohammed