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Absolutely, nyc...I am a woman of my word...and you know it. Post away, and bring all yer rowdy friends with you!
Just turn out the lights when you leave, okay? Danged electric bill was near $40 last month!
Viv, I think I'm a gonna start posting here, I expect all my radical, hate filled, left-wing, liberal friends who greatly hate me to post here too.
Viv, you can't ban anyone or delete any posts, ok?
ASHINGTON, June 15 - A seven-year-old unofficial truce discouraging House members from filing ethics complaints against one another disintegrated Tuesday when a freshman Democrat accused one of the most powerful members of Congress, the House majority leader, Tom DeLay, of "bribery, extortion, fraud, money laundering and the abuse of power."
The Democrat, Representative Chris Bell of Texas, who is leaving Congress because he lost a primary election, filed a 187-page complaint against Mr. DeLay, also of Texas, with the House ethics committee. The complaint accuses the majority leader of illegally soliciting campaign contributions, laundering campaign contributions to influence state legislative races and improperly using his office to influence federal agencies.
Look who gets rich on $40-a-barrel oil
In a climate of record highs, refineries are cashing in
By Lisa Sanders, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 8:30 PM ET May 21, 2004
DALLAS (CBS.MW) -- America is playing the blame game.
With crude oil at $40 a barrel and average U.S. gasoline prices hitting a record $2 a gallon this week, consumers are demanding to know who, if anybody, is cashing in on the spike.
The Democrats blame Big Oil and the Bush administration. The industry and its backers blame OPEC. And many consumers blame their local gas stations. The list goes on.
But one thing is certain. Companies that are benefiting handsomely from the latest surge in prices in the commodities markets are also the ones that make money by producing crude oil and refining it into products ranging from unleaded gasoline to jet fuel to kerosene. Interactive feature: Where your gasoline dollars go.
The winners include integrated oil giants such as ExxonMobil (XOM: news, chart, profile) and ChevronTexaco (CVX: news, chart, profile), which also have refining operations. Companies that specialize in refining are led by independent outfits like Valero Energy (VLO: news, chart, profile) and Premcor (PCO: news, chart, profile).
By contrast, the main losers are retailers such as the local 7-11 (SE: news, chart, profile) or Pantry (PTRY: news, chart, profile), which are paying higher credit-card fees on gas sales even as their sales of high-margin snacks and drinks slow down.
Refiners' margins are more than five times the margins generated by retailers on a gallon of gasoline. But even they deny any suggestion they have anything to do with driving up prices.
Following the process
"ExxonMobil's refining, distribution, and marketing businesses operate on very thin margins in an intensely competitive marketplace," said Sandra Duhe, a spokeswoman for ExxonMobil, the world's largest refiner. "Those margins are set by the difference between the price we pay for raw materials (primarily crude oil), and the price we get for the products we make -- and the global marketplace controls both."
In its journey from oilfield to the gas tank, crude passes through four main production and distribution phases. It starts at the wellhead, where it's found and lifted out of the ground.
After the crude producer's job is done, the oil travels by pipelines or tankers to a buyer, which may sell it to a refiner. Or it may refine it at its own facilities into unleaded gasoline, such as in the case of Exxon.
Refined gasoline is sold to marketers, which sell the product to retail service stations. Ultimately, the gasoline is pumped into the cars, vans and sport utility vehicles of the nation's consumers.
Based on last week's U.S. average pump price of $1.98 per gallon of unleaded gasoline, about 97.5 cents of that reflects the average cost of the production of a single gallon of crude, according to an analysis by the Oil Price Information Service, a research firm in Lakewood, N.J. The firms' data was calculated assuming last week's price of $41 a barrel on futures markets.
Gene Gillespie, an analyst who covers integrated oil companies for Howard, Weil, Labouisse Friedrichs in New Orleans, said his firm estimates producers will post a profit margin of $10.50 a barrel in the second quarter.
"Producers earn a heck of lot less than they are currently earning," he said. As a comparison, companies posted profit margins of about $4.50 a barrel, on average, he said.
Of the 42 gallons of crude in a barrel, 19 gallons are turned into gasoline, according to the American Petroleum Institute. When that process is completed, the profit margin for refiners is about 44 cents per gallon.
Meanwhile, distributors' margins are currently 3.8 cents a gallon, and retailers' margins are at about 8.2 cents a gallon. Federal and state governments, which vary state by state in their assessments, are collecting 44.6 cents.
"It's like asking who's doing better -- Bill Gates or Warren Buffett," said Tom Kloza, publisher of OPIS, of the difference between producers and refiners. "Refiners are getting perhaps triple the normal margin...they are doing better than they have ever done."
A barrel of gasoline on the U.S. futures markets closed at $60.91 on Thursday, at a record $20 higher than the $40.92 closing price of the June contract for crude.
However, the market is already anticipating a decline in gasoline prices as the October contract settled a little over $9 above $39.18 crude, November gasoline settled at $7.76 above a barrel of $38.57 crude and December gasoline settled at $6.90 above a barrel of $38.01 crude.
"The market is telling you that they know that these are ridiculous and unsustainable levels," Kloza said. "They (refiners) are enjoying a renaissance right now. There is real supply/demand tightness but more so the perception of supply/demand tightness, and there's huge speculative interest in it."
After September, gasoline demand begins to decline, and high prices could eventually put further pressure on demand for refined products, Kloza said.
"It would only take a subtle shift of one or two percent in gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel demand to swing refined products supply/demand fundamentals back toward plentiful," he said.
Tallying the costs
In making a gallon of gasoline, industry executives say the costs vary widely. One independent oil producer may spend on average $7 a barrel on finding and developments costs, and another $7 a barrel on pulling it out of the ground. Add to that $2 a barrel on transportation and marketing, plus about $1 to deduct for the quality of crude oil. Overhead costs amount to about $1 for a grand total of $18 per barrel.
Above the price of crude, the average cost to refine petroleum into gasoline is about $3.25 to $3.50 a barrel, Gillespie said.
"Crude is the biggest element of the cost of a gallon of gasoline, though it's certainly not the only one, said Jim Burkhard, director of oil market analysis at Cambridge Energy Research Associates in Cambridge, Mass.
Companies like Valero, the biggest independent company in the refinery business, insist they have no control over their gasoline profit margins, pointing instead to "market" forces.
"Right now, demand is outpacing supply, but refiners are absolutely doing their part," said Mary Rose Brown, a spokeswoman for the San Antonio-based company.
According to Brown, refinery utilization stood at 95 percent last week industry-wide, and the facilities that actually produce the gasoline, are running at around 100 percent and have been for some time. "The average for other manufacturers is 82 percent, so we are outpacing the U.S. average and are turning out record gasoline production," she added.
Industry production is up 314,000 barrels a day over last year, while demand is up 285,000 a day. However, imports are down 58,000 a day due to new U.S. sulfur regulations. "There are fewer countries that can import to the U.S. than previously," Brown added.
Profitability picture
A major factor affecting profitability: The United States imports 60 percent of its oil. Integrated oil companies buy a significant amount of their crude in addition to producing it.
For the past five years, oil and gas sector profitability has lagged behind other industries, according to the American Petroleum Institute. Even in a climate of rising prices, that trend remains.
Profit margins of oil and natural gas companies trailed those of other U.S. industries in the first quarter, according to the API. Margins of oil and natural gas companies increased 0.6 percent to 6.9 percent in the first quarter vs. the fourth quarter while other U.S. industries on average grew 0.8 percent to 7.5 percent.
"Rising crude oil prices set internationally and strong gasoline demand are driving both gasoline prices and profit margins," said Bill Bush, a spokesman for the API.
The outlook
Of course, prices at these levels are widely expected to decline. "I don't think integrated companies will ever see a better environment than they are seeing today," Gillespie said.
Gillespie recommends clients be defensive when choosing oil and gas stocks.
"Concentrate on companies with good balance sheets and low oil price sensitivity," he said. "Right now, we're very neutral on the refiners. Their normalized earnings power is substantially less than what they're earning right now."
John Cusick, an oil research analyst at Oppenheimer & Co., said his firm expects a strong second quarter, with margins retreating in the second half of the year.
Refiners are at or near the top of valuation, he said. The only refiner Oppenheimer recommends clients buy is Tesoro Petroleum (TSO: news, chart, profile) based on its valuation level.
"We like the integrated companies, and we have most of them at a buy," Cusick said. "If you assume that the price is going to come down a little bit, they usually outperform in a declining crude oil environment."
Independent producers, such as Devon Energy (DVN: news, chart, profile) and Kerr-McGee (KMG: news, chart, profile), are very sensitive to commodity prices, Cusick said.
"We have all but one of them at a neutral," he said. "At some point, the commodity is going to come (down). In a declining crude environment, (producers) generally follow the price down."
Lisa Sanders is a Dallas-based reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com.
WOO-HOO!! THAT WAS JUST AWESOME! THANKS BIG GUY! eom
For Viv... Freebird ~ Lynyrd Skynyrd
[Suppressed Sound Link]
Nyc... sorry you're having troubles with a loved one... wishing you a speedy, happy solution.
If these boards were the biggest of our worries we'd have it pretty much made, eh. Take care of the important stuff and don't sweat the small stuff...
Hi Castle, I like IH alot but it seems I can't help getting involved in political discussions. Came back here to talk about hunting fishing and the outdoors yet I keep getting pulled back into the political discussion. Seems I still enjoy fighting the internet world all by myself while on-line. Well, who cares, it's only cyberspace wouldn't be friends with people of these mindsets in real life anyways.
Had one of the toughest days of my life yesterday, heard some news about someone I love which really upset me bad, I was very sad all night. However today is a new day and the glass is always half full, everything works out, all one has to do is make it happen. B-)
Hey yourself, nyc...
same-o, same-o doin'... How's your little crew doin'?
Not a Skynyrd thread... a dead free from deletion board from when it was hot to be the boss and delete happy... forgot that most folks aren't happy without somethin' to bitch about... ya know?
Check this out... I'd wager you'd appreciate it... takes a while to load but well worth it:
Tribute to our military forces...
http://www.gcsdistributing.com/UntilThen.htm
The actions of a few should never place shame on the many. Pass it on...
Hey Castle(s) long time what's doing? What you got going over here? Is this a Lynyrd Skynyrd thread?
Drivers Cruise Internet for Gas Price Relief
By Chris Baltimore
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - American motorists facing record-high pump prices are cruising new Internet sites created to help steer them to the cheapest gasoline in town.
Web sites like www.GasBuddy.com and www.Gaspricewatch.com give consumers a free, up-to-the-minute way to track prices at retail outlets that line the nation's highways.
The sites have enlisted an army of volunteer "spotters" who scout and contribute prices collected as they commute to work or duck out for lunch.
"Now I know how to beat the system after observing how these gas stations operate," said Mike Wolf, 49, an experienced spotter on GasBuddy's Twin Cities Web site, where he goes by the name "wolfer."
For drivers of gas-guzzling SUVs, a nickel price difference translates to $1 in savings, based on a 20-gallon tank.
The average retail price of regular gasoline hit an all-time high of $1.84 per gallon on May 5, according to the AAA driving club, which surveys 60,000 stations each week.
Prices are likely to march higher this summer, due to rising crude oil prices and concerns about Middle East supplies, according to experts.
Gasoline prices vary widely across the United States, reflecting different state taxes and metropolitan air pollution requirements. Motorists in other industrialized countries generally pay much higher fuel prices.
Entrepreneur Brad Proctor founded Gaspricewatch in 2000 as a way for his friends to get a grip on gas costs.
Last Friday, the Web site gave prices at 127,959 U.S. gas stations across the United States. The prices were supplied by 85,819 volunteer spotters. The spotters are rewarded for their efforts by accumulating points for each price they submit, giving point-leaders Internet bragging rights.
"Our whole goal is really to just point people to the cheapest price of gasoline in their neighborhoods," said Proctor, 46.
Owners and operators of some gasoline stations see such Web sites as bad news, saying they must follow "zonal-pricing" rules set by the major oil companies that supply them.
"It's patently unfair to many of our members," said Paul Fiore, executive vice president of the Service Station Dealers of America and Allied Trades, which represents roughly 20,000 such gas station owners.
"Zonal pricing limits a dealer's control of prices on the street," Fiore said.
For spotters, scrutinizing retail gas prices is a part of their daily routine.
On a recent 30-mile trip from his office in Dayton, Ohio, to a McDonald's in Hamilton, Proctor collected prices at 27 stations.
GasBuddy, which tracks prices in 174 areas, has seen reader hits on its site triple since February, said Jason Toews, a 29-year-old computer programer in Brooklyn Park, Minn. He runs the site on a shoestring budget.
"A lot of the people take a personal stake in the matter because they're upset about the high gas prices," Toews said.
Wolf, music director at two Minneapolis-area radio stations, said he saved about $2.50 by filling up his 1998 Ford Taurus at a local Gas N Splash after seeing a SuperAmerica station raise its price nearly 20 cents. "Usually they're the first ones to go up," Wolf said.
Access to the Web sites is free, but price-reporters must register. The sites' meager budgets are paid for by banner advertisements.
Compensation is scant. GasBuddy gave away four $100 prepaid gasoline cards in a points contest in February, and another contest starts on May 16.
Time's Person of the Year...
The American Soldier
Kudos. Includes all branches of our military...
A beautiful story, Castle. eom
You always hear the usual stories of pennies on the sidewalk being good luck, gifts from angels,
etc. This is the first time I've ever heard this twist on the story. Gives you something to think about.
Several years ago, a friend of mine and her husband were invited to spend the weekend at the husband's employer's home. My friend, Arlene, was nervous about the weekend.
The boss was very wealthy, with a fine home on the waterway, and cars costing more than her house.
The first day and evening went well, and Arlene was delighted to have this rare glimpse into how the
very wealthy live. The husband's employer was quite generous as a host, and took them to the finest
restaurants. Arlene knew she would never have the opportunity to indulge in this kind of extravagance
again, so was enjoying herself immensely. As the three of them were about to enter an
exclusive restaurant that evening, the boss was walking slightly ahead of Arlene and her husband.
He stopped suddenly, looking down on the pavement for a long, silent moment.
Arlene wondered if she was supposed to pass him. There was nothing on the ground except a single
darkened penny that someone had dropped, and a few cigarette butts. Still silent, the man reached down and picked up the penny. He held it up and smiled, then put it in his pocket as if he had found a great treasure. How absurd! What need did this man have for a single penny?
Why would he even take the time to stop and pick it up? Throughout dinner, the entire scene nagged at her. Finally, she could stand it no longer. She causally mentioned that her daughter once had a coin collection, and asked if the penny he had found had been of some value.
A smile crept across the man's face as he reached into his pocket for the penny and held it out for
her to see. She had seen many pennies before! What was the point of this?
"Look at it." He said. "Read what it says." She read the words "United States of America."
"No, not that; read further." "One cent?" "No, keep reading." "In God we Trust?" "Yes!" "And?"
"And if I trust in God, the name of God is holy, even on a coin. Whenever I find a coin I see that inscription. It is written on every single United States coin, but we never seem to notice it!
God drops a message right in front of me telling me to trust Him? Who am I to pass it by? When I see a coin, I pray, I stop to see if my trust IS in God at that moment.
I pick the coin up as a response to God; that I do trust in Him. For a short time, at least, I cherish it as if it were gold. I think it is God's way of starting a conversation with me.
Lucky for me, God is patient and pennies are plentiful! When I was out shopping today, I found a penny on the sidewalk. I stopped and picked it up, and realized that I had been worrying and fretting in my mind about things I cannot change. I read the words, "In God We Trust," and had to laugh. Yes, God, I get the message. It seems that I have been finding an inordinate number of pennies
in the last few months, but then, pennies are plentiful!
And, God is patient...
email from Mom, who is also patient
Lunar eclipse...
http://www.rednova.com/news/stories/1/2003/11/07/story001.html
mystic river movie...
heard it was a great movie from several... but...
sean penn and tim robbins... whom I've liked a lot in several movies... in the past.
this American can't justify paying their salaries...
too bad, eh...
The photo lead to this story... and still
they wonder...
An Iraqi woman gestures as she tells U.S. Army soldiers that her son was playing with fireworks in a street of Tikrit, 193 km (120 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Oct. 24, 2003. Soldiers from Alpha company, 1-22 infantry regiment, 4th Infantry Division, were on patrol when they were alerted by the sound of gunfire. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
Iraq Violence Claims 3 More Troops' Lives
By TAREK AL-ISSAWI, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two U.S. soldiers were killed and four were wounded Friday in a mortar attack on their base north of Baghdad, and another American died in a shootout in the northern city of Mosul, the U.S. military said.
Elsewhere, 13 other soldiers were injured Thursday night in a mortar attack near Baqouba, 40 miles northeast of the capital, the command said. Witnesses reported that a roadside bomb wounded several other troops Friday in Fallujah in the sixth attack by insurgents there in as many days.
Separately, two children were killed and three adults wounded in a grenade attack on a police station in the northern city of Mosul, police said.
The latest U.S. deaths occurred when a mortar struck a forward operating base near Samara, 70 miles north of Baghdad, about noon Friday, the U.S. Central Command said.
In Mosul, a soldier from the 101st Airborne Division was killed by small arms fire before dawn Friday in the western end of the city, the command reported.
Names of the victims were withheld pending notification of kin.
The deaths bring to 108 the number of American soldiers killed by hostile fire since President Bush (news - web sites) declared an end to major combat May 1.
U.S. officials also said 13 soldiers, from the 4th Infantry Division, were wounded Thursday night when a mortar round struck at hangar at Camp War Horse near Baqouba, about 40 miles northeast of Baghdad.
Three were seriously wounded and evacuated but the others were treated at the local aid station, the command said. U.S. troops fired back and pursued the attackers, the command said, but there was no word on any insurgent casualties.
Also near Baqouba, a patrol was attacked by rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire Thursday night, the 4th Infantry Division. The Americans pursued the two Iraqi attackers into a house and killed them, it said.
Also Thursday, U.S. troops detained six men digging by a roadside near Beiji, 120 miles north of Baghdad, with the intention to place bombs there, according to the 4th Division.
In Baghdad, at least two Iraqis were killed and seven wounded when rockets fell on the Ad-Doura neighborhood of the capital, residents said. The rockets smashed into several stalls in the Ad-Doura market and also caused slight damage to the Ad-Doura power plant located about 200 yards away.
"About 10 p.m. we heard sound of explosions," said Odai Abdul Rahman, a baker. "We came out of the bakery and saw some destroyed shacks and injured people lying on the ground."
The U.S. military command in Baghdad had no comment about the attack in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad. However, Iraqi witnesses said it occurred Friday morning near a bridge at the western end of the city.
The witnesses said three injured U.S. soldiers were evacuated after American soldiers sprayed the area with gunfire. After the attack, troops detained several Iraqi civilians, including one who was dragged from his vehicle and punched repeatedly in the kidney as he fell to the ground.
"Immediately after the attack, which damaged a Humvee, troops fired randomly and two helicopters hovered overhead," said one witness, Youssef Mohammed. "The troops arrested five shopkeepers who were in their shops close to the location of the blast."
It was the sixth straight day of attacks against American forces in the restive city since gunners blasted a disabled ammunition truck there Sunday, causing no casualties but setting off thunderous explosions.
An American paratrooper from the 82nd Airborne Division was killed by a bomb the following day. Another soldier was wounded Thursday by a homemade explosive.
Fallujah is located in an arc of resistance that also extends north of Baghdad. The area is dominated by Sunni Muslims, the minority community from which ousted leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) drew most of his support.
Lt. Col. George Krivo, the U.S. command spokesman, said attacks on coalition forces have averaged about 26 a day over the past two weeks. About three-quarters of the attacks have occurred in an arc stretching from the west through Baghdad to the region north of the capital.
The attacks came as representatives of 77 nations gathered Friday in Spain to wrap up a two-day conference to raise money for Iraqi reconstruction. U.S. and Iraqi officials pleaded for billions to rebuild the nation.
The violence, six months after a U.S.-led force toppled Saddam's regime, has raised concern about prospects for a quick revival of Iraq (news - web sites)'s economy, despite the country's vast petroleum reserves.
After the $20 billion package now before the U.S. Congress, Japan offered the biggest pledge: $1.5 billion in grants for 2004 and 3.5 billion in loans for 2005-2007, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said.
Several other countries promised multimillion dollar promises, but France and Germany — two leading opponents of the U.S.-led war — were withholding new aid to register their disapproval of the U.S. blueprint for restoring Iraqi sovereignty.
_
Eds: Associated Press correspondents Katarina Kratovac in Tikrit and Mariam Fam in Mosul contributed to this report.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&u=/ap/20031024/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_450
photo:
That poor kid... for now. He can make a bundle outta that in time... if he's smart. Heck, his face is plastered all over the place... may as well make a buck off it. It is a natural instinct to try to catch the ball... maybe he can cash in on those 'it's not natural' furniture commercials...
Curses! Chicago Fears New Hex on Cubs from Own Fan
By Greg McCune
CHICAGO (Reuters) - First it was the curse of the Billy Goat in 1945. Then a black cat ominously ran on the field in 1969.
Now long-suffering Chicago baseball fans fear a new hex has been unleashed on their beloved Cubs, the team that has gone longer than any other major American professional sports franchise without winning a championship.
Call it the curse of the fan and the foul ball. Chicago fans were despondent and angry on Wednesday about the play that many believe precipitated yet another Cubs collapse.
It was the eighth inning of the National League (news) Championship Series sixth game against the Florida Marlins (news) on Tuesday and the Cubs were ahead 3 to 0. Just five more outs and the Cubs were headed to the World Series (news - web sites) for the first time since 1945. The Marlins hit a pop fly down the left field line. Cubs outfielder Moises Alou (news) raced to catch it.
A young man wearing a Cubs hat and sitting in the front row reached up and tried to catch the ball, knocking it away from Alou's outstretched glove.
Alou was livid, claiming the fan had interfered with his effort to snag the ball. Cubs ace Mark Prior, who had pitched an outstanding game up to that point, gestured angrily and seemed to later lose focus. The umpire ruled there had been no fan interference because the ball would have landed out of the field of play.
The Cubs collapsed, allowing the Marlins to score eight runs in the inning and win the game.
Alou later said he thought he had a chance to catch the ball but he did not blame the fan.
"I know everybody when they go to a ballpark wants to catch a baseball," Alou said. "It's very special, but I hope he doesn't have to regret it the rest of his life."
MITT HITS THE FAN
"Curses," was the banner headline in the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday. "The Mitt Hits The Fan," said the Chicago Tribune.
The unfortunate fan was verbally threatened, showered with beer and escorted from Wrigley Field by security for his own protection. He has not been identified although his picture was plastered like a "Wanted" poster on news stands and the play was shown repeatedly on television.
Chicago talk radio stations were overwhelmed with calls from fans, some vowing revenge against their own partisan, and others expressing sympathy that he had done the most natural thing a fan could do -- reach out for a fly ball.
Still others were muttering about curses.
"I don't want to believe in that curse," said Joe Doll, 51, a computer animator and Cubs fan for 40 years. "But it seems like everything always goes wrong with the Cubs."
The Cubs have not won the World Series since 1908, the longest drought of any professional team in American football, baseball, basketball or ice hockey.
In 1945, tavern owner "Billy Goat" Sianis showed up at Wrigley Field for the fourth game of the World Series with two tickets and his goat, Murphy. When ushers denied Murphy entry, Sianis laid a curse on the Cubs, saying Wrigley would never host another World Series. The Cubs lost the World Series that year and have not hosted one since.
In 1969 another promising Cubs team collapsed late in the regular season after a black cat ran on the field.
Many fans worried the Cubs would not be able to recover from such a devastating loss and beat the Marlins in the winner-take-all seventh game of the series. But others said they would never lose faith in the Cubs.
"There's still hope," said Doll. "We have Woody (star Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood) on the mound tonight."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=577&e=1&u=/nm/20031015/sp_nm/nl_curse_dc
"May God not grant the Americans success!" declared Abou Amin. "A thousand curses on the Americans and their lackeys!"
"Do you think Saddam might return?" Abou Haider asked.
"By God," announced Abou Amin, "Saddam is a million times better than the Americans!"
I laughed. "Of course! Killing, imprisoning and torture is good for Iraq!"
-------
"Although my childhood memories of Baghdad are happy ones, that is only because my parents shielded us from the city's dreadful realities."
-------
etcetcetcetcetc........
-------
personally... I'd be happy for Americans to just stay home... of course, I'd be double happy if they (those wishing to do us harm) would just stay home too.
My parents also shielded their kids from the bad stuff... hell, I was an adult before I ever knew there was any bad stuff in our world.
That was a long read... and what I got out of it is they are no more sure of what they want than we are able to give it to them... but, we are at least trying to give them what we ourselves value.
On life in Iraq.
After Shock
Following a 20-year exile, her return to Iraq was a minefield
By Yasmine Bahrani
Sunday, October 5, 2003; Page W14
"If I had known you were unveiled, I would have brought you a scarf to cover your head with," Abou Amin told me as he got into the car that was to take us to Baghdad. Those were his first words to me. It was 2 a.m. in Amman, Jordan. Four of us were setting out for Iraq, and we faced a 12-hour ride east through the desert. We were all nervous.
I'd arrived in Amman a few hours earlier that day in May, en route to see my native Baghdad for the first time in about 20 years. An uncle long exiled in Jordan said he didn't want me to travel alone -- there were too many stories about desert bandits and other dangers -- so he arranged for me to make the trip with a young driver and two older men. His wife advised me that the older men were religious. She had prepared me to speak with them in a particular way, one virtually required by the culture. The first of the men, Abou Haider, was sweet. He asked me where I wished to sit. If I'd sat next to either of the men, I might have accidentally brushed against one of them during the long trip, ruining his ablutions and making him impure, because I'm a woman. I didn't really want to ride in the front seat, but I did. As we were about to pick up the second man, the driver worried if he'd be bringing much luggage.
"No," Abou Haider said. "The man has a wife in Baghdad and one in Amman, so he doesn't need a suitcase."
That was my introduction to Abou Amin, who had started lecturing me even before he was in the car. My family, he said, "is a good family; they don't deserve a girl who is unveiled. God willing, you will veil. I should have brought a scarf for you."
"I have a scarf here, see?" I pointed to one around my neck that I'd brought along in case I needed to cover my head.
"The hijab represents . . ." I didn't hear the rest of what he said. I had heard such lectures from Muslim men before. I gave him my canned response. "Yes," I said, "it is beautiful when a woman becomes convinced that it is the right time for her to be veiled." I'm no wimp, but in my culture, it would show disrespect to my own family were I to reply harshly to an older man like Abou Amin. I remained polite.
"My daughter began veiling at 14," Abou Amin said. "She is a good girl. Not like so many women these days disgracing the names of good families by going around uncovered."
"That's nice," I answered. "I hope she remains covered."
He looked surprised, so I told him of a family I know in the States that had forced their daughters to veil, only to find them with purple hair, tattoos and body piercings as soon as they went off to college.
The wiry driver, Ali, averaged 85 mph, while keeping a eye out for cars coming toward us -- in our lane -- at the same speed. To keep himself alert, Ali picked a radio station that played Arabic pop songs. Abou Amin immediately ordered him to "put on the Koran." Ali said he had no Koran tapes, so Abou Amin told him which station plays Koran recitations around the clock. Ali found the station.
Koran recitation is beautiful and rhythmic, but hearing it while speeding through the desert night can be rather lulling. Abou Haider was the first to begin dozing, and I felt my own eyes closing as well. Ali started lighting one cigarette after the other just to stay awake. Nobody could say anything about the recitation because that would appear disrespectful to the religion. None of us could say "change the channel" without sounding like we didn't want to hear the word of God.
Rousing himself, Abou Haider asked me politely what I thought would happen next in Iraq. I said I thought it had to go well, because the Americans could not allow the situation to slip through their fingers. Democracy was not far away.
"May God not grant the Americans success!" declared Abou Amin. "A thousand curses on the Americans and their lackeys!"
"Do you think Saddam might return?" Abou Haider asked.
"By God," announced Abou Amin, "Saddam is a million times better than the Americans!"
I laughed. "Of course! Killing, imprisoning and torture is good for Iraq!"
Dawn approached, and Abou Amin announced he had to pray. Ali asked him to wait until we got to the Jordan-Iraq border, where, for safety reasons, we would form a convoy with other cars, but Abou Amin said that would be too late because he would miss the exact time, sunrise, when he was supposed to pray. Islam permits travelers to delay prayer to help them reach their destinations promptly. Most travelers combine the five prayer times just before bed. But Abou Amin insisted we stop at a restaurant that had a room outfitted with prayer mats on the floor. As he stepped out of the car, he asked whether any of us wanted to join him. All three of us said no.
Back on the road, we were suddenly engulfed by a sandstorm. We could see almost nothing. Ali began driving very, very slowly, as did the other cars in the convoy we had joined at the border. The roads were narrow, most other cars were going fast, and we were all thinking of the bandits known to target nice cars like ours. Though it was daylight, it was as if we were driving through thick fog. Ali suddenly swerved because a small black car was stopped horizontally across the highway. It obviously had been hit by another car.
The convoy pulled over. Other drivers emerged, some wearing goggles, others with cloth tied over their faces. They were trying to determine if there were injured passengers in the car, but they were afraid to walk across the road. If a car was coming, you wouldn't see it in time. Had anyone seen any passengers in that car? No. We stood, a groggy group leaning forward in the sandstorm, while a man slowly recited Koranic verses on the radio. As we got back into the car, we were all repeating prayers under our breath. Sand had managed to get into everything, even inside a car with rolled up windows. I had to tie my scarf on my face so I could breathe. If Abou Amin was pleased to see me veiled, he said nothing. Along with everyone else, he was coughing.
When we arrived on the outskirts of Baghdad, Abou Haider pointed out the notorious Abu Gharib prison, where just about every Iraqi had had at least one relative imprisoned or executed. But I pointed to the elegant palms and bright bougainvillea that reminded me of my childhood in Baghdad. I was home again.
Many Iraqis are returning from exile, some briefly, some to stay and rebuild the country. They are coming to see family they haven't seen in decades and reestablish ties with siblings and cousins. Many are optimistic about a new Iraq. Businessmen are excited about what they see as "a virgin market." Many enter the way I did, surrounded by voices arguing over Iraq's future.
After living abroad for so many years, I had thought I would never see Iraq again. Although my childhood memories of Baghdad are happy ones, that is only because my parents shielded us from the city's dreadful realities. Thanks to my parents, I remember the city of my girlhood as if it were made up of gardens, like the one surrounding my family's house: filled with fragrant flowers, citrus trees and unworried children at play.
It was actually a city filled with fear and secret police, as I later came to understand. But even as I grew older, my family tried to give my sister, my brother and me a chance at a normal adolescence. They sent us to private schools with children whose parents had no ties to the Baath Party clique; we'd listen to foreign rock music and talk endlessly about our teenage ambitions and dreams. But eventually, the city's fear and its Baathist police penetrated our home.
My father got word that his colleagues from the import-
export company he worked for suddenly were arrested, imprisoned and in some cases executed. At the time, my father himself was out of the country on business, but he sent word for us to join him. Once out, Iraqi emigres rarely visited home during the reign of Saddam Hussein. They had reason to fear they would be unable to leave again; there was even the chance of arrest. I was 18 the last time I had seen Baghdad.
My family was certainly very pleased to see Hussein removed from power, but we were worried about the fate of our relatives in Baghdad. By the end of the major fighting, telephones were out and there was no way to reach my aunts, uncles and cousins. I decided to go see them, to make sure that everyone had survived. And of course to see the city once again.
Ali dropped me off at the house of a cousin. His wife, Rana, a young mother dressed in tight stretch trousers and a tight T-shirt, came out to greet me. "Welcome home," she said, her hair sparkling in the bright Baghdad sunlight.
Baghdad turned out to be a city of surprises. Press reports had led me to expect a substantially bombed-out place, and although there was plenty of visible damage to government buildings, most homes were intact. On the other hand, many houses had gouged walls, and it seemed as if every windowpane in Baghdad had been smashed.
As soon as I arrived, Rana gave me a tour of the war damage in her own house. Her family lives in Mansour, a neighborhood that became well known to Americans when the Saa restaurant there was targeted on April 7 in an effort to kill Hussein. Rana showed me a gaping hole in her garden wall -- a result, she said, of the enormous explosion that night. Shrapnel had burst into the house and spattered the dining room. There was shrapnel melted into the fabric of the downstairs curtains.
Workers were still replacing the upstairs windows; all the glass in the house had shattered. Fortunately, Rana's family had fled the country during that part of the war. Though some were injured, all our uncles, aunts and first cousins who remained in Iraq had survived. "It's okay," Rana assured me quietly. "This happened to everyone in Baghdad. At least the house is still standing." Some of Rana and her husband Yaser's neighbors were not so fortunate. A young woman and her children were among those killed in the Mansour bombing; her husband survived. At first, neighbors said, the husband just sat quietly in front of the house, refusing to move. Now, when people greeted him at the market he said, "The children are fine. Sana asks why you don't pass by anymore."
"Whatever bad thing you heard" about life under Hussein, Yaser told me soon after welcoming me, "multiply it by 10. Those of you who lived outside cannot possibly fathom what we went through living under his rule." Yaser, a lively and clever man of 35, had supported his family through his tourism agency. Hussein's Iraq as a tourist destination was another surprise to me, but travelers came, if not from the United States, then from Italy, France, Spain and elsewhere. Some came to see biblical Mesopotamia: Babylon, Nineveh and Ur. Others wanted to hunt wild boar and deer. Some wanted to camp in the desert. Whatever they wanted, Yaser arranged it. Now, with Hussein gone, Yaser was optimistic about Iraq's future.
"Do you think," he once asked me, "that Americans would be interested in visiting Iraq?"
"Of course," I answered.
"I will welcome them myself." He smiled. "What's a fair price to charge for a package tour?"
In a sense, I was Yaser's first American tourist; Baghdad was busy and energetic -- another surprise, given the lack of security and services, and the closed shops and offices. The streets were very congested, and in generally good shape despite the bombing. But some were pockmarked. That was the case in the Karrada district, where Hussein's main palace stood and where U.S. administrator Paul Bremer is now headquartered. When I was a child, my relatives would forbid me even to look at the palace when we passed it. They feared that a camera was taking photos of passersby, and they didn't want my face to be photographed by Baathist security police. Fear was endemic.
In any event, this day all the streets seemed packed with cars -- many of them Volkswagens made in Brazil. There was also the occasional scrawny donkey pulling a cart, bicycles and many, many Baghdadis on foot. Baghdad is a city on hold, and everyone was busy trying to find groceries for their families, or to figure out a way to earn money.
Because there had been so much attention given to the unleashing of religious passions in Iraq, I had expected to see virtually all of the women wearing scarves as a sign of political Islam. While there were many scarved women, there were almost as many who went into public with their heads uncovered.
Indeed, I watched one day from Yaser's car as three attractive young women, dressed in traditional gowns, walked slowly through an upscale residential neighborhood. They had long, silky black hair and modest makeup. Two looked like they were in their twenties, the third probably a teenager.
"Check out the prostitutes," my cousin said.
Prostitutes? I had thought nothing of three young women making their way down the street. We had just passed the homes of some ambassadors and the headquarters of opposition leaders. Surely prostitutes would not walk these streets.
In the past, prostitutes were most often found at bus stops. They used to dress like everybody else, in knee-length skirts or dresses. They hung out at bus stops so as to have a reason to be standing in the street. Long before the Baathists came to power, there was a whole neighborhood of brothels near the ministry of defense. And there were the foreign women who hung out at nightclubs and commanded a higher rate than the local girls.
I rolled down the window and looked back. I actually thought they looked lovely. The only hint of their work was in their walk: You could see their hips swaying as they went down the street.
"Look at how they're dressed!" I said, looking at my own jeans and white cotton shirt.
"Many prostitutes cover up like conservative girls," said Rana. The subtle communication is necessary, of course, in a conservative culture. Their walk, their glances at the men in passing cars, their shy smiles may all have been signs to those in the know, but I had my doubts.
Yaser laughed. "You are ridiculously naive," he said. "Just watch them." Soon, a car slowed at the curb, and the men inside stopped at the top of the street. The young women continued to saunter along. I began to wonder if Yaser wasn't fooling with me after all. When the women reached the car, however, one of them leaned into the passenger side window to talk, and soon after, all three of the women hopped in.
In the wake of the war, most Baghdadis have been thrown deeper into family life. Family life is dear to all Arabs, but now there's little else in Iraq. Each morning, Rana's brothers appeared at her house at about 8:30. Like many Iraqis, the young men suddenly had no jobs to go to. Rana, smiling and gracious, dutifully prepared breakfast for them. Afterward, they started smoking and talking. With no power, there was no TV, no radio, nothing to do and nowhere to go. Yaser joined them, as did other men from the neighborhood. Some of them said that they didn't care who ruled Iraq as long as that person could return their lives to normal. They wanted their work, and salaries, back.
Iraq, the men told one another, had become like "Texas of the movies." Everyone carries a gun. They said they
didn't like having guns but felt a need to keep them in their homes. The American occupation authorities specifically permit Iraqis to keep AK-47s and pistols for protection. Most people didn't go out after the sun set, because it was too dangerous. There was gunfire in the streets every night during curfew (11 p.m. to 4:30 a.m.), and we would sit around and try to guess from which neighborhood the sound was coming.
It was difficult for Baghdadis to follow events around them. When there was electricity, people would sometimes tune in to al-Jazeera TV, or the BBC, or another satellite news service. (American authorities had set up a "local" news station, but I never met anyone who watched it.) However, TV reports intended for an international audience contained little practical information. For that, Iraqis would turn to the burgeoning local newspaper scene. There were dozens of new papers, most of them small dailies, and many of them ideological rather than newsy. That is, they often interpreted events rather reporting on them, and much of their information was unreliable. The most respected of the new publications was Azzaman, edited by a prominent former Baathist named Saad Al-Bazzaz, who has long been pro-democracy. That was the paper Yaser read. I tried to follow the news through the Web sites of American and British papers, which I read at one of the newly opened Internet cafes in the city. A lot of Iraqis, though, seemed to get their news through gossip and rumor.
However people got their information, many of those I met who had initially welcomed the Americans with smiles now felt abandoned. When, they asked aloud, would the chaos end? A neighbor, Salwan, 35, a shy accountant and
father of a 7-year-old, hadn't worked in months because of the war. He often smiled quietly as we all discussed the troubled city.
Another neighbor, Mohamed, 33, hadn't opened his jewelry shop in months because he was afraid of looters. The quiet young man said he had buried his gold in the garden of a relative's house. His small shop in Mansour, with its pretty calligraphy above the door, had a metal gate in front to keep the thieves away.
The heat was terrible, and because there was no power, there was no air conditioning. Rana's 2-year-old daughter, Yasmine, was sometimes in tears because she was so hot. Yaser had somehow found a small, hand-held, battery-
operated fan, and Rana and Yaser took turns fanning the baby with the gadget.
Rana tried to deal with the hardship by laughing at it. When discussing the absence of water and electricity, she said: "That's okay, we're strong, we're going back to the era of the Jahiliya" -- the period of "ignorance" before the Koran.
Yaser's world revolved around his family. When a little nearby grocery sometimes opened, he would take Yasmine, put her on the counter, and tell her, "Go crazy!" The child would happily grab all kind of candies and smear herself with chocolates, and Yaser would laugh with delight.
One evening, Rana remained oddly quiet. If Yaser asked her anything, she'd answer in a word or two. He studied her behavior for a while, then suddenly changed expressions.
"What date is it?" he asked me. I told him. "Oh my God! It's our wedding anniversary!" He immediately walked over to Rana and gave her a kiss. She offered him a half-smile, then turned to me and asked, "Shouldn't he give me a gift that expresses his feelings?" I agreed: "Something that expresses his feelings on your earlobes, or on your wrist." Yaser looked at us as we laughed. Then he turned and left the house. "It's a war zone, Rana," I said. "He'll get you a belated gift when he can." Rana sighed. "I suppose," she said.
A little while later, Yaser walked in beaming and put a small gold ring on Rana's finger. "Happy anniversary!" he cried. Rana was pleased and gave her husband a real kiss. The ring was modest, but Yaser's love outshone it. I later asked him where in the world he got it. Mohamed the goldsmith; Mohamed, who had hidden his jewelry in the family garden. The war poisons every day, but on this one occasion it had rescued an evening.
It was 6 in the morning on June 3. I'd been awakened by gunfire. The temperature felt like it was already 90 degrees. Yaser and I went downstairs. A young neighbor, Sudad, was waiting at the front door with his elderly mother to see me, both of them in tears.
"They took Salwan," the old lady sobbed. Salwan is her eldest son, the shy accountant.
Every morning Salwan walked his little son to school, and because the war had left him unemployed, he waited until he could walk the boy home. Salwan dreamt that his son would be a musician, and would one day play the sad oud for him.
Who took such a man, and why?
"The Americans," they said. They had come to me so I could interpret for them. On my first visit to Baghdad after so many years, I realized I was
going to spend a fair amount of time talking to Americans.
Americans are a mystery to many Iraqis, and Baghdad was awash in stories that reflected Iraqi ambivalence toward their new overlords. In Mansour, almost everyone thought the Americans had dropped a tactical nuclear bomb on the Saa restaurant in the effort to get Hussein. Why? Neighbors saw military trucks removing rubble from the huge crater near the restaurant, then watched other trucks refill the hole. To many Baghdadis, the real truth seemed obvious: The Americans weren't searching for Hussein's remains. The bomb had contained nuclear material, and the United States was removing the evidence.
That's not the only nuclear bomb that some Iraqis believed Americans dropped on Baghdad. The best-known one supposedly fell near the airport, and there are "eyewitness" accounts of it. One man described for me the mushroom cloud he saw rising over the Furat district. "It looked like the sun, even though it was night. The sky turned red," he said. The dead were frozen in place, he told me, with no visible injuries, or else were reduced to skeletons. The bodies of four dead firemen were still in a car in Furat, he added, but Americans wouldn't allow the Red Cross to remove them. For those who believe them, such rumors make it difficult to accept the Americans among them.
We found Salwan amid a group of U.S. soldiers with his hands cuffed behind his back. "There must be some mistake," I told a sergeant named Stevens. "This guy is such a gentle soul."
Salwan was charged with shooting at Americans. Sgt. Stevens told me that he didn't think Salwan did it; none of the evidence, such as the trajectory of the bullets, supported Salwan's confession. But he had admitted to it, apparently to protect some teenagers who had been shooting at looters. Because Salwan had confessed, Sgt. Stevens said he had no choice but to take him in. The soldiers all said they thought Salwan was innocent; they were telling him that once the teenagers were found, Salwan should give them swift kicks in the behind. When I explained to his mother that Salwan had confessed, she asked him, "Why would you do anything so stupid?" He shrugged. His only concern was whether his jailers would be Iraqis or Americans. When he heard Sgt. Stevens say Americans, he was relieved. Years of Baathist torture had left its mark.
His mother had brought along a pair of trousers. Salwan had been arrested wearing shorts, and to her that was shameful. Can my son put on his pants, she asked. "You're really in trouble now," the soldiers teased Salwan. "You made your mom mad!"
Salwan's family asked a torrent of worried questions. How long will he be held? (At least two days, at most two weeks, was the response.) Where? (That's a secret.) Will they feed him? (Three meals a day.) How will he get home? (They'll give him a ride.) And this: "Will you pull out my son's fingernails?"
Sgt. Stevens started to laugh, but I reminded him of the country's recent history.
"Negative, ma'am. I guarantee you your son's nails will not be removed."
In fact, Iraqis don't believe Americans torture their prisoners; they think Kuwaitis -- or even Baathist Iraqis -- do it for them. Many of them think that Kuwaitis burned Baghdad's buildings, too. "They have a phosphorus device that is the size of a compact disc," one man told me. "It has a pin that you pull like with a hand grenade."
Why would the Kuwaitis do such a thing I asked? "Revenge."
Americans, too, I was told, have amazing devices, including X-ray binoculars that let them see through women's clothes. That rumor is rife in conservative Fallujah, west of Baghdad, where such a story can be dangerous. I heard about one U.S. soldier who handed his binoculars to a suspicious youth. The Falluji peeked through them. "Did you see through anyone's clothes?" asked the soldier. "No," the youth replied. "So you believe me now?" No, the boy said. No women had walked by, so naturally the X-ray powers had not kicked in.
A few mornings later, Salwan's pregnant wife was at the door. He hadn't returned yet, and she'd been searching Baghdad in vain. She wanted me to ask the Americans about his case. We found a group of soldiers asleep on the pavement. "Poor dears," she said sweetly, "look how they have to sleep on the sidewalk." A bleary Sgt. Stevens suddenly appeared; he was surprised to hear Salwan was still in custody. Stevens said Salwan was being held at the airport, but even he wasn't allowed there. He repeated his surprise that he hadn't been released.
It's hard to tell what the truth is in Baghdad. Ironically, the new press freedom has made things more confusing, because papers are now printing rumors. One paper hostile to Americans, Saa, printed an account of two girls who had been raped by 18 Americans. There were lots of details, including a date, a location, the girls' ages and their subsequent deaths. That report swept the country. Americans said the story was baseless, but many people believed it anyway. These are the kinds of tales of evil power that people once told about Hussein and his sons. Americans have now inherited some of them.
Cases like Salwan's don't help. When he failed to return, I went to his parents' home to commiserate. We sat near a statue of the Virgin Mary, with angels and blue birds around her. It was very hot without the A/C. Sudad, the brother, hadn't slept in days, and was living off cigarettes. No one knew what to think. The parents hoped to have their priest intervene directly with Paul Bremer. Weeks later, as I was leaving Baghdad, I went once more to ask the nearby soldiers about Salwan's case. Sgt. Stevens was gone, but a lieutenant guessed that if Salwan wasn't home, it was because of his original confession. His family thought he was probably performing prison labor and didn't know when he'd be back.
"Poor girl," Salwan's mother said, "they made her out to look like a liar." She meant me.
Nearly six weeks after his arrest, a sad Salwan finally appeared at his family's door. He'd been sitting idle in a tent 350 miles to the south. The occupation authorities held a series of hearings and concluded he was innocent. Salwan didn't get his ride home (he had to take a bus), and he didn't eat well (he'd lost some 35 pounds), but he still had his fingernails. He was now afraid to go out, and he stopped walking his son to school.
At 2:30 in the morning on August 4, the front door of Yaser's house was blown open by explosives. I was back in the United States by then, but Rana told me what happened next. Every window in the house was again shattered, spewing glass in all directions. Because of the intense heat, the family -- Yaser, Rana, her brother Feisal and little Yasmine -- had been sleeping downstairs, but miraculously no one was injured.
Here is what Rana told me: American soldiers rushed into the house through the splintered door as well as from the roof. As they took Yaser and Feisal to the kitchen, Rana grabbed Yasmine and rushed to hide, choosing the bathroom. Intensely frightened, she listened for the voices of her husband and brother, but couldn't hear them. The minutes passed in silence: no voices, no movement. "The Americans have killed them," she thought. She began to tremble, and then to vomit. Yasmine was also trembling, and Rana realized that she needed to get herself under control for her daughter's sake. That's when she became aware of the first voice.
"She's shaking," a man said. It was a soldier watching her.
"Leave her alone," came a command from another soldier. The first soldier continued to watch her.
Rana began asking the soldier where her husband was. Where was her brother? No answer. She asked a second time, and a third. Finally one of the soldiers said, "They're safe."
The soldiers eventually took Rana and Yasmine into the kitchen. Yaser and Feisal were there, their hands tied behind their backs. Rana was at first relieved, then overcome with fatigue. She felt too weak to hold Yasmine, and tried to put her on the floor, but the baby was too frightened to let go of her mother. Yaser and Feisal looked on helplessly.
Meanwhile, Rana said, the soldiers were ransacking the house. They'd even brought a dog to sniff through their belongings. Rana still had no idea what was going on. Why were they destroying their house? Gradually, she became aware of what they were after.
"Where's Saddam?" Rana said they were demanding.
Saddam? Rana came to understand that they had gotten a tip that Hussein had had lunch at their house and might even have been hiding there. Baghdad was flooded with such false tips, some intentionally planted by Baathists intending to sow confusion and resentment. Rana might have laughed, had she been able.
Forty-five minutes after they had blown the front door off its hinges, the soldiers announced that they were sorry. Then, they left. The family was speechless. (American authorities would eventually give them $2,000 in restitution, but it would be inadequate.)
Immediately, though, the family started to straighten things up. There was a lot of work to do before dawn, when the intense heat would overtake the city once more.
Yasmine Bahrani is an editor at USA Today. She will be fielding questions and comments about this article Monday at 1p.m. at washingtonpost.com/liveonline.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
You have my attention... an interesting perspective on what?
It's dangerous at 2 a.m.
Women in Bagdad are not comfortable with men (with or without a scarf).
Religious have to be spoken to in a certain way.
The front seat is not where one wants to sit.
Luggage takes up space.
Point? I thought it was an interesting perspective.
Ok... I'll bite... what's your point?
A couple first thoughts... without clicking the link... just going from what's posted...
It's 2 a.m. and I live in THE USA...
"If I had known you were unarmed, I would have brought you some ammo to fill your 357," Abou Amin told me as he got into the car that was to take us to Mont'getto. Those were his first words to me. It was 2 a.m. in Denver, Co. Four of us were setting out for 7-11, and we faced a 12-minute ride north without the interstate. We were all nervous.
I'd arrived in Denver a few hours earlier that day in May, en route to see my native Mont'getto' for the first time in about 20 years. An uncle long exiled in Aurora said he didn't want me to travel alone -- there were too many stories about gang bangers and other dangers -- so he arranged for me to make the trip with a young driver and two older men. His wife advised me that the older men were no longer gang bangers. She had prepared me to speak with them in a particular way, one virtually required by the culture. The first of the men, Abou Haider, was sweet. He asked me where I wished to sit. If I'd sat next to either of the men, I might have accidentally brushed against one of them during the long trip, ruining my ablutions and making me impure, because I'm a gang banger. I didn't really want to ride in the front seat, but I did. As we were about to pick up the second man, the driver worried if he'd be bringing much appetite, and not enough ammo.
Sheesh and all we wanted was a slurpee...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25000-2003Sep30.html
"If I had known you were unveiled, I would have brought you a scarf to cover your head with," Abou Amin told me as he got into the car that was to take us to Baghdad. Those were his first words to me. It was 2 a.m. in Amman, Jordan. Four of us were setting out for Iraq, and we faced a 12-hour ride east through the desert. We were all nervous.
I'd arrived in Amman a few hours earlier that day in May, en route to see my native Baghdad for the first time in about 20 years. An uncle long exiled in Jordan said he didn't want me to travel alone -- there were too many stories about desert bandits and other dangers -- so he arranged for me to make the trip with a young driver and two older men. His wife advised me that the older men were religious. She had prepared me to speak with them in a particular way, one virtually required by the culture. The first of the men, Abou Haider, was sweet. He asked me where I wished to sit. If I'd sat next to either of the men, I might have accidentally brushed against one of them during the long trip, ruining his ablutions and making him impure, because I'm a woman. I didn't really want to ride in the front seat, but I did. As we were about to pick up the second man, the driver worried if he'd be bringing much luggage.
Castle: Good read. Thank you:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/rydbom.asp
Another from email:
It has been a while since I have written to my friends at First Lutheran Church about what's really going on here in Iraq. The news you watch on TV is exaggerated, sensationalized and selective. Good news doesn't sell.
The stuff you don't hear about? Let's start with Electrical Power production in Iraq. The day after the war was declared over, there was nearly 0 power being generated in Iraq. 45 days later, in a partnership between the Army, the Iraqi people and some private companies, there are now 3200 mega watts (Mw) of power being produced daily, 1/3 of the total national potential of 8000 Mw. Downed power lines (big stuff, 400 Kilovolt (Kv) and 132 Kv) are being repaired and are about 70% complete.
Then there is water purification. In central Iraq between Baghdad and Mosul, home of the 4th Infantry Division, Water treatment was spotty at best. The facilities existed, but the controls were never implemented. Simple chemicals like Chlorine for purification and Alum (Aluminum Sulfate) for sediment settling (the Tigris River is about as clear as the Mississippi River) were in short supply or not used at all and when chlorine was used, it was metered by the scientific method of guessing. So some people got pool water and some people got water with lots of little things moving in it. We are slowly but surely solving that. Contracts for repairs to facilities that are only 50% or less operational are being let, chemicals are being delivered, although we don't have the metering problem solved yet (It's only been 45 days).
How about oil and fuel? Well, the war was all about oil wasn't it? You bet it was. It was all about oil for the Iraqi people because they have no other income, they produce nothing else. Oil is 95% of the Iraqi GNP. For this nation to survive, it must sell oil. The Refinery at Bayji is at 75% of capacity producing gasoline. The crude pipeline between Kirkuk (Oil Central) and Bayji will be repaired by tomorrow (2 June). LPG, what all Iraqis use to cook and heat with, is at 103% of normal production and we, the US ARMY, at least 4th ID, are insuring it is being distributed fairly to all Iraqis. You have to remember that 3 months ago, all these things were used as weapons against the population to keep them in line. If a town misbehaved, gasoline shipments, LPG pipelines and trucks stopped, water was turned off, power was turned off.
Now, until exports start, every drop of gasoline produced goes to the Iraqi people, crude oil is being stored, the country is at 75% capacity now, they need to export or stop pumping soon, thank the UN for the delay. All LPG goes to the Iraqi people everywhere. Water is being purified as best they can, but at least it's running all the time to everyone.
Are we still getting shot at? Yep. Are American Soldiers still dying? Yep, about 1 a day from the 4th ID, most in accidents, but dead is dead.
If we are doing all this for the Iraqis, why are they shooting at us? The general population isn't. There are still bad guys, who won't let go of the old regime. They are Ba'ath party members (Read Nazi Party, but not as nice) who know nothing but the regime. They were thugs for the regime that caused many to disappear in the night and they have no other skills. At least the Nazis had jobs they could go back to after the war as plumbers, managers, engineers, etc...these people have no skills but terror. They are simply applying their skills....and we are applying ours. There is no Christian way to say they must be eliminated and we are doing so with all the efficiency we can muster. Our troops are shot at literally every day by small arms and RPGs. We respond and 100% of the time, the Ba'ath party guys come out with the short end of the stick. The most amazing thing to me is that they don't realize that if they stopped shooting at us, we would focus on fixing things and leave.
The more they shoot at us, the longer we will stay.
Lastly, realize that 90% the damage you see on TV was caused by Iraqis, not the war. Sure we took out a few bridges from military necessity, we took out a few power and phone lines to disrupt communications, sure we drilled a few palaces and government headquarters buildings with 2000lb laser guided bombs (I work 100 yards from where two hit the Tikrit Palace); he had plenty to spare. But, any damage you see to schools, hospitals, power generation facilities, refineries, pipelines, was all caused either by the Iraqi Army in its death throes or Iraqi civilians looting the places. Could the army have prevented it? Nope. We can and do now, but 45 days ago the average soldier was lucky to know what town he was in much less know who owned what or have the power to stop 1,000 people from looting a building by himself.
The United States and Britain are doing a very noble thing here. We stuck our necks out on the world chopping block to free a people. I've already talked the weapons of mass destruction thing to death, bottom line, who cares, this country was one big conventional weapons ammo dump anyway. We have probably destroyed more weapons and ammo in the last 30 days than the US Army has ever fired in the last 30 years (Remember, this is a country the size of Texas.), so drop the WMD argument as the reason we came here; if we find it great, if we don't, so what?
I'm living in a "guest palace" on a 500 acre compound with 20 palaces with like facilities built in half a dozen towns all over Iraq that were built for one man. Drive down the street and out into the countryside 5 miles away (I have) and see a family of 10 living in a mud hut herding two dozen sheep. Then tell me why you think we are here.
Respectfully,
ERIC RYDBOM MAJ, ENGINEER Deputy Division Engineer
4th Infantry Division
If our news media won't print the truth then maybe we can do their job and get the news out thru email. Let the people of the US and the world know just what our men and woman are doing in Iraq. I couldn't live like those people do and I don't think 98% of the people in the US could either.
got it in an email... don't know where it originated. eom
Wow, Castle! That is simply awesome! Did it run in a local paper?
"How are you all doing? The proud warriors of Baker Company wanted to do something to pay tribute to our fallen comrades. So since we are part of the only Marine Infantry Battalion left in Iraq the one way that we could think of doing that is by taking a picture of Baker Company saying the way we feel. It would be awesome if you could find a way to share this with our fellow countrymen. I was wondering if there was any way to get this into your papers to let the world know that "WE HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN" and are proud to serve our country."
Semper Fi
1stSgt Dave Jobe
Flooded roads and submerged cars are shown in downtown Norfolk, Virginia on September 18, 2003. Hurricane Isabel dealt the East Coast power grid a severe blow, knocking out electricity to more than 4 million homes and businesses from the Carolinas to Pennsylvania. 'This is a record-breaking storm for us in terms of its speed, its swath. The storm is massive,' said David Botkins, spokesman for Richmond, Virginia-based Dominion Resources Inc., parent of Virginia's biggest electric company. Photo by Win Mcnamee/Reuters
This NOAA satellite image shows Hurricane Isabel nearing the North Carolina coast at 10:00 a.m., EDT on September 17, 2003. The storm was expected to bring stormy weather to the North Carolina coast by evening and then hit with its full fury on September 18, moving north through Virginia and swiping Washington D.C., with 60 mph winds. REUTERS/NOAA
Look at the eye on that monster...
good luck to anyone in it's path.
Kids and clubs and sports and work have us all home late tonight and so we order Pizza. Big Bill's New York Pizza. When we go pick it up a big sign says 911 is about caring. The Pizza is free and all proceeds go to fight cancer. That's Big Bill, that's America and that's just Pizza. I just take whatever cash I have in my pocket and put it in the 5 gallon bucket. If you don't have cash it's okay. That is the Big Bill way.
You're lucky if you've never seen it... but it isn't because you don't watch MTV
It's a commercial for MTV and I've only seen it on other channels, since I don't watch MTV very often either... and will watch it less from that commercial. It ain't aimed toward us older folks, I guess... and can only hope aiming it toward the youngsters is a total flop.
Castle....I've never seen it...probably because I never watch MTV, ya think? LOL
MTV's 'baby' commercial is the worst commercial I've ever seen to date.
And... damn it... I change the channel every time it comes on and most of the time forget to change it back to the damn program I'm watching till the next commercial... which is usually another commercial on the channel I was watching...
On the good side... it is my only annoyance in this piece of life.
Good day to all....
My leg is dyslexic.
Castle......well, that kept me amused for half an hour... LOL
How funny... received in email:
Try this...
This is VERY strange!
Sitting at your desk there, start, WITH YOUR RIGHT FOOT, to make clockwise circles on the floor.
Then, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your RIGHT HAND.
Your foot will change direction!
It's no problem Castle. We all have those, And I generally do more so than most.
Yeah... and I do know better... I usually check first. Musta had a senior moment...
Castle:
Yep, I have gotten those in emails a couple of times. Funny thing is, if people would just take a minute and research it, they would find the truth.
Thanks for posting the link.
You're right. I thought it looked too high... shoulda checked first...
"These images are frames from the special effects-laden opening sequence of the 1998 whammy film Armageddon in which the Space Shuttle Atlantis is destroyed by the leading edge of debris from an comet-enclosed asteroid, thereby alerting NASA to the problem that an Earth-bound doomsday asteroid is a mere 18 days from smashing into our planet."
http://www.snopes.com/photos/shuttle2.asp
They aren't authentic.
Incredible photo's if they're authentic. Shuttle Columbia:
http://unquietzone.topcities.com/shuttle.html
Thanks, Castle...eom
Viv...
this is the one that mentioned the moon and Mars "pleasingly close together"...
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/17jul_perseids2003.htm
Here's what you want...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=96&ncid=753&e=10&u=/space/20030812/s...
be sure to check out Mars Watch: Complete Coverage link near the bottom.
Castle, got the website link? I've been wanting to read more about this phenomenon. It's all the talk on local radio. We get a pretty good look at the night skies...except lately, and I'm not complaining, blessed rain has brought unheard of summertime relief for Texas.
You betcha, Viv... a new career... or renewing a long lost interest... either way, gonna have fun with it!
Oh... and Mars... last night was the first time I've seen it also. I tell you it wasn't there two nights ago... I was beginning to think it was a huge joke. I'm still not sure how it's suppose to rotate, but some website I surfed through last night said tonight they (Mars and the moon) would be close together.
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