^I've seen that doc too on the tube. Very dumb bunch I tell ya. Speaking of adventure here is one for you homeboy. In the Viking country where the sun shines 18 hours straight in summer, I went out ya know to see places kinda sightseeing thing. Even though whale watching and bird watching (puffins and other exotic birds) is not my thing, haddana I thought I should try and see how it goes. So I did. Five minutes and I had it and out of politeness to my collegueos I pretended as if I'm having the time of my life. Calaa caleek camal I swallowed my ciil and wasted a whole day! My man BOB you wouldn't believe how all this grwon up men react to one lil puffin flying from its nest to the next on the same rock...oooh OMG uuuh how adorable...this and that. Anyhow that didn't go down right. On the next one I made sure I do something new and original. We headed to the North near 66 degree. One of my collegues informed me about hot spring kinda natural pool (gets its geothermic heat from tetonic plate..hope I spelled right)... When we got there the hype turned out to be a manmade pool with natural hot spring (kinda engineered they put the water through pipe and brought to the pool). Technically it is natural hot spring with coctail of minerals in it (Ceel Caafimaad in Kista remmember, same buddy, locals claim that the spring has a healing properties just as the Kista folks thought about their Ceel caafimaad). Long story short with all the seminaked blondes crowded in this tiny pool, I didn't get my dip. I went to an adjacent building to do my wayso...mise ka tag...it is a big bath lounge folks are to bath...the thing is they shower naked both genders. That's about it. Not your manly man thang.

Hambalyo. Make it work awoowe. May you two grow old in a blissful and lasting maxabah. Mid waara oo wanaag iyo khayr ku waara Allaha ka dhigo.

Libaax, Can you quantify intelligence, beauty, and other similar subjective qaulities? It is one thing to use superlatives when describing how one is more intelligent than the other like claiming this qallanjo is more intelligent than that dudette. It is totally another thing al together however to put values on intelligence or beauty and say this chic is 3 standard deviation intelligent than that one. My son ahs recenly gone through cognitive evaluation and got upper 90s score for all three sessions (parental pride eh all time high buddy). My duaghter didn't get that referral from her teacher though. The thing is she is more intelligent in my eyes that is than him but she is shy and tend to freeze when pressured or put in a public or visible position and asked to perform. Now you would think that folks who design these sort of tests would take all these factors into account. Good topic widaaygiis.

Originally posted by Grant: Thanks for the warning Baashi. As a newbie, it is not easy considering myself awoowe, in spite of my age. In any case, I will be proud just to be adeer. I should probably have tried to go back to the original site, and I will take your warning to heart. Ha! I was just pulling your leg buddy. 2 pts right there There you go, Adeer is fine with me. We'll talk about Peace Corps and your time in the sand dunnes of my beloved Somalia one of these days. Roobleh, What ya know The fuss is all about my awoowe status. Can't let it go buddy a ah! not yet. As to if I am part owner. Nop. I'm just is qor

Perennial Themes in Today's Political Argument By George Will Thursday, May 31, 2007 WASHINGTON -- Conservatism's recovery of its intellectual equilibrium requires a confident explanation of why America has two parties and why the conservative one is preferable. Today's political argument involves perennial themes that give it more seriousness than many participants understand. The argument, like Western political philosophy generally, is about the meaning of, and the proper adjustment of the tension between, two important political goals -- freedom and equality. Today, conservatives tend to favor freedom, and consequently are inclined to be somewhat sanguine about inequalities of outcomes. Liberals are more concerned with equality, understood, they insist, primarily as equality of opportunity, not of outcome. Liberals tend, however, to infer unequal opportunities from the fact of unequal outcomes. Hence liberalism's goal of achieving greater equality of condition leads to a larger scope for interventionist government to circumscribe the market's role in allocating wealth and opportunity. Liberalism increasingly seeks to deliver equality in the form of equal dependence of more and more people for more and more things on government. Hence liberals' hostility to school choice programs that challenge public education's semimonopoly. Hence hostility to private accounts funded by a portion of each individual's Social Security taxes. Hence their fear of Health Savings Accounts (individuals who purchase high-deductible health insurance become eligible for tax-preferred savings accounts from which they pay their routine medical expenses -- just as car owners do not buy automobile insurance to cover oil changes). Hence liberals' advocacy of government responsibility for -- and, inevitably, rationing of -- health care, which is 16 percent of the economy, and rising. Steadily enlarging dependence on government accords with liberalism's ethic of common provision, and with the liberal party's interest in pleasing its most powerful faction -- public employees and their unions. Conservatism's rejoinder should be that the argument about whether there ought to be a welfare state is over. Today's proper debate is about the modalities by which entitlements are delivered. Modalities matter, because some encourage and others discourage attributes and attitudes -- a future orientation, self-reliance, individual responsibility for healthy living -- that are essential for dignified living in an economically vibrant society that a welfare state, ravenous for revenues in an aging society, requires. This reasoning is congruent with conservatism's argument that excessively benevolent government is not a benefactor, and that capitalism does not merely make people better off, it makes them better. Liberalism once argued that large corporate entities of industrial capitalism degraded individuals by breeding dependence, passivity and servility. Conservatism challenges liberalism's blindness about the comparable dangers from the biggest social entity, government. Conservatism argues, as did the Founders, that self-interestedness is universal among individuals, but the dignity of individuals is bound up with the exercise of self-reliance and personal responsibility in pursuing one's interests. Liberalism argues that equal dependence on government minimizes social conflicts. Conservatism's rejoinder is that the entitlement culture subverts social peace by the proliferation of rival dependencies. The entitlement mentality encouraged by the welfare state exacerbates social conflicts -- between generations (the welfare state transfers wealth to the elderly), between racial and ethnic groups (through group preferences) and between all organized interests (from farmers to labor unions to recipients of corporate welfare) as government, not impersonal market forces, distributes scarce resources. This, conservatism insists, explains why as government has grown so has cynicism about it. Racial preferences are the distilled essence of liberalism, for two reasons. First, preferences involve identifying groups supposedly disabled by society -- victims who, because of their diminished competence, must be treated as wards of government. Second, preferences vividly demonstrate liberalism's core conviction that government's duty is not to allow social change but to drive change in the direction the government chooses. Conservatism argues that the essence of constitutional government involves constraining the state in order to allow society ample scope to spontaneously take unplanned paths. Conservatism embraces President Kennedy's exhortation to ``Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country,'' and adds: You serve your country by embracing a spacious and expanding sphere of life for which your country is not responsible. Here is the core of a conservative appeal, without dwelling on ``social issues'' that should be, as much as possible, left to ``moral federalism'' -- debates within the states. Regarding foreign policy, conservatism begins, and very nearly ends, by eschewing abroad the fatal conceit that has been liberalism's undoing domestically -- hubris about controlling what cannot, and should not, be controlled. Conservatism is realism, about human nature and government's competence. Is conservatism politically realistic, meaning persuasive? That is the kind of question presidential campaigns answer. George F. Will, a 1976 Pulitzer Prize winner whose columns are syndicated in more than 400 magazines and newspapers worldwide, is the author of Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball. Source

The Democracy Worshiper By Patrick J. Buchanan Tuesday, June 19, 2007 Of the Bourbons, restored to the throne after the French Revolution, the guillotining of Louis XVI and the Napoleonic interlude, Talleyrand said, they had "learned nothing and forgotten nothing." Unfortunately, so may it be said of our own George II. Last week, at Czermin Palace in Prague, George Bush delivered his latest epistle on democracy as mankind's salvation, as though he had learned nothing since ordering the invasion of Iraq -- to bring the blessings of democracy to Mesopotamia and the Middle East. President Bush began by paying tribute to the founding father of Czech democracy. "Nine decades ago, Tomas Masaryk proclaimed Czechoslovakia's independence based on the 'ideals of democracy.'" Well, that may be what the Masaryk said, but it is not exactly what he did. In 1918, he did indeed proclaim the independence of Czechoslovakia, confirmed by the Allies at Paris. But inside the new Czechoslovakia, built on the "ideals of democracy," were 3 million dissident Germans who wished to remain with Austria and half a million Hungarians who wished to remain with Hungary. Many Catholic Slovaks had wanted to remain with Catholic Hungary. Against their will, all had been consigned to Masaryk's Czech-dominated nation. Query for Bush? If 3 million Germans were put under alien rule without their consent and against their will, and they wished to exercise their right of self-determination, as preached by Woodrow Wilson, did they not have a right to secede peacefully and join their German kinsmen? Because that is what Munich was all about. Between 1938 and 1939, dissident Germans, Slovaks, Poles, Hungarians and Ruthenes -- abetted by Berlin, Warsaw and Budapest -- broke free of Masaryk's multinational democracy. Rather than let them secede from Prague, Churchill thought Britain should go to war. Was Winston right, or were the Sudeten Germans right? In 1945, liberated Czechoslovkia solved its dissident German problem by wholesale ethnic cleansing. "Freedom," declared the president, "is the design of our Maker and the longing of every soul. ... Freedom is the dream ... of every person in every nation in every age." Interesting. Did Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Mao, Fidel, Uncle Ho and Pol Pot long for freedom in their souls? Did Churchill long for freedom, as he fought to preserve the British Empire and British rule in India? "Expanding freedom," said Bush, "is the only realistic way to protect our people in the long run." That is another way of saying that, if we abandon the Bush crusade for global democracy, we can never be secure. Yet America has always been among the most secure nations on earth, even when the world was unfree. Has invading Iraq to expand freedom made us more secure? For it has surely gotten more Americans killed than died on 9-11 and served as the No. 1 recruiting poster for al-Qaida. "Governments accountable to their people do not attack each other," said Bush. This may come as a surprise to descendants of those who fought for Southern independence from 1861 to 1865. Does Bush think Mr. Lincoln's government or those of the CSA, the Confederate States of America, were not "accountable" to their people? Yet 600,000 Americans died in that war between two democratic republics. Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan are democratic, but they appear ready to have a go at each other. Last summer, democratic Israel, enraged by a Hezbollah kidnapping, bombed democratic Lebanon for five weeks, killing a thousand Lebanese and rendering 10,000 homeless. In 1914, the most democratic nations in Europe plunged into the bloodiest war in history. Free people in European capitals cheered lustily as their sons marched off to die. Democratic peoples are not immune to blood lust. "Young people who can disagree openly with their leaders are less likely to adopt violent ideologies," said Bush. But Weimar was the freest government Germany ever had. Yet Nazis and communists battled constantly, and in 1933, a majority voted for them. Puerto Rican terrorists tried to kill Harry Truman, shot up the House and dynamited Fraunces Tavern in New York in the freest country on earth. The anarchists, the Red Brigades, the Baader-Meinhoff gang, the IRA, the Basque ETA and the Islamist subway bombers of Britain all operated in democratic societies. "(E)very time people are given a choice, they choose freedom," said Bush. Oh. In Iran in 2005, the people chose Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In 2006, free elections gave victories to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hezbollh, Hamas and anti-American radicals in Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, who joined forces with twice-elected Hugo Chavez. The German people chose Hitler and the Nazi Party. It is one thing to believe democracy is a superior form of government. It is another to worship it, or ascribe to it powers or attributes that can ensure permanent peace among nations. As Douglas MacArthur said, citing Plato, "Only the dead know the end of war." Democracy means rule by the people, and peoples can be as corrupt and bloodthirsty as tyrants and kings. Today in Moscow, Beijing and Hanoi, Lenin, Mao and Ho -- mass murderers all three -- lie in honor. Pat Buchanan is a founding editor of The American Conservative magazine, and the author of many books including State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America . Source.

Becoming a Family By Roger Scruton I grew to immaturity in the sixties, at the moment famously, and ironically, described by Philip Larkin: Sexual intercourse began In nineteen sixty-three (Which was rather late for me)— Between the end of the Chatterley ban And the Beatles' first LP. Young people of my generation had no time for Larkin's irony and simply dismissed traditional sexual morality as a clutter of meaningless taboos. The old culture endured among adults, especially those who had fought in the war and learned firsthand that societies depend on sacrifice. But the fidelity of our elders to the old mores merely caused our experiments to appear romantic and sophisticated in our own eyes, marks of a singular freedom of mind. In truth, I didn't enjoy the spectacle of permissiveness and half suspected that the old morality was right. Nevertheless, I was not going to miss out on the available freedoms and felt entitled to my share of thrills. Like many of my generation, therefore, I was reluctant to marry and did so only when I discovered that my experiment in cohabitation had ceased to be an experiment and had become a commitment instead. My wife-to-be had been brought up as a Roman Catholic in provincial France. We had lived together through the antics of May 1968, which impressed both of us with the destructiveness and ********* of people when guided by nothing more than a desire for liberation. Marriage was to bring an end to such childish things and to imbue our life with discipline. Here...long article but a good read

^I know...c'mon don't be softy awoowe...I like to deal with tigers...the manly type not JB a la Baqaratul Laaxika...easy now...I know ya'll hunt in a pack . Now Suldaan ya should know better awoowe. In politics and media as well, the raw, original story beats the belated clarifications hands down noh? Contraversy, scandal taa lamaba heli karo. Ibnu Hyena we know. He is not a rational politician. He is an emotional b*ssy. When he validates our suspicion bang nad bingo we'll jumb on that...gotta problem with that Prince?

Political gaffe is common thang my man Suldaanka. Hats off to Ibnu Hyena for clarifying that serious comment he made there. By the way Suldaan ma kaa dhab baa...awoowe I'm not afar-indhood..

Munira's succees in the cyber jungle is noted. Hambalyo to Munira. We will use it as a case study with Munira's permission. If Munira can send more details of how she pulled this one off to us...that sort of help would be appreciated.

Place me in the B column. Just can do it...if I could stay in bed for more minutes I would but being lazy is not an option anymore for that sort of behavior will jeoperdize my employement so dani ba tiri.

Libaax and Xiin grazies amici. Shez keep it up. There u have it. Make use of the info. Rudy has a point. It is expensive toy. But then again gadgets is acquired taste. Not to mention this one comes with all the goodies including ipod. Now how much does 8gig Ipd cost? Do the math.

Grant, Snet is rival Somali site. SOL and Snet don't see eye to eye methinks. So easy with all the links and Snet references. Ya might not know but Lion-Teaser Jr. is "the" man in this forum and don't ask me why but I found him to be unpredictable beast. Consider urself warned and proceed with ur own risk. By the way I don't like you. Ya see I was the elder of the site and the forumers bestowed me the honor of being called Awoowe. Now you are here I feel insecure. I will do my best to provoke the beast in a way that makes him snap. I can gaurantee ya that ya will be the first casualty. Mods, ain't that right?

Right on. Kashafa now ya know awoowe. Negative tribalism is a much bigger force than Islam. Your herous are far outnumbered by the disciples of the other side. Ya got eight million Muslim strong Somalis humbled by about forty thousand Habasha. Ya got the home advantage, ya got numbers on ur side, ya got the cause, ya got burning fire in the stomach yet the resistence are hiding and engaiging hit and run kinda battle! Do ya see the light now Kashafa. Believe you me I'm ashamed and embarrassed about Habasha forces on Somali soil killing and maiming Muslim Somalis but the thing is I'm not shocked and I know for a fact that once Somali core issues are dealt with, Habasha's stay in Somalia is numbered. The question is how the hell ya approach resolving this effing issue. Civil war and ninkii roon reerka ha u haro? Negative. Resistence? Admirable but negative. Reconciliation? That's it. How? Where? Under what terms all these are legit questions that needs to be addressed but for once use ur mind and don't consult ur heart plz.

^Ya wanna be shown where Feisal dropped the ball? Ya do? Really? Promise ya won't try spinning tires back and forth again like Xaajio Khamsiin stuck in Buulo mud? Yeah? Super. Perhaps our resident logician the one and the only Johnny can help us on this one The quote below is the one Prince himself posted in defence of his idol Wadanni Engineere his excellency Mr. Waraabe...here we go: Anigu waxaan qabaa inaan la dhayalsan Karin Laascaanood iyo bariga Sanaag. Waa mid ee waxa weeye inagii ayaa u xalaalaynay oo waxaynu nidhaahnaa Sool iyo Sanaag ayuu muran ka jiraa, Sool iyo Sanaagna muran kama jiro ee waa deegaano ka mid ah. Cali Mahdi waxa uu yidhi 15 gobol ayaanu u dirnay martiqaadka, macnaheedu waxa weeye Sanaag iyo Sool ayay u direen, markay u diraana waxay helayaan qaar ku jira Sanaag bari iyo Soosha bari, adduunkana waxay ku yidhaahdeen laba gobol oo Somaliland ah ayaanu u dirnay martiqaadka, Togdheer, Waqooyi Galbeed iyo Awdal ayay ka tageen, markaas Beelaha Laascaanood dega waxa inoo jooga Ina Daahir Afqarshe oo Suldaan loo boqray lamana xoojin, halka Saajimadii Buuhoodle iska boqray la xoojiyay. Inagu awoodna xuduudii kuma tagayno oo waxa la leeyahay dadka lama xasuuqayo, haddaan dad la xasuuqin qaran lama dhisi karo, dadka haddaanad dilin oo aanad dhiigaaga ku xorayn sidii aynu ugu xoraynay . Cabdillaahiyoow Diblomaasiyadiina ma wadno oo wax socda ilaa iyo maalintii Laascaanood la inaga soo eryay ma aragno. Markaas dalkii wuu galbaday, haddii deegaankaasi galbaday oo ay yidhaahdaan laba gobol ayaa Somaliland ka soo qayb galay oo saddex gobol ayaa inaga maqan, dee maxaynu ku daawaynaynaa Help me out here fellz! Waht is he saying here? 1. Qaran is what we are after. Agreed? 2. If you are not willing to commit xasuuq, Qaran, our goal, cannot be attained. Agreed? 3. If you don't kill Dadka and shed your blood in that killing campaign in order to liberate the country just as we have done... Halkaa markuu botorinayo his terrain of thought jumped to another point and started addressing one of the guys in the panel. Now it is the pack's task to explain what the hek does this colorful wadani mean here... Anyone? My fav Suldaan try now buddy Focus aight keep ur eye on the ball aight.

^Mr. Qoslaaye since when did you become a die-hard secessionist? Last time I checked you were a member of ilmo Baro the "beesaaniis". What the heck happened waryee? Johnny the stud, what are you doing in my crib? Nah I don't mind you visiting us but make sure you got the entrouge with you...tailgating as usual ya kno Waa shaashe! tell me what's happening back home. Employ your mighty logic and gimme an assessment hadda xaalka awoowe. Get it right and cover all the basis coz I expect nothing less from Johhny the philosopher. Suldaan, my fav secessionist awoowe all is well. How have you been? Great I hope. Waryee where is my man Mr. Oodweyne? If you cross path with him tell him that the first two bigeys are on me...tell him to come for a great and memorable fadhi-ku-dirrir like no other right here in this beloved politic section Awoowe cidlan joogaa ee igu akhriya what's happening who is dropping the ball...

Ngonge, I don’t know about you but it is a wasted talent in my book. I mean the dude goes on and on commenting on, and at times, editorializing (talk about an activist masquerading as journalist) about identity politics in tribal society without even knowing it. He uses every calamity, misfortune, and mishap that descends upon the rest of the country as an opportunity to further the secession cause. He labors a great deal in “educating” westerners about “Somalilanders” whom he depicts as a distinct group from the rest of ethnic Somalis. He even mischaracterizes the actualities on the ground. The trouble is Chatham House and Wilson Center and their respective clients Foreign Office and State Dept. have volumes of facts and figures that depict the true demographic representation of Somalis, where they reside, under what admin, and where they stand politically on the question of secession and why. These professionals can easily distinguish opinions from facts, news from commentary. I mean all of the folks, who have an interest in Somali affairs e.g. think tanks, NGOs, government bodies, politicians, and what have you, know the facts. He may score a point or two with the Neocons and rightwing socialists in Europe when he badmouths Islamists but that’s about it. No one is buying his rubbish. Who is he aiming his controversial articles at?

I just stumbled onto this PC magazine I bought from some airoport in one of the layovers. It has this article about Google and its intrusive data collection. The title is "Cover Your Tracks Online". I thought I would share with u guys. Here we go: "1. Yes, You have to sign it first. To remove Google's personalized search head on over to www.google.com/psearch and sign in to your account. 2. Stroll down the memory line and pick some days on the calendar to see every search made since you created your Google account. 3. Clear your slate. Select the Clear Search History button, check items you wish to remove and then click Clear History button. Remember that even after you remove items, logs and backups will exist on Google's servers. 4. Stop the collection. Tp prevent Google from collecting this data in the future, select items such as Web, Images, and News that you don't want to collect data, then press the Pause button."

Your boss has always the upper hand. Ya see the procedures and what have you might come handy when your boss makes a wrong move contrary to the established protocols. The thing is they too know all the rules and can make your live on the job so miserable without violating all these rules. Annual reviews Promotions Vactaions Assignments Developmental opps With that they indeed have the upper hand...unless you wanna play I'm black I'm woman I'm this and that card BS.

On the other side of the coin. I don't get to see my guns for about 56 days straight. I spend about 18 days with them each time and off I go. You gotta do what ya gotta do in oder to to put food on the table and make a decent life for them. Nevertheless one has to balance work with quality time iwth loved ones. Parenting is a headache I tell ya...ya hear me not easy thing to manage fellaz...it comes with humongoues responsibilities.

TFG failed. With the backing of the International actors, regional bullies, money, and what have you all of that seems to have given TFG no real advantage. The leaders are holed up in their heavely guarded campounds and the assissination is real and present danger that needs to be taken very very seriously. Terrorist, Al-Qaeda terms seems to be so overused so much so that evne the the inventors and real practioners of these terms now advised TFG not to make use of the term in the situations where clan violence is obvious. On the other hand the clans that opposed this TFG from the get-go and now have real reasons to reject it outright have no game of their own. Isolated and outplayed they are either in Eritrea or waging a guerrila war a la Iraqi style. That kinda game is what the powers-be point out in order to justify their illegal interference. The cycle continues. Neocons and Tigrey win evertime. TFG, disgruntled clans that opposes it, and ICU lose always. Very very difficult situation. There are no easy answers. Maxaan yeelaa?????????

Yeah...that's it. Bartamaha Barber is SOL!

TFG has lost the plot. It has neither the credibility nor the wisdom to settle Somali problems. Sometimes I wonder what these men are made of...ya see the chance was there and still there if the reconciliation effort is given the care it deserves... AbdiQasim gets treated this way because of International pressure period. If they had thier way he would have been under six feet by now. Common people let's get real. There is no love lost between the two clan manipulators.

Bashir is a prolific writer no doubt about that but the man made dismembering Somalia into what gaal colonized what part his numero uno mission. Wasted talent! Maakhir have you ever read his essay on Af Qalad aqoonta miyaa or something along these lines...dig it up and read...if he could only dish out these types of columns he would have gained a universal Somali readers. Wasted talent.

Shez, you wouldn't believe the things I put up with day in and day out. Hang in there and ignore all the bety stuff..