The Good-Morrow by John Donne I wonder by my troth, what thou, and I Did, till we lov'd? Were we not wean'd till then? But suck'd on countrey pleasures, childishly? Or snorted we in the seaven sleepers den? T'was so; But this, all pleasures fancies bee. If ever any beauty I did see, Which I desir'd, and got, 'twas but a dreame of thee. :cool: And now good morrow to our waking soules, Which watch not one another out of feare; For love, all love of other sights controules, And makes one little roome, an every where. Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone, Let Maps to other, worlds on worlds have showne, Let us possesse one world; each hath one, and is one. My face in thine eye, thine in mine appeares, And true plaine hearts doe in the faces rest, Where can we finde two better hemispheares Without sharpe North, without declining West? What ever dyes, was not mixed equally; If our two loves be one, or, thou and I Love so alike, that none doe slacken, none can die.

Originally posted by juma-nne: Oo kaalaya, horta sheekadii Sheikh Isxaaq bin Hashim, iyo Jabarti Bin Fulaan miyay beenowday?. Why are the supposedly decendant of the two sheikh denying their ancestry?. mise bahashu markeedii horeba luga kuma taagnayn? ^^ Awalba ilma Bucur Baceyr bey ahaayeene; bal maxaad ula yaabeysaa?

^^ Good point. I'm with you and peacenow on this one. We should avoid psedo-Arab sentimentalisms. It has never benefited the sissy Arabs, and as sure as hell, will not benefit us Somalis. As for recognition for the 3 habro's enclave up north-- WHEN PIGS FLY, as it were...

And the Cantilevered Inference Shall Hold the Day by Michael Blumenthal Things are not as they seem: the innuendo of everything makes itself felt and trembles towards meanings we never intuited or dreamed. Take, for example, how the warbler, perched on a mere branch, can kidnap the day from its tediums and send us heavenwards, or how, held up by nothing we really see, our spirits soar and then, in a mysterious series of twists and turns, come to a safe landing in a field, encircled by greenery. Nothing I can say to you here can possibly convince you that a man as unreliable as I have been can smuggle in truths between tercets and quatrains on scraps of paper, but the world as we know is full of surprises, and the likelihood that here, in the shape of this very bird, redemption awaits us should not be dismissed so easily. Each year, days swivel and diminish along their inscrutable axes, then lengthen again until we are bathed in light we were not prepared for. Last night, lying in bed with nothing to hold onto but myself, I gazed at the emptiness beside me and saw there, in the shape of absence, something so sweet and deliberate I called it darling. No one who encrusticates (I made that up!) his silliness in a bowl, waiting for sanctity, can ever know how lovely playfulness can be, and, that said, let me wish you a Merry One (or Chanukah if you prefer), and may whatever holds you up stay forever beneath you, and may the robin find many a worm, and our cruelties abate, and may you be well and happy and full of mischief as I am, and may all your nothings, too, hold something up and sing.

Occupation by Eliza Griswold The prostitutes in Kabul tap their feet beneath their faded burqas in the heat. For bread or fifteen cents, they'll take a man to bed— their husbands dead, their seven kids unfed— and thanks to occupation, rents have risen twentyfold, their chickens, pots and carpets have been sold. Two years ago, the Talibs favored boys and left the girls alone. A woman then was worth her weight in stone.

Not To Trouble You by Leonard Nathan Not to trouble you with love, I mean those adolescent dreams of great, of greater, or of greatest loving, let alone the crumbly personal kind—compared with, say, the public good or harder thoughts of death obliterating thoughts of love, or after- thoughts of love outgrown or love undone; and not to be ironic either, not to forget we come into the world alone and leave it so; and not to be claiming more than you can give, uncertain as I am what I require: something like love, I guess, whatever it is we've done without so long, so faithfully and with such tenderness.

Cherishing What Isn't by Jack Gilbert Ah, you three women whom I have loved in this long life, along with the few others. And the four I may have loved, or stopped short of loving. I wander through these woods making songs of you. Some of regret, some of longing, and a terrible one of death. I carry the privacy of your bodies and hearts in me. The shameful ardor and the shameless intimacy, the secret kinds of happiness and the walled-up childhoods. I carol loudly of you among trees emptied of winter and rejoice quietly in summer. A score of women if you count love both large and small, real ones that were brief and those that lasted. Gentle love and some almost like an animal with its prey. What is left is what's alive in me. The failing of your beauty and its remaining. You are like countries in which my love took place. Like a bell in the trees that makes your music in each wind that moves. A music composed of what you have forgotten. That will end with my ending.

Patriotism by Ellie Schoenfeld My country is this dirt that gathers under my fingernails when I am in the garden. The quiet bacteria and fungi, all the little insects and bugs are my compatriots. They are idealistic, always working together for the common good. I kneel on the earth and pledge my allegiance to all the dirt of the world, to all of that soil which grows flowers and food for the just and unjust alike. The soil does not care what we think about or who we love. It knows our true substance, of what we are really made. I stand my ground on this ground, this ground which will ultimately recruit us all to its side.

The Student Theme by Ronald Wallace The adjectives all ganged up on the nouns, insistent, loud, demanding, inexact, their Latinate constructions flashing. The pronouns lost their referents: They were dangling, lacked the stamina to follow the prepositions' lead in, on, into, to, toward, for, or from. They were beset by passive voices and dead metaphors, conjunctions shouting But! or And! The active verbs were all routinely modified by adverbs, that endlessly and colorlessly ran into trouble with the participles sitting on the margins knitting their brows like gerunds (dangling was their problem, too). The author was nowhere to be seen; was off somewhere.

Lines by Martha Collins Draw a line. Write a line. There. Stay in line, hold the line, a glance between the lines is fine but don't turn corners, cross, cut in, go over or out, between two points of no return's a line of flight, between two points of view's a line of vision. But a line of thought is rarely straight, an open line's no party line, however fine your point. A line of fire communicates, but drop your weapons and drop your line, consider the shortest distance from x to y, let x be me, let y be you.

Advice to Young Poets by Martin Espada Never pretend to be a unicorn by sticking a plunger on your head

Sonnet 91 by William Shakespeare Some glory in their birth, some in their skill, Some in their wealth, some in their body's force; Some in their garments, though new-fangled ill; Some in their hawks and hounds, some in their horse; And every humour hath his adjunct pleasure, Wherein it finds a joy above the rest: But these particulars are not my measure; All these I better in one general best. Thy love is better than high birth to me, Richer than wealth, prouder than garments' cost, Of more delight than hawks or horses be; And having thee, of all men's pride I boast: Wretched in this alone, that thou mayst take All this away, and me most wretched make.

John Terry recently got sacked from the English Football Team's Captaincy for infidelity; yet, Jacob Zuma-- The President of South Africa-- gets to remain in political office, irregardless of committing similar perfidies against not 1; not 2, but 3 wives... Only in Africa, eh! South African President Apologizes for Illegitimate Child JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) — President Jacob Zuma of South Africa apologized Saturday for fathering an illegitimate child, in the face of national outcry. Critics say that Mr. Zuma, a Zulu traditionalist who practices polygamy and currently has three wives and 20 children, including the child he fathered with another woman, has set a bad example in a country with one of the world’s highest rates of H.I.V./AIDS. “I have over the past week taken time to consider and reflect on the issues relating to a relationship I had outside of wedlock,” Mr. Zuma said in a statement on Saturday, acknowledging that it “has been a subject of much public discussion and debate.” He said: “It has put a lot of pressure on my family and my organization, the African National Congress. I deeply regret the pain that I have caused to my family, the A.N.C., the Alliance and South Africans in general.” He said he reaffirmed his commitment to “the importance of the family as an institution.” On Tuesday, Mr. Zuma, who married for the fifth time recently, confirmed reports that he had fathered a child with Sonono Khoza, whose father leads the nation’s World Cup organizing committee. Ms. Khoza gave birth to a girl in October. The presidency has said previously that Mr. Zuma has 19 children. Mr. Zuma said Tuesday that he had formally acknowledged paternity and made a traditional payment of inhlawulo to Ms. Khoza’s family. Source

I found the following article on the council of foreign relations website which I thought I might share with you lot... Sharia vs. Secularism In a 2007 University of Maryland poll (PDF), more than 60 percent of the populations in Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan, and Indonesia responded that democracy was a good way to govern their respective countries, while at the same time, an average of 71 percent agreed with requiring "strict application of [sharia] law in every Islamic country." Whether democracy and Islam can coexist is a topic of heated debate. Some Islamists argue democracy is a purely Western concept imposed on Muslim countries. Others feel Islam necessitates a democratic system and that democracy has a basis in the Quran since "mutual consultation" among the people is commended (42:38 Quran). John L. Esposito and John O. Voll explain the debate in a 2001 article in the journal Humanities. Noah Feldman, CFR adjunct senior fellow, writes in a 2008 New York Times Magazine article that the full incorporation of Islamic law is viewed as creating "a path to just and legitimate government in much of the Muslim world." It places duplicitous rulers alongside their constituents under the rule of God. "For many Muslims today, living in corrupt autocracies, the call for [sharia] is not a call for sexism, obscurantism or savage punishment but for an Islamic version of what the West considers its most prized principle of political justice: the rule of law," Feldman argues. On the other hand, some Muslim scholars say that secular government is the best way to observe sharia. "Enforcing a [sharia] through coercive power of the state negates its religious nature, because Muslims would be observing the law of the state and not freely performing their religious obligation as Muslims," says Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, a professor of law at Emory University and author of a book on the future of sharia. Opinions on the best balance of Islamic law and secular law vary, but sharia has been incorporated into political systems in three general ways: * Dual Legal System. Many majority Muslim countries have a dual system in which the government is secular but Muslims can choose to bring familial and financial disputes to sharia courts. The exact jurisdiction of these courts varies from country to country, but usually includes marriage, divorce, inheritance, and guardianship. Examples can be seen in Nigeria and Kenya, which have sharia courts that rule on family law for Muslims. A variation exists in Tanzania, where civil courts apply sharia or secular law according to the religious backgrounds of the defendants. Several countries, including Lebanon and Indonesia, have mixed jurisdiction courts based on residual colonial legal systems and supplemented with sharia. Ahmad Nizar Hamzeh of the American University of Beirut says only Qatar has an official dual legal system where Adlia courts, or civil courts, are independent of the sharia system and legislate secular laws. Western countries are also exploring the idea of allowing Muslims to apply Islamic law in familial and financial disputes. In late 2008, Britain officially allowed sharia tribunals (NYT) governing marriage, divorce, and inheritance to make legally binding decisions if both parties agreed. The new system is in line with separate mediation allowed for Anglican and Jewish communities in England. Criminal law remains under the gavel of the existing legal system. "There is no reason why principles of sharia law, or any other religious code, should not be the basis for mediation," Britain's top judge, Lord Nicholas Phillips, said in a July 2008 speech (PDF). Supporters of this initiative, such as the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, argue that it would help maintain social cohesion (BBC) in European societies increasingly divided by religion. However, some research suggests the process to be discriminatory toward women (BBC). Other analysts suggest the system has led to grey areas. Britain's Muslims come from all over the world, Ishtiaq Ahmed, a spokesperson for the Council for Mosques in England, told the BBC, noting that this makes it hard to discern at times "where the rulings of the sharia finish and long-held cultural practices start." * Government under God . In those Muslim countries where Islam is the official religion listed in the constitution, sharia is declared to be a source, or the source, of the laws. Examples include Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates, where the governments derive their legitimacy from Islam. In Pakistan, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq, among others, it is also forbidden to enact legislation that is antithetical to Islam. Saudi Arabia employs one of the strictest interpretations of sharia. Women are not allowed to drive, are under the guardianship of male relatives at all times, and must be completely covered in public. Elsewhere, governments are much more lenient, as in the United Arab Emirates, where alcohol is tolerated. Non-Muslims are not expected to obey sharia and in most countries, they are the jurisdiction of special committees and adjunct courts under the control of the government. * Completely Secular. Muslim countries where the government is declared to be secular in the constitution include Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Chad, Somalia , and Senegal. Islamist parties run for office occasionally in these countries and sharia often influences local customs. Popular Islamist groups are often viewed as a threat by existing governments. As in Azerbaijan in the 1990s, secularism is sometimes upheld by severe government crackdowns on Islamist groups and political parties. Similar clashes have occurred in Turkey. Under the suspicion that the majority party, the Islamist Justice and Development Party, was trying to establish sharia, Turkey's chief prosecutor petitioned the constitutional court (Economist) in March 2008 to bar the party from politics altogether. One of the politicians indicted, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told Newsweek, "Turkey has achieved what people said could never be achieved--a balance between Islam, democracy, secularism and modernity." Secular Muslim countries are a minority, however, and the popularity of Islamist political parties are narrowing the gap between religion and state. Read the entire article here: This article shows that in many place around the world, it has been possible to blend Shariah based laws with other types of secular law. And in fact even in Somalia today, most people still use a form of a hybrid set of Shariah/Customary laws to govern their relationships with one another.

^ OH NOOO! NO JOKES IN ISLAM... MY GOD THESE FOLKS ARE RELENTLESS!! LET"S ALL RUN FOR THE HILLS! Cyanoacrylate glues were made for model airplanes and fake nails. Stop huffing and inhaling these chemicals, changeling. Islam has nothing to do with these alleged foolish policies associated with these deviant political groups.

^^ Masha Allah, nicely put...but calaacalka yaree ninyahow and let the dead rest in peace.

"Oooh, Samartar BAD!... Riyaale, GOOD!" lol...I love it when the troglodyte mentality of these secessionists rears it's cul de sac mindset on these threads. Keep up the good work, gents! Just remember that no serious person will buy into your whole "we were massacred" hogwash, as long as you have a former NSS Officer bossing around the 3 habros in you little enclave up north... For, as they say, "charity begins at home". And no one in his right mind will take y'all for serious until you do something about Mr. Riyaale first-- who we all know served General Siyaad with utmost zeal and diligence, during the operations where your rebellious kinfolk where getting b!tchslapped by the armed forces in Hargaysa-- before you can ALL partake in your unanimous plaudits for the misfortunes Mr. Samatar. p.s This case against Samatar does not have any merit because The US government will argue on his behalf, in fear that if he were to loose, that this would set a precedence for other lawsuits against many former 'unsavory' individuals from around the world who are currently residing in the United States and if I might add, that the US government has given deliberate asylum. So yeah... Mr.Samatar in this particular case is indeed 'above the law', for all intensive purposes... :cool:

^ lol...Odaygu show wuxuu ahaa kuwa qaadka, kal iyo mooyaha ku tunta.

Las Anod should not become the injudicious cause for the forfeiture of the relative stability enjoyed in both Puntland and Somaliland. Regardless of the what the 'UNITED' wish of the elders of SSC becomes, the Puntland government should NEVER allow itself to fall into a position where it MUST wage war to bring back the city of Las Anod from the influence of Riyale's unscrupulous cronies(Xaabsade &CO). If indeed, our elders finally manage to politically sideline Xaabsade &CO, then the ultimate objective --from all their deliberations these last few days-- should also include the pursuit of peaceful channels to disentangle the city of Las Anod from the snarled influence of the corrupt dictator of Shankaroon. Therefore, a war ought to be avoided at all cost... Besides, the obvious likelihood that it will be too costly for the belligerent forces involved, it will also provide Mr. Riyaale another excuse to postpone the elections, yet again, on our foolish countrymen from up-north.

JB, was the news that was released by some folks in the administration regarding Mr Silanyo true? Or was it simple hearsay?

^^ Nonsense. The deficit problem was created by Bush and his cohorts in Congress. Fixing the health care system in this country seems such a daunting and expensive proposition precisely because the Republicans haven't paid one penny towards paying down the deficit-- which they created-- for the last 8 Bush years. President Bush gave two tax cuts to the people without finding a way to pay for them. The Iraq and Afghanistan wars also were waged without allocating/pinpointing where the resources where gonna come from and still aren't. So this 1 trillion dollar deficit you speak of, is a Republican baby. Yet their blatant audaciousness leads them to use this same very deficit as argument against funding any of Obama's legislative spending requests, be it health care reform; alternative sources of energy; cap and trade; social security; the 2 wars; stimulating the economy and so on and so forth; and this, in my opinion, is very ridiculous and shortsighted. Especially in the case of Health care reform... this has been a serious problem facing the average American and government for many years now. Nearly 30 million people go without any form of health insurance whatsoever. For those that do have it: most insurance companies charge them an-arm-and-a-leg whenever they must use it for treatment. In fact, paying for health care costs these days remains one of the biggest reasons why people become bankrupt in the US. Prescription drugs are three times as expensive for the average American compared to any of the citizens of the developed world. Why is this so, when some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world happen to be American Corporations? Health care insurance premiums for the average American and small businesses are way always way too expensive. This is also the same reason why Medicare for seniors is projected to go bankrupt in the not-too-distant future. This whole thing is a mess, and this demands that everyone puts aside the partisan leanings to work for the greater good of the people. Therefore, I believe the Republicans ought to get off their selfish high-horses and work with this President to fix some of these problems, instead of playing the partisanship card every single solitary moment a piece of legislation supported by the white house is brought before them.

The last I checked, "LOVE THYSELF" was not on the SOL rule book. Therefore, I believe, those of you who are campaigning for peacenow's unwarranted martyrdom are totally mistaken. peacenow has every right to express his contempt for his own identity and that of ALL Somalis and we inturn, have every right to reciprocate... so let's all just learn to live with it, aight!

^ Or he's been smoking that good purple kush!

Did any of you guys watch today's question/answer secession between the President and the Republican caucus of the US Congress? The Republicans sounded pretty petty. In my opinion, it seemed that they were just being obstructionists just for the heck of it. I guess in their dim minds they believe the can keep constantly being bellicose to Obama and the Democrat's legislative agenda and by so doing, they will gain support from the public and win seats in the coming mid elections. But they are very mistaken: The general public knows and understands that America inherited most of its fiscal problems from the previous Republican administration-- which enjoyed the full support of a Republican majority in Congress. And Over-all, this was an excellent way to show the public that the Republicans are making it impossible for Obama to govern well; and this will ensure him and the Dems gain more support... the recent election results in Massachusetts will quickly become a one-hit-wonder for the Republicans.

Source: WASHINGTON - President Obama dove headfirst into the belly of the GOP beast Friday - and left the not-so-loyal opposition bleeding on a Baltimore ballroom floor. He skewered Republicans for obstructionist tactics, dubious facts and a lack of civility in opposing his domestic agenda, especially health care reform. "If you were to listen to the debate and, frankly, how some of you went after this bill, you'd think that this thing was some Bolshevik plot," Obama told the GOP issues retreat after unveiling a proposal for $33 billion in small-business tax incentives. House Republican leaders had tried to score political points by inviting Obama to their lair. Problem was, he showed up. "You've given yourselves very little room to work in a bipartisan fashion because what you've been telling your constituents is, this guy is doing all kinds of crazy stuff that's going to destroy America," Obama said, his face appearing to tighten in anger. An hour-long question-and-answer session after Obama's short speech provided plenty of dramatic, forced bipartisanship - and some of the most contentious public exchanges of his presidency. "A lot of you have gone to appear at ribbon-cuttings for the same projects that you voted against," Obama needled, using last year's $787 billion stimulus package to land a stinging blow. On the other side, Republicans countered by asking biting questions, sometimes in the form of long statements. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) drew blood and left Obama without a good explanation on a well-known health care topic. "When you stood up before the American people multiple times and said you would broadcast the health care debates on C-SPAN, you didn't," Chaffetz said. "I think a lot of Americans were disappointed." Asked if he'd back across-the-board tax cuts like President John F. Kennedy, Obama said he would study the budget-busting idea. "I may not agree to a tax cut for Warren Buffett," he demurred. "You may be calling for an across-the-board tax cut for the banking industry right now. I may not agree to that." Conservative Georgia Rep. Tom Price, head of the Republican Study Committee, gave Obama props for his political skill and for owning up to not negotiating all of health reform on C-SPAN, calling it his "only moment of humility." "He knows his talking points, he didn't use a TelePrompTer and he refuses to answer the majority of the questions," Price complained. kbazinet@nydailynews.com