It's the caffeine, the nicotine, the miligrams of tar It's my habitat, it needs to be clean, it's my car It's the fast talk they use to abuse and feed my brain It's the cat box it needs to be changed, it's the pain It's women, it's the plight for power it's government The way your giving knowledge slow and throwing in subtle hints It's rubbing it, It's itching it, It's applying cream It's the foreigners sight seeing with high beams, It's in my dreams It's the monsters that I conjure, It's the marijuana It's emberassment, displacement, It's where I wander It's my genre, It's Madonna's videos It's game shows,cheap liquor,blunts, and bumper stickers with rainbows It's angels, demons, gods, it's the white devils It's the monitors, the soundman, it's the ******* mic levels It's gas fumes, fast food, Tommy Hil, the date rap pill (?) Columbia House music club, designer drugs and rhyming thugs It's bloods and crips, five and six, It's stick up kids, It's christian conservative, it's the terrorists, it's porno flicks It's the east coast, no it's the west coast It's public schools, it's asbestos It's mentholated, It's techno It's sleep, life, and death It's speed, coke, and meth It's hay fever, pain relievers, oral sex, and smokers breath It stretches for as far as the eye can see It's reality, **** it , it's everything but me On and on and on and on The list goes on and on and on and on It's in the air, in the water, it's in the meat It's indirect, indiscrete, inconsistent, and incomplete It's on the street, every city and everywhere you go In every man it's the insanity, the fantasy, the casualties It's the health care system, it's welfare victims It's assault weapons, it's television religion, and it's false lessons It's cops, pigs with badges guns and sticks It's harassment and a complex you carry when you're running shit It's wondering if you get to eat, its the heat It's the winter , the weather It's herpes, and it's forever It's the virus that takes the lives of the weak and the strong It's the drama that keeps on between me and my seed's mom It's that need to speek long, It's my hunger for attention It's the wack , who attack songs of redemption It's prevention, It's the first solution It's loosing the retribution(?), it's mental pollution, and public execution It's the nails that keep my hands and feet to these boards It's the part time job that governs what you can afford It's the fear, It's the fake It's clear it can make time stop and leave you stranded in the year of the snake It's the dollar, yen, pound, it's all denomination It's hourly wages for your professional observations It's on your face and it's in your eyes It's everything you be But it ain't me mother ****** , it ain't me it's everywhere. It is all around us, even now in this very room. it's out your window it's whats on tv

This is a really bad situation. The drought by the way is not just affecting Somali area (although Somali area's are the hardest hit). It is affecting a large part of East Africa. I think there is a general lack of awareness about this issue. A while back I posted about this drought and asked the Admin to put up a link or notice on the forum informing patrons about this drought but it didn’t happen. As MMA pointed out, these prolonged food shortages and frequent droughts have a clear relationship to the general condition of the natural environment. I think by drawing the attention of more people to this current drought, there will be a greater general awareness of the environmental degradation that's going on and the general lack of food security in the Somali areas. The world is not a good place right now... but maybe we can change that.

Rape and abuse by the authorities... sadly, a Muslim country IS the place I would expect this kind of thing to happen.

That's a great question. I think I might be able to help you. drop me a line.

Sounds entertaining... crime makes such great tv viewing unless you are the guy in the passport photo

Feline placenta smells like you would expect it to smell like

Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song, A medley of extemporanea; And love is a thing that can never go wrong, And I am Marie of Roumania. Dorothy Parker

what really gets me are people who head colors... I know that might sound cyan but there really are people that hear colors!

The problem of naming a smell, or a color or anything else our senses perceive is interesting. Tank: Here you go, buddy; "Breakfast of Champions." Mouse: If you close your eyes, it almost feels like you're eating runny eggs. Apoc: Yeah, or a bowl of snot. Mouse: Do you know what it really reminds me of? Tasty Wheat. Did you ever eat Tasty Wheat? Switch: No, but technically, neither did you. Mouse: That's exactly my point. Exactly. Because you have to wonder: how do the machines know what Tasty Wheat tasted like? Maybe they got it wrong. Maybe what I think Tasty Wheat tasted like actually tasted like oatmeal, or tuna fish. That makes you wonder about a lot of things. You take chicken, for example: maybe they couldn't figure out what to make chicken taste like, which is why chicken tastes like everything. Maybe "THE LONDON UNDERGROUND SMELL" is like the smell of this paper am holding here... which is ... sniff sniff ... kind of woody

this has nothing to do with family guy but I was watching Malcolm in the Middle last night. it was a rerun. The episode where the boys have to take care of Jamie because Lois is too tried to do it (she's been up with Jamie for 4 days without sleep). Reese and Malcolm leave with some girls and Dewey is left home alone with Jamie. to keep the baby Jamie from crying he tells him a story about how in their parents closet there is a trap door that leads to a hidden "nice house" where Hal and Lois live a life of wealth and luxury. In this nice house Hal and Lois set watching a 99†LCD TV, wear fancy cloths and sip martinis. Lois comments that today Dewey asked for some ice cream and she told him they had no money for it, then she says "i hope he doesn't find out about our helicopter made of ice cream!" when she said that i couldn't stop laughing. a helicopter made of ice cream! I use to dream of stuff like that when i was a kid. Cars made of cookies and homes made of candy.

Do you know what today is? It’s a new day, a new week, a new year. A wise person once said We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood-it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. Omar Khayyam is right: "The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on." Take advantage of the time and do not postpone your good actions. "The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it"

S/C, Is what has happened to the Somali people (famine, civil strife, and exile) the punishment of Allah? What should Somali people change to gain the favor of Allah and mercy?

Kashanre, thanks. I didn't know Somaliland wasn't a whole entity. to tell you the truth, I don't even know what somaliland is. but i do know that some people calling themselfs somaliland want to be independent from somalia, and am trying to figure out why they would want to do such a thing. at first i thought they just didn't want to be ruled by other then their own qabiil. it seems every somali qabiil wants to be the rules so i thought why don't these guys try to take over all of somali instead of trying to break off. it seems to me now that what they want isn't to rule somalia, but to separate from Somalia. What I want to know is why they want to do that? Why do they want to become independ from somalia?

...it seems there are those that wish they were ruled by a gaal then to be united with there countrymen.

Why should Somaliland have Independence? Why Shouldn’t Somaliland have independence?

I use to think the same like you Xu; evertime i read the horoscope it would agree with alot of stuff I though about myself. And then oneday I found out my real birthday.

********No Tribal Names please********** [ January 12, 2006, 16:35: Message edited by: Admin ]

Bishaaro, I feel your pain. J B, it's not about saying no, it's about people keeping their word when they say they'll pay you back or return something. Why say no just for the sake of saying no? If you have something and can afford to let someone else use it for a limited time, , why say no? What I hate is how when some people learn that your a 'yes' sayer, they come to you for everything they need and start acting like they have a right to your stuff and your time! and there are people that never get asked for anything. It's my new years resolution to become on those people and maybe you should do the same Bishaaro

LaVie , are you saying selling women is a Lucrative business????

Theory, I know what your going through bro... I had the same exact situation... right down to the reggae after reggea, crunk after krumping and into the slow dance... Then i made my move, well actually, she made her move... And we've never look back since! So go for it, don't hold back and take what’s coming to you! You'll never regret it

^ and ^before her, it's not about 'who's gonna take care of me when am old' it's about family names and money, but whatever the reason, they made a big big mistake. What they should do is emigrate. If I were the Chinese government I would be sending these guys out of the country because keeping them around will only mean trouble.

This is an article about US troops in east africa. They say they are there to build school and wells and help people. Those are all wonderful things, I wish I could do that for my people in Africa. But what I can't understand is why did they bring all that gunpowder? I would think schoolbooks and building materials would be more useful in building schools and wells. ======================= http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0109/p01s04-woaf.html To fight Al Qaeda, US troops in Africa build schools instead More than 1,500 US troops are on a hearts-and-minds mission. By James Brandon | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor CAMP LEMONIER, DJIBOUTI – Pointing to his computer screen, Maj. Gen. Timothy Ghormley sounds more like a Peace Corps volunteer showing off holiday photos than the shaven-headed US Marine entrusted with defeating Al Qaeda in East Africa. "That's what it's about right there," he says, stabbing his eyeglasses at the pictures of African children celebrating as water gushes from a new well. "Look at those kids. They're gonna remember this. In 25 years they'll say, 'I remember the West - they were good.' " In 2002, more than 1,500 US troops were sent to this former French colony in East Africa to hunt followers of Al Qaeda throughout the region. Now, under General Ghormley, their mission has evolved to preempt the broader growth of Islamic militancy among the area's largely Muslim population. "We are trying to dry up the recruiting pool for Al Qaeda by showing people the way ahead. We are doing this one village, one person at a time," says Ghormley, commander of the joint task force based in Djibouti. "We're waging peace just as hard as we can." Previously East Africa has hosted an array of Islamic militant groups. In 1998, Al Qaeda bombed the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing more than 220 people. The group has also tried to shoot down an Israeli airliner in Mombasa, Kenya, and sink oil tankers and US navy vessels in the Red Sea. Now many analysts worry that trouble is again brewing as rising poverty combines with the anti-Western ideologies of hard-line Islamic missionaries in a region already dogged by porous borders, plentiful weapons, and poor governance. "There aren't actually that many groups or individuals involved," says Matt Bryden, director of the Horn of Africa project for International Crisis Watch. "But there's a danger that if these groups are not contained it is just a matter of time before they strike at Western targets in Somalia or start reaching out to the region again." "Some of them did have links with Al Qaeda but for the most part there doesn't seem to be an active Al Qaeda or even an Al Qaeda franchise," says Mr. Bryden. "But the US has discovered that there are actually much fewer targets than they expected." No targets but hearts and minds Unable to find or strike at any visible Al Qaeda members, US forces based in Camp Lemonier - Djibouti's former French Foreign Legion base - have instead begun to work to tackle the factors that might contribute to the growth of extremism in the future. Ghormley's men have so far built more than 30 schools and 25 clinics, as well as new wells and bridges. They are focusing particularly on the mainly Muslim areas close to the porous Somali border where poverty and dissatisfaction with pro-Western central governments might make many receptive to extremist teachings. "Ungoverned spaces are vulnerable. The forces of law and order don't exist there," says Lt. Col. Richard Baillon, of Britain's Parachute Regiment. A small contingent of British troops are working with US forces in a coalition effort. "The people in these areas aren't getting government support." Planners in Camp Lemonier say that their long-term strategy is to gradually move deeper into these poor and ungoverned areas. "We're not likely to go where we're not wanted or where there's open hostility," says Baillon, tapping a wall-map like a schoolmaster. "But it's about pushing the boundaries of where we are wanted." The Coalition's planners hope that by tackling localized dissatisfaction now, they can create long-term goodwill toward the US in the region. "A lot of times when we first show up there's a mixed reaction," says Sgt. Richard Crandall of the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion. "One place we went to they considered the US to be warmongers. But we built a school and when we left they said they considered us friends." The military is taking time to adapt to its new humanitarian mission too - and this means that there have been some mistakes made along the way. For example, the task force's military budget only covers the cost of constructing and renovating school buildings. Before the schools can open, soldiers have to pester nongovernmental organizations, charities, and friends back home for donated textbooks. In other cases there has been poor communication between the US and local people. Some villages, thinking that the Americans could only build schools, requested a new school when they needed wells and bridges instead. The mistake was realized too late. Meanwhile, the US increasingly depends on local governments to use their cultural and linguistic knowledge to track and tackle Islamic extremists. "The information sharing is not ideal; not up to the point that we would like," admits Nabeel Khoury, deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Sanaa, Yemen. And although there are handfuls of up-armored Humvees parked alongside rusting French artillery pieces throughout Camp Lemonier, the US increasingly seeks to delegate its military operations. "We're doing military-to-military training with five countries in the region," says Col. Doug Carroll, director of operations for the Horn of Africa task force. The US has trained Yemeni special forces in counter-terrorism while officers from Mauritius and the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean have been taught how to train their own soldiers once they return home. "In Ethiopia we've taught border security, we've taught basic counter-terrorism, what they call advanced map reading and also defensive operations," says Carroll, who denies that the training will upset the region's delicate balance of power. "We're not teaching them anything that would be applicable to the Ethiopian-Eritrean border war," he says of the training of Ethiopian border guards, while also denying that US-trained troops have been used to crush recent uprisings in Yemen. Somalia remains a clear blind spot But although the lack of recent Al Qaeda attacks in the region points to the mission's success so far, there remains a clear blind spot at the heart of the US deployment. "It's a bit of a paradox," says Bryden. "The threat that the US perceives in the region comes from Somalia, but that is the only place where they can't operate." Senior officers in Djibouti refuse to even discuss Somalia, although one officer privately admitted having contact with high-level members of the government of Somaliland - a breakaway republic in the north of the war-torn country that recently arrested one Al Qaeda team linked to extremist groups in Mogadishu. "The US has had to develop a much more nuanced approach and it shows that they are dealing with the problem," says Bryden. "They've had to discover the difference between terrorism and a domestic insurgency." As the US gradually increases its understanding of the region there is no sign of the mission winding down. Instead, as more British troops also prepare to deploy to the region, the operation seems to have become entirely open-ended. "It's important that we share what we have to allow all nations to advance," says General Ghormley. "We didn't earn being born in America - the Good Lord put us there and with that came responsibility." An area five times larger than Iraq Standing in his office, Ghormley, surrounded by maps where arrow-straight borders drawn by European colonialists cut across mountains, deserts, and complex ethnic groups, provides more than an echo of a Victorian soldier-missionary. "You can win a heart and mind today and lose it tomorrow," Ghormley continues. "We see no spread of radical ideology. We see a lot of people who would like it to spread." But with Camp Lemonier boasting less than 1 percent of the troops currently deployed in Iraq and responsible for an area five times larger, Ghormley is aware that there is a limit to what the US can achieve in the region. "I could use more money, more people, but I've got the resources I need to carry on," he says, taking a last look at the pictures on his computer screen. "They're good people and it breaks your heart that you can't do more for them."

If this is a satirical piece, then it’s a really bad one. If this guy actually means everything he says, then he’s just ignorant. This Bashir Goth should get another profession because social criticism is just not his thing.

sounds like you a agbepo brother. y u friday is ariyaso; Ashewo Abi?

I wonder... How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?