A Mideast Dictator dies, a Comatose Mideast War Criminal finger-fidgets signs of life!

His sworn enemy has bid for statehood-- the very nerve!

And he's moving digits. "Gilad Sharon tells the Times father has put on weight, family wants him home, has visited him every day since his stroke six years ago."

Burdened by his weight and not his conscience as a war criminal? (-ed)

"This article is an excerpt from "Eating Mud Crabs in Kandahar," a new collection of essays about food and wartime, from University of California Press."

"Ariel Sharon was ashamed of his weight. I couldn’t tell you exactly how heavy he was; the jacket of the light-gray business suit he usually wore disguised the extent of his belly and the dangling mass of his upper arms. Only when he walked could you make out the way he lifted his thighs around each other instead of moving them directly forward."

"So let me get this straight. First the Assad loyalists insisted that nothing unusual was happening in Syria and that this was all a conspiracy by the international media to manufacture a revolution."

"A reader pointed out that Terry Tempest William’s essay, “Why I Write”, is a direct reply to an essay of the same name by George Orwell.

Orwell’s is a bit longer, but is definitely worth reading:"

A long reading, but very interesting subject. Getting under the media hype and lies of the Christian Arabs in the Middle East story of late...

"The war against Syria, planned by the United States, France and the United Kingdom for mid-November 2011, has been blocked in extremis by the Russian and Chinese vetoes at the Security Council. According to Nicolas Sarkozy, who informed the Maronite Patriarch of the matter during a stormy meeting at the Elysée Palace on 5 September 2011, the plan contemplates the expulsion of Middle East Christians by the Western powers. In this context a press campaign is underway in Europe to accuse the Christians of the Orient of collusion with the dictatorships. Mother Agnès-Mariam of the Cross, mother superior of the monastery of James the Mutilated in Qara (Syria) responds to this war propaganda."

"There are times where we all reach our limits, where we think life couldn't get any worse than it already is. But the thing we always forget is that we're not alone. What we're feeling ...a million others are feeling it too. We live in a world where nothing is sufficient enough to satisfy our ever changing and demanding needs and wishes. However much we try to convince ourselves we're happy...the sad truth is that we're really not."

"Ayman Yousef Mansour has become the second Egyptian, since the fall of former president Hosni Mubarak, to be sentenced to 3 years in jail for online self-expression."

"As the self-proclaimed economic leaders of the world congregate at the lowest point on Earth, many economies around the world find themselves reaching new lows."