Remembering Ray Bradbury, science fiction author extraordinaire

One of my favorite paragraphs in fiction:

“You can’t build a house without nails and wood. If you don’t want a house built, hide the nails and wood. If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war...

Last week a sixty year old woman was arrested for driving a car in Madina. She was accompanied by a twelve year old girl and they were driving around an empty construction site to gather scrap metal. According to the traffic police she was convicted of driving without a license, the person who gave her a car will be punished and her male guardian will be called in to sign a pledge promising that he will ensure that she never drives again.

Yesterday there was an enormous gun battle that lasted most of the afternoon and throughout the night in Damascus. Any explanations? Any questions by the esteemed parliament that the president of this banana republic appointed? Has the parliament demanded an end to the Syrian army's activities in Homs, Deraa, and the countless villages where it's passed through like a Tatar horde? No, nothing.

It is only one week and we will have our presidential elections runoffs between Mohamed Morsi and Ahmed Shafik in a very tense time in Egypt. Now interestingly enough despite how much each of them try to appear the opposite of the other , there are similarities between them.
Both men are backed up by the two most organized oldest powers and groups in Egypt : The Muslim brotherhood and the NDP with its roots in the Egyptian country side and history...