Haditha Wala Haraj

"Involuntary manslaughter charges were dropped Friday against a 27-year-old Marine lance corporal who had faced trial in connection with the Marine killings of 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq, in 2005."

I agree, I say let him go. If his president got away with starting a war that based one thousand lies that have caused the death and misery of millions, who cares about 24 people?

Welcome to my Slaughter House

Location: Arizona
Time: Last week
Occasion: An Afghani restaurant opened in town.
People: Hareega and another hungry Arab guy walking towards the place.
Topic of conversation: predictions of the name of the restaurant.

Hareega, "What do you think the name will be?"
Friend, "Not sure"
"Maybe they should call it Kabul"
"That would be stupid"
"Why?"
"I don't think Americans will feel comfortable eating in a place called Kabul"
"So what can they call it then?"
"They should give it a reasonable name, something Arabic that is socially acceptable"
"But Afghans are not Arabs"
"Americans don't know that"
"So what should they choose?"
"Aladdin"
"Name's already taken"
"Sindbad"
"Taken"
"Ali Baba"
"Taken!"
"Osama"
"Osama, sure!"
"Why can't someone call his restaurant Osama, nothing illegal in that"
"Right"
"And he'll have many customers, yes all of them will be CIA agents, still he'd run good business"
"Absolutely. I think there's one restaurant called Osama somehwere. The owner refused to change the name after 9/11"
"I can imagine, you're not supposed to change your name because of one bad guy with the same name"
"True"


We arrived at the place, looked up to the sign.



So the name of the Afghani restaurant is Thabee7a.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that mean S-L-A-U-G-H-T-E-R

All of sudden, Osama sounded like a more appropriate name.

By the way, the food was damn good, bloody damn good.

Respect

I see the shock on their faces. They look back at me for an explanation and I just close my eyes and take off, knowing that I'm part of it.
I walk away, leaving them alone burried in their misfortune. As I walk out I start tasting my own poison and my body drowns in the toxin of my doings.

"It's two hours, just two hours, maybe less" , I keep saying to myself but that never helped me feel less guilty. I leave them alone to live with it, with all the disgust and confusion that comes with it and I stay out of it in this world where croaches have bigger hearts than humans.

To all the people who decided to do housekeeping for my apartment over the past few years, I'm sorry for what I've made you go through.

What did I just say?

Watch George Bush saying that Iraq had nothing to so with the attacks on the World Trade Center!




And this guy may replace him!


Meanwhile, I just heard this song, lovely.

Feeling Blue without Viagra

I got a voice mail from a friend, "Call me urgently"

I called him an hour later.
"Got your voice mail, wassup?"
"I need the blue pill"

I was shocked to hear that. I mean when did Viagra become a tabooed word?
"Salamtak, you're still young!"
"No man I'm OK,, I'm still A MAN."
"So why do you want the pill?"
"You know, just to spice things up"
"But it wouldn't spice things up. It only helps if you can't have an erection"
"No, don't say that, I'm still A MAN, just want to spice things up"
"But I told you it doesn't spice things up, it's not as perfume , it's a medication"
"Ok so you don't wanna give it to me"
"No"
"Ok , bye"
----------------------------------------------


I was once sitting with a bunch of Arab guys, then was approached by an older Arab man, Abu Khalil.

He asked me to talk to me in private.
"Duktor Feris, I need Viagra if you don't mind"
I wouldn't prescribe medications to patients I don't see in clinic, but this guy looked miserable so I gave a script for a few pills.

I don't want to say that the Viagra made him a new person, but since that day Abu Khalil's wife had made me Tabboulleh and Kibbeh Nayyeh almost every week.
-------------------------------------------

My clinic was on Thursday. On Wednesday I got a message from the secretary, "Mr. Garcia has an appointment tomorrow morning. He is requesting Viagra or Cialis. He is hoping to have some free samples because his insurance wouldn't pay for it"

I went to the clinic Wednesday afternoon before it closed, checked our medication cabinet full of medication samples, and found 3 small boxes of Viagra.

I wasn't concerned these pills will go to other patients, because all patients that Wednesday were seen and Mr.Garcia was the first patient to be seen Thursday.

Thursday morning, I see Mr.Garcia early on. He requests the Viagra so I went to our medication cabinet.
I couldn't find the Viagra.
I asked Stephanie the nurse, "Did any patients come in yesterday after I left."
"No"
"But there were 3 Viagra boxes here yesterday, where did they go?"
"I don't know doctor."
"Was there anyone else in the clinic?"
"No, just me and the Debby at the front desk, and Dr. Greene"
"Dr. Greene?"
"Yes, he said he was finishing some paper work. He was still in clinic when Debby and I left"
Dr. Greene is a 60-something internist in the clinic. He's a difficult person, very unfriendly and somewhat arrogant.

I don't like to wrongfully accuse someone of stealing, but for the next couple of months Dr. Greene became one of the most pleasant people you can ever meet in your life.

Happy Birthday!

From the day you were born I knew you would make it. I was told you wouldn't, that you were too weak to survive, but here you are today stronger than ever. I did believe in you and here you are: you look so beautiful to me that every time I think of you I get elated. I pray for you, I have dedicated my life to you. Sometimes I feel like you're the reason for my existence and without you I would have thought of myself as a total loser.
Now that you're thriving I can live in peace knowing that you'll be OK. I have done everything for you to have a bright future and make sure that you'll never perish but rather will get stronger with time. You carry my legacy; you are me and all what I stand for.
Have a wonderful fifth birthday,
George W. Bush

Hillary Visiting

Last month, Hillary Clinton visisted our university. I went to the gym where she had a speech to a relatively small crowd of about a thousand people. There were more people standing outside than those who were inside. It was interesting to see some non-Arabs demonstrating against the Israeli aggressions against Palestinians.

Ten Things Every Jordanian Man Should Know Before Coming to USA

1- When you stop at a gas station for gas, don't expect an Egyptian guy to fill gas for you. You have to do it yourself.

2- You won't get rich just by coming to America. They don't have people at the airport handling you money as you step out of the plane.

3- It's rude to say the word "fuck" in each conversation you have. Also you should avoid saying the word "nigger". Some black people find it little offensive. Just because you hear these words on TV doesn't mean you can say them yourself.

4- Not all women are hookers. Not all women want to sleep with you.

5- You should never say that you hate animals. Even if you do you should never say it. People will think you're a moron if you do. Same thing applies to Jews, blacks, Mexicans, Asians, Indians, women, and gays.

6- Don't make fun of people's last names, or first names. And if your last name is a twenty-letter three-syllabus word don't get angry if Americans don't pronounce it correctly. There's a reason why most Arab Americans are nick-named Sam.

7- The way you get a driving ticket in the US is by a policeman driving behind your car and flashing his lights behind you. If this happens you should stop and stay in your car. Do not step down from your car and move towards the cop to convince him not to give you a ticket, you might get shot; i.e. killed.

8- Don't kiss men on their cheeks. Most men will not take that well, while a minority of them will kiss you back, but not on the cheek.

9- Always lie about your salary when you talk to people in Jordan. If you get 40,000 US dollars they'll assume you earn 40,000 JDs, and assume you don't pay taxes. They'll think you're damn rich.

10- If an ambulance or a fire truck are driving behind you with the sirens on, move out of their way. Do not try to race with them. Trust me on this :(

Some random piece of information

Among the children who have asthma in the US, 759 thousand do not have health insurance.

Murder

Working in the health field made me appreciate how easy it is for people die from one single mistake. I've seen it in Jordan, I've seen it in the US. It happens in the best hospitals in the world and by the most competent doctors that you can think of. There isn't a doctor, a nurse, or a pharmacist in the world who can say s/he have not committed at least ten big mistakes in their career.
If you haven't made mistakes, that means you haven't worked long enough.

Doctors realize that hospitals can be dangerous places. Patients get a lot of studies inside hospitals and these studies pose some risk. Getting a CT-scan can cause a permanent damage to your kidneys, starting any new drug can cause a countless number of serious side-effect, and having any kind of surgery places you at risk of developing a lot of complications involving every organ in your body. Doctors try not to make thing worse by being careful, patient, and meticulous. That sometimes doesn't work, especially if you're in your 30th hour of continuous work, being overwhelmed with the number of patients you have and the hundreds of numbers and results of the several patients you have on your service. Doctors do mistakes everyday, every hour, and they usually do not admit it.

However negligence is different. Negligence is when you stop caring, when a patient is just a number you're trying to get of. Many hospitals in Jordan are poorly-equipped, which is frustrating, and that does interfere with patient care. Often, the staff are unprofessional, and some lack the sufficient knowledge needed for medical or nursing practice. But it's not all that common to see mistakes arising from negligence. It does happen, but it's not that common, and it definitely does not reach the level of negligence that Prince Hamzah's Hospital has reached.

Ali al-Hafnawi might have died from natural causes. He might have died on the table of the radiology machine, but this might not be the case, and I don't know if anyone will be able to know because those who know will not speak up.
I can see it, the King will visit, things will get better for a while, then other tragedies will occur again a few months later. This is more than negligence.

The Sound of Death

Have you ever heard how death may sound like?

Here are some goosebumps-inducing clips of tragedies that have taken away plenty of human lives. No sound effects; all real. No stupid commentary.

Hiroshima


-----------------

The World Trade Center on 9/11


-----------------

The Space Shuttle Challenger.
The astronaut's families were watching it and cheering as it took off, until the disaster occurred. It was 1986.



----------------
In the Air
The following recording from the cockpit was recovered from the black box of a Tunisian airplane that crashed into the sea.


----------------

God bless

Is the world a better place than ever before?

We're living longer, but are we living better?

Your input.......

the Israelification of the Clintons

In her recent debate in Austin, Texas two weeks ago, Hillary Clinton suggested that not supporting Israel is a form on anti-Semitism.

We've heard that before from different important officials in the US.

It's a known fact that all American presidents have supported Israel and its right to exist. Not doing so would lead to the demise of the future of any US politician.

But I've never heard before (and correct me if I'm wrong) and American president stating that criticizing Israel is a form of racism.

That comes in addition to her other positions in support of Israel (which, except for what I've mentioned above, are not much different than Obama's , Mccain's or Huckabbee's)

Here's she's condemning rocket attacks without condemning Israelis, then calling for the release of the kidnapped Israeli soldiers without mentioning the Palestinian prisoners in Israel's prisons.

then she expresses her disappointment because the Palestinian textbooks do not contain any pro-Israeli material (wonder why, maybe because half of the Palestinians students had some family being killed or having their legs amputated by Israeli forces).

Again, she calls for international help from the Red Cross for the kidnapped Israeli soldiers, ignoring the attacks Israel had on ambulances carrying wounded Palestinian civilians to hospitals.

It's great to have a woman become a president, but a total bitch? not sure.