Egypt's Jon Stewart Is No Hero

My latest post for the Hup Post
Bassem Youssef, the famous host of an Egyptian satire news show, is being sued. Bassem is no hero of mine, and there are countless others who share my view. Facebook is riddled with pages and groups who declare their lack of affection for Bassem Youssef. The former heart surgeon has been gaining fans and building an audience throughout the Arab world with his jokes and zingers. At the get-go, I loved his jokes and delivery. I thought he was the missing breeze of comedy the Arab world has been missing.

Entire Post Here

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On Jewish Christmas And Jet Lag

1. Jet lag is not too complicated to explain, it is exactly feels like when you watch a midday manatee movie, and once you step out of the theater, you realize "ops, there is still more to this day than you remember."
2. Why would a Jew wish a Muslim Merry Christmas?! Neither celebrate this day religiously  but both agree on one things--it's always great to have a good time. I wish people happy Easter, and Merry Christmas, because things do not always have to be about me.   

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American Visa, Green Card, And Citizenship!

America liked immigrants and have always liked food. Now think of the two at the same time. there are different stages to the American dream and I like to think of them in terms of food.

1. Having an American visa is like eating at a cafe! You can get many things, but there are limits
2. Having a Green card is like eating at an all you can eat buffet, dig in
3. Having an American citizenship is like owning the restaurant. You can eat, but at the end of the day it's you who has to pay the bill

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Living And Working In The District of Columbia

I am enjoying this time of the year in Washington, DC. It's kinda of lame to be living in a nice city where smart people supposedly live--those people shape the how the United States runs the country and the rest of the world. Do they always make good decisions? I doubt anyone would dispute the many decisions made by the elected officials working in Washington, DC.

New York, thinks they run the world--maybe the world of entertainment and fashion. Alright, they also got Wall Street. But no need to be snobby about it. But the truth, folks around the country cannot stand this city and all the laws they make--and the ones they don't. For a city, the District of Columbia has very thick skin. According to one Hollywood producer, "DC is Hollywood for ugly people" and he cracked a joke about C-Span. The officials here, get to levy taxes, take that taxes and do whatever the hell they want with it. Sometimes  they put back that money into the State through various programs. Do you ever hear about the good work that goes on this city? Almost never, and you have politics to credit for that.

I am willing to think that DC itself was not that popular at the time it was chosen to be the center of American governance. For the longest time, no one likes bureaucrats they learn tolerate them. This is way, may founding fathers wanted nothing to do with DC and chose to live away form it.

I have learned that during the war of 1812, the city and its leaders ran out of town when they heard the British were coming. And sure enough, the rag tag militia that was commissioned to protect the city were no match for the British forces, and the city fell in their hands. The troops burned down the first White House.

Compare that to the city of Baltimore when the city fought off the British invasion and held its ground--inspiring one man to write the American anthem as he witnessed the shelling of an America fortress. I think DC is rich in its unique history- it may not have been a historic place itself but because so many important people lived here and ruled over America--it has become a place with historic significance.

Come see the place, not the government. This is a great place to visit, so many awesome things to do and see here. It really embodies so many things about the American experience. So many school buses come to DC from around the country to learn about history and about their government. There's a certain pride in living in DC--even though resident of the city get so little perks in return.        

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Smell This! Dead Bodies, Feces, Raw Sewage

I am reading an interview with a smell guru working with a company with the name Scent Air, a company that develops smells for big companies  Not the kind you sell, but rather the kind the company pumps through their system to communicate their message to your nose. Some retailers even use the trick to get potential buyers to feel happy. This is about branding and making the customer feel something. I have heard about this before, but when he spoke about one of his clients, I had special interest: He was asked about his clients whom have also included entertainment and the military. What are some examples?

For training our troops, the government would ask for smells of things like dead bodies, burnt bodies, feces, raw sewage, gunpowder, cordite. They’d use these to in a way desensitize the troops, so if they walk into a war zone and they see these things, the training helped them to be better soldiers. We've also developed scents for flight simulators. Depending on the smell, the pilot knows it’s burning wires, or fuel. “Oh, I smell fuel: I have to do these things to keep myself alive.”

I think this is an interesting take on scents, using them to train people for combat, and unpleasant surrounding  Surprises suck and no one likes them, I am glad someone had the foresight to develop such stench. I think the use for pilots and the burning wires is something no one wants to live through.    

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Mom With Benefits vs. Friends With Benefits

You have heard the term friends with benefits before, they even have a movie with that title. This morning, I was at the gym thinking about some of the posts I have written about dating and marriage in the Arab/Muslim communities and realized many of those guys are always on a search for a girl to take home. Most--not all Arab men are good boys, they love their mothers and often times get spoiled by them.

It's only natural for them to look for what they know, someone like their own mother. I know ladies hate this idea, of guys shopping around for a mother they can have a different relationship with. It's not twisted or anything, and it's not limited to an ethnicity. Many guys love a woman that can cook, keeps the house tidy and is a fun person. And down the road to rare their child. On their mind, their own mothers come to mind. Hence, comes the term mom with benefit.

Feel free to disagree with me, but many of us realize that soon but only come to admit it later in life. You may not marry your friend with benefits  but you certainly will snag the mom with benefit on the earliest opportunisty you have. After-all  she cooked you dinner for a reason.   

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For The GOP, Being Arab Is Controversial

Ever since the embarrassing loss of the 2012 elections, the GOP is wondering how they can win over minority voters. I feel that they are genuine and well meaning in their quest to widen their base and attract those voters who have traditional sided with the Democrats.

Yet when the GOP and its loudmouth media has a chance, they insist on giving such communities the middle finger. I see this as I read the nutty reports in conservative publications. This week, right-wing media outlets aggressively harassed the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), a group I have worked for in the past, to release video footage of Chuck Hagel, President Obama's pick for Defense Secretary, speaking at their convention in 2008. ADC has changed offices (naturally they have storage space), gone through personal and leadership change since that date. The videotape in question was in the storage along with the archive.

It seems that reports for online publications like Free Beacon, Fox News, Breitbart.com, and The Weekly Standard have been waging their own war against a civil rights groups that was founded in the 1980s by a retired U.S. senator who wanted to combat discrimination. It appears as if those publications are giving themselves the right to be hostile toward ADC, and its employees, as they try to uncover yet another conspiracy they have cherished. The spokesperson on behalf of ADC, Abed Ayoub, told the press, "They came to our offices -- threatening us, demanding information, arguing with security. They got very abrasive, very aggressive.. IIn fact, the FBI was in here last week because of those type of threats."

When ADC found the video they placed it on their website, but the joke was on those right-wing extremists who found nothing controversial in the video. Instead, those seeking a scandal found Hagel having an intimate conversation with American voters who come from places like Michigan, New Jersey, California, Virginia, and other places who want to be informed about their government. His broad-themed speech emphasizes activism and the importance of America’s role in the world. ADC has worked with a number of US administrations where they have enjoyed cordial collaborative efforts with various government agencies who have come to appreciate the work ADC does on behalf of its constituents.

Perhaps these conservative voices are upset with former Senator Chuck Hagel because he was able to do something they have not figured out how to do: speak to people from a background different from their own. Senator Hagel has been attacked over and over merely for speaking to Arab Americans. Most GOP leaders invited by the Arab American groups do not bother to come, and I am certain Arab Americans are not the only minority the GOP bails out on. Frankly, this is a prime example of their exclusionary tendencies and the GOP needs to know this by now. The good senator from Nebraska was doing what the GOP, now four years later, is talking about doing: talk to every American.

Such ill-advised media campaigns, orchestrated by xenophobes, racists and misguided talking-heads, are aimed at bullying the Arab American community. What good does it do to label an American organization  as controversial? There are more than 3.5 million Arab Americans in the United States, and they vote just like any other American. Something tells me the GOP did not win any votes by insulting the community and its leading organizations that stand for the US constitution. I urge the GOP not to stand for such tactics if they really wanted to win a national election again. Whether the nomination of Senator Chuck Hagel goes through is another conversation to have, but the GOP is already derailing the American democratic process and they are certainly not winning any friends in the process.

As for ADC and the community it represents, they will be around as we move forward and as the GOP continues on its road to self-destruction. With a growing population of minority voters, they will make sure there will be fewer GOP politicians. The GOP will only have themselves to thank for that.    

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