Word of the Day: clusterfukistan

Heard this one tonight...

Clus-ter-fuck-i-stan /fʌk/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [kluhs-ter-fuhk-uh-stahn]
--noun

The geographical area extending from Pakistan to Israel as per comedian and political satirist Bill Maher, host of the HBO talk show Real Time.

Copyright © 2009, Primetime Oracle
All Rights Reserved

Bizarro World: Billionaire gets advice 'from above'

Shari Arison (Photo Israel Sun)

We must indeed be living in a New Age when Shari Arison, Israel's richest woman and controlling shareholder of the country's second-largest bank, announces she has visions and receives messages "from above."

Well...isn't that what financial empires always look for--visionaries?

Arison reportedly set off an uproar in Israel after she revealed that information in an interview with Channel Two broadcast late on Saturday. An uproar? It's not like she claimed to see burning bushes in the stock market...did she?

"I get a picture, I can feel it. If it's fire, I feel like I'm burning. If people are dying I feel pain," she confirmed in an interview with Reuters.

Nevermind.

The Israeli-American Arison along with her brother inherited billions of dollars from her late father Ted Arison, who founded Carnival Corp, the world's biggest cruise ship operator. According to Forbes magazine, she's ranks at No. 109 among the world's 1, 225 billionaires in 2008 with a fortune of $5.2 billion. She is the controlling shareholder in Bank Hapoalim and controls Housing and Construction, Israel's biggest construction company.

Arison stressed that her visions do not interfere with the running of Hapoalim, in which she has no active role. (Is that good or bad?)

"The bank is managed very professionally, there's a chairman and a board and everything is done according to law. It's not my visions that run the bank, that's ridiculous ... there's nothing to be worried about," she said.

What's ridiculous? That she would have such visions, that her visions would run the bank, that she would tell the world about them, or that she would expect the public to believe her visions have nothing to do with how she runs her businesses and finances?

Shares of Hapoalim, Israel's second-largest bank, rose 1.6% on Sunday. Well, maybe people are more willing to embrace faith vs science in these uncertain economic times.

"When I talk about a vision in business I am talking about you can have a profit, you should be professional but you can give added value," Arison said.

Say what? I lost you there, my friend.

The central bank declined to comment on Arison's remarks and said she has not been contacted by them since the interview was aired. Yeah, they must loving this one.

She said these visions are meant to help lead the world elsewhere (where?). To this end, she is releasing her first book this week, entitled "Birth - When the Spiritual and the Material Come Together," which details her journey both spiritually and in business.

Oh...this is all about the book. There had to be a reason for her to come out with revelations about revelations.

Arison said the messages do influence her personal decisions regarding her assets. In the book she tells how she was on the verge of selling Housing and Construction when she received a message not to sell "because with this company I could a make a difference with sustainable building," she said.

How is that "message" any different from what a savvy businesswoman would tell herself when evaluating a deal?

Arison said she would not consider at this point selling her stake in Hapoalim or any of her other assets and is looking to invest in ventures in the fields of clean air and clean energy (not unless she gets word "from above" telling her to consider it). She already has set up a company to invest in clean water projects.

She begins the book with her premise that the world is "collapsing" because of broad-based greed. The emphasis of the book is that every individual has to take responsibility for making the world a better place.

I wonder how much of her $5.2 billion she uses to make the world a better place, though she's known in Israel for her philanthropy.

"I am aware of fact that in Israel there's a lot of cynicism, a lot of opposition ... I was very much aware that coming out with this book and my visions would create the same thing, cynicism and objection, until people understand."

At least she gets it.

She said two years ago she got a message that there would be an economic crisis and people would go crazy. (Is it crazy that I find that funny?) But after years of seeing catastrophes she now believes the world is moving towards a better future.

"For the past year I've been seeing peace and happiness," she said. "I don't know when that will happen. I know I have a role to tell people ... Everyone has to make it happen."

Well, things are bound to improve at some point...they always do...and then they turn to shit again.

It's the circle of life--right?--and we don't need a burning bush to tell us that.

Sources: Reuters, My Twisted Mind
Copyright © 2009

Israeli PM accepts limited Palestinian state

Benjamin Netanyahu (AFP photo)

Who knows where this is going...but I'm sure we'll be hearing about it all week. So here it goes:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called for creation of a limited Palestinian state for the first time, saying it would have to be disarmed, AP reported Sunday.

Netanyahu made the call during a major policy speech about his Mideast peacemaking intentions.

"In any peace agreement, the territory under Palestinian control must be disarmed, with solid security guarantees for Israel," he said.

"If we get this guarantee for demilitarization and necessary security arrangements for Israel, and if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people, we will be willing in a real peace agreement to reach a solution of a demilitarized Palestinian state alongside the Jewish state," he said.

Up to now Netanyahu has resisted endorsing the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a Mideast peace settlement, drawing intense pressure from the administration of President Barack Obama.

Netanyahu also said the Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and he declared that the solution of the Palestinian refugee problem must be "outside Israel."

Palestinians claim that refugees from the 1948-49 war that followed Israel's creation and their millions of descendants have the right to reclaim their original homes.

"I call on you, our Palestinian neighbors, and to the leadership of the Palestinian Authority: Let us begin peace negotiations immediately, without preconditions," he said. "Israel is committed to international agreements and expects all the other parties to fulfill their obligations as well."

Netanyahu also called for Arab leaders to meet him and contribute to Palestinian economic development.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed the speech as "sabotaging" peace efforts, Reuters reported.

A senior Palestinian negotiator called on U.S. President Barack Obama to intervene to force Israel to abide by previous interim agreements that include freezing settlement activity in the West Bank. The alternative, he said, was violence.

"The peace process has been moving at the speed of a tortoise," negotiator Saeb Erekat said. (Above: Mahmoud Abbas)

"Tonight, Netanyahu has flipped it over on its back."

Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah said: "Netanyahu's remarks have sabotaged all initiatives, paralysed all efforts being made and challenges the Palestinian, Arab and American positions."

He noted Netanyahu's demand that Jerusalem be the undivided capital of Israel and that Palestinian refugees not be allowed into Israel: "This will not lead to complete and just peace," Abu Rdainah said. "His remarks are not enough and will not lead to a solution."

"President Obama, the ball is in your court tonight," Erekat said. "You have the choice tonight. You can treat Netanyahu as a prime minister above the law and...close off the path of peace tonight and set the whole region on the path of violence, chaos, extremism and bloodletting."

Just what we need from every side--more rhetoric...although something is better than nothing.

Source: The Associated Press, Reuters
Copyright © 2009

Obama's Islamic homage wins praise

Wearing masks to conceal their identities, Palestinian militants from the Popular Resistance Committee watched Obama's televised speech at a training base in Gaza City. (AP Photo/Ashraf Amra)

I resist politics, but it would be irresponsible to go through today without even mentioning Obama's much-awaited speech in Cairo earlier today.

It has been praised and criticized any which way possible, as any other important political speech. But I like the following story because it's optimistic. And after the eight loooong years after W and the consequences we're now facing thanks to his words and actions, I have little patience for negativity.

Here's what one AP story out of Dubai reported about the speech.

The tone of respect was set from the opening lines of President Barack Obama's address to the Muslim world, AP reported Thursday.

"Assalamu Aleikum"--Arabic for "peace be upon you"--he said, triggering applause from the crowd at Cairo University and bringing nods of approval in places like a coffee shop in the West Bank town of Ramallah, where some began calling him "Abu Hussein"--using his Muslim middle name--as a sign of honor, according to the report.

Obama's ambitious speech, which sought to define a new relationship between Washington and the Islamic world, also represented an opportunity to shape his own image in the eyes of Muslims, AP reported. He quoted from the Quran, paid homage to the cultural and intellectual achievements of Muslims, and noted his middle name and his father's ties to the faith.

"As the Holy Quran tells us, 'Be conscious of God and speak always the truth'," he said. "That is what I will try to do today, to speak the truth as best I can."

Whether political stagecraft or sincerity, his gestures resonated strongly among many Muslims who often complain their traditions and culture are devalued in the West and have become overshadowed by Islamic radicals, AP reported.

"He came across as sincere and credible," said Sheik Muhammad al-Nujaimi, a member of a committee in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that tries to moderate the radical views of jailed militants. He said he plans to give a copy of Obama's address to the inmates with a message: "Muslims should offer help to the new American administration and reciprocate its overtures."

Obama also sprinkled his address with Arabic words that are well-known to all Muslims: "hijab" for the Islamic coverings for women, "zakat" for alms giving, which is one of the Five Pillars of Islam.

Even these few references carry powerful significance in the Arab world, where the language is cherished as an important ethnic bond, revered for its connection to the Prophet Muhammad, and filled with elaborate greetings and finely crafted formalities that display respect.

Obama's closing line--"And may God's peace be upon you"--rings with authenticity and cultural sensitivity to Arabic ears. (Photo: President Obama/Reuters)

There were obvious comparisons to Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, whose use of language, such as calling for a "crusade" against terrorists after the Sept. 11 attacks, a term that brought to mind the Christian Crusades against Islam in the Holy Land, helped stir anti-American anger (to put it lightly, if you ask me) in the Muslim world, AP reported.

Obama "was fair on basics, soft on tone," said Labib Kamhawi, a political analyst in Amman, Jordan. "He avoided using provocative terms of the previous administration like 'war on terrorism.'"

Even some extremist Web sites, which have carried statements from al-Qaida and other groups in the past, added some rare hints of praise amid the scorn for Obama.

One posting on a chat room noted admiration for U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton "wearing a head scarf ... and she and Obama taking off their shoes" during a visit to a Cairo mosque. The contributor also praised Obama's quotation of verses from the Quran, "while many of our leaders don't memorize these verses."

In response, another writer said Obama "is manipulating the emotions of the people the same as a lute player does. ... He is undoubtedly a wise enemy compared with George Bush, the enemy known for his stupidity."

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a 27-year-old computer engineer, Yasmine Bennami, said of the president's address: "It's the first time ever that I see an American president quoting verses from the Quran."

In Saudi Arabia, home of Islam's holiest sites, Rabah al-Mutawa said Obama, by quoting from the Quran, "touched people." "I challenge any Arab leader to go to the U.S. or the West and quote the Bible like Obama quoted the Quran," she said at her home in Riyadh.

When Obama opened with his Arabic greeting, Mahmoud Ramahi smiled.

"This is good," said Ramahi, a lawmaker with the anti-Israel militant group Hamas in the West Bank. "This is the first good signal. We'll start counting."

I'm no political pundit by any conceivable means, but if you ask me Obama rocks. He rocks because he's graceful and wise with words. He rocks because he makes an effort to show respect for other countries and cultures. He rocks because he brings issues down to a level of sensibility from up where reason no longer matters. And though the eight years with W were, in my opinion, the most disastrous in this country's recent history, perhaps had it not been for his monumental mistakes, we wouldn't have Obama today. Extreme change requires extreme measures, if you ask me.

If you ask Rush Limbaugh, the Right's self-proclaimed champion, the speech was "outrageous, absurd, and embarrassing." Now, who could've seen that coming?

Rush has problem: he has a extremely narrow, one-track mind capable of perceiving, processing and conceiving ideas and events from a single point of view--his. And that's exactly the opposite of what Obama does when he makes an effort to understand and address issues from various points of view.

Sources: The Associated Press, CNN, Reuters, Me
Copyright © 2009