Try not to die.

Dear L,

you don't frequent internet cafes, right? So ... you're all set. But yeah ... what e said.

--MSK

MAP: Two men entered the cafe at 10 p.m. to consult extremist websites. A quarrel broke out between them and the son of the manager, and a bomb hidden under the clothes of one of them exploded.

What a weirdo. Even for a suicide bomber, I mean. Wouldn't it have been much easier to just blow himself up right away? Makes me wonder how large a percentage of young extremists casually walk around with bombs under their clothes, in case they get into a dispute with unbelievers.

Anyway, yes: stay alive.

The target was certainly not an internet cafe. I presume the target would have eventually been a kind of place where I might be find, like the bar of a 5 star.

Ah well, only live once.

Now, I have to take a bunch of investors out to dinner, at a place where there is sketchy belly dancing and expensive food.

Hopefully the security is right, I'd hate to get whacked over sketchy belly dancing. I don't even care for it very much.

MSK - I'm actually more surprised that he can quote The Clash.

Authorities, uncertain about the circumstances of the blast in a Casablanca slum, held off labeling it a suicide bombing, Achour said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

So they're thinking, what? That maybe it was a case of really bad flatulence?

What a weirdo. Even for a suicide bomber, I mean. Wouldn't it have been much easier to just blow himself up right away? Makes me wonder how large a percentage of young extremists casually walk around with bombs under their clothes, in case they get into a dispute with unbelievers.

Now this is interesting. He was obviously on his way to somewhere else. For some almost entirely uninformed speculation, I'd guess he was in the Internet cafe to pass along word to his handlers that he was en route and that the "mission" would be completed shortly.

BTW, I'm quite impressed that Casablancan slums have Internet cafes. North Africa has a better class of slums than does North America.

Anon,

even Iraqi slums have internet cafes ... Maybe the authorities that are can figure out just who the guy had wanted to contact.

Dear EL,

actually, that doesn't surprise me at all. See ... our dear L's had a bit of a life ... back then. Wrote to Uncle Mu'ammar, went to East Berlin BEFORE the Wall fell ... of course he'd know that song.

--MSK

Eva: I'm actually more surprised that he can quote The Clash.

Whatever, even I know that song. And I was only...well, let's just say I wasn't dressing myself at the time.

MSK, Eerie - I am surprised precisely because The Clash is so...mainstream, as far as punk/counterculture goes. Heck, sometimes I'm surprised I even know the song - it's not nearly obscure enough.

What's wrong with quoting the Clash, it's only their bloody best-known song.

Besides, Rachid Taha just remade it.

As for i-cafe's in Casa slums, bollocks, i-cafe's are found everything in urban areas globally.

Sex chat porn and jihad porn being two main drivers. sex chat porn and searching for visas being far in advance of jihad.

Nothing wrong with the song at all - I've still got the 45 in my livingroom, as a matter of fact. Sounds like Should I Stay, Or Should I Go? may be more appropriate, though.

Rachid Taha's Rock El Casbah

{snotty white guy} Geez, it seems like the Borat version.

Well it's true to the song:

But the Bedouin they brought out
The electric camel drum
The local guitar picker
Got his guitar picking thumb

{/snotty white guy}

Can someone explain what Hogan is on about?

Otherwise, I make one bloody reference to an archaic has been band, and that's all you stupid whankers can talk about? Stupid nerdish gits.

Can someone explain what Hogan is on about?

Ahh, I believe that's part of the Rock the Casbah lyrics.

Rock the Casbah is not just an old punk song. It's a delicate exploration of the nuanced blending of Western & Muslim culture!

I'm jeering at the video Shaheen pointed to using the lyrics of the song you referenced, which is also the song in the video.

See you dont know the song.

No one who writes as a teenager to Qaddhafi for the green book can cast the first nerdish git stone.

The Clash may be has-been but the song is eternal.

Aqoul is probably full of people whose both IQ and social IQ happen to be extreme outliers among the world population's scores, and are inversely proportional (or their deviation to the mean is opposite to be more accurate). In other words, to put it more simply, if you graphed IQ and social IQ among Aqoulites, they'd be on different sides of the mean, symetrically and far away from it (at Q3+3IQR), while world population would be centered around it in a bell shaped form. I always thought of nerds as dorks who know how to party (like, solving NP-complete problems all the while debating the Lutherian reform and its relation to Islam around a Smirnoff in a club that deejays Song Zuying). Ya3ni, their social IQ would probably be on the same side as their IQ.

I know this explanation sounds like coming from a B-rated Hollywood script writer who don't check his jargon, but it actually has some simple meaning that I'm sure most Aqoulites understood easily, so it's even worse than you probably think. But then you shouldn't really care, because IQs mean something only to morons.

Ya Shaheen,

Would love to answer your post but can't be bothered as I'm in Beirut & too busy making plans for going out tonight.

--MSK

Ahem.

First, I would like to highlight the Green Book writing was pre-teen, and further, a brilliant move on my part. Launching a decade of suspicion.

Second, you're right, I pay no attention to lyrics. Could care less.

Third, Shaheen I think has a fair point.

In the interest of historical completeness . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAkfHShATKY