Sunni days

Strategy Page has an interesting report today:

The Sunni Arab media in the Middle East has gotten tired of blaming the United States for everything that doesn't work in Iraq. More and more stories blame Iraq's Sunni Arabs for the terrorism, corruption and tyranny in Iraq, and other parts of the Middle East. This is part of a trend, the growing popularity of Arabs taking responsibility for their actions. This is a radical concept in Middle Eastern politics. For several generations, all problems could be blamed on other forces. The list of the blameworthy was long; the United States, the West, Colonialism, Infidels (non Moslems, especially Jews), Capitalism, the CIA, Israel, Democracy and many others too absurd to mention. Giving up this crutch is not popular in the Middle East. Oil wealth has made it possible to sustain, for decades, the belief of all these conspiracies to keep the Arab people down and powerless. But the invasion of Iraq, and the overthrow of Saddam, forced Arabs to confront their long support for a tyrannical butcher like Saddam. Here was a dictator who knew how to play the blame game, and position himself as an Arab "hero." Saddam's supporters turned to terrorism to restore themselves to power. Two years of killing Iraqis has shamed an increasing number of Arabs into admitting that this is an Arab problem, not the fault of the United States (who, in the most popular delusion, should have waved a magic wand and made all problems in Iraq disappear.) Even the Sunni Arab media are in awe of the Iraqi Shia and Kurds, for not slaughtering large numbers of Sunni Arabs in response to the terrorism, or simply as revenge for centuries of torment at the hands of Sunni Arabs.

If these observations are accurate, then this is a hopeful portent of positive change. Now all we need is for some of this new attitude to diffuse into the "blame America first" crowd of liberals over here!

Zoom!

In the words of the Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Our Earth is not at rest. The Earth moves around the Sun. The Sun orbits the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. The Milky Way Galaxy orbits in the Local Group of Galaxies. The Local Group falls toward the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies. But these speeds are less than the speed that all of these objects together move relative to the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR). In the above all-sky map, radiation in the Earth's direction of motion appears blueshifted and hence hotter, while radiation on the opposite side of the sky is redshifted and colder. The map indicates that the Local Group moves at about 600 kilometers per second relative to this primordial radiation. This high speed was initially unexpected and its magnitude is still unexplained. Why are we moving so fast? What is out there?

Well...it appears that there is an enormous gravitational pull from the direction of the constellation Centaurus. Astronomers have dubbed this the Great Attractor.

You can read more about the cosmic microwave background radiation and the doppler dipole in this Wikipedia article.

Arab proverbs

Courtesy of Subzero Blue:

Wishing does not make a poor man rich.

Write the bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things on marble.

When what you want doesn't happen, learn to want what does.

The wound of words is worse than the wound of swords.

The wound that bleeds inwardly is the most dangerous.

Only the tent pitched by your own hands will stand.

Only three things in life are certain birth, death and change.

Seek counsel of him who makes you weep, and not of him who makes you laugh.

He who has health has hope; and he who has hope, has everything.

Quote for the day

The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful.

   Henri Poincaré