I Might Try a New Game Tomorrow, What do You Think?
Claire Berlinski, Ed. ·
September 20, 2011 at 6:47pm
I miss having an editor who assigns me a topic to write about every day. I waste a lot of time reading the news, unable to decide, "What's the most important thing here?" So what if you assign me a topic? Maybe based on some news item related to this crazy part of the world.
You decide, I'll report.
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Oct '10
Re: I Might Try a New Game Tomorrow, What do You Think?
What happened to liberalism (in the traditional, interested in freedom, sense) in Europe? Why is there nothing between soft left and extreme 'right'?
Or should I just read Menace in Europe?
Nov '10
Re: I Might Try a New Game Tomorrow, What do You Think?
Claire, How about writing about your last days in Istanbul and how you escaped alive. Use your creative skills if necessary.
Dec '10
Re: I Might Try a New Game Tomorrow, What do You Think?
dittohead, that's easy; a kick is placed on the ground, whereas a punt is more like an incomplete pass.
Claire, I am with George (and others); I want to more about the energy sector issues as, often, much else is just fog and bluster.
May '11
Re: I Might Try a New Game Tomorrow, What do You Think?
A thorough deconstruction of my fantasy football team. Why am I 0-2 and last in points? Should I pick up a receiver or a tight end? I need a lot of help. Or something about Turkey would be interesting too I guess. I'm pretty distraught about my fantasy football team. The complete history of the Ottoman Empire in 200 words would be interesting.
Aug '10
Re: I Might Try a New Game Tomorrow, What do You Think?
How would you , or why aren't you, advise the Republican candidates how to form their foreign policy as regards Turkey ?
Dec '10
Re: I Might Try a New Game Tomorrow, What do You Think?
Claire, what's your take on this?
Lieutenant Colonel Hussein Harmoush fled Syria and took refuge in Turkey then showed up in Syria once again and retracted in a TV interview all earlier anti-regime statements. The mystery is more or less solved as information surfaced about the involvement of Syrian, Turkish, and Iranian intelligence in bringing the dissident back.
According to information posted on the social networking website Facebook, Turkish intelligence officers who, like Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, belong to the Alawite sect, took part in the mission of bringing Harmoush, the most senior defector in the army, back to Syria. Their role, however, was reportedly unofficial and the Turkish authorities were not aware of the abduction. The disappearance of Harmoush from its territories and his subsequent appearance in Syria embarrassed the Turkish government, which has launched an investigation into the matter....
The Guardian ran an earlier story about Turkey’s possible involvement in Harmoush’s abduction and quoted Lebanese human rights activist Wessam Tarif as saying that Turkey handed Harmoush to Syria in return for nine members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
Re: I Might Try a New Game Tomorrow, What do You Think?
Briar Ann --
In the event that Claire does not address this tomorrow, I found that Robert Baer has a very good discussion of the Sunni/Shia differences and rivalries in his excellent book The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower. Baer also explains how knocking out Saddam's Sunni government tilted the balance toward (Iranian) Shia hegemony in the region, and why that may mean disaster for U.S. interests going forward.
May '10
Re: I Might Try a New Game Tomorrow, What do You Think?
Diane Ellis, Ed.
Briar Ann --
In the event that Claire does not address this tomorrow, I found that Robert Baer has a very good discussion of the Sunni/Shia differences and rivalries in his excellent book The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower. Baer also explains how knocking out Saddam's Sunni government tilted the balance toward (Iranian) Shia hegemony in the region, and why that may mean disaster for U.S. interests going forward. · Sep 20 at 5:20pm
Thanks much, Diane! I will definitely look that book up.
Re: I Might Try a New Game Tomorrow, What do You Think?
These are great questions. They give me a clear sense of what you're really wondering about. I'm going to try to answer all of them (to the extent that I have the answers--some are beyond my expertise). I can't do it all in one day, but over the coming weeks I'll come back to this thread and try to address every question about which I might have meaningful insight.
Oct '10
Re: I Might Try a New Game Tomorrow, What do You Think?
CJRun: dittohead, that's easy; a kick is placed on the ground, whereas a punt is more like an incomplete pass.
Claire, I am with George (and others); I want to more about the energy sector issues as, often, much else is just fog and bluster. · Sep 20 at 1:40pm
Not so fast, CJ. The NFL measures just about everything. Even the placement of the ball after many plays is an approximation, which dictates the yardage credited to the runner or the passer.
It would be the easiest thing under the sun to identify the spot from which the punt was launched. The punter usually has no one near him, so the spot on the field isn't obscured. A thousand cameras, a million eyes watching. And they can't figure out where the punter was when he kicked the ball?
Apr '11
Re: I Might Try a New Game Tomorrow, What do You Think?
Claire,
Some of these are pretty frivolous, but they are what I remember about Turkey:
Groovy Hassan getting shaved with what looked like a piece of dental floss.
Raki. Hot peppers that looked like long green beans. (Groovy said, "Mild. Very mild." He lied.) Adana-kebobs. 6-inch flat-bread pizzas. Etli mercimek (sp) - a lamb & rice casserole, I think. Pistachios & Efees.
Abandoned castles.
Camel races.
The Med isn't that warm in April.
Rip-Off Alley with onyx and rugs and Lebanese tapestries.
Using an unfinished barracks at Incirlik as a morgue for victims of a C-130 crash, with refrigerated trailers backed up to it dumping in freezing air.
Intensive labor use, Turks building roads with shovels and wheelbarrows rather than graders and trucks.
A very serious-looking military wearing dark-blue, wool, long-sleeve shirts when we Americans were stripped to the waist.
Insane cabbies.
Executions, appalling prisons, and The Compound.
Gorgeous Turkish girls with hair so black it looked blue.
A certain tension over public drinking.
I don't pretend that any of these is column-worthy, and that was 1982, but it's a fair sample of what struck me at the time.
May '10
Re: I Might Try a New Game Tomorrow, What do You Think?
One last one, maybe talk about sporting events in Turkey. It seems that Fenerbahce passed out 40,000 tickets to women and children recently and oddly enough the atmosphere was softer.
May '11
Re: I Might Try a New Game Tomorrow, What do You Think?
Claire,
Thanks you from those of us (arrogantly speaking for others, but I'm pretty sure we're all appreciative) who had the interest in the eastern Med gas thing.
Not comfortable with the situation, but I am better informed than yesterday.
Cheers,
-GM
May '11
Re: I Might Try a New Game Tomorrow, What do You Think?
"Thanks you" ??? I need the editor.
-GM
Dec '10
Re: I Might Try a New Game Tomorrow, What do You Think?
dittohead, you seem to be avoiding the obvious implication of a team purposely placing the ball on the ground. Consider, are there other situations when a team places the ball on the ground? It's fundamental to the game.
Sep '10
Re: I Might Try a New Game Tomorrow, What do You Think?
How 'bout Saudi Arabia's number one export to the world - wahhabism.