Big Bang Boom
There is a new study out from Eaker Epidemiology Enterprises which says that anger can cause strokes and heart attacks in men. This is startling news, and it makes me pause and say to myself, maybe you shouldn't go to Town Hall today. Apparently, if you get angry enough, your heart can literally explode, causing serious harm to your body. Forewarned is forearmed, as I always say.
So it seems like a very good day to check out the international press. Speaking personally, there are vast sections of this globe where I probably just couldn't hack it, like Bahrain, where you can't get a decent television show to save your soul.
Yes, in sad news for infidels throughout Bahrain, the Information Ministry has banned 'Al-Rayes', the Arab version of 'Big Brother'. Now you are probably asking yourself who would be foolish enough to attempt an Arab version of Big Brother, but I will tell you straight out that local sensibilities were taken into serious consideration. There were separate bedrooms for the men and women, as well as separate prayer rooms, but aside from that - because otherwise we're kind of short on a premise - there is flirting, there is flaunting, and there is dancing, all under a common roof, all without proper head gear.
Zeina Karam of the AP tells us "Mohammed al-Ohaideb, writing in the Saudi Al-Riyadh newspaper, called the set of the program a "whorehouse" and the program a platform for a group of men and women's "cheap and immoral behavior." Which would seem to be the whole point.
Al Bawaba reports that "the announcement came three days after some 1000 people, mainly Islamists, protested against the show. Islamist MPs accused the show of violating Islamic traditions. "Stop Sin Brother! No to indecency!" chanted the protesters. Seven of them last week signed a demand to question Information Minister Nabil Al-Hamr in parliament over the program." Other sources report, that police had to keep 1000 protestors from attacking the resort where 'Al-Rayes' was being filmed.
<As an aside, it seems that every Arab story I read uses 1000 as a figure, no matter what the content of the story is. Are the 1000 protestors the same people as the 1000 attackers? What's up with that? Is 1000 just Arabic for 'a lot'?>
At any rate, it just goes to show that things could be a lot worse. (Just give Bush 1000 more years if you want to find out.)
I've completed this piece and I feel heart-healthy, not at all ready to explode. Why, I've even saved a bonus bit, this quote from the AFP, which I rank as my news nugget of the week.
Events took a worrying turn when the Saudi contestant ran around the house shouting: "I am the only one who has been able to get into the women's quarters. Yes!" | 
