Hillary Clinton on US Engagement in Pak – we are harvesting what we sowed

Last updated on: April 24, 2009 at 8:37 am By Desh Kapoor

For last two days, Hillary Clinton has been making statements that I never thought any US administration official could ever make. But today's statement below is completely astounding as it comes from the highest foreign policy official from Obama Administration. It might be music to many in Pakistan and a rather stinging assessment of the previous administrations. Worth recording. “We can point fingers at the Pakistanis. I did some yesterday frankly. And its merited because we are wondering why they just don’t go out out there and deal with these people… But the problems we face now to some extent we have to take responsibility for having contributed to it. We also have a history of kind of moving in and out of Pakistan… Let’s remember here…the people we are fighting today we funded them twenty years ago… and we did it because we were locked in a struggle with the Soviet Union…they invaded Afghanistan…and we did not want to see them control Central Asia and we went to work…and it was President Reagan in partnership with the Congress led by Democrats who said you know what it sounds like a pretty good idea… let’s deal with the ISI and the Pakistan military and let’s go recruit these mujahideens … and great… let them come from Saudi Arabia and other countries… importing their wahaabhi brand of islam so that we can go beat the Soviet Union… and guess what.. they (Soviets) retreated… they lost billions of dollars and it led to the collapse of the Soviet Union… So there is a very strong argument which is…it wasn’t a bad investment in terms of Soviet Union but lets be careful with what we sow…because we will harvest… So we then left Pakistan… We said okay fine you deal with the stingers that we left all over your country… you deal with the mines that are along the border and… by the way we don’t want to have anything to do with you… in fact we’re sanctioning you… So we stopped dealing with the Pakistani military and with ISI and we now are making up for a lot of lost time…” Read more

Geocities to shut down

Last updated on: April 24, 2009 at 7:30 am By Desh Kapoor

Do you remember Geocities? It was looong time back! During the 1990s and the DotCom era, geocities was the first tool that people used to create their first websites. Most of the souls who are on blogs and social networks right now, tries their hand at creating websites using Geociies. It was so popular that Yahoo had bought it for $3 billion. Now, its time has come and it will pass into history very soon. Yahoo has finally announced it formally that its going to shut the service down. It is no longer accepting new accounts and will contact the users soon on how to migrate. It came out with this message on the site for the information: After careful consideration, Yahoo! has decided to close GeoCities later this year. You can continue enjoying your GeoCities service until then — we just wanted you to let you know about the closure as soon as possible. We'll share more details this summer. I don't remember my first page on Geocities but I do remember creating one. Do you remember yours? I am sure everyone has some memory of when they first saw their web creation on the internet for everyone to see. It was certainly a thrill. The feeling of creativity that one felt in adding a counter here and a scroll there using basic HTML, in those initial days was certainly amazing. Read more

How to call police in the US

Last updated on: April 23, 2009 at 10:57 pm By Desh Kapoor

Got this from a friend.... its hillarious! Her note says its a true story.. anyway just enjoy it! =========== George Phillips , an elderly man, from Meridian, Mississippi, was going up to bed, when his wife told him that he'd left the light on in the garden shed, which she could see from the bedroom window. George opened the back door to go turn off the light, but saw that there were people in the shed stealing things. He phoned the police, who asked "Is someone in your house?" He said "No," but some people are breaking into my garden shed and stealing from me. Then the police dispatcher said "All patrols are busy. You should lock your doors and an officer will be along when one is available." George said, "Okay." He hung up the phone and counted to 30. Read more

Brain scan as evidence in a Life Sentence case

Last updated on: April 23, 2009 at 7:19 am By Desh Kapoor

Did you know that the World's first ever case to be decided on the basis of a Brain Scan - which have become more popular as a means to detect the thoughts, desires and intentions of people - was in Pune, Maharashtra in June 2008. The prosecutors had used an electroencephalogram (EEG) to detect the patterns in a 24 year old woman's brain when the interrogators read out the details of her fiance's murder. Apparently, the reading out triggered a memory response in the brain and it was caught in the scan via the Brain Electrical Oscillations Signature test (BIOS). The judge gave her a Life sentence. Read more

Dog Poop DNA Database

Last updated on: April 23, 2009 at 7:05 am By Desh Kapoor

Israelis are talented at technology and science and have a penchant for meting justice. Well, it seems they have gone to some real extreme. It is constant problem in many countries - even in the US - that streets have faeces of pets or stray dogs and cats. Israel also has the same issue. Dog Owers are asked to pick up after their pets have defecated but many do not (even in our neighborhood). So, one Israeli town - Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv - is setting up a Doggie DNA Database to track down the offenders. Read more

Pakistan a Mortal Threat to US

Last updated on: April 23, 2009 at 6:32 am By Desh Kapoor

"Pakistan poses a mortal threat to the security and safety of our country and the world," Clinton said. "And I want to take this occasion ... state unequivocally that not only do the Pakistani government officials, but the Pakistani people and the Pakistani diaspora ... need to speak out forcefully against a policy that is ceding more and more territory to the insurgents ..." This was Hillary Clinton's statement at a Congressional hearing on US foreign policy priorities today. This was a statement that I have been waiting for. I can totally relate to the frustration that this statement of Ms. Clinton so clearly shows. For last year or so, I have been saying that things can only get dire for Pakistan. Not better. Most Pakistanis have disagreed with me. Even today, on CNN, the Pakistani Ambassador showed that same bravado in an interview with Wolfe Blitzer. When I was listening to it, I couldn't help feeling the frustration even more. Can't this guy just get it? He kept talking of how big the Pakistani Army was and what the issues were in dealing with Taliban and how many different types of people they were dealing with and what help Pakistan had offered in the War on Terror. But he never got the point - Pakistan's Existence is in grave danger! Read more

Intriguing Circle of Jehad from Pakistan

Last updated on: April 22, 2009 at 3:20 pm By Desh Kapoor

The small town in Afghanistan, Khwaja Bahauddin, is a place which was named after the 17th in the chain of transmission of Naqshbandi order (starting with Prophet Mohammad) - one of the major tasawwuf tariqa (orders) of Islam - which is known for its "sober" and silent dhikr or remembrance/meditation of God. On September 9, 2001 however, it was anything but silent or sober.[1] An explosion occured in Khwaja Bahauddin and Ahmed Shah Massoud and Mohammed Asim Suhail were killed. Mohammad Fahim Dashty and Massoud Khalili were injured. And history of South Asia changed decisively. "If they kill me, you should know they are coming." Massoud, commander of Northern Alliance, told the Americans on a tour in Europe just before his assassination. Two days later, Al Qaeda operatives flew two planes into the World Trade Towers, one in Pentagon and another was brought down in Pennsylvania. Ahmed Shah Massoud was a Shia and his Northern Alliance was encouraged by the US against the Soviets. When Taliban came into the picture, it came as an enemy of Masood and the Shia-Northern Alliance. Taliban was Pakistan's direct creation. Massoud knew that. So angry he was with Pakistan, that his men bombed Pakistani embassy in Kabul on July 10, 2000. [2] Pakistan was one of the three countries in the world to recognize Taliban. Its embassy was just next to the residence of Mullah Omar. Read more

The Art of Thinking

Last updated on: April 21, 2009 at 8:36 pm By jessicafick

This guest article has been written by Prakash Vishnubotla. He has been a tremendous influence on me in spiritual topics. This piece is an example of how profound his thinking is. Enjoy. ===================== "I would learn the arts that you have to teach, but I refuse to learn the art of thinking!" This perhaps should be the motto of every individual walking this green insignificant planet, that we call earth. Yet, can this be possible? Or rather it would be right to ask if we can "let this be possible"? To understand the question lets first ask ourselves what thought is to begin with. A simple introspection will lead us to a very simple yet vital clue to the process of thinking itself. "The brain is a reactor". Simple isnt it? Or maybe not, but that is exactly what it is doing every moment of our lives other than of course, doing another vital act of survival, that of storing information as memory. Just think about it, every nano second of our lives , brain is bombarded with information, through the senses of perception, what we normally call stimulus. The brain is simply deciding the appropriate response to these impulses and sensations through what we call thought. When we shut out these physical inputs, like say in the act of meditation, the brain finds its stimulus in memory itself! In other words, the brain does not know how to function other than a) responding to stimulus - which it does by additionally using memory that it feels is useful b) It fundamentally cannot function coherently without the memory that helps it make sense of these stimulus. Read more

Mamta Rahit Karma in Gita by Desh

Last updated on: April 21, 2009 at 7:47 am By Desh Kapoor

Mamta in normal parlance is known as "Mother's Love". But it really means the feeling of mine. When I love something because it is "mine", as uniquely as a Mother feels her child is her's (part of her); then that love is Mamta. But is that love? Love of the spiritual heights is the love that is devoid of Mamta as well. Nothing explains this better than Bhagwad Gita. Let us try to understand it from Sri Krishna himself. This is in Hindi, as I wanted it to be explained it as I understood it best. Maybe one day I can try to say all this in English for a larger audience. Read more

Susan's Got Challenge – Shaheen Jafargholi

Last updated on: April 21, 2009 at 5:25 am By Desh Kapoor

Well, this year's Britain's got talent is becoming quite a gold mine, even before it has really started. On Sunday, Piers said to Susan Boyle who sang a Titanic number on Larry King Live, that someone has to be pretty darn incredible to beat her. Well here is the challenger to her. And with a very unlikely name - Shaheen Jafargholi. He started with a song, which Simon stopped mid way saying he had gotten it really wrong... and for some reason Simon asked if he wanted to sing another song. And then the kid chose "Who's Loving You" by Michael Jackson. The rest as they is history. Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, the new Twitter celebs have also backed him up. Demi Moore said of him "Wow this kid is something else!" Welcome to another star. Read more