Word: maying
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
What I did in 2009, according to Facebook: In January, I received a Snuggie. In February I became very angry at a Lincoln car commercial. In March, I caught the flu and complained about it for weeks. In April, I hung new curtains. In May, I met Lou Reed (O.K., that one was interesting). I ate a bagel in June, cooked dinner in July, and in August I spent an entire day in pajamas. I only had two status updates during the month of September but one of them was about socks. I napped in October, complained about the noisy...
...may be bland, but judging from my friends' status roundups, I am not alone. In fact, most Facebook users lead overwhelmingly boring lives. (They must; why else would they have nothing better to do than check Facebook?) My news feed is cluttered with updates about triple word scores in Scrabble, new Taco Bell menu items and people who won't stop talking about their pets. Sure, there is the occasional flash of excitement or wit - like in August, when I said that Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young sounded like the name of a law firm, or November when my friend...
...middle of another ferocious war, against its Houthi minority, Yemeni followers of the Zaydi sect of Shi'ite Islam. That introduces the shadow - both real and imagined - of the primary Shi'a power in the region, Iran, which is happy to take credit even if its actual influence may still be negligible. When Iran is mentioned, however, both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, the predominant Sunni power in the region, start quaking. And al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, no friend to any of the parties, is happy to sow destabilization so it can thrive. (Is Iran causing trouble...
...strike, we cut off their head. We are investigating [Abdulmutallab] according to what the FBI told us. If there was a plot from Yemen, it's possible that it happened before last week's strike. Is al-Qaeda using Yemen as a base to attack the U.S.? That may be their ambition, but first they are attacking Yemen itself, trying to destabilize the country and destroy the government. Our priority is to prevent this, and it also coincides with American interests...
Indeed, one of the jihadi commanders reportedly killed in the pre-Christmas raids in Yemen was al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula founder Naser. But though that head may have been cut off, the claim of responsibility made it clear that the voice and the ambitions of al-Qaeda in Yemen have...