Bubblehammerblog

A seemingly small point, but an important one. The first letter of the Arabic name for the nation of Iraq is an 'ayn'. It is not like an English 'i', as in lip, but since the Arabic letter is a voiced pharangeal fricative, a sound that is not heard in native English, the short 'i' is the nearest aproximation. Iraq.

Sarah Palin repeatedly said 'eye rack'. There is no such place. Nor is there anywhere called 'eye ran'.

Biden pronounced Pakistan the way most English many people do, so that it sounds like it's describing an Asian called Stan who runs a corner shop. It's a mark of respect to at least attempt to prounce the names of places where people live correctly.

Robert Fisk on Aljazeera this morning made the most important point. The debate was supposed to be about foreign policy, yet Palestine was barely mentioned. He said it looked like an agreement had be made by the paries beforehand not to bring up Palestine/Israel. Biden mentioned Hizbollah, but only to make the ridiculous claim that Hizbollah had been cleared out of Southern Lebanon by the Israeli invasion.

Why did Sarah keep winking at me? Margaret Thatcher did that & I find it disturbing.

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