On Haiti

Rachel Maddow and her guest make the case for forgiving Haiti's debt. Seems like the most reasonable thing to do at this point, but will it happen?

Zëri i arsyes në mes të marrëzisë

Ky artikull nga një ish-këshilltar i fushatës zgjedhore të PD-së hedh dritë mbi fatin e Shkodrës dhe si lidhet ai me zgjedhjen e krerëve të PD-së herë pas here në atë qytet apo atë zonë. Shkodra ka njëzet vjet që voton pa pikë dyshimi për PD-në. Ajo ka gjithashtu njëzet vjet që vuan e rrënohet ndërkohë që shoqet e saj shtrojnë rrugë e ftojnë tregëti.

Ndonëse nuk do shkoj aq larg sa artikullshkruesi dhe të them se Shkodra e meriton fatin që po vuan sot, dua të them se shpresoj se diçka e mirë do të dalë nga kjo e keqe që ka plakosur një nga zonat më të varfra dhe më të shpërfillura të Republikës. Më bëhet qejfi, gjithashtu, që shkruesi vjen nga mesi i PD-së ose i atyre që mundësoi mbajtjen e tyre të pushtetit, nga mendoj se do t'u vijë (dhe duhet t'u vijë) fundi krerëve të sotëm e të njëzet vjetëve të fundit të PD-së.

Edi Rama për krizat dhe dështimet e qeverisë

Flet pak si Enveri, por ama pak autoritet në fjalë shkon larg. Dhe kësaj radhe, duhet autoritet nga ana e tij dhe dëgjim nga ana e shqiptarëve.

Brown v. Himself?

This is the candidate that the GOP has chosen in Massachusetts. Massachusetts people need to know that he is no small-government Republican or conservative in the classical sense (whom even I would support in the right circumstances or against a worthless opponent); he is a bigot, a Palinite, Limbaughesque figure with nothing to say except the most caricaturized and tired outcries that crumble over their own weight before he is done talking.

Listen as he cries out 'Sexism!' in support of Palin, only to say later that she won't be a lone woman in that position; her hubby will be with her. Like having a secessionist next to an idiot is a big comfort!

Oh, and Obama may be a bastard, too. His implication, not mine....

(Found in Krugman's blog)

Hip-Hop is GAY!

I mean, look at it: 'cock,' 'dick,' 'balls,' 'prick,' 'erection,' 'nuts,' 'penis,' 'dong' by themselves make up 16.71% of all body parts mentioned in hip-hop lyrics. Not to add the 26.87% made up by 'ass,' 'butt' (as opposed to 'booty'), 'asshole,' and 'anus,' or the 3.51% of 'chest' (as opposed to 'breast').

Female counterparts ('nipple,' 'clit,' 'clitoris,' 'pussy,' 'twat,' 'tits,' 'boobs,' 'breasts,' 'titty,' 'vagina,' and 'booty') have an occurrence of 10.99%.

Yes, I counted.... And sorry about the picture... it's just funny.... :) More info on other genres here.

Image Source

Healthcare Cost & Longevity

'But we have the best health care in the world,' you say?

Not if you're spending more than everybody else and not doing anything close to our peers in terms of keeping people alive for longer.

Image source

Must-See!

Keeling over from laughing so hard.... I should have found this on Christmas day.... I'm a worthless grinch... ugh!

Worst Speeches of All Time: Girl Ruins Christmas Mass

www.comedycentral.com

Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games

Sluts on the Loose

Beauty on Earth

Boingboing brings to my attention a collection of sixty satellite images of Earth. Absolutely breathtaking views in high resolution photographs right at your fingertips.

The Himalayas

Nature, NOT Nurture

Yet another scientist comes out as saying that our moral compass is innate and that it originated early in our inchoate social structures.

(Forgot where I found this article. Maybe The Daily Dish...)

The Case for Albanian

A friend of mine has posted a very interesting article from The Economist on his Facebook page (thank you, A. S.), which discusses the difficulty of learning certain languages. English with its very irregular pronunciation and spelling makes the list, as well as highly inflected languages such as German, Latin, and Slavic languages. Here, I would like to make a short case for Albanian, which did not appear in that list and, in my opinion, should have.... :(

Albanian is, at the origin, and Indo-European language, though it has evolved to such an extent that it was not proven to be Indo-European until the XIX century. Part of the argument for the Indo-European origin are also its numerous inflections.

Albanian has three genders, masculine, feminine, and neuter. The first two are the most common and they comprise almost all the words in Albanian. The last is mostly used for words related to the body and its conditions, such as 'dhjamët' (hernia), 'të verdhët' (jaundice), 'të ftohtët' (cold), etc.. Masculine or feminine nouns can be singular or plural (if logic dictates) and they are declined into five primary cases (rasa): nominative (emërore), genitive (gjinore), dative (dhanore), accusative (kallëzore), and ablative (rrjedhore). There is also a vocative case (thirrore), but it is so infrequently used that it is not even taught in grammar cases; it mostly consists of an 'O' before the non-declined form of the noun, which is a form of its own. In general, then, every noun (proper ones included in the singular) has twelve primary and common forms to be remembered by, though some may be identical.

e.g.: punë (work, singular / plural)

Undeclined: punë / punë

Nominative: puna / punët

Genitive: i/e/të punës / i/e/të punëve

Dative: punës / punëve

Accusative: punën / punët

Ablative: prej pune / prej punësh

The same cases exist for personal pronouns as well as adjectives, which have to agree with the noun they modify not only in gender and number, but also in case. Moreover, there are many endings to feminine or masculine nouns and they all require their own method of transforming them into plural or of declining them into the five cases.

Verbs are also quirky and highly inflected. First of all, when asking someone to conjugate a verb, we never use the infinitive (as in, conjugate the verb 'to be'); instead we use the 'representative form of the verb' (formën përfaqësuese të foljes), which is the verb in its present indicative, first person singular form. There are eight tenses in the indicative mood (mënyra dëftore) in Albanian: simple present (e tashme), imperfect (e pakryer), simple past (e kryer e thjeshtë), present perfect (e kryer), pluperfect (më se e kryer), past anterior (e kryer e tejshkuar), simple future (e ardhme), and future anterior (e ardhme e përparme). Besides the indicative, there are five other moods in Albanian: subjunctive (lidhore), conditional (kushtore), imperative (urdhërore), admirative (habitore), and optative (dëshirore). The good news is that some of these moods do not have forms in all the tenses or persons (mostly for logical reasons).

Like many other languages, Albanian also has three unconjugated forms of the verb: the infinitive (paskajore), present participle (përcjellore), and past participle (pjesore). Verbs also have transitive/intransitive and reflexive/non-reflexive forms, as well as a passive and active voice.

There is also something to be said about pronunciation. Standard Albanian has thirty-six sounds, each represented by a letter (or digraphs with their own place in the alphabet). Although most are shared by English and other western languages, two (Q [c] and Gj [ɟ]) are unique to Albanian (and, some say, Hungarian, though I'd have to hear them pronounce them). You can find the rest on Wikipedia or something.

Spoken Albanian is highly varied, too, depending on the region where you find yourself. Although all Albanians are educated in standard Albanian, most use regional sounds, words, expressions, and inflections. The two main dialects comprising these regional 'accents' are mutually intelligible for Albanians, though I don't know how a foreigner will fare with them.

That's it.... I'll add more if I think of anything.

Healthcare Reform Faltering

Keith Olbermann's plea voices my concerns if the healthcare reform bill, as it currently stands, passes both houses of Congress. Don't do it!

Obama will lose my next vote if this passes and he signs it.