From the NY Times: Tens of thousands of pieces of mail come into the huge Immigration and Naturalization Service data processing center in Laguna Niguel, Calif., every day, and as at so many government agencies, it tends to pile up. One manager there had a system to get rid of the vexing backlog, federal officials… Continue reading INS gets rid of backlog
Month: January 2003
Valentine’s Day Dinner
I thought making reservations for dinner with my wife in a nice French restaurant on Feb 14 two weeks ahead of time would be enough. However, it seems everyone is booked solid. Finally, after calling about a dozen restaurants in the NYC/NJ area, I was able to get a reservation for 10pm. The only other… Continue reading Valentine’s Day Dinner
Evolution Controversy
When I came to the US, I was very surprised to find out that a lot of people here consider the theory of evolution to be wrong of “just a theory” (the word “theory” as used by laymen is very different from its scientific use.) I come from a country (Pakistan) where most people do… Continue reading Evolution Controversy
INS Problems
I can tell you a lot of horror stories of INS bungling, but I’ll desist for now and point out a post on Ginger Stampley’s blog. She is one of the few bloggers who knows something about immigration issues. It’s difficult for an alien to follow the law when nobody knows what it is, and… Continue reading INS Problems
Fall of Pakistani Government
I have read and heard this statement that the Pakistani government might fall to Islamic extremists any day. The latest comes from Jim Henley on Stand Down: Pakistan. It’s got nukes. It’s got a shaky government and an intelligence service full of Al Qaeda/Taliban sympathizers. I think an invasion of Iraq makes Pakistan’s government that… Continue reading Fall of Pakistani Government
The WildMonk War Personality Test
Wid Monk has a political personality test on his blog. I scored 52 (just into Center-Right territory) and a perfect 10 on the rationality test. (via Unmedia)
Election in Israel
Today, people in Israel are electing a new government. Let’s hope brings peace and prosperity for the people. Since I don’t have much to say on the election (other than that I am a Mitzna supporter), I am going to point out some weblogs with Israeli coverage. These cover a wide range of opinion. The… Continue reading Election in Israel
Activist Islam in Pakistan: Post 2
Continuing from where I left off with Al-Muhajabah’s “A field guide to Islamic activists”: Second, we can look at recent developments in Islamic thought in Pakistan as a whole. Pakistan was created in 1948 as a state for the Muslims of India after India won its independence from Britain. The Muslims had been an active… Continue reading Activist Islam in Pakistan: Post 2
Blogroll
Recently, I have added some weblogs to my blogroll. So I should probably mention them: Path of the Paddle is Ikram Saeed’s blog who can been present in the comments section here and on a lot of other blogs. Now he has his own blog to pontificate on everything from Islam, War on Terror, Iraq… Continue reading Blogroll
Activist Islam in Pakistan: Post 1
I promised this series quite some time ago, but didn’t get around to doing it. I’ll use Al-Muhajabah’s “A field guide to Islamic activists” as a jumping-off point (Yes, I remember mentioning it earlier and promising a critique of its Pakistan-related items.) Taliban also need to be understood as a product of the situation in… Continue reading Activist Islam in Pakistan: Post 1