Arab Woman Talking

 عالميا: حالة طوارئ من زمان Finding FaceBook a better source of information than "the news" these days (it keeps a record of the things that are there one minute, and the next minute they're gone, like a-here-yet-unnamed electronic news site) but the news junky in me still goes back to the same old sources.   Today I read unusually high status updates about Syria I pray for الشام What's going on?    The BBC_top page "Bomb kills top Syrian Ministers" No need to know the details.  I Scroll down:  "Bulgaria bus blast kills Israelis"  change windows;  "Israel has no doubt who is behind the deadly attack in Bulgaria" (Haaretz).  hummmm (deep in thought)  Now who could that be?  Three guesses, two guesses, one:  Iran? Oh, how surprising!   Some have seen it coming since the Iraq war, the slower ones  saw it later.  We all knew Syria will follow and then Iran, but we didn't...

Finally, a Pixar-Disney cartoon that doesn't end with kissing a prince: Breaking a myth and composing a new one, the movie appeals to this feminist consciousness. The Brave With an Artemisian streak, the princess is a master archer.  Her mother the queen wants to marry her off, to withhold tradition.  The father/King is there, supportive of his daughter like Zeus was to Artemis, but playing a subsidiary role, often as the side-kick.  The princess rebels against her mother.  The queen goes into panic attack mode (that feeling mothers know so well when they sense losing control over their children.)  Angry and in retaliation, the queen burns her daughter's bow(I will deprive you of the thing you love the most).  The girl is crushed, and slashes the cord between her and her mother (estrangement: die).  The princess runs off and finds a witch; she trades her necklace for a spell "to change my mother - and chang...