Idealogian

The Will To Blog

As you may have noticed, this blog has been sputtering out for a while, seemingly on its last legs. I'm not exactly sure why that is. I seem to have lost the will the blog. I see things that would have, in the past, prompted entries, and sometimes I even think of what I would write. Only I have no desire to actually write up and post an entry. It's not to be attributed to anything going on in my personal life, or lack thereof. It's not because I'm distracted or depressed. I think the blog has simply run its course. Maybe it's just a phase I was going through.

Or maybe this is just a phase, and I'll be back to blogging at some point in the (near? distant?) future.

But for now, at least, the curtain is closing on Idealogian.

Thanks to all my readers, especially those who have contributed in the comments section. You've certainly made it a lot more fun.

If You Like Pina Coladas...

Budding Jordan cyber love ends in divorce

A budding romance between a Jordanian man and woman turned into an ugly public divorce when the couple found out that they were in fact man and wife, state media reported.

Separated for several months, boredom and chance briefly re-united Bakr Melhem and his wife Sanaa in an Internet chat room, the official Petra news agency said.

Bakr, who passed himself off as Adnan, fell head over heels for Sanaa, who signed off as Jamila (beautiful) and described herself as a cultured, unmarried woman -- a devout Muslim whose hobby was reading, Petra said.

Cyber love blossomed between the pair for three months and soon they were making wedding plans. To pledge their troth in person, they agreed to meet in the flesh near a bus depot in the town of Zarqa, northeast of Amman.

The shock of finding out their true identities was too much for the pair.

Upon seeing Sanaa-alias-Jamila, Bakr-alias-Adnan turned white and screamed at the top of his lungs: "You are divorced, divorced, divorced" -- the traditional manner of officially ending a marriage in Islam.

"You are a liar," Sanaa retorted before fainting, the agency said.

Toy Soldiers

Web Site Claims GI Captured in Iraq

Iraqi militants claimed in a Web statement Tuesday to have taken an American soldier hostage and threatened to behead him in 72 hours unless the Americans release Iraqi prisoners. The U.S. military said it was investigating, but the claim's authenticity could not be immediately confirmed.

The posting, on a Web site that frequently carried militants' statements, included a photo of what that statement said was an American soldier, wearing desert fatigues and seated on a concrete floor with his hands tied behind his back. The figure in the photo appeared stiff and expressionless, and the photo's authenticity could not be confirmed.

A gun barrel was pointed at his head, and behind him on the wall is a black banner emblazoned with the Islamic profession of faith, "There is no god but God and Muhammad is His prophet."

A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, Marine Sgt. Salju K. Thomas, said he had no information on the claim but "we are currently looking into it."

Read the article. Look at the photograph. And if you still don't see that something's amiss, look here.

If they ever rescue the poor guy, I'm sure Ralph Nader would love to land an interview with him.