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A Syrian woman injured by the shelling of the Syrian government forces stands at the entrance to her house in the Homs province of central Syria on Wednesday Feb. 1, 2012. Activists said that Syrian troops battled army defectors in a string of towns in the mountains overlooking Damascus on Wednesday as part of a new assault to crush rebellious areas around the capital. (AP Photo) More »
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You may have noticed that something terrible happened in Syria last night. More »
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It seems there's another hoax involving a young woman in Syria, but we're pretty sure this one isn't going to turn out to be a male blogger from Edinburgh. More »
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Tom MacMaster initially offered a "non-apology" for pretending to be a Syrian lesbian blogger named Amina Arraf. In an interview yesterday, he seemed a little more contrite, but still had some weird things to say about why he decided to play a woman online. More »
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Activists are calling for an investigation into the alleged kidnapping of Syrian blogger Amina Arraf. But others are investigating something else: whether she even exists. More »
]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5809916&view=rss&microfeed=true Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari, whose blog A Gay Girl in Damascus chronicled her struggle against oppression in Syria, has been kidnapped. Her cousin Rania Ismail writes that she was captured by three men assumed to be "assumed to be members of one of the security services or the Baath Party militia." Her relatives are looking for any information about her. Ismail's post concludes chillingly: More »
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One brave blogger has been telling her story of life as an openly gay woman in Damascus, Syria. But now she's gone underground. More »
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Hundreds of women in Syria marched today, demanding the release of 350 men who were rounded up by authorities in connection with pro-democracy protests. More »
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Syria has sentenced a nineteen-year-old woman to five years in jail for writing on a blog that she "yearned for a role in shaping the future of Syria," per Reuters. Syria called it "revealing information that should remain hushed to a foreign country." More »
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Damascus, October 20: Syrian women pass in front of a shop selling veils at the popular old al-Hamidiyah souk. Image via AP.] More »
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•  When choosing a mate, what do you look for? Maybe a sense of humor, or good looks. Well, according to a recent study, we're also looking for a partner who is wanted. This is called "mate choice copying." More »
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• PETA has found a new calling and this time it's the University of Georgia's mascot, Uga. They say that the bulldog is being exposed to inhumane risks from the hot and humid air. • More »
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• Katy Perry, like Lady Gaga before her, has succumbed to the charms of Jean-Charles de Castelbajac's fall collection. The singer wore this dress to the label's spring show — which is like wearing the band t-shirt to the concert. [People]

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Fascinating response on Muslimah Media Watch to the "Syrian lingerie" media blitz, which, says the author, confuses "sexy" with "sexuality." But...we just want everyone to have nice bras! More »
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Edible underwear is all the rage in Syria! Says Salon, "The garment, which costs the equivalent of about $3.90, is available in a selection of flavors, including pineapple, apple, honey, chocolate and mango." [Salon] More »
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A new book, The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie is a sociological study that seeks to examine the history and culture of undies, and by extension, a society in transition. The authors find that the more religious the area — and correspondingly, conservative women's outerwear — "the more risqué the underwear." And the lingerie itself is worthy of study, "an outrageous mixture of kitsch and creativity: thongs are adorned with fake birds – 'bird’s nest' (ish al-asfour) is the slang for women’s pubic hair – or even the red rose of martyrdom, symbol of Hizbollah; bras are emblazoned with 'I love you' in Arabic and play tunes when squeezed." This lighthearted approach to sexuality is exactly the kind of truth the authors hope to illuminate. As one puts it, "modernity is the process of removing the fig leaf from our contradictions.” [FT] More »
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• Treasury Secretary Paulson and Fed Chair Bernanke were on the Hill today, metaphorical hats in hands, asking for gobs of money and the ability to spend it with no oversight. Unlike what Sarah Palin actually said about the Bridge To Nowhere, Congress told them, "No thanks." [Washington Post]
• Dick Cheney tried his hand at asking nicely, but House Republicans, knowing Cheney well, told him to go fuck himself. A couple of them then fist-bumped Pat Leahy on the way out of the meeting. [Politico]
• Ahmadinejad doesn't care who we elect because he plans to keep building his nukes regardless. [CNN]
• The Supreme Court issued a stay of execution for a Georgia man convicted of killing a police office on the sole basis of eyewitness testimony since recanted. Scalia, Alito and Roberts must have taken a really long lunch today. [CNN]

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Yo citizens! North Korea was just about to celebrate its 20th anniversary on our State Sponsors Of Terrorism list when Condi Rice went and pulled them abruptly off it. Now she's telling everyone we'll be sending them food and shit!! Megan is skeptical about this, but with food prices where they are right now and all the international finance institutions tipped off to North Korea's phony money and the lid blown off their whole deal with Syria, maybe Kim Jong Il himself started feeling hungry. I don't know, he's been hiding from he paparazzi lately, but it's a thought. Anyway, so you think ending the Cold War was a good idea? How do you chemically castrate someone? Why do some polls say Obama is like 29 points ahead and others say it's a tie? Now that the Supreme Court is starting to look like they're sort of "over" killing people, how'd they rule on the DC handgun ban? And now that he's dissed Scarlett Johansson, what beautiful and lofty thing will Obama sell out next? Those questions (and many dumber ones) answered after the jump. More »
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And in the end, it was a white Catholic guy who drove Barack Obama to quit his radical, black Muslim separatist Church of Latter-Day Erstwhile Standup Comedians. Anyway, meet Father Michael Pfleger. He doesn't even preach at Trinity Church, he's just a regular on their "You Can't Do That On The Vatican" open mic nights, and dude. Here's the clip of Father mocking Hillary's sense of white entitlement climaxing with a showy display of a handkerchief and a plaintive wail of: "THERE'S A BLACK GUY STEALING MY SHOWWW." Now, a lot of you are going to be offended by Pfleger, and I would be too, if I hadn't watched it directly after checking out his fellow YouTube sensation and Hillary-turned-McCain supporter Harriet Christian whoa-viating about Obama being an "inadequate black male." Anyway, the Christian-Catholic showdown continues after the jump, where I Nexis Pfleger to learn about of his white-hating ways and briefly digress on Pakistan, Puerto Rico, Tatum O'Neal, Geraldine, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and more, with Megan after the jump. More »
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Aw, look at the cute boys from Scranton who got suspended for cutting class to see Obama! They missed a quiz on The Stranger. "Existentialism is dead," one said. If only we could say the same for killing the Arabs, kids! So yeah, we really, really wanted to play hooky today. It's hot in my house and most of the "news" today consists of different ways of saying "Barack Obama is fucked and can't win and has alienated every typical white person he has ever encountered blah blah, blah blah and oh yeah Eliot Spitzer fucks whores; stop me before I kill my laptop without remorse etc." So yeah, Megan and I decided to talk instead about Syria and North Korea and all the other places we could totally obliterate, plus who bought the securities backed by mortgages in Gaza, but we don't really find any answers. Click or don't click, it doesn't really matter. More »
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They are known to let dead people come back to vote for ward leader in Philadelphia, but when I arrived at my polling place of the last two elections yesterday, I found my name mysteriously removed from the rolls. My friend and South Philadelphia homeowner Ryan, meanwhile, got turned away for not being a Democrat, even though he changed his registration the last time he realized the Green Party was lame during last year's mayoral primary. Look: the last machine still running in Pennsylvania runs its voters. Hillary was going to win that. No one on Crappy Hour ever predicted Barack was going to carry this, or even get close, or if we did it was a joke or we were too hungover to know what we were doing, obvi. So I'm not really that mad about Barry's inability to "close the deal." I am, however, kind of baffled by the Abercrombie & Fitch thing. From blind gayvotion to NAFTA to centimillionaire executive pay packages to endemic racism to bland pointless predictability Abercrombie is the epitome of everything about the America that is not "ready" for a black Muslimy Marxist freethinking president. Were those the best white kids you could find, Axelrod? That and more minutiae with me and a very hungover Megan after the jump. More »
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