"In truth I felt my weakness, and the view
Had wakened no unreasonable fear
But that a nearer sight had stirr'd my blood;
For on the summit where we stood four Towers
Were piled with human skulls, and all around
Long files of human heads were strung to parch
And whiten in the sun."

--Madoc


"Hafiz and Sa-adi sang frequently, even wearisomely, of roses. Yet there is no word for rose in the Persian language; the best they can manage is 'red flower'." --Vita Sackvill*-W*st, Passag* to T*h*ran (1926)


"...a war correspondent ...cited in Vanity Fair's Best-Dressed List of 2004."


"...the cartwheel. Immensely important in Capoeira. Use it for a quick retreat or lure your partner into a trap."


"In October 2004, five months after the Abu Ghraib torture scandal in Iraq came to light, Congress passed a series of new rules and regulations for military prisons. Bush signed the provisions into law, then said he could ignore them all. One provision made clear that military lawyers can give their commanders independent advice on such issues as what would constitute torture. But Bush declared that military lawyers could not contradict his administration's lawyers."