Special All-Syria Edition: Week to Week News Quiz

Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad.
Photo: Fabio Rodrigues Pozzebom / ABr

Well, about 92 percent all-Syrian. You'll see what I mean. Nonetheless, how much do you know about the country at the center of the world's attention (and our president's gunsights)? Find out.

Take the quiz at Huffington Post

Who's More Delusional? Muammar Qaddafi or Charlie Sheen?

I'm not so sure that it's a great thing for people to be clamoring for Western military intervention in Libya, as horribly as that country's despotic leader is treating his people. Qaddafi's done for, and we'd be better off if that situation ended with outside support – from the West, from Egypt, from others – but not military intervention.

Qaddafi, of course, does not do himself any favors by appearing in television interviews refusing to accept a reporter's assertion that street protestors were opposing him. "No," he told BBC's Jeremy Bowen. "No one against us. Against me for what?"

Ah, yes, military intervention or not, we can all have pleasure in his certain upcoming defeat.

But is mental instability the new normal? Qaddafi, don't forget, told his nation that the protesters who have been piecemeal taking over his North African realm have been controlled by the West, by al-Qaeda, and by hallucinogenic pills.

Well, one person who it's hard to imagine isn't under the influence of drugs is actor Charlie Sheen, who is on a crazy tour of the news media this week, telling everyone he's cured himself of drugs, partying is his birthright, he's some sort of alpha-dog human genius that would make Scientologists jealous, and that no one can understand him because his mind is so Sheen-tastic that only he knows how it operates.

Well, I'm sure there's at least one person who knows where he's coming from, but that guy's living in a Libyan tent on a short-term lease.

Mubarak Finally Resigns, Even Al Jazeera Struggles to Keep Up

Some amazingly good news this morning as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has finally resigned his post. I share some of the uncertainty about what might come next, but I think it's far from certain that the country will go down a radical path. There are many reasons to be hopeful for that country, its people, and its regional role. It's perfectly appropriate to bask in the hope that people-power success creates.

The next steps will be dissected endlessly by individuals and media around the world. For now, I'll just note that Al Jazeera, which has provided probably the best coverage of the Egyptian protests (in second place: the much-maligned CNN), had a live video feed of its English coverage of Egypt on its web site (very helpful, because Al Jazeera continues to be hard to get on cable in America). The screen capture above shows that live stream, with the big headline, "Mubarak Steps Down," while right below it is the crawl of headlines, showing the headline that people were still protesting across Egypt as "President Mubarak Refuses to Step Down."

Yep, things moved so fast that even the instant news crawls couldn't keep up with the actual headlines. Al Jazeera did correct the crawl in a few minutes, but it's always exciting to watch news being made at such a pace that even the big news organizations can't keep pace.

Donna Shalala Detained at Airport & Questioned for Two Hours

Donna Shalala, head of the University of Miami and the former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Clinton, was detained for two hours at an Israeli airport upon her attempt to leave the country after a trip there by university presidents.

Shalala was the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Madison when I was a student there in the second half of the 1980s. I always knew she was a trouble-maker. :)

Shalala, of Lebanese descent, took the matter in stride and said she understood the Israelis' security concerns.

Gays in Iran

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, trying to cozy up to America, told an audience at Columbia University yesterday that Iran doesn't have any homosexuals. Though such a result would surely please right-wingers (and I would not stoop so low as to mention Sen. Larry Craig here) (oh, I guess I would), it's as far away from the truth as many of Ahmadinejad's other dream-factory statements. See this story about Iran's execution of homosexuals.