...I could have said, "yeah, I hitched a ride over there by climbing up inside Chomsky's asshole when he went over to congratulate the resistance.  Man, I had a lot of company up in his ass, but the conversation sucked.  All I heard was a dull hum of barely conscious voices chanting 'We Are All Hizbullah Now,' accompanied by the smell of  what one fellow traveller told me was some 'really dank hydroponic shit."

Can we get that on a t-shirt, too? One Time I Crawled Up In Noam Chomsky's Rear End And All I Got Was This Lousy Hizbullah T-Shirt.

Is there a cash prize that goes along with this award or do I just get the t-shirt? There should be cash involved as it takes years of practice to start winning awards on this level. I really need to give credit to my mama and the generations that came before....

As to the comment, I really was just curious.

As I was thinking of the female pop star angle, and I may be totally off on this, but a Muslim/Arab female pop star would have to make a definitive choice as to which audience she markets herself to. I just don't think her home grown fan base would appreciate infidels oggling her, viewing her as sexy. So the cross-over would be very risky, if not career suicide. Again, I could be completely wrong, although I don't think so. Since nuance was mentioned in Josh's post, I related it to this. Although this is probably not in any 'Promoting Female Arab Popstars for Dummies', it would be one of those nuanced things that you may or may not pick up on while cavorting around in the Middle East. And of course you don't need to have cancer to know it sucks - before the two of you jump on that one - I was simply curious as to frame of reference.

One more tip, not sure the optimal way to travel is in Chomsky's tushy - my nuanced advice would be to find a fresher one.

One of the more experienced people I mentioned in my comment response is an Indian Muslim and scholar of Islam who travels throughout the Middle East regularly for conferences.  When I mentioned this to her--again, half jokingly--she informed me that these pop stars are sort of tolerated by Egyptian and Lebanese extremists because it is a matter of pride: 'our' women are better than 'yours.'  Which would, I guess, lend credence to your point that a crossover might be very problematic.  But that's why I always note that I'm half joking when I bring this up.  I don't mean a post like the one about Haifa to be a policy proposal so much as an entertaining a thought exercise.  A way to ask what it might be like if more of the world saw a side of Islamic culture that wasn't the Rage Boy and women in chador being herded like curtain-draped cattle. 

So you aren't backing Simon Cowell for President?