mohammadalisalih.com Blog

NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: ONLY IN AMERICAN: SEX AND SCHWARZENEGGER:

Every now and then, I would like to write under my series “Only in America” about the greatness of the US.

Most of my comments about the US policies towards the Muslims and the Arabs are critical of what I believe are the policies’ injustice, disrespect and humiliation.

But, the US is the greatest country in the history of mankind. And after about 35 years of living among them, I have come to very much appreciate the Americans’ quest for more freedom, justice, grace and higher moral values.

Today, “Only in America” is about both freedom and justice:

First, the freedom of the press that helped to discover the immoral behavior of former governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Second: the quest for more justice that equate a Latino maid with Schwarzenegger’s Kennedy wife.

I could have published this under my series “Corrupt Politicians,” because Schwarzenegger is a good example.

Anyway, let alone Third World countries, I am not sure that this would happen in a Western country. Three cheers for American freedom and justice.

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NEWS: “LOS ANGELES TIMES”: SCHWARZENEGGER FATHERED A CHILD WITH A HOUSEHOLD STAFF:

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, separated after she learned he had fathered a child more than a decade ago — before his first run for office — with a longtime member of their household staff.
Shriver moved out of the family’s Brentwood mansion earlier this year, after Schwarzenegger acknowledged the paternity. The staff member worked for the family for 20 years, retiring in January. “After leaving the governor’s office I told my wife about this event, which occurred over a decade ago,” Schwarzenegger said Monday night in a statement issued to The Times in response to questions. “I understand and deserve the feelings of anger and disappointment among my friends and family. There are no excuses and I take full responsibility for the hurt I have caused. I have apologized to Maria, my children and my family. I am truly sorry.”I ask that the media respect my wife and children through this extremely difficult time,” the statement concluded. “While I deserve your attention and criticism, my family does not.”
A spokesman for the former first lady said she had no comment.

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NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: ONLY IN AMERICA: SEX AND THE FRENCH

How much do I know about the French? Not much. I have been almost all over the world, but not in France. I know a couple of French words, like: Meuse, merci and Au revoir.  French colonialization was worse than the British; they worked hard to assimilate and in Algeria they spent almost two hundred years trying to assimilate the Muslims, to no success.

I would like to express all due respect to the French Revolution, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, Boudreaux wine and Camembert and Brie cheese.  But, I am glad I didn't live in France and I am not French.

Below is an interesting AP piece about the many differences between France and America in "justice systems and moral codes."

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NEWS: “AP”: FRENCH AGAPE OVER TREATMENT OF IMF CHIEF

Paris, AP—-

The trans-Atlantic gap separating the U.S. and French justice systems and moral codes is as wide as the ocean itself – appalling a nation witnessing the unraveling fortunes of a favorite son, jailed IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Some of the charges leveled against Strauss-Kahn in the alleged sexual assault of a hotel maid in New York do not exist in France…

Some in the United States, meanwhile, have expressed surprise that French media have identified the alleged victim by name – nearly unthinkable in U.S. journalistic circles, which avoid publishing a victim’s name in suspected sex crimes…

The photos of potential French president Strauss-Kahn – handcuffed, stooped, unshaven, tieless and whisked away to court before photographers – knocked the breath out of the French public…

The initial response was a collective “that would not happen here.” Not in a country whose traditions have long shielded the philandering of the powerful, at the risk of failing to uncover travesties of the law.

So different are French laws and mores, it is conceivable that Strauss-Kahn – innocent or guilty – failed to grasp the speed by which American justice runs its course, the weight given to alleged sex offenses and the egalitarian premise on which the U.S. judicial system is based…

It is likely, experts say, that had the alleged hotel scene taken place in Paris, Strauss-Kahn’s dignity would have remained intact.

In France, unlike the U.S., the judicial process takes place largely behind closed doors and the political powers-that-be hold sway over prosecutors. It is also a country where for centuries, infidelities were a royal ritual and bedroom secrets known to all were never more than court chatter…

“The French accept many more moral transgressions of their president, of their political class, of their elite. There is something … a bit aristocratic” in French moral and legal culture, said Antoine Garapon, a magistrate and author of the book “To Judge in America and in France.”

Oscar-winning filmmaker Roman Polanski, another Frenchman, gained the status in France of a hounded hero when he was pursued by U.S. justice authorities around the world for jumping bail decades ago on a sex crimes charge.

Polanski was detained for 10 months – first in a Swiss jail then under house arrest in his Alpine chalet – as Swiss authorities decided whether to extradite him in a 1977 California child sex case. The U.S. demand was ultimately denied, and Polanski was freed in July 2010…

Were the IMF chief freed on bail “he would be living openly and notoriously in France, just like Roman Polanski,” Chief Assistant District Attorney Daniel Alonso said…

In France, there are no cameras in the courtroom or perp walks, when police, sometimes en route to court, parade suspects past waiting photographers. A 2000 law forbids even portraying photo images or TV film of a suspect in handcuffs to ensure the presumption of innocence.

France’s audiovisual authority, the CSA, sent out a reminder Tuesday of the French media’s legal obligations….

Socialist lawmaker Jean-Christophe Cambadelis, writing on his blog, said he and others were “profoundly saddened by the images and attitudes of authorities who refuse him any dignity. We don’t underestimate the gravity of the suspected acts, but there were images and humiliations that weren’t necessary for the truth to manifest itself.”

Having Strauss-Kahn jailed “is a kind of national humiliation,” said political analyst Dominique Moisi, who dined with the IMF chief in Washington three weeks ago. “This is a man who incarnated France at the highest level of the financial world.”

Strauss-Kahn’s reputation as a seducer may have titillated the French, but the actual charge of attempted rape was a shocker.

What surprised the French most, he said, is the “spectacular and brutal dimension of American justice.” Even the vocabulary of the charges, some of which don’t exist in France, like forcible touching, is less “precise” and “crude” under the French system, Garapon said…

The Strauss-Kahn case has led to serious soul-searching in France.

The left-leaning newspaper Liberation affirmed Wednesday that its journalists “will continue … to respect the private lives of men and women” it covers, with the exception of suspected sexual crimes. But it conceded that its journalists are asking whether they should have more strongly pursued rumors about Strauss-Kahn’s womanizing…

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NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: CORRUPT POLTICIANS (11): JOHNSON AND WIFE

This series of news and views could be published under “Corrupt Politicians” series, to show that politicians, all over the world, shouldn’t be trusted because their main goal – as they confess — is power and more power. But, American politicians are expected to be on higher moral grounds than their European counterparts, let alone their third world counterparts.

On the other hand, this series of news and views could be published under “Only in America” series to show that “only in America” do journalists have enough freedom and enough sense of justice to vigorously investigate corrupt politicians.

I believe that in many Western countries – let alone third world countries – politicians’ corruption is not seen as important by journalists, by other politicians and by the rest of the citizens as here in America.

For this I say “only in America.”

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NEWS: “THE WASHINGTON POST”: JOHNSON PLEADS GUILTY

Former Prince George’s county executive Jack B. Johnson admitted in federal court that he took more than $400,000 in bribes, agreeing to a plea deal that showed he began shaking down developers almost from his first days in office.

Johnson’s plea in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt came on a day when federal prosecutors announced that the county’s former housing director and two developers had pleaded guilty in secret proceedings as part of a sweeping corruption investigation that remains active…

• PHOTOS: Jack B. Johnson is arrested
  
• As Leslie Johnson’s case drags on, residents worry about what is next
  
• Leslie Johnson seeks third delay of hearing
  

Johnson, 62, who had asserted his innocence and vowed to fight the charges as recently as March, pleaded guilty to extortion and witness- and evidence-tampering…

“This has been a very trying time for my family and I,” Johnson said after the hearing. “I want to say to all the citizens of Prince George’s County, I’m very sorry for what happened. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of the Lord.”

The case burst into the spotlight in November when Johnson and his wife, Leslie, 59, now a member of P.G. Country Council, were arrested.

The couple was overheard on an FBI wiretap plotting to hide $79,600 in cash in Leslie Johnson’s bra and underwear and flush a $100,000 check from a developer down the toilet as federal agents knocked at the door, court papers say.

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NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: CORRUPT POLITICIANS (10): STANFORD

This series of news and views could be published under “Corrupt Politicians” series, to show that politicians, all over the world, shouldn’t be trusted because their main goal – as they confess — is power and more power. But, American politicians are expected to be on higher moral grounds than their European counterparts, let alone their third world counterparts.

Not only politicians, but think tanks (like the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington) have become willing victims of money merchants.

On the other hand, this series of news and views could be published under “Only in America” series to show that “only in America” do journalists have enough freedom and enough sense of justice to vigorously investigate corrupt politicians.

I believe that in many Western countries – let alone third world countries – politicians’ corruption is not seen as important by journalists, by other politicians and by the rest of the citizens as here in America.

For this I say “only in America.”

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NEWS: “THE WASHINGTON POST”: POLITICIANS FEFUSE TO RETURN MONEY FROM PONZI SCHEMER

While Allen Stanford was flying high, he and his colleagues spent more than $10 million on campaign contributions and lobbying payments to curry favor in Washington. But all that money was diverted from investors in what authorities have called an elaborate Ponzi scheme, second only to Bernard Madoff’s in U.S. history, according to court documents.

Since Stanford’s arrest in 2009, a court-appointed receiver for the Houston-based Stanford Financial Group has been struggling to reclaim investor funds paid out to in-house and contract lobbyists, financial advisers and others whose services may have helped enable the scheme.

The receiver, Dallas lawyer Ralph S. Janvey, has been able to recover only about 5 percent of the political contributions he has targeted…

Four of the principal national Republican and Democratic fundraising committees took in $1.6 million in Stanford donations, but they are vigorously fighting demands that they return it…

Stanford’s business efforts secured high-level endorsements with President Bush praising Stanford’s company in a 2008 letter for “helping more Americans build a solid foundation for the future.”

Multiple investors said they relied on Bush’s endorsement in deciding to buy worthless certificates of deposit, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission report last year…

Senator Cornyn flew on one of Stanford’s jets once, his office states, while then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay flew about a dozen times, according to an aide. In 2004, DeLay and four other congressmen wrote to a top Venezuelan banking official attesting to Stanford’s honesty; the government there subsequently allowed Stanford to open more than a dozen branches that attracted more than $1.5 billion. His Venezuelan bank’s collapse led to a government takeover and huge losses by accountholders…

Janvey’s battle to “claw back” funds from Washington includes a claim against the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which got $52,000 from Stanford, and its longtime senior adviser Luis E. Giusti, a former Venezuealan oil executive who was on Stanford’s advisory board and received checks totaling $2.6 million at his CSIS office, according to the receiver.

CSIS spokesman H. Andrew Schwartz declined to say whether the money will be returned. He said CSIS “acted ethically” and had no knowledge of the Stanford firm’s illegal activities or of Giusti’s dealings with “Stanford entities”…

Janvey has also sued prominent Democratic lobbyist Ben Barnes — 2004 presidential candidate John F. Kerry’s chief fundraiser — demanding the return of more than $5 million in fees. Lawyers and aides for Barnes, a former Texas lieutenant governor, have responded that he provided “valuable services to Stanford,” for monthly charges that reached $265,000, and that Barnes has no legal obligation to return the funds…

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NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: ONLY IN AMERICA: SEX AND THE IMF DIRECTOR

Every now and then, I would like to write under my series “Only in America” about the greatness of the US.

Most of my comments about the US policies towards the Muslims and the Arabs are critical of what I believe are the policies’ injustice, disrespect and humiliation.

But, the US is the greatest country in the history of mankind. And after about 35 years of living among them, I have come to very much appreciate the Americans’ quest for more freedom, justice, grace and higher moral values.

Today, “Only in America” is about both freedom and justice:

First, the freedom that gave a New York hotel’s maid the courage and self-confidence to report a sexual attack by no one but the Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) who was expected to be President of France.

Second: the quest for more justice that led New York Police to arrest him in his First Class seat on Air France just before leaving to France.

(Read below).

Let alone Third World countries, I am not sure that this would happen in a Western country, particularly in France.

Three cheers for the American freedom and justice.

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NEWS: AP: IMF CHIEF ARRESTED FOR SEXUAL MISBEHAVIOR:

NEW YORK – Dominique Strauss-Kahn (62), the International Monetary Fund Director who was expected to become President of France, was arrested for sexual attacks when he was picked from First Class on a Paris-bound Air France flight that was just about to leave the gate at John F. Kennedy International Airport…

The white-haired, well-dressed, thrice-married father of four was alone when he checked into the luxury Sofitel hotel, not far from Manhattan’s Times Square, on Friday afternoon, police said…

The 32-year-old maid told authorities that when she entered his spacious, $3,000-a-night suite early Saturday afternoon, she thought it was unoccupied. Instead, Strauss-Kahn emerged from the bathroom naked, chased her down a hallway and pulled her into a bedroom, where he sexually assaulted her, New York Police Department spokesman Paul J. Browne said…

The woman told police she fought him off, but then he dragged her into the bathroom, where he forced her to perform oral sex on him and tried to remove her underwear. The woman was able to break free again, escaped the room and told hotel staff what had happened, authorities said…

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NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: ONLY IN AMERICA: SEX AND THE SENATOR

Every now and then, I would like to write under my series “Only in America” about the greatness of the US.

Most of my comments about the US policies towards the Muslims and the Arabs are critical of what I believe are the policies’ injustice, disrespect and humiliation.

But, the US is the greatest country in the history of mankind. And after about 35 years of living among them, I have come to very much appreciate the Americans’ quest for more freedom, justice, grace and higher moral values.

Today, “Only in America” is about both freedom and justice:

First, the freedom that helped to discover the immoral behavior of Senator Ensign.

Second: the quest for more justice that inspires his colleagues to investigate and indict him.

(Read below).

Let alone Third World countries, I am not sure that this would happen in a Western country. Three cheers for American freedom and justice.

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NEWS: “THE WASHINGTON POST”: ENSIGN BROKE LAW, PANEL FINDS

The Senate ethics committee on Thursday took the rare step of asking federal agencies to investigate a former colleague, saying it found “substantial and credible evidence” that Nevada Republican John Ensign broke federal laws while trying to cover up an extramarital affair with a political aide.

The panel presented its case against Ensign in blunt language delivered on the Senate floor, suggesting that his alleged violations could lead to formal charges from the Justice Department. It was the first time since 1995 that the committee had referred a case about a current or former senator to federal investigators.

Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said the evidence was “substantial enough to warrant the consideration of expulsion” had Ensign not resigned in early May.

In a 75-page report, a special counsel hired by the committee painted a stark portrait of a narcissistic lawmaker whose affair with his wife’s good friend spiraled into a tale of devastated families, payments to buy silence and the ultimate downfall of a rising political figure.

The aide, Cynthia Hampton, has since filed for divorce, begun bankruptcy proceedings and started to work for a Christian organization. Her husband, Douglas Hampton, is under federal indictment. Ensign, who portrayed himself as a devout Christian conservative, resigned from the Senate rather than testify under oath, ending a political career that once carried presidential ambitions…

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NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: ONLY IN AMERICA: IMMIGRATION LOTTERY

Every now and then, I would like to write under my series “Only in America” about the greatness of the US.

Most of my comments about the US policies towards the Muslims and the Arabs are critical of what I believe are the policies’ injustice, disrespect and humiliation.

But, the US is the greatest country in the history of mankind.

And after about 35 years of living among them, I have come to very much appreciate the Americans’ quest for more freedom, justice, grace and higher moral values.

Today, “Only in America” is about justice.

The Department of State scarped the results of the annual worldwide lottery for the US immigrant visas due to a computer error that unfairly selected applicants who filed early in the process.

(Read below).

Let alone Third World countries, I am not sure that this would happen in a Western country. Three cheers for America’s justice.

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NEWS: “THE WASHINGTON POST”: COMPUTER ERROR HALTS IMMIGRATION PLAN:

State Department officials said that a computer glitch is forcing them to scrap the results of an annual worldwide lottery for U.S. immigrant visas…

More than 14 million applicants entered a lottery last fall for one of 50,000 visas distributed as part of the annual Diversity Visa Lottery designed for people who would otherwise have little chance of legally entering the country. The program doesn’t require applicants to have a family or employer sponsor.

Each year, the State Department selects about 90,000 applicants and trims the list down to 50,000 through an extensive series of interviews, background checks and medical exams…

The lottery has been conducted by computer since its inception in 1994, according to State Department officials.

David Donahue, deputy assistant secretary of state for visa services, said that a computer glitch prompted the computer program to unfairly select people who submitted applications in the first two days of the 30-day application process, which ended Nov. 3.

“These results are not valid because they did not represent a fair, random selection of the entrants as required by U.S. law. We sincerely regret any inconvenience or disappointment this might have caused,” Donahue said…

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NEWS AND VEIWS:

VIEWS: ONLY IN AMERICA: OBAMA CORRECTS A MISTAKE

Every now and then, I would like to write under my series “Only in America” about the greatness of the US.

Most of my comments about the US policies towards the Muslims and the Arabs are critical of what I believe are the policies’ injustice, disrespect and humiliation.

But, the US is the greatest country in the history of mankind.

And after about 35 years of living among them, I have come to very much appreciate the Americans’ quest for more freedom, justice, grace and higher moral values.

Today, “Only in America” is about both freedom and justice:

The White House photographers forced President Barack Obama’s assistants to change a habit that had been practiced since President Harry Truman: photographers take photos of the President addressing nation, not during the address, but later.

(Read below).

Let alone Third World countries, I am not sure that this would happen in a Western country. Three cheers for American freedom and justice.

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NEWS: “THE WASHINGTON POST”: WHITE HOUSE ENDS REENACTMENT OF PHOTOS:

… For decades, little known to the public, photos of the president making a major address were reenactments. Presidents — stretching at least as far back as Harry Truman, apparently — finished their speeches and then pretended to do it again a few minutes later, so that photographers barred from the actual event could snap photos…

Maybe not a critical deception but phony nevertheless. News, after all, is supposed to be about real events, not re-creations of them. I

Imagine if the grief-stricken teenager crouched over a fallen protestor at Kent State was called back to re-shoot that iconic 1971 news photo, or if Neil Armstrong had restaged his first steps on the moon.

The latest little sham followed President Obama’s address to the nation on May 1 about the killing of Osama bin Laden. Moments after the speech, the White House admitted five news photographers to the East Room, where the president pretended for the cameras. Snap. Snap. Send.

A well-respected Reuters photographer, Jason Reed, blew the lens cap on this everyday fraud when he blogged about it :”Once Obama was off the air, we were escorted in front of [his] teleprompter and the President then re-enacted the walk-out and first 30 seconds of the statement for us,” Reed wrote.

Reed’s blog item went viral and the debate — as well as the embarrassment — began.

A White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, allowed this week that “this arrangement is a bad idea.” The White House and journalists have begun talking about what can be done instead…

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NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: ONLY IN AMERICA

Every now and then, I would like to write under my series “Only in America” about the greatness of the US.

Most of my comments about the US policies towards the Muslims and the Arabs are critical of what I believe are the policies’ injustice, disrespect and humiliation.

But, the US is the greatest country in the history of mankind. And after about 35 years of living among them, I have come to very much appreciate the Americans’ quest for more freedom, justice, grace and higher moral values.

Today, “Only in America” is about both freedom and justice:

First, the freedom that helped to discover the immoral behavior of Senator Ensign.

Second: the quest for more justice that inspires his colleagues to investigate and indict him.

(Read below).

Let alone Third World countries, I am not sure that this would happen in a Western country. Three cheers for American freedom and justice.

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NEWS: “THE WASHINGTON POST”: ENSIGN BROKE LAW, PANEL FINDS

The Senate ethics committee on Thursday took the rare step of asking federal agencies to investigate a former colleague, saying it found “substantial and credible evidence” that Nevada Republican John Ensign broke federal laws while trying to cover up an extramarital affair with a political aide.

The panel presented its case against Ensign in blunt language delivered on the Senate floor, suggesting that his alleged violations could lead to formal charges from the Justice Department. It was the first time since 1995 that the committee had referred a case about a current or former senator to federal investigators.

Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said the evidence was “substantial enough to warrant the consideration of expulsion” had Ensign not resigned in early May.

In a 75-page report, a special counsel hired by the committee painted a stark portrait of a narcissistic lawmaker whose affair with his wife’s good friend spiraled into a tale of devastated families, payments to buy silence and the ultimate downfall of a rising political figure.

The aide, Cynthia Hampton, has since filed for divorce, begun bankruptcy proceedings and started to work for a Christian organization. Her husband, Douglas Hampton, is under federal indictment. Ensign, who portrayed himself as a devout Christian conservative, resigned from the Senate rather than testify under oath, ending a political career that once carried presidential ambitions…

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NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: LONG LIVE WESTERN TECHNOLOGY

Someone sent me the following funny but true observations about the advance of technology and its influences on peoples’ lives.

I instantly remembered the first technology that I saw in the village where I was born and grew-up (Wadi Haj, near town of Argo, on the Nile River, in northern Sudan, south of the borders with Egypt).

I was probably three-years old, with my father and mother in a ten-by-ten ft. mud room that had a ceiling of tree branches and leaves, like most houses in the village.

It was evening and the room became dark and my mother lightened a kerosene lamp, and my father struggled to start a portable kerosene pressurized stove. Those were the first Western technologies my father bought after he married my mother and they were the latest in a village where most people use candles for light and wood for cooking.

I can still visualize the sound of the pressurized-stove’s blue flames, while I was waiting for the evening meal that my mother was making:”shai samooti,” (heated milk with tea) with home-made biscuit or dried bread.

I have come a long way.

Long live the Western technology.

Point No. 8, below, happened to me this morning when I left home to office and panicked when I realized that I forgot my cell phone and turned back to bring it.

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YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN THE 21^ST. CENTURY WHEN …
1. You accidentally enter your PIN on the microwave.
2. You haven’t played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have 15 phone numbers to reach your family of four.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.
5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don’t have e-mail addresses.
6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.
7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.
8. Leaving the house without your cell phone (which you didn’t even have the first 20 or 30 or 60 years of your life) causes you to panic and turn around to get it.

10. You get up in the morning and turn on your computer before getting your coffee.

11. You tilt your head sideways to smile or not : ) ; ) : (
12. You’re reading this and nodding and laughing.

13. You know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.
15. You actually check that there was no #9 on this list.

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