Factoid, with Enhancements

From Sunday NYT:

In 1986, there was one mosque for every 6,031 Egyptians, according to government statistics. By 2005, there was one mosque for every 745 people — and the population has nearly doubled.

Link. I guess that's two factoids. The story was billed as one about frustration about "Egypt's young," but it is better described as being about "Egypt's young men." Aside from taking the veil, the story doesn't really offer much insight into what the women are up to. Rather, the story focuses on one Ahmed Muhammed Sayyid, 28, who has "a degree in tourism" and makes less than $100 a month as a driver. Here's a snippet on new-age protest:

Mr. Sayyid’s resigned demeanor masks an angry streak. He said he and his friends would sometimes enter a restaurant, order food, then refuse to pay. They threaten to break up the place if the police are called, intimidating the owners. He explains this as if to prove he is a victim. He tells these stories with anger, and shame, then explains that his prayers are intended as a way to offset his sins.

If memeory serves, that line echoes the dominant motif from this movie.

A Hypothetical Universe: Life Without the CIA

Quote of the day, from the Evan Thomas in the NYT Sunday Book Review (link):

The C.I.A. never did have much luck operating inside Communist China, and it failed to predict the Iranian revolution of 1979. “We were just plain asleep,” said the former C.I.A. director Adm. Stansfield Turner. The agency also did not foresee the explosion of an atom bomb by the Soviet Union in 1949, the invasion of South Korea in 1950, the popular uprisings in Eastern Europe in the 1950s, the installation of Soviet missiles in Cuba in 1962, the Arab-Israeli war of 1973, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the explosion of an atom bomb by India in 1998 — the list goes on and on, culminating in the agency’s wrong call on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction in 2002-3.

The question inevitably arises: so, how would things have been different had there been no CIA at all? Here’s a partial answer: we would have had to find something to do with all those testosterone-surplus young bravos who got a chance (via the CIA) to play cops and robbers around the world. It’s one clear advantage of having an empire: gives you a chance to get rid of some otherwise unemployable energy, i.e., by exporting to others who have to suffer their ministrations without having any say in the matter. Lacking empire, you have to find some good use for all that surplus, like maybe this.