The Talismokingban

Apparently --no joke-- the final straw for a lot of Iraqis in turning against Al-Q has been the latter's attempt to ban smoking.

(If so, our victory is indeed tenuous.) But this news dovetails nicely with an excellent point about Osama's recent missive to us, noted by several people here. People are always trying to say Western ideas can't penetrate the Arab world, but what the heck are global warming & anti-globalization, if not Western ideas? You think Noam Chomsky sprung from a hookah bar in Kashmir? A smoking ban? Honestly.