victor: on the drive to work this morning I heard on NPR that the newly elected iraqi government is trying to regulate national processes like taxes, education, etc and ran into a problem. Apparently this issue was so touchy that it brought the whole process to a stand still and currently the differing factions are trying to work it out. What is this issue? The weekend. Yes, that is right, they are arguing over which two days to make the official weekend of Iraq. If I understood it correctly, all Islamic nations reserve Friday as a holy day and opt for one other day (either Thursday or Saturday) as the other day. Well the Iraqi government decided that Saturday would be good considering that it would conflict the least with buisness practices in the rest of the world but groups within the government are calling it a Zionist (isreali) plot to undermine the Islamic faith. They say this because apparently Saturday is an important day in the Jewish faith and Isreal reserves that day as a day off. This is utterly ridiculous I think... people over there have other things to worry about.  ¶ 11:30 AM