Sunday Roundup

With all the bloodshed and strife roiling the Middle East, it's a rare week indeed when not one but two side-splitting stories involving the region hit the headlines. Leading the laugh parade was the news that Israel had recalled Tzuriel Refael, its ambassador to El Salvador, after police found him outside his residence drunk, naked, tied-up and surrounded by sex toys. He was able to identify himself to authorities only after a rubber ball had been removed from his mouth. "It's the last straw," said an Israeli official. One can only wonder what the earlier straws had been. Then there was the news that Iran, taking time out from its efforts to bring the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation, was upset at the way its ancestors have been depicted in the film 300. "Hollywood declares war on Iranians," declared one Iranian newspaper. I might be more sympathetic if it weren't for that whole "myth of the Holocaust" and "Israel must be eliminated from the pages of history" thing. Hey, it's not my fault that 300 of my very buff ancestors kicked butt in Thermopylae. Eat it, Ahmadinejad.