We just can’t avoid wars in the Middle East. Even sissy Obama couldn’t help but start another war there; there’s just too many jerks there in dire need of the business end of a cruise missile. So to help everyone out, I thought I’d task my crack research staff to find out all they could about the Middle East:

FUN FACTS ABOUT THE MIDDLE EAST

* Despite the name, the Middle East is really off-center to the left in the East.

* Many of today’s problems in the Middle East started when one guy — I forget his name — said, “You know what religion needs? More violence!”

* The Middle East’s best period was the Islamic Golden Age a thousand years ago. They were so happy with that era that they haven’t advanced a day since.

* Part of the reason the Islamic Golden Age was so great was because of access to genies who would grant any wish. Eventually, though, the Taliban beat all the genies to death for not having the proper beard length.

* The reason the Middle East hates Israel so much is that they’d like to blame how everything sucks on the region, but then a bunch of Jews come and make a country, and it’s the only one there that doesn’t look like it would benefit from a technology exchange with Fred Flintstone.

* If Charlton Heston’s character from Planet of the Apes had come from the Middle East, he would have immediately recognized it as earth, since it wouldn’t have looked very different from what he was used to.

* Also, at the end of the movie, he would have said, “Praise Allah, you blew it up! Take that, you infidels!”

* Americans tend to be quite confused by how people in the Middle East keep bringing up the Crusades, as our knowledge about it comes primarily from the beginning of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (and to a lesser extent, the beginning of Robin Hood: Men in Tights).

* The other thing besides the Crusades that makes the Middle East really mad at the West is how unfairly Indiana Jones fought that swordsman.

* There’s a lot of wrong, counter-productive thinking the Middle East. For instance, they refer to the the U.S. as the “Great Satan”, but Satan isn’t great; he’s a very bad man.

* The only reason people are interested in the Middle East is that it has oil. There are other places to get oil, but we really want that oil.

* I guess we could avoid oil and thus the Middle East by driving around in electric cars and building windmills… though it’s hard to tell if that’s a lifestyle for giving up oil or for giving up testicles.

* If you’re in the Middle East and find yourself surrounded by frumpy ninjas, don’t panic; that’s just women in burkas.

* I can’t guarantee they’re not trying to blow you up, though.

* People in the Middle East are constantly going on about the Islamic Golden Age and the Crusades even though that was a thousand years ago. They’re a bit like a sixty-year-old guy who lives in a broken down trailer home going on and on about his achievements in high school football. Also, he blows up other people’s houses.

* One of the groups that causes the most conflict in the Middle East are the Jews who keep stirring up trouble and anger with their incessant existing.

* There are lots of desert areas in the Middle East that are completely impassible due to violent roving gangs of camels.

* If you ever find yourself stuck in the Middle East, remember that there is pretty much no one there who eats bacon, so you should be able to buy it pretty cheap.

* A lot of people in the Middle East shout “Allahu Akbar!” because they think it’s a really cool thing to say before killing a guy, much like Ezekiel 25:17.

* One of the most powerful countries in the Middle East is Saudi Arabia, and they are always trying to gain favor with the West. It’s just kind of hard to take them seriously when all their leaders dress up like villains from a Disney cartoon.

* That, and all their oppressive laws which would have seemed backwards in Ancient Greece.

* Considering how awful and desolate most of the Middle East is, you’d think more people would just move instead of war over it, but cardboard boxes are a lot more expensive than you think.

* Many in the Middle East complain about American intervention, but it’s actually pretty hard to notice the Americans blowing people up over them blowing each other up. Remember this is a place where “Kite Festival; Eleven Dead” is an actual headline.

* Suicide bombing was invented in the Middle East because the men there were just too lazy to run away from bombs after planting them.

* Some in the Middle East have dreams of conquering the whole world, but it’s kind of hard to do when your military tech lags behind that of the Boy Scouts of America.

* There are a lot of horrible dictators in the Middle East, and they survive by distracting people with made up problems. For instance, despite the poverty, oppression, and war in the Middle East, a recent survey of people there identified the biggest problems the Middle East faced as Jews and Piglet from Winnie the Pooh.

* In a fight between the Middle East and Aquaman, it would quickly turn into a quagmire which would benefit Aquaman’s aqua-powers.

* The Middle East are the only people who watch Mad Men and marvel at the advanced views towards women.

* Despite all its problems, one day the Middle East could be a modern society and a contributor to science and technology. That will probably be after Israel conquers the whole region.