Thursday, July 27, 2006

Taking a Break

After I'd finished writing Wednesday's piece, I realized (a) that I'd written more in one night than many bloggers and op-ed writers produce in a week; and (b) that I'd forgotten all about Geek Wednesday.

Well, as for (b), we'll pick up the geek thread again next week, once we get off the floor from laughing over 'zune's challenge to the ipod.

Now as for (a), it simply means I've earned a break, especially considering that there is a fair amount of good commentary on world events around, if you're willing to scratch and dig a little. Here are some links:

"What Kind of a Whore is this God?" Jon Stewart and friends compress the entire Mideast scene and its causes into five side-splitting minutes.

Our Willful Blindness in Lebanon, by Marjorie Cohn. She offers facts, names her sources, and relates it to the known track record of the Bushies in Iraq. If you think she's missing something or has her head up her ass, go ahead and hit the comments boards, either at Alternet or right here. But if you're going to take on a researcher like Cohn, you'd better get your facts straight first.

Eric Alterman is as lucid as anyone I've read about the Mideast and the new Lebanon War. Read his six-point response to a reader's challenge to see how a truly diplomatic spirit might address this situation.

The Wisdom of the American People: We really are so much better, so much wiser, than our government; and we deserve so much better than we've got, both in Congress and the White House. Look at those numbers and tell me that Americans are fools. Sure, sometimes we descend into an apathy that is fed by despair, or a complacency fed by advertising (much of it from our government); but even the sleepers among us are awakening. Personally, I think the NBC/WSJ crowd is interpreting the results of this poll wrongly: this is not a tide of pessimism; it is a burgeoning of awareness that will lead us free of the tyrants who currently oppress us all. Soon may that day come.

Coming to Life in South America: Greg Palast on Hugo Chavez's $50 a barrel offer, the real economics of oil, and the bloom of life that is occurring below the equator. Bush can have Blair and Maliki; I would far sooner take Chavez and Morales as my allies.

Here's an Idea for 2008: He's intelligent, articulate, wise, experienced in government, and the kind of guy you'd trust to hold your wallet on the beach while you went for a swim (don't try that with most Congressmen or anyone in the White House). He's the dean and laureate of American journalism, and he would have my vote if the Dems were to catch his hat in their ring.

Greg Mitchell on Media Dissent in Israel: Having been called a "Hezbollah-loving Nazi" myself, this was refreshing to see.

The Long War on Insticator-ism: Watch our boy stumble through another joust with his greatest enemy, the English language.

No comments: