Stephen King once said that "people like to read about work. I don't know why, but they do."

Helvetica a German film that explores graphic design geekdom is interesting for no real reason. It just is.

Maybe it's because I'm working on some Flash projects. Or maybe embracing the angular, greyed edges of German modernism underscores the excruciating banality. Lieben meine Monotype Corsiva.

* Link thanks to Judith at Kesher Talk, who did time as a graphics/type geek.

UPDATE - Designer 'T' links to a pair of Moscow graphic artists who favor beautiful yet non-angular.

I was doing a search yesterday for realist/graphic artists, and nearly every appealing image I clicked on was produced by an artist from Russia or Spain. What's going on over there?

The garbage dump gunner takes aim..

..and scores a direct hit on Michel Aoun's career.

Lebanese bloggers describe Hezbollah's latest fauxtography..

Okay, this is not really news, but hopefully this will put a dent in the armour of politically correct anthropological revisionism:

Nicholas Wade is a science writer for the New York Times, who used to be as Politically Correct as anyone in that mob on 42nd Street. No longer. Wade has discovered the new anthropology, now informed by a radically improved understanding of the human genome. The new evidence is clearly explained in his recent book, Before the Dawn: Recovering the lost history of our ancestors. It looks at the deep human past --- tens to hundreds of thousands of years --- combining written records, archeology, anthropology and the human genome. The result is spectacular. If this book is any indication, Politically Correct history is a goner. Rousseau's Noble Savage is French toast.

Wade presents compelling evidence that humans appear to be genetically predisposed to warfare. Among ancient hunter-gatherers, "incessant warfare" was the norm, just as it is today among the Stone Age tribes of New Guinea and South America. Humans have a long history of cannibalism, so much that we carry genes to guard against the toxic consequences of eating human flesh (similar to Mad Cow prion disease). Modern humans are less aggressive than our ancestors were. The very fact that we can live in mass societies at reasonable peace with each other is an extraordinary advance...

...Anthropologists have become famous by writing that cannibalism was just a slanderous lie invented by the West. It all fit the neo-racist myth of the White Man's Guilt --- as at Duke University. Such people peddle the myths of the peaceful Hopis and Bushmen, the Gandhi-esque Hindus, Buddhists and Sufis, and all the morally superior non-White cultures. (They somehow forget that Gandhi's independence movement led straight to four million ethnic killings during the Partition of 1948)....

Acknowledging human violence is not the same as excusing it. Just the opposite --- precisely because we have the capacity to destroy, we must be taught to act morally. That is the basic view of Western Civilization going back to the Code of Hammurabi. Civilized armed forces like the United States insist on high levels of restraint in their warfighters, even in the face of direct personal danger. But the civilized world is constantly faced with aggressive enemies willing to kill and die for some bizarre cause, from the heavenly glory of the Emperor to some Mullah's weird obsession with hanging sixteen year old girls who fall in love. Not to mention yet another Marxist scam to create a perfectly egalitarian paradise on earth, as is underway in Venezuela today.

One of the oddities of the Left is its constant sabotage of defensive warfare, even when the facts are as plain as the assault on the Twin Towers on 9/11. Today Europe is going through yet another revisionist version of its own bloody history, trying to deny the undeniable facts of the 20th century. Big German media like Stern and Der Spiegel loudly equate the American overthrow of Saddam Hussein with the war against Hitler. That version of history involves not just one but two Big Lies — One, that Saddam was an innocent victim of American aggression; and Two, that Hitler was, too. It's too weird for words. Let's hope they get over it - because if they don't, they could be setting the stage for yet another imperial adventure...

The Barbarians are always at the gate..

Seablogger Alan Sullivan describes how we can sometimes be a little too civilized..

As Solomonia says, this this would be the real, big Herzliya Conference, not the one I spoke at..

Richard Landes analyzes the West's tendency to slouch towards defeatism:

First of all, as a historian of civil society, of the millennium-long struggle in the West to achieve this extraordinary marvel of the modern world, this experiment in human freedom, I want to say: European democratic civilization can fall before the Islamic challenge. Something similar happened before, in the 5th century, when a culturally superior Roman civilization fell to a primitive tribal Germanic culture. And if Europe continues on its current path, that will happen sooner rather than later.

Second, this is going to get worse before it gets better. Starting in October 2000, the most terrible form of apocalyptic movement, active cataclysmic – we are the agents in the vast destruction that precedes our millennial victory – entered the public sphere of world culture and rather than being beaten back, took hold and grew stronger. Once these movements, which in the past have killed 10s of millions, “take,” they are like forest fires. They cannot be stopped, at best they can be channeled. We are in for a long and unpleasant conflict that will demand a great deal from us.

Third, modern media play a critical role in Global Jihad’s success. Not just the use Jihadis make of modern technology to spread their message, but the role our modern MSM play in both disguising and encouraging the phenomenon. And the core of the problem, the ground upon which this dysfunctional relationship between Jihad and MSM first emerged, but also the most dramatic on which it plays out, is the MSM’s treatment of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

There has been much discussion of whether or not the MSM has been unfair to Israel, including formal investigations into particularly obnoxious organizations like the BBC, and, by and large the answer is, “well, maybe… but it’s not so bad.” And Israelis, like the protagonist in Richard Farina’s novel, have been down so long it looks like up to them. “It could be worse… it has been worse… it’s getting better.”

But all of this is not nearly good enough. The MSM are the eyes and ears of modern civil societies. Without them we cannot know what is going on outside of our personal sphere, with them we can make our democratic choices in elections, assess foreign policy, intervene humanely in the suffering around the globe. But as any paleontologist will tell you, any creature whose eyes and ears misinform it about the environment, will not long survive. So it is with our civic experiment: especially in this period, where predators grow increasingly bold: a MSM that misinforms us, betrays the very people it is supposed to serve.

In a mere ten minutes, then, all I can do is give you a flavor of how Israel and the United States might look to a composite enemy, someone you couldn't invite because he doesn't exist. And to get you in the proper mood, I'll do it in first person. I know it's hard, but imagine me as some sort of composite of Ahmadinejad, Nasrallah, Osama bin Laden, Bashar Asad, Muqtada as-Sadr, and Khalid Mash'al. You'll admit it's a good disguise; good enough to get me through the security cordon outside this hall...

This is good news, sort of - Troops Authorized to Kill Iranian Operatives in Iraq

First the bad news...

For more than a year, U.S. forces in Iraq have secretly detained dozens of suspected Iranian agents, holding them for three to four days at a time. The "catch and release" policy was designed to avoid escalating tensions with Iran and yet intimidate its emissaries. U.S. forces collected DNA samples from some of the Iranians without their knowledge, subjected others to retina scans, and fingerprinted and photographed all of them before letting them go.

Last summer, however, senior administration officials decided that a more confrontational approach was necessary, as Iran's regional influence grew and U.S. efforts to isolate Tehran appeared to be failing. The country's nuclear work was advancing, U.S. allies were resisting robust sanctions against the Tehran government, and Iran was aggravating sectarian violence in Iraq.

"There were no costs for the Iranians," said one senior administration official. "They are hurting our mission in Iraq, and we were bending over backwards not to fight back."...

...In Iraq, U.S. troops now have the authority to target any member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, as well as officers of its intelligence services believed to be working with Iraqi militias. The policy does not extend to Iranian civilians or diplomats. Though U.S. forces are not known to have used lethal force against any Iranian to date, Bush administration officials have been urging top military commanders to exercise the authority.

...and why the press release?

UPDATE: Of this news, Wretchard at the Belmont Club says:

...in war timing is nearly everything. The difference between a brilliant attack and fiasco might be a few hours and here the counterstroke has been delayed for a year. The real danger to this tentative aggressiveness is that may be too little -- and too late. Just as the Sunni insurgency may have been fueled by the decision to abort the First Battle of Fallujah, Iranian aggression has been allowed to grow to the point where confronting it now risks a serious confrontation. As in the case of a man who has let a scratch become a gangrenous infection, the choices are now between bad and worse. But because the Mullahs have been allowed to run rampant for so long the force required to halt them will be high. An administration which spent its political capital mollifying its critics may now find it has none left to stop the nation's enemies. The patient may refuse the amputation as unnecessary, even as he refused the antibioltics as unnecessary earlier. The sands run out both comically and tragically.

If this cautionary tale is about anything, it should be about the dangers of showing weakness in the face of the enemy. What "catch and release" has been to the Iran and the insurgents is exactly what "cut and run" will be to civilization's terrorist enemies. Not a path to peace but a route to catastrophe. The realization will come, but it will come too late.

My nephew's visa crisis has been resolved and he's on his way to France.

Thanks to everyone for the advice!

Via Fox News:

SHANGHAI — Companies looking to reach China's consumer market with pig images during Year of the Pig celebrations next month will have to adjust after a national television network adopted a policy to be sensitive to the country's small Muslim population, according to published reports.

China Central Television said it would ban all verbal and visual pork references from advertisements during Lunar New Year celebrations next month, the Wall Street Journal reported. This week, the network banned a TV ad from Nestle SA featuring a smiling cartoon pig and the message, "Happy new pig year."

CCTV's ad department said the regulations are intended to avoid offending Muslims, who consider pigs unclean animals. China's 20 million Muslims comprise less than 2 percent of the population, the Journal reported.

"China is a multiethnic country," the network said in a notice. "To show respect for Islam, and upon guidance from higher levels of the government, CCTV will keep any pig images off the screen."

Black smoke covers Beirut

The whole time I was in Beirut, Hezbollah was threatening to do something like this. Now, they've done it, they've abandoned the illusion that they have patience and a respect for democracy. It's now full-fledged extortion. Nice country you've got, wouldn't want anything to happen to it...

Walking to the airport

Charles of the Lebanese Political Journal says:

Now, the opposition is proving its authoritarian agenda. Like they did when they began a war this summer without consulting the rest of the country, the opposition is once again forcing Lebanese into a situation they don't want to be in. However, this time it's Lebanese against Lebanese.

Blocking off an area for a demonstration is one thing. Blocking movement in an entire country is quite another. Forbidding citizens from doing what they choose, particularly when that thing is their livelihood, is unbearable and cannot be tolerated.

Should a militia have the right to stop Lebanese from going down the streets they choose?

The opposition is tearing apart families, neighborhoods, and the country. They are further cantonizing an already divided country. What's to keep employers from firing staff members who don't show up for work? Will this lead to a Lebanon where everyone is hired based on political affiliation? Isn't this what we're trying to work against?

The opposition has gone too far. They are leading the country down a path to violence.

Abu Kais From Beirut to the Beltway says:

Hizbullah is calling this an "intifada". And indeed, their supporters are now stoning anti-Hizbullah residents of Beirut. March 14 MP Walid Eido says that Beirut is "being occupied by the Hizbullah militia...".

... And so, It begins....

...While I am still convinced that this government will not fall, I am increasingly convinced of the futility of this “opposition”, and that nothing will ultimately remain of our country's true soul, at the very least.

As I had posted before, I still see a silver lining in this cloud; Hezb's intransigence reveals an underlying weakness, and their escalation shows how little endurance they really have.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Seniora accuses Hezbollah of intimidation and terrorism. He may be over-reacting a bit with the t-word in this context, but it's telling because he used to call them a "resistance" movement instead of terrorists. Those days are gone.

Wretchard is back, and he's posting up a counterterrorism storm. Like this on private security contractors bidding to provide services in the Sudan:

Private security contractors with experience in the War on Terror are bidding to provide services in the Sudan to support UN humanitarian missions with extremely robust capabilities. Global Guerrillas notes that "Blackwater USA, the private military company that advertises itself as a 'a turnkey solution provider for 4th generation warfare' and ... may be making headway in its quest to deploy to the Sudan. Last year, the $600 m a year company formed Greystone Limited in order to put a better marketing spin on its efforts to private the security of UN humanitarian missions — given that this new company can draw on Blackwater for capabilities, it would be able battalion-sized unit and even its own home-brewed aircraft gunship in support of any contract it lands. So far, the effort by Greystone to land a contract to provide security to one of the world's worst humanitarian disaster zones, hasn't made any headway."

Whether or not Blackwater type security companies will ever be used to supplement humanitarian missions, it remains true that the private sector is a repository of field experience in the War on Terror. Not just in providing physical security but also in the provision of services, such as logistics and even intelligence analysis. The role played by nongovernment institutions in fighting against terrorism has gone largely unstudied.

We also shouldn't depend on the UN to be enthusiastic about using groups like Greystone to help the people in Darfur or to fight terrorism. The success of these groups in places like Sierra Leone show the world how ineffective, morally bankrupt and prohibitively expensive the UN is in comparison. Mercenaries and the UN are competing for the same business, and frankly, when it comes to morality and reliability, the mercenaries have proven that they're a better deal.

Also at the Belmont Club - using the enemy's strengths against them:

Martin Muckian's key insight, expressed in his article the "Structural Vulnerabilities of Networked Insurgencies" in the Winter 2006-07 issue of Parameters, is that Islamic insurgencies are in many ways the opposite of 20th century insurgencies. In contradistinction to "People's War", which relied on the creation of a revolutionary infrastructure and emphasized the painstaking recruitment of cadres, networked insurgencies such as those in Iran are largely built on small cells, such as might be put together by half a dozen people meeting in a room. The glue that holds networked insurgencies together is both their strength and weakness. And the nature of the binding ties explains why information warfare is so important in the current struggle...

* First, attack critical nodes for maximum disruptive effect.

* Second, networked insurgencies do not necessarily have strong political cohesion. Attack the narrative by forcing the insurgency to respond to issues that are outside its scope - this can disrupt or even fracture the movement as each group responds to the issue according to its own ideology.

* Third, attack the sources of support.

* Fourth, attack the information technology infrastructure of the network.

Asymetric warfare offers the foot soldiers a fair amount of protection - they're not uniformed, they use civilian shields, they blend into the population. Instead of aiming for the hard targets, we should attack the terrorist infrastructure at its weakest points - the unprotected middlemen. This includes the politicians, the weapon supply chain, the legal and illegal financial network - any part of the terrorist infrastructure that's protected only by implausible deniability.

The goal in a war is to destroy the enemy's infrastructure by the most efficient means possible. Since these terror supporters are part of the terrorist infrastructure, they are enemy combatants and should be treated as such. Since they are relatively unprotected, they can be removed more quickly, and in more massive numbers, than the terrorist foot soldiers.

When their support structure is weakened, the foot soldiers might become easier targets too.

Dean and Rosemary's Draco has just turned 2.

It's a chemical, it's everywhere and we really need to ban it. Join the herd.

* link thanks to Steve D.

Via AP

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah promised Friday that his opposition alliance would intensify its campaign to bring down the government, pledging to mount an "effective" action in the coming days. In an interview with his group's Al-Manar television, Nasrallah said Hezbollah's consultations with its allies were drawing to a close and they would release a statement shortly that spelled out the steps to be taken.

"I believe this action will be effective, very important and very big," he said. He would not divulge the plan but urged all Lebanese to support it.

He predicted that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would also pay the price of Israel's failure to crush Hezbollah and secure the release of its soldiers in the 34-day war.

"In the end, (Olmert) will either resign or be overthrown," Nasrallah said.

Nasrallah doesn't get the whole 'democracy' concept at all.

My nephew is a scholar of languages. He's studying Italian, French and Arabic. He loves the French language, French culture, food - so he decided to spend a semester in France.

France loves the French language, culture and food. They love themselves so much, they're willing to go to great lengths to spread their culture throughout the world.

You'd think they'd enthusiastically welcome pro-Francophone students to their country, especially students who grew up speaking English, the language of the "hissing snake in the Garden of Eden".

You'd think that, but you'd be wrong. When my nephew tried to apply for a three month visa to study the French language in France, his application was sent back to him two times due to errors on the application, delaying the process for weeks - the first time pointing out a mistake his school had made, the second time pointing out a mistake that the consulate had missed the first time.

When he decided to drive for hours to the French Consulate in New York (and when his family walked out in the cold to help him get there) he was turned away from the door. According to their new policy, a visa applicant can't enter the French consulate without first making an appointment using a specific form on their website.

This appointment may not be made by phone, email or la poste d'escargot. You may not even do a silent pantomime in their window. You may only use the web. You may only visit them in person at the appointed time, and even then there is no guarantee that the situation will be resolved.

So my nephew and his family had to walk for miles in the cold, trying to find a travel agent who would resolve the situation. Travel agents who had previously been willing to make arrangements with picky Brazillians and communist Chinese recoiled in horror when they heard the words "French consulate". They couldn't help at all.

My nephew may be starting school a week late as a result of this policy.

If anyone out there has ever successfully dealt with this visa policy, please let me know how it's done..

In this article in the Asia times, "Saudi-Iran tension fuels wider conflict", author Kaveh L Afrasiabi puts the onus for the resolution of the Saudi/Iranian conflict on Lebanon's shoulders, saying that if the Lebanese give in to Hezbollah, there could be peace in the Middle East.

Should the Lebanese crisis be resolved amicably with the reapportionment of cabinet posts more proportional to the balance of political forces in the country, as favored by not just Hezbollah but also by certain Christian leaders, then the Saudis will be forgiven for their one-sided, blistering criticisms of Iran. Tehran will have shown that it can influence events there in the direction of non-violent resolution of political differences.

On the other hand, the nightmare scenario of Lebanon spiraling into civil war will certainly sharpen Shi'ite-Sunni hostilities pervading the region, no matter what steps Tehran takes to ensure that Iraq does not drown in sectarian conflict. In this respect, pro-Iran Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Shi'ite Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, is in Washington for a meeting with President George W Bush. Clearly, Hakim's visit will be regarded in the Persian Gulf as an indirect US dialogue with Iran. Their common fear of (pro-Israel) Turkey's intervention in Iraq is yet another glue that binds Tehran and Riyadh, a relatively neglected issue so far.

Framing the political situation this way justfies the way these theocratic kleptocracies use their oil money to manipulate Lebanese politics.

It also reminds us of how they influence the media.

In this post at Dean's World, Ron Coleman called me out for my rather laconic take on the effect of Saudi blood money and bribes in America.

When it comes to the Saudi issue, I used to go on and on. But if you get to the point where you actually have the relevant urls concerning a certain issue memorized, you have to admit that you have a problem.

Anyway, repetition gets boring after a while, but here's the conclusion I finally came to on the Saudi issue:

Most Muslims wouldn't want us to attack the Sauds, but they didn't want us to attack Iraq either. That doesn't mean that they wouldn't be happy to see the Wahhabis kicked out of Mecca and Medina. The Wahhabi/Sauds have been destroying graves and relics for decades, and they've been building hotels in their place. For that and many other reasons, they're hated throughout the region.

I call them 'parasite usurpers to the throne', but that's a quote from Aziz Poonawalla (I'm not that poetic) Muslims have resented Saudi control over Mecca and Medina for almost a century. They don't want us to get rid of them, but that doesn't mean that many wouldn't be happy to do the job themselves. Which they just might do, if we weren't protecting the Sauds. Many Muslims and Arabs resent us because of our alliance with the KSA.

The only people who will say anything good about the Sauds (and mean it) work for the state department or the government. Or the British government. They're the people who will tell you that 'we can't afford a war against that entire regime'. They rely on the Sauds for cash, oil, but they also see them as a moderating force in the region.

The problem with this is that the only friends the Sauds have are the friends they buy. There are some very clear signs that they don't have as much oil as they claim to have. When that oil runs low, our Saudi 'friends' will become a lot less powerful and a lot less generous.

If we continue on the path we're on now, Saudi/sunni influence will wane, Iran will fill the vacuum, terrorism will increase as al Qaeda tries to assert Sunni influence, we'll throw billions of money after the bad money we've already spent betting on our Saudi "allies".

They'll go down and they'll drag us down with them. The Chinese (who we are currently indebted to) will fill the vacuum we've left behind. That'll be the result of our 'subtle' efforts to 'pressure' our Saudi allies.

That'll be the result of our refusal to fight the enemies who sponsored 9/11.

But, there's no point in arguing this - I've talked to government types, and there is no force on earth that can get them to quit the Sauds. They're willing to sacrifice American lives for that friendship, many would be happy to chew off their own arms for the Sauds. It's not really a rational thing.

All I can do is vote for Rudy, who is apparently the only human being in existence who ever has turned down a Saudi bribe.

A few notes from the pro-Hezbollah teach-in I attended this afternoon, sponsored by our local Activists for the Liberation of Palestine:

It was about what I expected. There were a few semi-homeless old marxists who vaguely resembled Lynn Stewart plus a smattering of Palestinians and their youthful supporters. There were about 25 people in the room.

The event was moderated by the infamously anti-Semitic Charlotte Kates, who openly supports Palestinian homicide bombers:

In response to an e-mail query, Ms Charlotte Kates of New Jersey Solidarity explained that this support extends to suicide bombing, "We support Palestinians' right to resist occupation and oppression, and do not feel that it is our place as a solidarity movement to dictate tactics of resistance to the Palestinian people," she wrote. Ms Kates does not see anything wrong with suicide bombing. She states, "Why is there something particularly horrible about "suicide bombing" - except for the extreme dedication conveyed in the resistance fighter's willingness to use his or her own body to fight? Very seldom is there seen to be something uniquely horrible about fighter planes dropping massive bombs on entire cities, when the pilot flies home unscathed."

Two things I didn't expect - the food was more awful than usual (stale popcorn) and I couldn't find the free-trade coffee. Based on every Unitarian event I've attended, every respectable lefty gathering in an old moldy church must have Free Trade coffee.

The gathering consisted of a film called "Samidoun" [Steadfastness] followed by a long conspiracy-driven rant by the featured speaker, Workers World writer and friend of Ramsey Clark, Bill Doares.

The film was a bit of fairly efficient propaganda. The pro-Hezbollah filmmakers knew how to push the right buttons - talk about Israeli 'atrocities' during the war, show the Shi'ia refugess who escaped the fighting due to early notification by the Israeli army (while neglecting to mention the Christians from the south who forced by Hezbollah to remain in their homes while under Israeli bombardment). Finish up with a shots of Hezbollah's "Construction Jihad"* (seriously, that's what they call themselves), rebuilding homes in the south (but not in the Christian towns) with their honest, steadfast labor. Finish up with implications that America is to blame for the whole thing, have one of Hezbollahs sheiks make a few jokes about George Bush to get the audience laughing, then and finish up with cheers for Hezbollah's "Resistance."

After the film, Bill Doares' speech, focusing on his Hezbollah-led tour and his recitation of various CIA-US related conspiracy theories had them snoring in the aisles.

The speech started out on a good note. He held their attention in the beginning simply by telling the crowd that he was in Beirut for a few weeks.

Before Hezbollah's Putsch, Doares and his friends met with the "Sheik responsible for the Resistance" in a bunker in Qana a week before the first Hezbollah rally on December 1. This sheik in the bunker in Qana hinted that Hezbollah would be taking some action soon.

Doares told us that there were 2.5 million people at the march on December 10th, an absurd exaggeration given that the population of Lebanon is 4 million. According to most reports there were "thousands", many fewer than at the March 14th Cedar Revolution rally.

Doares described how, on the day before the Dec. 1 rally, poor, innocent Hezbollah was trying to drum up support by driving through a Christian neighborhood, waving their flags. (He didn't metion the fact that if a Christian group tried to drive into Hezbollah territory waving their flags, they'd be shot on sight.) He then said that the Christian response was so violent and biased, it reminded him of southerners shouting at Civil Rights marchers during the 60's. (he looked kind of young to be remembering that)

He also mentioned that Communists in Lebanon think Nasrallah is 'too moderate'. He then noted that Labor groups were planning to take some sort of action in Lebanon this week.

The crowd was awake for that part of the speech, but at some point (ok, I may have drifted off myself), he started with the conspiracy theories, going on and on about how the assassination of Pierre Gemayel was orchestrated by the CIA, Siniora is a US puppet and the US is conspiring with right wingers in Lebanon to impose a US-friendly 'neo-liberal regime in Lebanon'.

As Doares ranted, some people got up to get more stale popcorn. Others leaned back and snored. Even the lady who was videotaping him fell asleep.

Then it was time for the question and answer session. Some people woke up and asked a few easy questions. One lady even asked for the details of the plot behind Gemayel's assassination.

His answer was basically Karl Marx's famous "Who benefits”? Every conspiracy theory can be answered with that response. And the answer is always the US, Israel, the Illuminati or the Masons.

One man asked what the UN was doing in Lebanon, provoking a long rant about US control of the UN, how the US owns the the Siniora govenment, evil right wingers, the vile capitalist west and the poor, poor oppressed poor.

When my turn came, I mentioned that I was attending this talk because I also been in Beirut during the Dec. 10th rally. Doares wasn't happy to hear that. I mentioned that the crowd at the rally wasn't nearly as big as he'd claimed. Doares said I was lying. I said that I could prove what I said with photographs of the empty streets set aside for the protest.

That was the point when Charlotte Kates said "this is not a debate and you must let him speak". I only interrupted him a few more times after that.

Before coming to the talk I assumed that a leftist would have some respect for the UN, so I asked Doares if he agreed with the UN resolution 1559, which "called on all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias to disband and declared support for a "free and fair electoral process". I asked if he also agreed with the majority of the Lebanese people and every government on the planet (save for Iran and Syria) when they demanded that Hezbollah should be disarmed.

He didn't agree at all, and again the mention of the United Nations drew yet another long rant about US control of the UN, US control of the Siniora govenment, evil right wingers, capitalism and poor, poor oppressed poor. Gaining steam, he shouted that he and friends were on the side of the resistance, on the side all that was right and good, and I was on the other side. It was a fiery-eyed condemnation, a rabble rousing call that could have made me feel as if I were in physical danger if his fellow travellers weren't dazed and bleary-eyed after their long nap.

That must have been why no one jumped up to support him, too.

I countered that if I was on any 'side', it was the side of the elected government (what he earlier labelled the "so-called Cedar Revolution"). At that point Kates joined in a rabble rousing call for all UN resolutions to be honored, especially the ones condemning Israel.

Then she said that they'd only reserved the room till 5 and the question and answer session must end.

One elderly lady with a "Palestine Liberation!" t-shirt on had one last question - she asked Doares if Hezbollah was allied with the Palestinians. She asked what Hezbollah was doing to help the Palestinians. It was fun watching him dance around that one. Hezbollah, like most Lebanese, opposes and despises the Palestinians. He basically mumbled something about them being on the same side.

After the talk was over, the man sitting behind me who'd asked the question about the UN asked me what Lebanon was like. He asked if they hate Americans over there. I said no, many of them don't even hate our government. He asked why Lebanon was having so many problems, and I mentioned the fact that their neighbors constantly interfered in their business. He wasn't pro-Bush by any means, but unlike the rest of the people in the audience, he was curious to hear about the non-Hezbollah Lebanese. He had pleasant memories of Lebanon as it was before the civil war. He called it "the Paris of Lebanon"

Someone walking by made a sneering remark about the French.

There was a lot of hate in that little church room..

Michael Totten and Noah Pollak visit Ain Ebel in Southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah seized civilian homes and used residents as human shields.

He told me that 18 days after the start of the war a large group of civilians decided it was time to leave Ain Ebel and flee to the north. They were no longer willing to stay while Israel fired back at Hezbollah’s rocket launchers. It was too dangerous, and Hezbollah insisted on staying and endangering those who lived there.

So they fled the area in a convoy of civilian vehicles. It was safer, they figured, to travel in a group than alone.

On their way out of the village, Hezbollah fighters stood on the side of the road and opened fire with machine guns on the fleeing civilians.

I was shocked, and I asked Alan to confirm this. Was it really true? Hezbollah opened fire on Lebanese civilians with machine guns? Alan confirmed this was true.

"Why?" I had an idea, but I wanted a local person to say it.

Because, Alan said, Hezbollah wanted to use the civilians of Ain Ebel as “human shields.” I did not use the phrase “human shields.” These were Alan’s own words.

Fortunately, Hezbollah didn’t kill anybody when they opened fire. One person was shot in the hand, and another was shot in the shoulder. This was enough, though, to do the job. The civilians turned around and went back to the village under Israeli bombardment.

On a lighter note, I've been wondering what the French have been up to Southern Lebanon. Apparently, they've been doing a lot of good:

“The French like to spend time in Ain Ebel,” Alan said.

“They are welcome here, they feel comfortable. They help our economy. In Bint Jbail some of the residents make slashing motions across their throats with their fingers when they see UN soldiers.”

I felt bad for laughing when I heard that. South Lebanon is a hard place. UNIFIL isn’t allowed to disarm Hezbollah and prevent the next round of war. That would require their authorization as a combat force. But they do what they can within their sharply proscribed limits, and they spend most of their time in a shattered and hostile environment.

Alan’s uncle behind the cash register stuck up for the French.

“I feel safer now with them here than I’ve felt for more than 30 years,” he said.

This invitation to a pro-Hezbollah rally was hanging up in front of my apartment.

It reads:

Lebanon

From Destruction to Resistance

Film Showing: Samidoun ("Steadfastness") A multi-media journey through the 34 day war in Lebanon and its aftermath by Ana Nogueira and Andrew Stern. Interweaving still photography, audio and video, Samidoun is a uniquely intimate look at the human cost of the Israeli War on Lebanon.

Speaker: Bill Doares, NY-Based activist who recently returned from Lebaon, having attended the historic demostrations that have filled the streets of Beirut. Will report on the current situation in Lebanon, the People's Movement and Solidarity with the Lebanese Resistance.

Workers, oppressed people, terrorists and ossified chomskybots of the world unite!

I guess I should go and ask a few questions. It should be fun.

Via his Online Journal:

I plan to spend the entirety of 2007 with our troops at war, until sickness, wounds or worse send me home, or the military tires of my presence and catapults me over the wire..

If I had gotten to take this ride as a kid, I’d have become a pilot for sure. All those buttons, switches and gauges. Something inside a boy just wants to start pushing a few buttons to see what will happen. Especially those two red ones, and what are those four orange knobs about?

[I can't imagine what it must be like to land a C-17. Here's a photo of one via Strategy Page. They're kinda heavy..]

..after landing:

While getting this far is progress, journalists still must obtain final press credentials, and to do this, they must find their way from BIAP to the IZ (International Zone: AKA the “Green Zone.”) Already there at BIAP when we landed was a clutch of what appeared to be journalists waiting for ground transportation. But I knew something they didn’t. I had seen journalists waiting here before, and had helped them catch helicopters only to find them trying to muscle in on my flight. Not today. Just thirty seconds’ walk from where they would wait most of the night for ground transport in a "Rhino" (armored bus) was the booking desk for "Catfish Air." I walked in, got on a helicopter flight and flew away, leaving them behind.

..more.

[link thanks to Dean Esmay]

When people heard that I was planning to travel to Beirut, their reaction was the same - they said "You're going - where??"

Hard Rock Cafe, Beirut

Despite March 14th's outpouring of pro-democracy fervor, despite the images of more than a million Lebanese (in a nation of 4 million) championing freedom, despite the very real similarities between Beirut, Italy and Paris, "Beirut", the word and the city, have become synonymous with urban warfare, snipers and car bombs. In the movies, whenever an American wanders into Beirut, he winds up dumped in the back of a car with hood over his head. This happened in Syriana, a movie I fortunately only saw after I returned from my trip. In a pivotal scene, George Clooney's CIA agent threatens a James Bakeresque government official with what he calls "Beirut Rules" - "if anything happens to me, my friends will kill your children, your wife, then you.."

Coffee with Ronald, Beirut

Those are the "Beirut rules" we hear about in the west.

Bus Driver, Sunni neighborhood, West Beirut

The week before the trip was spent trying to make and rearrange flights to both Beirut and Israel (for the Herzliyya conference), a process that's difficult at best considering that there are no flights from Beirut to Israel.

The week before the trip I tried tell myself that I was not worried, but I barely ate anything at all. Warren Zevon's Lawyers, Guns and Money kept running through my head.

The result of the 600 pounds of explosives used to assassinate former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri

Soon after this shooting occurred, I got an email from Michael Totten saying "Things are dicey here, and could get worse." Since my complete lack of knowledge about Beirut or the Middle East would make me a real liability in an emergency, I responded by offering to call off my trip. But he wrote back, saying the situation wasn't as bad as it originally seemed.

Sniper's Tower, downtown Beirut

Holiday Inn, downtown Beirut

Still, news reports kept the Beirut/warzone image alive. There were the rumors that Hezbollah was going to storm the Beirut airport. I tried to pack for warzone conditions, choosing camping clothes - things that didn't show dirt, that you could wash in a ditch. As a result, I was seriously frumpy in fashionable Beirut.

My first day there, as we walked down towards the rally, past scores of soldiers lining the streets, pockmarked buildings (were those bullet holes?) and a kitchen knife that lay, incongruously clean, across the sidewalk in front of a restaurant, Michael did a quick overview of the situation in Beirut, delivered with a kinetic enthusiasm for the city and the people who lived there.

His alternative Beirut rules: Beirut is entreprenurial, urbane and democratic. They're not leaning towards fascism - if anything, (epecially traffic-wise) the city leans towards anarchy. Sunnis, Christians and Shia all hang out at the same bars. Nobody, including Hezbollah, wants to impose sharia laws on this place. No one would stand for that. And no one wants civil war.

Fruit stand

Midday traffic

Street crime wasn't a problem in Beirut- basically, the real robbers work for the phone company and the goverment. In that sort of corrupt economy, petty crime isn't tolerated. Beirut was starting to sound more like Hoboken, a Hoboken with tanks in the street and barbarians at the gate.

I had hoped to visit Southern Lebanon, but Michael's contacts, the people who work for the Lebanese Committee for UNSCR 1559, decided that this wouldn't be prudent. I'd also hoped to drive to Mount Lebanon but my poor planning, limited daylight hours and rumors floating of another Hezobllah-led airport takeover made that unworkable.

So, I spent most of my time doing what I usually do in a new city, walking everywhere, taking pictures.

view of the mountains

Balloon rides offered downtown

Given how easy it is to travel by taxi in Beirut, a random walking tour turned out to be the best option. When my feet got tired, I could grab a cheap ($1.50) "service" taxi. But, before I could do that, I had to learn the name of the closest landmark to the hotel, a place the mostly arabic-speaking drivers could easily find. The closest landmark was the Saint George Medical center. In Arabic, the Hospital was called 'Moostache Fa-Room". The incongruity of a hospital whose name sounded like a comic-book bad guy made the phrase easy to remember.

Socks and slippers

While taking pictures of a mosque in West Beirut I bumped into another woman who was taking the same picture, who was also dressed for a camping and/or a warzone. I guessed that she was a fellow American and said hello.

She was an American, a film producer who had grown up in Lebanon during the civil war. She was amazed by the improvements they'd made, the new buildings, the reconstruction and repairs. As we walked in search of the American University of Beirut and the nearby crepe shops, she talked about growing up here, a childhood that sounded surprisingly normal. She wasn't sure about how she felt, coming back, but the weather was certainly an improvement over Washington, DC.

Mural, Beirut

Another day, in a Sunni neighborhood that seemed to be more conservative than most (most of the women were veiled, signs were in Arabic, not English), I stopped by a bakery and ordered using my excruciatingly bad Arabic (plus hand signals) figuring that they wouldn't speak English. I was wrong - their English was about as good as mine and their chocolate croissants and petit fours were geniuinely French.

No tourism, no Christmas shoppers, razor wire

The reconstructed Downtown shopping district was ringed with razor wire, patrolled by soldiers and police. At the height of the holiday season, the stores are open, but they're empty as a result of Hezbollah's encampment downtown. Just one more way that Hezbollah's Putsch is ruining Beirut's economy.

Unreconstructed building, downtown

Although I was warned away from the areas controlled by Hezbollah, I did decide to wander into their downtown emcampment. Unfortunately I decided to do this at night. The area under the overpass was filled with garbage and roaming dogs.The propaganda stands were neglected, kalishnikov flags and hammer and sickle were both grey in the moonlight. A little kid, about 5 years old, was wandering alone, stumbling, apparently high or drunk. Older men sitting near the edges of curbs, a few groups of teenagers watched him and me with an expression that couldn't be called sympathetic.

The atmosphere wasn't Phish concert at night, it was more like the South Bronx, 1984. The shivers running down my spine told me to put my camera away, to refrain from wandering up to the tents to ask questions. I walked towards the street and stood in front of a bakery, looking for a taxi.

Another Beirut rule that applies to urban areas worldwide: When you're not looking for a taxi, they're always in your face - when you actually want one, they're never around.

The baker was closing up shop, bringing in a cart of breadloaves. For some reason, he handed me a loaf of bread, and he refused to let me pay for it.

That sort of kindness was the "Beirut rule" that I saw in most of the neighborhoods I wandered through.

A taxi appeared. With a quick incantation of "Moostache Fa-Room", I was on my way home.

* Charles Malik describes his walk through the camps at night.

Discussions like this are an example of why Dean's World commenters are the best on the internet.

Solomonia follows the story of a Palestinian extremist group, Wheels of Justice, and their efforts to force an audience to listen to their views.

He says - "This was probably the most rancorous public event I've been to":

Let me skip quickly to the end, then work the rest as a flash-back. The evening ended prematurely after several warnings from Principal Anderson to an often unruly audience during the question and answer session following a question by a school committee member to the WoJ concerning the troubling disclosure that WoJ was collecting emails and phone numbers of the kids during the day. Apparently, it was bad enough Andover was forced to host this group, the idea that they were going to be targeting the kids later was over the line, and this committee member asked for that list of names, emails and phone numbers be returned.

This led to a puzzled and evasive response (does he have any other kind?) from Mazin Qumsiyeh who started noting that they'd never received such a hostile and aggressive reception in any venue they've appeared in, leading to calls of "Answer the Question!" from the audience, and one parent stepping forward, clearly upset, pointing his finger and demanding the list and screaming that "Parents have a right to protect their children!" That was about it for Principal Anderson, and he called the event to an end. Here's audio. My apologies for the quality, it gets better when the shouting starts, and I may also have some video later.

Let me try to answer Qumsiyeh's question, because I think it's germane to understanding the whole episode (which I'll get to, promise). Why is there so much anger? Here are a couple of suggestions. If you have to threaten a lawsuit in order to get in to speak to people's children, it should be an indicator that you are not wanted, and maybe, just maybe, you should have some sense, or some class, or even enough self-interest to understand that maybe you should at that point back off on your own and say, "OK, maybe now's not the time." But if you force yourself in anyway, don't expect a thank you and an invitation to tea and cookies.

According to a recent study, women like to talk more than men - supposedly, we get a chemical rush in our brains from hearing our own voices.

When it was revealed that scientific studies published in the new book "The Female Brain" demonstrate that women talk more than men, many of us responded with a collective shrug. Anyone who has ever been in a relationship with a member of the opposite sex — whether romantic, familial or friendly — knows that women talk more than men. A lot more.

"The Female Brain" indicates that not only do women talk three times as much as men, but they also get a chemical rush in their brains from hearing their own voices. This may explain why women describe "feeling better" after talking about problems or issues in their lives, beyond the mere relief of getting it off their chest.

According to personality tests (including this extremely rude one*) only a small percentage of women share my personality type, so I guess my observations don't apply to the majority.

Still, when someone talks about "The Female Brain", it gives the impression that these generalizations are rooted in biology - that they apply across the board for anyone with boobs. They don't.

* link thanks to the not-boring-at-all Tatyana

Michael Totten confronts Hezbollah and interviews Shi'a teens in Beirut's Tent City.

The first time I met Hussein Naboulsi, Hezbollah’s media relations liaison, he was perfectly friendly. But he later threatened me with physical violence because I cracked a joke about Hezbollah on my blog. On another occasion I was detained for two hours by Hezbollah because they suspected one of my photojournalist colleagues was a Jew...Chris Allbritton, who works on occasion for Time magazine, wrote the following on his blog during the July War: “Hizbullah is launching Katyushas, but I’m loathe to say too much about them. The Party of God has a copy of every journalist’s passport, and they’ve already hassled a number of us and threatened one.”

This is how Hezbollah treats Western journalists. I’d say I’m surprised more journalists don’t mention this sort of thing in their articles. But most journalists don’t write first-person narratives. Industry rules generally don’t allow them to describe these kinds of incidents. Even though it has been years since Hezbollah has kidnapped or physically harmed Western journalists, some may be afraid to rile up an Iranian proxy militia that is listed by the United States government as a terrorist organization. Hezbollah informed me that I’m officially blacklisted (meaning they will no longer give me interviews or even quotes) for what I have written about them in the past.

Some journalists don’t want to burn bridges to their own access and make their jobs harder. I don’t personally care. Last year I interviewed a high-level Hezbollah official, Mohammad Afif, but it was a useless interview that wasn’t even worth publishing. My translator told me that what Afif said matched exactly word-for-word what Hezbollah says every day on their own Al Manar TV channel. Losing access to these guys isn’t that big a deal. ..

The photographs tell a story too. It's important to note the near-absence of the Lebanese Cedar Flags that were so prevalent during the media-freindly rallies. In contrast, the yellow Hezobllah flag, with it's trademark raised Kalashnikov, is everywhere.

...I knew they wouldn’t do anything to me, and I wanted to let them know that their bullying behavior just earned them bad press. (Israelis who hassle and rudely interrogate journalists in Ben-Gurion airport ought to learn the same lesson one of these days.) I scribbled my furious notes, looked them in the eye, scribbled more furious notes, looked them in the eye again, and scribbled more furious notes.

Hezbollah is not half as media savvy as they like to fashion themselves. Harassing foreign journalists may keep some of them in line, so to speak, but it backfires with the rest of us. Bullying writers who are free of the old school media constraints of “objectivity” is a media war equivalent of dropping a hand grenade down your pants.

The old school media aren't as 'objective' as they pretend to be - they're willing to interview Hezbollah's leaders and to write what Hezbollah tells them to write, but they're not willing to challenge Hezbollah's authority. They refrain from pointing out that Hezbollah has no legitimate authority.

Many standard journalists will say that objectivity means giving equal weight to both sides. That's not objectivity, it's not factual reporting, it's the journalistic equivalent of the Special Olympics. Everyone, even handicapped Hezbollah, gets an equal prize because, according to these 'objective' journalists, everyone's equally special.

It's not even clear how 'old school' this form of jounalism is - Ernie Pyle didn't give equal weight to the Nazi point of view. If you're going to fight a war, one of the first things you need to do is figure out who your enemies are and who your allies are. We're fighting an asymetric war, which means that 'sides' are not represented by national, ethnic or religious boundaries.

Constrained, handicapped journalism doesn't tell us what we need to know. We need more independent reports.

Via Spaceweather.com - there was a fireball over Denver:

Something from space disintegrated over Denver, Colorado, this morning around 6:20 am MST (1320 GMT): video. It was not a meteor. The fireball was the decaying body of a Soyuz U rocket that launched the COROT space telescope on Dec. 27th. Click here to view a ground track of the rocket's last orbit.

January 4, 2007 — An unidentified falling object - possibly a meteor - streaked from the heavens and slammed into a New Jersey home, startling a family and setting off an out-of-this-world mystery, authorities said yesterday.

UPDATE: Dave at Dean's World reports that there was a "credible report from hundreds of witnesses of a UFO over O'Hare". This is getting weird.

I used to live down the shore, where I'd see sandpipers all the time. I had no idea they made such a journey.

Fred Gedrich, a foreign policy and national security analyst. and Maj. Gen. Paul E. Vallely suggest that we should fight asymetric warfare asymetrically:

To prevail, the United States has to transition from a conventional to an unconventional war footing and make the enemy pay a heavy price for its despicable tactics. In Iraq and elsewhere, traditional troops, weapons and tactics are less useful than tools of influence, covert operations and intelligence brought to the battlefield by special operators working harmoniously with indigenous forces and local populations. The prime objective is to create a climate of fear within enemy ranks that breaks its will to continue the armed insurrection against the freely elected Iraqi government.

Special Operations Forces (Rangers, Seals, Delta Force and other special units) leaders and troops are uniquely qualified for this mission. Special operators played prominent and successful roles in removing Afghanistan's Taliban regime from power and disrupting al Qaeda's terror base. In Iraq, they have spent most of their time searching for the infamous "deck of cards," the elusive WMD arsenal, and high-value insurgents and terrorists.

Joint special operators (from all military branches) are also trained in local cultures and languages, making it easier for them to embed in local populations and Iraqi security forces and collect information which in turn may be used to "hunt and kill" hostile forces.

[link thanks to Dave Price at Dean's World]

UPDATE: More thoughts on Unconventional Warfare

Liberal Hawk Pamela Hall, quoted in this International Herald Tribune Article: Grandmothers hold Manhattan vigil to spotlight Iraq war deaths:

With curious tourists snapping pictures, members of Grandmothers Against the War read the names of the dead from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut...The grandmothers then walked to the military recruiting center in Times Square to continue their demonstration, holding signs reading "3,000 U.S. lives for a lie" and "Stop recruiting our children."

We're outraged and heartbroken, and we want it to stop," said Joan Wile, 75, the groups' director...

Just feet away, two counter-protesters with a group called United American Committee held U.S. flags and their own signs, with messages such as "We Shall Stay the Course. Keep the Promise. No surrender" and "Warning: Leftist protesters trying to demoralize our troops."

Pamela Hall, who leads the group's New York chapter, said the anti-war group's messages were "anti-patriotic and disrespectful."

"It doesn't support our troops' intelligence and patriotism," Hall said of the vigil. "They've chosen to keep us safe. They deserve our respect and support."

UPDATE: Susan at Urban Infidel has more:

We had a counter protest to the candlelight vigil by the Grannies for Peace last night at Union Square Park. Immediately they did what they could to block us by stepping in front of our banner and shouting us down. They were absolutely intolerant of our right to speak and had to be asked several times by the police to please stand back and to not interfere or to prevent us from protesting. It wasn't easy.

A very large group of people began to gather. As you would expect on 14th Street is very crowded, most were passersby stopping to watch and take pictures. But things started to get unruly when a few rabble rousers started whipping the giddy herd into a heightened state by jumping around and chanting 'no justice, no peace.' It doesn't take much, and it is amazing when you watch mob mentality sweeping through like a fire. They stayed for quite a while hurling invectives and low insults of every kind at one of our people who is a very brave woman who lost her brother in the World Trade Center. The things they said to her were disgraceful but she was undaunted.

After a while the situation began to degenerate and the police actually had to create a perimeter around us because the hecklers were getting too close and it was clear it would have gotten out of hand. How incredible is it that in the middle of New York City people are so intolerant of a different point of view, it brings them to violence.

Street graffiti, Beirut

Photos of Beirut, Israel and Jordan are posted on Flickr.

More coming soon..