Lean, Mean (Kurdish) Killing Machines …

Via ad-diyar.

Summer Luvin’ … Got Me So Bad …

Lahoud said such steps were needed to ensure a “good summer season.”

Fishy "Improvements"

The statement quoted Makkawi as saying the government “had executed part of its national and ethical duty toward our Palestinian brothers by making such achievements.” “Even after the end of the summer 2006 war with Israel, the government continued to provide camps with the necessary aid,” it said, adding that UNRWA has rebuilt 350 Palestinian […]

Yawn …

It seems someone woke me up from my nap with news from New York. Why do they do that? Be a dear and close the door on your way out … Thanks … zzzz ….

A Reply to an American Mother`s Message

From Iranian president Mahmood Ahmadinejad’s official blog (once you’re on the page click on the ‘english’ link at the top right): Venerable motherGreetings First of all, I apologize for the delay of answering your question. This is due to my heavy schedules. So far, I have received many letters – with the same type of […]

A Do It Yourself World …

There used to be a most hilarious strip club* just two blocks from the bail window of the Manhattan Detention Center. And while our efforts to have it named a historic landmark by the proper authorities in New York City failed to keep it from being shuttered in favor of some trendy bar, it lives […]

The Facebook Revolution …

… Part II. Now, I know it has been made clear that this blog is for serious postings :), but considering that even the LA Times mentioned Lebanese facebook groups in a recent article, I cannot resist the urge to post the most “interesting” group I have found (thanks to Hassan for sending me the […]

Attn: Warning to Bloggers …

Gillian Dowling, technical consultant at Croner, said the situation was similar to the widespread introduction of e-mail in the 1990s. She said bloggers had to take care that they were not lulled into “a false sense of security” by the informality and ease of posting their thoughts and opinions.

Goldsmith on Human Rights …

The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, is facing accusations that he told the Army its soldiers were not bound by the Human Rights Act when arresting, detaining and interrogating Iraqi prisoners. Previously confidential emails, seen by The Independent, between London and British military head-quarters in Iraq soon after the start of the war suggest Lord Goldsmith’s […]

Is the Room Spinning …? Or Is It Me …

Aoun in Paris? The Poles at Baabda? The Americans breaking bread with the Iranians in Iraq? The Security Council getting ready to vote? Jumblatt calling for a “peaceful” resolution to the camp crisis? Netanyahu on a war campaign in the US (those with sensitive stomachs should avoid his recent “interview” in the Wall Street Journal)? […]

Does This Mean …

(Me, Gemayzeh, and the beer, are waiting for the explosion) Mazen is now famous? Or was before, and more so now …?

For Any Paranoid Types Like Myself …

Let me offer the following. For now, I take the USM airlift to be largely a symbolic act, but make no mistake this is all about Hizbullah such that support for the GOL (and M14) is merely functional toward other ends. It is not difficult to get small arms into Lebanon, so don’t lose your […]

Self-Doubt …

Sometimes I wonder if I am completely wrong, but then I come across something like this and I remember that things could be worse. Such work suggests that it is indeed possible to become completely detached from reality (of course, having motivation$ for such is another matter). And so for my threadbare tethers, I am […]

Of Asses and Alberts: The Other Sayyed …

The dizzying pace of the conspiracy theory machines has me recalling when Jamil al-Sayyed told al-Hayat that the killers of Rafik Hariri had to be “either donkeys or Einsteins.” Indeed, but in truth, there are among us very few donkeys and even fewer Einsteins (I will leave it to the moral philosophers to tell me […]

Enter the Jackals, Stage Right …

“Khaddam hired the good offices of Sandra Charles to lobby for him and obtain access for a high profile visit he’d like to make to Washington.Sandra Charles is on a substantial retainer with the Hariri family (from father to son) Her group has one of the more potent rollodexes in Washington, and she was amongst […]

The Sayyed …

“You know, they used to bring billions of dollars and to distribute them among themselves. We were even accused by some analysts, politicians, and observers of naivety and lack of political experience. They said that Hezbollah knows how to fight, but it does not know how to work in politics. This is because we did […]

Franklin Lamb reporting

With very intermittent internet access and this ancient pc with one lone wire running from the spaghetti wiring system tied to the ceiling and taped to a single bare light bulb socket, plus 8 toddlers, two babies, crawling over and under this ‘foreigner’ in a 10 x 12 concrete room where 28 or more of […]

The Americans … And Other Mysteries …

Readers of this blog know that I have serious doubts about the US ability to maintain its position in the Middle East and across the globe. While I usually explain this “management crisis” in the context of the “collapse” of the Soviet Union, it is important to remember that when it comes to public affairs, […]

Essential Reading on the Current Crisis …

Please read the following post on the most excellent blog, Land and People. Excerpts below: On the fighting: The army went completely mad at the killing of the soldiers and started shelling the camp indiscriminately with very heavy artillery fire, from both the southern and the northern ends of the camp. The photographer told me […]

"The State will Vanish"

Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, a leading member of the governing coalition, urged Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas to act against Fatah al-Islam in the Nahr al-Bared camp. “Either they root out (the group) in Nahr al-Bared or the state will root out the terrorism,” he said. “The state cannot … accept a compromise. The moment […]

Just to make it clear

I was never fond of conspiracy theories. Not because people don’t conspire, far from it. But because in politics, people are not that shrewd and are not endowed with awareness of the long-term. In light of this, a couple of points so as to make sure everybody agrees on this: 1- It is the ‘ruling […]

Exodus

Sitting in one of the hospital’s many full rooms, Rehan Khoadr, 20, was recovering from shrapnel wounds to her abdomen, chest and legs. A thin woman, she appeared drawn but gestured animatedly despite an intravenous needle inserted into her arm. “When the war started we became scared and tried to flee the camps,” she said. […]

But She Never Lost Her Head Even When She Was Giving …

Speaking of the Carribean, it seems a pleasure cruise of a different sort is underway in the Gulf and is likely to continue for several weeks. With the good people who brought us Iraq facing a possible “disintegration of thought,” is it any wonder things have heated up in Lebanon? I remain confident that the […]

Carribean Conspiracy …

It seems the forces of darkness are gathering in the Bahamas. I wonder if a certain Lebanese blogger has gotten his swimsuit yet.

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Thanks …

“My sister was beside me and fell down with her head bleeding. She haemorraged from 5.50 in the morning till 3 in the afternoon. At last my brother brought us all out in his car. But let me tell you this. The Palestinian people have heard Walid Jumblatt and we say ‘thank you’ to him […]

Flight …

Explosion in Aley

For continuous updates, go here.

On the fourth day …

The Lebanese army yesterday asked the Pentagon to provide more ammunition to continue its assault. It also asked for bulletproof vests and helmets. The US, which has given $30m (£15.2m) in equipment to the Lebanese army over the past 12 months, including Humvees and helicopter spare parts, is likely to comply.