Home at the Hendels

Thankfully the Israelis aren't so foolish. Sandmonkeys's excellent post of May 23 underlines this. Not to mention DEBKA's daily reports of Palestinian attacks on Israelis, that would be even more effective if it were'nt for the vigilance of the Israeli security apparatus. This of course gets little or no press!
IBC or Iraqi Bloggers Central has an excellent article. Really worth reading

Meanwhile, there is a touching post on Iraq the Model for Memorial Day. Oponents of the war take note!

Not this blog but Hammorabi (See May 13th post) on CNN

Loved Riverbend's description of Condi. Fits here to a T-Bone. The rest of his post is not very encouraging. Reminds me of the Vietnam war when everyday we were told things were getting better, only they weren't.

Sadam photographed in his undies and he's going to sue! I know, I know, the Geneva Convention and all that but any humiliation that can be publicly heaped on him I applaud, if only for the Iraqi people who don't have too much to chear them up or amuse them. Just wish we could have that scumbag Kim Jong Il in his boxers on the front page of the New York Times.

Wanted to say something smart and intelligent then went to Brad DeLong's website, Big Time Patriot, and Otter Side (see last post for all three) and they had all said what I wanted to say, said more and said it better. So I'll just leave it to them.

Having covered the cauldron of Middle East Blogs I should turn my attention back to the US. Blogging is almost the only escape from the brainswashing of our media and government. Brad DeLong (Fair, Balanced and Reality Based), a former Clinton Admistration official and current Professor of Economics at the University of California at Berkeley, Big Time Patriot,Liberal Revolt and Otter Side are all worth visiting on a regular basis. It is cheering to see that sane, thoughtfull minds are still in plentiful supply in this country.
Well, if nothing else I don't have to use my bookmarks any more, they are all in my Blog (as well as del.icio.us)

The former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (ie. head of the Inquisition) as Pope! He should check out this great post from Big Time Patriot.
Did we have a scoop, or rather did Hammorabi? Debka File reports:
DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources confirm (London Times) report that most wanted man in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of al Qaeda’s Iraq wing, has been wounded. The claim by a Ramadi hospital that he was treated briefly last Wednesday before disappearing is not verified". That would explain the cryptic remark about his "injuries".

The Middle East is really taking to blogging. People without a voice for so long, but as you can see, some very aware people. Thanks to blogging they are now starting to talk and a lot of what they are saying is very encouraging.

Iranian bloggers have been imprisoned and otherwise harassed but here is a listing of many of them. Regime Change in Iran as the name implies, certainly has an anti-mullah slant and can be quite interesting.
Moving now to Syria. The only blog I have found in Syria (in English) is that of a Syrian author in Damascus.

Likewise in Afghanistan I have only found one English language blog

Hope you find more, let me know if you do. We certainly have the ability to make ourselves more familiar with a very important region, without depending on our mass media.

According to Iraq the Model there are now over 250 Iraqi blogs, his is one of them best. There is a touching story in RiverBend and it is an excellent blog. Neurotic Iraqi Wife is touching. I always find The Mesepotamian good reading and many of these sites have links to other Iraqi blogs. Unfortunately many are not updated regularly, but you'll get a good picture.

Just read in Hammorabi that "The big cockroach" Zarqawi has possibly been killed. He also reports that the local tribes organized themselves into brigades and fought alongside the Iraqi forces in Matador. He also mysteriously states "the doctor who treated him in Ramadi confessed that his injuries were more or less fatal". Interesting to get the picture from the locals directly, it may not be always factually accurate but you certainly can get a good feel for the real situation and often facts that aren't reported by the mainstream media until later, if at all.

It's payback time. Time to give credit to the stimulating, informative and interesting blogs that have made the blogosphere such a great place.

I have been enjoying some great blogs from the Middle East. It seems their political discourse is livelier than ours. Leading the pack is a new star of the blogosphere the Egyptian Sandmonkey. A self proclaimed pro-US, libertaria Arab, who is also pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian. His very interesting, and maybe even plausible, explanation for the Iraq war is a must read. His concept ot the 7 rules of the APU is wonderful reading, especially coming from an arab. On a lighter note 2 part airport incident makes for some hilarious reading. Beware though, not only does the Sandmonkey update his blog daily, he often adds to it several time a day. You could spend hours just wading through his archives. They would be hours well spent though. Prolific and Provocative.

Big Pharoah also referred to as GM on Sandmonkey's site and Nazd a feminist arab (whose 5/11 Post was great stuff The Republic of Palisraelistine) will give you some idea of the intellectual ferment that is going on throughout the Middle East.

By contrast this link from the Sandmonkey is a reflection on our level of political discourse

On a lighter note: if Bush would have been running against Jesus

Since nobody was coming here anyway might as well bring this site back to life. At least by going through the "Archives" you can get some history. And now that our house is for sale and we have decided to move back to San Francisco, we don't need to be cagey about it!
Besides I wanted to use this blog to cover more interesting topics than our personal lives. I'll start that process on my next post.