Making Ripples: post-corporate adventures in Floyd County Virginia

Rhetoric vs facts and who cares

When both sides of an argument appeal to your emotions, how do you determine who is telling more of the truth?

Reader Julian Gall from the UK made some pertinent observations about the discussions on global warming and they are worth sharing.

David,

Maybe the Wikipedia article is biased too but anyone is free to edit it and make corrections if they wish. Articles that people can't reach agreement on often get a "this article is contested" sticker. This one hasn't. Doesn't mean it's correct of course.

Living in the UK, I saw this film when it was first broadcast which was a while before it became popular on the internet. The press here published a lot of analysis at the time, some biased no doubt, but not all. In particular, a couple of people shown in the film were very upset that their views had been selectively quoted and didn't reflect their true position. That raised alarm bells for me about the film. Likewise, obvious errors in Gore's film have done the same.

I have no doubt that there is some truth in "The Great Global Warming Swindle", but I don't think the film helps its case by calling all the Global Warming arguments "lies", as if there is a huge conspiracy to fool the public. I'm generally averse to conspiracy theories because they imply that the only people who are well organised and successful are the people we're against. I don't think anyone can be that well organised, full stop.

I read a lot around the subject of global warming because I want to understand what the position really is. I can't say I've read anything I could recommend that is independent and unbiased. That is a sad reflection on the level of debate. What I do detect lately is more measured comment on the side against manmade global warming; a gradual shift in that direction. The only conclusion I can reach at the moment is that no one actually knows. When someone (on either side) tells me the answer is plain but that the other side is trying to fool me, I get very suspicious of their motives.

The deeper issue for me in things like this is, how do we know who is telling the truth? Gore's film appeals to some people who believed in manmade global warming anyway and they present his confirmation of their views as proof, which it isn't. Durkin's film appeals to some people who have never believed in it, or who are opposed politically to the people who do. It confirms their beliefs but offers little in the way of proof either. Napoleon Hill said that everything has within itself the means of determining whether or not it is true. I try to apply this and often find there is one little giveaway that makes me suspicious about the rest. I certainly found this with Gore's film but I found it with Durkin's too.

                                                                                                                -- Julian Gall

It appears to me that there is room for improvement in presenting facts on both sides of the global warming argument.

Julian and I seem to share many common views on the climate issue. Appeals to emotion are very seductive, but are invariably a sign that persuasion, not reason is at work.

I agree that neither side has completely clean hands and hope that we, as a planetary community, do nothing irrevocable before the next cooling trend which is estimated to begin in 2010.

Michael Yon on General Petraeus

Michael Yon brings us an incredibly important message from General Petraeus about values.

David H. Petraeus, General, United States Army

Michael's dispatches are always worth reading. This one should not be missed.

Another poignant story from Michael Yon

Desires of the Human Heart

In a Baghdad neighborhood where residents have been subject to methodical slaughter, the 1-4 Cavalry from Fort Riley, Kansas has found an abandoned Christian college to be an island in the storm.

Michael captures the desolation and the toll of human life from the continuing civil war in words and photos that evoke the End of Days.

"Most of the families in the vicinity have fled. People are murdered nearby every day, and during just one of the days I was with 1-4 Cavalry, they reported finding three murder victims. The Iraqi police and our soldiers told me that murders are down since the security plan began, yet our people still found fourteen human bodies over the period of one week. The enemy kills entire families including small children."

"The people who could leave have mostly gone. Many of the wealthy and the educated have abandoned Iraq. The lights rarely come on here."

And yet Michael writes,

"And on these empty streets, a practiced eye regards the slivers of hope that are strewn among all the chards of broken glass."

Whatever the result from this war, we are incredibly indebted to Michael Yon and the others who bring us the ground-level view of soldiers dealing with a disintegrating civilization.

Civilizations have fallen into barbarism in past ages and we have evidently not learned enough to prevent this from happening again.

Why is General Brooks making trouble for Michael Yon?

Michael Yon is reporting from Iraq and is doing an incredible service for the morale of our military men, but there always are those who seem to have an agenda that justifies misusing their authority. In this case, it appears to be Brigadier General Vincent K. Brooks.

Get the whole story on how reluctant hero Michael Yon ended up in Iraq as a freelance blogger who is 100% financially supported by readers and is being treated shamefully by General Brooks. Read Tabla Rasa.

I feel that Michael has consistently told the unvarnished truth in his firsthand accounts about what is happening on the missions when he accompanies the troops and he is highly regarded by the fighting men who know of his work. This is one of his photos.

Brigadier General Vincent K. Brooks was the former chief PAO (Public Affairs Officer) of the US Army. He is currently the deputy commanding general - support for Multinational Division-Baghdad.

In 2005, when the military attempted to appropriate this famous photo by Michael Yon, Brooks apparently intervened on Yon's behalf. Now, he seems to be determined to make it as difficult for Michael to report as possible.

Michael calls them as he sees them and his viewpoints seem to be aligned with the fighting men he lives with. He obviously cares for the men he goes on mission with and for many senior officers, but his views of some high level military decisions are not always flattering and this makes each dispatch compelling reading.

At a time when the military needs favorable media coverage as never before, General Brooks seems hell-bent on keeping Michael from reporting! This general's agenda needs a little examination and a lot of publicity.

I think Michael Yon's writing has earned him the right to better support from the military. Read Michael's dispatch and decide for yourself.

Cathy Seipp has left the blogosphere...

And we are the poorer for her untimely and fatal illness from lung cancer.

She has been a brave and witty woman to the very end. If you have not read Cathy's World, take a moment to read her blog.

She will be missed.

Yesterday, when I read her daughter Maia's account of her condition, my personal sense of loss was so great that I thought she had already passed away. One of her friends wrote me this morning and let me know that Cathy is still receiving visits from her friends and family. Our thoughts are with her.

UPDATE: Cathy died at 2:05 today.

Ernie Pyle is Dead

Independent war correspondent Michael Yon made favorable comments about some mainstream media correspondents in Iraq.

Michael's thoughtful dispatch from Iraq compared the wartime environment in which Ernie Pyle wrote to the environment in which today's war correspondents struggle to survive.

He made the point that journalists in previous wars might have spent long tours with combat forces and they don't do that now. That doesn’t mean good journalists are gone. There are plenty of those, but mostly they are somewhere else, or they only come to Iraq for quick tours.

Michael had praise for NBC correspondents Brian Williams and Richard Engle who were clearly concerned about accurate reporting. He mentioned other journalists who are doing a good job of reporting and suggested that it is time for bloggers to stop attacking mainstream media war coverage and start offering alternative sources.

Michael suggests that instead of looking for mistakes in coverage, the common cause might be better served by well-informed bloggers searching all sources for the reports that get it right and driving readers to them.

Michael has the ability to capture the experience of soldiers at war and makes the ugliness of war painfully real. He cares about the men whose lives he describes.

Michael's dispatches are now being featured on Fox News. This one is well worth reading.

Poised between darkness and light...

Michael Yon is a freelance journalist with the last battalion of American soldiers in Mosul, at this critical moment while Mosul is poised precariously between progress and descent into chaos.

The other American forces have been withdrawn from Mosul to support Baghdad and Anbar and Michael gives us an understanding of the difficult choices that are being made at many levels.

Michael has just written Desolate Roads Part 2 of 2 . It is a uniquely personal view of an oft-repeated and therefore timeless moment in history, the delicate balance between recovery of civic sanity or descent into madness and degradation.

Read Michaels compelling account of American and Iraqi forces struggling to give Mosul a future in the face of terrorists who seek to destroy Iraq, that they might rule by fear.

Reading the accounts of journalists who are actually in Iraq with American forces is an eye opening experience. There are no simple answers, but there appear to be brave and honorable men who seek to find a way to help Iraq heal itself.

May it come to pass that they are successful...

Bill Ardolino on patriotism, family tradition and the Jacksonian tradition

Blogger Bill Ardolino interviews Lance Corporal Nathan (Chad) Yeager and I learn that the  Jacksonian tradition is alive and well. I realize that this is a tradition I was raised in and never connected it to the Jacksonian era.

Lance Corporal Yeager is a member of a generation we should be very proud of.

Thanks to Instapundit for the link.

Michelle Malkin is blogging from Iraq. Some powerful pictures of displaced refugees.

Making Lemonade - a new idea for Thanksgiving

 

When life hands you lemons, you can whine about the unfairness of it all or you can sing. The latest ripples in the blogosphere are coming from the cheerful sounds of Complaints Choirs!

Finnish husband-wife artist team, Oliver Kochta Kalleinen and Tellervo Kalleinen, invited people in various international cities to submit their complaints, which were then set to churchly choir music under the direction of a local choral director and produced as comedy/art video. These videos capture the complaints that plague us all and turn them into charming and entertaining performances.

Enjoy the Complaints Choir of Birmingham

and the Complaints Choir of Helsinki!

UPDATE: There is also a Complaints Choir of St Petersburg!

            and now the Poikkilaakso Elementary School Complaints Choir

See the website of Complaints Choirs of the World for up to date information on the growing number of choirs being formed and how to create one yourself.

Happy Thanksgiving!

May you find a way to turn your difficulties into opportunities.

Thanks to Seth Godin and VSL for the links.

Undeclared World War III?

In the 1930s, events in Europe slowly came to a head as fanatics gradually organized themselves and began acquiring territories and subjects which were not rightfully theirs.

Small countries were overrun and subjugated and certain people were systematically exterminated while the large civilized countries of the world looked on in dismay.

These large civilized countries woke up to their danger only after they were attacked. Even then, there were those in the US who thought the attacks had been deserved and that the United States should not provoke further aggression.

Finally, World War II ensued and it took five bloody years to bring things to a close. Even then, we were still in trouble because we had allied ourselves with a fanatic with the same goals in mind.

It is only seventy years later and we seem to have forgotten the lessons of the past. There is a dysfunctional area of the world in which human rights are notably absent, women are subjugated, and an implacable hatred of democratic culture is made evident on a daily basis.

It is hard to believe that some well-meaning people would have us act like monkeys dancing for the boa constrictor  - placating the boa in the hope that we won't be eaten for a little while longer.

If we would understand the motivations of those who recruit and employ suicide bombers, we might do well to read the works of physicist Haim Harari, Chair, Davidson Institute of Science Education and Past President, Weizmann Institute of Science.

He made a speech in 2004 titled, Undeclared World War III, which is a chilling wake up call to those who enjoy the fruits of a democratic society.

I found this paragraph interesting:

The civilized world believes in democracy, the rule of law, including international law, human rights, free speech and free press, among other liberties. There are naive old-fashioned habits such as respecting religious sites and symbols, not using ambulances and hospitals for acts of war, avoiding the mutilation of dead bodies and not using children as human shields or human bombs.

He describes why these conventions are violated in parts of the Arab world where fanaticism has taken hold. It may give you some food for thought.

He later expanded this material into a book, A View from the Eye of the Storm, Terror and Reason in the Middle East. I have not yet read this book, but after seeing his other work, I am adding it to my reading list.

Many thanks to Avi Solomon for introducing me to the works of Haim Harari.

What History Says About the Iraq War

Victor Davis Hanson has written an insightful article titled: What History Says About the Iraq War.

It provide some historical perspective I have not seen elsewhere.

I hope you find it as interesting as I did.

Desperate columnists are asking...

Newton Emerson of the Irish Times has has captured the essence of mainstream media's descent into irrelevance. In his Sept 8 article, Ill wind may not blow to the Whitehouse, we see the politicizing of Hurricane Katrina from one Irishman's viewpoint.

Exceedingly funny and unfortunately too accurate to ignore, this article will become an instant Internet classic. This excerpt may give you a clue:

As the full horror of Hurricane Katrina sinks in, thousands of desperate columnists are asking if this is the end of George Bush's presidency. The answer is almost certainly yes, provided that ...

Read more>

Thanks to Mick Fealty  for making this available on his blog Slugger O'Toole.
Hat tip to Instapundit for bringing this to our attention.

Tag: Journalism

Michael Yon - blogging from Iraq

A picture from one of Michael's recent posts: "Major Mark Bieger found this little girl after the car bomb attacked our guys while kids were crowding around."
Michael Yon writes compelling dispatches about what is happening in Iraq. The picture that emerges from this carnage is savage, but  reassuring. Iraqis are slowly, but surely building a society where decent people will have a future.

Iraqi citizens and our soldiers deal with daily suicide attacks with a continuing determination in spite of mainstream media determined to show otherwise. It is increasingly obvious that their citizens and our soldiers are bringing order out of chaos.

The "invisible" insurgents who seemed omniscient and omnipotent are now being revealed as killers for hire — street thugs who talk with street dialects, rather than religious zealots. A new smash-hit television show: "Terrorism in the Hands of Justice" features captured insurgents telling their stories. These hour-long episodes without commercials are shown six nights per week on a government-owned, US-sponsored station. Translators working for the US Army say they "love the show," "watch it every night," and that Iraqis "downtown" chatter every morning about the latest episodes.

If you want to get a better understanding of the forces at work in this emerging democracy, you should take time to read Michael's weblog. He is with the 1-24th Infantry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division, whose soldiers are fighting some of the most serious insurgency battles in Iraq.

The power behind Harry Potter

The Harry Potter phenomenon continues to baffle those who would set themselves up as our protectors. I refer, of course, to those religious zealots who seek profit in saving us from exposure to the world of wonder that J.K. Rowling has created for us.

What these modern day "witch hunters" fail to realize is that J.K.Rowling is drawing upon an ancient power that changes lives and entire civilizations. Truth!

It is truth itself that makes the Harry Potter books an irresistable force.

Harry Potter may delight us with his abilities and magical paraphernalia, but that's not why we read every word and eagerly wait for the next book. I say this confidently because there are a thousand fantasy adventure stories with magical artifacts of all kinds and heroes and heroines with great charm, but they rarely capture our hearts and minds.

What gives Harry Potter such power over us is that the stories reflect what we know to be true.

Harry, and his friends, force themselves to stand up to evil, even when it scares them silly. They live in a world that many of us recognize, where well-meaning adults or people in power do not always recognize danger.

This is a world where children have to make hard decisions in spite of adult disapproval. Who has not been in the same situation at one time?

It is only in Disney movies that clueless parents or the bumbling, friendly doctor comes through in time to save the day. In real life, they may only show up in time to claim the bodies.

Survival in real life means making the right decisions yourself and making things go right for yourself and those you love, no matter how unpopular and difficult is is.

The Harry Potter stories and even the Lemony Snickett stories are mining the treasure trove of situations that mirror the unpleasant realities of life and making them palatable enough to read.

The lessons come through and stick in our minds courtesy of the incredible talents of J. K. Rowling.

The ratman as metaphor

The Diplomad is one of my favorite new blogs. It is written by an understandably anonymous Foreign Service person. He has developed a classic parable based on events that took place recently at his home in a rather tough corner of the Far Abroad.

He describes with wry humor and unblinking clarity how we employ people to deal with nasty situations we cannot face, and then when cruel and savage actions occur as a result, we try to distance ourselves from what we have caused.

His ratman is a perfect metaphor for necessary evil. When we don't do a job ourselves, we can feel degraded by the actions of others who act in our stead.

His post Ratman of the Far Abroad is well worth reading. It may give you an entirely different outlook on those who do the dirty work that we may live safely and in comfort.

Some of Diplomads work reminds me of that wonderful book by Laurence Durrell, Esprit De Corps, Sketches from Diplomatic Life. It was a hilarious account of life in an Embassy in Yugoslavia.

How do we deter terrorism?

Bill Whittle has captured the essence of the argument that is polarizing America. Read this excerpt and the full article and see which side you are on.

We both look at this:

And we both want to make sure that it – or worse – does not happen again.

We don’t want it to happen again.

We want to deter it from happening again.

And all of this rage and fury and spitting and tearing up of signs, all of these insults and spinmeisters and forgeries and all the rest, seem to come down to the fact that about half the country thinks you deter this sort of thing by being nice, while the other half thinks you deter this by being mean.

What do you think?

Do we deter terrorism by being nice, or by being mean?

I think we handle terrorism only by standing firm and bringing terrorists to justice, not by appeasing them.

Read the full article on Eject! Eject! Eject! and decide for yourselves.

Bill Whittle - essay on STRENGTH

Bill Whittle is a thoughtful and serious writer who is able to deal with very painful issues in an insightful and pragmatic fashion. He has written a series of essays which will soon appear in book form; Silent America - Essays from a democracy at war.

If you are wondering why America should help the people of Iraq save themselves from the depredations of a 12th century religious cult, you should take the time to read the following essays: STRENGTH (part 1) and STRENGTH (part 2).

This will give you something to think about

If you visit this website, you may get a better understanding why parts of Europe and the Middle East are so upset with Israel.

Envy is a powerful motivitor. Unfortunately, it does little to drive creative activity.

This good news from the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's population was all new to me. It shows what can be accomplished when a nation raises its necessity level enough.

There should be more countries doing the same.

I discovered this in comments made on LGF.

You will not see this on major media

There are certain things which tell a lot about a man, how he behaves under stress, how he empathizes with someone's loss, and how he keeps his word. George W. Bush does a lot that doesn't get mentioned by major media outlets, possibly because these do not fit their editorial preconceptions.

He kept his promise to a wounded soldier who lost a leg in Afghanistan. Fifteen months ago, when President Bush visited wounded souldiers in Walter Reed hospital, he told Mike McNaughton that when he could run a mile, that they would go on a run together. Earlier this Spring, Mike and the President jogged a mile at the White House..

UN Credibility - can it get much lower?

While the pious and terminally hopeful supporters of the UN still bleat that America had no business handling Saddam's regime without the approval and support of the UN, the dirty dealings of Kofi Annan's top appointees to the Iraq Oil for Food Program are being spread out for all to see.

At the center of this latest UN corruption are Kofi Annan’s hand-picked director of the oil-for-food program, Benon Sevan, and Annan’s son, Kojo Annan.

More Pictures of Chernobyl

I have developed a lasting interest in the Chernobyl disaster since discovering Elena's photojournal. I discovered some photos taken in 1995 by GreenPeace. You should check them out and you will see that there was still some activity within the dead zone at that time.

UPDATE:  Now you can tour Chernobyl and write your own story.

Here are two photos of the same entrance taken 9 years apart. The second photo was taken by Elena.  The building near the gate is the residence of the town guard.

Mobe Mania/Cellphone Deprivation - an internet legend in the making?

You never know what you will find in the Register, the United Kingdom's outrageous IT news site. This tantalizing story appeared on March 29:

A crazed 14-year-old girl from Hong Kong had to be subdued by police with pepper spray, after she attacked her dear old ma with a knife and wooden pole and chased her around their flat. This must rate as the Godzilla of all teen strops.

Bob Zangas - a man to remember

A few weeks ago I discovered Bob Zangas' weblog and marveled at his capacity to enjoy life.

Bob Zangas explained how he came to be back in Iraq as "Bob", a civilian, and not as Lt. Colonel Zangas. He was working in a civilian capacity for the Coalition Provisional Authority. His friendly assessment of the people he met and his photographs gave me the feeling of being there on the scene.

Bob had a realistic view of the problems faced in helping Iraq, but he remained optimistic about the future. His weblog conveyed the impression of a good and dedicated man who represented the best of what America has to offer.

I was saddened to find out recently that he had been killed in an ambush south of Baghdad. I revisited his weblog and paid my respects along with the many that have been posted there.

Go read all of the posts in his weblog. They will give you a view of Iraq you have not seen before. When you are done, you might feel like I did and want to pay your respects to a young man who was willing to make a difference.

Thanks to Citizen Smash for the lead.

Does Faulty Logic Rule?

When it comes to the important matter of US military casualties in Iraq, it really does matter how you look at the data. Any death is at all is a tragedy, but you don't get a workable understanding of a situation by saying, "It's getting worse and worse!" when it is manifestly coming under control.

The Commissar has posted two graphs showing American military casualties since the beginning of the war in Iraq. I would like you to view both and make up your mind which best represents how our soldiers are doing.

On the other hand, the "glass is half empty" crowd should probably skip that link and find some bad news to rejoice in.

Social Agent Man

I wrote a post in December titled Why do a weblog in which I incautiously said, " You can also become an agent for social change." The inimitable Ironbear immediately commented, suggesting a song title of Social Agent Man.

Several months went by and now he has returned with the lyrics. His creation appears as comments to my original post, but it is so good that I feel it deserves a post of its own. I think you will agree that he has written a song celebrating the unique power and perils of blogging. It can be sung to the melody of Secret Agent Man.

The Best We've Got

This evoked a rush of pride when I read it. It is just one more reason that I get my news from reading weblogs instead of dead tree or video circus media.

Far from the crude babykiller of campus legend, the American soldier has proved that he is as humane as he is competent, as creative as he is valorous, and as optimistic as the best traditions of his - or her - country. Our troops have tracked down war criminals, turned the tables on ambushers, faced countless roadside bombs - and built schools, created jobs, picked up garbage and set an example that even those Iraqis anxious for us to leave will not forget.

Ralph Peter's recent column in the New York Post is well worth reading. He is a retired Army officer and the author of "Beyond Baghdad". I want to read his book and see what else he has to say.

Thanks to Powerline for the link.

A new voice - satire from Iraq

When satire raises its head in a culture, I know that no matter how bad things look, some interesting changes have occurred.

There is so much news from Iraq and so many opinions about Iraq that we should take every opportunity to hear from Iraqis themselves. It should be noted that they definitely do not all speak with one voice, so we need to listen to all of them and decide for ourselves.

In an essay titled, Five Gallons of Gasoline, Ali confronts his doubts about the liberation of Iraq.

What ever your feelings about the war in Iraq, you owe it to yourself to read this piece in IRAQ THE MODEL.

Thanks to Citizen Smash for the link.

Week-end blog roundup

There are a couple of sites that I have recently discovered. They are well worth visiting.

Commentary that makes sense, unexpectedly refreshing journalistic excursions
Rosenblog is a collection of Left Coast bulletins; news and commentary on global democracy, education, culture and more from Seattle journalist Matt Rosenberg.

I first discovered him when he wrote about Iraq and made sense. His background in investigative reporting seems to make a difference in how he presents his views.

Tasteful site that demands return visits
Ana's Views of the Northeast is a stunning combination of dramatic images, great copy and the most aesthetic layout I have seen recently.

Totally Refreshing
One of the most engaging new blogs I have seen is Drink This, created by Tall Glass of Milk, a young woman of many interests including the Bill of Rights, the music industry, and NASCAR.
What's not to like?

A Day to Rejoice

Earlier this morning, as I was digging out from the latest snowstorm, Gretchen called out the door to tell me Saddam Hussein had been captured.

I watched the news on CNN and MSNBC and managed to hang in there through the interminable telling and retelling of the few real details of the event. Other than the small hidey-hole Saddam had cowered in and the pictures of his hideaway, there was little else of great interest. He had not put up any resistance, in spite of his exhortations to others to lay down their lives.

News you will not see on major media

I first wrote about Zeyad and his Healing Iraq weblog in early November.

It had been such a welcome change to get news of Iraq directly from someone who actually lived there, that I felt the future of real news gathering and dissemination lay with weblogs. As of today, I'm absolutely sure of it.

Lest We Forget...

I was seven years old when this news was broadcast on CBS:

We interrupt this programme to bring you a special news bulletin. The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, by air, President Roosevelt has just announced. The attack, also, was made on all naval and military activities on the principal island of Oahu.

I still remember feeling that my quiet world of listening to Sunday afternoon radio shows had come to an end. Something terrible was happening and our lives would be inexorably transformed in every detail. It was my first experience with a paradigm shift of great magnitude.

Pacifism and Personal Responsibility

Ironbear at Who Tends the Fires has written a thought-provoking essay on pacifism.

His central theme, "Pacifism is the ultimate abdication of personal responsibility," managed to bring into view the underlying irrationality that always puzzled me about pacifism. I could never think with the concept of pacifism, so I simply discarded it as a viable solution to anything many years ago.

I failed to analyze pacifism in terms of what it meant in terms of taking responsibility for oneself and others. I should have.

Humor from Baghdad

On a lighter note, Riverbend writes of her experience with the Martha Stewart of Baghdad.

News you will not see in the New York Times...

As if the New York Times hadn't already earned enough of a bad reputation for biased reporting...its arrogant behavior in Baghdad will earn it even more.

While local merchants struggle to rebuild their stores on Abu Nuwas street near the Palestine hotel in Baghdad, security forces employed by the Times drive them away from their stores with AK47's. Evidently, the NY times feels that the security of its personnel is paramount to the rights of neighboring merchants.

From the comments on the Healing Iraq site, the blogging world is already spreading the word to every competitor of the New York Times. It will be interesting to see how quickly this is remedied.

Jonathan Swift is alive and well

I have been working my way through a number of new weblogs every day in my efforts to gain a better perspective on this growing universe of internet authors. Ranging from the certifiably insane to the most erudite and incomprehensible, their blogs offer something for every taste.

My posts tend to be limited to simple matters that merit wider appreciation, but I really enjoy dry humor, spirited invective and tales that touch the heart with my morning cup of coffee.

The only writing I missed was satire, razor edged as Jonathan Swift's. Well I shouldn't have been concerned, The Politburo Diktat has come to my rescue. This latest post has me waiting for the next one.

Warning - Not for the literal minded.

Another Iraqi voice is raised.

Alaa, a middle-aged engineer in Baghdad has created a blog, The Mesopotamian. He writes well and I am looking forward to reading his weblog daily.

Thanks to Zeyad for the link.

Family Values

Parents are under continual pressure to contribute to the organizations their children belong to. At what point is it appropriate to pull back and take a good look at what lessons the children are learning from all of this?

Da Goddess has posted a thought-provoking rant about Girl Scout cookies and similar selling efforts. It is well worth reading.

My take on it is that kids come away from these experiences feeling cynical or with an attitude of entitlement. Neither is desirable. The best possible experience is that which the child originates by themselves.

I remember my daughter, Sara, at age 6, selling airplane kits to neighbors in Florida for ten cents. The kit consisted of a sheet of typewriter paper. When one bemused customer stood there holding the sheet, Sara asked, "You do know how to fold it don't you?"

Fortunately, Sara became an artist where it is considered more acceptable for the viewer to contribute to the final experience.

Iraq at ground level

It is a great relief to read Healing Iraq after a year of listening to the hysterical blather from CNN and other news channels as they relay news clips from Arab news media.

It didn't take too much intelligence to see the inconsistencies in the news we were given, but we could only guess at what had actually happened. Now that there are a number of weblogs by Iraqi citizens, we can get a better picture of daily life in today's Iraq if we wish. It is grim, but more encouaging than I expected

Where have all the scholars gone?

I was savoring my daily dose of inspired invective from Emperor Misha I when I saw this picture and almost snorted coffee all over my keyboard. My immediate thought was, "Where is competence on their list?"

Shanty Town revisited

^{Click on image to enlarge}

During the Depression years of 1939-1941, I remember seeing an unusual group of shacks on the bank of the Connecticut River north of Springfield, Mass. I was as curious then as I am now and I wanted to know what this was. Dad told me it was Shanty Town, while Mother called it Hooverville.

It was built by desperate and resourceful people who had lost their homes and jobs and had no place to live.