Lebanon, Nellie McKay and My 9/10 Mentality
Christian Neighborhood in LebanonI can't listen to talk radio anymore. Yesterday I heard Mark Levin calling upon God's will that we join Israel in "our war" with Syria and Tehran as well as Hezbollah - that we take the war to the "heart of Islamo-Nazism." Michael Medvead is pushing this term. He's a film critic. I was trying to think about an upcoming post on whiskey-drinking. I popped in my Nellie McKay CD.
Not So Fast Nellie, I'm Spoken ForTangent: I met Nellie McKay at one of her earlier shows at Fez Under Time Cafe. She did give me a peck on the cheek for the compliment I gave her music and in a subsequent phonecall invited me to a party in Manhattan the next weekend. I politely turned her down as my ladyfriend and I had made plans that weekend. The flip of my ladyfriend's hair, or the sound of her voice in the morning are to other women's beauty (even the considerable Nellie McKay's) what a thousand White Giant stars are to a pen light. Specifically those white Giants have a luminosity class III. Tangent Complete
More on my reluctance for more War and Nellie below.
The U.S. left Beirut over two decades ago - it is one of the few things Reagan did that makes our current war enthusiasts upset. There is little in me that wants to return there - or send our men into Syria or Iran. I'm not sure that creating another refugee crises in the Arab world and possibly another failed state is good for Israel's security. At the same time, Hezbollah is a terrorist organization and Israel is acting in its legitimate interests to root them out. But is seems the Israelis are going beyond that - or at least not using a "scalpel" to do it. And how do these enthusiasts for the great conflict expect me to get excited about joining Israel in the bombardment of the heart of Maronite Christianity? How about this: Instead of making this a regional conflict the U.S. tries to focus on the business at hand.
Sectarian death squads have overtaken anti-coalition insurgents as the main perpetrators of violence, bringing de facto segregation to much of Baghdad. - Giles Whittell
I guess things happen in a democracy. Here's Hadar with something that sounds reasonable to me.
Contrary to the warnings of the do-something buffs, U.S. interventions in the Middle East have likely unleashed more anti-American terrorism and more pressure on energy markets than they have prevented. The fact is that with the Cold War over, there is no longer any global superpower to challenge American interests in the Middle East or provide aid to Israel’s enemies, so the U.S. should tread more lightly there.
Israel has all the military muscle it needs to defeat Hamas and Hezbollah. If and when it achieves these goals, an outside interlocutor will have to broker a cease-fire between the belligerents, assist the Lebanese army in disarming Hezbollah, and encourage the Israelis and Palestinians to restart their negotiations. The members of the European Union, and Mediterranean countries in particular--France, Italy and Spain--should play the leading role in that process. - Leon Hadar
I'm turning on the music again.
Buy a paper
Draw a mustache
Make the mayor a giraffe
Try and tempt fate
Get pneumonia
Recuperate with soy bologna
[chorus]
Can you hear the rain a ploppin' slowly
With a soft and soapy thud
Don't you worry about a moppin', sholy
You'll only find yourself with mud - "The Suitcase Song" Nellie McKay
Michael Brendan Dougherty
in Politics
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he new coinage carries several advantages. First of all, the average American maintains much stronger images of “Nazis” than “Fascists.” No matter how historically illiterate he may be, every American knows that the Nazis were genocidal, sadistic maniacs, but he may not possess a clear idea of what the word “Fascist” even means. -
Source: Let Mideast be EU's problemou might call it the American foreign policy establishment's own form of Pavlovian response. Whenever one people goes to war against another, in any part of the world, it arouses the interventionist impulse of politicians and pundits in Washington. And when that war happens to take place in the Middle East, the urge to "do something" acquires an almost apocalyptic urgency. Indeed, raising the specter of a Middle Eastern war in the Capitol is like shouting "fire" in a crowded movie theater, as th
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WHEN Tony Blair called the fighting in Lebanon a catastrophe yesterday the response of his Iraqi counterpart was blunt.
Reader Comments (4)
Someone will need to break down precisely what Islamo-Nazi means. If I took it at face value, I would guess this means Islamic nationalist (since that is all Nazi by itself really means), which points us to none other than the Nation of Islam. Who knew that the heart of Islamo-Nazism was right here in Hyde Park at Farrakhan's house? So clearly they're bombing the wrong area.
Also, nice compliments for your ladyfriend.
I'm now quite curious about your questions.