Into thin air

There is much to tell, dear reader, from the wealth of my memory successive to these last few days away from the computer screen. First, I must apologize for not even allowing you the notice of a parting eulogy, but my AMD Turion processor has now taken it upon itself to remind me every few weeks or so, by crashing, that I'm a cheapskate thrifter, unwilling to cough up an extra hundred dollars or so to invest in one of the more reliable processors invading the market. Since then I've been reinstalling the bare components of a comfortable cyber-existence and reevaluating what actually deserves to take pride of place on my 'Favorites' list, which cleverly leads me to my first recommendation. The story that circulated throughout the blog-intelligentsia about Christopher Hitchens' less-than fortunate encounter in Beirut last month, has been comprehensively retold and eviscerated by a new mentor, Michael Totten. His blog, even upon first impressions, is clearly a devastatingly astute exploration of Middle-Eastern life and its politics, where his account of the Hitchens scuffle takes pride of place, here (read in full). Totten was one of Hitchens' cohorts accompanying him around Lebanon's capital, and also partly responsible for not forewarning him that writing "Fuck the SSNP" on a commemorative placard probably was not a good idea, and it's worth noting that Hitchens, in fact, wasn't drunk at the time, which one, understandably, may have expected. From there I found my way to NOW Lebanon, a secular and independent online publication that prides itself on its non-sectarianism - in their own words:

New Opinion Workshop (NOW) includes members from all Lebanese political, ethnic, religious and socio-economic groups and persuasions. The single idea that is truly sacred in this forum is the pursuit of an independent, democratic, liberal and prosperous Lebanon, with equal rights and opportunities for all its citizens.

I find this intrinsically uplifting. Due to the actions of policemen on the day of Hitchens' attack, he later called the state of Beirut under the watchful eyes of Nazi thuggery and goonism, "occupation". And yet, to study the pictures of Hamra Street in the center of Beirut is to be reminded of any prosperous capital city you might find in Western Europe. Such publications provide an outlet for progressive, like-minded individuals unfortunately surrounded on all sides by the possibility of medieval dogmatism. NOW Lebanon smacks of something extremely important, and something that I intend to keep reading. More shortly.