theatrics of speech, rituals of theater

before i leave for a camping trip in north idaho and take a much-needed 20-hour respite (you know it's time when a friend in beirut tells you to relax)...

what's up with the rhetorical "birth pangs of a new Middle East" and conflating pro-life policy with Mideast foreign policy? Peter Laarman makes a good stab at this when he suggests that Rice is throwing a bone to the Christian Zionists, and the international press has snarfed this like the dogs they are (sorry to journalist friends!), but I wonder just how far Tony Snow will take these pretty words. any thoughts, dear readers (all two of you!)?

and i have a petty complaint to match:
while some bemoan the cancellation of cultural events in northern israel, the fairouz concert in baalbeck was cancelled because her palace was bombed out. yes, i'm still upset that i couldn't make good on my tickets to "sah el-nom"!! dude, this was the equivalent of a madonna concert!

if you want to check out someones whose pens are making real statements, please visit and visit often the blogs of artists and friends raed yassin and mazen kerbaj. these are spaces to watch.