Iraqi Refugee Homecoming

CNN reports from Baghdad.

Some 46,000 Iraqi refugees returned to their war-torn country last month, a sign of hope that the massive population flight since the 2003 U.S. invasion could be reversed, an Iraqi commander said Wednesday.

Brig. Gen. Qassim Atta said he attributed the return to an improved security situation in Baghdad, where a crackdown has been in place since February.

"We are simply living in a better and obvious security situation," he said, citing the return of families to several Baghdad neighborhoods.

About 10,000 internally displaced families have gone back to their homes in the Iraqi capital, said Sattar Nawruz, spokesman for Iraq's Ministry of Displacement and Migration, also pointing to better security.

HT Blackadder.

This is really good! D'Souza vs. Hitch on that whole Christianity thing

Thanks, Kathleen, for emailing us this link to a debate between Dinesh D'Souza and Christopher Hitchens. I haven't watched all of it yet, it's in 10 parts which will all be available on the YouTube page afetr going to the link. I have noticed that it gets kind of like Kung Fu theater at parts, i.e., visual and audio are a bit off, so it may be best to just listen to it.

No more Iraq news, I guess

The following is Hugh Hewitt's Townhall commentary email entitled "Good News is No News":

The news from Iraq is so good that, suddenly, it is hardly news at all. For two years the mainstream media and Democrats in Congress could not let a day go by without pronouncing defeat in Iraq. Now that the surge has dramatically lowered American, Coalition and, yes, even Iraqi casualties, the media has turned elsewhere for its lead stories.

The American Enterprise Institute's Fred Kagan, one of the architects of the policies behind the surge, urges Americans to keep the recent dramatic successes against al Qaeda in Iraq in mind as prophets of doom switch their dark glasses to the prospect of out-of-control Shia militias and long-term Iranian domination in Iraq. Kagan writes that "those who now proclaim the hopelessness of future efforts also ridiculed the possibility of the success we have achieved."

Kagan is right. General Petraeus and his team have earned a great deal of deference by reclaiming the momentum and restoring stability in Iraq. We should be sure to trust them in the months ahead--not their partisan critics.

I should add my theory that the good news from Iraq is the major reason for the return of the ol' standby of the BDS-ridden media: allegations of torture and prisoner-abuse.

"Trouble dolls"

The Saga Continues

Here's a stupid question: would the readers of this humble blog be interested in a story involving a Latinizing hippy chick, Pentecostal Gypsies, a BDS-ridden dot-com casualty, a sycophantic Marxist monkey fetishist, Gayh-C.L.U attorneys and other assorted colorful members of the MOONBAT‡ party gathered to imbibe the caffeine chalice beneath the watchful gaze of the glowing corporate mixoparthenos in drippy Seattle, WA?


I thought so. That's why you are so fortunate that former United States VP Albert Gore foresaw the possibility of making the works, factual and fictional, of Oengus Moonbones available to the public and therefore took the initiative of inventing the internet. Thus he made it possible for anyone in the world to read Melinda at Starbucks, the ongoing internet serial written by the same Mr. Moonbones.

Following is a chapter listing to aid in reading all the posts which comprise the story in order:

Melinda at Starbucks
§ 0.0 (prologue)
§ 0.1 (prologue)
§ 2.2.0
§ 2.2.1
§ 2.2.3
§ 2.2.4
§ 2.2.5
§ 2.3.0
§ 2.3.1
§ 2.3.2
§ 2.3.3
§ 2.3.4
§ 2.4.0
§ 2.4.1

I find the story to be fun and engaging. The dialogue is hilarious socio-political commentary which deftly avoids being (too) over-the-top. The acronyms are extremely clever and the archetypical profiles of the coffee-house characters are dead-on. I'd compare the style sort of a mix between Doug Coupland and Kurt Vonnegut, but less depressing than either. Plus any story where someone gets his ear bitten off has got to be good by default.

I should also mention that Oengus, having obviously suffered a sudden fit of glasnost, recently opened up comments on his blog, so if you enjoy the story as much as I do, please encourage him to continue telling it.

(Just for the record, I want the part of the narrator, Melinda's "interlocutor", when the film is made. I'm perfect for it. The Nehru jacket is on order. I'm scouting locations, I've got some other casting ideas as well and I'm working on some connections at a zoo for the monkey cage scene.)

-----

‡ Acronym for Multicultural Organization Of National Basic Attitude Transformation, a progressive political movement that began in the Seattle Area.

Sully's Blog

Mark Sullivan, a writer/friend of mine who has real material published on dead wood, has a blog now so he can slum with the rest of us blogospheric hacks. A former house-mate in the 'Burgh, Sully is responsible for coming up with my nickname and rescuing me from a situation in a rather insane living situation in Lower Saint Clair. We had many adventures together before I bolted and moved to the Mistake on the Lake back in '98.

So far his blog has been very practical. Yesterday he blogged on how to turn candy bars into MP3 files, a great and useful work of alchemy.

Welcome to the blogosphere, big guy.

Ain't too proud to bleg

The Wikipedia glossary of blogging terms defines the noun bleg as follows:

A blog entry consisting of a request to the readers, such as for information or contributions. A portmanteau of "blog" and "beg". Also called "Lazyweb."

Sounds like me; I work really hard on this blog to make sure everyone knows how lazy I am. That's why I took some time off from watching television and eating Ruffles to put together the K Street Bleg to invite the mysterious blog commenter named "The Man from K Street" to start a blog.

I just think his comments are so dead on and cut through the digestive by-product of the pessimistas and the ivory tower condescension which is so prevalent in certain corners of the blogosphere. It's unfair that a lazy ass, or as I like to call myself, an "ambition-challenged person", has to wait so long inbetween K Street fixes.

So how about it, Mr. Man?

"Dispose the day, bro"

Happy St. Crispin's Day, all y'all.