|link| Posted 10:49 PM by Brian Linse

Layne's World

It's very colorful, as usual, over in Ken Layne's World. Check out his fantastic original song, and while you're there, check out his review of Gary Hart's blog. He agrees with Kaus that it is a little uninspired:

Now it's kind of like your great grandfather submitting rap demos to Power 106. Dull & sad. Kaus is right: Hart's blog has all the life of a safety brochure.

Ken thinks Pat Caddell should start a blog, which would be, um, a lot of fun, I guess...

|link| Posted 10:35 PM by Brian Linse

Shia Fundamentalism in Iraq

Go read Peter Maass' very informative piece on Shia fundamentalism in post-war Iraq.

From the perspective of Iraqi secularists, the only thing worse than Shia clerics taking power is a struggle for power among them. The other day, I had lunch at a Baghdad restaurant with a prosperous Shia businessman, and, when I asked, over kebabs, hummus, and mint salad, what most worried him, he replied with two words: civil war. Not between Sunnis and Shia, but among Shia. After telling me that he listens to the Doors and the Moody Blues and then reciting some of their lyrics, he said he would not stick around if the clerics begin fighting among themselves. "I will leave the country," he said. "I will go to England. I can sell carpets there."

|link| Posted 4:56 PM by Brian Linse

New Lefty Blogs

There are some great new blogs worth checking out over at the Lefty Directory.

|link| Posted 1:32 PM by Brian Linse

Read This Now

RonK of the Cogent Provocateur has written one of the best blog posts of all time. The topic is the "snipe hunt" for WMDs in Iraq, and the piece is simultaneously informative, entertaining, terrifying, and depressing. Get a cup of coffee, spark up a cigar, and set aside some time to read Operation Desert Snipe.

|link| Posted 2:39 PM by Brian Linse

New York, New York?

Well I had no luck finding Wi Fi connections in SoHo. I'm sure they're around, but I didn't have time for an extensive survey.

I did manage to walk around a bit, and I found that the mood on the south end of the island is very different from my last, pre-9/11 trip to the city. At 11pm on a Saturday night there were 6 beat cops at the intersection of Bleeker and McDougal. Three of them were standing in the street, and my business partner and I watched in amazement as they pulled people over and wrote tickets for not wearing seat belts! Seat belts!

Later, my partner and I were told that we would have to move our drinks inside from the sidewalk table we had claimed earlier, because the cops were also writing tickets to the bar managers if any patrons were outside with alcohol after 1am. The crowds were thin on the street, and not a lot of fun was being had.

We then walked down to 6th Avenue to Joe's to get a slice, and the guy behind the counter confirmed that the new spirit of enforcement was hurting his business. When we asked him who was to blame he said it was Bloomberg.

On the walk back to our hotel we noted the groups of smokers standing outside the clubs fiending their cigarettes and shivering in the cold night air.

Kinda reminded me of Los Angeles.

Bummer.