Right Wing Nut House

Syrian President Assad has apparently decided to move things along in Lebanon. He is flooding the country with weapons and operatives in order to initiate a coup d’etat against he government of Prime Minister Siniora:

Abu Kais:

According to al-Seyassah, weapons are pouring into the country through the Syrian border, accompanied by terrorist groups run by Syrian intelligence. Fouad Siniora has been advised by world capitals to shut down the border with Syria to prevent a “catastrophe”.

Thousands of Syrian reservists and hundreds of intelligence agents who were naturalized during the Syrian era have entered the country and re-organized themselves. According to a diplomat from the Gulf quoted by the Kuwaiti paper, weapons are being “distributed like candy” and Syrian intelligence has returned to posts it had evacuated in 2005.

Tens of trucks reportedly delivered explosives to Hizbullah warehouses in the southern suburb. Parking lots in Beirut, Tripoli, Sidon and Baalbeck have been transformed into workshops to booby-trap cars, in an apparent preparing for a full scale civil war in the country. (If this is true, the Saudi King’s warning that he will not let Lebanon turn into another Iraq suddenly makes sense). Al-Seyassah claimed that Hizbullah moved some of their rockets to Beirut for possible use against security forces protecting the Grand Serail.

In another report, al-Seyassah detailed the sending of thousands of Syrians and Palestinians into Lebanon by the Assad regime (which, incidentally, has openly declared its support for the efforts to topple the government) to incite the demonstrators and enflame conflicts. The Assad regime also instructed its Lebanese mouthpieces to intensify verbal attacks against the Sunni mufti, Maronite patriarch, and the government. It also ordered Hizbullah to keep its blockade of the Serail.

Syrians have been arrested throwing rocks at Sunnis near where the riots broke out earlier in which at least one man was shot to death. And if any of the above reports are true, it would appear that Assad has decided to plunge Lebanon into a civil war where Hizbullah’s superior firepower and disciplined troops will make a huge difference.

What will the world do? What will the US do? This is the nation that the “realists” want to negotiate with - a country that negotiates with its neighbor by trying to murder its national leaders and initiate a civil war that could possibly kill thousands.

If Assad acts like this while talking to Lebanon, how do you expect him to be when talking to us?

The Syrian President is behaving as if he has some kind of carte blanche to carry out his illegal plans. I’d hate to think he got the idea that the US needs him so much to help facilitate our exit in Iraq that we won’t lift a finger to save our democratic allies in Lebanon. But after recently sending 200 assassins into Lebanon and widely publishing a death list and now this jaw dropping escalation, what else is one to think? The brazenness of these moves are unprecedented. He is not even trying to hide his complicity in Lebanon’s destruction as an independent state.

What will the world do? What the world usually does. Not too damn much.

While the Hizbullah siege of Prime Minister Siniora’s government continues, Sunnis and Shias had a confrontation at two different points in the tense city:

Opposition and government supporters on Sunday were engaged in two separate street fights in Beirut, as opposition leader Talal Arslan pledged to “smash the government under the boots.”

Security sources said four people were wounded in the clashes which took place in the densely-populated Tarik Jedideh neighborhood and on the Badaro-Qasqas highway.

Shiite supporters from the southern suburbs trying to infiltrate into Tarik Jedideh, a low-income Sunni quarter, clashed with pro-government supporters with stones, sticks and knives, witnesses told Naharnet.

They said sporadic bursts of automatic gunfire could be heard in the confrontation which lasted about 45 minutes before army troops and police patrols stepped in to disengage the opponents.

The army threw a security dragnet in Tarik Jedideh in an effort to prevent followers of the pro-Syrian Hizbullah and Amal movement from stirring trouble in the Sunni neighborhood.

Another confrontation was reported between supporters of Hizbullah and Amal and others from the Lebanese Forces, the Christian faction led by Samir Geagea, on the Badaro-Qasqas highway.

It appears to me that by “infiltrating” the Sunni quarter, Hassan Nasrallah’s Hizbullah was seeking to deliberately provoke a confrontation. Perhaps if it is violent enough, it will give him an excuse to deploy his crack militia - perhaps even attack the government building he has now surrounded and, for all practical purposes, holds under siege.

Nasrallah does not appear to want to wait long to force a denouement to this crisis. His provocative move of surrounding the government building on Friday and setting up roadblocks to prevent any assistance from reaching Siniora and his cabinet (who have been holed up in the fortress like building since the funeral of Pierre Gemayel) would seem to indicate that he believes time is not on his side. Only the intervention of the Saudi Ambassador who phoned Speaker Nabih Berri lifted the “blockade: set up by Hizbullah:

Hizbullah protestors, vowing to topple the cabinet, have briefly besieged government headquarters in downtown Beirut, holding up Prime Minister Fouad Saniora and several other ministers inside.

But Saniora, vowing not to “allow any coup against our democratic regime,” stood rock-solid Friday to the blockade, which eventually eased following a flurry of diplomatic activity.

As news of the siege reached New York and Saudi Arabia, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz telephoned Saniora to express support for his government.

French President Jacque Chirac and Jordan’s King Abdullah II were also among the leaders who phoned in their support to Saniora’s government.

A government source said the blockade was lifted late Friday after diplomatic “contacts” had been made with pro-Syrian Speaker Nabih Berri as well as the Lebanese army command.

Youth and Sports Minister Ahmed Fatfat, who was among the ministers holed up with Saniora, said the Saudi ambassador in Beirut called Berri, an ally of Hizbullah, the main opposition group, to help “stop the siege”.

“Berri played a very positive role … especially since there were reports that there would be a break-in” into Saniora’s offices, Fatfat told the pro-government Future television. He was speaking from inside the compound.

The leading daily An Nahar said Saturday that “disciplinary members” from Hizbullah quickly set up tents around Saniora’s offices as the protest dwindled late Friday afternoon, blocking access to the Grand Serail.

The crowds of protesters have been dwindling over the last 24 hours although there are still several hundred thousand people present. Perhaps Nasrallah wants to finish off the government while he still has some muscle in the streets.

Abu Kais has some insightful thoughts, including some inside news on some other provocations by Hizbullah:

LBC is reporting riots involving Sunnis and Shias in the neighborhood of Qasqas as I type this. The Lebanese army has intervened. (Update: The clashes were reportedly between a Hizbullah convoy passing through the area and Sunni residents)

Yesterday, around 300 Hizbullah members reportedly chased a man who hurled insults at Hassan Nasrallah and then fled towards nearby Ashrafieh. The Lebanese army stopped the advance of the militia on the Christian neighborhood and arrested the individual, who turned out to be a Syrian citizen by the name of Hamzah Mohamad Sadeq Ismail. Al-Mustaqbal described this as a Syrian intelligence attempt to create clashes, although one wonders what Hizbullah was thinking by sending 300 members to a Christian neighborhood boiling with rage.

Following a meeting yesterday with representatives from the Internal Security Forces and the Lebanese army, the Iran-funded militia has refused yet again to remove its tents and clear the main road leading to the Grand Serail. An-Nahar reported that Hizbullah’s information warfare division has been filming the area around the Serail. It is not clear what this means. A Hizbullah-Syrian attempt to storm the building was foiled on the first day of the protest, after an intervention by the Saudi King via Nabih Berri, who has promised to resolve the situation in a couple of days.

I speculated last week that Berri may be the key to resolving the crisis. He was the only major Shia politician to attend the Gemayel funeral. And he has made conciliatory noises about the Tribunal (although his attitude hardened after a trip to Tehran). The party Berri heads, Amal, used to be Hizbullah’s enemy with several bloody clashes taking place during the civil war. And Amal is not a religious party per se; it represents the Shias but more in terms of economic and cultural matters.

But Berri is definitely pro-Syrian. And Amal has shown no desire to join the democrats in freeing Lebanon from the grip of Syrian hegemony. If Berri is to play a role in peacemaking, it will be out of a desire to keep Nasrallah from pulling the nation into another civil war - something none of the factions want.

The Sunni-Shia clashes are ominous. One wonders what tomorrow will bring as Nasrallah continues to ratchet up the pressure on the Siniora government while the nation holds its breath and prays for peace.

UPDATE: AP REPORTS ONE DEAD, 10 INJURED

Here’s the AP story:

Violent clashes broke out Sunday between Shiite and Sunni Muslims in the capital, leaving one man dead from gunshot wounds at a time when tensions throughout Lebanon threaten the country’s fragile sectarian and political balance.

Tension has been running high in Lebanon, particularly since Friday when Hezbollah supporters began an open-ended sit-in in Beirut in an effort to bring down the U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.

Saniora, emboldened by Arab and international support for his U.S.-backed government, vowed on Sunday to stay in office despite the ongoing protests.

Amid the sound of revolutionary and nationalist songs blaring from protesters’ tents set up in the heart of Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, a Mass was held at Saniora’s office in memory of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel who was assassinated by gunmen in a Beirut suburb last month.

The service appeared to be a show of solidarity with the government, which draws its support largely from Sunni

It is possible that the confrontation was by happenstance and not by design. That hardly makes it any less ominous. Clearly, Nasrallah is expecting and indeed counting on such confrontations that may give him an excuse to move against the government.

UPDATE II

Dan Riehl has an interesting historical comparison between the siege of Vienna in 1529 and the current siege in Lebanon of Siniora’s government.

I see where he’s going but somehow, I don’t think Nasrallah is going to be quite as patient as that long ago Muslim leader Suleiman the Magnificent.

The last time the Bears played in cold weather, Urlacher & Co. manhandled Michael Vick and the Falcons 16-3 (December 17, 2005).

With game time temps expected to be in the teens and a stiff wind blowing off Lake Michigan, Soldier Field will be an icebox when My Beloveds take on the Vikes.

Termed “Bear Weather” by fans, history might say otherwise. My Beloveds are only 11-9 since 1983 when the temps fall below 20 degrees. But that hasn’t stopped fans from believing that when the thermometer falls, the team’s chances for victory shoot up.

Part of this is certainly the legendary playoff game against the Rams during the magical 1985 season. With Soldier Field in a deep freeze and a wicked wind whipping off the lakefront, few can forget Wilbur Marshall - by irony a Floridian - picking up a fumble and running it in for a score. As Marshall crossed the goal line, snow began to come down and the crowd went even wilder. Ever since then, Bear fans believe the team has a corner on arctic cold fronts.

The Vikes, of course, play in the Baggie Dome - a far cry from their own icy history when games played outdoors at the old Metropolitan Stadium were memorable not only for the superior teams that legendary coach Bud Grant would put on the field but also for a wind chill that made one forget they had extremities.

Playing in mind numbing cold is becoming a little rarer these days what with all the domed stadiums as well as several venues like Miami, Tampa Bay, and San Diego now hosting professional football. Don’t tell that to fans in Chicago, Green Bay, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh, though. You’re liable to get an earful about how cold it can truly get at a football game - especially when your team is losing.

By last count, the entire population of Green Bay over the age of 45 was present for the famous “Ice Bowl” against Dallas played on December 31, 1967 for the NFL Championship. The gametime temp was reportedly 13 below zero. And to give you an idea of what kind of a hardass Vince Lombardi was, he refused to allow heaters on the sidelines. His counterpart, the gentlemanly Tom Landry, wasn’t quite so much of a hard case and allowed his players some relief from the brutal cold. The fact that Green Bay won the hard fought game 17-13 has enshrined cold weather at Lambeau Field and made it a fixture for Packer fans.

As for the Vikings game today, My Beloveds are coming off that disappointing loss to New England last week and there appears to be trouble in Bearland. Given Rex “The Wonder Dog” Grossman’s inconsistency this year, shouldn’t Lovie sit the kid and play backup QB Brian Griese? The sports talk shows and newspaper columns have been full of this nonsense all week and reminds me why I stopped reading the sports page and listening to sports radio years ago.

Wonder Dog has started exactly 18 games in his professional career. It used to be that young quarterbacks were projects. They didn’t play until at least their second and usually third year. But when you draft a kid out of college and are paying him $6 million a year (along with a hefty signing bonus), pressure comes early to put the kid in to see what he can do.

In Wonder Dog’s case, he hurt himself seriously twice over the previous two years which severely limited his development. But this never seems to matter to the know it all callers and know nothing columnists who are calling for back up Brian Griese to take the snaps.

The fact is - and anyone who has half a brain or who has been watching pro football for 40 years can tell you - the Bears will not win a Superbowl with Brian Greise at QB. Wonder Dog not only has loads of raw talent, but also commands the respect of his teammates for his leadership skills. He also has a burning desire to win and the one ineffable quality that transcends all the others; a presence, an air about him that marks him as a winner.

At this point in his development, Wonder Dog is inconsistent - wildly so. But looking back over this season, he has proven much:

* He has shown that he won’t let a bad game get to him. He has always followed a bad game with a good game.

* He has shown that he can recover during the course of a game. He had a horrible first half against the Giants and played a superior game in the second half.

* He has proven he has what it takes to come from behind and engineer a winning drive late in the game (Minnesota).

* He has proven to be fearless in throwing the ball downfield, a welcome change from the previous occupants of the QB hole.

* His ball handling skills are jaw dropping, sometimes even fooling the TV camera.

* He is the first Bears QB in a two generations to have found out that a tight end plays on our team.

With Wonder Dog, Bear’s fans are going to have to be patient. While he has the potential to shine in every game, he is equally likely to stink up the joint. This is what Denver fans had to endure about Elway and what Indy fans had to put up with regarding Manning. Wonder Dog has every bit as much potential as either of those two gentlemen and benching him now would only sap his confidence.

However, he can help his own cause by taking short drops and making quick decisions today. The Vikes will be in a cover two so the middle of the field may open up a it. Look for Wonder Dog to find Desmond Clark early and often.

Facing the number one rush defense, the Bears still must try to run the ball. Thomas Jones must have a monster day or else the burden falls on Wonder Dog - something the Bears would like to avoid. Look for Jones to make 25 attempted rushes today - even though he won’t get much. This will set the tone for an in your face, dog eat dog kind of contest where the winner isn’t necessarily standing at the end but rather simply surviving.

The Bears D-line, stung to the quick by media criticism that they are underperforming, should also have a monster day today. Look for at least one defensive score as well as another breakaway return by the kid Devon Hester. The rest of the Defense should key off of Urlacher, last year’s Defensive Player of the Year who is, if anything, outdoing his performance from a year ago. He is dominating the game in a way that few can.

The Vikes will be competitive for three quarters but I predict a Bears victory nonetheless. Final: Bears 20-10. With a victory the Bears clinch the North Division and prepare for St. Louis next Monday night.

And if they lose, the baying hounds will be after Wonder Dog and Coach Lovie may not be able to resist the pressure to go with the veteran Greise next week.

We who live in the 21st century suffer from a breathtaking conceit regarding our ancient human ancestors. We believe that the poor dears were ignorant little children, occasionally making a breakthrough discovery to move the train of human knowledge along (some even going so far as to believe that aliens were responsible for it all rather than people) but by and large, seeing the ancients as a dirty, doltish bunch of superstitious ignoramuses with no indoor plumbing and an unhealthy reliance on the mystical in their everyday lives.

This ignores the facts of archeology which paint a much different picture. About 50,000 years ago, our ancestors created art on the walls of caves outside of Lascaux, France that rivals in realism and talent anything that Renaissance painters could do. The Polynesians populated the Islands of the Pacific by crossing expanses of ocean that wouldn’t be duplicated by Europeans for thousands of years. Going the Polynesians one better, it is still a mystery how people from Southeast Asia managed to make it to New Guinea 50,000 years ago.

The Egyptians moved blocks of stone weighing tens of thousands of pounds with little more than levers and rope (the block and tackle pulley system was waiting to be discovered). By sheer brute strength, they carved and maneuvered these stones, stacking them so perfectly that the tolerances achieved would make a modern engineer jealous.

The irrigation system invented by the Mayans was so sophisticated that nothing comparable would be seen until the 19th century. The Mayans also made an unbelievable leap of knowledge by coming up with the concept of zero in mathematics; as counterintuitive in its own right as the invention of quantum mechanics.

And then there were the Greeks. What we know about this astonishing culture has piqued our curiosity and excited our admiration since Medieval times. It’s what we don’t know about them that may, in the end, prove to be even more incredible than anything we could have imagined:

A computer in antiquity would seem to be an anachronism, like Athena ordering takeout on her cellphone.

Known as the Antikythera Mechanism (Nature)But a century ago, pieces of a strange mechanism with bronze gears and dials were recovered from an ancient shipwreck off the coast of Greece. Historians of science concluded that this was an instrument that calculated and illustrated astronomical information, particularly phases of the Moon and planetary motions, in the second century B.C.

The instrument, the Antikythera Mechanism, sometimes called the world’s first computer, has now been examined with the latest in high-resolution imaging systems and three-dimensional X-ray tomography. A team of British, Greek and American researchers deciphered inscriptions and reconstructed the gear functions, revealing “an unexpected degree of technical sophistication for the period,” it said.

The researchers, led by the mathematician and filmmaker Tony Freeth and the astronomer Mike G. Edmunds, both of the University of Cardiff, Wales, are reporting their results today in the journal Nature.

They said their findings showed that the inscriptions related to lunar-solar motions, and the gears were a representation of the irregularities of the Moon’s orbital course, as theorized by the astronomer Hipparchos. They established the date of the mechanism at 150-100 B.C.

While scientists now know pretty much what the Antikythera mechanism did, we still don’t really have a good idea of what it was for. Possible practical uses for the device include:

* Astrology was commonly practiced in the ancient world. In order to create an astrological chart, the configuration of the heavens at a particular point of time is needed. It can be very difficult and time-consuming to work this out by hand, and a mechanism such as this would have made an astrologer’s work very much easier.

* Calculating solar and lunar eclipses.

* Setting the dates of religious festivals connected with astronomical events

* Adjusting calendars, which were based on lunar cycles as well as the solar year

This new research indicates that the Antikythera mechanism could predict eclipses to the hour of their appearance as well as the orbits of at least Venus and Mars.

The Antikythera mechanism featured wheeled gears whose sophistication and exactness wouldn’t be seen again until the watchmakers of the middle ages. What this device hints at is the probability that much human knowledge and many technological leaps were lost to history following the fall of Greek civilization. Why didn’t this kind of knowledge pass to new generations of humans so that they could build upon and improve what was already done?

Roman stupidity probably had something to do with it, an empire always more willing to plunder and destroy rather than save and study - except that which could assist them in their conquering. And the fall of that empire which plunged the Europe into the so-called “dark ages.” Of course, while barbarians were running wild in Europe, Muslim culture was in full flower, making their own scientific advances. The Muslims, in fact, admired the Greeks immensely and much of what we know of them is largely given to us by Muslim scholars who saved what they could following the great upheavals in Europe.

The Antikythera mechanism reminds us that the human capacity for making great leaps forward in knowledge is not something limited to modern technological man. Throughout the history of our species, these astonishing breakthroughs have occurred in every culture and during every epoch proving that we really are quite clever when we put our minds to it.

PART OF A MASSIVE CROWD GATHERED IN DOWNTOWN BEIRUT IN SUPPORT OF HIZBULLAH’S EFFORT TO BRING DOWN THE GOVERNMENT OF PRIME MINISTER SINIORA

A crowd estimated at hundreds of thousands is occupying central Beirut today in a massive “open ended sit in” organized by Hizbullah and designed to topple the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora:

Hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters led by the Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hizbullah staged an open-ended sit-in in downtown Beirut Friday in a bid to topple Prime Minister Fouad Saniora’s government.

Army troops and armored personnel carriers were heavily deployed around Saniora’s offices, where the premier and other cabinet ministers have been residing for over a week after the assassination of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel.

Barbed wire fences as high as two meters were erected around the premises as heavily-armed troops kept demonstrators around 150 meters away.

In an apparent effort to avoid friction, Hizbullah “disciplinary members” formed a chain separating the protesters from security forces.

Protesters brandished Lebanese flags and white banners that read: “Down with Feltman’s government,” in reference to the Saniora cabinet which has been termed by Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah the government of U.S. ambassador Jeffrey Feltman.

“We want a national unity government,” and “We want a clean government,” other banners read.

Obviously well organized, most of these people don’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. This leaves Siniora with something of a dilemma. Does he crack down by having the army move in to scatter the protesters? Or does he try and wait Nasrallah out, hoping that a firm stand will call Hizbullah’s bluff?

The problem with the former option is that it almost certainly will ignite sectarian violence. And the problem with the latter is that evidently, Nasrallah plans on escalating things until he gets what he wants: Siniora gone and a “National Unity Government” that will give Hizbullah veto power over the cabinet in his place:

Hezbollah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Kassem said the protests would not end until Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s cabinet fell.

“This government will not take Lebanon to the abyss. We have several steps if this government does not respond but I tell them you will not be able to rule Lebanon with an American administration,” he told Hezbollah’s al-Manar television.

One shudders to contemplate what “several steps” Nasrallah might have in mind to hasten Siniora’s exit.

In a bid to keep the number of protesters down, the government apparently closed roads into Beirut:

Will Beirut be transformed today into the “capital of Arabism, resistance and unity,” as Hassan Nasrallah described it yesterday in a statement, or will Lebanon come under a regime of “religious tyranny,” as Marwan Hamade, minister of communications and an associate of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, warns? The efforts of Nabih Berri, the speaker of Lebanon’s parliament, to find some magical formula to avert the danger will continue today, but it seems that Nasrallah will not pass up a show of force, something he has been planning for weeks and which was postponed following the assassination of Pierre Gemayel.

The government of Lebanon is preparing for such an eventuality, with roads in the outskirts of Beirut being closed by the army in an effort to prevent Hezbollah supporters from the countryside entering the city and moving toward the main squares. But it is clear to both sides that the situation is so explosive that any violent confrontation in one of the districts is capable of setting Lebanon ablaze, even though both the government and Hezbollah are talking of quiet demonstrations and strikes.

Anti-American sentiment is running high among the protesters, ginned up by the Hizbullah propaganda arm al-Manar, whose broadcasts have been referring to Siniora’s government as “Feltman’s Government” - a reference to US Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman. Nasrallah himself has taken up this mantra and it seems to have its desired effect; many protesters are carrying signs referring to Feltman and undue American influence in Lebanon.

Druze leader Walid Jumblat - who knows a thing or two about survival - urged his March 14th comrades to remain patient:

“Very calmly, we will remain steadfast,” he told a news conference on Friday. “We will confront (the opposition) calmly. We will remain in our houses and fly the Lebanese flags… We will wait for a month, for two months… and watch them.”

Siniora himself addressed the nation with a plea for calm but made it clear that the democratically elected government would not give in to Hizbullah’s demands:

Premier Fouad Saniora warned Thursday that Lebanon’s democracy is in danger but vowed that his government will fight attempts to bring back foreign tutelage on Lebanon.

“Lebanon’s independence is threatened and its democratic system is in danger,” Saniora said in a nationally televised address from the Grand Serail, on the eve of street protests by Hizbullah and its allies aimed at ousting his cabinet.

“Do not be afraid and do not despair. We have a rightful cause,” Saniora told the Lebanese. “Threats will not deter us. Maneuvers and ultimatums will not terrorize us.”

He said his government will fight against “the return of the tutelage,” an apparent reference to Syria’s military and political domination in Lebanon which ended in April 2005.

“We will not allow any coup against our democratic regime,” he said.

Saniora also urged the Lebanese to stand by the “legitimate” government, adding that the only way to bring down the cabinet is through the legislature.

“There is no way to topple the government except through parliament which has given it its vote of confidence,” he said.

Parliament has been effectively prorogued which means that if Hizbullah is going to bring down the government, more drastic action will be necessary.

For the March 14th Forces, it is now a matter of survival. Nasrallah has placed himself out on a limb from which he cannot easily crawl back. If he and his bully boys leave the streets without bringing down the government, it would be a huge blow to his prestige and set back his cause months, perhaps forever. This is why I believe it is likely that, in the end, Nasrallah will be forced to resort to the gun in order to get his way.

His patrone in Damascus may be able to engineer an “incident” that would justify Hizbullah’s coup - at least in the eyes of the Shias. At that point, the two sides would begin tearing at each other.

Most analysts expect Hizbullah to win something of a quick victory given the fact that they are better armed than any potential coalition of adversaries and better trained than the Lebanese army (who would probably sit out a civil war anyway). But what Nasrallah would then do with the smoking ruins of the tiny country remains to be seen. Once ignited, a civil war has a nasty habit of simmering for years. And any effort he would make to establish an Islamic theocracy like the one in Iran would be met with stiff opposition from this, the most secular and westernized of Arab states.

Abu Kais blogging over at Michael Totten’s blog sums up his feelings poignantly:

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora delivered another pretty speech which I won’t quote, because I think it’s useless, given that the man will keep turning the other cheek until he ends up on Hizbullah and Assad’s cross.

My emotions are clearly running high. All I see in front me, as a Lebanese Shia, is Nasrallah’s face as he kidnaps my child into the servitude of his dark lords.

Courage my friend.

HIZBULLAH SEEMS TO HAVE ORGANIZED THE DEMONSTRATION EXTREMELY WELL. IN ADDITION TO PORTABLE TOILETS, THE TENTS ARE FOR MEDICAL PERSONNEL. THERE ARE REPORTS THAT MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF FOOD ARE BEING BROUGHT IN TO FEED THE MULTITUDES.

THE FACE OF THE FUTURE IN LEBANON?

UPDATE

Jim Hoft: “There is still a cancer in Lebanon.” Indeed.

Malkin: “Where are the pro-Western, anti-jihad demonstrators?” For the moment, quiescent. Some Lebanese bloggers are calling for counter-demonstrations but the admonition of Siniora and Jumblat to remain at home is working so far.

If it begins to look like civil war is imminent, I expect we’ll see plenty of the March 14th Forces on hand.

After being mercilessly pummelled the last 2 days by lefty commenters for my ignorance, my closet authoritarianism, my slavish devotion to the cult of Bush, and other wild and wacky imaginings, I thought I’d get away from questions about burning Sunnis, “realist” foreign policy mavens, and the war to talk about something really important.

No, not Lebanon - although I promise a post later today about Nasty Nasrallah and his Merry Band of Cutthroats and their planned “open ended sit in” in Beirut. And no, I will not write today about My Beloveds since they don’t make news on this blog until Sunday. Writing about Pakistan is too depressing. And penning an essay on the weather - 10″ of snow that will need to be blown off the sidewalks in front of the homestead - smacks of self pity and no one wants to read about my aching back or chilled feet.

Today’s topic is the lifeblood of human civilization. One usually uses that term when referring to oil. And indeed, without cheap oil, the wheels of western industrialized civilization would come off and we’d live the way the Greenies intend; residing in “sustainable” mud huts, wearing rags for clothes, and bartering mouse meat for extravagances like ball point pens or nail files.

I am talking about the planet’s second most important commodity. With 400 billion cups drunk annually, coffee’s importance economically, culturally, and socially cannot be denied. Indeed, if oil greases the wheels of industrialized civilization then coffee surely lubricates its living, breathing, moving parts.

The history of coffee is weird. The reason for this is that homo sapiens have probably known of every edible plant, root, grass, and tuber on planet earth for more than 100,000 years. Agriculture - the planting and harvesting of crops - has been around for at least 10,000 years. And yet, the coffee bush escaped cultivation until around 1100 CE. Why this is so is a mystery. Poppies have been cultivated for at least 5,000 years. Marijuana even longer. It is amazing that the little bush, thought to have originated on the hillsides of Ethiopia, was not generally recognized for either its medicinal properties or the salutary effects the berries had on our constitutions.

In any event, there are several amusing anecdotes about the origin of coffee, including one widely told myth of a a sheep herder from Caffa, Ethopia named Kaldi who noticed how frisky his animals got after eating berries off of a particular bush. (And no, I’ve never seen a frisky sheep and have no desire to discover how Kaldi could tell either.)

Seems that Kaldi tried the berries and found himself getting rather frisky as well. This piqued the interest of Arab traders who took the bush back home. For three hundred years, Arabs had pretty much of a monopoly on coffee production, although isolated pockets of cultivation appeared in places like India as a result of stolen seedlings. In fact, it was a crime to transport the bush outside of Arabia.

It was probably the Turks who figured out how to dry the berries and roast them, then soaking them in water to make what we would consider coffee today. The first coffee shops appeared in Constantinople around 1475. The Turks, not knowing any better, added flavorings like anise and cardamom to their coffee - as if one could improve on the Almighty’s handiwork by arbitrarily adding flavorings not in God’s original recipe.

From Turkey, it was a simple matter to jump the Bosporus and land in Venice - the center of life and culture in Europe at the time. The first coffee shops opened there in 1645 and swept across Europe.

Early coffee shops were places of both debauchery and intellectually stimulating conversations. English coffee shops hosted the finest minds of the pre-enlightenment and can be credited in no small way with facilitating the spread of radical democratic ideas. Authorities tried several times to clamp down on these ideas by closing the coffee shops - as if one could stop a tidal wave by commanding the ocean to cease making waves.

Later, the French brought the berry to the New World, specifically their island holdings in the Caribbean where the rich, volcanic soil in places like Martinique produces some of the most flavorful and aromatic varieties in the world. Coffee appeared in Brazil in 1727 and by 1800, most of Central and South America was growing the bush.

Although I believe it sacrilege to add anything to coffee, I realize that I live in a world where coffee lovers come in various shades of latte, cappuccino, mocha, and espresso. So be it. Because the social history of coffee is one of felicity and accommodation in interpersonal relations, I will mention that it appears the first use of sugar in coffee was in the court of The Sun King, Louis XIV in 1713 while the use of milk or cream in the nectar seems to have been continuous since coffee’s discovery. Espresso was invented by the French but perfected by the Italians with the first commercial machine in use by the turn of the 20th century.

Why all the fuss? What is it about coffee that has captured so much of humanity and made it the drink of choice to be shared by friends, philosophers, philanderers, the high born, the low, and most especially, the middling classes?

To say, “It’s the caffeine, dummy” is too pat, too simple. While addictive, caffeine is by all reports a mild stimulant and not a danger to human health when taken in moderation. Of course, those of us who truly love coffee find nothing “moderate” about it. A pot in the morning with a taste in the afternoon and a satisfying after dinner indulgence is a daily routine.

But it is not the amount of coffee one drinks but rather the choice of bean as well as the careful preparation of the elixir that marks the casual coffee drinkers and separates him from the half crazed obsessives such as myself.

For every time of day there is a corresponding type of bean that, when prepared in the proper manner, can bring the sun out from behind the clouds and brighten the mood of anyone.

Mornings require a robust, but richly textured coffee. Most “house blends” seek to achieve this combination but rarely succeed. I rarely bother with blended beans because the quality tends to vary from pot to pot. Starbucks is a perfect example. Millstone also supplies uneven results. This is why for going on 40 years, I have enjoyed a canned coffee. But not just any canned coffee. Stewarts is a Chicago institution and until recently (the last 20 years) was unavailable in most stores. This is the most unique blended coffee I’ve ever had. And if you can keep it fresh, will deliver pot after pot of superbly sublime coffee.

Afternoons require something a little tamer, a taste both smooth and rich while going easy on the palate. Kenyan AA or Kona does nicely. Just about any good highland coffee from Central America will also fill the bill - although I find the Belize bean much the superior to any other from that region.

If you insist on drinking coffee before dinner, try an island coffee. Jamaican is smooth while not being too aromatic. I personally find coffee before dinner a hazard to the enjoyment of the meal. Best to keep the palate cleansed, preferably with water but any good Merlot or Chardonnay that doesn’t leave an aftertaste will do.

The same holds true for drinking coffee with dinner. Given the havoc that coffee can play with our sense of taste, unless you’re eating at Denny’s, wait until dessert.

Here your choices are unlimited. A strong, winey, and full bodied brew is my preference. Can’t get much better than Columbian but many prefer a good Arabica - especially if one is to indulge in dessert. Anything that can overwhelm the tastes of the recently concluded repast so that the coffee isn’t affected by some of the heavier flavors like onion or garlic is desired.

There are literally hundreds of varieties of coffee to choose from for any occasion. But keys to making good coffee are the same regardless of what your personal preferences are; freshness and uniform preparation.

I can’t tell you how to prepare coffee. The idiosyncratic nature of one’s taste buds require that you experiment to discover your own path to coffee Nirvana. If you’ve never paid much attention to how you prepare your coffee, chances are you are missing the full flavor potential of the bean. When experimenting, pay attention to how acidic the coffee is, its aroma, and how the body of the coffee is affected by the combination of more or less water or more or less coffee. When you find a combination that pleases you, stick with it and see if it’s what you had in mind.

As for freshness, here too there are arguments about the best way to keep the bean from going stale. All agree that placing the bean in a hermetically sealed glass or ceramic container is your best bet. When I open my canned coffee, I immediately place it in a glass jar with a lid that can keep the air out. I then place it in a cupboard to keep it away from sunlight, another factor in making coffee lose its freshness.

Some prefer to keep the coffee in the refrigerator. This is controversial due to the moisture that may form in your container. Others recommend freezing the bean. I have tried this and found the coffee nearly tasteless after thawing. For those who might have an interest in the subject, this site gives the pros and cons regarding coffee storage in a pretty straightforward manner.

Regardless of how you prepare it, what beans you use, when you drink it, or what you put into it to enhance its flavor, coffee has greased the skids of social interaction for more than 500 years. More than beer, more than wine or cola, coffee seems always to taste better when drunk in the company of others. It appears to have been placed on earth for the specific purpose of encouraging human beings to interact and enjoy the give and take of stimulating conversation.

For myself and I’m sure for many of you, the world would be a much different place without coffee. Poorer in spirit, I think. Less open, less interesting.

And, no doubt, a much sleepier world as well…