Mero's getting married today. Everyone wish him happy nups!

This, of course, explains his recent lack of posting. Who ever knew tying the knot was such a big deal? And for the next couple weeks, he will be enjoying wedded bliss in Italy. (The Israel portion of the trip was understandably canceled.) During that time, we'll have several guest bloggers. Because, as I've told him, just not that many people want to read a solo blog by me.

In lieu of gifts, please make donations to the Human Fund.

(updated below)

Mero and I do a fair amount of instant messaging during the day. Here's a brief exchange today highlighting how fucked up the Middle East is right now.


Buck: Israel is actually making me want to root for Hezbollah.

Mero: Is that right?

Buck: I can't see any justification for attacking Beirut. That's just too much.

Mero: Yeah, it is too much. But Israelis figure they need to do that to really take out Hezbollah, since that's where all their coordination comes from. But by that logic, they should attack Damascus too.

Buck: Or Tehran.

Mero: That too.

Buck: They're dropping flyers telling people to clear out, but to where? Bombing is taking place all over the country. Israel is literally creating dozens of life-long enemies by the minute.

Mero: Thousands.

Buck: Israel has always relied on the U.S. not just for support, but to hold them back for their own good...This is what happens when we no longer fulfill that role.

Mero: Yep.

Mero: We're at the cusp of a dark, dark time in history.

Mero: I would not be shocked if, in the next couple of years, events lead up to America pulling out of the UN (financially if not in reality).

Buck: Is there actually any stopping point for Israel's campaign, or are they just going to keep going until the world makes them quit? After all, they could probably keep this up for years and not get all of the Hezbollah infrastructure.

Mero: They believe that in another few weeks, they'll get Hezbollah to the point that it can't launch attacks anymore and they'll be at like 10 percent of their original strength.

Mero: And then they want a strong international force in southern Lebanon to make sure it can't do anything.

Buck: There's no way they've got another few weeks.

Buck: Did you hear Nasrallah threatened to hit Tel Aviv in retaliation for the Beirut attacks?

Mero: They'll try to hit Tel Aviv as soon as they're capable, threats or no threats.

Buck: Which is why Israel wants to destroy their capability, natch.

Mero: Tel Aviv is the ultimate target in the Middle East... the symbol of Jewish power in the Middle East.

Buck: Were there attacks there during the infitadas?

Mero: A couple, not many. It's the hardest place to hit by far.

Buck: So them saying they're going to hit it is nothing new.

Mero: Oh, not at all. But until they were able to hit Haifa a few weeks ago, nobody paid attention.

Buck: Did anyone know they had this many long-range rockets?

Mero: Nobody in Israel or the western world, no... Iran probably knew, Syria too.

Buck: Makes you wonder what else the vaunted Israeli and American intelligence services don't know.

Mero: No kidding. Israel has like no presence in Iran or Syria. But they should know better in Lebanon.

Buck: Steve Gilliard said anything less than a completely one-sided, smashing victory was a defeat for Israel. Do you agree?

Mero: Yes. it's like America in Iraq. Or even Vince Chase in "Entourage"... You have to meet or beat expectations. Israel showing weakness at this point is like dripping a little blood in a shark tank... It doesn't take much.

Buck: So... what's the difference this time? Did Hezbollah get smarter, or is it just that they're better armed by Iran and Syria?

Mero: Better armed. It's Iran that got smarter.


UPDATE:

You don't have to look very hard for all those new terrorists Israel and the United States are combining to help create. They're right in the largest city of what was supposed to be a our new ally in the Middle East.

Hundreds of thousands of Shiites chanting "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" marched through the streets of Baghdad's biggest Shiite district Friday in a show of support for Hezbollah militants battling Israeli troops in Lebanon.

***

"I am wearing the shroud and I am ready to meet martyrdom," said Mohammed Khalaf, 35, owner of a clothes shop in the southern city of Amarah.

I'm a White Sox fan (Mero's all about the Cubbies), but this is just too damn amazing to not pass along. Check out these David Ortiz statistics from a column by the Sports Guy comparing Oritz to Larry Bird. I've read this paragraph twice and it's still insane.

If Ortiz has one more walk-off hit in 2006, he'll be the first baseball hitter to have six in a single season since the division era began in 1969. ... Since the start of 2005, he's come up 13 times with the chance for a game-ending plate appearance and made an out only once (and he ended up winning that game in the 12th inning). ... He has the most walk-off hits in any four-year span (12, and that doesn't include the three in the 2004 playoffs, which made him the only player in history with three game-ending postseason hits). ... Since he joined the Red Sox in 2003, he has 15 walk-off hits and the rest of the team has 19 total. ... Since Aug. 1, 2004, Ortiz has hit 21 home runs in 138 at-bats in Late-Inning Pressure Situations (no other player has more than 13). ... Dusty Baker has the most career walk-off hits (25, including the playoffs), but Ortiz is 10 behind. And just for the record, none of those stats include all the times when he tied a game or gave the Red Sox the lead in the seventh or eighth inning.

Earlier today, I posted some gobbledygook Bush spewed the other day about America's foreign policy in the Middle East. Since it sounded like someone had gotten the text by turning on the Neocon Democracy/Terrorism Speech Machine™, I decided to see what would happen if I randomly mixed up El Presidente's sentences.

Honestly, does this make any less sense than the real thing?

QUESTION: So what has happened to America's clout in this region that you've committed yourself to transform?

BUSH: You know, I hear this amazing kind of editorial thought that says, all of a sudden, Hezbollah's become violent because we're promoting democracy. But beneath the surface brewed a lot of resentment and anger that was manifested on September the 11th.

For a while, American foreign policy was just, 'Let's hope everything is calm' — kind of, managed calm. And so what you're seeing is, you know, a clash of governing styles. For example, you know, the notion of democracy beginning to emerge scares the ideologues, the totalitarians, those who want to impose their vision. And this government isn't going to quit.

And, look, I fully understand some people don't believe it's possible for freedom and democracy to overcome this ideology of hatred. It just frightens them. And so they respond. They've always been violent. I understand that.

And so what the world is seeing is a desire by this country and our allies to defeat the ideology of hate with an ideology that has worked and that brings hope. Why? I happen to believe because progress is being made toward democracies. And our foreign policy rejects that concept. And this is — I said the other day, when these attacks took place, I said it should be a moment of clarity for people to see the stakes in the 21st century.

There's this kind of almost — kind of a weird kind of elitism that says well maybe — maybe certain people in certain parts of the world shouldn't be free; maybe it's best just to let them sit in these tyrannical societies. Or Hamas? They have been violent for a long period of time. And we don't accept it. And so we're working.

In the long term, to defeat this ideology — and they're bound by an ideology — you defeat it with a more hopeful ideology called freedom. I mean, now there's an unprovoked attack on a democracy. One reason why the Palestinians still suffer is because there are militants who refuse to accept a Palestinian state based upon democratic principles.

And make no mistake: They're still out there, and they would like to harm our respective peoples because of what we stand for. I just happen to believe it is possible. And I think it's going to work unless we lose our nerve and quit.

It's an interesting period because, instead of having foreign policies based upon trying to create a sense of stability, we have a foreign policy that addresses the root causes of violence and instability. And so we've taken a foreign policy that says: On the one hand, we will protect ourselves from further attack in the short run by being aggressive in chasing down the killers and bringing them to justice. And so I'm as determined as ever to continue fostering a foreign policy based upon liberty.

And one of the challenges, of course, is to convince people that Muslims would like to be free, that there's other people other than people in Britain and America that would like to be free in the world. And I believe that — I also believe that Iran would like to exert additional influence in the region; a theocracy would like to spread its influence using surrogates. And I believe it will happen.

(updated below)

Sometimes, no commentary is needed. Here's the leader of the free world giving a nice concise statement of U.S. policy in the Middle East (I totally stole this from Salon.com):

QUESTION: So what has happened to America's clout in this region that you've committed yourself to transform?

BUSH: It's an interesting period because, instead of having foreign policies based upon trying to create a sense of stability, we have a foreign policy that addresses the root causes of violence and instability. For a while, American foreign policy was just, 'Let's hope everything is calm' — kind of, managed calm. But beneath the surface brewed a lot of resentment and anger that was manifested on September the 11th. And so we've taken a foreign policy that says: On the one hand, we will protect ourselves from further attack in the short run by being aggressive in chasing down the killers and bringing them to justice.

And make no mistake: They're still out there, and they would like to harm our respective peoples because of what we stand for. In the long term, to defeat this ideology — and they're bound by an ideology — you defeat it with a more hopeful ideology called freedom. And, look, I fully understand some people don't believe it's possible for freedom and democracy to overcome this ideology of hatred. I understand that. I just happen to believe it is possible. And I believe it will happen.

And so what you're seeing is, you know, a clash of governing styles.

For example, you know, the notion of democracy beginning to emerge scares the ideologues, the totalitarians, those who want to impose their vision. It just frightens them. And so they respond. They've always been violent.

You know, I hear this amazing kind of editorial thought that says, all of a sudden, Hezbollah's become violent because we're promoting democracy. They have been violent for a long period of time. Or Hamas? One reason why the Palestinians still suffer is because there are militants who refuse to accept a Palestinian state based upon democratic principles.

And so what the world is seeing is a desire by this country and our allies to defeat the ideology of hate with an ideology that has worked and that brings hope. And one of the challenges, of course, is to convince people that Muslims would like to be free, that there's other people other than people in Britain and America that would like to be free in the world.

There's this kind of almost — kind of a weird kind of elitism that says well maybe — maybe certain people in certain parts of the world shouldn't be free; maybe it's best just to let them sit in these tyrannical societies. And our foreign policy rejects that concept. And we don't accept it. And so we're working.

And this is — I said the other day, when these attacks took place, I said it should be a moment of clarity for people to see the stakes in the 21st century. I mean, now there's an unprovoked attack on a democracy. Why? I happen to believe because progress is being made toward democracies.

And I believe that — I also believe that Iran would like to exert additional influence in the region; a theocracy would like to spread its influence using surrogates.

And so I'm as determined as ever to continue fostering a foreign policy based upon liberty. And I think it's going to work unless we lose our nerve and quit. And this government isn't going to quit.

You can read the whole transcript at the Post.


UPDATE:

I decided to see what would happen if I mixed this speech around a little.