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Saturday, October 20, 2007

Link Updates

I've made a few additions to the web links on the left-hand side of the AHU page. Added have been Robert Reich's Blog and James Howard Kunstler's Clusterfuck Nation. Reich is a smart guy, former Sec'y of Labor under Clinton (42?), and author of the new book Supercapitalism. Kunstler, who wrote one of my favorite formative books, The Geography of Nowhere, has in recent years taken aim at Peak Oil scenarios and the future (or, better, pending implosion) of the American 'happy motoring' suburban dream and landscape. A bit alarmist but always interesting, he publishes a new piece every Monday.

One more link note: Riverbend, the Girl Blogger of Baghdad finally fled that country late last month, seeking shelter from the violence along with her family in neighboring Syria. Since before the Iraq War she was a smart, wholly sympathetic observer who chronicled first-hand the decline of her nation and her life. Well educated, very Westernized, and never a fan of Saddam or dictatorship, she watched with hope as the occupation began. She was one of the first to write of the emerging snafus and missteps of the Coalition and nascent Iraqi governments, most often with a resigned humor. But over the months and years that humor she wore as her suit of armor was seen less and less. As her neighbors and relatives were killed, kidnapped, and tortured, as bombs tore up her once middle class district, and as sectarainism and fundamentalism flourished she continued to write about the devolution of her daily life. Gaps began to appear in her blogging. By the end sometimes weeks would go by without posts. One senses it all just became too much to even think about.

Now she's escaped and trying to adjust to life as a refugee.

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