Blankets in July

Good morning. Three new items today.

• A little worn out by the barrage of material on the bombings? Here's a dig from the heart's archives: The New York Times published this piece as an OpEd in 1982. I’d been out of Lebanon for three years and failing miserably at forgetting. I remember reading this back then, clipping it, savoring it, typing it over and sending it to my grandmother in Lebanon. There’s never been a better time to revive it, now that so many Lebanese have been made to feel like such strangers in their own land: "Turning lebanese: A Family Story," by Barbara Beway (with a poicture of Lebanon's mighty Sannin mountain]
  

• Candide's Notebooks contributor OhDave argues against the now-commonly peddled notion that siding against Israel means "siding with the terrorists" in "Wrong Question, Right Response."
  

• Candide's Recommendations: Links to the latest follies in Beirut, including Condi Rice's blanket idiocy, Hezbollah's Nasralla's television promise of launching missiles "beyond Haifa," and a terrific column in Beirut's Daily Star about Israel appearing to be, to some Muslims anyway, like the lesser enemy in this go-around. All here...

Remember: Candide's Recommendations are updated throughout the day. Thanks for visiting. pt