My friend Val Dorta emailed to say that Foundersweb, a new conservative networking site that he and his son are involved in, is up and running. It’s worth looking at and spreading the word about. (Val’s essays and posts are always worth reading.)
Blogging
It is moments like this I am glad I do not have a TV.
Television is providing, as usual during momentous events, all noise and no signal, plus random images which may or may not be intelligible.
Today, while I was not watching TV, I finished John O’Sullivan‘s book about Reagan, Thatcher and Pope John Paul II
It was a better use of my time than watching blather about Egypt from people who don’t know any more than I do about it.
Blogs are a little better but not much. All kinds of conventional wisdom seems to bloom and wither and rebloom based on not much of anything. The only person I see who seems to have anything interesting to say is John Robb, e.g. this: this and this. But I don’t know if he is just guessing, either.
And just today, a book came in the mail, which I got for one cent + plus postage: To War with Whitaker: Wartime Diaries of the Countess of Ranfurly, 1939-45
“My name,” he said, “is Wingate, Orde Wingate. I am going south in five days’ time. I shall raise a revolt in Abyssinia. First I shall go to Khartoum — the Emperor is there. Then I shall drop behind the lines and stay there till, with the aid of the Abyssinians and my small force, we can overthrow the Italians. Now I want you to come as my secretary — you can type, do shorthand, cope with signals?”
I nodded.
“Can you ride, and speak French?”
I nodded again.
“You might have to be dropped by parachute — you wouldn’t mind that?”
“Not if I am supplied with the right kind of underwear,” I laughed.
“Lady Ranfurly, I must have an English secretary. There are none to be found in the Middle East. Will you come and help me? Can you be ready by Tuesday? You will be back in six months.”
Who could turn down a job offer like that? I will soon find out what happens. This one is going to the top of the pile.
The only thing that compares to the benefits of not having a TV is deactivating a Facebook account. One month Facebook free. I liked it, I like my FB friends. But it was taking up way too much time.
Recommended Reading
I had intended to write an analytical post about the tumultuous events in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world and then I recalled that a) I do not speak or read Arabic b) am not versed in contemporary Egyptian politics c) am not an Arabist by academic training d) have never visited the Middle East and e) even those who are all of these things are often doing more news updating on twitter than deep analysis.
Egypt is the demographic and geographic center of the Arab Sunni world – but without the economic resources to make Egypt the power that Nasser once aspired that it would be in the heady era of postcolonial, nationalist, Pan-Arabism. So Nasser became a client of the Soviets, who could fund his ambitions and Egypt was a quasi- Soviet satellite until Sadat kicked the Soviets out for trying to undermine him in favor of a more pliant stooge, and accepted American patronage. Sadat’s assassination gave us Mubarak and his hated familial-military-party oligarchy (Ok, the military and party were largely there, but Mubarak’s rule has discredited them).
So, instead of my projecting what will happen next, I’ll devote this recommended reading to other bloggers and news sources who are freer with their conjecture:
Top Billing! Thomas P.M. Barnett Preliminary scenario voting results at Wikistrat’s Egyptian war room (updated 1630 EST Sun) and First ever Virtual Strategic War-Room Launched following Egyptian Chaos and the Wikistrat Virtual Strategic War Room site.
No Tom is not an Arabist either, but he does have experience with designing and participating in professional war games and futurism sessions inside the USG and out. The war room, to my casual observation, seems like an IT effort to synthesize expert analysis and crowdsourcing a primitive/structured prediction market. Interesting.
Abu Muqawama – An Open Letter to the Egyptian People, Egypt: A Humble Request.
Arabist.net The who’s who of the has-beens
Marc Lynch –Washington eyes a fateful day in Egypt and Obama’s handling Egypt pretty well
Col. Pat Lang-The Outlook for Egypt and the Middle East Is Grim By – Robert K. Lifton , More sensible attitudes on Egypt today, Omar Suleiman sworn in as VP
SWJ Blog – Days of Unrest (Update)
STRATFOR – The Egypt Crisis in a Global Context: A Special Report | STRATFOR
Fabius Maximus –Important information about the riots in Egypt and Why do we fear the rioters in Egypt?
HNN (Haider Khan) – Egypt, What Next?
Global Guerrillas – EGYPT: How to Lead and Open Source Protest , EGYPT: Mubarak’s Survival Strategy and EGYPT: Looting as Counter-Insurgency
Juan Cole –Egypt’s Class Conflict
Outside the Beltway –Egyptians Upset With U.S. Response To Crisis and Egypt and the Limits of US Power
That’s it.
Announcement: The Ronald Reagan Roundtable on February 6th
February 6th 2011 marks the centennial of the birth of America’s 40th president, Ronald Wilson Reagan and it is an appropriate time to reflect on the legacy of a man whose presidency altered the course of his party, his nation and the world. It is no exaggeration to say that events set in motion by the Reagan administration are still unfolding today and the ideas and values championed by Ronald Reagan continue to shape our public policies and frame our political discourse.
Therefore, to commemorate and debate this important legacy, the Ronald Reagan Roundtable, hosted here at Chicago Boyz will begin February 6th and end on the 16th.
Foreign Policy, Tunisia and the net
[ cross-posted from Zenpundit ]
Foreign Policy has had two articles up in the last couple of days with somewhat similar headlines:
The site which specifically tracks WikiLeaks on Tunisia is TuniLeaks:
My rosette for best tweet of the week goes to Galrahn and all those who RT’d him:
What a world, eh?