Here’s what’s caught my eye this morning:
- Is it my imagination or did SiteMeter hiccup this morning?
- There’s a fascinating discussion going on in the comments section of this post on Phoenicianist revisionism in today’s Lebanon from Across the Bay. If you don’t know what that is, you’ll have a pretty good idea after reading the post (and comments). Remember: archaeology isn’t a science, it’s a vendetta.
- With all the attention that’s being paid to New Orleans (and now Houston) we’re tending to forget that the worst damage of the storm was in Mississippi. Much Nothing About Ado lives there and has lots of great posts on the hurricane and the aftermath. The gist: the professional new media are misreporting the story. Hat tip: AKMA.
- Speaking of Mississippi, Argghhh! has a note from someone in the Defense Coordinating Element there you probably should read. And more on the military response.
- Bank of China laundering shady North Korean transactions? From Elite Chinese Politics and Political Economy.
That’s the lot.
Of course, they should read everything else at Argghhh! too… 8^)
Sitemeter: Checked the Sitemeter blog – he’s doing maintenance on the servers – but still collecting data, so when he’s done, your meter *should* update.
It’s worked in the past when he’s had to take ’em down for a while, so I would expect it will work again!
Vendetta?
Nah. Tool for myth making in some instances. This one has zero to do with actual archaelogy, however. It’s about identity politics of the worst kind.
The Maronite silliness re “we’re not Arabs, we’re Phoenicians” arose out of the neo-Fascist movement among them a while back. It’s rather silly at some level, given it’s something of a false dichotomy, but identify politics exists by its own logic.