Catching my eye: morning A through Z (UPDATED)

Here’s what’s caught my eye this morning:

• I’d meant to link to this earlier in the week. Syrian blogger Ammar Abdulhamid of Amarji asks a number of interesting questions:
  • Can anyone name one thing that is modern but not Western?
  • Will gunboat diplomacy work with a certain country I wonder?
  • We have thieves and thugs for decision-makers, avaricious morons for policy advisors and dreamy nincompoops for technocrats. How on earth can we modernize with this lot?
  • How can a haphazard groups of westernized liberals attempt to transform a society that rejects them on all levels?

  There’s a lot more. Read the whole thing.

• It’s possible to have opposed the invasion of Iraq and think we should stay the course there. And it’s possible to continue to be in favor of the war in Iraq and be dissatisfied with the president’s performance. Read this post and, particularly, the comments section from Winds of Change. I see that PGL of Angry Bear like me is one of the former.
• Gerard Vanderleun of American Digest interrupts his vacation with an essay contrasting hive and town. Perhaps this would be a good time to remember Chesterton’s observation that the greater purpose of travel is returning home again.
• Babalu Blog remembers Fidel Castro’s birthday with a translation of an article by Vicente Echerri.
• Maurice Bernstein of Bioethics Discussion Blog writes about telling a patient that he or she is terminally ill.
• Ask and ye shall receive. In response to Michael Totten’s request for a steak au poivre recipe (that’s black pepper, folks, not Bell pepper) one of Bill Quick’s readers responds with a very adequate recipe. I’d deglaze with wine or stock rather than heavy cream, though. There’s also a very creative recipe for a low-fat, low-cal cheesecake. I think I’d substitute for the lard or shortening. White shortening generally has trans-fats which are a no-no.
• Nadezhda of Liberals Against Terrorism’s post, “Best Practices in Counterinsurgency – Can we shift the debate?” is (along with the Military Review article to which it links) without question the must-read post of the day.
• MedPundit reflects on the frontal lobotomy.
• Another absolute must-read. When you reflect on the bombing of Hiroshima by the United States, also think a little about the Battle of Manila in which the Japanese killed more than 100,000 civilians.

That’s the lot.