Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Spreading points

Keith Schneider: George Lakoff and the Mode Shift. A thoughtful dilation of George's book Thinking Points, among other things.

A market sight

How about an open market for tech support requests? is my first post at the ProjectVRM Blog. In it I wonder about an open market for tech support — one that isn't bound by the private domain we call a "site".

Ech Support

Stuff like this makes me tired.

I'd rather laugh. (Go here if the first one doesn't look right.) A sample:

Different reporters, different angles, different stories

On the pessimistic side there's Iraq refugee: 'I feel disaster' as crisis grows in CNN:

The United Nations estimates 700,000 Iraqis have fled to Jordan -- more than one-tenth the entire kingdom's population. As many as 1 million more Iraqis are estimated to have sought refuge in Syria, about 120,000 are in Egypt and 40,000 in Lebanon, according to the United Nations.

Inside Iraq, another 1 million to 2 million people have been forced out of their homes as a result of the violence, according to the United Nations. About 26 million people live in Iraq.

Also Scores killed as Shiite pilgrims targeted again in Iraq, in CNN:

Attacks on Shiite pilgrims en route to the Iraqi holy city of Karbala continued into a third day as bombings killed 15 people Wednesday in Baghdad, police said.

A suicide car bomber struck an Iraqi police checkpoint as pilgrims walked in southwestern Baghdad's Saydiya neighborhood, killing eight -- seven police and a pilgrim -- and wounding 25 -- 15 police and 10 pilgrims, a Baghdad police official said.

Earlier Wednesday, attackers detonated a roadside bomb before opening fire on pilgrims, killing at least seven and wounding 14 others in the capital's predominately Sunni Dora district, the official said.

Iraqi security forces have been deployed into Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad to secure the roads for the Shiite pilgrims.

The blasts followed two days of bombings and small-arms attacks that left scores dead or wounded.

On the optimistic side there's Imposing Law enters week III in Iraq the Model:

Numbers are always useful in assessing results of any effort, and the numbers so far are on the good guys’ side. I read today that the count of various death squads’ victims for this month is one half that of January, and little more than one third that of December of last year. This comes from the official figures reported by the Baghdad morgue.

The other number that’s become one of the important parameters for assessing the situation in the Baghdad is the number of displaced families that have returned to their homes since the beginning of Operation “Imposing Law.” This one too is giving a positive sign. The last official count by the authorities brought the total to little over 1,020 families in just two weeks according to Baghdad paper al-Mada.

While many Iraqi families are returning to the homes they once were forced to leave, there are also Baghdadis who are reopening their stores, ending the months they spent out of business because of violence and intimidation. Some streets that were virtually deserted a few months ago are slowly showing signs of returning to life.

The reopening stores even include some liquor shops! There are two stores on one street that I used to shop that closed early last year when their owners received death threats from the insurgents and the militias. Yesterday I walked through that street and, to my amazement, I found both stores open and back in business.

Of course the reopening of two liquor stores is no big deal by itself when we are talking about a city where thousands of businesses are still shuttered. I regard this as a further positive sign of a change in Baghdad’s daily life. It means that those shopkeepers are leaving their fear behind, and openly ignoring the threats of militias and insurgents who once ruled the streets and intimidated the people with threats and violence.

The results of Operation “Imposing Law” are not magical. We didn’t expect them to be magical. The commanders didn’t claim they’d be when the Operation began. Still these latest developments are certainly promising. And let’s not forget that what has been achieved so far was achieved while many thousands of the new troops assigned to Baghdad are yet to arrive.

Also in Iraq the model, Street Justice:

Violent incidents are still decreasing in number and impact in Baghdad. Yesterday for instance the only reported incident was the abduction of an adviser to the minister of defense by gunmen in western Baghdad. It was less than 24 hours until the security forces succeeded in freeing the abducted general and arresting 4 of his captors.

Read the comments too.