Greetings From Baghdad

Well, not really. Actually, I’m here feeling a bit useless on the Georgia Coast. My heart just hasn’t been in Blogging this week as you can see from the lack of new postings. I had to spend part of a day working at the theater tearing down (what they call “striking the set”) from “The Mousetrap” that just finished a three-week run last Sunday. It’s sad that something that took two months to build can be torn down in only five hours.

And of course I’m still mourning Johnny Carson's death this week. Late night TV just hasn't been the same since his retirement, even with Leno's and Letterman's best efforts.

I've got the travel itch really bad. If I were fifteen or twenty years younger, I would do my best to go to Iraq or at least volunteer to go to Asia to help out with the Tsunami relief efforts. My age and health just won’t support my heart’s and mind’s wishes these days, however. It’s a bitch getting older…

As I posted last weekend, I’ve been following the situation in Iraq through the Internet, trying to get an independent feel for what is going on. I’ve actually turned FOX News and the TV Networks off for half of the day (I’m usually a 12 to16 hour/day news junkie) and I’ve been reading internet Blog sites and I’m a bit surprised at what I am finding.

There is River Bend Blog’s “Baghdad Burning” written by an articulate Iraqi woman that gives some interesting day to day insights into life in country. She’s definitely not 100% pro USA but she still has some interesting things to say. Healing Iraq, written by Zeyad, an Iraqi Dentist, has some interesting maps available that give a good picture of the ethnic and religious variations in the Iraqi population.

Iraq Net has a good assortment of English language news stories written with a slightly different slant from those found here in the NY Times or USA Today.

The Iraqi Schools site is currently managed by Major Nate Hines and is coordinating the collection and distribution of school supplies here in the US for delivery to students in Iraq. They’ve delivered over one million pounds of materials to date. Check them out and help if you can.

Finally, I’ll be following the brand new Friends of Democracy site that was just launched yesterday. It will be interesting to see what kind of news “scoops” I can get from this site. You can be there as the news develops too.

I say that we tell Dan Rather to kiss it…and gather our own news…