Across the Bay

Check out "He Don't Get It" on Across the Bay. I like his joke:

A small Syrian boy finds a tarboush ("fez") in an old drawer, puts it on, and goes to tell his grandmother "look I'm Lebanese!"  Wham, she slaps him across the face. "Go tell your mother."

Tearfully he goes to his mother, "Look Mum, I'm Lebanese!"  Whack, she too clouts him across the face. "Go immediately and tell your father."

Desperately anxious, he goes to his father "Look, Daddy, I'm Lebanese!" The old man takes a stick and beats him blue. "Now what do you say to that?" he asks.

Between sobs the child says "I've only been Lebanese for five minutes, and already I hate all you Syrians."

Meanwhile, Rich Lowry finds more cause for hope. He spoke with someone "in the know" on the Middle East who sees plenty of signs of things going the right way. The fact that the Saudis have told Syria to get out of Lebanon is huge.

In general, people shouldn't be unrealistic. There will still be plenty of bad news in the future. But the tectonic plates have shifted in the Middle East the last few weeks and there's no pushing them back.