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*** Surprisingly, the WaPo highlights a positive impact of US reconstruction efforts in a story about the Iraqi date crop:

In the calculus of preventing Iraq's slide toward civil war, reconstructing Iraq's economy is a top priority. And dates are Iraq's second-biggest export, after oil. Revitalizing the industry could help reduce sectarian tensions by creating thousands of jobs while generating revenue to rebuild Iraq, improve security and lessen the country's dependence on U.S. reconstruction dollars.

Now, after years of neglect, war and sanctions, the date industry is showing signs of recovery, partly through U.S. efforts. Farmers are being introduced to market-oriented capitalism after years of depending on state subsidies under the government of Saddam Hussein.

In May, helicopters contracted by the U.S. military sprayed thousands of acres of date palm trees across Iraq with pesticides to eradicate insects that had caused major damage.

If the New York Times ran the story, the headline might read: "Shades of Vietnam: Mercenary Helicopters Defoliate Iraqi Jungles; Contribute to Global Warming."

*** I see merit in both the "avoid gratuitous offense" and "aggressively protect free speech and Western values" memes that spring from the controversies over the Pope's remarks and the Danish cartoons; these ideas aren't antithetical. Anne Applebaum makes a strong case for the latter:

None of the radical clerics accepts Western apologies, and none of their radical followers reads the Western press. Instead, Western politicians, writers, thinkers and speakers should stop apologizing -- and start uniting.

By this, I don't mean that we all need to rush to defend or to analyze this particular sermon; I leave that to experts on Byzantine theology. But we can all unite in our support for freedom of speech -- surely the pope is allowed to quote from medieval texts -- and of the press. And we can also unite, loudly, in our condemnation of violent, unprovoked attacks on churches, embassies and elderly nuns.
...
[N]othing the pope has ever said comes even close to matching the vitriol, extremism and hatred that pour out of the mouths of radical imams and fanatical clerics every day, all across Europe and the Muslim world, almost none of which ever provokes any Western response at all. And maybe it's time that it should: When Saudi Arabia publishes textbooks commanding good Wahhabi Muslims to "hate" Christians, Jews and non-Wahhabi Muslims, for example, why shouldn't the Vatican, the Southern Baptists, Britain's chief rabbi and the Council on American-Islamic Relations all condemn them -- simultaneously?

She's got a point.

*** It's silly to draw facile equivalencies between modern evangelical Christianity and radical Islam (a la Andrew Sullivan), but some surprising folks may aspire to:

Film Shows Youths Training to Fight for Jesus

Speaking in tongues, weeping for salvation, praying for an end to abortion and worshipping a picture of President Bush -- these are some of the activities at Pastor Becky Fischer's Bible camp in North Dakota, "Kids on Fire," subject of the provocative new documentary, "Jesus Camp."

"I want to see them as radically laying down their lives for the gospel as they are in Palestine, Pakistan and all those different places," Fisher said. "Because, excuse me, we have the truth."

An odd analogy, though I'm not quite sure if she's referring to radical Muslims for an example, or merely Christians in those countries who have been killed for their religious belief. Either way, death probably isn't the best thing to teach at a kid's summer camp. Martyrdom's admittedly much more exciting than making tin can totem poles or macaroni sculptures, but it can't touch the frolic of a good potato sack race. No sir.

"A lot of people die for God," one camper said, "and they're not afraid."

"We're kinda being trained to be warriors," said another, "only in a funner way."

This interview with the directors paints a more moderate picture, but I admit some, ah, trouble getting past the initial quotes. More here. Apparently the camp and movie are pretty controversial among evangelicals.

*** And continuing the spirit of our recent deep theology discussions, via the sitemeter, I have the bizarre duty to announce that INDC is the number four google result for "Is Joey Lawrence a Christian?"

Best guess: might he be a Je-"WHOA!"-vah's Witness?

(Ra-ta-ta. Don't forget to tip your waitress.)

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Posted by: pennywit at September 20, 2006 09:50 AM

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