An Inch THICK & a Mile Wide

It feels funny to be in Washington, amid the terrible heat (it really IS hot.. the kind where the perspiration dribbles down your forehead and nose, and eventually launches itself on the gravity demanding trip to your shoe) watching the coverage of the mid east fighting on TV. TV proves once again that it can cover a story an inch thick and a mile wide. Little depth, but lots of bang bang.. Thank goodness for Anderson Cooper or we wouldn't have any idea how to feel... that's what he does. He FEELS for us (on camera of course) so we know the Right way to feel about it. Both sides seem to be doing the military version of "talk to the hand".... the Hezbollitas launch rockets on the Israelis, and the Israelis keep dropping bombs with probably greater accuracy than anyone else, but less than a lot of Lebanese might like. I'm always suspect of the destruction of basic infrastructure. We saw in Iraq that bombing the crap out of electrical stations doesn't really help you out in three weeks when you 'd like the populace to be able to turn their lights on. As the bad guys have often shown us, it's a lot easier to destroy than it is to rebuild. Imagine all those tanks and refineries and pipes in all the big facilites near exit 12 - 13 on the New Jersey turnpike taking the kind of punishment that Beirut is getting this week. It would not be pretty. The whole NY area would grind to a halt, and it would be months before things were restarted. So, I remain here (NY / DC) and watch it on tv instead of being there. I used to 'be there' quite a bit. It was what I did. Now I seem to be relying on the MSM (yea, that's the Mainstream Media for those of you who arent Wacko Righties and know what that is supposed to mean)to try and figure out what the hell is going on. I will say there are a number of great photographers, many of whom I have never met nor heard of, but who have been making some very good, very moving photographs from both sides of the battle. We seem to have arrived at one of those times when "normal" life keeps going on, you know, Jessica Simpson doing anything...the search for the Cruise baby...wrapped around the fighting footage. I can't imagine WW2 was like this. That people sort of cared about the war, but REALLY cared about who Sinatra was sleeping with. Nah, I don't think so. We're just sayin. David