Risky Business

Jesus, this is really shocking stuff -- a grim reminder of just how dangerous the job of an international correspondent can be, particularly a female correspondent and particularly one who regularly and courageously puts herself in the middle of some of the most violent, calamitous situations on the planet in order to bring the news home to the masses:

"On Friday February 11, the day Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak stepped down, CBS correspondent Lara Logan was covering the jubilation in Tahrir Square for a 60 MINUTES story when she and her team and their security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration. It was a mob of more than 200 people whipped into frenzy.

In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers. She reconnected with the CBS team, returned to her hotel and returned to the United States on the first flight the next morning. She is currently in the hospital recovering.

There will be no further comment from CBS News and Correspondent Logan and her family respectfully request privacy at this time."

I've taken a couple of shots at Logan in the past, mostly because of statements she made which implied that journalists should defer to the those in positions of authority, but obviously what's happened to her is just sickening and unconscionable.

I wish her all the best.

F R E E D O M

This is what it looks like.


This is how powerful it is.


This is the hope it brings.


This is what we tell our children is worth fighting for at all costs.


What we've just witnessed is nothing short of astonishing.

Revel in this.

ABC News: Mubarak Steps Down, Cairo Erupts with Joy/2.11.11

All's Pharoah

The real reason for the violence in Cairo right now: the Egyptian people found out that Fuad Ramses would be the new official state caterer and health czar.



Please tell me somebody out there is familiar with this movie and I didn't just waste a perfectly good bit.

Pyramid Steam

Is this funny?

Eh, not particularly.

Is it offensive and does it warrant an immediate apology from Kenneth Cole himself for having the insensitivity to make light of the situation in Egypt?

Oh for God's sake.

If Kenneth Cole wants to make it up to all of the protesters in Cairo -- who you know took time out from being beaten savagely with truncheons today to complain about this tweet -- he should just ship over a bunch of shoes they can remove and throw at Mubarak's presidential palace.

Quote of the Day

"Okay, so I haven't been covering Egypt here. I'm a shitty blogger, etc. The reason I haven't posted anything yet is chiefly because I'm ambivalent about the end game -- as I am with any large scale uprising. We simply don't know whether the potential new government will actually be far worse to its people and a greater threat to America. The potential for there to be a radical, theocratic government that replaces the Mubarak military government is -- what? -- 50/50? So while the goals of free elections and liberty are noble, and worthy of our full throated support, what are the real odds of that coming to fruition in this transfer? I don't know yet. The only thing we can hope for, perhaps, is a strong western influence (us) pulling some stunts behind the scenes to swing the outcome closer to our favor."

-- Bob Cesca

Speaking of shitty bloggers, I admit that I lazily pulled Cesca's explanation for why he's stayed silent on Egypt over here because it kind of nails my thoughts on the head. Unlike Fox news, which can't even find the fucking place on a map (sure it was likely a mistake by one guy in graphics, but oh was it a good one), I don't pretend to know enough about the decades and even centuries of political and social machinations within Egypt that have led to this one moment of epochal upheaval. And the last thing I want to be is one more dilletante American asshole offering ridiculous commentary from half-a-world away. I know that if we hope for every new government -- or even ones that already exist -- to embrace our ideals or at least be friendly toward our interests, we're going to be waiting a long time, so maybe it's myopic and culturally narcissistic to look at this revolution only in terms of how it might benefit the U.S. It may, it may not; freedom grows in unpredictable and sometimes ugly ways. That's why we have a State Department (and why I took offense not long ago at the idea of Wikileaks unleashing internal State Department cables and claiming they revealed nefarious skulduggery; that's what the agency is there for, to negotiate and smooth things over with countries we otherwise wouldn't be able to, and to do it sometimes by any means necessary).


The only angle in all of this that I think I can comment on, because I've done it before, is the way that social networking has become so powerful -- the instantaneous worldwide communication and transparency it provides so dangerous (as evidenced, actually, by the Wikileaks saga) -- that it can organize a revolution and prompt governments to try to look for the internet off switch.

It really is a brave new world out there.