tendons are my achilles

woe. tendonitis has struck again in my right hand. i am typing this with my left. it really is that bad. not that i'll stop posting, but don't expect fanciness like capitalization. actually, i think that the incessant typing merely exacerbated as opposed to caused the condition -- the main culprit is playing the guitar fingerstyle for more than about an hour a day. there are people who practice much more than this, of course, so i wonder if there is something about my form that is stressing the old right wrist. or maybe i am just prone to inflammation of the tendons. (i also have a right achilles that require scant provocation to swell and hurt).

it seems that dan nexon of the duck of minerva has branched out into vlogging (i know. how many more vile words can this technology sow?) check it out. It's a good analysis of the current situaioon in Lebanon. Nexon drives home the point that the lebanese government don't like a non-state military organization on their doorsteps. they would certainly have gotten rid of hezbollah by now if that is something they know they can do. Israel's attacks have raised the stakes and may well force the lebanese into confronting hezbollah. whether they will have the ability is another question. Also, if they go after hezbollah now, it would be seen not as a sovereign nation cleaning house but as giving in to the demands of an aggressor. this will will not go down well domestically with a populace that containes many supporters of hezbollah.

His second video entry has to do with why, though cantonization might initially seen like a good way to cut throught the ethnic strife in iraq, it is in fact a really bad idea.