As the world turns

Maybe you were as surprised and pleased as I was to see Badger sharing top billing with ex-Chalabi attack-dog Nibras Kazimi on Marc Lynch's recent blog-post about bad behaviour. I don't think it was lost on anyone that this was essentially a cheap attempt to try and boost my name-recognition and readership. Still, in Marc's defense, I should note that he says 98% of his blog-relationships are positive, and since I am considered somewhat hard to get along with, he probably felt this was his only way of reaching out to me to make it a round 99%.

We also have to realize that he is in Washington, where influence is the air you breathe, and he must get very tired indeed dealing with government officials, hangers-on, toadies, professors, and others looking for access and a positive relationship with the aforementioned. As he says: "emotions run high". So it isn't hard to imagine the pleasure he gets from an acquaintance, however superficial, with someone like myself who stands outside of that group, and I guess he succumbed to the temptation to try and lend me a hand, however awkwardly, in my endeavours. Thanks Marc.

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This just in: The most prolific commenter at the coinblog of one of Marc's many Washington friends immediately picked up on the promote-Badger theme, with a note that said in part:

I'll be kinder than Lynch.

Don't read Badger, unless you want the same antiseptic screed every day. You don't even need to click on the site because you know exactly what it will say, no matter what the actual facts prove to be.

Don't go to "Long War Journal." Don't go to "Blackfive." Don't go to a lot of very simplistic agitprop sites, no matter where you believe your preconceptions would best be assuaged.

Badger/Kazimi. Badger/Long War Journal. What do you think? A marketing strategy? In any event, the above-mentioned commenter notes he prefers to read Mark Lynch, because he is "a nimble thinker". Amen to that.