Donald Sensing points to some good reading.

Up and running after a short break, Sensing found a pile of good stuff:

This, from American Digest:

To be able to alter and control the facts on the ground in the Middle East across a ten to twenty year period, Iraq is essential in a way that again becomes obvious from merely looking at the map of the country. It was popular among the Left to say, in the buildup to the war, that "It's About the Oil." As is often the case, they were wrong. Oil is an important resource in Iraq but it is not the most important resource that Iraq controls. What Iraq has that Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia do not is not oil, but fresh water. In fact, Iraq has almost all of the fresh water in the region. It is water that determines life in the Middle East and there's not a lot of it. The two largest rivers, Tigris and Euphrates, flow down the core of Iraq before bending towards Iran to share those waters briefly with Iran before meeting the ocean. No other country gets so much of a taste unless Iraq agrees. Iran has little fresh water as does Syria. Saudi Arabia has almost none. It is one thing to control oil fields. The wealth from that resource can buy desalination plants that give yourexpanding population the water to survive. If the oil tap is cut off, the economies of the west would begin to wither and die within three months. Cut off water and populations begin to die within three days.

Different from what we have been thinking. (Instapundit found it first. It needed to be passed along.) But things haven't changed much from the time of Nebuchadnezzar.

He also has some dramatic pictures up of the Danish fireworks factory fire. They make and sell fireworks in Tennessee, so he might imagine looking at scenes like those coming out of the next hollow. The pictures will be gone in a few days, he said, to save bandwidth.

While you're there, take a look at his blogroll. Excellent.