Happy mistranslated day of the beast day! While I take a break from chatting with the Whore of Babylon, basking in the blood sea, and watching the sun turn black, I thought today would be a good day to look at how things are going in the ancient land between the four rivers where Adam and his Eve lived.

Sadly, the word is that things are not going well. Depressingly unwell. I'm not sure why the major media are not reporting this more heavily, but a post at Andrew Sullivan's excellent blog points to reports that much of Baghdad is now under the control of religious extremists. (Some would argue that it's all under the control of religious extremists, but...) While major news organizations have reported on the shooting of men wearing shorts, this appears to be part of a larger problem that many, many on-the-ground Iraqi bloggers are writing about.

From "Healing Iraq" blog:

Baghdadis are reporting that radical Islamists have taken control over the Dora, Amiriya and Ghazaliya districts of Baghdad, where they operate in broad daylight. They have near full control of Saidiya, Jihad, Jami’a, Khadhraa’ and Adil. And their area of influence has spread over the last few weeks to Mansour, Yarmouk, Harthiya, and very recently, to Adhamiya.

From Baghdad Connect:

In Amriya, Saydiya and Hai AL Jamm’ah in Baghdad a Saudi emergent social paradigm is taking shape. Written warnings have been posted in the streets saying that women are not allowed to walk the streets or drive cars without a Hijab (head and neck cover) Fortunately women are still allowed to drive cars!

From Iraqi Screen

Only yesterday, a legal inspector told me that four women found dead in Hay Al-Jihad with shaved hair because they were driving cars and not putting hijab.

Eight kids between 12-15 year shot on their heads in Ameriyia and Hay Al-jihad in Baghdad because they were wearing short pants, by two ”Opel” cars carrying few men hiding their faces with Kufiyia.

Etc. It's interesting to note, in light of liberal/left opposition to the war in Iraq, that the people we're fighting there are not exactly liberal/left. It's also interesting to note that they wouldn't be in charge there if we hadn't blundered in and turned the country upside down. We're essentially in the process of creating a fundementalist Islamic state. I'm pretty sure that was the opposite of the plan, but what do I know.