Last week Omar showed us some photographs of private commercial and public reconstruction in Baghdad. Ays, filled with the good spirits of a free man and a few more dinars in his pocket, fixed his own house up.

Busy. If you're a regular (the Few, the Compulsive) and need uBlog, read one of my essays. Or if you prefer light material, hit entries from Only in Japan. Or write me — speed-reading only takes a second.

I'll be blogging some this evening and through the weekend but before I do anything else, best wishes for the Memorial Day weekend. Attend your city's parade and stay for the service — it's the least each one of us can do to honor our country's fallen.