It’s good to see that ESWN has now pulled ahead in the Asia Blog Awards and is now the leader in the Hong Kong blog category. (Of course, that can change by the time you see this post.) I love Conrad and Gweilo Diaries, but it’s gone and it doesn’t make much sense to proclaim it the winner and then not be able to see it.

I don’t just think ESWN is the best Asian blog, I think it’s one of the best blogs, period. As in the best in the world. I go there religiously, and I want to link to just about everything.

His chronicling of stories and photos of the Iraq war is a gift (be sure to see his latest addition — oh, and check out who his readers named as Man of the Year).

Today, the wisdom I received there was in regard to those sweet touchy-feely Kodak-moment photos that are always linked to by InstaPuppy and Little Green Cesspools — the smiling marines surrounded by adoring kids at a newly built-by-Halliburton school. ESWN points out how the story of Pat Tillman’s death was, a la Pvt. Jessica Lynch, revised and fictionalized to evoke maximum sympathy from us folks back home. He then makes the astute and important observation, punctuated with a link you must see to believe:

Consequently, happy-talk photos, especially those credited to United States Marine Corps personnel, must be automatically assumed to be part of United States pscyhological operations since that function is integrated with and indistinguishable from information operations and public affairs. This is how Pentagon treat it, and they have the combined weight of the multi-billion dollar budget to support them. I am only here to support alternative viewpoints such as in The Children of Iraq, where you can fill in your own words without anyone telling you. Remember, photos don’t lie. Right?

[Link is here; scroll down to the bottom.]

Anyway, I just felt I had to give a tribute to this great blog, which has more accumulated wisdom than any I know. Now, if only I could view it perfectly in Firefox, I’d be totally satisfied.