Beirut Riots: these were unsurprising. I have been telling you that the place is boiling with divisions, tensions, and animosities while Hassan Fattah and Washington Post were busy hailing the "Cedar Revolution." The anger at LBC-TV is now new, and this is not related exclusively to this particular episode of its highly unfunny program, Basmat Watan. This is like anger among African-Americans here in the US at racist shows on TV: networks would then promise to do better and hire more African-Americans, or promise to hire more African-Americans. LBC-TV has the worst record in terms of exclusive Christian composition of its staff, and everybody else on the premises. Many Lebanese note that when they run the credits after any program. (NBN, New TV, and Future TV all have a diverse staff, while Al-Manar also has (non-diverse) largely Shi`ite (and some Sunni) staff). An-Nahar, for example, is a sectarian Christian newspaper, but they hire Muslims--Sunnis and Shi`ites, provided those Muslims are fanatical advocates of right-wing causes and of Patriarch Sfayr, like Muhammad Abu Samra for example. Even Fox News hires African-Americans. But LBC-TV is also very openly sectarian and openly racist. This was bound to happen--especially as Lebanese Forces have been asserting control of the station after the release of war criminal Samir Ja`ja`. I of course would never object to mocking or ridiculing anybody anywhere, and believe that people in position of political leadership should expect to be mocked and ridiculed if they operate outside of Ba`thist Syria or Saudi Arabia. But LBC-TV--unlike Saturday Night Live for example--does not practice equal opportunity criticisms or satire--they are not sophisticated enough to be given the word "satire." They do silly and unfunny sarcasm. I think that Everybody Loves Raymond--and I never ever loved Raymond--is even more funny--if that is the word. Shi`ites and others have been getting fed up with the sectarian biases of LBC-TV, and of the monopoly of thought and propaganda exercised by right-wing Hariri and his allies. Nobody dares attack Rafiq Hariri or even mini-Hariri or even Patriarch Sfayr. But the riots also point out to something important: that the base of Hizbullah may be not satisfied with the "dialogue option" pursued by Nasrallah, and this may indicate the the Hizbullah leadership is more moderate than the base. Nasrallah himself talked about that when he discussed the decision that the party took to participate in national dialogue against the objections of rank-and-file. And as if the rioters did not do enough damage, mini-thug, Sami Amin Gemayyel took 50 of his fellow thugs to participate in, or to provoke, clashes with Shi`ite demonstrators. And then he claimed that he was beaten, and LBC-TV aired a segment of him in his hospital bed. But Minister of Ping Pong (who doubles as acting interior minister) later released an official statement in which it disputed Gemayyel's account. Apparently, he was injured in clashes between his thugs and the Lebanese Army. And among the people who were injured was a certain Muhammad AbuKhalil--he was shot by Lebanese Army troops. Lebanon is on the brink--of civil war. I am not saying that civil war will necessarily erupt any day now. It all depends, and Lebanon may continue in this state (neither married nor divorced, as we say in an Arabic proverb) of being on the brink for years. But I don't think that it will be possible for any government to contain public anger and sectarian divisions if something bad, really bad, happens.