I like this division of labor at the New York Times. Michale Slackman writes about serious political issues of Lebanon, and Hassan Fattah writes about...fortune tellers, soothsayers, and crackpots in Lebanon. In fact, I am expecting Fattah to write about all those Lebanese who "invented cures" for cancer. But then again, I was first disturbed to see this long article about crackpot Michael Hayek (and was quite amused to see Fattah quite impressed with Hayek: "He prides himself on having predicted events like the 1996 earthquakes in Turkey, the 1997 death of Princess Diana and the 2005 assassination of Rafik Hariri, a former prime minister of Lebanon." When in reality, Hayek made no such predictions. He merely said that something may happen in downtown Beirut, and kooky minds later thought that this was a specific prediction of Hariri's assassination). But then again: Hayek is a Lebanese phenomenon: and the Lebanese people and not the New York Times should be mocked for elevating the status of this charlatan to the level of a prophet. I also find it interesting that Fattah even in an article on crackpots and charlatans, can't help but interview a supporter of March 14 (Sa`ud Mawla, former communist turned sectarian Shi`ite supporter of Hariri). (thanks Sara and Hana)