Michael Totten is back from Lebanon and posting, he says “by popular demand,” a very nice collection of protest babe pictures. I have read posts on some of the less, uh, optimistic websites that state that the whole protest babe thing is bogus because none of those women were Muslim. Not so, says Michael:

If any of you think only the Christian women of Lebanon walk around without their own portable tents, forget that. It????????s isn????????t even close to true. My hotel was on the Muslim side of Beirut and I saw almost as many modern-looking women on that side of the city as I saw in the Christian areas. Even Hezbollah doesn????????t mandate the veil or the hijab.

Two Hezbollah groupies invited me to have coffee with them downtown. We argued rather passionately about politics, as you can imagine, but they were good sports about it. They gave me a Cuban cigar as I went on my way, but first one of them asked me: ???????So, whaddaya think of our women, eh???????? and elbowed me good-naturedly in the ribs. Lebanon ain????????t Saudi.

Gotta love it. Go on over and welcome Michael back. And check out the babes.

Enjoy, Robert.