Six Flags Over Beirut

The Cincinnati Enquirer has this interesting report on a theme park (avec Wild West motif) being built in Lebanon.

When the proposed park—originally a remote dale of olive trees and dust about a 30-minute drive from downtown—is completed in 2004, it will be a symbol to the West that the people of Lebanon had put a bloody past on a shelf and were ready to have fun.

Not sure where this sort of thing fits into the Bush admin's road map for the Middle East, but this sort of commercial development is certainly heartening.

A few months back, Reason Senior Editor Chuck Freund penned a fable that discussed how commerce could help defuse that region. "The Tale of Many Jerusalems" is online here.