Yeah, I always liked that song growing up, although I didn’t hear it until several years after it was released. I already knew Barry McGuire from his days as a member of the New Christy Minstrels, a folk group my parents had bought several albums by when were young ‘uns.

(BTW, the composer of the song, P.F. Sloan, had solid links all across the emerging L.A. contemporary rock scene of the mid-’60s, with connections to Brian Wilson and Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys during their Pet Sounds/SMiLE era, Terry Melcher and Roger McGuinn (in the early Byrds days), and, of course the great Phil Spector and all those great “Wrecking Crew” musicians.) Whooooooo…..great stuff!

But I digress. Unfortunately. More on that another time, perhaps…

Of course, what’s going on the Middle East is truly a powderkeg, and I’m afraid things there are only going to get a whole hell of a lot worse before they get getter, unless cooler heads prevail and Syria and Iran keep their grimy, terror-enabling, blood-stained hands off the situation. Like I said yesterday, I don’t think Syria or Iran were prepared for either Hezbollah‘s kidnapping of the Israeli soldiers or the iron fist of Israel’s response. Now they have to decide if now is the time to make good on their threats of the past several months. My guess is they don’t, because they know both Israel and the U.S. are just itching for an opportunity to shock-and-awe Iran’s nuclear program back a decade or so.

Captains Quarters has some great analytical posts on the crisis, and I hope you’ll check Captain Ed’s site out. Powerline comments on a David Horowicz piece and agrees that if Iran is to be struck by anyone, there will never be a better time than what Israel has now. Hugh Hewitt also is blogging over the weekend, and the connections he has as a result of his syndicated radio program make his site worth visiting as well.

The next 48 hours will be critical, as it will be in this timeframe where Iran’s and Syria’s plans for either confrontation or de-escalation of the conflict will be revealed. Hang on to your hats, folks, the ride could get a little bumpy.