At one period in my youth in the Middle East, I spent a good deal of time on and around camels. They are very unusual animals, to put it mildly.

Just for starters, they are moody and cantankerous and crafty, and to handle them really requires a somewhat shocking level of brutality (there ain't gonna ever be a gentle camel-whisperer). One of the reasons is that they are so very tough-- camels have regularly been reported to have been taken through places like the Rub al Qali (Empty Quarter) and been held waterless for over a week of hard going in insane temperatures, and refusing to drink when finally brought to water. They spit, bite, and kick. They actually organize labour unions-- if one camel in a caravan is over-loaded, it will refuse to get up, and bellow at all the other camels who will then all sit down and bellow too.

When I was young and naive, I was shocked to watch one get a cropping from an enraged owner that would have put him in jail several times over here in North America. When he gave up in exhaustion, the camel, still refusing to get up, sort of lazily looked around at him, with a sort of "that the best you can do asshole?" look on its face. They are very very tough animals.

Physically, they are a very odd blend of ugly and beautiful. They have the most gorgeous eyes, for instance, and pace along with a great deal of grace, and the arch of their necks is a wonder. On the other hand their fur tends towards the scraggly and stinky, and they can get very ungainly when they gallop (which is rare) rather than trot and walk, when they are insanely graceful. And frankly, they are odd looking. And one of the funnier jokes that never gets tired is when you put a tourist on the back of one (especially a tourist that has rode horses and thinks they know what to expect) in the saddle, and then have the camel stand up. From a saddle-sitter's point of view, a camel getting to its feet is rather violent and unpredictable lesson in the ugly side of Newtonian physics.

Camel races are amazing, they aren't sprints so much as they are marathons. They take hours, and often are more tests of the endurance of the jockeys than the camels (sadly, the jockeys are often children). I remember watching one race where a female decided she felt like running, got herself into full pacing zone (a camel's natural mode), blew the field away, and pretty much refused to stop circling the track after the jockey slipped off. They let her go for a while, but eventually wanted to pack up so they had to chase her down and beat her a bit to get her out of the zone. She wasn't happy, she looked good to keep on high-speed circling a few hours more.

One of the oddities I never figured out, was that with horses, Arabs substantially value mares over stallions (sensible, one stallion can have a lot more progeny than a mare can, so a prime mare's extremely valuable offspring will be a limited number), but with camels they value the sire more.

Oh and yes, I have eaten camel meat. Buy a shwarma on the street in Syria, Jordan, Saudi, etc., you are almost certainly eating camel. Given all the spicing, you'd never know, really, so I can't comment on the tastiness of camel steaks.

I do think that you really have to be a camel aficionado to find them beautiful enough to kiss though. After a few bad experiences, I know enough to keep my face or any other part of me well away from a camel's mouth or feet.

Oh, and interesting trivia, by far and away the major camel producing area of the world these days is East Africa. The Saudis may breed high-end show and racing camels, but they actually have a substantial camel trade-deficit and sure import alot of the to be eaten and day to day types from Africa.

Oh, and the linked story has some rather exciting news that it gives as an aside: Robert Lacey is back in Saudi and updating his book, House of Saud, which is the best single introduction to Saudi (up to the 80s anyway) I have ever read. I am surprised they let him back in; he was persona non-grata after it came out. If you are interested in getting a bit of a grasp on our major Arab ally (and major producer of terrorists), I strongly recommend it.

I thought Glenn Greenwald totally nailed this one.

Myself, I read the story when it came out, and I was appalled. First of all, it was a story about nothing, there was no news of any kind in it. But it served simply as a vehicle to bring up salacious details once again, and frankly, to shame and humiliate Hillary. Again. The Freedom of Information request was put in with all the high flown rhetoric you would expect, and what is the very first thing the press does with the information? Dig for secret meetings, try and find lies, develop a picture of day to day life in the White House? No, it's that Hillary was in the building when Bill got the blow-job. How commander in chief of her.

Yes, it was sexism, pure and simple.

It was utterly despicable.

Loved it. Especially the one uncomfortable girl standing there twisting her hair.

That, and "Its a way for your daughter to see you once a year..."