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The Foreign Media Explain Greece
From a reader in Vermont:Last night I watched the network news. NBC spent about twenty seconds (really) on the European crisis and that sandwiched between stories of breast cancer stuff and Cain's...
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More on Beijing Air, and Your U.S. Tax Dollars at Work
The @BeijingAir feed on Twitter -- for now, the only known source of readings in China of the most damaging sort of air pollution -- is back in the "Unhealthy" range, from the "Hazardous" conditions of...
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Back Online Shortly
Thanks to all who have sent "hey, are your fingers broken, or are you just lazy?" etc queries these past few days. I've been on a project that has crowded out updates here. Back tomorrow, with exciting...
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In China, 'Time Is Not Ripe' for Honest Air Pollution Readings
As noted in two previous reports on the recent air-quality emergency in China, the Chinese government still does not provide any data on the most damaging form of air pollution, the small particulates...
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Air Emergency: Beijing
Half the people I know in Beijing have been writing, Skyping, Tweeting, blogging, and rasping about the dire air-pollution situation these past few days. A few data points:Readings today from the...
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Cheerier Environmental-ish News From China
This is "environmental" news mainly in the sense that it happens outdoors. In the "clean and green" sense, not so much. Still, it's cheery overall, especially if you ignore the color of the water and...
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Today's Email Real-Life Scare Story
Earlier this year I (foolishly) made fun of the latest phishing foray I got via email, a half-literate message "from" Google's security team asking me to send all my personal details to an address...
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Let's Open Up the Anti-Mormon Mailbag
It was three weeks ago that I made the (I thought) obvious point that opposing a Mormon candidate for president because he is Mormon is as backward and bigoted as opposing a Jewish candidate because he...
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Important to Read: 'The Ally From Hell'
The new issue of the Atlantic (a subscription is the perfect gift!) is making its debut, and its cover story is again very much worth reading. It is by Jeffrey Goldberg and Marc Ambinder, and it gets...
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Filibusters and False Equivalence, From the Horses' Mouths
Earlier today I mentioned the latest illustration of Sen. Mitch McConnell's GOP stopping an Obama jobs-bill proposal by threatening a filibuster. And the latest illustration of the press presenting...
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False Equivalence Watch, at (sigh) the WaPo Again
(See update below.) Sorry to seem to be picking on one publication, but it is supposed to be a leading political journal. Here is how this morning's Washington Post played the latest setback for the...
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Three Good Though Dissimilar Books
What these have in common is only that I've read them recently and think they're good. Â From the left:China in Ten Words, by Yu Hua. The author is celebrated/controversial in China for his novels of...
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Cast Your Vote Now! New Names for DHS
The wonderfully Onionesque U.S. Department of Fear, led by Secretary of Fear Malcolm P. Stag III, is running a poll. What should we re-name the Department of Homeland Security?Possibilities include...
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Today's Online Security Tips
1) I am not a fan of the "less info! more blank space!" new look of Gmail, described by the company as "cool" and "modern." Fortunately the company offers customization options. (Although there is an...
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Moral Parallels: Foshan China, Penn State
In several items (first, second, and third) about last month's horrific episode in Foshan, China --Â in which 18 people walked or biked past an injured 2-year-old lying in the road, until she was run...
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Learning from @RepWeiner: the Unfortunate Herman Cain Press Conference
There is only one standard by which a mid-scandal press conference succeeds or fails. That is whether reporters (plus political opponents) leave the conference with more leads, loose ends, and...
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What You're Missing If You're Not on the Tea Party Mailing List
In recognition of my long interest in politics and devotion to America, someone at TeaParty.org put me on its mailing list a while ago. It's not the mother ship of the Tea Party movement, but it keeps...
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Bombing Iran: Still a Bad Idea
Jeffrey Goldberg has been giving extensive coverage to the various possible Israeli, British, and American plans to attack Iran's nuclear facilities in a preemptive strike. Of course these follow his...
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Ford. Quayle. Stockdale. Now, Poor Rick Perry
In the long annals of presidential-campaign debating, there had until this evening been three famous-disaster moments:1) 1976, Gerald Ford and Poland. This one wasn't quite fair. Ford was trying to...
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Mike Tyson as Herman Cain
If you've already seen this sixteen other places, then keep moving right along, meanwhile mocking me for being behind the curve. (Hey, I was "working.")But if like me you hadn't come across it until...
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