I promise to be nice to them. Oh well, I will at least try not to be too mean. My mother says that I’m part Iroquois Indian. Damn it, I’m suppose to be some sort of minority. Do I at least get a gambling casino somewhere in the Houston area? May I apply for victim status?

Are these real guys real Indians, or phony second raters? We will see. I want to see some scalps.

Looking forward to the week of outsourcing, just to see how the experiment works. Though I'll miss Dan's usual style.

I might note that Mohandas is probably not a doctoral candidate here at Harvard. He's only completed one year of study here, so it's unlikely that he's passed his general exams, and therefore he's just a doctoral student. A seemingly small distinction, but important nonetheless.

Dan, so what shall make of the fact that apparently you couldn't find anybody actually _in_ India to do the work for you?

Letting two other Americans take over your blog for a week, even if they are of Indian origin, isn't exactly the kind of "outsourcing" that is often criticized. Although technically your wider usage of the term is correct, it is rather misleading in the context of Edwards' remarks in the previous thread and also your talking of moving your office to Bangalore.

Maybe your two guest bloggers could start off by clarifying the terminology of outsourcing, offshoring etc.

“I might note that Mohandas is probably not a doctoral candidate here at Harvard.”

Gosh, I sure hope not. Let’s give the guy a chance. Nobody should wish that another human being receives a doctoral degree from Harvard! This is something that could harm one’s resume. Bill Buckley is right on target in preferring that “ I would rather be governed by the first 200 names in the Boston phone book, than by the Harvard faculty."

Does that mean we can expect lots of posts from Salam breathlessly anticipating "Serenity"? I can already get that at Gary Farber's place... ;-)

"Gosh, I sure hope not. Let’s give the guy a chance. Nobody should wish that another human being receives a doctoral degree from Harvard! This is something that could harm one’s resume."

Doctorates in general, not just those from Harvard, are only to be wished upon one's enemies. The only thing worse would be a law or business degree. I try to encourage my students not to go to grad school at all. Learn from my ongoing mistake. =-)

I'd rather not be governed by the first 200 Bostonians OR the Harvard faculty. They're equivalent, if different, forms of decision-making dysfunction. 200 people, 754 different opinions.

Great idea - but how much better it would've been if the guest-bloggers really were workers from Bangalore! Perhaps they could be next time?

“I'd rather not be governed by the first 200 Bostonians OR the Harvard faculty. They're equivalent, if different, forms of decision-making dysfunction. 200 people, 754 different opinions.”

I’m sure that Bill Buckley agrees with you. He carefully stated that if his choice was limited to the two above options---then he preferred to be governed by the people in the Boston phone book. This would be a very rational decision. Why do I say this? It is because Harvard University does not seem to train students to think and follow a logical argument. They instead are apparently encouraged to become “Harvard cool” liberal buffoons.

Now maybe Reihan will provide an explanation on why Evil Forces has been updated exactly once in the last year. I just hope this blog's productivity exceeds that record.

Siddarth,

Your name reminds me of a question I have always wanted answered. What is the view of Indians of Herman Hesse's attempt to portray the religious culture of India in his book Siddartha?

Ah,but why be limited by Bill Buckley's overly restricted choices of decision-making? I prefer to think with a bigger-than-dichotomous box.

And not teaching students to "think and follow logical arguments" does not strike me as an affliction of only Harvard. I've been at four universities now, and the syndrome aforementioned happened at all of them. It's a problem of the American public at large, rather than just that of Harvard University. Even more depressingly, citizens are unable to differentiate between two equally logical arguments that lead to different conclusions; they can't seem to understand why or how they differ.

Dan, so what shall make of the fact that apparently you couldn't find anybody actually _in_ India to do the work for you?
Letting two other Americans take over your blog for a week, even if they are of Indian origin, isn't exactly the kind of "outsourcing" that is often criticized.

Drezner is just kickin' it '80s style. This is old school outsourcing -- remember when the complaints were about the damn immigrants taking Americans' jobs?

Although sometimes I am for outsourcing I believe you should not call this outsourcing. Outsourcing to me means relocating a job outside the US. I still will read your articles. And I am glad you are leaning to Kerry. I hope comes November, you punch your X or lower the level for Kerry/Edwards. Muchas gracias.