Saturday, December 29, 2007
Odds and ends while I'm off the grid Greetings from the future. While I can't reveal my exact location, I can confirm that, where I'm typing this, it's likely a day later than where you are likely reading this post. A few links of note before I go off the grid again: 1) I have an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times that is excerpted from my longer National Interest essay, "Foreign Policy Goes Glam" -- which, I'm glad to say, is now available online in its entirety.Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go see a man about seeing a glacier. Tuesday, December 25, 2007
A very important post about.... things I will not miss while I am away Your humble blogger is getting the hell out of Dodge for the rest of 2007 and the beginning of 2008. Blogging will be nonexistent for the next 36 hours, followed by ten days of, at best, Since it is the end of the year and I will be out of the country, here is a short list of things I will not be missing while I am gone: 1) Paul Krugman's jihad against Barack Obama. As an outsider to progressive infighting, this was fun for a few go-arounds, but we've now hit the tedious patch when Krugman spends every column and blog post searching desperately for something to dump on Obama. This is Krugman at his most humorless and least persuasive. Monday, December 24, 2007
Your semi-interesting travel observation of the day For those of you who will be travelling this holiday season, here's a useful, spontaneous discovery I made yesterday. This is based on my personal experience with an automated voice recognition software program on the customer service line of a major airline: If, at any point, you say "f*** you" into the phone, you will be automatically and politely transferred to a human operator.Remember, you have to pronounce the asterisks correctly. I'm sure my razor-sharp readers were already cognizant of this fact -- but if not, go forth and find out if it works on other airlines. UPDATE: This site is also useful for figuring out how to talk to a human (hat tip: loyal reader A.A.) Your unambiguously good news of the day In South Korea, once one of Asia’s most rigidly patriarchal societies, a centuries-old preference for baby boys is fast receding. And that has led to what seems to be a decrease in the number of abortions performed after ultrasounds that reveal the sex of a fetus.Choe Sang-Hun, "Where Boys Were Kings, a Shift Toward Baby Girls," New York Times, December 23, 2007.
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