Drunken driving incidents are like Kryptonite for Congressmen. During the Soviet war with Afghanistan, Rep. Charlie Wilson (D-TX) collided with another driver while drunk and was pursued by D.C. police. He locked himself in his apartment and negotiated with the feds for safe passage to the airport, for an overseas trip in support of the […]
Laura Bush held a press conference yesterday complaining about the Burmese junta’s lackadaisical response to a catastrophic storm:
“The response to this cyclone is just the most recent example of the junta’s failures to meet its people’s basic needs.” [Link]
These people are missing the gene for shame, and for irony. If only Burmese storm relief were […]
I rarely read Bill Kristol, a reliable reciter of GOP talking points. He’s what in radio terms one would dismiss as a repeater, someone who retransmits a signal handed down from party mandarins.
But his position as a propaganda tool is precisely what makes his latest trial balloon intriguing:
… if we run a traditional campaign; our […]
Finally finished the book Charlie Wilson’s War, a sprawling, 500-page work about the Soviet war in Afghanistan published in ‘03, and the tale it tells is wild.
The war
The most successful Islamic jihad in modern history, Afghanistan vs. the Soviets, was run by the CIA, which along with the Saudis pumped in up to ~$800M/year over […]
Longtime readers will be familiar with my sentiments on sari covers and mangoxotic titles. I approached my friend V.V. ‘Sugi’ Ganeshananthan’s new novel Love Marriage with some trepidation. Fortunately, the innards belie the sari wrapper. This is not curry lit.
I’ve got mixed feelings about this book — my loyalties lie more with its smart, personable […]
Taint
In the best of times, South Asia rarely gets interjected in presidential debates. Pakistan gets all the attention because its border is teeming with Al Qaeda and its leaders come with hands outstretched. China gets vaguely mentioned as an economic threat, and sometimes India alongside, the new hyphenated relationship.
So when a presidential debate comes off […]
Pope Ratzinger, the most powerfully regressive voice on contraception and religions other than Catholicism, got front-page treatment today:
Meanwhile, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton attended an event called the Faith Forum, fumbling around in public about their love for an incarnation. Get a pew, you two.
And India is worse. This is a country where gurus […]
As if heeding the Dalai Lama, the Tibet protesters in Harvard Square tonight took pains to say they were against the Chinese government, not the Chinese people. But after a couple of generations of propaganda, the prevailing opinion on Tibet seem to have converged with that of the Communist Party.
Unlike the Tibet protests in Union […]
Travel writer and veteran Time journalist Pico Iyer stopped by Harvard Book Store tonight to read from his new book The Open Road, a profile of the Dalai Lama. He said that five years ago when he began his book, he planned its release for this spring because he knew Tibetans would be protesting […]
Badmash’s latest animated parody agrees that Obama’s race speech was stuck in an old black-or-white frame:
Watch here.
Previously: Jooma chumma de de, Amitabh vs. O’Baba
Sen. Joe Biden grilled ambassador Ryan Crocker on the Khamkha War in hearings afternoon. He said something like, ‘If… Lord almighty came down and sat in the middle of the table there and said Mr. Ambassador, you can eliminate every Al Qaeda source in Afghanistan and Pakistan, or every Al Qaeda personnel in Iraq, which […]
The Olympic torch and relay have been extinguished in Paris:
… thousands of people from around Europe, many with Tibetan flags, massed [in Paris] to protest the passage of the flame, forcing police officers to bring the torch onto a bus to try to protect it and causing the torch to be extinguished at least once. […]
A Tibet protester tried to wrestle the Olympic torch away from Bangla Brit TV presenter Konnie Huq in Notting Hill today. The protester appeared to be white, not ethnic Tibetan. The struggle:
‘… as I was running with the torch a guy broke out from the crowd and… tried to wrestle the torch off me. I […]
Wreath marks the spot
On this day, the 40th anniversary of MLK’s assassination:
King’s last words on the balcony were to musician Ben Branch… who was scheduled to perform that night… “Ben, make sure you play ‘Take My Hand, Precious Lord’ in the meeting tonight. Play it real pretty.” [Link]
Gandhi’s memorial (or Samadhi) at Raj Ghat, […]
Happy Bangladesh Independence Day:
‘Amar Shonar Bangla (My Golden Bengal)’ is a 1906 song written and composed by the poet Rabindranath Tagore, the first ten lines of which were adopted in 1972 as the Bangladesh national anthem. The word shonar literally means ‘made of gold’, but in the song shonar Bangla may be interpreted to either […]
Barely had Pakistanis broken out the mithai and bhangra at the swearing in of a new Prime Minister and the release of judges including boss judge Iftikhar Chaudhry, when the heavies winged in to watch over their investment:
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Richard Boucher, […]
by Ray Noland
Barack Obama’s Great Race Speech yesterday drew plenty of frothy praise and historians’ plaudits. But it was a disappointingly limited speech, projecting a static, black-and-white image of America which has little to do with its real racial makeup today.
Keep in mind that all Obama had to do was walk in, denounce Rev. Jeremiah […]
Conservative James Lucier wrote an op/ed reprinted in the WSJ about how Bobby Jindal would be a good running mate for John McCain. Some of his points make sense: Jindal would balance the ticket with unquestioned conservative bona fides, youth and health care experience, and he’s been able to ram through some key conservative priorities […]
After posting about My Good Name Is Lenin, I learned filmmaker Kavita Pillay is a friend of a friend and a total sweetheart. Besides film, Kavita also haunts Boston crafts stores. She’s part of the young knitters brigade, who do it not out of gender expectations but purely for the fun of it.
So her other […]
Moving away from the subject of Iraq, Barack Obama spoke on national security today, calling for a major change in Pakistan and Afghanistan policy and slamming the diversion in the sands of Iraq. He wants to get rid of Musharraf, make Pakistan aid conditional on fighting jihadis and restoring democracy, boost non-military aid, and continue […]