Wednesday evening roundup

Decades later, our policy toward Salvadorean refugees is still tragically f*ed up.

What you should know if you want to boycott BP.

Area man vehement about the Constitution he's heard all about.

That is truly some seriousy bad writing. Seriously, people: if you're trying to create a sense of romance, a thirsty gerbil should not make it onto the page.

These look so good, I may have to get a grill. And these look so good, I may have to rethink my aversion to cupcakes.

Wednesday morning roundup

FP on Japan's unfinished business with American POWs.

Iraq opts to omit from its classrooms and textbooks some key ingredients.

The (partial) decline of ethnic politics.

The Gulf doesn't know what to do with volunteers.

Gerson on ugly political rhetoric; Marcus warns about scary, unhinged rhetoric; and a profile of Ray LaHood adds to that:

"Ray showed that you could be civil and still be principled," says Bill Gavin, a former Michel speechwriter. "Civility is like oil in a car's engine. It doesn't run on oil, but without it, it overheats and breaks down. Ray understands civility."

Metro's culture of competence shines again.

The Times recommends some travel gadgets.

Tuesday morning roundup

India's Right to Information law has brought about bureaucratic responsiveness, if not yet accountability. By the way, HP did not honor my request to inform me in writing of why the defect in my laptop did not fall under warranty.

China's rapid development largely benefited state industries. Also: China discovers a taste for tree nuts, especially when prepared with donkey hide glue.

Robert Kagan on last month's foreign policy success stories.

Why, in services for the homeless, do cities find extreme heat to be less of a threat than hypothermia?

The FDA "urges" farmers to go easy on the antibiotics.

And now for my ramble

I have a sense of when cell phones went mainstream in the U.S., because when I left for Wales, they were still rare, and when I returned, six months later, they were everywhere. It took me another six months to get one, and only then I did it because it would cost less than getting a home phone, which my roommate at the time didn't want to share. It didn't take me long, once I stepped over to the other side, to love having a cell phone--it made things so much easier. Nonetheless, something bothered me--still does--about walker-and-talkers, as well as some non-walker-but-talkers, and it's the usurpation of public space.

Monday evening roundup

Speaking of kitty balls: You have to laugh, because if you don't, all that's left is tragedy/

***
The only word that I can use to introduce this book review is um???

Next week, Colbert dares you to take farmerworkers's jobs.

These are priceless words:

West’s comments provide a dramatic real-life example of why actually knowing something, as opposed to theoretically being able to Google it, is so important. Indeed, West indicated that she had just Googled the Arizona law and that the first thing to come up had been a picture of the governor meeting with Barack Obama “in May of 2010,” an image on which she based the rest of her remarks.

And this seems to be the way more and more of us are thinking. Opinion first, information later. But actually knowing things matters for reasons other than not embarrassing yourself in front of YouTube -- it gives you a basis for your opinions and allows you to have debates that consist of more than meaningless shouting.

Gracie's monologue

That's right, mommy: check out my kitty balls! Yes, I did poop on the carpet, and yes, I do have the audacity to be all up in your face, instead of hiding and acting all meek like I usually do after I've done my magic. That's right: I don't need wet food tonight, or maybe even dinner, because I know that's what happens when I leave you turd bombs, but I had to do it anyway. No, it's not enough that you have to lint roll the carpets weekly to get my fur off--I need to leave you a smellier reminder that Im here. It's just the way it is, and that's the point I'm trying to make: you can't stop me. I mean, you could, if you listened to some of my uncles and applied a cork and duct tape to the problem, but I know you wouldn't do that, so I'm just going to keep pooping. Don't tell me I don't have kitty balls.

Monday morning roundup and ramble preview

Supreme Court confirmation hearings are actually valuable.

Perhaps, like me, you'll find this op-ed piece called "The Triumphant Decline of the Wasp" that much more interesting if you've been watching "Mad Men."

So this is what they were doing on that pole on the Mall yesterday. The article actually makes it sound more exciting than it was.

July is National Ice Cream month. I love ice cream, but, to be honest, the description in the article turns me off.

I actually meant to post Robin Givhan's article on style bullies last week. Here is an especially striking excerpt:

To understand how style can be deployed to deliver such bloodless wounds, it's important to remember that style encompasses far more than good looks. In fact, it trumps beauty because it's rooted in deep cultural knowledge and self-confidence. Style is an expression of choices -- a declaration of individuality. And thus, the lack of it is not a matter of poor genetic luck. It is, a particularly judgmental soul could argue, your fault.

Style rises above trends and the fashion industry's abundance of cliches. A woman who dresses with both self-awareness and panache has, in essence, the ability to construct a public persona that speaks with power and precision...

Style at Chanel's level turns heads; it swaggers. But even at more modest degrees, it can make others feel terribly old-fashioned and parochial by comparison. Having conquered wardrobe insecurities -- that sense of uneasiness that perhaps you're not appropriately attired or simply not quite pulled together -- suggests that a woman knows something that others do not. Even if her audience doesn't favor her aesthetic sensibility, it still recognizes her certainty. What is her secret?

I've been meaning to ramble about a lot of things: the sanctity of public spaces (and, conversely, private spaces--which would bring about a post-RM ramble, which, in turn, would lead us to the issue of social paradigms and the myth of "nice")... but I haven't had time. I'll see if I can get to it tonight. I'll also ramble about a conversation I had over dinner with friends last night, over eco-sanctimommies, who make me more sick than regular sanctimommies. For now, here's a snippet of yesterday's dinner conversation:

Beth: I can't believe she called me on a Sunday. I don't work on Sundays.
Danielle: How old is she?
Beth: Don't know, but she's right out of grad school. Could do my job, though.
A.: [Sigh]. The summer interns have arrived to our office. They make me feel old.
Beth: Well... we are getting kind of old.

What? She's not supposed to say that! Age is just a number. If you ask me, we're still as young as when we all met almost eight years ago.

Sunday morning roundup

Is Mr. Karzai all too willing to sell out the non-Pashtun half of the Afghan population? Let's not forget how despicable the Taliban really are. Frank Rich neatly contextualizes last week's happenings.

Free elections come to Guinea.

For all its other foolishness, Arizona's employee protection laws are commendable.

Camille Paglia is still full of $hit, which is too bad because it would be nice if someone wrote a more insightful analysis on the topics of American sexuality and why female Viagra isn't the answer.

I found, joking aside, the New Yorker's summer fiction issue overwhelmingly underwhelming, which is significant, because the magazine's weekly fiction tends to be amazing.

Saturday morning roundup

Meet Reykjavik's new mayor.

How would you feel about genetically-engineered salmon? Can it be worse than farmed salmon?

Collins on Speaker Pelosi.

Brace yourself: some of the entries to the Post's Style Invitational are puntastic.

Friday evening roundup

Oh, the biannual plug for an independent Somaliland.

Oh, Post--this article on why people divorce could have been so much more interesting.

Shep Smith dissents.

Friday morning roundup

Brooks' take on the Rolling Stone profile, interesting, if one-sided. By the way, I wouldn't link to Gerson or Krauthammer from this page, and generally opt against making my head explode by reading a single word of theirs, but this morning I couldn't help myself, and you have to understand that when they praise the President's decision, something's really up.

Contrast the above, in a way, with someone who challenged a bad idea gone 'holy writ,' and won.

Marcus on activist judging.

Make sure to throw your reusable bags in the wash every now and then.

Wednesday evening roundup

There's so much to say about socialist movements in Latin America that I wish Oliver Stone would bother to say it with objectivity.

Japan hopes robotic babies will inspire people to have real babies.

Gotta love one of our most humorless food lobbies.

The obesity crisis hits Russia, or at least Moscow.

Efforts to fight obesity at home are met with some interesting protests:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Chubby Chasers
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Wednesday morning roundup

Summer in Iraq is made more brutal by intermittent access to water and electricity.

The double standard for white militia groups.

You needn't worry about Ambassador Holbrooke.

Toles cracks me up.

DC street food diversifies.

Tuesday morning roundup

Crisis is opportunity; Israel has got to be smarter about its peace process.

The last thing Zimbabwe needs right now is diamonds.

An inferior rum brings about jockeying among Puerto Rican and Virgin Islands constituencies.

Haters are also morons, Exhibit A:

Individually, none of the changes is especially dramatic. But taken together, they significantly alter the way gays and lesbians are viewed under federal law.

The administration's effort, made largely under the radar -- and outside the reach of Congress -- has alarmed opponents of gay rights, who accuse the president of undermining traditional marriage even as he speaks about respecting it.

"He's been a supporter of married mothers and fathers in name only," said Jenny Tyree, a marriage analyst for CitizenLink, an affiliate of Focus on the Family. "He speaks very passionately and touchingly about how he grew up without a father. And yet there is this huge disconnect in how he's undermining that same opportunity for other children."

How? How does that undermine opportunities for other children? Explain to me the logic of that. Or, like the Anosognosics in the article I linked to yesterday, if Focus on the Family way to stupid to realize how stupid it is?

Robinson on the now-silenced pro-apology consensus; Applebaum on national reactions to the vuvuzuela as foreign policy analogies.

Summer solstice roundup

Reading this lament of the conflation of in-your-face sexuality with feminism made me wish someone had written it better, until I remembered that Ariel Levy had done just that.

Speaking of feminism, Lori Gottlieb says it ruined her life. It's ironic that Sixth and I is hosting her--though I love Express Night Out's take:

Her book, "Marry Him," tells women that if they want to get married, they should settle for someone who's not perfect — balding, overweight, too old, too boring — while they're still young and desirable in order to ensure that they don't wind up alone.

You should go her talk at 6th and I, if only to ask Gottlieb why ending up single is so much worse than ending up in an unhappy marriage and see her dodge the question.

--but it's ironic because Sixth and I recently hosted the anti-Gottlieb: Michelle Cove, filmmaker behind "Seeking Happily Ever After." There's a written and video description at the last link, and the trailer is here.

***
Some friends and I were just talking about the phenomenon Stanley Fish calls anosognosia: why is it that people who are horrendous at something tend to also be horrendous at self-awareness, such that they have no idea they're horrendous? Some choice excerpts:

Dunning and Kruger argued in their paper, “When people are incompetent in the strategies they adopt to achieve success and satisfaction, they suffer a dual burden: Not only do they reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it. Instead, like Mr. Wheeler, they are left with the erroneous impression they are doing just fine.”

It became known as the Dunning-Kruger Effect — our incompetence masks our ability to recognize our incompetence.

and

One could argue that evolution suggests we’re not idiots, but I would say, “Well, no. Evolution just makes sure we’re not blithering idiots. But, we could be idiots in a lot of different ways and still make it through the day.”

We can take this one step further in applying it to BP execs--it goes all the more for the rich and let-them-eat-cake clueless, who have no idea how out of touch they are.

By the way, here are some apt apologies to BP.

***
For not the first time--although I can't find the other one--I want to say "congratulations" to these parents whose child refuses to eat meat. But I also roll my eyes at the question, "how on earth can one get adequate nutrients without meat?" Hint: it's easier to do that than get adequate nutrients with meat.

Monday morning roundup

Texting as an amplifier of dating violence brings up another issue: why can't you block certain numbers or report abuse like you can with e-mail spam?

This kind of thing just makes me want to smack people; if you're so intimidated by the ubiquity of Spanish, learn Spanish.

Nothing Gail Collins hasn't already said with more humor, but a primer on some of this year's elections as comedy fodder.

wow

I had no idea:

I am convinced that women do not understand the physics, the dynamics or the technologies related to automobile operations and all the things that can go wrong to a vehicle while driving.

Sunday morning roundup

How does the income of politicians impact corruption? Is there a generational gap or at least difference in a sense of political powerlessness? When is trading in ideal for good enough pragmatic rather than defeatist?

Frank Rich on speeches and such.

Poignant and highly recommended columns from Nicholas Kristof and Richard Snow, on fathers.

Friedman on Turkey.

I don't disagree that women have a right to some selfishness (or, as I call it, self-preservation), but this piece on female mid-life crises rankles me. It's almost like the women quoted are after the wrong kind of selfishness, although I can't say one way or the other whether the writer is promoting that selfishness--one that really is selfish rather than healthy, one that I can't respect--or just explaining it away.

The real cost of seemingly disposable high-tech gadgets.

Overcoming stereotypes

Alex and I had our @$$es handed to us at Trivia the other night. This was only partly because we were a team of two--due to a miscommunication, our two would-be teammates didn't realize that they needed to pre-register individually, that I didn't do so for them when I registered myself. They were missed, and I initially felt guilty--I could have been more clear--but they also could have actually clicked on the link and/or asked, as Alex did. I learned many years ago that if I waited around for people to get back to me, I'd never go to anything, and my MO ever since has been to buy myself a ticket, tell people who might be interested when I'm going, and, if applicable, where I'm sitting, and hope they can make it. Most of the time it works out, and when it doesn't, I go by myself, which is fine, because I'm not one of those jackasses that talks during plays, movies, or concerts anyway. But I digress.

So, trivia. There was a question about what baseball player had the most consecutive runs, or something.

A.: We have to put down something.
Alex: Well, let's see. Can we name a baseball player?

In our defense, there were questions we got right. I told him that if we were wrong about the one about which continent boasts the most countries with UN membership, we may as well return our masters' degrees. But I continue to digress.

I had, at poolside trivia--it was a beautiful night--two glasses of champagne. I was buzzed after one and a half. And I was *hungover* the following morning. I talked about this to a friend--she experienced the same thing a few weeks ago: when you don't drink a lot, it doesn't take much to give you a hangover. It's not just me.

I bring this up not because I think you care about my drinking habits, hangovers, and lack of basic sports literacy. I'm guessing you read this blog because you're at least somewhat intrigued by issues of ethnic identity. And, since my mother has recently harped on how Russian I'm not, I'm here to remind you that not being able to hold my liquor is just one of the many ways in which I'm an embarrassment to my people. Let's review the other things at which I suck, but at which one expects Russians to excel:

-chess
-dancing
-music
-engineering
-did I mention drinking?

This may be why I have a hard time being attracted to Russian men. It's like, 'oh, you're good at all that stuff? how uncreative--could you be any more of a stereotype?' It takes personality to deviate from the masses.

Saturday morning roundup

DPRK actually opts for the lives of its people over ideology.

Oh, Japanese right--banning "the Cove" isn't going to draw less attention to the facts. At least people are lining up where it is showing.

Nick Anderson on who really owes BP an apology.

Today's college grads are apparently less choosy about jobs, hoping career jobs may come later.

Another day, another "are you f*ing kidding me, Farm Bureau?" Although I can see how kids helping out on the farm doesn't always translate into child labor.

In memory of Jose Saramago. I've not read his books, but you've highly recommended them, and they're on my list.

Beer is the breakfast of champions, er, spectators, in DC this month.

Plus-sized women spend money, too.

Gail Collins on wishful thinking, Charles Blow on unrealistic expectations and promises.