March 2010
7 posts
Opportunity Costs
David Frum is probably the best Republican strategist that Republicans aren’t listening to. Which, for them, has proven to be a devastating mistake. From “Waterloo”:
I’ve been on a soapbox for months now about the harm that our overheated talk is doing to us. Yes it mobilizes supporters – but by mobilizing them with hysterical accusations and pseudo-information, overheated talk...
Weekend Reading
“Americans start out at a young age learning classic adages like “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” Our time-honored golden rule has worked in every situation for me - until I got to Afghanistan. In Afghanistan the rule should read, “Do unto the Afghans as the Afghans do unto each other.” We should not expect them to embrace our approach simply...
“Geography is just physics slowed down,
with a couple of trees stuck in it.”
– Terry Pratchett
In Defense of "Funny" Cultures
Tim Rogers’ take on contemporary Japan over at Kotaku is a great example of how people should not write about foreign cultures: with near-total subjectivity.
The piece is a laundry list of things Rogers, having lived in Japan for several years, dislikes about the place. A sampling:
Once, shortly after getting a new job, a coworker announced he was getting up to smoke a cigarette. He asked...
Rising in the East
Articles and commentary touting the accelerated rise of Asia in the face of global economic calamity are easy to find. But this WSJ piece in particular tucks away a crucial, nuanced point:
The global financial crisis has accelerated Japan’s increasing orientation toward Asia, economists say. High unemployment and personal debt have made typical American consumers less of a focus for...
“When I was a small boy in Kansas, a friend of mine and I went fishing and as we...”
– Dwight Eisenhower