World

James Fallows has a splendid snapshot (ha!) of the differences between Japan and China: With usual caveats against sweeping generalization, what this made me think was: Japan is all about the way of doing things. Practice, ritual, perfectionism, as much fanatical attention to the process as to the result. China is all about finding a way to do things. Improvisation, little interest in rules, putting up with whatever is necessary to attain the result… At the moment, I am feeling positive toward both approaches. The emphasis on the right  way of doing things is re-surprising on each encounter with Japan. And the determination to do things in China, no matter

As any newcomer to DC must, Megan McArdle bemoans the relative lack of decent pizza in Washington: To a lifelong New Yorker, there is no other sort of pizza than the large, thin, New York slice. We may disagree amongst ourselves about the theological details–crispy or floppy, thick border or thin, sweet sauce or spicy, and how much grease is too much? But basically, we’re all in the same church, and it’s a highly localized one. Chicago pizza may be a fine foodstuff, as long as one consumes it without trying to imagine that it is actual pizza. But it is no substitute for the One True Faith. Well, sure,

The Prime Minister’s speech on foreign policy at the Mansion House this week was a classic instance of reassurance rhetoric: his intention to soothe Atlanticists on both sides of the ocean, worried by the studied distance Mr Brown adopted at Camp David in July and the mixed signals sent by his ministerial team. Tribute was paid to ‘the personal leadership of President Bush’ in the search for peace in the Middle East and the American alliance was reaffirmed as ‘our most important bilateral relationship’. Even Tony Blair was rehabilitated for the occasion, with a tribute to his ‘painstaking work’ in the Middle East. There were more than just warm words

Sometimes it is useful to be reminded that the English are often barely more knowledgeable about Scotland than Americans are about Canada.Today’s Guardian piece “Life Without Scotland” is by turns juvenile, irritating, superficial, irritating and ignorant. It’s meant to be tongue-in-cheek funny but it misses each and every one of its targets. Nonetheless, the most interesting element of the piece is that it was published at all. It is rather odd to see the English slowly waking up to the fact that Scotland is now officially a semi-detached member of the Union. They don’t seem to like it much. Complaints about lavish spending on health and education north of the

Definitely from the Department of Too Good to Check: CORRECTIVE: Paris Hilton Story                                                                   Tuesday, November 13, 2007 sfgate_get_fprefs(); (11-13) 15:44 PST    GAUHATI, India (AP) — In a Nov. 13 story, The Associated Press incorrectly reported that Paris Hilton was praised by conservationists for highlighting the problem of binge-drinking elephants in northeastern India. Lori Berk, a publicist for Hilton, said she never made any comments about helping drunken elephants in India. [Hat-Tip: The Agitator]                        

Hugo Chavez is hardly the world’s greatest problem. But Spain’s King Juan Carlos shows how best to deal with this buffoon. Via Foreign Policy and a helpful correspondent, I came across this: The king of Spain told Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to “shut up” Saturday during a heated exchange that soured the end of a summit of leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal. Chavez, who called President Bush the “devil” on the floor of the United Nations last year, triggered the exchange by repeatedly referring to former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar as a “fascist.” Aznar, a conservative who was an ally of Bush as prime minister, “is

I was going to write something about this post over at Jewcy’s new politics blog (splendidly named The Cabal) but when I saw that the author describes himself as a “libertarian socialist*” it seemed rather pointless to continue. How much headway can you make with someone as confused as that? Suffice it to say that “Ron Paul’s Jewish problem” amounts to some of his supporters having highly unpleasant views and his campaign’s suspicion that there’s no real need to return money given by racist supporters. In a saner world that would be quite sensible: it’s their loss of cash after all and accepting money from someone is no sort of

Well, not always. From the New York Times, September 29th 1994, less than a month after the declaration of a (temporary as it proved) IRA ceasefire: Artfully casting off his old role as official outcast, Gerry Adams, the political spokesman for the Irish Republican Army, beamed from the steps of City Hall yesterday as New York politicians vied to be at his side and hail him as honored guest and newborn statesman… …A relatively small lunch-hour crowd of a few hundred cheered him, but the domestic political value of Mr. Adams’s official turnabout was demonstrated by the throng of local politicians who crowded about Mr. Adams. They pressed him to