Actually, what I suspect happened is that an editor walked into a meeting at the beginning of September and said, “Alrighty: the dudes of the week, improbably enough, are Jimmy Carter, Sly Stallone, and Kim Jong-il. One of you lucky suckers is going to get to write a cover story that somehow links the three together.”

Zhang Yue (张悦) got the job, and did an admirable job of uniting this terrible trinity in an article entitled: “Kim Jong-il, Carter, Stallone: Old Men Who Haven’t Yet Responded to Their Curtain Call” (金正日，卡特，史泰龙：老男人未到谢幕时). Opening with a commentary on Hollywood (“Be careful, we’re being haunted by old guys”), the intro gives several examples of the staying power, so to speak, of old men in Hollywood, Cantopop, and global politics.

In addition to the aforementioned “old warhorses that cherish further exploits” (老骥伏枥), the author points out that Deng Xiaoping was already way past retirement age (mid-70s) when he launched reform and opening. When Deng became the first Chinese leader to visit the US in 1979, Prez Jimmy Carter ...read more

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Juan Williams got fired from NPR this week (or so) for saying some stupid things. Now I’d like to see more people get the ax for saying stupid things on Fox, but most of them are actual Fox employees. This incident has a lot of implications for journalists and analysts (what Williams did for NPR, although Fox viewers wouldn’t know that, NPR had previously asked him not to identify himself as such when he appeared on the channel) who have a much more public role now, appearing on radio programs, TV shows, and having to blog and podcast. There’s also the whole issue of “liberals” having no spine whatsoever, but I’ve harped on that before and will give it a rest here. (Although the pathetic Shirley Sherrod incident should’ve made clear the problem with immediate firings.) ...read more

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If you’re still aroused by Twitter’s revolutionary potential you might be…

There’ve been a lot of responses written to Malcolm Gladwell’s piece in The New Yorker about Twitter and revolution, “Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted.” Read it if you haven’t, it’s short. These responses by Amy Chang and Alexis Madrigal add to the discussion. Read them too. As I’ve been critical of social media evangelism for some time now, I’m happy to see this piece. Social media is indeed doing incredible things, beyond just giving Justin Timberlake a chance to shine as an actor, but the converts to it, like all converts, have gone overboard about it’s ability to affect massive societal change.  But I promised to keep this quick. These are musings, not finished thoughts. Sound off in the comments if ...read more

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exactly like the title says. and while a picture may be worth a 1000 words, i’m not sure that the year end/2010 predictions issue of  Caijing this picture came from is worth the 35 RMB i anted up for it at 7-11 in a weak, under-caffeinated haze.

内容已经在标题说好了。可能按照俗语的说法一张图片值得一千词但是我觉得这张图片来自的财经杂志年底版并不值得35元（在7-11还没喝咖啡特别瞌睡的时候买的）！

** 前句话写的特别差，如果有建议怎么该请告诉我！一直到我的汉语水平进步很多我要用更短更简单的话。

...read more

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black cats

JAN 14: The world lost another great reason to have sex today — Teddy Pendergrass passed away. Driving home at 3am and hearing “Love TKO” on AM 1290 was always to wish that there was a real secret garden, covered in velour, that one could be inside of. Kind of like the garden of eden but with more mirrorballs, bearskin rugs, fireplaces and hotpants. Another grittier soul stirrer that hurts so good is Howard Tate’s “Get it While You Can” which, in a velour covered nutshell, would be my advice to the current democratic majority.

I’m increasingly frustrated at how far left of most of the people I know I seem to have become politically. It’s not like the people I hang around are remotely right wing — ...read more

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In no way am I advocating endless self-flagellating. I ...read more

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Off the classic “Mecca and the Soul Brother” album, T.R.O.Y. is one of the best hip hop songs ever made. It’s probably one of the best songs ever made. Since much has been written about it, and you only need to listen to the song to know what’s up, I’m not going to go into detail about it. Despite the brags and the boasting, maybe even because of it, hip hop used to, in its own way, be one of the most honest forms of musical expression the world has ever heard,and T.R.O.Y. is honest, raw and true. Go listen to it and you’ll know exactly what I mean.

People are always saying that “T.R.O.Y.” isn’t about a girl, it’s about hip hop. I’ve listened to this song countless times and I’ve never heard it. Common’s “I Used to Love H.E.R.” is obviously about hip hop, as are a scores of other odes to hip hop masquerading as love songs. Sometimes I wish rappers would man up and make a real love song about a woman (or man) instead of these extended metaphors for pot and music.

A popular belief persists, however, that “They Reminisce Over You” is about rap. Popular ...read more

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A sweet picture of Fighting Bob that has no relevance to this post but is too good not be used

Waterboarding is the most cruel, the most extremely cruel form of torture known to man, very simply because of this—and people don’t understand, I think, waterboarding. Amy, if you and I were riding in a car, and we went off a bridge in January here in Wisconsin and crashed through the ice and went down to the bottom of the Ohio River, within three minutes you and I would be dead from drowning. If there were an infant in a car seat behind us, that infant could survive for twenty minutes under water. A weak, fragile three-month-old infant could survive twenty minutes under water, be plucked by the rescue ...read more

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“You made it worse, you dick head,” the famously direct Jones shouted at a security guard. Unlike his friend John McCain, Jones is technologically aware: “I got you on my radar. Let me get a picture of this fat bastard,” announced Jones as he pulled out his cameraphone, “let me make you safe. Don’t touch me. Don’t touch me, you pussy!”

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The Xinjiang restaurant, the same place I watched the end of the closing ceremony, is a small restaurant with a metal hood and grill built into the front side of the façade for making lamb kebabs. There’s a plastic cup turned spice shaker and a jacked up hairdryer to speed up cooking.

Inside are a few formica tables and a floor that has never been clean. A television hangs dreary and dated from a metal hanger screwed precariously into the wall. The main waiter and maybe proprietor is tall with long features, a hooked nose, and wide olive shaped black eyes. Last time I was there his eye left seemed unable to focus and the socket gleamed with vaseline. Often times these restaurants see fights.

That night Steph and I each ate noodles razored off a block of dough drowned in tomato sauce, diced onion, and twisting yellow, white, brown clumps of egg. We ordered Xinjiang salad – cucumber, ...read more

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