I have a bunch of work to get to today, so instead of writing something lengthy, I’ll recommend some articles.
-The Economist has an interesting piece up on the troubled but massively important relationship between China and India. I hate to admit it, but I tend to forget how intertwined these two nations are, and the article makes a convincing case for why we should all be paying attention to how they resolve their disputes going forward.
-Macy Halford has a brief note over at The New Yorker discussing Playboy‘s latest issue, which includes excerpts of the new Lydia Davis translation of Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. Davis’ translation of Proust’s Swann’s Way has garnered her many laurels, and Halford seems to be equally impressed with this latest effort, if not the fact that it is being debuted in an increasingly irrelevant and tame wank mag. Still, I can’t say I terribly mind the accompanying picture of Kelly Brook, whoever the hell she is.
-It’s a bit old (in internet terms), but Walker Frost has a smart post over at The American Scene that places the whole “Ground Zero Mosque” controversy in a global context. He compares the ways in which the U.S. and China deal with the issue of assimilation, and worries that what actually makes the U.S. exceptional, its at times schizophrenic diversity, is being undermined by folks hoping to solidify some totally chimeric and monochromatic idea of “American Culture.”
-At A Learner Rather, a friend of mine (and possibly yours) makes a good case for starting the school day later. I agree with him wholeheartedly, as there is no environment less educational than a room where both the students and the teacher are liable to nod off at any second.
-Mickey Edwards has a great article at The Atlantic about how totally fucked some of our voting laws are. I didn’t know this, but Ben Quayle, son of Dan Quayle, and the guy who referred to Barack Obama as “the worst president in history” in a recent campaign ad, won the Republican nomination for a House seat in Arizona with a measly 22.7% of the vote! So a guy who didn’t even come close to convincing a majority of his REPUBLICAN constituents that he was up to the job is likely going to be in Congress. Makes total sense. Good thing this douchebag who looks like he’s performing a scene from King Lear in front of his high school drama class on a day when he also had to dress up to give a speech in Spanish 3 was “raised right” and is going to go “knock the hell out of” Washington. In the words of Charlie Brown, “good grief.”
