Readings

• Doonesbury is consistently hilarious, but the July 1 flag lapel pin strip is particularly good, as is the week on Cheney's branch of government that followed.
  

• Africa Confidential has a good examination of two new candidates for South Africa's presidency - Cyril Ramaphosa and Tokyo Sexwale - both from the business world.

• The New York Times describes the scene in the Hague prison holding former Liberian President Charles Taylor (along with Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubunga, and a bunch of Serbian and Bosnian war crimes suspects). I think there's potential to further explore this setting, or perhaps it could serve as the basis for a sitcom.
  

Readings

This weekend I'll have some pictures/travel stories, I promise. But on this Friday afternoon, I only have the focus to share these articles I've found interesting recently.

• Wired has an article on mileage running - the practice of finding really long multi-leg trips to rack up frequent flier miles.

• When I hear that a movie like Spiderman 3 has broken opening weekend box-office records, I often wonder what that means when you factor in inflation. Box Office Mojo answers my question with a list of highest-grossing films controlling for inflation. Gone With the Wind is tops, Spiderman 3 is 87th.

• David Vitter, the Republicans' latest moral hypocrite, may cost the party a Senate seat.

• San Francisco, Rome, DC, now Nairobi...lucky for me, I'm not a smoker.
  

• The New York Times has an article on San Francisco's quirky but unexciting mayoral election. While the city usually comes up on the list of hippest places to live in America, The Economist takes a more dour look.
  

• This web site, Jam Band Fan or Taliban, has way more potential than it makes good on.

• Funny stories about jurors or potential jurors, listening to mp3 players under their hijabs, or claiming to be racist, homophobic, liars, respectively.
  

• In case you haven't seen this piece in the Washington City Paper on D.C.'s douchey side. And the excellent comments.
  

• Apparently that whole "American dream" excuse for our country being so unequal doesn't actually fly.
  

• The New America Foundation's Peter Bergen, in The New Republic tells us why we should stop being friends with Pakistan's Pervez Musharaf, already.
  

Readings

Some interesting things I've been looking at that you can kill some time with:

• In The New York Times, Niall Ferguson reviews Paul Collier's new book, The Bottom Billion. Following Jeff Sachs and Bill Easterly, Oxford's Collier is the latest development economist offering a book to tackle the question of global poverty. Ferguson finds Collier's analysis more nuanced and believable than that of Sachs or Easterly, and judging from what I've heard of the argument, I'll probably agree. Though hearing it from Ferguson doesn't necessarily make me more sympathetic, particular when the empire-praising Ferguson lauds Collier's proposals for long-term peace building operations/occupations.
  

• In Fast Company, Charles Fishman provides a thorough and fascinating examination of the bottled-water industry. While taking a critical look at the bottled-water companies, he points out that the boom is less a product of glossy advertising than a genuine, if perhaps irrational, popular demand for bottled water. The article focuses on the US where, unlike many other places, the stuff that comes out of the tap is perfectly healthy (outside of DC at least).

• Another article in Fast Company, pointing out that cities can be vibrant, exciting places, or crowded dumps, looks at some of the best examples of the former.
  

• Robert Reich praises the very sensible proposal (advanced by Yale's Bruce Ackerman) to require all campaign contributions to go into a blind trust.
  

• At least 112 people were killed in Kenya in violence related to the Mungiki gang: Mungiki members killed 39 people, including 11 policemen, and policemen killed 73 supposed members of Mungiki, at least some of whom probably were. Luckily, the violence is generally confined to slums and other poor areas, and has done little to disrupt my comfortable lifestyle.
  

• In Open Democracy, Tarek Osman looks at some of the social and political challenges facing Egypt.

• In Slate, William Saletan provides his latest look at fascinating scientific studies. Particularly interesting is the finding that Muslim women in UAE who cover their whole bodies suffer from vitamin-D deficiency, due to lack of exposure to sunlight.
  

Candidates on foreign policy

The Council on Foreign Relations is doing some interesting overviews of where the Democratic and Republican presidential hopefuls stand on foreign policy issues. No big surprises on China policy, but worth taking a look. Democrats' positions on Cuba are a little disappointing. Dodd, Kucinich, and Gravel are the only ones sensibly advocating doing away with our current policy. Richardson says he's open to considering changing things, and Obama doesn't have much of a position, at least that CFR can find, though he has voted to cut funding for TV Marti.

Darfur report

The International Crisis Group has a new report out on the Darfur conflict. It doesn't offer any silver bullets, but it's well worth reading if you want to get an understanding of all the different players involved, both within Sudan and internationally. It's a messy situation. I read about this stuff every day, and I have a lot of trouble following all the different factions and peace initiatives. But recognizing that complexity is valuable in itself, I think. I've also been posting roundups of news on Darfur over at Africa Matters. I'm a little behind at the moment, but I hope to catch up soon.

Egypt's opposition

James Traub has a piece in this week's New York Times Magazine on the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's main opposition force. Lately, the Brotherhood has been allying with Egypt's secular, liberal opposition and preaching political moderation. But Egyptian liberals are still cautious about the Brotherhood's real intentions. The last page has an interesting discussion of US policy toward Egypt.

The Gore question

Ken Silverstein of Harper's talks to a few political consultants about the likelihood of Al Gore entering the Democratic race. Obviously nobody knows, but it seems less likely to happen if Obama or Edwards show themselves to be viable candidates. Enough people dislike Hillary that Gore might be persuaded if she stays the frontrunner.

Someone still loves you Boris Yeltsin

But not Matt Taibbi. If you read one Boris Yeltsin obituary today, make it Taibbi's Yeltsin: an obit of a drunken, bloblike train wreck of a revolutionary leader in Rolling Stone. Long, but enjoyable, it irreverently runs through the high points, from the corrupt looting of the transition to capitalism, to the Iraq-like mess of Chechnya, to the drunkenness.