"The Iran-Contra scandal, in which an unelected cabal within the government arrogated to itself the right to make policy and ignore Congress, permanently stained Reagan's legacy. But not even Reagan's harshest critics would assert that this secretive, dissembling, autocratic episode was characteristic of his entire presidency."

Iran-Contra wasn't just an "episode," it went straight to the true nature of the Reagan administration, particularly the President's ability to (literally) get away with murder. Reagan apologists who spoke of "loose cannons" within the White House wouldn't admit that the White House itself was the loose cannon! To say that it's Reagan's legacy that was "stained" is far too generous; the true stain is on the Washington establishment (Congress and the press), which failed to bring ANY of the perpetrators to justice.

In short, Iran-Contra was TOTALLY characteristic of the Reagan presidency. I've said it before and I'll say it again: those who let Reagan get away with his crimes paved the way for the current disasters. Iran-Contra IS Reagan's legacy!

It follows Edward Burtynksy as he photographs the new industrial revolution in locations in China and India, including a site that sounds a lot like Guiyu. (I particularly remember a shot of thousands of now-useless rotary phone dials.)

http://www.mongrelmedia.com/films/ManufacturedLandscapes.html

According to John Erlichman--who said he heard it from Nixon himself--the good cop/bad cop strategy that Friedman recommends was actually practised by Kissinger when he was representing Nixon in negotiations with Hanoi. (And we know how that war turned out.)

I was reading THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS just today, and enjoyed their review of the new Henry Morton Stanley biography.

Oh well, Camille Paglia is in a fine position to say that us NYRB types are living in a "cultural void," considering that she spends her time listening to "sports radio, political talk radio and 24-hour news." (What, no MTV reality shows?)

It's remarkable that the "rotting corpse" of atheist culture can still produce literature as profoundly moving as Philip Pullman's HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy.

CP says whatever comes into her head if it makes her sound aggressive. It's old.

While Britain gave the Indians cricket, India gave the British polo.

'All truly great westerns pretty much commit themselves to one of two themes: the dizzying promise of adventure for pioneers -- let's use Howard Hawks' "Red River" as an obvious example -- or nostalgia for the end of an era, as with "Shane."'

Where does that leave THE SEARCHERS and UNFORGIVEN? Perhaps we should also include the tragic theme of violence begetting violence in a land of virtual anarchy, defining men's lives.

Here in Toronto, we shop at a supermarket that takes the boxes in which the distributors sent the food there, and lets you carry your groceries home in them. It means less waste for them to worry about.

An opposition leader there once got a stiff fine for publicly reciting passages in the Singaporean constitution!

"Are you going to bark all day, little doggie, or are you gonna bite?"--Mr. Blond

Don't pretend you're a "player."

"It is one of the many peculiarities of this campaign season that Hillary Clinton's campaign strategists have decided that there is an advantage to be gained in attempting to position her as the progressive candidate, in comparison to Obama."

Note that they think they can position HRC as progressive without her actually taking more progressive positions on the issues. That's typical of her campaign's arrogance.

World population levelling off won't solve the problem if we continue to consume more than our parents did. Consider that in the 20th century world population grew fourfold while per-capita consumption grew tenfold! Thus, even though the developed world has achieved slow population growth, our leading the growth in consumption means that we're the greater part of the overall problem.

The "peak oil" theory isn't predicting that oil will DISAPPEAR any time soon; rather, the cheaper oil will run out first and the remaining oil will cost a lot more to produce, costs that will inevitably be passed on to the consumers. Having plenty of oil won't matter if we can't afford to buy it.

The transition to a more organic agriculture system will be hard, but not impossible. I for one am a middle-class first worlder willing to eat less if the change is likely to benefit the third-world poor. In both world wars North Americans observed meatless days, and we can do it again. Another project to consider is developing organic biofuels, simply because they make better economic sense.

There's a Chinese proverb: "Our ancestors planted trees; we sit in the shade." We shall be judged on what we do for our descendants.

I borrowed one once to make a call and had to be shown how to use it!

There are still some people like me.

Since you're going around the world eastward, you'd "gain" a day when crossing the International Date Line. When you returned to New York after a 21-day trip, only 20 days would have elapsed for someone who stayed there. (Or is it 22 and 21 days?) The same thing happened in Jules Verne's AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS, allowing for a twist ending.

It had some very poignant stories, like the teenage street hustler (Timothy Van Patten) and the girl he'd taken under his wing; or Dr. Auschlander's old comrade (David Wayne), who had been practicing medicine in Africa and returned to be murdered.

Life was a heavy burden for Dr. Westfall, and sometimes he wasn't up to the task. (Remember his community-service project, with his bloody-minded insistence on the residents adding several hours each month to their already heavy workload?) When I saw a headline years later that one of the show's actors had killed himself, I somehow correctly guessed it was Ed Flanders.

But the show could also be very funny, especially the testy relationship between hard-to-please surgeon Dr. Craig and his goofy assistant Dr. Erlich.