Okay, so Winter's Tale sorta is, although to my taste "Soldier in the Great War" surpasses that. Hell, Roth got multiple listing, why not Helprin (although I don't like his politics, they don't come through in his novels for the most part.) But, Kim Stanley Robinson? Tim Powers? Sherry Tepper? Parke Godwin? Look what you people are missing!

I don't have any idea how the Amish train mules, and I doubt Mr. Pearl does, either. However, a good friend of mine nearby has three (at last count). Neither mules nor donkeys are "stubborn" - they're smart creatures and won't get into situations that worry them. Unlike horses, who run if they're frightened, mules and donkeys plant their feet and won't get into the scary situation in the first place. My friend trains them using 'clicker training' (see the bible for this type of training, "Don't Shoot the Dog" by Karen Pryor, http://www.clickertraining.com/home/) and by golly, it works! Sure, it's behavior mod, but those mules are fun to ride! And it's a lot more fun to say "good girl" and give them a chunk of carrot for doing something right than whapping them for doing something wrong. Only problem is I have to carry a bag of carrot chunks in my fanny pack.....

So let's hear it for mules - they're wonderful beasts.

point in case, (female) south Korean prime minister Han Myoungsook, opposition party leader and strong presidential prospect (female) Pak Kunhye. Even the very conservative Japanese royal establishment is debating whether a female can succeed to the throne - it may not happen, but at least it's being discussed. And further back, in the 1880s and 1890s up till her assassination, Queen Min of Korea was a major force in staving off foreign fiddling and takeovers, really walking a perilous tightrope between at least three competing major powers. Opinions of her legacy are mixed, helped in part by some of the histories having been written by those powers she sought to keep out. And for another Asian leader of that era of the female variety, look no further than the Dowager Empress of China. She was also a decidedly mixed story, and was at least lucky enough to die of old age, unlike Queen Min.

and there're really two things that I find alarming. First is the lack of civility, the vitriol that people feel free to pour over others. Salon is compartively civilized; look at the comments appended to Yahoo news items for examples of real barbarism, literate and not.

The second problem is that there is a widespread inability to express rage, outrage, or even mere anger without resort to overblown sarcasm. We seem to have lost the ability to express ourselves in more than one way, with more than just a few words. And that always reduces civility, the level of discourse, and all those other marks of a courteous and educated society.

when I was in the Peace Corps in Korea in the early 1970s, and Pak Chunghee ruled Korea. The similarities to what Blumenthal describes are interesting, for one of Pak's main tools was fear of war, from north Korea. What went on behind that, and why he held on to power until assassinated, was the corruption of his coterie of hangers-on, who not only profited very handsomely from Pak's position, but lived in fear of what would happen to them should Pak fall. My take on Pak now was that he was an austere man who honestly felt he was the best person for Korea at that time, that he was certainly more secure than his predecessor Syngman Rhee (Yoon doesn't really count) as signified for example by his willingness to invite the royal family back to the palaces. But he was stuck in the position by the pressure of his followers, long after he wanted to quit. So he was slain, and then what - another little shuffling of a leader or two who were "weak", then another military takeover - the terrible dictatorships of Chun Doohwan and Roh Taewoo. The crimes of these two, culminating in the Kwangju Massacres, really brought about the shift in Korean politics resulting in the current liberal parliamentary democracy. That, apparently, was what Korea had to go through to get out of the fascist dictatorships.

Mind you, during the dictators, there was a parliament with some - not all - representatives elected, there were national presidential elections, rigged of course. And the Koreans were aware of this. I used to go to a small local Buddhist temple on weekends to play chess with one of the monks who lived there (he always kicked my butt), and he would come up with some startling comments, viz "We in South Korea feel empathy for the people of Vietnam, since we are also occupied by American army." and one that has stuck with me, "We have the leadership we have because that's what we have chosen. Until we choose differently, and in a different way, we will have this leadership."

Well, they did choose differently - there was a transition between the Roh and Chun dictatorships, then a massive cultural shift into much more open, liberal, ethical government. It's not perfect yet, but to my eyes it's considerably better than what we've got. Perhaps it's our turn now.

I do think the election was stolen - but Kennedy's research is sloppy, and I'm not surprised. His papers on autism were likewise poorly done, even deliberately slanted. I suspect these papers are political campaigning more than real research or investigative reporting.