French for a While

WARNING: NOTHING ABOUT France below.

This is going to be a strange post because I'm going to direct you to a Vanity Fair website where writer Christopher Hitchens voluntarily submitted to a waterboarding session to help him understand what it's all about. It really is worth watching.

Quick background: waterboarding is a technique that has been used to try to get information from suspects being held by the United States at a military base in Cuba. The technique is very controversial and some question whether or not it counts as 'torture' -- as defined in the Geneva Conventions. I don't want to make this a political statement of any kind, I just want you to watch the video and leave your comment. Here's mine: Wow, they barely had to use any water!

Hitchens is a writer for Vanity Fair and he is interviewed after the experience. I think his full article on the experience can be seen in the current issue of the magazine. The clip is in Flash Media format so I can't embed it here (if I can I don't know how!). Here's the site where you can find the clip.

IT WAS ANYTHING but a dull Democratic primary. Hillary conceded and endorsed Obama today. So, say goodbye to Hillary...

...and say hello to the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.
So now it's Obama v. McCain. I was hoping for this match-up, but I can't say I truely thought it would happen. 5 months 'till election day!

Now I can focus on French stuff again.
CJS

BARACK OBAMA HAS endured a lot of criticism lately because he doesn't wear a US flag pin on the lapel of his suit (yes, that's the state of US politics in 2008). Kramer faced a similar problem as this clip shows. See, Seinfeld has covered every possible life senario. [note: if you're really a Seinfeld fanatic, try to guess the clip before you watch it and leave a comment if you got it right].


CJS

NOBODY IS REALLY going to be interested in this post but me, but I've got to say something about the poltiical scene in the US right now -- mainly because I read Tom Friedman's column in the NY Times today (by the way, when did the Times do away with their 'paysite' business model? I love that it's now free again). As usual, he was right on the money.

Super quick background: Hillary Clinton and John McCain have both suggested suspending the federal excise tax (about 18 cents) on gas for the summer travel season. What a stupid, short-sited, politically motivated idea. As if tackling our energy problems from the short term supply side is going to solve anything. Like Friedman says today, "This is not an energy policy. This is money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks."

How about this as a quick summary:

One way to judge a politician is to see how reluctant they are to use the baldest forms of pandering and bribery to win votes. Even when they know the policy in question is stupid and counter-productive, their short-term political interest always takes precedence over sound policy. This gas tax holiday crap is an almost pure example of this. And McCain and Clinton have both signed on to it. If you want to know about political character, this tells you a lot.

OK, sorry. No more politics (for now).
CJS