a brief look around the neighborhood

The Maximum Leader isn't happy with his lax ministers, who failed to post anything on his blog during his absence. He is, however, proud of his baby boy's very first blog entry.

Get your infusion of foreign policy news over at Duophony. Of special interest to me was Joseph's post about an increasingly frustrated Russia.

Charlie, where's your blog? And Conrad, where are you?

Wooj is off to London, and thence to Parts Unknown.

YOUR EVENING MUST-READ: A marvelous Party Pooper takedown of a female Korean lecturer in the States who purports to conduct a "cross-cultural skills" class. Americans will cheer the Pooper's step-by-step fisking of an article she wrote. I agree with the Pooper that the lady sounds like she's trying to rationalize why her class went poorly. Some of my Canuck readers will probably just shrug at the Pooper's rant. "More Yank arrogance," they'll grouse. But moderates in all countries will realize the Pooper's made some valid points, the most important of which is that this lady falls short of her own curricular standards.

Stavros would rather that bloggers suffer the indignity of begging others for money instead of using their brains and talent to try and make a little cash to fund their online habit. Got that? Don't work-- beg. Since Stavros himself has spent time groveling, I suppose that's perfectly fine for him. Hey, to each his own. At least he didn't spend that post obsessing over his favorite subject.

[Full disclosure: my own blog had a tip jar, of sorts, early in its career. Then I thought better of it after an email from the (somewhat left-leaning!) Minister of Agriculture over at Naked Villainy. Now I sell stuff because I'd rather work for the money than whine for it. Does it net me much? No, of course not. Even if the money were pouring in, I'd still be in debt after a year. This is one dude who'll probably never know what it's like to be rich.]

The Nomad displays a fine, fine catch. And check out his most recent posts to get a taste of some righteous indignation re: everything from sexual assaults by Korean high school boys to SK's suck-ass Sunshine Policy of appeasement.

Daehee shows us his dad.

Who is Gord? Gord is an alley cat.

Rory's got some inventive blog award categories.

So, how'd the meeting with the folks go, Neil?

Heh. Applebaby.

We're off to Tijuana... Japan.

China can be scary sometimes.

Kilgore's Kung fu Klassic.

Jeff notes that outrage is all the rage. I spent some time on Jeff's site and read through his short story links (go here). He's a fantastic writer. With all the techspeak in his prose, I ended up thinking he's the short story lover's Michael Crichton, but with better turns of phrase and superior characterization. I especially enjoyed the Cuba satire.

I didn't know there was a reunion going on, but then again, I'm always the last to find these things out.

Is Arn gunning to become the next Fred on Everything? This is a great post.

Dr. Vallicella ruminates on Bob Dylan and Islamofascism, among other things.

Deus absconditus.


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