Following Julian, where this blog stands: (!) hmmm, this was at a higher level before, as far as I remember.
Orhan Pamuk: Characters pull me along in their own directions By ABDULLAH KILIÇ These days Turkey is abuzz about Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk and his new book, “Masumiyet Müzesi” (Museum of Innocence), with a first printing of 100,000 copies. Pamuk is quite pleased with the initial reactions from the press and from the first … Read more
by Cheryl Rofer
I’ve been thinking some of this, on and off, but maybe now is the time to say it.
Barack Obama looks like ordinary folks I’m accustomed to. Yes, I’m white, and yes, I grew up in largely white northern New Jersey, but Obama is about the same age as, and looks a bit like, the son of my bff. She qualifies as bff because we have been more or less that status since our ages were in the single digits. Some things won’t ever change.
A cursory search for Sarah Palin’s foreign policy credentials comes up with, well, nothing. It seems that John McCain figures he’s got that avenue covered, and has picked Palin to please the conservative base, add some youth to the ticket (she’s 44), and reach out to female voters.
Vladimir Putin’s made it fairly clear over the last few years that he’s not all that concerned about his popularity in the West. Still, it’s strange to see the normally well-spoken prime minister descend to Ahmadinejad-level paranoid bombast:
