Good Morning America, How are ya?

There are benefits to jet-lag. One of these is waking up naturally at 6:30am for a leisurely coffee. With stable internet access, I spent my morning reading the New York Times (goodbye International Herald Tribune), eating carb-loaded pastries at a D.C. coffeeshop, and chatting with the manager, a mustached French-Lebanese judeophile who said he'd rather be in Mykonos.

On my first day back in the States, the news is surreal.

-A giant corruption scandal involving rabbis, government contractors, mayors, israelis, and a Swiss banker has been exposed.

-The New York times reports that Hamid Karzai's challenger is "A dapper dresser." The opthamologist (the eyes are the windows of a nation's soul" is taken to "wearing traditional Afghan clothes under a variety of Western tailored jackets."