A Sunny Day in Oxford Town

Oxford University, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom.

I feel a bit like a foreign knight from faraway realm visiting court. I arrived late at night by bus from Heathrow Airport (19 pounds, 1 hour). The local lords and ladies have been quite civil in their reception, and I am greeted and treated with interest and care... people have been quite interested in conversation. It may have helped that brought Swedish chocolate for AM's (my best friend from high school) housemates, and am on my way to Cambodia. The graduates students here are marvelous: remarkably a highly international group, deeply concerned with the state of the world around them, and wicked smart.

This evening, we dined in the New College dining room for the formal sitting, eating with a Vlad, a second-year Marshall scholar. The ceiling rose high above, with thick wood paneling, classical paintings, and a row above the main dining room floor for the professors (fellows). They served us a three course meal, which was remarkably tasty. One could feel the tradition and solemnity of the place, and it felt like a serious meal. Afterwards, we toured the darkened and deserted cloister-style courtyard. Truly magnificent, and very romantic... This seems like a wonderful place in which to fall in love. As it is freezing cold here, we warmed up with coffee in the common room and then went to one of the college pubs for some round of Green Goblin cider and deep conversation with German economic grad student about flaws in neoclassical economic theory, supply and demand in media markets, and Missouri. I also met a british student studying American history: he told me he was writing his doctorate on isolationists in the US from 1945-1965.

I don't really understand the British.

Scenes from Newark Airport:

-The Virgin Atlantic staff, long red ladies in uniform sitting on the floor facing the windows, watching the planes and texting on their cell phones.

-Malaysian Air crew in purple-blue floral print, quieting arriving en masse to board the plane.

-Swedes and Malaysians on a flight to Stockholm, East and West in tight proximity.

When I take off on a international flight, my world gets a lot bigger. The map in front of me zooms out and I marvel at how far away the places seem at 40,000 feet. Suddenly it is all very large, complicated, unknown, and exciting.

The crew approaches with a special meal, playing marco polo in the back of the plane. When they find its recipient, the ultra-Orthodox Jew accepts and explains Kashrut to the Malay Muslim stewardess. Israel comes up, as does racism in Malaysia. I wait for the sparks, which never occur. I jealously observe a wonderful point of rare cultural contact and diplomatic decoding of the other. Suddenly, the world is smaller, manageable, and concrete again. Split hooves, chewing cud, and we’re off to Europe. I take Tylenol PM and wait for the meal to arrive.

Obama's E-mail

From the Onion:

Towers of Light

It was a cool, clear day here in New York. There seem to be a large number of tourists in the city, and the locals swam through the day with a slightly detached air...watching. A co-worker from Mississippi inquired into the past....I was the only person in my office to have been around in 2001.

My high school friend E encountered the senior Senator from Delaware on 114th, and blurted out "Biden, we love you;" the comment was graciously returned with an about-face, pat on the arm and a broad, white-haired grin. Walking home after work, I stumbled across the premiere of "The women" at 19th street. Jada Pinkett is very small in person and Julie Stiles carries herself with elegance. Eva Mendes is less attractive in person, surprisingly. The flashing of the paparazzi was surreal and mesmerizing.

Seven years is a long time. If this is a return to normalcy, it is disquieting... as Maugham said of Perfection, [its] "a trifle dull... It is not the least of life's ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved." On the other hand, dinner was a glaringly imperfect Serbian meal.

The twin beams stretch endlessly into the sky.

Experience

Experience:

Obama:
B.A in political science from Columbia University, with a specialization in international relations
J.D. in Law from Harvard, graduated magna cum laude; President of the Harvard Law Review
12 years (92-04) teaching constitutional law
7 years State Senator: sponsored more than 800 bills
4 years Senator for Illinois (a state with 12.8 million people)

Palin:
Bachelor's in journalism from University of Idaho
4 years Wasilla City Council (8000 people)
6 years Wasilla mayor (8000 people)
1 year "Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission"
20 months governor of a state with 660,000 people

G.O.P Love Song. Verse #1

In honor of the The Republican Convention, I wrote a poem.

I love you more than palin loves her pistol,
So much more than Levi loves Bristol
Love you more than a masochist loves pain
about as much as Dobson loves Mccain

Israel, Iran, and Nukes

Gershom Gorenberg analyzes the likelihood of and probabilities for success of an attack by Israel on Iran's Nuclear facilities. The Israeli media is fascinated by the possibility of an attack, although there seems be negative or mixed signals from the American military and Bush Administration.

The Ambassador's Bodyguards see a lot of movies

An enjoyable interview with Dan Gillerman, Israel's outgoing Ambassador to the United Nations.

According to Gillerman, "A diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell and actually make you look forward to the journey."

His replacement is the Gabriela Shalev, a law professor, and the first woman to hold the position.

VP Possibilities

I heard Mark Warner speak last night at a DL21c event. Warner was an extremely popular Democratic governor of Virginia and currently is the front-runner for a Senate seat.

He's also a possible V.P. pick for Obama. Warner's a centrist Democrat with extensive business credentials, sort of the gubernatorial version of Mike Bloomberg. Warner spoke very well, with a NY tailored speech delivered in an off-the-cuff manner, using yiddish, joking with the crowd about the competing Obama fundraiser uptown, and argued for massive federal investment in infrastructure.

Warner's sucessor in Virgnina is also a possible VP pick. Governor Tim Kaine has similar political leanings as Warner, and is similarly popular. One possible liability is Kaine's opposition to abortion on religious grounds (he's an observant Catholic).



Jim Webb is NOT interested in being Obama's running mate: in a statement he wrote tha""Under no circumstances will I be a candidate for vice president."

Warner seems likely, as does PA Governor Ed Rendell and Ohio Governor Ted Strickland.

Long Shots: former Senator Tom Daschle, former Clinton Defense Secretary William Cohen, and Bill Richardson.

Castro on Obama

He may be bedridden and deathly ill, but Fidel Castro is still railing against American Imperalism. He recently weighs in on Barack Obama's support for the Embargo...