My article on the lawless labyrinth that was the Kowloon Walled City is up on Coilhouse:
Sunlight comes only rarely, with a sliver slicing down between the ramshackle towers. The light here is fluorescent and the people packed sardine tight amongst twisting corridors. Some of the lower levels are widely considered uninhabitable due to trash. Up [...]
In the course of researching a future column on hangover cures, I’ve just downed a Prairie Oyster. I am, to the best of my knowledge, still alive. That is all.
That’s the picture of me holding a Painkiller that’s now up at the Mountain Xpress site, along with (just in cased you missed it earlier) this video:
It goes something like this:
The legendary diplomat Talleyrand was once awoken by one of his aides. “The Russian ambassador has died in his sleep!” the young man exclaimed.
Talleyrand sat up and thought for a moment.
“Hm. I wonder what his motive for doing that was.”
It’s probably apocryphal, but the lesson is one all of us writers, [...]
538 has the full story
Long story short: Biden plays well with Dems (though not as well as Clinton), about average for a Dem with Republicans and best of the major VP contenders amongst independents (Clinton played the worst). For us crunchy numbers junkies, it’s an interesting article.
I ain’t thrilled about him, but as I’ve looked at the other big options for VP over the last few weeks (Hillary, Kaine, god forbid Bayh), he’s probably the least worst. All the good options (Sebelius) sadly aren’t well known enough yet.
This is a pure tactical decision: Biden plays well with older rust belt [...]
My Coilhouse piece on the coming future and the curmudgeonly scholar who’s (mostly) called it is up:
“Let us face a pluralistic world in which there are no universal churches, no single remedy for all diseases, no one way to teach or write or sing, no magic diet, no world poets, and no chosen races, but [...]
Thank various things above and below for the Asheville Disclaimer. I’d missed their take on the Bele Chere missionaries:
It’s like I tell my own kids: Jesus died for your sins and so will you. The difference? None. Jesus went to hell. Didn’t make the cut. God doesn’t play favorites, and some last-minute little “Why have [...]
I have mixed feelings about most mashups, but this is just awesome. Who would have thought that two of my favorite songs (and videos) would go so well together?
Russia Invades Georgia
Russian forces are locked in fierce clashes with Georgia inside its breakaway South Ossetia region, reports say, amid fears of all-out war.
Moscow sent armoured units across the border after Georgia moved against Russian-backed separatists.
Russia says 12 of its soldiers are dead, and separatists estimate that 1,400 civilians have died.
Georgia accuses Russia of waging [...]
